It was past midnight when she finally made it home. Her suitcases were carelessly tossed to floor, safe in the knowledge that Dominic was a heavy sleeper.
She slipped off her shoes and let her suit slide off her body. She climbed into their bed in nothing but panties and her blouse, pajamas would be too much effort after the day she had.
Jet lag wore her down and she barely had time to yank blankets over her legs before her head hit the pillow. She didn't see his eyes squint open, didn't feel his arm snake around her body drawing her closer to the middle of the bed. She didn't move as the blanket was securely tucked under her chin just as she liked.
Morning came and he was gone with only a yellow post it note left on the pillow, 'Teacher conference, see you later. L, Dom.' The house was quiet and in the kitchen, Ariadne found matching green and blue notes tacked to the refrigerator.
'Glad you're home. Teacher Conference. Dad missed you. Phillippa.'
'At the park with Grandpa, soccer. Love you. James.'
A short drive later, Ariadne ambled through Phillippa's school. "Can I help you?" a man asked as he spotted Ariadne looking at the room numbers.
"I'm looking for room 146D. I'm here for a teacher/parent conference."
"Down the hall and to the right," the man said.
"Thank you." She replied and hurried. The classroom was open and sitting at the desks looking equally guilty were Dominic and Phillippa.
"Mr. Cobb. I trust I don't have to tell you what an exceptional student your daughter is but I cannot let that allow her to continue with this type of violent behavior."
'Violent behavior? Her Philli?' Ariadne thought.
"I completely understand and I assure you, Mrs. Biven, that it won't happen again." Dom said looking at his daughter through his sunglasses.
"We discussed this the last time she was in my office. May I remind you that this is now the fourth fight she has gotten into in the past two months. One more and she will be expelled."
'Four fights? Expelled?'
"I am aware of that. Things have been challenging at home and I'm afraid that it has spilled over. I certainly will make sure this is the last meeting we have about this matter." Dom said and hauled Phillippa out of her desk. "Is that clear, young lady?"
"Yeah, dad." The ten year old sullenly muttered.
"Mrs. Biven, a pleasure as always."
"Phillippa, will you wait outside while I talk to your father."
Her face downcast, the girl grabbed her bag and made her way to where Ariadne was silently waiting. "Mom, you're home." The girl squealed and threw her arms around the woman.
Ariadne shushed her then set stern eyes on her. "Yes, I am and you are in big trouble, Philli. Four fights?" Ariadne asked pulling up her stepdaughter's face away from her chest.
"It wasn't my fault…
"Tell me what happened and I'll be…Phillippa," Ariadne gasped. "What happened to your face?" She caressed the girl's face outlining the big ugly black bruise surrounding her right eye. "I guess its obvious that you been fighting now. What I want to know is who did this and where can I find them?"
The girl yanked her face away. "I took care of it, " she mumbled suddenly finding the floor very interesting.
Ariadne pulled up the child's face and nodded vigorously. "Clearly but why did it happen at all?"
Again, down went the face but this time the answer was given so fast that the words ran into each other.
"I'm sorry, one more time."
Phillippa lifted her head and with determination in her beautiful blue eyes, eyes that so resembled her father's when he was passionate about something, said it clear and loud. "He called dad a cradle robber and you a tramp. Then I beat him up until he took it back."
"Oh Philli. Come here." Ariadne hugged the child and kissed the pale hair. "You shouldn't care what people say."
"But it was mean and not true." The child protested.
"I know but there will always be mean people in the world. All that matters is that we love each other. It doesn't matter what anybody thinks about it. You can't fight them all, sweetie."
"Dad said the same thing but he still punched that kid's father when he said that you had to be good. What did he mean by that and why did Dad get so mad."
"Ariadne!" Fortunately Dominic had chosen just that moment to come out. "What are you doing here? I thought you had a meeting with Arthur this morning?"
She turned her face up to receive his kiss letting the conversation with her daughter go for the moment to greet the girl's father properly. "We rescheduled. He said he knew how anxious I was to see you and the kids so we set it up for tomorrow."
"That's great. Well I wasn't expecting you home today so I didn't prepare anything, how do you feel about eating out?"
"Sounds good, James should be home by now."
"I'll call Miles and see where they're at." Dominic replied.
Twenty minutes later they were back at the house and getting ready. Ariadne had changed out of her "parent outfit" as she called it and had changed into jeans, a dark blouse and her favorite red jacket.
"How was Morocco?" Dom asked coming in and changing his rumpled dress shirt for a clean and crisp one. "Did you get to do any sightseeing?"
