Sleep, Brain-freeze, and Awkward Meetings

Disclaimer: I don't own Artemis Fowl.
Or do I?


"Shouldn't she be on medication?"

"Lisa doesn't want her daughter drugged up."

"I understand, but I've never seen her cry before."

"Neither have I, poor girl."

Elyse and Karl were contemplating on whether they should wake their granddaughter up, or let her sleep a few more hours. The worrying thing was that Caroline was crying in her sleep, and that was never a good thing.

"Isn't it unhealthy for people to sleep this long?"

"It's probably just jet lag, dear."

After Caroline had collapsed on her bed, she had stayed in dreamland for a bit over twenty hours. It was now quarter past five in the morning, and her grandparents were starting to get worried.

"Do you think she's sick? I knew we should've insisted to fly her over on our plane."

"Calm down, Elyse, she's probably fine."

The elderly couple fretted on.

"Can you just shut up?" The whine came from beneath layers and layers of covers. Caroline's hand groped for a pillow to put over her head.

The two old people looked at each other in surprise; she had given them an abnormally normal response to their prodding.

"Carrie, honey, we were just checking if you were okay; you were crying in your sleep."

There was a short silence.

"No I wasn't."

"Alright dear."

When they received silence as an answer, the two grandparents left Caroline to her sleep and went back to bed themselves.

Caroline slept and dreamed of considerably nicer things than before.


Something chirped loudly outside. That something chirped again, except this time it was louder. It chirped again. The covers shifted and a groan echoed through the room. The something was quiet for a second before chirping again.

Apparently, a bird was really insistent on waking Caroline up. After less than two minutes it had succeeded its quest. It was ten in the morning, and Caroline had succeeded in sleeping for over a day. Sleep like that wasn't exactly lovely and refreshing. It was so refreshing it had drenched Caroline in sweat and had crusted her eyes with dried tears. She trundled herself into the adjoining bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. Her light brown hair resembled something out of an eighties rock band, her mouth was rimmed with drool and her eyes were bloodshot and crusty. She made a face at herself and washed her face.

All her things were still packed, so she just rummaged around the linen closet for a bathrobe. Her search proved fruitless, and she resorted to opening one of her bags. She took a shower, using soap as shampoo because she had forgotten to pack her own bottle. She had remembered her conditioner and body wash, so she used those liberally.

It was half past ten when Caroline stomped down the stairs in a bathrobe and half-dried hair. Having visited the manor many times as a child, she still remembered most of the layout. She was bound to make some mistakes, but she had always been a quick learner.

She found the kitchen fairly easily, but the search for an apple took a bit more time. After a while it was apparent that her grandparents kept all their fresh fruit in the refrigerator (something she'd have to remedy as soon as possible). Caroline walked outside to the patio where she inferred her grandparents would be having breakfast. She bit into the apple and received a massive brain-freeze for her troubles. That wasn't her only trouble, as it appeared that her grandparents had company.

-----

Angeline Fowl had been looking forward to meeting the heiress of the Edderstein fortune for quite some time. She had been shown pictures of the girl and her brother as infants and children, and heard countless stories about her. Angeline was supposed to have met the girl three years previously, but two catastrophes had occurred. Not only was Caroline kidnapped, but her son had dropped off the face of the planet. The neighboring families had pulled each other through their respective tragedies, and the bond between them had strengthened to practically family. When Angeline had heard that Caroline was going to visit Ireland, she was ecstatic. Elyse and Karl just had to invite her for dinner on the day of the girl's arrival, but when Caroline had slept through that, they had changed the dinner to breakfast. Angeline had been anticipating the meeting for so long that she felt silly about it and wouldn't tell anyone how excited she was.

-----

Caroline took a calm breath of Irish air. It was clean and slightly brisk; perfect morning air. The brain freeze went away slowly, and when the final traces were gone, she blinked several times and chewed her bite of apple thoroughly.

"Sorry," she started, "brain freeze."

