This is my first ever attempt at writing an Inception based fanfic. It's OC, though, so I'm not sure exactly how it'll be perceived. But I think it's at least worth a try to post it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Inception or its characters. I only own Sadie and Nate.
Months after Inception, Ariadne's cousin shows up on her doorstep with a black eye, confused and in need of many answers. Since there is nothing Ariadne wouldn't do for family, she automatically wants to do whatever she can to help. Even if that means turning her cousin into the team's newest client and unknowingly pulling the team into a very complicated job. Arthur/OC.
Chapter 1: Suspicious Minds
Sadie made her way through the apartment that up until that night she had shared with her boyfriend of two years. She was frantically and angrily throwing all of her things into suitcases, slamming doors, and stomping across the floor leaving a huge mess in her wake.
"Sadie, please just calm down and listen to me," Nate said, running to keep up with her as she left a path of destruction behind her.
Making her way into the walk-in closet that had once upon a time been hers, she grabbed more suitcases from the top shelf and started throwing all of her clothes into them.
"Don't freaking tell me to calm down, Nate!" Sadie hissed through clenched teeth, pushing back the strands of blonde hair falling into her face; all the while she refused to even look at Nate long enough to glare a hole through his face...even though, at that moment she would've loved it if it were really possible to do just that.
"Sadie, you're overreacting," Nate told her not being able to figure out for the life of him why she was reacting the way she was.
What he had just said was enough to get Sadie to finally look up at him.
"Overreacting? Overreacting?! Overreacting, Nate?!" she asked, her voice getting angrier and angrier each time she would say the word. "I gave up two years of my life for you and this is how you repay me?!" Sadie hissed, pointing straight at her quickly bruising eye. "You lay your hands on me for some stupid, unknown, most likely pathetic reason!" Sadie hissed, pushing him away from her.
"Sadie, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hit you. You surprised me and that was my first instinctive reaction," Nate tried to reason with her with some stupid excuse that she wasn't buying, reaching out to touch her arm in a soothing manner.
Sadie shrugged his hand off as soon as she felt his touch. "Don't touch me!" she hissed zipping up her suitcases and storming out of the closet. "I don't want to hear anything that you have to say. You crossed a huge line tonight! A line that you can not cross back over. WE. ARE. OVER!" Sadie informed him when she heard him say her name again as he followed her into the living room.
Sadie picked up her other suitcases and threw the apartment door open, making her way out into the hallway. She walked out and set her suitcases down for a moment. Remembering something she'd forgotten to say, she turned around to come face to face with Nate who was currently standing in the doorway.
"I don't know what you're hiding from me, Nate, but I swear I will find out somehow. After all, there is something you don't want me to know isn't there?" Sadie asked, looking him dead in his eyes. "I'm close to figuring something out that you don't want me to know...is that it? Is that why you hit me? Were those texts on your phone that you were looking at something you don't want me to know about? Are you afraid I'm going to find out your dirty little secret and hate you even more than I do right now? Is that it?"
Nate didn't answer and suddenly his eyes were glued to the floor and he was avoiding her gaze and ignoring her words at all costs.
"That's exactly what I thought," Sadie seethed, shaking her head in disgust. "I will find out what you're trying to keep me from finding out. Since obviously it's something really bad if you're willing to hit me and ruin what I thought we had that was supposedly a great thing! I promise you that when I find out you better watch your back because when I do..." Sadie trailed off momentarily to let him stew for a bit. "I'm coming for you," she finished after watching him practically tremble in his boots long enough to satisfy her.
"Where are you going to stay?" Nate asked, pretending that he hadn't just heard everything she had said to him. "It's almost midnight."
Sadie rolled her eyes and shook her head ignoring his question in return, turning and stalking down the hallway with all of her bags in tow. She couldn't believe that she had given up two years of her life for nothing. If she had known two years ago that she'd be single again right now after her boyfriend had hit her, then she would've just stayed single and not said yes when he first asked her out, period. But unfortunately, that's not how it worked out at all.
~TheMiddle~
Ariadne groaned as she opened her eyes. Her bedroom was pitch black except for the very faint light coming from the alarm clock on her bedside table. Looking over at the clock she saw that it was only a quarter past midnight and let out a frustrated sigh.
Why in the world was she up at such an ungodly hour? Suddenly she heard the reason why. There was a buzzing sound coming from the living room. It sounded a lot like the buzzing sound that signaled someone buzzing into the building. But who would be here at this ungodly hour? She hadn't been expecting anyone, especially not at this time of night.
Ariadne slowly threw the warm, snug covers off of her and got out of bed. Slipping her feet into her comfy slippers, she made her way out to the living room and over to the intercom system. Pushing the button she spoke up in a sleepy voice, "Who is it?"
Ariadne was suddenly wide awake when the familiar voice answered her, "Oh, thank god! I'm so sorry to wake you up, but I have no where else to go."
"Sadie?" Ariadne asked surprised to hear her voice after such a long time of having no contact at all.
"Yeah, it's me."
Ariadne wasted no time buzzing Sadie in. Unlocking the door to her apartment, she swung it open and ran out heading straight down the stairs to greet Sadie at the door. Sadie was bringing her last few suitcases into the building by time Ariadne was half way down the stairs. As soon as her feet hit the last step she ran and jumped onto Sadie, pulling her into a hug.
