Author's Note: This chapter carries a strong rating for (non-graphic) sensuality, and it includes a warning for intimate dysfunction for those who may find that triggering. Also, if you tend to hit the "back" button when you come across romantic scenes, please give this a chance. It's not what you think and it's the last chapter involving any kind of relationship.
"Well done," Professor Zundapp said, once he and Acer had met back at the apartment. Squinting through the glass of his monocle into the open satchel, he had to admit the Pacer's efforts had been remarkably thorough. "These will be highly useful once I've had the opportunity to analyze them. It has long been my suspicion that Allinol will be eventually pushed onto the public as a high-performance fuel, whereas now it's still relegated to environmentally-minded types who are into concepts like 'living off the grid,' as they say. It would only take one successful racecar adopting Allinol as his fuel of choice for that to become reality." Immediately withdrawing his approval, he frowned at the green hatchback, who was still sporting the fuel companies' magnets.
"However, unless you're content making criminal mischief like the acts you committed tonight the pinnacle of your career, the time has come to leave. You have passed the test and you may consider yourselves 'in.'"
His elation at having been praised for his work cut short by the Professor's criticism of his antics, Acer felt it best not to mention his suspicion that the top-secret mission had been too simple.
"Did your Gremlin counterpart get lost on his way back here? This isn't like him." The Janus sustained his scowl, as he thought he had made it implicitly clear that both cars were to meet him here.
"He said he was taking his girl home," the Pacer said, his eyes flashing with his usual mischief as he cracked open one of the promotional fuel cans. "I didn't ask him whether he meant he was planning to just take her home or, you know, take her home, but he'll be back."
Parked on the brick patio behind Donna's house, Grem set down his third and final empty champagne glass for the night. He had been downright relieved to find that Mack had actually located her and given her the bottle as McQueen had suggested, for their meeting at the tent would give her a much-needed alibi once the damage to the trailer was discovered. Not to mention, it was rather good champagne, and hardly something he was accustomed to savoring. The Gremlin seldom drank, but tonight he could appreciate the efficient way the ethanol blurred some of what he'd overheard and, despite his best efforts, absorbed.
The white sedan watched a firefly weave through the air just over the lawn. The empty ranch house in front of them belonged to her great aunt and uncle, whose careers frequently took them out of town. They kept a spare bedroom for her each summer while she worked day labor before her eventual return to the city and her volunteering, and everything about the place felt cozy and reminded her of the many blissful summers she had spent there since childhood. It just felt right to finally have Grem sharing this with her.
"I've been thinking," she said aloud, "Maybe Lightning didn't lash out at us out of malice tonight. He doesn't seem to have anyone in his life right now, and seeing us together might have struck a jealous nerve."
"Maybe," Grem responded in false agreement, fretting because what he had heard the racecar say and what it had driven him to do were both dark secrets he was forced to keep. He'd already lied to her once tonight, making up a story about Acer hoping to get an exclusive autograph from one of the haulers to explain why they'd been trespassing in the parking lot. "That kiss was clever thinking on your part. I was too panicked to think straight and I was about to suggest fighting him if he gave us trouble, but you had him buying it that we were just carefree lovers who'd mistakenly wandered too far."
Gazing at him as he spoke, the sedan leaned slightly on the AMC's frame. "I'd be lying if I didn't say I'd been looking for an excuse to do that anyway. I've waited a long time for you, Grem." She felt his fender stiffen against her side in response.
"Are you even sure I was worth the wait?" came his response, which was so uncharacteristically melancholy it made Donna set down her glass in surprise. "You could have set your sights anywhere you wanted but you set them on me, and kept them there for how long, about five years?"
The sedan shivered, though there was no chill in the air. "Strange, I'm not used to seeing you feel sorry for yourself. You're always too busy seething at the world to make time for self-pity."
Grem had to admit she was correct. "I just want to make sure you're not getting into this with unrealistic expectations. I don't know what you see in me, but I'm damaged goods. I haven't held a steady job in years, I have a criminal record, and I'm probably going to run from all my problems." He gestured to the house. "Just think on it tonight, okay? It's late, and I'd better see you to your front door."
