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If you call again I will answer.
Ilya sent it because he didn't know how else to tell Jackie who he was. They thought he was Lily, they thought he was another WAG and fuck if that wouldn't be easier right now.
He was supposed to leave in the morning, but Shane was-
He felt heat prickle at his eyes and shoved it down, like he always did, every single fucking time.
The phone rang and Ilya nearly dropped it. He didn't, he picked up.
"Lily holy shit, are you okay?" Jackie's voice carried such genuine concern.
Ilya opened his mouth to answer but a sob was all that came through.
It was stupid, this was so fucking stupid. They all got their bell rung eventually. Ilya had seen so many teammates go down. And Shane was fine, he was better than fine he was downright loopy.
"Lily?" Jackie said again.
"Ilya," Ilya corrected.
He heard Jackie's sharp inhale, he braced for words laced with venom and betrayal.
"Oh hon," she said instead. Kind, compassionate, so fucking caring. "Just give me a minute- I'm fine Priya just- give me a minute. Yeah Lily just- girls." Jackie's mom voice came out full force and the worried chattering and jockeying for the phone ceased. He heard a door open and close. "Ilya," Jackie's voice was so fucking kind. "Hi. Are you okay?"
"I am fine, I am not the one bleeding-" his voice cracked on the last word and he inhaled shakily. "Sorry."
"Don't you dare apologize to me Rozanov, you've got nothing to apologize for." Her voice was stern, not leaving room for arguments. Then it softened again. "This is, I think, the one part of hockey I have more experience in than you."
"I lied-"
"No you didn't, we assumed. God, Ilya, I'm so sorry you're having to go through this in private. Do you have anyone I can call for you? Your parents?"
"Dead." Ilya sighed. "No. No one... No one knows."
"Are you still at Montreal General?"
"Yeah. Just... Waiting for the team to..." Ilya breathed deep, shaky, and trying to keep himself fucking grounded. Trying to kick the image of all that fucking blood out of his head. "Hayden knows."
"What?"
"Hayden, your Hayden, he knows. He... Caught us. A few months ago." Ilya inhaled, counting to eight in his head. "He told me to get off the ice, go with Shane. I... I wanted to, last time this happened I wanted to go with him and I did not because I couldn't and Hayden did not know then and no one else knew-"
"I'm coming to the hospital," Jackie declared.
"No. No, Hayden said he was going home. He needs you."
"You need someone there for you, trust me here."
Ilya laughed a shaky, scared laugh. "That is what I am doing."
Jackie was quiet for a moment. "Yeah. You are, huh?" She took in a deep breath. "When does Boston play next?"
"Three days, home game." Ilya pinched the bridge of his nose. "I was only here for tonight, Montreal leaves tomorrow-"
"Well he isn't going to be leaving with them. So. Here's what I can do. I can get the girls to make their guys go home, leave you the room. And I'll stay on the phone and make sure Hayden stays last so you'll be all clear to sneak back in. Okay?"
"Okay."
"Now. I won't tell anyone, but I would love to know how this all started."
It was a distraction tactic, a good one, in all honesty. Ilya talked about the summer they'd spent together at the cottage, the plan to sign somewhere Canadian at the end of the season when he was a free agent. He told Jackie about the photo shoot and how it kicked off endless hookups whenever they could get them.
"Ugh, men," she said when he told her about Shane leaving when Ilya had asked him to stay, about Ilya refusing to acknowledge the possibility of more. "No emotional intelligence I swear."
"Worse," Ilya lamented. "We are both hockey players."
"The others are worried about you," she said after a moment of quiet. "What do you want me to tell them?"
"Fuck." Ilya sighed. "Shane should be released tomorrow and the team will be on the road... Could they... Maybe all drop by? And I can... Explain. Or try to, at least."
"I've got your back, sweetheart. No matter what, they do too."
Do they?
"I hope so." Ilya's breathing was easier now.
"Hayden just texted, he's the last one in the room and Shane's asking where you went."
Ilya laughed at that. "When Shane is high he gets clingy."
"If you happen to get a video of it I wouldn't say no," Jackie teased lightly.
"Do you have any of Hayden? I would be interested in a trade. Chirp fuel is hard to come by when his wife is so wonderful."
"I'll see what I can do, Rozanov. Go get our boy, okay?"
"Okay."
"And I'm glad you trust me."
"I do." Ilya smiled into the air.
Shane was passed out in their bed, padded out by pillows and cushions to keep him from tossing and turning in his sleep and pulling his stitches. So when Ilya opened the door to the gathered WAGs their couches were bare.
There were looks of confusion and Ilya fiddled with the chain around his neck.
"What's Rozanov doing here?" Hanna asked, her arms crossed.
"Yuna had a conference call and David had to go to work," Ilya answered, dropping his hands to his sides. "Coffee?"
