love is something that needs tending to

Summary: Five years is a long, long time.

Word count: 3087

Warnings: None

1914-1919; White Agony Plains

On day five, their situation really started to sink in. They were going to be stuck for a very…very long time.

“It’s been quite a while since I set foot in Dawson.”

“Yes, well, some of us still have things going on here.”

On day one hundred and sixty eight, Goldie decided she would take curses more seriously from now on. Just because something didn’t sound so bad didn’t mean it wouldn’t be horrendously agonizing.

“So this is where we’ll find the golden lagoon?”

“That’s what the map says! C’mon, Goldie, this’ll be a piece of cake!”

On day three hundred and four, Scrooge finally convinced himself to stop worrying about his family. He’d go see them as soon as he got free...right after he checked on his businesses. Hopefully some other treasure hunters would free them someday soon.

“These must be the rainbow caves. We’re almost there!”

“Oh...Scrooge, let’s stop for a moment. It’s beautiful here!”

On day seven hundred and ninety two, Goldie couldn’t contain the twinge of a smile on her face. As much as he’d insulted her and screamed at her right before they fell in, she was glad to have Scrooge’s face to look at while she was frozen in place. Or maybe she was delirious from lack of sleep (lack of anything, really). But it was still nice to see him.

“We must’ve gotten turned around at some point. Let’s just set up camp for the night.”

“...if you say so, Scroogey.”

On day eight hundred and five, Scrooge smiled back at her. He couldn’t help himself. Though Goldie often pissed him off with all her little comments and teasing and mockery, when he had an opportunity to just look at her and take in her face and eyes and everything about her that made him so lightheaded, he found himself enchanted. He wished he could hear her sing again.

“Wait, what?! My map! Goldie you no-good, swindlin’-”

“I’m gonna find that golden lagoon first!”

On day one thousand, seven hundred and forty four, the ice around their hands had melted away. With the little strength they had, Scrooge and Goldie reached out to each other. Their eyes were still locked and they had strange smiles on their faces and were holding hands and it felt oddly romantic despite the situation. Scrooge felt an unfamiliar pull in his heart, like he wanted to keep holding hands with her forever. And…he did. He never wanted to let go.

“What was that?!”

“That, you connivin’ map-rippin’, thievin’ swill, is a...a mammoth!”

The ice around Goldie continued to melt over the next few months. It was on day one thousand, six hundred and eighty-eight that the ice had melted enough for her to really move. Goldie yanked her leg out of its frozen tomb and hopped down to the ground, stumbling slightly. She was so excited to leave that stupid cave. To get some food and see to her businesses and sleep. By her count - and god damn, she’d spent so fucking long counting the seconds - she hadn’t slept in almost five years.

There was still one thing to do before she could leave, though.

Goldie looked at Scrooge and saw him continuing to gaze at her with that same goofy smile she’d been staring at for over a year. If she didn’t know better, she’d think he looked like he was in love with her. Wouldn’t that be something? If the one time she couldn’t speak up and ruin things, he actually fell in love.

But she knew better than that. If he was feeling anything stronger than usual, it was thanks to being so touch-starved and miserable after being stuck for five years. It was fake. It wouldn’t last. She was feeling it, too. An urge to love him always and forever. But she knew it was just a phase.

Still, she thought about freeing him. He wouldn’t die if she left him there, of course, since that stupid ice curse wouldn’t let them just die in peace, but he wouldn’t be comfortable stuck for another few months or however long it might take for the rest of the ice to melt.

Goldie had that thought on her mind when a loud, ferocious roar caught her attention. She whipped her head around to see where it came from and knew that it was the mammoth from years earlier. It was still around and probably eager for a snack. Their fight with it before had not gone well. Neither of them had been injured, thankfully, but that was only because of their escape strategy. If they’d ended up against a wall of the cave instead of an icy creek, they would’ve been crushed to death. Or eaten, maybe.

