Abyss

Present

It was cold, Arthur was so cold, and it felt like there was nothing he could do about it. He tried to move his arms, legs, anything but his body just was not responding. He was in water, he was sure of it, and he was face down in this water. For all he knew this could be a dream, he was not entirely sure how he had gotten here, but that did not seem likely. There was no reason to put him under now, this was just the clean up. Arthur was not entirely sure if someone was holding him under the water or if he was floating, it felt like he was floating but that could be lack of oxygen getting to his brain, but even through this haze he knew one thing; all he had to do was breathe. In one breath the ice water that he felt submerged in would fill his lungs and that would be it. All he had to do was breathe. Arthur's lungs burned, the little he could see was beginning to darken around the edges, as his body struggled to take a breath. All he had to do was breathe.

Arthur took a breath and everything went dark.

Ten Hours Prior

Eames was in Las Vegas when his phone started ringing. The number was listed as 'unknown' and he was in the middle of a really intense game of poker when it started to ring. By the second time it went off the people at the table were starting to give him dirty looks. The forger folded, counted his loses and planned to make whoever was on the other line pay him back for what he had just lost. By the time he managed to get to a place where he could hear the phone had started to ring for the third time. Whoever this was wanted to get a hold of him and Eames really hoped it was not someone trying to collect on a debt he had forgotten about; he was fairly sure he had covered all of those with the money from the inception job.

"Eames here," he said into the phone and waited for a moment. The line was there, he could hear movement, but no one was saying anything. "Who is this?" There was nothing but silence and he half wondered if there was a bad connection or if someone was pulling a joke. There were not many people who would call this line as a joke but there were a few. "Someone say something or I'm hanging up."

"Eames." The forger stopped pacing around outside the hotel and stared straight ahead. That was Arthur's voice on the line and there was no reason that Arthur would be this slow to respond unless something was wrong. Every instinct from his years in the military told him that details were going to be very important from now on, that every little piece of information mattered, because something was wrong; he could feel it.

"Arthur, long time. Where are you?" Eames asked without bothering to ask if the point man was okay because he was not, the forger was sure of that. The long silence that followed made him think that they had been disconnected and that he would have nothing to go on. Eames did not think his instincts were off on this one, he trusted his gut, and his gut told him that something was wrong.

"Not sure," Arthur said and his voice sounded like it was forced. "Somewhere in the mountains on the East Coast."

"You have to give me more than that. What happened?" Eames asked.

"I can't remember, I woke up here and-" Arthur paused and there was the sound of someone moving around. "-shit." There was a loud thump, it sounded like someone getting punched very hard, and the line went dead.

"Bugger," Eames mumbled to himself and he clenched his phone tightly. It had been several months since the inception job and he had not heard much of anything from any of his former teammates. Cobb was retired and a free man, Yusuf was back in Mombasa, Ariadne in Paris, Saito in Tokyo, and Arthur was on a job last he heard through the grapevine. He had never considered himself that close with Arthur. They worked together every now and then and when they did things always went brilliantly because despite what people thought they worked extremely well together, but just the knowledge that he was the one that the point man had called felt like an obligation. Arthur trusted him, like a comrade and a brother in arms, so it was natural that Eames was the man he would call if things went very wrong. Logically it made sense but that did not make if feel any less a burden. Right now all he knew was that Arthur was somewhere in the mountains on the East Coast and was in trouble. The next number he dialed was predictable.

"Cobb residence, James speaking." James Cobb sounded far too young to be answering the phone.

"James, hi, my name is Eames and I'm a friend of your dad's, can I talk to him?" Eames asked tweaking his voice and accent to appeal to a three-year-old.

"Sure!" There was the sound of the phone being passed around and Eames thought he heard Cobb say something along the lines of 'who?' before the sounds of movement ceased.

"Eames, good to hear from you," Cobb said finally though he did not seem to mean it.

"I can tell by your enthusiasm that you are just thrilled," Eames deadpanned as he walked through the crowds of people toward his hotel.

