Blurred colors swam before her as she sucked air into her lungs. That's all she knew before she started choking, unable to catch her breath.

Someone flipped her over onto her side and she coughed, water spilling out of her beak as she continued to gasp for air.

Where was she? Why couldn't she remember getting here? What had happened? Had-had she almost drowned?

The same someone who had flipped her over pulled her onto her back again, their hands grabbing her face and forcing her to look at them.

"Gosalyn!" came a harsh voice. And she saw the blue irises.

Gone was their harshness. Heightened was their intensity. And drowned, they almost were, in a mixture of worry and relief.

Negaduck.

"Breathe," he instructed.

Unable to control herself or her parabolic emotions, Gosalyn reached up and wrapped her arms around Negaduck's neck, clinging to him desperately as she burst into tears.

"I'm sorry," she sobbed, her grip on him tightening when he didn't push her away. He seemed frozen, unable to do anything, let alone somehow respond to what was happening to him.

"I was so stupid and I shouldn't have betrayed your trust. I thought I'd never see you again and I felt awful that you might not ever know that I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

After a few moments of Gosalyn repeating her apology, Negaduck cleared his throat, trying to pull away. "It's okay."

"It's not okay," Gosalyn insisted, keeping her tight hold on him. "I ruined everything."

"Not everything. It's fine." He tried to pull away again.

"It's not!" Gosalyn hung onto him.

"It is."

"It isn't!"

"Really, it's—"

"No, it isn't!"

Negaduck sighed. "We sound like an old married couple."

Gosalyn couldn't help herself. She laughed. Unwilling to let go just yet, Gosalyn buried her face into Negaduck's shoulder, hoping the contact would somehow make her apology seem all the more genuine. She shook her head slightly, not expecting to come away with a damp beak.

"You're wet," she commented, finally releasing Negaduck and sitting up.

"So are you," he said, sitting back on his feet, keeping a close eye on her.

Gosalyn looked down at her drenched costume. "So it would seem."

"You were dropped into Audobon Bay. Do you remember that?" Was Negaduck's tone gentle?

Gosalyn nodded. "The Fearsome Four latched Quackerjack's toy teeth onto my cape then he threw me out of Darkwing Tower."

A snarl darkened Negaduck's expression. But she had more pressing matters to deal with than Negaduck's protectiveness.

"You saved me," she said.

His expression softened and he shrugged. "You weren't surfacing."

"How did you know I was here?" Gosalyn eyed him. "Have you been following me?"

"A few days. Ow!" he exclaimed as Gosalyn smacked him on the arm.

"You must have known I was trying to get you to come out of hiding and you didn't do anything? Not even a message or something to let me know you wanted space?"

"I'm here now." Negaduck raised an eyebrow at her. "What did you want?"

"Just to say … I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by telling Dad parts of our plan, it just happened. But I know that it felt like a betrayal to you even though I didn't mean for it to and … I'm sorry."

"I already told you, it's fine."

"But it isn't."

"Here we go again." Negaduck rolled his eyes.

"No, I…"

"You want me to be angry at you. Tell you that you let me down and betrayed me and everything we stood for."

Gosalyn opened her beak to respond but found there was nothing she could think to say, so closed it again.

"Yes, I was mad. But it's fine. And before you go saying it's not, let me tell you that it is. I've moved on. So please, for the love of everything evil, don't bring it up again."

Gosalyn observed Negaduck for a few moments. She had been on a roller coaster with him the past few weeks, trying to get him to show himself and hating him when he didn't appear. Then there was the complicated self-loathing because she deserved to be ignored by him after what she'd done.

But now.

Everything was okay.

Magically.

It was all okay.

She hadn't expected it to be this easy.

While it didn't sit right with her, Gosalyn nodded.

"Okay. Come on," he stood and held out a hand, helping her up. "You're going to destroy those four losers."

"What, you don't wanna come and watch?" Gosalyn teased.

Negaduck's expression grew dark. "I'll deal with each of them later. In private."

Gosalyn held up a hand. "Don't want the details."

"Now, listen," Negaduck took ahold of her shoulders, his eyes crashing into hers to ensure she was paying attention. "Quackerjack likes you to think that everything happens according to his plan, but he never has a plan. He just goes by the seat of his pants. Megavolt and Bushroot are way too unbalanced to be decent villains. If you start talking about Bushroot's loneliness or how incompetent Megavolt is, they'll both get too emotionally involved and will be easier to beat. Liquidator is only in this because he thinks he will gain something. If there isn't a prize he can win in the end, he won't be a part of the scheme."

"You're not wearing your hat," Gosalyn mentioned, her eyes scanning the rest of him, searching for additional missing costume pieces. His cape was also MIA.

