Requested by Jett_Joan
87: "You're such a good father."
From the moment yourself, your partner, Antonio and your three year old daughter had woken up on that drenched Spa Sunday morning, your eyes were glued to the whether forecast, you feeling sick to your stomach at the thought of Antonio racing in such awful conditions, especially because of not only Lando's crash and the horrible six car W series accident, but also because of past tragedies which had occurred at Spa. The hardest part of your nerves was to try to hide them from your daughter because of how much she cherished her father, the two of them having always being inseparable.
Luckily, she was completely fine and was feeling very cheerful once the three of you had arrived in the paddock and were heading to Antonio's Alfa Romeo garage, your daughter being in the middle of you both and holding one of each of your hands as she merrily skipped in the smaller puddles, not being able to do so in the larger ones because you would move her away from them. Your daughter was always very content being in the garage because of how much everyone would always interact with her, not to mention Kimi who she had become particularly close to, the two of them frequently having an ice cream together to the amusement of the fans.
"Why is Daddy back here with us?" She asked with confusion after the race had been delayed for the first time, initially only by ten minutes, knowing that he wasn't supposed to come back to the garage after the formation lap.
"It's too dangerous for me to race right now, so I've got to wait until the weather gets better," Antonio informed your daughter, picking her up from standing beside you and placing her onto his hip as he held her close.
The minutes, which turned into hours that followed were the furthest thing from enjoyable for anyone, this being the case for your daughter in particular, who was beginning to sob after the first hour because of how strange this very new, uncommon situation was for her. She had quickly become very bored and very restless, frequently asking yourself and Antonio when the race would start, both of you hating that you couldn't give her an answer. She would usually be entertained whilst watching videos on your phone, but this was the first time which it didn't calm her down, your daughter not being interested in the slightest in her favourite videos which she could never usually get enough of.
After many delays and after what had felt like an eternity, everyone was finally informed that the race would start in ten minutes, causing mixed feelings to spread around the entire paddock. Half of you wanted the race to go ahead because you had been looking forward to the entertainment all day, but you were unable to decide whether to allow yourself to feel pleased because of how dangerous it could be for Antonio.
"I've got to get back in my car now, darling for the race," Antonio told your daughter lovingly, before briefly picking her up once more and placing a gentle kiss on the top of her head.
Both of you expected your daughter to finally feel better and be her usual excitable self, but because of everything she had heard about how dangerous the weather was, the thought of Antonio racing only made her wail even more, your daughter's howls filling the entire garage.
Antonio scooped her into his arms just after putting her back down again and held her close, gently rocking her as he told her that everything was going to be alright.
"Your daddy knows exactly what he is doing, baby girl," Antonio told her softly and reassuringly. "I promise you that I will come back to you very soon. I love you."
Antonio's words were all your daughter needed to hear to be able to look forward to the race once more, a wide smile spreading across her lips as he gave her one final kiss.
"You're such a good father. How do you always manage to put a smile back on her face?" You asked Antonio affectionately after he had pressed a light peck to your lips.
"It just comes naturally to me. She's my world," Antonio replied warmly, before yourself and your daughter watched him getting into his helmet and balaclava.
Whilst yourself and your daughter watched the two formation laps that followed, you had one arm wrapped tightly around her, hugging her into your side, the fingers of your free hand being tightly crossed. It came to no surprise that the race was red flagged and that no proper racing action was to take place. Once Antonio was back in the garage once again, everyone thought it would be highly unlikely that the race would be resumed. You may have felt deprived of a race once it was announced that the race wouldn't go ahead and that the drivers would receive half points and would be classified in their qualifying positions, but you most of all felt relieved because you were no longer fearing for Antonio, the three of you embracing tightly once you had heard" this news, both of you holding your daughter up with an arm each during the embrace.
"The most important thing to me is that you're safe," you told Antonio lovingly once you had placed your daughter back down onto the ground. "I was looking forward to the race and to see what you could do from P13, but there's always Zandvoort next weekend."