NINE
"LIS!"
Zahra screamed at the top of her lungs in horror as her best best friends car hurtled towards a wall at 180mph before it came to a very abrupt halt the second it collided with the wall.
The car practically crumbled, and Zahra was horrified, knowing that her best friend was in that wreck of what was once a car.
For the third time since they had become friends, Zahra took off running, in heels, heading for the crash site. Zahra Bailey did not give a fuck if she was running on the track, Larissa was her best friend, her lifeline.
Most of the drivers had finished and were only being told of the crash now, which for some was absolutely horrifying to hear.
Their niece had crashed.
Their sister had crashed.
"Zahra! Grab on!" Sebastian Vettel yelled, having driven round the track to try and find the accident, seeing the best friend of his niece running on the track desperately. Zahra did just that, grabbing on to the halo of his car as he began taxiing her to her best friend.
The pair arrived at the crash, closely followed by Lewis and Kimi and Larissa's uncle's couldn't help but see flashbacks of their best friends accident eleven years previous, it was almost too similar.
"LIS!" Zahra screamed desperately for her best friend once again, seeing multiple drivers that she had overtaken throughout the race had pulled up and given up their race and positions to try and help her.
"Larissa!" Carlos Sainz Jr frantically tried to reach her, it was all his fault. He's killed her. "Larissa! Please! Can you hear me?!"
Her car was leaking fuel and it was only a matter of time before it went up in flames just like her father's.
Marshals had fire extinguishers at the ready, with sirens of an ambulance arriving on the scene. They had set up a barrier so no more people could get to the accident, just in case of the car exploding.
Larissa was unconscious, and since her car had hit the barrier from the side, the car had partially snapped in half, the back half crumbling up to roughly half the size that it should have been, whilst the front was almost completely gone, the only part that was untouched, was the halo. Her helmet had recieved a very large dent in the side as well as the back signalling that maybe she could have a severe head injury.
Charles, Pierre, Fernando and Esteban were the other drivers to have stopped as soon as they saw her car wreck, and whilst Carlos was frantic in trying to get her out because he blamed himself, they were trying to ensure that the car wouldn't go up in flames at the same time of trying to find a way to get her out without providing further injury.
All they could do was to try and pull her out from the small gap provided by the halo and to just hope that they weren't causing further damage to her by doing so. Zahra, Kimi, Sebastian and Lewis were being held back, with the four of them having tears flowing down their cheeks in fear.
Kimi didn't even care if he had come third, he didn't even care if he had a podium. All he cared about in that moment was the welfare for his niece who was completely unmoving, even as the Monégasque driver had managed to climb on top of the wrecked car to check her pulse.
She was alive.
Paramedics and Marshals helped to remove her from the wrecked vehicle, laying the unconscious girl on a backboard as they carried her towards the ambulance, closely followed by the nine people who had rushed to help her.
"She's in good hands." A paramedic assured the group of people, some of which seemed to be shaking in fear.
Larissa's hand subtly moved, towards one of the nine people as she started to stir in to consciousness, one of her fingers clasping weakly around the little finger of someone before she was able to grab on to the thumb of a person stood next to the first person that she reached for.
The paramedics allowed both of those people to come with her to the hospital, as the others headed to grab their cars to follow, ditching the interviews and ceremony to make sure that their friend, their family was going to be okay.
"Mon Cherie, you worried us all so much." Pierre Gasly spoke, her hand clutched tightly in his own. He had heard over the radio that his team mate had crashed and he had felt his heart drop when they wouldn't tell him if she was alive or not. He was almost sick when he pulled up on the scene where Carlos was panicking, desperately trying to get her out.
The smallest of sounds left her lips at the sound of his voice, allowing a tiny sigh of relief to leave the French man's lips. A look of an unknown emotion also passed through his eyes, as soon as he felt the smallest of squeezes from her hand holding his.
He kissed her knuckles tenderly, tears in his soft green eyes that he was trying to keep from escaping. She had become such an important person in his every day life since he had met her that now, he couldn't imagine his life without her.
"We thought that we had lost you." Charles Leclerc whispered, clutching her other hand just as tight as the French man sat beside him. "We were all so worried about you."
As they neared the hospital, the two men noticed how her whimpers and groans of pain had halted, her small squeezes on their hands ceased as the state of unconsciousness reclaimed her, not wanting to let her go.
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"Chuchuzinho, you're going to be okay, my beautiful girl, it's time to wake up now. It's time to wake up."
A loud, long beeping sound was ringing through her ears, as her eyes started to peel open, stray tears escaping her eyes from being closed for so long.
"We've got a pulse!"
"She's back!"
The smallest of whimpers escaped her lips as she was forced to squint at the bright light blinding her.
"Zahra." Her voice sounded grainy to her ears, as it hurt her throat, feeling as if she had swallowed sand paper. The shuffling of feet was heard before a hand was pulled from her own and replaced by a hand that she knew all too well.
