Hello, everybody! I wrote this one for one of my wonderful Cars friends, MissStef94, but, in a way, it was actually a collaboration between three different people. I wrote it, but my other wonderful Cars friend, Kira McQueen, came up with the idea of Cory meeting Sally, Kira, and Lightning. I told her that I liked it and thought she should make it into a story, but she said it was just an idea she had and that she didn't have any plans on writing it, but Stef liked it, too, and wanted to make it a reality, so she asked me to write it and I told her I would, but I got permission from Kira, first. I also got permission to use Kira, who belongs to her, and Cory, who belongs to Stef. I got permission to use him, too. So that's why I like to think this story was actually written by me, Kira, and Stef. I hope you enjoy it!
Cory was completely exhausted.
Rolling slowly into his expansive, luxurious penthouse in his LA apartment, he used one of his sore, aching tires to close the door shut behind him, and drove into the living room. Having just gotten off from work, he was totally worn out, since he had spent the entire day doing nothing but listening to vehicles who had everything whine all day about their problems, being a famous, well-known attorney for celebrities, and he was getting quite tired of it.
All he wanted to do was sit down, relax, and watch some television.
He went to do just that, picking the remote up off the floor, and turned on the TV. He went rapidly through the channels at random, unable to find anything of interest to watch. Every time he thought he had found something promising, it seemed like it always turned out to be a program he had already watched before or had no interest in. Cory was a regular couch potato. He had seen everything. There weren't too many movies or TV shows he hadn't seen. Still, he was bound and determined to find something, just anything to watch to keep his mind off of all of his troubles. He didn't stop until he saw a familiar face.
Sally Carerra.
Cory sputtered, spit spewing out of his mouth and hitting everything, including the TV. He didn't bother to get up to wipe it off, though. He was too dumfounded by what he had seen on the screen, paralyzed by shock. Sally would've called it laziness, but he didn't care what she thought about him, anymore. She had been out of his life for so long, he could've cared less about Sally's opinion. She was old news, or so he had thought.
He couldn't believe it.
There she was, after all this time.
His old flame. She had been the love of his life at one time, and they had even dated for awhile, until she had broken up with him after she had found out he had fallen in love with another woman car, which had been understandable, Cory thought, considering the circumstances. He would've done the same thing in her situation. He just hadn't been expecting to see her again, after all these years, especially on TV! She must've gotten famous. Curious to see how, he leaned closer to the TV, probably too close, and, was, without a doubt, doing some real damage to his eyesight, his grill pressing up against the screen, but he didn't care. He was intrigued. He wanted to know how she had claimed her right to fame and glory.
She was talking to a couple of reporters, and they were asking her questions, but Cory couldn't make any sense of what they were discussing, yet. She was parked next to an older, red stock car, a car slightly older than him, anyway. He looked to be about the same age as Sally, though. He remembered she had been slightly older than him when they had been seeing each other. He recognized the other car from countless Piston Cup races over the years, but he had retired a few years back, not too long after he had suffered a pretty bad wreck. Cory remembered it had been pretty big news for a long time when it had first happened and for awhile it had been the only thing anybody could talk about, but he was nothing now. He couldn't even remember the old car's name, which was kind of sad if you got to really thinking about, so Cory tried hard not to.
After watching for a few minutes, however, it didn't take him long to realize who the old car was, and what had made Sally so famous.
"So, Mrs. McQueen, what's it like being married to Lightning McQueen?" one of the reporter's asked, shoving his mike into Sally's grill.
Sally Carerra had dumped him for Lightning McQueen!
Cory snorted. "That used-up, has-been, old fossil?" Furious, he threw the remote at the TV, causing it to bounce off the screen and fall to the floor. "What does he got that I don't?"
Sally handled it all like a pro. "Well, he's very sweet, believe it or not," she said, and gave him a smile when she looked over at him and saw he was flustered from embarrassment, stammering for words. "Even though he is Stinky." She gave him a reassuring, heartfelt kiss on the fender, and McQueen melted like an ice cream cone that had been left out in the sun for too long, his creaking, rusty frame sinking low around his tires. Seeing this, Cory had to grudgingly admit, it was kind of cute to see a couple as old as Sally and Lightning still fawn over each other after all the years that had passed. Most marriages didn't even last that long. He knew from experience. He had never been married, of course, not seeing himself as the type to settle down and have kid cars, but his past several dates over the years, Sally being one of them, had given him a taste of what marriage could be like and he wasn't really for sure making a lifetime comment to just one car for the rest of his whole entire existence was something he really wanted, or so he kept on telling himself.
The other reporter laughed. "Now that's a side of McQueen we haven't seen before!"
"And what's it like being married to Miss. Sally?" the other reporter asked Lightning.
