[2] It's Not A Dream

"Cobb has some serious issues he needs to work out, and I'm not exactly sure you two are aware of that. I'm going."

Ariadne stormed out of the work area, out the door. She had finally met Mal, and after Cobb's wife's attempt at stabbing Ariadne, she wasn't so positive she wanted to work with someone so unstable as Cobb. I stood there with Arthur, as we both watched out after her.
"She'll come back." Arthur shrugged, "They always do."

"It's just too much information for one sitting. I know how she feels," I shrugged, focusing on tying up and collecting the IV cords and putting them in the compartments into the suitcase. "God knows I had a hard time with it."

"Ches, you had a reason to. You have the same dream over and over," Arthur looked at me knowingly, but I avoided his gaze as I continued to pack up the suitcase, "It's haunted you ever since. You and Cobb are more alike than you realize. And you need to stop dreaming about him. He didn't even think you were good enough for him."

I nodded, looking up to Arthur desperately, "It's getting worse, the dream..."

"I have a meeting with Eames." Cobb waltzed in, interrupting, hands shoved in his pockets, a slightly annoyed gaze on his face.
I rolled my eyes. Eames, the British bloke who teased Arthur and poked fun at me. He was like an older brother to me, and I was glad he was back on the team. After an hour or so after Cobb left, Ariadne walked in again.

She smiled at Arthur and me, "I didn't really want to come back, but..."
"...There's nothing quite like it," Arthur finished for her, flashing a smug smile.

"Too much creativity gone to waste, if I didn't take the oppurtunity." Ariadne replied, smiling.
"Let's look at some architecture for practice, shall we?" Arthur suggested.

Within a few moments, we were hooked up into Arthur's dream world, in a modern building with never-ending staircases.
Arthur explained everything about the formation of suddenly-ending staircases, and finally how Mal had died, that she wasn't real, just a projection of Cobb's subconscious.

I smoothed out my old grey cardigan, pushed a strand of hair out of my face, and climbed up the ladder of the fire escape, up to the roof of Cobb's workplace. Eames, Saito, Arthur, Ariadne, Cobb and Yusurf, the man in charge of sedating us to be able to dive deeper into farther dream levels, sat there around a table, talking about the mission. I didn't even know what exactly we were doing, who we were performing inception on.

"Ah, Ches! Darling," Eames smugly smirked, "About time."
Cobb looked at me questionably, his eyes saying, 'why are you late, Ches?'

"Sorry," I mumbled and stood next to Arthur's plastic armchair, attempting to pay attention now.
Arthur smiled up at me, quietly taking my hand in his.

"Now that your team has finally arrived," Saito's accent was thick, "We can get down to business."
"Yes, what exactly is our mission again?" Ariadne spoke the words that had been on my mind for three days now.

"My corporation could be on the verge of going out of business, due to a war between me and my terminally ill rival," Saito explained, "And I want you to get into the mind of his son. To plant an idea that when his father dies, he will let the company die, too. To let my corporation overule his."

I felt a shock in my system. Something didn't feel quite right. Something was too familiar.

Saito slapped a manila folder on the makeshift, unsturdy pop-up table.
Eames flipped it open. "Maurice Fischer?" Eames said slowly, "And his son, Robert Fischer Jr.?"

A few pairs of eyes shot up at me. Eames, Arthur, and Cobb glanced wide-eyed at me. I avoided eye contact. Arthur released my hand from his grasp, out of shock. "Why do you three look so panicked?" Ariadne replied to the awkward silence.

"Something wrong?" Saito inquired. Yusurf looked confused.
"Nothing," I snapped at no one in particular.

"Chesapeake," Cobb started patiently, sounding like a ticked-off father.
"No, Dom. It's fine." I attempted to sound firm, but my voice almost cracked.

"Ches," Arthur said quietly, grabbing hold of my hand again and giving it a squeeze.
"The objective is to make Fischer dismantle his father's business empire, to prevent it from becoming a global energy monopoly." Saito replied.

"How's his relationship with his father?" Eames wondered aloud.
"Shitty," I mumbled, regretting saying anything afterwards. All eyes looked at me.

"Not that promising, according to this file." Arthur answered, attempting to turn the attention away from me.
"I'll investigate," Eames grinned.

()()()()()()()()()()()()

"Is this going to affect your work performance during the inception?" Cobb questioned me. I had been walking by Cobb's working area. He had just woken from a dream and had caught me while leaving. I walked up and sat beside him, he was lying on a lawn chair and I sat on his work chair.

"Is it?" Cobb asked, reading my sullen expression, "This is the last chance. We can't afford a failure."
I shook my head, "I don't really know. With these dreams..."

"We aren't going into your mind," Cobb explained, "So do you think you can control it in someone else's?"
I nodded, "I just have to put the personal issues away."

"Ches, I know he's your weakness. You've told me everything.
I understand. But I never thought we'd have a job that ever came close to him." Cobb replied.

I nodded, "I know."

It was Monday. I had been out with Saito & Arthur when we finally arrived back at Cobb's workplace. Robert Fischer Jr.'s father had died, and Saito wanted to move fast. We walked into the work warehouse, where Cobb & Ariadne just had woken.

"Fischer Sr. is dead," Saito informed Cobb and Ariadne, "The funeral is Thursday, he'll be on the flight Tuesday."

"We have to move fast," Arthur added, gesturing to the door.
When we got to the airport, we all glared out at this plane. It was a trans-Pacific flight.

"This could be hard," Ariadne said, "It's most likely private."
"We'd have to buy out the first-class flight attendants, pilot. Make sure no one is in first class but us and Fischer." Arthur added.

"I bought out the entire airline," Saito chimned in smugly.
We all looked at him questionably.
"It seemed neater," He shrugged.

I bit my lip so hard I thought it was going to split open. We were ready to board the airplane.

"Are you ready?" Arthur asked. "I would say you don't have to do this, but Cob-"
"I'm fine," I huffed, then looked up at Arthur, "I can do this."

The leap of faith.