The Fire Inside (Sebastian Vettel)

16. One Wild Night in Baku

A/N Bit of a long one for me. Please let me know what you think to it.

The race in Baku was another cause for celebration. Seb had followed his fifth place in Monte Carlo with a fourth place in Baku.

Of course it had helped when Hamilton and Verstappen had collided at the start, but points were points, it didn't matter how they got them.

Lance had finished in eighth for the second race in a row so spirits were high on both sides of the garage.

Emily headed back through the garage to attend the debrief. She was pissed off. Connor had been there but once again she had been left doing most of his work as well as her own. And the work he did do was shoddy. Seb had even ended up overuling Connor's strategy call and making his own call, which had been the right call. Emily knew that Otmar would have to do something. Connor was going to end up causing a lot of problems

As she crossed the paddock Joel joined her.

"Good race sis, let me guess, that wasn't Connor's strategy," he said, knowing full well the Brummie had been slacking the whole weekend.

"What makes you think that," she replied, sarcastically. "You're right though. Wasn't me either. The twat wouldn't listen to a word I said and I don't have the authority to overrule him. This was all Seb. He made his own calls, and did exactly what I would have said. Connor shouldn't even be in this job. He's the weak link. He doesn't care about the team like the rest of us do. To him it's just a job, he has no passion for the sport."

Joel let her rant. He could see she was furious. She stopped for breath.

"You sound like you could use a few drinks tonight Ems. We're on it tonight. 8 o'clock in the hotel bar, then we'll head off to a club. You in?"

"Too bloody right I'm in."

"Bringing your boyfriend?" he joked, earning himself the death stare.

"He is not my boyfriend and you know that full well Joel Marcus Ryan."

"Ooooh, defensive Emily Victoria Ryan." She stuck her tongue out at him. " Seriously though, ask Seb. It'd be nice for him to celebrate with us."

"I'll ask him if I even get five minutes with him. I dare say I'll have to do most of Connor's shit too." Joel looked at her concerned.

"Ems you're going to have to talk to Otmar about this. You can't carry on doing his job as well as yours. You're going to burn yourself out. Plus you'll have no energy to keep our driver sexually content. OK, OK, I'm joking," he laughed as she punched him in the arm.

"Seriously though Ems, this is taking the piss." She nodded, knowing that he was right.

"I'll see you later Joel, gotta go to the debrief. Be prepared, I'm going drink you under the table ."

"You can try."

"This is going to get messy, isn't it?"

"Going to be one wild night."

***

Heading out of the debrief Emily felt someone brush up against her side.

"My room, five minutes," Seb whispered in her ear as he passed her. Exactly five minutes later she tapped on his door.

"Come in," he called out. She let herself in and shut the door behind her. He jumped up off of the sofa and kissed her gently.

"Wow, what a bloody mess that could have been."

"Yeah, good call. Glad you went your own way. Sometimes I wonder what planet Connor's on."