Chapter Text
Gyro and Dol stood next to each other in the elevator. She tugged at her shirt collar; adjusted her tie. Done with that, her fingers twitched as she wrung her hands. Gyro had his arms crossed behind his back. He watched her in the mirrored elevator doors. They were heading down to the lab for the first time since she’d arrived in Duckburg.
It had only been two days since the jackamoose incident. Scrooge had given Dol a week to recover while a new lab was built on one of the Bin’s lower floors. Above sea level, of course. Dol had, to Gyro’s unsurprise, refused to stay home and rest. She wanted to spend time with her brother, and more importantly, meet her definitely real nephew.
“We can come over and see you.” He’d offered during their phone call the other day.
“Are you crazy?” Dol had hissed. “You can’t just show up to Dickie’s apartment, much less with a kid. Your kid. She’ll lose her mind!”
“You’re right. Dickie is….excitable.”
“Why don’t I come over to the Bin? I could try taking a look at your lab again.”
“Dolly, I don’t think you should push yourself with the water thing. After the fountain-”
“Gyro. You’re talking like a man that wants to lose his knees.”
“I mean it, Dol. Think about your mental health. I thought you said you took a night class in psychology.”
“I did, but you must not know me very well if you think I’m gonna listen to any of it.”
“You and your pride.”
“Pot and kettle.”
“Point taken.” he’d looked around the walls of the lab, an idea striking him. “Actually, I think I know a way to make it work.”
“So you’ll let me come?” Dol asked hopefully.
“I’ll let you come.”
He’d met her at the Bin’s front door, and they’d hugged. Gyro had always been a hugger. When you were raised by a family that took shows of love and support so seriously, it came with the territory. He wasn’t against falling back into the practice, but he did have a reputation to keep. Lord forbid Della find a reason to start giving him surprise hugs again. She’d been a menace before the Spear, always sneaking up behind him.
“Keep it together, Dolmadakia.” Dol muttered to herself. She smoothed her head feathers.
Gyro cleared his throat. “So, I wanted to ask you about something.”
Dol straightened her tie again. “As long as the question does not involve the words shark, leg, or girlfriend. Because the answer to all of them is no.”
“Really? Still?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m sad and single. What’s your question?”
He pushed himself up on the balls of his feet. “So. You had a priceless crystalized bone and turned it into a pair of swords?”
Dol snorted. “Don’t sound so disappointed. I actually had two ribs. I couldn’t get out with just the one, so I got another and had to-” she made a bizarre scissoring motion. “You know, like salad tongs.”
“I have never seen anyone do that with salad tongs.”
“I’ll have to tell you about that wild fundraiser I went to, then.”
“....So why swords?”
“Thought it would look cool. They were already in the shape for it anyway. And the crystals absorb most kinds of energy including magic. Considering what I work with, it's a pretty useful tool.”
“How did you make the blades retractable? They’re longer than the hilts.”
“I know a guy who worked in wormhole science who owed me a favor.”
“Of course.”
“He got me back by modeling the hilts after shark tails. The jerk.”
In the mirrored elevator door he saw her staring at him.
“What?”
She smiled. “I think I actually do like your hair.”
He rolled his eyes. “You don’t have to suck up to me, Dol.”
“No, I mean it! It looks nice.”
He examined it in the door and ran a hand through the feathers. “Well, thank you.”
“You know, I think if you tied it back like mom does it would look just like hers.”
“Are you saying that I have mom’s haircut?”
“Yeah!”
“I do not!”
“You do!”
“No I do not!”
“Okay, then let’s push it back and see.” Dol reached for his head.
Gyro slapped her hands away. “Hair’s off limits.”
“Come on,” she grinned, “just let me-”
Gyro turned his back to her. He squawked as she wrapped an arm around his neck and reached for his hair with the other. He doubled over, trying to break her grip. Instead she held on, draped across his back.
“Get off me, you horrible woman!”
“Just let me see! You know I’m right!”
“Get off!”
“Never!”
"Off!"
"Never!"
"OFF!"
"NEVER!"
“Uhhhh.”
