Two To Keep A Secret, 2/3.
Title: Two To Keep A Secret
Author: Eustacia Vye
Author's e-mail: eustacia_vye28@hotmail.com
Rating: PG-13 (But Part 1 does slide into R territory)
Pairing: Ariadne/Eames
Disclaimer: Everyone here belongs to Christopher Nolan and not to me. His toys are fun to play with!
Spoilers/Warnings: Takes place during and after the movie. For the inception_kink meme prompt in round 15: They marry a year after the inception, and tell no one. No Arthur knowing, none of that. How they handle domesticity in their line of work. Also for the "bullet wounds" box on my hc_bingo card.
Summary: Despite being surrounded by people who discovered secrets for a living, Ariadne and Eames managed to keep a pretty big secret. Then again, they were really motivated to do so.
Prior chapter:
One - The Best Kinds of Secrets
Medical technology always moved at a fast pace, and Columbia Industries was no different from any other med tech company. They were developing new laparoscopy surgical instruments, and their main competitor Marktneuheiten was willing to pay for the development plans. It would cut short their own development pipeline by years, which would make them just as competitive in the instrumentation market. They didn't want just the physical plans, however. They also wanted future development strategies that Columbia Industries would use, in order to better tailor their own plans. Markneuheiten certainly didn't want to be accused of industrial espionage.
Their initial subject in the bar was Bethany Peterman, assistant to the development and marketing director of Columbia Industries. Her smartphone had been a treasure trove of contacts, appointments and other information that would be necessary to go after her boss.
Ariadne started her designs on the two levels that they determined would be necessary to trick Christian Fusel into believing that he was in a meeting with the Board of Directors for Columbia Industries. The first level would be necessary to convince him that the Board of Directors needed a very thorough and detailed inventory of progress and development, and that a simple overview would not be enough. The second level would be the actual presentation, and he would go over in intricate detail the plans for their marketing teams as well as the actual development line that was in place at the moment.
"I'm glad you're not mad at Eames anymore," Arthur remarked as they went over her proposed designs. "It would be difficult to go under if the team wasn't working together."
She sighed and was tempted to discuss exactly why she had been so upset with Eames earlier. Instead, she put on her game face. "I just have a hard time seeing that sort of thing, you know? I know it's fake, I know it doesn't mean anything, but it's still disturbing to see." She gave Arthur a pointed look. "You don't go around kissing strangers to pick their pockets."
Arthur shrugged. "Different situations call for different tactics," he said diplomatically.
"Arthur..."
"I can't give away all my secrets, right?" he responded lightly, a smirk on his face. "I do more than just hack into secure databases, after all."
Ariadne didn't know how to respond to that, since it was an incomplete answer that would allow her imagination to go in any of a thousand different directions. And she had a vivid imagination.
He turned his attention back toward the designs, however, not needing an answer. "The building here is a little too detailed. I'm sure Eames can forge any of his associates, but it doesn't look enough like the main office buildings."
"The idea is to actually change it enough that the feel of the place is different," Ariadne responded. "It's the exposure to space and color that will evoke a more oppressive feeling, so it should go along better with the idea that his current presentation won't work. If it's exactly like the current office building, he'll never think it's a bad idea."
Arthur nodded thoughtfully and looked back over the sketch. "Do you think there's too much detail for that, though?"
"You'll be holding the first level steady, right?" She gave him a teasing smile. "Don't tell me you don't think you can remember that much detail."
Snorting, Arthur shook his head. "I'll remember whatever you design, Ariadne." He grinned. "I still use that hotel you designed as dream meeting space if I need to discuss a lot of things in a short amount of time. It was amazing."
Ariadne grinned at the praise. "See? This is why I like working with you."
They laughed and focused on the design again, refining its level of detail.
***
"Huh. So she was married, then?" Eames asked, looking over Arthur's shoulder at the information on Bethany. Arthur looked up, eyebrow raised. "She certainly kissed me back quite enthusiastically at that bar."
"It does look like a marriage of convenience."
Eames sat down beside the desk and looked at the other information Arthur had compiled. "You never really know who would be faithful, then, would you?" He looked over the biographical data that Arthur was putting together. "Married nearly six years. Pity."
"Oh?" Arthur asked, leaning back in his chair. He put his pen and notebook down on the desk. "Why do you say that?"
"Even for convenience, that's a long time. It's rather sad, don't you think? She should have married for love."
"That's... surprising, coming from you."
Eames looked affronted. "Why do you say that, Arthur? You wound me. For all you know, beneath the rakish exterior beats the heart of a long-suffering romantic."
