Lifeline (Sebastian Vettel)

Chapter 38: The Visitor

"Kind of you."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah." he replied unconvincingly, "When all these funerals are done I think I'm going to go away for a bit."

"Where?"

"Haven't really thought about it. Somewhere warm?"

"Probably wouldn't recommend Finland then." Tully sighed, gazing across the snowy hospital grounds.

"Yeah, it's not exactly my idea of warm."

"There's only a small layer of snow, that's practically boiling point for us."

"Well in that case, consider it short-listed!" he said with a small laugh.

"Ah god. I have to go." Tully muttered as Sadie the nurse pushed into her room with a menacing look on her face. It was time for her daily therapy session. She found herself fantasising about Sadie carrying a gun in and shooting her in the face instead. That would be better.

"Really?" Jacob asked a little too quickly.

"Therapy beckons me. Cause what damage will a little more torture do to me, right?"

"Not long now Tuls, and you'll be free."

"Yeah, from the white walls maybe but they'll still drag me back here for the therapy sessions."

"You're alive and you're healthy. That's all that matters." he replied soberly. Tully instantly felt bad about complaining again. She suddenly couldn't wait to get off the phone with him for fear of saying anything else insensitive. Filtering what came out of her mouth was a lot of effort that she just didn't have the energy for yet.

"So I'm told." she replied, "Bye Jake."

"Bye Tuls."

---

The next four days passed by excruciatingly slowly. Mostly because they were Tully's last days at the hospital, but secondly because she didn't hear a single word from Jacob. It was... lonely, and disappointing.

Going back home was equal parts good and bad. Tully hadn't lived at home for years and going back into her parents care felt like she was slowly being smothered to death. Heikki was around a lot though to keep the balance, so it was just tolerable.

It was her third day back at home when Heikki peered into the lounge room she was inhabiting and cleared his throat nervously.

"Um. Tul?"

"Um. Heikki." she mimicked him petulantly. Small kicks.

"Seb's coming here."

Tully stared back at her brother blankly for a few seconds before he pushed through the door properly and took a seat at the foot of her couch.

"I've been given permission to defer my teaching role to cover for you as Seb's trainer until you're ready to return to work, or until the end of your contract. Whichever comes first."

"He's coming here?" Tully repeated.

"Yes. He's coming over and we're going to go over some things, but really, he needs to see you."

"Okay." Tully replied, appearing calm on the outside. Internally, she was forming a plan at a rapid rate of knots.

"Being his trainer again also means I'll have to move back to Switzerland in a few weeks. And I think you should come with me. Your doctors agree it could be beneficial to be back in your pre-injury environment."

Woah. Too much.

"What time is he getting here?" she asked, ignoring the part about them moving to another fucking country.