Work Text:
Charles and Kevin had decided to take baby Harry to America for the race weekend so that they could get used to travelling with their son on long haul flights. So far, Harry had only been to a couple of races within Europe and for a ninth month old, he was a good baby but Charles and Kevin knew that they had to be prepared when flying for longer hours. There was also the fact that they knew that they would potentially take Harry to America for holidays when he was a little bit older. The couple had only been back and forth between Monaco and Denmark and then to a few European countries for races with Harry.
Pascale had agreed to join the couple in Texas so that someone could look after Harry when Charles and Kevin were busy. She stayed at the hotel with Harry on media day since both Kevin and Charles would be busy with media duties.
On Friday, Pascale stayed in the Ferrari motorhome with Harry and during the lunch break, Kevin picked up Harry and took him to the Haas motorhome to see Romain. Romain would be with Haas over the weekend and had pestered Kevin in the morning that he had yet to see Harry. That was why Kevin thought that he would pick up Harry during the lunch break so that Charles could spend time with their son and then he could have lunch without any interruption.
Romain was about halfway through eating his lunch when Kevin came into the motorhome with Harry. He smiled as a couple of Haas members stopped Harry so that they could coo at him and stroke his cheek. Eventually, Kevin made his way over and Romain was practically beaming.
“This must be Harry.”
Kevin chuckled as he leaned down to kiss the top of Harry’s head.
“This is little Harry.”
“How old is he?”
“Nine months.”
“He’s so cute.”
Kevin and Romain spent a bit of time chatting and at one point, Harry reached out to Romain and the Frenchman held onto his hand. When Kevin realised that the time was getting on, he knew that he would have to return Harry to Pascale.
“I’ll need to go, Romain, I need to take Harry back to Charles’ mum.” Said Kevin.
“No problem, promise me that you’ll bring Harry round again tomorrow.”
Kevin laughed.
“I will.”
Kevin took Harry back to Ferrari before he had to rush back to his own garage in time for second practice.
Charles and Kevin were thrown on qualifying day when Pascale woke up ill and they knew that they would be struggling to find someone to look after Harry. They didn’t want to leave Harry with Pascale because Charles wanted her to rest and she couldn’t do that if she was babysitting Harry.
Kevin and Charles made their way into the paddock once they had arrived and Charles took Harry to the Ferrari motorhome. He started to ask around to see if anyone could look after Harry. Unfortunately, everyone was busy with their own work and after a rather pointed comment from Mattia, Charles headed over to Haas.
Charles was slightly stressed by the time he arrived at the Haas motorhome and was directed to Kevin by his coach and the Dane was busy speaking to Romain. The Frenchman alerted Kevin to Charles’ presence and he smiled at Charles and Harry.
“Hey, what’s up?” Asked Kevin.
“No one can look after Harry, they’re all busy.”
“It’s fine, we can hopefully find someone here.”
“I can look after him.” Said Romain.
Kevin turned back to look at his ex teammate.
“I can’t ask you to do that, mate, you’re here as a guest for the race weekend. You didn’t come here to babysit.”
“Your son is in need of looking after and Charles’ mum is ill so you don’t really have any other option.” Romain pointed out.
Charles and Kevin looked at each other.
“I am a father myself, you know.” Said Romain.
Kevin snorted.
“It’s not that we don’t trust you, it’s just that you didn’t sign up to babysit.”
“Kevin, it’s fine and it seems like no one else can really do it. I bet if you ask around here, you’ll get the exact same answer as Ferrari.” Said Romain.
“Only if you’re sure.” Said Charles.
“I am.”
Charles kissed Harry’s cheek and allowed Kevin to kiss their son’s cheek too. He then passed him over to Romain who looked happy to cuddle the little one into his chest. Charles then crouched down in front of Romain so that he could speak to Harry and stroked his son’s cheek.
“Daddy and I will see you later, you be good for Romain, okay?”
Harry stared up at his papa with wide blue eyes as Charles stood up and huffed.
“I’ll bring his bag over from Ferrari, we’ll take care of him at lunch time so don’t worry about that.” Said Charles.
