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.
Beau was sitting on the first wooden bench in the room and had realized within approximately five seconds of sitting down that she was going to be uncomfortable all day. The contours of the seat were not made for a normal person and her rear end ached. Glancing down at her watch she shifted as quietly as possible, cringing when the wood groaned and creaked beneath her.
"All rise." She stood, smoothing the skirt of her periwinkle suit and eyed the judge as he strode purposefully back to his bench. Jude Damon Collier should have been pictured next to the word 'formidable' in the dictionary. He was tall, heavyset, and had a less than perfectly trimmed thick white beard which completely obstructed any view of his mouth. Was he smiling? Frowning? It was impossible to tell.
Prior to the lunch recess, Judge Collier had heard Casey talk for hours about her ungrateful brat of a son. She talked about how he drove his father away. About how he drove away one boyfriend of hers after another. She talked about how he had misbehaved in high school. And in a move that had nearly had Beau rising from her seat in anger, she had told a story about Charlie coming into her home in recent months and trashing the entire place looking for "some letters." Charlie had told Beau the real account, and she knew how much it must have angered him hearing the outright lies. But Charlie sat in his chair, his shoulders perfectly still, listening to his mother walk over any little bit of good left in their relationship with her four inch red stiletto heels.
Now Burns stood up, looking calm and confident. "Your honor, the defense would like to call our only witness, Mr. Charles David Conway." Judge Bushy Beard, as Beau was now calling him in her head, nodded almost imperceptibly. She watched with a small pain in her heart as Charlie stood up and readjusted the jacket on his dark blue suit. He had made her pick out his outfit. She had thought two years on his own would have given him some clothing decision making skills, but she had been wrong. He wrote a crisp white shirt underneath and a pale blue tie.
She made note of the fact that he was avoiding all interaction with Casey. He didn't even glance in that direction of the courtroom. As he turned to sit in the rickety chair next to the judge's stand his eyes locked on Beau and though he was clearly trying his best to portray confidence, she could see the hurt and uneasiness below his facade. Beau cocked her head and shot him a quick wink. He smiled then, a real smile, before turning his head to Kevin, letting his lawyer know he was ready. None of them missed the look that crossed Casey's face as she glared from Charlie to Beau and back to Charlie again. She let out a loud 'tsk' before her lawyer could quiet her.
If you asked most people who knew Charlie Conway to describe him in one word, you would most likely get answers like 'confident,' 'dependable,' 'talented,' 'selfless,' 'devoted,' 'witty,' 'athletic,' 'friend,' and 'steady.' What you would not expect to get, however, is 'eloquent.' But that was the only word that came to mind as Beau sat and watched him answer question after question about his relationship with the woman he now refused to call his mother. He described childhood feelings of devotion and the pain it caused when he realized that he had started playing second fiddle to Casey's endless string of boyfriends. He told tales of being berated for running his father away, when he couldn't even remember what the man had looked like.
He was questioned, at length, about his mother's involvement in his burgeoning childhood love for hockey and time and time again repeated the same answer. She signed him up the first time. Gordon Bombay had cultivated his talent, dedication, and love for the sport. His mother had almost never attended games.
Most of Charlie's testimony was very well said and it was clear that he had thought out his answers in advance. But what was even more evident, was that Kevin Burns had not prepared his client for one final question. Charlie spoke directly from the heart.
"Charlie, I know it has been hard for you to sit here and relive parts of your life that you clearly still harbor quite a bit of resentment for." Charlie gave a brief nod, looking at no one in particular. Again, from Casey, a sound of antipathy. "So, I have only one more question for you. Throughout your life, sir, please describe to me the people you have turned to for support on both a personal and professional level."
Charlie smiled at that, looking directly at his lawyer and then at the judge who would render a final decision. "My family."
Kevin nodded. "And what do you mean by 'family,' Mr. Conway?"
Charlie gestured at Beau. "I mean my friends, who have done more for me over the years than any blood relative that I can name. I played hockey with a group of six guys from the time that I was seven until I was twenty-two. That's fifteen years. They know more about me than I probably know about myself. They have been there through every single important moment in my life. Two of them, Adam Banks and Greg Goldberg, well their parents sort of adopted us all as this rag tag team of lost boys that their sons were bringing home. I can't tell you the number of nights that I stayed on a couch and then had Mrs. Banks packing my lunch for school. I still talk to all of them on a regular basis. They aren't just friends, they're brothers." He had dropped his head, thinking about all of the memories and smiling because of them. Now he paused for a moment.
