A/N: Well, since this is the final chapter, I guess I should say one last time that I don't own Miracle. And thank you for your faithful readership over the past year. I hope you guys have enjoyed reading this story as much as I've enjoyed writing it. And see the end of the chapter for a few acknowledgements.
Jack's POV
It was a hot Monday evening in August of 2003. Heidi had moved out a few years earlier but the rest of my children were in the living room at home, watching TV. Suddenly the phone rang and Anna jumped up. "I'll get it," she said running to the kitchen phone.
Anna came back in a few minutes later with the phone in her hand. "Dad, Uncle Rob's on the phone and he wants to talk to you. He says it's important."
I took the phone from my daughter and went in the kitchen. "Hey, Rob, what's up?"
"I've got some bad news for you," he said. "There was an accident and it was bad."
"Is Emily all right? Are Logan, Meghan, Shane and Katrina all right?" I asked worriedly.
"They're all fine," he said. "But Herb's not."
"What happened?"
"Jack, Herb's dead."
I just stared at the refrigerator as my eyes began to tear up. "When?"
"Earlier today," he replied.
It seems a strange occasion for a reunion, but here we are, all twenty of us reunited. It's been years since we've all been together. And we're here because Herb Brooks is dead; we're together for his funeral. The man who drove us to our breaking point was gone. And I missed him.
Twenty-three years earlier, Herb Brooks had taken a group of boys and turned them into men. He had molded each of us into the person we are today. And as I looked around the funeral home, I could see the effects of that molding.
Rob McClanahan, my brother-in-law, was standing with his wife of twenty-one years and their two daughters. Meghan Joy McClanahan was eighteen and Katrina Marie was sixteen. Rob and Emily's oldest child, Logan David, was standing with his cousin and my daughter, Heidi Louise O'Callahan, and Buzzy's older son, Billy. The three of them were laughing over some memory of Herb; they all had memories of him. They had grown up around the team.
My wife, Elizabeth Grace McClanahan-O'Callahan, was standing with Buzzy and Gayle Schneider. My other five children were scattered around the room. My second sons, Stephen John and Robert Michael, were standing with Neal Schneider, Rizzo's two boys, Michael and Paul, and Rob's youngest, Shane Andrew. My second oldest daughter, Maria Isabella, was talking to Mark and Nina Johnson's daughter, Lucy. My second youngest daughter, Anna Christina, was flirting with Paul Eruzione, much to my fatherly chagrin. And my baby girl, Abigail Rose, was hanging onto her mother.
Heidi was twenty-four and adopted; she was born before I even met Ellie. Ellie adopted her first and then I adopted her when I married Ellie. Stephen was twenty-one. Robert was nineteen. Maribella was seventeen. Anna was fifteen and Abby was six.
Logan David Sibley-McClanahan was born six weeks after the Olympics ended. But his parents didn't marry until two years after he was born. Meghan Joy was born two years later and was eighteen. Katrina Marie was next and was sixteen. Shane Andrew is their baby at fourteen.
It was nice seeing everyone again. Coach Patrick was there. Even Doc and Velta were there; Paul Eruzione was guessing that they were about a million years old.
Mark Pavelich was there; that was a shocker. Pav hadn't been to anything in about ten years. Mostly he just lived up in his cabin in northern Minnesota. It must have been cold, but then Mark always was a bit of recluse. Somehow he had managed to get married and he was there with his wife, Renee. Mark and Renee have three daughters. Kendra was eighteen, Meredith was fourteen, and Maureen was eight.
Bah and Vanessa were there with their kids. Caitlin was twenty, John Junior was eighteen, Kevin was sixteen, and Jenna was fourteen. And yes we did realize that the three youngest McClanahans are the same ages and opposite genders as the three youngest Harringtons; there were frequently jokes made about marriages between Bah's and Mac's kids.
Rizzo, obviously, was there with Michael and Paul. I knew Rizzo still missed Gabby, but he was doing well. He was getting on with life and not dwelling over his dead wife.
Rob, as previously stated, was there. Actually, the entire McClanahan clan was there. Mr. McClanahan, now well into his seventies, was there with his second wife, Donna. She was about ten years younger than him and had two children of her own from a previous marriage.
Jennie McClanahan-Brewster was there with her husband, Joe Brewster, and their two kids, Ryan and Andrew.
