Chapter 1 - One Shot

A Window to the Past



Disclaimer: don't own any of the characters you recognise from the books.



Summary: Holly, Root and Foaly gather to watch Artemis's deleted memories for a laugh, but some of these memories were meant to stay hidden.



It was near eleven pm in downtown Haven. Almost all of the lights were switched out, save for a singular light at Police Plaza. The Operations Booth to be more precise.



The centaur, Foaly, was sitting behind his desk, typing furiously. It was unusual for Foaly to be up this late, especially if he was doing work. It had happened only twice before. Once was at the time of the Fowl Manor Siege, and the other was around the time of the B'wa Kell uprising.



This time it was for something far more serious.



It was Foaly's week off starting the next day. And he had almost finished all of his work, which would have otherwise spilled over into his holiday.



Foaly allowed himself the luxury of a small grin.



He could almost picture himself lying on an artificial sun bed, in one of Haven's most swanky spas, leisurely rubbing cream into his recently neglected hooves.



Then suddenly his wafer thin computer beeped.



Foaly opened his email window and read his recently received piece of mail.



It was from the spa.



“D'Arvit!” Swore Foaly.



His reservation had fallen through.



It looked like it was back to his back up plan.



Watching a certain Mud Man's memories.



……..





Holly and Commander Root arrived at 12'o clock the next day, looking curiously out of place in their casual clothes. Root was grinning, anticipating the glee of watching one of his old enemy/ally's memories. Holly was looking slightly disapproving; Foaly knew that it was against most of her morals to watch Artemis's memories without his consent. She was always the ethical one.



Foaly lead the company into his lounge room. It décor was space-aged, and would have passed as fashionable had it not been for the distasteful leopard print sofa in the middle of the room.



Foaly made a mental note to blackmail Holly and the Commander as soon as possible to prevent the news of his sofa spreading amongst the other techies. They already talked enough about his foil hats as it was.



“Jeez, Pony-Boy. After the millions we pour into your department and the enormous wages we pay you, you'd think that you would buy yourself a decent couch.”



“It's a sofa actually,” said Foaly heatedly under his breath.



Holly and Root exchanged glances, grinning into their hands. It wasn't very often that you got one over Foaly these days.



They sat down on the unmentionable sofa whist Foaly went searching through his video-disk collection to find Artemis' memory disks.



Holly felt uneasy about the whole situation. She had only come along because, a, Foaly had convinced her that if ever Artemis found out about the people again, they would know more of his weaknesses. And, b, Foaly was her friend and had insisted that she came.



But that didn't stop her feeling guilty, which was strange as she wasn't technically doing anything wrong.

I suppose it's because Artemis was always a very secretive person, she thought, perhaps I feel bad about this as it is an insult to him, and an invasion of his privacy. Maybe there were things about himself that he meant to keep a secret from us.



Whist Holly was contemplating those thoughts above; Foaly was displaying three identical disks to Root.



“You see, I never got around to labelling the disks, so I don't know which part of Fowl's life is on what.” Said Foaly, “So if you want to do the honours and pick out a disk.”



Root randomly picked out the middle disk and gave it to Foaly. He watched as Foaly walked over to the player and inserted the disk.



A young Artemis, about four years old flickered onto the screen. He was sitting on a rug outside the front of the manor, wrapped up in a massive overcoat. It was cold, as you could tell from the frozen over water feature. Also by Artemis' abnormally pale face.



Holly gasped, what is he doing out there? He'll freeze! Where's Butler?

Similar thoughts were running through the Commander and Foaly's mind too.



A car pulled into the drive. It was an old style Jaguar. Artemis stood up and waited for the car to slow down before running to the driver's seat door. He waited for the door to open, bouncing on the balls of his feet. The door opened.



It was Butler.



He looked down and saw Artemis bouncing up and down by the car door. In one fluid movement, he swept young Artemis up into his arms, who, to the fairy company's surprise, laughed and buried his head in Butler's shoulder, a tad afraid of the enormous fall.



Then Angeline, Artemis Fowl Senior and Juliet Butler opened up the back passenger seat doors and got out. Artemis ran around to his mother and gave her a hug.



Then stopped short of his father.



His father looked at him for a second, then grabbed Angeline's hand and pushed past him, knocking the child off his feet.



Artemis' eye's filled with tears. And small sobs started shaking his thin shoulders. All he wanted was for his father to like him, and he tried so hard!



Then suddenly, Artemis Fowl Senior turned around and roared at his son,

“FOWLS DO NOT CRY” and he hit the child across his cheek. A fresh wave of tears came with a fresh wave of pain.



Butler moved to comfort the boy, but Fowl Senior put his hand out to stop him.

“Leave the boy, he can stay out here until he's stopped crying and is ready to apologise. And if you come near him until then, consider your contract terminated.”



Butler hung his head. Any other man and Butler would have broken him and rushed to his charge. But this wasn't any other man. This was Artemis Fowl Senior. And no one disagreed with him.



And so, Fowl Senior, Angeline, Juliet and a very reluctant Butler walked into the manor, leaving Artemis crying on the ground, occasionally crying out Butler's name. It must have broken Butler's heart.



And it was getting darker and colder.



And he cried more.



At that point, Foaly pushed the stop button. He had looked across at Holly who was silently crying. Her eyes red and her face miserable.



Root was living up to his nickname. His face had turned beetroot red and his fists were screwed up into tight balls.



“That was the man we saved? That was the man we saved! Why under the earth did Fowl want to save that monster?”



Holly spoke up.



“Artemis wanted a father.” He voice wavering as she spoke, “He wanted to prove to him. He's different now.”



Then Foaly walked over to the collection and picked out another disk. The last disk. He put it in.



“Maybe there's something more light-hearted on this tape.”



Angeline Fowl and a roughly eleven year old Artemis flickered onto the screen. Angeline's lipstick was smudged and her mascara and eyeliner was running down her face. Artemis was backed against the wall and his eyes were filled with tears.



Angeline screamed at him,



“YOU PEVERTED BOY! GET OUT OF MY ROOM AND NEVER COME BACK! I NEVER WANT YOU NEAR MY SIGHT AGAIN!”



Clearly, this was before Holly had healed Angeline of her depression and insanity.



Artemis was stuttering and shaking his head. He didn't want to believe it. He had only come in to give her some food and to say hello.



Tears were now flowing freely as Angeline pushed Artemis out of her room.



She went further and pushed him to the top of the stairs, and pushed him down.



Artemis crashed down the stairs, landing unconscious at the bottom, slightly bleeding from the head. Butler was up the stairs in a second and cradled an unconscious Artemis in his arms and took him downstairs.



At that point, Holly got up and left the room.



“Holly” called Commander Root and Foaly in unison.



She had left the house.



Ok, well, what did you think? Please read and review! The idea behind this was that Artemis wouldn't have turned out the way he did had it not been for his abusive father and his insane mother. It also shows him as almost a normal child until his father comes into the picture. I have tried to slightly portray Butler as a father figure too!



Send me your thoughts! Reviews are much appreciated!



Luv Eva Evans

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