Dream a Little Dream (Inception: Arthur/Dom) For Me

Dream a Little Dream (Inception: Arthur/Dom) For Me (Chapter Twenty Seven)

            I sat at the café, finger circling the coffee mug in front of me. It was the dead of winter, and yet in typical Paris fashion, they had the outside café open. And that was where I sat, jacket, scarf and snug jeans. My feet tapped the ground impatiently as I spotted my blonde haired friend coming over, head bobbing with a tune that no one else could hear. I stood and grinned, opening my arms. Chandler grinned and loped towards me, pulling me close.

            “Hey there, slut.”

            “Hey there, Chandy,” I laughed. “It’s good to see you out and about.”

            “It’s good to be back,” Chandler replied, sitting down across from me. I picked up a menu, mimicking him, even as he moaned about how hungry he was. But I could see that he was changed. We had found someone who had grown years in the dream world and forced that person back into a young body. Chandler’s whole posture had changed – less slumping, more straightness of back, pulled back shoulders. He seemed tense all the time, always starting at loud noises. He didn’t say so, but we all knew that he had some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder.

            His eyes were dull, not bright and active like they use to be. It pained me to see him like this, because it wasn’t the Chandler that I knew and loved. I knew Cassie was having a hard time with it as well. She complained often that he was standoffish. But he was standoffish to everyone. This was the first I’d been able to coax him out to lunch with me in a month of being back. He didn’t hang around the lab anymore, and Dom didn’t try to force it. In his words, “He needs time to come to terms with what has happened. Forcing him here won’t do him any good. So just leave him. You hear me?”

            We all knew it was true. But can you let go of a friend that easily? No. And it was the little things, like Chandler remembering that he calls me slut that gave me hope that Chandler would be back, soon.

            “How have you been?” I asked, still fake browsing the menu. His eyes flicked up to me, then away. A light smile appeared on his face.

            “As well as I can be. I’m sure you suspected that.”

            “Had to check anyways,” I replied, dropping all pretenses of reading the menu. “But honestly, how have you been?”

            “It’s not really important. I don’t want anyone to worry.”

            I sighed. “Then it’ll be between you and I. I won’t breathe a word to anyone else on the team.”

            He considered this, eyebrows furrowing over his eyes as he tried to pick out what the harm could be. He found none, evidently, for he started speaking immediately, as if the words had wanted to come out this whole time and he had been holding them back. “I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to go into the dream world again. After what happened, how could it not happen again? I still dream about being shot, and I feel like I’m paranoid all the time. I don’t know how much longer I can keep acting like I’m fine. Cassie is so worried, and I feel like if I tell her all this, she’ll just worry more. She might even leave the team to come live with me in London, but she can’t do that. Dom only just decided to train her and eventually let her replace him.”

            “You’re moving to London?” I asked, hoping it wasn’t true. But Chandler ducked his head, and I knew it was so. “Oh, Chandler.”

            “I can’t stay in this city any more. I can’t do it. I’m sorry.”

            “I know you are,” I said softly, touching his hand. My heart ached for the loss of my friend, but he was right. He couldn’t stay in this city any longer. He would go crazy suffocating in Paris. It wasn’t the place for him. I don’t know if it was the place for any of us, but Chandler would be the first to leave. And Cassie would go with him, I was sure. “Does Cass know?”