Thanks much to the awesome miniamelia13 and cinematherapy! I know this isn't the fluffiest but the angsty stuff makes when the fluff comes…that MUCH fluffier. I promise. I find hard times to be when the depth of characters emotions tends to surface.

Chapter 7- This Is Cactus Land

Worry.

He thought nothing of it, the first time he'd woken up and felt cold with her absence. If it weren't for the occasional 'Ow' coming out of their bathroom, he would've gone back to sleep. Consideration for the effect the miscarriage had had on her and curiosity of the origin of her pain caused him to check her. The bathroom door was cracked and Arthur knocked lightly first. She hadn't answered so he called out to her. Again, nothing but soft 'ow's coming from the interior. Arthur pushed open the door to find Ariadne slumped in the same spot as the night before. Her creamy white stomach was angry red and she was clawing at it. Determined. Obsessively. Compulsively.

He called across the bathroom, "Ariadne, what are you doing?"

She froze. One blink. Eye contact. "What?"

Arthur deadpanned.

"Why am I in the bathroom?" She asked innocently, then, "Agh." Ariadne seemed to have just noticed the marks that had been scratched raw. They burned, "Was I scratching myself?"

He led her back to their bed unsure of how to answer her questions. Unsure of what he'd just seen.

xxx

Panic Stricken.

The next time he'd woken up without her beside him had been alarming to say the least. She wasn't in the bathroom, she wasn't anywhere upstairs and he heard grunts downstairs. Arthur, half asleep, lazily made his way downstairs. Then he laid his eyes on her. He sprinted to her crouched form that leant against the bottom of the kitchen cabinet. She was sawing away at her stomach with a butter knife; thankfully she hadn't broken skin yet. "Ariadne, what are you doing?"

"I have to get the baby."

When he was closer he recognized the glazed over look in her eyes; Ariadne was sleepwalking. Again. "No, no Ariadne there is no baby. Wake up. You're sleepwalking. Ariadne." Arthur pried the utensil out of her fists and snapped his fingers in front of her face multiple times before she came to. She seemed fine once she was conscious, so he guided her back up the stairs.

xxx

Petrified.

The next night was no different. Ariadne had no trouble getting to sleep for the most part, so Arthur felt comfortable dozing off himself. He rolled over to spoon her and jolted awake when his arm fell through the air. He raced down the stairs to see her opening the drawer. He'd just reached her when the architect was pulling out scissors and tauntingly testing them out on the air. Arthur forced her hand down and forced the scissors out of her hand. "You don't need those, Ariadne."

"But the baby isn't safe in there; it has to come out." She looked at him with confused eyes. Like what she intended to do was the most mundane activity she could perform. Like it was no different than combing her hair or brushing her teeth.

"It already has, Ari. Wake up." He waved his hand over her eyes. She reached for the scissors again and he took her shoulders to shake her, "Wake up, Ariadne! Wake up."

The jostling of her body brought her mind to the present. She hadn't remembered coming downstairs, "Arthur, what happened?"

"Nothing. You were sleepwalking again. Let's go back to bed, ok?" He pulled her up the stairs this time.

xxx

Blood Curdling.

He heard the clang of something falling and woke. His body flooded with tingles. Arthur had meant to stay awake tonight and monitor her but he'd dozed off to her rhythmic breathing. The covers were thrown to the floor and he sprinted down the stairs, bolted to where she sat slumped against the bottom kitchen cabinets again. This time Ariadne held a butcher knife in her grasp. Arthur dove for it and caught it in the niche of time before she plunged it into her stomach. "Ariadne, you've got to wake up."

She wouldn't let go of the weapon. She wiggled it out of his hold and prepared to send it into her abdomen. Arthur grabbed the handle and pulled it towards him as she struggled to keep it in a downward path to her stomach. "I have to save the baby!"

"You have to wake up!"

She was grunting as she tried over and over to push it through her skin. She thrust it closer and closer. It took all the Point Man had to keep it an inch away from her. "I have to get it out! I have to get the baby, Arthur! Let me save it!"

"Ari, please, wake up!"

Ariadne then used her other hand to help, pushed with all her might and managed to get the tip of the knife to find her abdomen. The only thing keeping it from sinking into her skin was Arthur's strength, now both of his hands were pulling against her. "Please, Ariadne. Please; you have to come to." He was sweating, beginning to cry from the stress.

"Why won't you let me save it?" She looked up at him in horror like he was really keeping her from saving their unborn. Arthur swore she was awake…that's the spell of sleepwalking. The Architect was pleading with such fervor, exerting her strength with such zeal that it was amazing to think she was truthfully unconscious. Suddenly, her eyes were giving him that look, the look that could get him to do absolutely anything for her: Taking a silly picture, going on a spontaneous vacation to Spain, letting her use the PASIV off hours…giving in to her charm and starting a relationship. It was hard for him to refuse her anything if she so desired it, he would serve her the moon and stars on a silver platter in a second if that's what she batted her eyelashes and asked for. Arthur found himself being overtaken and mesmerized by the illusion of her sleepwalking too. "Please, Arthur?" she whispered, "Let me save our baby…" He stuttered and his grip faltered slightly. When it did, the tip of the knife broke skin, a bead of blood rolled down her porcelain skin. She hissed and tried to make a slice across her, Arthur's groggy mind fought back to the present and regained his steady pull on the knife away from her. As the knife gained height and travelled further from her belly, Ariadne became frustrated. Thrusting the knife down and calling, "Teddy! Don't worry, I'm coming!"

"Baby, he's already gone...Please…just WAKE! UP!" He screamed in her ear.

