Disclaimer: I don't own anything that I don't own, because if I did own what I didn't own I wouldn't have to be sitting here typing that I didn't own anything that I don't own. What I do own is everything that isn't what I don't own.

A/N: I know, I am extremely late updating. If you'll believe it I actually had to resort to downloading a new internet browser to update at all, this has been sitting as an uploaded document for a few days and I couldn't update. Sorry. Anyway, I must inform you that the next update, most likely, won't be occurring for a month or more. I'm sorry, I have it written, but I have decided to keep a certain number of chapters ahead of myself with the writing, and it is highly unlikely I'm going to find enough time to write more before I am due to update. Feel free to be angry at me for this, or, better yet, blame the person who sets exams. I'm very sorry, but, rest assured, I will not be giving up on this story. I know exactly what is going to happen. At least for the next four or five chapters, probably more. Anyway, I'm sure you don't want to hear my ramblings about what I will not be updating, so on with the chapter. (PS: thanks for reading this, if you bothered, and thanks for reading the chapter, if you're going to bother)

Chapter Four: Presents and Chinese

Stalker's Current Location

Haven City

He sighed as he picked up his phone and put it down again, deciding to make his call later. He'd picked up the habit of sighing from Holly, he had been watching her almost constantly from the button hole camera he'd installed in her house when he had the opportunity. Holly hadn't noticed a thing, naturally. She only became suspicious when she had a reason to be suspicious. He was glad she had decided she didn't have a reason to be suspicious, it could have led to a lot of explaining, and he wasn't ready to deal with Holly yet. Besides, it probably wouldn't be best if Holly knew that he had a slight, ah, obsession with her. Her beautiful figure, her nut-brown, perfect skin, her crew-cut auburn hair, her cherubic lips, and her fiery personality. He really did think she was perfect. He drew a picture of her from its hiding place. It was one of his favourites. A few days after the raid on her house he had returned, using the key codes the LEP had been given in order to get into her house to reclaim all LEP property, and taken Holly's photo albums. He traced an unnaturally long and skinny finger over Holly's face, wishing he could actually be touching her skin. He imagined how it would feel, firm under his fingers. Yet Holly thought he hated her, and she definitely hated him. He wondered why that was, when all he had tried to do was keep her off active duty in any way possible, he didn't want her to ruin her perfect looks, she needed to save them for him.

Time to give Holly another surprise, this time to try and persuade her to eat meat. He knew Holly was a vegetarian, it was in her file, which he, naturally, had access to. It was common for fairies to be vegetarian, but it wasn't exactly good for them. For example, fifty percent of fairies in Haven were highly deficient in Iron, and eighty percent of the fairies in Haven had some sort of Iron deficiency. Hence being Iron deficient was not a reason a LEP officer could be declared not fit for active duty, or the LEP would have hardly any officers. Foaly was supposedly working on an iron supplement which would solve the problem, but he had yet to find one with no side effects that worked exactly as the iron found in meat worked. Foaly too was a vegetarian, of course, but refused to allow the human iron supplements into Haven, as they were not up to his health standards. No wonder Mud Peoples life expectancy was so short, the amount of shit they pumped their bodies full of. He grabbed his little presents he had ready for Holly, and left on the quick walk to her house. No one questioned him, and if anyone did, he would just say he was going to question her about why bio bombs were going off in her office. He knew, naturally, because he had planted them. He had known the wouldn't kill her, because he had specially armed them to not kill anything larger than a spider, but he had needed them as a distraction, to plant yet another button hole camera, this time in her office. He would say some civilians saw the blue flashes and reported it to the LEP. A bomb in the office of a former LEP officer would warrant him coming to visit her; the presents were safely hidden in a bag.

He punched in her key codes, they hadn't changed, naturally, but he would have managed to procure them, he had his sources, after all; and slipped into her house, leaving his presents sitting on her dining table. He slipped out again, and returned to his office.

He picked up his phone again and punched in the number.

'What?' asked an irritated voice.

'The stuff, I've got the cash, I need the stuff now, I can only play these games for so long. I want her.'

'I'll drop it under the tree in that park near the chick's house.'

'No. I tried to get her without the stuff there last night. Somewhere else.'

'Idiot. I don't know your plan, and I don't want to. But wait for the stuff. Do you want to get caught?'

'I want the stuff. I want her.'

'Don't do it another day, you idiot. She'll know something's up. Wait a while.'