"I'm sorry. It's just unexpected that you would call here, that's all," Cobb replied and the forger could practically see the older man pinching the bridge of his nose. "What do you need, Eames? I know you wouldn't call unless you needed something." Normally this would be a side-in for a sarcastic response about being hurt that Cobb would assume such things about him but this was hardly a time for jokes.

"I need your help actually," Eames said and continued before the obligatory 'I'm retired' speech came into play. "I got a call from Arthur and it sounded like he was in trouble. I don't know Arthur that well so I don't know what exactly to look for so that's where you come in." There was a long silence and for a moment Eames thought the former extractor had hung up. Eames was already forming a long winded rant about how Arthur had followed him into the abyss without a word and Cobb was abandoning him and every little thing that could hit a nerve.

"Do you have any leads?" Cobb asked finally.

"He mentioned the mountains on the East Coast before I lost him but that's all I've got. Does this mean you're going to help me?" the forger asked.

"Of course. Let me just get someone to watch the kids and I'll be out there on the next flight. I'm going to send you a list of Arthur's aliases that I know of. I'm sure he has more but it's a start, and see if you can link it to anything. Where should we meet?" Cobb said.

"New York, JFK, to be specific. I think that's the best place to start out plus that airport is huge so it'll be easy to find a connection from there," Eames said as he walked into the lobby of his hotel.

"I'll see you there," and the line went dead. Eames walked toward his hotel room a little faster than he meant to. It was probably drawing all sorts of attention that he really did not need but he did not have time to waste. Arthur had sounded very disoriented and it took a lot to shake Arthur's calm let alone disorientate him. Eames opened his laptop once the door was closed and booked the next flight to New York. It involved several connections, a few of which he was going to have to literally sprint to, but it was the only way he could get there quickly. He just hoped he was not too late.

Eight Hours Prior

Arthur blinked awake and found that the task was much harder than he expected.. One of his eyes was almost swollen shut and the entire world spun as he tried to focus on his surroundings. He did not remember much from his conversation with Eames, only that he had been trying to figure out exactly where he was when his captors kicked the door open, punched him away from the phone and crushed it under their boots. They had said something in another language, Arthur had thought it was Spanish but he had not been able to tell from the ringing in his head, before the entire world went black. Now he was back on the floor of the room trying to blink the spots from his eyes becoming more and more aware of the torn state of his knuckles.

The door opened and two men walked in. Arthur guessed their arms were bigger than his torso and he tried to get away from them but the ringing in his ears made his movements sluggish. They snatched his arms and twisted them behind his back painfully. They said something, he knew it was Spanish now and it sounded like they were from Europe not South America, and dragged him from the room. Arthur struggled and they stopped long enough to punch the wind out of him. The spots became prominent again as he struggled to breathe and his vision started to blacken around the edges.

Seven Hours Prior

Eames managed to get to New York in record time and decided to start looking into the list of aliases that Cobb had sent him. He would have looked into them on the plane but he had not trusted the connection. At least in the airport he could set up his own personal wi-fi and feel at least a little better about looking into the various names. The plane ride had not been completely useless though because it had given him four hours to try and clear his head. The fact that he had just paid nearly a grand for a plane ticket was a little baffling to him. The entire flight was baffling because he could not name a person, aside from his few remaining family members, that he would be willing to jump on a plane for at the drop of a hat. It was not until the plane had been halfway to New York that Eames realized this and it was kind of odd. It was even stranger when the thought of finding a body, or a lack of one even, made this vise in his chest clench up. It was like someone had dropped a ten pound weight over his lungs and it was hard to breathe.

"When did I start to think of Arthur like that?" the forger asked himself as he tried to track several of the aliases that Cobb had sent him. Eames was not sure they would be able to find anything because if there was anyone who could rival him in vanishing off of the grid it was Arthur. . Logic told him that Arthur was more than likely still on a job when he was taken. He was sure the point man had enemies, everyone in their line of work did, but there was no reason for Arthur to be on the coast. The only apartments he owned were in the middle of no where for a reason.

