Rating:

Mature

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:

M/M

Fandoms:

Heated Rivalry (TV), Game Changers | Heated Rivalry - All Media Types, Game Changers Series - Rachel Reid

Relationships:

Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Scott Hunter & Ilya Rozanov, Shane Hollander & Scott Hunter

Characters:

Ilya Rozanov, Shane Hollander, Scott Hunter (Game Changers), Hayden Pike

Additional Tags:

Hurt/Comfort, Concussions, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Past Suicide Attempts, Depressed Ilya Rozanov, Protective Scott Hunter (Game Changers), Ilya Rozanov is High on Pain Medication, Medical Inaccuracies, Ilya Rozanov Loves Shane Hollander, Shane Hollander Loves Ilya Rozanov, Good Friend Hayden Pike, Good Friend Cliff Marlow | Cliff Marleau, no beta we die like ilyas dad, Coming Out

Language:

English

Series:

Part 7 of Seasoned Gay to the Rescue

Stats:

Published: 2026-05-25 Words: 3,230 Chapters: 1/1

Saved On Purpose

Summary

“Yay!” Ilya giggles and throws his head back, settling back into the pillows. He smiles dreamily at Shane. “I’m glad I didn’t kill myself.”
Shane freezes and Scott stiffens. His words come out slowly, horrified by what he’s just heard. Maybe it was a fluke or an offhanded dead joke. “What did you say?”

OR

Ilya suffers a concussion and while high on pain medication, he accidentally reveals his attempt the previous summer.

Notes

Inspired by the comment from Rikaraholic
“Please please write more of Scott and Kip taking care of Ilya and how in this universe, Ilya tells them about Shane and how Shane realizes that he gets to have this life with Ilya only because Scott saved him and then kept saving him every time.”

This is a direct sequel to It was Just an Accident and takes place during Ilya’s last year with The Bears. However, you DO NOT need to read it to read this one. Heavy on the medical inaccuracies here folks, don’t come at me.

Enjoy!

“Another beer?” Hayden asks getting up from the couch, “Or you want a ginger ale?”

“Ginger ale, thanks,” Shane says. His eyes are glued to the Pike’s TV where they’re watching the Boston Detroit game. It's a complete shitshow for Detroit, their play is all over the place and the Bears are eating them alive.

Hayden passes Shane the ginger ale, “This is just sad.”

“And embarrassing,” Shane adds. They just started the second half of the game, the score is a humiliating 6-0 and Ilya has already scored a hat trick.

“At this point, why are they even trying?” Hayden sighs, “I’d just give up already. Rozanov is on fucking fire, he doesn’t even need to be on the ice at this point.”

Shane just hums. Hayden is right, but selfishly he wants Ilya on the ice so he can watch his boyfriend play. He can’t wait until the summer and then they’ll only be two hours apart.

He watches the faceoff and Ilya easily steals the puck again. He takes off down the ice and Shane smirks in anticipation of the impending 7th goal of the night. Then he sees it. Even Hayden is gasping before it happens. Shane watches in horror as the forward from Detroit barrels towards Ilya, colliding into him.

Ilya goes flying across the ice. His body slides to a stop and the whistle blows. He’s not moving. Shane stares at the TV in horror.

“Get up,” He begs, not realizing that he’s saying it out loud, “Ilya get up!”

He catches a glimpse of Cliff fighting Detroit’s forward, but all he can focus on is Ilya. Ilya who hasn’t moved or twitched, not even when the medics come.

“It doesn’t look like he’s responsive,” The announcers are saying. Shane’s world is closing in on itself.

“Buddy?” Hayden calls and reaches for Shane. But Shane doesn’t hear him or react. His eyes won’t leave Ilya’s prone form, not until the medics are carrying his body out on a stretcher.

Fuck, he can’t breath. He needs to go. He needs to be with Ilya.

“Shane!” Hayden cuts across into his video, grabbing Shane by the shoulders. “I need you to breathe with me, you’re having a panic attack.”

