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Max and Charles had promised themselves to never lose sight of Jordan on a race weekend.
There were too many risks involved, starting with the sheer amount of strangers in which she could get lost or worse and ending in all the dangers the cars and different machinery presented to a four year old. And they’d done a phenomenal job so far.
Six races and not once had they come even remotely close to losing their daughter.
And then came Miami.
The last time Charles remembered seeing Jordan was right after he’d gotten out of his car after sprint qualifying. She’d been standing next to Max in the garage, holding his hand and waving at Charles when she’d spotted him. Naturally he’d waved back before walking off to talk to some reporters waving him over for a quick interview, wanting to get over with it as soon as possible so he could get back to his family.
The last time Max recalled seeing Jordan was right after Charles had gotten out of the car. He’d been wrapped up in a conversation with Charles’ race engineer, Bryan, when Jordan had tugged on his sleeve to ask if she could go over to see her other dad. Naturally Max had said yes without looking properly. Charles had been standing right there, just a couple feet away from them. Not much could go wrong, right?
Well, by the time Jordan arrived at the spot she’d last seen Charles at, he’d been gone, out of her sight — which was relatively impaired as she was too short to see past all the mechanics and other staff to realize that Charles wasn’t even that far away, giving an interview. She didn’t let that stop her though, figuring she could just look around a bit. Surely she’d find him.
But apparently the universe did not want her to do so and Jordan got carried away with the masses, constantly having to dodge people, squeezing her way past legs and arms and bodies until she had no idea where she was anymore. She couldn’t hear either of her fathers voices anymore, giving her a reason to get a bit worried.
She’d never been away from them when they were at the paddock, only once or twice, but only for short amounts of time and always with one of her uncles watching her… Thinking about those made Jordan hopeful.
Maybe she could find Oscar or Pierre and ask them to take her back to her dads.
“Hello, little girl. Are you lost?”
Jordan turned around to find a man with grey hair and crooked teeth towering over her, his thin lips pulled into a wide, supposedly friendly smile, but something about it caused the girl to step back. He looked weird, too eager for his question to be genuine. The man with the camera standing behind him didn’t make Jordan feel any better about the encounter.
Max had told her to stay away from those, never really explained why, but Jordan trusted her dad and immediately crossed her arms in a hostile, ‘get the fuck away from me’ kind of way.
“You are Verstappen and Leclerc’s kid aren’t you?” The man continued asking and Jordan hated the way he pronounced Charles’ name.
She disliked his accent in general, but she’d noticed that almost everyone in Miami spoke this way. Max had made a joke about it on their way over and then proceeded to call Charles “Chuck” for the entire rest of the flight. Jordan hadn’t quite understood why, but joined in as Max seemed to find it even funnier than when he said it.
“You can talk to me, you know?”
“Ich spreche kein Englisch.” It was a blatant lie, but since Jordan was still a kid, she hadn’t had the pleasure of learning about morals all that much yet and didn’t even feel the slightest bit bad for it.
Honestly, she found it kind of funny how the man’s face scrunched up in confusion, his mouth falling open and exposing a row of spotty teeth, the yellow and brownish marks surely the result of a life-long habit of smoking.
“What?” The man asked, his voice having lost its mocking undertone.
“Genau.”
Jordan gave him a nod, a grin and turned on her heels, marching off into the opposite direction.
She still didn’t have the slightest clue of where she was or where she was going… and to be completely honest, she’d kind of forgotten what it was she’d been looking for before running into the weird man with the camera. There were too many distractions for her to retain any sort of information longer than a couple minutes.
Where had she left her noise-cancelling headphones? Those would’ve helped…
Suddenly there was a weight on her shoulder, warm fingers wrapping around it, but when Jordan spun around to see who it was, she heard a familiar laugh that put her at ease instantly before her brain could even fully realize who it belonged to.
“Hey, kid!” Lando was smiling at her in his typical, bright way. “What are you doing here?”
“Uhm…” Jordan really tried her best to remember, but the steady buzz of voices around them seemed to numb her mind, making it even harder for her to understand Lando.