'I'll wait, but I have to do it soon. Hopefully something will come up that can… distract her for a bit.'

'Your life in the slammer. I'll drop it in the trash skip outside the LEP.'

'Unmarked bag?'

'Naturally.'

'No prints on it?'

'Checked myself.'

A system had recently been developed in the criminal underworld, allowing criminals to check to see if they had left any fingerprints on anything. The LEP didn't know about this yet. Or, at least, they thought they didn't. Of course, fingerprints wouldn't matter once he had her, but until then… A few, shall we say, teasers, would have to do.

He hung up. There was nothing more to say. His contact had come through. A few hours later he grabbed an unmarked bag out of the rubbish skip outside the LEP as he left. The plan would commence, soon.

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Holly & Trouble's Present Location

Haven City

Holly put the communicator back into her pocket after Artemis disconnected. She would have thought a bit about the call, as she had developed a habit of doing, but she was with Trouble, so that could wait.

She was still fuming inwardly that Artemis had said she was on a date with Trouble. Sure, they were great friends, but they weren't together or anything; that would just be scary.

Beside Holly, Trouble was struggling to hide a grin. Holly was probably the only person on or under the earth that would dare to call Artemis Fowl a Neanderthal. He didn't know much about Fowl, but he knew that the Mud Mountain, Butler, was still around, even if he wasn't quite as deadly as he had been, not that he couldn't still kill people a hundred ways without the use of weaponry. No one would dare insult Artemis Fowl, if they feared the retribution of Butler. No one except Holly and probably Foaly. Commander Root would have too, but he was dead, gone, extinguished, recycled, lifeless, passed on, defunct, extinct.

'What are you grinning at?' asked Holly. Obviously Trouble hadn't hidden his grin well enough. Oh dear. Maybe he should run now before she punched him.

'Won't Fowl be mad you called him a Neanderthal?'

'Not if he values his nose.'

Trouble winced; he had been on the receiving end of more than one broken nose, courtesy of Holly. They were painful.

'What did he do to deserve that?' Holly didn't break just anyone's nose. Well, she did, but she usually had a reason, unless she just hated the person. Hate was the reason for quite a few of the broken noses Chix Verbil had received, not that he didn't have it coming. He almost felt like punching Chix's nose when he wouldn't leave women alone. Especially Holly, but she was good enough at breaking his nose without needing help.

'Said we were on a date.'

'We're not,' said Trouble indignantly. He liked Holly, sure, but as a great friend, not as a girlfriend.

Holly was slightly indignant, even though she didn't want to be on a date with Trouble. The fact that he so quickly denied it made her wonder.

'You're not gay are you?' asked Holly, almost laughing. Of course, the People didn't have a problem with gays, they weren't as one minded as humans. Besides, science had proved that it wasn't someone's fault they were gay, they were just born that way; just like they were born straight. Holly still found it quite funny when one of the LEP officers announced they were gay, which didn't happen, not because it was odd, she just couldn't take any relationship seriously, especially when one of the guys used to walk in and announce they had a new girlfriend.

Trouble was gob smacked. Holly didn't honestly think he was gay, did she? Of course he wasn't, he looked at hot girls like the rest of the guys.

'What makes you think I'm gay? Just because I say I'm not on a date with you…'

'Don't overreact, I was kidding 'cause you answered so quickly.'

'I didn't want you to think that I was one of those guys who'll do anything for a date. Besides, I like my nose the shape it is.'

'Oh,' Holly didn't have a witty comeback for this. In fact, she didn't have any comeback at all. 'Sorry.'

'All good,' replied Trouble, 'So, you want to go get the food?'

'Yea, let's. And I'm not going to forget where you live this time.'

'Sure you aren't,' muttered Trouble under his breath, not loud enough for Holly to hear.

They went to the takeaway shop, without any further significant incident, and accept for a slight debate over what food to choose (Holly wanted Chow Mein and Trouble wanted Fried Rice) there was no significant incident in the entire trip back to Trouble's house and to his dining table. They chose smorgasbords, if you wanted to know, then they both got a little bit of everything they wanted, no arguments. It worked really well, the smorgasbords, I mean.

Trouble grabbed a couple of forks from his kitchen. You don't need a knife to eat the Chinese food they had. The Chinese food was very similar to the food from the Mud Man country of China, and was actually where the name originated, given the food was introduced to the People by the fairies that lived underneath the country China. In fact, the food was exactly the same, except for fairy variety was vegetarian.

