Just before we begin, I want to thank you guys so much for the many awesome Christmas/birthday wishes. Those made me very happy. I had a very nice Christmas and birthday and I hope you all did too. And Foxy Hedgehog, to answer your question, I have just turned 20. That makes me feel so old! XD
Well, I may be old, but I'm still young at heart, which is why I write Cars fanfiction, so let's read another chapter of Ride, shall we? (Even though this story is not for kids!)
Chapter 28- Sammy!
Fudge felt a lot better when she awoke. She felt warmer, she felt cleaner, she felt extremely refreshed. Best of all, though, the entire RS gang, RJ, Finn and Holley were crowded around her bed.
"Hey, Fudge!" nearly everyone greeted her in unison softly.
A slow smile spread across her face. "Hi, guys..."
"How you feeling?" Sally questioned.
"I'm okay", the thirteen-year-old assured them, feeling a little bit of déjà vu from when she awoke in the hospital when she broke her leg for the first time. She braced herself for all the questions about where she'd been. Yet nobody said anything. Lightning must've filled everyone in like he said he would. "When do you think I'll be able to come home?" She was sick of hospitals.
"The doctor wants to come and see you first", Luigi explained, coming over and taking her hand, "but it may be as soon as tonight."
"Really?"
"Maybe not, though", Luigi pointed out. "Don't get your hopes up. Wait until the doctor comes in to see you, okay?"
"Okay..."
Luckily, the doctor did say Fudge could go home later that night. Fudge got driven home in Mater's truck bed. The girl slept most of the way there, but woke up upon their return to town, feeling a lot better. She stayed awake just long enough to eat some soup that Flo had heated up for her. Then she slept all through the night.
"Hey, Fudge!" Flo called out, entering the girl's room the next morning. "Are you hungry?"
"Starved... Why?" Fudge questioned, even though she knew why. The former show car had her breakfast.
"Do you feel up to eating some pancakes?"
The human girl grinned. Those weren't just any pancakes! They were the delicious, awesome chocolate chip pancakes with ice cream and strawberries! Flo only ever made it for her on special occasions. Although being in the hospital would've been a special occasion, most of the time, Fudge was too sick to eat them.
"Thanks, Flo!"
"No problem, honey! Now, eat up!"
Fudge thought it would be a little harder to eat without her glasses. She couldn't see properly where the food was. Luckily, Flo touched it up against her lips every time. Just as Fudge was finishing up her breakfast, Guido and Luigi came in.
"Buon giorno, Fudgie!" they greeted her warmly in unison.
"Buon giorno!" she returned the greeting.
"We have something for you", Luigi informed her.
"You do?"
"Yes." Luigi pulled out a pair of glasses and put them on her head. "Is this better?"
She nodded, blinking as she adjusted to the clarity of her surroundings. "Much better. Thanks."
Luigi smiled and gave her a kiss.
Lightning came by later and things started to seem a little more normal, to how they'd been all year, anyway; not normal to the rest of her life. She lay in bed in a T-shirt and underwear as she and Lightning watched their final disc of Friends. Later on, they talked about their experiences while she was missing.
"Sammy and Doc came to me in a dream when I was in the caverns", Fudge recalled. "They were there a lot."
"Doc was there with me too", Lightning informed her. "He was the one who told me to go back to Tail Light Caverns to find you."
"Really?"
"Yeah!"
"I was worried nobody would find me and he said he'd take care of it."
Lightning gave her a small smile. "He always did."
The others came by to visit her and talk to her too. Even though Fudge still wished things could go entirely back to normal, she knew that this was a baby step and was grateful for it nonetheless.
On Saturday morning, Fudge was back in the hospital and at nine o'clock, she closed her eyes, fearing what was going on with Sammy. The teenager tried to remember all of the good things about her sister. That was what Luigi had told her to do when Doc had died; try to remember all of the many good memories she had of him and not the bad few at the end. As a result, her mind travelled back to London when Fudge was in the River Thames, trying to flee from the Lemons...
