The Ducks throw a surprise party for Ted's son's first birthday.

Duckling's First Birthday

"Charlie, are you sure Coach won't mind us doing this?" Julie asked as she brought the last of the balloons into the locker room.

"Look, once he and the kids see this, they won't care that we did this," Charlie, their Varsity captain, insisted. "You remember how all-out we went for Bella's baby shower last year; we've got to make sure that this tops it."

"But we're supposed to be getting ready for practice," pointed out Scooter. "And you know how Orion gets if we're not ready on time."

"And a kid only turns a year old once," said Charlie.

The others nodded. Ever since their coach's son, Teddy Hans Orion, had been born a year ago, Charlie had taken his role as an honorary "godparent" seriously, even though he technically wasn't the godfather. Ted had entrusted him with babysitting the kids while he and his wife had date nights, and when Charlie remembered that Teddy's first birthday was around the corner, he'd decided to go out on a limb and do something and enlisted the other Ducks' help, or at least the ones who were willing to help – that included last year's J.V. roster and Scooter. The ones who weren't were from the previous year's roster, not at all happy that a bunch of scholarship kids got bumped up to Varsity in sophomore year. But Charlie wasn't about to waste time worrying about them when this was far more important.

So, Charlie put his plan into action. He got Julie and Goldberg to bake the birthday cake and had the others buy decorations and gifts, telling them Teddy had an obsession with the Mighty Ducks cartoon as of recently – they were still getting used to the fact that they had a Saturday morning cartoon series named after them. But the key was making sure the Varsity locker room got set up before Coach Orion arrived – when Orion told them he would be bringing the kids to this practice, Charlie leaped at the chance to go all out for the littlest honorary flock member's first birthday.

Their relationship with Orion drastically improved, particularly Charlie's. A year or so ago, Charlie's relationship with Orion had been sour. But after he saw Orion with Lucy, he suddenly learned what drove Orion so hard and why he pushed them all to be better than their best, and he also learned that Orion's wife was pregnant with a baby boy; Charlie had been the one to hold Teddy the day he was born, had given the little guy his very first stuffed animal in the hospital, and swore that he and all the other Ducks would spoil Teddy rotten. That included giving him nothing but the best for every birthday; none of the Ducks wanted one birthday to go by where Teddy wasn't absolutely spoiled with the best, as he now had a whole flock of "uncles" and "aunts." It hadn't been Orion's intention to grow close with any of them. But somehow, after they beat the Varsity team last year, Orion had become more than a coach; he'd become a friend, and his kids became like family to the Ducks.

Adam, the newly minted alternate, worked with Julie and Scooter to make sure the cake was positioned perfectly on the bench while Connie, Guy, and Russ taped the balloons, birthday banners, and other décor to the lockers. Averman and Fulton carried in some of the presents they'd all collectively bought, a lot of which were some stuffed bears, baby books, a few toddler toys, and clothes for Teddy; Charlie helped with babysitting so much that he knew Teddy's size for the clothes he wore by heart, and was aware of all the toys the little guy had and what he didn't have.

He watched critically as Averman positioned the presents on the bench. Portman, Ken, Dwayne, and Luis's only job was to distract Ted and the kids long enough until everything was set up in the locker room. Charlie told them specifically to give them exactly twenty minutes – if things went smoothly, they shouldn't take more than twenty minutes to set up Teddy's impromptu birthday party.

"I think the kid is gonna freak when he sees all this," grinned Fulton as he took in the pile of toys and clothing that were positioned on the benches near the cake, which Teddy would be more than thrilled to smash. Adam, who was surprisingly good at drawing, had done the custom work on the icing to make it have the logo of the Ducks on it.

"Tell me about it," Connie said. "I just hope Coach will be all right with this."

"Trust me, Connie, when he and the kids see this, he won't care," Charlie grinned. "All Teddy's gonna care about is smashing that cake."

