Again, I know it hasn't been that long, but I'm kind of hoping to have this story finished for Fudge's birthday. So, I'll still be uploading two chapters at a time. I really need to finish this story.

Like I said, this is between Ride and Cars 3. Most of it will be new, but there are a couple of old bits too. Hope you enjoy! :)

Part 4

Chapter 1- Anniversary

The rest of the year was actually pretty good. Lightning and I ended up travelling around the country, doing interviews for just about every talk show in America. That was awesome. After all, I'd done a lot of travelling for races with Lightning, but there were still so many places I'd never seen like New York City, Washington D.C. and Hawaii! It was so awesome to go to all of those places.

Still, it was wonderful to return home in time for Thanksgiving with my Radiator Springs family and RJ! He came over for Thanksgiving dinner and on Christmas afternoon while I video called Sammy. That was an excellent day; also because of my awesome presents...

"You're not going to believe what I got for Christmas!" I greeted them, limping towards RJ, using my crutches to help me walk.

"What did you get?" Sammy asked me.

"I'll show you!" I led them over to Flo's where the rest of my family were waiting for them.

"Hey, guys!" they all called out to each other. "Merry Christmas!"

"So, what did you get?" RJ wanted to know.

"First of all, this!" I held up a brand new headset.

RJ blinked. "A headset?"

"That's right!" I confirmed with a huge grin. "I'm gonna be the new crew chief for Team Lightning McQueen!"

Sammy's eyes widened. "Really?"

I nodded. "Really!"

"That's great! I know you've been waiting a hell of a long time for that", Sammy proclaimed sincerely.

"My sister's Lightning McQueen's crew chief?!" RJ exclaimed. "That's so cool!" He hugged me; I hugged him back.

"And there's more!" I went on.

"More?!" my half-sister repeated in surprise.

"Yep!" I answered. I looked around. "Where's my other present?"

"Right here!" Lightning scooped up my other present and brought it forward for my sister and brother to see.

I still couldn't believe I'd gotten that present and neither could Sammy and RJ, for that matter.

RJ's eyes widened. "Oh, wow!"

"Fudge!" Sammy squealed excitedly.

"Meow!" my present squeaked.

"Can I pet him?" RJ requested. After a pause, he added, "Or her?"

"Her", I confirmed. "And yeah you can."

So, RJ petted my cat. I knew my siblings weren't really cat people, but I knew they'd be happy for me and I was right.

"What's her name?" my brother wanted to know.

"I don't know yet", I admitted. "But it's gotta be something good."

A few days later, it was New Year's Day. A New Year had started. I was determined to leave 2013 behind and keep moving forward. 2014 looked very promising and I was excited, but nervous for it. Although, no matter what came my way, after the year I'd had, I was ready for it.

Unfortunately, it wasn't that long before I was not enjoying myself again. I was back in the hospital. The doctors wanted to do another checkup on me as it was almost a year after the accident.

"But I'm fine!" I insisted. "I'm walking again and it doesn't really hurt that much."

"I know, baby!" Luigi had sympathised, giving me a kiss. "The doctors just want to make sure everything is okay."

"I'm sick of hospitals!" I groaned. "I hate them! Hate, hate, hate, hate them!"

Luigi laughed. "I know, but it is only for a few days and you will be home again." He hugged me. "You do not have to go in as often now."

Well, that was true.

Luckily, everything was okay, so I didn't need to stay in hospital for quite as long as I normally would. In fact, I got to go home the very next day. Unfortunately, that day was January sixth 2014; the one year anniversary of the accident.

I didn't mind that so much. Sure, that was the anniversary of the day that changed my life forever, but it didn't bother me as much as it bothered everyone else. After all, I don't remember that day at all (several times since the accident, I've thought really hard, trying to see if any of it would come back to me, but it hasn't happened yet). However, my family would never forget it. And that was something they never let me forget.

Luigi and Guido picked me up early in the morning to head back to Radiator Springs in Mack's trailer. They would not stop hugging and kissing me for half an hour as they helped me get dressed and packed up my bags.

"Fudgie! Do you have any idea how much Luigi and Guido love you?" Luigi quizzed me, taking a small break from smothering my face in kisses.

"Not as much as I love you!" I answered.

"No!" he argued. "No! Not possible!"

"Yes it is!" I protested. "Because I do!"

"Not possible!" Luigi repeated, giving me another kiss.

"Yes it is!"

"No it is not! No one can love anyone as much as Luigi and Guido love Fudgie!"

"(He is right!)" Guido chimed in, also kissing me.

"No he's not!"

This went on for quite a while.

