The Best That You Can Be

PG-13 (just in case)

DISCLAIMER- I don't own the Mighty Ducks or the characters except for my own that I made up. If I did then well I would be rich and doing other stuff.

Chapter 8-

Monday morning came and Cate sighed- she was beginning to hate her shoulder. She had to have Connie and Julie help her get dressed in the mornings and at night. She felt helpless but knew that in a few days she could start moving her shoulder again. She stared at her reflection while brushing her hair- she was going to leave it down today- it was starting to get colder outside and knew that she was going to need a better coat.

Cate had talked to her mom on Sunday and told her what happened. She was shocked at what Charlie did and was wondering why he had come home. She was worried about Cate, but Cate reassured her that she was fine and the trainers and the team was taking good care of her. Casey told her daughter that she would see her at the game on Friday and that weekend they would go shopping for some warmer clothes- that of course prompted Connie to beg to go and then Julie got added to the mix. Cate's mom called Connie's mom and the two moms agreed to take the three girls shopping.

Connie dropped her bag by her bed and sat down with a sigh. Julie and Cate looked over at her to see what was wrong.

"Why so glum?" Julie asked.

"It's Monday." Connie said.

"Yup- back to the daily grind." Cate said.

The three girls grabbed their backpacks- Cate was happy that she had a messenger bag not a backpack like Connie- and walked to breakfast. They met up with Guy, Kenny and Luis. Luis tried to talk Cate into letting him take her bag for her but she told him that her left shoulder was perfectly fine to hold the weight. Julie just laughed at Luis's antics.

They made their way into the Dinning Hall and ate breakfast. As soon as the first bell rang- the team scattered to their first period classes and began their daily routines.

- - - -

Cate sigh as she watched her teammates practice without her. O'Rion was working on a new offence and Defense since he was now down 4 players (Portman was in Chicago, Cate was hurt and Charlie and Fulton had quit the team.) Connie and the rest of the second line had moved up to the first line so they were trying to rework some of the plays.

When O'Rion finally called practice to a halt, she got up and joined the team meeting. O'Rion told them to rest up and keep up the good work- they had a game on Friday that was to be played at Brighten Academy and they needed to tell their 5th period teachers tomorrow that they were missing classes on Friday

Cate and the others nodded. Julie and Connie walked towards the locker room while Cate went outside to wait for them. She found Adam waiting for her outside.

"You know that you could come in." Cate said.

"I wouldn't want anyone thinking I was stealing your plays." Adam said sitting down on the bench besides her.

"Yeah well everything had to be redone today- we are missing 4 starters now." Cate said.

"That really sucks. I still can't believe Charlie quit." Adam said

"Charlie does tend to take things the wrong way sometimes." Cate said.

They sat in silence for a few minutes then Adam spoke up again.

"I'm going to see Hans on Thursday. Do you want to come?" Adam asked.

"Adam Banks are you asking me out?" Cate said with a smile.

"Well. Uh. Um." Adam said scratching his head. "Yeah, kind of."

"Well, I accept." Cate said. She looked up and saw the rest of her team walking out of the rink and Adam and Cate got up. Adam went inside since he had practice and Cate went with Kenny to the library to study.

- - - -

Tuesday morning when Cate woke up she felt like something was wrong. Julie and Connie thought it was her shoulder, Cate said it wasn't and the girls proceeded to get dressed for the day. They went to breakfast and Cate still could not shake the feeling of something was wrong. She was surprised to see Fulton sitting at the table with Dwayne and Adam and was even more surprised to see Portman coming towards them with a tray of food.

Julie dropped her bag and went over to hug Portman. Luckily Portman put his tray down before the blonde girl launched herself at him. Connie and Cate went over to hug him as well.

"When did you get back?" Julie asked.

"Last night at 10pm. Coach picked me up form the airport." Portman said.

"How's you grandmother?" Cate asked.

"She's hanging in there. She fell and broke her hip. So she will be in the hospital for a while then move back home to live with my family. She told me to get my butt back to school so that I wouldn't miss anymore school work and practice." Portman said.

"Well we are happy that you are back." Connie said. The rest of the team said pretty much the same thing.

"So, what's being going on since I was gone?" Portman asked.

The team groaned and let Averman tell Portman what was happening while the girls went to get breakfast.

- - -

Cate was sitting in 3rd period when the Dean's secretary came into her class.

"Caitlin, Luis, Connie and Averman. You are needed in the Dean's office. Take your stuff with you." The secretary said.

They collected their stuff and followed her to the Dean's office.

