Deep Breath | Daniel Ricciardo

Part Eighty-Eight

Thursday, media day, my busiest and favourite day of the the race week. Or so it used to be! I'd skipped breakfast and headed straight down to the track. Food was still pretty much a no go and the thought of facing seeing Daniel again was making my stomach upset. As it's Singapore everything starts much later in the day but I still wanted to arrive early and hideaway in my office for as long as possible. I'd seen a few friendly faces, Lando, Carlos and Charles. We'd hugged and they welcomed me back, they of course still thought Daniel and I were a loving couple and joked that he'd not coped without his girlfriend.

Clearly he'd shared nothing of Australia. I made my way up to the office and started filling out documents for Daniel to sign. It hadn't taken Lauren long to find me and we shared a brief catch up. I promised to be a better friend and to tell her what was going on just not right now. She accepted that we kissed hugged and made-up.

I'd been busy all morning catching up on everything that I missed and booking up future events for race weekends. I really did love my job and I was desperate to hold on it, no matter what happened for the rest of the season. By the afternoon I joined Daniel to take him down to the press conference. He'd asked to talk to me and tried to pull me aside. However I quickly made it clear I was not going to speak about it here and we carried on to the press conference.

I was absolutely shattered by the end of the day, I headed straight to my room and ordered some plain toast. It was all I'd keep down anyway. There had been knocking at my door through out the evening but I was too tired to even get up let alone talk to anyone. I ignored it, threw up my toast and decided I may as well go to sleep. Nights were easier now I'd accepted my nightmares, I'd only wake once or twice and usually I'd get back to sleep after a walk around the block at home or now the hotel.

It was another late start this morning as first practise didn't start till 6pm that night. I was heading down at about 12pm as there were some extra media jobs to get done first thing. They'd had some social media stars come in to do some bits with Daniel and Max, so I just needed to shadow them. It was basically babysitting, and as everyone was expecting Daniel to be back on form I had eyes on me.

He'd done well for the first couple of bits, chatting and interviews for various media platforms but his fake presence was starting to show by the time the challenges came round. We were still barely speaking to each other thank god but he couldn't stop staring at me. I didn't know what he was waiting for me to do. To pop my bump out and announce to him I'd not done anything or was he waiting for me to leap into his arms like after Monaco. This wasn't a 'we both said something we didn't mean and let's forget it' argument if that's what he was hoping for.

The final challenge they wanted to involve me and Isla. This wasn't exactly unusual for us to be on camera but we didn't get asked to join in ever. The challenge was for us all to lift a F1 tyre for as long as we could. Fuck. What was I going to say... 'sorry I can't, I wont explain why but I can't'

"Ok," I said joining the group in front of the camera and stood behind a soft compound tyre. Hoping it would be the lightest. Daniel walked across and stood in front of me. I looked up at him.  "What are you doing don't lift that."

"Move Daniel and get in front of the camera, and sort your fucking face out." I hissed as I smiled at the looks we were getting.

"Ok 3, 2, 1. Lift"

I lifted the tyre and instantly realised it was a bad idea. I felt the weight pull through my stomach. I dropped it almost instantly, internally panicking at the pain. But after couple of seconds it subsided and I was fine. Daniel had also dropped his tyre and pulled my arms in his hands. "Are you ok?" He sounded panicked.

"I'm fine," I pulled myself out of his grip and thanked the guys filming and said we needed to head off to get ready for free practice.

Daniel sped up to my speed. "Don't even dare," I preempted his words. "It not like you care anyway." I growled and turned off into the ladies bathroom to get away from him.

Free practise one went well, I watched from the garage and headed back to the office when it was over. Daniel was driving better, to which I got a pat on the back. I'd avoided him and Michael quite successfully considering my job is to literally be by their side. The second practice wasn't for another couple of hours so I went to relax on the sofa in my room. Lauren had come in and we'd had a coffee and chatted together. It was nice, things finally felt normal with her again. She headed off as it got close to the second practise. I however planned to wait till the very last minute.

Just as I was finishing my last email I felt pain suddenly through my whole body and it pulsated in my stomach. I grasped my hand to my bump as the pain increased.

Shit. I was bleeding.