2.

~ "How can that be?" Ariadne said not understanding.

Arthur shook his head.

"Becky told you... that your father... even your dad admitted Darcy was his." Ariadne said trying to comprehend.

"Darcy." Arthur said softly. "No, Darcy is my father's daughter. She had his eyes. She has his eyes exactly. She looks like he did at that age. Darcy is the natural child of my dad and Becky."

Arthur was shaking his head.

"Then how? They must have made a mistake at the lab." Ariadne offered.

"No, they ran it twice just to be sure." Arthur said. "I'm not related to Darcy. I'm not her half brother."

The Point Man stood. He looked angry.

"The man I always thought was my father." He said stiffly. "I'm not his real son."

~ The Point Man and Architect didn't talk very much about this latest bomb shell. They had too much to worry about now. Darcy was getting sicker and the odds of finding a perfect bone marrow match were not in their favor.

"Darcy has a rare blood type. Means, a match will prove more difficult. We put her in the system, but after that, we can only hope a match will be on file." The doctor told them.

"What if we pay a donor. Money is not an issue." Arthur said hopefully.

Ariadne nodded. They never talked too much about money before. It was just something they had. Now, it was a powerfl weapon they could use to save Darcy. There wasn't a thing money could not buy.

"We can hire someone to find a match. Pay that person to donate." Arthur said brightly.

"You would have to have access to blood types and it would be like a needle in a haystack. There is a very remote chance that any non relative would be a match." The doctor said sadly.

The Point Man fell back in his chair.

"We need to start treatment as soon as possible." The doctor at last.

Ariadne sat up a little straighter.

"Chemotherapy? Radiation?" She said weakly.

"Yes. It will buy is more time." the doctor said. "We have to stop the cell growth of the cancer."

~ Darcy sat in front of the bathroom mirror. Ariadne stood behind her too terrified to start snipping those long blond tresses she loved so much. Arthur had wrapped a towel around Darcy's shoulders as the Architect tried to think of the best way to start cutting.

"Maybe we should take her to the salon." Ariadne said worriedly.

"And have everyone stare at her?" Arthur said pulling a chair next to Darcy so he could be by his daughter's side.

"Does all my hair have to come off?" Darcy asked.

Ariadne tried not to cry. She loved Darcy's wild, uncontrollable hair more then anything. She had pages of her sketchbooks devoted to drawings the tight ringlets of gold.
"Yes. It has to all come off." Arthur said solemnly. "But, when all the treatments are over, it will grow back.

"How long will it take to grow back?" Darcy asked as Ariadne started to carefully snip a few curling locks that could never be tamed. She stowed them safely in a zip lock baggie and then started to slowly clip away each tendril on the rest of the little girl's head.

Darcy quietly watched her own reflection as the Architect's scissors cut close to the scalp.

"I don't know how long it will take to grow back, Honey." Arthur said honestly. The Point Man forced his face to brighten. "I think girls with short hair are very cute." He said.

"A lot of actresses cut their hair really short, and they look really nice." Ariadne offered holding back tears as snip, snip, snip went each lock of curls.

"We can make some really pretty head wraps for you. Like was saw on that web sight." Ariadne said.

Snip. Snip. Snip.

Darcy sat perfectly still as she watched her reflection transform. Slowly, the mass of wild curls vanished and she looked like a freshly shorn sheep.

Ariadne was trying not to cry as Arthur held the little girl's hand.

"Darcy, you look beautiful." He said kissing her almost bald head. Nothing but a faint buzz of hair remained now.

Darcy looked at her reflection for a long time. She looked nothing like herself now. Nothing like how she had always known herself.

"No. I don't like it." Darcy said as she started to cry. "I don't like it, Papa."

Arthur picked her up and allowed Darcy to sob for her loss of prized curls.

~ The chemotherapy was the worst. Darcy didn't like the time at the hospital. Her parents went with her, but there were other children there who made her afraid. Very sick children with large bald heads who had nose bleeds for no reason.

"Mommy I want to go home." Darcy would cry at seeing the other kids.

Their daughter had stopped calling her parents Mama and Papa. Turning to the more babyish titles of Mommy and Daddy now. A lot about Darcy's behavior seemed to be in regression. She wanted to cuddle with Arthur more. She had gone back to sucking her thumb and even bed wetting.

When the radiation left her totally bald, she stopped talking sometimes and made noises like Daniel did. A toddler too young to use words.

"Darcy, you're a big girl, now stop it!" Ariadne told her. "Talk like a big girl."

"Little girl!" Sadie scolded over breakfast. "No one likes a lady to act like a little monkey! Now sit up strait and cross your ankles while you sit. Never sit with your legs crossed. Only whores cross their legs."

Darcy looked in silent awe at the leggy spider woman's use of language as she crossed her long legs at the knee.

"Sadie, please don't use words like that in front of Darcy." Ariadne said as Sadie went to light a cigarette.

"What? Monkey?" Sadie asked as Ariadne snatched the lighter away.

"No, the 'W' word." Ariadne said. Sadie had come back to herself little by little but still didn't move out. Still didn't want to live alone or see Eames. The Forger wanting desperately to talk to her. Arthur and Ariadne telling him to stay away.

"You mean whore? It's the 21st century. She has heard of whores before." Sadie turned to Darcy who watched the leggy spider woman with wide, gray eyes. "You know what a whore is? Don't you my Petit Singe?"

Darcy nodded.

"Sadie, don't you have work to go to?" Ariadne prompted.

Sadie sighed and proudly uncrossed her long legs. Her old style slowly returning. Her dress and hair still simple but offset now with fish net stockings.

"Alright. I'll leave." Sadie sighed as Darcy watched her go.

~ "I'm worried Sadie is a bad influence on Darcy." Ariadne said to Arthur that night. Darcy had been throwing up all day and Ariadne had taken a long, hot shower to wash away the smell of vomit and sweat.

Arthur couldn't think about Sadie right now. He had a child who was desperately ill, a pregnant wife who he had just started to reconciled with, and he had just found out he wasn't his father's son.

"I wonder who my real father was." Arthur said running a hand over Ariadne's belly. His wife starting to show slightly and the Point Man reveled in making contact with the slight swell of her abdomen.

"We can find out." Ariadne offered as Arthur's fingers tickled her skin. She tried not to giggle as his finger tips grazed over her belly.

"My mother is dead. How can we ever find out?" Arthur said as his hand snaked down to her pajama bottoms and rubbed her delicately. Making her hips move in time with his hands and fingers that invaded past her underwear and rubbed her sex.

"We..." She panted slightly and tried to think. "We can hire private detectives. Look... look into your mother's old friends." She gasped as her husband angrily stimulated her.

He seemed to enjoy watching her climax softly on his hand. His fingers rubbing her aggressively as she tired to calm down.

He didn't give her the chance to come down from her small orgasm as he stripped off her soaking wet panties and propped her legs up.

"I love you." He whispered to her as he moved off his pajama pants. His hands rubbing over her wetness as he stoked himself.

His poor wife moaning slightly as she was forced to submit to another round pleasure.

He ran his enlarged shaft over her wet opening before forcefully taking her. Making her take in a sharp breath and try to squirm away. The Point Man settling between her legs. Careful not to rest on her belly. Careful not to crush his unborn child as he ground into Ariadne like he was riding a horse.

"Arthur!" She cried as her hormonal body reacted sharply to his claiming her.

"I love you." He growled into her ear. "I love you so much." He said as he felt her inner walls tighten around him and he could no longer hold onto her.

He released himself fully into her. His body still careful not to rest fully on her as he kissed her over and over. Their bodies afraid to break contact for even a moment as they went to sleep.