A/N: It's been a really, really long time since I've written a Miracle fic, but a friend of mine suggested I invest some time in a challenge for another board, and presto! Out pops this one. The challenge was to take one of the outtakes from the DVD and turn it into a story, so this one is based on the "Cutie Pie" outtake featuring Bobby Hansen as Dave Silk.

A/N 2: I have also made references to two other works. Golden Dreams, which is unfortunately not posted here, is the story of "Bah" Harrington and a speed skater who catches his eye and is nicknamed his "beautiful distraction". The other piece I borrowed from is one of my own, called Krista and Rizzo, for lack of a better title. That one is posted here, and I've been told it's a good read, so check it out if you want to. You do not, however, have to have read either story to follow along with this one.

So, without further adieu, here it is. Enjoy!

She was not jealous.

Olivia Hutchinson sat at a table with the US Olympic Hockey Team at their favorite bar waiting for her roommate Krista, who was a waitress there, to punch out. It was a cold January night, and rather than have Krista walk home in the bitter Minnesota winter, Liv had come toward the end of her shift to pick her up, and sat passing the time with the boys.

They had begun telling stories about each other, trying to decide once and for all who the smoothest ladies' man on the team was. Liv had laughed out loud at the tales of Buzzy's attempts to get Gail's attention before they were married, and of Bah's "beautiful distraction" in Norway, who he never even got the chance to meet. She even chimed in when the boys began teasing Rizzo about his relationship with Krista, having witnessed a good share of their cute-couple moments with her own eyes.

But when Magic brought up the woman in Colorado Springs at the try-out camp, Liv found her cheeks becoming warm and her smile fading.

"The equipment lady?" OC exclaimed. "You hit on the equipment lady?"

"No," Silky replied in an effort to defend himself. "She hit on me first. I just thought it would make her feel good…"

Mac cracked up at that. "Wait…we gotta hear this from an unbiased source. Magic, you tell it…"

Magic smiled broadly. "I was standing right behind him in line on the first day. When he got to the window, the equipment lady handed him a towel, gave him directions to the next stop, and called him—get this—a cutie pie!"

The table laughed hysterically, those sitting nearest Silky slapping him on the back with an "atta boy, Silky!" thrown in for good measure.

Liv laughed, too, picturing the older woman making a pass at the younger man and imagining the shocked look on Silky's face as it happened.

But then Magic continued with the story. "And then Silky decides he's gotta respond to that, so he leans over the counter and kisses the old lady on the cheek!"

"I bet he enjoyed it, too," Jimmy added with a smirk.

Magic laughed harder. "Oh, he did. You should have seen the look on his face…"

Silky was blushing to the roots of his hair at that point, embarrassed beyond words that his sweet gesture was being picked apart by his teammates. Liv, too, was not happy with the turn the conversation had taken, and suddenly wanted to be anywhere but there.

She stood and grabbed her coat, slipping away from the table and finding an empty stool at the bar, where she could wait for Krista without hearing anymore of Silky's exploits. She heaved a loud sigh and tried to banish the image of him kissing another woman from her mind, unwilling to admit to herself that it bothered her, even if it was only a peck on the cheek of the equipment lady at try-outs. She knew he wasn't a chaste little altar boy, knew that he'd had his share of women, and she had never thought twice about it until that moment.

"But I'm not jealous," she mumbled out loud.

"Jealous of what?" a thick Boston accent asked behind her.

She turned to see Silky smiling at her, his eyes twinkling even in the dim light of the bar. "Of nothing," she told him, jumping off the stool and pulling on her coat. "Will you tell Krista I'm waiting for her in the car?"

Liv hurried past him and out the door, feeling the color rising in her cheeks, hoping he wouldn't come after her.

It took him a moment to react, but Silky did indeed follow her outside. "Liv!" he called, trying to figure out which way she went. "Livie!"

She froze at the second attempt on her name. Her mother had called her Livie when she was alive—it had been her special name for her daughter. Only Krista was allowed to call her that now, and only because she had known how close Liv had been with her mother.

Liv whipped around and confronted him. "Don't call me that," she insisted, keeping her voice as even as she could.

He was still a few feet from her, but now he knew where she was. Taking a few steps toward her, Silky replied, "Call you what?"

"Only my mother called me 'Livie', and she passed away six years ago."

"I'm sorry," he told her softly, stopping just in front of her. "It just slipped out. Hockey players are always giving everyone nicknames…"

"…and you guys always call me 'Hutchy' or 'Liv' like everyone else," she finished for him. Then she changed the subject, ignoring the way her heart had fluttered when he spoke her mother's pet name for her. "So what do you want?"

"I wanted to see if you were okay," he said. "You disappeared from the table and then ran out of the bar, and I wanted to make sure you were all right."

"I'm fine," she replied, turning from him to go to her car.

He caught her arm gently and prevented her from leaving. "You don't look fine," he informed her. "Liv, what's wrong?"

She took a breath and turned back toward him, thankful that he released her arm as she did so—his touch was doing horrible things to her concentration. "What's wrong?" she repeated quietly. "What's wrong? What's wrong is that the idea of you with another woman makes me furious. Even the five seconds you spent with the equipment lady bothers me, God help me. I want to hunt her down and torture her until she swears she'll never come near you again."

"It was just a quick kiss on the cheek…" he began, confused by her reaction.

She cut him off. "You with any other woman," she clarified slowly. "I want you to be with me."

Liv tuned again and headed off to her car, now completely mortified and desperately hoping he didn't follow her again.

This time Silky did let her go, stunned by her admission. He had known her for almost seven months now, and never once did the idea occur to him that she might be interested in him romantically. They had met one day when she was waiting for Krista at the bar, and had become good friends in part because his teammate was dating her roommate, tagging along with the couple on outings or spending time at each other's homes when Krista and Rizzo needed some alone time. But they had never considered anything more than friendship.

