Thanks for all your wonderful reviews on the last chapter! They made me feel warm and fuzzy inside!

Eight

It took an entire day and a half devoid of any Artemis sightings to make Holly worry. For all of yesterday, she'd figured he had the right to stay in his room if he wanted to, but when he wasn't at breakfast today or lunch, she decided it was high time someone got him out of there. She made her way determinedly to the large oak door of his bedroom and pressed an ear to it before knocking. There was no answer.

"Artemis?" she called, "It's Holly." Still no reply. "I'm coming in!" and without further ado she pushed the door open.

The object of her search was not to be seen. The curtains of the four-poster bed were drawn all the way around, and the rest of the room was empty, so it was to be presumed that he was either in the bed or not here at all. She drew back one of the crimson drapes carefully and peeked inside. He was there, lying on his back but awake, eyes staring glassily at the ceiling.

She had just come face to face with what she'd been like after she'd lost her baby. She would have wasted away and died had Artemis not managed to stick an IV in her arm and get some nutrients into her. That was certainly not something she was about to do, and unless she got someone else—which she also would not do; that had been one of the things she had not wanted most for the embarrassment and attention it would bring—there was nothing she could do.

"Artemis!" she grabbed his shoulders, touched his face, squeezed his cold hands, even shook him a little. He didn't respond. "Artemis! Come on, you can't stay like this!"

He didn't move, didn't blink, and she tried again, her voice quickly gaining the blunt edge of hysteria. "Please! Frond, Artemis, wake up!"

He did not.

She rose and locked the bedroom door to guard against unwanted intruders who would interfere with her plan and then returned to his side. He could hear her, she knew he could, and so she'd decided that for as long as he didn't eat or drink, neither would she, and hopefully that would bring him out of it. Hopefully.


The next day, Holly was still there, thirst and hunger beginning to wear away at her resolve. The day after that, and they had become an obsession. As the hours ticked away, her mind relived gourmet meals from long ago and taking long draughts of water after getting back from LEP training session. Finally, her voice cracked and scratchy from lack of liquid, she spoke again.

"Artemis," she whispered. "I know how you feel—" she cut herself off when she realized how clichéd and shrink-ish she sounded. "Look, Artemis." She tried a different approach. "If you don't bloody wake up soon, I'm gonna die too. And then you really will have lost everything of him, because besides the dead walls and the rest of this house, I'm all you have left of him." She raised her head wearily to look for any reaction. There was none and she felt the painful squeeze under her eyes as they tried to summon tears that didn't exist. "Did you know that I once was like this too? I bet you didn't. It was just after my—my baby—" Apparently just because she had no tears to cry didn't mean that her throat couldn't get choked up. She stopped trying to tell him so unemotionally and smiled sadly to herself. "I bet you didn't even know that I was pregnant once. Hnh, yep, the great Commander Holly Short in maternity clothes. Go ahead, laugh at the image. I know you want to." She stopped again to pass her hands over her face. "Oh…" she groaned. "Come on, Artemis. I want to live, and I want you to live too."

She watched his face for any movement, but still there was none. "Artemis, I—" I love you. She wanted to say it, she wanted to tell him that because if he heard it he would wake up, she knew it. But her conscience wouldn't let her because she wasn't even sure if she did love him. She loved her husband. Her husband was Artemis Fowl. This was Artemis Fowl reincarnated. Logic dictated that therefore, she loved the man lying in front of her. Her heart said otherwise—a confused, jumbled melody that seemed to have broken a few strings sometime during the concert.

She laughed wryly. "Well, look at it this way. If you don't wake up, we'll never know if I do or don't. So, what do you say? Feel like waking up?" No response. "No," she rocked backwards onto her butt, "Of course you don't."

"W—water," came a terribly hoarse voice from the bed. She shot to attention and smiled broadly, her lips cracking. "Thank you," she said and leaned over him to kiss him lightly in her elation. When she pulled away, there was blood on his lips, and she realized it was her own with some relief.

"Nice to see you too," he croaked, feebly running his tongue over his lips. "But could I have some water please?"

