~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Sherri pov~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was lying on something soft. A bed probably. I could feel the warm sunlight creeping through the blinds and I rolled over so it wasn't in my eyes. I heard a small creaking sound and opened one eye to see Arthur standing there,

"Sorry if I woke you." I sat up and stretched,

"You didn't wake me." I yawned and Arthur smiled and sat down on the bed beside me. I lied back down and pulled him down with me. He chuckled slightly and I rested my head on his chest like I used to.

"I moved you from the warehouse to a local hotel we were staying at."

"Wow, I must have really been tired." He chuckled,

"I came to ask you if you wanted to help us."

"With what?"

"Our job."

"Do I get to be the architect?"

"You'll have a partner."

"Mmm, okay. Who's our mark?" I felt Arthur tense and I sat up a little and looked him in the eye, "Who's our mark." He shut his eyes and let out a sigh,

"Robert Fischer." My heart stopped. Something inside of me began to tick, like a bomb waiting to explode. Anger. That's what it was. I was angry with Robert for letting all that happen. Angry that my life was ruined because his father had pulled me into it. Angry that I took the fall for the deaths of three men, men who were my friends. I squeezed my eyes shut. "Sher, you don't have to do this. I mean I understand if-"

"No. I want to do this. I need to." Arthur pushed a strand of my hair out of my face. His thumb traced over my bottom lip and I realized just how close we were. But these moments never last and a knock came to the door. I tried to get up but only succeeded in groaning do to the pain I felt all over my body. Arthur laughed and got up,

"Shut up Arthur." I couldn't help but smile though. He opened the door and Eames came strutting through. I rolled my eyes and fell back onto my pillow.

"Nooooo, go away Eames." He chuckled and sat down,

"What? No good morning Eames?"

"Good morning Eames, now go away." He chuckled and ruffled my hair,

"Sorry Sher but Dom sent me to come get you seeing how Arthur was taking so long." I attempted to push Eames off but the man was bigger than me and simply picked me up off the bed.

"Eames! Put me down!"

"Sorry love but we must get going. Our employer is very persnickety."

"At least let me walk on my own and get some shoes!" He put me down and I put my shoes on and pulled my hair back into a pony tail. "Alright, now we can go."

It was a short walk to the warehouse and when we went inside I found four people waiting for us.

"About time sleepy head."

"Oh shut up Cobb." He chuckled but went right into business mode. I surveyed the other three people in the room. A girl with long brown wavy hair. Thin but not a stick and she seemed to be a little dazed. I assumed she was new. The other man had an Indian look to him with darker skin and hair and had glasses. Maybe he was the architect I'd be working with. And then an older Chinese man with a suit that looked to be worth a very pretty penny. He must have been the employer.

"Sherri this is Saito our employer. Yusuf our chemist. And Ariadne our architect who I assume you'll be working with. Now we need to find time where we will have at least ten hours to do this…" I nodded my head. Dom continued to talk but I was still sleepy and decided I could always ask Arthur if I missed anything important. Once he was finished I strolled over to Ariadne.

"Ello, I'm Sherri." I held out my hand and she took it.

"Ariadne. Pleasure to meet you." She had a look in her eye. Like a shocked look mixed with recognition.

"Have we met before?"

"No." She was quick to respond. "No, I don't think we have." I didn't press it but I knew something was up.

"Alright, well, lets get started shall we?" We jumped into work mode. My body still hurt and it was pleading with me to stop, but I had a job to do. I stopped periodically to take pain medicine or change one of my bandages. We agreed that the first level would be Yusuf's dream. The second Arthur's dream. And the third would be my big brother Eames. We began construction right away. We made models and diagrams and study the layer of each dream. "I'll go get the boys to show them." She nodded and I left.

I found Arthur and my brother first, "Oi, can I borrow you lot?" They looked at each other then back to me,

"Sure." They followed me and I found Yusuf on the way back,

"You. Follow me." I didn't feel like being nice today. My body hurt and when you hurt who's going to be in a good mood? He gave me look but did as he was told. He followed us and I led them into the room Ariadne and I had been working in.

