Sweet Fire Of Mercy, 2/2. NC-17. Ariadne/Eames then A/A.
Title: Sweet Fire Of Mercy
Author: Eustacia Vye
Author's e-mail: eustacia_vye28@hotmail.com
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Ariadne/Arthur, Ariadne/Eames
Disclaimer: Everyone here belongs to Christopher Nolan and not to me. His toys are fun to play with!
Spoilers/Warnings: Post-movie. For the inception_kink meme prompt in round 17: Eames gets Ariadne pregnant but wants nothing to do with the baby. There's no way Ariadne would consider abortion, but her family would be horrified if she had a baby without being married. So Arthur steps in, offering to play the part of Ariadne's husband for when she visits her family. Titles and epigraph from Jackson Waters' "Come Undone."
Summary: See the prompt? I tweaked it a bit, but I essentially followed the directions. :)
There are scars that I've been hiding
There are ghosts that I do not claim
There are closets I do not care to open
They open all the same.
- "Come Undone" by Jackson Waters
Prior chapter:
One - Too Far Down To Speak
Two - Warm Me Like The Sun
They arrived in Boston with matching luggage and last names. The passports would pass any inspection, and Arthur had already arranged for an appropriate rental property not that far from where Ariadne's parents lived. His contacts would have put up standard security protocols, but Arthur always liked to add to them and change all passwords and encryptions. It was old hat at this point, something he could do without even thinking about it. The lease on the apartment was month to month, so as soon as Ariadne declared the charade over, they would leave. Arthur tried not to think about that part.
It wasn't really love, he told himself. Not the way Eames seemed to think it was. He was merely infatuated, and he never got the chance to really get to know her.
Still, he was inordinately pleased by the flush of pleasure in Ariadne's cheeks when she saw the apartment and realized where she was. He held her maybe a fraction too tightly when she hugged him, held her hand even if he didn't particularly approve of PDA. Arthur wouldn't have another chance at this before he had to go back to his usual routine of hiding from authorities and planning new jobs. This was something like a vacation in comparison.
Ariadne put off meeting with her parents right away, preferring to settle into the apartment and show Arthur the neighborhood. She carefully directed him away from her parents' apartment, and Arthur didn't question it. She didn't look nervous on the outside, but he knew her well enough by now to recognize her tells. There was the twirling of a lock of hair as she thought, the biting of her lower lip, the careful avoidance of topics that bothered her. Otherwise, she tended to dive headlong into things.
She called her mother in the afternoon, once she seemed much less tense. Arthur had guessed that she would eventually work herself up to that, and hadn't seen the point in pushing. She wasn't like Cobb; Ariadne didn't procrastinate long and generally did whatever had to be done without too much complaint. Or perhaps it was, and Arthur was too long suffering. His perception of normality had long since been skewed.
The dinner invitation to meet Penelope and Jason was inevitable, and Arthur supposed that their history of academia had led them to name their only daughter Ariadne. "Mom studied the classics," Ariadne explained when he had asked about her name for their passports. "Dad picked my middle name."
"Which is?"
"Dorothy."
"So they like traveling?" he had offered. Arthur had kept a straight face, which obviously helped Ariadne feel more settled around him.
"Yeah. We'd gone all sorts of places before I graduated middle school," she had said with a shrug. "It slowed down when I was in high school since I started working in the summer or taking extra classes, then I moved to Paris for college. They encouraged me to go. They figured I knew what I was doing, that I was smart enough..."
Arthur had reached out and touched her arm. "You are. This situation isn't about being stupid."
"Then it's a miscalculation," Ariadne told him bitterly. "I thought I knew better."
His fingers slid down to touch the inside of her wrist, making her look from somewhere over his shoulder to his eyes. "This isn't about being stupid or knowing better. You're an amazing architect and a wonderful friend. I'm sure you'll be just as good as a mother."
Ariadne bit her lip, and Arthur knew that he had guessed correctly about the true source of her fears. "What if I'm not?"
"You'll have help. You're not doing this alone, you know."
"I can't ask you to put everything on hold forever," Ariadne said in a small voice. Tears shimmered in her eyes. "I can't be that selfish."
"I'm not putting things on hold indefinitely, you know. I have contacts in Boston and dream share isn't all I do." He gave her a small smile at her baffled expression. "Don't worry about me, Ariadne. I know what I'm doing."
"I'm glad someone does," she murmured. She looked down at her stomach, then placed a hand over her still-flat belly. "You really think I can do this?"
"You got Cobb out of limbo and helped him come to terms with Mal," Arthur told her gently. "I really think you can do this."
Her smile warmed Arthur, and he knew in that moment that this was more than simple infatuation. Eames had been right, and he was in love.
***
Penelope and Jason were surprised but pleased to be introduced to Arthur as Ariadne's husband. Their apartment was cozy, full of books, paintings of archaeological sites and major architectural works, and photos of Ariadne throughout the years. Ariadne hadn't really come up with a lot to tell them about the intervening months, and she was full of brittle smiles.
"Your daughter is amazing," Arthur said quietly before dinner started. "I knew it the first day I met her. Even then, she had a mind of her own. Not always a good thing on a team effort," he added with a fond smile in Ariadne's direction. That earned him a startled laugh, but there was something like wonder in her eyes. Her parents were fascinated. "But Ariadne is brilliant. She went above and beyond everyone's expectations, and I knew she would do great things in the field. She definitely has."
Penelope smiled at Arthur. "I see how you charmed her."
There was sadness in Ariadne's eyes at the pronouncement, and she offered to get more soda from the kitchen. Arthur gave her the out and continued spinning the tale of her work placement job, how he had been the security consultant for the building. He had lost track of her for a little while, since their roles didn't quite overlap all the time. Once he had met her again, he had made sure he didn't lose sight of her.
"The rest is history," Arthur concluded. He had kept his conversation light and somewhat on the inane side, which seemed to help settle Ariadne's nerves. Her parents didn't suspect for a moment how far he had stretched the truth, how much it had hurt him to see her with Eames. Ariadne had a strong desire to put down roots and belong somewhere, and there was no corresponding aspect in Eames' personality. It had been doomed to fail, and the pregnancy was just the death knell neither had wanted to admit would someday ring.
"This isn't the only announcement we have," Ariadne said as they sat down for dinner.
"Oh?" Jason asked, looking between the two of them. "This is a big one as it is. A justice of the peace in Paris isn't a substitute for a wedding, Ariadne."
She grasped Arthur's hand tightly, drawing support from his presence. He gave her a slight incline of his head, a subtle nod her parents didn't notice. Ariadne turned back to her parents and pasted a wide but false smile on her face. "We wanted it small and cozy. We can always do a reception here if you want. But the real announcement wasn't even the wedding." She paused to take a deep and bracing breath, though her parents clearly thought it was a dramatic one to add to the effect. "I'm pregnant."
After the initial shock passed, Penelope jumped out of her seat to embrace Ariadne. Jason grinned at them, and Ariadne's relief was palpable. Being approximately ten weeks pregnant, Ariadne wasn't showing yet. She was tired throughout most of the day, occasionally felt nauseous but otherwise felt well. Penelope immediately began asking about prenatal vitamins and health care options if Ariadne had been moving around a lot in recent months, and they began to go into those details. Arthur watched Ariadne closely, relaxing as she did.
Jason clapped him on the shoulder. "Well, Arthur, I'm sure there's supposed to be a father of the bride speech, but I don't think that's necessary. It's plain to see how much you love Ariadne, and I know you'll do everything you can for your baby."
It felt like a punch to the solar plexus, but Arthur merely nodded. "They won't want for anything, sir. I'll make sure of it."
"Jason's fine. Or Dad, if you feel comfortable with that."
Arthur nodded, pushing aside any misgivings about lying about his role in Ariadne's life. "My father had died when I was very young. I don't remember him very well." He was aware of Ariadne listening, wondering how much of this story was true and how much was a tale to fit the persona. On this count, it was absolutely true. All of the best lies were based on a grain of truth, after all.
Jason nodded in sympathy. "Are you and your family close? You haven't really brought them up so far tonight."
Arthur shrugged; he hadn't seen or thought of them in a long time. "It was me, my mother and my older sister while growing up." He paused, thinking of his mother's eventual slow descent into alcoholism, his sister marrying young and leaving home as soon as possible. He hadn't seen her in years. He had last seen his mother just before the Fischer job, and she had been awful to him. She drank just as much as she used to despite the beginnings of cirrhosis, and seeing him had only reminded her of her late husband. "Things were more difficult as I got older."
"Sorry to hear that," Jason said, a slight grimace in his expression. "I didn't mean to drag up anything unpleasant at a time like this."
"Nothing you could have known about," Arthur said with a shrug. "We aren't particularly close right now and haven't been for years, truth be told. I wouldn't want to inflict them on anyone, let alone a young baby," he added with a bittersweet smile to his lips.
Jason nodded again, even though he clearly didn't understand that kind of dynamic. "We're a small family, but we're a good one. Ariadne's chosen you, and I trust her judgment." Jason glanced at his daughter with a fond smile. "Welcome to the family."
Ariadne had a relieved and watery smile, as if she was afraid she was dreaming and afraid to wake up. Her parents meant the world to her, and getting their approval was important. She hadn't been sure they would like Arthur, but he was a chameleon in much subtler ways than Eames could be. Eames became whatever he thought the other person wanted, using broad strokes and grand gestures to distract from the details if necessary. Arthur was all about the little details, the parts that people remembered long after he was gone. He was understated, which left him something like a blank slate for people to react to. He gave just enough detail for others to fill in the gaps with their own perceptions and assumptions.
And most importantly, he was here with her, supporting her and helping her even though he didn't have to. It clearly pained him sometimes to think of her with Eames, that she had never even considered Arthur in a romantic light. Seeing that made Ariadne feel small and selfish and stupid, even if he repeatedly told her she wasn't.
She would make this up to him somehow.
