Wow! I remember taking a big break here while I was writing this story! Now, I'm doing the same with posting it! Oh, well. On with the show.

Chapter 8- Under the Hud

Smokey led us all to a bar called the Cotter Pin. We ran into a couple of others along the way. The first was Sammy, who seemed genuinely happy to see us and excited to learn that Lightning was still continuing to race. The second was not so nice. A large white goose appeared outside the bar, honking at us violently.

"Whoa! Easy there, Herman!" Smokey shouted. "They're with me!"

Luckily, the goose backed off. I remembered hearing many stories about Herman from Sammy and RJ and even Doc once!

"So, this is Herman", I commented softly, not wanting anybody to know how scared I was.

Now, I don't think I've mentioned this before, but I am terrified of geese! I didn't have much experience with them, but I remembered a traumatic childhood memory from when I went to see geese at the farm. I don't like to talk about it. Once was more than enough.

"Hey!" Smokey called out, entering the bar. Immediately, the whole place fell silent. "Act civilised! We got company!"

I looked around. It was like stepping back in time to the fifties. I liked it. I tried to imagine myself as a famous Piston Cup racer, who'd just killed it on the track and was heading here to relax with my fellow racers, shooting the breeze with all of the Piston Cup legends like-

"Would you look at that?" Lightning's voice pulled me from my fantasy.

I followed his gaze. At the other end of the bar, I could see a group of my sister's friends talking amongst themselves. And when I saw who those friends were- I am not kidding- I actually pulled off my glasses and gave them a good clean with the cloth I had in my glasses case. I had to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me!

They weren't. "Oh, my God, oh, my God!" I found myself going into fangirl mode. I'd seen them before and even met them once, but it was still exciting.

"What?" Cruz questioned.

"Three of the biggest racing legends ever!" Lightning exclaimed. "Junior 'Midnight' Moon. River Scott…"

"Louise 'Barnstormer' Nash!" Cruz jumped in excitedly. "She had thirty-eight wins!"

I nodded just as excitedly. "The First Lady of Racing!" I thought it was great to have such legends here; not just because I'd dreamed of meeting them since I was a little kid, but because chances were they'd gone through what Lightning was going through as well. Maybe they could give him some advice.

So, as excited and nervous as I was, Sammy ushered me over to the table.

"Well, as I live and breathe!" Louise Nash exclaimed. "If it ain't Lightning McQueen!"

Lightning smiled. "Ms. Nash, it's a pleasure to meet-"

Louise interrupted him. "You've had a tough year, haven't ya?"

Lightning tried to speak a couple of times, but River Scott and Junior Moon jumped in too.

"Shouldn't you be running practise laps in Florida by now?" the former wondered.

"They are here to steal our secrets!" Junior added.

"Looking for your lost mojo?" River questioned.

In that moment, Sammy's blunt, no BS attitude made so much sense.

"Wow!" Lightning exclaimed. "You don't mince words around here, do you?"

"Truth is always quicker, kid", Smokey agreed.

"So, that's Lightning McQueen", Louise began. Then she nodded towards Cruz and me. "Who's this?"

"Everyone, this is my long-lost half-sister, Fudge Rossi-Topolino", Sammy introduced me. "You may remember her from the hospital."

I felt my face heat up as I remembered bawling my eyes out at the hospital after my disastrous meeting with my biological- but not real- father. I'd been hoping these racing legends hadn't remembered. Unfortunately, it seemed that I'd hoped in vain.

Luckily, Lightning added, "And my crew chief", which changed the subject.

"Well, it's nice to finally meet you" Louise informed me. "We've heard so much about you." (Even though we had met once before, that was at Sammy's knighting ceremony. She hadn't wanted them to know she was a spy, so she later erased their memories of that.)

I couldn't help the nervous giggles that were escaping from my mouth. "Thanks…"

Then Junior looked at me. "So, you're River's daughter?" At the horrified look on River Scott's face, he added, "I mean, not this River. River Rose."

