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Jackie isn’t an important WAG. She’s married to Hayden, which is good - wives are harder to get rid of than girlfriends or fiancées, or at least they’re more expensive to get rid of. She has four kids with Hayden, which is good too - kids are hard to get rid of in a divorce, at least if a player doesn’t want to look like a complete douchebag and fuck up his sponsorships.
But she’s not a movie star or a pop star or even just an influencer. Jackie’s not famous for anything separate from being married to Hayden and having kids with him. She hasn’t even turned that into her brand because she thinks it’s gross and wants the kids to have some privacy - just because Hayden’s a bit famous, at least in hockey, doesn’t mean the kids are public property.
She’s pretty but not the prettiest. She’s smart but not the smartest. She’s just a middle-of-the-pack WAG. If she was a hockey player, she’d be a journeyman.
So when Shane and Ilya are outed (she’s still fucking mad at Hayd), Jackie knows she’s not going to be an important part of managing the fallout. They have Yuna Hollander, and expensive high-powered lawyers and PR crisis specialists on retainer to do that.
Jackie’s a real friend though so she’s going to support Shane and Ilya every way she can, even if it’s only by dealing with the awful Metros WAGs.
The Metros WAG group is like high school with more money and Botox. On bad days it’s much worse than high school because there are too many mean girls trying to be queen bee over the rest of them. Jackie’s usually lucky enough to be spared the worst of it - four small kids buys her a lot of excuses to duck out of social events with people she doesn’t like and a lot of the other WAGs aren’t interested in hearing about the life of a stay-at-home mom.
That all changes with the news about Shane and Ilya - now every Metros WAG is messaging and pretending to be friendly and, wow it’s been ages since they last caught up, when is Jackie free next? Jackie rolls her eyes. They’re not even good at being fake. But they’re just going to keep pestering Jackie until she caves - or worse, they’ll start making shit up - so Jackie finally agrees to attend a WAG wine night. It’s a huge pain in the ass because the guys are on the road, and she has to coordinate with her brother-in-law to baby-sit.
The Comeau’s house is trashy as fuck. It’s like they watched Gone With the Wind too many times and decided building an imitation cotton plantation in suburban Montreal - and cheaping out on the budget - was a good idea. Shane might be a huge architecture snob but he has great taste and doesn’t build things just to show off.
Jackie sighs inside when she sees how many WAGs are in the living room. It literally looks like every single player’s wife, girlfriend, friend with benefits, or other hookup is here. Everyone’s made way too much effort to look effortlessly beautiful.
Gabrielle Comeau glides forward, greets Jackie with air kisses. “Jackie!” She trills. “You made it!”
Jackie would literally rather be doing laundry than dealing with this nonsense but she’s not a quitter, she knows to finish her checks. “Thank you for hosting, Gabrielle - I know you don’t get to do it much.”
Gabrielle is the most beautiful woman Jackie has ever seen who’s not on a screen or magazine cover but her face curdles at Jackie’s words. Gabrielle has a giant chip on her shoulder because she’s not lead WAG or head WAG or whatever ridiculous made-up name they’re using these days. That ‘honour’ would usually go to the captain’s partner - Gabrielle was so fucking angry when Shane dated Rose Landry - or the partner of one of the As. Jackie doesn’t have the time or the interest - she’s happy to host when it’s Hayd’s turn to throw a party or dinner but she has no interest in coordinating a group of grown women with nothing in common except who they’re married to or dating or just fucking. Jackie’s lack of interest pisses off Gabrielle even more.
Heidi Miitka laughs. “It’s not like Rozanov was going to host as head WAG.”
Heidi’s okay, some of the time. She’s not always nice but she’s honest about it - none of this dancing around acting friendly, only to stab people in the back later. Even if Jackie doesn’t like her, she appreciates the lack of bullshit.
Jackie laughs back. “Ilya would be a great WAG. His parties are legendary.” He’s much more famous than Gabrielle too and she’d hate that. Jackie offers a fake-but-friendly WAG smile to Gabrielle. “Not that your wine nights aren’t great, Gab.”
