Chapter Text
Practice was winding down slowly. It felt as though every time Ilya said that it was the last time, one of the rookies would do something to make him say to do it once again.
“Mummy, if you don’t pull your shit together, I swear to God, we’re all going to be accomplices to a murder,” Luca said, catching his breath.
Alexander Mumford—Mummy—glared. “It wasn’t my fault! I was just looking over to see what they were doing over there!”
“How about you look at what you’re doing over here?” Shane said. “I can’t go home until you fuckers make Ilya happy.”
“By that he means that he can’t be fucked senseless until he gets home and in order to get home, Roz has to tell us practice is over,” LaPointe muttered.
“LaPointe,” Ilya called. “If you’re done theorising about your captain’s sex life, I’d like to finish up practice!”
LaPointe blushed. “Yes sir!”
“Hollander! Your phone is ringing!” Harris called from the stands. “I tried ignoring it, but they’ve called back twice!”
Shane glanced over at Wiebe, than at Ilya—both of whom nodded. Shane skated over to the sidelines to get his phone. The caller ID just said Rebecca. Shane felt sick.
“Ilya!” He called, waving him over. “Ilya, it’s Rebecca!”
Nobody else knew who Rebecca was, but Ilya stopped dead in his tracks. He’d just about blown his whistle, but it fell from his mouth. He got over to Shane in record breaking time.
Shane answered. “Hi, Rebecca. Sorry, we’re at practice. Ilya’s with me.”
Harris silently handed both of them guards and as they got off the ice. Ilya called back over his shoulder. “Practice is over!”
Harris left as everyone else got off the ice.
“No, you’re fine. I’m really glad you picked up, though.”
“What is wrong?” Ilya asked.
“We have two kids.” Rebecca took a deep breath. “And a dog.”
Shane looked at Ilya, confused. “What do you mean a dog?”
“All I know right now is that the dog has to go with the kids. I haven’t met with the kids or even gotten paperwork for them, but apparently their current placement is having problems with them.”
“We have dog already,” Ilya said.
“Yeah, that’s why I thought of you. I thought that since you guys have Anya and she’s gotten her okay, that it would ease the kids into letting go of the dog,”
“If we need, Anya would love to have a sibling,” Shane said, looking at Ilya.
“Yes, she asks all the time. Papa, Daddy, please, siblings, please.” Ilya said, a small smile forming.
Rebecca laughed and the sound of a car door closing came through the microphone. “I’m going to go meet with the kids now and pull them from the placement. I’ll call you back with more information afterwards, okay?”
“Yeah, alright,” Shane said.
Rebecca hung up and Shane and Ilya moved to the locker room as quickly as they could.
“Is everything okay?” Wyatt asked as Shane dipped into the showers.
“Yes, everything okay,” Ilya said, waving his hand.
Shane ran back out and got changed as quickly as he could. He clutched his phone. “Ilya, did you put the covers on the sockets like I told you to?”
“Yes, Shane,”
“And are the knives up in the cupboard?”
“Yes,”
“And—”
“Yes,” Ilya put his hands on Shane’s shoulders. “It’s okay.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Anya is going to be very happy,” Ilya said.
Shane’s eyes widened in panic. “Should we put her in our room?”
“No, she’ll behave.” Ilya said. He grabbed the last of their stuff and slowly guided Shane to the car. The rest of the locker room just watched.
~~~
As Ilya drove, Shane’s initial panic turned into intense planning. Ilya nodded and listened to Shane explain how they were going to go about everything. As they walked in, Shane immediately went to the kitchen. (“The kitchen is one of the top most dangerous places in the house, Ilya! Go get the bathrooms! That’s number one!”)
Ilya carried in the gear inside and put it away properly. He put the skates on the highest shelf in the closet, inside their bags and with the guards on.
Then, he went to the bathroom. He brought the socket covers because he knew that he would’ve inevitably forgotten that there were plugs in Canadian bathrooms. He did. He forgot them. He hurried to the other bathrooms and covered them before Shane could worry about it. Then, he cleaned until Shane called for him. He hurried to the living room, where Shane was standing in front of the couch.
“Rebecca,” He mouthed as he answered. “Hey!”
“Hi!” Rebecca said. She sounded happier than she had earlier. “So, we have twins. Seven years old. Elowen and Ronan. They’re sweethearts. Literally, I sat down in the living room and Ronan handed me a pillow and blanket. It was absolutely adorable,”
Shane’s heart melted. “My heart cannot take how cute that is,”
“I know, right!” She cleared her throat. “About the dog,”
“Right, the most important part to our Anya.” Ilya said.
