"You should maybe talk to her," Arthur suggested as he removed his mask and looked at Ariadne as she stood to the sidelines, observing everything which was going on as Cobb spoke to Saito, telling him to hold on and be strong. She'd heard the screams coming from Eames as he impersonated Peter Browning and they tried to crack Fischer into giving them the code. But, Ariadne had been looking to the small windowsill in the disused factory where his fiancée sat, her nails taking a good chewing to as she constantly pushed her brown hair behind her ear and allowed panic to move into her body.
"Me?" Ariadne checked with him and he nodded in agreement with her. "Why do you think I should talk to her?"
"You're a woman and she's a woman. She might open up to you and tell you what she knows," Arthur reasoned and Ariadne shook her head. She didn't think that was wise. If anything, she would be the one in danger of saying too much to the elder woman. However, she didn't seem that much older than her.
"I don't think a heart to heart with her is necessary," she assured Arthur. "She looks content just sat with her own thoughts."
"That's the worst thing," he replied. "Leaving her to think gives her time to develop her own ways of finding out what we're doing."
"Looks like we don't need to bother," Ariadne spoke, her chin jutting out in her direction as they saw Cobb make his own way over to her, his arms folded and his face stern as he did so. The pair of them turned away as soon as he sat down on the window ledge and glanced in their direction, a stiff nod escaping his neck and head as he did so.
"Miss Reynolds, isn't it?" Cobb checked with her and Jennifer snapped her attention back from the pouring rain and onto the man before her as he laced his fingers together and folded one leg under the other, leaning against the small brick alcove as she nodded at him.
"And you would be...?" she trailed off.
"Dom Cobb," he informed her. "My colleague informs me that you know about dreaming."
"Eames; isn't it?" she checked his colleagues name and Cobb nodded and she shrugged. "I might."
"I think you definitely do," Cobb challenged her and she arched a brow in his direction and he chuckled to himself, looking onto the rain as he thought about the story which he was about to tell her. He only hoped that his method would work. He only hoped that she could understand why he was doing this to her fiancé. "I understand the need you feel to protect your fiancé."
"Do you?" she snapped back at him, her tone holding one of disbelief as she did so.
"Yes," he agreed. "I had a wife. I'd have done anything for her."
Jennifer remained quiet, wondering where this conversation was leading to as Cobb sighed once, pushing his hand through his hair as he did so. She didn't need to know the full story to his problems. She didn't need to understand what he had been through.
"I lost her to the dream world," he simply spoke and her eyes flashed back to him for a second before she looked onto the stormy weather. "I know how cruel a place it can be."
"I'm not naive to its ways either, Mr Cobb," Jennifer whispered. "I've seen what can happen in here."
"Have you?" he checked and she nodded slowly. "What happened?"
"My sister suffered the same fate," Jennifer whispered. He didn't need to know her past either. It appeared the two of them were extremely guarded people, their emotions didn't get the better of them and that was the way they intended for it to stay. Dom nodded in silent agreement.
"I'm sorry to hear about your wife, Mr Cobb," Jennifer said, politeness taking over her as she picked up some of the manners her parents had given her. "But, I want to know what I am doing here. I want to know what you intend to do to my fiancé."
"We don't intend to hurt him, make no mistake about that," Cobb assured her and she snorted loudly at him. "We have a job to complete. We wouldn't be doing this job...but...it is the only way for me to go home."
"Am I supposed to know what you're talking about?" Jenny wondered and Dom shook his head.
"No," he informed her. "Your fiancé is a wealthy man, Miss Reynolds. We've been asked to divulge into his mind and persuade him to split up his father's empire."
Jennifer remained silent at hearing that. She couldn't believe that they were in this mess because he wanted to stop Robert from becoming his father's heir.
"Who asked you?" she decided to enquire, not noting how Cobb's eyes flashed onto Saito.
"Someone who is not important to you," he promised her. "We're going into his mind and attempting to reconcile his bond with his father, resulting in the company splitting up."
"Reconcile with Maurice?" Jennifer checked with Cobb, managing to finally look him in the eye. "Do you expect me to sit here and let you do that to Robert?"
"Unfortunately for you, yes," Cobb said, his voice stern and commanding as she bit down on her tongue, trying to compose herself. "This is the only way for me to get home to my children. Your fiancé is in safe hands."
"You're using him and trying to get him to do something which is preposterous," she snapped at Cobb. "Robert and Maurice were never going to make up with each other. How do you intend to get him to split up his father's empire? It's like you're planting an idea in his head."
"Exactly," Cobb agreed with her. "We're telling him that his father wanted him to be something and he didn't want him to follow in his own footsteps."
"You're changing his future," Jennifer whispered. "His future has nothing to do with you or anyone else, for that matter."
"We could be changing his future for the better," Cobb hissed to her. "He can be his own man and he can feel as though he has reconciled with his father. Is that not what he wanted?"
"I don't know," Jennifer admitted to Cobb, her eyes darting across the room and to the door which her fiancé was behind as she toyed with the engagement ring on her finger. "Robert never spoke highly of his father. Deep down I know that he always wanted to make him proud. Nothing was ever good enough."
"This idea which we are trying to plant could be good for him," Cobb said, trying to get her to see the brighter side of things as she struggled to do that. Her head drooped and her glazed eyes checked the grey material of her dress as she thought about what Cobb was telling her. "You can't tell him about any of this."
