Maeve
I spent the entire morning and afternoon of our Tuesday arrival in Shanghai going over last year's data. There were a lot of good things that could happen this week, but I had some work to do to highlight the finer pointers that the crew needed to pay attention to. From there, I moved onto my studies. Luckily this was the 21st century and I wasn't forced to lug around heavy books. They were all on my computer and it was plenty easy to go back and forth as needed.
I spent the entire night working on my thesis and the classes that I was required to complete. My only break was the short mealtime and the hour and a half workout I needed to do. Given that I had spent the night before drinking, I also tried to get a good rest before having to go to the track the next day. All of this was a great distraction to not have to talk to Daniel. I wasn't ready to face him in an honest, sober conversation where I might have to tell him what had happened with Christian.
The next day, I was more than happy to try and avoid Daniel again. He had filming obligations while I was able to work in the engineering briefing before finally meeting up with Michael for the assessment he had asked of me the day before.
"You're clearly stressed out. What do you do to relax?" Michael asked me as his hand moved across the back of my neck, trying to release whatever tension there was there as I laid on the physio table again.
"What's relaxing? Some of us have two jobs and school to worry about." I chuckled, hissing as he hit a very painful spot in my neck. It was clear that while I was joking, my body was not. I should've known sooner than Michael having to tell me my body was close to an injury, I had felt it at pre-season testing.
"That's part of the problem. I think you need to start doing something for yourself every once in a while." Michael moved so I could sit up on the physio table in my room.
"School is for me. It's important for my work." I reminded him as I leaned against the wall non table with my legs crossed.
"Sure, but maybe try having some fun while you're at it. I know I'm not Daniel, but I've been around you for a long time too. You've got to take some time for yourself, Maeve. Not Christian, Daniel, or the car," Michael dug through his bag and pulled out a variety of bottles and a pill calendar," I can't make you do that, but I can try and fix the damage you're doing to yourself in the meantime." I chuckled at that as he started dumping the pills into the pill calendar.
It wouldn't be that simple. It never was. I had too much work to just take a day to myself. It was hard enough to want to take the time for a movie or a dinner. I shouldn't have even taken the time to spend with Daniel the other night. My thesis was already taking a hit because I had to work on the car. I was just going to have to let Michael fix me the best he could.
"Not to be weird, but are you on any medications or anything that I should be aware of before giving you these supplements?" I laughed.
"We're adults Michael. I'm on birth control. I take it daily as a responsible adult that does not wish to have children at this age, would you like to see the bottle?" He shook his head with another laugh as he finished his organizing.
It was true, I had been on birth control since I was old enough to get the stupid pill. It was part of my daily routine and I could happily say I had only missed the pill once in my entire life. No part of me wanted to risk my studies or career to raise a child, but you needed another person for that and I had been dry for going on 5 months. No need for worry there.
"Ok, fine. Then these should be ok for you to take. It's the same ones Daniel takes, but the dosage is a little different. I give them to Daniel each day, but I'll do yours weekly. Just take them with your breakfast. This pack," He handed me a package containing tablets that looked a bit yellow and were oblong shaped," Take two before you get in the car. It's to help with your water retention. I'll change it up depending on the weather or if there are any concerns I have during the season. Got it?" I nodded and he packed everything up.
"Ok, I'm gonna go catch up with Daniel. He's supposed to be going to a school to play badminton for the youtube channel." I raised an eyebrow at that.
"Badminton? Jesus, this team is crazy. We're doing the weirdest shit for that channel." Michael nodded in agreement as I straightened out my team polo and the denim shorts I was wearing so I could stand up. I didn't usually like to have all my tattoos on display, but it was humid and warm in China and I hated the feeling of being sticky.
Hiding my tattoos, as hard as that was, had been a part of my mission since starting to step into the public eye. I had tattoos on my upper arms, a majority of my torso, all over my legs, with some on my hands and feet. They were pieces of me that I collected as a reward when completing a goal or mission. everything from the tiny 1940s style pill boy that was a pharmaceutical mascot in the good old days to the multiple band tattoos I had for tours that I had completed with those bands when I was still in the music industry. Several tattoos had been done by friends or carried meanings that I didn't care to explain so I avoided showing them off when I knew prying eyes would be able to see them
"You're correct....." Michael trailed off and I caught him cutting his sentence off.
"What is it?" I asked him as I grabbed the supplements from the table to put in my own backpack.
"Well, I was just thinking that the team and Daniel might appreciate his teammate doing all the ridiculous things with him. Have some fun maybe?" I opened my mouth to say something to him in response, but I didn't exactly know what I was supposed to say.