“I need-” Shane chokes out, “He’s hurt- I need to go- he’s-”

“I hear you,” Hayden gently pushes Shane onto the couch and grabs his hand to place it over his chest. “But you can’t do that if you’re not breathing. Breathe with me, okay? In and out, nice and slow.” Shane struggles to follow along. Everything is too much.

Hayden tries something different, “I need you to name three things you can see. Shane? Tell me.”

Shane’s eyes dart around, trying to focus. “You…”

“Good, two more.”

“The coffee table… my ginger ale…”

“Good,” Hayden smiles and rubs his back in soothing circles, “Tell me three things you can touch.”

“The couch…” Shane shuts his eyes trying to concentrate, “Um… my socks and you- your hand on my back.”

Hayden hums his approval, “What are three things you can move?”

“My mouth, my… my toes, and… my hands.” Shane takes a deep breath and opens his eyes.

Hayden sits next to him, his hand stays rubbing his back. “Deep breaths, that’s good.”

Shane just nods.

“What’s going on, talk to me.”

“I need to go to Boston,” Shane croaks, “I need to see him.”

Hayden nods, “I got that, but can you tell me why? You hate Rozanov.”

Shane shakes his head and the tears well up, but he refuses to let them fall. “I don’t hate him. I-” He wants to say it but the fear grips him. Hayden doesn’t know he’s gay and even worse because he’s just had a panic attack in his living room about his boyfriend getting hurt.

“Holy shit,” Hayden fills in the silence, the pieces clicking together, “Holy shit you’re in love with him.”

“Yeah,” he chokes out.

“Rozanov? Does he… know this?” Hayden asks, “Or is this like a-”

Shane looks up at him with blurry eyes, “He’s my boyfriend.”

“Fuck.” The panic must show on his face because Hayden quickly says, "That's cool! I’m not- okay.” He stands up, “If we leave now, I can drive you back home to grab some of your stuff and then take you to the airport. I can book you a ticket while you’re packing. Or you can do it in the car on the way to your place, whatever.”

Shane sits up, “You’re okay with this?”

“With you being gay? Hayden asks, “That was never a question. With Rozanov, a little more debatable but you clearly love him so… I have to be cool with it. Now let’s get you to Boston.”

-

When Shane lands in Boston a few hours later, he finds several new texts and a missed call from Scott Hunter.

Scott

Hey it’s Scott

I got your number from Ilya

He wanted you to know he’s okay

He was at Boston General but I’m taking him home

Call me when you get this

Outgoing Call… Scott Hunter

“Hollander? Holy shit, thank fuck you called back.”

“Yeah,” Shane makes his way through the terminal, “What happened? How’s Ilya? Why are you in Boston?”

“Slow your roll,” Scott stops him before he can ask more questions, “One thing at a time. First of all, where are you? It sounds noisy as hell.”

“I just landed in Boston. Why are you with Ilya and not in New York?”

“Hold on,” Scott says again which irritates Shane. He wants answers now. “Ilya is fine, he’s got a concussion but nothing is fractured or broken. He’s got badly bruised ribs and got knocked out, but other than that he’s going to be okay. I’m with him because I was at the game.”

“You were? Why?”

“Because unless I have practice or a game, I always go to Boston to see him play.”

Shane frowns, this is entirely new information to him. He has a million more questions but holds onto them. “Okay, well I’m coming.”

“I know,” Scott sounds too calm, “We’ll see you soon, Hollander.”

They end the call and Shane is more confused than ever. Since fucking when were Scott and Ilya close? It must’ve been after the MHL awards that they kindled some kind of friendship. Clearly close enough that Scott has been attending Ilya’s games in person.

Shane arrives at Ilya’s house almost an hour later. He curses Boston traffic, tempted to drive Ilya-style to get there, but he doesn’t. He parks the rental in front of the house and marches up to the front door. He punches in the code and finds that the house smells… really nice. Someone, he assumes Scott, is cooking.

