Sequel of "Come Back...Be Here - Charles Leclerc"
Four years later, Mary and Charles inevitably cross paths again.
Will they rekindle their love? Or are the scars too deep?
I was standing in my garage, talking to GP about the data from today's last free practice. I didn't get why we were struggling so much here. The car was great and I had been on every podium this season up until this weekend, making me a top contender for another championship.
Suddenly, our conversation was interrupted when we heard a horrendous noise of a car crashing. Everyone looked confusedly around the garage. "Strange, there's no F3 or F2 Racing now" GP said while looking at his watch. "They were doing hot laps!" Hannah shouted from the back of the garage and hurried outside to the pit lane and my feet somehow automatically followed her.
In a flash, I saw Mary running on the track, up to Rascasse, it was the closest corner to the start. For once, my brain was working and I quickly put two and two together. I had overheard that Ollie Bearman was taking her fiancé on a hot lap today, unfortunately I still had enough ties to Ferrari to know about that. I quickly climbed the grate separating the pit lane from the track and was quick to stop her. "BOBBY! NO!" she continued shouting, tears streaming down her face. "Leave me alone!" she shouted. "Trust me, you don't want to go there now, I can see that the marshals are already there." I said calmly. I wanted to tell her that Bobby would be fine, but I knew better.
Last year, in yet another act of stupidity, I had tried to drive the circuit with my own Ferrari and those passenger just cars weren't built for this track. It was exactly at Rascasse that I almost lost it at 250km/h and would have probably ended up in the street barriers if I hadn't known my car so well. Ollie was probably driving a Roma, it was the brand's newest car and its center laid a few centimetres higher than my Pista, making it even harder to steer in that corner. And everyone knew, from their first driving lesson on, that the passenger seat is the most dangerous seat.
Some FIA personnel was now making their way towards us and everyone was talking, making it hard to understand a thing. They wanted to take Mary to a secluded space but she was only crying and still shouting her fiancés name, she was clearly in shock. "Is he conscious?" I asked, trying to maintain a cool head. "We don't know, they're taking him and Bearman to the hospital now" someone answered. I nodded and picked up Mary, carrying her bridal style through the Red Bull garage. No one was saying a word.
"GP! Give me your scooter keys" I said and he immediately obliged. "Ok, Mary, I need you to walk now, the scooter lot is just 100m away, can you make it?" I asked her. She nodded and put both feet on the ground. Her tears still continued rolling but she had stopped shouting, I hoped that she was going to calm down somehow.
"You'll be able to see him soon" I said while we were putting on our helmets. "Hopefully not at the morgue" I thought to myself and prayed to God that he was going to be alive. I stopped the scooter right in front of the hospital entrance, I didn't give a fuck that it was forbidden and Mary had already climbed down and ran to the entrance desk. "Bobby Kennedy? He was just taken here from the track?" she asked agitatedly. "And you are?" the lady asked. "HIS FIANCÉE" she shouted, slamming her left hand on the desk. The lady's and my eyes inevitably fell on that rock on her finger - damn, it was even more flashing from up close, but I quickly snapped out of my thoughts again. "He's being examined in a shock room" she replied quietly, you can wait here" she said and pointed at the waiting area. "I can't wait! I need to know if he is ok NOW!" she shouted. "Miss, I am very sorry, but I have no information on- oh, here's the doctor!" she said and Mary immediately rushed to the man. "Are you the fiancée?" the doctor asked. Fuck, I knew this face. It was the same face I was standing in front of when they told me my Dad had died. Also when Jules had died. They both died here in this very hospital. I started feeling sick. Mary quickly nodded and he said: "We should talk somewhere more quiet maybe-" "I want to see him NOW!" Mary shouted. "Miss, I'm very, very sorry, we tried everything but the force breaking his neck was too strong, he died on the scene." he said gloomily. Mary slumped down to the floor, but I was there to hold her just in time. She was screaming and crying and tears were also rolling down my face. This couldn't be possible.
Suddenly, I felt something hot and liquid trickling down my leg. I almost couldn't see it since my suit was navy, but it was definitely her bleeding out from her uterus. "SHE'S HAVING A MISCARRIAGE!" I shouted and a nurse immediately brought out a stretcher and I picked her up to lay her down there. She was looking like Marta did that day when I was with her, putting up a picture in their apartment and all of a sudden she stood there, her jeans dyed red. They tragically lost their second baby. "MOVE!" a doctor who had joined us, said to me and I wanted to get out of the way when I felt her hand gripping mine. "No... He stays..." she managed to whisper with a weak voice. "He stays!" the nurse shouted. "Let's move now!" They hurried the stretcher to an examination room and told me to put on one of those blue hospital overalls.
"What do we have?" another doctor, who had just entered the room, shouted. "Spontaneous abortion, baby estimated to be around five weeks." another guy who was ultrasounding Mary shouted. "How much of the tissue has already detached?" the doctor asked and walked up to Mary, who was laying there with her legs spread open. I turned around and leaned to the wall to give her the last piece of privacy I could give her. Fuck, she had to experience the loss of her fiancée and baby with my stupid ass by her side. "Sedate her, I have to do a D&C, it's impossible to save the baby" I heard someone say and I closed my eyes, feeling the tears streaming down my face.
It felt like an eternity, but after a while a nurse patted my arm and I turned to her. "We are done here and will be taking her up to a room, will you come with us, please?" she said and I obliged. Fuck, the whole room looked a mess, there was blood everywhere and lots of those surgical towels around the table she had just laid on. Mary was still under sedation, and albeit all the trauma she had experienced in the past hour, she looked so beautiful laying there. They pushed her into a room and I stood outside, debating if I should enter or not.
"Charles Leclerc? What are you doing here?" I heard a woman say behind me. I turned around and saw Madame Rousseau, she was not only my mother's neighbour, but also a nurse that had taken care here of Jules and my Dad until the very end. I didn't manage to get out a word, instead I broke out in tears and threw myself into her arms. "Oh dear, oh dear, come on, sit down" she said and pulled me into the nurse's station.
"You remember Mary? She just had a miscarriage after finding out that her fiancé died in a racing accident" I sobbed. She hugged me tightly. "Go inside, trust me, she won't want to be alone when she wakes up" Madame Rousseau said and I nodded.
"Can I use your station's phone for a second? I left all my belongings down at the track..." I asked and she nodded.
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redbullracing Due to personal circumstances, Charles Leclerc will not participate in today's Qualifying. This means he will start from the back of the grid for tomorrow's race.
