A/N: I am very pleased with how this ended up turning out. It's a different take on the Violet Snicket Theory than anything that I've personally seen, so I hope you like it. Feedback is much appreciated!

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A tall, dark-haired man steps out of the taxi and smiles at the children. "Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire," he says. His voice is deep—very deep. He continues, "I've been looking for you three for a long time now. My name is Lemony Snicket."'

Klaus and Sunny look at each other, both remembering the strange man in the Village of Fowl Devotees who had tried to help them. Was this his brother, then?

The man then says, "I need you to get into this taxi. There's no time to explain but there's somewhere very important you three need to be."

"Last safe place," Sunny says, and Lemony gives her a small smile.

Klaus looks at the stranger distrustfully but Violet is suddenly eleven months old again, being cradled by someone as he sings her to sleep in his deep voice—a voice she knows doesn't belong to her father. Her brother whispers her name and brings her out of her flashback. He's holding Sunny and now looking warily at Mr. Poe—who is in the middle of a coughing fit. "Do we trust him? He's a Snicket but that doesn't necessarily mean he's a good person."

"I trust him," Violet says immediately, to her own surprise. There's something about this strange man with the taxi and very distinctive voice that screams to her that he is trustworthy. She has the strangest feeling that she's met him before.

Mr. Poe is making his way up towards them and all three children look at each other and come to the same conclusion—they need to take a leap of faith and trust Lemony Snicket.

Violet turns back to look at Lemony and simply nods. He gives a small, sad smile and opens up the back door. The three of them pile into the backseat and Mr. Snicket is speeding away mere seconds after they've put their seatbelts on.

The mysterious man driving the taxi breaks at least five traffic safety laws in the next ten minutes. He glances at them in the rearview mirror. "I apologize, Baudelaires. Things are often not what they seem. For example, right now I'm sure I seem like an irresponsible taxi driver with no regard for traffic safety laws, but really, I'm just trying to get rid of the car that's been following us since you got into this taxi."

All three children turn to look out the back window to see that, indeed, there is a black car following them.

"Hold onto something," Lemony advises, before sharply turning the vehicle to the left. "I suspect that those are two wicked people my sister met, up in the Mortmain Mountains."

"We were just there!" Violet says, looking at her siblings in surprise.

"Both my siblings and I have been searching for you three for a while now." Lemony meets Violet's eyes in the rearview mirror and she can't help but notice the overwhelming sadness in their blue depths.

She suddenly thinks back to a time a few years ago. Her class had learned about genetics that week and it was that week that she'd had the realization that she was only person in her family with blue eyes. It had seemed strange at the time but she quickly wrote it off as a fluke—after all, genetics are much more complicated than most teachers would have you believe.

Lemony continues talking and pulls Violet out of her musing. "My sister, Kit, was supposed to be the one to pick you up from Briny Beach but she got an urgent message that needed addressing immediately. So I volunteered."

Violet is only half listening at this point. She has the sneaking suspicion not only that she has met Lemony Snicket before, but also that he is the man she remembers singing her to sleep as an infant.

Klaus glances over at his sister and recognizes that look on her face—he would normally think she was coming up with an invention, except her hair isn't tied up in a ribbon. But then she shakes her head, as if to clear her thoughts, and then is back in the moment.

Lemony takes a sharp turn through some bushes and down a hill and then stops the car. "Ah, finally. Not the route I intended to take but here we are—the last safe place. Otherwise known as Hotel Denouement."

He explains to them what the dilemma is and why V.F.D needs their help. He turns in his seat to look at them. "Say you'll volunteer, Baudelaires."

All three children look at each other and smile. "Of course we will," Violet replies.

The children step into the elevator and test out their hypothesis. Miraculously, they find themselves going down beyond the basement level of the hotel. The room they find themselves in looks to be an office of some kind. They know this is connected to V.F.D and the sugar bowl when they see a copy of The Incomplete History of Secret Organizations that is in the middle of being repaired.

They suddenly hear a man's voice say, "You're not Kit." Someone who looks exactly like Frank or Ernest is standing in front of them.

"I told you they were clever, Dewey," a familiar voice replies. Lemony Snicket steps out from behind the mystery man and smiles kindly at the children. "I see you've discovered V.F.D's best kept secret."

"Triplets," Sunny says, meaning "The Denouement brothers aren't twins, as we were originally told, but actually triplets."

