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Title: Five For Fighting (2/12)
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Dean, Sam centered with an epic supporting cast
Notes: Will be updated sporatically due to nano.
Summary: For the Winchester brothers hockey was always something apart from hunting until one season it suddenly wasn’t.
For those of you not familiar with hockey, you can read a quick primer on game basics here
one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | eight | nine | ten | eleven | twelve | epilogue
Five For Fighting
CHAPTER 2: Home Opener
The home opener at the Apple Arena in Lawrence Kansas brought a certain amount of fanfare. “First home game of the season,” Chuck remarked casually as they got off the bus at the arena. “Probably the only time we’re going to see a sell out all year.”
“Hey we’ve got Washington and Pittsburg at home a few times,” Braeden offered, hauling his bag out. “We might have a crowd then.”
“Oh God,” Andy moaned, “we’re going to be that team. The team that has more away fans at every home game then homers. I was in Atlanta for four years. I’ve already been on that team.”
“Simple solution,” Bobby grunted, clapping a hand on his shoulders. “Let’s start winning some damn games.”
“Amen,” Dean muttered.
It had been a rough road trip to start the season. Three losses in three games. Most of the problem was in defense. Between Hendriksen, Tricks and Gordon, they were going to score. However outside the Winchesters, the defense was severely lacking. Lucas Barr and Adam Milligan would be all right with experience but they were both nineteen and prone to making rookie mistakes. Ed Zeddmore and Harry Spengler had the experience but took stupid penalty after stupid penalty. At goal, Rubesen had shown flashes of brilliance but was inconsistent and prone to letting in the occasional soft goal.
But they were headed for a home stand. In Dean’s experience a home crowd could solve a lot of problems.
He just wished the home team was based anywhere but Lawrence.
The press stopped him and Sam separately while Andy and Chuck slipped by without problem. Dean plastered on his customary interview face.
“I’m here with Dean Winchester of the Lawrence Rage as the team prepares for their first ever home opener. Now Dean, I understand you’re a local boy.”
The microphone tilted toward him and a pit dropped into his stomach because they were going to go there. It had never been a point of interest in Boston. Not beyond the occasional thirty second bit about the Winchester brothers growing up without a mother but now they were here. Back in Lawrence and it was going to come up again and again and again.
“That’s right,” he said. “Lawrence, Kansas born and breed.”
“How long has it been?”
“We moved away when I was six,” Dean said. “Sammy was two. Mom died here and dad said we needed a change.” He sighed and remembered those two years after mom had died. Remembered his first pair of skates and staying at the ice rink for hours under the supervision of his aunt and uncle, the cool atmosphere of the ice so much better then the roaring heat of the fire. He blinked himself out of the memory to look the reporter in the eyes and flashed her his cockiest grin. “Got a new team. Playing with Sammy again. Feels like coming home.”
The reporter looked satisfied with the answer, thanking him for his time before returning to her cameraman to do the wrap. He dropped his smile as soon as he entered the arena because he would have rather been picked up by the west coast expansion team then this one. Because he wished he was anywhere but back in Lawrence.
He went to the trainer’s office where Jess smiled at him and ushered him up on the table before saying, “You gave the exact same interview as your brother, you know. Almost word for word. It’s creepy. Sometimes I swear you’re the same person.”
“Does this mean I get to have sex with you too? Because I know Sam’s all about this monogamy thing but it isn’t technically...”
Jess punched him hard in the shoulder. “You do that again and I’ll call someone on the team next time you two show up beat to hell. I’m pretty sure it’s a contract violation.”
Dean grinned over at her. She was Sam’s girl and had been since his playing days at Stanford. They’d brought her into the loop during the lock-out year when a demon tried to burn her on the ceiling. She bore the faint ghost of the scars on the left side of her face but it didn’t really detract from her good looks.
“How’s the knee holding up?”
“I’m going to go with better then my last stab wound.”
“Of course,” Jess mumbled as she got to work on stretching out his knee. “Any other extra curricular injuries I should be aware of?”