He looked up at Beau, his eyes so shiny that she had to swallow audibly to hold back her own tears. "My junior year of college I met a girl, a woman now, who I feel madly in love with. Her name is Beau. She's here today." He smiled at her and Kevin turned to mimic the motion. Beau did her best not to look towards Casey, but she could feel the woman's hot stare burning against her face. Charlie, though, had her attention. "She's been a big part of who I am as an adult. I know that no matter what I do, or what I say, I have her support in a way that has never been something I've had in my life before her." His voice caught a little and Beau pulled a quick funny face, hoping to shake the emotion from him. He smiled at her, grateful.
"Playing pee-wee hockey in a district like my friends and I grew up in meant having a different coach every week. Most of us didn't have a parent around who was willing to stick out an entire season. One year we were just lucky enough to end up with Gordon Bombay."
"Bombay you said?" This from Judge Bushy Beard who suddenly looked interested for the first time during the day. Charlie nodded. "The Gordon Bombay who played some minor league hockey?" Charlie nodded again and the man motioned for him to continue.
"Coach Bombay became this…" he searched for the right word. "…symbol, I guess you'd say, for us. A symbol of someone who was willing to stick with us whether we were winning or losing. That was something I needed in my life, I guess, because I sort of latched onto it. And I don't know if Coach needed something to believe in, but he sort of latched onto me as well. He is my family. When I have a problem, that's who I call. When there is a holiday, I eat dinner at his table. He is the person that has made me the man that I am today – the way that I play hockey, the way that I deal with challenges," he looked at Beau, "the way that I love." He looked to his lawyer, then directly at the judge, his voice confident but pleading. "These are the people who have been my life, Judge, not someone that gave birth to me. They formed me into the guy that is sitting here today, and he's a guy that I'm pretty proud of. They say that blood is thicker than water, but I don't believe that. I think friendship is."
The limo ride was quiet for a very long time. Despite everything that Charlie felt about his mother, it was strange to suddenly have the long drawn out process over and judged upon. It turned out that Judge Bushy Beard (Charlie had laughed at that name when Beau finally revealed it) was a moderately informed hockey fan and had seen several of Charlie's games. He also had seen Gordon Bombay play back in his glory days. And who in Minnesota wasn't a sucker for the story of the Minnesota Miracle Man? He revealed all of this on the stand, but expressly stated that his decision was based on the facts that he heard in trial that day. He could see no evidence, he said, that Casey had so much as lifted a finger to support her son throughout his life. For that reason, he could find no reason to award her a single cent of Charlie's quickly growing fortune.
Charlie had shown no emotion other than relief at having it over. Casey, however, had cried fowl - screaming and yelling words so unintelligible that Charlie and Beau had given quick waves to Kevin before clasping hands and walking straight out of the courtroom and into the waiting car. The few sports paparazzi who had been in attendance would publish pictures that showed a unified front.
"You okay, kid?" Beau was turned sideways in her seat, one leg tucked under her body, and her head resting against the seat. Charlie dropped his hand onto her knee and smiled over at her.
"I am, actually." He looked out at his hometown streaming past the windows and sighed. "I thought I would feel more but I'm just kind of…" he raised his hands to indicate that he didn't know quite how he felt, "…eh, you know?" He rubbed her leg absently before smiling at her again. "I'm glad you were there today."
Beau leaned over and kissed his cheek, running a hand over his hair. "Me too."
He poked her belly and indicated the long expanse of black leather seats. "Sweet ride you've got here, Mayland. You're getting pretty fancy schmancy, don't ya think?"
She poked him back and sighed as they pulled up to a small local children's book store. "The publishers insisted." She shoved her head closer to the tinted windows and couldn't help but smiled at the line of people snaking out of the door and around the corner. She looked back at Charlie. "Are you sure you're up to this? If you want to go ahead and go on over to Guy's place I can just meet you there later."
Charlie waved her off. "Of course I'm up for it. You did my thing all day, now I'm going to do yours."
The door opened and the driver stuck his hand in for Beau to hold as she stepped out into the windy afternoon. As a few cheers erupted, she gave a wave to her fans before bending down to look back in the car at Charlie. "My thing is more fun."
He stepped out after her, his arm snaking around her waist as he caught Devin's face just inside the store window and waved. "Yes ma'am it sure is."
"And Coach Germaine said…" Charlie interrupted Devin to shake his head at Beau. She finished signing a first print copy of The Mighty Ducks #5: Miles and the Girl Across the Blue Line, smiled at the little girl in front of her, and then turned to Charlie.
"Coach Germaine. I just can't get over that." Charlie's eyes were wide, and it brought a smile to Devin's face. He continued on in a rush.
"He said that if I keep working on my puck handling and if I can get the triple deke better he can really show me how to use my speed to my advantage." He took a deep breath and looked at his mother who was grinning from ear to ear. "Oh man, I can't wait to play for him next year!"
Beau had been signing her newest book for almost an hour now, taking pictures with endless fans, and meeting more pee-wee hockey players than she thought could possibly exist in Minneapolis. She let Devin and Charlie's conversation filter lightly through her brain as she smiled at group of high school boys that were standing before her.