Arthur snorted, shaking his head. "You have seen and done far too much in this line of work, Eames. Besides, how many people would put up with your kind of lifestyle?"
"Well, there is that," Eames conceded. "It would be rather nice, wouldn't it?"
"Being married?" Arthur asked, eyebrow raised. At Eames' nod, he let the chair legs fall back down to the floor. "It would be difficult, but I suppose you could do it with the right person. They would have to be exceedingly understanding of the situation. You couldn't lie about it, not with the risks we take in the field."
"Not if I wanted to keep her safe, no. Do you think it's possible to be married and still do jobs like this?" Eames agreed. "Coming home to a woman, cook a meal together, congratulations-you're-not-dead sex..." Arthur snorted, shaking his head in amusement. "What? You don't think about that on occasion?"
"Dom and Mal Cobb managed it," Arthur said quietly. "They were both in the business, knew the risks involved. They made sure someone stayed home once they had Phillipa and James, so that in the worst case scenario someone would be able to take care of the kids." He looked up and shrugged at Eames. "They loved each other a lot, and they struggled to make sure it would work. It was hard to try to have a normal life for the kids, but they did it."
"You don't think we could do it," Eames observed, hearing his flat voice.
Arthur pointed to Bethany's file, at all of the sheets of paper spread out across the desk, as he hadn't neatly compiled it yet. "This? It's nice to think about love, to think that maybe someone out there is worth the risk. Relationships are difficult, Eames. Even in the best of times they can be difficult, and working a job at the same time can make it even more so."
"But you like a challenge," Eames teased, leaning back in his own chair. He folded his hands over his stomach and had a smile on his face. "I'm sure you can get that sharp mind of yours working to puzzle that out."
"I didn't say it was impossible, Eames. I said it was difficult."
"You thrive on difficult, darling."
Arthur rolled his eyes at the endearment. "You're in an odd mood today."
"Contemplative, you mean?"
"Well, yes."
"Getting into Bethany's mindset a little before I shadow her," Eames lied. "She obviously can compartmentalize, if she'll cheat on her husband and kiss a stranger in a bar."
"She might not consider a kiss cheating."
"Some would," Eames challenged.
"Some would," Arthur agreed with a nod. "That's one thing that would make it difficult in this line of work. Take you, for example..."
"Me?"
Arthur grinned at him. "Why not? You brought it up."
"Why not take you, then?"
"You're the one that started this, you're the example." He waited for further protest, but Eames only sighed and shrugged. "If you were with someone and they saw you kiss her, what do you think would happen?"
Eames winced. "I already got raked over the coals for that, thanks."
"Exactly. Add in disappearing to odd places all over the world, meeting strangers your wife could never meet, going into various kinds of dreams she can't participate in... It's a lot of trust to have in someone. It's not impossible, but it's a rare thing." Arthur picked up his pen to have something to fidget with. He thought better while in motion. "Not to mention, you'd have to be very careful that any relationship wouldn't compromise your ability to work, or that the job doesn't follow you home. You're good at compartmentalizing things, just as Bethany is. Maybe you'd be able to separate work and home. You've been around long enough to know when you're being followed and you can cover your tracks fairly well."
Eames blinked in surprise. "Why, thank you, Arthur."
"The biggest problem you have in this?" Arthur continued, lips quirking up. "It's finding a woman to put up with the web of lies you have to spin. Or dealing with the fact that you might have to disappear and use a different name." Arthur smiled at Eames' blank expression. "Maybe someone in the business could tolerate it, but I don't see it lasting long term."
"No?"
Arthur shook his head. "Mostly because you don't stay still long enough. For something like this to work, you'd need trust and some kind of home. Whatever else, as long as there's a home to get back to, some place where you feel safe, it would be enough of a reminder why you do it."
"I think perhaps you're a romantic underneath it all as well, Arthur."
Leaning back in his chair again, Arthur gave Eames a sad smile. "I've seen it work, Eames. It took them maybe half a dozen different identities and two different tries at finding a place they felt safe enough to set up a home base. They stuck at it, though. Mal could be vicious when she lit into Dom, but they always made up. They never gave up because they thought it was worth it in the long run. It wasn't the same kind of normal life like these subjects might have, but it worked for them because they knew what they wanted. Once they figured that part out, they fought tooth and nail to make it work. They were professional on any job they worked together and left home shit at home. Once they left the job, any disagreements were left behind. It didn't happen overnight, but nothing worth having is easy."