"But then you know he's gonna make us clean up this locker room afterward," pointed out Scooter, and they all collectively envisioned the icing on the cake going everywhere and knowing Coach Orion's expectations that they clear out the locker room in fifteen minutes after each practice . . . yeah, maybe Charlie didn't think that part through entirely. They shuddered at how much work it would take to scrub the locker room free of blue icing.

"It'll be well worth it," insisted Goldberg proudly, examining the hard work he, Julie, and Adam had put into the cake – they'd all learned quickly that Teddy's favorite cake flavor was chocolate cake; the kid had a bigger sweet tooth than anyone they knew.

Hearing Goldberg say that made them decide that it would be well worth it because if it brought a smile to little Teddy's face and the kid had a memorable first birthday party, then Orion would have absolutely nothing to be unhappy with them over.

They heard their coach and the kids entering the rink outside the locker room. "It's time," Connie whispered excitedly.

"Guys, I don't know what you all think you're doing, but you better get changed right now, or it's an extra twenty laps for you all!" they heard their coach threatening as the others led him and the kids toward the locker room.

"What makes you think we're doing something, Coach?" asked Portman.

"Portman, don't try to lie. Now, you all better quit blocking my way; get in there and get dressed right now."

"Sure thing, Coach," Luis said, and they all listened tensely as the door to the locker room opened and Ted stepped inside, followed closely by his daughter and son; Lucy rolled in on her wheelchair, and Teddy was holding his daddy's hand in his little fingers. But they stopped dead in their tracks once they saw what awaited them in the locker room.

Teddy saw the pile of toys and other presents on the bench, along with the cake, and he let out a loud squeal, his little face breaking out into a wide grin as he ripped his hand away from his daddy's and ran across the locker room toward Charlie, who knelt down in time to catch him in a big hug.

"Hey, happy birthday, buddy!" Charlie exclaimed, releasing the toddler and mussing up his strawberry-blond hair. The little guy started giggling before he waddled his way over toward the cake, crying out the word "Duck!" as he pointed at the Mighty Ducks logo and clapped his hands together.

"Yeah, that's right, that's the Ducks logo!" Connie said, kneeling down beside him and pointing it out.

"Teddy, what do you say?" Ted reminded his son once he'd gotten over his shock, a smile stretching onto his face as he watched Teddy waste no time diving for the birthday cake.

"Thank you!" Teddy said, and before any of them had time to sing him "Happy Birthday," the kid's hands smashed down onto the cake, blue icing smearing onto his little fingers as he turned the cake into a mini mountain of mush before he stuffed it into his mouth, his face looking like a Smurf's as he smeared icing and little crumbs of chocolate cake all over himself. The kid devoured his homemade birthday cake, managing to eat at least half of it before handing off chunks of it to his sister, licking his fingers.

Coach stood there, watching his son smash the cake even further before turning to the others, still feeling shocked and awed that they'd done all this. "Did you kids do all this yourselves?" He sounded breathless, especially as he watched Teddy try to go for some of his birthday presents, though Connie and Guy stopped him before he could, wiping his fingers and face with baby wipes so that he didn't get frosting on his toys.

"Yeah, surprise, Coach," grinned Goldberg.

"It was all Charlie's idea," said Julie. "He insisted Greg and I make the cake."

"And we pooled our allowances to get all the other stuff for him," added Averman, pointing to the pile of gifts that Teddy began to open once his hands were clean and free of icing. Teddy squealed even louder at the sight of a stuffed teddy bear, a stuffed duck, a rubber ducky, a Fisher Price toy hockey stick, blocks, books, a foam football, a soccer ball, baby shampoo, and a toy goaltender's hockey net, as well as a pair of toddler ice skates from the skate shop. His little face so lit up was contagious, and Charlie had been right: it was well worth seeing the little guy so happy for his first birthday.

"Some of it I sewed in home Ec., though," said Connie, grabbing a couple of sweaters, a hat, a scarf, and gloves she'd made for her latest project, showing them to the little boy, who cooed at the softness of the sweater as he touched it. He then reached for his new skates, showing them to his daddy, beaming toothily.