The dreamsharing community was much smaller than people generally expected.. There were maybe fifty people in their entire community and more than half of those were part of permanent teams. Freelancing was not the best way of going about things but Eames had never felt the need to team up with people in the long run. He did not do many jobs a year and the active teams always seemed busy. He liked to relax and it was impossible to do so with their work. Arthur had gone freelance since Cobb retired and the point man seemed in no hurry to settle down. Eames had heard through the grapevine about how Arthur was doing and he had kept his ears open. Now was a time when that would come in handy. It took several calls to several people to find out that there was an extraction team working out of Albany. It sounded like it was supposed to be straight forward but extractions rarely were.

It took some digging around but Eames was able to find a hint at what might have been one of Arthur's aliases in the city. It was close to the mountains with plenty of places to hide someone for interrogation. It looked like it was just a three man team with an extractor named Jeffry and an architect named Sylvia. By the time Cobb's plane landed almost two hours after Eames' the forger had a good idea where they were heading next.

"Jeffry and Sylvia?" Cobb said as they walked at a brisk pace through the airport.

"Do you know either of them?" Eames asked.

"Sylvia is maybe two years older than Ariadne and the definition of someone who is too trusting and Jeffry is someone who knows how to exploit that. I don't know if he's someone that would stab his team in the back but he's not someone who would do well under pressure either. Neither would she either for that matter. If someone wanted information about the job the only person they would have to go through is Arthur. He'd keep those two in the dark as much as possible," Cobb said and he turned on the charm as he got their rental car. Eames was impressed to see this side of Cobb but he was not surprised either. The man was an extractor so he had to charm his way into getting people to tell him their deepest and darkest secrets. He managed to convince her to let him have the car despite having just a driver's license that Eames had forged for him a few years prior. That was how they ended up on the highway and heading upstate. "There is one place we should check first."

"And where would that be?" Eames asked as he watched the city fade away into the world of upstate New York.

"The morgues." The word made Eames' blood run cold and a vise form in his chest not that Cobb seemed any more thrilled either. They did not say much to each other in the two and a half hours it took to get to the city. True to his word the first thing Cobb did was head toward one of the morgues. Eames hung in the back as the extractor described three people, Arthur included. They had no luck at the first one but the receptionist at the second gave them a sad look and guided them to the back.

"A homeless man found them on the outskirts of town a few hours ago," she said and the tech walked with them as well. By the time they reached the room Eames' mouth had gone completely dry. The tech pulled the two drawers open and the forger released a breath. One of the bodies was a girl, young as Cobb had mentioned, with short spiked hair and a skinny frame. The man was older, older than Cobb, and had some gray in his brown hair. The back of their heads had significant holes and even now there was the smell of gun powder on their clothes; someone had taken them out execution style.

"Yeah, that's them," Cobb confirmed and the tech and woman gave them sad looks that seemed extremely forced.

"Would you like to claim them?" she asked but Cobb shook his head.

"They have family and I'll send them a message to come and get them. I'm a friend so I don't really have authority," Cobb said and he filled out some papers with names and a possible number to contact them from. They both left and sat in the car for a moment in complete silence.

"Two of Arthur's aliases are here. He usually has a fake account so it's harder to track him," Cobb said.

"Check in and then never stay at the place," Eames said. "That sounds like Arthur. If those two are already dead we don't have time to check both of them in depth. They're on different sides of the city."

"We'll split up," Cobb said and it was decided. They found another place that would rent Eames a car, under a false name of course, and they both went their separate ways. They were taking quite a risk right now, the people that had Arthur apparently meant business, and Cobb had kids to go back to but here he was taking the risk. Eames bought firearms from a dealer that came recommended so now he was armed as well. The fact that they were heading in the right direction did not ease any of Eames' worries.