First we showed Yusuf his maze. He studied it and we explained it to him. He could add anything he liked so long as we knew. In the end he said he was going to go with a city theme.

Second was Arthur. We showed him his maze and he smiled seeing how it was a vertical maze. He knew that I had probably come up with that idea. Before I left I had created a bunch of vertical mazes with paradox steps in them. I got the idea from a painting. He decided to go for a hotel theme.

"And last but definitely not least is you Eames."

"Naturally darling." I rolled my eyes at him. I showed him his maze and he smiled at me. "I think a snowy little hospital in the mountains would be nice." I punched Eames in the shoulder,

"Eames!" He laughed,

"What?"

"You're only doing this because you know I hate the mountains." He grinned,

"Maybe." Arthur chuckled and I pointed a finger at him,

"Watch it." He put his hands up in surrender and a smile settled on his lips. As the day went on I grew to learn more and more about the people around me. I learned how Saito found Arthur and Cobb. How Eames had been residing in Mombasa for the last few years. Ariadne was apparently a college student in Paris that Cobb's father-in-law suggested. Yusuf was just a chemist that my brother knew.

Dom had changed a lot while I was gone. He lost everything. He wasn't as carefree and happy either. I knew that I had changed. There was no doubt in mind that I had changed. I had become more careful around people. A little harder. I was tougher by far. I used to hate guns and knives and now I'm an expert at handling them. In a world were blackmail is overlooked and crime is at a high you have to become tough. Either toughen up or die.

Then there was my brother. Eames. He seemed a little more… well, he seemed older. Not the whole you look old and I haven't seen you in a few years type thing. His eyes told the story of man who went through hard times and he had aged from it. He was still sarcastic and witty as ever but his eyes looked older.

Then there was Arthur. I let out a sigh. My best friend. I thought about what Dom had said. Did Arthur like me like that? I mean we were defiantly more than friends. I would lay my head on his chest, he'd wrap his arms around me, and heck we even shared a bed half the time. Most friends don't do that. But we weren't a couple either. Sure we kissed each other on the cheek and told each other everything but we had never actually kissed before. I mean there were times where we were really close to kissing but never once had we actually kissed.

I was snapped from my thoughts however when I felt those familiar arms snake around my waist and a warm breath on my neck, "What are you thinking about?"

"What makes you think I'm thinking about something?" He chuckled.

"Because everybody's gone and you've been standing here for the last five minutes not saying anything." I looked around the room and turned around in his arms. I grinned at him,

"So you caught me." He was really close now and our foreheads were almost touching,

"So what were you thinking about? Care to share?" I smiled at him and got even closer to him so our lips were but a few centimeters apart,

"Nope." I grinned at him and pulled back when I heard the others coming back. Eames popped his head in,

"Fischer Sr. is dead." Arthur and I followed my brother out into the main room,

"We leave in an hour. Get ready." I looked to Arthur and got closer to him,

"Care to explain where we're going?" He smiled at me,

"You didn't pay attention did you?"

"I was tired alright. So start talking." He chuckled and pulled me to him and kissed my head.

"Alright come on. I'll explain on the way." We were moving about through the warehouse gathering everything that we needed while Arthur explained to me that we were flying to Los Angeles.

"Saito bought the whole airline. Said it would be neater." He continued to explain to me that Robert and hid father didn't have that good of a relationship.

"Are you kidding me? After spending six years with them I can honestly say that their "relationship" doesn't even exist." He told me about how Eames was going to impersonate Browning to try and get Fischer to plant the idea in his own head so it couldn't be traced back to us. Yusuf was going to stay on level one and Arthur was going to stay on level two. I stopped him,

"Wait. You mean you're not coming with us?" We were alone in the hallway and he wrapped his arms around my waist,

"I have to stay so I can create the kickback." I bit my lip. He was really close now and his lips were just by ear, "You worry too much."

"And you too little." His lips were just grazing mine when we heard Dom and Eames shouting for us. He let out a huff and I laughed a little, "come on." I took his hand and ran down the hall, "I'm coming big guy. Call the cavalry back." Eames just shook his head and laughed. We loaded up and headed off to the airport.