Maeve
I couldn't help flowing through our arrival to Bahrain mindlessly and unaware of what the team was handing or saying to me. There were so many questions that I needed answered before I could give Christian his answers that my head hurt. Luckily, it was only Monday and we had two days before Daniel or I were expected to be available for work. Yet, it seemed that I had an endless amount to take care of before the race started.
The team had given me my own room and someone had flown back to Milton Keynes to get me clothes to wear while we were patient waiting for Max to be woken from his coma. They also retrieved my school computer and all of the work I needed for my degree, as well as the computer given to me by the team that synced to our systems. I opened both to see that I had several work emails and multiple assignments that needed my attention this week. Except my mind was on the week ahead and what has transpired in Melbourne. I had finally raced in Formula 1, a feat that I should be extremely proud of. Yet, It was only due to someone else's unfortunate series of events. Christian was more than happy to accommodate my arrival, as the flight's conversation made it extremely obvious. His accommodations were on the forefront of my mind, to the tune of millions of pounds. It was something I never had before. Even one year would give me a life I had always wanted. It was no surprise to anyone that happiness was all I wanted in life and with a salary like that, I could never work again and do everything I ever wanted. It left me staring out the window with my school computer open on my left and my work computer open on my right, wondering what I should do first.
After a shower and leaving my long, brunette hair down to dry, I had dressed in leggings and the new team hoodie that I was given upon my arrival to sit down and write the email to my school as to the current situation. It hadn't been sent yet though as I was still trying to figure out exactly what I was going to do and my mind kept wandering back to the sudden pay raise I might be receiving. There was no reason to think that the school wouldn't agree to my sudden promotion. I had always been in good standing and a lot of the professors were fans of the sport I worked in. They were shocked when I came into the program with a job already in the field. It made scheduling my research easier than normal because they did play favorites despite the rules. I had taken full advantage of that to build myself a sense of stability back at home. The last two weeks had been a destructive storm to the calm life I had built in Britain over the last two years though. Never did I think I'd actually be in a car for points and never did I think Max of all people would be in a catastrophic accident. It was a lot to digest and I hadn't even had a moment to spend with my friends or really meet the other drivers other than our meetings to see Max over the last two weeks.
I realized that I would most likely be here at least until the end of the year and I had a lot of work to do with Daniel to get the cars in shape. In my professional opinion, Australia was a fluke with our current power unit. I had plenty of work to do with my studies, but moving down to part time would increase my time in studies three fold as I would not be able to devote time to my research despite continuing to apply the same principles to the work I was doing at Red Bull. Plus, I now ran a risk of having to do Media. I wasn't actually afraid of the camera as Daniel always seemed to think I was, but I don't like the sexist comments that I've been encountering since starting my career with racing. It was a main point of why I had decided that happiness came before all else in my life. That was why, as much as I loved racing, I had taken a backseat to all of this.
A knock on my door pulled me out of my thoughts. And man were they persistent to keep knocking on my door as I shuffled across the suite's living room to grab it.
"Daniel, I know that's you and I am working on it!" I growled as I came closer to the door, nearly tripping over the backpack the team gave me with my teamwear as he rapped on the door to the beat of 'What's My Age Again.'
"Not fast enough!" He laughed through the door, clearly in a mood to hangout that I wasn't ready to comply with.
"I'm sorry, some of us have work to-" I cut my sentence off as I opened the door to Vettel, Leclerc, Michael, Gasly, and Sainz standing next to Daniel all dressed nicely as if they were ready to go out. Daniel himself was dressed in black slacks with a black button up long sleeve rolled up to his elbows. Uncharacteristically, he also wore dress shoes and the top two buttons of the shirt were undone. He looked good.
"Come on Princess, get dressed. We're having a driver's dinner." Throwing my hands up as if to say 'what?' I stared at Daniel, both in disbelief and because I couldn't help myself. My eyes wandered up and down his body with a face I knew read the disbelief and covered my wandering.
"We just landed an hour ago Daniel and I still have work to do." Daniel rolled his eyes and pushed past me, ignoring the fact that I was half dressed as is and my hair was still damp.
"Nonsense. Where's your suitcase? I told Angela to grab that little black dress from Monaco when she was at your place." I gave the other drivers a sheepish smile before turning to go after my teammate. Bounding after him, I barely made it to him before he was able to get too far in my suite.
"Excuse me," I grabbed the back of the button shirt adorning his torso to stop him from walking into the bedroom of the suite,"You told Angela to grab what? I didn't know you were my stylist now."
