A/N: Hello everyone! I wanted to try something new and make an alternate universe story. A few things before reading: The lines indicate flashbacks while the names in bold and italic, represent the character's point of view and the time that they're in. I hope you all enjoy this! Also, I do not own the information about Cruz. That belongs to Disney and Pixar.
Sally (Present)
She sat there behind her desk, staring at the stack of papers in front of her. The clock's constant ticking made her agitation grow worse. As much as she tried to distract her mind with work, she couldn't muster up the strength to lift her front tire. Tears started to form in her windshield as she thought about that dreadful day. She opened one of the drawers in her desk and gazed at the picture of a small, yellow baby car. She brushed her tire against the picture as she began to recall those horrid events.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Lightning asked as he gave his wife a nervous glance.
"I'm positive. You're not chickening out on me, are you?" she asked with a cunning grin.
Lightning rolled his eyes and gave her a coy look. "No, I'm not chickening out. I just want to make sure that you understand the risks that come along with this. There could be a lot of malfunctions and-"
"Listen, Stickers, I've been waiting for this moment for a long time. I know that anything could happen, but I also believe that everything will be fine."
"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. McQueen! How are you guys doing today?" the doctor said as he drove up to the couple.
"We're doing well, doctor-"
"Please, call me Dr. Jones. I'll be here to make sure that this process goes smoothly for the two of you. Are you ready?" the doctor said as he interrupted Sally.
They both glanced at each other as they followed the doctor into one of the examination rooms. The room was crowded with multiple nurse forklifts. They were zipping around, checking the massive computer monitor which displayed the statistical information of every baby in the factory. Lightning and Sally continued to follow behind the doctor until he led them to a smaller computer monitor near the back of the room.
"Alright. I understand that this is your first time making a child. Are there any questions before we begin this process?" Dr. Jones asked with a smile.
"No, let's do this," Sally said with a confident smile.
"Okay, before we begin, I have to let you know that there is a possibility for some malfunctions in the system. Sometimes the newborns come out with various defects. There could be air intake problems, fuel leakage, and busted carburetors. We even had one child come out with five wheels instead of four," Dr. Jones said.
Lightning and Sally shared anxious stares.
"Oh don't worry about that, we'll make sure that your baby is nice and healthy. All you have to do is answer a few questions and then we'll let the machine do its job."
"Sounds good, Dr. Jones," Sally said with a smile.
"Okay, first question: What do you want the gender of the child to be?"
Sally looked at Lightning as if she wanted to get his approval before she gave her answer.
"Go ahead, babe. I'm fine with whatever you choose," Lightning said with a gentle smile.
"It's your child too, Stickers. It's only fair that you get to have some say in this."
"Alright, why don't we have a girl?" Lightning beamed.
"Awww, Stickers!" Sally swooned as she nuzzled against his fender.
"A girl it is!" Dr. Jones exclaimed as he had one of the nurse forklifts put the information into the computer. "Now, onto the next item, what is the color of the child?"
"Can she be yellow, you know, to match her father?" Sally asked as she gave Lightning a soft kiss on his fender.
"Awww, you're too cute, babe," he said as he returned the kiss.
"Okay, okay, before you two get all "lovey dovey" in here, let's move on to our final stage in the process. I'm going to need some fuel samples from the both of you and we'll let the machine do the work," Dr. Jones said as he attempted to break up the love fest.
The couple laughed as they followed one of the nurse forklifts into the extraction chamber. They each gave a small sample of their fuel and awaited the results in the waiting room. The waiting room was packed to the brim with various couples. Some couples were waiting to get called in while others were waiting for the results of their child's status. One couple came out of the examination room with their newborn. They were overjoyed to see their tiny, green car zipping around the room.
"That's going to be us soon," Lightning whispered to Sally.
Sally chuckled at his remark. "Yes it will be," she said as she leaned against his side.
"I hope she has your eyes," Lightning said as he fantasized about their child's appearance.
"I hope she has your smile."
"Oh, she's going to break a lot of hearts with that smile," Lightning said as he flashed his famous, debonair smile at Sally.
"Yup that's the one. You'd better get that shotgun ready," she said as they both burst into laughter.
A few minutes later, a nurse forklift came into the waiting room with a clipboard on one of her forks.
"Mr. and Mrs. McQueen?" she called as she looked up from the clipboard.
