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

Dream a Little Dream (Inception: Arthur/Dom) Epilogue

“Phillipa! Phillipa, slow down!”

            Chasing after the now 10-year old girl, I laughed, hiking up my long, coral skirt and tripping over myself to try and get her. But as most kids do, she had unlimited energy, and it was late in the day, so I was exhausted. Thankfully she had a destination in mind. She ran up the hill, right past the peaceful lake that made up the back yard. Swans and ducks swam around, quacking quietly. Usually Phillipa would stop, but she wasn't in the mood. On top of the hill sat a beautiful glass and brick house, serene and waiting. My breath caught as I saw it. Even after three years, I still couldn’t believe that this was my house. Mine, and Dom’s.

            Through the window I could see Dom’s back as he leaned over his desk, probably poring over something that Arthur had sent him. Or more likely, Cassie. His shirt was strained against his shoulders, meaning he was tense, shoulders hunched.

            I sprinted the rest of the way up, scooping Phillipa into my arms as I did so. We came in through the back door, and I sidled over to Dom, wrapping my arms around his waist. “Hi, there.”

            “Hi,” he replied, turning in my arms to face me. He placed a gentle kiss on my forehead as I pressed my chin against his chest, looking up at him. His grey, stormy eyes looked down at me merrily, no stress or tension detectable. I leaned up and pecked his lips before peeling away.

            “Where’s Sutton?” I asked, already catching a glimpse of blonde hair around the corner. My child. Our child. I beamed as Sutton came towards me. She had my eyes – big and blue, framed with dark lashes – but Dom’s pretty gold and brown hair. As her features were slimming as she grew, it was obvious that she looked more like me, which I took great delight it. “Oh, Sutton, there you are. Have you been with James, then?”

            “Yes,” she said in her perfect, high voice. Her little hand reached over and took mine, fingering the slender wedding band I wore around my fourth finger. “Can I have?”

            “That’s mommy’s, sweetie,” I whispered to her, pushing her hair back. “Someday you’ll have one, too.”

            That appeased her, and she wiggled out of my arms, running off to find James and Phillipa, most likely. I smiled after her. It was safe to say that I took the most pleasure out of our children. They were ours, and even though I had never imagined being a mother, I was happy. I rejoined Dom at his desk, looking at the papers that were spread out. “It’s from Cassie. What’s going on? I haven’t heard from her in a while.”

            “This is the first I’ve heard from her in over a month,” Dom told me, scratching the back of his head. I could tell that this bothered him, but what was in the letter bothered him more. “It’s very cryptic. For someone on the outside reading it, it wouldn’t seem like anything, but…”

            “Is something wrong?”

            “I don’t know. She used some sort of coding, but I don’t know what it means. There’s probably a key word, but I can’t think of what it could be. I’ve tried everything.”

            I sat in one of the modern armchairs in the corner of the room. I stared out the windows, watching the clouds drift past. I hadn’t heard from Cassie in so long. She had followed Chandler to London, and that was the last I’d heard from her. I kept up with her mostly through Dom, but her messages were becoming more and more spaced apart. “Do you think I should go to her?”

            “I don’t know,” Dom said, unconvinced. “Maybe I should.”

            “Or both of us,” I suggested slyly, grinning up at him. “Might not be a bad thing to get back into the dreams again, you know.”

            “What about the kids?” he murmured, leaning over to kiss me again. I smiled into his lips.

            “I bet we could get Eames to watch them.”

            “I wouldn’t trust Eames with any of them.”

            “Then we could take them with us,” He said thoughtfully. I shook my head.

            “Absolutely not. What about Ariadne?”

            “She’s out of town with Arthur.”

            “That’s right,” I sighed. Arthur. Even now, I still could feel the rush of emotions that came with his name. But unlike before, I knew it was just attraction. Dom was the one I loved. And honestly, Arthur had understood that. He hadn’t been happy about it, and our relationship hadn’t been the same ever since. I hadn’t expected it too, but it became near impossible to hold a conversation with him without feeling the strain of the rejection and tension. Eventually, we just kind of fell apart. It had been what I feared, but I found that because I had Dom completely with me, not half with me, I didn’t need to feel affection from both of them. Dom was enough for me.

            “Maybe I should just go,” I told him, trying to turn the conversation serious despite the fact that he was kissing my neck. He sighed, resting his forehead on my shoulder.

            “I don’t want you to go…”

            “I know, but I’ll call you every night I’m gone, and if we need you, you can bring the kids. I’m sure there’s some sort of nanny service in London.”

            “You’ll be careful?”

            I rolled my eyes. “It’s only Cassie and Chandler. What could go wrong?”

            “I hate it when you say that.”

            “But you love me,” I whispered, pulling his face to mine. I smiled, closing my eyes as I let the pure bliss that I felt growing in my heart spread through all my body, through my fingers, down to my toes. I had everything I wanted. I had love, true love, in my life. I had a lovely child, and two more that I was going to formally adopt, though Phillipa and James had told me that even without that, they still thought of me as a mother figure. I would never replace Mol, but that wasn’t the point.

            Everything that led up to this seemed like a dream. It seemed like I was in a haze, half of myself, moving through the motions. Having Dom with me was a purpose, a reason to be me, to love life. Having Dom made me whole. I was no longer living a dream. I was living life.