EIGHT

"Look who it is! Our beautiful Larissa!"

Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso beamed as an eight year old Larissa ran towards them at full speed, a bright smile on her face as she noticed two of her four uncles.

"Uncle Nando! Uncle Micky!"

Michael bent down, closer to the ground as his niece barrelled in to him. He lifted her off the ground, smiling as she wrapped her small legs around his waist to keep herself steady in his arms. He chuckled softly as the eight year old kissed his cheeks, her small, soft hands slightly covering his ears.

"How's our beautiful girl doing? Did you enjoy your holiday?" Michael asked as Fernando tickled her, enticing loud giggles to leave her lips.

"I got brown!" Larissa beamed as she desperately tried to gain her breath back from laughing so much from being tickled. Her skin had become tanned as she had been on holiday in São Paulo with her parents, and she loved it.

The eight year old released a yelp of surprise as a cap was placed over her head, covering her eyes due to her small head. Her hands shot up to push the cap up so she could see and found her uncle Kimi smiling down at her.

"Ferrari suits you, kid." Kimi winked, helping her to adjust his Ferrari cap that he had placed on to her head.

"I love Ferrari!" Larissa screamed at the top of her small lungs, hearing the laughs of her uncles.

"Chuchuzinho, shall we get you comfortable in the Ferrari garage with your uncle Micky?" Luiz kissed his daughters cheek. Michael had retired the year previous from Formula one, and Kimi had taken his place as Luiz's team mate, so at certain races Michael would attend with Larissa and look after her whilst her father raced.

"Or she is welcome to stay in Mclaren, though she might need to burn that Ferrari cap." Fernando smirked as he winked at his niece, watching as her mouth dropped open in shock.

"NEVER! Ferrari for life!" Larissa frantically shook her head, causing her braids to fall out.

Luiz tried to stop his daughter from shaking her head so that he could fix her braids since he had spent all morning braiding her hair despite her constant fidgeting but couldn't, releasing a sign of defeat.

"Come on, chuchuzinho, let's get you settled, you always love the power of Monza."

"Monza for life!" Larissa cheered innocently.

If only she knew.

____________________________________________________

"Kiddo, you okay?"

Lewis Hamilton stood concerned in the door way of Larissa Cohen's driver trailer in the Toro Rosso garage. He pushed the door open a little bit more, seeing the girl that he saw as a little sister curled up on the ground, her knees pulled up to her chest, sobbing quietly.

"Hey, kid. Don't cry, come on." Lewis carefully approached her, before his eyes fell on a broken photo frame beside her.

"I broke it, I didn't mean to, I just, I tripped and I dropped it." Larissa sobbed, before she showed him her hand, which had been cut as blood oozed out of her hand. "I tried to repair it but I cut my hand."

"Oh, kid." Lewis spoke sadly. He had only ever seen her like this once, and it was something that he wished that he could unsee, something that he never wanted to see again.

"It's my dad's birthday, Lew." Larissa's voice broke as she spoke. Tears streamed down her face as the Hamilton man wiped at her tears to hopefully stop the flow of water from her eyes.

Lewis grabbed a cloth and a bandage to slow the blood flow from her hand, and began to clean and wrap it up. As soon as he had bandaged her hand up, he pressed a soft kiss to the bandage, seeing the edges of her lips twitch up slightly.

"I'll clean the glass up, okay?" Larissa nodded, shuffling her body away from the broken glass.

Lewis noticed as he cleaned the glass, why she had been so devastated that she had broken the picture frame.

It was a picture of her, with her father and her uncles.

Her family.

She was a child, sat on her father's lap as he sat in his beloved Ferrari formula one car, his helmet on her small head, burying the poor girl since she was so small. Michael was stood to the left of the car, with his son, Mick and daughter Gina, in his arms. Kimi was crouched next to the car, holding her hand. Fernando and Sebastian were on their stomachs in front of the car, with the Spanish man ruffling the Germans hair because he was much younger than him.

"I can get a new frame for this, okay. I'll have it back to you by the end of day, how's that?" Lewis offered, after he cleared it up, making sure to be careful with the photo.

"Can it be a red one like that one?" Larissa's voice was so quiet that Lewis was barely able to hear her. She sounded so sad, so broken, so young. It was as if, she was an eight year old girl again.

"Of course. Ferrari red for a Ferrari driver." Lewis smiled softly at her, seeing her nod softly.

"I got him that for his birthday. His last birthday. Kimi and Seb spent all day looking for the perfect frame with me, until I found that one. I can't believe I was stupid enough to break it." Larissa tried to hold back the tears from returning but she couldn't. She just let them flow like a waterfall, down her cheeks.

"Come on, kiddo. What would your dad say if he say you crying?" Lewis soothed, pulling her in to his chest to comfort her.

"He would say that I was stupid and should get ready to kick your ass on the track." Larissa muttered quietly, hearing a soft chuckle from the Mercedes driver.

