First Night (Been Like This)
No one wanted to go to bed on Della's first night back on Earth and safe in McDuck Manor. There was the triplets' insistence of a camp-out in the living room. Donald offered her a place in the houseboat for the night, but when she insisted that she would just sleep in a guest room, he not-so-subtly claimed the room next to hers.
Everyone just wanted to be close to Della. At this point, she just wanted to sleep on a real bed.
After insisting that she would still be there in the morning with a flattered laugh, they relented and shuffled off to bed, but not before sharing a round of hugs for the umpteenth time that day. Scrooge was convinced he'd seen more hugs in the time since Della had returned than he had in his entire life.
This was the thought that followed him as he made his final rounds for the night, stopping by his own room just long enough to retrieve something from his nightstand drawer and slip it into his pocket before ending up in the doorway of his nephews' shared room. The sight that greeted him made his heart melt.
The boys were all sitting around Della on the bottom bunk, her arms wrapped around Huey and Louie at her sides and Dewey's arms slung over her shoulders from where he kneeled behind her, his head resting against hers. As they snuggled into her, eyes closed and smiles crinkling their features, she rocked them back and forth. The past eleven years didn't matter right then; nothing did, except for the shared feelings of love and comfort. And–
And then she was singing.
"Look to the stars, my darling baby boys. Life is strange and vast..."
A spike of nostalgia choked Scrooge, and he caught himself with a hand on the doorframe. It'd been so long since he had heard her lullaby. It was something he had refused to let himself even think about after losing her (even though his dreams had other plans early on), and yet, here she was, singing it with no hint of rust.
"...unafraid of the unknown, because I'll face it all with you."
As Della finished the melody, she looked up from her sons to her uncle, locking gazes with him in a tender moment of familiarity, and only then did he realize his eyes were misting over.
After letting the song settle, the only sounds heard were the boys' sniffles piercing the air. Eventually, Della turned and gave each of them a kiss on the forehead, then saw them off to bed. Determined as ever, she managed to tuck them all in, even Huey on the top bunk, despite the way Earth's gravity was weighing down on her.
With a hesitant "I love you" from the doorway, as if testing the words for the first time, Della turned off the lights and Scrooge stepped back into the hallway to give her room to close the door. Finally, she faced her uncle.
Scrooge, for his part, was still in awe of her performance. "That...that was beautiful," he said, his voice low and soft. "Last time I heard that, they were just wee eggs."
Della offered him a bashful shrug. "I wanted them to hear it in person. I thought about how this moment would go for so long, and...I just want them to think I'm a good mother."
"Trust me, you don't need to prove yourself. They already think the world of ye." Scrooge pulled her into a sideways hug and planted a kiss on the side of her head. He kept his arm around her, partly to support her and partly for closeness, as he asked, "Want to go talk outside?"
"Sure."
The two ducks made their way through the second story of the manor and ended up on the balcony overlooking the backyard.
Save for the glow peeking around the corner from the pool area, only moonlight illuminated their view. A slight wind rattled the trees below, and intermittent cumulus clouds littered an otherwise crystal-clear sky. Scrooge considered their timing fortunate; it'd been raining on and off all week.
Della immediately looked up out of habit as she reached the edge of the balcony, turning every which way until her eyes finally found the moon behind her. Sunlight filled half of it as it hung over the mansion, and she leaned back on her elbows against the stone railing to watch it, Scrooge copying her position as he joined her. It comforted a small part of him to see the familiar motion from her once again.
They simply stayed there for a while, silently watching the cosmos parade ever onward above. It was something they had done plenty of times together, but now it felt different. Della had just come from there. His stars had been her home for the past decade, and now she was just...back. Back on a planet that probably felt like it didn't belong to her anymore.
A gentle sigh escaped Della, and Scrooge found himself wondering, "What was it like?"
"On the moon?"
He nodded, and she gave a noncommittal shrug as she thought aloud. "It's...different."
