Everything That Is Real (Comes Around)

Part Sixteen

            Everyone went from melancholy to tense the moment Susana began to stir. Yusuf dug through his bag and found a sedative as they all waited for her eyes to open. The moment they did he dropped the chemical and put her back to sleep. Ariadne chewed on the tip of her thumb as she watched Arthur. Everyone was completely silent as they waited for some sort of reaction and when his eyes opened very slowly she did not care what he thought, Ariadne threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. Arthur sat completely still for what felt like a long time before he hugged her back loosely. She pulled away and looked at him.

            “We were so worried,” she said. “I was worried you were going to be stuck with that woman until the timer ran out.”

            “No, I managed to get out,” he said and there was something different about his voice. She noticed it, Eames seemed to notice, too, and everyone looked at him differently.

            “What happened down there?” Eames asked and Arthur shook his head before he moved out of Ariadne's embrace.

            “It's not important. We have the information right?” he asked and she nodded. “Then let's get out of here.” There was an uneasy silence as everyone moved to gather the equipment. Cobb said that they needed to get off at the next stop and no one disagreed. Once she stepped off the train Ariadne felt infinitely better. The job was finally behind them and the only thing left to do now was to hand the information to Fischer while sending the rest to the police. Arthur was right; if nothing else the investigation into Susana Mitchell’s affairs would give them all time to escape. She thought about what she was going to do next and her stomach twisted a bit because she wanted to go back to Rome, she wanted to see the city and take it all in, but now she would have to go alone.

            As they all made their way back to LA everyone took their own paths. Yusuf and Cobb took the train back while Arthur seemed more keen on taking a taxi despite the amount of money it would cost him. As he walked away Ariadne glanced at Eames. They had a silent conversation with their eyesbefore they both walked over and joined Arthur.

            “What are you doing?” he asked as he looked between them obviously confused.

            “The cab will be cheaper with three of us instead of just you. Makes sense, right?” Eames said and the two of them stared at each other without moving. A taxi pulled up to the edge of the road and honked as it waited for them to make up their minds.

            “Come on, we need to get going,” Ariadne said as she put the bags into the trunk and climbed into the back of the cab. Their staring contest seemed to continue until Eames took Arthur by his upper arm, forced the PASIV and other his other luggage out of his fingers, and practically threw him into the back of the car before he closed the trunk and sat next to him. The back of the cab was a little tight and Arthur did not look happy to be in the middle. The cab started off and there was no going back now.

            “You could have sat up front, Eames,” he said, his voice low.

            “Oh, I didn't even think of that,” Eames said feigning innocence. Arthur glared at him before he sat back and crossed his arms, that familiar cold expression falling into place. “So when are you going to tell us about what happened?”

            “There's nothing to discuss,” Arthur said without looking at either of them.

            “I was there, Arthur,” Ariadne said in a low voice. “She had every intention of making us bleed. You were down there with her for nearly an hour; you can't tell me nothing happened.”

            “It wasn't real so it doesn't matter,” he said and Eames smacked him upside the head. “What was that for?”

            “You know what,” Eames said before he leaned forward and gave the cabbie an extra twenty. “I'm going to close the little gap between us and you're going to turn up your music. Sound like a good plan?” The cabbie nodded as Eames closed the gap and the music went up. “You know as well as I do that just because it wasn't real doesn't make it feel any less real.”

            “I'm not discussing this with you, either of you. Is that why you crammed me into the back of this cab? So you could interrogate me into sharing my feelings? You both know me better than that,” Arthur said as he glanced between them. His eyes were so empty. Ariadne had never seen them this devoid of any emotion, and it broke her heart a bit.

            “I do know you,” she said before she reached forward and took his hand. “I know that every time you get hurt in a dream you cut yourself off.”

            “You've done it for years,” Eames continued. “So just out with it.” Arthur looked between them before he pulled his hand free of hers.

            “What makes either of you think you know anything about me? Give it a rest; I've told both of you how I feel about you and here you are trying to force me to open up. Just stop, let it go, I'm not that type of person and you know it. Now leave it alone or I swear to god I will find some way out of this cab just to be rid of both of you.” His words were as cold as his expression and for some reason it hurt much more than Ariadne expected it to. Eames, however, just looked angry and for a moment she thought he might punch Arthur. They sat in silence for a long time before Eames finally broke the silence.

            “Job is over. What are you going to do now?” he asked.

            “Tie up some loose ends,” Arthur replied in a flat voice. She knew exactly what loose end he was talking about.

            “Maybe someone should help you with that loose end,” Ariadne offered and he stared at her as if she had grown a second head.

            “I can handle it,” he said and she just wished he would tell her what he had planned if nothing else. “Also I wouldn't plan on keeping any money you get from this job. I have a feeling our friend is going to want hush money.”

