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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They sat in the car, in the dark, the engine still turned off and both staring straight ahead. Beau had not been speechless because she had been hurt. How can you be hurt by someone you don't even know? But she was aching inside for Charlie. He was so obviously chagrinned and she hurt for the little boy who had lost the unconditional love for his mother.
It was him that spoke first, his voice husky with embarrassment, still not looking even remotely in her direction. "I am so sorry." He lowered his head to the steering wheel of his beat up old Blazer and sighed. "God, that was humiliating."
Beau reached over and ran a finger gently around his ear and down his neck. "Charlie, there is nothing to be embarrassed about. I'm not upset."
He turned his head, leaving it on the steering wheel, but moving to look at her. "You're kidding. Your family welcomed me with open arms at like the worst time in their lives. Mine…" he made a disgusted sound. "My family treated you like dirt."
He looked away again and Beau sat back, giving him his space.
"We get what we get. You can't pick your family, Charlie."
He sat up slowly, turning the ignition and pulling into the road. "Yes…you can."
-
"Julie, the Cat, Gaffney!" The blond broke into a huge grin as she breezed through the door of the ice cream shop and practically ran to the table where Guy, Jesse, Fulton, and Goldberg sat. Not everyone had been able to come, but it was a great reunion nonetheless. She embraced them all and sat down.
"Okay, so who's completely exhausted from these three-a-days?" She propped her chin on her folder hands and shook her long hair back over her shoulder.
Averman's eyes grew wide. "Three-a-days? Yikes! We're only doing two-a-days."
Julie made the motion of taking notes in a notebook. "Hmm. Really. Two-a-days. I'll have to let my coach know about that." They all shared a laugh. "But seriously. Are you guys ready for us?"
"Are we ready?" Fulton scoffed. "I think the better question is, is the rest of your team ready for the Wolfpack? I know you'll be tough, but what about the rest of those guys?"
"Oh, they're ready. I'm predicting a shut out, thank you very much."
Jesse laughed, readjusting his foot where it was propped up on a chair. "Oh I bet you are. You're going to have your hands full though with the way that Charlie and Banks have been playing."
"Yeah?" She couldn't help but feel a tinge of worry. "What about you Guy? Portman? Gonna kick my ass?"
Fulton flipped a straw paper in Guy's direction. "Germaine here is twice as good as he was last time you played him." He rubbed his knuckles on his shirt. "And my slap shot is a little faster as well."
She smiled again, surprised at how at ease they were after all of these years. "I'm shaking in my skates."
-
They were standing in front of another apartment door. It was much brighter, cleaner, and there was the noticeable lack of a heavy weight on Charlie's shoulders. Again, he reached behind him, holding Beau's hand. Now his smile was evident as he knocked on the solid wood door. "This is my family."
The door flew open and a man stood in the frame, smiling broadly, arms wide open.
"Charlie!"
"Coach!" Charlie pulled his hand from Beau's and the two men embraced, a tight hug that spoke volumes about family. It was everything that had been absent in Casey's apartment. They pulled away from each other and Gordon Bombay held onto Charlie's shoulders with his hands.
"Look at you! You're like a grown man now! I feel so old!" He trailed off at the end of the sentence, finally noticing Beau. He nudged Charlie to the side and stuck out his hand. "You must be Beau." When she nodded he took her hand, grasping it tightly in both of his. "I have heard so much about you. It's great to finally meet you!"
"I could say the exact same."
They moved inside and Charlie introduced Beau to a beautiful woman puttering around the kitchen. Her name was Camille and she was Bombay's long time girlfriend. She and Charlie seemed close and it thrilled Beau to see him moving so easily about this home. She looked across the room to where Charlie and his former coach were already exclaiming animatedly over a hockey game that was on television. Bombay was shorter than she thought he would be, but looked exactly like every picture she had ever seen of him. As she had this thought, he turned to focus his ice blue eyes on her.
"So you're the girl who finally got our Charlie under control, huh?
-
Both Pennington State and the University of Maine continued undefeated and by the end of the week they were ready to face off at center ice for the much coveted NCAA title. As the team warmed up, it was hard not to wave across the blue lines at Julie, staking out her spot between the pipes. But they all took the game seriously and it turned out to be a vicious battle.
The match-up went scoreless until the last two minutes of the third period. When Riley strained a groin muscle, Coach Neumann called a time-out and moved Beau up to the first line. She was nervous at the responsibility on her shoulders, but as the five of them gathered for one last moment, the looks of determination on her friends' eyes were enough to pump her up.