“Scott?” Shane calls out, toeing his shoes off. “Ilya?”

“Shane!” Ilya’s loopy voice calls out from the living room and Shane runs to him. Scott stands in the kitchen wearing an apron but Shane doesn’t care about him. He beelines to Ilya on the couch and falls to his knees.

“Ilya,” Shane whispers his name like a prayer and presses their foreheads together. He does not give a flying fuck that Scott Hunter is witnessing all of this. Ilya smiles and hums at Shane, pursing his lips for a kiss. Shane can’t resist him and kisses him back.

“Lyubov moya,” he grins up at Shane, “Ya tak sil'no tebya lyublyu.”

Shane brushes the soft curls away from his boyfriend’s face, “I love you too. You scared me so much.”

“I am okay now. You were watching?” Ilya asks, his fingers lace with Shane’s.

“Of course. I watch all your games. I love watching you play.”

Ilya kisses Shane’s hands, “Mine. My boyfriend.”

“Yeah,” Shane smiles, “I’m yours.”

Ilya cranes his head a little, “Dedushka!”

Scott walks in from the kitchen, “Yeah?” Shane stares. He has no idea what dedushka means, but based on his chirps and the fact that it's pretty close to the word babushka, he correctly deduces that it probably means ‘grandfather’ or something old person related.

Ilya holds up their hands showing their intertwined fingers, “This is my boyfriend! I love him so much!”

Shane’s face goes bright red. Ilya just fucking outed them to Scott Hunter!

“I can see that,” Scott laughs, “I’m very happy for you, kid.”

“I’m thirsty,” Ilya declares.

Scott nods, “Your juice is in the fridge, I’ll go-”

“Mmmm no,” Ilya shakes his head and points at Shane, “I want you to get my juice.” Shane nods and starts to let go of Ilya’s hand. “No! Don’t let go!”

“Ilya, I have to if you want me to get your juice.”

Ilya grumbles but lets Shane’s hand go. “Okay.”

Scott smirks, “You heard him Hollander. Go get his juice.”

Shane sighs, “Okay. I’ll get your juice.”

“Yay!” Ilya giggles and throws his head back, settling back into the pillows.

Luckily Ilya’s fridge is organized enough that he finds the new jug of apple juice in the fridge. He pours a glass with some ice and for good measure adds a straw. He brings it back to Ilya who takes it and drinks with a happy sigh.

He smiles dreamily at Shane. “I’m glad I didn’t kill myself.”

Shane freezes and Scott stiffens. His words come out slowly, horrified by what he’s just heard. Maybe it was a fluke or an offhanded dead joke. “What did you say?”

“I said,” Ilya smiles like he’s not dropping the biggest bomb of Shane’s life, “I’m glad I didn’t kill myself.”

“Hey kid,” Scott rushes forward, “You might want to stop talking now.”

“No no!” Ilya bats Scott away. “He should know!” He stares at Shane with pupils blown out, entirely uninhibited. “I found a tall bridge and I was gonna go whoop right over the edge! Bye bye Ilya Rozanov.” He waves at Shane.

Shane’s face morphs into one of horror. “You tried to kill yourself?”

“Yup!” Ilya pops the ‘p’ and grins. “But then Scott came and got me and I thought he was doing it because he wanted blackmail or something so I tried to suck his dick, but he didn't want that. So that's when I lived with him that one time.” He lowers his voice to a loud whisper. “I sexted you in the bathroom!”

“Okay, that’s enough for now.” Scott grabs Shane and pushes him away ignoring Ilya’s protests.

“Hunter, no!” Ilya wails, “Don’t steal my boyfriend! You already have one! He’s mine!”

“I’m just borrowing him for a minute, kid,” Scott smiles at Ilya, “Don’t worry. He’s all yours.”

