Chapter Text
Shane had lost. Yuna was heartbroken, she always was when he looked at her with those big sad eyes. He held it together on the ice, clearly, he always did. When he got to be tucked into a corner though, not five minutes later she just held him. He didn’t openly sob, he tried to keep it together and waited for David to wrap his arms around the other side of him. They used to call it their Shane sandwich and it would make him giggle.
“Looks like your the deli meat.” David tried to make the sound come out and Shane remains silent. “Tough crowd.” David comments then. That makes Yuna huff a laugh out, Shane remains silent.
“I’m gonna go shower.” Shane whispers miserably at them and attempts to extract himself, they let him. David’s hand finds hers and she sighs heavily.
“Losing is apart of this too.” David reminds her.
“I know that.” They sit on a bench, other boys already coming out in search of their parents. Probably the quickest showers of their life. About twenty minutes later the Russian team exits, they move quickly and don’t have happy expressions. There’s too jumping up and down and rough housing with one another like Shane’s team does. Hell, like every other team they’ve seen.
“Considering they aren’t communists anymore they sure act the same.” David mumbles under his breath.
“David!” She hits his chest. The move efficiently though, Yuna can’t deny that. The coach looks fuming almost like the asshole didn’t the prospect cup. He shouts something in angry at the assistant coach who nods curtly before he turns back.
“I think they abuse those boys.” David whispers next, the worst part is she can’t disagree. When Shane finally comes back out he rushes to them a little quicker, they’re the last ones here.
“Mom, dad, something’s wrong.” He blurts out.
“What?” David looks to her before Shane drags them towards the locker rooms and they follow. Yuna hears the yelling immediately. It’s in Russian and it sounds angry, harsh, but when another noise echos it makes her freeze.
“I think something is wrong.” Shane whispers and Yuna takes a deep breath and looks at David and Shane, holding her finger to her mouth. A cough rings through the halls again and she thinks she needs to move quickly.
“Shane! Shane!” She yells as if she’s searching for somebody, and Shane look at her crazy. She goes into the locker room where the scolding or abuse is occurring.
“Shane! Shane baby!” She yells again and stumbles upon a moment that makes her want to puke. Rozanov, the Russian captain, looked paler than a ghost. He has clearly thrown up if the puddle in front of him was any indication and he had definitely been hit. A few red hand marks blossoming on his face.
“I’m so sorry, I’m looking for Shane Hollander.” Rozanov looks terrified she’s in there, but maybe that’s embarrassment in his eyes and not fear.
“He’s not in here.” The coach informs her and she looks to Rozanov.
“Are you okay?” She asks him, wanting to just approach him. The coach steps back.
“He is fine. Not feeling well.” A cough racks his body and she winces. That’s probably why there’s a puddle of vomit.
“Oh? What’s wrong?” She does take a couple strides over to him, still far enough away that the boy doesn’t look like he will run.
“Sore ear is all.” Maybe from all the goddamn screaming the man was doing.
“Shane!” David yells again as he comes in, joining whatever this is. Coughing continues as David looks at Yuna unsure what to do.
“Shane is still not in here.” The man informs David now. At least David recalibrates what he’s going to say she guesses.
“Ah, shit, champ, looks like you got sick. You okay?” David asks the same question she was trying to get an answer for.
“He is fine.”
“Our doctor is still here.” David says helpfully.
“Yes, come on, Rozanov right? Come on, you can come with us to get checked out.” Yuna opens her arm.
“Your son is missing.” The coach reminds them.
“Eh, he’ll be okay. Why don’t you head with Yuna here to see the doctor?” The coach glared at David and then at her before his glare settled on Rozanov.
“Am fine.” The boy informs him.
“Please? For me?” She looks to the coach, hoping he sees something at least a little wrong with the situation. “It would. And me feel better as a mother.” She should hate Rozanov right now, hell she kind of does, but that’s still a child. The man asks Rozanov something harsh and Rozanov looks over at her, fear in his eyes.
“Am fine.” He informs her.
“David, why don’t you get Hall? I’ll stay here.” She isn’t giving this man a choice.
“Be right back.” David looks afraid to leave her alone, but she’s furious at the moment. She closes the gap between her and Rozanov, pointedly stepping between the coach and him. When she places her hand on his forehead two things become apparent: the boy flinches with movements towards his face and he’s burning up.
“You have a fever.” She says sympathetically.
“We need to leave, we do not have time for this.” The coach barks at her, going to grab at the boy.
“He has blood coming out of his ear, he’s seeing a doctor.”
“You are not his coach, you are not responsible for him.” He barks an order at Rozanov who fearfully complies, standing despite the fact she thinks he will fall over any second. She holds her arm out for him like she does Shane when he’s shaky from a too long work out or sick. Rozanov doesn’t take it.
