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Nadezdha's feet plod heavily in the sandy dirt that surrounds the baseball diamond, forming the track that they run on sometimes during P.E. She's on her second lap and faltering heavily as the symptoms of what is clearly a massive asthma attack begin to creep into her body. First, her body begins to feel like cement, like every step she takes is restrained by a lead boot. Her hands are going to start tingling in a minute, she realizes, as she starts to wheeze. She slows down from the steady jog she's been trying to keep up, and when she nearly stops, the whistle blows from the entrance of the track.
"You don't get to stop until you've finished your last lap!" Mrs. Lauterbaugh barks. "Three laps means three laps, Nadezdha!"
Fighting the tears brimming in her eyes, Nadezdha keeps pushing herself as her chest grows tighter and tighter, throat growing more uncomfortable by the second. It's growing irritated by her wheezing, which only means that the airway begins to narrow even faster. She doesn't know how she does it, but she finishes the third lap.
Her entire body is screaming and her vision is starting to darken on the edges. She needs her inhaler more than she's ever needed it in her life and fear and the feeling of impending doom are beginning to creep up on her. Unbidden, the thought I'm going to die enters her brain between the desperate pleas for oxygen, and it terrifies her to her core. As if on autopilot, she exits the track, blowing past the teacher and heading up the steep hill to the entrance of the school.
"If you leave without permission you're getting detention!" Mrs. Lauterbaugh calls after her as she plows on on shaking legs, gasping for air. Several students look deeply alarmed and concerned as Nadezdha pushes past and hurries up to the school.
The hallway up to the nurses office seems impossibly long, and with every step Nadezdha can feel herself growing weaker. Her hands and arms are numb now and there's a buzzing in her nose that tells her that she's on the edge of passing out.
The moment she crosses the threshold of the nurses office, her legs finally give out and she drops to the floor, gasping for air with wide, panicked eyes.
The office explodes into movement the moment it happens. Miss Vickie, one of the secretaries, comes around the desk to help her off of the floor and prop her against the wall. She holds Nadezdha's arms over her head to help open her lungs while Nurse Kathy grabs the emergency inhaler and spacer that they keep for her.
She's deeply alarmed when she crouches down next to Nadezdha. She's blue around her lips and she's clammy with sweat. She gets the spacer between her lips and presses the inhaler, ejecting the medicine into the tube. The spacer helps keep the medicine airborne so she can inhale again. The first hit of medication isn't immediately working, so she administers a second.
She's timing how long it takes for there to be much improvement, and after a minute passes, she looks over to Miss Amy, the other secretary. "Call 911, and then call Shane."
Nurse Kathy strokes Nadezdha's hair. She's breathing a little bit better, but her face is still discolored and she's still very clearly panicking, eyes full of fear. "I can't—" she wheezes, hands scrambling against the wall.
"Let's try another puff. Help is on the way, sweetheart. Come on. One, two, three, inhale," she says, dispensing another hit of albuterol. Nadezdha's entire body has tensed up and Nurse Kathy gently rubs her chest to help her relax. Being so tense in her chest restricts the lung expansion just enough to be actively working against them.
"Scared," Nadezdha chokes out.
"I know," Nurse Kathy murmurs. "I know. You're gonna be okay, Nadya. The ambulance is coming and so are your dads."
The tears that have been welling up in the terrified eight year old's eyes finally roll down her cheeks. "Want papa," she gasps out.
Miss Amy's hand is shaking as she dials Shane Hollander's number. They have to call pretty often—Nadezdha is a delightful child, but she's clumsy enough for fourteen kids. She's sprained so many things at school it's not funny (okay, it's kind of funny). They've only ever had one other serious emergency, but nothing that required an actual ambulance. She's never had to tell a parent (let alone one as intense as the one she's dialing now) that their kid is on the way to the hospital.
At the CensPlex, the team has just sat down to start reviewing tape and go over plays when Shane's phone rings. Coach Weibe raises an eyebrow.
"The only thing that's set to get through my DND is Nadya's school," he says, fishing his phone out and quickly answering it. Ilya leans in a little closer to listen to the phone call as much as he can.
"Mr. Hollander," Miss Amy begins, and Ilya watches Shane's entire body tense at the tone of her voice. "Nadezdha is having an asthma attack we can't control. We've called the ambulance and they'll be here in just a minute. They're taking her to the hospital closest to the school, the Civic Campus."