Her English had improved immensely since she’d first met Max and Charles, but something about the Brits' rough accent still threw her off. Especially when it was so loud and warm and there was constantly someone brushing past her-
“How about we get out of here? Away from all of… that.” Lando nodded towards the crowd surrounding them, taking Jordan's hand and leading into the alleys of motorhomes and tents when she gave him a thankful smile.
Jordan took his hand when she recognized their location from the day before, knowing that there was a stand that handed out free chocolate just around the corner. Not questioning her or where she wanted to go, Lando followed along. The question of what she was doing around the paddock all on her own didn’t cross his mind once.
Not even when they were both leaned against the nearest wall, both chewing away on a bar of chocolate.
The sun was setting, painting their faces with a deep orange, bringing out a red undertone in Jordan’s dark hair. Lando weaved a strand of her between his fingers and crouched down, bringing it to his face to wear it as a mustache. Grinning widely he tapped Jordan’s shoulder so she’d look at him, laughing when her face hardened with disappointment.
“What? Don’t you think I should grow one? Wouldn’t it look fantastic on me?” He asked, voice laced with amusement.
“Fantastically stupid.” Jordan rolled her eyes. She pulled the strand out of Lando’s grasp and declared, “And I won’t let you come over to play with me ever again if you get one of those…”
“Mustaches.”
“Whatever. Eat the chocolate.” She tried to turn her head around just in time, but Lando could see the hint of a smirk building on her lips when he let out an offended whine.
He didn’t point it out though, just did as told and finished his chocolate bar.
As he went to throw the wrappers into the bin, ready to get back to the paddock, he found Jordan still leaned against the wall, staring blankly into space. Lando recognized that look, having seen it one too many times when looking into the mirror. That tired expression from spending weekend after weekend on busy tracks, surrounded by the media, other drivers, having to perform… Of course most of those things didn’t apply to Jordan, but she was just a kid. This life must’ve been just as exhausting for her as it was for him.
“Don’t wanna get back yet?” He asked.
Jordan shook her head, eyes wide at the thought of leaving the peaceful spot she’d found with a seemingly endless supply of chocolate so close…
“Alright, I have to get back though. Have a meeting with Zak in a bit and he’ll be really mad if I don’t show up on time.”
“Have fun.” Jordan waved at Lando with a big smile, showing off the gap that the tooth she’d just before the start of the weekend had left. “I’ll wait for someone to get more chocolate with me!”
“Do that, kid!” Lando gave her a thumbs up, not registering that, as an adult, it might’ve been on him to tell her that too much chocolate wasn’t good for her. Or that maybe, he should have been the one to return her to her fathers.
So Jordan was once again left unsupervised, sitting at the side of the building and waiting. She was really good at that—sitting and not doing anything—and she’d overheard many times how people would compliment her dads for it.
“Wow, your kid is so well behaved! How did you get her to do that?”
But all Max and Charles were able to do was shrug, because Jordan had been like that since the day they’d gotten her. She did have her moments though, climbing up stuff a kid definitely shouldn’t even get near being one of her favourite hobbies.
Ah, climbing… She could pass some time with that.
Just as Jordan got up, having spotted climbable looking rain gutters on a building nearby, she heard another familiar voice from her right.
“Jordi?” Oscar sounded much less chill than Lando, literally sprinting towards her, the speed enough to mess up his hair. He barely managed to stop in front of her, having to use his hand to push himself off the wall. “What are you doing here? Where are Max and Charles? Are you here all by yourself?”
Unsure as to what all the fuss was about, but a little intimidated by the Aussies uncharacteristic outburst, Jordan pulled her knees up to her chest. He seemed upset, eyes wide and his breath going hard.
“I don’t know, I don’t know and yes.”
“Oh my god- Are you okay?” Oscar asked, crouching down in front of the girl, one hand cupping her cheek to check her out without even waiting for her answer.