"Did you hear a word I said?" Negaduck growled, a scowl sitting on his face.

"How many pieces am I missing?" She started feeling for her hero costume, finding her own hat and cape were gone as well as her mask. She couldn't very well go fight the Fearsome Four without her hero mask; that was the same as walking in and introducing herself as Gosalyn rather than Quiverwing Quack. Her father would be so disappointed if she willingly gave up her secret identity—

"Dad!" she cried, barreling towards the water once more. He must be beside himself, sitting up in Darkwing Tower while he thought she was sinking to the bottom of the Bay.

Negaduck growled something, his arms wrapping around her, yanking her back.

"I have to see him!" She struggled against Negaduck. "He has to know I'm okay."

"He will, but first… if you'd just let me… Gosalyn!" The use of her first name stopped her struggle for freedom, her eyes looking back to find his.

"You can't tell anyone, and I mean anyone, about this. You'll tell them that you managed to free yourself and swam back up to the Tower." He dug around in his suit pocket and withdrew her mask, handing it to her.

"I would almost think you were sentimental, saving my mask like that," she said, tying the fabric in place.

"Give me some credit. Can't have them knowing your secret identity."

Gosalyn smiled when she heard her thoughts aloud in another's voice. Had the two of them always been this similar?

"Remember what I told you," Negaduck said before turning and running back towards the city. The little bank he'd pulled her onto was well sheltered by trees and shrubs; Gosalyn was sure they hadn't attracted any attention. Still, prolonged time together in broad daylight was a bad idea, trees or no.

"Negaduck!" Gosalyn leapt forward and grabbed ahold of his suit, tugging him back. He looked around, irritation spiking his gaze.

"If I were to suggest a meeting, would you actually show up? Or am I going to have to get thrown in the Bay again for you to talk to me?"

Negaduck frowned. "Don't joke about that."

"Well?" Gosalyn crossed her arms.

He sighed. "When and where?"

A somewhat distant splash grabbed Gosalyn's attention, her eyes shooting back towards Darkwing Tower. Please say that hadn't been her father. Who was she kidding? It definitely was. She was grateful he was so eager to help her, but not right now. She didn't need saving and he was only putting himself in danger by trying to dive all the way to the bottom of the Bay.

"I could meet you where we first came up with the Duckburg scheme." Gosalyn whipped her head around to finalize details with Negaduck only to see he'd disappeared. That tricky no-good—

"Two weeks," Gosalyn called, sure he hadn't wandered off too far. "Around ten."

Cursing Negaduck, she dove into the Bay, swimming as quickly as she could towards Darkwing Tower. She saw her father surface — he had jumped in! Was he crazy? — once and she tried to call out to him, but wound up with a beak full of water as he ducked under the water again.

Her shoulders burning from her efforts, she grabbed ahold of the bottom of Darkwing Tower, giving her sore leg and arm muscles a chance to relax as she allowed the waves to gently bob her up and down while she waited for Darkwing to come up once more.

When he did, gasping and coughing for air, she reached out to grab him.

"Dad. DAD!" Her fingers came in contact with his sleeve and she held on for dear life, awkwardly pulling him by the arm.

"Gosalyn." He sighed rather than said her name, closing the small distance between them. "Are you okay?" His eyes took in every inch of her that they could, his hand coming up to gently sweep her sopping hair out of her eyes.

"Just a little soggy."

"How did you escape?" he asked, eyes still roving over her face as if he'd been afraid he'd never see it again.

"The teeth malfunctioned," Gosalyn lied. She'd learned her lesson. Even if she was convinced that Negaduck wasn't around, she would keep what was between them strictly that: between them.

"I knew Quackerjack didn't have the attention span to construct something that lethal," Darkwing admitted.

Gosalyn grinned when he looked back at her. "You sure you're okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine."

"Good." Darkwing pulled out a miniaturized version of his gas gun, a grappling hook hanging out the end.

"Where's your regular gas gun?" she asked, propelling herself into his arms when he motioned for her to do so.

"They knocked it out of my hand. But that's why I always carry a backup." He wriggled his eyebrows, making her laugh lightly.

"Ready to make those Four sorry they ever messed with Darkwing Duck and Quiverwing Quack?"

"Yeah." Gosalyn grinned.

Shooting his grappling hook above their heads, Darkwing gripped Gosalyn to his side as they were dragged from the water and up into the air, rocketing towards Darkwing Tower.

"Then let's get dangerous!"

A/N: I told you I wouldn't leave you hanging for too long! I hope this chapter was all you were hoping for. And there's more to come! At least three more chapters by my estimation. Thanks, as always, for reading! ~RS