I don't own any of the characters of Inception other than my own and am purely doing this for fun! Just to putting that out there, Now on with the story! :)
Chapter 8
"So I see that you decided to come back."
Dom said with a smug smirk on his lips, after Alex and Arthur came walking into the warehouse. Alexandra was busy working with Ariadne with the mazes while Arthur was prepping the information for the team. Arthur sighed as he slowly looked up at him and nodded.
"Yes… I figured that something as petty as old skeletons in the closet should not defer our mission."
Dom nodded as he took a seat next to Arthur. "How did it go last night?" Arthur scoffed as he was writing down a profile note on Fischer. "How do you mean?" He asked, as if he didn't care. Dom however knew better and knew that something went on with Arthur and his sister so he continued to press on. "You know what I mean Arthur… I know Alex visited you last night." Arthur slowly turned his head towards Dom and gave him a serious look.
"Nothing that would need to be broadcasted. We talked, she explained, I listened and set the boundaries of what's to be."
Dom then arched his brow at Arthur. "Boundaries?" Arthur nodded, as he continued writing. "Yes. Boundaries… I explained to her that she is going to have to prove to me that she's not here to screw us over and that I will think about our relationship and for right now look at it as no strings attached." Dom couldn't help but smirk at Arthur; he knew this wasn't going to last long.
"No strings attached… Huh."
Arthur then finally glared up at him, placing his pen down on his pad of paper. "What does that huh mean?" Dom shrugged, rising up from his seat and started to walk towards the window so no one could hear them. "Nothing." Arthur irritably sighed and rose up from his seat and followed him. "No the way you said it implied that you in some way don't agree with what I said." Dom chuckled and slowly turned to face him. "Arthur look…" he said looking over at a certain direction, Arthur turned around to where Dom was looking and saw Alex, Ariadne and Eames laughing over something. He saw how close Eames was next to Alex and in a way it pissed him off even more than usual.
"You say no strings attached and yet I can see how pissed off you are by seeing Eames that close to her right now. Now that she's here are you honestly going to be able to handle the thought of Alex and Eames possibly getting into something?"
Arthur scoffed, once he saw her move away from Eames and walked up to the display model of the maze and start to analyze it. "She won't…" He said so confidently, Dom shrugged placing his hands into his pockets. "I don't know… if she feels like she has no hope with you then what makes you think she won't go looking the other way?" Arthur gritted his teeth, he knew Dom was right but still it angered him to see Eames place his hand on the small of Alex's back. He was supposed to be angry with her, he wanted to hate her but his feelings for her were so completely intense… especially with what happened last night.
After all that time they were separated, his heart, mind nor his body could refuse having her in his arms, kissing her the way he did, making love to her… it was just like nothing had ever happened. She never left, they were still engaged and he was the most happiest man in the world. But this was reality, this was not a dream and he knew that all of those things truly did happen. By now she would've been his wife, by now they probably would have a home of their own and she would have her practice and help with their tasks when needed but all of that has changed… by now they should be doing what every newlywed couple should be doing. Planning to start a family, traveling, and just loving and caring for one another, but it wasn't… this in his own opinion was his own personal hell and seeing her and feeling like she was so close but yet so far away angered him immensely.
He wanted her so bad, he wanted to just walk right up behind her, wrap his arms around her and kiss her soft neck and make a very valid point to Eames who she truly belongs too. However, that wasn't going to be the case… he wanted her to prove to him that she really did love him because deep down he felt that if she really wanted to be with him she would've fought or at least try to fight for their relationship, for their love but she didn't at least he thinks she didn't and that is what was making him so damn torn, he just wanted to say screw this nonsense and pull her into his arms yet his pride was severely damaged and he needed to be completely sure that he is what she wants before he could even do so.
"You saw how I was after she left… you saw what she had put me through. Why should I make it easy for her when she couldn't even tell this company to screw off in the first place?"