"Oh fuck," Shane says, hand covering his mouth for a moment before he gets to his feet and grabs Ilya's hand. "We're fifteen minutes out from Civic. We're leaving now. What the fuck happened, Amy?"
"P.E. class," she says, and Shane sees red.
Nadezdha has been being what can only be described as bullied by her P.E. teacher for a long time now. He and Ilya have both talked to her about the fact that Nadya has exercise induced asthma and there are some things she should not do for the sake of her fucking health. The fucking woman refused to listen for more than a month at a time before she was back on her bullshit.
"If I say what I want to say, I'm going to jail," Shane says darkly.
"Secret's safe with me, Mr. Hollander," Amy promises him.
The EMTs come hurrying through the door to the office with a stretcher and a nebulizer mask already running.
"These nice men are going to get you help, okay?" Nurse Kathy tells her, and she nods. She's still gasping for air, but the wheeze isn't as high pitched anymore. To the EMTs, she tells them she's given her three puffs of albuterol as they lift her onto the stretcher.
They strap the mask to her face and buckle her into the stretcher.
"They just took her," Amy relays to Shane. "She's in good hands."
"She was in good hands with you guys, too," Shane says as they burst through the doors and hurry to the car. Ilya hurriedly opens the door and hops into the driver's seat. "Okay, we're on our way. Have someone call me when you know what the fuck happened."
"Will do."
Shane hangs up the phone and he nearly screams in frustration as they tear out of the parking lot. He can't even bring himself to tell Ilya to slow down as he speeds through the streets of Ottawa.
"It was that fucking P.E. teacher, wasn't it?" Ilya all but snarls. "I'm going to put her in the bottom of the river, I swear to God, Shane. What the fuck did she do?"
"I don't know, but they'll call me as soon as they know what the hell happened."
He runs his fingers through his hair, fear pulsing in his gut. God, it must be really, really bad if they needed the ambulance. "She must be so scared." His voice cracks on the last word and Ilya immediately takes his hand. He's almost hyperventilated several times and he was terrified every time. He can't imagine how scared Nadya is with her lungs and throat shutting her out of being able to breathe. It's not something she can be talked down from like he can with a panic attack.
"We will be there soon," Ilya promises.
They park in the emergency lot five minutes sooner than they should be thanks to Ilya's speeding, and they're out of the car almost before it's off. They hurry into the emergency department, hot on each other's heels. The intake receptionist looks startled at who is standing in front of her, but besides her wide eyes, she makes no comment.
"Nadezdha Hollander-Rozanova was brought in by ambulance a few minutes ago," Shane tells her. "We're her parents."
The door into the back unlocks and they're met by a nurse who quickly begins explaining what's going on.
"Her oxygen saturation was around eighty when they got her into the ambulance and they started the nebulizer to calm down the inflammation and open up her lungs immediately. They gave her treatments the whole way here and they're giving her another one right now. Between nebulizer treatments, they're giving her oxygen. She was very listless when they got her in the ambulance but she's growing more lucid. She's been asking for you two."
Both of them feel their heart break. Their baby girl needed them and they couldn't get to her when she was her most terrified.
When they enter her room, they both have to admit that she looks terrible. Her hair is lank with sweat and she's pale enough that her freckles stand out starkly against her skin. There are deep circles under her eyes, which look a bit hazy from the low oxygen saturation in her blood. She's got a nebulizer mask strapped to her face and several monitors on her, as well as an IV providing fluids. Shane and Ilya have never felt more helpless.
When she sees them, Nadya starts crying again and they rush to her side. Ilya hugs her from the side, stroking her hair and kissing the top of her head as he murmurs quietly to her in Russian. We're here. You're safe. You're okay. Papa's here. Dad's here. You're so brave, zaychik.
Shane sits down by her legs and takes her hand in both of his. He kisses her knuckles and rubs the back of her hand. Her grip is weak as she squeezes his hand and the anger pulses in his chest again.
He pulls out his phone and takes a picture of the scene in front of him as documentation. He's demanding the school investigate what this fucking teacher is doing. She put his child in the fucking ER. She could have died.
