Miles from Normal - Lando Norris

25. Your side of the bed

"Shit. Shit." Alice muttered to herself once she realised she was bleeding through her clothes. She was holding her laptop so she covered her stomach with it while she finished her duties.

She smiled politely at reporters that were trying her to speak about what happened instead of asking questions to Danny or Lando. It was a police matter so she couldn't say much about it. The whole information about Jacobsen's naughty businesses had been, anonymously, leaked to the press so they were aware it was a bigger scandal than what they initially thought. Alice felt a tinge of pity for his wife and children as they were caught up in all of it. Collateral damage.

Once they were done, Alice rushed to her assigned car. She was given a private driver while she was still recovering. She jumped, once again, when a male figure approached her. It was Charles that saw Alice leaving and ran in her direction.

"I didn't get a chance to talk to you. Just wanted to check you're okay?" He asked looking genuinely concerned.

Alice really needed to go to the hospital as she felt she was deteriorating as they talked.

"That's very sweet of you. I'm fine, considering. But I really need to be somewhere now... sorry."

He cocked his head to one side wondering why she was avoiding him. They were fine, so he thought. He glanced down and noticed her hand trying to cover a blood spot.

"You're bleeding. We need to get you to a hospital!"

"That's where I was heading..." Alice was pale and trembling.

Charles took her by the arm and joined her in the car. He took a sweater from his bag and gave to Alice so she could use it to apply pressure on her wound.

"You know this will be forever ruined?" She asked as she held his Prada sweater.

"It's fine. I'll add it to your bill." He joked around trying to make her feel better.

•••••

Alice and Charles were now waiting in the hospital waiting room as her driver informed her, with a very heavy French accent, that Mr Norris will pick you up soon. She exchanged looks with Charles. Lando wouldn't be happy at all with that situation.
He came in looking mighty pissed off.

"Are you fucking kidding me? I had to find out by Charlotte who was told by your driver that you were in the hospital? Couldn't you tell me? Ffs." Lando sounded worried and angry. He then spotted Charles opposite the room. "Seriously, you told him and not me? I fucking give up." He threw his hands in the air.

Alice was in a mixture of pain and sedation and just wasn't reacting quickly enough. The doctors had cleaned her wound which was infected and then gave her a shot for the pain.

"I didn't ask him. He just saw me and jumped in the car. He simply helped me." She said with a sleepy tone to her voice.

Charles nodded his head.

"I'm just pissed off, Alice. You need to tell me this stuff and not run away!"

"You still had stuff to do. I wasn't going to take you off your duties!"

"There's no excuse. I want to be told every single thing from now on."

"But..."

"Let me get this straight... you two are arguing right now because you both want to care for each other?" Charles intervened.

Alice and Lando stopped talking. Charles was right. They were arguing, not out of jealousy or bitterness, but out of love.

He drove Charles back to the racetrack and then they headed to the hotel. They were in silence for the majority of the time, but he didn't seem angry anymore.

"You're sleeping in my room tonight... I'll sleep on the floor if I have to, but you're not staying alone."

"Yes, fine boss." She agreed. They weren't sharing a bed yet because they couldn't trust themselves, but Alice knew there was no way something was going to happen in the following couple of weeks.

"Yes, I like it when you're obedient. Good girl." He teased her, as he placed his arm around her.

"Is that why you got those handcuffs? So you can make me obey you?"

"Definitely."

"Okay Mr Grey."

He chuckled when he got the reference.

"That's your side of the bed from now on. In every bed we sleep in..." he said pointing at the right side of the bed.

•••••

"Morning sunshine!" Lando told Alice as she woke up from what felt like a week of sleeping.

It was Saturday morning and Lando was on his room balcony with a cup of tea. He prepared one for her as well, but then remembered she wasn't much of a morning person and needed her coffee, so he made her one instead.

"Thank you." She joined him in the balcony. They had a beautiful view but a very familiar view. It suddenly hit her.

Le Castellet was JP's home town and he had proposed in a vineyard that had the same view as the one from that room.

"Problem?" He asked when he hear the loud sigh she let out.

"Well, nearly three years ago I was here. Right on that side..." she pointed. "JP asked me to marry him there..."

Lando didn't speak at first as if he was processing that information.

"Do you still want to get married?" He finally asked.

"To JP? God no. It's just the memory. Sorry I brought it up."

"No, I mean if you still want to get married like in the future?"

"I do." She said proud of her pun.

"Ok."

It was an odd interaction even for Lando, Alice thought. He was doing something in his phone as well.

"Where's that place you would love to go on holidays?" He asked her randomly.

"Peru?" She replied.

"Ok... try again. Where's that second place you would love to go on holidays?"

"The Maldives?" She was wondering what kind of game was that.

"Ding ding ding. We have a winner!" He said while holding his phone to her face. She couldn't believe her eyes.

"Did you really?"

"Yep... we have a full month off for summer break! And we'll be officially a couple then."

Alice tried to hug him but forgot about her wound. She retracted and he went in for the hug instead. Was it okay if she kissed him? He read her thoughts and kissed her first. Only a short and soft kiss. She still couldn't say the words 'I love you' out loud, but as their grew closer, she felt it more and more.