A/N: This started out as just a write-up of Cobb's thoughts during the beginning of Inception, but as I was writing 'what if...?'s kept going through my head, so I just kept writing. The Inception DVD comes out on Tuesday, yay! Can't wait to see all of the extras! In the mean time, please enjoy and thank you for reading :)

With love,

IYD24

Disclaimer: The bar scene was inspired by Fanfiction author Nieninqe and her story 'Expectations'. I highly recommend it, it is AMAZING :D They are so kind for letting me use their idea to go off of, check their story out :)

Cobb cringed internally as he slid his gun across the table, 'Why, Mal?"

"Now the envelope Mr. Cobb."

"Did she tell you? Or have you known all along?" Cobb smirked, sending the envelope across the table to Saito.

Saito's humor did not reach his face, "That you are here to steal from me? Or... that we are actually asleep?"

Shit.

Cobb looked across the room to Arthur, his expression relaying his 'I told you so' perfectly well. Mr. Charles had failed; the mark knew, just like Arthur said he would. On the outside, one would have thought that Cobb was merely inconvenienced, but in the inside, he was freaking out more than he had on almost any other assignment. The mission had failed, the mark knew who they were, and his late wife was holding a gun to his best friend's head.

"I want to know the name of your employer," Saito continued.

Dom hesitated, reluctant to give up the very reason Arthur and he were on this mission at all. Mal cocked her gun and held it up to Arthur's head. Arthur's breath hitched; his heart pounding harder even though he knew it wasn't real.

"Ah, ah, ah, no use threatening him in a dream; right, Mal?" Cobb held up his index finger, a small ghost of a grin danced on the edge of his lips. It helped cover up the fact that inside he was near terrified. Cobb hated, absolutely hated, seeing Arthur get killed in dreams. Arthur was his closest friend, they were like brothers. Cobb felt like he needed to protect Arthur. Since he was the point man, he knew going into every mission that he was mostly likely going to die, but that didn't mean Cobb enjoyed watching it. 'For God's sake Mal, you two used to be friends.' But Dom knew very well: this wasn't Mal.

"That depends on what you're threatening," Mal continued in a nonchalant voice as if she were discussing the weather, "killing him would just wake him up. But pain..."

Before Dom could even move Mal aimed at Arthur's kneecap and a shot rang out. Arthur let out a wretched scream, agony lacing his features. The sound was heart-wrenching as Dom sucked in a breath, feeling his chest tighten. This was all his fault; he so desperately wished he was the one that had gotten shot. Arthur bent over, held up by only the guards that restrained him. He gasped in pain as Mal slinked towards Cobb,

"...Pain is in the mind. And judging by the décor, we're in your mind, aren't we Arthur?" She looked down at him as he struggled to look up at her with a mixture of agony, fear, and anger in his eyes.

She pointed her gun at Arthur's other knee and Cobb snapped; he wouldn't put Arthur through any more, he couldn't. He lunged across the table, hating himself for what he was about to do. Arthur turned towards him and in that split second, Cobb grabbed his gun, aimed, and landed a bullet right in the middle of Arthur's forehead. Arthur collapsed on the ground with a moan, his eyes rolling up into his head. In the second level of the dream, Arthur opened his eyes; his expression calm but his heart was pounding. His mind reeled in confusion from the absence of pain.

Down below, Cobb had to force himself to remember that this was a dream as he looked down at the body of his point man. Arthur's eyes remained open, staring off at nothing. Cobb winced before rolling off the table, desperate to retain the information as the dream started to collapse.

'God I'm sorry Arthur, I'm so sorry.'

Arthur opened the door of the bar, glancing around as the smell of smoke and alcohol (along with some other questionable scents) hit him like a shovel. He kept looking around until he finally spotted Cobb in a back booth, drinking Scotch while a cup of coffee was steaming from the place into front of him. Arthur grinned, Cobb always remembered that Arthur hated alcohol, didn't like the feeling of disorientation. Arthur was all about control over himself, and Cobb was one of the few people that understood that.

Cobb glanced up as the thin man in a suit sat down in front of him. 'God, does that kid ever have anything casual he wears?' he thought to himself with a chuckle. Putting the humor aside, he let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, and looked up to meet two dark brown eyes,

"Listen, Arthur-"

"Save it Dom, I know what you're going to say," Arthur said, looking down at his coffee before taking a sip.

"It wasn't your fault for what happened on the mission, I shouldn't have yelled at you like I did, you don't deserve it," Cobb thought back to the mission, he had been furious with the whole situation, and Arthur had been the one he took everything out on. He had thrown insult after insult at him, the point man never saying a word. He just stood there with stone-cold eyes, not daring to show any emotion. Dom knew the words he'd said affected Arthur more than he let on. They'd been together for so long, he noticed all the little things. How he never met Dom's eyes, how submissive his body language was whenever he was around him, even when they had finished the mission Arthur barely said more than a couple encouraging words to him before they left their separate ways.

"No, it was my fault. I should have known that Fischer was trained against extractors; that's part of my job. I should at least be able to do my job," Arthur muttered. Cobb tried to catch Arthur's eyes again but the point man kept his glance down towards the table.

