Yes, I'm back!

In this one, Della has to face that not everything is alright, and although she refuses to admit it, things have changed and maybe she needs to lean into someone and not into her metal leg...

"That. Was. Awesome!" Dewey shouted as they entered the manor after an epic adventure.

"I can't believe you applied half of the junior woodchuck guidebook" Huey said excitedly.

"And we found gold" Louie added as he lazily rolled a golden coin between his fingers, a chest full of them still at the plane.

"The best part was going with all of you," Della said hugging them tightly.

"Wait until we tell the others!" Dewey ran up the stairs.

"Wait! It's my turn to tell the details" Huey followed.

"But don't say anything about the treasure!" Louie chased after them.

Della chuckled to herself watching them go. It had truly been amazing to take only the three of them and have time to catch up, but now, as no one was in sight, she finally limped up to the entrance table and leaned into it, allowing her metal leg to be off the ground as she groaned rubbing her tight up and down, easing the pain.

"Ah! There you are lass!" Scrooge walked by going to greet her "by the screams coming down the hall I assume it was a successful mission"

Della quickly stood up straight again "Yep!" she said cheerfully "they boys loved it and we even found the legendary treasure the map mentioned"

"Extraordinary!" he smiled proudly at her "you are still every bit of the audacious explorer we all know you for!"

"Y-yeah! That's me! Restless and tireless adventurer" she held an exaggerated smile trying to disguise her wince.

Scrooge laughed good-naturedly patting her shoulder "Can't wait to hear all about it! Next time count me in for one of your travels, I've missed you behind the console, flying with you is always a delight"

"For sure, start packing, we'll be going soon, no doubt" she tried to give a thumbs-up as she leaned into the table trying to look relaxed as she did so, managing for Scrooge to smile excitedly.

"It's good to have you back, lass. Now go enjoy the day" he waved goodbye and Della held in position for a second longer before literally collapsing to the ground and taking her metal leg off with a huge sigh of relief.

She threw her head back resting against the wall, looking at the ceiling "Keep it together" she chided herself closing her eyes, trying to focus on something else. And perhaps, if she had been more aware of her surroundings, she would have noticed the girl standing right in front of her.

"Della?" Lena called, her tone unsure.

Della snapped her eyes open again seeing the teenager looking at her with concern.

"Hey! What's up?" she tried to keep her facade.

"Not you, obviously" Lena pointed "did you fall?"

"Wha-? No! Not at all, I just… I dropped something and I was looking for it" she waved a hand around noticing she was still holding her metal leg "with my foot! Yeah, it's magnetized, so it works just fine to pick up my...thing, that I dropped"

Lena did her best not to roll her eyes "Do you need a hand?"

"Clearly I need a foot" Della joked putting it back in place, ready to stand when the pain came back tenfold, making her drop, hard. She clenched her limb trying her best to muffle a groan.

Before she knew it, Lena was right at her side "Hey, are you okay?"

Della swallowed her scream as she took one deep breath "Yeah, all good, kiddo. Just a cramp" she tried her best to smile but Lena retained a steady hold on her shoulder, keeping her in place "I just need to reach my room"

"I can get you there" she said "don't move" she submerged both into the shadows in a metaphysical experience, before reemerging inside Della's quarters.

The dizziness was the final excuse Della needed to collapse into the mattress, taking off the leg and tossing it aside. She shakily breathed in, her gaze averting Lena's "Th-tahanks, Lena. You can go back to Webby and the others"

"It hurts that much, huh?" the teen asked completely unfazed, her arms crossed as she inspected the woman.

"No, this? This is nothing" she tried to avoid the topic "I've had this same old leg for a decade now! Like I said, just a cramp"

"I won't tell them" Lena said calmly and for the first time, Della grew silent, seeing in the teen's expression that she couldn't fool her. So Della dropped her shoulders and sighed slowly, her demeanor turned from tensed to defeated.

"Can you reach the nightstand?" she asked instead "there are a bandage there and some medicine"

Lena did what she was asked and handed them to her. Then Della did something she never used to and exposed her injured leg. No one had ever seen up close the result of the crash-landing at the moon. Scrooge had insisted on having a medic look at it, but Della refused, saying that it had been a clean procedure given the circumstances and that if in ten years there hadn't been an infection or anything of the sort, then for sure the risk most had been evaded. But here she was now, with her limb taking a toll at her and Della secretly licking her own wounds.

"In the moon, as you can imagine, gravity is not a problem" she began, folding up her short to take a good look at her irritated skin "so moving around with almost cero resistance had been relatively easy, but once I came back, the full weight of reality came crashing down, you know metaphorically and physically in this case" she applied the cream allowing the relief of the coolness to wash over her angry skin "now that my whole body is once more relying on my own two feet, the joint between me and my invention is...causing me some struggle"

Lena stood there for a second before sitting in the bed next to her "Most be some adjustment" she mused out loud.

