Based off several scenes from 9-1-1, primarily the episode "In Another Life" where Buck has a coma dream and realizes that "being Buck" is enough.

OR:

Averman always knew he was the least superior Duck, so when he gets the chance to try and impress a girl, he stretches the truth to make himself seem cooler than he really is. During a game, he gets a traumatic brain injury, and he ends up having a dream where everything would've been radically different had he not been part of the District Five team. Orion and Bombay help him find his way home and figure things out.

Just Les

Averman always knew that he was the least cool of all his friends.

He was always the butt of the joke even when he had a point to make. He couldn't keep track of all the times his friends yelled, "Shut up, Averman!" And he was always second to those like Charlie, Adam, Connie, or Guy. He'd thought for sure by the time he reached his sophomore year at Eden Hall that he'd earned his spot, especially when he got promoted to Varsity by Coach Orion, who took over coaching the team. He'd thought that he and Orion had developed a rather respectable relationship, that there was a closeness there, even though Orion was far closer with Charlie.

But he guessed he had underestimated it.

By the time they inched closer to the playoffs, Orion began putting Adam and Charlie in far more over Averman. This was embarrassing because Averman had met a girl in the school's chemistry club whom he was determined to impress. This year, it was his goal to be cool for once. To help accomplish his conquest for coolness, he'd decided to clean up his wardrobe and dress in something more preppy – neck ties, pressed shirts, and khakis. The Ducks teased him about stealing from Banksy's closet.

Of course, he had to embellish quite a bit. He told her that he played for Team USA (true), but the little white lie was that he was one of the people who scored in overtime (a small lie). And he may or may not have had Orion help him out by cooking dinner for him and this girl, just another white lie so that he could pass the meal off as his.

But it did the charm. Penny Hughes was impressed by him, the first girl he'd ever had been romantically interested in any way at all. Plus, he liked to think that the Ducks' uniform was a major aphrodisiac. He finally convinced Penny to go to one of their games. She was an adrenaline junkie; she loved hearing all of Averman's stories, even if almost all of them were exaggerated.

Now was his chance to impress.

He strolled into the locker room that afternoon and changed into his Ducks jersey, and he made it a point to show up early; he saw Orion standing there, waiting for all of them to arrive. When the others showed, Orion cleared his throat.

"Listen, team," he said firmly. "We have a shot at the playoffs here. I really can't express to you all how proud I am of you." He turned his gaze to Charlie. "Conway, you're in our starting lineup. Germaine, Robertson, you're with him."

"But what about me, Coach?" Averman asked, raising his hand.

"What about you, Averman?" Orion asked, narrowing his eyes.

"How come they always get to start? Why can't I do any of the fun stuff?"

"We have to make a statement, Averman. We're up against the Jets; they're just as tough as they were when you were in Peewees, maybe tougher."

Averman shook his head, feeling his cheeks go as red as his hair.

"Where's this coming from?" Orion asked. "Does it have something to do with that girl?"

"Maybe," Averman said. "I need to be out there as one of the starters so that I don't make an idiot of myself. She's gonna be there today."

Orion sighed, looking at him in exasperation. "Les, look, I'm not gonna sacrifice our performance tonight so that you can impress someone who probably isn't even worth it."

At this, Averman felt himself get angry. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. His face went hotter, and his disappointment sank in as he realized not only was Orion refusing to put him in, but was jeopardizing his chances of impressing Penny. Orion knew that Averman always saw himself as less than the others, the useless one, the one whom everyone loved to pick at and value less because all he had to do was make a funny quip and get everyone laughing, but at least they laughed with him and not at him. But this was his chance to not be a joke for once and to get the girl.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked. "You don't like her?"

"I never said that I don't like her," Orion said firmly. "I don't like her for you."

"Don't go commenting on my life and my relationships!" Averman retorted. "Come on! Up until our win against the Varsity last year, you didn't let any of us in on your life! You didn't even introduce us to your wife and daughter until after we beat those goons, and . . .!"