"Arthur, you couldn't have known." As soon as the words left his mouth Cobb knew he had said the completely wrong thing. Arthur's eyes flashed up,

"Yes I could have! I should have! That's why I'm the point man! I'm supposed to know what to be up against so I can protect you! Saito was sent to Limbo because of me! Hell, you were sent to Limbo because of me!" Arthur clenched his jaw, both men surprised at him outburst. Arthur wasn't normally one to lose his temper. He was always calm and collected; Cobb was the one who reacted to things with anger.

"Arthur, you need to stop beating yourself up at every little mistake, there's-"

"I'd hardly call that a little mistake, Dom." Arthur growled, his eyes flashed with anger once more before he took another sip of his coffee.

"The point is, we completed the mission regardless, and I regret saying those things that I said to you. You can't hold on to anything you do wrong. You're the best damn point man in the business, and you can't be tearing yourself down every time something goes wrong." Cobb tried to stare down the point man again. Different emotions ran through Arthur's eyes, frustration, pain, anger, sadness, before he glanced off to the side.

"Still..."

"No! No 'still's. If you're going to continue to hold this against yourself, then I'm going to start kicking myself for every mistake I've ever made. Remember the Collins mission?" Arthur visibly shuddered as Cobb saw every muscle in his body tighten. The Collins mission was one of the first missions they'd ran since Mal has committed suicide, it was also one of the worst missions they had ever been on.

The job itself was simple, they'd been hired by a business company to find out if one of their top employees, Joshua Collins, had been smuggling in drugs from South America. It turns out he was, and that he was also a pyromaniac wanted in five states. They were in the first level with Eames the projections and Collins had them trapped in the basement of a warehouse:

The men were tied to poles as the business man slowly poured gasoline on all three of them, a maniacal grin plastered on his face. The men had all managed to get their hands free of the ropes, and they were just looking for an opening to try and get out before Collins set the place on fire.

The second Collins turned his back to get the match out, the three men rid themselves of their entrapments, whipping out their guns as the projections started to shoot at them. They ducked behind a metal box, bullets embedding the wall behind them. Cobb turned to shoot at more of the projections when all of the sudden his saw his wife standing in the middle of the basement, her arms held out to him.

"Mal?" He whispered. Eames and Arthur turned to him like he was crazy.

"Yes, it's me Dom, I'm alive. Come, come to me so we can be together," She cooed; her voice soft and sensual. Cobb stared awestruck as he stood up and started to walk towards her and straight to Collins.

"Cobb, no!" Arthur screamed as he scrambled out from behind the box, knocking Cobb down as a bullet clipped him in the shoulder. Arthur hit the ground hard as he groaned, blood starting to pool underneath him, a deep red stain growing on his shirt. Cobb gaped in confusion before he heard a sinister laugh. He looked up to find Collins with his teeth bared in a huge smile as he threw the now-lit match onto the floor in front of him. The last thing Cobb saw were flames erupting all around him before a shot rang out and he was engulfed in darkness.

He woke up to the sound of Arthur screaming. His eyes flew open as he saw the point man writhing in agony, still hooked up to the PASIV device. Eames was awake too, staring in horror at their teammate.

"He shot me, the blood idiot shot me!" Eames muttered, looking at Cobb as he flashed to Arthur's side in a moment, the IV ripping out of his arm.

"He shot both of us..." Cobb murmured. Arthur's fists were clenched tightly at he let out another piercing scream of pain, tears streaming down his closed eyes.

"What? He only had two bullets left! He's, he's..." Eames' voice trailed off as his eyes started to water from the sounds of the point man's cries. Tears were already streaming down Cobb's face at his friend's misery. All of the sudden Arthur's eyes flew open with a huge gasp, gripping the arms of the chair like it was his life support. He couldn't stop his breath from hitching as spasms rolled through him.

"Arthur, Arthur!" Cobb put his hands on each side of the point man's face, forcibly turning him towards him. Raw pain and fear etched every line of Arthur's face, his true youthful age showing through. Cobb choked on his words and simply threw his arms around Arthur. Arthur tensed up for a moment before hugging Cobb back, holding onto him as tightly as he could, sobbing into his shoulder.

Cobb bit his lip as the mental images flew through his mind about the Collins mission, knowing Arthur was fighting back those same memories.

"S'not the same..." Arthur whispered softly.

"You're damn right it's not the same, it's a thousand times worse. You were burned alive because of me, Arthur; I can't go to bed at night without hearing you screaming in pain." Cobb could have sworn he heard Arthur whispered something like 'me either' to himself before he looked up to meet Cobb's eyes.

"Alright Cobb, I get what you're saying. I can't hold every failure against myself, it's just going hurt me. The plan worked out, and that's all that matters. You're right I suppose, you always are," he stared back at Dom and for once he smiled a real and true smile, his eyes reflecting all of his emotions. Dom smiled back, he couldn't have asked for a better point man, or a better friend.

A/N: Like it? Hate it? Grammer mistakes? Let me know :) And any requests for stories would be greatly appreciated! Pretty pretty please review!