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Technically, technically, this was a good thing!
Robbie kept telling himself, and Jenny, more importantly Jenny, that this was a good thing.
Their kid wasn’t color-blind like Robbie and Jenny’s father and brothers! This was good!
Sure, Robbie was freaking out a bit. Or a lot. And his asshole dad would absolutely be a complete piece of shit about this if he ever found out, but Robbie had given up on having any real relationship with that asshole since he came out as bisexual.
Fuck, fuck!
This was fine! It was totally fine!
So his kid wasn’t his, so what?
Fuck, no!
Fuck that!
He’d been the one who put that kid on his bare chest when Jenny hadn’t been able to hold their newborn son. Robbie was the one up in the middle of night trading shifts with Jenny, he was the one who held this child’s hand when he learned to walk. He was the bedtime story rock star, the bath time enforcer, the keeper of scribbled family pictures and the captive audience of rambling daycare gossip.
So what if their fun, tipsy, little fling with a professional athlete lead to the creation of one half of Robbie’s entire fucking world?
He was a fucking lawyer, a damn good one, he’d handle this. Ilya Rozanov was not going to hurt his family.
*******
Shane wasn’t really sure why Ilya had asked Shane to drive to Ottawa tonight, but he knew his boyfriend wouldn’t ask him to interrupt his schedule without a good reason.
Ilya had sounded, weird, yea weird, on the phone, but Shane was trying not to freak out.
He might have broken the speed limit on his drive. Just a little bit.
Shane let himself into Ilya’s house. His silent house.
Oh fuck, what was wrong?
Shane found Ilya sitting at his kitchen table with a few packets of paper, staring straight ahead at nothing.
“Hey, Ilya.”
Ilya blinked a few times and looked at Shane. Why did he look so sad?
Shane came around the table and wrapped his arms around his still-seated boyfriend.
“Hey, what’s wrong? It’ll be okay, whatever it is.”
Ilya buried his face deeper into Shane’s torso, wrapped his own arms around Shane’s hips.
“I made mistake, in 2015.”
Shane tried to think of what kind of mistake Ilya could have made in 2015 that would only have repercussions now.
Ilya grabbed one of the papers on the table and handed it to Shane.
He read the first few paragraphs. Then he read them again, he read the whole letter.
“Oh fuck. You have a kid?”
“Ah, he says-”
Right, the letter had some pretty intense legal jargon, but Shane still got the general idea. This guy, Robert Parker, and his wife were informing Ilya of his biological offspring. They did not and would not consider Ilya the father.
They would legally fight Ilya if he tried to claim this child.
Shane’s arm tightened around Ilya’s shoulders. Ilya looked up at him.
“They say I not father but, will,-” Ilya made a face to show his dissatisfaction with whatever he was about to say, “-make deal?”
“Negotiate.”
Ilya nodded once.
“Negotiate, for place in life, like uncle.”
Shane thought about it, really thought about it. Ilya as a dad, a dad of a child he didn’t share with Shane, that was terrifying and made Shane want to throw up.
But, Ilya as an uncle.
He knew Ilya missed his niece, and felt guilty about his lack of relationship with her. He was great with Hayden’s kids too. They adored Uncle Ilya. He deserved as many nieces and nephews as possible.
And he knew Ilya wouldn’t want to walk away completely. He’d be scared about what it would mean for there to be a kid out there with his genetics, how the illnesses his father and mother suffered might impact this kid, especially if they didn’t know about their genetic history.
Shane bent down and kissed Ilya’s forehead. Ilya tipped up his head for another kiss, this time their lips meeting. Shane brushed his hand through Ilya’s curls.
Would this kid have Ilya’s curls? His smile?
“How old are they?”
“Four”
Shane nodded. That made sense, a few years before they took their relationship seriously.
“What’s his name?”
Ilya made a face.
“Hayden Parker.”
Shane almost fell down laughing.