3.

~ "Eames!" she gasped as his fragile body was suddenly strong, quick and powerful. His hands choking her as she tried to push him off.

"Think you can attack me while I'm sleeping, coward!" he roared at her as she cried out and tried to fight him off.

She wanted to cough, wanted to breath, her body being robbed of air as he pressed down on her hips to keep her under him.

"Eames!" she gasped. "Eames, it's me!" she coughed as she tried to scratch his bare arms.

It was like he was seeing her for the first time. His eyes became softer and he looked frightened.

"Ariadne?" he whispered in the darkness of their room.

His hands loosened around her neck and she rolled away from him. Still coughing as she welcomed the air back in her lungs. Tears streaming down her face from the shock of the attack.

"Are you real?" he whispered as she moved away from him. His hands, reaching for her; wanting to touch her; make sure she wasn't a dream.

She slapped his hands away.

"Of course I'm real!" she spat at him as she moved away again.

"Ariadne, what happened? How did I get here? Tell me what happened!" he asked in a scared voice she wasn't used to hearing from him.
"Eames, I drove you home from the hospital. You're at Blue Rivers, don't you remember?" she asked.

Could he really have forgotten all of this? What was wrong with him?

He looked so confused right now, she wondered where he thought he was.
"No." he whispered and covered his naked body up with the blankets. "I was... it was raining and... the men were fighting... the gas." he whispered more to himself then to her.
He looked up at her suddenly.
"I didn't hurt you did I?" he asked.
"No." she lied.

"I don't ever want to hurt you." he breathed.
"You didn't." she said as she rubbed her throat. Her heart forgiving him for the attack even if her mind was leery of being close to him now.
"The war, I sometimes have bad thoughts." he told her.

"I understand. Let's just try and get some sleep, alright?" she told him.

Eames was trying to touch her again. Trying to run a hand through her hair.

She put a hand up to stop him, only to have his fingers lace with hers as they lay back down.

She could feel his eyes on her as she tried to refocus her energy on sleeping.

"I missed you." he whispered as his breath tickled her ear. "I've missed you so much. There's so much that I regret."

"We don't have to talk about that." Ariadne whispered to him. "You're home now. That's all that matters."
"Am I? Am I really home?" he asked.
"Of course you are."

"Because I feel like I might wake up and this will have just been a dream." she said.

"It's not a dream, can't you feel how real this is?" she asked as his hands ran over her arm.

She was afraid to admit she liked the way his fingers tickled her skin.

"Dreams feel real when we're in them. It's only when we're awake, we realized something was strange." he told her.

"Well, this day couldn't get any stranger." she said and tried not to laugh as he was soon snoring again.

~ "I don't like crowds now. The rain makes me nervous and I can't see very well at night." Eames explained early the next morning as they raided the basket of food.

Dawn had yet to break open the sky and they had both woken up hungry.

Like lazy, spoiled children, they ate in bed. Eames eating slowly of the sandwiches and fruit cook put in for them.

"Were you... I mean, I heard about the trenches." Ariadne told him.

"Yes, I was in the trenches." he admitted. "I don't recommend them."

"Tell me about them." she asked.
"Nothing a lady needs to hear about. It was a foul, miserable business and I don't want to relive it." he said.
He ate some cheese with crackers and she was glad to see his appetite had come back.
"I think war is very obscene." he concluded.
"Obscene? You're the proper person to lecture the world on obscenity when you refuse to put on a night shirt?" she giggled as Eames was still naked and did little to cover his nudity.

"I'm just as nature made me, Ariadne." he said in a good humor as she fought a smile. "A little banged up, that's true, but I'll be back in fighting form in no time."

Her face fell. Remembering what happened last night.

"I didn't mean like that." he said. Sensing he had said the wrong thing.

"I know." she said and ate her own sandwich.

"I would never hurt you." he insisted. "I just... I have nightmares, and they feel very real."

"I understand." she whispered.

"No you don't." he said sharply. A glint in his eyes that made her sift away slightly. "Hopefully, they will go away soon." he amended.

