A/N: Holly :) I don't own anything, as evidenced by my lame interpretation of Foaly.

Temporal

Chapter Five:

Take Some Time

"Holly, you can't go see him," warned Foaly for the fifth time. After Holly had poured out her heart, everything had suddenly became frighteningly clear, and he had wished that he could be with his friend to comfort her in person. After a long consoling session punctuated by Foaly's bad jokes, the two had begun to argue heatedly about what exactly Holly's course of action should be next.

"I have to, Foaly, I've told you," Holly gritted out. She needed to get this over with. Settled.

"Look, Holly," Foaly tried again. "You should wait for him. When the Mud Boy's ready. Mud men and fairies aren't too different in that respect—I've seen that males always wish to have some measure of control over any given situation that involves females. Create an illusion of control, he'll probably be too dense to see through it, no matter how smart he thinks he is."

"Smart enough for you," Holly muttered.

"I'd like to see Fowl get into my new system," Foaly all but cackled. "The bugs in it have some bite—literally."

"You designed a computer program to bite someone?" Holly asked skeptically.

"Not exactly. You see, if the partition divider I set in place is breached using anything short of my new plasma cell driven—that's not the point." Foaly glared at the screen and then cackled. "Thought you could distract me, eh? I'm to quick for that!"

"Right," Holly muttered.

"You have to give this some time." Her friend said seriously. "Do whatever women do when they need time—work, watch bad dramas, eat sugar-loaded foods."

"I don't-"

"Whatever," Foaly cut her off. "Wait until he can look himself in the eyes again." Foaly took a breath before saying, "Forgive him."

"I hate waiting around," the fiery captain fumed. "I don't want to wait until he is ready, or I am ready, or whatever."

"Holly, this is like nothing I've ever seen or heard of, not even when I did a little historical digging," Foaly said gently, glad that she had finally stopped saying that she had to see Artemis. "The time stream has affected both of you deeply, and you need time to heal."

"But the longer I wait—"

"The harder it will be to initiate contact. Even my older computer models take more than a little coaxing to reboot. But then you can get on with life as we know it, however bizarre and abnormal life with you two might be. And Holly?"

"What?" she grumbled. She was already in Galway by now, hovering high above the city.

"It isn't that strange, that you like him. You're well matched, I'd say. Two master rule-breakers."

Holly was silent, ignoring the jibe. There were about seven emotions chasing themselves around inside her, and she needed a moment to sort them out.

She was very obviously conflicted, and she wasn't entirely sure what about. Did she like Artemis? Probably. Did she trust Artemis? Probably.

D'Arvit.

And Artemis was right below her. And she really wasn't in any condition to be talking rationally to him.

"You're right, Foaly," she sighed. "I'll have to wait."