Eames contemplated Arthur, nodding. It was what he had suspected all along, and what he had every intention of doing with Ariadne. "I'd never worked with the two of them together. I might have had kinder thoughts on Dom Cobb if I had, I think."
"You would've," Arthur replied, smiling a little. "He was a different man then. A better one."
"Because of her?" Eames guessed.
Arthur shook his head. "She was part of it, but she wasn't the only reason. Sometimes all you need is a reason to be a good man. Men like us don't have that reason yet."
"Speak for yourself," Eames scoffed, getting up as he grinned. "I happen to be the best in the business. That's all the goodness I need."
He watched Arthur snort and settle back into arranging his disparate data into something resembling coherence. Eames would have plenty of time to figure things out with balancing a life with Ariadne and still working jobs.
As Arthur pointed out, it could be done. It was simply work, and Eames had never been afraid of a little hard work when the payoff was worth so much.
***
"Working hard or hardly working?" Eames teased Ariadne, seeing her frown when reading her e-mail. When she made a distracted waving motion with her hand, he sat down next to her on the hotel bed. "What is it?"
"Yusuf said he sent me something a few weeks ago and hadn't heard back from me."
"Yusuf! Good man. I hope it wasn't anything terribly risqué. He might not know we're married, but I'd hate to hurt such a wonderful chemist for coming onto my wife."
Ariadne rolled her eyes and grinned at him, just as he hoped. "You're hopeless."
"Hopelessly in love," Eames corrected with an exaggerated leer.
"I need to get back to Paris soon anyway. I can check and see if maybe the landlord was hanging onto the package while we were away."
"What do you need to go to Paris for? I thought you were going to watch over us on the job?"
"Yes, but apparently Professor Miles was asking after me." She gave him a soft smile. "He was worried and asked Arthur if he heard from me after graduation. I ought to go and show him I'm okay, and let him know I'm doing what I love."
"Me, of course," Eames replied with a grin, pulling her into his lap.
It took her a moment to get it. "That was horrible."
"Horribly accurate," he corrected, sliding a hand beneath her shirt. "Put away the computer love. If you're leaving me for an older man, I want to remind you of what's at home."
Ariadne snorted and turned in his lap enough to kiss his mouth. "I know perfectly well who's in my bed, Eames." She kissed him again, tongue sliding in to touch his. "All this sneaking around so Arthur and Henry don't know..."
"Hot, isn't it?" Eames replied with a smile.
Letting her hand trail down his stomach, she tucked her fingertips inside the waistband of his pants. "Everything's hot with you."
"It is when you're involved."
Ariadne smiled against his mouth. "Such a charmer."
"I do try," he allowed, pulling her even closer. "Care to let me show you how?"
"Please."
***
Yusuf's gift was a set of silver candlesticks and eight wine glasses. Heard about the change in address, began the accompanying note. Congratulations!
Pleased, Ariadne set the candlesticks in the center of her dinette table and put the glasses away in the mostly empty cabinet. It had been nice to meet with Professor Miles for lunch and let him know that she was fine. He didn't exactly like the idea that she was going to stay in dream share, but it was her decision and she was working with the best. Ariadne knew how to be safe at this point, and he knew her talent would go to waste in the real world.
She was startled by the front door opening. Eames had a grin on his face. "I might've lied and said I needed to tail our subject directly," he admitted, locking the door behind him. "Do you like your surprise, then?"
"These gifts from Yusuf?" she asked, deliberately playing dumb.
Eames made a scoffing sound. "Should I go out and buy some wine?"
"We have a perfectly good Riesling in the cabinet," Ariadne protested. She let Eames gather her up in his arms as she grinned up at him. "Should we open it?"
"Yes. We'll thank Yusuf later. Well, you will, since I don't officially live here."
"Jonathan LeClair does," Ariadne pointed out. "Elaine missed him terribly."
Eames kissed her soundly. "Jonathan missed her, too. Let me show you how much."
Laughing, Ariadne threw her arms around his shoulders and let him carry her to the bedroom.
***
"Are you back in Austria, then?" Yusuf asked Ariadne when she called to thank him for the gifts.
"Yes. It was a quick two day trip to Paris, and I was so busy catching up that I forgot to call as soon as I saw the package."
"Well, a new home deserves new things. Fresh start all around, something like that. I did see something else that I thought you might like. Should I send it to you in Austria?"
"Yusuf, it's too much..."
"Nonsense. I have few enough friends I like spending money on, and I work all the time in my den. It makes me happy to know that you enjoy the gifts."
"Well, I guess in that case..."
"It's a tapestry, very bold colors. You of all people would enjoy the pattern. I have a gift for Eames as well. He's working with you, yes?"
