i'm a million miles from the place i was before

Summary: Goldie starts to feel old.

Word count: 3554

Warnings: None

February 1909; Maryland

Over the past six years, Scrooge and Goldie met up dozens of times. Never on purpose, they both claimed, and each encounter ended with theft or sex or both.

Scrooge was fine with that. He was a world-traveling adventurer, the owner of a large-and-growing town in southern Calisota, the owner of several factories and businesses and pieces of land he’d yet to decide what to do with, and a multimillionaire. Certainly on track to be the richest duck in the world, though he knew he had a long way to go before he got there.

Goldie was focusing on her three business locations: Dawson, Seattle, and most recently...New Stork City. It had taken several years to set up, but as of 1907, Goldie owned a hotel in one of the most populous cities in the United States. For a woman who came from absolutely nothing, Goldie was proud of where she was.

But business wasn’t enough to keep her attention year-round. She craved the adrenaline from adventure and treasure hunting. Going by herself was fine - a bit dangerous, but fine. It was a nice feeling to find and claim a treasure that no one else had ever found. It felt great to display it in her hotels like she had her own little, personal museum. It was even better to find out that Scrooge had attempted to get the treasure right after her, only to discover it’d already been taken.

The best feeling was when they went on adventures together. Their teamwork wasn’t anything to scoff at: when Scrooge McDuck and Goldie O’Gilt were working well together, they could get absolutely anything done. The combination of her intuition and recently developed adventuring skills with his tougher, smarter, sharper act made it so there was no treasure they couldn’t find. No gold they couldn’t take.

In 1904, they’d had a fun experience hunting down the Lost Padre Mine near El Paso. Goldie had never been that far south before and was unhappy dealing with the heat, but enjoyed how flat the ground was. Made it easier to get around and to escape quickly from guard statues that’d come to life and were trying to kill the intruders.

“Goldie, move!” Scrooge screeched as he reached out and grabbed her arms. He pulled her towards him quickly - just as a large, stony sword stabbed into the wall where her head had been.

They both lost their balance as the guardian struggled to get his weapon out of the wall. Goldie ended up falling over and Scrooge kept hold of her, putting them into a position similar to a tango dip. Goldie stared at the guardian, then up at Scrooge, then back to the guardian.

Scrooge couldn’t take his eyes off of her. He didn’t like that she’d almost died, but he was so glad he was there to save her.

“...are you alright?” Scrooge asked between breaths.

Goldie simply smirked, then regained her balance and shoved herself up into Scrooge’s personal space. The shove pushed him out of the way of another guardian’s sword - which also got stuck in the wall.

“These guys are pretty dumb,” Goldie mumbled. Her beak was less than an inch from Scrooge’s and she could sense his nervousness. No matter how many times they’d been together, he always got a little nervous.

Scrooge nodded and continued to breathe deeply. Goldie could feel his breath on her beak and her cheeks which, for some reason, made her heart skip a beat, and she didn’t know how to feel about that.

Another moment later and Goldie grabbed Scrooge by the collar of his shirt, pulling him down to the ground with her. She fell onto her back and Scrooge landed gracefully on top with his hands on either side of her head.

Above them, the two guardians accidentally stabbed each other while attempting to stab the thieving adventurers who had taken their silver.

The sound of cracking stone caught Scrooge’s attention and he instinctively wrapped his arms around Goldie in an attempt to protect her from any falling rock.

Goldie, flattered but not quite charmed by his chivalry, wrapped her arms around him as well. Then she rolled them out of the way of danger before anything could hit them. The space they’d just been occupying was quickly covered in debris.

Now Goldie was on top and Scrooge looked confused, but happy. Their current position was one he’d become a fan of over the years and they were both plenty aware of that. She smirked down at him knowingly.

“So does that count as our first dance, Scroogey?”

It took Scrooge a moment before he understood the meaning of her question. He blushed and rolled his eyes, grumbling about the logistics of dancing and partnerships. He supposed she was right, but he was a wealthy, upstanding citizen now! They should’ve been dancing real dances, not dodging mystical swords in unison.

