Fifth Light (Sebastian Vettel)

Chapter 32: Fans

A/N - 28 December 2021: Wonderful readers. I am currently in the process of heavily editing and restructuring this story. I am currently up to here for my first round of edits (basic grammar and minor structure improvements). There will be several more rounds of editing after this but it should at least be much more readable as it is for now. Anything beyond this point however remains totally unedited and will not read as smoothly, as this story was first written around 8 bloody years ago. I am editing and progressing daily, so if you want, feel free to check back later and you can read it post-edit. If you choose to read ahead now though, many apologies in advance for the downgrade in writing quality!

Casey exhaled slowly as she stepped out of her taxi and looked towards the track. It was her first day back at work since the news broke and the first time she would see anyone from the team, aside from Evan & Jake, since they all found out. She wiped her palms against her uniform anxiously and set forth towards the garages quickly.

She passed a lot of people on her way through the main pit lane building. Some of them looked at her curiously while others didn't seem to notice her at all. Eventually, she rounded the corner into the Red Bull garage and walked straight towards her station to begin her installation routine. Only a small portion of the team were present, as she'd arrived a little earlier than she needed to. Mostly senior technicians and engineers were the only ones milling around. 

A little while after getting stuck in, her heart thudded as she heard the unmistakable noisy banter echoing down the back of the garage as the rest of the crew arrived. Suck it up Case.

"Well, fucking well!" Brand's voice boomed across the room as his eyes locked on her.

She turned her face away from him to hide her smirk.

"Casey Larsen. Our resident succubus," he continued, flailing his arms out wide. The crowd piling in around him were all murmuring and giggling.

"I knew it. I knew it! You knew I knew it!"

She finally broke out into laughter and turned to face him. Brand, flanked by Harry, Kyle, Elliott, Vikram, Jake, Evan, Martin, Nathan and several others were all slowly making their way to their stations, listening in intently and watching for her reaction.

She simply shrugged at Brand and turned back to her work.

"Oh hell no. I have so many questions!" he said with a menacing grin.

"What can I help you with, Brand?" she asked innocently, flicking through the notes on her clip board.

"How long?"

She looked around to find about 10 sets of eyes watching her from all around the garage and snorted, looking away again, "Don't you gossips have anything better to do?"

Brand scoffed, "Does it look like it? No. Spit it out!"

She pretended to count on her fingers, with absolutely no intention of answering him honestly.

"Filthy liar! I'm still waiting!" Brand exclaimed.

"I saw it right back at the start of this year I reckon," Kyle piped in.

"When?" Brand demanded, turning his attention to him eagerly.

"We took 'em out, this one..." he motioned at Casey with his chin, "... and Evan, on their first Sunday night. Seb just decided to join us, first time he's done that in what, two years?"

"Very interesting," Brand said slowly.

"Oh yeah, I remember that! I even said to you at the time, you remember? All it took to lure Seb out with us was a pretty face," Harry added, joining in the conspiracy theory conversation.