Lifeline (Sebastian Vettel)

Chapter 41: Evasion

Author's note: This chapter runs alongside @__highflying's chapter 19.

"Please be civil."

Tully sighed and rolled her eyes as she got out of the car and followed her brother into the cathedral, "I'll be nothing but a delight."

"Mmh..." Heikki wasn't convinced.

It was the day of the Red Bull memorial. An event to honour their fallen teammates, teammates which Tully had no recollection of and as such, she was struggling to grasp a sense of empathy.

Tully eyed her brother warily. He hadn't mentioned Sebastian whatsoever since the day back in Finland where he'd arranged to visit and she'd promptly disappeared with Jacob. Not that they knew that's who she'd been with. Surely Sebastian would be there today, waiting inside. She sighed in resignation at the prospect.

As they walked into the ancient dwelling, Tully couldn't help but gaze up at the architecture in amazement. It was beautiful. Beyond beautiful.

It wasn't until someone sashayed past her, bumping into her shoulder that she realised she'd fallen behind and was currently blocking the aisle.

She glanced around, immediately noticing the curious stares from the countless unfamiliar faces filling up the pews. A queasy feeling took over in the pit of her stomach and she quickly looked around for Heikki. She spotted him almost instantly, in the third row... standing next to Sebastian. Yep. As expected, there he was.

The queasy feeling immediately intensified.

The two boys were talking together, with Heikki not so subtly glancing over at her after every few words. Sebastian had his back to her, and made no move to look over his shoulder even though Heikki's eyes were clearly following her every move. It looked like Sebastian was asking questions, to which Heikki seemed to start answering each one with a hesitant shrug.

The last thing Tully wanted to do on the entire planet was walk over there and join that conversation. As tempting as a tense, depressive conversation with Sebastian was, piling that on top of a tense, depressive memorial seemed like volunteering herself to the seventh circle of hell.

She scanned the other side of the aisle, desperate for another option. It wasn't easy, not knowing who one was supposed to know pre-incinerated-memories. Some people shot her sympathetic smiles, others looked away quickly, until she landed on a pale, beautiful face with bright green eyes, framed by a too-long, chocolate-brown fringe. His eyes were already locked on her as he smiled subtlety.

"Jake." she breathed, feeling the corners of her lips pull upwards. She found herself staring at him longingly, wishing she could walk over to him and bury her face against his neck. The only thing stopping her was knowing that doing that could put Jacob in harm's way. His job was on the line. As was his beautiful face if anyone decided he deserved physical retribution. Nope. She would keep their secret, and his face, safe.

"Tully!" a loud voice carried across the room and she reluctantly tore her gaze off Jacob to instead look at the blonde beside him. She glanced back at Jacob with a raised eyebrow and watched him mouth the word "Evan" to her. Oh. This was Evan.

She quickly diverted her attention back to the blonde who was walking towards her quickly.

"Good to see you conscious again." he shot her a sympathetic, lopsided grin.

"Well I aim to please." she replied, raising an eyebrow as Evan swooped her into an unexpected hug.

She stood there awkwardly, giving Jacob a weird look over Evan's shoulder until she was released from the embrace. Jacob smirked and shook his head in amusement.