Sebastian wakes up, his head aching and disoriented, and belatedly realizing that there's a vague pressure over his chest and hand. With the many years of travelling, hotel room to hotel room Sebastian had gotten used to sleeping alone.
When he looks, he finds that it's Darcey's hand, covering his own and a comforting sense of relief washes over him to know she's here with him, safe and sound. He smiled as he watched her sleep, unwilling to let go of him even when sleeping.
Then he shifts slightly to tangle his finger's with Darcey's and gave it a light squeeze. Darcey startles awake at the sensation, and turned around to face the shirtless driver.
"Morning dornröschen" Sebastian smiled as he moved the hair away from her face, cradling her cheeks in his hand. He had always been a morning person, Darcey however was not.
"Shh, go back to sleep" Darcey grunted, turning over in his bed to go back to sleep. Sebastian laughed and pulled her back towards him. She lay tangled up in the sheets now as Sebastian leant down to kiss her temple, then her nose and finally moving to her lips. Darcey arched her back and eased into the kiss, giving in to temptations.
"Awake now are we?" Sebastian laughed as he bit his lip, Darcey blushed as she had full view of Sebastian's chest and torso. That and his bed hair was making it difficult not to jump him right that second. "Like what you see?" He smirked as he hovered over her.
"We can't, remember? Doctors order" Darcey pointed out, teasing him as she tried to escape while gigging to herself. His touch leaving a mark as he trailed down her neck and across her shoulder blades.
"You know I don't like to follow orders" Sebastian gave his best devilish grins, causing Darcey to raise an eyebrow as it reminded her of one 'multi 21' situation.
"Really I hadn't noticed" Darcey laughed, before gasping as he left his mark on her body. He stopped, staring up at her with great intensity before their mouths met again for the second time that morning. Darcey wrapped her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his waist.
"Mmmm, Seb" Darcey moaned at his touch, sparking something in Sebastian.
"I like it when you say my name like that" He grinned, before returning to her lips.
Falling deeper into the kiss, they picked up the pace as Sebastian rolled over pulling Darcey on top of him. The quick movement caused a shooting pain to travel down his sides, breaking away from the kiss, "Fuck, fuck, fucking hell" he screamed out in mercy.
Never being one to follow the rules, this had happened a lot despite the teams doctors orders to rest up if he wanted any chance of racing in India. It was like whenever Darcey told him to stay still, he would do the exact opposite finding any excuse to get up. She wasn't surprised however, his strong mindset was the reason she fell for him in the first place.
"You wouldn't be in this bad of shape if you just knew when to quit" Darcey sighed as she brought Sebastian his breakfast in bed. He had awoken numerous times throughout the night because of the pain, leaving his sore and frustrated.
"What do you expect me to do?" Sebastian moaned, as much as he liked the idea of rest in reality it was far from what he was used to. Although the full English on his lap, now that he could get used to.
"To rest, like you were told to" Darcey sat down next to Seb on the bed, "It won't get better if you don't allow it to heal. Your medical exam is in three days and if you don't pass they won't let you race next weekend" Sebastian noticed the panic in her voice and he lay his hand on her thigh, comforting her before he spoke.
"And we'll deal with that when we come to it, whatever happens"
"You've already had to cancel so much this week, and this weekend is-"
"This weekend is like every other, there will be more" Sebastian began to run his fingers up and down, doing the trick of calming her down. "But there's only one you, that's what matters right now. If I had to do this all over, I wouldn't change a thing, because I ended up with you."
"I might've changed a couple of things...like the evil brother, or attempted murder" Darcey explained, causing Sebastian to scoff loudly.
"I see being kidnapped and tortured hasn't affected your sense of humour" Sebastian grinned, looking down at his girlfriend. "And I don't know whether I should be glad or concerned"
"We can worry about that later, right now we need to tidy up before Heikki gets here"
"Better destroy the evidence then" Sebastian remarked before taking another bite of his full English breakfast, enjoying every bite before his trainer finds out. Darcey smiled before slipping away, cleaning up before Heikki arrived and told her off for feeding him too much bacon again.
The pair grinned at one another when Heikki later asked the question, "And you've been following my meal plan" Seeing the pairs exchanging look was enough of an answer. Heikki shook his head, as his personal trainer he was annoyed but as his friend, he knew he needed it.
