Disclaimer: I don't own Inception nor any of it's characters.

Warnings: Graphic and Non-graphic scenes of torture. Non-graphic allusions to sex. Slash, Eames/Arthur

Rating: M for this chapter for sexual content.

Summary: Eames looses himself in a forge and both he and Arthur are left to try to help him remember who he is and why he lost himself in the first place.

Shout out to Reviewers: Alice, thanks so much for both of your reviews.

Notes: Officially finished writing this, so i'll keep updating bi-weekly till i get to the end. But for those of you who want it ealier, every review this chapter receives i'll update a day earlier. So review!

Chapter Four

The Past

The four of them went to the dog park after Arthur finished with the dishes. Eames and Twyrch wrestled in the grass for a while, while Arthur followed Llydd who was investigating a frog that was hopping beside the pond. He enjoyed his life with Eames more than he could put into words.

Arthur had grown up in a home with little laughter and less measurable love. Jack Arthur Remington was the youngest of five children. Two older brothers who were counted on to take over the lucrative family business and two older sisters who were married off as politically as the royals. The quiet young Arthur hadn't been planned nor wanted. He was much younger than the rest of his siblings and much more imaginative. He was constantly reading and researching; soaking up as much as his young mind could manage. To his family's eternal annoyance he questioned nearly everything. Though his father wanted him to study business, his mind always followed the fanciful more than the practical. His father had ruthlessly taught the young boy to despise his imaginative nature and to follow strict rules of conduct. His mother, borderline OCD, had taught him the way of cleanliness and to despise anything out of order. All emotion but the barest was squashed and put under a mask of solemnity. Emotion and creativity were weapons others would use against you, so it was hid. Composure and image were everything; bad image or loosing control was a sign of weakness that other's would exploit. Most of all he was taught never to disgrace the family name.

His families' wealth and influence was heavily based in the local crime syndicates. They were one of the most powerful crime families in America. They dealt in illegal guns, diamonds and just about anything they could get their fingers into. They ran the mob in about four cities and had made many enemies along the way. Arthur was raised with a gun in his hands and taught how to protect himself and his family from a very young age. He had grown up with mixed martial arts and many weapons courses apart of his everyday life. He had watched his father execute one of his business rivals when he was seven years old. He had killed for his first time when he was fourteen.

His older siblings had followed in their parent's footsteps as they had been taught, all except their third oldest, Dominic. Dominic Reid Remington, his older brother, now known as his assumed name Dominic Cobb, was the sibling that had paid the most attention to his younger brother. Dom was eight years older than Arthur. Dom had rebelled against his parent's strict teachings and loved on the younger brother. He helped him with painting and drawing, something his parent's had seen as a waste of time. He had brought Arthur to the zoo and to the museum. He encouraged him to smile and laugh and to cry with him. He taught him it was okay to let people in if they had gained your trust. He taught him right from wrong and even took him to church to teach him respect for a moral code his family had never followed. It was all thanks to Dom that young Arthur had had any semblance of love and normalcy in his life.

Then Dom had joined the army at 18. He had left and become a part of a new program in the making: dream technology. The guys who had first experimented with it taught him and he had been the best among his peers. Arthur found out years later, that it had been Dom who had helped leak the device to the private sector, something he could probably get tried and convicted for treason for if ever found out. Being eight years younger than Dom, after he left Arthur had had to grow up under his parent's controlling thumb and older siblings general dislike largely by himself for 6 years.

He had graduated at 16 and gone to college soon as soon as possible, wanting to get away from the crime world his family was apart of. He became a hacker at his university and was the go to guy for test modulating. He soon started to branch out and into more criminal undertakings. Hacking became a skill he was very adept at and he gained a loyal bunch of informants in the underground world of his college and local criminal syndicate. He exploited the fact that his family was well known in the killing of narks* department to keep informants loyal. He used his family criminal ties at first but soon started making his own way in the world of illegal information gathering and selling. He tried to keep away from the more hardcore criminals, preferring to deal with them from a distance and refused to go out into the field. His father warned him about smearing the family name and Arthur made sure he kept himself and his family protected. By the time he graduated he had himself a tidy fortune from his activities. He had graduated from a prestigious school with a master of arts in humanities and a minor in neuroscience at the age of 21.

