Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Pixar. All OCs belong to me.

Chapter 9

Crash!

"Ohhh! Lightning Blaze McQueen!"

A terrified wail promptly echoed throughout the penthouse.

Gracie sighed heavily. She could only guess what had happened, but she was sure she wasn't wrong.

Sure enough, seconds later, Lightning raced into the sanctuary of his bedroom, where Gracie had spent the morning dusting and tidying up. He quickly darted behind her, in a vain attempt to hide from the wrath of his mother. He whimpered pitifully in fear.

Elinor stormed into the bedroom a moment later. She immediately saw Lightning's rear end sticking out from behind Gracie.

"Hold him down for me, Gracie!" she ordered. "I'll teach him to go racing through the house, smashing into everything! He broke my favourite vase this time!"

Gracie hesitated. She didn't like the idea of spanking children, but since she wasn't Lightning's mother, there was little she could do. Besides, it was common practice for children to be spanked every now and again when they were naughty. And she had heard Elinor repeatedly warning Lightning not to race around inside the house.

Lightning quivered as Gracie reluctantly pinned him down to the floor. He looked up at her with tears in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Lightning," Gracie apologised. "But you were warned many times…"

Lightning screamed when he felt his mother's large tyre connect solidly with his tiny rear end. For a moment, he hoped that would be it, but then he felt her tyre slap him again. Bursting into tears, he struggled, attempting to get away, but Gracie was much stronger than he was, and she kept him pinned down. Elinor gave Lightning one more smack before she gave permission for Gracie to release him. Lightning promptly spun around, turning his bruised rear end towards the wall, as though he was trying to protect it from further spankings. He was breathing heavily and sobbing.

"Now," Elinor said as she composed herself, "you will stay parked in that far corner, facing it, until I say you can move again. I will add an extra ten minutes to your time each time you move. And Gracie will be in here to ensure that you don't! Understood?"

Lightning responded by bursting into a fresh wave of tears. "I didn't mean ta do it, mamma! I-I didn't s-see it!"

Elinor pointed sternly towards the corner with her tyre. "Get into that corner! Now!"

Still sobbing, Lightning reluctantly drove over to the corner. He stopped as soon as his headlights hit either side of the corner's apex.

"Keep an eye on him, Gracie," Elinor instructed. "I'd better go and make sure Hood cleans up the glass properly."

After Elinor had gone, Gracie quietly continued cleaning up Lightning's room. Every now and again, she would hear Lightning mutter something she couldn't quite make out.

Ten minutes quickly elapsed. Lightning's tears had dried up by then, and he'd gone very quiet. In fact, he was so quiet, Gracie had to keep glancing over at him to ensure he was still there.

After another twenty minutes had gone by, Elinor stopped by Lightning's room. She grunted with satisfaction when she saw that he was still in the corner.

"He can move now, Gracie," she instructed. "I'm going out to do some shopping with my friends."

Gracie waited until Elinor had gone before she drove over to Lightning. She'd already guessed the reason as to why he'd been so quiet and still.

Sure enough, when she took a closer look at Lightning, she found that her little charge had drifted off to sleep. Chuckling softly, she gently lifted him into her arms, and she carried him over to his cot. What surprised her was the fact that Lightning didn't even stir. Normally, he'd moan, or show some other sign of protesting against being moved. She gently set him down in his cot, and she covered him with his blanket. Once she was sure he'd be okay, she quietly drove out of the room.

Gracie found Mr Hood in the entry foyer still cleaning up the remains of the coloured glass vase that had stood on a pedestal in the foyer. Gracie frowned in thought. Lightning would easily have been able to see it, even if he had been racing around crazily. Something just didn't add up.

"Did you see what happened with the vase, Hood?" she asked him.

"No, sorry. I just heard the crash, and then young Master Lightning screaming. For a moment, I thought he must've injured himself. I do know that Mrs McQueen had been trying to stop him racing around just before it happened. It was strange though. It was like…he couldn't seem to hear her, or something."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, Master Lightning is normally rather obedient, so it seemed odd that he would ignore his mother like that. Then again, he is still only a baby."

"He's a toddler," Gracie corrected him. "I'd better get back to him now, but thanks for that. You've been very helpful, as always."

Gracie was relieved when Blaze returned home before Elinor. She took him aside to talk to him. First, she told him what had happened with the vase, and about Lightning's punishment.

"…And he's still fast asleep,' she finished.

