Disclaimer - I do not own the Ducks. Don't you wish you could though? Your own little Quack Attack right there in your closet? Sorry…back to the point. I don't own them…just borrowing!

Italics indicate character thought.

A/N: Well, I hope all of you that were so devoted to Beau and Charlie and all the others have followed them into this story. There's a lot in store for all of our favorite Ducks as well as Beau, Rachel, Kimball, Casey, and of course…Devin. I hope you love them as much here as I do! Please read/review. You're input is invaluable!

"Can you believe that you've been married almost three months now, Mrs. Reed?" Beau was sitting on the front stoop with her phone watching warily as boxes were carried past her.

Rachel sighed in her ear. "No." She giggled. Beau couldn't believe it. Rachel Monroe – oops, Rachel Reed – was giggling. "I can't even get used to the new name." She sighed again. "It's nice though now that Fulton is done playing for the season. I actually get to see him at home from time to time."

Beau nodded, knowing the feeling, and cringing a little when a mover nearly dropped a box. If everything makes it in the house unscathed, we might find ourselves ice-skating in Hell later tonight. "Is there still talk that Fulton's getting traded in the off-season, Rach?"

This drew a sigh of a completely different nature. "Yeah, although I think now it's more than just talk. Fulton thinks that the management here believe they don't need as many big enforcers as they have and with his injury earlier…well, it makes him prime target, you know?" She lowered her voice. "Fulton says he's not upset, but I don't think he really wants to play for the Bruins, which is where he thinks he'll end up. There are a lot of rumors that it's a team in turmoil, so we'll see."

Beau wrinkled her nose. "Fulton can fit in wherever he goes. What does all of this mean for your job?" In her mind's eye, she could picture Rachel shrugging, something she had picked up watching Fulton do it habitually.

"There are conservation projects going on everywhere. I can find work wherever we go." She laughed a little, clearly ready to change the subject. "Enough about us though. Soooo? How's the new house?"

Grinning, Beau hopped to her feet, planting one hand on her hip and turning around to look up at her and Charlie's new home. After the wedding they had shared her apartment, but they both wanted a yard and a dog and…space. Not to mention sky. In Detroit you couldn't see the stars at night and it drove them both crazy. So today was moving day.

They had bought a two story historical colonial home in a Detroit suburb. With Charlie's hockey salary and the money coming in from Beau's books and the movie based on them, they could easily have bought some monstrosity with eighteen rooms and a garage big enough for twenty cars. But both had worried that with a house like that, they would have eventually needed the extra seventeen rooms for their egos.

As it was, they were thrilled with the old brick and beautiful white shutters. There was a massive back yard, fenced in and boasting an impressive pool. They would spend their money making the inside as absolutely comfortable as possible.

Beau grinned. "It's great, Rachel. Really great." She frowned, thinking of all of the boxes to be unpacked. "I wish Charlie was here to help with all of the moving-in hoopla, but you know how it goes." She paused, knowing Rachel would ask where he was. "He's got the Easton photo shoot and promotional tour this week, but then he's got a few weeks off, so I should quit complaining." She had the whole week to unpack by herself. That was okay, though. It gave her a chance to get together her surprise for her husband.

Rachel laughed. "Ah, the life of a hockey wife."

"It's great isn't it?"

"It totally is."

Beau's brain started working. "Hey, do you have any time that you could take off?"

Rachel thought for a moment. "Probably. We're kinda between projects right now. Why?"

She was grinning, Rachel could hear it. "I could use your help with something."

"Really? Jason the Jerk is actually being fired?" Adam slowed down on his roller blades so that he could hear Kimball as she chattered excitedly. Coming to a bench on the sidewalk that ran along the beach, he sat down and pulled his shirt up to wipe off his face. Being Adam, he was completely oblivious to the two girls running by and the fact that one nearly knocked the other one over while nudging her to check out Adam's abs.

Kimball, for her part, was pacing her office (cubical), grinning like a maniac. "Well, not fired so much as demoted. He's being sent to an affiliate station in Kenosha."

Adam grimaced. "Wisconsin? Man, what on earth did he do?"

Kimball dropped the smile. "Supposedly sexually harassed the new intern, which I'm not sure I believe, but when they tried to talk to him about it he flew off the handle acting like a…" she searched for the right word. "Well, like a jerk."

"Imagine that." Adam's voice was dry. He and Jason had not gotten along since the first day that they had met, when he had been screaming at Kimball.