***
Ariadne's exhaustion continued for another two and a half weeks. She often nodded off on the couch while watching TV with Arthur, and he didn't have the heart to move her. He liked the feel of her sliding onto him and curling into his warmth, how his arm fit perfectly around her shoulders. Arthur never allowed her to apologize for falling asleep on him, whether it was on the couch or on the bed. There was only one bedroom, though it was large enough for a king sized bed and the massive furniture that accompanied the set. Ariadne had been awkward at first, but Arthur had been his usual quiet self and didn't make a big deal about how or where they slept. When she caught him rubbing a crick out of his neck after two nights on the couch, she admitted to being silly and they shared the bed. She was a sprawler as she slept, and for the moment could still sleep on her stomach. Sometime during the night she wound up with her head on his chest, an arm flung around his waist and the sheets tangled around her.
"You're comfortable to sleep on," Ariadne admitted, a flush staining her cheeks. "Are you sure you're okay with this?"
Arthur waved off her concern much the same way he had for everything else. He didn't need her to worry about his feelings. He was sleeping in the same bed as her. She was clutching him in her sleep. Of course he was okay with this.
They fell into a routine easily enough, and Arthur found that he enjoyed looking up recipes for different dishes to try to make for her. Penelope wasn't much of a cook, but Jason had dozens of ethnic cookbooks in addition to his parents' Betty Crocker cookbook. Jason found it amusing that Arthur and Ariadne were falling into some of the same domestic patterns that he and Penelope had. He shared some of his family favorites for Arthur to try out, which he could see meant a lot to Ariadne. He went with her on walks or to visit museums and galleries. He went with her to the initial OB appointment and declared himself the father of the baby and Ariadne's husband, holding her hand tightly when she trembled at the lies.
He wanted them to be true so badly, as much as he had once wanted Dominic Cobb to return home to his children. He suddenly understood the desperation that had led him to lie to the entire team for the Fischer job.
She wouldn't make any moves toward him, he knew. Ariadne was too worried about his feelings, that she was taking advantage of him in some way. She tried everything she could to help him around the apartment, encouraged him to continue with his consulting work and reminded him that she could rely on her parents for errands if he didn't want to do them with her. Arthur didn't think that she was over Eames either; he found her sometimes staring off into space with a sad expression, hands twisted together in her lap. She never explained what she was thinking about in those moments, or what sent her frowning at her stomach or her reflection, and Arthur could only think that it was out of a misguided attempt to protect him.
"You don't have to be so careful around me," Arthur finally said one day. She was twenty-one weeks along, more than halfway through her pregnancy. She was barely starting to show and worried about the sonogram she was scheduled to have the next day. It should have been done the week before, but there had been some kind of conflict for the technician.
"What are you talking about?" Ariadne asked, startled.
"You're doing it again. Staring off into space and frowning at yourself." Arthur almost wanted to ask why she still cared about someone who had abandoned her when she needed him most, but that might be going too far. "You're healthy. As far as we know, the baby is healthy. Your parents are involved and happy for you. Everything is going fine. There's nothing to worry about with any of them, so you must be thinking about Eames and trying to protect me." He managed not to clench his jaw when her mouth fell open, no doubt to protest his words. "I can handle whatever you have to say, even if it's to say you still love him."
"I don't," she blurted. Ariadne then shook her head suddenly, as if to correct herself. "Well, not like before. I do, a little, sometimes. It's... It's a mess. It wasn't supposed to be serious, but I guess it was on my end. I don't know." She got up from her seat near the window, biting her lower lip a little uncertainly. "I wasn't thinking that, though. I keep thinking that this baby should be yours, and I wish it was. I wish I got the chance to get to know you first. It's not fair to compare the two of you, I know that, and I keep trying not to, but things just work out better now than they did when I was with him, aside from my not working, I mean, but..."
Just to get her to stop rambling, Arthur stepped forward and grasped her shoulders. She looked lost and vulnerable but hopeful at the same time, and he leaned in to kiss her without thinking about what he was doing. She was startled, but didn't freeze. If anything, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and stood on her tip toes to deepen the kiss.
Ariadne unconsciously licked her lips afterward. "I'm sorry, my timing is awful."
"Better late than never."
"I do learn eventually," she offered with a half smile. "It's not too strange, is it? This isn't a rebound situation, I swear it isn't. This is different." Ariadne gave him a plaintive look. "With Eames, we fell into something that was probably more physical than anything else."
"Please say that you're not going to go into detail," Arthur told her dryly.
She let out a startled bark of laughter as she shook her head. "No, no. I meant that whatever this is between us is different. It's not some intense physical thing. It's more than that. It's... I feel comfortable with you, like I can trust you with everything. What we have now is what I've always wanted... I'm not explaining this very well, am I?"
Arthur slid his hand to the back of her neck to draw her in for another kiss. "You're explaining it the best way you know how." He kissed her again, a soft and undemanding press of lips. "But I think we can do better on the physical part."
It was almost comical to see her wide eyed expression. "Oh," she murmured as his mouth came down over hers. One of his hands slid down her back and the other started stroking a breast. It was larger and more sensitive than it used to be, which had Ariadne gasping and arching into Arthur's touch. She stroked him through his trousers, giggling when his cock practically leapt to fit the curve of her palm. "Um... So this is welcome attention, then?"
"Very welcome," he murmured as he moved to kiss the line of her jaw.
Ariadne wondered if she should tell him that she had liked sex on the rougher and flirtier side with Eames, then decided not to. She had no business thinking about him now, and everything was different. Her body was changing and her responses were different. Her breasts hadn't been as sensitive before, so the sex play had never really focused there. They were sensitive now, and she was definitely liking Arthur's attention to details.
She helped take off her shirt and bra, then threaded her fingers through the hair at the back of his head as he started kissing and licking at one breast. His hands were spread across her bared back, helping her to feel balanced. Arthur stayed in place until she was breathless and writhing beneath his mouth, then he paid careful attention to her other breast. She felt wet and slick between her legs, a growing need there leading to soft whimpers. "Arthur," she moaned. "God, please..."
He finally lifted his mouth from her, and she dazedly watched him smile contentedly at her. His lips were full and moist, and he moved swiftly to kiss her hard. Ariadne started attacking the buttons of his shirt and distantly registered that one popped off. She caressed his chest and arms as she slid off his shirt, and Arthur moved to feather kisses down her throat. This time he bypassed her breasts and licked a trail between them down toward her navel. As he did this, he undid the button on her jeans. She shifted her hips to help him slide off the rest of her clothes. Her breath hitched as he kissed the angry red marks her jeans had left behind; it was about time to start looking for maternity clothes, but she had resisted so far. "Your poor skin," he murmured, fingers light as he stroked her hips.
"I guess it's time to go clothes shopping," she murmured.
"I'll help," Arthur remarked, looking up from his half kneeling position. His lips were hovering just above her pubic bone, and his breath ghosted over her skin. Smiling, he let his fingers trail down her hips along the outsides of her legs. "You can model them for me and I'll figure out a way to do inappropriate things in the changing room."
Ariadne couldn't help but laugh delightedly. Somehow, she hadn't figured Arthur had that side to him. It was simply hidden behind the professionalism, and she was looking forward to finding out what else was in store for her.
The laughter turned to a gasp as he moved his mouth lower, his tongue darting out toward her mons. He urged her legs apart, and he dove right in to taste her. She gasped and writhed beneath his lips and tongue, then had to shove a hand against her mouth to muffle her cries when he slid his fingers inside her. He moved them rhythmically, in and out, sometimes curling or scissoring them the alter the angle and sensation as he licked and sucked on her clit. She felt ridiculously sensitive and restless, and Arthur kept repeating whatever made her moan and gasp. He was attentive and had his usual single minded attention to detail.
She nearly collapsed when she came, her legs wobbling. Arthur stood and had his arms around her to steady her. The next thing she knew, she was sprawled across the bed, Arthur kneeling between her spread thighs. "Doing okay?" he asked, fingers sliding through her slick folds. She nodded, reaching for him, and Arthur guided his cock into her. It was perfect, and Ariadne wrapped her legs around his waist. That pulled him in deeper, and Arthur groaned at the sensation. He began to move, thrusting deeply into her. Ariadne drew her nails down his back as he moved, her eyes sliding shut to concentrate on the feel of him thick and full within her, hitting that spot that made her feel as though pleasure was filling her entire body. When she tightened, Arthur's hips stuttered. "Shit, I'm not going to last," he panted.
"That means we have to try again?" she offered, moving to touch his cheek.
He laughed and kept pushing into her. A few more rapid thrusts of his hips and then he was shuddering slightly, eyes squeezing shut.
Ariadne cradled him against her when he collapsed on top of her, his head buried in the crook of her neck. His breath tickled, enough to get her to shift slightly and giggle, and Arthur tightened his grip on her and laughed. The tickling only grew worse, and they wound up shimmying a bit on the bed before finding a comfortable compromise.
Ariadne knew she wouldn't be able to lie on her back for that much longer. This felt perfect at the moment, and she would savor every second of this.
***
"Do you want to know the sex of the baby?"
Ariadne nodded, transfixed by the sonogram window. The technician had used a 3D wand, and she wanted to reach out and touch the screen. That was her child there, moving around and putting its hand under its chin. The baby squirmed a little, but otherwise didn't seem to mind the prodding against her abdomen.
"Congratulations," the technician said with a warm smile. "Those are the girl parts," she said, pointing at the screen. Ariadne couldn't tell the difference between one shadow and the next on the screen. "You're going to have a baby girl."
Grasping Arthur's hand, Ariadne gave him a watery smile, suddenly feeling overwhelmed by emotion. "We're going to have a daughter."
Arthur smiled and leaned down to kiss her forehead tenderly. "And she's going to be just as smart and beautiful as you."
They let the technician get whatever images she needed for the radiologist to double check the initial measurements. Ariadne could still hear the whooshing sound that was the heartbeat and see the fluttering motion of her daughter moving.
This was a gift, and one she would absolutely take care of.
***
Penelope insisted on having a combination baby shower and wedding reception. "You've met up with some of your old friends," she told Ariadne loftily, "but this isn't the same. I never got the chance to be mother of the bride and do all this." She wagged her finger accusingly at her daughter. "Progressive modern woman or not, I still want a reception to go to. You absolutely have to indulge me."
