Avery's Note: I've been working fairly hard to fix the shallowness of Avery. I don't want to make her flaws too obvious because then she'll seem even more fake. Also, because I got a few comments concerning the topic, there is no significant relation between my character and me. I was too dull to come up with a different name when I started, and I just really like the name.

Summary: Butler is an enigma. Butler's past is even more secretive than the man himself. When a young woman shows up claiming to be his illegitimate daughter, his world is turned upside down and inside out. Must he now choose between having the family he always wanted or his young master, Artemis?

The story thus so far: After catching Holly Short shuffling through her black book, Avery and Holly start their tense friendship on a sour note. Artemis attempts to reconcile the two, but Holly is displeased with Artemis' disposition towards favoring Avery more than her.

Just Tell Me You Love Me

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Chapter 6: D3: Small Secrets

Waking up with the stuffed animal face of an adorable baby owl with large golden eyes in her own was not something Avery had planned on experiencing during her stay at Fowl Manor. The overwhelming shock coupled with a tinge of fear gripped tightly on Avery's heart had her brain revert automatically to reflexes. Without actual conscious thought, Avery pulled her SIG-Sauer off from her nightstand and placed a couple bullets through the poor creature's forehead.

It took only seconds for the loud bangs of the gun trigger to reverberate throughout the entire home. Everyone was jolted awake in their beds and confused as to what exactly was going on. The dawn had just broke, slivers of barely graced the grounds of Fowl Manor. For the most part, the house was still dwelling in the night's dissipating darkness. It was early even by Artemis' insomniac standards.

Avery's bedroom door flew open and Butler stood in the doorway, his own SIG-Sauer prepared for action. His calculating eyes swept across the room for the perpetrator, the entry way, and the exit way. At the same time, he processed his environment and examined the battle damage of the stuffed owl and the bullets in the adjacent wall to Avery.

Still riding on the autonomic nervous system high, Avery swung her arm around and pointed her gun and Butler as he burst into the room. Butler reacted involuntarily as well, and aimed his gun at his daughter. They stood there in a deadlock, trying to assess the situation without causing unneeded bloodshed.

"Avery, calm down. It was just a stuffed animal," the man cooed gently. Butler lowered his gun first and slipped in back into its shoulder holster. He walked slowly towards Avery, her gun still pointed at the spot on the bridge of his nose right between the eyes. "Avery, you are safe."

Avery took a few moments to calm her heart down and lower the gun. "I'm sorry, Father. I was very surprised by the owl."

Butler sat down on the side of the bed next to his daughter. He comfortingly wrapped and arm around her shoulders and kissed her on the crown of her head. "It is alright, Avery. I would have done the same." Avery tilted her head up and looked askance at Butler.

"Fine," Butler admitted, "I would have probably done it differently. But the general reaction would have been the same." Avery giggled a little at the thought of Butler's giant hand wrapped around the animal's neck, suffocating the air out of its lungs before it even realized it was in pain.

A serious atmosphere settled itself over Avery. She frowned at the damage she wrought upon the innocent stuffed animal. She cursed herself mentally for having a violent tendency and causing an unwanted scene. Not only was there a destroyed owl on her floor with stuffing all over the area, there was more damage to the Fowls' furniture.

Avery's thoughts were shattered as a high whine escaped the lips of a little boy standing in the doorway. Beckett bit his lower lip and tried to fight off the tears that were beginning to leak from his eyes. Avery figured that it must have belonged to him.

"How did he get here?" Avery asked with as much sympathy as she could muster. Not having grown up with stuffed animals and adults to nurture her childish imagination, Avery wasn't sure how to handle the situation. She jumped out of bed and knelt before the weeping child.

"You were... you were… loud… in your… in your… sleep…" Beckett chocked out between the heaves of his sob. "So I… let you… let you… borrow him…"

Avery was touched by Beckett's kindness. She smiled warmly. Internally, several alarms went off in her mind. "I hope I didn't say anything that is going to jeopardize my objective," Avery thought to herself. "I also don't want the entire Fowl family against me at a time like this."

