Concrete Angel, Chpt. 10---DWD

Concrete Angel
A Darkwing Duck Fanfic

by E. Grimes

Disclaimer: All Darkwing characters are (c) Disney. This story is (c) by yours
truly. Please don’t use it in any way without my permission. Thanks!

Chapter 10

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat
But always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed
I hope you still feel small
When you stand by the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me you'll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance

From "I Hope You Dance", (c) by Lee Ann Womack

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“How’d you girls sleep last night?” was Drake’s cheerful question the next morning.

“Okay,” yawned Gosalyn.

“Just fine, Uncle Drake!” Nega-Gosalyn replied happily as she joined her twin at the breakfast table. Today was the start of a brand-new day at (as she hoped) her new home, and the little duckling was so excited she could hardly eat---a good thing perhaps, since Launchpad had made the breakfast.

“You cook, too?” was her delighted question as Launchpad flopped some rather odd-looking omelets on everybody’s plates. She could hardly picture Nega-Launchpad going to that kind of trouble---once she saw him chow down an entire box of frozen waffles because he was too lazy to turn on the microwave.

“Yep! Mosta the time,” the red-haired pilot replied with a grin.

“If you could call it that, anyway,” mumbled Drake under his breath. He stared at his omelet. “Uh…do I dare ask what’s in it?”

“Oh, lotsa good stuff, DW---uh, Drake. Cheese, onions, sausage…”

“That sounds okay,” Drake said as he took a bite.

“…oh yeah, and some hot peppers.”

“Uh, Dad…” warned Gosalyn, but Drake had already swallowed his bite of food. The next thing he knew, he was turning red and starting to sweat. As everybody stared, the duck gasped and fanned his beak, then ran frantically over to the refrigerator---where he grabbed a carton of orange juice and drank it dry.

“I guess I put in too many peppers,” was Launchpad’s innocent suggestion.

“You think?” Drake snapped in a raspy voice. LP took away the children’s plates with an embarrassed grin and dished out some cold cereal for them.

“Thank you, Launchpad,” Nega-Gosalyn said sweetly. “And it’s okay…at least you made the effort.”

The red-haired pilot smiled, but Gosalyn rolled her eyes. This kid was just too darned nice.

“Good thing this is Saturday,” Drake declared as he sat back down with his own bowl of cereal. “We can all spend the day together. But we’ll need to figure out how to get you registered in school, Nega-Gosalyn.”

“But we still don’t know what to call her,” Gosalyn said. “We thought of a few names, but they all sound geeky.”

“Why can’t we just call her the name she’s got?” Launchpad asked.

“It won’t make any sense,” Drake answered. “Although…” He sat deep in thought for a few minutes, then he said to Nega-Gosalyn with a sly smile:

“Honey, your initials would be N.G., wouldn’t they?”

“Why, yes.”

“That sounds a lot like Angie, so how would you like that name? We can still call you by your real name here at home.”

“Okay!” she said brightly. After all, ‘Angie’ was a nice name---it reminded her of the word ‘angel’. Unfortunately, it also conjured up the image of her broken angel statue; but now that she was in the Normalverse and in her much-loved hero’s presence, the memory was not so painful as it might have been.

And so, “Angie” it was. Now there remained some explanation for the two girls’ looking so much alike; but that would come in time.

“I could wash the dishes, Uncle Drake!” Nega-Gosalyn piped up, seeing Drake gathering up the breakfast dishes.

“Why, that’s very nice of you, honey,” Drake answered. “Maybe Gosalyn could help you.”

Gosalyn almost choked on her juice when he said that. “Please, Dad---she’s a guest here! Don’t make her do any chores!” she begged. Drake gave her a dubious look, knowing that his daughter’s motives were far from selfless.

“Oh, I don’t mind,” Nega-Gosalyn said perkily.

“I do,” Gos muttered under her breath. This kid was starting to make her look bad.

