A/N: This is the second of two chapters that ::gasp:: don't prominently involve the Bash Brothers! What am I thinking?! (I'm thinking that the story needs a little development beyond the happies of our Bashies.) Also, I'm up for a little Connie 'n' Guy-torment, how about you guys?

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"Might as Well, Part Fourteen"

["She's takin' her time,/ Making up the reasons,/ To justify all the hurt inside/ Guess she knows,/ With the smiles and the look in their eyes,/ Everyone's got a theory 'bout the bitter one/ They're sayin' 'Mum never loved her much,'/ And, 'Daddy never keeps in touch.../ That's why she shies away from human affection.'"

from "To the Moon and Back" by Savage Garden]

Guy was tired of hearing it, all the snide little comments directed at him like, "Does Connie have anything planned for you two today, Guy?" and "Guy, man, you are /whipped/." and "Ooh, are you sure Connie's not gonna be mad at you?" He was sick of being treated like 'Connie's boyfriend' was all that he was or could be. He was fairly certain that he'd be called 'Mr. Moreau' if they ever got married.

Married? Now, that was a thought...a rather unwelcome thought at the moment...

A sudden surge of cheering brought him out of his reverie. He had finally gotten tickets to a Minnesota Waves game and he wasn't even watching it. The crowd groaned as the visiting team's star forward gained control of the puck and outskated the Waves players covering him. Connie grabbed Guy's hand and watched, tense, immersed in the action.

There was a huge crash as a Waves enforcer appeared out of nowhere and viciously checked the opposing player into the boards. Waves fans roared their approval of the move, and Connie even leaped to her feet, hollering at the top of her lungs, "That's what you /get/, you /loser/! There's more where that came from; just /try/ to score again!"

Embarrassed, Guy tugged her down, back into her seat. He hissed sharply, "Connie, settle down!"

Connie turned, ready to give him a acidly humorous retort, but she stopped at the look on his face. It was a look that she was seeing with more and more frequency lately, one of weary unhappiness. As though something had happened that made him sad or angry, but he was so resigned to the fact that it had to happen he would say nothing. Privately, she wondered if perhaps she was the cause.

Guy realized that she hadn't said anything, that she was merely staring at him, brow furrowed and eyes full of curiousity. "What's the matter, Gee?" She asked softly, using the old appellation that he hated and that she knew he hated. Or rather, she thought that he hated others to call him 'Gee'.

The truth of the matter was, it had taken him years of pleading to get everyone to stop calling him that, and he would have like it to be really everyone. However, Connie was implacable; she persisted in using the nickname, but at least she refrained from doing so when the rest of the team was around. In fact, Connie was implacable on a lot of things, being so set in her ways and opinions that it usually took something of earth-shattering magnitude and importance to change her mind.

"I'll tell you later, okay?" Guy replied, as he had every time the thing that was the matter was their relationship. Connie had never pursued the topic, so what would make her do so now?

****

It was later, in the diner where Ms. Conway worked, that Connie decided to pursue the topic. The Waves had neatly crushed the visiting team, five to two. Connie took a sip of her water and asked, "So, what's the matter, Guy?"

Guy studiously avoided her eyes and added a generous dollop of ketchup to his plate of fries. "What do you mean, Cons?"

"I mean, the look you gave me today at the game. And yesterday in Pre-Cal. And a couple of weeks ago at McDonald's with Banks and the others. And a million other times. What's the matter?"

"I don't know," Guy told the table, still refusing to look Connie in the face. He sighed heavily. "I really don't. It's that...sometimes...sometimes, I can't stand you, Connie." Hurriedly, he continued, "Other times, nothing makes me happier than being with you. It's mixed up. I feel...I feel..."

"You wonder how you can love everything about a person, but hate everything, too." Connie cut in. He looked up at her, eyes wide and apprehensive. She smiled, and there was a quality of tiredness in her smile, "I hoped we would have this talk."

"I love you, Connie," Guy said. It was all that he could find to say.

"I love you, too, Guy." Connie reassured him.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Connie bit her lip and struggled to control the tears that made her nose tingle painfully and stung the corners of her eyes. "Neither of us are really happy, are we?"

