The lighting is dim and all she really focuses on is Nolan across the table from her, a candle sitting between them as a guiding light. She wonders why he's brought her here; perhaps another dinner date? She fidgets, not enjoying being in the dark.

"Why did you bring me here?" she asks, getting straight to the point. She has no time for games or lies or cryptic languages.

"Can't a fella just bring his girl to a fancy place and shower her with gifts and chocolate?" he asks which makes her pout. He's already failed the test.

She wonders what he'd be like on Valentine's Day. He'd probably show up at her place with a parade at her doorstep. Maybe he'd go old school with a boom box over his head. She's glad they're just friends, she doesn't need the attention.

"Nolan," she hisses out his name to let him know who he is dealing with at the moment.

"Emily, I told you I've found your mother. She is here. Tonight," he says, cutting straight to the point, finally acknowledging her wish.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" she says out loud, usually not one to curse, all those etiquette classes taught her to cut back if she ever wanted to get along in high society.

"Wish all of this could be a joke but it's not…I brought you here for a reason and not just for the incredibly good shrimp I read about on …" he purrs as he watches her flinch.

She prepares her body and mind to see her mother after all these years; she hardly remembers her face in memories. She was so young when her mother was taken from her.

"Nolan, a warning would have been nice…" she barks as she tosses her cloth napkin aside, no longer wanting it in her lap.

She doesn't know how she wants much of anything right now, her heads a mess and her…roommate? Friend? Whatever Nolan's title is, he isn't helping much with balancing her chi.

"It's all been very spontaneous! I only just found out about this mere minutes ago – hence the rushing and the both of us looking like we just crawled out of a welfare bin…" he states as he buries his face in his hands. "I thought you'd want to see her…it's not like she's going to recognize you."

"How do you know? How do we even know that Gordon didn't show her my picture or tell her who I was? We're in the dark Nolan, and you've put me there…" she trails off in a hushed whisper, her eyes setting on Kara Wallace Clarke who arrives alone for dinner.

The woman looks like she is prepared to meet someone here, maybe she even tells a waitress to bring over two menus but she'll be waiting forever unless Emily decides to join her table for a nice meal. She wonders if she can just tell her she's Emily Thorne and recruit her onto her side but she knows sooner or later her mother will find out what happened to Gordon Murphy and how she was involved. In the end the reality of the situation will bring itself forward and she doesn't necessarily want to be there when the truth comes out for show and tell.

"She's hereee, "Nolan says in a sing-songy voice, referencing the 1982 film, Poltergeist.

Emily doesn't say anything back; she doesn't need to play into his dialogue since she can't even fathom words right now.

She watches the woman tuck her long blonde hair behind her ear, something Emily often does herself but not usually in public. She has weird little quirks about the character of Emily Thorne that she plays. Emily keeps her hair the same way most of the time and doesn't fidget while Amanda Clarke can never sit still; she constantly keeps her hands busy and she loves to get down and dirty. She plays with her hair and runs her fingers through it until it's greasy and she needs to take a shower. She bites her lip and peels the skin off of them. She bites the inside of her cheek till it's bleeding. These are things Emily Thorne just doesn't do. She wonders if her mother has any of the same destructive habits she does and if she got it from Kara in the first place.

Emily's body stirs and her fingers begin to tap against the table; Nolan isn't facing the direction of Kara Clarke so he doesn't know what Emily is watching exactly. All he can do is watch her facial expressions.

Reaching his hand across the table, sliding the candle out of the way he grips her hand to ground her. He'll be her anchor when she needs it. She pulls her hand away with a little gasp and he pulls back just the same. He's never seen her like this, actually scared. She's terrified of her mother and the threat she holds. She's terrified her mother will hate her once she knows the truth. She's terrified that the woman even exists in the first place when she thought she was dead for so many years.

She doesn't know if her mother will ever know the truth about her, if her mother will ever get a chance to know her daughter by blood and not the one Amanda made up in cell block D as an escape plan if she ever needed a way out of her horrid life. She didn't like the media breathing down her neck and she wonders if her mother ever had to deal with that, or maybe her mother was using a fake ID so she never had any troubles with it.

