Something Gained

Chapter Sixty-Three

I walked to the grid as the boys waited for the start of the race. I saw Lando first and he was standing with Charles and Max talking. He smiled when he saw me and put his arm round my shoulders.
"Hello again Alex" Charles said, his accent was smooth as anything. I waved and Lando excused himself from them and walked towards the car.
"You got this, stay safe" I said to him
"You say that every race" he said
"And you're still here, I don't think I will ever not say it" I gave him a big hug and let him go and speak to Jon while I went to find Daniel.
"Hey trouble" Michael said as I approached the two of them
"Ooh trouble, bit harsh" I said laughing. "Be safe" I turned to Daniel and spoke, he gave me a hug
"I will, I love you" he whispered in my ear. I hugged him tighter
"I love you" I stood with them until it was time for them to get in the cars, I walked back with Michael and we got into the garage as the cars were doing their warm up lap.

Hannah come and sat next to me as usual to watch the race together.
"Here we go" she said as the lights come on. Within seconds there was already devastation in the garage, Lando had touched with Carlos and it gained him a puncture, but he now had to do a whole lap with only three wheels before he could change them.
"Ugh, no!" Hannah and I yelled. To make matters worse Daniel started losing power halfway through the race and he was up to p4 at one point. Due to something broken on the car and the power they had to retire the car from the race, which was disappointing to say the least. He come back to the pits and his car pulled in as we watched on for Lando. Michael dashed off after Daniel who went straight into a side room. Hannah and I exchanged looks before I saw Michael come back out and beckon me over. I jumped up from my seat and went into the room to see him. He was sitting on the sofa with his head in his hands, I walked over and sat down next to him and stroked the back of his neck.
"You okay?" I asked him
"We had the pace. Then this happens" he said, by his tone he definitely wasn't happy
"I know, but it's not your fault. You drove so well, up to 4th, some things are out of our control"
"I guess so, I'm just disheartened. We did so well in Italy and it's not just not happened for us since"
"It will, I promise it will" I said. I had no doubt in his abilities or Lando's. They were both amazing, Daniel had been in this sport for 10 plus years, he had won some great races, of course I wanted more for him. I wished more than anything for him to win race after race and battle for the championship, that was his dream. To see him like this broke me, but it only served as a reminder of how well he wanted to do and that he still had to urge to push himself as much as possible. It was a reminder that he still had that fight.
"Let's go and watch the rest of Lando's race?" I said to him, he nodded and we stood up. I unzipped the top of his race suit
"Not a good idea is it" he mumbled
"What?"
"Trying to undress me"
"Honey, I ain't trying to undress you. We'll save that for later" I said, I reached and kissed him on the cheek and smirked at the look on his face but we went back out to the garage. He unzipped the rest of his suit and let it drop round his waist as he walked over to his engineer to discuss the issue with his car. Before I pulled him out to do some media.

"I felt it dropped a few laps before. I asked if there was anything we could do, we did a few switch changes but it just continued to drop so yeah we couldn't fix it on track which meant game over today" Daniel was speaking to the media, he had perked up a little but not a whole lot. When he was done we walked back down the paddock towards the garage.
"You good?" I asked
"You ask me that more than Michael sometimes" he said
"Part of my job"
"I'm okay, gutted, frustrated but yeah, it is what it is" he replied, I poked his arm playfully and it made him smile
"Let's go and watch Lando and hopefully we'll get some points" he said. I nodded and we walked back into the garage and I sat down next to Hannah again while Daniel stood behind with Michael leaning against the counter watching the screens.

Lando wasn't happy either. I gave him a little pep talk and did media with him as well then I got them both in the car we had for this week, which was a nice black bmw and I wasn't sad about it, it was a nice car. Lando got in the back and Daniel in the front while I drove. Lando put his head down in his hands as we drove away from the track.
"Lands you okay?" I asked him looking in the mirror
"Not really. Puncture in lap one, Dan couldn't finish the race and we got one point. One"
"I know, we go again next week though yeah?" I said, he muttered an "mhm" in response
"You know what we should do?" Daniel asked
"Food?" I replied. He nodded and I looked at Lando who also nodded. And so I did. I found a drive through McDonald's again and we got our food and ate in the car like we did before. It definitely perked them both up to eat. I plugged in my phone and played music while we sat there, naturally Daniel was singing and dancing which made Lando laugh, all was right again in the world.