This surprised him. Of course he knew it was different, but he would've expected some form of excitement as an answer when it came to actually living on the moon, circumstances aside, especially from the duck who wanted to give her boys the stars. "How so?" he asked.
"Well, it's..." Della started, then trailed off, her eyebrow quirking up as she looked around in thought, before looking up at the moon again. "Alright, you see the moon there?"
"How could I not?" Scrooge muttered in a teasing tone, earning an eye roll and a smirk from his niece.
"Be serious," she chided, no bite to her voice. She leaned in towards him, pointing as she instructed, "Try to stay still, and watch the moon move in relation to the roof for a minute."
He did as told, and together, they watched as the moon dipped surprisingly fast behind a corner of the chimney before emerging again, making a beeline for the horizon of the rooftop.
"Quick one, she is, isn't she?" Scrooge noted, swiveling his head to Della when she didn't answer. She sat there, still staring and completely enthralled.
"It's been so long since I've actually seen it like that..." she whispered to herself, seemingly forgetting she wasn't alone. "Oh god, I was just there..."
The next few seconds went by in slow-motion for Scrooge. He could see the exact moment when the reality of everything that had happened to herself in the past eleven years struck Della. It was as if life had pinched her now that she was back, letting her know that, indeed, she really had been stuck on the moon for so long. That she'd missed so much.
The instant her gaze dropped from the sky, her eyes welling with unstoppable tears, Scrooge had his arms around her. She clutched the lapels of his coat, shaking and crying, and he held her in a furiously protective grip, trying to stay strong for her sake.
"Uncle Scrooge..." she sobbed against his shoulder. The sound broke his heart. The last time he heard a cry like that from her had been when she disappeared. He held her tighter, his teeth clenching, as he tried to assure himself that she was really there. That this was just the first step in mending the pain that he had inflicted upon both of their hearts all those years ago.
"I-It's alright, Della girl. It's alright. I've got ye. You're safe. You're home."
When she let out a particularly pained sob in response, and her breaths turned sharper, he moved a hand up to cradle the back of her head, smoothing her hair with soft strokes.
Scrooge didn't keep track of how long they stood there, but when Della calmed down, neither of them made any effort to move. When she spoke again, it came out as muffled and weary and just slightly bitter against his frame.
"It's lonely, is what it was. Magnificently lonely. I mean, yeah, there was a giant moon bug there to aggravate me over the years–" He cocked a silent eyebrow in question over her shoulder at that. "–and a...and I mean, it helped to think I was sending you transmissions of myself...even if you didn't get them..." That made him wince in guilt. "But otherwise? It's just so...so empty."
She finally pulled away just enough to look at him. Her eyes were puffy and watery, and a mumbled "sorry" left her beak as she tried to smooth away the rumpled tear stains on his shoulder. Scrooge caught her wrist in a gentle hold.
"Dinna worry about that, lass," he dismissed, lowering her hand between them.
With a sniff and a short, embarrassed laugh, Della took a half-step back, but still let Scrooge keep a hand on her shoulder. "So, as I was saying..." she began, the tremble of her smile betraying her sudden bravado.
"Della, you don't have to–"
She leveled him with a look mixed between determination and a plea. "I want to." When she saw the lingering concern on her uncle's face, she softened. "Please, just let me. I'm good for now, I promise."
Scrooge took a deep breath and relented, following suit as Della turned to the sky once again. The clouds seemed to have multiplied, but the very top sliver of the moon was still visible above the roof.
"...So, as you can see, the moon moves very quickly when you're on Earth," she explained with a barely-contained laugh when she realized the moon wasn't going to cooperate with her astronomy lesson anymore.
The two of them took to leaning against the railing again, watching the stars themselves as Della continued, "But it's different on the moon. The Earth just...doesn't move. It rotates, and you can see it move through different phases, but otherwise, it's just always in the same spot in the sky."
