Chapter Text
It's not every day that a man comes home from work to find his son's secret boyfriend had a baby that no one knew about, but David thinks he's handled it quite well. He was able to hide his panic until he was alone so he didn't freak out his already freaked out son even more.
On the second day he wakes up to find Yuna sitting upright in bed with her laptop. She's been working non-stop since Ilya showed up with the baby. David knows this is her way of dealing with things. When they had trouble having a second baby, Yuna threw herself into tracking her ovulation. She made chart after chart after chart.
"What are you working on?" he asks.
"I'm making a plan for Shane's sponsorships. They're not going to be happy with this sudden change when it comes out, but I think we can put a good spin on it. I'm also looking at different options in case we need them. I'm also looking over Ilya's contracts. I want to make this transition as easy as possible for him, but his agent did not do a good job. I…"
"You should sleep," David interrupts her.
"I'm fine," she insists.
"You'll be more fine in the morning when you've had some sleep."
Yuna sighs. "If I don't work, I think. If I think I… Shane has a baby."
"Our baby's a dad. I remember when we brought him home from the hospital like it was yesterday. Daria looks just like him, doesn't she?" David loves babies. He always wanted more than one, but that wasn't in the cards for them. He's grateful he gets to spend so much time with his granddaughter now, though. He hopes Shane and Ilya stay with them for a while. He'll make a point to offer his babysitting services when the boys leave for Montreal. He'll happily make the drive to spend time with his new favorite person.
"His life is going to change so much. It'll be so much harder for him now, especially because it is with Ilya Rozanov. Ilya already got fired, what are they going to do with Shane? He's worked so hard to be where he is and he can't lose it. It's not fair." Yuna's voice is a little higher and she talks faster and faster. She's beginning to spiral.
David places a hand on her arm. "Shane is going to be okay. He has us to support him. He has Ilya and you've seen how he looks at our boy. We used to worry he was lonely, remember? He's not alone now." He reaches over to close her laptop. If he doesn't pull her out of her flow, she's not going to sleep at all. "You can tell me about your plan in the morning. Now we sleep."
"But…" Yuna begins to argue.
David takes her laptop and sets it down next to the bed. "Now we sleep," he repeats.
"Let me just…"
David wraps an arm around Yuna and pulls her close. "Daria will most likely wake us up early. We'll get her and let the boys sleep in. Then you can tell me all about your plans."
Yuna makes a few more attempts at protesting, but she also curls up next to David easily. Over the years they've been together David has learned that physical contact is one of the few ways to get her mind to calm down.
As expected they're woken up early by Daria. David convines Shane and Ilya to get a few more hours of sleep, while he takes care of Daria. He holds his granddaughter while Yuna explains her plan in detail. With Yuna at the helm, David is certain Shane will be just fine in the end.
For now he isn't fine, as David notices as he drives Shane home from his doctor's appointment. He'd hoped to hear he could pick his daughter up soon, but was told that it'd take at least another month before he could safely do that.
Shane's quiet in the car. He's normally not a very talkative person, but this is a new level of quiet for him. When David looks over, he sees a silent tear running over Shane's cheek.
He has a choice to make. David wants to ignore this and just drive home. He's sure that that's what Shane wants most as well. It’s not what he needs, though. David finds a mostly empty parking lot and parks there.
"Why are we stopping here?" Shane asks.
"I figured it's easier for you to talk to me here, where you don't have to worry about burdening Ilya."
"I'm fine," Shane answers immediately.
"I remember when you were a week old and I was alone with you at night. Your mom was asleep and I had just fed you. You fell asleep in my arms and it suddenly hit me that my entire life was different now. I had so long to prepare for you. It took months for your mom to get pregnant and then we had her entire pregnancy to prepare. I read books and took classes." David turns to Shane. He's crying again.
"What I'm trying to say is that I freaked out after all that time I had to prepare. Your little girl was here out of the blue. It's okay to feel overwhelmed. If you don't want to burden Ilya with that, I'm here for you."
It takes Shane a while to answer and David waits patiently. "What if I fuck up?"
"I'm not going to lie, you will." Shane shoots him a horrified look. "Do you think I fucked up with you?" David asks.
"Of course not," Shane answers quickly.
"I did. I made mistakes, I apologized, and I learned. You'll do the same. Every parent makes mistakes, what matters is what you do after the mistakes."
