After a long time of struggling, I finally came up with an idea for Fillmore and here it is. It's not great, but I think the idea of this happening is kind of funny, so...

Karaoke Night

1998

Applause rang throughout the café as Flo finished up her song. It was Karaoke Night in Radiator Springs. In the last few decades, things had been a lot more melancholy in the small town. The Interstate had wiped them clean off the map. Then, it seemed as though the town's population was dropping like flies. If they weren't leaving, they were passing away. Five years ago, the last two humans had died. That was a real wakeup call that their town was dying.

Even so, Flo, who fought to keep the town's spirits up, insisted that they still did fun things together. Karaoke Night was one of those occasions.

"All right!" Flo announced. "Who's next?"

"What about Sarge, man?" Fillmore suggested devilishly.

"Yeahhhh...!" everyone exclaimed, eyeing the army Jeep.

"No!" He shook his hood adamantly. "No! We are not doing that!"

Normally, when he said no to something, people would drop it, but this time, that was not the case.

"Come on, man!" Fillmore pressed. "It's just a little fun!"

"That's what I'm afraid of!" Sarge grumbled.

"You can't fight it, man!" Fillmore continued in a singsong voice. "You've managed to worm your way out of every karaoke night for about forty years. Today's the day your number's up!"

"That. Is. Not. Happening!" Sarge insisted.

"Sure it is!"

"Uh… Fillmore?" Sheriff intervened. "Maybe you should drop it. We can't force him to sing."

"It's just that-"

"I will go next!" Luigi volunteered, hoping to prevent an argument.

Just about everyone breathed a sigh of relief at this suggestion.

Even so, that wasn't enough to get Fillmore to drop it.

"You need to loosen up, man!" Fillmore insisted as Luigi sang. "What's the big deal? It's just singin'!"

"You've known me for nearly forty years", Sarge reminded him. "So, you really ought to know by now that I don't sing!"

"I do", the hippie van assured him. "I just don't understand why."

Sarge hesitated. "Well, I've never told anyone this, but…" He trailed off, evidently unsure about whether or not he should tell Fillmore.

"But…" Fillmore prompted.

Sarge sighed, slamming down the drink he had. "When I was about twelve, there was a karaoke night in my hometown. My friends and I decided to go, just for fun." He paused.

"And? What happened?" his best friend wanted to know.

"I wasn't planning on singing, but my friends encouraged me into it and I thought, What the hell? What's the worst that can happen? So, I got on the stage and I was so nervous. There seemed to be a lot more people in the crowd when I was on stage. When the music started, I couldn't make a sound."

"That's rough!" Fillmore commented sympathetically.

Sarge scoffed. "That wasn't even the worst part! Finally, all I could get out was this pathetic, high-pitched squeak. Everyone laughed. And then I was booed offstage."

"That's rough!" Fillmore repeated.

Sarge gave him a Look.

"Still not the worst part?" Fillmore guessed.

"Nope", Sarge confirmed. "Everyone in town thought it was hilarious and couldn't stop talking about it. So, eventually my dad found out."

"Oh." Fillmore had heard a lot about his best friend's father. The sky-high standards he held for his son. How ridiculously strict he was. How Sarge wasn't even allowed to be a kid.

"I got a pretty bad beating for being such a sissy! I haven't even tried to sing since then."

"That's pretty horrible, man!" the hippie van remarked, still conveying sympathy. "I'm sorry that happened to you."

"It didn't!" Sarge snapped. "I made that up! I just don't know what you want me to say! I don't sing!"

Fillmore sighed. He had moved to Radiator Springs in the early sixties because he'd heard about it from Ramone (an old friend of his, he knew from California). It sounded like the perfect place to be "at one with nature". It was perfectly obvious that Sarge was far from thrilled to have a hippie for his neighbour. However, as much as Sarge hated to admit it, a friendship had blossomed between the two of them. It wasn't often that Sarge opened up to him, but he did enjoy the moments that he did. He just wished the Jeep wasn't afraid to have fun once in a while.

