Sorry for the months of absence. Between work, my horse, and a new boy, I found myself with very little spare time. But without a book I brought my beloved laptop to work and with my 8 hours of sitting in a chair lifeguarding, somehow realized that I had stories begging to be updated. And thus chapter 6 of His Brother's Shadow became, finally completed! So I hope you enjoy and again apologize for the really long wait between chapters. Please review and most importantly Enjoy!

~Ciliegina

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the plot or characters of The Mighty Ducks

The ice had always been there. When he was upset, angry, or just need a place to be alone and think, Adam would turn to the ice. Despite it's coldness, Adam had come to think of the ice as a friend. It was always there when he needed it and it always 'listened' to the emotions that radiated off him when he arrived that would be lessened greatly by the time he would leave.

It had started when Scott joined the Hawks. Even though Adam had been the one with the burning desire to learn how to skate, Scott was the one to make the Hawks. And in Adam's mind at that young age, he didn't realize it was because he was simply too young to play hockey for the team. For now he knew, the solitary thing he was better at than Scott at was skating, it was why his brother had adopted the goalie position so early on.

Adam's skating skills were most likely due to the comforting feeling that the ice gave him. Working on the ice was still the most natural and comfortable thing for him to do. He really felt like the ice rink was his home, his ally, his hide away, and in order to repay it for everything, he had to give it his all when playing hockey. It was the least he could do.

Lacing up his black hockey stakes, Adam stepped out onto the rink, feeling the ice beneath the blades. He glided for a minute as serenity took him before pushing off and beginning to stake laps.

If there was someway to win over Julie, he knew he would figure it out here, now.

"Adam?"

Speak of the devil. Adam nearly ran into the wall when he caught sight of the speaker. Flushing red as she chuckled as his unusual lack of ease on the ice, Adam struggled for a moment to relay the words his brain was spinning with to his mouth. "Uh… hi Julie, what are you doing here?"

"I was just headed back on campus…" Adam knew the unspoken words at the end of that sentence. She had just gotten back from a date with his brother. The evil, maniacal, perfect older brother had just taken his dream girl out on a date off campus thus making the relationship high school official. It was only a matter of time before it was on facebook too, and everyone knew facebook relationships were the epitome of teenage legitimacy. "And I was passing the rink on the way to my dorm, and figured I'd stop by to unwind. I know this is going to sound silly, but I guess growing up in Maine has given me a massive appreciation for crystallized water. Snow, ice, even sleet, just seeing and feeling it has the ability to calm me."

Adam felt if all the air had been vacuum sucked out of his lungs and a jolt of electricity had rendered his heart ineffective. It wasn't a strange concept at all. Sure his love of the ice didn't extend to snow or other precipitating water forms, but he knew exactly how she felt, it had the same effect on him and was precisely why he'd come to the ring. "It doesn't make you weird at all."

Julie laughed a little as she pushed open the rink door and stepped out onto the ice. Although she was only wearing sneakers, he still thought she moved on the ice with utmost grace and poise. He couldn't help but smile as she glided over to the net. "Thanks for being nice Adam, but I am a big girl I can handle being abnormal. Plus without a little weirdness, I'd just be boring, and who'd want that."

"You could never be boring," the words rang through Adam's head but he couldn't manage to make them materialize from his mouth. Instead he asked, "So how was it?"

The smile fell from Julie's lips slightly. "It was good," although he thought her tone sounded more like she was trying to convince herself more than him, he ignored it and let her continue. "You're brother is very nice and courteous. We talked, has coffee, it was very nice." She stopped for a moment as she played with the white netting contemplating her next words. "We talked a little about you, actually."

"What?" the question was confused and full of silent questions so Adam felt the need to rephrase himself. "Oh, oh really?"

Julie laughed as the smile completely returned to grace her features. "Yeah, he speaks very highly of you. He sounded very proud to have you as a younger brother."

This caught Adam completely off guard. He had always believed he had flown completely under Scott's radar as he continued to prove himself as their father's golden child. His mind whirling around at light speed, he wasn't even sure how he was able to make a sound, "Really?"

"Yeah really. With good reason too. I had no idea you volunteered teaching little kids the basics of ice skating."

"Yeah, uh, I do."

With a small chuckle Julie checked her watch as her eyes widened a bit. "Oh shoot, I didn't realize it was so late, I still have a pile of Geometry homework waiting to be completed for Mr. Metzger. Oh, speaking of which, apparently you're family is genetically made for math, and I need help maintaining my A average in this unit. Scott said he would help, but with the length of varsity practices now days, he wasn't sure he would have enough time. So he recommended you. Would you be willing to tutor me? Once a week would be totally fine, wouldn't want to fill up your entire schedule. I'd really appreciate it…."

What?

Julie must have thought Adam was going to turn her down due to his shell-shocked expression and lack of a response, so she started to head toward the exit. "Well, I'll let you think about it."

His body reacted before his brain could really understand what was going on and by the time he realized it he had already closed most of the gap between them. "Wait, Julie."

Turning around in the doorframe, Adam found her eyes on him, questioning yet he could have sworn he'd seen a small sparkle in them. "I'd... be more than happy to help you in geometry. When ever you need help just hunt me down and I'd… gladly help you study." Twice he had to catch himself from saying he'd love to.

Again a wide smile glistened across her face as she hugged him. "Thank you Adam! This will be such a big help, I really appreciate it." And too soon for his taste she released him and with a quick good-bye flounced away in the direction of the dorms.

Adam stood there frozen for a few minutes before turning back onto the rink, skating a few more laps in attempt to make sense of the situation that had just occurred. So deeply drowned in his thoughts, questions, happiness, and confusion, he failed to notice a single light on in the announcer's box.

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