Forever wasn't there yet, but when we arrive at this point in the story, it has been a while. 15 years, in fact. Sophia was 36, the proud mother of two, soon to be three. She was the first in a long line of Fowls before her to have multiple children; previous generations had only one to save any confusion over inheritance. Oh, and she was a Fowl, as well. Married for twelve years.
They had waited for two years. Sophie had wanted to fly through a quick wedding at the Manor by the following Sunday. However, Artemis gently refused, saying she was rushing in, they would regret it decades later, et cetera. Quite a different song from the one he'd sang only days before. In the end, there was an agreement for separate living spaces, and a yearlong rest. It took three, with the additional year of planning. Angeline wanted the best for her new appendage to the family. Though she was restricted from making it the ceremony biggest Dublin had ever seen, nobody could stop her from hiring Vera Wang and Martha Stewart, not to mention the same fellow who made Princess Di's cake.
"Angeline, really." Sophie had moaned while perky blonde assistants pinned up sheer nets and smooth silks. "When the bill is over half a million…"
"Nonsense," her future mother-in-law clucked. "Mine was three times as much, though not nearly so pretty. Annie," She cried to one small figure that sat sketching possible designs. "That shape is absolutely darling! And let's keep up that lighting. Yes. Mmhmm. Yes. Oh, of course. Candles, I think. What scent?"
"Lily." Sophie called as the assistances fitted a veil. "Or roses. But the candles have got to be white. And not too tall. I can recall more than one occasion that I've scared the bride's mother by catching a purse on fire ."
Angeline glanced over appreciatively to the girl who was already a great friend, the daughter she never had, then smiled to Annie. "I believe she's quite right. Once again. But nothing too strong, dear. Keep it light."
"No reason to smother the guests." Added Sophia, grinning. "Too much. Although it would be nice to give some back, after they've embraced me so damn much."
"Language, Sophie." Mrs. Fowl said lightly. Her daughter's middle class upbringing was something of an amusement to her, Arty certainly never cussed like that. "Remember, these people are vultures. One sign of annoyance or dislike it will surely be in the tabloids tomorrow. "
"Wouldn't that just make my honeymoon?" She mused. "Hey, Arty is a better player when he's mad."
Angeline turned a little pink, but chortled along with the assistances anyhow.
The wedding was brilliant. Angeline even danced a few herself, earning a photo or two in the papers as she and "Jimmy" did the swing. Still, Sophia got the most attention in her creamy white, dove gray, and emerald green creation of a dress with tear-drop jewels dripping from her veil (a last-minute gift from the groom), then in the stunning blue reception gown. No one could argue, it was a to-die-for event.
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In three more years, Sophia and Artemis Fowl had their firstborn.
"Artemis the Third." Sophia proudly declared to the stunned father. Seeing his worried glance, she frowned. "Don't be sexist, Arty. Just because she's a girl…"
"No!" Artemis protested, still a little faint. There had been a lot of blood. And screaming. It reminded him of B'wa Kell days when he was a child trying to save the fairy underworld. Again. At least, in this event he got something a little more worth-while. "It's not that! I'm wondering if you want some more. "
Needless to say, the glowing new mother punched him promptly after that statement.
Artemis III had blue eyes like her father's, huge and perfect with the same cold ice, the usual pale toned skin, and curiously coloured hair that was like dark chocolate indoors and bronze in sunlight. Sharp as her parents (and just as scheming), the girl was undoubtedly a Fowl. She was called by her middle name, Kora, something her father found ironic; she was named after two goddesses. The Hunter and the Iron Queen.
The Fowl's second child, Dmitriy Gavin Fowl, was named by the loyal manservant Butler. Artemis insisted upon it, and Sophia had no objections. Without Butler's last-minute chat with her on that rainy afternoon, while Artemis cancelled her flights, she might not have held the tiny human being in her arms that was her son. And she had grown fond of the old bodyguard.
The boy was just as brilliant as his sister and far more active than his father had ever been. Dmitriy was pale and dark like his sister, though his hair was a soild jet black and his eyes sparkling blue-green. He fenced, rode horseback, read great books, and painted like his mother. He was, in all senses, her son.
Since the nuptials Artemis had sworn off bodyguards, only to swear again that they would be renstated while he held his baby girl, promising nothing would ever happen to her. Sophie drew a line. The kids were not to be stalked all day by servants. She never had that eerie protection, refusing it when Artemis tried to push it on her during their early days of marriage.
"If I took care of myself when I was a kid, so can they." She insisted. "Let them learn some boxing, or something."
Both kids took defense classes from "Auntie Julie". If in the mood, Sophie paid them to ambush their father. Eventually, tired from getting "whooped", (as they termed it), by his own kids, Artemis broke down and ran occasionally on the tredmil.
