After they defeated the Varsity in that exhibition match, she still dealt with the sexist comments from Rick Riley and Bradley Cole and their stupid friends. But she denied Guy's insistence on defending her.
"I don't need a knight in shining armor!" she'd snapped one day when Guy angrily told Riley off for shoving her into a locker. "I'm not made of porcelain, you know!"
OR:
Connie gets severely injured during a Ducks away game and reflects on how she feels like the weaker sex; Coach Orion visits her in the hospital and gives her a pep talk.
Weak
For years, Connie was used to being the only girl. Back when they were eleven years old, she'd tower over all the boys and send them toppling over. Naturally, the boys were all overprotective of her. She still remembered how Guy shoved Peter for shoving her after she shoved Karp for harassing Charlie. But she didn't need a hero. She didn't need anyone trying to protect her. She'd made that abundantly clear to Dwayne after he ever-so-chivalrously lassoed that Iceland player for nearly colliding her into the boards when the puck was against the wall. She'd said, "Thank you, Dwayne. But I'm no lady. I'm a Duck!" And she'd elbowed Sanderson and knocked him to the ice just to prove her point.
But when they entered Eden Hall Academy, the scrutiny toward her gender became even more apparent. Of course, she dealt with the sneers from Varsity mocking her for "doing a man's job" and calling her "white trash." She could take that. She could take just about anything, having been taught by her dad and brothers to "chin up" and never complain – she'd dealt with plenty of mocking from Fabian and Royce over the years and them teasing her and her sisters, Claire and Sadie; that taught her from an early age to never let boys see her cry, to toughen up and build up her defenses. It was why it took her forever to ask Guy out – she wouldn't be able to bear it if Guy laughed at her for asking him out.
After they defeated the Varsity in that exhibition match, she still dealt with the sexist comments from Rick Riley and Bradley Cole and their stupid friends. But she denied Guy's insistence on defending her.
"I don't need a knight in shining armor!" she'd snapped one day when Guy angrily told Riley off for shoving her into a locker. "I'm not made of porcelain, you know!"
That had been their first fight since they'd gotten back together. And she felt guilty for yelling at him when all he was doing was what he'd been doing since they were little. He did the same thing for Julie and all the other Ducks, too. They all looked out for each other.
She especially regretted that during one of their away games.
It was after they crushed Varsity in the J.V.-Varsity showdown. They were playing a game against the Arrowhead Academy Olympians in Arrowhead's home arena; these guys were bigger and meaner than the Varsity team at Eden Hall was, the enforcers were larger than Portman, and there were absolutely no girls at all, whatsoever. To top it all off, these guys kept getting their shots in past Julie – if they could score against the Cat, they were screwed indefinitely.
The Ducks were at zero, the Olympians were five above them, and they were only halfway through the first period. Connie gritted her teeth. She wanted to be out there!
"LINE CHANGE!" Coach Orion shouted, and her heart leaped. "MOREAU, MENDOZA, ROBERTSON, CHANGE IT!"
"Connie!" Charlie panted as he skated over, along with Adam and Guy. "Be careful! They'll be gunning for you."
"Don't worry about me! I'll be fine!" She rolled her eyes, leaping over the guardrail and taking her spot at center ice, facing off against the captain of the Olympians, who sneered at her in disgust.
"Scared, bitch?" he whispered.
"You wish!" Connie growled at him as the puck was dropped. She fought for it, winning the face-off and skating underneath the center's arm before he could hook it around her. She dodged the enforcers and passed the puck off to Dwayne, knowing he could keep hold of the puck at least until she or Luis got to the net. She watched the puck keenly as Dwayne volleyed it back and forth, hugging it close and inching nearer to the post. She was open, and she signaled for Dwayne to pass it. He obliged, and she caught his pass, slipping in and getting the puck into the net.
"Robertson slides the puck over to Moreau. Moreau shoots, and SHE SCORES! FIRST GOAL FOR THE DUCKS FROM CONNIE 'THE VELVET HAMMER' MOREAU!"
"YEAH! WAY TO GO CONNIE!" Dwayne and Luis patted her on the back before they skated back to their positions, but Connie was so caught up in the celebration that she didn't notice both of the enforcers rushing her.