"Don't we usually?" Ariadne asked dryly. She was absently rubbing her stomach, which was only starting to visibly round now that she was twenty-two weeks along. Catching Arthur's amused glance, she smiled and then shrugged. "Okay, why not? I have no idea what to get for a baby. We didn't start putting anything together yet." They might have been otherwise occupied by the awkward dance of pretending to be married at first, and Ariadne had been too terrified of the concept of being a parent to do much more than endlessly read pregnancy books. Now they were distracted by learning the shape and texture of each other's bodies.
Penelope was scandalized and insisted that they would have to have an outing to Babies R Us in order to set up a registry, which then reminded her of the need for a wedding registry for guests to be able to choose from.
"We've started a monster," Arthur intoned for Ariadne's ears only. She smothered a giggle and he managed to look nonchalant when Penelope looked askance at them. It was rather nice to be swallowed up by the enthusiasm, to have a fond and motherly presence there. He wasn't used to that, hadn't really known how to embrace it. His own mother was so passive aggressive and had often withheld affection. Over the weeks he had been in Boston, Arthur had slowly gotten used to their style of communicating. He could see why Ariadne was so open and guileless, why she was so enamored of dreaming and creating.
"I miss building," Ariadne murmured as they walked through the stores later. It was the toy aisle for older children that caught her eye, and Arthur saw her longingly linger near the blocks. He could imagine her teaching their daughter how to build impossible spires, draw amazing outlines on paper or laugh as she simply lived.
Their daughter. Arthur didn't think of the child as genetically Eames' or worry about the forger returning to their lives. It was his daughter with Ariadne now, a fragile life he would do just about anything to protect, a tiny baby that he knew Ariadne would bend over backward for. Sometimes their minds boggled at the concept.
Arthur bought her the blocks and drafting paper, then sat down with her and outlined the consulting job he was thinking of getting involved with. "You could possibly draw and build a model, and I could maybe dream up the maze we'd use," he began slowly. "So you'd still be involved, even if you shouldn't actually dream with us."
The brilliant smile she flashed him was worth thinking aloud for.
It started with an easy job as Ariadne and her mother started planning the reception. She juggled the different plans easily, and sketched out preliminary plans quickly as Arthur spoke. He was drawn to her delicate wrists, the curl of her fingers around her pen. It wasn't too difficult to think of those fingers wrapped around his cock or trailing down his chest, and his gut tightened with want as he thought about interrupting her and having sex right there and then in the living room of their apartment.
She saw the smoldering look in his eyes and put down her pen. "Later," she murmured, leaning in to kiss him. It was soft at first, but quickly built up momentum. The kiss became a tangle of lips and tongue and teeth, their hands pulling each other closer. "Bed?"
"Later," Arthur echoed, too busy kissing her. It was easy enough to pull their clothes off, to lie back on the floor and help her lift herself over him. She straddled him easily enough, and Arthur brought his hands forward to support the soft swell of her stomach. "God, you're beautiful."
"I'm all round," Ariadne complained.
He reached up and cupped a breast, which was already growing larger in preparation for the birth. "Yes, you are," he murmured. Swiping his thumb across a sensitive nipple, he smiled at the sharp intake of breath.
"But... I'm not beautiful," she said finally. She wasn't fishing for compliments. "Cute, maybe. I've never been beautiful."
"You always were to me," Arthur replied in a soft, serious tone. He cupped her breasts in his hands and looked up at her, eyes clear and without any indication of artifice. "You are everything I've ever wanted, Ariadne. You're beautiful, more than you know."
Her expression softened, though he knew that deep down she didn't feel it as truth. It wasn't part of her self-description, something she hadn't ever considered important before. He wondered why it was important to her now, why he mattered more to her now.
It's different, she had said about her feelings for him. I feel comfortable with you. This is the way it should be, isn't it?
More than simple affection, more than the first glimmers of love. Was she in love now? Was that the difference? Loving someone was easy. Being in love could be so much harder.
Their mouths fit together, lips and tongues tangling as they held each other. It was like a jigsaw puzzle, all the odd shapes coming together into a larger picture. Arthur's mind was good at those kinds of puzzles, of piecing together disparate and random looking information. He had wanted this so much for so long, and he had been too afraid to read more into Ariadne's statements and touches. He hadn't really trusted his good fortune until just this moment.
Bad habits of a lifetime were hard to break.
Ariadne straddled his waist and guided him into her. She rocked against him slowly at first, her lower lip caught between her teeth to try to keep quiet. Her hair was a dark and messy halo around her head, her golden eyes alight in pleasure and joy as she looked at him. She was beautiful like that, and it was startling to realize that their farce had become achingly real somewhere along the way. Arthur couldn't even really pinpoint it; the first time they made love hadn't been the start of it. But it didn't matter, really. "The reception," he gasped, arching up into Ariadne as she slid down, deepening the stroke. "That makes it real."
Her eyes smoldered at him. "Which anniversary will we celebrate, then? The one on the paperwork or our real one?"
Arthur laughed and ran his hands along her stomach, then up to her breasts. She gasped and moaned, rocking a little faster against him. "Can't we have both?"
She let out a long and breathy moan, nodding. "Yes. Yes, yes, like that, yes..."
He tilted his hips up, shattering her breath and making her arch and cry out. He could feel her flutter around his cock, squeezing tight. Arthur leaned up a little, bracing her and helping her to keep her balance. I love you, he wanted to say. I've always loved you. But he wasn't the kind to say the words easily, especially with the ghost of her past relationship between them. There was something left there, she had admitted as much. She loved him, yes. Arthur could believe that. But just as some part of her would never believe herself truly beautiful, some part of him would always doubt her love for him. What if it wasn't as deep as her love for Eames had been? What if the feelings for Eames only grew stronger with time and she didn't want to hurt him? What if this was all an elaborate act to make him stay?
Ariadne only stopped when Arthur came, twisting beneath her thighs. She curled herself on top of him, fingers tangling in his hair. "I love you," she whispered in his ear, short of breath but sincere with every syllable. "I don't know what took me so long to realize it, but I love you."
Arthur let out a shaky breath. She had always been braver about things like this. He ran his hands down her back and turned to kiss her cheeks and lips. "I love you," he said in a soft, reverent tone. "I've always loved you."
Her smile was as beautiful as a sunrise and twice as warm.
***
It was a combination party celebrating Arthur and Ariadne's marriage and child. The guests were friends of the family, Ariadne's former classmates and friends. Penelope and Ariadne had broached the subject of Arthur's family and friends, and the only names he could come up with were involved in dream share. Ariadne left the decision in his hands and never once asked after his own family, understanding that he didn't talk about them for a reason. Dominic Cobb and his children arrived, as did a few of Arthur's most trusted contacts. They were amused at his generic security consultant cover, but did play along for the party.
Their living room stacked with gifts, Arthur and Ariadne sank down heavily on the couch. It was late and they were worn out from all the socializing and dancing and small talk. "I'm tired," Ariadne admitted, looking over at Arthur with a smile. "I had no idea how tiring that all can be."
"Fun tired, though," Arthur laughed.
Nodding, Ariadne shifted to lean against him and curled into his chest. "Oh, I can think of more tiring things that are even more fun," she purred.
He laughed again, carding his fingers through her hair. "Can you?" he asked, amused.
"Mm-hm. And you know, we should take the chance to have sex as much as possible now. There's going to be all that time when we can't once she's here."
Arthur shifted a little so that he could reach around Ariadne and touch her belly. "Is that so? Have you been thinking about that much?"
"Maybe," Ariadne answered in the same teasing tone.
He chuckled softly and shifted again. "My darling wife," he began, clearly pleased by the title, "I do aim to please." Arthur kissed her soundly, tongue sliding through her open lips. "So how would you like to be pleased tonight?"
Giggling against his mouth, Ariadne turned and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "I'm honestly too exhausted for sex right now," she murmured as she kissed the line of his jaw. She burrowed into him, tucking her face against his neck. "Mmm. I like this."
"Just this?" he asked dubiously.
"Mmm-hmm. For right now, at least. Give me a chance to nap and then I'll jump you."
Arthur laughed and held her tight against him. "Sounds like a plan."
She laughed along with him for a bit. "I liked your friends. You should invite them over. It doesn't have to be just me and my family and friends all the time."
"Friends might be an overestimation of the association," Arthur told her.
"Well, close enough, right? You trusted them with this."
"You have a point."
"So you can probably trust them with where we live. And it'll give you something to do besides cater to me."
"I like doing that," he protested. He liked the way she felt in his arms, the way she lit up when they talked. He wouldn't miss any of that for all the world.
"Well, good, because I like you doing that. But you know, work things. Dream share-y things. You can still do that, use the living room like a base of operations."
"You miss the field," he accused.
"Well, yeah, I do. So if I get to live vicariously through you..." Her voice trailed off. "It's an idea." She kissed his neck and smiled. "Just a thought."
"I'll keep it in mind. Your safety is my main priority, Ariadne. Yours and our daughter's."
The phrase never got old. Both loved hearing our daughter, and it felt more and more real as time went on.
Ariadne felt something flutter in her abdomen, like a soft press against her intestines. It didn't feel very strong, but it was enough to make her pull back with a squeak of surprise. "Oh! I think she just moved!" Arthur obligingly felt her stomach, but didn't feel a thing. "I didn't just make that up," she insisted.
"Or was it gas after eating all that food tonight?" Arthur asked, eyebrow playfully arched. He yelped when she poked his side. "Hey! Valid question!"
She stuck her tongue out at him. "Completely different feeling. And by now, all the books say I should be feeling something."
It was just over twenty-four weeks gestation, and it would be about another fifteen weeks to her due date. There was still time to prepare for a baby, but at the same time, they both knew just how rapid the passage of time could be.
Arthur cupped her face in his hands. "Come on. Let's go to bed. It's been a long day, and we'll need to rest up if I'm going to get all this sex you promised me."
Ariadne suppressed the urge to giggle and disentangled herself from him. "Sounds like a plan."
***
Arthur wasn't used to an involved family. He knew they existed in an abstract sort of way, seeing the evidence of it as he sifted through data in subject profiles. He saw families spending time together in museums or parks, saw the happy faces as he passed them by. It wasn't an experience he knew much about and had never given much thought to before.
