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.
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"Rach, I desperately wish you were here." Beau was flat on her back, smiling up at the ceiling of her tiny dorm room. "He's like…"
"Really freakin' hot?" Rachel supplied, deadpan.
Beau laughed. "Well, yeah. There's definitely that. But he's also…"
"An unparalleled love machine?"
"That I wouldn't know…yet." She felt a flutter in the pit of her stomach as she said the last word. "He's…"
"Well, crap Beau. You love him, don't you?" Rachel said is simply, not particularly surprised.
Beau giggled. She actually giggled. "I really do. How nuts is that?"
"Do you love him like you loved Miles?" Miles had been Beau's high school boyfriend. It had been fast and intense, and it would always be that first love that held a very special place in her heart.
"I love him in a different way than Miles. It's…better." She thought for a second. "It's so much more real. So raw." Now she frowned, her brow furrowing. "I just wish we could see each other sooner than January. It's too long!"
Back in North Carolina Rachel was mirroring Beau's expression. "Yeah, I know. I need to pass judgment on this Charlie joker. But you can't miss games and I really can't travel right now. We'll hang out over Christmas and then it's all about Road Trip 2006 in January!"
"Road Trip 2006 is going to rock."
"Oh oh oh!" Rachel's voice raised 5 notches. "Invite Charlie. And then invite the rest of your cute hockey player friends. You may be in love, but I'm still single and seriously looking."
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"A…freakin'…plus, baby!" Goldberg actually stuck his most recent exam on the refrigerator and secured it with a hockey puck shaped magnet. Averman rolled his eyes.
"Do I need to, like, finger-paint something to put on the fridge too, Goldberg?"
Beau had come over to cook dinner for the boys as it was Charlie's 22nd birthday. It was November and quickly closing in on Thanksgiving and the Wolfpack was having one of its best seasons in the last ten years. They were perfect. Undefeated. They had taken down Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Miami of Ohio on top of their early victories. They were riding on a high and there was little that could bring them down. One more victory and they would be assured a bid to the NCAA Championships. Goldberg's grades were up, Fulton had already been offered a job with a friend of his dad's company for when they graduated the next year, Jesse's ankle was healing well and he wasn't having to pay for school, Banks was still proving to be a great captain, and Charlie and Beau had not talked about their near…incident…since that Halloween night. They were closer than ever, but it was a subject they both seemed to avoid.
She had cleared the last plate and was now carefully carrying a homemade cake into the room. Fulton hit the light switch and they all launched into a horrendous rendition of "Happy Birthday" while Charlie directed with his knife. He looked at Beau in the eyes as he blew out the candles. She had a good idea what his wish was.
They guys never exchanged gifts, so while everyone was eating Beau asked Charlie into the other room. They sat on the couch and she handed him a large wrapped box, almost as tall as he was. He looked at her, surprised. "I thought dinner and cake was my present."
She rolled her eyes. "Please! It's your birthday. Of course I was going to get you something." Her eyes were bright and excited. "Open it, Charlie!"
He started to pull the paper off and finally got down to the box, having to stand to reach the top end. He pulled open the flap and his eyes went wide. He looked down at Beau, back into the box, and then back at her again.
"No way."
She was grinning ear to ear. "Way."
He pulled out the hockey stick, touching it more gently than she thought he had ever touched her, and let the box fall to the floor as he ran his fingertips over it.
"Holy crap. This is a TPS Response XN10 Composite." He said it with a tone of awe and it absolutely made her day. She stood up, taking it from him and rotating his wrist around, feeling the weight of it.
"It's supposed to have much faster energy transfer and puck release that will blow your mind."
He stared at her again. "This is the best present that anyone has ever given me." He looked down at it, smiling like you would probably smile at your first born child. "I've been wanting one of these since the first day anyone in the NHL started playing with them. How did you know?"
She shrugged. "Everything you talk about in your puck handling that you'd like to improve upon, this stick should give you a leg up on. It seemed perfect."
"It's too much, Beau. I've been saving up."
She shook her head. "It's perfect."
-
They were walking back to her dorm. He had insisted. He was always doing things like that. Watching out for her. Making sure she was safe.
"So, a good birthday then?" They walked hand in hand in the freezing cold night air as snow fell down lightly around them.
Charlie shifted the stick where it hung from his hand. "Yeah. The best I've had in years."
Her voice was tentative and she looked at him from the corner of her eye in the light of a streetlamp. "Did you mom call you?" Beau new that Casey almost never called. If she did it usually ended in Charlie being frustrated and distant. It wasn't something he was really ready to talk to her about.
He shook his head tightly, reaching up to readjust his knit cap. "No. She's not really a birthday person." When she squeezed his hand tightly, he squeezed back, pulling her closer as they moved together. "Coach Bombay called though. He never misses anything important."
"I'd love to meet him sometime."
"Oh, he's mentioned a time or two that he plans on meeting you soon. I wouldn't worry."
