One Week Later

Fowl Manor

The troll squeezed Artemis in his huge, hairy hand, and Artemis could feel ribs cracking. The beast traced a talon down Artemis's face and neck, and hot blood began streaming from the wound. Artemis no longer had the strength to fight, so the troll tired of toying with his meal and used its scything tusks to cut up through the boy's abdomen, lapping at the fountain of blood that spurted out…

Artemis woke from his nightmare to find that the pain inflicted by the troll was still cutting through his abdomen like a dagger. He tried shifting positions, thinking it might ease the pain. Instead, it made it worse, and he let out a groan.

Holly stirred beside him. "Artemis?" she asked groggily.

Artemis clenched his teeth against the wave of pain, unable to answer her. She rolled over to look at him, gasping at the sheen of sweat coating his skin.

"Artemis!" she shrieked. "What's wrong?"

"My…stomach…" he grunted. "Pain…" He heaved in a huge breath.

Holly was instantly up, scrambling for her communicator. "I'm calling Dr. Blazel, and we're going down there. If something's happening, we need to get this taken care of right away."

Artemis wracked his brain, trying to figure out a possible cause of his pain that didn't have to do with the baby, but there was none. The pain had come from nowhere, with no warning whatsoever.

Which is what he told Dr. Blazel several hours later as he laid on the exam table while Dr. Blazel ran test after test and scan after scan. Finally, he had a diagnosis.

"There is a rather large air pocket that has formed in the amniotic sac. Your body recognized that this does not belong and is taking up valuable space, inhibiting the amount of nutrients available to the baby."

"What do we do?" Holly asked.

"Luckily, there is a simple procedure we can perform using a concentrated laser beam to puncture the air pocket and allow the amniotic fluid to seep back in."

"A laser? Is that safe?" Artemis asked. "Won't that endanger the baby?"

Dr. Blazel shook his head. "The pocket is in an ideal location, as far away from the baby as possible. Otherwise I would agree with you that it could be dangerous. But we do need to act quickly, in case the pocket expands. If it gets larger, we may not be able to puncture it. So Artemis, I'm going to take you back to get prepared for surgery, and we'll get this done and have you on your way."

Dr. Blazel escorted Artemis out, leaving Holly to pace nervously around the room. This is how Dr. Blazel found her when he returned moments later to collect Artemis's records.

He watched her for a minute before saying, "This isn't dangerous, Holly. You don't have to worry."

Holly startled, not realizing the doctor had returned. He smiled apologetically. "Didn't mean to frighten you. But trust me, this surgery is simple. Fast, too. We should be done within an hour's time."

Holly sighed. "I'm not worried about this surgery. I'm worried about the whole pregnancy. What is this is just one in a long list of future complications that only get more dangerous and painful? I'm always on edge around Artemis, afraid something might happen to him or the baby at any moment. And now something has. I feel like it's my fault, because I convinced him not to terminate the pregnancy. I was putting my morals over his safety, and if anything happens to him…" She trailed off, afraid she would start to cry if she said anything else.

"It's understandable that you feel responsible for this setback, but you can't continue to hold yourself responsible for anything that may happen in the future," Dr. Blazel said. "You have every right to be worried. I know you don't like to let people see when you're afraid, especially Artemis, and especially in his condition. And Artemis does need you to be strong, to support him in times like this. But it's okay to let yourself feel weak sometimes. It'll only make you stronger in the long run.

"Will something like this happen again? Maybe. Will something worse happen? I don't know. This pregnancy is unpredictable. We've been very fortunate up to this point that nothing has happened, and even now that something has, it is easily treatable. I'm not sure if that was enough of a pep talk for you, but that's all I've got."

"That was plenty," Holly said. "Thank you."

Dr. Blazel nodded, then looked at his watch. "Artemis should be prepped by now. He's being given a light dose of anesthesia to ensure he doesn't make any sudden movements while the laser is in use, so I need to get to surgery now before the anesthesia starts to wear off. I'm assuming you'll want to be there when he wakes up…"

"Absolutely."

"Head to the waiting room, and I'll come and get you as soon as the surgery is over."

Artemis opened his eyes to bright light and immediately closed them again. He felt strange, like he was floating.

"Artemis?" Holly's voice was calling him. He cracked open his eyelids, then slowly let them open the rest of the way as they adjusted to the light.

Holly was beside him, smiling. "Hey, Mud Boy. It's about time you woke up."

Artemis couldn't help but smile back. "I was enjoying some peace and quiet without you insulting me."

Holly punched his arm harder than a comment like that merited, and Artemis winced. "You're insufferable sometimes, you know that?" she said.

Artemis rubbed his arm. "This is exactly the kind of scenario to which I was referring."

It felt nice to banter like they were used to. It was one of the things Holly missed most about their friendship once it became a relationship. The dynamics had changed, and it wasn't until they shifted back to their old ways that she truly felt comfortable with Artemis.

"The surgery went well," she told him. "Just as Dr. Blazel said it would. The baby's fine, you're fine, and as soon as you're up to it, we can head home."

"No," Artemis said suddenly.

"What?"

"I am going home. You are going to stay here so you can head back to work. Holly, don't think I haven't noticed that you've been spending less and less time belowground and more and more time at Fowl Manor, hovering over me. You rarely go outside and enjoy what you love most about being on the surface: the fresh air, the sunlight… Instead, you stay cooped up indoors with me. You're trapped, Holly. You love your job, and I can tell how miserable you are being so inactive. So you are going to stay here and get back to work while I return to the surface alone. You'll be missing enough work soon enough."

"But… what if something happens?"

"Holly, I'll have my family and Butler to keep an eye on me. If anything happens, I have my communicator, and I will call you and Dr. Blazel immediately. But we need to get some sort of normalcy back into our lives. We're constantly together, and it gets uncomfortable. I don't think our friendship, or relationship, or whatever this is, will survive otherwise."

Holly breathed a sigh of relief. So it wasn't just her who thought that their situation was awkward. And even though she hated to admit it, Artemis was right. She'd stopped going to work on a regular basis and spent the majority of her time on the surface with Artemis, thinking that she needed to be with him to serve as caretaker/protector or something. But she hated it. She longed for that rush of adrenaline brought on by her job in the LEP. And, thinking back to the discussion she'd had with Dr. Blazel before the surgery, she felt responsible for Artemis's health, even though she didn't need to be.

"Okay," she finally said. "But give me an occasional update, just so I know what's going on."

"I will," Artemis assured her. "Trust me, I've been thinking this through for a long time, analyzing the dynamics between us and how they've fluctuated ever since we became… shall we say, romantically entangled. The only times we've both been content were when we each had our own routine and didn't feel obligated to rearrange our schedules to fit the other's."

That did it. She and Artemis had been spending so much time together that they were starting to think the same. "I totally agree," Holly said. "Plus I miss insulting you. That banter we had just a little bit ago, that made me feel alive again. The punch helped, too. Took me back to the good old days when you were a low-life kidnapper and I punched you for the very first time."

"Glad to hear it," Artemis replied drily. But inside he was smiling.