I'm so sorry for the long delay. I know that, for me anyway, stories that continue after long gaps are never quite as good as they were, but I really want to have the accomplishment of wrapping this one up.

~M.

Ariadne jerks the IV line from her wrist and drops to the floor beside Arthur's still form. She glances up to watch Whelan turn and put bullets in Cobb's heart and Eames' leg. She tries not to look the place in Arthur's head where a bloody tunnel has been carved through his skull as she presses two fingers to his neck and wills his blood to move beneath them.

"You didn't honestly think you would get away with it," Whelan says somewhere in the background as Ariadne breathes Arthur's name over and over. She pulls her hand away from his still neck and reaches for his wrist instead.

"You couldn't have believed that you would have accomplished anything by undermining me," Whelan's voice has moved closer to the spot where Eames' breathing is coming in harsh gasps.

Arthur's wrist is unmoving under Ariadne's touch. She can't breathe around the stone that's been inserted in her chest. At the edge of her vision she watches Yusuf kneel down beside Cobb.

"My only conclusion, then, is that you have an unusual love for pain." Whelan's voice is light, almost mirthful.

Ariadne holds Arthur's face, willing his eyes to move, to meet her gaze, to blink away he blood that is dribbling into them. A sob works its way around the bolder in her chest and tears itself from her throat.

Whelan takes a breath. "Thankfully, I am more than willing to help you with that." A second shot rings, and the bullet imbeds itself in Eames' other leg.

Ariadne doesn't know what to do now. She wraps her arms around Arthur and tries not to think about the way he feels like deadweight—a term she shudders away from when it flickers through her thoughts—and focuses on trying to take back minutes. She doesn't need very many, just the past five or so. Someone must know how to do that.

Eames' breathing echoes off the walls of the hotel room, and Whelan steps forward and clicks the hammer on his gun. "Beg for your life."

"No."

"Do it," Whelan commands, the muzzle of his gun pressed against Eames' chest.

"You're going to kill me anyway," Eames gasps. "Just get it fucking over with."

The shot silences Eames' breathing altogether.

"What should we do with you?" Whelan's steps take him closer to the bed.

Ariadne's mind shifts to Saito, still asleep under the effects of Yusuf's chemicals. She thinks about just how lucky he is not to be aware.

She wills Arthur to wake up.

"And you two, the chemist and the architect. Are you ready to join your friends?"

Ariadne runs her hand over the smoothness of Arthur's hair and waits for the sound of the gun. Wherever she's going has to be better than where she is now.

Whelan takes several steps and then stops. "Then again, what is a man without power? And how can power be known without witnesses to tell about it?"

She doesn't look up at him. She holds onto Arthur with all her strength and tries not to think about the way her heartbeats are pulling them farther and farther apart.

"I know how much trouble loose ends can cause, but I think you've seen what I'm capable of. Tell Saito when he wakes up that the inception may not have worked, but I still expect him to play nice with Cobol of his own volition."

Yusuf shifts. "What about Cobb's children?"

Ariadne raises her head in time to watch a grin spread across Whelan's features. "I don't know where Cobb hid his family. His children were never in any danger at all. Have a good evening now you two."

He pockets his gun and strolls out of the hotel room.

Yusuf waits until the door clicks shut behind him before reaching for the hotel phone. Ariadne wonders why no one's come to investigate the gunshots, but realizes rooms this nice are probably soundproofed. Yusuf presses three buttons and waits for a moment before saying "We need an ambulance. Room 1529. Hurry."

Then he pulls the IV feeds out of Saito, Cobb, and Eames, and hides the PASIV under the bed. "We should really destroy it," he says. "But there isn't time."

Ariadne nods and licks her lips. "Is Cobb…?"

"No heartbeat."

Ariadne nods again and her thoughts go to Miles taking time off to spend with his family, and how those children have lost both their parents to dream work. She wonders what the rest of their lives will be like.

"Ariadne," Yusuf's voice is soft and he steps around Cobb and Eames to reach her side.

