Chapter Text
The moon invasion was over. Lunaris was defeated. They made it back to Earth and Donald had finally gotten all the sand from that desert-island off his body. With all the excitement over, he was glad to be able to just relax in his hammock on his houseboat.
It wasn’t a cruise, but that was the absolute last solo vacation he’d ever take. That was the third time he’d gotten stuck on a deserted island by himself and he’d rather not take another chance.
He sighed contentedly as he closed his eyes in relaxation and pushed the wall gently with a foot to start the hammock swinging. The pool just didn’t have the waves to cause his houseboat to rock enough for his hammock to move with it. He began to contemplate moving back to the marina when there was a gentle knock on the door frame to his room.
Donald smiled to himself while keeping his eyes closed for a moment. He didn’t expect his boys to come see him so soon. He looked over at the door, fully expecting to see at least Huey. He blinked in surprise when he saw Della standing there instead.
Della.
She was back.
He still couldn’t wrap his head around it. He’d given up hope of ever seeing her again once she’d been missing for three years. But then he saw her old rocket crash nearby as he was waiting for the bus to take him to the cruise terminal…
“Hey, little bro,” she broke the silence with a small smile. Donald smiled and fondly rolled his eyes at the ancient joke he hadn’t heard in way too long.
“We shared an egg. We literally hatched at the same time,” he gave his customary response, but with none of the customary exasperation that usually accompanied it.
“God, I’ve missed that. I’ve missed you!” she admitted with relief heavy in her voice.
“I’ve missed you too, little sis. Come on in,” he pushed the edge of his hammock out a little bit. Before she vanished they didn’t touch as casually as they did as kids, but they still had eleven years to make up for. A little bit of time sharing the hammock wouldn’t hurt. And if he could fit all three of his boys in here with himself, then there was plenty of room for his twin.
She laughed as she approached. “Ok, but don’t get mad if I flip us right over and onto the floor. I’m still not entirely readjusted to Earth’s gravity. I haven’t tried a hammock yet!”
He chuckled and replied, “I’ll keep us steady. Come on.”
She smirked and said, “You asked for it!” She spread part of the hammock out and gingerly sat on it. She bent over to mess with something on her leg before she sat back up. Then she just collapsed on top of Donald with a bone-crushing hug.
He laughed and playfully complained, “Hey! What’s the big idea? Get offa me, ya big palooka.” He gently pushed and maneuvered her until they were both laying on the hammock. When he shifted her around, he’d noticed that her metal foot was still on the floor.
Yet something else they weren’t together for.
He glanced at the metallic foot again and she noticed. “Oh. Yeah, sorry. Something else that’s not used to Earth’s gravity. I need to modify it some more so it doesn’t bother me as much when I’m walking. And I don’t like taking it off in front of the boys. I’m sure they think I’m weird enough.”
“Believe me. That’s not why they think you’re weird,” he teased. “So, what happened? You had all your limbs the last time I saw you,” he asked her, trying to keep the mood light. And since no one else was on the boat, he knew this was their chance to start catching up.
Della laid her head on his shoulder. “Oh, Donnie,” she sighed his old nickname. “I lost it in the crash. I was pinned. A hunk of rocketship was on my leg, I couldn’t get out, and the rest of the ship was about to fall on me! I mean… my leg was broken… possibly crushed. It might would’ve had to come off anyway…”
He looked at her in shock and exclaimed, “Oh no! You didn’t…”
She nodded and answered, “I had to.” She leaned up a bit to smile down at him and said cheerfully, “But I made myself a cool metal leg and it’s saved me at least twice since I’ve been back! And I can always take it off and hit someone with it! So I’m never without a weapon. Cool, huh?”
He rolled his eyes at her again, and boy did it feel amazing to be able to do that again. “Whatever you say, Dumbella.”
She laughed and hit his upper arm. “Don’t call me that.” Then she hugged him again and said quickly, “I’m kidding. I missed it. Call me whatever you want. In fact, why am I doing all the talking? I t-”
“Because I can’t get a word in edgewise?” he teasingly interrupted. She stopped hugging him to hit his arm again while laughing. He laughed too. It’d been ages since he could tease anyone like this. He tried to be careful with what he said to his boys since they were still young, and he didn’t trust himself to not become caustic with Scrooge. Their relationship was better, but Donald still had some anger and resentment built up towards him. Building that damn rocket behind his back…
Della propped her head up with her arm and smiled down at him. “Ok, ok. Question time. I have so many! You ready?” she asked excitedly.
