Chapter Text
But Max does in another one. And it’s much tougher than he expected, even with loads of painkillers running in your system, you never feel great after exiting a week-long coma.
It surprised him too – doctors and nurses rushed to check important vital information, ask him different types of difficult questions about his well-being, started unwanted conversations, while the only thing that mattered for Max was not how bad the accident turned out for his body or career prospects, but why didn’t they tell him anything about how Charles is doing. Maybe he feels better, and they have no need to talk about it, because it can wait for later; or he had it worse and now they are afraid to make Max nervous, caught in constant explaining if he’s going to make it or not. But he is already worried! And how could it be that only a week has passed; it felt like a whole little lifetime – an alternative timeline covered at least half of the year. Wild.
Unfortunately, no answers are forthcoming on these topics; as quickly as medical staff have surrounded him, they leave him to recover and have a plan to inform his family. They also promise that everything is under control, soon it will be allowed to walk around, and nothing really critical has happened on the scale of general car accidents – here came lots of specific medical words, absolutely non-understandable for Max. But he accepts this information and believes without hesitation. Still, not what he wanted to hear.
Only after a while, he finally manages to ask a random personnel about Charles, and they terrorize his mind with news – he is not awake yet, which was not what they expected because they had suffered similar damage. Max gave away a nervous laugh. What do you mean – not awake, and how could they have goddamn similar damage, as if it could make the situation more absurd than it already is? They could never be named teammates; at this point, they are way past pals and friends, and the least loud name for this type of relationship must have been soulmates.
And he definitely couldn’t bear his soulmate being so far and feeling so bad, so against the rules, prohibitions, odds, and common sense, he sneaked out of his room and found Charles in an adjacent room, claiming in his head the wall between them was completely unnecessary. Beeping monitors around cast their spells on his mind, and he lost track of time.
He admitted it was good (in a way) that he woke up earlier – it didn’t leave the chance for Leclerc to blame himself, spiral into anxiety, or whatever he may think if it were him returning first. Still, Max had enough time to decide that he would retire if his partner through this all wouldn't make a comeback; it wasn’t a simple decision, but the only thing that could influence it better was to wake up soon and have his say.
In ten minutes, one doctor found him really, really struggling to stand up from the bedside, but it was worth it – later that evening, a nurse said Charles has also woken up.
You could never convince Max that it wasn’t his merit. Let’s say a collective and well-deserved thank you to Max for his service.
*
As a couple of days passed by, Max and Charles were sitting on the indoor side of the hospital porch near an inward garden for patients, hiding from dozens of paparazzis that hunted them in windows and balconies; rain was pouring, and socks were half wet, but it didn’t matter. Their families, fans, other driver and teams all made sure they would feel loved as fuck when they came back, so everybody sent hella lots of presents, sweets, flowers, and supporting messages – it would take the full upcoming months of rehabilitation to read and eat everything. So they started now, sharing a huge chocolate bar without proper permission from doctors, resembling little kids in this rebellious act of pure excitement and genuine stupidity.
In no world chocolate would taste so good as it does now, sweeter from the fact that it's probably forbidden and will go down as their shared secret. Maybe only grandchildren will be allowed to know about this sacred moment.
“I got way too many plush toys. Can I give part of them to Penelope?” Charles listens carefully to the music made by water droplets on the tiling of the roof, so for whatever reason, he says that quietly, almost whispering. Or maybe he is afraid someone will hear and find them.
“Why not? But if we need to move to a bigger house because of it, then the cheque is on you, Charlie.” He breaks off a big chunk of chocolate and stares at tropical plants that live in the garden, and probably for the first time in their lives, they feel like growing somewhere back home in the rainforest.
“Deal. Bet you have no less toys, but I don’t have a child yet.”
“Yeah, but I was not so much impressed by amount, more by the meaning of some presents.”
“What do you mean?” Charles looks at Max in surprise, preparing to hear about some really symbolic gifts.
“Oh, nothing that special. Just Toto bought me really expensive life insurance. He always finds his way to show me how valuable I am in his eyes.”
It’s not a joke, but they laugh together, sincerely and merrily; Max must tell you, he enjoys this moment way too much for a person who was on the brink of death at the beginning of the week and may never fully recover. Turns out news outlets expected them to kill each other after the accident to finish their business, but instead they are laughing at it, finding it minor. Still, in the middle of their fun, Max stops, suddenly gets serious, but it's not because of what was said about the possibilities of anything bad upcoming. It’s more about something good going on right now.
“Charles,” he calls him tenderly; and while for someone rain makes music, for Max this name sounds like one.
“What?” Charles is clueless, or at least he pretends to make it easier.
It is a moment of hesitation that always comes with love, but you should always remember that love has many forms – it’s everywhere, when you do your best, genuinely care, act kindly, ask and listen about someone’s day, congratulate on a holiday, or appear to be near at the right time. He wants to have it all; he wants Charles to have it all.
And they will – never separate, side by side.
“Don’t ever dare to disappear anywhere from my life. No more accidents. We live a hundred years after this and irritate each other as much as we did as kids.” He leaves «and teens, and young adults» out of this sentence, but Charles knows. He understands everything even without words. “Promise?”
“Yeah. I do. You will regret this after I get on your nerves really bad and snatch a championship from under your nose.”
Max nods in agreement. That is exactly what he wanted.
It was a dream yet to come true.
*
“After these dramatic events, do you feel you are ready to return to the track again? And race against Max, who is still indefinite about his decision to continue.”
“Of course, it would be sad to survive, recover, have this opportunity, and not take it. I still want to win a championship, maybe even more now. And it’s disgraceful to the fans to refuse doing it with Max. I am glad to be back in a car alongside him, and I hope he stays, I think we aren't done yet.”
“You had a long history of hard racing against each other, will the degree of tension drop at least?”
“Probably no, I mean, everybody agrees it is what makes racing exciting. Our races like Britain 2019, Bahrain 2022, Austria 2019 and others were so great because of that battling, otherwise it would be boring to watch.”
“You mentioned Austria 2019, infamous for Max's controversial overtake, you are not angry about that anymore?”
“No,” Charles smiled. “Not anymore.”
*
Backstage:
“Thank you for the interview, Charles, it is a great relief for the entire racing community not to lose two of the best drivers of this generation. By the way, did you watch Max's interview?”
“No, I haven't yet, but I promise I will soon. Why do you ask?”
“He said he would stay only if you keep racing, or nothing else holds him on the track.”