"Thank you," Avery finally said to Beckett, pulling away from her fears of losing her opportunity of taking Butler. "I can get you another one, if you would like."

"No!" Beckett shouted at Avery, still emotional about the death of his beloved animal. "You can't replace Mr. Kilroy!" He ran his hand under his nose, wiping away the snot that had begun to accumulate there. Avery tried her best not to wince and withdraw to bathroom too wash her hands.

"Mr. Kilroy?" Avery asked. She looked up at Artemis, who had appeared behind Becket with the rest of the family, and raised a questioning eyebrow. Artemis just smiled innocently and shrugged. Taking that for as a temporary answer, Avery let the thought slide to the back of her mind.

"Let's make him a war hero." Angeline Fowl pushed past her eldest son and waltzed into the room. She scooped up her crying son into her arms and comforted him gently. She smiled at Avery, saying with her expression, "Don't worry about this little situation."

"Butler can patch him up and make him a true soldier. Is that okay?" Angeline asked her son. Beckett nodded, drying his eyes with the sleeve of his night shirt.

"Butler, do you mind?"

"Of course not, Madame Fowl," Butler replied.

As the Fowl family disappeared down the hallway to comfort Beckett's temporary loss of Mr. Kilroy, Holly walked in to assess the damage. She took a look at the limp animal dwarfed in Butler's hands. It was going to take a very large patch and a lot of stuffing to return Mr. Kilroy back to good health.

"Nice aim," Holly said while examining the point of entry the bullets lodged into the wall. The angle was almost or exactly perpendicular, and all the bullets were clustered in the same seven centimeter diameter.

"Thank you."

"I'm joking."

Avery shot a glare full of daggers at Holly. No words we required for Holly to receive Avery's malicious thoughts.

"And just so you know," Holly said turning around to face Avery, "you will be meeting some of my friends tomorrow." Avery nodded. "Under no circumstances are you to put caps in them," Holly added, using the slang term to shoot someone. With that conclusive statement, Holly left the room as well.

The day before, after the unfortunate meeting, Artemis had begun to explain his unique relationship with Holly and the fairy people. Avery recalled the information, but she had not found the time to adequately process what it all meant. It did not mean much to her for she was not interested in involving herself socially or financially with them, but Avery's interest was slightly peaked at the mention of meeting some more fairies. She wondered if they all had temperaments like Holly.

With a mental shrug, Avery focused her attention on her father, who was making rapid repairs to the bird. At some point during her thinking spell, Butler left to retrieve an advanced sewing kit, fluffy stuffing, and an appropriately sized patch for the wound.

Avery took the project from Butler and sat down on the bed. As she began to stitch the pieces together, she said, "I'll finish the rest of it. It's my fault that this even happened."

Butler let Avery work, pushing aside his aversion to Avery working and acknowledging the psychological benefits. There would be less of a guilt trip for her than if he did it himself. Applying the general concept of wartime politics, a little discomfort is worth the payoff.

Not really sure what he should be doing now that his work was taken from him, but not wanting to lose time with his daughter, Butler just sat and watched. He pushed a strand of her black hair from her eyes and tucked it behind on of her ears. As he did so, Butler acutely noticed how much of a resemblance she had to Delilah.

His heart sank a little at the thought of the only love of his life; he would never be able to love another as he did her so many years ago. Delilah was dead, and he had unintentionally killed her. If was not careful, Avery might follow the same path of depression.

Butler pulled a wallet from the one of his pants pocket and found the picture of him and Delilah on the fateful night they had met. No matter where he went, Butler always had the special photograph of them. It was the first and the last they would ever take together.

Despite all the time that had passed, the original was still in magnificent condition. It showed how much Butler prized this particular item.