He grinned back and agreed, “Alright. What do you want to know?”
She scoffed and said, “Everything! But let’s start with: why did you change the boys’ names? I told you what they were supposed to be and I even wrote them down!”
He could only blink in surprise a couple times before asking his own question, “You were serious?! Those were terrible names!”
She sputtered and exclaimed angrily, “Of course I was serious! I wanted them to have cool and unique names.”
“They would’ve never made it out of kindergarten! Besides, they have unique names,” he protested. “No one else at their school has the same ones.”
“Not super-cool though,” she muttered. “And you made their names rhyme. You know we both hated when people assumed that our names should rhyme just because we’re twins.”
Donald laughed as he remembered the two of them getting mad at complete strangers for assuming just that. He admitted, “Well… they actually did that themselves. Because the names Hubert, Duford, and Llewelyn don’t rhyme. Heck, they all start and end with different letters! I tried! But they are mouthfuls for little boys just learning to talk.”
He smiled in remembrance and at the rapt expression on Della’s face before continuing, “One day, I told Louie something using his real name, as I did at the time. They weren’t even speaking full sentences yet, but he looked up at me and said, ‘No. Louie.’ He continued to ‘correct’ me for a couple weeks before I gave in. Huey and Dewey’s names just got shortened over time. Mostly because that’s what they called themselves between each other.”
“Wow. That’s so sweet,” Della said softly with tears in her eyes. She laid her head back on his shoulder and said, “I missed so much… I assume you have pictures?”
“Yeah, I got lots in storage. I didn’t want to keep them all here in case the boat sank so you could see them when you got back.” He gently elbowed her and said, “Didn’t think it’d take you eleven years!”
Della huffed and said, “Believe me. I didn’t think it’d take that long either. It was just supposed to be a little orbital joy ride before taking my hatching-leave.” She lowered her voice and muttered, “I’m never going on a trip by myself ever again.”
Donald quacked a short laugh. “You and me both, sister.” He glanced at her, raised a questioning eyebrow and said, “Guess we’ll have to stick together from now on.”
Della grinned and said, “Deal. As long as you can keep up.”
He grinned back and said, “As long as you can relax.”
“Whatever the family decides,” she conceded. “I can make my own fun anywhere.” She paused and then added hurriedly, “As long as there are other people around!”
He tactfully ignored her disclaimer, chuckled, and said, “Boy, do I remember.” He nudged her and said, “The boys do that too. I see so much of you in them.”
“Really?” she asked, surprised. “Because I see so much of you in them.” She continued softly, “You did a good job, Donnie. You make a much better dad than I do a mom.”
“I’m their uncle,” Donald replied automatically. He’d spent years protesting that he wasn’t their dad because he didn’t want anyone to forget that they were his sister’s kids.
She chuckled, nudged him and said, “I know that, weirdo. But you raised them.”
“So far,” Donald commented. “We still have to get them through their teenage years. I don’t know what we’re going to do when they discover girls! I’m glad you’re back. I can use the help,” he teased and nudged her back.
But Della didn’t tease him back or ask another question. Surprisingly there was only silence. Then a quiet sniffle. That’s when he noticed her face buried into his shoulder. That was never a good sign.
“Dels?” he asked gingerly, hoping she’d tell him what was wrong.
She sniffled again and said shakily, “Oh, Don. They’re really your boys, aren’t they?”
Shocked that she would even ask, he blurted out, “Of course they are!” When she broke down crying in response is when he realized he could’ve handled that a little better. “Hey. Hey,” he tried to soothe her ruffled feathers. “The plan was to raise them together, right? Just you and me?”
Her muffled voice added something that sounded like, “And Uncle Scrooge,” but he couldn’t be sure. So, he intentionally ignored it.
“Yup. Just you and me,” he repeated stubbornly. “I just got a head start is all.” He then added calmly, “I’m only ‘Uncle Donald.’ There’s still an opening for ‘Mom’.”
She sniffed and finally raised her head up to look at him. “Dork,” she said matter-of-factly before lowering her head and wiping snot on his shirt.
“Hey!” he quacked in disgust. “Eww! What’s the big idea? And why do you always do that?!”
