Miraculously, almost no one was exhausted from fending off an alien invasion.
"Yeah, it's probably past my bedtime."
More accurately, Louie and Donald were exhausted and everyone else was still riding an adrenaline rush that was liable to crash at any moment.
"It's only six o'clock," said Webby.
"Bedtime," said Louie. Donald leaned against the wall behind him and dozed off.
Della came after him and held the door open for the others. "I know you kids heard plenty of stories about the original team," she said as they all finished shuffling in. "But there's nothing like seeing it for yourself, huh?" She threw an arm around Donald's shoulder and startled him awake.
"I like the one where Donald grew fifty feet tall and joined the circus," said Webby.
"Was that before, during, or after his grunge phase?" Dewey asked.
"During," said Della. "His grunge phase lasted halfway through college."
"What were Mom's big embarrassing phases?" Dewey said to Donald, who was struggling to keep his eyes open. He jumped up onto his back and pointed in his face. "As her brother, you're blood-bound to tell anyone who asks."
Della took him off of Donald and set him on the floor. "Come on," she said. "You know about the bedazzled jean jacket I wore all through eighth grade."
"Nn-ooo," said Dewey as Donald collapsed next to him. "But that's not embarrassing, it just means you have taste."
Della raised her eyebrows. "Oh. Well, you must've heard about that summer I tried to get into motorcycling."
Louie shrugged. "Don't know that one," he said with a yawn. "You'll just have to tell us all about it in the morning." He started up the stairs toward his room, but stopped and curled up on the first landing instead. He hummed softly. "G'night."
Della nudged Donald awake with her foot. "Don, you can't honestly expect me to believe you never told any embarrassing stories about me this whole time?"
Donald stood up and stretched. "Did you want me to?"
Scrooge chuckled. "If it's humiliating childhood memories you want, I can certainly dig into my arsenal."
Webby gasped and jumped in place. "I'll get the scrapbook!" She took off running up the stairs, careful to step over a snoring Louie.
"Agh. Webbigail!" Scrooge yelled and gestured toward Donald and Della. "I meant about these two!" He cursed under his breath but made no effort to stop her.
Everyone still awake was gathered in the TV room late that night. Donald sat in an armchair and rested his head in his hand. Huey and Della played Legends of LegendQuest and frequently yelling at the screen, keeping him awake. Webby and Dewey sat on the floor in front of the coffee table looking at photos of Scrooge in his teenage years.
"Wait, there were emo kids in medieval times?" said Dewey, focusing on a picture of Scrooge frowning with his bangs covering one eye.
A very aged and very irritated Scrooge snatched up the book and slammed it shut.
"I think," he said bitterly. "It's time you kids went to bed."
Della looked down at her phone. "Yeesh," she said, and turned off the game. "Yeah, you guys have had a big day. You need your rest."
"Aw," Huey groaned. "But I was just about to destroy that swarm of robot-beetles!"
Della kissed his forehead. "And you'll be all the more prepared for battle after a full night's sleep." She tousled Dewey's hair as the kids all got up to leave.
"Goodnight," the three of them said.
Della called after them. "Make sure your brother gets to the actual bed, alright?"
She saw Donald slumped down in his chair with his neck bent forward at an awkward angle and stood up to nudge him awake.
"I take it this is where Louie gets his sleeping habits?"
Donald sighed.
"Come on, Don," she said cheerfully. "We've got some catching up to do."
"Lass," Scrooge said with a yawn. "You didn't sleep the first night you got back, you didn't sleep the night Huey had a cold, and none of us slept last night. Can you catch up tomorrow?"
"I'll sleep later," she said. "We missed out on too much." Donald started to doze off again, so she pinched his shoulder.
"Fine," said Donald, and finally stood up. "Fine, I'm awake."
Scrooge sat down on the couch and smirked.
Della grinned. "You're in for a treat, my friend. My Moon stories went over pret-ty well with everybody else. What do you wanna know?"
"Um," said Donald. "What do you miss about it?"
"Well, everyone I met there who doesn't want my family dead lives here now, so...nothing? Penny's house was nice, though."
Donald furrowed his brow. "Are you and Penumbra -"
"Next question!"
He looked over Della's shoulder and Scrooge nodded silently at him.
He thought for a moment, then frowned and said, "Why did you go?"
Della's face fell.
Scrooge's eyes widened. "Donald -"
"No," she said. "No, it's okay. You...you both deserve an explanation."
She leaned back against the coffee table and sighed. "Look, I never wanted to leave anybody behind. I found out about the Spear, I got excited, and I thought I'd try it out. That's all it was. I'm sorry."
Donald scowled. "That's it?"
"Yeah, that's it," said Della, growing irritated. "What else do you want me to say?"
"That I didn't lose my sister because of a whim!"
"What, would you rather believe I did it on purpose?"
They had already escalated to yelling in each other's faces.
"I should've known," said Donald.
"Yeah, you should've."
"This is exactly why I didn't want you two to build it in the first place."
"And I'm gonna spend the rest of my life paying for it. You know that! What other explanation could possibly make this better?"
Scrooge stuck his cane in between them and shouted, "Kids, that's enough."
Louie's voice cut into their mature, healthy discussion.
"Oh, we are not doing this again."
The adults in the room all froze and looked at him in the doorway.
He entered and stood between the three of them. "Let's go with the abridged version, shall we?"
He gestured to Scrooge. "It's Scrooge's fault for building the Spear of Selene. Wait, no -"
To Della. "It's Mom's fault for taking the Spear of Selene. Ah - wait, that's not right either. No, it's Uncle Donald's fault for avoiding Scrooge for ten years."