Della chuckled almost darkly "Yeah" she sniffled trying to hide the bitter teardrops that threatened to roll out of her eyes "I had it coming" she began to wrap the bandage around "I just don't want them to worry, I'm finally in a good place, I can't risk this messing it up. They deserve better, they need a 100% percent of me to make up for all the lost time"

Lena wiggled her own feet at the edge of the bed gazing at them "I've never lost a limb, but I lost all of my body for a while..."

Della looked up at her, but Lena was still gazing down at herself, as if thought making a self-diagnose to see if she was indeed still real "For a long time I felt...hollow. In the shadows you don't really have mass either, but you are still there, you know? So I wasn't a solid, but I was still shaped as myself except I was...empty. Like just an outline, nothing inside. When I came back it felt so weird not to be trapped in nothingness anymore. Colors and light came crashing back and suddenly I existed once more. I could be heard, seen, touched..." she shook her head trying to dissipate those thoughts "I can't say that I can compare to what you went through. Six months are a breeze compared to your confinement, but I can say that, it will start feeling normal again, someday. At least that's what Webby keeps telling me. I'm still waiting to believe it"

Della smiled softly at the teen, wrapping an arm around her, getting Lena to look up, kind of startled by the realization she had opened up about something that personal, but Della didn't make any comments regarding it "Maybe we can wait it out together, see how it goes, heh?"

Lena smiled less timidly nodding "Y-yeah" she shrugged her shoulder looking away embarrassed "I better catch up with Webby, before she starts talking to her shadow to see if I'm there" she stood up "you're going to be okay?" she pointed at her bandaged leg.

"Yeah, just need to lay down for a bit"

"Cool" Lena went to the exit, freezing in place, holding into the doorknob "And...I won't tell them but...maybe you should?"

Della smiled faintly "You tell Webby everything?"

"Touché" she granted, rubbing the back of her neck, gazing down "but I'm trying to"

That had caught Della with her walls down, hitting too close to home "I...I will. In my own terms"

Lena nodded closing the door behind her "see you later, Della"

"Mom?" Dewey called, his face showed so much concern that it hurt worse than her leg did.

"I'm okay, sweetie" she assured, her leg still clenched against her chest "I just forgot gravity kind of actually pulls you down when you jump, I didn't manage my landing, it's nothing"

Huey was sat in front of her trying to evaluate the situation "The junior Woodch-"

"Stop it with your ridiculous book!" Dewey snapped "We have to call a medic"

"No! No medic, I'm fine" Della rapidly stood up balancing on her actual leg, trying to offer a reassuring smile "See? All go-od" she stumbled to a side, but Louie was already close by, helping her stabilize.

"Are you sure?" he inquired unconvinced.

"Absolutely!" she laughed a pitch higher than usual as another wave of pain swam through her nervous system.

"We could ask Uncle Scrooge-"

"It's nothing!" she insisted "Boys, really" she leaned down at their heights "I was a bit clumsy back there. I promise I'll be more careful next time. I just have to keep reminding myself that this isn't the moon's atmosphere anymore" she said genuinely, and that seemed to be enough to reassure them.

"Okay, mom"

"I can add a page on Earth's gravity compared to the Moon's in my guide so you can double check, we can remind you until it becomes instinctual again" Huey suggested.

"That would be great" Della leaned down, kissing their foreheads "How about we go in for lunch? Sounds good?"

"Perfect!"

"Nice!" she stood straight again "Go ahead, I'll catch up in a moment, I just want to check in with Donald" she pointed back at the pool.

"You don't want us to wait?"

"No, you are good" she waved a hand "tell Beakley I'll be there in a minute"

"Okay, mom. See you inside" they ran up the hill, each looking over their shoulder at different times, a last glance to make sure she was alright, and when they were out of sight, Della hunched forward, tears threatening to scape her eyes "Stupid-" she mumbled under her breath.

She had been careless, it was a big drop from the patio to the gardens, and yet she had just leaped. She was being honest before, sometimes she just plainly forgot gravity tended to force all object back into the ground with a 9.81 speed. And when her metal leg had stabbed into her flesh at the contact it had been beyond-words-to-describe painful.

She couldn't be this reckless anymore; she had to be better than this! She sprawled in the grass, covering her eyes from the sun with her forearm, trying to recover. And then, a shadow projected over her. She could feel the presence of a figure standing by her head.

"Donald?" she asked.

"…No" a young voice answered "you want me to call him?"

"Lena?" she uncovered just enough to make out her face "What are you doing here?" she asked surprised. The teen hadn't even been at the mansion that day. But Lena nonchalantly sat next to her, making sure to cover the sun, preventing it from hitting Della's face.

