#✈️ threads // louie

[dellacacy]

Finally being back in Destiny Isle was so surreal, Della could hardly believe it. She took a deep breath as if to take in the familiar air, hands on her hips as she observed her surroundings. Things seemed a little more different than she anticipated, but that didn’t discourage her. All that mattered now was that she returned to her family. She knew exactly how to get back to the manor, anxious to see her family and especially her sons. She wondered who would answer the door first and what their reaction would be, smoothing out her hair as she thought of her initial greeting. Should she play it casually? Spice it up and add her special Della charm? If Scrooge or Donald were to be upset by her absence, she’d have a lot of explaining to do — her mind was running wild with possibilities of how this would play out. She had no idea that she’d instead be greeted by Huey and Louie, all grown up and none of them recognizing each other. Della already flopped her first impression as the front door to the manor opened, impulsively beginning with a “What’s upppp!” until she realized she had no clue who these two were. “Oh!” Della interrupted herself, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “Uh, heyyy? I’m looking for Scrooge.. or Donald … they still live here, right?” @hubertducck @llouieduck

[dellacacy]

Della’s eagerness quickly faded as each boy responded, both seeming irritated and unable to believe her. While her initial thought was Who do these guys think they are? Let me in my home to see my family! her spirit was slowly starting to be crushed the more she listened to the two. This might have worked twenty years ago …. Della Duck would be forty-five now …. Della blinked in disbelief. They thought she was scamming them?? Who would do such a thing? And why was the timeline suddenly not adding up? “I don’t understand…” she trailed off. Did she somehow time travel, or was she in a messed up alternate universe instead of back home?

On top of that, they mentioned her middle son’s name with another unfamiliar name so casually, but it still didn’t make sense. Her heart sunk at the idea of a little Dewey looking for his mom, still not fully connecting the pieces that he wasn’t little. None of them were. It took Della a moment to process and gather her thoughts. “Okay, who’s Webby and where is Dewey?” She began in an almost demanding tone. She continued, feeling a need to defend herself since they thought she was scamming them. “Look, I know I was gone longer than expected…" Much longer than she truly knew. "I had planned to be back for the boys’ first birthday, but things happened out of my control and I got stuck there and lost track of time…" Literally. "I have their presents with me and everything!” She motioned to the raggedy bag that rested on her back for emphasis. “I don’t know who either of you are and why you don’t believe me, but you can’t keep me from my family just because I took a little longer to find my way home. I lost my leg in the process, for god's sake!” She was practically in denial, not doing the math or realizing that time may have moved differently where she had gotten stuck — that if they were correct and it had been twenty years, two-thirds of her boys were standing face-to-face with her. She repeated her question again more sternly. “Now tell me where my sons are and when my brother and uncle are coming back.”

When the stranger dropped the name Della—not only mentioning her but claiming to actually be their missing mother—a chill ran down Louie’s spine. That was fucking haunting. He was almost impressed by the sheer audacity…but mostly he was aggravated. He’d pulled his fair share of shady schemes in the past, but pretending to be somebody’s long-lost family member was something else entirely. He immediately wanted to say, ‘Hey crazy lady, leave us alone!’ and shut the door in her face. Instead he offered her some sardonic advice, leaning around Huey’s shoulder to stare her down. The crazy thing was—now that he had it in mind, the woman actually did resemble that old photo of their mother Dewey probably slept with under his pillow, only a few years older and like she’d been through some shit.

“This might have worked twenty years ago, but Della Duck would be forty-five now, if she’s still alive. You should pick a missing person in your age range next time you wanna try to scam a grieving family.” As soon as he said it, though, Louie doubted himself. Would his uncles have even reported Della as a missing person if they knew she had gone into a whole other dimension? He tried to think about that fateful day at the hotel as little as possible, but he couldn’t forget the note she had left, saying that she was going through a portal with no other explanation or goodbye for the babies she was abandoning. It was possible she wasn’t actually on any missing persons list, which meant this imposter would have had to already know about her personally to choose Della Duck to impersonate, in which case she should also know how old Della was. It didn’t make any sense. Louie stayed half-hidden behind his brother, mentally calculating the chances that this woman wasn’t as much a would-be scammer as someone who had lost touch with reality.

[dellacacy]

Della had so many questions as she took in the sight of the two boys in front of her. They were obviously identical, though they each had their differences especially in their demeanors. The first one who caught her attention was the one who spoke up first, staring at an unfamiliar-looking device in his hand as he bluntly responded to her in a very Scrooge-like manner. No solicitors. Well, that was offensive. She also noticed that he, too, had a prosthetic leg, though his was much fancier than the one she’d gotten while lost within the portal and on his opposite leg. She only got a quick glimpse at it though before the other stepped in front of him. They all stared at each other in confusion as they tried to connect the missing pieces.

Her eyes lit up as the second stranger confirmed she was at the right house. Hallelujah! Still, it didn’t explain who these two were, especially answering the door instead of her brother or uncle. Perhaps they were babysitting the triplets for them while they were busy… That would explain who they were, why they wouldn’t know who she was, and why she didn’t know them! What else could possibly explain this strange interaction? “Great, are they here? Does that mean my boys are here too?” She asked eagerly before she began to answer his own question. “It's me, Della! You know.. the triplets’ mom? Donald’s sister? Please tell me they’re here, I’ve been dying to see them!”

Even nine months after The Incident, when most of the dust had settled—things hadn’t returned back to normal between the Duck siblings. Dewey still hadn’t moved back into McDuck Manor, and the triplets and Webby had never returned to their regular sibling lunches they’d enjoyed together before everything went down last September. That left only Huey and Louie heading out to eat today and opening the door on an unexpected visitor. It was an awkward moment with her overly-familiar greeting and subsequent confusion at seeing who had opened the door, but Louie was only half-paying attention anyway (the other half of his attention focused on looking up restaurants on his phone.) He didn’t have much interest in strangers on the doorstep, and answered bluntly the way they’d all been coached by their great uncle in childhood: “No solicitors.”

It was weird that she was apparently on a first name basis with his uncles, though, without even being certain if they still lived here. So maybe he was a little curious about the stranger on their doorstep…Louie finally looked up from his phone long enough to get a look at the woman. She looked a bit familiar, but in a distant way—like she’d been a side character in some movie he watched a few years back. Maybe she was some second cousin a few times removed that Webby had shown them in explanations of their family tree? He noticed her leg next. Did he recognize her from physical therapy? He didn’t remember seeing anyone with such a makeshift-looking prosthesis—his own, the best money could afford thanks to Uncle Scrooge, stood out in stark comparison. The fact that it was her left leg and his right made them almost a clumsy mirror-image of one another as they stood across the threshold from each other. Who was she?