Donald and Scrooge grit their teeth as Della gaped at the two of them.
Louie went on, "I'm sure it's somehow Duckworth's fault, too! Why not?" He heaved an exasperated sigh, but softened when he saw the look on Della's face.
"Mom? A-are you okay?"
Della blinked. "I'm fine, honey." She knelt down and put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm just...dealing with the surprises."
Louie shook his head. "Oh, no. No, Mom, I didn't mean to -"
"It's okay," she said. "Go to bed. Don't worry about us."
He looked warily between the three of them before making his way upstairs.
Della looked down and waited for his footsteps to fade. Everyone was silent. She took a breath and looked up at Donald.
"You left?"
Scrooge and Donald glanced sideways at each other. She spoke calmly, but there was a graveness in her voice.
"Okay, now it makes perfect sense why you'd wanna believe I abandoned my family on purpose. Because that's what you did." She pointed an accusing finger at him. "What, did you see me make the biggest mistake of my life and think you might as well do it, too?"
Donald sighed. "Della, I didn't want -"
"Didn't want what?" She threw her arms up. "Want my kids to know the rest of their family? Didn't they ask why they never saw him?"
Scrooge looked away. "They, uh...They didn't know."
She looked at Scrooge, then back at Donald. "They didn't know they were related to him?!" She turned toward Scrooge. "Did you even try to reach out?"
"Lass," he said. "It's in the past. We've come to our senses already." He offered a warm smile.
"That's great," she said with the same bile in her voice. "Really, I'm thrilled that you two made nice. But I am just now processing this."
He frowned and cast his eyes downward.
"See, for some reason it never occurred to me that my brother would hide entire relatives from my kids. Or that my uncle wouldn't even bother with them if that happened."
She looked at Donald and huffed. "What'd they know about me, just that I wasn't there?"
He folded his arms and looked down.
Her eyes widened, tears starting to form. "Left a bigger mess than I thought. Must be a record for me."
She turned her back to them and walked out.
If she'd had her way, she would've stayed locked up in the houseboat's spare room all night. But crying tends to dehydrate a person, so she had to get up and go to the kitchen, where she found Scrooge sitting in the breakfast nook looking through a more recent photo album.
"Thought you'd be here," he said. "We looked all over the house."
She opened a can of Pep from the fridge. "So where's Donald?"
"I think he's still lost in the west wing. He'll figure it out eventually." He turned the book around on the table and pushed it toward the edge so she could see some of the boys' old school pictures.
Begrudgingly, she sat down across from him to get a better look. Huey's was a normal, posed portrait. Dewey was winking and shooting finger guns. Louie was looking away from the camera and pouting.
"He was quite bashful at that age," said Scrooge. "So I've heard."
She silently flipped through a few more pages.
Scrooge cleared his throat. "You know, I once refused to speak to your mum for a month because she got gum in my hair and we had to cut my bangs."
"You didn't know the peanut butter trick?"
"We weren't about to waste perfectly good peanut butter to salvage a bit of hair!"
Della set the book down and crossed her arms. "And did you ever refuse to speak to her for ten years when you were both adults?"
"No," he said. "But if she'd gotten Matilda lost in space, I might have."
She propped up her elbows on the table and put her head in her hands. "When I was gone, I wanted to think everything was fine down here. I knew you guys hit a rough patch, but..."
She sighed. "Maybe I just didn't want to imagine my kids growing up without you around."
"They were yours," said Scrooge. "They reminded me too much of you."
She put her arms down.
He smiled. "It took me some time to realize that was a good thing. We've rather grown on each other since then. And look at you! Been back hardly a month and they've taken to you just the same."
She raised an eyebrow. "So how long before everyone stopped pretending I never existed?"
"They got it out of us," Donald cut in. "They're your kids, remember?"
Della looked over her shoulder to see him standing on the stairs. He smiled softly, and she smirked back before standing up to meet him.
She put an arm across his shoulder and pulled him to her side. "We're a bunch of stubborn old palookas, aren't we?"
"I wouldn't say 'old'," said Scrooge.
Della rolled her eyes. From here, she could tell that the light coming from the mansion was a bit brighter than usual for that time of night. When she turned around, she saw the light on in the boys' bedroom window and started up the stairs.
"Where ya off to now?" Scrooge called after her.
"Gotta check on my kids," she said.
She opened the door to Dewey modeling her old jean jacket over his pajamas in the mirror. The "DD" emblazoned on the back was missing a fair amount of rhinestones, but still legible.
"How'd you find that?"
"Dew-termination," he said without looking away from his reflection.
"He emptied out seventeen boxes in the attic," said Huey, seated upright in the top bunk reading a book.
Louie lied in the bottom bunk with his eyes open, facing the wall. Della sat at the edge of the bed and stroked his hair.
"You know it actually is past your bedtime now," she said.
"Couldn't sleep," said Louie. He sat up and hugged his knees. "Mom, I'm sorry. I thought you knew. I didn't wanna start -"
"Hey, hey," she said softly. She scooted closer and put an arm around him. "It's okay. We're the adults here. We gotta deal with this stuff. And we dealt with it."
Louie sniffed and looked away from her.
"Hey, how 'bout a bedtime story?"
She stood up, took the jacket off of Dewey, and hung it up in the closet. "Everybody huddle in," she said, and sat back down on the bottom bunk.
Dewey sat next to her right away, and Huey closed his book and climbed down as she began.
"So, our dad was in the hospital - it's not important why - and Mom sent us to stay with Uncle Scrooge…"