Author's Note: I've never written a one shot before but they look fun, so this will be my first attempt. Please review, those reviews do make my day!
As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit. -Emmanuel Teney
Once when she was ten years old Ariadne Bishop had fallen into the lake off the dock at her aunt's lake front house. Her cousin had immediately leapt in to save her. She'd seen him reaching for her in the dark water of the lake but fear had kept her paralyzed and she'd been unable to move to help herself. Is that happening again, she wondered to herself drying the tears off her face and forcing her sobs back into her throat? Ariadne didn't turn her head at the sound of the tumblers in her lock moving. She knew it was Eames. He was only trying to help, but she couldn't accept: that would mean that she needed help. She didn't need help, she reassured herself, he was over reacting.
"I thought that we were past locked doors, Ari" he said, coming out of the french doors to stand beside her on the balcony. She didn't reply only shivered at the cold wind that swept in from the ocean. The waves crashed howling and moaning onto the sandy beach over and over pounding it smooth as ice.
"I'm fine. I'm not losing it," She told him defensively while he wrapped his arms around her. Against her will her body moved towards his warm flesh and she compensated by turning her face away from his as he leaned down to press a kiss in to her neck.
"You're not losing it, Ariadne. I won't let you lose yourself. I'll keep you here with me in reality, you know that."
"I know I won't lose myself, because I'm never dream sharing again," She said in an absent cold voice focusing on the motions of the waves.
Eames fought to keep himself from shaking her, if only to see some emotion out of her. He held her tighter to his body refusing to let go. And he didn't say anything more. Slowly she lost the iron control she'd had over her emotions and tears streamed down her face. He led her to a chaise lounge and cradled her in his lap. Home in his arms once again, she turned and buried her head in the crook of his shoulder and sobbed for a full hour soaking the soft material of his navy t-shirt.
"How do I keep my sanity?" She gasped, out of breath from the severity of her crying jag.
"By going back into dream share," He began stroking her hair. A sob tore from her throat when he said this and he could feel her shudder in his arms. He grasped her chin and gently made her look at him.
"By going back into dream share with me and letting me keep you safe. Let me show you how it can be, Ariadne. Let me show you that it can be done, and that you can keep your sanity doing it."
"It can't," she declared tears coming again.
"Yes it can!" He declared fiercely bringing her chin up so that she would look him in the eye. "Cobb, Arthur and I have done it for years. Limbo is the reason Mal ended up how she did! Lack of information about the dangers of inception that's what happened to Mal."
Still the girl cowered in his arms clinging to him tightly as though she was afraid that by letting him go she was letting reality go.
"Trust me, please. Let me in let me help you and then you'll be free from this fear," Eames said.
That was when, looking out at the waves, Ariadne realized that she was ten years old again and drowning. There was someone who had seen her fall and followed her into the water and he was going to save her. If she'd only reach out and take his hand.
"Okay. I'll go under with you. But," She said grabbing a fistful of his shirt and tugging for emphasis "don't leave me alone. Not for a second. Do. You. Understand. Eames Randall?"
"Yes ma'am" he said with a tender smile cupping her face. She laid back down against him and sighed contentedly, relaxing for the first time in weeks and settling in, enjoying the blissful feeling of tension leaving her body as Eames rubbed slow circles into her back.
Finally a long while later as the sun was setting over the water and she lay half asleep in his arms, Ariadne asked him,
"Why did you do this for me?" She tilted her head slightly to look up at his chiseled profile.
His eyes met her for a long moment, with an unreadable expression in them.
"Because I love you," He told her earnestly.
"I love you too," She said steadily and the first real smile he'd seen since the inception job graced her face.
Lips met lips as they do after such declarations of love and Eames had to pull back to tell her one more thing.
"And beside that Satio wants to give us all jobs,"
"What?" She panted, breath starved from their lip lock.
"He want a team on hand to extract information, and do odd jobs," Eames explained, intent on getting back to kissing.
"What kind of odd jobs," She wondered as he kissed his way up her neck.
"For you, architecture, for Cobb too, I assume." He kissed a hollow behind her earlobe that made her shiver and almost lose the conversation thread.
"What about the rest of you guys?"
"I'm former special forces as you know, and Satio let me know in advance that my first task will be securing an oil field of his in Sudan," He said impatience seeping into his voice as she pulled away to listen undistracted.
"And Yusuf and Arthur," Ariadne questioned him further, now straddling him on the lounge chair.
"Arthur has a business degree and you know he's perfectly able to work security almost as well as I do. Yusuf is a scientist, sweetheart, I think he'll prove very useful at something," Eames finished restlessly. Now satisfied, Ariadne leaned forward.
"I like it when you call me sweetheart," she whispered throatily into his ear.
"Then let's get off this balcony and into the bed room so that I can call you sweetheart some more," Eames said quickly, picking up the architect and heading inside.