Life's Full of Little Surprises
Disclaimer: I own absolutely none of the 'Mighty Duck' characters or the rights to the "Mighty Duck" franchise, that honor belongs to Disney. So I would appreciate that I wouldn't get sued over something I don't own.
Summary: Dani's life couldn't be going better. She has finally made it to the Olympics, doing the sport she loves the most. But... after arriving in Minneapolis, Minnesota things change. First she is constantly badgered by her brother, then she falls for one of his friends, and, of course, there is always a stalker!
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PrincessH- Yup, Fulton finally got off of his big butt and asked Tammy out, but just wait for their first date. Let's say that it isn't going to go as smoothly as they want it to. Yes, the ending was sad, and no, I will not tell anyone what will happen to Mr. Portman, they have to find out for themselves! I'm glad that you like.
Thanks yous are due to MuM YoU'lL bE mY gUaRdIaN aNgEl In ThE sKy WaTcHiNg OvEr Me YoUr PoOnChKa and BrokenAngel1753!
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Dean had fallen into a restless sleep about two hours after Julie had left his room and he had had his internal debate. The night, so far, had been worse then he had felt when Dani had accidentally put her left arm through a window. There had been way to much blood for Dean's taste, and Dani had been in agony for weeks while the deep abrasions healed. He knew that he shouldn't have left his favorite hockey puck on the stairs, so he felt that it was his fault that she had slipped, but that was beside the point. The point was that Dean was waking up ever 30 minute, scared stiff about what was happening back in Chicago. His father was in a hospital bed and no one knew if he was going to live or not. His mom was probably doing her best to keep herself together, but his brothers? Felix couldn't even remotely comprehend what was happening, he was only two! All he knew was that daddy was hurt. Caleb was who Dean was most worried about; Caleb and his father would do something sports related everyday, beneficial for both of them. The kid's favorite time of day.
Looking over at the clock, Dean groaned. It was 3:17 in the morning and he wasn't getting back to sleep easily. Dean sat up and turned his legs off of the side of his bed and rubbed his eyes. Thinking of nothing else, Dean stood and walked in the direction of the bathroom. "Ouch! Son of a bitch! Damn it! Fuck!" Dean mumbled as he picked up his foot that had landed on something very sharp on the floor. If someone had been looking in, they would have thought that he was doing some strange weird one foot dance, or something.
Once his foot had stopped hurting enough, he placed it gently on the floor in order to make sure that he didn't step on what ever he had stepped on again. He got down on his knees and felt around for the sharp object, and quickly found it. It was a piece of jewelery.
Dean rushed back to his bed and switched on the light. "Oh, God!" Dean called out as he quickly closed his eyes. Bright lights and unadjusted eyes do not, under any circumstances, mix. Dean waited a few seconds and attempted to open them again, this time taking it slowly. It worked. Dean gazed at the large oval in his hand; it wasn't gold, but silver or something close to it. He noticed that the oval had a hinge and a clasp, so it was a locket of some kind. Flipping the locket in his hand, Dean saw the initials "J.E.G" engraved in the latter side. J.E.G, that could mean it was Julie's. She had never told him her middle name, so anything was possible. The part that he had stepped on was a raised portion that held the initials, surrounded by blue and red stones. Knowing he shouldn't, but not being able to restrain himself, Dean flipped the clasp with his thumb and ran his nail in between the two sides, popping open the locket.
On one side was a very pretty women with red hair and green eyes flicked with gold. Dean was kind of reminded of Helena Christenson, the model. She was smiling and laughing, probably because of the cake that was on her nose. She had straight and very white teeth and full lips, but her most fascinating quality was the tiny yet detectable tattoo that was delicately curving around her neck and under her shirt.
The second side had a picture of a small girl that looked like a Julie mini-me, but with green eyes flicked with gold. Mother and daughter, obvious by looking at their eyes alone. She was smiling sweetly and holding a small falcon on her leather covered arm. She smiled as the bird sat there, wise and majestic looking.
Dean opted to go and ask Julie about the locket, even if it was 3 something in the morning; he would forget if he didn't. Knowing that he and Julie and Connie were probably the only three left in that hall, Dean didn't really take the caution to be quite. He just walked up to the door and knocked, silently laughing at the groans from inside. Julie opened the door, "Portman? What the hell are you doing here?" She asked.
"Portman?" Connie asked, coming up behind Julie, "You do know that I am going to kick your ass in the morning." Dean smiled and nodded, "What do you want?" She asked bitterly.
