I started this on June 25th, 2011. Somehow I forgot about it, and now that I've rediscovered it it's become a dead project. Everyone is simply too out of character for me to rescue, and none of this would ever be canon. Therefore, I'm killing it. I hate to leave it to rot in my hard drive, so I've uploaded it. Please keep in mind that this was written when my writing skills were still in the toilet, so my current work is nothing like this.
A warm August night draped over the small, poorly lit road lined with apartment buildings in a small German town. The buildings were barely holding up, battered by time and weather. Most of them were abandoned and boarded up; all of them were a filthy disgrace. Trash littered the pavement that a dark green female and dark orange male slowly and silently traveled on. They drove discreetly and close, not daring to do anything to be noticed. The man pulled up to one of the buildings, an old motel, and motioned for his wife to do the same. They rolled through the doorway, into the small main room, and up to a small counter where a blue Fiat was parked. The inside of the place was in even worse shape than the outside. Everything was covered in a thick layer of mildew, and the cheap linoleum floor was disintegrating, leaving behind molding wood. Various types of bugs crawled over the floor and walls, and many dead ones lay scattered around.
"Ich habe ein Zimmer für zwei unter dem Namen reserviert 'Helchnaut.'" The man barked demandingly at the Fiat. He scowled at him in return, then reluctantly lead the two down a narrow hallway with a low ceiling. The hall was carpeted, but looked highly unsanitary. The woman felt uneasy in the eerie setting, and scooted closer to her husband as they made their way down the corridor.
The fiat parked next to the last door in the hall and unlocked it for the couple, gesturing for them to enter. The room matched the rest of the building's interior, small, dark, and filthy. There was a single bed and little furniture. The single window in the room was cracked, and missing one curtain. "Ihren Aufenthalt genießen." He said without tone, then made his way back to the main room.
The couple quickly slipped into the room, closed the door and turned to face it. A metal ball shot out of the man's hubcap and towards the doorframe. It hit it's target directly, then expanded to also attach to the door. Once it had, it let out a quiet beep to inform it's user in was working properly.
"It's safe." He said to her, then deactivated his and his "wife's" holographic disguises revealing them himself to be a silvery-blue sportscar and her a sleek purple car.
"Good work today, Holley. You're very selfless." He said, motioning towards the new dent she had received that day while protecting her partner. She grinned sheepishly.
"It's nothing." She replied.
Finn rolled over to the small radio resting on the dresser, and switched it on. The two rested on the bed and listened to the german radio announcer shouting above the static. Holley began to stare out the window, and Finn dropped some papers and files from a compartment near his front left tire. Holley glanced at them as he began to read over the ones regarding their current mission.
"What's that?" She asked, gesturing towards an off white envelope with their names written in calligraphy on the front. Finn glanced at the paper she was referring to. I don't know. We got it last week." He answered smoothly. She took the paper and began to open it, slightly annoyed that she wasn't aware of it's arrival.
"It's an invitation." She said in her delicate British accent. She tore open the envelope and slid the card out of it.
"To what?" Finn asked.
"Lightning McQueen's wedding." She replied, squinting as she skimmed the words.
"Wedding? I didn't even know he was in a relationship." Finn said, looking up from his own paperwork.
"Oh, yes he does. Don't you remember? That Porsche. I don't know how you could miss her, she never left his side." She replied. Finn thought back to the last time they were in Radiator Springs, when Holley was visiting for her and Mater's promised first date. He vaguely remembered seeing a blue car parked next to the racer.
"Oh, right. Her. What's her name?" He asked, looking at the invite.
"Sally Carrera." Holley replied, reading their names on the paper.
"Hm. Well, remind me to contact someone there to inform them we can't show up." Finn said, as if it were the end of the subject. Holley blinked at him, stunned.
"What? What do you mean?" She asked. Finn looked at her with a puzzled expression
"I mean we should be polite and let them know we can't come so they don't hold our seats." He answered.
"We couldn't take off a few days to go?" She pleaded.
Finn paused and studied her before replying, "…You want to take a few days off….from being a spy?" he asked in a confused tone. "Holley, that's like saying you want to take a few days off from being who you are."
"Well…I just thought it would be nice to go…support them and all…" She drabbled.
"You're telling me you want to just drop what we're doing, fly out of the country, put our identities, our lives, and the lives of hundreds of others in danger for a wedding? Holley, do you have the slightest idea how many people are looking for us? It would be nearly impossible to even leave this neighborhood without someone shooting us down!" Finn said sternly, mostly out of shock that she wasn't aware of their situation. Holley sat silently taking in all that he had said. Finn saw her expression, and realized how harsh his words had sounded. He opened his mouth to apologize, or to reassure that they were safe where they were, or that they could go some other time, but Holley spoke before he could.
"My apologies, sir. I didn't understand the circumstances." She said solemnly, then slid the invitation and ripped envelope under her fender. Finn sighed.
"Well…when is the wedding?" He asked slowly. Holley pulled the paper back out and searched through the words for a date.
"August 13th." She answered.
"Hmm. Well, maybe we can make something work." He said with a small grin.
Holley beamed. "But I do have a question, Miss Shiftwell. Why are you so interested in his wedding anyway?" He asked.
"Well… oh, I don't know. I've never really been out in the real world, much less to a wedding. I was orphaned as a child, the agency secretly took me in, telling the government I was dead. They trained me, gave me weapons, and put me in diagnostics until I was well over twenty. Sent me out as an informant, had me gopher for agents, things like that. You know the story. Then I met you, and all that hullabaloo happened. So, I've never truly had a taste for what any normal car's life is like. I have no idea, to be truthful. And with the residents of Radiator Springs, now I have a chance to learn it, to experience it. I just figured, well, why not?"
Finn tried to take in her logic, slowly piecing together why she felt the need to travel so many miles just to go see a wedding in a small, middle-of-no-where town.
"Well then, I'll give Siddley a call to arrange our flight." He said with a smile at her. She smiled back.
"Oh, thank you, thank you, sir! You won't regret this! I'll send our RSVP now!" She said, her computer popping up above her hood. Finn chuckled at her enthusiasm, but couldn't help feeling accomplished in pleasing her. Heck, maybe he could use this escape to paradise, too.
NOTE: If this in any way had a Holley/Finn after taste to it, please pass it off. I see them as strictly partners. And again, I apologize for the OOC-ness.
~Bonnie