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

Chapter 44 – The Mid-Season Break

Lightning and Sally's Mansion, Rochedale, 17 kms south of Brisbane – Thursday, 16 July, 2015

"That's it!" Lightning shouted above the rumble of the tractors as they were unloaded from the trailer.

One of the two farmhands he'd hired to help look after the tractors quickly closed the gate. The farmhands were both Utes from out west, so looking after tractors was second nature to them. Lightning peered through the fence at the tractors. One of them snorted at him.

"We'll have some fun later tonight, mate," Lightning promised. It had been ages since he'd done any tractor tipping.

"We'd better get started on the branding them," the other farmhand said as the livestock truck drove away.

"I'll leave you to it then," Lightning replied. As he drove away from the cattle yard, his phone rang. "Hello?"

"Hey, Speedster. It's Leyland. Just wondered how you were enjoying your break."

"Yeah, it's been good so far. I've just had my first herd of tractors arrive. They're about to be branded. I chose a lightning bolt for the brand."

Leyland chuckled. "Why am I not surprised? What else have you been up to?"

"I took Sally to a theme park called Dreamworld yesterday," Lightning continued. "I couldn't convince her to go on the Giant Drop, but we went on everything else."

"What about you? Did you go on it?"

"Yes, but I'll never do it again!"

Leyland laughed. "Join the club! If you're not afraid of heights before going on that ride, you certainly are afterwards!"

Lightning shivered at the memory. "Are you just checking up on me, or did you want something?"

"Oh, I just thought you might be interested in joining the rest of the team for some rallying on Saturday."

"You can count me in on that one!"

"Great! I knew you wouldn't say no. We'll meet at nine a.m. at Craig's place. He's turned one of his paddocks into a rally track."

"I know. He showed it to me when I was staying with him. I took a few spins on it."

"That's good. Dutto wants to be challenged this year."

Lightning sniggered. "I won't disappoint him then. I'll see you there."

"Okay. Take care, Speedster."

"You too. Bye, Leyland."

While Lightning had been talking, he'd driven all the way back up to the house. He entered through a back door, just in time to see Mr Hood driving past with the morning mail.

"Is any of that for me?" Lightning asked while he wiped the mud off his tyres.

"Just this one," Mr Hood replied, handing it over.

Taking the letter between his teeth, Lightning headed upstairs. The letter was from the factory, so he wanted to open it with Sally.

"Sally!" Lightning called as he entered their bedroom. He dropped the letter onto the desk.

Sally emerged from the drive-in-robe. "Have the tractors arrived?"

"Yes. They're a nice looking mob too. This letter just arrived for us. It's from the factory."

Sally gasped. "Who's going to open it?"

"You?"

"I'm too afraid! You open it."

"Okay…"

After he'd opened the letter, Lightning read it silently to himself for a moment. Unable to contain herself any longer, Sally snatched the letter from him. A moment later, Sally let out an ear-piercing scream!

"Ow!" Lightning exclaimed, cringing. "Sal! Please! I need my hearing to race!"

"Sorry!" Sally breathed. She collapsed onto her chassis as tears tumbled from her eyes.

Mr Hood and Gracie burst into the room.

"See, now you've panicked the servants!" Lightning teasingly scolded her.

"Is everything all right, sir?" Mr Hood asked anxiously. "We heard a scream."

"What's happened to Sally?" Gracie added.

"Oh, she's all right," Lightning told them dismissively. Then he grinned. "We're just expecting a baby."

"You should've heard her scream!" Lightning told Craig and Jamie two days later, as they prepared for the team's get-together and rally day. "I never knew anyone was physically capable of screaming like that! I'm surprised the neighbours didn't call the cops to find out what was going on."

Leyland drove over to them. "Sorry to break up this father's meeting, but the rest of us are ready to race. You're all in the first heat."

Lightning, Craig and Jamie drove over to the starting line, where Dutto was already waiting for them. Dr Andrews held a megaphone up to his mouth.

"Okay, everyone! Listen up! Since I've been appointed as 'race control' for today, I need to make a few things clear. First of all, any contact with each other will be dealt with severely. The same will apply for any unnecessary risk-taking. But most importantly, have fun! All right, let's get on with this. The first heat will consist of Leyland, Dutto, Lightning, Craig and Jamie. You all know the rules. First and second place will go on to race in the semi-finals, and the first and second place-getters from them will go on to race in the finals after lunch. Is the first heat ready?"

Lightning took his place alongside the others on the start line. He glanced at Leyland who was beside him on his left.

"I hope you like mud."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because you're about to taste it!"

Leyland scowled. "I suppose I asked for that."

"On your marks!" Dr Andrews said through the megaphone. "Get set!"

Lightning, Craig and Jamie instinctively revved their engines aggressively. Leyland and Dutto didn't bother.

"Go!"

The five of them floored it. Leyland lost a bit of grip in the dirt, and Lightning took advantage of that by darting in front of him. Dirt and mud sprayed up from Lightning's tyres, splattering Leyland all over!

"Oh! You'll pay for that, Lightning McQueen!" Leyland spluttered. Lightning just laughed in response.

Now that he had Leyland out of the way, Lightning focused on his next target – Jamie. Jamie clearly wasn't very good in the dirt, so Lightning was able to overtake him easily by using his signature counter-steer move around a corner. After that, Lightning only had to worry about Dutto who, he had to admit, was very good on dirt, but naturally the little forklift lacked Lightning's speed.

Nobody was surprised when Lightning finished the heat in first place. Dutto finished second.

"Well, that's just made things easy for me going into the semi-finals," Lightning said afterwards.

It did. Lightning ended up winning the final of the rally race, but he upset Dutto, because he'd won the annual team bonding day events for the past four years in a row.

The following Monday, Lightning returned to the factory alone, so he could have his DNA frozen. After he'd signed all of the paperwork, and paid a ten percent deposit, he was shown into Dr Holden's office.

"Right, Mr McQueen," Dr Holden said as he opened up a small cardboard box on his desk. "This procedure is fairly straightforward. Have you ever undergone a drug test before?"

"Not from my saliva," Lightning replied. "In racing, they prefer to do drug tests from oil samples. But I have seen drug tests done on police shows, so I know how to do it."

"Good. Okay, I want you to build up as much saliva as you can. When you've done that, I'll place this stick of cotton inside your mouth. You'll need to hold it under your tongue for about sixty seconds to ensure it is completely soaked."

Lightning complied. Once he had a mouthful of saliva, he nodded to Dr Holden, who placed the stick of cotton inside Lightning's mouth. Closing his lips around the stick, Lightning concentrated on soaking it as much as possible.

"Okay, that should be enough," Dr Holden said after a minute. He gently removed the drenched cotton from Lightning's mouth, and he sealed it inside a plastic tube. "I'll just stick this label on it, and I'll take it down to lab, where it'll be kept frozen in dry ice until it's needed. You may leave now."

"Thanks," Lightning said gratefully. "I can't wait to become a father!"