The Past

This chapter is rated M, there is a frequent mention of drugs, you'll have to read on to see why mwhaha. This chapter is pretty long too, Eames and I promised it'd be a good one :)

Enjoy!

Ariadne had agreed to meet Eames at his apartment, it had been two days since the zoo fiasco and he'd promised her something good, she hoped he kept his promise. She knocked hesitantly at the door and he welcomed her inside with an uneasy smile.

She walked down the cream coloured hall and was instantly surprised. He had two pictures hanging on the wall; she wasn't expecting that, she had assumed that because he wouldn't share his personal life that he wouldn't keep mementos, but Eames just kept on surprising her. Ariadne recognised the picture of Maddie, it was just how Eames described his sister. She had her brown hair tied up into a ponytail, her blue eyes, so like her older brother's, were looking over at someone out of the photograph, and she had a wide laughing smile that lit up her face making her look beautiful. It seemed good genes ran in the Eames family.

The second photograph was different; it had been taken in a photo booth by the looks of it. There were creases horizontally and vertically as if it had been kept in a wallet for some time before assuming its place on the wall. The colour had also faded a little as it had aged in the frame. Eames was in the picture, Ariadne knew straight away it was him; he had his head thrown back in laughter, and there was a red lipstick kiss on his left cheek. He looked so different, so carefree, like nothing mattered but that moment in time. His smile, just like his sister's, lit up his face making him look handsome, Ariadne smiled too as she studied it. She soon noticed there was another person in the booth with him. She was a petite and slender woman, about a size 6, and looked somewhat glamorous with her delicate gold jewellery and faux fur bolero. She was younger than Eames but Ariadne guessed only by a couple of years, they both looked in their twenties, Eames about twenty five and this woman about twenty two. She had honey blonde hair shaped into a bob that came to her chin and evergreen coloured eyes lined with black kohl to emphasise them. She too was smiling with the red lipstick lips that had marked his cheek; however to Ariadne this woman's smile seemed more reserved in contrast to Eames carefree laughter. She was sitting on his lap and they were facing each other, Ariadne guessed Eames was laughing at something this woman had said. She had one arm draped over his shoulders and the other at her side. Ariadne noticed she was wearing a chunky silver and onyx ring on her index finger and she could vaguely see a silver (although she had a nagging feeling it was platinum) diamond ring on the woman's third finger. Ariadne came to the conclusion they had been engaged.

"See something you like?" Eames teased as Ariadne had been studying the picture for a full five minutes.

"Who is she?" Ariadne turned to look at him suddenly in awe. Eames had been a committed man; it was a lot to take in.

"Now you've ruined my surprise for you, spoilsport."

"You've got her picture hanging in your hallway, its hard for me not to notice. She's got an engagement ring on! This woman is important to you otherwise the picture wouldn't be here, it'd be burnt or thrown away or in an apartment you used to live in, the fact that you've brought it with you means something."

"You're too perceptive, even for a woman." Eames grumbled as walked away from her and entered the kitchen to pour himself a tumbler of whiskey on the rocks.

"I'll just have orange juice." She said as she followed him and took a stool opposite the breakfast counter.

Eames downed the large measure of whiskey in one gulp, gritted his teeth at the aftertaste and poured himself another before going to the fridge and getting a carton of Minute Maid Orange Juice out for Ariadne.

"This constitutes as a big thing, maybe the only big thing I will ever tell you, I haven't decided quite yet. But this is me apologising for yesterday so I feel obliged to tell you something important. However, I am warning you it's not exactly light-hearted like the others things I've told you, it's pretty dark and messed up and probably a core reason why I never let anyone know much about me."

"You've got me is suspense, tell me already." Ariadne replied eagerly.

"That beautiful woman in that picture is Ava Callahan; she was once destined to be my wife, many, many moons ago." Eames started as he took another gulp of the whiskey.