"I think you dropped this, Julie." He replied as he held out the locket.
"My locket." Julie said, taking it back, "Thanks Portman, I didn't know that I had lost it."
"E?" Connie asked, staring at the locket, "What does that stand for?" She had asked the very question that was currently on Dean's mind. Good, because he would have felt weird asking.
"Emmanuelle." Connie raised her eyebrows and Dean looked just plain confused, "It's spelled E-M-M-A-N-U-E-L-L-E. It's French. It was the name of my mother's best friend and pen pal when she was our age."
"Is that your mom, on the inside?" Dean asked.
"Dean! Have you been looking in my stuff?"
Dean smiled, then frowned. He shook his head 'yes', but then stopped and shook it no, "In my defense," Dean said, "I didn't really know that it was yours. I was just taking a guess."
Julie shook her head, "Yes, as a matter a fact, that was my mother on the inside." Dean opened his mouth to speak, but Julie pinched his lips together to stop him, "And the other person was my sister, Piper." Connie shoved Julie's shoulder in question, "Look, guys, I haven't seen either of them since my parent's got divorced when I was 6. And I haven't spoken to them since I called to tell them that I was going to the Goodwill Games. My father refused to let me speak to them after he found out that I called."
"Why?" Dean asked.
"Let's just say that my parent's divorce got very nasty. My dad wanted full custody of both of us, not just me, for the sheer fact that he hated my mom." Dean was starting to regret asking, "Now if you don't mind, I'm going back to bed." Julie slammed the door in Dean's face.
"Whoops." Dean muttered as he made his way back to his room.
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"Valk?" A deep male voice asked, shaking Piper Gaffney awake. "Kielzog omhoog, beste." (Dutch: Falcon? Wake up, dear.)
"Adriaan?" Piper mumbled unhappily, "Papa. Het is te vroeg!" (Dutch: Dad. It's too early!). "It's seven on a Saturday!" Adriaan was Piper's mother's boyfriend, and had been ever since Piper was 6. Man, those two needed to get a move on and get married. But, even though they were not married, Adriaan was more of a father to Piper then her birth father, Richard, had ever been. That was why Piper had no problem calling him her dad or speaking in Dutch; it was Adriaan's native language, after all. Adriaan had been teaching her since she was a child and she took to the language immediately. He shook her shoulder, "Fine, I'm up!"
"Thank you." He said. "Now, breakfast." Piper's eyes grew as he placed a large tray on legs over her lap. He pulled of the top over the plate, exposing the perfectly soft boiled eggs and crisp bacon and golden toast. "Het ontbijt wordt gediend, mevrouw." (Dutch: Breakfast is served, madam.).
"U moest niet dit doen." (Dutch: You didn't have to do this.).
"I know, but I wanted to." Piper smiled. How was it that there could be so many different men in this world? Adriaan was a wonderful man, who did whatever he could for other people. Her birth father, Richard was the exact opposite. He was a greedy prick who wanted nothing more to take her from her mother, not that he was going to be able to after all these years. But poor Julie! She was stuck with him until she was eighteen, unless she filed for emancipation. Not really a bad option.
"Goede ochtend, Julie." Piper said to her sister's picture on her bedside table. (Dutch: Good morning, Julie.). Piper smiled to her 11 month older sister, who was immortalized as a 6 year old, holding onto her favorite animal, a cat named Rio. Piper turned back to Adriaan, "What's the matter?" She asked him.
"It is nothing." He replied, quite unconvincingly. Piper raised her eyebrows to show that she was skeptical. "How do you think your mother would like this?" He asked, pulling out a blue velvet box and opening it to reveal an absolutely gorgeous pear shaped diamond ring. Piper gazed at the ring, transfixed, "Is that a 'she'll love it'?" Piper nodded, "Goed, eet nu uw ontbijt." (Dutch: Good, now eat your breakfast.). Piper complied immediately.
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Casey Conway was cleaning a table at Mickey's Diner, humming to herself. She had told Charlie the big news and now he had asked if he could come to her next OB/GYN appointment, boy was he in for a surprise. As she wiped the table with a damp cloth, a familiar scent of a particular brand of cologne hit her nose. But only one person that she knew wore that cologne, but he couldn't be here now. Could he? Casey looked up, towards the door. Oh, yeah, he was here. "Gordon?" She asked.
He turned as flashed his patent Gordon Bombay smile, "Casey. It's good to see you again." He walked over to her and gave her a hug, although he wasn't sure why.
