Work Text:
Some people would say it's a bummer waking up early every day to get to work, but not for Launchpad McQuack. He's the type of guy who wakes up, excited to go to work. But today, he has a surprise for everyone.
He walked through the side door of his work place, where his main job would be, he picked up the surprise, hugging it close, then he went through another door to the main foyer of the mansion he worked at.
As he walked through the door, he could already hear voices from upstairs, indicating that the family he worked for were awake.
Launchpad walked a bit more closer to the bottom of the stairs, waiting for all the children of the house to come down.
He first saw a little pink bow bobbing up and down at the top of the banister, then said person wearing the bow jumped up and slid down the banister to the bottom of the stairs.
Launchpad smiled down at the little girl who smiled back up at him. They both looked back up to see three other ducklings running down the stairs.
"W-Webby... why... are you... so fast?" Dewey panted out, almost collapsing on the floor, if it wasn't for Huey steadying him.
Louie was running after them, but just a little slower, more like a jog. He stood next to his brother only a couple seconds later. "Woah, Dew, did you meet death?"
"Heh, I've just had my proper training from Granny, I guess," Webby replied back to Dewey's question, nervously smiling and rubbing the back of her head.
After a while, Dewey was able to eventually stand on his own, and he looked up at Launchpad.
"Woah! LP! Did you steal a child on your way to work or something?" Dewey asked, gesturing to what was in the older ducks arms. Everyone else looked at Launchpad to find that he was, in fact, carrying a baby.
"Hm?" Launchpad looked at the kids confused, then turned his head to the sleeping baby in his arms. "Oh! No, this one's mine. Isn't she cute?" He kneeled down to show the kids. Both Webby and Huey 'awed', while Louie slowly moved away, Dewey on the other hand was still in shock.
"You have a child?! And you never told us?!"
"Well, Mr McDee knows..."
"Uncle Scrooge knows and he never told us!?"
"Calm down Dewey, it may have been for privacy reasons," Huey said, placing a hand on Dewey's shoulder, "Come to think of it, we never really ask Launchpad about his family anyway, so we wouldn't have known either way."
"Wait, so... if you have a child... does that mean you're married?" Dewey asked, calming down a bit.
"That's right."
"But... you don't have a ring!" Dewey pointed an accusing finger at LP.
"Actually, I do. When I get to work I put it away, I don't want to risk losing it when flying," Launchpad explained, and honestly, to all the kids, that was the most mature he has ever sounded.
All the kids looked shocked but Webby quickly went back to gushing over the baby.
Webby tried not to make as much noise as she could, as not to disturb the duckling, but when she started to move around a little bit in Launchpad's arms, Webby slowly backed off, afraid that she did something wrong, but when the baby opened her big green eyes, Webby went back to cooing at it.
Launchpad smiled at the sight in front of him, and went back to facing the boys, "Actually, I need to see Mr McDee, do you know where he is?"
"Either eating breakfast or in his study," Huey replied.
"Let's check in the dining room first, you guys haven't eaten yet," Launchpad smiled, standing back up and walking to the dining room with all kids in tow, and his kid still in his arms, looking around the unfamiliar place.
When they all walked through the door, Launchpad saw Beakley walking back into the kitchen, and Scrooge sitting at the end of the table, with his face in a newspaper.
The kids walked over to their seats while Launchpad walked up next to his boss.
"Hey, uh, Mr McDee?" Launchpad asked.
"Ah, good morning Launchpad. I have a meeting at the bin today so if we could leave at-"
But Scrooge was cut off by a babbling noise. He put the newspaper down to see the baby wriggling around in Launchpad's arms.
Scrooge slowly looked up at Launchpad, "Is this the wee one you've been going on about?"
Launchpad nodded happily as his reply. He adjusted the little ducking in his arms to hold her out. "Would you like to hold her, Mr McDee?" He asked, his head popping out from the side.
"Launchpad..." Scrooge closed the newspaper, folded it up then stood from his chair, looking down, but when he looked up, he had a smile on his face, and had his arms out, "I would love to!"