Now he was starting to see the appeal.
He was a fairly handy man out of necessity, and planned to put together the nursery furniture on his own. As soon as Jason heard from Ariadne that the nursery was going to be set up while she and her mother spent time together, he arrived with a few tools, hex wrenches of various sizes and two friends from work. They ordered a pizza, got some soda and beer and before Arthur realized it the furniture was built and he was having a good time talking about completely random things. Jason and his friends were full of advice about raising children, effective (or ineffective) parenting and where the better places in the city were for family outings.
"And you know, eventually you'll want to have some couple time away from the baby, believe it or not," one of Jason's friends mentioned. He grinned at Arthur's frown. "It doesn't mean you don't care about the itty bitty baby, it just means you need to be more than just Dad. There's only so much spit up and poop you can wipe up without having to recharge and remember why you married her mother in the first place."
Jason laughed and got himself another beer. "You know, anniversary dinners, birthdays, big events. If you have to meet with a client in the evening, that sort of thing. Penelope and I will babysit, of course. You don't have to worry about us chipping in and doing our part," he said easily. "That's just what families do."
It hadn't been what his family did, but Arthur remained silent on that count. "I'll remember that," he said solemnly. "It's good to know."
The topic wandered away toward sports, and Arthur had to remind himself that this was ordinary life. This was what the average person did on a weekend. This was how they interacted with each other. Discussion about security measures and avoiding Interpol agents wasn't exactly standard dinner conversation.
He couldn't help but smile when he received a text from Ariadne: OMG, so much cute stuff we don't need. You should be here to talk Mom out of it!! Miss you already!
One of Jason's friends patted his shoulder. "Eh, I think you'll do all right, Arthur. You two are good for each other."
***
Looking back, it must have been more like a comedy of errors. Ariadne didn't even realize she was in labor at first. The contractions started out mild and spaced rather far apart, and didn't become more recognizable until it was bedtime. Arthur was horrified that it had gone on all afternoon without Ariadne carefully timing their intervals. He timed the ones he was aware of, and told her sternly "They're a half hour apart. Let's get your bag."
"That could mean more labor for hours or minutes," Ariadne replied, throwing up her hands in frustration. "It's only starting to hurt now. Can I at least sleep a little before you freak out and take me to the hospital? I knew I shouldn't have popped in that last disc, but I wanted to finish off the series..."
Arthur shot her an agitated look. It would have been much more comical if he wasn't actually worried about her. "The contractions..."
"Will happen if I'm awake or asleep. My mother was over twenty hours in labor with me. I think I can take a nap."
By the time she finished her nap, she was feeling much more uncomfortable when the contractions came. Arthur timed them at twenty-five minutes apart. Going to the bathroom, Ariadne discovered thick, stringy mucus. "All right. Let's go to the hospital."
During the ride there, Ariadne tensed and tried to remember how to breathe properly as the contractions hit. They were ten minutes apart as Arthur drove. He coached her as best as he could, but it was obvious how discomfited and agitated he was getting. It struck her as hilarious, and she wheezed with laughter between contractions. Arthur could handle dream share, the legal and illegal uncertainties, getting guns shoved into his face and bargaining with scary individuals as part of his "consulting" job. He couldn't handle watching Ariadne struggle through labor pain with each contraction. If his enemies knew this, they would simply throw women about to deliver babies into his arms.
He shot her a baleful look as he pulled into the hospital lot. It was a whir of paperwork to register her, nurses asking her stupid questions like "Are you in pain right now?" and "How can we help you feel better?" Ariadne let Arthur glare at them, since it felt like too much effort to call them on their idiocy.
Her delivery room was nice enough, if small. Arthur couldn't pace the way he liked to do, so he had to curl up next to her on a recliner instead of working off his agitation. Ariadne could almost see him winding tighter and tighter, and she pitied the poor hospital staffer that would inevitably make him snap.
The next several hours passed in a blur. Arthur was wound up and quietly condescending to staff that didn't seem to know what was going on. Ariadne managed to nap again once the epidural kicked in, though she itched something fierce and wound up leaving welts all over her arms when she scratched. That set off Arthur again, and she wound up having to ask to squeeze his hand to keep him from hunting down whatever staff he could in order to lodge complaints. She was surprised at how comforting it was to hold his hand; this entire experience felt surreal, almost like a dream, and Arthur's touch grounded her.
Ariadne must have dozed off occasionally. She was exhausted and surprised when the nurses checking on her mentioned that she was close to the actual delivery time. Arthur wasn't as snarly at that point, but Ariadne thought it was the exhaustion getting to him. He hadn't slept at all once the contractions started, and his constant vigil was wearing him down a little.
The actual delivery was a blur of pain, tears, clutching at Arthur like a lifeline and the continual encouragement of the nurses and her doctor. It felt like eternity before she felt something give way. A moment later came the indignant cry of her daughter, not at all pleased to be cold and held in the doctor's hands. Ariadne looked over at Arthur with fatigued pride, tears falling as she grinned. "I did it."
He brushed her sweaty hair away from her temples. "You did," he murmured, then kissed her forehead. "You're amazing."
The squalling baby was placed on her chest for a moment, just long enough for Ariadne to see the shut eyes and open bud mouth. "I'm your mommy," she murmured, stroking her daughter's head. Then the baby was whisked aside to the waiting isolette to be weighed, measured and evaluated by the waiting pediatric nurse as her doctor delivered the afterbirth.
There was a space of about an hour where Ariadne was alone in the quiet of her room. Her daughter was being looked after by the pediatrician, Arthur was calling everyone he needed to inform about the birth and her parents hadn't arrived yet. Some part of her realized that this would very likely be the last time she would have that kind of quiet. Her immediate future was going to be utterly consumed by taking care of an infant, and she wouldn't be able to do much more than consult in dream share for a while. Maybe she wouldn't be going back at all, it was too early to tell.
The thought of having such an indistinct future would have terrified her once. She would have been so angry about all the hard work she had put into her training and then into building up a network of contacts. It would likely be difficult to have a career and still be a mother, but her mother and friends had all done it. She could do that if she wanted to.
For the moment, though, it was nice to simply lie there and not plan a single thing.
Visitors kept her occupied, and Ariadne adored holding and trying to feed her daughter. Arthur hovered, not sure what to do but clearly needing to do something, so she usually sent him out for drinks or snacks to stay hydrated. At other points in time, she sent him out to look for nurses to check if she was holding their daughter properly while trying to breastfeed her. She was nervous about this in a way she had never been about anything before. This was such a huge responsibility to assume. Had she made a mistake?
But then those eyes looked at her, trying to focus on her face. Or Arthur held her carefully, a soft and tender smile on his face. At those moments, everything seemed to make sense, and the terror of being a parent swiftly faded. She could do this.
Eames knocked on the door during one of those moments. She was scheduled to be discharged from the hospital in a few hours, and she was gingerly sitting on the hospital bed with her sleeping daughter cradled in her arms. Arthur had his smart phone in hand, checking through his messages as they waited for her doctor to show up and give her clearance to go home. The room was messy, but her things were already packed and in the car. Anything still left in the hospital room to bring with them was all baby related paraphernalia.
"Hey," he called softly from the door. Arthur and Ariadne looked up as they were talking about the sheer amount of stuff infants seemed to require, and their voices died off as they saw Eames standing there. Neither had seen him since Ariadne's decision to keep the baby. He hadn't called or e-mailed either. "Yusuf told me about the birth," Eames said as an explanation.
If Ariadne didn't know better, she would have thought he was afraid of her reaction.
"Can I come in?' he asked in a quiet tone when no one said anything. She glanced at Arthur as she nodded. He stepped into the room and quietly took in the sight of the tiny girl in Ariadne's arms. She was sleeping peacefully, arms tucked tight against her body. "She's beautiful," he said in that same tone. "What's her name?"
"Theodora," Ariadne replied. It was like watching a stranger, she decided after a moment. She didn't know what Eames was thinking as he looked down at the baby; if she had ever really known how to read his expressions, she had lost that ability.
Eames nodded, then looked up at her with a perfectly blank expression. "I have a gift for her, if you want it." He slowly reached for a thick cream colored envelope in his jacket pocket when Ariadne didn't say anything to reject the gift. "I didn't have a name or social security number for a bond," he began as he drew out the envelope. "And I didn't think either of you would appreciate an anonymous Swiss account."
Arthur took the envelope for Ariadne. Inside was a number of bills that appeared to be American currency. "Thank you."
"Yes, thank you." Ariadne looked at him and gave him a smile that felt pasted on her face. Her heart was beating too quickly, though she couldn't have said why she felt so nervous. Eames clearly wasn't going to make a scene or try to claim her daughter and Arthur wasn't going to beat him senseless for abandoning them as soon as he could.
He had another long, lingering look at the sleeping infant in Ariadne's arms. She wanted to believe it was out of regret. "I wish you all the happiness in the world, Ariadne," he said, shoving his hands into his pockets. "You take care, the both of you."
Without waiting for a response, Eames left the room.
Whatever she had expected, this interchange hadn't been it. She turned to Arthur, feeling as though the wind had been knocked out of her. "What was that?" she asked after a moment.
"Maybe his way of saying he's sorry." Ariadne nodded, taking in his flat, sour tones. He would likely work with Eames again at some point, but she doubted that he would ever forgive the forger for his actions. "So what do you want to do now?" he asked carefully.
She carefully adjusted her grip on Theodora and reached out for him. Arthur caught her hand instantly, smiling faintly when she tightened her grip. "We're still waiting for my clearance to go home. Then we'll go home and take care of our daughter. Maybe your mother and sister will want to visit someday, maybe they won't. We'll deal with it if it happens."
Arthur tightened his hand around hers as he smiled at her. It was one of his most charming ones, causing his eyes to crinkle and the dimple to appear in his cheek. He didn't smile that way often enough, in her opinion. "It'll work out."
"Yes, it will."
This might not have been the life Ariadne first imagined for herself, but now she couldn't picture it any differently. She had a loving husband and infant daughter, would likely have some kind of architecture job and they lived close enough to her parents for support but far enough away that she had space to figure out what kind of parent she would be on her own.
