7.

~ Arthur jumped back into the real world with a painful sharpness. As if he had a bad fall that still resonated in his body.

Cob was shouting.

"Arthur! Your out! Your out!" The Extractor had a worried look on his face. Bags under his eyes.

"Look at me." Cobb was saying as Arthur looked wildly around the room.

With two perfectly working eyes.

He was in the warehouse again. Laying on one of the improvised sleeping lawn chairs. Eames and Yuseff were nearby. Their expressions concerned.

"Arthur!" Cobb shouted bringing the Point Man back to reality. Making him focus on one thing.

"I'm... I'm alright." Arthur said. His breath coming very quick. He glanced over to his right. Ariadne was opening her eyes. The both of them were connected to the PASIV device.

"Just breath." Cobb was saying as the Point Man was examining the Architect. She was dressed in street clothes. Her blouse was green with lacy edgings.
"I... I was dreaming." Arthur finally put together.

"For about 18 hours." Cobb said. "We lost you in there. Couldn't get you out." The Extractor explained.

Arthur watched as Ariadne detached herself from the device. She went to him.

"Are you alright?" She asked. Her delicate hands going to his face.

He looked at her. Both his eyes working. His headache gone.

"I... I think so." He managed to get out.

~ It was with a sharp pain that Arthur realized he was hungry. He hadn't eaten in a while and feeding him took a priority. It was a simple matter to get a quick take away meal from a shop.

The Point Man was lost in satisfying his hunger as Eames watched him eat.

"You better buy Ariadne something pretty now that this is all over, Mate." The Forger teased.

"Why is that?" Arthur asked greedily eating.

"She wouldn't give up on you. Kept going back into the dream to get you out." Eames told him.

Arthur paused his gluttony to steal a glance at Ariadne. She was talking to Cobb on the other side of the room. Well out of hearing range.
"Why didn't you or Cobb come get me out?" He asked.

"We tried." Eames said. "She was the only one who could find you. She was the only one who you would let in." The Forger explained. "Every time she found you, you kicked her out of the dream somehow. She kept going in. Wouldn't give up."

Arthur nodded.

"All this because Yuseff mixed up the compound?" he asked.

"It happens." Eames sighed. "Sometimes we lose our grasp on what's real and what's a dream."

"18 hours." The Point Man mused. It made sense now.

The head aches, the nose bleeds, the blindness in the eye. His mind was losing itself to the dream.

A horrible thought came to him, as was his nature to always think horrible thoughts.

What if his relationship with Ariadne was just a dream? What if he had dreamed their time together? Making love all day. It had all been so perfect. What if they were still working on the Fischer inception? What if his dream had been so elaborate he had dreamed an entire life with her?

"Eames," Arthur started. Trying looking nonchalant. "Tell me something. Ariadne and I... are we... are we together?" He manged to get out. An envious gaze was locked on Cobb talking to the Architect.

Their faces were intense in a privet conversation.

"What?" Eames said with a laugh. "You wish, Darling." The Forger said. "No. Cobb and Ariadne have been an item for a while now. You know they got close while working on the Fischer job."

Eames cast Ariadne and Cobb a look before turning to Arthur.

"I have it on good authority that Cobb's going to marry her." Eames whispered.

Arthur felt his heart fall into his stomach as he heard Eames make these lighthearted little comments.

He had only dreamed he was with Ariadne. That they were together. That they had lived in her little apartment. That they made love all day.

No wonder she looked so shocked when she found out he was engaged to the projection of her.

The Point Man hung his head, embarrassed. Ashamed that she had seen onto his privet dream world. Jealous of Cobb. His good looks, easy manners. The fact that Ariadne had always cared for him, never the Point Man.

Arthur found it difficult to swallow his food as Ariadne was approaching them.

"Feeling better?" She asked Arthur. Her sweet smile back on her face. Arthur tried to smile back, tried to look happy.

"I'll be fine." He said. "Thank you. For getting me out." He fumbled politely. They were noting more then Team members.

A cocky grin was on the Forger's face.

"Eames." Ariadne said sharply. "Isn't Sadie waiting for you at home?" She asked. The Forger looked well reprimanded.

"Were on the out's again." He explained. "She found out I watched some randy type movie without her, and set a closet of my suits on fire."

The Forger gave a long sigh.

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't want her back." He admitted. "Did she say anything about me when you talked to her last?"

"No." Ariadne said indifferently. "And as for your suits, it's the fashion worlds loss." Ariadne added unsympathetically. "Were going home." She said pulling on Arthur's sleeve.

Thoroughly confused, Arthur looked at the Architect. She was smiling down at him. Her hand going to smooth his hair.