"Oh, would he now?" He rose an eyebrow as she giggled quietly. "Was that him, or you? Huh?"

"Both of us." Larissa smiled softly. "Cohen's take titles, kick ass."

"Right then, if that's the case. Then you better show Shanghai what you can do, Cohen." Lewis pulled her to her feet. He grabbed the broken photo frame and the photo and walked towards the door. "I'll bring this back to you today, I promise."

"If you don't, I'll take your seat next season."

____________________________________________________

"Lis, just remember to breathe, take deeps breaths, and do your best. We're all so proud of you."

Zahra Bailey smiled proudly at her best friend currently standing in front of her. She doubted that the Brazilian had slept, since her eyes were red and she had very dark under eyes but she had hoped that her best friend had learnt from her mistakes, since it had happened three times where she had crashed, where twice, Zahra had ran on track to pull her best friend out of the wrecked cars.

"It's from crying, Z. Stop panicking." Larissa reassured her best friend, seeing the fear in the woman's eyes.

"Cryi- what? When have you been crying?" Zahra's dark brown eyes widened at the words leaving her best friends lips. She had no idea. What kind of best friend did that make her?

"When you were crying to Seb." Larissa admitted with her hand rubbing at the back of her neck. Zahra had just discovered that her grandmother, who had raised her, until she had to be placed in to a nursing home had passed away, and confided in their uncle Seb, which ended up with the Bailey woman crying in to Sebastian's chest as he comforted her.

Larissa didn't exactly want to tell her best friend, when she was grieving, that she had been crying and she wasn't there for it, but to stop her from worrying about her the whole race, she did. She knew that Zahra would blame herself for not being there for her best friend, but Larissa knew better than to allow her to feel guilt for something she shouldn't.

"Lis, I'm so sorry, I should hav-"

"No." Larissa shook her head firmly. "I had just dropped a photo of my dad and smashed it, and got a bit emotional. I'm fine, really." She assured the woman. "I'm worried about you."

Zahra shook her head with a smile that Larissa knew was fake. "Little old me? I'm absolutely fine, I should have been there for you! I know it's your dad's birthday, I'm sorry I've let you down."

Larissa rolled her eyes. "Shut up and stop blaming you, or I won't dedicate my first win to your stupid ass."

Zahra gasped dramatically, placing her hand over her heart. "You promised you would! You can't go back on the pinky promise!"

Larissa smirked. "Watch me."

____________________________________________________

Since qualifying was, as Larissa would say...

Fucking shit.

Both her and Pierre were very far back in the starting line up. They were both ready to work their way up the grid and get themselves and each other points.

As soon as the race began, Pierre breezed past his team mate and another driver, Vandoorne of Mclaren to shoot to the 14th. Larissa was stuck behind the Mclaren for almost half the race, until she took the inside line on turn 4 and was able to squeeze past him.

Alonso was next for her, since the Toro Rosso strategists ordered Pierre to give his place to his team mate. It was incredibly weird having to battle against the man that helped raise her, but it also felt kind of good knowing that she had the better pace so she could beat him.

Though, she swore that she would confront him, when she noticed that he very deliberately let her past by taking a very wide turn. She knew that he loved her, and that he wanted her to do well on her father's birthday, but she had never expected him to actually give her a place because of it. She had wanted to fight fairly for it.

Ocon was then the next for her to overtake, and he knew what she was capable of. They battled for over 4 laps, and she was right behind him every single time that he tried to put some distance between them. But, once again he fell victim to the double bluff move that she learnt from her father, where she had pretended to go on the inside line on a turn, but seemed to switch to the outside, only to switch back on to the inside line and sweep in front of him.

The crowd roared as she soared towards a battling Haas and Renault, belonging to Kevin Magnussen and Carlos Sainz, and she knew that if she could over take just one of these that she would be in the points once again.

She was still yet to pit, and her tyres were starting to wear thin so she knew that she would have to get a move on. The car roared closer to the battling duo, making it a trio, but she took her chance.

As soon as they both took the outside line, defending from each other, she roared past them on the inside, overtaking the both of them.

She was in the points.

In her mirrors though, the Renault was now approaching, having managed to get the better of the Haas of Magnussen, so she knew that she had to defend.

"If the battle gets too difficult, give him the place."

Her radio engineer spoke to her and she groaned, at the same time of releasing a yawn.

Maybe Zahra was right, she hadn't slept.

"Matthew, politely fuck off. I know what I'm doing."

She spoke to her engineer, though she knew that he was a nice guy, she was agitated and ratty and very emotional. She also knew that she would get in trouble from Franz.

The laps of defending from the Renault of Carlos Sainz Jr soon passed by, and the more she drove, the more tired she got.

She barely remembered seeing the Renault pushing past her, nor did she remember starting to fall asleep, or the contact with the Renault before her car hurtled towards a wall at 180mph.

All she did remember, was Zahra's scream of horror over the radio and her father's whisper of her name before it all went black.

____________________________________________________