Something Gained

Chapter Seventy-Five

It was a very busy week for me for the penultimate race of the season. I was fully shadowing Hannah to make sure I had everything good for next season, when I took over her job. Although I would have her to rely on at the start of the next season back in England, come April I would be on my own. But I was excited, I knew I could do it. So whenever I wasn't with Lando and Daniel ensuring all their media duties were complete, I was with Hannah, which meant I spent less time around the garage and around the guys in general.
"I'm gonna go and get us lunch, then we'll continue. You need to eat" I told Hannah, as I finished off the email I was writing. She nodded and I left our office and down to the cafeteria of the McLaren building.
"Hey stranger" I heard Lando's voice behind me, I turned and saw him standing with Daniel. "Wow you look shattered" he said, giving me a side hug
"Thanks" I laughed. I probably did, between jetlag, the house stuff we were sorting and the workload I was. But it was all worth it, and although I was tired, I wasn't sad or bored or annoyed. I loved my job
"I didn't mean it like that, are you okay?" Lando asked
"Yeah, just a lot going on but I'm all good" I smiled up at them as I put the two lots of food on the tray for Hannah and I.
"Are you coming down to the garage today?" Daniel asked, slinking his arm around my waist
"For qualifying, of course. Won't be making it for practise but I'll be there after for media" I said, Daniel sighed
"Are you ghosting us?" Lando laughed
"No" I laughed at him "of course not, I have to go, but I'll catch up with you after practise okay?" I told them, they both nodded and Daniel kissed my head and I disappeared back up the stairs to Hannah.
"Ugh they're moaning at me" I sighed as I sat down opposite Hannah and handed her food
"Why?"
"Because I'm not with all the time like normal" I sighed
"It's only while we sort this, it will get easier once you've got all the teams in their right places and into the flow of things" Hannah said, sipping her juice
"I know, I don't want to let them down though"
"You won't, they will always be your main priority as the drivers so don't worry, you won't be missing sessions all the time" Hannah patted my hand "plus, if you use travelling and take your work into the garage like I do, you'll have everything sorted" Hannah shrugged, she was right of course.
"Right where are we at now then?"
"So we've sorted the schedules, which with the way it works you could manage to sort out schedules for half the season before we even start, then on summer break do the next half, you've all the media team to sorted, social content is fine, all you need to worry about really is ensuring you've got the team running well race by race, which we do anyway, they can practically run themselves at this point so they'll come to you with any issues but you've got this. You do already so much" Hannah said
"I'm just going to work on these bits then, eat" I ordered her and she nodded as I tapped away on my computer. This was a new challenge but Hannah was right, I was already towards the end of my second year with McLaren, I knew my job well, and yes I had more responsibilities but I knew I could do it. I was doing bloody well for myself, I went through one of the most traumatic times in my life, and now had come to this. 2 years in, 2 promotions in the space of a couple of months, I had brilliant friends, I had Daniel, I had so much right now and I was so happy.

"Guys, you ready?" I had finished up and walked down to the garage to find Lando and Daniel. They had both done their practise sessions for the day, they had both done decent laps, Daniel had been faster than Lando, they luckily had a healthy competition, they each wanted to be better than the other but off the track it wasn't better, and practise was seeing what worked and what didn't and getting accustomed to the track.
"There she is!" Lando yelled walking over with his race suit down around his waist.
"I haven't ran away"
"Might as well have" Daniel smirked
"If it helps its just the last two races I'll be busy, but qualifying and race I'll be in the garage I promise" I told them, they both smiled "Or I could just say nah I don't want this, let me just do the bare minimum because they're miserable without me, I don't need the promotion" I smirked at them both as we walked
"Well of course not, we just don't want you to forget about us" Lando laughed and threw his arm around my shoulders
"Well then. Now come on, Dan you've got sky sports, Lands, ESPN, chop chop" I told them, they both saluted me and stood near each other, I was between them, a phone each recording them both.
"Decent pace today Daniel, how is the track feeling?" The journalist asked him. Daniel was always animated when he spoke, he waved his arm with his reply and knocked the phone recording him flying
"Oops, that's coming out of my salary" he commented as I leaned down and picked up the phone, the journalist laughed
"We're good" I mumbled, the phone was cracked but still working, it was one of the three work phones I had so it wasn't a big deal. The one I used for all of Daniels interviews and media, then I had one for Lando, then my main work phone, not to mention my personal phone.
"Buying your girlfriend a phone won't be the worst" the journalist said
"Not at all, so yeah I think we've got decent pace. We'll see how we do with qualifying and fp3, but it felt good today" Daniel continued. They both moved around talking to different journalists. Max came up behind us at one point and talked over my shoulder interrupting
"The McLaren trio" he laughed before disappearing.
I finished off their media before the three of us walked back to the McLaren building, the guys heading off with Jon and Michael, I went to find Hannah again to finish up for the day.