First and foremost, I now have a request for the Q and A. No more questions asking if characters have seen certain movies/TV shows please. Don't feel bad if you've given me those; it's just I have too many and I can't really do anything with them if I haven't seen them. I'll do what I can with the ones I already have, but no more please.

Next, the answer to the question is... False! Fudge breaks her collarbone, elbow, wrist and three fingers, but not her actual arm!

Like I said last time, I think this chapter has some adorable moments in it. I hope you agree...

Chapter 35- A Shared Victory

"Cruz! Fudge!" Sterling exclaimed in a friendly voice and Fudge noted that this was the first time Sterling had called her by her name and not "you, whatever your name is". "I knew you had something! And now look at you! Winners!"

"Winners?" Fudge repeated in pure disbelief and some disgust. "What happened to just a trainer and a glorified intern?!"

Sterling continued as if Fudge hadn't said a single word. "I could use you as racers on our team! We could make-"

"Sorry, Mr. Sterling", Cruz cut him off. "I would never race for you. I quit."

"Fine!" Sterling responded coolly. "Fudge, I can pair you with-"

"I'm not racing for you if Cruz isn't!" Fudge interjected firmly, but politely.

"Good for you!" Sammy gave the sixteen-year-old an affectionate punch in the shoulder.

Fudge nodded weakly. There was no chance she wanted to race for someone like that. Although, she was a little disappointed that that meant they couldn't race anymore.

Or so she thought. That was when she heard a familiar horn honk and a familiar friendly voice call out, "Well, then, race for me!"

"Tex!" Fudge and Lightning cried in unison, seeing the Cadillac approach with The King.

"Miss Cruz, Miss Fudge, I would be tickled pink to have you both race for Team Dinoco!" Tex began. "As you know, we have a long history of great racers. Except for Cal", he added teasingly with a wink.

"Uh... guys?" Cal piped up. "I'm still right here."

"Team Dinoco, guys!" Lightning exclaimed, grinning at Fudge and Cruz and nudging the latter.

"I know..." Fudge grinned excitedly as her eyes began to gleam.

"That's the best sponsor there is!" Sammy pointed out redundantly. Anybody who knew anything about racing knew that. She punched Fudge's shoulder again. "Lucky b**tards!"

"Luck has nothing to do with it", Lightning corrected her. "Those two deserve Dinoco."

Luigi hugged Fudge so tight that she almost choked. "My baby!" he shrieked. His eyes were filled with tears. "You have been offered the best sponsorship! I am so proud of you, my angel! So, so proud!" He kissed her forehead repeatedly.

"Do you want it?" Lightning quizzed the two racers with a smile. "I mean, I think you know what I'd want, but it's absolutely your decision."

This was Lightning's dream and it seemed he wanted them to have it. Fudge knew exactly what she wanted and turned to Cruz. "What do you say?"

"If you'll still be my rider crew chief, I'll take it. Either both of us race for Dinoco or neither of us does!"

"Of course I will." Fudge hugged Cruz, who hugged her back immediately. "Mr. Tex has been trying to get Lightning to race for him for years. I say it's about time we got someone from Radiator Springs on his side."

Everyone laughed.

Tex beamed. "I was hoping you'd say that."

"Although, it means we've got some big tyres to fill", Fudge mused.

"Really?" Cal asked.

"Not you!" Fudge gestured to The King (although he'd told her a million times to call him Strip, she always thought of him as The King).

"Don't worry about that." The King smiled at her. "You and Cruz make a new name for yourselves and your own legacy."

The human girl grinned. "I think we can do that!"

"We can and we will!" Cruz vowed.

"I think the racin' world better watch out", Tex commented.

"Hire them!" Sterling's voice came out high and not at all confident. "I don't care." He looked to what he thought was the one victory he could salvage from the situation. "Lightning. Now that you're retired, I need you first thing Monday morning for a photo shoot."

"Yeah, all right, Mr. Sterling", Lightning muttered.

"Lightning-" Fudge began.

"It's all right, Fudge", the stock car assured her, albeit a little unhappily.

"Whoa!" Smokey jumped in. "Hang on now!" He seemed to know something nobody else did.

Everyone turned their attention to the electronic monitors, which had Cruz Ramirez and Fudge Rossi-Topolino listed as the winners of the race. However, underneath their names and images, the word UPDATING was flashing.

"Updating?" Fudge read nervously. "What does it mean updating?"

They got their answer when the word UPDATING was replaced with an image of Lightning McQueen and his name. He was listed as their co-winner! That prompted the crowd to start cheering again.

"What? Why is my name up there?" Lightning wondered.

