Author's Note: Light warnings for discussions of STDs (specifically chlamydia). As always, please read with caution if this would make you uncomfortable.

Chapter Seven

Fowl was late.

Commander Julius Root frowned, the tip of his cigar glowing as he drew a deep breath into his lungs. He knew that the human had been taken in for a full medical workup, of course. He had ordered the appointment in the first place. Given that he'd set his first official meeting with Fowl for three hours after that, though, Root had imagined that the doctors would be done by now. As they evidently weren't, he couldn't help but assume there was trouble of some kind. Not the start he'd been hoping for.

Still, he'd prefer that they take their time if that was what they needed to keep Fowl healthy. A newer commander might not have been so understanding. A newer commander might even have complained or raised a fuss. But Root had been around since the early days of Recon. Back then medical care had depended on having quick access to magic and a good deal of luck, so he simply exhaled a large cloud of noxious smoke before getting on with his paperwork. Dr. Kerry was quite possibly the only fairy under the world who could shout louder than him. She would release Fowl when she thought he was ready, and not a moment sooner.

oOoOo

"Are you ready?"

Artemis considered the question for a moment. Did he feel ready to be thrown into an unfamiliar situation with only the Commander at his side? Not particularly. What he felt ready to do was curl up into a foetal position and cry, but he knew that was no option at all. Instead, Artemis nodded and forced a smile in Holly's general direction. She'd done enough to help him today. No doubt her actual job needed her more than he did.

"Thank you, Holly, really, but I think I can handle this for a few hours."

She hummed, clearly unconvinced, but didn't push further. "His office is this way. My cubicle is pretty close, so just follow me for now."

He kept track as they walked: where they turned, what direction, and what sounds he heard nearby. You never knew. Each building he'd ever visited had unique features. He might be able to notice things that other people didn't, things that could help him navigate, if he had to, without assistance from others or from the little tablet that doubled as a phone. One area – large, echoing – seemed to have a broken vent that provided a distinctive background wheeze. Another hallway had different tiling to the rest. Artemis minded his footing on the bizarrely bubbled surface. But to his dismay, fairy architects had come to the conclusion that uniformity saved costs, and thus had seemingly endeavored to standardize almost everything they built.

Holly stopped suddenly, putting a hand on his knee to halt him. "Here we go. To your right."

"Ah. Thank you."

It occurred to him that he had no idea whether he should simply knock or search for a buzzer. He opted for the former first, then when there was no response ran his hands around the doorframe. No luck. Well, that was strange. Either fairy doors were meant to be opened in another way, or he'd just been attempting to gain entry to an empty room.

His confusion ended when Root's gruff voice sounded behind him.

"There you are," the Commander grunted. "Shift your human backside for a minute so I can open the door."

Despite himself, Artemis felt a wry grin forming on his lips. He banished it, but the sentiment remained. Good old Root. He could, at the very least, be counted on to behave exactly the same in almost every situation. One of the reassuring constants of life.

"Was that an exact time frame, Commander, or an approximate one?"

"I'll approximate this button with your face pretty soon if you don't move, Fowl."

Behind the gruff tone, Artemis thought he sensed the barest hint of amusement. He moved anyway. Better not to test his boss too much within the first few minutes.

Before the door had even finished closing, Root directed him to a chair. Presumably one in front of the desk, as Artemis heard the elf settling into another chair opposite him a few seconds later. He tried the chair he'd been pointed toward – one arm poking him somewhere unmentionable in the process – and quickly came to the conclusion that he would not fit, settling for a cross-legged position on the floor instead. This position still brought him comfortably level with the desk, at least as closely as he could estimate based on the Commander's voice.

"Here's the situation, Fowl. I don't know how well you can navigate fairy computers yet, even with one that reads things out loud to you. But I'm going to need your input on some important matters. Matters that will shape the lives of the People as a whole."

Root was right to make sure he would be adequately prepared for the task. Artemis nodded. Even a genius needed more than a day to get used to things.

"So what you're going to do right now – for the next couple of days, really – is a lot more old-fashioned. I'll give you a little tour of the facilities, and then I'm putting you on duty with Grub Kelp for a couple hours. You'll be doing paperwork, sure, and that's not your real job, but it should help you get the lay of the land."

