(Sits in an armchair, drinking tea) Good evening, and welcome to the next chapter of the fanfiction "The Great Mouse Detective 2: Unexpected Love." I am your host, DiscordantPrincess, and I...I can't pull off being fancy. Oh well.

FairyTales And Pixie Dust: Heck yeah, she's adorable! And I'm with you, I don't support pairing Olivia with ANYBODY, she's a little kid for Discord's sake! If she were about ten years older, then yeah, I could see it, but not as a little kid! Don't worry, this chap goes a little into Ratti's backstory, and the next chap will delve even deeper!

In this chapter, Basil is starting to realize his true feelings for Danielle, and they go out together. How will things turn out? Find out now! I still own nothing.

It had been a month since the Baker Street mice came to visit the Flavershams. Danielle and Olivia had grown as close as two girls could get. They played together, they laughed together, they read together...they did practically everything together. They were truly sisters.

Basil observed Danielle's interactions with Olivia every day. He was absolutely astounded by how different she was from her father; whereas Ratigan had been cruel, vicious and just plain evil, Danielle was kind, even-tempered and compassionate. However did that lowlife raise such a wonderful daughter all by himself? he wondered. Also, the detective was experiencing new feelings for the young woman. Whenever he heard her laugh or sing or watched her play with Olivia, his face felt hot, his heart pounded in his chest, and it felt as though an entire swarm of butterflies had found their way into his stomach. He had not felt this way about a woman in quite some time...and it frightened him a little.

Of course, the three other adults noticed Basil's feelings for Danielle, so they formulated a plan to get them together. It started when Dawson suggested that Basil take Danielle out for the evening.

"Why would I want to do that?" Basil asked.

"Because young ladies enjoy going out and seeing the town," Dawson explained. "And a young lady would need a gentleman to escort her, and seeing as you are closer to her age than are Hiram or myself, you would be best suited."

Basil smiled. "That's a fine suggestion. All right, I'll do it." What he wasn't about to admit to Dawson was that he was planning on inviting Danielle out anyway.

So Basil asked Danielle out, and she gladly said yes. Hiram suggested a good restaurant in town, and the mice spent the next few days preparing. Finally, the night rolled around. In Olivia's bedroom, Olivia and Mrs. Judson were helping Danielle prepare.

"But why would Basil all of a sudden invite me out?" Danielle asked. "I thought he hated me!"

"Oh, I don't think he ever hated you, dear," Mrs. Judson assured her. "He's just got a lot of resentment built up against your father, and he's been indirectly pointing it at you."

"What exactly happened between my father and Basil that made them hate one another so passionately?" Danielle inquired. "My father never told me anything outside the fact that Basil was a "miserable pipsqueak" and a "second-rate detective.""

Mrs. Judson sighed. "It's a long, sad story, and I don't want to upset you before your evening. Olivia, dear, please hand me that ribbon over there."

Down in the main room, Basil paced back and forth a bit. He was dressed in a blue suit with a magenta cravat, black shoes and white gloves. He wrung his hands together. "Nervous, Basil?" Dawson asked.

"Just a bit," Basil lied, really he was petrified. "I haven't been on a date in years."

"You'll be fine," Hiram assured him. "Just be nice to her. Talk with her, maybe find some common ground."

Just then, Olivia came out into the room. "May I present, Miss Danielle Ratigan!" Danielle came out, dressed in a pink gown, pink gloves and flats, gold earrings and her gold necklace. Her long raven hair was fixed neatly up in a bun.

Basil was speechless for a minute. "You...you look STUNNING."

Danielle smiled. "Thank you, you look very handsome as well." The two mice gazed at each other for a while.

Then, Basil found his voice. "Well, shall we go?"

"Yes, let's." Basil gently took Danielle's hand, and the two walked out the door together.

The two mice took a cab to the restaurant. They arrived, were seated and ordered their drinks and meals. As the evening went on, they were talking and laughing.

"You didn't!" Danielle denied something that Basil had told her.

Basil nodded. "I did. When I was a freshman in university, some colleagues and I hijacked a cab and took a joyride on it. It was the wildest thing I've ever done! We got into terrible trouble with both the owner of the cab and the school board, but it was worth it!"

Danielle chuckled. "My father would have never let me do anything like that. He was always highly protective of me."

"That's because he cared about you so much. As dastardly as that fiend was, he was loyal to ones he loved." Basil noticed that Danielle was looking sad, so he added "If I tell you a secret, do you promise not to tell anyone?"

"Yes."

"I was always envious of your father. He was bigger, stronger, smarter...that's why I pushed myself to be the best my whole academic career and beyond, so I could say that I was even half as smart as Padraic Ratigan."

Danielle half-smiled. "If I tell YOU a secret, do YOU promise not to tell anyone?" Basil nodded, expecting to hear some story about a time when Ratigan had beat her or called her a name, something more suited to the villain he knew and hated than the wonderful childhood memories she always talked about. Instead, Danielle continued with "When I was a girl, I had a massive crush on one of my father's henchmen."

"Really," Basil replied, a bit disappointed that her secret was so small.

"Oh yes. I knew we could never be together, but Bartholomew was just so funny and cute, even IF he was drunk half the time I ever saw him. I was devastated when I learned that Daddy had fed him to our cat Felicia after he called him a rat. I never knew why my father hated being called a rat until he told me the story."

