Today was the day Thea was dreading. The day she went into the cryogenic pod to slow down the progression of whatever it was that was killing her.
"Do I really have to do this?" Thea whined.
"Yes Thea. We don't like it anymore than you do, but this will keep you alive and that is our priority." Moira said.
"But." Thea said, only to have Oliver stop her.
"Speedy, we are working on getting you help, but for right now, this is the only option." Oliver said and Thea nodded.
"Promise you'll come and visit me? Even wake me up for it?" Thea asked as Oliver turned to Moira and Walter, both of them nodding.
"Everyday. But I promise, you won't need to be in here for long. We will find a way to stabilize you." Oliver said.
"I hope so." Thea said.
"Thea, it's time." Walter said and Thea nodded, knowing that she couldn't argue about it anymore, she was going into the pod, whether she wanted to or not and in this case, she knew she needed to in order to keep her alive before she allowed her brother to lead her to the car that would take them to Queen Consolidated's Applied Sciences division where the pod was waiting.
When they arrived, Oliver was surprised to find Felicity there.
"What are you doing here?" Oliver asked and Felicity wasn't hurt or surprised, since she hadn't had a chance to tell him about her new job yet.
"Oliver, this is Dr. Felicity Smoak, the head of our Applied Sciences division and the inventor of the pod that will be keeping Thea alive." Walter said and Oliver looked at Felicity in surprise, though he was glad that her talents were being better utilized in this reality than they had been before.
"I promise you Mr. Queen, I have been working around the clock to make sure that this pod is safe and it will keep your sister alive." Felicity said.
"Please, call me Oliver. I have a feeling that we'll be seeing a lot of each other, since I plan on visiting Thea every day until she's able to get out of the pod." Oliver said and Felicity nodded.
"Is everything ready?" Moira asked.
"Yes Mrs. Queen. The only thing we are waiting on is the patient." Felicity said.
"What exactly is going to happen?" Thea asked.
"Don't worry, you won't feel a thing. After we place you in the pod, we'll be putting you in a medically induced coma so that way you won't feel a thing once you're frozen. We've found that we've had the best success if the patient is already asleep when we put them in hibernation." Felicity assured her and Thea nodded, since she trusted Felicity and her work with her life and this time, she really would be.
"How do we know that the facility won't run out of power while she's inside?" Oliver asked.
"The pod runs on 5 different generators that your parents had installed for specifically this purpose and we've got another five waiting as backup in case something happens. We're prepared for every possible scenario and we are continuing to come up with solutions for what we could not have accounted for. I promise, she will be okay." Felicity assured them.
"Okay then. Let's do this." Thea sighed, just wanting to get this over with. The sooner she went under, the sooner she got to come out of the pod.
"This way please." Felicity said as she showed them into the facility to the lab where the pod was.
Oliver smiled at his sister as he held her hand tightly as she was put into the coma.
"Oliver, you have to let go now." Felicity said, hating herself for saying it, since she knew how much Oliver cared about Thea, but he couldn't keep holding her hand if they wanted to close the pod.
"Okay." Oliver said as he let Thea's hand go and placed it at her side before kissing her forehead.
"Sweet dreams Speedy. I promise, you won't be here forever." Oliver said as he moved away from the pod and nodded at Felicity to close it, which she did.
"Beginning deep freeze." Felicity said as she made sure that the pod was completely sealed before reducing its internal temperature to below freezing until she'd confirmed that Thea was in stasis.
"Well?" Moira asked.
"Her vitals are stable, the chamber is working perfectly." Felicity said.
"So she's still alive?" Oliver asked.
"Yes, we'll have someone monitoring her vitals constantly and we will know if something goes wrong." Felicity said and the Queens nodded, finally convinced that Thea was in the best care possible for her now.
"So, this is what you've been doing on this earth post crisis." Oliver asked Roy as he and Laurel entered a club in the Glades.
"Yep. I mean, it wasn't easy to get this place up and running, since there weren't many banks willing to give a loan to a person with my background, but I eventually found an investor. And I've basically been doing the same thing you did with Verdant, except I only hire people who live in the Glades, since they need the jobs more." Roy said and Oliver smiled.
"Nice to know you're helping the city even before you remembered who you were." Oliver said and Roy smiled.
"Anyways, since the bunker is still under construction underneath Queen Consolidated, I figured we could use the basement of this place to use as a temporary base of operations." Roy said.
"Remind me again of why we're building the bunker under your office building?" Laurel asked her boyfriend.
"Because Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance are both very high profile citizens of Star City and I think that people might be suspicious if they see us going to an abandoned building in the Glades. Besides, it will be easier for me to balance being the Green Arrow with my job at QC if both of them take place in the same building." Oliver said and Laurel nodded.
"Speaking of, when are you planning on becoming the Green Arrow again?" Roy asked.
"Once we get the foundry up and running." Oliver said.
"I'll show you where we'll be setting up our temporary foundry." Roy said as he showed them to the basement.
Later on that night, Oliver was preparing a date night for him and Laurel at his apartment, since it was one of the few places in the city where they knew Quentin wouldn't try to spy on them.
But anyways, as he was making dinner, he got a notification on his phone that there was someone who wasn't Laurel waiting to come up. When he found out who it was, he immediately told the person at the front desk to let her up.
"Wow, and I thought my place was nice. But this place is way cooler." Anissa Pierce said as she entered the penthouse.
"You must be Anissa Pierce. Your father told me you'd be coming." Oliver said and Anissa nodded.
"Here is the formula for the serum you need to stabilize your sister." Anissa said as she handed Oliver a flash drive.
"Thank you." Oliver said, relieved that he'd be able to get Thea back in the game sooner rather than later.
"And here is the hard drive for your computer expert to decrypt." Anissa said as she handed him a hard drive.
"Thank you. Tell your father that we will get this back to him, fully decrypted as soon as we can." Oliver said and Anissa nodded as she took her leave.
"Cheating on my sister again Ollie?" a new voice said and Oliver just grinned as he turned to see Sara Lance standing on his balcony.
"I thought you'd be happy to see me alive." Oliver said with a smile.
"I never said I wasn't." Sara said as she entered the apartment and hugged him tightly and cried into his shoulder.
"I thought I lost you." Sara said as she cried.
"I know the feeling. But we're both back and so is someone we both love." Oliver said.
"Laurel." Sara said.
"Yeah. And she'll be here soon, so she'll be happy to see you here. Especially since J'onn restored her memories." Oliver said and Sara nodded.
"Well, while we wait, why don't you bring me up to speed on what else has changed in Star City." Sara said and Oliver nodded as they sat down on the couch to talk.