8.

~ " You have no right to ask me about Sammy." She hissed. Her eyes glowing bright with an angry fire.
"Ariadne." Arthur breathed. His hands going to her hair. She flinched and moved away from him.
"Did you have McClain do a background check on me?" She said. Her voice choking a cry as those eyes of hers burned in bitter disbelief.

Arthur took a deep breath. He had to tell her the truth.

"No, he did that on his own." The Point Man confessed. "I never cared who you were or where you came from. I only care about who you are now."

She looked ready to either hit him or burst into tears.
"When I went into your mind, before all our troubles, I found this little girl. A scared little girl who... who was just like Darcy was. Before she came to live with us. She was crying for someone named Sammy. She was always calling for someone named Sammy. A little boy in a closet and this little girl was scared, and cold and too thin." Arthur finished as Ariadne broke down. Her hand over her mouth as she tried to stifle a cry.

~ "Why didn't you just tell me?" Arthur asked. "You know all my secrets."

"There was never the right time to tell you." Ariadne whispered in the darkened bedroom. Her face pressed close to Arthur's. The Point Man easily planting little kisses on her lips as they cuddled in their bed.

She had finally relented and told him all she could. Arthur still sensing there was a great deal she was holding back.

"I meet you, and your world was so far away from that world. What was I supposed to say? 'I'm not who you think. I'm really the child of murderers from West Virginia?' I'm sorry I lied. It's just, the lie was easier. It happened so long ago, it almost feels like it happened to someone else." She told him.

Arthur nodded. Her accent, her manners, he never would have suspected the childhood she was describing.

"Sammy was killed?" He prompted. His eyes soft as his hands roamed up her arms and to her shoulders.

She nodded.
"He was very young. I think, looking back, he must have had some mental problems. He couldn't ever seem to keep still. Could never concentrate. It more then just being hungry all the time." She told him. Her eyes far away as she chased the memory.

Arthur scowled.

'Hungry?' He thought.

The little girl in her memories, the one who cried for Sammy, was too thin. He didn't like the idea of his wife being hungry as a child.

"We didn't have a lot growing up. Sammy and I, we were too young to understand why we lived like that. To have your parents drinking and fighting all the time. We thought it was normal to live in homes with no electricity. No, water."

She didn't look at her husband as she took a deep breath.

"It was winter when Sammy died. He had been crying too much. I tired to keep him quite, but my mother,"She said the word mother like it was a title the woman didn't deserve. "Had enough and she locked him in a closet as punishment. She wouldn't let him out." Ariadne whispered.

Her handing went to Arthur's robe as she smoothed out the lapels. A nervous habit of hers.

"How long was he in that closet?" Arthur asked.

Ariadne seemed to steel herself. Her head shaking as if it weren't important. Her gaze concentrated only on the fabric of Arthur's robe.

"A few days. He cried at first, but then he stopped." She said easily. As if it were nothing.
"He died in there?" Arthur whispered. His large hands going to her hair and brushing a dark strand free off her face. She looked up at him sadly.

"Your mother went to prison. What about your father?" Arthur asked.

Ariadne's body tensed. She shook her head.

"What happened after?" He asked.

"I went to live in a group home. I was adopted by an older couple. I always told everyone they were my grandparents. It made things easier. No one asked questions when I told them that." She whispered.

"The couple Sadie saw you with. When you were pregnant with Daniel. They were your parents." He concluded.

She sniffed and nodded.

The Point Man's lips found hers and he kissed her sweetly.

"They wanted money. I was afraid of what you would think of me if you saw them. If you knew I lied to you." She whispered. "That I lied to you about everything."

"Ariadne, with all the things you know about me, all we've been through. How could you think I would think less of you?" Arthur smiled.

Ariadne started to cry again. Arthur pulling her closer to her. Grateful to have the pretty Architect so near to him again.

"Having you help me with all my secrets, it makes it better." He told her. "I'm not so alone."

She looked back at him with her doe like eyes as tears trailed down her cheeks.

~ Arthur was looking over his laptop in the living room. Ariadne had cried herself to sleep in the bedroom. Later, he dressed and went to do some much needed research online.
He had never looked into his wife's past before. Believing what she told him for years. Now, he couldn't help himself but find out all he could about her parents and a little boy named Sammy.

It made for dark reading. The records were sealed, but that didn't stop the Point Man. His work in dream extraction meant he was able to find out all kinds of things about someone. No matter how hard they kept it hidden.

Ariadne's father was charged with accessory to the murder of his four year old son. The boy had died of neglect and exposure to the cold. There were pictures of Ariadne as a little girl. Bruises over her fair skin.

His wife's large, brown eyes were the same as the seven year old Ariadne that back at him from the picture. She was adopted by a kindly, older couple named Hugo and Victoria. They had died in a house fire in Paris a few years after the family moved from America to France.

Ariadne's real mother was released 3 years ago and went back to live with her husband again. There was an order not to make contact with their daughter, but they had obviously ignored it when they sought Ariadne out in Paris a few years ago.

Arthur looked over the mug shots of Ariadne's parents at the time of Sammy's death. They looked nothing like her. Her mother was too thin and her skin was already showing signs of a hard life despite being so young. Her father looked drunk, dirty and the type of person Arthur would naturally keep away from. The Point Man found a picture of them taken for their passports three years ago, and the change was shocking. The mother was much fatter and she looked too old for her age. They looked so little like his elegant wife, Arthur wondered if they were really her parents at all.