“It keeps us close,” she answered smugly, probably happy to get something over on him. In fact, he wouldn’t put it past her to make herself upset so she could do it. “Hey, can we move to the couch? This hammock is getting cramped and I’m afraid I’ll dump us out if I move.”
“Alright. You get out first and I’ll keep us steady,” he agreed.
She sat up and half-complained, “I never understood why you prefer a hammock to a bed. I mean, sure, they’re good in a pinch, but…” She bent over and connected her leg.
He chuckled and said, “I find them relaxing. Not to mention it’s a space-saver. The boat gets kinda small with four people living on it.”
“What do you mean?” she asked as she stood up. She then looked around at the well-worn, picture-laden surroundings suspiciously and asked slowly, “Donald… Why do you have a houseboat? In the pool?” Then she muttered to herself, “I can’t believe I never asked anyone.”
He stood up from his hammock, patted a wall fondly, and replied, “Well, she was all I could afford at the time. But then she exploded again about a year ago and Scrooge offered to let us move in until I could fix her up.” They both recognized his exceptionally bad luck and he knew Della wouldn’t be surprised about his place blowing up. It had a motor after all.
She whirled to face him and said, “Wait, wait, wait. What do you mean ‘move in’? You guys weren’t living in the mansion?”
“Oh. That,” he said as he finally realized what exactly she meant. Apparently no one told her about his estrangement with their uncle. Figures Scrooge would leave it to him. He rubbed the back of his neck embarrassedly and confessed, “I kinda blamed Scrooge for you disappearing, took the eggs and cut off contact. Didn’t even tell the boys about him. I only contacted him a couple days before the boat blew up because I needed a babysitter in a hurry. I’ve been trying to get this boat into shape since then,” he kicked the wall for emphasis. “Things kept setting me back though. But… lately it’s gotten better between me and the old man and it’s doing the boys some good, so I’ve been thinking of staying.”
Della dropped into a chair in shock and stared at him with wide eyes and her mouth open.
After a full minute of her not moving or saying anything, Donald finally broke the silence, “You’re going to start catching flies with your mouth open like that.” That gave the reaction he was hoping for. Her bill snapped shut and she quickly shook her head to get her thoughts in order.
He noticed her eyes getting watery as she looked up at him and said sadly, “Wow. I did more damage to this family than I thought. The entire time I was on the moon I thought you and Uncle Scrooge were raising the boys together. I’m sorry, Donald.”
“It’s not-” he started but realized that his first thought wasn’t entirely correct. He quickly modified what he was going to say, “It’s not all your fault, Dels. Yeah, you should’ve listened to me. But Scrooge shouldn’t have ever built the Spear of Selene. And we both know how stubborn Scrooge and I can be when we think someone’s wronged us. I wouldn’t talk to him because he lost you and he wouldn’t talk to me because I left.”
“Ya just had to get an ‘I-told-you-so’ in there, didn’t ya?” she asked drily. “Who’d have thought that I’d be the one that kept you two from doing your old man thing to each other?” She tilted her head and said thoughtfully, “Huh. That would explain some of the awkwardness that wasn’t caused by the ‘hey-I’m-your-mom-that’s-been-missing-all-your-lives’ thing. And why they call everything in the mansion ‘Uncle Scrooge’s’ instead of ‘our.’”
“Yeah, that would do it,” he admitted as he offered her a hand to help her up. “And what old man thing? We’re not old!” he protested and poked her in the side as they made the short walk to the boat’s living room.
She laughed and said, “You’ve been an old man since we were like fifteen.” Then she did her usual poor impersonation of him. She was the only person he ever allowed to mock his voice. Mostly because that was never what she was mocking. “Della, be sure to be home by ten. That guy… thinks he’s so smart. Hey you kids… get offa my lawn!”
“I do not sound like that,” he stated flatly as they both sat on the couch. Della propped her bad leg up on the coffee table. And since she’d mentioned (in a roundabout way) that her stump had been bothering her, he let it slide.
“Aww, no one sounds like you, Donnie. And I missed you and your voice so much!” she enthused. “I need to hear more! So how was life on a houseboat? And life in general until you came back home?”
He laughed and said, “I think you’re one of the very few people who like hearing me talk. And we made it work. We’d stay in Duckburg during the school year and in the summer we’d take the houseboat to different places so I could work a seasonal job in a new place. I mean, I didn’t have the money to take the boys anywhere exotic during their vacations, but I did what I could. I was doing the single-parent thing the whole time, so it was hard to hold down any one (or three) jobs and still be there for my boys.”
