A/N: This is my first Miracle fic. I love OC and I wanted to write a story about him. See, everyone thinks he's really cocky, but I think that underneath all of that, there must be a real gentleman with a heart of gold, so I created this story. Obviously, I only own Ellie and her friends. And I know it's pretty much a Mary Sue.
Title: Diamonds in the Rough
Author: Lia06
Rating: PG-13 (may go up, I don't know; I don't think so.)
Summary: OC meets Mac's twin sister, Ellie. He has commitment issues; she's had her heart broken one too many times. Can they change each other?
This chapter has been edited.
Rob McClanahan's POV
Steve Janaszak walked over to me. "Hey, Mac, where's the princess?"
I laughed. "Todd took her to California for two weeks. They're supposed to be back in week, but I think they'll be back a lot sooner."
"Why?" Buzz Schneider asked.
I shrugged; the answer seemed obvious to me. "They've been fighting a lot lately. He wants to work things out; she wants to split. Also, she drove Rammer's car, so this vacation ends whenever she loses it with him."
"Who is the princess?" asked Mike Eruzione. It was the first day of practices for the US Olympic Hockey Team of 1980 and the team was just starting to get to know each other. Just that morning, OC and I had gone at it over the '76 Championships. Or rather, he'd attacked me about it.
"The princess is Rob's twin sister, Ellie," Jannie answered. "Her real name is Elizabeth Grace and the Grace part comes from the fact that her mom loves Grace Kelly movies, so her brother nicknamed her Ellie Grace."
"Then we started at Minnesota," I continued. "And we met Jannie, who nicknamed her 'The Princess' after the fact that Grace Kelly is a princess."
"And she's beautiful, like Grace Kelly," Buzz added. "But she looks like Audrey Hepburn; she has long dark brown hair and beautiful brown eyes that are almost always hidden behind sunglasses."
"Is she hot?" Ralph Cox asked.
Jannie grabbed me before I could charge off in defense of my sister; you don't talk about my sister like that. "Easy, Mac, he's never met her."
At the bar that night, Rizzo sat down next to Jannie. "Why'd Mac lose it when Coxie asked if his sister is hot?"
"Ask Mac himself."
"Why?" OC asked. "I don't want to talk to him." He glared at me. "Not ever."
"Well, I don't like telling bad stories about myself, so I don't want to tell it. I made a fool out of myself with Ellie over two years ago."
"Oh, this sounds like an interesting story," Rizzo said. "I'd love it hear it."
Jannie shook his head. "Nope, you're not going to here it, not from me at least. Maybe when Ellie gets back you ask her."
Jack O'Callahan's POV
Two days later, I walked out of the locker room to find a short young woman with dark brown hair standing by the door. "Is Robbie McClanahan in there?" she asked me
"Who wants to know?" I answered with my typical tough guy attitude. I really didn't care much for Mac and I sure as heck wasn't going to tell his girlfriend how to find him, especially since this girl was a babe.
"His sister, Ellie McClanahan," she replied. "You got a problem with that?"
"No," I replied with a laugh, trying to come off as nonchalant. She's Mac's sister? How'd he end up with a sister who looks like that? "It's just that I'm not about to let just any girl into the locker room."
"I don't want to go in there; last year, Herb almost killed me for going into the guys' locker room." She smiled. "I'll just wait out here."
Just then, Buzzy walked out of the locker room. "Ellie!" he screamed, picking her up and swinging her around. "Rob said you wouldn't be back for another week!"
"Todd won't be back for at least that long; I, on the other hand, am sick of pompous jackasses. Tell Rammer I have his keys for him and remind me never to date a guy I meet in a bar again."
"Never date a guy you meet in a bar again," Buzz repeated back to her.
"Wise guy," she moaned. "Remind me again why I hang out with you."
"Because you think I'm the hottest guy on earth," he replied.
"Oh shut up, Buzz; I'm just waiting for Rob." I smiled as I watched her. She was so cute, so comfortable.
"Why?"
"Julie has a date with Ron tonight, so I'm left alone; she wasn't expecting me to be home, so she didn't try to hook me up with one of Ron's friends."
"This is why you don't room with an engaged woman," Buzz replied. "She has no social life, thereby depriving you of yours."
"I'll Julie you said that," she replied. "I'm sure she'd be glad to know that her ex-boyfriend walks around insulting her."
"You know what, Ellie?" Buzz asked.
But he never got to finish his thought because just then, Mac walked out of the locker room. "Ellie, you're back!" he yelled, hugging his sister. Again, I asked myself how he got a sister that looked like that. "Where's Todd?"
"Probably still in California," she replied calmly. "But I'm not really sure; we broke up. His obsession with blondes was getting in the way."
"It took you a whole year to figure that out?" Rob asked, half teasing, half serious.
Ellie rolled her eyes. "Rob, I'm a big girl; I can make my own decisions. I don't need you following me everywhere. I'm not a baby."
"That's true," Buzzy interjected. "You're not even his baby sister; that honor goes to Kathie." Kathie was Ellie and Robbie's twelve-year-old sister.