"As if, you can't dress yourself to save your life D." The drivers at the door practically giggled as I crossed my arms in front of my chest when Daniel turned to me.
"I don't get paid to just have a pretty face, unlike you." Clearly we were the entertainment today as the other drivers laughed.
"First of all, it's handsome and not pretty," Daniel flashed some semblance of a smolder at me before continuing to my bedroom," Second, you didn't tell me where your suitcase was!" he ignored me all together as he crossed the threshold into the room.
I groaned loudly again before turning back to the other surprised guests. Even though I had no doubt that they were used to the man's child-like behavior, I didn't want to have mine come off as rude.
"I'm sorry, please come in and make yourselves comfortable while I handle him." I told the other drivers before following Daniel into the bedroom.
Daniel was literally throwing my clothes all over the bed looking for the dress he mentioned before. It was comical to watch and frustrating knowing I would have to clean it up when he was done.
"Daniel! Come on, don't make a mess!" He turned to me for a moment, his eyes dancing over my frustrated appearance, before continuing on his hunt for a dress that I didn't even know existed.
"Well we don't have much time, go do the girly bits and I'll leave your outfit on the bed. I promise that I will clean up." He waved his hand at me, sending me away, while I groaned.
"Why do I have to go? I have work to do. I have to email my professors and the school still and I have to analyze the data from last year at this track and-" Daniel turned and literally covered my mouth with his right hand. His left hand held some of my unmentionables as he just smirked at me, the lace folding around his wrist as his fingers gripped them.
"No, no work talk. You're coming to meet the drivers, all of them. You'll be here for a lot longer than you thought and it will be nice to get to know everyone." I glared at him with his hand still over my mouth. The only comfort I had was that he dropped my underwear back into my suitcase as he said that.
"I'll take you to the restaurant like that if you don't go and get in order. We have to leave in 15 minutes." My eyes widened as I realized that I would never have time to properly do my hair and make up for this almost formal meal.
"You could've given me more of a heads up!" I protested as I smacked his hand away and headed into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me with no regard for my neighbors.
He didn't respond as I pulled out the blow dryer the hotel provided, knowing that just blow drying my hair straight was the best way to go here. It took me not too long since my hair had been air drying for a good amount of time already. Another minute or two to whip on some basic eyeliner and a red lip before going back out to the bedroom. Daniel had kept his word and cleaned up my suitcase while leaving out the black dress, undergarments, and a pair of heels for me to wear. The dress was a tight-fitting black fabric that came down to just above my knees. It was completely backless, but it came up much like a turtle neck with full sleeves.
"Disgusting..." No matter how much I hated the dress, Daniel had practically forced me to buy plenty of things like this over the years. This dress was one we found in London randomly around Christmas before he went back to Australia. He would never learn though, as I was quick to swap the heels for my docs. My disdain for the elevated footwear was a well known fact for anyone around me. Daniel found the idea funny and tried to get me to wear the torture devices more times than I'd like to admit.
"Heels Daniel? Really?" As I left the bedroom for the living room, I swept the room with my gaze until they landed on Daniel raiding my mini fridge.
"You put on the docs didn't you?" He asked as he stood up and gave me a once over with two beers in his hand. His eyes raked down my body from my face to my shoes and back again, drifting from left to right as he took a deep breath.
"Eh. It'll do. Shall we?" Daniel shrugged before tossing one of the heinekens my way from the fridge.
"Daniel, we have to drive this week!" I caught the beer by the neck, but he merely shrugged while a wide smile broke out across his face. His stance changed, his arms crossed as he leaned against the counter with his teeth showing. Unlike any animal I even knew, the comforting smile that Daniel portrayed to the world could be more dangerous than any dog baring its teeth. A fact evident in his next words.
"I'm calling a-" My eyes widened as I realized what he was about to say.
"Daniel! Don't do it!" I pointed the hand holding the beer bottle at him as I interrupted his words. He merely winked and cleared his throat to continue, his unoccupied hand pointing back at me.
"I'm calling a patsy."
Like a true standoff, Daniel and I narrowed our eyes at each other as the other drivers just seemed to be thoroughly confused at the actions happening before them. This was normal for us though. Daniel and I are both different kinds of party. We were both different kinds of workers. We were the exact same kind of partiers though. That was evident as both of us twisted open the bottles and raised them to each other before chugging them down.
"What just happened?" Charles asked as Daniel and I wiped our faces, me trying to be careful of the lipstick I had just applied. Daniel chuckled and dropped his beer in the bin next to the counter before motioning me over to him
"I stopped asking after the first time I hung out with them. These two are on another level..." Pierre informed the others as I walked over to Daniel with my empty bottle.
