Disclaimer:
Don't own nothin'
See I told you I'd get this one out
quicker, ok so it wasn't a week later but I'm sure you'll get
over it. Big shout out to my beta again, thanks heaps. Anyway here it
is…
The
next day they were back in Sydney. Mulch wasn't too happy about all
the flying though, he wasn't a good flyer. He had gone through
three barf bags in the hour and a half fly from Wagga Wagga to
Sydney.
"You know green really isn't your colour, Mulch."
Holly said sniggering
Mulch gave her a dirty look "Shut up
Holly. I have a bag full of puke and I'm not afraid to use it."
She
shut up after that and only laughed at him behind his back.
Two
hours later they were standing on Glebe Point Road with absolutely no
idea where they were going.
Holly was almost out of patience. "I
told you we should have stopped and asked for directions."
The
other three looked offended.
"Why? I know where I'm
going." Butler assured her.
Holly rolled her eyes, bloody
males. It's the same in every species, they can never admit when
they're wrong.
"Look, this is just pathetic. I'm going to
ask someone. Excuse me," she called out to a nice looking man
walking past. "do you know how we can get to Charles
Street?"
The man smiled and said to Holly. "What you
need Charles Street for? My place is much more interesting."
Holly
just gave him a look that said 'you've gotta be kidding'. The
man just grinned even more before he caught sight of Butler behind
Holly and decided it would be best for health if he stopped trying to
get into the short chicks pants.
"Uh, it's down that road a
bit. Hold on I'll draw you a map."
Three minutes they left
Glebe Point Road and were making their way towards Charles Street
with Holly sitting smugly in the back.
"See, wasn't that
easier than trying to be all macho?"
Butler grumbled
something that Holly took as an agreement.
Five minutes later
Butler pulled up outside Seventeen Charles Street. No one moved from
the car for a while.
"We should get out and see if she's
there." Butler said quietly.
"We should." agreed
Holly, equally quiet.
"Then lets go" Artemis said,
abruptly getting out of the car before he chickened out. "Holly
and I will go and say we're friends."
The house itself was
nothing special. It was a red brick house with probably about three
bedrooms and was probably built in the 1970's. The garden looked
like someone had tried to tame it but had given up after almost
losing an arm. All in all it looked like every other house in the
street.
Artemis took a deep breath and pressed the door bell. He
could hear the annoying chime echo down the hallway and a second
later, footsteps making their way towards the door.
A woman who
looked like she was in her early thirties opened the door and look
enquiringly at Artemis and Holly
"Yes?"
"Excuse
me, is Ally in?" Holly asked politely
She shook her head.
"Sorry, you just missed her. If you leave now, you might be able
to catch her at the bus stop."
Holly nodded. "Thank
you."
They turned to walk away before Holly grimaced and
turns around "um, do you think you could give us directions to
the bus stop?"
---
Five minutes later they were at the
bus stop. It turned out that the bus stop was on Glebe Point Road but
Holly didn't want to go through being lost again. Bloody
males!
When they reached the bus stop there were four people
sitting on the bench. One was an old man with grey hair and a walker
-fairly safe to say that that one wasn't Ally, the second one was a
pregnant woman who looked in her early twenties, the third one was a
guy who looked about sixteen and he was talking to a fourteen year
old girl with black hair with red streaks through it, a small purple
nose stud and a barely noticeable scar across her right cheek
bone.
Artemis stood there and stared at her for what seemed like
an eternity before she sensed someone looking at her and gave him a
look that said 'what?'
Artemis started to make his way over
to her before Holly stopped him.
"You can't just walk up to
someone at the bus stop and tell them you're their long-lost twin.
It'll freak her out and she'll never talk to you again."
Artemis
shook his head and came to his senses, "Of course. We should
wait until she gets back and tell her then."
"Sounds
like a plan."
---
Six hours and 4 coffees each later they
were still waiting.
"She's not gonna come." Mulch
said. He wasn't having the great day, first there was the flying
and now he was sitting in the hot Australian sun burning even though
he had gone through 6 bottles of 30+ SPF sun screen and he now smelt
like a burnt hamburger patty covered in bin juice. He was still
burning even though he was sitting inside and he was thoroughly
pissed off.
As if to prove him wrong the bus pulled up and the
same girl who they assumed was Ally got off without the guy she was
talking to when they first saw her. She looked over to him he saw a
hint of recognition in her eyes and took that as an invitation. He
took a deep breath and stepped toward her.
"Apollo
Robertson?" he asked.
She looked at him suspiciously.
"Yeah"
Artemis stuck out his hand. "I'm Artemis
Fowl and I'm your brother." the words sounded strange coming
from his mouth.
She raised an eyebrow just like he would.
"Really?"
"Yes, we were separated at birth but now
I want to get to know you and possibly even convince you to move to
Ireland with us."
She stared at him, eyebrows around her
hairline before saying "Fuck off."
Holly groaned,
Artemis was being an idiot. Whatever happened to the whole
not-ambushing her-at-the-bus-stop thing?
"Uh do you want to
find a place for us to sit down and have hot chocolate or something?"
Holly interjected.
Ally adjusted her sight line to Holly. She was
looking at them as if they were mad, they probably were.
