So, here it is...the final chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own Inception or its characters. I only own Sadie.

Chapter 14: Don't Ask Why

Sadie had gotten no sleep at all that night. She had sex with Arthur last night. She had sex with Eames the night before and the night before that. Did that make her a slut? She confessed the truth to Arthur. He didn't say anything to her after her confession. He probably hated her at that point. There was just too much running through her mind for sleep to happen at all. The whole night had been full of tossing and turning.

By time Sadie finally had enough and called it quits, it was about eight in the morning. Sleep deprived and angry with herself, Sadie forced herself out of bed and went straight to the phone. She needed some girl time and advice. Even if the advice wouldn't exactly be on the right side of the truth. Sadie knew she'd have to lie to get the advice, but at this point she'd do whatever she had to.

Sadie dialed Ariadne's number and waited for her to pick up.

"Morning, Sadie," Ariadne said. "Is everything...umm...okay?"

Ariadne knew her too well. Almost way too well.

"When exactly are you going back to Paris?" Sadie asked ignoring her question.

"My flight is later today. Why?"

Okay, good. There was time.

"Do you have enough time to have breakfast with me?" Sadie asked pacing back and forth in front of the coffee table, not being able to stand still for even a second.

"Yeah, I think so. What's up?"

Sadie sighed. "I need to talk about something? Can you meet me at Manhattan Cafe?"

"Umm...sure, is everything okay?" Ariadne asked with concern evident in her voice.

"Yes," Sadie lied. "No," Sadie corrected herself seconds later. "Well I don't know really," Sadie admitted another few seconds later. "You know what...just meet me at Manhattan Cafe, please."

"I don't know where that is."

"Call a cab. The driver where know where it is," Sadie said. "I'll see in an hour or so."

"Umm...Okay, you, too."

With that they both hung up at the same time.

~Unbroken~

An hour or so later, Ariadne and Sadie sat at the Manhattan Cafe in silence, having already ordered their food.

"So, what was it you needed to talk about?" Ariadne asked breaking the silence between them.

Sadie had spent the whole time waiting for Ariadne planning out what she was going to say. As far as she could tell, it sounded like a good enough story to go with.

Taking a deep breath, Sadie started, "Alright, so I have this friend."

"Do I know this friend that you're referring to?" Ariadne asked with an eyebrow raised.

Sadie shook her head no. "I don't think you've ever met her before," Sadie said, freaking out on the inside, but keeping calm on the outside. "But, anyways, she's in this situation where she likes two guys, and she's slept with both and they both know that she has, but one isn't happy about it while the other I guess feels used...blah, blah, blah..." Sadie let it all out taking only a quick breather before finishing it off. "All in all, my friend asked me what she should do about it."

"Umm...Sadie..." Ariadne hesitantly started. "You know I'm not a real relationship expert. Why are you talking to me about this?"

Sadie shrugged nonchalantly. "Because you may not be a relationship guru, but you do have good advice about things," she said with a smile. "I think this might be one of them."

"I don't know, Sadie. I'm not..." Ariadne continued to seem hesitant about the situation.

"She just wants to know if she should choose one of them or should she do something else about it," Sadie tried again, leaning forward on the table with her hands clapped together. "But, I don't know what to tell her."

Sadie's stomach was doing cart wheels as she hoped and prayed that Ariadne would give her something to work with.

After a few seconds of silence, Ariadne broke it.

"Alright, fine," she sighed. "I'll give this a go."

Sadie smiled and nodded urging her on, "Please do."

Ariadne took in a breath, and let it out, before she began, "If I were your friend, which I'm not..."

"Obviously," Sadie replied jokingly.

Ariadne glared at her.

Sadie put her hands up in mock surrender as she sat back in her. "Oh, sorry."

Ariadne nodded as her way of accepting Sadie's apology. "Any who, if I were your friend I'd choose neither of them."

Hmm, alright, well...that wasn't what Sadie had been expecting. Sadie raised an eyebrow and asked, "You wouldn't? Why not?"