Klaus translates for his sister and then says, "Why didn't you tell us about him?"

The question is directed at Lemony but it is the third Denouement brother who answers, "he didn't tell you because my existence is a secret, which suits me just fine because my work is secret. My name is Dewey Denouement, I'm pleased to make your acquaintance."

He reaches up to open up one of the small drawers lining the walls of the circular room—a library cataloging system, Klaus had said—but Lemony puts out a hand to stop him. "Dewey, I would be extremely careful about showing your face outside of this sub-basement tonight of all nights."

"Why is this night different from all other nights?" Dewey asks.

Lemony looks at him pointedly. "I think you know the answer to that already. Just... be careful. Wait until Thursday."

With that said, the awkward taxi driver walks towards the elevator, pausing to give a small nod and smile to the chilren, before disappearing inside of it.

Dewey seems to be thinking over what Lemony has told him. Violet asks, "What was Mr. Snicket talking about?"

Dewey smiles softly and doesn't answer her question. Instead he says, "Fun fact, Hotel Denouement is not just organized like a library. It is a library."

"Then why is the library cataloging system all the way down here in this sub-basement?" Klaus asks.

"That's just it. It's a sub-library and I'm the sub-librarian. Did you see that pond situated right outside the hotel when you walked in, Baudelaires?"

All three children nod.

"That's the real library. The hotel can burn down to the ground and all of V.F.D's secrets will stay safely hidden at the bottom of that pond. You see, that's what my dear friend, Lemony, was referring to. My plan was to show you all of this, but he's right. It's too dangerous right now with everything that is going on. It will have to wait until Thursday."

"Who is he?" Violet can't help but ask. There is something in the back of her mind that keeps nagging at her but she still doesn't know what it is.

Dewey smiles sadly at Violet and then tells the Baudelaires about the mysterious Lemony Snicket. However, Violet gets the feeling the sub-librarian isn't telling her everything.

Violet stands in front of room 425, hand raised in a fist, poised to knock. What if he didn't want to talk to her? What if this wasn't even his room? Dewey had said that he was a writer of some kind and according to Klaus, this is where books on English grammar were held in a library.

She takes a deep breath and then holds it as she knocks tentatively. Five long seconds pass before she hears movement behind the door and then it cracks open. Lemony Snicket's sad blue eyes peer down at Violet Baudelaire in surprise, at one AM, Wednesday morning.

Truthfully, she wasn't even sure he would open the door so she flounders for a second as she struggles to find words. "I—I'm sorry for waking you, Mr. Snicket—"

"Please, call me Lemony," his deep voice cuts her off. "And I wasn't asleep anyway."

He smiles gently and opens the door wider, allowing her to step into the room. He leads her over to a small sitting area, with two plush armchairs, and then tells her to have a seat. He offers to make some tea, but she's too nervous to drink anything. Her hands are shaking and she grips her knees tightly in an effort to make it stop.

Lemony settles down in the chair next to her and Violet blurts out, before she can give herself a chance to chicken out, "I've met you before, haven't I?"

The tall man with the sad blue eyes is silent for several seconds. He looks down and finally says, "Yes, I met you when you were an infant."

She knows there's more to it than that. "You must have seen me a lot if I can remember you singing to me."

His head snaps up. "How can you possibly remember that?"

It's Violet's turn to look down at the floor. "My mother sang a song to me, every night until I was ten years old. It was a strange song to sing to a child—it was a love song—but I couldn't sleep without it." She looks up at Lemony's face. "But she wasn't the first person to sing it to me. A man was. When I was five, I realized that the voice I was hearing wasn't my father's."

"And you think it was mine?" Lemony guesses.

"I know it was yours," Violet insists. "I'm sure of it."

He doesn't deny it and that all but confirms it. "You must have been a very good friend of my parents," she says.

The sadness is back in those blue eyes and she almost thinks she sees tears. "You could say that," he says quietly. They sit there, staring at each other, for a minute, before Lemony sighs and says, "Violet, you should go to bed. It's late."

She knows there's more to this mystery but frankly, she's too exhausted to think about it any longer. She just sighs and nods and Lemony leads her back to the door. They bid each other good night and then Violet makes her way back downstairs to the lobby of the Hotel Denouement—thoughts racing.

