At a very exciting part, weren't we? Very well then, I shan't take forever talking. (typing, writing… communicating)

aperfectattitude: Yeah. Justin's sweet. I wish I knew a guy like that. Ah well... we can dream. Anyway, thanks for reviewing.

avovisto: Yeah. Tears. Lots of them in the near future. Saska is a Butler, and a dolt too.

Elyne: You naughty girl! Doing fanfiction in school... (I do the same thing ;))

Genius: Thanks for the reviews, though they were very... random.

Holly Rox: Drama... I love it too. Anyway, yeah, I must do another one like this. People like it so well! Of course, no one reviewed the last chapter at all, hardly, even though it was better than the chapter before it. Strange. Anyway, thanks for reading everyday. You ought to turn them out in the mountains for a day, and have Holly get hurt, so of course she's angry, and Trouble thinks it's funny, and whatever, and Holly starts to fall for him, and he for her, but neither realize it. (sorry about the rant) Don't pay any attention. Just start the romance soon, but don't let them realize they are falling in love. Holly wouldn't admit it to herself, and would pretend she hated him all the more, which leaves lots of room for complications.

notdapunkprincess: I totally agree!

Disclaimer: Juliet Butler and all references to the Artemis Fowl series are in the sole possession of Eoin Colfer. I do not own anything except everything else.

Juliet scrambled over the rocks to Justin as soon as Saska had left. There was too much blood.

Again, she felt sick.

He'd taken the bullet almost point blank in the chest, which was obviously not good. Probably a punctured lung. Hopefully not any heart damage, though he was bleeding so badly, she wondered.

Justin coughed, choking on blood, face twisting in pain as he struggled to breathe. Quickly, Juliet lifted his head, allowing the blood to drain out of his throat and lungs.

"Thank you." He took a deep breath, and forced open his eyes, listening to the shouts that were now only a few minutes away. "I'm sorry if I hurt you. Are you okay?"

"Yeah." She nodded slightly, and finally unzipped his jacket to get a better look at the hole in his chest.

"When'd you talk to your brother?"

"When you gave me the phone. He asked yes and no questions. You didn't guess, obviously."

"No. I should have." He jerked, as her finger brushed through the blood on his chest. "Don't— please."

"Do you know how bad it is?"

Justin studied her for a moment. "It's bad," he said eventually. "My lungs. A lot of blood. But it went most of the way through, so it might be easier to get out, than something buried half way."

She forced a smile. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to… start a war. Hopefully no one else will get hurt."

Chance's voice startled them both, slashing through the cold air as he came into sight around one of the gorge's numerous bends. His gun was drawn. "Damn you Butler! What did you do to him?"

Justin touched her arm lightly, shaking his head. "Don't say anything, okay?"

Despite her misgivings, Juliet sat still, watching Chance come closer, and said nothing. Justin had gotten her out of plenty of trouble before. Perhaps he would do it again.

One by one, most of the other men came into sight, all breathing hard in the mountain air, but obviously not caring. Justin was who they were worried about. And right now, Juliet realized, things did not looks so wonderful, unless Justin spoke for her.

Chance slowed, and hurled her aside, quickly assessing things as the others drew to a stop. They spread out slightly— protectively, some of them keeping guns pointed at Juliet's head.

Juliet did not move, only watched Chance as he bent over Justin. Justin lay still, eyes half open, ignoring her.

"The lungs," said Chance finally. "It missed the heart. Almost all the way through. A few inches to the upper right, and you would be dead, Justin. Can you breathe?"

"It hurts, but yeah."

Carefully, Chance raised Justin into a sitting position, keeping his back straight. Then he nodded to Juliet, where she lay in the snow. "Take her weapons. Watch her carefully."

One of the men bent, kicking her over on her side. Juliet scowled. "It was an accident, Chance."

Chance snorted. "Oh yeah. You expect us to believe that? And you've visited Mars several times in the last year.That close? on. Move, and don't misbehave, or I'll have you shot."

Justin stirred, frowning slightly. "Leave her alone. And watch her, but don't shoot. One of her… cousins shot me. You shoot her, and the whole family will appear out of nowhere. He ran off, and I don't know where. Obviously she wasn't going to say anything about them though."

Juliet spat at him angrily.

For a moment, there was silence. Then Chance laughed. "Fine. Get up, Butler. Give one of the men your weapons, and don't run off. It will hurt if you do. Understand?"

Juliet muttered something, and tossed her gun to one of the men before climbing to her feet.