"I was gonna say!" River laughed in relief. "You know somethin' I don't, Junior?"

"Yeah, I'm River Rose's daughter", I confirmed shyly.

"Wait!" River looked at me in surprise. "You're McQueen's crew chief? How- how old are you?"

"I'm sixteen", I answered proudly.

"May seem a little unorthodox to have a sixteen-year-old as my crew chief", Lightning began, "but she's great at it. She knows a lot about racing."

"Seen it myself", Sammy confirmed. "She does."

"Thanks…" I was starting to get a little embarrassed by what they were saying about me (and I wasn't convinced it was even true), so I turned to the yellow car beside me. "And this is Lightning's trainer and my new best friend, Cruz Ramirez."

Smokey, Junior, River and Louise all gave Cruz a polite, "Nice to meet you."

"New best friend, huh?" Sammy repeated, looking at Cruz with a smirk. "This is the first I've heard of this. It's about time that kid had a best friend."

Cruz smiled. "Yeah… Fudge is great."

After what had transpired between us the night before, I wasn't so sure about that.

I was relieved when the lies about how great I was stopped and Sammy went off to get us all drinks. Cruz and I went with her.

"Hey, guys!" Sammy called out to my fathers, who were just entering the bar.

"Buona sera, Signorina Sammy!" they chorused affably.

"How did you know we were here?" I wondered.

Sammy shrugged. "I kinda told them where to go. I ran into them and Mack before I even saw you. Told them to check themselves, McQueen and Cruz in at the motel down the street and head on over here. And you", Sammy added, eyeing me, "are stayin' with me."

I smiled. "Great!"

"You are getting drinks?" Luigi questioned.

Sammy nodded. "Yeah. Don't worry. Fudge is having a Coke."

"Make it a diet Coke", Luigi instructed her.

I tried to hide my smile with a groan. My fathers would never change.

"I'm guessing the training's gone to s**ts?" Sammy quizzed us when we were alone.

"Yeah", I admitted, downcast.

Cruz and I told Sammy the whole story of what had happened so far. She laughed when she heard of Lightning's disastrous attempt on the simulator and frowned when we told her the deal Lightning had made with Sterling.

"I don't like the sound of this Sterling guy", she remarked.

"Yeah, Me neither", I agreed.

"He can be kind of a jerk", Cruz added.

Sammy had also laughed at the part about Thunder Hollow.

"It wasn't funny!" I insisted.

"You in a demolition derby? Going up against a School Bus of Death? That's f**king hilarious!"

"I could've been killed!" I blurted out.

At least she was sympathetic when we told her about the fight. "Well, it's great that you all made amends, but you be nice to my sister", she instructed Cruz seriously. "My sister's been screwed over by so many dumb b**ches before. I like you, Ramirez; I don't want you to be another dumb b**ch! Got that, Ramirez?"

Cruz seemed a little nervous and intimidated, but nodded. "Yes, Ma'am."

Sammy smiled. "Good."

We were served with our drinks and started making our way back to the table.

"You heard from Finn and Holley lately?" I asked Sammy.

"Not since last month", she replied, tossing her rainbow hair over her shoulder. "They were about to head off on a mission in Zimbabwe… What about you?"

I tried to see if there was any sadness in Sammy's tone or face. I wondered if she missed CHROME or regretted leaving. "Yeah… Mater and I went to London for a weekend last month. We were feeling pretty down about Lightning, so they invited us to visit."

Sammy nodded. "Well, I told you to visit if you ever needed help and here you are. Come on. Let's get back to the others and listen to some stories about Hud."

I grinned. "Sounds like a plan!" I was eager to hear more about what the Fabulous Hudson Hornet got up to in his rookie days.

Then we spent a large portion of the night listening to all kinds of stories about the Fabulous Hudson Hornet, only they referred to him as Hud. It was so weird. I can't imagine him entering the Cotter Pin after a race and everyone greeting him with something like, "Hey, what's up, Hud?" It just doesn't sound like the Doc I knew. It was almost as if they were talking about someone else.

