Disclaimer: Inception, its characters and the actors playing those characters are not owned by me.

LAX

"This is the Captain speaking. Trans-Pacific flight 934 will shortly be landing at Los Angeles International Airport. Please observe that the fasten seatbelt signs have been lit, and on behalf of the crew, may I thank you for travelling with Trans-Pacific Airlines and we wish you a safe onward journey."

Ariadne sat back in her first class seat, scarcely daring to believe it. We've done it! she thought to herself. Over the past few hours she had been through more than she ever thought possible and she had lived to tell the tale.

Ariadne put her hand into her pocket and discreetly pulled out her gold bishop. She quietly set it on the table in front of her and knocked it over. The thunk as it landed on it's side served as confirmation that yes, indeed, she had awoken back to real life.

Ariadne stole a brief look around the first class cabin. Robert Fischer was staring out of the window, obviously deep in thought. Ariadne briefly felt a pang of conscience as she thought about what they had done to him but it quickly passed as she glanced at Dom Cobb. His eyes no longer held the haunted look she had seen ever since she met him. The man who had introduced her to this world finally looked at peace with himself. She smiled at him and his mouth twitched in return.

Looking round at the others, Ariadne could see that Eames was fast asleep, and for a moment she worried that he was still in the dream, however the lack of an IV line in his arm told her that he was simply napping. Arthur was sitting forward in his seat, his normally impassive face creased by a huge grin as he met her eyes. Ariadne felt her face starting to go red as she remembered the incident in the dream's second level so she averted her gaze. Yusuf looked decidedly uncomfortable as he headed straight for the cabin's lavatory. Ariadne was unable to see Saito as he was sitting in front of her but the beeps coming from his direction were unmistakeably those of numbers being pushed on his seat's telephone.

They had made it. Against all the odds they had all made it. Ariadne sat back in her chair with a sigh of relief and waited for the plane to land.

…

The plane finally touched down on the runway at Los Angeles International Airport. Once the landing procedures had been completed the doors were opened, allowing the passengers to disembark.

Nobody spoke as they left the plane. There was still the chance that Fischer would recognise them and all their efforts would be for nothing. Only the occasional glance and nod of the head served to show that there was any connection between the small group of people currently leaving the first class cabin.

Ariadne had her passport and forms ready as she approached the immigration desks. As the guard took her paperwork she looked to the desk net to her. She could see Cobb looking tense as the security guard scanned his passport. The tension on his face gave way to relief as the guard returned his passport. Ariadne smiled widely at him. Cobb of course gave no sign that he recognised her.

In the distance Ariadne saw her university professor, who she now knew to be Cobb's father-in-law, waiting to greet Cobb. Miles either didn't see her or he chose not to acknowledge her. Either way she was pleased that he had made the trip from Paris.

At the luggage carousel Ariadne waited impatiently until her bags appeared. When they finally did so she reached out for them, but was beaten by a longer pair of arms.

"Can I help you with those?"

Ariadne turned around and saw Arthur standing next to her. As he helped her with her luggage she smiled broadly at him and he smiled back. For all intents and purposes they looked like two passengers reclaiming their luggage.

"So what happens now?" she asked quietly.

"Now? We all go back to our lives," he replied.

Something inside Ariadne sank as he said that. She had come to see Arthur, Cobb and the others as more than colleagues. After all they had been through they had become her friends and to just walk away and leave it all behind seemed totally unfair.

"Will I ever see any of you again?" she asked, making no effort to keep the disappointment from her voice.

Arthur took her hand in both of his and leaned in close to whisper to her.

"Perhaps. Maybe sooner than you think."

Ariadne felt her cheeks blushing again but the moment passed. Arthur pulled back and let go of her hand. Ariadne looked down and opened her hand. Athur had placed a plane ticket in it. She opened it. It was a flight back to Paris due to leave in two hours time. Ariadne looked up to say something but he was gone. She caught a glimpse of his suit as he headed towards the airport entrance. There was nothing else to do but gather her bags and wait for the plane home.

…

As Ariadne sat and waited in the departure lounge she opened one of her bags and withdrew a sketch pad and a pencil. Even though she might never be involved in a job like that again she still wanted to design buildings and mazes. Opening the pad to a clean page she started to draw. Around her she could hear the sounds of the airport. People were just getting on with their lives. From one side she could hear someone, a man by the sound of his voice, arguing with an airline representative about his father's coffin, which had apparently been misplaced. From somewhere else she could hear voices speaking a foreign language, possibly Korean, as they argued with the customs guards. Something about a large amount of money in their cases. Her mind drifted back over the events of the past few weeks.

After a while Ariadne looked down at the pad. She had started drawing with no real purpose in mind, but was surprised to see that what she had drawn was a very familiar rectangular structure.

The Penrose Steps. The infinite staircase. Paradox.

His words came back to her as she looked at the picture. It was indeed the staircase which had no end or beginning. Why had she drawn that? Her eye went to one corner of the staircase. Two stick figures were walking up the stairs. One was short, the other tall. The short one appeared to have long hair, the tall one had short hair. It looked like the ends of their arms were joined together.

Ariadne shook her head, ripped out the drawing, scrunched it up into a little ball and threw it on the floor. She was being silly. She barely knew any of them. They had all come together for a job. Nothing more. There was no reason to suppose she might see any of them again, regardless of Arthur's words to her.

But still...

Part of her hoped they would come back. She thought back to the stolen kiss in the lobby of the second dream. Maybe someday...

Her thoughts were interrupted by an announcement that the flight to Paris was now boarding. Ariadne gathered her belongings and made sure she had her passport and tickets to hand. She walked to the departure gate without once looking back.

Unnoticed by her a pair of eyes watched her leave. Arthur went over to where she had been sitting and picked up the ball of paper. Opening it and seeing what it contained he smiled to himself and made his way out, putting the paper into his pocket as he did so.

…

The captain announced that the flight to Paris would last about ten and a half hours. Ariadne found that her ticket entitled her to a seat in the first class cabin. What else? she smiled to herself.

The inflight movie was some comedy about a teenaged girl who had gotten herself pregnant. Ariadne watched the first fifteen minutes of it then she felt her eyes starting to droop. She turned off the screen and lay back in her chair, amused at the irony that she had already spent the last ten or so hours asleep.

As she felt herself drifting off she took her bishop out and tipped it on its side as a final check that this was reality. Minutes later she was fast asleep. Her last thought was to wonder where Arthur was and what he was doing now. And whether or not she would see him again.

The plane flew on, taking her back to Paris, to the university, to her studies and to real life.

A/N I've had the idea for this story more or less since the first time I saw Inception. There's just something about these two that draws you in.

Oh and another thing, I'm going to play a little game in this fic. Each chapter will reference an episode from a series. There'll be a clue in the chapter - a line of dialogue or a situation - that will come from that episode. See if you can get the reference. If you get it right you won't get a prize, but maybe I'll implant the idea that you've had a prize instead. This first one's pretty easy.

Anyway I hope you enjoy this story.