A/N- Happy Monday (or Tuesday, I'm posting really late) I hope you've all had a good week! Thank you to Guest(s) for reviewing and those who favorited or followed this story! This chapter has a couple of biggies, and I think you may wish for harm to rain upon me after you finish the last few chapters.
Disclaimer- Same as always: I don't own the show or the characters from the show. This does come from my imagination. I don't profit from this. I also have very little knowledge of law, medicine and psychiatry and how certain situations are handled.
Third POV:
Amanda speaks up before Emily has a chance to greet Charlotte, "Char, before you say anything, let's let the kids go play upstairs." The adults can see the wheels turning in Charlotte's head, trying to piece together what's happened. She looks between Emily and Arrayah, then up to Amanda, then back to Emily. Without saying a word to either woman, she turns to a confused Declan. She starts waking up her son and when he is finally awake, Declan sets the little boy down. He rubs his eyes, and looks at the small crowd of people in front of him.
"Hi!" He waves, "I'm Andre, but I like being called Andy!" He walks up to Arrayah, grabs her hand, and shakes it, "What's your name?"
Arrayah looks up at her parents, not liking the sudden contact. "Introduce yourself, Ray." Nolan encourages her. She squints her eyes at her father, indicating that he's a traitor now.
"I'm Arrayah." She tells him and pulls her hand back.
"It's nice to meet you Arrayah! Oh, thank you Uncle Nolan for the Christmas gift!" He walks up and hugs Nolan's legs. Nolan looks down at Andre, his gaze being met with gleaming brown eyes, the same as Charlotte and Emily.
"You're welcome, Andy." He pats his head and Jack and Carl come back up to the front of the bar. Jack puts a squirming Carl down to hug his brother and Andre and Carl do a little handshake they made up. Amanda suggests that the boys show Arrayah the play room upstairs while the adults talk. Arrayah reluctantly agrees to this, going up the stairs in a sulky manner while the boys race and wrestle to the top. When the children are out of sight, the Emily sits down on one of the bar stools, with Amanda on one side and Nolan on the other. Charlotte begins, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Where were you all these years, Emily? Were you gone because you had a child and couldn't tell us?" She starts pacing, trying to sort out her emotions and Nolan almost speaks up, but Emily's hand over his knee stops him, "Why didn't you try to contact us, if not him, you could've tried to call me or Amanda. We wouldn't have told him, we would've helped you! We've been worried for years! We've searched for years, and you just come back!" Charlotte leans against the bar and Declan rubs her shoulders, "Did you even want to be found?" For the first time today, Emily sees the scared teenager she remembers.
"Are you done Charlotte?" Amanda asks, hoping the younger woman's words didn't hurt Emily too much.
"I think so." Charlotte breathes out, wiping a few stray tears that escaped her eyes.
Emily looks at Nolan and takes his hand, "I don't know how to start this." She doesn't break eye contact with Nolan. He squeezes her hand and she can feel a little confidence build up, "I didn't leave on my own. A man named Dwayne kidnapped me and held me captive for seven years. He did things to me, things I wouldn't wish on anyone. The July after I was taken, I gave to Arrayah. Dwayne assumed she was his, after everything that happened. I thought for the safety of my baby and me, I would allow him to think that. I tried to leave a few times, before and after Arrayah was born." Emily takes a calming breath after her voice starts to shake and looks away from Nolan, "When Arrayah escaped, I was told she was dead. Dwayne and his family blamed me for it, and he told me we were leaving soon. One night, I assume it was night, Dwayne came down and started beating me. He took a sledge-hammer and hit me in the leg. I went unconscious soon after that and I assumed I had died. When I woke up, I was in the hospital and he and his crew had been arrested." Emily looks at Charlotte and Jack, seeing the guilt in their eyes.
"Emily, I am so sorry! I really shouldn't have…" Charlotte begins, but Emily stops her, her little sister has nothing to be sorry for, "You have nothing to be sorry for, and you don't either Jack." There's a moment of silence, then Declan clears his throat.
"Char, is it the right time to tell them?" He whispers in her ear, and everyone staring at them. Charlotte blushes and nods, "Well, it looks like Andy won't be an only child for much longer. Charlotte is officially four months pregnant!" Amanda is the first to throw her arms around the young woman. Emily gets up and hobbles over to hug Charlotte after Amanda lets her go. Jack and Nolan go and pat Declan on the back and congratulate him. They are interrupted when the boys chase Arrayah down the stairs.
"Mommy!" She cries and nearly trips on the last stair, but regains her balance and rushes over to her mother.