Hugo and Victoria looked more like her then these people did. The refined old couple who adopted her could have actually passed for her close relatives.

Arthur finally found a picture of Sammy. A sweet looking little boy who resembled Daniel. The Point Man smiled as he saw his own son in Ariadne's little brother.

His baby teeth had fallen out and he gave a happy grin at the camera. Yet, he was too thin. Anyone could see that. The Point Man scowled over school pictures of Ariadne as a child as well. Her eyes were too big for her face as she also looked painfully thin. Her dark hair ill kept, even on picture day. There was also a certain sadness written on her face.

The Point Man found the group home records. Hand written nurses notes from a woman named Annie. Describing bed wetting, fear of the dark and nightmares. Also bruising to Ariadne's body. Arthur stared wide eyed as he read the careful writing.
'Ariadne has bruising to her inner thighs. Possible sexual assault?'

Arthur looked back at his bedroom door. Ariadne had never said anything about that before. He knew she had only had one boyfriend before him. Or so she had said. He knew that her sexual awakening had been with him alone. He chalked it up before to her being so driven academically. Now, if what this Annie person said was true, it explained a lot about Ariadne.

~ Corrine burst into the apartment a short time later. Arthur was still fuming over the records from Ariadne's past. Some things aligned with what she had told him. Other things, she seemed to have purposefully left out.

"I think running after the boys mean I can quit the gym!" Corrine laughed as James, Daniel and Dominic raced to the boys room. Phillipa giving Arthur a hug before retreating to the little guest room they set up for her.
"That bad?" Arthur asked feeling a headache coming on.

Corrine was pushing the pram with Drew inside it. The baby sleeping peacefully.

"I fed her already." Corrine whispered as the Point Man took his sleeping daughter out.

The pretty nanny didn't want him to wake the sleeping baby, but he need to hold his daughter. Needed to feel the comfort his child with Ariadne gave him.

Drew cooed her baby noises as the Point Man brought her to his chest. He could feel her little heartbeat and tried to line up her small chest to his large one. He wanted their hearts to be as close as possible right now.

It worked better then any drug. Drew chirped a little and curled cat like back in Arthur's capable arms. She was asleep as the Point Man settled back down.

"Is everything alright?" Corrine asked.

She had observed Arthur holding Drew with great interest.

"I'm fine." Arthur said as he smelled the baby shampoo on Drew's dark hair.

"What happened?" Corrine asked as she sat across from him.

The Point Man sighed. He felt, for a moment, he had been wrong to want Corrine to leave. She was good with the kids and seemed to care about the family as a whole. She had listened patiently when he told her about his real father. The Point Man getting drunk the whole time.

He looked at the door to his bedroom where his wife slept.

"I just found out some things about Ariadne." He admitted and kissed the top of Drew's head.

"Bad things?" Corrine asked.

"Not good things." Arthur said.

"How bad?"

"Very bad." Arthur said soberly.

"I'm sorry."

Corrine looked down at her feet.

"Do you think therapy will help?" She asked. She didn't look at him.

"I think it's too late for therapy." The Point Man sighed.

"Really?" Corrine asked. Her pretty eyes sparking and her perfect teeth peeking out in an almost smile.

Arthur noticed none of this however. He looked sadly at his sleeping daughter's dark hair. His mind on the little girl in Ariadne's dream. It was too late to save that little girl, but he would never give up on his wife or his family.

"So, I guess it's over for you two?" Corrine said as she moved closer to the Point Man.

Arthur almost nodded. His mind deeply lost in his own thoughts that his brain didn't process what she had said.

"Arthur, I want you to know; I'm here for you. Not just for the kids, but for you as well. I know it's been hard living with a woman who hates you so much." Corrine was saying as Arthur realized the pretty nanny was inching closer and closer to him.

The Point Man's mind finally clicked and he turned to Corrine.

Before he could get a word out, her lips were on his. Her kiss was gentle and firm. Arthur was still holding Drew and didn't resist.

I know I missed a couple of days of updates. For the first time ever I had writer's block. I had written a few chapters, and just was not happy with them. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. So I just threw them out. In truth, I'm not really happy with this chapter either.

Thanks for all the PM's asking if I was alright. LOL. I guess I'm very predictable about my updates and when I miss my 'deadline' people got a little worried. LOL.

I'm fine, everything is fine. I'm not sick and there is no crisis.

I'm currently reading the novelization of "The Dark Knight Rises". It's so boring and flat, I almost slipped into a coma. Yuck. Since there is no "Inception" novel, I think I might give it a go. I've been writing "Inception" ff for over a year now. I'm a qualified as any to try.

A follower gave me a good idea for a rich girl/ poor boy story that I might do. If I do, it will be for the ff I'm thinking about for TDKR. You will have to keep checking back or better yet, add me to your alert.

I WILL FINISH DREAM WALKERS! I just got distracted! I know a lot of people think "Dream Walkers" is ever so groovy. All my real world friends make fun of me for it.

"He's not here." (Gasp) "YOU'RE HERE!"

Don't worry, I will update soon.