All of a sudden she released her grasp and blinked her eyes. Arthur's hand shot up, still holding the knife, the pressure release causing it to move on its own accord. The Point Man's breathing slowed and he wiped the sweat off his brow before standing and throwing the knife in the sink.

She stood with him, panic washing over her, "Arthur, what was I doing?"

He took the knife and pressed the tip against the bottom of the sink so hard it bent it. He hated that knife. That knife was every bad thing he'd ever known. He wanted to destroy it. He bent it like he was bending Fischer's body. He bent it until the shape was rendered unusable. It was worthless. Would do nothing. In a fit of who knows what, he recklessly pulled the drawers open and started dumping every knife and fork and pair of scissors they owned into the trash. He dumped the apple peeler, the apple corer, any metal spatulas, the pizza cutter, everything. His actions were worrying her.

"Arthur. What was I doing?" She rested her hand on his shoulder blade.

"Trying to cut the baby out of your stomach." He sounded raspy, tired, shaken.

Ariadne's eyes grew and her hand fluttered to her stomach. He pushed passed her and threw the trash outside in the big garbage bin. He thought furiously to himself without filter: Why the hell had he let himself doze off like that? He was such a dumbass. He should've made himself stay awake what with what happened with the bathtub and the scissors! What, hadn't he learned his lesson from almost losing her not once, but three times now?What if he hadn't gotten there in time? What if he'd slept until morning? She would have stabbed herself a million times. Arthur would have woken to his fiancée lying lifeless on the floor, covered in blood. She would have killed herself had he not rushed down. A millisecond later and he would have lost her too. The Architect was only thing in the world that still mattered to him. The only thing keeping him going. He couldn't fathom the thought of losing her… cradling her immovable, bloody body. Burying her. It hurt more than he could bear. His stomach was twisting and writhing and…he retched into the garbage bin before returning inside.

She'd slumped to the floor. Broken in pieces, trying her hardest to collect them back. Ariadne: sniffling, staring off into space again. He gently approached her and picked her up bridal style. He carried her back to bed and tucked her in. She hadn't moved her face an inch or changed the position of her pinky. He whispered sweet nothings to calm her and hadn't slept the rest of the night. Once she fell asleep, he held her close and stared ahead, tensing at every movement or sound she made.

xxx

Terrified. Distraught. Horrified. Traumatized.

Scared to death that it would happen again. Arthur was so afraid to shut his eyes for one second for fear of losing Ariadne. He never left her alone, couldn't. The worry ate away at him and he spent every moment wondering how he'd ever get her out of this. She was in the kitchen and decided she wanted an apple. Arthur in his clouded emotional state had forgotten to throw away the kitchen utensils in the dishwasher. She'd innocently picked out a knife to peel her fruit. All the Point Man saw was the gleam of sharp metal in her hand. All Arthur's mind processed was the threat of Ariadne's mind wanting to take her away from him. In a half nelson he'd crossed the apartment and pounced on her, prying the knife from her hand and throwing it in the sink. "Wake up!" He grabbed her chin and turned it towards him to force her eyes to see but, "I'm awake!"

"Come on, Ari." He snapped his fingers in front of her face and cupped it. "Don't do this to me again, wake up."

Ariadne gently put her hand on his wrist and guided his hand down, "I'm awake, Arthur."

He searched her eyes to make sure, took the hand that lowered his and kissed the palm and then rested his head on the counter. She rubbed his back and then left Arthur to it. Ariadne hadn't understood what had been going on the past couple days. All she knew was that she'd been having nightmares and sleepwalking and it had taken its toll on her fiancé. He wouldn't let her alone, morning, noon or night. She kept telling him they were nothing. She'd always had them and they'd always been pretty severe…pretty physical. She even recalled to him an example: When she was twelve and saw Titanic, she woke up on her brother's top bunk with her younger cousin's arm floaties on, towels were scattered over his floor and she was crying, using a cereal bowl to bilge the imaginary water out of the room below her. It lasted a week, this couldn't be much worse…Her explaining hadn't made him feel better though. So by this point, she'd learned to let him have his time to calm down and process things over again. The Architect was getting cold, thus she decided to throw on a sweatshirt of hers hanging by the front door. Her foot bumped into something.

A little box wrapped with a red bow.

She smiled to herself thinking Arthur had gotten her a present. She quickly glanced to him and decided to sneak a peek…Maybe curiosity didn't kill the cat but it would surely mortify her. She bent down, pulled the ribbon off and lifted the top...Then screamed bloody murder. She backed away rapidly and tripped, falling back onto her elbows, and then crawling as far as she could from the box. Arthur was soon by her side and noticed the red ribbon tangled in her fist, her frantic search for her bishop in her pocket, the way her face drained of color when reality had been confirmed. Arthur tried to help her stand and she all but trembled. Ariadne lifted her shirt and stared at her stomach, her free hand grasping it and her starting to heave.

"I thought it was just a nightmare!" She was pulling at the skin of her stomach, ripping off the scab from the incident with the butcher knife, not believing that her baby bump was no longer there.

Arthur pulled her into an embrace. One hand rubbing circles on the small of her back and one hand cradling her head, "No…you're—" He tried to break it to her gently, "You're not pregnant anymore…"

All movement, all trembling stopped. She pushed him away. Suddenly she felt an overwhelming sense of embarrassment and shame. "Don't touch me."

"Ari…"

"No. Stop." She backed away from him and made her way to their bedroom.

"Ariadne…"

"Stop. Stop. Just-stop." They stood at their bedroom door. She pushed at him and tried to shield her eyes hysterically.

"What am I doing? I don't know what I'm doing." Incredulously, Arthur ceased moving. He didn't know what he was doing to her….

"You're looking at me. Don't look at me." Ariadne disappeared behind their slammed bedroom door.

Xxxxxx

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