one little taste might be okay
Summary: Goldie and Scrooge meet up again in a town called Gumption.
Word count: 4817
Warnings: This episode takes place during the episode The Outlaw Scrooge McDuck! Timestamps for the episode are included to give context to each section.
March 1899; Gumption
It was early March in 1899 when Goldie decided she needed to see him again.
She’d done well for herself in Dawson, even with the dwindling population. Her hotel was still getting plenty of business and the hotel guests certainly enjoyed the shows at her saloon. She was thinking of expanding her empire further in town, but sticking to Dawson would be a terrible idea. She needed to find another place to build.
And that was the excuse she used when she told Lulu and the other remaining employees that she’d be leaving for a few weeks. Several months without skipping town meant no one had the right to complain about her taking off. It was time to find some land with untapped potential. She’d have to find Scrooge and see where he was hanging his hat these days.
Goldie grabbed a vest and several little bags to take with her on this trip. She had no idea where Scrooge was...he could be back in Scotland for all she knew. So she once again traveled down to Whitehorse to find out.
---
A bit of flirting with a familiar face at the bank and she got her answer. Gumption. It was some backwater town in Uncle Sam’s territory - at the very tip of a state called Calisota. Goldie hadn’t been to the States in over ten years and this was going to be a very different experience.
The journey down to Gumption would probably take her at least two weeks. That was assuming she was able to grab rides from friendly strangers most of the way there. And assuming she didn’t get kidnapped or murdered during her travels.
She grabbed some extra food and knives for the journey and started heading south. It was going to be a long two weeks.
---
When Goldie arrived in Gumption seventeen days later, she was surprised by just how small this town was. She’d expected something tiny and run-down, but compared to Dawson or Whitehorse, this place was a complete dump. She wondered briefly if this was just how the States compared to Canada, but shook it off. There was no time for national pride when there was gold to be found and sourdoughs to be seduced.
Scrooge’s stuff wasn’t hard to find. The town was just one stretch of road with a few businesses and a jail. On a whim, Goldie set herself up on the opposite side of town. It didn’t take long - she didn’t have much with her, but she didn’t think she’d stay for more than a few days. Though her main interest in this town was gold (and Scrooge), her plan to find a spot to open another business was not going to happen in a place like this. Some of the cities she passed through to get here would need a second glance on her journey back home.
Humming lightly as she set up her tent, she almost didn’t notice the footsteps behind her. On instinct, Goldie grabbed a knife out of one of her many pockets and turned around, holding it up to her potential attacker’s neck. She didn’t say anything, assuming the knife spoke for itself.
The duck in front of her quickly held up his hands. “Whoa there!” he said with a chuckle. “Sorry to frighten you, ma’am!”
Goldie loosened up at his words, though she didn’t put the knife away yet. “Can I help you?”
“I’m Marshall Cabrera, sheriff of this li’l town!” he said, holding out a hand to shake.
She rolled her eyes and pocketed the knife. Great, law enforcement, her favorite type of people. “Congratulations,” Goldie mumbled as she went back to setting up her tent.
Marshall was not deterred by her subtle dismissal, instead walking around her to get back in her line of sight. “So, there’s gonna be a town meetin’ tomorrow mornin’!”
“I’m only here temporarily. I’m not part of the town.”
“Oh, but you are!” Marshall spun his sheriff’s badge in excitement. “You and that other prospector are gonna help put Gumption on the map!”
Goldie glanced up at the man. Raising a skeptical eyebrow, she said, “Uh-huh. So tell me, Sheriff, how’s the other prospector doing? He got a lot of gold yet?”
Marshall looked over at Scrooge’s camp, catching sight of dirt being shoveled out of a hole. “To be honest, ma’am, I haven’t talked to him just yet! Anytime I try to stop by, he yells at me ‘til I leave him alone. Somethin’ ‘bout all the dynamite he’s using bein’ dangerous!”
