Chapter Text
Yuna stared at the phone in her hand while David went out in search of coffee. She got the number from Shane’s phone after learning the name from Hayden (This girl he’s been texting with for a long time, years, uhm she might be his sort-of-girlfriend?). She was simply listed in Shane’s contacts under “Lily”, no last name. She didn’t check their chat history because she valued her relationship with Shane, but it was a close call.
Calling is probably a bad idea, right? Since Shane had been hiding her from his parents for whatever reason, she probably didn’t want to get a surprise call from his mother. Plus, easier to keep this from David for now.
Lily must have been waiting on the other end of the phone because three dots immediately appeared, then disappeared. And then reappeared.
It took forever for Lily to respond that Yuna almost decided to put down the phone.
Three dots appeared again and stayed that way for a long time. Eventually, a message from Lily appeared.
Yuna felt a wave of annoyance. What could be more important than Shane in the hospital? She clearly doesn’t care enough. But maybe it’s unfair to ask someone (“not” a girlfriend) to care as much as that person’s mother. Maybe there's why they are “not” dating.
Yuna and David checked into a hotel next to the hospital so they could drop off their luggage but she came back to the hospital room as soon as she freshened up. David, under threat of bodily injury, agreed to stay at the hotel to get some rest (You will throw your back out if you try to sleep in the hospital room!).
The shades were down in Shane’s room but Yuna could see the pale grey light peeking through the edges. She took her phone off sleep mode manually. There were no new texts from Lily.
Shane looked peaceful and impossibly young in the hospital bed. Where have the years gone? He’d always been an anxious sleeper, even as a teenager, the weight of hockey on his shoulders, and she couldn’t remember the last time he looked so relaxed in his sleep. She supposed that they must have given him the good drugs. There was light bruising starting to show on across his left cheeks, but the doctors reassured them that there were no facial or skull fractures and his eyes were completely fine.
The nurses came and went. Shane woke up to be examined, took his medications, and went back to sleep. Yuna held his hand the entire time and he seemed happy to see her.
David texted her just after seven asking if anything had changed (no, thank god) and that he’s headed over with breakfast from Timmies for both of them. She shot a quick message to Hayden who had asked about visiting yesterday. There was still no new message from Lily, no matter how long Yuna stared at their chat history.
This was the first time Yuna had Shane’s girlfriend’s number. Jessica from high school was a long time ago; Yuna actually had her mom’s phone number, so. And then there was Rose. There was another girlfriend somewhere in between, but Yuna couldn’t even remember her name. She wasn’t sure if this was why she’d been fixated on connecting with Lily. Hayden said Shane had been texting her and seeing her on and off for years.
Yuna was pulled out of her reverie when the hospital room door opened slowly. David poked his head in and whispered, “How’s he doing?”
“Fine. Sleeping. I’m glad he’s at least getting some rest.”
They split a bagel (it sure wasn’t St-Viateur’s) with cream cheese silently in the quiet hospital room, too exhausted physically and emotionally for conversation, and chased that down with coffee, black for Yuna and double-double for David.
Shane stirred shortly after they finished breakfast.
“Hey, sweetie, how are you feeling?”
“Hmpf,” Shane bobbed his head left and right and then tried to rub his face hard with his good arm. “Argh!”
“Maybe try not to do that, Shane.” David rushed over to help him.
“Does it hurt?”
“Hey, mom! Hey, Dad!” Shane seemed to have suddenly realized they were there and perked up. “No? Feels weird. My face is itchy, I think.”
He sounded giddy, which made Yuna equal parts relieved (he’s feeling better and not in pain) and concerned, because certain pain medications made Shane act loopy. At least he had always quickly returned to his usual self once the drugs were out of his system.
“Did you sleep well?” Yuna looked for anything out of place on Shane’s face, but other than the developing bruise, it looked the same.
“Hmmm. I think I could sleep for another week though.” Shane yawned despite having just woken up.
“Do you remember what the doctor said last night?”
“I have a broken collar bone. That’s what the sling is for.” As if on cue, Shane tried to stretch both of his arms up, and while his injured side had limited mobility, Yuna put a hand over his elbow in the sling to prevent any sudden jostling.
“And a concussion, sweetie.”
“Oh, and a concussion. Okay. That sucks.”
“I know, honey. The sling has to stay on for about 12 weeks, but we get in touch with your PT once you’re home.” Shane nodded enthusiastically, as if PT was the most exciting thing he’d been waiting for. It was kind of hilarious. They also talked about Shane being out for the rest of the season and, most likely the playoffs as well but Yuna decided he didn’t need reminding just yet. He will be absolutely devastated, and probably blame himself more than anything else, but that’s the problem of Tomorrow Shane and Yuna.
“And Hayden will be here –” she checked her phone, “in about 20 minutes.”
Shane smiled big and wide, “that’s amazing!” Yuna and David couldn’t help but smile with him.
Yuna wanted to ask Shane about Lily, but she also wanted to give him time to tell her himself.
Hayden came right on time along with some of Shane’s things from the arena that didn’t get brought over to the hospital last night. Shane chatted happily with him, but clearly still somewhat loopy because of the drugs he’d been given.
