Hello, everybody! I wrote this story because I really like Strip and Lydia and the relationship they have together. I just wanted to explore it a little more, like I did with Doc and Louise. I like shipping obscure couples, lol. This story takes place at the end of the first movie, sometime between that little scene at the end of the movie where they are at Radiator Springs and Mater is showing them around the Doc Hudson museum, and I really had no idea what else to call this fic, but I hope you enjoy it!
It was a busy day at Flo's V8 Cafe.
The little business was fuller than usual, packed to the brim, filled with Radiator Springs citizens who had came for one thing and one thing only:
To see Strip 'the King' Weathers, who, along with his wife, Lynda, had stopped by the town to pay Lightning McQueen and his friends a little visit.
The King himself was parked at one end of the restaurant, talking and laughing with Lightning and a couple of his fans, and Lydia was at the other end, in a deep conversation with Sally. They could hear each other clean across the other end of the room.
Sally shook her hood, but smiled. "Sounds like they're having a good time over there," she said, glad Lightning was enjoying himself.
Lynda stared off in the direction toward which her husband was. "Yeah…" she said, trailing off, and Sally could tell something was bothering her.
Lynda glanced over at Sally, and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. "I hope you never have to go through what I did," she said, out of the blue.
Sally turned around to look at her. "What are you talking about?" she asked, a brief look of doubt, and maybe even dread, crossing her grill.
"I mean, what I went through with Strip, him wrecking and everything," Lynda said, and opened her eyes, tears streaming down them."It was the hardest thing I've ever had to go through in my life."
"I'm sorry, for what happened to him and you," Sally said, truly meaning it. "I hope I never have to see Lightning go though that, either."
"I hope you don't," Lynda said, shaking her hood.
"It was scary, seeing Strip fly through the air like that, not knowing if he was ever going to come back down…" She trailed off into a deafening silence. "I thought I was never going to see him again." Her voice starting to crack, she burst into tears.
"Hey, it's okay," Sally said, trying to comfort her as much as she was herself. "Everything's all right now."
"I know, but for awhile, it didn't look that way," Lynda said, her entire frame trembling, shaking from the force of her sobs. "For awhile it looked as if I had lost everything, everything I held dear."
Sally just stared at her, at a loss for words, not knowing what else to say.
Sometime during the day, Doc Hudson drove into the Wheel Well, and everybody fell silent.
Almost immediately whispers started going around the room.
"Look, it's the Hudson Hornet!"
"Where did he come from?"
"What a day this is! The King and the Hudson Hornet both under one roof!"
"Did somebody say the King was here?" Doc asked, looking around the room for Strip, his instantly recognizable, gravel-like voice causing everybody to turn around and stare at him.
"Cause I need to have a talk to him."
In an instant, Strip appeared before him, beaming. "You called?" he asked, bewildered and surprised to see Doc there.
Doc narrowed his eyelids at Strip, his gaze stern. "I most certainty did, you old codger," he said, laughing at the confused look on Strip's grill. "Where have you been all this time?"
"Well, I was in a pretty bad wreck here not too long ago, but I think you saw all of that, didn't you?" Strip asked, the accident still pretty fresh on his mind, as if it had just happened yesterday.
"Oh, yes, I was there," Doc said, nodding his hood. "I saw the kid push you across the finish line."
"Did you teach him that?" Strip asked, remembering how big of a jerk McQueen had been when he had first started out.
"He might've learned a few things from me," Doc said, sounding quite proud of himself, but his mood soon turned solemn again. "It's good to see you're doing all right, Strip. For awhile there you were looking pretty bad."
"Well, you know what its like," Strip said, recalling the wreck that had almost ended Doc's own career. "You've been there before."
"Yeah," Doc said, ignoring all of the stares they were getting. "Look, old man, I got to go. I heard you were in town and thought I'd just stop by and see you."
"Thanks," Strip said, thinking it was kind of funny to hear Doc call someone else an old man. "I got to be leaving tomorrow, anyway, but it was great seeing you again."
"Hey, Doc," Lightning said, coming up to them all of a sudden, startling the two older cars a little bit. "How come you didn't come over and talk to me?"
Doc scoffed. "I can talk to you any old time, kid," he said, snorting. "It's not every day you get to see the King."
"Hey," Lightning said, looking a little hurt.
About that time, Lynda and Sally drove up to them, Lydia obviously to see Doc.
"Why, hello, Doc," Lynda said, just as pleasantly surprised to see Doc as her husband had been. "Long time no see."
"Why, hello to you too, Lynda," Doc said, smiling at her. "It has been awhile."
"It has," Lynda said, the deep sadness that had already been in her eyes and voice growing deeper. "You should keep in touch with us more often, don't be a stranger."
"Well, I would, but it's kind of hard on the old ticker to drive that far at my age," Doc said. "I think you and your husband would know what I'm talking about."