The elevator doors had opened without their notice. Fenton stood just inside the lab, watching them. Gyro quickly stood up, Dol sliding off his back. They looked away from each other as they fussed with their hair and straightened their clothes. Just as Gyro turned to face them, Dol’s hand was on his forehead and slicking back his hair.
“DOL!” He slapped her hand away.
She smirked. “I was riiiiight.”
He fussed his bangs back into place. “Get out before I throw you out.”
She laughed, stepped towards the open door, then stopped. Her smile slipped. Slowly she poked her head into the lab and looked around. The windows were all covered in thick metal shutters blocking out all view of the ocean floor outside. Dol stepped fully into the lab, drawing a shaky breath.
Gyro followed her out of the elevator. “So, how is it?”
“It’s….not so bad. Now that I can’t see it, that is. If I just don’t think about it then….I should be okay.”
“Well, then, let’s get you distracted!” Fenton said. “Dr. Gearloose has something set up for you.”
“Reeeeally?” Dol shot Gyro a suspicious look.
“What’s that for?” He asked, stepping into the lab.
“Nothing. Just that your surprises always seem to happen when I’m in no position to say no.” She leaned towards Fenton. “This doesn’t include any kind of simulation game, does it?”
“What?” Fenton asked.
“Dol, that was one time!” He cried.
“One time too many!” She shot back.
The duck smiled nervously. “No, nothing like….that. Dr. Gearloose was actually going to upload all of the videos on your computer to a digital storage space. If you’d like, that is.”
Dol clapped her hands and smiled. “Oh my gosh, yes! I’ve been trying to figure out how to do that for years, but I am the worst with computers. They hate me more than….more than….” she tapped her beak. “I can’t think of a good punchline. Wait, how did Gyro get my computer?”
“I grabbed it from your lab before the construction started.” Gyro said, quickly moving past her. “You really should lock your doors.”
Dol hummed and put her hands on her hips. “Still a dirty snoop, I see.”
“You’re welcome.” He called over his shoulder.
~/~/~
“So then, Gyro had the bright idea to make a dating simulator with a sentient AI.”
“Really?”
“It was one time! I needed to practice and perfect the sentience code.”
“Sure. Whatever you say.”
“You know, I seem to remember someone who wasn’t me bringing up the idea in the first place.”
Dol cleared her throat. “Ha. Wonder who that was.”
“So, did it work?” Fenton asked.
“Too well.” Dol answered. “The AI escaped the game and started leaving me love notes in my school essays. I did get an A in English though. It was really good at writing love poems.”
“Well that’s….cute?” Fenton said.
“Most of our appliances ended up sentient after Gyro perfected the sentience code. Our microwave hated him, but it really liked our moms. Most of them did.”
“I think they were just smart enough not to test them.” Gyro said without looking up.
He sat at one of the lab’s many terminals. Dol’s battered laptop was plugged into it, Dol seated in front of it in a borrowed swivel chair. The terminal’s huge holographic screen showed a mosaic of video files. He opened one and nudged Dol to look at the preview.
“Oh yeah, keep that one.”
Gyro nodded and added it to the cloud. “Do you really need all these?”
“I have a lot of good memories stored in there. We haven’t even gotten to my home movies folder yet!”
“Home movies?” Fenton asked. He stood by the top of the stairs, every so often looking down towards the elevator.
Della and the kids would be coming soon, and Boyd would be with them. She’d agreed to pick up Boyd from his Junior Woodchuck meeting when she went to get Huey. Then they’d all come to the lab for lunch.
“Mmhmm! I did a lot of filming as a kid. Gyro and I would do these fake commercials for his inventions while I tested them.”
Gyro ducked his head, blushing.
“That sounds adorable!”
“They are!” Dol clapped her hands. “Oh, we gotta watch one now.”
“No we do not! We need to finish this folder before we move to another.” Gyro pointed to another video thumbnail. Dol shook her head and he deleted it.
“Oh,” she said slyly. “You wanna watch them with Boyd and Della, don’t you. That’s so sweet.”
He turned to her with wide eyes. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Mmm, maybe I wouldn’t. If we watch one now maybe I could get it out of my system?”
They stared at each other for a moment. Gyro glared. Dol smiled deviously. Eventually he sighed and hung his head.
“Fine. Pick one. One. And be quick.”
