Artemis Fowl: Held Captive

Chapter 1: Artemis and Diana

Chapter 1: Artemis and Diana

Nearly Two Years Later

"Artemis!" Annmarie Fowl groaned, using what little energy she had to knock on the study door. "Artemis!"
Finally the door opened, revealing a figure with raven hair and bright blue eyes, Artemis Fowl The Second. "Sorry dear, I just got off the phone with Yersuit about getting another shipment of magnesium and steel. I'm thinking of some flint as well, but of coarse all these will be carefully and separately packaged." Artemis said. "What do you need?"
"Artemis," she began, "I know that you've been busy with this upcoming project of yours, and paperwork etcetera. But I have not gotten any sleep with this kid, Artemis. I wake up every hour and a half to feed her, there's something wrong with her. It could be colic, or it could be she's been breathing in the fumes from your lab and became a super powered human. I don't know. But you need to watch her. Now. I'm going to bed. Now. You are going to take Ellie, and watch her while I sleep."
"Okay."
"I know- oh." Annmarie had been prepared for a battle, so hearing an agreement had temporarily stunned her. Until she began to break out in tears. "Thank you." She cried. She handed Artemis a small child known as Eleanor Diana Fowl as she weeped. "The milk is in the fridge if you need it. If you run out wake me up but there's a lot." She sobbed.
Artemis kissed her forehead. "Get some rest. You haven't slept in ages."
"Okay." Annmarie said. "I'll see you later." She went off to their room to lie down. Artemis closed the door and sat down at his desk with his one month old daughter. Her middle name, Diana, came from the Italian Goddess Diana, the equivalent to Artemis, which would be the middle name of their next, if Annmarie ever got enough rest to stop crying.
"I don't suppose one of your hobbies is alchemy?" Artemis asked. Ellie responded by looking at him through squinted, blue eyes. "I didn't think so." Artemis said. "Well, it's never to early to start math." Artemis said.
"Eh." Ellie replied.
"Or perhaps it is." Artemis replied. "It's strange to think that at some point I looked like you, with black hair. A small potato human, as your mother says." Artemis said. "She feels like potato since birth too. Don't worry about it." He said. "I suppose your just going to go sleep and wake up crying for milk, then." He realized he was basically talking to himself, but nobody was around to see it anyways. "What a fantastic conversationalist you are. A social butterfly." He smiled. Ellie blinked and yawned. "Good lord how much do you eat? Annmarie must be incredibly strong to hold you all day." Artemis said, switching arms. Being a parent was a workout. At least Butler will be happy, he thought. "So, what's your opinion on the flint?"

"Arty?" A voice rang. The door opened to reveal Angeline Fowl, smiling as she usually was.
"Hello, mother." Artemis said. "I've been watching Ellie since yesterday while Annmarie sleeps. She's exhausted."
"I know! The poor dear never sleeps. It's nice to see that you can take her now." Angeline said. She came and sat down in front of the desk. "Is Ellie alright? Is it something serious? Colic?"
"No, nothing's wrong. She's just a very hungry child. Perhaps we will have to feed her pablum earlier than expected, as Annmarie's mother did with her. But she is quite healthy."
"That's good! Your father was worried and so was I."
"You can reassure him that she's fine."
"I'm glad."
"Arty?" Artemis's father popped his head through the doorway.
"Everything is fine, father." Artemis said before his father could even ask.
"Excellent! And right now?"
"She's content making my arm sore while she snoozes in it."
Artemis Senior laughed. "Well, Butler will be happy."
"That's just what I thought." Artemis said.
"People are thinking about me?" Butler said, entering the room.
"Yes. It's a conspiracy." Artemis said.
"Aw, she's mumbling in her sleep!" Angeline swooned over the child. "Oh, she's waking up!"
Ellie opened her big, blue eyes and began grasping the air, knowing it would signal, 'food now'. Artemis took a bottle on the desk and gave it to her. That was the last one, he'd have to wake Annmarie up soon.
"She has you and your fathers eyes." Angeline said, watching the baby happily.
"She does." Artemis senior said, looking over. Everyone in the room looked at Ellie, and Ellie looked at everyone in the room, with her big, blue eyes, just like her fathers. She especially looked at Butler though. She loved Butler. He was big and cuddly. For Ellie, at least. To a normal baby a Butler, Domovoi in particular, would be frightening and threatening. Ellie though, immediately fell in love with the tall, bulky man.
She of coarse looked quite intently at her grandfather, as well. It looked like a fit, older version of her own father. And she saw her father all the time, so it was a bit confusing, but she still loved this man because he was always willing to do anything for her, and was almost as good with babies as her grandmother.
Her grandmother was almost always smiling and laughing, which made Ellie want to smile and laugh too. If she knew how. Grandmother had that thing about her that just gave Ellie an excessively warm feeling, which was quite a nice feeling. Maybe soon Ellie would find a way to express this feeling. Like her grandmother did. Grandmother was good at the cuddly thing too, and she wore soft things like housecoats, which felt nice on Ellie's skin.
Another person entered the room. Mom.
Ellie let go of her bottle and began grasping in the direction of her mother. The party of four turned their heads in the same direction and saw Annmarie had entered the room.
"Have a good sleep?" Artemis asked, smiling.
"Yeah. Really good. How long was I down for?" Annmarie asked, coming over with the rest of the family.
"About twenty hours."
"Holy shit! It's eleven? In the morning? On Monday?"
"Yes. I slept on the couch and had Ellie in her basket beside me."
"Oh my god." Annmarie said. "That's the nicest thing you've ever done!" She said. "Thank you, dear!" She said. "I'm starving. I'm going to go get something to eat. Did you run out of milk?"
"Last bottle."
"There was a lot of milk in that fridge. I'll have to 'get more' later. But I'm going to be up for it now anyways so that'll wait. I'm going to eat, okay? I won't be long."
"Take your time, it's been awhile." Artemis said as she exited the room. "She really needed that."
"Yes she did." Artemis Senior said. "She didn't even cry."
"Hopefully Ellie will get back to normal soon and she will too." Artemis said.
"I hope so." Butler said. "For what little sanity she has left."