Some of the stories I heard that night were ones I already knew, whether it be from Sammy secondhand, Doc or the Internet. Still, it was nice to hear them again and it was very cool to hear them from the racers themselves. Plus, there were stories I'd never heard before. I never knew Louise Nash had had- as River put it- serious eyes for Hud. I never knew she had had to steal her number to race just because the officials didn't want a woman on the track. I never knew that Doc had started calling himself the Fabulous Hudson Hornet before he even started racing.

"Geez, Doc!" I joked. "Narcissistic, much?"

Everyone laughed.

"Oh, did we ever ride him on that!" Louise commented.

"Not for long", Junior added.

"Hud was the fastest racer this side of the Mississippi!" River proclaimed.

"Until he wasn't", Smokey spoke up.

"What?" Lightning asked in confusion.

"Everything changed when the rookie showed up", Smokey began another story.

"You're gonna love this!" Sammy promised us.

I made myself even more comfortable, sensing another story and this one sounded like it could help us with our problem.

Smokey described a typical race at the Thomasville dirt track in the fifties. I closed my eyes and I could easily envision it.

"Took Hud all of no time to work his way through the best racers in both Carolinas", Smokey explained. "Past River, past Lou, even Junior. But there was still the rookie to deal with. Pretty soon, they were side by side and the rookie wasn't having it. He tried slamming him into the wall. But Hud never touched any wall unless he wanted to."

"What did he do?" Lightning questioned eagerly.

Smokey let out a laugh. "What do you think he did? He pushed off the wall and flipped over the rookie. Shot past him and won first place." He shook his hood. "I don't think I'd ever been more proud of him. He knew if he couldn't outrace the rookie, he'd have to outthink him. That rookie never saw anything like that before."

"Doc did that?!" Cruz exclaimed in disbelief.

"Whoa!" Lightning added, equally amazed. "Are you kidding?!"

"Couldn't wipe the smile off his face for a week after that!" Louise confirmed.

"It would've been pretty awesome to see!" Sammy declared.

"Yeah… Well, that was back when he was cool!" I giggled.

Cruz pretended to be shocked. "You don't think Doc Hudson's cool?"

"Nope." I giggled some more.

Still, I got a little emotional, thinking about Doc, thinking about all the good times he must've had in this very bar. I wondered if he'd enjoyed his time with me- with everyone in Radiator Springs- anywhere near as much. Not a minute goes by where I don't miss him.

"You really miss him, don't you?" Sammy guessed, putting her arm around me.

"Yeah", I sighed sadly.

Smokey nodded sympathetically. "We all miss him. It hurt us all so bad when he left, that son of a…" He said some words I'm not going to repeat. "Now, he's left this whole Earth." He shook his hood in disbelief. "Never thought I'd outlive him. We all miss him", he repeated.

"Me too…" a dejected Lightning put in. "I wish I could've seen him like that."

Smokey looked his way curiously. "Like what?"

"So happy", Lightning clarified.

I didn't know at the time what it was about those words, but Smokey decided it was time for him and Lightning to talk. So, he led my brother out of the bar.

The second they were gone, I looked at the others with a devilish grin. "So, now that Smokey's gone, do you guys have any stories about him?" I wondered.

"What about the time he lost it at Hud for damagin' his engine right before the race while he was tryin' to impress the ladies?" River suggested.

"Come on!" Junior groaned. "You tell that story every night!"

"Well, you've got my attention now", I informed them. "What happened?"

We talked and laughed a little while longer before River asked Cruz, "So, you a racer too?"

"Oh, no", Cruz answered. "I'm just a trainer."

"You sure you're not a racer?" Sammy questioned. "You nailed it on the track earlier!"

Cruz let out a nervous laugh and shook her hood. "I could never be a racer." She told my sister and the racing legends the story she'd told Lightning and me the previous night, about how she didn't think she belonged and just left the race.