"I guess… yeah. That makes sense." Shane looks a little less horrified now, though he's clearly still deep in thought. "What if she hates me?"
"Oh, she's not a teenager yet. You don't have to worry about that for a long time," David jokes.
"But I can't hold her. Ilya can, you and mom can, but I can't." He gestures to his arm. "What if I never bond with her and she'll always be distant? What if deep down she'll always know that I didn't hold her and she hates me for it?"
"She's slept on your chest and you've been reading to her. She knows who you are, Shane. You are her daddy and she's going to love you. Until she's a teenager and then you'll embarrass her. You have so much to look forward to. Parenthood is a wild ride, but it's worth it." Being Shane's dad is no doubt the best thing David has ever done.
"Does it ever stop being scary?" Shane asks.
"Maybe if your kid doesn't play a sport where they strap knives to their shoes," he jokes. It gets a nervous laugh out of Shane. "You will never stop worrying about her, but it's okay. You'll learn to manage it."
"I'm really sorry about this. It's not fair to you and mom to put up with all of us."
"Are you kidding? I love it! I've worried for years that you're lonely and now I have proof that I was wrong at my home. I get to spend time with my new granddaughter and I get to see how loved you are. All I've ever wanted for you was to find a love like I have with your mother. You found that with Ilya. He looks at you with so much love. It's all a parent could ask for."
Shane's silent for a while, thinking. He no longer looks as nervous as he did before, so David must have done something right.
"I guess I understand. I want Dasha to be happy too," he says eventually.
"You know, there's this great little jewelry store not far from here. They have beautiful pieces and they work with a few local goldsmiths if you're looking for something custom. We can see if they have a ring you like for Ilya." If his words aren't enough to convince Shane that's he's supportive of his relationship, he hopes that this will help.
Shane smiles. "I'd like that. He's been dropping some incredibly unsubtle hints that he wants one."
David laughs. "When I was thinking about proposing, your mother casually brought up her jewelry preferences and her ring size. It helped with my nerves a lot."
"Ilya told me his ring size too. He also said he likes gold, but I already figured that much," Shane says.
"We can work with that. Let's go impress him." Getting to go ring shopping with his son is something David didn't think he'd ever get to do. At first he didn't think Shane would even think to ask for his help, and then he worried Shane would never find someone to propose to. It's an experience he will never forget, even though it doesn't last long.
He's greeted warmly by the owner. David has been buying jewelry for his wife here for ages, so he's developed a good relationship with the owner. He tells the man what they're looking for and he presents them with several option.
He talks to Shane about his options and David watches Shane inspect each ring carefully as he listens. On the fourth ring, Shane's expression changes. It's golden band with a diagonal line of small diamonds.
"This one," Shane says. He sounds so sure of himself.
"A good choice. It's a little on the big side, so it's a perfect candidate for getting it resized. We could do that first, or he could come in after you propose and we can make sure it's to his exact size," the man offers.
"After is best, I I want it to be perfect. He deserves that." Shane looks so sure of himself. David has only seem him look this confident on the ice. think.
"I think he's going to love it," David assures him.
"Thank you for taking me here, dad."
"You don't need to thank me, I'm happy to be here with you. When we get home, I'll take Daria so you can ask Ilya to marry you properly," David suggests.
"Yeah, I'd like that."
Shane holds onto the ringbox tightly on their way home. It brings back memories of Shane holding onto his hockey stick when David drove him home from his first ever practice. Back then he looked like he just discovered his purpose in life, and today is no different. How lucky David is to witness both moments.
It's a full two weeks after he's moved when David catches Ilya crying silently. It's early in the morning. He's giving Daria a bottle and looking at their wall of family pictures. David's not sure whether it's better to approach Ilya or leave him be. He watches him for a few moments.
He cares about Ilya a lot and he can't let him be alone like this. He clears his throat to get his attention.
Ilya startles. "I'm sorry, I can go," he says immediately. He turns his face away from David.
"No need. I see you're admiring the family pictures. We need to add some of you and little Daria soon. I think I have a cute one of you two and Shane I can print out." Both he and Yuna have been taking plenty of pictures of the new family. Shane and Ilya have enough on their plate right now; they don't need to worry about taking pictures as well.
Ilya opens his mouth a few times, but he doesn't speak. David looks away when he notices the man is crying even more now. He's not close enough to Ilya to know how he deals with these kind of emotions. He'll have to figure it out, like he did with Yuna and Shane.