"Fabulous! Wednesday is perfect, Yersuit!" Artemis said into the phone. "I will chat with you later. Goodbye." He hung up the phone, placing it back on the desk and jotting down the new details in his schedule.
"Artemis, I figured it out. I figured everything out." Annmarie said, walking into the study with Ellie in her arms.
"Figured what out?"
"Why she eats so much, why she hasn't smiled yet."
"Why?"
"Our baby is depressed."
"Is she now?"
"It all fits! They're supposed to smile in the first four to six weeks, and so far we've got nothing. She doesn't smile because she's sad, and she's eating her feelings."
"I sincerely hope that's sarcasm."
"Of coarse it's sarcasm." Annmarie said, sitting down and holding out the child in front of her while she looked into her eyes. "This kid is quite the puzzle, Artemis. And to think she was perfectly fine until recently."
"Yes. She woke up only every four hours, then all of a sudden she decided that she needed it more often. And she made the transfer fast."
"What are you hiding, small potato?" Annmarie looked at Ellie, and Ellie looked back straight faced with big eyes. "You know, some people think babies can sense things. Do you think she's sensing something?"
"Like what?"
"Something bad, obviously. She never wants to be left without either one of us, and she's up so often, and she doesn't seem happy as she should. Something's wrong with her."
"Nothing is wrong with Ellie."
"Then something is wrong with me. Us. This isn't who she is, she's not so attached, so clingy."
"She's only a month old, darling."
"It just doesn't sit right. I mean when I was a baby I constantly wanted to be held, never put down. But that was constant, it wasn't something that happened all of a sudden. This is wrong. It feels wrong. It just, does."
"I think your feeling things, dear."
"Just look in her eyes! She knows something, Artemis. I swear. She can feel it."
"How can that be?"
"I don't know. Maybe it's like, intuition. She's smart. Your her father. And she's got that aura about her that's just, different." Annmarie sighed. "I don't know. It's just, strange."
"Your just being a mother. Overprotective. It's nothing, everything is fine."
"I don't know, some of that flint and steel could ignite the magnesium, engulfing you and your lab in vibrant, white flames."
"I doubt that will happen."
"So do I, but you can't trust the periodic table."
"Did you get to the milk yet?"
"Not a lot. Only a couple bottles. I'll have to do a few tommorow."
"Alright. By the way, I'll be going into Dublin on Wednesday. Would you like to join me?"
"Sure. It'll be nice to get out of the house."
"Good. Yersuit said the shipment will arrive then."
"Okay. I'm going to go put her down, again."
"Alright. I'll talk to you later."
"You too." Annmarie exited the study and began walking off to their room. Something was wrong. Whether Artemis wanted to admit it or not, whether she was being a paranoid mother or not, something was on the horizon. Something bad.