12.

~ "Arthur, I'm so sorry this happened." Cobb said sympathetically.

The Extractor and Point Man were in Ariadne's kitchen. The Architect would not come out of her room. Arthur had tried to get her to eat something but she seemed to not care about food and stuck to drinking orange juice.

"It's not me you should feel sorry for, Cobb." Arthur said. His tone angry as he almost slammed the plate on the counter top. He had brought Ariadne some dinner and she hadn't touched it.

"How is she doing?" Cobb nodded to Ariadne's closed door.

"She's not eating. At least not like she should. She want's to sleep all day. I think she's taking some kind of medication to keep her... checked out." Arthur said. A scowl worthy of the Extractor on his face.

"She feels guilty about losing the baby." Cobb said gently as Arthur ran Ariadne's untouched dinner down the garbage disposal.

Arthur didn't say anything.

"It's not her fault. It's no one's fault." Cobb said looking worriedly at his friend.
"I know that." Arthur said. Not looking at the Extractor.

"Do you?" Cobb asked after the men stood in silence.

Arthur sighed.

"I keep thinking if we had just gone to the clinic, maybe this wouldn't have happened." Arthur said. "Maybe it was something I did. Like I was too rough with her."

"That wasn't it." Cobb said shaking his head. "That had nothing to do with it."

"I should have said no. I should have just walked away. Then I wouldn't have to... feel... this." Arthur said leaving the plate in the sink.

He pulled two bottles of beer from the fridge and handed one to Cobb. The Extractor was more then a little surprised to see Arthur drinking. He could count on one hand the number of times he had seen Arthur drink.

"You lost your baby to." Cobb said popping off the top of his drink and joining Arthur on the couch.

Arthur had gulped down his beer with ease and stared blankly at the wall.

"I'm worried, Cobb." Arthur said at last.

"About Ariadne?" Cobb asked.

"I'm worried she might not be able to come back from this. I worry that... what if she doesn't want to try and have babies with me anymore?" The Point Man asked.

"She will come back from this." Cobb said with a steady voice. "It will take time. Maybe even a lot of time. She will come back. All you can do is be there for her."

The two men said nothing more as Arthur put his head back and shut his eyes. He wanted to fall asleep. Escape like Ariadne did into the world of sleep and never resurface.

2 years later...

~ Damon looked like his mother. He had her large dark eyes and nice brown hair that she couldn't bare to cut. He also had a bundle of too much energy in his 4 year old's body.

He was running with the other kids in the park. All of them too young to really play the game of soccer, instead just happy to chase a ball around with their parents watching.

Ariadne smiled at her lovely son. He looked so handsome in his little soccer uniform. She didn't want to admit that that was the only reason she, and most of the mothers, had put their kids into peewee soccer. But the kids did look adorable in their little uniforms.

"Mommy!" Damon called running to her after the game. He tripped over his own two feet and fell hard on the grass. He looked up at her worried expression. The little boy ready to cry.

"Your alright." Arthur said sternly. Not giving into his son's need for attention.

Damon regained his footing and decided he truly was alright, even though crying would have made his pretty mother come to his aide.

Ariadne threw her husband a look.
"What?" Arthur said with a shrug. "He's fine."

"Arthur, can you please just let him be my baby a little while longer?" She said.

Arthur rolled his eyes.
"He's not a baby." The Point Man said as Damon came to Ariadne for his Gatorade and to eat an orange slice.

"Mommy, did you see me?" Damon asked excitedly.

"Yes, I saw!" Ariadne said kissing the little boy.
"I have to say goodbye to Jeff!" Damon shouted before running away from his parents.

"I know he's technically not a baby anymore." Ariadne said resuming their conversation as she carefully readjusted a pink blanket in a car seat. "But he's always going to be my baby."

Arthur sighed and looked over the soccer field.

"Well that's fine. But I'm not letting my son grow up to be a sissy Mamma's boy." He said.

Ariadne scowled at him.

~ Two years ago, they had suffered a miscarriage that had put both of them into a depression. Not long after, a friend of Ariadne's had asked her help with a disaster relief agency. Once of the people they had to work with were children in foster care.

The work was good for her and had helped ease her out of her depression.

