7.
~ Arthur was anxious to see Ariadne again. He couldn't quite get used to the idea that she wasn't the Ariadne he had known and loved all these years. The Ariadne in this horrible dream was alien to him. A creature with habits and manners he didn't care for at all.
"When did her drinking get so bad?" Arthur asked Cobb.
Both men were in the back of the cab. The ride to the police station was one of silence and it seemed they both preferred it that way.
"I'm not not really sure." Cobb sighed. The extractor looked out the window for any sort of diversion. The point man did likewise from his side.
"Before the Fisher inception?" Arthur asked.
"I think after. It's not something we talk about." Cobb said. "You were always the one bailing her out while I was in prison."
Arthur nodded. That sounded like him.
"She's been arrested before?" he asked.
Cobb chuckled.
"That's putting it mildly." the extractor said.
~ Ariadne was waiting for them in a holding room. Her thin arms crossed over her thin body. Her short hair was messed up and her face was red and puffy.
"I've got to go home and get my shit!" she yelled at Cobb as soon as the two men entered the room.
Arthur was slightly taken aback. He wasn't used to seeing her looking so awful. Wasn't used to her foul use of language and her words slurring so badly.
"Not tonight." Cobb said. "You and Yesenia can work it out after you've sobered up."
"That bitch punched me in the face!" Ariadne shouted. Her tone exactly like Dominic's was when he whined for attention. A childish cry of injustice.
"Obviously." Cobb muttered looking over the black eye that was starting to bloom on her face.
"What happened?" Arthur asked while the Cobb had signed her release papers and paid her fine.
"Yesenia was being a bitch!" Ariadne said in a loud voice. She didn't seem to understand volume control just now.
"Who's Yesenia? Arthur asked.
"A bitch! We have to go back to my place and get my shit! She told me to get my shit and get out! We have to go get my shit!" Ariadne said. She looked on the verge of a drunken temper tantrum. Her steps shaky as she walked.
Instinctively Arthur reached out to steady her.
"Let go!" she shouted at him. Her swift, small hands slapping him away.
"Cut it out. We're taking you back to our place. We've got a cab waiting." Cobb said soberly.
"Who's Yesinia?" Arthur asked the Extractor as Ariadne marched ahead of them. A strong cloud of booze floated to him in her wake.
"Her live in girlfriend." Cobb muttered. "Every few months they go through this. They'll make up and be happy in a few days."
"They come to blows first?" Arthur asked.
Cobb shrugged.
"Let's go!" Ariadne shouted once they were outside of the building.
~ Ariadne's drunken anger didn't last longer than it took to help her into the cab. As soon as she was seated, she almost passed out on the point man's shoulder. Arthur hated the smell of alcohol, sweat and what he was sure was vomit.
"You sure we don't need to take her to a hospital?" Arthur asked worriedly. He had never seen her lapse into sleep so quickly.
"No, she's fine. She's done this before. It's not like the time she took all those pills and we had to have her stomach pumped.
Arthur was about to ask more about it, when Ariadne shifted slightly and fitted her forehead to his shoulder. For a moment, just a moment, it was like things were before. When they would watch a program on television, and she would curl up next to him. If he closed his eyes, he could imagine he was home with his real wife again.
But nothing could mask her sweaty forehead, or the smell coming off her. Nothing could ease the tension he felt when Cobb looked at him. He had betrayed his best friend, fooled around with a gold digging whore, allowed the only woman he really loved to fall into addiction and possible suicide attempts.
That dark thought occurred to him again on the ride home, and it made his blood run cold in his body.
What if this were real? What if his life with Ariadne had all been a dream? What if that life, his children, the apartment in Paris, Sadie and Eames, his real father, what if all of that was just a flight of his imagination?
It was a horrible idea and one that he tried to push out of his mind. But the idea, once planted, grew like a virus. Worse than a virus. It was like a heavy black crow perched on his shoulder. Cawing at him that this place, this horrible life, was his. That everything he thought was real was just a fantasy.
Worse than all that, this misery was his fault.
~ Ariadne was able to walk to lobby and to the lift.
"Where's she going to sleep?" Arthur asked.
"She's going to couch surf the same as she always does." Cobb said with annoyance.
Ariadne has stopped talking and looked too tired to argue. Her face was still swollen and the bruising was starting to darken very badly on her face.
