After giving birth to Grace nearly 4 years ago she took a year of working for Mercedes and then once her Maternity leave was over she stayed more working behind the scenes, helping her replacement with slowly taking over the role fully.
When grace was two years old, Cassandra handed in her resignation to Toto with the reasoning being that she wanted to spend more time with her daughter. He totally understood that and wished her good luck and the promise of writing her the best recommendation letter whenever she decided to need it.
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It was now the day before Grace' birthday and Cassandra had spend majority of the night decorating the house ready for the next day. Lewis, Angela and Michael were planning on coming over for breakfast before the few friends Grace had invited came over.
Once the last details were finished, she quickly refreshed her emails...not really expecting anything and then nearly choking on her own saliva when she saw who send her an email.
Through she years she had kept up to date with the world of F1. So she knew that Daniel got signed to Renault for two seasons and was sadly not doing too well. It seemed that the car was not working as well as he had hoped.
So the fact that there was an email in her inbox from Zac Brown..the Team Principle of McLaren offering her a job had her speechless.
She decided to sleep on it and speak to Lewis tomorrow about it to see what he thought.
The next morning
Cassandra knew that it was only a matter of time before her daughter came running into her room to get her up. Seems like Grace had inherited her mothers impatience.
The door to her room started creaking open and little footsteps made their way across the room. A little hand made it's way onto her cheek "mama wake up"
Cassandra opened one eye to look at her daughter "good morning Sweetheart"
"Mama it's my birthday!!" The little girl now carefully climbers onto her mothers bed and was about to start jumping when her mother grabbed her "ahhhhhhh"
Cassandra grabbed her daughter into a tight embrace "happy birthday my darling. You are 4 today. God I love you so much" she placed a gentle kiss on Grace' cheek.
"I love you too mama but can we get breakfast now" the little girl got out of her embrace and jumped off the bed and headed back to her room to get her favourite teddy .
"Of course we can Grace, give me two second and I'll be right there". As promised she quickly got up and by the time she got to the stairs Grace was waiting to take her hand to go down the stairs.
As they walked into the kitchen Cassandra turned her little girl to where she had decorated "surprise". Grace wriggled her hand out of her mothers and ran over to the table "mummy ...look at all the unicorns...I love it" she kept exploring everything that was on the table.
Cassandra turned back to the coffee machine and grabbed a mug to get it going. "Now what would you like for breakfast darling?
"Pancakes please mama" Grace said nicely before climbing onto her chair and doing some drawings in the paper her mum left there for her. Before long both girls were sitting happily at the table eating their pancakes...with birthday sprinkles for Grace of course. There was one thing that Cassandra hadn't told her daughter and that was the surprise that was arriving in about an hours time.
Grace helped her mother put the plates in the dishwasher once they were done with breakfast, she has always been a helpful little girl.
"sweetheart,are you ready for your special birthday outfit I got you?"
The little girls eyes grew so big "oh yes please mummy, can i put it on now before the party?". Cassandra ruffled her little girls hair and gave her a piggy back ride up the stairs were they both got ready.
Once she was dressed, Grace twirled in a circle in front of her mothers floor length mirror. "I look so pretty mummy. Thank you thank you thank you" she ran towards her and hugged her mums legs before going back to the mirror. Cassandra couldn't help but smile, both with happiness at how she had managed to raise such a caring and independent little girl but also with sadness at how Daniel is missing out on seeing his little girl grow up. She finished getting ready and stepped out in a simple black jumpsuit which she paired with a small belt around her waist.
"Come, lets go back downstairs"
They hadn't even made it half way down the stairs when there was a knock at the door, Cassandra looked at her phone and saw the time so she knew exactly who was at the door. "Why don't you go open the door Grace and see who it is". Big brown eyes looked up at her "but mum you said I wasn't allowed to open the door". She gave her hand a squeeze "This time its okay sweetheart"
With the verbal confirmation giving from her mum, Grace ran and opened the front door.
" HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACE"
There stood two grown men, arms piled high with presents and balloons.
"Uncle Lewis...Uncle Michael" Grace ran to the two men who were probably her favourite people in the world...after her mum that is.