She wonders if life has been cruel and unjust to her mother as it has to her. She is itching to move, jumping in her own skin. Emily tries to stand up but Nolan clasps her hand in his much larger one, his digits enveloping hers.

"Look but don't touch," he warns her, keeping her in place, holding her back. She doesn't like being controlled; she is used to the one having the control over everything.

She feels rage and frustration build up inside of her before she leans into him, nearly gripping him by the collar as she pulls him into her. "Why the hell did you bring me here Nolan? To punish me?" she asks and before he can get a word out she's gone.

She always has had a knack for disappearing when the going gets rough. She either makes someone pay or runs.

Tonight she runs.

Aiden Mathis contemplates life over a chilled beer and a good book. He gets lost in the words as he settles onto the couch after moving around his New York City apartment trying to find his page. He's getting deep into the chapter, his imagination running wild when he hears a knock at his door. He's confused at first because he's new here and no one knows where he lives.

It must be a pizza delivery gone awry but he grabs a paring knife, thin and discreet, and shoves it up his sleeve just in case the person on the other side of the door is a threat.

Peering through the peephole he sees blonde hair and assumes Emily Thorne has found his humble abode. He doesn't know many blondes, not any natural ones anyway.

He reaches for the doorknob and opens it; she reaches for his windpipe.

Slamming him against the wall she seduces him with dark eyes, a talent that isn't a hidden one between the two.

He chuckles breathlessly against her motion.

"How can I help you?" he chokes out.

"Did you lead him to her?" she asks in a domineering voice that can break down constellations in the sky.

He raises a brow and thinks for a second, trying to remember everyone he's ever hurt, every plan he's ever put in motion, every lie, every story, every moment.

Nope, nothing comes to mind.

"What are you on about love?" he asks as her grip tightens and he begins to feel dizzy. He also kind of likes the feeling but he knows he shouldn't tell her that now.

Think Aiden, Think.

"Nolan found my mother and I don't think he did it alone, I think you had a hand in that," she suggests as she tries to relax her shoulders, thinking that's the key to get the rest of her body to loosen up. She hopes the rest will follow this movement.

"I really didn't…You know me Amanda, you know if I had a hand in finding your mother again that I would shove it in your face. You know how I love to brag…" he purrs with a sly smile.

She releases him and then waltzes into the kitchen to pour herself a drink. Red wine looks good in the large glass she finds that's hollowed out like a soup bowl.

"You're welcome," he says as he watches her peruse in his kitchen like she owns the place, opening drawers, but not closing them, looking for a corkscrew.

"I didn't say thank you," she responds as she has success finding the corkscrew. She pops the cork off the bottle and throws the corkscrew on the counter, cork still attached. She leaves the mess for him to clean up yet again.

"We could talk you know. Talking might be better than drinking on an empty stomach," he says knowing that she probably forgot to eat or was too upset to do so.

"Don't worry about me Aiden," she replies as she takes a deep breath to center herself. She finds that she's doing that a lot lately. "Everything is going to be just fine."

Nolan doesn't have anyone left to turn to in the area except maybe his Aunt Carole but he doesn't want to bother her at this hour. He knows she'll get out of bed with her curlers in her hair and her fuzzy worn ballet slippers that are probably 15 years old at this point and answer the phone, but he'd rather let her sleep.

The usually generous man isn't feeling very generous and charitable tonight as he goes to Padma Lahari's New York City apartment to have someone to lean on. He knows going in on this that he's just using her for a familiar face to talk to but she does owe him one after exposing to the world that his company was made possible by a known terrorist after he was found guilty. While Nolan has no shame in David because he knows of his innocence, the rest of the world isn't as convinced.

