Shelby Manning (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shelbycobra) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
muserevival2016-11-05 10:47 pm
shelbycobra) wrote in muserevival2016-11-05 10:47 pm
Entry tags:
132.1.2 - lyrics
"And I've always lived like this
Keeping a comfortable distance
And up until now I have sworn to myself
That I'm content with loneliness
Because none of it was ever worth the risk."
It's one of those freak accidents no one could have ever seen coming, and yet something that she always knew was coming. Shelby had been lucky to race for five seasons and not be involved in a major accident; the worst she'd ever done before that day was bruise two ribs and break a finger. But every racing driver lived with the possibility of the big one, and as she had watched two friends lose their lives and a third almost die on the track, she wondered when that threat would come to her.
She won't remember the specifics until someone shows them to her on videotape. All her memory holds is racing Helio Castroneves for the lead at Gateway, getting into position to make the pass. But his car swings out of control and collides with her right rear tire, essentially acting as a slingshot to launch her No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet into the Turn 1 wall. She tries to save the car by turning into the skid but it's too little, too late and the last sound she hears is the slam of metal into concrete.
The Holmatro safety teams are on her in a matter of moments. They extricate her from what is left of the car and get her on a stretcher. The St. Louis crowd is silent as they realize that Shelby is unconscious when they load her into the ambulance. Down on pit lane Shane Worthington is ripping off his headset and going to find out where they're taking her, while Peter Fowler is already on his phone calling Richard Manning to tell him the news. The final ten laps are eventually called off because everyone knows that the reigning series champion is headed for the emergency room and nobody is going to drive while wondering if she's going to wake up again.
She does wake up again. She has no idea what the hell happened but the trauma surgeons explain it to her in small words. They tell her about the concussion, the lacerations from pieces of car that clipped her neck, the arm broken in two places, and the fractured leg. It could have been a lot worse if she hadn't been wearing a helmet and surrounded by a tub that's built to withstand high-speed impact. But she won't race again for the final two events of the season and in fact, it'll take some time before she can walk.
Shelby asks the same question that she knows James Hinchcliffe asked before her: "When can I get back in the car?"
She has never before missed a race in her life and she was quite proud of that. Also of the points lead she was building to capture a third straight championship, which will now be at risk because she won't be earning points at Watkins Glen or Sonoma to defend her title. Her first thoughts are of her career and she knows how stupid that is but at the same time it's what she does. It wasn't as if she had a lot of other things in her life except for the car that's now in a lot of pieces somewhere in a garage stall.
That's before the influx of visitors through her hospital room door. There's Helio, who will apologize for this to her until this time next year even though she doesn't blame him. The rest of the Team Penske crew follows: Will and Tim Cindric, Shane, Derrick and Terry, Josef and Peter, who tells her that her father is on a flight from Daytona and will be there in a few hours. Mr. Penske himself comes by and brushes it off when she apologizes for obliterating the car. Other familiar faces follow including Scott, Tony, Ryan, and of course Hinch who makes a joke about how this accident might finally get her that shot on Dancing with the Stars she was talking about.
That makes her think of her boyfriend, who's clearly struggling with being on this side of the medical equation or maybe it's just the thought that he could have lost her. He stays by her bedside just like he'll stay by her side through each of her follow-up visits and physical therapy appointments. When she comes to Watkins Glen anyway as the honorary grand marshal he's there to give her someone to literally lean on. And he doesn't let her get down on herself when she wonders if everything is going to heal correctly. He's there far more than she could ever expect, and that's when she knows he's the one.
It's easy for Shelby to feel alone. It comes with the nomadic nature of her job and the way she is always being pulled in one direction or another. But here, at what is the second-lowest moment in her whole life, she sees that she's anything but alone. She has an entire surrogate family around her and she has a man that loves her. They may not be with her every step of the way but they're there when it matters. As long as she has them she can never truly be alone, and no one can ever truly take this away from her. Even if she's going to need another car.
