The call to Jost the next morning was something Emilia had avoided. She had a new phone that Lando had bought her before he and the others left to go to work. They didn't want to her leave her but she assured them she would be fine. George promised not to say anything as Emilia knew it would sound even worse if it came from him. She suspected he would be mad at her so she was evading phoning him. In all fairness, she was mad at herself. She didn't show it but Emilia was angry she hadn't paid more attention because surely she should have heard the car coming.
It had taken Emilia so long to call Jost that he had ended up noticing her absence and phoned her. She hesitated picking the call up but knew she had to. George must have given Jost her new number but she hoped he hadn't explained the situation.
"Emilia where are you? You have been missing all morning and haven't called in sick or anything. You have got to be more punctual." Jost sounded really annoyed.
"Where am I?"
"Yes!" Jost responded agitated.
"Well I had a little incident and I'm sort of in hospital." Emilia quietly admitted. She was worried Jost was going to blow up.
"Oh fuck. Are you doing okay?" Jost asked worried. Emilia hadn't expected her health to be his first concern. Maybe she'd misjudged him.
"Uh I'm not really in racing condition so no." Emilia replied.
"Oh what happened?" Emilia had been concerned that racing would be Jost's priority but he seemed genuinely anxious about the car crash.
"Someone crashed into me."
"Scheiße. Wann kannst du wieder Rennen fahren?" Jost switched to German in frustration forgetting that his driver couldn't speak his native language.
"Jost seriously, ich verstehe keine Deutsch." Emilia told him the only German she knew which ironically meant that she couldn't understand German.
"I'm sorry I forgot. When can you race?"
"Spa providing I heal properly."
"Ah yes we have the summer break. Well that's a good thing because it gives you time to heal. Will you still be allowed to go on holiday?"
"Yeah should be able to." Emilia responded. She was surprised how Jost wasn't blaming her for crashing though when it was on track, it was costing him lots of money and points that could be valuable.
"That's good. Tell me what you've actually broken." Jost requested. Emilia informed that she hadn't broken anything and went through her injuries. "Emilia I am so sorry that sounds so painful."
"It's alright." Emilia answered trying to seem strong. She may not have any broken bones but she was fracturing inside.
"I apologise for getting angry at you at the beginning for not being here. You should have called earlier to tell me."
"Yeah I was worried you'd be angry at me for crashing." Emilia confessed.
"From what it sounds like there's nothing you could have done. Your safety and wellbeing is always my first concern even though it may not seem like it."
"Thank you Jost."
"No problem. Now go and rest up. When are you being discharged?" Jost questioned.
"Later today I think." Emilia replied. She'd been given that information shortly after the boys left.
"Okay, I will send George to pick you up because you seem like you're in no driving condition." Jost offered.
"Oh thank you." Lando had told her he would pick her up and leave his sponsor event that would take up most of the day. Emilia didn't want to interrupt his event especially if it was for a sponsor. Plus, she didn't want to me impolite and turn down Jost's offer because she was in no shape to driver herself back home. Emilia texted Lando that she would be picked up by George and his reply was blunt but he was working, she expected that.
Emilia let out a big sigh as she put her phone back on the table next to her. She rubbed her face as she sat in silence. She was a mess. Bruising had started appearing everywhere on her body but her lower right leg was particularly bad with her ankle the size of a watermelon and the gash on her leg looking ugly.
There had been a lot going on in these past few weeks and she couldn't cope. Austria had been three weeks ago and since then her Grandad had died, she'd met Lando and George's parents, raced her home Grand Prix, got her maiden podium meaning she's the only woman to do so, lost her seat for next season and crashed her car which meant she wouldn't be able to race in Hungary. For three weeks, that was a lot.
Due to the mass number of events that occurred, Emilia had cried a lot more than she had wanted to. She'd been going at a hundred miles an hour since Austria not getting a proper chance to sit and take in everything but also to grieve.
Now, it had all really hit her and that was hard to deal with. She knew she was incredibly fortunate to be where she was today but she had endured a lot of hardships on the way. Emilia cried. She sobbed. For herself now, for her younger self, for Fred. She released all her emotions and was only left with anger. Anger from not noticing that other car on the road. Yeah, she blamed herself. She despised herself for not being able to race in Hungary especially now she knew she had a limited number of races left. She was mad at her Grandad for leaving her when she needed him most. Emilia had all this anger inside her but she couldn't move much let alone release the fury. Frustrated, she sat there waiting for George to brighten her day. George arrived in the early evening as Jost had apparently let him leave work earlier.