"You're living a lie, kid!" Orion said angrily, cutting Averman off. "You may not see what I see, but you let her manipulate you! You pretend to be something you're not when you're around her. You lie and make up stories to satisfy some adrenaline fetish of hers. What is that?"

"Maybe I wouldn't have to make up stories if you let me take point on something!" Averman said, and he looked around the room, seeing everybody on the team had gone silent, like they were doing their best to stay out of it and not get in the middle of this fight. "Come on! You know I play well as a center! I can start any game just as well as Charlie! Let me play forward! I score tons of goals in practice! Don't you always say we should speak up when we want something?"

"Les, no, that is not the point. I know that you can, but remember what I said last year about how scoring doesn't matter if you can't play defense? And this relationship that you are contemplating starting is fueled by lies. I mean, come on. Just last week, you had me cook dinner for you guys so you could pass it off as your own! She's not in love with you! She's in love with this fantasy version of you," Orion said.

Averman glowered at him and ripped his glasses off; even though he was almost blind without them on, he didn't care. He ripped them off and felt the urgency to burn a hole in Orion's head with laser heat like Superman as he hissed out, "You know, you always favor Banksy and Charlie and kiss their ass because . . ."

"I don't kiss anyone's ass, Averman," Orion said firmly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Then why promote me to Varsity if you never let me do anything?"

"Because I know you worked hard and you earned it, and being on the third line is just as important as being on first or second."

"So, I'm the substitute, is what you're saying. And that's all I'll ever be good for."

"That's not what I'm saying at all," Orion said. "What I'm saying is that I won't let you make up stories just to impress a girl; she's not right for you, because she doesn't actually like you for you!"

"Really? And what's so great about me, the old me?" Averman sneered. "'Cause I really thought that when I made Varsity this year, I wouldn't just be standing there on the bench like a useless pigeon waiting to do stuff! All anyone's ever kept me around for is when they need a laugh, and I am tired of being the one nobody listens to! So, you know what? Go ahead and play the whole game with your golden boys, and I'll just sit there like some useless bird while everyone else gets to play! You don't need me! You never needed me! Why am I even here if I'm not needed? Maybe you all are better off without me!"

"Fix your attitude," Orion said coolly, and it only made Averman madder than ever. "And on that note, I expect to see you here tomorrow morning at five A.M."

"For what?"

"For practice."

"But we haven't even played this game yet!"

"Doesn't matter. Win or lose, I expect you there tomorrow because the way you're acting right now, I could easily ask for you to get demoted to J.V., and don't think I would hesitate to. Now go get dressed. You've got warm-ups soon."

"Robertson, Moreau, change it up," Orion barked. They were late in the third period and heavily outscored. Scooter was holding the Jets off, but the Jets had still scored more and were ahead of them by five goals. "Holland, you're out!"

"Wait, we're going empty net?" demanded Julie.

"We have to score something. So, Averman, you're our extra man," Orion decided.

"Me Coach?" Averman hoped that this wasn't just Orion pitying him.

"Yes, you," Orion said. "Don't question it. You're getting your shot. Just go!"

Averman shook his head and hopped over the guardrail, noticing Penny sitting near Linda Chavez, Charlie's girl. He winked at her as he put his helmet on, and she nodded back at him, smiling and waving flirtatiously. Finally, he was being allowed to show Penny all that he could do, even if he was the extra man and essentially chopped liver.

They lined up at center ice, and he watched as Adam prepared to take the face-off. Orion hadn't lied when he said the Jets were no joke. These Varsity Jets were much bigger than Averman; the enforcers were bigger than Portman, but he couldn't afford to be afraid of a couple of goons when he had a chance to get the girl for once.

But he grew a little too comfortable. Within seconds, the Jets knocked Adam over, and they had to tighten up on defense. Averman instantly shifted into defense mode and began to backcheck so that he could help protect the goalpost, but the Jets advanced forward aggressively and ruthlessly. One of the enforcers didn't hesitate to grab Averman in a headlock, removing his helmet. Suddenly, something loud and metallic clanged as Averman felt his head hit the goalpost sharply.