Four Hours Prior

The sound of a bone snapping was like a gunshot. It seemed to echo throughout the entire room and it took the air right out of his lungs. Somewhere, in the logical part of his mind, Arthur cataloged that it was his collarbone and there was nothing anyone could do to help him. His captors were screaming at him still. Even though they were now using English, it was like talking to the adults in Charlie Brown cartoons, and still he kept his mouth shut. The ground beneath him was cold and he was starting to feel the effects of a room that did not have heat in the middle of March. Arthur knew that Jeffry and Sylvia were dead by now. He had watched them get dragged away, and he felt a sting of guilt. It was his job to cover all of the cases, know the details, their blood was on his hands.

Another sharp kick to his stomach jerked Arthur back to reality. He tasted blood and wondered how long it would take before they gave up and just killed him. He wondered if Eames would try and find him. He really had no idea what their relationship was so he was not sure if the forger was just going to write him off. He did not think so; despite the front that Eames put on, he was loyal. They all wore masks in this industry. Maybe it was because he could see beyond that mask that he had kept tabs on Eames well before the inception job and after. It was how he had known to call that number and how he had had a good idea that Eames was nowhere near where he was but he trusted the forger much more than he realized; he trusted him enough that Arthur had put his life in Eames' hands.

His captors asked him something again that he could not understand. Arthur clenched his teeth together painfully then spit the blood in his mouth on the shoes of one of the men.

They hit him again.

Three Hours Prior

The motel that Eames pulled up to looked like the sort of place that Arthur would choose simply because it seemed to go against his entire personality. It was run down, though not falling apart, and the rooms were hidden by shadows. He managed to hack into the security system of the motel and found out what room Arthur was supposed to be in. Eames parked his car two blocks away, holstered his gun and walked back to the motel. The room was quite secluded but what surprised Eames more than anything was that the door was wide open, the lights were on and he could hear someone looking through things.

"I told you I'm looking but it looks like he put everything into one of those fucking motel safes. I didn't even know this place had those," a voice said as Eames checked the car parked nearby. The man looked like he was alone though there was no way to tell if there was someone else in the room that he could not see. Eames stayed carefully hidden but close enough to hear the conversation. "What? Really? Jesus, maybe we won't get anything." There was a long moment of silence and it was obvious the guy was listening to instructions. "All right. I'm going to grab some food but you let me know if you can at least get the code for the safe out of him." Eames moved so that when the man walked out of the room he had a gun to his temple.

"I have no qualms blowing you away right now but it looks like I need you. Even so you would do best to listen, are we clear?" Eames said.

"Got it. I'm going to guess you're here for the point man?" the man asked.

"Excellent guess and you're going to take me to him," Eames said.

"All I know is he's somewhere in the Vanderwhacker Forest. They didn't tell me where; they just wanted me to get into his safe," he said.

"If you get the stuff in the safe would they tell you where to go?" the forger asked and the man seemed to think on it for a moment.

"Yes, they would, but how-"

"Walk," Eames ordered and they both went into the room. The man sat in front of the safe and Eames thought about everything he knew about Arthur. He thought about the military and the time he had spent there and how they had only met a few select times. He thought about how Arthur was a lot more sentimental than people realized. Eames patted the man down and placed the gun to the back of his head. "If you move I'm going to put a bullet in your head, got it?" The man nodded and Eames began to look through Arthur's bag. He found a pair of comfortable shoes that he had never seen Arthur wear. For some reason they stood out among everything else. Buried underneath the heel that was glued down was a single dog tag. The forger ran his thumb over the numbers of a man that the rest of the world thought was dead. "Type in 7314." The man did as he was told and the safe opened. Keeping a dog tag from his former life was extremely risky of Arthur but Eames could not fault him too much for it; he had kept a single tag from his military days as well. Eames took the phone and handed it to the man. "Take everything out and call your bosses. Tell them you found the computer and that you need to bring it to them. If you say anything else I'll put a bullet in your foot."

"I found the computer and I can bring it to you right now," the man said. Eames was close enough that he heard the location and one word made his blood run cold: river.