"Don't tell, Arrayah! It was an accident!" Carl yells after her and his caught be Jack and Declan catches Andre.
"What was an accident?" Amanda questions, looking between both boys, hands on her hips.
"Carl through a gun at me and it hit me in the ear!" Arrayah explains, looking up at her mother with big tears rolling down her cheeks.
"It wasn't a real gun! I was throwing it at Andre and she was between us!" Carl defends, trying to get out of his father's grasp.
"Carl, you shouldn't throw anything at anyone. Apologize to Arrayah." Amanda demands, angry at her son and embarrassed that he did that.
"But she was in the way! I even said, 'duck'! She didn't listen!" Carl yells, and Arrayah shrinks into her mother's good leg.
"You still shouldn't have thrown your toy." Amanda tells her son, "Now apologize." Carl slowly makes his way over to Arrayah.
"I'm sorry, Arrayah, for throwing my toy gun at you. I shouldn't've done it. I hope you can forgive me." Carl looks down, and then looks at Arrayah with a pleading look, "I hope you can forgive me."
Arrayah looks up at her mother for an answer, but Emily only nods, "I accept your apology."
Carl perks right up and is about to take Arrayah and Andre back upstairs, but Nolan tells Jack they should be heading back home, and that they were welcome to stop by anytime. There is an exchanging of hugs and another round of congratulations for Declan and Charlotte. The little family goes back outside to their car and drive back to Emily's cottage. Before Nolan can start a conversation with Emily or Arrayah, they are both already asleep. He laughs quietly and shakes his head. When they are almost home, he remembers the need to run by a store before going home, but doesn't want to wake up his two favorite girls. He decides that food and firewood are higher up on the list, so he pulls into a Walgreens. He nudges Emily awake and then wakes up Arrayah.
"I think you should go in with me to pick up some groceries. We can get bare essentials tonight, and then tomorrow we can make a run somewhere else." Nolan explains as Emily rubs her eyes and wakes up. She nods as she yawns, watching Nolan get out, get her crutches, pull Arrayah out of the car, and then open her door. She fiddles with her crutches while Nolan adjusts a sleeping Arrayah on his shoulder.
"She's really out of it, isn't she?" Emily laughs, smoothing her daughter's curls away from her face.
"I think so, we left pretty early and she went to bed later than she's used to." Nolan reminds her as they make it into the store. Nolan finds a shopping cart and puts Arrayah in the cart where the groceries go, even though he knows she would fit in the child seat. Emily shuffles next to Nolan as they go down the aisles picking out snacks and little microwave dinners for the night. They are about to check out when Arrayah wakes up and wants out of the cart. Nolan helps her out but tells her to hold onto the cart. They pay for what they gathered and load it into the back of his car. He drives them to the cottage, stopping a little local shop to buy fire wood. When they arrive home, they all carry something into the house. Nolan was wary at first, but Emily promised to only carry two of the light bags. They get inside and put away the groceries, except what they would be eating for lunch. After lunch, Nolan makes a fire, Arrayah gets her book and reads to herself while her parents do laundry and other house work. Their day continues with ease, and Arrayah is the first to go to bed. They tuck her in, kiss her good night and go back downstairs, with her bedroom door cracked open so they could hear her if needed. They go back down stairs and sit on the couch, with Emily tucked up against Nolan and his arms around him. They enjoy the peace and quiet and each other's company.
"It's still hard to wrap my head around that we are here, we are safe, and we have Arrayah upstairs." Emily whispers as she starts dozing off, cuddling against him.
"It's like the best dream ever and I don't want to wake up." Nolan mumbles against her ear.
She couldn't have said it better herself.
New Year's Eve and Day come and go with a mini party at the cottage with Declan, Charlotte and Andre, Jack, Amanda and Carl, and Aiden and his new-old-"friend", Niko. They allowed the three children to stay up and watch the ball drop and "toast" to it, their flutes, along with Emily, Amanda, and Charlotte's, filled with apple juice. The party doesn't last long after that, and the family's and couple make their way home, with Niko and Aiden taking a cab back to where they were staying.
A few days later, Emily is curled up against Nolan on the couch after Arrayah has finally gone to sleep. Her nightmares were dissipating and getting farther and farther apart since Emily came home, and so were Emily's. They had a little count-up on the Arrayah's door for encouragement, a little chalk board that Arrayah decorated and Emily wrote Days since Last Nightmare. They checked on it each morning, since Arrayah was typically up before them, and it was a discreet way for her to admit she had one. So far they were on the ninth day in the cottage and she hadn't had one.
