Hey! I'm back, thank you to Guest, KaliAnn + Steampunk Wilson for reviewing the last chapter.

Steampunk Wilson, your question is a good one. We'll have to see.

Now. A couple of point about this chapter. Number 1 – there IS swearing.

Louie might also be slightly OCC, but I'm hoping it'll be understandable why he's acting like this, when you take into account the Canon experiences he's had.

ALSO another thing. It's a bit cheeky of me, I know, but this is my first time writing this kind of chapter for Ducktales. Therefore if anyone's got any tips on what worked well and what didn't I'll be very glad to hear them. If you want to PM them to me rather than review, that's fine as well. It's to help my development as a writer.

Thank you and with no further ado let's crack on.

28/10/2019

AAARRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHH! Why, why, WHY must children be so annoying!?

I've just had a bit of a barney with Louie. Basically I have sensed, for quite some time now, that he's being a bit 'off' about the whole 'me being back' thing. It was great at start but recently he's kinda withdrawn. And I know Donald basically said to leave it a couple of weeks back, but – no wait. Sorry, I;ve just remembered. He said I should have a conversation with him. With them actually, all of them in one room. Which is easier said than done, because – And I think I've mentioned this before – HOW do you start this kinda conversation!? I don't know! No one knows and as no one else except me can do it I'm in the position of banging my head against the wall and going:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

…But I think I'm getting slightly ahead of myself here. Let's start at the beginning. So the last time I wrote in this thing we'd just had a lovely family meal aside from the SMALL fact that Louie wouldn't talk to Gladstone for some reason which I couldn't work out. I mean, it seems to me like they'd get on. They're very similar. They're both natural slackers. [it has to be said] They're both naturally lucky [although Gladstone's luck far exceeds Louie's of course] and they both have this kind of WALL built up around them. And they both wear green. I mean – how many more things do you need?

So, yeah, I was a bit puzzled – to say the least – about WHY there seemed to be so much animosity between them. So I asked Donald, who sighed and said. "I don't know, Dells. They got on great for so many years. Then something happened during the whole 'Vampire' thing – don't ask me what I don't know – and Louie clams up whenever I ask him-"

"-Have you asked Gladstone?" I asked, impatiently.

Donald held his hands up. "I tried! He just says he 'can't really remember' what happened during that whole period – and I believe him, by the way – on that point at least. I tried asking him a couple of questions about stuff that I KNOW for a FACT happened – and he can't remember. Like, seriously can't remember."

I was pretty concerned at this to say the least. "What state was he IN when you guys found him!?"

"That's the thing!" Donald said, sounding completely bewildered. "He was fine! Honest to god, Dells – cross my heart – he. Was. Fine. He was joking, talking nicely to the kids, generally being insufferable. We wouldn't even had KNOWN unless the chain hadn't appeared round his ankle while we were attempting to leave-"

"A chain!?"

"Are you going to carry on interrupting me!? Yes, a chain! And then a bunch of other stuff happened that I don't REALLY want to get into now, and we managed to save him. But, I'm TELLING you -seriously - Della, he seemed FINE then! I wouldn't have left him on his own if he didn't seem fine."

This I believed.

"So what." I said, slowly. "Sometime between then – when was this by the way?"

"Er…" Donald said, his voice going high-pitched. "…October…2017?"

There was a beat. Then I said. "…What? Two years ago! Are you KIDDING me?" We went back and forth in this vein for a little bit, until eventually Donald snapped.

"I don't know why you're getting on at me! Ask Louie! He's the one who KNOWS!"

So, still in a state of annoyance – which I will admit probably wasn't a good idea – I went to Louie's room and knocked on the door. He opened it, a can of pop casually in one hand – and said, in surprise. "Oh. Hey mum. You alright?"

"Fine! Fine. Can I have a quick word with you, please, Lou?"

"Don't call me that." He said, in a dead-pan fashion, but opened the door and allowed me in.

"I want to speak about Cousin Gladstone-" I began, once he'd shut the door.

"Why?" Louie said, quickly, his fingers balling to make a fist.

His attitude rubbed me up the wrong way immediately. But, as everyone keeps telling me, I AM the mother. So I took a small breath and said, as levelly as I could. "Because I couldn't help noticing that he was trying to talk to a couple of days back and you weren't replying."