“Not this time.”
“Fantastic. We’ll hold of the painkillers for post game then.”
“Thanks Jess.” He gave her a cheery wink. “You ever decide to upgrade Winchesters, give me a call.”
Jess rolled her eyes and shooed him out of the room. “Good luck out there tonight, Dean. Break a leg.”
“Why the hell would I want to do that?”
“Then break someone else’s leg,” Jess teased. “Just get out of here.”
***
There was something special about a home opener. The Apple Arena was packed toe to toe and Dean listened to the national anthem grinning up at the sea of shirts in the stands. He could make out more then a few Thrashers fans in the crowd as well as a bunch of red Capitals jerseys with Hendriksen’s number on the sleeve, but not much of the navy blue and gold of the Rage’s home sweaters.
But that would come later. Probably not for years but if Dean closed his eyes, he could see it, the whole place nothing but a blue sea. Sold out home games like he was used to in Boston.
Tonight was a sell-out but it was only a sell-out because it was new. If he had to guess, he would say about a third of the Lawrence natives in attendance had never seen a hockey game in their lives.
“Let’s give them a good show,” Tricks said, grinning as the first line took an ice.
“Let’s just win the damn game,” Bobby grumbled.
***
Times like this, Dean really loved his job.
Scratch that, Dean always loved his job, but tonight, tonight was freaking special.
He was unstoppable. He felt like he was a kid again, straight out of the AHL with all the energy in the world and something to prove. He hadn’t felt this good since the lock-out.
Of course, when Dean was having a good game he didn’t pull an Ovechkin and put in four goals by himself. He had a pair of assists. One to Ben Braeden on a shorthanded goal in the first period and a second on a slapshot at the point position that Tricks deflected down and past the goalie. But he was a defenseman through and through. His brother was the more offensive minded of the pairing. Dean stayed at home and tracked the other team’s best player and Kovalchuck had barely touched the puck without Dean being there tonight.
He was one of the best defenders in the game when he had nights like this. His knee felt like new and he was hitting harder then he had in years.
Ellen called a time out with only a minute to go in the third and final period. They were up two goals to one with an impending face-off in Thrasher territory. “I want Singer taking the face-off with Hendriksen, Braeden and the Winchesters out there. Win it clean and tie it up against the boards if you can. The puck does not leave the zone, you hear me? They don’t get a chance to pull their goalie.”
Bobby nodded once, cool as ever because he’d been there before. Ben looked ready to vomit. Hendriksen adjusted his helmet and tapped his stick once on the ice. Sam nodded once in Dean’s direction.
“Let’s pick up the win, gentlemen,” Ellen finished.
They skated back out onto the ice to the roars of the home crowd, Bobby making a point to be at Ben’s shoulder muttering a few quiet words of advice before taking his place in the face-off circle. Dean smiled up at the crowd and watched as the ref dropped the puck for the face off.
Bobby won the draw clean, sending the puck back to Hendriksen’s stick. Hendricksen shuffled it over to Braeden who rolled it along the boards behind the net where Sam managed to tie it up, leaving the puck at his skates as two Thrashers dig to get it.
When the puck finally squirted loose, Ben picked it back up and sent it to Dean at the point position. Dean held the puck for about a second before the Thrasher’s forward came charging toward him. He smiled for just the barest fraction of a second as he slid an easy pass over to Bobby before lowering his shoulder and leveling the guy charging at him to the cheers of the crowd.
The final seconds ticked off with the puck, as Ellen ordered, still in the Thrasher’s zone. And there was a roar building in the crowd that Dean could barely hear over his own shout of excitement and a second later Ben crashed into him and then Sam with Hendriksen and Bobby hanging back with more reserved smiles on their face. Carl Rubesen was skating up from their goal and Dean slung an arm over his shoulder and said, “Hell of a game, Ruby.”
Rubesen smiled back at him and Dean turned to the crowd and raised his stick in salute because yeah, maybe they were in for a rough season and maybe he feels more then a little like Lawrence is the closest thing to hell on Earth for a Winchester but give him a stick, a crowd and a win and Dean was a very happy man.
