11.

~ Arthur put the baby down for a nap and came to find Ariadne.

"She'll be up in an hour, and much less fussy." he promised Ariadne as the Architect was frantically searching in a roll top desk for something.
"What are you looking for?" he asked.
"Do you have any cigarettes?" Ariadne asked.
"You don't smoke." Arthur said in shock.

"Yes, I do. And when my daughter hates me and doesn't want me to hold her, I need to smoke a lot." she told him angrily.
"I don't smoke and neither do you." Arthur told her as she carelessly riffled though the roll top's chubby holes.

"I have a memory of you smoking out there on the balcony; you smoke." Ariadne snapped.
"I gave it up after our first baby was born." Arthur insisted.

Ariadne felt at the back of the desk and found what she was looking for. She held up a half empty pack and Arthur looked ashamed of himself at being caught.

"I think I must have known you were hiding them in here. I knew just where to look. Same thing happened today with Sadie, I knew all about some zombie game I'm developing." she said as she took the lighter out of the pack and went out onto the balcony.

Arthur followed.
"I smoke occasionally, but you never do." he told her.

"Well, you happened to catch me between pregnancies, so I think I can light up. Unless you lied to me about the vasectomy, like you lied about everything else." she snapped as she lit the cigarette.

Her lungs rejected the sharp, knife like feel of her first drag. She coughed loudly and her eyes watered.

'Maybe I did give them up.' she thought bitterly.

The nicotine did it's work however, and she felt calmer.

Arthur waited a few minutes for her to collect herself before asking:

"What do you mean I lied to you? I haven't lied to you." he said.

"Fine." she shrugged.

"No, not fine. What do you think I lied to you about?"

"Nothing." Ariadne said childishly.

"Ariadne, I need you to talk like a grown up right now, not some teenager. Please give me a strait answer." he said in a stern voice.

She let out a plum of smoke, likening how it made her feel sophisticated. Sadie had taught her how to smoke, and she knew it annoyed Arthur right now.
"Who is Corrine?" Ariadne asked.

Arthur looked at his hands. His jaw tight as he said nothing at first.

"She was our nanny." he told her at last. "I fired her."

"Why?"

"Because she came onto me." he explained. "You and I were having troubles, I had recently found out about Albert being my real dad. It was a very stressful time."

"Did you sleep with her?" Ariadne asked.
"No, never." Arthur told her.

Ariadne swallowed.

"We were having troubles?" she asked. "What about?"

"Drew." he said simply. "I told you that I tricked you into getting pregnant with her. I wanted another baby and you wanted to wait. I told you about that before."

"I was mad enough that we separated for a while." Ariadne said glaring at him.

"Sadie told you all this." Arthur grumbled.
"Sadie is many things. She's evil, narcissistic, tactless and cruel. But she is not a liar." Ariadne said as she took another drag. She felt like she was on the verge of tears.
"You're right, she's not." Arthur conceded.

"Did you really have a vasectomy?" Ariadne asked.

"Yes. I can show you the medical records if you want." Arthur told her.
"Were you trying to keep me pregnant all the time so I would stay at home?" she asked.

"No." Arthur said sharply. "We wanted Dominic, we wanted Daniel. It was a split vote about Drew. You wanted to wait because the boys were still young and into everything. Darcy was a handful and I wouldn't listen. I've apologized for it over and over. We separated for a while, when Darcy got sick, we reconciled and then I found out about my real father."

"So, we're only together because Darcy was sick?" she asked stubbing out the burnt down cigarette and pulling out another.

"We're together because we love each other." Arthur said in a harsh voice.
"How do I know that's true? How do I know we're not together for the kids sake?" she asked.

The Point Man stood up abruptly. His long, lean frame stalking around the balcony.

"God, Ariadne. I love you more than anything. Didn't I prove that to you last night?" Arthur huffed. Frustration clearly written on his face.

"Don't touch me." Ariadne snapped as he moved closer to her. "Why didn't you tell me about our separating? It's a big deal for a woman to separate from the man she has children with."

"I planned to tell you." Arthur said soberly. "I was hoping you would remember on your own."

Ariadne looked away from him.
"Look, we've been together for a long time. We've been through a lot of shit." the Point Man suddenly snapped.

"Like what? Tell me!" Ariadne screamed at him. "You keep waiting for my memories to come back and they're not coming back, Arthur! I can't even remember how to hold my own baby!"

Arthur stood and walked back into the living room.

"Where are you going?" she asked worriedly.
"I'm going to show you the records from my vasectomy. I don't want you thinking I'm trying to get you pregnant again."

"Fine." Ariadne said petulantly. She tossed her half burned cigarette off the balcony and followed him.

~ Down what was probably the servant's hall, Arthur kept a neat little office.

"We keep all our documents in here." he told her as he pulled out a key from his pocket and unlocked a handsome set of file cabinets. He effortlessly found a blue folder and showed her the paper work from a local clinic.
"See? About three months after Drew was born I had the procedure done. We agreed it would be easier than you going on the shot." he said with a long sigh.

She looked over the documents. It had Arthur's full name as patient and that he had a vasectomy. She even spotted her own signature as the person who drove him home.

"I made a mistake by getting you pregnant with Drew. I know that." Arthur whispered. "I'm not the kind of man who would prevent you from having a life outside of motherhood. I just wanted another baby."

She looked over his records as he locked the file cabinet back and stowed the keys in his pocket.

A faint cry came from down the hall.
"I think Drew is up." Arthur sighed.
"You go get her." Ariadne whispered. "I'll be right there."

Arthur nodded and left her to read over the file.

~ When she was satisfied by all she read, she joined him in the nursery.

Her handsome husband was holding her beautiful baby in his arms. The little girl laughing.

"She's in a much better mood." Ariadne said with a half smile.

"She's a good baby. I'm surprised my dad hasn't tried to steal her. I think they're in love." Arthur told her.

Ariadne stepped by Arthur's side. Wrapping her hands around his waist as Drew giggled in his arms.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you." she whispered as Arthur kissed the little girl.

"It's alright." he whispered back. "I didn't want to tell you everything because I didn't want your memories to get confused."

She nodded.

"I understand." she said softly and her small, careful hands slipped into his pocket and plucked up the key to the file cabinet. He didn't seem to notice as the baby screamed to be put down.

'We'll see what else you're hiding.' she thought bitterly as Drew smiled for Arthur, and not for her.