Previously on Ducktales:

Donald was grateful that he and Scrooge had that argument, if it meant that all his kids were happier than they'd ever been.

That didn't mean he wasn't still mad about Scrooge taking his kids out of school without permission, and the sailor still needed to talk to his uncle about that. But that's a story for another day.

P.S. Today is totally that day.

ーーーーー

It was no secret that Scrooge McDuck hated meetings. Especially meetings with his board of directors.

The vultures were even more stingy than Scrooge, more so than usual when it came to his reckless suicide attempts- er, adventures with his family.

And Donald knew that somehow managing to get Scrooge to sit through a bunch of boring meetings would be the perfect way to get revenge on his uncle.

While maybe revenge was a little immature, the sailor knew that if he was going to get Scrooge to take him seriously, actions spoke louder than words. Words Donald still planned on having because having the boys miss school without permission was not okay.

Neither was missing a bunch of meetings simply because they were boring, so Donald didn't feel too bad about his plan for revenge.

His only problem? He didn't have a clue where to begin.

Fortunately, he knew a certain mastermind who would be the most helpful, but Donald also knew this guy was a tough negotiator that didn't like getting involved unless it had to do with money.

Luckily, Donald had a secret trump card that would almost definitely get the guy to help.

"Louie? You in here?" Donald asked as he opened the door to the triplets' bedroom, peering around until he found the boy in question hidden under his blankets with a light that was most certainly his cellphone shining through the thin sheet.

"Hey, Uncle Donald," Louie called out as he crawled out from the blanket, peering at the sailor. "What's up?"

"I need your help with something," Donald said. At Louie's disinterested face, Donald rolled his eyes with a sigh. "A scheme."

Louie perked up instantly, sitting up and pulling his laptop out. "Why didn't you say so? Welcome to Louie Inc. What's the scheme, who's the target, and what's in it for me?"

Donald contemplated whether or not this was a good idea before remembering how easily Scrooge had gone behind his back to pull his kids out of school. He cleared his throat before he sat beside the young duck.

"I wanna get Scrooge to spend an entire day in meetings he puts off along with ones with his board of directors for...reasons," Donald didn't want to outright say this was revenge lest Louie think it was okay to get revenge. Because it wasn't. Unless you were Donald. Okay, his logic wasn't great but he wanted to at least try to keep Louie out of trouble.

"Hmm, interesting plan. Get him to attend boring meetings he hates for revenge, most likely for taking me, Huey, and Dewey out of school so much. Right?" Louie worded it like a question but they both knew it was the truth.

Sometimes Donald forgot how observant Louie could be. He could always see the angles, just like Dell- er, just like he always did.

"Alright, fine. You're right. Will you help me or not?"

"I don't know," Louie looked at his uncle with a bored frown. "You never answered the third question. How does this benefit Louie's Inc.?"

"By helping out your uncle?" Donald already knew that wasn't going to work, but he didn't want to pull out his trump card yet. "Or getting back at your other uncle for, um, making you work?"

"You mean the other uncle in charge of my inheritance?"

"Phooey," Donald cursed under his breath. Louie smirked, shoving his hands in his hoodie. Donald sighed before speaking again. "How about this? If you help me, I'll keep pretending Louie's Kids is an actual charity."

"Whaaa?" Louie stared up at Donald in shock. "You knew?!"

"I raised you. Of course I knew," Donald crossed his arms, smirking when Louie grumbled and opened up his laptop begrudgingly. "Now, how are we gonna do this?"

"Well, first we gotta go to the Money Bin and find a planner or something with a list of all the planned meetings he has," Louie explained, typing up everything he was saying. "I know he's got a couple of adventures he wants to go on in a couple of days, 'cause he was practicing a speech in the bathroom earlier with some lame excuse."

"Hmm. Maybe his secretary could be convinced to move up the meetings so Scrooge doesn't miss them," Donald mused. "Then he'd have to deal with it for a couple of days at the very least."

"Read my mind," Louie said as he typed furiously. He pulled up a PDF with a list of the employees working at the Money Bin with various times listed next to him. "We find the secretary, tell them about the upcoming adventures planned. Maybe even ask about any canceled meetings too so they can add those to the list."

"What about meetings with his board of directors?"

