Hopelessly Devoted ☆ Pierre Gasly

V

Pierre, Anthoine and Charles were having a casual conversation at the paddock of Monaco's circuit when Anthoine got distracted.

"What is Lulu doing here?" Anthoine blurted and tilted his head. "Is she part of the track crew now?" He squeezed his eyebrows together. "What is she doing with Lewis and his engineer?"

Pierre's eyes shot up, and he found Juliette walking towards the group; there she was again. "She works at Mercedes? I saw her in Barcelona two weeks ago for the first time."

"Yeah, she works for Mercedes F1 team, but at the office. I don't know what she's doing here, I'm so confused." Anthoine crossed his arms in front of his chest. "What the heck."

"I've no idea, to be honest," Pierre replied and looked away as soon she walked closer to them.

Anthoine smiled at Juliette. "Salut, ça va?"

"Ça va bien. Et toi?" She gave Anthoine a wide smile, also giving Pierre and Charles the same kind of smile.

"Tout va bien," he replied. Juliette walked away and continued talking to Lewis Hamilton. "This is awkward," Anthoine muttered when he saw how uncomfortable Pierre was feeling. "So she's part of the Mercedes track crew now. I'm going to look this up, I need to know what she's doing here."

Charles had a quick glance at the woman named Juliette. "Who is this girl?"

"Juliette Reynolds," Pierre sighed. "We were classmates for a year. Anthoine, another girl named Sara, Juliette and I had a tight friendship. We were part of a mixed sport class, people between fifteen and eighteen years old, so we could focus on our career and still graduate."

"Wait, is she that girl from six years ago? Who visited your races a few times?" Charles asked, and continued asking questions when Pierre nodded. "Ah, okay. But if Juliette is an athlete, what is she doing at Mercedes in the crew wear?" He curiously asked.

"I have no idea. I haven't spoken to her since the moment she left after we all got in a fight with her," Pierre explained.

Anthoine looked up from his phone. "You and Sara got in a fight with Lulu, not me. We're still friends, just saying," he defended herself. "Lulu is an engineer. She studied at Oxford University; Computer Sciences, interned at Mercedes, had multiple courses and is an engineer at Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team," he read from his phone, giving Pierre and Charles some background information. "At the last race in Barcelona, she replaced a colleague and worked as the Performance Engineer on Lewis Hamilton's team. And this week again," he read from a post.

"How do you know all of this?" Pierre looked on Anthoine's phone. "You know she can see that you watched her LinkedIn profile, right?"

"I know, and I don't care."

Pierre looked perplexed. "She's a support assistant performance engineer... She really made a 180º turn. For some reason I was always surprised to see how she ruined her life, but not her school results. And it shows now."

"Not to be rude, but being a performance engineer takes all the steps you named," Charles stirred with the confusedness of Pierre and Anthoine.

Pierre nodded. "Yeah, but not for someone who won one golden and one silver medal at the European Speed Skating Championship," he annoyedly shot back. "What the fuck is she doing here as a performance engineer at Mercedes?" For some reason, he got frustrated by it, it was a question he didn't get an answer to it.

"Oh right, that's true."

"Anthoine, you remember Juliette told her dad worked in the motorsport world and that she knew Schumacher? Turns out her dad is Edward Reynolds, my team manager, and former team manager of Schumacher when he raced for Ferrari and Mercedes." Pierre really was annoyed by the situation. All the hate and irritations he had six years ago, started all over again.

"Yeah, I know. It's still a huge surprise to me when she told me she was part of Mercedes and F1, besides her dad's career. She had like this good career in sports."

Pierre frowned. "Why didn't you tell me about this? I have been working together with her dad for what...six months now?"

"Yeah," Anthoine shrugged. "Guess so."

"Keep me posted about it, I'm really curious about this now," Charles said like he was in for the tea. "A speed skater with medals as a performance engineer at Mercedes..."

"Let me tell you this, Julie was at the barbecue this weekend in Rouen, and she had a massive fight with her mother, in front of everyone," Pierre told. "I never liked her mother, but I'm afraid she isn't the person who we think she is. Why else would she fall out on her daughter? There must be a reason for that."

"Ow. What was the fight about?" Anthoine curiously asked. He knew Juliette and her mother didn't have the best relationship, but that was all.

Pierre was shaking his head. "About her dad, I believe. I didn't really pay attention to it, not until Julie walked away and left."

☐

"You know those guys?" Lewis Hamilton asked Juliette, disorientated. "Gasly, Leclerc, Hubert?" They entered the hospitality of Mercedes and walked towards Lewis' room.

Juliette faked a smile on her face. "I know Gasly, we used to go to school together. Hubert is a good friend of mine," she explained. Lewis' engineer had to go back to the garage, so it was only Lewis and Juliette now. "Haven't spoken to Gasly in a while, though. And Leclerc...don't know him, to be honest. He is more a friend of a friend."

Lewis softly smirked. "I see."

"Anyway, enjoy your break, and I will see you in an hour." Her fake smile turned into a genuine smile. "It's okay to feel down, we will push you through this dark weekend," she comforted her driver and leaned against the doorpost.

"Thanks, it means a lot," he replied and gave her a weak smile. "It will never be the same without Niki."

Juliette nodded. "It never will be. Anyway, I will see you in an hour, and if you need me or someone else, just call us," she said and pointed to the transceiver.

"Honestly, Juliette, you are the light in our team. You really push us through this tough weekend, and you're trying to keep everybody positive. And if it isn't with words, it is your smile," Lewis thanked her. He and his team were really struggling with the sudden death of Niki Lauda.

"Thank you," she softly smiled. "Just trying to make the best of it."

"It is really appreciated by everyone."

Juliette plucked her nails and looked next to her in the hallway, more people were on a small break. "Anyway, enjoy your break," she smiled and walked away, back towards the garage to analyse the last bot of the data of the free practice.