Dots danced in front of his eyes as lights flashed, and he felt a wave of nausea overwhelm him along with severe dizziness. He didn't hear Orion's shrill whistle or shout for a power play or hear his teammates screaming his name as he sank into the comfort of unconsciousness, his world swirling into the black.

He woke up, but everything felt . . . fuzzy, like he was there but not really there. When he peered up, he saw the doctor standing over him, smiling.

"Hello, welcome back to the world of the living," the doctor said. "You know, you really should be careful when skating. You hit your head pretty hard. But you're lucky the MRI came back clean."

"Well, that's good," he said. "I think."

"It is. Well, your nurse will be in to see you," the doctor said, and he exited; the next person who entered was Bella, Coach Orion's wife. She cast Averman her motherly smile, her green eyes gentle, but as she entered, Averman saw something was missing . . .

Why wasn't Bella wearing her wedding ring?

"Hi, honey! How are you feeling?"

"Um, I feel fine," Averman said. "Um, Bella?"

"Yes, you may call me Bella," Bella said, laughing lightly.

"Why aren't you wearing your ring?"

Bella's green eyes seemed to grow a little cold at that question. "My ring?"

"Your wedding ring?" Averman said. "Aren't you and Orion married?"

"Are you referring to my ex-husband?" Bella raised an eyebrow. "We divorced after he retired from playing pro."

"Why?" Averman asked, shocked. Bella loved Orion, or at least he thought so.

"He tried looking for a job, but nobody was hiring," Bella said. "Hans and Jan offered him a job at the skate shop. But that's not enough to provide the finances for our daughter's recovery."

"So . . . So you left him 'cause he wasn't making money?" Averman blinked, stupefied by such an answer.

"Look, no offense, honey, but it's really none of your business what goes on in my marriage, or lack thereof," Bella said sternly. "Now, you'll be discharged tomorrow and will be going home. So, get some more rest if you want."

"But . . . But what about the Ducks?" Averman asked.

"The what?"

"The Ducks?" Averman repeated. "District Five's team? The new name for Eden Hall's hockey team?"

"What are you talking about? The District Five hockey team got dismantled five years ago. The city gave up funding them because nobody wanted to join the team anymore," Bella said.

"Well, which team does your daughter play for? And . . . And what about Coach Bombay?"

"Gordon Bombay died from a drug overdose almost five years ago," Bella said. "And my daughter plays for the Hawks; they were the only team she was eligible for."

"No . . . No," Averman whispered. "No, something's wrong here. What's happening to me?"

He blinked, feeling something cold wash over him. If he wasn't awake, where the hell was he? He rose from the bed and walked out of the hospital room, blinking several times before he found himself in an unfamiliar room that looked like it should be for physical therapy, but he only felt semi-relieved to see Orion standing there. Orion turned when he entered the room, and he cast him a haunted smile, blue eyes looking dead.

"Hey, Les," he said, and that was when Averman saw what Orion was seeing: Lucy trying to do her physical therapy, trying to walk toward a nurse, but Orion wasn't there to drive her forward, to encourage her.

"What are you doing here?" Averman asked, rubbing his head. "What . . . What's happened to me?"

"Look, son, I can't tell you what to do here," Orion said, that dead look still in his eyes. "What I can say is you're not doing so good. I'm just here for the ride. Hopefully, this'll be a ride that I won't ruin this time for you or anyone else."

"You didn't ruin your family's life. That jerk side-swiped you," Averman said, shaking his head.

"Oh, really? Cause I seem to remember that differently. Tell that to my wife . . . or is she my ex-wife?" Orion quirked an eyebrow at him as he leaned a hand on his shoulder and led him out of the room, down the hallway. "It's your dream, Les."

"So, I'm dead?" Averman asked numbly. "I . . . I remember hitting my head . . . and it hurting . . ." A searing pain suddenly smacked into him, and he gasped, rubbing his forehead where he could feel a huge welt starting to form already.