The couple followed the nurse into the examination room where they met Dr. Jones again.
"Okay, guys. Now that all the groundwork is done, we will allow the machine to choose the make and model of the child. Since our technology is so advanced, the child will be given a more modern or futuristic model. Your fuel samples will create her face along with the shape of her body. Her personality will also come from the fuel samples. She will embody the characteristics of the parent with the stronger fuel. Any other questions before I press the button to start the machine?"
"Yeah, when will we get to see her?" Lightning asked.
"The process shouldn't take that long. When she arrives, we'll have to wait until the paint dries and we might have to run some additional tests to make sure that her engine and all her other faculties are working properly. You should be able to see her by tomorrow morning. Are we ready to get this started?"
Lightning and Sally exchanged a hopeful glance with each other. They both nodded in agreement as Dr. Jones pushed the button with his tire.
The next morning, Lightning and Sally were anxiously waiting to see their new daughter. Sally was elated. She felt her engine flutter at the thought of seeing her baby girl. Lightning was beside himself. He was filled with so much ecstasy that he wasn't able to stop smiling. Every minute felt like an eternity. Sally kept staring at the clock in the waiting room, wondering what was taking the medical staff so long to call them into the delivery room. As if on cue, one of the nurses came into the waiting room.
"Mr. and Mrs. McQu-"
Lightning and Sally raced up to the nurse before she could finish calling their names. She led them into the delivery room, where multiple newborn cars were on the assembly lines. Once they came out of the machine, they were placed into their assigned beds in the nursery. Lightning and Sally's eyes were glued to the array of tiny cars on the conveyor belts. There was a plethora of them, all with different models, colors, and facial features. Sally's eyes were scanning the babies as she tried to see if she could find her own. As she conducted her examination of the infants, Dr. Jones drove up to them with a bright smile on his face.
"Hello, McQueen family! Are you two ready to see your daughter?" he beamed.
"Is that a trick question? Of course we want to see her! Where is she?" Sally said as she bounced on her tires.
"Take it easy, Sal. I know you're excited, but you need to calm down," Lightning said with a soft chuckle.
"He's right. Come on let's meet your daughter," Dr. Jones said as he led them into the nursery.
The anticipation was killing her. Sally was on edge with every baby that she saw. She surveyed the room to find her daughter. Every yellow car that she saw gave her a jolt of excitement. Dr. Jones led them to the girl section of the nursery. The entire room was covered in pink wallpaper with pink blankets on each of the small beds. Several nurses were roaming around, taking the infants in and out of the room. Dr. Jones led Sally and Lightning down the long line of beds. They came to one of the beds which had a label marked, "Baby McQueen" on the front. The tiny, yellow car was fast asleep. She was carefully wrapped in a pink, fleece blanket.
"Here she is," Dr. Jones beamed.
Lightning and Sally were in awe. They gushed with joy at the sight of their precious creation.
"She's perfect," Sally said as she marvelled at the sight of her daughter.
"She got all that from her mom," Lightning said as he gave Sally a kiss on her fender.
The baby started to blink rapidly when she heard the sound of her parents' voices. She slowly opened her eyes and stared at the two cars in front of her. After a few minutes of silence, she gave them a radiant smile.
"Awwww!" Lightning and Sally exclaimed in unison.
The small car started laughing at their reaction. They could see that she was a cheerful ball of sunshine.
"When can we take her home?" Sally asked as she turned to face the doctor.
"Well, as I said earlier, we will have to run some more tests to make sure that her faculties are working effectively. You can come back tomorrow to pick her up. She should be functioning perfectly by then. In the meantime, why don't you think of a name for her?"
"We'll get to that later. Right now, all that matters is that she's healthy and strong," Sally said as she went back to staring at her baby girl.
"Oh! Before I forget, I need to give you this. It was taken right after she got put together in the machine," Dr. Jones said as he slid a picture of the baby toward Sally.
Lightning (Present)
He could see that she was burdened with sorrow. He was just coming back from a training session with Cruz. They spent the entire morning at Willy's Butte, running multiple laps on the old dirt track. He hated to see his wife in such anguish. He drove slowly into the Cozy Cone Motel, watching as Sally continued to brush the picture of their baby with her front tire. He was at a loss for words. As much as he tried to alleviate her pain, he knew that his words would never be enough. It was the anniversary of that dreadful day and he knew that Sally wasn't taking it well.