"No like, why are you in Shane's house?" Dani asked.
"Because he is-" Ilya cut himself off. He'd never actually told anyone. He'd never said the words out loud. Shane had told his parents after David had caught them, and Hayden had walked in on them and Shane had explained while Ilya had watched bemused. He felt like he should have taken notes. "He is in my phone as Jane. I am in his phone as... Lily."
Ilya was boring a hole in the nice woven carpet he'd picked out when Shane had moved into the house in Brossard. It was soft on his feet in the cold mornings he spent sneaking around before Shane woke up, so he could make him breakfast.
"Holy shit," someone breathed.
"So. Coffee?" Ilya offered again.
"Great idea, Ilya," Jackie accepted, following him into the kitchen.
"Sorry about the couches," he said as he pulled the coffee beans down from the cupboard he'd hidden them in so Shane wouldn't toss them in between their stolen moments. "Shane tosses in his sleep and he did not want the sleep medications the doctors gave him."
"Is Shane like, igloo-ed in by couch cushions right now?" Bridget grinned when Ilya looked at her. "Please tell me you took a pic."
Ilya unlocked his phone and sent the photo to the WAG chat. Shane was smiling at him when he took it, lovesick and dopey and doped up on two different pain killers with muscle relaxants.
A chorus of awwwws filled the kitchen. Ilya pulled down the bagels he'd gotten from Fairmount when he couldn't sleep at 2am. There was 3 and a half dozen left.
Because he was stressed.
So he'd already eaten a half dozen.
"Oh and he has taste," Priya grabbed a bag and dug through. "Fuck yes poppy seed."
They all crowded around the island, bagels and coffee in hand. Ilya was wedged in the middle of them, between Jackie and Dani, Jackie pressed her shoulder into Ilya's, an honest true smile on her face.
"Soooo," Hanna's sing-song voice broke the silence. "How long have you and Shane been a thing?"
"Depends on how you measure it," Ilya popped a broken off bit of bagel he'd dipped in the cream cheese tub into his mouth.
"When did you guys have your first kiss?" Hanna suggested.
"2010," Ilya answered.
There was an almost perfect rippling echo of the WAGs all putting their coffee mugs down on the counter at the same time.
"Wait, what? That's fucking. That's like. Ten years!" Dani squawked.
Ilya smiled and sipped his coffee.
"When did you hook for the first time? Wait was it the same-?" Priya cut herself off with a gasp when Ilya nodded. "Oh. My. God!"
"That's like, your whole careers though." Bridget's eyes were wide. "Like, the whole time. The whole rivalry?"
"Off and on, mostly on." Ilya smirked. "Definitely on for some years now."
"How many years?" Jackie asked, prodding, grinning.
"Three." He made a vague gesture in the air. "Lots of shit to work through."
"His parents know, right?" Dani seemed almost... protective.
"Yes. Yeah." Ilya smiled a little. "If I tell you something you cannot tell any of your boys." He waited for all the promises of silence. "I sign with Ottawa at the end of the year."
"Ottawa fucking sucks though!" Olivia exclaimed, hands splayed and brows raised like it was some sort of personal affront.
Ilya shrugged. "So did Montreal. So did Boston."
"Yeah but they'd actually won before they sucked. Ottawa's never won." Priya frowned then her eyes lit up and her frown disappeared. "Oh my god you're signing with Ottawa for Shane!"
"For many reasons," Ilya lied. Ottawa was Shane's hometown, where his parents lived, the city that made the man Ilya loved more than anything. "I need citizenship besides Russian if Shane and I are ever going to be any sort of public ever."
The giddiness that had saturated the room quickly deflated.
"What would happen to you, if...?" Hanna didn't finish her question but it hung in the air regardless.
"I do not know. It has happened, happened a lot, probably, but... It is not covered. If I am here and not there trying to push for change then... Maybe they would leave me alone but I would need to go to consulates to renew my passport, they could refuse at any time and then..." Ilya was tapping his fingers on the handle of his mug idly. "It does not matter. I play for Ottawa for a few years I can become resident, then citizen. It is how this works."
"We won't say anything to anyone," Priya promised. "Not even our guys. Right?"
There was a gentle, warm chorus of affirmations. Ilya smiled, gently bumping his own body back into Jackie's when she nudged him.
"How bad is it, really? The locker room shit talking?" Dani asked. "I mean, we've all asked and I think JJ's the best liar and he's still kinda shit so..."
"Depends on the team," Ilya answered honestly. "Toronto is the worst, with Dallas fucking Kent and Troy Barrett being the assholes they are, and Toronto's golden geese that won't change for a long time. Montreal is..." He made a so so motion with his hand. "Same for Boston."