She laughed, but let the sound die on the breeze. "Happy Birthday, Charlie." She looked straight ahead as she continued, afraid to look over at him. "I don't know if your birthday is the right time to talk about this, and if you want to hold off, let me know. But…it's been totally stressing me out and I need to get it off my chest."
Charlie already knew what the topic was going to be. He had felt it coming for a few days now. He also kept his eyes straight forward, thinking about the things he wanted to say, the questions he wanted to ask. "Go ahead."
She sighed. Why is this so weird? "I think we should talk about what happened at the Halloween party."
"Okay."
"I don't know why I haven't said this before, but I really want you to know…to understand…that us not doing anything was not because I didn't want to be with you like that. I was serious that night when I said that I love you. I think in some ways I've been falling in love with you since that first day when you met my father. I've meant it every single time that I've said it." She was clinging to his hand, needing to feel the contact. "I want to be with you, but I…"
He interrupted her. She seemed to be having trouble getting out what she wanted to say and it made him uncomfortable. His voice was full of gentle curiosity. "Beau, can I ask you a very personal question?"
"Of course."
He took a deep breath. This is going to be received one of two ways. "Will I be your first? Is that why you're nervous about this?"
Beau felt her breath stop in her throat and she had to make a very conscious effort to swallow, think again, then breathe. Breath. "Well, Charlie…" This is going to be received one of two ways. "No, you wouldn't be my first." She rushed on before he could speak or look at her and betray his disapproval. "I don't know if that's like an issue for you, and I would understand if it was, and I don't know your history, but you would be so much more special than anyone before. I don't know how to tell you how…"
"Beau, Beau, Beau." He stopped on the path and turned her around to face him. "Calm down. Quick explaining yourself. I know you had a life before me." He touched her chin, forcing her to look up at him. "How could I think that you, being you, hadn't made some guy fall in love with you before now?"
She smiled at that. How could she not. His eyes narrowed a little.
"Can I be the ridiculously jealous boyfriend though, and ask you about who came before me? Is that like really weird? It seems like it might be weird." When she didn't say anything he continued. Stupid, Conway. Really stupid. "I just want to know everything there is to know about you."
They started walking again and she nodded slowly. "If you want to know, of course I'll tell you." She tried to think where to start. "The first was Miles. He was my first love, but it was that love you have when you know it won't last forever. It's a brief, exciting, intense thing, but it's only meant to be a small period of your life. He treated me wonderfully, he made me laugh, and he was my first. I was 16 years old. Too young really. I know that now. But it felt right at the time, and I don't regret it. We dated until we were 17 and then his family moved to California and we broke up. It was just time."
Charlie was touched that she was willing to share so much with him so freely. And he knew that he could do the same with her. He didn't even feel that way about many of his life long friends. She continued as he reached up and to brush some snow off of her hair.
"My senior year I dated this guy, Clay. He was a lacrosse player. I knew I didn't love him, and that I probably never would. But I wanted to have fun. I wanted to just enjoy my senior year. I had slept with him a couple of times and it was a few weeks before our senior prom and I had a car wreck on the way to his house. I tried calling him to pick me up but he didn't answer, so I just had the tow truck guy drop me off. I got there and his mother let me in, not thinking."
Charlie could already tell where this was going and despite the fact he would never know this Clay, he tensed with anger. Her voice was soft and it broke his heart for her.
"He was in his room, the only place we had ever been together, with this other girl. This basketball player from our school. When he saw me he just shrugged and said, 'Well, what do you want me to do?'" She shrugged. "I shouldn't have let me bother it the way that it did."
He looked at her in surprise. "You shouldn't have let it bother you? He cheated on you, Beau! You had ever right to be bothered." He didn't understand how any guy could have done that if he had her. How do you jeopardize that? "I'm sorry that you had that happen to you. I can't imagine."
"Yeah." She just sounded resigned. "Trust is such a huge issue for me. With family, friends, boyfriends. I was always that way, but the whole thing with Clay really made it so much more important. That, I guess, is what I needed you to understand."
Again he stopped, turning to look at her. "Don't you trust me yet, Beau?"
She reached up and touched his face with her gloved hands. "Of course I do! But I have to trust myself, as well. I have to know that I'm completely ready to put myself out there like that." She looked at him, hard. "I trust you, Charlie. More than I've trusted anyone before."
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Penmen Specialist: Thanks! Very helpful and saves my brain some thinking time. I think I'm definitely going to put to use your idea on Maine and Julie in the championships. Thanks for that!
Dolphinwannabe: Thanks as well! There is something super addictive about writing Charlie/Beau, so I'm glad you like them.
Fsb567: I wouldn't be surprised if it was in a movie, but I'm not sure where I've heard it before. I didn't consciously copy it from a book or movie. I just think that's so true of how you feel when you're with someone you love. You feel so good, like you're perfect.
antiIrony: NOW who's blushing! Thanks so much! I was really flattered when I read your latest review. That means a lot, so thanks again and again!
Cc: Your birthday…wow! So here's chapter 27. Merry Christmas!