He knew exactly how strict Max and Charles were when it came to their daughters safety on race weekends so her being here alone meant that something really must’ve gone wrong…
Really freaked out now, because Oscar was behaving like anyone but Oscar, Jordan pushed his hand away with a frown.
“Yes! What is with you?”
Oscar shook his head, figuring that talking and asking more questions wouldn’t lead to much. Jordan always had a sassy answer or clever question ready to fire back at him and Oscar didn’t want to blame Charles and his smart mouth for that, but… he definitely did blame Charles and his smart mouth.
“Come on, let’s get you back to your apparently very irresponsible parents.”
But before he could even get up, Jordan cocked her head to the side, such an intense look in her eyes, which were boring into him, that it made Oscar stop dead in his tracks.
“What now?”
“Uhm, Lando left because he had to see Zak and said it was really important… Should you not be there too?”
“Oh my god!” Oscar gasped, checking his watch. The amount of annoyance he felt over Jordan being correct and him actually being supposed to be at the meeting in that exact moment made him let out a loud groan.
Pressing his eyes shut, he weighed his options.
Taking Jordan back to her dads and risk not only the wrath of his team principal for being extremely late, but also endless mockery from his teammate over it or… leaving Jordi here, run to his appointment and send a text to Charles to tell him where his kid was so he could pick her up himself.
“Okay, you stay here. Do not move! Under any circumstances!” Oscar did his best to put as much emphasis behind the words as possible as he got up, patting the dust off his pants. “Your dads will pick you up soon, alright?”
“Fine.” Jordan watched him through narrow eyes, unable to make sense of Oscar's behaviour.
And she didn’t like that, because usually Oscar was one most reasonable out of all her weird uncles.
“Be good!” Oscar called over his shoulders as he jogged off.
He did text Charles on his way to the McLaren hospitality, but when the Monegasque and his husband arrived at the spot Oscar had said Jordan would be, panting and gasping for air from the sprint they’d just put in, the girl was nowhere to be found.
Max was frantically looking around, searching every corner and hiding spot within sight, while Charles doubled over, hands propped up on his knees.
“What the fuck? Where the hell is she? She can’t just have disappeared-” Max yelled, his worry overshadowing good manners.
“I told you- we should h-have-” Charles sucked in another gulp of air, finally able to straighten up again, his face still a deep red. “Put some kind of locating device on her.”
Max whipped around, responding more snappy than he would’ve liked, but his frustration needed a vent and currently that was Charles and his need to bring up the same conversation they’d have about three times each race since the season had begun.
“We are not chipping our daughter! She’s not a dog!”
"Air Tags exist, stupid!”
“Well, if you could’ve stood still for a minute and a half, we wouldn’t need one of those either!”
“Oh, you think this is on me? Who couldn’t even bother to look up and check if I was still there before sending Jordi out into the wilderness?”
“The wilderness? Charles, are you listening to yourself- That is so not the point right now!”
Maybe they wouldn’t have been shouting at each other, filled with fear and worry for their daughter, if they would’ve known that she had actually encountered a group of five rookies, who’d offered to take her to get more chocolate.
But alas, they didn’t know that, so they continued their frantic search, bickering the entire time and getting more and more people involved.
Meanwhile Jordan was sitting on the shoulders of Oliver Bearman, nibbling on her third piece of chocolate that day, listening to the guys talk about sprint quali. She wasn’t sure where they were going, more focused on seeing if anyone wouldn’t be able to finish their treat… A girl could hope after all.
“Sorry, are we boring you?” Kimi asked after a while of them just walking, noticing that the girl hadn’t said anything in a while.
“No, not really.” Jordan shrugged.
She heard more race talk on the daily than probably healthy for a child her age, more familiar with the terms thrown around in those conversations than any of the two languages she was currently learning.
“You must be! Sorry about that.” Isack insisted, offering her the rest of his chocolate bar as an apology.
And again, Jordan wasn’t too great with morals yet, so instead of trying to correct him, she just took the bribe and ate it.
Some crumbs landed on top of Ollie’s fluffy hair. Jordan tried to flick them off before he could notice. Gabriel had seen though and covered mouth to muffle his laughter.