"Hey do you know why Shane and Scott Hunter got into a brawl a few years back?" If Bridget had been a dog Ilya would've sword her hears would have been pricked up.
"Yes." Ilya didn't elaborate, he was still a little smug that the only time Shane had started a fight had been because Scott Hunter had chirped vaguely about Ilya.
"You gonna share or?"
"No." Ilya's phone started to ring and Shane's contact filled the screen. Jane. He answered it on speaker. "What do you need?"
"'m hungry," Shane said sleepily.
"Do you want one of the protein shakes?" Ilya's nose wrinkled.
"Don't make a face they're good."
"I was making no face, why would I make face?"
"Liar," Jackie interjected. "He was totally making a face."
"I know," Shane sighed longingly. It made Ilya's heart do silly stupid things. "Ilyaaaa?"
"I'm here."
"Can you make me a tuna melt?" He heard Shane giggle. "Tuna melt. The fish doesn't melt, why's it even called that?"
"Because there is cheese, do you want bagel tuna melt?" Ilya asked, already opening the fridge. While he was at it he shoved most of the case of shitty sports drinks back at Bridget.
Shane gasped like a kid in a candy store. "Fairmount?"
"I have met you before, so yes, obviously."
"Can you come rescue me? I'm bored."
"You have a concussion and a broken collarbone and seven stitches in your head. It is daytime."
"Ilyaaaaaaa," Shane pouted.
"No." Ilya's backbone was already weakening. He wanted to have Shane in the kitchen with him.
"Please? What if I suck your-"
"SHANE!" Ilya shouted. The assembled WAGs dissolved into laughter.
"Oops. Sorry."
"No you are not."
"No I'm not. Food?"
"Is in the toaster oven."
"Please come rescue me?"
"Shane-"
"My legs aren't broken!"
"No." Ilya was already heading down the hall to the staircase.
"Pleeeeease?" He heard Shane say over the phone.
"Oh that's fucking precious," Ilya heard Priya mutter before Ilya reached the top of the stairs.
Ilya opened the door to the bedroom with it's drawn blinds. "Okay, hang up the phone I am here."
"Ilya!" Shane beamed. "Hi."
"Yes. Hello. Hang up the phone."
"I love youuuu"
"I love you too now hang up the phone." Ilya tried to grab for the phone but Shane shoved it off the bed. Ilya sighed, a few choice Russian phrases falling from his lips as he retrieved Shane's phone, with a newly cracked screen, and hung up the call. "You are such an asshole, Hollander."
"Yeah but you love meeee."
Ilya leaned over and kissed Shane, cradling the side of his face that didn't have any stitches. "Your team WAGs are downstairs."
"Why? I'm okay. I have you!"
"Because they know, Shane. I told them." He watched it settle over Shane. A tiny flutter of panic. "They promised they won't tell your teammates."
"Okay." Shane grinned. "Why are the WAGs here?"
"Because Hayden gave Jackie 'Lily's' number and added me to their group-chat."
Shane smiled and kissed Ilya's nose. "Good. They'll take care of you."
"You take care of me," Ilya rebutted.
"Not right now." Shane wiggled his fingers on the hand that wasn't in a sling. "Help me up?"
Ilya scooped Shane into his arm, careful of the slinged arm, and carried him bridal style to the kitchen where Jackie helped Shane stay upright and stable on the stool Ilya had been occupying.
"Hiiiii," Shane drawled, grinning at the women gathered around their kitchen island.
"Oh he's got the real good drugs, huh?" Bridget muttered.
"He is very loopy, yes." Ilya pulled the tuna melt onto a plate and grabbed one of the cranberry Canada Dry's from the fridge, setting them in front of Shane.
"Wait are they out already?" Hanna pulled out her phone. "I gotta add some to the grocery order-"
"They are from last year," Ilya interrupted. "I do not think they are out again yet."
"Shane keeps the holiday ginger ales stocked, why am I not surprised?" Priya muttered with a grin.
"No I don't," Shane protested. "Ilya does." He beamed up at Ilya, eyes bright and soft. "It's my treat when he's worried about me."
"I am not worried you are fine."
"Mhmmmmm," Shane held the can up and Ilya took it and opened it without missing a beat.
"I am not worried, is only some stitches and a broken collarbone."
"Fractured," Shane corrected.
"That is not what doctor said."
"They said badly fractured, which is not the same as broken."
"I do not know the difference in these words."
"Yes you do, fucking asshole," Shane's voice stayed happy and soft and his smile didn't leave his face.
"I'm glad you picked up," Jackie said, when Shane was happily munching down on his tuna melt and talking with Hanna and Priya.
"Me too," Ilya replied, his hand on Shane's lower back. Because everyone in the room knew, and Shane was okay.
And maybe... Maybe everything would be okay after all.