I lay in bed for several minutes after waking up, cursing my brain for bringing Eddy up again. I roll out of bed, landing heavily on my feet and pulling on my day clothes so hard I stretch the seams. It was easy enough to ignore Eddy's betrayal while I was on the moon- I could focus on getting back to the boys and imagining the adventures we'd have. Then I got home and was swamped trying to find my place in the new family, then we faced F.O.W.L. Now, however, I'd dreamed of Eddy four times within the past couple of weeks.
The door slams behind me, and I wince. I'm gonna need to be more careful about expressing my frustration or I'll be asked more questions. Louie was on my case from the first day I had an Eddy dream. He only left me alone when I'd led him to think the bad dream bothering me involved being stuck on the Moon. I doubt I fully convinced him, though.
Taking a deep breath, I walk into the dining room for breakfast. Uncle Scrooge and Webby- Scrooge's daughter- are there already, talking about some adventure Webby and Dewey got into yesterday.
"'Morning, Della." Webby chirps.
"Good morning." I smile and sit down.
Scrooge eyes me.
"You alright, lass?" he asks.
Dang it. He must've been tipped off by the way I sat down or something. He knew Eddy, so I'd tell him if he was alone. But since Webby's here...
"I'll be fine." I try my old excuse again, "Just had a bad dream."
Webby's face fills with sympathy.
"The moon?" she asks.
"Yeah." I feel their eyes on me and hope that they don't see through the lie.
Uncle Scrooge folds his arms. Weird- that's exactly what Louie did when I told him. Webby notices Scrooge's reaction and narrows her eyes at me. Thankfully, I'm spared an interrogation by the door opening. Dewey sticks his head in.
"Good morning, Dewey." I call, desperate to get out of the spotlight.
"Good morning." my middle son scans the room, "Have any of you seen Huey? I want to show him this sick dagger I found."
He steps through the door and closes it behind him. He holds out the dagger, one that looks medieval.
"Woah, where'd you find that?" Webby stands up and leans forward.
"The attic." Uncle Scrooge pushes her down into her chair, then glares at Dewey, "Where I told you not to go."
Dewey chuckles nervously, and I'm hit with a sense of deja vu from my dream. Had Dewey always sounded like Eddy when he was nervous, or is that just the dream making me think about him? I shake my head to clear it.
"Huey's probably in his study." I answer Dewey's original question, "But you should give that back to Uncle Scrooge."
"No." Dewey pulls the dagger to his chest.
Scrooge sighs.
"Whatever, just be careful with it." he points, "That's Carnwennan, the prized dagger of King Arthur."
"Oo~, cool." Dewey holds it out and studies it with new appreciation, "What does it do?"
"It's a dagger, nothing else to it." Scrooge motions to it.
The door slams open. Dewey jumps out of the way and nearly drops Carnwennan. Louie, my youngest son, is standing in the doorway, wide-eyed with a heaving chest.
"Everyone to Huey's study." he declares.
I jump to my feet and race towards the door. Louie and Dewey take the lead, while the sound of chairs screeching and pounding steps share that Uncle Scrooge and Webby are right behind me. Another pair of steps joins in almost immediately.
"What's going on?" I hear Mrs. Beakley, the housekeeper, ask.
"Huey's gone!" Louie calls over his shoulder, "Papers are scattered everywhere, the chair's broken-"
"What?!" Donald joins the run, having overheard Louie as we ran past him.
Daisy, May, and June follow him, too, so now there's a whole procession rushing to Huey's study.
Huey's study is at the foot of the tower leading to the boys' room. On the one hand, it looks normal as we walk in: organization cubbies in their places, a clear desktop. On the other hand, papers are scattered all over the floor, and the chair is turned over by the desk, its solid wooden back split down the middle from an impact point. One of the legs of the chair seems to have been ripped off and thrown across the room back at the chair, causing the split. We stare for a moment, taking in the scene. Louie takes a picture of it with his phone.
"I tried texting him, but he hasn't answered yet." Louie swipes frantically several times on his phone, "I'll look for him on my tracking app, in case we have to rescue him or something."
That snaps us out of it.
"The rest of you spread out and look for clues." Mrs. Beakley orders.
We obey. I move over to the broken chair and start inspecting it while the others start searching around cubbies, the desk, and other parts of the floor. The papers under the chair are crumpled. Under them, the tip of leather-bound book peeks out. My blood chills, but I shake my head again to try to clear it. That can't be Eddy's journal. I'm just up-tight from my dream this morning. To prove it, I reach under the papers to pull it out.
"Jumping gargoyles!" Scrooge yells.
I pull my hand back and whip around to look at him. Scrooge is showing one of the papers to Beakley, who takes it and brings it closer to her face in disbelief.
"What is it?" Donald asks.
Beakley lowers the paper.
"It's a F.O.W.L. file." she says with clear confusion, "Huey was allowed to help pack up the files for S.H.U.S.H, but he's not allowed to take any."
