A New beginning.

Chapter three:

It had been a couple of weeks since the ducks had finished the construction of their underground base under the pond, a month after they had actually arrived (how they got builders to work that fast is beyond me!). Duke sat on the roof needing to think, and to do that he had to be alone. He thought of what he had left behind, which wasn't much, and what the team had lost. He didn't know if Canard was dead but he knew that Silver would be devastated if she knew what had happened, "she's probably devastated now, one of us should have stayed, I should have stayed!" The ex-thief held back the tears threatening to fall and looked down to the ground below contemplating the easy way out, a way to stop the ache he felt for his daughter who was now alone on Puckworld without her 'daddy' or the love of her life to comfort her, it made it worse the fact that Canard had asked him if he could marry her just before they knew about their mission, she might never know. It was then he saw the young human girl approach the pond and enter the building. She was around five foot nine, but it was difficult to tell from his position, she had dark brown hair that hung loosely down her back and gently curved half way down into loose ringlets. He got up and snuck down to watch the girl but before he reached the stairs;

"Can I help you miss?" Wildwing's voice came from the direction of the locker rooms, he'd obviously been on the ice and had just finished changing. Wildwing walked up to the girl who looked at him, Duke at first mistook her surprised look as fear but she smiled and held out her hand, which Wildwing took and shook.

"Hi, I'm Lizzie Stone, I was looking for my dad." She said looking the tall well built duck up and down, which coincidentally made Wildwing a little uncomfortable. Duke smiled when he realized the younger duck had blushed ever so slightly at the good looking girl's attention and the smile grew as he realized that she obviously liked what she saw.

"Uh," Wildwing looked around to see if there was anyone around that could help him out, maybe she was the daughter of one of the pond's cleaners or something, "who's your dad?"

"Oh, his name's Phil, Phil Palmfeather." Wildwing's beak dropped open and Duke had trouble containing the yell of shock that their portly manager could be related to a girl who looked so attractive.

"Your. . . but he's. . . and you are," Wildwing growled in frustration, and Duke fought to control a snicker, "man I sound like my brother!" The girl laughed a little and Wildwing looked at her a little closely, she did bare a slight resemblance to his new manager, she had a similar hair coloring and her eyes were the same soft hazel, he even found himself wondering if she got that same twinkle in her eye whenever she thought or talked about money.

"I know I can't believe it either, but I do need to ask him something, is he here." Wildwing rubbed the back of his neck and looked up to Phil's office, then at his watch.

"No he said he went out to talk business over lunch, and he'd be back at about three this afternoon." Wildwing gave her an apologetic look and she rolled her eyes at the news.

"Just like dad, you know I've called him three times to remind him I was coming and now I have to wait an hour till he comes back from lunch, speaking of which, I missed lunch to meet him I swear if he wasn't my dad I'd . . . well I don't know what I'd do but it wouldn't be nice." Wildwing chuckled and glanced at his watch again.

"Well I guess. . . There's a small cafe around the corner from my brother's favorite shop at the mall," Wildwing couldn't believe he was asking Phil's daughter this, "I can't let you go without eating, and I know for a fact that my brother ate the last of the food, so," he sighed, "that means there won't be any until I get some, uh," he paused, suddenly nervous for some reason, "I don't suppose you'd mind if I take you?"

"Hey, the one thing I did inherit off my dad was my appetite, and let me tell you I never turn down food!" Duke watched all of this and decided it would be interesting to follow the two and see what would happen between them. Keeping his distance he followed them to the little cafe, slipped in and hid behind a cubicle whilst Wildwing and Lizzie sat at a table more in the center of the shop "Man you can tell the kid's new at this whole fighting Draganus thing, anyone could take a pot shot at the two and they'd be dead in an instant." He leant back in his seat a little to listen to their conversation.

"So, uh, if Phil's your dad," Lizzie looked up from the milk shake she'd ordered, "why are you called 'Stone'?" Wildwing lifted his drink and took a sip.

"My mom and dad were never actually married," She paused to wait for any possible reaction from the white duck, "they knew each other from high school and when they met up a couple of years after graduation I was the end result." Wildwing raised his eyebrows but nothing more. "What about you? What's your story?" Wildwing looked apprehensive and Lizzie quickly added, "you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"Thanks, I guess I'm just not ready yet." They started to talk about other things, well I say they but it was really Lizzie doing all the talking, Wildwing just sat and listened occasionally asking her the odd question here and there. Duke couldn't help thinking that Lizzie would be a good friend for their young leader, he'd become so depressed about Canard's sacrifice that he rarely did anything except respond to Drake one's alarms, play hockey and stay in his room, he even ate in there. In Duke's opinion that was not at all healthy for any guy his age. But at least Lizzie was getting and few laughs out of him which was more than even his kid brother could manage recently. The talking quieted as the two ate their meals and after they went to leave and Wildwing told her he would walk her back but he had to get the groceries first, Lizzie offered to go with him and Duke decided that he'd leave them to it.

From then on their friendship blossomed and Wildwing was more cheerful, although Nosedive knew he wasn't back to the way he'd been before the invasion, if he would ever be. Duke always thought it odd that although there was an obvious attraction between the puckworlder and the human both seemed happy to keep it as a friendship, at least they were at first.