Nadezdha finishes up her current nebulizer treatment, and they switch her to an oxygen mask while they let the medication work. Not long after the mask is switched, Shane's phone rings again. It's the school.
He answers immediately.
"Shane," Nurse Kathy says when he answers. They're on a first name basis with how often they're in contact with each other. He talks to her at minimum once a month. His daughter is a klutz of epic proportions and it's basically become a running joke to ask Kathy what did she do this time when she calls.
"What happened, Kathy?"
Kathy sighs. "One of the students from her class came in looking very upset and asked to talk to me. He said that Nadya forgot her gym shoes in Ilya's car this morning, so she had her sandals for P.E. If you forget your shoes, you have to run a lap around the baseball diamond as a consequence. They all know this. Lauterbaugh made her run three, and when she tried to stop after the second one she blew her whistle and yelled that she had to finish. When she took off after finishing towards the school, she then told Nadezdha she was getting detention if she kept going despite it being very clear to everyone in the class that she was having a very severe asthma attack."
Shane gets up and begins to pace at the end of the bed. He wants to break something. He wants to scream. He wants to hurt that woman like she's hurt his baby so bad that it almost scares him.
"That stupid fucking policy needs changed. Now."
The school has a policy that any and all medications, including rescue inhalers and epipens, must be in the nurses office at all times once on school grounds. If Nadya had been allowed to carry her inhaler, it wouldn't have gotten this bad.
"And that woman needs investigated. She gave her two extra laps despite knowing she has severe asthma and no immediate access to her inhaler! She has been bullying her for three years now! She crossed the line so far today I can't even see the fucking thing anymore."
"I agree wholeheartedly, Shane. I'm going to take this to the school board and advocate for changing the rule about rescue medications. Having to have an ambulance called for a student because of the policy will make them reconsider, I think, now that there's actual strong evidence of the harm that it does."
"I'm contacting the Superintendent tomorrow to demand an investigation into Lauterbaugh. And then I'm talking to her on Friday on conference night."
On the other end of the line, Kathy shudders. She would not want to be on the receiving end of Shane's wrath. Not for anything. Most people assume that of the two, Ilya would be the scary one. He can be, for sure, but no one is more ready to tear someone apart for the sake of his child than Shane Hollander is.
"I'll speak on Nadezdha's behalf for the Super if I need to. I'm sure they'll call me in for my opinion since I'm the one that's been treating and making note of her asthma attacks and what triggers them. 95% of them have been triggered in that class."
"Thank you, Kathy. I'm glad we've got you on our side."
"Always. Protecting my kids is my number one priority." A pause. "How is she doing?"
Shane stops pacing and he looks over to Nadezdha, who has dozed off in Ilya's arms. She must be so exhausted.
"She's fallen asleep. They gave her several treatments on the way and now she's got oxygen and fluids. Her O-sat is up from the low 80s and is creeping towards the 90s as we speak." He hears Kathy's sharp intake of breath.
"It got down to the low 80s? Jesus Christ. Make sure you have a copy of the medical report for the school for the incident report. That's extremely dangerous."
His stomach drops. God, it's even worse than he thought. "Okay," he says, voice a little shaky from the revelation. "I will. I'll ask for an extra copy when they discharge her. Whenever she comes back, I'll hand deliver it to the office."
"Okay. Tell Nadya we're all hoping she feels better, okay? She really scared all of us and we're so glad she's okay."
"I will. Thank you again, Kathy. I'll talk to you soon."
Shane sits down again at the foot of the bed and runs his fingers through his hair.
"What happened?" Ilya asks, keeping his voice quiet so he doesn't disturb Nadezdha.
"That… that monster made her run two extra laps than normal for forgetting her shoes when she knows that she can barely do two laps. She knows this. We have told her several times. She also gave her a fucking detention for saving her own fucking life. I'm gonna kill her, Ilya."
"You are not, because Nadya needs you home, but that's the only reason you are not. Well, that, and I don't really want our sex life reduced to conjugal visits."
It gets the laugh out of Shane that he'd hoped for, and Ilya gives him a small smile.
"I'm going to read her the fucking riot act on Friday, then. I'm done being polite with this fucking woman."
"I'm amazed you've lasted this long. I was not very nice last time, but you are much scarier than I am."
"I am not."
Ilya raises an eyebrow. "You are Yuna Hollander's son."
