Disclaimer: I do not own Darkwing Duck or any other Disney character....

If you haven't read "The Path Chosen", this story isn't going to make sense to you.

This fic derives directly from the original story. It's a look into one of the Darkwing realities that could have been. This is the story of the one called Tracker.

Tracker's story part 2

In the days that followed, Drake and Morgana had spread the news to everybody. They were both so very excited about the baby. They hadn't even noticed how withdrawn an quiet Gosalyn had become. If they had, they may have been more gentle with the news they had for her. They had been discussing preparations for the baby's arrival and had come to some unpleasant decisions.

She had just gotten home from school, only a couple of days before Christmas vacation started. Drake and Morgana were sitting on the sofa talking when they saw her. Both of them had very serious expressions on their faces. "What's wrong?" Gosalyn asked cautiously when she noticed the look they were both giving her.

"Gos, come here." Drake said patting the sofa beside him. Gosalyn walked over and sat next to her father, a feeling of dread rising in her. "Gos," Drake started as he put an arm around his daughters shoulder. "you know how excited everybody is about the baby?"

Gosalyn nodded numbly.

"Well, you know how babies need special things? More than Big kids do?"

Gosalyn didn't like where this conversation was leading.

Drake and Morgana exchanged worried looks for a moment then Morgana spoke leaning over Drake's shoulder to see her step daughter better. "What you father is trying to say Gosalyn. Is that a baby is going to need room to grow. Babies need space to play and grow ....so we, that is your father and I.."

Drake cut in "Gos, you want what's best for the baby, don't you?"

Gosalyn knew he wasn't wanting an honest answer there. She just nodded.

"Then you have to understand our decision."

"What decision?" Gosalyn asked, fear mounting in her voice.

"We have decided that your room is going to be the new nursery."

"What!!" Gosalyn yelled jumping off the sofa.

"Gosalyn, calm down!" Drake ordered in his fatherly fashion.

"You can't take my room away from me! It's mine!" She shouted hysterically.

"Gosalyn, be reasonable. The baby needs that room, you don't!" Drake was fighting back the urge to yell.

"You promised!" Gosalyn retorted, the pain evident in her now shaky voice. "You promised that the room was mine forever ...even if you got married and had real kids all your own. You said you'd never take the room away from me!" She looked him square in the eyes and asked in an accusing tone "What about our contract!"

Drake fell abruptly silent. He'd forgotten. He'd completely forgotten. He had actually made up a contract with her stating he'd never take the room away from her.

When he first adopted her and they'd moved into the house, Gosalyn was so insecure. She'd lost her parents, her grandfather, she'd lost the home she was born in. The home her grandfather had raised her in. She'd lost every tangible possession she ever had, save a battered old photo of her grandfather and herself in his Lab. Courts and Lawyers quickly finding every loophole in the system to rob her of the life insurances and savings put back for her by her parents and her grandfather. The government had even found a way to cheat the child of the money paid for her grandfathers invention, the Ramrod. Time and time again, the child had been neglected and swindled by the very people and society that was suppose to protect her.

When they had moved into the house, Gosalyn was almost afraid to call it her home. Afraid to get comfortable in something that could be taken from her, again! Drake had come up with the idea of the contract, to giver her a sense of security. The contract had stated that for as long as she lived in that house, it was as much her home as it was his. The bedroom was her personal domain, to live in, decorate and do with as she pleased. They had both signed it. And doing so had given her back a great deal of security, something she'd long lost in her young life.

Drake reconsidered for a moment, the decision to take the room from her. But then he glanced at his wife and remember the child she was carrying. His child. No, he was in the right before. The baby needed the room. He made his mind up right then and there, and for good. Gosalyn would just have to understand. And unknown to Drake, that momentary decision would start a change of events that would lead his life down a path he was never meant to follow.

Drake took a deep breath and made an attempt to make his adopted daughter understand. "I'm sorry Gosalyn. I know I promised and I know I made up a written agreement with you. But sometimes promises have to be broken. The baby needs your room, besides we're going to fix up the little room real nice for you..."

