I couldn't sleep that night. I didn't want more Magica nightmares. That and well what was Scrooge going to think of me differently now. I checked the clock. It was four am. Ugh. I rolled out of bed to get some coffee. I made my way down the stairs when I turned and ran smack into Scrooge. I knocked him down.
"I'm so sorry." I helped him up.
"Now what was that for?" He chuckled, dusting himself off. I yawned. "What are you doing up?"
"Sorry, couldn't sleep. I was going to make some coffee."
"Coffee? You'll never sleep. Come with me."
I followed him to the kitchen. I didn't know if I should be nervous being alone with him. Was he going to make me explain what I was doing here, in this dimension? I hope not. I didn't want to. Besides, I wasn't going to tell him about Magica. I can handle her.
"So why can't you sleep?" He handed me a cup of steaming liquid.
It didn't smell like coffee. I took a slow sip. It was a... hot chocolate? He can't be that mad, can he? Hot cocoa was a good sign, right, or was he trying to lull me into a false sense of security. I took a deep breath. I was totally over thinking this.
"I am afraid that you won't like me anymore now that you know I'm from a different world." I waited for his response, tapping my fingers on the brim of the cup, avoiding eye contact.
"Oh, that doesn't change a thing. You should know that. We're from different worlds. Do you like me any less?" He brushed it off. I looked at him and smiled then frowned.
"Yeah but I lied about it." He placed a hand on mine, comfortingly.
"You were scared and that's alright. You're stuck out of our own world." He's really not going to get mad? Or is he under Magica influence not to get mad? He looked at me for a moment with concern. "Is there anything else that you want to tell me?"
I thought about it for a minute and decided to come clean as much as possible. I looked down at the mug.
"Your family is famous in my world. You have a TV show called Ducktales." I smiled and giggled. "When I first got here I honestly thought it was a dream or I bumped my head. That's why it seems like I know the future sometimes and little things like the Mount Neverrest passage. I just know what to do to find it."
He blinked. Okay maybe I went too far.
"So there are people in your world that can see into other worlds? That's genius! What else do you know?" He was really close and really excited. I thought about it.
"All kinds of things. Mark Beaks has a top Secret project, Ta-Da, turns out to be a scam. Gomgold loses his memories in a few weeks. There's a rich kid in town that the boys won't like. Random things like that." I yawned.
"Interesting. I would love to continue this conversation but you look ready for bed, lov-lassie." I smiled up at him and started to walk out of the kitchen but his voice stopped me. "I will be talking to you more about this but if you don't want me to I won't tell the boys, yet."
I smiled in gratitude. Then I made my way back upstairs and fell into a dreamless sleep.
I woke up at noon-ish. One of the benefits of going to sleep at five am. Another was that Webby was off somewhere with Mrs. Beakley. Dewey and Huey went to the Billionaires Club to watch their Uncle have a staring contest. I was home alone with Louie which started to look like a bad idea. The boy had a huge crush on me and isn't subtle about it.
I was sitting on the couch and Green walked in.
"Mind if I sit here?" He sat on my lap.
"Get off of me, Lou." I pushed him to the floor.
"Or here whatever." He shrugged and we watched TV for a while. Then randomly he screamed. "Smile ____."
He snapped a picture of us and ran off. I rolled my eyes. He was always taking pictures of me. The torture continued later on in kitchen. He was getting a snack and I was bored. I picked up Louie's phone and the picture of us from early was his background. I laughed. Cute. I posted online and put the phone back down.
"Where are your brothers?" I asked Green.
"I don't know with Uncle Donald I think." He said rummaging through the fridge.
"You know I've lived here almost three months and I don't think I've seen any of Duckburg beside the beach?" It was meant to be a passive comment but Louie turned around slowly.
"You're right! You haven't even seen my favorite part." He grabbed my hand and ran.
"Clam down! Where are we going?" He pulled me through the streets of town to a huge gate. I could've guessed where we were but I looked through the gate anyway.
"Uncle Scrooge's Money Bin." Louie said proudly. He punched in some number on the keypad and we started walking down the bridge.
(Good going ____.) Magica's voice hissed in my head. I tried to drown her out.
"You do this often?" I asked Louie.
"Often enough to know that they change the password bi-weekly." He smirked.
We walked into the garage area, where Launchpad was parked. We made our way to the elevator. Then to Scrooge's private office.
"Louie, I don't know about this." I tried to pull away because I could feel Magica stirring in me.
"It's fine. I do it all the time." He said as he opened the money vault.
(Don't wimp out now!) She yelled and I tried not to flinch.
"Shut it." I told Magica. Louie didn't hear me. He had already ran to the end of the - would you call it a pier?
"Want to swim?" He asked, pulling me forward.
"No thanks, Lou. You go ahead, I'll watch." I smiled and watched him shrug and swan (Duck?) dived into the gold. I laughed. He was down there for about forty-five minutes before I couldn't stand Magica any more. "Lou. I'm going to the bathroom!"
I hopped up and ran out of the room.
(Why didn't you get the dime!)
"Will you shut it! The stupid dime's not in there!" I whispered/screamed to Magica. I walked to a water fountain and drank.
(Where is it then? Since you're the expert on all things McDuck.) I wandered around a bit not having answered her. Then I saw the case that Scrooge had set up for the fake dime. I nodded towards it.
"Happy? Get Lena to get it." I walked away.
(Why? You're right here.) She hissed.
"I thought my job was to find it." I could tell she wasn't happy with that. "Besides alarms."
Louie ran around the corner.
"There you are." He looked startled but not by me.
"Sorry, I got lost Lou." I lied.