They went to a private school, though co-ed, thank the gods. It was only a few kilometers from the city, and more "equal opportunity" than St. Bartleby's, something Sophia encouraged. The kids were not to be kept from the truth in life, they were going to see more of real "common" people than their father knew as a child. And it was good for them. The realistic senses let them be truly gracious and spurred them to "make a change".
Fowl Manor wasn't some cold castle anymore, either. The new mistress shuttered at the thought of raising kids in such as terribly large place, so she sectioned off one wing as the main house, then tried to tempt Artemis in buying a cottage down the lane.
"Two stories, only fifteen rooms, a pool, stables, and forty acres!" She begged. "It's only five kilometers away, fenced it, and a real deal! You can't live in your parent's house forever!"
Artemis remained stubborn. "I was raised here and I turned out fine. It is family tradition."
"You are far from fine." Sophie snapped. "We can move back when I'm sure the kids don't turn out as arrogant asses."
But her husband merely refused, kissed her lightly on the head, and returned back to his blackmarket online trades. Some habites were dying hard.
Artemis's cooperation was blooming as ever, millions rolling in, with nearly half rolling out for charities each year. There were many business trips, most of which turned into family vacations. Artemis III was currently standing as Fowl heir, little Dymitriy was being groomed to take on Fowl Industries. Artemis had separated the two fortunes so each of his heirs could have their own empires. He was lost on what the third Fowl child would have. Perhaps their mother's money, since Sophie had her own stash of family gold. The Ivers, as it were, had been very promient and had bundles of "family money". And since Sophia was technically the last one…
But he didn't vocalize these thoughts, knowing the reactions his wife would place into action. Probably actions involving bruises.
As for Sophia, she filled her days in the studio, fulfilling her dream career. Reluctant to start any business, she made Artemis swear he wouldn't interfer and use his conncetions in the art world to promote his wife's work or influcence buyers and galleries. He kept to that promise, most of the time. Sophie occasionally had to extend her Tai Chi abilities when it got to be too much.
The third child, unborn, was going to be the last and an Iver. Sophia had requested early on that any "extras", as she had put it, quirking her lips lightly, would be given her family names and honors. So little Nadia or Tobias Sasha held that difference from his or her future siblings. Artemis had been gruding to allow the name change.
"I'm the last Iver, Arty, they're going to have my name! And if you don't like it, Vaffanculo!"
With that, she stormed out of his study, leaving in her wake her husband laughing and youngest wondering what bad word Mummy had said to Daddy. He knew, at least, that the word was Italian, and Daddy laughed quite a lot when Mummy said it. Perhaps it's a joke. He'd try it out on Kora later—his big sister was the smart one when it came to langauges.
And that evening found little Dmitriy with a bright green bar of soap in his mouth, an angry mother, amused father, and a sister that simply sat and glared. Nobody really could blame him—Sophie said it so much…
Then and there she decided it might be time to instill some language barries, particularly those concerning nasty words in Latin or Sanskrit.
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The topaz was returned to the demon clan quickly after negotiations from the release of Sophie's wipe. The "stupid rock"'s departure caused a stir in the household, as Sophia bitterly wept for days. Oh, she didn't care centaur's tail for the stone, but rather for all the trouble it caused. Artemis mournfully asked if perhaps she regretted accepting that meeting Sasha proposed many month ago, mere hours after the intial exicution of the robbery. The meeting that had led her to this life.
Horrified, Sophia yelped, socking him lightly on the hip. "What do you mean?! Regret? Arty, really."
Although he was reluctant to, Artemis introduced his wife to the People, but not before settling the mind wipe dispute that had been raging the the LEP for months after the incident. Apparently Birch was unpleased with the results of his team and wanted blood. Lela had thus far managed to keep the problem off of the council's back as Birch rallied a fuss among fairies of noble birth.
The two little Fowls were also included in the circle. When Artemis made the introduction without permission, the council saved themselves (and Artemis) the trouble and granted the Fowl family to be human friends to the fairy for eternity. Foaly claimed Kora and Holly happily took Dmitriy on as gurdians. Sophie was often heard proudly remarking on how her children had two gurdians each, one fairy, one human set, and they would be the most brilliant Fowls in the entire line. Relations were never better.
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"Dmitriy! Don't torment your sister!" Sophie scolded from across the table. Her son imediently stopped making the silly expression he's been flashing at Kora, opting to glare at her instead. Sophia glanced at her husband, who sat further down the table, discussing business with Domovio Butler. When he happened to look to that end of the talbe, he caught his wife's eye, grinned, then returned to the conversation. She, in turn, went back to the kids.