It roared again and Goldie felt her heart jump. She was scared. Utterly, completely terrified. She didn’t want to spend another moment down in that cave with that creature. Getting Scrooge out of his ice would take a lot more than a moment.

She looked back at him.

He had such a happy, expectant look on his face. Like he really thought she’d save him and then they’d be together forever. But that wasn’t them. And he should’ve known better than that. They weren’t in a relationship and five years of their only source of warmth being their beating hearts wouldn’t change that.

Goldie decided that she wanted to leave more than she wanted to try to save him. But she didn’t want Scrooge to see how scared she was - she wanted him to see her leaving confidently, a classic Goldie O’Gilt escape with a wink and a kiss. In a way that would make him come find her as soon as he got out, would make him angrily seek her out for a reason why she left him behind. She’d give him some half-assed answer and kiss him and they’d be right back where they started.

Scrooge’s face fell when Goldie blew him a kiss and waved goodbye. She rushed out of the cave, heading back the way they came in, and her miserable expression mirrored his. His loving look had disappeared so quickly that she knew she’d made the right decision. Whatever love he thought he was feeling just wasn’t real.

---

Scrooge started to cry.

Being frozen in ice, and still living thanks to that stupid curse, his tears froze instantly and now his eyes were hurting along with his heart and head. But he couldn’t help it. He really, really thought something had changed in the years they’d been stuck together. Without the ability to argue or have sex, they’d just...looked at one another. For years. Eyes locked, one hand clasped with another. It felt so new and so powerful and he really thought things were going to change.

He thought, not for the first time, that he was falling in love with her. She couldn’t distract him from the thought by teasing or mocking him. And she smiled back and held his hand, too! Scrooge had been so sure that Goldie was feeling the same way he was. He thought she wanted to hold him the way he wanted to hold her!

But then she was gone.

He closed his eyes, sad that he wasn’t physically able to cry anymore thanks to his icy gold tears. The release would’ve been nice. Instead, he’d just have to stay stuck for another five years until the mammoth finally came back to kill him.

---

The little orphans Goldie had allowed to live in her Dawson Blackjack were not-so-little when she finally returned. They’d been growing slowly and steadily over the years, but suddenly they were all adults! It was amazing what five years did to a teenager.

They were all shocked when she returned. Though they were grateful to Goldie for giving them a place to live and food to eat, they weren’t exactly close to her and assumed she’d either died or abandoned the business for better opportunities elsewhere. It wasn’t an unreasonable assumption. So when she shuffled into the saloon and up the stairs to her room, the current employees of the Blackjack just stared.

Goldie didn’t even notice. All she wanted to do was sleep.

She woke up twelve hours later hungrier than she’d ever been. Her head was dizzy and her body ached and she felt like death. Goldie sighed and climbed down the stairs, happy to see it was early enough that there were no customers. She could just take a moment to herself and eat some food and drink some water and clear her head.

That alone time lasted maybe ten minutes before Goldie heard footsteps clamoring down the stairs. She looked up to see one of the kids - well that probably wasn’t an appropriate description anymore - and raised an eyebrow as the girl took a seat next to her.

“Hi Miss Goldie,” the girl said politely. “We thought you were dead.”

“Me, too,” Goldie grumbled back. She took a bite of her sandwich. “The saloon looks good.”

“...thanks,” she responded, sounding a little uncomfortable.

Goldie looked at her curiously. “What?”

“Did you come back to...collect money?”

Goldie swallowed a particularly big bite and wiped her wrist across the front of her beak. “Nah, don’t worry. Keep the money here.”

The girl smiled and nodded - she looked extremely relieved.

Goldie wondered what she’d done to instill such fear. “What’s your name?”

She frowned and blinked a few times. “You don’t, uh…? Well. That’s fine. My name is Opal.”

Goldie closed her eyes and took a long sip of her water. “Opal. How old are you now?”

“Thirty-one, ma’am.”

“Wow,” Goldie laughed. “I keep thinking of you like you’re still the ten-year-old that walked in here begging for scraps.”