She nodded and dashed away, energy renewed by seeing him animated again. She struggled momentarily with the bolt on the door and then booted it down to the kitchen, where she grabbed two large water bottles from the fridge and rushed them back upstairs. Only once she'd helped Artemis sit up and handed him his did she take gulp of hers.

Nausea washed over her and she gagged as her stomach jumped in surprise at the almost-forgotten substance. Artemis was slightly worse off, but luckily when he heaved and attempted to vomit, there was nothing to come up but the water. Bravely, he took another gulp and managed to keep it down.

He gave her a smile after he'd succeeded in drinking half of the bottle. "Thank you," he said. "Will you tell me more about your life with him?"

She nodded. It would be painful, but if it kept him from returning to depression, she would do it. "What do you want to know?"

"Anything you want to tell me," he replied easily. She raised an eyebrow.

"And so I should start from…?"

"When did you get married?" he asked.

"He asked me to marry him when he was thirty," she responded. "We got married the next summer."

"When did you become involved with each other?" he asked seriously. She choked.

"'Become involved'?" she echoed with a laugh. "He was twenty… seven? No, twenty-eight."

"Will you tell me how?" he queried, looking innocent and taking another sip of water.

"I got drunk," she giggled uncharacteristically, lost in the memories. "He found me walking along the side of the highway, bottle in hand. It was my birthday, and none of my underground friends had remembered it. So, I figured I'd come see Artemis, he'd remember, but when I got to his house, he was out. So, I went into his cellar and stole a couple bottles of wine. I only got through half of one—I guess fairy metabolism isn't as well equipped to handle alcohol as I'd though—before I couldn't see straight, let alone walk properly.

"I stumbled along the road and he pulled up in his car and grabbed me and loaded me in. He said he had a birthday present for me and he was just heading home to wrap it to give it to me, but that I'd caught him as the procrastinator he was and so he'd just give it to me now. It was a key; he said it was the key to his heart. It was so cheesy I slapped him," she laughed again, "I don't think I hit him hard. At least, he didn't complain, but that was probably because right after that I kissed him, and from there…" she flushed lightly and then coughed delicately. "The next morning should've been one of those, 'D'arvit! What the hell are you doing in my bed?!' mornings, but for some reason I was okay with the fact that I was lying on top of him, naked. We decided it was long past time we did something like that anyway and—" she looked at him from the corner of her eye. He looked slightly embarrassed to be hearing all this, but interested at the same time. "And proceeded to do it again. And then we decided we should really be a couple from now on."

Artemis chuckled a little, his cheeks a healthy red. "Okay, I think that's enough information." He held out an arm for her to join him on the bed and she complied, sitting cross-legged next to him. "Do I dare ask any more questions?"

"I don't know," she said innocently, "Do you?"

"Perhaps over some dinner?" he suggested.

"Sure," she agreed readily and hopped off the bed. He followed, albeit more slowly, and they headed for the door. Holly stopped halfway. "Did you mean go out for dinner? Or stay here for dinner?"

"I meant go out for dinner," he said, "but seeing what happened last time…"

"I'm game if you are," she said. He nodded. "Okay. I think we'd better change first." She held out her arms to emphasize her old shirt that she'd worn for several days in a row and caught a whiff of herself. "And have a shower. We definitely need to take a shower."

He raised his eyebrows. "I'm assuming you mean separately."

She opened her mouth to reply but had to make several attempts. "Of course I mean separately!" she snapped, embarrassed, annoyed, and insanely happy to be bantering with him just as she'd done with the original. Granted, it was a little strange that they were both so energetic after almost dying of thirst, but she would gladly choose to overlook it if it meant she could have a normal, happy dinner with him.


An hour, five glasses of water, three bathroom breaks later, Holly was standing in front of the main entrance in a knee-length skirt and short-sleeved shirt that one of the maids had handed her from one of the house's many closets. Artemis opened the door for her and they headed out. A limo took them into the city and they found a small take-out pizza place, got two slices each, and then went back out onto the streets to find a park to sit and enjoy the food in.