The best things in her life had happened when she wasn't planning for it.
The End
Author: Eustacia Vye
Author's e-mail: eustacia_vye28@hotmail.com
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Ariadne/Arthur, Ariadne/Eames
Disclaimer: Everyone here belongs to Christopher Nolan and not to me. His toys are fun to play with!
Spoilers/Warnings: Post-movie. For the inception_kink meme prompt in round 17: Eames gets Ariadne pregnant but wants nothing to do with the baby. There's no way Ariadne would consider abortion, but her family would be horrified if she had a baby without being married. So Arthur steps in, offering to play the part of Ariadne's husband for when she visits her family. Titles and epigraph from Jackson Waters' "Come Undone."
Summary: See the prompt? I tweaked it a bit, but I essentially followed the directions. :)
There are scars that I've been hiding
There are ghosts that I do not claim
There are closets I do not care to open
They open all the same.
- "Come Undone" by Jackson Waters
Prior chapter:
One - Too Far Down To Speak
Two - Warm Me Like The Sun
They arrived in Boston with matching luggage and last names. The passports would pass any inspection, and Arthur had already arranged for an appropriate rental property not that far from where Ariadne's parents lived. His contacts would have put up standard security protocols, but Arthur always liked to add to them and change all passwords and encryptions. It was old hat at this point, something he could do without even thinking about it. The lease on the apartment was month to month, so as soon as Ariadne declared the charade over, they would leave. Arthur tried not to think about that part.
It wasn't really love, he told himself. Not the way Eames seemed to think it was. He was merely infatuated, and he never got the chance to really get to know her.
Still, he was inordinately pleased by the flush of pleasure in Ariadne's cheeks when she saw the apartment and realized where she was. He held her maybe a fraction too tightly when she hugged him, held her hand even if he didn't particularly approve of PDA. Arthur wouldn't have another chance at this before he had to go back to his usual routine of hiding from authorities and planning new jobs. This was something like a vacation in comparison.
Ariadne put off meeting with her parents right away, preferring to settle into the apartment and show Arthur the neighborhood. She carefully directed him away from her parents' apartment, and Arthur didn't question it. She didn't look nervous on the outside, but he knew her well enough by now to recognize her tells. There was the twirling of a lock of hair as she thought, the biting of her lower lip, the careful avoidance of topics that bothered her. Otherwise, she tended to dive headlong into things.
She called her mother in the afternoon, once she seemed much less tense. Arthur had guessed that she would eventually work herself up to that, and hadn't seen the point in pushing. She wasn't like Cobb; Ariadne didn't procrastinate long and generally did whatever had to be done without too much complaint. Or perhaps it was, and Arthur was too long suffering. His perception of normality had long since been skewed.
The dinner invitation to meet Penelope and Jason was inevitable, and Arthur supposed that their history of academia had led them to name their only daughter Ariadne. "Mom studied the classics," Ariadne explained when he had asked about her name for their passports. "Dad picked my middle name."
"Which is?"
"Dorothy."
"So they like traveling?" he had offered. Arthur had kept a straight face, which obviously helped Ariadne feel more settled around him.
"Yeah. We'd gone all sorts of places before I graduated middle school," she had said with a shrug. "It slowed down when I was in high school since I started working in the summer or taking extra classes, then I moved to Paris for college. They encouraged me to go. They figured I knew what I was doing, that I was smart enough..."
Arthur had reached out and touched her arm. "You are. This situation isn't about being stupid."
"Then it's a miscalculation," Ariadne told him bitterly. "I thought I knew better."
His fingers slid down to touch the inside of her wrist, making her look from somewhere over his shoulder to his eyes. "This isn't about being stupid or knowing better. You're an amazing architect and a wonderful friend. I'm sure you'll be just as good as a mother."
Ariadne bit her lip, and Arthur knew that he had guessed correctly about the true source of her fears. "What if I'm not?"
"You'll have help. You're not doing this alone, you know."
"I can't ask you to put everything on hold forever," Ariadne said in a small voice. Tears shimmered in her eyes. "I can't be that selfish."
"I'm not putting things on hold indefinitely, you know. I have contacts in Boston and dream share isn't all I do." He gave her a small smile at her baffled expression. "Don't worry about me, Ariadne. I know what I'm doing."
"I'm glad someone does," she murmured. She looked down at her stomach, then placed a hand over her still-flat belly. "You really think I can do this?"
"You got Cobb out of limbo and helped him come to terms with Mal," Arthur told her gently. "I really think you can do this."
Her smile warmed Arthur, and he knew in that moment that this was more than simple infatuation. Eames had been right, and he was in love.
***
Penelope and Jason were surprised but pleased to be introduced to Arthur as Ariadne's husband. Their apartment was cozy, full of books, paintings of archaeological sites and major architectural works, and photos of Ariadne throughout the years. Ariadne hadn't really come up with a lot to tell them about the intervening months, and she was full of brittle smiles.
"Your daughter is amazing," Arthur said quietly before dinner started. "I knew it the first day I met her. Even then, she had a mind of her own. Not always a good thing on a team effort," he added with a fond smile in Ariadne's direction. That earned him a startled laugh, but there was something like wonder in her eyes. Her parents were fascinated. "But Ariadne is brilliant. She went above and beyond everyone's expectations, and I knew she would do great things in the field. She definitely has."
Penelope smiled at Arthur. "I see how you charmed her."
There was sadness in Ariadne's eyes at the pronouncement, and she offered to get more soda from the kitchen. Arthur gave her the out and continued spinning the tale of her work placement job, how he had been the security consultant for the building. He had lost track of her for a little while, since their roles didn't quite overlap all the time. Once he had met her again, he had made sure he didn't lose sight of her.
"The rest is history," Arthur concluded. He had kept his conversation light and somewhat on the inane side, which seemed to help settle Ariadne's nerves. Her parents didn't suspect for a moment how far he had stretched the truth, how much it had hurt him to see her with Eames. Ariadne had a strong desire to put down roots and belong somewhere, and there was no corresponding aspect in Eames' personality. It had been doomed to fail, and the pregnancy was just the death knell neither had wanted to admit would someday ring.
"This isn't the only announcement we have," Ariadne said as they sat down for dinner.
"Oh?" Jason asked, looking between the two of them. "This is a big one as it is. A justice of the peace in Paris isn't a substitute for a wedding, Ariadne."
She grasped Arthur's hand tightly, drawing support from his presence. He gave her a slight incline of his head, a subtle nod her parents didn't notice. Ariadne turned back to her parents and pasted a wide but false smile on her face. "We wanted it small and cozy. We can always do a reception here if you want. But the real announcement wasn't even the wedding." She paused to take a deep and bracing breath, though her parents clearly thought it was a dramatic one to add to the effect. "I'm pregnant."
After the initial shock passed, Penelope jumped out of her seat to embrace Ariadne. Jason grinned at them, and Ariadne's relief was palpable. Being approximately ten weeks pregnant, Ariadne wasn't showing yet. She was tired throughout most of the day, occasionally felt nauseous but otherwise felt well. Penelope immediately began asking about prenatal vitamins and health care options if Ariadne had been moving around a lot in recent months, and they began to go into those details. Arthur watched Ariadne closely, relaxing as she did.
Jason clapped him on the shoulder. "Well, Arthur, I'm sure there's supposed to be a father of the bride speech, but I don't think that's necessary. It's plain to see how much you love Ariadne, and I know you'll do everything you can for your baby."
It felt like a punch to the solar plexus, but Arthur merely nodded. "They won't want for anything, sir. I'll make sure of it."
"Jason's fine. Or Dad, if you feel comfortable with that."
Arthur nodded, pushing aside any misgivings about lying about his role in Ariadne's life. "My father had died when I was very young. I don't remember him very well." He was aware of Ariadne listening, wondering how much of this story was true and how much was a tale to fit the persona. On this count, it was absolutely true. All of the best lies were based on a grain of truth, after all.
Jason nodded in sympathy. "Are you and your family close? You haven't really brought them up so far tonight."
Arthur shrugged; he hadn't seen or thought of them in a long time. "It was me, my mother and my older sister while growing up." He paused, thinking of his mother's eventual slow descent into alcoholism, his sister marrying young and leaving home as soon as possible. He hadn't seen her in years. He had last seen his mother just before the Fischer job, and she had been awful to him. She drank just as much as she used to despite the beginnings of cirrhosis, and seeing him had only reminded her of her late husband. "Things were more difficult as I got older."
"Sorry to hear that," Jason said, a slight grimace in his expression. "I didn't mean to drag up anything unpleasant at a time like this."
"Nothing you could have known about," Arthur said with a shrug. "We aren't particularly close right now and haven't been for years, truth be told. I wouldn't want to inflict them on anyone, let alone a young baby," he added with a bittersweet smile to his lips.
Jason nodded again, even though he clearly didn't understand that kind of dynamic. "We're a small family, but we're a good one. Ariadne's chosen you, and I trust her judgment." Jason glanced at his daughter with a fond smile. "Welcome to the family."
Ariadne had a relieved and watery smile, as if she was afraid she was dreaming and afraid to wake up. Her parents meant the world to her, and getting their approval was important. She hadn't been sure they would like Arthur, but he was a chameleon in much subtler ways than Eames could be. Eames became whatever he thought the other person wanted, using broad strokes and grand gestures to distract from the details if necessary. Arthur was all about the little details, the parts that people remembered long after he was gone. He was understated, which left him something like a blank slate for people to react to. He gave just enough detail for others to fill in the gaps with their own perceptions and assumptions.
And most importantly, he was here with her, supporting her and helping her even though he didn't have to. It clearly pained him sometimes to think of her with Eames, that she had never even considered Arthur in a romantic light. Seeing that made Ariadne feel small and selfish and stupid, even if he repeatedly told her she wasn't.
She would make this up to him somehow.