"How's my favourite person doing?" George asked grinning. He carefully hugged Emilia not wanting to hurt her.
"I'm ready to leave." Emilia replied.
"Have you been crying?" George enquired frowning.
"No, I'm okay." Emilia shook her head and smiled.
"You don't look it." George answered.
"I am. I'm good." Emilia confirmed.
"Don't shut me out." George quietly said. "Talk to me." Emilia's teammate sat on the end of the bed patiently. He was so kind and Emilia didn't know what she did to deserve him.
"It's just been a lot and now I've actually stopped, I've had a chance to think about everything. It's not nice." Emilia scrunched her face. Her head was gazing at her lap not making eye contact with her teammate because then he would see her watery eyes. George saw a tear drop run down her cheek anyway and lifted her chin up gently with his hand so he could wipe the tear away. "I'm sorry I keep crying."
"It's okay to cry." George reassured. He gently wiped her eyes for her so there were no traces of tear left. George left his hand there for a second looking at her. He moved closer and hugged Emilia. She welcomed the embrace; it wasn't the same as Lando's hugs but it was pretty close. "Let's get going." George decided.
"Can you get me the wheelchair please?" Emilia requested. Due to her sprained wrist, she couldn't use crutches which made life very difficult. George lifted her into her wheelchair and they headed to reception to get the paperwork signed so Emilia could leave.
"One Direction in the car?" George questioned as he pushed her wheelchair.
"You are literally the best; yeah please." Emilia replied. George kept to his offer and played One Direction all the way back to Emilia's house. Once they got there, Emilia tried to get out the car herself but George wouldn't let her. She didn't bring a wheelchair home which she regretted but then using one hand wouldn't be very useful anyway. George lifted her up carrying her bridal style into her house. Emilia protested that she could get in her house herself but he ignored her. He put her down on her sofa using the spare cushions to elevate her arm and ankle. "George this isn't necessary." Emilia complained as she moved her leg off the cushions.
"Em elevate." George instructed. Emilia groaned. "It's going to help you if you do it."
"You're obnoxious." Emilia sulked as George got his way. George grinned in response while trying to make Emilia more comfortable. "You're actually so good to me." Emilia contradicted her previous statement.
"Well you're kind of immobile so I have to be. I expected you to be a lot whinier though. Usually, you complain at literally nothing." George snickered. Emilia playfully hit him with her good arm.
"I do not always complain." Emilia responded.
"You kind of do." George countered winding Emilia up.
"Why am I friends with you again?" Emilia sighed trying to adjust herself so she didn't see George wince at the word friends.
"You're stuck with me until December at least." George reminded. Emilia smiled back but knew the at least part wouldn't be true. She debated on telling George that there would be no at least but she couldn't. The media and himself combined was enough pressure to perform and get that Mercedes seat. Emilia was also still quite embarrassed and infuriated at herself for not performing well enough to keep the seat. She knew she was only a stand in but she felt that she first season had been good. Not necessarily amazing and nowhere near George's level but if you discard her crashes and look at her average position it would still be above where Williams expected to be even with their improved car. "Is Lando coming?"
"Yeah he should be here at seven which is now apparently." Emilia checked her phone and saw that it was almost seven and she didn't know where the time had gone.
"Is it alright if I go then? Because I don't want to leave you by yourself for too long." Emilia rolled her eyes.
"George I'm fine Lando's going to be here in a minute and you've probably got stuff to do so it's fine for you to go." Emilia assured.
"Okay, call me if you need anything or if Lando's being a dick again." George shouted as he exited her front door. Emilia sat back and relaxed because there was nothing else she could do. Lando didn't arrive at seven like he said he would and Emilia was hungry. She carefully got up and tried to put weight on her ankle. As she felt a sharp pain shoot up her leg, Emilia decided to hop into the kitchen. While she was getting food, she also grabbed an ice pack to help the swelling go down. There wasn't much food in her cupboard that didn't need cooking.