"Maybe we should see a doctor about them. I've heard the girls at the hub talking about shell shock." she told him.

"I don't have shell shock." he growled. "I'm not mental. I just need a good rest, a good feeding and fating up, and my life back. I need to get back to writing, I need to find away to trick you into marrying me, and then everything will be fine." he said.

She shrugged.
"You'll accomplish none of those things naked, Mr. Eames." she told him casually.

"Well, if you're so uncomfortable, you are more than welcome to take off your night dress and join me Mrs. Hays." he said just as casually.

Ariadne tried not to smile, and failed.

"You're tempted. I can tell." he teased as he fed her a grape.

"Not that tempted. You're not as charming as you think you are, sir." she told him.

"I certainly am." he countered. "We can be like Adam and Eve if you want. No need for clothing because we don't know any better."

"But we do know better." she laughed.

They ate in silence for a while, Eames cutting up a block of cheese for them to share as the cold rain outside started to fall.

"So, tell me about your job taking care of Harold. You said that was why Fredrick married you?" Eames said.
"I didn't say anything like that." Ariadne told him. A feeling of walking into a trap coming over her.

"Yes, you did." Eames argued. "I said it was nice of you to take care of young Harold for his father, and you said it was your job. It was why he married you."

"I did not." Ariadne said even though she now remembered she had told him those words almost exactly.

"He married you so that he would have someone to look after this boy." Eames accused.

"He did not. Fredrick and I were in love." she said feeling her face go hot.

"Were in love?" he asked.

She said nothing.
"But you're not in love anymore? Is it because he's wounded and blind?" he asked.
"No." she said too quickly. "No, it's not that. If it were Arthur in that bed, I would be heart broken and I..."

"You what?" Eames prompted.
"I wouldn't be here with you. If it were Arthur in that bed, blind and dying, I wouldn't be here with you. I loved Arthur." she whispered.
"Yes, but Arthur's dead." Eames said hatefully.

"I know."

"Fredrick is on borrowed time as well." he added. His tongue like a knife.
"I know!" Ariadne almost shouted.
Eames leaned back and looked at her.

"Did you ever love Fredrick?" he asked.

She cut up an apple.

"Yes. I... not the way I loved Arthur. Not like I..." she let out a deep sigh. "I guess he was a safe choice."

"Did he love you? Or was it another marriage of convenience?" he asked.
"Don't say that. It makes me sound like..." Ariadne sighed; her pride wounded.
"Like what?"

"Like I'm not a real person with feelings or needs. I'm just a status symbol or a built in servant. I wanted to believe Fredrick married me because he loved me and not because he was protecting his child. He knew I would never put the boy in an orphanage. He knew I was too softhearted." she admitted.
"Please tell me there wasn't a wedding night baby." Eames said.
Ariadne laughed.
"No. Fredrick slept in another room. He said he didn't want a baby in case he died over there." she told him.

"So you were the nanny, not the bride?" Eames asked.

Ariadne blinked back tears.
"You married Arthur to save yourself and Olivia." Eames said. "He married you because he wanted the title and to restore his family honor. And..." he looked her over. "Because you're a lovely woman as well. You made him look ten times better than he had any right to look."

"Eames." she whispered. Knowing where this was going.
"We both know you married Fredrick so quickly because you wanted to hurt me for becoming engaged to Charlotte." he went on. "You've been married twice and you'll soon be a widow again. I think you're third marriage should not be a convenient one, or a vengeful one. I think your third marriage should be to a foolish scoundrel who loves you. Who carried your picture with him in the trenches and never wants to leave this bed with you. Who wants you naked with him day in and day out."

She stayed perfectly still as Eames leaned over and started to kiss her neck. His full lips blazing a trail up her neck to her ears and finally reaching her lips.

She never could resist him.

The pull she felt for him, started in her belly and bloomed wildly as his hands were cupping her breasts and lifting her night gown off her. Exposing her skin to the chill of morning air and his touch.