Natalie was there with her husband, Peter Roy, and their children, Elise and Nicole.
And Kathie was there with her husband, Nathan Webster, and their son, Ephraim. Kathie had changed so much in the past twenty-three years. Now she was a fun person to be around. Rob said that it was all purely a result of the five years she had spent living with Ellie and me.
But back to the team…
Jimmy Craig was there with his wife, Sherry, and their three kids. Don was fifteen, Lindsay was thirteen, and James was eleven. They lived just outside of Boston near Jimmy's dad.
Suter and Baker were there, not the "Beautiful Blondes" as Ellie called them twenty-three years ago, but they were still their insane nutty selves. They still made jokes with Johnson about the entire population of Sweden being blonde.
Mark and Nina Johnson were there with their three kids. Mark Junior was eighteen, Lucy was sixteen, and Michelle was fourteen. They all lived in Wisconsin but we saw them every other year at Christmas when both families went to St. Paul to visit our families. It was nice because my son Rob was good friends with Mark Junior and my daughters, Maribella and Anna, were good friends with Lucy and Michelle. I loved watching my teammates' children interact with each other-even if we were all brought together by a sad occasion.
Dave Silk was there with his wife, Liz, and their kids. Liz was Dave's second wife. He and his first wife, Kerri, had divorced about ten years ago citing irreconcilable differences. Dave and Kerri shared custody of their two kids, Shaun and Jillian. Shaun was fifteen and Jillian was thirteen. Dave and Liz also had three kids of their own. Allyson was seven, Eric was five, and Josh was three.
Rammer was there with Erin. They had two kids. Michael was twenty and Andrew was eighteen and they both played hockey.
Buzzy and Gayle were there, as I mentioned earlier. Their sons, Billy and Neal, were there with them. Billy had played his father in the movie about us and the resemblance between the two of them was striking.
Phil Verchota was there with his wife Christine. Phil had finally given up his womanizing ways about ten years ago and settled down with a nice accountant from Duluth. Phil and Christine have three children; Evan was nine, Kyle was seven, and Tony was five.
Dave Christian was there with his wife Lisa. All of Dave's trademark frizzy hair had fallen out a few months earlier during treatment for Hodgkin's disease. He was fine now, but he had us all pretty scared for a while there. The great thing for was that his cancer had saved his marriage. He told me that he and Lisa had been planning to separate when they found out about his cancer. Somehow, fighting for his life encouraged both of them to fight for their marriage. Dave and Lisa had two children; Beth was fourteen and Tyler was eleven, but now they were talking about adopting another kid or two, which both encouraged and amazed me.
Jannie was there with his wife, Cindy, and their son, Trevor. Jannie always felt a little left out of the team because he didn't play that much and I think he might have resented Herb for that just a tad.
Ken Morrow and his wife, Joyce, were there. Ken and Joyce never had any children because of her job as a foreign correspondent for a newspaper. They always talked about it but it never quite happened. But they were always the cutest couple at the reunions-when they were both there.
Steve Christoff was there with his sons, James and Peter. Steve and his wife had been separated for a while now. He wasn't supposed to have custody of James and Peter that week but their mother let him have them so they could pay their respects to Herb.
Neal Broten was there with his wife, Sally. Neal and Sally had three daughters who were all figure skaters. Grace was twelve, Nia was ten, and Elsie was eight.
Eric Strobel was there with his wife Eileen. Eric and Eileen had three children; Emma was thirteen, Eric Jr. was eleven, and Elizabeth was nine. We all commented on how they had the same first and last initials. (And to make life really exciting, they also all had the same middle initial.)
Mark Wells was there, still single. Mark was the eternal bachelor out of all of us.
Ralph Cox was also there with his family. We all knew that he had forgiven Herb and had a great deal of respect for the man.
Also in attendance were numerous hockey players from around the world and other important figures in hockey and at the University and Minnesota and just in the state of Minnesota. Timmy Harrer was there as well as all the surviving members of the USOC from 1980. President George W. Bush had sent a condolence card to Patti Brooks as had numerous previous presidents including Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. It was almost unbelievable seeing the outpouring of support for the Brooks family. Herb Brooks would be missed in a way that few other people in the world have been or will be missed. Herb was amazing. Somehow he managed to make men out of boys, and in our case, he had turned us into men in just seven months.
