3) Story "SFPD to LEP"

The Lower Elements,

Police Plaza, Commander Kelp's office

Trouble already knew that trying to reason with his subordinate (and winning) would be a thing next to the impossible.

Now he had to deal with Holly's stubbornness adding to the fact of three fairies in human police custody. Another bunch of them running around on the surface, trading happily with the mud men. Smuggling harmless items like videogames was an as big problem as downright dangerous things like weaponry to the Lower Elements because every exchanged good increased chances of exposure of the fairy society to the human world. And this lot seemed to do both.

To be honest, Holly had handled the incident quite well. In lack of a retrieval team, she mesmerized the guarding human officers into transferring the delinquent fairies to a small solitary cell out of sight from the other prisoners and also suggesting them, that they had never seen anything weird that day, because (thanks to the Mesmer) the solitary cell was absolutely empty and there was no use for anyone to go down there for the next 48 hours, leaving the LEP enough time to send someone back and clear up said mess.

The only problematic variable had been that police officer; Holly had dragged down with Chix and her.

The woman had spotted Holly when she had been putting the Mesmer on her colleagues, giving the officer enough time to mentally brace herself. Through that, her mind had, surprisingly, been strong enough to fight it off the expected effects of absolute obedience.

What had put Holly in a difficult situation, it lead to her decision to tranquilize the woman and take her with them as she surely was able to help them solve their crisis if all was explained to her?

Despite that Trouble might think Captain Short had acted with the right intentions, he did not agree that Holly had brought down that mud girl whatsoever causes she had.

You know the saying, once burned... and the Artemis Fowl incidents in the last two decades had been more than enough reason for him to reject every kind of human help. Fowl had been an elf for the last eight years now and stated less of a threat to the People (if you ignored the infinite resource if fairy technology he now had access to...), but still, him and Fowl were never to become anything besides reluctant coworkers.

And the fact that Artemis finally managed to get on Holly's good side also didn't improve their relationship.

He snapped out of these thoughts as his office door was practically kicked down by Holly, who didn't even bother to knock.

'Here it comes', the Commander thought. 'Bring it on.'

"What is your problem? " Holly immediately snapped at him, still standing under the doorframe and conveniently ignoring the fact that Kelp was still her superior. "This crisis isn't only the concern of the People, imagine the problems on the surface if their criminals start running around with Foaly's new Neutrino."

Trouble merely waited, sometime even Holly had to pause for breath.

But not yet.

"We've taken Captain Donpino with us because she's highly experienced and not too shocked about the fairies.

You know well enough tha-"

*Bleeeeeeep*

The pestering (momentarily highly welcome) beeping of the intercom saved Trouble from reminding her of his position (which probably would have led to an unpleasant argument - not to mention that Holly had Artemis on her side) by cutting off Holly's rage triad to let him answer the call.

From the other side of the line the dead serious but nevertheless very loud voice of Raine Vinyáya rang in his pointed ear. In fact, even outside the office, Cate could hear the words loud and clear. Vinyáya had probably used up all of her politeness with the council.

The Wing Commander barely managed to get words "Commander Kelp, get your people and come down to the conference room. This second! ", out before she slammed the end button with what, by the sound of it, seemed to be a tightly clenched fist.

Trouble took his chance and seized the word.

"Well, I guess you also heard her, so, let's move." He shook his head in direction of the office door, where Holly's angry appearance still blocked the view to the corridor.

Grudgingly she stepped aside and cleared the view for a sight that hit him in such way, it yanked every last bit of breath out of his tensed body.

To fully understand Trouble's reaction, you need to know a bit more about fairies.

The life expectancy of the fairy folk reaches easily up to a thousand years, if not even more. So the decision to spend your life with someone means that you'd eventuality have to put up with said person for quite some time.

Evolution had made the mistake to try and assist the search, especially with the emotional elves.

It had built a little backdoor to their minds where all incoming information was processed in order to search for the perfect match on a potential lifelong mate.

If it found one, that little backdoor suddenly became the main entrance...

Needless to say these bodily measures mostly resulted in complete and utter chaos.

But back to police plaza.

In the doorway stood the very real impression of Trouble Kelp's dreams come true. Trouble knew (encouraged by his subconscious desire to find the perfect mate) within less than a heartbeat he'd gladly spend the rest of his centuries with her.

The way she emitted the gift of natural leadership and fortitude combined with an overall grace that surrounded her like a halo ...

His primal instincts urged him to get down on his knees and profess eternal love to the human woman Captain Short had brought underground only hours ago and he'd just seen for the very first time.

That's evolution for you.

But right now he needed to focus.

He, Trouble Kelp, was a commander, the head of the Lower Elements Police. If any fairy couldn't afford to lose its wits, it was him.

'So focus, Trouble. Calm down and focus'

And he did. Deep green eyes, surrounded by shimmering, silky black hair... it seemed to draw him in.

'Gods..., not on her!' He shook his head, ears nearly flapping like a dog's, in a desperate attempt to regain control over his mind (and especially feet, already taking a small step towards the female).

"Is everything okay?" Holly cocked her head and looked at the superior officer, a questioning expression on her face. Commander Kelp now had gripped the end of his reddish ponytail as if it was the only thing anchoring him to this dimension.

"Yes, ... yes, everything is alright. Off, we go", and he squeezed past Captain Short, trying to avoid any eye contact with the pretty human captain and disappeared in direction of the conference room.

Holly only sent Cate an irritated look and gestured her to follow the confused commander.