"It's too...too..." Guy sighed. "Too something. But not a good something."

Connie nodded. "I understand." Both fell silent. This was unknown territory for them. One of the few truly dependable things in their lives had been each other, and their love. Now, while they still loved each other, they had changed, becoming too different for each other.

"We're still Ducks." Guy said finally. He reached out and touched Connie's hand. "And I'll always fly with you, Cons. No matter what."

And just like that, it was over.

****

Over. It was over.

Guy pummeled his pillow, trying to distract himself from thinking about it. But it rose again despite his best efforts at murdering the soft cushion. A crushing guilt, a 'if I had done better, it wouldn't have turned out like this' kind of feeling. Exhausted, more emotionally than physically, he flopped down onto the bed, buried his face in the pillow, and cried.

****

Goldberg came up to his dorm room to find Guy lying on the floor on his back, staring up at the ceiling with a creepy intensity. The other boy's eyes were red and swollen, his face shiny from dried tears. He looked like someone near and dear to him had just died. Goldberg halted in the doorway and inquired,

"Guy, are you all right?"

"All right?" Guy echoed. He laughed, a mirthless and ugly noise, and repeated, "All right? No, Goldy, I'm not all right, and I won't /be/ all right for a while now."

"What happened, man? You look...you look..." Goldberg fumbled for a moment, then said frankly, "You look like shit."

"Feel like it, too."

"Did you and Connie get into a fight?"

"Me and Connie?" That sound, the laugh that wasn't a laugh at all, rose from his throat again. He turned his head to look toward Goldberg, or at least at the young man's feet. "Me and Connie, that's done. It's over. All in the past..."

"What do you mean?"

"Connie Moreau is a free woman. And I'm a free man. We're no longer going out." Guy raised his head and saw that none of this seemed to be getting through to Goldberg. He enunciated clearly, "Connie is my ex-girlfriend," emphasizing the 'ex.'

****

"They broke up?" Russ repeated. Goldberg nodded, looking miserable.

"Man, if Connie and Guy, who've been together for five, almost six years can break up, what does that say about /any/ relationship?" Averman groaned suddenly, "My chances at happiness have just reached astronomical odds of not happening!"

"Focus, Averman, focus!" Goldberg cried, smacking Averman's head lightly. After he had talked Guy into cleaning himself up and removed all the sharp objects from the room, Goldberg had combed the campus for any Ducks present. Russ and Les were the only ones he could find.

Russ, typically one of the more stoic players, was fairly agitated by the news. But Averman, flighty and dramatic Averman, took the news as though it was a special bulletin that the world was ending. Goldberg was unhappy for three reasons: two of his oldest friends were miserable, he was sure Guy would turn out suicidal, and Luis--an authority on break-ups and make-ups--was nowhere to be found.

"What do you want me to focus on?" Averman demanded. He shouted in Goldberg's face, "I am panicking! You do not interrupt any Averman who is panicking!" He whirled away and began pacing, his hands clasped behind his back. "We Avermans have a long and frenzied history of panicking in the face of great adversity! My great-grandfather Paul Averman, panicked when the stock market crashed and jumped off a roof! It was a general store roof, and he landed in a pile of garbage and survived, but that's not the point! My uncle Manny panicked when he caught Aunt Fay in bed with his best friend and shot himself in the leg! My second cousin Ellen panicked when her living room curtains caught on fire and tried to put them out with an aerosol can! Needless to say, it didn't work! And I, Les Averman, am panicking over the fact that Connie and Guy are no longer together and there's nothing I can do so well as panic, so leave me to it!"

"Well, the Tylers have a long history of minding our own business." Russ said. "So if Guy comes asking me for help, sure I'll give it to him, but I ain't gonna worry about something I can't fix."

****

Connie said many very unladylike things as she strangled the pillow unlucky enough to belong on her bed. She imagined that it was herself, whom she was attempting to kill because she was stupid enough to just let Guy go without trying to make things better. Then she buried her head under the pillow and cried for an hour.

~~To be continued...~~