Julius Root had a better head on his shoulders than he let on. The thought almost made Artemis smile again.

Almost.

"Understood, Commander."

A lighter clicked, and a moment later he was assaulted by a truly disgusting smell. Just what he needed when he already had a lump in his throat.

His reaction must have been visible, because Root grunted and turned on something that made the smell dissipate. "I need to listen to a few calls before we go. Technically speaking, they'll probably be above your clearance level, but if you keep your mouth shut I don't really care if you sit there and listen or not. You'd probably have found out about most of the things you're about to hear at some point anyway. You're going to be working with the top secret stuff once we get you trained up a little."

Artemis traced a pattern on the front side of the desk, following the natural grain of the wood. Real wood. Had it been grown somewhere underground or imported from the surface? His money was on the former. The People had enough trouble managing the transport of, well, people between the surface and the deep cities. A serious logging trade seemed difficult if not unmanageable.

"You won't hear anything from me."

"Good. Save your opinions for now." Silence fell, as though Root had to think very carefully about his next words. "But let me know whether Cahartez's proposal sounds feasible or not. He said he'd leave a message about it earlier."

oOoOo

Grub Kelp rarely got a visit from the Commander in person. He rarely got a visit from anyone, in fact – though he assumed that was just because the tales of his greatest exploits had gotten around and made them nervous. Surely it had nothing to do with the complaints he'd lodged about everything from scratches on his boots to a haze of grime being on his favorite movie disk after Corporal Newt had borrowed it for a staff screening. These things weren't petty: human disks cost a fortune, and he'd gotten his the legal route.

So when he looked up to see what was casting a long shadow over his desk, he found himself a bit startled to find a human standing there. A pale, raven-haired human that he recognized immediately as none other than Artemis Fowl.

Gods, Grub thought. He's gotten a lot bigger.

Then he actually processed the thought, and had to repress the urge to hit himself for being an idiot. Of course Fowl had gotten bigger. He'd been a kid by human standards when he'd introduced himself to the People for the first time.

Root, who had been having a word with a passing sprite, turned back to Grub and grunted. "Oh, good. I need you to show Fowl the ropes when it comes to the operating system. That damned centaur updated everything. I can't even find my email anymore." He looked distinctly piqued about this, but of course that wasn't anything new for the notorious 'Beetroot'.

"Alright, not a problem," Grub said, hoping his voice sounded natural. Being confronted with one of the humans some fairies still had nightmares about (especially after the Fowl Manor siege) gave him goosebumps, even though he had belatedly remembered seeing Root's memo about it earlier. Apparently it hadn't been a joke. He stood, casually pushing his chair back. "There's a seat next door that should be the right size. Meyers won't miss it."

In typical Julius Root fashion, the Commander turned on his heel and left without a backward glance. Grub frowned at his superior officer's retreating back. He knew the Commander was a busy fairy, but come on. The older elf couldn't have stayed for a few more minutes, just to make sure the newest department member had gotten settled in properly? Grub would have expected him to seem more involved in the human's training than this, given how strongly cafeteria scuttlebutt said he'd fought to keep Fowl here.

Not that he'd voice that opinion out loud. You never knew when something you said might make it back to the wrong ears.

Getting Fowl set up turned out to be easier than he'd feared. All Grub had to do was grab a chair from next door – Meyers was on leave to have their first child, so they wouldn't miss it – and enable the read-aloud setting on a department laptop so Fowl could listen to it and explore for himself. The human waited, expression impassive, as Grub explained what he was doing, and nodded or shook his head at the appropriate times.

"Thank you," was all Fowl said to him before pulling a pair of earbuds from his pocket and plugging them in. "I appreciate your help. I'll try to keep the questions to a minimum – I'm sure you're very busy."

Businesslike and to the point. Grub nodded. He could respect that. Then, belatedly, he remembered that Fowl couldn't see the motion.

"Yeah, no problem. It wasn't any real trouble."

After that the quiet sounds of typing and computer mice clicking filled the silence. It was almost peaceful.