"I suppose I'm being a bit childish in my excitement with him leaving, but that's not the only reason that I'm busting at the seams. Get this…" She trailed off, inviting him to guess, and Adam smiled. After almost a year of dating she knew exactly how terrible he was at guessing anything and yet she asked anyway. He hazarded a guess.

"They're moving you into his slot?"

Her laughter was deafening. "Adam, has it totally escaped your brain that he was the sports reporter?"

He smiled himself. "No."

She laughed again. "Hi. I'm Kimball. Have we met before? Because if we had you would know that they would never in a million years put me on sports. I'm an idiot when it comes to that. You know that!"

He could hear her smile, and it sent his heart racing. How crazy for that to still be happening when I talk to her every day. Adam was in way deeper than he had imagined he would be, or could be, after Julie had broken his heart. He was daydreaming about Kimball and what she must look like pacing her space, probably resembling a caged cat ready to pounce, wild red hair streaming behind her or yanked up in a thoughtless bun. Her voice broke his concentration.

"Keegan, who's on main desk now, always wanted to do sports, but Jason was here. Now he's gone. Adam, they're putting me at 10."

She said it so softly that he wasn't sure he had understood correctly.

"What was that?"

She huffed out a breath and the wonder in her voice was evident. "Starting on Monday I am taking on the main desk. I'm going to be a nighttime news anchor."

"Holy crap!" Charlie was standing in the middle of the open foyer, legs spread, head swiveling from side to side. Beau could hear him from where she was in the kitchen and couldn't help but smile. "Holy crap!" He said it again and she figured it was, in his very own way, Charlie's attempt at calling her in to meet him. She dropped the towel she was wiping her hands on and sauntered slowly towards the front door.

She cracked up when she saw him standing there, bags dangling from his hands, his huge mouth hanging open. She stopped a few feet short of him, leaning in to plant a light kiss on his check, and then drawing back to cross her arms in self-satisfaction.

"I'm going to take that 'holy crap' to mean that you're pleased with the unpacking that I've done."

He finally shook his head, sparking eyes focusing on hers. "Pleased?" He dropped his bags brusquely and rushed towards her to pick her up and swing her around once. "I thought I was going to come home to a maze of boxes and stuff everywhere." He dropped her down roughly, getting an eye roll in return, and looked around. "Look at this place! It looks like we've been here for a year instead of a week."

Beau crossed her arms once again. "What can I say? I rock."

He grinned in her direction. "That you do." Suddenly his eyes widened and he bounced a little in place. Beau was forcefully reminded of a five year old she used to baby-sit for. "Oh ooh ooh. Did the theatre seats and the screen get here?" He was already on the move towards the basement and Beau rolled her eyes, calling after him.

"Yeah, they were installed. I'm good thanks! I had a great week by myself. Yes the weather's lovely!" She trailed after him, knowing he was completely ignoring her. When she made it all the way down the stairs she couldn't help but laugh lovingly when she saw him. He was standing in the front of their home theatre, mouth still agape at the plush burgundy seats which Beau considered fit for a king. Slowly he turned in a circle and stared even more riveted at the huge screen that was rising up from the floor.

"Oh…wow." After staring at his new room more tenderly than he often looked at Beau, Charlie turned to beam at her. "This freakin' rocks."

Beau only rolled her eyes and turned on her heel and headed back into the kitchen. She had been antsy all day for his return. Her surprise could wait a little longer.

Charlie played around with his new toy – sound system – for another half and hour before finally trudging upstairs looking completely satisfied. When Beau only smiled at him over the bowl of penne al vodka she was stirring, he smiled sheepishly. "I'm going to go put away all my stuff upstairs. You know," he winked, "as in not leave it lying all over the bedroom. I'm even going to put things in the hamper."

Her voice was dry, but pleased. "Impressive."

He was halfway out of the room before he turned around. "Am I going to find more of this amazing 'everything is already unpacked' when I go upstairs?"

She frowned, dropping her spoon and licking some sauce from her thumb. "Actually, I ended up having the movers put some of the furniture in different rooms than we had talked about. I hope you don't mind. Want me to come up and show you?"

He smiled, patting her butt as she ambled past. "Sure."

At the top of the winding wooden staircase Beau dropped the small bag she had carried and motioned for Charlie to drop his as well. She went to the first bedroom and stepped inside. "I kept this a guest room like we talked about."

Charlie looked around, nodding appropriately as she pointed out the quilt they had gotten from her grandmother and the painting she had shown him a month ago, knowing he had been paying no attention. Mostly, though, he was just impressed she had gotten so much down in a week. He doesn't know the half of it, Beau thought.