"How did you know that?"
"Arthur mentioned that he'd asked Eames. I of course refused to leave Mombasa. I've had my journey into the field already. Once a year, or five, is more than enough."
Ariadne laughed at his playful tone. "He had to ask someone else to be the chemist, and the extractor is Henry. It's not the same as when we all worked together."
"No, it would not be," Yusuf agreed. "A team like that is not common, and the job itself was rather extraordinary. Tell Eames that he would be welcome in Mombasa, if he ever decided to come back. You too, of course."
"Not the rest of the team?"
"Cobol is still very angry with Arthur. It will take likely another year for their anger to cool, so it wouldn't be wise for him to visit. Perhaps another time he may see the den."
"Oops. It looks like they want to go over the maze now. I'll call you back, Yusuf. It was great to hear from you."
"I am very glad this life agrees with you, Ariadne. Perhaps we will work together again."
Ariadne was smiling as she hung up and headed to where the rest of the team was gathered. By the wicked look in Eames' eye, he was planning on pulling her aside while they were under. It was a risky maneuver when they were supposed to be learning the map, but she was sure he would have a plan in mind.
This was Eames, after all. If he put his mind to something, it invariably worked.
As she expected, he pulled her into a building and moved aside their clothes just enough to push inside her waiting body. "I've been a very good boy," he purred in her ear, lifting her up against the wall. "Just looking, no touching. Not a whisper of innuendo past the usual."
"And you flirt with Arthur and Henry, too," she gasped, clutching at his shoulders.
"It amuses you," Eames panted, pumping his hips harder and faster. "Throws them off." He bit back a curse as she shifted in his grasp and clenched down hard around him. "Not fair."
"Got to be fast," she countered, doing it again. "We don't have time."
Eames caught a fistful of her hair in his hand as he came suddenly. "But you didn't..."
She kissed his lips. "This means you owe me, Eames." She grinned at him wickedly as she started to disentangle herself. "So it better be damn good."
He laughed, which ultimately brought them to Arthur's attention. "What are you doing over there?" he called out, frowning. "That's not a vital part of the map. Stop messing around, Eames!" he called out.
"I'm trying my own hand at architecture!" Eames called out, trying to physically manipulate the building around him to prove his point.
"Eames..." Ariadne began in a warning tone. "I don't think you should really do that."
Sure enough, her projections milling about the streets suddenly took notice of all of them. Arthur and Henry ducked out of sight, but Eames kept pulling and changing the buildings around them. Ariadne saw one of her projections pull a gun out of her trench coat-oh dear Lord, she looked too much like Mal!-and take aim. Ariadne threw herself in the way of the bullet without thinking about it and took it right in the chest.
She woke up gasping, the others not that far behind her. She'd forgotten how much it hurt to be shot, even in dreams. "You owe me," she reminded Eames, clutching at her chest.
His contrite face was almost enough to make her back off a bit. Almost.
She still let the others yell at him for a solid hour for being so foolish. Ariadne left them behind to head to the office bathroom. She unbuttoned her shirt and checked her reflection. It was stupid; she knew this was a dream and that there wouldn't be any bullet wound. Still, she had to visibly check her skin and prod it with her fingertips. Only then could she really trust that she wasn't actually harmed.
Arthur approached, a concerned look on his face. "Ariadne?"
Turning, she didn't bother to pull her shirt shut. She was still decent, and he had the same concern for her well being that he had prior to the Fischer job. "You're okay," he told her, just as he had told her after the projection of Mal had stabbed her.
"I know that," she began, her voice a little threadier than she would have liked to hear it.
Arthur pulled her into a hug. She allowed it, and rested her head on his chest. "It gets easier to remember that with time, you know."
"I tell myself that."
"We're all here to help, Ariadne," Arthur said, patting her back and then pulling away. He smiled at her, eyes crinkling slightly. "I'm here if you need to talk about it."
Ariadne grinned and nodded. "Thanks, Arthur. It means a lot to me."
He nodded and headed back into the office. Eames came up a few minutes later. "Should I be jealous of Arthur?" he asked, sounding almost sulky.
Smirking, Ariadne buttoned up her shirt. "I don't know. Depends on how well you make it up to me tonight, doesn't it? I'm sure his attention to detail is amazing."
Eames huffed and gave her a leer. "You know how well I can focus on you darling." He glanced around and gave her a quick kiss when it was clear no one was paying attention to them. "I will make it up to you. I promise."
Ariadne let her fingers trail down his arm suggestively. "See that you do."