"So are you."
"Not like that, I'm not."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Ilya gives him another look and he just raises the other brow, as if to say really, Shane?
After a moment, he sighs. "Okay, you have a point."
"The two people I want to be mad at me the least in this world are Shane and Yuna Hollander, for a good reason," Ilya says, and Shane snorts. "You are very intimidating when you want to be, malysh. It's sexy as hell."
Shane shakes his head and smiles. "Of course you think it's hot."
"It's you. Of course I do."
Shane calls his parents next to tell them what's happened. Yuna is ready to bring down the hammer on the whole school, and he promises to let her do what she feels she has to if they can't solve this with the initial incident report. Yuna and David promise to come over tomorrow and she'll bring the ingredients to make gyuudon and gyoza, which is Nadya's favorite Japanese food. It always lifts her spirits when Yuna makes them.
"Okay. We're definitely keeping her home for a couple of days to recover her strength and to spoil her a little. She'll be happy to see you. Will you pick up those cold mochi on the way? She loves the chocolate ones now."
Three months ago it was the matcha ones she was into, but now she'll only eat the chocolate ones.
"Absolutely. I'll bring her some Ramune, too."
"Thank you, mom. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Love you. See you then."
After about twenty minutes of dozing, Nadezdha rouses. This time, she reaches for Shane and he and Ilya switch places. He wraps his arms around his little girl and kisses her forehead. "I'm so sorry, Nadya. I'm so sorry she put you through that."
Nadya begins to sniffle and her tears quickly begin to fall. "I was so scared," she says. Her voice is rough from the trauma of the attack's intensity, and another flare of anger shoots through him. "She wouldn't let me stop. I don't remember what happened after I got to the office. It just went dark. When I woke up I was here with a mask on my face."
God, she was so oxygen deprived she lost three quarters of an hour of time. Her brain was so deprived it couldn't process what was going on and it shut off to preserve function.
"I can't imagine how scared you were, baby. You were so brave. So brave. I'm so proud of you for doing what you did. You got yourself help."
Her breath hitches.
"I thought I was gonna die," she whispers.
Ilya makes a broken noise from the foot of the bed and he looks away, hand pressed to his mouth. If he thinks about it, he's going to absolutely fall apart. Losing his baby girl just isn't a fucking option. It's not, and he refuses to entertain it.
Shane lets out a shaky breath and he holds her closer. "I know," he whispers back. "But you're here. You're here and you're alive, and you're going to be okay, zaychik."
"Do I have to go back to her class?"
"Not right now, you don't. We're going to try and get a new P.E. teacher hired so you can play with your friends. I know you love P.E. when you just get to play. We'll make sure the new teacher understands what you can and can't do. Nurse Kathy is going to try and make it so you can take your inhaler with you to gym class so this kind of thing can never, ever happen again."
She nods into his shoulder. "Okay. Thank you."
After two more hours of observation, they're cleared to take Nadya home. Shane requests two copies of the medical report for his and Kathy's files. They wheel her out to the car and Ilya lifts her in. On the way home, they stop at Nadya's favorite burger place and let her get whatever the hell she wants.
Ilya carries her into the house, murmuring sweetly to her as he does. Shane opens the door for them and carries in the food. Anya is on them immediately, whining softly because she can tell that something is wrong with Nadezdha.
Shane piles up some pillows on the couch and Ilya puts her down. She eats slowly, but she eats, and that's all that matters to them. After she's done, Shane runs her a bath and helps her in. She's shaky from the steroids and treatments, and weak from the trauma her body was put through today. The doctor said her strength should start returning tomorrow, but it'll take a couple of days for her to be one hundred percent again. He washes her hair and her back, and when she's done, he helps her out and wraps her in a fluffy towel.
When she's dressed in her pajamas, despite it just being past six in the evening, he carries her to his and Ilya's bedroom. He's waiting there with the book he's reading to her at bedtime. He's reading her The Last Unicorn. He's reading her Sergei Ilyin's translation into Russian since he stumbled upon it in their favorite used bookstore.
"Sleepy zaychik," Ilya coos. She curls into his side and holds onto the edge of his shirt. "Do you want me to read to you until you fall asleep?"
