Chapter 4 – Reach for the Stars

News of Gordon Bombay changing the lives of the District Five team spread quickly. They were now called the Ducks, or as Gordon dubbed them, "Mighty Ducks." When they made the playoffs, Gordon came over for dinner with his driver, Lewis, who acted as the kids' assistant coach. Hans was also in attendance as Bella plated up her famous hotdish (it was famous because she didn't use canned crap; she made her own bechamel sauce with fresh mushrooms and fresh green beans, and she used real potatoes instead of tater tots). Whenever someone got a taste of her homemade hotdish, they said they'd never want to eat anything else.

Gordon looked happier than Ted had ever seen him before. He looked sober in more ways than one – now that he was no longer drinking into oblivion, he looked healthier, and he even seemed to warm to Lucy even more. Those kids were making him soft. He didn't need a sip of alcohol to get drunk anymore. He got drunk off just living life and coaching the kids. They brought him joy. And when Gordon revealed he'd quit his job at the law firm, Ted and Bella were in shock to learn that not only he'd quit but also quacked at Ducksworth on the way out. It was so ludicrous to Ted that he nearly laughed, but looking at Gordon, he saw his friend was completely serious. Ted still found it hard to believe that Gordon decided to stop working as a lawyer and that he quacked off Ducksworth.

Sitting around the dinner table, they toasted with glasses of soda before eating, and Gordon turned to Ted, starting a conversation.

"Ted, I need a favor," he said.

"Anything," Ted said immediately – when he told Gordon two months ago that he would continue being there, he meant it. He never once wavered on his offer. After Gordon decided to grow a pair and let those kids into his life, he started letting Ted in a little more, though he respected Ted's request for privacy as far as his personal life went; Ted didn't answer any questions to the press about the car crash, and when people asked him about what he'd do if the North Stars ended up moving, he gave them the same answer every time.

"There's more to life than hockey."

Not many knew about his family life. The only ones who knew were Modano, Vargas, McRae, and the coaches, and he appreciated their secrecy. He wouldn't be able to bear it if the public learned what happened to his family almost a year ago. He hated pity, always had; he found it easier to grin it and bear it because there was little use in complaining about it.

"As you know, my kids made the playoffs," Gordon said. Ted caught how Gordon said the words, "My kids." If Ted weren't mistaken, Gordon sounded like a proud dad, and he nearly laughed. Gordon Bombay, who claimed for years that he hated kids, was now coaching Peewee and liking it and growing to love children. Ted never thought he'd see the day.

"I wanna do something to surprise them," Gordon continued. "Do you have any spare seats for the next North Stars home game?"

"I can pull some strings," Ted said. "You wanna take the whole team with you?"

"Yes, because these kids deserve it. They've been working really hard; I'm surprised they made the playoffs at all."

"I'm not." Ted shook his head. "I've been reading about it in the papers. You're doing something right with them if they bring home wins and ties. You even got Adam Banks on the team; how'd you manage that?"

"I found out he lives within the District Five lines," Gordon said. "Granted, his dad tried putting up a fight over it by roping in Ducksworth. But I took care of that."

"Is that why you quit?"

"Truthfully? Yes. Another part of it was because I started this team, I gave them the name 'Ducks,' so I'm stuck with them." However, based on how Gordon said that Ted suspected something else compelled him to stick with the team and fight for Banks to be on the right team.

"Let me guess. One of those kids is growing close to you?" Bella asked as she ate.

"Yeah," Gordon admitted.

"Which one?" asked Ted.

"I won't say. All I'll say is, he's really something special."

"Well, cheers to the Ducks making it to the playoffs," Bella said, raising her glass. "And to the new state champions."

"We don't even know if we qualify for the state yet, Bella," Gordon protested.

"I disagree," Bella insisted, smiling. "They keep playing the way they're playing now; they're going all the way."

"To the Ducks!" Hans chirped.

"Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack . . .!"

As Ted skated along the ice of the Met Center, he heard a chorus of surprised whispers, followed by Bombay saying, "It's a little play-offs present."

Ted grinned, turning in his friend's direction as the coach called an end to the practice. Ted, along with Basil, Mike, and Hal, skated off toward the locker room, but Ted stopped to wink Gordon, who stood there with the Ducks while Modano and McRae hung back to chat it up with the kids, all of whom were shocked that their coach was friends with players from the North Stars. The looks on their faces were priceless.

Ted worked out a deal to get the kids the game tickets and convinced the coaches to let the Ducks have some leisure time on the ice and skate around before the game started. Judging from the looks on the kids' faces, Ted knew that this was the very first hockey game they'd ever attended. It made him and the rest of the team want to win for them even more, so the kids didn't go home disappointed that the North Stars didn't take home a win.

From where he hung back with Hal, he could overhear McRae talking up Gordon's reputation to the kids, explaining how he and Gordon went to the same high school and how, when Gordon was younger, he was said to rule in Peewees.

"Hey, Ducks," McRae said to the kids, "listen to this guy; he knows what he's talking about. Hey, if you want, I can get you a try-out in the minor league clubs."

Hal shot Ted an incredulous look. "Really? A try-out with the minors? Most people who try out for that are kids way younger than him."

