⌞ the chain ⌝

⌞ twenty-three : mending ⌝

"Eilulia Bianchi-Leclerc, you've just won your first race."

_

I couldn't stop shaking with excitement as I pulled into the P1 spot in the winner's circle. I got out of the car and ran straight over to where Damon was standing behind the wall. I jumped into his arm, getting patted on the back by the other engineers and the pit crew as I cried. It was happy tears.

"You did it, kid. You did it."

I couldn't stop crying long enough to say anything back. I wanted to thank him for believing in me, to thank him for being the person to push me, the person who stood up for me when it came down it it. And I wanted to thank the crew because they made this possible but all I got was Damon pushing me back to my car. I ran back over and got on top of it. I didn't have a celebration so I stole one of Seb's, holding up a one before pumping my fists.

After I finished, I got off my car and took off my helmet. My hair had to be a mess and I tried to pat some of it down so the cameras didn't make me look crazy. George was in P3 and I went to shake is hand.

"Good job. I would be pissed at you winning if you didn't beat Wright."

I snorted. "I was honestly pissed it took me that long to get around him."

"Well, as long as you keep winning, I don't think any of us will care."

He pulled me into a hug and I was surprised, but hugged him back. We had to be friends now. And I was happy about that. As much as I hated this many Brits around me, I could get used to having friends in this place. He let go after a second, walking over to celebrate with his team. And it left me alone for Jem to come up to me.

"You sure showed me, princess."

I rolled my eyes. "Can we drop that nickname?"

"You don't like it?"

"Is that not fucking obvious?"

He snorted. "Fair enough, I'll drop it. And you know, good job today."

"I- yeah, merci. You too."

"I knew it was a French accent I heard. You're related to Charles then?"

"Yeah." My voice was clipped. Everything came back to Charlie

"He's a prick, I think I like you a bit more."

_


"We couldn't be more proud of you, love. Toto made us sit down and watch the whole thing as if we weren't going to do it anyway."

I snorted as I sat next to Lando in the car taking us to the airport. Our next stop was Spielburg and I couldn't be more excited. Lando and I had agreed to play cards on the flight to pass the time but I wanted to catch up with Lewis since I knew we were both so busy.

"Everyone was there?"

"Sebastian, Kimi, Jenson, Nico, Daniel, Toto. Hell, even Roman was cheering you on."

The thought of all of them there always made me tear up again. "Tell Roman I say hi."

"Of course, love. And I'll make sure we can all watch the next one. Nico told me how much you wanted to beat that kid."

"He was actually not that awful after I won."

"Oh?"

I shrugged like he could see me and switched to French, not wanting to upset Lando with what I was going to say. And it's not like Lewis didn't know French. He had been quick to pick it up from all the times I called him in the middle of a panic attack, only being able to get French out.

"Il était respectueux. M'a félicité pour ma victoire. Il a parlé de Charles mais il a dit qu'il me préférerait mieux. Je pense que j'avais juste besoin de gagner son respect."
(He was respectful. Congratulated me on my victory. He talked about Charles but he said he would prefer me better. I think I just needed to earn his respect.)

"Well, maybe that's all he needed, Lils. He just needed to find some common ground between you two. That doesn't mean you got soft on him."

"Of course not. It just surprised me is all."

"I'm glad you haven't made any enemies yet. But keep racing. Don't let them tell you not to."

I snorted. "I promise."

"Good. I love you, have a safe flight, and text me when you land."

"I will. Love you too, Lew."

I hung up the phone right as we pulled up to the airport. Lando was engrossed with texting Alex and George but still made sure to help me out of the car, even if I didn't need him. I still made sure to thank him before we started walking.

"I sometimes forget you're French."

"Why is that?"

"You don't ever speak French."

I shrugged. "Do you know French?"

"No."

"Then I'm not going to speak in a language you don't understand. It's rude. I just needed to say something that only my dad would understand."

He nodded. "Your dad?"

"Well, I guess he's not really my dad. The person on the phone was Lewis Hamilton but he's like a father to me."

I watched as he whipped around, completely forgetting whatever conversation he was having with Alex and George. I was confused by the complete look of shock he was giving me.

"You know Lewis Hamilton?"

"Yeah?"

"You just became so much cooler."

I snorted as Lando rambled about how insanely cool Lewis was as we walked to the plane. I could only nod as he talked. It was slightly weird to see him going insane over someone I considered family. I understood that he was a legend in the Formula One world but it still surprised me when people started to talk about him like he wasn't just another person. He was like us except he had already gone through all of this. But I guess everyone had idols they looked up to. I just had the pleasure of calling them family.

I thought about bringing up the fact that I knew a lot of the grid and considered them to be family but I decided against it. I didn't want the entire flight to be Lando listing stats about my fathers. I'd seen them be real people and it was still weird to think about them as anything other than Seb and Kimi and Jen and Dani and Lew and Ni. They were just that in my mind. I knew they were crazy good and would go down in F1 history but they were just... them.

"Okay, what card game are we playing?"

I took the window seat, Damon sitting next to me. We were going to go over data on the flight as well but I wanted to play at least a few rounds before I got stuck in the awful world of numbers.

"Poker?"

"I don't know how to play."

"I'll teach you."

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a/n: well, we can hate jem a little less? you all are saying he's hot so many a redemption arc for him at some point? or maybe not. i know you're all here because you like the angst. i know that because you stayed after the japan chapters hehe. but as always, love it or don't :p