He laughed and admitted, “They thought I got fired all the time, and that did happen a lot. But what they don’t know is that about half the time my bosses thought I was doing an excellent job and wanted to give me some stupid promotion. And I don’t mean just ‘do the same thing for more money with some people under you.’ The promotions were like, ‘We’re going to double your wages, but you’re going to be traveling ninety percent of the time,’ or ‘We think you’d do really well clearing out this ancient tomb of traps and curses.’ It was really weird how often that came up. So I quit about half the time when they tried to promote me.”
“Well, to be fair, they were right. You are really good at that,” Della said.
He rolled his eyes and said, “No, you and Scrooge were good at that. I was always in the way. And once we lost you, I swore off adventuring. I had to be there to take care of the boys so I couldn’t take any unnecessary chances.”
She gasped and exclaimed, “You swore off adventuring?! And that’s so not true! Who figured out the Curse of Conquistador Cavalleria? And got us away from those pirates off the Ivory Coast? Not to mention the Tomb of Tlatzal. We wouldn’t have gotten out of there alive without you!”
He gave her some side-eye and said, “I think you’re mis-remembering a lot of our adventures. I was a scape-goat and a decoy most of the time.”
“Pfft, you were our bruiser, ya big palooka. If something could get past Donald Duck, then we didn’t stand a chance,” she chided him. Then she tapped his head and said, “And I think you’re forgetting how much we relied on this melon of yours. The backwards glyphs of Hassan Maadawi? Huh? Huh?”
He conceded and said, “Alright, alright. So I have a knack for languages. Never understood why. Not like anyone understands me in whatever language I try to speak. And before you get all, ‘Oh Donnie, we understand you,’ I’m not upset about it. Just stating a fact.”
“Wow. You do a terrible impression of me,” she stated instead.
He laughed and teased, “Oh yeah, like your impression of me was any better.”
“I never claimed to be good at impressions!” she said playfully before muttering with a far-away stare, “Unlike that woman in the mirror…” He glanced at her worriedly. She’d been alone for a decade. And he’d felt his sanity slipping just being on that island for only months. At least that was what it seemed like. He still hadn’t checked the date since he’s been back.
She quickly shook her head and the far-away look went away. She said, “Ok, tell me something about the boys.” She lowered her voice and asked in an aside, “What’s with the color-coding? I mean, even their blankets?”
Donald smiled and said, “That was them again. They are just as head-strong as you are.”
“You mean as stubborn as you,” she quickly interrupted. “Sorry. Go on.”
“Anyway. Remember how Mom used to dress us alike when we were little?” At Della’s nod he continued, “I always hated that. But at least we’re not identical so people could still tell us apart. But because of that, I didn’t dress the boys alike. Eventually they decided on favorite colors and gravitated to red, blue, or green. I guess they figured out that their teachers and friends could tell them apart more frequently when they wore their favorite colors since they wore those the most. Eventually that was the only color they’d wear.”
He chuckled and warned, “But if you ever see Huey dressed in yellow, there’s a one in three chance it’s not Huey. I can tell them apart, of course, but they usually pull out the yellow polo shirts and ball caps when they’re protesting someone thinking they’re all the same person. They try to purposely do the talking in unison thing then too.” He smirked and commented, “I’m a little surprised they haven’t pulled it on the old man since when they first met he had trouble remembering Dewey’s name.”
Della chuckled and asked, “How many times have they pulled the yellow-shirt stunt?”
He admitted, “Not often, but the protest will last anywhere from a day to a month. That was rough. I had to go up to the school five times that month. Not sure if I helped or hurt their cause by doing that though.”
“Why were they protesting?” she asked.
Donald smirked as he remembered and told her, “They had been in school for two months and one of them pulled a prank on a kid that’d been bullying Louie. Huey, if I remember right. And of course, their teacher caught him. Come to find out, she didn’t know who she saw. Just ‘one of the triplets.’”
Della groaned in sympathy.
“I know. And again, we aren’t identical. So instead of just giving Huey detention, she gave it to all three. Needless to say, they were all upset and told me everything as soon as they got home. Sure, they all planned the prank, but Huey was the only one caught and he took that risk voluntarily. They went yellow the next day. I’m pretty sure they switched up seats in the class randomly, and I know that they split up their homework. Huey would do all their English, Louie the math, and Dewey science. Then switched up who did what subject the next day. But what got me called down to the school was that they signed their names as Triplet Duck the First, the Second and the Third.”
