Huey, Gosalyn, and Louie were the inside while Darkwing, Launchpad, and Dewey were tasked with staking out the lab from the outside. According to Gosaly, over the last few weeks, the laboratory had been hit by two break-in attempts and one successful break-in that Darwing put a stop to. But they were unable to hunt the perpetrator down.

"Whoever keeps breaking in is after something in this lab, but we're not able to figure out what." Gosalyn unlocked the door and snuck the two of them inside before locking it behind them.

"Have you asked VonDrake? I mean, it is his lab." Louie ran his hand over pretty much everything on the counter as he walked past.

"Well, we've tried that. Professor VonDrake is in Germany for a retreat and won't get back until the end of the month. He said his mind was in too many places to think of which of his gadgets the burglars may be after. Apparently there are a lot of valuable doohickeys in here. How anyone knows what they are besides him, I have no idea."

Huey leaned against his crutch, trying to listen to Gosayln's every word while actively watching his brother like a hawk.

"We can at least take a look around to see if we can find anything about your dad in Ludwig's old files. He's got tons of writings and junk around here." Gosalyn hooked her crossbow over her shoulder and opened a file cabinet.

Huey could see one of her curly bangs peeking out from under her green Quiverwing hood. It glowed red in the last glimmer of sun that seeped through Ludwig's cluttered windows.

"Ooh, this looks expensive."

Huey looked over just as Louie rolled a large chrome sphere between his hands. He limped over, glancing at Gosayln who shifted through files unbothered, before snatching the sphere away from him. "Not today, doofus." You're not ruining this for me. "Go look through Ludwig's desk."

Louie rolled his eyes. "Buuuhhhg, you're no fun. It's not like I was going to take it."

"I'm not putting anything past you at this point." Huey set the weird sphere back on the table and grabbed him back the back of his hoodie. "Do not take anything. I'm patting you down before we get out here. Got it?"

Louie raised an eyebrow, folding his arms over his chest. "Seriously? A pat down like you're TSA or somethin'? Sheeh. Have a little more faith in me than that." He shrugged Huey's hand off and waltzed over to Ludwig's trashed desk. Honestly, it was hard to tell the difference between what was the usual wacky professor mess and what was burglary trashed.

Huey huffed through his nostrils, eyeing his little brother. Why can't he just say "yes" for once instead of arguing or saying something sarcastic? He limped over to the file cabinet next to the desk and began searching through the mess of papers. He lifted his foot off the ground and leaned against the cabinet, his elbows resting on top. The throbbing in his ankle had grown worse over the day. The wrapping had helped a little but all the walking with next to no elevation or ice was making it swell up like a balloon to the point where it felt like he could hear it pulsing. Maybe he really could hear it… or was that his head?

He set his head in his hands, squeezing it to reduce the steady thrum of pain that spread through his forehead from the gash. With all his might, he adjusted his eyes to the low lighting and focused on the stack of files under his elbows. Come on, you can do this.

"It does seem like these file drawers are mostly organized, which is surprising for how scatterbrained the old professor is." Gosalyn's giggle made him look up.

"That's encouraging. Keep looking for anything that might have to do with our family. Della, Uncle Scrooge, Uncle Donald, Sam… anything." He kept up a smile until she turned her back to him again.

Huey took a deep breath and rubbed his hand over his face.

"Hey."

His gaze drifted down to Louie who sat going through the desk drawers beside him. The look on his face was soft. "Soft" on Louie could only mean a few things and Huey knew exactly what spurred it this time. He could sense the weakness. Huey looked away and pulled the drawer out, blinking past the pain radiating down his forehead as much as he could to read the file names. Louie can't know. The more angles he sees, the more control he has. He can't know how I feel.

Feeling a hand on his shoulder, he paused, keeping his head down. "I'm fine, Lou." He took a handful of papers out of the cabinet and flipped through them, scanning the pages.

"I don't think you are. I mean, look at you. You just yanked a bunch of papers out of their organized folders. That's not you. You looked rough before we left but now that the sun is going down, you look like a small gust of wind could tip you right over." He poked him in the arm and Huey probably would have fallen over if he wasn't leaning all of his weight against the filing cabinet.

He froze, staring at the words on the pages but unable to cognitively put them together. He's right. What am I doing? He glanced up at Gosalyn across the room before meeting eyes with his little brother.

Louie heaved a sigh, a slow smirk sliding across his smug little face. "Ohhhh, that's why. How'd I not see it before?" He snuck one of his arms under Huey's shoulder and helped him walk to Ludwig's workshop.

Huey's jaw set as Louie lowered him to a chair. Here comes the ridicule.

"That's why you wouldn't take Darwing's advice to stay behind. I thought you were just getting into the mystery around Dad and not wanting to miss out. Turns out you were just after the gir-" Huey grabbed him by the beak.

"Shh! I know I'm ridiculous but here we are." He sank into the chair, crossing his arms and staring at the floor. Just head over heels for a girl again and making a fool of myself. What else is new?

"Quite the image you're making for yourself, oh fearless leader." Louie stepped back, looking him up and down. "Your beak is pale and you can't even stand up straight anymore."

Huey's face grew red hot. "You think I don't know that?" he snapped.

"Woah, woah, hold back the Duke there. That's not a good look on you." If he kepting on smirking like that, there would be no holding the Duke back. "What's your plan?"