"Not really. We had to scrap two plans and one of the other guys got a little too ambitious with his forgeries. I really wish that Eames could have gone with us, would have saved us so much grief. To top if off our flight was delayed." She turned and realized that he was now in the bathroom cleaning his face. "How about here? Anything new?"
"Nope. Just the usual random stuff." He said wiping his face and turning. He looked down as he rolled his sleeves over his elbows and down his arms and buttoned his cuffs.
"That's good." She said and pushed away from the bathroom door. She rose on tiptoe and placed a kiss on his right eye. "Your makeup is smeared, dear."
Cobb flushed and looked at the towel that now wore most of his concealer. "I assume you know about the fights then."
"Mostly." She said and hopped up on the edge of the sink so that her face was now at his shoulder. "I know Phillippa has had four and I saw the black eye. I assume you match?"
"Just one fight and the black eye but there's a perfectly good explanation. I mean you know that I have a bit of a temper." Ariadne raised an eyebrow at this, "but the guy asked for it. It started with the jerk telling his kid awful stuff about you and me and then the kid repeating it to Phillippa."
"And that gave her the idea to hit this boy on four separate occasions?"
"She tried not to. The first time she came home in tears and I didn't know what to say to her. The kid told her that you were just some plaything for my midlife crisis. What was I supposed to do?"
"Not encourage her, Dom." She said annoyed.
"I didn't but it kept happening. Everyday it was more and lurid things. I was fed up and I let it slip that someone should beat the crap out of the little bastard."
"Dom!"
"I didn't mean her. I didn't even know she heard me until the next day when I got a call from the school." He bent so that his head was on her shoulder. "It got worse and Phillippa got so mad that she punched him too hard and broke the kid's nose."
Ariadne lifted his head and looked into the blue eyes that had sparked the determination in Phillippa's. "Is he ok?"
"Yeah. I paid for the whole thing and tried to apologize to the kid's father."
"What did he say?"
Dominic, like his daughter buried his face in Ariadne's chest and mumbled.
"He said what?" Ariadne asked.
Dom looked into her wide brown eyes and gritted through his teeth. "When you're done with her can I get a turn. Little bitch must be good."
Ariadne looked shocked for a moment and then burst into laughter.
"It's not funny, Ari."
"Yes it is. Obviously the man is a Neanderthal and has a snowball's chance in hell of getting laid by anybody decent. Besides you know that I don't care what people say. I've heard much worse."
"I know but with the all the time I wasted after Mal and then the third degree I got from your parents. Not to mention all the age comments from just about everybody we knew, well it was just too much. I couldn't stand one more asshole talking about you that way."
"I'm sorry I'm so much trouble." She said wetting the towel and gently wiping the rest of the concealer off his face.
He kissed her exposed wrist. "You aren't any trouble at all. I'd do it all over again even with the restraining order."
"Restraining order?"
"Don't ask and don't tell. I'd never hear the end of it from Eames or Arthur."
"I promise that my lips are sealed." She pretended to lock her lips and throw away the key.
"How can you expect me not to do something stupid when you are so damm good to me."
"I'll try to be more of a pain." She grinned and pulled him down for a real kiss. "So what do we do about Phillippa?"
"I already talked to her and she promised no more fights."
"That's good because otherwise I'll have to talk to the kid's mother and I don't want to have a triple set of black and blues."
"You could take her." He said and slid his hands into the waistband of her jeans.
"I bet I could. So Mr. Cobb, I don't think we should go out to dinner with you looking so bruised."
"Its is really the bruise, Mrs. Cobb?"
"Not really. I would rather show you how grateful I am that you defended my honor." She said playfully biting at the buttons of his shirt.
"How grateful are you?" he asked, his voice a little chocked from her foot running up and down the length of his leg.
"Very." She smiled and closed the gap that was keeping them apart.
"Dinner?" he asked in one last ditch effort to stop her.
"Not really hungry." She slid off the sink and down his front agonizingly slow then cruelly left behind a trail of clothes to follow.
Dominic looked into the mirror and thanked the black eye profusely before dropping his clothes to keep hers company.
Downstairs Miles heard giggling and with a sigh ushered the kids out the door and into the car. "Grandpa, what about Mom and Dad?" James asked.
"Your mother missed your father and will probably be too tired to join us later."
"How come?" James asked.
"Cause Dad defended Mom and she wants to thank him, right?"
"That's right sweetheart. How about we go to my house and we see what Grandma is making for dinner."
"Can we brink some back?"
"Of course. They'll be hungry eventually." Phillippa said it with all the authority a ten year old could muster.
"Should we bring dessert too?" James said focusing on the house where his parents where.
"No. I don't think they'll need it." Miles said and started the car. 'Already having it, I'm sure.'