Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Pixar. All OCs belong to me.
Chapter 26 – Wedding Preparations
Brisbane International Airport – Monday, 11thMay, 2015
"This is what I love about Australia," Lightning said to Craig while they waited in the arrivals terminal at the Brisbane International Airport. "I can go about my everyday life without being mobbed by thousands of fans. I just get the occasional fan snapping a distant picture of me, and that's about it."
"Yeah, we Aussies try to be respectful of celebrities," Craig replied. "Usually, fans will wait until there's an official 'meet and greet' to meet with their favourite celebrities." Glancing at a nearby clock, he frowned worriedly. "We're going to be late for training."
"Don't worry. I phoned Leyland last night and told him we'd probably be late. He's also promised to give everyone a tour of headquarters."
"I'll bet Dutto was thrilled about that."
"I wouldn't know. But that's his problem."
Craig couldn't help laughing.
"What?" Lightning asked innocently.
"Nothing. You're just sounding more and more Australian every day. Oh good. Sally's coming back."
"Their flight's landed," Sally reported as she re-joined them. "They should be going through customs now."
"Hopefully they'll pass through it quickly," Lightning replied. He gave Sally a quick peck on her fender.
"So, who's arriving this morning?" Craig asked.
"My mother, both of my aunts, Sally's parents, Dr Spark, Mack, Rusty, Dusty, and all of our friends from Radiator Springs. Unfortunately, none of my Piston Cup friends are able to make it because they're racing that weekend, so we're going to let them see our wedding live via satellite."
"I can't believe we're going to be married in just two weeks!" Sally squealed excitedly. "Oh, look! Here they come. Mum! Dad! Over here!"
Lightning, Sally and Craig drove forwards as their guests emerged from the customs area.
"Lightnin'!" Mater screeched excitedly. Before anyone could stop him, he raced straight over to his best friend, and hooked him by his front left-hand tyre. Mater spun Lightning around several times before Sally interceded.
"That's enough, Mater. You don't want to make him dizzy."
"Whoa!" Lightning gasped once Mater had let him go. Before he could fully recover, everyone had gathered around him, all asking him questions at a mile a minute.
"Wow, Lightning! You look great! When did you get the new paintjob?"
"And the rear-view mirrors?"
"We really missed you."
"Are you sure you're okay after that accident?"
"We were really worried about you, man."
"When are you gonna come home to Radiator Springs?"
"Where are you and Sally living now?"
"Is everything arranged for the wedding?"
"Okay, everyone! Break it up, please!" Craig ordered as Lightning, completely overwhelmed, collapsed heavily onto his chassis. "I know you're all keen to talk, but Lightning and I still have a race meeting this weekend, and we're already late for training, so let's get outta here!"
Reluctantly, everyone followed Lightning, Sally and Craig out of the airport. Elinor gave Lightning a quick kiss on his fender.
"I'm glad to see for myself that you're well and happy," she told him.
"Yeah. It's great to see you again, mum. How's everything going back home?"
"Good. I'm working on plans to extend the clinic. It's not something I ever thought I'd have to do, but I know Doc would be proud to see just how much everyone relies on it."
"Is your training place far from here?" Sherriff asked Craig.
"No. It's only about ten minutes away."
"We've really missed having you race for us," Rusty said to Lightning.
"I know, but I'm really happy racing with Redbulldozer Racing. More importantly, I'm actually enjoying racing again. You'll get to watch me in action again this weekend."
"I almost didn't recognise you in your new paintjob, boss," Mack said.
Lightning glanced down at the Redbulldozer logo on his bonnet. "Yeah, well… Different team; different sponsors. You know how it is."
"So, how are you enjoying living in Australia, Lightning?" Aunt May asked him.
"Actually, I'm loving it! It's great not having to race every single weekend. It means I can spend a lot more time with Sally. That's very important to both of us. Back home, I wasn't able to spend as much time with her, because I was racing every single weekend; except during the off-season, of course."
Before long, the group arrived at the Redbulldozer Racing team's headquarters. Mack, being too big to go inside, stayed outside to chat to Red – the team's transporter truck. Everyone else went inside.
"Morning Susan," Craig said to the pretty pink receptionist.
"Morning, Craig. Lightning. Dutto's waiting for you both in the training room. I'll let Leyland know that your friends and family are here for their tour."
"Can't I go wit' ya, buddy?" Mater begged.
"You need to stay with us, Mater," Sherriff told him firmly.
"Oh! But I've seen dis place before…"
"We'll see you guys later," Lightning smiled. He winked wickedly at Craig. "Race ya?"
