Chapter Text
While Yuna waits for the doctors to be done with Shane and for David to come from Shane’s place with some hospital stay essentials, Hayden Pike brings her Shane's personal things from the locker room. Shane’s suit and his Rolex watch and his phone, all packed into Shane’s equipment bag.
Hayden lets himself be hugged tightly and returns the gesture with just as much feeling. Yuna doesn’t know him closely, but she knows he’s been practically a brother to Shane all these years. His wife, Jackie, sits with them whenever Yuna and David make it to Shane’s games. He would stay for as long as he is able, but he has a wife and a flock of small children and he’s just played a game. Yuna sends him home, because he's pale and shaken and his eyelids start dropping. He promises to return the next day.
Yuna is glad for his friendship with Shane. Sometimes she can't help but worry her son is lonely, even when surrounded by people.
She’s left in the waiting room alone, with just the bag of Shane’s things for company.
Just as she opens it to see whether it needs repacking to meet Shane’s standards, the bag buzzes. Well, Shane’s phone inside it does.
Yuna reaches for it automatically. Just in time to see the notification on screen.
The message is cut short by the preview window. The phone’s screen fades to black again, but just briefly, before it lights up with another notification.
Yuna takes a deep breath. She doesn’t know of any Lily in Shane’s life. There’s a neighbor named Lilian, but she is in her fifties and has three sons older than Shane. Yuna doesn’t think he’s ever talked to her.
This Lily, however…
She sounds like she cares. Shane has her saved in his phone, no last name or business affiliation, which means she can’t be a random fan nor a professional contact. Possibly a partner of one of his teammates, but—
No, her pleas sound a little more personal than that.
Yuna feels sorry for her instantly. This girl or woman unknown to her, but who is clearly waiting for updates on Shane’s health. It must be nerve wrecking.
And it'll be so long before Shane can respond to her, even after he wakes up.
Feeling a little guilty, Yuna takes a deep breath and unlocks Shane’s phone. He’s a creature of habit, her son, and she reliably hits the correct combination of numbers for the PIN code on just her second try.
She’ll just reply Lily with Shane’s prognosis into the existing message thread. That’s what Yuna tells herself.
Except she opens the thread and flinches.
Reflexively, Yuna closes the conversation even as she sees Lily typing. This is not something she wants to read; it's not something Shane would want her to read. He'd be mortified.
Logically, she knows her son is an adult. He has adult desires and adult relationships and, apparently, adult conversations. Though if you'd asked her before this moment whether she'd ever expect to find dirty messages on Shane's phone, she'd have—
Well, she doesn't know what she would have done or said, because she's never thought about it before.
She can't possibly reply to that thread, introducing herself as Shane's mother. It would likely be unpleasant to both Shane and—
His girlfriend? He hasn't mentioned anyone since his brief relationship with Rose Landry. Clearly, however, something is going on between him and this Lily, and whoever Lily is, she seems to care. Even if she is a casual relationship, or new, she deserves an update. Yuna remembers the early days of being with David, and she'd have gone to drastic measures to get news on him if something happened.
So Yuna opens up Shane's contacts, searches for Lily – no last name – and presses "Call" before she can think better of it.
Lily picks up on the first ring.
There's a breath of tense silence, then hesitant: "...yes?"
And that's—
Almost certainly not a girl's voice.
"Is this— This is Yuna Hollander. Shane's mother. I found your— I saw your messages, I thought Shane'd want me to call you."
Now that she's on the phone call, she is absolutely certain this is the opposite of what Shane would want her to do. Nevertheless, it's too late now and Yuna braces for the consequences.
There's a brief silence, then a slightly hoarse male voice says: "Is he— Mrs. Hollander, is Shane—"
The person, almost certainly a man, in Shane's phone has an accent and there's something nagging at the back of her mind about his voice, but Yuna doesn't recognize him. What she recognizes is the fear in his tone, the utter terror behind his broken speech. The question he can't bring himself to finish.
"He'll be okay," she hurries to reassure him. "The injury looked worse than it was. They're not done with tests yet, but he is not in any immediate danger."
The man breathes a sigh of relief.
"I think he'd like you to visit when he wakes up," Yuna offers softly. She can't be sure of that, she knows nothing about their relationship, but it feels like the right thing to say.
The man laughs quietly, with an edge of sadness. "I'm not sure about that."
"You're Lily, right? That's how Shane has you saved. You've been... seeing each other?" It's not a shock that Shane would be seeing a man. She and David have long thought that he might be inclined to, but they waited for him to say something. If he ever said something. Some days Yuna has wondered whether Shane was interested in anyone at all; she's heard that some people simply aren't.
She isn't happy that she found out the truth this way. For many reasons.
"It's not—" It's not serious, he clearly wants to say, but can't bring himself to. "I want to visit, Mrs. Hollander. I can't."
"He will have a private room. I could introduce you as... his brother, a family friend, whoever."
Silence. Then: "You're very kind, Mrs. Hollander."
She wants to tell him to call her Yuna. She also wants to tell him to man up and come to the hospital, but then it hits her he might not even be in the same city. Shane travels so much that for all she knows, Lily could be from Toronto or Boston or Tampa... She wonders how they've met, but Shane is unwillingly dragged to so many events and there are so many apps and websites these days...
"Thank you for calling," the man says. His voice is steadier now, almost distant. His accent's less pronounced. "Tell Shane— Don't tell him nothing. He'll message me when he's able."
She wants to argue, but the man ends the call.
Yuna wants to be angry with him, but mostly she is sad. And exhausted.
She copies the number into her own phone and shoots him a message just as a nurse steps into the waiting room.