Crash

Nationals Part 1

Penelope didn't sleep the entire week leading up to Nationals. Every time she closed her eyes, she was in the rink, the crowd waiting with baited breath as she took her starting position. She'd force herself awake, staring into the darkness until Charles told her to go back to sleep.

It had only gotten worse once he'd left for Miami. Penelope refused to call him at night when she couldn't sleep, not wanting to bother him with her newfound insomnia when he had training to do the next morning. Miami was more demanding in terms of PR than he was used to, and she could tell it was grating at him. The race atmosphere could only be described as American, and as much fun as it was, it was also exhausting. When they did speak, he'd tell her of the adventures he and Carlos had been on that day, the people they'd met and the things they'd done. So far, he'd played baseball with the greats, shot a segment for Drive to Survive, and spent hours in the meeting room trying to come up with strategy for the race.

"Sounds like you've been a busy guy," she told him last night, the TV on in the background, playing a set of scenes for her show that Li had sent through for her to go over. "How did it go with the show team? Talk about anything interesting?"

Penelope could almost picture him smiling. "We spoke about you, actually."

"Good things?"

"Of course. I showed them my kangaroo, and they seemed to really like it."

"You took it with you?" Penelope asked, her hand over her heart. She hadn't realised he'd actually brought it with him to Miami, but the idea of him having that piece of her there when she couldn't be herself made her feel miles better.

"I did. It's living in my car. Can't come along for the race, but I made a deal with Will and he promised to look after it for me while I'm on the track."

"Will always saves the day."

"He does...ah, shit. I have to go. Someone's knocking on my door. I'll call back?"

Penelope tried her best not to sound disappointed. "Oh, sure. Speak later."

"Mmhm. Love you."

"Love you, too. Bye."

Penelope had glanced at the clock - 9pm. Great. Anyone knocking on her boyfriend's door at this time was probably not work related. It could be hours before she heard from him again. Fortunately for her, when her phone rang at 3am, she was still awake.

"Hello?" she said softly as she answered, expecting a level response from a tired Charles, probably half asleep and full of apologies for not calling her back earlier. What she got was quite the opposite.

The other end of the line was noisy, so loud she could barely make out a voice amongst the drone of the music. To make things worse, the voice she could make out wasn't even his.

"Ah!" a familiar male voice called, a female laughing in the background. "Penelope! My friend, I miss you!"

Penelope blinked, a migraine-like pain starting at the front of her skull. "Uh...who is this?"

"It's me!"

Realisation dawned on her as she nodded along. "Pierre?"

"There you go! Hey, how come you're not in Miami? Come onnn, come to Miami with us!"

"Not this week, Pierre. Is Charles there?"

"Oh yes. I'm trying to get him to ah, loosen up a little."

"That's great. Can you put him on the phone?"

There was a scuffle as Penelope waited, hearing someone ask for the phone as Pierre said no. Eventually, she heard a string of curses in French before someone spoke again.