Series of Unfortunate Events One-shots, What-ifs, and Drabbles

Freedom

Wouldn't it be great, Violet thought to herself, if we could just do it all over. Starting from the day they met Count Olaf- no, even before that. Would that they hadn't gone to Briny Beach that day. Even if they had died in the fire, maybe, just maybe, it would've been better than how life was these days. Being framed for murder and arson, having to live with the choices they made, having to raise Sunny and Beatrice in a toxic environment where everybody around them either pitied them or believed that they had committed all the heinous crimes they were framed for... Perhaps it would've been better to be collateral damage in VFD's schism.

But no, that wouldn't work, would it? Because while Violet was willing to consign herself to a horrible, fiery death, she was not willing to end her siblings' lives the same way. She couldn't bear for Klaus's life to end when he was just twelve, and Sunny's before she even knew who she was. No, better to live and take care of her siblings. 

Besides, there was no changing the past, even if they wanted to. Even though they had been acquitted, people still glared at them as they walked down the streets, but she'd take their glares any day over the feeling of despair she felt as Count Olaf hunted her and her siblings and walked the streets freely, gallivanting under everybody's false impression that he was dead. No disguises for him then, and she and her siblings had to skulk in the shadows. Now, they were able to walk the streets freely; to live their lives freely.

Sunny was enjoying the tutors Violet hired for her, and Klaus spent hours pouring over the books in the extensive library they were building up. Beatrice was able to go to day care and came home each afternoon babbling about friends she'd made and showing Violet, Klaus, and Sunny what she'd drawn- or rather, scribbled. Violet herself had an inventing studio where she spent most of her time building things and fixing appliances and making toys and inventing gadgets that would improve their lives.

Every so often they would run into somebody who believed in their innocence- people who knew the Daily Punctilio only printed lies, people who had been following their story more closely than most. These people became their allies, and in rare cases, their friends. Violet and Klaus had a small group of friends of varying ages who were willing to take them at face value. With this support, they were eventually able to introduce Sunny into a regular school, and she began to slowly make friends herself.

Life was better now, and, she reflected, really, she didn't want to give it up after all.