His parents had expected him to take Dom's spot in the family business, until he had come home from school with a young man instead of a woman. Having a gay son was not something his parents would abide and made him choose between his sexual choice or his family and inheritance. He left without a backward glance. Dom had sent him a letter telling him he had heard what had happened and that he was so proud of him. The other three had sided with their parents and Arthur had been cut off from the family money and the family itself.

He was a veritable genius with all that he had put his hand to. His hacking was second to none and his extensive informant base was only growing larger as his name got more widespread. This naturally got allot of people very interested in the young genius but none more than his older brother and his professor Miles Moreau.

After serving the military dream work for seven years, Dom had left the army and joined the academic world in France. There he met Miles and more importantly Marlorie. They had helped Dom through his schooling and into higher realms of understanding the mind and it's intricacies. Dom had quite the knack for architecture. He had told his professor about his young genius brother and both Miles and Dom were quite sure that the young man would make an excellent candidate for the technology of dream sharing. Arthur had naturally done lots of research on the military breakthrough and had written several papers on the theories behind it but he had never imagined what it would actually be like. His brother had flown him to Paris to be with him and his girlfriend Malorie Moreau, Mile's daughter, after his family had kicked him out. Arthur left his current lover, who thought he was an emotionless robot anyways and moved to Paris. The three of them lived together and studied the machine and explored the possibilities of the dream world together for two years, doing odd jobs every once in awhile. Arthur was a perfect point man, brutally efficient. With Cobb as the architect and Mal the extractor the three of them made an amazing team.

Malorie and Dom had doubled as his only family and friends for those two years, till on a job in England, young Arthur, who was now going by the pseudonym Remy or Remiel, met a criminal named Robert Daniel Renault, later known as Eames.

After an intense two and a half years of getting to know one another, starting out as colleagues to best friends to lovers, Eames easily became the most important person in Arthur's life apart from Dom and Mal. Though they were apart for weeks at a time and fought like banshees, from the first time they'd kissed Arthur and Eames never had any doubt about whom they wanted by their side for the rest of their lives.

In the years since Arthur had become a famous point man he had had some dealings with his family but it wasn't usually very friendly. They had even met Eames. That had been a fiasco to say the least.

Arthur looked over at his lover then and smiled widely. Eames was still wrestling with Twyrch and his t-shirt and jeans were filthy with dirt and grass. Arthur picked up Llydd and walked over to the pair. Llydd who had been making as if to jump into the pond, barked unhappily at Arthur for stopping him and nipped at his chest playfully. Arthur tsked him disapprovingly before he plunked Llydd on top of Eames' back. He laughed when Llydd started biting at his hair. Eames made an indignant yelp and reached back to pluck the pup from its' perch. Twyrch came over to Arthur and sat on his foot, which he did when he wanted Arthur's attention. Arthur leaned down and pet the red dog behind his ears.

"Your filthy," Arthur chastised Eames with a glare. Eames smiled and rolled onto his back and winked. Llydd sat on his chest nipping at his fingers.

"You wouldn't have me any other way would you darling?"

Back at their apartment Eames put the dogs into their beds for the night and joined Arthur in getting ready for bed. Arthur always slept in silk pajamas bottoms and an appropriately colored cotton top. Eames' slept in his boxer briefs. Arthur asked him what he would do if they had to go into trouble and had to run out of their apartment in the middle of the night. "I'd go just like this Smoochie. If nothing else my body is good for distraction in the middle of a crisis." Though Arthur argued that Eames was not appropriately dressed for the possibility of action during the night, he had had to agree that Eames' body was certainly a distraction, when it came to him anyway.

Right now that was certainly the case. Eames' lower half was under the cover and his arms were behind his head against the headboard. His torso was fully exposed; his bare muscles and tattoos making Arthur ache in all the right places. Arthur crawled onto the bed and snuggled up onto on Eames and under the covers. He kissed him on the chin while running his long fingers over his collarbone and lower on his chest. Eames wrapped his arms around Arthur and pulled him tight to him till the two of them were chest to chest. Arthur flipped his leg over both of Eames' and straddled him. He ground his hips into the man under him and Eames growled low in his throat and bucked up against him. "Don't call me Smoochie," Arthur nipped at his jaw.

"How about Pudding?" Eames laughed as he kissed Arthur's cheekbone.

"No."

"Pooh Bear?" Eames asked running his hands through Arthur's loose hair.

"God no!" He brought his mouth up to Eames' and nipped at his lower lip.

