Against You

Confrontation

"No," I breathe. "But you did it, so we can only wait and see what'll happen next."

What happens next is that we're called into Zak Brown's office. Grace goes in first and I watch her silhouette discussing something with her father. I stand beside Oscar, trying not to vomit from nerves. This was supposed to be the happiest day of my life.

"You okay?" Oscar asks.

"You just had to go and steal the show, didn't you?"

"I... I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought we had to expose her."

"You didn't have to do it in front of the whole world! What if we were wrong?"

"I'm sorry," Oscar shakes his head, pleading. "I was too emotional in there, I just wanted some justification, some vindication, for how I've been acting."

I sigh as Zak Brown's shadow grows larger and larger. He's heading for the door.

"I'm sorry," Oscar sniffs, swiping at his eyes. "I won't be here next season, but I don't deserve to be anyway. I just need you to know I'm sorry, Lando. For everything."

"Oscar," I murmur as Zak Brown puts his hand on the door. "I already forgave you."

Oscar POV

It's not what I expected.

Zak Brown smiles as he lets us in, beckoning us to sit down. Grace is already sitting behind his desk, her blotchy face beginning to calm down. She's dabbing at her smudged mascara with an orange napkin, and looking at her makes me feel worse than ever.

I'm shocked when Grace speaks first.

"I'm sorry," she squeaks. Tears spill over her eyes and her father rubs her back reassuringly.

"Go on, darling," he says.

"I'm sorry for what I did. I was just so scared coming into my new job, I messed everything up..."

She sobs and I glance at Lando. His face doesn't help my mood, he looks guilty even though I'm the one who brought the whole thing up in the first place.

Grace sniffs and calms down enough to speak. "I didn't mean to make you hate each other! I wanted to be everyone's friend. That's why I kept it a secret who my father is, and that's why I acted differently around both of you. It was so much pressure to perform and make you seem like friends to the public, I just wanted to support you both. But I took it way too far."

"I understand how you feel," Lando nods sympathetically, but my heart is burning with rage.

"You're the reason we lost the constructor's championship! You almost cost Lando the title!"

Grace glances at her father who stares back coldly. She looks to us and says haltingly, "I'm so sorry. I was trying to keep you safe. I knew what would happen if you got into trouble. Especially after the meeting with my dad."

We understand at exactly the same time.

"He made you do it," Lando breathes.

"What?" Zak Brown snaps, head snapping towards us both.

"No, it's true!" I say, voice rising. "How would Grace know about the meeting when you swore us both to secrecy? I didn't tell her, did you?"

Lando shakes his head and we both stare at Zak Brown. His mouth hangs open, then he turns on his daughter.

"How did you find out about that?" he shouts.

Grace cowers in her chair, turning her head to look at us pleadingly.

"Don't shout at her!" I stand up. Lando runs around the back of the desk and stands in between our team boss and our media manager, looking up at the boss defiantly.

"You put her up to this to save your own fortune!" I say. "You told her we were on our last chance and you told her to make us lose it!"

"Is it true?" Lando asks the woman, who stares at him with wet eyes before nodding and collapsing back into tears.

"How dare you accuse me of such a thing!" Zak Brown bellows. "Nobody wants this team to succeed more than I do!"

"Not true!" I say. "A real team boss would help his drivers get along, hire psychologists or something. Not scream at them both in his office!"

Lando pulls Grace to her feet and away from the man. As soon as she's on our side of the table, she speaks.

"I did everything you wanted, Dad. And now I'm the laughing stock of Formula One. Everyone hates me. I've got nothing left to lose, but I do have all our emails. I'll go to the press and clear my name. I've got nothing left to lose."

I barely have time to register her words before Zak Brown charges towards us, jumping straight over the table. We dart for the door, me holding it open while Lando bundles Grace out, and we find more than half of the crowd from earlier haven't bothered to dissipate. At least ten of them sit or stand around the office, listening in on every shouted word through the thin, portable walls.

"Stop!" Zak Brown bellows, and we do. But now we have a team of people around us. A team who won't let one of their own suffer. I turn to face him, holding my head up, high and proud. His face twists. "I'll fire you both! All three of you!"

"Do it," Lando says.

"I didn't expect you to renew my contract anyway," I add.

"If Lando goes, I go." Jon steps forward, putting a protective hand on Lando's shoulder.

"And me," Will repeats.

We face off with our boss, the owner of the company. Who would've thought that on the day Lando won his first championship he might be fired, along with the closest members of his team?

"And I'm with Oscar," someone says, startling me. It's Connor, an engineer on my side of the garage who I regretfully haven't spoken to much in my year working with him. "After what Oscar did for Lando today, he deserves to keep his seat. And you know it."

Zak Brown looks between us all, huffing and red. Then he turns on his heel, stomps back inside his office and slams the door, rattling the entire structure of the building.

I breathe a sigh of relief and turn to Grace.

"I'm sorry for what I did," I say. "It was so unfair. Just another example of me not being able to control my temper."

Grace shakes her head, lip trembling. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry Oscar, Lando, for what I did to both of you. I love this team. I can't believe I let my father use me like that."

"Do you really have all those emails?" Lando asks.

"Yeah. I'll go and collect them right now, and we can send them to the FIA."

"Exactly," Connor nods. "They'd definitely be interested in learning how a team owner tried to sabotage his own team's performance."

Lando puts a hand on Grace's arm. "Not now. You need to rest, and things like that can wait. Right now, I want to finally celebrate."

I blink a few times, glancing at Zak Brown's closed office door. "So that's it? Everything's okay?"

"I guess so," Lando smiles. He rubs his face and yawns.

"In that case, this is no time for yawning. It's time for your moment to shine Lando, let's go!"

In one fell swoop I lift him off his feet and throw the world champion over my shoulder. He shouts and protests, but it makes the crying Grace laugh so I start spinning before running for the exit. I parade a screaming Lando down the main road of the paddock, watching other teams crawl out of their trailers to see the commotion, and I laugh as cameras flash from all sides.

"Put me down, Oscar Piastri!"

We are the best driver team who ever lived. We have more potential than anyone in Formula One. And we're going to win the championship in our second season.