Chapter 9

Two long weeks had passed and Chloe was now allowed out of hospital. The press where out side in their hundreds all hoping to get a picture of her.

Jeff walked at Chloe’s side, holding her around the waist. He knew she was scared and she had told him to help her walk because her legs felt like jelly. She stopped just before the door opened.

“I can’t do this.” She said clinging to Jeff.

“You can baby. They are all out there for you. You haven’t seen all the papers that had articles on you, the dedication pages. They want to see you and tell the world how you are and how strong you are to pull through this.”

“I’m scared.”

“Don’t’ be. You have me here, Matt’s here and so is Jamie. Eddie is waiting for you at the boat.”

“Why are we going there?”

“So you can get away from all the press. Matt and me have got as much time of as we need. We are staying until you are fit and ready to go back home.”

“Ok.” Chloe said as she nodded and Matt opened the door. The roar of the crowd and reporters was so over whelming to Chloe. She held onto Jeff’s hand let him lead her down the front steps. They stopped for a couple of minutes whilst the press took pictures. Ben read out a statement that Chloe had written earlier. After he had finished, Jeff led Chloe, Matt and Jamie to the car that was waiting for them. Chloe and Jeff got in the back with Jamie and Matt got in the front and the driver took them away as reporters raced towards the car.

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Jeff held onto Chloe as she stepped onto the boat. It was moored of the harbour and they had taken a speedboat out to it. Eddie and his dad, Eddie senior, helped Chloe down from the side. She hugged them both as Jeff got on and took Jamie from Matt so he could get onboard.

“You should go and lay down.” Jeff said to Chloe as they stood on deck.

“Ok.” She said almost in a daze.

Jeff watched her walk down into the boat and he followed her. He stayed behind her, not wanting her to feel pressured. She sat onto the edge of her bed and looked at her helmet that sat on the floor. Jeff watched her from the doorway, when he noticed the tear down her cheek he walked over to her and took her in his arms. She fell against him and held onto him as he laid her back onto the bed. He laid her in the middle and pulled the covers up over her. Silently Jeff kicked of his shoes and lay down next to her. He moved her into his arms and held her tightly. She huddled herself against Jeff’s chest and placed a soft kiss on his collarbone. He returned the kiss on her forehead and closed his eyes as he felt Chloe relax into his arms.

“How is she? Really Matt?” Eddie asked that night as they sat up on deck watching the moonlight reflecting of the water.

“Broken.” He said honestly. “She had said so many times that she will never get back into a racing car.”

“It’ll be a great shame if she doesn’t.” Eddie said, which Matt, Sonia, and Eddie’s parents agreed to.

“She needs to get confidence back. Before she was bold and confident and would stand up to anyone but now she won’t even argue when I joke about women drivers! She used to bite my head of for that. I guess It just made her realise how dangerous it is.”

“She knows how dangerous it is, we all do, but I think she feels that she is a woman driver and after one accident, well, big accident that she ended up in hospital. A lot of us have been in big accidents and hardly any of us end up in hospital, maybe that is what she feels bad about.”

“She was in a bad wreck.” Matt said sipping his drink. “How do we get her to think about returning to the car?”

“I think the only thing we can do is let her figure it out herself. She will come around. But I don’t know if she will be back this season.”

“She will be back. This is Chloe we are talking about.”

Chapter 10