***
***
To Chapter Three - Getaway
Author: Eustacia Vye
Author's e-mail: eustacia_vye28@hotmail.com
Rating: PG-13 (But Part 1 does slide into R territory)
Pairing: Ariadne/Eames
Disclaimer: Everyone here belongs to Christopher Nolan and not to me. His toys are fun to play with!
Spoilers/Warnings: Takes place during and after the movie. For the inception_kink meme prompt in round 15: They marry a year after the inception, and tell no one. No Arthur knowing, none of that. How they handle domesticity in their line of work. Also for the "bullet wounds" box on my hc_bingo card.
Summary: Despite being surrounded by people who discovered secrets for a living, Ariadne and Eames managed to keep a pretty big secret. Then again, they were really motivated to do so.
Prior chapter:
One - The Best Kinds of Secrets
Medical technology always moved at a fast pace, and Columbia Industries was no different from any other med tech company. They were developing new laparoscopy surgical instruments, and their main competitor Marktneuheiten was willing to pay for the development plans. It would cut short their own development pipeline by years, which would make them just as competitive in the instrumentation market. They didn't want just the physical plans, however. They also wanted future development strategies that Columbia Industries would use, in order to better tailor their own plans. Markneuheiten certainly didn't want to be accused of industrial espionage.
Their initial subject in the bar was Bethany Peterman, assistant to the development and marketing director of Columbia Industries. Her smartphone had been a treasure trove of contacts, appointments and other information that would be necessary to go after her boss.
Ariadne started her designs on the two levels that they determined would be necessary to trick Christian Fusel into believing that he was in a meeting with the Board of Directors for Columbia Industries. The first level would be necessary to convince him that the Board of Directors needed a very thorough and detailed inventory of progress and development, and that a simple overview would not be enough. The second level would be the actual presentation, and he would go over in intricate detail the plans for their marketing teams as well as the actual development line that was in place at the moment.
"I'm glad you're not mad at Eames anymore," Arthur remarked as they went over her proposed designs. "It would be difficult to go under if the team wasn't working together."
She sighed and was tempted to discuss exactly why she had been so upset with Eames earlier. Instead, she put on her game face. "I just have a hard time seeing that sort of thing, you know? I know it's fake, I know it doesn't mean anything, but it's still disturbing to see." She gave Arthur a pointed look. "You don't go around kissing strangers to pick their pockets."
Arthur shrugged. "Different situations call for different tactics," he said diplomatically.
"Arthur..."
"I can't give away all my secrets, right?" he responded lightly, a smirk on his face. "I do more than just hack into secure databases, after all."
Ariadne didn't know how to respond to that, since it was an incomplete answer that would allow her imagination to go in any of a thousand different directions. And she had a vivid imagination.
He turned his attention back toward the designs, however, not needing an answer. "The building here is a little too detailed. I'm sure Eames can forge any of his associates, but it doesn't look enough like the main office buildings."
"The idea is to actually change it enough that the feel of the place is different," Ariadne responded. "It's the exposure to space and color that will evoke a more oppressive feeling, so it should go along better with the idea that his current presentation won't work. If it's exactly like the current office building, he'll never think it's a bad idea."
Arthur nodded thoughtfully and looked back over the sketch. "Do you think there's too much detail for that, though?"
"You'll be holding the first level steady, right?" She gave him a teasing smile. "Don't tell me you don't think you can remember that much detail."
Snorting, Arthur shook his head. "I'll remember whatever you design, Ariadne." He grinned. "I still use that hotel you designed as dream meeting space if I need to discuss a lot of things in a short amount of time. It was amazing."
Ariadne grinned at the praise. "See? This is why I like working with you."
They laughed and focused on the design again, refining its level of detail.
***
"Huh. So she was married, then?" Eames asked, looking over Arthur's shoulder at the information on Bethany. Arthur looked up, eyebrow raised. "She certainly kissed me back quite enthusiastically at that bar."
"It does look like a marriage of convenience."
Eames sat down beside the desk and looked at the other information Arthur had compiled. "You never really know who would be faithful, then, would you?" He looked over the biographical data that Arthur was putting together. "Married nearly six years. Pity."
"Oh?" Arthur asked, leaning back in his chair. He put his pen and notebook down on the desk. "Why do you say that?"
"Even for convenience, that's a long time. It's rather sad, don't you think? She should have married for love."
"That's... surprising, coming from you."
Eames looked affronted. "Why do you say that, Arthur? You wound me. For all you know, beneath the rakish exterior beats the heart of a long-suffering romantic."
