Hello everyone! This chapter kind of explains Arthur's internal conflict and it's kind of a filler chapter since I don't really know where I'm going with this but I promise the next chapter will have more action!

Disclaimer: I do not own Inception.

Arthur's P.O.V.

Dominick Cobb. 37 years of age. 5' 11.5". Blonde hair and blue eyes. Date of birth: November 11, 1974.

Arthur skimmed through all this information quickly and with a lack of interest. He already knew most of Cobb's personal info but Nash had ordered him to double and then triple check everything. Since it had only been three days since Nash put a bullet in Yusuf's leg Arthur decided to obey. It was weird researching a close friend and he felt slightly stalkerish as he scanned through old and recent images of Cobb. There was Cobb at LAX, Cobb posing with his kids on Halloween, and even Cobb at his high school prom. Apparently, Dom had been quite popular when he was younger. Arthur glanced at the clock. It read 8:47 p.m. Distracted, he became mesmerized with the tick tock tick tock of the clock. The soft blinking of the numbers blurred until….

"Arthur?" A soft voice asked.

"Natalie?" He responded hesitantly.

"You remember me!" Her beautiful face broke out into a smile. Her smile. The one that could brighten anyone's day.

"Of course I do. How could I not?" He answered. "I miss you every day."

"Arthur, I know how much you're hurting right now but you have to let me go. Don't blame yourself for what happened because it's not your fault."

"How can you say you know how I'm feeling?" He was becoming agitated. "Do you know what it's like having to live with the fact that if I had never let you go to your friend's in the first place none of this would've happened?

"Don't blame yourself. Leave what happened in the past." She vanished.

"Nat!" He could feel himself waking. "Come back! I never got to tell you that-

"Arthur?" He glanced up and saw Ariadne's concerned face scrutinizing him. "Are you okay?"

"Ariadne…hi." Shit what was that? Hi? He never said hi the word was so…unprofessional.

"I think you need to get some sleep." She responded. "You look really tired."

He was spared to answer when at that minute Eames walked into the warehouse.

"Ah why hello there lovelies! How is my favorite architect and point man? Oh Arthur you don't look too good. You should probably get some sleep. Oh that's right, you never sleep. It's always Arthur the amazing, Arthur the perfectionist, Arthur will not rest until everything is done."

Arthur glared at Eames. Truthfully, he didn't hear much since the forger's constant chatter was blending together in his head but he could guess by the tone of Eames's voice that he was being mocked.

"Eames I've had a long day so if you don't mind…" Arthur slightly raised his eyebrows and glanced at the door.

"No problemo!" Eames started to walk away when something caught his attention. "Hey look, it's Cobb!" He picked up a neat stack of papers that Arthur had printed out on his old friend and began reading. "Dominick Cobb was voted most attractive in high school. Dominick Cobb was born in Los Angeles, California. Dominick Cobb is deathly afraid of cruise ships. Geez Arthur, I understand you have to be thorough but I'm a bit creeped out!"

"Eames please leave." His voice was strained.

The forger must have heard the note of exasperation in Arthur's voice because he set the papers down and with a wink to Ariadne walked out the door.

"Arthur are you sure you're ok? You look a bit rattled." Ariadne repeated.

"Yes, I'm fine." He responded. Was he? He kept seeing Natalie's face; he kept replaying the panicked phone call he had received.

"Who is that?" She asked suddenly. "She's beautiful."

He turned his head and his eyes landed on the photograph that she was pointing too.

"That's Natalie and yes, she was beautiful."

"Oh." Her warm hazel/brown eyes widened slightly. He could detect something in her voice-jealousy? But he never thought Ariadne to be the jealous type. He then wondered if she had feelings for him as he had feelings for her.

"It's not what you think." He explained. "Natalie was my-

Ring ring ring ring. He looked apologetically at Ariadne as he picked up his phone to check the caller id.

"Who is it?" Ariadne asked. His face must have revealed something that had tipped her off.. He held up his phone for her to see herself; his voice seemed to have lost the ability to talk.

Ariadne's eyes widened and her mouth opened in shock. "Cobb!"

Hope that wasn't too boring. Did you notice the reference to Titanic? Yes Cobb is deathly afraid of cruise ships since he had a friend named Jack die on one ;).

Leave a review if you wish~they are always appreciated!