The funeral was a solemn ceremony filled with reminiscences of Herb. Danny Brooks spoke for nearly an hour about his memories of his dad. Mac talked about knowing Herb since he was fourteen years old. "Herb Brooks was my hockey coach for five years and he taught me a great deal about hockey," Rob said. "But he was more of a life coach to me about thirty years. He was like a second father to me and he taught me some of life's greatest lessons. He taught me how to look beyond the name on a man's hockey jersey and see his true colors-in his heart. Thanks to Herb Brooks, I have made some amazing friendships. Herb introduced my twin sister to her husband and although Jack did play for Boston University, I learned to respect him for who he was as a person, not what the name on his jersey said."
I smiled as Rob said that. Over the past twenty-four years, Rob McClanahan had become one of my closest friends as well as my brother-in-law. I respected his professional opinion and I also respected his opinions on raising children. He had raised his son to be a fine young man who took responsibility for his actions. And his daughters and Shane were also turning out to be good young adults.
Patti Brooks was sitting in the front pew of the church with Danny, Kelly, and their families. She looked so lonely, so forlorn without Herb. I'd never seen her look so sad or empty. And I knew she really missed her husband. They'd been married for thirty-eight years and he'd suddenly been taken from her-overnight it seemed. Poor Patti, she was such a good, kind, and amazing woman.
After the service was over, I watched as Dan Brooks, Rob McClanahan, Buzz Schneider, Mike Ramsey, Kelly Brooks's husband, and three of Herb's nephews carried the coffin out to the hearse to be taken to the cemetery for internment. The whole event was a sea of sadness.
At the restaurant after the burial service, I sat with my old teammates and their families and we reminisced about Herb Brooks. "Who remembers Herbies?" Bah asked.
"Those Coneheads never were too bright," Rizzo said. "Who doesn't remember Herbies?"
We all laughed as Rammer asked, "Okay, then, has anyone ever forgotten Norway?"
"Are you kidding?" Strobel replied. "My legs still haven't forgotten Norway. They start to ache just at the sound of the word 'Norway'."
I smiled. "Okay, who remembers little baby Heidi?" Rob asked.
We all looked over at Heidi together when he said that. Heidi was talking to Gayle Schneider while holding baby Sarah. "Now little baby Heidi has a little baby of her own," Verchota said.
"Actually, she has two little babies of her own now," Buzzy said. "Nicholas is with his father."
"I still remember the sign Herb posted in the hallway that said 'Beware of baby toys'," Mark Johnson said.
"Oh, and it was meant for reporters," Mac said. "And OC found out about that so he taped another sign over it said 'Beware of killer baby.'"
Jim Craig laughed. "And you guys had Herb convinced that I had done it and Herb believed you even when I told him it was OC because OC and Ellie were dating so why would OC put a sign like that up?"
"Because I hate reporters," I told him. "They were annoying. They were always asking dumb questions about Herb being a control freak and stuff. Besides, do you ever think that any of them actually believed we had a killer baby in the rink?"
"No," Jim said. "But I didn't appreciate having you blame me for everything. If you blew your nose too loudly during practice, I got in trouble for it."
"Jim, you do know that I only did all that stuff because we're friends, don't you?" I asked him.
"Well, of course," was his response.
I miss spending time with those guys every day but at the same time, I don't really want to be twenty-two again. I love my wife, my children, my grandchildren, and everything. I'm happy where I am now.
Twenty-four years ago, the first thought that popped into my head when I saw Elizabeth Grace McClanahan was "This girl is a babe."
Twenty-two years ago, when I saw her walking down the aisle towards me was "She's gorgeous. Is she really mine?"
And she's only gotten more beautiful as time has gone on. Oh, sure I hated her when I found out she was from Minnesota AND she was Rob's sister, but I love her more than anything else now.
She was a diamond in the rough.
Ellie's POV
I've been married to Jack for twenty-two years now. And we've had our ups and downs, but I've always loved him. Oh, sure I wasn't sure about him when I met him, but now I know that he was a diamond in the rough just waiting to pop out of his Bostonian shell.
A/N: Okay, this over. I'm done with it. I'd like to thank everyone who has reviewed. I'd also like to thank my beta-Emador-for being amazing, always. And a special thanks to my little sister Charlotte who came up with the idea for this story after wondering why on earth OC got a cigar for Christmas.