***
Ariadne's exhaustion continued for another two and a half weeks. She often nodded off on the couch while watching TV with Arthur, and he didn't have the heart to move her. He liked the feel of her sliding onto him and curling into his warmth, how his arm fit perfectly around her shoulders. Arthur never allowed her to apologize for falling asleep on him, whether it was on the couch or on the bed. There was only one bedroom, though it was large enough for a king sized bed and the massive furniture that accompanied the set. Ariadne had been awkward at first, but Arthur had been his usual quiet self and didn't make a big deal about how or where they slept. When she caught him rubbing a crick out of his neck after two nights on the couch, she admitted to being silly and they shared the bed. She was a sprawler as she slept, and for the moment could still sleep on her stomach. Sometime during the night she wound up with her head on his chest, an arm flung around his waist and the sheets tangled around her.
"You're comfortable to sleep on," Ariadne admitted, a flush staining her cheeks. "Are you sure you're okay with this?"
Arthur waved off her concern much the same way he had for everything else. He didn't need her to worry about his feelings. He was sleeping in the same bed as her. She was clutching him in her sleep. Of course he was okay with this.
They fell into a routine easily enough, and Arthur found that he enjoyed looking up recipes for different dishes to try to make for her. Penelope wasn't much of a cook, but Jason had dozens of ethnic cookbooks in addition to his parents' Betty Crocker cookbook. Jason found it amusing that Arthur and Ariadne were falling into some of the same domestic patterns that he and Penelope had. He shared some of his family favorites for Arthur to try out, which he could see meant a lot to Ariadne. He went with her on walks or to visit museums and galleries. He went with her to the initial OB appointment and declared himself the father of the baby and Ariadne's husband, holding her hand tightly when she trembled at the lies.
He wanted them to be true so badly, as much as he had once wanted Dominic Cobb to return home to his children. He suddenly understood the desperation that had led him to lie to the entire team for the Fischer job.
She wouldn't make any moves toward him, he knew. Ariadne was too worried about his feelings, that she was taking advantage of him in some way. She tried everything she could to help him around the apartment, encouraged him to continue with his consulting work and reminded him that she could rely on her parents for errands if he didn't want to do them with her. Arthur didn't think that she was over Eames either; he found her sometimes staring off into space with a sad expression, hands twisted together in her lap. She never explained what she was thinking about in those moments, or what sent her frowning at her stomach or her reflection, and Arthur could only think that it was out of a misguided attempt to protect him.
"You don't have to be so careful around me," Arthur finally said one day. She was twenty-one weeks along, more than halfway through her pregnancy. She was barely starting to show and worried about the sonogram she was scheduled to have the next day. It should have been done the week before, but there had been some kind of conflict for the technician.
"What are you talking about?" Ariadne asked, startled.
"You're doing it again. Staring off into space and frowning at yourself." Arthur almost wanted to ask why she still cared about someone who had abandoned her when she needed him most, but that might be going too far. "You're healthy. As far as we know, the baby is healthy. Your parents are involved and happy for you. Everything is going fine. There's nothing to worry about with any of them, so you must be thinking about Eames and trying to protect me." He managed not to clench his jaw when her mouth fell open, no doubt to protest his words. "I can handle whatever you have to say, even if it's to say you still love him."
"I don't," she blurted. Ariadne then shook her head suddenly, as if to correct herself. "Well, not like before. I do, a little, sometimes. It's... It's a mess. It wasn't supposed to be serious, but I guess it was on my end. I don't know." She got up from her seat near the window, biting her lower lip a little uncertainly. "I wasn't thinking that, though. I keep thinking that this baby should be yours, and I wish it was. I wish I got the chance to get to know you first. It's not fair to compare the two of you, I know that, and I keep trying not to, but things just work out better now than they did when I was with him, aside from my not working, I mean, but..."
Just to get her to stop rambling, Arthur stepped forward and grasped her shoulders. She looked lost and vulnerable but hopeful at the same time, and he leaned in to kiss her without thinking about what he was doing. She was startled, but didn't freeze. If anything, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and stood on her tip toes to deepen the kiss.
Ariadne unconsciously licked her lips afterward. "I'm sorry, my timing is awful."
"Better late than never."
"I do learn eventually," she offered with a half smile. "It's not too strange, is it? This isn't a rebound situation, I swear it isn't. This is different." Ariadne gave him a plaintive look. "With Eames, we fell into something that was probably more physical than anything else."
"Please say that you're not going to go into detail," Arthur told her dryly.
She let out a startled bark of laughter as she shook her head. "No, no. I meant that whatever this is between us is different. It's not some intense physical thing. It's more than that. It's... I feel comfortable with you, like I can trust you with everything. What we have now is what I've always wanted... I'm not explaining this very well, am I?"
Arthur slid his hand to the back of her neck to draw her in for another kiss. "You're explaining it the best way you know how." He kissed her again, a soft and undemanding press of lips. "But I think we can do better on the physical part."
It was almost comical to see her wide eyed expression. "Oh," she murmured as his mouth came down over hers. One of his hands slid down her back and the other started stroking a breast. It was larger and more sensitive than it used to be, which had Ariadne gasping and arching into Arthur's touch. She stroked him through his trousers, giggling when his cock practically leapt to fit the curve of her palm. "Um... So this is welcome attention, then?"
"Very welcome," he murmured as he moved to kiss the line of her jaw.
Ariadne wondered if she should tell him that she had liked sex on the rougher and flirtier side with Eames, then decided not to. She had no business thinking about him now, and everything was different. Her body was changing and her responses were different. Her breasts hadn't been as sensitive before, so the sex play had never really focused there. They were sensitive now, and she was definitely liking Arthur's attention to details.
She helped take off her shirt and bra, then threaded her fingers through the hair at the back of his head as he started kissing and licking at one breast. His hands were spread across her bared back, helping her to feel balanced. Arthur stayed in place until she was breathless and writhing beneath his mouth, then he paid careful attention to her other breast. She felt wet and slick between her legs, a growing need there leading to soft whimpers. "Arthur," she moaned. "God, please..."
He finally lifted his mouth from her, and she dazedly watched him smile contentedly at her. His lips were full and moist, and he moved swiftly to kiss her hard. Ariadne started attacking the buttons of his shirt and distantly registered that one popped off. She caressed his chest and arms as she slid off his shirt, and Arthur moved to feather kisses down her throat. This time he bypassed her breasts and licked a trail between them down toward her navel. As he did this, he undid the button on her jeans. She shifted her hips to help him slide off the rest of her clothes. Her breath hitched as he kissed the angry red marks her jeans had left behind; it was about time to start looking for maternity clothes, but she had resisted so far. "Your poor skin," he murmured, fingers light as he stroked her hips.
"I guess it's time to go clothes shopping," she murmured.
"I'll help," Arthur remarked, looking up from his half kneeling position. His lips were hovering just above her pubic bone, and his breath ghosted over her skin. Smiling, he let his fingers trail down her hips along the outsides of her legs. "You can model them for me and I'll figure out a way to do inappropriate things in the changing room."
Ariadne couldn't help but laugh delightedly. Somehow, she hadn't figured Arthur had that side to him. It was simply hidden behind the professionalism, and she was looking forward to finding out what else was in store for her.
The laughter turned to a gasp as he moved his mouth lower, his tongue darting out toward her mons. He urged her legs apart, and he dove right in to taste her. She gasped and writhed beneath his lips and tongue, then had to shove a hand against her mouth to muffle her cries when he slid his fingers inside her. He moved them rhythmically, in and out, sometimes curling or scissoring them the alter the angle and sensation as he licked and sucked on her clit. She felt ridiculously sensitive and restless, and Arthur kept repeating whatever made her moan and gasp. He was attentive and had his usual single minded attention to detail.
She nearly collapsed when she came, her legs wobbling. Arthur stood and had his arms around her to steady her. The next thing she knew, she was sprawled across the bed, Arthur kneeling between her spread thighs. "Doing okay?" he asked, fingers sliding through her slick folds. She nodded, reaching for him, and Arthur guided his cock into her. It was perfect, and Ariadne wrapped her legs around his waist. That pulled him in deeper, and Arthur groaned at the sensation. He began to move, thrusting deeply into her. Ariadne drew her nails down his back as he moved, her eyes sliding shut to concentrate on the feel of him thick and full within her, hitting that spot that made her feel as though pleasure was filling her entire body. When she tightened, Arthur's hips stuttered. "Shit, I'm not going to last," he panted.
"That means we have to try again?" she offered, moving to touch his cheek.
He laughed and kept pushing into her. A few more rapid thrusts of his hips and then he was shuddering slightly, eyes squeezing shut.
Ariadne cradled him against her when he collapsed on top of her, his head buried in the crook of her neck. His breath tickled, enough to get her to shift slightly and giggle, and Arthur tightened his grip on her and laughed. The tickling only grew worse, and they wound up shimmying a bit on the bed before finding a comfortable compromise.
Ariadne knew she wouldn't be able to lie on her back for that much longer. This felt perfect at the moment, and she would savor every second of this.
***
"Do you want to know the sex of the baby?"
Ariadne nodded, transfixed by the sonogram window. The technician had used a 3D wand, and she wanted to reach out and touch the screen. That was her child there, moving around and putting its hand under its chin. The baby squirmed a little, but otherwise didn't seem to mind the prodding against her abdomen.
"Congratulations," the technician said with a warm smile. "Those are the girl parts," she said, pointing at the screen. Ariadne couldn't tell the difference between one shadow and the next on the screen. "You're going to have a baby girl."
Grasping Arthur's hand, Ariadne gave him a watery smile, suddenly feeling overwhelmed by emotion. "We're going to have a daughter."
Arthur smiled and leaned down to kiss her forehead tenderly. "And she's going to be just as smart and beautiful as you."
They let the technician get whatever images she needed for the radiologist to double check the initial measurements. Ariadne could still hear the whooshing sound that was the heartbeat and see the fluttering motion of her daughter moving.
This was a gift, and one she would absolutely take care of.
***
Penelope insisted on having a combination baby shower and wedding reception. "You've met up with some of your old friends," she told Ariadne loftily, "but this isn't the same. I never got the chance to be mother of the bride and do all this." She wagged her finger accusingly at her daughter. "Progressive modern woman or not, I still want a reception to go to. You absolutely have to indulge me."
