Hey. Sorry this chapter wasn't up sooner but i was on vacation this past week and didn't get very much writing time. This chapter was somewhat rushed and completely unbeta-ed so all mistakes are mine. Hope you like it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Inception or any of it's wonderful characters.
The seconds turned into minutes. The minutes turned into an hour. Time was ticking away as fast as it took to pace the room over and over again. There was nothing productive to pass the time. The only thing that it seemed she was able to do was think too much about too much all at the same time. What the hell was going on?
If there was one thing that she learned during her time with the point man was that he doesn't break rules (laws are another story completely), especially his own rules. Something must be seriously wrong, more than Cobb and Saito not waking up for him and Eames to be talking to her this soon. If only she could have gotten over her emotions and not run away like the little girl that she has been acting like. She could know what was going on right now. Maybe she wouldn't be left in the dark.
Arthur is the most careful, professional, person that she has ever met. Cobb wouldn't do something that would jeopardize his chances of getting back to his children. Eames, as reckless and careless as he may be wouldn't do anything that would get him hunted or on any one's watch list seeing that he does work in reality too. Yusuf wouldn't risk having his dream den being discovered. Why would Saito do anything? He was the one who ordered this job in the first place.
She stopped pacing, laid back on the bed, and sighed.
She bolted up, footsteps coming towards her room. She sat perfectly still, listening. They stopped on from of her room. She was on her feet before he could even knock. When he knocked she had to stop herself and get her heart rate down. It was dreadfully unprofessional and she couldn't look that desperate. Either way, something big was about to happen.
When she did throw the door open he was about to knock again. He looked somewhat surprised to see her standing in the doorway.
"Ummmm," he said awkwardly, "may I come in?"
"Oh, yeah, um, sure," she replied just as awkwardly, if not more. She moved out of the doorway so he could step in.
He shuffled in past her. She watched him for a few seconds before closing the door and following him in.
She crossed her arms over her chest. "So what is so important that you felt the need to talk to me?"
All previous awkwardness was gone. He immediately jumped into work mode.
"Some how someone found out about our inception. She was waking there at the airport for us. I could tell she wanted to be noticed. She is sending us a message but I am not sure what. I looked away for just a second and she was gone. Until we know what she is up to we have to be very careful
"Eames is going to meet us here in a few days after he takes care of some lingering business. Until then we are going to lay low and try to figure out what is going on." he stopped and took a deep breath. This was the first time Ariadne had ever seen him winded after talking for so long and she has seen him talk longer without a breath. Arthur knows exactly what is going on. He just won't tell her but she is going to find out.
"Who was coming after us?" she asked innocently.
"I don't know," he wouldn't meet her eyes, "We have all been so careful to cover our tracks I don't see how it could have gotten out unless there was a leak in our team which also is highly unlikely."
She had already thought of that. She ran through all of the reasons again in her head. None of them would say anything. She is going to get the information out of Arthur.
"I think you know exactly who is following us," she told him, "and I think Eames knows too. So why wont you tell me? You can't keep me in the dark forever Arthur!"
"Ariadne," he said in a soft voice, "you think you know who we are or what this business is about but you don't know anything. We have kept you sheltered. You only know what we showed you. There is a whole other world out there that you can't imagine. The truth about why we took this job, where Eames went, and why it is important that no one knows about this, you don't know anything!"
She is mad now. "Is this the same truth that you are all criminals and not just for breaking into people's minds and stealing their thoughts. That you all are killers? The reason that you took this job was so that Saito could pull strings so Cobb we be cleared of any suspicions of killing Mal. Or was it the fact that you and Cobb were being chased by Cobol and if you didn't take this job neither of you would likely be alive now? We have to stay hidden because people would literally kill to be able to have a team to perform inception and Eames is probably off killing someone as we speak. Are those the truths that you were talking about?"
She wasn't even near done or out of breath but she stopped to take in the dumbfounded look on Arthur's face.
"How did you-" he managed.
"You learn a lot when you put two insomniacs together at night with a dream machine."
"Cobb" Arthur said.
"Exactly. And I also know that you think I am going to go back to my old life but he knew that I couldn't. He was going to help me. I helped him."
"What could you have possibly helped him with? He doesn't let anyone help him unless it is to get what he wants. He isn't some god to idolize Ariadne! You need to wake up!" he exclaimed, now also raising his voice.
"Well then you obviously didn't know Cobb as well as you think you did." she told him. She walked away from him and walked over to the window. She looked down to the cars below, driving through their lives, completely oblivious to what else was out there. At this moment she almost wished that she was one of them, almost.
In reality she would never give dreaming up for anything else in the world. It was a drug that has you in it's clutches before you even use it. Just hearing about it and here is no escape from is claws.
"What could you possibly know?" he asked her in an accusatory tone.
"The shade." she told him, "he had a shade and it was haunting him to his death."
"What-" he started I asked but she didn't let him finish.
"Mal. He had a shade of Mal. She was haunting his dreams and his reality. He showed me and it was horrible Arthur. Probably more horrible than anything you have seen and it was killing him. I helped him get over it and he was going to help me in return."
"How exactly was he going to help you?" he asked.
She blushed a deep red that spread down to her neck. "He was going to help me stay in the business." They both new that that wasn't the only thing that Cobb was going help her with though neither of them said it.
They stood there awkwardly for a few second before moving on, both silently agreeing not to bring that up again.
He went right back into the argument. "You have no idea what I have seen or been through!"
"Oh really?" she challenged him, "then why don't you enlighten me as to who she is?"
"Who?" he asked faking innocence, though all of the blood left his face. She hit the bull's-eye.
"That woman that you were talking about." She crossed her arms over her chest. Arthur wasn't leaving until she knew everything that was going on.
"I didn't mention any woman." He defended feebly.
"Oh no you are not getting out of this one. 'She was waking there at the airport for us' and 'She is sending us a message'. Are you really going to tell me that there is no woman involved?" She knew she had him.
Any blood that Arthur had left left his body. He had slipped up and she noticed. She could tell that he obviously had not planned on telling her and now he had no other choice.
Ariadne softened her voice when she saw the reaction that the mention of the woman has on him. "What is her name?"
"Her name is Maria," he tells her in barely above a whisper.
"Why is it so crazy that she knows about this other than the fact that no one is supposed to know?" she asked.
"Maria is supposed to be dead. Mal killed her right on front of me."
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