The two elves sat down to eat. Trouble watched Holly carefully; she had ordered the smallest possible smorgasbord, a small. It wasn't like she was normally; quite often at Police Plaza after a particularly strenuous mission she could eat as much as some of the guys could after a mission. She did generally tend to eat less, but not much less. She was naturally slim, and she was active enough to work it all off, even if she wasn't naturally slim. He hadn't commented at the time, because he knew she was almost onto his little scheme to try and stop her becoming totally anorexic. Holly was barely picking at her food. He decided now was the time to confront her, he couldn't put if off any longer.

'You know Holly,' he said casually, 'you could have told me you didn't want Chinese.'

'Why would I do that when I did want Chinese?' asked Holly tentatively.

'Then why aren't you eating it?' asked Trouble, taking the offensive. This had to be done. He couldn't just spend the rest of his life (and we all know how long a fairies life is) trying to force Holly to eat.

'What? I am.'

'You've barely even picked at it. I saw your kitchen when I got that glass of water, there's all this old uneaten food. You've been getting thinner and thinner since Julius died. What's wrong? You know you can tell me anything, don't you Holly?'

Holly sat silently throughout his speech, looking calculatingly at him. When he finished his speech she took a breath. She didn't really know how to respond, so she decided to buy herself some time.

'You looked through my fridge? Who do you think you are, Trouble Kelp, that you think you have the right to go through my things?'

'I… you…,' Trouble couldn't think of what to say. He decided to not lie to her, to tell the truth, he had a feeling any lying would get him in even more trouble with her. 'Alright, I looked in your fridge, because I was worried about you. You really are so thin. Why aren't you eating?'

Holly still needed time. She had noticed she hadn't been eating much, but she didn't think anything of it. She thought it was just because she wasn't working as hard anymore (in actual reality she was working harder than she used to), she really wasn't doing it on purpose. Yet what Trouble was saying made sense, in a round about sort of way. Not that she wasn't extremely annoyed that he had violated her privacy. She decided to delay, so she could get just a little more time to think it out. Trouble was going to escape a broken nose on this one.

'You violated my privacy, I should leave right now, I…' she stopped. She was going to say that she should never trust him again, but somehow she knew it had been for her own good.

Trouble looked at her with just the right amount of regret in his features; he remained silent, waiting for her to talk. He had said what he needed to say to her, it was her choice what she did with it now.

The long silence was broken by Holly. She sighed, took a deep breath, and looked at Trouble.

'I…I think… think that,' it was hard for her. She never opened up to anyone without a lot of persuading, and even then it was hard for her. She wasn't going to fall to pieces or anything; Holly Short didn't do that.

Trouble could see she was on the verge of opening up to him. He would help her in anyway possible, but he didn't think she would go to pieces. The tone she was using, even when she was stuttering, was cautious, yet somehow firm, believable. If she ever came back to the LEP he would see about sending her on a negotiator course, she really was good at talking calmly and reassuringly; even under a great deal of pressure.

'I think that… that. OK, I know that, almost every food item reminds me of a time with Commander Root, with Julius. Every time I pick something up to eat it, I remember him, remember a good time with him. I know people always tell you to hold onto the good memories of a person, but it isn't helping me,' she looked up at him and smiled weakly, she was spilling her guts now.

Trouble help but marvel at how she could still say something remotely funny. That was the Holly he knew. At least her personality wasn't disappearing as quickly as her flesh.

'It's just hard. I miss him. And it's my fault he died.'

Trouble sensed it was time for him to say something. He leaned across the table and gently placed his hand on Holly's. He wasn't entirely skilled at comforting people or not saying the most inappropriate thing at the most inappropriate time; but he sensed Holly needed him to try.

'Holly, you didn't kill him. It isn't your fault. It's that little bitch Opal Koboi's fault. You did your best to stop it. Nobody could have done more. She even played on your desire to help people. She's just evil. We all miss him, he was like a father to all of us; but he wouldn't want you to make yourself sick over his death; he wouldn't want his death to affect anyone's life.'

Trouble's speech was really touching for Holly, he didn't usually put words together in that way, and he rarely opened up as much he had to say that. She was glad that he only did come out of it when he needed to; and she was glad that he had chosen to do so now.

Holly let out a small sniff, but she held the sobs in. She was still grieving, she knew that, and she thought she may have just moved through a stage.

Trouble smiled at her encouragingly, 'you want to talk about it some more?'

'You know I'm not anorexic now, right?' asked Holly.

