Chapter 1 - Poor Little Rich Girl

Ariadne was waiting for a taxi outside of LAX when she felt the brush against her fingers. It was with some surprise that she realized that a scrap of paper had been placed in her hand, and she turned just in time to see Eames give her a discreet wink as he passed behind her. She had the presence of mind to wait until she was in her taxi before she glanced down at the thin strip.

Everyone for drinks at 7:00p Room 314. This announcement was followed by the name and address of a hotel. Ariadne was immensely pleased by the invitation. She understood the need to continue out of the airport as though she had been travelling alone, but the act of pretending to be alone when she wasn't was depressing. She also didn't want to spend the entire day before her next flight alone in a city with which she was unfamiliar; the prospect had been gloomy, and so it was with great relief that she thought about seeing her companions again later that evening. She doubted, of course, that Dom would be there, even if Eames had bothered to invite him, but she was pleased to be seeing the rest of the team.

At the thought of seeing Arthur, she found herself blushing and then got angry with herself for doing so. She would not, under any circumstances, act like a lovesick teenager ready to read the greatest significance into any occurrence. She was especially not going to bring up the event. He initiated the kiss, although 'stole' seemed a more appropriate description, and it was entirely his responsibility to broach the topic if he chose. If it had been more than a momentary flirtation, a small distraction during the stress of the turbulent episode that was the inception of Robert Fischer, then it was for him to say.

Until then, she would put it firmly out of mind.

Okay, so she would try not to think about it too often.

Or, she could at least not let him know that she thought about it. That, at least, was manageable.

She hoped.

Arthur got his invitation to Eames's little get together when he reached into the pocket of his slacks for a tip for the bellboy. Along with the pair of tens that he pulled out came the little slip that bore Eames's scrawled note. He handed one of the bills to the man setting down his bags, and when the door had closed he glanced at the paper. Although he was considerably more used to solitary travel than Ariadne, he was not one to scorn good company when available. In fact, he found himself looking forward to that evening with more interest than he would have guessed. He had gone once to grab drinks with Eames and an Architect named Ma after a job they had done over a year before, but he hadn't stayed long.

Yet, he found himself looking forward to that evening with enthusiasm. He told himself that it was just a holdover from the excitement of completing an impossible job even after everything that could go wrong did, but he was perfectly willing to admit that he was anxious to see Ariadne again before she left to go back to Paris. He wanted very much to make sure that she was handling the aftermath of her first job without any problems. The emotionally empathetic could take this kind of experience hard, and it didn't take a great mind to realize that she had spent much of the job watching over Dom as though she were a parent that knew her small child was determined to do something he ought not. Arthur had known things were getting bad for Cobb, but he suspected that Ariadne had discovered exactly how bad it had gotten.

Arthur ran his fingers through his hair, leaving it somewhat disheveled, and sighed with exhaustion. It was rare to come out of a dream feeling as though you had been run ragged, but he felt it now. After putting his things down and setting an alarm on his phone, he kicked off his shoes and stretched out on the bed. Five minutes later, he was asleep.

That evening, when Ariadne walked into Eames's hotel suite, she discovered that she had been preceded only by Yusuf. After Ariadne declined Eames's offer of a drink she sat down next to Yusuf on the edge of the bed. He raised his glass to her in greeting.

"How are you feeling?" the chemist asked.

"I feel a little keyed up," she admitted, sliding to the middle of the bed and crossing her legs under her. "Everything seems so surreal, and I keep expecting everyone around me to turn and stare at me, or worse, start shooting at me."

"Don't worry, that will fade pretty quickly. You just need to relax and keep a hold of your totem. You will feel better soon.

"Which is exactly what we are doing here," Eames declared, leaning against the wall. When a knock at the door made Ariadne start, he gave her a sly grin. "Are you sure you don't want a drink, love?" he asked her as he opened the door.

Arthur walked in with a nod to Eames and had just accepted a drink when the there was another knock, and after glancing through the peep-hole, he opened the door to Saito.

"Our illustrious tourist, without whom we could not have managed," Eames said jovially. "I'm glad that you decided to join us."

Saito gave a solemn nod, but the corners of his mouth could be seen creeping up in a small smile.