"MOREAU! WATCH YOUR BACK!" Coach Orion roared, but it was too late. The enforcers slammed her hard into the boards, her back impacting with the glass as one of them punched her in the gut, and the other followed with wailing his stick right at her abdomen. She knew she'd have bruises for days after a hit like that. But as she collapsed to the ice, a sharp, shooting pain went up her abdomen as she let out a gasp, her head suddenly feeling very dizzy as she sank down, curling in on herself and feeling like she was about to pass out. Tears stung in her eyes as she felt overwhelmingly nauseous, and to make matters worse, she felt like she couldn't get up.
Her head hit the ice, and she moaned, whimpering as she fought not to cry. Her stomach hurt so bad. The pain was impossible to ignore, and she felt like she needed to throw up, but she couldn't. Whenever she opened her eyes, the world spun.
"REF! CALL SOMETHING DAMMIT! SHE'S A GIRL!" she heard Coach Orion yelling from the bench, and she clenched her teeth. Even Orion saw her differently! Did he think she was weak and incapable? But then again, the pain searing through her made her feel like her stomach was on fire.
She could see her teammates crowding near her, and she heard Coach saying, "Guys, back away. Give her some room." She felt him kneel next to her, and she weakly opened her eyes, seeing concern reflected in Coach Orion's gaze as he got her helmet off, his hand brushing her forehead, but she couldn't feel that because her whole face felt numb with cold as her breathing grew rapid with panic.
"Moreau, look at me." Coach flashed a penlight into her eyes to check for a concussion, and she shook her head. Sighing, he said, "Tell me what you're feeling right now."
Connie couldn't bring herself to speak. She was afraid that if she opened her mouth, she'd throw up. She just clutched her stomach, biting on her lower lip.
"Can you sit up?"
She shook her head and heard Orion talking to one of the trainers. "Go get some Gatorade. We've gotta get fluids in her."
Soon, her head was being propped up enough for her to drink some Gatorade without choking on it, but her stomach hurt so bad that she couldn't bring herself to swallow it and ended up spitting it up, moaning. The noises from her were like ones of a wounded animal as she panicked even more, her breathing coming out in pants as Orion maneuvered her to sit against the boards. He placed his hand on her forehead as if to feel her temperature.
"She's in shock. We've gotta get her off the ice and call for an ambulance. Portman, help me get her up."
Portman nodded, and he and Coach got on either side of her, gently coaxing her to her feet. Even that movement made her nauseous as her breathing grew heavier, and she audibly began moaning and gasping at the same time as something crawled up her throat.
"She's gonna be sick," she heard Russ saying worriedly as Orion and Portman got her to the bench; Guy had already pulled the garbage can over, and she hurriedly leaned over it, gagging and coughing as she promptly got sick. It burned going up her throat; it tasted awful, it felt awful, and she felt overwhelmingly cold and hot at the same time as she gripped the trashcan, and the pain in her abdomen just wouldn't go away. She couldn't focus on anything else but the pain she was in. It consumed every moment, every second as she retched.
"Easy, Connie," she heard Guy whispering as he patted her shoulder.
"Averman, get in there and substitute for her," she heard Coach Orion demanding as someone – probably the trainer or the umpire – called 9-1-1. She retched again, shivering and shaking as her knees threatened to collapse underneath her; her limbs felt like jelly as her knees gave out, and she fell just as Guy caught her, holding her tightly and helping her sit down, with Charlie and Goldberg standing behind her in case she toppled backward. She heard Orion speaking worriedly to the trainer.
"She needs a hospital. This sort of thing could affect her menstrual cycle if we don't take care of it."
"An ambulance is on the way. And the ref called for those defensemen to get thrown out for the rest of the game; they'll probably be suspended from playing for at least a month or two."
Coach nodded, kneeling in front of her and seizing her water bottle. "Sip some water. Slowly," he ordered, thrusting it toward her and having her sip the water from the straw. The water washed away the taste of vomit from her throat, but her stomach flared and cramped uneasily at the feeling of anything being in it. Finally, they heard the sirens, and she saw paramedics coming over with a stretcher as Coach and Guy got her lying down on her side, with Guy rubbing her stomach and Orion explaining to them what happened.
"We'll take her to the hospital for an ultrasound," one of the medics said as they rolled her onto the stretcher slowly, strapping her in and throwing a shock blanket over her.
"We'll see you soon enough," Coach said. "Hang in there, Moreau. You'll be okay."
