Chapter Text
No twelve year old thinks about where they’ll go if their parents die. Scott Hunter certainly didn’t. He was a happy kid with loving parents who supported his hockey dreams. Then one day, that was all gone because of a drunk driver, and bad luck. Wrong place, wrong time, and all those other platitudes people say when they don’t actually know what to say to you. Both of his parents were only children, as were all of his grandparents, and all of his grandparents were already dead. All but one of them had died before he was born, and his last grandmother died when he was a toddler. There was no one to take him in, so into the foster system he went. It was made clear to him very quickly that babies got adopted, not preteens, and certainly not teenagers, so he would likely spend the next five and a half years in a group home before aging out of the system. Who knows what would happen to him after that? Certainly not Scott.
He had accepted this fate, as heartbreaking as it was, until his social worker, Ms. Jenny, dropped by for a visit: “Someone wants to adopt me?” He asked in shock.
“Yes, a couple in Canada. David and Yuna Hollander,” Ms. Jenny replied.
“Why me?” He asks.
“David and your dad went to McGill together, played on the same hockey team. Your dad was a year ahead of David, but had been his team mentor, so they’d been pretty close. He said he met you a number of times when you were a baby and toddler, but that life got hectic and he and your dad lost touch outside of birthdays and Christmases. They want to make sure that you are taken care of, and that you get to keep playing hockey if that’s what you want. They said they would never force you if you don’t want to come with them, but that they would like to meet you so that you can get a feel for them before you decide. Would you be open to that?”
“They’ll let me keep playing hockey?” Ms. Jenny nods. “Then yes, I want to meet them.”
~~~~~~
David and Yuna had been trying to have children for years now, and after three early-term miscarriages and a second-trimester stillbirth, they decided maybe a biological child wasn’t in the cards for them. Yuna couldn’t handle losing another baby, which is when they turned to fostering and adopting. They had gone through the whole process of getting approved as foster parents, but had not had a placement yet, when they saw on the news about David’s friend from college tragically dying and leaving behind an orphaned son. They asked their assigned social worker to reach out to Scott’s social worker about a potential placement. It was more challenging since they were in Canada, and Scott lives in New York, but they were more than willing to jump through the necessary hoops.
This is how they found themselves in New York, sitting at a table across from a traumatized boy. There were long minutes of silence after they introduced themselves. They didn’t want to push the boy, so they let him lead the conversation. After a while, Scott finally looked up and quietly asked, “You played hockey with my dad?”
“Yes, I did. I considered your dad to be one of my best friends. I am so sorry that I didn’t try harder to stay in his and your life,” David says somberly.
“And you will let me keep playing?” Scott wanted to hear them say it from their own mouths.
“Of course, honey. We both love hockey, and want you to be able to go as far with it as you want to,” Yuna reassures him.
They continued to talk for about an hour. Scott asked David a lot of questions about what his dad was like in college, as well as what life would be like if he came with them to Canada. “I want you to know, we aren’t trying to replace your parents. They are your mom and dad, and we would never expect to take their place in your life. We would want you to think of us as more like godparents. We would love you, support you, and raise you as best we can.”
“I want to try coming with you,” Scott decides.
From there, it was a hectic process. They would have to foster him for a year before they could petition to adopt, and both the Canadian and American governments would be sending people to check in on them. It was worth it though, to give this boy a place he could call home.
When they were finally able to return to their home in Ottawa, the first thing they did was find Scott a hockey team, then they enrolled him in school, though he wouldn’t start until the following school year. They found themselves in a comfortable routine of David dropping Scott off at school in the morning before going to work. Yuna worked from home, and would pick Scott up from school and take him to hockey practice. They made a point to both be at all of his games to support him. A year after he came to live with them, they petitioned for adoption. Midway through the petition process, Yuna found out that not only was she pregnant, she was already fifteen weeks along. They only found out because she went in for her annual physical, she hadn’t been having any of the symptoms she’d had in her previous pregnancies. She hoped that was a good sign that this pregnancy would make it to full term.
That night at dinner, she told David and Scott together, unable to keep it to herself. David was over the moon, but they both noticed how forced the smile on Scott’s face was, “That’s great Yuna…When do they come to take me back to New York?” he asked.