Gabrielle’s going to splinter her plastic-looking veneers if she keeps grinding her teeth like that. “So you knew about Hollander and Rozanov? And you never told us? Jackie, I thought we were your friends!” She dabs at the corner of her eye, like Jackie betrayed her by not spilling all of Shane and Ilya’s private affairs. It’s not a kind thought but Jackie thinks Gabrielle looks like an overacting D-list actress.
“Shane and Ilya are my friends,” Jackie says simply. “I respect their privacy - just like I respect yours.”
She looks meaningfully around the room and it’s satisfying to see more than a few of the WAGs freeze. Jackie might not say much because no one wants to hear about Arthur’s dinosaurs, or how much the twins love hockey, or Amber’s latest favourite food. But she listens plenty, which means she knows plenty about the WAGs but also the players. She knows all about Gabrielle’s mountain of credit card debt, Celeste Drapeau’s DUIs and speeding tickets, Helene Roy’s day drinking. She knows about the affairs so many of the players have, and the barely-out-of-high school girl that Wilson pressured to get an abortion. She knows Koch takes game losses hard, and that he takes it out on his girlfriend.
It pisses Jackie off that the Metros are acting like Shane did something terrible by falling in love with Ilya, because all those guys have done far worse things. Since when is it bad to love someone?
Claire Renaud breaks the tense silence. “I liked the video you posted of your kids with Shane and, um, Rozanov. They looked like they were having fun.”
“The kids love Shane and Ilya,” Jackie says, smiling for real this time.
Celeste looks at Jackie with pity thinly laid over meanness. “It’s sweet you think that. But is Hollander going to even want to be friends after what Hayden did? And Rozanov doesn’t need to be nice to you and Hayden anymore, not since Hayden outed them anyway.”
Jackie smiles with her mouth but not her eyes. “Of course - we love Shane and Ilya," she repeats. "The photo was from the weekend.”
She watches the realisation hit. Hayden fucked up and outed Shane and Ilya a week ago but they’ve all hung out since. And they were all happy in the videos - kids don’t bother faking happiness just for a video they don’t even know is being filmed. Plus, Shane’s media training doesn’t include Oscar-winning performances faking relaxed and comfortable and happy - he could definitely do with some tips from Rose Landry. Some of the WAGs actually look disappointed that there isn’t more drama and bad feeling though.
Celeste raises one of her over-plucked eyebrows. “And Hayden’s okay with his wife being friends with Ilya Rozanov? How many women has he even been with? Can he count that high in English?” She lets out a high-pitched laugh. “Especially with your youngest calling him ‘Da’ in that video. Are you sure there’s nothing you want to tell us about Rozanov, Jackie?”
Jackie almost bursts out laughing - as if she has time or energy to cheat when she’s got four little kids and a husband away more often than he’s not. It just goes to show how unhappy Celeste is that she’s looking for unhappiness in everyone else. So Jackie puts on her most condescending smile.
“Oh, Celeste, I always forget you only speak one language! Did you even pass French in high school? Wait, did you finish high school? I always forget - I know you and Patrice got together young.”
Drapeau knocked up Celeste straight out of high school - their eldest was very ‘premature’ - and she hung onto the man and the money as hard as she could, but it’s still a sore spot. Jackie’s BA is nothing special but she liked studying it, is proud of herself for finishing it, and feels better knowing that she could work to support their family if she needed to. She might never make as much money as Hayd but that has more to do with how much professional hockey players are paid to play a game, not because Jackie can’t contribute.
“Patrice and I fell in love straight away,” Celeste snaps. “We were very lucky.”
“Still, it’s a shame that you missed out on so much by having a baby that early. Anyway, in case you didn’t know, ‘da’ is Russian for ‘yes’. Ilya’s teaching the kids. Hayd and I think linguistic and cultural enrichment is so important, you know? Yuna had Shane in Japanese classes as a kid and they’re all brushing up - they’re planning a vacation in Japan to visit family.”
Jackie can see wheels turning in heads. Plenty of WAGs kept an eye on Yuna Hollander when they thought Shane might be in the market for a wife and that any woman he married would have to get along with her mother-in-law. The WAGs also know that Yuna’s the one that gets Shane all the amazing sponsorships - including all the luxury designer labels that the WAGs all squabble over.
