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

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

Rating: T

Reviews: Thanks so much to Eshlyn Kar, my Beta and loyal reviewer.

Thanks to Kiraling for reviewing and sticking with this since the beginning.

Note: Same deal as before, I'll update two weeks from today but with every review i'll update a day sooner. Thanks for reading and reviewing :D

Chapter Seven

The Extraction

Eames came awake in a bathroom. He quickly forged Rickard and shuffled his way into the nursing home cafeteria that was just outside the door. The dream was Arthur's design so the retirement home was classy and clean. It had many high windows and made like a large log cabin. Elegant and homey, it was a perfect match of wilderness cabin and Victorian mansion. It was made to make people feel at ease, a good place to come to die. He looked around the room for Walcott but didn't see him. He did see Arthur though. He sat at the table Arthur was at and looked at him pointedly.

"You seen him yet?" his wispy, slightly phlegmy voice asked.

"Not yet. I've got to get looking for that safe. You remember how to navigate the maze outside?" Arthur asked. Eames nodded and Arthur stood about to leave. He was all business till he graced Eames with a half smile and sauntered off. They had fourteen hours in the dream before the timer ran out. Eames waited in the caf for the first half hour sipping on some tomato soup a nurse had brought him but Walcott didn't show up. He stood carefully, his old body groaning at him. He was going to walk out of the room but a young nurse stopped him.

"Rickard, you forgot your meds again. You keep doing this and I'm going to think your doing it on purpose. Now sit back down and I'll bring them to you," the young blonde returned moments later with three pills and a glass of water.

"Hunny, it's only because I get to see you smile that I make you chase after me every day," Eames smiled at her and swallowed the pills. Rickard was an awful flirt; he fit in his skin well. He stood and made as if to walk away when he suddenly felt lightheaded. He pressed his hand to his temple and tried to allow the dizziness to pass but it steadily got worse.

"Are you okay Rickard?" the nurse asked and he nodded the affirmative but didn't move.

"I'll help him to his room," a gravely voice said and hands were laid on his arm, helping him keep him balance and guiding him towards the rooms. After about a couple dozen steps the hands that had been guiding him were now completely supporting him, almost dragging him along. He shut his eyes against the painful gleam of the lights. Eames wasn't sure if this was normal to dying cancer patients or if something was wrong in the dream. He felt clammy, dizzy, hot and cold all at the same time. He was in a room when he next opened his eyes but it wasn't what he expected. It was a bedroom with two beds and one washroom. The man guiding him helped him lie down on one of the beds and only when his eyes were sliding shut against his will did Eames see who it was: Walcott.

Arthur wondered the outside perimeter of the nursing home. It was his third circuit and was nowhere near finding the safe that was Walcott's subconscious secret box. They had designed the outside of the home to be an elaborate hedge maze. A not so subtle maze granted but it did the job. Eames had teasingly alluded to the creepy similarities between the hotel and hedge maze in the Shining and the dreamscape they were now in.

"A bit ominous ain't it Darling? Not expecting ghosts now are we?" Eames had said.

Arthur would never let Eames know that that had been his muse for this dreamscape. Well that and the garden estate from The Secret Garden (his favorite book as a kid) but Eames was definitely never finding out about that particular source. He was beginning to regret it now. He walked around a shuffling pair of seniors who were meandering their way through the maze. It was his third time passing the pair.

He wouldn't find the safe till Eames got Walcott to start talking about it. Arthur thought about going back into the lodge to find him but held himself back. He needed to give Eames his space, let him work. The dream space was Eames' territory, he knew what he was doing down here and it wasn't wise to disrupt him. So Arthur kept circling the maze and waited for a safe to appear.

The reason why Arthur was able to be so open with Eames was because Eames was so open with him. Quid quo pro. He was able to bask in the warmth of Eames' body when his nightmares woke him with shakes and shivers because Eames' would clutch him like a teddy bear when his nightmares woke him. He was able to be relaxed and be calmed down from the brink of a panic attack because he was the only one who had seen Eames in a similar position. This agreement of theirs had started years ago, when they were still just best friends. A drunken agreement made in the midst of a need to trust someone, to be open with just one person. It was a rare thing to find someone who truly could know you. The two of them had found that in each other. They balanced each other out in a way that allowed them to know the other as a foil to themselves.

So when Eames had insisted that they be completely honest with each other before going under, "Because honestly ducky, something is wrong and your not telling me what it is," Arthur knew he had to talk to him.

"I hate this job. It isn't a good idea. We don't know anything about this man Eames except for the fact that he brutalized an old man in a way that we both know means he is hellova dangerous. He probably has connections that go deeper than my crime syndicate family for fucks sake and we are still doing this job. I want to walk away from this," Arthur said with resentment he didn't think he had been harboring.

"Bambi, come on now, we talked about this. We can handle this…" Eames tried to put his hands on Arthur's shoulders to pull him into his chest but Arthur shrugged off his hands.

"No Daniel. I'm serious. I don't think you can do this."

"Ah, so that's it, eh? You don't think I can do it?" Eames said taking a step back.

