I'm baaaaaaaaaack. :) Sorry for the hiatus. The writing just wasn't happening and when it was - I didn't like it. So anyway. Here is Chapter 14...
P.S. Thanks for all of your reviews. And thanks to lovinlife83 for suggesting the April Fools joke! Meant to thank her in the last chapter...
Oh, and in case you didn't know, I'm not Chris Nolan, and I don't own Inception or its characters.
Ariadne opened the hotel door to pick up the paper and squealed.
"What?" Daphne asked from inside the room.
"Look! It worked!" She rushed back in and tossed the paper to Daphne.
Daphne picked up the paper and smiled. "FBI arrests Victor Mendez in connection with Walters' financial scandal." She read the headline aloud. "That's great Ari!"
"I'm going to tell Arthur and Nick." She grabbed the paper.
"Go for it. I'm going to stay in bed." Daphne rolled over.
Ariadne rolled her eyes and knocked on the adjoining door.
It took a few minutes for Eames to open the door. "Morning Love." He grinned.
"Morning. Is Arthur up?" She held up the paper.
"He is. I'll let you tell him." He winked. "Is Daphne up?"
"Only if you decided to shave this morning. Otherwise, no." Daphne piped in.
"Then it's your lucky day Love." He brushed past Ariadne.
"Morning Arthur." Ariadne closed the door behind her. "Were you awake?" She walked over to the bed and crawled in beside him.
"Yeah I was. I haven't been sleeping a lot." He rubbed his eyes. "So uh, is there a particular reason you came in or did you just want to get in bed with me?" He rolled over and pulled her close.
At first she couldn't tell if he was serious or not, and then he chuckled. "I love you Ari." He kissed her softly.
"I love you too Arthur." She stared into his dark eyes; feeling like she could just get lost in them and it wouldn't even matter.
"So you never answered me." He smirked.
"I was giving Nick and Daphne time alone." She kissed him. "And I wanted to see you." She stroked his cheek. "And I wanted to show you the paper."
"What paper?" He yawned.
"This paper." She reached behind her for the newspaper and handed it to him.
He read the headline to himself and smiled. "I know you must be relieved."
"I am. Thank you." She kissed him hard on the mouth.
"Mm. So does this mean I am back in your good graces?" He tangled his fingers in her hair.
"You were never out of my good graces my darling Arthur." She kissed him again and added, "I was mad at you, but you were always in my good graces."
"Morning Love." Eames grinned at Daphne.
She lifted her head up over her covers and glanced at him before dropping her head onto her pillow. "I'm still not going to talk about the other night." She stopped his question before he could even ask. She knew it was coming because it was the same one he had asked for days.
"I didn't say you had to." He walked over and sat on the edge of the bed. "But I did shave for you." He stuck his bottom lip out and pouted.
"I didn't say you had to." She sat up and hugged him. "I would have still loved you regardless." She kissed him.
"I know you would have. So will you tell me?" He nudged her over so he could lie down beside her.
She slid over to make room for him. "Didn't Arthur explain the April Fool's joke to you? I can't tell you yes or no until it comes true. So if in a couple months I look like I have a ball stuffed under my shirt you'll have your answer." She knew she shouldn't torture him.
"And I suppose if you don't, I still have my answer." He wished she would just tell him. "Why won't you just tell me?" He pleaded.
"What does it matter Nick? We aren't even supposed to be together. You said so yourself." She turned away from him.
Her words stung. "What? When did I say that?" He wondered what he had been on to suggest something so asinine.
"When I was in the hospital. Before you left to do the extraction on Walters." She swallowed the lump in her throat. "You said we couldn't be together." She forced the words out.
"I did say that." Regret washed over him as the memory hit him. He rolled her over so he could see her reaction. "And you made me promise that one day we would be able to be together." He kissed her nose. "Do you remember that?"
"Vaguely. Like something from a half-remembered dream." She muttered, avoiding his gaze.
"Well you said it Love, and I promised. I just… I owed some favors to people who I'm not proud to admit I know. I wanted to keep you safe. It was better if I wasn't attached to anyone. I'm sorry." A sickening dread crept into his stomach. He had hurt her and he hated it.
