Chapter 3:

"Where'd you go to last night?"

"What, oh hello Sunny didn't see you."

"Nobody ever does." Sunny said bitterly, hoisting herself up onto the counter. Veronica poured them both drinks.

"I went to work."

"Where do you work?"

"At a club, I do a bit of dancing." She explained.

"Dancing?" Duncan asked raising his eyebrows. She laughed.

"Not that kind of dancing." She said. It was Saturday. Quigley worked weekend shifts but not Wednesdays or Fridays where as Duncan preferred to work 5 solids then have a break. Klaus and Isadora had gone on a date so...

"I just do a bit of dancing so I can earn enough money for rent and stuff." She said. She had been doing it since she was 15 so she knew it was pretty hard. Her dad hadn't given her pocket money, or very much at all for that matter.

"Oh," Sunny said sipping her lemonade. She opened the freezer and put a scoop of ice cream in hers. Veronica shook her head laughing.

"So Duncan what do you do for a living?"

"I work at an evening school, I only teach juniors though I'm not really allowed to teach so it's kind of like a helping job. Quitting in a few weeks anyway."

"Why?"

"When I turn eighteen I'm rich so," She rolled her eyes.

"Inheritance money?"

"Yeah did you get anything from your real parents?"

"You know I don't really know." Veronica said thoughtfully. "I mean dad never said I did, apparently I was adopted when I was very small. I don't even remember my real parents, or my adopted mum."

"You don't remember your adopted mum when did she die?" Duncan asked gently. He knew it could be a sensitive subject, yet her reply was toneless as though she couldn't care less.

"About four or five years ago." She could see Duncan looked puzzled. "I don't tell many people this, but, I... Sunny, can you go play somewhere please?" Sunny clicked her teeth and left. "When I was fourteen I lost my memory, everything from the past fourteen years was lost, my adopted dad told me everything from scratch, I'd fallen down the stairs apparently."

"Apparently?" he queried. Veronica got an odd feeling that he didn't believe her.

"I remember falling..." she put a hand to her head. "And I whacked my head really hard, but I thought it was much longer to fall than stairs."

"Ouch." She turned her back on him and pushed her hair out of the way revealing a scar across the back of her head.

"Only thing I've got from my past, a scar, I don't even have a rattle, the doctors said one small thing from my past could spark off a flood of memories but I never remember anything, dad said I'm hopeless."

"You're not hopeless!" Duncan said suddenly. Veronica laughed.

"I don't remember getting my tattoo either." Veronica fingered her top. She had a small hole in the bottom of it, just large enough to fit her finger through.

"Tattoo?"

"Well I would show you but it's... er..." Duncan closed his eyes.

"I get it."

"Klaus your cell phone." Isadora brandished the phone in his face. He looked puzzled but took it anyway.

"Hello?"

"Hello is this Mr. Klaus Baudelaire?"

"Yeah."

"Well this is Elizabeth Stanton from the..." Klaus listened and bit his lip. Isadora looked puzzled.

"I turn eighteen soon, they want me to... identify the body."

"After all this time?" asked Isadora. Klaus blinked tears from his eyes.

"Yeah apparently it's well preserved, they can't bury her until it's 100% certain."

"I'll come with when is it?"

"Next week. As I'm the next of kin they've decided seventeen is old enough. I'd rather you didn't come Izzy."

"Oh god Klaus." She wrapped her arms around his neck. She felt so sorry for him. At least she'd never been asked to identify her parents bodies, thank god fire just turned things to ash.

"Woah, who died?" Veronica asked noting their grim faces when they walked in.

"My sister." Veronica jumped six foot before realising Sunny was next to her.

"Klaus don't scare me like that." She said putting her hand to her heart.

"The morgue called, they want me to identify her body." Duncan froze solid. Veronica stood up.

"You know this really doesn't concern me, I better...you know English paper...and..." she stood up and left. Klaus normally would have stopped her.

"Klaus please don't cry." Sunny said. "Am I allowed to come?"

"No Sunny,"

"Look I just want to say goodbye, I never got to say goodbye properly." Sunny pleaded.

"Ok Sunny but... it'll be scary ok?"

"Yeah I know." Sunny said. She put her book down and sighed. "But once she's buried, we can move on."

"I thought we already had." Isadora sighed.

"Duncan?" asked Veronica a few days later. He looked up. "Do you drive, I really need a ride to work the bus is on strike."

"Yeah sure. Klaus, going out bye." He didn't give him time to reply. Veronica shook her head boys were so blunt. His car was very old and broken down. He didn't worry because as long as it worked it didn't bother him, he'd get it fixed up soon enough anyway.

"Where is it?"

"I never remember the road name, it's down by the town hall." He nodded. He wasn't really allowed to drive as he only had his permit you're supposed to have a licensed driver with you.