"Dadda!" he said. "Dadda, I wanna . . . I wanna skate."

"You wanna go on the ice?" Ted asked. "You wanna practice with the Ducks today?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Lucy, help your brother get his skates on, all right, sweetie?"

"Yes, Daddy." Lucy rolled over to the bench as Charlie sat Teddy down, helping the boy remove his shoes. Lucy got the boy's skates on his feet before grabbing and placing him on her lap. After Russ finished getting his own skates on, he grabbed the handlebars of Lucy's wheelchair. They led the kids out onto the ice, where Luis picked the toddler up and set him down.

"All right, Teddy, you wanna hold my hand? Or my stick?" Averman asked him, and Teddy grabbed Averman's hand, stumbling and struggling to gain his balance on the ice. Charlie and Julie chuckled as he crashed into the ice, but to his credit, Teddy didn't cry or scream at all as he tried getting back up again, his little limbs shaking underneath him.

"Hey, look at that, Spazzway, he's a mini you," laughed Averman as Teddy slipped and slid around like an ice cube until Coach swooped in, lifting his boy up and balancing him on his hip.

"Shut up, Averman!" Charlie elbowed Averman in the stomach, sending him crashing down, much to Teddy's amusement. He giggled fiercely at Averman, who'd face-planted and glared up at him.

"What? You don't love Uncle Les anymore? What's with that, kid?"

"Sorry, Averman, but we all know who his favorite is," Charlie said cheekily, and to his point, Teddy started reaching his little arms toward the Ducks captain and screaming, "Captain! Captain!"

Charlie looked smug as he skated over, taking the toddler from Coach Orion and setting the little boy on the ice, holding both of Teddy's hands. "Bend your knees, buddy. Just like that."

They spent the entire practice with the kids out on the ice; at one point, Julie had gone and gotten Teddy's toy hockey stick out of the locker room so he could try shooting a puck for the first time. Teddy shrieked in delight when the puck made it in, right under Julie's glove, and he started screaming, "Daddy! Daddy! I did it! I did it!"

"Yeah, you did! I'm so proud of you!" Coach Orion swooped in and grabbed his son, throwing Teddy up and onto his shoulders as the toddler giggled. Everyone watched as Orion transferred his son from his shoulders to his arms, kissing him on the nose and blowing a raspberry into the little guy's neck; they rarely saw this side of him. During practice, Coach Orion was still a hard-ass who pushed them hard and was tough on every single one of them. But whenever they watched him with his children, they saw the layer of tenderness underneath, especially when he was with his son; his face always seemed to melt at the sight of his little boy, who was his wife's twin, all the way from the pink tint to his blond hair to his light green eyes to his cute little freckled face. And they all knew Orion appreciated them doing this for Teddy, making the little guy's first birthday one to remember.

By the time they needed to clear off for the J.V. team to practice, Teddy was worn out, close to falling asleep; it was more activity than he'd ever been used to, yet no one could deny how happy he was as he fell asleep with a big old smile on his face, drooling on Orion's shoulder as they corralled back to the locker room.

"Thank you, you guys," Orion said warmly, the earnestness evident in his tone as he extended his free arm over, and they took turns hugging him. "Thank you all so much. Really, this is more than Teddy expected for his first birthday."

"No problem, Coach," Portman said.

"Yeah, we were happy to do it," added Ken, grinning.

"Well, he loved it," Orion said, grinning, adjusting the toddler on his shoulder and giving him a kiss on the top of the head. "But you all still have to clean up this locker room."

"Yes, Coach," they all chorused, and he stood there, watching as they gathered up all of Teddy's birthday gifts so that they'd be more accessible for Orion to pack up in the car. But as they cleaned up, he watched them with a warm smile on his face, looking softer than they'd seen him in a while, probably because both his kids were there.

"You kids all made me soft," he commented, not hesitating to accept another round of hugs from Fulton, Charlie, Goldberg, and Julie.