Eames placed his poker chip on the table and looked over at Cobb with a smile.
"You know, I knew you would never be able to stay away but I was hoping that you would at least try." he said slowly.
"well with this job I will finally have enough money to send my kids to whatever college they want and I really just need another extraction job to get me off inception." he replied slowly with a sigh.
"I understand mate. So have you called Arthur and Ariadne yet? What about Yusuf?"
"Yusuf is on board I still haven't called Ariadne yet. I haven't been able to get a hold of Arthur. But he does no how to make himself disappear." Cobb explained.
"Yes that stick in the mud really does know what he is doing when it comes to this job. You never heard me say that though." Eames said with a smile. "When do we start?"
"meet me at the old warehouse in Paris in one week hopefully I will have tracked everyone down by then."
Ariadne turned into the muscular arms that were wrapped around her waist. She smiled as she remembered the past 3 months. He had come back for her after the job. They took off from there and were enjoying every second of it. She felt Arthurs head dig a little farther into the crook of her neck. She smiled as she wrapped her arms around his neck and held him.
"Why do you insist on waking up so early?" He asked with a defeated sigh.
"Because I'm still used to getting up for school but now that it's over I just need to get out of that routine. This whole not dreaming thing doesn't help much though." she explained. He pushed himself up on his elbows so he was hovering above her.
"I gave you one of the best times of your life last night and your still up at the crack of dawn. This isn't a routine problem you HAVE a problem." he said with a chuckle and kissed her.
"Well then maybe we should recreate it so I know just how tired I'm supposed to be." she said with a sly smile as she brought his lips to hers for a passionate kiss. They were so into it they barely heard a knock at the door. Ariadne rolled over and threw on his shirt and a pair of shorts as she went to open the door. She looked through the peep hole to see the one person she was hoping she wouldn't see. She turned back to see Arthur moving around collecting his clothes off the floor. Normally she wouldn't have been able to resist those abs but at this moment in time she needed to hide him.
"You need to hide now! It's Cobb!" she whispered on a hurried tone. His eyes went wide.
"shit where?" she grabbed his hand and dragged him to the closet in her room.
"Don't move till I come back for you." he nodded and she went back to the door and opened it. "Hello Cobb"
"Ariadne"
"Come in!" she ushered him in and they sat down in her kitchen. "So what are you doing here?"
"Well I have a new job lined up and well it's my last and I was hoping you would be my architect." he said simply. "It's a rather simple extraction job but the pay is better then anything I've ever gotten including inception."
"Umm can I think about it? I mean I know I want to do it, I really do I just need to talk to someone first." she said slowly.
"Well okay then we will be meeting in about 4 days at the warehouse. Eames and Yusuf are in now I just have to find Arthur. He seems to have disappeared for good this time. It would be a pity if I couldn't find him for my last job. Be really is my best mate." he said with a sad smile. Ariadne couldn't help but feel bad.
"Well last I heard he was in Paris. He was on my plane back here. I didn't see if he got on another or not after we landed. I hope that helps some. He really is the best at what he does." she tried to hide the smile on her face.
"Well that is a start. Anyways I have to go back to my kids before I look for Arthur. But I will be in touch. Remember four days!" he said and gave her a small hug and left. She waited till she was sure he was gone and ran to her closet pulling Arthur out to see him looking at her with his classic smirk.
"I really am the best at what I do aren't I? I mean that the impression I got last night with all your screaming and moaning." she was tempted to smack the smirk off his face but it was to sexy at this point. "Now I do believe we have some recreating to do."
"Yes indeed we do."
After there recreating had finally ceased Arthur was sitting against Ariadnes head board with her I his lap.
"So who is this person you needed to talk to?" he asked quietly resting his head on her shoulder blade.
"you." she whispered. She sat for a moment and he patiently waited for her to continue. "Do you think it's a good idea if we both go on the job? I mean we both know what happened to Cobb and Mal and I just... I don't want that to happen to us. I can't lose you."
He sighed and just held her. He knew she was holding back tears and needed to calm down. He slowly started talking.
"Look nothing is going to happen to us I promise. I won't let it. But if you are truly worried then I will stay gone and I won't let Cobb find me. You can go on the job and I will wait here for you."