"No, Eames that's not what I meant…"

"That's exactly what you just said Arthur. Maybe you didn't mean to say it but Freudian and all that. You know I don't need you to coddle me. I'm not damaged goods anymore Arthur. I'm not Handsome Bob the fucking kid anymore. I'm not that man who needed to hide behind my friends. I don't need to hide behind you Arthur. I'm not the man who screamed himself awake every night and needed you to make it all better," Eames said angrily and leaned back against the wall, his posture defensive. Arthur sighed heavily.

"Every night Eames. Every night for the last two weeks you've been doing just that. And that's exactly my point, you haven't dreamt in four years and then this job pops up and the dreams start as well. It just doesn't sit right with me."

"I can do this Arthur. I've done worse before."

"What Eames? What has been worse than a serial killer psychopath that is so deep in the crime world that none of my contacts nor I can find out a damn thing about him? A man who has brutalized more than two-dozen people and hasn't left a shred of evidence behind? Because that sounds like the worst thing I've ever come across and we've done a lot of dumb shit together Eames," Arthur was pacing now.

"We weren't always together Arthur," Eames began and Arthur stopped breathing, stopped moving, stopped thinking for several seconds as his mind caught up with what he had just heard. He knew that if he didn't say anything in the next two minutes Eames would tell him about the time they had spent away from each other and Arthur wasn't sure if he wanted to know about that. Arthur wasn't sure he wanted to know what happened to Eames during those months of silence when he was away with Dom. He opened and closed his mouth silently while Eames avoided his gaze. Whether he wanted to know or not he didn't get a choice, his brain refused to come up with a decision and Eames had started talking.

"Do you know what I did those months you were gone with Dom?" Eames started quietly and Arthur shook his head no, eye wide and staring, "I spent most of my time in a job in the Black Beach prison in Equatorial Guinea. Do you know what that was like Arthur? Most of the minds I was in were war criminals and serial killers of a whole other level. Men who had killed hundred of people, in the most horrible circumstances, things you'd wouldn't even expect from fucking Nazis. If I can handle that, I can handle anything this fuckup hit man can throw at me," Eames paced in front of Arthur now. Arthur tried to keep his emotions bottled but he shuttered when he heard that. Black Beach prison was notorious for it's reputation of systematically neglecting and brutalizing its inmates. There was little to no food for them and the barest minimum of medical attention. Not to mention a few of the prisoners in there were war criminals from places like the civil wars of Sierra Leone, the Congo and Rwanda. Even foreign war criminals were shipped there from Bosnia, Cambodia, Chechnya, Iraq and many other countries. When countries wanted to sweep someone under the rug, wanted to them to suffer for what they had done, they sent them to Black Beach. Few extractors would take the job for that place because of the instability of the inmate's minds and because of the employers.

The prison had a bad habit turning its employee's into inmates. It was an extremely dangerous job and Arthur was furious that Eames would take it. Even Cobb hadn't been desperate enough to take that job.

Eames was so pig headed when it came to him trying to prove himself. He was constantly trying to outrun the man he had once been. He saw Handsome Bob as being his weak alter ego from years ago; a man drenched in self-doubt and fear. Eames was strong, Eames wouldn't break from torture the way Handsome Bob had. It frustrated Arthur to no end that his Daniel would forge Eames in the real world to hide from whom he feared he was, Handsome Bob. Arthur was never quite sure who he was with sometimes. When woken from a nightmare, Arthur was usually comforting Handsome. On a job it was Eames and at home it was Daniel. All three were at war with one another. It had always been this way, ever since Eames had learned how to forge but it hadn't been this bad. Since they had reunited Eames was showing up in places where it was Daniel's place. Arthur could always tell when one of his lover's forgeries were in place, even in the real world. Daniel was the man that loved Arthur, Eames was the professional thief and it was disturbing to come across Eames when Daniel was suppose to be there. Eames didn't belong in Arthur's kitchen, or in his house or in his bed. Those were Daniel's places. Arthur feared that leaving his lover to help Cobb had hurt him so badly that Arthur had lost Daniel to be replaced by the less feeling Eames.

"Daniel, why? Why would you go there?" Arthur finally managed to put to words his grief and disbelief about Eames' months away from him. Eames looked away from his heavy gaze and huffed out a sigh.

"Because I wanted to. I wanted to see what it was like to feel again. There is not much that surprises or scares me anymore Arthur and I wanted to find something that did. I wanted a challenge. When you left me Arthur, I went numb. I felt like Handsome Bob again. I started dreaming again and screaming in the middle of the night but never remembering what the hell it was that me so afraid. It was a way to get control again. I did it Arthur because I could do it because I needed to prove that I was strong enough. And I did it, I was strong enough. I did the job perfectly and stayed sane. Just like this job. I can do it, so let me," Eames said sitting down heavily on the couch.

"I love you. I love you so much but I need to know when are you going to stop running away from what happened to you all those years ago, that extraction from your youth? When are you going to finally prove to yourself that you're strong enough? Because I can't wake up and not have you there with me. I can't live in the fear that you won't wake up with me," Arthur said quietly walking over to Eames and pulling him into his embrace.

"When I stop waking up screaming in the middle of night. When I finally confront all of demons and put a bullet into their brains. That's when I'll stop running."