Something Gained

Chapter Fifty

I sat in my office working away that I didn't even realise the time, the boys would have just finished testing, and I needed to get them to the media pen. I shut my laptop and picked up my phones and my ID, throwing it round my neck before leaving the office. I walked up the paddock and through the back of the garage where thankfully the both of them where just getting out of their cars. I went and stood with Michael and Jon while I waited for them.
"How's it going?" Jon asked
"Not too bad, did testing go okay?" I asked glancing at Daniel and Lando
"Decent, couple of tweaks but seem to have pace, even in the rain" Michael responded
"I hate it when it rains, it scares me" I said, the boys were now standing with us, "right you ready?" I asked. They both nodded, sipping on their drinks. I waved to Jon and Michael and led the boys out of the garage. I picked up an umbrella and handed it to Lando and then went to grab another one but Daniel had it in his hand. He held out his arm for me and I walked outside while I put the umbrella up and held it above our heads.
"No fair, I'm on my own" Lando gasped, I held out my hand and we all squeezed under the one umbrella and it made us all laugh so much as we were so close it was a struggle to walk and stay dry. Lando pulled me apart from Daniel and got inbetween us.
"Can I be the adopted child" he said
"Yeah because having a child at 10 and 6 years old seems reasonable" Daniel said, for some reason his words made my heart skip a beat. Not the 10 and 6 years old thing but the fact he didn't even blink, didn't get weirded out by kids or anything. Maybe I was thinking too much into it, it was a joke after all.
"I said adopted did I not" Lando said again. We all laughed again as we nearing the media pen.
"Love you guys. You guys make everything better" they both hugged me before I sent them to do their media. I held the umbrella over Lando's head and listened in on Daniels interviews as well.

Soon enough Daniel was bombarding Lando's interviews and they were both acting like children but it was making the journalists laugh so I let them do as they pleased. I managed to calm them down before we headed back to the McLaren trailer for some phone calls from journalists. They both sat down on the sofa and I gave them both pens and some hats and things to sign before placing my work phone on the table ready for the first call.
"Right, Adam Wild, BBC Sport is up first I said" I clicked call and let the boys do their thing.
"Daniel, Lando, how lovely to hear from you. How are you both doing?"  The reporter sounded lovely
"We're good, getting geared up for another race weekend" Daniel spoke first
"The weather is pretty bleak at the moment, are there any concerns for the car" he asked
"At the moment with some testing the car is doing great, we'll know more during practice but so far so good" Lando was the one to speak next
"Good to hear, so Daniel how is the relationship going. She's your PR manager isn't she?" Brilliant here we go
"Alex is great, she keeps us going, fuels us and supports both Lando and I. We wouldn't be where we are without her" he sidestepped the question a bit and answered quite diplomatically, I did think it was a very nice thing for him to say and he smiled at me as he said it
"Lando I hear rumours of a girlfriend for you?"
"I'm focused on my driving and my team and that's what I'm about right now" again, great sidestepping. In truth those were actually rumours
"Well it was lovely to speak to you both, I hope team McLaren do great this weekend, thanks guys bye"
"Thank you Adam, bye"

"Next we've got Natalie from Sky Sports" I said as I started the call.

"Daniel, Lando hi, it's Natalie" her voice coming through on my phone
"Hi Natalie" they both chorused
"How are we doing today?"
"Good thank you"
"So let's get straight into it, how are the cars performing?"
"They're good, decent pace but the weather is causing a small safety issue but I'm sure we'll be okay" Daniel answered her
"Lando I wanted to ask, obviously Alex is your Communications manager, what is that relationship like?"
"Well she's recently been promoted, she does such a good job looking after us and Daniel and I would be lost without her wouldn't we?"  He looked up at me as he spoke and smiled.
"Absolutely" Daniel agreed also looking at me "and we're not just saying that because she's watching us either" he laughed, I shook my head and rolled my eyes at him
"She keeps us going and keeps us to schedules and is just great at what she does. I've worked with her now for nearly two years and she's like a sister to me, wouldn't want to do it without her" I could cry at Lando's words. These boys were something else
"Aw that's so lovely to hear, probably keeps you going having such a good team around you. Daniel how is it working with someone you're dating?" I held my breath. Here we go
"It's a team effort for what we do. We wouldn't be here without every single member of the team, engineers, media, Zak"  Nice sidestepping from Daniel. Although it's obviously in the open and not a secret, it also wasn't something we felt like we needed to constantly talk about, especially not to journalists fishing for their next headline
"Lovely, okay well nice chatting with you both, good luck this weekend"
"Thanks Natalie, bye" They both chorused finishing off the call

We went through a few more calls before we finished. They had signed a lot of stuff as well which was great. I sent them for lunch and picked up my things from the room, I noticed Daniel had left his hat in here so I grabbed it and took it to his driver room. I was on my break for the day as well, so I just laid on Daniels bed in his room to chill out. The door opened and he walked in with some lunch, he saw me laying on the bed and smiled
"Hey" he whispered.
"What are you whispering for?" I replied but now I was also whispering, he shrugged and put his food down on the table before coming over "are you going to stay sitting there or do I get a cuddle?" I asked. I again was being quite cheeky considering we were at work but I pushed that out of my head. Daniel laid down smiling and I turned to face him and cuddled into his chest, breathing in his beautiful smell and feeling the heat radiate from him.
"What was wrong yesterday?" He mumbled
"I just had a headache, I'm okay" I said
"I worry about you. You literally work all the time" he said
"You don't need to worry, I'm okay I promise. Plus you work a lot as well"
"Not as much as you do" he replied. I sighed and tilted my head up to see him, his eyes met mine "I love you" he said. I smiled. Eventually I got up and told him to eat and hurry up because we had the fans meet and greet. Thankfully it was under giant tents since it was still raining outside.