Author's note: SURPRISE! Just a little "for fun" chapter that goes back to the 2014 Christmas at their house in Italy. This chapter fits in just before the finale, time-wise. MERRY CHRISTMAS GUYS! Hope you have a wonderful day. Enjoy!
"What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Shit! Damn it Casey!" Evan gasped after he'd leaped about a foot back from the Christmas tree he'd been so keenly inspecting. Or rather, the presents below it.
"I can guarantee you all the ones with your name on are coal." Casey hissed as she climbed down the rest of the stairs and joined him in the darkened lounge room. It was at least 2am, and Casey had been making her way downstairs to grab some water from the fridge.
"Why are you awake?"
"Why are you awake?" Casey retorted suspiciously.
"Sleep walking..." Evan replied vaguely, enticing an eye-roll out of Casey as she swept past him towards the kitchen, switching the light on as she went.
"So, first Christmas with lover-boy Jacob. Excited?" she asked, grinning mischievously as she poured two glasses.
"Your first Christmas with Seb too." Evan remarked, joining her at the bench and taking one of the glasses.
"What'd you get Jake?" she asked curiously.
"Tickets."
"To..."
"You'll just have to wait and see." he sang, emptying his glass and ambling back over to the Christmas tree.
"Back away from the tree Evan, stop trying to ruin Christmas. I've disguised your present anyway, you haven't got a hope of guessing what it is."
"Did you get Seb anything other than the, uhh, main gift?"
"Life-size cardboard cut-out of Mark Webber." Casey replied casually.
Evan snorted and crouched down, visually inspecting the presents in what little light the kitchen provided to him, "Really?"
"No, absolutely not. Ev, go back to bed." Casey instructed, switching the kitchen light off and ambling through the dark lounge room towards the stairs. She heard him sigh as he followed her up.
---
Seb stirred gently as someone hovered over him and planted a kiss on his cheek.
"What time is it?" he mumbled sleepily, rolling on to his back.
"9am. I've tried to hold off waking you for as long as possible but if I wait much longer I think Evan's going to tear the house down."
"What's he doing?" Seb asked, not bothering to even open his eyes yet.
"Torturing Jacob in the lounge, watching Bad Santa, again. If someone doesn't give him a present to open soon I think he'll literally die."
"I think you should come back to bed." he muttered, reaching out blindly and grabbing hold of her thigh.
"Seb..." Casey giggled.
"Please?" he asked, cracking his eyes open finally.
"Oh god." Casey sighed. As soon as he got the puppy-dog eyes out she was a goner. His wish became her command.
"Yes..." he grinned cunningly as she gave in and pulled the covers up, slipping herself beneath the sheets and sitting across his waist.
"If you sit there you know what's going to end up happening..." Seb arched an eyebrow suggestively.
"I have no idea what you mean." Casey said innocently, leaning down and placing a kiss against his lips.
He moaned softly as she trailed kisses from his lips, down to his jaw, before continuing further down his neck. She nipped the sensitive skin just below his ear, causing him to writhe beneath her and slip his hands up her thighs.
His fingers trailed up further, looking for the hem of her underwear, but found nothing. Excitement suddenly coursed through his veins and he squeezed her hips, gasping as she ground against him and took him in in one swift movement.
"I don't need any presents." he stammered between shallow breaths, "Nothing could be better than this."
---
"Oh, for God's sake, could you not have kept it in your pants for five minutes." Evan exclaimed as Seb and Casey made their way downstairs half an hour later.
"He wasn't wearing any pants." Casey replied, sending Evan a wink as she laced her fingers together with Seb's and lead him over to the couch nearest the Christmas tree.
"You had one job Case, go upstairs and wake up Seb."
"He is awake now, isn't he?" Casey replied, gesturing towards Seb with her remaining free hand.
"Yes, awake, 30 minutes later than anticipated and covered in a less-than-subtle layer of sweat that says you went above and beyond your duty." Evan ranted, waving his hands in the air exasperatedly.
Seb's brow raised in amusement as he was lead past Evan and a quietly bemused-looking Jacob.
"Oh, shut up. The presents weren't going to grow legs and make a run for it. They're still here, Ev. And now we can open them." Casey said dismissively, curling up in Seb's lap at the opposite end of the couch to the two boys.
"Right, santa-hat me." Evan said, clicking his fingers towards Jacob who reluctantly threw him a red and white fluffy hat.
They watched on in amusement as he strutted towards the over-laden Christmas tree and rubbed his hands together.
"What time did you say we're flying out?" Casey asked quietly, turning to Seb and running her fingers through his unruly mop of blonde hair.
"11:30am." he replied, smiling tiredly and relaxing back into the couch.
"And coming back tomorrow, right?" she asked. Seb nodded, tracing patterns across her thigh absent-mindedly.