"Who convinced you that you're no good anyway, the world...or Professor Z?" Moments later, Donna's succinct question froze him in his tracks, and seeing him there caught up in indecision only saddened her more. "Grem, c'mon inside," she asked, rolling back slightly.
The AMC paused, all at once understanding what her invitation represented. So this was it, at last. So much for Professor Zundapp's prediction that this night would have been five years off in their future. As Donna backed slowly into the open doorway, her taillights imbued the hallway behind her with a soft red glow that matched the warmth growing in his engine. She was offering herself to him, however reluctantly, and who would he be to refuse the offer?
"S-sure thing," he stammered, though he felt anything but certain as he followed her inside. Likewise, Donna was still struggling to reassure herself this was no mistake. In her earlier years she had let herself go home with any guy who had asked nicely, and although it had taken some time for the thrill to wear off, she'd eventually found a new direction and sworn off relationships without any meaning. Surely her decision now could be justified; she'd known Grem for years even if they'd only acted on their feelings this late in the game, when he was considering leaving everything behind. And if going through with this could influence his decision to leave in any way...
Having made her choice, she pressed her lips to his with such fervor that he almost drifted back against the door. Donna frowned when Grem briefly broke away to stomp a tire down on the light switch, pitching the hallway into darkness, but at least he lost no time in returning his lips to hers. They had both denied themselves this far too long.
You'd need some pretty strong ethanol goggles to make that look good... Lightning McQueen's stinging rebukes broke through his thoughts as the Gremlin caught the lingering notes of champagne on Donna's breath. She hadn't had that much...
Sliding her tongue into his mouth and trying not to think about his broken and missing teeth, Donna took care this time to hold her grille away from her partner's. She could hear a deep sigh escape the hatchback's mouth, and the heat emanating from under his hood noticeably intensified along with their kissing. He eventually realized that she preferred he take the lead, and with a gentle push from his bumper, he maneuvered her down the hallway toward her bedroom, then froze in surprise at what met his eyes in the dim light.
"You never told me you had so much McQueen crap on your walls," he said stormily, feeling as though he was under the gaze of the red racecar whose overconfident smile beamed down on them from numerous posters, pennants and banners. Donna raised an eyelid in response to what she saw as an unsolicited comment.
"Free swag, remember? It's a harmless crush and nothing more," she retorted, but his eyes were still cast suspiciously on the racing memorabilia.
"Grem? I'm with you tonight, not him," she reassured him softly. "Now, please. We both need this." She looked pleadingly down her hood at him, and though his lips were soon hungrily moving over her grille, the AMC had not gained much confidence.
She probably makes him wear a bag over his cab... Stealing a glance, Grem noted Donna's eyes were tightly shut. Just as good. As he directed her toward a mattress in the corner, he reached out a tire and pulled the curtain shut as they passed the window, darkening the room even more. His partner murmured something in protest that he couldn't comprehend.
Pulling back several minutes later, her hood flushed and her voice breathless, she managed a mischievous smile. "You're not nervous, are you?"
"Why would I be?" His retort was met with the tap of a tire on his front bumper.
"Your hazard lights have been blinking the whole time," she giggled lightly, and he noticed for the first time that she had been right and sheepishly turned them off. Her breath hastening even more, the sedan gave an excited rev of her engine once Grem worked up the nerve to caress her front wheel well, but the motions of his very worn tire didn't feel as good as she might have hoped, and after what seemed like an interminable time, she realized his slow pace wasn't an attempt to tease her but testament to his anxiety. Her frame aching for him, she nonetheless remembered the issue of responsibility and fumbled for something she hoped was still tucked under her mattress.
"What's that?" the AMC asked cluelessly, seeing her wincing in dismay at something in her tire.
"A really expired and useless item I almost forgot about. It's truly been a long wait. I don't suppose you carry any?" Finally getting it, the Gremlin casually shook his cab.
"Nope. If the Allinol screwed me up half as bad as the Professor claimed, I don't have to worry about getting anyone-"
"Grem!" Donna cut in suddenly. "Can you not mention Zundapp right now?" she sighed, tossing the packet aside.