Lightning chuckled. "Why, it's really quite wonderful," he said, turning to kiss Sally on the grill, and Cory felt a flare of jealously rise up within him. "She gets up every morning to fix me breakfast, and she is always there by my side when I go to bed at night."
Sally giggled like a little young school girl car. "And he's always there for me, whenever I'm feeling lost and alone or even scared," she said, and gazed up at him, peering up at him with unwavering worship and devotion in her eyes. "Yes, even the seemingly strong and durable Sally Carerra gets scared sometimes." Her mood suddenly turned somber, and she furiously blinked her eyes, which had gotten teary. "I was very scared when he wrecked, for instance." Her lips began to tremble, her voice cracked, and she began to sob. "I thought I was never going to see him again."
"Oh, hey now, Sally, " Lightning said, and pressed himself against her side, no, more like collapsed against it, Cory thought, watching the anicent car's worn and beat-up, old body sliding down it, looking as if he needed someone to hold him up more than she did. "Don't cry." He kissed her again. "You know I can't stand to see you cry."
Cory wanted to barf. "That's it," he said, feeling sick to his stomach. Unable to watch anymore, he went over to the remote and picked it up this time, switching off the TV. "You're going to pay for this, McQueen!" With these last few ominous words, he stormed back out of the apartment, his hard day at work already completely forgotten.
He was going to a little place called Radiator Springs.
As soon as the disastrous interview was over, Mac had brought Lightning and Sally home, and they arrived at Radiator Springs later on that evening. The drive had been a long one, and had exhausted both Lightning and Sally, but for the longest time it had went on without a hitch. Everything had seemed to be going fine until they had gotten just within minutes of Radiator Springs, however, and Lightning's engine had decided to overheat, forcing Mac to stop and go get Red and Mater to bring him the rest of the way home. The publicity stuff had always been hard on Lightning, and it hadn't gotten any easier with age. If anything, it seemed to have gotten worse for him.
"Oh, Stickers," Sally said, watching her husband gasp for air, unable to do anything else, feeling helpless "Are you going to be okay?"
Lighting tried to answer her, but couldn't, still hacking and wheezing.
Sally could do nothing but wait for help to arrive.
Fortunately, Sally didn't have long to wait.
Mater and Red arrived not long after Lightning's little engine failure and brought him home, having left Mac back in town to get some much needed shuteye, the big, old rig being worn-out from the long drive. Sally followed them, still a little a shaken up by the whole incident, but feeling relieved when Mater told her he was going to be okay. He had just overdone it with all of the traveling they had been doing lately and had suffered a minor engine failure, he had said, but would be all right with some rest.
"Mom, what's wrong with Dad?"
Driving down the busy little road running through Radiator Springs, watching all of the traffic pass her by, finding it hard to believe there had once been a time it hadn't been so busy, a long and slow period before her husband had paved it and just another stage in her life that took place so very long ago now, it seemed, Sally stopped and turned around.
She hadn't heard her daughter pull up to her, but there she was, looking worried. Judging by her expression, Sally knew Kira had seen Mater and Red bring her father into town, Mater pulling him and Red pushing him by driving against his side. He hadn't been able to move at all.
"Nothing, honey," Sally said, trying to reassure her with a smile. "He's going to be okay, I think. The drive was just a little hard on him and he suffered a minor engine failure. He'll be all right."
Sally was surprised when Kira burst into tears. She hadn't really thought Kira had cared anything for her father. The two of them were always fighting, mostly due to the fact that she was very determined to be a racer and Lightning was against the idea, for an obvious and very good reason, Sally thought, remembering his wreck, but, naturally, Kira was opposed to him being against her pursuing a racing career of her own, of course. Their conflicting viewpoints on the matter generally resulted in shouting, and sometimes even boxing, matches between the two, but Sally had became so accustomed to their clashes she had learned to ignore their shouting matches and just live with them. She just blocked them out now. "What's wrong, honey?" she asked, finding it hard to hide her shock, her eyes widening in horror.
"I wish you and dad would stop doing those stupid interviews," Kira said, sniffing. "I know you don't like them, and it's no secret Dad hates him." She closed her eyes, doing her best to stop the tears from flowing, but when she opened them again they were full of tears. "You two are getting too old to be travelling that far, anyway, and it's painfully obvious doing all of those interviews are starting to take a toll on Dad." She took a couple of deep breathes, trying to calm down, and opened her eyes again once she had control of herself again.
"Oh, honey," Sally said, touched. "You don't have to worry about me and your father. We're grown-ups. We can take care of ourselves, and I'm sure we do enough worrying for the both of us without you having to."
"Don't lie to me, mom," Kira said, backing away from her. "I think you're just trying to make yourself feel better when you talk like that."
