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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sphinx005- You reread the entire fic? Really? And you fell in love with it all over again? Wow, thanks! Did it really take three days? I'm glad that you took the time. I'm glad that you liked the Julie/Portman bit and Piper and Dani's conversation about what to do about their annoying siblings. I hope that everyone is as exited as you are to see what they do to Julie and Dean... I guess that we all will have to wait and see. Thanks!
AznIntegra- I'm happy that you enjoyed the chapter... and in particular that phone conversation between Dani and Piper... That part was actually a spur of the moment thing, I was going to have it in the next chapter. Dani's influence does tend to rub off on people, it's just part of her personality. Actually, only Fulton, Dani, and Piper know that Dean and Julie want each other, just because the others aren't paying attention... But Dani will figure something out when she gets back. And you're right, a little bit of niece/aunt bonding time is a good thing. Yes, Dani is based after my sister and, yes, a lot of the things that Dani does, my sister does.
Thank you to mdgirl18, PrincessH, and Mrs. St. John Allerdyce!
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Whenever her mother gave birth, Dani and her brothers were always out in the waiting room waiting for their father to tell them whether their mother had had a boy or girl... Each time Dani was the only one who sighed and rolled her eyes before smiling, her brothers opting to cheer. But if Caleb or Felix had been a girl, they would have reacted as she normally did. But this time around, she was in the room with her Aunt and she was having her right hand squeezed beyond what she would have preferred, "Aunt Mickie." Dani said in a strained voice, "That's my writing hand."
"Now you know who your guy will feel whenever you have kids." Mickie replied, pain evident in her voice.
Dani slipped her hand out of her Aunt's and gave her the other one... Sure, it was her left hand and she had sprained that one when she was attacked by James Tobas, but it was better then not being able to write when she needed to, "Okay, Mick, it's time to push." The doctor, who was a very good friend to Mickie's, said.
"Great." Mickie replied, taking a deep breath and pushing as hard as she could.
"Good Job, Mick." The doctor said again as the nurse counted to 10. Mickie took a deep breath and relaxed when the nurse got to ten, "Just relax for a sec, Mick."
"Gladly, Coleman..." Mickie said, gaining a few raised eyebrows from the nurses, "I mean, Dr. Burke."
Dr. Burke nodded, "Okay, the baby is really close so one more good push and we will have a new member of the world." Mickie rolled her eyes, but took a deep breath and pushed as hard as she could, "Okay, I see a head." Mickie squeezed tighter on Dani's hand, "And a shoulder... And another little shoulder. And here we are." Mickie took a deep breath of relief, "It's a baby girl!"
Mickie looked over to Dani, "Dani, there is a number in my planner, it's in my jacket, back in the room." Dani nodded, "It's the number for Millicent and Nicholas McCloud, they're the people that I was a surrogate for. Call them and tell them to get here." Dani nodded again and left.
"Ow." Dani whispered as she shook her hands to relieve them of pain. She backtracked to her aunt's room and pulled her planner out of the inner pocket of the jacket and looked up the names that Mickie had given her as she walked back out of the room to try and find a phone, "Excuse me?" Dani asked a nurse, "Where can I find the nearest phone?"
"It's just down the hall, dear." The elderly lady replied, "You look familiar, have I seen you somewhere before?"
"Um... I don't know, have you?" Dani asked. The nurse thought for a moment, "Well, thank you." Dani said as she turned and walked down the hall to try and find the phone that the nurse had instructed her to. She found it and looked at the number before dialing, "Please be there." Dani whispered.
"McCloud residence." A very pompous voice said.
"Um... Could I speak to Mr. or Mrs. McCloud?" Dani asked.
"Whom should I say is calling?"
Dani thought for a minute, "Tell them that someone is calling in the place of Mickelle Portman and that it's urgent that I speak with one of them."
"Right away."
Dani waited for a minute at nothing but silence met her on the other end of the phone, "Hello?" An equally pompous female voice said.
Dani sighed, "Mrs. McCloud?"
"Yes."
"Hi, I'm Mickelle Portman's niece and I was just calling to tell you that she just gave birth at the University of Philadelphia Hospital and she asked me to call you." There was stunned silence on the other end, "We would have called earlier, but the birth went so quickly that there wasn't enough time."
"Thank you." She said, "My husband and I will be there momentarily." The sound of a phone hanging up met Dani's ear and she hung up as well.
"Okay." Dani said as she walked back to her Aunt's room. She entered the doorway and didn't expect to see about 8 people in there with her.
"Mickie, I can't believe you're giving that poor little girl to those people." A women with deep, rich brown hair said, "You know what they will do."
