Never be alone ||Charles Leclerc||

The end

I woke up to the sound of my son crying, it was nine in the morning on Sunday the 14th of April. I was at home in Monaco fighting with the flu.
I got up reaching my son's room, I picked him up, even thought at three years old he was starting to become heavy, and came back to the living room. He had calmed down the second his head had laid on my shoulder.
I turned on the tv knowing that at this time the GP must have started.
Once the tv was on my eyes instantly went to find my man and here it was: LEC P3, ahead of him VER and HAM.
The cameras showed my man flashing in his Ferrari, I was so proud of him.
"Look Damien! C'est pépé!"
"He winning?"
"No babe, not yet."
I tickled my baby boy making him laugh, he had his father's smile.
"Damien est-ce que tu veux ton lait avec chocolat?"
He nodded so I laid him on the couch and giving one last look to the tv I made my way to the kitchen.
I was adding the cocoa to the milk when my son screamed.
"Maman! Maman!"
I rushed back into the living room kneeling in front of my child but he pointed the tv.
I'll never get over what I saw then: Charles's car was crashed on the barrier half destroyed, the back was on fire but there weren't marshals.
Charles wasn't moving and no one was helping him.
A toro rosso approached him a minute after and the driver came out.
He rushed over Charles uniting his belts and trying to lift him up, after another minute the marshals arrived and extinguished the flames.
Then the paramedics arrived.
"Maman? What's happening to pépé?"
I toke my son in my arms, I was crying, sobbing seeing the paramedics laying my husband on a stretcher and pulling him away.
"I need to make a call honey, go play with your trains."
"But pépé?"
"He's just fine, go."
I toke my phone from the table and called Binotto, my hands were shaking making it hard for me to dial the number. His assistant answered for him.
"Hello? I'm Angela, mr Binotto's assistant how can I help you?"
"I'm Emma Leclerc."
I didn't need to say anything else.
"I'll send you Jack's, Charles's PR, number mrs Leclerc, he's taking care of the situation."
She hung up and after a second I received a message with a phone number.
I called it immediately.
"Hello?"
"It's Emma Leclerc."
"Emma... I'm on an ambulance with your husband, they're taking him to the hospital."
"What do they say?"
I was hardly holding back the tears.
"I don't... they say he's unconscious and..."
"Pass one of them the phone, I want to talk to them."
My father was a doctor, not that this made me one too, but I knew enough of medicine.
Head trauma, possible cerebral lesion, breathing arrest that's what they said.
They gave back the phone to Jack and I begged him to stay with my husband and to tell me about anything that would have happened.
When he hung on I collapsed on the couch deciding what to do.
My heart was telling me to take the first plane but my head told me that on a plane I wouldn't have been able to answer the phone.
I needed to wait until I would have been aware of his conditions.
"Maman? You crying?"
Damien was standing on the stairs still in his Cars pigiama.
"Let's go change yourself honey, we go at grandma's."
He went back upstairs and changed in a comfy suit.
I also changed in a pair of jeans and a hoodie. I grabbed my purse putting in some painkillers and fever reducer for my flu.
When Damien came back I grabbed the car keys and drove straight to Charles mum's house.
She was waiting at the front door, we haven't called but she knew I would have came.
"Is he..?"
"No, they'll keep me update."
She nodded faking a smile when she saw Damien behind me.
We came inside, Arthur was sat on the couch listening to the tv, waiting for a news on his brother.
Pascal toke my son in the kitchen closing the door behind her.
Arthur turned the tv in mute mode looking at me.
"His PR will keep me update. I don't feel like taking a plane until I'll know if he's..."
"Let's wait."
I sat near him and he pulled an arm around my shoulders.
Half an hour later my phone rang.
It was Mattia Binotto.
It's in this moment that I understood things were going bad.
"Emma?"
"Yes"
"I'm in hospital with him right now, they red flagged the race."
"How is him?"
"I think you should come here, I sent a jet to pick you up at Monaco's airport."
"How is him?"
"He's bad but stable. In coma."
"I'll reach the airport right now."
I hung up feeling tears streaming down my face, Arthur dried them with his thumb looking straight in my eyes.
"Coma" all I had to say.
He hugged me thigh.
Myself and Arthur got on the plane.
A part of me knew that this could have been the last time my son could have been able to see his father but I chose to protect him, I didn't know what I'd have seen once there. I wasn't sure this was the way I wanted him to remember his dad.
When the plane landed a taxi was already waiting for us.
I had stopped crying the minute I had gotten into the plane.
During the flight I had also changed in a dress, made my make up and put on a pair of high hills as Binotto had recommended me.
There would have been lots of photographers ready to snap my weakness and desperation and use it in articles like "the desperate widow Leclerc" or "the pained face of the wife."
I got into the hospital and in the intensive care unit.
I sighed seeing how many well know faces were sat in the waiting room: Sebastian, Pierre, Max, Lando, Mattia and a couple of engineers, even Jean Todt was here.
I reached a doctor and I introduced myself as Charles wife, he toke me in front of a door updating me in the while on my husband's condition.
I hesitated a second with my hand on the handle before coming in.
Charles was laying on a bed, he could have been sleeping if it wasn't for the respirator in his mouth or the electrodes on his chest.
I felt Arthur's hand on my shoulder.
I sat near the bed taking his hand in mines and I finally let go.