Goldie stood up and brushed dirt off her pants. “So that’s how I get you to leave, then?”
The Sheriff laughed and slapped Goldie on the back, not noticing her angry glare. “Hoo, boy! You gold diggers are mighty funny!”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Are we done? I’d like to finish setting up camp.”
“Oh, yes, ma’am!” Marshall said with a tip of his hat. “I’m just gonna go tell that other miner ‘bout the meetin’ tomorrow and then get back to business!”
“Of course,” Goldie mumbled. “As the Sheriff of a town with a population of twelve, I’m sure you’ve got lots of work to get done.”
Marshall smiled and turned around, completely missing her sarcasm. “You betcha!”
Goldie rolled her eyes and quickly finished setting up her tent. Now was as good a time as any to go buy all the dynamite in town. If Scrooge was using a lot of dynamite, then that must be the best and fastest way to get gold out of the ground here. And though she was here to annoy Scrooge and check on him and maybe spend a little bit of time with him, Goldie was also excited by the idea that there was multiple-sticks-of-dynamite worth of gold under this town.
Scrooge had a nose for these things and though she wouldn’t trust him about a lot of stuff, she’d always trust him when it came to gold.
---
The Outlaw Scrooge McDuck: 4:50 - 6:20
---
When Scrooge saw Goldie standing smugly by her wheelbarrow of dynamite, he knew this was going to be another unpleasant visit. It’d been almost a year since she last interrupted his life, and he’d made plenty of other rivals and enemies during that time. But Goldie was the only one who kept coming back.
Even though there was a tiny little part of him that was excited to see her, he was too busy being pissed off to care. Once again, she’d barged her way into his life to make things more difficult. He was already working hard in Gumption to get all the gold he could find, but now he had to race to find it all first. Something in his gut told him there was a significant amount of gold to be found in this town, and he’d be damned if he let a thieving rogue like Goldie O’Gilt take it away from him.
Plus she was being extra annoying this time around. A year back in Dawson had made her even more combative than he remembered. And that wasn’t the only thing getting under his skin - she bought all the dynamite in town? How well was she doing that she could afford that? The thought of her undeserved riches made him work even harder, refusing to let her be wealthier than him. Scrooge McDuck was going to be the richest duck in the world! Not anyone else. Especially not Goldie O’Gilt.
While Scrooge was grumbling in his little digging hole, Goldie relaxed with some iced tea up above. She hadn’t come down to the States to spend all night getting sweaty. She’d done that enough times before and this time she was going to take it easy and use the dynamite as it was meant to be used: to make her life easier.
During this visit, her plan was to not steal from Scrooge at all. She wanted him to see her as a beautiful, sexy, talented gold digger all on her own right. She could now safely use dynamite without him having to tackle her to the ground, she’d traveled all this way on her own without a single hiccup, and she was going to get whatever amount of gold was under this town before Scrooge could. She wanted that gold and she wanted Scrooge to see her get it.
---
The Outlaw Scrooge McDuck: 7:00 - 13:25
---
Not interested in waddling all the way back to her tent, Goldie thanked the cashier for selling her the dress at a discount (thanks to some light flirting) and made her way back to the jail, box of new clothes in-hand.
She was happy to see that Scrooge was back already and writing down some notes as he went over their plan once again.
“It’s not the most complicated plan, sourdough,” she commented, starting to unbutton her vest. “I’m sure the other two know their parts.”
Scrooge scoffed haughtily. “That wacky inventor may have some brains, but that sheriff is as absent-minded as a sheriff can get! I’m not leavin' anythin’ up to cha…”
He looked up at her and his brain completely shut down as Goldie unbuttoned her blouse and started casually taking it off. Scrooge’s face turned bright red and he looked back down at the desk. “Wh-what...what are you doin’?!”
Goldie raised an eyebrow incredulously. “I’m getting dressed. Remember? Your plan?”
