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.

Well, 900 chapters it is then. Thanks for the input!

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"Oh my God." Beau squinted in the bright florescent lights of the weight room and looked at her watch for the 1000th time since she had gotten up that morning. "Six am." She groaned again and bent at the waist, reaching down to her toes and wincing as her muscles tightened into bunches. "Yup, some of those guys can really hit."

"What was that?"

At the deep voice behind her, Beau spread her legs an inch and looked between them. In her vision, upside down, she saw Riley Harding staring down at her, looking every bit as tired as she felt. She sighed heavily, holding her position.

"I attacked you yesterday, and now you walk in on me talking to myself with my ass in your face. Some impression, huh?"

Riley smirked as she stood up and turned to face him. He hefted his gym bag on his shoulder and looked away from her. "After hearing how you met Charlie I think I like that impression better than the one where you are calling me a pussy and hitting me."

"Shit, Riley." Beau looked up, her face crimson. "I thought about this all night, and I was out of line." He opened his mouth to interrupt and she raised a hand, stopping him. "No, I need to say this. I was way out of line. I'm very sorry for the things I said. I've followed this team the past few years and you're a great hockey player. I had no right."

Now it was Harding's turn to grow red. "Mayland, look." He looked everywhere but at her. "We were treating you like dirt. It wasn't right and it's us that owe you the apology. I talked to Dave and Lex last night and Dave I think really feels bad, but Tommy…he's…"

"Still angry?" Beau finished for him.

Riley cracked the first smile that she had seen on him. "Well, yes, but I was going to say that Tommy is a bit of a dick, and I'm not really sure he'll ever come around."

She laughed. "Oh…well." She stuck out her hand. "Apologies out of the way then. Friends?"

He grabbed her hand, a smile spreading further across her face and pulled her into a brief one armed hug. "Yeah. And teammates. Welcome to the Wolfpack."

"Awww. How cute!" Voice booming, Fulton stomped in and slapped Beau and Riley on the backs. "The little kiddies made up!" With that, he continued walking past and tossed his bag in the corner, immediately taking a seat by the free weights. He caught Beau's eye and she knew that his statement held much more reassurance than the quick words had indicated. She smiled at him broadly and moved to sit near him.

As more and more team members filed in, most of them still rubbing the sleep out of their eyes, Beau slipped her ear bud headphones on and turned her IPod up loud. The music started pumping, and her blood began moving with it. She rolled her head around several times. She reached over and grabbed two weights and began slowly with curls. Fulton grinned at her again as he went through the same motions.

By now, almost the whole team was spread throughout the gym, all on different machines. Charlie and Guy were the last two to enter. They walked across the room together, passing Beau. As they did, he turned his head and smiled broadly at her. They had decided the night before to take things slow and to keep it to themselves. There was no sense in creating tension for the team if things didn't work out. Nevertheless, Beau found it hard to keep her lifting pace when Charlie's smile landed on her. It was like a punch of lust in the stomach. Oh, this is going to be trouble.

-

It was all Charlie could do not to reach out and touch her. After last night, he had been up for hours thinking about her laugh, her smell, her taste. She obviously was trying hard to be discrete and he could do it too, dammit. As he passed her, he looked in the wall-size mirror at her reflection and gulped. It was six in the morning and she was wearing track pants and a tank top, her hair was in a messy tangled pony-tail, she was wearing no makeup, she was wearing headphones and lifting weights. Her head was bent just slightly and her eyes were fixed on the floor in concentration. She was completely oblivious to the glares emanating her way via Tommy Lex. A small smile played on her lips. That might be the hottest thing I've ever seen.

They lifted until 7:15 and then hit the showers. At eight Beau and Charlie had Entomology class and they met outside to walk together with Riley, Cole, and Jesse, who all had Conservational Biology. Those three all shared the same major as well as the majority of their classes. Beau laughed the entire way at Cole's wild stories of his high school and his five brothers. Charlie was sure that he had not seen her this happy and he couldn't remember a time when he had smiled so much.

They parted ways on east campus with high fives and handshakes and Beau even doled out a quick kiss on the cheek to Riley. So I guess that's squashed. Charlie raised his eye at Harding who only smiled.

As they continued their walk up Harrelson St. to Daniels Hall, Charlie stopped short on the road. Beau continued for a few steps before realizing that he had stopped and turned to stare at him with a puzzled look. He closed the distance between them in one quick step, grabbing her face gently with his hands and kissing her firmly, just a quick lingering of lips. He pulled back and looked at her surprised face.

"I've been thinking about doing that every second since I dropped you off last night."

She smiled. "So, that's what you consider 'taking it slow' huh?"

He shrugged and caught up as she started walking again. "I think we should keep definitions to a minimum. Let happen what happens. I needed to do that, and I think you wanted me to." He leaned his face in front of hers, looking up into her eyes. "Didn't you?"

She said nothing but grinned wickedly. He changed the subject, not giving her any more time to set parameters on when they could and could not kiss.

"So, it sounded last night like you are really close with your brother."

She looked down at where she walked, her grin growing even wider. "Yeah." She said it sadly. "We're twins." She held up a finger. "But I'm 6 minutes older. We've been inseparable since birth. We are so much alike and we just…I don't really know how to explain it. We have a close family, but Parker and I….he's had some tough times, which brought us even closer. He always knows exactly what I'm thinking."

He nodded, not really understanding. "So you're close with your parents as well?"

She smiled again. "Oh yeah. My mother and I fought constantly when I was in high school." She gestured broadly. "But I think that was just a result of two women who were too much alike sharing the same space. I talk to her every day now. My father and I don't talk as much, but we don't have to. It's just a really good thing, my family." She looked over at him.

"What about you? Do you have a close family?"

Charlie looked at her, frowning a little, turning his head to look up at Daniels as they entered the door. "Eh. Not really. Parents are divorced, mom remarried, no siblings." He thought about it a little harder. It seemed natural to tell her, but he didn't really want to. "I'm probably closer to our old hockey coach."

"Bombay?"

Her question brought a smile to his mouth. "Yeah. So you know about the Ducks then?" He held the classroom door open for her to enter. She passed him and smiled over her shoulder.

"Charlie, what hockey player under the age of 28 doesn't know about the Ducks?"