"You started the race", Smokey explained. "That's how it works!"

"YES!" Fudge shrieked so loudly she made everyone within two metres of her jump. She gave Lightning a fierce hug, which he returned in a heartbeat.

"W- Wait! No! Wait a minute! No-" Sterling was so shocked, he could barely speak.

"Uh, Lightning wins, he decides when he's done racing", Sally spoke up. "That was the deal." With a smile, she added sweetly, "Hi. I'm his lawyer."

"That was the deal!" Mater sang, getting in Sterling's face. "You are not a nice guy! Though seriously, I gotta say, you do make some quality mud flaps at an affordable price."

"This day's just getting better and better!" Fudge proclaimed as the gleam in her eyes expanded.

Tex cleared his throat. "Hey, Sterling! Why don't you and I take a drive and talk?"

The Cadillac started to drive off and the silver car followed without a word.

"Billionaire to billionaire..." Tex began.


At that moment, all of the big screens started showing Cruz flipping over Jackson Storm once again. When Fudge gazed up at it, she had a huge grin on her face and it was that moment when what happened sank in. Tears began streaming down her face and she was smiling so much, it hurt. There was one person she absolutely had to tell.

Fudge ran up to him, sobbing. She gave him an even fiercer hug than before.

"It's sunken in!" she cried. "Thank you!"

Lightning returned the hug. "Hey! It's all right!" he whispered gently. He kissed the top of her head as he ran a tyre through her hair. Fudge returned the kiss on his hood as she sobbed up against him.

Sammy tossed the tissue box their way.

"You know, it wasn't like you haven't done enough for me!" the sixteen-year-old sniffled, making Lightning laugh. "You made my dreams come true! Thank you so much!"

"Trust me, Fudge-O, I was happy to do this for you", he assured her, fastening the star necklace back onto her. He'd kept it for her during the race. "And making your dreams come true?" He showed her the necklace. "That's what this is all about, remember?"

The human girl smiled, remembering when Lightning gave it to her on her thirteenth birthday.

"This is a wishing star. You wear this and all your dreams'll come true", he'd explained to her when he was fastening the necklace to her neck.

"You know I love you, right?"

"You know I love you too, right, Fudge?"

"After this?! And everything else you've done for me! Of course I know that!"

The stock car let out a laugh.

Fudge stayed with Lightning for a little while longer, crying tears of joy. He held her and let her cry for as long as she needed to (he'd done that for her before, but it was a lot nicer when she was happy!). That was when reporters began swarming Fudge and Cruz and snapping their pictures.

"Cruz! Fudge! Over here!"

"How does it feel to beat Jackson Storm?!"

"Take us through it!"

"It was great!" Cruz declared. "Uh... I don't know what to say. It was just so incredible to win our first race."

"Can you give us your perspectives on this race?"

"Cruz! We've heard you and Fudge have accepted a sponsorship deal with Dinoco! What can you tell us about that?!"

Meanwhile, Fudge couldn't help grinning, but she looked back at Lightning uncertainly.

"It's your moment, Fudge-O!" he told her with a laugh, handing her a tissue. "Go ahead and enjoy it!"

"Okay, but I want you to come with us to victory lane. You deserve to be there as much as we do."

"All right. I'll be there", Lightning assured her.

Fudge's grin expanded as she ran off as fast as she could to see the press.

"Fudge!" they called out. "Take us through the race from your perspective!"

"I can't believe we did that! It was just so awesome!" Fudge exclaimed with happy tears streaming down her face. She wiped her eyes. "Oh, my gosh! Winning the race was just so unexpected! I think Lightning and Cruz would agree that the last two weeks have been an emotional rollercoaster for all of us! And to share this win with them both at the end of it all..." She paused. "We did it, guys! We frickin' did it!"

Lightning smiled proudly as he watched the two young women talking and laughing with the press. They were clearly soaking up the limelight, as they should. They deserved it.

"Kids have got a lot of stuff, hey, Doc?" he murmured to himself, swelling with pride. He practically needed one of those tissues himself!

Sally had overheard him and came over. "Well, they had a great teacher. And now, you get to decide when you're done racing. So, what's it gonna be, Stinky? Uh, Stickers?"

He gave a chuckle. "Oh, I'm gonna keep racing", he decided. "But before that, I got something I wanna do." He told Sally his plan and she beamed.


When Cruz and Fudge got to victory lane, they found Junior, River and Louise there.

"That was some race, kids!" Louise congratulated them.

"Thanks!" the two racers chorused, buzzing with excitement.

"You know, we couldn't have done it without you guys!" Cruz went on.

"Yeah, we didn't have any confidence or know some of the very useful stuff you told us", Fudge clarified. "Thanks, guys."

