In which the Quagmire triplets are reunited at long last.
(This takes place during The Grim Grotto, after Quigley is separated from the Baudelaires after finding the sugar bowl)
Quigley Quagmire sat on the remains of the top floor of the abandoned and rather overcooked Anwhistle Aquatics building, pondering his future. He did not particularly want to think about the great unknown, but he would much rather think about that than about Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire and whatever fate had befallen them. He decided to believe the best, that they had escaped and found a cure for the medusoid mycelium, a conclusion that he had come to after a few hours of screaming and crying.
Now, Quigley thought of what the Baudelaires had told him about his siblings. Isadora and Duncan were alive - at least they had been a little while ago, when they had escaped on the Self-Sustaining Hot Air Mobile Home. Quigley couldn't decide whether this fact made him sadder or happier, because, if they were alive, that made him happy, but the thought that he might never find them again renewed his sorrow. He loved his family, and wished more than anything to be reunited with them.
Quigley was very frustrated. His parents were dead, he had lost and failed to save the Baudelaires, he had no way to find his siblings, and he had been sitting in this burnt-out shell of a building for a day and a half, trying to make his one granola bar last as long as possible while sobbing his misery away. He would never admit that, though - according to Quigley, he was not a crybaby like his brother (he felt he could think such things about Duncan again now that he knew he was alive). He wished he had never found the sugar bowl. He hated that blasted piece of porcelain - it had separated him from his friends and anyone who could help him! But he resisted the urge, telling himself it would be even worse if it fell into enemy hands.
He took his spyglass out of his pocket and scanned the sea for ships, but, just like the past day and a half, the sea was completely and frustratingly empty, so he turned his gaze up to the sky, hoping against hope that a VFD crow would be swooping down to send him a message. But the sight he saw was even better than a carrier crow - in fact, it was far better than a boat.
Quigley couldn't believe his eyes - literally. He blinked and wiped the lens with his jacket, but when he put his eye back to the spyglass, the object was still there, and it had grown closer. He put the spyglass in his pocket and began waving and calling out, more happy than he had been since the fire.
For the object in the sky was none other than the Self-Sustaining Hot Air Mobile Home.
The airship came closer and Duncan and Isadora threw the rope ladder down, which Quigley climbed up immediately, and as soon as he reached the top his sister and brother embraced him tightly, all three of them crying.
"Quigley! You're alive!" Isadora cried, releasing him from her embrace, while Duncan squeezed him even tighter.
"We thought we would never see you again..." Duncan sobbed, finally letting Quigley breathe.
"Me too," Quigley sniffed, shamelessly letting the tears run down his face.
The triplets embraced again. All was well...for now.
Sorry for the short chapter! The next one will be longer. I'll post it tomorrow or Friday. Enjoy!