Rest your head, little girl blue, come paint your dreams on your pillow. I’ll be near to chase away fear, so sleep now and dream till tomorrow. I’ll be near to chase away fear, so sleep now and dream till tomorrow . . .

He thought the words rather then singing them, although he was humming the tune. He simply didn’t want to risk waking her after just getting her to asleep. She had not wanted to calm down after his brother left, but after an hour of trying the sandman finally won and she had curled into him out cold.

Little girl blue indeed, he realized, noting with a sly grin that his daughter was wearing a baby blue cotton jumper and a white shirt with pink ruffles on the neck and sleeve collars.

My own sweet little angel, Drake thought, smiling fully seconds before the irony of his words caught up with him and he made a near vain attempt to keep his sudden bark of laughter a mild chuckle. What ever angel she may be now, add a few years and you would get a child worthy of the devil on your shoulder, innocent eyes free of charge.

He carried her up the stairs, started to turn towards his room when something very strange caught his eye, or at least it seemed strange to him. Drake frowned at the direction his thoughts were taking, and briefly he wondered if he should have his head examined. Why would it be that he his daughter turning into a baby in the middle of the night should cause him less distress than finding her bed gone and a fully prepared crib in it’s place?

I’ve been around Dr. Bellum too much recently, he thought, warily stepping into his daughter’s room and staring at the crib. Especially if I’m more worried about the possibility of some nut job replacing my furniture under my nose than what unknown substance my daughter has been in.

With a half hearted shrug he gently laid Gosalyn down and covered her tiny frame with a Peter Cottontail blanket. A content smile spread across his face as he watched her sleep, touching her little red curls lightly with his finger. Yeah, he could definitely get used to this. A blink and sigh later found him resting his forearms on the crib rail, pensively staring past the sleeping baby.

Dr. Bellum . . . Calling her might not be a half bad idea, if she is who she should be in this topsy-turvy world, he mused. A thoughtful glance thrown his daughter’s way and Drake was down the stairs wondering aloud where he had stuck his address book. Coming to a halt in the foyer and taking a good look around, he decided the best way to start would be to systematically go through each room starting with the north side of the house and work his way south. A self satisfied smile grew on his lips upon his decision, having things under control was definitely a wonderful feeling.

Having a system was good, having it work well was even better, but two rooms later his system was falling apart around him as it seemed nothing in his house was where it should be. Of course, normally that didn’t bother him because that was the way his house usually was, but today he was irate about it. By the time he finished searching the bedrooms he had thrown working with any semblance to a system out the widow and was madly digging through every spot he couldn’t recall going through. It was driving him crazy that he couldn’t find a simple seven by five brown book. Between Drake’s continued annoyance and verbally assaulting empty air it took him well into the early afternoon to finally locate his address book, which had been conveniently shelved next to the cereal boxes. How it managed to end up there was beyond him, but he had the nagging suspicion that it might have been Binkie’s doing. In his mind the fact that she could walk and talk at the same time was nothing short of a God given miracle.

Drake flopped down in a kitchen chair and cracked the book open scanning name after name all the while thinking that he should really hide this particular book. It just didn’t seem prudent to have the names, addresses, and phone numbers (if available) of every major villain he had faced off with intermixed with business associates and friends lying around for everyone to see. He paused briefly, wondering what had possessed him to compile them all together in the first place. Tapping his finger to his bill he remembered. He had thrown them together because while he never let the villain listings out of his sight, he always ended up sticking his friends and family listings in odd places so it wouldn’t get in the way. Ultimately, he would forget where he put the address book and would be reminded of it when his mother called to yell at him for not calling on her birthday, or Christmas, or Easter.

“Am I really that big of a loner?” He asked himself aloud, ending his runaway thoughts. “Geez, no wonder Mom is always mad at me, maybe I should take Gos and visit.”

One stupid pause later.

“And maybe I should drink arsenic,” he corrected himself. “Now, lets see, Bellum, Bellum . . . Aha! Dr. Sarah Bellum, pediatrician!”

Drake barely had his hand on the phone before he spun back to the book on the table with an overtly dramatic pivot and stared dumbfounded at the word scribbled next to Dr. Bellum’s name.

“Pediatrician? Since when? Oo-kay, I can forget getting any help from her. Hmm, who else do I know that can muck with genetics,” he asked, flipping through pages. “Sparky’s out of the question. Reggie? Nope, not after that crap with Negs. Besides, I don’t want a plant for a kid. Dr. Rhoda Dendron? Nah, I don’t even want to know what profession she’s currently in. Hey! I know, I’ll call Morgana, even if she does conjure up pudding more often than not she still may know how to reverse this mess.

“Now, where did I write her number?” Drake stopped. “She did give me her number, didn’t she? I could have sworn she did right after the Justice Ducks incident.” He drove through a few more pages before a slip of thick red, near velvety paper fell out and to the floor. “Aha! I knew I had it.”

