Author's Note: Warning, this story contains an OC (Willow Schnee, Winter's daughter). The star is a canon character, but the OC is and her interactions with others are integral to the story. I hope you'll put up with it.

That Horrid Weekend

Winter filed for divorce. She had been married to her husband for 35 years, but they had never really loved each other. That was not to say they disliked each other. They were perfectly good friends. The problem was that would never be enough. For years they had been married on paper only and both had had innumerable extra-marital relationships over the years. The marriage had originally been arranged by Winter's father for business reasons. The pair had remained together for just those reasons for a long time, but eventually they became irrelevant. Then they stayed together for just one reason. Now that reason was gone.

Their daughter Willow was dead. She had been born before Winter got into major motorsports, back in the early years of the marriage when both partners thought they still might grow to love one another. Willow grew up in luxury, mostly with her father, away from the race track. Winter did not want her daughter to follow her into such a dangerous profession. Winter had seen too many die, lost too many friends. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Winter recognized that it was inevitable that Willow would be a racing driver. It was one of the reasons Winter pushed so hard for increased safety and why she continued her crusade even after retiring.

Sure enough, Willow did end up behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car. After winning the International F3 championship, Winter put Willow in one of Schnee Automotive's cars. Her rookie year was a big success that included a trio of wins and saw her finish third in points. In her second year she was champion. Over the next few years she won two more titles and was widely recognized as the best driver of her generation. Unfortunately Schnee Automotive was no longer at the top of its game. For years it had been unable to match the cars fielded by Beacon GP and Team Juniper, and even when Willow was champion it had really been in spite of the quality of her car rather than because of it.

After 11 seasons driving for the family team, Willow decided to make a change. Team Juniper had won the previous two titles and now had an opening on its roster. Willow contacted Glynda and she agreed to give her the seat, assuming she could get out of her current contract with Schnee Automotive. Willow went to her mother and asked for a release. It was painful for Winter but she understood. As much as she hated to see Willow go, she wanted her to have the best chance at success. If that was at Team Juniper, that was where she should be. The release was granted and Willow had a new team.

Once again Nora had designed a winner. It was a bit twitchy, but it was incredibly fast. Through testing it showed great promise, only matched by Beacon GP's entry. Without Willow, Schnee Automotive languished in the midfield. The first race was in Atlas. As her home race Willow was determined to win and the fans were just as excited to see her take the victory. It was not to be. She won the pole but after losing the lead during pit stops she crashed out while pushing too hard to retake the lead. The second race was at Mantle, and it was even worse. Willow won the pole again, but as the cars thundered into the first turn on the first lap, the driver behind her lost control, slammed into the back of her car, and took both out of the race.

The third race was the Sanctum GP. Willow had won at the track three times with two other podium finishes. All through practice Willow dominated. It looked as if she might turn her season around. She certainly thought so. The car perfectly suited the track and there was no better driver.

The first practice was marred by a spectacular accident. Second year driver Nebula Violette lost control, ramped off a kerb and stuck a tire barrier while airborne. The car flipped over and landed upside down. She was taken to the track medical center, then to a hospital for tests. She was alright, well enough to return to the track the next day, but a broken nose and arm injury meant she would not race.

In qualifying the following day things got much worse. Rookie driver Brawnz Ni headed into the right-hand kink that immediately preceded the tight left-hand chicane at the end of the track's fastest stretch. Just before turning in, at top speed when the aerodynamic load was at its maximum, the front wing detached - it had been damaged by striking the kerbs the previous lap - and got caught under the front wheels. The car went straight on and slammed into the unprotected concrete wall just beyond the edge of the course at 195 mph. The car slid through the grass before spinning back onto the track where it came to rest. The car was destroyed, with one side entirely torn off and only one wheel still attached. Brawnz sat slumped in the cockpit, not moving. Safety crews rushed to the crash site. Brawnz was quickly extracted from the car but he was not breathing. The safety crew on the scene attempted to resuscitate him until the ambulance arrived. He was loaded in and taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. His neck had been broken and his death had been instant.

