Double Sided Tracks

(bloody) routine

The moment Lewis came back from changing his clothes, Nora was standing by the sofa looking at him with her phone clutched in her hands.

She pushes her phone towards him and starts hyperventilating, he's never seen her like this. He looked down and had to hold himself from rolling his eyes seeing Max, but his thoughts were clearly disrupted because of the video. Well shit, if Verstappen has seen it, it means the video is already out there. He's calculating his next moves, calling Angela and then calling Martha– his PR. But, definitely taking care of his Nora that is clearly freaking out.

She's slumped on the sofa, hands on her face. "I'm sorry," she said and Lewis wanted to ask why she's sorry but she looked so, so guilty. It made his chest hurt.

"Baby, baby– you're okay. You're fine. Is this about the fact that you're on the shot?" Lewis asked.

"No, I just–" she started, looking at Lewis expectantly like she wanted him to finish her thoughts. Lewis knew her by now, he'll let her have a few moments to gather her thoughts and she'll continue. It's always like that. "The comments weren't nice, and I feel bad because you were defending me."

Oh, oh Nora. "sweetheart," he started, engulfing her in a tight hug. "Don't worry about me," he said. It's so fucking sweet of you, but this is not even the worst thing that had happened.

"I'll always–" she started, then stopped. But Lewis knew, this time she didn't have to finish her sentence. He knows. He nodded quickly, brushing his lips on her covered head.

"I know, I'll take care of it." he whispered, squeezing her tightly before letting her away. She sat up, her eyes still watery and she scrunched her nose in a way that made Lewis just wanted to do something crazy like– like, retire. "Yeah?" he asked, then smiled when she nodded and took a deep breath trying to calm herself down.

"I think we should watch a fun movie, I bet you Angela is having some fun now. There's no need for us to not have fun, right?" he said, wrapping his arm around Nora's shoulder. "You should tell Max you're okay." He added, Nora tensed a little bit. But it needed to be said, Nora's phone is buzzing and he can bet his next contract that it's Max.

She muttered a quick 'sorry' and texted him a thumbs up, Lewis fought the urge to smile.

He started some random movie on the big screen tv after noticing Nora's blinks getting longer and longer, freaking out probably tires her out. He doesn't mind, if anything he'd like her to sleep before getting up and making the PR team that he hired aware of this.

He turned to her and saw that she slumped onto one of the throw pillows, he couldn't help but smile. Nora is like a breath of fresh air, and he described her as that so many times but– it's the truth. Even if this isn't his break, being with Nora feels like a hot summer breeze. How she relaxed him just being her. It's a dangerous, dangerous thing– Nora is dangerous for someone like him who craves intensity, who needs to always be on his toes.

Two rings in and Martha answered, "Hey, I've seen the videos. We're dealing with it now." she said, Lewis nodded– unable to say anything. Any other day he wouldn't even reach out to Martha, so what if people call him every name under the sun? So what if people are saying he's aggressive? He had people showing up to the tracks with black painted faces.

But, seeing Nora's worried eyes, how upset she was– made him want to fix this. He's a fixer, he can't help it. His therapist said that it's the weight of the world that is often put on his shoulders, certain expectations because of how powerful his voice is for certain groups that he needed to shoulder that responsibility. Being a minority in a big and exclusive sport such as Formula 1, there's certain expectations.