They were in the eye of the hurricane. An eerie, yellow sky covered the town as the winds ripped through the area. Large pieces of debris and tree branches were soaring violently in the air. All of the townsfolk were shut in their stores, fearfully waiting for the storm to pass. The thunder cracked fiercely while the lightning pierced into the ground. The rain came down heavily, creating small streams in the road. The very foundation of the buildings were starting to shake under the force of the mighty gusts of wind. Sally was parked outside of the Cozy Cone Motel. She gazed at the cloudy skies while she worried about the safety of her child.
"Sally! Get back in here!" Lightning yelled as he guided his wife back into the hotel. "What were you doing out there in this storm?" he asked in a stern tone.
"We can't take her home today," she said with a frown.
Lightning's harsh demeanor was changed to one of compassion. He placed his front tire on her side and leaned in to give her a kiss.
"She'll be fine, babe. Don't worry," Lightning said in a soft tone.
"How can we know that for sure? I saw the news this morning and the meteorologist said that the storm is worse in that area. Do you see how terrible it is out there? What if the storm flooded the factory?!"
"Sal, you need to calm down. I'm sure they evacuated the babies and moved them to a safer location."
"What if they didn't evacuate all of them? What if-"
"Shhhh. She'll be fine, Sal. Why don't we try and get some rest?"
"Rest?! I can't go to sleep knowing that my daughter is out there in this horrible weather!" Sally yelled as tears formed in her windshield.
"She will be okay, Sal."
"How can you be so calm about this?! Your daughter's life could be at stake and all you can say is that 'she'll be okay?!'" Sally screamed as the tears began to fall.
"You don't think I'm worried about this too?! I'm just trying to be strong for your sake!" Lightning yelled as he tried to fight back some of his own tears.
"I'm sorry, honey. I just don't feel right about this. It's like every bolt in my body is trembling. I can't help but think that something bad is going to happen," she said as she snuggled next to Lightning.
"I know, I know. Look, as soon as this storm blows over, we're going to go back to that factory and take our daughter home," Lightning said as he and Sally continued to curl up next to each other.
Due to the aftermath of the hurricane and all the road blockage, they made the trip a few days after the storm was over. Mack took them back to the area where the factory was located. As they exited the trailer, they both stared in shock at the dilapidated factory. The roof was torn off completely, the bricks were scattered all over the terrain, and the entire left side of the building collapsed. The place was like a ghost town. They could see the sparks flying from the broken machines and computer monitors. The nursery was almost non existent. All of the beds were strung along the edges of the shattered floors in the building.
Streams of water cascaded out of the windows. Sally was in a perpetual state of agony. She stared at the building without blinking. She was frozen in shock. All of her worst fears came to fruition. The moment felt so surreal. Was this real? She closed her eyes, hoping that this nightmare would end. She opened her eyes again. The building was still there. She could still feel the clumpy mud under her tires. Her baby was nowhere to be found (there weren't any infants in the area, as a matter of fact).
Lightning couldn't even breathe. He grimaced as he thought about the fate of his child. He refused to believe that she was gone. He held on to the hope of her survival. He rummaged through the debris, hoping to find his daughter lying beneath the rubble. Sally remained stationary. She wanted to tell her husband to stop wasting his time, but she couldn't find the strength to speak. As Lightning continued his search, he saw some rubble shift. He rushed over to the spot and started to dig with his tires. He kept digging until he found one of the nurse forklifts trapped under a beam from the factory. Lightning used all of his horsepower to push the beam off of her. Sally rushed over to them once she saw the forklift emerge from the rubble. The nurse was breathing heavily. She was missing one of her forks while the other one was bent. Her body was severely dented. She could barely keep her eyes open.
"Are you okay?!" Lightning asked as he helped her stand upright on her tires.
"Uh, I think so. Thank you so much! You saved my life!" she said as she coughed.
"Oh my goodness, are you alright?!" Sally asked in a frantic tone.
The forklift coughed violently.
"We need to get her to a hospital," Lightning said as he guided the nurse away from the area.
Lightning and Sally drove alongside the forklift. They made their way to Mack and loaded her into the trailer.
"Mack, we gotta get this lady to the hospital!" Lightning commanded as Mack pulled off from the spot.
Everyone was silent during the ride. Sally and Lightning sat on each end of the trailer, while the nurse remained in the middle. She kept coughing.