The ride home was mostly quiet, but Luigi and Guido kept staring at me. It was almost as if they thought if they looked away, I'd disappear forever. Occasionally, they would tell me that they loved me. Of course, I told them I loved them too.

"We're here!" Mack announced a few hours later, waking me from my brief nap.

I opened my eyes and looked out the window to see the rest of my family gathered at Flo's, all crowded around the trailer.

"There she is!" they all greeted me, sounding quite melancholy, when Luigi wheeled me out.

Seeing how sad they all seemed, I flashed them the best smile I could. "Hi, guys!"

"Are you okay?" they quizzed me worriedly.

"Yeah!" I assured them. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Uh... Fudge? You know what today is, right?" Lightning asked. His eyes were puffy and red.

"The anniversary of my accident", I replied. "I'm fine, though. I'm not upset."

"Well you may not be upset, but are you hungry?" Flo wanted to know. "We've got plenty of food here for you, honey."

"Thanks, Flo! I'm starving!"

There really was plenty of food. Flo brought out plates of sausages, bacon, eggs, toast, yoghurt, pancakes and she had prepared lots to drink too: oil, coffee and fruit juice. I had the juice for my drink and to eat, I had a little bit of everything. So did Mater and he and I devoured every last bite as if we hadn't eaten since Thanksgiving. Everyone else took bits of stuff, but they didn't eat much. I was kind of expecting someone to yell at me for how much or how fast I was eating. Normally, someone would tell me, "Nobody's going to take your food away, Fudge. Slow down", or the sarcastic remark of, "You got enough food?" Yet, everyone was silent. I glanced up from a mouthful of bacon to find everyone's eyes fixed on me.

I swallowed my bacon and sighed. "Guys, you're staring", I informed them.

"We are sorry, angel", Luigi sighed. "We do not mean to stare. It is just... You know we love you so much, don't you?"

"Yes. You haven't stopped telling me all morning."

Luigi gave an embarrassed smile. "Why don't you finish your breakfast?" he suggested. "Then brush your teeth and I will help you tidy your hair. We want to get some photos of you."

"Of course you do", I muttered, sliding the last little bit of crust on my toast through some egg yolk on my plate and eating it.

I did everything Luigi said and had to spend the rest of the morning posing in various spots for each member of my family to take at least twenty photos of me.

"Too bad RJ's not here", I commented. "I'm sure he'd love to do this for you."

"Why?" Luigi wondered.

"Well, he's a photographer", I reminded him. "I'm sure he could take photos for you and you could all get copies." And I won't be stuck here all day! I thought, annoyed.

"You should call them later", Luigi told me, angling his camera just right. "They must be worried about you today."

"Not as worried as you are, though", I deadpanned, thinking Luigi worries too much sometimes. Well, nearly all the time.

Luigi frowned as he lowered his camera. For the first time all day, he seemed kind of annoyed at me. "Just promise me you will call them."

"All right. I promise."

Everyone in Radiator Springs was acting kind of weird that day. It was like nobody wanted to go a single minute without hugging me, kissing me, telling me they loved me or even just looking at me. There were lots of tears; none from me, but a lot from other people. None more so than Luigi, Guido and Lightning. It was like Niagara Falls with those three.

"Guys, you don't have to be so upset!" I informed them in the afternoon after waking up from a nap. "Look, I'm fine."

"You don't understand, Fudgie", Luigi sniffled, taking my hand. "You have no idea how scared we were that night! We had the phone call..." He trailed off, crying harder.

Guido took my other hand. "(We went to the hospital and we didn't know if you were going to be okay. We had just heard you had been in an accident and McQueen had to give you CPR.)"

Lightning cried harder too. "That was the worst night of my life, Fudge! I thought I'd killed you!" He could barely speak, so he stopped.

I sighed sympathetically. It had always been hard for him to talk about the accident.

"Come on!" I got to my feet and hobbled around Flo's. "Are we really gonna spend all of today crying? Why don't we do something?"

"Like what?" Lightning wondered.

"I don't know..." I thought about it. "Aren't you gonna do any racing? I mean, the new season starts next month."

"Yeah, I'll start training tomorrow", he replied half-heartedly.

"Why not today?" I wondered.

"Because I don't feel like it today", Lightning answered, sounding quite depressed and kind of annoyed.

"Well, we could still do something fun!" I insisted. "What do people wanna do?'

There was a moment of silence.

"What do you want to do, Fudgie?" Luigi asked finally. "All we want to do is spend the day with you."

I grinned. "We could play a game!" I suggested. "All of us. Together."

"Nothing too active for you, though", Luigi reminded me.

"I know!" My grin expanded. "What about Cards Against Automanity?! I got that for Christmas from RJ! I had fun playing that in the hospital and with him!"

