Connections (F1 story)

Chapter Forty Nine: Turbulence

Since missing Monza I had made a full recovery- however, much to Paul's distress, I couldn't go to the gym and that meant he was working Daniel doubly hard to compensate.

The heat in Singapore was a sticky, humid heat- the kind I hated. And it wasn't sunny. It was anything but, and very so often it would absolutely tip it down before claps of thunder echoed around the small island.

I still loved the place though, it was immaculate and friendly. Not to mention modern and the food was ridiculously cheap. I had already been there four times this year; it was more than Daniel had been back to Australia.

I was feeling better and after being introduced to Sara's new born over Skype, I was given another few days to work from Daniel's apartment. I was still recovering and had been told sternly by a number of people not to overdo it.

So, from my week in Keynes with Daniel (and Paul giving me continuous life advice) and a visit from my parents, it was back on another plane, to another continent. Asia.

Since the Singapore Grand Prix was added to the calendar it had remained one of my favourites, purely down to what appeared to be the spectacular atmosphere. The track was demanding: the number of corners and concentration it required was phenomenal. But the drivers loved it. And it was a night race which made it even better.

Boarding the plane at Heathrow and making our way down to the business class part of the cabin, it had become apparent to me that something was going on between Paul and Lizzie. She had only been round to Daniel's whilst Paul was out and when I tried to question her on the matter, she simply changed the subject.

The blonde belted up next to Christian as I desperately tried to avoid his eye line; thank goodness Geri was already out there and meeting him that evening. Then again, that didn't exactly stop him last time.

I attempted to place my bag in the overhead locker but doing so caused my still bruised abdomen to cramp up. It was getting better, just it was taking its time. The scar looked lovely...it didn't put Daniel off though.

"There you go, Saskia...shouldn't Daniel be doing this?" The team principal took the holdall from me and put it in the cabin compartment, chuckling as he did so. Nothing malicious was meant by it.

I mustered enough courage to thank him; the Australian men had only just got on the plane.

"Are you sure that you're feeling alright?" Ricciardo asked as Christian finally took his seat. He only peered over once...twice at least.

"Yeah, yeah fine." I had been feeling great up until then. I knew I needed to snap out of it. Fast.

"Good, please no fainting, or throwing up, if you can help it." Daniel smiled and then sat down in his seat making sure he had his earphones and an inflight magazine- he never properly read it, just flicked through the pages making occasional remarks about how good the food looked, whilst his personal trainer gave him the evils.

"I can't promise anything." I laughed back and shuffled into my seat. The take off time was a bitch this side but at least it meant it would be evening time when arriving at Changi. Although you were effectively losing a whole day travelling. Luckily though, this plane had Wi-Fi, which meant I could begin to respond to my hundreds of emails. Bonus.

"I've got sick bags!" Paul remarked and took the seat next to me. He had a stack of meal plans and graphs to analyse. Definitely hands down favoured my job.

The safety announcements were played through the TV screens in front and I prepared myself for a thirteen hour flight, the pilot had already been on the speaker to warn us of turbulence. But with the expression etched across Lizzie's face, I didn't think that it was going to be the case for just the weather. It was certainly going to be bumpy in more ways than one.