Casey opened her eyes slowly. She let out a surprised yell as she focused on Evan's way-too-near face. That immediately woke him up too and he yelled back in alarm.
"What the fuck is wrong with you two?" Jacob's irritated voice carried from the pull-out across the room.
"Jesus!" Evan cried, eyeballing Casey in shock.
"Sorry! I wasn't expecting you to be right there," she exclaimed, sitting up and pushing her hair back from her face. A few moments of stunned silence passed before she burst into laughter.
"Oh yeah, you're really funny," Evan muttered, covering his hands over his eyes.
"Get up you lazy degenerate," she ordered, swinging herself out of bed, "It's qualifying day!"
She swaggered into the bathroom to turn on the shower, smirking as Jacob groaned behind her.
She decided she had a good feeling about today. Things were going to go well, she could sense it. She hurried through the shower and got dressed into her uniform.
"Want a lift?"
Finally. She grinned at the message on her phone before her mind began to run through various tactics on how she could get away undetected. Considering the two boys were still getting ready, she quickly grabbed an apple from the bench, stuffed it into her bag and walked to the front door.
"I'm going to head down a bit early, I'll see you guys there!" she called.
"What? Why-" Evan yelled back, but she'd already raced out the door and slammed it shut behind her.
As she walked out of the elevator into the lobby, she spotted the Infiniti out front in the turning circle. Nobody from the team seemed to be around yet. None-the-less, she quickly jogged out the main doors towards the car.
Seb was leaning against the driver's side door, looking at something on his phone. He looked up as he heard her approaching and a grin spread across his face, "You could have replied you know."
She reached him breathlessly and threw her arms around his neck, crushing her body against him as he leaned against the car. He eagerly scooped her into his arms and kissed the side of her head. The last time anyone touched him was when he'd hugged her goodbye back in England two weeks ago. It had been hard to stand within arms reach of her for the last three days and not be able to do anything about it. Heikki had been all over his case for the first two days in Spain, making it rather hard to get away.
"Well hello to you to," he chuckled.
Casey relished being held against his chest again finally. It was fast becoming her new favourite place. She reluctantly let him go and flashed him a playful smile, "Morning."
He pushed off the car and climbed into the driver's seat as she walked around to the passenger side and climbed in too. The car revved to life as she threw her backpack into the back seat and they were off.
The traffic was much better here than it had been in China as they cruised down the highway at speed. She leaned back in the comfy seat contentedly, hoping they wouldn't get there too fast.
"I feel like I haven't seen you properly in ages," he said, glancing across at her.
She turned her head to watch him drive. "You've seen me the last 3 days in a row," she chuckled.
"Yeah but that's at work. It's not... the same."
"Not the same as what?"
"Here! Now. When I have you all to myself," he replied, checking his mirrors. Casey felt her face flush and she looked forward. It was silent for a few moments before Seb spoke again, "Will you tell me why you were upset yesterday?"
She groaned, "No, Seb, it was completely insignificant."
"Evan didn't think so," he argued, his tone slightly sharper.
"Ugh fine. It was just a bunch of reporters. They were heckling me, trying to get a reaction. I let it get to me. It was stupid," she explained exasperatedly.
"Questions about me? Us?"
"Yeah..." she mumbled.
He nodded thoughtfully before a smile played across his lips, "Do you want to know something funny?
She turned back to look at him, "That depends but let's go with yes."
"Britta is very excited. She thinks all these rumours are a good thing," he laughed, shaking his head, "My popularity is the least of my concern but you can consider her a fan of yours."
Casey laughed nervously, "Oh? Well, you can tell her it's no problem."
They soon arrived at the track and she felt her nerves set on fire, "Are they going to photograph us as we drive in?" she asked him warily.
"The windows are too tinted and all the Infiniti cars driven by the managers are identical to mine," he reassured her, "I can drive right by. I mean, they look at the car like sharks circling prey but they can't know for sure so they don't really bother."
Casey still felt nervous as they drove through the grounds. There were fans all along the driveway, watching the cars come in. She could hear them speculating as they drove by.
"That could be Sebastian Vettel!"
"Really? I thought he drove a sports car."
"Oh yeah, probably."
Seb snickered as he turned to Casey and laughed, "Told ya."
Soon they got to a huge media pack and she visibly squirmed.
"It's okay, Case," he assured her gently, reaching over and taking her hand. He laced their fingers together and she squeezed in return, still peering out the window nervously. She breathed again only after they'd completely passed all the cameras.
He guided the car into the parking lot one-handed, comfortably pulling into a space. After turning off the ignition, he turned and looked at her, "Heart still beating, Schöne?"
She laughed and nodded, lifting his hand up to kiss the back of it, "Good luck today, don't put it in the wall."
He raised his brow and laughed, "Well give me a car today that can outpace a bicycle and we'll see what happens."
"We just like to give you an extra challenge sometimes, that's all," she teased, still gripping his hand tightly.
"Super," he chuckled darkly, "I never can have too many challenges."
He stared at their intertwined fingers for a moment before sighing lightly, "You want to walk in first?"
She nodded reluctantly, finally letting go of his hand.