She exclaimed happily and leaned forward to give him a quick hug. Gyro looked away, but he was smiling all the same. She released him and turned to her computer cracking her knuckles. With her beak nearly touching the dark screen Dol scrolled through a stuffed folder before finally settling on a video.
“Toaster heat ray.” She said triumphantly. “It’s an absolute classic.”
“You just want to watch the aftermath.” Gyro said.
“Maaaaaybeeeeee. Fenton, come see!”
“Are you sure?” He glanced at Gyro. “I would hate to intrude on a family moment.”
“She’s only playing it to show someone.” Gyro snapped. “Hurry up and come over here before the others show up.”
Fenton trotted over and Dol started the video. There was a long shot of the ground as whoever was carrying the camera kept it pointed down. Two feet bobbed in and out of view, clad in oversized shoes. The hardwood gave way to a grassy lawn, and the camera was raised. A young chicken wearing a very familiar hat was crouched in the grass.
“I got the camera, Gigi!”
The chick - Gyro - turned around and smiled wide. “Great!” He stood and tilted his head. “Wait, why are you filming?”
“Awwe!” Fenton couldn’t help himself. “Dr. Gearloose, you’re adorable.”
Gyro groaned and Dol giggled.
“You have to start filming early otherwise the actors get all weird when it turns on.”
Young Gyro crossed his arms. “Is that a real fact or something you came up with?”
“It’ll be a fact when I become a doctor. Everything they say is a fact.” Replied the camera wielder, who Fenton assumed was a young Dolmadakia.
The camera was mounted on a tripod and his hunch was proven right. Young Dol tightened her scrunchy, a worn piece of fabric trying desperately to hold back a huge mane of feathers. Gyro wore his hair loose, the curly strands hanging in tangles around his face.
“Dolly, that’s not true either.”
“Well it will be when I’m a doctor.”
“Dolly-”
She turned her back on the camera to face her brother. “So! What are we testing again?”
The next portion of the video was several minutes of Gyro instructing Dol and how to hold his makeshift invention. To Fenton, it looked like a toaster duck taped to the handle of a tennis racket. Knowing Gyro, it was probably more impressive in its execution than its design.
“It wasn’t a bad idea.” Gyro mumbled to himself. He watched his younger self with a strange look on his face.
“No it wasn’t.” Dol agreed. “The explosion was a bit much though.”
“Well, I didn’t plan on it doing that.”
“Sure you didn’t.”
She skipped forward and restarted the video. The two chicks had finally started the recording in earnest. Gyro turned his head, face turning red. His younger self stepped into frame with an exaggerated, easy-going swagger. Fenton found himself snickering along with Dol. The chick stopped and turned to face the camera, clearing his throat and tucking his arms behind his back.
“Greetings, Duckburg.” He said formally. “My name is Gyro Gearloose, the greatest mind in Duck-”
There was frantic whispering from off screen, Gyro leaned towards it, then nodded.
“Sorry about that, folks. Important science news.”
Gyro hunched over in his seat, embarrassed.
“As I was saying, my name is Gyro Gearloose and I am the greatest mind….of all time!”
“There’s that big head of yours showing.” Dol whispered.
“Dol,” Gyro shot her a look, face bright red. “I will strangle you with that pathetic tie.”
“Not before I’ve pulled your vocal cords out of your mouth you won’t.” She replied without looking away from the screen, a big smile on her face.
On the video, little Gyro had continued his presentation.
“Everyone loves popcorn, but warming it up in a microwave is so slow. It’s boring, too. That’s why I have concocted a brand new way to warm up your food that’s both fast and fun. Introducing the Gearloose Heat Ray!”
He flourished his hands and Dol came running on screen. She hefted the duct-tape encrusted invention onto her shoulder. A bike helmet had been shoved onto her unruly hair.
“The Gearloose Heat Ra-” Gyro was interrupted as Dol cleared her throat. “Ugh, sorry. This is my assistant-” another angry cough- “UGH! My lovely assistant, Dolmadakia Gearloose.”
“Thank you so much.” Dol shot back. She replaced her grimace with a grin and curtseyed to the camera.