Dom shrugged, giving Arthur a sideways look. "You act like you were the only one that lost her that day. You know Arthur… Alexandra is not perfect, she will make mistakes and she will do things that she feels are best for her loved ones. But I will be honest… I was just as angry and hurt when I lost her too but knowing that she's here again and she's not going to go anywhere makes me more happier than I could ever possibly imagine." Arthur sighed; he saw her swat Eames' hand and gave him a warning look which caused Arthur to allow out a small smirk.
"I don't know why I'm not; you'd think I would be thrilled."
Dom smirked over at Arthur and placed his hand on Arthur's shoulder. "Just think of it this way… if I had the opportunity with Mal like you do with Alex right now I would be doing everything I could to make sure that she would stay and the last thing I would ever do is push her away." Dom then slowly rose up from his seat and shrugged his shoulders at Arthur. "But that's just me." He said so simply, and with that Dom started walking away, leaving Arthur to his thoughts.
Meanwhile, Ariadne was working on her maze when Eames slow looked over at Alexandra and gave her a serious look. "Can we talk?" Alex arched her brow at him for a moment and looked over to see Arthur looking over at them. She allowed out a soft sigh and slowly looked back over at Eames. "Sure." Eames nodded, guiding Alexandra by her arm.
"Good… let's get some ice cream."
Alexandra was about to protest but Eames was too fast and before she knew it they were both out of the warehouse, walking down the sidewalk towards the local ice cream joint. "Sorry to be pulling you out like that but we have some personal things to discuss." Alexandra slowly nodded as they both finally made it to the little ice cream joint and stood in line. "So what are the things we need to discuss?" She asked somewhat agitatedly as they moved up in line.
"Well darling there are a few things we need to discuss. Such as rumor has it that you are interested in breaking your contract and exposing I.D.A. completely for their most obvious tactics to the world."
Alexandra shrugged as she ordered two scoops of moose tracks and Eames order two scoops of Mint Chocolate Chip. Eames pulled his wallet out and paid them as he gestured for Alex to go sit at that furthest table away from everyone in the Ice Cream Parlor.
Once they were out of hearing distance Alexandra then finally answered his assumption. "What if that is what I'm planning are you going to expose me to them?" Eames smirked at her and shook his head, as he sat down in the seat across from her. "Not at all darling but I would love to be involved. All we need to do is find something tantalizingly nasty on them and expose them to the entire world." Alexandra nodded as she took a bite out of her ice cream and smirked at him.
"Harold."
Eames arched his brow, yet playfully smirked back at her. "Brilliant… We can extract secrets from Harold! Lord knows he probably knows enough about I.D.A. that would ruin them entirely." Alexandra nodded, giving him a large smile. "It'd be perfect but we would have to get Harold alone in order for this to work." Eames nodded, taking a bite out of his ice cream. "Harold is planning a personal trip to Vegas in a couple of months we can extract them then." Alexandra eyes lit up omitting a soft laugh. "That would be perfect!" Eames gave her a small smile as he softly laughed but then slowly looked back up at her. "So… Arthur was the one huh?" Alex's smile slowly disappeared as she gave him a serious look. "Yeah… yeah he was." Eames sighed, leaning back in his seat. "And how is that going for you?" He asked, giving her a serious look. Alexandra frowned, not daring to look at Eames straight in the eyes. "Good if you consider him not trusting me, and wanting me to prove to him that I'm not going to backstab him in the back… I don't know what to do, he basically said in Arthur term's that we're currently no strings attached." Eames scoffed, slowly shaking his head.
"Girl like you? If I was in his shoes I wouldn't even dare allowing you to walk that free if you were mine... But Arthur never had that sort of common sense when it came to anything personal like that."
Alexandra sighed, starting to play with her ice cream. "Eames what happened to you and me in Venice… was just a fluke. We agreed that we wouldn't take it seriously and not bring any emotions towards one another from that night. I love Arthur, I want to be with him and I've told you before that all I can offer you in friendship." Eames rolled his eyes and slowly shook his head.
"You want to be with a man who preferably enjoys having a stick up his ass on a daily basis?"