"I feel sorry for Klaus." Veronica said. "I was pretty insensitive about his sister."

"It's ok you didn't know. It was...a long time ago."

"Ok. If it's not too sensitive a question... How did she die?"

"She...killed herself, she was due to inherit money when she came of age, this guy told her she was the last Baudelaire and she cried and killed herself infront of us all."

"Those mountains are huge it's scary to think of someone..."

"Hold the phone, I never said she threw herself off a mountain."

"Oh didn't you? I thought you did, where'd that come from then?" she asked. "Just here yeah, thanks Duncan."

She got out of the car.

"You want me to pick you up later?" he asked.

"If you could, midnight?"

"Good, tell you what how about I stay?"

"No, please, I'm fine. Honestly." She pulled her coat tightly around her. He nodded.

"See you at midnight then Cinderella." Cinderella? Cinderella? Something about that made her think. She didn't know what.

"Klaus?" asked Isadora. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine yeah."

"Liar, liar." She said smiling wanly at him. He smirked.

"Nothing." He kissed her gently. His hands snaking around her waist.

"Get a room! Six year old here!" Sunny protested.

"Yeah you two break it up Sunny doesn't want a niece or nephew yet." Isadora sneered at her brother.

"Shut up you idiot. Anyway I didn't see you stopping yourself with that bosses daughter lady the other day." Quigley smirked.

"Hey! I'll have you know all we did was kiss. A lot." Sunny grimaced.

"You guys are gross."

"Hey guys."

"Where'd you go?"

"Dropped Veronica off at work, bus strike." He stated simply. He was sure he hadn't mentioned her being on a mountain.

Sunny sat infront of the mirror. In three days time she was going to see her sister. She had a vague picture of Violet in her head. She couldn't see her clearly, it was like looking at her through bobbled glass. She could hear her voice clearly. Sometimes at night she could hear her speaking aswell, she thought she was going mad but... sometimes it was advice. Stupid things like 'wear your hair up today it looks nice' or 'don't forget your key Sunny you know Klaus won't be in' But the stupid thing was it was a fourteen year old voice. Violet would be eighteen/nineteen by now. Sunny sighed. She looked like her sister, or so Duncan always told her. Duncan sometimes scared her when he talked like that.

"Isadora?" asked Sunny. "Could you do me a favour?"

"What?"

"help me with this." She was trying to use a crocodile clip in her hair but it wasn't working too well. Isadora smiled.

"You're growing up Sunny."

"Nobody else seems to notice." She whispered.

"What's brought all this on then?" Isadora asked running a brush through Sunny's ebony locks.

"Klaus doesn't even notice me anymore, he still thinks of me as if I'm two, and he thinks I don't remember my parents...or Violet. I do."

"I know you do, I guess Klaus is just still trying to protect you from reality."

"Count Olaf isn't here anymore, the VFD scared him off."

"I know Sunny, listen tomorrow I don't really feel like going to poetry class... how about you take a day off and we'll sit and natter about the world eh?" Sunny smiled. Isadora was the closest thing she had to a relative including Klaus. Klaus was so distant with her.

"Ready to go?" Duncan asked. Veronica looked up for a moment.

"Give me two minutes I have to go get dressed." Veronica was wearing a tight black dress which didn't really suit her, it showed a lot of skin, or did it? When Duncan looked closer she was wearing what appeared to be a flesh coloured -pair of tights- type catsuit on her body. She smiled wryly.

"Honestly Duncan what do you take me for." The club was very loud still. He felt very out of place as he waited for her to finish in the bathroom. As she came out he gave a slight jolt. She was tying up her hair in a ribbon, he'd seen her with the ribbon in but as she put it in she looked like... no.

"What?" Veronica asked nervously. He realised he'd been staring and looked incredibly embarrassed.

"Nothing, come on."

"Do you believe in fate or is it all coincidences?" Veronica asked as she got in the car beside him.

"Lob me a softball why don't you? I think, some things are just coincidences."

"Fate." Veronica stated simply. She did her seatbelt up. "There are some things in life you can't control. Feelings, you can't help them, is that coincidence? Family, I mean I ended up with the worst family in the world, but I'm alright... is that coincidence?"

"What's with all the questions?" he asked.

"Don't know, I just, I ran into a friend of my dad's at the pub, got me thinking about my past I guess."

"There's going to be people you run into who remind you of something in your life... a woman might say 'sorry dear' and you remember your birth mother."

"You know? This is going to sound mad but, you remind me of someone, I don't know who but...someone." He smirked.

"Maybe it's fate." He joked. She blushed. They got out of the car and into the flat. It was nearly two am. Nobody was up.

"Night then." Veronica said quietly.