"He's only supposed to meet with them bi-weekly, but Beakley was talking to Scrooge at breakfast this morning about how he's missed the last three meetings," Louie replied as he scrolled through the list of names. "And- aha! Here we go. Latest secretary is a Mrs. Swanson, late thirties, and she's been working there for the last two months. Guy goes through a lot of secretaries."

'Probably because he never listens to them and wants a pushover who won't challenge him,' Donald thought to himself as Louie took a picture of his screen as well as the stuff he typed up.

"Here, I'll send all this to your phone so that we both have the info," Louie stated as he typed away. Donald had to admit he was impressed. People always thought he was a slacker, and in some ways he was, but when motivated, nothing could stop Louie Duck. "Now, do you want me to go with, or do you think you can handle it on your own?"

"I'm an adult, of course I can handle it," Donald protested as he pulled out his phone...and accidentally deleted everything Louie had just sent. He smiled sheepishly at the amused grin on Louie's face. "Okay, you can come with."

Once they arrived, Donald and Louie didn't have much trouble hunting down the secretary.

"Hello, Mrs. Swanson. I'm Donald Duck, Scrooge's nephew," Donald introduced himself. The secretary, a blonde duck with a stiff gray pantsuit, stood up and awkwardly shook the sailor's hand before turning to Louie.

"He said he's Scrooge's nephew. Donald Duck," Louie clarified. Donald huffed but decided to let Louie do the talking. It was probably a good thing his nephew had come with him. Not that Donald would admit it anytime soon. "I'm Louie, Scrooge's great-nephew and one of the heirs to this place."

Donald nudged Louie's arm, drawing a groan from the young duck before he continued speaking. "Anyways, we know my uncle is going on an adventure in a day or two but Beakley, who I'm sure you've heard of, wanted to make sure he got his work done."

"Oh no. Not this week. He has multiple investors' meetings and one with a very important client," Mrs. Swanson groaned. Donald pitied her. Having to try and keep Scrooge on schedule had to be one of the hardest jobs in the world. And coming from a duck who'd had more jobs than pretty much everyone in the world, that was saying something. "Not to mention he still has to catch up on meetings with his board of directors and with some major companies."

"That sounds pretty stressful," Louie leaned on the woman's desk, a sympathetic smile on his face that apparently only Donald could see wasn't sincere. His nephew had a silver tongue, no doubt of that. "Gotta be pretty hard working for this guy."

"It is! And my sister worked really hard to get me this job too, but it's so...ugh," Mrs. Swanson's eyes watered and she dabbed them with an ivory handkerchief. "I don't know what to do. He won't listen to me."

"Well, and this is just an idea, maybe we could get him to make up all those meetings before he leaves on an adventure," Louie suggested. "Do most of them today, and finish up tomorrow and maybe the day afterward."

Whether he realized it or not, Donald knew Louie was inadvertently making the lives of all those investors, companies, and clients a little better, not to mention the secretary. After all, getting a meeting with Scrooge that wasn't cut short or pushed off would probably make doing their jobs easier.

Donald considered treating his youngest nephew to ice cream afterward, as long as he didn't try to get any money for all this.

"That's a great idea!" The blonde exclaimed. She got out a notepad and began to jot down names and times. "These people are so desperate to get their meeting they've been hanging around here in case they got an earlier time or date. Should be no problem at all to get them done before he leaves."

"Well, we'll leave you to it then. Happy to be of help," Louie waved, followed by the sailor as they walked out of the Money Bin. "Sorry you didn't get to talk a lot."

"Eh, it's fine. We got what we wanted. Good job, Lou," Donald ruffled the green-clad duck's hair fondly. Louie made a fuss about it, but the smile on his face was hard to miss. "Let's grab some ice cream."

"Sounds good to me. Wait, do we gotta get the others ice cream too?"

"Huey's sugar-addiction aside, Mrs. B would kill me if I filled Webby up with sugar. It'll be our little secret."

"Cool."

ーーーーー

Scrooge sighed for what felt like the millionth time that day, rubbing his forehead to try and get rid of his headache. For whatever reason, his newest secretary had suddenly grown a backbone and secretly scheduled a series of back-to-back meetings for him to go to for the next couple of days until his adventure. Which he had specifically told Beakley not to tell anyone who worked in the Money Bin about.