Scrooge hummed in amused interest, glancing out of the corner of his eye to watch for his niece's feelings on the matter. She seemed to be thinking to herself, trying to find the words to describe her observations.
"It made me impatient, having Earth there as a constant reminder," she said quietly. "Everything I love and wanted was right there, and I just couldn't reach it, no matter how hard I tried. But at the same time, that's what kept me going."
"Because nothing can stop Della Duck," Scrooge grinned conspiratorially, taking pride in her tenacity. If there was ever a McDuck trait that he was grateful she got, it was that.
She offered an equally devious smirk in return. "You know it."
There was a beat as the moment faded, and then Della sighed. "I guess the other major thing is that a day on the moon lasts a whole month. I tried to keep track of Earth time as best as I could, but I didn't really feel it after a while. Time itself changed for me." She looked down at the strand of hair she had wrapped around her finger. "I guess everything did."
Scrooge shrugged. "Not everything."
The way she glanced up at him curiously reminded him of why he had originally brought her out there, and he rapped his knuckles against the railing. "This old mansion's still standing, for one."
"Is that all?"
"No, the Money Bin's still there, too." Della cracked up, and he beamed, then realized, "Actually, heh, everybody who lived here before you left is still around now, even Duckworth." A sudden wave of peace washed over him: with Della back, he still had everyone he loved, everyone he cherished, in his life, with some new faces to boot in Launchpad and Lena.
He carried on, gaining traction. "And, thankfully, the family legacy lives on."
Before Della could question him, Scrooge reached into his pocket and pulled out a gold coin, one that he had been keeping beside his bed for over a year, flipping it with his thumb in the air towards her. She caught it expertly with one hand and studied it.
"Atlantis," he nodded towards the coin. "The boys' first adventure. I gave each of 'em a coin to mark the occasion, like I did with you and Donnie on your first adventure, and I...I kept one for you. I..." He couldn't bring himself to say it. That he kept it in her memory. That having the boys appear in his life reignited the presence of her spirit in his heart. The thought spooked him and he let out a shaky breath, changing gears as he said, "I knew their mother should have one. You would've been proud."
When a flash of pain crossed her face at the reminder that she had missed their first adventure, he corrected himself. "You will be proud. Oh Della, just wait until you go on your own adventure with them for the first time." He got starry-eyed as he nudged her with his shoulder. "They're just like ye."
Della flipped the coin over in her palm, noting the Atlantean engravings, before she clutched it with her fist and stared at her hand. "This coin is gonna see two adventures," she promised, more to herself than anyone. She turned to Scrooge and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, Uncle Scrooge."
He caught her at his side with his arm and nuzzled his head against hers in response.
They stayed like that for a while in comfortable silence, watching the stars and catching a few meteors, until a few raindrops landed on their beaks. They turned around towards the horizon and saw the storm front that had crept up behind them during their stargazing.
As the rain started to come down in spades, Scrooge stood up straight and made for the balcony's door, relaying, "We should go back inside, my dear." It was getting late, anyway, and he knew she was tired.
But when he opened the door and took a step back to let her go in first, only to see she hadn't followed him, his eyes trailed back to the railing to see a sight more valuable that all the gold in his Money Bin.
Della stood tall, her head tilted back and laughter bubbling freely from her beak. The rain gained strength by the second as it soaked her feathers, yet she welcomed every drop, throwing her arms open wide to the heavens.
It was the one difference she had failed to mention—there was no rain on the moon. Yet as drenched as she was getting, it was evident how much she had missed it, and how much it was healing her spirit. It made her shine.
And that, in turn, healed his soul.
Bet you all thought this was gonna be all angst, huh? ;) Kudos to whoever gets the "magnificently lonely" reference.
Also, happy birthday week to the boys! Congrats, you actually got your mom back in my book. :D
That wraps up this little "First Night" mini-arc. Up next on Tales of Gold: hopefully some fulfilled requests.