Walking all the way down the long hall she bypassed a closed door and went to what they had planned as another guest room or a large office. She screwed up her face a little at Charlie. "I know we talked about the bigger room back down the hall as your sports and game room, but I made an executive decision to move it in here."

Charlie didn't mind really, but couldn't understand why. It's not like they needed huge guest rooms. He was just getting ready to say so when she flung open the door. "Holy crap."

Beau chuckled. "You said that already."

Charlie took a few steps in and turned in a small circle. The wall directly in front of him was painted the bright red and white of the Detroit Red Wings who he currently played for. His MVP award from the most recent season was held on a shelf, encased in glass, next to his individual trophy from when they made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in his second season. There was a replica of his jersey in a huge plexiglass box near the ceiling in the center of the wall.

To his right, the wall was painted Pennington State Wolfpack red, black and white, and there was a huge rendition of the school logo in the center of the wall. It was flanked by two framed jerseys, one that had belonged to him, and one that had belonged to Beau when she had played there as well. The wall was also littered with various other awards and recognitions they had received during their college years. The best though, were the many photos framed and labeled with tiny plaques.

A little overwhelmed, Charlie turned to his left and was confronted with a black wall accented in the District 5 Ducks green and purple. A huge Duke logo graced the center of the display. His jersey was there, of course, along with a variety of news articles. But the real show-stoppers were the literally dozens of framed photos of he and his friends. Beau knew, clearly, how important to him they were.

In the center of the room was his prized pool table, and in the corner Beau's favorite thing that he owned…his classic 1985 Galaga/Pac-Man arcade game. He walked over, running his hand over the joystick and then turned around to view the room from that angle.

The barrage of colors was a bit of an assault on the senses, but Charlie couldn't think of a more perfect room. "How did you do this?"

She leaned against the door jamb. "Well, I flew Rachel in under the pre-tense of helping me unpack, but really just because I wanted to see her."

Charlie nodded knowingly. "That explains the giggling I heard when I called the other day."

She laughed. "Yeah. But it turns out she was actually really helpful." She walked over to the Pennington wall, smiling at a newspaper photo of her and Guy, heads bent close together as they sat in the player's box during a game, most likely discussing strategy. She ran her hand over the mural of the school logo. "And I had an artist come in to do these. I thought you'd like them."

He joined her, hugging her from the side and kissing the top of her head. "I like them a lot, Conway."

She nudged him away and headed towards the door. "I love it when you call me that." She beckoned him to follow. "Come see the other room."

A few seconds later they were standing back at the first door at the top of the stairs. She stuck a hand in her pocket, the other hand on the doorknob. Her voice was extremely casual and Charlie raised a brow at her. "I thought we could use this room in, oh…say, seven months?" Without another word she threw the door open and gave Charlie a little shove inside.

He looked around, breathless, unsure he had heard her right.

The walls were painted celadon green with six inch thick teal stripes running vertically every three feet or so. Bright and beautiful, he thought. Under the chair rail everything was painted a darker shade of teal. Sitting by one window was a distressed white wood rocker and the aforementioned windows were now cloaked in cheerful ruffled curtains with wild colored animals marching across them.

The thing that he was most stuck on, though, was centered between the two huge bay windows. It was a beautiful white wood crib, also distressed to look old, but even in his shock Charlie could tell it was brand new. It was filled with plush linens in khakis, and greens, and blues and various modern geometric shapes. Hanging above it was a merry mobile featuring the same animals that were trekking across the curtains.

Beau leaned against the door holding her breath as Charlie stood stiff in the middle of the room, completely silent and staring at the crib. Finally, he turned very slowly and his gray eyes were bigger than she had ever seen them. He opened his mouth as if to speak and then closed it again. Beau could stand it no longer and edged forward a little, unconsciously laying a hand on her still flat belly.

"What do you think…Dad?" The word sounded foreign on her tongue and she could see the whole thing register in Charlie's eyes. On a quick intake of breath he darted forward and yanked her into a fierce hug, his lips descending on hers in a breathless kiss. Then, just as quick as he had started it, he jumped back three feet, his face paling.

"Oh my God! Are you okay?" He took a tentative step forward, thinking how hard he had hugged her, and laid a hand over hers where it was again placed over her stomach.

She smiled, touched. "I'm wonderful. This is wonderful, right?"

He captured her face between his hands, staring at her. "This is perfect."