'How did you know I thought you were anorexic?' asked Trouble. He had known that Holly was onto him, but not that she knew exactly what he thought she had. He didn't walk around speaking his thoughts aloud, did he?

'Every time someone thinks a girl is skinny they accuse them of being anorexic, even the mud men. It was kind of obvious.'

'Sorry I thought you would do that. I should know you're not vain enough to go anorexic. I shouldn't' have even thought that, it's a mental disorder, not something I should even joke about.' Trouble felt terrible, he'd just jumped to conclusions, and probably greatly insulted Holly along the way.

'All good.'

'So you want to talk about it?'

They were both speaking really calmly, both sort of tip toeing around the edges.

'It's just like, I pick up a nettle smoothie and remember the time he yelled at me for being barely a minute late, just before Artemis kidnapped me. Or, with this Chinese, I remember that time Foaly went to that high alert because vulcanologists were trying to discover more about how Volcanoes worked and he thought they might discover the chutes, even though that particular volcano didn't connect to the main chute system.' Holly gave a small chuckle, and a small smile, both brimming with sadness.

They stood up, their food forgotten, with some unspoken understanding, and moved to Trouble's couch. They sat rather closer than they normally would. Holly was really messed up since Commander Root's death, and it was all coming out now, whether she wanted it to or not.

Neither of them really had any more to say, Trouble really wasn't sure what to do, he was hopeless at being comforting. Carefully, he moved a little closer to Holly, even more carefully putting his hand around her shoulders. Holly didn't struggle; in fact, she relaxed, resting her head on Trouble's shoulder with another sigh, this time content.

They sat like that for a long time. Finally Trouble broke the silence.

'Holly, he wouldn't want you to do this to yourself. He's still alive in memories, and he wouldn't want that to hurt people. Please, you have to eat.'

Trouble blinked. That was his second relatively insightful comment today. What was happening to him? Usually he was very matter of fact, no surprising comments or anything. Maybe something was happening to him, for Holly's sake. Whatever it was, he thought it was working, although he knew Holly probably wouldn't end up eating the cold Chinese tonight. Not that Chinese wasn't delicious cold.

'I know,' murmured Holly, lifting her head. Trouble thought that this must be signalling that she was ready to end the mushy moment, which wasn't at all in Holly's usual style (mushy moments, I mean). He was wrong; he couldn't have been further from being correct.

Holly was overcome by a sudden fleeting desire to do something she had never thought she would have a desire to do. It must have had something with his unusually insightful comments, or the fact he was giving up his time to care about her. She reached up, lifted her head up, and planted her lips on his.

Startled, Trouble's fist impulse was to deepen the kiss. Then he realised what he was doing, and pulled away. Holly looked up at him, confusion in her eyes. Why was he pulling away, when at first he had deepened the kiss?

Trouble stroked her hair sadly, looking into her eyes. He had just realised how much he wanted to fall in love with her, but they were friends, nothing more, nothing less. He wasn't going to take advantage of her being in the state she was in. He wouldn't tell her all of that, just that he didn't want to take advantage of her, because he valued the use of his nose.

'Why?' whispered Holly.

'I'm not going to take advantage of you,' replied Trouble sadly.

Holly debated questioning him, telling him that she wanted nothing more than for him to fall in love with her, even though she had never really wanted a boyfriend or anything like that. It took a few seconds, but she realised the truth, she was just really messed up, it wouldn't last if it started like this. At this point in time Trouble was her mate, nothing more. He had just proven himself as the one of her mates that she could trust more than any other, by what he had just done. He had proved that he cared about her as a person, as a friend, not just as a girl.

Trouble gave a Holly a quick hug and stood up. By an unspoken agreement they decided to pretend that the mushy moment had never happened.

'So…' began Holly uncertainly.

'Do you want to go home now?'

'Yea, I'll eat breakfast tomorrow morning,' joked Holly.

'Should we go then?' asked Trouble.

Holly nodded and grabbed her jacket. The pair of friends headed out of Trouble's apartment.

'You know you don't have to walk me home. I'm not going to drop dead on a five minute walk.'

'I'm coming. I feel like a walk. Besides, look what happened to you when you were out for that run.'

'Don't rub it in,' muttered Holly. She was actually becoming rather embarrassed about that. And, though she would never admit it, kind of scared. It was becoming more and more obvious that someone was stalking her, and who on earth would want to stalk her, apart from Chix Verbil, and it obviously wasn't him, because whoever it was had used mechanical wings, and sprites had their own. Admittedly Chix couldn't fly very well on his wings, but sprites physically couldn't wear mechanical wings, they were likely to cut the sprites real wings off. Not pretty. It probably wasn't Chix Verbil then.