“Y-yes, but…” Scrooge nervously tapped his fingers and darted his eyes around. “Don’t you...want some privacy?”
She let out a short laugh. “Why are you acting like you’ve never seen me naked before?”
His face burned even brighter and Scrooge laid his head directly down onto the wood. “I-...it’s just...it’s not…”
She smirked and got to work on her pants. “When you work in show business, you can’t be bothered by something like a little nudity, hun,” she said matter-of-factly. “Especially not around people you’ve already slept with.”
Scrooge grumbled in response and continued to not look at her, turning towards the clothes he’d grabbed and thinking maybe he should get dressed, too. It wouldn’t take him anywhere near as long as it’d take her, but it was good to be ready.
They didn’t speak for a few minutes while Goldie was putting on the dress and fussing with her hair - Scrooge settled on stripping off his clothes behind the sheriff’s desk and quickly throwing on the jacket he’d stolen.
Before he could finish suiting up, Goldie grunted in a way that caught his attention.
“You alright there, O’Gilt?” Scrooge asked with a smirk, enjoying the view of her struggling.
She grunted again as she tried to grab the strings at the back of her dress. “Can you just come and tie this for me?”
Scrooge put the hat down on the desk and waltzed over, taking the strings in hand and tugging them to make sure the dress was nice and tight.
“Make sure it looks good.”
Scrooge grumbled while tying them together, complaining about the impracticality of these types of dresses and how you shouldn’t need two people to put on a piece of clothing. Goldie just smiled and continued to mess with her hair - without a mirror it was hard to know exactly how it looked, but after over a decade of making herself look stage-ready in fifteen minutes or less, she was confident in her work.
He finished getting dressed as Goldie stuffed her feet into those tiny little shoes that he didn’t understand why any duck would wear - they looked very painful - and paused to look down at himself.
“Not a bad look, if I do say so myself,” he said with a smile. “If I didnae know better, I’d almost think I came from money!”
Goldie stood up and rolled her eyes, brushing invisible dirt off her dress. “There is no way dirty dour Scrooge McDuck could pass off as…” She’d turned while she spoke and he stepped a little closer so she could get a good view of him in his fancy new clothes.
“...wealthy…” Goldie sounded stunned as she eyed him up and down, feeling a swell of shock and satisfaction at just how damn good he looked.
---
The Outlaw Scrooge McDuck: 13:35 - 16:20
---
Scrooge's face during her little song and dance was so stupid and dopey and funny - if she hadn't been so good at what she did, Goldie would’ve burst out laughing. Fortunately, no one was paying attention to him. She was Glittering Goldie once again, and that meant all eyes were on her!
She watched Scrooge grab the key and head towards the back, but knew he'd need a few minutes to get in there and get the nugget to their partners. She started another song to keep everyone on her, especially the asshole in the white suit.
Goldie did a little spin at one point and was shocked to see the giant terrifying butler was gone when she turned back around.
Scrooge.
She curtsied politely and thanked the crowd and the piano man, taking a few seconds to seem like she wasn't in a hurry to run off and potentially save someone's life. Goldie smiled brightly as she started to leave.
Unfortunately for her, it wasn't going to be that easy. She felt a gloved hand grab her wrist and pull her back, and Goldie found herself in the arms of Rockerduck himself.
She kept up a very fake smile, extremely uncomfortable with whatever the hell was happening.
"How much?" he asked suddenly.
Goldie raised an eyebrow, confused by the question. "Excuse me?"
"Just one evening," he said with a smirk. "Or perhaps the rest of the trip if you enjoy yourself enough."
His words sunk in and Goldie didn't need to ask again to figure out what he was suggesting. She needed to get to Scrooge and away from this jerk without arousing suspicion. Goldie pushed herself out of his arms and held up her hands in front of her. "As flattering as that is, I'm not-"
Rockerduck stepped forward and into her personal space again. "I'm a very, very rich man. Whatever your price, I can afford it."