"I appreciate the invitation," he said quietly. "Although I cannot stay long, as my flight leaves tonight, I wished to speak with you. Your agreed upon payment has been transferred to your respective accounts, and I wish to extend my personal thanks to each of you."

"I'm sorry," Ariadne interrupted, "I know that it is impolite to speak about payment at a social event, but I really don't know what the 'agreed upon' amount is."

Eames turned to Arthur. "You didn't tell her?" he asked incredulously.

"I thought Cobb told her!"

"Cobb was a bit distracted," she said, not without amusement.

Arthur told her the figure, and the amusement disappeared.

"Pardon?"

Eames repeated the number.

The disbelieving expression didn't alter. "You aren't being serious," she decided. "You are teasing me."

"Not a bit," Eames said. "I never joke about money, and I don't think Arthur has a sense of humor." Arthur rolled his eyes at the jibe.

"And how exactly does this compare to how other jobs may pay?" she asked intently.

"Oh, it's rather more than a normal job, considering the magnitude of our task, but you could still expect a considerable portion of that for your typical extraction," Eames said.

"What kind of portion, exactly?" she asked eagerly. The men in the room began to look the tiny Architect's abruptly mercenary attitude with raised eyebrows.

"Forgive the impertinence, love, but you didn't initially strike me as being one to be so deeply interested in money," Eames said hesitantly, but with ill-concealed delight.

"You would be too if you had lived in a cold-water flat for the last two years," she said defensively. "And you have just informed me that I will never again have to worry about how much I can spend on food ever again! Up until now, I didn't have two pennies to rub together, and now, I have more money than I know what to do with. When I get home, I'm going shopping for food, and then, I'm going shopping for a new home." The look on her face was positively euphoric.

"Are you telling us that during this entire job for which we have received the income of a small nation, you have been scraping by for groceries?" Yusuf asked, looking half amused.

"Yes!" she cried, unable to understand where the confusion was. "And groceries haven't even been the worst of my problems! I'm a month behind on my rent! Actually, I kind of thought that was why Professor Miles suggested me when he told me that there was someone with a job offer. Only a couple of months ago, I spoke to him about possible employment opportunities while I continued to work on my degree. I didn't expect him to hand me a job that would make the degree unnecessary!"

Eames laughed and ruffled her hair. "Well, it seems you are a regular rags-to-riches story. Well, I am pleased to inform you that, as good as you are, and you are exceedingly good, you can expect about a quarter of this payment, give or take, for each job. I'm not sure how many jobs you might get a year – it can be unpredictable- but I can say that I want you to be the Architect for any job that I am on from here on out. A little more experience, and you could easily be the best. Come on, Arthur, back me up on this."

"I'd be lying if I said it wasn't true."

"See? I'd even continue to work with Arthur here if I had to."

Ariadne absolutely beamed with pride. "I'd like to keep working with you all if I could. Could that work?"

"Sure," Arthur said. "Many in the business work in more permanent teams."

"It's better to work with people you know. You want to be careful who you work with in this line of work. Don't get me wrong; I'm not claiming to be the most trustworthy person you could come across, but there are plenty of people that I would not like to see you fall in with. Speaking of nasty people to fall in with, last I heard you had been working with Nash as your Architect. Whatever happened to the slimy little cockroach?"

Arthur's relaxed expression tensed, and his eyes flickered to Saito. It was the Japanese businessman who answered.

"I found him to be an untrustworthy individual, and when it came to skill, he was rather second rate."

"Too true," Eames said, turning back to Ariadne. "Don't worry. You stick with Arthur. He's very honorable and won't let you get mixed up with that kind of riff-raff."

"Will we need to find a new extractor?" she asked.

"Not necessarily," Arthur said. "In return for Eames's kind complement to my character, I can say that as well as being one of the best forger's around, he is a rather impressive extractor in his own right."

"Thank you, Arthur."

"I just want to make sure that you are certain that you want to keep working in extraction. The money is very good, but you've seen only a part of how dangerous it can get. Have you really thought this through?"

She looked at him as though he had lost his mind.

