Chapter Five: My family tree.

Apartment 17,
Fort St., New London

Lestrade woke to the chiming of her vid-phone. Grumbling to herself about not getting a single full night's sleep, she slipped into her uniform and answered the phone.

"What do you want?" she said in place of ‘Good morning, how are you?"

Grayson replied, "You in my office five minutes ago. Grayson out." In place of ‘Fine, thanks, how are you?’

Well! That's just great. Feh. Still grumbling, the sleep-deprived Inspector pulled a brush through her hair and stomped out to her cruiser.

Halfway to her destination Lestrade screeched to a halt as two short figures shot out in front of her and down a nearby side-street. Consequentially, the taxi behind her only just managed to stop three centimeters from her bumper.

Ignoring the red-faced cabbie’s yelling, Lestrade shot off in an even nastier mood.

Still angry, Lestrade stepped into Grayson’s office, tempted to slam the door behind her. "Yes?"

"These two, ah, Mr. T. Correy and his daughter Marie," Grayson waved at the other two occupants of the office, "say they have information about those corner store break-ins. Which are, by the way, being handed over to us. They, however, refused to talk to anyone but you."

"Oh." Lestrade had only just realised there were other people in the room.

"Well?" Grayson prompted.

"Oh, yeah. This way." Lestrade led them out into the hallway and back to her office.

Once in the safety and relative privacy of her little grey cube, Lestrade looked her visitors over. Mr. Correy was taller then herself, dressed in the latest fashion with neat black hair and icy sharp blue eyes. He couldn’t be more than twenty-two. Marie, on the other hand, was very short. Barely reaching three-foot-six, with dark skin and eyes, she wore baggy pants and a loose (and too large) hoody. Despite her attempt at appearing to be so, Lestrade had a feeling this midget was not a child.

Correy’s eyes flitted, almost unnoticeably, around the room. Lestrade allowed herself a little smile. "Don’t worry Mr...Correy, I took out the surveillance equipment long ago."

Finding no evidence to the contrary, Correy relaxed slightly. "Inspector Lestrade, my name is Artemis Fowl and this is Holly Short. She is not, as I presume you realised, my child." He smiled suddenly, reminding Lestrade of a vampire.

"Mm Hmm...." Lestrade sighed inwardly, she always got the wackos.

Artemis smiled again, pulled out I.D. and handed it to Lestrade.

"The Artemis Fowl, are you? I’ve heard of you, just barely got out of being cryptonized ‘bout a...decade...ago? Didn’t know you were still active." Lestrade squinted at him. "You sure do age well."

"Thank you." Artemis tucked the card back into his wallet. "Now," he said, "onto business." He nodded to Holly.

Holly swallowed and composed herself before answering. "What we... I...have to say, might come as a bit of a shock to you, Be- Inspector, but please, everything is be absolutely true.

Lestrade raised her eyebrows, this sounded like those speeches her mother used to give.

"You must promise, though, to keep all of this completely secret.

Lestrade's eyebrows started disappearing into her hair.

"All right?"

Looking down at them cautiously, Lestrade nodded silently.

"Good. Now, as you know, my name is Holly Short. I am a captain in a service called LEP, or, Lower Elements Police. I think the title explains itself." Holly continued with her story up until the present time; discreetly omitting Artemis’ believed role.

"So I think by now you know who 'Beth' is. Sister, we need your help." Holly did not seem like the type to beg, but Lestrade could see desperation written all over her face. So, she acted accordingly.

"Right, well, if you two'll just sit there for a moment, I'll call the insane asylum and have someone here too pick you up in a few minutes."

Simultaneously, the two visitors gave an exasperated sigh. Artemis stood and faced the disbelieving Inspector, and, very evenly, said: "Inspector Lestrade, do you not think that it is more than coincidence that the events of 'Beth's' life exactly match those of yours? And was it not that Mr. Holmes, who you had revitalized, that always said there was no such thing as coincidence?"

