Love Always Wins

74

Saturday August 15th. Spain.

"Hey, everything ok in here?" Seb asked as he entered the motorhome that was their accommodation until tomorrow evening. "I can hear the little one outside."

"Does it look like it?!" Chloe snapped back as Britta appeared in the doorway behind him. She cradled Luis close to her body as he wailed loudly while she tried in vain to soothe him by pacing up and down and patting his nappy padded behind, gently rocking him or delicately jiggling him as she walked. He'd been crying like this for what felt like hours, he just wouldn't settle.

Britta looked worriedly at Seb, if he had a whole night of this to come then he'd look shattered for tomorrow's race and he already looked tired after Luis had unfortunately given his parents disturbed nights over the Grand Prix entire weekend so far. As happy as she was for him to have his wife and baby son here with him, right now it didn't seem like it had been the best idea letting them travel.

"Whoa!! Someone's got a major pair of little lungs on them." Heikki joked as he poked his head in the doorway. "He'll soon have Lewis' dog howling along in sympathy the way he's going."

Chloe just glared angrily at everyone, this wasn't helping at all. The last thing she wanted was an audience while she felt close to tears.

Seb turned around to face Britta and Heikki and gestured with his hand for them to leave, walking to the door and lowering his voice as he spoke to them so that Chloe wouldn't hear. "I think you'd better go before things end in tears."

"Try and get some sleep, won't you." Britta said once she'd got outside. "With it not being made public that Chloe's here with the baby, your tired looking face is starting all sorts of rumours."

"Gee thanks. I'll try. I'll see you two tomorrow." He closed the door and turned back to face his wife. "Let me take him."

"Why? Because you think I can't cope?!" She snapped again.

"No but you being wound up won't be helping, he'll be able to pick up on your mood, he'll sense that you're stressed."

Chloe sighed heavily in defeat and bit down on her bottom lip as she passed Luis into her husband's very capable arms, feeling like a failure. "I just can't seem to do anything right for him today."

"He could still be feeling unsettled from Wednesday or it could be colic." Seb replied as he stood there and started to rock Luis who was now bawling in his arms and occasionally bringing his knees up towards his tummy. "It's ok little one, I know it's uncomfortable, let's stop those tears now huh?" He cooed quietly as he gazed down at Luis' red, tearful, screwed up little face and clenched little fists. "Look at how he draws his knees up, he's got colic." He said as he moved Luis to hold him upright and let him rest his little head on his father's shoulder. "Come on LJ, stop those tears for daddy." He started to gently rub Luis' back and walk around in the hope that that might help him. "It'll be ok, it'll soon pass."

She closed her eyes as she felt her own tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. Seb's voice was patient and calming for Luis to listen to while hers must have sounded angry and fraught. Yet again, he seemed to know exactly what to do while she'd been feeling as though she was at her wits end.

"There we go." He murmured softly as Luis finally started to calm down, going from his full on wailing to intermittent little moments of quiet between his cries. Seb continued to rub his back and shush him while lifting his gaze to look at his wife with concern. "Don't get upset liebe."

She opened her eyes to meet his gaze, his furrowed brows telling her that he was worried about her. "While you were out with Heikki I just tried everything I could think of and nothing worked." She whimpered as she swallowed past the lump in her throat. "In the end I just didn't know what to do, I felt completely out of my depth. I failed him and then you come along and in minutes you get him to calm down, I'm just shit at this."