Archive of Our Own ^beta

Oliver opened the door to Verdant’s basement and froze. After dinner with Sara’s parents and sister had ended in disaster, he’d decided to head back to the Foundry to see how things were going with the repairs and maybe lend Felicity some help if he could, but something was wrong. A blast of hot air had hit him in the face when he’d opened the door, as if he’d opened the door to a furnace and not a basement, and that blast of hot air had carried on it the scent of smoke and burning plastic. Feeling a pit opening in his stomach, Oliver threw himself down the stairs.

At the bottom, he was met by the roar and crackle of flames and a haze of thick grey smoke.

“Felicity!” he shouted, peering through the smoke and flames for any sign of life or movement. “Diggle!” For some reason, it didn’t surprise him that his first and immediate concern was for Felicity.

“Felicity!” he shouted again. “Dig! Is anyone there? Answer me! Please!” He inhaled a lungful of smoke and doubled over, coughing.

“Please,” he called out weakly. “Someone, anyone , answer me.” At first, his plea was met with silence, but then he heard Felicity’s voice, quiet and trembling, barely audible over the roar of the flames, call out “Oliver.” Oliver looked around frantically, squinting against the tears in his eyes from the smoke, trying to locate the source of the sound.

“Felicity!” he cried, shouting her name a third time.

“Oliver!” he heard her answer, her voice louder and stronger this time.

“Where are you?” Oliver asked, searching desperately for her.

“Here!” came the response. “I’m over here!” Finally, Oliver spotted her, sheltering from the fire in the space underneath the stairwell, looking out at him with wide, fearful eyes. He felt himself tense at the sight of her scared and in peril, but at least she seemed to be unhurt. Dropping to the floor, he crawled toward her on his hands and knees to keep below the smoke. 

“Are you alright?” he asked when he reached her at last, reaching out to skim his hands over her body, checking her for injuries.

“I’m fine,” she replied, gently but purposely pushing his hands away. “Although,” she added, coughing, “I’m probably going to need to be treated for smoke inhalation when this is over.” Oliver felt the burning in his own lungs and understood.

“Where’s Dig?” he asked.

“He left to go get dinner,” Felicity replied. “Well before this happened. I would have called him for help, but... I seem to have lost my phone.”

“Do you know how, exactly, this happened?” Oliver asked, hoping that if he knew what had started the fire, he could figure out how to put it out.

“I was checking the wiring,” Felicity answered, “to see if any of it was salvageable, and it sparked. I guess the spark must have ignited something down here.”

“So the fire’s electrical, then,” Oliver mumbled, thinking out loud. “That’s good.”

“ Good ?” Felicity asked incredulously. “How is it good ?”

“Because there isn’t a lot that’s flammable down here,” Oliver replied. “So if I can shut off the power, the fire should eventually just burn itself out.” He started to move out from underneath the staircase toward the power switch some distance away.

“Wait,” Felicity said, grabbing his arm to hold him back. “You can’t go out there. You’ll get hurt, or worse.”

“We can’t exactly call the fire department, Felicity,” Oliver pointed out. Felicity frowned at that, but Oliver could tell that she knew he was right.

“Alright,” she said. “Just be careful.” 

“I always am,” Oliver replied, continuing on his course toward the power switch. He thought he heard Felicity mutter “You never are”, but he didn’t have time to dwell on it.

It took some time, since he had to soldier crawl along the floor most of the way and avoid the flames besides, but eventually Oliver managed to reach the power switch. Drawing in a single deep breath and holding it to avoid breathing in any more smoke, he got to his feet and shoved the switch into the off position. After several of the longest minutes of his life, the fire began to burn itself out, just as he’d hoped. After a time, it went out altogether, leaving behind soot and smoke and destruction.

“Well, frack,” Felicity remarked dryly, peering out at the damage from the space beneath the stairwell. “Now it’s going to take even longer to rebuild down here.”