The Spy that Loves Me

Chapter 21

Donald paced around his nephew's closed bedroom door feeling guilty. He had been in the hallway and peeking at the closed door most of the day, it was almost night time now and Louie never once left his room and he was starting to worry.

He knew Louie would be angry with him, knew that even if he tried to comfort him right away he'd get no where. His thoughts drifted to Dewey and the night he left. If he only had come to him and they talked, maybe he wouldn't have left, would have figured things out the family they were, but they didn't.

They hadn't talked.

Dewey was left all alone and in that time he made the decision on his own to leave. The guilt of that driven Donald to protect Huey and Louie even more harshly then he would thought possible. But what if in doing so he was loosing a nephew all over again?

His heart pounded hard against his chest as he worried about what was going on in Louie's mind right now. Louie has had a rough two days. First his brother shows up, out of the blue, only to get sucked into whatever followed after that. Now, to top it off, Donald had grounded him, and torched his bike.

Donald admitted to himself that maybe that had been a bit to extreme. But the fear of what could have happened to his youngest nephew when he didn't come home out weighed the guilt and rational thinking.

His thoughts drifted back to Dewey with guilt gnawing at him, and Donald stood rather still at the door, his hand in a fist ready to give it a slight knock.

What was making Donald hesitate?

Could it be that he feared what Louie was going to say to him if they did talked, if he even got Louie to talk to him?

In the end though, the parenting side to Donald took over and he knocked on the door. What he had told Louie was the truth at least, he wasn't going to loose another nephew. Not as long as he was still alive.

When Louie didn't answer or make a sound he slowly opened the door and peered inside.

All the blood drained from his face when he saw that Louie wasn't there, and the window to their room was wide open.

No. He thought desperately as he rushed inside, his heart hammering hard against his chest as he looked around the room. Not again!

He frantically searched the room hoping that Louie was hiding, like he did when he was little, after they had a fight. He searched under the bed, in their closet, even in the old beat up treasure chest that Louie still kept.

Nothing.

He rushed to the window and looked out into the now darken sky. He closed his eyes and tried to stay calm as the cool night air brushed his face slightly.

What would Della do at a time like this?

Della would stop everything and find him. Just like she had been doing the whole time Dewey left. Donald had stayed behind during all that to keep better eye on the emotional toil Huey and Louie were going through. He'd been through so many nightmares, fights, and crying with those too that he had to bury his own emotions around them and endure them in the comfort of his sister Della when she wasn't away looking for him, or, if she was gone, he'd turn to Scrooge.

Scrooge.

If anyone can fix any of this, it was him.

He's done it before.

He was about to leave the room when he spotted the note Louie had left on his bed. With wobbly legs and shaky hands he walked over it and picked it up, and his heart nearly stopped.