What the *** is a kilometer?

~21~

POV Lizzy: 

With tears in my eyes I watched Alex's crash, Lily was brought outside by people from the team, she completely panicked when he didn't react immediately. The session is red flagged and the Marshall's are now doing their best to get Alex out of the car while the medical team's car is on its way at high speed to catch him, the rest of the cars are driven back to their garage boxes and the drivers get out. Logan comes to me after a while and takes me into his dressing room, my hands are shaking and I can't say a word.

"Babe, he's okay, he's out of the car." Logan's words partially pass me by. "Babe, he's okay." The second time he says it, I come out of my shock. "Richard!" is the first thing I manage to say. "Richard?" "The software, Logan! There's a bug in the software!" "Are you sure? I didn't have any problems, I just thought everything went a lot easier than the races I've driven before." "Alex had your update. I'm sure." Logan puts an arm around my shoulders. "How can you be sure, Liz? There is absolutely no evidence to support that accusation." He whispers to me. I try not to get angry and somewhere I know that Logan is right, but I am sure that this has something to do with the software.

Logan has decided not to get into his car after Alex's crash, there will be a briefing after the race about how this could have happened and how Alex is doing now. "What about the software, Richard?" I ask before James has a chance to continue. "There's nothing wrong with my software!" he says indignantly. "Prove it!" I get defensive because I know for a fact that he had something to do with this and that it was probably done on the orders of someone close to him or he's being paid extra for it. "Fine, I can show you exactly how what happened today is not a glitch in the system." I see Richard opening some programs on his laptop and James watching with him. "The data seems fine Lizzy." I try to hold back when James talks, in frustration I dig my nails into my leg hard to keep myself occupied, I know for sure Richard has something to do with this, but okay, am I going to prove it?

POV Logan:

I try to calm Lizzy down, we go outside and she's almost screaming, everyone in the paddock is looking at her, I understand that she's angry, but without proof we can't do anything. "Liz, please, everyone is looking at you!" She doesn't seem to care and walks off the track. "Liz! You can't just walk away every time." These words seem to do something to her because she suddenly stops. "Logan, you don't get it! How am I supposed to live my life if I always feel like I have to look back with every step I take? How am I supposed to pretend that nothing is wrong and that nothing happened to Alex that probably should have happened to your car, please explain to me how I can go on like this!" Tears well up in her eyes, but she tries to swallow them back. I search for the right words to say to her, but they aren't there. "Tell me, how long are we going to keep this up?" She asks in a softer voice. I shrug, not really knowing what to do at this point.

I will honestly be relieved when we are on the plane back home tomorrow, maybe Lily can talk to Lizzy when they get home, or maybe one of her other friends. She needs a distraction and I am not the one who can give her what she needs right now, I am trying to be there for her but at the same time I am the one who is in the same drama.

When Lizzy goes to see Lily and Alex that evening to see how Alex is and to tell her her story, I decide to retreat for a while and do something for myself, I go to the hotel lobby to ask for Richard's room number, the lady behind the desk naturally asks why and I explain that he works for the same team and that I had forgotten where he was staying. I get his room number and without thinking I decide to go to him, I want to know what this man knows about Lizzy and why he is bothering her so much.

As I get into the elevator I realize that I am not as brave as I told myself I was, I look at myself in the mirror of the elevator and try to talk myself into being brave, I need to know what is going on between Lizzy and Richard and I also want to know if Lizzy's suspicions could be true. I get off the elevator and take a deep breath as I walk slowly to Richard's room, when I get there I knock hard on his door. "Just a minute! I'm coming!" I hear him say from the other side, trying to control my nerves and certainly not to show what I am actually doing here, I am just here to talk about work and I already know exactly how I am going to do that.

POV Richard:

"Dominic I have to hang up there is someone at my door." Without waiting for an answer I hang up and walk to the door, opening it to see Logan standing there. "Logan what can I do for you?" I ask him nicely. "I actually wanted to come by today and talk about my car software, do you have a moment?" I nod and let him in. "Would you like a glass of whiskey as well?" I ask as I pour myself a glass. "A drink wouldn't hurt today, I could certainly use one." I smile friendly as I hand him a glass and take a seat at the table next to him. "You had questions about the car software?" "Yes, today my car drove the best I have ever driven with the car, what exactly was adjusted?" I slide my laptop over to where I can quickly pull up all of today's data. I explain what I did and he seems to be listening.

After a while I see a popup that says, *James Vowles has updated a document.* I try to push it away as fast as I can and pretend it didn't happen, but unfortunately Logan saw it. "What is this?" I sigh audibly and quickly come up with a lie. "James and I share a workspace, so when he saves something, I get a notification, so we don't have to talk on the phone unnecessarily and we can both continue to work calmly even though we're at a considerable distance from each other." Personally, I think my explanation comes across as professional, but I still don't see the doubt disappearing from Logan's face.

"Did you have any more questions tonight?" I'm really getting tired of him, especially since I didn't even get to finish my conversation with Dominic. "Actually yes, but this isn't really work related anymore, this is about Lizzy." I raise an eyebrow, I didn't see that coming. "What about Lizzy?" "How long have you known her? And what's the status of your relationship?" The questions overwhelm me a bit, so before I start talking I take another sip of my whiskey to buy some time. "Lizzy and I met through Dominic's now apparently ex-boyfriend, because I think you're having a thing with her now. Lizzy and Dominic were quite young when they started dating, he was still working as a security guard at a club where I was working as a bartender to save up some money for the education I was going to get to do this job." I let a moment of silence pass to see if he's really paying attention, trying to get my story across as best I can. "Dominic and I became friends because we both liked to go to the gym and did so regularly, I had never met Lizzy at the time, but Dominic had told me a lot of stories about her and how she was working on getting a degree in studio management so she could open her own clothing store with her own made clothes later on. When I met Lizzy after a while she was a completely different person than she is now, she was an open book, a nice appearance to look at. I helped her set up her first website and did some marketing for her, all in all our relationship was purely business". "Did something happen after that, why are you treating each other like this now?" I shrug and smile a little. "Dominic thought I was spending too much time with her and that's where things went wrong between me and Lizzy but also between her and Dominic, I didn't know before that he was so jealous but he was my best friend at that time and yes I didn't want to lose him. I distanced myself from them and not much later when I went to work somewhere else I heard that Dominic had had an accident, I spoke to him occasionally but he didn't sound like himself anymore". I take the last sip of my whiskey and try to end this conversation as quickly as possible and convince Logan that my contact with Dominic has completely faded. "Dominic had started to shut himself off from the world and became angry at everything he saw as injustice, he lost his friends, his patience but ultimately the battle with himself and on top of it all the love of his life, Lizzy meant a lot to him, I knew him from the past, he proved to me the complete opposite of how I knew him, the man he once was no longer exists, this is also the reason why he and I no longer have contact". Logan nods in satisfaction as I finish, I see him take a breath to ask another question, but before he can do so, I pretend to yawn very hard. "Man, look at the time, I have to catch a plane tomorrow and I think you do too. Should we continue this conversation some other time?" I stand up and Logan follows my lead, walking to the door and quickly leading him outside, letting the door close behind me with a sigh of relief as I watch him head for the elevator.