Ducktales: Donald's Daughter

Chapter 6: Interlude

"Wow, so you really have a daughter?" Dewey asked his uncle after Diane and Webby were out of earshot. Donald nodded slowly, still quite shocked about the revelation. Louie frowned and folded his arms.

"I still think she's a con..." He mumbled. Huey gave him a quizzical look. "I mean, think about it - she comes here alone to find her dad - what about her mom? Has anyone thought about that?"

"Maybe she's missing," Dewey said, his voice tinged with sadness. Suddenly Louie wished he hadn't used that choice of words.

"She's not...missing," Donald said, his voice breaking as he said the word 'missing'. Anything about their mom put everyone in a sad mood - especially Uncle Donald and Uncle Scrooge.

"How do you know?" Dewey asked, feeling anger that he and Webby were looking for information about their mom rather than just asking someone. Della Duck's disappearance was a mystery no one wanted to tell him about. And that made him all the more upset. "I mean, you didn't know you had a daughter -"

"Lad," Scrooge said, putting a hand on Dewey's shoulder. "That's enough."

"No," Donald said, hiding his emotions well. He had learned to mask his feelings well, thanks to his unpredictable temper. Now, like many times in the past, he put that mask on and pretended as if nothing could hurt him. "Dewey's right - I don't know if Daisy's missing or not."

"You can't blame yerself -" Scrooge started to say, but Donald held up a hand.

"I don't blame me, I blame -" Donald's voice had started to escalate, and for a moment he'd thought they were talking about Della. Taking a breathe, he counted to ten before he spoke again. "I don't blame anyone..."

"Why do I get the feeling they're not talking about Daisy anymore?" Huey whispered to Louie. The green-hooded duckling squinted at the other three and shrugged. Truth was - he suspected Scrooge, Donald, and Dewey were hiding something - something big. What it was he didn't know - but he was going to find out. He just had to play it cool until then.

"Oh, would you look at the time!" Louie said, glancing over at a wall clock. "Ottoman Empire's on in half an hour -"

"Ach - not that again." Scrooge grumbled, letting go of Dewey and hooking Louie's hood with his cane. "I thought ye already watched the entire show!"

"I have - but tonight they're doing a marathon rerun from season 1!" Louie exclaimed, trying to get his hoodie unhooked. Unfortunately, the only way he could get free was if Scrooge let him off the hook, or he slipped out of the hoodie in question. Since neither of those things seemed likely, Louie instead folded his arms and just relaxed, letting his full weight be supported by Uncle Scrooge's arm and cane.

Scrooge frowned at his nephew, but did not let him off the hook. Instead, Scrooge began to drag Louie towards the spilled bowl of popcorn, and used the duckling to corral the spilled snack into one pile. Louie, meanwhile, sat back and enjoyed the ride - eating a few pieces of popcorn that looked clean enough.

"Oh-kay." Huey said, breaking the silence that had fallen over the group. "I think I'm gonna go work on our schedule for the next week - assuming Diane's staying for a while."

"Oh no - not me," Dewey said, turning towards Huey. "This weekend Launch Pad and I have the whole day planned."

"Doing what?" Donald asked, feeling a stab of hurt that Dewey hadn't told him this earlier. Dewey ignored him.

"Dewford." Huey said in a very formal, very calm manner. "We have just discovered a new member of the family. Even better, she's staying at the Manor with us - this is the perfect opportunity to work on my Family Badge for the Junior Woodchucks!"