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ᵇᵒʸˢ ʷⁱˡˡ ᵇᵉ ᵇᵒʸˢ ━ ᵈᵘᵃ ˡⁱᵖᵃ

ᴠᴏʟᴜᴍᴇ : ▮▮▮▮▮▮▯▯▯

━ 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘰𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 ━

❝ 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐲𝐲𝐨𝐨𝐨𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐦 ❞

━ ʳᵉᵉˢᵉ ᵈᵉˢᶜʳⁱᵇⁱⁿᵍ ᵃ ʰᵒᵗ ˡᵃᵖ ˢʰᵉ ᵈʳᵒᵛᵉ ˡᵃˢᵗ ʸᵉᵃʳ

During the race weekends, it wasn't an uncommon sight to see Reese running. Whether it was to the paddock or around the track itself, seeing Reese Jackson━Jones on a run was something that most would come across ━ it wasn't something out of the ordinary. Sure, maybe she would be running around like a headless chicken because she was late, which happened more often than she'd like to admit, but hey ━ it was a good source of cardio.

Even on the weekends where she wasn't racing herself, but only attending due to the reserve driver part of the job, she would still run the track as if she would be racing it that weekend. Hitting the apex of the corners and memorising the braking zones as she was running along, just in case she would be needed at any point of that particular weekend.

This was a particularly good thing, because it meant that she would be prepared for most things should they occur on those days. Except, she was unaware that on this particular weekend a certain Finnish Formula One driver had fallen down a set of stairs that Friday morning.

He had tumbled down the stairs, doing one of the worst things an athlete can do ━ he tore his ACL.

And his replacement, Reese Jackson━Jones had no idea.

〓〓〓〓〓

Deciding that it was in fact too cold to run to the track as Reese would have normally done, she pulled on her classic leather jacket that she wore day after day, never tiring of the nostalgia the piece of clothing brought her and walked out of the hotel lobby to find her car that her trainer was apparently already stationed next to. She had a series of passive aggressive texts to prove it.

As she did so, she took large gulps from the overly large coffee cup in her hand. It was just after 6am after all, and there was no way that she would be getting through this Friday without at least 2 coffees and the excessive amount of adrenaline that she got from racing. Finally a alking up to her car, Reese saw her trainer, Addelyne Bauman, leaning against the front of the vehicle.

Addelyne Bauman was another person that Reese favoured in her line of "work". Yes ━ admittedly, Addelyne may overwork her, sometimes late into the night or way too early in the morning, but Reese owed her a lot. She was the reason Reese was as strong as she was ━ both physically and mentally. Reese had known Addelyne years before the accident as she was her trainer even as a little child, never had she ever doubted Addelyne's methods or the way she did things because if she had, there was no doubt that Reese wouldn't be where she was nor as successful as she was.

Even so, that didn't mean that Reese couldn't hate her guts for waking her up so early in the morning.

"Addie, you know I love you with my whole heart, but I swear if you make me get out of bed before 7am ever again ━" Reese's slightly agitated ramble was cut off by a container of oats, yoghurt and fruit being placed in front of in her face. "You know what? Never mind! What I was saying doesn't even matter and you are an angel." She rambled excitedly, shaking her head and waving her arm as if shooing away what she was previously saying, her mood immediately changing at the sight of the food that was practically shoved in her face.

"Uh huh, that's what I thought." Addelyne chuckled at her, watching her practically drool over the food as if it was the only sustenance left on a remote island. "You want me to drive us?"

"Uh, n━no , it's fine! I need to master the art of multitasking anyway." Reese stumbled slightly on her words, her mouth forming a crooked smile. She always had to be in the driver's seat. She couldn't handle the lack of control that came with being a passenger, especially after the accident ━ her therapist had called it a manifestation of her need to feel in control of her own actions or whatever. Or it was just PTSD, either way it was something that annoyed the shit out of her.

Opening her precious car's door, Reese finally took notice of her dog, Bruno, seated in the back. She chuckles slightly noticing his own seatbelt that would keep him still in the backseats. "G'morning buddy, how are we doing?"

He barks excitedly.

"Yeah . . . no, still too early for loud noises." She winces at the volume of his barks and he immediately quietens, noticing her discomfort.

Bruno was a compassionate and loving golden retriever that was about a year and a half old. Reese had hated going to therapy and having to talk out her feelings didn't work for her, which when her therapist had recommended getting a new 'companion' of sorts. As her parents were such a big part of her life, due to a massive lack of social knowledge ━ blame it on her occupation ━ her parents were her best friends and losing them almost destroyed her. And talking about it wasn't going to bring them back, nor fix the problems she was dealing with in the aftermath of the crash.

Putting the car in gear, after waiting for herself and Addelyne to strap themselves in, she pulled out of the parking space, heading for the Sochi Autodrom track. The ride was filled with generic questions about how she was feeling about the track and how she felt she was going to do. General trainer ━ driver talk. It was pretty boring, so halfway through the journey Reese plugged her phone in to the stereo and the fine melody of Ted Nugent's "Wango Tango" started blaring through the speakers.

This obviously resulted in magnificent air guitar solos being performed on the way.

Once they had finally arrived, she pulled into the parking area designated for drivers and crew, still not over the fact that she was out of bed and working. It should have been a time for failed sleep and almost ━ there dreams but nooo the loud ringing of her alarm and non ━ stop banging on her hotel door that came from Addelyne's fists half an hour previous had prevented her from having such luxuries.

Though her anger had slightly faded from the food and coffee that Reese had practically inhaled, that didn't stop her from shooting not-so-discreet daggers at the older woman. Which she was promptly ignoring as she normally did in response to most of Reese's shenanigans.