Ted shook his head at Hal. "I think he's still got it. Don't underestimate the older generation, Vargas. Without us, you wouldn't be here. Besides, you came to us later, too. So who are you to judge?"

Hal shrugged. "I suppose that's true," he said as Modano and McRae approached them just as Gordon announced to the kids that it was time for them to have some fun.

"Are you sure it's a good idea? Having that guy try out for the minors?" asked Hal to Basil. "He'll be a grandpa to a bunch of kids half his age."

"If he's still got it, he should be given the shot," said Basil.

"But I thought he hated hockey."

"He doesn't hate it," Ted argued. "It just got ruined for him by one rotten apple. And you know who I'm talking about, Vargas. The same guy coached you."

Hal pulled a disgusted look. "Reilly."

"Who's Reilly?" Modano asked.

"You don't wanna know him," Hal shuddered as Ted glanced over his shoulder, already seeing the kids getting their ice skates on to take advantage of the empty arena.

Ted and Bella gripped the edges of their seats bracingly. The championship game had been a nail-biter, with Adam Banks scoring the first goal for the Ducks, only for McGill to send him colliding into the goalpost, meaning the kid had to leave the arena to go to the hospital. Ted caught a glimpse of Phillip Banks's face – even though the man had been sitting in the Hawks' stands, he'd looked positively horrified over what happened to his child.

But the game went on from there. Only for it to end in a tie that would have to be broken by a penalty shot, all thanks to one of the Hawks tripping the Conway boy. And Ted watched, biting his lip as Gordon selected Conway to take the shot.

He could almost see a mirror of Gordon going up to take his penalty shot to break their tie – if you replaced Gordon with Reilly and Conway with Bombay, you'd see Reilly telling Bombay that if he blew the shot, he'd be a failure, a loser who let not only his dad down but his whole team down, too. Except, when Ted blinked, he saw a softened look on Gordon's face as he talked to Conway, and Ted could only imagine Gordon was telling this boy the opposite of what he'd been told years ago. And the little smile on Conway's face said it all – the boy believed in himself that he could do it.

Until then, Ted had never learned the boy's first name but heard the entire team chanting, "Charlie! Charlie! Charlie! Charlie!" And he wouldn't lie – he also started cheering the kid's name.

He watched as Charlie Conway skated circularly, and he proceeded to do the triple deke – Gordon's signature move. Ted could only hold his breath. This was the move that sent him and Gordon home losers in the state championship. Why Gordon would have Conway do this move under pressure . . .

But Ted watched closely; months ago, he could've sworn Conway was him – the one no one believed in, the scrawny little kid everyone teased because he couldn't skate or hold his stick without it slipping right from his fingertips. Now, Ted decided Charlie Conway looked like Gordon. Or maybe the boy was some strange concoction of the two of them together.

Ted gripped Bella's hand tightly as Charlie neared the post . . . the boy took his shot . . .

He scored!

Ted could only gasp in shock. His jaw fell open as his eyes grew wide. Bella was just as speechless as he was. He could only sit in the stands, watching everyone swarm onto the ice to celebrate. He was glued to his seat, watching Charlie and Gordon tightly hug. He noticed Moreau and Germaine sharing a victory kiss. But what stood out to him was Gordon kissing a honey-blonde woman, his arms wrapped around her tightly, and nobody else seemed to notice this at all. Only Ted and Bella noticed.

Something else Ted noticed was the look on Reilly's face; the man was pissed. Somehow, that compelled Ted to get up from where he sat and walk over to Reilly, feeling a fire light up as his steps grew heavier on the metallic ground underneath him, his hands fisted at his sides as he stepped down from the stands and walked out onto the ice, right up to Reilly.

Reilly had to take a moment to register who stood before him. "Teddy? Teddy Orion?"

"It's Ted now, Jack," Ted whispered, crossing his arms over his chest. "And yeah." He gestured with his head toward Gordon. "That loser who cost you the 'W' years ago beat you. Payback's a bitch, isn't it?" With that, he walked away, smirking as he returned to his wife, who looked at him in curiosity.

"What'd you say to him?" she asked.

"Just gave him a friendly reminder that Gordon beat him fair and square," Ted said, caressing her red hair back.

"Do you wanna go down there and celebrate?"

"No, but I've got another idea in mind." Ted fished out his credit card and walked off to the concession stand, telling the cashier, "I need fifteen bags of cotton candy, fifteen bags of popcorn, fifteen candy bars, fifteen bags of potato chips, and fifteen bags of sour gummy worms. Oh, and fifteen Cokes, too; can you bag all that for me?"

The kids need not know that it had been Ted who'd bought out half the concession stand for them so they could have an afterparty in the locker room. But he'd left a note behind on a piece of torn paper towel, which said: Congrats, Ducks. He knew Gordon, though, would be able to recognize his handwriting after all these years.

I added in the detail of Ted being there watching the Peewees state championship because, as I said in the previous chapter, I felt that he had to have always been seeing them play in some capacity, and for Gordon to give the kids North Stars tickets as the play-offs present, he had to have some inside connections to get that many tickets for all those kids.

Next chapter will be Ted learning that the North Stars will be moving to Texas and that now, he needs to make a choice about what it is he'll do.