“Am fine.” He parrots again. The cough says otherwise.
“We need to catch flight.” The man says then. Yuna looks at the boy with blood coming out of his ear.
“We can drive him.” She says immediately.
“No, is fine.” The man tells her.
“Hey! We got Hall!” David calls out as the two walk in, Hall clearly staring at the puddle of sick they’ve slowly maneuvered away from.
“Hi, Jonathan Hall, I work for the Canadian team.”
“And you were still at rink?” The coach asks.
“Yeah, I was just packing up. You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” He laughs when he faces Rozanov.
“We’ll wait outside.” David grabs Yuna’s arm and they walk out of the locker room.
“Is the guy okay?” Shane asks, he’s sitting on the floor when they come out.
“Yeah, yeah he will be.” David says as Yuna picks at her sweater. She felt sick to her stomach.
“You watched a lot about Ilya Rozanov. What do you know?”
“He’s the best in Russia. He’s been skating since he was three. He’s kind of a jerk.” Shane supplies, she notes a pink flush in his cheeks as he says it. Most hockey kids are assholes on the ice, the commentators had said Rozanov wasn’t well liked all around. It didn’t matter. The boy was seventeen, he was still a child.
“Did he dad come with him?”
“No Russian parents came.” Shane looks confused and Yuna was worried about that.
“What are you thinking?” David asks, a quiet whisper.
“I don’t want him in a hotel with that man. Alone or not.” She’s staring at the entrance to the locker room.
“Yuna…” David starts, but she’s made up her mind. She walks back into the locker room.
“Mrs Hollander.” Hall says like a warning to her.
“He needs a hospital if that’s blood from his ear. Can we take him?” She asks, rozanov’s eyebrows shoot up in confusion from where they have sat him on a bench. The coach seems even more angry with her now.
“He is fine.”
“He will need to see a doctor at a hospital, or even urgent care. He’s sick.” Hall informs him.
“Great. He will back in Moscow. Our plane leaves in four hours.”
“He’ll never be able to fly with a ruptured eardrum.” Hall says.
“We leave in four hours, with or without him. We need to get to the airport now.”
“Can we call someone?” Hall asks as Rozanov tries to look around the room.
“He is leaving.” He then commands Rozanov to stand who does so.
“Am fine.” He repeats.
“He’s not a parrot! Is that the only English phrase he knows!” She didn’t mean to startle the kid, but feels bad when he looks scared. The coach turns to Rozanov and is speaking so fast she isn’t sure Rozanov understands him either.
“Can I sign him out? Get permission to take him to the emergency room and get him on a quick flight?” Hall asks.
“Fuck it. You want to deal with pathetic little boy, be my guest.” The coach says before saying something at Rozanov again. Rozanov can’t get a word out before the coach leaves him.
“Wait! Wait! Mister Petrov! We need your signature and his passport!” Hall chases after the man and Yuna gets closer to Rozanov. He backs up a little, clearly unsure about her. He looks like Shane now, up close and personal, he looks sickly and scared and his eyes have unshed tears the way Shane’s do when he’s overwhelmed.
“Is it okay if I go with you to the hospital?” She asks him, reaching out to smooth unruly curls.
“I am okay.” He tells her, she sits on the bench next to him and turns.
“Did you throw up?” He nods his head ever so slightly, “your head hurts? Your ears?” She touches his good ear and he looks scared.
“Doctor in Moscow can fix.” He tries to reason. “Coach is mad at me now.” She wants to hold him like she would Shane.
“No, you could get really hurt. Our friend, that doctor, he’s going to get whatever you need.” She promises and she notices how he’s playing with a necklace around his neck. “Please let us take you.” She asks again and he won’t look at her.
“Okay.” He whispers and her heart rate calms a bit. Okay, they can do this.
She’s sitting in an uncomfortable plastic chair in a hospital with Jonathan Hall as they wait to hear what’s wrong all with Rozanov. The boy thankfully has curled up under the five blankets Yuna had to keep going back for and has fallen asleep. He’s not totally relaxed and she gets why. He didn’t handle the IV well nor did he the ct scan, but he did it anyway. His attempt to hide tears hurt Yuna, but she didn’t open her mouth.
They knew Rozanov at least had a serious double ear infection, the one side rupturing the ear drum. Which might be the reason his ear was bleeding when she came in. Rozanov admitted to not feeling good for multiple days, but it was fine. He was fine. It’s all he kept repeating. As the afternoon dragged into evening and she realized Rozanov only had his eyes closed so he wouldn’t have to talk to them she tried to speak lighter. Lighter topics that maybe would make him open his eyes and get that necklace out of his mouth.
