fire and burns

|At the firefighter's party|

Ryan arrives at the event Thea invited him to once she got her mom to get back to living her life.

"Hey Ryan. Thanks for your help. I think this will really be good for my mom." Thea thanks her boyfriend, giving him a peck on his cheek.

"Anytime. Have you seen Laurel? I think she should be here somewhere too." Ryan asks.

"She's with Oliver I think." Thea says, pointing to her brother.

"Alright. I'm just gonna say Hi real quick and then I have to drum up some business for the CNRI." He tells her.

"It's fine. Will you come back to my place tonight?" She asks him before he walks off.

"Sure. Probably should try to avoid your brother though, right?" He says, giving her a quick kiss, before leaving.

Ryan then meets up with Laurel and Oliver before trying to find some business for the CNRI.

About 10 minutes later he sees a fireman in full suit walk through the crowd and approaches him curiously.

"Hey. Do you have time to talk about the situation of the CNRI?" Ryan asks, only being shoved aside though.

The firefighter pushes through the crowd to Oliver and Laurel who are talking with the chief of the fire department and then tosses two firebombs on both sides of the club, causing a panic and the guests to flee.

Ryan searches the faces running past him but sees no sign of his girlfriend and walks towards the group around the firefighter.

"Run!" The firefighter tells Oliver and Laurel before aiming a nozzle at his former captain, blaming him for leaving him to die in a fire a few years ago. He then sprays the man, who shrieks back at the cold liquid.

"Thea?!" Ryan shouts, ignoring the attacker for now.

"What are you doing? Leave kid." The man in the fire suit tells Ryan.

"Not without my girlfriend." Ryan says, searching for a sign of Thea and sees her unconscious, lying on the floor at the far edge of the club, a wall of fire separating him from her.

"Crap." Ryan curses.

"You can't help her." The attacker says, looking back at the chief of the fire department.

Ryan sees the helmet lying on the floor and takes it as well as ripping off a decorative cloth hanging from a beam and runs behind the bar counter, finding a tub of ice and soaks the cloth in it, wrapping the cold, wet fabric around himself and puts on the helmet before jumping through the flames separating him from Thea without hesitation. Once through, he holds an edge of the cloth to his mouth to reduce his intake of smoke, while putting the helmet on Thea and wrapping her head to toe in the blanket before lifting her up in his arms.

As he runs through the flames with the girl in his arms he closes his eyes, opening them when the heat around him is mostly gone, still stinging at his left leg though.

He sets down Thea as careful as possible to frantically hit and rip at his burning pants leg.

Looking to where the attacker and the chief of the firefighters was previously he sees the hood offering to spare the man's life, the voice reminding him of Oliver but he counts it up to a hallucination from lack of oxygen and ignores what they are talking about to push on towards the nearest exit, making it outside with Thea and sets her down next to her worried mother before collapsing.

|The next day|

Ryan is sitting next to Thea, a bandage around his left leg and a couple red patches visible on his skin, with Thea looking mostly unblemished. In front of them, Oliver is watching the news where the hood is described not as a vigilante, but as a hero.

"What's got you all smiley? Your new club is a brisket." Thea asks her brother curious, when he turns around to them while turning off the TV.

"It already was under construction. Now it's just more under construction." Oliver tells her, kissing Thea on top of her head.

"Morning. Thea honey I'm sorry I wanted to stay and make sure you're OK, but the company needs me." Moira says, coming into the room, dressed ready for a business meeting.

"That's alright. I have my very own savior here after all." Thea says, smiling while leaning into Ryan's side, making him wince when she touches a burned patch of skin.

"Sorry." She apologizes with a smirk, sitting back upright.

"A hug from you is worth the pain." He tells her, squeezing Thea's hand.

"Well, I have to hurry now. Oliver, try to look after your sister OK?" Moira asks as she leaves, not being very hopeful about it though.

"Yeah Ollie. Look after us. We got hurt in your club, so in a way it's your fault. You didn't have any fire safety measures in place." Thea tells him, raising her eyebrows teasingly.

"Hah. Nice try speedy. I'll stay a while though." Oliver tells them, sitting down across from them.

"So, I hate to address this, but I hope you were being safe." Oliver says, locking eyes with Thea and then Ryan.

"How does he know?" Thea asks awkwardly in a whisper.

"Well your hand on my thigh might have been a solid hint." Ryan chuckles, patting her hand with his.

"Yes. We are being safe. I might not be that well educated but I'm not stupid and neither is Thea." Ryan says.

"Just had to be asked." Oliver says in reply.

"So, what was your plan for today?" Oliver asks.

"Honestly I'm waiting for you to move out of the way we can see the screen when we watch some movies." Thea tells Oliver jokingly.

"Fine I get it. You want some privacy. Just before I go Ryan. Hurt her and I'll kill you." Oliver threatens him.

"I believe you." Ryan says, not wavering from the man's eye contact.

"Good." Oliver says and leaves.

"Finally we are alone." Thea says happily, lying down on her side with her head in his lap.

"It was brave of you to jump into those flames for me." Thea says a few minutes into the movie.

"I'm just glad you didn't get hurt." Ryan tells her.

"But you did." Thea says guiltily.

"Don't worry. It's not that bad." Ryan tells her with a kind smile.

"But I do worry. I worry all the time. What if you go back to fighting, what if you get into trouble at work, what if you find some girl not covered in issues." Thea tells him.

"First of all, I'm doing well money wise. Second of all, so far work has been my least problem and lastly there is no way I'm gonna break up with you because you have a bit of family drama. Remember who of us has a mother who didn't want him, a junkie brother in jail and a father in jail for most of my life." Ryan tells her.

"Right. I guess I should worry why I still am with you." Thea teases him, turning in his lap so she's looking up at him.

"You should, which is why I am glad you didn't yet." Ryan says, brushing through her hair slowly, trying to limit his arms movements due to the sensitive skin.

"You know if your whole body wasn't covered in burns and my brother wasn't lurking around the corner we'd so be doing it right now." Thea teases him.

"You think so huh? Well tell me more." He says grinning down at her.

"Nah, I don't want a bumpy pillow for the rest of the movie." She tells him cockily.

Ryan shakes his head with a grin and strokes over her waist with one hand after she turned around to continue watching the movie.