"But he is your best friend. I really want this job but I don't want to risk losing this. I think you should go. Cobb can find another architect. In fact I'm sure you could do it. But I swear Arthur if anything happens to you I will kill you bring you back and kill you again. I can't loose you!" she finished and finally let the tears fall.
"Like you said I'm the best at what I do. I won't let you down just promise that everynight that I'm With them and not here you're not up worrying." he said into her back a tear making it's way down his cheek as he realized something. "I love you Ari."
"I love you too"
With that they rolled over and slept not knowing how dangerous this job was actually going to be.
Arthur waited till the day Cobb said to meet at the warehouse. He had his whole story sorted out for where he was and was ready to get the job over with so he could let Cobb get back to his normal life and he could get back to Ariadne. He walked up to the door and slowly opened it. He watched as all 3 men continued to talk not noticing him leaning against the wall. Yusuf finally looked up and smiled Eames and Cobb turned to see what he was looking at and they both gave small smiles as well.
"Well it's wonderful of you to finally grace us with your presence darling." said Eames as the two shook hands.
"I looked for you. How did you know where we would be?" Cobb asked looking a little suspicious.
"I heard through some people that someone was looking for me so I kept out of sight till I knew who it was. When I found out it was you and you wanted help for your last job I got here as soon as I could. Plus I heard the pay was great so I couldn't resist." he explained with a small chuckle.
"Glad to see Eames is rubbing off on you." Cobb joked. They shook hands and they began to fill him in on the job.
"So it's a simple extraction job. The mark is Xander Williamson. He is an under ground drug dealer. I got a call from a man saying that he wanted us to extract the formula for a new drug the man has supposedly created." Cobb began he took a breath and continued. "The only problem is we have to go two levels in to get the formula. Eames will stay on the first and then you and I will grab the formula from the second and Yusuf with watch our bodies in reality."
"What about an architect? I take it Ariadne isn't helping this time around." Arthur asked. He tried to hide his smile when he said her name.
"Not this time. She gave me a call the day after I went to see her. She said it just wasn't for her anymore. She liked reality to much to have to go through another month of questioning it after the job was over." Cobb explained. Arthur remembered that she carried her totem around everywhere tipping it over every five minutes.
"So who is going to be our architect?" Arthur asked slowly.
"Eames is going to build the first level and you are going to build the second. Since you are the two dreamers." Cobb explained Arthur nodded. After Arthur was briefed on the case Cobb gave him Xanders file and a note pad and he went to work. By the time Arthur looked up again it was already 1130 at night. He saw that Eames and Yusuf had already left and that Cobb was as usual hooked up to the machine. He looked back at his worked and packed it up and left. He took short cuts to Ariadne's apartment and when he got there he took out his key to unlock the door but she opened it before he could even find the right key.
"you waited up all this time?" he asked she nodded and grabbed his hand pulling him in. He threw his stuff down on the table and sat down and yawned.
"so what's the job like?" she asked he shook his head In Attempt to wake himself up.
"Extraction of some drug formula. I need your help though. I have to create the second level but I have no idea what to do." he explained leaning his head back over the chair. "And to top it all off this was supposed to be easy right hut apparently people have gone into his head before and it's not exactly a nice place."
"What do you mean? He was trained or something?" she asked with worried eyes.
"No he has a lot of demons is what they said. It's supposed to be worse then people who have been trained." he put his head in his hands and yawned.
"You promised me." he looked up at her and frowned.
"I haven't broken it yet so don't worry. "He replied cautiously. She nodded and stood up grabbing his hands.
"let's go to bed you look exhausted."
Arthur fell asleep the minute his head hit the pillow. Ariadne stayed awake and watched him sleep. She couldn't help but wonder if this was actually safe. She drifted off to sleep but woke up early again. Like always he woke up a few minutes after her.
"What's bothering you?" he whispered. She turned over to face him and propped herself up on her elbow.
"Who am I supposed to call if something happens to you? I know nothing about you or your past or who you are for that matter. Don't get me wrong I love you but it would be nice to know who you are. I've told you everything about me. You know me inside and out, but I don't know you." She explained. She watched as he rolled over onto his back and sighed. She had never seen him like this, he looked as if he was fighting a war inside himself on whether to tell her the truth or make up some bull shit story.
