Title: This is Your Time
Author: Lia06
Rating: T
Summary: Herb's stepdaughter, Anna, comes in as the team manager. She inspires and confuses the guys at the same time. She also manages to win a few hearts on the road to Lake Placid.
Pairing: Jack O'Callahan/Anna O'Leary-Brooks
Disclaimer: I do not own Miracle and I never have.
Chapter One
Anna's POV
This was not going to work. Most of these guys were from Minnesota and Boston; they hated each other. I could have told you Herb Brooks was nuts but that wouldn't have done any good. He wouldn't have listened to me. He didn't care what I thought; I was just his daughter.
Well, sort of…see, I'm Herb's wife's daughter from her first marriage. So, I'm Herb's stepdaughter, but he's been the closest thing I've had to a dad since I was about five. So I grew up around the Minnesota hockey team and the ice. But I was not allowed to date the hockey players. But as the father of my best friend once said, "If you tell your children not to date, they'll do it anyway and just call it something else." Herb clearly never got that memo. In my four years of college I managed to date three different hockey players while telling Herb that we were just friends. Luckily, I happen to really be friends with all of those guys now.
I have a younger sister who is three years younger than me and she also dated hockey players while telling Herb that the guys were "just really good friends." Well, she got a reputation and we'll say people don't talk about her as a nice, sweet, adorable, wonderful girl. She also earned the hatred of most of the guys on the Minnesota hockey team. Those guys are like brothers and if you hurt one of them, they'll all try to kill you.
Thankfully, those guys still loved me. Take Robin McClanahan-more commonly known as Rob, Robbie, or Mac. He's my best friend; we met in first grade and we are now inseparable. Two years ago, Robbie and my little sister Abby-full name: Abigail Patricia O'Leary-Brooks-dated for a few months. Abby broke Robbie's heart when he found out that she was cheating on him with some other guy; we'll get to him later. I was the one who had to scrap Robbie off the floor after he found out about Abby and the other guy. He was drunk for three days and I lied to Herb about where he was. I took care of him and I told him that he wasn't a complete fool. Rob and I are close. Any guy who looks twice at me has to go through my "big brother" Robbie.
I don't live with Herb and my mom anymore. I got my own apartment the summer before my junior year of college. I lived there with my friends Gayle and Lisa for about two years. Gayle and Lisa both moved out and I got a new roommate this spring; it's my best friend, Rosemary. Our apartment is a quiet, happy place. Our only regular visitors are my mom, my half-sister Kelly-full name: Kelly Elizabeth Brooks, and Rosemary's boyfriend, Jeff Pierce. Rob also comes over for dinner at least once a week but only when I'm cooking. Rosemary can't cook worth a hill of beans and Jeff has been trying to find a nice way to tell her that for the past year and a half.
Herb and Danny rarely come by, but that's all right. I go home for dinner every Sunday. And I was my dad's team manager all through college. Abby-well, I rarely see her and that's the way I like her. She has a penchant for getting into trouble and I'm sick of watching her hurt the people I love the most. The most I see her is every month or so she'll show up at Mom and Herb's for dinner. She'll do just about anything to get a warm meal and a few hundred dollars.
And today, I get to go to my first practice for the US Olympic hockey team of 1980. I'm going to be late because I told Mom I'd take Kelly to ballet but Herb knows what's going on. Or at least I think he does.
Jack's POV
This is it. Today I begin the quest of my dream-an Olympic medal. I've loved hockey for as long as I can remember. It's in my blood or something. I started playing hockey when I was five or so. I played pee-wee, in high school, and in college. I went to Boston University on a hockey scholarship, but if we'd had the money, I probably could have gone to Harvard. But Harvard is not my kind of place. I might be smart, but I like to have fun. And I love to play hockey.
Playing on the Olympic team is a dream come true. I get to play for Herb Brooks and I get to play with three of my closest friends-Jimmy Craig, Mike Eruzione, and Dave Silk. And the fact that my arch-enemy, Rob McClanahan, is on the team? Well, I've still got to settle that score. This is going to be a long, exhilarating road. And I'm going to make the most of it.
