Robert was slowly noticing the changes in his fiancée. He had tried to make conversation with her. He had tried to talk to her about mediocre things like the weather and build on a conversation from there. But, Jenny was having none of it. She spoke to him politely, her eyes meeting his, but, he saw something different in her. He didn't see the woman he had fell in love with. He didn't see the strong willed, independent accountant. No, he saw a woman on the verge of breaking point and he didn't know how to save her.

"I'm worried about you," Robert whispered softly one evening as the two of them sat in the apartment and Jennifer looked at him, her eyes slightly blurred and her brain tired after spending the day in her dream with Amanda, holed up in that safety. The safety which was slowly becoming her only reality.

"Why?" Jennifer asked him, stabbing to the lettuce leaves. Robert had managed to come home and prepare a salad for their dinner after finding out Jenny was in the gym thanks to her note. The prenuptial documents were still on the worktop and without a signature. Robert hadn't pushed them upon her and Jenny hadn't looked at them, preferring to think that they weren't there.

"You've seemed distant recently," Robert informed her. "I know that we haven't been having the best of times, but, you don't seem...it's like you're not here, Jenny. I can't explain it."

"I'm fine," Jennifer lied to him with a shrug of her shoulders. "I don't know why you'd think otherwise."

"Let me see, Jen," Robert said, his voice curt and short as she stared at him with her wide green eyes, wondering what he was getting ratty about as she prodded her tomato onto her fork. "You and I barely talk anymore. We've not been intimate in over three weeks and the prenuptial still hasn't been signed. What's happening to us?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Jenny snapped back at him quickly, still eating her tomato as she did so. Arguments with Robert had become the norm and she was well aware of that. "You're rarely here, Robert. Every time I attempt to speak to you then your phone goes off and you claim it is an important business call. Every call seems to be important."

"I'm sorry if I have a business to run," Robert replied, his voice sarcastic as he ate a slice of cucumber and shook his head at her. "I'm trying to make it work."

"What?" Jennifer asked. "Us or the business?"

"Both," Robert declared. "You're just not making it easy on me."

"So it's my fault, is it?" Jennifer barked back at him and he shook his head, pointing his finger at her as he did so.

"I never said that, did I?" Robert replied and Jenny bit down on her tongue, not wanting to admit that he hadn't said that. The implication was there, but, he hadn't said it. She shook her head, feeling the bottom of her dark curls bouncing on her shoulders as she did so. "I want the old you back, Jennifer. I don't know what is going on with you, but...you're not you."

"And you're not you," Jennifer replied and he looked away for a second. He was well aware that he spent the majority of his time at the office and trying to figure out how to build his company back to its former glory. "You come in late at night and leave early in the morning. We barely see each other, Robert. And then you tell me that you want me to sign this prenuptial but you say that you don't care about money. It's hypocritical, Robert."

"It's logical," he simply said, dropping his knife and fork onto his plate and allowing it to clatter down as he did so. He was becoming tired with their arguments.

"It shows that you don't trust me," Jennifer said back to him, doing her best not to let the lump in her throat build up as she did so. "It shows that things have changed."

"Did you think that they wouldn't?" Robert replied, shrugging his shoulders wildly as he did so. "Did you honestly think that anything would stay the same when I found out about this Inception and you lying to me?"

"No," Jennifer admitted to him. "I knew that it would change everything...and I don't know how to change it back."

"I need to be able to learn to trust you," Robert said back to her, his voice low as he did so and she looked back at him, knowing what he was talking about.

"Everything that I did was to protect you," Jennifer whispered. "I just wonder if you'll ever be able to trust me again."

"One day, perhaps," Robert shrugged it off and Jennifer stood up, placing her plate into the sink before informing Robert that she was going out.

...

Robert was ashamed to say that he followed Jennifer to the location which she had headed off to. He'd jumped into the next cab after hers and told it to follow her. He didn't know what possessed him to do so. She was never at the apartment and she always said she was at the gym in the apartment building, but, she was never sweaty. She was never at the apartment during the day either; he knew that from the cleaner who came around once a week.

