Fifth Light (Sebastian Vettel)

Chapter 52: Working Late

She could feel his fingers tracing lines up and down her arm. Too exhausted to care much anymore, and with not many other places to put it, she let her hand slip up his torso and rest on his chest.

"Thought sleeping on the floor was unacceptable to you?" Casey mumbled against his collarbone.

"Someone told me it's good for the back." he whispered, smiling in the dark.

She chuckled. At least he was willing to joke about that morning back in her apartment in England. She felt him kiss her forehead as she drifted in and out of consciousness.

Heikki lay awake, listening to the other people in the hallway settling down and trying to get comfortable. Some of them were tossing and turning, or re-adjusting their make-shift pillows irritably. In contrast, he couldn't have been much more comfortable himself, with Casey's warm body pressed against his side and her arm draped across his chest. There was something about the way she did everything that always made it feel intimate. Like he was the only one in her world at that moment.

It seemed to him like a glimpse into how Seb would have felt every night when she slept next to him. How could he throw this away? She was perfect.

---

Casey groaned as she was awoken just under 3 hours later. She was confused for a moment about where she was and whose arms were squeezing her.

"Wake up, Case." Heikki's voice called softly.

Casey would have killed to be able to stay right there and go back to sleep. Whether she wanted to admit it to herself or not, being held in someones arms again felt so nice.

She buried her head against his neck and sighed, "No."

She felt Heikki laugh quietly, "You have to."

"Why?" she whined, biding for time. She could feel the morning coldness biting at the parts of her body not pressed against Heikki.

"Because everyone else is starting to wake up and you may not want to be seen at work uhh, ...with me, in this way." he whispered against her cheek.

That woke her up.

Her senses came flooding back to her and she sat up quickly, hissing as she realised her shoulder was well and truly bruised from the hard floor below them.

She sucked in a deep breath, feeling the cold air hit her just as she'd anticipated. She looked back over her shoulder as Heikki sat up next to her, giving her a shy grin.

"What are you so pleased about?" she teased.

He shook his head and looked down at his hands before leaning his head on her shoulder.

She didn't know if she felt guilty or not about spending this time with Heikki. She hadn't seen Seb in almost 2 months, though not for lack of wanting to. Maybe it would be good for her to finally start trying to move past him.

Heikki's attention was flattering, but more importantly, familiar. His presence was a relaxing reminder of her life before it all went to shit. Heikki knew she still loved Seb, but he was still there, sitting beside her. That was his decision.

"Okay, I can do this," she breathed, bracing herself to stand up.

She pulled herself up to her feet, looking around at all of the other sleepy faces down the hallway trying to will themselves awake. She turned around and offered her hand down to Heikki who took it and pulled himself up, pulling her back into his chest in the process.

She laughed quietly as she enjoyed his warmth again, wrapping her arms around him.

"Good luck today." he murmured against her hair.

"Keep your driver away from Kimi this time, would you?" she replied, pulling back to grin up at him.

She looked away quickly as she saw his eyes flicker down to her lips. She couldn't even begin to work out how she'd feel about that. Not at 6am in the morning on less than 3 hours of sleep, that was for sure.

Heikki smiled gently, leaning forward to whisper against her forehead, "I told you I wouldn't try to kiss you."

"I know." she murmured before releasing her hold around his waist.

"See you later?" she said, smiling at him.

He nodded and watched her turn away and walk down the hall towards the Ferrari garage.

"I hope so." he mumbled to himself.

---

Casey yawned as she stepped into the garage and held up her arm to shield her eyes from the sunlight pouring in through the garage door.

"God, who opened that already?" she muttered.

"I did!" Dominic called enthusiastically as he side-stepped past her.

"Ugh, morning people." Lanzo said, catching Casey's eye and making a face.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and tried to check it, forgetting it had been completely dead since sometime the evening before. She sighed and threw it on the bench in front of her before pulling her gloves on and getting straight to work.

Half an hour later, Dominic was marching around the garage passing out breakfast savouries and coffee, making Casey realise just how starving she was. If she was honest, she couldn't wait for qualifying to be over that day. A long, warm shower and her comfortable bed back at base were calling her name.