"Are we in trouble?" Averman asked.

"We haven't done anything wrong the last couple of days have we?" Luis asked

"I have no idea." Cate said.

They walked into the office and found the rest of the Team as well as Adam sitting or standing. What shocked Cate the most was Coach Bombay was there.

"Gordon needs to talk to you." The Dean said and stepped out of the way.

"Guys and Girls. I don't know how to tell you this, but Sunday morning Hans had a heart attack and died." Bombay said.

The team was silent. Cate could feel the tears beginning to form in her eyes. She saw that Connie and Julie had tears falling down their faces. The original ducks all had their heads down.

"You all have been excused from classes for today and Tomorrow." The Dean told them.

"We are having the funeral tomorrow and Hans wanted it to be here near his family- you guys the Ducks." Bombay explained.

The team remained silent and Dean Buckley left them to be alone with their coach.

- - - -

The funeral the next day was very sad. All of the ducks were there- from District 5 to the Eden Hall team. All the in state parents had come as well. There was not a lot of time for the other parents to come to the funeral so during Homecoming week they were going to have a memorial service for Hans.

Before the casket was lowered, Bombay draped a District 5 jersey over his casket and told the JV team. "Remember that it was Hans that taught you to fly together."

The girls stepped up and put roses on the casket and everyone began to walk back to the cars. The Banks were holding a get together at their home for everyone to come and share their memories of Hans.

Bombay called a meeting in the Bank's study in which the Eden Hall team, Adam, Casey and some parents were attending.

"I have a copy of Han's will. Each of you is mentioned in it." Bombay began.

"He is leaving each member of the team- Caitlin, Charlie, Connie, Adam, Dean, Fulton, Dwayne, Ken, Goldberg, Luis, Guy, Julie, Russ and Averman $5,000 to be put towards you college funds."

"To Casey Conway and Gordon Bombay he leaves the Skate shop." Bombay said in surprise. Casey looked at him in shock. "I can't believe he left us the store." He said to himself.

"Jan moved back to Sweden and gave Han's full ownership of the store." Adam's dad explained. "He told me that he wanted you two to run it because that way it still stayed in the family."

"Wow" Adam said.

"What. How do we run a skate shop?" Casey asked Gordon.

"Don't worry we will figure it out later." Gordon said.

They left the room and went to join the guests in the family room.

Charlie decided that he had enough with sitting around and decided to go for a walk. Cate noticed him get up and leave and went to tell Bombay.

"Coach, he looks up to you. Maybe you can convince him to come back to the team." Cate asked.

"Caitlin, I'll try and talk to him." Bombay said.

She watched him walk out the door and go after Charlie. Casey came over and hugged her daughter.

"I think Gordon will be able to get through to him." Casey said.

"I hope so." Cate said.

"I know he will. I also know that you and Charlie look up to him as a dad." Casey said. "That's why I know he can get through to him."

Cate nodded her head and she and her mom went back to the guests.

- - - - - -

It was Friday afternoon and Cate was sitting on the bus in her warm ups. She had seen Charlie at school today, but he didn't talk to anyone from the team. O'Rion was up front taking roll. Cate was sitting near the front when she noticed a familiar looking brown head climb the steps of the bus.

"Conway." O'Rion said.

Cate smiled. It had to be her brother- O'Rion called her Cate and Charlie was Conway.

"I want to come back and play two way hockey." Charlie asked.

"Get on the bus we are running behind." O'Rion said.

Charlie gave the bus driver his hockey bag and got on the bus. The team started clapping and high fiving him as he walked down the aisle. He sat down behind Cate and tweaked her hair. Cate turned around and smiled at her brother.

"Welcome back Spaz." Cate said.

"It's good to be back brat." Charlie said.

Russ made fun of Charlie and Charlie went to hit him. The driver was settling back into his seat when Dean Buckley appeared.

"Dean we are running late." O'Rion said.

"This will take just a moment." Dean said.

"Tomorrow we are having a board meeting and you are the topic of interest." Dean told them.

"What are you talking about?" O'Rion said.

"We are discussing the removal of their scholarships. Now if it goes through, you will be able to finish out the semester then have to find other academic pursuits." Dean said.

O'Rion and the Dean then got off the bus and started talking. Charlie and the others sat in silence. When O'Rion came back the team all started speaking at once.

"Guys calm down, we will fight this and you wont have to leave the school. Now we have a game to get to and win." O'Rion said sitting back down.

They were quiet the bus ride to the game. Everyone was thinking the same thing- what was to happen at the board meeting tomorrow.

TBC.....