Keeping his phone pressed precariously between his cheek and shoulder, Klaus unloaded his brand new suitcase (bought especially for a certain Hawaiian trip) from the trunk of the car. "I hear what you're saying, Tom," Klaus said into the receiver, trying to remain calm with his immediate supervisor, "but my request for family leave has already been approved by HR."

Violet had telephoned Klaus earlier in the week asking him if there was any way he could get some time off. He hadn't seen her since Isadora had left almost a month ago, which was ironic, since visiting Violet had sort of been the catalyst for their breakup. Before he'd even had a chance to break the news to his sister, and he didn't think she could handle much more bad news, she had asked him not to come for her treatment. He'd insisted, and then she'd insisted, telling him to go on his trip, that it was important, but unfortunately that ship had already sailed. Literally. It had been an agonizing month for him. Guilt and anxiety over Isadora's disturbing departure, and worry at knowing Violet was going through the agony of chemotherapy alone had worn him down to his last nerve.

As a result, Klaus had thrown himself into work, spending as much time in the office as they would let him, so he didn't feel very bad now taking some of the vacation owed to him, but he understood Tom's reticence about him being gone for most of the month. Klaus was the best at what he did, but others would suffice while he was gone.

"Get John on the job. He's good...or Stephen," Klaus suggested, walking down the driveway to Violet's front door, but waiting to end the call before going in. Patiently listening to the excuses and complaints from Tom for another full minute, Klaus reassured him once more. "Just text me if you need me. If you really need me. Okay? Thanks for understanding." His office knew all about Violet's cancer and had been really great about letting him have time off. "Bye."

Pocketing the phone and fishing out the right key from his keyring, Klaus took a deep breath and readied himself to see his sister. Every time he saw her it was like a fresh blow to his stomach, a sucker punch. Gone were her rosy pink cheeks and her long thick hair. Medical miracles had a steep price, though how she managed to keep her sweet smile, he had no idea.

"Honey," he called playfully down the hall. "I'm home!"

Her laughter echoed from the kitchen. "In here," she called back.

Dropping his bag in the hallway by the stairs, he found her in the kitchen making lunch and she looked…good. Well, good for someone who'd been battling cancer for over a year. It was such a significant change from the last time he saw her that he momentarily stopped in his tracks and stared.

Dressed in jeans and a flowery, buttoned-up top instead of her usual sweats, Violet maneuvered gracefully around the kitchen, laying out sandwiches on plates. She looked up when he entered, giving him a glorious smile. Previously, she'd been as pale as a ghost with dark circles under her eyes, but now her cheeks were pink, and her lips had enough color in them for a change. Last time he'd seen her, Violet's head had been completely bald, but now a dark layer of peach fuzz covered her crown, making her look cool and edgy instead of sick. She seemed much stronger, too, vibrating with more energy than she'd had in months.

"Hey, Stranger," she greeted, noticing his reaction to her appearance. "Aren't you going to give me a hug?"

With a huff of laughter, Klaus came around the kitchen island to embrace his sister. He held her gently, knowing she had a lot of pain, and couldn't help but sigh in happiness at their reunion, rubbing his cheek over her hair, soft and new as a baby's. "You look good, Violet."

She smiled. "Are you hungry? I made chicken salad."

"Yeah," Klaus nodded. "I'm starving, but you didn't have to."

Violet poured them each a glass of wine to go with their lunch and they carried their plates to the back balcony which overlooked the ocean. It was a warm day, but the briny breeze blowing in from the sea kept Klaus cool. They spoke of Sunny and carefully avoided all of the hard subjects, at least while they were eating, but Klaus's happy surprise at his sister's improvement faded into unease. He understood what it meant and he didn't approve at all. Finally, he couldn't hold back any longer.

"You've quit your therapy," he accused. Violet frowned and sat back in her chair, looking away at the surf far below. "Is that why you didn't want me to come?"

"Klaus," she entreated, turning to face him. "I knew you would try to talk me out of it."

"Damn right, I would." He couldn't keep his voice from rising a little. "I can't believe I've been sitting at home, worried to death about you being all alone and you were… you were lying to me. What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that I was sick of being sick. I wanted to be normal for just a minute. I wanted my hair to grow and I wanted to taste food and have enough strength to walk down the beach. Surely you can understand that."

Klaus pressed his lips together, trying to calm his frustration before saying, "But, what about the plan? We had a whole treatment protocol figured out with the doctors and you are far from finishing it. This is going to be a setback. I'll have to call Dr. Chen to discuss where we can go from here."

"No," she said with a shake of her head.

"What do you mean, no?"

"I'm dying, Klaus. I'm dying with or without treatment. There's been absolutely no change to the scan." She reached out and placed a gentle hand over his clenched fist. "I just want to live for awhile before I die."

He'd been living in quasi-denial ever since she was diagnosed with liver cancer shortly after getting rid of her breast cancer. He just knew that they could beat this thing because the alternative had been unthinkable, and now here it was, staring him in the face, calm and imploring, caring too little for how it would affect him when she was gone.

"How long?" Klaus asked, swallowing back his burgeoning panic.

"Maybe a month."

His face crumpled for just a second, but he quickly looked away, striving to control the emotion, pressing a palm to his forehead to wipe away the furrow in his brow. He nodded and kept nodding. Words were beyond his capability at this point. Finally standing, he gathered the dirty dishes, dumped them in the sink, and hefted his small suitcase up the stairs to the guest room, his room.

Slamming the door loud enough to make sure Violet heard, he flopped himself down on the bed, but he didn't cry. He was too angry to cry. Not necessarily at Violet, but at the stupid universe for cramming this crap down their throats, and at God, who had never answered a single one of Klaus's prayers. Never.