"Are you kidding? I'll be the first to admit that it was scary, but that was still the most exciting experience in my life! This is the most amazing thing to ever happen to me. Please, you can't ask me to stop now." The concern in her voice was palpable.

Arthur shook his head. "No, I don't want to make you stop if you don't want to; I just wanted you to be sure. I also wanted you to be sure that you understand that if there is any point that you want to get out, you can. You should understand that you are under no obligation to anyone but yourself when you do this. It is, for the most part, on the wrong side of the law, and you are not to do things or take risks that you are not comfortable with."

"See, what did I tell you?" Eames said with a despairing sigh. "Honorable to a fault."

"No, I appreciate it," she was quick to assure Arthur. "I don't want you to think that I'm not grateful for your concern. It's just that it's all so…" She tried to relate to him with a gesture of splayed fingers the sense of overwhelming wonder that dreaming and extraction had given her.

He smiled and nodded, understanding her feelings on the matter completely. "Pure creation."

Ariadne returned the smile and asked, "What do we do now?"

"I, for one, will be begging your pardon, for I do need to leave for the airport," Saito said. "I wish you all the best. It was an honor to work with you all, and I sincerely hope to see you again in the future." He offered a hand to Arthur. Arthur took it, and then Saito shook hands with the other two men. Finally, he came to Ariadne, and when she took his hand he bowed over it formally. "Miss Gray, I look forward to hearing of your career with great interest. Please accept my thanks for all that you have done for me, and please consider me a friend at any time you should need one."

"Thank you," Ariadne murmured, blushing, but still pleased.

After a moment of silence following Saito's exit, she spoke again.

"Really, though, what do we do now?" she asked again. "How does one go about getting hired for this? I assume we're not advertising in the London Times."

"Well, first of all, you could use a little more training, and some time to get some practice in," Arthur said. "Your tuition for your first job was somewhat hurried due to our uncertain time constraints, and I didn't know that we were taking you under with us until just before we left. If I had known earlier, I would have taught you quite a bit more, which I intend to do now. As an Architect, you generally won't need to go into the dreams during an extraction, but that doesn't mean that you won't be called upon to at some time or another."

"I'd like to, if I get the chance."

"We'll have to see what comes up. That's another thing. We tend to be contacted for jobs through the grapevine, so to speak. Whoever is looking to hire an extractor or an extraction team will talk to someone who knows someone who knows an extraction team."

"Like me," Yusuf said. "I would be pleased to shuffle work your way if I hear of anything that might interest the group, and, if you ever need a chemist for anything, don't hesitate to call. Also, I am not a bad field medic, but you need a driver though, I prefer you see if there is someone else you can call first."

"But before anything else, go home, or better yet, go buy a new home; this can be complicated, so if you need help buying a place, call me," Arthur said. Here, Eames raised an eyebrow, but he didn't interrupt. "Pay off all debts, and then buy yourself all the pretty little things that you've always wanted but haven't been able to afford. Take a good month or so to unwind. You deserve it. And then, we'll get together, and we'll get back to work."

That had been nearly a month and a half ago, and Ariadne had just as Arthur had told her to. She had gone shopping for a new apartment, and when she had found one that she had fallen in love with, a top floor apartment with the original art deco style that made her feel as though she had just stepped into the 1920's, she called him, and, a week later, he was standing at her shoulder when Ariadne signed her name to the documents that made the comfortable little living space hers.

She registered for only a single class for the fall semester, one taught by Professor Miles, who had taken the news of her calling into the world of extraction with unconcealed concern, but she did her best to reassure him. Before the semester had even begun, she had begun to take tea with him Thursdays, and despite his worries for her, he had conceded that he knew Arthur to be a principled young man, despite his vocation, and if she were to go into extraction, he was pleased that it would be with someone who he thought could be trusted to keep her from the most questionable jobs. Phillip Eames he was less sanguine about, but he was willing to concede that he would not be likely to willfully lead her into danger. Dom, she was pleased to hear from him, was doing well, and despite the corruption of his best and brightest, Stephen Miles was glad to know that his grandchildren had their father back.

Now, on the Tuesday of the week after classes had started, Ariadne was sitting in the lecture hall, listening to Professor Miles teach, when extraction walked back into her life.