Since discharge was likely to happen later this afternoon, Yuna and David were planning to collect their belongings from the hotel so they could leave directly from the hospital with Shane. Hayden volunteered to keep Shane company once he heard the plan, and promised to call if anything happened or the medical team came by.
It was a quick trip and they were really just across the street. Plus Hayden was Shane’s best friend on the team (and outside of it), so Yuna didn’t worry (too much) by leaving Shane in his care.
Just as expected, they were back at the hospital in under an hour. David went to bring the car to the visitor’s parking lot at the hospital and Yuna chose to head back to Shane’s floor to discuss discharge planning with his medical team. So she was completely taken by surprise when she almost ran into someone as she rounded the corner outside of Shane’s room.
“Hello, Mrs. Hollander.” And there she was, confronted by a sullen looking Rozanov. She shook his outstretched hand because that was the polite thing to do and she wasn’t raised by savages, only barely reigning in her desire to whack him across his face, just so he could have some matching bruises.
“I came to apologize. Uhm, on behalf of Marlow and the team. Marlow is very sorry about hit. He didn’t mean to hurt Hollander. He wanted to come, but I said no.”
“It was a clean hit. All part of the game.”
“Hollander said same,” Rozanov nodded solemnly. “I wish him good recovery and we hope to see him soon on ice.” He then said goodbye and took his leave.
Yuna could respect good sportsmanship. Although as a mom, she couldn’t quite forgive Marlow yet, it was nice of Rozanov to come apologize as the captain, representing the team and Marlow.
Shane appeared even happier than earlier when she stepped into the room again. “Hi mom!”
“Hi, honey.” She quickly scanned the room and didn’t see Hayden anywhere, which almost gave her a panic attack (You left him with Rozanov alone?), but Shane didn’t seem harmed in any way or form.
“Where’s Hayden.”
“Hm…?” Shane seemed confused for a moment, “Oh, they ran out of the good ginger ale here and I asked him to get some for me.” Not great, but no one could have predicted a visit from Rozanov.
“I spoke with your medical team and they are getting your discharge papers and meds ready as we speak. Your doctor’s coming back to see you in a bit for the official stamp of approval, and then we should be able to leave soon.”
“Oh, that’s nice.”
“You know what else is nice? I just saw Rozanov leave. It was good of him to come by for a visit as the captain. I didn’t know he had it in him. I suppose Boston must have given him extra PR training.”
Shane gave her an impossibly big goofy smile, seemingly pleased with himself. “Uh-huh.” Oh her sweet boy, always too polite and forgiving.
Unconsciously, she checked her phone again. There were still no new messages from Lily. She wanted to ask Shane – even Rozanov came by for a visit, why didn’t his girlfriend of years (year?!) care enough to text?
The first few weeks after Shane’s injury were uneventful. He was much more himself once he stopped the strong painkillers and seemed to enjoy spending time in his childhood home. He still had restricted screen time due to the concussion, but David and he had taken up audio books together. Physical therapy was, well, what everyone had expected – repetitive but necessary – and Shane was very much better by the day.
They kept the TV on with Shane facing away whenever there was a game they wanted to catch the first few days until his concussion symptoms were entirely resolved. The Voyageurs did well enough earlier in the season before Shane’s injury to clinch a playoff spot, but Yuna could already tell it wouldn’t be a deep run this year. Luckily, Boston also didn’t seem to be doing much better.
Yuna thought about Lily here and there, of their short exchanges since Yuna got her number after Shane’s injury. She was sure that Shane was going to fess up the first few days they were back, since Lily was obviously aware that the secret was out now, at least to Yuna. Yet it never happened.
It came as a complete surprise when Yuna received a message from Lily, after days of silence, toward the end of the second week of Shane’s time at home.
There were no more new messages, and Yuna put her phone facedown after a while. She tried to go back to the contract she was reviewing but her mind kept circling back to Lily’s texts. It felt…a little rude; that she expected Yuna to respond after days of no contact. Except she seemed genuinely concerned about Shane? Certainly she could visit if she really wanted to see for herself. Except that couldn’t be done since, somehow, they still wanted to keep the relationship a secret. After, apparently, many years, if Hayden’s guess was to be believed. But clearly Yuna knew now, corroborated by the chat history with Lily.
It felt more than a little pathetic that she was spending so much mental energy thinking about her adult son’s secret girlfriend. She just couldn’t understand why he wanted to hide her from his parents. Surely “years” was long or serious enough to meet the parents? At least inform the parents?
Yuna took a deep breath and tried to sigh out all of her jumbled thoughts. Shane hadn’t been acting any differently, and now Yuna knew what to look for – she could tell when he was texting his friends (mostly Hayden), and when he was texting Lily. He seemed lighter, happier when (Yuna had assumed) he was messaging Lily.
She should probably tell Shane about her communications with Lily at this point, but it never seemed like the right time. Let Shane have the chance to do this in his own time, she told herself.
They had not watched this much NHL hockey with Shane since he was in the Juniors. David laughed about the two of them watching together, each taking separate notes. It was odd to have Shane move back in with them, even temporarily, almost like getting to know someone new again.
