Disclaimer~ I do not own the Mighty Ducks or anything remotely related to them. Disney does, so please don't sue me. I'm not making anything off of this either; it's purely for entertainment purposes.

Chapter 8

As Mallory headed for the lingerie store, Wildwing headed down to the jewelry store that they had been in before lunch. Wildwing walked up to the display cases, and looked around until he found what he was looking for. He saw the necklace that Mallory had been admiring earlier. It was pretty, he had to admit that, but he knew that Mallory would look ravishing in it. Her eyes could easily outshine the beauty of the necklace that he was looking at. He looked at the price tag, it read $400. Then he remember Mallory's story about her past. In an instant he knew that nothing was too good for her. She deserved fame, wealth, and above all, happiness. She deserved the world for all that she had been through. Her moodiness, distrust, anger and incredible strength, they were all so understandable now. He walked up to the clerk, bought the necklace for Mallory, and then headed back to the exit to wait for Mallory.

Mallory hurried into the lingerie store, in a hurry to get away from Wildwing, wanting to forget that she had ever told him about her past. She was trying so hard to fight her emotions, to build a wall around her that no one could ever get through. All of a sudden, Wildwing had created a crack in her wall. Eventually, she knew that he would be able to tear down her wall, he would be able to find out all of her secrets and fears. Mallory started scanning the store, trying to get her mind to stop thinking about all of this frustration, but to no avail. She didn't want anyone finding out about how she really felt, she didn't want to get close to anyone, she didn't want to trust anyone. Yet somehow, Wildwing was getting close to her, unwrapping all of her layers to get to her emotions and feelings, the ones that she had kept hidden from the people around her. She had to decide if she really wanted to trust Wildwing, part of her wanted to reach out to him, the other wanted to hide from him, wanted to reject their growing bond. She decided to not say anything unless he brought it up, and even then she might not say anything. After buying a very revealing nightgown, and a few sets of sexy underwear, she headed towards the exit to meet up with Wildwing.