All of Me (Sebastian Vettel)

57. Suzukaraoke

A/N: a big thank you to SdeSenna who suggested this title to me as I was struggling so bad. This one's for you! And there's a song in there you may recognise 😉

"It's lights out and away we go!!"

Alyssa lifted her head and looked at the television screen.  She had lost track of time and hadn't realised it was time for the race to start. 

She watched nervously as the cars all raced down towards Turn 1.  Seb managed to keep the lead despite Charles pushing him hard.  Lance passed Carlos to take third.  Further back in the field  Mick Schumacher span.  He managed to get it facing the right way again and rejoined, albeit a dozen seconds behind NIcholas Latifi's Williams.

When everybody had completed the first lap unscathed she breathed a sigh of relief and headed into the kitchen to make a sandwich for her lunch. She opened the fridge and peered in to see what they had left. Not a lot by the look of it. The mechanics seemed to be extra hungry this weekend.

She pulled out a packet of cheese slices and a cucumber. "Cheese and cucumber it is," she muttered.

Five minutes later she was sat back out in the dining area eating her sandwich and watching Seb and Charles pull away from everyone else.

"He's got this in the bag!" Shannon said, sitting down next to her. Alyssa shrugged and took another bite of her sandwich. She was starving!

"Everything ok?" Shannon asked, sensing something was on Alyssa's mind.

"I think so. I guess."

"Want to talk about it?"

"Not really."

"I'm here if you change your mind."

Alyssa started thinking about the night they'd arrived in Japan. After that night things seemed to have returned to normal between her and Seb but she still couldn't completely shake the feelings of inadequacy. She'd not mentioned it to Seb as she didn't want to argue with him. He just didn't understand why she felt the things she felt. To him everything was black or white, no in between. To be honest she didn't even understand why she felt the way she felt either. He'd given her no reason to distrust to him.  She had to snap out of it and accept that Seb loved her.  Her, not Sienna.

After she'd finished her sandwich she got up and took her plate back through to the kitchen and put it in the dishwasher.  She heard a loud gasp from back out front.  She stuck her head out.

"What's happened?"

"Charles and Seb collided.  The silly twat tried to overtake Seb when he was too far back."   Alyssa's heart sank.   "Is he ok? Are they both out?"

"He's fine, still going but he's gonna need a new front wing.  Leclerc is out."

Alyssa stood and watched the incident being replayed.  Seb wasn't going to be very happy tonight.  Still, they were going out to celebrate Shannon's birthday, maybe a few drinks would cheer him up.  

She watched as he arrived in the pits.  The team quickly changed his front wing and sent him on his way.   He came out in thirteenth place.  If it hadn't been for the safety car he'd have been much further back, and at least he was still running. She watched on the screen as Charles Leclerc climbed into the back of the medical car. The television camera switched to show Mattia Binotto looking pissed off.

Alyssa thought she wouldn't want to be in Charles' shoes when he got back to the garage. The FIA were already investigating the incident.

The rest of the race was pretty uneventful. Seb managed a few overtakes and Tsunoda and Alonso both retired from the race, moving him up a couple more places. In the end he managed to finish in eighth. She knew he wouldnt be happy with that but at least it was points.