"I can't believe it's you, Sadie! You're really here!" Ariadne exclaimed moments later when she let go of her and backed up.
"Well, believe it, Aria, because it's me." Sadie laughed. "I'm really here," she said, avoiding eye contact with her.
"But it's like 12:20 in the morning. Why are you here now?" Ariadne asked curiously, finding Sadie's lack of eye contact with her kind of strange.
Sadie sighed and answered, "Nate and I broke up."
Ariadne's eyes went wide, and she found herself asking, "What? Why? I thought everything was going well with you two?"
Sadie shrugged her shoulders before honestly telling her, "I thought everything was going well, too, but I guess I was wrong," just as she finally looked up showing Ariadne her face.
Ariadne looked at Sadie and a gasp tore from her throat. Reflexively, Ariadne's hand flew up and covered her mouth. She was shocked when she noticed that Sadie's right eye was swollen slightly and it was bruising quickly. "What the hell happened to your eye, Sadie?!" Ariadne asked once she finally found her words again, dropping her hand back down.
Sadie was quick to answer. A little too quick to answer, but Ariadne didn't want to push the subject and make Sadie close up completely so she accepted her answer of...
"I was so mad at Nate during our breakup fight that I wasn't paying attention to where I was going and I walked straight into the side of a door."
Ariadne gave herself some time to somewhat comprehend the past couple of minutes before she spoke again.
"Come on, let's get you upstairs and get your eye cleaned up," Ariadne said, taking some of Sadie's suitcases from her and leading her upstairs to the apartment.
~TheMiddle~
Some time later after Sadie was settled into the second bedroom that luckily Ariadne's apartment contained, Ariadne and Sadie sat on the couch facing one another. Ariadne was no longer tired and Sadie was too hyped up still to even be able to think about sleeping at that point.
Ariadne had cleaned up Sadie's eye while Sadie explained to her what had happened between her and Nate earlier that night that lead to them breaking up. It had taken some coaxing but Ariadne had finally gotten Sadie to admit the truth about her black eye.
"So he was texting someone and when you asked him about them he hit you?" Ariadne asked still trying to understand completely what went on between Sadie and Nate.
"Yeah, it sounds stupid and makes no sense but that's pretty much what happened." Sadie nodded and sighed, leaning her head back against the wall behind the couch. "I am pretty sure he's hiding something extremely big from me," Sadie admitted after deciding to confide in Ariadne about her fears.
Ariadne cocked an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"I just have this feeling that there's something I was slowly piecing together that he was afraid for me to find out about. When I left and mentioned to him that I thought he was keeping something from me he looked down at the ground and refused to look at me. Then when he finally spoke again he had changed the subject completely, which only succeeded in making me think I'm right about him hiding something from me even more than I already thought I was," Sadie explained leaving nothing out.
"Sounds like the actions of someone who's hiding something," Ariadne agreed, giving Sadie a sincere look of not necessarily pity, but something less sad. "Do you think maybe he was cheating on you?" Ariadne suggested as she shrugged her shoulders.
Sadie shook her head no and answered, "No, that possibility honestly never even crossed my mind. My intuition says it's something worse than cheating." She thought about it for a moment. "Maybe something worse than I could even imagine."
"Well, a woman's intuition is usually right about these kinds of things."
Sadie nodded in agreement. "I wish I could just somehow get into his mind and find out what's really going on. You know?" Sadie sighed, brushing a hand over her forehead and through her hair.
Ariadne's face suddenly lit up.
Sadie noticed this right away and asked, "Why the sudden, "I've got an idea face?"
Ariadne shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. "No reason," she answered a little bit too cheerfully.
Looking at the clock and seeing that it'd be day where he was, Ariadne abruptly stood up.
"I should really get back to bed. I have to be up early this morning," she told Sadie. "I hope you don't mind. We can catch up later this afternoon if you're up for it."
Sadie shook her head and smiled up at her cousin briefly. "No worries, I understand," Sadie assured her. "I'll be here for quite some time, so we'll have a lot of time to talk and catch up."
"Alright, I'll see you later, then." Ariadne turned towards the hallway. "Night, Sade! It's good to have you here!" Ariadne called behind her as she hightailed it to her bedroom.
"Night, Aria. It's great to be here, too!" She replied, reaching across to the table where the tv remote sat. Sadie sat back against the couch and turned on the tv, hoping that watching some tv would relax her enough that she could eventually get some sleep.
~TheMiddle~
Ariadne closed her bedroom door behind her just as she heard the tv turn on. She dove across her bed, reaching for her cellphone laying on her bedside table. Picking up the phone, she proceeded to dial the familiar number of the one person who she knew could get the team together to help Sadie out with her "ex-boyfriend keeping a secret from her" situation.
She sat criss-cross applesauce style in the middle of her bed listening to the ringing sound, waiting for him to pick up the phone. It was currently day where he was; as far as she knew he wasn't currently doing a job so there wasn't any reason for him not to answer. The phone rang a few more times before he finally picked up.
"Ariadne?" he asked, seeming surprised that she was calling him.
"Arthur," she replied with a small smile playing on her face.
"Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, everything's fine."
"What are you calling for then?"
"I just...how long would it take for you to get here?"