Horner's daughter

I forgive you.

Max knew he'd messed up with Y/N in Monza. The last thing he wanted was to be the reason she was upset and he'd done exactly that. After she'd walked out, his head had flopped back into his hands again and he'd found a few tears had slipped out of his eyes, unnoticed. He'd been taught not to cry, that it was a sign of weakness but Y/N's words from Baku rang in his head, telling him that it's ok to cry and to not be ashamed.

It was a few days after the race and Max knew he had a lot of making up to do. He was trying to think of ways to make it better but none of them really sounded right, some of them sounded generic and insincere. Then he remembered that he would be in Milton Keynes in a few days time to visit the factory and discuss the events of Monza. He wasn't really looking forward to it, not wanting to analyse the data and be scrutinised by the other team members but he knew it was important and that he had to show up. It did, however, give him a great opportunity to try and reconcile with Y/N as he could make it more personal by being in the same country as her. It was the perfect idea and he hoped it would pay off. He really hoped she would forgive him despite him being an idiot towards her.

The day finally came where he would go to the factory. He woke up early, something he never liked, and got ready for the day. Scenarios kept running around in his head about how Y/N could take his apology. His brain had chosen that moment to be pessimistic and so he kept thinking about how badly she might take it and how she might break up with him or if Christian found out how Max had treated his daughter. He shivered at the thought, feeling more nervous than ever. He shook his head, trying to dispel the thoughts. He had to go to Milton Keynes whether he liked it or not and he had to at least try and apologise. He wouldn't know unless he tried.

The plane landed and Max made his way towards the factory. When he arrived, he took a deep breath to calm himself before he opened the door and walked inside. Eyes turned to him and Max wanted to hide, knowing the last time he'd seen them all had been a disappointing one. He stood up straight, trying to show confidence, despite not really feeling it and murmured greetings to everyone as he passed them. Some undoubtedly saw through his facade and were silently curious as to what was going on with their star driver but they put it down to the frustrating race week. Little did they really know about Max's inner turmoil.

He came towards Christian reluctantly, the Brit waiting for him so that they could start the meeting with the engineers and other staff. Christian was suspicious of Max's outward air of confidence, having known Max long enough to suspect that something was bothering him, and it wasn't just the race. He was also more suspicious after seeing that Y/N had been behaving strangely since the race, being upset and closing off whenever someone mentioned the Dutch driver. It was weird.

Max looked around for Y/N discreetly but couldn't see her and before he could double-check, he was told that it was time to start. He inwardly sighed, knowing this would be a painful experience.

After hours of dissecting what went wrong in Monza for Max (of which it was obvious) and discussing how the cars had performed overall, with Checo finishing fifth, Max was finally free. He rubbed his eyes tiredly but tried to wake himself up, knowing now was the time to enact his plan.

He bid Christian and the others a hasty goodbye, which only added to their suspicions, before racing to his car that he'd brought over. He was going to drive to Y/N's house in the Oxfordshire countryside. She'd given him the address once before, at Silverstone when he'd been trying to decide whether to stay or go back to Monaco, so he put the address into his satnav and started the journey. He knew it would take an hour or so from Milton Keynes, which was plenty of time for him to plan out what he wanted to say.

"Y/N..." his mind had gone blank. She looked at him expectantly. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything I said in Monza, I didn't mean any of it. I promise, I was just frustrated because of the race but I shouldn't have taken it out on you when you were only trying to help. I like that you're there for me after races, no matter the outcome. I like seeing you there and I don't care if your dad knows or not. I know you don't think I'm a cheat or a dirty driver. I'm sorry schatje. Ik hou van jou" he knew he'd just been rambling at her but he meant every word and he hoped she could see that.