A/N: If you haven't already noticed, I've revised all chapters before this one and will be continuing to do so. So, if a portion of this story had confused you somehow, because I know it terribly confused me after I read it over, go back and re read if you'd like, because I made it completely more understandable. Sorry for the trouble/inconvenience. Enjoy the rest of the story! :)
Morning had slowly but finally sneaked up from around the corner, but it was one if those dreary, seemingly depressing mornings. The rain dripped down the sides of the windows, thunder still lowly crackling in the dark sky.
Lightning soon woke up and yawned tiredly, blinking a few times as he focused his vision by glancing around with tired eyes. He realized that the TV was still on and decided to keep it on, just incase anything of interest came on since, after all, it was a dreary morning.
He remained silent as possible, glancing over at Sally who was still fast asleep. He smiled a little, feeling her small figure against his own. He always found Sally irresistibly adorable when she was asleep...
Lightning suddenly jolted in fright as a very loud cracking of thunder shot through the sky, making Sally groan a bit in her sleep. He shut his eyes tightly, trying to block out the storm but found that he just couldn't. He anxiously peered around the room, trying to find something to occupy himself with, but found absolutely nothing. He uneasily exhaled and decided to just watch the TV.
Almost a half an hour passed rather quickly, and Sally had finally woke up. She stretched her tires out a bit and yawned, glancing over towards Lightning with a small smile.
"Good morning, Stickers." She said tiredly, but still contently.
"Oh hey, Good mornin' Sal. Did'cha sleep well?" Lightning asked while his eyes were still on the TV.
"Yeah, I did...- What're you watchin'?" She innocently asked, looking over towards the TV.
"Oh, just the news. There's nothing really good playing this early, so I really had no choice..." He slightly sighed, realizing that he was bored after all this time.
"Well, If you want, we can go and drive around the hospital for a while... I think you should start moving around a little more, so you won't be as sore so often." She said, gesturing her tire towards the door to state her point.
"Sure, that sounds like a good Idea.." Lightning gave in, as he patiently waited for her to unplug his not-really-needed IV.
She swiftly unplugged the electric IV from the wall, wrapping it around the IV stand, and slowly drove to the door to only open it and wait patiently outside for him. Though, she was still ready to quickly get to his side if something went wrong.
Lightning cautiously stretched his front tires a little and very slowly, started driving to the door, but suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, accidentally putting too much pressure on his back left tire, causing a sharp pain to shoot up the left side of his back.
"It's okay, take your time. You can do it, Stickers." Sally calmly said in encouragement, moving a bit closer towards him just in case.
He more carefully started driving again, until he was successfully out in the hallway and he quietly sighed in relief, closing his eyes for a brief second.
"Ready?" She asked, staying close to his left side to support him up so he could move around more easier.
"Yeah.." He exhaled, starting to slowly drive with Sally by his side.
"Do you think we'll get to go back home soon...?" Lightning suddenly asked in his slightly discouraged tone of voice, trying to make himself drive a little faster, but stopped immediately at the pain shooting at the same left side spot from earlier.
"Well, I think so. You look good enough to go, maybe they'll even let you go back home today...!" Sally said in an attempt to cheer him up.
Lightning faintly smiled and stood driving close to her, almost reaching the elevator door when Sally spoke up.
"We can go down a floor, if you'd like. But, only if you think you can handle it.." Sally smiled a little as they slowly approached the silver elevator doors.
"Eh... Alright, let's do it..." Lightning said only a tad bit uneasily.
She pressed the button on on the wall with her tire and waited until the elevator doors opened. She assisted Lightning inside first before pressing a glowing white button that read: 'MAIN'.
As soon as they arrived to the main floor, they carefully drove out of the elevator and Sally secretly lead Lightning to a nice, secret little waiting lounge she spotted when she was once driving around.
When Lightning was unknowingly driving to that 'secret room', his eyes widened in fascination when he was finally taken inside by Sally.