"Don't we usually?" Ariadne asked dryly. She was absently rubbing her stomach, which was only starting to visibly round now that she was twenty-two weeks along. Catching Arthur's amused glance, she smiled and then shrugged. "Okay, why not? I have no idea what to get for a baby. We didn't start putting anything together yet." They might have been otherwise occupied by the awkward dance of pretending to be married at first, and Ariadne had been too terrified of the concept of being a parent to do much more than endlessly read pregnancy books. Now they were distracted by learning the shape and texture of each other's bodies.
Penelope was scandalized and insisted that they would have to have an outing to Babies R Us in order to set up a registry, which then reminded her of the need for a wedding registry for guests to be able to choose from.
"We've started a monster," Arthur intoned for Ariadne's ears only. She smothered a giggle and he managed to look nonchalant when Penelope looked askance at them. It was rather nice to be swallowed up by the enthusiasm, to have a fond and motherly presence there. He wasn't used to that, hadn't really known how to embrace it. His own mother was so passive aggressive and had often withheld affection. Over the weeks he had been in Boston, Arthur had slowly gotten used to their style of communicating. He could see why Ariadne was so open and guileless, why she was so enamored of dreaming and creating.
"I miss building," Ariadne murmured as they walked through the stores later. It was the toy aisle for older children that caught her eye, and Arthur saw her longingly linger near the blocks. He could imagine her teaching their daughter how to build impossible spires, draw amazing outlines on paper or laugh as she simply lived.
Their daughter. Arthur didn't think of the child as genetically Eames' or worry about the forger returning to their lives. It was his daughter with Ariadne now, a fragile life he would do just about anything to protect, a tiny baby that he knew Ariadne would bend over backward for. Sometimes their minds boggled at the concept.
Arthur bought her the blocks and drafting paper, then sat down with her and outlined the consulting job he was thinking of getting involved with. "You could possibly draw and build a model, and I could maybe dream up the maze we'd use," he began slowly. "So you'd still be involved, even if you shouldn't actually dream with us."
The brilliant smile she flashed him was worth thinking aloud for.
It started with an easy job as Ariadne and her mother started planning the reception. She juggled the different plans easily, and sketched out preliminary plans quickly as Arthur spoke. He was drawn to her delicate wrists, the curl of her fingers around her pen. It wasn't too difficult to think of those fingers wrapped around his cock or trailing down his chest, and his gut tightened with want as he thought about interrupting her and having sex right there and then in the living room of their apartment.
She saw the smoldering look in his eyes and put down her pen. "Later," she murmured, leaning in to kiss him. It was soft at first, but quickly built up momentum. The kiss became a tangle of lips and tongue and teeth, their hands pulling each other closer. "Bed?"
"Later," Arthur echoed, too busy kissing her. It was easy enough to pull their clothes off, to lie back on the floor and help her lift herself over him. She straddled him easily enough, and Arthur brought his hands forward to support the soft swell of her stomach. "God, you're beautiful."
"I'm all round," Ariadne complained.
He reached up and cupped a breast, which was already growing larger in preparation for the birth. "Yes, you are," he murmured. Swiping his thumb across a sensitive nipple, he smiled at the sharp intake of breath.
"But... I'm not beautiful," she said finally. She wasn't fishing for compliments. "Cute, maybe. I've never been beautiful."
"You always were to me," Arthur replied in a soft, serious tone. He cupped her breasts in his hands and looked up at her, eyes clear and without any indication of artifice. "You are everything I've ever wanted, Ariadne. You're beautiful, more than you know."
Her expression softened, though he knew that deep down she didn't feel it as truth. It wasn't part of her self-description, something she hadn't ever considered important before. He wondered why it was important to her now, why he mattered more to her now.
It's different, she had said about her feelings for him. I feel comfortable with you. This is the way it should be, isn't it?
More than simple affection, more than the first glimmers of love. Was she in love now? Was that the difference? Loving someone was easy. Being in love could be so much harder.
Their mouths fit together, lips and tongues tangling as they held each other. It was like a jigsaw puzzle, all the odd shapes coming together into a larger picture. Arthur's mind was good at those kinds of puzzles, of piecing together disparate and random looking information. He had wanted this so much for so long, and he had been too afraid to read more into Ariadne's statements and touches. He hadn't really trusted his good fortune until just this moment.
Bad habits of a lifetime were hard to break.
Ariadne straddled his waist and guided him into her. She rocked against him slowly at first, her lower lip caught between her teeth to try to keep quiet. Her hair was a dark and messy halo around her head, her golden eyes alight in pleasure and joy as she looked at him. She was beautiful like that, and it was startling to realize that their farce had become achingly real somewhere along the way. Arthur couldn't even really pinpoint it; the first time they made love hadn't been the start of it. But it didn't matter, really. "The reception," he gasped, arching up into Ariadne as she slid down, deepening the stroke. "That makes it real."
Her eyes smoldered at him. "Which anniversary will we celebrate, then? The one on the paperwork or our real one?"
Arthur laughed and ran his hands along her stomach, then up to her breasts. She gasped and moaned, rocking a little faster against him. "Can't we have both?"
She let out a long and breathy moan, nodding. "Yes. Yes, yes, like that, yes..."
He tilted his hips up, shattering her breath and making her arch and cry out. He could feel her flutter around his cock, squeezing tight. Arthur leaned up a little, bracing her and helping her to keep her balance. I love you, he wanted to say. I've always loved you. But he wasn't the kind to say the words easily, especially with the ghost of her past relationship between them. There was something left there, she had admitted as much. She loved him, yes. Arthur could believe that. But just as some part of her would never believe herself truly beautiful, some part of him would always doubt her love for him. What if it wasn't as deep as her love for Eames had been? What if the feelings for Eames only grew stronger with time and she didn't want to hurt him? What if this was all an elaborate act to make him stay?
Ariadne only stopped when Arthur came, twisting beneath her thighs. She curled herself on top of him, fingers tangling in his hair. "I love you," she whispered in his ear, short of breath but sincere with every syllable. "I don't know what took me so long to realize it, but I love you."
Arthur let out a shaky breath. She had always been braver about things like this. He ran his hands down her back and turned to kiss her cheeks and lips. "I love you," he said in a soft, reverent tone. "I've always loved you."
Her smile was as beautiful as a sunrise and twice as warm.
***
It was a combination party celebrating Arthur and Ariadne's marriage and child. The guests were friends of the family, Ariadne's former classmates and friends. Penelope and Ariadne had broached the subject of Arthur's family and friends, and the only names he could come up with were involved in dream share. Ariadne left the decision in his hands and never once asked after his own family, understanding that he didn't talk about them for a reason. Dominic Cobb and his children arrived, as did a few of Arthur's most trusted contacts. They were amused at his generic security consultant cover, but did play along for the party.
Their living room stacked with gifts, Arthur and Ariadne sank down heavily on the couch. It was late and they were worn out from all the socializing and dancing and small talk. "I'm tired," Ariadne admitted, looking over at Arthur with a smile. "I had no idea how tiring that all can be."
"Fun tired, though," Arthur laughed.
Nodding, Ariadne shifted to lean against him and curled into his chest. "Oh, I can think of more tiring things that are even more fun," she purred.
He laughed again, carding his fingers through her hair. "Can you?" he asked, amused.
"Mm-hm. And you know, we should take the chance to have sex as much as possible now. There's going to be all that time when we can't once she's here."
Arthur shifted a little so that he could reach around Ariadne and touch her belly. "Is that so? Have you been thinking about that much?"
"Maybe," Ariadne answered in the same teasing tone.
He chuckled softly and shifted again. "My darling wife," he began, clearly pleased by the title, "I do aim to please." Arthur kissed her soundly, tongue sliding through her open lips. "So how would you like to be pleased tonight?"
Giggling against his mouth, Ariadne turned and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "I'm honestly too exhausted for sex right now," she murmured as she kissed the line of his jaw. She burrowed into him, tucking her face against his neck. "Mmm. I like this."
"Just this?" he asked dubiously.
"Mmm-hmm. For right now, at least. Give me a chance to nap and then I'll jump you."
Arthur laughed and held her tight against him. "Sounds like a plan."
She laughed along with him for a bit. "I liked your friends. You should invite them over. It doesn't have to be just me and my family and friends all the time."
"Friends might be an overestimation of the association," Arthur told her.
"Well, close enough, right? You trusted them with this."
"You have a point."
"So you can probably trust them with where we live. And it'll give you something to do besides cater to me."
"I like doing that," he protested. He liked the way she felt in his arms, the way she lit up when they talked. He wouldn't miss any of that for all the world.
"Well, good, because I like you doing that. But you know, work things. Dream share-y things. You can still do that, use the living room like a base of operations."
"You miss the field," he accused.
"Well, yeah, I do. So if I get to live vicariously through you..." Her voice trailed off. "It's an idea." She kissed his neck and smiled. "Just a thought."
"I'll keep it in mind. Your safety is my main priority, Ariadne. Yours and our daughter's."
The phrase never got old. Both loved hearing our daughter, and it felt more and more real as time went on.
Ariadne felt something flutter in her abdomen, like a soft press against her intestines. It didn't feel very strong, but it was enough to make her pull back with a squeak of surprise. "Oh! I think she just moved!" Arthur obligingly felt her stomach, but didn't feel a thing. "I didn't just make that up," she insisted.
"Or was it gas after eating all that food tonight?" Arthur asked, eyebrow playfully arched. He yelped when she poked his side. "Hey! Valid question!"
She stuck her tongue out at him. "Completely different feeling. And by now, all the books say I should be feeling something."
It was just over twenty-four weeks gestation, and it would be about another fifteen weeks to her due date. There was still time to prepare for a baby, but at the same time, they both knew just how rapid the passage of time could be.
Arthur cupped her face in his hands. "Come on. Let's go to bed. It's been a long day, and we'll need to rest up if I'm going to get all this sex you promised me."
Ariadne suppressed the urge to giggle and disentangled herself from him. "Sounds like a plan."
***
Arthur wasn't used to an involved family. He knew they existed in an abstract sort of way, seeing the evidence of it as he sifted through data in subject profiles. He saw families spending time together in museums or parks, saw the happy faces as he passed them by. It wasn't an experience he knew much about and had never given much thought to before.
Now he was starting to see the appeal.