"How can I not?" Jennifer snapped back to him. "Do you think that by me keeping your secret then I am keeping Robert safe?" she wondered from him and he shrugged.
"We will do that," Cobb spoke and Jennifer sighed once, tired of the constant reassurances which she was receiving. Frankly, none of them meant anything to her. "I need to know that you won't say anything to him and then you can be with him through this. He could use your support."
"And if I say something to him?" Jennifer enquired and Cobb pushed his firm hand through his hair and looked her in the eye.
"If you mutter something about our plan to him then I will make sure that you don't see him for the rest of the dream," Cobb promised her and she jutted her chin out, thinking about what he had just said to her. "It is your choice. Either way, he won't find out that he is dreaming until we decide."
"You're really desperate to get home, aren't you?" Jennifer checked with him, sensing the tone in his voice was one of control yet pleading. He nodded in agreement, words being unable to convey how desperate he truly was. Jennifer felt her head nod once in agreement to the terms of Cobb's arrangement and she wiped her eyes slightly, standing up and smoothing out her dress.
"Which decision is it?"
"I want to be with him," she declared to Cobb. "But if we wake up then I intend to tell him about everything."
"By that time it will be too late. Why are you so concerned with us splitting up his empire?"
"It is Robert's inheritance and future. I don't think that you have any right to be meddling in it," she declared, her arms folded and her eyes fierce as she spoke to him. "For now, I intend to stick by his side. I'll play it by ear."
"You're not to say anything to him, Miss Reynolds. Do you understand?" Cobb checked and she forced her head to nod. Agreeing with him would be the only way to get to see Robert. She would go along with his plan for now. But, if she got the chance to stop this operation then she would.
Cobb stood up and placed his mask back onto his face, his arm gripping onto Jennifer as he opened the door wide and saw Fischer sat by the floor, his hand moving through the air as he looked to the ceiling and spoke about experience with his father.
"Jenny," Fischer sighed once and Cobb allowed a stern nod over to Eames who was doing a swell impression of Browning. Eames nodded back as Robert stood up and Cobb pushed Jenny towards the young billionaire who took her into his hold.
"Are you okay? What did they do to you?" Robert asked her as Cobb stood in the corner of the room. She wasn't being let of his sight in case she blurted something out to her fiancé.
"I'm fine," she promised Robert, unable to look him in the eye as his hands moved up and down her sides, finally resting on her cheeks as he brought her chin upwards so that he could look at her. "I'm okay."
"We'll get out of this," he simply sighed, taking a hold of her hand and then sitting back down on the floor. Jenny slid down the wall, her eyes glaring at Cobb as she did so and Robert wrapped his arm around her waist, kissing her on the top of her head before a shaky sigh of relief escaped his plump lips.
"Miss Reynolds," Browning/Eames said as soon as Jenny entwined her fingers into Robert's. "They got you too?"
"A case of unfortunate luck," she spoke simply. She never liked Browning. She never had done and she never would do. Robert tolerated him as he was his godfather and his father's closest friend. He was the man who was powerful and wanted the company to succeed. He was also the man who had agreed with Maurice about a prenuptial to the extent where they were both blue in the face over talking about it.
"I would say so," Browning responded. "They're trying to crack the code to the safe out of Robert."
"I don't know any code," Robert spoke down to his fiancé, his face full of strain as his free hand ran through his black hair and Jenny squeezed his hand. Why did they need the code to a safe? She was in a world which she couldn't understand or even begin to comprehend. "If I did then I would tell them."
"I know," Jenny agreed with him and yawned gently to herself, feeling her shoulders shake slightly as Robert released her hand, sliding his designer jacket from his arms and draping it over her shoulders, holding her tightly to him after he did so. "How long do you have to remember?"
"An hour," Robert whispered, checking his watch. "And that was forty minutes ago."
"There has to be something," Browning pushed Robert. "Some code or something?"
"I've told you that there was nothing," Robert snapped again. "You know that my father and I didn't have any meaningful experiences."
"Perhaps after your mother died?"
Robert snorted once as Jennifer remained quiet, listening as Robert chuckled to himself and shook his head.
"We didn't have many conversations after that," Robert whispered and Jennifer struggled to listen to the remainder of the conversation. Robert never spoke about his past. He never liked to open up to her about what had happened when he was a young boy and she never pushed him for an answer of any kind. "Do you know what he said to me? He said; 'Robert, there really is nothing to say.'"
"Well...you know what...he...your father was like..." Browning stammered and Robert turned his glare onto the elder man.
"I was eleven," he snapped and Jenny closed her eyes, unable to imagine what he had gone through.
"I'm sorry," Browning said and Robert shrugged, looking back to Jenny as he did so.
"What does it matter now?"
"It matters because he was your father, Robert," she informed him. "You're not supposed to grow up hearing things like that."
"It's too late to change the past," he said, his voice trying to be nonchalant as he said it. Jennifer took a moment to look at him and study the secrets behind his blue orbs. Yes, it was the past, but, there was something there. There was something in his eyes which suggested that he wanted to be able to change the past. And that was when Jenny wondered about what to really do.
...
A/N: So I forgot to thank Ally, Belladonna007, trudes193 and SARAHBABE215 for reviewing before. If you're reading this then thank you for taking the time to do so! Reviews are appreciated so let me know what you think so far!
