All Smiles in the Darkness
By: RedSwift
Chapter 8
As Chip flew home in the Ranger Plane from the station, he thought of places to go with Gadget. Maybe spending the morning at a museum, a nice quiet lunch, and then just walking around the city talking. Or a picnic lunch and the whole day in the park.
He approached the tree quicker than he had wanted to, and decided to just ask Gadget what she wanted to do. He landed on the veranda and jumped out. He went in and found Gadget waiting in the main room, watching a documentary on some sort of factory.
“You ready to go?” he asked her.
“In a minute, I want to see the next part of this show.”
Chip sat down next to her and watched it with her. *Well, if she wants to watch, I may as well watch it with her.*
They ended up finishing the show, and watching the next one. And the next one, and the next one. Chip eventually got up and made them some sandwiches while Gadget sat in rapt attention in front of the television. He returned and handed her one on a plate. She took it and thanked him, then sat eating it while watching the television.
*Guess my romantic day isn’t what I’d expected,* he thought to himself. They spent the whole afternoon in silence, watching the documentaries. There were a few that caught Chip’s attention, like the one on forensic science and one on how some crimes were solved.
Eventually, Monty and Zipper returned. Monty had his arms full of cheese, which he took to the kitchen. Chip got up to go help him. He entered the kitchen, helping Monty put everything away while they talked about each other’s days.
“Boy, that cheese ship was loaded. It was a dream come true,” Monty said. Zipper squeaked something to him, “True, there was no Brie ’86, but what more could I do?”
Chip let them go on discussing it and thought of what had happened to him and Gadget today until Monty interrupted him, “So, what did you and Gadget do today?” he said and nudged him with his elbow.
“We sat and watched documentaries all day on TV, that’s all.”
Monty looked downtrodden at this. He had been wanting to get the two of them together for awhile now, but Gadget seemed so absorbed in anything but Chip. *I’ll have to talk to the lass about it sometime.* He knew how Chip felt about her, and knew that the two of them would be a good couple.
By this time, the cheese was stored away and Monty was getting out pots and pans to make dinner with. Chip left and sat back down next to Gadget, who hadn’t moved. They resumed their TV watching when Dale and Foxglove returned.
“How’d your practice go?” he called back to them.
“Pretty good, we got a lot done we wanted to,” was Dale’s response.
“Definitely interesting,” was Foxy’s.
With that, they went to Chip and Dale’s room to put away Dale’s new outfit, and Chip turned back to the screen before him showing flight trials of some human stealth plane.
Monty poked his head out from the kitchen door and bellowed, “Dinner’s ready!”
Chip got up and started towards the kitchen, and turned around to see Gadget still in her same position. He went back and waved a hand in front of her face. She didn’t blink. He walked over and turned the TV off. Slowly she came out of it.
“Huh? Where am I?”
“You’re in HQ, its time for dinner.”
“Already?”
“Yeah,” and with that he took her paw, helped her up, and led her to the kitchen for dinner. He pulled her chair out for her, and she sat down.
“Thanks Chip.”
“No problem Gadget.”
Everyone began eating Monty’s cheese soufflé, and talked about their days. As dinner ended, everyone went their separate ways, Chip and Zipper to the TV for the news, Dale and Foxy to the veranda to watch the night together, Gadget started leaving the kitchen when Monty stopped her.
“Gadget luv, I wanna talk to ya bout something important.”
“What is it Monty?” she asked, looking up at him.
“Well luv, its about Chip. If you haven’t noticed, he likes you a lot and today he tried spendin’ the day with you.”
“Believe me, I know. I just don’t know how I feel about him.”
“Just tell him that, he’ll understand. Don’t leave the boy hangin’ and not knowin’ what may or may not happen. But if you think it won’t work, let him know. It’ll be hard on him, but the pain’ll pass eventually.”
“I know Monty, I’ve tried all these years not to show favor for one of the boys over the other. Now with Foxglove and Dale, I don’t want Chip to think I had to settle for him.”
“He won’t feel that luv, I bet its never crossed his mind. He likes you, maybe even loves you right now. Whether or not you’re ready for it now is your choice, just let him know you’re considering it.”
“I will.”
“That’s my lass. You know, since you’ve been with us I’ve always considered you like a daughter you know.”
“I know Monty, and you’ve filled my father’s role very well. He’d be proud of you.”
“I know he’d be proud of you too lass, very proud.”
She walked over and gave him a hug, crying to herself. He gently hugged her back, letting go a tear himself. They stayed that way awhile.
Gadget broke the embrace, “I have to go now Monty, I spent all day in front of the TV and I’m sore. I’m taking a nice long bath and going to bed.”
“OK, g’night luv,” and with that she left the kitchen. Monty stayed staring at the door after her. *I think your Dad would be real proud of you lass, real proud.*
Monty got up and caught the end of the news with Chip, but said nothing of his conversation with Gadget. *Better let the lass tell ‘im herself, better from her than me.*
As the news ended, Monty and Zipper got up and went toward their rooms. Chip stayed on the couch, thinking over the day’s events to himself, trying to decide whether he’d gotten closer to Gadget or not. *Probably not, we barely talked, just watched TV.* Eventually, he got up and headed toward his room, completely at a loss at what to do tomorrow or what state his life was in at this point in his life.
Disclaimer: The Rangers, and Foxglove are Copyright Disney. Used without
permission but with the utmost respect. Darice, Rex, Adrian, and Støy
are figments of my imagination trying to get out. You may post this story in
any way, so long as you don’t modify my words or gain profit from it. (Boy,
isn’t all this legal mumbo jumbo fun?)