Walking through the parking area after putting on Bruno's lead and letting him jump out of the car, Reese waved to the few photographers that were here this early hoping to get pictures of the drivers. She was glad that she didn't have to deal with more people than necessary this early, they were probably still sleeping. Lucky them.

Reese totally wasn't jealous.

"Who decided organising a race practice so early was a good idea? And why aren't they fired yet?" She questioned still mad about the fact that she was robbed from the possibility of having extra sleep, not that she would actually sleep anyway ━ she could thank good ol' insomnia for that.

"Oh yes, please! Let's fire the person who makes all of us money, everybody would just love that."

"No no, sarcasm is my thing! You can't steal my thing, it's my thing!"

Reese only got a mild shove to her back, pushing her towards where she needed to scan her badge to get into the paddock.

A purple dinosaur appeared on the screen after she scanned her pass. She still shivered to this day when looking at the purple devil ━ as she liked to call it.

Addelyne was unable to control the unfiltered laughs that fell out of her mouth and found this hilarious as always, "You still have that as your picture?" she snorted.

Somehow ━ Reese has no idea how ━ some of her team found out that she had very severe fear of Barney the dinosaur as a child ━ she still does, Reese wasn't going to lie.

"Yes, and what about it?"

"You're still scared of a purple dinosaur?" The blonde woman couldn't help but ask, not understanding where the fear came from, but at the same time still struggling to hold her laughs in because the situation was hilarious.

"Okay, okay!" Reese raised her hands in surrender, "I know you are all tough and marine-y but some of us actually find genetically unsound things scary! Plus how can he be named Barney the dinosaur if he doesn't have any dinosaur-ic traits? His biological profile doesn't make sense nor is it logical! I'm not wrong and you know it."

Reese was evidently very passionate about this topic. She also didn't like things that she didn't understand.

"C'mon buddy, we don't hang with people who ridicule them for their fears." Reese dramatically announced to Bruno who was following along just behind their heels. He lifted his head up at being called and hurried to his owner. She strode faster in the direction they were heading, which was to the changing area so that they could start with warm ups and pre-race strategy talks.

The blonde woman only rolled her eyes and shouted out to Reese's back, "Don't forget you have to meet with Aidan later about those sponsorships!"

She was met with Reese turning around so that she was walking backwards, winking and shooting her with finger guns.

〓〓〓〓〓

It was 5 minutes before the first practice and Reese walked out of the changing room and into the garage to see a few of the mechanics making last minute adjustments her car and walked over to her race engineer Brian. She was clad in her race suit tied around her waist, helmet and HANS device in hand.

She had already had a brief talk with Aidan about her sponsors, warmed up and stretched with Addelyne and Bruno was hanging out where the guests would watch the races with his fancy set of doggy headphones to make sure the loud noises didn't hurt his ears.

"What's up, man. How's it going?"

"Car is all set and ready for take off." He announced with an odd amount of enthusiasm and paired with jazz hands ━ he was definitely a morning person.

"Jeez, and I thought I was the nerdy one around here." Reese laughed at his dorky comment, but not surprised as he had said geekier things before. It was somewhat calming when he would find a way to slip in Star Wars references through the radio during her races.

"JJ!" A loud voice called through the garage as she was about to climb into the car. Reese turned around to see that it was non other than Toto Wolff himself, who was looking slightly dishevelled and more stressed than she had seen him in a long time.

"What's going on?" She backed away from the car, guessing from the look on his face that this was at least somewhat serious.

"You're not racing in that car today." Toto didn't give her a chance to respond before gently grabbing her arm and leading her out of the garage area, and to the back of the building. Reese assumed it was so that they could have privacy, actually have a conversation without the press listening in on their every word.

"Nonono, what do you mean I'm not racing today? Of course I'm racing today, I don't even have to get any points today and I win the championship!" Reese always probably being impolite about the situation as this was her manager-type-person but she couldn't help her irritation and lack of information that was being given didn't help.

She couldn't understand why she wouldn't be allowed to race today unless . . .

He did only say that she couldn't race in that car today.

Reese's eyes widened in realisation and she froze slightly in place, " . . . oh." Then she looked confused, still not completely understanding why she was needed. "Wait ━ who's not racing? Are they okay?"

"Valtteri tore his ACL this morning, we didn't know it was that bad until he was checked out. So, now we need you to fill in his position for the foreseeable. It depends how long he's going to be out for, because that's how long you'll be racing for us. Most likely for the rest of the season. That a problem?" The Austrian man questioned, hoping Reese would be able to see what an amazing opportunity this would be for her career ━ and that she would be able to prioritise this over her season on Formula 2.

"No!" She burst out before she could stop herself. "I ━ I mean, no of course it's not a problem."

Nodding, Toto looked relieved and panic had seemed to have left his expression. Deep down, he knew that if he could count on anyone to be able to pull this off on such short notice ━ it would be her.

Not that he would ever admit or tell her that, though.

"When do I start?" Reese elaborated, an uncontrollable smile taking over her face.

The man looked down at his watch then looked back up to her face, wincing slightly at the bad timing, "You have an hour and a half until first practice starts."

". . . oh. Okay, cool cool cool cool, we are sooo not panicking. We'll be fine!" Her voice became high and cracked slightly, "No, yeah I'm definitely screwed. Eh, who cares, what have I got to lose?"

"A whole career in Formula One, maybe?" Addelyne's voice piped up from where she had apparently caught up.

"Not helping Addie, soooo not helping!"