Rebecca laughed. “The dog is a boy. He’s been neutered, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
“Good, otherwise we’d have to give talk.” Ilya said. Shane finally laughed. There it was. Ilya smiled at him.
“His name is Nugget. He’s a golden retriever. He seemed to be good. He’s house trained and everything.”
“Why does he go with the kids?” Shane asked.
“Ronan has epilepsy. I think that’s why their previous placement was struggling. Nugget is a seizure alert dog.”
Ilya took a deep breath.
“He says he has a seizure about once or twice a month. It’s the result of a traumatic brain injury. They were in a car accident and that’s how they ended up in the system.”
Shane nodded. “Okay.”
“They’re not afraid of cars, as far as I can tell. They seem cautious, but not terrified. Ronan’s seizures are usually caused by extreme stress and being overheated.”
“Good thing we work around ice.” Ilya said, completely seriously. “Work in a freezer,”
“Yeah. It’s ideal.”
“Does he have any other, like, symptoms of the TBI?” Shane asked.
“Very mild aphasia sometimes and headaches.”
“Okay,”
“Okay?”
“We will take them,” Ilya said. “We are attached now. Buy two, get one dog free.”
“Ilya, we’re not buying children!” Shane exclaimed, reaching over to swat at his husband.
Rebecca laughed. “Alright, I’ll bring them and the paperwork over in about twenty minutes?”
The words ‘over in about twenty minutes’ sparked something in Shane’s brain like a sleeper agent hearing their code word. He worked faster than Ilya had ever seen before. Ilya didn’t even know what to do in fear of getting in Shane’s way. So, he busied himself in the kitchen, pulling out some snacks and drinks. He then put the drinks away, because he didn’t know if the kids would even like those drinks.
“Breathe, Ilya,” Shane said, wrapping himself around Ilya. “It’s going to be okay. Do you want something to drink?”
“No, I’m okay,” Ilya took a deep breath and turned around. He kissed Shane softly. “How much longer do we have?”
The doorbell rang as Shane opened his mouth.
“None,”
Ilya kissed Shane again before they walked to the door.
“Hello, Rebecca, it’s so good to see you,” Shane said, holding his hand out for a handshake.
“Shane,” Rebecca smiled and shook his hand.
Behind Rebecca, Ilya saw two little ones and a dog that was almost as big as them. For a moment, Ilya wondered if the kids just put a saddle on the dog and rode the dog to their house.
“Hello,” he said. “I’m Ilya.”
Rebecca moved out of the way and Shane crouched down in front of them. “Hi, my name is Shane.”
The twins looked at each other for a moment before nodding.
“Do you want to have a snack?” Shane asked. “Ilya got some out before you got here. Though, he may have made it entirely sugar,”
The twins brightened at the sound of sugar. Shane smiled and led them over to the kitchen.
“Okay, so, tonight we’ll have to go out and get some more snacks,” Shane said, looking at the pantry. “We have the fruit snacks and granola bars that Ilya got out and then a bunch of boring food.”
They nodded.
“So, I’m Shane, and my husband is Ilya, but who are you?” Shane asked, smiling softly.
“‘M Elowen,” The girl said. “And that’s Ronan.”
“And who’s the dog?” Shane asked, looking at the golden retriever who was sitting at Ronan’s feet. He had a service animal vest on.
“That’s Nugget!” Elowen said. “He’s very nice,”
“We have a dog too,” Shane said. “Her name is Anya! She’s also very nice,”
Ilya appeared behind Shane and clicked his tongue, calling Anya. “Anya,”
Rebecca stood behind the kids. She put the paperwork on the island. Anya stormed past her and sat down in front of Ilya.
“Hello, sweetheart,” Ilya said, scratching her ears. “Look, new people. This is Elowen and Ronan and their dog, Nugget!”
Anya barked softly and walked cautiously over to the twins, who pet her lovingly.
“She’s so pretty!” Elowen exclaimed.
“She is, isn’t she?”
Shane sat down on the floor and played with Anya and the twins while Ilya filled out the paperwork. They traded when Shane needed to sign as well.
“Alright, well, I’m off.” Rebecca said. “Call me if you need anything!”
“Oh, wait,” Ilya said, scrambling up. “Is there anything we need to do for Ronan?”
“Health wise?” Rebecca asked to confirm.
“Yeah,”
“Just normal appointments. If seizures start becoming more common, then take him to the doctor just to be safe, but it’s going to be okay.”
Shane pursed his lips. “And Nugget. Is he okay to be off the vest when he’s here?”
“Yep!” Rebecca said. “You are going to do amazingly,”
“Thank you,” Ilya said as they walked over to the door. “Seriously,”
“Just try to keep Shane from freaking out too much, yeah?”
Ilya smiled. “Always,”
~~~