Chapter Text
They had spent a nice relaxing day with their baby, making sure to have quality bonding time within their new little family. In the afternoon, Shane and Ilya had ordered some things for Luca - some basics as well as toys and clothes. Ilya would have loved to order everything for a whole nursery, but somehow Shane had managed to stop him.
By nighttime the young one was so tired that he fell asleep almost instantly after his bath. But for Shane and Ilya sleep didn't come as easy. The whole day Luca hadn't shown a single sign of returning to his big headspace. And tomorrow they had a home game in the evening. They had no idea what to do if Luca was still little by that time.
The next morning, all three of them were woken up by the door bell, making Luca cry out at the disturbance.
“Oh, malysh, it's okay…” Ilya cooed as he gathered Luca in his arms. The baby immediately buried his face in Ilya's neck, sniffling while clutching Wau-wau in his arms.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Shane mumbled, wanting to bury his face in his pillow, not even acknowledging Ilya's frowning look.
“Language!”
Shane opened a single eye and looked at Ilya. “Seriously?”
Before their banter could continue, the bell rang again, making Luca whimper once more.
“Okay, okay,” Shane mumbled as he got up and put on a shirt before making his way downstairs.
When he finally opened the door, his heart stopped beating for a moment. It was coach Wiebe, who looked at him with a mixture of concern and nervousness.
“Good morning, Shane. Sorry for turning up unannounced like that but I couldn’t reach you nor Ilya on your phones…”
“Yeah… erm… sorry. Come in, coach,” Shane said as he stepped aside to let Wiebe into the house. He led him into the kitchen and started the coffee machine. He simply hoped the other man wouldn’t wonder about his slightly shaking hands.
Coach hesitated for a moment before sitting down at the counter. “I want to make this quick, Shane. Have you heard anything about Luca by any chance? I can’t reach him either. He’s not at home and I worry about him after everything that happened.”
Shane had to swallow against the lump in his throat as he put a cup of black coffee in front of the older man. He hated lying, but then he couldn’t really tell coach the truth, not until-
“Papa! Stop it!”
Luca’s voice blared out from upstairs, giggling loudly, obviously being tortured with a tickling attack from Ilya.
Shane winced and shared a long look with Wiebe.
“I can explain,” he uttered, sighing before calling upstairs, “Ilya? Could you and Luca come down for a moment?”
At first there was only silence. Then Ilya’s heavy steps could be heard on the stairs as he called: “You sure, Shane?”
“Yeah…” Shane’s voice was low, his eyes still on Wiebe when Ilya finally came around the corner, carrying Luca in his arms. The baby didn’t look up, still hiding his face in Ilya’s neck. But the situation was obvious.
For a long moment, no word was spoken. Ilya and Shane looked frightened and deep in thought. Wiebe, on the other hand, wasn’t really frowning, but was rather deep in thought.
“Let’s sit down somewhere more comfortable. Shall we?” he finally said. They made their way to the living room, where they all sat down.
By that time Luca had started whimpering again. His mind might have not understood the situation, but he was very aware of the nervousness around him. Ilya was rubbing his back, but even he didn’t have the words to calm him down. Instead it was, once again, Wiebe who was ready to talk.
“Somehow… this explains a few things. In what age range is he dropping?”
“Very young. He’s a baby, really. Sometimes even non verbal. He needs to be carried all the time,” Shane answered. His own hand was in Luca’s hair, trying to calm the baby through his presence.
“How long have you known?”
“We found him in his apartment the day before yesterday…”
Wiebe nodded. “Has he come up yet?”
“Not at all,” Ilya sighed.
“That’s not good. Not good at all. And I’m not talking about the hockey situation here. I’m a caregiver myself and I know that a drop should never last longer than 48 hours…”
Wiebe reached out to the stuffed dog which had been abandoned on the couch. He looked at it for a moment before carefully bringing it up to Luca’s neck, trying to tickle him with the soft tissue. Luca couldn’t help himself and giggled slightly before turning towards the coach for the first time. Several of his fingers were in his mouth and the look in his eyes was still radiating fear.
“Hey there, little one,” Wiebe cooed, hoping to ease the situation a bit, “You’re all snuggled up with Papa there?”
Luca nodded slowly, not showing a single sign of letting go of Ilya any time soon. It was obvious he didn’t really trust the other older man yet. After all, in his regressed mind he was a complete stranger.
“Alright, first things first…” Wiebe addressed Shane and Ilya again, “The home game tonight. I can excuse you for morning skate, that’s not a problem. But I can’t miss my captain and star center at the same time tonight. On top of Luca that is. One of you can stay with the baby, but the other needs to be on the ice. And I need to know who so that I can plan accordingly. The team doesn’t need to know the reason, not yet. I am very aware of the rules concerning littles, but Luca’s health is the priority here. He needs to be checked out by a doctor-”
“No!” Luca immediately screeched, trying to get out of his papa’s hold despite the missing coordination in his limbs. Ilya needed all his strength to stop Luca from falling to the floor.
“It’s okay, malysh, it’s okay…”
“Actually, Lisa Hayes is a specialist in little health. I’m pretty sure we can arrange something private,” Wiebe said, “And only if everything is alright, we can think about how to deal with the hockey situation.”