Chapter Text
November 2014
Really, Cliff should have noticed it sooner. When Roz returned from wherever he’d gone over the summer, sporting a light tan and–in hindsight–a gold ring on the chain he always wore. It didn’t stand out until St Simon pointed out that Roz wore it on his finger when they went out.
“Dude,” Victor is leaning in, “Please tell me you’ve noticed the ring.”
Cliff darts his eyes to where Rozanov is ignoring his drink in favor of his phone at the other end of the table.
“Yeah, I noticed.” Cliff takes a sip of his beer. “What about it? Figured it was a family heirloom or something.”
Victor gives him a look that says are you crazy? “A ring that nice? A gold ring that nice? He wears it on his ring finger when it’s not around his neck.”
Cliff squinted at Roz, catching the glint of something on, yup, his ring finger. He holds his hands up, making L shapes with his fingers, and then studies Roz again. “Wrong hand.”
Vicky shakes his head, “I thought so too, but I googled it.”
“Googled what?”
“In Russia you wear engagement rings on the right hand.” He’s grinning at Cliff, “I think cap’s engaged.”
“You think Roz got engaged without telling us?” Cliff is miffed, his best friend potentially got engaged over the summer and hadn’t told any of them, just showed up, later than usual, to preseason training happier and lighter than any of them were aware was possible.
“Oh, he got engaged.” Victor nods.
“I think so.” He pauses, “Do you think it’s that Jane girl?”
He knew Rozanov kept things close to the chest, but to not tell them about impending nuptials, for them to notice the ring on their own? “Who else would it be? Good for him if that’s true, but when do you think he plans on telling us?”
He gets a shrug. In the end, Hammersmith brings it up, so Cliff could honestly say he hadn’t started what would become the biggest team secret.
Team meeting (no cap)
Smithy: anyone else notice Roz’s new jewelry???
Vicky: im glad im not the only one. He wears it on his right finger if it’s not on his necklace.
Vicky: cliff and I think its an engagement ring
Cliff: way to throw me under the buss asshole
Cliff: but yeah. Its russian tradition to wear wedding rings on the right hand
Connors: cap wouldn’t get married without telling us right?
Cliff: i don’t know what to think cause i also thought he would have told us it was serious with Jane
Smithy: you think its Jane?
Vicky: that makes sense, it has to be. Think it happened over the summer?
Carmichael: has to be, he’s had that ring since september
Smithy: September!? Holy shit, why hasn’t he said anything
Cliff: because it’s Jane, he never gives up information about Jane
Connors: roz wont tell us anything if we confront him about it.
Carmichael: nope. Fuck
Carmichael: we just have to wait for him to invite us to the wedding
Cliff: very Roz thing to do, send out wedding invites and act like we’re the idiots.
Cliff hates the waiting game, mostly because it goes on way too long. A year. A year of trying to find a moment to bring up the ring, casually mentioning Jane where it won’t push Roz away, making exasperated eye contact with his teammates with each failed lead.
Jane is taking care of their captain, that much is obvious, he plays well that season and Cliff only steps in once when it looks like Roz is getting lost in his head. (He’s damn proud when Roz informs him he’s found a Russian therapist.) He stays with Jane over the summer, longer than he usually takes time off, but clearly not slacking in his down time. It’s this relaxed, good-mood captain that keeps the team back from hounding him about any upcoming nuptials.
Team meeting (no cap)
Andrews: Can i send Jane flowers?
Cliff: I agree, but why? What’s cap done this time?
Carmichael: he forgot about his threat from last game.
Carmichael: and the timing lines up with what we think was a text from Jane.
Carmichael: a picture.
Vicky: go cap!
Smithy: thank god! Or Jane, for an early end to practice!
Cliff: i really got to meet this girl.
Vicky: I'm going to shake her hand first thing.
Smithy: even if the first time we meet her is at their wedding?
Vicky: even if it’s at the wedding.