Gyro - both of them - rolled their eyes. The one on screen ran up to the camera and turned it. A small pillow fort slid into view. Dol scooted back into frame as her brother started talking again.
“Dolly- I mean, Dolmadakia will be testing my invention on this bag of popcorn.” He pointed to the ground where a flat bag lay, rustling in the breeze. “I will be taking cover over there. This is a normal safety precaution and not because I think it will explode.” He pointed to the fort, then ran and dove behind it.
“Whenever you’re ready, Dolly!” Came a muffled shout.
The chick nodded and put on a pair of sunglasses. She aimed the toaster at the bag, crouched, and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened, save the bag tumbling end over end from a stronger breeze. Dol looked at the machine dubiously.
“Gigi-”
“It’s Gyro! We’re recording!” Answered the hat just visible above the pillow fortress.
“Whatever! The thing isn’t work-”
The screen turned white, making the chickens and duck shield their eyes. The light resided after a second. The heat ray lay in the grass, and Dol’s helmet was ablaze. Gyro vaulted over his protective barrier with a fire extinguisher under one arm. He fired it at his sister, smothering her in white foam as she stood there, dazed.
“That stuff’s super toxic. Don’t breathe it.” Dol said, leaning towards Fenton.
“Did you breathe any?” He asked.
“Oh, a ton.” She answered.
On screen her younger self hacked and coughed, batting away the foam with her hands. Gyro dropped the extinguisher and wrung his hands frantically. Dol grabbed the helmet and wretched it off her head, exclaiming as the melted plastic ripped wads of feathers from her head.
“My hair!” She cried.
“My heat ray!” Cried her brother.
Dol slowly turned her head to look at him, eyes narrowing, before lunging and knocking him to the ground. The camera was knocked over just in time to show the front door flying open. Nikola Gearloose stepped onto the lawn and gasped, the sounds of her children scuffling offscreen. She turned around and yelled into the house.
“Hana! The children are fighting again! Which one do you think is gonna win? I think Gyro could really pull through this time!”
“Niki stop!” Hana appeared in the doorway. “Help me pull them apart.”
They ran forward, someone collided with the downed camera, and the screen blackened. It returned a moment later. Now the scene was inside a dim kitchen. Gyro and Dol sat on chairs, arms crossed and faces pointing away from each other. Their mothers stood offscreen.
"We cannot have any more explosions in the yard! Do you know how expensive it is to have the fire department down here every week?"
"They won't accept free tune ups on the fire truck as payment for much longer, kiddos. Maybe it's time you started experimenting with do-dads that don't require fire power, Chickpea."
Gyro stiffened at the old nickname, while his younger self hung his head. He'd never been able to stay angry with his mother and her sweet Southernisms.
"Yes, mama." The chick answered.
"And you, young lady." Said the other mother. "Cannot keep attacking your brother when inventions go wrong. If you agree to test them, you will suffer the consequences. Perhaps it's time you stop throwing yourself into these situations, hmm?"
"But mom," little Dol argued, "He's gonna blow himself up if he tries 'em himself!"
"Then maybe no one should be testing them."
"No!" Both chicks cried.
"Fine! I won't punch him anymore! Don't make Gyro stop inventing!"
"And I'll try and make 'em less dangerous! So Dolly won't get hurt!"
"Awe, you two do care about each other."
"Somebody has to care about him." Dol snickered.
Gyro glared, pushing wads of matted curls out of his eyes. "Hey! That's not nice! Apologize to me right now."
"Apologize to my hair then!" Dol retorted.
"Never!"
Dol threw herself at him, knocking them both to the ground. Scuffling and screaming could be heard offscreen. Something nudged the table, setting the camera wobbling.
"Ugh, Niki, why are they like this?"
There was a short pause.
"And if you say pecking order one more time-!"
The camera toppled over and the video ended.
Fenton looked over and was surprised to see Gyro snickering along with Dol.
"You were always so stuck up about your hair." He chuckled.
"And you were always so infuriating stubborn."
"As if you weren't!"
"Oh I have no idea what you mean!"
They threw their heads back, cackling madly. Fenton smiled. When he heard the chime of the elevator it only grew.
"Guess who brought the par-tay!" Della's voice echoed off the walls.