***
Ellen didn’t have much for them post game, just a grin and, “Congratulations boys. Play like that every night and we’ll be in good shape.” She surveyed the mostly young crowd and added. “Practice tomorrow is cancelled. Enjoy your celebration because we’re going hard on Monday and then we have the Avalanche here Tuesday.”
She left the room to a moment of complete silence that Chuck finally broke with a hesitant, “Pizza and beer at my house?”
***
It was without a doubt the biggest party in Lawrence.
But that was only because it was Lawrence. Chuck had a couple of cases and they ordered a dozen pizzas and spent the night playing drinking games as the movie Slapshot played in the background. Gordon and Reidy ducked out early due to the appalling lack of girls while Sam bailed after pizza to have some quality time with Jess. But the rest of them were all there, swapping stories and talking about the game.
Dean found himself sitting next to Ben Braeden who was nursing a beer. “You know you were my favorite player back in the day.”
Ben was just a little drunk, eyes slightly unfocused, words slightly slurred. He was eighteen years old and he’d just gotten his first NHL win under his belt. Dean shook his head. “I find that hard to believe.”
People didn’t buy Dean Winchester jerseys. He wasn’t a star. He’d spent three seasons in the AHL and two more bouncing back and forth before finally earning his spot on the Bruins roster. He was the guy who spent the game plastered to the other team’s star which meant he got burned more then he cared to admit.
“It was my mom,” Ben muttered. “We used to go to games all the time and when I was in the peewee leagues, she would tell me, if you can’t be Ray Borque, put your head down, work harder then the next guy and be Dean Winchester.”
Dean rubbed at his forehead. “Thanks... I guess.”
“I can’t believe they had me on the ice at the end of the game,” Ben mumbled, looking slightly green. Dean backed away unconsciously as he added, “I think I’m going to puke.”
Dean stood up quickly, pointing him down the hall to Chuck’s bathroom and going to grab another slice of pizza. Jobesen was on the other side of the room with a white Mac book in his hands reading loudly from something that to Dean’s ears sounded like a Harlequin romance novel only with demons.
Ed and Harry were doubled over with laughter and even Hendriksen had a faint smile on his face and. Dean started moving toward that end of the room when Chuck, with wide eyes screamed. “Tricks! Give that back.”
“Seriously?” Jobesen said, holding the laptop up in the air. “Chuck, seriously? You’re a writer? This is something you tell the world.”
“Sure, but I don’t tell you guys!”
“Lighten up, Chuck.”
Chuck balled up his fists and screamed. “Everyone get the FUCK out of my house!”
***
The next morning at breakfast in the house Dean shared with his brother, Sam asked, “So how did team bonding end up last night after I left?”
Dean blearily pours himself a cup of coffee. “Ben got plastered and almost puked on me, Tricks stole Chucks computer and started reading his secret novel, Bobby called us all idiots and Chuck tossed us out.”
“Ouch, just as well we don’t have practice today,” Sam sat down across from him. “You want to go kill something?”
Dean took a swig of his coffee. “God, yes.”
“Gremlins or a ghost?”
“Gremlins.”
Sam grinned. “Gremlins it is.”
| three |
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Dean, Sam centered with an epic supporting cast
Notes: Will be updated sporatically due to nano.
Summary: For the Winchester brothers hockey was always something apart from hunting until one season it suddenly wasn’t.
For those of you not familiar with hockey, you can read a quick primer on game basics here
CHAPTER 2: Home Opener
The home opener at the Apple Arena in Lawrence Kansas brought a certain amount of fanfare. “First home game of the season,” Chuck remarked casually as they got off the bus at the arena. “Probably the only time we’re going to see a sell out all year.”
“Hey we’ve got Washington and Pittsburg at home a few times,” Braeden offered, hauling his bag out. “We might have a crowd then.”
“Oh God,” Andy moaned, “we’re going to be that team. The team that has more away fans at every home game then homers. I was in Atlanta for four years. I’ve already been on that team.”