She swayed slightly as though she might fall when the elevator reached their floor.
~ The invalid seemed to know where to go when they arrived at the apartment. She peeled off her jacket and used it as a pillow. Her small body curling on the sofa as if it were her second home. Which, Arthur supposed, it was.
Cobb retreated to his room and shut the door. Arthur, unsure of what to do next, retrieved a small trash can from the bathroom in case she threw up sometime in the night, and a clean blanket from the hall closet.
He covered her up the way he did one of his children. Careful not to wake her as he tucked her in. His finger resting slightly on her hair before he left her.
~ In his room, alone, the point man went through his things again. The old letters his mother had given him weren't anywhere to be found. He had kept them safely stored in a wooden lock box since he she had passed away. Where was the box now? Where were pictures of his mother? Where was her dance trunk with all her scrap books, old programs and journals?
He tried to find something personal of his and failed. There were no pictures anywhere. His laptop was locked and the access code must be something associated with this horrible life.
"Misery, I bet." he muttered to himself as he typed in that word in one last attempt.
It remained locked and he abandoned his efforts to find out his online life. It might be something equally horrifying. Maybe he was a prone addict who played a disturbing amount of World of Warcraft.
"Fuck this." Arthur said.
His felt his teeth clench shut and a cold indifference rise in him. This couldn't be his life. He didn't want it. This couldn't be real.
His hand gun was taped to the bottom of his night stand. He had seen such a move in a movie as a kid and always thought it was cool. Since then, he had always kept his handguns hidden in such a way.
At least he did. When they brought Darcy home from New York after they were married, Ariadne dug them all out and kept them in a lock box.
Arthur had to smile at the memory. He could never hide anything from her. She found out all his secrets better than any extractor.
The cold, heavy metal felt comforting in his hands.
He could go back to his Ariadne tonight. Wake up, and be home. His wife sleeping next to him. Everything would be alright and this place would be just a memory.
What if he was wrong?
What if this place was real and he killed himself? What if he shot himself in the head now and there was blackness? Nothing.
No. This life can't be real. The other life is real, it has to be.
"What if it's not?" he whispered to himself.
He made his heart go cold and angry again. He had to do it. It was a risk, but he didn't want to live this life. A traitor to his friend. His precious wife, a drunk who could never love him.
He released the safety and pressed the hard barrel to his temple.
A sharp rap on his door jarred him out of his trance.
He quickly put the safely back on and stashed the gun under the night stand.
"Cobb?" Arthur asked through the door.
"It's me." came a female voice.
Arthur opened his door to see Ariadne. Her hair damp and skin scrubbed clean from a shower.
She looked better, more like herself now. She smelled better to. It seemed it didn't take her long to sober up.
"How do you feel?" he asked.
"Like shit." she spat. "I don't remember much. Can I come in?"
She didn't wait for him to answer, but let herself in. Arthur saw she was wearing his bathrobe. It must have been his. It was too nice to be anything Cobb would wear.
"Look, I'm sorry I've been so hateful to you today. You've always been there for me and I know I don't tell you enough." she said lazily.
Arthur closed the bedroom door.
"Actually, I was thinking I've failed you." he said with a dry laugh. "I should have looked after you more."
"Looked after me?" she laughed. It was like she was teasing him again. "I could have gone to federal prison with Cobb if you hadn't stepped in. No matter what I say, you're a good friend, and I don't tell you that enough."
Arthur wasn't sure what to say to that. It was like he was talking to his buddy and not his wife.
"Well, glad we had this talk." Arthur said.
Ariadne kept eye contact as she undid the sash on the robe and carelessly let it fall to the floor around her ankles.
"You want to fool around?" she asked. Her tone was almost bored. Like she was asking if he wanted to catch a movie.
"Um." Arthur stammered. Her body was so thin, he felt slightly sick. Her ribs were showing, her naked breasts were small and almost deflated looking. She looked nothing like the woman who was he had married.
"I thought… I thought you weren't." he managed to say.
Confusion was too simple a word for it.
"I'm not saying we're in love. Don't get all girly on me." Ariadne snapped. "But a little fucking might be fun."
Arthur blinked.
"You said you… you're a lesbian." he managed.
"So?" she asked.
He shrugged. It was all the questions he needed to ask.