If only Grub's other coworkers were as easy to get along with.

oOoOo

Artemis tasted bile and tried to swallow it back, feeling his lips twitch as the acid lingered unpleasantly on his tongue. He hoped nobody noticed the slight wince. He felt vulnerable enough at the moment without people commenting on it or trying to be 'helpful'. His mother, bless her, had always been so overbearing when he let on that he was feeling sick or under the weather; Butler, thankfully, had allowed Artemis to keep his secrets when he needed to, listening without judgement whenever his charge was ready to talk.

Sometimes Artemis wondered if he'd ever deserved Butler's devotion. He could only conclude he hadn't.

They died because of me, he thought. And now I've been infected with this sickness without even noticing, and it's my own fault. God, Holly heard all about it. She must think I'm disgusting. Contaminated–

He forced himself to grip the edge of the desk. Firm, slightly cold wood under his fingertips. Yes. He was supposed to be working, not reminiscing. The guilt could come later. Getting up the courage to ask Holly about what to do next could come later, too, though he had no idea how to broach the subject once the time came. So Artemis rubbed his thumb over the lip of the desk, feeling the way the fake wood transitioned at the seams. Only an hour or so left until he was free to leave work for the day. Holding it together until then should be easy. Surely he could manage that much.

Tense and anxious, Artemis returned to his halfhearted attempts at scrolling through news sites and testing the report software by sending dummy emails to himself. There seemed to be a peculiar quirk to the system that made it impossible to send any messages if he forgot to press 'enter' after putting in the recipient's address. He practiced several times, or perhaps more than several, getting his fingers used to the movement. He'd almost forgotten what a keyboard felt like. As ingrained as navigating one had become to him, Spiro had hardly allowed him access to one.

Frustration rising, Artemis slid his chair back and stood up. It drove him crazy to relearn everything; he felt like a lab rat scurrying through a maze, desperate to find the cheese at the end and yet constantly set up to fail. He needed to do something else for a while. Maybe then he could take his mind off the things that were frustrating him. He'd always found that his best ideas came when he was inspired by an unexpected encounter or observation. Yes, that sounded good. Something to break up the monotony before he started beating his head against the nearest wall.

"You going somewhere?" Corporal Kelp asked from his right.

"Yes, the water fountain. I believe it's around the corner."

"Right." Kelp's voice was wary. "See you in a bit then."

No other comments seemed to be forthcoming, so Artemis made his way out into the hallway. Footsteps sounded around him, light and quick, but they kept their distance – presumably his new colleagues were giving him a wide berth. Just as well, really. He didn't feel like talking any more than absolutely necessary.

Quiet vibrations ran through the wall, getting stronger as he approached the source. Artemis crouched to activate the water, relishing the cool liquid as it slid down his throat, soothing the parched tissue and slowly relieving the uncomfortable lump that had formed there. He didn't feel ready to get back to work, not quite yet, but he also didn't feel like he was about to choke to death at any moment, so he chose to count that as a small victory.

Footsteps still surrounded him, a constant reminder that he was not alone. Not out of the woods yet, so to speak. Artemis distracted himself with another deep drink. That would have to be enough for now – he didn't trust that he'd be able to find the bathroom without help if he needed it.

Help. It all seemed to keep coming back to that one concept. Accepting help from Butler or Juliet (indeed, even demanding it) had never felt shameful or ridiculous, but now every time someone did things for him, pain burned his insides like it never had before. And what could he do about it? That was the rub. He genuinely needed the help, at least until he'd figured out how to deal with the challenges that came with navigating an unfamiliar world.

His conditions, as well. Artemis grit his teeth, then stopped when they slipped and ground painfully against each other. Chlamydia of all things! How disgusting. Of course, he'd only have to take antibiotics for a week to get rid of the infection, but that was hardly the reason he was upset. Chlamydia was a light sentence, compared to other things he might have contracted. No, his anger and disgust, he had to admit to himself, came from the circumstances. Few people asked for an STD, but he'd been completely unwilling to engage and yet he'd still come down with the kind of thing that made anyone anxious to think about. The only saving grace – that he could see – was that even if she did turn out to be disgusted by it, Holly was unlikely to spread the word either.

"Artemis?"

Think of the devil, Artemis mused silently, and she will appear. But then that went for angels as well, if his mother was to be believed.

"Ah, Holly. Did you come to use the fountain? I must be blocking it. Apologies."