Klaus and Sunny are already fast asleep under the concierge counter when Violet returns and she settles down next to her siblings—but she doesn't sleep. She takes the ribbon that Lemony gave her in the taxi and ties her hair up and then closes her eyes. She's become accustomed to using her resourcefulness for the sake of survival, keeping her siblings safe from Olaf and his troupe. She finds herself inspecting every room she enters—looking for anything that can be taken apart or used as an invention at a moment's notice, in case they needed to make a quick escape.

However, this is different. Now she's trying to piece together her own life—memories from before V.F.D, before the running and the hiding, before the fire that took her parents from her. She hasn't had the time for any of that but here, in the silence of the lobby of Hotel Denouement, things are becoming clear. Until now, all she has had are pieces, and that's all they were—until she looked into those sad blue eyes. Now, everything is connected.

She knows her parents got married in a small ceremony after Violet was born—her mother was pregnant with Klaus at the time. But she knew from a very young age that adults are not required to be married in order to have children. Her parents just happened to be one of those couples, she told herself. She knows she is the only person in her immediate family with blue eyes. But genetics are rarely as straightforward as teachers would have you believe. She remembers very clearly that there are no pictures of her as a newborn with her father. There were plenty of photographs of the two of them displayed around the Baudelaire mansion, but Violet is two years old or older in all of them. There's a picture of her father holding Sunny when she came home from the hospital and a very similar one with Klaus. But Violet very distinctly remembers not seeing any picture of herself coming home from the hospital.

And then, of course, there's Lemony Snicket. She's absolutely sure at this point that it was his voice she was hearing as an infant. Bertrand Baudelaire never sang that song to her.

Violet's eyes snap open. The last piece of the puzzle has fallen into place and she makes a mental note to go back to room 425 tomorrow after the trial to talk to the enigmatic writer.

But then all hell breaks loose.

Lemony is ushering all three siblings into his taxi and speeding away in the chaos caused by the fire making its way up from the basement of Hotel Denouement. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny stare out the rear window in horror. "Don't worry, Baudelaires," Lemony says. "My associates will make sure as many people as possible get out safely."

Violet should have realized that everything sounded too good to be true—that Olaf would be put on trial and justice would be served. Instead, Justice Strauss had unknowingly given everything away to the fire-starting side of the schism and Olaf had escaped once again.

Lemony had sprung into action as soon as he realized who the judges were. He only referred to them as "The Man With A Beard But No Hair" and "The Woman With Hair But No Beard" and all he said about them was that they were two wicked people on the fire-starting side of the schism who were after the sugar bowl and it was imperative that they leave at once.

"What's stopping Olaf from hunting us down and finding us, the way he always does?" Klaus protests from the backseat.

Lemony meets his eye through the rearview mirror and smiles wryly. "People rarely look for those they believe to be dead."

Sunny looks at him questioningly and utters something that was roughly translated by her siblings as, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Lemony laughs softly. "I was forced to fake my death a long time ago—the authorities were after me for a crime I didn't commit, and I was protecting someone very dear to me. I've been on the lam ever since and no one has been able to find me." He glances up at the rearview mirror but he seems to be looking at something beyond the back seat. He sighs and continues, "The only reason my sister knows I'm still alive is because I let her know and no one expected me to be at the hotel, which allowed me to remain undetected."

Violet has another flashback. She's almost two years old—just before Klaus was born. She sees both of her parents at the dining room table. Her mother is holding a newspaper in one hand and sobbing quietly into the other, and her father stands behind his wife with his hands on her shoulders as he kisses the top of her head softly. "The Daily Punctilio is hardly a reliable source, sweetheart. It may just be a false alarm—you know this isn't the first time he's had to do this."

She puts another piece of the puzzle together. It just solidifies the epiphany she had earlier at Hotel Denouement. It's clear to her that Lemony Snicket was much more than a good friend of her parents.

The rest of the drive passes in relative silence. After what feels like hours, the taxi finally stops. All three children peer out the window and have a sudden feeling of déjà vu. The house they are parked outside of looks to be in the same state as Count Olaf's. Windows are boarded up, parts of the outside structure look burnt, and the front lawn is overgrown.

"Things are not always as they appear, Baudelaires," Lemony says, before getting out of the car and coming around to open the back door for them. "This is a safe house my associate prepared for us."

Violet and Klaus look at each other before Violet picks up Sunny and the three follow Lemony Snicket through the front door of the small house. The interior is much more pleasant to look at—not a hint of anything burnt or rotting or broken. Lemony leads them upstairs to one small bedroom that contains two beds. "I apologize, you three will have to share a room."