"Let's go," Eames said and he got into the man's car as they drove off. The forger made a quick call to Cobb and told him where they were going. Eames kept the gun to the man's temple as they drove out into the night, into the Vanderwhack Forest, toward the Boreas River.

One Hour Prior

Arthur could not mask his hiss of pain as they snapped his wrist like it was a twig. His lips were split and bloodied, he could barely see out of one eye and the other was swollen completely shut, it hurt to move and breathe. He coughed up blood; idly he wondered if he was just going to bleed out internally. He was shivering from the cold and he could not feel his feet anymore and his clothes were soaked with blood. Idly he felt blood running down his side from a deep cut on his hip. Arthur thought he heard they say something about finding his computer but it was in a safe so he had no idea what they were talking about. They were still asking about the job, about what he was hired to extract, and still Arthur did not say a word. They yanked him to his feet and the point man nearly bit through his tongue as he tried not to cry out.

"You're useless," one of them said. "This is your last chance to tell us what we need to know before we decide you're not worth the trouble." Despite his labored breathing Arthur just stared the man down without saying a word. They backhanded him and he tasted blood yet again but now he was wondering if the blood was going to make him sick. One could only swallow so much. "I will ask one more time; who hired you and what did they want?" His client would do much worse than what he was enduring now and there was still the chance that he could be connected to someone else in the business. He was not worried about them finding Eames, the forger could take care of himself, but he could not risk Cobb or Ariadne. So he spit the blood in his mouth into the face of his captor and smirked when he saw how repulsed the man was. "Have it your way." They dragged him to a van and the words 'go to the river' were uttered but Arthur could not keep his eyes open. His ears were ringing, his eyes would not stay focused, and he lost consciousness.

Present

They were given new coordinates as to where they would meet up and it was near a river bank. As soon as he had the location Eames kicked the man out of the car while it was still moving, and hardly saw the body roll on the pavement. Eames called Cobb and told him where he was going and the extractor said he was not far behind. He only had the one gun and only so much ammo so he was not sure what he was going to do when he confronted these men. He had no idea how many there were or if they were expecting trouble. All he knew was that people only disposed of bodies in rivers when they wanted everything covered up. There was no one in sight when he reached the rendezvous point. Eames was in the middle of scouting the area when something in the water caught his eye. It was a body, floating face down in the water, and it was only barely on the bank before the current would sweep it away.

Eames' blood ran cold and he bolted down the edge to pull the body out of the water. He stared into Arthur's bloodied and bruised face. His skin was ashen white and his lips were a little blue. Eames put a finger to Arthur's neck, felt for a pulse and the word 'relief' was not enough to describe the feeling he felt when he found one. Arthur was not breathing though and Eames tried to breathe for him, trying to get water out of his lungs, and when Arthur coughed, Eames turned Arthur onto his side so he could cough the water out of his lungs.

"Don't move," a voice above him said and Eames looked up to see a man looking down at them with a gun pointed at them. "Looks like someone came for the point man. Unfortunate that you seem to be a little too late. Even if you get him breathing again we have men set up at every nearby hospital and clinic just in case he was found. Not that it matters since I'm going to put a bullet in both of your heads," Eames clenched Arthur's frozen hand but did not look away from the man. Eames instinctively closed his eyes when he heard a shot but opened them only to see the man crumbling to the ground.

"Eames? Eames, are you there?" Cobb said and Eames could practically kiss the man for his timing.

"I'm right here and he's alive," Eames said and he pulled his hand away from Arthur's side to see it covered in blood. "We need to get him warm and stitched up fast or he won't be for long."

How Arthur always managed to make the most vindictive men angry was a mystery that Eames could not see bloody Sherlock Holmes solving. They broke several speeding laws and managed to get to a motel with a small store nearby. Eames put a towel to the wound in the point man's side and although he was breathing Arthur did not move or acknowledge that he was safe. Cobb returned and Eames did his best to stitch up the wound though his mediocre stitches would leave an ugly scar behind. Cobb left to find a bigger store that sold some sort of pain killers and food for them while Eames cleaned the wounds the best he could but Arthur was in bad shape.

