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Williams had had a great race. Logan finally felt like he was proving what he could do. Logan saw Alex to his left as he exited the car ready to congratulate the younger man. He accepted the celebrations before going over to the team to see how everyone else placed and debriefed. Logan peeked out of the garage to see the other drivers all chatting out front. It wasn't uncommon for the drivers to meet after a race but outside Williams was odd.
Liam stepped out of the car, definitely not the finish he wanted but he would take any experience in the car he could get. Heidi saw the team looking at the data sheets trying to find where it all went wrong, qualifying 5th fastest but finishing almost last was not normal, but Liam wasn’t sure what happened he just couldn’t find the pace he needed to keep up. He was quickly escorted out of the garage and to the media pen where he answered what felt like millions of questions.
“So Liam how do you think this will affect the team for next week’s race?” Liam couldn’t help but take a few seconds to find a good answer. Heidi had been media trained but nowhere near the ability of a full-time driver.
“As long as we keep our heads up and learn from our mistakes I think we’ll have no issue for next week,” he managed to give a fake smile, he wasn’t sure if he would be driving next week, Daniel was supposed to be off for a couple more weeks but he couldn’t help but overhear talk that Zane may take over for the few Liam was trying so hard to prove he deserved to be there. He wanted a full-time seat for next year but with today’s performance, he wasn’t sure that would happen.
“Liam, do you have anything to comment about the allegations online?” Liam gave a blank stare he hadn’t heard of any allegations, at least his PR manager hadn’t said anything.
“I don’t know about any allegations-“
“So no comment on you defacing Yuki’s car?” The interviewer asked again before Liam could even get a word in his PR manager was beside him warding off the media and dragging him back to the garages.
“What were they talking about?” Liam had to ask, if this was about him he needed to know.
“We’ll discuss it after just go back to the garage for a debrief and I’ll meet you there.” Liam gave a small huff as he slowly made it back to the RB garage.
Unfortunately, news spread fast in the paddock and it wasn’t long before the young kiwi was being surrounded by other drivers and staff all questioning him. Liam was trying to come up with an answer but before he could Yuki walked straight through the crowd to the Kiwi before giving him a quick hard slap across his cheek.
“I thought we were friends! But you wanted to get in the good books so badly you had to destroy my car!” Yuki was yelling and Liam was just frozen in fear. He didn’t know what was going on but whatever it was it wasn’t good.
“Liam why would you do that?” He turned to see Max staring at him, he couldn’t read the expression of the Dutchman. Liam could feel his breathing picking up he was starting to feel claustrophobic with the amount of people surrounding him all screaming for answers but no one would give him time to explain or get a word in edge-wise.
Charles wasn’t stupid he could see the panicked look on the young Kiwi. He wanted answers as much as everyone else after watching the video but he knew that sending the young kiwi into a panic attack wasn’t going to help. Charles quickly turned to the Williams garage, he found the American who was already staring at the group outside.
“Logan, we need to get Liam out of here,” Charles didn’t give time to explain and he was grateful Logan didn’t ask too many questions before running through the group to get to the middle.
Liam couldn’t hear much his hearing was coming in and out just like his vision he was aware someone was touching him before he could even process who it was he was flinging himself backwards just to get away from the commotion and silence his brain for a second.
Logan wasn’t sure what was going on, he could only imagine how Liam felt, the American was having a hard time understanding anything all he could see was his boyfriend in distress.
“What’s going on?” Logan asked but no one would listen, all too busy talking over each other to understand anything. Logan stood in front of Liam trying to shield the kiwi from the outside world.
“Liam? Liam, can you hear me?” Logan could see how the words weren’t registering. Logan could see the shakiness of his stance and how laboured his breathing was. It wasn’t until Logan went to put his arm on Liam that Logan understood the severity of the situation. The second Logan’s hand made contact with the kiwi the other boy was flying backwards into the people surrounding him.
Charles couldn’t watch anymore he knew Yuki had a right to be mad, but they should hear the full story before assuming. Charles pushed his way into the middle of the circle.
“If you are not directly related to the incident can you please leave!” Charles tried to be polite but also had to get his point across luckily most of the group had wandered off. Yuki and his crew were now just standing in front of Charles with Logan and Liam behind, Pierre was not far behind but that didn’t surprise Charles.
“I know you’re mad Yuki-“ Charles went to continue unfortunately Yuki cut him off.
“Mad! Mad doesn’t even begin. I want an explanation! I have to go to debrief but I’ll be back,” Logan rolled his eyes luckily the Japanese man couldn’t see. Logan still also not knowing what they were talking about his only concern was his boyfriend.
Yuki and Pierre stormed off and Charles let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding. Heidi finally got a chance to turn to the two behind him.
“Thank you, Charles,” Logan gave the Monegasque a small smile.
“Here I’ll hear you get him into your driver's room,” Charles carefully went to the side of Liam.
