Disclaimer: Inception does not belong to me.
"You've got fifteen minutes," the nurse warned. He began to leave. Arthur watched as he walked out, closing the door of the room behind him. He coughed, and as though reading his thought, the Architect picked up a glass of water and brought it to his lips. He took a couple of sips, grateful for the cool liquid flowing down his throat. After a few minutes, she gently pulled the glass away. As she set it on a small table, she reached over, and wiped his mouth. As she smiled at him, with unease, concern, but also, he noted, affection, he felt himself begin to crack.
"Ari," Arthur choked, struggling. The restraints were keeping him confined against the bed. He turned his head. "Ariadne, what are you trying to say?"
"Arthur, I believe that you didn't do anything," she said, softly. "I believe Cobb is behind it all."
"How..." Arthur was struggling to sit up, and she blinked. "Here."
Deftly, carefully, her hands unbuckled the belt restraints, and slipped them off his body. Arthur breathed, immediately feeling a new sense of freedom. Before she could say anything, he'd pushed himself off the bed, and was beginning to pace.
"Cobb..." he was shaking his head. "But...how do you know?"
Ariadne swallowed. "I went into his dreams." Arthur turned and looked at her, stunned, and then furious. "I went into his dreams, and saw what he was doing."
"Ariadne!" Arthur shook his head, angrily. "I can't believe you would do something like that!"
"I did it for you," she said, stubbornly. "I needed to see...what had happened. If anything had happened."
Arthur stopped pacing, and rubbed his forehead. "All right," he said, quietly. "I get it." There was a suspicious look on his face that made her realise she needed to tell him everything she had found.
"Do you?" She countered. He frowned - being in here, even though he was being dulled with medication, had not blunted his wits. He walked over to her.
"Ariadne." He spoke quietly, powerfully, and leaning over, touched her cheek. She didn't flinch or turn away, instead, she reached up and wrapped her fingers round his. "Tell me...everything."
"All right." She nodded. "Everything."
Arthur clicked his tongue in exasperation. "Listen to me. I am in here, pending trial for a crime that I did not commit...and if I did commit it, I have no idea of knowing where the desire came from." He looked at her, narrowing his eyes. "You need to tell me everything you know."
"All right."
Eames sat quietly, watching Cobb. The rhythmic rise and fall of his chest was almost hypnotising. He shook his head, wrapping his fingers around the neck of a bottle of beer.
Watching the Extractor was unnerving. The Forger was studying him carefully, the features composed in restful sleep. He bit his lip, and got up.
Ariadne had been distraught. In tears, and he had insisted he'd come over. And also insisted that she needed to see Arthur. To tell the Point Man exactly what she had found out.
The thought made him shudder. He found himself thinking through the scenarios he'd encountered with Ariadne and Arthur, the Extractor. None of them had noticed the Extractor's loneliness, his craving for affection.
And that was what had made him so dangerous.
"So he..." Arthur said, slowly.
"He got me to design the layout for the night club," she said, softly. Her heart was still twisting with this betrayal. "That's how he could do it. He managed to betray you through using me."
Arthur sank down onto the bed. "Oh, God." His voice was broken. Ariadne looked at him, suddenly shocked into seeing the broken shell the formerly elegant, erudite Point Man had become. "He did this to me...and we let him..."
She shook her head. "Well, we're going to change it," she said, decisively.
"How?" Arthur asked. His face was pale. He looked lost and alone. Ariadne sat own next to him, and carefully placed her hand on his thigh. Hesitantly, he reached over, and took it.
"We perform an extraction."
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