After the ultrasound was done, the doctors declared that she'd had an ovarian cyst, which had burst open – they were presuming it had happened after the enforcer hit her in the stomach with his hockey stick combined with the physical strain of being out there; she'd been in the starting line-up and kept going on and off the ice. They'd asked her about her history, and she said that she'd had ovarian cysts in the past and that she had a family history of endometriosis (her mother and older sister had it). After giving her pain medicine to manage the worst of it, the doctors declared that she should stay in the hospital overnight for observation and that they were calling her mother to come and get her in the morning.
As she lay there in the bed, she felt that sudden inadequacy return. She knew she'd never be the boys' equal; it was impossible. And this injury proved that she was weaker than them if she couldn't even take a hockey stick being whacked against her abdomen. She suddenly felt the need to apologize to Guy for all those times she'd yelled at him for sticking up for her – he was just following his natural, masculine tendencies; it wasn't that he lacked respect for her or thought her to be incapable; he just naturally wanted to protect her as he'd always done.
She asked the doctors to turn on the radio so she could listen to the game. When she heard the Ducks lost to the Olympians, she buried her face into her hands. Coach Orion was no doubt going to make them practice early tomorrow, and she felt partially responsible for it – if only she'd watched herself out there . . .
She heard a knock at her door and lifted her head from her hands, seeing Coach walking in bearing a huge bouquet of roses, along with a card.
"On behalf of the Ducks," he announced casually, setting the flowers on the bedside table and taking a seat next to her.
"Thanks. But we really lost that one." She wiped her eyes, but Coach Orion just smiled at her gently.
"Don't worry about it," he insisted. "You got the first goal in for us. And they were a tough team. You did well, considering the circumstances."
"Will there be practice tomorrow?" she asked him.
"There will be, but I spoke to your doctor. He said you shouldn't do anything strenuous for a few days. So, do not come to practice tomorrow morning. You need bed rest and relaxation."
"I can practice if I want to!" Connie snapped indignantly. While she knew it was unrealistic and that the doctor ordered her to rest and take it easy, she couldn't stop the part of her that wanted so badly to go back out onto the ice, especially if they needed to practice at the brink of dawn tomorrow since they lost this game.
"Not on my watch, you aren't," disagreed Coach Orion. "Even Conway thinks that'll be a bad idea. Don't push yourself. Because that's what started this mess in the first place."
Connie groaned, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms over her chest. Coach Orion just stared back at her with that stern expression on his face.
"Sorry," she said. "I'm just tired of being made to feel like the weaker sex."
"You do realize that the boys can't help wanting to protect you, right?" Coach asked her. "They can't help it. It's natural that that's what they want to do. Men naturally want to protect women. You can't stop them from feeling the way that they do."
"I know that!" Connie said, exasperated, as more tears filled her eyes. "But I'm not incapable of playing, either!"
"Nobody's saying that," Orion argued. "Who told you that?"
"Almost everybody. Varsity. The Hawks. The Vikings. That Olympian captain."
"What did he say to you?"
"He called me a bitch and asked me if I was scared."
She watched as Orion's face darkened considerably, his blue eyes seeming to turn navy, and she knew it was taking him everything not to show her how pissed off he was at somebody talking to her like that. His jaw seemed to turn to stone, rigid, and she could see the veins popping in his neck. But when he spoke next, his voice was calm; she knew that he was fighting to hold onto every ounce of self-control so that he would not start yelling.
"Then he's a moron," Orion said; she could hear the tremor of his breathing as it came out in puffs, his nostrils flared widely, yet he didn't raise his voice, because his anger wasn't directed toward her, it was toward the sexist pig who made such a comment against one of his kids. "I watched your tapes. I saw what you could do. One of the first tapes Gordon had me watch was one of you in Peewees. You were the better skater than all those boys, even in that game against the Hawks."
"Don't remind me of that. That day was an embarrassment," Connie groaned.
"But you've gotten better. And besides, after this is all over, you can go into the women's division in college, maybe even go onto the Olympics for women's hockey. You never know what the future holds. So, you shouldn't let a couple of sexist Neanderthals' comments get to you. You're worth a hell of a lot more, Moreau. And if you want someone else's opinion, ask my daughter. Lucy won't stop talking about you and Julie; she's obsessed that girls are on the J.V. team. You're paving the way for something great, and you can make a difference."
Connie could only stare back at him when he said that. A different kind of burning filled her as she absorbed what he said. After being insulted all night by the Arrowhead Academy Olympians and being sent to the hospital, somehow, what Orion said was just the sort of thing she'd needed to hear.
"You think so?" she asked.
"I don't think. I know." Orion winked at her comfortingly, giving her a knowing smile.
"Thanks, Coach."