Lights Out and Away We Go | LN4 - LH44 - MS47

Chapter 3

"No! No, no, no, no, no!" Zak shouted. Moni winced a bit at the loudness of his voice, sat directly across from him at his desk in the McLaren headquarters.

"Dad, I told you... I already accepted the position."

Moni had been absolutely floored when Toto offered her a job. It was the last thing she expected and the furthest thing from her mind when she had arrived to Silverstone, and it was surely not something she was actively looking for. After making the offer, he explained to her that not only did he think she would make a good strategist, but that she'd be a good support system for the drivers.

"I might be able to scrape by as a strategist, but I don't know anything about actual driving," she had told him.

"No no Monica, not for that. They need a support team, someone to be there for them on race weekends. Someone who knows all there is to know about the sport. I saw you talking out on the pit wall with Lewis, I think it would be perfect."

"I don't know Toto, I think you should talk to them first-"

"They will agree with me. You're familiar with the spotlight, you're familiar with the paddock, with the circuits. You already know everyone that there is to know."

Moni was incredibly hesitant and asked if she could have time to think it over, but Toto was even more persuasive and talked her into joining on the spot. And now she was dealing with the consequences.

"Monica I don't understand this, if you wanted to work in racing you should've just told me." Zak wailed, his voice still raised. Moni rubbed her temples.

"It's not just that dad, I didn't think I did. I don't know. But I also don't want to be handed a job just because I'm your daughter. This position? At Mercedes? This can be on my own merit, dad." Zak sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"I can't have my daughter working at another team, Monica."

"You know that's not true, dad. It will be just fine, most people have no idea who I am anyways. I made up my mind, I'm doing this for myself." Zac glared at his daughter but his intense stare was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come in!" he yelled. The door slightly cracked open and Lando Norris, McLaren driver and posterboy, peeked his head in.

"Moni, hey!" he exclaimed.

"Lando! I didn't know you were here today," she replied with the same upbeat energy.

"I've been practicing on the sims, you should come down-"

"Lando tell my daughter not to go work for Mercedes," Zak interrupted.

"What?" Lando questioned, puzzled.

"I was at Silverstone yesterday and Toto Wolff offered me a job, I accepted," Moni helped to fill in the blanks. Lando frowned.

"You're leaving McLaren?" he whimpered. Moni was a bit taken aback – she didn't think he was going to care in the slightest.

"I mean, technically I never worked here in the first place," she shrugged.

"Zak, why don't you give her a job here?" Lando's attention switched to her father.

"I tried to! She said no!" Zak whined. Moni groaned and buried her head in her hands.

"Lando, can you give us a minute? I'll pop down before I leave," Moni mumbled through her fingers. Lando nodded and slipped out of the doorway, pulling the door closed behind him.

"I just don't understand this decision, Monica," Zak repeated, pressing the subject further.

"And you don't need to, dad. You've always wanted me to go into racing, right? Let me do this, let me try it out. On my own accord. You don't have to understand it but you do have to accept it because I am doing this, okay?" Zak scowled and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Fine. Fine. Go do it," he ceded, begrudgingly. Moni smiled.

"Thank you," she said as she stood up from her chair. She turned towards the door and began to walk out of the room.

"Monica," Zak called after her. She looked back over her shoulder. "I'm proud of you, honey." Her  grin widened and she blew him a kiss before stepping out of his office completely.

She still wasn't completely certain in her decision and she wasn't sure if she ever would be, but she also knew she'd be a damn fool to pass up working for the best Formula 1 team of the last decade. And, like she had told her father, it was an opportunity for her to finally make a name for herself in the sport, a chance for her to step out of his shadow. As much as she wished she could work alongside him at the team she'd practically been a part of for almost ten years, she knew she'd never be able to separate herself from her dad if she did. It was unfortunate but it was the truth.

Before she left the Technology Center, she decided she'd go stop by the sim room like she'd told Lando she would - especially since she wouldn't be able to spend as much time around the McLaren team once her new position started. The sim room sat behind large double doors on the ground floor, both of which were covered in writing restricting anyone from entering without a clearance. Luckily, being the daughter of the CEO had its perks. She typed a short code into a nearby PIN pad and the sound of the double doors unlocking rang out.

As she pushed the doors open she revealed an incredibly large, dark room, divided in the middle by panes of glass. Against the far wall at the front of the room was a massive curved screen which displayed life-sized hyper realistic imagery of a racing circuit. Directly before the screen sat the body of an F1 car, positioned on rolling tracks so that it's movements could replicate that of a real car on a real track. Behind the panes of glass was a wide desk and multiple computer screens, a strategist positioned behind each one. At her arrival the strategy team turned and waved to her, to which she responded with a polite smile. It suddenly hit her that she very well might be in their exact position in a few short weeks, only she'd be at the Mercedes headquarters.

"Can I?" Moni asked, gesturing towards an opening in the glass wall which led forwards towards the simulator. The team members nodded and paused the simulation run.

"Hey!" she heard Lando's voice exclaim from the simulator as the car and fake track stopped moving. She hopped forwards and made her way up toward the sim, eventually staring down in the cockpit at the helmet-clad Lando. "Oh, Moni!" he realized, his voice a bit muffled from the helmet. He raised his hands and pulled it off of his head, revealing his tussled, curly hair, his tan skin, and his blue-grey-green eyes.

"Hi Lando," she greeted him for the second time that day, leaning against the side of the car. "How's it going down here?"

"Well it's no real car but- wait. Am I allowed to tell you? You're not going to run off and tell Mercedes about my tests?" Although his sarcastic nature was showing, the words still hurt Moni a bit as she realized she could no longer talk about McLaren technology with the drivers.

"Don't be like that, you know I'll always be a McLaren girl," she reassured. Lando grinned.

"You better be, otherwise it's going to feel even worse when we crush you guys on the track this year," Moni giggled. "Seriously though Moni, I can't believe you're not going to be around this year," he sighed.

"I'll be at every race Lando, which is more than I can say about any of the past years."

"Not with us, though." Lando's eyes looked sad as he spoke, leading Moni to question if her dads claim of this little 'crush' he had held any validity. She quickly shook off the thoughts, realizing now more than ever that wouldn't matter.

"I promise I'll stop by all the time. It's not like I can just stop my dad from being... well, my dad." A bit of a smile returned to Lando's face as she spoke.

"I'll hold you to that statement, Mon. You better." Moni returned his grin and rested her hand on his shoulder.

"See you in Bahrain, Norris."

"See you there, Brown."