12.

~ 'Breath' Arthur told himself as his chest felt tight and his head suddenly hurt. The girl from the bus, the girl he had thought was just a dream, she was here. She was real and standing before him. Her nurse's uniform sticking out sharply in contrast to the cheap, garish dresses of the women at the bar.

"Arthur." Eames said taking the girl's hand and pulling her to him.

Arthur stood his ground as she came to him. He remembered every detail of her face perfectly. Her lips and eyes, even her hair. He hadn't dreamed her or imagined her at all.

"Ariadne, this is my friend Captain Art-" Eames started to introduce them.

"Arthur." The Captain interrupted the Lieutenant and extended his hand to her. "I'm Arthur."

He felt his voice was all wrong. His voice, so normally well practiced and self assured, felt oddly strange and childish.

She must have thought so to because she looked away and didn't shake his hand. Embarrassed to look at him for some reason.

"Where's Dax?" Eames asked. "Little bugger says I wasn't at Dunkirk."

Arthur couldn't take his eyes off her as he was afraid he might blink, and she would vanish again.

"In the back." Arthur said as he tried to catch her eyes. Tried to get those eyes of hers to look at him.

She kept her gaze averted. Looking at anything but him as Eames pulled her into the Officer's section of the pub.

The talking in the restricted section of the pub stopped when Eames came in with this beauty. All eyes were on her as she shyly stayed close to the Lieutenant. Arthur following behind as they returned to the table he, Cobb and Dax had been sitting at.

~ Ariadne felt increasingly nervous as Eames pulled her to a dinning area of the pub. She could feel eyes on her as finally they reached a table where two men sitting. One a Major and the other a Lieutenant.

She recognized the Major right away. He had been the man who brought the burned boy to her that night of the bombing. The one who laid the child down so gently on that table, it had broken her heart because the boy was already dead.

"Ariadne." Eames said presenting her proudly. "This is Major Dominic Cobb and Lieutenant Dax." Eames said pointing over the blond man who brought the boy into the hospital and a stranger she had never seen before.

She suddenly felt Arthur was behind her. The Captain pulling a chair out from another table and sliding it behind her so she could sit.

"Now." Eames was saying as Arthur nodded for her to sit down at their table. The Captain taking his own seat next to her.
"Would you please tell Dax here that I was at Dunkirk? That I was on the beach, and all that." Eames said. A smug little smile on his face.

"He was at Dunkirk." Ariadne said tonelessly. Wishing she could stand up and leave. Arthur was looking at her intently and she felt heat rise up in her cheeks. The memory of his lips taking hers as Doctor Kikie pulled shrapnel from his back.

'Did he remember?' She thought as she tried to avoid eye contact.

"You were at Dunkirk?" Dax asked her skeptically. "What the hell were you doing there?"

"Evacuating." Ariadne said simply.

She decided right then and there that she didn't care for this Dax person. He was too loud, too full of life and it was offensive. He wasn't respectful to the suffering that people around him had gone through.

She never spoke of the evacuation. Never told anyone about that beach and her feet bleeding. Not even Trixie knew the horrible details of it.
"Evacuating?" Arthur echoed back at her. The Captain looking worriedly at her. "You evacuated from Dunkirk? Were you in Paris when the Gestapo invaded?"

"No. My Uncle's family had a house just outside of the city. We tried to evacuate before the Nazis came." She said looking at her hands folded neatly in her lap. It felt so wrong to talk about it. So wrong to think about it.

"Did they make it out?" Arthur asked.

She turned to look at him as suddenly, they were back in the triage room. The pub fading away as they were the only tow people there. His eyes were the same as they were the first time they spoke. So concerned, so saddened by a stranger's misfortune.
"No, I was the only one to get to out." She said at last.

"I'm sorry." Arthur said. His voice low as their conversation excluded the others at the table.

"Have you been able to contact them? He asked.

She shook her head.
"I sent letters, but they always came right back. I was at the post office trying to mail something to them when Eames found me." She said.

"How did you get out?" Arthur asked. "I heard the Nazis were very efficient about not letting citizens evacuate."

"I rode my bike, caught a train." She explained feeling herself start to shake. She didn't like Arthur's eyes looking over her like this. Taking in every detail of her face. "I walked the last few days until I reached the beach."

"You walked for a few days?" Arthur asked in disbelief.

She nodded as if it were nothing.

"Lieutenant Eames found me there and helped me to get on a transport." She said looking at the Lieutenant. He was ignoring the rest of the group and was halfway finished with his pint. Not careing that he was a hero.

"Eames?" Arthur asked doubtfully.

Ariadne laughed as the British Lieutenant seemed an odd rescuer.

"Yes. He carried me into the water and everything." She said looking at the Lieutenant with a fondness she would have felt to an older, mischievous brother. If she had one.

"Had to. Poor thing's feet were bleeding." Eames said after a loud burp. Arthur pulled away from her slightly. His face looking hard and angry.

"You got her out of France before the Germans got her?" Dax asked in shock. Eames shrugged. "Your a hero?" Dax asked.

Major Cobb looked impressed as Dax bought Eames another round and the table ignored Ariadne. All except Arthur.

"I'm sorry about your family." He said as Eames and Dax engaged in some good old fashioned trash talk.

She shrugged. Pretending to not care.
"What happened when you arrived in Britain?" He asked.

"After my feet healed, I joined the war effort. They trained me as a nurse. I worked my way up to Senior Nurse." She explained.

She looked worriedly at Major Cobb. If he recognized her as the nurse form that horrible night, he didn't let it show. She wondered how much Arthur remembered.

"Do you have any other family?" Arthur asked. "Your English is so good, I thought you were an American."

"I'm from Canada." She explained. She was very uncomfortable talking about her family with Arthur. She never spoke of her past to people. The world was in such turmoil it was like people lived without a past. Without a history.

"Why did you come to France?" He asked.

"Can we not talk about my family?" She asked instead. An anger passing over her at all his questions.

~ Arthur sat back. He felt so stupid. So intrusive. It was wrong to ask this girl so many personal questions about her past.

The things she had to endure from the evacuations alone must have been horrible.

"I'm sorry." He said shamefully. "It's just, I never expected to meet someone as young as you who's gone through what you have." He tried to explain.

"Well, I'm fine." She said standing up. Arthur stood with her as Eames looked at them.

"Leaving?" He asked.
"Yes, I have a shift starting soon." She said lamely.

"Alright, Darling." Eames said with a shrug as Dax waved her goodbye.

She noticed Arthur was silently following her out of the pub. She felt the soldiers around them grow quite as the Captain walked past, escorting her outside. The men respectful to the man who obviously commanded them well.

Once outside, Arthur put his hat on and looked at his hands.

"I need you to be careful when you go out in the city. Don't let our men fool you." He said. "The streets are still not safe for a nice lady like you alone. I think I should walk you back to your hospital."

She wanted to tell him that she would be fine. She had been on the front lines for weeks now and didn't need an escort. But she couldn't. She wanted him to walk next to her as the afternoon died away into evening.