"Because to choose one of them would be selfish," Ariadne answered simply, as if it were the easiest answer to give.

"How so?" Sadie questioned, extremely curious of what made Ariadne answer with the answer she gave.

"If she chooses one of them then she's being selfish by putting her happiness ahead of the others," Ariadne explained.

Sadie still couldn't grasp what Ariadne was saying. "I'm not sure I get what you mean."

Ariadne sighed seeming a bit agitated. It was obvious that this talk wasn't something she was entirely comfortable with.

"I mean, it's not fair to any of the people involved if one is chosen, the other isn't, and the one doing the choosing knows that while she's happy with one of the guys, the other guy isn't happy," Ariadne explained her way of thinking.

Sadie didn't reply at first, but then nodding in understanding. "Hmm...I guess that makes sense."

Before either of them could say anything their food came. It wasn't hard to tell that both Sadie and Ariadne were relieved to be able to forget about their conversation now and put it behind them. Well, Ariadne could. But, Sadie would have to think it through more before she went to see the guys later.

~Unbroken~

After lunch with Ariadne, and saying goodbye to her Sadie reluctantly made her way to the hotel to see Arthur. She was extremely anxious and nervous and it took her everything she had in her not to turn back and run away to go hide somewhere for the rest of her life.

Sadie took a deep breath before she entered the hotel. The hotel where she'd more than likely be leaving her heart. She knew going into this that it wouldn't turn out for the best. But, what could she do now? What was done was done and there was no way to go back.

Sadie made her way into the hotel and walked the familiar path to the elevator. She waited, with her arms crossed and foot tapping against her will against the floor. When the elevator doors opened, Sadie's eyes widened and her breath caught in her throat. She hadn't been expecting to run into him.

"You're leaving?" Sadie asked looking from Eames' hand to his face.

"Yeah, I'm going to go lay low for a while," he answered managing to avoid looking right at Sadie at all costs.

Sadie frowned and felt a part of her heart shatter. "Why?" she asked curiously, pushing the hurt she felt aside for now.
"You're not in any trouble or anything, are you?" she asked slightly worried all of a sudden.

Eames shook his head. "No, not exactly," he answered hesitantly. "But, I'm going to keep my distance from Arthur for a while."

Sadie gulped. "Oh, right, Arthur."

"I'm sure he doesn't want to see me anytime soon and there's no point in sticking around any longer," Eames explained.

Sadie didn't say anything right away, but then, not being able to stop herself she asked, "Am I going to see you again?"

Eames raised an eyebrow and finally looked right at her. "You want to see me again? What happened to going back to how it was with you trying to move on?"

Ah, Sadie hadn't even remembered that she said that not too long ago. Sadie shrugged and answered, "I guess that got lost when I put myself in a similiar position like the one you were in Paris."

"Wouldn't seeing me again ruin things with you and Arthur again?" Eames asked curiously.

"No, because there is nothing with me and Arthur," she answered with a sad sigh.

Eames looked taken back by what she'd just said. He wasn't expecting that. "There's not?" he dared to ask.

Sadie shook her head sadly. "No," she said not being able to hide the sadness in her tone. "And, there's nothing with you and me either. We're just friends or acquaintances," Sadie felt like she had to add.

"Just friends?" Eames chuckled. "Aren't you the one that got mad at me before because I called us just friends?"

Sadie nodded. "Yeah, I was," she confirmed. "But, now I see it in a different light and I've realized that it wouldn't be fair to you, me, or Arthur for me to be anything other than friends with either of you."

"Is that what you're going to tell Arthur?" he asked her.

"Yeah," Sadie answered. "Well, that's if he'll even open the door for me."

"I'm sure he will."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that," she disagreed.

They stood there in silence for a few moments.

"I should go now," Eames said breaking the silence.

Sadie nodded. "Alright, well, take care."

"Always do," he replied sarcastically.

