Hopelessly Devoted ☆ Pierre Gasly

XXVI

Juliette ran away from the engineering's office and wiped away that tear off her cheek. Stay strong, keep it together. She almost lost her balance when she stepped outside, but it didn't give her a kick.

"Is the debrief finished yet?"

"I...I don't know," she whispered, more to herself than the colleague who asked the question.

Without waiting for a response, Juliette walked away. It was silence in the paddock, something that was very rare. She parted her lips and looked around her; the news hit everyone. Goosebumps spread over her body again. A dark curse was resting on the paddock. She looked around again; she was lost. Her heartbeat started to rise in her chest, and her breath had a quick pace.

Her legs started to move. Everything was in a haze; nothing entered Juliette's head anymore. She walked down the paddock, passing many people, including drivers from F2, who just heard the news. Her jaw clenched, Juliette tried everything to not break into tears. She grabbed her other hand and squeezed hard in it. Someone yelled her name, but she didn't react to it.

Juliette walked on the stairs, pressed on a button and the glass door shoved open. It was busy, this facility was filled with people.

"Miss, you don't have access to this facility," a friendly female voice said when an employee of Mercedes entered the Toro Rosso facility.

"Je dois le voir," Juliette said and cleared her throat. "I have to see Pierre," she repeated in English and looked at the woman.

The woman could read the sadness off Juliette's face. "He's in the debrief, I'm sorry."

"For how long?"

"I'm not sure. Perhaps fifteen minutes, maybe longer."

Juliette nodded and took a deep breath. "I will wait outside. I'm sorry for the inconvenience." Her eyes became glazed with a glassy layer of tears. She looked up and blinked a couple times. "Thanks," she muttered.

"You can wait here," the woman said and gave Juliette a comforting smile.

"Thank you," Juliette said and walked over to a sofa, which looked like a waiting area.

She sat down for at least one minute before she got up again. There was no patience to sit still on a sofa. Her head began to hurt, her muscles were working hard to prevent her from crying. Juliette was walking back and forth in front of the sofa, catching herself snapping her knuckles again.

How could this happen? How did it go so tremendously wrong someone died? Why Anthoine? And how is Correa doing? Is he alright, or is he going to die as well? Was there-

"Juliette."

Her eyes shot up. It was Pierre's brother, Philippe. She pressed her jaws on each other and held in her breath.

"I'm so sorry," he softly said and walked over to Juliette. He wrapped his arms around her and comforted her. "I'm sorry."

"I don't want it to be true," Juliette whispered, broken.

"Me neither," he whispered and rubbed her back.

Her eyes closed. "Does Pierre know it?"

"No, not yet," Philippe replied. "Come. You shouldn't be alone," he said and pulled back. "I'm so sorry, Jules."

She was shaking her head and looked down. Juliette followed Philippe to the back of the facility. It was always a surprise to see how huge those facilities actually were. Unfortunately, Juliette got stopped by someone else in the Toro Rosso team. Philippe managed to talk out of this situation and brought Juliette over to an area with Pierre's family.