"Yeah, I hear you old man," Strip said, knowing he had no right to call Doc an old man, either, but had done it anyway, mostly out of habit. "It was great talking to you."
"You too," Doc said, and just like that the great Hudson hornet was gone, very much like a myth fading into legend.
Once Doc had left, Strip turned to Lightning, lowering his voice. "Can we talk alone for a minute?" he asked, beginning to back away from the rest of the group, his lengthy, shark-like form taking up most of the floor. "There's something I want to talk to you about."
Lightning blinked at him, puzzled. "Sure," he said, now knowing what it was the King could possibly want.
They went to another corner at the back of the room where there were no cars. "There's something I want to tell you," Strip said, once they were alone.
"What?" Lightning asked, really curious now.
Strip took a deep breath, shuddering. "I…I wanted to thank you, for what you done for me, though I know no matter what I do will ever be enough to repay you," he said, stammering for words. "I'll forever be in debt to you for the rest of my life."
"That's okay, Mr. the King," Lightning said, trying to reassure him with a smile. "I was glad to help you."
"I know, but you shouldn't have had to give up that trophy for an old, broken, run-down, has-been like me," Strip said, suddenly looking as old and tired as he had claimed, and Lightning was horrified by how ancient and worn-out he appeared to be, fearing he would be in the same state in just a few years. "You're young. You still have a long career ahead of you, but my time is up. I'm done for. You shouldn't have done that for me."
"I know, it's just that, there's this grumpy old race car who taught me a couple of things," Lightning said, staring sheepishly down at his hood. "You must understand, when I first came here, I was very cocky and arrogant." He forced himself to look back up at Strip again, ashamed of himself. "I thought I knew everything, but he taught me that things were a little different from the way I saw them. I don't know what changed my mind on things, but I just wanted to impress him more than anything."
Recognition and realization dawned in Strip's already wise and knowing eyes. "You talking about Doc?" he asked, saying the name with fondness, remembering what Doc had said earlier about the kid.
Lightning's eyes lit up. "Yeah," he said, nodding his hood.
"He and I go way back," Strip said, seeming to go back in another time. "We used to race together all the time before he…"
Lightning knew what Strip was talking about.
"Yeah…" he said, but left it at that, thinking nothing more needed to be said.
"Kid, I don't mean to scare you or anything, but one day it's going to happen to you, too," Strip said, his tone suddenly growing very grave.
"You're going to spin out, crash and burn. It's not the matter of when or if it's going to happen, it's all about the how. All racers wreck eventually, even old racing legends like me, and when it does happen to you, you're going to have to learn to accept and deal with things you never thought you would have to before."
Lightning gulped. "How did you deal with it?" he asked, having must've never looked as young and vulnerable as he had felt than he had at that moment. "When you were in the hospital, how did you deal with the…you know…"
Strip smiled. "I had the Missus," he said, and Lightning heard the obvious love he had for Lydia in his voice when he mentioned her. "Without her I would be lost, kid. Whenever I needed her, she was always there at my side, never leaving it."
"I know what you mean," Lightning said, shaken up by what Strip had said. "I don't know what I would do without Sally. I truly think she was the one who made me believe I could be a better car."
"We can get back to the other ones if you want," Strip said, quickly changing the subject, and looking as if he wanted their discussion to end as much as Lightning did. "I just had to get that off my mind."
"Yeah," Lightning said, following him back to the others, glad this one particular conversation of theirs was over.
When they got back to Lydia and Sally, Strip noticed the dismayed look on his wife's grill. She looked as if she had crying.
Strip looked over at Lightning. "Something's wrong with the Misuses," he said, beginning to roll away from him. "I got to go check on her, but I'll be back."
"Oh, that's okay, Mr. the King," Lightning said, nodding his hood in understanding. "I hope everything's going all right."
Without another word to Lighting, Strip drove up to his wife. "What's wrong, Lynda, honey?" he asked, nuzzling his fender with hers. "You look like something's got you down."
Lynda sniffed. 'Oh, it's nothing," she said, managing a slow, quivering smile. "It's just me being silly."
Strip didn't look convinced. "It obviously wouldn't be nothing, or you wouldn't be crying, honey," he said, then turned to Sally, a big, warm smile stretching all the way across his grill. "Is everything all right, here, Miss. Sally?"
"Yeah, everything's fine," Sally said, obviously trying to cover for her, but Strip chose not to remark on it. "We were just having a little girl talk."
Strip looked back over at Lydia. "Why don't you and I have a little talk outside," he said, indicating the door by tiling his grill to it.
Lynda started after Strip, who had already begun to head out the door, and then stopped to turn back around to face Sally. "Are you okay if I go outside with him for a few minutes?" she asked, feeling guilty for leaving Sally by herself.
"No, not at all, he is your husband after all," Sally said, urging her to go on with a roll of one of her tires. "I don't mind."