"Woah, look at that...!" He whispered in awe, venturing further in with Sally at his side.
"It's nice, Isn't it?" Sally asked with a bright smile on her face, turning to look at him.
"Sheesh, a little too nice, don't you think..? I mean, this room looks like it belongs in a fancy five-star hotel, not a hospital..." He laughed a little, admiring the beauty anyway.
The room had very soft white carpet, dark burgundy walls, a crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling that was rather dimly lit, a fancy gold vase with beautiful red roses on a small glass table were in the middle of the room, and a very very large window that took place of the entire wall that should have been there instead. There were also wine red curtains that flowed down the sides of the large window, giving it a final touch, if you'd say.
Lightning slowly drove towards the window, and was absolutely amazed by the view. The entire town could be seen from afar and the lights from all of the stores glowed down below. Then, there was the scattering of trees around the town. With the weather being the way it was this morning, the view still looked beautiful.
Sally slowly approached Lightning and gave him a small kiss on the cheek, quietly admiring the scene with him.
They stood there for quite a while, staring out at the window together, until dark rain clouds started hovering over the town.
"...D-Do you see that...?" Sally suddenly pointed out to lightning, causing him to perk up in full attention and go slightly wide-eyed.
"I do... Those clouds are really dark, I think we-"
A loud siren suddenly went off outside, warning the town of something dangerous that was to come.
"We should really go back to the room and watch the weather to see what's going on..." Lightning actually finished his sentence this time, but spoke with a strain of nervousness in his voice.
"Right, let's go..." Sally agreed and headed back as she helped him all the way back up to the room.
The moment they returned, She immediately turned the TV up and listened carefully to what the meteorologist was saying.
"...- storm that is active until further notice. Stay inside and whatever you do, do not go outside. If severe, go to the lower level of your house or facility. Warning. There is a heavy and dangerous storm that is active until further notice. Stay inside and do not go outside. If severe, go to the lower level of your house or facility...-" The reporter repeated a couple times for the people who didn't hear it the first time.
"Oh no..." Lightning muttered under his breath, growing more frightened.
"I hope the town will be alright... If that storm hits really hard, it's sure to reach Radiator Springs from here..." Sally nervously said, lowering the TV a little and turned her attention towards a currently frightened Lightning.
"Well, m-maybe it won't be that bad..." Lightning said, but seemed to have spoken too soon as a nurse came in the room to warn them.
"There is currently a code Black in the hospital and we're ordered to close all of the shades on the windows, but no need to worry." The nurse said as calm as possible, making her way over to the window and closing the shades.
Sally only nodded and patiently waited until she left. Lightning shivered in complete fright. This is why he hated storms so much; they were so terrifying.
Sally shakily exhaled and lightly leaned against a nervous Lightning.
Close to two minutes later, the rain started pouring down hard. Then following after, the hail came along, banging loudly against the window pane.
"Attention all patients. We have a Code White. Repeating, We have a Code White..-!" A female voice through the intercom said quickly.
Thunder crackled deafeningly into the air just before all the lights suddenly went out.
"What the...-?" Sally froze, not able to see anything anymore.
"This is getting ridiculooouus..." Lightning nervously said in an almost whisper.
Just then, the emergency lights flickered on, only providing very dim lighting, but just enough for them to see. They suddenly heard loud voices in the hallway and their door hastily opened, two nurses at their room.
"We're moving everybody to the lowest level due to the tornado sirens going off! This is a code White!" The nurses literally had to yell because the pounding of the hail on the window was so loud, it overpowered her own voice. One of them had a flashlight on her and she quickly drove over to Lightning and completely unplugged the wires and IV from him, then placed him on a wheeled platform and wheeled him off, Sally following close behind, The other nurse gathered their belongings into a white bag with their room numbers and last names on a tag and put it in a large brown box with the others.