Sadie couldn't help but laugh. "Kind of hard to believe that."

"I'm still alive now, aren't I?"

"Good point," Sadie said, feeling a small smile take place on her face, but only for a brief moment.

Eames placed a hand on her shoulder in a friendly manner. "You take care, too."

"I will," Sadie smiled another brief smile. "Thanks for everything Eames."

"Anytime, love," he said walking past her and making his way to the front desk to check out.

Sadie sighed before entering the elevator and pressing the button that would take her to her last destination for the day before she could go home and eat ice cream, watch chick flicks, and cry about how much she screwed everything up, unintentionally, along the way.

~Unbroken~

Sadie took a deep breath as she knocked on the door to Arthur's hotel room.

A few seconds or so later, the door opened.

He frowned when he saw that it was Sadie standing there. "What are you doing here, Sadie?" he asked turning to go back to whatever he was doing before.

"I came to apologize," Sadie forced herself to say, walking into the room and closing the door behind her.

"For what?" Arthur asked, not bothering to even look at her.

"You know what for," Sadie whispered just loud enough that he could hear her.

Arthur shrugged. "There's nothing to apologize for," he said. "We weren't together," he added after a moment.

"I know, but it wasn't fair to you for me to be hooking up with Eames while we should have been getting to you sooner," Sadie couldn't fight the urge to explain her need to apologize.

Arthur shrugged again. "You did what you did. There's no changing it now."

"I know there isn't," Sadie frowned at his need to speak the truth even though she already knew it and he knew she knew it. It just made Sadie feel even worse than she already did. "But, I can at least apologize for it all."

"Yes, you could, but would it really help anything?" Arthur brought up a valid point.

"I guess it'd depend," Sadie sighed.

There was an awkward silence in the room.

"So, umm...I think...maybe it'd be best if we just all stay friends...I guess you could say. Or acquaintances...whatever we are. It's just not fair to any of us for me to be with one of you while feeling the way I do about the other as well. We're just all better off alone as opposed to being in that situation," Sadie spoke, not being able to deal with the silence for too long.

"I agree that it's for the best," he nodded his head, but still wouldn't look at her.

Realizing that this was how the situation would continue, Sadie turned back to the door, "Alright, well...I guess I'll see you around, then."

"You never know."

Sadie stopped suddenly and turned around. "I never did get to thank you."

Arthur finally stopped packing and turned to look at her. "For what?" he asked cluelessly.

"For paying off my hospital bill," Sadie said. "From when I got the bullet taken out," she added, even though she knew it wasn't necessary.

Arthur shrugged his shoulders yet again. "Don't mention it. It was the least I could do."

"Alight, well...it was good to see you again," Sadie repeated from moments before. "And, I hope that one day we can both move past this."

Arthur nodded his head in agreement. "Maybe, one day," he offered Sadie a hint of hope.

Then Sadie turned to leave, yet again. But once again stopped and turned around. "Oh, and one more thing."

"What?" Arthur asked, sounding harsher than he was going for.

"Don't blame Eames for what happened when you were gone," Sadie answered sadly.

Arthur didn't reply.

"I'm the one who seduced him, and he just acted like any normal guy that was put in his position would," Sadie offered as her last shot of fixing things between Arthur and Eames.

Arthur still said nothing so Sadie turned and actually left this time.

Sadie couldn't help the pain in her heart when she closed the door behind her and leaned back against it. She hated feeling like this. It was as if a part of her had died. There wasn't many pieces left to her since she'd already felt the pain and lost a piece of herself once before.

Sadie wasn't sure if she had much more left in her for any of this. Maybe she was just meant to be by herself for life. Maybe being happy with someone just wasn't for her. After all, there was a plan for everyone, right. Maybe that was the plan for her all along.

Review?

There is another sequel...which would make this a trilogy. The sequel will be called Aftershock. But, it may take a while for me to post it. If I post it at all. So, that's why I've left this one with an ending that could either stay a complete ending or be a kind of lead to the next.