Willow was distraught. It had been over a decade since the last fatality in F1 and though Willow had been present then, it was still a terrible shock. Even if it was unofficial, she saw herself as a leader for the drivers and considered their safety her personal responsibility. That someone had died on her watch was unacceptable. She had to know more. She had to find out what had happened. Track officials tried to stop her but she commandeered the safety car and drove out to the crash site. Standing there, looking over the carnage, she cried, just as she had when the news had first been announced.

When Willow returned to the garage the race officials threatened to penalize her for going out against their orders. She did not care. Racing hardly mattered now. She needed to do something, but she had no idea what to do. She contacted the one person she knew she could always turn to for advice.

"Winter Schnee's office." The secretary answered the phone.

"I need to speak to my mother." Willow said.

"I'll transfer your call immediately." The secretary said.

"Schnee." Winter answered the phone.

"Mom…" Willow started. She was still too emotional and could not complete her sentence.

"Willow, what's wrong?" Winter asked. She had immediately dropped her stern demeanor and was instantly the loving, caring mother.

"Brawnz Ni...he crashed...he's dead." Willow managed.

Winter had been working and had not heard the news. "That's terrible." Winter said, unsure of what else to say. "Do you want me to come to the track?"

"No, that's...that's not necessary." Willow said. "It's just I...I don't know what to do. I have to do something."

"I don't think I'm the right person to talk to." Winter admitted.

"Then who is?" Willow asked.

"If Ruby's at the track, go talk to her." Winter suggested. "She's better informed than I am. She's a champion too. She'll know what to do."

"Alright, thanks mom." Willow said. "I love you."

"I love you too." Winter said. For some reason she hesitated to hang up the phone, waiting until she heard a click from the other end. She felt a wave of overwhelming sadness, and then it was gone.

Willow walked to the Beacon GP garage. "Is Ruby here?" Willow asked one of the mechanics. As technical director Ruby did not go to every race, but she tried to be at the track as often as possible.

"Yes, I'll get her." The mechanic replied. He walked off then returned a few minutes later with Ruby in tow.

Ruby looked just as distraught as Willow. She too knew what it was like to be a driver and what it was like to lose someone. "How can I help you Willow?" Ruby asked.

"Can we talk?" Willow asked. "In private?"

"Of course." Ruby replied. The pair went to Schnee Automotive's hospitality setup, heading into a meeting room in the back. "I'm guessing this is about Brawnz."

"Yes, of course." Willow sighed. She successfully fought the urge to cry. "I need to do something. I can't just sit here. What should I do?"

"Did you ask your mother?" Ruby asked.

"She told me to ask you." Willow replied. "She said you'd know better than she would."

Now the pressure was on. "I'm not sure about that." Ruby admitted. "I have my ideas but I'm not sure they're what you're looking for."

"Just tell me." Willow implored.

"Get the drivers united." Ruby said. "Get them to push for a change. Safety will only improve if you all work together to improve it."

"You mean re-form the GPDA." Willow said.

"Yes." Ruby confirmed. "It was a vehicle for change when I was driving. It's about time you brought it back."

"But what can I do now?" Willow asked.

"Honor Brawnz's memory." Ruby answered. "It won't be as hard as when I was driving. Get them to leave his grid spot open, maybe do something personal. Beyond that, I don't know."

"Those are good ideas." Willow said. "I'll start working on it immediately."

"Good luck." Ruby said as Willow rushed out of the room.

Willow got together with the other top drivers. They were all in agreement. At the next race the GPDA would be back with Willow at its head. A short conversation with race officials got the grid spot memorial done. Willow had something else in mind but it would have to wait. Qualifying was resumed. The show went on, just as it always had. Willow secured the pole by a wide margin. The next day she would start at the front and she was sure that was where she would finish as well. Then she would have the opportunity to truly honor Brawnz. In the warm up session the morning of the race she was almost a second faster than anyone else. It was going to be a runaway.

