Chapter Text
Della thought she knew mostly everything important about her sons. At least- the most important information that her brother had disclosed to her. With her return, Donald had to inform her of certain things about the triplets, as she needed to know them as their mother.
However, there were some things that Donald hadn’t told his sister. Some things that he really should have, but never got around to.
But it’s fine- Della came across the most important one on her own, along with the rest of the family.
She had overheard Huey teasing Dewey once again with his elder status, to which Dewey continued to remind he was only older by three seconds. Of course having heard the spiel a few times already Della had laughed it off and simply chalked it up to sibling banter.
“So, you’re all three seconds after each other?”
Huey nodded but Dewey shook his head, “No, Louie's a bit younger.”
His older brother looked to him confused, along with Della and Scrooge, who were both sitting on the couch having watched the banter. “What?” Huey asked. “No, he’s only three second after you too, remember? That's what Uncle Donald told us.”
Dewey rolled his eyes, “Dude, have you paid attention to our baby pictures? Maybe he meant three minutes or something, because that doesn’t add up.”
A few minutes later Dewey had found the family photo album and flipped to the pictures taken when they were born.
The first showed Huey breaking his head out of the egg, eyes wide and beak already smiling. The next almost looked like it was cut off the first, as Dewey hatched only seconds after. His egg had been beside Huey’s, so his older brother still looked the exact same as the other photo as Dewey had smashed his little fists through his egg and came out screaming excitedly.
The third photo though? That was another story.
Huey and Dewey were laying on both sides of Louie's cracked open egg, with Huey seeming to be screaming happily while Dewey just looked startled at the now cracked open egg. Louie was still only halfway out of the egg, already fast asleep as he had laid his head down on the cushion beneath them.
Webby and her Granny had joined them, and Mrs. Beakley was the one to ask. “I don’t see the issue? Louie hatched shortly after you both.”
Dewey raised a brow, “Oh really? Then why is it that in Louie’s photo, we’re all on a different cushion, the sun is down, and me and Huey are already dressed in onesies?”
...Huh.
That- that was a good point.
In Louie’s photo, it was clear that he hadn’t hatched more than a minute ago. However, the sun was down already, while the sun was only setting in his brother's photos, as seen through the houseboat’s window.
They were in the same room, but Huey and Deweys’ eggs had been discarded and the large cushion beneath them had been changed for another one. One that they recalled Louie used to use up until they were seven, carrying it with him often to school even. He still used it nowadays, but only a few times when he seemed to get really cold or lazy.
Also, it was unlikely that Donald had managed to dress the two older brothers in the three seconds it took Louie to hatch, especially as Huey was still in his egg when Dewey was hatching out of his own.
Della frowned as she looked at the sky in the photos. “You’re Uncle never mentioned anything?”
Dewey shrugged, “Not the truth. He probably made a mistake or forgot, or maybe says Louie was three seconds after me to make it more significant.”
Huey shook his head, “This isn’t something you forget, Dew… There's an obvious time difference, and not just a few minutes. This- this could be serious.”
It was.
A few minutes was one thing, but there was an issue of health at a certain point. Once an egg was born, there was an exact thirty day time limit for them to hatch, down to the very second. Donald had said Huey was as punctual as ever and right on time, with Dewey following after, and Louie being last.
70% of the time, all eggs hatched on schedule.
The others? Well, some took a few minutes but often no longer than about fifteen, which was about 20% of them. The other percentages?
...9.9999% didn’t hatch. Those eggs could be waited on forever, but the baby was sadly not going to hatch forth from it.
That small miniscule percentage, the 0.0001%? Those were hatchlings that took over half an hour to hatch. The percentage is small for good reason though…
Della searched erratically through the photos before Scrooge brought her a folder. “Here, lass. Donald gave me a copy of their information; social security, birth certificates, school records, health records- It should all be in here.”
Della laid it all out on the coffee table, having them all help shift through them. When Huey picked up his youngest brother's birth certificate, the paper was both helpful and not.
“It doesn’t have a time on it. Why doesn’t it have a time on it?! Does our-?”
“Ours has a time,” Dewey said, waving their own certificates. “Three seconds apart, just like Uncle Donald said.”
Scrooge looked at the three curiously, “Who signed off on them? You all hatched on the houseboat, so who did your certificates?”
Huey referred to their health records which Mrs. Beakley had neatly stacked into a pile. “A family friend. Uncle Donald said they met when they were teenagers, but he lived out of town. He’s our family doctor, and we’ve always gone to him for checkups.”
“Still dew !” Dewey chirped happily, “Mr. M is great! Uncle Donald would let him pick us up from school sometimes or would let him watch us for a while after checkups, and he would always get us junk food! Kinda ironic for a doctor, but he’s still great.”
Huey nodded and showed them one of the photos in the album, showing the doctor and Donald both sitting on the couch in their living room, the two holding the triplets as they smiled. “Uncle Donald says he was supposed to come help with our hatching, but he was a little late. But, he still signed off on our certificates… He was the one who wrote our times, and yet he didn’t write Louie’s? He just put stars near the date?”
After the date on Louie's certificate, there were two small red stars on the top right corner. Mrs. Beakley did a quick look up on her phone and frowned. “It says that the two red stars on a birth certificate mean to contact the signing doctor for any questions. Do you boys have his number by any chance?”
Huey shook his head. They didn’t have any way of contacting him. All they knew was that he lived and worked out of the city, but would visit once in a while, and always come for their usual health check-ups.
Webby hummed, “Wait a minute… I think I heard your Uncle talking to him on the phone yesterday! He said his first name, and said he would drop off Louie to see him today.”
That made both a lot and yet so little sense. Whenever they had checkups, they would be one after the other but all on the same day. Their next checkup wasn’t scheduled for another month also, so why would Donald be taking Louie to see him?
Della frowned at the birth certificate. “I think it’s time we got some answers. If not from Donald, then we’re getting them from this Mickey Mouse guy.”