10.

~ Dinner was marvelous. Arthur wasn't used to eating well in his own home, and the snow fall outside, the cold, made him eat three bowlfuls of the beef stew Ariadne had slow cooked over the stove. She had even made something called cornbread and it tasted warm and sweet as it crumbled in his mouth.
"Is this made with real corn?" he asked as he looked at the heavy, yellow bread.

Ariadne giggled.
"It's made from cornmeal. My mother was from the south, her family came north for work when she was little. She knew all the best southern recipes and she said it was most important to make cornbread." she explained.

"Well, it's good." Arthur told her as he was feeling fat and sleepy.

"Thank you." she whispered.
"Momma's a good cook, Mr. Darling." Rose said.
"I know she is, Rosie." Arthur agreed.

~ "Rose and I can sleep out here tonight, Arthur." she told him as he made up the couch.
"Don't be silly. I won't have you sleeping on the floor while I have that big bed in there." he said.

When all of his drying shirts had been ironed and neatly folded or hung up, Arthur had discovered Ariadne had also cleaned the apartment while he was out.

His untidy stacks of newspapers, his to go boxes and other bachelor debris has been organized or tossed out. The apartment looked as spotless as if his mother was still living there. A woman who prided herself on keeping a clean home.

"No, it's not right." Ariadne insisted.
Arthur didn't want to argue. He was too full, the house smelled good and he we was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

~ "Wake up! Wake up!" Rose was crying the next morning.

Arthur didn't remember falling asleep, the next thing he knew, Rose was shaking him awake.
"What is it Rosie?" he groaned. He felt cheated out of sleep as daylight was already breaking out of the windows.
"We're snowed in! We're trapped! We're trapped!" she cried happily.

Arthur sat up to see Ariadne was looking worriedly out the front window. He joined her to peer out at the slowly falling white flakes that had accumulated overnight to cover not just the streets, but his car as well.

"Must be three feet of snow out there." she whispered as she pulled her worn sweater over her body tighter.

Arthur was grumbling as he pulled on a second pair of socks and went to his father liquor cabinet he used as make shift file storage. His telephone was there and he dialed the station to see where they would want him today. The click-click of the rotary phone spinning seemed awfully loud as Rose looked at him to see what to do.

Mavis, the frumpy dispatcher, picked up the line and Arthur sleepily told her his name and asked where he would be sent.
"Chief wants you and your barrel breaking boys to shovel snow with the linemen by the hospital." she told him in her thick Brooklyn accent.

"Come on, Mavis." Arthur groaned. He would rather direct traffic or walk the streets with Cobb keeping the peace. Anything but snow shoveling with the boys from the power company.

"Chief is none too pleased with you right now, Darling." Mavis laughed. "I think his exact words were; 'Tell Darling to get his skinny ass to Bellevue hospital and make sure he doesn't destroy any evidence if he sees a crime'."

"Thanks Mavis." Arthur groaned as he went to his closet to get his winter clothes out. Thankful Ariadne has washed everything.
"Where are you going?" she asked him.

"It's a blizzard. I have to go." he said.

"Arthur, is three feet deep, you can't even get your car out." she told him as he pulled on thick pants and a flannel shirt.

"We have to, it's apart of the job. People commit crimes in this weather. Mostly, they just need help. Fire department is out there to along with the power company guys and the sandhogs. We all have to shovel snow, direct traffic and make sure there's no looting." he told her.

"Looting?" Ariadne asked worriedly.
"Yeah, store owners can't get to their shops, kids break the windows and steal. It's a mess. We all act as police, fire fighters and rescue workers." he told her.

"Let me make you something to eat before you leave." she told him as she set the kettle to boil.
"I'm still full from last night." he told her. His belly feeling uncomfortably large.
"You need to have some coffee to keep you warm. It's freezing out!" Ariadne protested.
"I'll be fine. I've done this before." he told her as he shouldered on his coat and Ariadne tied on a blue scarf his mother had made for him.

"Just do me a favor, stay indoors, the snow is too deep." he said.
"I want to play in the snow before the other kids mess it up!" Rose hollered from the window.
"No, Rosie, the snow is too deep and it's too cold. You mind me now." he told her.