"I came to find you, actually," she said, voice getting closer. She must have been leaning against the wall next to him by then, just beside his left leg. "It's time to head home, and by some miracle I got my paperwork done, so there's no reason to stay late unless you've got something to clear up first."

Oh. He must have been standing here longer than he'd thought. Maybe he should have stayed at Grub's desk. The last thing he wanted was to make Holly worry.

"I finished what the Commander asked me to do. We should be able to leave immediately. Are we taking a taxi again?"

"Yeah, it's actually free for LEP employees. Well, sort of. We get a ride account every year. Comes out of our wages, which is a little bit annoying, but it's useful. Just have to show my badge and we're all set."

Good to know. Artemis nodded in what was hopefully an agreeable manner, pushing away from the wall to follow Holly's light guiding tugs on his pant leg. She seemed cheerful enough. Could everything turn out for the best after all? He scarcely wanted to believe it, but she wasn't treating him any differently than she had before she knew the full details about his health. Holding in the questions he wanted to ask was difficult, but he knew they'd be overheard if he asked them here, so Artemis steadied himself and held his tongue.

Her apartment seemed a long way away.

oOoOo

The door had been closed behind them for all of two seconds before Holly cracked.

"Are you okay?" She blurted, then bit her lip. Stupid as it probably sounded, she'd been worried since she saw him leaning against the wall like that. It hadn't felt right. "You seemed upset earlier. Which, I mean, obviously you've been through a lot, and that's okay, but I mean- You're not alone, you know that, right? You can talk about it if you need to."

Artemis tilted his head like a bird of prey. Triangulating, Holly guessed, the way elves often did when trying to check their surroundings.

"After what you learned, you aren't... disgusted? Or upset?"

Holly jerked, surprised. Disgusted? Upset? Had he been afraid that she was going to kick him out or spill the beans all day? Her disgust was directed at herself: evidently she hadn't done a good enough job letting him know that it was okay, that she supported him.

"What do you mean? Why would I feel like that?" She shivered as she moved closer, conscious for the first time of how warm he was. "It wasn't your fault that this happened to you. You know that. I know that. And I'm definitely not going to judge you for it, so please try not to blame yourself either. Okay?"

A long, slow breath shuddered from his lungs. "You mean that?"

"Yes. It wouldn't be right for me to judge you, even if it had been your fault somehow."

He looked nauseous. Holly's fingers tingled, and the sensation confused her for a moment. Then she realized what was happening. Artemis had started to shake like a leaf in a storm.

Holly pulled him toward the couch, tugging until he sat down. Was he going to collapse? She had no idea what she would do if he fell unconscious. At least now that he was sitting, he'd be less likely to hurt himself if he did, but would paramedics be able to get him downstairs safely? They carried stretchers big enough to take jumbo pixies and the like. They had to, if they wanted to be able to support all patients. A nearly six-foot tall human might be too big, though, even for equipment like that.

"Artemis? What's happening?"

Grief. That was the word for what she saw on his face now. Pure, unadulterated grief.

"That's the problem. I'm afraid that I may have deserved what happened, Holly. I brought it all on myself. Just like I brought Butler, Juliet, and my parents into Spiro's clutches by my own selfish, idiotic actions."

Stunned, Holly opened her mouth to– well, she didn't know exactly. Argue? Deny his words? Ask a question?

But Artemis plunged onward before she could speak, worsening the horrible feeling of dread in her stomach. "And worse, I may have put you and the rest of your people in danger as well. God, what have I done?"

She tugged his sleeve as lightly as she could manage. "What have you done? You tell me. I don't understand what you're talking about."

Rubbing his face with both hands, Artemis straightened up, tilting his head as though to look at her. "You won't know this, but six years ago, I set up a meeting with Jon Spiro. We decided to meet at En Fin. A high-end restaurant in London."

"You were meeting with him?" Another piece of the puzzle slotted into place. "You contacted him first?"

He nodded. "I was younger – obviously – and thought that I knew everything I needed to know about the world. So I decided that I would offer him a business opportunity. I had something he didn't, something that nobody in the human technology industry would have for at least fifty years at the earliest. I thought that I could persuade him to buy into a brand-new company that I would create after I had secured a few speculative investors, and then make myself into the head of a multi-billion dollar, worldwide industry. Easy. So easy it seemed laughable at the time."