The hippie van smiled to himself. There was one way to get Sarge to loosen up. It was risky and it was so unlike him, but it had to be done. For Sarge's sanity and his. When nobody was looking, Fillmore grabbed a drink, identical to the one Sarge had, and opened it. He swiped the almost-empty bottle and replaced it with the full one. He was practically giddy with excitement as he watched Sarge take a swig.

You'll thank me later! he thought to himself.

The night wore on. The others took second and third turns on the mike. However, as Fillmore continued to push Sarge, not only did he still refuse, he continued to grow more agitated.

"For the last time, I don't sing!" he snapped.

So, Fillmore kept slipping him more drinks. A couple of times, when nobody was looking, Fillmore would replace almost-empty bottles with full ones. Every now and then, however, he would offer to get the Jeep another drink, who thought he'd had a lot less to drink than he'd really had.

"Sure. Thanks, hippie", Sarge would reply, relieved that his best friend's mind seemed to be off the idea of him singing. He never noticed what he was really up to.

However, Ramone did.

"You really think this'll work?" the Lowrider questioned, grinning devilishly as he watched Sarge take a swig of another new drink. He wanted to see this almost as much as Fillmore.

The hippie van wore an identical grin as he shrugged. "Only one way to find out, man."

Ramone laughed and shook his hood. "I wouldn't wanna be you when Sarge finds out what you're doin'?"

Fillmore laughed too. "He won't!"

So, Fillmore and Ramone watched with more than a little amusement as Sarge downed more and more alcohol and became more and more intoxicated. They did that for almost an hour before things started to happen...

"All right!" Flo called out once more after Guido and Luigi finished another song in Italian (which the others didn't enjoy quite as much because they didn't understand the words and besides, karaoke was more fun when people knew the songs). "Who's next?"

"Oh, what the hell?!" Sarge shouted. "I'll do it!"

"All right!" everyone cheered. "Go, Sarge!"

"What made you change your mind?" Sheriff wondered. Though, he got his answer when the Jeep kind of staggered towards the microphone. Then he saw the mountain of empty bottles. How much had he had to drink?

"Hold on a sec, man!" Ramone shouted. He bolted home and returned about a minute later with a video camera. "This may never happen again, so I wanna get filmed evidence!"

"What do you wanna sing, honey?" Flo wanted to know.

"Anything! Gimme anything!" Sarge slurred drunkenly.

"I know what song'll be perfect for you, man!" Fillmore piped up, selecting "I Will Survive."

Sarge looked around, confused, when the music started playing, as if he wasn't sure where it was coming from. Then, when the time came to sing, he didn't hesitate to belt out the lyrics. He was god-awful! Nobody knew whether that was because of the alcohol or because he just couldn't sing, but there was no denying the fact that listening to a human's nails on a chalkboard would be a million times better than this. They all cringed, but laughed hysterically as Sarge tried to hit the high notes, but failed miserably.

"Was this what you were expecting?" Ramone hissed to Fillmore at one point.

"No", he admitted, "but it's good to see him finally loosenin' up!"

"Maybe, but I don't know how much more of this I can take!"

After what felt like an eternity, the song ended and, while everyone applauded politely, they were all relieved that it was over (and relieved that none of them had to face the pressure of being the worst performer that night!).

"Thank you, Sarge!" Flo called out. "Now, who wants to-"

"No, no, no, nooooo!" Sarge cut her off. "I'm not finished yet!"

Collective groans came from the audience.

"Come on! You all wanted me to sing and now, I'm singing!" he reminded them. "I need another song! Anything!"

Fillmore grinned at Ramone. "You wanna choose?"

"Sure!" Ramone ended up selecting a new song: "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith.

"Maybe next time, we should choose a song without so many high notes!" Ramone remarked to Fillmore as Sarge stated up again. He was beginning to regret his song choice.

"Hopefully, there won't be a next time, man", Fillmore responded.

Unfortunately, he was wrong. Sarge insisted on doing just about every song on the karaoke machine. He even gave the Italian songs a shot, but most of it came out as pure gibberish. Luigi and Guido were most offended, hearing their native language being butchered so disrespectfully.

