A/N: Written for the Secret Volunteer Holiday Exchange organized by lizzysong on tumblr.
The news came typed in a small strip of paper hidden inside a fortune cookie. As this method of communication required, it contained only the essential, no details, no emotion.
"B.B. and B.B. down."
It hit Monty pretty badly, and he didn't remember how he managed to drive home after learning about it. Beatrice and Bertrand Baudelaire were good people and good friends. He had missed them in the years he had not seen them, and he would miss them even more now. To make things worse, they were leaving behind three children, and he couldn't imagine how sad and scared they were.
So many good people were gone, dead or missing. Everyone had good reason to be scared. Monty was scared for himself, as his library had too many secrets and his reptiles sent too many crucial messages. He was scared for Gustav, who was a brilliant inventor and could crack almost any code. And he was scared for the children, who were heirs of a legacy and a fortune that surely could attract a lot of unwanted attention.
Somehow, Monty drove home, and wiped his eyes before leaving his car. There was a lot of work to do.
Instead of telling Gustav the news, Monty simply showed him the note. He was still not sure he could say those words without crying again, and this was no time for crying. His partner was as devastated by it as he was. For some minutes, they were both in silence, the only sound the reptiles moving in their cages.
All volunteers who had children made a list of possible guardians for the case of their premature death. It was very important, to give the children this last protection, a last way to make sure they would be well cared for. The list was extra official, it couldn't be included in the will. There were laws about it, that many times contradicted the volunteers' wishes, and there was almost always money involved, but the volunteers had their ways. A person of trust in a strategic position here, a few fake documents there. It worked well.
Monty knew he was the first one in the Baudelaire parents' list - well, the first one who wasn't dead or missing.
"Do you know the children, Gustav?" He asked, breaking the silence.
Gustav looked at him in confusion for a moment.
"Have you met them?" Monty rephrased.
"I never had the chance." Gustav replied. "Have you?"
Monty slowly shook his head.
"I only know what Beatrice told in her letters."
"I am sure they are wonderful."
"I'm sure they are." Monty agreed, remembered how fondly Beatrice wrote about them. "I just… have no idea of how to take care of human children. They are different from reptiles."
Gustav showed him a small amused smile.
"They are, but I am sure we can figure out what they need. Together." He said, placing a hand over his partner's.
Monty wanted to believe that. He pushed back his sorrow the next day and visited the nearest library to check out some books on how to care for children and young teenagers. He and Gustav started reading, wanting to learn all they could before the children arrived.
"We should take them to the movies." Gustav suggested. It was to be expected from him.
"Sunny may be too young for horror movies, Gustav." Monty said, chuckling.
Gustav made an exaggerated disappointed face.
"There are other movie genres, I guess…" He shrugged.
"Violet is an inventor." Monty said. At that, his partner smiled. "I think you two will get along well."
"I'm sure we will."
"Do you think any of them is afraid of snakes?" Monty asked in a low voice.
"If they are, you can still teach them how to stay safe, how to tell a dangerous snake from a harmless one, what to do if an accident happens. You can give them the knowledge to keep their fears at a rational level, like you already do to so many people in your lectures." Gustav said. He noticed how Monty still seemed worried. "It will not be as fun, but it will be fine. We'll find a way to make them feel at home here."
"We must!" Monty said. "They are going through such a hard moment. I want them to feel safe here."
"They will feel safe, because they will be safe." Gustav said confidently. The two men exchanged a smile. "I think you should bake your coconut cream cake. That will make a good first impression."
Monty chuckled. "Aren't you saying this just because you want cake?"
"It is a win-win case!"
They laughed, and Monty felt that his fears were maybe too much.
But soon it became clear that something was wrong. There was no word from the bank, not that day and not the next. It was odd, it was expected that they would want to place the children as soon as possible. Where even were they staying during these days?
Gustav decided to go to the city to find out what was going on. Monty wanted to go with him, but he couldn't leave his reptiles alone. So, with increasing apprehension he waited.
The morning when the bank finally called was a blur to Monty. He didn't remember ever feeling so much anger, not even when the members of the Herpetological Society made their cruelest jokes. Every creature in the reptile room noticed the figurative dark cloud surrounding the usually cheerful scientist. At least the children's suffering would be over now.
Monty hoped Gustav was right about the cake. He really wanted to give the children a good first impression, but most of all, he wanted to give them something good after what they suffered in Olaf's hands.
Klaus' skepticism broke his heart. It was not a negative trait, but the boy was so young and Monty knew at least part of it came from his bad experience with Olaf. That should never have happened. He realized it would take some time for the children to trust him fully, but he was willing to work to earn it.
They were wonderful. Gustav would certainly approve of their taste for movies. Violet was kind and polite. Klaus was observing and had a vast vocabulary. And little Sunny had a lot of personality for someone so young. They were intelligent and protective of each other. And that was just what he noticed in their first meeting!
But one thing worried him. They seemed to know little or nothing about the organization. They said their parents never told them about him, and showed no reaction when he dropped a small code. He couldn't imagine why Beatrice and Bertrand would not teach their children about their ways. He would need to teach them, slowly and being careful not to put them in any danger, of course.