Emily shifts through the news column on the Nolpad while Nolan rereads some classical book he picked up at a store during their big grocery run. She's about to close out when a headline catches her eye.
"Missing Socialite Found Alive"
Her stomach drops as the words ring in her head and she sees the picture that goes along with it, a picture of her that looks like it's been taken a life time ago. She nudges her elbow lightly against Nolan's ribs to get his attention away from the book he's engrossed in. When he looks down at her with a smile, and she doesn't return it, he feels the worry edge its way into his body. She uses her head to slightly gesture to the screen. He looks down and reads the headline. He gently takes the Nolpad from her grasp and clicks on the article. He skims through it and feels his color drain; it has almost all the fact right, right down to the part of her daughter's existence, except her true paternity.
"Emily, I will find whoever wrote this and their source." He looks down and sees tears in her eyes. He puts the Nolpad on the table next to him, pulls her closer, and kisses her temple, "What's going through your head?
"They know, everyone knows!" She snaps, "I thought we could lay low longer, not face the real world. Now we can't! Everyone knows what those things did to me!" She turns in his arms and cries out her frustrations into his chest, "What if Arrayah searches out names and sees this article? She'll freak out and feel guilty! I never wanted her to know what happened down there!" She continues to cry while Nolan comforts her until they are interrupted by the landline ringing. Nolan whispers that he'll get the phone, kisses her forehead and pulls away. He retrieves the phone and answers before checking the caller ID.
"Nolan Ross speaking." He rushes his voice as he gets a box of tissues and walks over to Emily. Her cries have turned into little sniffles and he hands her the box. She wipes her cheeks and blows her nose.
"Hi, Nolan, Natasha Green here, I need to speak with Emily, is she there?" The detective's voice sounds too sweet to Nolan.
"What you can say to Emily, you can say to me. I'm going to put it on the speaker." Nolan tells her, clicking the button and giving it to Emily. Emily takes a breath to steady her voice.
"Hello?" She says, her voice still wavering from crying.
"Emily, tell Nolan to leave, right now!" Natasha orders.
"Why should he leave?" Emily is more alert now, sitting straighter while Nolan throws his arm around her shoulder.
"Have you seen the latest headline? They know Emily, almost everything except who Arrayah's father is. I think it was leaked by either a nurse, or someone my squad. I think Nolan should leave so the press can't touch him or make this worse. I thought we could easily go through court without any press!" Natasha rambles.
"I can handle the press, Natasha. I'm not leaving Emily to deal with this alone." Nolan pulls Emily in tighter, and she leans her head on his shoulder.
"Okay, try looking at it from this point of view: you go back to New York, and make the press think that Emily is with you. I can't risk this case to go down the drain because of a reporter and we can't have Emily even more stressed out to testify." Nolan feels Emily stiffen at the mention of testifying and he looks down with a curious look on his face; he thought they would just use her statement in court and she would never have to face Dwayne ever again. Why wouldn't Emily tell him?
"I don't know about it, we'll make a decision and call you back later." Nolan hangs up the phone before she can argue. He pulls away from Emily who's looking down at her lap like a child in trouble.
"You're going to testify?" He questions, his feelings switching between sadness, anger, and disappointment that she lied again.
"I am required to testify. They need it and if the jury sees me and hears what happened from me, they think it will help the case win. I'm not testifying just against Dwayne and his clan, I'm also testifying against Victoria and Conrad." Her gaze doesn't leave her lap and she starts picking at her cuticle.
"When were you planning on telling me?" Nolan snaps, his anger showing and Emily shrinks away from him.
"The day I go to court." She tells him sheepishly.
"Don't you think it would've been important for me to know before hand?" He gets up and starts walking around the couch, hoping to walk out his anger; he doesn't like feeling this way toward Emily.
"Yes, but you would hover me even more than you already were! I just wanted to get it and move on!" Emily finally looks up and Nolan can see the spark in her eyes, just like when she was explaining a scheme when they were just partners in bringing down the Graysons, and he knows that look is dangerous.
But he's not caring now, "Oh so 'caring' is now classified as 'hovering'?"
"Nolan, I could barely go to the bathroom without you following me to make sure I didn't fall in or kill myself." Emily hisses.
"That was a one-time thought! You could barely move around and you are still getting used to your crutches! What if you slipped, hit your head, and fell unconscious and I'm not there?!"He stands in front of her and she stands up, toe-to-toe with him, "You're still… fragile, Emily." Once the word is out of his head, he knows he's made a mistake.