--
Shelby Manning
Need For Speed OC
881 words
Prompt takes place in a future canon.
Keeping a comfortable distance
And up until now I have sworn to myself
That I'm content with loneliness
Because none of it was ever worth the risk."
It's one of those freak accidents no one could have ever seen coming, and yet something that she always knew was coming. Shelby had been lucky to race for five seasons and not be involved in a major accident; the worst she'd ever done before that day was bruise two ribs and break a finger. But every racing driver lived with the possibility of the big one, and as she had watched two friends lose their lives and a third almost die on the track, she wondered when that threat would come to her.
She won't remember the specifics until someone shows them to her on videotape. All her memory holds is racing Helio Castroneves for the lead at Gateway, getting into position to make the pass. But his car swings out of control and collides with her right rear tire, essentially acting as a slingshot to launch her No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet into the Turn 1 wall. She tries to save the car by turning into the skid but it's too little, too late and the last sound she hears is the slam of metal into concrete.
The Holmatro safety teams are on her in a matter of moments. They extricate her from what is left of the car and get her on a stretcher. The St. Louis crowd is silent as they realize that Shelby is unconscious when they load her into the ambulance. Down on pit lane Shane Worthington is ripping off his headset and going to find out where they're taking her, while Peter Fowler is already on his phone calling Richard Manning to tell him the news. The final ten laps are eventually called off because everyone knows that the reigning series champion is headed for the emergency room and nobody is going to drive while wondering if she's going to wake up again.
She does wake up again. She has no idea what the hell happened but the trauma surgeons explain it to her in small words. They tell her about the concussion, the lacerations from pieces of car that clipped her neck, the arm broken in two places, and the fractured leg. It could have been a lot worse if she hadn't been wearing a helmet and surrounded by a tub that's built to withstand high-speed impact. But she won't race again for the final two events of the season and in fact, it'll take some time before she can walk.
Shelby asks the same question that she knows James Hinchcliffe asked before her: "When can I get back in the car?"
She has never before missed a race in her life and she was quite proud of that. Also of the points lead she was building to capture a third straight championship, which will now be at risk because she won't be earning points at Watkins Glen or Sonoma to defend her title. Her first thoughts are of her career and she knows how stupid that is but at the same time it's what she does. It wasn't as if she had a lot of other things in her life except for the car that's now in a lot of pieces somewhere in a garage stall.
That's before the influx of visitors through her hospital room door. There's Helio, who will apologize for this to her until this time next year even though she doesn't blame him. The rest of the Team Penske crew follows: Will and Tim Cindric, Shane, Derrick and Terry, Josef and Peter, who tells her that her father is on a flight from Daytona and will be there in a few hours. Mr. Penske himself comes by and brushes it off when she apologizes for obliterating the car. Other familiar faces follow including Scott, Tony, Ryan, and of course Hinch who makes a joke about how this accident might finally get her that shot on Dancing with the Stars she was talking about.
That makes her think of her boyfriend, who's clearly struggling with being on this side of the medical equation or maybe it's just the thought that he could have lost her. He stays by her bedside just like he'll stay by her side through each of her follow-up visits and physical therapy appointments. When she comes to Watkins Glen anyway as the honorary grand marshal he's there to give her someone to literally lean on. And he doesn't let her get down on herself when she wonders if everything is going to heal correctly. He's there far more than she could ever expect, and that's when she knows he's the one.
It's easy for Shelby to feel alone. It comes with the nomadic nature of her job and the way she is always being pulled in one direction or another. But here, at what is the second-lowest moment in her whole life, she sees that she's anything but alone. She has an entire surrogate family around her and she has a man that loves her. They may not be with her every step of the way but they're there when it matters. As long as she has them she can never truly be alone, and no one can ever truly take this away from her. Even if she's going to need another car.
--
Shelby Manning
Need For Speed OC
881 words
Prompt takes place in a future canon.