Chapter 1

"Again, I'm sorry about this, Horace," Ortensia offered, looking up at the horse.

"No, I'm taking responsibility for this," Horace said, shaking his head. "I wasn't thinking."

"The kids really tricked you, didn't they?" Ortensia asked.

"Hold still, I'm trying to at least see the damage," Oswald ordered. He loosened his tie as he repositioned himself over the banister, looking down at Horace stuck with his limbs and head through the poles. "Did they glue your seat too?" Oswald asked, trying to see the extent of Horace's problems.

The horse shifted, trying to move, only to let out a sigh. "Yeah, they got me there too."

Oswald let out his own sigh and looked down at his wife in the dog run of the house. "I wanna family meeting."

"Everybody?" Ortensia checked.

"Everybody," Oswald said with a nod.

"What do you plan to do about this?" Clarabelle asked, looking down at Horace as she stood behind him with Goofy at her side.

"The kids'll get punished and hopefully before tonight I'll have him freed," Oswald explained, grabbing hold of one of the poles stuck to the side of Horace's head and leg. "I'll have to go out and get more Goop-B-Gone." He let go of the pole and pulled out his cell phone, quickly dialing a number. He put the phone to the side of his head and waited through the rings.

"Do I wanna know what happened?" Mickey asked as he picked up the phone.

"You don't even know why I'm calling," Oswald said in defense. The line carried only silence for a moment, getting Oswald to admit, "Okay, do you have any Goop-B-Gone?"

"NASA super glue?"

"NASA super glue," Oswald echoed in confirmation. He threw a look down at the doorway where bunnies both from the wedding and those who stayed starting to gather. "I've really gotta stop drinking Tang."

"Give me a few minutes and I'll be over," Mickey offered before ending the call.

Oswald turned the screen off and glanced down at the suit he was still wearing. Taking off the jacket he looked at Clarabelle and Goofy and asked, "You still have the list of who stayed?"

"They're not all gonna git inta trouble, are they?" Goofy asked as he put his hands in his pockets. His face pulled into confusion as he pulled the pockets out and nothing was there.

Clarabelle reached up and grabbed the green hat off of his head, pulling out a folded yellow note page. She put Goofy's hat back on his head before handing Oswald the list.

"Not all of them, but I wanna know who the ring leader was," Oswald admitted, holding the paper in the same hand that held his cellphone. "Let me go get changed," he said as he turned towards the room he shared with Ortensia. He quickly threw the suit on the bed, tossing on his orange turtle neck and blue long pants, and came back to the banister to see Mickey and Ortensia had joined the three waiting.

"I think we'll need a bigger thing of Goop-B-Gone," Mickey offered, holding the small bottle he had brought with him.

"We'll see how far we get," Oswald said, rolling up his sleeves. He looked over at his wife and asked, "Is everyone down there?"

Ortensia gave him a nod of her head in response.

Oswald looked over the banister, seeing why the dog run didn't usually serve for holding everyone. He stepped over to where the first stair step was and leaned against the banister to see all of his children. The muttering that filled the air died down, the large group realizing he was looking at them. He waited until the noise had fully died down before opening his mouth. "Who did this to Mr. Horace? Who made the glue, who put it down, and who got him to sit in it?"

The sound of a pen being dropped resonated through the walls, a couple of snickers following it.

"Wrong type of pen," 42 mumbled, his voice able to be heard from where he stood among his siblings.

"I'm glad you all think this is funny, might be the last bit of humor you get for a while," Oswald threatened, gaining all eyes. He held out the list of those who had stayed home during the wedding he had written up in the morning for all to see. "I know who stayed," Oswald reminded. "I can punish every single one of you if the people responsible for this don't step forward."

Mickey stepped over to Oswald and turned so he looked at the wall behind the rabbit, taking in some of the children's pictures, and whispered, "28 has glue on his cheek, 335 and 276 have sticky paws, and 19 led Horace to the spot."

"I know tha- wait, how'd you guess about 19?" Oswald asked, turning to look at Mickey.

"Asked Horace," Mickey admitted. He looked down at the children, throwing his gaze across the lot of them.

"I want them to fess up," Oswald admitted in a whisper. He looked back down at his children and asked in a louder voice, "Is no one going to confess?"

A moment passed before 19 raised her paw. "I'm sorry Daddy," she offered, her voice quivering. "I can tell you who all did it."

"Squealer," a voice mumbled.