"You don't have to if you don't want to, but it would be nice to see some unity in the team given the situation. Plus, Daniel's your best mate. It'll just be like the two of you are hanging out anyways." Michael smiled before picking up his bag.
"I'm just saying, but I understand if it will add more to your plate than anything else." He hiked his bag up on his shoulder.
I really didn't want to put myself more in Max's shoes more than I already had. I didn't want to get in a situation where they tried to play favorites with any of us Red Bull drivers. It would be messy if god forbid I gained enough of a following to do any damage.
On the other hand, I would really get to spend time with my best friend. Even with my current predicament, I still wanted to spend time with him. Maybe spending time with him outside of the track would make him less suspicious of my inner turmoil with the job as well...
That was the thought that had me marching out of my driver room to Christian's office down the hall despite the chip on my shoulder towards the older team principal.
"Hey!" The door was opened as I entered and Christian was on his computer when I walked in.
"Someone seems to be in a much better mood today." I gave him a small smile as I pointed to the chair. With a nod, I closed the door before taking a seat at the chair on the opposite side of his desk.
"Yes, well I was thinking. Maybe I'd look more," I paused to think of the convincing word I needed to make this work,"approachable to fans if I participated in some of our marketing content with Daniel?" I sat up straight in the chair and gave him a professional, closed mouth smile. Hoping this didn't seem insane, I simply waited for him to think.
"I couldn't agree more," He said without a pause. Clearly he didn't need the time to think like I had,"Are you sure though? I know the agreement was to shorten your press commitments so that you would have time for your studies and the work for the team." I nodded, agreeing with the statement.
"Well I don't mind doing a few. Obviously my studies and work for the team come first, but I have a good handle on it at this moment. If some things are happening when I have the time, I wouldn't mind participating." Christian sat back and stared at me for a moment.
"What about today? Think you could be ready to go in half an hour?" I smiled widely at that.
"I could be ready in 15."
Ready I was. Now dressed in a plain Tshirt with the Red Bull logo on it, a Red Bull hat, and a pair of black leggings, I met the team at the parking lot with my water bottle.
"What are you doing here?" Michael laughed, knowing the answer. He looked thrilled to see me stroll up to the transport van to go with them
"I guess we're playing some badminton?" I ask while looking at Daniel. He just barely looked up from his phone to see me and smiled. His phone was long forgotten as he dropped his hands to his side.
"You're coming with?" I nodded a few times and he threw his hands up to cheer.
"Thank god! I was going to feel weird doing this alone." I laughed at him, but it made me happy to see him happy to have his friend going with him on this trip.
The experience was weird to say the least. We met with the national team in a random school gym. They taught us all of the basics about the game and how to play before we spent nearly an hour getting our asses kicked by them. Then we took turns trying to defend a goal from their attacks on Daniel's recommendation. It was a lot of laughs, but also basically us just getting hit with the thing repeatedly. When that was done, they pulled us aside to sign autographs. I thought I'd sit that one out, thinking that no one would want me there to sign anything. No one could've told me how wrong I was one we started.
Every person wanted to take photos with both Daniel and me. They had fan art, bootleg photos, and some official photos of me printed out and practically begged for me to sign all of it.
"When will you get some official merchandise? I'd love a shirt with your number on it." A young woman asked me as she settled between Daniel and I for a photo.
"Oh, I'm uh," I looked at Daniel, hoping he had a better answer than what I was going to give," I'm not sure when that will happen." She looked a bit sad at that, but I was happy Daniel got the message that I didn't have a fucking clue of what to say here. It was also hard to give an answer when I knew that the status of my job in the team could easily change after this week.
"It's coming, they just take time to do. Just keep your eye on the web stores, 'right?" The woman smiled at that and Charlotte pulled us away to return to the track since Daniel had training and some more press stuff to do with the media team.
"Thank you for the assist today. Question though, are they getting stuff ready for me?" Daniel shrugged as we sat in the car on the way back to the track.
"Probably, they're usually on top of everything like that. It's just a big turn around to get things designed, printed, and ready for purchase. Ask home office about it." He shrugged as he scrolled around something on his phone.
He seemed a bit distracted, but I still smiled.
"Maybe I will. It'll be weird to see people walking around with my number and face though." Daniel didn't look up from his phone as I said that, instead his jaw going slack like he was meant to say something and decided against it.
"Everything ok?" I asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Oh?" He looked at me over his sunglasses, his hat now turned backwards, " I'm sorry. I uh, had a conversation with someone this morning and it just put me in a sour mood. What were you saying?" Daniel put his phone away and gave me what was a signature smile, but the look didn't match his eyes. He must've known too because he pushed his sunglasses back up his nose so they covered his eyes.
"It'll just take a moment to get used to all the people wearing my number and face for a bit." Daniel chuckled.