Goldie stared at him and thought about how just a few years earlier she would've loved for an opportunity like this to fall into her lap. It wouldn't have been pleasant, of course, but it would've been perfectly tolerable and she could tell from his clothes and shoes that he wasn't lying about being very rich.
But now she owned her own businesses and had a...relationship she had certain feelings about and she wasn’t desperate enough for money that she'd stoop to a guy like this.
So Goldie did the only thing she could think of to get herself out of such an uncomfortable situation: she lied.
"Oh, well when you put it that way…" Goldie batted her eyelashes obnoxiously. "...how about I go get you a drink and we'll talk some more?"
Rockerduck smiled and took his seat. "Now that's what I like to hear!"
Goldie poked the end of his beak with her pointer finger and let out a girlish giggle as she crept away to the back of the car. She felt like she was going to vomit, and if Scrooge wasn't in trouble she might've allowed herself the luxury.
---
The Outlaw Scrooge McDuck: 17:27 - 21:05
---
“Oh no, you don’t!”
Scrooge ran after Goldie with his hand in his hat, smiling brightly. She might’ve had a head start, but her dress slowed her down, and it only took a few moments for Scrooge to catch up.
On instinct, Scrooge lunged at her, trying to get revenge for her attack on him just a minute earlier.
Goldie turned around and squealed as Scrooge knocked her down - they didn't fall far, just into a shallow part of the gulch. Goldie fell back-first, leaving the back of her dress and hair soaked. Scrooge definitely felt like he'd won when he saw the shocked and angry look on her face.
“You didnae have to hit me, you know!”
She stuck out her tongue and wiggled her arms and legs around, very aware that Scrooge had somehow settled himself between her legs. “Aw, but you just looked so smackable, Scroogey!”
He leaned down to argue, bringing his beak right up close to hers. The look in her eyes softened as he got closer and Scrooge realized this was his time to take the lead. He’d hesitated too long before. Slowly, he brought a wet hand up to her face and shoved his beak against hers.
Goldie was surprised but happy that he’d initiated physicality between them for the first time. She snuck her hands up to his whiskers to pull him closer, and hummed as his free arm snaked around her back. They made out roughly and neither really cared that Scrooge was gradually pushing Goldie further into the gulch until her chest was almost entirely underwater.
She shoved him off of her and sat up straight, immediately looking down at her boots. They were a little muddy, but they hadn’t gotten wet, thank God. Her hair, on the other hand, was an absolute mess.
While she was trying to fix her hair, Scrooge nervously glanced around them to see the more gold-hungry Gumptioneers were either pretending not to pay attention to him and Goldie’s antics...or they were paying way too much attention. One man’s particular leer towards Goldie made Scrooge’s skin crawl, and he followed the man’s line of sight to Goldie’s chest.
Now completely soaked, her dress was practically see-through. Scrooge quickly moved his legs around Goldie’s to park himself on her side and block the man’s view.
Goldie was collecting the pins out of her hair and not paying any attention to the townies around them. She stood up without a word and started wringing out her dress as she walked towards her tent.
After a few steps, she turned around to see Scrooge staring at her from his seat by the water. She rolled her eyes. “Are you coming?”
Scrooge nodded and jumped up after her. He wasn’t one hundred percent sure what he was getting himself into, but he was pretty confident that he wanted to find out.
As gentlemanly as possible, Scrooge lifted up one of her tent flaps. He was glad that the gulch was far enough away that he didn’t have to worry about any creepy miners trying to catch a show.
Goldie had taken off her shoes while they walked and gently tossed them into the corner of the tent. She crawled in and stopped just inside the entrance, tugging her long hair to one side. “Come undo this, will you? It’s suffocating me.”
Scrooge nodded again and followed. It wasn’t a huge tent, but it was plenty big for the two of them. He waited for the tent flaps to close before reaching his shaky hands forward and tugging at the strings of her dress.