The start of the race matched the weekend to that point. The fifth place starter stalled on the grid. The 22nd place starter - unsighted by the cars in front of him - slammed into the back of the stalled car. Wheels and body panels went flying in all directions. A few pieces got over the debris fences, injuring a handful of fans. On track the safety car was deployed. A new feature the year before, it had only been used twice before. The remaining runners, led by Willow, followed the safety car at agonizingly low speeds. The safety car was withdrawn on lap six and the race resumed. Willow immediately jumped out to a big lead with a blistering lap.

On the following lap Willow entered the first turn, a flat-out left-hander called Tambourine. It was normally a very easy corner, with no skill required to take it at 200 mph. If things went wrong however, they went very wrong. The old track surface was bumpy and it was always teeth-chattering ride through Tambourine. This time Willow's car hit a bump hard, bottoming out badly and showering the second place runner in sparks. Much of an F1 car's aerodynamic grip comes from the air passing under the car, and suddenly this was gone on Willow's car. Lacking grip the car slid wide. She expertly kept the car from spinning while letting off the gas just a fraction of a second after the slide began, and was about to recover from the slide when she ran out of road.

Once Willow's car hit the grass she was just a passenger. There was only a narrow strip of grass before the the unprotected concrete wall. Willow's car struck the wall at a shallow angle but traveling around 135 mph. The right side was ripped off and the car spun to a stop in the grass beside the track. It had been a hard hit but appeared to be nothing out of the ordinary. Trackside cameras showed her moving briefly before slumping over. Thereafter she was motionless. The race was immediately red flagged.

Fire fighters were the first to the scene, but there was no fire and they left Willow in place until the medical crew arrived. When the doctors arrived it was immediately clear that Willow's injuries were grave. Her helmet - struck by her sheared right-front wheel and punctured by part of the suspension - was removed, revealing a large bloody gash above her right eye. She was carefully extracted from the car and laid on the grass. While removing her from the car, safety workers noticed a folded Vacuo flag, one she had intended to display in memory of Brawnz upon her victory. Dr. Glenn - still F1's head doctor and a personal friend of Winter and Willow - arrived to treat her. He opened her eyelids and could tell just by looking at her eyes that she had suffered a major brain injury.

Willow took a deep breath punctuated with a heavy sigh, then stopped breathing. Dr. Glenn performed a tracheotomy while other personnel attended to her wounds, immobilized her neck and began transfusing blood. The medical helicopter landed on the track beside the scene and Willow was loaded aboard for the flight to a nearby hospital. Her heart stopped shortly after arrival at the hospital, but it was restarted and she was put on life support. Winter was informed and left immediately for Sanctum but it would take hours to get there.

Meanwhile the show went on. Willow's car was loaded onto a truck and carted back to the garage while the track was cleared of debris. The race was resumed and run to completion without further drama. There was no celebration by the victors. Everyone knew the crash had been bad and most feared the worst. They had already lost one friend that weekend and many feared they had lost another. Many had thought the days of racing being truly life-threatening were over, but the weekend had already proved them wrong. Willow's crash only served to drive home the point.

Three hours after arrival at the hospital Willow's heart stopped again. The doctors decided not to restart it. The news was announced to the media minutes later. Winter found out when her jet landed at a nearby airport. She had not even had a chance to say goodbye. She went to the hospital to collect the body. With the wound above Willow's right eye now cleaned of blood, it did not even look that bad, certainly no worse than the gash that had given Weiss her scar. Willow looked peaceful, as if asleep. Aside from the obvious damage, Willow's skull had been fractured and punctured through the visible wound. Either would have been enough to kill her. Winter was so distraught she could not speak, she could not cry, she could hardly bring herself to move from the spot. But she had to. There was more to do.

Winter's next stop was the track. There would no doubt be a major investigation, but she was going to do her own. Her first point of contact was Ruby. Ruby was still in tears. She had been crying on and off since the news had reached the track. She could offer no new information. Winter found herself in the unlikely position of comforting someone else. Winter made her way to the Schnee Automotive hospitality. It was empty. She turned on one of the TVs and put on the news. There would no doubt be a replay of the crash. She only had to wait seconds. It had been replaying non-stop almost since Willow's death became known.