"Goddammit!" he screamed at the ceiling, but it made him feel only a little better. All the energy that had gone into keeping Violet alive and present on this earth had been a waste, but it at least had been a wonderful distraction from this inevitable hell, this certainty of death, life with an expiration date.

Violet knew him well. She'd grown up with his anger, and like a sixth sense, knew when his tense agitation had faded into exhausted defeat before quietly knocking on his door. She entered without waiting for an answer and climbed into bed with him, scooting close enough to reach a hand around his face to smooth through his hair. He still lay staring at the ceiling. In his ear she said quietly, "I'm sorry."

Catching her hand, he brought it to his lips and kissed it. "No. You have nothing to apologize for." He turned to face her, pulling at the pillow under his head in order to share more of it with Violet. She usually smelled like chemicals, but now he only smelled her shampoo and the faint scent of the dried lavender that she kept sewn in sachets in her dresser drawers.

"So…" he began. "What are your plans, then? What would you like to do while I'm here?"

"Hmm," she thought. "The usuals, I guess. Go to our favorite places to eat, walk on the beach, drive down the coast, maybe? How long are you staying?"

The arrangement he'd made at the office had been for two weeks off, but this new development changed everything. He would stay with Violet until the end, of that he had no doubt. Wild horses couldn't drag him away. In answer to her question, he shrugged. "As long as I need to."

Violet's relieved smile said a lot. She'd been worried. "Good. We'll have a nice time."

Klaus considered this and came to the conclusion that he wouldn't categorize watching his sister die as nice, so he kept his mouth shut.

After a moment, Violet ventured, "Do you think Isadora will come?"

Klaus shook his head. "No. I don't think she will. I'm sorry, Violet." He pulled her hand in between his to curl it under his cheek, comforting them both. "Should we take a nap?" His eyelids felt heavy and he couldn't focus on Violet's face because it was too close to his on the pillow and his glasses were on the nightstand. Maybe he would wake up and this will all have been a bad dream.

She didn't answer and Klaus was well on his way to unconsciousness when she whispered his name. "Klaus?"

"Hmm?" he said sleepily.

"There is something that I wanted to do."

"Yeah?" he asked without opening his eyes. "What is that?"

"It's a little embarrassing."

"Anything," he said with a yawn.

"Well…I've never had sex before."

Klaus let this sink in a second before he opened his eyes and raised a skeptic eyebrow. "You're a virgin?" Violet nodded. "But what about that lawyer guy you dated? I can't remember his name or…or…that one guy..."

"I think I would remember if I had sex or not, Klaus Baudelaire," she huffed.

"And now, what? You want me to be your wingman or something? Help you find a hot date?" Klaus found this idea very distasteful.

Violet rolled her eyes. "Don't be ridiculous," she said, dismissing the idea. "Nobody wants to bed the dying girl with the bald head and one breast."

He considered this a moment. "Men don't care. They like any kind of breasts."

"Breast," Violet corrected.

"That's what I said. Men like breast."

She laughed. "You sound like a cave man."

"Then what is it that you want? I don't understand."

"I guess I just thought, you know, well… you already know what I look like and you still love me anyway. Maybe, I don't know. Maybe it could be you?" She made a face, scrunching up her nose and eyes, bracing for the impact she knew her words would have. She was right.

It took approximately five seconds for Klaus to understand that she was asking him to take her virginity. He flew off the bed, paced the length of the room several times, then turned to face her with his hands tugging at his hair. "Have you lost your mind? Do you hear yourself, Violet?" She sat up, crosslegged on the bed, watching him carefully. "Why in the world would you want to" -he lowered his voice dramatically, in case the neighbors might hear,- "have sex with me? I am your brother, for God's sake!"

"I know that. I know it's a lot to ask. It's just that…" she bit her lip, letting her words taper off.

"Go ahead, tell me," he said, sitting on the edge of the bed and grabbing his glasses from the nightstand to shove them onto his face. "I'd truly like to understand what is going on in your brain."

"It's just that, Isadora told me how wonderful you were…you know, when it was her first time. She said you were so gentle and sweet, how good it felt to be with you. I always wanted my first time to be like that, but it just never happened for me," Violet said wistfully.

Klaus tried to remember what in the world made Isadora think their first time had been wonderful. All he could bring up in his memory was the awkwardness, the self-consciousness of being totally naked in front of her, and then the embarrassment he'd felt at coming too quickly. Surely, he'd improved since then. Surely, he could do better by Violet than that. God, that was an insane thought. He was definitely not considering it.

"But," she said, shaking her head at herself, "you're right. It was a crazy idea." She laughed self-deprecatingly and her cheeks were blushing a furious red. "I should never have asked you."

Klaus couldn't take his eyes off her face, though she couldn't bring herself to look at him anymore. She was embarrassed, and he watched with horror and pity the tears that filled her eyes, knowing she was feeling his rejection acutely. Swinging her legs off the edge of the bed, she meant to go, but just stood there awkwardly for a moment. He definitely was not considering it. The answer had to be no.

But this was Violet, who never asked for anything, who was dying in a month's time, who'd been dealt a crap hand her whole life, and he softened toward her. In the scheme of things it was such a simple request. She'd had so much pain and disappointment in her too short life and he felt certain that this one thing at least he could make nice for her. She turned to go and he saw her swipe her hand over her face, unable to hold back her tears. "I didn't say no," he said to her retreating form.

"It's okay, Klaus. Some things just aren't meant to be," she answered from the hall.