"Play nice." She said evenly. "Kora, just ignore him. You-" her blue-green orbs flicked to her son's thin face. They narrowed suspciously. The younged Fowl-Gavin child was too much like his father in the sense of his scheming. Not that Kora was any better; the girl had a series to pranks to rival her brother's easily, spanning from the tender age of three. What other children would build a peanut butter bomb solely out of the creamy spread, a water bottle, paper clips, and a meter of string?
Even if they were young geniuii, the children were quite immature at times, something Artemis couldn't fathom. It could be influenced from Sophie's encouragement. Or possibly their gene combination. Whatever it was, Artemis found it both annoying and endearing. And made him a little guilty. His own parents had never had the chance to raise a son, not really. They had never tucked him in, or helped him wash his hands, covered in paint. Read him stories, explained simple things, such as why the sky was blue or the grass green.
After dinner, Sophie sent the kids off to play until 9 o'clock, their firmly enforced bed time. In the mean time, the rest of the household met in Artemis's study. The rest of the household being Butler and the newly hired bodyguard, Edvard. Edvard was Butler's 3rd cousin by blood, though he did not hold the name. At 21 he was a little fresh, but eager to learn. So far all he'd been allowed was the survallince lab and walking the perimeter every mornings. Butler was far too worn to stare at screens all day, or walk the kilometers the Fowl estates lay upon.
Sophia smiled at the young man, easily causing him to blush. Artemis frowned at this. A light touch on the shoulder and he raised his hand to meet her's, crossing his arm across his chest.
"Report, Edvard." He started coolly.
"There was a media van at the front gate around one, but I managed to convince them there were better stories out today." Edvard glanced at his elder cousin. Butler winked.
"Mistress Kora swears she saw more down the road, and the metallic glint of cameras from the forest, but there was nothing there. "
Artemis nodded. Kora would've seen it fun to tease to new boy. He needed to speak to her about that. The Fowl securety may have been lax in recent years, but that did not give her cause to distract bodyguards from protecting her, from doing their jobs.
"And Dmyit—I mean, young Master Fowl was followed home by a reporter. She attempted to force an interview."
"I assume you intervined?"
"Yessir."
Sophia's strained expression made the boy speak again.
"She didn't say anything concerning, Mistress Fowl." Edvard said quickly. "Nothing dishonoring you or Master Fowl. I got to her before she'd said much besides asking his age. I'm sure-"
Butler lay a hand on the young man's forearm. Artemis's eyes darkened, but he made no comment. Sophie smiled weakly. "Thank you, Edvard."
"I will take her name, please. And the station she was working for." Artemis said quietly, ending the conversation.
Ever since the Fowl Children had been allowed to field trip and play out of doors with other kids at school, problems such as these had been frequent. Both Fowls were drilled on polite ways of saying "no". Still…it bothered both Sophie and Artemis. Artemis pushed for the privilges to be revoked, but Sophia, as concerned as she was, inisted on letting them keep the small freedoms. "You promised a normal childhood, Arty! Staying indoors everyday while all your friends are having free time is not normal."
The manservants left, silent.
Sophie moved from behind the armchair to occupy one of her own. Her bulging stomach pressed against the silk blouse she was wearing, straining the fabic. Unconciously, she slid a hand to stroke it lightly. Only a few more months... Massasging her forehead, she kicked off the black pumps she'd worn all through dinner. Artemis watched, fasinated, amused. Not even looking up, Sophia shot him down.
"Get that smirk of your face, Arty. You try to survive a day in 8 centimeter heels, and we'll see who'll be smirking."
"In the end, it will still be me." He flung back. "Obviously I'll take the design of the footwear, calculate the physics behind each step, moniter my own motion, and create the perfect way of walking that would reduce the stress and force on the foot."
Sophie grinned smugly. "Too late. I already tried it. It is impossible."
Lazily, Artemis examined his nails. "Nothing is impossible."
He heard the words "arse" and "prick" and "complete ego-manitaic" somewhere in her muttering before changing the subject. These were words quite frequently used when his wife described him. Of course, most of it was mere teasing, but for some parts. The sparkle in the blue-green orbs was so fierce that Artemis doubted the biars were entirely false in her view.
Artemis stood carefully to move to one of the arched windows. The night was black, but he could see the faint lights running around top the 4 meter-tall stonewall running the perimeter of the Fowl grounds. They winked, orange pricks. He felt arms loop around his waist. Sophie propped her chin on his shoulder, eyes closed, humming dreamily. Artemis lifted his hand to meet one of hers, and sighed.
The security problem was one of many on his list. The Fowl Industries, Fowl Star, and stocks had all been challenged extremely in the last three years by up and coming investors, tech companies and so forth. Such challenges were delightful in most cases, but the supreme amount of them was wearing on Artemis's nerves.