Huey took a few quick, heavy breaths to keep his temper under control. "Just bring some files in here and help me go through them." He tried to keep his stare hard. "Don't tell her."

Shrugging, Louie walked out of the room. There was really no telling what Louie would do with the angle he now held in his hands. He could ruin Huey's chances with Gosayln altogether, taunt him with it, tell her… the options were endless the more he thought about it. He chewed on his nails and leaned back in his chair, watching the door.

Several minutes later, Louie reappeared with Gosalyn in tow. He dropped a load of files on the desk. Huey waited for him to say something mushy and obnoxious like "your girlfriend this" or "you better kiss her for finding these."

Instead, Louie couldn't look more uninterested in the concept. "Gosalyn found all of the professor's personal files in a cabinet in the back. We thought they'd be a good place to start. We have a few hours to kill before Darkwing estimates the burglars will make their move."

"I found a file for your Uncle Donald and so I pulled out the whole stack." Gosalyn grabbed the back of Huey's chair and rolled him over to the desk.

Huey looked between the two of them. Did he tell her anything?

Louie closed the shades and flipped on the reading light above the desk. He sent him a slight smile before shoving a file in his hand. "You can start with Uncle D's file. I'm sure most of it is about his boring barbeque recipes anyway. Maybe it'll say something about how he managed to screw up his voice so bad. That's the only real mystery surrounding Uncle D." He sat on the desk and grabbed the next file in the stack. "This one is more my style."

Huey cocked his head just enough to read the tab. Gladstone Gander. Why am I not surprised?

"Here, Gosalyn, you can take this one from the bottom." Louie handed her a file.

Huey swallowed hard when he saw the color of the folder. No, no, please no.

One glance at the name on the file and she met eyes with him. "But this is…" her pause was excruciating. "Nevermind. It's likely we'll find something in your guys' files about your dad and it's better for a fresh set of eyes to read it."

"Oh, trust me. You'll want to read it." Louie waved her on.

Gosalyn hid her face behind the folder and Huey's heart sank into his stomach. What's in that file? Ugh, I'm sure there's sooo much nerd stuff in there. She's insanely cool. It's probably boring her to tears.

Clenching his fists, he turned to glare at Louie. You little… ugh! He's gonna get it.

When Louie noticed the death stare, he smirked with a little wink and hopped off the desk. "I'm going to go find the bathroom. You two keep at it."

That little imp. Huey watched him skirt out of the room, leaving the two of them. Alone. Huey stretched and leaned one elbow against the desk, pretending to read Uncle D's file while he watched her out of the corner of his eye.

Gosalyn rubbed her face and set the folder down.

"Man, I knew I was boring but not that boring." He smirked.

"Oh no, it's not that at all." She sighed, pressing her shoulder to the wall. "It's just the wonky lighting in here."

"Is everything alright?"

Gosalyn focused on him for a few moments before she sat up and reached into her satchel. "Okay, you promise not to poke fun?"

"Do I look like I'm in a place to poke fun at anyone right now?" He spun around in his chair and gestured to his swollen ankle.

She pulled out a pear of wide-rimmed reading glasses. "I never wear these anywhere but at home, but it's getting to where I can't read without them."

Huey couldn't help the genuine smile that spread across his face. "Why would I ever poke fun about that? Let's see them."

Gosalyn avoided eye contact as she slid them up her beak.

Huey moved into her line of sight and smiled. Wow, they really magnify those big green eyes of hers. "What's wrong with them? I think they look great."

Gosalyn rolled her eyes and pulled them off. "They're really just for reading. It doesn't matter what they look like."

Huey reached over and took them from her hand. "I don't know." He somehow managed to stand up, face to face with her. With gentle hands, he placed the glasses back on her beak. "I think you look beautiful."

She lifted her hood off her head and stared at him with those big green eyes through her wide-rimmed glasses.

Heat bubbled in his stomach until his whole body felt warm. She wasn't looking away from him this time and there was no way he could take his eyes off of her.

"You really think so?"

"I'd never lie to you." Is she blushing? Tell me that's what her cheeks are doing right now.

"Ooh boi. Let me just make the general announcement not to use that bathroom. I'm pretty sure there's something growing in there." Louie's moans of disgust as he walked towards the room brought the two of them back to reality.

Gosalyn snatched up the folder and hid her face behind it while Huey covered his red face with his arms and pretended to read the folder again. I've never pretended to read this much in my life!

"I couldn't tell if the water was moving it or if it was moving the water. Honestly, I'm not sure I want to know. It was purple and it looked alive and that's enough for me to say NOPE." Louie padded over and sat back on the desk.

Huey could still feel the heat crawling up his neck. Louie would read him in a second if he saw his face right now.

"Uhhh, sooooo what happened in here that's more interesting than my thing, huh?"

Gosalyn lowered the folder, hugging it to her chest. She had managed a straight face, her lips drawing a firm line. "I'm going to do a quick sweep of the lab." She pulled her cloak back over her head and left.

Huey watched her go before turning to see Louie's face. Gobsmacked, and eyebrows contorting with confusion, Louie stared between the door and him. Yep, he definitely saw the glasses. And the flush in Huey's face was still more than obvious.

"Ohhhhh, Dewey's gonna hate you so much when he finds out."