Adam smacked the puck with little remorse and caught Goldberg in the stomach. The goalie crumpled on the rink yelling expletives at the star player. Bombay blew his whistle with a shake of the head. Adam turned to the man on the bench, his arms were gesticulating him over somewhat animatedly. He seemed angry.

Removing his helmet, he threw it to the ice. Guy and Averman copied and skated towards Bombay. Goldberg got to his feet, immaculately unhurt now as his interest grew in his three team mates. He, with the rest of the team, made their way to the bench to latch on to the latest little mini-drama within the Ducks. Charlie shrank back against the boards and suppressed a long sigh.

"What's gotten into you three? You've been – you've been vicious! You've been uncoordinated all practice. Slamming into Charlie, trying to kill Goldberg! What-" Bombay started, gesturing towards each player, but Guy was quick to interrupt.

"Don't be shouting at us, Coach. Why don't you ask your pet?"

Averman giggled at this and even a smile grazed Adam's features for a split second. But then it was gone. Bombay quietened the snickering team and scanned about for Charlie. He knew 'pet' meant Charlie, no question. It was no surprise that he was his favourite on account of Casey; before, however, the rest of the Ducks never seemed to resent the teenager for this, they just accepted it, accepted that Bombay had been courting Casey and that within that time his relationship with her son had evolved into some sort of surrogate bond. "Charlie?"

Charlie pushed himself forward and looked up as innocently as possible. Bombay raised an eyebrow and Charlie sighed, his façade collapsing immediately. He brought a fist to his mouth and coughed into it before starting, "The reason Adam and – well, the reason they aren't playing well, they are distracted and it is my fault."

"Come on Charlie, even I established that one already," Goldberg piped up. Bombay glanced at him quickly and he fell into line with the rest. Everyone's attention was on Charlie again but he was unwilling to talk thereafter.

Adam rolled his eyes, "To the Ducks, to Coach Bombay," he addressed bitterly, "Captain Ducky has an announcement to make and it's a good one, this." Guy laughed hollowly.

Bombay crossed his arms and alternated his gaze between Adam, Charlie, Guy and Averman respectively, "Do you want to share what's going on or do you want Adam to break whatever it is and probably not sugar-coat it as nice as you may have liked, Charlie?" He encouraged.

"I don't want to be a Duck anymore." Charlie whispered. He cursed himself inwardly because that was not the case at all. He just didn't want to be based in Minnesota if it meant only living half his life with only one of his parents. A series of gasps and splutters accompanied this, confirming that they had, in fact, heard him.

"What do you mean you don't want to be a Duck?" Connie snapped, "It was you and Guy that dragged us down to the pond to try-out for D5 all those years ago, it was you that forced us to give Coach a chance and become the Ducks – you – it's you that always says 'Ducks fly together'."

"If you aren't a Duck then who do you want to play for?" Fulton asked slowly. "Loser."

Charlie rested his chin onto his chest as the word registered with him. Sticks and stones may break my bones but your words will never hurt me. As his team mates took Fulton's lead and joined in with an array of insults despite Bombay trying to calm them, Charlie was suddenly transported back to a time when this may have been true. He was ten and Adam was a Hawk.

Adam, McGill and Larson closed in on the Ducks in the alleyway and began to skate around them, tormenting them with insults, but only Karp seemed to rise to the bait. The Hawks could rough up Charlie and his friends as inhumanely as they wished on the ice, but their words had always went over their heads because each Duck knew that they could fall back on the team to help them, and although this was an exception for Karp and Jesse, maybe it is part of the reason as to why they weren't Ducks to this day. Enter Fulton. Their protector.

Only this time Fulton wasn't protecting Charlie, but he was not alone. The rest of the Ducks were on Fulton's side. Charlie wasn't a Duck as soon as the words escaped his lips, whether he meant it or not, maybe he wasn't a Duck the second he confided in Adam. During the practice it was Adam, former Hawk, roughing him up on the ice and if Charlie was honest he had expected as much. But the words certainly stung him.