Happy Halloween
Lead
Gosalyn brought her night's earning's back downstairs with her. By this time Drake had stopped narrating and Catlyn was fast asleep in his arms.
Gosalyn fixed herself a cocoa and then came in and sat down beside her dad. Catlyn looked so peaceful asleep in his arms.
In fact ... Gosalyn eyed Catlyn who was completely zonked out at this moment with sneaking suspicion and a creeping guilt ... like Gosalyn had dumped her motherly duty on Catlyn's grandparents and then spent extra time away just so she could enjoy getting sweet-talked by a career criminal. "Thanks, grandpa. Has she been trouble for you? She hasn't been screaming all this time while I've been gone, has she, dad?"
"Only when her grandmother or I have tried to put her down to get some housework done."
"Oh, dear." Gosalyn sighed.
"Yeah-she likes being where the action is for some odd reason." He smirked at her.
"Da-ad." She smiled into her cocoa in embarrassment and took a mouthful.
Gosalyn looked up a moment later and her dad's cheesy grin had faded into a keen thoughtful gleam again. Gosalyn paused and glanced at the page notes in front of him on the coffee table. "How's the zombie case going?"
"Zombies? Oh, they're beheaded and buried." It was another case occupying his mind then.
"Need help on your new case?"
"No, Launchpad's already cracked it. Now it's just up to me to figure out how to put his idea into a proper action plan where we win and survive..."
Gosalyn nodded in understanding. "Gotcha. Well, you know who to call for last minute back up. I'm sure Honk won't mind looking after Catlyn for a few hours under those-."
"Undoubtedly. He doesn't mind coming around to help us out. He's a good kid."
He shook his head. "I haven't asked you how your night went."
"It was definitely different." She replied, putting down her mug. "I had a windfall." She pulled out the sum of her takings for the night from her pyjama pocket and put it on the table next to her mug. Then she reached and took Catlyn into her arms. "Ten I expected, plus two hundred and an offer to join a serious rock band." Catlyn sighed sleepily and quickly resettled in Gosalyn's arms. "You looked so natural holding her."
"You're doing fine." Her father assured her. "A rock band should be fun for you ... But are you getting Honker in on it?" Drake asked in some parental concern; "if it were possible I'd say he's been studying a bit too hard lately- I'm starting to worry about him."
'Honk studying too hard? Yeah, that doesn't take imagination to see that.' Gosalyn grinned at her dad as she picked up her mug again to finish her cocoa off. "We're going to have auditions for a lead guitarist."
"An audition? But what if he doesn't make the cut?"
"Seriously, dad?" Scarlet sipped her cocoa. "Have you actually heard Honker play?"
"Well..."
"And I'd be really surprised if he doesn't snag this gig. Honker's great but you know he just doesn't believe in himself. He's a scientist. He likes proof. Like going into a competition and winning sort of proof."
"Are you sure you're not talking about a certain crime fighter named The Quiverwing Quack? I seem to recall-."
"Oh, come on, dad, you've seen it. Honker never thinks he does a good job until he has to fight for it."
"My point is that some fights can't be guaranteed, hon; especially not those with even odds."
Gosalyn shook her head and sighed. "You're right. I guess I was just going with my feelings; it just felt better doing it that way."
Drake squeezed her shoulder. "I sure as heck wouldn't ignore your gut instinct."
Gosalyn felt weird, like maybe he was going extra easy on her. 'Does he feel like I need a break? Wasn't that what Steelbeak was suggesting earlier?'
"Hey, dad. Do you reckon The Quiverwing Quack's all washed up?"
Drake frowned at her. "I don't get why. Quiverwing hasn't done anything but an outstanding job in my opinion. Why do you ask?"
She nodded at the money on the table. "You haven't asked me what the extra two hundred was for."
"Unlike Grizlykoff," Drake spoke haughtily, "I trust you to do the right thing because that's what I've taught you and that's what I expect from my own daughter ..." He paused. "That-of-course doesn't-stop-me from-being-curious to-the-point where-my-sanity might come-in-to-question."
Gosalyn took a quiet breath and said honestly: "Steelbeak wants me to 'think about it'."
"Steelbe-!" Her dad jumped up and turned to her. "That sneaky underhanded snake-I'm-gonna ... Gosalyn! There's nothing...! Oh, my gosh, to even think ..."
"Da-ad! I can't keep sponging off you."
"We're-doing-fine!" He insisted, imploring her. "You help your mum out at the restaurant, you help with the chores, and you look after the kids when both of us have to work. It's the effort that's the thing and you know we're fine financially. I know you want to say you can look after yourself. It's your thing, I've got it. But why don't you wait till Catlyn's a few years old before you try to be Miss Independent, Holder of the Sacred Trellis of rose again?" He picked up the money, waving it at her. "This isn't right!"
Moments passed as Gosalyn reeled back at the emotional strength in his statement, watching him almost visibly steaming. "It's a chalice, dad." Gosalyn corrected him, working to sober him up. "The title is 'Holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx, Heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed'. Have you been gardening again?" Gosalyn took the money back from him. "The job was just to seriously think about it. So I am. Seriously."
"So what's your Miss Independent conclusion?" He crossed his arms in disapproval.
"My conclusion, dad, is that I must've been completely out of my tree since the fireworks factory to have given Steelbeak that impression."