"It's okay let's, uh um, just go." He pulled on my sleeve. I looked around the corner where he just came from to see a very mad Gyro covered in goo stomping our way. I let Green pull me to an elevator.
"What did you do?" I asked more amused than mad.
"I was looking for you and I bumped into him spilling stuff all over him." The elevator closed as Gyro made eye contact with me and started sprinting barley missing the doors. I looked at Louie. We busted out laughing. Gyro was covered in red jelly and powdered sugar.
"Was that jelly? What was he working on?" I said between giggles.
"I don't know." He stopped laughing and raised an eyebrow. "Want to find out?"
I nodded and he pressed the button for the lab. It opened up and showed a gooey mess. There was a cork board that read Jelly Filler had red and purple jelly smudges. There were also a dozen powdered donuts. We looked at each other.
"Jackpot!" Louie went to the machine and filled up a donut with strawberry jelly. "Come on. I know you want one!"
He started making me one. I walked over to him. I eyed all the gatches that were laying out as I passed by. Little Bud was cute when he was powered off. I snatched a donut from Lou and we bit into them together and immediately spit them out.
"Eww! Gross! He can't even get a simple jelly donut right?" Louie threw his across the room and that gave me an idea.
"Food fight!!" I screamed and threw a tray of donuts at the boy. He caught one in his mouth and giggled. "No fair!"
Louie giggled, bounced, and slugged a handful of grape jelly at me. I dodged but the jelly hit the machine causing it to spin out of control. Sparks flow and jelly sprayed out of it. Louie pulled me away from the thing.
"Now would be a good time to leave." We ran but Gyro walked in as he hit the elevator button.
"What did you do!" He shrieked.
He ran to the machine and slipped on a donut smashing into the thing. This put it into hyperdrive, flinging every ingredient in it all over the lab, soaking the white board, blueprints, even the spare lab coats in the far corner of the room. Gyro stood and hastily turned the machine back off.
"Us. It was already like this!" Louie lied. Gyro hung his head then decided that Lou was lying.
"Wait until I call your Uncle!" He caught Green by the hood and me by the arm. Then addressed me like he hadn't seen me before. "Hello. What do we have here?"
"Let go of me!" I yelled and struggled but he didn't.
"I didn't know humans existed." He sat me down in a spinny chair and wrapped a cord around me.
I saw Louie type something on his phone.
(Helpful.)
Gyro dug through his tools. He pulled out a scary object. It had a rather large needle and I wasn't a fan of the thing. He walked over towards me. I wiggled in the cord.
"Now this will only hurt a little."
The elevator opened again. Gyro paused and looked to see who walked in. The cord fell off so I smacked the needle out of his hand. It shared when it hit the ground.
"What is Scotland Yard, is happening here?" A thick Scottish accent said.
"Mr. McDuck, I'm glad you're here. I need to show you what I've found." He ran over to him and guided him over to me. "A human!"
"I have a name." I scoffed, crossing my arms. Then I tried to get up but Gyro spun and held me down.
"____? What are you doing here?" He saw his nephew out of the corner of his eye. "Louie! That explains it! Come on, we're going home!"
"Wait what?" Gyro was so confused and sad he wasn't going to get to run any test on me. Good! I wasn't a lab rat.
"She's my guest." Scrooge said. Gyro's mouth went oh and Scrooge snatched up Louie. "As for you, lad! We are going to have to set some boundaries!"
I stifled a laugh and waved bye to Gyro from the back of the elevator. Scrooge yelled at Louie all the way home about bringing me out of the house, especially to Gyro's Lab. It wasn't a set rule that I couldn't leave without permission or "adult" supervision (like I'm not one) but normally we went on adventures, away from town, so I didn't have to worry about the people of Duckburg seeing me. When we got home Scrooge asked me to follow him. We made it to his private study. I gulped. I didn't want to finish this morning's conversation.
"____ if you want to leave, ask me or Donald first okay?" He was being uncharacteristically nice to me about this.
"I understand; I'm different. People are scared of different." I gave him a sad smile. He stared at me.
"Yes but you are also very special to us. I don't know if you see it but you impact our lives in a very positive way. I don't want to risk losing that." I didn't know how to answer. I blinked and he added. "I don't know if you think I'll try to use you because you 'can predict the future' or however it works but I won't. I only want what's best for you. So just promise me no more sneaking out to the Money Bin with Louie okay?"
I shook my head and felt a tear fall down my cheek. How could he sit here and say he wasn't going to use me and I was lying and using him.
"That's all for now. You can head to bed now." I turned around and walked to the door. I stopped and whispered.
"Scrooge," He looked up at me, shocked I said his actual name. (Tell him about Magica!) I screamed at myself, "thank you for telling me that and I'll be more careful."
I ran out of the room before he could reply. I went straight to my room. I hugged a pillow and cried myself to sleep. Magica was waiting on me in the dream realm.
"Good job, girlie! Now you need to get back to the Money Bin and," I cut her off.
"No, no, no! My job was to find it. Mission accomplished. Now you can leave me alone." I growled. I know I was lying but still I was hoping she would leave me alone.
"Your mission is whatever I say your mission is!" She burst into flames.
"Get your niece to get it, hag!" I shot back at the evil duck. Images of the boys and Webby suffering popped into my head. I cringed and bit back a sob. I try not to show how upset it made me.
"She's doing other things. I'm entrusting this to you, understand?" She said slowly and clearly. We had a staring match or a moment. I nodded begrudgingly. I woke up and threw a pillow across the room. I can't believe she's making me do this.
(At least that one's the fake one.)
Word Count: 2427