"Look, hon, I know you are probably in a lot of pain but I need you to answer one question for me. Do you remember what happened on the night of the storm?" Sally asked.
The nurse coughed for a while as she tried to catch her breath. "It was terrible! We tried to evacuate all of the newborns but-" her coughs interrupted her explanation.
"But what?" Sally insisted.
"Sal, take it easy on her now," Lightning warned.
"I'm sorry. Please continue your story," Sally said in the most calm tone that she could muster.
"I remember us trying to get all of the newborns on the emergency helicopter. We were successful in getting them on board until-" she started to cough again.
"Until?!" Sally asked in an anxious tone.
"Until one of them fell out," the nurse said as she coughed violently.
"What?!" Lightning exclaimed.
"Yes. I was on the roof passing the infants up to the ladder that was attached to the helicopter. The other nurses were on the ladder, passing them up to safety. For some reason, one of the newborns fell off of the ladder as the helicopter started to take off. The wind wasn't making our job any easier. The small car flew out of the helicopter and I caught her."
"The baby was a girl?" Sally asked as her engine rattled.
"Yes," the forklift said as she coughed again.
"What color was she?" Lightning asked.
"She was-" the nurse coughed again.
"Come on, hon. You have to fight through this! What color was she?!" Sally yelled.
"Give her a chance, Sal!" Lightning fired back.
"She was... yellow."
Lightning and Sally went quiet. Sally felt her engine sink to the ground.
"Do you know anything else about her…you know... besides the color?" Lightning stammered.
"Did she look like this?" Sally asked as she pulled out a picture of their daughter.
The forklift's eyes widened. "Yes, that's her," she said as she started to cough.
"What happened to her?!" Lightning screamed.
"I-I'm so sorry! I had her in my forks and tried to carry her to a safe place but-"
"But what?!" Sally yelled as tears rolled down her fenders. "What happened to my baby?!"
"I had her on my forks when the building started to collapse. One of the beams fell on me and she slipped off of my forks. The building started to flood and-" the nurse started to choke through her sobs.
"And?" Lightning asked as tears began to stream down his fenders.
"The last thing I saw was her floating away. She was screaming for dear life! I tried so hard to fight my way out from under that beam, but it was no use. I stayed under that beam for days. I would've still been under it if it wasn't for you two. I'm so sorry about your baby. I did everything I could!" the pittie said as she continued to cry.
Sally started to bawl. She let out a blood curdling scream as she sobbed uncontrollably. Lightning couldn't contain himself either. He closed his eyes and wept bitterly.
Lightning (Present)
He knew that pain that she was feeling. How could he not know? That day was traumatic for the both of them. In a split second, their pride and joy was ripped away from them. He wanted to see her grow up. He wanted to teach her how to race, how to be confident, and how imitate some of Doc's tricks. It was bad enough that he had to lose Doc. He couldn't handle losing his daughter too. He wanted to rock her to sleep every night. He longed to hear her quirky laugh and see her tender smile. He wanted to tuck her in every night and tell her all about the great racing legends of the past. He longed for the day when he would watch her race for the first time. He wanted to protect her, guard her heart, and be her rock in times of trouble. There's not a day that goes by where he doesn't fantasize about what could've been. He sees it in Sally's eyes. He sees her agony.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" he asked his wife as he drove over to her desk.
Her tire was still on the picture. She didn't even bother to look up at him. "I'm not feeling well," she said in a faint tone.
"Yeah, I know," he said as he looked down at the floor.
"How was the training session?" she asked as she finally looked up from the picture.
"Oh it was great. Cruz is getting faster by the day," Lightning said with a weak smile.
"That's good to hear," Sally said as she went back to looking at the picture.
Lightning saw her staring intensely at the photo. "What's on your mind, honey?" he asked in a gentle tone as he drove closer to her desk.
He knew that it wasn't the most brilliant question (considering that the answer was so obvious), but he needed to start a conversation. He was tired of seeing her put on this facade of happiness. She didn't respond to his question. It was as if she didn't hear him at all.
"Come on, babe. You can talk to me," he insisted.
Sally continued to stare at the photo. "You know, ever since I saw Cruz at that race in Florida, I couldn't help but notice that she looked so familiar. I feel like I've met her before. Whenever I see her smile, it just makes me feel so warm inside. I haven't felt that way since-" her sobs interrupted her statement.
