Family ties.

'Butler is taking Artemis away. Away from the ruthless people that hunt him in Ireland. On the road together, Artemis knows Butler is hiding something. A terrible secret that could change his life forever.'

Authors note:

((This is the revised edit of my first ever Fanfic, Family ties. A lot of the original material is kept, but a few things changed hopefully not too noticable for previous fans :)

So, yeah. Hi. I will be your host for this evening, please call me Kez, or K or Kelly. Whichever, I don't care that much. As long as it is not some offensive term. Even then, I probably won't be bothered. I'm a very easy-going kind of person.

Just don't chat speak anywhere near me, or I WILL bring out the spork.

You have been warned.

Kelly. (Kez, K, Kel, Kezzer) xx))

Disclaimer:

I do not own darling Arty or his minions. Except in my mind.

Apart for my mind, Eoin Colfer is the creator and controls them all blah blah blah.

Chapter One

Artemis barely recognised what was going on through the fog of his brain. When one sleeps for an extended period in a car, no matter how comfortable and expensive said car might be, the outside world becomes somewhat blurry. As the sleeper falls into unconsciousness, a part of him (or her) stays in a daydreamlike state and is aware of whatever bumps and/or turns in the road there might be.

In this case, Artemis' daydreamlike part of his brain had told him that they had stopped. This was interesting enough for Artemis to decide he wanted to wake up.

Why would they have stopped?

He opened his eyes and raised his head, wincing slightly. He had been resting his head on the window for the better part of 3 hours and sustained pressure of that magnitude would give anyone a headache. Never mind the state his neck was in.

His blue eyes took in the scene outside the window, people (Not very many but people nonetheless), cars and concrete. A petrol station.

It did not take him long to realise that Butler was no longer in the drivers seat. This was not particularly groundbreaking. The bodyguard was probably inside, paying for the petrol and would be watching the car from the building as he handed over a credit card. Artemis wouldn't normally feel so vulnerable, but these were not normal circumstances. Never before, had Artemis actually needed guarding so relentlessly.

He felt the shivers tingling up his spine and along his limbs, as they usually did when he was extremely tired and had not slept for very long. This feeling was also accompanied by slight nausea, that Artemis eased himself by sitting further upright in his seat and wriggling around a bit until he was more comfortable. He yawned a couple of times and looked around again, a little longer this time and carefully too. Artemis scrutinized each person on the forecourt, ensuring their normality before turning his gaze to the building where customers paid.

Sure enough, he could see Butler's shoulders and head as he waited in the queue. As if he could tell he was being watched, Butler turned his head and glanced straight at Artemis. Artemis smiled slightly, as if to confer that all was well. His butler nodded, almost imperceptibly in his direction and stepped up to the desk to pay. Artemis looked away and cast his gaze farther, past the forecourt and on to the motorway he could see not too far away. They seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. Large hills, more like mountains broke up the green landscape, some fog lingered around their peaks and sheep could only just be picked up from so far away, barely seen as small white dots.

Artemis was jolted as Butler opened the car door and got into the seat. He quickly relaxed. Not totally though. You could never properly drop your guard, especially not at times like this. Butler closed his door and held out a bottle of water towards Artemis.

"Sorry if I woke you up." He said.

Artemis took the bottle, "You didn't, I woke up myself. Thank you."

Butler started the engine and pulled out of the petrol station while Artemis drank.

"Where are we?" Artemis asked, screwing the lid back onto the bottle and stowing it away in a side pocket.

"About half an hour away from Toronto." He glanced at his charge and noted the look on his face, "You were asleep a long time, nearly 6 hours. I've stopped once already but you didn't stir. I didn't know if you wanted something to eat or not so I bought you some food but left you sleeping."

"6 hours?"…Artemis must have been more exhausted than he thought.

"Have we been followed?"

Butler pulled out of the services and onto the motorway itself, then answered, "Not that I can tell. Unless they have some kind of aircraft, there is no sign of them."

"We don't know how determined they might be…they could be pulling out all the stops, infra-red and everything."

"Leave the worrying to me, we are safe for now, I promise."

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((Hmm….why is Butler so chummy all of a sudden? Who is following Arty and his bodyguard? Why are the circumstances not normal?

So many questions!

You'll just have to wait and see…

Reviews would be lovely if at all possible, feel free to flame away I do not mind, everything is constructive as far as I'm concerned.))