“Oh honey, no!” Yuna says, dropping to her knees beside Scott’s chair and pulling him into a tight hug, “We’re not sending you away! We are still going to adopt you! This baby would be your little sibling,”
David joins the hug, holding both his wife and their soon-to-be adoptive son. Scott was embarrassed to feel the tears falling at her words, “I get to stay?” he asked.
“Of course you get to stay. This is your home,” David says.
~~~
Yuna went into labor six weeks early and was terrified the entire time that their baby wasn’t going to make it. David was at work, and Scott was at school, so she called for an ambulance when she felt the cramps start. David met her at the hospital, already having called one of the hockey moms to take Scott home with them. Yuna was rushed into an emergency C-section, and on May 10th, 1991, Shane Hollander was born at 4.7 pounds and had to spend three weeks in the NICU. The day they were able to take him home was the first time Scott got to see him, since kids weren’t allowed in the NICU, but as he sat on the couch carefully holding his new baby brother, he quietly promised, “I will always take care of you, Shane. I’ll be the best big brother! I love you so much!”
Scott kept his promise. When Shane wanted to learn how to skate at 3, because he wanted to skate with Scott, sixteen-year-old Scott spent hours at the rink practicing with him (on top of the hours he was already there playing). When Scott went to university at McGill, wanting to go to the same university as his dad, five-year-old Shane sobbed thinking that Scott would forget all about him. Shane was just starting with the Timbits hockey team that year, and their parents did their best to make sure both boys were at each other’s hockey games as much as possible, even if five-year-olds aren’t quite as competitive as university students.
Two years later, seven-year-old Shane was excitedly telling everyone he could that his big brother had been drafted into the MLH, playing for the New York Admirals. He was sad that his brother was even further away than he had been at McGill, and was too busy to come to many of Shane’s own games, but they were each other’s biggest supporters, and Scott was Shane’s hero. Ten years after his own draft, his baby brother was also drafted, proving to be even more of a natural in the sport than Scott had been.
It only made sense that when eighteen-year-old Shane realized what the feelings he was having towards Ilya Rozanov meant, that he ran straight to his big brother, basically literally. Scott was back in Ottawa for a visit when Shane got back from the CCM shoot. At midnight, after Shane was sure that his parents would be asleep, he snuck into his brother’s room like he used to when he was little. Scott was sitting on his bed, typing on his laptop, when Shane pushed the door open quietly. He watched as he closed the door behind him and silently settled himself at the foot of Scott’s bed, fidgeting with the hem of his sweatshirt in an obvious show of discomfort. He set the laptop aside and sat up to show Shane he had his full attention. “What’s up bud?”
“I…I like a boy. I’ve liked him for a while, and it feels different…I don’t know, stronger than anything I’ve felt for a girl. I think he likes me too. He was at the shoot that I just did, and he and I sort of…hooked up,” at this Shane finally looked up at his brother, and seeing the concerned shock on his big brother’s face, he was quick to add, “We didn’t go all the way or anything! Just ummm… never mind you probably don’t want details-” he cut himself off from continuing to ramble.
“Is he another hockey player?” Scott asked, mind racing at the idea of an older player taking advantage of his baby brother.
“Yeah. We got drafted at the same time. Juniors was how we met,” a rush of relief went through Scott. If they were in Juniors together and got drafted together, they were roughly the same age.
Scott reached out, snagging his baby brother’s hand, and tugged until Shane moved up the bed, curling into his big brother’s side. “I’m so proud of you, Shane. Thank you for telling me.” He could feel Shane’s tears starting to soak into his shirt, and somehow this was the thing that made him brave enough to come out to his brother in return. “Hey Bud, I don’t want to steal your thunder or anything, but I have something to tell you too.” Shane just nodded, but that was enough to tell him that he was ok to hear it. “I’m gay. I haven’t told anyone yet, and I wasn’t going to until I retired from hockey, but I want you to know that I have your back. We’re in this together.”
“I have your back, too,” Shane says, tightening his hold on his brother. “I’m scared.”
“Me too. Do you think this thing with this guy could go somewhere?” Scott asks.
“I don’t know. I hope so.” They lapse into silence, and after a few minutes Scott reaches over to turn off the lamp. They settle down in Scott’s bed, quickly falling asleep.