In turn, I told them about how I'd always dreamed of being a racer, but my accident cut those dreams short.

"It's not that I don't want to race because I love it, but after the accident, I am kind of scared", I admitted. "It doesn't matter, anyway", I realised. "I'm not allowed to race after that… I wish I had your confidence", I told Louise, River and Junior.

The three of them had been listening to us silently, but that was when River spoke up. "If you two really wanna race, you shouldn't let anything stand in your way. You think we did? Did you not hear what Lou did to race?"

He was right. I felt rather silly then. Still... "Guess you guys are just more confident and badass than we are."

"You know, I was so scared when I started... my career", Sammy piped up. "But I had the help of an incredible mentor and soon, I found I loved it and I was good at it."

She got this wistful smile on her face that she always had whenever she thought or talked about her old mentor, Rod "Torque" Redline. Obviously, I'd never met him, but Sammy had told me what had happened and it sounded awful!

"What do you do?" Cruz wanted to know and I was glad she'd asked that question.

"Well, I used to be in insurance", she lied (that was her cover story for being a spy), "but I recently gave that up. Now, I'm training to be a mechanic." She glanced down at her outfit, a mechanic's jumpsuit. "As you can see."

I turned to Cruz. "Maybe we should try to do something. You know, if I ever get the chance..."

"Why should you wait for your chance?" Louise wondered. "If you want it, you do it!"

I felt silly again. "You're right..." I agreed nervously. Like I said, I was still a bit nervous about racing again (should I have an opportunity), but I would still want to do it. I thought about that. I never really broke the rules in fear of getting into trouble. I've always been sensitive and cared what others think of me. So, I followed all the rules and played it safe and where was I now? Okay. My life is pretty good (at least, it was until Jackson Storm came along), but is that all I wanted it to be? Pretty good isn't great. Pretty good isn't amazing... But what about Lightning? If I broke the rules now, it would hurt him. How could I do that now?

"Come on!" Sammy came over and put her arm around me. "You're a very talented rider, Fudgsicle", she informed me. "Who cares what McQueen says?"

"Well, he does have a good reason", I reminded her. I didn't like it, of course, but I could at least see where he was coming from.

"He's still gonna race after his crash!" Sammy pointed out. Well, that was true. "And you, Cruz. Granted I haven't seen you race that much, but you seemed pretty good."

Cruz looked uncertain and amazed at the same time. "You really think so?"

Sammy nodded seriously. "Yep. And you seem passionate about racing. Both of you are. If either of you get a chance to prove yourselves, take it."

There was a long pause after that as Cruz and I let those words sink in.

"So, Fudge", Sammy began, "why don't you grab your stuff from the trailer and take it over to my place?"

"Where is your place?" I wondered.

"Come back here", Sammy told me. "I'll show you."

So, I went and grabbed my stuff from the trailer, putting on my denim jacket when I found it. Before I could get back to the Cotter Pin, I found Smokey by himself.

"Where's Lightning?" I wondered.

"He's just takin' some time alone", Smokey explained. "I showed him all the letters and photos Hud sent me. I don't think he realised just how important he was to Hud."

After getting back to the Cotter Pin and, after being directed to Sammy's house, I dropped my stuff off in RJ's old room. (It looked nice. The walls were pale blue, which matched the Star Wars curtains and bedsheets. Framed photos of Thomasville, London and China covered the place and I knew they were photos he'd taken himself and there were a couple of Star Wars, Star Trek and Doctor Who posters on the walls as well. Next, I raced back to where Smokey was waiting for Lightning.

We waited in silence for a long time before Lightning emerged from Smokey's garage.

"Racing wasn't the best part of Doc's life!" he blurted out in disbelief. "I was! He never told me! How come he never told me?"

"I'm sure he did. He's told you in a million different ways", I pointed out. I didn't bother adding that it wasn't like Doc to talk about his emotions.

Tears came to Lightning's eyes and I hugged him as he cried. Normally, I feel uncomfortable when others are crying; I never really know what I'm supposed to do, but this time, I was trying not to cry myself. I missed Doc too.

