Chapter Text
Labor Day Weekend, 2023
“You are nervous,” Ilya said. He was standing in the kitchen watching Shane examine their wine glasses, searching for non-existent water stains.
“I–what? Well, yeah, it’s kind of a big deal!” Shane sputtered back. He selected the four cleanest wine glasses and returned the remaining ones to the cabinet.
They had just hosted Hayden, Jackie, and their four children at the cottage for Labor Day Weekend. The Pikes would be heading back to Montreal the next morning and Shane and Ilya were planning to ask them to be references for their adoption application that night.
Shane had masterminded the whole excursion in order to provide them with plenty of material for their letter. As usual, Shane and Ilya doted on the kids–Ilya indulged the twins, Ruby and Jade, as they made up their own rules for Spikeball, and Shane took Arthur and Amber on hikes, asking them questions about the bugs they found. They both supervised while the kids splashed in the lake, and Hayden and Jackie gratefully relinquished their parenting duties. The Pike kids played together so peacefully, bringing a vibrant and youthful energy to the cottage that was beginning to feel too big for just Shane and Ilya to enjoy themselves. It was hard to look at them and not yearn for the day when they would be able to make happy memories with kids of their own.
Now Hayden was waiting for them outside, stoking the fire that they had used to roast marshmallows, and Jackie was getting the kids settled for bed.
Ilya strode over and placed his hands on Shane’s shoulders. “It is a big deal,” he agreed, “but I am certain that they will say yes, even if you ask them in a text message.”
“Well, excuse me for wanting to make sure! And I can’t believe that’s how you asked Troy and Harris,” Shane said disapprovingly, referring to their other friends who’d readily agreed to write a reference letter. He turned around to look at Ilya. “You have to remember that Hayden and Jackie are, like, straight.”
“Oh really…” Ilya raised an eyebrow.
“I’m serious!” Shane scolded. “They’ll probably have questions, or whatever.” Ilya sighed as Shane continued. “Are you ready? I can do most of the talking.”
“I know, you told me already, and I will try to not say anything mean to Hayden…”
“I would appreciate that–”
“But he is so fun to tease!”
Shane glowered at him, but his expression softened as Ilya gently stroked his arms. He took a breath before he said, more to himself than to Ilya, “Let’s go do this.”
They made their way out to the patio, Shane carrying the wineglasses, Ilya the wine. Their dog Anya followed close behind.
Hayden was perched on the outdoor loveseat. He’d thrown on a hoodie emblazoned with the name of a Montreal bagel shop over his T-shirt and basketball shorts. Ilya was glad he had the wherewithal not to bring his Metros zip-up–although, maybe Jackie packed for him, Ilya thought, smiling to himself.
“Check this out! It’s roaring!” Hayden said, pleased to have an audience for what he believed to be superior fire-stoking skills.
“Yeah, that’s awesome!” Shane agreed. Ilya bit his tongue.
“Thanks so much for inviting us out here,” Hayden continued as Shane and Ilya took their seats across from him. “I’m kind of jealous we don’t have a cottage! It’s been really great for the kids to play outdoors, and Jackie had a great time too.”
“They are welcome back anytime,” Ilya said, opening up the wine. Shane side-eyed him at the obvious omission of Hayden in this remark, but Ilya genuinely loved the Pike kids. And Jackie. And he liked Hayden, even if he would never admit that to his face.
Luckily, Jackie soon returned from putting the kids to bed. “The kids are so sad to be leaving tomorrow. You’ll never believe what Amber said, she was asking if we could come back every summer! Isn’t that cute?”
“That’s adorable. We’ve loved hosting you all,” Shane replied almost automatically. He handed Jackie a glass with a generous pour of wine and waited for her to take a seat next to Hayden. He sat up a little straighter before delivering his well-rehearsed line, “Now that you’re both here, we wanted to let you know that we have started an application for adoption.”
“Ooooh! This is wonderful news!” Jackie squealed.
“Finally!” Hayden cheered.
“Well, don’t get too excited yet. We’re working with a private agency, and our case manager specializes in working with same-sex couples, but even with that, it could take a long time, maybe even a couple years.” Jackie looked at them sympathetically. “We've already started taking classes and going through the paperwork, but we still have to do home visits and a bunch of other stuff has to happen before we can get approved.”