"No,
I don't want hot chocolate. I want you get the hell out of my
way."
Ally had a glint in her eyes that almost dared her to
stop her and Holly never walked away from a dare.
"I think
you should listen to what your brother has to say." she said,
crossing her arms across her chest.
"Would you stop calling
him that? He is not my brother. I have no family."
"Yes
you do, you're looking at it."
Ally looked at them
disbelievingly. "Christ, what the hell is wrong with you
people?"
She pushed past Holly and started walking away. She
didn't get very far though because something was blocking her was.
That thing was Butler. She looked up at him for a second then punched
him in the nose, or at least tried. Butler, being a master in martial
arts saw it coming and grabbed her fist as it was coming towards him.
From there he hoisted her up onto his shoulder and carried her to the
car. She fought him all the way, kicking, hitting, biting and
screaming, making it impossible for the rest of the street not to
notice her. A big looking guy came up and asked if there was a
problem
"OF COURSE THERE'S A FUCKING PROBLEM, I DON'T DO
THIS KIND OF THING FOR THE HELL OF IT EINSTEIN!" She yelled at
him, still trying to beat the crap out of Butler.
"Look, I'm
really sorry about this, I'm her father and she's run away from
the Children's Hospital in Randwick. I don't know how she even
got this far away. I really am sorry, she hasn't been herself
lately."
The man was convinced and looked sympathetically at
Butler. "Yeah, I know how it is. My cousin is in Randwick
hospital with anorexia and she acts like that all the time. Its hard
but you'll get through it." He gave him a pat on the shoulder
and walked away, all while Ally is screaming her head off, yelling
"HE'S LYING, FOR FUCKS SAKE, HELP ME!"
Butler managed
to shove her into the car ad put the child-lock on the doors.
They
drove around for twenty minutes before Ally calmed down and stopped
trying to break out and for twenty minutes it took Holly, Artemis and
Mulch to pin her down. Butler was just thankful that they didn't
run into any cops because he would have a hard time explaining why he
had a teenager restrained and yelling in the backseat of his
car.
Finally they pulled over in a small alleyway in Annandale.
Ally had calmed down and now looked as though she didn't know
whether to go psycho again or start hyperventilating. Eventually she
decided to just sit there and throw them dirty looks every now and
again.
After a while Artemis spoke up. "I'm telling the
truth, you know."
She just gave him a look like she wanted
to kill him. "Prove it"
"Fine then we will. We'll
take a blood test; by tomorrow it will be certain that we are brother
and sister."
Butler took his cue and pulled out of the alley
and set off towards the closest hospital. Ally just sat there, not
believing what was happening. It was a normal Saturday morning, she
did her usual thing -except the car thing but that wasn't her
fault- and all of a sudden she's been kidnapped by a giant, two
midgets- one of which smelt like burnt bacon covered in sunscreen-
and a guy who was probably about her age but looked like he'd never
seen the sun. As if her life wasn't screwed up enough already.
Ten
minutes later they were at yet another hospital. The only difference
was that this was a private hospital and the nurses were nicer and
more inclined to take bribes. This was proved because the nurse who
took their blood also took the five hundred dollars offered to her to
speed up the test. She promised to get it back to them by the end of
the day. Artemis thought it was very unlikely she would be able to
get it done in that time but for once he didn't say anything.
Actually none of them said anything except Mulch who was
grumbling about his skin being burnt to a crisp. Personally Holly had
seen worse and thought he was overreacting but if she said anything
now it would interrupt the awkward silence she was enjoying so much.
Next to her Ally was sitting there thinking about how much shit
she was in. Maybe Monro sent these guys, then she really was in
trouble. But how did he get then onto her so quickly, she only did it
this arvo and why are they taking
her to get a blood sample? None of this makes sense, especially this
Artemis guy. Ok, sure she could see how they might be related, they
had the same colour hair and the same eyes and nose but that was
where the resemblance ended. Surely the Robertson's would have told
her if she had a twin. They hadn't hid the fact that she was
adopted, for which she was thankful but they were still her parents
in every way that mattered and parents didn't keep stuff like that
from their kids, did they?
On the other side of her, Artemis was
thinking too. Mainly about what an idiot he was but there was some
other thoughts floating around in there. What if he'd screwed up
and this was the wrong Ally Robertson and he'd dragged this feisty
girl all the way here for nothing? What if she laid charges? It would
be out o her rights to do so, this was all against her will and at
the moment she looked like she wanted to kill all of them with her
bare hands.
Finally after several attempts at conversation and
two escape attempts the blood results were back. Surprisingly it only
took them four hours but by that stage none of them could stand the
tension in the room any more.
An old and grandfatherly doctor came
out and called them into his office. Artemis and Ally both took deep
breaths and stepped in, both aware that the rest of their lives were
tied to what that pathology test said.
Ooh suspense eh? Actually you probably know what's going to happen but I've started this and I hate not finishing things. Do you like Ally? My beta asked me what arvo was so I though I'd better explain. Arvo is short for afternoon, maybe its one of those weird words that only Australians use. Oh and while I'm here I thought I might point out that I only got about four reviews last time. You read it, you review it, its not rocket science everyone. Anyway, till next time… Pip