Arthur snorted, shaking his head. "You have seen and done far too much in this line of work, Eames. Besides, how many people would put up with your kind of lifestyle?"
"Well, there is that," Eames conceded. "It would be rather nice, wouldn't it?"
"Being married?" Arthur asked, eyebrow raised. At Eames' nod, he let the chair legs fall back down to the floor. "It would be difficult, but I suppose you could do it with the right person. They would have to be exceedingly understanding of the situation. You couldn't lie about it, not with the risks we take in the field."
"Not if I wanted to keep her safe, no. Do you think it's possible to be married and still do jobs like this?" Eames agreed. "Coming home to a woman, cook a meal together, congratulations-you're-not-dead sex..." Arthur snorted, shaking his head in amusement. "What? You don't think about that on occasion?"
"Dom and Mal Cobb managed it," Arthur said quietly. "They were both in the business, knew the risks involved. They made sure someone stayed home once they had Phillipa and James, so that in the worst case scenario someone would be able to take care of the kids." He looked up and shrugged at Eames. "They loved each other a lot, and they struggled to make sure it would work. It was hard to try to have a normal life for the kids, but they did it."
"You don't think we could do it," Eames observed, hearing his flat voice.
Arthur pointed to Bethany's file, at all of the sheets of paper spread out across the desk, as he hadn't neatly compiled it yet. "This? It's nice to think about love, to think that maybe someone out there is worth the risk. Relationships are difficult, Eames. Even in the best of times they can be difficult, and working a job at the same time can make it even more so."
"But you like a challenge," Eames teased, leaning back in his own chair. He folded his hands over his stomach and had a smile on his face. "I'm sure you can get that sharp mind of yours working to puzzle that out."
"I didn't say it was impossible, Eames. I said it was difficult."
"You thrive on difficult, darling."
Arthur rolled his eyes at the endearment. "You're in an odd mood today."
"Contemplative, you mean?"
"Well, yes."
"Getting into Bethany's mindset a little before I shadow her," Eames lied. "She obviously can compartmentalize, if she'll cheat on her husband and kiss a stranger in a bar."
"She might not consider a kiss cheating."
"Some would," Eames challenged.
"Some would," Arthur agreed with a nod. "That's one thing that would make it difficult in this line of work. Take you, for example..."
"Me?"
Arthur grinned at him. "Why not? You brought it up."
"Why not take you, then?"
"You're the one that started this, you're the example." He waited for further protest, but Eames only sighed and shrugged. "If you were with someone and they saw you kiss her, what do you think would happen?"
Eames winced. "I already got raked over the coals for that, thanks."
"Exactly. Add in disappearing to odd places all over the world, meeting strangers your wife could never meet, going into various kinds of dreams she can't participate in... It's a lot of trust to have in someone. It's not impossible, but it's a rare thing." Arthur picked up his pen to have something to fidget with. He thought better while in motion. "Not to mention, you'd have to be very careful that any relationship wouldn't compromise your ability to work, or that the job doesn't follow you home. You're good at compartmentalizing things, just as Bethany is. Maybe you'd be able to separate work and home. You've been around long enough to know when you're being followed and you can cover your tracks fairly well."
Eames blinked in surprise. "Why, thank you, Arthur."
"The biggest problem you have in this?" Arthur continued, lips quirking up. "It's finding a woman to put up with the web of lies you have to spin. Or dealing with the fact that you might have to disappear and use a different name." Arthur smiled at Eames' blank expression. "Maybe someone in the business could tolerate it, but I don't see it lasting long term."
"No?"
Arthur shook his head. "Mostly because you don't stay still long enough. For something like this to work, you'd need trust and some kind of home. Whatever else, as long as there's a home to get back to, some place where you feel safe, it would be enough of a reminder why you do it."
"I think perhaps you're a romantic underneath it all as well, Arthur."
Leaning back in his chair again, Arthur gave Eames a sad smile. "I've seen it work, Eames. It took them maybe half a dozen different identities and two different tries at finding a place they felt safe enough to set up a home base. They stuck at it, though. Mal could be vicious when she lit into Dom, but they always made up. They never gave up because they thought it was worth it in the long run. It wasn't the same kind of normal life like these subjects might have, but it worked for them because they knew what they wanted. Once they figured that part out, they fought tooth and nail to make it work. They were professional on any job they worked together and left home shit at home. Once they left the job, any disagreements were left behind. It didn't happen overnight, but nothing worth having is easy."
Eames contemplated Arthur, nodding. It was what he had suspected all along, and what he had every intention of doing with Ariadne. "I'd never worked with the two of them together. I might have had kinder thoughts on Dom Cobb if I had, I think."