"What is Cards Against Automanity?" everyone wondered.

"I'll show you." I began shuffling the cards.

My family had a lot more fun that I thought they would. In fact, we played the game three times. We all ended up laughing a lot. The only thing is I'm pretty sure my family let me win. I wish they hadn't done that. Until that happened, I thought things were normal. I know I can't expect my life to go back to normal after a horrific accident like that, but I was hoping that there would be moments where it did feel like it was before the accident.

"What do we do now?" Mater wondered once the game was over.

"Where's Fudge Rossi-Topolino?" an unfamiliar voice called out from behind me.

I turned around and saw two humans- a young, short, auburn-haired woman and a tall, dark-skinned man, a little bit older- approaching Flo's. They were both dressed in paramedics' uniforms.

"I am so glad you could come!" Luigi informed them. "We never got the chance to thank you for everything you did for our daughter!"

"Yeah, we've all thanked the doctors and nurses, but not you guys, so thanks!" Lightning added.

The paramedics stopped in front of me and knelt down.

"Fudge", the man began quietly, "I'm Raj and this is Emily. You don't remember us, do you?"

I shook my head.

"No? We didn't think you would. We're the paramedics who came to you on the night of your accident."

"Really? Thanks."

"It was our pleasure", Emily assured me. "We're glad to see you looking a lot better."

We talked to the paramedics for a while before Flo glanced at the clock. "I should probably get dinner started... What does everyone want?"

"Anything but pizza", Lightning muttered, starting to become depressed.

"Why not pizza?" I questioned curiously. I like pizza, but I didn't mind not having it that night; I just wanted to know what was up with Lightning.

"We had pizza last year."

"So?" I couldn't think of why that mattered and last year was kind of vague; it wasn't even a week ago.

"Fudge, c'mere!" Sarge called out.

I stood up and followed Sarge away from the others.

"What do you want for dinner, Fudge?!" Flo called after me.

"Anything. Really."

"What is it?" I asked Sarge when we were alone.

"What McQueen means is that you guys had pizza on the night of your accident", he explained.

"Oh."

"Remember how we talked about McQueen suffering from post traumatic stress?"

I nodded. "Yeah?"

"Well, even little things like that can bother him."

"But I've seen him eat pizza before!" I pointed out. "After the accident."

"I know. And he's gotten back into racing again. He just doesn't feel like doing either one of those things today. Not that he's had to, but he probably wouldn't have wanted to go to an airport today either. You know, because you dropped Francesco off at the airport."

"I had no idea", I murmured softly. "I didn't mean to-"

"I know you didn't", Sarge cut me off. "No one's mad at you. I guess it's just hard for you to understand. You don't remember that night."

"Yeah..."

"Let's head back to Flo's", Sarge suggested. Clearly, he was as uncomfortable as I was. "I think Flo wants to know what you want for dinner."

"I told her I don't mind!" I reminded him. "I'll have anything."

"You know that answer isn't good enough for Flo."

"Touché."

However, that wasn't what anybody was worried about when we arrived at Flo's.

"Come on, Fudge." Lightning grabbed hold of my arm and eased me back into my wheelchair. "I'll take you to get changed."

"Right now?" I asked.

"Yes", Luigi confirmed. "We want you to look nice for dinner. I want you to put on a dress."

"(Put on that blue one I got you for Christmas)", Guido added.

I tried to hide a groan. I hate wearing dresses! Still, I knew it was to make my family happy.

"Okay", I muttered.

"Come on, sweetie." Lightning began pushing me towards Casa Della Tires.

"I can walk", I pointed out to him.

"Yeah, yeah, I... I know", Lightning responded absently.

So, I went home with Lightning and he started helping me get changed.

We were quiet for a moment as he did that. At one point, I was going to protest that I could dress myself, but I didn't.

"Are you okay?" Lightning asked me.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Well, it's the anniversary of the day I ruined your life! I don't understand why you're not more upset."

"I guess because I don't remember the accident", I explained. "If I remembered it, I'd probably be more upset."

Lightning looked up from removing my Ugg boots. "I guess that makes sense..." He stared at the floor as he kept talking, pausing in the task. "You know, I'm so sorry I did this to you."

"I know." I nodded. "You keep telling me."

"That's because I can't put into words how sorry I am! I still have to try, though." He looked back up at me. "You know, I love you, right?"

"That's the other thing you keep telling me", I informed him with a smile.

He chuckled. "I guess I do."

"I love you too."

So, Lightning helped me into the blue dress Guido had gotten me for Christmas. It was a navy blue dress with a sparkly silver sash just above the waist. Lightning and I matched it with a pair of pink tights and silver flats.

"You look beautiful!" he proclaimed when we were done. He kissed my temple.