Dol, startled, set about straightening her clothes and checking her hair. Gyro rolled his eyes. Then his eyes widened at the sound of Boyd's rockets. Boyd himself appeared seconds later, having forgone the stairs and flying right up onto the elevated second floor of the lab.
"Hi Doctor Gearloose!" He said with a wave. His Junior Woodchuck uniform had been exchanged for his usual shirt, pants, and bow tie.
"Hello, Boyd." Gyro glanced nervously at Dol. "How was the meeting?"
But Boyd hadn't heard him. Well, he probably had, but answering the question had been labeled a secondary objective once his big blue eyes landed on Dol.
"Doctor Gearloose," He gasped, "Is that the doctor from Dewey Dewnight? Is that my aunt?"
Dol stood up. Gyro stood up with her. He honestly had no idea how she would react to seeing him again. Sure, she had played a small part in creating him, but the last time she had seen him was in news footage. Footage of him burning down the city.
Dol crouched. She looked Boyd up and down. Della and the kids lingered on the stairs, watching. Louie was eating popcorn.
"Are…you my aunt Dolmadakia?"
Dol raised her hand. "You don't call me that. You never have to call me that."
Boyd's face fell.
"Family calls me Dolly."
Boyd's face lit up. Dol opened her arms and he dutifully ran forward for a hug.
"Oh, look at you!" She said when he pulled away. "Absolutely anatomically accurate! I did such a good job."
Gyro cleared his throat.
"Yes, and you did help. Thank you, Gyro."
He glared and she laughed. "I'm just kidding and you know it!"
"I love your hair." Boyd said.
Dol gasped, grasping at her heart. "Oh! Thank you! Oh my gosh, you are now my favorite nephew."
"Am I your only nephew?"
"What on Earth would that have to do with anything?"
Boyd giggled.
"Oh, I know Newton would just love you."
"Who's Newton?"
Dol stood up slowly. When she turned to Gyro she smiled, but her hand was pulling at her headfeathers. "He's…he's um…he's your nephew, Gyro."
The Duck family "ooohed" from the stairwell while Fenton gasped. Gyro stared, dumbfounded.
After a long moment he found his voice. "My nephew?"
"Yeah," Dol said, nervously.
"That makes him your son." He said.
"That's correct."
"Your…you have a son."
"Yeah."
He exclaimed and threw up his hands, making the others jump. Dol's face settled into a look of expectant chagrin.
"YOU HAD A SON? WITH WHO? WHEN? HOW? WHY?" He cried.
"You're gonna give yourself an aneurysm." Dol answered.
"DOL!"
"Gyro, he's adopted."
Gyro quieted while he processed the new information, before jumping back into his rant.
"WHY WOULD YOU ADOPT?"
"Gyro," she said calmly, even as her eye twitched. "That is a long story."
"And suddenly you don't feel like spinning a yarn?" He demanded, crossing his arms.
"All I can say is that Newton was the happy ending to a long series of extremely unfortunate events."
Gyro fidgeted. He looked around at the others' expectant gazes and blushed. "I'm sorry. For…"
"Exploding?" Dol grinned.
Gyro grunted. "It's just…you know. You're-" He gestured at Dol, and vaguely at Della. "And to have an egg requires…you know."
"Gyro, I passed middle school biology."
"I am aware!" He snapped. He pushed up his glasses and rubbed at his face.
"Can I see what my cousin looks like?" Boyd asked.
"Yeah! Let me see what kinda little guy you've got." Della said, finally leaving the stairs with the kids close behind.
Dol fished her phone out of her pocket and excitedly swiped through her photos.
"Here he is! My little angel."
Gyro leaned over the ducks to see. Newton was a Silkie chick. Short, maybe only as high as his own knees, and covered in pale, blonde feathers. They topped his head in a thick mop, with only a pair of black glasses to show that he even had eyes underneath. A white and red cane was in his hand.
Gyro looked at Dol. "Is he-?"
"Blind?" She finished. "Yeah, he is. But he's also a little genius. He's built so many things into that cane I have to take it away almost every day."
"You take it away?!" They all exclaimed.
"Only that one! I have a closet full of non-technified canes. But every time I give him a normal one he's built a propeller or flamethrower into it by the next hour. I got him a bike for his birthday and he built rocket thrusters into the pedals."
