"why on earth would sean call you?" the girl questioned, a confused and mad look on her face.

"we're still teammates. as much as i hate that guy, i still have to talk to him" nyck responded, a mixture of calm and sadness in his voice.

marcus watched the siblings talking to each other after that, forgetting about sean's existence. he found it endearing how julia would laugh at anything her brother says, but would also be very attentive at each word that comes out of his mouth; and so would nyck.

"why did he call you? sean, i mean" marcus asked the latter, after everyone stopped talking.

he shrugged "wanted to know if i'm at the race this weekend. normal stuff"

collective "ah"s were heard in the room, and then there was silence again.

everyone had something to do, so it was a busy, but comfortable, silence. julia was texting her parents, marcus was eating and nyck was outside already, talking to nurses and doctors.

"can't he leave for at least a weekend? it's not too far, it's a few minutes away!" nyck pleaded to a doctor.

"i'm sorry, young boy, but if he can't walk we can't allow him to leave yet." he firmly responded.

"but-" the young boy tried to protest, but the doctor started speaking again.

"after his leg is better, we'll have to send him to physical therapy, and only after he's able to walk on both his feet the same we can let him go" he said, and left in the next second.

nyck went back to marcus' room, defeated. "i wanted to ask them to let you come to this race with me, but they said you can't walk yet so they can't" he played with his fingers, looking down.

"that's okay" marcus reassured the older one. "i can watch it on tv"

"i'll go with you" julia, who has heard the entire conversation, but decided to say nothing, finally spoke.

"great! pack your bags, we're leaving in 30 minutes" he said and left, just like the doctor he encountered earlier.

when they got to the track, all memories hit julia. the first time she met everyone, the track walks with her brother, the feeling of being there.

they arrived at the team's garage, where everyone was standing to look at a screen. "probably statistics, don't try to understand" the girl thought.

they spotted her, running towards julia to hug her. they missed her, so much.

"you've stopped coming to see us" enzo pouted playfully.

it made her laugh "i was either with marcus or at home. i'll come more often, though, i missed this"

they started talking about marcus and about more other things, until sean interrupted them, and ruined the atmosphere, if you asked the young girl

"julia! it's so nice to see you again!" he engulfed her in a tight hug, all she could do was to wait until he was done. "it's amazing you'll start coming to races more, we'll have so much time to catch up" he seemed genuine, but she knew he couldn't be.

she lightly sighed and smiled back at him, giving sean the same false energy. "yeah, it's so fucking nice to get to catch up"