2.
~ Ariadne finally calmed down after a three hour drive out of the city.
"We have to get on another plane." Arthur said worriedly as night started to fall over the highway. "Their going to be looking for us. I'm sure that good Samaritan didn't waste any time calling the police."
"We can't get through security with her like this." Eames said. "Maybe we should just drop her off at an ER. They can help her that way."
"Eames, were not leaving her." Arthur said sharply.
"Eames is right, they can help her. We can drop her off, and wait outside till we know they found her."
"Cobb, I said no." Arthur said. His voice that warning level that made the Extractor and Forger back off.
~ Cobb still knew people. Saito was happy to send them a privet helicopter a deserted span of road off the highway.
"What's happened to her?" The business man asked as Arthur had to coax Ariadne into the loud scary looking chopper.
"Do you have any drugs?" Eames asked looking though the chopper's first aide kit. His eyes falling with delight on a another syringe.
"That's Haldol. We use if for people freaking out after take off." The pilot said as Eames stole it and jumped back to the ground. Arthur holding Ariadne as she cried and tried to ran away.
"Trust me, we need it." Cobb said as the Forger injected Ariadne with a small dose.
"You sure this won't interfere with the other drugs you gave her?" Arthur asked as he held the struggling, screaming Architect.
"That was over 6 hours ago." Eames assured him."She'll be fine."
~ "Ariadne, how do you feel?" Eames asked gently after 30 minuets in the air.
"How- do- you- feel?" She repeated as if learning a new language.
"Well, hopefully these will do the trick." Eames said pocketing the rest of the syringes.
"Cobb, please tell me what's going on?" Saito asked.
"She fell into Limbo. Woke up like this." Cobb explained pushing back his hair.
Saito looked at the young Architect in horror. Remembering his own time in Limbo.
"We didn't wake up like this." He said to Cobb.
"We used another compound." Arthur said darkly glaring daggers ad Cobb. "Makes Limbo infinite. Her mind is gone."
"Can she come back?" Saito asked.
None of the men answered him as the chopper flew to New York.
~ "She can't go to a nursing home." Arthur said. "We can't even have a doctor look at her." Arthur said after the chopper landed on the roof of his building and the Team lead her down the elevator to his penthouse apartment.
"Shit, Arthur." Eames said looking around. "You live here?"
"Don't touch anything." Arthur said to him as he walked Ariadne to the little guest room.
~ "This is your bed." Arthur said gently to her as he pulled down the covers. Ariadne looked numbly around the beautifully decorated bedroom Arthur kept for guests he never had. "You need to get some sleep, your very tired." He added when she didn't move.
He turned on the bathroom light that was adjacent to the room.
"I'm going to leave the bathroom light on." He said softly. Ariadne looked at the bathroom and back at her bed.
"Come on." He whispered. "I'll help you."
Ariadne trustingly let him take off her jacket and her shoes before he retrieved her night gown from her bag. She seemed to have forgotten everything. The most basic of things. How to change her clothes and Arthur had to avert his eyes as he helped her dress for bed. Something about seeing her almost naked in her like this seemed wrong. In almost any other situation, he would have delighted in such a thing, but now, he couldn't think of her that way anymore.
"Do you need to go to the bathroom?" He whispered. Not sure if he was up to helping her with that privet function.
She looked numbly at the lighted bathroom and walked steadily to it. Her memory of what to do wasn't that lost to her. She thankfully shut the door behind her and Arthur trusted she was alright as he tucked her dirty clothes in the closet. He heard the toilet flush and heard the running water from the sink as she washed her hands.
She emerged from the bathroom still looking confused as what to do next.
"Come here." He whispered gently. As if talking to a traumatized animal who was afraid of humans.
He took her hand and helped her into the clean sheets of her bed.
"I'll be right outside. I want you to go to sleep. You'll feel better in the morning. I promise." He told her.
He left the bathroom light on and turned off the bedroom light.
"Thank you." She said in a child like voice before he shut the door.
~ "We had better call what's-his-face." Eames said. "That douche bag that she's going to marry."
"Cooper." Arthur grumbled. He had never met the young man Ariadne had been dating since the Fischer job, but he didn't like him. "His name is Cooper."
"Is she asleep?" Cobb asked as Arthur sat down on his couch. He suddenly felt exhausted. Like he could sleep for ten years.
"Yes. I think that medication worked. She's a lot calmer now." He said. "Even talking."