"The little room! That shoe box isn't fit for a dog house! It's too small to move around in. The window is the size of a toilet seat and it doesn't even open. It's cold in the winter and hot in the summer. When LaunchPad moved in with us, he wouldn't even live in it! He had to move into the loft over the garage!" Gosalyn shouted, tears now beginning to flow down her soft feathered cheeks, the a thought crossed her mind. "Why can't I have the loft for my room? If I have to lose my room to the dumb baby at least you could make an effort to be fair about it!"

"Gosalyn, you know your father is using the loft for his private study..."

"So, if he thinks he can fix that little room up so nice, let him have that for his study and give me the loft."

Drake's tolerance and temper both came to and end "That's it young lady." He shouted jumping to his feat. "I suggest you get your things packed because you are moving into the little room over the holidays!" Both Gosalyn and Morgana looked at Drake in total shock. Drake's eyes, now gleaming with anger met with Gosalyn's. He seemed oblivious to the tears running down the child's face. "Now!" he shouted.

Gosalyn turned and darted up to her room, sobbing uncontrollably.

Drake watched her go without any sense of remorse. His pride,as it too often did, overrode his judgment. It was then that he felt it, that strange sensation that came over him. It wasn't something he could put into words except to say, for a moment he felt – displaced.

He felt as if he were not were he should be. The atmosphere around him seemed to shift, to move somehow. What a very bizarre feeling. And for just a moment, the room itself seemed to change. It was still his house, but something was different. He wasn't sure how, but the experience passed after a few seconds. He glanced around him, everything seemed normal again.

He sank to the sofa next to his wife. His face was completely flushed and he had a

ghostly look on his face. Morgana saw this and was concerned. "Dark, are you alright?"

He nodded insensibly "Yes, I guess so." he looked at her with the expression of a frightened child. "I just got this overwhelming feeling just now."

"What kind of feeling?" She was very concerned sense she was the one in the family that was use to sensing things."

He shook his head trying to find words to describe it. "Like something was very wrong ....like a forewarning of disaster." He shook the feeling off (as much as he could).

He forced a smile and took his wifes hand, seeing the worry on her face. "Ah, it's probably nothing. Just got all worked up over Gosalyn's little theatrics is all." It was nothing to be concerned about."

Meanwhile across town at SHUSH headquarters. J. Gander and Grizlykoff rush into the Lab where Dr. Bellum is standing infront of SHUSH's super computer seemingly rather worried. "Dr. Bellum, what's wrong. Why did you send for me?" J. Gander asked.

Sara Bellum pointed to the giant monitor screen "Look for yourself." On the monitor, there was a view of what appeared to be outer space, except there was a spectral light pattern across the screen. Within the band of light there appeared to be a small tear. Around the tear the light was fluctuation unsteadily. "This light pattern is the time and space continuum. As you can see there appears to be a small tear in the continuum. From my readings, a snag if you will, was made in the time and space continuum some time back." There was evidence of what might be called a scar in the pattern. "I'm not sure what that mark really is, I'll need to do more research. But and educated guess would be that some time ago, in the recent past, somebody or something altered time and probably reality. The alteration was for the most part corrected, somehow, but seemingly not completely restored. It was that occurrence that allowed for the time continuum to be disrupted now in this time."

"Oh my," J. Gander said grasping the seriousness of the situation. "How bad is it?"

"I'm not sure. But what does have me concerned is it's expanding."

"Expanding? It's getting larger?"

Sara Bellum nodded grievously "It means, that time and reality as we know. it may have or may be altered, and is continuing to do so. The present and future may already have been changed, permanently."

J. Gander studied the image on the monitor. There was something about the apparent duration when the disturbance in time first happened. Something somebody had told him about. Wasn't that around the time Darkwing had told him that QuackerJack and Megavolt had traveled into the future and changed it? Darkwing had been very vague on details, intentionally no doubt. He had only told J. Gander about the entire event because of the Time Top. Darkwing felt that SHUSH should know of the Time Top's existence, though he had chosen to keep the time machine at his secret base. "I think we'd better contact Darkwing Duck immediately."

"What for do we need dumb duck, Sir? He knows nothing of this." Grizlykoff questioned the director.

"On the contrary agent Grizlykoff, he may know more about this situation than any of us. I pray he can also correct it before time and reality are altered, forever."

to be continues....

Authors Note: Uh, is anybody confused with my phrasing? I'm not too great at scientific

explanations, sorry.