I do not own Inception

The Beginning

As he walked down the post office, Arthur felt nervousness. He always did when he would get a letter sent from Ariadne. He missed her a lot and the only contact he had with her was through letters and pictures. Ariadne was still angry at him, and said that she didn't want phone calls but instead handwritten letters with pictures, she felt like if she had a closer connection to him that way. Arthur promised her that he would visit as soon as he retired from his job, and his daughter, Isabel was constantly asking about when they would go and visit her in Paris again. Arthur hurried home, and once he was there he ripped open the envelope to read what Ariadne wrote.

Arthur,

I would like to let you know that I'm doing fine, and so is Karen. I celebrated her fourth birthday yesterday, and she is expecting your present. She looks just like you. She has your ears and your eyes but it looks like she is going to end being around my height. I know you promised me that you would come and visit soon with Isabel, but you don't have to. I'm fine with letters and pictures. How's Isabel doing? Does Jennifer see her often? I hope you're content with your life as well as I am with my own. I'm glad that you wished me well on my engagement to Henry. I hope you don't take too long to write back.

-Ariadne

At the end of the letter there was a picture of both Ariadne and Karen, their daughter that he hasn't seen in four years. He sighed. He wished that he didn't have such a strained relationship with Ariadne, it could have worked out, and it would have been him engaged with her, instead of Henry, a man she has been dating for two years. He could have been living in Paris with her, Karen, and Isabel, his other daughter that he has with his ex-wife, Jennifer. He wondered how he ever got himself in such an awful situation. He was raising Isabel all by himself, Jennifer would rarely ever visit her, she only cared about her new family that she lived with outside of Manhattan. He never went on dates due to the fact that he couldn't tell anyone about his job; Ariadne was the only woman he dated that knew about it. He heard his daughter's voice, and smiled. He couldn't wait to retire so that he could happily move on with his life.

4 years ago

Arthur checked his watch, he was late again, and he knew Jennifer was probably waiting for him at the restaurant, and once again the night would end with an argument like always. He quickly rushed to a taxi and told the driver to take him to Rosas, his favorite Mexican restaurant. When he arrived, Jennifer was sitting a table by herself, drinking wine. As soon as she saw him she quickly tried to start an argument.

"You're late Arthur, by 15 minutes."

Arthur took a deep breath before sitting down. He knew it would be another one of those long dinners.

"I'm well aware of that, Jennifer."

Jennifer gave him a stern look, before taking another sip of her wine. "Well you obviously aren't aware of it, since you've been late for the past 5 dates that we have set up."

He quickly took another deep breath before saying, "I really don't want to argue with you right now. I just want to relax for once and-"

Jennifer quickly interrupted him and angrily said, "Well you can relax at home then because I'm leaving!"

She quickly grabbed her purse and left. Arthur just watched her as she stormed out of the restaurant. He looked down at the table and thought about his life in comparison to how it was a couple of years ago. He's hardly the man he was then, he softened up, or that's what Cobb would jokingly say. It's been three years exactly since he and the group performed Inception on Fischer, and while for the most part he's forgotten about it, there's something that keeps holding back, but he doesn't want to forget. He couldn't forget Ariadne. He used to have dreams about her, but they went away after he met Jennifer. However, his marriage to Jennifer was quickly falling apart and his dreams about her have been constant.

Arthur met Jennifer nearly a two months after the group went their separate ways, and after he relocated to New York City. While at first, he tried to use the relationship for his own selfish reasons, such as trying to distract himself from thinking about Ariadne, everything quickly changed. He suddenly noticed himself wanting to actually stay in a relationship with Jennifer which resulted in a quick marriage. After dating for nearly a year, they eloped, and later on welcomed Isabel. But not all good things last. He stopped caring for his marriage and suddenly he started dreaming about Ariadne again. Sometimes he wasn't sure if those dreams were real or not, but then he would quickly reassure himself about it. He didn't want to be miserable anymore, but he also didn't want to break his own family apart just because he couldn't put himself back together just because of Ariadne.

So my inspiration for this story was one that I read here on this forum, and the flirty relationship that they both had in Inception, Please review J