Ride

Chapter 9- As Time Goes By

Chapter 9- As Time Goes By

"Sally?"

The Porsche turned around at the sound of her name at about eight o'clock the following morning. "Stickers? Are you okay?"

"No..." he groaned. "I... I feel terrible."

"I'm not surprised!" she chuckled. "You spent all day yesterday drinking!"

"Never done that before", he remarked. "Why did I do that?!"

Sally hesitated. "You don't remember?"

Lightning thought for a moment, confused, before the awful memories came rushing back to him. "Fudge!" he exclaimed, horrified. "How... How is she?"

"No news yet, Lightning", Sally reported ruefully. She almost never called her boyfriend Lightning. It was normally only when she really wanted him to listen to her. "Nothing yet."

"Have you seen her?"

"Not yet", the Porsche replied. "Only family's allowed to see her at the moment, so only Luigi and Guido have seen her."

A pause followed.

"People have been calling", Sally informed her boyfriend. "Cal, Bobby, Rusty and Dusty, Mack. They heard about what happened and they were asking how you were."

"I'll call them back later", Lightning responded half-heartedly.

However, Sally wasn't sure that he was going to do that. "Well, we should probably get over to Flo's now."

McQueen sighed. "Luigi's still mad at me, isn't he?"

"He was the last time I saw him", Sally admitted, "but that was yesterday. He might not be anymore. He's had over twenty-four hours to absorb the shock."

"He probably will be, though."

Sally didn't have a response to that, but it didn't matter because they got their response when they arrived at Flo's.

After greeting Sally relatively warmly, Luigi gave Lightning a death stare. "You."

"Luigi, please don't start this again!" Sally pleaded.

The yellow Fiat didn't say anything. He was still mad at McQueen for what had happened, but it seemed pointless to argue with everything else that was going on. He just pretended to be absorbed in his oil.

"How are you, McQueen?" Fillmore questioned sympathetically.

The stock car shrugged. "I've been better", he answered. "I still can't believe this has happened." He groaned. "My hood is killing me!" Only, he regretted his choice of words instantly.

"Maybe it will not just be your hood!" Luigi remarked coldly.

The mood at Flo's was pretty frosty after that. While they all understood why Luigi was angry at Lightning, nobody else blamed Lightning for what happened, except Lightning himself. Not even Guido was angry at him. As previously stated, as far as Guido was concerned, pointing tyres wasn't going to do any good now. He just wanted his baby girl to get better.

Everyone just went back to their oil in silence.

That day, the next few days and even weeks after it weren't much easier for the RS gang. They soon found themselves in a new routine. It wasn't one that they enjoyed or wanted to get used to.

At sunrise, everyone would be lying awake in their respective homes silently. Not even Sarge and Fillmore were making any noise. And it was obvious that something was wrong when Sarge and Fillmore weren't going through their usual morning routine. The last time that happened, apart from when they were out of town, was right after Doc died.