i'm looking for an empty space

Summary: Scrooge loses someone important to him.

Word count: 2851

Warnings: None

2010; Dawson & Duckburg

It wasn’t long after Beakley moved in with him that Scrooge was called to Demogorgana to help stop an uprising.

Someone or something had stolen a precious treasure from their ruler and everyone was blaming each other and no one seemed to know the truth or what was going on and they were all fighting and screaming and going crazy and it was…a lot.

But he was Scrooge McDuck! And this wasn’t the first time he’d had to broker peace between the people of a warring nation. Probably wouldn’t be the last time, either.

Timeless demon dimensions were a problem, though. To Scrooge, it seemed like he fixed things in Demogorgana in only a few days, but when he returned to Duckburg, it’d been over a year.

And then, a year later, when they asked him to come back and help them once again, he was unfortunately stuck in their dimension for over a week. Eight full days in a timeless demon dimension meant exactly what he thought it meant: he’d missed a significant amount of time back home. Good thing he had Beakley and Duckworth and the Buzzards around to take care of things while he was gone.

It was April of 2010 when he returned, almost exactly three years since Beakley and Webbigail found themselves on his doorstep. But his home was quiet and eerie and dusty and Scrooge had an ominous feeling that something bad had happened in the time he was gone. It’d been about a year and a half since he left, if his phone was accurate. A lot could happen in that amount of time.

He returned through his bedroom closet (because often interdimensional beings chose to contact him that way), and found the bed still made but his dresser looked dusty. Had Beakley not been cleaning? They’d had an agreement about her duties while living with him! And what was he paying Duckworth for?

Scrooge walked out of the room. “Duckworth? Beakley? I’m back!”

Beakley came out of her bedroom, surprised to see him. “McDuck…” she said quietly.

He didn’t miss the sad look on her face, which he could tell had nothing to do with his little disappearing act. He’d explained his lifestyle to her long before she ever moved in. “What’s wrong? Did somethin’ happen to Webbigail?”

She shook her head and walked over, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. “She’s fine. But I’m…I’m sorry, Scrooge. Um…” It was always better to rip off the bandaid than leave someone waiting to get answers. But Beakley knew this was a big bandaid. “...Duckworth is dead.”

Scrooge stared at her, blinking slowly. “...what?”

“He had a heart attack two months ago,” she said, feeling awkward that she had to report the death of someone she hated to someone who cared deeply. Her and Duckworth’s relationship had not improved at all while she was living at the manor, but since she had a baby with her he mostly left her alone. It made his death all the more uncomfortable - she’d had to plan and organize his funeral by herself despite barely knowing the man. “There was nothing anyone could do.”

“I…” Scrooge looked down at his hands, watching them tremble oh-so-slightly as he registered her words. His heart was beating loudly in his chest. “...did I miss the funeral?”

She nodded. “It was a lovely service.”

Tears pricked at the corners of Scrooge’s eyes. “I should’ve been here.”

“You couldn’t have known-”

“I should’ve been here!” he shouted, clenching his fists at his side. “I’m done! No more dimensional travelin’! No more timeless demons and losin’ time and missin’ important things! I could’ve…maybe I couldnae have saved him, but I should’ve been here to say goodbye!” He was shaking and looked about ready to punch the wall, a full tear running down one cheek.

With Quackmore, he’d been there when he passed. He was able to sit next to him and hold his hand and thank him for all his help over the years. Duckworth deserved the same, and Scrooge was too busy galavanting around and being unreachable to give him that honor.

Beakley didn’t respond to his rant, unsure of what to say. Instead she asked, “Can I get you anything?”

“No,” Scrooge said softly. “I’m…I’m goin’ back to my room.”

She watched him walk away and slam his door and she frowned. Scrooge was a man who felt emotions strongly and loudly and when he was upset, the world was upset with him. She refused to be party to his tirades, but she was a little worried about Webbigail. His moods were already all over the place since Della disappeared and Donald left, and she knew Duckworth’s death would be a catalyst for some extreme mood swings, and Webbigail was old enough to internalize the things he’d say to or around her.

Though he’d been relatively helpful with her when he was around (small amount of time that it was), Bentina made a decision that day: she didn’t want Webbigail to spend any more time than necessary with Scrooge McDuck. Especially when he was in such a depressed state. He wouldn’t be a good influence on her - not that he was a good influence before when it came to certain aspects of his life (but Beakley quelched those behaviors to the best of her ability). Webbigail needed to be safe, and that meant sometimes lying or keeping things from her or Scrooge to avoid having certain criminals interfere with their lives.

If F.O.W.L. found out that Beakley had taken her (whatever she was to them - kidnapee? genetic experiment? test subject? who could know) they’d come after her without any hesitation. She had no doubt about that. So despite Scrooge’s moods and tantrums, she and Webbigail would stay there for as long as it took to be completely safe.

