Deals with Daisy // LN4

53 ~ Mercy

Lando's POV

"Daisy..."

I don't think I've ever felt my heart break like this before. Ever. Sochi, Spa, Silverstone. None of them could even come close to comparing her in front of me right now, tears on her cheeks despite her many attempts to wipe them away. I can't read her face still though. Not even when Luke whispers something in her ear, her face is blank but she flinches away from the words, as though he's found the perfect sweet spot in her back to stab a knife and twist it until it hurts just bad enough to call mercy.

I hope she calls it.

I don't care about most things but I do want her off the balcony and away from the eyes and cameras that have probably already caught onto her and Luke up here already. She's biting down on her lip as she checks behind her and she seems to be on the same wavelength as me, slowly stepping towards me as I take a couple of steps towards her and put my arm around her shoulders, bringing her back inside, to safety.

"I want to go home," she whispers into my chest, the words just loud enough for me to hear them and I want to do just that but I don't. I can't. It takes everything in me but when Elena's hand reaches out to my back I'm reminded that I can't just give into her right now. No matter the small fact I would do quite literally anything she asked as long as she could convince me she would give up all the bad things she currently relies on. I think she knows that. The question is whether or not she can convince me. If she can convince herself.

This should have been one of the best days of my life, I just won Monaco, I should be on top of the word but my mind was totally somewhere else. Throughout the whole of today, throughout the whole race - I was distracted. I think it helped me find the sweet spot with the racing, like when I had the flu in Monaco and got my first podium here. The muscle memory took over and it worked for me. I drove a faultless race. I played the part, I was happy but I was focused on the girl in my arms right now. I was perfect but I didn't care.

Elena and Luke following behind us as we go inside to regroup for a minute. There's an awful and awkward silence that ensues immediately as Luke and Elena stand off to the side and Daisy goes to burry her face in my chest more completely but I move away before she can, placing my hands behind my back, gripping tight just to stop myself from reaching out for her, especially when her eyes meet mine and she looks as though she's about to break in two.

For a moment there's a real emotion, a flash of hurt as she stands alone, facing the three of us. I run my hand through my hair before feeling Elena subtly slip her hand into mine in a way that means Daisy won't see how much I need someone right now. How much I need help hiding the way that my hands are shaking, my actions going against every instinct I have to protect Daisy. To promise her the world is going to get better. I have no words as I look at her and so it's Elena that speaks up.

"Are you high right now?" She asks, her voice even and when Daisy looks to me for help, I'm a coward, looking down at the floor because I have nothing to say to her. I have no words, I have nothing kind to say, nothing nurturing, nothing funny. I can't even figure out which way is up and so I'm not here to help her, I need her to help me. "Daisy..."

"Fuck off Elena," my head snaps up and I see a version of the red head I've not seen before. She looks so completely different to anything I've ever seen before. Entirely different to the girl that was in front of us just a moment. Somehow, despite it being three of us confronting little old her, it feels like the other way around as she goes on the attack, her face as vicious as her tone. "Seriously just fuck off - what are you even doing here? Just-"

"Don't," I hear my voice cut across her words and her head snaps to me and I see the vicious look in her eyes and on her face. I lick my dry lips, what I'm sure could be excused as from the race but I know it's not. It's the fear I have, the hate of confrontation, my body begging me to flee because I don't know what to do. I don't have any more words, I'm surprised I even found that one to stop her from saying anything she would regret later.