“What the fuck!?” Shane nearly explodes when Scott pulls him away to the safety of the kitchen. “What the fuck!?” He’s on the verge of his second panic attack.

“Listen to me,” Scott grabs him by the shoulders and shoves him up against the fridge. It’s not  hard, but it’s rough enough to ground Shane in the moment. “You are going to ignore what you heard just now.” Shane opens his mouth to protest but Scott doesn’t let him, “Ilya is in a vulnerable state right now. He did not mean to tell you that so you are going to forget what he told you. When he is lucid and if he wants to share with you, then he will. You do not pressure him to speak about it. Do you understand me?”

There’s a strangely murderous intent to Scott’s tone that strikes fear into Shane. Just who the fuck was Scott Hunter to Ilya? Why this protective behavior?

Shane just nods, “I understand.”

“Good.” Scott takes a step back, “Now help me finish cooking.”

-

For once, Ilya’s head isn’t fucking throbbing and the lights don’t make him want to kill himself (metaphorically, he’s not interested in actually killing himself these days). He’s vaguely aware that he’s in his own bed, but there are three voices that definitely shouldn’t be in his house. Fuck, any more than his own is suspicious.

Getting up from his bed, he groans as his body gets pissed at him for breathing. Damn ribs. At least he’s in his soft tracksuit. Which… hang on, who dressed him? There’s a moment of panic as he tries to think about who might’ve seen him naked before he remembers.

Right, Scott had taken him home from the hospital, made him shower, dressed him and then cooked for him. But there was something else… he feels like he’s missing something important. Which was probably related to the voices in his house. One of them had to be Scott, the other… maybe Kip? Was he even in town? But then that left the third mystery person.

Ilya shuffles into the kitchen to find that he’s immediately wrong about the other two voices in his kitchen. Scott is assembling four sandwiches while Shane and Cliff sit on the barstools drinking a ginger ale and a coke.

“Ilya!” Shane breathes out in relief the second he sees him and rushes up to hug him. Ilya hugs him back, instinctively kissing him on the lips before realizing their audience.

“Uh-” He blanks.

“Rozy, fuck I’m so happy to see you!” Cliff grins and gets up to hug him, “Do I get a kiss too?”

Ilya snorts and then because now he’s got to ‘commit to the bit’ as they say, goes to kiss Cliff on the lips. Shane’s hand shoots out, stopping him before their lips connect.

“Over my fucking dead body,” Shane snaps.

Cliff throws his head back and laughs taking a step away. “Fuck Roz, you should’ve told me Hollzy was your boyfriend a long time ago. He’s fun, we could’ve been hanging out all this time.”

“My boyfriend?” Ilya echoes blearily, letting Shane guide him to a barstool.

Cliff cocks his head, “Yeah.” He frowns, “Do you not remember telling me?”

Ilya sits and shakes his head; it’s spinning but for an entirely different reason than his concussion.

“Oh well,” Cliff fills in the gaps, “After you got hit, you were super out of it…”

“Marley,” Ilya groans, reaching blindly for his best friend. Cliff can see that the ambulance lights are too bright and his eyes are flooded with tears.

“Hey,” Cliff grabs his hand, “Roz it’s me.”

“Marley?”

“Yeah, brother, I’m here. You’re in the ambulance.” He glances up to the EMTs who are more focused on whatever medical stuff they’re doing to Ilya.

“I need…” Fuck, he looks genuinely scared.

“What do you need? I got you.”

“Call…” Ilya tries to get the words out, “Call my family.”

Cliff’s voice is littered with confusion, “Your dad-”

“No,” Ilya groans, “Not that one.”

“You have another dad?”

“Scott,” Ilya mumbles.

“Scott?” Cliff asks, “Hunter?”

“Tell him… to call Jane,” Ilya winces when there’s a light that shines in his eyes. “My Jane, please.”

“Yeah man,” Cliff gently rubs Ilya’s hand, “I can do that.”

