Here is chapter 12. Yea! Good news….Lemony's gone. He called me a boring person, then he left.

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MissSunnyBaudelaire

Thesudokukid

La-la-la-45

Disclaimer: This does not belong to me. This belongs to Daniel Handler, and Lemony Snicket. I own nothing except, the title, plot, summary, and Faith. Now please go away.

No, don't go! I meant now please read. Thanks.

This is a Duncith chapter……….

Chapter 12

Duncan hadn't seen which direction Faith had gone, so he had to search for her. First, he checked the entire second floor. He started walking down the hall checking in every room. The halls were quite large, so it does take a while for one to find what it is one is looking for. He happened to walk swiftly past the study room catching a glimpse of his sister handing her notebook to Klaus.

After deciding Faith wasn't on the second floor, he decided to check the first floor; and if she wasn't there, he would check the third and fourth floors.

No one knew he secretly fancied Faith. She was smart, funny, everything. He knew Quigley fancied Violet, and that Klaus fancied Isadora.

He knew his brother fancied Violet because of this: After he and Isadora met up with Quigley, Duncan noticed that Quigley was in deep thought often, and sometimes while Quigley slept, Duncan sometimes would hear Quigley mumble Violet's name.

At the time it didn't matter to him--until Quigley started mumbling, "Violet, I love you". Duncan was hurt at the time because he still had feelings about Violet. Until he met Cindy Underwood. Well, she actually went by Faith, of course.

Duncan walked down the stairs and made a turn for the next hall. He stopped in front of the library and opened the double doors. He stuck his head in. Not a living soul was in sight.

Just as he shut the double doors he heard a loud, "Bye!" causing his head to jerk up towards the ceiling. Running footsteps followed the voice. Probably Isadora freaking out, he thought.

Duncan continued walking. He was thinking about how he was going to approach her. He knew with experience that saying the wrong thing in comforting a girl could lead to her yelling at you, and if your unlucky--a slap in the face. So he decided that if he played his cards right, He'll live through the situation just fine with out getting slapped.

And his 'experience' was with one girl. And that one girl was his sister. He knew that when a girl is angry or hurt, she just wants someone to talk to, and wants someone to listen and have patience. Maybe even by asking the right questions would equal up to a happy person. Throw in a small joke that'll seem suitable at the right time, and you've succeeded.

Just as he passed the storage room, he heard voices. He couldn't make out the words, but he realized that the voices belonged to Violet and Quigley.

Just as their voices dropped to a low whisper, Duncan heard a faint sound. It wasn't someone screaming for assistance, or some annoying child playing with his toy, but a musical sound. It was a soothing sound, not the bothersome sound of a man who ran a boarding school playing the violin. Although, he couldn't make out the instrument.

Duncan walked past the storage closet, following the music. The closer he got, he discovered that the instrument was a piano. The person playing wasn't singing, and there weren't any other instruments being played.

He noticed that the music was coming from the ballroom. He stood in the doorway between the huge opened double doors and listened. The lullaby was echoing off the walls and the ceiling. He walked in, finally. And looked around the room for the piano.

He spotted it in the corner of the room. Its musician was none other than Faith. Duncan noticed that she was in deep concentration. She played with her eyes closed, and her brow was furrowed a bit. And she was swaying with the music, her head slowly nodding with every beat. Obviously she was oblivious to any signs of an entrance.

Duncan didn't want to interrupt her, for it was considered to be a rude task, so he went over by the organ and leaned against, listening to every note. When the song ended, Duncan applauded. Faith's eyes jerked open, when she saw Duncan standing by the organ, she froze.

Duncan stood up straight and walked to her saying, "That was fantastic! I didn't know you played." Faith looked down modestly. "Yeah, well…I've been playing for a while."

"Who inspires you?" Faith looked up at him with a confused look that told Duncan she was going through one of her "random moments" "What?" she asked.

Duncan sat down next to her. "Who inspires you?" he asked again patiently. "Like, Dorothy Parker, one of the world's greatest journalists, inspires me. Which composer inspires you?"

Faith sat up straighter; finally understanding. "Um, I guess Yiruma inspires me…yeah, that's right." Duncan nodded understandingly. Now it was time to ask the serious question step by step. "So Faith," he started, "what brings you to this hallowed sanctity of music and dance?" he finished, looking around.

