Fifth Light (Sebastian Vettel)

Chapter 52: Working Late

"Was the damage that bad?" Seb asked curiously.

Evan shrugged, "New tail and nose, front wing, who knows what else took a hit underneath."

Seb raised his brow, he was yet to see Kimi and Vergne's run in. He'd see it when he watched the footage back at the hotel that night.

He walked out the front of the garage, deciding to take the long way around to the parking lot. He jumped up the steps on the other side of the pit wall and walked left along the platform.

Seb could see the full garage lights still on at Ferrari, and further down at Torro Rosso too.

He walked slowly, hidden from sight by the increasing darkness of the evening. As he strolled in parallel with the Ferrari garage, he chanced a look inside. He immediately spotted Casey, the smallest figure in a huddle of crew who were sprawled on the ground around the nose of Kimi's car.

They were all pouring over a large diagram in the middle, taking it in turns to speak and gesture towards various sections of the drawing. One of the men said something, causing the rest of them to laugh. Seb watched as Casey smiled and laughed with them, looking completely at ease in her new red uniform. What he wouldn't give to have her smile at him like that again. He shook his head and sighed to himself. He had to fix this as soon as possible.

---

After what felt like one of the longest days in Casey's life, the Ferrari team finally called it in at 3am. The car was almost completely back to normal, after most of the outer shell and several internal components had to be replaced. Casey pulled out her phone but it was well and truly dead.

The team had to be up again at 6am to make it back to the track and begin preparations for Free Practice 3. Since there was so little time, most of the team decided to sleep at the circuit, rather than waste any of their precious rest hours travelling back to the hotel.

Casey, Dominic, Lanzo, Monte and Ric joined the procession out of the garage as the pit team headed to the hallway around the back. There were already people finding themselves spots along the wall to sit down and close their eyes.

As they walked further, Casey started to notice members from other teams who'd stayed back late too, including the majority of Vergne's pit crew. They'd had just as much work to do to clean up their car after the collision with Kimi.

Casey found a spot a little further down from anyone else and sat down, laying back on the hard ground and using a rolled up jacket as a pillow. She felt completely exhausted.

She tried to ignore the discomfort and shut her eyes. This was going to hurt by 6am.

Her eyes flickered open again as she felt someone lay down right next to her. She frowned and looked over before her expression changed to surprise.

"What are you still doing here?" she whispered.

"Stayed back to give the crew a hand moving parts in and out after the collision." Heikki replied, shrugging tiredly, "Though I think your car got the worst of it."

"You think?" Casey teased, "There wasn't much of it that we didn't have to replace."

Heikki shot her a quick smile before lifting his arm up and encouraging her to move in closer.

"I promise not to try to kiss you." he said, laughing under his breath.

Casey hesitated for a moment before accepting his invitation and moving in against his side. She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed. He was a lot more comfortable as a pillow than her jacket was.