Author's Note: Hi, for this chapter I first tell how the day starts for Audrey, then for Tintin, then... well, you have to read it to find out. By the way did I mention I love reviews? :) Thanks, enjoy, and I will try to update when I can.

Ch.3- The Market

A few days had passed and Audrey hadn't made much progress on her story. She just wasn't getting anywhere. Maybe she was distracted and most likely she was. Every time she went out she ran into the Captain, and luckily, not Tintin.

"Thundering typhoons Audrey! Why were you asking for directions in a bar anyways?" He had asked her when he saw her yesterday.

"I don't know. I walked into the first place I saw and that happened to be the first place I saw."

The Captain rolled his eyes.

"It's not my fault! You're the one who took him to a bar and expected him not to drink! What did you think he was going to do, juggle shot glasses?" She'd shaken her head angrily and left.

Today she was taking a day off of her unsuccessful case. She was going to the local Belgian street market. Breathing in the fresh, cool air Audrey strode along the cobblestone streets to the market she had seen from her hotel window.

It was a fairly large market and there were many things to see. Audrey enjoyed being able to spend a bit of money and haggle with the vendors. She found herself a few good books for cheap and was walking past a stall when something caught her eye. It was a model ship. It immediately reminded her of Tintin.

Curious, she inched closer to the ship and knelt down.

"That's a fine model there, that is." Came the vendor's voice.

Audrey looked up at the older man and smiled, "Yes, it is. I had a friend who found a ship like this once. In fact, it led him to treasure."

"Interesting." Came the vendor's voice, reaching down to open the ship's case and placing it in Audrey's hands.

"It's beautiful… with such detail…three masts…" She whispered, still grinning. She'd always been fascinated in tall ships, ever since she was young.

Audrey was brought back to her young childhood, but of course it hadn't been too far back since she was Tintin's age. Her father had been a sea captain, just like Haddock. She remembered when he arranged for her to take a small sail with him on one of the big, historic ships. Audrey had pretended to be a pirate and her father played along as her first mate. She'd had such fun.

Nowadays her father was still sailing about. Her mother lived in the English countryside and wrote often to Audrey who had moved to London to pursue her career as a reporter. Her parents had been very supportive despite their daughter's young age.

That morning Tintin had woken up feeling much better. He concluded that the Captain had been lying about the whiskey and he had gotten a concussion somehow. Tintin decided he was going to find out.

"Here you are Snowy." Tintin stated, pouring some dog food into the bowl.

Snowy hungrily began gulping it down and Tintin sat down to his eggs and toast.

"Why don't we got to the street market today?" Tintin suggested.

Captain Haddock, who was sitting across from the boy, mumbled from behind his newspaper.

"Captain? Are you listening?" He asked again.

No response.

Tintin got up and went over to the Captain, pulling the newspaper out of his hands.

"Bianca sent a letter, she accepts your marriage proposal." Tintin smirked, that definitely caught the Captain's attention.

"Blistering barnacles Tintin! Don't even joke about that, you know I can't stand that woman!" Haddock gasped as if in pain.

Tintin rolled his eyes and folded his arms.

"I asked if you wanted to go to the street market today."

"Oh, you really want to?"

"Of course. I don't understand Captain. Before you kept trying to get me out of the apartment and now you want to stay inside."

The Captain's eyes darted nervously.

"Fine, we can go if you like." He grumbled.

"Come on Snowy, hurry up." Tintin called to his dog as he put on his coat ten minutes later.

Captain Haddock was still mumbling as they walked down the block to the market. Tintin gave his friend a funny look, why was he acting so strange?

At the market Tintin bought two new bowler hats for his friends the Thompsons who always seemed to lose theirs and a new sailor hat for the Captain. He was feeling very generous.

"Ah, Tintin?"

"Hmmm?"

"Why don't we head this way? There's something I want to show you." The Captain told him, pulling at the boy's coat.

"Well, why don't I catch up with you? I'd like to finish looking down this way."

The Captain snorted and kept pulling. He knew who was down the way Tintin wanted to go and if the two met it probably wouldn't be a pretty reunion.

When Tintin stopped at one of his favorite booths his blue eyes got huge.

There was a girl there kneeling with a model ship and talking to the vendor. She sounded exactly like Audrey. Noting the girl's light brown ponytail he got a sick feeling. It was Audrey.

"That's a nice ship…" Came his broken voice.

Audrey didn't need to turn around to know whom the voice belonged to.

Suddenly, she heard a loud voice thundering voice behind the broken one, obviously irritated.

"Blistering barnacles I thought you were following me! Come on, let's go now…" the Captain's trailed off when he realized who was sitting there facing the stand with the ship in her lap.

Oh no, he thought. This will be interesting.