"So, come with us for dinner?" Mac asked his twin. "We're going to O'Malley's."
"I don't know. I might have plans; I'll have to check my social calendar. I'm not sure, but I think I have a think at the country club tonight with my bridge club."
Her brother rolled his eyes. "Elizabeth Grace McClanahan, you don't have a bridge club; that's Mom's gig."
"Besides, you just told OC and me that you came down here to see if you could tag along with us," Buzzy pointed out.
"And I was really hoping I could get to know you," I added. I was dead serious; I really wanted to get to know her. "After all, Buzzy says you're a real princess."
"Well, I'll go with you guys, but only because this guy wants to meet a real princess," Ellie said with a smile. "I'm not doing this for Buzzy, Robbie, or Jannie; this is all for this guy you keep calling 'OC.'"
"Ellie, this is Jack 'OC' O'Callahan," Mac said; I guess he finally remembered that I existed. "Jack, this is my twin sister, Ellie McClanahan."
"Nice to meet you," Ellie said, shaking my hand. Her smile made it damn near impossible to not like her immediately.
I smiled, mostly just because of how beautiful her smile was. "Nice to meet you, too."
Ellie and I stood there staring into each other's eyes until Mac waved his hand in front of his sister's face. "Hello? Earth to Ellie, come on; some of us are hungry."
"Huh?" Ellie muttered. "What? Oh, sorry, yeah we can go."
When they got to O'Malley's, the first thing Mac noticed was that his sister was sitting between him and me. He smiled and whispered to Janaszak, "You know, Ellie's a traitor; she gets one good look at a BU guy and suddenly all the years of being Rob McClanahan's sister go down the drain. She likes him."
"Who? OC?" Jannie shook his head. "You know he's know for his inability to commit."
"Who else at this table is known for their inability to commit?" Rob asked.
"Your sister," Jannie sighed. All of Ellie's relationships ended in heartbreak. "Just pray that they both stay true to form and no one will get hurt."
"Or we could enact a rule forbidding anyone from dating my sister," the protective twin suggested.
"Wouldn't work," Buzz said. "Remember what happened the last time you did that? You told us that no one could date Ellie and some genius just had to go and try it out."
"The aforementioned genius would like everyone to know that 'once burned, twice shy,'" Jannie told his friends.
"Hey, you thought you were in love," Rob said. "You didn't know what Ellie's like."
"Mac, I broke her heart; I set her up for this pattern of serial dating," Jannie protested. "I treated your sister like crap and I'm a jerk."
"True," Mac consented. "And if I could, I would have you strung up by your thumbs. But that won't help you and it won't change Ellie's outlook on dating."
"Maybe OC will change her," Rizzo suggested. "He does know how to conduct a serious relationship. He's just not a big fan of getting his heart broken; it's happened to him one too many times."
"So he decided that life should just be one long string of meaningless one night stands?" Jannie asked.
"Sort of, I guess, and I mean he actually can find the girls to have that kind of a lifestyle with," Rizzo moaned.
"He and Ellie should get together; they're perfect for each other," John "Bah" Harrington suggested.
"She believes that most men are just a bunch of jerks who only think about one thing," Rob explained.
"What happened with Todd?" Rizzo asked.
"He was in a bunch of her classes last fall and she thought he seemed like a decent guy. I wasn't crazy about him, but I thought she was finally starting to recover from The Mess, so I let her be. But then I started seeing him with other girls and the relationship became less serious; then they went to California together because he wanted to patch things up. She dumped him the night they got out there because she found him with someone else."
"So she continues the pattern of being with guys who hurt her," Jannie muttered. "First there was some self-absorbed jerk, then there was Peter and now Todd. She just keeps getting into these relationships with guys who don't treat her the way she deserves."
Meanwhile, Ellie and I were talking; I was paying attention to her, but listening to the guys out of the corner of my ear. "So you've lived in Minnesota your entire life?" he asked. "Doesn't it get a little cold?"
She smiled. "Yeah, but my family is here; I can't just leave them. My youngest sister is only twelve."
"How many siblings do you have?"
"Robbie, Jennie, Natalie, and Kathie, Rob's my twin, Jen is sixteen, Natalie's fourteen, and Kathie's twelve," she replied. "What about you?"
"How many siblings do I have? I only have a younger brother and a younger sister; James is nineteen and Annie is seventeen."
"So, you're the oldest?"
I nodded. "And you?"
"Nope, Robbie beat me into the world by about twenty minutes. I've been as stubborn as a mule since before I was born; I was convinced the world was better inside my mom than outside." She sighed. "I think I was right."
I smiled; I don't know why, but just being around her made me smile. "Can I ask you what the story is with you and Janaszak?"
Ellie shook her head. "Not yet, maybe when I know you better; I have to wait and see if I can trust you."
I nodded, trying to be sympathetic. "It was that bad?"
"Worse than you can imagine."
Just then, a tall, slender blonde walked into the bar. The instant she spotted Janaszak, she ran over to him. "Baby!" she called. "I wasn't expecting to see you tonight. Why did you tell me that you'd be going out with your friends tonight? I could have brought some of my friends along." Then she saw Ellie. "Oh, I see you're still trying to steal Jannie away from me, slut."
