Chapter 12 – Izzy
By the time Dewey returns, he spots Uncle Scrooge sitting in the armchair. The elder duck is leaning his elbows on the armrests while his hands are clasped together on his cane. He is resting his beak over his hands. Scrooge looks like he's in deep thought, probably thinking of other things he would like to nitpick on.
He tugs at his sleeves, a subconscious attempt to hide his lack of confidence. Dewey frowns. He decides he should face the music and hear what his uncle 'know-it-all' has to say.
"I will not pretend you didn't hear what was said in the other room." Dewey finally says.
Scrooge doesn't move, so Dewey continues. "You already believe I've been making bad choices, especially with my company. I admit it, okay. My skills as a business person are weak. I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm just – I'm just winging it. Heck, I'm not surprised you think I'm a terrible father too, and you're probably right."
Hearing that makes Scrooge flinch.
"That's not what I'm thinking," The elder finally says.
Scrooge opens his eyes and stands up to face his nephew.
"I was wrong to judge you and try to meddle in your business." The elder admits. "I should have realized that everything you are doing is to protect the Dime and your kids."
With a deep breath, Scrooge continues. "Ever since you escaped Magica and left Duckburg, you started with nothing and worked your way up to…" he pauses for a moment to address the room with a gesture of his hand. "…This. A real home that you own. Paid for with honest work. Not many people can accomplish a challenge like that, but you did. I couldn't be more proud of you, Dewey."
Dewey's lower beak begins to quiver as he briefly turns his head to one side. When he glances back at his Uncle, he cannot stop the tears from escaping from his eyes.
"You have no idea how much it means to hear you say that," Dewey says with a small sob.
Scrooge steps up to his nephew and wraps his arms around him. "I know, I know." He says as his tears threatened to escape.
Gradually, Dewey moves his arms around his Uncle to return the hug with quiet sobs. Dewey realizes this is the first time he held anyone other than Izzy and his kids in over fifteen years.
After about a minute, the young adult pulls himself together, bringing his sleeved arm up to his face to wipe away his tears. Looking back at his Uncle, he smiles.
"Oh, hey, I just realized something…." Dewey perks up.
"What is it?" Scrooge wonders.
Dewey reaches up and behind his neck to untie the necklace. He then raises the No. #1 Dime up to his Uncle.
"I was only holding it until I could return it to its rightful owner, after all," Dewey admits.
Scrooge gently takes the coin into his hand. It feels like it has been over a decade since he held it, even though it has been a whole day for him. Scrooge is both relieved and excited to have his precious No. #1 Dime back. After putting the necklace on, he looks up with a grateful smile.
"Thank you," Scrooge says.
Dewey simply smiles and nods in response before suggesting, "Would you like some tea?"
"I would love some."
Dewey walks over to the kitchen and pours water into his electric kettle, and plugs it in. While waiting for it to boil, Dewey reaches up in his cupboard to pull out a few boxes of different teas he has.
"Um, which tea you like. Earl Grey, Mint, Nutmeg…?" He lists off each box.
"I've always fancied Nutmeg," Scrooge perks up. He is surprised that Dewey would have his favorite tea on hand.
"Okay, Nutmeg it is." Dewey agrees.
He grabs two mugs from the next cupboard. Dewey then pulls two bags out of the box and places them into each of the mugs.
Scrooge sits himself down back in the same seat he sat down at during dinner as he watches his nephew; the old duck wonders if Dewey reuses his teabags or tosses them after each cup. Scrooge is about to say something, bites his tongue before tempting himself to ask. Instead, he will ask a different question.
"So, when did you start drinking tea?" He asks.
Dewey shrugs nonchalantly.
"I don't know; when I was a kid, I hated drinking tea." He starts telling his story. "However, after I met Izzy and moved here, she and I would drink all sorts of teas from the waterfront quay. I just ended up liking Nutmeg the best, not even realizing, at the time, it was your favorite too."
The younger duck places a bowl of sugar, two teaspoons, a milk carton, a small plate, and a package of butter cookies on the table as he explains his new choice in a beverage.
"If you don't mind me asking, who is Izzy?" Scrooge ponders. The mystery of who this duck is is overwhelming.
Dewey is quiet for a moment. However, before he could begin his tale, the kettle whistle, he unplugs the kettle and pours the steaming water into the mugs.
"Dewey?" Scrooge pokes his beak forward to see if his nephew is okay.
Dewey can't help but smile as he hands off one of the mugs to Scrooge and sits down with the other.
"Well…?" Scrooge insists, feeling a little impatient.
