Two laughters filled the room; it was the laugh of a toddler and the laugh of an adult. Juliette was walking through a house and followed the sound of the laughter.
"Mummy!" The toddler shouted between the laughter. His dad was tickling him, which caused the happy laughter.
"Hello, darling," Juliette said and shortly laughed.
Pierre looked at Juliette. "Hey, love," he said and widely smiled. "How was work?" He was lying on the sofa with the toddler sitting on his stomach.
She placed her bag on the table. "It was a good day, we made progress," she satisfied said.
"Daddy, when can I meet my baby sister?" The toddler curiously asked and laid down, placing his head on Pierre's chest. "It's taking so long." The toddler was highly convinced it would be a girl, but it was too early in the pregnancy to confirm that.
Juliette looked down and noticed a small bump, confirming she was pregnant. She walked over to the sofa and gave Pierre a kiss. The toddler sat up again, also wanted a kiss. Juliette sat down next to Pierre.
"It's gonna take a while, buddy," Pierre answered the toddler's question.
"Why? I want to meet her now!"
"Because the baby needs to grow in my belly," Juliette answered and fixed the toddler's hair. "You will meet the baby soon, I promise." She looked up, facing her mother, who was standing in the kitchen; Juliette hadn't noticed her before.
Claire locked her eyes with Juliette and was copping some vegetables at the same time. An evil smile grew on her face. "You're a bad mother, Juliette," she said. "A bad mother," she repeated and waved around with the knife. "You will never be a good person."
Although Juliette wanted to react to the comments, her muscles and mind were frozen. In the corner of her eye, she was Pierre and the child cuddling, it seemed like they didn't hear this. Juliette wanted to pluck every perfect styled hair one by one out of Claire's head.
"You're a coward, Juliette, you will always be a coward. I'm still wondering what Pierre sees in you."
☐
"Uhm," Juliette mumbled and looked around. The break was about to begin, the final lunch break before the race would start. "Let me get back to you in a minute," she said." Of course."
Juliette walked away from her garage, towards the Red Bull garage. She muted the phone call. Could she interrupt Red Bull? She had to, this person had been calling her for the millionth time, and he was on a deadline, so was Juliette on this project. She was standing in front of Pierre's garage; her dad was talking to some people.
"Dad," Juliette said when she thought Edward looked in her direction. She waved at him. "Edward." Saying his actual name, instead of dad, sounded a bit uncomfortable to her.
A mechanic walked over to Juliette. "How can I help you, miss Mercedes? You're entering the dangerous territory, you know that, right?"
Juliette pressed a fake smile on her face and looked at the mechanic. "Yes, I know, mister Red Bull," she uninterested said. "But I need to talk to Edward."
"Edward Reynolds or Edward Sloan?" The mechanic raised his eyebrows.
"Reynolds."
"Aha, Reynolds. Be right back, miss Mercedes."
"Thanks."
The mechanic walked into the garage, tapped on Edward's shoulder and pointed at Juliette. Juliette gave her dad a smile and waved at him. Edward looked surprised; he and his daughter agreed they wouldn't meet up during a race weekend, if so, not at day time. He excused himself from his colleagues and walked to Juliette, taking her to the race wall.
"Julie," he said, impressed but honoured. "How are you?"
"Dad," she nodded. "I'm perfectly fine. Are you on a break?" Edward was shaking his head. "Oh, crap. I have this guy on the phone, about the heating system. I have no idea what he is talking about, because you fixed this for me the other day. They're placing the new heating thing on Tuesday and need something to know about...I don't know."
Edward nodded and stuck out his hand. "Five minutes," he said. "Is he really calling you on a Sunday?"
A relieved look came on Juliette's face. "Thank you, dad," she said and gave him her phone. "Apparently, I don't know. Must love his job so much."
They looked at each other, both grinning; they both always worked on Sundays, but for a regular job it was weird to work on a Sunday. "Anytime, darling. Wait here," he smiled and unmuted the call. "Edward Reynolds," he spoke on the phone and walked away from Juliette, back to the garage to get his own private phone.
Juliette observed the track, by leaning over the small wall. There wasn't much to see, the track was almost empty. The William's drivers happened to film something at the start/finish, but she wasn't close enough to see what was going on, so it wasn't interesting enough. She turned away from the track and sat down.
Her eyes fell on her dad, who was standing behind the computer wall, discussing with the guy on the phone. Next to her dad, Pierre was showing his family around. Juliette changed her viewing point to Pierre. He had a child in his arms, on his hip, probably his nephew. A nervous feeling flew through Juliette's body, and her heart started to beat faster. Shit, this feels so weird. Pierre was having a massive smile on his face while he was explaining things to the kid. The boy reacted just as joyful as Pierre, which made Pierre even more enthusiastic. Juliette bit on the inside of her lip and started to snap her knuckles; he looked so adorable. He definitely was good with children.
After the horrible dream of last night, Juliette had difficulties staying focused on her job. The first part of the dream was alright, just confusing because of Pierre, their child and the pregnancy. When her mother entered the dream, things escalated. It became hard for Juliette to fall asleep after she had woken up, this was a bad night. Why would her mother show up in her dream? And why would Pierre be the father of her children? Without noticing, Juliette was hurting her knuckles by snapping them.
"You know you are located in a restricted area?" Christian Horner asked, unapproved.
Juliette gasped for air, and her eyes shot up to Christian, who was standing in front of her.
