Disclaimer: Does not belong to me. I'm not that inventive, but I wish I were.

Rating: PG13

Pairing: Dom Cobb and Ariadne

Notes: I've given Ariadne the last name of Bishop, since when she picked a totem she chose that particular chess piece. As she said, it was an elegant solution. It's even more elegant if it were her last name

I've chosen the last name of Elkins for Miles as a salute to Michael Caine in Alfie.

The children's grandmother, Miles's wife is named Sabine.

Timeline: Seven months after the team left LAX and the movie ended.

Note II: The title is taken from William Shakespeare's Hamlet Act 3, Scene I – the Prince's famous soliloquy.

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

By Lattelady

Prologue: To Be Or Not To Be

As the days tuned into weeks and the weeks into months, Ariadne often wondered if that trip from Sydney to Los Angeles and the eight weeks leading up to it had really happened. Was it simply a dream chasing a dream? The kind she'd occasionally had as a child. The kind where she woke-up wondering if she was dreaming the same thing over and over again; or was it a single illusion dredged up by her sleeping mind to play tricks on her waking one? If it had really happened, was she still sleeping or was she awake and destined to always wonder what was real and what wasn't? As a person who preferred to be firmly grounded in the here and now, she was finding it hard to cope.

When there were doubts, she reached in her pocket and slid her fingers along the smooth gentle slopes of her totem or held it tightly in her fist, savoring its weight and mass until she felt a wave of reassurance sweep through her. Then she knew that her bishop was real, she was real, the men were real, everything that had happened was real, and she was awake, in Paris and despite all the people around her, the City of Lights had never felt so lonely.

TBC