"Don't mind," Sunny reassures him. She knows she would much rather stay in a room with her siblings, where she can see that they are safe and not have to worry about one of them being kidnapped.

There are three small suitcases in different colors piled at the foot of one bed and when Klaus goes to open the top one, he realizes it's full of clothes and toiletries.

Lemony closes the door softly and lets the children get settled in for bed—it's been a very long day for everyone.

Klaus and Sunny are slumbering peacefully next to Violet later that night. The eldest Baudelaire can't sleep though. She slips out of bed and tiptoes downstairs. She plops down on the small couch and grabs a decorative throw pillow that has the V.F.D insignia on it. She stares ahead, unblinking, for several long seconds. And then she buries her face in the pillow and cries. She cries for Jacques Snicket and her parents and Uncle Monty and Aunt Josephine and the fact that she and her siblings are still on the run. She's mentally and physically exhausted after the year she has had going from guardian to guardian. When will they have peace?

Violet's not sure how long she sits there crying, but when she looks back up again, Lemony Snicket is standing in front of her, looking concerned.

"Are you alright, Violet?" he asks quietly.

She doesn't answer him. Instead she asks her own question. "You're my father, aren't you?"

He sighs and sits down in the armchair next to the sofa. "No," he finally says. Violet feels her heart sink and she can't figure out why. But then he continues. "Bertrand Baudelaire was your father, in all the ways that count."

She doesn't miss the way he words that statement and she sighs. "You know what I mean."

He fidgets with the button on his shirtsleeve and doesn't speak for several seconds. "I didn't expect you to remember me."

"So you are my father."

"Yes, technically speaking."

"And you were the man who sang me to sleep as a baby." It's not a question, but he answers anyway.

"Yes, I was."

"So you were still with my mother back then. Why did you leave?" She blinks back tears.

"It was best for everyone involved that I go on the lam and then fake my own death. I did it to protect you—to protect you and your mother."

"How old was I?"

"Almost a year old."

She swallows back the lump in her throat. "Why didn't you come back?"

He sighs. He seems to be doing that a lot lately. "Things snowballed very quickly from that night onward. Snowballed is a word which here means—"

"I know what it means," Violet interrupts. She's not irritated, the way she would have been with Mr. Poe. She gets the feeling that Lemony defines words as a nervous habit, and not because he believes she is incapable of understanding simple vocabulary.

Lemony clears his throat awkwardly. "The point is, I didn't start out with faking my own death. Circumstances necessitated that fairly soon after I went on the lam, unfortunately. Even now, it's still not safe for me to come out of hiding."

"Would you have ever come back?" She's fiddling with the embroidery on the throw pillow in her lap and she can't bring herself to look into Lemony's eyes.

Once again, the awkward writer sighs. "I'm not sure. Beatrice was so happy with Bertrand. I wouldn't have wanted to get in the way of that."

Violet thinks about the chaos it would have caused, had Lemony reappeared sooner. Klaus would have been angry and Sunny would have been confused. She vows then and there to keep this secret of hers strictly between herself and Lemony Snicket.

Lemony was right, when he said Bertrand Baudelaire was her father in all the ways that count. Bertrand Baudelaire gave Violet her first tool belt and read to her as a child and taught her how to ride a bicycle. But, she thinks sadly, Lemony would have done all of that too, if he'd only been given the chance. She thinks back to all her previous guardians—Uncle Monty, Aunt Josephine, Jerome Squalor—and tries not to get her hopes up. Her efforts are in vain though. She finds herself tentatively hopeful for the future, now that one of her fathers is back in her life again.

With the mystery of who Lemony Snicket is finally solved, Violet can relax a little for the first time in days. She stifles a yawn with her hand—the couch is extremely comfortable. Her eyes flutter shut before she knows it.

The last thing she remembers is being carried upstairs and a deep voice humming a very familiar song in her ear.

As far as guardians go, Lemony Snicket is certainly the most awkward. He doesn't quite know how to interact with them and is constantly irritating Klaus by defining words that the middle Baudelaire already knows the definition of.