His face was a mess; there were various cuts all over, his eyes were bruised and one was almost swollen shut, his lips were split and puffy. It looked like his collarbone was broken and so was his left wrist. Eames did his best to bandage those up but there was only so much he could do. Arthur's knuckles were torn to shreds, caked with dirt, glass and blood. It took him a good hour to get all of the debris out of the wounds. Opening Arthur's shirt revealed his torso covered in deep purple bruises. The forger felt Arthur's ribcage but it did not look like any of his ribs were broken. He ran his fingers through Arthur's hair and found a large wound that could be deadly now that he was unconscious. Eames tried his best to warm Arthur up after he stripped off the man's mangled suit but his skin was cold and clammy.

By the time Cobb returned with the rest of the supplies Eames had more or less finished and was now running his hands through his hair ignoring the fact that his motions were jerky.

"How is he?" Cobb asked.

"I don't know," Eames replied honestly as he looked at Arthur's unconscious form. "He's breathing but his skin is freezing and he's likely going to spike a fever. He's got a pretty bad head wound and we don't know how long he was in that water. If it was too long-"

"We're not going to discuss that," Cobb interrupted and he put a hand on Arthur's bruised cheek. He was not in a coma, his pupils dilated, but he was not waking up either. There was no telling if there was going to be any sort of long term damage if he woke up at all. Eames knew this, Cobb knew this, but neither of them voiced it. They took turns sleeping for four days and when Arthur spiked that predictable fever they tried to keep it down as much as they could. When it spiked 105 while Cobb was out Eames wasted no time dragging Arthur into a cold tub despite how much the movement probably hurt him. Eames himself felt his teeth start to chatter because he had to sit in the water with Arthur. When his temperature seemed like it was at a reasonable number again he tucked the point man back under the covers after drying him off.

"Don't die on me," Eames said out loud before he realized he was saying it. He brushed the strands of Arthur's dark hair off his forehead but let his fingers trace the line of the man's jaw. His wounds were an ugly purple and green now but they were healing. There was a good chance that Arthur would need to have his wrist re-broken when they were able to get him proper medical attention but keeping him alive was a priority. Staring at the man he had come so close to losing, that he could sill lose, made his chest ache. When had Arthur become such an important person to him? He thought about how he had followed Arthur's exploits through his contacts' gossip. Back then he had not thought much of it but now he was not so sure. It still baffled him that Arthur had called him of all people when there had to be other people that he was closer with. They got along well despite the snark, they worked brilliantly together and Eames prided himself on being able to get one of those smiles that showed off Arthur's dimples. "You held out against all of that abuse; I have to say I'm impressed but not entirely surprised, Arthur. You've always been much scarier than people ever seem to realize. A lot stronger too so that's why you need to wake up with your head intact, okay? I want to know why you called me of all people so you need to wake up."

He sat in silence with Arthur for another hour before Cobb returned and the extractor looked very annoyed about something. "I just got a call from James' school and apparently he fell off some playground equipment and broke his arm."

"Go ahead," Eames said without hesitation.

"I can't just leave him here, he's-" Cobb stuttered.

"He would never forgive you if you neglected your kids for him and you know that better than anyone. I'll keep you in the loop and let you know the second I get him to a hospital," Eames said and Cobb stared at him.

"Thank you, Eames," Cobb said as he grabbed his bag.

"Don't mention it. I can handle things here," the forger said but Cobb shook his head.

"No, thank you for all the trouble you went through to find him. You don't know how much it means to me that someone else is looking out for him." The extractor chuckled. "He has such a bad habit of making enemies." Eames did not say anything, he just flashed a small smile and nodded as Cobb left the room. He sat alone in the single bedroom because they were trying to keep their presence unknown so the hotel did not know that Cobb or Arthur were there. For the last four days Eames had slept on the floor but his back was screaming at him for it now. He did not see the harm in lying down next to Arthur and as soon as his head hit the pillow he drifted off into sleep.