Rubbing her temples, Lestrade replied, "No, I don't think it's a coincidence at all. 'Beth' doesn’t exist. You two are both crazy and belong in a mental institute. Fairies are fictional beings who were made up for kids' stories. Now if you don't want me to report you, I suggest you leave, seeing as I have actual work to do." She turned to open the door, but spun around on her heel upon hearing the 'faery' shout.

"WHAT?!" Lestrade countered.

She barely came up past Lestrade's waist, but Holly still managed to portray a great sense of anger. "Won't you even give us a chance? We came all this way to find you and you won't even listen?"

"Give me three good reasons why I should. Besides, even if we are sisters or something, and I’m not saying we are, what makes you think I could help? And, after all, the only reason you came to find me was because you needed something. If all that was true, you just went and dumped me in some God-forsaken place, because you wanted to save your own skin. Then, once a week, you turned on a computer to see whether or not I was still sitting there! It doesn't seem to me that you cared at all. Oh! But now you do! Now that you need something you care a great deal! Well, excuse me, but I already have enough of that kind of people in my life and I certainly don't need more!"

Holly was dumbfounded. She'd never thought of it that way. She'd always loved her sister very much, even though she'd never met her. Coming down at all hours of the day (as she worked during the night), every day, to see whether or not she was okay; sending her presents on her birthday, under the name of 'Aunt Marge' -- she'd always hoped that she'd meet her one day. This had given her the excuse, and it had never entered her mind that Beth would welcome her with anything but joy.

Lestrade was thoroughly furious. Hatred, spite and disorientation mixed together and made her hopeless. "Go away! Leave me alone! I HATE you! Don't you dare come near me again!" Angrily, Lestrade jerked open the door and flew away down the hall.

How dare they?! How dare they come in here and say things like that? Who do they think they are!? Faeries! Zed. Lestrade rushed down hall after hall, knocking over several people in the process. She didn't bother with the subway, once out of the Yard building, she ran all the way to Baker Street.

When she finally got there, she barely had enough energy to open the outer door. After collapsing onto the stairs and catching her breath, Lestrade realized there were dry teartracks going down her cheeks. Viciously, she rubbed them away and stood up. The flight up to 221b seemed terribly long and dark. Why was she here anyways? She couldn't tell Holmes about this! Her shoulders slumped; she knew why she was here. Holmes always solved all her problems. She was losing her independence, coming to him for everything. This was up to her...but there wasn't any harm to go up to visit, seeing as she was here anyways.

Liar, liar, a voice in her head mocked her. Holmes would find out all about it, by the time this visit was over. If she had made that realization any other day, Lestrade would've gone straight back to the Yard. Unfortunately, she'd just had two strangers take her life, rip it to pieces and use it as confetti. Pride or not, she needed company, even if it was sarcastic, know-it-all company.

She opened the door quietly, almost as if afraid of finding someone at home. "Hello, Lestrade. I was expecting you." She rolled her eyes.

"You can't say you were 'expecting me' I always come here."

"Ah, but I was expecting you within the next five minutes. You see, we have most interesting guests, with most interesting DNA."

"Whaa?" Lestrade came around to see who was sitting on the couch. "YOU! What are you two DOING here?! I told you to leave me ALONE! Now you come here! Do you know EVERYTHING about me? Aargh!!" Lestrade glared around the room and plunked into a chair.

"Well," Artemis began infuriatingly calmly, "I suppose you could say that....seeing as we do know more about you than you do yourself. Or will admit to knowing."

Holly rolled her eyes, "Please excuse Artemis. He's one of those kids who have an annoying response to everything."

Watson smiled; he liked these two newest strangers.

"I noticed." Lestrade remarked dryly. "You said something about DNA, Holmes?"

"Yes." Watson answered. "Miss Holly asked me to scan her DNA and we got most unusual results. It seems she is not human. I’ve never encountered such a thing before. It's very similar to human DNA, though; I do believe you have at least one human ancestor, miss."

Holly nodded slowly.

"I don't suppose you're about to share, though...." Holmes looked down at her pointedly.

Holly flipped off her hood. "Yes, I'll share." And share she did, much to Lestrade’s utmost disgust.