After Padma dropped subtle hints that Nolan was invested by David Clarke explosions ricocheted through the walls of the Nolcorp Enterprises and it blew a hole in his business. Numbers declined, clients were lost and money seemed to just fly out the window. He had to pay people off and let people go and now his business seemed to be worth millions instead of billions. Both he and Emily were losing money but that didn't much matter to him, he just didn't want anyone else getting hurt because he trusted someone other than himself and Amanda Clarke.

She comes to the door in a lime green robe that is very bright against her skin but instantly he likes it, enjoying the color against her tone. "Nolan, what are you doing here?" she asks as she tightens the belt around her waist to hold everything in place.

"Didn't mean to wake you…"

She cuts him off "Wasn't sleeping… I'm a night owl like yourself," she adds as she thinks of the nights they've spent together.

"Here to gloat or to fire me again?" she asks as she goes into the kitchen to stop the tea kettle from screaming its top off. He stays in place before following and then the two settle in the living room which has a rustic feel to it and he swears there's a rooster statue near the bookshelf. He never felt like the apartment matched the girl but what did he know? What did he care at this point really?

"I'm here to do neither of those things. I don't blame you…much, you did what you thought was morally the right thing to do. I mean, you could have asked me about my relationship with David Clarke but, whatever…dust in the wind," he expresses as he plops down on the sofa, holding onto a pillow.

"So… what does bring you here Nolan?" she asks as she sits across from him, wishing that she had grabbed her tea while she was in the kitchen. She'll just let it brew a bit longer, train her taste buds to like the strong stuff.

"I had a fight with Emily," he reveals as he fiddles with his thumbs.

She almost scoffs, he can hear it in her throat like it's a monster wanting to come out and show itself.

"Of course you did…it always leads to her doesn't it? I should have known from the very start how mad for her you are…"

"What do you mean?" he asks, already knowing the answer.

"You're delirious. You're in denial about your feelings for her, it's why you couldn't feel anything for me," she says as she gets up to retrieve her tea. She'll let him stew in his own juices for a while.

Think about that one Nolan…

She comes back with a steaming mug in her hand, one for him as well. It's a nice gesture but it isn't going to make up for pretty much ruining his company although he too had a hand at that.

Forgive and forget.

He knows he can't talk about how he found Emily's mother and how hard that is for the both of them but it limits what they can talk about. Maybe Padma will be inspired and talk at him, he won't mind as long as he has a distraction.

When he gets back home, which also happens to be Amanda's home, he sees he's the first one there as he can't spot her car anywhere in the lot. It crosses his mind that she may have parked it elsewhere. Going up the steps, he sees a little white envelope on the porch and takes it inside for her as it says Emily Thorne across the front.

He sits and stares at that envelope for a look time just waiting for her.

He almost falls asleep on the couch until the key twisting in the lock jolts him awake. When she comes in, she just looks at him and he is instantly aware of his surroundings again. He smells coffee, and wonders absentmindedly if the alarm was set on the coffeemaker.

She walks past him without saying a word and spots the same white envelope he was fixated on in the eat-in kitchen. Taking it he watches her slip her nail under the paper and unfold the package. Out comes a decorative card. She looks at it, reads it and puts it back in its cover like it never even happened.

It's not till she approaches him that she mutters a peep. "Looks like we're going to a party."

"We?" he asks as he sits up a bit more on the cream colored sofa.

"You didn't get an invite?" she asks. He suddenly turned on to the idea that someone may have sent him an E-vite instead since he's so tech savvy and no one really knows his address anymore. Finding the invite in his e-mail he gives her a tiny smile, something to let her know they're on the same page when it comes to this.

"Looks like…" he purrs, his tongue pressed against his lips.

"It's a masquerade party so we're going to need masks made," she says as she rolls her eyes, another thing she has to get done in the midst of everything else. She doesn't feel like playing dress up but she knows she has to if she wants to fit into the world.

"I'm on it," he replies, wanting to help her out as much as he can.

"See to it that it's done," she demands as she walks toward the stairs to retreat for the night.

"Victoria Grayson already wears a mask," he murmurs and he gets a head turn from Emily, one last look.

"Well I say it's about time we pull that mask off and see Victoria for who she really is…"