The sound of movement jerked Eames awake and he was ready to shoot anyone who came through the door when he realized the movement came from Arthur. It was just a twitch but he watched the man carefully. The last thing Arthur would probably remember was being face down in the water so this wake up was not going to be pleasant. So Eames stayed nearby and held his breath as he watched Arthur's features contort into something painful and the forger nearly jumped out of his skin when they nearby smashed their heads together when Arthur sat up. His eyes were wild and he was gasping as if he could not breathe.

"Calm down, Arthur, you're fine," Eames said carefully and Arthur blinked a few times as if the world was coming into focus. He stared at Eames for a moment then glanced around the room as if taking in all of the details.

"How did you find me?" Arthur asked and his voice sounded a little hoarse.

"Well you didn't make it easy," Eames replied.

"I remember going into the river so it must have been close," Arthur said and he acted like he was talking about a stranger.

"It was but I got you. Cobb was here but James broke his arm or something so he left," the forger explained and Arthur creased his eyebrows.

"Thank you, Eames," Arthur said and it would not take a person skilled in reading people to know that he was really thankful.

"Don't mention it," the forger replied and the two of them sat in silence before Arthur seemed to realize that he was in pain and he leaned against the pillows closing his eyes.

"How long was I out?" he asked.

"Almost five days. I wasn't sure if you were going to wake up at all or what kind of state you'd be if you did," Eames said and Arthur grinned.

"I never knew you cared, Mr. Eames," he said.

"I didn't either," Eames said without thinking twice. The grin faded and they stared at each other for a long time. "Why did you call me?"

"Because I knew you'd do something to get me help even if it meant claiming my body. I knew what number you were using so I knew you'd pick up," Arthur explained.

"I didn't give you that number," Eames said and Arthur watched him.

"I know but I wanted to make sure you were okay so I kept an eye on you," Arthur said and Eames felt his eyes widen. "What?"

"I do, did, the same thing. I kept my ears open to make sure you were okay too," the forger replied and they stared at each other. Eames could practically see the wheels in Arthur's head turning and Arthur had his head tilted to the side just a little like he did whenever he was putting a puzzle together or finally understanding something. Eames wondered if he had a similar expression because he was just letting the information fall into place. Somewhere along the line, he had no idea when, Arthur had become important to him. He had never bothered to keep tabs on anyone he had ever worked with before and never went out of his way to get to know someone either. Arthur was moving, it looked like it hurt, and Eames was about to tell him to sit still when a bruised and bloodied hand grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him into a kiss. Eames was not sure how to react but he was kissing Arthur back without thinking twice. He could feel the cuts that plagued Arthur's lips as they kissed. They both pulled away and watched each other carefully. "Oh," Eames finally managed to say when he could get his brain working properly again.

"Yeah, oh," Arthur said and he looked as surprised as Eames did that they had just kissed but they did not move away from each other. "Thank you for saving my life, Eames."

"You'd do the same for me," Eames replied and the way Arthur smiled at him he knew that it was true; he knew he could count on Arthur to be there for him when he needed him. "Well, you're not well enough to move just yet. I'll take you to a proper hospital then."

"I see," Arthur said as he leaned back against the pillows. "So we're stuck here for a few more days."

"Pretty much," Eames replied.

"Sounds good to me," Arthur said smirking wickedly. Eames was about to say something, make a joke, but Arthur, despite broken bones and bruises, pulled Eames into another kiss. That smirk took on a different meaning and he chuckled because spending a few days alone with Arthur in a hotel room was an extremely appealing scenario, one that Eames planned on taking advantage of. Judging by the way he felt Arthur ease him closer Eames was not worried about it being one-sided either. So he smiled beneath those bruised lips and let himself be thankful that this person he had not even known he cared about so much was going to be okay.