            “I figured as much,” Eames replied as he moved an arm so it rested on the back of the seat behind Arthur. The motion confused Ariadne for a moment and she caught his eyes to see if they would give anything away. He said 'later' without sound and if Arthur noticed he did not seem to care one way or another. Eames tried to make small talk the rest of the way back to LA and she tried to encourage Arthur to join in, although he refused. It was frustrating because she knew that something was bothering him but he was refusing to say what it was. The drive was long because of traffic and from time to time she wanted to rest her head on his shoulder. She wondered if he would react at all if she did and she almost got up the courage to try when they pulled up in front of the hotel. The bill was atrocious even split three ways and it seemed pointless now since they had gotten nothing out of Arthur. Instead, he pulled his bags out of the cab and walked into the hotel without a word. She watched him go and felt utterly helpless.

            “I don't know what to do,” Ariadne said. “I saw that woman, I saw the look in her eyes, and there is no way he got out of there without her doing something to him. He spent the entire job in so much pain from that one wound.”

            “Let's go get something for dinner,” Eames said and she nodded without looking at him. They walked up to their rooms, dropped off their bags, and met back in the lobby. They went to a brew pub and Eames downed a beer quite quickly right away before he ordered another. The food was good, she guessed, but her mind was really not on anything but that empty look in Arthur's eyes. “I'm going to tell you something that no one else knows.”

            “You have secrets? Perish the thought,” Ariadne replied and smiled at him before it faded when she realized just how serious he was. “Sorry.”

            “It's all right. I'm usually a smart ass so it doesn't surprise me that you would take anything I say as snark. This time, however, I'm afraid I'm being serious,” he said before he leaned back in his chair and seemed to be deep in thought. “I'm not very good at being subtle like our dear point man so I'm just going to be blunt; about two years ago, roughly, Arthur and I had a physical relationship.” Her jaw dropped and she was sure her expression was probably nothing short of hysterical. She searched his face for some hint that this was a joke but his eyes were deadly serious.

            “But, he, you...” Ariadne stumbled through her words trying to come up with something coherent to say.

            “It lasted about six months and one day he said 'we're done' and that was the end of that. No one else knew and we didn’t talk about it until recently,” he said and his eyes never left hers. “I just thought you should know so you know why I'm so intense about this too.”

            “Did you, you know, love him?” she asked in a small voice.

            “No,” Eames replied with absolutely no hesitation. “That doesn’t mean that I don't give a toss about the guy though. I wouldn't be here telling you this if I didn't because I'm pretty sure he doesn't want people to know. Remember what I said about him surrendering to Walter?”

            “Yes, I remember,” Ariadne replied as she tried to wrap her head around the information she had just learned.

            “I'm still pretty convinced this is the case so we need to figure out a way to keep him from following through with his plan, assuming he has one,” he said.

            “He does. He's Arthur; he's probably had this planned out from the beginning. That's just how he works. And he's also a master of making them so no one can derail them,” Ariadne said leaning back in her chair. Eames did not reply and they ate their food in silence. She wished she had some sort of brilliant plan that would help keep Arthur safe but she really had no idea what to do. And all she could do now was hope that their combined knowledge would find some way of stopping whatever plan Arthur had.

***

            Arthur watched from his hotel window as Eames and Ariadne left, for dinner he assumed. He knew Eames was going to tell her about their relationship and they would sit around trying to come up with some sort of method to make him spill his guts. The pain from the shots still lingered even hours later, and when he had said that since it was not real it did matter, he wondered who exactly he was trying to convince. The folder containing all of the information they had extracted sat on his desk. Cobb had been smart enough to have Ariadne write it all down as soon as she woke up. Now it was just a matter of delivering it to where they needed it to go. Fischer would get the information he needed and the police would have an excuse to open a case against Susana Mitchell. Arthur just hoped that it would be enough of a distraction to keep everyone safe. He and Eames were the two she and Dave had gotten a good look at. They were the ones she would go after first and she would try to connect the dots back to Ariadne, Cobb, and Yusuf. It was a messy situation that he had almost no control over.

            His cellphone sat on the desk next to the information and he watched it for what felt like a long time. They would arrange a time and place to meet with Fischer. Within a day of that meeting, he expected to hear from Walter so they could settle whatever petty score they had. After that Arthur knew he had to vanish. Eames was good at that already and he had done it on more than one occasion but he would have to remain hidden until either Susana was indicted or she lost interest. Both of those scenarios could take years and falling off the grid for that long was not something he was looking forward to. He wanted to keep working, he had to keep working, because it was all he had. His fist clenched around his die before he rolled it on the table. It landed just as it should.

            Arthur picked up his phone and dialed Cobb's number. He had to find out when they were going to meet with Fischer and he would plan from there. It rang a few times before someone picked up.