"Is that how you see me, Nolan, a fragile girl that needs protecting and fixing?" The spark that once occupied her eyes is now a full blaze.
"I didn't mean it like that, Emily! I was meaning you're still broken… Shoot, not the right choice! I swear I didn't mean it like you're broken," Nolan begins, his bravado gone and replaced with a fumbling fool, but Emily stops him.
"I think I've heard enough. I think we need some space from each other…" The blaze behind Emily's eyes is diminishing from the overwhelming sadness of her decision, "I… I don't want this to end, but I don't want us to stand here and say mean things at each other that we'll only regret later. Maybe you should go back to the city for a few days." Emily looks down at her foot and cast, not wanting to say it to his face. When it's silent for a few moments, she looks up and wishes she hadn't. Nolan's face has fallen and his eyes look like broken glass.
"Is that what you want?" He rasps out, keeping his voice as steady as he can.
"Not really, but I think it's the smartest thing to do." Emily grabs her elbows and cradles them to her chest, trying to protect her heart from her own decision.
"Okay. I'm… just going to grab my things. I don't think I'll be gone for too long that we need an unofficial custody schedule?" He looks like a kicked puppy and Emily wishes she had another idea to erase this one.
"I don't think so, but you're free to see her anytime. It would be wrong to deny her the opportunity to see you because of her parents' indecisiveness." Emily tells him, tears barging at the bottom of her eye lids. Nolan nods as he goes upstairs, being quiet, but he still drags his feet. She goes upstairs to Arrayah's room, watching her sweet little angel sleep while Emily's inner demons fight. She doesn't realize she's been standing there long till Nolan lightly touches her shoulder.
"Can I say goodbye to her?" He asks. Emily nods and moves out of the way. She watches Nolan go up to Arrayah's bedside, pick her up, kiss her cheek and forehead, and tell her that Daddy was leaving because of work business. Arrayah mumbles something of the line of, "I love you." And fell back asleep. He kisses her forehead and tucks her back in. He lets Emily exit the room first, and then closes the door behind him.
"I thought it would be easier to tell her I had to go back to work than to tell her what's really going on." Nolan shrugs, and Emily is almost mad at him for lying to their daughter when he got mad at her for lying to him, but lets it go. She nods at him and follows him to the living room. By the door is one bag and his shoes.
"My other bags are in the car." He tells her as he slips on his tennis shoes. She nods, the after- fight feelings setting it, the numbness she is used to feeling by now, "You keep this Nolpad so I can video chat with her, and you if you feel up to it. I can just get another one from the office and sync all my stuff up from the Puff when I log into my account." He gives her his Nolpad and she holds it to her chest.
"Well, I guess this is bye for now." He opens the door when she is breaks from the numbness.
"Hey, Nolan, I love you." She blurts out before she can process what she said.
He smiles sadly, "I know, Emily. I love you too." He closes the door and Emily sinks to the couch, her head in her hands. Somewhere deep inside her tells her she made the right choice of making him go, but the majority of her is breaking apart and weeping that she made the wrong decision. She clicks lock button on the Nolpad and on the lock screen is a slide show of him, and Emily, and Arrayah. She stares at the screen for a few moments, captivated by the fading pictures of before the kidnapping and after. She sees pictures of when she was probably still being held captive or in the hospital, because they were of just Arrayah and him, or Arrayah by herself. Her favorite one she sees is of her little girl, zipped up to the neck in a pink puffy jacket coming down a slide, her curls flying out behind her like a cape and her arms up like she could touch the sky. She puts the Nolpad down on the table, locks the doors, and goes upstairs to Arrayah's room. She pulls back the blankets, cradles her daughter, and lies next to her.
The next morning, she is awoken by Arrayah poking her face. Emily opens her eyes and is met with the oh-so-familiar blue eyes. Her little girl has pulled away some, but she is still within her mother's grasp.
"Mommy, what are you doing in my bed?" Arrayah asks, pulling her bunny and bear from out between them.
"Well, Arrayah, I'm back to Day Zero of being nightmare free." Emily feels the tears pool up in her eyes and tries to force them back so her daughter won't see.
"It's okay, Mommy. We can cuddle to make it better, and then maybe we can talk about it!" Arrayah throws her little arm over Emily and Emily chuckles sadly. She pulls her daughter close and feels some comfort of the closeness of her child.
A/N- So, how many wish for me to step on rusty nails? On the bright side, they aren't broken up, but they're not together. I hope you continue reading to see if (well, more than likely how) they get back together. See you next week!