"Now you're just showing off," Craig snorted. "Come on, Speedster…"
Lightning and Craig headed upstairs to the training room, where they knew that Jamie was already undergoing his morning training session.
Meanwhile, Leyland joined the large group downstairs. "Morning, everyone, and welcome to the headquarters of Redbulldozer Racing Australia. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Leyland Dane, and I'm the owner of this team. Before we begin this tour, I need to lay down a few ground rules. First of all, please do not take any photographs without permission. This is very important, because we have many secrets here that we don't want our rival teams to see. And before you ask, yes, some of Lightning's new parts are top secret, so please don't ask him to show them to you, because the answer will be 'no'. The same goes for Craig and Jamie. Also, please do not talk about anything you see or hear here today, for the same reason. Right, now that we have that out of the way, please follow me."
Together, the group followed Leyland over to the cafeteria.
"Obviously, this is our cafeteria," Leyland said. "Most of us are here all day long, so this is where we meet for our meals, and sometimes we have brief meetings over a drink here too." He pointed to a small bar fridge with his tyre. "The number one rule around here is that nobody is allowed to touch this fridge, except for our team manager, Dutto, the team doctor, Doctor Andrews, and our racers. That's because this fridge contains drinks that have been specially formulated for Lightning, Craig and Jamie. Their health and fitness is our primary concern, so they get only the very best around here."
"Do they get the same stuff at the racetrack?" Fillmore asked.
"Depends. Sometimes on race day, they may not be feeling a hundred percent; especially if they've had to qualify the day before, so then their drinks are adjusted to suit their needs. These drinks aren't all the same, which is why they're all labelled. I see that Jamie's already taken one with him. Once they've finished a drink, they put the empty bottles back inside the fridge. That way, Dutto and Doctor Andrews can see exactly how much each racer has had each day."
"Do you know what Lightning's getting in his?" Dr Spark asked.
"I'm afraid not," Leyland replied. "The formulas are adjusted a lot, so you'd have to ask Dr Anderson for specifics on that. Right, shall we move on?"
The next stop in Leyland's tour was Dr Andrews' office and medical clinic, followed by Dr Anderson's office. He then showed them the meeting room, and the engineers' laboratory where new parts were being designed and tested. Everyone was completely amazed by just how seriously everyone took their jobs.
"And here we were thinking that Lightning had sold himself short by changing racing codes," Dusty muttered to Rusty, "This place is incredible!"
"Now I can see why Lightning was so keen to sign up with them," Rusty sighed sadly. "He's in seven-star luxury, with teammates and he's only racing, at worst, every second weekend. I know he's not getting paid anywhere near the amount he was getting in the Piston Cup, but the benefits he's getting more than make up for it."
Leyland pretended he hadn't overheard Lightning's former team owners as he lead the group upstairs to the training room. Even he was surprised by the scene that greeted them as they entered the room. Dutto had obviously left the room for just a moment, leaving Davo and Grant in charge of overseeing Jamie's, Craig's and Lightning's training session. The stereo system was up at full volume, so it could be heard above the deafening roar of the three racers' engines as they trained on their individual rolling roads. The V8 Supercars anthem, 'Beautiful Noise' was playing, and Jamie, Craig and Lightning were all singing along to it.
"…It's a beautiful noise! It's a beautiful noise! The rumble of thunder rolling downunder! It's man and machine! It's chasing the dream! It's the V8 thrill! The crowd on the hill! It's a beautiful noise! It's the v8 howling, dropping through the gears…"
Leyland drove over to the computer system in the centre of the room, and he switched off the stereo. For a few seconds, the three racers kept singing, until they realised they no longer had their backing music. Davo moved his forklift arm in front of his face, signalling for all three of them to cut their engines. They promptly did so, but it took a couple of minutes for them to safely roll to a complete stop.
"We really need to get you guys some headsets, so we can talk to you above the din in here," Leyland said.
"What?" Jamie shouted, teasingly, making Craig and Lightning chuckle.
"Where's Dutto gone?" Leyland asked.
"He went to get the notes he took while we were at Perth," Davo replied. "He wanted to work on Lightning's reaction time for the race starts."
Leyland nodded. "What are Craig and Jamie working on today?"
"I'm focussing on endurance for Craig today," Grant said. "He's doing five hundred kilometres at two-hundred and eighty kilometres an hour."
"Good. And Jamie?"
"Balance. That was what was wrong with him at Perth. He might need to see Dr Andrews about his anti-roll bars," Davo answered.
"I am NOT having any more surgery!" Jamie scowled.
