The vacation was amazing. After we arrived back in Monaco, we spent 3 days with my family, and after that, my training started again. It's Wednesday, and today Isa, Alex, Lando, and I are leaving together for the Zandvoort Grand Prix. Isa grew up in the Netherlands, and the last two years she struggled with going back there. Especially after everything that happened with her parents. So I'm keeping an eye on her. The upside is that on Monday after the race, we are going to visit her 8 year old brother Sam in the hospital. He has leukemia. We haven't seen him for almost a year. We called, but that isn't the same. Her parents won't be there on Monday, so we don't have to worry about that.
I wake up with a lot of pain in my ear. I walk downstairs and see that Isa is still sleeping. I'm searching for some paracetamol, but I can't find any, so I'm forced to wake Isa up. As I walk up the stairs the pain gets worse. What the hell is this?
I open the door to Isa's room.
"Isa?"
Isa turns around in bed and opens her eyes confused.
"Yes?"
"I have a lot of pain in my ear. Do you know where the box with paracetamol is?"
"In my bathroom."
"Okay thank you."
I walk into Isa's bathroom and grab a paracetamol. When I walk back into her room I see she has gotten out of bed.
"Dress up Charles, we're going to the doctor."
"Why?"
"If you have an ear infection, you can't fly, so then we need to drive to the Netherlands."
"No way! How long does that take?"
"About 14 hours."
I sigh, and walk to my room to put on some normal clothes. Isa and I quickly eat breakfast, and we jump into the car to drive to the doctor. The waiting room is almost empty, so we don't have to wait long.
Isa and I walk into the examination room.
"Hello Charles and Isabella, what can I do for you?" The doctor asks.
"I woke up with a lot of pain in my left ear."
"Okay, let's take a look.
The doctor runs some tests, and tells us to wait until he has the results. Five minutes later he walks into the room.
"Charles you have an ear infection."
"I can't fly, right?"
"No, that's true."
"Can I race?"
"Yes, and we will give you some painkillers."
The doctor hands me a box of painkillers.
"Okay thank you sir," I say, and I get up from my chair.
"No problem, get well soon."
When we're outside Isa chuckles.
"What's funny?"
"Nothing, just the fact that we arrived back from a road trip, and not even a week later we need to drive 14 hours again."
"Are you coming with me?"
"Of course, why wouldn't I?"
"Because it's boring to drive for 14 hours straight?"
"Not with you and Andrea."
I smile and we drive back to our apartment. I text the twitch quartet.
Twitch quartet 👍🏻👾:
Charles 🏎️:
Hello everyone, I've got an ear infection, so I won't be able to fly to Zandvoort.
Lando 👶🏻:
So you're going to teleport to the Netherlands?
Charles 🏎️:
No we need to drive for 14 hours.
Alex 🐼:
That sucks
Lily 🏌🏻♀️:
R.I.P.
Carmen ☀️:
Does it hurt?
Charles 🏎️:
Yes, but I've got painkillers.
George 👸🏼:
Get well soon! See you in Zandvoort.
______________________________________________
I call Andrea and inform him about the situation. He said he would be here in 10 minutes, so we can leave immediately. Isa and I pack our bags and lock the apartment. When we get outside, Andrea arrives, and we all get into the car.
*
It's 01:30 when we arrive in the Netherlands. We immediately walk to our hotel, and ask for our room key. Andrea sleeps in room 346 and Isa and I sleep in room 347. Isa opens the door and drops her suitcase in the corner of the room. I throw her a shirt of mine, and I quickly put on my pyjama pants and a shirt. I lock the door while Isa is brushing her teeth.
"Jeez I'm tired," I say while I walk into the bathroom to brush my teeth.
"Yeah same, I can barely keep my eyes open," Isa says with a mouth full of toothpaste.
When we're both done brushing our teeth, we get into bed, and fall fast asleep because of how tired we are.
*
It's media day, and I can barely keep an eye open. I walk into the paddock, and see Pierre waiting for me.
"Good morning mate, you look like you have slept for a hour."
"I arrived around 1:30 yesterday," I say while we walk to the press conference room.
"How? Did your plane delay?"
"No, I have a ear infection, so I came by car."
"Did Isa drive with you?"
"Yes, and I'm glad she did, because otherwise I would've been alone with Andrea, which is fine, but it's more enjoyable with Isa."
"Yeah I get that," Pierre pushes the door open, and we greet the interviewer. We are joining Yuki, Lando, Lewis and Lance at the press conference.
Lando walks towards me and I greet him with a hug.
"How was the drive?" He asks.
"Fine, but we arrived here around midnight, so it was a short night."
"I can see that," He says, and we sit down on the couch, and prepare for the interview.
"Good morning everyone, and welcome at the Zandvoor Grand Prix!" The interviewer speaks, and we all nod and smile.
*
I'm done with the interview and Lando and I are walking through the paddock.
"Mate look! Stroopwafels!" Lando says exited, and he runs to the stroopwafel stand. I roll my eyes and wait until he has bought his stroopwafel. I feel a hand on my shoulder and I turn my head to see who it is.
"Hey Charlie!" I get greeted by Alex standing behind me. "Hi mate, how are you?"
"I'm fine, how was the drive?"
"Fine, but I slept horrible." I say, and i see that Lando payed the man at the stand, and is walking towards us. He takes a bite of his stroopwafel, and starts talking with his mouth full. "Hi Alex, how are you?"
"I'm fine, can I have a piece of your stroopwafel?"
"No," Lando says abruptly, and he starts walks to the McLaren hospitality .
I roll my eyes and turn to Alex. "I need to be at the team, I will take a stroopwafel with me, to give to you as soon as I see you again, because clearly, Lando doesn't want to share."
Alex laughs "that's fine, I'll see you later."