Launchpad smiled and passed his daughter to his boss, who took her happily into his arms as he then sat back down. "Awe Launchpad, she's adorable! I hadn'ae seen a baby in this house in years!" Scrooge beamed, going to tickle the little ducklings stomach, which resulted in a giggle from her, to which she then grabbed Scrooge's index finger with her two small hands.
"She even has your eyes!"
"Everyone keeps saying that," Launchpad smiled and bent down, ruffling her hair a bit which caused her to giggle again.
Launchpad stood back up straight. "Yeah, um, Drake's been really tired from work recently, and with looking after Gos and stuff, so I offered to take her into work with me, if that's okay?"
"Yeah that's fine, but she's your responsibility," Scrooge said sternly, before giving her back to her father.
"Of course Mr McDee," Launchpad saluted, holding his child in his other arm. He then went and sat down on the opposite side of the table, placing the duckling on his lap.
"So, what's her name?" Huey asked, standing on the chair with his arms on the table, to get another look at her.
"Her name's Gosalyn," Launchpad smiled, putting Gosalyn on the table instead, where she started to crawl but Launchpad had his arm around her, so she wouldn't crawl away.
"She's so cute!" Webby squealed, jumping in her chair.
That was when they all heard a door opening. Beakley came into the dining room with the children's breakfast.
"Ah, Beakley, what time is it?" Scrooge asked, looking up at her.
"8:53," Beakley replied, only giving a such a short response because Scrooge has a phone that he could check, but never decided to use it.
"Oh, we should be going, Launchpad, don't want to be late for the meeting," Scrooge said suddenly, folding up the paper and leaving it on the table.
"Of course Mr McDee. I'll pull the limo to the front," Launchpad saluted again before getting out of his seat and running off to start up the car.
"You know the drill kids, don't do anything I wouldn't do, Beakleys in charge, unless something happens, Webby is in charge," Scrooge stated, putting on his hat, while all kids groaned except Webby who let out a little "Yes".
"Bye kids," Scrooge said, walking out the room to the car.
Once it was just the kids in the dining room, they all started to talk amongst themselves.
"So, what are we doing today?" Webby asked, stuffing some toast in her mouth.
"Ottoman Empire marathon. None of you are going to hear from me for the next 48 hours, heheh," Louie giggled to himself, not having eaten his breakfast yet, too busy on his phone.
It was quiet for a few seconds, before Huey spoke up, "Is it just me? Or... does it feel... off? For anyone?"
"Maybe Beakley's off it today?" Louie asked, now contemplating whether he should actually eat the food or not.
"No! Granny's cooking is the best!" Webby shouted, before stuffing everything else on her plate and into her mouth, finishing it all off. "But I know what you mean, something feels... weird..."
"Oh no," Dewey started, looking forward.
"What is it?" Huey asked.
Dewey didn't even respond, he just flew out of his chair and to the other side of the table, where Gosalyn was about to crawl off the edge. Luckily, Dewey got there in time, where she fell into his arms. "Launchpad left Gosalyn here!?"
"That must've been why it felt off," Huey said, looking at the baby in Dewey's arms, who only just giggled.
"How could Launchpad forget something as important as this?" Dewey said, placing her on the floor.
"Oh, you know Launchpad, he isn't the best with remembering things," Louie said, actually eating something now.
"But it's his child!" Dewey shouted, throwing his arms in the air in frustration.
"Dewey, are you okay?" Huey asked, concern written on his face.
Dewey sighed, "I guess I'm just... annoyed... that he didn't tell us anything about his family."
"Uh, he won't have a family to talk about when he comes back if we carry on talking," Webby said.
"Why's that?" Huey asked.
"The baby is gone," Webby answered, pointing to the floor in front of Dewey, where he placed down Gosalyn, to find that there was no baby in sight.
"Oh no! Gosalyn is gone! LP is gonna kill us!" Dewey shouted again, falling on his knees dramatically.
"We'll look for her, don't worry. Louie, hurry up and finish your food," Huey said, looking at the youngest sibling.
"Awe, but... Ottoman Empire," Louie said, sad he's gonna miss his favourite show.
