Chapter 5

Louie waited in the closet as Derek and Lucky continued to argue. Derek still wanted his revenge, but he didn't know how he was gonna get it without the orb. Lucky started thinking of a solution.

"How bout instead of kidnapping his brother's, you take something that means a lot to him." Lucky said as she got Derek's complete attention.

"I'm listening." Derek said intrigued by what Lucky had to say.

"We'll talk in the planning room." Lucky said as she and Derek walked out of the room. She gave a wink to Louie, signaling him to get out of there. As they walked to the planning room, Louie bolted out of the closet and ran out the back door. Louie quickly took out his phone and texted Huey about Derek. He waited for Huey to respond as he ran away from Derek's house. Huey responded to his text by texting Louie his current location.

Huey and Noah sat at the dining room table of Derek's old house. They were drinking tea that Derek's dad made for them. Huey didn't think that Derek's dad was all that bad of a guy. In fact, Derek's dad seemed like he was one of the nicest dads he has ever met. Huey learned that his dad's name was Hunter. Hunter started talking.

"Not a day goes by where I don't blame myself for what happened." Hunter said as Huey and Noah and listened. "I was such a horrible father, I shouldn't even call myself a father. After what I did, no wonder he ran away." Huey was confused.

"Wait, I thought you kicked him out." Huey said with confusion. Hunter was also confused.

"I never kicked him out, he ran away while I was packing his stuff to go to the orphanage." Hunter said. Huey didn't think it added up.

"Why would Derek lie about that?" Huey thought to himself. He stopped thinking about it when he heard Louie at the door. Hunter opened it and let Louie in. Huey was just glad that his brother was safe as he hugged him. They decided that it would be wise to start heading home. They said their goodbyes to Hunter and started walking home.

Dewey and Webby were waiting for their turn to go in the visiting area. Dewey was sitting down twiddling his thumbs. He didn't know what was gonna happen. He's done this plenty of times before, but every time he sees him, he feels awful.

"How are you feeling?" Webby asked as Dewey continued to twiddle his thumbs.

"I feel heavy." Dewey said. Webby was confused by what he meant by that, so Dewey explained. "I feel like I'm carrying the wait of all of his pain on my shoulders, and I feel like it's gonna bury me into the ground." Webby rubbed his back.

"Why do you feel that way?" Webby asked concerned for Dewey.

"Because I'm the reason he's here." Dewey said angrily. "We called the cops, and we put him in here." Webby they calm Dewey down.

"Dewey, it's not your fault that he's in here." Webby explained. "You didn't deserve to get beat up by him and his friends." Dewey then got upset.

"Yeah, and he didn't deserve to go to jail." Dewey said as an officer came over.

"Richard Duckless is ready to see you now." The officer said.

"We'll talk about this later." Webby said as they followed the officer to the visiting area.

They were escorted to a booth with a window separating each side of it. There was a phone on the side of the booth so Dewey would be able to call Richard on the other side. When he looked at Richard through the window, he saw that he had a black eye and a broken nose. Dewey started talking.

"Hey Richard, how are you?" Dewey asked even though he had a pretty good guess of how he was.

"Never better." Richard said sarcastically. They both looked at each other through the window silently until Richard started talking. "Why do you do it?" Richard asked. Dewey became confused. "Why do you come here? You can choose to do anything else, but instead you choose to come here" Dewey didn't know how to answer that.

"Well..." Dewey knew there was only one reason that he visited Richard once a week. "I visit you because its my fault that you're in here." Dewey started to say. Richard got mad at this.

"Don't ever say that again." Richard said angrily. "It was my choice to bully you, not yours." Dewey tried to defend Richard.

"You were being manipulated, if you hadn't met Derek, none of this would have ever happened." Dewey said as Richard became more upset.

"I made the choice to hang out with Derek." Richard said as Dewey looked down sorrowfully. "We all make decisions, and mine just happened to be bad ones."

"It was just a mistake." Dewey said as Richard pointing to the door behind him.

"Everyone in there made a mistake, that just means I deserve to be in here as much as they do." Richard said. There was nothing Dewey could say that would change anything.

"Richard, I don't think you're a bad guy." Dewey said. "I think you're a good guy that was..." Richard interrupted him.

"Stop!" Richard said angrily. Dewey stopped talking and listened to Richard. "I don't want you defending me for my actions. I committed crimes even before I met Derek. You can say that I did because my parents trade me for drug money. You can say that I did it because I was a lonely kid trying to get by on the street. Heck, you can even say that I did because Derek told me too. That doesn't change the fact that I did it. I did the crime, and now I'm doing the time." Dewey realized that there is nothing he could say that will change anything.

"You know what, you're right." Dewey said. "You committed the crime and your doing the time. I know I shouldn't argue about this, but I can't help it. And do you know why?" Dewey and Richard looked each other dead in the eyes as Webby held Dewey's hand. "It's because I feel bad for you. I feel bad that you're in here, I feel bad that you were homeless, and I feel bad that you're parents sold you. I think you're a good guy Richard, I know this won't change anything, but I want you to know that I forgive you."

Richard didn't expect that at all. He started crying as he looked at Dewey. Dewey started to cry a little bit as well.

"I'm sorry." Richard said apologetically. "I'm sorry for everything I've ever done to you. I don't wanna go another day without you hearing that apology." Dewey has so many emotions going through his head at once.

"Thank you." Dewey said. Richard then stopped crying.

"I don't think you should come here anymore." Richard said to Dewey's surprise. Dewey was about to say something, but Richard stopped him. "I made my choice Dewey, I had my chance and I blew it. You still have a lot of chances. You can still do the things you wanna do. The only thing holding you back is me." Dewey was shocked to hear that. "I'm tired of you always coming here once a week to see me. I'm not going anywhere, but you can go anywhere you wanna go. I know it's hard for you to understand, but you can't keep coming here and telling me that I don't deserve this. I do deserve to be in here, and nothing in the world is ever gonna change that." Dewey didn't know what to say. He didn't want Richard to think it was his fault, but deep down, he knew it was.

"I guess this is goodbye then." Dewey said almost about to cry.

"I guess it is." Richard said almost about to cry. Before Dewey got off the phone, Richard stopped him. "Wait, just one more thing." Dewey put the phone back to his ear.

"What is it?" Dewey asked depressingly.

"I want you to forget about me." Richard said as Dewey was confused. "I want you to forget that you ever met me. All I did was cause you pain, I don't wanna cause anyone else pain ever again." Dewey was silent for a few seconds. He then spoke up.

"I'm never gonna forget about you." Dewey said seriously. "That experience made me a lot stronger than what I was back then. I'm never gonna forget any of it. I'm sorry I can't fulfill your last request, but me forgetting you, means me forgetting who I am now." Dewey was about to hang up the phone until Richard stopped him again.

"Then at least do this for me." Richard said. Dewey stayed on the line and looked at him. "I want you to look in a mirror and tell yourself that you can do anything." Dewey didn't say that he would do it, but he didn't say he wouldn't.

"Goodbye Richard." Dewey said as he hung up the phone. As he did so, he and Webby were escorted out of the visiting area. As they left the station, Webby started talking.

"How do you feel after all of that?" Webby asked. Dewey looked up at the sky as he thought about everything that just happened. He glanced up at all the stars in the night sky as they walked. He then looked at Webby's eyes and answered her question.

"Weightless." Dewey said as they walked home holding hands.

End of Chapter 5