Also, Sophie was having nightmares. Two, three times a week she awoke screaming. She would never tell Artemis what the terror was, leading him to suspect either something tremendously embarrassing, or very hurtful. All he could gather from her mumbled words and the shuddering breaths was that it had to do with a long, dark corridor, something in the shadows, and death. Whoses' death was unknown. Artemis let her keep some secrets, though, in the end...perhaps he didn't want to know.
But that was not the worst of it.
His mother was, nearly 60 now, was showing very early stages of Alzheimer's. Timmy, in deep anguish, had of late been showing particular attention to his rare collection of wines. It was completely unfair that the time they'd lost together, the time that was being restored, was so limited.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Mother." Artemis said automatically. And you. But Sophia probably already knew that.
"We'll find an answer." Sophie murmured into his shoulder. The moment she learned of the possible diagnosis, Sophia burst into the medical department of Fowl Industries, grabbing the first chemist she saw by the collar, demanding if her husband had started any testing yet. The man stuttered he thought not. She whipped out a cell phone, proceeding to let Artemis listen in on her ordering the assembled chemists that they "are dropping your damn test tubes to work on a real problem. Nobody cares about a common cold or clones you numbskulls." Needless to say, they complied. This led to a discussion between the couple that went something along the lines of "When-I-said-what's-mine-is-your's-I-wasn't-including-the-family-business".
"MUM!" There was a bang. Sophie gave a moan, burying her head in Artemis's shoulder further.
"MUMMY! 'Mitry called me a you-know-what, and he stepped all over my flowers! MUM! This is unjust treatment! I say he gets to be psycho-analyzed by Daddy in the morning-"
"Why did we agree to this?" She whimpered. "Gods. This is all your fault, Arty."
"Me?" He was certain Sophie felt that smirk. "But you were the one who was intoxic--besides, it takes two-"
"MUM!"
"Beasts." But there was undeniable fondness in her insults, so Artemis didn't bother following her out.
When the two Fowls were wrestled into their PJs, the lights were turned out, and the crest-moon made deep shadows throughout the halls, Artemis met his wife in their room. Exhausted, he fell upon the mattress, fully-dressed in his Armani. Sophie crawled across to plop a swift kiss on his forehead, and then caressed it. Artemis worked twice as much as he had when they were dating, through it was by no choice.
Humming so opera piece she'd committed to memory decades ago, Sophia Iver-Fowl, settled in. The night was quiet, Butler watched over the grounds, her in-laws were in vacation in New York, and the kids were at their happy bickering. Nothing could be better. No staying up at nights, scooping out places, no constant fear for her life, normality stuck with her well. It was ironic, she often found when comparing her two lives, how things worked out. All she had wanted was a simple life. It took a hell of a lot more than expected, but in the end….
"What are you thinking of?"
"This."
Silence invited her to continue.
"My…our life. The kids, the house…." You. "…this." Her hand traveled down to the bump stretching across her stomach, making it a perfect crest.
He didn't make a sound for a long time. In fact, Sophia was nearly asleep before he made another noise.
"So was I." A pause. "I was right, Sophie."
"About what?" came her drowsy murmur.
"Everything."
"Hmm?"
"This."
"Right."
Smirking, Artemis leaned forward to kiss Sophia goodnight, taking deep satisfaction in the sheer rightness of the feeling, and then began to doze himself.
The End
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Quiet endings, lullabies, what better way to complete "this"?
Farewell darling readers. I am SO sorry this took SO long. School ate my life.
I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed, Brightfrost, Belle07, Black Firelight, Natalie-07, frogsdung, Lisa, Artemis J. Halk, Yeboo, silver eyed vampire, bookworm2011, Hatchi, Islay12, chaos0marine, dame crystal, Feather Death, Wicker-Smour, siubhan, Magicaru, vihnanime, squirrellady, monicue, me, totally awed, mizz-shy-gurl, KuRoMeNoHime, Fire-n-Ice666, Guest, De code Master, abby-tabitha, ninja-pirate-alchemist, iness, Queen of Nerds, Punkartgurl13, FanXForever, Betty Harp, Lazer6eam, ghstkfrk1, Aardvark, AliAlmighty, Angela, amaya –black-wings, Nathaniel773, the epitome of randomness, luckyrules321, Kitty204, and most of all Myrked Kohl.
This may be the end of What the Voices Say, but look out of What the Voices Cry and What the Voices Scream ! Yeah, school will still eat my life, but soon, I'll be able to write properly again! Watch me, I'm starting it RIGHT NOW! But again, sorry for the LONG wait.
~Dania