She chewed on her lip for a minute. "What about now?" She was terrified of the answer.
He waited a few minutes to answer her. "I don't know Love." He let out a sigh. "But I do know that I love you." He kissed her lightly on the mouth. "And I know that I want to be with you." He watched a smile spread across her face.
She didn't get a chance to respond before Arthur walked in.
"Nick? A word?" He turned back into the other room.
Eames groaned. Arthur seemed particularly irritated or maybe he was just grumpy. "Let me go take care of Arthur. I'll be back later." He kissed her again before rolling out of bed.
"Mmm. Alright." She murmured and hugged her pillow.
Eames sulked back into the room he shared with Arthur. He wasn't in a mood to deal with Arthur's attitude. He shut the door behind him. "What do you want Arthur?" He leaned against the door.
"So did she tell you?" He wanted to know and Ariadne wouldn't tell him so he decided to interrupt their conversation.
"No. No she didn't. She said it didn't matter since she and I aren't even supposed to be together." He rubbed his face with his hands and walked over to his bed.
"Oh." Arthur cringed. "I didn't think she would remember that." He realized he shouldn't have interrupted.
"I didn't either or I never would have said it. Granted, we couldn't be together then, but she barely remembers making me promise that eventually we could be." He should never have told her anything, and maybe it would have been better that way.
"I'll talk to her. 'Cause even though I don't understand why, my sister is crazy about you and it makes her happy." He rolled his eyes.
"Daph?" Arthur called as he walked into her room.
"Yeah?" She walked out of the bathroom still twisting her hair.
"Let's get some coffee." He used the line she always did when she needed to talk.
She nodded and smiled. "Let's." She walked out of the room with him. She didn't say anything until they were on the elevator. She felt like he was waiting for her to talk. "Did Nick ask you to talk to me?"
"No. I wanted to talk to you. I feel like we haven't gotten to talk in a long time." He said quietly.
"Alright. I want more out of life Arthur. I am tired of living in a hotel and watching you and Nick work various jobs. I want to be productive. I want to be normal again." She laughed at how silly she sounded. "Well as normal as I can be. Arthur, I heard about a job from Ari. It's with the Sacramento Art's Council. They need someone like me."
"Daphne that's great. Why didn't you tell me?" He hugged her.
"I didn't know how you would take it, which is why I didn't tell Nick either. The two of you are always travelling and with Ariadne going back to Paris I wanted to figure out a plan." She cringed when she saw the shock in Arthur's face. "She hasn't told you?"
"No. She hasn't." He leaned against the elevator wall feeling defeated. "I guess I knew she would go back to Paris, but we never talked about it. I never thought to bring it up."
"She was probably worried about how you would take it." She offered.
He nodded in agreement. "I'm sure she has plans for her life. I just want to make sure I'm a part of them." He let her step off the elevator first.
"So tell her. She'll smile and giggle, and she might even cry. But she'll be happy because she loves you." She smiled.
Arthur saw it as the perfect chance to turn the tables. "And Nick loves you. It actually drives me crazy that out of all the people in the world, it had to be him." He rolled his eyes.
Daphne couldn't help but laugh. "I know, and I love him too." She walked outside.
"But?" Arthur asked as they walked to the café.
She shrugged, but didn't say anything.
He nodded, and kept walking. He didn't push the issue. She would tell him in her own time. She had already told him more than she had in months.
She didn't say anything until she ordered her coffee. Arthur found it interesting that she ordered decaf. She sat and stared at her coffee. "I love him Arthur." She said quietly. "I don't want to be in Sacramento alone. I don't want to raise a child alone!" She blurted, and then blushed, covering her mouth. "Theoretically of course." She mumbled.
Arthur smirked. "Of course."
"It's not funny Arthur!" She tried to keep from laughing.
"I didn't laugh." He tried to stifle his laugh.
She looked at him and started laughing.
"Somehow I knew this day would come. Although I didn't expect you to cry 'April Fools'." He laughed.