“Simple solution,” Bobby grunted, clapping a hand on his shoulders. “Let’s start winning some damn games.”
“Amen,” Dean muttered.
It had been a rough road trip to start the season. Three losses in three games. Most of the problem was in defense. Between Hendriksen, Tricks and Gordon, they were going to score. However outside the Winchesters, the defense was severely lacking. Lucas Barr and Adam Milligan would be all right with experience but they were both nineteen and prone to making rookie mistakes. Ed Zeddmore and Harry Spengler had the experience but took stupid penalty after stupid penalty. At goal, Rubesen had shown flashes of brilliance but was inconsistent and prone to letting in the occasional soft goal.
But they were headed for a home stand. In Dean’s experience a home crowd could solve a lot of problems.
He just wished the home team was based anywhere but Lawrence.
The press stopped him and Sam separately while Andy and Chuck slipped by without problem. Dean plastered on his customary interview face.
“I’m here with Dean Winchester of the Lawrence Rage as the team prepares for their first ever home opener. Now Dean, I understand you’re a local boy.”
The microphone tilted toward him and a pit dropped into his stomach because they were going to go there. It had never been a point of interest in Boston. Not beyond the occasional thirty second bit about the Winchester brothers growing up without a mother but now they were here. Back in Lawrence and it was going to come up again and again and again.
“That’s right,” he said. “Lawrence, Kansas born and breed.”
“How long has it been?”
“We moved away when I was six,” Dean said. “Sammy was two. Mom died here and dad said we needed a change.” He sighed and remembered those two years after mom had died. Remembered his first pair of skates and staying at the ice rink for hours under the supervision of his aunt and uncle, the cool atmosphere of the ice so much better then the roaring heat of the fire. He blinked himself out of the memory to look the reporter in the eyes and flashed her his cockiest grin. “Got a new team. Playing with Sammy again. Feels like coming home.”
The reporter looked satisfied with the answer, thanking him for his time before returning to her cameraman to do the wrap. He dropped his smile as soon as he entered the arena because he would have rather been picked up by the west coast expansion team then this one. Because he wished he was anywhere but back in Lawrence.
He went to the trainer’s office where Jess smiled at him and ushered him up on the table before saying, “You gave the exact same interview as your brother, you know. Almost word for word. It’s creepy. Sometimes I swear you’re the same person.”
“Does this mean I get to have sex with you too? Because I know Sam’s all about this monogamy thing but it isn’t technically...”
Jess punched him hard in the shoulder. “You do that again and I’ll call someone on the team next time you two show up beat to hell. I’m pretty sure it’s a contract violation.”
Dean grinned over at her. She was Sam’s girl and had been since his playing days at Stanford. They’d brought her into the loop during the lock-out year when a demon tried to burn her on the ceiling. She bore the faint ghost of the scars on the left side of her face but it didn’t really detract from her good looks.
“How’s the knee holding up?”
“I’m going to go with better then my last stab wound.”
“Of course,” Jess mumbled as she got to work on stretching out his knee. “Any other extra curricular injuries I should be aware of?”
“Not this time.”
“Fantastic. We’ll hold of the painkillers for post game then.”
“Thanks Jess.” He gave her a cheery wink. “You ever decide to upgrade Winchesters, give me a call.”
Jess rolled her eyes and shooed him out of the room. “Good luck out there tonight, Dean. Break a leg.”
“Why the hell would I want to do that?”
“Then break someone else’s leg,” Jess teased. “Just get out of here.”
There was something special about a home opener. The Apple Arena was packed toe to toe and Dean listened to the national anthem grinning up at the sea of shirts in the stands. He could make out more then a few Thrashers fans in the crowd as well as a bunch of red Capitals jerseys with Hendriksen’s number on the sleeve, but not much of the navy blue and gold of the Rage’s home sweaters.
But that would come later. Probably not for years but if Dean closed his eyes, he could see it, the whole place nothing but a blue sea. Sold out home games like he was used to in Boston.