F.O.W.L. was always hiding somewhere and she needed to be vigilant. Having ex-members of S.H.U.S.H. around her new life made her feel safer, but Scrooge McDuck’s life was dangerous in so many other ways. She’d have to train Webbigail to be the strongest, smartest, and most competent little girl the world had ever seen. Just in case anything went wrong.

-----

Though she and Scrooge hadn’t seen each other in a long time, Goldie still tried to reach out. She occasionally sent him birthday cards or a passive-aggressive Christmas card, just to remind him that she existed. But he never responded or sent her anything in return.

She supposed he was probably busy. With raising an infant and co-parenting with Twenty-Two. And still running his gigantic business and whatever the hell else he did with his time. He didn’t seem to go on many adventures or treasure hunts anymore - otherwise he would’ve returned her calls or letters. She’d suggested a handful of different treasure hunts for them to go on together and he hadn’t responded to any of them.

So, fine. Whatever.

But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t keep trying. Of course, Goldie didn’t want to come across as desperate, so she’d only send one letter or call once every few months. And she always had an excuse - an adventure that she needed his help or his resources for, or a holiday or a birthday or something. And when she’d ask herself why she needed an excuse to call him, she didn’t have an answer. What could she say to herself to make it make sense?

After stealing the Anti-Magic Gun and Cappadocian Cylinder from Scrooge back in ‘97, she knew she needed to go back in time and save the two of them from Magica…but she put it off for a while. Not like the time stream continuum was going anywhere. It wasn’t until 2008 that she finally did it, and God was she pissed when she saw herself standing there. With her expertly dyed blonde hair and the youthful glow that only a fountain of youth could provide…she felt so old standing next to herself.

Scrooge looked mostly the same, missing a few scars and bald spots here and there, but he was cute and annoying as ever. Obviously she had to kiss his face. As of 2008, it’d been more than six years since their last kiss. It wasn’t the longest she’d gone without kissing him - and certainly wasn’t the longest he’d gone without kissing her - but it felt like an excruciatingly long time. She missed him. So much. So she kissed his younger self.

(And maybe went on a few more time travel trips and kissed some other Scrooges. Why not, right? It wouldn’t hurt anyone.)

On her birthday in 2010, Goldie decided to try calling Scrooge again. Maybe he’d actually pick up the phone for once. Or maybe Duckworth would see that he got her message. She liked Duckworth, but she wasn’t sure how Duckworth felt about her. Or Scrooge’s relationship with her. It wouldn’t be very surprising to her if he thought Goldie was a bad influence on his employer.

The phone rang three times.

“Scrooge McDuck residence.”

Goldie blinked slowly. That wasn’t a voice she expected to hear. And it was definitely not a voice that immediately pissed her off or made her want to hang up and scream. “Twenty-Two! You’re answering phones now? Guess you got a promotion. Where’s Duckworth?”

Without a second of hesitation, Beakley responded. “Duckworth is dead.”

“Oh-” Goldie started, and then heard the aggressive click of Beakley hanging up on her.

She put the phone down and stared at it. She didn’t even get a chance to leave a message for Scrooge. But now all she could think about was Duckworth.

He died? He wasn’t even that old. And he was healthy. He didn’t go on crazy adventures. He didn’t live an unsafe life. Goldie quickly got on her phone and looked up his full name to see if she could find his obituary.

It didn’t mention how he died, which had her…concerned. Was it natural causes? A disease? Or did he die because of his relationship with a certain savvy Scotsman who had more enemies than he could count? She couldn’t decide if it was paranoid of her to assume that or if it just made sense.

Goldie had her own enemies, of course. She was happy knowing that Dickie was safe far, far away from her and anyone who might target her. But Scrooge had people close by. Beakley could fend for herself, Donald and Della could, too. And Goldie was sure that Twenty-Two would raise that baby to be a fighting machine. But Duckworth? Duckworth was a butler. He was an easy target.

She didn’t know who would want to target him. She didn’t know much about Scrooge’s current enemies. There was some other billionaire that she knew nothing about. Magica was gone, of course. And she had a feeling that Zeus was still on Ithaquack, waiting to kill Scrooge the next time he saw him.

F.O.W.L. was gone and they’d be more likely to go after Twenty-Two, for obvious reasons. So Goldie wasn’t sure why Duckworth would be targeted.

Maybe he really did die of natural causes. A heart attack or a stroke or something.

Goldie stared at the back of her hand - suddenly all of her wrinkles were darker and deeper and more vicious-looking than ever before. She didn’t like that.

She stood up and walked to the bathroom, looking at her face in the mirror. Her silver hair was looking thinner and weaker. The bags under her eyes were darker than she remembered. She had crow’s feet and forehead lines and deep frown lines between her eyebrows.

She didn’t always look like this.

Goldie thought back to her recent time travel adventures and how she looked back in the day. She could easily look like that again. Look younger and healthier. Look like she had more life to live.

She wanted to take a big, big step away from death.

