Julie The Cat reached as far as she could from her position on the ice and was rewarded when she felt the dull thud of the cold rubber puck hit her stick. With a fast glove she covered up the little frozen disk that dictated her life for the save. She was happy with her performance so far. Her arm didn't sting anymore and she hadn't lost any speed in her reflexes.

"Nice save Cat," Guy smirked as he circled her net while the refs retrieved the puck from her to set up the face-off to her left.

Julie simply nodded and watched him take his position on the ice. They all knew she didn't talk much during games, not while she was in her zone. Banks won the draw and led the Ducks through the neutral zone. With a quick pass back to Germaine they skated into Italy's territory. Guy was forced to dump the puck behind their net to get some pressure off him. Adam recovered and whirled around the net and fired off a quick back-hand shot. The rebound came to Connie who maneuvered her way to the point; she faked a shot and slid the pass back to Adam who one-timed the puck into the back of the net. USA was now up 3-0 and the third period was winding down in their first game against Italy.

Julie watched as her teammates celebrated the goal and head to the bench for a line change. Italy won the next face-off and skated hard into their zone. With careful eyes Cat studied every move of one of Italy's more prominent forwards weave around Tyler and sent a wrister shot her way. She had to move fast but managed to get the blocker save and saw that Averman took control of the rebound. But he was knocked into unexpectedly and awkwardly hit the post of the Ducks net. Julie quickly covered the puck and the play was called dead.

Les was in obvious pain and was grabbing at his ankle. The medical staff was already seen making their way towards him and the Ducks pulled back to give them room. She could overhear them talking and from the sound of it Les would be missing a few games. Portman and Reed helped him off the ice as Averman made sure not to put any pressure on his leg whatsoever. The only good thing to come out of the incident was the Ducks were now on the power play.

Robertson made Italy pay with injuring one of their better defenseman with another goal while they killed off the penalty. And game one in the first round ended 4-0 in favor of the Ducks. For Julie it was her fourth shut-out so far since arriving in California. She was in top form, she could feel it. The players seemed to rally behind her confidence in the net, with their trust in her abilities they were able to take more risky moves knowing she could stop the puck if they got in trouble.

There was no line-up to shake hands, that wouldn't happen until one of the teams won the series. USA celebrated their win before exiting the ice to talk about the game in the locker room.

"Team I'm really proud of you guys, you all played well," he looked around the room, "I just got word that Averman rolled his ankle and will miss at least a week of play. So that will mean double-shifts for some of you…yes Charlie?"

"What about Goldberg?"

Greg and everyone else eyed each other in question and it was Coach Bombay who stated, "I'm sorry but Julie is staying in net, there's no way I'll pull her while she's hot," some of the jokesters snickered at his choice of words and Gordon rolled his eyes, "you know what I meant."

"I don't mean that coach, we all know Julie should stay in goal. But what if we put Goldberg on defense?"

"You want me to play defense? Me? Greg Goldberg?"

Bombay seemed to consider the idea, "It's not a bad thought Charlie. What do you say Goldberg, think you could handle it?"

"Uh well I don't know. I mean it's been a while since I played a position outside of goalie."

"The rink should be open for the next couple hours before they get ready for the next game. Come on Greg, let's see what you can do without all those pads."

Goldberg's teammates stuck around to see what would happen. A few of their forwards agreed to stay in gear and work with their old friend on the ice. Julie and Connie joined their team on the bench wearing their regular clothes and shoes, watching the progress and making small observations.

Overall he did better than he was giving himself credit for. He had already developed that natural instinct to stop the puck from getting pass him, now he just had to adjust that into skating with the puck and feeding it up to their forwards to continue the play.

Once the impromptu practice ended Adam grabbed Julie and headed out to get a quick bite to eat. Earlier they agreed to stick around for the game between Russia and Germany, both teams were heavy hitters and it should prove to be an exciting match-up. They returned to the arena and found good seats at center ice.

"Sucks to lose Averman."

Adam nodded, "It does. Hopefully Goldberg works out on D."

Julie shrugged, "He should be fine, you know he moved a lot faster without all those goalie pads weighing him down."

Chuckling, Adam had to agree, "Well he did say he felt lighter. I covered up my nose just in case he meant something else."

A giggle rippled through her body and she elbowed him in the side, "Whatever Banks, you probably let one off and tried to blame poor Goldberg."

"What?" his face was serious but he couldn't mask his own amusement, "I claim my own flatulence, thank you very much."

"Good to know," she teased then took a long sip from her water bottle, "now I know you'll never try to accuse me for something you did."

He snorted, "Girls don't do that."

Julie just smiled and agreed, "Nope."