After a while, my brother's sobs slowed down and I let him go.

"Hud saw somethin' in you", Smokey began, making me jump (I'd forgotten he was there!), "that you don't even see in yourself. Are you ready to go find it?"

Lightning looked to Smokey with dry eyes and a heart of determination. "Yes, sir."

The three of us, plus Cruz, who'd come to find me, made our way down to the track and Smokey got Lightning going. As usual, Cruz was awestruck, watching him. I was amazed too; I always was by his speed, skill and determination.

I guess Smokey wasn't as impressed as we were, though, because he called out, "All right, all right! Bring it back!"

So, Lightning did.

"Lesson one", Smokey began. "You're old. Accept it."

"I told him that!" Cruz was proud to inform Smokey.

"He's probably losing his hearing", Smokey responded.

"He says you're old and los-" Cruz spoke very loudly.

"I heard him", Lightning interrupted in a perfect deadpan.

"You'll never be as fast as Storm", Smokey explained, "but you can be smarter than him."

"Okay. What do I do?" Lightning wondered.

"They said you were in a demolition derby", Smokey began, driving around Lightning.

"Yeah! It was terrible!" he insisted. "And I almost-"

"You sure?" Smokey questioned. "'Cause there's not a scratch on you."

He was right. Lightning and Cruz had made it through the entire hellish incident completely unharmed.

"Funny what a racer can do when he's not overthinking things", Smokey went on.

"Wait. So, you want me to be smarter, but also think less?" Lightning quizzed Smokey.

"That's right", he confirmed. "I'll show you what I mean in the morning. Why don't you get some rest? We got a lot of work to do tomorrow."

So, we all went our separate ways to get some rest. If you remember anything from my accident and how I acted after it, I don't think I need to tell you that I slept very well that night. The only problem was when I received a very rude awakening. First, I heard a honking noise and the flapping of wings. I ignored it, thinking it was part of my dream. Then I got this uneasy feeling like someone was watching me. I opened my eyes to find Herman honking and flapping his wings at me. I panicked because, as you now know, I am scared of geese. I jumped when I saw him and fell right out of bed.

Still, Herman was right in my face, honking.

"Help! He can sense my fear!" the human girl yelled.

Sammy came to my aid.

"Herman! At least let my sister wake up before you say hello!" she told the goose with a laugh as she picked him up. "Sorry about that", she apologised to me. "Herman can be a little suspicious of strangers. He just cares about Thomasville and its people, that's all. Give it a couple more days and he'll realise you're a friend."

Sammy helped me up to my feet. "That's okay. Geese just freak me out", I clarified, not finding the incident quite as funny as she did. "They always have... What's he doing here?"

"He just peruses the town", Sammy informed me. "Thomasville is a place where you can keep your doors open at night, so he occasionally shows up in people's homes."

"I could've been killed, I hope you know", I deadpanned.

"Oh, no!" Sammy protested. "Herman is just precious! He wouldn't kill anyone, would you, Herman?" She petted the goose and laughed. "But if it bothers you that much, I'll make sure to keep the door locked tonight." She handed me a green jumpsuit. "Well, we better get dressed. We got a busy day ahead of us."

We did. And once I was dressed in my jumpsuit (which was about sixty times too big and I had to put on shorts and a T-shirt on underneath in fear of it falling down), I was eager to get started!

When we left the house, the first thing I saw was Herman. He approached me and started checking out my feet.

"What's he doing?" I wondered as he started pulling at my shoes.

"He likes to untie shoes!" Sammy explained with a laugh.

I made a face and stuffed my shoelace inside my shoe.

"Fudge, what are you doing?" Sammy asked me. "Tie it up."

"I don't know how!" I admitted, embarrassed.

"What do you mean you never learned how to tie your shoes?" Sammy groaned, kneeling down to take care of it.

"Thanks!" I grinned gratefully as we headed off to join the others for breakfast.