My plan was to win the gold medal and prove it to the world that I was a great hockey player. I was going to work my way into the NHL and make sure that my family was financially secure for the rest of their lives. And if I got to date a few chicks along the way that would just be the icing on the cake. I love ladies and they seem to love me too. Girls could only make this adventure more exciting.
Within the first few hours of practice, I managed to get into a fight with Rob McClanahan. Yep, that's me; I'm always the first one to drop my gloves and throw a punch. So, we traded a few punches and then got yelled at by Herb; oh yeah, this is going to be great.
But that wasn't the big deal. Herb started having us introduce ourselves to each other and Ralph Cox had just finished introducing himself when someone new skated onto the ice. The person was wearing blue jeans, a long-sleeved black top, a brown hat, and white figure skates; this was a girl. She was carrying a large black purse and she had dark brown curls spilling out from underneath the hat. "Herb," she yelled. "I've got the stuff you asked me to pick up."
"Where is it?" he yelled back.
"It's on your desk in your office," was her reply. "Where else do you think I'd put it? I'm not stupid; I know how you like things."
I heard one of the Minnesota guys mumble something about "of course she knows how he likes things. She's lived in the same house as him since she was eight years old." Now I was wondering. Who was this girl? And what was she doing here?
"Thank you, Anna," Herb said as she skated up next to him.
"No problem," the girl-Anna, I guess-replied. "Now is there anything else you'd like me to do? Or can I go sit at your desk and file my nails now?"
"Go get Rob cleaned up and then check my messages for me. If there are any calls you can handle, do it for me."
She looked at McClanahan for the first time. "What happened to you, Mac? Did you finally meet your match? Or have you been screwing around in bars again?"
"I punched him," I said, trying to sound as arrogant as I could. I wasn't sure why but I wanted her to think of me as arrogant.
She grinned at me. "Ah ha, you must be Jack O'Callahan," she said slowly, enunciating each syllable. "I've heard of you. At last we finally meet. I'll have to talk to you later." As she said "later" she patted my cheek and gave me a look. I knew immediately that I had not seen the last of her-whoever she was.
After practice we all rushed to the locker rooms. We couldn't get in the ice baths fast enough. "So who is she?" Rizzo asked as we began to throw our clothes everywhere.
"She's Herb's stepdaughter," Buzz Schneider said.
"Her name is Anna O'Leary-Brooks," Phil Verchota added. "Her mom married Herb when Anna was eight and she's grown up on the ice. She's one of Herb's two stepdaughters. Anna's awesome, but if you ever meet Abby, you should stay the hell away from her. She's trouble."
"But whatever Abby is, Anna is an amazing skater," Mike Ramsey continued, "She could probably have made it to the Olympics for figure skating if it weren't for the fact that she has another goal in mind."
"What's that?" Jimmy asked.
Buzz sighed and Phil laughed. "You'll think I'm just another stupid girl," a feminine voice said from behind us.
We all turned and looked. Anna O'Leary-Brooks stood there. She was gorgeous. She was probably about five foot six or so and slender-proof of the life of figure skating she'd lived. She had curly dark brown hair that was now pulled up in a ponytail. She had eyes that were as blue as the noon sky. "Where's Rob?" she asked looking around the room.
"He's in the shower," Phil told her. "But maybe I can help you."
Anna went over to Verchota and wrapped her left arm around his shoulder while she stroked his cheek with her right hand. She leaned in really close to him and looked deep in his eyes. "I doubt it, Philly boy. There are a lot of things you can do, but none of them involve satisfying my appetite. I also doubt that you'd be willing to pay for pizza and beer at Mario's."
All the other Minnesota boys laughed as she spun away from Verchota and waltzed over to me. (Okay, so she didn't really waltz but she was so graceful in the way she moved, that it seemed like she was dancing.) "And you, Mr. O'Callahan, I've got a score to settle with you," she said poking me in the chest. "See; no one makes McClanahan bleed except for me. And I've got to know why on earth you felt the need to make sure that Rob's blood is just as red as yours."
I just stared at her for a moment. I'd never met anyone quite like her. She didn't seem to be afraid of anyone and I'd never seen that in a girl before. But I wasn't going to let her know that she intimidated me. I was going to keep her a distance because I didn't know what else to do with her. Anna O'Leary-Brooks was the first girl I'd ever met in my life who scared me.
