SECOND CHANCE

FIVE

Gianni Di Giannantonio's POV

After a great first race, I went back to Italy with my brothers. The journey here was rather long, we had a minor hitch at the airport, but in the end it turned out well and we flew to Italy yesterday morning. I didn't do much yesterday, I just unpacked all my things and threw something in the washing machine, then I was just happy to be at home with my brothers. It's been a long time without them. Today was a slightly more challenging day for me, but it was nothing terrible that couldn't be handled. There were several things on the plan, I had a check-up with a physiotherapist and a doctor, the leg should be fine by now, after all, I've had it in a brace for 4 months now, if I don't count the moments on the motorcycle when I took a different one. So I hope to hear only good news. Then we have to go with my brothers for a little shopping and finally we thought we could go workout.

In the morning I woke up around 9 o'clock, it was quite late for me, but after all I caught up on some hours that I lost sleeping in Portugal. I heard voices from the kitchen, so I put on a sweatshirt and, still in my pajamas, slowly and carefully made my way down the stairs. I saw my two brothers in the kitchen, Fabio was sitting at the table drinking coffee and Luca was creating something on the stove, I think he was trying to make pancakes, but he wasn't doing very well.

"Good morning" I spoke to them and got attention from both of them and made my way over to Luca

"Good morning" they both replied at the same time

I walked over to Luca and took the pancake pan from him, and he smiled at me gratefully. We talked during breakfast.

"G, what time do you have to see the doctor?" Fabio asked as he put a piece of the stick in his mouth

"I should be there at 1pm"

"Ok, we'll go 30 minutes in advance, we know how it is with the traffic" Fabio smiled and then continued eating

I ate together with the boys and then went to the bathroom for morning hygiene. I tried to do something with my hair for a good 20 minutes, but I ended up putting it in a loose bun and leaving strands of hair loose on both sides. The guys down there replayed the race to watch, but I was already watching it on the plane, so I sat on my bed and turned on my laptop, which I was doing some more work on. Time passed quickly and before I knew it, I was sitting in my car, hoping to say goodbye to crutches today.

Within 25 minutes I was in the waiting room, I waited for about 5 minutes and I went inside.

"Hello Gianni, how are you? "Doctor immediately started communicating and I answered warmly

"Hello, I'm very well, how are you?" I smiled at him

"Oh yeah, I'm not testing, so can we get to the checkup?" I nodded and sat down on the couch in his office

The doctor took off my brace and started checking my knee, in every possible way, the whole check up even with me having to walk on a belt and stuff took about 45 minutes, finally I sat down next to him and he gave me an update on how I was doing.

"Gianni, the knee miraculously healed despite the fact that you were driving, unfortunately I can't let you out of this office without a brace, you will get a CTI brace that we have already custom made for your knee" the doctor stood up and handed me a box, I opened it, there was a brace in the box, it had yellow straps and I was even happy with it

"The brace will help you keep your knee strong with everything you do, it's also suitable for racing, I just have a very important message for you" I was quite shocked because he said it very seriously

"I'm listening"

"Your knee, it's in the last stage, what I'm trying to say is that once you have one bad fall in the sport you're doing, it could be 98% over with your career" I knew it was coming but I was with already reconciled with that

"I totally understand that, anyway, thank you for every minute you spent helping me out of this, thank you for your work and patience with me" I shook his hand, then put the brace on my knee, took all the papers of my treatment and then finally came out of the doctor's office

Fabio Di Giannantonio's POV

We waited with Luca, a good 60 minutes in the car, before we finally saw Gianni with a smile on his face, papers in hand, and merrily jumping to the car. Although she still had a brace on her knee, she no longer had crutches.

"It's great to see her happy again" Luca said as he looked at Gianni with a huge smile

"It is" I confirmed and then Gianni sat in the car and we listened to what she had to say

"I'm out of it, the knee is healthy but also in the last stage, that means one bad fall and I'm 98% done" she smiled, but I could see both me and Luca that it was eating her up from the inside, but we didn't want to do that gouge

"G it won't happen, you still have so many years ahead of you in MotoGP, you won't finish before 10 years, don't worry" said Luca and I smiled and confirmed it

When we went from the doctor, we had to stop for a little shopping, because there was not much to eat at home. I pulled into the parking lot of the store and the three of us went shopping together. We bought vegetables, meat, everything necessary and Gianni bought her favorite gummy acid worms. Then we piled all the shopping into the car and headed home. We finally went home, we unpacked the purchase and then we rested on the couch for a while, but in the end, Gianni wanted to go workout. It was great to see her, again with this motivation, so Luca and I went to the garden to workout with her. We practiced our classic training plan, which meant

1. Warming up
2. Sprints 6x10m
3. Abdominal strengthening 5x1 min
4. Strengthening hands 5x1min
5. Leg strengthening 5x1min
6. Cardio 6x2min

We did this every 4 series, we were used to it and Gianni, despite the fact that she hadn't done it for 4 months, was probably in better shape than us. Between sets, we had a minute to a minute and a half to catch our breath.

"Can you handle it?" I asked Gianni as she lay on the grass after the second set

"Absolutely, I'm catching my second breath" she laughed and I with her, Luca was on the brink of strength, but still went full speed

After our workout, I went to take a shower, but Gianni still went for a run, she said she would run at least 4km and Luca went with her. But me, my back was hurting and I was having quite a bit of trouble walking, so I went to shower and lie on the bed and straighten my back, but it was even worse. So I got up and tried to break it up, but I wasn't very successful. Luca and G came running in about 35 minutes and I was hunched over the couch trying to find a spot that didn't hurt.

"Are you okay?" Gianni ran to me and her hands found themselves on my waist and chest

"I don't know, my back hurts terribly and I don't know what to do" I knew that Gianni was somehow controlling physiotherapy

That's why when she told me to lie down so I did, Gianni took some ointment and started to massage the place of the biggest pain.

"Tell me where it hurts the most" she said as she massaged my lower back

"There" I said as she drove to the exact spot where the pain was the worst. I felt how she pressed into place and started to massage my back stronger.

After that, she creaked my back and the pain was gone.

"You're an amazing little sister, you know that?" I smiled at her

"You tell me that often, so yeah" she smiled back at me and finally went to take a shower

It was around 7 in the evening, so it was time to go take a shower, I walked past Gianni's room and heard that he was talking to Marc, then I heard the name Jules. It's been 7 years and she still hasn't gotten over it, but she's fighting it bravely. I finally went to take a shower, I went to bed around 9 o'clock and started watching the series 28 days haunted, which I also fell asleep to.