“And the flight took off.” Jonathan says it gently to her. She feels sick to her stomach knowing they left Rozanov. He had his hockey duffle and a small duffle of clothes, that’s it. If Shane’s coach ever even thought about that she would have skinned him alive.
“What now?” She asks, a low tone as she studies the so called sleeping boy.
“We get him a hotel.”
“He’s seventeen.”
“I know that.”
“Would you have put Shane in a hotel room by himself if we weren’t there?” Jonathan sighed heavily at her.
“No.”
“He can stay with us.” She decides, not bothering to ask anyone. “We have a spare room. He can fly out in a couple days.” There’s no use in fighting her, Jonathan knows this unfortunately.
Rozanov has both flu a and b, the double ear infection, and some type of cough that won’t go away. It only became clear in the hospital how bad that croup sound was in his chest because he’s wheezing. They just won the prospect cup, Rozanov as their captain, and he’s sicker than a dog. It makes her nauseous, he was considered the best next to Shane. If he did that so sick what was he like normally. They’re given prescription cough medication that they warn will make him loopy, informed to give him cold medicine, ear drops, antibiotics, and make sure his fever stays down. They don’t pull into the Hollander home until three in the morning and Rozanov looks like he’s sagging in exhaustion.
“I’ll see you two in a couple days.” Jonathan smiles warmly and Rozanov looks terrified in the back seat once he realizes he’s getting out. She explained it four times to him, but maybe he was in disbelief.
“I’ll get your things.”
“No.” Rozanov attempts to stand at full height as he steps out of the car and he wobbles.
“Rozanov, please.” She’s ready to beg the teenager to just take a second.
“My problem.” He tries to explain to her.
“They’re my problem right now, go up to the front door. See you in a few days Jonathan!” She says to the front seat.
“Good luck.” Armed with enough medication from the only twenty four hour pharmacy to kill someone or medicate a small nation she follows Rozanov up to the front door.
“Everyone’s asleep. So we can be quiet. Come on, let’s get you something to eat.”
“Not hungry.” Rozanov is toeing his shoes off behind her as he follows. She sets his things down and turns to him.
“Can you change into your pajamas maybe? Hospital clothes are gross. The half bath is right here.” She informs him and he blinks a couples before letting out another chest rattling cough. “Oh, buddy, I’ll get your medicine ready.” She coaxes him and he does take his duffle to get changed. She tries reading the medicine bottles in the dark before she gives up and turns on the overhead light. Okay, he can have more cough medicine, but it can make him nauseous. He already had his antibiotics at the hospital. He got two bags of fluid. He needs more cold medicine. She needs to take his temperature.
“Thank you.” She nearly jumps out of her skin when Rozanov says it.
“Sit, you sit your butt on a barstool.” She taps the counter as he stares at her warily, but he does it anyway. She turns around to rummage in the cupboard for the thermometer before turning to get a glass along with a pack of crackers.
“Not hungry.” He says again and she sighs, sitting next to him.
“I need you to open your mouth for your temperature, okay?” She decides to tackle that first. He does so easily, clearly not wanting to fight with her. She moves the other medicine closer before getting up to fill his glass of water. When it beeps she looks at him expectantly as she walks back over.
“One zero three four.” He looks confused.
“That’s not great, but it’s a good baseline I guess? Okay take these, let me get you Motrin too.” She scribbles on a pad of paper what time it is and what she gave him all, along with his temperature. She hears him gag. “Yeah, that’s always gross.” She agrees when she sees him chugging the water.
“Bed?” He asks, his eye bags are heavy and she feels awful.
“Come on, couple of crackers please.” She asks of him while handing him a few Motrin as well. He takes the pills no complaint before eating a singular cracker and staring at her. “More than one.” He eats four in total and she hopes it’s enough.
“Bed?”
“Yeah, do you not have anything with you?” She sounds shocked, but Shane still took his blanket and stuffed otter to away games so why wouldn’t you if you were coming from Russia.
“No?”
“Okay, come on. I know you’re dizzy.” She holds out her arm and he hesitates before taking it slowly. “I’m putting you right next to me and David. Wake me up,” his coughing interrupts her, “for anything okay? Come on.” She pushes the guest room door open and walks him to the bed, pulling back the covers. He looks unsure when she does it. “I know, you don’t know me. It’s been a long day, let’s get some sleep.” He finally crawls into the bed and looks at her scared when she pulls the covers high up on him. “Get some sleep, okay? I’ll see you in four hours. Half bath is by the kitchen, David and I have an en-suite if you just want to come in our room or down the hall is Shane’s bathroom. He nods. “Okay, sleep tight Rozanov.” She says it gently, wanting to tuck him in more but scared of his reaction.