“No worries, enjoy final practice, guys.” Said Romain.
Charles and Kevin left Romain alone with Harry and the Frenchman was quite glad when Harry didn’t kick off at his parents’ absence. Even when Charles came back to hand over the bag to Romain, Harry didn’t budge from where he was cuddled into Romain’s chest. Charles shook his head fondly as he headed back to his own garage.
Romain spent most of the morning keeping Harry entertained with the odd staff member coming over to talk to Romain and say hi to Harry.
Kevin did make his way through to the motorhome after final practice so that he could collect his son and take him to Ferrari so that they could join Charles for lunch. The Dane smiled when he caught sight of Romain and Harry playing with some of the baby’s toys.
“Hey, how has he been?” Asked Kevin.
Romain smiled.
“He’s been as good as gold.”
“I’ll take him for lunch and then I’ll come back before qualifying if you’re still alright to keep an eye on him.”
“Kevin, I told you, it’s not a problem.”
The Dane took Harry to Ferrari where he passed him over to Charles who spent most of the lunch break on the phone to his mum. He was hoping that his mum was feeling better so there would be no issues since they were due to fly home the following day after the race. Thankfully, it seemed that Pascale was on the mend.
Kevin took Harry back to Haas ahead of qualifying and had a quick cuddle with him before he passed him back to Romain then disappeared to the garage. Harry wasn’t the least bit bothered by his dad’s disappearance and he wasn’t too interested in qualifying either. It just meant that Romain couldn’t really focus on the track action since he was watching Harry.
It wasn’t until after his media duties that Kevin eventually returned to the motorhome and made a beeline for his son before he was due to see his engineers for debrief. Kevin chuckled as Harry was sitting on the floor babbling away to himself. His son was too busy playing with his teddy that he didn’t notice his dad standing right next to him or his dad running a hand over his head.
“Do you want me to take Harry to debrief so that you can head back to the hotel?” Kevin asked Romain.
“No, it’s fine, I’ll look after him.”
Kevin was about to argue when his engineer turned up and he left to go to debrief. Although Romain had been looking after Harry all day, it seemed that he had no issues with looking after Harry for a little bit longer. Kevin knew that if he just went to debrief then he could pick up Harry afterwards and then Romain would go.
By the time debrief was over, Kevin quickly got changed in his room before he grabbed his bag and went in search of Romain and Harry. When he found them, he smiled as Harry was sleeping in Romain’s arms.
“Hey, I should hire you as a permanent babysitter if this is the result.” Joked Kevin.
Romain snorted.
“I bet you would say that this is the quietest he’s been but then again, you’ve been busy with the car.”
“He can be quite lively at times depending on who he’s with.”
“He’s been chatting to everyone here.”
Kevin laughed.
“I bet he has.”
Kevin leaned in and carefully picked up Harry and cradled him in his own arms.
“Thank you so much for looking after him.” Said Kevin, softly.
Romain smiled.
“It’s no bother and if you need me to babysit tomorrow, I’ll be free.”
“I think Pascale will be here tomorrow but I’ll definitely bring him over at lunchtime.”
“Please do, he’s good company.”
Kevin and Romain left the motorhome together and they found Charles and Andrea chatting outside the Ferrari motorhome as they appeared to be waiting for them. Charles pouted when he saw Harry sleeping in Kevin’s arms.
“He’s so cute.”
Kevin smiled.
“It’s amazing to think that we made something this cute.”
“Excuse me but he got that from me.” Insisted Charles.
“Of course he did, babe.”
Charles smiled and patted Romain’s shoulder.
“Thank you so much for looking after him, I hope he wasn’t causing too much trouble.” Said Charles.
“Nah, that’s Kevin’s job.”
Charles snorted as Kevin raised an eyebrow.
“Romain has even offered to look after Harry tomorrow.” Said Kevin.
“Kevin did say that your mum will probably be back in the paddock so I’ll leave it to her but as long as I get to see Harry, I won’t complain.”
Charles and Kevin smiled.
“We know where you are if we need you.”