As the years went on, they continued to meet up for fun adventures together. Many of them ended with Goldie stealing the treasure for herself, but not until after Scrooge was photographed with it. He could show the world what an amazing treasure hunter he was and they’d be none-the-wiser about who possessed the treasure a few days later. Scrooge kind of hated it, but Goldie loved hearing him rant about how he planned to get it back from her.

Though, despite all his threats, Scrooge had never come back to Dawson. She wasn’t even sure if he knew about her hotels in Seattle or New Stork City - he’d certainly never stayed in them, because she would’ve known if he had. She supposed her hotels were a bit more luxurious than he’d ever want to pay for.

But still...she’d hoped he would seek her out someday. After more than ten years of their back-and-forth, it’d become obvious to Goldie that she was always the one to initiate everything. She initiated adventures, physical intimacy, plans for the future...she even initiated conversation most of the time. It was a little taxing on her heart when she thought about it too hard. Scrooge never rejected her, but he never made the first move, either.

The closest was their time in Gumption, but even then Goldie had had to guide him. She’d understood that he was nervous, but...they’d been together dozens of times. It was getting annoying.

His lack of initiative was especially notable on an adventure in some mountains near the Great Lakes in 1906. She knew he was attracted to her, but even after all this time he still acted like a scared teenager about it.

“Goldie, watch out!”

She barely had a chance to register the danger before Scrooge pushed her out of the way. The giant mountain lion lunged right at Scrooge instead, scratching across his arm and chest.

Goldie watched Scrooge fall to the ground, cradling his injuries and cursing in Scottish Gaelic. She looked between him and their attacker and took a deep breath before picking herself up again.

Scrooge had saved her life too many times, it was time to return the favor. She wasn’t just a capable woman, she was a sharp, tough adventurer on her own merits! She could handle a little cat in the mountains.

“Hey!” Goldie yelled as the lion creeped back towards Scrooge.

It turned to look at her and snarled.

Goldie shook her head and pulled a knife out of her pocket, holding it menacingly in her right hand. “Let’s dance.”

The mountain lion ran towards Goldie at top speed, growling and aiming to kill.

Meanwhile, Scrooge had managed to wrap his wounds and was catching the unexpected show. He knew Goldie went on adventures by herself, but he’d never really seen her acting on her own before. She was fine as a partner - followed plans of escape or attack, sneaky and sharp - but he never would’ve described her as tough, per se.

At that moment, however, Scrooge wondered how he’d never noticed before. The puma ripped up her coat with a swipe of its claws, and Goldie angrily tore off the ruined fabric with a sigh before attacking with her knife. Scrooge felt his eyes drawn to the shape of her biceps - the curve of muscle that pulsed as she fought with the creature.

He never would’ve expected such a scenario to be so attractive. The combination of the tears in her clothes, messy long hair, and splotches of blood from the mountain lion....Scrooge was discovering a new side to himself.

Goldie exhaled loudly as she stabbed the creature a few more times for good measure. She didn’t mind the blood, though it was a little gross, but there was no going back at that point.

“Are you alright, Scrooge?” she asked without looking up at him, trying to catch her breath.

Scrooge silently nodded, unable to take his eyes off of her arms or face or legs or hair...every part of her was captivating at that moment and he was so ridiculously turned on that he couldn’t think straight, let alone answer her.

Without a verbal response, Goldie turned towards him to make sure he was alive and well. She was taken aback by his look of intense admiration, and she blushed. Goldie gave him a small smile and combed two fingers through her hair.

She stepped over the puma’s corpse and closer to Scrooge, stopping a few feet away from him with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. “Scrooge...do you need help taking care of that?” she asked, pointing down.

He almost didn’t register what she said, but as Scrooge followed her line of sight to the front of his pants, he was devastatingly humiliated to see he had a noticeable boner. On a freezing mountain. In the middle of January.

Scrooge turned bright red and quickly adjusted his position to cover up his shame. Despite the fact that Goldie was blushing and smiling, he was embarrassed to the point of no return. He stood up and rushed off in another direction without saying a word.

Goldie felt like she’d blinked and he was gone. She frowned and cupped her hands around her beak. “I would’ve been happy to help!” she shouted, hoping he could hear how frustrated she was. Maybe she was a little turned on, too! How did it benefit either of them for him to run off at the first sign of arousal?