"You would've," Arthur replied, smiling a little. "He was a different man then. A better one."
"Because of her?" Eames guessed.
Arthur shook his head. "She was part of it, but she wasn't the only reason. Sometimes all you need is a reason to be a good man. Men like us don't have that reason yet."
"Speak for yourself," Eames scoffed, getting up as he grinned. "I happen to be the best in the business. That's all the goodness I need."
He watched Arthur snort and settle back into arranging his disparate data into something resembling coherence. Eames would have plenty of time to figure things out with balancing a life with Ariadne and still working jobs.
As Arthur pointed out, it could be done. It was simply work, and Eames had never been afraid of a little hard work when the payoff was worth so much.
***
"Working hard or hardly working?" Eames teased Ariadne, seeing her frown when reading her e-mail. When she made a distracted waving motion with her hand, he sat down next to her on the hotel bed. "What is it?"
"Yusuf said he sent me something a few weeks ago and hadn't heard back from me."
"Yusuf! Good man. I hope it wasn't anything terribly risqué. He might not know we're married, but I'd hate to hurt such a wonderful chemist for coming onto my wife."
Ariadne rolled her eyes and grinned at him, just as he hoped. "You're hopeless."
"Hopelessly in love," Eames corrected with an exaggerated leer.
"I need to get back to Paris soon anyway. I can check and see if maybe the landlord was hanging onto the package while we were away."
"What do you need to go to Paris for? I thought you were going to watch over us on the job?"
"Yes, but apparently Professor Miles was asking after me." She gave him a soft smile. "He was worried and asked Arthur if he heard from me after graduation. I ought to go and show him I'm okay, and let him know I'm doing what I love."
"Me, of course," Eames replied with a grin, pulling her into his lap.
It took her a moment to get it. "That was horrible."
"Horribly accurate," he corrected, sliding a hand beneath her shirt. "Put away the computer love. If you're leaving me for an older man, I want to remind you of what's at home."
Ariadne snorted and turned in his lap enough to kiss his mouth. "I know perfectly well who's in my bed, Eames." She kissed him again, tongue sliding in to touch his. "All this sneaking around so Arthur and Henry don't know..."
"Hot, isn't it?" Eames replied with a smile.
Letting her hand trail down his stomach, she tucked her fingertips inside the waistband of his pants. "Everything's hot with you."
"It is when you're involved."
Ariadne smiled against his mouth. "Such a charmer."
"I do try," he allowed, pulling her even closer. "Care to let me show you how?"
"Please."
***
Yusuf's gift was a set of silver candlesticks and eight wine glasses. Heard about the change in address, began the accompanying note. Congratulations!
Pleased, Ariadne set the candlesticks in the center of her dinette table and put the glasses away in the mostly empty cabinet. It had been nice to meet with Professor Miles for lunch and let him know that she was fine. He didn't exactly like the idea that she was going to stay in dream share, but it was her decision and she was working with the best. Ariadne knew how to be safe at this point, and he knew her talent would go to waste in the real world.
She was startled by the front door opening. Eames had a grin on his face. "I might've lied and said I needed to tail our subject directly," he admitted, locking the door behind him. "Do you like your surprise, then?"
"These gifts from Yusuf?" she asked, deliberately playing dumb.
Eames made a scoffing sound. "Should I go out and buy some wine?"
"We have a perfectly good Riesling in the cabinet," Ariadne protested. She let Eames gather her up in his arms as she grinned up at him. "Should we open it?"
"Yes. We'll thank Yusuf later. Well, you will, since I don't officially live here."
"Jonathan LeClair does," Ariadne pointed out. "Elaine missed him terribly."
Eames kissed her soundly. "Jonathan missed her, too. Let me show you how much."
Laughing, Ariadne threw her arms around his shoulders and let him carry her to the bedroom.
***
"Are you back in Austria, then?" Yusuf asked Ariadne when she called to thank him for the gifts.
"Yes. It was a quick two day trip to Paris, and I was so busy catching up that I forgot to call as soon as I saw the package."
"Well, a new home deserves new things. Fresh start all around, something like that. I did see something else that I thought you might like. Should I send it to you in Austria?"
"Yusuf, it's too much..."
"Nonsense. I have few enough friends I like spending money on, and I work all the time in my den. It makes me happy to know that you enjoy the gifts."
"Well, I guess in that case..."
"It's a tapestry, very bold colors. You of all people would enjoy the pattern. I have a gift for Eames as well. He's working with you, yes?"