"Yeah, but soon it's a motivator. They love you then they love you and they aren't afraid to show it." He looked out the window and sat back against the chair as the driver navigated us through the streets of Beijing back to the hotel.
"Yeah it's the ones that don't love me I'm worried about..."
Daniel didn't seem to be in a very chatty mood. I was worried that something had happened during the day, but a light tap on my right shoulder distracted me. Michael was sitting in the row behind me and had noticed our interaction.
"Give him a bit. We're dealing with something." Michael whispered into my ear, leaving me to be a bit surprised. Daniel was shutting me out now.
It was only fair given that I had done the same thing to him last week. Part of me worried that he knew what my team orders were. Having to have the conversation with Daniel that Christian expected me to take the lead driver role in the team when the time came was stressful. More so than I'd like to admit even, but made worse by not being able to talk to my best friend about it.
I gave Daniel his space at the end of the night, not knowing what was bothering him. He was clearly trying to hide it from everyone else. I wasn't sure if anyone other than Michael and I had really noticed the change. It carried through all of the first three free practices and qualifying. We weren't talking still even during our joint workouts with Michael.
Something about Qualifying really upset him though. I had two tenths on him. He showed his apparent distaste for the results by practically running into his room and away from Michael and I. Michael of course went after him, but I had data to go after. My job left me at the track with the team for quite some time and I knew Daniel had to go to press. 6th place wasn't a terrible qualifying though. His temperament was something I hadn't seen before in the years I've known him. It was clear that something was wrong and I needed to ask him about it. It wouldn't be fair of me to ask him before the race though. He had to focus, there was no more teamwork and that had been made clear to me. Not that Daniel was making it hard with his behavior.
Arriving at the track the next morning, I was hoping maybe a good night's sleep had changed the mood he was in. That was far from the case though. He was at the track earlier than normal and he was working out with Michael in his driver's room.
I didn't have time to try and talk to him as I was too busy making sure both his and my car were in working order for this weekend. While my job wasn't super important during the season, it still was a monumental task to look at the data and simulations to see how it would apply to this weekend. It was a small edge that had made the difference before. Plus I knew the cars and how they worked. I truly was an asset simply because I could do any job thrown at me and look at it in the light that would improve the car. That was my whole job at the factory in development time. To apply it in real time on track was an unusual tactic for a team to use. They were hoping that it would work at this time though.
When Daniel finally entered the garage just before it was time for us to go to the formation lap, he looked completely different. The smile finally reached his chocolate brown eyes and I was happy to return a smile.
"Someone's feeling better." He laughed as I pulled my suit up over my shoulders. It had been down while I was looking at the strategies with the team.
"You could say that..." My left eyebrow raised as he looked at me, chewing on the inside of his left cheek.
"Or not?" He took a deep breath.
"Can you come see me after the race? I just wanna talk before you leave back to the factory. I'm going back to Monaco for a few days first and then I'll be back in Milton Keynes for sim time." I nodded.
"Yeah, I can come by after media time." Daniel gave an appreciative smile before replacing his headphones on his head and moving to his side of the garage.
Now, I am worried. He's never asked me to just talk. Normally, we just did talk. There were no serious implications in his voice, but the over worrier in me had taken over. Normally, I could push it away, but five minutes before I was supposed to be in the car? My brain stayed on his words. It was constantly at the back of my mind to the point that battling for track position was lost on me this week. Everything I tried seemed to fail. It was really bad on turn 39 when I ran wide trying to gain the position from Lewis. Daniel was on it though. He had no issues sailing right past me. He took the position from Lewis and I was finally able to follow behind him like it should be. That's how I wanted it to stay too. I waited for Daniel to take Vettel for P2 before going to third myself, a move Christian would surely know was me holding back. Until I fucked up much worse that I ha in awhile. I shunted Seb right off the track on lap 43.
"Fuck! I'm so fucking sorry! God dammit! Is Seb good?" I called on the radio as we stalled before coming back on the track.
"Stay focused. Will update once I have information." I practically screamed with my radio off at that. Seb didn't deserve that. I had accidentally caught another driver actually in contention for a title in a mental war I was waging.
I was seeing red as I drove and not just because Kimi was in front of me in the second Ferrari. No, I was pissed. Christian's words and my absolute refusal to take them in stride had nearly cost another driver a race. With a ten second penalty added after crossing the line in fourth, I was guaranteed to hear about it too.
Daniel came in first though. A win that he needed in the situation he wasn't aware of. His celebrations were always ones I loved to watch, but I knew that I would be called off to have a conversation. One I was dreading just as much as the other person.
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AN: Gave everyone an extra update this week! Thank you so much for reading and feel free to pop a comment in to let me know what you think! 💜