"Let the poor guys in the door Grace" Cassandra chuckled and walked further into the house and into the kitchen to go and find some more space for all the presents Lewis and Michael had brought. Without even looking back she could feel someone behind her "You know you guys didn't have to go overboard with presents. She is going to expect this every birthday now".
"Well only the best for my niece"
She turned around and saw Michael standing her with his arms open ready for a hug. Cassandra gladly complied and hugged him back. During this time Grace had already dragged Lewis towards the corner with some of the presents that her mum let her unwrap earlier in..don't think she was letting him get a word in.
Michael looked at the scene in front of him "seems like we got here just in time before the madness begins". Cassandra chuckled at this "hey grace, can i borrow Uncle Lewis for a moment? You can go show Uncle Michael you room". You didn't have to ask the 4 year old twice before she ran towards them and started dragging Michael upstairs to her room..most likely to play tea party with her.
Lewis walked towards her and they both look how a 30 year old was getting dragged away by a little girl "What is it that you wanted to talk to me about?" he looked at Cassandra with a curious look on his face.
"Well you never guess who send me an email yesterday...."
And with that began an hour long discussion about how she should just take the job. "Cass we both know how much you have missed being at the paddock. Just email Zac back and take the job. It would be good seeing you around again". That's exactly what she did while Lewis went to check on the other two upstairs.
Not even ten minutes after sending the email, Zac had already replied to her and even agreed to have a special member of staff look after grace during race weekends when she was busy filming with the drivers. They had agreed for her to start in May with Spain being the first Grand Prix as their current Social media person was leaving then due to family reason. She had to say she was looking forward to working with Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz. The only thing she wasn't looking forward to was having to avoid Daniel and making sure that him and grace didn't cross paths.
3 months later
They had survived their first Grand Prix.
Grace had loved seeing all the cars and getting to know everyone, she was a little social butterfly. The engineers even made sure she had her own pair of headphones.
Cassandra had filmed some videos with Lando and Carlos in the morning which turned out great and when it was time for the race to start they sat in the garage with the engineers watching the screen intently without looking away. Watching all the cars going at high speeds, Cassandra hadn't realised how much she had missed being in this environment. The Spain Grand Prix meant a lot to the team as it was Carlos' home race.Even though her attention was on the McLaren boys, she couldn't help but have a small smile when she saw how well Daniel had been driving.
Then a sudden crash was heard through the headphones which brought her attention back to the screens in front of her where she saw that Lando and Lance had a massive collision during lap 44 which forced both cars to retire from the race.
The race ended with Lewis Hamilton winning first place, his teammate Valtteri Bottas in second place and Max Verstappen in third. Carlos had managed to get into the points and ended up in 8th place whilst Daniel was in 12th place...but she tried telling herself that she didn't care about how he did.
Grace ended up falling asleep and Cassandra placed the sleeping girl on her shoulder and tried with some success to pack her things up.
"Here let me help you"
She turned around and Lando was walking towards her. She extended a small smile towards the british boy "Thank you Lando. You'd think that I would have gotten used to do things with one hand while carrying a sleeping child." He had packed everything neatly in her bag and passed it to her "Yeah well everyone needs some help sometimes. Hey Cassandra, I had an idea earlier. We now have a two week break before the next race, how about you, Carlos and I and Grace obviously spend some time together...call it a team building exercise since we will be spending a lot of time together. Or not if you have already got other things planed."
She looked from Lando to Grace and back to him. She hadn't had anything planned apart from making a plan of what videos to film. "You know what, that sounds great Lando...I would love to do that."
Lando's smile couldn't have been bigger if he had tried "Awesome , well here is my phone if you give me your number I can text you once we get back home", he handed her his phone and once she saved her number he carefully ruffled the little girls hair "Great, so I will text you when we are back home and I can't for this. I better let you go now so you can get this tired girl into bed."
"Thank you Lando and i look forward to spending some more time with you and Carlos" Cassandra gave him a wave and made her way through the paddock and to her rental car where she placed the little girl into the car seat without waking her up.
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A/N:
Hey guys,sorry for the long absence but my life has been a bit crazy dealing with hospital appointments and a poorly child but I hope that I am back now to regularly updating. The next couple of chapters will be jumping in time and place so that I can finally start writing the part that we are all looking forward to...or at least me