"You have seen it loads of times!" Dewey shouted, running out of the dining room to look for the baby duck.
Webby and Huey went after him, and not long after, so did Louie. They all met in the foyer and just decided to split up.
~~~~
On their way to the bin, Scrooge told Launchpad the plans for today, then sat back and started to read another paper, to occupy himself for the journey.
But Launchpad couldn't help but think he forgot something.
They eventually got to the bin and Scrooge left, so Launchpad decided to just wait in car, as Scrooge said the meeting shouldn't take too long.
Launchpad whistled and looked around the all too familiar area, that was when he looked at the empty passenger seat next to him.
And that's when it hit him.
"I FORGOT GOSALYN!"
~~~~
After about half an hour, all the kids met back in the foyer with panicked expressions.
"Did anyone find her?" Dewey asked first.
"No, I've looked everywhere," Huey replied, to which Webby nodded along in agreement.
"Oh no, where could she be!?" Dewey practically shouted, rubbing his head, hoping it'll jog up his brain to think of a place of where the duckling could've gone to.
All kids were interrupted by the noise of someone clearing their throat. They looked in the direction of the noise and saw Duckworth floating above them.
"If you would all like to come with me," he said, and made his way to the front door, to open it up.
They didn't question, as they knew if they didn't follow him, he would get annoyed, and turn into Demonworth.
They all followed him to about 20 metres from the front door.
Duckworth didn't say anything, instead, he just pointed up onto the roof at something.
All the kids squinted their eyes to what it was, and they could all spot a glint of red hair.
"GOSALYN!" They all shouted, and ran back inside to find a way to get her back down. Duckworth rolled his eyes and went back into the house.
They all ran to a window that was closest to the roof, and luckily, they could still hear her happily babbling, indicating that she was fortunately still up there.
They all got a backpack, and Webby and Dewey made their way onto the roof, with Huey worrying by the window with Louie trying (but failing) to reassure his older brother.
Dewey and Webby made their way to the top, and found Gosalyn nearly about to crawl off the edge.
They both sprinted carefully to where she was and Dewey grabbed her in time before she was able to fall off.
They put her into the backpack with her head poking out the top (as it was the only safest way they could get her down), and they both managed to get all three of them down safely, back into the mansion.
Huey let out the biggest breath, that he didn't know he was holding, practically ripped the backpack off of Webby and hugged the bag with the duckling inside, "We are never letting you out of our sight again!" He said loudly at her, while grabbing her cheeks so she looked straight at him, but Gosalyn just looked back at him with her big green eyes, not a clue what he was saying.
He just smiled slightly and picked her up, taking her out the bag. When he turned around though, he saw Dewey basically kissing the floor, with Webby patting his back, chanting "I'm never doing that again."
What they didn't see was Gosalyn smiling at Louie, who was behind Huey, to which he smiled back. Yeah, she was a baby, but she already caused so much mischief in such a short amount of time, and that earned her name in his good books.
They all made their way back downstairs and into the living room, where they all chilled for the rest of the day, keeping a closer eye on Gosalyn.
~~~~
On their way back to the mansion, Launchpad was speeding more than usual, but Scrooge didn't pay any mind to it as he was completely used to it at this point.
When they got to the front, Launchpad raced out the car and slammed the front doors open, running everywhere he can to try and find his little girl.
He eventually heard a quiet shush come from behind him. He turned around and saw Beakley with a finger to her beak, then she pointed to the living room door.
Launchpad walked over to the red door and opened it, and what he saw made his heart full.
Inside, lying on the couch, were all 5 kids cuddled up together, sleeping. The best thing of all was that he found Gosalyn sleeping on Dewey.
He was worried that he upset Dewey, he was his best friend, but he never thought he was that exciting to talk about, and never even thought about telling him he had another family on his own, but from the view in front of him, it seems like he already forgave him.
So I guess there was nothing to worry about in the end. He knew Gosalyn would be in good hands anyway, but of course he was worried, as Drake would kill him if something happened to their daughter, but the Duck family are also Launchpads family, and family looks after each other.