How It Should Have Been

Chapter 1: Escaping the Village

Begin!

Universe*

~Normal POV

Fowl Fountain opened its secret doors, and Duncan and Isadora rushed out into the arms of Violet and Klaus.

"You figured it out," Isadora screamed happily.

"Of course we did! Isadora using your couplets was an amazing idea," Klaus replied as he released her from his tight hug.

"Oh, I can't take all the credit. Duncan figured out how to attach them to the crows."

Duncan and Violet were only barely listening. Klaus smirked slightly with amusement. He knew Violet had seen that interesting D.Q+V.B carving in the red herring statue, and now he watched as his sister stared at the journalist with a pink blush tinting her cheeks. Duncan was staring right back at her, his own face having turned pink as well.

"How did you guys find us in the first place," Duncan asked finally.

"We live here with our new guardian, Hector. We've spent the past few days looking for you. We found the red herring statue in the saloon so we knew you were close," Violet answered.

Duncan's face suddenly turned scarlet, "Uh, you didn't happen to see anything written inside?"

Violet smiled, "Didn't have time to examine it closely."

Duncan grinned nervously, "Ok, good."

Klaus could tell by the look in his sister's eyes that she definitely intended on telling him the truth later.

"Alright enough with the warm fuzzies you two, we need to get out of here if Count Olaf is still around," Isadora chimed in.

"We can't stay with Hector anymore either, everyone thinks we're murderers, we'll just have to leave town," Klaus said.

"Right, wait, where's Sunny," Violet asked looking around frantically for her baby sister.

"Mawo," Sunny shouted, she was standing by a building off to the side of the road.

Klaus grabbed Isadora's hand as Violet grabbed Duncan's hand, and the four of them ran over to her. The building turned out to be an abandoned fire station. Sunny gave a big toothy grin as she pointed to a fire truck.

"That'll work," Violet said.

Sunny climbed into the driver's seat and started the truck; lord knows how a one year old was able to drive, but she managed it. Klaus and Isadora climbed into the backseat while Violet and Duncan took the front. They started driving towards the edge of town, but the angry mob led by Count Olaf and Esmé had spotted them.

"There they are," Esmé screamed, brandishing a harpoon gun.

"Where the hell did she get a harpoon gun," Duncan asked.

Violet grinned as an idea formed in her head, "Sunny, stop the truck for a second."

Sunny did as she was told and Violet leaned out the window momentarily to scream, "Hey Officer Luciana! You wouldn't want to shoot at us with that mechanical device would you?"

She pulled back inside, "Drive!"

The truck started up again as they could hear the crowd angrily shouting at their supposed police chief for breaking the rules. The mob had started trying to grab her as she swung the weapon out of their reach. Her finger slipped on the trigger and a harpoon was fired into the air and shot down a crow.

The last thing the five orphans heard as they rode to safety in their fire truck was an entire village of people screaming, "You harmed a crow! You broke rule number one!"

~...

They had been driving for hours. The clock on the dashboard said it was 1 a.m. and Violet could see the truck was going to run out of gas eventually. The Hinterlands were huge, flat, and open meaning they had nowhere to hide otherwise. The inventor sighed heavily as she looked around at the others. Klaus and Isadora were asleep in the backseat. Violet smiled a little at the sight of them: Klaus had his arms wrapped around Isadora as she was resting comfortably on his chest. Those two were made for each other. Violet turned her gaze to Sunny; the youngest Baudelaire was keeping her eyes on the road as she drove. Perhaps all those sleepless nights doing laps at Prufrock had affected her somehow because she was managing to stay awake remarkably well for a one year old.

"Hey, are you ok?"

Duncan spoke softly, so as not to wake their siblings, and Violet turned her attention to him.

"I thought you were asleep."

"I just woke up. Why aren't you asleep?"

"I tried, but I just couldn't. I guess I'm too on edge."

He sat up a little straighter, "I know the feeling. I haven't really slept well since the fire."

Violet chuckled softly, "You might have that problem, but Izzie certainly looks comfortable back there."

He looked to the back seat and smirked, "Well, don't they make a cute couple? I hope you know that if he hurts my sister I'll have to kill him."

"Duncan, Klaus is your best friend; you know he wouldn't do something like that. I know my brother and he's very trustworthy and respectful. Besides, he's never even kissed a girl before; unless you count Isadora kissing him on the cheek back at Prufrock."

The journalist chuckled, "Sorry, Quigley and I swore that we'd never let a guy near Isadora without our express permission. She is our baby sister after all... well by ten minutes for me, five minutes for Quigley. I'll have a talk with Klaus later about it, you know just to lay out the ground rules."

Violet rolled her eyes with a soft smile at his behavior. Duncan Quagmire had this effect on her. He helped her calm down. He was able to lift her previous worries by simply being here. And his charming smile made her heart flutter. Why did he have to be so good looking? It was a question she had asked herself since the day she met him. Violet Baudelaire was no stranger to cute boys; having inherited her own bewitching good looks from her mother made boys rather interested in her as well. She had never kissed a guy before, but it wasn't as if she hadn't considered the idea.

Duncan was different. He made her feel safe; despite the fact that it was her having to save him recently. It wasn't the kind of "knight-in-shining-armor" feeling of safety that he gave her. Not like those fairy tales her mother and father read to her as a little girl. It was the "as-long-as-we're-together-we-can-survive-anything" feeling. She had to admit she liked that feeling a lot more; it felt real and wonderful. It felt just right. She was suddenly thankful for the darkness hiding her blushing face.

"Duncan, I have to talk to you about something."

"Sure, what's wrong?"

"I lied to you earlier. I'm sorry; I did see something written inside that red herring statue. I didn't want to say anything because I thought it wasn't a good time. I wanted to get us out of there first."

He started fidgeting, a blush crossing his cheeks as well, "Oh, uh... that's ok I forgive you. What did you see?"

She smiled slyly, "I just saw these carvings that looked like they said D.Q+V.B."

Duncan tried to regain his composure. His crush had found out about his secret feelings, and he didn't know what to do now.

"And how do you feel about that," He asked, choosing his words carefully.

She grabbed his hand and locked her dark eyes with his amazing green ones, "I like you too Duncan. And I want to be with you."

"You do," His voice cracked slightly, "I mean, I want to be with you too, Violet."

She giggled quietly, moving closer to him, and rested her head on his warm shoulder. Duncan grinned and wrapped his arm around her.

"Get some rest, I'll watch the road," He said.

"Don't have to tell me twice," Violet replied as she dozed off.

"Violet Baudelaire, I will not let anything separate us ever again."

~End of chapter!