"It made sense at the time. Your reaction through me for a loop though. Maybe I shouldn't have been so casual about it." She shrugged.
"I wasn't sure if you were joking or not, but I figured if you really were pregnant that you wouldn't joke about it. When you got up and left I realized you were serious. I'm sorry Daphne." He was sincere. He hadn't meant to upset her.
"Oh hush Arthur. Don't make me cry. The baby makes me do enough of that." She smiled.
"So are you going to tell Nick?" He tried to sound serious, but failed miserably.
She rolled her eyes. "I suppose I should. Does he think I am?"
"He doesn't know what to think." He sighed. "Did you really say that it didn't matter if he knew because the two of you weren't even supposed to be together?"
"He said it first." She sounded like a child.
"Daphne. The man is crazy about you. He would do anything in the world for you. Do you really think he would have ever said that if he wasn't looking out for you? If he didn't really love you?" He felt exasperated.
"Arthur, I don't know. The whole 'mugging' incident scrambled my brain, and then the 'relapse' took those scrambled pieces apart and scrambled them again. And then just when I think I have gotten things straightened out I get pregnant! And that scrambles things in its' own way. I say things that I don't mean." She took a sip of her coffee and stared at her cup.
"Well the good news is that you aren't crazy. You're just pregnant." Arthur laughed.
She laughed with him. "Thank you Arthur. I needed this."
"I did too." He wished they had talked sooner.
"Hey Nick." Daphne walked into the room with Arthur.
"I'm gonna go talk to Ariadne." Arthur walked into the other room.
"Good luck." Daphne sat on the bed next to Eames. "And tell her that I thought she told you."
Arthur nodded.
"How are you Darling?" Eames wrapped his arm around her.
"Better since I talked with Arthur." She kissed his cheek.
"Well that's good." He was glad she felt better.
"So I spilled the beans to Arthur about Ariadne going back to school and my moving to Sacramento." Her voice was hesitant. She didn't know how he would react.
"And what is in Sacramento that is so much more fabulous than me?" He teased.
"A job. But I highly doubt it's more fabulous than you." She kissed him. "Unless they've found a way to clone you. Then I would be in trouble." She kissed him again.
"You'd really leave me with no one but Arthur for company? Do you know how boring he was during the Fischer job?" He was half-kidding and half-serious.
"He's not so bad. Ariadne has loosened him up." She smiled. "Guess what?" Now seemed as good of a time as any.
"What? You know I'm terrible at guessing." He pouted.
She laughed because he was right. "I'm pregnant!" She beamed.
"Really? You aren't joking?" His tone was hesitant, but hopeful.
"Really!" She giggled. She felt like a weight had been lifted that she didn't know existed.
"I'm glad you told me." He kissed her. "I was beginning to thinking something was really wrong with you."
"Nothing's wrong. I love you, and I'm sorry." She scooted closer to him.
"No worries Love. I love you too."
"Hey Arthur." Ariadne greeted him after she finished her phone call. "How was coffee with Daphne?"
"It went well. She is supposedly telling Nick all about it…" He began.
"That's good. I'm glad she finally decided to tell him." She opened her laptop to check her email.
"She told me to tell you she was sorry because she thought you had told me." He didn't want to think about being without her.
"About me going back to school next month?" She regretted not telling him.
"Next month?" He tried to sound calm, but his voice betrayed him.
"Arthur." She stood up and hugged him. "I should have told you before now. I'm sorry."
He returned the hug. "It's alright. I guess in the back of my head I always knew you were going back to Paris to finish school, but I just never talked to you about it. I never thought to ask you about your plans, but I should have. And, well, I want to be a part of them." He felt the blush in his cheeks.
"Arthur." Her reaction was just what Daphne said it would be. She smiled and giggled, and her eyes filled with tears. Then she kissed him. "I want you to be a part of my plans. I don't know what I'll be doing after I graduate, but I want to be with you."
"And I want to be with you." He kissed her.
Aw... Anyway, I hope you liked it, and I hope I didn't lose all my readers by waiting two months to update.
If you have any thoughts or ideas let me know. Thanks! :)