At some point they’d made it back to the pitlane. It was quiet now, which was normal after the racing part of the day was over. Mechanics would be working in the garages, teams would be away having their meetings and drivers would do media things… But even with all those things considered, it was a little too quiet.
It was literally empty. Not a single sound to be heard except for a faint bustle coming from far away, an entirely different paddock.
None of them really noticed, not when Liam had come up with the greatest suggestion ever.
“How about we race each other?”
“We do not have any cars…” Kimi noticed, genuinely sounding disappointed.
“Not with cars, idiot! I mean running!”
While Kimi sulked, arms crossed over his chest and lips pursed, Isack and Gabriel visibly lit up. They immediately began to stretch, Gabriel pocking Kimi in the side so he’d join them.
“Good idea!” Ollie agreed before tilting his head upwards, trying to catch a glimpse of the girl on his shoulders. Jordan, realizing what he was trying to do, bent forward so their foreheads were almost touching. “What do you think, Jordan?”
“I am not very fast.” She said simply.
“Oh, I am sure that isn’t true!” Kimi disagreed encouragingly, reaching his arms out for her.
Jordan shuffled into position, hopping off Ollie's shoulders a little awkwardly, but Kimi caught her with ease, laughing as he set her on the ground. Together they showed her how to stretch and warm up properly, taking it very seriously as they explained why it was important to do that before running. But Jordan was only half-listening while slightly regretting having eaten so much chocolate.
She sure felt full now…
Once the necessary preparations had been made, they all lined up at the end of the pitlane, having decided the finish lane to be on the height of the Ferrari garage. It seemed an alright distance for a four year old to run.
Liam gave the count down and then everyone ran. Jordan at the very front.
Because, without ever saying a word to each other, all five rookies had agreed to let her win this.
So while she was giving it her all—which admittedly was a pretty impressive speed for a child—they were all close behind, doing something that looked more like power walking than actual running. The way Jordan jumped and cheered when she crossed the imaginary line made the idiotic walk worth it entirely and the rookies joined her celebration. Kimi and Ollie lifted her up together, each draping one of her legs over their shoulder as they carried her around like a princess.
“Again!” Jordan demanded as they put her down. “But this time do it real. Actually run.”
“What do you mean?” Isack asked innocently.
“That was our real speed.” Gabriel agreed, totally overselling the thing.
Jordan lifted a brow, eyeing all of them up and down with the same sternness of a strict parent or teacher. It was an eerie sight on the face of a child a fifth their age. It freaked the boys out, none of them daring to utter a word.
“Oh, please! I live with Max and Charles, I know what a real competition looks like!” Jordan huffed, crossing her arms. “And this wasn’t one. So again.”
And she got her wish.
They ran another lap, doing it properly this time, with Jordan coming in last. She didn’t seem to mind all that much though, still laughing as she jumped on Liam’s back, demanding he take her piggy back for the next one.
This went on for a while, Jordan going back to running, even winning the last race, simply because everyone else didn’t possess the energy to keep up the tempo any longer.
Out of breath and muscles aching they collapsed on the tarmac, the faint smell of burnt rubber itching in their noses, but no one had enough strength left to get up and relocate or even care.
“You know- If I can my little car, I would have- have cleaned the floor with you-” Jordan declared between heavy breaths.
“I think you mean ‘wiped the floor with us’.” Ollie corrected her, quickly regretting that when he felt a sharp pain in his leg where Isack had kicked him.
“Whatever.” Jordan huffed.
It had become her favourite after watching parts of ‘White Chicks’ with Charles (the only reason she hadn’t seen the entire thing was because Max had caught them and given Charles a lecture on how Jordan was too young to watch it).
“Your language is too complicated. Too many words.”
“I agree!” Kimi chimed in from somewhere behind her.
His phone rang and Kimi quickly fished it out of his pocket. A frown tugged on his brows as he read the name on the screen. “George? Did I forget about a team meeting?”
“Typical.” Ollie commented, rolling his head to the side to return the grin Jordan was giving him.