They smiled.

"You know, that flip you did was amazing!" Junior informed them.

"It was kind of like watching Hud do it all over again!" River added.

"Thanks!" Fudge and Cruz repeated.

"That was fun!" Fudge voiced her opinion.

"You know", Louise smiled at them, "I think there's gonna be a lot of girl power in the future of racing!"

"I think so too", Cruz assured her.

"I agree", Fudge chimed in.

There was a long, lingering moment where Fudge was just staring at the Legends, grinning like crazy.

"What?" River asked.

Without warning, Fudge leapt out to try and hug all of them. River and Junior tried to race off. However, Cruz and Louise blocked their path.

"You can run away from me, but you can't run away from the love!" Fudge vowed, managing to give each of them a hug.

By then, everyone was laughing. Junior and River didn't seem to mind that their escape attempt had failed because they, Louise, Cruz and Fudge were enveloped in a big hug.


If there was one thing Fudge loved about Lightning, well, there wasn't one thing. One of the main things, though, was that he always kept his promises. He showed up in victory lane with Cruz and Fudge, who insisted on making him come with them to accept the trophy.

Lightning shook his hood, refusing at first. "You won the race, guys."

"So did you!" Fudge insisted.

"No I didn't!"

"That's not what the board says!" Cruz pointed out in a singsong voice, gesturing to an electronic monitor, listing Ramirez, Rossi-Topolino and McQueen as the winners.


"Ladies and gentlemen!" a voice boomed over the PA. "Let's hear it for today's winners! Cruz Ramirez, Fudge Rossi-Topolino and Lightning McQueen!"

The crowd went wild as the three winners were presented with the trophy and showered with confetti! The press continued to snap their pictures. All three of them were grinning proudly. They were all proud of themselves and each other. The cars from Radiator Springs, Sammy, Smokey, and the Legends all watched, cheering loudly and beaming, proud of all three of them.

"I still can't believe we won our first race!" Fudge announced as she helped Lightning and Cruz hold up the trophy. It was a beautiful, tall trophy with the words FLORIDA 500 WINNER on it and had two flags on top. "And I just won my first trophy!" It had only just occurred to her that she had never won a trophy before.

"Your first trophy?" Cruz repeated in surprise.

"Of many", Lightning added proudly.

Fudge smiled. "Yeah..." The thought of that appealed to her very much.

"Lightning? Can I ask you something?" the sixteen-year-old questioned. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to..."

"What is it?"

"Now, I don't mean to be rude or sound ungrateful here. I'm just curious... Ever since the accident, you've been against me racing... What made you change your mind today?"

"Well, because, I realised you were a racer. I still wanna protect you- and I promise I always will- but I shouldn't stand in the way of you following your dreams. That would be a lot of talent going to waste."

Every single little thing seemed to make Fudge's smile grow bigger and her brother's words did just that too. She gave him another big hug. "I love you!"

Once again, he returned the hug. "I love you too!"


"Well, I guess there's one thing we need to do before we get out of here", Lightning informed Cruz and Fudge when they were getting ready to leave, to attend the big race after party, to which they and all of their friends who had been at the race were invited. Of course, the three of them were the guests of honour.

"What?" Fudge wondered.

"I spoke to Tex while you two were speaking to the press", Lightning explained. "He wanted you guys to see him as soon as possible. You know, to sort out the sponsorship contract and stuff like that." He paused and added, "Oh, but Fudge, Luigi and Guido will have to sign those for you 'cause you're not eighteen yet."

Fudge nodded. She'd been expecting that. "All right. Fair enough"

"You know", Cruz began, "Fudge and I've talked about it and we decided we still want you to help us out and train us. I think the three of us work well together and you understand us."

"We want you to help us as much as you can!" Fudge added hurriedly. "I mean, you're still racing, right?"

"I guess we do work well together!" Lightning chuckled, remembering Smokey's short-lived reign as their crew chief. "You know, I'm gonna keep racing, but first, I'm gonna train you guys and be your crew chief! If you'll have me, that is."

"Absolutely!" they chorused delightedly.

Lightning, Cruz and Fudge all grinned, heading off to sign the contracts. They all had their futures in front of them and they couldn't wait to start.

We're getting pretty close to the end of the movie now! However, there'll still be three or four chapters to go of this one. (Right now, it's three, but one of them is pretty long, so I might break it up into two chapters. I haven't decided yet.)

Finally, a friendly reminder to review and what I think might be the toughest quiz question I have come up with in this game: In When Life Gives You Lemons, what is Sammy's alias/fake name while working with the Lemons on the oil platform?