With a deep breath, Dewey finally gathers enough courage to speak.
"I met Izzy about six years ago. I was gathering more donations to send into Duckburg." The young adult finally starts.
"At that time, I was a bit of a loner. You know, not trusting anyone, always going by a different alias. Most of the time, I just went as Duke L'Orange, though. To be honest, I had given up hope of ever being able to reunite with my family. The only thing I had was listing to Huey's podcasts. It took some time before I realized the strange noise in the background was a secret message in Morse code. I got my hands on a Woodchuck Guide Book to help decode the messages. That's when I found out that every hero and brave citizen never came back from attacking Magica.
"I had to do something, so I started raising donations. I collected food, blankets, and clothes from generous people. It would be at least something to keep everyone in Duckburg going for a little be longer. Izzy was one of the volunteers that wanted to help. She ran into me during one of my pickups and wanted me to take her on the delivery. I guess she wanted to make sure it was going where it's supposed to." Dewey chuckles.
During the story's telling, Scrooge and Dewey proceed with their tea prep rituals. Both ducks dab their teabags in and out of their mugs before setting them on the plate. Dewey proceeds to scoop six full teaspoons of sugar into his mug, while Scrooge only adds one drop of milk into his. However, Scrooge starts getting distracted from Dewey's story by simply watching how much sugar he's putting into his tea.
"At first, I refused her to travel with me, but she kept insisting." Dewey stops to see a modified expression on his Uncle's face. "What?" He asks, making a baffled expression.
"You like a little tea with your sugar, I see." Scrooge comments. In his opinion, the tea is too spoiled to drink now.
Dewey looks down at his tea before glancing up at Scrooge, then back down at his tea. He lets out a snort as he realizes that he does put a lot of sugar in most of his hot beverages.
"Yeah, I guess." Dewey chuckles, not even trying to defend himself. He starts to stir his sugar tea, still amused with Scrooge's reaction.
"Anyway, how did Izzy convince you to let her go with you?" Scrooge asks, bringing the focus back to the story.
"She convinced me by strapping herself in the navigator's chair and refusing to leave the plane, no matter how many times I told her to leave. I even tried telling her it was too dangerous."
Scrooge can't help but laugh. "Sounds like she's a smart Lass." He chuckles.
Dewey responds with a sad smile. "She was," he adds softly.
The moment Dewey clarifies his loss, Scrooge looks up with sympathy. He has no words, but before he could say something, Dewey continues.
"What can I say," the young duck snickers. "She had a determined spirit. That journey to the borders of Duckburg was only the beginning. Izzy soon joined me on treasure hunts and paid delivery runs. Her business sense led to more clients that paid extremely well to get their goods transported across the dangerous skies. Because of her, I learned to trust again and to open up. I ended up telling her everything about my family and me. We became good friends."
Dewey smiles at the old memories between him and Izzy. His mind drifts as he remembers the turning point of their relationship. One late afternoon they went to a rocky mountain. What started as taking the wrong turn ended up with them witnessing the most breathtaking sunset. It was so captivating that they began to hold hands. Realizing that their figures were locked together, the two looked into each other's eyes and gradually leaned in for their first time kissed.
Instead of going into all of that detail, Dewey says, "Eventually, our friendship grew into something more."
"You two fell in love," Scrooge says, coming into the fact.
Without saying a word, Dewey just glances up at his Uncle with a bashful smile and an affirming nod. He then reaches for the packages of butter cookies and lifts them over to Scrooge.
"Cookie?" The younger duck asks.
After a thought, Scrooge shrugs. "Why not," he says before taking one butter biscuit.
Dewey grabs one of his own and chomps down on it.
"So," Scrooge trailed while chewing on the cookie. "What happened next?"
After swallowing his cookie, Dewey smiles.
"We decided that living in the plane wasn't going to cut it anymore. Since Cape Suzette is the safest city to live in right now, we came here. We bought this place, got StarDuck, and after, Izzy decided she wanted to start a business. Since I had plenty of money left, we began StarDuck's Air Delivery.
"I ran into Meg and her crew during one of the deliveries, and they were looking for work. I started to feel bad for them, so I offered them the opportunity to work in our company – convinced them it would be honest pay for honest work. The only catch was they would never resort to thieving. I promised them if they got caught in any illegal acts that I would not rescue them. To my surprise, they were more than happy to let go of their old lives."
"Ah, so that explains why the pirates are now working for you," Scrooge says in realization. "And good for you for standing your ground."