"Hey, Lis." Zahra spoke, tears flowing down her cheeks from how close she came to losing her best friend. Her friend had just came out of surgery before she went in to cardiac arrest, terrifying her and all the other people in the room.
"What happened?" Her eyes began to focus, seeing Zahra standing above her tightly clutching her hand as if she was scared to let go of her.
"You crashed, kid. You're in the hospital." Kimi Raikonnen informed her as he ran his fingers through her hair to soothe her.
"Lando, George and Alex are on their way, as is Mick. Schumi practically screamed down the phone, he was so worried about you." Sebastian spoke as he kissed her forehead, happy to have his niece alive.
Fernando wiped at the tears that left his eyes as he patted her arm. "We're so happy to have you back, little one. You really worried us."
Larissa winced as she attempted to sit up, and with a little help from a man with a French accent, was able to sit up so she could face her family and friends. Her head began to throb, but that was the result of a head injury for you.
"Sorry." She apologised, knowing how worried they would have been, especially knowing that today was her father's birthday. "I'm so sorry."
"Lar, it's not your fault, it's okay." Esteban assured, letting her sob in to his chest.
He had been told that there was a crash further up the track, shortly before his car got to the scene of the crash and upon recognising her racing number on the wreckage of the car, 70, immediately pulled up to try and help his friend.
He was the first one to see the pure panic on the face of Carlos Sainz Jr as he was trying to reach his friend who was stuck in the wreckage of the car unconscious.
He had never seen Carlos like that, he was pulling whatever wreckage he could out of the way so that he could get to her, and his eyes had been red from what he presumed was tears leaving the Spanish man's eyes.
Fernando had arrived not long after him, who was then followed by Pierre and Charles. He had seen the look of horror on the face of the Monégasque, as if he was having flashbacks to losing his godfather, Jules, in a crash 3 years before.
He had never known how many people actually cared for Larissa since she had joined Formula One, but upon seeing the frantic behavior of many of the drivers because it was her, it warmed his heart.
He knew that she felt lonely with her father dead, her uncle Michael bed ridden and unable to talk and a mother who was never around, and it warmed his heart knowing that she was going to be in safe hands now that she had so many people caring for her in her life.
She had Zahra, the girl who would run head on towards a crash and not care about the cars going 180mph nearby her just so that she could reach her best friend.
She had Sebastian, who had risked his life once before, for his niece, who would fight any one would harm her. Who would protect her from any harm because he loved her so much.
She had Fernando, who would go to as many races as he could so he could see the bright smile that he had barely seen since she had lost her father. When her mother never attended her races, she would call him to attend them, and he would make the time to attend, because he loved her so much.
She had Kimi, who despite always being referred as the 'Iceman', since he never showed any emotion, always held such love for her, a soft smile and a caring look that he reserved just for her. He would fight any boys away from her if they showed interest, because as her godfather, he vowed to be the one who would ensure the right person dated her, since he had promised her father. She had also had his name as her middle name which just made him love the kid even more.
She had Lewis, who saw her and treated her as if she was his annoying little sister, the one who he would go to the end of the earth for. If he had to, he would give up his formula one seat for her because he loved her so much.
She had Esteban, who used to be her best friend before he rose through the ranks and lost contact with her. He used to tease her, mainly because you used to mix up her languages. She would start a sentence in Portuguese, and mix in some German, Spanish, Finnish, even some French along the way, and sometimes get the wrong words in the wrong order so he would mock her, but he loved her so much.
She had Pierre, who cared so much about her in such a short amount of time. He could not have wished for a better team mate, she made him laugh, made him cry with laughter, to the point where he could barely breathe. If he had a bad race, or a bad day, she would cheer him up and comfort him with a movie marathon and a takeaway. If he wanted comfort, she would hug him until he was happy.
But now, she also had Charles, Carlos, Mick, Lando, George, Alex, Gina, Kevin, Nico, Checo, Daniel and so many more that cared for her. Esteban could only hope that with every one around her, that his best friend, that she would never feel lonely again.
"Is Carlos okay? Is he-" Larissa panicked, before Seb opened the door to her hospital room, allowing a tanned, dark haired man to slip inside the room.
"You're okay!" Carlos grinned as he noticed that she was alive and conscious.
"I'm so sorry that I crashed in to you, are you okay?" Larissa reached for the man's hand, as he gently squeezed hers as soon as he accepted it.
"I am okay. I was terrified for you." Carlos admitted with a sad smile. "I would have won points if it was not for you."
"Now we both know that, is definitely not true." The pair smirked at each other, competitive glints in their eyes. "Nobody beats a Cohen."
"Except for walls." Zahra coughed out.
"Z, what did I say about not dedicating my first win to you?" Larissa teased her best friend who frantically shook her head.
"No, no, no, please dedicate it to me! I'm sorry!" Zahra begged as her family were happy to have their girl back.
Nobody even noticed, that Carlos and Larissa were still holding hands.
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