            “Hello?” It was Phillipa and he had to chew on the tip of his tongue to bring out the Arthur that she knew.

            “Hey Phillipa, it's Arthur, can I talk to your dad?” he asked and his voice was several octaves higher.

            “Sure! When are you going to come visit us again?” she asked.

            “Soon, I promise,” he lied and there was a happy squeal before there was the shuffling of the phone.

            “Arthur? Are you okay?” Cobb asked.

            “I'm fine, Cobb, really, but we need to talk business,” he said because he was really starting to get annoyed with everyone asking if he was okay. “And it's probably best if we didn't do it over the phone.” There was a long silence and if it was anyone else they would have thought the line had gone dead but Arthur knew that Cobb was just thinking.

            “Just come here. Phillipa just said that you promised you'd come see her soon and she'll never forgive you if you don't follow through with that,” he said.

            “On my way.” Arthur hung up without saying goodbye. It was not like Cobb to bring work home but then again he had spent very little time with his kids recently. Still this was something that needed to be taken care of as soon as possible. He gathered the papers and keys before he headed down to his car. As he pulled out of the hotel he caught sight of Eames' car on the way back. They drove right by each other and he knew that they were both watching him. Arthur looked straight ahead and drove until he reached the house. James and Phillipa nearly tackled him when he walked in but he only said hello to them briefly. They insisted he play with them and judging by the look he received from Cobb that seemed like the best idea. The kids finally went to bed and the two of them went out back. They sat on the steps of the porch with the folder between them. The skyline was bright thanks to the city but he could see a few stars.

            “Call Fischer as soon as possible and we'll set up a meeting to give him the information. Then we'll leave the rest of it for the police,” Cobb said.

            “Sounds good. I'll make sure our tracks are completely covered this time though I wouldn't expect a paycheck for this job,” Arthur said.

            “I figured as much.” There was a moment of silence and he wondered why he was still here. That was all that needed to be said. “What happened in there, Arthur?”

            “Don't tell me you're going to bother me about this too?” Arthur asked and Cobb creased his eyebrows. “Ariadne and Eames cornered me in a cab and tried to get me to talk about it. There's nothing to talk about, really, so let it go.”

            “If there's nothing to talk about then why can't you just say it?” Cobb asked and Arthur felt his jaw muscles tighten; he had a point.

            “After I managed to shoot Ariadne that woman turned her focus on me. She leaned on my shoulder while she said that she did not care about the extracted information, she just wanted to have her fun with me. She kicked me in the stomach to the point that I was coughing up blood and it hurt to breathe. When I tried to get away she threatened to put a bullet in my kneecap and we both know that I've experienced that before.” Cobb winced but did not say anything “So I hesitated. The thought of sixteen hours with that woman was worth the risk. I managed to get to the gun but not before she shot me in the back. I shot her in the stomach and she retaliated by unloading an entire round into me. Shoulders, arms, legs, knees, everywhere except somewhere that would kill me. She locked the rest of the guns away and used the last bullet to kill herself. I lay there until I bled to death.” A heavy silence passed and despite that everyone said talking about it made it easier, Arthur knew this was a lie. He felt no different now that someone knew exactly what had happened.

            “Arthur, I'm sorry that--”

            “It's not your fault,” he interrupted. “We just need to finish this job and we can't do that without getting in touch with Fischer. When should we meet him?”

            “Tomorrow and the earlier, the better,” Cobb said and he was thankful his time in the dream had been dropped. Arthur nodded and flipped his phone open as he dialed the number.

            “Susana never showed up for our meeting so I'm assuming something happened,” Fischer said without missing a beat.

            “You would assume correctly. Where should we meet?” he asked.

            “In front of the convention center,” Fischer said.

            “Early,” Arthur replied and there was that same beat of silence where he was never sure what was going through their employer’s head.

            “Eight then. I will see you gentlemen tomorrow.” And the line went dead.

            “Eight in front of the convention center,” Arthur repeated and Cobb nodded. “The job is done; we should send everyone on their way.”

            “Yes, I'll tell them to all head home since this job is over. If we earn any money I'll make sure it reaches them.” They sat in silence and he listened to the sound of the world around the house. It felt peaceful and he envied Cobb for this place and the family he had. He envied that trust that came much easier for him. There were so many things he envied about Cobb that it was almost frustrating to think about them.

            “I'll work on tying up the loose ends,” Arthur said as he pushed himself to his feet.

            “Maybe we shouldn't send everyone home then,” Cobb said and Arthur looked down at him. He made sure his face was as blank as possible.

            “It's fine. I'll take care of it, that's my job after all.” Arthur did not wait for a response before he turned on his heels and walked through the house toward the door. They would meet Fischer early, by afternoon he expected a phone call from Walter and by evening everything from this job would be over one way or another.