Apologizing, he pulled her frame close to his and was soon groping frantically at her. His partner tried to return the gesture but he gently blocked her tire with one of his own, as he was even more reluctant to have her touch him than he was to leave the lights on. Nonetheless, he took it as a good sign when she pleaded with him to take it further, and her breath hitched when he drove up behind her, pausing to kiss each of her tail light panels.
Doesn't it just make your tank churn to think of those two together?
Shaking his cab as if attempting to dispel the unwelcome memories, Grem looked down at Donna's roof, horrified to find he had dislodged some rust flakes onto her paint. His efforts to swipe them off were misinterpreted as a sensual gesture by his partner, who flexed her tires beneath her frame, ready for him to make his next move. Pulling forward, the Gremlin found his new heightened position put him eye-to-eye with one of the oversized banners on the opposite wall. He cast his eyes downward to avoid seeing McQueen's persistent smile, which was blinding even in the darkness.
I'll bet the only way she makes it through is by closing her eyes and pretending she's with someone else. Someone like me.
"No..." In one last, desperate effort to deny what was inevitably happening-or not happening-Grem pulled Donna closer, grinding against her.
"Grem?" Donna's hesitant voice broke the silence after several uncomfortable moments. It pained her far more to see her partner grow this frustrated than to admit this might not be their night. "It's all right if you can't, you know..."
"It's not," he shot back, reluctantly returning all four tires to the bed in defeat. "Now you're all worked up and I hate myself for it." Not half as much as I hate McQueen, though. The one chance I had to be with someone I care about, and he ruined it without even being there. "That wasn't fair to you when I knew there was at least a chance of this happening. If you and Acer wanted to...well, I'd understand."
"No, I meant it when I said I was with you tonight. Don't worry about me, I'll live," Donna replied, fighting to hide the disappointment from her voice. Hooking a tire behind Grem's, she pulled her frame close to his, whispering things about how they could make everything work out and they could talk more when he was ready. Weary from his failed attempt, the AMC held her, listening to her engine slow to a normal pace and eventually into the rhythmic sounds of sleep, and then, extricating himself from her embrace, he landed a kiss on her bumper before sneaking out of what had played like a bad dream.
"So, was it good for her, too?" asked a wry voice as Grem emerged from the house. Startled and fighting to maintain his tough exterior, the hatchback turned to face Professor Zundapp, and Acer behind him.
"Yeah, we had a great time," he answered dryly, staring straight ahead. The Janus shook his cab slowly in sympathy. Grem's sarcasm had gone over his cab, and Zundapp was left wondering why the experience, which he felt the other car had sorely needed, would have left him so moody. Then it struck him; this was all developing only after he had made his decision to leave it all behind.
"Such a shame that you should have met someone special this late, but at least you got yourself some while you still could," he quipped. Grem blinked, not used to hearing Professor Z use vernacular phrases.
"I must say, that was quite clever, the way you convinced her that you might stay around just for her. It's amusing to think that she hoped you'd keep on the straight and narrow for the love of a good woman."
"Look, I'm going with you, but just leave Donna out of this, okay?" Grem demanded. "She's not what you think at all." For once, the Professor caught the earnestness of his new employee's words and chose not to reply, but he noted the wistful way the hatchback stared back at what he assumed was his lover's bedroom window.
"So love-'em-and-leave-'em is your style now?" Acer quipped.
More like disappoint 'em, freak out and slink out in shame. The Gremlin scuffed a tire on the ground, reluctant to ask Zundapp the question that had been pestering him for some time but needing to know. "All those things the early formula of Allinol did to the other cars...was it all just frame degradation and engine damage or could it mess a guy up in other ways?"
Zundapp's thin wheels ground to a halt and he regarded the dusty orange car, who was biting his lower lip as he awaited an answer. The timing of his question had been very telling, to say the least.
"Yes, of course," he replied when he regained his composure. "It's an unfortunate but common side effect. On the bright side, it's not something you'll have to worry about once you get to where we're going."