"No, not quite yet, buddy," Orion said. "But close enough. Now, come on, there's someone you've gotta come meet." He was led down the hall to what had to be a hospital storage room, where they stored the various pills and other medicines, and it all suddenly became much clearer: the goon grabbing him and slamming him into the goalpost during the game . . . the argument he and Orion had gotten into before the game about him trying to impress Penny . . .

He blinked fiercely as he suddenly saw something else materialize before him, and he nearly felt nauseated upon seeing Bombay standing before him, looking gaunt and white, like he was sick; he recalled Bella saying something about Bombay dying from a drug overdose.

"Oh, hey, kiddo," Bombay said eerily. "Fancy meeting you here."

"I thought you're supposed to be dead," Averman said, confused.

"Well, you tell me," Bombay said. "It's your dream. Orion and I? We're just living in it." He winked at Averman before grabbing a pill bottle and pouring a whole bunch into his mouth, and Averman shivered fiercely, not at all liking this version of Bombay.

"And listen, kid," Orion said. "You need to relax. None of this is real. That's the good news." Orion then wandered over to what looked like storage cabinet, and he opened it up to reveal a window into a hospital room, where Averman could see himself lying in a bed, unmoving – he was breathing on his own, meaning he wasn't on a ventilator, but he wasn't okay, per say. How could he be? He was unconscious, maybe comatose due to being hit so hard in the head.

"The bad news is, that it could be real enough to keep you here if you let it," Bombay said firmly, smiling that twisted, wry smile as he patted Averman on the shoulder in a way that was not at all comforting.

"Oh, take a lookie here," Orion said tauntingly. "I've busted out the rosary beads, so you know that it's gotta be serious."

"How . . . How am I there and here?" Averman asked, confounded.

"Well, Les Averman, this is your deep, dark subconscious," Orion said, smiling darkly, and they watched through the glass pane as Bella, the real Bella, entered the hospital room with coffee for Orion. "Wait, you're telling me that smoking hot thing divorced me? I mean, at least in your life, your real life, some things worked out well for me, didn't they? I ended up getting a second kid. I coached a bunch of Ducks."

"So, what is happening to me in there?" Averman whispered.

"Well, son, it all depends on how you look at it," Bombay said gently.

"You could either be brain-dead with no hope of waking up. Or you could be fighting for your life," whispered Orion. "It's kind of up to you. So which way are you leaning?"

Averman just stared, still so confused as he watched Charlie and Adam enter the hospital room. His eyes filled as he watched Adam grab his hand, and that was followed by Charlie standing at the foot of the bed and Goldberg and Connie entering as well.

"Hey, buddy, we're all still here with you," whispered Goldie.

"Yeah, man," Adam said. "And I was thinking, maybe, if you ever wake up, you could start in our next game."

Charlie looked at Adam incredulously.

"To motivate him to get better?" Adam whispered.

"Dude, he can't start in the next game," Charlie scoffed.

"Yeah, he can," Goldie whispered. "Come on, Conway, he's got his skills."

"Yeah, yeah, I know that," Charlie was whispering, reaching over and ruffling Averman's hair. "Really, pal, you may be on the third line, but you're the strongest third-line player we've got. If we didn't have a third line, we wouldn't have a team."

Orion – at least this version of Orion, spoke up with, "What do you think is the answer? Do you think you could fix all this by going to Hans's and convincing me to coach at Eden Hall?"

"But you can't fix me," Bombay added. "We're not exactly bound by the law of physics in here, buddy. We know what you know."

"But . . ." Averman swallowed, his throat feeling dry. "Um . . . I mean, it's kinda nice, hearing it from here, that Adam's willing to let me play more, and . . . it's funny, that's all I ever wanted to hear, that I'm useful for something other than making a joke, that I'm worth something."

"Oh, come off it, kiddo," Orion said sternly. "If what matters to you most is what everyone – especially some girl – thinks of you, then you haven't learned a damn thing, son."

"Why are you guys such jerks in this reality?" Averman demanded.