“You’re invited on a Hollander family vacation?” asks Helene faintly. Shane’s notoriously private - the WAGs are still pissed that Jackie has him over for family dinner on the regular.
”Oh no, that’s private family time for Shane and his parents and Ilya,” Jackie answers easily. “But the kids are excited about learning about other places in the world. And Rose is up for a part in a movie filming in Japan so that’s exciting too.”
”You know Rose Landry?” Claire gasps.
Jackie gives a modest little shrug. “Oh no - Shane knows Rose.”
Jackie hasn’t met Rose Landry. She’s a fan - along with most of the world - but she doesn’t want to be one of those awful people that uses Shane because he’s rich and famous and knows other rich, famous people. But she knows how the Metros WAGs think and they’ll read plenty that isn’t there in Jackie’s comment, think she’s discreetly highlighting that Jackie’s friends with a real Hollywood star now, just because they’re both friends with Shane.
“Rozanov won’t be travelling back to Russia anytime soon,” Heidi comments, taking a sip of the cheap wine Gabrielle pours into bottles labelled with more expensive vintages. “Not after that video.”
“That’s sad,” Claire says and she does actually look sad at the thought of someone losing a home country.
Heidi shrugs. “Understandable though. If . . . acceptance is not part of the culture, who are we to force it? It’s the same with the guys in the room not wanting to play with Hollander now.”
Most of the WAGs make murmurs of agreement. Jackie thinks meanly that they’re probably jealous, for multiple reasons. They’re jealous that their husbands like Shane more than their WAGs - at least before Shane was outed. But they’re also jealous that Shane fell in love with Ilya instead of the hundreds of WAGs that preen at him every time they cross paths. If Shane was the shitty sort of guy who’d cheat with a teammate’s wife, Jackie would bet anything that every single Metros WAG would dump their current player for Shane, whether he was offering a hookup, a secret affair, or to marry them tomorrow with a plastic ring from a cereal box.
Jackie would love to scream at all of them, tell them they’re homophobic pieces of shit who don’t deserve Shane. Instead, she forces herself to play it cool.
“That kind of division is bad in the room,” she says evenly. “Shane’s contract is up at the end of the season.”
Heidi might not be nice but she’s not dumb either. “You think he won’t re-sign?”
It’s Jackie’s turn to shrug as she watches the worry start to spread among the WAGs. “Who knows? But why would he want to stay with a team who doesn’t . . . accept him.”
The WAGs don’t give a shit about Shane but they care a lot about themselves. The Metros are a much weaker team without Shane - there’s a reason they hadn’t even made the playoffs in years before drafting Shane. Without Shane, all the Metros miss out on contract and playoff bonuses, on publicity and sponsorships. Without Shane, the Metros are just another bunch of losers who don’t win the Cup. That’s less money for the WAGs, a smaller plainer house, worse schools for the kids, fewer designer bags and diamonds.
The wine night fizzles out early. No one wants to stay just to sit on the Comeau’s uncomfortable ugly white furniture, drink bad wine, and eat dry hors d'oeuvres. And the WAGs have plenty to think about on how supporting Shane is good for them. Shane loves the Metros and Jackie doesn’t want him to be on a team that hates him and treats him badly.
But she’s also so sad that she has to try to convince the WAGs - and, maybe through them, the team - that, yeah, they should accept Shane because it’s the right and non-asshole thing to do but also because he’s their friend and captain. He’s gone to their weddings and held their newborn babies and been there with them through slumps and wins, on and off the ice.
So part of Jackie also hopes that Shane doesn’t sign a new contract with Montreal, that he goes somewhere better. She hopes he doesn’t stay with a team that still hates him but puts up with him out of self-interest. She hopes he and Ilya leave the shitshow of Montreal far behind them, and head off to a bright future where they can be happy and in love with each other forever.
It’d also be great if Shane and Ilya win a million Cups with their new team and keep the Metros out of the playoffs until everyone on the current roster and front office is dead (sorry, Hayd, but Jackie’s still mad about the fucking Fanmail video and she loves Shane more than the Metros).