“...and then when I came here to check on you, I saw that Hollander was here and that’s when I realized who Jane was. Also Jane… Shane… I really should’ve seen it sooner.”

Ilya blinks, “You’re… okay with this?”

“Um yeah brother,” Cliff laughs, “Hollander is super fucking hot why would I be mad? Besides, I already knew you liked dudes.”

“Oh…” Ilya frowns, “You knew?”

Cliff shrugs, “I figured it out a long time ago. I kept trying to drop hints to you that I knew, but I wanted you to come out to me on your own.”

Ilya can’t do anything except stare stupidly. Is his fucking gaydar broken? Why didn’t he realize that Cliff was trying to show that he’s an ally. Is ally even right? He called Shane ‘super fucking hot’. Ilya doesn’t really want to think about it too much at the moment because he’s a little afraid that if he does, his head will hurt.

“Thank you,” he ends up saying and Cliff squeezes his shoulder gently. Scott slides everyone their sandwiches and passes Ilya a water. He wants a coke, but knows he can’t. “Did I say anything else weird while I was out?” Ilya asks.

“No,” Shane answers too quickly and Ilya immediately notices the sharp glare that’s shared between Shane and Scott.

Fuck.

He said something.

-

“Shane,” Ilya whispers while he’s cuddled up with Shane in bed that night. “Please be honest with me.”

“Yeah,” Shane nods, “What is it?”

“What did I say to you? I saw that look you gave Scott. I know I said something.”

“It’s… not,” Shane swallows, “I don’t want to say that it’s not important because it is. But you weren’t ready to tell me, so I don’t want to repeat it.”

“Please,” Ilya begs softly, “Please tell me or it’ll keep… eating me.”

Shane shifts and then gets up, he turns on the dimmer so there’s enough light that they can see each other but not enough to irritate Ilya’s concussion. “I’ll tell you, but I need you to listen to me first.”

Ilya nods, “Okay.”

“What you told me, doesn’t change anything between us. I still love you, no matter what. There’s nothing you can say that will ever change that. I still want us, I still want our future together.”

Now, Ilya’s ready to start freaking out. Fear engulfs him, “What did I say? Shane, please tell me.”

Shane takes a deep breath. He holds Ilya’s hands tightly, “You told me you tried to kill yourself.”

Ilya’s heart crashes into the floor. He’d fucking told Shane? “I told you that?” He’s fucking horrified. He tries to take his hand back but Shane’s grip is too tight. The tears come fast and he can’t control them.

“Ilya,” Shane repeats, “Ilya, I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you.” He leans forward and kisses each of Ilya’s tears away. “What happened doesn’t change my love for you.”

“I-” Ilya chokes, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Shane presses their foreheads together, “Don’t be sorry. You have nothing to be sorry about.”

“But I was going to- I was…”

“Shh,” Shane whispers, “Don’t be sorry. You had your reasons. It can’t have been easy for you to make that choice. And I’m really sorry it’s something you were going through. But I’m really fucking happy you’re here now. I’m so fucking grateful to Scott that he saved you. Ilya I… fuck, I owe everything to him. I owe our whole future to him. Without him, I don’t have you and I… I can't imagine my life without you. I don’t want to walk this life without you by my side.”

“Yes,” Ilya acknowledges quietly, “If he hadn’t stopped me that day… I’m glad he did. I’m happy I get you. Shane, you’re my world.”

“And you’re mine,” Shane whispers. “You don’t have to tell me the details now, or ever, if you don’t want to. I won’t push or pry. Just know that I’m here.”

“One day,” Ilya promises, “I’ll tell you. Not right now, not today. But I will.”

“I love you so much and I-” his words become thick with emotion, “I’m here for you. Forever if you let me.”

Ilya brings his hands up and cups Shane’s cheeks. He kisses him slow and deep trying to push every ounce of love he has in him into the kiss. “Then stay forever, please.” Ilya whispers.

“Forever,” Shane promises.