Disclaimer: I do not know or own any of the Mighty Ducks characters, any original characters and the story belong to me, not making any money from this.
Chapter Twenty-Three... Back To Work.
Julie had gone back to work on Monday morning, she had confirmed that the team would be playing on Friday and issued her starting roster to the organisers, she had made sure that the kit would be placed in the locker room ready for them and she had sent an email out to each member of the team to let them know the details for the practise times and the start time of the match, she wanted to be organised and ready so that nothing would go wrong during the game on Friday.
The requests to see players from teams were building up again, sometimes it was hard being in demand, she had made appointments to meet with the most promising ones. To whittle the list down she insisted on seeing videos of the player in action during actual games, it saved her a lot of time, usually out of a list of ten players she would see about half of them.
Julie had met Gunnar for lunch several times, he would turn up to the office early just so he could see her before the practice later on. They had visited Julie's favourite café, the same family had owned it for years, the family knew her well as she had been coming to them for lunch ever since she had stumbled on it by accident one day If she was busy then they would deliver straight to her office, usually with a little cake or something extra as a treat. Jenny, the mum of the family that owned the café, was like a second mother to Julie and she had been so pleased to see her turn up to lunch with someone that wasn't a client or future player.
Gunnar had hatched a plan with Connie, he was determined to get Julie out of her habit of working so hard. Connie knew that Julie spent her lunch break in the office, his first task was to break that tradition and get her out of there.
Julie noticed that whenever they went to lunch Gunnar always steered the conversation away from work, she knew what he was up to, he was distracting her and trying to get her to think less about work. She gave in and let him lead her in the conversation wherever it took him. Once, Gunnar had told her that some of the guys on the team had asked him if there was anything going on with Julie, he hadn't told them anything as he didn't know what she wanted him to say. Julie knew that their relationship would have to come out sooner or later with the team so she told him that if they asked again he could tell them, she wasn't worried, they all knew by now how skilled Gunnar was.
Stansson, meanwhile, was enjoying the fact that his spy had made progress in the past few days, being out of a job was a good motivator for people. The net was closing, Gunnar wasn't in England, Stansson had used his quite considerable contact list to get hold of the knowledge that he wasn't on any team there. That left America, his spy was checking all the news about hockey right at this very moment, if anything came up he would be the first to know.
Julie had taken her team through practices, she joined in with everything they did, worked just as hard as anyone else. She closed the voting for the captain's position, everyone had voted for the person they wanted, there was no need to keep it open now. She hoped that they had picked someone unanimously, she really didn't want to be the person that had the deciding vote. She sat down at her desk and tipped out all the pieces of paper that had been put in the box, she placed them into piles of each name, one had come out over the rest. Julie breathed out, it seemed that Gunnar's skill and talent was obvious to the team. She let herself into the locker room and attached the C to Gunnar's jersey, she didn't want to make too much of a big deal of it, he tended to get embarrassed when people made a fuss over him.
There was a lot to do before the match, their first match was going to be played here, she had people making sure that the ice was perfect for playing on and she would check it herself tomorrow just to make sure. She had given the players the day off and told them to get plenty of rest tonight, she wanted them in good shape before the game. The guest locker room was ready and waiting for their opposition, she had a list of things they needed and had made sure that everything was in there for them, they were bringing their own gear with them so that was no worry.
Gunnar could tell Julie was anxious about the game tomorrow, he was trying to take her mind off it any way that he could. He had given Connie the nudge to phone up and that had distracted her for a while but she had soon gone back to fidgeting and on the odd occasion pacing around the room. He knew that the team would do well, they had the potential to win the match, he'd analysed the team that they were playing and they had their weaknesses, ones that he could use to his advantage on the ice. He always studied his opponents, it had worked well in the past when competing against another team and he wasn't about to change his tactic now, knowing your opponent can help you anticipate what they will do and help you to stop it ahead of time.
