Heart of Gold

Professor Squawkencluck watched Danger Mouse with a tired expression. As much as she cared for him and as much as she liked him and as much as she felt honored to work with him, his self-centered, self-worshipping, self-serving personality made him really hard to love. He seemed unaware of just how rude he often was. And he seemed just as in the dark about all the dumb and dangerous things he'd ever done in his time serving the agency. Just because he was called DANGER Mouse didn't mean he had to be reckless all the time... if ever. There was a difference between danger and stupidity, but Danger Mouse was too blind and arrogant to see it. (There were days when she wondered if "DM" actually meant "Dimwitted Moron"). He just thought so highly of himself that everyone else was only a distant star while he was the sun itself.

But despite his massive ego and his tiny I.Q. his heart and desire for justice, compassion and honor was what offset everything else and what made him a true hero, not just in the eyes of Professor Squawkencluck, but in the eyes of everyone else in London. Danger Mouse, though misguided, really had everyone else's best interests at heart. He might've been the perfect hero, Professor Squawkencluck decided, if he would be more willing to listen to the opinions and wisdom of others instead of always assuming he was perfect and omnipotent. If he could humble himself and become more open to the words of others, he would be the best hero the universe had ever had: kind, caring, charismatic, daring and honorable.

And those two conflicting thoughts summed up Professor Squawkencluck's feelings for the mouse pretty well. Half the time, she adored him and everything that he could be. She could always see the best in him even when it was hard and she knew of the heart of gold that lay beneath his self-absorbed and thick shell. But the other half of the time, she loathed that foolish rodent. She could see nothing but ego and vanity manifest in glossy white fur. She could only see an empty head in need of a hard smack for being so selfish and shortsighted. From his cocky attitude to that insufferable smirk to that prideful posture to that mischievous yellow eye, there were moments when Professor Squawkencluck wanted nothing more than to freeze the mouse into an ice sculpture just so he and his mouth would stop running for five seconds!

But as wild as Danger Mouse drove Professor Squawkencluck, she still cared deeply for him. And there were handful of specific events in her memory that chronicled this dichotomous and seemingly oppositional relationship she shared with the mouse. First was the attack from HEAD. Even though it had been Danger Mouse's fault that HEAD had gone rogue, Professor Squawkencluck had been willing to admit that she was sort of in the wrong as well, not because of anything she did, but because she had been a bit harsh on Danger Mouse for that whole day. Additionally, even though it was his fault HEAD went rogue, the only way she could've deviated from her programming was if there had been a flaw in the coding, and that was on Professor Squawkencluck's head, and she knew it.

But after HEAD had been beaten, Professor Squawkencluck remembered embracing Danger Mouse. In the heat of the moment, the two both opened their arms at the exact same time and went in to hug the other. For just one second, they had snuggled close together, both of them grinning like idiots, hearts beating in synch with pride. But after that one second, they both realized what they were doing and were quick to come to their senses, pulling out of the hug with sheepish laughter. But the damage was done.

Even if the hug had only lasted a second, its feeling and implication lasted forever. At least for Professor Squawkencluck. What caught her more off guard than the embarrassment of hugging someone (especially a certain coworker she so despised) was how fast, natural, instinctual and mutual it had been. Without even thinking, she'd gone in to hug the mouse, and that was what shocked her most of all. She'd been so fast to reach out for that hug. To her, that signaled that her fondness for the mouse might've gone deeper than she first realized. Why else would hugging him have been such a gut reaction for her? And she could not forget how warm and solid that hug had felt, even though it had been short. There was just something so supportive about his arms around her body, squeezing her close. And she'd held on just as tightly, trying to convey all the things words never could. And she would never forget that he had hugged her just as hard and fast as she had hugged him...