"Kira, wait-" Sally began to shout after her and started to chase her, but saw it wasn't going to do any good. Kira wouldn't have heard her anyway.
Her daughter was already long gone.
Lightning woke up the next morning in one of Sally's cones at the Cozy Cone, completely exhausted, having only just a faint memory of what had happened the night before.
"Are you all right, Stickers?"
Lightning's eyes snapped open, and everything that had happened the previous night had come flooding back to him. "Oh, Sally," he said, moaning. "It's you."
"Yes, it's me, silly," Sally said, and drove up to him, planting a kiss on his fender. "Who else did you think it was?"
Lightning felt a small, smile stretch across his grill, tugging at the corners of his downturned mouth. "Oh, I don't know," he said, kissing her back. "One of those annoying reporters, maybe."
Sally sighed, resting herself against Lightning's side. "I didn't mean to break down like that, honey," she said, ashamed of herself. "I'm sorry."
"You don't have to apologize to me, honey," Lightning said, still angry with himself for having scared her the previous night. "If anything it's my fault for agreeing to do that interview. I shouldn't have."
"Don't worry about it," Sally said, shaking her hood. "It's all over with now and there's no point in it." Her gloomy demeanor brightened up a bit, and she quickly changed the subject. "That's not the reason why I came, anyway."
"Oh?" Lightning raised a questioning eyelid at her, curious.
"You're daughter," Sally said, beaming at him. "Believe it or not, she was worried about you yesterday."
Lightning couldn't believe it. "She was?" he asked, shocked but delighted.
"Uh huh," Sally said, feeling better now that she had came and told Lightning, realizing how good the news had made him feel. "She asked about you."
Lightning chuckled. "Wow, I can't believe it," he said, beginning to laugh. "She actually does care about her old man after all."
"What made you think she didn't?" Sally asked, heartbroken to hear Lightning say this, but not exactly surprised.
Lightning's weary but wise gaze drifted, his eyes scrolling around the cone, until he focused his failing eyesight on a picture of Kira when she had been just a baby car, sucking on a pacifier, with a spinning mobile of cones Lightning had helped Sally make spinning just above her head. "She stays so mad at me," he said, smiling at the picture, but there was a deep sadness and longing in his tired eyes. "It's hard to believe she was ever that happy."
"Yeah, I know," Sally said, staring up at the picture with fondness. "I remember when I took that picture."
"I wish we could go back to those days," Lightning said, and when Sally glanced over at him again, she was startled to see tears running down his windshield. "She was so cute back then, and didn't hate me nowhere near as much."
"I know it doesn't seem like it at times, but she doesn't hate you," Sally said, choosing not to say anything about the tears, thinking it would be best. "She does love you, Stickers, and she does want to please you, which is one of the reasons why I think she wants to be a racer so badly. She just goes about it differently than others would, I think, and not in a way I can say I would exactly approve of myself, but she is trying hard to seek your approval. I saw that last night."
Sally was glad to see Lightning's tears had stopped by the time she had finished making this little speech, and he was no longer sniffing.
"Thank you, Sally," he said, and smiled, lifting several years off of him. "You don't know how much it meant for me to hear you say that."
"I know," Sally said, smiling at Lightning one last time before turning to head out of the cone. "You ready to go now?"
"Yeah," Lightning said, riding close behind her bumper, following her out the door. "You sure you weren't just saying that to make me feel better?"
"I'm sure," Sally said, laughing. "Why can't you just be happy, Stickers?"
"I' am," Lightning said, and was surprised that, for the first time in a long while, that he could say it and actually mean it.
Driving through Radiator Springs, Kira couldn't believe her mother, still fuming over what she said to her last night. She just found it hard to fathom she could really think she was so blind and wrapped up in herself that she couldn't see how much her parents were hurting.
"Can you tell me where I can find Lightning McQueen?"
Kira spun around, startled, and found herself facing a strange car she had never seen before in Radiator Springs. "Depends on who's asking," she said, scoffing, trying not to let on how much the other car's appearance had startled her.
"Oh, never you mind your little head about it right now," the strange car said, giving her a cold smile, unfazed by Kira's sardonic reply, which surprised her. Usually other vehicles were put off by her dry attitude, even her family and friends sometimes. "I'm just a little friend of Sally McQueen and I'm looking for her husband right now."
Kira was suddenly very afraid. "What do you want with my father?" she asked, wanting to get away from the car as fast as she could, but not wanting to seem rude at the same time. She did have a little bit of manners, despite what some people might've thought about her.
"Oh, nothing," the car said, his voice silky smooth, making her not want to trust him even more. "I just wanted to have a little chat with him, is all."
"I don't believe you," Kira said, revving her engine, and took off, leaving the strange car behind to cough in her dust.