She gave a lazy smile and ran a hand through her damp hair, it wasn't apparent at all that she was currently mortified (so much for a good impression).

"Good morning gran, paps. Good morning…" She smiled at Angeline.

"Honey, this is Angeline Fowl, our neighbor." Caroline almost died.

"Good morning, Mrs. Fowl. It is a pleasure to meet you at last." She extended her hand, but was surprised when Angeline stood from her seat at the breakfast table and gave her a hug. Caroline hugged the woman back after realizing what was going on, and smiled softly. Angeline Fowl had the same dark blonde hair as Wyatt did, and hugging the woman was like having a piece of her brother back. Her mind banished further thought of Wyatt before she collapsed into a sobbing pile. It was a coping mechanism that she found to work incredibly well for functioning as a human being.

"It is my pleasure, dear."

All four of them had decided to ignore the fact that Caroline was almost naked besides for a terry cloth bathrobe and save her from even greater embarrassment. She sat down next to her grandmother, across from Angeline and her grandfather. Caroline swept her bangs from her eyes and took another bite from her apple. It was still cold, but she would live.

"I was just telling your grandparents how excited I was to finally have a girl around; they told me that you're the first girl in the family for generations. When I found out I was pregnant with twins, I was hoping one of them would be a girl… but Myles and Beckett are so wonderful I couldn't even compare." Did Irish aristocrats usually babble at almost-strangers? Of course, Elyse saved the situation. Were her grandparents and the Fowls really that close?

"I know what you mean, Angie! When Lisa got pregnant again with Caroline, we were so excited, especially since we already had gotten an heir. We practically lived in New York for the last three months of her pregnancy. Carrie, you were the cutest little kicker… it was as if you were saying, 'let me out! Let me out!' We were just so happy for another baby we could've stolen you and taken you back here."

They laughed a giddy morning laugh, and proceeded with casual conversation. After Caroline cast her shell of awkwardness, she found out that the twins were in Indonesia because Mr. Fowl liked to steal the boys away to spend time with them in exotic places. She found out that the Fowl family would be reunited in a couple days' time, and –Caroline almost snickered- that Artemis Junior had surprised everyone by coming home from term a week early looking very tired yesterday morning. Caroline talked about living in New York and her schooling and how her parents were. By the time Angeline left, it was high noon, and Caroline had been invited over for late lunch and her grandparents were invited for drinks.

After a little more catching up, Caroline excused herself to go get dressed and unpacked, as she was staying in Ireland for her entire summer vacation.

It was a Sunday in early June, and birds were singing their songs and people went about their business. Caroline just sat in the middle of a giant mess. She was supposed to be putting her things away, but one thing led to another and she ended up just trying on her clothes and taking them off again. About a third of her clothes were in the closet, a third was strewn about the room, and the last of it was still packed.

"Carrie, if we don't go soon, we'll be late for lunch." Her grandmother was standing at the door, grinning at her granddaughter and her mess.

"Alright, I'll be ready in five minutes." Caroline swept some clothes into her arms and ran into the bathroom.

It was ten minutes, in fact, but nobody was there to chastise her for it because her grandparents were waiting for her in their car. It took her a second before she skipped out the side door and found the sleek black Jaguar. She saw them looking at her through the windshield and she waved. Her grandmother signaled that she should get her ass in the car right now.

Caroline almost sprinted to the car and once inside she melted into the creamy leather, enjoying the comfort of the car. The drive over to the Fowl estate would take around five minutes even though they basically lived across the street and this provided the Eddersteins to have a little chat.

"How long have you guys known the Fowls?" It took a moment for the elderly people to think.

"I think we met them when we bought the manor and started renovations. Then after we moved from Connecticut we started to get to know Artemis and Angeline."

"So it's been about twenty years." Her grandfather threw in the comment to make it seem like he was paying attention. He wasn't, he was concentrating on driving down the winding driveway.

"And what's the boy like?"