Simmons: why haven’t we tried to find this girl?
Andrews: bc Roz is notoriously cagey about her.
Cliff: we didn’t even learn her name until a few years in. he used to deny he was even texting anyone
Vicky: also we tried, years ago, but zip. Nothing, girls a ghost.
Cliff: yeah that too
October 2015
It’s their new rookies this year that fuck up and find the next clue. Since becoming captain, Rozanov enjoyed taking rookies under his wing, making sure they settled in, got help when they needed it, and this year with three new young adults, started inviting them over to his new house for movie nights. Or days—because the day of the newest Jane Clue—Roz kicked them out early because she was in town. A rare weekend off, clearly last minute plans made to have Jane over.
“Ok. Movie over, time to go.” Rozanov is ushering his rookies towards the door. Anthony Clarke is shoving his shoes on as fast as he can.
“Calm down Cap, we’re going. No need to rush us.” Anthony meets the eyes of Seth 'Bugsy' Beadle and rolls them into the back of his head. “We’ll be gone before Jane gets here, promise.”
“Yes, you will be.” With final goodbyes, the three rookies find themselves on their captain’s porch, door firmly shut behind them.
“Well…” Beadle starts. Clarke and Dime Brown burst into laughter.
“We’re not stupid, cap.” Brown says through wheezes, “We’ve been sexiled!”
They make their way back to Clarke’s car, shoving each other into seats. They get twelve minutes away before, “Stop! Wait, I left my jacket inside.”
Groans fill the car, “Are you serious Dime? We can’t go back now, Cap will kill us.”
“Not if we’re fast.” Brown argues, “He said Jane would be over in an hour, it hasn’t been an hour. If we knock real fast we can get my jacket back and be gone and Roz won’t kill us for interrupting."
It sounds like a solid plan, it should be a solid plan. When Clarke pulls back onto Rozanov’s street, he’s forced to drive right by Rozanov’s house because there’s another car in the driveway.
“Holy shit, she’s here.” Clarke pulls off to the side hastily and throws the car into park, spinning around, craning his neck around. No one in the car is pretending to not be staring when someone gets out, opposite side of where they could make out details.
“Holy shit, holy shit.” Brown shoves Clarke’s shoulder, “That’s Jane.”
Rounding the car they manage to catch a glimpse of someone in a black hoodie carrying a duffle bag walking towards the door. They all stare at each other, aware they just saw the same thing. Seth pulls out his phone and silently starts texting. Their phones all buzz.
Beadle: hey, cap is seeing Jane this weekend right? No one else?
Vicky: yeah? He’s been excited about it all week.
Vicky: has he kicked you out yet?
The rookies stare at each other.
Vicky: rooks?
Beadle: we think we saw Jane.
Beadle: on accident.
Beadle: Dime left his jacket, so we turned back. We thought we had time.
Vicky: holy shit guys. Roz won’t be happy
Vicky: but also, tell us everything
Beadle: I don’t know if we can?
Beadle: not over text at least
Cliff: sounds like we need a team meeting.
Smithy: Breakfast tomorrow at Marly’s?
Cliff: why my house?
Smithy: because you’re the closest to all of us
Vicky: and have the biggest house.
Beadle: we’ll be there
Beadle: don’t tell cap
Anthony blew out a breath, “We can’t tell anyone.”
“No shit, Clarke.” Seth is breathing heavily, sitting back in his seat. “At least we didn’t see his face?”
“Fuck, this is all my fault. If we just left the jacket, it’s not that important.”
“I can’t believe we just…”
“Yeah.”
The drive back to their shared apartment was silent with shame and agreement they had fucked up. Now all three rookies had to sit with the knowledge that Jane wasn’t Jane, and their captain had a really good reason to keep her a secret.
Morning found them sitting, heads bowed, on Marlow’s couch, hunched over their pancakes of shame while they waited for the last people to arrive. The team gathers in the living room, plates of food half-eaten.