Opal didn’t return the laugh, just nodded along while Goldie spoke.

“Where are all the others? What about the fat kid, um...Earl?

“Ernest is in politics now. I voted for him in the last election!”

Goldie blinked. Women could vote, apparently. She’d really missed a lot. “And the rest?”

“A lot of them are still here,” Opal responded. “It’s just that eight in the morning is a little early for them. But Rose and Roman went to work at your Blackjack in Seattle. Carl went to New Stork. And of course there’s Dawsie who, um…”

“Hm?”

“...she stole a few hundred dollars from the register and headed south. No one knows where she went.”

Goldie laughed again. “Well, at least she didn’t leave you other kids high ‘n dry. Was this all in the last five years?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Crazy.” Goldie took another big sip and sighed. She needed to go somewhere warm and recuperate. “Do you need any money for repairs or new furniture or anything here?”

Opal’s eyes went wide at Goldie’s question and she seemed nervous to answer. “W-well...nothing’s broken, but a little extra money would be helpful. Just in case anything comes up.”

“Yeah, ‘course.” Goldie stuffed her hand into her bottomless bag and pulled out a wallet. She grabbed three twenty dollar bills, slapping them onto the counter.

“...thank you, Miss Goldie,” Opal said quietly as she pocketed the bills. She didn’t look at how much it was, just in case her reaction would be offensive. “Are you staying here long?”

“No. But I’ll be back in a few weeks.” Goldie stood up and brushed some crumbs off her pants. “Let me know if a loud Scotsman named McDuck comes around.”

“You mean Scrooge McDuck?”

“That’s the one.”

“Last I heard, he was spotted running some goat farm in the UK. Why would he come around here?”

Confused, Goldie turned to her. “A goat farm? When was this?” She knew Scrooge didn’t tell her about all of his businesses, but as far as she knew he stayed away from farming or animals because of the unpredictability.

“Maybe two years ago? He hasn’t been in the news much lately.” Opal scratched her head. “I know he’s the success story of the Klondike, but he never comes back here, so it’s hard to keep up.”

Goldie frowned and turned her head so she could roll her eyes without Opal noticing. Okay, obviously she was thinking of the wrong person. Didn’t matter. What mattered was checking in on her businesses and making sure everything was still afloat. She walked towards the stairs.

“Um...Miss Goldie!” Opal called out. “I put all your mail on the desk in your room!”

“Thanks,” Goldie said with a lazy wave.

As she entered her room again, Goldie sighed at the pile of mail in front of her mirror. She hadn’t even glanced at it before falling asleep, and it looked like a doozy. She grabbed a few of the letters off the top of the stack and shuffled through them.

Goldie paused when she saw a familiar name staring up at her. Not a name she’d thought about in a long time. Without any expectations of what might be inside, Goldie opened up the letter and began to read.

I don’t care if you thought she was a shite mother, you still should’ve been at the funeral.

Goldie closed the letter back up and tossed it onto the desk. She didn’t have the energy to think about what she’d just read. Her body was still aching. She stared at her bed and decided to go back to sleep.

---

A few days after Goldie’s departure, Scrooge’s sadness had transformed into anger.

He was absolutely furious. How dare Goldie leave him here after everything they’d gone through?! They’d been on-and-off rivals and partners and lovers and whatevers for almost twenty years and she chose to throw it all away and leave him behind to die for what?! Her stupid little game of cat-and-mouse?!

He’d never agreed to play that game with her. And at this point in their lives, he was getting tired of it.

Scrooge balled his hands up into fists and started to shake in frustration and anger. His heart was broken and he was so tired and annoyed and he just wanted to go home and get some goddamn sleep.

With the power of his own strength, combined with the anger of all his McDuck ancestors flowing through him, Scrooge’s shaking managed to create enough friction to start melting the ice immediately around his body. He kept going - even as his muscles were screaming and aching. He needed to get out. He was done being trapped.