“Liam, Charles and I are gonna help you back to my driver's room is that okay?” Logan made sure to make eye contact before getting a small nod out of Liam. Logan could see the tears in his eyes and had to stop himself from punching out half the grid. He knew violence wouldn’t solve anything but he hated seeing Liam like this, honestly, it was usually the other way around, Liam would drop everything to help Logan through his race weekends and console him after he crashed out or had a bad finish. Logan couldn’t say it was often the tables turned. The two men finally got Liam situated in Logan’s driver's room. Logan barely sat down before Liam was clinging to him.
“Hey baby, can you breathe with me?” Logan could still hear the laboured breathing so he began to take big deep breaths. It wasn’t long before Liam’s breathing finally calmed down unfortunately the tears had started.
“I don’t know what I did,” Liam sputtered out before more tears began to fall. He didn’t, all he knows is that he failed his team in the race and now the grid was mad at him.
“I don’t know either baby, it’s okay we’ll worry about it later,” Logan just consoled the kiwi.
Logan looked to Charles who was sitting on Liam’s other side. He and Charles weren’t friends but he was glad the older man could see the problem and notice there was an issue. Liam fell asleep against Logan’s side, the panic attack he had had wiped out most of his energy.
“Do you know what this is all about?” Logan asked quietly he didn’t want to wake the kiwi but he wanted to know. Liam and Yuki were friends and to see Yuki ready to tear him to shreds hurt Logan’s heart.
“There’s a video circling, I’ll show you,”
Charles pulls out his phone, Logan can’t believe his eyes. Liam ran around the side of the car, scratching the doors, spray painting the side and so much more. Logan didn’t understand, he had been with Liam almost all weekend apart from media and race time.
“Wait can you pause it and rewind a bit?” Logan was inspecting the video, something looked off nothing big but something small. As he zoomed in on the video he saw a small outline in some parts of Liam.
“What do you see Logan?” Charles was confused he had watched the video but he hadn’t inspected it like Logan currently was.
“It’s fake…. See that, you can see he was placed on top,” Logan pointed out to Charles. The Monegasque just stared, he knew fake articles were normal but fake videos were new.
“We have to show everyone,” Logan said, he knew until the grid had this issue sorted everyone would be picking sides unfortunately he couldn’t blame anyone for picking Yuki, from the blind eye the video looks real it’s not till you deconstruct it that it starts to come to flourish.
Logan ran his fingers through Liam’s blonde hair. He couldn’t help it having the blonde in his lap made him a bit more affectionate.
Liam’s small nap had done nothing to help his anxiety or the exhaustion from racing and having a panic attack. The kiwi opened his eyes to see Logan smiling at him, he then saw that Charles was also smiling.
“Hey, did you have a good nap?” Logan asked quietly not wanting to startle the boy.
“I guess,” Liam rubbed his eyes and slowly sat up. At this point, he just wanted to sleep for eternity.
“Do you want to see what everyone freaking out about?” Logan asked he made sure to once again make eye contact with the Kiwi, he knew Liam had to know this was his choice.
“Sure,” Liam looked over to Charles's phone as the Monegasque played the video. It wasn’t even 30 seconds in before Liam’s eyes were watering again. He couldn’t believe was he was watching. He didn’t remember doing this? And to Yuki he would never intentionally hurt Yuki.
The tears were coming again and Liam couldn’t stop them. He had tried hard to hold them back but he just couldn’t.
“It’s okay, the video is fake,” Charles added with a smile to Liam’s shocked face. The Kiwi couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“You didn’t do anything,” Logan was next rubbing the kiwi's back. Liam was processing, he didn’t do anything, it was all a big misunderstanding.
The three sat in Logan's room for another few minutes. Logan could see how tired his boyfriend was and he would be lying if he said he wasn't also exhausted.
“Shall we go clear your name?” Logan stood with Charles holding out his hand for the kiwi.
Liam smiled as he stood taking Logan's hand, the three made their way back out to the paddock where a group was still gathered. As the three came out of the Williams garage Liam could feel the daggers being stared into him. He stood a little close to Charles pulling Logan closer on his other side.
“I have proof the video is fake!” Logan said to the group immediately.
The group just stared as Logan starting with Yuki and Pierre went around the circle showing everyone that the video was edited. Logan could see the hurt on Yuki’s face, he wouldn't say he was happy but he was glad the Japanese man finally understood.
“I am so sorry Liam,” Logan wouldn't let Yuki get too close not wanting to send the kiwi into another panic. The group apologized and Liam just waved them off. Once the group had dispersed the three men stared at each other for a few seconds before Charles spoke first.
“I do have to get back to the garage but you guys have a good night!” Charles smiled at the two before heading down to the bright red garage.
The two remaining boys ended up going back to the hotel, enjoying some room service dinner before cuddling up in their bed. Logan could see a slight shake in Liam. The American smiled and pulled the other boy to his chest.
“Thank you, Logan,”
“I made a promise I'll keep you safe, no matter what, and I intend to keep it.”