"Were going to need more of that stuff." Cobb said nodding at Eames who was looking over the art work on Arthur's wall. Trying to apprise how much it might be worth.
"Yeah, I'll get right on it." Eames said. "Is this a real Picasso?" he asked Arthur.
~ Arthur's instincts about Cooper were right. He was a tall, burly college drop-out who wore his baseball cap turned around. Everything about him smacked of an Ex-frat boy.
'What did she ever see in you?' Arthur thought as he shook the young man's hand.
"So, like, is Ariadne okay?" He asked in his neanderthal like voice. Arthur had found the loser on Ariadne's phone and told him the bad news.
"No, Cooper. I'm afraid she's not." He said gravely.
"Coop. My Bros, they all call me Coop." The idiot said looking around Arthur's penthouse. Eames had gone to procure more medication for Ariadne and Cobb was with her in the library. Ariadne had woken up still confused and lost.
Arthur had half hoped that she would come back to herself somehow in her sleep. But she had woken up calmer and had allowed Arthur to help her dress. Always looking at him with her big confused eyes. Not understanding what was going on around her.
He was grateful she still had the hard wired memory of going to the bathroom on her own as well as walking and talking. Yet, some of her words were just lost.
"Well, Coop." Arthur said feeling the bile rise in his throat. "No, she's not alright. She had a mild stork while on her trip to L.A. Yesterday. Were having a specialist treat her now." Arthur lied.
He and the rest of Team had stayed up almost all night creating a phoney story of a stroke, complete with forged medical documents.
They needn't have bothered putting so much work into it.
"What does that mean? It that like, contagious or something?" Cooper asked. "Could she have given me something?" He asked in a confidential whisper.
"No." Arthur said coldly. Stunned at how someone so stupid could still walk upright. "No, a stroke is not an STD, Coop. Something happened to her brain. She's not able to function anymore." He explained.
"Function how?" Cooper asked.
"Well, she doesn't seem to remember things. Her language skills have been affected." Arthur explained. "So, when she sees you, she might not remember who you are."
"Whoa! Wait, Bro." cooper said holding up his hands. Thinking really hard.
Arthur turned to look at him.
"Be honest with me, man. Like, how bad is she? Like can she go to the bathroom by herself? Can she walk?" Cooper looked around the empty apartment and whispered. "She's still gonna be able to clean herself up, right?" He asked.
"Cooper, I think you need to be ready for a long recovery for her. She may never come back. We don't know how much the stroke affected her brain. There is a very good chance she might never be the same." Arthur said finally.
"Shit, Bro." Cooper said looking stunned. "Well, it's a good thing this happened now and not after the wedding."
"What do you mean?" Arthur asked. Although he already knew the answer.
"Well, I mean... it's a lucky break, Bro." Cooper said. "Can you imagine if I had to take care for her like that?"
"Yeah, it would be hard on you." Arthur said coolly.
"Look, Bro. Your Arthur right? Ariadne says really nice things about you." Cooper said looking happy again. "Can you do me a solid? Can you get the ring back? Only, it's like a ton of money and I hate to just walk away from it."
"Sure thing, Coop." Arthur said with a sickly sweet smile.
~ Ariadne was quietly looking through picture books in Arthur's library.
"How's she doing?" Arthur asked Cobb and the Point Man silently came in. He was holding his right hand, now red and swollen.
"She's fine. She likes the books with all the photography in them." Cobb said. "What happened to you?" he asked noticing his hand.
"Oh, I met her Ex." Arthur explained nodding to his hand. "Didn't think his head would be so hard." He added.
"You hit him?" Cobb said putting two and two together.
"He's an asshole." Arthur said defending himself. "Even asked for the ring back."
"Shit." Cobb said "What did you say?"
"Well, after his face stopped accidentally hitting my hand, I told him I would fed-ex it to him. I would hate for the little shit to be out the $30 bucks." Arthur said. Smiling for the fist time since Ariadne was lost.
Arthur walked over to Ariadne who was sitting on the floor looking over the bright pictures. Her fingers tracing over a stunning photo of trees with green moss growing over them. Arthur made a mental note to pick up art books for her.
She looked up at him and blinked indifferently.
"Hello." She said in that child like voice.
"Hello, Ariadne." Arthur said sitting next to her.
"You know me?" She asked looking Arthur over.
The Point Man sighed.
"Yes, I know you." He said gently.