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Arthur gets the call at one in the morning, Dom heaving great heartwrenching sobs at the other end of the line. His boss and long-time friend isn't saying anything coherent, just mumbling "She's gone" and "falling" and "why" and, louder than anything else, a repeating "NO!" that threatens to break Arthur's heart even though he has no idea what's happened.
The kids are at their grandparents' for the night, Arthur knows, because it's Dom and Mal's anniversary. It's their anniversary, and Arthur had fully expected to have the night to himself. He'd actually made plans, for once, to go out and catch up with a friend he hasn't seen in years.
Dom comes first, however. (Mal has and always will come first, if Arthur's being honest with himself, but Dom comes a close second in terms of priorities in Arthur's life. He doesn’t know what that says about him.) So Arthur soothes his friend as best he can over the phone, muttering nonsense under his breath as he rushes to grab shoes and keys, locks his door, gets the car started. He breaks about seven traffic laws on the way to Dom's apartment, still connected through the crackly phone, and waits impatiently through the entirely-too-long elevator ride.
As soon as he knocks the hotel door is flinging itself open, Dom lurching into his arms a quaking mess, and Arthur drops the phone in favor of catching him. "Hush, hush," he murmurs, at a loss for what to do next. Comforting people has never been his thing, not even when he's known them as long as he's known Dom Cobb, but Arthur decides he'll make an effort. Just this once.
Dom sobs out something that Arthur barely catches, mentally struggling to translate his friend’s distressed words through the wail that follows. All he really knows for sure is that something’s happened to Mal, something terrible. Dom’s devastated, clearly, and Arthur knows he can’t leave the older man alone no matter how much he wants to go for help.
A knock on the door comes right as Arthur finally calms Dom enough to be able to speak coherent words. He settles the distraught man on the couch, mindful of the destruction liberally scattered around the room, and answers the door only to find several police officers on the other side.
Their appearance sets Dom off again, a low keen of pain, and loss, and grief that Arthur feels in the very depths of his soul.
He doesn’t know the details, but judging by the fact that Dom’s here and Mal’s not, he can put together the basics pretty fast. Arthur resolves right then and there that he’s not leaving Dom’s side, no matter what. This is his place now, a step behind and a step to the right, following Dom’s lead wherever the man may go.
It’s what Mal would’ve wanted, Arthur knows, if the husband and wife couldn’t be together.