"You'll meet my sisters and brother this time too." he mumbled contentedly.
Casey leaned into him and kissed his cheek softly, letting her lips linger on his skin for a few seconds more than necessary, "Christmas with the Vettels, huh?"
"You'll be the first non-Vettel to witness the event." he chuckled before pausing, "Though technically you will be a Vettel one day."
Casey narrowed her eyes at him and couldn't stop a grin from spreading across her face as he smirked back at her.
"As if I would ever marry you, yuck." she retorted playfully, leaning in to bite his lip affectionately.
"Open this." Evan said, suddenly bursting into their shared reverie and thrusting a gift towards Casey.
"Thanks!" she said brightly, taking the gift from his hands and turning the tag over to read it.
"To Casey, from Santa. Really, Evan?" she said dubiously, identifying his hand-writing immediately.
"It's fucking Christmas, who do you think brings all the presents? The tooth fairy?" Evan retorted with a massive grin across his face.
"I knew he was into Christmas, but I never knew he was this into Christmas." Jacob said warily.
"Pipe down!" Evan exclaimed, pointing at Jacob as he returned to the tree to find another gift.
Casey laughed at the two of them while she tore the wrapping off and inspected the item beneath.
"What the hell guys!" she gasped as she revealed a brand new iPhone 6.
"It's from both of us." Evan declared proudly, looking back over his shoulder and grinning excitedly.
"This is way too generous!" she exclaimed, shaking her head.
"No it's not. Now, hopefully, with a better phone you'll learn to fucking text me back." Evan muttered.
Casey grinned, jumping up from Seb's lap and bounding towards Evan before throwing her arms around his neck.
"You're welcome." he said, his voice thick with sass as he picked her up and spun her around in a circle before setting her down again. As soon as her toes touched the ground she stepped towards Jacob, leaning down over him to wrap him in a hug.
"Merry Christmas Case." he mumbled in her ear dotingly.
"Thank you so much." she whispered, releasing him and squealing with excitement before wandering back to her spot on Seb's lap.
"This one is from me." Evan said, handing Jacob a large envelope.
"What, not Santa?" Jacob replied with a smirk.
"No way is Santa getting the credit for this one." the blonde replied.
They all watched as Jacob carefully opened the envelope and a wad of papers fell into his lap.
"What is all this?" he said, mystified as he picked up one of the papers, "Hotel bookings... flights..." he continued, looking up at Evan as a smile crept over his features.
"We leave at noon." Evan beamed.
Jacob gaped down at the papers in his lap again, reading them more carefully.
"We're going to Tokyo?" he asked incredulously.
"For two weeks." Evan replied. He looked more pleased with himself than Casey had ever witnessed before.
"Shit." Jacob breathed, standing up from the sea of paper work and stepping across the room towards Evan.
"Aww..." Casey cooed as she watched the two boys embrace each other tightly.
"I thought it was kind of strange that Case and Seb were leaving to have the rest of Christmas in Germany and we'd just be staying in their house... alone..." Jacob laughed, placing a hand around Evan's neck and kissing him gently.
"Ugh, hurry up already, we're all waiting to open presents here." Casey teased, getting a glare out of Evan.
"I will slap you." he threatened, "Miss 'oh I'll just go and wake up Seb and come back half an hour later with my hair in a mess', yeah... good work."
"I give her an A+." Seb interjected, smirking to himself.
Evan cast them both a dirty look before whispering something in Jacob's ear and turning back to the tree. Casey was sure she'd lip-read an 'I love you'. Evan was far sweeter than he'd ever dare let on.
"Right, my turn!"
Seb, Casey and Jacob watched him pick up a huge box and prop it on the coffee table before slashing the gift wrap off to reveal a large, plain brown box. He frowned at it before peeling open the lid.
"An empty box." he said dubiously, glancing around the room in confusion.
"Look harder." Casey giggled.
Evan frowned and looked in the box again, finally noticing the small silver key taped to one of the sides. He ripped it out from under the tape and held it up curiously.
"Well, since Seb moved here, the house in Switzerland is empty..." Casey began.
"I don't want to sell it, so you and Jake are welcome to it whenever you want." Seb finished.
Evan looked like he'd just been slapped. "I have a Swiss mansion." he whispered in shock.
"You have access to a Swiss mansion." Casey clarified with a grin.
Evan seemed out of words, so Jacob took over.
"That's just, wow... Seb. Thank you, seriously." he said graciously.
"You're welcome. Take care of it." Seb replied, smiling happily.
"What about you?" Evan asked, looking at Casey, "I can't find anything with your name on it under the tree."
"I insisted that the Maserati was my Christmas present." she replied, "Seb's actually been banned from buying me anything else, pretty much ever again. It was enough for a lifetime's worth of presents. And I love her." she said happily, wrapping her arms around Seb's neck.