As the ice started to melt enough for Scrooge to start shimmying forward, he took a deep breath and started thinking about Duckburg and Glasgow and how much he wanted to leave the Klondike and never come back.

Several hours of shaking and shimmying later, Scrooge finally fell out of the ice and landed face-first onto the solid ice below. He felt lucky that the freezing water had fully frozen in the last five years so he could escape without getting trapped in ice again.

It’d certainly made it easier for Goldie to get away.

Scrooge scowled and shook himself off. He didn’t care how in love he was with Goldie or how she’d completely proven her lack of reciprocity. If his feelings were just a game to her, then he wasn’t interested in playing anymore.

He wanted to go home.

---

Two months passed without any word from Scrooge.

Goldie was back at the Blackjack and feeling nervous. She thought he would’ve gotten out and come to scream at her by now. He should’ve yelled at her for being selfish and loving gold and treasure more than anything else in the world and then they’d fall back into the same old routine.

She’d been sure of it. After leaving him behind like that, there was no way he wouldn’t seek her out. He’d have to be pissed.

She huffed and looked out the window of her room at the Blackjack, thinking about how many times she’d watched Scrooge walk by so many years earlier. Maybe she’d made a mistake. She thought the oh-so-smart, tough, and sharp Scrooge McDuck would’ve gotten out not long after her. But...perhaps she overestimated him.

Even without a map to guide her, Goldie knew she needed to go back. She could remember the way there...probably. She’d bring knives and other junk to protect herself. What was the chance she’d run into the mammoth again? It was very unlikely.

...still, bringing a gun wouldn’t hurt.

No one questioned her when Goldie marched out of the Blackjack with a full backpack and hiking boots. She often disappeared without saying goodbye or letting them know when she might be back. After her recent five year absence, they had no expectations for her to be communicative.

Goldie didn’t mind. She knew they could handle the Blackjack just fine without her, they didn’t need any coddling. They were too grateful to her to ransack the place and abandon it, so she wasn’t concerned. Her focus was entirely on Scrooge and where he was and why he hadn’t gotten out yet.

It was a two hour hike from Dawson to White Agony Plains, where the entrance to the ice caverns sat. Goldie took a deep breath when she saw the opening she and Scrooge had walked through years earlier.

She kept thinking about how without a map she could get lost in there, there were so many twists and turns and tunnels and a giant somehow-living prehistoric mammoth that could prevent her from getting back out. But she needed to check if Scrooge was still in there.

Goldie was only five feet from the cave entrance when she noticed footprints in the snow. They were duck feet, not boots, and they were clearly exiting the cave.

So he had gotten out. He’d gotten out and didn’t bother to stop in Dawson to tell her off or threaten her or anything like that. He just...left.

She frowned. Was he regrouping and planning to go back for the golden lagoon without her? He might’ve been collecting a team to help take down the mammoth. He still had half of the map, as far as she knew, so if he could find the mammoth and kill it, then he wouldn’t need her help.

Goldie thought about all the tools she’d brought with her and scowled. If Scrooge was going to cut her out, then she’d at least make it harder for him.

Opal is an obvious reference to moon_opals' scroldie baby OC, Opal McDuck! Check her out here: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moon_opals/pseuds/moon_opals

REAL HISTORY FACTS:
- 5 years is 1,826 days
- Wooly mammoths went extinct over 4,000 years ago. But it's fine there can be one left

DUCK FRANCHISE REFERENCES:
- "Rose" Roman" "Carl" and "Dawsie" - Don Rosa, Romano Scarpa, Carl Barks. & Dawsie was a popular baby name for kids born in Dawson City lol
- Obviously this includes the flashback from the DT17 episode "The Golden Lagoon of White Agony Plains!"
- From the DT17 book Solving Mysteries and Rewriting History: "Golden Lagoon of White Agony Plains (twice): We searched for the legendary lagoon made of liquid gold. Best encounter with an unfrozen woolly mammoth I've seen to date."