~* Okay well this was going to be just that one chapter but I dunno I was bored so I wrote more. For everyone that said it was too rushed there's a reason for that. I just wrote it because there was a challenge in one of my yahoo groups to write a story using a list of certain words and after I used them I ended it. Maybe I should've explained that in the last chapter.*~


Guy hung up and walked sullenly back to the Banks sitting where the rest of team was sipping eggnog and arguing over what Christmas carol to sing.

" 'Rudolph' is the best!" Portman declared

" 'Grandma got ran over by a reindeer' has been my favorite since I was little." Averman added

" That's not a good one to have a favorite." Kenny told him

"You don't know my grandmother." The redheaded boy joked

"I've no opinion." Goldberg stated, being he was Jewish

"How about 'Santa Clause is coming to town'?" Luis suggested

"I know, since we're hockey players let's sing 'All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth'." Charlie joked

Guy didn't say a word as he lowered himself to the floor and stared up at the tree, the twinkling lights made to look like one big one by the sting tears in his eyes. He barely noticed when the room fell silent. The rest of the Ducks sat looking at him puzzled, he was normally quiet but never that quiet, especially at the traditional Mighty Duck Christmas eve extravaganza.

"What's wrong Hun?" Connie got out of the rocking chair she was in and crossed the room. She dropped to her knees and put her hand on his shoulder lovingly.

"Marly." Guy gulped a teardrop trickling the length of his cheek "Marly died."

"Oh my god." Connie whispered throwing her arms around her trembling boyfriend.

The entire room was even more wordless then it had been, now it sounded as if no one was even breathing.

"We're so sorry Guy." Julie said sympathetically from the sofa

"Yeah, we know how much she meant to ya dude." Fulton nodded

"Yeah, umm if you guys don't mind, I think I'm gonna go home. I don't feel much like partying." The boy picked himself up off the floor and wandered out of the door into the bitter cold Minnesota weekend without as much as getting his coat out of the stack on Banks' bed

He didn't know where we was going, or what he was even going to do when he got there. After only five minutes his toes where beginning to feel numb and his blonde lashes were frosty. He didn't really know how that little girl had suddenly become so important to him, how after just two weeks she'd touched his heart but she had.

When he'd left Adam's house he'd been walking aimlessly, with no real direction. He hadn't looked at a single landmark or street sign. He was half expecting to look up and realize he'd wandered so far he wasn't even in Minnesota anymore. Finally he looked up an noticed while he hadn't left the state, he had in fact left the city. Now he was in Minneapolis, standing in front if the pond the District Five team practiced at before Bombay came along. *Okay for some reason this is where I always send my characters when they're depressed, but it just seems right to me.*

A bench by the ice just seemed very inviting as he ambled over to it and sat on the nine inch thick layer of snow that covered it. It was almost as if he didn't feel the cold, as if everything inside him was gone, he was mere shell of what he used to be. Like he was simply incapable of feeling anything, incapable of even thinking about anything but Marly. As his gray blue eyes focused on the horizon his memories began to take over.


** Flash back

"Marly, there's someone here to see you." Tina Rose said standing in the doorway to her daughters room

"I'm tired mommy, can you tell them to come back?" The little girl asked rolling over onto her Winnie The Pooh

"I think you want to see this person sweetie." Her mother stepped back into the hallway, allowing Guy to enter the room

"Hey Marly." Her guest greeted with a twinkle in his eyes

"Guy!!" She squealed, practically bouncing on her bed.

"Here I brought you a present." Guy told her sitting down on the edge of the bed and handing her something she could easily tell it was hockey stick, even in the wrapping paper

"Oh wow." Marly gasped after she'd pulled off the paper

"That's the one Goldberg used during the last game against Iceland. Everyone signed it for you, see?" He turned the stick over so the young girl could admire all the signatures

"Oh this is the best gift ever." She threw her arms around Guy's neck with glee

"Well I'm glad you like it. You deserve it, you're a really special little girl."

** End flash back

Guy jumped as a hand came down on his shoulder, he turned his head to the side and found Connie standing beside the bench. He took her hand and pulled her around to the front of the bench and into his lap. She reached and arm around him and ran her fingers through his curly blonde hair as he buried his face in her shoulder. And he let himself cry.