Seb sighed, "Nope. We agreed. It only counts for this Christmas."
"Yeah, yeah, we'll see." she retorted, kissing his jaw lightly, "I think it's time for Seb's present." she added, looking between Jacob and Evan. They both nodded in agreement with knowing looks on their faces.
"Now, we didn't spend money on it exactly... But we did all the necessary sweet-talking and organising to make it happen." Casey said mysteriously, standing up and taking Seb's hand.
"Okay now I'm really intrigued..." he said, following Casey as she lead him through the house.
Evan and Jacob walked just ahead, grinning at each other and whispering suspiciously.
Seb frowned as they headed towards the garage and Jacob held the door open for them.
As they stepped through, they were greeted with the sight of Casey's Maserati and Seb's new Ferrari California that he'd been given by his new team a couple of weeks back. But on the farthest side of the garage, another shape could be seen, hidden by a tarpaulin that had 4 rods holding it up and disguising the shape.
"What have you done..." Seb asked curiously, mystified as his eyes roamed over the tented shape.
Casey gave his hand a gentle squeeze as they reached it, finally letting go of him and standing back. Evan and Jake were on either side of it, ready to pull the tarpaulin down.
Casey rocked on the balls of her feet and emitted a quiet squeal of excitement as the two boys pulled the cloth away sharply and Seb's jaw hit the floor.
"Abbey." he whispered hoarsely as he crouched down and covered his hands over his head.
"Your championship-winning RB8." Evan announced in wistful admiration of the gleaming machine before them.
Seb stood back up and turned to Casey, promptly burying his head in her shoulder. She was sure she heard a slight whimper coming out of him.
"But how?"
"It was dropped off by an enormous lorry. Christian wanted you to have one of the cars but it wasn't going to be for a long time, we uhh, negotiated that down to Christmas." Casey smiled mischievously. "You need to thank Britta too, she helped out a lot in keeping it a secret from you."
"I don't know what to say." Seb breathed, tentatively walking around the car and running his hand along the rear wing. He spotted the stickers he'd placed inside the cockpit all that time ago, one smiley face for every win he'd achieved that season.
"I mean, what are you supposed to get someone who can afford anything they want." Casey joked.
"The obvious answer to that is a championship-winning Formula 1 car." Evan said wryly, laughing to himself.
"Thank you guys, all of you, I can't believe this. You don't know what it means to me." Seb said, eyes still fixed to the shimmering engineering masterpiece before him.
"We can even start her up, if you want to hear her?" Jacob smiled, "I have all the equipment here."
"Please." Seb answered immediately, grinning at him eagerly.
"I can't believe you got Abbey in the garage without me seeing!" Seb exclaimed in awe, "And now I have to leave and get on a plane to Germany when all I want to do is sit here and stare at her."
"You can stare at her tomorrow as soon as we get back, and then all winter long until you get your new baby."
"Are you referring to his 2015 car or is there something we should know about?" Evan asked cheekily.
"I'm referring to his first Ferrari Formula 1 car, obviously..." Casey said, rolling her eyes, "Although I am pregnant too."
The whole room went deathly silent as Seb gaped at her from across the room.
"I'm kidding! Jesus!" Casey exclaimed, holding her palms up and laughing warily.
"Aww." Seb smirked, snapping out of his initial shock, "Maybe for my birthday then?"
"Steady on now." Casey grinned.
"Something we can work on..." he mumbled to himself mischievously.
"Best Christmas ever?" Evan asked as they looked at each other across the room.
"Best Christmas ever, ever." Seb nodded, wrapping one arm around Casey's waist and the other over Jacob's shoulders.
"What's that?" Casey said, pointing at a small piece of paper stuck to the nose of the car. Seb bent down and pulled it off, turning it over to read it.
"To Seb, from Santa." he read aloud, arching an eyebrow at Evan who stood grinning off to the side of the room.
"When did you even get it in here? I was in the garage 2 days ago and it sure as hell wasn't here then." Seb remarked curiously.
"Yesterday morning." Jacob said.
"You were uhh... with me, upstairs." Casey said, clearing her throat.
"Case was tasked with distracting you." Evan explained cunningly, "Maybe that's why you took so bloody long this morning Case, you got confused with yesterday's instructions."
Casey bit her knuckle, laughing quietly as Seb sniggered at the 3 of them.
"Come on, let's wake Abbey up. I'll go grab my gear." Jacob chimed in cheerfully, spinning on his heel and heading back inside. The remaining 3 followed him, with Seb grasping Casey's elbow just before they stepped inside.
"Thank you." he said, kissing her gently and tugging on her bottom lip with his teeth, "As beautiful as Abbey is, you will always be my favourite girl."