"Boo?" Arthur was about to comment but instead he moaned keeping a steady slow pace with his hips while Eames writhed beneath him. He slid one hand down Eames' chest and stomach before placing it on the edge of his waistband.

Eames put his hands on Arthur's hips and stilled his movements. He smiled against Arthur's mouth and pulled back from the kiss suddenly.

"Not in front of the kids Booboo," Eames said looking over at the two dogs that were curled up in the corner of the room with Dolos. Eames' didn't like getting frisky when the animals in the room, "It's just down right creepy. I was never one for voyeurism." Arthur looked over to the corner where little Llydd was innocently staring at them and it did make Arthur feel a tad bit uncomfortable.

"I did tell you to put them out into the garden for the night didn't I. Now either quit being weird about it or put them out now before I get started without you," Arthur groused bending down to peck a kiss at the base of Eames' throat and he snapped the elastic in Eames' waistband against his skin.

"Ow!" Eames laughed into Arthur's hair and shifted them so he could shoe the dogs out. They ran out when he tossed a ball out into the hall. Dolos was much more difficult to get rid of. Angry at being woken from his sleep he sprinted under the bed and Eames cursed at him while he lay on his stomach trying to reach the stubborn feline.

"Bloody hell, Dolos. Come on…(grunt) oh for the love of…(huff) come here!" Eames grunted and cursed until he finally laid hands on the cat. He chucked the cat out the door and slammed it shut after him. They both heard the soft meow of complaint from the other side of the door and Arthur chuckled. Eames turned from the door to Arthur with a wolfish grin, "Now Boo, who's dressed inappropriately for the nights activities?" and full out made a running leap onto the bed.

The next morning Eames was up first. When Arthur woke up Eames' side of the bed was empty, though still warm. He heard Eames talking quietly in the next room while he got ready for the day.

"Got the job," Eames said with a flourish as he came into the bathroom while Arthur was brushing his teeth.

"At the nursing home with Walcott?" Arthur asked through a mouth full of spit and toothpaste.

"Ew dove, spit before you talk. Yes at the home, I finished all of those forged documents for my new identity this morning. You are now looking at nurse Jonathon Taves. I even get to wear pink scrubs if I want," Eames said with a big smile and Arthur rolled his eyes.

"When do you start?" Arthur said through his toothbrush.

"Seriously Arthur, gross. I start this afternoon at two. They were short handed so it really wasn't that hard to get the job," Eames left the room and called back that breakfast was sitting on the hob.

Eames put on his scrubs that Arthur had picked up for him when they had discussed him shadowing Walcott at his work. They were blue, unfortunately not pink. Though they did make his eyes and his ass pop. He told Arthur as much. Arthur smiled at him, smoothed out the crinkles in the top and placed a pair of big black rimmed glasses on his lover's face. They had decided on the glasses being enough of a disguise. Eames decided on taking on the persona of nerdy and awkward and the glasses fit the clumsy persona well. Eames was a forger in real life as well as in the dream. Though he couldn't change his face and body, he could change the way it moved. The difference was staggering when Eames put on a persona. You'd never connect the upright, smarmy brit with the shy clumsy man he was portraying today. Arthur told him to have a good day, then kissed him on his way out the door.

Eames got to work directly at two and was shown around the place by the head nurse. He didn't see Walcott his first day but the next day he did.

He was helping a couple of the seniors to the lunch table when he caught sight of Walcott across the hall. He knew the man from the pictures that Arthur had been able to pull up. The man had sandy blonde hair and a firm jaw. The man was rather attractive. He was built like a true football player. (Eames thought the real title for the sport, not soccer as Arthur said) Big, broad chest and shoulders with long legs, the man looked fit and strong. He obviously took care of himself. He was well cut and tidy. He walked with a confident step that just screamed military. Even the way he held his head told Eames of how this man was used to being obeyed. He was an authoritative figure.

When Eames was passing him in the hall and their eyes met for the first time. Stormy grey-blue met sharp hazel. Eames felt a chill of horror flood through his blood. They held each other's gaze for only a few seconds before they passed each other but Eames felt as if he had just walked through an ice shower. The man had hawk eyes, quick, darting, perceptive and predatory. Eames felt a chill pass through him again as he felt Walcott's eyes on his back. He tried to pin down the reason for feeling of horror but couldn't.

* a nark is someone who tattles on criminal activity