Lifeline (Sebastian Vettel)

Chapter 51: Closer

"What are you going to do with him?" Tully murmured to Heikki as she stood beside him at the kitchen bench, eyeing Seb's slumped form over the arm of the couch in the lounge area.

"Just ride it out really, we have to let his body... deal with it."

"He's suffering though." she replied vaguely.

Heikki glanced at his sister subtly. She had been watching Seb like a hawk ever since he'd arrived.

"He'll live, it's only food poisoning."

"He's going to need someone to, you know... keep an eye on him. Where the fuck is whatsername?"

"She isn't scheduled to be working right now."

"But she's on a trial and her potential, super high profile client is sick. Shouldn't she be doing everything possible to make an impression, or at least just be a decent human being?"

Heikki shrugged, taking a sip from a mug and wandering out of the kitchen.

Tully eyed him suspiciously, she was starting to get an overwhelming sense that there was something she wasn't being told about the whole Freya thing. She watched Heikki walk straight past Seb and head towards the dining table, sighing in disgust at his lack of empathy.

She filled a glass with water, adding a generous handful of ice cubes, before heading over to Seb.

"Hey. You need to keep drinking," she said softly, nudging his knee with her own.

He sat up abruptly, seeming somewhat dizzy as he looked between Tully's face and the glass she held out to him.

"Thanks Tul," he mumbled, taking the glass gingerly.

She sat down beside him, watching him cautiously as he took a sip, and then another.

"Need anything else?" she asked as he put the glass down on the coffee table in front of them.

He shook his head and groaned pitifully, making Tully feel worse and worse for him by the second. She couldn't stop herself from feeling like she wanted to help him, make him better somehow.

"If you throw up on the carpet Seb, not gonna lie, I'll be mad," Heikki commented, looking up from his laptop at the table.

"Heikki!" Tully growled, "You're not helping."

She watched as her brother shot her a smirk before going back to nursing his tea.

She managed to ignore his baiting, distracted in a timely fashion as Seb slumped against her side, resting his head on her shoulder with another groan. She placed her hand on his knee awkwardly, trying to offer some sort of feeble support.

"Tul, you hungry? I'm going to put dinner on in a minute," she heard Heikki ask from across the room after a minute or so.

"You need to go home Seb. The smell from his cooking is not going to help you," she murmured, ignoring her brother and turning her chin towards the German slumped against her. She could feel his hair tickling her jaw.

"I can't. There's no way I'm leaving this room tonight," he breathed, swallowing every few seconds as though it was only a matter of time.

Tully sighed quietly, "Alright. Just try to relax."

"Mhmm," he nodded. It seemed like every word was getting harder to speak.

"I don't want food," Tully finally replied to Heikki while watching Seb's limp hand. He'd begun to tremble faintly. "But can you bring over an ice pack and put something on the TV?"

"You don't want for much do you?" Heikki teased, seeming overly pleased for the circumstances.

"Bitte? I'm kind of pinned down at the moment," she replied, very aware of how tense Seb suddenly was.