Author's Note: Ah insomnia...a fan fiction author's best friend. I wrote this at three in the morning...so if it sucks that's why. I really do appreciate all of the reviews (which I now actually get because ff has stopped being stupid!) and I'm really glad people like the story. Oh, and I advertised it on my profile already, but in all seriousness, go see Dreamgirls...it's freaking awesome.

Disclaimer: I still don't own anything. Little changes from day to day...

Chapter 7: The Perfect Friendship

This is what I want. This is what I've wanted for a long time. We've said goodbye. It's all over, I got that closure I wanted. Now I can stop worrying and just get married. I can get married and everything will be fine. I can move on, for real this time, no lingering feelings, no stupid Duck guilt, nothing. I sort of wish that my maid of honor was talking to me though. And I wish I hadn't lied to my fiancé, except that I didn't lie. I didn't. Did I?

Connie sat over her computer, trying to piece together the notes and phone interviews she had gotten over the past night. It was good stuff. Tammy Duncan, who was currently living in a small African country helping them to get a winter Olympic team off the ground by teaching some teenage girls how to figure skate, explained how strange it had been to leave the predominantly female sport of figure skating to go to the male hockey, and then back to figure skating. Her friends from college had given her stories about coaches who had actually laughed at them for being on the team. It was shaping up to be a good article, but it was missing something. It was missing a real winner's perspective. It was missing Julie. As she looked it over she heard a knock on the door. She got up and opened it.

"Ok," Julie said walking in. "I'm really not happy about what's going on right now, but once upon a time, we were best friends, so I guess I owe you something or whatever, so what do you want to know?"

"Really?" Connie said. "You want to help? For real?"

"For real." Julie said sitting down. "So, what exactly do you want to know?"

"First I just want to talk about how you got into hockey. I mean, why did you want to play?" Connie said, taking a tape recorder out and pressing the record button.

"I always skated at home. My older brother played hockey, I wanted to too. My parents, my dad especially really supported that. I was really lucky." Julie said.

"Why did you start playing goalie?"

"My brother used to need someone to practice on. I started letting him try on me. I was pretty good. I started practicing. I asked my coach if I could try being in goal for a while. He said yes, I guess you could say the rest is history." Julie shrugged.

"What, in your opinion was the best moment of your hockey career?" Connie asked and then laughed. "Although, I'm pretty sure I can guess."

"I could never narrow it down to one." Julie laughed. "Finding out I was picked to be on Team USA is up there. Also winning the Junior Goodwill Championship against Iceland was amazing. All four years at Eden Hall were great too. I really can't pick."

"What would you say was the hardest thing?" Connie said. She was a little afraid to hear the answer.

"We all had to overcome a lot." Julie said. "We were always smaller, less experienced. That was hard. And saying good bye was never easy. When I left Maine to join the Ducks was incredibly difficult, then when different people left the Ducks." She said simply, not implicating Connie at all. "I always hated that part of it."

"Did you ever find that being a girl was a problem?" Connie asked.

"Did you?" She asked right back. "It was never really that big an issue. There's was this one incident at the Goodwill Games, some Iceland guys were ripping on me. I punched them in the groins, it was a pretty good feeling, but I got thrown out of the game, which sucked."

"Did you learn a lot from the game?" Connie said.

"I learned about being a team. I learned about sticking to people, about being loyal, about trusting those around me, especially as a goalie. You have to trust your defense, and you have to back them up if they can't pick up the garbage. That helps me a lot now that I'm a doctor." Julie explained. "Especially since I'm doing emergency medicine, everything's a team effort."

"You're doing emergency?" Connie asked. "I thought you wanted to be a OB/GYN."

"I did, I changed. I really wanted to be able to help people right in the hot water, you know." She explained. "It's really satisfying."

"Is there anything else you want to say?" Connie said.

"Just that a team's a really important thing." Julie said. "No matter what happens, how much time passes, a team will always be there for each other, I think that's important. It's what I learned anyway."

"Yeah," Connie said. "Thanks Julie."

"Turn that thing off." Julie said exasperated. "We need to have a talk."

"I don't need a lecture Julie." Connie snapped. "I'm a big girl. I can manage my own life."

"Can you?" Julie laughed. "I mean really? You couldn't even tell your fiancé that you were in a relationship before him. You completely left the people who you grew up with out of your life for three years and when you let them back it you went to pieces."

"That's not fair," Connie said, "I didn't…"

"I talked to Guy," Julie said. "I went there before here. He said you yelled at him and then you guys kissed and you broke down, and told him that you didn't ever love him. Connie, I've known you for a long time, but I've never known you to be a liar."

"Julie, I didn't know what else to say to him." Connie said, tears forming in her eyes. "I loved him so much you know? But I'm past that, I just want to be happy."

"You mean you weren't happy?" Julie said standing up. "All this time, all these years, you've been gone, and you weren't even happy?"

"I thought I was." Connie said, "I really did, but then you all came here, and I forgot how great it was, to have these incredible friends who I love, and well, someone who loves me more than anything else in the world, who knows me better than anyone else in the world."

"No," Julie shook her head. "Don't say that. The only reason why Alex doesn't know you that well is because you didn't let him."

"We don't even have that much in common." Connie said. "I mean, he doesn't even like hockey. Just baseball! I don't know anything about baseball."

"You need to make a decision." Julie said, heading towards the door. "But what you said made me realize something. Thanks."

"Adam?" Connie said, "Are you going to talk to him?"

"Like you said, it's nice to have that person who knows everything about you." Julie shrugged and walked out the door.

At least one of us knows what we want…

Alex sat in his apartment, staring at the floor, racking his brain as to why she hadn't called him. Adam walked in the door and saw him sitting there.

"Hey man." He said sitting down next to him. "Are you OK?"

"She doesn't want to." He said. "I know it, she's going to call me and say she doesn't want to get married any more."

"It's a possibility." Adam shrugged. "But you know Connie, once she makes up her mind."

"No, I don't know Connie." He said shaking his head. "That's the whole problem. I don't know anything about her."

"So call it off." Adam said, tossing him the cordless phone.

"What?" Alex said.

"You can't marry a woman you don't even know, so call it off." Adam explained. "It's not really a hard decision."

"But I love her, I want to marry her." Alex said, "At least I think I do."

"Yeah, I know that feeling." Adam said. "But make up your mind, and tell her what you want. Otherwise it could be too late."

"I don't mean to be rude man, but if you could leave, that would be good." Alex sighed. "I have some thinking to do."

"Yeah, give me a call OK?" Adam said. "I have some one I need to talk to, take a little of my own advice."

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