He was almost done with the eleventh and final meeting of the day, the one with the greedy Buzzards he worked with. His eyes stayed on the clock, minutes feeling hours.

"While these adventures do show more profit than loss, you are gone far more than you have been during the past ten years and we need you here, not gallivanting in Atlantis on some mythical creature looking for buried treasure," Bentley stated firmly.

"You seem to be forgetting the fact that these 'escapades' bring in more than you three have in the past ten years," Scrooge snapped. "I'll cut some expenses elsewhere, but you aren't taking me away from what matters most; my family."

'Again' was left unspoken, leaving tension in the air. The Buzzards coughed and looked away, well aware of what the multi-billionaire was implying.

"Alright then. If you won't listen to reason, I call this meeting adjourned," Bradford gathered up his papers along with the others.

"Finally," Scrooge muttered under his breath. Then, loud enough for his associates to hear him, he said, "can't wait for next time. See you in two weeks, boys!"

After closing up, Scrooge called up Launchpad, who had the unfortunate pleasure of listening to his employer rant about all the "ridiculous" and "completely unnecessary" meetings he'd had to sit through.

When he got home, Scrooge groaned and paced around the front hall, unaware that Donald was there waiting for him until his nephew tapped him on the shoulder.

"Not now, laddie. I'm in a foul mood," Scrooge grumbled.

"Why? Long day of boring meetings?" Donald asked with a knowing grin. Scrooge narrowed his eyes before gasping and pointing his cane at Donald accusingly.

"You were the one who snitched, weren't ya?"

"Yep."

"What did I do to deserve that?" Scrooge asked. Donald crossed his arms and stared sternly at the older duck. "What? Come on, spit it out."

"Maybe this will teach you to mess with the boys' education," Donald said simply. Scrooge groaned loudly, something Donald pointedly ignored. "And before you say I coulda talked to you, we both know you wouldn't have listened unless I did something to get your attention."

"...you may have a point," Scrooge admitted sheepishly. He hated that his nephew was right, but he was. Donald knew Scrooge better than most people, despite the large gap of time they didn't talk to each other. "Not that it's really an issue with Beakley teaching them, but I'll make sure they're done with schooling before I take 'em adventuring. Alright?"

"Thank you," Donald leaned against the stair rails as looked at his uncle. "I just don't want you undermining me with the boys."

"I know, I know. I'll work on it," Scrooge promised. Donald smiled slightly, glad his little plan had actually worked. The adventurer looked around conspicuously before leaning in to whisper to Donald. "I gotta know though...how'd you do it?"

"Well…." Donald rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly as he told Scrooge about coming up with the idea and getting Louie's help. Then he talked about how they'd gone to the Money Bin after they were done planning, and how Louie ended up being the one to talk to her. He may or may not have added how happy Swanson was and how happy the investors and clients probably were for finally getting their meeting. "It was mostly Louie."

"Hmm," Scrooge turned away for a moment, and Donald was afraid he'd get angry knowing Louie had helped before Scrooge laughed and clapped the sailor on the back. "Ya know, Swanson put in her two weeks notice, saying she was waitin' until I went to all my meetings so she wouldn't have a guilty conscience or some hogwash like that. You'd be a great replacement."

"Louie's the one who did the research and talked to her. I just came up with the idea," Donald couldn't help but gawk at the cheap man, wondering what was going on in Scrooge's head to make him think Donald of all people would be a good employee.

"It's called outsourcing, lad," Scrooge said. He rubbed his chin as he thought about it. Donald may not have had the best people skills, but there were hardly ever any visitors to the Money Bins, so all Donald had to do was talk directly to Scrooge as well as managers for various companies, investors, and clients to set up appointments. "Plus, Louie wasn't thinking about all those people I, er, kept waiting. Not to mention you're one of the few I wouldn't get too upset with for keeping me in line, so to speak."

Donald contemplated it. He wasn't entirely sure how he felt about working for his *cough* cheap *cough* uncle, not to mention he'd just gotten a new job working at Home Depot. (Which he lost in like two days for getting upset with a customer who called him stupid but that's neither here nor there.)

"I'll have to think about it."

AN: This was inspired by a guest called Lena who commented on my previous Ducktales fic called 'In this family, homeschool is vital'. I recommend you read that first so that you can fully enjoy this story. Even if you don't, I hope you liked the story!

- Kitkat Out