Drake placed the paper, which in actuality was a small napkin, to his nose and breathed deep. A sweet, almost cinnamon ginger smell invaded his senses, pulling him into dreamland until a shrill alarm startled him into Quack-fu kicking a chair onto its side.

“Huh? Who? What? When? Where? Oh. The phone.” He let out a sheepish chuckle, snatched the phone off the receiver and cleared his throat before saying, “hello?”

“Um. Oh. Hi, Drake?” Came a soft, almost musical voice.

“Morgana, hi, I was just about to call you.”

“You were! Oh, uh, I mean, you were?”

Drake chuckled. “Yeah, I have your number here in my hand.” He set the napkin down on the counter. “So what’s up?”

“What’s up? Drake, are you feeling all right? You forgot again didn’t you?” She sighed. “Drake I understand if this is hard for you, and that you were afraid you might be rushing things, but we agreed you would call if you felt like canceling.”

“Whoa, whoa, wait a minute, cancel what?”

“Dinner. Tonight. 6 o’clock, like we agreed last week.” Her tone nearing acidic.

Drake took a deep breath and prepared to lie out his teeth. “Oh, yeah, right. Look I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to forget. Things have been stressful lately, but it’s not what you think.”

“Then what is it, Drake?”

Another deep breath. “Negs came by and picked a fight with Binkie this morning and then with me. Gosalyn kept me up last night and hasn’t been herself today, so dinner all but escaped my mind. I’m sorry, Morg, maybe we could,” he wasn’t sure how, but he swore she just made the temperature drop and gulped. “Like I was saying, maybe we could skip the restaurant and eat in tonight?”

A silent prayer was running headlines in his head, hoping beyond all hope that she would buy into it. He heard her smile, and let out the breath he had been holding.

“Oh, Drake I would love to come over and meet Gosalyn. I didn’t think you were ready for such a step. Oh, wow, I just love babies. I can’t wait. I get off work at five, so I’ll head right over.”

“Work? You? I didn’t think a sorceress needed a nine to five job.” He said in all seriousness.

Morgana giggled. “Oh Drake, you’re such a charmer.” Abruptly she let out a small groan.

“Everything okay?”

“Yes,” she sighed, “except I just realized I smell like embalming fluid, I’ll have to go home and shower.”

Drake audibly gagged. “Embalming fluid?”

“Yes, darn stuff can get everywhere if you’re not careful, but you weren’t thinking about that were you? You know I work for the morgue.” She laughed lightly. “Drake Mallard what will I do with you.”

“I have no clue,” his voice coming out in a squeak.

“I think you do. Anyway, my boss is coming back this way so I better go, see you tonight.”

Even after the click, after the dial tone, and after forcing himself to hang up, Drake was still in a bit of shock. He couldn’t remember Morgana ever coming on to him like that, it was as disconcerting as it was incredibly sexy. Running a hand through his hair, he shot a glance at the clock. Two pm, more than enough time to clean up the mess he made in his mad search for his address book.

“I wonder if I’m supposed to cook something?” He knitted his brows and pursed his lips. “I have a roast I could fix, or is she a vegetarian? Not like I can guess by the stuff she eats, and knowing her it’s probably neither meat or vegetable.”

Drake hid the address book in his room and started to clean the bathroom when it dawned on him that Morgana had stated that she’d never seen Gosalyn. Odd, he thought, because I know she’s seen Gosalyn, well the older Gosalyn at least. Gosalyn . . .

Baby blue eyes flew wide open. “Oh crap, Gosalyn! I put her down hours ago and haven’t checked on her.”

The sponge he was holding, the gloves on his hands, it all got thrown to the floor as Drake darted out and into his daughter’s room. He promptly thanked the powers that be when he found her awake and calm, waving her arms and legs at a mobile above her head. Upon hearing her father sigh however, she froze and began to fuss.

“Come on kid,” Drake said lifting her, “you probably need a new diaper by now.”

Indeed she did. Badly. Drake couldn’t believe how someone so small could fill a diaper every few hours, it was simply staggering. He was pleased, however, that he managed to get through the task without incident and without Gosalyn screaming until her face was red.

“Yep, yep, yep, no task is too small for the mighty Darkwing Duck!” He stated proudly scooping Gosalyn up and over his head before he settled her in the crook of his arm. Gosalyn let out a squealing smile at the movement and Drake, ego rising, promptly put his foot down on an open bottle of baby powder trying to walk away. Instantly, a cloud of white mist enveloped father and daughter, the former reduced to sneezing uncontrollably as his daughter screeched at all the bizarre noises.

“Okay,” he coughed, “maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. Just don’t tell anyone I said that, little missy.” He made a funny face at Gosalyn, prompting a smile from her as they headed back down the stairs.