Thank you so much for all the reviews I got for the last chapter –if I forgot to reply to you I'm really sorry :o I hope you like this chapter, please review and tell me what you think. Thank you very very much and have a nice day! ;)

Holly staggered along the corridor with a whole lot of the treasure in her hands and even more stuffed up her jumper.

"Now really, this can't be the way I came, it was dirty and smelly –but not this dirty and smelly!"

The corridor was littered with junk: from chocolate bar wrappers to drinks cans, everything was giving off a foul stench and trying to trip Holly up as she made her way through the sludge. It was dark and everything was just a faint outline –so it was quite a surprise when she bashed her head off a bit of metal that was coming down from the ceiling. "Ouch," her head was already hurting with cuts and bruises and the impact had opened up the wounds again, causing blood to drip into Holly's eyes. "Wait a minute! That isn't just a random bit of metal, IT'S A LADDER!"

Holly blinked the blood from her eyes and gazed up the grim shaft, she tested her weight on it and it groaned menacingly but held. She swung herself up and began to climb, which was rather hard as she was still carrying her finds. Up and up and up, the ladder seemed to carry on forever and was home to lots of spiders and other creepy-crawlies along the way. Holly's arms grew achy but she kept on going as she imagined Trouble's delighted features when she arrived. Finally she came to the top where a covering had been placed over the exit, a few shoves though and it was history.

She climbed out of the manhole and blinked in the bright sunlight. Over in the east the sun was rising with a beautiful pink colour spreading over the sky. Glancing around it seemed as if she had emerged out of a hole in the kitchen of the café. Holly grabbed a rubbish bag from a shelf and emptied all of the treasure into it carefully, then she proceeded out into the courtyard that she had walked through hours earlier. Through the car park once more and back to the stealth shuttle –now there was just the large glittery matter of where to put the treasure.

Underground Commander Root was fuming. What was the point in earpieces if none of his officers used them? Also, where was the centaur that had designed them in the first place? He had gone out to get a nettle smoothie and had not returned; it wouldn't have been so bad if Vinyáyá hadn't gone AWOL, but she had and now the Commander was stuck in a dingy HTV news studio with no idea what to say to the camera and noone to help him.

"Three, two, one…ACTION!" Yelled the goblin behind the camera, and the ugly pixie in front of it sprang to alert.

"Here I am in our central Haven studio with the one and only LEP Commander Root –none other than the elderly gentleman who was shot by his lower officer less than three weeks ago! Tell me, Commander, what did that feel like?" She rattled off, chewing on some gum whilst she spoke.

"I am not elderly!" Objected Commander Root, screwing up his face, which showed all of the wrinkles he had accumulated.

"Yes, but can you tell us how it felt to be shot by Captain Holly Short, who, it has been reported, may see you as more than just her commanding officer?" The pixie smiled eagerly, like a black widow spider just about to devour her prey.

"Now look here! I did not come to discuss my personal life!" Root yelled.

"So you don't deny it?"

"What?"

"You have feelings for Captain Short!"

"Wait! No!"

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's official -the LEP has a romance in it's ranks!" She yelled triumphantly.

"I did not say that!" Julius exclaimed confusedly.

"Can you tell us where we can find Miss Short for comment?"

"No I most certainly can not!" The Commander replied quickly, that pixie wasn't the only one who could talk fast. "She's away on a secret mission for the good of fairykind!"

"A secret mission! It gets better and better!" The fairy smirked and continued. "After the break we see the exclusive pictures of another LEP romance…Wing Commander Vinyáyá and a lowly technician, only on HTV!"

Now Commander Root was now thoroughly confused and cross. This unpleasant pixie had no right to go around making accusations that weren't true and making him reveal things about secret missions he wasn't meant to say.

"I came here to ask the public for extra funds, not to listen to you speak a loads of codswallop and make accusations that are not true!" He complained loudly.

"Aha! But that's where you're wrong, we have photographic evidence!" The goblin behind the camera pulled out a bit of paper from his pocket triumphantly and shoved it in Root's face. There it was in black and white, a little bit crumpled but as clear as glass. Foaly and Vinyáyá emerging from the LEP headquarters portakabin drinking nettle smoothies and hand in hand! Now what would Holly say to that?

Trouble slowly made his way back to the shuttle, his feet dragging with every step. He was dreading facing Commander Root and telling him that he had failed and let Holly drown at the same time.

Trouble climbed into the shuttle.

"SURPRISE!" Trouble jumped backwards in shock, falling into the passenger seat. This couldn't be happening, it surely wasn't true! Maybe it was a mirage or he was going mad –but Holly couldn't be standing in front of him.

"Well, aren't you going to say something?"

"Holly! It's you!"

"I know it's me, what do you think of the treasure?" Holly smiled. Trouble gaped, he had been so enthralled with Holly's return from the 'dead' he hadn't noticed the glittering treasure everywhere in the tiny space. He took in the shimmering diamonds and the glistening gold but then said

"It's wonderful Holly. But truly, the best reassure in this room is you!"

"I don't think so!" Holly blushed a little. "Look at all these cuts and bruises!" She replied.

"What happened to you? One second you were there and the next you were gone!"

"Well, I tried to keep up with you but I just couldn't, " Holly explained.

"I'm sorry." Trouble apologized whole-heartedly.

"It's fine, I was a bit rusty from my long stint in hospital anyway. So then I sunk to the bottom of the lake and I thought 'ok, this is it I'm going to die; but then I didn't and I got knocked out." Holly paused for breath. "I woke up in a tunnel so I explored a bit and found piles and piles of treasure." This was a bit strange since Devante had said there hadn't been any treasure but Trouble kept this thought to himself. "I thought that even though we hadn't won it we deserved to have it because that wizard was so nasty to us. What happened to him anyway?"

"Em…I killed him." Trouble stammered. "I just can't believe that you're alive!"

"Is it a good thing or a bad thing?" Holly teased.

"Definitely good," he replied hurriedly before he saw her expression. Her cheeky impish grin and happy hazel eyes –features he thought he'd never see again. "It's so great to have you back." He pulled her into a bone-crunching bear hug.

"I can't breathe!" Holly exclaimed.

"You like it really."

"Yeah." Holly closed her eyes. She was safe, a millionaire, and with Trouble. Things were looking up.