"I was hoping you would never notice. That I would never have to burden you with my past, it's not a pretty thing. Trust me if it was something I even thought about once I would tell you. I keep my past locked away because it's dangerous and depressing." He said staring at the ceiling. He closed his eyes and sighed.
"I deserve to know. I don't like being the only person left in the dark." She whispered in a soft voice. His arm snaked around her waist and he pulled her closer.
"No one knows Ari. You're not being left in the dark."
"You mean even Cobb and Eames don't really know you?" she said in shock.
"No." he whispered. He turned to face her and frowned. "They think I grew up with a normal white picket fence family and went to Harvard. When really that's the life Arthur Williams had."
"Let me guess they don't even know your real name?"
"You can ask me anything at the end. I promise." She nodded and let him go on.
"My real name is Arthur Reece. I grew up in the foster care system. I never had a family no one ever wanted to adopt me because they thought I was a dysfunctional kid and I would cause a lot of trouble. Which in the end I did, I was doing drugs by the time I was 15 I had been arrested about 6 times before I was 18 and nobody wanted anything to do with me. When I was 18 I took off, the foster house I was staying at searched high and low for me because I stole about two grand from them. About six months after I took off they got a lead on where I was, except that instead of finding me they found a dead kid who looked like me. I had seen him in an ally on night. He was already dead, he was beaten beyond belief I had never seen someone so… mutilated. I took my wallet and some of the money I had stolen and stuffed it in his pockets. I never thought it would work. Two days later I was pronounced dead. The only problem was, I was 18 and I had 1 grand in cash in my pocket and no life. I was freaked out, I didn't know what to do, and I was supposed to be dead. After about two weeks of hiding out in ally ways I went and got my name changed." He let out a sigh and turned over and reached to grab something out of his bed side table. When he rolled back over Ariadne discovered he was holding dog tags.
"You were in the army?" She asked slowly. He sat up slowly and she followed suit. He pulled her into his lap and he placed the dog tags around her neck. He leaned back onto the head board and she leaned back into his chest while fiddling with his dog tags. She noticed that his real name was printed on them.
"I joined when I was 18. I was in the army for about two years then they transferred me to black ops. They said I was an army recruit for the CIA and that I was on a need to know basis. Two years into it we were sent to Israel to grab some guy who was threatening to put secret codes or something along those lines out in the public. Like I said it was a need to know basis. We were supposed to grab him from a small warehouse. As we entered the building it blew up along with our suspect and about half of my team. The mission failed; when we got back to the US we were all honorably discharged. They said we knew too much, which was a lie. They gave us cover stories saying incase anyone had seen us and decided to come after us. Which brings me to why my real name is on those dog tags, when it was my turn to get my cover story me they told me they knew about everything I had done, faking my own death, stealing money, and all the arrests and drugs. I was told that I was brought into black ops for that reason. They wanted someone who could do the job and still be unknown. I was supposed to be a ghost and I was. After I was discharged I ran into Cobb and that's when this all started for me." He leaned his head back against the head board. Ariadne turned in his lap to face him. She took hold of his face and brought it down level to hers.
"I love you and you being someone completely different then a white picket fence Harvard boy isn't going to change that." She said looking into his big brown eyes. She rested her forehead on his. They both let out a breath they didn't know they were holding in. "How did you keep Cobb and Eames in the dark? How did they not figure out who you were?"
"Because it's my job. I'm the point man I do the research I dig up anything and everything on the mark. I know how and where to look for hidden things. This means I also know how to hide everything. Arthur Reece is supposed to be dead so I made sure he stayed that way." He said closing his eyes. She watched as a tear rolled down his face. The one thing she never expected Arthur to do was cry, whether it was one tear or all out balling she never expected it. "You're the only person I've ever told. And the only person I will ever tell."
"Cobb is your best friend like it or not so is Eames don't you think they have a right to know?" Ariadne said leaning farther into him.
"Not really."
"Okay."
And then it was over. She knew he had his reasons for not telling them and she respected that. His life was laid out on a need to know basis and she was the only person so break that. She knew he truly loved her, if he didn't he wouldn't have told her. She pulled him down onto the bed and straddled him.
"What about other girlfriends? Any crazy psychos I need to watch out for?"
"More like one night stands."
"You and Eames are more alike then I thought."
"You have no idea." With that he turned them over and gave her a fierce kiss and slid off the bed to get ready leaving her to her thoughts.