But Violet knows he's doing his best. He's given her a toolbox for her to tinker with and has suggested numerous books for Klaus to read and frequently gives Sunny pointers on how to improve her cooking. He's given them a safe place to stay and genuinely cares about the children. He's not as outgoing as Uncle Monty was and not scared of everything the way Aunt Josephine was and she's pretty sure he would be lost without the help of Larry Your-Waiter (who for some reason smells very strongly of curry and is half-blind now), Jacquelyn, his sister Kit, and Dewey. Lemony is quiet and keeps to himself mostly. Most importantly, above all else, Violet knows he'll never abandon them the way Justice Strauss and Jerome Squalor did.

She finds herself knocking on his bedroom door most nights. He tells her stories about her mother before Violet was born and about his adventures in a place called Stain'd-by-the-Sea when he was younger. It's comforting—these late night talks.

He tells her why he started singing her to sleep. Apparently she was a very fussy infant and he found that singing was the only thing that put her to sleep. "I picked that song, honestly, because it was the first one that came to mind," he tells her. "I wrote it for your mother when I proposed to her."

"You were engaged?"

He smiles softly. "We were going to wait until you were born to have the wedding but then things didn't go as planned once you arrived." His smile disappears as he thinks about that night at the opera—the night when his whole world disappeared because of one poorly aimed blow dart. He hasn't told Violet this story and he never plans to. After a few moments of silence, he says, "One day I'll play it for you as it was meant to be played—with an accordion."

Violet can't help but laugh. Of course he would play the accordion of all instruments!

Every night, without fail, he hums the song he used to sing to her as an infant and it lulls her to sleep. And then he carries her to bed. One night, he finally sings the song softly and Violet says sleepily without thinking, "You're a good dad."

She misses the way he tenses up and doesn't see the tears forming in his eyes as he tries to blink them away.

Klaus and Sunny haven't missed how close their sister seems to have gotten to Lemony Snicket. Sunny doesn't think much of it—she likes the man, though he is quite awkward. She's glad to have the stability and has finally gotten to a point where she no longer has nightmares about the eye tattoo on Count Olaf's ankle.

Klaus, on the other hand, has had more difficulty adjusting to this respite. Some time has passed since he and his sisters emerged from the Queequeg, having escaped the great unknown danger that had attacked them, yet it feels as if there is no escape from that paranoia—that unknown danger forever lurking nearby, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike and drag their hopes down to the rockiest of bottoms.

There was always someone who wasn't as strong as they were, someone who didn't know the entire story, or someone who knew some secret they didn't. It had all become a slap to the face to Klaus. He hasn't been able to pin their new guardian to any of this, and seeing Violet letting her guard down, especially after every terrible thing they have experienced together, worries him.

All three children are in the living room, each doing their own activity, when things boil over. They've been at the safe house for over two months now and Lemony has just walked out the front door. They're rarely left in the house alone—if Lemony isn't there, one of the few trustworthy volunteers is. Today is one of those rare times. Lemony told them he was gathering research that would hopefully, once and for all, put Olaf behind bars. Klaus can't help but be skeptical.

He sits and pretends to make notes in his commonplace notebook as he reads The Incomplete History of Secret Organizations. In truth, he's too angry to read. Does Violet even know what she said? She said it so quietly and so absent-mindedly that he gets the feeling it was done out of habit. How and why had she fallen into that habit in the first place?

"Goodbye, Baudelaires. I'll be back before nightfall," Lemony had said.

Violet hadn't looked up from the old radio she was taking apart and just waved absent-mindedly. "Bye dad," she had mumbled.

They work in silence for another hour—tense on his end, comfortable on hers. After an hour, Violet sits up to stretch her back and takes notice of the expression on her brother's face. "Klaus, what's wrong?"

He scoffs. "You don't even know what you did?"

She's very confused and looks to Sunny for some explanation. The youngest Baudelaire hesitates before she says anything. Truthfully, she doesn't see anything wrong with Violet seeing Mr. Snicket as a father figure or calling him "dad". While she misses her parents, she was so young when they died that she almost feels as if she's spent more time without them than she did with them. Finally, Sunny says hesitantly, "Dad?" or "Klaus is talking about the fact that you called Mr. Snicket 'dad', and the fact that you don't even seem to recall doing it."

Violet's eyes widen. Had she really said that out loud? She had started calling him that during their late night talks sometime after she sleepily told him he was a good dad. Lemony didn't feel like he deserved that title and she was determined to make him realize he did deserve it. The man raised her for almost an entire year and she knew he loved her with his entire being and had loved her mother just as much. He was a good, albeit awkward, guardian who was trying his very best to make this a good loving home for her and her siblings. But she also knows that if Klaus knew all of this that he would just get angrier and she didn't want that.

