And that's a wrap.
So many thanks to @alchemistc and @screamlet for hockey proofing (they made this so much better, and make us sound so much more like we know what we're talking about). And to @ziusik for Russian proofing. Any mistakes or misunderstandings are all on @cecilyv and me. We really appreciate the help.
Chapter 1 - Summer + Preseason
Chapter 2 - Fall
Chapter 3 - Winter
Chapter 4 - Spring
NEW - Chapter 5 - Summer
Eight years and two Cup runs into his career, Shane knows what it takes to reach the finish line. To hoist the Cup over his head, to celebrate with an undying sense of relief that we did it. It’s over.
It hasn’t been an easy year — they squeaked through as the first wild card — but they’ve got everyone back. Healthy, for degrees of healthy at the end of the season. Everyone’s nursing something.
He told Ilya that he couldn’t think about them, the plan, the future – had to concentrate on the team, the game; he could only think as far as the first round.
It’s a lie.
He tries. The playbooks replace the parenting books. He meditates, visualizes the results he wants to see. Sets his meal plans. Preps and cooks food for the week. Goes out with the boys in the name of team cohesion. Desperately tries to ignore their unceasing attempts to pick up a girl for him. Ignore their language. The shit they say when the Admirals get knocked out in four games.
It’s a relief when Ilya texts him / I said yes to give you space to focus, but tvoy syn needs good night moon because your boyfriend also needs his beauty sleep tonight /
Reads Sergei Good Night Moon three times before he drops off, and then falls asleep himself, phone line still open, listening to Ilya’s faint snores that mean he’s nursing the tail end of a cold. Plays better in practice the next day than he has all week.
They table any discussion of what happens in the postseason until the postseason, and he doesn’t fly to Boston, but he does go back to reading to Seryozha at night. It helps.