"How did you know that?"
"Arthur mentioned that he'd asked Eames. I of course refused to leave Mombasa. I've had my journey into the field already. Once a year, or five, is more than enough."
Ariadne laughed at his playful tone. "He had to ask someone else to be the chemist, and the extractor is Henry. It's not the same as when we all worked together."
"No, it would not be," Yusuf agreed. "A team like that is not common, and the job itself was rather extraordinary. Tell Eames that he would be welcome in Mombasa, if he ever decided to come back. You too, of course."
"Not the rest of the team?"
"Cobol is still very angry with Arthur. It will take likely another year for their anger to cool, so it wouldn't be wise for him to visit. Perhaps another time he may see the den."
"Oops. It looks like they want to go over the maze now. I'll call you back, Yusuf. It was great to hear from you."
"I am very glad this life agrees with you, Ariadne. Perhaps we will work together again."
Ariadne was smiling as she hung up and headed to where the rest of the team was gathered. By the wicked look in Eames' eye, he was planning on pulling her aside while they were under. It was a risky maneuver when they were supposed to be learning the map, but she was sure he would have a plan in mind.
This was Eames, after all. If he put his mind to something, it invariably worked.
As she expected, he pulled her into a building and moved aside their clothes just enough to push inside her waiting body. "I've been a very good boy," he purred in her ear, lifting her up against the wall. "Just looking, no touching. Not a whisper of innuendo past the usual."
"And you flirt with Arthur and Henry, too," she gasped, clutching at his shoulders.
"It amuses you," Eames panted, pumping his hips harder and faster. "Throws them off." He bit back a curse as she shifted in his grasp and clenched down hard around him. "Not fair."
"Got to be fast," she countered, doing it again. "We don't have time."
Eames caught a fistful of her hair in his hand as he came suddenly. "But you didn't..."
She kissed his lips. "This means you owe me, Eames." She grinned at him wickedly as she started to disentangle herself. "So it better be damn good."
He laughed, which ultimately brought them to Arthur's attention. "What are you doing over there?" he called out, frowning. "That's not a vital part of the map. Stop messing around, Eames!" he called out.
"I'm trying my own hand at architecture!" Eames called out, trying to physically manipulate the building around him to prove his point.
"Eames..." Ariadne began in a warning tone. "I don't think you should really do that."
Sure enough, her projections milling about the streets suddenly took notice of all of them. Arthur and Henry ducked out of sight, but Eames kept pulling and changing the buildings around them. Ariadne saw one of her projections pull a gun out of her trench coat-oh dear Lord, she looked too much like Mal!-and take aim. Ariadne threw herself in the way of the bullet without thinking about it and took it right in the chest.
She woke up gasping, the others not that far behind her. She'd forgotten how much it hurt to be shot, even in dreams. "You owe me," she reminded Eames, clutching at her chest.
His contrite face was almost enough to make her back off a bit. Almost.
She still let the others yell at him for a solid hour for being so foolish. Ariadne left them behind to head to the office bathroom. She unbuttoned her shirt and checked her reflection. It was stupid; she knew this was a dream and that there wouldn't be any bullet wound. Still, she had to visibly check her skin and prod it with her fingertips. Only then could she really trust that she wasn't actually harmed.
Arthur approached, a concerned look on his face. "Ariadne?"
Turning, she didn't bother to pull her shirt shut. She was still decent, and he had the same concern for her well being that he had prior to the Fischer job. "You're okay," he told her, just as he had told her after the projection of Mal had stabbed her.
"I know that," she began, her voice a little threadier than she would have liked to hear it.
Arthur pulled her into a hug. She allowed it, and rested her head on his chest. "It gets easier to remember that with time, you know."
"I tell myself that."
"We're all here to help, Ariadne," Arthur said, patting her back and then pulling away. He smiled at her, eyes crinkling slightly. "I'm here if you need to talk about it."
Ariadne grinned and nodded. "Thanks, Arthur. It means a lot to me."
He nodded and headed back into the office. Eames came up a few minutes later. "Should I be jealous of Arthur?" he asked, sounding almost sulky.
Smirking, Ariadne buttoned up her shirt. "I don't know. Depends on how well you make it up to me tonight, doesn't it? I'm sure his attention to detail is amazing."
Eames huffed and gave her a leer. "You know how well I can focus on you darling." He glanced around and gave her a quick kiss when it was clear no one was paying attention to them. "I will make it up to you. I promise."
Ariadne let her fingers trail down his arm suggestively. "See that you do."
***
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To Chapter Three - Getaway