"It's alright, sweetheart," Lightning said as he nestled next to her.
"Can you bring her in here?"
"What? You want Cruz to come in here?" Lightning asked as he raised a brow at his wife.
"Please, just go get her for me," Sally pleaded.
Sally
She waited patiently for Lightning to come back with Cruz. It wasn't like her to jump to conclusions, but she needed to know the truth. She needed to know if this instinct was real. A few minutes later, Lightning and Cruz entered the office. Cruz looked as confused as ever. She maintained her joyful attitude even though she didn't understand why she was in the room.
"Hey, hon," Sally said with a gentle smile.
"Hello, Mrs. Sally. How are you doing today?" Cruz said with a bright smile.
Lightning stared at his girls. He was just as confused as Cruz.
"I'm doing alright. I have a few questions to ask you," Sally said as she made her way in front of Cruz.
"Um, okay," Cruz said with a nervous smile.
"Do I need to stay for this or do you want this to be a private conversation?" Lightning asked.
"You can stay, Stickers. This conversation concerns you too."
Now he was really nervous. She could tell that he wasn't too keen about this encounter.
"Cruz, I need to know, how did you grow up? How was your childhood?" Sally asked.
Cruz gave her a confused look. What did that have to do with anything? She took a deep breath and gave Sally an answer:
"Um, I grew up in a foster home in Texas. I call the lady who runs it, 'Tia Carmen'. Everyone calls her that, really. She told me that I washed up on her doorstep during some storm. I don't really know much about my parents outside of that explanation."
"Interesting. Do you know your vehicle type?" Sally asked.
"I'm a 2017 CRS Sports Coupe."
"And your body type?"
"Uh, Lightweight Alloy."
"And your engine?"
"I have a DOHC V-8. Why are you asking me all these questions, Mrs. Sally?" Cruz asked as she bit her lip.
"My thoughts exactly," Lightning said as he glared at Sally. "Sal, I know what you're trying to do. I know you're hoping that this will bring our daughter back, but you just can't jump to conclusions."
"Stickers, I need to know for sure-"
"Wait, you guys have a daughter?" Cruz asked.
"We had a daughter. We lost her in a hurricane a few years ago," Lightning said in a somber tone.
"I'm sorry to hear that. I wish there was something I could do to help," Cruz said with a frown.
Sally was relentless in her search for the truth. "Cruz, I need to show you something. I need you to tell me if any of this looks familiar to you," Sally said as she slid a piece of paper across her desk.
It was a birth certificate, filled with information from the factory. Sally received that document right after they met their daughter for the first time. Cruz's eyes widened when she saw the birth certificate. She saw that all of the child's information matched the answers that she just gave Sally. Lightning, out of his own curiosity, drove over to look at the birth certificate. He was also shocked to see that the information was a perfect match.
"Wait a minute. Before we get ahead of ourselves, how do we know that this isn't a coincidence?" Lightning asked.
"What's going on here?" Cruz asked as she shifted her eyes between Lightning and Sally.
"Stickers, turn off the lights," Sally said with a grin.
"What? Why?"
"Just trust me," Sally said as Lightning turned off the lights. "Now, Cruz, I need you to turn on your headlights."
"Um, okay. Ooooo! I have this cool feature in them. Whenever I turn my headlights on, I can see a-"
"Small crab reflecting in the light," Sally said as she finished Cruz's sentence.
"Yeah, that's right," she said in a nervous tone as she turned her headlights on.
Sure enough, there was a silhouette of a crab coming from her right headlight. Lightning stood there in awe. He immediately turned on the lights and stared at Cruz.
Sally's eyes began to well up with tears. "Just before we went to give in our fuel samples, I asked Dr. Jones to add another detail to our daughter. I made him install a crab shaped lens in one of her headlights as a birthmark," she said as the tears flowed down her fenders.
"You always loved crabs," Lightning said to his wife as tears began to roll down his fenders.
Cruz's eyes also began to well up with tears. "So, you guys are my-"
"Yes, Cruz, we're your parents!" Lightning said as he raced over to her.
Sally was right behind him. "My baby!" she cried as she kissed Cruz multiple times.
Cruz was crying tears of joy. Who would've thought that fate would bring this family back together? They all snuggled next to each other. Cruz was nicely tucked between them, while Sally and Lighting lavished their love on her. After all those years of heartache and pain, the McQueen family was finally whole again.