"I'm home!" Tom called cheerfully as he walked through the front door of the house he and Aimee shared. "You missed such a good race, the party afterwards was honestly insane. Oscar bought us all drinks for his first podium and..." he trailed off as he walked into the living room.
Aimee was sat on the sofa, propped up awkwardly on a mound of pillows, bag of frozen peas resting against the swelling on her collar bone that still wouldn't go down. She shuffled awkwardly, trying to turn to face him, laptop sliding off her lap. "I'm sorry I couldn't come and pick you up. I've had so much work to do."
"It's okay, one of the boys gave me a lift back." He shrugged. "That doesn't look any better?"
"It's fine." She brushed it off. She was in fact fairly sure it was broken, when she'd been brave enough to touch it there were definitely two separate parts she could feel moving under the skin. But denial was the best policy she'd decided, so she kept icing it and ignoring it in the hope it would go away.
She had considered going to get it xrayed, but it would lead to questions about the mechanism of injury and the rest of her medical record. She'd decided to just rest it and hope it got better on its own in the end.
"Have you had it looked at?" Tom asked, reaching over to pull her top down a little so he could see it properly.
Aimee tried to stay still, resisting the urge to shift out of arms reach. "It's fine, really." She caught his hand with her still working arm and gently guided his fingers away from her collar bone, knowing she'd be screaming in pain if his fingers even brushed over if. "Tell me about the race."
"I missed you." Tom groaned, kicking off his shoes and putting his feet up on the coffee table as he sunk further into the sofa. "Like really, really missed you."
"I missed you too." Aimee smiled softly, resting her head on his shoulder.
"You know I love you, right?" Tom whispered. "I'm sorry, for everything. This... things are going to change. I'll get myself sorted. I promise."
"It's okay, I'm here. I love you." Aimee reassured him. "Now, tell me about the race."
This was her downfall. For everything that had gone on between her and Tom, she'd get these glimpses of the man she'd met and fallen in love with, these little glimpses that convinced her that maybe everything was going to be okay.
****
The rest of her team had come back as excited by the race as Tom had. It had been a great weekend for the team by all accounts, both drivers on the podium and scoring plenty of points.
It left lots to be done by the social media team to mark the occasion. They had both drivers returning to MTC for a de brief with the team and to bring their trophies and have a small celebration.
"You alright with that?" A voice asked behind her as Aimee struggled to navigate her way through the main hall at MTC with a box of plastic champagne flutes for the celebrations.
"I've got it, thanks." She forced an awkward smile as the man she recognised as being Lando's trainer and physio. She went to raise her injured arm to hit the button to call the lift, the good arm supporting the box, but couldn't raise it high enough. Her face contorted in pain for a moment as she tried.
"Give me that." Jon plucked the box out of her hands, shaking his head at her. "What have you done?" He gestured to her arm.
"I think I might've broken my collarbone." She admitted sheepishly as she stepped into the lift with him. "I thought it was going to settle down a lot quicker than it has."
"Where's your sling? You're surely not supposed to be lugging boxes around with it?" Jon frowned at her.
The lift doors opened and she held her hands out as best as she could to take the box from him again but he just shook his head and gestured for her to lead the way.
"It's fine." She dismissed him, pointing to the table where the drinks were being poured. "I don't even know if it's actually broken."
"Do you need her for the next ten minutes?" He asked Tracey as he deposited the box on the table in front of her. "Aimee has hurt her shoulder and I said we'd have a look at it for her if you can spare her for ten minutes?"
"I'm sure we can spare her." Tracey looked back and forth between Jon and Aimee with confusion for a moment before she went back to pouring drinks. "You should've said Aimee, we could've got someone else to sort the boxes!"
"It's fine, really Tracey. I'm fine." Aimee protested.
"Come with me, then." Jon instructed, striding off in the direction of the physio offices.
"This is ridiculous." Aimee grumbled, following after him reluctantly. "Have you really got nothing better to do?"
"Lando's not here yet." Jon chuckled. "When he gets here I'll go back to annoying him. That is my primary role around here."
"I can see why he complains about you." She retorted, following him into the office and sitting down.
"You can complain about me too next time you see him." Jon joked. "Come on, show me the damage."
Aimee wriggled awkwardly trying to free her arm from her shirt unsuccessfully. She couldn't lift her arm above waist height and had made Tom help her get dressed that morning so she wasn't quite sure how she was now going to manage this.
"Stay still, I'll help you. Okay?" Jon offered quietly.
Aimee nodded in agreement, biting on her lip to keep from yelling in pain as he slowly manoeuvred her arm out of the sleeve of her shirt until he could look at it properly.
To his credit, when she hesitantly met his eye, his face remained neutral. He took her arm by the elbow and gently moved it back and forth a little to assess the range of movement, fingers skimming gently over the raised, bruised area on her clavicle.
"How did you do this?" He asked quietly, quickly removing his hand as Aimee hissed in pain.
"Do you think it's broken?" She asked, changing the subject.
"I think you probably ought to go and get it xrayed, but yes." He agreed, helping her to slowly manoeuvre her arm back into her shirt. "How long ago did you do it?"
Aimee was quiet for a moment. "It was just before everyone left for the race so coming up for two weeks ago I guess."
"Is it getting any better?"
"It's fine, barely hurts at all." Aimee tried to brush him off, but he didn't miss the way she winced as she moved. "I should get back. Those champagne glasses won't fill themselves!"
"Will you please humour me and get someone to look at it properly after work?" Jon asked. "This is hardly my area of expertise."
"I will if you pretend we never had this conversation?" Aimee countered. She was on her feet and heading for the door before he could say anything else.
YOU ARE READING
Stay With Me- Lando Norris
Fanfiction*Completed* After discovering that one of his coworkers is in a desperate situation, Lando makes it his mission to try and help her. Except she doesn't want his help, and does everything she can to push him away.