"I came here to calm down. Piano is very soothing, and hearing its sweet music calms me down." she answered. Duncan decided to play dumb here. "Oh! So something angered you?" he did his best to look as if he hadn't known, even though he saw her storm out the study room.

Faith looked at her hands and back at Duncan before nodding. So Duncan said, "I see, so would you care to tell me more about where this 'anger'" -here he air quoted for the word anger- "came from while we walk to the living room?"

Faith raised an eyebrow at him. She noticed something strange about him. But she ended up telling Duncan the entire story while they were making their way to the living room; every once in a while stopping between parts of the story to hear Duncan's thoughts. But all he would say was, "Go on".

By the time they sat on the couch, Faith was finished with her story and Duncan was gently rubbing his chin as if he was still taking this all in. Then he finally dropped his hand, and looked up at her, squinting his eyes a little trying to look confused as he said slowly, "And how does that make you feel?"

Faith frowned at him. "Are you feeling okay, Duncan?" This was Duncan's turn to frown at her. "Hey, I'm the therapist here. So all the questions must be asked by me….Now again--how does that make you feel?"

Faith looked at him blankly. And she thought she was the strange one. "…Confused…"

"You're confused about the argument?"

"No, I'm confused about you. Are you sure you're feeling okay? Because first you were my friend now all of the sudden you're my therapist."

"Faith, I'm trying to help you here. How can I help you if you don't help me?"

"Help you with what? You just said you were trying to help me."

"But I need your help to help you because with your help in cooperating, I'll be able to help you, that's how you'll be helping me."

"Huh?"

"What, you didn't understand that?"

"Not really."

"Oh, well me neither."

"How'd you not get it? You're the one that said it."

"Aw, I do that all the time."

"Do what?"

"I say things right off the top of my head and don't even understand the concept, causing others to get really confused."

Faith looked at him blankly.

"See? You hadn't understood a word I just said have you?"

Faith shook her head slowly.

"Yeah, I get that same gesture a lot."

Soon there was a small silence. Duncan took the remote control to the television and turned it on. It was on the Discovery channel. Its topic was rabbits.

"Hey look, a hare!" Duncan cried out, purposely trying to be dumb.

"That's a bunny, Duncan," Faith said blankly.

"Oh."

Soon the commercial break came on, and one was a black and white video of something blowing up in the distance. Duncan decided to do something crazy so he did. He knocked Faith over on the couch, him on top her screaming, "Take cover, EXPOLSION!"

"Duncan! What…are…you…doing?"

"Protecting you! What does it look like?"

"It looks like you're trying to squish me."

"Oh, I'm sorry." He got off of her.

Then there was more silence before Duncan said blankly staring into the television, "I wish I could do that…" Faith looked at him. "Wish you could do what?"

"Explosion…."

"Why?"

"I'd blow up this place so that we could escape."

Faith was silent for a moment. "That's not a bad idea…." she finally said blankly.

Duncan replied with a nod. Then Faith pushed him off the couch and he fell to the floor. He turned to look at her. "…Why?"

"Blowing the place up would kill us all," she answered.

"Oh, yeah." He got back on the couch before deciding to do something. "Let me see your hand for a minute." Faith looked at him. "Why?" she asked him. "Trust me, I won't do anything stupid." he said sincerely.

Faith was hesitant at first, but she held out her hand. Duncan took it and turned it so her palm was facing upward.

He took his index finger, and fingered an imaginary line across her hand. "Here is where a creek flows," he said, "and here's a bunny." He pointed to one side of the 'creek' of where the bunny was. "The bunny wants to get across,"-he acted out the part of the bunny with his finger- "so he jumps into water and goes 'glub glub, glub'."

Faith looked at him, confused. "What was the point of that?" Duncan, still holding her hand, placed his other hand on her palm, and looked at her with puppy eyes. "There was no point. I just wanted an excuse to hold your hand."

Faith's cheeks grew hot. Duncan, although, took that blush the wrong way. He let go of her hand. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have…"

"Why are you sorry?"

"Didn't I embarrass you?"

"No! Of course not. In fact, I'm quite flattered," Faith said.

"Oh, but you turned red."

"All girls tend to do that when a guy flatters them. You didn't know that?"