Julie appreciated Gunnar's efforts to distract her, he hadn't asked her who had come out top in the vote for captain, she wasn't sure if he didn't want to know or if he just assumed that someone else had been voted for. She was going to leave it as a surprise and tell the team when they were all in the same room, Gunnar hated fuss but she had to make a little bit of one about this, he was captain of the team and it deserved recognition. She wanted to have two alternate captains as well, just in case anything happened to Gunnar during a match, she hoped that it wouldn't though. Injuries sometimes happened to players, ice hockey could be a dangerous sport. Julie didn't want any of her players injured but if it were Gunnar she wouldn't be able to remain as impartial as she should, part of her would more than likely want to trip up the person that had done it, a less than professional response to the situation and one that wouldn't go down very well with her bosses.
Gunnar thought about asking Julie about the vote for captain, he didn't want to hear that he hadn't been chosen though, he wouldn't be able to hide his disappointment, he had wanted to be captain of a team for quite some time, it had always been so near and yet he couldn't reach it. It was his last challenge to himself, to prove himself worthy of being captain, it meant that you had the respect of the team. Being a captain under Stansson would have been worthless, Gunnar was sure that Stansson had never respected him. Stansson had made sure that Gunnar didn't have the respect of the team after he missed the Goodwill Games shot, no one spoke to him for days. Gunnar had gone through a brief period of being down after the games, it had taken his renewed friendship with Olaf to bring him out of it, only then had he made the decision to keep playing hockey.
Julie's bosses were looking for the team to win tomorrow, it was their first game and they wanted to know they were making a good investment. Julie knew she had a good team, she had coached them herself after all. Julie had persuaded one of her contacts in the sport to stand with the team as their coach, she was looking at James becoming their permanent coach, it was partly the reason she had got in touch with him in the first place. James was just what she was looking for, he had extensive knowledge of techniques and training and best of all he wasn't some evil dictator, she had first hand experience of his training as she had secured places in for professional teams for many of his players.
Gunnar didn't know what to think about this James person, Julie had told him that she was hiring a coach as she wouldn't be able to keep training the team at the same time as playing for them. Gunnar felt a tiny stab of jealousy towards this James guy when Julie told him she had been friends with him for years. Gunnar didn't know why he was jealous, he felt relieved though when Julie told him that James was gay, she told him he had to keep it to himself as James only told those he thought could be trusted, he didn't want his sexuality being the main thing people focused on.
Julie could tell that Gunnar was jealous of James, she reassured him that James wasn't her type and that she was the wrong sex entirely for him. Julie wasn't the type to play on Gunnar's jealousy, it wasn't fair on either him or James, she didn't want Gunnar to feel that he was going to lose her to another man. Julie felt certain she didn't want another man and she would keep telling Gunnar that. Julie knew that Gunnar had kept himself away from women due to Stansson's insistence on no girlfriends, Gunnar had told her he'd had a brief relationship with someone until Stansson found out and he hired a man to lure her away from Gunnar. From the little he told her she guessed the woman didn't need much temptation before she ran off and left him, he didn't say but she could tell that it had hurt Gunnar immensely, whether it broke his heart or not she wasn't sure but it did explain why he got jealous of James so quickly. Julie didn't blame Gunnar, she blamed Stansson, the poisonous tosser, Gunnar was better off without Stansson and the woman that left him. Julie would keep an eye on Gunnar, she would reassure him that she wasn't leaving him if she thought he needed it, it would take time to repair the damage that Stansson had caused but she was more than up for the challenge.
Gunnar persuaded Julie to go to bed early, she had told everyone to do that so he said that he was just following the orders of his boss and it would be nice if the boss would follow her own orders as well. He was glad that Julie wasn't leaving him for another man, he knew that he wasn't the most good looking guy on earth. Gunnar sometimes felt like he was too skinny, he'd tried working out to get muscles but it hadn't worked. He smiled as he remembered that Julie had told him she didn't like muscles as they were scary. He had an idea that Julie could sense his jealousy when he had asked her questions about James, he was glad that she hadn't played on it or encouraged it in any way, many people would have.
Julie let herself follow her own orders, tomorrow was a big day for them all, it was their first match and everyone wanted to prove themselves to be worthy of their place in the team, she had no doubts, she was proud of everyone in the team and all the work that they had put in so far, they would prove themselves.