She tries to backtrack instead. "Well, he did tell us not to call him Mr. Snicket anymore."

Klaus says angrily, "That man is not our father." He refuses to even say his name.

Violet is frustrated and shoots back without even thinking about it, "No, he's not your father!"

Her eyes widen and she claps a hand over her mouth. "Forget I said anything!"

She sprints out the back door before her brother or sister can say anything and she finds herself outside the toolshed in the backyard. She locks herself inside and cries for what feels like hours.

Klaus is about to run after his sister and apologize for upsetting her. He also wants to ask what she meant. A small hand on his elbow stops him and he looks down to see Sunny staring up at him. "Space," she says. She means, "Let her go. She needs some time to calm down and you being angry isn't helping anything."

The middle Baudelaire sighs. He knows his little sister is right—she so often is for someone so young. Sunny takes his hand and leads him into the kitchen. "Help," she says, or "Come help me perfect this recipe I'm trying to recreate from memory. Violet will come back when she's ready."

Klaus glances back at the back door before washing his hands and waiting for instructions.

He's pulling dinner out of the oven just as the front door opens. "Children?" Lemony Snicket calls.

"In here," Klaus calls back. He will never think of this man as his father but his anger has subsided. Now he's just worried about his older sister.

Lemony steps into the kitchen and first compliments Sunny on her cooking, saying it smells delicious. He follows it up with, "Where's your sister?"

"Shed," Sunny says. Klaus translates it as, "Violet is in the shed in the backyard and hasn't come out all day." He decides not to add that he was the direct cause of his sister running out there to begin with.

Violet must have fallen asleep in the shed because the next thing she knows, she's being jerked awake by a very familiar deep voice saying, "Violet, are you alright? Your sister said you've been in here all day."

She opens the door slowly and finds Lemony Snicket standing there looking very worried. She throws her arms around him and sobs on his shoulder.

The awkward writer isn't quite sure what happened while he was gone but he doesn't say anything, and instead just hugs Violet close and lets her cry it out. After several minutes, the eldest Baudelaire picks her head up and swipes furiously at her face to wipe away her tears. Lemony produces a hankerchief from his pocket, which she accepts gratefully.

"Do you want to tell me what that was about?" he finally asks.

Violet just sighs, too emotionally exhausted to cry anymore. "I got into an argument with Klaus. He feels like I'm forgetting our father and that you've replaced him in my mind. I guess I called you dad just before you left."

"Ah, I see." Lemony can certainly see how that could cause tension between the two siblings. But he's also pretty sure that Klaus has calmed down enough to be reasoned with so he suggests that they make their way back to the house.

Klaus immediately ambushes Violet with a fierce hug. "I'm sorry," he mumbles into her shoulder.

Her eyes tear up again as she holds her younger brother tightly. "I think we have a lot to talk about."

Sunny smiles at her siblings and leads them into the living room, where they each take a seat on the couch and various armchairs. Lemony stays in the kitchen initially, unsure of whether he'll be welcome in this conversation. But Sunny quickly comes back and grabs his hand—leading him into the living room with her siblings. "Violet talk," she says simply. "Violet, why don't you start first since it seems like you have the most to share."

Violet takes a deep breath and then shares her secret. Lemony Snicket is her biological father. "But—and this is the important part," she stresses, "I haven't forgotten our father, Klaus. I never could. But what you also have to realize is that I remember Lemony from the brief time that he was raising me with Mother. I'm not replacing our father—I'm just reconnecting with mine."

Klaus is silent for several moments and Violet fidgets nervously as she looks at him. She doesn't want to reconnect with Lemony Snicket if it means she loses her brother in the process.

It takes Klaus several minutes to process what his sister has just told him. His mother had a child with Lemony Snicket? Violet is, technically speaking, only his half-sister? It's a lot to take in. He supposes that it all could very well be true. He can't think of a reason why his sister would lie to him. But maybe Mr. Snicket is lying to her? He quickly dismisses that idea. He's not a fan of the awkward, enigmatic writer but he at least knows the man isn't that cruel. And besides, that's something Violet would have thought of already. He trusts his sister's judgement and therefore he trusts that Lemony Snicket means them no harm.

