Title: Le Famille
Author: A Crazy Elephant
Summary: Or "Five Times Ariadne Met Her Team Members' Families and the One Time They Met Hers"
Category: Family/Friendship
Word Count: 1,414
Disclaimer: Inception belongs to Christopher Nolan, not me. Sad.
Author's Notes: So I'm still hiding from my Human Variation paper, and I've realized that that paper on generational conflicts in 17th century French dramaturgy I've also been avoiding is coming up. Like Monday. I've had just about enough of Molière and Mendel (because those are totally related subjects) to last a lifetime so obviously I ought to write a little more Inception. Besides, this has been my favorite so far. I've read dozens of different versions of Eames- rake, reprobate, super spy, but I love the teddy bear family man sort of outlook on him and I rather hope all of you do as well. Brace yourselves for the fluff.
Again, I'm using a different tense than my usual style; let me know if I slip back into the past participle. Bonus points if anyone can tell me which fictional middleman mastermind I lifted the name 'Badger' from. Thank you so much for your interest any support! It was a wonderful surprise to wake up to an inbox full of alerts, favorites and reviews!
2 – Eames
2 Months, 1 Week and 5 Days After Inception
She takes one more job between the inception and the start of the fall term.
It's just a simple extraction, but she's been bored in the four weeks of silence she was required to maintain with her team members and jumps at the chance to bend cities again. The extra money doesn't hurt either.
They're in Dublin this time and the team is just Arthur and Eames. With his children restored to him, Cobb's pretty much dropped off the face of the extraction world, Saito sent them the referral to the current client and Yusuf, while more than willing to ship up some specialty compounds, has elected to return to his lab and the dream den rather than go into the field again so soon. She doesn't mind.
Much.
She's pretty sure she's going to break down one of these days and have to hurt Eames. That is of course, if Arthur doesn't beat her to it. Without Cobb around to glare and stew or Saito to hover and make his cryptic observations, Eames has slipped into full 'big brother' mode and seems determined to push Arthur into something drastic. Like a bullet between the eyes. Eames' or his own, she hasn't figured out which, but after two solid weeks of listening to the forger ruthlessly bait the point man, she certainly doesn't blame him. While their banter is on occasion hilarious, it makes it damn near impossible to test run levels with any kind of efficiency.
It doesn't help that Arthur has set them up in an old artist's studio that has the illusion of the open warehouse they had in Paris but at about a fraction of the actual floor space. The views out the windows onto the Liffey from their second story location are refreshing after the dull brick from the Parisian warehouse skylights, but each workspace is packed in tighter, her drawings and models and Arthur's paperwork seem to take up more room and everything just feels so close. Especially on rainy days such as today when they've all shown up in soaking jackets, toting dripping umbrellas and haven't the luxury of stepping outside for a bit of air.
By lunchtime, she's sure Arthur's made the executive decision to just put a bullet in the Forger if only for a bit of quiet and she's half a mind to help him out, but before either can reach for any sort of weapon a scolding voice from the outer stairs and the rattle of keys in the lock interrupt. It's strange – all three team members are all ready present and there's no one else she can think of that would have keys, but neither the point man or the forger seem overly agitated at the interruption so she's more curious than concerned as the heavy studio door swings open and a tiny little girl no more than three with sopping brown curls and a purple rain slicker bounces in.
"Ah! Nattie darling!" Eames grins at the appearance of the child who skips over, little yellow Wellingtons flapping, to the forger's desk, leaving the keys dangling in the lock of the open door.
"Daddy!" Daddy? Ariadne is shocked. Eames of all people is not the sort she pinned for a family man. He drinks with an enthusiasm to rival freshman fraternity brothers, he flirts shamelessly with pretty much anything that breaths, he gambles more regularly than he works and he most certainly doesn't seem to be the sort who lifts little doe eyed urchins in rain slickers and pigtails to sit atop his notes with a wicked grin as he does now.
"And where is Mummy this afternoon?" The forger asks with one of his charming smiles and the child giggles, swinging her feet back and forth off the edge of the desk.