Launchpad came to the rescue. “I’ll do ‘em,” he declared with a grin.

“Thanks, Launchpad!” yelped Gosalyn, hugging the pilot and running quickly out of the house. Drake shook his head as he heard the screen door slam.

“Isn‘t it amazing, Launchpad, how two little girls can both be so alike---and yet so different?” he observed.

“I can help dry the dishes,” suggested Nega-Gosalyn with a sunny smile.

“Nah, that’s okay, kiddo,” Launchpad replied kindly. “Drake here can do that.”

Drake raised his eyebrows at that, but smiled at Nega-Gosalyn and patted the little duckling’s auburn curls. “You’re very sweet to offer, honey; but everything’s under control. You just go outside and play with Gosalyn.”

He watched her go out the door and sighed. So far, things were working out all right.

“What shall we play?” Nega-Gosalyn asked eagerly as she joined her opposite in the back yard. “Jump-rope? Jacks? Hide ‘n’ Go Seek?”

What nerdy games! Gosalyn thought with disgust. “I don’t know…”

“Hey, I know!” chirped her twin. “I can go into the house and bring out my dolls!”

No way! “Uh, never mind, ‘Angie’!” the duckling said frantically. “Hide ‘n’ Go Seek sounds fine!” For a tempting few seconds she considered running off while her opposite was hiding.

“Hey, Gos! And, uh…Gos too?” stuttered Honker as he came into the yard. He still couldn’t quite get over seeing two Gosalyns.

“Her name’s Angie now,” Gosalyn explained. “It’s a long story, Honk.”

“Oh, that’s okay. Angie’s a nice name,” Honker said.

“Why thank you, Honker!” Nega-Gosalyn said sweetly, smiling at the boy. He blushed, and forgot why he came over for some seconds.

“Ahem! Earth calling Honker??” Gosalyn interrupted.

“Oh, sorry, Gos,” Honker said, blinking. “I just came over to tell you we’ve got another baseball game at the park. You wanna come?”

“You bet, Honk!” Gosalyn explained happily. “Lemme go get my stuff…” She ran into the house to get her cap and glove, then almost crashed into Drake on the way out.

“Where are you going so fast?” he asked her, startled.

“Got another game today,” was Gosalyn’s hurried explanation. “Bye Dad!”

“Whoa, whoa…hold it, young lady!” Drake called before his daughter could run out the door. “Let’s skip the game for now, Gos. I’m planning on having a family day  today.”

Gosalyn rolled her eyes, knowing ‘family day’ could mean anything from a long, boring tour of the St. Canard Museum to a horrific camping trip out in the middle of nowhere.

“Dad, do we have to?”

“Well…yes. After all, Nega-Gos…er, Angie just got here, honey. We’re going to take her uptown and show her the sights; let her get a look at a better St. Canard.”

“Can’t we do that stuff after the game?”

Drake folded his arms and frowned.

“Guess I take that as a ‘no’, right?” Gosalyn continued glumly.

“Gosalyn, can’t you forget about the game for today?” her father suggested.  He might as well have asked his daughter to jump off a cliff.

“Daaaaaaaaaaaaad---!”

“Now, Gosalyn,” Drake said firmly, “don’t you remember our little talk yesterday? About thinking of other people besides yourself?”

“Yeah,” muttered the pony-tailed duckling, her eyes to the floor.

“Come on, honey,” her father insisted, gently taking her by the shoulders. “There’ll be other games. Besides, it’ll be a lot of fun! We’ll go to the museum---”

I knew it, Gosalyn thought with chagrin.

“---we’ll take you girls around the mall, and go shopping for some new clothes and school supplies; and if there’s time, we’ll take in a nice G-rated movie!”

“Please, Dad, not too much fun in one day,” begged Gosalyn.

Drake chose to ignore the sarcasm in that remark. “Anyway, go call Angie and get ready to go.”

