"It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else."

-Erma Bombeck

Nathan- Warehouse on Washington St., Chicago, IL

When I first woke up, I thought I was experiencing the worst hangover of my life. Then I realized what was actually happening, and wished I was having the worst hangover of my life. We were all dog piled in a cell- me, Jason, Cobb, Arthur, and Ariadne. Arthur was lying across my leg and I found my head resting on Jason's stomach.

"Shi-i-i-it." I said, dragging out the word. I sat up and whacked Jason in the stomach, waking him up.

"What the hell, man?" Jason said, sitting up wearily. I kicked my foot, sliding it out from underneath Arthur. That woke him, and he woke up Ariadne and Cobb. They all looked at their surroundings blearily.

"Aw hell," Jason said after staring around for a moment. Cobb rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands and Ariadne leaned into Arthur, looking miserable. The cell was maybe twelve-by-twelve, and we were crammed as it was. Although it did help when Jason stood up. He went and examined the door to our cell. He tried the handle.

"Locked?" Cobb asked, rolling our his neck. There was a small red circle, almost like a bug-bite on his neck. I figured it was from whatever knocked him unconscious earlier.

"Well shit, how long has it been?" Arthur asked. I saw Ariadne reach into her pocket, looking for her totem undoubtedly. Her face paled slightly.

"My totem's gone," she informed us quietly. We all reached into our pockets and all came up empty.

"Okay, whoever's doing this is good," Jason concluded. Without another word he turned towards the door and began working at it with his fingers. We all watched him silently- no one had any better ideas. He looked back at us and we all stared blankly at him.

"Does anyone have a pin or anything like that?" He asked. Wordlessly, Ariadne retracted a hairpin from her hair. Some of her bangs fell down, limp in her face, but Jason looked satisfied with the tool. There was a silence as Jason went back to work. Arthur eyes him skeptically.

"Can you really pick a lock with a hairpin?" He asked. For an answer, Jason gave one final tweak to the lock, looking at it critically. Then, with surprising speed and force, he slammed his foot into the handle and the door swung open. Arthur's jaw dropped slightly before he could collect himself.

"Alright, kid. You're badass," Arthur said a little weakly. Ariadne gave him a smile and Jason shrugged modestly.

"I try. Now, who wants out?" Jason said. There was a note of pride in his voice that I hadn't heard there before. He was usually a pretty quiet kid. We all stood and exited the room cautiously, Jason and Arthur covering Ariadne and Cobb and I leading. We were in a hallway, studded with doors leading to rooms like the one we'd been in. All the doors were open, save two. I don't think the others noticed right away.

"Is this a jail?" Jason asked, his question directed at me.

"I think it's a mental institution," Cobb answered, cutting me off. We all turned to look at him.

"Do you know where we are?" Arthur asked sharply. Cobb went into one of the rooms and peered through a small window on the wall. It was barred, so no one could escape through it.

"I think this is Addams Memorial. It's in Springfield," Cobb said, squinting out the window. I followed him into the room and looked out the window. Two stories down, I could make out the writing on the sign as well.

"Hey, there's a couple of doors that are closed out here," Ariadne piped up. I decided to let her take the credit for discovering that.

"Jason can get us in," Arthur said. Jason looked only slightly apprehensive.

"Eames could be in there. Darcy could be in there," Cobb told Jason seriously. He paused for only a second before going to work on the first door. In only moments, there was another loud bang and the door was open.

"You have to teach me how to kick like that," Arthur said offhand to Jason as he and Ariadne entered the room.

"They're here!" Ariadne said, her voice shrill. Cobb and I followed the three younger dreamers into another cell, very similar to our own. Eames was propped up against the corner. Darcy was right next to him, her head on his chest. I noticed that his arms were slung around her in a protective stance. Good. At least he'd had the brains to take care of the her in the way he could. They were both hooked up to a feed that still had a couple of minutes on the clock.

"Do you think they're in Limbo?" Arthur asked. But Cobb was staring at Darcy, transfixed. If I wasn't mistaken, his eyes were welling up.

"Cobb!" I said a little snappily. He looked back at me.

"She's grown up," he said. I found this a little weird, but didn't object to his behavior.

"Due to be nineteen next month," I said a little rigidly. He nodded.

"Should we wake them up yet?" Arthur asked, clearly not a fan of being ignored. There was a loud bang on the door and a guy was standing in front of us in a hooded sweatshirt. There was a gun in his hand.

"Don't touch them or I'll shoot," he said. His hand was shaking a little, but his voice was firm. So all of us slowly, reluctantly, put our hands in the air.

Eames- Limbo (10 Years Have Passed)

It's getting harder for me to remember my life outside of Limbo. A life where I didn't spend every moment with Darcy, where there was work to be done. I can't imagine having to spend a minute without her anymore. She's become what I live for. And she didn't ever imply that she wanted to return to the real world. For all I knew, she had forgotten it.

