Josco: Thanks for all the wonderful reviews! Here comes the second chapter!

Disclaimer: Josco doesn't own Artemis Fowl or anything thing related to it, except a copy of each of the books. She does own Amber though!

Josco: MY AMBER! In this chapter we find out what happened since some people wanted to know. There is a flashback after Artemis asks a funny question.

Outcasts: Chapter Two: Amber

Artemis blinked. He shook his head. "No, no that can't be… I mean...we didn't…that never…how? I'm confused." He managed to get out amid his astonished stammers Holly smirked to see the great mastermind finally at a loss for words. She sat on the wall next to him and shut his laptop.

"I know your father wasn't much of a family man, but surely you, with all your intelligence found out about the birds and the bees. Or do I need to inform you of that little fact of life?" Artemis scowled at her and she laughed out loud, startling a bird in a nearby tree. "I'll take that as a no."

"I know how kids happen…but we never…did that did we?" He looked at her incredulously. "I mean, I'm sure I'd remember it if we did." He paused trying to remember a time and he recalled something vague. "Was…was I drunk?"

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Hollysat at her desk working studiously to write the report about the pair of tourists who had questioned Root's authority after questioning him about the Artemis Fowl Incident, or AFI, as they called it in Haven now. Suddenly a disgusting odor reached her stuffy nostrils. She looked and saw, as she expected, Root standing in front of her desk.

"Can this wait? I'm working on that tourist case. You said it was priority." She glanced back up at him before going back to work. She took a drink of her nettle smoothie.

"Artemis is back." Holly spat her smoothie out onto Root's chest.

"Sorry sir, but I thought you said-"

"I did. He's back." Root sank into the chair across from Holly and rubbed his temples. Holly felt sorry for him. After six years, they thought that Artemis wasn't going to be back. Everything was so much less stressful now that they had been through all those things. Another troll had escaped and while the new recruits had shaken Holly just sighed, disappointed that she wouldn't be able to continue writing on her new novel: Foul Fowls, and went to suit up boredly. Things that would otherwise frighten a person out of their wits were almost commonplace to Holly, Root and Foaly now.

"How do you know for sure?" She asked, not wanting to hear the truth as she grabbed a cold nettle smoothie for her commander. "It could've been some little kid with an imagination."

"Would a little kid with an imagination think up our names? Foaly, thank you," he took the smoothie from her, "Foaly was screening the phone calls, as usual, and heard someone, and he said the voice was way to familiar for it have been coincidence, he heard someone call a crossword answer line and say our names. Just like the way he did it in our last escapade with him. He knew we'd catch him."

Holly sank into her own chair and put her head in her hands. "It just can't be… we did a mind-wipe… there's no way that he could be back…"

"Holly," Root put his hand on her forearm and she looked up, surprised at the kindness in his voice. "Holly, he escaped a time field. He must've known what to do to reverse a mind-wipe or something… No one, save maybe you, wants to believe more that he's gone than I do, but Foaly played the tape for me. It was definitely his voice. There was no doubt in my mind and I could play it for you if you so choose."

"No, that's not necessary…I believe you…I don't want to…but I do." She sighed. What are we going to do? We can't go find him can we?"

"Well, actually, Foaly called the number back and got him. He told us to send someone."

"And seeing as I have the most experience with him, I'm the preferred officer for this duty?"

The next evening Holly dressed in clothes that would look normal to a human and went above surface to his mansion. He was standing outside under the eves waiting for her. He had his typical smirk on his face and his arms were crossed. In the shadows behind him she could see Butler, wearing the makeshift goggles from their first encounter.

"Fowl. What kind of stunt are you trying to pull now?" She alighted on the stone steps leading up to the front door. "If you're going for another kidnapping…"

"Nothing of the sort my dear." Holly was surprised to hear a deeper voice than she remember answer her. "I just wish to negotiate. Won't you come inside?" He gestured towards the door, which Butler promptly opened, casting light out behind Artemis. He silhouette was eerie and sent shivers down Holly's spine. She knew someone was going to happen tonight, something that would change her life.

She stepped up onto the threshold of the house and entered carefully. "There are no tricks this time, Holly. Honest, I just want to negotiate." She turned and saw her host entering behind her and was surprised at how much more hansom he was now. He was no longer a teenager… he was an adult. It was shocking to think of his as such, but to him and think of it at the same time was quite fitting. He looked more mature and less adolescent than he had on their last encounter.

