Love, Eternal

Isolation

The two days that were left in Australia, Nola slept, she went for runs, and sat by the sea. That's all she did. Lando kept texting, so did Pierre, Charlotte, Charles, even her brothers, her mum and Freya. Charles had told them all, particularly that he hadn't even seen his sister in two days, so they all kept calling. Nola didn't reply to any of them, she had managed to not bump into Charles or Charlotte either somehow. Not because she was trying to hurt them and purposefully ignore them, but because she needed to be on her own. She had spent her time going for a run, ending up at the beach, staring at the ocean for hours, coming back and going to sleep. She ordered room service a couple of times, and whenever someone, that wasn't hotel staff, knocked on the door, she ignored them. She felt guilty because she knew they were all worried, especially Charlotte and Charles. But she didn't have the energy. She had completely isolated herself just to be able to regain some form of strength. She kept replaying things in her head, as if she was the bad person, the villain. Her reasonable side was telling her that she had done nothing wrong. The panic attack itself really took it out of Nola and that was her main issue. She knew that apart from the Ferrari team, everyone else had left Australia. Pierre had gone home to Italy but that didn't stop the constant calls.

When it got to Wednesday, Nola knew the flight was at 7am. She had already been up for two hours, by the time they had to leave. She had everything packed and ready to go, and the anxiety of seeing people nearly drove her insane and almost stopped her from exiting her room.

She walked out of her room with her bags and stood outside Charles' room, she debated knocking or just waiting, wondering what she should say to him or what she should do. As Nola stood wondering, his door swung open and Charles nearly barrelled into his sister.
"NOLA!" He practically yelled her name. Before Nola could say or do anything, her arms were pinned to her side in a massive hug. "What have you been doing? We've been worried sick, we haven't seen you, or spoken to you, what is going on?" He started reeling off things as he held his sister at arms length. He had spent two days on and off the phone with people, like their mother. Trying to figure out how to get through to his sister, he had knocked so many times, he kept asking the front desk that she hadn't checked out. He was panicking, he could barely sleep not knowing if Nola was okay.
"Charles" Charlotte warned which made Charles stop talking, but he continued staring at Nola
"Shall we go?" Nola whispered. Charles' jaw dropped, he went to speak. Wondering why the hell Nola was acting so normal after completely isolating herself for so long, but Charlotte cut him off
"Let's" she said. They pulled there suitcases out of the room, Nola followed Charles and Charlotte silently from the hotel, all the way down to the cars waiting outside for them. Nola saw Logan and she nearly threw up, everything coming back to haunt her, making her want to run back to her room and hide like a coward again. Charlotte guided Nola into the car and sat next to her. She had been so worried about Nola, but she knew questioning her and looking for answers wasn't going to help anybody. Nola put her headphones on and ignored everything all over again. She felt embarrassed more than anything. How could she act such a way? How could she ruin such a special moment for Charles? Those were the questions on repeat in her head. She stayed silent the whole flight, whether she was awake or asleep. Charles watched Nola the whole time, wondering what he could say to her, what he could do. He didn't want to force the issue, it would only make her run. He thought about sending her home, but if anything he wanted to keep Nola by his side. He knew he was the only one she could speak to, if no one else, Charles was always the one Nola came to. The only time Nola hid something from Charles was when these panic attacks and the anxiety first started after they had lost Anthoine. Nola was never uncomfortable in her brothers presence, it came easy to their relationship to talk about everything.

"Nola?" Charles had enough, he couldn't sleep, and he watched Nola try and sleep. She kept stirring and rolling over. Nola opened her eyes and looked up at Charles who was standing above her, the whole plane was dark and silent. "Budge over" he said simply, Nola did as she was told and Charles got into the bed next to his sister. They hadn't shared a bed since they were kids, but it didn't feel alien. Charles wrapped his arms around Nola as he laid down with her. Tears just fell from Nola's eyes, silently. That was the worst type of crying, when there was no noise. Charles knew his sister, without feeling the wet patches appearing on his T shirt he knew she was crying, so he just held her and sssh'd her softly for ages. After a while, Nola had no tears left to cry, and thank goodness because Charles' T shirt was soaked.

"Talk to me Nola" he whispered, "don't hide away again. You never hide from me. I'm scared for you" he said, Nola could hear the concern in his voice and it made her heart break. So she talked. She talked about anything and everything in her mind and Charles listened. His arms not loosening their grip on Nola, keeping her safe. Sometimes, Charles felt like Nola's therapist, and he didn't mind. He preferred it, roles reversed, Nola was the same for him.

Nola didn't remember falling asleep until she was being woken up. Neither did Charles.
"Charles, Nola. Come on we're nearly there" Charlotte was waking them both up. Nola opened her eyes and she was curled into a ball next to Charles who was hogging the bed with his best starfish impression. Charlotte was standing next to the bed, Charles woke up and smiled up at her before looking at Nola.
"Oh Nola" he said as he hugged his sister. Charles was a very nice kind person, but he was also very affectionate to those closest to him and who he loved. Nola hugged her brother back. Charlotte climbed over Nola and she hugged her to, Nola was sandwiched between them.
"I'll be okay" Nola whispered to them, hoping to give them some sort of reassurance
"Until I know for sure, you're not leaving our sides" Charles said, Nola nodded knowing there was no point in trying to protest he wouldn't allow it.
"Can I at least to the bathroom without parental guidance?" Nola said, Charlotte laughed
"If you're not out in 5 minutes I'm sending out a search party" Charles said. Nola nodded and grabbed her bag before heading to the bathroom she felt a lot lighter after talking to Charles, getting everything out that needed to be said, he didn't say anything, he didn't need to. She knew he was there for her without him speaking the words. Nola was grateful Charlotte was here as well, she needed her as well, more than she knew or realised. Nola changed into a different tracksuit and got freshened up before returning to her seat next to Charles and Charlotte.