Disclaimer - I do not own anything even remotely related to The Mighty Ducks. I only wish I had thought of them first…

Italics indicate character thought.

Happy Birthday, sween!

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When the Ducks entered the locker room, the tension was tangible. Tommy Lex and Dave Lawrence were fuming and spouting off. "Can you believe this? A girl!" Tommy threw his stick into his locker. "And a bitch at that!"

Charlie and Adam looked at each other. Charlie shrugged and raised his hand. "You deal with it." But his face was turning more red with anger by the minute.

Banks walked to the middle of the room and faced the other players. "What the hell is going on with you guys?"

"What the hell is going on with you guys?" Tommy rounded on him, his eyes wide. "You're our captain and you didn't even say a word to that bitch about hitting Riley."

"Quit calling her a bitch." Charlie stepped forward, his voice dangerously low. Fulton laid a restraining hand on his shoulder.

Banks cleared his throat. "I think the better question is why are you guys holding back in practice?" They looked at him with blank expressions. "Is it because she's a girl? Because that's ridiculous. You've all played with girls before."

Dave spoke up. "Yeah, in pee-wee! This is serious high level competitive hockey! How is she going to hold up here?" He frowned. "You know that there are only like 10 girls total playing collegiate hockey right now. None in this league. Everyone is going to be gunning for her."

"So?" Adam shrugged. "Then she'll have to watch her back. And we'll have to watch it for her."

Dave continued, but seemed to be losing some of his fight. "Yeah, but if they're gunning for her, they are gunning for us as a team."

Fulton, who was usually quiet during team discussions, stepped between Charlie and the others. "Fine. So they're gunning for us. We can handle that." He paused, thinking. "Do you honestly think that Coach Neumann would have brought her here if she couldn't hack it?"

"Yeah, man. Did you see how fast she was? That girl has some serious speed." Jesse braved a small smile and several of his teammates nodded, thinking about it.

Adam walked a little closer to Dave and Tommy, glancing at Riley Harding who had been quiet the whole time. "Look. I think she's going to be really good. Think what you will, but she's a part of this team, like it or not. We all played with girls in high school, and Guy's girlfriend Connie could seriously kick your asses in a shootout, so it really has nothing to do with her gender. But I'm telling you right now, you guys aren't going to pull a good thing apart with petty shit. Keep it to yourselves and treat her like you would anyone else." He turned and walk down the bench to his locker, refusing to say anymore.

The other Ducks did the same and Lex turned to Dave, his voice low. "Can you believe this? I'm not going to stand for it."

Dave shrugged. "I don't know, Tommy. I mean Hall is probably right. She did look quick, and she can obviously take a hit. Maybe we were out of line."

"Out of line? She attacked Harding!"

Riley looked up, exhausted. "I deserved it."

Lex was incredulous. "What? She started it!"

"No, we weren't hitting her. We didn't even give her a chance."

"Psht," Lex scoffed. "She doesn't need a chance. You should have punched her when you had the opportunity."

Riley bent to untie his skates. "I wouldn't punch her."

"Right. You don't hit girls." Tommy grinned.

Harding looked up at him. "No. I don't hit teammates."