Alex looked at him for a moment and couldn't help but laugh, while Eames started to laugh along with her. "Honestly Eames he's really not that bad." Eames scoffed. "Right and I'm the bloody Queen of England." Alexandra couldn't help but laugh and gave Eames a slight bow. "Nice to meet you your majesty." Eames rolled his eyes as Alex continued to laugh.
"I'm being serious here Alexandra… Arthur is not the right man for you."
Alexandra arched her brow at him, taking another bite out of her ice cream. "Oh really? And who is Eames? You?" Eames then smirked of her.
"Maybe… Alex you're fun, full of life and spirit. You roll with the punches and live freely. You don't stick by the book like Arthur does and you definitely do not take life so seriously so why would you want to be with someone like that?"
Alexandra sighed and bowed her head. "Because… the love that Arthur and I have or had is something I could never possibly explain to someone like you Eames." She said as she looked up at him seriously and continued.
"Eames when you and I worked together you were with a different girl every night… Yes I love living life to the fullest but I want to settle down and to be honest you cannot offer that to me. You love living a wild and unfathomable life! I want to have children one day! I want to open up my practice and come home everyday to my husband and my little ones; I don't want to do this damn job forever! It's not even what I'm really cut out to do. I value you very much Eames… I really do enjoy your friendship and care for you deeply but not in the way you want me to. What we shared in Venice was something special but we both knew that it couldn't last."
Eames then glared at her.
"It could if you allowed it, if I knew that you were in love with Arthur I would've swayed you away from that awhile ago! You act like Venice was nothing but it was… we had an amazingly wonderful night! Sure you and I were both drunk off our bloody asses but it was probably the most fun I've ever had! And I could've stayed with you, I could've given you what you wanted, we could've lived a happy and decent life together."
Alexandra gave Eames a sweet smile and took his hand into hers. "You say that but Eames you love what you do! You could never settle down and you know that and I hate to say it but I don't want to live with flying by the seat of my pants for the rest of my life. Believe it or not I want to be boring, I want to go to PTA meetings, or be the class room mother of the day and I want to sit next to my husband when our kids have a big event going on and I really hate to say it but I know you don't want any of those things." Eames sighed, giving Alexandra a small squeeze on her hand. "I really hope that little bastard knows how lucky he is to have someone as loving and devoted as you to be in his life. Because I honestly wish that the affection you have for him was the affection you have for me." Alexandra smiled as she rose up from her seat and walked over to Eames' side and leaned down to get Eames a small peck on the cheek. "Take me back to the warehouse Eames…" She whispered, Eames smiled as he grabbed her empty cup from her hand and rose up from his seat as well.
"Whatever my lady commands." He smirked as he walked over to the trash can to throw away their cups and escorted her back to the warehouse.
XXXX
Meanwhile back at the warehouse, Arthur had saw Alexandra and Eames leave the building and he couldn't help but be furious and wonder where the hell they went and how the hell did they have come to know one another in the first place! He knew he wanted time and some space to think through his relationship with Alex but he couldn't help but be severely irritated that Eames has been so attentive to her and she just keeps allowing it.
Just then, the two people he was currently thinking about just walked through the door laughing and talking about some mission they had together. He glared at the two of them, since Eames was holding onto Alex's hand and she never even bothered to rip her hand away from him. He noticed that Alex finally removes her hand from Eames' and started to move away from him, Eames slowly moved closer to her but she just moved away once more giving Eames an apologetic look.
She then slowly looked back over towards him and Arthur couldn't help but look right back at her. He then quickly looked away from them, trying to act busy while he heard the click of Alexandra's heels coming closer to him. He glared down at the paper he was looking at and immediately felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Do you need any help?"
She hesitantly asked, Arthur sighed and immediately turned around and placed his glare on her. "No." He stated so simply, Alexandra frowned at him as he tried to turn away. She then quickly turned him back to face her, his brown eyes searing through her blue ones as she placed her hand on his cheek.
"Hey… look at me."