She sighed and turned back around, expecting to see the mountain lion’s body. Instead she just saw a puddle of blood and some clumps of skin and fur. Goldie sucked in a breath and rushed after Scrooge to make sure it hadn’t gone after him.

The quality of their adventures varied in treasure and in time spent together. There were weird ones, like the living ice sculpture that cursed them with it’s dying breath - something about being frozen for years and forced to experience every minute of it. And there were exciting ones, like when they accidentally ended up in some warehouse belonging to the Mafia and had to find their way out without anyone noticing.

One of Goldie’s biggest frustrations with their adventures was that she still hadn’t left North America. Scrooge, from what he told her, had traveled back to Scotland on several occasions in attempts to convince his family to move to Duckburg. Plus he’d been to Paris, London, Zurich…

Goldie was jealous. She just didn’t have the manpower at her hotels to take long boat trips overseas. What if there was an emergency? She’d need weeks to get back and forth. And despite Scrooge’s insistence that his investment in some flying machines was going well, until that technology was perfected, boats were her only option.

So as much as she wanted to travel overseas (with him or by herself, Goldie wasn’t picky in that regard), she was still spending all of her time in the Americas.

On a surprisingly warm night in February of 1909, Goldie found herself wrapped up in a blanket with Scrooge. Still in that same tent that he’d been using for years, and he still hadn’t patched up any of those holes.

He’d just finished complaining about a deal gone wrong recently which reminded him so much of an old business partner of his named Santa, to which Goldie complained that it was years ago and he needed to get over it and move on. Scrooge was clearly not one to move on from a grudge, though he seemed to have made some kind of exception with their own relationship.

“Oh please,” Scrooge grumbled, going over some paperwork in his lap, “I’m still mad at you for takin’ my gold nugget in Dawson!”

Goldie raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you serious? That was twelve years ago. You can’t be mad still!”

“Yes I can!” he responded angrily. “And for all the gold you’ve stolen from me since!”

She sighed and plopped her head onto the pillow that she’d brought for herself. Experience taught her that Scrooge was never considerate enough to bring small comforts on their little trips together. He’d rather sleep on the cold, wet ground than spend ten cents on a pillow.

Goldie rolled over so she was laying on her stomach with her beak resting on her arms. She wanted to understand him better, but he was an eternally confusing man. She knew he liked her, that much was clear. They had a lot of fun together with the sex, but also just talking and adventuring and occasionally goofing off.

But he also hated her, according to his own words. He’d said it before and she’d certainly said it back. They fought more than was healthy for a...couple. But they weren’t really a couple, so she supposed that made it alright. Or maybe it made it worse.

The important thing was that he didn’t love her. She didn’t love him, either. So they were on the same page.

Goldie rolled over to stare out one of the holes in the roof of Scrooge’s tent. The stars were shining brightly, almost twinkling. She couldn’t take her eyes off the brightest one. It probably wasn’t the North Star, but it made her think back to when people called her the Star of the North.

The gold rush was so long ago.

She glanced over at Scrooge again and watched him adjust his glasses as he squinted at something on one of the papers. When had he gotten glasses? She remembered making fun of him for a bit when she first saw them, but she couldn’t remember when it was. Probably around the same time he started losing his hair (another thing which she’d made fun of him for). It felt like a lot of their adventures were starting to blur together into a big blob of kisses and fights and gold and treasure.

Goldie looked back at the stars.

...maybe she did love him. A little. In some weird, fucked up way. She knew she was attached to Scrooge to the point of no return, but she didn’t want to think of her feelings as love. Love was supposed to be easy. If this was love, then she didn’t know how to describe love at all. And she still didn’t think what Scrooge was feeling towards her would count.

Was love leaving her to die out in the cold, then holding her tightly ‘til she warmed up again? Was love dismissing her thoughts and watching her walk away, then chasing her down and saving her from certain doom? Was love the thing that stopped him from inviting her to Duckburg? Though that wasn’t exactly fair to him, she just referred to her own feelings as love despite stealing from him and purposefully making him mad. Plus she’d never actually said she wanted to come to Duckburg. But...she didn’t want to have to say it.

The thought of Duckburg made Goldie’s chest hurt. He’d taken the land back from some dog family years ago, and constantly talked about the things he’d built there. He talked about wanting his sisters and parents to move to Duckburg with him. But he’d never asked her to visit. Not even hinted at it.

