in the morning light [g.r]

five - austria

"At last, F1 returns after seven months away as you join us at the fantastic Red Bull Ring in Austria." Abi was paying little attention to the commentary in her ears as she ran through the paddock, dodging the mechanics as she headed for the Alpha Tauri offices. She reached the doors, shoving them open and taking the stairs two by two until she was into the engineers room, launching herself at her laptop and jamming her finger onto the unlock sensor. For fucks sake Abi, fifteen minutes til practice and you decide to wipe the system? She yelled at herself, uploading the files she needed to the USB stick on her lanyard, grabbing her laptop just in case and then heading back the way she had come. She darted through the crowd of mechanics in brightly coloured masks, a camera crew strewn through the huddles of people.

Her gaze caught on the driver who had just emerged from the Red Bull garage, though attention was soon back to the person she had just body slammed into. She was falling, everything suddenly in slow motion as she fought to let herself take the impact rather than her laptop. Never mind the person she had just crashed into, her laptop was most important in that moment. She grabbed it, managing to twist herself so she felt onto her side, laptop protected though arm squished between her and the tarmac. Her shoulder was numb, excruciating pain radiating from her collarbone as the world went back to running at true speed, sitting up and immediately checking her laptop.

"You need to look where you're going," The other person snapped, Abi looking up and to the man she had sent tumbling to the floor. They both fell quiet in realisation. "Oh shit, Abs are you alright?" He asked, sitting up and rubbing his dusty hands on the overalls tied around his waist. Abi's brow creased, attention then on her arm which was grazed and bleeding, far more interested in the seething pain coming from it than her ex boyfriend she was awkwardly straddling.

"I need to head back to the garage." Abi murmured, standing and being hit by the pain in her hip, knees almost as badly grazed as her arm.

"We should get a medic to look at your arm..." Abi shook her head and held her laptop close, taking a step back from George as he stood up. "Abs..."

"I need to get this sorted before the session starts." She snapped and was soon on her way, not looking back as she jogged as best she could, cringing with every step at the pain in her leg.

"Abi!" George shouted, running after her and easily catching up. "Come on, your arm is really bleeding."

"Don't have time, George! I have just fucked up Pierre's session and I need to sort things immediately otherwise I'm getting the sack!" She snapped, not bothering to slow down as the ache in her hip became a sting that stretched from her thigh to her waist. She had done some serious damage to herself, but that was the least of her problems. George frowned, brow creased as he jogged beside her. "I'm not making you late to your session too, not fucking things up for the both of you." She added, finally turning to look at George. "I'm fine! Seriously!"

"Right, well, once you've sorted things out for Gasly get yourself checked over please?" The concern was clear but Abi just rolled her eyes, giving him a look.

"Yes dad," She muttered and then took a sharp turn into the offices, leaving George stood outside awkwardly, shaking his head and then heading to his pit with a frown. "Why can't I just get rid of him." Abi grumbled to herself as she sat back at the computer patiently waiting to have the software re-uploaded onto it. She dragged the files about, pulling up terminal and tapping at her keyboard until the reams of text paused and the software loaded.

"Have we got it sorted Miss Watts-Lloyd?" Damien asked as he approached and Abi nodded, showing him the screen as she picked up her headset from the desk.

"Should be good to go." She confirmed to her boss as he nodded and looked at the screen. "Uh, I had a bit of a fall on my way back... Are you alright for Alessio to take over while I run to the medical tent?" Unable to take the pain that was only increasing for much longer, she reluctantly gave in to George's suggestion.