A/N: Okay, okay. For those of you who caught the whole Windsor thing know that I'm borrowing the team from lyanthrope, right? So no claims of plagerism...

I have serious issues with this chapter. But that's okay, because the story is going to be ending in a few more anyway...I get to leave Connie and Guy alone after this, because they need to deal and all that. And after this, it's on to the Portman-centric "Combat Boots and Clover"! Yay!

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"Might as Well, Part Fifteen" (holy shit, I've already reached 15?!)

["I see life and it's passin', right before my eyes/ The past is the past, don't regret it/ Time to realize/ I need to walk on the wire, just to catch my breath/ I don't know how or where, but I'm goin'/ It's all that I have left/

It don't matter where it takes me/ Long as I can keep this feeling/ Runnin' through my soul."

--from "Destination Unknown" by Marietta]

"Hey, Connie..." Julie hissed spitefully as she followed the other girl out of the library, "heard you broke up with Guy. Did he turn out to be a /fairy,/ too? I've seen him hanging around campus with those faggots...did you find him in bed with one of them? Or /both/ of them?"

"I have nothing to say to you, Julie Gaffney." Connie said softly. She shifted her copy of 'The Great Gatsby' beneath her arm and stopped to take a drink from one of the water fountains in the hall. Julie leaned against the wall and waited for her to keep going.

"Oh, but I have things to say to you, Connie Moreau." Julie smiled cruelly, and matched pace with Connie. Connie looked straight ahead, refusing to acknowledge the girl's presence. "Aren't you sorry now? Wish you'd been like me and stood up to them?"

Connie gritted her teeth and thought, 'Oh, you bitch, you utter bitch, why can't you leave me alone?' But to say it out loud would be responding to her heckling, which would only encourage more of it.

"They're corrupting everyone. It's a disease...a disease of the mind. And your boyfriend..." Julie put a hand to her mouth, "Oops. I mean, your /ex/-boyfriend...he's been infected. Isn't it just a /cryin'/ shame?"

Connie's hand twitched, clenching into a fist for a brief moment, then hung slack at her side. Julie continued in her abusive vein of rhetoric, not noticing the movement.

"It must be killing you, Moreau. To think of Guy...as a queer. As a boy's boy-toy. But then, he's been /exposed/ to it for a long time, hasn't he? What's it been, five years?" Julie gave Connie a look and asked in a would-be innocent voice, "Has Fulton always been a faggot, or is this a recent thing?

"But of course, he's /got/ a choice. I think it's that Dean Portman...because Fulton seemed perfectly /normal/ before Portman showed up again. Do you think we could get him expelled? Maybe that would fix Fulton Reed." Julie laughed suddenly. "Oh! No it wouldn't, Guy Germaine is a fag, too!"

Connie was sure that Julie had much more to say on the subject. But she never heard it, because once they reached the doors outside, she bolted, hearing Julie's mocking laughter behind her for much longer than she actually heard it.

****

"Let me get this straight," Fulton said, rubbing his temples. He tilted his head to one side and inquired, "So, Guy and Connie just...suddenly, without any warning...broke up?"

"Man, we go away for a day, and you guys come apart at the seams." Dean quipped. Goldberg, to his credit, glared at the much-bigger teen, and snapped,

"Be serious, Portman. You didn't see Guy yesterday. You didn't /hear/ him." Involuntarily, Greg shuddered at the memory of Guy's ugly, situationally inappropriate laughter. "I went through the room twice looking for sharp objects."

"You think he might hurt himself?" Fulton demanded. Goldberg leaned against the doorframe of the Bash Brothers' room and nodded. He looked worn, and the darkening circles beneath his eyes indicated a sleepless night.

"Dude..." Dean said, "I wouldn't put it past him."

"Well, watch out for him, will you guys? I'm asking everyone to help."

"Even Connie?" Fulton asked. Goldberg shook his head.

"She's...not in a mood to be talked to."