“Okay, okay…!” She stomped out, letting the screen door slam, and went to look for her twin. She found Nega-Gosalyn and Honker talking pleasantly together, which somehow annoyed her. Honker wasn’t exactly her boyfriend, but she’d never imagined him paying attention to any other girl.

“I can’t come to the game, Honk,” she announced crossly. “Dad wants us to do ‘family’ stuff today!”

“He does?” Nega-Gosalyn said happily.

“Yeah…he said come in and get ready. Sorry, Honk,” Gosalyn told her friend.

“It’s okay, Gos,” Honker said, smiling. “You and Angie have fun.”

Yeah, right! “See you later, Honk.”

“Goodbye, Honker,” called Nega-Gosalyn, waving cheerfully as she followed her twin back to the house. Drake, watching at the door, saw Gosalyn roll her eyes and he shook his head with a sigh. It looked like his daughter still wasn’t adjusting too well to their new guest.

She’s just used to being the only child, he reasoned. And this is a pretty drastic change for her right now; it is for all of us. She’ll learn to deal with it, though…I hope.

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To give Gosalyn credit, she was doing her best to keep her father’s advice in mind, as well as what she and her opposite had talked about the previous night. She tried to understand how different her own world was to Nega-Gosalyn, and why her twin so badly needed the love and attention being lavished on her.

Gosalyn knew all too well what it had been like to feel alone and insecure, as she had been after her grandfather’s death---that is, until Darkwing entered her life. But despite her happiness with him and Launchpad, there were some emotional scars that remained to be healed. The loneliness and rejection she had felt in the orphanage had never fully been shaken off---as if some sleeping part of her expected her adoptive family to be taken away as suddenly as her real one.

It was that bit of insecurity that at first made Gosalyn try to be kind and patient toward her opposite twin, whose psyche must surely have been scarred from her hellish life with Negaduck. And she did enjoy the “family day” somewhat, despite the boring trip to the museum. Nega-Gosalyn herself had a wonderful time, especially at the mall---where Gosalyn tried unsuccessfully to talk her into buying a soccer shirt and sneakers (“You gotta quit wearing geeky stuff all the time,” she reasoned). The G-rated movie was a refreshing surprise for the curly-haired duckling, after the constant barrage of violence on her guardian’s TV.

“Watch a zombie movie with me sometime,” Gosalyn suggested on the way home.

“What’s a zombie?” Nega-Gosalyn asked.

Her twin was more than happy to enlighten her. “Zombies are cool!” she said excitedly, raising her hands like claws and leaning menacingly toward Nega-Gosalyn. “They’re real creepy and gross, and they come out late at night to feed off your brains!”

“Ewwwwwwwwwwww…”

“Gosalyn!” barked Drake.

“Well, that does it for dinnertime,” Launchpad said weakly.

“Don’t worry, he’ll get over it,” Gos whispered. “Anyway, I rented Attack of the Killer Zombies yesterday. We’ll watch it tonight.”

“Okay,” Nega-Gosalyn whispered back uncertainly, feeling zombies weren’t her cup of tea but wanting to get along with her opposite. Later that night, she sat huddled up on the couch with Gosalyn and Launchpad as the “Killer Zombies” terrorized a whole town, while Gosalyn (who had seen hundreds of such movies) calmly munched a bowl of popcorn. Needless to say, Nega-Gosalyn and even Launchpad weren't in the mood for any.

“Tell me when it’s over!” Nega-Gosalyn pleaded.

“Don’t you like this movie?” asked Gos, chuckling. “It’s one of my many favorites!”

Nega-Gosalyn shook her head emphatically. “It’s so violent and gross! Don’t you have Bambi or anything like that?”

"That would be nice," suggested LP.

“Please, I’m eating,” was the disgusted comment.

When the screen credits started running, Nega-Gosalyn sighed with relief. “I’m sorry, Gosalyn, but I think you’ll have to watch all the zombie movies by yourself.”