Duncan shook his head. Quigley was always the one getting the girls, so Duncan really had no idea. But he didn't say that. Faith looked down at her fiddling hands. Without looking up she said, " But I really like you, Duncan."

Duncan looked at her. "Really?" Faith looked up at him and nodded. Duncan was still finding this hard to believe. "Me? You like me?" His eyes were wide.

Faith nodded at him again. "Yeah, why not?"

"I just always thought I was never the type…"

Just then, something crept into Faith's mind. "Duncan…you've never had a girlfriend before…have you?" Duncan froze. Before he knew it, he was babbling. "What? No. No, no, no, no. I've-Pfft. I've uh, I've had a girlfriend before. Yeah, uh I mean...there uh, yeah there was this one…uh girl…and this other girl-no I've never really had a girlfriend."

Faith chuckled. Duncan looked at her. "I don't think me not ever having a girlfriend is funny." "Duncan, it's not that. I was laughing because to me you have always seemed like the type of guy that always had a girlfriend."

Duncan frowned. "Seriously?"

"Well, yeah…See, I thought-" she took a quick glance at him "- never mind."

"What? What were you going to say?"

"Nothing. It's not important really." she sounded panicky.

"Faith…tell me…." Duncan said suspiciously.

"Ok, fine. But remember, you asked for it."

"Whatever just tell me." Duncan's curiosity got the best of him.

"I've liked you ever since my dad imprisoned you on the submarine, but the way you and Fiona hung around each other, I thought that maybe you two were a couple." Faith watched his reaction.

"That's it?"

"For now…."

"Faith, I was just being friendly. She was really hurting during that time. She had it rough. Her father disappeared along with her stepbrother. They were the only family she had. She was also hurting because she was desperate to reach Klaus. He was all she talked about. I convinced Isadora to help her. But after hearing Fiona talk about Klaus for long time…it saddened my sister. Fiona even blurted out something about a kiss that she gave him.

"Isadora….gosh, she couldn't take that. So while Quigley comforted her, I comforted Fiona. I can tell you, Faith, that I never had any interest in Fiona at all."

"Oh. I hadn't realized that."

Duncan smiled at her. "Of course not. There's no way you could've known."

Faith nodded as she fumbled with her fingers.

"What else have you thought?" Duncan asked her.

"Uh….this part is really not important."

"Faith…."

"Fine. But don't freak out."

"Faith, out with it!"

"Ok! IthoughtyouandCarmelitausedtodatebecauseshealwaysseemedtotourtureyoumore. There I said it. Are you happy now?"

Duncan couldn't answer her because he had frozen.

"Duncan? Duncan, are you ok? Are you going to freak out?"

Just then Duncan finally said blankly," You thought…me and…."

Faith nodded. Just then silence. Then Duncan said in a small tone, "Never--I repeat--Never, would I go out with someone as-" here he slowly rose from his seat, his voice growing louder "-rude, horrid, mean, or nasty as CARMELITA SPATS!"

Faith stood up. "Ok, you freaked out anyways. But let's look at the bright side!"

Duncan looked at her, still disgusted by her thought about him and Carmelita.

Faith continued, "While we were still on that sub I had thought about singing 'Girlfriend' to you in order that you would dump Fiona!" Duncan loosened up his firm position before saying, "You know, doing that would've worked, but I'm pretty sure that after the performance there would be some awkwardness."

"I know. That's why I didn't do it."

Duncan grinned at her. Then he put his arm around her. "So, are you still upset, or has Dr. Duncan-ator Quagmire helped you out?"

Faith grinned back at him. "I think that you've made my day, Doctor. And for that, I thank you." And then she put her arm around his waist, and gave him a peck on the cheek. Duncan turned as red as a tomato, causing Faith to giggle.

Duncan, still tomato-red, said, "I'm going to have to make your day more often. But I know one thing is for sure." Faith looked at him curiously. Duncan continued, "You make my day, everyday."

And with that, he gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Hey, how about we go find the others?" Duncan asked. "Sounds great!" Faith replied. And away they went.

I must say, I really enjoyed writing this chapter. I think I've done a decent job. It just seemed to be really sweet. You might've noticed that I've tried a little bit of humor in it. Let me know how I did with the humor. I'm trying to pick up on my sister…. So be a doll would you, and give me some feedback. I love you all!