"I want you to be with me."

Her words rang in his ears as his unseeing eyes watched her round the corner and disappear into the parking lot.

She refused to speak to him after that.

He tried to talk to her a couple of times before he left Minnesota, but she brushed him off. Even when he called her from Lake Placid after they had won the gold medal, she rebuffed his efforts despite the pride and excitement she felt watching the game at home. She merely continued to go to class and to work, sending along her congratulations and well wishes to the team through Krista.

After the Olympics, Silky signed his first professional contract with the New York Rangers, who promptly sent him to play on their minor league team in New Haven, Connecticut. He tried calling Liv a few times, then, too, if only to hear her voice again. They two of them had been good friends and he missed her immensely, but still she kept silent.

When the season ended, Silky and his New Haven teammates went their separate ways, scattering over the US and Canada, going back home to catch up with their families. Silky himself was only hours away from boarding a plane back to Boston, but something continued to nag at him as he finished packing.

The next thing he knew, he was on a plane not to Boston but to Minneapolis, not bothering to check into a hotel when he landed but hurrying straight to his old haunt with luggage still in tow.

"Where is she?" he asked anxiously, dragging a suitcase across the bar to where Krista was standing.

Krista grinned happily at the sight of her friend. "Silky! What are you doing here?"

He hugged her back when she slid her arms around him, but there was only one woman on his mind at that moment. "Where is she?" he repeated. "Where's Liv?"

"She's taking a summer class," Krista responded, both surprised and pleased at his question. "And she usually eats lunch outside in the little plaza right next to the building it's held in. She should be there now." She quickly gave him directions to the place, trying to suppress another happy smile.

He listened carefully, wondering at the same time what he'd say when he found Liv. He didn't know what he wanted to tell her, only that he wanted nothing more than to finally talk to her again. When he was sure he knew where he was going, he thanked Krista and turned quickly toward the door.

"Hey Silky," Krista called after him.

"Yeah?"

"Go get her."

He smiled shyly, some of the anxiety bleeding away at her words. If Krista thought he had a shot with Liv, then maybe he really did.

He hurried to the place on campus that Krista had indicated, still lugging his suitcase with him, and glanced around the plaza. There were benches set up beside small gardens, with colorful summer flowers in bloom everywhere, creating a calm and relaxing atmosphere that Liv would have loved to use as a break from her job as a paramedic.

After a moment he spotted her, curled up on the ledge of one of the gardens reading a book, her lunch spread out beside her. The sunlight shone in her hair, a small smile was perched on her lips, and the blue of her shirt brought out the blue in her eyes, even from a distance. Seeing her sitting there, Silky finally knew what he wanted to say to her.

"Liv!" he called to her as he moved toward her. "Livie!"

So startled was she by his presence that she didn't even correct him when he used her forbidden pet name. Instead, butterflies formed in her stomach at the sight of him, and her heart fluttered at the sound of his voice. "Silky?" she asked incredulously, dropping her book and rising from the garden ledge. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see you," he told her, setting his suitcase down at his feet. "You wouldn't talk to me, wouldn't return my calls, so I came to see you."

"Aren't you supposed to be in New Haven?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Season's over, and I was headed back to Boston, but I couldn't go…"

She shifted her gaze to her hands clasped in front of her, waiting for him to finish. When he didn't, she took a breath and asked another question. "Why couldn't you go back to Boston?"

He hooked a finger under her chin and raised her eyes to his. "I had to see you first. I missed you so much, and I needed to tell you something."

"What?" she asked quietly.

"I want to be with you."

"What?" she repeated, this time with more confusion than curiosity.

He smiled. "I think I'm in love with you, Livie, and I want to be with you."

Her forehead wrinkled in thought, trying to sort out his words. "You think you're in love with me?"

Silky chuckled shyly. "I've never been in love before," he tried to explain, "but you make me feel different than anyone I've ever met."

"And you want to be with me," she replied, "even though I haven't spoken to you in months."

He took her hands in both of his and squeezed them gently. "I know you, Liv. I could tell from the look on your face that night at the bar that you didn't know how you felt about me until you said it out loud, and how embarrassed you were when you did say it. I know how proud you were when we won the gold medal, and I know that you suddenly began talking to an old friend in Connecticut to keep tabs on the hockey team in New Haven."

She blushed and looked down at her hands again, marveling at how good they felt in his. "You talked to Krista…"

He nodded. "I kept in touch with her and Rizzo after Lake Placid, and she kept me up to date on you. She knew we'd patch things up eventually."

"But you don't want to just patch things up," Liv reminded him. "You want to start something new."

Silky nodded again. "Yeah, I do. I need you Livie. I'm miserable without you."

She looked up at him and smiled a little in spite of herself. "But how's this gonna work? I won't finish school until next spring, and you'll be going back east in the fall…"

"What if I hang around here for the summer, and we'll just see how it goes? If things work out the way I hope they will, then we'll figure something out."

"You really want to be with me?" she asked, still unable to believe he flew thirteen hundred miles just to see her.

He stepped closer to her, releasing her hands and wrapping his arms around her waist. "More than anything else in the world."

Her hands slid up his chest and rested on his shoulders. "Then I guess I don't have a reason to be embarrassed and avoid you anymore."

Silky pulled her closer, leaning down to whisper in her ear. "Nope."

Liv felt his breath against her skin and her heart skipped a beat. "I have one condition, though."

"Anything," he murmured.

Her mouth formed a teasing smile. "You can keep calling me 'Livie', but I get to call you 'cutie pie'."

He laughed out loud and tightened his arms around her, his lips finding hers in a blissful kiss. When he drew back, his eyes were still sparkling and he had one answer for her.

"Deal."