"Correction," Drake waggled his finger at her, "it's only since then that you've noticed. You've been tailing him five months and obsessing about him for four." He sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Ludicrous; I've never had to tail one outfit for so long as five months. Even if they walk back out that door again, I've at least broken up their party and brought them in for a visit to the station."
"The point was to get the charges to stick, dad!" Gosalyn retorted. "Either you deal with the bad guy over and over again or you deal with the paperwork and bring him in once."
Drake frowned quietly at her. "Don't let's get back into that argument."
"But it works, dad! F.O.W.L. is too big to do it piecemeal."
"You can do it S.H.U.S.H.'S way, I can't. Can we give it a rest?"
"Tell me it doesn't have merit, dad. It's a choice between a hundred tiny skirmishes where your store of cannonballs and gunpowder are slowly frittered away and you're on your last agent or one big showdown at Deadman's cove with all hands on deck."
He blinked at her. "You're still feeling guilty because you think you sabotaged the mission by destroying your own surveillance van. That's what this is actually about, isn't it?"
"Seriously, dad, I don't mind the chiding."
"Gosalyn, sweetie-pie, what do you want me to say about it that I haven't already said?" He asked weakly.
"Anything, dad!" Gosalyn begged. "I've just realised tonight that we've barely spoken a word about work since Grizlykoff took over and shifted me to F.O.W.L. surveillance. Tell me something, dad; help-me!"
"Mummynussy." Catlyn mumbled and Gosalyn stood up to rock her.
"Sorry, Catlyn, mummy woke you, you go back to sleep."
"Gos, I can't remember how many times that I've told you. What use is watching a crook if he knows he's being watched? Steelbeak plays to the camera for his bosses so why wouldn't he do it for your surveillance crew? Nothing in that van was going to make a conviction. I promise you. You had nothing on him. Don't you think J Gander Hooter would've thought of that one already? Sweetie, if it were as easy as following a common procedure wouldn't Hooter have gotten Griz onto it years ago?"
Gosalyn sank back into the sofa. "So what I've been doing really was useless."
"Nothing is useless if you survive it and learn something about avoiding the same sort of trouble in the future."
His words felt reassuring. "Thanks, dad." Gosalyn hugged him. "But Steelbeak has made me give a serious think about it. Is The Quiverwing Quack washed up?"
"Sweetie, I've walked off that S.H.U.S.H. job nearly a dozen times. Almost every single time it was because of Grizlykoff and Steelbeak is using the same friction between Grizlykoff and you to manipulate you."
"There's nothing left to manipulate, dad." Gosalyn disagreed, sitting back, feeling miserable again. "I'm a little match girl and I've run out of matches. Don't curse the hallucination; Steelbeak's acting up to me is a heck of a lot nicer than the reality of Grizlykoff."
"Okay, kid. Just so long as you remember that he is 'acting up' to you." He growled disapprovingly.
"Funny, those are the same words you tell me whenever I bring a new boyfriend home." She grunted feeling suspicious.
Her father sighed. "Not being able to get along with Grizlykoff is not the end of the world, sweetie-pie." He smiled reassuringly, "they need you, honey. S.H.U.S.H is going to ask for you back."
"That reminds me. I've got a call back, dad. I'm booked Wednesdays and I'm getting a five dollar surcharge to do Fridays. I've asked for the same slot and Maxy's given it to me. Plus I'm meeting Crowder and Ducklet Friday in town at two to discuss getting those audition flyers sorted out."
Drake paused. "That's not the call back I was talking about."
"Look, Dad, throw in my time at the restaurant which is every night that I'm needed and I'm sky high to compare to the deal S.H.U.S.H. was giving me."
"Oh, sure." He mocked bitterly. "And if you were bait on a hook you'd still be wondering which one was the better deal." He analogized unhappily. "But when you look at the-."
"The rock band will take more work but if it pans out I'd be getting quite a bit of money out of it so it's like an investment."
"Music is something you've always been interested in. But Gos, honey, you've studied so hard to be-."
"My life is working again without S.H.U.S.H. and I can't jump every time Grizlykoff calls me like I used to because of Catlyn and I figure she's afraid I will and that's why she cries so much. So when it comes down to the wire, there's not enough hours in the day to deal with both Grizlykoff and Catlyn as well as look after myself enough to be able to be a rational person. They're both babies and Catlyn's the one that I'm responsible for and that's the way it has to be." Gosalyn looked down in her arms at her groggy duckling. "So you don't have to cry, Catlyn, because Mummy's not going back to Grizlykoff; mummy's staying right here to take care of you."
Gosalyn looked up and her father's facial expression was just like he'd just done an intro line to an empty alley.
"So what are you going to do with the extra two hundred?" He changed the subject.
"I think I'll spend some of it on a new outfit so I can alternate. And coffee for my business discussion. Oh, yeah, and I should bring paper to draft the flyer." She smiled at him. "I can see my way through this. This is good."
"Sweetie." Her father leaned forward and kissed her forehead, ruffling her fringe. "You were the last one to know." He straightened. "I'd better get back to work. Launchpad needs to get home himself."
"I'll try and get in by ten from now on."
"Gosalyn. Just to remind you; we don't work a S.H.U.S.H. regiment in this household; we work on what's reasonable. We always have." He folded his arms. "I should know, I was there arguing over what was 'reasonable' with you more times than I could count when you were growing up."
"Yeah, dad, I dig it." She smiled as he sat down on one of the armchairs in the corner and spun out of sight.
Quoted from Lwaxana Troi - Star Trek: The Next Generation
