Epilogue.

They were back in the warehouse. Arthur was standing a little away from the others, and he wasn't looking at them.

"What just happened?" Yusuf asked. He looked vaguely stunned and confused, like someone had hit him in the face with a fish.

"Arthur?" Dom said.

The point-man's shoulders were shaking.

"Arthur?" Ariadne asked, stepping forward, hand outstretched. But she stopped short of touching him, as though afraid of being burned.

Arthur's shoulders continued to shake and a baby started to cry. Yusuf looked down and was startled to find himself holding the baby.

"What?" Yusuf held the child as far away from him as possible, and tried to figure out what was dream, and what was reality.

"Darling?" Eames stepped forward, wary. He was worried that Arthur was reacting to seeing Jareth, or maybe to the way he'd revealed so much of himself to them. He was an intensely private person, after all.

Arthur turned around and he was laughing. It was relief laughter. The 'Oh my God we survived' sort of a giggle. None of them had ever seen Arthur laugh like that. Not even Eames and he'd spent a fortnight dodging hit-men with Arthur in Australia.

Like all good laughter, it was infectious, and soon even the baby was chuckling helplessly. The only one who wasn't was Yusuf. He just looked confused still.

Life went on. They returned the child to the family and assured them that it wasn't really their daughter's fault. Cobb went home to his children and told them to always take care of each other. Ariadne started using paradoxes more often, without prompting from Arthur. Yusuf carried on as he always had, maybe a little more wary.

And Arthur and Eames? Well, that's a story worth the telling. Arthur called Sarah, and they talked for hours. She listened to him as he explained how everything felt raw and real and how he was having trouble keeping emotions in check. How he'd given into the childish impulse to kick over Eames's chair and then he ate chocolate cake for breakfast, just because he could.

She laughed at him.

"Congratulations Arthur, you're human!"

"Shut up!"

"It's the lesson the Labyrinth wanted you to learn. You can feel and still be good at your job. You can be responsible and organised and still be a kid sometimes."

"When did you get to be so wise?"

"In the Labyrinth." Her smile was bittersweet.

They talked some more before finally hanging up with a promise to stay in touch.

Eames told Arthur his real first name that evening. He got down on one knee, and didn't ask for his hand or even for forever. He just asked for now. For whatever Arthur could give. He offered himself and his life. The years in foster care, adoption followed by despair, the drinking. Arthur drank it all up, and they held each other in the darkness.

Eames might not have asked for forever, but Arthur gave it to him.

Arthur and Eames made many other dreams and had many other adventures before they returned for good to the ordinary world.

And they lived, as heroes in fairy tales always should, happily ever after, till the end of their days.