Winter's first thought was that something had gone wrong with the car. The prospect was almost too much to bear. Though she obviously had nothing to do with the construction of Team Juniper's cars, Willow would not have been driving one if Winter had not granted her a release from her contract. But as she watched replay after replay, from angle after angle, it became clear that the car had simply gotten out of shape and slid off the track before Willow could bring it back into line. It was nobody's fault.

Crashes like that were common in Tambourine. Just a few years earlier another driver had suffered a fiery crash in the same corner but walked away mostly unscathed. Willow's death had been a fluke. On impact with the wall her right-front tire had been sheared off. It was pinned between the concrete wall and the body of the car. With nowhere else to go it popped up, snapping back into the cockpit where it struck Willow's helmet. If not for that she would have walked away from the crash shaken, but unhurt.

Willow's body was laid in a casket and loaded aboard Winter's jet. Winter flew home with the body the day after the incident. Thousands of mourners were waiting at the airport. To the people of Atlas, Willow was more than a driver. She was a national hero, loved by all. Two days later a funeral was held. Millions lined the streets as the procession wound its way through Atlas. Many drivers, current and former, attended. Ruby was one of the pallbearers and cried continuously through the proceedings. Willow's parents were stoic in the grief.

The day after the funeral Winter stepped down as head of Schnee Automotive, both the race team and the company. Weiss took over. Winter also filed for divorce that day. Then she began a life of seclusion. She was rarely seen in public but the occasional family or company responsibility got her out of the house. Of course people asked about her daughter. Winter always just said she did "not talk about that horrid weekend." Most of the others who had been close to Willow took the same approach.

Willow left a large legacy. Off the track that came in the form of massive charitable efforts carried out in her name. The entirely of her fortune went to charity and Winter gave away most of her wealth in her daughter's name. On track Willow's death lead to massive safety improvements in the cars and tracks. It sparked a new dedication to improving safety the likes of which had not been seen since Winter's day. Not a single F1 driver was killed in a crash for over a decade. Willow's fellow competitors remembered her as a friend above all else. She had been dedicated to their safety and always been careful to be the best person she possibly could. She would go down in history as one of the greatest F1 drivers in history.

To her mother she had always just been the brightest light in her life. In her absence the darkness was oppressive.

Inspirations

- As most of you will know, this is the story of Imola 1994. Nebula is Rubens Barichello, Brawnz is Roland Ratzenberger and Willow is Ayrton Senna.

- Atlas stands in for Brazil (Interlagos), Mantle for Pacific GP (TI Circuit, Japan) and Sanctum for San Marino (Imola).

- Barichello's spectacular crash and Ratzenberger's death occurred pretty much as described. They're both on film if you're interested in seeing for yourself.

- Senna did go to the scene of Ratzenberger's crash against orders and was threatened with a penalty.

- Ratzenberger's grid spot was left vacant at the start of the race, but at the urging of Bernie Ecclestone his team carried on with its other driver.

- Tamburello Corner is represented by Tambourine, the English translation.

- Senna's death is pretty much as described. Again, the crash is on film.

- Senna had an Austrian flag in his car that he had intended to use to honor Ratzenberger.

- Dr. Glenn stands in for Professor Sid Watkins, F1's top doctor for over two decades.

- The charitable efforts started by Senna continue to this day, improving the lives of impoverished children in his native Brazil.

Inaccuracies and Anachronisms

- Willow's career and Senna's don't quite match up.

- Senna had not been in F1 for the last death at a race weekend and Ratzenberger's fatal crash was even more of a shock to him. He was almost debilitated with grief.

- Rather than contacting a family member of a mechanic for advice, Senna turned primarily to 2 people: Professor Sid Watkins - F1's head doctor and a close personal friend - and Alain Prost - total scumbag with an irrational hatred of Senna (will still bad-mouth Senna to this day) but a respected retired driver who had been around for the deadly 1982 season.

- Senna's brother was present for his passing.