au where jack doesn't take time off after rehab but instead a year of falcs-mandated therapy and is recruited by them right after
au where, four years later, jack is wearing the a and he finds george sighing at piles of paper on her desk and when he asks her what's wrong and if he can help she says, "wanna help me scout ncaa players?", and she's mostly joking so she's pretty surprised when jack says, "okay."
and when they divide the schools between them jack gets samwell because he tells george his mom went there, and it's not a big name school, so why should it matter?
jack takes his job seriously. and smh have good potential - jack immediately zeroes in on chow, but the kid's a freshman and it's a bit too early - and there's birkholz, but jack asks around and the guy is post-injury, and then -
jack notices bittle only after the playoffs. he's small, so at first jack's eye kind of skids off him, but the playoffs show off how he's also fast. fast in ways the falcs' offense isn't, and could really use. and jack played with parse, he knows size doesn't equal talent, and he knows this kind of size and speed is sometimes a huge asset...
but he's also still a sophomore, so jack doesn't say anything yet. the falcs don't have the cap space to spare that year anyway. but he keeps an eye on bittle for most of the following year, except he doesn't watch the ncaa playoffs as closely as he has because the falcs go far in their own playoffs, and then further, and then they win the cup, so.
but when george asks during that summer he tells her about the speedy winger who's graduating next year. and she's impressed -- starts talking about the farm team, asks jack to keep an eye on bittle to see if anyone is making him a different offer -- and jack feels proud because he's done well. he helped.
jack would've heard about bittle making captain even if he wasn't keeping a close eye. first out ncaa captain. jack doesn't think much of it -- very deliberately, probably, doesn't think much of it -- and when he shows the articles to george he very deliberately doesn't think about the way she just says, "okay, we'll let pr know in advance," without looking like it's going to be a problem.
george lets pr know, and she starts sending scouts to samwell games. it seems like everything is gonna work out (if bittle is interested in their offer). except first out ncaa captain lingers with jack, and he keeps keeping an eye on bittle, even googles him a little, maybe not just articles but also images, which he maybe spends a while looking at? maybe? he's not totally aware he's doing it until the screen goes black.
the thing is, bittle was a cute sophomore, and a good looking junior, but bittle as a senior and a captain is... well. jack's not sure he ever experienced this kind of reaction, isn't used to only be attracted to looks (it should be noted that jack isn't too in tune with the fact that he also knows every tiny detail about bittle's hockey and that he read three google pages worth of interviews with him and that he even read some of his social media and seen some of his videos, because jack takes everything seriously, even non-official scouting gigs. but it's probably easier to tell himself that his attraction is only based on looks).
but then samwell wins the championship under bittle's lead and george tells jack that they're gonna make him an offer. and jack must not look very happy about it, because george frowns and asks, "is there a problem?", and jack opens his mouth to say no, because bittle is a good player, could fit well with the falcs, there's no problem -- but then he realizes: there's no hockey problem.
oh. he's really, actually, genuinely into the rookie he just helped recruit.
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