I smiled. "Thanks!"

"The others are gonna be so happy to see you."

Of course, they were.

"My angel!" Luigi smothered my face in kissed. "You look so beautiful! Oh, I love you so much! You are Luigi's very special girl!"

"(She is Guido's special girl too!)" my other father added, also kissing me repeatedly.

"Thanks!"

"Let me take your picture!" Luigi got his camera out again. So did Guido.

So, I stood there, trying to hide my impatience as my family took about two million more photos of me. I don't think I did a good job of it, but nobody said anything.

"Smile for me, angel!"

I tried to smile; I'm not very good at smiling on cue.

"Think of Jennyfur!" Jennyfur was my new cat's name. You get it? Jenny...fur?

"Think of racing!" Lightning added.

I thought of both of those things and Luigi was satisfied.

"There is Fudgie's beautiful smile!" he announced as the camera clicked once again.

"Come and take a seat, honey!" Flo instructed me when Luigi and Guido were finally done. "We're gonna have a very nice dinner tonight. It's just about ready."

What was this very special dinner for which I got dressed up? Grilled cheese sandwiches and fries! On top of that, we used cookie cutters to make the sandwiches into different shapes. That was something I hadn't done in years.

"Just like when you were a little kid, remember, honey?" Flo quizzed me.

I grinned. "Yeah, I remember!"

The dinner was quite nice and a lot of fun, but I didn't see why I had to get dressed up for it. However, I just went with it; it was for my family, who had had a rough time lately. We talked and laughed, created a whole collection of sandwiches in the shapes of moons, stars, cars and humans. Flo even pulled out the Christmas ones, so we had a few angels, Christmas trees, reindeer and Santas too.

"This here race car looks too good to eat!" Mater commented sadly. He set it down on the plate. "I don't think I kin do it!"

"I can!" I swiped the race car-shaped sandwich and scarfed it down, making everyone laugh.

"Fudge! Phone for you!" Flo called out just as we were finishing up our dessert of chocolate fudge brownies with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream.

"Coming!" I grabbed my crutches and got to my feet, entering the café and picking up the phone. "Hello?"

"Fudge! How are you?" a familiar voice questioned.

"Hi, Sammy! I'm fine!"

I was about to ask how she was when a new voice cut in. "Hey, I'm here too!"

"Hi, RJ!"

"How's it going?"

"Good. What about you?"

"Great. Now I'm back in Thomasville, it feels like I never left."

"How's everyone there?" I wondered, even though I'd never met any of them.

"They're good, actually... Look, the reason we called is because..." Sammy began. "Well, we know today is the anniversary of the accident. We wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Me? I'm fine! Everyone else is more upset than I am."

"Well, I can understand that. They really thought they'd lost you", Sammy pointed out.

I sighed. "I know." I felt like the whole world was telling me that.

"So, what have you been up to today?"

I told them.

I talked to Sammy and RJ for a little while longer, but as soon as we hung up, the Weathers family called. Not only that, but when I finished up a similar conversation with them, Brick Yardley called. Followed by the Rust-Eze brothers. Then Bobby. Then Finn and Holley. By the time, I was done with all of those calls and assuring everyone that I was fine, I was ready for a nap. So, I had one.

I woke up a couple of hours later to the sound of someone sobbing. As I opened my eyes, I saw Lightning only a few feet away from me, shaking with sobs.

"Hey!" I greeted him.

He turned around. "Oh, Fudge!" He enveloped me in a big hug and sobbed harder.

I hugged him back. "It's all right. I'm right here."

His only response was to stare at the clock on his phone. It read: 9:02.

"Now", he sniffled. "It would've been a few minutes ago when you fell. It was 9:02 when I dialled nine-one-one."

"How do you remember that?" I wondered. "It seems like the kind of thing I'd remember." I'd always been really good at remembering dates and things like that. "I would've thought you'd be a little too worried about other stuff to..."

"Well, I didn't remember it at the time", Lightning admitted. "It's just something I've thought about later. I was so scared. You were unconscious and I was giving you CPR. I thought..." His sobs grew louder. "I am so sorry I did this to you! If I had any idea this was gonna happen, I never would've-"

"It's okay", I assured him gently. "I'm not mad at you."

"I know, but-"

"Don't say anything. It's okay."

I held Lightning as he sobbed and later had to do the same for Guido and Luigi, who were both crying loudly. I didn't know what to do. On one hand, I didn't like my family worrying about me, but at the same time, I could understand it. If I'd almost lost any of my family, I'd be worried about them too.

I remember as I fell asleep that night, still hugging my fathers, all I could think was, Will my life ever be the same?

I decided that the answer was no.