The hallways were very dim, almost like trying to see in an unbelievably dark movie theatre. Everybody had to take the long ramp down all the way to the basement since elevators were clearly out of order. Sally remained very close to Lightning the entire time while the nurse also nearby wheeled him along.
Screaming, shouting, piercing sirens and the pounding rain and thunder were the only things that could be heard through out the entire hospital. It was very frightening, even for Sally.
Huddled up together, surrounded by other patients and nurses, it suddenly went dead quiet, not a sound could be heard. But when they thought it was all okay, the slowly forming tornado finally struck; right down on the hospital and across the land.
Lightning and Sally held each other's tire tightly as they heard the sounds of shattering glass and almost felt the roaring angry wind. Papers, debris, wires and dry wall were spinning into the vortex, causing mass destruction. Lightning and Sally had their eyes closed shut the entire time, as they could feel the wind roughly coming through the doors. The basement was quite deep under ground, so they knew they were all safe.
As soon as the tornado passed, everybody slowly glanced up and saw the sky. The sky? Half of the building was torn apart, the side everybody wasn't beneath.
Lightning and Sally peered around in horror. What could have started as a good day, ended as the worst day of their life.
Nurses and Doctors rushed to patients sides and made sure nobody moved a tire. Some staff went up to see the destruction and nothing but debris and half torn down buildings.
"S-Sal..?" Lightning stuttered to her, holding her tire tightly.
"Oh... My god..." She muttered, burying herself into Lightning's side, trying to pull herself together as well.
"I-It's all fine now, Sally... We're okay..." He spoke a bit more clearly, but still in a nervous voice. A little girl next to Lightning was huddled in the corner by herself, shaking in terror. Lightning couldn't stand to see her like that and slightly leaned over to her, making Sally look up, too.
"Are... you alright..?" Lightning said in a more pulled-together and calming tone of voice to her, and her deep green eyes looked up at his.
"A-A-Are y-you... L-Lightning M..McQueen...?...!" The little girl said in a slight shaky voice, her fear starting to disappear little by little by distraction.
"That's me." Lightning said, faintly chuckling a little at her change of expression so quickly.
"Y-You're... Lightning! L-Lightning McQueen...! I'm.. I'm a big fan of yours..!" She exclaimed, a sudden smile on her face,
'Well, at least I got her distracted from what just happened.' Lightning thought to himself.
"That's awesome..! What's your name, little girl?" He kindly asked her, Sally just smiling at how kind Lightning was being to the child.
"I'm Lena... Lena Marie." She told him, smiling a bit sweetly afterwards.
"Lena, that's a beautiful name.. Of course, you know my name and this is my girlfriend, Sally." Lightning slightly moved back a little to let Sally see her more better and she waved a kind little hello to Lena.
"Hi, Lena..!" Sally gently smiled.
"Hi Sally.." Lena said, waving Hi to Sally with a tiny smile of her own.
"Oh, where are your parents, Lena?" Lightning suddenly asked her; not knowing that the question he'd just asked was probably a big mistake.
Lena's expression seemed to go from neutral, to sad, in only a matter of seconds.
"I actually.. don't have any... I stayed here in the hospital with Victoria. She's a nurse here and she treats me like I'm her own child. I was adopted, but my adoptive parents were abusive, so I ran away and Victoria found me here and took me in until I recovered..." She explained to Lightning, while nearly ending up in tears near the end.
"Sweetie, don't cry... We've all been through some pretty rough times in the beginning, but good things will always happen in the end, just remember that.." Lightning encouraged her and lightly nudged her tire a bit, giving her a small, reassured smile.
She blinked her forming tears away and slightly smiled again.
"Y-You're nicer than I thought you would be..!" Lena said to Lightning in a small laugh to herself.
Sally softly chuckled behind Lightning as he only laughed it off.
Lightning eventually saw Lena glancing back towards the destruction, looking suddenly distraught and hurt. The only place where everybody knew and loved her, was destroyed.
