"Eames, this isn't funny."

Arthur stood in the doorway of his hotel room, arms crossed over his chest. "You can't just show up here like this. There are such things as boundaries, you know."

"Yeah, I know." The older man was leaning heavily on the wall, breathing heavily. "Look, I just ran up eleven flights of stairs, can you let me in?"

"No." He glared. "Jesus, what happened to your face?" He gestured at a large scar running across his left cheekbone.

"It doesn't matter. Arthur, this is serious." Eames looked him straight in the eye, his intense gaze a drastic change from his usual laid-back demeanor. "Please."

Arthur faltered. "I- oh, fine. Get inside before someone sees you." He ushered Eames in, glancing up and down the barren hallway before closing the door.

He turned back to see Eames staring oddly at the suitcase that lay on the chair beside the bed.

"The PASIV?" He said, glancing over his shoulder.

"Of course." His arms returned to their folded position, partly out of indignation but mostly due to habit. "How did you find me?"

"That's not important." Eames shot one last glance at the PASIV before facing Arthur. "You can't take this job."

"How did you know I was on a job?"

"Don't ask. Just listen." He grabbed Arthur's hands. "You can't go under tomorrow. I can't explain, it would take too long, and we don't have much time. We need to get to somewhere safe. Actually-" He glanced at his watch. "Shit. Okay, grab anything valuable, anything you wouldn't want to lose." Arthur went to get the PASIV, but Eames shook his head. "Anything except that."

Arthur scowled venomously. "I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on."

"Darling, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. However, when I tell you that a bomb is going to go off and destroy this room in-" he checked his watch again, "Two minutes, you probably should."

Arthur stared at him for a second before stuffing his wallet, iPhone, and a spare suit jacket into the backpack lying on the floor. "If this is some sort of joke, I'm going to kill you and hide parts of your body in various countries so that they'll have to put you back together like a jigsaw puzzle."

"I wouldn't put it past you, love." He wrapped a hand around Arthur's wrist and tugged him out the door. "Don't dawdle."

"I wasn't dawdling." Arthur said indignantly, striding down the hallway after Eames. They took the stairs down two at a time, Arthur struggling to keep up. "Jesus, Eames, this is ridicu-"

His sentence was cut off as the entire building shook, the solid concrete shivering. Arthur lost his balance, fell forward onto Eames, and they tumbled down onto the landing in a heap. They untangled themselves and Eames offered Arthur a hand up.

"I told you so." he smiled thinly. "Come on, we need to hurry."

Arthur's mouth was taut, a grim slash against his wan face. "Okay. Yeah, okay."

Eames tugged him down the last few flights of stairs and through the chaotic lobby, which was crowded with screaming people. As they tumbled out onto the sidewalk Arthur glanced back up at the hotel. Where his room had been five minutes ago was now a huge smoking hole in the side of the building, flames barely visible licking at the charred edges of the blown-out windows. He gaped at it as Eames hailed them a cab. As they sat together on the back seat, driving away with the sounds of approaching fire engines and police cars in the distance, Eames turned to look at him.

"This is probably a bad time, darling, but what would you think if I told you I was from the future?"