Kimi’s confused voice brought their attention back to him, the other rookies listening in on the conversation too.
“What do you mean? — Yes, she’s with us… — George stop yelling! What is wrong-” Kimi sat up straight, eyes filled with panic as the others followed his lead, looking rather confused.
“What’s wrong?” Liam asked when the youngest of them put the phone back in his pocket, suddenly pale as a ghost.
Kimi took a moment to respond, the words seemingly not wanting to leave his mouth. The others grew impatient, Ollie looking as if he was about to crawl over an shake his friend to get an answer out of him faster.
“Apparently… Max and Charles have been looking for Jordan for hours because they didn’t know where she went. They started a grid wide manhunt for her… and George just called me to ask if I know where she is and obviously I do because she is sitting right there!” Kimi pointed at the girl.
“Oh…” Jordan mumbled as she remembered what her original destination had been.
Getting to Charles.
But then Charles had been gone and she’d looked for him, then ran into the reporter, then Lando, then chocolate, then Oscar, then the rookies, more chocolate, the racing… but she’d never made it to her dad. And she’d completely forgotten about him.
“What do you mean ‘oh’?” Gabriel asked, his voice high and frightened. “Did you go missing without realizing you went missing?!”
Isack slapped a hand over his own mouth, gaze turned up to the darkening sky as if it would beam him up there if he just tried hard enough. “We’re going to die. They will murder us because they think we kidnapped their child!”
“But it was an accident!” Kimi cried like Max and Charles were already there, threatening him with a gun.
“At least we had a good time…” Ollie sighed dramatically, hand laid over his heart. “All made it to Formula one, got to drive with the best of the best…”
Jordan didn’t really get what they were on about, but even she started to feel a little nervous, her fingers twisting her shirt between them as she chewed on her lip.
Her ears were the first to pick up the familiar pair of steps in the distance, making her turn her head a couple heartbeats before Max and Charles emerged between two of the motorhomes. They were running, calling her name as they approached the group.
When they were close enough for Jordan to make out the looks on their faces, her heart skipped a couple of beats. They both looked mad, like really, really mad. She’d never seen them like this, causing her to instinctively go hide behind Ollie.
Clearly the Brit wasn’t super happy about it, but he let it happen, going still so maybe the angry parents wouldn’t even notice him all that much.
“Jordan, we are air tagging you!” Charles shouted when he came to a halt a couple feet away from Ollie and his daughter, stemming his hands into his hips fiercely.
“No, we will not!” Max stopped right next to Charles, arms crossed over his flared chest. Briefly he glared at his husband, before his narrow eyes dug back into Jordan — or to be more exact, the small part of her face that she dared stick over Ollie’s shoulder. “But we do need an explanation! Where were you?! Do you know how worried we were about you?”
It took about four seconds of silence before Jordan burst past her human shield and into her fathers’ arms, crying as she hugged Charles’ leg tightly. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed them until she’d actually seen them again.
“Es tut mir leid! Ich w-wollte n-nicht-” A sob shook her body and she buried her face deeper in Charles’ thigh, one hand blindly grabbing for Max.
The two exchanged surprised glances, all anger vanished from their faces and soon after they were both kneeling on the floor, trying to comfort their weeping daughter. And once she’d managed to explain her point of view and that she’d really just forgotten to get back to them and not really known how to, there was no way they could’ve stayed mad.
Charles assured her that they’d just been really worried about her and Max made her promise that she’d be more careful about where she went from now on. In the end, they were even able to laugh about Jordan’s chaotic retelling of her adventure filled afternoon.
Behind them some of the drivers and crew that had participated in the search gathered, all happy the family had managed to reunite — and really glad Max hadn’t made his promise of tearing the entire paddock apart until he’d find his daughter come true.
The rookies had scooted together into a pile, smiling as they watched the admittedly adorable scene, thinking that was it for them as well. Everything had turned out fine…
Well, they’d thought wrong. With Jordan on his arm Max got up and walked up to them, Charles close by his side.
“And now to you idiots-”