"Just there," The little girl points to the still open door where a little blonde woman in the most ludicrously high heels Ariadne has ever seen and a beautifully tailored suit to rival Arthur's blusters in, carrying a Paddington Bear umbrella and a Big Bird backpack and chattering into a cell phone in a rapid fire blend of Gaelic and English. The woman looks tired and hurried, as though there are a thousand other things she's got left to do this afternoon as she tugs the keys from the lock and nudges the door shut.
"Yes Ma- I will. Thank you- good bye-" The cell phone is clicked off and vanishes into a pocket of the designer trench coat. "Hello Arthur," The woman waves distractedly as she passes the point man on her way to Eames' corner of the studio.
"Hello, Mim." Arthur greets dutifully from his desk. He still looks on the brink of causing serious damage to Eames, but the appearance of the girl and the woman seem to have calmed him significantly as the forger's focus now lies on the chattering child and the woman rather than solely on creating new and exciting ways of tormenting the point man.
"Darling!" Eames gives his customary greeting as the woman, Mim, drops the sodden umbrella and the Big Bird pack into his lap and presses a kiss to his forehead. "Whatever are you doing here, my sweet?"
"Client called on the way down from Mum and Dad's – I've got to run." Mim explains distractedly, her speech polished and her accent thick and rolling, but Eames isn't quite listening.
"Ariadne, luv- my wife Mim!" He introduces brightly and she waves, still a bit dazed at this curious new development, from her desk. "Mim, our charming little architect, Ariadne and this," The forger places a hand on the child's shoulder, "is Nattie."
"Hello," She greets and Nattie smiles, but Mim just gives a weak little wave in her direction before tugging sharply on Eames' loosened collar.
"Focus Willy; I'm meeting Badger on Grafton Street in twenty minutes to go over the order before we meet the client. I'll meet you back at the hotel." Mim explains, still in a rush and dropping a quick kiss to the child's forehead. Eames nods as Mim taps the child's nose. "Now Nattie petal, please be good for Daddy and try to let Mr. Arthur and Ms. Ariadne work in peace."
"Yes, Mummy," The little girl answers dutifully, turning her fingers over in over in a way that Ariadne vaguely recognizes as the movements to 'The Isty Bisty Spider'.
"Good luck darling," He grins and accepts a kiss. "Give Badger my best."
"Of course-" Mim waves him off and nods again towards Ariadne's desk. "It's lovely to meet you; I'm sorry to be so rude and just rush off, but I've a client tempted to back out of a deal and a colleague who can't handle it," She apologizes and with a final wave to Arthur, Mim is on her way out the door.
Once the click of Mim's heels down the stairs fades, Eames sets Nattie to coloring pictures of Elmo and Grover near his desk. Ariadne has to think about this a moment and it takes quite a bit of self-control not to giggle. Eames, fast talking, sharp shooting William Eames who wears awful shirts and is more than willing to leave a man behind, sets the tiniest three year old in the most precious little navy jumper she has ever seen to color Sesame Street before he returns to scanning through the neatly compiled dossiers Arthur has left him and for the first time in weeks, there is quiet in the studio.
It doesn't last long.
Nattie easily grows tired of Big Bird and Cookie Monster and is on her feet, studying first her father, who makes a wide range of funny faces over his notes for her benefit before losing interest and proceeding to the point man's work space.
"Mr. Arthur?"
"Yes, Miss Natalie?" Arthur answers without looking up from his laptop.
"Wotcha doin'?" The child presses, standing on her tiptoes in efforts to see above the desk.
"Background checks." Ariadne's fairly certain that this answer means absolutely nothing to Natalie Eames.
"Sounds borin'." Nattie snorts, falling back on her heels and scrunching up her little face. "How come you en't ever do anythin' fun Mr. Arthur?" Arthur frowns at the observation and Ariadne tries not to grin as the child continues, "How come you're such a stick-in-the-mud?"
Eames roars with laughter and looks nothing but proud.