"Abbi, they're her parents." Mickie replied, "I only helped them along."
"Yeah." A man with blonde and black hair added, "But they don't want a child to raise it, they want one to 'carry on their legacy'. They will just stick her in the hands of a nanny and only talk to her when she does something wrong."
"Jack!" Mickie said, "Stop, please. I don't have a choice." Dani knocked on the wall, "Dani, honey... How long have you been standing there?"
"A while." Dani replied, "I called the McCloud's and they're coming."
"Thank you, Dani." Mickie said.
"Mick..." A man with bright blonde hair said in a singsong voice, "Introductions."
Mickie rolled her eyes, "Everyone, this is my niece, Dani. Dani, these are my friends." Dani waved and they waved back.
"Dani Portman?" The women named Abbi said, "The Olympic Gold Medal winner for figure skating?"
Dani nodded, "Guilty."
"Oh my god, Mick." Abbi said, "You never told us that you were related to an Olympian." Mickie tried to say something to defend herself, but they were all stopped by the entrance of two people in their fifties, "Oh..."
"Mickelle." Mrs. McCloud, "It's lovely to see you." Mickie waved slightly uncomfortably, "I see that all of your friends came to support you."
"Yes, it's wonderful." Mr. McCloud added, "And who is this lovely young lady?" He asked, noticing Dani.
"Um, Mr. McCloud, Mrs. McCloud, this is my niece, Dani." Mickie replied.
"Dani?" Mrs. McCloud ask with a scoff, "Why would you ever be named something like that? It's a boy's name."
Dani scoffed right back, "Um... It's short for Danielle. It's a nickname."
"Oh." Mrs. McCloud replied, not really apologizing, but it was obvious that she hadn't thought of that and she seemed pretty embarrassed, "So, Mickelle, where is our baby." Dani raised her eyebrows, blunt much?
"Mrs. and Mr. McCloud." Dr. Burke said behind the elderly couple, "I believe I have what you are looking for." They turned and looked at the tiny baby in his arms, "Congratulations." He said slightly bitter, "It's a girl."
"A girl?" The McCloud's asked.
"Is something wrong?" Mickie asked.
"Um..." Mr. McCloud said, "We wanted a boy."
"Well, that's okay." Dani replied cheerfully, "At least you got the baby."
"You don't quite understand." Mrs. McCloud said, "We wanted... No, we needed a boy." Dani raised her eyebrows, "We can't have a girl... We need our family name to be passed on."
"Then why didn't you adopt?" Dani asked, not understanding their logic in the least.
"That wouldn't be out family. It isn't our job to take in a child that isn't ours." Mr. McCloud replied.
Dani scoffed, "I happen to know a far amount of people that adopt or are adopted and don't exactly see it that way."
"Well, that's how we see it." Mrs. McCloud replied, "We will pay for your bills and the girls, Mickelle, but we can't take her."
"What the he..." Dani started before a hand was placed over her mouth and she was pulled back near the bed. The McCloud's left and Dani rolled her eyes, "I hate humanity sometimes."
"Um-hum." Mickie's friends added.
"Can they do that?" Dani asked, "Is that legal?"
Dr. Burke nodded, "Unfortunately it is. They have the choice." He sighed, "Mick, the thing that most doctors try to do whenever this happens is ask the surrogate mother whether or not she wants to take the baby." Mickie looked at him with an unsuspecting look on her face, "I know that it's a hard decision to make, but just think about it."
"Um... Can I hold her?" Dani asked. Dr. Burke nodded and handed the baby to her, "Wow, she's so cute... And she looks nothing like the old and bitter people." The group laughed, "Want to hold her, Aunt Mickie?" Mickie looked at her niece as if she was trying to say no, but Dani could tell that she wanted to, "Here."
"Um..." Mickie replied, "Oh my God." She said as Dani placed the baby in her arms, "You know, you caused a fair amount of pain getting into this world." She said to the baby.
"Not just to you." Dani replied, causing Mickie to laugh.
"Sorry, Dani." Mickie replied before looking back at the baby with a look on her face that was all to familiar to Dani.
"Uh-oh." Dani said, "I know that look, it's the same look that mom had when she held Caleb and Felix for the first time." Mickie looked up in shock, "Don't give me that, I have enough experience with births to know what falling in love for the first time looks like."
"Is that a yes, Mick?" Dr. Burke asked. Mickie looked from the baby in her arms to the doctor to her niece and back to the doctor before nodded, "Wonderful, do you have a name?"
"Well, I wasn't exactly thinking of what to name her, Coleman." Mickie replied, "I didn't think that I was going to leave with her."