"I don't see what the problem is," Blaze said. "It's a shame about the vase, of course. I gave it to Elinor for our first wedding anniversary…"

"Sir. I think you'll agree with me when I say I know Lightning better than you do. And to have him completely ignore his mother like he did, and then collide with a pedestal that he could easily have avoided just doesn't add up."

"So, what are you saying?"

"This may have been an accident, or Lightning was telling the truth when he said he didn't see the vase. Perhaps there's something wrong with his eyesight."

Blaze nodded thoughtfully. "We could always have it tested, just to be sure," he agreed. "However, I do believe you're just being overly concerned for him. I suppose I should be glad about that, especially if you do turn out to be correct. I'll go and make an appointment for him."

Gracie nodded as Blaze drove into his study. Was she just being overly-cautious? She'd been keeping a very close eye on Lightning ever since he'd almost drowned. Sighing, she returned to Lightning's bedroom. She smiled when she saw the little red car stirring beneath his blanket. Then she realised that he was chewing on one of the corners. Frowning, she gently pulled the blanket out of Lightning's mouth, replacing it with his teething ring. He chewed on it a few times before he pushed it away. He then gave a wide yawn, and he started to stretch his axles.

"Think you can wake up, sleepyhead?" Gracie teased.

Lightning just moaned in response as he settled back down under his blanket. Gracie sighed with concern. She'd never seen him sleep for this long during the day! Something was definitely wrong with him, but she had no idea what it was. She gently touched his hood with the inside of her wheel, hoping he wasn't coming down with something. His temperature felt normal, but that didn't lessen her concern for him.

Two days later, Blaze and Elinor took Lightning to see an optometrist. Gracie had insisted on going with them, but Elinor wasn't happy with her for thinking that there was something wrong with Lightning's eyesight, and so they'd left her behind. Lightning hadn't been terribly pleased about that, and he'd refused to leave the house. That is, until Mr Hood had carried Lightning into the lift himself, and set him firmly down on the floor between his parents.

"Where we going?" Lightning asked his parents as they drove slowly through the heavy New York traffic.

"It's a surprise," Blaze replied. He glanced down at Lightning, amazed that he already knew so many words. After all, he was only twenty months old!

"Will I like it?"

"Maybe…"

Elinor gave an exasperated sigh as the car in front of her changed lanes without indicating. "We're going to see a specialist eye doctor, Lightning," she explained.

"Why?"

"Because Gracie thinks there's something wrong with your eyesight."

"What's that?"

"Never mind," Elinor said.

Seeing that neither of his parents wanted to talk, Lightning stopped asking questions. He was sure he'd get the answers soon.

Sure enough, he did. The optometrist had his offices inside a hospital, a few blocks away from the Daimler building. Once they were inside the waiting room, Lightning looked around curiously. The waiting room had a very clinical appearance to it, which was starting to frighten him a bit. There were several other cars in the waiting room too, but none of them were his age. An older boy, who was a van and who appeared at be about ten years of age, looked at Lightning. Lightning couldn't stop staring at him. He was wearing the dorkiest glasses Lightning had ever seen! Now he was really worried. He didn't want to look like that! Then the other boy smiled at Lightning, making him gasp. The other boy had strange things all over his teeth! They were braces, but Lightning didn't know that. He'd never seen anything like it before! He nudged Blaze.

"I wanna go, dada!" he demanded.

"Not yet, Lightning," Blaze replied firmly. "I need you to be on your best behaviour for Doctor Jenkins."

"Why?"

"Because he needs to find out if you can see properly."

"I can see fine, dada! Let's go!"

Blaze looked sadly at Lightning. He could see that his young son was terrified, but he didn't know what to do about it.

"Maybe we should've brought Gracie with us," he whispered to Elinor.

Elinor glanced down at Lightning just in time to see him tremble. "You can settle down on my hood if you like, Lightning," she offered.

"No! Don't like you! You hit me!"

Elinor and Blaze exchanged awkward glances.

"Lightning," Elinor said firmly. "I was punishing you, which is why we're here today."

Lightning didn't understand what she meant by that, so he fell silent,

Finally, Lightning heard someone call his name. Realising that he couldn't avoid this, he reluctantly went with his parents inside Dr Jenkin's office.

"Now, what can I do for you?" Dr Jenkins, a white forklift, asked them. Lightning shrank back in the darkened room.

"Lightning's nurse is concerned that he might have vision problems, and all because he drove into a pedestal the other day," Elinor explained.