Half the residents were cringing as this drunken display went on. The other half were cringing and laughing at the same time. Obviously, Fillmore and Ramone fell into the latter category.

"We are horrible people!" Ramone laughed as he aimed the video camera closer to Sarge.

"Hey, he needed this man!" Fillmore countered. "We did him a favour!"

Finally, after Sarge had been singing for nearly two hours, his concert came to an abrupt end. He'd been singing another Italian song (or, at least, trying to!) and tried to hit the impossibly high notes. However, it seemed as though it was finally too much for him. His voice seemed to die out as the note dragged on. It just kept fading away until Sarge's eyes rolled back and he toppled over.

Doc and Sheriff rushed forward to the aid of the passed-out Jeep. Everyone else watched, horrified, but Fillmore and Ramone couldn't help letting out a few snickers. This was not at all what they'd been expecting to happen. And they'd gotten exactly what they wanted.

Sheriff gave the two of them a stern glare. "You two had somethin' to do with this, didn't you?"

They were quick to stop laughing after that. Ramone was also quick to stop filming.

"We didn't mean any harm, man!" Fillmore tried to justify his actions. "We just wanted to get him to loosen up!"

"Somethin' that could have misfired badly", Sheriff pointed out. "I ain't gonna take any action, but Sarge probably won't be so lenient."

Boy, did they know it!

Sarge groaned as his eyes fluttered open. The world seemed to be spinning. In fact, it took him far too long to recognise where he was as his home. He had no idea what had happened the night before. When did he come home? What had happened?

"Mornin'!"

Sarge jumped at the sound of the sudden voice. There was Fillmore, casually sipping herbal tea.

"Fillmore?" he asked in surprise. "How… How long have you been here?"

"All night, man", he responded. "Well, I went home this mornin' to get this", he held up the herbal tea, "and then, I came back. You were real wasted, man."

"Ya think?!" Sarge groaned. "What did I do last night? Please tell me I didn't do anything embarrassing!"

Fillmore hid a smile. "No."

"Well." Sarge sighed. "I guess we better get over to Flo's. I need some coffee."

The first thing Sarge noticed when he got to Flo's was that everyone was trying to hide a smile or choke back their laughter when they saw him.

"What's so funny?!" he kept demanding.

That was enough to get the others to be quiet. "Nothing!" they lied.

"Don't you think you should tell him?" Sheriff whispered to Ramone.

"No way!" The Lowrider shook his hood and looked at him as if to say, Are you crazy? "He'd kill us!"

"Don't worry! You will survive!"

Those words made Ramone burst out laughing.

"What?!" Sarge demanded.

"I think you better show him the video", Flo informed her husband.

"Video?" Sarge echoed, puzzled. "What video?"

Reluctantly, Ramone got the video camera and showed Sarge the video, counting down the seconds left of his life.

Needless to say, Sarge was furious. "How did this happen?! I couldn't have had enough to drink to do this!"

"Uh…" Ramone began awkwardly. "Fillmore and I kind of got you drunk, so you would sing…"

"You did what?!" Sarge snapped incredulously.

"Come on, man!" Fillmore tried to defend himself. "If you think about it, it's kind of funny!"

Sarge closed in on the hippie van and Lowrider. "You won't be laughing when I'm through with the two of you!" he threatened.

"Hey!" Fillmore shouted. "I don't believe in violence!"

"Well, I do!"

Ramone and Fillmore took off. Nobody dared to follow as Sarge chased after them.

"Well, that was interesting", Doc commented.

"I don't think we're going to have another karaoke night like that ever again!" Flo agreed.

2009

Sarge gave Fillmore an unimpressed look. "That's your story?" he asked.

Fillmore shrugged and grinned. "One of my favourite stories, man. I thought that's what we were doin'!"

"You gotta admit, it's funny!" Ramone chimed in.

"I kind of wished I could've seen that!" Lightning remarked with a laugh.

Ramone leaned over and whispered, "Don't tell Sarge, but I still got the footage! I had to hide it in a safe place!"

Lightning grinned. "Let's watch it later!"

Next up is the Christmas special.

In the meantime, please review.