He untied the knot easily, but felt a familiar nervousness creeping up on him. His palms were sweaty and he knew he was blushing, but there was something so enticing about the view in front of him that he couldn’t keep his thoughts straight.
As the knot loosened, so did Goldie’s dress. Her sleeves fell just a little and she let out a satisfied sigh.
Scrooge felt himself focusing intensely on the feathers at the base of her neck. He breathed quietly for another second as Goldie messed with her hair again, then he finally moved. His hands grabbed at her hips and he stuck his beak into her feathers, preening gently.
Goldie gasped and straightened her back. She definitely hadn’t expected that, though she certainly wasn’t complaining. She tugged at her hair to keep it out of his way.
Scrooge hummed into her feathers and squeezed her hips tighter as his preens turned into kisses. He wanted to show her that he could take charge, too. He wasn’t just some chump she could tease and smack around, he was the strongest, smartest, sharpest duck in the world and he was going to show her just that.
---
---
As Scrooge started to doze off next to her, Goldie took a deep breath and collected her clothes. Part of her wanted to stay and cuddle with him and go to sleep, but another part of her couldn’t stop thinking about how much gold there was waiting for her outside. This little session of theirs had already taken much longer than she expected - not that she was complaining, since Scrooge had finally figured out what he was doing.
He figured out what he was doing multiple times. She felt a little weak in the knees thinking about it. But...gold. And he was asleep anyway, so she had no reason to stick around.
Goldie got dressed and exited the tent with her pan and other supplies in her hands and headed to the water. She almost ran into the sheriff on the way there, but as soon as he saw her he squeaked, blushed, and ran off in another direction.
Goldie shrugged and started collecting gold. These townsfolk were clearly amateurs - using hats and shoes to collect instead of pans or sluice boxes - so she was confident she’d be taking home a significant chunk of change.
As she was panning for gold, Scrooge opened his eyes and took a few deep breaths. He still didn’t understand Goldie at all, but at least he’d done something right this time around. He’d silently watched her get dressed and grab her pan, so it seemed she wasn’t off to steal from him again. Instead she was collecting gold like any person would do.
The odd fighting-then-kissing relationship they had confused him more than anything else he’d experienced since leaving Glasgow. She seemed to love teasing him, and he’d enjoyed the look on her face when he teased her on the train. It wasn’t the type of relationship he’d read about in stories as a kid, but it wasn’t so bad. Maybe it could work for him. He never took the time to fantasize about a wife and kids, but he did enjoy his time with Goldie (for the most part). She toyed with his emotions, but she also reminded him that there was more to life than just work. He didn’t travel for fun or go on vacation or take breaks, so these little moments with her were...nice.
After a few minutes of laying there doing nothing, Scrooge wanted to see what was going on at the gulch. He grabbed his shirt and stuck his head out of the tent, trying to see exactly what the situation was. At his current distance, Scrooge could see that pretty much everyone in town was at the gulch collecting gold, but he couldn’t see much more than that.
He walked towards the water, and Marshall sped past him at one point, not making eye contact. Scrooge thought that was a little weird considering the adventure they’d just been on together, but he was focused on the townies ahead - most of whom were trying to collect gold in their hats.
Scrooge crossed his arms over his chest and thought about how much work it would be to sit down and try to collect more gold than the rest of them, when what he could really be doing is starting his first real business. He lifted up his hat and looked around for a general store, happy to see that there was one in town. Scrooge made his way there and prepared to buy all the pans they had in the store.
---
A few hours later, Scrooge was enjoying the spoils of having resold all the pans to wannabe prospectors in town. Without any other way to buy pans, the townies had no choice but to buy from him, and he made double the amount he’d initially spent.
Goldie sauntered over to the spot near his tent where Scrooge had situated himself. He was counting up the money and gold he’d earned during the day, and she was eager to compare. Without asking, she fell to her knees in front of him and pulled out a big bag filled with gold nuggets she’d collected from the gulch.