"Would it be weird to say that the shadows dragged me here?" she inquired, her tone didn't give away if she was being serious or not, but given what Della knew about her, she assumed she meant it "It has happened before once or twice, with Webby" she added looking around "Not that I can say you seem to be facing any imminent danger, but…here I am"

Della chuckled, drying her eyes and sitting up "So you just showed up because you though I was in trouble?"

"I didn't say I knew it was you" she hunched forward, but it was easy to read in her face that was a lie "Could have been Webby"

Della smirked, but didn't push it. She was not about to nag a teenager about carrying, if anything, she found it endearing "Well, thanks anyways, but you came out here for nothing. I'm fine"

"Really?" she raised a brow, she was not about to comment on her teary eyes, but wouldn't let it go unnoticed either. But her sight quickly drifted from there when she noticed that her shorts were quickly staining a dark color. Her face must have shown her terror, because Della followed her stare just to find her wound open.

"Ah, moon-pits!" she cursed covering it under her hands.

"That-that looks bad"

"It's not" Della countered.

"Should I get Donald? Or Scrooge?"

"No!" she urged, her tone a bit panicked "They don't need to know"

"Well, someone clearly should know about this. It's getting worst each time I see you"

"It's not, I just…I just did something stupid" she grumbled "No need to make a scene out of it"

The level of self- deprecation in her tone made Lena grow silent before hugging her knees to her chest, gazing at her "What happened?"

"I…I keep forgetting I'm not up there and…it's not like I miss it! I really don't, it's just habits!" she said frustrated, slamming her fists to the ground "How do you get used to normality when your normality was something entirely different for so long?" she gazed at the sky, seeing the half-moon looking down on her.

"You don't" Lena said nonchalant "You just…try to build a new normality with the broken pieces you have" she shrugged "at times I just stand around and people have to go around me, 'cause now they can't phase through me, and it's still weird to be seen or touched…to be real. Violet had to drag me out of the incoming traffic last week because of it" she admitted "So, trying to make some summersaults and giant leaps is not the weirdest thing, I guess"

Della smiled sympathetically towards her "Maybe you are right" she exhaled "Doesn't mean it's not frustrating"

Lena laughed humorlessly "True"

"I wish I could speed this along, though. I don't want…I don't want to keep feeling this way. Like I'm not all here nor all there" she gestured to the moon "And I can't keep up with all the expectation. Uncle Scrooge still looks at me like I am an indestructible force of nature and my kids as if thought I'm the legend from their storybooks, even Webby sees me like a role model and when they see I am not any of those things…!" she gazed down "how can you disappoint everyone by leaving and then for coming back like…like this?" she gestured at herself.

"Disappointed?" Lena echoed "You spent ten years planning a way to get back, built and rebuilt everything through sheer will, actually made it back and you think they will be disappointed if you use a crutch, see a medic or something?" she asked defiantly "Seems to me like it's not them who feel that way about you"

Della was almost impressed by the fierceness of the teen. She had seen her talk back to Mrs. Beakley, which was a huge feat on its own, but she never quite expected to be on the receiving end of her remarks.

Luckily for Della, a bell sounded at the distance.

"Right on schedule, Tea Time" Lena stood up "I'm guessing that means you are off to lunch?"

Della shrugged, knowing there was no way she could actually make it up there in her current state "Yeah, they boys are expecting me"

"No chance of calling at least LP?"

Della shook emphatically "But I could stand to have a shortcut to my room, you know, if I could stand"

Lena rolled her eyes trying to keep a cool face, although the concern was still clearly there

"Come on, the Shadow Express is leaving" Lena extended her hand towards her "Next destination, your room" she said.

Della offered a small smile "Thanks"

Shortly after making sure Della was settled into a fresh change of clothes and bandages, Lena made a swift exit, presumably going back home since she had disappeared without a warning and didn't want to worry her dads.

So once alone, Della had to put a brave face on, going down for lunch with the rest of the family. She sat down, taking part on the conversation, making jokes, enjoying her time with them and then, when they were all finished; she took the excuse of staying behind drinking her coffee to have an opportunity to sneak away limping when no one was looking.

The rest of the day she played the same game, always reaching for a place to sit, and when that activity was over, she would stall for a moment longer so no one would notice, saying things such as 'Just one more game and I'll be there', 'I want to see the promo of the next episode', 'Why use the stairs when you can slide down the rail?' and finally 'the sunset is nice, I think I'll stay and see it'.

So by the time she reached her room that afternoon, she was positively exhausted.

She pushed the door open, ready to collapse into her mattress when she noticed a bag all packed with a note waiting for her.