And so it led him to follow her. Any sign of trust in their relationship seemed to have been reduced.

But then Robert saw where she had gone. He followed her down the steps, keeping his distance until he saw the room in the basement of some bar and he looked around at the people who were laid on dirty off white loungers, their wrists attached to wires and he remembered some training which he'd had years ago. He remembered being one of them for a short time. He looked across to where Jennifer lay; her body limp as her eyes shut. He walked over to her, standing above her as he looked down.

He slowly perched himself down onto the side of the lounger and ran his hand over her cheek. She was living in her dreams. Robert was slowly losing her to a dream.

...

He left before she awoke, standing outside of the bar and leaning against the dirty brick wall until he saw her re-emerge. She was zipping up the jacket which she had as she ran her hand through her hair and looked around.

"Did you have a nice nap?" Robert asked her and she turned around and looked at him, shaking her head as she did so.

"You followed me," she checked and he nodded.

"I wondered where you were going. Why didn't you tell me?" Robert asked her and she shrugged.

"I didn't know how to," she admitted. "It isn't something I talk about, Robert."

"Do you go there to see your sister?" he asked and she shrugged.

"Partly."

"What's the other part?" Robert asked her and she looked away from his ice like blue eyes and onto the quiet street. "Jennifer, you need to tell me if we're going to make this work."

"It doesn't matter," she said quickly to him. "It just gives me time to leave reality."

"Why do you want to do that?"

"Because reality isn't all that it is cracked up to be," she spat out and Robert sighed at hearing her.

"Let's go home," he said and she nodded, walking by his side as she felt his hand try to reach for hers. She winced once at feeling the coolness of his skin and instantly she closed her fingers into a fist and folded it across her waist. Robert watched her as he stood still on the sidewalk, his jaw slacken slightly as he did so.

...

"It's got to stop," Robert declared from Jennifer the next night when she came back home and he shook his head. She looked at him and arched a brow. He was stood in the kitchen, his hands tugging through his hair and then moving onto the tie against his chest as he did so. Jennifer looked at him with narrowed eyes as he shook his head. "You've been dreaming again, Jennifer."

"Are you having me followed?" Jennifer snapped at him and he nodded.

"With good reason it seems," he snapped back at her and she shook her head quickly.

"I can't believe you," she said. "You can't do that, Robert."

"How can I not?" Robert asked; his voice going high pitched as he looked at her. "You're sneaking off and slowly losing yourself. You're hiding something from me again, Jenny. I thought that we were going to be honest. This is not being honest, is it, Jenny?"

"I...no..." Jennifer admitted to him. "I can't stop it...Robert...I can't stop going."

"What do you mean?" Robert asked her and she shook her head, feeling the tears building in her eyes as she ran a hand against the surface of the worktop.

It didn't seem real.

None of it seemed real.

"I don't know," Jennifer admitted to him. "I don't know what's happening...but...there's something wrong..."

"I think...Jenny...I don't think you're well," Robert whispered, looking at her and seeming truly concerned as he did so. He walked over to her, looking into her eyes as she looked back at him and he remained silent for a second, simply searching her eyes.

"I'm fine," she snapped back at him.

"No, you're not," Robert replied to her. "You're not well and you won't let me help you."

"I don't need help!" Jennifer snapped at him. "You don't know what's real, Robert."

"What?" he asked, his brows furrowing together as he did so. "Jenny, you're worrying me."

"I'm fine," she replied to him. "There is nothing wrong with me."

"There clearly is, Jen," Robert hissed at her. "Let me help you...let me take you to see a psychiatrist."

"What?" Jenny barked and shook her head. "That's not helping me. That's shrugging me off onto someone else because you can't deal with me."