"I can't do this!" Fudge had shrieked hysterically into the radio. "I can't! I wanna go home! I want Luigi and Guido and Lightning..."
"Fudge", Sammy's calm voice came through the radio. "What's your favourite movie?"
Confusion took over Fudge's face. "What?"
"Come on. Tell me. What's your favourite movie?"
"Shrek 2", she answered, breathing a little slower.
"I love that movie!"
"You do?"
"Sure I do. Hey, how about this? When we get this mission done, we'll watch Shrek 2 together. Does that sound good? We'll make popcorn and watch the movie."
"That sounds fun", Fudge admitted, not thinking that far ahead just yet.
"Okay. Then that's what we'll do."
And they did. Not as soon as the mission was over. In December that year, Finn, Holley and Sammy returned to Radiator Springs. That was when the two of them watched the movie. Mater and Holley were out on a date, but Sally, Lightning, Luigi, Guido and Finn joined them.
"No, no, no!" Sammy cried when Mongo, the giant gingerbread man, died.
"This is the most depressing part of the movie", Lightning commented.
"Yeah! I really liked that gingerbread man." Sammy flopped back on the couch.
"Me too", Fudge agreed, her mouth full of popcorn. She was snuggled on the couch in her pyjamas next to Sammy and she had her foot stretched out to press up against Lightning's side.
When the movie ended, nobody was really sure what to do. However, after about fifteen minutes, Sammy grinned.
"Well!" she announced with a flourish, rummaging through the backpack that lay at her feet. "We've seen a good movie! Now, what do you say we watch a dumb one?!" She held up Birdemic: Shock and Terror.
"Uh... Where's the fun in that?" Fudge wondered.
"We can laugh at it, throw popcorn at the screen when it gets especially dumb..."
"That sounds fun!" Lightning declared.
"Yeah, it does!" Fudge agreed, sounding much more enthusiastic.
And what do you know? A few hours later, they were all laughing hysterically at the utter ridiculousness of the movie they were watching. It had horrible special effects, the cinematography of a toddler, constantly cutting out audio, wooden actors, a painfully slow plot progression and zero logic, but they were all unable to stop laughing.
"Hey, Fudge-O!"
Fudge was brought back to Earth by the sound of Lightning's voice. "Yeah?"
"You okay?"
"Yeah. Just thinking."
"About Sammy."
"Yeah... How'd you know?"
"I kinda guessed. I know you've been worried about her."
"Yeah..."
"How do you feel?"
"I'm okay", she assured her brother. "Yeah, I'm just worried about her and I hope she's gonna be okay."
"Well, Finn and Holley said when she's ready and you're ready, they'll take you to London to see her. She's starting chemotherapy."
"Okay..." Fudge murmured, snuggling deeper into the sheets. She feared seeing her sister in that state, but she did want to see her.
"Something wrong?" Lightning questioned, concerned.
"Yeah... Just a little cold." Fudge thought for a moment before a slow smile spread across her face. "Lightning?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you think you could do me a favour? Please?"
"Sure. Anything."
"I think I'm gonna take a nap now... Do you think you could get something for me from home? I know it's a long way just for one thing, but-"
"No, no!" he assured her hurriedly. "Of course. Of course I'll get you something. Whatever you need."
Fudge told him what she wanted.
"Really?" he asked with a smile. Normally, Fudge was really bad at picking up people's emotions and expressions, but even she could tell that even though he was trying to hide it, Lightning was thrilled that she had asked him for the thing she did.
"Yeah."
"All right. Well, if you're gonna take a nap, I'll go now. I promise I'll be back soon, all right? See you soon." The race car kissed her.
"Love you!"
"I love you too, Fudge-O!" He gave her another kiss, stroked her hair and whispered soothingly, "Ssh... Go back to sleep."