He would rather wait until Gustav was back. There were many things his partner would be able to explain much better.
A great way to introduce the children to codes would be taking them to the movies. However, Monty couldn't start it right now. He had a message to receive, and it could be something upsetting, something about Olaf, maybe. He didn't want the children's first experience to be like that. So, for now, he had to dismiss their questions and ignore their inquisitive looks.
By the time the tragic ending of Zombies in the Snow played on screen, Monty had written on the back of his ticket:
"Hi, Monty. Olaf is surrounded. I'm arriving tomorrow."
And those were the first good news he had received in a while.
As promised, Gustav arrived the next day. Monty made sure to bake another cake. They had a pleasant time, all five of them. The children told Gustav about their experiences in the reptile room so far, and he in return told some of his own. But the moment he mentioned a special trap he built to capture very small snakes without harming them, Violet glowed. She asked how it worked, and then gave suggestions, and soon the two inventors were talking in a language only the two of them understood. Monty smiled at Sunny, who was eating her marshmallows (a soft food she liked!), and Klaus asked him about the habitat of the winged lizard, and then about some technical terms he found on the book he was reading earlier. Monty was glad to explain it all to him.
The next day, all of them were working in the reptile room (except for Sunny, who was playing with the Incredibly Deadly Viper) when Gustav noticed Klaus looking sadly at an object. Monty pretended to be reading his notes, but actually watched the two of them.
"I found it at our home." Klaus explained in a quiet voice, showing the broken spyglass to Gustav.
Without a word, Gustav took his own spyglass from his pocket. Klaus' eyes lit up. Gustav moved the dials, very slowly so Klaus could understand what he was doing, and opened the lid to reveal a light.
There were so many questions in the boy's eyes. After a while, both Violet and Sunny raised their eyes to the strange flashlight.
"What is it?" Violet asked.
"It's a very flexible device. It has an electromagnetic circuit that can produce light and heat." He moved the dials again, turning off the light. "It has special lenses that can be used to decipher secret codes. And it's pretty heavy, so you could use it to defend yourself from an attacker, if you ever end up in this sort of situation."
"I have never heard of a device like this before." Violet said. "Who invented it?"
"I did." Gustav said, some pride showing in his voice.
"For expeditions?" Klaus asked.
"For that too." Gustav said, closing the lid of the spyglass. But before he could start explaining the real use of the spyglass, Sunny noticed something that none of the siblings had noticed before.
"Oio!" She exclaimed, an expression that here means "Look! It's the same symbol Count Olaf has on his ankle!".
Violet and Klaus saw that she was right. The three of them had seen that eye many times. It was over Count Olaf's house, on the wallpaper and on the front door, on the windows they were forced to clean and on the signature of every list of chores he left for them. His tower room had paintings and sketches of it, and of course, he had it tattooed on his ankle. The children did not understand his obsession with eyes, but in the time they spent with him, they learned to associate the symbol with him, and it still gave them shivers.
Klaus had seen it again more recently, in the labyrinth outside Monty's house. All the doubts he had from the moment he first talked to the man returned. He had shown it to his sisters too, so they were also doubtful now.
"I can explain it." Gustav said, noticing the change in the children's expressions.
Monty stood up and walked to them. "It doesn't mean what you think it means."
"So what does it mean?" Violet asked, her voice sad and confused.
They explained it. They told them the incomplete history of a group of noble and well-read people who fought to make the world a quieter place, and how some of them betrayed their ideals for their own greed. They didn't tell the whole story, for it was too full of sorrow and hard decisions and other things the children didn't need to know yet. They told them just enough for them to understand why those people needed to decipher secret codes, and hide, and sometimes even lie.
However, Monty and Gustav couldn't give the answer the children most wanted to know: why did their parents hide all of this from them? They didn't have it.
"Can we be a part of it?" Klaus asked. "Of this… organization?"
"Only if you want to." Monty said. "It's voluntary."
"Koot." Sunny said, which meant "It didn't sound voluntary in the story you just told us."
"Is it really?" Violet asked instead.
"It has not always been." Gustav admitted. "But it should be."
The children remained silent, thinking about all they had just learned.
"If Count Olaf comes after us again…" Klaus started.
"He won't." Monty interrupted him.
"How can you be so sure? He has escaped from the authorities before."
"I… I can't." Monty admitted. "But be assured that we will protect you, no matter what happens."
Gustav nodded.
"You don't need to make a choice right now. Take all the time you need." He said.
"Your parents would be very proud of you if you joined us." Monty said, truthfully.
"They would be proud of you either way." Gustav added. "For choosing your own path, being it the same as theirs or something else."
The children nodded. The mention of their parents made them emotional, specially after learning about so many of the secrets they hid. Violet felt tears in her eyes, while Klaus was already crying. Sunny's lip trembled. Monty slowly approached them, opening his arms tentatively. Violet was the first to accept the hug, but her siblings soon followed.
Crying is never pleasant, but at that moment the Baudelaire children felt it was just what they needed. They missed their parents, and they knew they always would, but the story Monty and Gustav told them made some of the unfortunate events that happened to them finally make some sense, and in a way they felt closer to turning a new page in their lives than they were before. And maybe this would be a much more fortunate page.