Everything Changed- Carlos Sainz

17. It's been a long day

"How are you feeling?" Georgie asked quietly, letting herself into Carlos's drivers room at the end of the first practice session.

She'd been stood in the garage watching with his Dad, and the second the session was over Carlos had taken off back to the hospitality area without even stopping to speak to either of them.

He didn't really answer her question, but the little groan from him was enough of an answer for her. He was lying on the small sofa, curled up into a ball and his face screwed up in pain.

"Carlos." She sighed, lifting his head up just enough so she could sit down, resting it in her lap. "Are you going to let me take you to the hospital now?"

As she laid her hand on his forehead she could already tell his fever had got worse, despite all the medication he'd been taking.

"I'll be fine." He mumbled. "One more session and then we'll go and they can give me better drugs."

"I really don't think you should be driving like this." She shook her head. "There's no way you can concentrate properly when you feel like this."

"I'll be fine when I take some more medication."
He disagreed. "Did I not do a good job earlier?"

"You did." She agreed reluctantly, although her heart had been in her mouth the entire time he'd been on the track. "But you're going far too fast and getting a little bit too close to the walls for someone who looks like they're about to pass out."

"I'm fine." He protested.

"Have you eaten anything at all today?" She asked.

"You can't throw up if you don't eat anything." He sighed, as though he'd found some kind of clever loophole.

"You're impossible, you do know that?" She sighed.

"But you love me anyway." Carlos mumbled.

"Get some sleep, I'll wake you up in a bit and we'll get you some more medication and see how you look then." She told him, knowing she wasn't going to win the argument, not yet at least. At least if he was asleep he'd stop coming out with these things that she wasn't entirely sure if he meant or it was just the fever talking.

He was sound asleep before she'd even finished her sentence, and stayed there until she woke him an hour before the start of the second practice session.

"Carlos, come on." She gave him a shake. "It's time to get up."

He groaned, clutching at his stomach again. "Five more minutes."

"You need to sit up and take the medication, drink something and then you can lie back down for a bit longer." She argued. "If you don't take it now it's not going to work in time for you to get in the car."

"Fine." He sighed, lifting his head just enough for her to slide out from underneath him and grab the pills and a bottle of energy drink off the counter.

"You need to drink the whole thing." She shook her head at him as a took a mouthful and then tried to hand the bottle back to her.

He looked like he was going to argue for a moment, but unscrewed the cap and drank the rest of the drink without saying anything.

"Thank you, now lay down and get some rest." She watched for a second as he laid back down, then headed downstairs to get herself some lunch, her stomach growling.

"How's he doing?" Charles asked as she sat down with him and Alex. "He looked awful earlier."

"Not good, but still insistent he's going to be fine for the next session." Georgie sighed.