Fifth Light (Sebastian Vettel)

Chapter 13: Headquarters

Casey lay on her back looking up through the glass ceiling. She could hear Seb's soft breathing from where he slept across the room. This would now be another situation to put on her growing list of "unexpected happenings".

Everything was beginning to smell familiar. His shirt, the pillow, all of it. It was comforting, but also very distracting. Barely an hour ago she'd been falling asleep against him in a taxi. Her insides squirmed as she remembered how it had felt to be that close to him. She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly.

---

The next morning, Casey opened her eyes groggily and frowned, forgetting for a moment where she was. She sat up and stretched her hands above her head, before dropping them back into her lap.

She looked around the room slowly before landing her eyes on Seb. He was leaning on the island counter with a mug in one hand and a smirk plastered across his face.

"Oh hi," she spluttered.

"Good morning," he replied smoothly, taking a sip of his drink.

"What's the time?" she asked, running her fingers through her hair in an attempt to settle it.

"Mmmm... nearly 12."

She didn't want to know how long he'd already been awake. Worried that she was causing an inconvenience at this point, she swung her legs over the edge of the bed and began looking for her clothes.

Across the room, Seb looked down as he saw her reach for her jeans and begin to pull them on.

After wrestling her socks on too, Casey tucked her borrowed Red Bull shirt into her jeans and stood up, checking her reflection in a nearby mirror. The shirt was a little bigger than her normal uniform, but it would do. She finally walked over and took a seat on the other side of the counter to where he stood.

"What would you like?" he asked, flashing her a smile.

She eyed a huge bowl of fresh fruit to her left and reached forward, plucking out an apple, "This."

"Well, you're easy to please," he laughed. She shot him a shy smile as she shrugged, taking a bite.

"Are you ready to head to the track in a minute?"

"Yup," she nodded, holding her apple in her teeth as she stood and tied her hair back.

She watched as Seb quickly called ahead to ask for the hotel staff to bring his car around and they slowly made their way to the lobby. She was relieved in knowing that most of the team would have left earlier to have lunch at the track before work started. She hoped she could blend back into the crowd before everyone arrived in the garage.

As they walked towards the hotel's front door, she could see Seb's shiny Infiniti waiting for them. The valet approached him nervously and handed over his keys. Seb thanked him politely and spun the keys around his finger before unlocking the car and climbing into the driver's seat. Casey followed suit into the passenger side, pulling her seat-belt on and watching him start the ignition. Without skipping a beat he pulled out of the hotel entrance and entered the steady stream of traffic out on the main road.

"If we were in Germany this would be a lot more fun," he laughed, looking over at her, "Autobahnen."

"As a regular passenger of the minibus, I'm really not complaining," she replied as she watched his hands on the steering wheel.

"Still. When we get to Germany, I'll show you the difference."

She looked out the window and bit her lip to hide her stupid smile.