"You may not have a choice," Leyland growled. "Something's happened to you between Sydney last year, and the Australian Grand Prix this year. And no, you can't blame Lightning's accident on that. Something has definitely happened to you, and we intend to figure it out before it's too late."
Dutto returned then, pushing his way past Lightning's friends and family, who were now mostly inside the training room.
"Got the notes. Sorry, I left them in my office. Okay, Lightning… Let's see if we can get your zero to a hundred down from three-point-two seconds…"
Lightning snorted. "It's never been done yet."
"Watch the lights," Dutto ordered, pointing to the mock-starting lights in the corner of the room.
"I thought were weren't allowed to practice our starts?" Lightning said.
"You can, so long as it's not at the racetrack," Leyland explained.
"Ooohhh! Okay."
Keeping his eyes fixed on the starting lights, Lightning revved his engine several times until the lights went out. Then he floored it. As soon as his speed reached a hundred kilometres an hour, Dutto signalled for him to stop. Leyland sighed heavily.
"Still too slow. Seriously, I would've thought that a former Piston Cup racer would have a zero to a hundred of three seconds or even less."
"Be fair, Leyland," Craig interrupted. "Our zero-to-a hundred is only three-point-four seconds."
"You all know that in this game, even microseconds count. Lightning's in the unusual position where he's qualifying faster than most of the other racers in his class, so our aim now is to get him off that starting line faster than the rest of them. That way, he can maintain his leads and, hopefully stay clear of all the traffic."
"It'd be easier if we could do rolling starts," Lightning muttered.
"Well, you can't, so let's just get on with this. Three seconds is what you're aiming for."
Groaning, Lightning focussed on the lights again. The result was the same. Leyland shook his front.
"Keep practicing. We'll leave you guys alone now."
"I have a question, Leyland," Sherriff said. "Why are they practicing on rolling roads instead of on a racetrack?"
"We only have three practice days at a racetrack each year," Leyland replied. "Two of them are for all the V8 racers. We only have one private team session that we're allowed to use at our discretion at any time during the racing season. We haven't used ours yet."
"Do you know when you will?" Rusty asked.
"No, and even if I did, I'm not likely to tell you," Leyland replied firmly as he shooed the group out of the training room.
…
Later that afternoon, Sally and her mother, Rachel, took Elinor, May, Susan, Flo and Lizzie to the bridal shop in Brisbane's CBD, where Sally hoped to settle on the final design for her wedding veil.
"Oh, if only I hadn't lost my grandmother's one in the fire," Sally mourned as she tried on the fifth veil she liked. "It was perfect. None of these really suit me, or the vintage theme of our wedding."
"I think the second one looks the most vintage," Flo said.
Sally tried it on again. She groaned in despair. "Whoever would've thought it'd be so hard to have a vintage themed wedding? Maybe I should just change the theme."
"You can't do that!" Rachel protested. "Not after all the hard work everyone's done to source vintage products for it."
May and Elinor exchanged knowing glances. It was time for them to spring their surprise on Sally.
"How about this one?" May suggested as she carefully placed the veil down on Sally's roof.
Sally's jaw dropped in astonishment. "I didn't see this one before!" She turned to the retail assistant, who'd been looking after her. "Where have you been hiding this one?"
"In my attic," May replied before the assistant could say anything.
Sally turned back to face May. "What?"
"Sally, dear," Elinor began, speaking gently, "This is the veil I wore on the day I married Lightning's father."
"What?"
Elinor nodded. "Lightning wanted you to have it after he learned that you'd lost your grandmother's wedding veil in the fire. He phoned me to ask if you could borrow it for your wedding, and I agreed."
"It took me weeks to find it," May added. "It's been dry cleaned and we noticed that some of the stitching had come loose, so it's been repaired as well. It's ready for you to use, if you want to."
Tears had already filled Sally's eyes. "H-has Lightning ever seen it?"
"Only in photographs," Elinor answered. "And even then, he was very young, so he probably won't remember it very well, if at all."
Sally nodded slowly as she looked at herself again in the mirror. "It's perfect. Thank you so much, Elinor! I promise I'll look after it."
"That's settled then," May said, smiling.
Sally looked at the retail assistant again. "Sorry."
The assistant wink in reply, indicating that she'd already known about the veil.
"I'll have to remember to thank Lightning," Sally told herself.
"Thank you, Elinor," Rachel said sincerely. "This is such a lovely thing for you to do for Sally."
"It was Lightning's idea," Elinor reminded her.
"I know, but you didn't have to agree to it, so thank you. Now Sally can have the wedding of her dreams."
Once again, thank you so much for your reviews! Please keep them coming. I'm so glad everyone is enjoying this story.