2.
~ Cobb and Eames heard the fighting long before Arthur and Ariadne reached the work shop.
"You don't get to just decide this." Arthur was shouting.
Cobb looked to the Forger as both men felt uncomfortable.
"Oh really? I think I make the final decision!" Ariadne shouted back. Their voices carrying all the way to their friends.
It was Ariadne's first day back working on dream extraction. Her Team members excited to have their Architect back full time after almost 3 years. Motherhood diverting her attention.
"This is both of ours decision and you haven't even heard me out!" Arthur shouted as the lift dinged to the second floor.
"I've heard all I want to hear, Arthur!" Ariadne told the Point Man as they stepped out of the lift and ignored Cobb and Eames.
"So what I want doesn't matter?" Arthur said angrily. His face pulled into that scowl he only wore when things went wrong.
"Arthur, you're not the one who has been pregnant or nursing for the past three years. You're not the one who couldn't have caffeine or drink alcohol. You can't just decide that we're going to have another baby because you are not the one having it!" She spat back as she shed her coat.
"You think I wasn't their for you during the pregnancies?" He barked.
"You were there!" Ariadne shouted. "But lets face it, you were able to go to work and you were in control of your body."
"I work very hard at being a good father." Arthur growled.
"I'm not saying you don't." Ariadne hissed. "But we are done having babies, Arthur. I'm so happy the boys are in school so that we can have our life back."
"No, you are not the only one how has a vote in this. I have the right to have another child if I want to." Arthur said casting off his coat.
"Well, good luck achieving that without your wife!" Ariadne shouted.
"I can't believe you sometimes." Arthur said. His voice hot and dangerous. "Have I ever denied you anything? Haven't I provided well enough for you and our children?"
"Arthur, that's not the issue!" Ariadne cried. "For the past few years I have been this mommy person and I haven't had a second to be myself. The other day, I was at the market alone and it felt like a vacation! I've been looking forward to going back to work and just because you fell in love with Katie, I'm the one who has to sacrifice another year of my life?"
"Are you worried that another baby will be blind? Like Daniel?" Arthur questioned. His face still angry.
Ariadne stepped back threw him a disgusted look.
"I'm not giving that the dignity of an answer. You know I love my son and he is doing so well in school people hardly know he blind." She hissed. Her voice dangerous as she bore enraged holes at the Point Man.
Arthur looked murderous as the couple glared at each other.
Ariadne seemed to notice Cobb and Eames for the first time. She nodded to Arthur who turned to his friends. Both of them looking embarrassed that Cobb and Eames had seen them fighting.
~ "Trouble in paradise?" Eames teased as the Forger and Point Man watched Cobb and Ariadne go into the dream. The Architect showing the Extractor the maze she designed.
"I don't want to talk about it." Arthur grumbled.
"Well, I think we got idea." Eames laughed. "You want another baby and she doesn't. She's the one who has to be pregnant and have the baby and so whatever she decides as far as having kids, you have no vote." Eames said.
"Exactly." Arthur said in surprise. "It's not right. I have just as much say in this as she does. I'm not done being a father. I want a daughter."
"You have a daughter. Darcy." Eames offered helpfully.
"Not the same. I never had Darcy as a baby. I love being a father to a new baby. It's the best feeling in the world." He told Eames. The Point Man able to be open to the Forger on this rare occasion. "I love it when my wife is pregnant, I love all of it." He said sadly.
"Family man." Eames sighed. "So boring."
Arthur threw Eames a hateful look.
~ Cobb and Ariadne were down in the dream. She was teaching him the new level.
"I'm so sorry you had to see that." She told him.
"You're not the only couple that fights." Cobb laughed. "Mal and I used to raise the roof."
Ariadne smiled.
"I just wish Arthur would think about what having another baby would mean. All he seems to focus on are the good aspects of a new baby." She told him as they explored a complex office building. "There's a lot of hardships that he seems to have forgotten about." She sighed.
Cobb looked troubled.
"I'm a widower. I have two children who will never be able to understand why they don't have a mother. I'm almost 40 and I'm a new father. My girlfriend won't marry me and I think she has postpartum depression. I know all about the hardships." He said.
"I'm sorry, Cobb." Ariadne said.
The Extractor sighed.
"Did she say anything to you? About us?" He asked.
She shrugged.
"I think she feels that one day you'll change your mind and only stay because of Katie."
"That's crap." Cobb said angrily.
"I know that. You know that. Sarah doesn't know that." Ariadne said.
Cobb sighed.
"Do you want me to talk to Arthur about the whole respecting your rights to not have a baby if you don't want one." Cobb offered.
"No. I can handle my husband. Like I said, he feel in love with your daughter and it turned him all... baby crazy." Ariadne said with a trace of annoyance in her voice.
Cobb smiled.
"She is a charmer huh?" He laughed.
They wandered around the maze of the dream for awhile.
"Eames said he's been performing inception on Sadie." Cobb said suddenly.
"What?" Ariadne asked.
"What he says." Cobb shrugged. "Every time Sadie wants to get married or have kids, he performs an inception to change her mind."
"That's awful." Ariadne said thinking of Eames manipulating her friend like that.
It was almost like abuse.
"Cobb, you never told Arthur or Eames about Mal. About how you knew inception was possible." She said.
The Extractor shook his head.
"You never told Arthur about it." he said softly. That haunted scowl back on his face.
"It's not my secret to tell. You have to tell them." She said sadly.
The Extractor nodded.
"You have to tell them. Inception, done the wrong way could turn bad." She whispered.
~ "You know, if you really want to change her mind, you know there's a way." Eames said. Arthur turned away from his wife sleeping. The Extractor and Architect still in the dream.
"What way?" The Point Man growled.
Eames huffed a laugh.
"Come on, Arthur. No imagination. We work in dream extraction. We performed inception. We can go into her dreams and flick the baby switch back on in her brain." Eames offered.
Arthur thought about this.
"We would need a simple idea." He offered.
"The memory of how wonderful it is to be a mother?" Eames said. "I do the opposite with Sadie all the time."
"What if we mess up her mind?" Arthur asked looking at his wife sleeping helplessly.
"We haven't had any bad experiences before." Eames shrugged. "She wants another baby. She wants a little girl. She just doesn't know that she does. She needs some convincing."