The man in question clears his throat and then starts to say something, "Klaus—"

The middle Baudelaire shoots a look at Lemony that immediately stops the writer in his tracks. Klaus has already forgiven Violet—she's his sister, after all. He's not so sure about Lemony Snicket, though. What is he even doing here? Klaus feels that this is a family matter, and Mr. Snicket certainly isn't family. Or, at least he's not Klaus's family.

He feels a hand on his elbow and looks down to see Sunny giving him a look of her own. It's a look Klaus knows very well. It was the one their mother used whenever her children did something rude. "Say sorry," she commands, with her tiny hands on her hips. "Klaus, apologize to Mr. Snicket at once! He's only trying to help."

Klaus blushes. "I apologize, Mr. Snicket. That was rude of me."

Lemony smiles somewhat nervously. "That's quite alright, Klaus." He doesn't continue what he was planning on saying though.

The middle Baudelaire turns back to his sister. "Violet, I'm sorry for how I reacted earlier but it was just such a shock hearing you say what you said. It stung much worse than anything else we've gone through since our parents died. It was like—" he pauses and makes a noise of frustration as he tried to articulate his thoughts. "It was like all this time that we've spent clinging to the constant of family meant nothing to you. You were calling some stranger, at least in my eyes, family."

Violet goes to hug her brother. "Oh Klaus, I'm sorry I made you feel that way. I promise I haven't forgotten our parents and they're still our parents and always will be."

"Two dads," Sunny adds to the conversation. "Violet is just lucky enough to have two dads and that's perfectly acceptable."

Violet laughs. "Exactly." She holds out her hand and pulls her baby sister into the hug.

Lemony sits off to the side and smiles softly. He's glad to see the children have worked out their differences. After several seconds, Klaus picks his head up. "What were you going to say earlier, Mr. Snicket?"

Lemony clears his throat. "I was going to say, Klaus, that I don't want you to feel obligated to think of me as a father figure or in any sort of familial way. I'm your caretaker and my job is to make sure that you children are safe from Count Olaf and his troupe and, hopefully, happy."

Klaus can't say he's happy but he definitely feels safer than he has in what seems like a very long time. It's been two months and Olaf hasn't shown his face. The story that V.F.D fed to the press is that the Baudelaires perished in the fire at Hotel Denouement. To the rest of the world, Klaus and his sisters are dead.

The middle Baudelaire sighs. "Well, I can say that you've definitely achieved at least one of those goals. Thank you for keeping us safer than any of our other guardians have."

"No nightmares," Sunny adds. Lemony needs no translation to know that she's said, "Thanks to you and the other volunteers, I no longer have nightmares about that dreadful eye tattoo on Count Olaf's ankle."

Violet adds, "And I know that you'd never abandon us the way Justice Strauss and Jerome Squalor did."

"Never," Lemony promises. He can tell that the children are emotionally exhausted so he ushers them all upstairs to bed. He's about to turn out the light and close the door when Violet reaches out and grabs his hand. He looks down at her.

"Can you sing the song?" She asks quietly.

Lemony looks over at Klaus warily and turns back to Violet. "Tonight might not be the best time for that," he says gently.

"No, it's... it's okay," Klaus says hesitantly, to everyone's surprise.

Lemony sits down on Violet's bed and takes a deep breath before he begins singing a very familiar song. Klaus recognizes it as the song he used to hear coming from Violet's room as they were growing up. It was a nightly ritual up until Violet turned ten and Klaus was eight.

The awkward writer finishes singing and the room is silent for several seconds. Then Sunny says, "Good song." "That was a lovely song, Mr. Snicket. Thank you for singing it for us."

Lemony smiles at the youngest Baudelaire softly and stands up to leave. "Good night, Baudelaires." He turns to tuck Violet in more snugly and leans down to kiss her forehead.

She snuggles deeper under the covers and just before she closes her eyes, she says, "You're a good dad."

As Lemony leaves their room and heads to his own, he thinks about how the evening has gone. He knows it will be a long time before Klaus stops thinking of him as a stranger and it will be even longer before he processes everything he's learned today, but Lemony thinks this is a good start.

A/N: Not super important, but the song I picture Lemony singing is always and forever "Asleep and Dreaming" by the Magnetic Fields. It is the quintessential Lemony/Beatrice song, if you ask me. And Daniel Handler actually played accordion on it which makes it even better.