Goldie thought about the town they’d wandered through to gather supplies for this adventure they were on. It was small, but in a quaint way. Probably very different from Duckburg. It was certainly different from Dawson or Seattle - it was alive and charming, but everyone knew each other. The people of that town lived a lifestyle that she hadn’t known since her childhood and that she doubted Scrooge had ever known.

“The people in Chestertown were nice.”

Scrooge looked at her, surprised at the broken silence. "I suppose."

"It seemed like a nice little town," Goldie continued, not really sure where she was headed. "Probably a nice place to settle down and have a family, don't you think?"

"Bah!"

Goldie sat up and looked at Scrooge, surprised by his reaction. She’d expected him to say something shy or embarrassing, but really…she should've known better.

"Settlin’ down now would be a waste!" Scrooge said confidently as he flipped to the last page of his paperwork. "If I'm goin' to be the richest duck in the world, then I need to keep movin' 'til the day I die!"

She frowned and tilted her head, a bit confused. "Then why did you build yourself a big place in Duckburg? Why not build a thousand small homes all over the world instead?"

"Obviously I need a homestead," Scrooge answered with a shrug. "A place to keep my money and treasures! I hated havin' to rely on the Whitehorse Bank to keep my money safe. Now I have a money bin for all that!"

"...a money bin?" Goldie asked, trying to steer the course of their conversation. She didn't want to admit it to herself, but hearing Scrooge completely dismiss the idea of settling and having a family...it hurt. Much more than it should've. An embarrassing amount.

As he was rambling about his money bin and his other various building projects in Duckburg, Goldie closed her eyes and laid back down. She had to accept the fact that Scrooge didn't want that kind of life with her. In fact, he seemed to like her best when she was agitating him in some way.

Any fever-induced dreams she may have had about some kind of domestic life with Scrooge McDuck had to go. She had to accept that it was time for her to wake up and smell the gold. They had fun together because of adventure and betrayal and theft and sex. But that didn't add up to a real relationship. Thinking otherwise was just her...womanly emotions getting the best of her.

But she still enjoyed it. Even if sometimes she hurt him or he hurt her, the benefits definitely outweighed the pain. So maybe she'd never have a family of her own. So long as she had her businesses and her treasure hunts and she had her pseudo-orphanage and these weird psychosexual mind games with Scrooge...that could be enough.

---

---

After another two rounds of sex, Goldie was laying in the same spot as she’d been when her thoughts ran wild and made her chest ache. Scrooge snored next to her, hogging most of the blanket.

She'd had a lot of fun with Scrooge in the past two days, but at that moment she was feeling particularly unfulfilled. Goldie couldn't remember the last time she'd visited Dawson and the original Blackjack. Maybe it was time to go back.

Goldie sat up and reached for her bag, which was now bottomless thanks to a treasure she traded to a desperate witch. She could carry everything she owned in one bag - all she had to do was think about the item to take it out. In that particular moment, she pulled out her compact mirror.

Thanks to the light of the moon shining through the holes in the tent, Goldie could see herself perfectly clearly.

And she didn't like what she saw.

She reached a hand up and stretched the skin under her left eye. She was forty years old. Forty. Four-zero. No gray hair yet, but there were little hints of wrinkles forming under her eyes.

Forty years old and she was laying in a dirty old tent with her rival-with-benefits. By this age, her mother was married twenty years and had three grown kids.

Goldie started to put her clothes on. She glanced down at Scrooge's sleeping face and frowned. She wanted to stay, continue this treasure hunt with him and have a good time, but she needed to go. She needed to find a...a fountain of youth! Or some kind of age extraction potion. Maybe she needed to find that witch again.

She leaned down and placed a kiss on Scrooge's temple. He smiled in his sleep and Goldie felt a stabbing pain in her chest. She grabbed her bag and took some money out of Scrooge's wallet before she left. It didn't feel right to leave without taking something. Otherwise, he'd sit there wondering what he did wrong.

This way he'd know she was just the same thief she’d always been.

REAL HISTORY FACTS:
- The Lost Padre Mine near El Paso is a real legend, I think there's a movie about it
- Chestertown, Maryland is a real town. It's old and small. I've never been but it sounds nice to visit