"What exactly do you wish to 'negotiate' with me about?" She took of her coat and hung it on the coat rack nearby. "If it's for more gold, I'm leaving." She held onto her coat.

"Holly, this mission has nothing in common with any other encounter we've had…well, other than the insignificant detail of the people being involved." He smiled unfavorably. "You should have no problem attaining what I ask." He added in an off-hand manner, "Would you like something to eat?"

"And what exactly is that? No, I'm not hungry." But her stomach growled audibly. "Or maybe I am." An amused smile played across Butler's lips.

"What would you like Holly?" He asked her politely. "As you know, we have quite the variety. But this time we won't leave you alone to escape." She smiled slightly and nodded. "Shall I bring in the vegetable tray?" She nodded.

"That would be very nice, thank you Butler. As for you, what is it you want?" She asked again of Artemis once Butler had turned and left. "It better not be extreme or painful. Those are big no-no's now." Artemis smiled kindly, which took Holly unawares.

"I won't hurt you again. I swear." He replied softly and kindly. "On my honor I do."

"Your honor? Usually, people swear on something they have." He chuckled.

"Point well taken. Well then, I swear on my dishonor, that I will not hurt you." He said solemnly, meeting eyes with her. "I need a child of your race. No harm will come to them, but I need a child to raise as my own and to see how your people develop and grow." Holly looked at him, astonished. Her feeling must have been clear for he went on. "I know it's an unusual request, but you or the commander have full right to keep an eye on the child to see that no harm comes to her or him."

Holly sighed and leaned back in her chair. She let her head hang back on the back of the chair she sat in, exposing her long neck. She tilted her head back up as she spoke to him. "Artemis, I don't know what the council will say to that kind of request. We're still trying to clean up the mess you made the first time. Sending a child, a newborn, into this world to live with a Mud-Man, any Mud-Man, is so abstract that even it would take time and careful deliberation. But you asking this favor? That either would be thought over for years, or immediately turned down." She looked into his eyes. They no longer had a creepy look to them. They had a look that almost made Holly believe that he really didn't want the child for any other reason than what he said. "Why is this so important to you?"

Artemis ran a hand through his eye-length black hair, giving it an attractive ruffled look. "It…It just is. I can't really explain it to you. I don't think you'd understand."

"If you want this to go through at all, you'll have to tell me."

"You won't believe me."

"I'll try to."

He sighed and took in a deep breath. "I want a child." Holly nodded, not quite comprehending what he just said. "I want to take care of something and raise it, and see it grow. I want…well, I guess I want to be a father." Holly's eyes widened. She finally recognized what had seemed particularly different about him, other than his looks, which, she admitted to herself, had improved to the point where he was actually quite attractive. "I know it's rather uncharacteristic, but I do. I really do want to be a father. But, as hard to believe as it may be, I can't find anyone who truly cares for me. My mother has passed on, as has my father. I want to begin my own life."

"I want to help you."

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"If you don't remember what happened after that, I could go on." Artemis shook his head. They had spent the rest of the night together, but they never slept. Then, a few weeks later, Holly returned to his house and told him, her cycle had been absent. She was pregnant. He denied it, and turned her down, ashamed that he had done such a thing.

"I do remember… why aren't you with The People though?" Holly sighed and leaned on one arm.

"Root found out what had happened. It's law that, for doing what I did with you, I was ostracized. I am banned, on penalty of death, from contact with The People completely. Not that we really follow that rule… Root couldn't stand to have lost such a good officer for such an emotional sort of thing, that he talked to the council and I was given an assignment: To live my life aboveground, raise my daughter and keep an eye on you."

"Well, I'd say you're doing that fairly well aren't you?"

"I can now."

"What do you mean?"

"Are you going to leave me again?"

"I can't now...not now that I've seen her. She's beautiful." He turned towards Holly. The sun glancing off her loosely piled hair made her look like she had a halo. "Then again, she's got a beautiful mother."

Josco: EE! Arty's being cute! –Snuggles Artemis-

Artemis-scowls-

Josco: O.O Eep… -lets go and steps away-

Artemis-scowls at readers- Review…NOW!