"It sounds like he takes after you, Dr. Gearloose." Fenton said, giving him a smile.
"Tragic, isn't it?" Dol joked.
"Can I meet him one day?" Boyd asked.
"Of course you can! He's in Tokyolk with his grandmas looking after him for me right now. But one day, we can go see him. Or maybe he can come see you."
"And I can meet my grandmas too?" He asked.
Dol looked at Gyro. Boyd looked back and forth between them, expectantly. Gyro scratched the back of his neck.
"One day." He agreed. "One day."
He and Dol smiled at each other. Gyro cleared his throat, dispersing the heartwarming moment.
"Well, I can at least appreciate the naming convention you used for him." He said.
Dol tilted her head questioningly.
"Isaac Newton? The father of modern physics? One of the greatest scientists of all time? That's what he's named after, yes?"
Dol's eyes widened and she smiled. She smiled nervously, and just a bit too widely.
"Oh yeaaaaaah. Yeah. Yeah that's it. Mmmhmm. Isaac Newton."
Gyro stared at her. "Dol. You didn't."
"Didn't whaaat?" Her eyes darted around the lab.
"You did not name my nephew after fig newtons."
Dol laughed and tugged at her necktie.
"Why would you-! Ugh! Why is it always food with you, Dol?"
"Okay I know what you're talking about and you know it was a misunderstanding!"
"Oooh! More Gearloose family drama?" Della asked.
"She thought-" Gyro pointed accusing at his sister- "that my name was referring to the Greek food!"
"Wait, it's not?" Della gasped.
"Gyroscope! I'm named after a gyroscope, people!"
"Dude, that's a terrible name." Dewey grimaced.
"My full name is not Gyroscope! It's just Gyro, which is where the confusion happened."
"Why didn't your parents just tell you the truth?" Louie asked.
Dol and Gyro looked at eachother. Dol tilted her head towards the ducks. Gyro, with a momentary hesitation, sighed.
"My parents did not name me Gyro, I chose the name for myself." He glared at Dol. "And I wrote it down in my diary before I told anyone."
"And I would, always, look through his diary." She said, sheepishly. "Darndest thing is they're both spelled the same! So when I chose my name I decided I would also have a Greek food name, and that's why I'm Dalmadakia."
"Wack." Louie said.
"Wack indeed." Dol grinned.
"You can just change your name?" Dewey exclaimed. "Do you know how many possibilities you just opened for me?!
"You have to wait seven years afterwards to change it again." Della said.
Dewey groaned, slapping his hands over his face. "Not fair! That’s too much commitment!"
~/~/~
Dol got back to the apartment late that night. After the get-together at the lab she'd gone out for dinner with everyone. It was nice. It had been so nice.
She tiptoed past Dickey, who had fallen asleep on the couch with a banjo cradled in her arms. Dol threw a blanket over her before heading to her own room. She wasn't tired at all. Too many good things had happened and a happy, fuzzy feeling thrummed under her feathers.
She stepped over the guitars, around the drum set, and crouched next to the bed. Her suitcase, still bursting at the seams, was half shoved underneath it. Better start unpacking now, while there was nothing to distract herself with.
As she began folding clothes she considered opening the new camera Gyro had thrown together for her. He’d put it together during dinner, much to the chagrin of the ducks. Dol’d actually welcomed it. It was familiar - nostalgic even - to have him tinkering nearby while she ate.
And she’d have her own lab! No more working out of her bedroom. Or saving up for flights to throw herself at sharks or volcanoes. No more-
She froze.
It was at the bottom of her suitcase. At first she wondered why she had bothered to pack it, but she never felt comfortable leaving it at home. Leaving it near Newton. Honestly…she should have burned it by now. She should burn it right now.
But…
She shoved it back inside and slammed the lid shut. Pushing the suitcase back under the bed with her foot she threw herself on top of the covers. “Don’t think about it right now,” she told herself. Dol took off her glasses and rubbed at her eyes. It was only an old lab coat.
But the emblem monogrammed on its lapel - the taloned claw reaching for the globe - stayed fresh in her mind until she finally fell asleep.