"We just want to know if the nurse is right," Blaze added. "I know it's best to have these things sorted out from a young age."

Dr Jenkins nodded. "Right, well, I'll conduct a basic infant eye test on him today. If that shows up anything abnormal, I'll conduct some further tests. I suppose he's too young to be able to read yet?"

"That's correct," Elinor confirmed. "Although he does talk a lot for a car his age."

Smiling, Dr Jenkins moved a strange apparatus out of the way. Lightning looked at it curiously. It looked like a large mask connected to another strange machine.

"Come over here please, Lightning," Dr Jenkins instructed.

Lightning moved further away. "No."

"You won't get a lollipop if you don't," Dr Jenkins said.

Lightning moved forward a bit, but then he hesitated again.

"I told you to be on your best behaviour, Lightning," Blaze reminded him sternly.

With a tiny whimper, Lightning parked himself in the dark corner Dr Jenkins had indicated towards. Closing his eyes, he shivered.

"It's okay, Lightning," Dr Jenkins soothed. "I'm guessing you've never been to see an eye doctor before, have you?"

Lightning shook his hood. He opened up his eyes. Dr Jenkins was holding up a large model of an eye.

"This is what your eyes looks like," he gently explained. "I know our eyes look flat, but the front actually has a slight curve to it. Now, sometimes that curve isn't as perfect as it should be. It can be damaged; usually by an accident if your windshield gets broken. And some cars are mistakenly built with an imperfect curve. Do you understand?"

Lightning shook his hood again, but a bit slower this time. Dr Jenkins sighed.

"Well, I need to see if the curve over your eyes has been damaged. Will you let me do that?"

Lightning nodded slowly.

"It won't hurt, I promise. I'm just going to shine this little light into your eyes, and I want you to follow it, okay?"

Lightning couldn't help squinting when he saw the light, but his eyes quickly adjusted to it. Dr Jenkins moved the torch all around, up and down, and side to side.

"Okay, that's good. Now, I want you to look at my arm here…" He held it up. "Don't look at the light anymore. Just follow my arm…"

Dr Jenkins moved his arm around just like he'd done with the torch. Lightning tried to follow it, but it wasn't quite as easy as following the torch. Especially since Dr Jenkins was still shining the torch in his eyes.

"Good. Now, I want you to look straight at me…"

Lightning did so. Dr Jenkins brought the torch right up to Lightning's eyes, shinning the light deeply into each of them. Finally, Dr Jenkins put the torch aside, and he turned to look at lightning's parents.

"I must say, he's got the most beautiful blue eyes I've ever seen! Whose side of the family does he get them form?"

"Mine," Blaze replied, smiling proudly. "My mother's eyes were much the same shade."

"Can we go home now, dada?" Lightning asked hopefully.

"Not yet," Dr Jenkins said. He was filling an eye dropper with a clear solution. "I'm just going to put these drops in your eyes. They'll just make your vision a bit blurry."

Lightning gasped when Dr Jenkins brought the dropper over to him. He didn't like the look of that dropper coming so close to his eyes. He quickly closed them.

"Lightning…" Dr Jenkins said firmly. "I promised you this wouldn't hurt. Please open your eyes for me."

With a whimper, Lightning did so. Dr Jenkins quickly placed the drops into Lightning's eyes before he had a chance to close them again. The drops stung a little bit, and only for a moment, but he still closed his eyes.

Once Lightning had opened his eyes again, Dr Jenkins repeated the light tests with his torch. By the time he'd completed his tests, Lightning couldn't see clearly because of the eye drops, and he was exhausted. As soon as Dr Jenkins let him, he drove carefully over to his parents. He huddled up between them, looking rather sorry for himself.

Dr Jenkins turned to face them. "Well, the good news is that Lightning has twenty-twenty vision. There is absolutely nothing wrong with his eyesight."

"That's a relief!" Elinor said. "I knew Gracie was wrong."

"That doesn't mean he won't develop vision problems later in life," Dr Jenkins added. "I'm not saying that it will happen, but for the time being, he's fine."

Lightning looked up at his parents. "Can we go home now?"

"Yes, sweetie," Elinor said gently.

"Just a moment," Dr Jenkins said. He held up a red coloured lollipop. "Here you go, young Lightning. This is for being a good boy during the tests."

Lightning sheepishly took the lollipop in his mouth. "Thank you," he mumbled.

"Let's go," Blaze said. "Thank you for your time, Dr Jenkins."

Dr Jenkins smiled warmly. "My pleasure."