I do not own Duck Tales.

And here I present the final chapter. Thank you for reading and thank you for support. I appreciate it!

Where We Belong

The trip from the docks to McDuck Mansion had never felt so long before. The taxi seemed to chug leisurely along and there seemed to be more cars on the road than usual. Donald was twisted up with frustration and anger, wings gripping the inside handle of his passenger door in agitation.

Uncle Scrooge is going to get such an earful, he thought darkly.

It had been over a month since he received the letter explaining Della's offer from Scrooge. But nothing had come after that, leaving the seaman with no clue as to what his nephews had decided on. Even though he had sent a letter, demanding to know what was going on, there had been no response.

Who do they think they are, leaving me out of the loop? Donald thought angrily, crossing his wings over his chest as he glared out the window. I should have known right off the bat what the boys decided to do!

He wasn't so much upset that Della had asked the boys to move with South Beaks with her. She was their mother, even after so many years of absence. If she wanted to start a new life with them, and if they wanted to go with her, who was he to stop them? What upset him was the fact neither his uncle nor his nephews informed him what the final decision was.

Which I suppose must mean that they went with Della, he finally thought heavily, the lingering shreds of hope being extinguished. The boys might have felt uncomfortable informing their guardian of six years that they were choosing to live with their mother in a place that was far from their childhood home. Scrooge probably didn't want to break the news over a piece of paper, and was waiting for him to return.

The frustration and anger was replaced with an immense feeling of depression. He managed to keep his tears at bay, for he refused to break down in the back of a taxicab. No matter how much he imagined, he could not picture his life without the triplets. The service in the Navy had been bearable, because he knew Huey, Dewey and Louie would be waiting for him when he was able to make it back to Duckburg.

But maybe…maybe not this time.

"Uh…do I just drop you off here?"

Startled from his silent brooding, Donald snapped his head up and peered through the windshield. They had finally reached the golden gates, which were firmly shut. "Yeah, here's fine." He handed over the right amount of cash and stepped from the taxi, his large bag hanging off of his shoulder. He went over and pressed the button on the intercom beside the gates.

"Who is it?" Duckworth drawled.

"I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count," answered Donald in irritation. "Where are the boys?"

There was no reply but the gates started to open. His anger returning, Donald stormed through, grumbling under his breath as he started up the long driveway. "Nobody tells me a doggone thing anymore."

He reached the large front doors of the mansion and pounded his fist against the wood. "Open up! I want answers!"

Though the mansion was large, Donald's voice had the ability to break the sound barrier. In the dining room, the three teen ducks froze at the familiar, not-happy voice.

"Regretting your decision now?" asked Webby with a smirk.

"You're hardly blameless," said Daisy in amusement. "I'll get the door."

"We're gonna-" started Huey, inching for the doors that led to the kitchen. A wing landed on his shoulder, holding him back.

"Yeh are nae going anywhere," snapped Scrooge. "Donald is nae taking his anger out on me."

Dewey shook his head. "Why do we listen to his stupid ideas?"

"I haven't discovered the answer to that one yet," replied Louie.

"Dis will be a big surprise for Donald," said Ludwig cheerfully. "He will be very happy."

"After his fit of anger," grumbled Scrooge. He could hear his nephew exchanging urgent, furious words with Daisy. Judging by the level of incomprehensibility of Donald's speech, he was particularly angry. "Ah'm getting ta be too old for this."

There was the sudden sound of rushing footsteps and the trio quickly huddled together, waiting in a mixture of nervousness and excitement for their uncle to appear in the grand dining room. Webby moved as far away from the triplets as she could without looking suspicious.

Donald skidded across the tiles and into the room. His large duffel fell to the floor as his eyes zeroed in the familiar three standing together near the long table. Daisy came up behind him and crossed her arms, watching in amusement as relief, joy and fury flitted across his face. It was not long before fury became the dominant emotion.

"I'm going to kill you!"

"No!" howled Huey, holding his wings out defensively as his uncle advanced towards them. "It was just a joke!"

"It's far from the worst one we've ever pulled in!" pointed out Dewey.

"Webby helped," was all Louie had to offer.

"Shut up!" hissed Webby.

Donald stopped just a few feet away from his boys, a scowl on his beak. He glowered at them before turning to his two uncles. "Did you know about this?!"

"If Ah had, trust me, yeh would have gotten that blasted letter," replied Scrooge. "Save me some worry about yeh tearing up the place."

"Dey just wanted ta surprise you," added Ludwig soothingly. "No harm done."

Donald let out a huff before looking over his shoulder at his girlfriend, who was grinning in obvious amusement. "It's not funny," he said irritably. "Seriously, the last few weeks I could barely concentrate."

"Mom thought it was funny," offered Huey.

"Of course she would," grumbled Donald. His fury ebbed away, replaced with unexplainable happiness at seeing his kids. "Little hellions." He opened his wings and ordered, "Come here."

Not needing to be told twice, the triplets raced over into their uncle's waiting embrace. Huey smiled contently at the familiar, warm sensation of Donald's hug. "We're really glad your back."

"I'm sure," snorted Donald, rapping Huey on the head. "I forgot how much of a bad influence you are."

Huey pulled back with an offended expression. "It's not always me."

"Just mostly," put in Dewey with a smirk.

Donald rolled his eyes and looked sharply at Webby, who smiled innocently. "You're supposed to be the one who converts them to good behaviour."

The young girl grinned sheepishly. "I think they're the ones doing the converting."

"Tell me about it," muttered Scrooge.

"Can't be helped," sighed Donald. "You're outnumbered three to one. Get over here and give me a hug."

Webby eagerly hurried over and hugged him tightly. "Welcome home."

"Aye, lad. It's good to finally have you back." Scrooge sent a glance towards the triplets and smiled. "And Ah think the boys have something ta tell yeh."

"What now?" groaned Donald, bracing himself for some sort of confession of bad behaviour that he needed to know about.

Huey put his wings behind his back and smiled broadly. "Well, we talked things over with each other, and then with Uncle Scrooge. We decided that we want to live with you."

"It didn't take us long to decide, though," added Louie. "We love living with Uncle Scrooge. But we missed living with you. And though we really had to think about it, we soon knew that we just couldn't go with Mom. We're glad she's back in our lives, and we're going to visit whenever we can, but we just didn't want to go with her."

Dewey nodded firmly. "You're the one who raised us. You're the one who taught us almost everything we know. You're our parent. That's all there is to it."

Blinking back tears, Donald grabbed his boys into a tight embrace, speechless for once in his life. The amount of joy he was feeling could not be expressed with words, something the members of their family watching understood.

The triplets loved Della, and they would make every effort to keep up their newly-formed relationship with her. But she would never replace Donald in their hearts, nor could their love for her ever reach the lengths they loved Donald.

They would be together again-the family they'd always been.

And for Donald Duck, that was the best homecoming present anyone could have ever given him.

Until next time,

AnimationNut out.

Peace!