"Night." He whispered. 'There are some things in life you can't control.' The next thing Veronica knew she was stood infront of him, kissing him. She couldn't remember her first kiss [that was...if she'd had one.] so she was almost certain this counted as her first. They broke off.

"See you in the morning." She whispered. She didn't want to end it but she knew she had to.

"Listen about last night..."

"It's ok, honest it doesn't matter, have you guys seen my pencil case?" Isadora threw her a pencil case which she caught with her right hand.

"Do you know where I stand with you."

"Want to know where you stand? It was you who kissed me!" she hissed. She tried to push past him but he held fast. "If I'm late I risk losing my scholarship, I already risk being late because of the bus strike."

"I'll drive you." she knew he wasn't going to give up.

"Fine then, whatever."

"Isadora I'll see you at school." Isadora shifted uncomfortably.

"No you wont... I'm staying home to...look after Sunny she says she doesn't feel so good." That was a lie and she knew it. She knew Sunny was in her bedroom reading her book. Sometimes a little white lie was better than the truth

"Ok."

"So..."

"64th street." Veronica said strapping herself in.

"Look." They both said at the same time. She blushed. "You go first."

"Last night... I don't know why you kissed back but it...it wasn't fair of me to kiss you, I'm sorry."

"It's ok I understand." Veronica said slightly disappointed.

"No let me explain and you'll understand. Remember how we told you Klaus's sister died?"

"Yeah."

"I REALLY liked her... never got the chance to tell her though, I felt awful after that, and I haven't been attracted to a girl in ages."

"Oh," Oh in this case means 'oh dear' rather than 'oh I heard you but I'm not even faintly interested in what you had to say'

"When you wear your hair up you look like her I guess I... I was confused ok." Veronica fingered her hair ribbon. She took it out and said.

"I'm not Violet." She handed him the ribbon.

"How did you know she was called..." he started. She shrugged.

"Colette said it was a gift, if someone's thinking of something, I can pick up on it. You were thinking of the mountain last night and you're thinking of her now." She whispered.

"Who's Colette?" he asked trying to avoid talking about psychic tendancies. He was starting to get sspicious of this girl.

"That 'friend' of my dads."

He dropped her off at college feeling worse than ever. Violet was dead. She probably never liked him anyway, so why couldn't he move on? He felt like he was betraying her memory

Sunny wanted Klaus to hold her hand as they walked in the morgue. It was scary. She wanted to see her sister but... Why wouldn't he hold her hand. She was six for gods sakes!

"Klaus Baudelaire?"

"Yeah, this is Sunny Baudelaire."

"Ok you give consent for her to view the body."

"Yes. Can we... get this over with." The receptionist led them into a room. A body was there covered with a white sheet. Sunny knew her brother hadn't held her hand since before Violet died. She reached up and grabbed his hand. He had to realise she still loved him without Violet around.

"Is this the body of your sister?" the sheet was removed. Sunny gasped and buried her head in her brothers stomach. A woman's body lay on the table. Long Black hair cascaded down her back, a sheet had been placed over the face to spare trauma. One look at this body and Klaus said.

"No. That's not her." Sunny squeaked and looked up. All her thoughts about being the only Baudelaire girl were changed.

"Esmé Squalor!" she said.

"That's the body of Esmé Squalor yes."

"You know a few days ago when you asked me if I believe in fate? I change my mind. I do." Duncan said.

"Cheeky beggar you're not supposed to change your mind." She said. Isadora had gone out to clear her head. Quigley was at work [Saturday] and Veronica had had a half day.

"Well I changed it." She laughed and turned the television on. It was the news.

"Boring." Said Duncan but immediately he knew it was not. Klaus was on telly.

'Look leave us alone.' Klaus said angrily.

"Well Klaus Baudelaire chose to give no comment but he identified the body as that of Esmé Squalor and not of his sister."

"THAT'S MY MUM!" Veronica said suddenly. Duncan looked totally puzzled.

"Klaus's sister would be your age..."

"Not her. Esmé Squalor, she's my mum." Duncan gave a jolt.

"You must be..." he wasn't going to say 'mistaken' he was about to say something stupid. Thankfully she cut him off.

"Don't say I'm mistaken I've seen enough pictures and dad never shut up about her."

"Was your dad's name Olaf?" She looked puzzled.

"No, Daniel Davis." She said in puzzlement. "Why...Olaf rings a bell though."

"Listen I suggest you don't mention Esmé or Olaf infront of Klaus Sunny or my siblings."

"Ok...why?"

"Nevermind," he said shaking his head. He'd let his imagination run away again. He had to stop that. She paused. And muttered. 'Olaf,' over and over. She kneaded her temples.

"I'm off to bed I have a headache." She said bitterly and walked off. Duncan followed her.

Fin...for now