"Uh what are you doing?" Lando had let himself in and was standing in the doorway of the kitchen. Emilia glanced at him and continued getting a bag of Doritos and some dips.
"You're late." Emilia replied.
"Yeah I'm sorry traffic was bad." Lando apologised. "You're not supposed to be walking come sit back down." Lando carefully lifted her up and carried her bridal-style back to the sofa with Emilia holding her snacks and ice pack in her hand.
"How was the sponsor even today?" Emilia questioned as Lando sat next to her. She snuggled into him resting her head on his arm.
"Usual. They just chat about stuff and we pretend to be interested so we get money." Lando answered. "How's your day been?"
"Boring really. I phoned Jost and he told me George would come and pick me up so he did." Emilia answered.
"Did you tell him you couldn't race?" Lando asked while twirling a piece of Emilia's hair round.
"Yeah he was really sympathetic which surprised me after yesterday." Emilia didn't think she'd told Lando what had happened between them.
"Yesterday?" Lando questioned.
"Yeah Jost was just complaining about us dating. The opposite of Zak but it's fine I assured him that it doesn't affect my driving." Emilia didn't even hesitate in not telling Lando about Nicky having his place back. With George she had debated telling him about it but with Lando she didn't.
"Ugh knob." Lando responded.
"Yeah he can be." Emilia sighed. "You excited for Hungary?"
"Yeah we leave on Wednesday. Are you coming even though you're not racing?" Lando enquired. Emilia hadn't thought about going but she couldn't walk or use crutches so she didn't think it would be practical. She could support them from home. Christine would also have nothing to do next week and obviously Emilia would still pay her but it would be really helpful if she could move her and help her cook.
"No I think it would be a massive hassle especially as I couldn't use crutches. Though Budapest is such a beautiful city I'm going to miss going there."
"I'll Facetime you loads so you don't feel left out." Lando promised. Emilia looked at him and smiled.
"I love you." Emilia replied. She leant in for a kiss. Lando moved closer to her and slowly but gently kissed her being careful of the bruising around her eye.
"You're beautiful." Lando commented and Emilia scoffed. "Yes, even like this you still look amazing." Lando read Emilia's thoughts exactly. "I don't tell you it enough but I mean it. Every single day I see you, you look gorgeous and you don't even try which does annoy me slightly, until I remember you're mine."
"You are literally perfect shut up." Emilia replied and made Lando shut up by kissing him. A smile appeared on her face as she kissed him knowing how lucky she was. She felt that Lando was smiling as well. They both loved each other more than the other knew.
Lando spent as much time as he could at Emilia's though with McLaren preparing for Hungary, that wasn't as long as he'd like. Christine occupied Emilia the rest of the time as the others had all flown out to Hungary. The injured Williams driver promised her trainer to pay her for looking after her as she thought that was only fair.
The Williams looked frustratingly slow in free practice and it annoyed Emilia that she didn't have access to the data to know whether this was their actual pace. Jack Aitken, her replacement, wasn't far behind George either. Emilia was pissed off in general that she couldn't race. She also couldn't do anything with this frustration, there was no way to release it. Running would be her usual method to calm herself down but with all her wounds, she couldn't. She felt trapped inside but she couldn't walk far on her ankle yet.
Emilia sucked it up and decided to watch qualifying on the Saturday as she had nothing else to do. Q1 went smoothly for the Williams but Emilia was also keeping an eye on McLaren and how Lando was doing. He looked like he would be able to compete for pole position. The Williams were not fast enough today for that. Jack wasn't even quick enough to get through to Q3 which made Emilia feel slightly better. Lando was second in the time sheets after everyone had done one quick lap in Q3 due to going slightly wide in the third sector but the TV was showing him on his final flying lap instead of the likes of Lewis and Max.
Lando started his last lap zooming down the straight and braking into turn one. He hugged the kerb on the inside giving him a good exit onto the short straight before turn two. He got on the throttle early and was flat out round turn three using the kerbs to give him extra room on track. Turn four arrived at the top of the hill and Lando broke trying to turn the corner but the strong wind kept his rear going into the barriers. It looked a nasty impact for a slow corner. Emilia looked to her trainer next to her in shock and Christine had the same expression.