"He doesn't deserve to have me replying!" Louie burst out, and I was both shocked and a little lost. However my mothers voice chose THAT moment to come floating back to me, and I found myself unconsciously echoing her words from many MANY years ago.

"Everyone deserved politeness, Louie." I said, firmly. "You can't go through life ignoring people when they're trying to speak to you."

"But he can-!" Louie began, then took a sharp breath and said, sullenly. "Never mind."

By now my mom senses were tingling and I said, gently. "No, I mind. What's he done?" No reply. Louie just kept looking at the floor like it was going to turn into a portal. I tried again. "Look, I KNOW he can be a bit annoying at times-" Louie scoffed. "-BUT he's family-"

"Family!" Louie burst out, throwing his wings in the air. "Family, family, family! Both you and Uncle Donald are the same, you both go on and ON about family! I KNOW we're family, that doesn't mean I have to LIKE him!"

I briefly had a memory of Donald, when we were round about the age of sixteen, fairly soon after Gladstone had come back to America for good, saying pretty much EXACTLY the same thing in pretty much EXACTLY the same manner.

So I said to Louie what I vaguely remember saying to my twin, which was: "You don't have to like him, but you do have to tolerate him. We're family, we NEED each other-!"

At which point my youngest son went full-on volcano. "I don't NEED him!" He screamed, causing me to flinch. "He's stupid! He's mean! He's the worst! I HATE HIM! –"

"Llewellyn Duck!" My twin yelled from the doorway. "How DARE you talk to your mother like that!?"

Louie stopped dead and his beak opened and shut resembling a goldfish.

Donald glared daggers at him and demanded. "Well!?"

"S-sh-she started it! She comes into MY room and – and – starts talking about GLADSTONE who's basically a WORTHLESS, HORRIBLE piece of SHIT-!"

"LLEWELLYN DUCK!" Donald bellowed. "How DARE you speak about your uncle like that!"

Louie's beak opened and closed. "But – but – you! You do it all the time! Remember? You AND Scrooge you both called him 'the worse'! You both barely tolerate him! You BOTH HATE him!"

There was a beat. Then Donald said, steadily. "Llewellyn. I DO NOT hate your uncle. I'm sorry if that's the impression I've given over the years, but it's NOT true. We…" Donald trailed of, clearly thinking exactly HOW he was going to phrase the next bit. "We…are opposites." Was what he finally decided on. "Extreme opposites. Very, very extreme opposites. BUT we love each other. He's my cousin at the end of the day. And though he DOES MY ABSOLUTE HEAD IN…at times. I love him."

"But does he love you?" Louie pressed.

"Of course he does!"

"I bet you he doesn't. I bet he wouldn't even care if you, like, DIED-"

"Oi!" Donald barked and Louie flinched a bit and resumed staring at the floor. "He WOULD care if I died. I know he would. As a matter of fact he saved my life at the weekend."

Louie blinked. "Did he?"

Donald nodded. "He did. I went sleepwalking…again. Except this time I…I was near a river. And I sleepwalked into it. And it was your uncle who risked his own life to jump in after me and save me. I would have drowned if not for him. So YES, he's a pain, YES, we exchange insults but it's all in good humour – for the most part and it's just how we work. SO-" Donald knelt down and put his hand under Louie's chin, gently lifting his head up so my youngest son was forced to look at him. "-I don't EVER want to hear you talking about your uncle like that again – you understand? Or yelling at your mother like that again. Got it?" Louie nodded. "Good. Now give me a hug."

They hugged. It was very cute. Then – without being asked – Louie turned and hugged me. That was lovely. I felt happy. Louie doesn't hug people that often really - It's Dewey who hugs quite frequently – so when you DO get a hug of him you do feel rather like you've earned it.

So yeah. That was my barney today. Now I'm writing it down I can see although it was AWFUL at the time to be screamed at by my own son, it could have been a lot worse. At least we made up, you know.

Sorry. I can't go on this vein for much longer. Brings back memory's you know. SO the good news is we're going to the Ice Caves in three days time. We're all frantically packing. Gloves, hats, scarfs, coats everything you can think off, it's in their. Ski's, ice-picks, chisels. You name it – we have it. So yeah, I'm looking forward to going. It'll be fun. I hope. A little nervous, but no, what am I saying? I'm Della Duck! Queen of Adventure! There's nothing I can't do! Leg or no leg I will GET that shield if it kills me!

IF IT KILLS ME!