Ariadne hadn't been looking for Damon specifically, the two year old had found her. Attaching himself to her like he never wanted to let her go. His parents had been abusive and he had no other family. The foster care system, so over burdened that he never got the attention he desperately wanted.

The Architect, who needed to be a mother, was draw to the little boy who needed a mother.

She found herself going back everyday to the relief center and spending time with Damon. The little boy was her constant companion as she worked. She brought him new clothes and a stuffed animal. The little boy always wanting to sit in her lap. Always wanting to curl up next to her. Wanting her all to himself.

When Arthur came to see her new work, Damon was jealous and would not let the Point Man sit next to her.

"Do I have some competition?" Arthur joked as Ariadne lovingly stoked Damon's hair.

She knew then, that Damon would be coming home with her.

Arthur had his lawyers draw up paper work to adopt. A taskmade easier after they got married. Very soon, they became the legal guardians of the little boy who wanted and needed them so much.

Their new son fit into their lives well. He wanted a family. He soon adored Arthur almost as much as his new mom. Almost.

He wanted to imitate the Point Man in all thing. Even to the point of Arthur buying him a kid friendly laptop so they could work together. Damon looking up to the Point Man the way all sons should admire their fathers.

~ "He's not going to be a 'Mama's Boy'." Ariadne said rolling her eyes at Arthur.
"I know he won't." Arthur said shouldering a pink dipper bag. Not carrying how it looked. Ariadne stooped to peer over the sleeping pink bundle in the car seat. The baby's dark hair smoothed perfectly with a pink hair ribbon.

When she found out she was pregnant with their daughter last year, they told no one. The looming fear of another miscarriage was on both their minds. But everything had gone well. She had carried to term and had a healthy little girl with no complications.

"Oh like Sarah isn't a 'Daddy's Girl'." Ariadne teased.

"Damn right she is. There is nothing wrong with being a 'Daddy's Girl'." Arthur said with a pleased smile. His little princess, all in pink, slept peacefully through the ruckus of the boys shouting.

Arthur spotted his son running around and waved at him that they were leaving.

Damon raced back to his parents and peeped in at his sister.

"Sarah wants to go to McDonald's!" Damon said. Ariadne laughed as she carried the car seat to their SUV.

"No." Arthur said authoritatively. "Your mother cooked us a nice dinner."

"Mommy!" Damon pleaded.

"You heard your father!" Ariadne said sharply. "That's the final word on it."

"Come on." Arthur said patting his son on the head. "We can play Wii after you eat."

Damon nodded and climbed into the SUV next to the car seat his mother snapped into place. He looked over at his sleeping sister with interest.

Ariadne climbed into the passenger seat next to her husband.

Arthur gave her a contented look.

"Let's go home." He said gently.

~ END ~

Many of my readers will be surprised to learn that despite being happily married for almost 11 years, I have no children and have never been pregnant. I won't bore you with the details of why but I based a lot of this story on myself. I very much wanted to have children but for reasons I won't go into, I am childless.

I debated a long time on if and how I should make Ariadne miscarry. I fully intended this to be a story about them doing it, end of story. But sometimes stories want to become more then that.

I realize the description of the miscarriage was graphic and might have been upsetting. But, I feel like it was something that needed to be graphic and upsetting.

I based the idea of her miscarriage on a very dear friend of mine. She was battling breast cancer (shes fine now) and became pregnant shortly after her treatment ended. She had very serious complications as soon after, and had to terminate.

It was very hard on her because it was the girl she always wanted and she had heard the heartbeat and everything. I remember her telling me she had to go through the D&C and how upsetting it was. I felt so bad for her. As a nurse, I'm used to seeing people suffer and you eventually build a wall to it, but I felt really badly that my sweet friend had to lose her baby that way.

This is one of the reasons why the GOP's talk of casual abortion and fetal rights is so upsetting. First of all, no woman ever enters into an abortion casually. It's a very difficult and privet decision.

Secondly, the new laws that are being enacted that want to protect fetal rights over the mother's are so horrible it is scary. If you have time, please check out the youtube video:

"How personhood USA and the bills they support will hurt pregnant women"

I was so horrified after seeing it. I can not believe this happened to women. It's like our rights have been thrown back 100 years.