I'm sitting at a table at the Ferarri hospitality, waiting for Charles to finish his last media duties. I slept in this morning, so i haven't seen Charles since yesterday night. He left a note this morning to tell me he needed to be at the paddock early.
"Hello" someone whispers in my ear
I slightly jump, and whip my head around to see Charles standing behind me. "Char, don't scare me like that."
"I'm sorry Isa, but you were staring, and I couldn't resist it."
"It's okay," I stand up and give him a hug. "How was your day?"
"It was fine, I've had five stroopwafels, but the media duties were tiring after 5 hours of sleep," Charles says, and he reveals a stroopwafel that he had behind his back, and gives it to me.
"Thank you Char." I say while taking a bite of the warm stroopwafel.
"Are you done?" I ask Charles and he nods. "Yeah, we can leave."
*
Sunday, race day. Charles qualified P9. During qualifying he ended up in the wall, what was pretty unfortunate. Alex is on a big pink cloud, because he qualified P4. Charles and I are walking through the paddock. The race starts in a hour and half. We arrive at the Ferarri garage, and we walk to Charles drivers room. He has a few minutes left before he needs to prepare. I sit down on the couch in his room while he is dressing up.
"How do you feel about the race?" I ask, while Charles is searching for his fireproof.
"Pretty good. Qualifying was unfortunate, but if we don't mess up the strategy, I could end up P6."
The door opens, and Andrea's head pops up.
"Are you ready for warming up Charles?"
"Yeah give me one second," Charles responds while pulling his fireproof over his head. I stand up and give him a hug.
"Success Char, you can do this."
"Thank you Isa. I'll see you after the race," he says, and I leave his room and walk out of the garage to just take a walk before the race begins. When I arrive back at the garage I grab a set of headphones and walk to Charles side. I see Charles is looking at data, before he needs to drive to the grid. He looks at me and gives me a small wave. I wave back, and grab my book. Charles gets in the car and drives to the grid. When the formation lap ended I close my book to look at the start and the rest of the race.
AN: I know Charles had a DNF at Zandvoort, but this goes better with the story
Charles start was okay, let's say the rest of the race was chaotic. There are 2 laps left, when I feel my phone vibrate.
It's Anne
"Hi Anne, how are you?"
"Are you sitting down Isabella?"
"Yes I am, why are you asking?"
"We did everything we could, but Sam died from a cardiac arrest."
Tears well up in my eyes. "No, this can't be true."
"I'm really sorry Isa."
TW: death
"Okay Charles, P18, P18."
"I'm sorry guys."
"It's okay, can you come to the garage as fast as possible?"
"Why?"
"There's something wrong with Isa."
I feel my heart beat rising. "What happened? What's wrong?"
"We don't exactly know. She seemed in panic."
I park the car in the pit lane, and jump out. I run to the medical staff to get weighed, and then I hurry to the garage.
"Where is she? Where is Isa?" I ask
"In your room I think." A mechanic responds. I thank him and run to my room.
I knock on the door. "Isa it's me. Can I come in?"
There is no response behind the door, so I open it and see Isa sitting on the couch with her knees pulled up to her chest. She is shaking. I quickly lock the door. "Hey, hey, hey, what happened?" I ask, and Isa looks at me. Her eyes ere red and swollen. I sit down next to her and pull her in a hug
"Okay, follow my breathing. In... out... in... out..."
Isa's breathing calms down. I feel my race suit getting wet from her tears.
"S- Sam died." Isa sobs. I feel my heart drop, and I hug Isa tighter.
"Do you want to go to the hospital?" I ask her and she nods.
"Okay. I'm just going to change real quick, and call Andrea if he can pick us up at the parking behind the paddock. Is that okay?" I ask and Isa nods again. I give her a kiss on her hair, get changed, and call Andrea.
I look at Isa who is staring at the ground. I kneel down in front of her and look her in the eyes.
"I can't imagine what you're going through right now, but I just want you to know, that I'll help you, and if you need anything you can ask me okay?"
"I know Char. Thank you."
I gently squeeze her knee, and then we hear a knock on the door.
"Charles? Isa?" We hear Andrea's voice coming from behind the door.
"Coming," i reply, and Isa and I leave with Andrea through the back door, so no media will see us.
The drive to the hospital is quiet. Isa is curled up against me on the backseat, and Andrea is driving. We arrive at the hospital, and I grab Isa's hand to comfort her.
"Hi what can I help you with?" The receptionist asks. "We're here for Sam Morton," I reply, and I see the expression of the receptionist change. "Okay. Floor 4, room 431."
I thank the receptionist, and we walk to the elevator. When we arrive at Sam's room, Isa suddenly stops walking. I turn to her, kind of confused.
"My parents are probably here."
My mind makes the connection.
I have met her parents twice, and let's say they are not the kindest people towards Isa. They always have to say something about her life choices, the clothes she's wearing, etcetera.
I step closer to her, and grab both her hands.
"I wont let them say anything rude to you. They are probably also grieving, so i don't think they'll pay attention to saying anything to you, if they're even here."
Isa nods, and we walk into the room. Inside are doctor and Sam. Who is laying peacefully in the bed, looking like he's asleep. Isa looks at him, and walks out of the room. I apologise, and follow Isa.
She's leaning against the wall. I open my arms and she falls into them. I let her cry it out.
"I-it's just, I can't b-believe he's really gone. I was so confident he would g-get better, but he didn't. He had a cardiac arrest and he d-didn't survive it."
"I know, I'm sorry." I tighten my hold on her and try to comfort her as much as possible. After a few minutes she pulls out of the hug, and looks at me.
"I'm ready."
AN:
A sad chapter...
I don't know if I like this chapter, what did you think of it?
All the love,
Ivy