"I wouldn't go near Jannie if you paid me all the money in the world," Ellie replied. "I've moved onto bigger and better things." She leaned back against my chest and smiled; then I wrapped my arm around her. I felt like she needed me to protect her. "I've learned that there are diamonds in the rough."
I smiled down at her. Damn, she was gorgeous "And I've learned that not everyone in Minnesota is an idiot; some people are actually quite wonderful."
"Jannie, why are you letting them say this stuff?" the girl whined.
"Look, Leslie, I wanted to come out for a night on the town with the guys. We didn't want to have a bunch of girls around tonight."
"That would explain why you let Ellie come along."
Rob's eyes narrowed and I tightened my grip on Ellie; this was not good. "Ellie came because we wanted to see Jack, but we couldn't get him without his girl."
"Oh, so now you're in the clingy bitch business," Leslie remarked.
"No, Ellie was fine with spending the night without me," I remarked fiercely; I pulled Ellie closer to my body. "I didn't want to leave her all by herself, so Robbie and I asked the rest of the guys if it would be all right if I brought Ellie along."
"And we all love Ellie," Rizzo continued. "So we were delighted to have her come along. She knows all about hockey and she's OC's girl and Mac's sister; she's the team's princess."
"Leslie, get lost," Jannie hissed. "I don't want to deal with you right now."
She made a sour face and said, "You'll regret this, Steven Janaszak." Then she left.
Ellie turned to face me. "Thank you, Jack," she whispered. "You didn't have to do that."
"Yes I did," I replied. "I have a sister; if anyone ever treated my sister like that, I'd want someone to stand up for her. Besides, you didn't deserve what she was saying about you." It was true; if anyone ever did that to Annie, I'd kill them.
She smiled and hugged me. "I guess this means you think my family isn't so bad?"
I shook my head. "Nah, you're a good person and I guess Rob's not that bad. He can be a pretty decent guy when he's not playing for Minnesota."
"Glad to hear it," she replied. "Rizzo, you were great, too."
"No problem, you're Rob's sister; we have to take care of you," Rizzo told her.
"Always glad to have twenty extra brothers," she joked.
After a brief pause in the conversation, Bah remembered something. "Ellie, Herb was wondering if you're still working three jobs."
She shook her head. "Nope, I'm working four now."
"What?" Mac practically screamed. "You're working four jobs? Elizabeth, are you crazy? What are you doing?"
"I'm still giving piano lessons, teaching ballet on Saturday mornings, teaching ice skating afternoons every day except Sunday, and now I'm babysitting Heidi when Ron and Julie go out."
"Then who's watching her tonight?" Rob asked.
"Julie's mom wanted some time with her granddaughter. Plus, I think she wants to try to convince them to actually go through with the engagement and get married."
Rob shook his head. "Not going to happen, Ron only asked Julie to marry him because of Heidi; the guy still has the biggest case of commitment phobia in the history of the world. He's not going to get married just because he has a daughter."
Rizzo looked at the McClanahan twins. "I'm confused. Who is Julie?"
"My roommate," Ellie answered. "I live with her, her fiancé, and their two-month-old daughter. But I have to move out soon since it's only a two-bedroom apartment."
"You could always go live with Mom and Dad," Mac suggested.
"Or I could shoot myself in the head; it's a faster form of suicide," his sister retorted. "Why did Herb want to know if I was working three jobs?"
"He's looking for a physical therapist to work with the team," Mac replied. "And I suggested you, so he wants to know if you're available."
"I think so," she replied. "Tell him I'll come by tomorrow and talk to him about it. He has to be willing to work with my other schedules."
"Please tell me you'll cut back on your working," her brother begged her. "I really don't need you to make yourself sick again; if you do, you know Mom and Dad will make you go live with them and you'll end up married to some guy from the country club."
She rolled her eyes. "Just to avoid that, I'll try to take better care of myself."
"Thank you," her brother sighed. "By the way, if Heidi's at her grandma's, that means that Ron and Julie are having a date, doesn't it?"
"You mean the kind of date where I don't get any sleep if I stay there? No, they went out to have some kind of discussion. If things change, I'll go over to your place, but I don't think they will."
"What are they discussing?"
"The State of Their Relationship," Ellie said in a mocking voice. "Julie wants to find out if she's ever going to get any sort of commitment out of Ron."
"She isn't," Buzzy answered. "You're more likely to commit than he is."
"Oh, gee, thanks," Ellie replied sarcastically. "I feel so loved. Look, it was nice seeing you people, but I need to get home. I'll see you guys tomorrow."
Rob hugged his sister before she left. "Be good," he told her.
"Yes, Daddy dearest," she replied with a smirk.
"Hey, I'm the older brother here; I can give the orders."
"You can also be delusional," Ellie replied, walking out of the bar.
I smiled. I might not like Mac that much, but his sister was pretty irresistible.
A/N: Okay, please review and tell me if I should keep writing. I hope you liked it.