Shane steps out to call Weibe and let him know what's going on while Ilya begins to read to their daughter. The beautiful melody of Russian drifts into the hallway through the open door.
"Hollander," Weibe says upon answering. "How is Nadya?"
"Alive. Luckily."
He hears Weibe's sharp intake of breath. "Fuck. What happened?"
"P.E. teacher gave her an asthma attack so bad they called the ambulance. Her oxygen got down to 82%, which can and will cause organ damage and lead to death. They had to do so many breathing treatments and give her oxygen and fluids. Her body just completely tried to shut down."
"Fuck."
"That's an understatement. We're keeping her home for a few days so we won't be in for practice."
"Don't worry about it. Bood'll take over, no problem. You take care of your little girl, okay? That comes before anything."
With all of the emotion of the day boiling over, a few tears roll down his cheeks. "Thank you, Coach. We'll be back on Friday."
Shane leans against the wall and he sinks down to the floor, tucking his face between his knees. He stays quiet as he cries. He'd been so, so scared. His baby girl thought she was going to die, badly enough that she told them so. She had to have been so unbelievably terrified. He's so grateful she had Nurse Kathy and the secretaries with her so she didn't think she was going to die all alone. No little kid should ever have that fear, especially not in some place they're supposed to feel safe, like school.
He gives himself three minutes before he goes to the bathroom down the hall and splashes his face with cold water. It's still obvious he's been crying, but he's not so red all over anymore. He re-enters the bedroom and finds Nadya dozing off, soon to be completely asleep. Ilya's words falter when he sees Shane and realizes he's been crying.
Shane climbs into bed behind Nadya and he rubs her back gently with his fingertips, the way he knows is sure to put her to sleep. It works almost immediately, and she drifts off entirely. Ilya marks the page and puts the book to the side.
"Shane," he says softly, and he reaches out to stroke his husband's soft cheek. "You were crying."
"My heart aches for her so much, Ilya," he whispers. "She's too young to ever be that terrified. We could have lost her. I can't—"
"Shh, shh," Ilya murmurs. "I can't either. But we didn't lose her. She's here with us, and she's okay. That's what we need to remind ourselves. We cannot do 'what if'. It will kill us both if we do."
Shane nods. Ilya is right. But fuck.
Ilya and Shane both put on their sleep clothes and get back in bed, protecting their little girl between them. They'll be able to hear if her breathing changes with her there. They just need her close tonight after almost losing her.
The next day, Ilya makes blini for breakfast for Nadya and himself, and Shane allows himself to have one before he eats his usual breakfast. Nadya is still weak, still moving slow, but she's much more chipper this morning and it relaxes some of the tension in her parents. After breakfast, Ilya gets out Nadya's beading kit and together the three of them make some bracelets for the office staff as a thank you at Nadezdha's request.
At one, there's a knock at the door and Nadezdha is delighted to see her grandparents. David is carrying the bag with the ingredients for gyuudon and gyoza, and the mochi and Ramune. Ilya volunteers to open the evil little marble soda since everyone else hates fighting with them. Ilya likes the challenge the little drink gives him. When its open, he gives Nadezdha the pomegranate flavored drink and puts the other five bottles into the fridge to stay cold.
David and Yuna hug their granddaughter tight before Yuna heads to the kitchen with Shane to begin cooking. David takes a seat at the table with the beads, and Nadezdha immediately starts showing him the bracelets they made. She's also gotten out her fancy markers to make thank you cards. Ilya is currently helping place stickers on the little dots Nadezdha put down to show where she wants them.
"How are you feeling, kiddo?" David asks as he stretches some elastic cord to make his own bracelet.
"Tired," she sighs. "My lungs hurt, too. It kind of hurts to take a deep breath."
David nods. "I bet. I'm glad you're okay." She smiles at him.
"Me too, grandpa."
In the kitchen, Shane is in his mom's arms, silently weeping again while she rocks him back and forth. She's got tears in her eyes too, but they haven't fallen.
"I was so scared," he whispers.
"I know, honey. I know. God, do I know." She intimately understands what it's like to be scared that your child is hurt seriously enough to be rushed to the ER. Shane's hit from Marleau still plays in her nightmares sometimes.
"How could someone do that to a child? What is her deal with Nadya? She's a little kid! She's had it out for her since fucking kindergarten for no reason! I can't tell if she's pissed that she's not athletic, that she has asthma, that she has two dads who are who they are, or if she's just fucking evil. I think it might be all of the above."