“Ok, rooks,” Marlow starts, “You saw Jane yesterday and freaked out about it.”
Brown nods, “I left my jacket at Rozanov’s when he kicked us out, but we didn’t get very far before we turned around. We thought we had time.”
“No one saw us, the car was already in the driveway when we got there.” Clarke continues, “We didn’t mean to see.”
“And it’s not like we saw his face.” The bomb has been dropped, “Just, like, a person, so we still don’t know who he is.”
“Wait, what do you mean?” Hammersmith cuts Beadle off, “His face?”
Clarke, looking a little green, nods, “His face. Jane isn’t a girl.”
The bomb has gone off. “That’s why we texted, we didn’t know if maybe it was just another friend or something-”
“We feel really bad, we probably shouldn’t have said anything.”
“Are you mad at us?” Brown is the only one looking around for any reaction from the stunned crowd of gathered Bears, fellow rookies keeping their eyes on their plates.
“Holy shit.” St Simon breathes, “What the fuck?”
Marlow spins, grim look on his face, and barks out, “This doesn’t leave this room. Whatever is going on does not leave the Bears, understood? It doesn’t matter if Rozy is gay or bisexual or whatever, it doesn’t matter that Jane is a man, he’s our captain.”
No one speaks up, but there are nods of agreement around the room.
“Rozanov could be in big trouble if this gets out, that’s why he hasn’t told us.” Victor says, moving to stand next to Cliff, “With Russia and with the NHL.”
Hammersmith adds, “We already like Jane. Right? Sure we weren’t expecting him to be a him, but we like him. That hasn’t changed.”
The nods are sharper this time, remembering that this was just a new clue to the puzzle, even if it’s also mind-altering information.
“This is crazy.” Someone whispered, “Not bad crazy, just, didn’t expect this.
Murmurs of agreement filled the room. Nicole Marlow takes that moment to announce her presence, needing to lay down some rules. “We can’t tell him. Rozanov, you can’t tell him we know. You have to let him tell you on his own time.” She shakes her head at the protests from the boys, “You can’t. How long has he already kept this a secret? The most you can do is make sure he knows you’re safe to tell. If anyone has any issues, go home and sort them out. Talk to someone, talk to me, a therapist, go to a gay bar, I don’t care. But if you want Rozanov to tell you, you have to make it safe for him and Jane.”
Her words sink in, Cliff walking over to wrap an appreciative arm around his wife, “You’re right babe, we’ll work it out and make sure Roz and Jane are accepted here.”
—
The rest of the winter, Cliff finds himself hosting movie nights for whoever wants to come. Hammersmith has a list of movies his gay cousin had recommended as the ‘essential ally watchlist”.
Cliff was fairly certain the rookies had taken it upon themselves to attend a sensitivity seminar because they spend a whole twenty four hours saying the dumbest words in the locker room, clearly having learned them recently. Cliff has to tell them to knock it off before they give themselves away by saying “inclusivity” too much in the wrong context.
He, himself, has to find time to process the information. He remembers the early clubbing days, chasing after this new rookie. Picking him up from girl’s houses and ribbing him in the locker room over marks. Cliff isn’t entirely sure when Roz settled down, stopped bringing girls home and instead only gave the impression he still did. Because Jane. Jane who always made him happy even though they had to hide. And Jane, saved under a fake name, no wonder they couldn’t find any trace of her-him. Cliff runs a hand down his face and sighs, it won’t do any good to dwell, but he can admit he feels a little better about the whole thing. At least keeping Jane a secret wasn’t a matter of trusting Cliff, not entirely, it was about keeping himself and his fiancé-shit, that’s another thing-safe. He’s not sure what he would do if he had to keep Nicole a secret, to be so scared he couldn’t say anything. So Cliff will try to understand that Rozanov wasn’t trying to hurt him, or them, just trying not to hurt himself.