Ted Orion never anticipated needing to give his Ducks captain "the talk." But a phone call from Casey Conway to Gordon Bombay led to a call to Ted, who suddenly finds himself needing to have that uncomfortable conversation with his star player.

The Talk

Ted sat behind the desk in his office, the pamphlets he'd picked up from the nurse's office becoming more noticeable the longer they sat there. He didn't know how he got dragged into this, let alone why this fell on him.

He was going to throttle Gordon when he returned for Christmas break to come to see the Ducks.

He could feel his face coloring significantly, growing hotter as he waited for his Varsity captain to arrive. He recounted what Gordon had said over the phone just a few days ago.

"Hello?"

"Ted?" Gordon's voice came through.

"Hey, Bombay, what's up?"

"I need you to do something. I'd do it, but I'm all the way out here in LA, and it's not something that can be done over the phone."

Judging from his old friend's tone, Ted knew it was serious. "What is it?"

"Charlie's mother called me the other day. Uh, apparently, Charlie had gone to a party with Linda, and they ended up having a drink or two. They somehow ended up back at Charlie's apartment and in his bed, and Casey walked in on it." Ted could almost see Bombay's face burning as he struggled to think of what to say.

Ted could feel his own cheeks flaring from a mixture of things. For one, he didn't like the idea of Charlie drinking underage. Of course, and he and Gordon had done it – he couldn't tell Charlie not to do it because that would make him a hypocrite. But he also knew Bombay had become an alcoholic well into their college years, and well after; his DUI arrest hadn't been the first time he'd been drinking while driving with an empty container, just the first time he'd gotten caught, and the last thing Bombay would want was for any of his Ducks – significantly Charlie – to fall down that path. So, naturally, Ted was mad hearing Charlie had been drinking at all. Though he had heard about the party the Ducks got invited to – Scott Holland had thrown it with all of his friends from the senior class, and had invited the Ducks as a peace offering after all the trouble Varsity had put them through with the bullying that took place the beginning of freshman year; or maybe, Holland was trying to get on Julie Gaffney's good side, that by including her friends, he could impress her.

But he was also embarrassed; he did not sign up for hearing that Charlie had brought Linda home after having one too many, and that they ended up in bed together, and that the boy's mother had caught them in a potentially compromised position.

"Well, what the hell do you want me to do about it?" he settled for saying.

"I'd give Charlie 'the talk,' but I'm all the way out here. And Christmas break isn't until another few weeks. Could you . . . um . . .?"

It was nearly too much. Ted felt his head was about to explode just from the sheer suggestion. He felt like a bomb had just gone off in front of him, and all he could see was the aftermath of it. He give Charlie Conway 'the talk?' What the hell was Bombay thinking? It wasn't that Ted didn't care about the kid. It was that he knew Charlie would more than likely get defensive about the whole thing. And he knew what a hot head the kid had – he'd seen the boy angry when Ted came in and put an end to all the things the Ducks did as a means to prepare them for real life and high school-level hockey; Charlie hadn't been willing to adapt at all, and he hadn't been willing to listen to anything. What the hell made Gordon think Charlie would listen to him regarding 'the talk?'

"You've gotta be kidding me, Gordon!" Ted spluttered, nearly choking on his words. "He's your kid; he sees you as a dad; you do it!"

"Oh, you suggest I do it over the phone?"

"Hey, Coach."

Ted jerked his head up, seeing his new Varsity co-captain walking into his office, hair wet from the shower he'd just had. They'd come a long way from Charlie being angry and resentful to him grinning pleasantly in Ted's presence. But that did not make this any easier, knowing he was being put in this position.

He wasn't even sure how to begin. What was he supposed to say? He'd rehearsed it in his head over and over again. Nothing sounded right. And the last thing he wanted was to say something that would irritate the kid.

He decided to try for something more casual. Something that would allow them to ease into the conversation. "How was the party on Saturday?"

Charlie grinned. "It was great. Scooter was pretty cool – at first I thought it was all a set up like the dinner thing from last year. But he surprised me. I was also surprised he told me Linda could come."

"He's a good kid. Always was." Ted swallowed hard around his following few words, knowing this was about to be really awkward and uncomfortable for the both of them. He never anticipated needing to give one of his players the sex talk. But he also knew he and Charlie had been growing a little closer, especially after Charlie had approached him last year about wanting to play two-way hockey. While it hadn't quite been an apology for his bad attitude, it had been a start. And Charlie was starting to trust him like he trusted Bombay. That had to mean something. And if their coach-player relationship was beginning to improve like Ted thought it was, then this should be something he'd be able to handle.

Looking at the kid, he was growing increasingly into his body. In the past year, he'd begun working out a lot more, to where he'd grown harder and leaner. But he also saw the hints of pimples and blackheads, the signs of facial hair shadowing. Charlie wasn't a little boy anymore. He was a man. He'd be sixteen in January, a very significant age when a young man was given more responsibilities. And Ted knew that this talk he was about to have with the boy was the start of ensuring Charlie made the right choices.

Finally, he said, "Sit down."