“Damn, that’s a lot, guys.” Hayden said. “I didn’t know they had classes, I could have used some of those!”
“Oh, Hayd, give yourself some credit.” Jackie said, patting his knee. Ilya pursed his lips to keep himself from snickering.
“So, are you going to adopt a baby? Or an older kid?” Hayden asked.
“There’s not a lot we can control…. A birth parent also has to choose us, and usually this happens with newborns, but not always. We really just want to be parents.” Shane explained.
“Are you going to adopt from Russia?” Jackie asked, looking at Ilya.
“Unfortunately, that is not an option for us. Russia does not recognize same-sex couples.” Ilya’s neutral tone betrayed little of the turmoil he felt about this, but Jackie reached out to put her hand on his shoulder anyway.
“I’m sorry, I know that–I should have realized…,” Jackie said.
“It's okay.” Ilya reassured her.
“Not saying there’s anything wrong with adoption, but have you looked into getting a surrogate?” Hayden asked.
“We did, a little, but adoption feels like the right thing for us.” Shane answered, glancing at Ilya, but he had busied himself with massaging Anya’s ears. Shane hoped his vague answer would suffice. Despite his close relationship with Hayden, he hadn’t divulged the details of his and Ilya’s discussions about how they wanted to start a family.
In truth, they had researched both options, but Ilya always came back to adoption. After his mother’s suicide, he lacked a safe and loving home. It wasn’t until his father died and he’d cut ties with his brother that he was able to start building relationships with a chosen family. Ilya wished that he’d had access to that kind of support earlier, and a part of him felt like maybe he could soothe those wounds, or help a child avoid them altogether, if he was able to provide a safe home for someone not born into one.
Ilya silently admitted to himself that Shane had been right–they did have a lot of questions. And even though he and Shane had discussed them, he doubted that couples like Hayden and Jackie were probed in the same way about their means of having children. He tried to ignore the nagging sensation that asking for this letter felt like asking for permission—permission from a straight couple to invite them into their exclusive parenting club. He knew that vetting was important, and that plenty of straight couples adopt kids too, but… but… Ilya pushed the thought aside and turned his focus to the fire. He tuned out their remaining questions, relieved that Shane took on fielding the rest.
Finally, after all of their questions were exhausted, they fell into a pensive silence. Shane took another sip of his wine. Ilya prompted him with a nod.
“The thing is,” Shane cleared his throat, “as part of this application, we need references who can, you know, ‘attest to our suitability’ as parents.” Shane reached for Ilya’s hand. “And we would love it if you guys–seeing as you’re our closest friends, and you’ve seen us around your kids–could be references for us.”
“Wow, holy shit, man! Of course!”
“We'd be honored to help in any way we can.” Jackie said, blinking back tears.
Shane breathed a deep sigh of relief. “You mean it? Oh my God, thank you, guys. That means so much.” Jackie had already gotten up to hug each of them, followed by Hayden.
“Did you seriously think we’d say no?” Hayden patted Shane’s shoulder affectionately.
“He did, actually,” Ilya said, grateful to finally be off the clock from his best behavior. “He was very nervous. He made sure the wine glasses were clean enough so you would say yes!” Ilya added, snickering.
“Shut up, Ilya–”
“Oh yeah? They were so clean! Never had a cleaner wine glass in my life!” said Hayden, joining in on the fun. Now he and Ilya were both laughing, but Hayden finally got ahold of himself. “Jeez, Shane! Have a little faith in me, buddy! I won’t fuck this up, I promise.”
Ilya stood up and accepted Hayden’s outstretched hand. When he sat back down, he put his arm around Shane and pulled him in to plant a kiss on his cheek.
“Ah, okay,” Shane said, visibly relieved. “So, you’ll be asked to provide a letter of support, and then there will probably be a follow-up call, and Moira–she’s our case manager–will be in touch, and–”
“Shane,” Ilya interrupted, “It's okay.” He looked over at Hayden and Jackie. “The letter is not so complicated. We can give you all the details later.”
“We are happy to do it! You will both be wonderful parents.” Jackie raised her glass. “How about a toast to the dads-to-be?”