"I think it is, honey. It just sounds like she's a terrible person who shouldn't work with children in any capacity."
"I'm hoping that'll be the outcome. We're also trying to change the district policy on emergency medication so students can at carry them on their person. I don't ever want this to happen to another family."
"If the board has any fucking sense at all, they'll realize how much worse this could have been and they'll change the policy."
"The school nurse is on fire to get it changed. She's absolutely livid."
"I'm glad you've got her on your side."
"Me too. She's a wonderful woman. She's always been so kind to Nadya and she never makes her feel stupid when she gets hurt in a truly stupid way." And oh, there had been many stupid ways.
He loves his daughter but she has a magical way of finding the most ridiculous ways to end up injured. For a while they worried that she was being extensively bullied to the point of crime, but there have been many witnesses to Nadezdha falling down stairs or tripping down hills or running into poles. She's just the worlds most clumsy child, they've decided. She doesn't have an athletic bone in her body, either. The arts call to her instead, and at first it had been a little hard to come to terms with the fact that she wasn't going to be into sports the way her family is. She still loves hockey, but she can't skate very well so she has no interest in playing it outside of gym hockey in P.E. She gets on the synthetic ice at the cottage in her socks because her ankles just won't support skates.
Yuna and Shane get started on their lunch, and half an hour later, they're bringing the food to now-clear table. Nadya is overjoyed at the site of gyuudon and gyoza and Yuna's perfect rice. She loads her plate and eats like she hasn't eaten in days. It puts everyone at ease to see her so hungry.
Nadezdha tells them all about what she's doing in school and the research paper she's doing about butterflies for her science class. She spouts of fact after fact and Ilya looks at Shane with an amused look on his face. He loves when she info dumps like this. It reminds him so much of his Shane.
After lunch, they play a board game before Nadezdha is ready for a nap. Yuna and David head home not long after she lays down. Ilya and Shane curl up on the couch quietly.
Ilya strokes Shane's hair and he kisses the crown of his head. He's quiet for several minutes before speaking.
"I think I need to process this with Galina. I am afraid to examine it too closely outside of her office. I… I think it will break some part of me." He's trembling slightly, and Shane hugs him tighter.
"Okay. Whatever you need, Ilya. Get the soonest appointment you can so you don't have to keep carrying this."
He nods. "I will."
The next day they take Nadezdha to the mall and buy her anything she wants. She's always been very selective about the things she wants so she doesn't go crazy, but she gets more than she normally ever would during a trip out. She doesn't want for anything, but they also don't spoil the hell out of her with gifts. She gets some new toys and clothes, and a new pair of fancy headphones since she's worn the hell out of her current ones. She also gets to make whatever Build-a-Bear she wants. They take her on the carousel and Ilya snaps a million pictures of them laughing at how dumb two hockey players look on carousel creatures.
While Nadezdha and Ilya grab lunch for them at the food court, Shane leaves a message with the Superintendent asking him to please check his email and get back to him as soon as possible. He sent an email so he could fully detail the incident and his demands and have a hard copy available.
When Friday rolls around, Ilya and Shane drop Nadezdha off at school on their way to practice. They tell her to go to the nurse if she feels unsteady at all or like her lungs are bothering her in any way. She pinkie promises and then exits the car after saying I love you. Her first stop is the office to give the ladies their bracelets.
At practice, all of the guys ask how Nadezdha is doing. Shane can tell that they've all been collectively worried as hell, especially since they took two days off.
"She's much better," Shane tells them as they change into their gear. "She was excited to go back to school and see her friends. She gets to do her report on butterflies today in science class and she's been working her ass off on it."
"Good, good," Bood says. "I bet she'll fucking ace it."
"Damn right, she will," Ilya pipes up, looking very proud. "She read it to us last night and it is a very good report. I learned many things."
That evening, after going out for an early dinner, they make their way to the school for parent-teacher conferences. Ilya and Shane visit all of her teachers, who all have glowing reviews about her performance. Math has been rough, but her teacher is very proud of how much she's trying to catch up and do the work. Ilya has been working extensively with her on long division and they're making progress.