Anna's POV
Jack O'Callahan was arrogant. I could tell that right off. He needed someone to tone him down a few notches and show him his real place in the world. But that wasn't going to be me. I was going to treat this guy the same way I treated all the other guys. We could be friends-once he grew up.
But the truth was something about Jack scared me. I knew that he was always the first one to drop his gloves and throw a punch. But I also knew that he really was one of the best hockey players on the team. He seemed to be very sure of himself and acted as if he was afraid of nothing. He reminded me of someone I was very close to. I couldn't quite explain how, but he reminded me of Herb.
And he still hadn't answered me. So I looked straight into those big blue eyes and said, "Jack O'Callahan, please tell me this is not still about 1976. If it is, you are the stupidest person I had ever met in my entire life. And I have met some real idiots. Just tell me this isn't about 1976 and we can all be friends for the next seven months."
He smiled at me, like he was trying to charm a snake. And then his eyes flashed down to his feet. He wouldn't look at me anymore and I sighed. "You have got to be shitting me. Rob, let me know when you're done and we can head out to Mario's for pizza."
"Anna, have you seen Gayle recently?" Buzz asked as I headed for the door.
"I'm going to see her when we get to Mario's," I replied with a grin. "And you're coming to, Buzzy. Philly, Rammer, you'd better be coming too. Oh, heck, anyone who wants to come can come with us. Just be ready in fifteen minutes."
"Rosemary's cooking again?" Philly asked.
"Why else would I be so eager to go out to dinner?"
I headed out of the room and went to wait in the lobby. I really did want to go out for dinner purely because Rosemary was cooking. I love her; she's an awesome person. But she CANNOT cook. When I left the apartment she was making what she claimed was tuna noodle casserole but if you asked me, it was rancid oatmeal with tuna.
The first guy to come out into the lobby was Jack O'Callahan. He went and stood in a dark corner of the lobby where he wouldn't have to talk to me. I just stood there with my purse and a box filled with psychological tests that Herb had given the boys. See, I have a bachelor's degree in psychology and I'm going to start working on my master's in September. I'll just take a few night classes until the Olympics are over. But once the Olympics are over, I'm going to work my butt off and get that master's. I'm going to use the money I earn from being the team manager to pay for my school.
The next guy to come out was Philly. Phil Verchota and I went out for about nine months. We split up when we realized that we were NOT meant to be together. So we broke up but we're still friends. Phil still likes to propose to me for fun every now and then. Well, Phil is nuts and that's one of the things I love about him.
So I was standing there when Phil came up to me and got down on one knee in front of me. He looked up at me and smiled. "Anna Rose O'Leary-Brooks, will you do me the greatest honor of my life and become my wife?"
I smiled at him and kissed the top of his head. "Philip, I love you with all that I am and I'm very honored that you would even consider me as your wife. But we've been through this many times before. It would never work between you and me. I'm very sorry, darling."
Phil jumped up and hugged me. "Well, thank you for at least considering me. So, we're going to Mario's? Do they still have that really, really gorgeous blonde waitress?"
I smiled at him and I heard Jack O'Callahan chuckle. "Yep, she's still there. Her name is Maggie and she's twenty-one."
"You know you're amazing. You find out who I like and then you find out what you can do to arrange things for me. I'll see you at Mario's."
"You should probably wait. We should carpool so we can save money on gas. Plus the Boston boys don't know how to get to Mario's."
"You don't need to take us with you," Jack said from his corner. "We are capable of finding our own food."
"Really?" I asked. "So you know where to get pizza? You know where you can order out from around here? Or are you going to refuse to let us give you some help just because you're from Boston and we're from Minnesota? You would rather eat the really gross food in the school cafeteria than ask for help from us Minnesota folk? You're going to have to put up with us for the next seven months. Get over yourself. Just let us give you some help getting to know the Twin Cities area. I promise it'll be worthwhile. If nothing else, you'll get to eat some of the best pizza in Minnesota."
Jack walked over to me and looked at me. "You're really something you know that. Fine, I'll go have pizza with you Minnesotans. I guess I'll have to learn to put up with you at some point."
