Fifth Light (Sebastian Vettel)

Chapter 4: Malaysia

Casey couldn't help but dramatically throw her heavy bag across the lounge room floor of her new hotel room in a display of pure relief. It felt spectacularly good after the exhausting race weekend and tedious flight to finally be free of it. She quickly had a shower and changed into her pyjamas before unfolding the sofa bed in the lounge and piling it with pillows. Evan knocked on the door a few minutes later and they quickly got to the important business of the evening. That being choosing their dinners off the room service menu.

"The steak," Evan stated confidently, stabbing the menu with his finger.

"Gross..." Casey muttered, eyeing up the desserts.

Evan followed her eyes and scoffed, "You're going to have ice cream for dinner aren't you?"

She ignored him, instead slapping the menu shut with a sly grin and skipping over to the telephone to order.

Evan busied himself with connecting his laptop to the room's TV and found an online stream for the Melbourne race. They had planned this evening down to the last detail during the flight. They were going to watch the footage from their first race as members of the pit crew, and play the mature and sophisticated game of "See If We Got On TV". After room service arrived, they both settled on the sofa bed and started the stream while digging into their meals. Evan was the first to lose his shit.

"LOOK! OH MY GOD. LOOK, IT'S ME!" he bellowed, tossing his now empty plate to the floor as he pointed at the television. Casey raised herself to her knees, ignoring him as she focussed on finding herself on the screen amongst the other crew members. The camera flicked to another garage and she sank back down in disappointment.

"There, there, the race hasn't even begun, they might get around to you later on," he snickered, not taking his eyes off the screen for a second.

"Scoff now all you want, wait until they catch you scratching your arse or something," she shot back, equally transfixed on the screen.

"They have to prioritise the talent, Case. It's just how the world works."

Sebastian looking thoughtful. Sebastian looking concerned. A close up of Sebastian's eyes. There was a LOT of quite-frankly invasive Sebastian close-ups, Casey noted. She hoped if she was on the television, the close-ups would not be that close-up. That would be a true injustice.

The two of them watched on as the race began, hearing the finer details surrounding the other drivers for the first time. During the races, the only thing they knew about in particular detail, for the most part, was Sebastian. He was their full focus as they dutifully waited, usually without being able to hear much, for the order to perform a pit stop. They didn't know much else about what was going on in the race at hand, aside from the silent footage showing on the screens in the garage. Even if they were following the small screens, they were so alert to their orders that they could hardly concentrate on the footage for long.

Back on the hotel room TV, Sebastian was now limping back to the pit with a dreadfully slow car and Casey felt her heart sink for him again. "They'll surely show us again now." Evan muttered, sounding much more glum that before.

"This is depressing," she replied blankly.

And then, there she was, in the foreground as Seb was filmed clambering out of his car. Mercifully, the cameraman was focused and zoomed in on him instead. She watched as he crouched down and spoke a few words, flashing a brief smile, and felt a tiny bit of elation inside knowing she was the one on the other end of that brief interaction.

Sebastian had been her favourite driver for at least 5 years by now. She had admired his talent long before she had ever met him or even joined the team. It was a dream job for her to work towards his success.