"Mom, there's some strange car here to see dad, but I don't trust him."
Sally was driving out of the cone, Lighting slowly following close behind her, when the very car they were going to see came speeding toward them.
"What is it, honey?" Sally asked, seeing the worried expression on her daughter's grill.
"Yeah, slow down, catch your breath," Lightning said, smiling at her. "You're talking so fast, anyway, I can hardly understand you."
Kira gulped, struggling to calm herself down. "Okay," she said, taking slow deep breathes, and didn't speak for a few minutes. "Mom, there is strange car here to see dad, but I don't trust him." she spoke up at last, shuddering. "I can't really explain it. There's just something about him I don't like."
Lightning and Sally looked at each other, exchanging worried expressions of their own.
"Take us to him, honey," Sally said, letting her daughter lead the way.
Cory was parked beside the road, having already been waiting for several minutes for somebody to come and help him and starting to grow more than just a little impatient, when he saw the three cars in the distance. He squinted to see them through the blinding glare from the rays, but once they got closer and he could make them out, he recognized the familiar, azure, curvy shape of Sally Carerra, and the young car he had ran into earlier, both of them riding along either side of the wrinkled, shriveled-up form of Lightning McQueen in order to hold him up.
"Are you all right, Dad?" the car he didn't know asked McQueen, and turned around to look at him, wearing a worried expression on her grill, which was kind of adorable, Cory thought ruefully, seeing the supposed daughter so concerned about her old man.
Lightning gave a slight nod of his hood. "Yeah, I'm fine, honey," he said, slowly lifting his eyes up to look at her. "I'm just hurting a little bit, is all, but I'll be all right." His mouth contorted into a thin grimace that marred his grill, making it painfully obvious he was hurting more than what he let on. "Don't you worry about an old codger like me."
Cory had been able to tell right off that the old car was hurting, even from a distance, noticing how he liked to put more weight on one side than the other when he drove. "You're not an old codger, dad," she said, and came to abrupt halt, just happening to look ahead of her and catching sight of Cory. "There he is, mom." She glared at Cory, pointing an accusing tire at him. "The car I was telling you about."
"Mom?" Cory asked, appalled, and looked over at Sally for answers, hoping he had misunderstood what the younger car had said. "Dad?"
Sally pulled up closer to him. "C-Cory?" she asked, recognition dawning in her tired eyes. "Is that you?"
Cory forced himself to smile back at her. "The one and only," he said, turning around to look over at Kira. "So this is your daughter?" He gaped at her, his eyes and mouth wide open, knowing he must've appeared rude but not caring. He didn't know what he had been expecting, but Sally Carrera having a daughter had been the last thing he had been anticipating. "Did I hear that right?"
Sally nodded. "Yes, you did," she said, smiling at the horrified expression that must've been on his grill, if the amused look she wore on hers was anything to go buy.
Cory turned back to Sally, stammering. "But how did that happen?" he asked, completely flabbergasted.
Sally laughed. "I fell in love with this young, cocky hotshot rookie racer, you see," she said, and smiled back over at McQueen, planting a lengthy, heartfelt kiss on his fender.
Lightning chuckled. "Who's no longer so young, anymore, as you could probably already tell," he said, kissing her on the grill.
Cory couldn't help but smile, a part of him relieved to see Sally and Lightning were the same two, old love struck birds they appeared to be on TV. So many celebrity couples weren't, he knew, but Lightning had pointed out something Cory had noticed when Sally and her daughter had arrived with him.
Somehow, he looked older than what he had on TV the night before, as if he had aged several years in just little over a day, if that was even possible, and McQueen had already appeared old enough. If anything, he looked ancient now, ancient and tired. Maybe it was one of those sad cases where a celebrity looked better on the screen than in real life. Cory didn't know what it was, but he actually felt a little bad for him, now, and didn't have the heart to tell him what he had originally planned on saying.
"So, what did you want to talk to us about?" Sally asked, shaking Cory out of his thoughts.
Cory shook his hood to clear his mind. "Oh, nothing, never mind," he said, and somehow came up with a lie on the spot. "I was just wondering if you had a place to stay."
"Certainly," Sally said, turning to leave. "We have the Cozy Cone if you would like to stay there for there the night." She started on down the road.
"If you'll follow us I'll show you the way." She turned back around to smile at him again, even giving him a little wink this time. "I'll even give you a little discount."
"What?" Lightning asked, not seeming to be too fond of this idea, and Cory was starting to have second thoughts on choosing not to confront him about Sally.
"It's just for the night, Stickers," Sally said, grinning at him.
Cory followed them, listening to their friendly banter, surprised to discover he took great comfort in it. He had already forgotten why he had come there for in the first place.
The End