The air seemed reluctant to fill her lungs. Then Holly realized that she'd been holding her breath for at least a minute. "You had fairy technology, didn't you? Oh, Artemis, please tell me you didn't–"

"I did," he whispered. "I created a minicomputer from the components left over from the siege, and tried to use it as a bargaining chip."

She could imagine all too clearly how well that would have gone down with a high-powered businessman like Spiro. A kid holding a key to almost limitless power, ready to threaten the entire market? No wonder Spiro had been so furious with Artemis, furious enough to murder four people in cold blood and treat Artemis himself so awfully. Holly's heart clenched at the thought. What had her friend set in motion here?

But why hadn't Spiro unlocked the secrets of the fairy technology he'd seized yet? Foaly had picked up on odd readings, but nothing that had seemed remotely close to a serious development.

Leaning against the soft backing of the couch, Holly let a few seconds pass as she readied her next question. The still, silent underground air seemed oppressive now, like a blanket smothering her even as she tried to ignore her rising panic.

"So he's had this computer thing for six years? This is a disaster! But there's one thing I don't get. How come he hasn't taken advantage of it yet? Why hasn't he come out with upgrades and what have you, like you wanted to do?"

Artemis shrugged. "I encrypted it with an eternity code. A code that, in theory, can never be broken."

"So if he can't get into it, what's the big deal? Doesn't that mean we're safe?" She was sure he could hear her confusion, but she didn't care. Tech things had never been her forte.

"No code is truly impossible to break. Even an eternity code. It's a question of buying yourself more time, not being impenetrable, and with the resources he has at his fingertips–" Pain shone through Artemis's features. Holly put her hand on his arm again, and this time he actually placed a hand over her own, as though trying to draw strength from the contact. "I'm afraid he's most likely already broken it, or that he will break it soon. I just had no way to contact you to warn you earlier. And... since we arrived, I've been too overwhelmed to tell you or the Commander the truth."

Too cowardly, more like.

He swallowed, turning his head away. "God, I'm so sorry, Holly. You've done nothing but help me, and I've let you down. I've failed everyone."

Despite the way her heart was hammering against her ribcage, Holly fought to calm herself, choking down the acidic comments brewing on her tongue. She'd be no use to anyone if she lost her head. Getting word to the Commander was the most important thing right now, after all, so that he could scramble a team to deal with the threat. Recriminations could come later, once everybody was safe again. In any case, they'd need Fowl semi-sane so that they could glean more details about what had happened – if she made him panic or drove him into a depressed state now, there was no guarantee that he'd be able to help. She could scream at him as much as she wanted to for what he'd done later.

Then again, the softer side of her heart whispered, did he deserve to be screamed at at all? Yes, he'd made a mistake. Yes, it was a rather big mistake. But for all his massive intellect, he'd only been a child at the time. Thirteen. And it was clear that he felt terrible about what he'd done. Surely she should forgive him when he so clearly regretted it, when he was apologizing without even being prompted to.

No. Her granite-hearted side won out, crushing the misgivings. She'd forgive him once she'd made him grovel and beg. He deserved to suffer for getting the people he loved killed, for potentially compromising the safety of many more. Maybe this was just what he needed to teach him that his clever schemes were both irresponsible and dangerous.

"Okay," she said, adopting the most neutral tone she could manage. She saw Artemis wince as she jerked her hand away from his, but she refused to feel bad about it just then. All her energy was going toward not hitting him. "I'm going to tell you what we'll do. First, we need to tell the Commander everything you just told me, so we can try and get to Spiro and stop him from putting out any information we don't want him to. Then, once he's dealt with, I'm going to mesmerize you to make sure you aren't hiding any other little secrets from me, and we can go from there. Don't even think about refusing, though. If you don't want me to use the mesmer on you, then you can just find somewhere else to live, because I'm not going to deal with a liar under my roof. Understand?"

Artemis flinched as though she'd actually slapped him. But he kept his head down, clearly unwilling to turn his face toward her again as he nodded.

"I understand. And I know you'll still want to verify this, but I swear that I haven't kept anything else from you. You have my word."

Oh whoopie, Holly thought. Artemis Fowl's word. I can take that to the bank.

oOoOo

Author's Note the Second: Heya there folks, hope you're still enjoying the story. Happy New Years to you all!