****

"Fuck!" Connie screamed, throwing her helmet into the showers and cracking a tile. After fleeing from Julie, she'd grabbed all her gear and went to the locker room to change. Thinking that going through her paces might help her settle down, she had gotten halfway through putting on her uniform when everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours hit her. The rage at herself, for being so blind as to not see Guy's unhappiness, the sorrow at ending their relationship, and the blindly impotent fury she felt remembering the terrible things Julie had said to her, and most of all the shame at running away from Julie...it all slammed into her at once.

She grabbed one of her ice skates and hurled it with all her strength at the locker across from her, seeing raw metal where the blade had struck it. Then she collapsed, voicing a loud, despairing sob.

"I hate you, I hate you, I hate you..."

And she didn't even know who she was talking about.

****

Adam took a deep breath and knocked on the door to Guy and Golderg's dorm room. He wasn't really good friends with Guy, but Goldberg /had/ seemed very concerned, and Adam felt that he should do his part. Even if Guy got angry and threw him out, it would take the young man's mind off of Connie for a while.

"Come in," Guy called on the other side of the door.

Adam did so. Guy was sitting crosslegged on his bed, and he looked up at his vistor listlessly. Adam shifted his weight from foot to foot and mumbled, "Um...hey. Feeling any better?"

"No." Guy sighed heavily. "Sit down if you want."

"Thanks," Adam said akwardly. They sat in silence for a while. Finally, Guy wondered aloud,

"Am I making a mistake, breaking up with Connie?"

"Do you have to ask me?" Adam replied.

Anger flashed in Guy's eyes momentarily, but he only shrugged. "We agreed that it was best."

"Maybe it is. But you don't have to sit around here, moping and scaring Goldberg."

"Goldberg?" Guy repeated, confused. "What the hell does he have to do with this?"

Adam rolled his eyes. "You really are dense, Germaine. He's your roommate, your teammate, and your friend since you were little. He thinks you're going to kill yourself over Connie."

Guy stared at him. "You're lying." Adam denied this with an emphatic shake of his head. Guy looked disgusted. "Oh, that is so fucking /typical!/ You people think that I can't do a damn thing without Connie, don't you?!"

"Guy, settle down." Adam implored, holding his hands up in a defensive gesture. Guy ignored this and got to his feet, looking angrier than Adam had ever seen him.

"You think I can't even /live/ without Connie! You think...you think that I'm such a worthless shit that I'd /kill/ myself over...over some girl? Over anyone? You...you don't even /know/ me. You don't care. Fuck, Goldberg and the others probably had to make you come up here."

"Nobody made me. I came on my own." Adam said calmly.

This incensed Guy even further. "Oh, and what for? So you can make fun of me?"

"No!" Adam cried. He had wanted to be patient, but Guy was obviously not in the mood for rational conversation. "Jesus, Guy, I'm not attacking you!"

Guy sat down heavily, and hid his face in his hands. He pleaded in a muffled voice, "Leave me alone, Banks, just go away."

"Fine," Adam said, getting up to go. He paused at the door, however, and though he didn't turn around he told Guy quietly, "Just because the two of you are changing doesn't mean that you're not meant for each other. Maybe you need to grow up, both of you, before you get back together."

****

By the time the call came to board the bus, everyone was tense. Apprehensive about facing Windsor, a team known for cheap shots and dirty tactics, on their home turf and walking on eggshells around Connie and Guy--seated at opposite ends of the bus--the Ducks were under strain.

Dean in particular, having ended up sitting next to Guy in the very back, seemed nervous. He kept shifting around in his seat as if to give Guy more room, and Guy didn't even react at all. He was staring instead at Connie, seated next to Luis. Dean realized that here was bound to be trouble later on, given the way that Luis kept smiling at Connie.

Some spoke up, "You're very jumpy."

Dean looked at Kenny and said, "What, this? This isn't nothing. You should see me when I'm amped up!"

"Gettin' ready to put the fear of God into the Windsor team?" Ken persisted, pointedly ignoring Guy's presence. He, for one, didn't understand the huge deal that everyone was making over this break-up. No one had seen fit to treat Charlie any differently when /he/ finally dropped that Linda girl, and never had Luis seemed to take the loss of one of his girlfriends so badly.

"Yeah, bro, that's it." Dean replied softly.

~~To Be Continued..~~