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They weren’t by far the first women to race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but when the team had approached Rebecca, asking her to be in one of their line-ups, she had said yes immediately, with the one condition of having Keeley and Sassy as her teammates.
So, there she was now, starting from the second row of the grid, the engine of the car #54 purring beneath her.
“You’ve got this.” Ted said through the radio, just as the clock read 15:59 and 27 seconds.
“Absolutely. I’ll see you at the end.” she radioed back.
15:59:43
“I’ll be the one cheerin’ the loudest under the podium.”
“Don’t jinx it.” she said, lowering the visor into place.
15:59:57
I love you, she thought. Then the flag was waving, she released the clutch and the race was on.
Rebecca wouldn’t have bet a single penny on Ted Lasso’s abilities as a race engineer, but hours of sim sessions with just his voice in her ear — telling her when to push and when to manage, how to take that fucking curb just right to scrape off another half a tenth of a second from her lap time — made her make a full one-eighty.
Afternoon sim sessions led to strategy sessions in the evenings and training ones in the morning, and before they knew it, they were spending all day together, and yet still craving each other’s company when not.
Their relationship had been evolving so seamlessly that adding a new layer of intimacy and physicality only felt like the natural next step.
The night before the race, as their breaths calmed down and sweat cooled on their skin, Ted had pulled her closer, whispering against her skin.
“Tomorrow you’ll be on that podium raisin’ a trophy.”
“Do I get to know which one?”
He just smiled.
Five hours in and they had been able to stick close to the leader of the race, with only a few cars between them.
Now it was Keeley’s turn behind the wheel, and she had managed to overtake the two cars in front of her, taking advantage of their own fighting. Braking late into the corner, she took the outside racing line, crossing trajectories and finding herself on the inside in the next turn. Putting her foot down on the gas before even having completed the turn, their car had already speeded down the straight, leaving the other two behind.
Rebecca cheered with the whole team back in the garage, watching proudly as their car switched positions in the graphics on the monitors.
Her gaze travelled across the garage, where Ted was sitting down with the rest of the race engineers and strategists. He had his headset up, keeping an eye on the monitors for a few minutes, just until its rightful engineer came back.
Feeling her gaze on him, Ted looked back without fully turning, still keeping an eye on the screens. Rebecca raised her chin up, and he sent a salute back of his own, bringing his fingers up to his forehead.
When he stepped away from the pit wall, he took his headset off, hooking it around his neck, leaving his hair disheveled. Her fingers itched to run through the thick strands, but she shoved that want in a corner of her mind, ready to be taken back out when it was time.
A few hours later, as Rebecca was pulling her racing suit up over her Nomex shirt, Ted was stepping back up to the pit wall, ready to guide her in her next stint. When the call for Keeley to box went through, their eyes met across the garage.
As long as she did the first and the last stint, Rebecca really didn’t care when and how many times the three of them switched positions behind the wheel.
They all knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses: Keeley was the best at pressing on their advantage and steadily widening the gap with those behind her, while Sassy thrived in the chaos of being in the middle of the pack, when cars surrounded you left and right and a few centimetres made the difference between a DNF and a simple scratch.
And Rebecca? She didn’t crack under the pressure of having to make a perfect start, to gain the maximum advantage in those meters before the first corner, and having to finish the race taking it one lap at the time.
She was so focused on keeping the car on track that she initially didn’t register the radio going off in her ear. It was only when she heard Keeley’s squeal that she finally understood what Ted was repeating.
“P1! P1! You did it Rebecca, you did it! We’re P1! P1!”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck! Yes!” she exclaimed, hitting the steering wheel each time.
“Believe it, you really did it.”
“We all did it.”
“Rebecca, babe, we can discuss it later, now hurry up and get into the parc ferme so I can climb on you.”
“Keeley!”
Rebecca killed the engine and dropped her head forward, resting her helmet against her hands on the steering wheel. She let herself feel the exhaustion of a twenty-four hours race for a few seconds, before raising her head up again.
Behind the barriers, Ted was waiting for her, and the sight of him, with messy hair and his headset still around his neck, gave her the energy she needed to climb out of the car.
When she reached the team amassed behind the barriers, she had already yanked off her helmet, throwing it on the ground before jumping up in their arms. Keeley and Sassy held her tight, before the mechanics hoisted her up and launched her up in the air a few times. When they put her back on her feet, she stumbled a bit, but Ted was there to catch her, circling her waist with his arms.
“Careful there, can’t break anything before gettin’ up on that podium and raisin’ that trophy.” he said with a grin.
“Lucky me I have you to catch me, then.” she said, pushing back the tendril of hair that had fallen down on his forehead.
“Yeah, lucky you.”
He leaned forward just a bit, waiting for her. When she nodded, he leaned all the way in and met her in a kiss, the crowd around them cheering even louder.