Work Text:
Yuna Hollander never had any difficulties with sleep. She had a healthy sleep pattern despite the odd hours she would be awake to watch Shane’s games that were in different time zones. So, when she bolted upright from her slumber, her husband, David, was concerned something was wrong.
“Yuna?” he said as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “Is something wrong? Shane…?”
“The summer before their Rookie Season…” Yuna said as she turned her bedside lamp on. “Ilya said the summer before their Rookie Season.”
“What are you talking about?” David asked, slightly frustrated that Yuna was disturbing his sleep and not giving him any clear answers.
“The summer before their Rookie Season,” Yuna repeated for a third time. “That commercial… The elevator, Ilya was in it…”
“Sweetheart, you’re not making any sense,” David said as he tried to soothe his wife. “Let’s go through to the lounge and discuss this over a mug of tea.”
Yuna agreed and went through to the lounge while David went to make two mugs of tea. Things were starting to connect in Yuna’s brain, but she needed to talk things through with David to make sure it all made sense.
“So, what were you saying about the summer before Rookie Season?” David asked as he handed Yuna her mug of herbal tea.
“Shane was offered that commercial last minute,” Yuna began as she tried sorting things out in her head. “Then a few days before it we were updated that they wanted to promote the top two drafts of the season…”
“Yeah, I remember that,” David said. “You said it looked like the league were getting ready to promote a new rivalry between the 1 and 2 drafts.”
“Well, remember when I called you that night about 9pm, well, a little after?” Yuna asked.
“Yeah, you were complaining about Rosanov,” David supplied. “How he was in the lift and it was going up and wouldn’t let you on.”
“I stood and watched what floor he got off the lift on,” Yuna said, getting more animated the more she explained. “He got off the lift on the 14th floor. Shane’s room was 1410. He was in that lift going to meet with our son!”
“Yuna, sweetheart, you need to calm down,” David said as he lifted the herbal tea to her mouth. “Take a deep breath and then take a drink of tea. So, you think that’s the night they were talking about?”
“It has to be,” Yuna said. “Shane couldn’t take his eyes off of Ilya when he was on the ice alone and I was trying to talk to him about his Reebok sponsorship.”
“Well, we can ask them tomorrow at dinner,” David suggested. “Obviously not in a direct manner, but just for a basic idea of their timeline…”
“And Shane being glued to his phone as the years progressed,” Yuna interrupted. “The number of times I wanted to play the ‘mom card’ when he was constantly on that thing at shoots and interviews.”
“Our little boy has grown up before our very eyes,” David reasoned, as he took his wife’s hand to comfort her. “He’s fallen in love with someone who appears to love him so deeply that he’s willing to uproot his life and move teams completely to be nearer him. Ilya knows how important family is to Shane and how important Canada is to Shane, so he’s willing to sacrifice everything to make our boy happy. Can you honestly tell me that you would be happy if it was the other way around? Would you be happy if it were Shane moving to somewhere like Buffalo?”
“Of course not, I’m happy that Shane is going to remain a Metro,” Yuna reasoned.
“And he’s going to have more reasons to come back to Ottawa,” David added.
“Yes, he’s going to have more reasons to come back to Ottawa,” Yuna agreed. “We can encourage them to come for dinner more.”
“And we can look out for Ilya when he moves here,” be the family that boy deserves for how good he’s caring for our boy.”
“Once the charity is announced,” Yuna added as she smiled at the thought of caring for Ilya. Shane and Ilya had explained the background to their charity and Yuna felt that she needed to be there to heal the inner child of the man who loved her baby boy. “I don’t want to out them before they are ready.”
“Exactly,” David said through a yawn. “Now we’ve come to the agreement that we are going to love and care for both of them, can we go back to bed and talk to them about it tomorrow? I’m struggling to stay awake here.”
“Yeah, Yuna smiled as she placed her mug on the coffee table. “Let’s go back to bed now my head seems to have settled down and made sense of everything.”
As David guided Yuna back to bed, he took his phone out of his pocket and discretely sent a text to Shane:
Your mother thinks she’s worked out the exact moment in the summer before Rookie Season.