Love Always Wins

77

Thursday August 20th. Southampton, UK.

Chloe stared out of the window as the private jet made its final approach, flying over the eerily quiet cruise ship terminals of Southampton docks, over the park, the shopping centre she used to frequent a lot when she lived here and other little landmarks that meant nothing to other people but held all kinds of little memories for her.

Next to her, Seb had been able to sense her mood dip as they'd got closer and closer to their destination. She'd gone from quite chatty and smiley to quiet and somber but he didn't mind, he'd expected her to be like this. This wasn't an ordinary trip to the UK for her to see her family, she was here to finally say her own goodbye to her late grandmother, Catherine. As the plane got closer to landing, he held onto Luis that little bit tighter. So far his son had been an excellent little travelling companion and had slept for most of the flight, including during his regular late morning feed with his mother. Hearing his wife take a deep breath, he called her name softly to get her attention. "Chloe, liebe."

She turned to look at her handsome husband and gave him a slight smile. She was so grateful that he'd organised the trip over here, knowing how she'd found it hard him being in England for the two Grand Prix when he knew that she was still wanting to come back here herself. Coming during his much needed time off showed her again (not that she was in any doubt) just how thoughtful and kind Seb was, especially as they were all flying to Italy tomorrow so that he could spend time at Maranello preparing for the next race.

"You ok?" He asked her as the plane descended towards the runway.

"Yeah." She nodded and then braced herself for landing, her least favourite part of a flight apart from turbulence. She wondered if the bump of their private plane as it hit the tarmac would wake her son but in Seb's safe hold he didn't even flinch.

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David watched as the plane came to a stop and the engines died down. He looked around anxiously in case he'd been followed but at this quiet terminal, reserved for private flights, there was no else to be seen apart from essential ground staff and security staff in the terminal building where his daughter and her husband still had check in and have their temperatures taken in accordance with the current Coronavirus guidelines. As the door opened and was lowered, he got his first glimpse of Chloe as she peeked out. He approached the plane, sure that he'd have to help them with whatever luggage and baby equipment they'd brought with them. His daughter was the first to take the steps down to the ground and she ran into his arms.

"Dad!" She flung her arms around him. "I've missed you!"

"I've missed you too." He replied with a chuckle, it wasn't that long ago since they'd last seen each other. He watched over her shoulder as Seb appeared, clutching Luis against his chest. "What luggage did you bring? Let me help you, you've left Seb holding the baby."

"Oh don't worry about him, he wanted to hold Luis. Because we're flying to Italy from here we've brought two cases between us and Luis' travel system - well when I say that I mean the pram bit and the car seat." She let go of her dad and turned to see her husband walking over. The two men briefly shook hands as they greeted each other.

"Can you take Luis and I'll fetch our things from the plane." Seb instructed her as he passed their son carefully over to her.

"I'll go and give him a hand." David said, about to follow him.

"Oh, no you can't. Part of the Covid thing, you can't board the plane." Chloe replied hastily to stop him. "You'd be ok at the bottom of the steps though but we've got to take everything into the terminal to have it scanned so don't load it into the car just yet."