Deals with Daisy // LN4

64 ~ Best Coffee in the Paddock

PSA - I posted this chapter too early! So please make sure you have read chapter 63 ~ Cows before this one! Thank you!

Lando's POV

I can't help but be mesmerised. Ever since I caught a glimpse of her on one of the screens around the track, it was like every cell in my body slipped back into place. The car no longer felt foreign like it had since I got back in it on Friday but as though it was an extension of my mind and my hands while I pulled it around the track for the remaining laps of my run as fast as I could, desperate that I might be able to get to the garage before the mirage of her disappeared. I couldn't believe it when Elliot confirmed that it was her and I knew that people would be talking but I couldn't care. Even now as I walk beside her in the paddock, aware of all the eyes on us for many reasons, I don't care. I just let myself freely look over at her as she reads out some message from her phone to me, although I don't really hear what she's saying as I instead look at her lips moving, my hand on her lower back to reassure myself that she's real as everything else fades into the background.

It occurred to me quite quickly that the reason for her appearance here wasn't entirely for me, but it was perhaps self preservation. That she needed to work to distract her body and her mind from convincing her of the need for something else. So for many reasons, I'm glad that she's here. So I don't mind, just watching her, occasionally reaching out and around her to stop her from walking into someone as we went on our way through the paddock at various stages throughout the day. Even when I'm in my media interviews, my eyes are stuck on her face as I try to answer questions about how on earth I managed to put it on pole after two days of not being able to connect with the car.

"I suppose it's just that when it counted, I was able to bring it all together. Free practices had been a little messy, heh, but sometimes you need that to find the edge. The team did a great job with the car and I'm glad that I could put it where it deserved, but the points are tomorrow and so there's still a lot to be decided but I'm hopeful that I've made it a little easier for myself. Besides, I have the promise of summer break at the end of it all and it's a rest period I need more than normal this year, so trust me when I say I'll be trying to finish the race in record time. Trying to keep my head on the race week in and week out when every race really matters is draining so part of me wants to drive fast just so I can call it a day as soon as possible. Plus, it's extra long this year - five weeks total so we actually get four whole weeks off. I don't have too many other endorsements to follow through on so I'm very ready to just go and relax - ideally with another win under the belt," I assure the interviewer who smiles in agreement and thanks me for my time. It was the chattiest I've been all weekend, no need to ask me any follow up questions as I had volunteered the information for once. It takes me a moment to move on to the next interview, distracted by the fact that Daisy is now talking and laughing with Toto in the paddock but Bex just gently guides me to Sky where I basically repeat the same sentiments I had just shared with the previous interviewer, continually glancing off to the side of the camera as I saw her relaxing, looking like an angel in white as she relaxed.

The pair are still talking several minutes later when I'm done with my interviews, not getting quiet when I approach and they both smile at me, not stopping their conversation just because of my presence. "-maybe you can take Mick?" I hear Daisy suggest and raise my eyes as I put my arm around her shoulders, unable to help myself even as she scrunches her nose at the sweaty race suit I'm still currently wearing. I can't stop myself though, desperate to keep a hand on her at all times as though to reassure myself that she is real. She is here.

She is okay.

"You discussing my replacement option?" I ask the pair and she nods, both of us looking towards Toto who is still just smiling at us, shrugging his shoulders.