"But you always said that your first daughter's name was going to be Samantha Rae." A female voice said behind the group. Mickie looked up on shock, "Hey, Mick."
"Evey." Mickie replied, "What... What are you..."
Evey raced over to Mickie, "Mick, I am so sorry." She said, "Please, what I did was the biggest mistake that I have ever made, I just couldn't stand to see you hurt. And by trying to avoid that, I hurt you myself." Tears dripped down her face, "Forgive me, please." She begged, "I love you."
Mick was caught off guard. She wanted more then anything to say that she forgave Evey, but she wasn't sure if she would get hurt again, "Wow." Dani said, "That sounds just like my life."
"Huh?" Mickie asked.
"Well," Dani said, "I was dating this guy and he broke up with me because my brother is a shit head and slammed him into wall, and then we started going back out they day that I sort of bombed the short program. And that's the way we are now."
Mickie chuckled, "Well, if my niece can give second chances, then I can." Evey smiled and leaned forward, kissing Mickie. They pulled apart and smiled, "I love you, too, Evey." She said.
Evey smiled, "Mick, I want to hear more about this boyfriend that your niece was talking about. Particularly if he helped you start to forgive me." The rest of the group agreed and Dani sighed. She wasn't quite sure why Evey had suddenly changed the subject, but whatever. Dani pulled out her wallet and pulled out a picture of Adam and handed it to Evey, "Wow, he's cute."
"Yes, you have great taste, it seems." Mickie said, as she handed the picture to her friends, who agreed.
"Actually, Aunt Mickie." Dani said, "Adam is the only decent boyfriend I've hand. My first one moved away and we had a long distance relationship, but when he came back, he had gotten together with this other girl and he said that we'd been over for a while and then I rebounded with another guy and we dated for a while, but I found him making out with someone else and I found out that he had been screwing around with another girl for about three months."
"Wow." The group said.
"Yeah, but Adam's different."
"He looks like a good kisser." Jack said. Dani thought coyly for a while and then nodded, causing everyone to laugh and cheer.
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Adam sat at his desk in his dorm room doing nothing but staring at a blank piece of paper that he was suppose to be doing his homework on. His attention kept getting taken by a picture of Dani that he had and he was reminded of how much he missed her. He knew that if his dad found out that he couldn't concentrate on work because of Dani, then he would be in deep trouble. Knowing that, Adam willed himself to work as hard as he could.
After a few moments of successfully starting a few of the things that he was suppose to do, a knock came on the door, "Come in." He called, not taking his eyes off of the paper on his desk. He was very surprised when pair of hands covered his eyes, "Do I have to guess?"
"That depends." A voice said. Adam smiled and turned, "You're a sight for sore eyes."
"Ditto." Adam said, pulling Dani into a bear hug and kissing her on the cheek, "I've missed you."
"I've missed you too." Dani replied, hugging him back, "You looked a little bit distracted over there." She said.
"I was trying to finish homework." Adam admitted, "But it was a little too boring. I prefer this much better." Dani chuckled and kissed Adam, "Yeah, much more preferable."
"I am so glad to be back, but I did have fun... Most of the time."
"Only most of the time?" Adam asked.
Dani nodded, "I met some people that had asked a women to be a surrogate mother for them and when the baby was born, they didn't want it because it was a girl." Adam's eyes widened, "Yup, that was my reaction, but I said a few things that I probably shouldn't have."
"Well, some people have issues." Adam replied.
Dani nodded again, "But, on a happier note, a group of 10 lesbians and gay men unanimously agreed that you were attractive and that you looked like a good kisser."
Adam was slightly taken aback, "What?" He asked.
Dani laughed at the look on Adam's face, "My Aunt Mickie, the one that I was going to see, she's a lesbian and her friends wanted to see a picture of you, so I let them, and they all agreed that you were very attractive and that you looked like you were a good kisser."
Adam chuckled, "And what did you say?"
"What do you think?" Dani said with a smile on her face.
"You kiss and tell?" Adam asked.
Dani smiled wider, "Only when it's good." Adam smiled, "But what about you? Would you kiss and tell."
"Absolutely not." Adam said, "Not unless it was a truth or dare and you were there with me."
"That's sweet." Dani said, "Now I remember why I missed you so much."
"You forgot?"
"What can I say, I've got amnesia." Adam chuckled, "Maybe you could remind me?" Adam smiled and leaned forward, kissing Dani gently, "Memory's coming back." Dani said, "But it could come back more."
"I get the message." Adam said, kissing Dani again. He hadn't expected this when Dani got back, but it was better then what he was expecting, which was Dean getting all of the time with Dani and him not getting to see her at all until Dean decided to give her up... Yup, this was definitely better.