Tonight was a sell-out but it was only a sell-out because it was new. If he had to guess, he would say about a third of the Lawrence natives in attendance had never seen a hockey game in their lives.
“Let’s give them a good show,” Tricks said, grinning as the first line took an ice.
“Let’s just win the damn game,” Bobby grumbled.
Times like this, Dean really loved his job.
Scratch that, Dean always loved his job, but tonight, tonight was freaking special.
He was unstoppable. He felt like he was a kid again, straight out of the AHL with all the energy in the world and something to prove. He hadn’t felt this good since the lock-out.
Of course, when Dean was having a good game he didn’t pull an Ovechkin and put in four goals by himself. He had a pair of assists. One to Ben Braeden on a shorthanded goal in the first period and a second on a slapshot at the point position that Tricks deflected down and past the goalie. But he was a defenseman through and through. His brother was the more offensive minded of the pairing. Dean stayed at home and tracked the other team’s best player and Kovalchuck had barely touched the puck without Dean being there tonight.
He was one of the best defenders in the game when he had nights like this. His knee felt like new and he was hitting harder then he had in years.
Ellen called a time out with only a minute to go in the third and final period. They were up two goals to one with an impending face-off in Thrasher territory. “I want Singer taking the face-off with Hendriksen, Braeden and the Winchesters out there. Win it clean and tie it up against the boards if you can. The puck does not leave the zone, you hear me? They don’t get a chance to pull their goalie.”
Bobby nodded once, cool as ever because he’d been there before. Ben looked ready to vomit. Hendriksen adjusted his helmet and tapped his stick once on the ice. Sam nodded once in Dean’s direction.
“Let’s pick up the win, gentlemen,” Ellen finished.
They skated back out onto the ice to the roars of the home crowd, Bobby making a point to be at Ben’s shoulder muttering a few quiet words of advice before taking his place in the face-off circle. Dean smiled up at the crowd and watched as the ref dropped the puck for the face off.
Bobby won the draw clean, sending the puck back to Hendriksen’s stick. Hendricksen shuffled it over to Braeden who rolled it along the boards behind the net where Sam managed to tie it up, leaving the puck at his skates as two Thrashers dig to get it.
When the puck finally squirted loose, Ben picked it back up and sent it to Dean at the point position. Dean held the puck for about a second before the Thrasher’s forward came charging toward him. He smiled for just the barest fraction of a second as he slid an easy pass over to Bobby before lowering his shoulder and leveling the guy charging at him to the cheers of the crowd.
The final seconds ticked off with the puck, as Ellen ordered, still in the Thrasher’s zone. And there was a roar building in the crowd that Dean could barely hear over his own shout of excitement and a second later Ben crashed into him and then Sam with Hendriksen and Bobby hanging back with more reserved smiles on their face. Carl Rubesen was skating up from their goal and Dean slung an arm over his shoulder and said, “Hell of a game, Ruby.”
Rubesen smiled back at him and Dean turned to the crowd and raised his stick in salute because yeah, maybe they were in for a rough season and maybe he feels more then a little like Lawrence is the closest thing to hell on Earth for a Winchester but give him a stick, a crowd and a win and Dean was a very happy man.
Ellen didn’t have much for them post game, just a grin and, “Congratulations boys. Play like that every night and we’ll be in good shape.” She surveyed the mostly young crowd and added. “Practice tomorrow is cancelled. Enjoy your celebration because we’re going hard on Monday and then we have the Avalanche here Tuesday.”
She left the room to a moment of complete silence that Chuck finally broke with a hesitant, “Pizza and beer at my house?”
It was without a doubt the biggest party in Lawrence.
But that was only because it was Lawrence. Chuck had a couple of cases and they ordered a dozen pizzas and spent the night playing drinking games as the movie Slapshot played in the background. Gordon and Reidy ducked out early due to the appalling lack of girls while Sam bailed after pizza to have some quality time with Jess. But the rest of them were all there, swapping stories and talking about the game.