"See you in a bit," she said, looking around warily before grabbing her backpack from the back seat and jumping out of the car.
He watched her walk away in the rear view mirror, once she'd disappeared from sight he got out of the car and walked in by himself.
---
Casey stood next to Brand, biting a fingernail idly as they waited for Q1 to begin. Brand was holding the fan for Seb as Rocky leaned in and had a quick last minute discussion with him. She checked her tire warmer was still in place for the hundredth time as Heikki joined the crowd around the cockpit and handed Seb his gloves.
She admittedly felt a little strange. Like the rest of the team, she'd always conducted her work while prioritising the safety of the driver; always. But now, little butterflies pelted around her stomach as she prepared for the cuddly, warm German she was slowly getting to know more to go pelting around the track at 300+ kmph. Her investment in the stock had undeniably risen.
Rocky stepped away and headed for the pit wall with Christian, which meant it was almost time. Almost automatically, she crouched down next to Vikram, who stood on her other side, and waited for the signal.
---
An hour later as Seb crossed the line in P2, Casey was engulfed by high-fives and back slaps. Their driver hadn't been able to beat out the fast Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, but Hamilton had screwed up on his final lap and Seb had pushed him off the front row.
She watched the little screen on the wall as they showed him climbing out of the car. He pulled up his helmet and balaclava before waving to the crowd and following Nico into the weigh station. The two Germans shook hands and chatted animatedly as they took turns having their measurements taken. Meanwhile, Hamilton didn't speak to either of them, looking surly and ignoring the cameras and crowd.
Daniel had qualified just behind them in P4, making the garage a very happy place to be that afternoon. After the crew got the car back they began preparing it for the race the next day, including cleaning and polishing every inch of it. Casey was huddled over her front left as someone knelt down next to her. She looked over her shoulder and was surprised to see Christian sitting there.
"Hi!" she said brightly, her heart suddenly beating frantically. Was this about the "rumours"? Did Christian know she was spending time outside of work with Seb?
He smiled at her and leaned in, "We sort of need a favour," he asked.
She glanced sideways, "Uhh, sure?"
"Usually Seb does it himself but we really need to free him up more pre-race, and you're one of the only few who will fit."
She nodded, watching him curiously.
"We need you to test the console functions before races. Rocky would run you through it and all you'd need to do is activate each setting so that the techs can make sure everything is working as expected."
She tried to block out her internal screaming. They wanted to put her in the car? Even though she'd never move an inch in it, that was an enormous deal to her. She cleared her throat, trying to play it cool, "For sure. I'd be more than happy to."
"Great!" Christian smiled and clapped his hands together. "We'll start you in there tomorrow morning and Seb or Nathan will be happy to run you through your first time."
Nathan was one of Seb's lead technicians, he knew the systems inside-out. She tried to act cool, nodding at their team principal as he stood back up and walked away.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Evan hissed at Casey, having obviously been eavesdropping, "I could easily fit in there. Why do you get to do that?!"
"No way!" she retorted, "Look at those wide birthing hips of yours. There's no way you're fitting in there."
Jacob laughed as Evan squinted at her, "You're just jealous I have curves," he quipped.
At that moment, Seb arrived back in the garage and joined them around the car, wiping his brow and looking down at it happily.
"Did you know Casey's going to be doing your console checks from now on Seb? Better watch your back, they'll have her driving it next," Evan pouted.
Seb laughed and nodded, "Yeah, I knew. We'll see about the driving though." he said, shooting Casey a cocky smile. She swatted him on the shoulder as she turned past him to put her equipment away.
Everyone always had a quiet night on Saturdays, usually eating in their rooms and getting to sleep early. Casey, Evan and Jacob had ordered room service and sat around in their hotel room, re-watching the qualifying on TV. It was the first time Casey had watched in awhile and she was slightly horrified at the stark contrast of how many times she appeared on camera now, compared to earlier in the season. On the other hand, Evan and Jacob were terribly amused, even going so far as to start up a tally at one point.
---
The next day, Casey couldn't wait to get to the garage and practically ran from the minibus all the way to the pit lane building. She threw her backpack in a locker and bounced into the garage.
"Ah Casey, you're here, excellent," Rocky called as he spotted her.
They walked over to the car together and she looked down into the tiny space she would be slipping into. "Okay, you're wearing sneakers right? Yes. Good," Rocky said, quickly looking down at her shoes.
"So basically, just step into it, I'm sure you've seen them get in a million times. Brace your arms on the sides and kind of sit at the back, then you'll have to slide your legs in straight, there's not enough room to bend your knees much."
She nodded and took a step forward, yelping as two hands suddenly lifted her up by the waist and set her feet down on the seat of the car. She looked back to see Seb laughing as he let her go and stepped back.
"Just helping," he said with a cheeky grin on his face.
Rocky raised an eyebrow at the driver as he got back to coaxing Casey into the cockpit. She braced herself on the sides as he instructed and slid into place easily.
"Perfect fit!" Rocky announced, slapping the side of the car, "All right Seb, you take it from here. How long have we got till you need to be out of here?"
"I've got about 40 minutes," Seb replied.
"Good. Plenty of time."