"Yup," Dewey nods in agreement. "It turned to be good timing too, because one day after returning from a delivery, Izzy showed me the eggs. She sounded excited when she told me we are going to be parents. Needless to say, I was not expecting any of that." He chuckled in embarrassment.
"So, the little ones were not planned, eh." Scrooge realizes.
Dewey raises a brow to his Uncle.
"Since when do I ever plan anything, Uncle Scrooge?" He says with subtle amusement of his folly.
"Practically never," Scrooge jokes. He reaches over to help himself to another cookie.
As Scrooge munches on the sugary treat, he notices a sorrowful expression on his nephew's face. He figures it has something to do with what happened to his beloved.
"Dewey," he calmly leans in. "What happened to Izzy?"
The younger duck lets out a shaky breath before continuing.
"A few weeks later, I noticed Izzy was not feeling well. She kept coughing and had trouble breathing. I kept asking if she was okay, and she told me she was fine, just a little under the weather. Four major companies had deliveries that took priority. Izzy was so happy that we got those contracts. To her, it would be the beginning of a profitable future. I was more concerned with her health, though. However, she convinced me she would be fine and told me to go."
Dewey blinked back a few tears.
"I just trusted her and carried on with the deliveries. It took me three days, but when I got home, her health got worse. I didn't waste another minute and took her to the hospital."
The younger duck shakes her head, believing he could have done things differently.
"The doctors couldn't save her. She –"
Dewey tries to speak, but every time he opens his beak, he cannot say the words. Remembering the love of his life drift away on that hospital bed hurts too much.
Scrooge realizes he doesn't need to hear Izzy's fate. Just by seeing Dewey's anguish expression is enough. To show sympathy, Scrooge leans over to touch his nephew's arm.
"I'm sorry," is all he can say to him.
"The worst part is, Izzy never got to see the twins hatch." Dewey finally concludes with a sniffle.
Both ducks sit in silence for a moment as they sip their teas and nibble on another cookie.
A noise down the hall attracts Dewey's attention. He leans back in his chair to focus his ears in that direction.
"Something the matter, Lad?" Scrooge asks.
Dewey holds up his finger as a sign to ask Scrooge to be quiet for a moment.
"Daddy," a little voice is finally heard.
"There it is," Dewey says, getting up out of his seat. "I'll be right back."
Scrooge overhears Dewey talking to his daughter and can't help to smile a little.
"Hey, Sweet Pea, what's up?" The young father asks the tiny duckling.
"I'm tirsty. Can I have a gwass of water?" Tessa squeaks in a sleepy tone.
"Sure, sweetie. I'll be right back."
Dewey comes back, briefly smiles at Scrooge before pulling out a small pink glass from the cupboard. He leans over the sink and pours some water into the glass. Once the glass is half full, he returns to his thirsty daughter.
"Thanks, daddy," the little girl politely says.
Scrooge sits for a few moments, waiting patiently. He can hear Dewey whispering to his child – something about 'sleep well,' but he is talking in such a low tone that it's hard to understand.
A few minutes pass and Dewey returns with the empty glass. He places it into the sink before sitting back down at the table. The younger duck ends up letting out a big yawn before picking up his mug to finish his tea.
"You know you are a really good father to your kids." Scrooge praises Dewey.
"Thanks," Dewey bashfully responds. "Though the irony is not lost."
"How so?" The elder duck asks.
"Oh, considering how crazy I used to be; always getting into trouble where ever I went." Dewey chuckled at the child he once was.
"True. You were quite the little rapscallion, that's for sure." Scrooge chuckles.
"I can't begin to count on how many feathers Uncle Donald lost because of me."
Both ducks laugh at that. Dewey stops laughing to let out a sigh. He glances off to one side with a sad look.
"He's really gone, isn't he?" He asks.
Scrooge remembers seeing the petrified stone expression on Donald's face. Knowing that he will never come back from that, the elder frowns.
"Aye, he is."
"I wonder what he would say if he saw how I've become?" Dewey asks out of curiosity.
It takes a moment for Scrooge to think.
"He'd be proud." The elder duck says with a smile.
Scrooge takes one last sip of his tea before stretching and letting out a big yawn.
"You've had a long day, Uncle Scrooge. Perhaps you should go get some rest." Dewey suggests as he stands up.
"What about you, Lad?" Scrooge asks, realizing Dewey is cleaning off the table.
"I still have laundry to do." The younger duck shrugs.
"You sure you don't need a hand?" Scrooge offers.
"I'll be fine, go." Dewey chuckles.
"Alright then, goodnight."
"Goodnight."