Their last stop is the gym. Mrs. Lauterbaugh's office is the old press box. Ilya and Nadezdha take a seat on the bleachers nearby while Shane takes a deep breath, squares his shoulders, and walks into the devil's office.
"This is going to be good," Ilya whispers to Nadya, who giggles and shushes him.
Mrs. Lauterbaugh looks up when someone enters her office, and she watches for a moment as he looks around her walls, like he's searching for something.
"Can I help you find something?"
When the man turns around, her stomach drops, but she keeps her face schooled in a cold, disinterested affect. She knows who Shane Hollander is. It's impossible to not. She knows he's a good, kind, family man, but she also knows that he is fiercely protective of his family, that he takes no shit, and that he's on the warpath and she's the target.
"I was just looking for your PhD," Shane says coldly, drawing himself up to his full height. "Trying to find where it is that you think you're getting your qualifications from to ignore doctor's strict orders regarding an asthmatic child."
"You must be Nadezdha's dad," she says flatly. No shit.
"And you must be out of your mind for thinking that what you did to her was in any way okay. I told you, my husband told you, Nurse Kathy told you, and the doctor's notes told you that she is not able to run that track past one lap without being in severe danger of having an asthma attack, and you made her do three laps and then attempted to give her detention for trying to save her own life. Lord knows you can't be trusted with it."
"There are consequences for forgetting your P.E. shoes and Nadezdha knows this," she tries to counter.
"And the consequence has always been one lap. It's on the damn syllabus you send home every year. When someone's medical conditions make it so that they can't safely adhere to the consequence, you need to find something else! Make her help clean up the cones on the field! Hell, make her write lines! You could have done anything else, but what you decided to do was nearly kill my daughter, and I'm going to make sure you pay in every single way you can for it."
Lauterbaugh's face turns an unfortunate puce shade at the accusation. "I did no—"
"Her oxygen was at 82% when they got her to the emergency room. You know what starts to happen in the low 80% of oxygen saturation? Organ death. Brain damage. If she hasn't left when she did, there's a decent chance that I would be organizing my daughter's funeral, Lauterbaugh. Her brain was so starved of oxygen she doesn't remember over forty five minutes of that day because her brain wasn't getting enough oxygen to absorb the information."
His voice is colder than Ilya has ever heard it, and Nadezdha's eyes are wide. Her hand is over her mouth and she's looking up at her papa, who's eyes are also wide. "Told you this would be good," he whispers.
Lauterbaugh remains silent, which both vindicates and pisses Shane off simultaneously. "What, no retort for why you've been bullying my child in increasing increments since she was a kindergartner? I knew after the jump rope incident where you wouldn't let her stop until she needed her inhaler was just the tip of the iceberg, but I never thought you would sink this low. I don't know what your problem is with my family, but you need to sort it the fuck out because this is unacceptable. You are an adult. You are a teacher that parents are supposed to trust, and my child has cried over the way you treat her more times than I can count on both hands. She will not be returning to P.E. unless someone else takes over your position. She is not safe with you."
"I—"
"No," Shane says, holding up his hand. "I don't want to hear it. Save it for the school board."
He turns on his heel and marches back out of the box. His anger dissipates almost as soon as he sees the wide-eyed pair on the bleachers. He smiles sheepishly.
"I think I fell in love all over again," Ilya tells him. Nadya wrinkles her nose.
"That's gross, papa."
"That's love, zaychik."
-
The school starts an inquiry into Mrs. Lauterbaugh's teaching, and in the meantime, the policy regarding rescue medications is reversed. Every child that has rescue medication is allowed to carry it on their person or in their backpack so that it's in reach at all times. The severity of what happened to Nadezdha makes the vote unanimous across the meeting.
Three weeks later, Lauterbaugh is fired for endangering the welfare of a child in her care. When the new gym teacher comes in, Ilya and Shane pay her a visit to discuss Nadezdha's limitations. She promises to not push Nadya past what she's capable of and to keep a close eye on her so she notices if an attack is beginning. She's very firm in her pledge to make sure that Nadezdha enjoys P.E. for the first time since she started school. Her goal is for her kids to enjoy P.E., not dread it.
Shane and Ilya send the three women in the main office flowers and gift certificates as thank yous for what they've done for their daughter. All three women wear their thank you bracelets to work every single day.