"Hi, Lightning!" I greeted him.

"Hey, Fudge-O!" he responded.

"What's up?" I wanted to know.

"Jackson Storm clocked two hundred and fourteen miles an hour!" Lightning informed me.

"Uh-oh!" I muttered anxiously. This didn't look good for Lightning, but on the bright side, I was so sure Smokey and the others would be able to help him.

"Okay. Maybe I'm not gonna be faster than Storm like Smokey said", Lightning went on, "but I still need to get smarter than him."

"All right", Smokey boomed as we were finishing up breakfast, "we got one thing we need to do before we get started."

"What?" Lightning wondered.

"Actually… It's not you. It's her." Smokey nodded at Cruz.

"Me?!" Cruz gasped.

"I got somethin' in mind for you." The pickup truck looked at the rest of us. "I'm gonna need a picture of Jackson Storm. Can you get one off the Internet?"

"On it!" I searched up a photo of Storm on my phone.

"And I'm gonna need some mechanics and some duct tape!" Smokey added.

"What do you need those for?!" Cruz gawked.

"You'll see."

Luigi, Guido, Sammy and I got Cruz ready for whatever it was Smokey wanted to do. We used the duct tape to recreate the decals Storm sported. After we'd done that and removed her muffler, she didn't look half bad.

"Who's the racer?" Sammy smiled at the anxious Cruz.

"You wanna beat Storm, you need someone to stand in for him", Smokey explained to Lightning. "Like a sparring partner."

"I'm not so sure!" Cruz was clearly panicking a little. "Not a racer! Just a trainer!"

"You can do this, Cruz!" I tried to make her feel more at ease. "Like how you learned to drift, remember?"

"And remember what we talked about last night", Louise reminded her.

"I really don't think-" Cruz protested.

"Go ahead and gun it!" Smokey interrupted.

So, Cruz revved her engine. I'll admit, I jumped a little, not expecting the sudden loud noise. Even so, I was impressed. So was everyone else.

Nobody more so than Cruz, it seemed. "Whoa! Yeah!"

"With no muffler, you even sound like Storm!" Smokey commented.

"Oh, you're going down, McQueen!" Cruz vowed. Then she shouted, "Get that arthritis-riddled keister onto the track, so I can put you into the old folks' home against your will!... How was that?"

The others chimed in with responses.

"That'll work." (Lightning.)

"Worked for me." (Louise.)

"I... I'm good." (River.)

"Yep. That'll do." (Junior.)

"Did you hear what she said?" (River again.)

"You didn't show up in Florida for qualifying!" Smokey boomed as Cruz took pole position. I joined him, Sammy, Junior, River, Louise and Herman in the infield. "So, you'll be startin' dead last. I'll give you three laps to catch her!"

"Go through the entire field in three laps?" Lightning repeated incredulously.

I was glad to know I wasn't the only one who was skeptical.

"Do you wanna beat Storm or not?" Smokey quizzed him.

"Yes!" Lightning insisted. "Of course I do!"

"Well, then, go!"

Both Cruz and Lightning revved their engines and shot off, but it was clear we had a problem. Lightning just couldn't keep up with Cruz. She raced across the finish line way ahead of him.

Of course, Smokey was concerned, as was I. "All right! Looks like we got some work to do!"

Not sure when I'll have the next chapter up. Like I said, this story has gone on the backburner for a while, but I've still got several more chapters prepared.

Yes, Herman likes to untie shoes. I got the idea from a video I saw of a goose on the Internet. Plus, Fudge can't tie her shoes, just like I can't. I really struggle with that! XD

By the way, in both this story and Driven to Win, I'd found the Legends pretty tough characters to write. I mean, they're blunt and will tell you what you need to hear, even if you don't want to hear it, but they're not heartless, unsympathetic assholes. So, yeah. It was difficult finding a good balance and not making them OOC. They're really hard.

In the meantime, please keep those reviews a-coming! Thanks! :)