"Eames?" She asked me. We were lying on our stomachs under the shade of a baobab, watching the sun set. I scooted closer to her so our shoulders were touching.

"What is it?" I asked. She turned so she was facing me instead of the setting sun, and she rested her head on her arms.

"Do you remember that place we used to live? That place with all the buildings?" She asked. I felt myself scowl slightly.

"You mean our real lives?" I asked. I was gentle in my reminder. It was her turn to scowl. She stared at the cracked dirt on the ground.

"Is that what that was? It's all so fuzzy, I can hardly remember it," she said, running her fingernail through the dirt.

"That's a shame, darling," I said. I kept my voice light, trying to bury my concerns. "But what was it you wanted to ask about our lives?"

"Do you ever think about going back?" She asked me. "I mean, there are things in that world that we don't have here, right?" I licked my lips. It was always hard remembering what we'd left behind.

"I do think about it sometimes, Dar. I miss people there, I miss places there," I frowned slightly, thinking about all the memories. She bit her lower lip.

"That's just the problem, Eames. I can't remember all those things anymore. I… I can't remember who I was friends with. I don't know where I was living at the time… I'm forgetting everything, Eames," she spoke nervously. I hadn't heard her so tense in years.

"Don't worry Darcy, it'll all come back." I reassured her. I wasn't sure myself. Cobb and Mal hadn't experienced that.

"It's just that- I've been figuring all of this out- and Eames, I've spent just as much time in Limbo as I have in my other life. I mean, it must have been ten or eleven years since we got here. I may have spent more time here than anywhere else in the world. Not that I want to leave," she added. I closed my eyes sadly. Here was the sure sign that we had to leave this place.

"I'm taking you home, darling," I said, finding her hand with mine. She gave it a nervous squeeze, and I rubbed her thumb with mine. "It's going to be okay." She turned over on her side so she was looking straight at me.

"When we go home, I think I'll still be in love with you," she professed. I gave her my most confident smile.

"And I will still love you with all my heart, dearest. Is that what you're worried about?" I asked. She furrowed her brow, thinking hard.

"No, that's not the problem. It's just that… Eames, I think you were a lot older than me out there," she said. She chewed on her lower lip nervously. "Will you still love me if I'm just a child?" It sounded funny when she said it like that. But I just moved closer to her, enveloping her in a tight hug.

"I'll love you no matter where we go, no matter what," I said to her. She looked up at me with sad eyes and we shared an understanding.

"Then it's time to go home." She said. She looked around at her pretty little world. "Because this isn't home, right?" I nodded firmly. I didn't like that she had to ask.

After saying our goodbyes to this little savannah of ours, we went to our baobab tree. It was taller than it was when we first got here- thicker too. I had to boost up Darcy so she could get up to the lowest branch, and likewise, she had to help pull me up. Once we had both caught our breath on that branch, we ventured higher in the tree. The smaller branches scraped our arms and faces, but I don't think either of us minded. We were too focused on the task at hand.

Once we were as high as we could go, we stopped and looked at each other. Fear was evident in Darcy's face.

"Are you sure that this isn't our reality, Eames? It feels so real to me?" She asked me suddenly. She was having her doubts. I'd been here for probably a decade, and she'd been here longer. I could hardly blame her.

"I'm sure it is Darcy. We have to go home, you and me." I told her sternly. She nodded, and then looked out across the plains. We hadn't built a single building together, but we had created a forest, a river, a mountain range and two lakes. I'd never known dreaming like this. I would miss it, admittedly. But I had to keep reminding myself- I had to go back to what was real.

"We're jumping together, right?" Darcy asked nervously.

"Together," I confirmed. She nodded. The color had drained from her face, and I could see that she still had her doubts. She looked at me quickly, a little panic in her eyes.

"I trust you, Eames. I trust that you're right," she warned me.

"I am right, darling," I told her. I was right, wasn't I?

"Then let's jump," she said. Her voice raised an octave. Her fear was contagious, but I fought to keep my voice calm.

"On three," I told her. She nodded, even though she looked like she was going to pass out.

"Right," she said. "One." I swallowed hard and took her hand tightly.

"Two," I said. I looked at her. She wasn't going to jump. She couldn't do it. She started backing towards the center of the tree, shaking her head.

"Eames, I can't-."

"Three," I said, and pulling her as hard as I could, we both plunged out of the tree and down towards reality.

A/N: I know it's been a long time (again), but school is just around the corner and I've started my summer reading homework, and it's kept me busy. I will finish this story, probably within a week or two, so just bear with me.

Also, props to jennedy who pointed out my mistake with aging. I've edited that part so it follows the rules better. Thank you for reminding me about that!