"That photo was taken five months into our courtship, she was twenty two and I was twenty five. We were together for a year in total. I let her move into my flat after the first two months, we were happy and in love for most of the time we were together, but it became sour towards the end, I'll explain that later. All of this was a couple of years before I got in on the dream stuff; this was just after I'd stumbled into becoming a lackey for a well known mob boss in London. My job was part of the reason I left Maddie's life, my father didn't want anything to happen to them if things got ugly, so he moved away to Kent and I had nothing more to do with them. It was hard at first but didn't want anything to happen to my baby sister, so I kept my promise, have done to this very day."

"So that's why you can't go back and see Maddie, because you got on the wrong side of a mob boss?"

"Did I look like I was finished to you?" Eames asked cuttingly, he didn't mean to sound that way, but it hurt to talk about these things and he wanted it to be over as soon as possible. The whiskey was his anaesthetic right now, numbing the pain slowly but surely.

"No, sorry, please continue." Ariadne understood.

"Ava loved our lifestyle, we could afford the good things in life. She was middle class and only dreamed about things like that before I came along. I had an apartment in Chelsea overlooking the football ground, although I would've rather been overlooking Highbury, but I digress. Living in Chelsea means you've got money, and I liked that feeling of importance, that feeling of status, I was someone to be taken notice of. The amount of money I earned meant I could afford to bring Ava home little extravagancies from Tiffany's every month or so, or that I could treat her to a shopping trip at Oxford Street every other weekend, I was on the high end of the mob payroll and unfortunately I was good at my job. About six months into our relationship my darling little Ava was introduced to cocaine by one of her friends on a night out; Ava knew I was in on my boss's dealings with the stuff and asked me to feed her addiction, although in not so many words."

Eames poured himself another measure and looked over at Ariadne with unease, he knew she didn't approve but he didn't know if she was going to verbalise her feelings with him on not.

"Look, I told you this was going to get dark. I want to remind you this is the person I used to be, I am in no way, shape or form that person now. I've learnt from my mistake."

She just stared at him and drained the last of her first glass of orange; she refilled the glass and nodded to say he could continue.

"I admit, at first I got her the cocaine. Not massive amounts, it was only supposed to be a recreational thing, I never did it myself, I hated to think what really went into that stuff, I never wanted her to do it but she begged and pleaded with me and I loved her so much I couldn't say no, the fool that I was. The habit got worse over the next coming months; she was more interested in the drugs than the jewellery, the clothes, anything else I could've brought with money, she even lost interest in me, physically. Not to go into too much detail, but before the drugs we had a pretty healthy sex life, which fizzled out the more cocaine she took. I tried everything to get her to stop. I tried refusing her, kicking her out for the evening, locking her in so she couldn't go out and get more; I brought the smallest supply I could manage to keep Ava under control. Nothing worked. She became unhappy with my attempts to divert her attention from the cocaine, so she went behind my back; she started buying the drugs out of her own money, sniffing it before I got home so when I found her I couldn't do a thing, by then she was on a comedown and she usually turned nasty and blamed me for her addiction. There were days when I wanted to pack my bags and leave her to it, but I couldn't, she was going to be my wife, I was committed no matter what happened. Ava's money soon ran out, and she knew I wouldn't contribute so she went straight to the dealer and asked for credit. Now you never ask a dealer for credit, that's how bad things happen to female drug addicts because the dealer isn't interested in the money any more, they're interested in other forms of payment."

Ariadne could see where this was going but she didn't dare speak, she was too in shock to answer. She was horrified to think that the woman in the picture had spiralled out of control like that and dreaded to think what had happened next, she could only assume the worst, death. Eames drained his third tumbler and began to feel the effects of the alcohol, it wasn't long now till he got to the worst bit, it was nearly over.