"I don't have any pictures like this," Ilya says eventually.
"You don't have family pictures?" David asks.
Ilya shakes his head. "My father burned them after my mama died."
It's a good thing the man is dead, because David would have to kill him himself. Ilya lost his mother and he doesn't even have any pictures of her left? "I'm so sorry."
"I want Dasha to have pictures of her family," Ilya says.
"She will have so many pictures. I can't bring back the pictures you lost, but I can make sure that we take pictures for her now."
"Thank you, David." Ilya's voice is soft. David is getting used to seeing this side of Ilya. He doesn't know how much of his softness is due to the situation he's in and how much of it is his true personality. He suspects Ilya is hiding at least part of himself.
"How are you holding up? Your life has changed so much. I can't imagine it's easy."
"It is overwhelming. I'm not used to…" Ilya looks like he's struggling to find the right words. "My family isn't not very warm. Even if I had a baby with a woman, they would not be helping me like you and Yuna do. It is hard to accept sometimes."
"Do you feel like you don't deserve it?" David asks.
"Da. Shane tells me that I do, but it's hard," Ilya says.
"It'll get easier and easier to accept. You are a part of our family now."
"Not yet, but soon."
"No, you are already family. The second you stepped through that door with Daria, you were a Hollander. We just need to deal with the legal part now." Both boys didn't want to make a big deal out of their wedding, which David understands. He had a pretty big wedding with Yuna. She'd been a star in planning it all, but as far as he was concerned he would have been just as happy with a backyard wedding like Shane and Ilya are having.
"Yuna is so good with the paperwork. I only have to sign things, it’s great."
"She is a master at paperwork." Daria has finished her bottle. David takes the empty bottle while Ilya burps her. He's such a natural dad, it's amazing to see. David can't imagine a better second dad for his granddaughter. The three of them settle down on the couch.
"I thought you would tell me that you would hurt me if I hurt Shane," Ilya says.
David laughs. "Even if I wanted to, I don't think I could hurt you. I won't threaten you like that, though. I know my son and he can look after himself just fine. I've also seen the way you look at him. I see how much you love him. One day, when Daria is older, you'll know how Yuna and I feel. Seeing our son be loved, is something we've wanted for so long. You are the person to love him."
"I try," Ilya says.
"You succeed," David assures him. "So much of Shane's life is hockey, it makes sense that he'd fall for another player. He's also not going to fall in love with someone who's bad at the game, so it makes sense that he'd fall for the second best player."
"Best player," Ilya says, grinning. There's a hint of the Ilya Rozanov David has seen on TV for years now.
"I'll let you two battle that one out, but you know who has won more cups." For a second David is worried that he's pushed too far. He still needs to feel out where Ilya's boundaries are.
Thankfully, Ilya's grin grows. "I would have won another, if his baby didn't show up. I think Dasha is his plan to always have more cups. I would be upset if she is not the cutest baby in the world." He leans down to kiss her forehead softly.
"Shane was pretty cute, but I do think Daria is just a little bit cuter. You two have me and Yuna beat on making the cutest baby." Compared to Yuna and Shane, David doesn't look competitive at all. To regular people, he is. He has no issue admitting that his granddaughter is cuter than his son was. It's the truth.
"I need that in writing," Ilya says.
"Oh, I wouldn't go that far. I like keeping my wife happy and she would not approve of me putting that out there," David jokes.
"She's smart, I would use it against you." Ilya says. He's lightly rocking Daria, who makes happy little gurgly sounds. "You don't need a piece of paper to know you're cute, Dasha. You know you are the cutest baby."
Daria yawns and David is immediately reminded of holding Shane when he was a newborn. "It keeps amazing me how much she looks like Shane."
"I really hope she gets his freckles as well," Ilya says.
"You really like his freckles, don't you?"
"They made me fall in love with him. He came up to me in that parking lot, telling me I couldn't smoke and all I saw were freckles." Ilya leans down to kiss Daria's forehead. "It is insane to think that everything led to this."
"To a family," David says.
"Family," Ilya repeats.
"Ilya, I want you to know that you can come to me if everything becomes too much. I won't judge. I can just be a listening ear, or I can take care of Daria if you need some time for yourself. Whatever you need, I am here for you. You're my kid now too." David will keep reminding Ilya of that until he believes it.