Charlie looked at him a little confused, but relented, sitting on the sofa in the office. Ted walked around his desk and pulled up a chair across from him. He ran through all the possible questions he'd ask the kid; none sounded anything less embarrassing. But he knew the last thing he wanted was to start it off with something like, I know you've been dating Linda for a while now; has she done anything with you yet? He just knew the kid would react poorly to that.

Sighing, he said, "Look, I heard there was alcohol at that party. And I also heard that you may or may not have gotten a bit carried away with it."

"Who told you?" Instantly, that defensive wall was up, and Ted was taken back to that moody, angsty teenager he met at the beginning of his freshman year.

"Listen, I'm not gonna sit here and tell you I never had a drink when I was your age," Ted said, deciding that he needed to let Charlie know he knew what it was like to be fifteen, that he'd gone to high school and was well-aware of what it was like. "I did it. And I know Bombay did it, except he went further with it than I did, and he eventually got addicted to it; that DUI arrest that landed him in community service coaching the Ducks was the first time he'd gotten caught doing it."

"I know what can happen," Charlie retorted. "I'm not gonna end up like that. It was just one time."

"And sometimes, once is all it takes," Ted replied sternly. "It's bad for you. It's illegal. And it's not something I'd recommend you do, either. Because it could lead to you being compromised in other ways."

"Where are you going with this?"

"Look, I know you and Linda ended up back at your place after the party. And your mom saw it; she called Bombay and well . . ."

"Why are you guys going around talking about me?" Charlie sounded pissed. Not that Ted could blame him. It had been behind his back that Casey ended up calling Gordon, who ended up calling Ted in the first place to discuss this. He saw the boy's cheeks flushing hotly in humiliation.

"Look, don't get mad at me," Ted said quickly, trying to appease the situation. "But there are things that you need to think about if you're going to be physically intimate with any girl. And I know there's peer pressure you kids go through and this idea that being a virgin is something to be embarrassed of because it's uncool. I was young once. I know better than you think. But you need to know that you could get a girl pregnant – that's the first thing."

"Please, stop!"

"No, this is important." Ted looked at him sternly. "You also need to know you shouldn't be intimate with someone like that without protection; if you're too careless with it, there are STDs that you could catch –"

"Okay, I get it!"

"Look, this isn't exactly ideal for me, either. But the fact of the matter is you've gotta be safe, and you can never be too careful about it. I know I say with hockey to not be too careless but not too careful, but this is a case where you need to be careful, and you shouldn't just screw around, and you need to think about not only your safety. But Linda's too. And –"

"STOP!" Charlie buried his face in his hands, shaking his head.

"I just don't want you making any stupid mistakes." Ted felt his own face growing hot as he kept going. "Okay? I remember I threw a graduation party my senior year at Eden Hall; my parents were supposed to be away visiting my grandparents in Iowa; they came home early, and they found the entire senior class in our backyard, empty beer bottles everywhere, their stash of Smirnoff and Kahlua raided, and me lying passed out on the grass with the head cheerleader Bessie Broderick and Bombay hanging upside down from a tree."

"Okay, I do not want to hear about your and Bombay's sex lives. That's gross. You guys are old."

"I'm only thirty-four!" Ted spluttered, his face flushing even deeper; he knew he was as red as he felt. He wondered if Bombay put up with this kind of harassment from the Ducks about his age when he'd been coaching them in Peewees.

"And it won't be long until you're forty. Quit trying to relate to me. I know you guys were young once." Charlie rolled his eyes, getting up from the couch.

"Okay, but listen, I have some pamphlets I got from the nurse's office that I think you should look at."

"Oh, my God, please no!"

"It is just to give you basic information. If you have any questions, you can call Bombay or go to me. Because I also know it's not exactly favorable for a guy your age to talk about this with his mother. Trust me." Ted walked over to his desk and grabbed the pamphlets, extending them toward Charlie, who looked like he'd rather retreat through the office door than take them. "Just take them!"

"No, thanks."

"Take them!" Ted shoved the pamphlets at the boy. "And another thing: when you are the legal age to drink, and you go to a bar, never, and I mean never, drink anything after leaving your seat to use the bathroom; you ask for a new drink because people could slip stuff in it, date rape drugs; you could never be too safe about it because men can be taken advantage of, too."

"Okay, I think I've had enough." Charlie shook his head, his face turning even brighter red in embarrassment.

"I'm just telling you this because I don't want you to throw yourself around like you don't matter. Because you do matter. When you do intimate stuff like this, it changes you, little by little, every time. It should only be used as a way to connect to another person, not just because you feel you've got something to prove or that you want to feel like you're cool. Because it's not worth it. Okay?" Ted softened his tone, looking at Charlie seriously. He reached over and touched the boy's shoulder, hoping he'd gotten his point across.

Charlie sighed, the heat slowly dissipating from his face as he nodded, his shoulders growing less tense as he let down his defensiveness. Finally, he asked. "Anything else?"

"No, that's about all," Ted said.

He watched as a small smile graced the boy's lips, and Ted knew he had reached the kid. "Thanks, Coach."

"All right. Get out of here. I'll see you at practice tomorrow." Ted patted him on the shoulder, smiling gently as he beckoned the boy out of his office.