Ariadne doesn't know when she started crying, but the tears are rolling down her cheeks and dripping off her chin like summer rain.

This isn't fair. None of it is fair. Cobb can't be gone, and his kids can't be orphaned, and Athur—

Her tears work their way up to sobs.

She doesn't know what she's supposed to do without him.

Saito begins to shift on the bed at the same time the police and EMTs arrive on scene. The EMTs check the bodies while the police ask questions about what the hell happened.

They take down Welan's name with skepticism clear beneath their calm. There's a commotion as the man crouched next to Eames' body says he's found a thready heartbeat. They load the forger on a gurney and rush him from the room.

When they ask Ariadne to step away from Arthur she almost screams at them. Yusuf wraps his hands around her upper arms and half pulls, half guides her to her feet before wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

She leans into him, into the respite from reality that the weight of his arm offers her.

Neither Cobb nor Arthur had ID on them Ariadne discovers when the police start asking for the identities of the men on the floor.

She also discovers just how little she knows about them. No birthdates, ages, next of kin—does a father in law count? Would it be smart to mention Miles?—or home addresses. She finally knows Arthur's last name, but she knows better than to give that away.

Ariadne feels eyes on her and looks around to where Saito standing by the edge of his bed, still dressed in his pajamas, as several officers run through a list of questions for him.

"Tell us how it happened." One of the cops pulls Ariadne's focus back.

"We're here as part of the travel conference," Yusuf says without hesitation. "We were meeting up here before going downstairs, and that's when Whelan came in. He didn't break the lock; I think he had a key."

"Why would he do this, and why"—the officer turns to Saito—"were you asleep when we came in?"

Ariadne feels Yusuf tense, and she realizes that Saito holds their lives in his hands. Any mention of dream work and they'll be tossed in prison.

Even dressed for bed Saito has a commanding presence. They all wait for his next words.

"I was taking a rest to stave off some of the jetlag. I told the others they could meet in here as long as they were quiet. As to Whelan, I don't know him well, but I do know that he's an unstable man. My company recently attained a position that poses a threat to his, and I have no doubt he was here to kill me."

The cops look less than reassured. The inquiry continues. "So why do you think you're still alive?"

"Good friends, perhaps. I don't know for sure. Now, if you don't mind, I would like to get dressed."

"This is a crime scene," the cop says. "You can't disturb anything until we have things processed. The three of you are free to leave, but stay in the city. I'm sure we'll have more questions for you."

"We have clothes in our room," Yusuf tells Saito as he steers Ariadne toward the door.

As they walk from the room Ariadne can feel the adrenaline drain from her system until all that's left is loss. She works hard not to think of the name of the man with the bullet in his brain.

They stop in front of their room, and a sense of warning shoots through Ariadne's mind. "What if Whelan's still here?"

Yusuf pauses, keycard in hand, and looks at her. "There's no reason for him to come back here. He's probably on his way to the airport."

"But what if he isn't?"

"He didn't kill us once, there's a good chance he might not again."

"How are you so calm about all of this?"

Yusuf slides his arm off her shoulders. "Panicking won't help anything."

"They're dead, Yusuf. Cobb and"—she takes a breath—"Cobb and Arthur are dead. What are we supposed to do now?"

Yusuf slides his key through the lock and the light on the panel blinks green. He opens the door. The room behind it is dark. Yusuf clicks on the light by the door and Ariadne starts up the stairs to check on Whelan's room, because she'd rather face him than not know he was still here. There's no light filtering through his room, and when she flicks the light switch there's no sign of anyone.

It almost disappoints her, because thinking he might be here somewhere was one more thing to distract from the agony that keeps her from being able to take a full breath.

She moves back into the hall.

"I'm going to lie down," she says half way down the stairs. Yusuf and Saito look up from Cobb's suitcase at her.

Yusuf nods, and Ariadne heads back up the stairs.

She locks Whelan's door behind her, pulls back the sheets, and watches the reel of scenes and images of the last person to use this bed play in her mind's eye. She climbs in, pulls her knees up to her chin, and sobs herself to sleep.