Before Carly's eyes opened, her brain scrambled to make sense of the sensations that she was feeling. She was impossibly warm and in something far too soft to be the snow that she had landed in seemingly a second ago. For a moment she was convinced that she was dead and in some form of an afterlife but everything seemed to be far too tangible for her to be dead and in some other ethereal world.

Slowly opening her eyes, Carly moved to sit up and scanned the room she had been placed in until she noticed a man in black at the other end of the room. Her body tensed in fright of the sudden recognition of the looming figure but she realized that there was nothing other than books for me to defend herself with.

As V stepped out of the room Carly sat up and slowly stood to get dressed before walking outside into the main room. She couldn't help but be taken aback as she drank in her surroundings, V's home was...beautiful. It seemed to encase many things that people had forgotten about and almost caused her to wonder if she was delirious. As if her brain were on autopilot, she made her way to the table and sat down.

V kept his gaze from her as she wandered into the kitchen space, setting down a small plate and a bowl on the table. Looking down at the setting V let out a quiet tisk and noted, "And a spoon. yes." He turned back to the counter and picked up the spoon to place them next to the food he had laid out.

"I apologize that I will be starting you on something far softer than most would expect. But I assure you anything else might make you more ill." V spinned on his boots back to the stove and pulled his gloves tightly on before pushing it onto her plate.

"Bon appétit. Oeufs à la saucisse et l'oignon avec du fromage plié. Or to say it simply, eggs with sausage and onion with cheese. I already finished my breakfast hours ago, so feel free to eat. But try and take your time." V's voice was pleasant and soft. Carly looked at the food almost quizzically. It had been quite some time since she had more than brown slop and the food looked almost too beautiful to eat. After a few more moments of appreciating the beauty of the meal Carly finally picked up her fork and began to eat, slowly chewing and savoring the flavor. All the while V focused on washing the pan he had used, keenly aware that she now had a weapon of sorts and time. He could easily disarm her if she intended to use it but V knew that as long as he was careful to not scare her, she wouldn't need to use it. Much to V's surprise, her voice came softly from behind him, "Thank you...for um…creating an exit for me. And for getting me further away from the compound."

V's lips curled into a gentle smile from under his mask, matching the one that she could see.

"You are very welcome, I am glad to hear that the cruelty you surely endured didn't dissolve your grace. As far as the assistance with your expeditious retreat from the clutches of darkness, allow me to simply state that it was in the cards. You see, I was already in the facility when I happened upon you. When I borrowed an access card from a gentleman who no longer had use of it, I did not realize its access would be limited to the south wing." As V recalls his actions, he takes a few steps around the edge of the table. Puzzled, I assumed again that said wing would have a proper fire route and escape. As it were, it did not. This troubled me further and I felt it was necessary to rectify the transgression by installing an exit of my own design. I certainly did not consider the design elements of the previous architect nor the methodology of its updated design, but I felt the art made its own impact. I am just glad you were able to use it properly."

By now V noticed that Carly had stopped chewing all together, staring up at him with furrowed eyebrows. She couldn't help but think, did he also get hit in the head or was he fucking with me?

V chuckled internally, silently enjoying her perplexed reaction and gestured to her plate, "Still enjoying the meal?"

Snapping out of her train of thought Carly nodded. The idea that he had intended to kill everyone in that building invoked feelings of gratitude and terror. He had murdered people but that resulted in her escape. In a sudden rush she realized she recognized V but didn't know who he was. He was the man who had blown up the Old Bailey just before she was captured, and he had taken her to his home.

"Good, then treat me one thing and grant me the gift of your name my dear. For I have already learned that you are a rather polite house guest but am all but silent to whom I am feeding." V slowly moved and took a seat across from her.

"My name is Carly… Carly Hayes" She said, surprised that her name is the first thing that he wanted to know and not what she was in there for.

"Carly, I am pleased to make your acquaintance. May I ask if you are aware of why you were taken into Stone Hill?" V leaned in ever so slightly, curious as to just how much she could remember and whether she would be truthful.

"I dissented, and attempted to expose the atrocities that they were committing against the people they captured." Carly stated simply. "Myself and a number of other colleagues were transported to Stone Hill to conduct research on the patients that were being…treated…there. I was assigned to do physical assessments on some of the patients that required to actually be treated at a better hospital and we very quickly realized that we were studying the effects on whatever tactics that they were using to see how effective they were." Her voice became more laced with venom and sorrow as she spoke. The horror on the faces of the patients that she encountered caused a tugging pain to radiate through her chest. "We all refused to participate and when I attempted to alert our supervisors they threw us in cells as well."

V breathed a silent sigh of relief that she was not participating in the carnage. She had gone to help and got caught in the act of seeking justice.

"I'm sorry that happened to all of you. I regret to inform you that you were the only one who seemed to have survived but your collective bravery is honorable. As for you, I only know a few things. Firstly that you have been through quite an ordeal. Secondly, now that your eyes are open, you have an incredibly rare genetic trait that gives you a lovely fleck of green in your irises. And that you seem to be looking for someone. Tony?" V slowly listed as he tilted the pitcher of water he was holding into her glass. The obscured mesh over the eye slits in his mask hid his gaze as he noticed her hand tighten around her fork.

"How do you know about Tony?" She asked and failed to hide the suspicion in her tone.