"She's playing Patsy." Daniel said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Michael groaned, knowing he would have to play clean up for both of us tomorrow. it also meant that he had approved a drinking night out on a race week despite all of my brain saying it was wrong.
"What's Patsy mean?" Charles asked, clearly the youngest in the room and very proper. Too proper for what we were about to explain to him.
"You can call a patsy when hanging out with your friends on any one member of the party," Michael started explaining while I made my way to the table my computers sat on," The member who has Patsy called on them must drink any beverage placed before them for the remainder of the night until the party returns home or said member has passed out." He reiterated the rules we had made up years ago as I cleaned up my paperwork, flipping over my work so no one with prying eyes could take a look. I also saved the draft for my email so I could work on it from my phone.
"That seems like the dumbest idea ever. Who came up with that?" Pierre laughed, going against his own words.
"I did actually," I stood up straight from the table and smiled, "It was my way of entertaining myself when I wasn't old enough to drink. Only it came back to bite me in the ass once I was old enough to drink. Daniel here is the culprit to every bad time it didn't work out for me."
Daniel's face was all too proud when I made that known. It was true that Daniel had put me into several tailspins in the middle of the night from his 'Patsy' calls, including my own birthday and several other holidays. Not that I hadn't returned the favor, it was just harder to do when too much could interfere more with his work than I was willing to risk.
"I will proudly take responsibility for that. Let's go though, we have things to do."
Daniel led us downstairs, taking my room key, ID, and debit card to place in his pocket while I typed away on my phone, knowing I had to send this email before I really started drinking.
"So how long have you two known each other?" Carlos asked as we stopped in front of the elevators.
"5-ish years." I responded without looking up from my phone as the elevator doors opened and we all stepped in. My words came off as cold, but I was focused on finishing this email.
"Don't make me take that away from you." I ignored Daniel as I typed away at the email, knowing that it was the one thing I absolutely had to do today. If I didn't send it before business hours, I didn't know how long it would take for them to get back to me.
"Yeah and they act like a married couple." Pierre laughed.
Pierre really had spent the most time 'around us' out of the other drivers. Brendon and Carlos had also been around us just being part of the sister team, but it was always in a more professional setting that didn't see Daniel and I near each other very often. Secretly, Christian had known that Pierre could be the next one if Max or Daniel stepped away. He was trying to keep him close in case that ever happened. He just wasn't quite ready.
"We can see that." Seb had a smile on his face when I looked up from my phone to look at him to my left.
"Well it's not my fault he's my best friend and the biggest pain in my ass." Daniel just glared at me, I could feel the burn of it on the back of my head as he still had his hands on my shoulders.
"The feeling is mutual, D." I stuck my tongue out at Daniel over my shoulder before going back to my phone as the doors opened again in the lobby.
Daniel guided me by the shoulders again to the in-hotel restaurant and to a chair to sit down all while I continued to type on my phone with the plan and an update on my work. There was conversation going on around me as I continued my message, but I ignored it to finish this email.
"D... how long is this email supposed to be?" I blinked a few times as I looked up and saw Daniel sitting to my right. My mind had been so focused on the email and the complicated series of explanations I needed to give in regards to my work that I forgot we had sat down somewhere to eat.
"I'm sorry, I have to send this email to the school and convince them to give me the part time on my research. I can't do both that and racing right-" Daniel stared at me silently and I realized what I had said, cutting off my words in hopes that no one had heard. I couldn't be so lucky, as I was the hot new gossip in the paddock. Everyone was paying attention.
"Wait, are you in school?" I looked across the table and blinked again as I realized that Lewis Hamilton was seated across from me. The Lewis Hamilton.
"Oh, um..." I stared at Daniel unsure of what to say, but he was preoccupied with the glass of red he was sipping on. His eyes tracing the edges of the glass and the sloshing liquid as he pulled back. He was waiting to see what I would say.
"Sort of?" I responded, unsure of what to say as I turned back to Lewis. There is no good way to explain what I did and how it played into my role in the team. My degree was also hard to explain as is
"She's halfway through a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering specializing in combustion engines, electric engines, and materials science at Cambridge. " Daniel said it without so much as a falter in the language or having to raise his eyes from the wine glass. It was something I had coached him through for years as I had grown up with him. We had just had this conversation with Christian though and I was shocked that he had said it.
"Daniel, Christian just said not to say anything." he shook his head before taking another sip of his wine and placing the glass back on the table.
"This is a safe space. What is said at the Driver's table, stays at the driver's table." Daniel reassured me without meeting my gaze.
