Chapter Text
Eames had never seen Arthur this worried. The Pointman had dragged the Cobb, Ariadne, Yusuf and him into the warehouse in the early hours. Looking out of the window Eames could see the early morning frost settled on the ground. Shivering, he turned back to Arthur.
“I’m sorry for not telling you much before you got here, but I’ve been trying to work it out myself”. As Arthur spoke he rubbed at his eyes. He looked so tired. Eames wondered what he had been doing with himself these past few weeks that could have caused his usually stoic demeanour to shift.
“The job is – it’s on this man. Richard Day.” Arthur pointed to the whiteboard, where a photo of a small greying man was sellotaped. “We need to extract a location from him. Day’s part of a company that are looking into some really advanced technological developments.”
Arthur paused momentarily and looked around the room. As he licked his lips and breathed deep, Eames braced himself. Whatever was going on, Arthur was nervous. “The company have ... taken a family. The ... They’re from Ohio. The Solomon’s. Three of them have been taken to this location. We need to find the location from Day in order to get them out.”
It was clear to Eames that this Arthur was not telling them everything. He’d known Arthur for a long time now, he would consider them friends, sometimes he’d hoped for more, but before now he’d never felt some much like he new absolutely nothing about the man.
“Who’s the client?” Yusuf piped up somewhere to Eames’ right.
Eames looked forward at Arthur, where his face was barely concealing his indecision. “Alright”. Arthur sat down in the seat opposite Eames, an intensely serious expression masking his features. “I suppose I’m the client”.
Now this was getting interesting. Eames leaned forward as the rest of the team looked at Arthur expectantly. Arthur held Eames’ gaze for a moment, before carrying on.
“The family that have been taken are made up of Dick Solomon - father, Harry Solomon - brother, Sally Solomon –sister and Tommy Solomon - son. They work as,” Arthur sucked in a breath and cast his eyes around the room, seemingly struggling for the right way to describe them, “field agents. They have some serious information that the company wants.”
Cobb was scanning through the file as Arthur was speaking. “Field agents? Why would the company be interested in them? It says here that Dick is a professor at the local university. Harry and Sally,” he flipped a page, “don’t seem to do anything. The last one – Tommy, looks like he works in an office. What does this have to do with you?”
“They don’t seem like much, I know, but this company wants them and I’ve got to get them out.” Arthur bit his lip. “Look, this is my family. Tommy Solomon, he’s my Dad.”
Well that certainly wasn’t what Eames was expecting to hear. Arthur had never before given the impression that he had a family. Of course, in this line of work that wasn’t unusual, but seeing him so upset about it, Eames couldn’t believe he’d ever thought Arthur didn’t have anyone he cared about.
“I’ve been trying to get in touch with him for weeks. In the end I went back home, but there was no trace of him, or Dick, Sally and Harry. I did some work, but I couldn’t get much information. I have to find them and this is the only way I can think of.”
“Ok.” Arthur looked up towards him, his evident relief a little heartbreaking. “Of course we’ll help you Arthur. If your Dad and your family are being held hostage, we’re not going to just let you deal with it on your own.”
Ariadne nodded vigorously “I’ll do all I can to help Arthur – you should’ve said!” Yusuf smiled serenely in agreement and Cobb stood to take a closer look at the whiteboard.
“Right. How we tackle him then?” he nodded at the picture of Day.
Arthur ducked his head. “Thanks guys. This really means a lot.”
Cobb turned towards Arthur “Arthur, after everything you helped me through. This is nothing.” Eames watched as Cobb slapped him on the back and returned his attention to the board.
Arthur walked up to Eames, as the team mulled around the warehouse, and spoke quietly “Thanks Eames, for this. I know it’s asking a lot”.
“Hey, don’t mention it. We’re friends, friends help each other out.” As he watched Arthur’s smile reveal the man’s dimples, he knew that he would do this job regardless – just to meet the person who could’ve raised such a lovely creature.
~
When the planning got properly underway Eames noticed Arthur sticking some more items to the board. As Eames moved closer he could see that Arthur was putting up pictures of his family.
“That them?”
“Yeah” Arthur sighed, “I figured it’d be good for you to know what they looked like”. Arthur’s eyes sunk down to the picture in his hand “This is my Dad – Tommy”, he held it out for Eames to see.
“Blimey. You’re like a clone!” He really was; the same dark eyes, same smile.
“Everyone says that” Arthur stuck the picture with the rest.
“What are they like?”
Arthur grinned, “They’re absolutely insane, Eames. It’s a wonder I made it out at all”. Just as Eames started to wonder at the childhood Arthur had lead, the grin left him again.
He looked so sad. Eames couldn’t say why, but he felt he needed to do something. He hugged Arthur. To his surprise, Arthur hugged him back, warm and soft, tucking his nose into Eames’ neck.
“I didn’t realise how much I’d miss them.”
“Come on. We’ll get the information from Day, find your family and get them out. No problem.”
At these words Arthur seem to come back to his senses. He removed himself from Eames’ arms and straightened his posture. Eames could see the top-of-his-game Pointman once more, only slightly worn around the edges.
“You’re right. We need to get to work.” Eames hoped it would be as easy as all that.