"She still loved me and told him no, she could do fine without the drugs, she could stop whenever she liked. But the dealers always know better. She didn't return home for a fortnight, she was more interested in finding the drugs than coming home to me. Word got around that my Ava was down on her luck with an addiction that she couldn't break, and a stubbornness that wouldn't allow her to go home. She was approached by a guy who offered her a gram of cocaine and a place to stay for the night, for free. Now the Ava I first met would find this offer too good to be true, anyone in their right mind would, but she was desperate so she jumped at the chance. He took her back and good to his word he didn't make her do anything as a form of repayment, at first. She stayed another three days in a drug induced state. If she wasn't totally addicted before Ava well and truly was now, she couldn't go three hours without a hit. That was when he struck, he came back one night, took her to the bed and pinned her down with his hips and demanded that she tell him everything she knew about me otherwise he'd rape her then dump her in the Thames."

Eames gripped the counter tightly and considered downing another measure of whiskey but he thought against it, he couldn't let Ariadne see him anymore vulnerable than he already was.

"She was scared and totally convinced that he would carry out his threat so she told him everything she knew. Where we lived, who my boss was, what jobs I had been running while she'd been dating me. She told him who my mother was, where she was living. Ava never told them about my father and Maddie because I'd denied their existence; I couldn't take a chance with anyone about them so I said they were dead. I never gave their names and I went by my mother's maiden name in those days which was Shepherd. Ava told them my favourite places in London, people that I could run to, places I wanted to go to. Every little thing we'd discussed over the year we'd known each other she told them if she thought it was any use. After a few slaps to her face he was satisfied by her answers and threw her enough cocaine for half a hit, he then threw her out into the street and called her a junkie whore. She came home and told me what happened, she threw her arms around me and sobbed, apologising profusely, she said she was sure they were going to send someone round to get me if I didn't leave right then. I never even got to express how angry I was before the shots rang out, I escaped by the skin of my teeth. I stole a car, drove to Dover and jumped on the ferry to France. I had my wallet and somehow my passport, Ava must've slipped it in my pocket knowing I'd rather be angry at her then think straight. I withdrew as much money as I could from each different credit card then dumped them in a trash can in Lille, I wouldn't need them anymore, and it'd be too easy for my whereabouts to be tracked. I found someone who could forge passports a week or so later and then my new life as a petty thief started, forging identities in dreams came about a year after that."

Ariadne couldn't find the words to express how she felt. Now she knew why he had been so tight lipped about his past, he was afraid that something like that would happen all over again, someone would sell him out for their addiction, whether it was drugs, money or power. She reached across the counter and squeezed his hand.

"What happened to Ava? Do you know?"

"Last I heard she sold everything to feed the addiction. After that I know nothing. Although while I was in Mombasa I received something that had been dropped off in the lobby" He opened the cutlery draw and placed a silver ring with a diamond on the counter.

Ariadne gasped and picked it up to study if it really was the same ring from the picture, she was 99% certain it was.

"There was no note, just an envelope with my pseudonym Richard Levi. It'd been five years since I'd left Ava, I don't know if she sent it personally or if it was someone else, but I checked out of the hotel there and then and moved across town to another hotel. Cobb showed up the next day which gave me a distraction and I met you the day after."

He actually managed to smile at that point, it was brief, but definitely a ghost of his famous smirk. Then as if the gesture exhausted him Eames fluidly flopped across the counter so his face was inches away from hers. Ariadne put the ring back down and looked into his eyes. They were filled with sadness; she could tell he didn't like recounting this story. She smiled at him to let him know everything was ok, she was here now and she wouldn't be going anywhere.

"Am I forgiven?" He asked huskily.

"You are forgiven, and you have a four argument pass." She said as she stroked his stubbly cheek with her hand.

"Told you it was worth it."

He leaned forward as if to kiss her but Ariadne straightened up and kissed his forehead.

"I think you've had too much whiskey."

"I think I agree with you."

"Go and lie down, you've had a big evening. I'll come check on you in the morning."

Ariadne picked up her red coloured scarf and her thin black cardigan and made her way to the door.

"Ariadne!"

She stopped and turned around to see Eames leaning against the wall at the end of the hallway with an apologetic smile on his face.

"Thanks. And I'm sorry; it's a self defence thing."

"Its fine, goodnight Eames."

Reviews = love

i'm still not totally sure what i'm going to use for the last fact so suggestions are very welcome :)