"Hi guys." There were four of them, she counted, and they all smiled down at her.
"Hi." They said it in unison. How cute.
She was just getting ready to ask them if they wanted something signed when one of them spoke up, running a nervous hand through the small spikes at the front of his hair. His cheeks had turned bright red, Beau noticed. "So, I know that we're kinda old to be reading these books but, see, we all played pee-wee together and now we're playing in high school and we all just got accepted to Pennington and two of us are going to play there too, so these books are like…" he trailed off, trying to say it right.
One of his buddies spoke up, shoving his hands deep into his pockets. "It's like reading a book about our lives. My little brother was talking about them non-stop so I finally read one just to have something to talk to him about and…" he smiled broadly, "…bam! I was hooked."
Charlie leaned forward, his mouth close to her ear. "Bam, Beau. He was hooked." He snickered a little. "Hooked on your picture on the back of the cover."
She turned around and shoved him, semi-playfully. "Ew. Gross, Conway."
"Conway?" This was from one of the thus far silent friends. "Holy shit," he looked at Devin and then at Devin's mom. "Sorry. Holy crap. Charlie Conway, right?"
Five minutes later Beau had signed four books and both she and Charlie had taken nearly nine thousand pictures, give or take, with the boys. It was probably because of all the commotion that they missed the woman who had just moved with the line inside the door.
The minute her eyes landed on the signing table, Casey Conway went into a tirade. "My bastard of a son and his whore girlfriend!" She strode forward, shoving off the fifty year old woman who owned the store. "You've ruined my life!" It wasn't clear who she was talking to but her anger was tangible. She advanced on Beau, most likely meaning to hurt her, and thus hurt Charlie, but one of the teenagers stepped in her path.
"Lady, why don't you calm down a little? I'm sure you can talk about this in, like, a reasonable inside voice."
Beau had retreated a step and her back was pressed against Charlie's chest. She could feel the shame radiating from him. She was just getting ready to reach her hand back to steady him when Casey pushed around the young man and got within and inch of her face. She was gesturing with her arms wide, addressing everyone in the store now. "I give birth to this boy - this celebrity." The word dripped with disdain. "I raise him on my own after he drove his father to take off. I encourage him, teach him everything, and then he grows up, gets famous, and forgets his poor mother." Her words had the whole store frozen. "And then he meets…this." She pointed at Beau. "He can't give his mother the time of day, but he can spend every waking moment with this fat, lazy, tomboy of a girl," again with the disdain. "She's probably a lesbian whore, playing hockey and hanging out with all of the boys. Someone should kill her just like they did her disgusting fag brother."
With those words, something in Beau broke. She didn't now how Casey knew about her brother, and she didn't care. Her hand came up before she even knew she was moving and she felt her palm connect with the side of Casey face. The sound echoed through the otherwise silent room. Casey was shocked into speechlessness and stood there with a red handprint growing on the side of her face. Beau gasped and raised both hands to her mouth, beginning to shake uncontrollably.
Charlie was still trying to wrap his head around what had happened and was just opening his mouth to speak when he heard Beau's voice. It came out soft, and was shaking with so much hatred, that he didn't even recognize it as anything he had heard before.
Beau looked Casey directly in the eyes. "You don't know anything about my brother. You don't know anything. For what you've said about me, I could care less. For what you've done to Charlie, I will always hate you." She sucked in a shaky breath and something like a snarl escaped from her lips. "But if you ever talk about my brother like that again, so help me God, if his name even crosses your lips, I will not stop with just a slap."
The raw emotion in Beau's voice and the look in Charlie's eyes must have somehow slipped past Casey's unfounded ire. It was as if the air had deflated out of her. Her shoulders slumped, and her head dropped down. She turned, very quietly, with every eye in the room on her, and walked slowly out of the door and down the street.
It was the very last time that Charlie ever heard from or saw the woman that he refused to call Mom.
Cc: Hope this was a long enough hold for you. Casey was dying to get out!
Sinbin05: So? How as prom? I hope it was great! Glad you like the characters. I kind of like them myself.
Hockey-girl90: Thanks! Look for small cameos from pretty much every Duck in the epilogue chapter.
antiIrony: Aw! Thanks! sigh
Joank: Volume excessive disagreements. I love it! As for making up stories, it keeps me sane. It's sort of like watching a movie. It's always nice to have a little un-reality.
Flyinghawk: Hope you think Casey is as equally well written here. I'm not sure how I feel about it. As for your Kenny fic, if you want me to read it first, I'd be happy to give suggestions, although I don't know helpful they'll be!
Duckfluff: I'm glad you like Nora. Expect to see a bit more of the Devin story-line.