"See you in your balcony at 9:05, bring the bag -Lena" she read out loud "what the-?" She turned to see the clock, realizing the 'agreed' time was fast approaching. She grabbed the backpack feeling how heavy it was "Are we going to drop a body into the river?" she complained to no one.

"Not quite" the shadowy figure answered, taking form outside her room, making her jolt.

"Lena!" she demanded, making sure her scream hadn't drawn any attention as she opened the portal.

"Let's go, lady" she teen answered coolly.

"Where?"

"To our own version of the moon's gravity" she answered slyly extending her hand.

Della arched a brow looking at her curiously, deciding to follow along. Soon, shadows enveloped them and they travelled across the city in mere seconds just to finally materialize right in front of an Olympic pool at the State's sport center.

It took the older duck a moment to regain her balance before gazing at the poorly lighted pool that calmly rolled steam on the surface.

"What are we doing here?"

"I'm lookout, you are here for a walk in the moon" she sat at the edge of the pool, dipping her feet "everything you need is in the bag" she said over her shoulder.

Della dropped it, seeing the contents "Swimming suit, towel, ankle-weights?" she took one of them out.

"They will keep you on the ground, the pool is 4 meters deep" she explained "Who knew the manor had a gym?" she smirked, lazily kicking her feet, making waves. "keep digging"

Della reached to the very bottom, pulling out a pack of oxy-chew "Strawberry flavored?!" she exclaimed "How did you get a hold on something like this?"

"Webby can get anything, no questions asked" she smirked pleased, before turning to face her "It's not exactly the same, but closest thing to the moon's gravity we can get is being under water"

Della's chest pounded with a certain kind of excitement. Lena was right, she would be able to jump around and move through the place freely, and with the gum, air wouldn't be an issue. It was…kind of like being there, but staying here.

Word caught up on her throat "This is…thank you" she said genuinely, turning to the teen that was already regarding her with a fond smile.

"No problem"

Della didn't even bother to change her clothes; she just put the weights on, popped some gum and jumped into the pool. Sure enough the weights pulled her to the floor. Once at the bottom, she just put in a little bit of effort to star taking jumps and walking around like she used to, doing a couple of flips, swirling around and overall, enjoying herself. The pain was not there and in some sort of way, it was the closest thing to a proper rehabilitation she could have to treat her sore leg.

She wasn't sure how long she spent down there, going from one side to the other, moving freely and joyfully. Her only clue as to how long it had passed was when her gum started to loose flavor. So she re-emerged, were the teen was still chilling by the edge.

"Tired?" Lena challenged slyly.

"Not really. Just kind of concerned of my concept of time" she admitted.

Lena nodded checking her phone "Little past midnight" she answered.

"What- Really?!" she looked around "Guess I did missed this more than I dared to admit" she unbuckled the weights putting them outside, leaning towards the edge, still kicking lightly to stay afloat.

"I do hope your leg is waterproof" Lena teased.

"It is!" she said proudly sticking it to the surface "as any good Woodchuck explorer would tell you, prepare for any environment"

Lena chuckled "Geez, Huey really is your kid" Della smirked happily at the comment "and I know your rule of getting it right the first time try and whatever, but maybe you should revisit your design?" she added carefully, after having seen just how much pain that metal thing could inflict in the woman, the thought of making some improvements had crossed her mind "circumstances changed, but that doesn't mean it's bad. Change can be good, right?"

Della smiled fondly at her. She never expected to actually bond with anyone over what the worst period of her life had been like. And yet here she was, being taken care of by a teenager made of shadows. Life was funny like that "Yeah. I guess change can be good" she said "I will make some adjustments" she said solemnly before turning her features soft "Thanks, Lena"

"Hey, I'm always down to break into places after closing hours. Plus, with Scrooge answering for us, we are in the clear"

Della chuckled, but shook no "I mean…thanks for everything, honey"

Lena was caught off guard by how sincere it sounded, by how openly vulnerable and honest she was being. By how she even slipped a nickname in there as though Lena was not made of darkness and terror.

"…Welcome" the teen whispered back.

Della smiled, allowing herself to float carelessly in the surface, closing her eyes "I don't think I have been this relaxed in a really long time" she mused out loud, her voice soft and soothed.

Lena gazed around, at how the place was filled with a comfortable silence that added to the quietude of the scene. And even though they had hardly interacted in the last few hours, she found herself feeling more comfortable than she had been in the last few days.

"Yeah, me too" she said quietly, without breaking the spell they were under.

It was good to have someone that was trying to piece her life together as well; it made Lena feel less lonely in her own journey; less of an outsider. Like she could finally start taking her space outside the shadows.

I have like three half written stories about them, so there is still more to come, I just have to sit down with a cup of time and inspiration. So, until next time!