Little Maxie

Chapter 26

Max's hotel room was a mess. Jos had been very thorough in breaking everything that could be connected to little space, and it was quite sure that Red Bull would have to pay a hefty fine for the condition it was left in and the completely broken crib.

The four drivers were currently trying to limit the damage, cleaning up everything they could, and trying to find Max's possessions and see what was still salvageable.

"I think this used to be a paci," Seb said, picking up the broken shield.

"Used to?" Lewis asked, coming over to look at what Sebastian was pointing at.

"It's broken," Seb said, showing it to Lewis before putting them in the trash can. There was no saving it now.

Lewis couldn't help but frown when he stared at the trashcan. It already seemed so long ago that Max had been angry at him for not letting him suck the one with the hole in. It seemed absurd to realise that they had managed to replace it not once, but twice already and that Jos had broken both of them.

Now the reason why Max never got himself one seemed so clear, and his desperation for having one, even a broken one, was much clearer.

It just seemed ridiculous to maliciously destroy them. What was Jos thinking this would achieve. Everything he was doing was just sabotaging Max. The thought of someone doing this to a little almost physically hurt him and his caregiver instincts were screaming loudly in him to make sure that Max was safe.

"We'll buy him a new one," Lewis muttered softly, tearing his gaze away from the trash, already planning to go buy Max half a dozen ones.

It didn't even matter that Max was his rival and that if he could get his designation nurtured as well, that he would be an even more unstoppable beast on the track, he was also a little with a baby headspace. No victory could count over the wellbeing of others.

"Hah," Charles exclaimed loudly, making everyone stare at the corner of the room where the man had been busy in. He stood up, his hands clutched around a set of cars, looking triumphant.

"What did you find?" Lewis asked, coming over to look, and completely abandoning what he had been doing.

So far, he had been through the pile of clothes already, and discarded those that had been ripped, which had just been two sets of sleeping clothes with cars on them. It was an easy conclusion that Jos had aimed for just about anything that betrayed the designation of the Red Bull driver.

"I found his toy cars," Charles answered, happy to have found the toys. They had skittered underneath a dresser, and when he sat on his knees he saw a dented tin box with the rest of the cars in there. Putting it on the table, he put the two he had found on the ground in there, and thought back to when he had played with Max, "I think there all still there,"

George came over to look at them and frowned.

"They're in bad shape," he said, taking out one of the cars which only had one wheel. A lot of them were obviously dented, or bended in a weird shape.

"They were like that before. I think they're just really old," Charles said, wondering why that was, but trying to not let his thoughts go negative about it.

"Oh," George said softly, putting it back, "and did he have more toys with him?"

"Not that I saw," Charles admitted, not thinking that Max really carried a lot of them with him, "perhaps he has more at home?"

"Perhaps," George said, but not looking as if he believed his words.

Charles sighed and the conversation stilled. The room was almost clean, and even though everyone was checking underneath the furniture, they all knew that they weren't going to find anything.