"Shit." Emilia said. The radio message from Will came through.
"Lando you okay?" Will asked. The session had been red flagged and would not be restarted meaning Lando would start second providing his car was alright.
"Ah yeah I'm okay." Lando replied. He sounded in quite a bit of discomfort and pain. Emilia was so worried because she wasn't there and wished she had gone so she could be there. She wanted to phone him, to check that he was okay but he was still in the car. He was filmed getting out of the car and he was holding his wrist.
"Fuck I hope he's okay." Emilia said with her hand over her mouth. It was shaking slightly and as was concerned for the safety of her significant other who still wasn't her boyfriend. Lando stuck his thumb out to the other side of the track searching for a camera. He was clearly trying to send a message to her that he was okay. The medical car picked him up and drove him back to the pitlane. It was the end of qualifying and it meant Lando was starting on the front row but that didn't matter to her now.
"Em calm down. He's fine and he gave you a thumbs up." Christine assured as the driver was beginning to hyperventilate. She managed to calm down before it got worse.
"I need to phone him." Emilia picked up her phone and clicked on Lando's name. It rung and went to voicemail. She tried several times and there was no answer. Emilia had to sit and wait while he was assessed in the medical centre and it was agony. Qualifying was still playing in the background and they provided her with news but not the good kind.
"We are hearing that Lando has gone to hospital for precautionary checks we hope that he's all okay." Damon Hill announced. Emilia was about to phone Lando again but he phoned her.
"Hey babe. I'm sorry for not phoning sooner." Lando apologised.
"Don't you fucking dare do that again." Emilia shouted. "Thank fuck you're okay. Are you okay? Why are you going to hospital? Are you hurt?" Emilia softened her voice after making Lando know he wasn't allowed to do that when she wasn't there.
"Yeah my wrist hurts a bit. I'm sorry I scared you." Lando responded. He sounded really down but Emilia knew he was on for pole potentially and would be annoyed that he ruined his chance.
"Hey I'm okay as long as you are. You're still starting P2 tomorrow so don't worry about it." Emilia reassured.
"This is fucked up. You're the one at home almost completely purple from bruises and you're reassuring me." Lando pointed out. Emilia didn't need support right now well she did, she needed to make sure Lando was alright for her to be alright.
"No it's not baby."
"How are you doing at home?"
"Lando enough about me. I'm fine, slightly freaked out but fine. You just crashed which wasn't your fault. The wind just caught your rear." Emilia assured.
"Yeah I guess but I'm pissed that I didn't see that coming. I could have been on pole Emi. We don't get many chances at P1 and today I fucked up." Lando sighed.
"Lan it's okay. People make mistakes but I don't think there was anything else you could have done. Is it just your wrist that hurts?" Emilia asked. She hadn't relaxed much through the conversation despite Lando telling her he was okay. Her heart was still racing. Fuck, she loved that man.
"Bit sore obviously but just the wrist. I don't even think we need to go to the hospital. I'm racing tomorrow so it's not broken or anything." Lando decided. He seemed determined to race tomorrow.
"Lando are you sure it's a good idea if you race tomorrow?" Emilia asked.
"Yeah I will be. Providing the car is fixed though I think I'll get a penalty for some sort of change because the car didn't look good." Lando answered. "We're at the hospital now so I'll call you later."
"Okay, I love you."
"I love you too." Lando replied and hung up.
Both Lando and his car were both in racing condition the next day so he was able to compete though he lost a few places due to penalties as he changed part of his car under a parc fermé environment. He'd phoned Emilia briefly but sounded tired so Emilia left him to sleep.
The race itself was rather dull. There was minimal overtakes so it wasn't that interesting to watch although it still would have been exciting to race in as there were so many decision to make in terms of strategy meaning for the teams and drivers, there was never a boring race.
Lando managed P8 and George P6. Alex crashed going into turn one so he didn't finish. With the lack of brilliant results, she expected the boys to be in a bad mood on the flight home but they weren't. The four of them were supposed to hire a private jet but Emilia couldn't come so there were just the three of them there plus their trainers.
Emilia was on a Facetime call to them with the phone on the seat next to Lando. Christine had gone home after helping Emilia up the stairs to bed. She really wanted to be laughing there with the other drivers and felt left out but there wasn't anything she could do about it.
