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Ariadne had arranged a peaceful, quiet life she for herself after the Fischer job. And then he showed up. All smiles and charm that sent her head in a frenzy. It seemed like every time he was in town, he would visit her and she would be conveniently available. She knew the kind of work he was still involved in and the risks that came with it. But she didn't think that he would be under surveillance or that anyone would notice his infrequent visits to Paris.

But someone had found out about her. Someone had been in her apartment and was looking for something other than money. They even went to the trouble of leaving her a note. A friendly enough note to try and inspire her to come out of retirement. That sickeningly sweet kind of note that felt like it was laced with cobra venom. They wanted an Architect.

She called the only person she could think of.

"Hey..."

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"Yes; I'm on my way out." Shifting to her feet, she set about packing a small bag as she balanced her phone on her shoulder, snapping into a focused mindset. "I don't. Just something basic for protection." Halfway through her apartment, she grabbed a pocket knife and some mace from a drawer before closing and locking her apartment behind her.

"Text me which hotel you're at when you get there." He let the doorman hail him a cab and got in, telling the driver where to go. He hated not being there, but he couldn't imagine how helpless Ariadne must've felt. This wasn't exactly something she's ever dealt with, at least as far as he knew.

"See you soon." There had been moments when she had first returned to Paris that she had stayed up late or was woken in the middle of the night expecting to hear someone coming after her. But as the years crept by, she'd relaxed. Gotten comfortable. And now she was in a cab headed to a hotel across town as she tried to keep herself from looking over her shoulder.

She paid for her room in cash and texted him the address. Waiting for him to arrive as she sat on the edge of the bed, uncertain of what to do with herself.

The sun had set completely when Arthur finally arrived in Paris. He texted Ariadne, letting her know he was in the city and on his way to her hotel. When he arrived, he paid the cabbie and walked in, taking the elevator up to the correct floor. He knocked. "It's me," he said.

Pacing up and down the length of the room, she had to force herself not to flinch every time she heard someone walk past her door. Hearing his knock, Ariadne crept up to the peep hole, trying to make no noise as she approached the door. Seeing him to she cracked the door open slowly before opening it wide enough to let him through. "Thanks for getting here so quickly. I-I didn't know who else to call."

"Don't worry about it. It's probably my fault anyway." He looked around the room before leaving his suitcase by the door and walking over to the desk in the corner, taking out his laptop from his messenger bag and starting it up. "So tell me exactly what happened."

Wrapping her arms around herself, she lowered herself to the bed nearest him. "I had just gotten home before I called you. The lock on my door was secure, or at least I didn't notice anything the matter with it. Inside, my apartment had been thoroughly turned over. All except my room though even that felt... touched. They left me a note on my pillow." Lifting herself from the mattress took more effort than she expected. Now that Arthur was here in front of her it was all sinking in. They weren't after Arthur. They had been looking for her. She pulled the weighted paper from the envelope and handed it over to him. "Here."

There were no identifiers stating who had written her, just contact information and a threat to enlist her cooperation. Other than that, the letter was cryptic enough in regards to how they knew about her.

He listened, angry at how she was targeted, and when she handed over the letter, he read it through, frowning deeply. "I'm sorry this happened," he said, looking at her with such concern and anger. And he was truly angry that someone had done this to her. "But I promise I'll find out who this is and make sure they never do something like this ever again." Arthur turned back to his laptop and emailed a few contacts within the business the contact information that had been left, to see if they recognized the phone number.

"How do they know I was an Architect?" She had gone over it over and over. The only people who knew about her were the members of the Fischer job. And Miles. She never thought she'd have to worry about any of them letting her involvement known. The business of dreams wasn't strictly speaking legal, so the people involved had a tendency to be tight lipped.

"Anything I can do?" Wrapping a blanket around her shoulders she watched as he punched away at the keyboard. There was little she knew she could do past this point; the world of secrets and intrigue was all Arthur's territory.

He blew out a breath. "Someone must've let it slip," he said. But who? He trusted Yusuf, Eames, Cobb, and Saito to a certain point. He didn't think that they were capable of letting anything slip about the inception job. He knew he never said anything about Ariadne to anyone.

"Just relax, okay? Try to sleep or order room service if you're hungry." He sent his emails and then turned to her. Arthur got out of his seat and sat down next to her on the bed, sliding his arm around her shoulders.

Pulling the blanket tighter around her, she barely heard him. She hated the thought of any of them being guilty of letting her name slip, but the conclusion was hard to ignore. Her brows furrowed together like they always do when she was in deep thought. 'That's not what I need to focus on right now.' she chastised herself. Instinctively, she leaned against him when he wrapped his arms around her, even as her mind raced with ideas of how to get out of this. It's not like she hadn't toyed with the idea of returning to that line of work. But would be on her terms, not like this.

"Come on, let's get into bed and watch tv, does that sound okay?" Arthur got up and pulled the flat sheet down for them before taking off his suit, leaving him only in his boxer briefs. He hung his clothes and went to get his laptop, setting it down on one of the nightstands.

Nodding she stood and dropped the blanket on the bed before removing her jacket and shoes, tossing both to the side on a side chair. Leaving her other cloths on she slid under the covers, waiting for him to crawl in and warm her. Right now there was little either could do while they waited to hear back from on of Arthur's contacts and worrying and plotting wasn't going to help.

He got in and wrapped her up securely in his arms, tucking her head under his chin. The dreamshare community was small. Someone would have to know who left that letter unless they were someone new.

"Thank you for coming Arthur." She wrapped her own arms around him, pulling him as close as she could, resting her cheek on his bare chest.

"Of course." He'd come anyway since anything that involved dreamshare and her was probably his fault now that he was back in her life. "Just relax. I'll take care of it."

She gave a soft chuckle as she closed her eyes, finally allowing herself to relax a bit with him around. She squeezed him when her thoughts drifted immediately back to their predicament. "I have a bad feeling about this Arthur. Aside from the obvious things like the intrusion and the threat."

"Me too." Most people he knew in the business didn't resort to recruiting tactics like this. Emails were customary. "But we'll figure it out."

Nodding, she rubbed her thumb across his skin as she still sulked over their lack of information. True, they were waiting on responses but the suspense was the worst.

"Did you have class today?" He asked, wanting her to get her mind off the letter.

"Hmm? Oh, yes. All four classes were today." Knowing he was trying to distract her, she nuzzled against him.

"Tell me about your students," he asked next, his lips against her forehead.

"The bulk of them mostly dream of building the next Dubai. There's a handful that actually have talent. They're finally taking me seriously, once they got over my accent... and my age." She kept her eyes closed as he began to brush his lips across her face. Peaking though her closed lids, she peered at his computer screen, no notifications yet.

Edited Date: 2014-09-05 03:07 am (UTC)

Arthur couldn't help but chuckle as she spoke of her students. "I see, well, that's to be expected," he teased, but she really did look younger than her age which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but she went into teaching where being intimidating would be a good thing.

"Yes, I suppose it is." She sighed and nuzzled against him more, feeling herself relax a little more in his arms. "I guess I just have my grandfather to blame for my early found love for masonry and structure. Everyone else in my position has about 20 years under their belt."