They came across one fairly soon, an open green space dotted with huge old trees that spread itself over an area about the size of two city blocks. They sat down on a wooden bench under one of the lamps that traced the paths. They ate quietly, each too hungry to speak as they devoured the food. Once she'd finished, Holly licked her lips and took a sip from her water bottle.

"That was good," she commented. He nodded. They sat in silence for another minute or so, Holly swinging her legs aimlessly back and forth underneath the bench and listening to a street musician who'd started playing from somewhere nearby.

"What's your last name?" he asked suddenly. She looked up at him, surprised.

"Well," she said slowly, "I go by Short because if anyone knew I was married to Artemis Fowl… it would be very bad. Underground, I would be banished as a co-conspirator. Aboveground, I would be revealed as a fairy, and that would be very bad. But my name is Holly Fowl."

The street musician's song changed from a brilliant rendition of the Spring movement of Vivaldi's Four Seasons to a slower number. Artemis stood and gallantly offered her his hand. "Well, Mrs. Fowl. Care for a dance?"

"I never liked being called that," she told him, but stood anyway, hesitantly slipped her hand into his. "And I should really warn you that I haven't done this in a long time." She laughed slightly nervously as his other hand settled on the small of her back. "So if I crush your foot, don't blame me."

"I don't think it's possible for you to crush my feet," he commented.

"Hey!" she snapped, "Is that a dig about my height? I'm not that short anymore, you know!"

"No, no," he defended himself, "It was a compliment."

She arched an eyebrow at him. "Uh-huh, really?"

"Really," he assured her with a smug smile. She shook her head with a little laugh.

"Fine," she caved. "Thank you."

"Ready?" he asked. She nodded, and they slid into the one-two-three, one-two-three pattern of a gentle waltz. She stumbled a little, one foot catching behind the other, but her hand on his shoulder steadied her and she boldly ploughed on. Though she'd never been a particularly graceful dancer, she found it surprisingly easy to fall back into the familiar motion of the simple steps and soon she was able to raise her head to look at Artemis instead of her feet.

"You're not that bad," he said. She didn't reply, concentrating too much on the steps. Of course, over concentrating on anything makes you mess up, just like thinking about walking makes the most habitual exercise difficult, and she tripped again. "Don't think so much," he instructed her as her gaze dropped to her feet again. "Look at me. Am I that ugly? Look at me."

She looked at him and slowly felt herself being pulled a little closer. She complied, though she worried about the now-heightened odds of her stepping on him. The song was changing again, going from a waltz to a soft ballad of sorts. Gently, he slipped his hand from hers and it joined his other on her waist, while hers rested itself on the back of his neck. This type of dancing was so much easier; just sway and turn in a slow circle.

Gradually, she drifted closer until her head leaned against his shoulder and her arms had wrapped themselves firmly about his neck. She felt fingers in her hair and she let her eyes slide closed, pressing her cheek into the fabric of his shirt and holding him even tighter. This was the sort of contact she'd been missing for all these years; this was the warmth of another person who cared for her. She shifted, taking her head back just a little, enough to set her lips against his jaw. He moved the rest of the way, both hands in her hair as he kissed her firmly, decidedly.

It was a short kiss, but not lacking in depths of meaning. They pulled away from each other and simultaneously decided it was time to head back to Fowl Manor. They went straight for the master bedroom once they'd arrived back, neither even remembering the fight they'd had only a few days ago on that very floor.

The floor, however, didn't really matter. It was simply a receptacle for their clothes as they were shed. There were no thoughts and no words, just hands and lips and two bodies that knew each other well.


When warm sunlight poured onto her face, Holly stirred. She yawned and stretched lazily, luxuriating in the silken sheets surrounding her and the comforting feel of the familiar room.

The familiar room.

Her eyes shot all the way open and she sat up, holding the covers over her bare chest. Artemis woke next to her, taking in her wide-eyed face and immediately assessing the situation.

"Is this one of those 'D'arvit! What the hell are you doing in my bed?!' moments?" he asked wryly, though his eyes were genuinely concerned for her.

How could she have done this? What about her Artemis, her husband, who she'd sworn to love for all time, no matter what? What had she done? She hid her face in her hands as tears overflowed and nodded.