No one was surprised that the Voyageurs struggled through the last few games of the regular season with Shane. The coaching team reshuffled the line-up and pulled a kid, freshly drafted last June, up from the AHL, who was actually adapting fairly well, all things considered. Unfortunately, nothing helped Hayden to click better with the centre that was moved from the second line.
At first, Yuna didn’t know what to make of it. Then a surge of irritation almost made Yuna want to snap back – how dare this “not” girlfriend who refused to visit tell her what her own son liked? But how well do you know your own son? – another voice said in her head. Obviously not that well, seeing that she didn’t know he even had someone, possibly for years. Nonetheless, she picked up some of the teas suggested by Lily next time she went to the store. Shane seemed to breathe a little slower and lighter after Yuna made him a cup that night (No caffeine is good, right?)
Boredom was definitely starting to creep in four weeks after the injury. David had to remind Yuna not to hover too much (let the boy figure things out for himself, as he flipped another page of his latest murder mystery book). There was only so much physical therapy, meditation (Shane was trying for concussion recovery), and modified exercise that he could do to occupy his time.
Yuna couldn’t help but chuckle at Lily’s last message. Even though she was his mother and loved him unconditionally, she’d be the first to admit that a bored Shane without hockey and the ability to work out his frustration by, well, working out, was starting to grate on her nerves. Secretly, she had been glad that it’ll be time soon to open up their cottages for the season and not have to share the same house as her adult child. She was eased by the fact that Lily knew and understood this about Shane.
Yuna didn’t dignify that with a response but she did snort into her wine.
Just like that, Montreal was knocked out of the playoffs in the first round. Yuna was disappointed, but not surprised, not with the way they'd been playing. This simply wasn’t their year.
Yuna didn’t hear back from Lily for the rest of the game, but her phone buzzed not long after the game ended.
There was no reply for the next few minutes, long enough for Yuna to recall that Lily was from Boston (according to Hayden), and thus likely a Bears fan.
Three dots appeared but no text came through for a couple of minutes. Eventually, her chat history updated:
Yuna looked over at Shane stretching on the back deck. He looked younger somehow, through the glass on the sliding door, the morning sun casting interesting shadows of leaves and branches on him with every movement. They had moved into this house when Shane was in primary school and she didn’t have many memories of Shane playing in the backyard; it was all hockey most of the time by that point.
When did her boy grow into a man? She felt they might have missed that. When did he meet Lily? It was hard to tell through text, but sometimes she thought Lily might be ESL, and if so, she was funny and lively in her second language. How long ago did she move to Boston? What was the reason she moved there?
The Hollanders drove out to open up their cottages for the season a few days after round 2 of the playoffs ended during the May Two-Four weekend. As Yuna predicted, Boston was eliminated by New York.
Shane’s cottage was built to be used all-year-round, but he still closed off part of the main house and all of the other buildings after Thanksgiving every year. Yuna and David’s cottage didn’t have the proper insulation to be comfortably used in the winter, and despite Shane suggesting he could pay for the upgrade to make it four-season ready, they had decided they had no desire to go up there during the colder months and didn’t want the hassle of a renovation for no practical reason.
Yuna felt only slightly guilty when she and David helped Shane settle at his cottage and hugged him good-bye. They were going back to their own place, about a 5-min drive away, with the plans for a dinner (without Shane) that was so far outside of Shane’s performance diet that it might as well be in another galaxy.
On the drive home, she thought about Lily, whom she hadn’t heard from in the last few days. Perhaps she’s less busy now. And since Shane was back at his own place, perhaps she’d be able to visit.
For a moment, Yuna wanted to invite Lily over for a chat. Wine night with her son’s not-girlfriend. Wait —
The three dots popped up. Maybe the reason Shane’s been so secretive about this girl was because she’s a lot younger —
No responses from Lily came as Yuna read through the seemingly nonstop messages that were suddenly flooding her phone. Shane also appeared to be fielding calls and texts on his phone when she looked over.
Later that night, she finally received the message she was waiting for:
Yuna was relieved that she didn’t have a homophobic (future) daughter-in-law.
Time seemed to last forever between the Cup finals and the NHL awards, but somehow, the end of June arrived in the blink of an eye. A few days into Shane’s “silent retreat” (Yuna couldn’t stop herself from using airquotes in her head every time she thought of it), David’s phone charger cable was irreparably damaged when it got tangled up in the vacuum machine. She wished they used the same phone and, therefore, could share the same charger. But, alas, on a perfectly beautiful summer morning, David had to drive into town in search of a replacement charger, instead of spending time lounging with her on the back porch, facing a picturesque view.
“I’ll be back soon. The store always carries extra phone cables.” David said, as he quickly crabbed his keys and wallet by the door.
Yuna hummed serenely, too absorbed by the sounds of insects, the breeze, and the rich aroma of her sacred morning coffee.
Keys jingling, shoes scuffing on the tiles, David was out the door in a flash, and the rustling trees outside made it impossible for her to hear his muttering as he left –
“And if they don’t have it at the store, I’ll just pick up the old one I left at Shane’s. I won’t say anything and I’ll be quiet. He won’t even know I was there…”