A cold shiver goes down my back. One year ago, the Director of F.O.W.L (The Fiendish Organization for World Larceny) launched his plan to destroy our family and allies. They nearly erased Donald from existence with a device called the Selego Circuit. They'd bound Scrooge to never adventure again, then tried to kill him. Oh, and they'd created Webby from Scrooge's DNA so she could get them the magical artifact that defeated Uncle Scrooge. If it wasn't for- well, everyone and everything, Clan McDuck would've died that day.
So, after surviving that ordeal, Uncle Scrooge had been more than happy to let S.H.U.S.H. (a spy organization dedicated to protecting the world from supervillains) handle compiling F.O.W.L.'s files. Huey had volunteered to help, wanting to learn more about what F.O.W.L. had known and been doing. The rest of us (except Violet, one of Webby's best friends) were content to stay away from anything F.O.W.L. smelling.
Webby picks up a paper next to one of the cubbies and scans it. She scrunches her eyebrows.
"It's an employee info sheet." she looks up at Dewey, "Why would Huey be interested in some random F.O.W.L. egghead?"
"I don't know, nerd reasons?" Dewey walks over and takes the paper. He reads it out loud, "'Notice of Employment for Edward Bancrow Duck.'"
"WHAT?!" Scrooge and Donald's combined voices would've made Mt. Neverrest shed it's entire covering of snow. It certainly makes everyone in the room jump a mile and search for an impending attack.
Everyone but me. I stay still in my corner, my mind blank. I know I should be angry that I was manipulated into falling in love with a F.O.W.L. Agent, but this actually makes it easier. It's much less painful to hate someone who was rotten from the start than someone who actually loved me but left without explanation. I tune out my uncle's alliterative insults and go back to the chair I was searching around.
I slip my hand under the papers and grab hold of the worn cover of the cheap journal beneath. The cover is one I can picture in perfect detail before it comes into view. The black ink making up Eddy's name is faded, but so is the brown of the fake leather underneath. As a result, it looks the same to me as it did when Eddy carried it everywhere in the inner pocket of his jacket. A maple leaf silhouettes his name, not meaning anything except that the journal he found has a maple leaf on it. The journal disappeared when he did.
Wait… the journal disappeared when Eddy did.
So if the journal is here-
"Mom."
I shoot to an upright sitting position, hitting my head on the bottom of the chair.
"Ow." I mutter, rubbing my head and shooting a glare at Dewey, "What?"
Dewey shrinks back at the glare, but Louie and Webby come up behind him.
"Who is Edward Duck?" Webby glances nervously at Uncle Scrooge and Donald, who are both too caught up in yelling to pay attention to anything around them. Everyone else- Beakley, Daisy, May, and June- are gathered around me, too. Wow, had our family really been so small when everything happened?
"Is Edward who I think he is?" Mrs. Beakley asks.
Her voice is gentle, almost dancing around the subject. Well, if no one else knows, and if Eddy is the one behind this-
"Eddy was my husband." I turn back to the papers under the chair, pulling them out to look through them, "Key word: was. He gave up that title when he left."
I don't want to see their reactions to the news. The only sound is that of my uncle and brother still yelling. I tune that out. It isn't hard when I'm looking for clues about where Eddy took my son. Then Louie yelps, and I whip around. He's looking at his phone, then holds it out for us to see.
"Huey's at the library of Alexandria." his voice trembles.
Scrooge and Donald quiet immediately, and I shudder. That's where our showdown with F.O.W.L. had been. The reaction is swift.
"Everyone to the plane." Scrooge turns to Daisy, May, and June, "You three stay here to guard the mansion with Duckworth. I'd tell the kids to stay, too, but I doubt they'll listen."
He gives Dewey, Louie, and Webby the side eye, and all three shake their heads.
"I think we should all go except you three," Louie counters, motioning to Scrooge, Donald, and me, "You're too angry to think straight."
I stand up.
"I'm going to save my son."
"And if you get hurt because you're distracted?" Louie folds his arms.
"And if I just sneak along anyway?" I fold my arms back at him, meeting his gaze with one just as steely.
Mrs. Beakley steps between us.
"Just do what your uncle says and be glad he's letting you come."
Louie growls but doesn't argue.
"I'll meet you at the plane." he leaves the room, followed by Dewey and Webby.
Dewey casts one last glance my way. I notice that he's holding Carwennan limply in his hand like he's forgotten about it. The creases around his eyes betray a deep worry. I slip Eddy's journal into my jacket before standing. Eddy had come and taken my son to the old headquarters of the organization he'd pledged his life to long before he'd faked pledging it to me. I just knew it. There was no way that I'd let him pollute any of my sons, especially not Huey.
I notice everyone picking up the stray papers, probably to study them on the plane. I join in.
By the time I stand up, I'm the last in the study. I pause to look over the wreckage. Most villains wouldn't give a thought to the amount of damage they do, but now that the papers are gathered, the only mess is the chair. I can't help but smile wryly. Eddy put just as much time into organization as Huey, so of course he'd do his best to keep everything in place while fighting.
Every day, I'm reminded that Huey is Eddy's son. But no- he's mine. Eddy threw away his claim to all three boys 13 years ago. It's time to remind him of that.
I leave the room.