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The expression on his face as the snow started to fall was one she knew would be burned permanently into her brain.
His entire body was covered in white and carried by the small avalanche while Goldie - very regrettably - stood under the safety of a small cliff to avoid getting hit. He was Scrooge McDuck, he’d be fine. He’d been hit by worse than this before.
A few seconds and the mountain was still once again, so she crawled her way out and started to look around.
“...Scrooge?”
A quick glance gave her nothing. She moved through the snow - which went all the way up to the top of her tail, so it was no easy task - pausing every few feet to listen for a word or (at the very least) a breath. “Scroogey?”
Still nothing. Goldie bit her beak and exhaled loudly through her nose, continuing to move in the direction the snow had fallen. Eventually she’d have to find him, of course. It’s not like he could’ve just disappeared.
After a few more minutes, she started to dig. Not in one spot, hoping to find treasure, but just grabbing snow and throwing it every which-way in the hopes that an old man’s hand or hat or foot or whatever! would be sticking up underneath.
“Scrooge! Come on!” she growled. “A little snow isn’t gonna take you out!”
Her search became frantic at that point, until her gloved hand came in contact with something warm and fleshy underneath. She squeezed, recognizing his arm and smiling brighter than she had in months.
“ There you are! You were trying to scare me, huh?” Goldie laughed, reaching down and tugging him up above the snow. “Well, it didn’t work, obviously, I'm-”
His closed eyes and pale face made her pause.
“Hey!” Goldie shouted, shaking him once.
He didn’t respond still, and she felt her stomach drop. “Scrooge! Hey! Wake up!” She cupped her hand against his cheek and gave him a dozen tiny little slaps. “Hello? Scroogey! ”
Slowly she removed her hand from his face and leaned over, laying her head against his chest. Very, very faintly, she knew she was hearing a heartbeat. He was absolutely not dead and absolutely not going to die.
“You need to wake up, you idiot!” she shouted, shaking him again. “You have-...you have a whole family you need to get back to! Scrooge! ” She placed her hands against his chest and started pushing down, not confident that CPR was what he needed at that moment, but not really sure of what else she could do.
“I’m not…” she mumbled angrily. “...not going to lose you like this! What a stupid way to die! We were supposed to go out together in a blaze of stupid glory!” Goldie wiped at her eyes and continued to press on his chest. “I’m serious, Scrooge! You’re not allowed to die here!”
She didn’t stop for another five minutes. There were no changes, nothing to indicate his condition was improving, and the wind was starting to pick up. Goldie glared at his face - only just then noticing that his glasses were gone. She sniffed and reached down into the snow near where he was, smacking into the small frames after a short search and shoving them into her pocket.
She exhaled, laying her head on his chest again. And she could still hear it - that faint, faint heartbeat. It gave her enough strength to tug the rest of his body out of the snow, laying him on top and holding him in place. He was light enough that the snow wasn’t crumbling under his weight, so Goldie figured she might be able to drag him back to her safe little spot without much trouble.
Normally she wouldn’t bother, she told herself, but it was her fault that he was out here. And she promised to have him back home by Friday for his stupid kids’ “school talent show.” It was nauseating to think about...but she had to get him back. Not that she always kept her promises, but she'd have to be the one to tell them the bad news and it would be absolutely awful.
Goldie continued to shout expletives while dragging him to her hiding spot from earlier, hoping that one of the Scottish-specific insults would make him mad enough to wake up. As they reached the small clearing - the one spot where there was still a tiny bit of visible grass - she had gone completely silent and was stewing in her frustration instead.
She laid him down and dropped to her knees next to him, staring down at his face. “What do you want me to say, Scrooge? What’s gonna make you open your eyes?”
Not surprisingly, he didn’t respond.
“Alright, playing hard to get. That’s fine, not like I don’t deserve it.” She turned away and stared down at his feet instead. “I’m... sorry. Is that what you want? A heartfelt apology? I should’ve grabbed you? I wish it’d been me and not you? I’ve got a thousand sappy one-liners in here just ready to go!”
For a brief moment, Goldie thought she saw him move, but it was just some of his feathers being teased by the wind.
She growled and crawled over - straddling him and leaning as close to his face as possible. “Listen! You’re gonna wake up! Right now! And we’ll just take you back to your stupid , safe little mansion and you can go be with your kids and it’ll be fine! We can do whatever you want on the plane headed back, too! I’ll let you try that stupid thing you wanted to try! But you can’t unless you wake the hell up! ”
Her breaths got louder and more frequent as she continued to stare down at him. He looked lifeless at this point, and she started to wonder if that heartbeat was just a figment of her imagination. She laid her head down once more to try and hear it again, but her own breaths and anxiety pumping her heart louder than ever made it impossible to hear.
“Damnit, Scrooge!” A tear rolled down her cheek and she ignored it as she wrapped her hands around the sides of his face. “I hate that you’re gonna make me do this, and if it works I swear to God I’m not calling you for at least a year!”
She leaned down and pressed their beaks together - kissing him angrily and passionately in the hopes that somehow those fairy tales knew what they were talking about. Not that she would consider herself his “true love,” but... well.
Pulling away from him felt physically painful, but she managed and slowly peeked her eyes open to stare at his face again. She swore there was a small bit of pink in his cheeks that wasn’t there before, though there was a possibility that that was due to her squeezing his face too tightly.
“...Scrooge?”
She spent the next three seconds in absolute agony, not having any other ideas of what to do next. There was no way she’d let him die, but she only had so many other options for attempting to wake him up. The lack of cell signal or medical supplies was finally starting to stick out to her as a flaw in their travel plans.
But there was no need to continue her train of thought as his chest constricted and he let out a rough-sounding cough that Goldie felt through her whole body. Scrooge moved a fist up towards his mouth on a reflex, but before he could let out another cough, he received another kiss.
She pulled away quickly, realizing he probably needed some air and feeling a little foolish about it. “Um...hi.”
He slowly opened his eyes, a little surprised (but not at all unhappy) at the image of her sitting on his lap. He tried to open his mouth to respond, and instead let loose another round of coughs.
Goldie stood up and crawled over to his side, putting a hand on his back. She was more excited than she cared to admit about him being up and attem again, but not knowing if he’d heard anything she’d said in the past half hour made her feel a bit awkward.
After the coughs subsided, Scrooge turned his head to look at her and gave her a smirk. “We can do…” He paused and gulped down some air. “...whatever I want, hm?”
Goldie blinked silently at him for a few moments before responding with an even bigger smile and another kiss. “Within reason, of course. I’m not sure if your old bones can take anything too extreme.”
Scrooge laughed - a laugh which turned into coughs again, but he quickly pushed them back down. “After what just happened, I think my body can handle anything you've got.”