Kiss Me, I'm Irish {An Artemis Fowl Fan Fiction}

Chapter 24: The Only Exception

Hello readers! Sorry about the wait- been busy the past few days. You know how that goes. Figured you all deserved to know what happened, so I decided to work on this story instead of Chasing Dreams and All I Need (which is going to throw me off for a while but oh well). This chapter is revealing (or at least I think it is) and I hope you all enjoy it! ^_^

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Artemis leaned against the doorway to Diana's room. He had been there for as long as he could remember. Right after the incident, Foaly had called them all down to Haven, and he and Holly went to work on healing Diana's wound. That was only hours ago.

Luckily, Holly and Foaly were able to remove the bullet and seal Diana's wound for good. She would not be without scarring, but she was lucky she was hit in a spot that hardly anyone would ever see. The girl was asleep now, still resting from her brief surgery and healing. As much as Artemis wanted to go sit by her side, he couldn't bring himself to do it. After all, it was his fault she was like this.

He watched her from afar, never letting his eyes wander from her bed. Admittedly, Artemis was drained, and wished he could be sleeping like his friend was. He would've given anything to be able to sleep, but that wasn't going to happen, at least not until he knew for sure Diana was okay.

"You can go in there, you know," Foaly stated, startling Artemis in the process. The boy hadn't realized the centaur had been standing behind him.

"I know," Artemis answered quietly, turning to face his friend.

"Then why haven't you?" Foaly inquired, folding his arms across his chest. When Artemis didn't answer him, Foaly continued. "Diana is in stable condition, and will make a full recovery. Holly got to her wound just in time. Another thirty seconds and I don't think she would've made it."

Artemis didn't say anything for several moments. "Good."

"I erm... erased you all from the Spiro Needle cameras," Foaly added. "Interestingly enough, Spiro didn't have any in his office- and I'm thinking it's because of his tendency to throw people out of windows. So that prevented the main problem we had. I... I still can't believe you did that."

Artemis sighed, obviously not wanting to talk about the atrocious deed he had committed. "Me either," he answered, feeling his conscience tearing at him. Although Spiro would not be missed, a murder was a murder regardless to what the circumstances were. Even Artemis couldn't come up with a good, justifiable reason for what he did. Although nearly killing Diana was a pretty good reason, Artemis was worried that this would turn around and bite him.

"I know you don't think so, but you did the right thing Artemis," Foaly stated. "The world is a better place without Spiro. You know that if you hadn't killed him, he would've never given up until you were dead."

Artemis hardly nodded. Foaly had a valid point, but Artemis still couldn't find a valid reason to have committed murder. Artemis could hardly use 'self-defense' as an excuse in court, let alone 'the better good.'

Foaly patted his friend on the back. "Cheer up kid. Life isn't that bad. Everything worked out in your favor: no one knows you're the one who killed Spiro, he's dead, you're alive, and the girl you love is alive... what more could you want?"

Artemis went to protest, but Foaly had already walked away and had begun chatting with another LEP officer. "I don't love her," Artemis muttered to himself, although he honestly wasn't so sure about it.