"Especially while you're staring at our garage."
"I..." Juliette began. Her cheeks started to heat up, and she looked away. "I'm sorry, I was staring at Pierre," she blurted and took a deep breath. "Right..." Excellent excuse.
Christian nodded, he didn't want to believe it. "Staring at Pierre Gasly? Right. How can I be sure you did?" He was asking it playfully. "I surely hope Toto didn't send you as a spy."
"No, no, no, absolutely not. I can leave, if you prefer that," Juliette panicked.
At that moment, Edward walked back to Juliette. "It's all solved, they needed a small confirmation for some details. The guys will place the new heating system on Tuesday at four o'clock. I planned it as late as possible." He looked at Christian. "Hey." Edwards gave back Juliette's phone.
"Four is fine, I can work from home," Juliette thankfully smiled. "Thanks, dad. I hope I didn't take too much from your time..."
Christian raised his eyebrows and looked at Edward, did he hear that right? "You are family?"
"Yes," Edward proudly said. "This is Juliette, my daughter. And of course not, darling. We will catch up later."
"So you're the Juliette?" Christian nodded, impressed. "Your dad always talks about you, but I had no idea you worked at Mercedes. Nice to finally meet you."
Juliette looked at her dad and raised her eyebrows.
Edward awkwardly laughed. "Just a proud dad," he explained and forced a bright smile on his face. "But try to slow down a bit today, yeh? We want to win."
Her face straightened. "You try to be faster, old man." Juliette got up and padded Edward's shoulder. "Red Bull had The Red Bull ring, Mercedes gets Silverstone," she confidently smiled. "Bye, Christian." She gave Christian a nod, and she walked back to her own garage. As soon she was out of sight, her smile disappeared. Pierre with a child...
"You look so lost," Delilah said when she found Juliette in the garage. "You good?"
Juliette nodded and took a deep breath. "It's just... I had a weird dream, and it felt so real. I'm just perplexed and forming a panic attack every minute of the day. I'm freaking out."
"So you go to Red Bull and chill with them?" Delilah rose her eyebrow. "Because you had a weird dream?"
"Delilah," Juliette hissed, disapproving.
Delilah threw her arms up in the air and looked sorry at Juliette. "My apologies."
"Promise me you won't tell anyone about it," Juliette said strictly and looked around her, there was almost no one around. The dream had to be shared, but she let out the part of her mother. She started to talk about her dream. "...I had to say something to my dad, and I saw Pierre, he had a child in his arms and he was talking to him, like in an adorable way. I just freaked out, because of my dream."
"Damn, Julie. Pierre is really taking over your mind. How even did your mind come up with this?"
An awkward giggle rolled over Juliette's lips. "I honestly feel like I'm a hopeless teen again. I don't want him spooking around in my mind. I can only think of the chat I had with him Thursday and seeing him around the track every time. My nephew Alfie was here yesterday to be my biggest fan...so a child."
Delilah's eyes widened. "You talked to Pierre?"
"No, well, yes. But it was very uncomfortable. I bumped into him while he was doing his round with Anthoine, and we just...I don't know, it was so awkward."
"Oh, ow, you're making progress. Did you maybe have unsafe sex lately?" Delilah tried to find all the possible causes of the dream. It must be something that was bothering Juliette in her mind. "Honestly, I noticed you were acting a bit off all day long. But as soon we started working, you fully switched to work mode, like nothing was wrong."
Juliette was shaking her head. "I haven't had sex in months, so no."
"Let me look this up," Delilah grinned and grabbed her phone. "It's adorable. Anyway, this site says when you dream about a baby, it means innocence, warmth and a new start. Perhaps there is a new love in your life, or you're developing a new love, or you're getting new friends and new interests," she read from a website. "Does this mean Pierre is your new love?" She was wiggling her eyebrows.
"Shut the front door, Delilah," Juliette shot to her. "This doesn't mean anything. I'm in a new environment, new close colleagues..."
"And you see Pierre every day," Delilah continued. "Is Juliette in love?"
"Go fuck yourself," Juliette said, annoyed and turned away, logging off from the computer and got herself ready to catch the last fifteen minutes of the lunch break.
Delilah teasingly laughed. "Just saying." Her face straightened. "But if you feel a panic attack coming up, you tell me. Tell Peter about it, and Toto, they need to be notified."
"Yeh, don't worry."
When the two women left the garage, making the garage empty. Everybody was looking forward to the race; fans, staff, drivers. Most of the staff came from England, so it made Silverstone a home race for many.
Juliette and Delilah entered the hospitality and picked up a quick lunch. They both joined the table of the engineers.
"Hey, err... I have some symptoms of a panic attack. It comes, and it goes. But just to let you know, if I'm losing my shit, it's a panic attack," Juliette informed Peter and Toto.
Toto nodded but looked worriedly at one of his engineers. "You okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, no worries about me. I'm fine. Just a few symptoms: blushing, fast heart rate and stuff. It's not all the time, I had it this morning, not anymore. Just to let you know." Juliette weakly smiled and put her hair in a new French twist.
"So if you start to snap your knuckles or pluck the skin on your hand, I have to intervene," Peter noted. She frowned. "I know you longer than today, Julie."
"Touché."
"Thank you for letting me know," Toto said thankfully. "Keep me posted on the situation. We need you today."
Juliette nodded. "Of course," she smiled. "It will be a race to remember," she said and took a sip from her water. "In a positive way, of course."