Just a fair warning. This is a very sad chapter, but I still feel like it should've been included in this story.

Chapter 4- The Talk

Luigi and Guido both cried all the way back to Radiator Springs. The others all tried to comfort them, but it was no use. Their daughter was being taken away from them!

"We will never see her again!" Luigi sobbed. "And she may not remember us!"

"What makes you say that?" Doc wondered.

"How much can you remember from when you were six years old?" Luigi shot back.

The others didn't reply. He had a point.

"Must be hard on her", Sarge commented.

Luigi nodded. "And that is why I am worried."

"Fudge will remember you!" Doc promised. He tried to speak logically, but at the same time, try and make them feel better. "Maybe not well, but you boys have had a huge impact on her life. She's not gonna forget about you that easy."

"I think not remembering us well makes it even worse!" Luigi wept. "She may remember that we loved her and took good care of her. And she will know she is not with us anymore... What if she thinks Guido and I abandoned her too?"

That was the last thing any of them ever said on that journey home. That thought was too terrifying.

"LUIGI! GUIDO!" Fudge ran towards them, bawling her eyes out.

"Fudgie!" the two Italians cried at the same time.

The three hugged as Mary Wilcox and Kevin Fairchild appeared.

"Amanda Jacobson has informed us of her decision and we have told Brittney", Mary explained.

"Who's Brittney?" Fudge wanted to know since Mary had refused to answer the question when she was asked.

"You are", Luigi replied.

Fudge gave him a puzzled look. "What?"

Mary shot a look from Fudge to Guido and Luigi. "She doesn't even know her own name."

"My name's Fudge!" the child argued.

"Your real name is Brittney", Luigi explained.

"We just call you Fudge", Sally added.

Poor Fudge was very confused. She always thought that her name was really Fudge.

"We are leaving now", Mary continued, "but we will be back for Brittney on her sixth birthday and this time, she will be coming with us."

"You can't make me leave!" Fudge screamed at the top of her lungs. She started jumping up and down. "YOU CAN'T MAKE ME, YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!"

"I most certainly can and I will!" Mary countered, sounding rather haughty about it.

With that, they rolled down the main road of the town, past the Radiator Springs sign and they were gone. Now, the entire town was gathered at Flo's, listening to Fudge and her fathers all sobbing. Nobody knew what to say or do.

"Why do they wanna take me away?" Fudge questioned fearfully, tears pouring down her cheeks.

"Fudgie!" Luigi exclaimed sympathetically. He held the five-year-old close to him, nuzzling her gently. "They think you deserve a better life than this!"

"But I'm happy here!" Fudge protested.

"I know, I know."

"They can't make me go!" Fudge wailed.

"Fudgie!" Luigi cried sympathetically, kissing the top of her head. "I know this is sad, but yes. They can make you go."

Her sobs grew louder.

"They think you should be around more humans, Fudge", Doc explained.

"But I don't want them! I want you!"

"We know."

"There's gotta be something we can do to get me to stay!" Fudge insisted, staring up at Guido and Luigi with big, shiny eyes, swimming with tears. "I can't leave! I don't wanna leave! There's gotta be some way for me to stay!"

Luigi sighed remorsefully. "I'm sorry, baby. But I don't think there is."

Fudge's sobs grew louder. "They're mean!"

"I know, Fudge", Luigi assured her.

"(We all know)", Guido added. "(It is not fair, baby.)"

"Do you... Do you know what that mean lady said to me?" Fudge quizzed the others as she finally began to calm down.

Luigi shook his hood. "No. What?" He wasn't sure if he wanted to know.

"She... she said that... she could understand why my mom didn't want me and... and why she left me, but... but... but not why she left me here!"

The RS gang looked at each other, all thinking the same thing. Oh, no! Fudge knew what a mother was (it was hard for her not to learn eventually from watching TV and hearing the others talk about their own mothers) and had always thought she just didn't have one. They'd decided that it was best to keep it that way till she was old enough to understand. Now, it seemed like they had no choice but to tell her.

"But that doesn't make sense!" Fudge insisted. "I don't have a mom!"

Luigi gave her another kiss. "Fudgie..."

"What?"

Everyone went quiet.

Doc moved closer to the girl and took her hand. "Fudge", he began gently, "everyone has a mom. Even you. Your mom was the one who gave birth to you. You came from a family of other humans."

"Well, then, where is she?!" Fudge demanded.

Another silence. The cars looked at each other again. They could lie, but wouldn't it just be quicker and easier to tell the truth? Besides, what lie could they tell that would make it easier on her? Without saying a word, they were unanimous in the decision to just tell Fudge the truth.

"Fudgie", Luigi whispered, looking straight into her eyes. "Your mother... She gave birth to you and then... she... left."

"Left me?!"

Luigi nodded, trying to hold back his tears.

"She didn't want me?!"

The townsfolk all felt their hearts break for the little girl. This was exactly why they'd originally planned to wait until she was twelve or thirteen to tell her this. She'd still be upset, but at least she would understand.

"Why?!" Fudge questioned as Luigi rocked her. "Why didn't she want me?!"

"I wish I could tell you, Fudgie", Luigi replied honestly, "but I don't know."

A horrifying thought entered Luigi's mind at that moment. If Fudge's mother didn't want her to keep her, what would she have done to her if she didn't give birth to her in Radiator Springs? Would she have still left Fudge in Radiator Springs later on? Would she have kept her and been abusive towards her? Would she have abandoned Fudge somewhere else where she wouldn't have the loving family she had in Radiator Springs? Would have another family who took her in been abusive towards her? Would Fudge have even been found abandoned? Would she have been left to- Luigi couldn't finish that last thought. He didn't want to think about it. Up until that moment, he just considered himself- and Fudge- lucky that everything turned out the way it did.

