As usual I do not own Darkwing Duck. Enjoy.

Chapter Eight

Three weeks had gone by without Darkwing catching a trace of him. He had looked in all the usual haunts and had found nothing. Well nothing apart from a diamond smuggling ring, a Great Dane wanted for questioning by the Police in regards to three murders, two unruly and foul mouthed teenagers who were spraying graffiti – he was still nursing the bruises, and an old lady carrying a priceless painting rolled up under her arm walking away from St Canard's museum of art. Being the kind, polite duck he was trying to teach Gosalyn to be he called her a cab to reduce the chances of her being mugged and continued on his way. It was an encounter he would have forgotten about in a year's time when it would be discovered that Degas's painting of Deux Danseuses au reposiwas a cleverly done forgery. But for the meantime, search as hard as he could, he could not get any hint of Negaduck's whereabouts. The silence, he felt, was slightly ominous. Negaduck was not one to forgive and forget, especially not a beating from his most hated enemy.

He refused to let Gosalyn accompany him on his searches of the city for the first couple of weeks and he was very reluctant to accept Launchpad's help as well. The mechanic was very keen to offer it, however Darkwing was just as keen to sort out the Negaduck business on his own without help from his sidekick or his daughter. Though when he had been forced by Gosalyn to recount to Launchpad what he had done to Negaduck he had been pleasantly surprised to find that instead of censure Launchpad had only words of sympathy for his actions and encouragement that he would be able to restrain himself in the future when he found Negaduck.

Launchpad and Drake had been continuing the pattern of Launchpad dropping off Gosalyn at school and Drake picking her up. Although annoyed at her lack of freedom Gosalyn quietly went along with it. Nothing was going to make her miss out on her extra-curricular sports though so Drake was often forced to wait around while she played games of football and baseball. On the plus side it did give him a chance to see how well she played.

In the evening her father would take her to St Canard's sports centre where she took classes in Quack Fu, Duckrate, Taequackdo and Mrs Foster's Self Defence for Girls. Already she had reached fifth kyu in duckrate and the equivalent level in the other disciplines. In addition to this her father was helping to train her at home. Not just with the martial arts but also by teaching her how to dust for fingerprints as well as using more sophisticated methods, he gave her logic puzzles and brainteasers to solve to help develop her lateral thinking as well as teaching her to drive the Ratcatcher. When she was old enough he promised to send her on an advanced driving course. Launchpad was also busy teaching her the mechanics of the Thunderquack. With all this to occupy her it was a wonder she found time for sleeping, attending school and doing her homework as well as sneaking out into the city on her Hoverquack when her father had gone on his patrols as Darkwing Duck.

Like her father, Gosalyn had her own questions to ask Negaduck and she had had a feeling that it would be easier getting them if Darkwing were not around. Not that she had found him and Darkwing had finally decided to let her come along with him before she could act on a hunch she had. That the reason neither she nor her father could find old Negsy in the rundown corners of St Canard was because he was actually living in the wealthier district of the city. She tried to convey this suspicion to Darkwing but with little success.

"Dad, you don't think that perhaps Negaduck has moved upmarket?"

"Gosalyn, you're right."

"I am? Keen gear, I knew it."

"I don't think that Negaduck has moved upmarket. He's a criminal and criminals have no notion of class. They are automatically drawn to the seediest and rundown spots in St Canard. Look at Megavolt for instance."

"Of course Dad, that's why you always see Steelbeak and Tuskernini using warehouses as their hideouts. Get real Dad, this is Negaduck we're talking about; he's nearly as vain as you."

"Excuse me young lady, I am not vain. I merely like to dress in a manner suitable for a crime fighter. Would you have me dress like Gizmoduck? But even though you may have a point with Negaduck I still haven't changed my mind in regards to you questioning him. Yes I admit that you have a right to be there but I do not want that monster to start conversing with you. Promise me on this Gosalyn."

Keeping the fingers of her right hand crossed behind her back Gosalyn made her promise of not questioning Negaduck. Drake nodded as she did so, "Good, right, now that that's sorted how about you doing that English homework of yours?"

"But Dad, Shakespeare's so hard to read. What on earth does 'he is no less than a stuffed man, but for the stuffing – well, we are all mortal' mean?"

"Gosalyn, Shakespeare did write in English. That was how they wrote in Tudor England. I doubt that their speech was exactly like that though."

"Well I still don't understand this stupid play. It's supposed to be a comedy but I can't find a single joke in it."

"What about the line that you just quoted to me; that was funny."

"Oh yeah? And would you mind explaining the humour to me because I've seem to have missed it."

"Well if I remember correctly, Beatrice is making a joke at the character Benedict's expense. The word 'stuffed' actually had a military meaning; as in a soldier was filled with that that makes a good soldier. That's the use that the other characters have been using it. Instead Beatrice is using it in a derogatory sense as if saying that he is larger than he should be in a physical sense.ii You should like this play. Beatrice is seen as one of Shakespeare's strongest female characters."

"Wow, all that in one line? Hey, how come you know so much about it?"

"Ahem, well… we did it when I was at school and some of it just stuck with me. So I actually liked reading Shakespeare as a kid – sue me." Drake turned a pale pink at having admitted to his tomboy daughter at having been a bit of a bookworm as a child instead of the cool and debonair teenager he usually tried to pass his schooldays off as. "Anyway I think it's time that you started actually doing your homework instead of moaning about it. Time to get reading missy."

Gosalyn sighed in exasperation but settled herself down in the chair to read Much Ado About Nothing.

i Two Dancers at Rest

ii Shakespeare, Ed F.H. Mares, Much Ado About Nothing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003) page 67 footnotes.