Lynda gave her a grateful smile. "Thank you," she said, following her husband out the door.
Sally didn't see them again until they left the next day.
It was a quiet and peaceful end to yet another exciting, eventful day in Radiator Springs.
The sun was sitting behind the mounds of surrounding rocks and mountains encompassing the town, casting a dark shadow across the dry, desert landscape stretching out below Strip and Lydia Weathers.
Strip was parked beside of Lynda, outside of the Wheel Well, staring down at the lengthy, winding road twisting and turning miles beneath them, watching the vast wasteland get darker and darker with each passing minute.
"It's beautiful," Lynda said, her breath quite taken away by the sight.
Strip pressed himself closer against her. "It is," he said, planting a light, but heartfelt kiss on her fender. "I thought you would enjoy this."
Lynda sighed, falling against him. "I'm glad I have you here to share it with," she said, kissing him on the side. "For awhile there I didn't think I would."
"Hey, now, none of that talk," Strip said, his soothing voice washing over her. "I'm here now, and all of that's in the past." He didn't want to tell her how he woke up every night, screaming, still haunted by nightmares of Chick Hicks. "None of it matters now."
"But I still worry about you, you old daddy rabbit," Lynda said, kissing him again. "When you were in the hospital, after the wreck, I thought I was never going to see you again…"
"I know, honey, I know, but I'm all right now," Strip said, even as he was struggling to stay upright, his withered and worn body sinking lower and lower to the ground. "I mean, look at me!" He beamed down at her, his weary eyes twinkling with mischief. "I've never felt or looked better."
"Sometimes I don't know if you're trying to reassure me or yourself when you say that," Lynda said, chuckling softly.
Strip gave in to the losing battle he was fighting to remain upright at last, his rusty and battered frame sagging over his tires. "It might be a little bit of both," he said, his grill wilting, thinking he had might as well admit it sooner rather than later, as much as it pained him, before Lydia learned the truth of it the hard way.
"That's okay, hon," Lynda said, seeing how much it had taken out of Strip to say what he had just did. "I'll do enough worrying for the both of us."
"I know, but I really wish you wouldn't-" Strip said, beginning to protest, but Lynda interrupted him by hushing him.
Not long afterwards, they both fell asleep, watching the sunset together.
Strip and Lynda left town the next morning, and everybody in Radiator Springs, including Lightning and Sally, showed up to say goodbye.
"Well, I think we enjoyed ourselves, but I'm afraid the Missus and I have got to go," Strip said with regret and longing.
"Yeah, we must really be heading back home," Lynda said, gazing back up at her husband with pure love and adoration in her eyes.
"So long, Mr. the King," Lightning said, grinning at him.
"So long, kid," Strip said, returning the grin with a wide smile of his own. "We'll get together and talk again sometime, okay?"
"Sure," Lightning said, thinking that would be really great.
After Strip and Lynda had left, Lightning turned to Sally. "What's wrong, Sally?" he asked, knowing something was troubling her.
Sally shook her hood. "Oh, nothing," she said, staring after Strip and Lydia, watching them disappear into the horizon. "It was just something Lydia said…"
"What?" Lightning asked, a look of concern crossing his grill.
"Oh, nothing, it's…" Sally said, bursting into tears, her grill crumpling. "She just talked about how she was afraid of losing Strip and everything, when he wrecked, and that got me worrying the same thing was going to happen to you."
Lightning looked over at Sally. "Well, it won't," he said, kissing her on the side. "I promise you."
Sally backed up from him. "You don't know that," she said, suddenly furious. "None of us know what's going to happen to us." She sped off, leaving Lightning to stare after her, dumbfounded.
Lightning revved up his engine, speeding off after her, knowing where she would be going.
Sally was parked in one of the cones at the Cozy Cone hotel, sobbing, trying to sleep but unable to. All she could see in her mind was Lightning flying through the air, very much like Strip had, never coming back down, his body dented and burned beyond all recognition. Once Lydia had planted that image in her mind, it was very hard for her to get it out of it.
"Hey, Sally, what's wrong?"
Sally furiously tried to blink the tears out of her eyes at the sound of the new but familiar voice, which she would've recognized anywhere.
"Stickers?" she asked, seeing Lightning coming through the door.
"Yeah, it's me," Lightning said, his presence a very welcoming one, despite the little argument they had just had earlier.
"Oh, Stickers, I'm so sorry I snapped at you like that," Sally said, her mouth trembling. "I was just so scared of loosing you."
"Yeah, I know, Strip some planted images in my head, too," Lightning said, and drove up to her, giving her a kiss. "They were only trying to help us, though, warn us of what's to come."
"Yeah, I know," Sally said, resting against him. "I still worry about you, though."
"I know," Lightning said, not saying another word after that, and closed his eyes, just wanting to sleep.
The End