"Is it my fault?" Fudge whimpered. "Didn't she love me? Is that why that mean lady said she didn't want me?"

"Oh, no!" Luigi assured her. "No! It is not your fault! Fudge, you did not deserve to have this happen to you. You deserve to be loved."

"(Please don't blame yourself for that, Fudge)", Guido pleaded. "(Luigi is right. It is not your fault. Never ever believe that it is! I am sure your mother would've loved you.)"

"Well, then, why would she leave me?"

"There could be many reasons, baby", Luigi explained. "Maybe your mother did not have the money to take care of you", he suggested, remembering how ratty her mother's clothes had been when he and Guido found her. "Maybe she did not believe she could raise you alone... Or maybe..." Luigi's voice went very quiet. "Or... maybe your father... died."

"What does died mean?"

He paused. Fudge didn't know. How did he explain this? Did he have to now? After everything she'd learned today? Yes. He figured it would be best to just get it over with

"When someone dies..." Doc began, silently agreeing with Luigi's unvoiced opinion, "they go to sleep... and they don't wake up."

Fudge was horrified. "That can happen?!" More tears spilled down her face. The poor little girl sobbed so hard that she was struggling to breathe. "I don't want that to happen to me! Or anybody else!"

"That is not going to happen, baby!" Luigi promised her. He couldn't bear to tell her that it was inevitable. She would understand when she was older and, by then, she'd probably forget that Luigi had told her that it wouldn't happen. "It only happens when you are very, very, very sick or very, very, very hurt."

"I don't want it to happen!"

Luigi didn't know what to say to her. He couldn't say, Don't cry because she had every right to be upset at that point. He couldn't say, It's going to be okay because even he had no idea if it was going to be okay or not.

Finally, the Fiat repeated in the most soothing voice possible, "Poor baby... Poor baby... My poor baby."

"It's not fair!" Fudge screamed. "IT'S NOT FAIR!"

"I know, I know", Luigi sobbed.

"Nobody wants me!" she wailed. "And I'm gonna be taken away from the people who do!" She cried harder. "What if... They asked me if you... you guys ever smacked me when I was naughty! Do people do that?!"

Luigi nuzzled her. "Some people do. But we would never do that to you. We do not believe in that form of punishment."

By we, Luigi was mainly referring to himself and Guido (Guido, especially, didn't believe in it because he had been abused as a child and would hate for anything like that to happen to his own daughter). While most of the others also didn't believe in smacking children, Luigi knew that Sarge, who was a firm believer in good old-fashioned discipline, did. However, Fudge wasn't Sarge's kid, so there was nothing he could do about it.

"I don't want the new people to do that to me!" Fudge shrieked.

"My poor baby..." Luigi repeated. "My poor baby..."

"I wanna stay!"

"We know you do. We want you to stay too..." Luigi took a breath. "Fudge, promise me one thing. Never forget that we will always love you. Even if you have to go away, we will never stop loving you."

"Yeah... I know..."

"That goes for all of us", Doc piped up, giving Fudge a hug.

"Yeah, we love you, Fudge", Sally added.

"Love you, Fudge", everyone else echoed in unison, moving closer to the child.

The entire RS gang gathered around Fudge, hugging her, stroking her hair, resting a comforting tyre on her shoulder or leg. By that point, she was the only one who was still crying. Sure, the others had and would shed tears over the situation, but their focus in that moment was on Fudge.

Fudge fell asleep in the middle of the large group. It was like she had gone to sleep a lot older than she had been the day before. She had become aware of the problems that she had. None of the others wished that any of this had happened. They wanted nothing more than to turn back the clock twenty-four hours. Before the social workers showed up. When Fudge was their happy little girl, innocent to the horrible thing her mother had done and unaware that anybody wanted to take her away.

Hours later, Guido and Luigi decided to turn in themselves. They removed Fudge's shoes and lay her down in her bed (they decided that it was okay to let her sleep in her clothes for one night) and kissed her softly. Like the night before, they couldn't stop staring at her as she slept. They were gazing at her intently, trying to memorise every last detail of her face. Occasionally, one of them would lean over and kiss her gently, stopping to smell her hair. If she'd had a bath, it would smell of coconut from the shampoo and conditioner they'd washed her hair with. That night, she hadn't, so it didn't.

It wasn't gonna be long before they would never see her face or smell her hair again. And whenever they thought of her, they wanted to remember everything they possibly could about her.

The two Italians couldn't help wondering and worrying about some things. Like how well would Fudge remember them? Would they be able to find any members of her family? Would she live with them or in the orphanage? What if her family or the workers in the orphanage, and the family that adopted her, were horrible to her? What if the only people that ever loved her were nothing but a distant memory to her? What if she did end up thinking that they abandoned her? They could reunite one day and she'd want nothing to do with them! But the biggest and most important question on their minds was, Why was such a young, sweet and innocent little girl- why was their daughter- being put through so much?

Yeah. I warned ya. It was very sad, but I felt like it was important. I'm not sure why, but I do.

I also know it's sad how I mentioned that Guido was abused as a child, but a head-canon I have is that Guido pretty much had nobody until he met Luigi, who took him under his wing.

The next chapter will feature the moment you've all been waiting for! Lightning McQueen's arrival into town! So, stay tuned for that.

Please, please, please review if you wanna see the story continued. Reviews are what motivate me to continue writing, so the more reviews I get, the more I'm gonna wanna post new chapters.

And... I think that's it! Bye!