"We'll, stay inside." Ariadne promised as she tied a warm hat on his head.

He wasn't sure why he kissed her then. Perhaps because it was the natural thing to do. His parents always kissed quickly before his father went to work in the morning. He would leave the apartment with the boys shouting and his mother worrying.

It was normal for his father to kiss his mother on the lips. She was his wife. So, wasn't it normal to kiss Ariadne in the lips as he was about to leave the apartment?

A hurried, stay safe and have a good day, kiss they had both seen a thousand times in their own parents. Ariadne didn't stiffen or pull away from him. Her lips meeting his as she also seemed to feel it was normal.

Almost immediately, however, they stood looking at one another in amazement. Arthur feeling that old friend embarrassment hovering between them.

"I better go." he said and hurried out the door.

~ "Cobb?" Arthur asked as the surprisingly pleasant work of shoveling snow at the hospital was giving Arthur a chance to catch up with his friend.

"What is it?" Cobb asked as they worked to free the drive of the hospital of snow and ice so ambulances could come in. The other men were working to shovel out of the paths to the other buildings of the hospital.

Everywhere Arthur could see were fire fighters, line men and sand hogs shoveling streets and chasing off hoodlum kids who were eying empty store fronts.

"Remember that girl from Eames' place?" Arthur asked.

"You'll have to be more specific." Cobb panted as her shoveled off a large patch of snow.
"The girl from the kitchen. The one I chased down the street a month before the raid." Arthur said.

"The pretty one. Yeah I remember her." Cobb said. "Why?"

"Well, the night of the raid, she didn't have a place to go. Her apartment had no power and she had her kid with her." Arthur explained.

Cobb stopped his shoveling and looked at him.

"I didn't know what else to do, so I took her and the kid home with me. She's at my apartment right now." Arthur confessed.
"Arthur, when I nagged you to find yourself a girl, I didn't think you would take it so literally." Cobb laughed. "A least get to know her first, Jeez."

"Not funny, Cobb." Arthur grumbled as they started to shovel snow again. "I came home yesterday to find she had washed all of my clothes, cooked a nice dinner and cleaned the apartment. I don't know what to do."

Cobb started laughing.

"Hey McCourt! Harding!" he shouted to the nearby men from their precinct. "Arthur has a problem! He has this pretty girl in his apartment who washed all his clothes, cooks and cleans for him. He doesn't know what to do about it!"

The other men started to laugh and one man lewdly grabbed his groin to show Arthur what he thought.

"Ha! Ha!" Arthur shouted to the men. "Thanks a lot, Cobb."

~ Arthur felt tired all the way to his bones as the streets around the hospital were finally clear and slow moving traffic was able to bring people in.

He walked home and ignored how cold his feet were. He should have put on an extra pair of socks and another sweater as ice was forming over his coat.

He arrived at his apartment, spent and freezing to see his girls gasp in horror at his arrival.
"Rose, go run hot water for a bath." Ariadne ordered as she helped him unzip his coat and unravel his scarf. His fingers too frozen to do the task. "You might had frost bite!"

The little girl was quick to do as her mother commanded and Arthur could head the welcoming sounds of hot water pumping into the large bathtub.

Ariadne shook out the ice on his jacket over the kitchen sink so as not to spoil the floors, as he got used to the feel of being in a warm apartment.

"Are you hungry?" she asked worriedly. Rose peering nervously at the both of them as she sat Arthur down in the living room chair and stripped off his work boots.

"Yes, but a bath sounds better just now." he told her as his teeth started to chatter.

"Go get in the water and warm up." she told him as she pulled off the layers of socks and he felt the sting of warm air hit his cold skin.

~ Once he was in the bath, Arthur's skin felt like it was burning. The water was steaming hot and his skin was too cold to stand it. His toes and fingers felt like insects were biting him over and over as he opened and closed his fists.

He relaxed in the warm water before spotting little doll dresses that were hanging on the towel rack to dry. Rosie, probably imitating her mother, had washed her babies clothes and hung them up.

Arthur couldn't help but laugh at the sight of tiny dresses. Of clean clothes, a hot bath, tidy apartment and dinner cooking.