“Nobody should be watching those!” declared Darkwing, who had changed from his Drake Mallard identity and now came downstairs.

Nega-Gosalyn’s heart leapt to see her familiar idol once again.

“Are you going on patrol, Darkwing?” she asked eagerly.

“Yep,” he answered proudly. “And you ladies are going to bed. Launchpad, why don't you check up on things in the Tower before you turn in? I think I'll go out alone tonight."

“We wanna go with you!” both Gosalyns begged together.

“Nope, sorry, kids,” Darkwing said firmly. “It’s really late, so time for bed. Come on, now,” he insisted as they groaned in protest. “The streets might be dangerous, and you‘ve seen enough scary stuff tonight.”

“You got that right,” mumbled Nega-Gosalyn, shuddering as she tried not to think about zombies. “I sure hope I don’t have nightmares!”

Darkwing frowned a little at Gosalyn. “Why don’t you let her watch Bambi next time?”

“Oh, please!” replied Gosalyn, putting her finger down her throat and pretending to gag. “Then I’ll have nightmares, Dad!”

“Never mind. Goodnight, girls,” Darkwing said gently, hugging and kissing each of them as they went upstairs. “Maybe some other night you can go with me, okay?”

“Okay,” sighed Gosalyn resignedly. As for Nega-Gosalyn, the prospect of sharing Darkwing’s adventures quickly made her forget any killer zombies as she happily danced upstairs.

The night streets were unusually quiet as Darkwing roared out on his Ratcatcher. Normally that would have disappointed him, but he was still preoccupied with the strange events of the previous day, and the surreal effect they now had on his life. He was grateful to have the time alone to think the situation over.

However, he wasn’t the only one thinking things over. On the roof of a skyscraper some distance away, a lone and angry figure glared through a pair of binoculars as the purple-caped duck raced through the city.

“She’s out there somewhere,” he hissed. “And you’ll lead me right to her, Darkwing!”

With one last glare at his enemy, Negaduck turned and left the building. It was only a matter of time…

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“Hi, Mrs. Muddlefoot! Um, this is Angie, my cousin from far away…she‘s come to stay with us awhile,” was Gosalyn’s introduction to Binkie the next morning. The Muddlefoot housewife had stopped by to borrow a cup of sugar and was flabbergasted to find what appeared to be two Gosalyns.

“How nice to see you, Angie!” Binkie chirped. “Oh, my! You two look so much alike, I could have sworn you were Gosalyn the other day. Why didn’t you tell me your real name, honey?” she asked Nega-Gosalyn.

The curly-headed duckling blinked, not sure how to answer this (and really not wanting to lie anymore), but her twin came to the rescue. “Uh…y-you see, Mrs. Muddlefoot, it’s a little game Angie and I like to play. We look so much alike we always try to see if we can fool anybody,” Gosalyn explained, laughing nervously.

Fortunately, her ditzy neighbor believed her. “Oh, I see!” she exclaimed, laughing as well and patting ‘Angie’ on the head. “Well, welcome to St. Canard, sweetie. You girls have fun with your little game!”

“Whew,” Gosalyn sighed after Binkie left. “Am I gonna have to do this all the time?”

“I hope not,” was Nega-Gosalyn’s worried remark. “You told her a fib, Gosalyn.”

“Hey! Sometimes you have to!” Gosalyn replied with a slight frown. “You can’t tell people the whole truth all the time…”

Nega-Gos, having learned that fact the hard way, could make no argument. Yet she couldn’t really understand the need for lying in Darkwing’s world. In the Negaverse, it was basically a means to survive. But who really needed to lie in the Normalverse---this place she had so longed to go to, and where she hoped to be happy?

But the innocent child was still living her dream, and had yet to look at the other side of the proverbial coin. For the time being, she was still seeing the ideal vision of her hero’s universe and could not imagine anything could ever change it.

She was in for a rude awakening.

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End Chapter 10