Holly looked sideways at Trouble. It couldn't have been him, could it? Holly doubted that somehow. No one was a good enough actor to portray the shock Trouble did when he found out about the bombs and her ankle. Besides, Holly had known Trouble for a long time; he was a pretty bad actor.

So, if it wasn't Trouble, and it wasn't Chix, who could it be? Holly decided to leave unravelling the mysteries of the universe until tomorrow. What harm could it do?

It was a relatively short walk to Holly's apartment from Trouble's, it only took five minutes. They resolved to climb the stairs, Holly only lived on the third floor, and they weren't lazy enough to take the lift.

'You going to come in?' she asked Trouble.

'Just for a couple of minutes, aye? I should be getting some sleep before my shift tomorrow… today. D'Arvit, is that the time?'

'Yea, OK. A cup of hot chocolate?'

'OK.'

Fairies don't drink tea and coffee, even the adults, they didn't need caffeine; they had magic.

Holly punched in her key code and pushed her door open. She stepped inside. When she saw what lay waiting for her on her dining table she stopped in her tracks and gasped. She grabbed Trouble's arm.

Trouble wasn't really paying much attention, but when Holly gasped and grabbed his arm he looked in the direction Holly was looking in.

'D'Arvit,' he breathed.

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A/N: Important: Holly is not anorexic, and she never has been. Anorexia is a serious mental disorder that Holly does not have. Trouble just thinks she does, because, from my experience, whenever anyone starts eating less for any reason, everyone assumes they've gone anorexic (it gets annoying after a while, trust me). I repeat, Holly is not anorexic, and she never will be. I would not insult people with anorexia by actually making her anorexic, because she isn't.

The little bit from the stalkers point of view should give you a lot of clues as to his identity. All I'm going to tell you is that it is a he. Please, if you think you have guessed and want to ask me (highly unlikely I'll tell you, but I'm feeling generous. I'll tell you what. The first person to email me and tell me who the stalker is will be told straight out whether they are right or wrong) please email me. You might get a clue out of me. If you must, put any guesses in a review, but don't be expecting me to tell you straight out, that would ruin it for everyone else.

The end of that chapter. Don't loose all hope of an update in two weeks, if I can write I will be updating. Thank you for reading. Please review!

Review Replies:

If I told you that it would ruin the story, if, in fact, it was going to happen. You'll have to wait and find out. There are clues…. If you want to know. Have fun swimming. Thanks for reviewing.

wackywildcrazy: Thanks for reviewing.

maddisonavenue: Thanks. I doubt that will ever happen, and, as far as I know, it isn't in this story, because someone would have to be a total Mary-Sue to get along with Artemis in that way. Thanks for reviewing.

Tex110: Thanks.

The White Lily: Ick, sounds promising. You might have it there, but please, don't tell anyone who you think it is. Everyone will probably end up guessing before the stalker actually reveals his identity, but we will see. Constructive criticism, always welcome. I know what you mean about the anorexic thing, and I agree, anorexia is a serious mental disorder. I was kind of trying to highlight how there are several people in today's world that just assume that, because someone is neglecting their health or eating less, everyone will assume they are anorexic. People who are anorexic and people who are not anorexic but being accused of this find it extremely insulting. I hope it kind of worked, and I would never make Holly anorexic. I really do apologise if anything I wrote offended you, it wasn't meant to come out in an offensive manner. I think that's kind of been resolved by now, I hope.

The comma thing, whoops, is all I can really say. I knew that, but I must have forgotten it somewhere, maybe it fell out of my ear. I've tried to go and correct all of that, if I've missed any, please tell me.

The yea thing, I've tried to put an 'h' after most of them, since you said that. I just need to point out that, most of the time for almost my whole writing life, as far as I can remember, I've spelt it 'yea'. It's just how people where I come from spell it. But I suppose if 'yeah' is what people are used to, 'yeah' is how I will spell it. It does make it easier to distinguish.

Stiggy: I finally worked out a good point of a laptop, you can't do that. R.I.P. to your computer. If your stories are still intact does that mean you can update? Hmmm, maybe they do, you will have to wait to find out. I never thought of that possibility…

Eek, run…

refloc: Thanks for reviewing.