"You too. I didn't expect to see you here." Casey replied before she caught a whiff of an unopened package of Marlboro's. "Zeb, I can smell those from over here. Put them away or I will have no problem kicking you out!" Thanks to her pregnancy and heightened hormones, Casey could smell just about anything within a mile. Not always fun.
"I hate you pregnant!" The 22 year old Zeb called from half way across the diner.
"Yeah, well, you have about 7 and a half more months." Casey retorted, "So get over it!" Gordon's mouth dropped open and his eyes grew. Did she just say what he had heard her say?
"Casey?" He began to ask, "You're pregnant?" Casey nodded, "Wow, that's great. Congratulations."
"Thanks, Gordon."
"Ew! You little mutant!" A voice familiar to Gordon called through the door, "Daddy! Julian spit his chewed up crackers on my arm!" Myrka finished as she walked over to Gordon, keeping a saliva covered arm away from her body.
"I didn't mean to, Myrka!" Julian cried. He was, quite literally, close to tears. Myrka began to disagree before Gordon gently pushed her towards the bathroom, "I really didn't mean to, Daddy." The poor six-year-old whined.
"I know, I know." Gordon said in an attempt to console his son, "But Myrka's a girl, she doesn't know that."
"Excuse me?" Casey asked, attempting to sound insulted, "What about girls?"
Gordon was about to try and cover up what he said, but fate did it for him, "Coach? Yo, yo, guys! Coach is back." He heard the familiar voice of Jesse Hall exclaim. It was as if a stampede had made it's way through the diner. All of the Ducks jostled to see him as Julian jumped into the booth and hid for the time being. "Yo, Coach, what are you doing here?"
"Yeah, Bombay." Charlie added, "Why didn't you go back to Chicago and forget all about us?"
"Oh yes," Gordon replied, "I could forget those memories."
"You say that as if it's a bad thing." Goldberg said as he put on a pout and tried to act as if he had been hurt and disgruntled by Gordon's comment. "Guys, I think that he wants us to forget him." Everyone jokingly agreed.
"Well, considering that everyone in this eclectic group are going to be rude and not offer any introductions, I'll do it." Max said in a huff as he walked forward and extended his hand, "Max Newmen. It's a pleasure to meet you, sir. You have no idea how much I have heard about you."
"Don't believe it." Gordon shot back, "I'm not a complete lunatic."
"Daddy." Myrka whined as she walked back over to Gordon and leaned on him. Immediately, Julian popped out if his hiding place, "Yeah, yeah. I know that you didn't mean to spit your crackers on me." She sighed, "But don't ever do that again, it's really gross."
Everyone looked towards Gordon with mass amounts of confusion, abashment, and astonishment. All of them asking for an answer. Russ was the first to get something out of his mouth, "Bombay got with a sister? Twice?" He asked, taking notice of Myrka's and Julian's biracial brown skin. Gordon knew that this was coming. "What's up Shorty?" He asked, commenting on Myrka's short stature.
"Let's see." Myrka replied to Russ' outburst, "Loud, blunt, and oozing LA." She turned her head to look up at her father, "Russ Tyler, right?" She asked. Gordon nodded. "FYI, bud. We're adopted, but my brother and I are blood related. And never call me that again!" Gordon tapped Myrka on the shoulder to ask what was wrong with her. She shook her head, but then began to rub her temples. "Excuse me." She rushed back into the bathroom, looking pale and in pain.
"I'll go check on her, Gordon." Casey offered as she followed Myrka into the bathroom.
"What's wrong?" Russ asked, oblivious, "What did I do? Was it something I said?" He looked around for answers, but none came. "Man, how did I make the little kid sick."
Gordon shrugged his shoulders, but turned to Julian when the tiny boy sniffled, "That's was Abe called her on the bad days." Gordon comprehended what was going on, but everyone else was still utterly lost, "He called her 'Shorty'." Julian began to cry heavily as Gordon pulled him into a hug.
"Man, I am still lost." Russ groaned.
"Don't you get it?" Max asked, "Abe is more then likely their birth father." Gordon nodded, "And those bad days are days that he would hurt them. It's all very typical of a child abuse case. AND YOU REMINDED HER!" He added, slapping Russ across his head. Russ backed away, "Just never say that around her again, and she'll more then likely be okay. Or, she'll hate you for the rest of your lives."
"Man, I didn't know." Russ said in an attempt to defend himself, "If I had, I would never have said that. I didn't mean to. She's just short!"
"Yeah, so are you." Fulton responded. To Fulton, Russ was quite short, "But you don't see anyone else commenting on it."