Arthur glared at her, however not moving her hand as well. "Why are you so angry?" Arthur agitatedly sighed and ripped her hand off of him and stormed away from her. Alexandra on the other hand quickly walked towards him and grabbed his arm, forcing him to turn around and face her. "Arthur… Talk to me." She said pleadingly, Arthur sighed and turned his head away from her. "When were you planning on telling me that you and Eames were in a relationship?" Alexandra arched her brow at him and smiled. "You think Eames and I are in a relationship?" Arthur nodded, starting to get even more angrier.
"Well if not would you like to explain where you two went then?"
Alexandra laughed and leaned up to give him a small kiss on the cheek. "Of course…" She said softly. "Good then let's go." Arthur muttered as he grabbed her hand into his and pulled her out of the building disregarding everyone's confused looks...
As they walked towards Arthur's hotel room neither one of them said a word to the other until they both made it back to his hotel room. As soon as they both walked through the door and Arthur was closing it shut, he then quickly looked back over at her and glared, his arms crossing over his chest. "Alright… now continue." Alexandra sighed, as she began to fidget with her hands and then all the sudden started to search around the room.
Arthur arched his brow at her as she would go through drawers and check the phones. He allowed out an irritated sigh as he started to walk up to her. "What the hell are you doing?" Alexandra shushed him and then started to walk into his room. "Trying to see if there's a bug." Arthur rose his eyebrows up in confusion as she continued to check around the hotel room.
Once she was satisfied she then looked over at him with an apologetic smile. "Sorry." Arthur glared at her, as she walked towards him. "Want to explain to me what the hell that was about?" Alex sighed, to be honest she was afraid, she knew that Arthur was having a hard time trusting her and when she would have to explain herself to him about she and Eames she knew that it would cause a lot more problems between the two of them. "Arthur there's a lot I need to explain to you but before I could I needed to check to see if we're safe…" Arthur shook his head in disbelief and moved up to her, moving a strand of hair away from her face.
"Tell me… are you and Eames are or were in a relationship?"
He said in a soft yet commanding tone, Alexandra slowly looked up at him and sighed. "I um… we um…" Arthur then scoffed, not allowing her to talk and glared down at her. "Get out." Alex tried to quickly explain but Arthur wouldn't let her. "I said get the hell out." He said in an angry yet calm tone, running his hand through his hair. "Arthur please just listen to me!" She begged, but Arthur whirled around and sneered at her.
"Why! So I can hear how you really lied to me! How there was no one else but me a year ago! Well excuse me but I am really not in the mood to hear any lies from you so just do me the favor and leave before I really lose it."
Alexandra stared at him completely wide-eyed and honestly could not think of one word to say so she gave him a slight nod and did not argue. Instead she just walked out of his hotel room leaving him in complete silence.
XXXX
About 20 minutes later, Dom heard a knock on his hotel door. He cautiously grabbed his gun and rose up from his chair, and slowly walked towards the door. He heard another knock and quickly walked up to the door and opened it to see his sister staring at him with complete sadness. "Alex what's wrong!" Alex just burst out into tears and ran into her brother's arms. Dom sighed as he pulled his sister closer to him, allowing her to cry into his chest.
"I just… I just don't know what to do!"
She cried, as Dom closed the door and then led his sister to the couch. He smiled at his sister as she curled herself against the arm of the couch, wiping her tears away. "Tell me what happened." He said softly as he moved close to her and pulled her to lie against him, her head resting on his shoulder.
"I don't think Arthur and I will ever be together again."
Dom slowly nodded, kissing the top of his sister's head. "Why would you say that?" Alexandra sighed, finally the tears had stopped and her numbness was coming to existence. "He thinks that Eames and I were together…" Dom arched his brow and slowly looked over at her. "Were you?" Alexandra frowned and buried her face into his shoulder. "It's hard to say…" Dom slowly nodded and then finally asked. "I've been meaning to ask you how did you come to know Yusuf and Eames?" Alexandra sighed as she slowly looked up at him.
"I.D.A. had contracted them to do some work and Eames and Yusuf had became my partners in the task I.D.A. had assigned for me. After the task was finished they're contract was finished while mine apparently still isn't."