"When do we leave for Spain?" George asked Lando who had been in charge of booking their holiday in the sunny country.
"Uh let me check." Lando pulled out his phone to find the booking confirmation. He had offered to do all the booking and sorting out flights and transport. No one had considered it was a bad idea. "Oh shit."
"Lando what have you done?" Emilia asked.
"I booked the wrong number of bedrooms." Lando revealed. They knew Lando had booked a villa but the others hadn't seen it yet.
"That's fine we can invite a few more." George assured. Lando's face did not look like that solved the problem.
"We're going to need more than a few." Lando disclosed quietly.
"How many bedrooms did you book?" George questioned.
"Fourteen instead of four." Lando mumbled. They only needed three bedrooms as Emilia and Lando would share one but they had intended to book an extra room because Emilia wanted more space to put her clothes. It seemed they now had a lot of extra rooms.
"Lando you fucking idiot. How did you manage to book fourteen?" Alex laughed.
"No there is actually a reasonable explanation." Lando argued. They all waited for Lando to explain but he was hesitant. "Okay so I was looking for a one bedroom place in the Maldives..."
"Why were you looking for that?" George enquired. Lando gave him a look.
"I will explain if you don't interrupt me. I was looking for a one bedroom water bungalow because I wanted to book one for Em and I after we all go to Spain which I was trying to keep a secret." Lando glanced to Emilia on the other side of the phone. She had no idea that they were going on holiday to the Maldives just the two of them.
"Lando that's so sweet." Emilia smiled. "But that doesn't explain how you managed to book fourteen rooms."
"I must have left the one in the search bar and put in four after." Lando replied.
"Only you would be able to do that." Alex rolled his eyes. "Well there's no way we're going to be able to fill fourteen bedrooms but we can invite a few more people. I know Mick isn't doing anything next week." Emilia didn't particularly like the idea of Mick coming as they still weren't on great terms. They were civil after the intense battle for F2 title next year but she wasn't elated about Alex wanting to invite his teammate.
"Charles and Charlotte aren't going on holiday until later. Callum Ilott and Marcus Armstrong as well because you can't just invite one of them." George suggested.
"We could invite Carlos and Isa as well. I almost forgot about Daniel as well and then we should invite Max too. Yuki and Pierre because they're alright." Lando promoted.
"Are Callum and Pierre going to work though?" Emilia asked.
"Good point. Well we can invite them both and let the other know they're coming. They might be chill about the whole situation." George answered.
"I wouldn't be if that was me." Lando replied bluntly.
"Lily managed to get time off so she's coming." Alex said excitedly.
"Oh yay I haven't seen her in ages. Alex you need to bring her to more races." Emilia instructed.
"I do invite her but our schedules always manage to clash." Alex defended. "We have two bedrooms left to fill but I think that's alright. Some of them might not even want to come or be able to."
"Why did we think it was a good idea to leave Lando in charge and let it be a surprise?" Emilia shook her head. At least they were able to fix the problem mostly.
Sure, Emilia was excited for Spain next week with the other drivers and their girlfriends but the Maldives with Lando would be the highlight of her summer break. She hadn't even considered going with just him or that she would have the time to. The Maldives was so peaceful and just what she needed as the villa in Spain would definitely be less relaxing now there was going to be loads of people there. Only Lando would book the villa for the wrong number of people. Yet somehow, she still loved that idiot.
What we thinking George or lando? Obviously we know who she ends up from the title and the cover of the book. Saying that, I probably should change the cover for this story but I'm too lazy to and literally am struggling to find time to write let alone create a cover. Anyway, we're now halfway through this book which is scary. It was weird that I didn't have to write a race in her point of view or really write a race at all. There was lots in the chapter but I couldn't split it in half as it would have been too short otherwise. At least my GCSE German finally came in handy thank you to Segelfliegerj1 for pointing out my mistake. I didn't want to write too much in case it was wrong but the tiny bit I did right was probably incorrect anyway because I don't know grammar rules in German oops - someone please correct me if so.
We hit 2k votes!! Thank you to everyone for that I really do appreciate every single one of you. Stay safe and take care of yourselves my dms are always open if you need to talk <3