A/N: Artemis :) I don't own anything.
Temporal
Chapter Four:
Time for Tea
Artemis calmly set down his cup of tea and stared expectantly at Butler.
Butler raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"
The slight teen cleared his throat. "Where exactly is our contact?"
"I still don't understand why you won't let me handle this," Butler sighed. "I am perfectly capable."
"And you also have too much to do, old friend," Artemis reminded him. "Where is Mother now?"
Butler casually checked his watch, which actually was a tracking device that could tell him the precise location of all the members of the Fowl family. "She is with your brothers in the Museum," he said. "I don't think they will be done for at least another hour."
"Perfect," Artemis smiled, twisting the rather ostentatious ring on his finger. Butler noted this with some trepidation. His young charge had been toying with the fairy communicator for the better part of the week, usually with his brow furrowed. That, coupled with the unusual proposal that had brought him to find this particular contact, led him to only one conclusion.
"You haven't been entirely honest with me, Artemis."
The boy actually looked startled when he looked up at his bodyguard. "What?"
Butler folded his arms. "Something happened back there. Something big. What did you do this time?"
"How can you automatically assume that it was my fault?"
"I think that with you around there is rarely another explanation."
Artemis nodded solemnly. "Point taken. And you are right, of course. You know me too well."
Now it was Butler's turn to stare at Artemis expectantly. He finally sighed. "If you really must know, I made a rather stupid mistake."
Butler didn't even blink. "A mistake? You?"
"Don't laugh, Butler, it really happened this time. I took a gamble, and I lost."
He started fingering the ring again and Butler said, "What did you say to Holly?"
Artemis' brow furrowed for but a split second before his face cleared and he instead looked a bit resigned. "Ah. That obvious, eh, Butler?"
The massive man nodded. Whatever had happened was not pretty. He had, after all, seen Holly's face too. And he knew both of his friends well enough to know that both of them had been hurt.
Artemis sighed. After a moment's calculation, he began to tell a story that was half about he and Butler's past, and half about the time that had been bought for his mother's life with a lie that might have lost him something more important than any Impressionist painting or billion dollar heist.