Della was giggling at his description. “That almost sounds like they could’ve kept that going until the end of the school year. I guess the teacher finally got the memo that they are different people?”
Donald commented, “Naw, Huey wouldn’t let his grades suffer an entire year. And there were a few parent-teacher-principal conferences. I tried to get their point across for them. Took everything I had not to slug that old biddy. The longer it went on, the more upset the boys got. Particularly Dewey. He gets sensitive when you confuse him with his brothers. Likes to be his own individual. But they didn’t really tell me why they stopped. Just that ‘it’s not a problem anymore.’ I have a feeling Louie did something, but it was one of those things that I didn’t want to know.” Because if he knew, then he’d probably have to ground them. And he had a hard time doing that when he felt they had a point. But then he’d always been a little petty and vengeful himself.
Della frowned a little and commented, “I can’t seem to connect with Louie. And I think he hates me. So there’s that.”
Now Donald frowned at her and asked, “Why? What happened?”
She looked down and started twiddling with her fingers. “We just never clicked. Then he stole Gyro’s time machine. His misuse of it caused everyone to be thrown back to random points in the past. He got us back somehow, but I grounded him and wouldn’t let him come on our next adventure. He didn’t seem to take it very well.”
Donald looked at her suspiciously. She had to be leaving several details out. Lately Louie wouldn’t mind being left behind and he’d voluntarily stayed home a few times in the past.
Figures. He’d been home for ten minutes and already he was going to have to play mediator.
He gave a light sigh and said, “I’ll talk with him. What all have you done to connect with Louie before the time machine thing?”
“Lots of things!” Della exclaimed. “We went to this Doomsday… wait. No. That was Dewey. Oh! We played Legends of Legend-Quest and… hold on, that was Huey. But we all went to Fort Duckburg together! Granted, the kids slipped away and did their own thing…” she trailed off in thought.
Donald tapped his fingers impatiently waiting for her to mention something that she’d done with Louie. It’s no wonder they weren’t getting along. Louie puts up an apathetic front, but he’s really quite sensitive. And if Della was doing solo things with the other two, but not him, then she’d have to get past the grudge he’d be holding.
Once the silence lasted longer than he liked, he sighed and asked, “So, what you’re saying is that you came back after being gone their entire lives and you can’t think of a single activity you two did together before he acted out for attention. Then you decide to ground him and isolate him further from everyone. That about right?”
Della looked down at her hands folded in her lap and said, “Yeah. I guess so.”
Donald felt his fist clench as he tried to keep a grip on his rising anger on behalf of his boy. He was going to see Louie immediately after this little chat with his long-missing sis. Unless he needed to cool off first, but then immediately after that. “Oh for Pete’s sake, Della. How hard is it to sit and watch some TV with the kid?! He doesn’t care about sports or too much about the outdoors. You have to go to him and join him at his current activity. He’s not going to just come up and say, ‘hey, remember me? Want to hang?’”
Della jumped up and stared down at him, her own temper flaring, “And how was I supposed to know that, Donald?! I’ve been gone and no one can or will tell me everything!”
He let go of the clamp he had on his anger, jumped up too and leaned in towards her and yelled, “Maybe if you didn’t sneak off to get on that god-forsaken Spear when you had eggs ready to hatch, you’d already know your own kids! Or you know, you could get to know them!”
She gasped in shock and anger before yelling right back, “I chopped off my leg, chewed licorice gum for ten years, learned rocket science from Gyro’s stupid demeaning book, and rebuilt the Spear of Selene twice to get back to you and the boys!”
“And I raised triplets by myself!” he countered. He took a deep breath and realized that their current conversation was only going to end in name-calling and saying hurtful things. But he’d grown into the responsibility one needs to raise kids and decided to end it now. He let out the breath and some of his anger at his sister. He managed to calmly say, “I need to see my boys. I trust you can see yourself out.”
Without waiting for an answer, he turned and stormed off, slamming the door behind him to give an outlet to some of his pent up anger. Amazingly, the door rattled, but did not fall off the hinges as he half-way expected. He gave a self-satisfied nod and headed towards the mansion.