Disclaimer: guess.

So, apparently this is going to be an on-going thing. Enjoy!

As always, thank you to ilex-ferox, marvelous beta.

Coming to Conclusions, or The Morning After

When Holly woke up, Artemis was gone. She raised her head from the pillow, hair sticking in all directions, and propped herself up on one arm. A blanket slipped from her shoulder and she smiled: Artemis must have covered her before he left. Swinging her legs off the bed, she dropped to the floor. The curtains had been pulled back and that uniquely golden sunlight of the late afternoon poured, thick and molten, into the room.

On his desk, just out of the light, his various laptops were open and notebooks, CDs and USB drives lay scattered among them, as though he had left in the middle of something. Crossing to them, Holly touched the largest laptop's track pad, causing it to whirr back to life. On the screen, a slightly younger Artemis was frozen mid-sentence, his mismatched eyes unusually expressive. Controlling her knee-jerk spasm of sadness, Holly pressed play.

"-didn't realise the cost. I should have, of course. I am a genius, after all. However - as I have just been so painfully made aware - one can only truly measure the value of someone once one has lost her. I can only be grateful that she is more inclined to forgiveness than I am."

Holly paused the diary, feeling like an intruder. He must have been watching them to regain his memories, she thought, trying to distract herself from what she had heard. She wondered if he had been successful. She looked down at his younger face, at those familiar eyes staring past her, seeing another place, another time. Another time, she had told him.

Leaving the laptops, she moved to the window and looked down at the grounds. Some distance from the Manor the Fowls, Juliet, and Butler were having dinner on the lawn. A wooden table and cushioned chairs had been set up under a large, white linen umbrella.

As she watched them talking and laughing, Artemis looked so at ease that she almost believed he had regained his memories. She felt something tug at her, making her stomach somersault. Swallowing, she pressed one hand to the glass, watching the family through her fingers.

In this brave new world, with its strange new rules, everyone else was getting a second chance. Everyone else was getting a new beginning. Why the hell shouldn't she?

Her reflection in the window smiled at the irony. In another time she had said to him, dearest of all to her. Opal had tried to destroy everything Holly loved most and, instead, she had granted her the power to attain it.

"Maybe I'll write a poem about it," she told Artemis' far-off figure. She laughed, turning back to the laptops. "You know what I'm talking about," she said to the Artemis on screen, "even if he doesn't remember yet." Still chuckling, she leaned over the oxblood chair, looking at that familiar face for a moment longer before shutting the computer.

As she went out the front door, she put on one of Angeline's berets; that was the only concession she was willing to make.

Artemis was the first one to spot her coming across the lawn; his eyebrows quirked, causing Butler to swivel in her direction one hand surreptitiously going for his gun.

Soon they were all looking at her, and she had to fight down the urge to run. So many humans all at once. She focused on Artemis and swallowed her rising fears.

"I'm awful with secrets," she said, bluntly. "It gets too lonely keeping them."

Artemis nodded. "I know."

"I don't want to do it anymore," she told him. "I want a fresh start like everyone else. This is a new world, after all; another time."

A muscle in his cheek jumped and his gaze sharpened. She smiled at him - so he had remembered. "Won't this be rather against the rules?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I don't know, to be honest, they're all relatively fluid at the moment. Maybe we could give them a nudge in the right direction?"

"I would like that," said Artemis.

Angeline coughed delicately, interrupting the cryptic exchange. "Would you care to join us, Holly?" she asked, gesturing to an empty seat.

"I'd love to," Holly smiled.