(She’d met Death before. They were nice. But they weren’t picky about the souls they took and they felt no remorse about it. Why should they? Just doing their job. But she didn’t want to get added to their list anytime soon.)

It’d been a long time since her last visit to a fountain of youth. A lot of them had some sort of limitation on how often one soul could drink from their waters or were still lost after all these centuries. But Goldie knew there was a fountain in Ronguay - one she hadn’t touched yet.

The Ronguay Fountain of Youth was supposedly very powerful and very rejuvenating. She’d look fifty again if she played her cards right.

And fifty was young. So much younger than the eighty she looked and two-hundred she felt.

Goldie didn’t want to die. She still had so many things she wanted to do and see and…say. And she wanted to see Dickie grow up and thrive like the little actress/activist/journalist/singer she was destined to become. She wanted to know that a child in her care could be alright and she needed to live to see that through.

And with Scrooge…she did, eventually, want to fix things with him. But if he was so sunk in his own depression that he wouldn’t answer a single one of her letters or messages, well…then she’d just have to wait for a good opportunity to go see him.

-----

“Hey kiddo. I wanted to give you a heads up that I’ll look a bit…different next time you see me.”

“Different how? Did you change your hair color? Or did you get really fat?!”

“...hair color. And I’m a lot less wrinkly.”

“Oohhh…I’ve seen commercials about that kinda stuff. Did you buy some really nice anti-aging cream?”

“...sort of.”

Dickie laughed. “Well I think you’re beautiful no matter what your hair color is!”

Goldie sighed quietly; she knew the kid would say something cute like that. “Thanks.”

-----

When Scrooge first met Webbigail, he couldn’t look away from her big, sparkling eyes. She reminded him of himself in so many ways - she was excited and eager and ready to take on the world, he could tell right away.

And with his recent loss of Donald and Della, Scrooge felt himself drawn to the infant like a father. He wanted to care for her and help raise her with Beakley. He wanted to have a significant influence on her life, if he could. He’d never had an opportunity to raise children of his own and he was curious about how it’d feel.

But then…he disappeared time and time again. And then Duckworth died. And Scrooge felt himself sinking into a deep depression that he’d done his best to avoid after Della’s disappearance, but what else could he do? He’d lost his sister’s daughter and she hadn’t spoken to him in years because of it. He isolated himself from his sister’s son, losing any chance to see or be involved in his grandnephews’ lives. He let Beakley and her granddaughter live with him, but ended up isolating himself from them, too.

He knew Beakley was only in his home because she had nowhere else to go. She had no interest in him helping her with Webbigail. In fact, she seemed to be against his help most of the time, claiming that he wasn’t careful enough to handle someone so young.

He was Scrooge McDuck! He could take down entire armies on his own! How could anyone think he’d struggle with a toddler?

But after Duckworth was gone, he didn’t much feel like helping with Webbigail, anyway. He didn’t feel like helping with much of anything. He wanted to wake up, go to work, make money, go home. His family had fallen apart. He hadn’t heard from Goldie in over a decade. He’d lost his closest companion and he’d never felt further from Twenty-Two since their friendship began. She cleaned his home and brought him food, but they didn’t talk. They didn’t laugh. She was always with her granddaughter.

And he didn’t care.

For the third evening in a row, Scrooge went to sleep right after dinner, not particularly excited for the following day of work. The Buzzards would criticize him for some expenses he had to pay, then they’d remind him that they’d stopped him from wasting his fortune trying to find Della, then he’d sign hundreds of pieces of paper and kick out some salesmen before getting his new driver to take him home.

(Duckworth used to be his driver. Beakley had no interest. It wasn’t like he was going to drive himself!)

But it didn’t matter. Scrooge was utterly depressed and bored with his life and starting to wonder if being immortal was even worth the effort. He wanted to have a family again. But he doubted that his relationship with Donald would ever go back to how it used to be, especially not without Della.

Based on their last argument, Scrooge wasn’t sure whether he’d ever see Donald Duck again.

DUCK FRANCHISE REFERENCES:
- We all know that Bradford was responsible for Duckworth's death, but I assume he made it look like natural causes. Heron is a scientist I'm sure she came up with a fun cool new way to fake a heart attack and commit some murders.
- I think this is still a debate in the fandom but there's nothing in canon to indicate that Beakley knew about Webby's relation to Scrooge, so this follows that logic. She saw a baby and wanted to help a baby but she knows nothing about the baby.
- The uprising that Scrooge went to stop is one that Goldie started, as mentioned in "The Golden Lagoon of White Agony Plains!"
- The Ronguay Fountain of Youth was also mentioned in that episode. It's a reference to the DT87 episode, "Wrongway in Ronguay."
- This is implied but not said explicitly so I'm going to say it explicitly here: Beakley is getting rid of Scrooge's mail from Goldie. She doesn't want Goldie around Webby, especially not at such a young age. It's a messed up thing to do but it's for Webby's benefit so don't hold it against her too much lol