The following morning, Lightning was practically bouncing with energy as they all headed towards Fudge's hospital room.
"Is everything all right?" Sheriff asked suspiciously.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm great!" Lightning assured him hurriedly. "I'm great, you're great, Fudge is great, we're all great!"
"Stickers, what is with you?" Sally wondered. She looked around at the others. "He's been acting this way ever since last night. I can tell he's got a secret."
"Longer than that", Sarge corrected her. "Remember how he went back to town yesterday to get something for Fudge. Then he came back with a bag and wouldn't tell or show us what was in it."
"I hope he has done nothing else to Fudge", Luigi deadpanned.
"Let's just go and see Fudge", the race car suggested.
As soon as they saw Fudge, all of them got the shocks of their lives. Guido and Luigi couldn't believe even they had never noticed what was different about her. The thirteen-year-old was no longer wearing just a T-shirt and underwear. She was wearing her light blue flannelette pyjamas that had clouds and rainbows printed all over them.
"Hi!" she greeted them all, giggling.
"Fudgie!" Luigi cried, parking by his daughter's bedside. "You look so different!" He was too nice to come right out and say it.
Fudge got the feeling everyone would be like that too, so she decided to be the one to say it. "I know! I've got pants on!"
"That's wonderful!" Sally proclaimed sincerely.
"Yes it is, angel!" Luigi agreed, giving his daughter a kiss.
As everyone chimed in with similar comments, Fudge beamed. Who would've thought simply putting some pants on would make her family proud? She used to do it every single day! Now, she hadn't done it in six months; it was weird having pants on and having something besides a cast or bedsheets covering her legs.
"(You are looking so much better now)", Guido remarked.
"He is right!" Luigi kissed her again.
"I'm just hoping someone else gets better now", Fudge commented sadly.
"I am sure she will", both of her fathers assured her in both English and Italian.
"I hope so..."
"It's going to be all right, Fudge", Finn assured her as he wheeled her towards Sammy's room. "It's still Sammy."
"I know, but she's going to look different... I'm a little afraid."
"That's normal." Holley nodded. "But she's still your sister. She needs you."
"Yeah. You're right", the human girl admitted.
Still, that didn't make things easy when she saw Sammy lying there. Fudge felt the same mixture of shock, sadness and fear that her family felt seeing her after the accident. Sammy looked a lot thinner and weaker. On top of that, she had absolutely no hair left. All of her beautiful rainbow hair was gone. It was just so strange seeing Sammy like that; she looked so sick. So horrible.
Despite that, her face lit up when she saw her sister. "Fudge!" Her voice was hoarse.
"Hey..." Fudge began nervously.
"How you doing?"
"I'm doing okay. I start physical therapy soon. I guess the most important question is, 'How are you?'"
"S**t", Sammy muttered. "I'm feeling like s**t. But I'm gonna get better, I promise."
"How do you know?"
"Come on!" Sammy let out a little laugh. "I'm tough. I've beaten bad guys. I can beat something as evil as cancer."
Fudge didn't know how to answer.
"Trust me!" Sammy urged.
"I just want you to get better..." Fudge's eyes filled with tears.
"I will!" Sammy insisted. "It may just take a while. Like your recovery." She paused. "In fact, I've been inspired by your incredible fight after your accident. I ain't gonna give up because you never did."
"I don't know about never..."
"Well, you're going great", her sister informed her. "Promise me you won't give up. As long as you don't give up, I won't either."
Fudge nodded. "I promise."
"Thanks, Fudge. That makes me feel so much better."
Interesting fact: The Shrek movies were my favourite movies before Cars 2 came out when I was eleven and I returned to my Cars obsession from when I was six!
I haven't seen Birdemic, though, but I have seen JonTron's video on it and that's where I got the "cinematography of a toddler" line from.
Were there any more questions for the Q and A? There are only two chapters left, so the next chapter's gonna be the last call.