"276," Oswald chastised. He gave a look at Ortensia, seeing her shaking her head down at the blue sea below. Looking back at the children he said, "19, 28, 335, and 276, come up here. Everyone else, you're free to go."

"What, why me?" 28 exclaimed. "I wasn't anywhere near them."

"Don't make me repeat myself," Oswald said through his teeth.

"I'll go get some paper towels," Mickey offered, going behind his brother to go down the stairs.

Oswald waited for the four he had called up to step on the second floor landing before he said, "I want you each to apologizes to Mr. Horace for what you did."

28 stayed silent while his siblings apologized to the horse stuck in the banister.

"28?" Ortensia asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I had nothing to do with it," 28 said, sticking to his story.

"Yes you did," 19 said, eyeing her brother. "The whole thing was your idea."

"You've still got glue on your cheek from when you mixed it up," Oswald informed, eyeing his son as he pointed to his own right cheek.

28 dabbed a paw at his left cheek, his eyes growing wide in surprise.

"You know how we feel about lying," Ortensia said, eyeing her son.

"Stupid NASA glue," 28 grumbled.

"Tell Mr. Horace," Ortensia said, emotions thick in her voice.

"Sorry Mr. Horace," 28 said, looking at the horse stuck in the banister.

"Now go into our bathroom, I'll come in behind you shortly," Ortensia said.

28's eyes grew wide but he knew enough not to speak his mind. His ears drooped as he turned around and walked towards his parent's bedroom.

"Now you three, you're gonna help your Uncle Mickey and me unstick Mr. Horace," Oswald said, looking down at the three. "This time we're gonna do it without breaking the banister."

"Yes sir," the three mumbled together as Mickey came up the steps holding a roll of the blue workshop towels.

-.-.-.-

"Thanks for the help, sorry you got roped into all of that," Oswald offered as he put his hands in his pockets.

"It happens, though your kids really do have an infinity with glue, don't they?" Mickey asked with a laugh.

Oswald looked at the houses they walked passed, street lamps and walkway lights illuminating the street. "I don't know how that started, maybe they think if they glue everyone down, no one can disappear on them?" Oswald suggested. "You think the boys'll be fine if I pop in?"

"They might be asleep by now with how early I got told they were woken up this morning," Mickey said, stealing a glance at his watch to see it was almost eleven.

"I wanna talk to you," Oswald admitted.

"What about?" Mickey asked, leading his brother up the walkway to his yellow house.

"You know I applied to that archive job a month ago, right?" Oswald asked, waiting while Mickey opened the front door. The mouse walked in first, giving Oswald a sound of confirmation. Oswald followed him into the house and pushed the door closed behind himself. "They'll tell me this week if I got it or not. If I don't, I was wondering if you could use a partner in your Fix-It job?"

Mickey took his green jacket off and hung it on the old hat wrack by the door. "Yeah, of course," he said. Turning towards the rabbit he asked, "What happened to the job helping out the professors?"

"It's great but it doesn't pay enough because I never went to school for any of it," Oswald admitted.

"If you're struggling why didn't you tell me?" Mickey asked, leading Oswald over to the sofa to sit down.

"It's not bad enough we're going hungry, but..." Oswald's voice fell away as he leaned back in the seat. Looking up at the ceiling he added, "Feeding and clothing 420 kids takes a lot, not to mention ourselves. I'm just tired of worrying all the time."

"419," Mickey corrected.

Oswald froze before slowly lifting his head to look at Mickey. "How'd you figure it out?" he asked.

"That picture from Thanksgiving," Mickey admitted. "I was putting your kid's faces to names and realized I was missing one. What happened?"

"349 passed away back in 1930. He had blotting."

"And you didn't tell me?" Mickey asked.

"It was a long time ago, you didn't even know I existed back then," Oswald pointed out. "Anyway, it's not like we go around announcing one of our kids died. We just keep saying 420 because it's a round, easy number."

Mickey stared at Oswald a moment, the two sitting in silence, before he said, "I'm sorry."

Oswald let out a breath before he said, "Thanks."

"If you want, tomorrow me and the boys are going out in the truck," Mickey informed. "You wanna join?"

"Yeah, sure I will."

"And no more secrets, okay?" Mickey said with a smile. "We're family."

"Mickey Rabbit, that would've been funny if that's what you got called," Oswald said, forcing a laugh.

"Like Oswald Mouse would've sounded any better," Mickey added.