"Do... you have anywhere to go...?" Lightning kindly inquired her, a look of possible concern on his face.
She denied and slowly shook her head and shakily whispered back to him. "No.."
Lightning swore that he honestly felt really sorry for her. Almost the same thing happened to him when he was just a child, and he had nowhere to go. It was like she was a vision of him, but a girl.
"Hey, listen... How would you like to come live with us, then?" He eventually asked her in all politeness and faintly smiled, as she looked back at him in complete shock.
"Y-You mean it...?" She couldn't believe what she had just heard! The worlds most famous racecar, asking her, if she wanted to go live with them? She thought she was dreaming at this point.
"Yeah, I mean it!" Lightning lightly chuckled at her reaction. "So, what do 'ya say?" He asked her again, an amused smile on his face.
Sally stared at Lightning with a loving look in her eyes, so happy that he was being so nice to such a little girl in great need of a home and friends to be there for her. This heart-felt moment nearly melted Sally.
"O-Of course, I'd love to!" She exclaimed happily, giving Lightning the biggest hug without thinking before hand. He winced slightly, forgetting that he was still a little injured.
"Oh gosh, I'm sorry...! I didn't mean to hurt you-!" Lena desperately apologized to Lightning, a clear apologetic look written on her face.
"It's alright, you didn't mean to.." Lightning forgave Lena, who slightly smiled in relief at him.
Sally eventually heard a few nurses politely ordering the patients and visitors to go to a certain section of the street and she nudged Lightning gently, grabbing his attention.
"Stickers, I think we need to go to the street.. I just heard the nurse order everyone." Sally informed him, getting behind Lightning and starting to nudge him forward. Lena followed behind Sally, staying quiet to herself, until they reached the safe part of the street with everybody else.
"Jeez, I really can't believe this happened... It seemed like just a minute ago, we were in that lounge, enjoying the peace and quiet, then a second later a tornado hits..." Lightning reminded in thought, glancing at Sally who nodded in agreement and slightly sighed.
"I know, this is just absolutely terrible... I hope everybody got out safely." She said, peering around at the destruction right in front of them.
Sally slowly turned left to glance over at a certain area, and saw a nurse point over towards them and an assistant nurse casually drove over to them with a brown packaged box.
"Here are your belongings, Miss. Don't worry, everything inside is in good condition. We are terribly sorry for all of this happening.." The nurse apologetically spoke to her as Sally said a small "Thank you.".
Lightning faintly exhaled as he thoughtfully stared down the long road, wondering if they should leave.
"Sal...?" Lightning started with his eyes still glued to the road, waiting until she looked over at him.
"Yeah?" She turned her attention towards him, asking in question.
"Do you think we should go back home now...?" He finally asked, still glancing down the seemingly endless road.
"We might as well... Let me go see if they have a map we could use." She soon replied as she went off and asked several nurses for any sort of map, all of them not having not one in reach.
Lena slowly drove up besides Lightning in curiosity and quietly stared down the road with him, just before glancing up at him.
"...How did you get hurt?" Innocently, she asked him in a curious voice.
"...Eh, I got into a big wreck during Friday's race.." Lightning mumbled, wanting not to think about it.
"Oh..." She quietly whispered and stood quiet a few more seconds before finally speaking up again. "I hope you're feeling better..." Lena said, staring back down the empty road with him.
"Yeah, I am... Thanks.." He half-heartedly thanked her before Sally finally came back with a small but doable map.
"Alright, They found a map that wasn't all torn up.. This may be a long drive, but at last, let's go home..." Sally gave a relieved smiled, propping the box of belongings just on the side of Lightning's wheeling platform.
Sally slowly started pushing Lightning the way back home and a bit later, Lena gladly assisted Sally with pushing Lightning, so they went a little quicker.
They were all excited to know that they would finally be back to a place that was their home. But little did they know, this was just the beginning of their long adventure.
A/N: *Code Black = severe weather
*Code White = Evacuation