Dean found himself sitting next to Ben Braeden who was nursing a beer. “You know you were my favorite player back in the day.”
Ben was just a little drunk, eyes slightly unfocused, words slightly slurred. He was eighteen years old and he’d just gotten his first NHL win under his belt. Dean shook his head. “I find that hard to believe.”
People didn’t buy Dean Winchester jerseys. He wasn’t a star. He’d spent three seasons in the AHL and two more bouncing back and forth before finally earning his spot on the Bruins roster. He was the guy who spent the game plastered to the other team’s star which meant he got burned more then he cared to admit.
“It was my mom,” Ben muttered. “We used to go to games all the time and when I was in the peewee leagues, she would tell me, if you can’t be Ray Borque, put your head down, work harder then the next guy and be Dean Winchester.”
Dean rubbed at his forehead. “Thanks... I guess.”
“I can’t believe they had me on the ice at the end of the game,” Ben mumbled, looking slightly green. Dean backed away unconsciously as he added, “I think I’m going to puke.”
Dean stood up quickly, pointing him down the hall to Chuck’s bathroom and going to grab another slice of pizza. Jobesen was on the other side of the room with a white Mac book in his hands reading loudly from something that to Dean’s ears sounded like a Harlequin romance novel only with demons.
Ed and Harry were doubled over with laughter and even Hendriksen had a faint smile on his face and. Dean started moving toward that end of the room when Chuck, with wide eyes screamed. “Tricks! Give that back.”
“Seriously?” Jobesen said, holding the laptop up in the air. “Chuck, seriously? You’re a writer? This is something you tell the world.”
“Sure, but I don’t tell you guys!”
“Lighten up, Chuck.”
Chuck balled up his fists and screamed. “Everyone get the FUCK out of my house!”
The next morning at breakfast in the house Dean shared with his brother, Sam asked, “So how did team bonding end up last night after I left?”
Dean blearily pours himself a cup of coffee. “Ben got plastered and almost puked on me, Tricks stole Chucks computer and started reading his secret novel, Bobby called us all idiots and Chuck tossed us out.”
“Ouch, just as well we don’t have practice today,” Sam sat down across from him. “You want to go kill something?”
Dean took a swig of his coffee. “God, yes.”
“Gremlins or a ghost?”
“Gremlins.”
Sam grinned. “Gremlins it is.”
| three |
Tags:
(no subject)
30/10/09 08:10 (UTC)Aw, they totally are that team, but they sure will be adorable doing it.
Yay, Jess lives!
he didn’t pull an Ovechkin
*snicker* So that's what we're calling it now? Good to know.
People didn’t buy Dean Winchester jerseys. He wasn’t a star. He’d spent three seasons in the AHL and two more bouncing back and forth before finally earning his spot on the Bruins roster. He was the guy who spent the game plastered to the other team’s star which meant he got burned more then he cared to admit.
“It was my mom,” Ben muttered. “We used to go to games all the time and when I was in the peewee leagues, she would tell me, if you can’t be Ray Borque, put your head down, work harder then the next guy and be Dean Winchester.”
Absolutely spot on! If Dean Winchester played hockey, this is exactly who he'd be.
(no subject)
11/11/09 05:09 (UTC)(The next chapter will have the entirity of Philly being possessed by demons. I'm pretty excited.)
(no subject)
14/11/09 08:52 (UTC)*snorfle* Seriously? That's awesome! Dude, I love this fic so much and it's still in it's beginnings. I really desperately want you to be finished with it not so much so that I can read it but so I can go around forcing other people to read it. I really love Jess here-- how you've done her characterisation, that she knows what the boys do, her history, excellent all around. And more things, but my brain is no more and so no more comment.
(no subject)
25/11/09 02:05 (UTC)And I love Jess. She should be alive in all AUs. =)
(no subject)
27/11/09 06:41 (UTC)I love Jess too! It's kind of funny how much I love Jess, given that she was in the show for two seconds flat. *hearts Jess*
(no subject)
13/10/11 01:56 (UTC)