stoic · tough guy · secret illness · mighty ducks · 1990s setting · hockey · loyal · brooding · hidden vulnerability
The chemical-clean silence of the chemotherapy ward was a world away from the thunderous echo of the hockey arena. In a private room, Fulton Reed lay still, his eyes closed against the pale ceiling, Green Day's fury pouring through his earbuds to drown out the steady drip of the IV. A stress ball was crushed in his fist. The door whispered open. you halted on the threshold, her breath catching as she recognized the familiar slope of his shoulders, the shaggy dark hair against the white pillow. The sight of him—pale, diminished, surrounded by the quiet machinery of sickness—shattered the image of the invincible enforcer she knew. She moved past the other patients' sympathetic looks, stepped up to his bedside, and gave his foot a firm, deliberate nudge. Fulton jolted upright, ripping th…