Author's note: Thanks a lot to Maknatuna (who forgot to login for her review ;-)), Mello18, nonsolumsedetiam and Tendencia. You guys rock!

14

As it turned out, there was only so far a bottle could roll. Unfortunately, there was only so much a drunk mouse's stomach could handle, too.

"I feel so sick!" Chuck complained miserably as he tried with all his might not to throw up.

Gabriel was not impressed. The mouse had brought this upon himself, after all! Well, maybe not the part where he had been rolled down the hill, but that had been the logical consequence of him crawling into the bottle, so it really was his own fault!

"Oh my poor darling!" Becky cooed, "And you are still trapped in that horrible bottle you crawled into by yourself, because you are one stupid idiot!"

Her voice had gone harder and more upset toward the end and Chuck really was sort of glad that he was stuck in the bottle where his wife couldn't get to him.

"Okay, let's get the bottle back to the nest," the honey-colored duck finally ordered and brought his beak down so he could roll the thing toward the bush where they were supposed to meet up with Sam and Jesse later.

"No more rolling!" Chuck whined pitifully.

"I'd like to see you come up with a better idea," Gabriel replied mercilessly and began to move the bottle again.

This time around the mouse didn't even try to walk with the bottle's movements so he wouldn't fall over. He just lay on his back and rolled over every time Gabriel pushed the bottle forward.

"So, you were telling a story," Becky squeaked after a couple of moments.

"Oh yeah," Gabriel replied slightly out of breath from having to move the bottle on his own this time, "So, there's me an Sam and we're flying to this new place when I get a really great idea…"

If Chuck had thought that he couldn't feel any sicker, he had been wrong.

"… mid-flight, I'm telling you!" the honey-colored duck finished definitely very pleased with himself just as the mouse finally threw up.

It took a long time for Gabriel and the two mice to arrive in the duck family's nest.

Sam and Jesse had been back for a while, already. To tell the truth, the brown duck had started to worry about his partner and the two mice. Of course, worrying about Gabriel had been completely useless. Chuck looked much worse for the wear, however.

The tall duck pushed a piece of foil Gabriel had stolen from some humans to the other side of the nest to occupy Jesse while he whispered to the honey-colored duck, "Don't tell me he's dead… please, don't tell me he's dead! And why is he so wet, anyway?"

Sam didn't really think that Chuck had died in his bottle, because Becky was neither sad nor hysterical. If he took a closer look, he could see that the trapped mouse was breathing, too. The taller duck definitely was relieved, his second question still stood, however.

"See, he made a big mess in there so we took him to the rivulet and flushed out the bottle," Gabriel explained, "He was okay when we were done, but then he just fell asleep!"

Becky nodded along with what the honey-colored duck had just explained. They might have gone a little overboard with making sure that the bottle was completely clean. The third washing might not have been strictly necessary, but as Gabriel had said, Chuck had been okay afterward.

"Alright, so we wait for him to wake up," Sam sighed. He wasn't sure if the fact that Gabriel and Becky seemed to get along better suddenly was a good thing or just worrying. Hopefully, Chuck would make his way out of the bottle once he woke up and the two mice could go back to their home, soon!

Nobody had paid Jesse all too much attention for the past minutes, so it came as a complete surprise when the kitten suddenly jumped on Becky and began to lick the hell out of her.

Becky squeaked terrified, Chuck went on snoring peacefully and Gabriel looked completely and utterly proud of his adoptive son.

"He spends too much time with you," Sam commented, but it was clear enough that he was amused, as well.

"And he's a great student!" Gabriel replied proudly, "All that's missing is some cool one-liner and he'll be perfect!"

The honey-colored duck might get along with the female mouse as things were, but he saw no reason to remove the kitten from her back. It wasn't like Jesse was doing any damage.

Sam finally took pity on Becky and lured Jesse over to himself with a piece of string Gabriel had collected somewhere.

Their little group made a really strange picture when they settled for the night a little later.