Redemption {Charles Leclerc}

39

TRIGGER WARNING: death; car accident; panic attack.

Charles' POV.

"SOPHIA! SOPHIA LET ME IN!" you scream loudly as you bang on the locked bathroom door.

You have no idea what's going on but the way she stormed off the track showed you she's not doing well.

You hear some stumbling on the other side, as if someone's moving around, and you hope it's because she's trying to open the door. You wait for a few seconds but nothing happens.

"Goddammit Sophia, why did you even lock it," you mumble to yourself as you hastily try to unlock the door again.

"He...help!" you hear a small voice scream on the other side.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

She's doing bad. Really bad. That anxious tone in her voice is something you recognize immediately and it awakens some sort of trigger inside of you.

You push and pull the lock another time but it just doesn't budge.

"FUCK!" you scream loudly as you roughly bang the door.

"Here. You need this," an unfamiliar voice suddenly says from behind you.

You turn around and recognize the guy from the front desk standing there with a key in his hand. He must have been watching the scene unfold from a distance.

"Thank you," you tell him quickly as you grab the key from his hand and ignore his presence again.

You turn around to unlock the door and swiftly push it open. You're shocked to see a figure struggling to sit up against the wall and clearly hyperventilating.

Shit.

Without thinking you immediately run over, drop down on your knees and put your hands on her shoulders.

"Hey, hey, hey! I'm here Soap. It's me, Charles. Try to breath," you tell her as you try to stay calm yourself.

"Here, let's take this off," you tell Sophia as you already lift the helmet over her head before she can react.

Still having the helmet on must have made it so difficult for her to breath normally.

Now that the helmet is off you can actually see her face. Her cheeks are smeared with tears and her hair is all over the place. She's breathing irregularly and when you softly place her head in your hands to look into her eyes, you see that there's nothing but panic written in them.

"I'm here Soap. Try to breath normally."

You help her sit straight and sit down on the floor yourself after which you cross your legs. You place her hands in yours and look straight into her eyes.

"Let me help you Sophia. Breath in through your nose... Out through your mouth... In through your nose... Out through your mouth," you tell her as you perform the action yourself and continue your eye contact with her.

Her worried eyes stay fixed on yours and she tries to follow your breathing pattern. After repeating the ritual a few times, you can tell that it's working.

"Good job Soap, you're doing really well. Let's do it a couple more times alright? In through your nose... Out through your mouth..."

After a few minutes her breathing is finally back to normal. You intertwine your fingers with hers after which she breaks eye contact with you immediately and starts to look down at your connected fingers.

"You okay with your breathing?" you ask her as you softly caress her hands.

She slowly nods her head. Her breathing is indeed back to normal but you can tell that she's still struggling with her emotions as she bites her lip anxiously.