"What story?" Basil inquired. Danielle took a deep breath and told him:

"My father was born in New York City to a mouse mother and a rat father. My grandparents' marriage was not a happy one; her family had arranged for them to marry solely because my grandfather had worked his way up from the sewers into high class society. But he wasn't high class at all. He drank way too much and abused her both physically and verbally. The only time he ever stopped was when she was pregnant and nursing. The day my father was weaned, though, Grandfather Ratigan started beating his wife again. Then, when she discovered that she was expecting her second child, he stopped beating his wife...and started beating their five-year-old son. Grandmother Ratigan decided that enough was enough and planned to leave. Fortunately, Grandfather died of a heart attack soon after he took up beating my father, and the family left New York for London, where my aunt was born. Things went well for their family, until Grandmother became ill with cholera. My father, then sixteen, tried to get her the best doctors in London, but nothing worked and she died. My father was devastated, but because he had been accepted to Oxford University he had to be strong, so he left my aunt, then eleven, with a relative of their mother's and went to school. He did so well that after graduation, the university offered him a job as head of the mathematics department and he accepted. There, he met my mother, they got married and had me, but unfortunately my mother died giving birth to me. And then when I was a baby my aunt died. Losing his mother, wife and sister devastated my father, and that's when he became a criminal I'm sure. He had hardened his heart to the rest of the world." She began to cry. "In all the rest of his life, I was the only one he could ever love." She leaned her head into the table and sobbed.

"So he hated being called a rat because it reminded him of his own father's beastly ways," Basil concluded. "All the time I was a student of his, he never once told me that story. Not that it would be a story that I myself would necessarily share with anyone." He gently stroked the crying girl's arm. "It's all right, my dear, it's all the past now."

Danielle sniffed and looked up. "That's the first time you've ever called me dear before."

"You ARE a dear. You are a beautiful, intelligent, wonderful young woman, Danielle Ratigan."

Danielle smiled. Then, she heard the music that the restaurant's string quartet was playing. "Oh, that's so beautiful." She got up and took Basil's hand. "Come on, let's dance."

"Oh, I don't think so, my dear, I'm not really the best dancer," Basil tried to get out of it.

"Neither am I, but we can still dance." Danielle jerked Basil onto his feet and took him to the middle of the room, where they began to dance together. "Danielle, darling, we're the only two dancing," Basil noted.

"I don't care. As far as I'm concerned, we're the only two mice in the room." With those reassuring words, Basil relaxed and danced with Danielle. The two felt a calm serenity sweep over them, and then when the song ended, they looked into each other's eyes, emerald meeting dark sapphire, and shared a passionate kiss. Everyone in the room applauded the couple...except for one mouse who was sitting in a corner.

"Oh my," Jenkins commented. "I must go tell Master Wallace!" He got up and hurried off, heading for the inn that he and Wallace were staying in.

Later that night, the two mice arrived back at the Flavershams' home. "So, how did the evening go?" Dawson asked.

"Oh, it went very well," Basil answered.

"Yes, very well indeed," Danielle agreed. "Is Olivia in bed?"

"Ay, she went about half an hour ago," Hiram confirmed. "She wanted to wait up for you, but I told her we had no idea when you'd be back."

"Well, I'd better get ready for bed," Danielle decided. "Good night, Basil."

"Good night, Danielle." Danielle went up to where Olivia's room was. "Good night, everyone."

"Good night," came the simultaneous response. Danielle smiled and went into the room. Basil grinned as he watched her go.

"I know that look," Mrs. Judson recognized Basil's face. "What happened tonight?"

"Oh, nothing much," Basil responded. "We had dinner, and we danced, and then we...kissed."

"You KISSED!" Dawson repeated, thrilled. "Oh, I knew it, good fellow! You're in love with Danielle!"

Basil sighed. "She's just so wonderful..." Then he caught on to what Dawson had just said. "In LOVE? No, no, that's impossible, I can't be in love!"

"It's not impossible at all," Hiram replied. "Falling in love is a wonderful thing. Why I remember when I first met my beloved wife Bridget..."

"No, no, no, you don't understand, I just can't be in love!" Basil interrupted, frantic.

"We WOULD understand if you told us!" Dawson replied. "Basil, please, we are your friends, you can tell us anything."

Basil breathed in heavily and let it go, trying to calm himself down. "I was in love once, with a beautiful, intelligent, wonderful young lady. I was young, happy, completely naïve to how cold and cruel the world really is..."

Hoo boy, THAT was some emotional trauma there, wasn't it?

Hopefully I got the symptoms of falling in love at least partially correct; having never actually been in LOVE love myself (though I've had my fair share of crushes), I can only go by what I've read.

I hope you guys liked the little posthumous mention of Bartholomew...I really liked the little guy in the movie, and I'll admit I felt a little sad when Ratigan fed him to Felicia. I don't know, maybe I'm the only one who likes him.

I know it's probably biologically impossible for mice and rats to interbreed...but screw it, I'm running on freaky fangirl logic here!

Just to give y'all a mental picture, Danielle's dress is based heavily on Belle's ball gown from Beauty and the Beast...but pink instead of gold. As to where the darn thing came from...I don't know, maybe it's an old dress that belonged to Olivia's mom.

Next chapter, we learn Basil's backstory and what caused him and Ratigan to become enemies. Warning, may be a Tearjerker.

Thanks again, y'all, hope to see you soon!

All my best, DiscordantPrincess.