Dom frowned as he slowly looked over at his sister. "Do you want to get out?" Alexandra nodded, turning her head away from him. "You have no idea… I'd give anything to have my normal life back. That is actually why Eames and I had left the warehouse the way we did earlier… We wanted to talk about ruining I.D.A. for good." Dom smiled, deep down he was somewhat thrilled that ruining I.D.A. was the main reason as to why they both walked out like they did, it wasn't that he didn't like Eames or figured that Eames wouldn't be a good match for his sister but in all honesty he preferred her with Arthur much more.
"How do you two plan on ruining I.D.A.?"
Alexandra slowly smiled and gave his brother a devious look. "In a couple of months my informant Harold is going to Vegas for a personal trip. Eames and I are also going to join Harold for this trip unbeknownst to him and extract all his information about I.D.A. and prove to the world what kind of sham the agency really is… and to be honest I want you to join with us." Dom gave her a sad smile and slowly shook his head. "I wish I could but unless Satio keeps up with the deal then…" Alexandra then immediately cuts him off.
"Trust me Dom, he will and I will make sure of it. I.D.A. actually sent me to you all to make sure Satio keeps to his word in freeing your charges because they want to hire you and Arthur into the team. Or pretty much in my words force you onto their team."
Dom nodded taking everything in and slowly turned his body more to face her. "How did you get stuck into this Alex? You barely did any kind of extracting unless Arthur or I were with you." Alexandra sighed, running her hand through her hair.
"They wanted me for that exact reason… they knew I had some experience and training from the best extractor in the world so they felt that with my training and present newness to extraction and inception they decided that I would be the perfect candidate to mold into their little protégé. Harold the informant I was telling you about stopped me one day at a coffee shop giving me a proposal about working for I.D.A. yet he didn't want me to announce it to anyone especially you and Arthur and when he got to the point where I would have to leave you both with no word I refused. Well Harold then came out and said that if I didn't join then I.D.A. would make sure that both you and Arthur would be killed because they refuse to allow any distractions or road blocks to stand in the way of their new found protégés. At first Dom I didn't believe him, I thought he was honestly trying to scare me into it but then one day I got home before Arthur did and found pictures of the both of you doing your daily work or going to random places, I even saw a picture of you with Mal and the children with a note attached as well saying that if I refuse to agree once more then they will send notice to their snipers to kill you all."
Tears then started to well up in her eyes as she continued.
"I couldn't… I just couldn't let them go through with that so I finally agreed and once I did Harold told me I had a week until they were taking me away and that if I told anyone about what I was doing the threat would still hold on the both of you. I was so devastated Dom… and on that night I left with Arthur proposing to me only made me more heartbroken! I hated leaving him there, I hated not being able to tell him where or why I was going and when I heard about Mal and knowing how alone you must've been it killed me even more! I wanted to be there! I wanted to be there to hug you and cry with you and tell you everything was going to be ok but I just couldn't… They took everything I held so dear away from me and I'm going to be honest Dom they're going to pay for it, even if I have to do this extraction by myself."
Dom then pulled Alex into a tight hug as tears started to roll down his cheeks, as Alex continued to cry.
"I wish I can just make it all better, I wish I could go back in time and fix everything so we all can be happy again."
She said brokenly, Dom sniffed his nose, wiping his tears away, giving his sister a serious look. "I promise you Alex… I promise you that no matter what happens I will get you out of there. I'll do whatever it takes I promise." Alexandra smiled, as tears continued to pour as she hugged her brother once more.
"Thank you Dom! Thank you so much!"
First and foremost I want to thank everyone for helping me pick out the scenarios for the story! You all have been absolutely wonderful and so incredibly helpful! Now regarding this chapter... It seems that Arthur and Alex are starting to get pushed apart some more but it is clearly obvious that Arthur is still crazy for her. But the question is did Alexandra lie about not being with Eames? Did she and Eames really have a relationship? What do you guys think? I promise to you all that the chapter 9 will be out soon, I'm so sorry for the long delay I have family over and the writers block delayed me somewhat but I promise more is to come. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I promise more exciting things between Alex and Arthur are still in line. Once again thank you all! :)