"Because we are losing patience," Bombay said. "When are you gonna learn, buddy? People we love die all the time, screws fall out all the time, the world's imperfect, you cannot be everything to everyone and you cannot fix everything because it is virtually impossible."

"Well, you know what?" Averman demanded, feeling his anger spike as he glared at the two men he most admired – the two men who profoundly impacted him more than he ever could've known, as he felt his throat close up with a sort of indescribable emotion. "I fixed you guys!"

"How so?" Orion asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "How'd you fix me? I never coached the Ducks in Peewee."

"No, you didn't," Averman argued. "But you took us when no one else believed in us. You said we either stay, or you go. And . . . And I fixed you both, because . . . because . . . I stuck it out with District Five; I kept everyone positive even when we weren't doing well, but we did our best, and we hung on as much as we could, but then you came along. And while it was all of us, I . . . I was part of that; I made you mad, Coach, and I made you cry, and I frustrated the hell out of you and drove you absolutely insane, but I think you and Orion both have spent so much time trying your very best to make sure that I stuck it out and believed in myself and didn't get hurt because I showed you guys what it meant to live. Orion, I showed you what it meant to have joy in ways that your previous J.V. team didn't."

"So, basically, you were just Les," Orion said, smiling at him gently, blue eyes growing softer.

"Yeah, I was just Les," Averman said, smiling back.

"And that's good enough?" Bombay questioned, quirking an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah, it is," Averman said.

"Then wake up, son. Come back home, buddy," Orion smiled, winking at him.

And with that, his eyes flashed open, bright, blinding white lights greeting him, and he could hear the collective gasps of relief in the room as suddenly, a penlight flashed in his eyes, checking his pupils.

"Averman, can you hear me, sweetie?" he heard Bella asking.

"Yeah, yeah, I can."

It was much later, several hours later, that Averman was sitting up in his hospital bed, playing a game of Gin with Orion, or at least, Orion was trying to teach him how to play Gin. And as they played, Averman brought up Orion's point from earlier.

"You were right," he said.

"About what?" Orion asked, sorting through his cards.

"About everything," Averman sighed. "When I was asleep or . . . or wherever I was . . . I . . . everything was different."

"Different in what way?" Orion asked, picking up a card from the deck in front of them.

"Um, it was strange, really," Averman said. "It was what everything could've been had I not been part of the Ducks. And it was odd because I never realized how much of an impact I had on the team."

"Well, for the record, you are needed," Orion said sternly. "They were all pretty worried about you. We all were."

"Yeah, I know." Averman smiled as he grabbed a card from the deck. "You busted out the rosary beads and everything."

Orion looked at him dubiously, blue eyes clouded with pure confusion; he looked about as confused as Les had felt when he'd first "woken" in the coma dream. "How do you know that?"

"I don't know, I just do," Averman said.

"But did you see me in there? How was I different?" Orion asked.

"Um, I saw you and Bombay, actually, and you guys, well, it was weird, really, really weird. You were still Orion and Bombay, but different, and I mean, really strange; that version of you, you were divorced from Bella 'cause you were stuck working at the skate shop, and it's funny 'cause when you and Bombay showed me a window into the room I was lying in, you were still so into your wife and you couldn't believe she left you," laughed Averman.

"Sure sounds like me, all right," Orion laughed. "But seriously, what did Bombay and I do?"

"Helped put some things into perspective," Averman said. "You guys helped me figure some things out and find my way home."

"Good," Orion said, relaxing visibly at that thought.

"And you were right about Penny," Averman said. "I mean, did she show up at all?"

"No, she didn't. I tried convincing her to come visit you out of decency, thinking it would help you wake up. But she didn't want to," Orion said, his voice shifting to something sadder. "And I'm sorry I couldn't convince her. I know you liked her. But . . ."

"But you said it yourself; you didn't like her for me, and you had good instincts. I should've trusted you," Averman said. "You and Bombay told me in that dream that this whole time, I've been . . . just Les. And I guess that's good enough."

"It's more than enough," Orion assured him, winking.