"I can't," Robert admitted; his voice on the verge of hysterical as he did so. He felt his shoulders shake up and down whilst Jennifer blinked profusely and Robert stepped back, leaning against the worktop. "I don't know what to do, Jennifer. I don't know how to help you and you won't open up to me. You're like a closed book and I don't know how to change it. I want to help you."

"I don't need help," Jennifer denied in a whisper.

"You do," Robert argued softly. "What's happened to us? What happened to make us like this?"

"A ten hour trip to LA. That's what happened," Jennifer said lightly and moved away from the kitchen and into the bedroom, shutting the door to it whilst Robert remained looking at the closed door, his face emotionless as he realised that their engagement was disintegrating.

Robert toyed with his phone for a couple of minutes, wondering if calling him was the right thing to do. Jennifer was never going to open up to him and she was never going to stop going into her dreams unless he physically restrained her. He didn't know if the man he wanted to call would make a big difference or not. He didn't know if it would make any difference. He just knew that he had to try.

...

Eames was beginning to think that his life was just a constant airport. There he was, sat in the departure lounge of the airport in Paris and awaiting for a flight to the States. He'd received a phone call as he walked through the streets of Paris, taking in the sights and looking for the best bar to sit at. He could have said no. He could have refused to go back to LA, but, he'd been weak. He'd said that he would be there as soon as he could. The pompous billionaire had even called ahead and had a fist class seat reserved for him.

Eames sighed as he entered the first class cabin and folded his arms over his chest, closing his eyes and trying to get some sleep before he had to deal with the exhausting task of snapping some sense into the annoying woman the next day.

...

Jennifer sat in the diner down the road from the bar which she went to when she needed to dream. She sat down and wrapped her hand around the cup of coffee as she did so, looking onto the stained plastic table which she sat at. No paparazzi ever followed you around when you came to dives of places. Robert had gone off to work early, looking at her pityingly as he did so and she had left ten minutes after him.

She barely noticed as someone slid into the bench opposite her and she looked up, her eyes finding his face and he looked back at her, remaining tight lipped as he looked at her and she allowed her mouth to part slightly.

"Why are you here?" was the first question which she managed to ask him and he shrugged.

"I'm not sure," he admitted to her. "I didn't have to come. Your fiancé wasn't that persuasive."

"Robert?"

"He is your fiancé, isn't he?" Eames asked her dryly and she remained silent for a second. "He told me everything."

"And why did he call you?" Jenny asked.

"I don't know," Eames shrugged at her. "I was shocked he managed to find my number but then I remembered that he would know everything. He's a billionaire. I don't know why he thinks that I can fix you if he can't."

"We're broken," Jennifer shrugged, looking into Eames and his gray eyes. "I missed you."

"Did you?" Eames asked and Jennifer nodded. "I doubt it."

"Well don't," Jennifer replied. "I really did, Eames. Where did you go?"

"Paris, Madrid, London, Venice," he shrugged. "I've been travelling."

"So it seems," Jennifer said back to him and he sighed for a second, looking at her and unable to believe what he was seeing. She looked like she was lost. She looked like she didn't know what was real and what wasn't. Eames leaned forwards, his hands resting on the table as he did so.

"Jenny, darling," he whispered, "do you know what's happening?"

Jennifer looked at him and gulped once, shaking her head as she felt tears begin to spring to her cheeks.

"I don't understand," Jenny said, the tear rolling down her cheek quickly as she did so. "Eames...none of it makes sense..."

"Sh," Eames urged her, moving his hand out to lace his fingers through hers and she began to sob harsher, her body shaking up and down as she rested her head onto her arm, her other hand moving out to reach out across to grab onto Eames's arm as his free hand stroked the dark curls on the back of her head. "It's going to be okay, darling," he assured her, lowering his own head closer down to hers. "I promise you."

...

A/N: So thank you to K9Train, NeedNotNoName, Chromatique and reverie-scriptor for reviewing the previous chapter! Do let me know what you all think, pretty please!