"Cambridge? My god, you're smarter than all of us combined." Lance said from the other end of the table.
"Sure," I laughed, used to the reaction," I wouldn't go that far. Intelligence is relative."
It was true. You could be smart in so many different ways. Some people could tell you everything there was to know about a formula one car and its components and others could tell you all of the science behind cooking. I never hid that I did know quite a bit about a few things, but most people didn't even realize the wealth of knowledge they may accidentally hold themselves.
"She's fluent in German too and I'm guessing Italian." Seb spoke up from a few seats down, he was also nursing a Heineken.
"More than that." Daniel smirked, knowing that I hated when he pulled this out as his party trick.
"Oh yeah? ¿Y el español?" (And Spanish?)Carlos added from by Brendon on the opposite side of the table. It felt like I was some new toy that they hadn't seen before.
"Yes, I do speak Spanish. Would you prefer a list instead of just asking me in different languages?" I laughed again as I realized that I had two beers and a glass of likely the same red as Daniel in front of me. Stupid Patsy rules.
"Well how many are there? Seems like four would be plenty?" Valterri chuckled as he reached for his water, clearly not partaking in the patsy Daniel was forcing me to be a part of.
"Kyllä, mutta vain neljä olisi tylsää" (Yes, but only four would be boring) Both Valterri and Kimi whipped their heads around to look at me so fast that I was worried I gave them whiplash. It made me a little nervous, but a few surprised looks for others around the table made it worse.
"Näyttää siltä, että emme voi enää puhua paskaa yksityisesti, Valtteri." (Looks like we can't talk shit in private anymore, Valtteri.) Valtteri, Kimi, and I had a good laugh on that one, confusing everyone else at the table as we spoke in Finnish.
"Alright, we get it, you're smarter than all of us. Tell us about you though. We didn't really get to meet you in the craziness of Australia. How did you meet Daniel and why have we never seen you at a race before?" Checo asked before picking up his beer.
"Oh, I met him on an off day on a tour I was on back in 2013. I was working for his favorite band and our drummer found him in LA while we were on an off day. I loved cars obviously as I was in my undergrad then and told him he'd never see a WDC with the way he was driving." The table seemed in disbelief as I spoke, not even hesitating before I went to work on the beers in front of me. Daniel clicked his tongue, knowing the truth at his expense.
"Yeah, and then we talked everyday for 8 months before I saw her again in LA. I convinced her to try out Karting for real and she did so well that she ended up in Formula 3 after a few more months." I nodded along to Daniel's words as I was finally able to finish one of my beers while the other guys stared at the two of us.
"Yeah and then when I moved to the UK for my PHD, he took me into Milton Keynes for some job opening for Red Bull. Here we are." I smiled before putting my glass down, knowing that Daniel would have more coming.
"She left out the part about how they nearly sent all of Seb's trophies flying on her first day in the factory. Oh and the time Christian woke up to the voicemail of the two of them stuck on a boat in the harbor in Monaco during race week." Pierre added, having heard all these stories when they first met the two.
"Oh and that one time Daniel found out that he was going to be racing for Red Bull on a renewed contract and they almost got arrested in Austria in search of Schnitzel." Brendon added with a laugh. Christian had told him a lot of these stories in memories of the good old days while we were waiting for Max to wake up. It was no surprise to anyone that knew them, but Brendon had singled in on our boat stories. He didn't seem to understand how you could get stuck in a boat on the water.
"Wait, you guys knew her before?" Kevin asked. Brendon and Pierre shrugged.
"She's been at a total of two races in the last four years and it wasn't until the beginning of the 2016 season when we found out she was an engineer for the mother team as well as their development driver." Pierre explained with a smile.
"I'm sorry, I don't come to races as often as I would like, I'm working. Sorry my job isn't as cool as yours." Daniel scoffed as I did jazz hands to emphasize the sass in my voice.
The guys seemed thoroughly confused by my words and the appearance of me as the mystery Red Bull driver. I couldn't help but feel for them as I had been instructed to do this from the beginning. They didn't want me near many races and my skills were better suited for data analysis anyways, at least with the role I was given.
"Well now it is." Seb laughed as I went for the second beer.
"Yeah, you're one of us now!" Daniel threw his arms up and started chanting "one of us" and soon had the guys joining him.
I couldn't help but laugh as they chanted a few times before we finally looked at our menus. This made me feel a lot better about my current situation. I felt a hand tap my thigh then and realized it was Daniel trying to make sure I was ok. A small smile made its way onto my face as I nodded to him before he went back to looking at his menu.