Magica started to continue to her room as silence filled the air, she knew she shouldn't have been eavesdropping, not like she couldn't hear Donald yelling anyway, but still. However, she didn't move fast enough; Donald walked out of the office and looked at her; he didn't say anything but the expression on his face as he walked past her was one of distrust, further proof she needed to finish with that stupid ring and leave quickly.
Apparently even after helping to save him and his nephews from Haguk Donald still didn't care much for her. Not that she could blame him, she hadn't exactly been nice to him; ever. He had perfect reason and every right to despise her, they all did. That was why, she reminded herself, she needed to ignore her mixed up feelings; because it could never work.
Scrooge sighed and slumped down in the chair behind his desk. He'd seen Magica when Donald stopped to glare at her so he knew she'd heard at least some of had been said. "Magica… I know you're there… please tell me you'll get that ring off my nephew…" He sounded so small and frightened, Magica couldn't help being concerned; Scrooge McDuck never sounded that afraid or desperate about anything the only time she'd heard him sound even close to that was that night when he'd thought he'd lost everything. Magica hesitantly entered the room. "I'm sure I'll be able to get it off, it just might take a little time…" She trailed off as he looked up and she could see his eyes welled up, a mixture of grief and dulled anger behind the moisture. Before she could stop herself, she asked, "Scrooge?... Are you okay?" He nodded, taking of his glasses to wipe his face. "Yes, I'm fine."
Her response surprised both of them as the words just compulsively flew out of her mouth. "You and I both know that's a big, fat hunk of baloney Scrooge." He raised an eyebrow but said nothing as she continued to speak. "Clearly what Donald said upset you greatly and I would have to guess it was exactly why you didn't want to tell him…" She trailed off, pondering if she had just put her foot in her mouth. Scrooge sighed. "You're right. You're completely right." He said. She stood silent for a moment, the words no longer just flying out of her mouth. After a moment she finally said the only thing she could think of; after all, why not just keep digging the hole she had started? "What did he mean by that anyway? That this was 'going to be Della all over again'?" She asked.
Scrooge contemplated for a moment about whether or not to answer the question; did he really want to say anything about that particular subject to Magica DeSpell? Then he thought about how she'd told him things when they were pretending to be engaged and ended up deciding he need to talk about it. So, he did, he asked Magica to shut the door and have a seat then proceeded to tell her about Della and what had happened. How he had already dealt with the mess he'd made before Donald and Della were hatched when he'd let his pride and growing success get in the way and cause a falling out with his sisters, how after making amends he'd become close to his nephew and niece and how Donald had taken the triplets and walked away after Della was lost.
He told her how he'd learned that his success and wealth were much more rewarding when he'd been able to share them with his family and how much it hurt and how much he blamed himself for what happened to Della and he even found himself admitting to his fear of something like that ever happening again. It was like once he'd started talking the words flowed like a waterfall, rapidly without sign of stopping until he'd finished his story.
Magica was completely flabbergasted at how much Scrooge had just told her; she'd known he hadn't always been the semi-generous and kind person he is but she never knew just how rotten he'd been, it reminded her a little of her sisters and as far as his niece, well, she could sympathize to a point and she told him as much, she understood the guilt because she had truly felt terrible for Poe being trapped in raven form for so many years, missing out quite a bit on raising Lena, in fact, on threat of a severe maiming if anything ever left that room she admitted to feelings of guilt about the way she'd been toward her own family sometimes.
"I guess we really are quite alike huh?" Scrooge said with soft chuckle after their confessions. "I guess so." She chuckled back. "Well I'm going to go to my room now." Magica got up and started for the door. "You should get some sleep too, we've got a big day tomorrow." She said as she took the door knob in her hand. "Why do you say that?" Scrooge asked. "Because, I'm going to need your help in my research, we need to learn everything we can about that ring so I'd like to see the ruins for myself."
"That's going to be a bit of a problem." She turned around at that and looked him in the eye. "Why?" "Because the ruins completely collapsed. They were already unstable but the booby traps Louie unintentionally sprung were enough to bring them down." Magica groaned irritably. "Well there goes that idea then. With no idea what any of it looked like I couldn't use my magic to fix it, at least not correctly." "Well there's still the box… maybe that might have something useful in it?" Scrooge suggested, remembering how excited she had been about trying to open it. "It just might. We'll have to work on opening it. I may also get in touch with my friend Hazel, she's used a similar spell before so she may have some suggestions." "Sounds like a plan then." Scrooge said, still not sounding too enthused. Magica offered a smile. "I told you I'd get that ring off of him and I will so stop looking so glum. Do you even know how seeing you look so down makes me feel?"
She immediately turned to the door as the sentence came out, feeling the blush creeping up her face while he remained silent for a very long minute before finally speaking. "Thanks, Magica. Goodnight." She could swear she heard the smile in his voice and feel her heart lurching around, first dropping into the pit of her stomach at her own words then kind of fluttering at the sound of his words. She left without another word and went straight to bed.
Scrooge couldn't help himself and was glad she had turned around; he was pretty sure that her practically telling him she didn't like him being sad made a goofy, twitterpated grin spread across his face and he wouldn't have been able to do anything about it if she hadn't turned around.