Maine was tired and the last minute of the game was spent circling their goal. Julie's eyes darted back and forth and Banks was dimly aware of her screaming at her team to clear the trash, to get the puck away from their end of the ice. His heart squeezed a little tighter as he saw an opening - Guy and Charlie flanking the goal and Beau directly in front of it. He shot the puck to her, just a hint of regret surging through his mind. Beau was lightening quick, faking a move towards Charlie and then spinning on her blades and slamming the puck towards Guy. He saw it coming, a practiced move, and his stick barely even touched the little black disc as he shot it behind Julie's right skate and squarely into the net. The time ran out, the buzzer went off, and the Wolfpack was swarming onto the ice.
Julie dropped her head, her stick falling to the ground. Beau watched as Charlie, Guy, and Banks, before moving off to celebrate their victory, moved to their friend and patted her helmet in a gesture of unity. Julie continued to cry as they moved off.
-
It had been a week since their victory and the Wolfpack still had one week left in their winter break. It was 10am on a Saturday morning and Charlie's Blazer and Adam's Range Rover were being loaded up with luggage and coolers and Beau and Rachel were pouring over their CD cases.
"Hey, ladies. Can we get this show on the road?" This from Charlie as he hopped into the driver's seat and slammed the door. Beau hopped in the front with Fulton and Rachel in the back. Guy, Adam, Jesse, Goldberg, and Averman were riding the first leg of the trip in Adam's car. Beau popped a CD into the stereo as Charlie pulled onto the road and she and Rachel grinned at each other as Chicago's "You're My Inspiration" came blaring through the speakers. At a light Charlie slammed on the breaks, staring at Fulton in the rear view mirror.
"You're kidding me, right?" He moved to change the song and Beau slapped his hand away. Rachel leaned between the two front seats, raising her voice to be heard and placing a hand on Charlie's shoulder.
"This trip is tradition Charlie. Starting off this trip with this song is tradition." She and Beau looked at each other, eyes bright, speaking in unison.
"You don't mess with tradition!"
Fulton nudged Rachel aside, leaning into the spot she had occupied. "Are you still thinking this trip is a good idea, Conway?"
-
They had headed east on 394 and two hours later hit the first major junction. Rachel called ahead to the Range Rover on their 2 mile radius walkie-talkies, using her best trucker voice.
"Pull it over there, Big Bear, breaker breaker…over." She leaned back, tilting her trucker hat up and frowned. "I don't think Adam likes his Big Bear nickname."
Beau grabbed the walkie-talkie. "Banksie! Pull over!" She grinned. "Over!"
The black SUV moved to the side of the highway, eventually stopping and static crackled. "What's the problem?"
Both girls waited for a long time, shushing Fulton and Charlie when they tried to answer Adam. Finally Beau raised the apparatus to her mouth. "Adam," she whined. "You didn't say over…over!"
A big sigh from the
other end, then a small scuffle, then a false deep voice. "This is
Guy. What's the story…over?"
Beau and Rachel high fived before handing the walkie-talkie over to Charlie, who was dying to speak. "So the girls say that on their yearly road trips they just drive and when they come to a major junction they flip for which way to go. Apparently it's coin flipping time." He lowerd the talkie and Beau looked at him pointedly. He raised it back to his mouth, rolling his eyes. "Over."
Beau yelped and rolled down her window, shoving her entire upper body out into the frigid air and sitting on the window sill. Guy did the same from the passenger seat of Adam's car. She held up her fist, yelling up to him.
"Alright, Germaine! Heads we stay on 394, tails we turn south towards 35! Call it!" With that she threw the quarter up into air.
"Tails!"
Beau caught the coin, squeezing it in her hand before finally opening it up to see how it lay on her palm. She squealed. "Tails!"
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antiIrony : I love you! You make me feel great about this story. Thanks so much. I'm glad you enjoyed the addition of Casey. She always just rubbed me the wrong way a little. I think she may rear her ugly head again a little later.
Cc : I think what you're talking about with Rachel is when she is thinking about what she really wants to ask. She asks it…she was wanting to pick on Beau. She asked "You're not going to show your bra to anyone today are you?" I re-read and I didn't write it that clearly. Sorry for the confusion.
Amaris-star : glad you enjoyed your first read through. I think I shed a tear or two when Parker died myself. I don't know where that came from. I plan to update frequently, so check back!