Review Responses:
Guest: Okaaaaaaaaay! I hope this is the 'moreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee' you wanted.
JustVildaPotter: I gave you GOOSEBUMPS? Yay! Hope you like this chapter!
I forgot to put this at the beginning of the last chapter, but I'd like to thank anyone who has recently followed or added this story to their favorites. Thank you guys so much!
Chapter Eleven
Violet and Klaus looked from Quigley to his siblings, then from Duncan and Isadora to their brother. Then they looked back at their friends.
Isadora was biting her lip as her eyes filled with tears. Duncan's expression was angry.
"Duncan. Isadora." Quigley stepped closer to his siblings. "Say something. Please."
"We...you...I..." Isadora stammered.
"They told us you were dead," Violet said, by way of explanation.
"Well, I'm not," Quigley said for no one's benefit.
Isadora laughed. "We can see that." She wrapped her arms around her brother. When they pulled apart, Quigley stared at Duncan.
"Hey."
A smile broke through Duncan's glare. He shook his head. "Quigley Quagmire. You show up after two years, and you say 'hey'?"
Quigley grinned. "What did you expect?"
Isadora burst into tears.
"There's nothing to cry about!" A shocked Duncan protested.
"God, Izzy, calm down."
"You two are so stupid!" Isadora yelled as tears ran down her cheeks. "Why can't you just say you love each other already?" Duncan and Quigley rolled their eyes in unison.
Klaus out an arm around Isadora, awkwardly patting her on the back as she cried into his shoulder.
The two sets of siblings spent the rest of the morning catching up. Quigley told the story of his surviving the Quagmire fire, as well as some of the things he had been doing for the last two years.
Duncan, Isadora, and the Baudelaires told Quigley what they had been doing before they met the Snow Scouts, including (to Quigley's disgust and Isadora and Klaus' embarrassment) the part about Klaus and Isadora's kiss at Caligari Carnival.
"You're letting her kids boys now?" Quigley shot his brother an accusatory look. Duncan shrugged.
"If you had contacted us and told us you were alive, I wouldn't have been kissing people." Isadora said smugly.
"Really?" Klaus and Quigley asked in unison.
"Yes," said Isadora sarcastically.
"Why didn't you tell us who you were when you met us in the cave?" asked Violet. "Or when we were helping you open the Vernacularly Fastened Door?"
"I was trying to be subtle," Quigley said. He threw a stolen Snow Scout marshmallow at Duncan. "Unlike some people, Spiderman."
"I was proving my hypothesis," Duncan protested.
"I don't think that applies to this situation," Violet said.
"Hush." Duncan pulled the ribbon from Violet's hair.
Klaus groaned. "Stop flirting." Sunny squeaked her agreement.
"You should talk," said Quigley. "You're the one with your hands all over my baby sister."
"Not a baby," Sunny said.
"Sunny's right," Isadora said. "I'm fourteen years old. I can kiss whoever I want."
Duncan suddenly took on the tone of someone giving a grammar lesson. "Not whoever you want."
"Yeah, there's a very thorough selection process they have to go through first," said Quigley.
"Did my words mean nothing to you?" Isadora asked.
Quigley ignored her. "No dating until you're at least thirty."
"I liked you better when you were dead."
Putting a hand to his chest as if he was in pain, Quigley shot his sister a fake wounded look. "Harsh, Izzy."
"Not to interrupt this touching family moment," interrupted Violet sarcastically from a few meters away. "But you really need to see this."
The others walked over to where she was standing; staring at a giant eye poking out of the waters of the Stricken Stream. This eye was connected to a large mechanical object that broke the surface as the children stared at it; they came to the realization that it was not an eye at all, but the periscope of a submarine. The periscope turned to face the children and somebody within the submarine asked a very confusing and complicated question.
"Friend or Foe?"
The reason this question was so confusing was the fact that none of the children knew whether they were a friend or a foe of the person inside. Of course, like most intelligent people, Sunny realized that only one answer would gain the orphans entry to submarine.
"Friend!" The hatch on top of the submarine swung open.
The six children climbed down into the undersea craft. The entryway was a dark, damp passageway, rather similar to the tunnel under 667 Dark Avenue that led to the Baudelaire mansion.
"Hello?" Quigley called. "Is anyone there?"
"Aye," responded a young, accented voice. "This way."
Quigley led the way along the passageway, following the sound of the voice. At last, the Baudelaires and Quagmires ended up in a dimly lit room. A table covered in maps and navigation equipment took up the center. A mechanical device and wheel used for steering the craft were connected to the end wall. On either side of the room, doors led to other locations throughout the submarine.
"Shiver me timbers." A dark-skinned girl with triangular glasses slid down from the level above on a fireman's pole. "What are the Baudelaire and Quagmire siblings doing in the middle of the ocean?"
"We're in a stream," Violet pointed out. "In the Mortmain Mountains."
"We'll end up in the ocean soon enough," said the girl. "That's how the water cycle works."
"You work for V.F.D.," Klaus blurted for no apparent reason.
"Aye. I'm Fiona Widdershins, captain of the Queequeg."
"We've read about you," Duncan said.
"I thought the Queequeg was captained by a man," said Isadora.
"It was until recently," said Fiona. "My father left to answer a distress call from a manatee and I haven't seen him since."
Klaus gave her a sympathetic look. "We're sorry-"
"He's out there looking for me, he'll come find me any day now, I know he will." Fiona was a rather difficult person to have a conversation with.
Quigley changed the subject. "We're happy to help with whatever work you're doing for V.F.D.. It looks like the Queequeg could use a larger crew."
"If you're assuming I run this sub alone, you assumed wrong," Fiona said. "Cookie! Come out here!"
A smiling man with a beard hobbled into the engine room. He had one real leg and one peg leg, a phrase which here means: "Shotty prosthetic made from a shoe and an old broom handle."
"Baudelaires, Quagmires, this is Cookie," Fiona introduced.
"Actually, his name is Phil," Violet said.
"Hello Baudelaires!" Phil greeted.
"And I call him Cookie. If any of you have any cooking expertise, I'm quite tired of gum casserole."
"Sous chef," said Sunny.
"My sister says she'd be delighted to help in the kitchen," Klaus translated.
"Excellent," said Fiona, seeming very cheerful now that she wasn't going to have to eat gum casserole for dinner. "If you don't mind, I'm very much in need of a researcher, Klaus Baudelaire." Klaus smiled at her.
"Duncan and I could also assist your research," said Isadora, not liking the way the submarine captain was looking at her friend.
Duncan jumped in with a question before Isadora could say anything regarding Klaus. "Why do you need a researcher?"
"The Queequeg is on a mission," Fiona explained. "Probably the most important mission in V.F.D. history. We're searching for the Sugar Bowl."
Ah, the Sugar Bowl. Not the cliffhanger ending for this chapter I would have preferred, but that's how the story goes.
People who are looking for more drama between the triplets (and noted the 'Duncan's expression was angry'), don't worry, it's coming. I've just got to get to it.
And now, I have a question for you, readers:
Which of the following do you think will appear in the next chapter? (Choose what appeals to you the most).
A) FIGLEY, DUNCLET, & KLADORA
B) Random kissing scenes
C) COD CHOWDER!
D) Sunny saying 'fishy'
Post your answers in your review. I look forward to reading them.