Scrooge rolled his eyes and tried not to be enchanted by the happy look on her face. Though she was sweaty and covered in mud and dirt, she looked positively beautiful with a genuine smile. “Come to see how much money I made?”
Goldie shook her bag, enjoying the way it caught Scrooge’s attention. “I can’t believe you were afraid to get a little dirty, McDuck,” she said with a laugh. “I could buy three new Blackjacks with the gold I picked up today!”
“I just didnae see the point,” he responded. “But thanks to ye advertising pans for me, I made a significant profit without doing much work at all.”
Goldie stared at his bag of gold, wondering if it had more than her own. “Are you telling me Mr. McHardWork took the easy way?” she teased.
“For once, maybe I did,” Scrooge said with a smirk. “But now I’ve made several thousand dollars and I didn’t even have to break a sweat...” He leaned forward and sniffed loudly. “...unlike some people.”
Goldie glared at him, but her heart wasn't in it. She was much more happy than she'd ever admit to be sitting and chatting with him like friends.
"Are you busy right now?" she asked suddenly.
Scrooge looked surprised by her question and scratched his neck. "The sun's gone down and I've sold every pan, so...no?"
Goldie almost laughed at his cluelessness. She stood up and grabbed his hand, pulling him up with her. "Come on, sourdough. We're going to your place this time."
Scrooge gulped and squeezed her hand. He knew exactly what was happening this time and he wanted to make sure it would be a repeat of their earlier session. He wanted her to know that it wasn't just a one-time thing; he was learning and he was going to show her a good time.
---
---
For the first time with this particular duck, Goldie allowed herself the luxury of post-coital cuddling. She laid her head against Scrooge’s chest and idly played with his feathers. She felt good. Not just from all the gold she’d earned (fair and square!) and the much improved sex, but her heart felt almost full for the first time in her life. Calmly laying there with him, nowhere to go and no reason to rush off...it was nice.
She’d once made fun of him for acting like his name meant he could do anything, but a little part of her was starting to think he was right. Scrooge McDuck was certainly a capable man. She felt safe and warm under the blanket with him and started to drift off to sleep.
Scrooge was also feeling very good about himself. He’d made a ton of money, had the best sex of his life, and Goldie hadn’t stolen a thing from him all day. He could barely believe that just a day earlier they were arguing over her trying to jump his claim.
He glanced down at her when he noticed she’d stopped playing with the feathers on his chest. Her breathing had evened out, and it was clear she had fallen asleep. Scrooge’s heart started beating faster. This was new territory for them - it felt domestic in ways he didn’t fully understand. But he liked it a lot.
He thought back to earlier in the day when he said they hated each other and Goldie nodded and smiled. That felt like a confirmation to him, that despite all the physicality between them they were still enemies...but he didn’t really hate her. He couldn’t, as much as he tried. Flirting and kissing and touching were still new concepts to him, but Scrooge knew their relationship couldn’t be dismissed as just blowing off steam. There was something more between them.
Scrooge stared at Goldie’s sleeping face and felt an urge to kiss her forehead. He stopped himself and sighed, closing his eyes and dropping his head onto the ground. It was impossible to tell if Goldie felt something more, too, or if she was just having fun with him. If he brought it up...she could ruin him. Mock him, reject him, or worse...use him. Take all he had and leave.
If he couldn’t trust her with his money, how could he trust her with his heart? Scrooge McDuck wasn’t a gambling man. So he sighed and shifted positions so his beak laid gently on top of hers. He wasn’t going to risk losing everything when what they had now was just fine.
Okay so I know Gumption is supposed to be in Southern California but idk if the DuckTales writers didn't realize that the California Gold Rush ended long before Scrooge was even born or if they didn't care. So whatever. I put it in Northern California 'cause I couldn't justify Goldie making that long of a trip on foot and I'm just pretending that there was some town that the 49ers missed. It's fine.