"Good," I replied. "I'm not asking you to be Rob's best friend or to fall in love with a Minnesota girl. I'm not asking you to stay here for the rest of your life. I'm just asking you to get along with us and not throw anymore punches at your teammates."
Phil looked at me and gasped. "Wow, someone's got to tell your parents they didn't waste all that money they spent on your college tuition."
I smiled at him. "Oh, Philly, remind me to go over to the dorms after dinner and post the roommate assignments."
"Roommate assignments?" Jack asked.
"Yep, you didn't think Herb or the University would let you guys each have your own rooms, did you? That wouldn't help you bond with your teammates very well, now would it?"
Jack shrugged. "I guess not."
Just then, someone came up behind me and put his hands over my eyes. Then he kissed my cheek and whispered, "Baby, you're all that I want out of life. Say you'll be mine forever and come with me to my bed. Then we'll make our love child before we get married."
"Hey, Rob, how are you?" I said spinning around and looking into the eyes of my best friend. Well, Rosemary is my best girl friend but Rob is my best friend in the world. I just can't stay up late at night eating ice cream out of the carton and talking about guys with him. Okay, so technically I could but if I did that, he would probably end up smearing ice cream all over my face.
"Everyone's pretty much ready to head out for dinner now," Rob said. "I was thinking we should carpool to the restaurant."
I smiled at him. "I was thinking the same thing."
"Great minds think alike," he replied.
"If you say so," I told him. "I was thinking we should take people's station wagons. They all seat ten people each and so we could take three cars and that would make gas a lot less expensive."
"All right then," he said. "Who has station wagons?"
"I do, you do, and I think Bah has one."
"Righto," he said. "Just don't make me drive O'Callahan. We might not all make it home tonight alive if he and I have to spend that much time in close quarters."
Bah came over. "I'd like to have people who get along in my car, so I'd rather not have O'Callahan in my car."
"Fine," I sighed. "I'll take O'Callahan. Just give me eight other people and we get go get food."
So I ended up with O'Callahan, Auge, Suter, Baker, Christian, Rizzo, Silky, and Craig in my car. That was interesting. There wasn't really anyone who hated anyone else in the car but those guys definitely didn't have a lot in common. Suter, Baker, Christian, and Auge settled themselves in my trunk along with the boxes of psychology tests. "Do you have to grade all these tests?" Baker asked me.
I shook my head. "I have to read all of them but I don't have to grade them, per say."
So we went to Mario's. Philly flirted with Maggie all night. I spent most of the night joking with the guys. Pizza and beer loosened the guys' tongues and the walls between Boston and Minnesota were falling down rapidly. OC and Mac were still distant from each other but I couldn't expect them to become best friends over night. But at least they weren't picking up their butter knives and trying to stab each other in the heart. This at least was progress.
The last thing I did before heading home that night was drop the boys off at the dorms and post the room assignments. I hoped Herb knew what he was doing because some of these guys were not going to like him very much after they saw this list.
Roommates Roster (as men are eliminated, this will be edited.)
201 Auge Broten
202 Delich Craig
203 Cox Verchota
204 Hughes Strobel
205 Ross Morrow
206 Horsch Schneider
207 Janaszak Silk
208 Pavelich Eruzione
209 Johnson Christian
210 Christoff Harrington
301 Baker Ramsey
302 Suter Wells
303 McClanahan O'Callahan
Those last two were going to hate this. There could be blood by morning. I doubted that the four other guys on the third floor would be likely to stop
Jack's POV
I stood there staring at the list. This had to be some sort of a joke. Herb could not be serious, but everyone else was heading to their rooms, so I picked up my bags and headed up to room 301. The door was open and I saw Mac throwing a bag at one of the beds. I'll admit these dorm rooms were nicer than the hotel I'd stayed in the night before, but I didn't have to stay with Rob McClanahan in the hotel.
"Hey," I mumbled as I walked into the room.
"You can pick which bunk you want," he said. "I don't care."
"I'll take the bottom bunk," I told him. I'd always had the top one growing up because my little brother Patrick is scared of heights.
"Works for me," he replied.
Neither of us said another word the rest of the night.
A/N: So let me know what you think. I'm looking for a beta, so let me know if you're interested. I've been out of the Miracle loop for awhile so it might be a bit bad.