The two foreign teams hit the ice and they watched them warm-up as more people started to crowd in around them. Before the puck was dropped for the first face-off Adam and Julie found themselves sitting in the middle of a screaming match. Only problem was that the two guys were screaming in their native language so they didn't understand what the fuss was all about. It still made things a little uncomfortable though, or at least until security escorted the angry men out of there.

The game was evenly matched for the first period and then Russia turned up the heat for the rest of the game and downright dominated Germany. No one was surprised at the level of physicality, the hitting was non-stop.

"Well, it looked to me like Russia is better conditioned," Adam pointed out as they made their way through the arena.

"Yeah, and their forwards displayed some sick moves. Any goalie would have had problems keeping up with them."

"Even you?" he ribbed her, "I know what you mean Julie, remember our game against them in the trials? How we managed the win I'm not sure but I know you had a lot to do with it."

They soon reached the hotel and found Gunnar and Olaf in the lobby. Gunnar motioned for them to join and wrapped an arm around Julie when she sat beside him. They had been speaking in Icelandic before they interrupted but it seemed they were joking with each other over one thing or another.

Adam filled them in on losing Averman; they were all past the point of hesitating to share information. So the Vikings knew about Averman's hurt ankle just like the Duck's knew that Amssalik was skating on a swollen knee. When Banks told his friends about Goldberg possibly moving to the blue line both Gunnar and Olaf's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Julie just shrugged and reminded them that they were the Ducks and anything was possible.

It was at that point that Portman was seen glaring at them as he walked through the lobby and towards the elevator with Coach Bombay at his side. Gunnar held the enforcer's gaze the whole time, meeting the unspoken challenge without reservation. Julie sighed and put her head in her hands, it tore at her knowing that her teammate despised her just because of who she was seeing. Gunnar seemed to sense her inner anguish and suggested they all go swimming to relax for the night.

Connie was in their room and accepted the offer to go with Julie and the others. A few guys from team Italy were there and laughed to themselves when they noticed the members from USA. Julie raised a brow in their direction, she wouldn't find it funny to lose to a team 4-0, but simply shrugged it off and removed the teal shirt she put on over her suit before pulling down her jeans.

She smiled as Gunnar turned her around and pulled her into his chest, "Blue is a good color on you, brings out your eyes."

"You just like it because it shows so much skin," she flirted.

"Something like that," came his answering grin and watched her walk in front of him and slowly descend the steps that led her into the pool. His observant eyes followed the curves of her body as her figure and long blonde hair disappeared beneath the water's surface. Julie was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen and his feelings were deep enough to know he loved her. He thought about how she would react if he told her, they were young, but he knew what he felt even though it seemed rather indescribable.

Luckily the boys from Italy made themselves scarce when they recognized Gunnar Stahl and Olaf Sanderson from team Iceland. It was pretty much known that the two wouldn't back down from anyone, and considering their size they were more than intimidating. Connie, Adam, and Olaf were chilling out in the shallow part talking quietly while Gunnar followed the form of his girlfriend as she swam to the deeper end.

When she broke the surface near the opposite side of the pool from him he quickly dove in and went straight for her. He felt her laugh as he let his head bump into her stomach before coming up for air. She had such a beautiful smile, that dimple is what did him in. He tickled the outside of her thigh and widened his eyes when he felt her legs go around his waist. In a quick reaction to hold them up he held onto the edge of the pool, trapping Julie with his arms locked on either side of her. Gunnar saw the change in her gaze and knew she was feeling the same. Slowly her feet crossed and his body was pressed firmly against her. The new sensation ripped through him and he immediately brought his mouth down on hers.

Julie gasped into his kiss, she was tingling all over from the way he was pressed so dangerously and intimately against her. This was definitely new territory but with his mouth on her and his body so, so close she lost control. He pulled away in shock when he felt her nails drag across his back. She really was like a little kitten pawing at him, he loved it. His illuminated eyes stared into her mesmerizing blue gaze and felt pulled in as his lips took hers with more urgency. One of his hands dropped from the edge and caressed her thigh, slowly feeling his way over her hip and up her side to rest just beneath the underside of her breast only to follow the trail back down to her hip. Julie shuddered against him and he pressed harder against her in response.

"Gunnar," she moaned out his name as her head leaned back.

His lips traveled down her jaw-line to her throat and back again, "We need to stop, tell me to stop Julie."

The huskiness of his voice did nothing to cool her shattered nerves. She took a few calming breaths before speaking, "Then just hold me for a second, please."

He did as she asked and wrapped both arms around her shoulder and felt her hold onto his waist tightly. And in steady slow breaths they calmed their wildly beating hearts and tamed their raging teenaged hormones. Gunnar could see the embarrassed flush on her cheeks and felt his own face burn in response. That was a little to hot to be comfortable but there were no regrets and both would savor this time together while they could.

After all, one does not simply forget their first love.