"As if we don't tell you enough, it's really hard to describe him. You'll know what I mean when you meet him."

"Okay." There was a silence, and then they were there.


Artemis had been told by his mother to be ready by three. It was ten minutes to, and Artemis was straightening his suit in the mirror. It wasn't so much the fact that he wanted to impress the girl, but with his stubborn obsession with things being perfect. His obsession had forced him to spend an extra twenty minutes staring at his computer, trying to figure out what was wrong with the machine. It was his obsession that had locked him in the bathroom for nearly three quarters of an hour getting ready for something almost meaningless, and as he finished fixing his Armani suit, he caught sight of the Edderstein's sleek car. The car lurched into parking right next to the walk-way (it had taken Karl years of practice) and the right rear door opened first.

No, his breath wasn't caught in his throat, nor was he enraptured by her beauty. He was just surprised. He was surprised to see the girl so different (so... seemingly happy) than she had been a little over a day ago. He spared one last glance at the mirror and walked out of his bathroom, through his room, down the hall, down the stairs, down another hall, and into the kitchen. The doorbell rung right as he entered the kitchen, so he turned heel and winded his way to the front parlor (he preferred that word over 'living room', 'living room' sounded so… cheap) where his mother would introduce him to the girl and they would chat and drink a bit, and hopefully settle in.

Then they would tuck in for late lunch and everyone would hit it off wonderfully.

It wasn't the way that everyone wanted it to go, it was the way it was going to, and nobody had anything to say about it. That was, unless the girl hadn't been raised properly, and that he doubted.

His mother's chatter floated into the room and Artemis composed his face into something he judged to be pleasant. He caught sight of the girl, trailing behind and admiring the art that hung on the walls. She was wearing a white sundress and a bright smile, so contrary to what he had last seen her wearing. Her soft brown hair came town to the middle of her back and was (naturally, he guessed) highlighted. Her lightly-tanned skin suggested that she spent more time outside than Artemis himself did, but then again… Mulch Diggums tended to get more sun-time than Artemis.

She was tall, and that surprised him a little, seeing as neither of the Edderstein grandparents were any taller than the average person (Elyse being slightly shorter, to add to the mystery) but it wasn't really in his place to know the family genome.

Caroline was also very thin. In fact, it looked as if someone had steamrollered the girl. She had long legs, with dainty feet at the ends (not big enough to really fit her body without seeing a bit off to the observant eye) and breasts (along with buttocks) were practically nonexistent. If she wasn't damn near 5' 9", she could've passed for a pre-pubescent girl… But that was only if nobody happened to look at her face.

Artemis heard his name and stood up; shaking off the daze he'd been in and proceeded to act for all the world like the perfect host, as always.

By the very fact that his mother hadn't shot him any reproachful glares, he figured that Caroline had kept her lips sealed about their little flight and that Caroline was at least a bit smarter than she looked to be.

Caroline caught him staring at her and she winked at him.


Right. So this is more than twice what I gave you last week, so I won't be giving you an update tomorrow.
Reason being that I have to make a movie for health with a couple of friends and I won't have time to type up some stuff for you guys, unless you guys want something short and shitty.

There, I described her for you. I wanted to give her black hair, but Caroline just gave me a steely look and insisted that her hair be light brown. I had to agree that it was fitting.

I hope you guys realize by now that Caroline is not a Mary Sue. I'm not defending my character or my honor or anything, but she really, honestly, isn't. I took the litmus test after the second chapter and she scored a five or six. Caroline has possibly Sueish elements, but as a character on the whole she isn't even close.

Thanks to winged-silhouette, the epitome of randomness, and punkartgurl13 for reviewing. I love you more than you can imagine.

Don't worry guys, I won't start lagging on updates until the real action starts.

Please review, as it makes me happy in the pants-area.
Also, suggestions on making Artemis not seem too stupid would be more than welcome.
OKAY, OKAY. CLICK THE BUTTON AND TELL ME HOW IT WAS. :D