"What? Were going home?" He stammered as Eames burst out laughing.
"You should have seen the look on your face when I told you Cobb was marrying her!" Eames said holding back tears of laughter.

"Funny, Mr. Eames." Arthur said standing up. Throwing Eames a disgusted look. He felt Ariadne's hand slip into his own.

The Forger was still laughing as the Architect pulled Arthur outside to hail a cab.

~ "I really can't stand Eames sometimes." Arthur said after he brushed his teeth. The cab took the couple blissfully home. With each passing minuet, Arthur was praying harder and harder that he would be going home with her. That they were not simply sharing a cab ride to different locals.

"That was mean of him to do." Ariadne said from their bed.

The soft glow of her bed side lamp lit the tiny little room. Casting her dark hair to a warm hue. The Point Man had taken a much needed shower and fell back into the comfortable feeling of her apartment. Of their home.

"So what's the last thing we did together?" He asked.

She looked up at him in surprise, he couldn't help but flush red.

"I mean... I just want to know what was a dream and what was reality." He back peddled.

She grinned at him.

"Tell me about this brain tumor you dreamed up." She said softly as he climbed into bed. Arthur sighed.

"It was not good. I had... very little time. I... lost sight in my eye. I started to see things that weren't there." He explained.

"You were seeing me trying to get you out." Ariadne explained. "Your mind was explaining my presence there with a brain tumor. Chalking it up to hallucinating."

Arthur nodded. Thinking back to the dream that was fading away quickly.

"It felt so real. I could feel myself dieing." He said softly.

Ariadne kissed his temple, soothing the memory.

She listened patiently as he described the experience of it.

"Is that why you asked me to marry you?" she asked finally. "Because you thought you were dieing?"

"I married you in the dream because I love you in real life." Arthur said sternly. His Point Man voice coming back in full force. Appeasing her.

She smiled a satisfied little smile.

"You dreamed of being with me." She whispered as he was kissing her lips. "I've never heard of anything so romantic."

He smiled into her lips as his large hand wandered down her night gown, exploring. Happy to find she wore no panties. A practice of hers since... his hand rubbed against the smoothed, carefully waxed skin of her sex.

"My birthday present." He said huskily. Memories of her gift to him. A gift he had enjoyed and used many times that night.

She smiled at him.

"Glad you remembered that. It was only a week ago." She giggled.

"I could never forget that." He breathed happily. His lips went to her neck. Assaulting her.

She was gasping softly as his thumb pressed threateningly around her clitoris. Her arms were to her side, her face looked frightened as he roamed her damp folds.

He couldn't take his eyes off her. His manipulation between her legs made her bite her lower lip. Effectively killing what composure he had left.

Of course he would dream of her. He would never stop dreaming of her.

~In the same apartment, but in two very different lives, Ariadne stood by the window. She was dressed in black. She watched Cobb pull up to her building in a cab, the Extractor rushing up to her floor. With a soft knock, Cobb let himself in.

"Our cab is downstairs. Are you ready?" He asked.

She kept staring out the window. Cob looked around at the Architect's apartment. A home he had never been in till now.

He spotted her white lacy shift dress. Her wedding dress. Hung in the bedroom door. Blood was all over it. Stained and dried rust brown. The Extractor quickly took it off the hanger and stashed it out of sight. The whole macabre nature of displaying such a thing made him worry about her.

"Cobb, you should have told me." Ariadne said numbly. Her eyes puffy from tears. Her face pale.

"He asked me not to." Cobb said feebly. "Wanted your time together to be happy."

"It was very happy." She admitted. "Till my husband shot himself in the head on our wedding day."

"He told me that he didn't think he would have 6 months." Cobb admitted. "The symptoms were getting worse."

Ariadne didn't say anything to this. Her gaze staying out the window.

"Ariadne, it's time to go." Cobb said gently. "The funeral starts soon."

~ End ~

I was never attempting to do a 50/50 meets Inception fan-fic.

Originally, I wanted to make this apart of my Dream series. I wanted Eames to be the one with the brain tumor and Sybil gets him out. With Arthur trying to talk him out of shooting himself. Originally, I thought about killing Eames off in this way.

I love girl saves boy stories. I think their just as romantic as boy saves girl. That Ariadne would never give up getting Arthur out.

I'm going to let my readers decide if Arthur was really dreaming, or was if he was awake and fell victim to his own hallucinations. Just like Cobb with the top in the movie.

Reality is what we make of it.

Don't worry, I'm going to write a short Erotica about Arthur's Birthday. Called "Arthur's Birthday."

Thank you all so much for reading. Pls review.

Love you guys so much.

This won't be the last Inception fan-fic. I just can't stay away. LOL.