He was a fairly handy man out of necessity, and planned to put together the nursery furniture on his own. As soon as Jason heard from Ariadne that the nursery was going to be set up while she and her mother spent time together, he arrived with a few tools, hex wrenches of various sizes and two friends from work. They ordered a pizza, got some soda and beer and before Arthur realized it the furniture was built and he was having a good time talking about completely random things. Jason and his friends were full of advice about raising children, effective (or ineffective) parenting and where the better places in the city were for family outings.
"And you know, eventually you'll want to have some couple time away from the baby, believe it or not," one of Jason's friends mentioned. He grinned at Arthur's frown. "It doesn't mean you don't care about the itty bitty baby, it just means you need to be more than just Dad. There's only so much spit up and poop you can wipe up without having to recharge and remember why you married her mother in the first place."
Jason laughed and got himself another beer. "You know, anniversary dinners, birthdays, big events. If you have to meet with a client in the evening, that sort of thing. Penelope and I will babysit, of course. You don't have to worry about us chipping in and doing our part," he said easily. "That's just what families do."
It hadn't been what his family did, but Arthur remained silent on that count. "I'll remember that," he said solemnly. "It's good to know."
The topic wandered away toward sports, and Arthur had to remind himself that this was ordinary life. This was what the average person did on a weekend. This was how they interacted with each other. Discussion about security measures and avoiding Interpol agents wasn't exactly standard dinner conversation.
He couldn't help but smile when he received a text from Ariadne: OMG, so much cute stuff we don't need. You should be here to talk Mom out of it!! Miss you already!
One of Jason's friends patted his shoulder. "Eh, I think you'll do all right, Arthur. You two are good for each other."
***
Looking back, it must have been more like a comedy of errors. Ariadne didn't even realize she was in labor at first. The contractions started out mild and spaced rather far apart, and didn't become more recognizable until it was bedtime. Arthur was horrified that it had gone on all afternoon without Ariadne carefully timing their intervals. He timed the ones he was aware of, and told her sternly "They're a half hour apart. Let's get your bag."
"That could mean more labor for hours or minutes," Ariadne replied, throwing up her hands in frustration. "It's only starting to hurt now. Can I at least sleep a little before you freak out and take me to the hospital? I knew I shouldn't have popped in that last disc, but I wanted to finish off the series..."
Arthur shot her an agitated look. It would have been much more comical if he wasn't actually worried about her. "The contractions..."
"Will happen if I'm awake or asleep. My mother was over twenty hours in labor with me. I think I can take a nap."
By the time she finished her nap, she was feeling much more uncomfortable when the contractions came. Arthur timed them at twenty-five minutes apart. Going to the bathroom, Ariadne discovered thick, stringy mucus. "All right. Let's go to the hospital."
During the ride there, Ariadne tensed and tried to remember how to breathe properly as the contractions hit. They were ten minutes apart as Arthur drove. He coached her as best as he could, but it was obvious how discomfited and agitated he was getting. It struck her as hilarious, and she wheezed with laughter between contractions. Arthur could handle dream share, the legal and illegal uncertainties, getting guns shoved into his face and bargaining with scary individuals as part of his "consulting" job. He couldn't handle watching Ariadne struggle through labor pain with each contraction. If his enemies knew this, they would simply throw women about to deliver babies into his arms.
He shot her a baleful look as he pulled into the hospital lot. It was a whir of paperwork to register her, nurses asking her stupid questions like "Are you in pain right now?" and "How can we help you feel better?" Ariadne let Arthur glare at them, since it felt like too much effort to call them on their idiocy.
Her delivery room was nice enough, if small. Arthur couldn't pace the way he liked to do, so he had to curl up next to her on a recliner instead of working off his agitation. Ariadne could almost see him winding tighter and tighter, and she pitied the poor hospital staffer that would inevitably make him snap.
The next several hours passed in a blur. Arthur was wound up and quietly condescending to staff that didn't seem to know what was going on. Ariadne managed to nap again once the epidural kicked in, though she itched something fierce and wound up leaving welts all over her arms when she scratched. That set off Arthur again, and she wound up having to ask to squeeze his hand to keep him from hunting down whatever staff he could in order to lodge complaints. She was surprised at how comforting it was to hold his hand; this entire experience felt surreal, almost like a dream, and Arthur's touch grounded her.
Ariadne must have dozed off occasionally. She was exhausted and surprised when the nurses checking on her mentioned that she was close to the actual delivery time. Arthur wasn't as snarly at that point, but Ariadne thought it was the exhaustion getting to him. He hadn't slept at all once the contractions started, and his constant vigil was wearing him down a little.
The actual delivery was a blur of pain, tears, clutching at Arthur like a lifeline and the continual encouragement of the nurses and her doctor. It felt like eternity before she felt something give way. A moment later came the indignant cry of her daughter, not at all pleased to be cold and held in the doctor's hands. Ariadne looked over at Arthur with fatigued pride, tears falling as she grinned. "I did it."
He brushed her sweaty hair away from her temples. "You did," he murmured, then kissed her forehead. "You're amazing."
The squalling baby was placed on her chest for a moment, just long enough for Ariadne to see the shut eyes and open bud mouth. "I'm your mommy," she murmured, stroking her daughter's head. Then the baby was whisked aside to the waiting isolette to be weighed, measured and evaluated by the waiting pediatric nurse as her doctor delivered the afterbirth.
There was a space of about an hour where Ariadne was alone in the quiet of her room. Her daughter was being looked after by the pediatrician, Arthur was calling everyone he needed to inform about the birth and her parents hadn't arrived yet. Some part of her realized that this would very likely be the last time she would have that kind of quiet. Her immediate future was going to be utterly consumed by taking care of an infant, and she wouldn't be able to do much more than consult in dream share for a while. Maybe she wouldn't be going back at all, it was too early to tell.
The thought of having such an indistinct future would have terrified her once. She would have been so angry about all the hard work she had put into her training and then into building up a network of contacts. It would likely be difficult to have a career and still be a mother, but her mother and friends had all done it. She could do that if she wanted to.
For the moment, though, it was nice to simply lie there and not plan a single thing.
Visitors kept her occupied, and Ariadne adored holding and trying to feed her daughter. Arthur hovered, not sure what to do but clearly needing to do something, so she usually sent him out for drinks or snacks to stay hydrated. At other points in time, she sent him out to look for nurses to check if she was holding their daughter properly while trying to breastfeed her. She was nervous about this in a way she had never been about anything before. This was such a huge responsibility to assume. Had she made a mistake?
But then those eyes looked at her, trying to focus on her face. Or Arthur held her carefully, a soft and tender smile on his face. At those moments, everything seemed to make sense, and the terror of being a parent swiftly faded. She could do this.
Eames knocked on the door during one of those moments. She was scheduled to be discharged from the hospital in a few hours, and she was gingerly sitting on the hospital bed with her sleeping daughter cradled in her arms. Arthur had his smart phone in hand, checking through his messages as they waited for her doctor to show up and give her clearance to go home. The room was messy, but her things were already packed and in the car. Anything still left in the hospital room to bring with them was all baby related paraphernalia.
"Hey," he called softly from the door. Arthur and Ariadne looked up as they were talking about the sheer amount of stuff infants seemed to require, and their voices died off as they saw Eames standing there. Neither had seen him since Ariadne's decision to keep the baby. He hadn't called or e-mailed either. "Yusuf told me about the birth," Eames said as an explanation.
If Ariadne didn't know better, she would have thought he was afraid of her reaction.
"Can I come in?' he asked in a quiet tone when no one said anything. She glanced at Arthur as she nodded. He stepped into the room and quietly took in the sight of the tiny girl in Ariadne's arms. She was sleeping peacefully, arms tucked tight against her body. "She's beautiful," he said in that same tone. "What's her name?"
"Theodora," Ariadne replied. It was like watching a stranger, she decided after a moment. She didn't know what Eames was thinking as he looked down at the baby; if she had ever really known how to read his expressions, she had lost that ability.
Eames nodded, then looked up at her with a perfectly blank expression. "I have a gift for her, if you want it." He slowly reached for a thick cream colored envelope in his jacket pocket when Ariadne didn't say anything to reject the gift. "I didn't have a name or social security number for a bond," he began as he drew out the envelope. "And I didn't think either of you would appreciate an anonymous Swiss account."
Arthur took the envelope for Ariadne. Inside was a number of bills that appeared to be American currency. "Thank you."
"Yes, thank you." Ariadne looked at him and gave him a smile that felt pasted on her face. Her heart was beating too quickly, though she couldn't have said why she felt so nervous. Eames clearly wasn't going to make a scene or try to claim her daughter and Arthur wasn't going to beat him senseless for abandoning them as soon as he could.
He had another long, lingering look at the sleeping infant in Ariadne's arms. She wanted to believe it was out of regret. "I wish you all the happiness in the world, Ariadne," he said, shoving his hands into his pockets. "You take care, the both of you."
Without waiting for a response, Eames left the room.
Whatever she had expected, this interchange hadn't been it. She turned to Arthur, feeling as though the wind had been knocked out of her. "What was that?" she asked after a moment.
"Maybe his way of saying he's sorry." Ariadne nodded, taking in his flat, sour tones. He would likely work with Eames again at some point, but she doubted that he would ever forgive the forger for his actions. "So what do you want to do now?" he asked carefully.
She carefully adjusted her grip on Theodora and reached out for him. Arthur caught her hand instantly, smiling faintly when she tightened her grip. "We're still waiting for my clearance to go home. Then we'll go home and take care of our daughter. Maybe your mother and sister will want to visit someday, maybe they won't. We'll deal with it if it happens."
Arthur tightened his hand around hers as he smiled at her. It was one of his most charming ones, causing his eyes to crinkle and the dimple to appear in his cheek. He didn't smile that way often enough, in her opinion. "It'll work out."
"Yes, it will."
This might not have been the life Ariadne first imagined for herself, but now she couldn't picture it any differently. She had a loving husband and infant daughter, would likely have some kind of architecture job and they lived close enough to her parents for support but far enough away that she had space to figure out what kind of parent she would be on her own.
The best things in her life had happened when she wasn't planning for it.
The End