The photographer snapped the intimate picture without asking permission. Butler had been lounging back in the love seat, one arm wrapped protectively around Delilah. She was looking into Butler's dark navy blue eyes, a wide smile upon her lips. Butler was laughing, the expression of pure merriment on his features. Delilah fit so perfectly in the crook of his arm.

They looked perfect together.

"You miss her, don't you?" Avery prompted. She set the healed Mr. Kilroy on her lap and looked solemnly at Butler. There seemed to be a more grave texture to his face.

Butler looked up from the photo and at Avery. "Yes, I do."

Avery nodded her agreement. "I do too."

"Sometimes I wonder how I was ever able to leave her."

The comment made Avery's heart plunge. So much would have been different if Butler had made the decision to stay with Delilah. Most significant of all she would have had a father, a family. Avery did not regret anything she did, but she mourned at the loss of what she could have had.

She took the photo, still in the billfold, from Butler and took a long look at it. Avery then began to shuffle through some of the other pictures that Butler held dearest. There was one of him with Artemis Fowl Senior sitting the cockpit of a helicopter. There was one of him with the younger Artemis, when he was still an infant. There was one of him with his Uncle, Major, on the day of Butler's graduation from Madame Ko's. There were also a few of him with Juliet, all at important times in Juliet's life.

"You have one empty space," Avery commented.

"Are you done with Mr. Kilroy?" Butler asked, changing the subject. He held open his hand to Avery. Avery held Mr. Kilroy up to Butler for inspection. The handicraft, although not as high in quality as Butler's, was well done. Avery successfully passed another unintended obstacle.

"Give it back to Master Beckett." Butler stood up and pulled Avery to her feet with him. He ushered her out to the living room, where an anxious Beckett was waiting for the return of Mr. Kilroy. The young Fowl appeared to lapse into a catatonic state of depression on the leather sofa.

Artemis stood in the doorway to the living room, watching Beckett's facial expression as Avery produced a repaired Mr. Kilroy from behind her back. Giddy with excitement, Beckett jumped up and wrapped his little arms around Avery's neck tightly. Avery exaggerated a smile and hugged him back.

Beckett held on tightly more a few moments, impressing his gratitude upon the girl. Then, he grabbed Mr. Kilroy from the floor and dashed up the stairs to his father's study. "Look!" his ecstatic voice reverberated through the halls as he shouted his glee to his parents. "Mr. Kilroy is now a battle hero!"

"Why can't I be the one who gets hugged all the time by Avery?" Artemis mumbled quietly. The cheery nature of the scene before him turned sour as his hormones swayed his thoughts. He knew there was no logical basis as to why he should be jealous of his younger brother, but knowing that did not give him the control he wanted on his emotions. Artemis turned around and started walking, not really caring for where he was going.

As he walked brooding down the halls, Artemis bumped into someone else. He fell backward from the ricochet of the impact, but a pair of strong arms caught him in his decent. With some help from the other, Artemis was back on his feet and readjusting his clothing.

It was Butler.

The manservant took one look at the miserable, lovesick boy. "Artemis," Butler started.

"Oh, hello, Butler," Artemis said quickly, hardly making eye contact. He stepped to the side to let Butler pass. "Busy day, isn't it?" he asked dully. They stood there for a moment, one not willing to have a conversation and the other not willing to start one. But when Butler did not move to pass him, Artemis walked around his bodyguard.

Butler put out his arm and stopped Artemis by placing a firm hand on the boy's shoulder. "Artemis. Look at me."

"What is it, Butler?"

Butler looked straight down into the miss-matched eyes of his young charge. Those eyes almost seemed symbolic of the relationship that was expected of Artemis and Holly. In the depths of his heart, he hoped Artemis and Avery would make a compatible match. He hoped that maybe it would work out between them. Butler knew, however, that it would be best if they didn't take that chance.

"Do not become involved with Avery," the frowning bodyguard stated.

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To be continued…