Chance and one of the others picked up Justin, and quickly they headed in the direction of the camp. Things didn't look good. Not with the Butlers running around shooting people.

There was silence all the way back, except from an occasional gasp of pain from Justin.

Once they had reached the camp, Justin was laid down in his tent, and Chance turned back to Juliet. "You are going to take care of him. And if you do anything to him…"

"Like what?" Juliet shoved past Chance, zipping up the tent doorway in his face.

Justin turned his head, spitting out blood.

"You okay?" She raised an eyebrow, and turned away, opening her backpack, and digging through it.

"If you want to call this— okay."

She turned back, opening her hand to show him a needle. "Do you want me to knock you out?"

"Can I ask why you… are carrying that around?"

"Just in case something like this happened. You never know. I'm prepared. I'll see if I can get the bullet out too."

"Do it."

Juliet leaned over, biting her tongue. "I'm sorry this happened. I really am, Justin. When I asked my brother to come and get me— I didn't think people would get badly hurt."

Gently, she tilted back his head, finding his jugular vein with her fingertips. Justin looked slightly surprised. "In my neck?"

"Yeah." She rested his head on her knee, wiping off the needle. "It'll work faster. And I know it hurts."

He shut his eyes, saying nothing as she slid the needle through his skin.

After a moment, Juliet removed it, and set it to the side. "There. Just a little while now. Try to relax, Justin. I'll get the bullet out if I can, and clean you off. I have some more, if it gets really bad. Just rest."

Justin nodded slightly. "You know? You're a very confusing person. Half the time you're trying to kill me, and the other half of the time, you're apologizing for it."

Juliet grunted something, propping him up on his pillow. "I'll give you something to eat and drink later, after you wake up. Try to sleep."

"Yeah."

Slowly, she ran her fingers through his hair. "I'm sorry. Really, I am. I guess…"

"You guess what?" he asked drowsily, fighting to keep himself awake a while longer. The sedative was more powerful than he'd thought it would be. Most he could control.

"I miss my brother. I want to go home. I wasn't really— thinking. You could have gotten killed. I would have been killed if you hadn't pushed me out of the way. Thanks."

"You're kind of soft to be a bodyguard, don't you think?" He smiled, as he ducked out of habit.

Juliet didn't say anything for a moment, only watched him sadly, stroking his chest, and running her fingers through his hair. "Yeah. I guess so. I don't like hurting people who don't deserve it. Who I'm not involved with. I don't know, I just—"

"You almost killed Axel."

"He deserved it. He asked for it. He insulted me."

"Yeah."

Again, she reached for her backpack, pulling out a small medical kit. "I'm sorry you got hurt. You've been really nice to me, Justin. Nicer than a lot of people might have been."

Justin murmured something, and allowed himself to sink back into sleep. He was tired. And he hurt.

Butler studied Saska. "You shot my sister?"

"I didn't hit her," he stammered. "I swear I didn't. The Justin person pushed her out of the way, and I hit him instead. I think I killed him. There was a lot of blood."

"You could have killed her, you idiot! Look before you shoot!" Butler glared at him, and turned away.

"They know we're here now. And they'll be mad about Justin getting shot. They might hurt Juliet. I don't know. I don't know what they'll do. And they might come looking for us. And I don't know how many of them there are. And Juliet said no fighting."

He swore. "What does she expect us to do? Say please and wait for them to turn her loose?"

"You could try. I don't know."

Butler groaned, shaking his head. Somewhere, someone had gone more than a little wrong. That much was obvious. "Listen. Get out of the tent. Tell the men I want to be left alone. And make sure no one bothers me. I want time to think about it."

"Yes sir. I'm sorry sir."

Butler watched him go, and then shut his eyes, leaning back against his pack. He needed a plan. Preferably one that would work. That was always nice, to be sure. Again, he shook his head. You could try saying pleasing, and waiting for them to turn her loose.

How could anyone be that stupid?

But now that that was drilled into his head, he couldn't think of anything else.

And the more he thought about it, the better an idea it was becoming. In a stupid sort of way. Either that, or old age, the work, and the cold were finally getting to him.

And if they were, then it didn't matter.

It's not so crazy as it sounds, people. Trust me. You will find out in another chapter or so. Of course, we shall soon reach the end, but I promise great fun before we do so. I'm beginning to miss the story already.

Rest assured, however. I will have more next August. If I can get a good job this summer in spite of being gone the whole time ;), I'm going to buy a nice laptop. I still don't have one, if you people can believe it. Isn't it sad?