"Did you come over here just to check up on me?" Sebastian replied, laughing at his own joke as always.
"That is literally why I've come here today, it's my job" The Finn stated, "And I've got some fun exercises for you to do" which for some reason brought out a smile.
"Never use fun and exercise in the same sentence again" Sebastian complained, realising that it would take more than some broken ribs to get him out of training.
After 10 minutes of Sebastian's whining and complaining, they then headed out for a short walk leaving Darcey alone for the first time since they returned from Japan. Which she was grateful for in some ways, having Sebastian around was like being in their own little world but sure enough she'd had to return to reality and face it all.
The news broke out the following Monday about the events which took place over the Japanese Grand Prix. It was covered by all the major sports channels and news outlets 'Sebastian Vettel caught up in family feuds' 'Sebastian Vettel injured after saving co-worker from own brother' and the worst one was 'Sebastian Vettel escapes death due to Red Bull employees family drama' She hated how Sebastian had been wrapped up in all of this, and what was one of the most frightening experiences in her life had been reduced to a sentence.
In all honestly, Darcey wasn't sure if she was ready to face her co-workers again, to step foot in the paddock again. Breaking her from the daydream was the buzzing noise across the room.
"Hello?" Darcey answered the unknown number, her heart beating loudly through her chest.
"Good afternoon, is that Miss Darcey Collins?" The man questioned, formally which didn't do a thing for Darcey's rapid heart rate.
"Yes, speaking" She replied back, noticing how she hadn't moved a muscle since she picked up the phone.
"I am calling on behalf of the county court, we would to inform you of the court date to discuss the case involving a Mr Bradley Cooper" Darcey winced as the sound of his name.
This was the reality she was avoiding, the smack in the face, that she could feel coming as all she wanted to do was to run away and pretend it wasn't there. But it wasn't that easy, she would have to face him again, she would have to relive it again.
Sebastian was holding his sides when he returned, looking forward to an early night and icepack "Darc?" He called out, looking around the house for her now.
He was still quite sore from the exercises Heikki had him doing, but he didn't care as he ran upstairs hoping to find that she just hadn't heard him. But she was nowhere to be seen.
The sun had already disappeared for the night as the winter months drew closer, it was only 5 o'clock but it was pitch black outside. Sebastian waited by the door, clutching his phone as he waited for her to call, or to reply to his 10 missed calls.
When she finally walked through the door, Sebastian wasted no time in pulling her into his arm and thanking god that she was safe. "Don't you ever do that to me again, okay?" He blurted out frantically.
"Stop it, I just went out to get some fresh air" Darcey remarked, not wanting to make a big deal out of it. "And will you put me down before you hurt yourself again"
"No, I'm never letting you go ever" Sebastian sighed as he lowered his arms to her waist now, still refusing to untangle him from her. "What happened?"
"Nothing, I just went for a walk" Darcey insisted, looking down at her switched off phone which explains why she never answered his calls before.
"You can't shut me out again, from now on we're in this together whether you like it or not" Sebastian explained, knowing better than to believe she would just take herself off like that.
Turns out that Darcey had been suppressing a lot of emotions while she took care of Sebastian, hearing about the upcoming case only brought it to the surface. Her Mum had explained the whole messy story while she stayed awake in Sebastian's hospital room.
Her parents had given him up for adoption when they were both kids themselves, they agreed to have no contact but when his family home fell apart he was left with nothing. A strange sense of guilt washed over Darcey, which only made it worse as she was left with the choice of standing up in court and telling them to lock him up.
"I know I shouldn't feel this way" Darcey sniffed, as they lay on the sofa wrapped up in each other arms. "But I just feel so lost right now"
"There's no right or wrong way to feel" Sebastian spoke as he drew circle on her back, "Just know that no matter what, you can always come to me. You're not alone"
"Thank you. For not giving up on me." Darcey sighed, resting her head on his shoulder.
"I'll be here as long as it takes," Sebastian whispered before planting a gentle kiss on her head, holding her tightly while she relaxed in his arms. "Ich Liebe duch" Sebastian sighed as he felt as her breath returned to normal, the tears drying up as she fell asleep in his arms.