Chapter 36. - Centro Ecological Sian Ka'an -

After dinner: Sally and Lightning returned to the bungalow and had a sunset swim in the ocean, which lead to another round of sex on the beach. Lightning once again had sand in his brace. Sally helped him to the poolside shower where she took his brace off and rinsed all the sand off.

"As much as we enjoy it, I think we need to cut down on the beach sex." Sally said "I can't be cleaning out your brace every day."

"I think you're right." Lightning said before wincing in pain "But look on the bright side, we live on the edge of a desert. Whenever we want 'sex on the beach' we can go find a secluded spot in the desert."

"It's not the same." Sally said "It'll be hot and dry."

"Well... how about I fly us to a beach somewhere." Lightning suggested "You should know some great beaches in LA."

"I do." Sally said "But most of the beaches in LA are public. The last thing I want to do is get arrested for having sex in public."

"I don't know." Lightning said playfully "Kinda sounds like fun."

"You're such a kinky pervert." Sally laughed "I love you."

"Is breá liom tú ró. (I love you too.)" Lightning said as he kissed her "Let me go get something to drink. We can sit and watch the stars come out."

As Lightning headed back to the bungalow, Sally sighed happily. Moments later: Lightning returned. He opened a bottle of wine and pored them something to drink. They sat together on the beach and watched the shooting stars streak across the sky before turning in for the night.

Next morning: Sally and Lightning got up early, they had another adventure planned. This time they will enjoy a privately guided tour of Centro Ecologico Sian Ka'an. They had a quick breakfast and Adolfo took them to the center. Their guide was there to meet them.

"Sian Ka'an is translated from Mayan as where the 'sky is born' or 'gift from the sky.' The reserve is thought to have been inhabited in the pre-Classic and Classic periods as part of the chieftainships of Cohuah and Uaymil. There are twenty-three known archeological sites inside the reserve. Sian Ka'an is one of Mexico's largest protected areas. Discoveries of ceramic pieces and other artifacts have been dated up to 2,300 years old. The northernmost section of Sian Ka'an contains what is thought to be an ancient trade route through lagoons and mangrove channels between the cities of Tulum and Muyil. Parts of what is now the Reserve were once areas of chicle and trade through the middle of the twentieth century, and the fishing industry is still one of the most important economic activities of the Reserve's population." The guide said "Common species include spiny lobster, tarpon, grouper, permit, nurse shark, hammerhead, black tipped shark, and snapper. The diversity of life in Sian Ka'an is exceptional. The tropical forests are home to charismatic mammals such as Jaguar, Puma, Ocelot and Central American Tapir. About a third of the property is comprised of highly diverse and mangrove communities. Hundreds of forested islands, locally known as 'Petenes', emerge from the flooded marshes. A geological, biological and cultural particularity is the 'cenotes', deep natural sinkholes harboring all kinds of fascinating life forms."

Sally and Lightning boarded a boat called a 'ponga' with a captain and a guide. They traversed the lagoon and passed small Mayan ruins. The trip continued south along the costal peninsula to the lagoon of San Miguel and Bird Island. Sally and Lightning saw various bird species: Spoonbills, Night Herons, Boat Billed Herons, Tri-Colored Herons, Frigates, White Ibis, Little Blue Herons, Green Herons, Pelicans, and Egrets. Several hours later: The captain directed the boat back to the dock where Sally and Lightning disembarked and returned to the education center. They enjoyed a delicious dinner prepared by the restaurant, inspired by local cuisine. As the sun set over the lagoon, they enjoyed the peaceful and inspiring beauty of the reserve. It was late when Sally and Lightning returned to the estate.

The next morning: Lightning and Sally were still asleep when Sally's phone started ringing.

"Good morning, Mrs. McQueen." Manuel's voice came from the phone "I'm sorry to wake you, but something important has come up and I need to talk to you and Mr. McQueen as soon as possible."

Sally looked over and Lightning was still asleep.

"It must be important or you wouldn't have called." Sally said "What time is it?"

"Eight thirty." Manuel said "Is ten all right with you?"

"That's perfect." Sally said "Could you have our breakfast sent to us now? Lightning should be awake in a few minutes."

"Of corse." Manuel said "I'll get right on it."

Sally hung up the phone and attempted to wake Lightning.

"Hey… Hey." Sally said as she nudged Lightning "It's time to get up."

Lightning stubbornly refused to wake up. Sally kicked him fairly hard in the rear quarter panel.

"Huh…what…?" Lightning said groggily "Five more minutes Mom."

"Lightning …wake up…Chick is winning the race." Sally whispered in his ear "And he's going to get the Piston Cup."

Lightning bolted awake. "That's not funny." Lightning grumbled as Sally giggled "I should be used to it now, Doc does that to me when I don't get up fast enough."

"I can see why he does it… it works." Sally said as she got off the bed "Get up lazy butt, breakfast will be here soon."

Just then there was a knock at the door. Sally let the staffers in with their breakfast. She heard them saying something about a storm, and it's heading this way. Lightning dragged himself to the main room.

"Manuel called me this morning and said that he has something important to discuss with us." Sally said "I just over heard the room service staff talking about a storm."

Lightning and Sally sat down to breakfast, hoping that everything was going to be ok.

Promptly at ten am: There was a knock at the door.

"You want to get that Light." Sally said "It's probably Manuel."

Lightning answered it, as predicted it was Manuel.

"Come in." Lightning said "We've been expecting you."

"Thank you, Mr. McQueen." Manuel said "I'm sorry to say that this is not a social call."

"Is this about a storm headed this way?" Sally asked and Manuel looked startled "I heard some of the staff members talking about it when they brought us our breakfast."

"Yes. There is a tropical storm developing out in the Atlantic." Manuel said "August, September and October are the peak months for hurricanes. So we are at the end of the hurricane season."

"Great, what's the chance of a hurricane hitting here?" Lightning asked nervously "And what do we have to do?"

"A hurricane, not likely." Manuel said "There has been only 4 hurricanes making landfall in 41 years."

"That's good to know." Sally said "But if you're taking the time to inform us, it means that you are concerned."

"Yes, the tropical storm has a pretty good chance of hitting the Yucatan Peninsula in the next 2 to 3 days. As of right now, the meteorologists in Mexico and the US are not projecting anything major." Manuel said "However, we're monitoring it ourselves. If anything changes, we'll let you know."

"Will we need to evacuate?" Lightning asked "Do we need to start making plans?"

"If it makes you comfortable, then make evacuation plans. But we have emergency procedures to keep everyone safe." Manuel said "For an example: Your bungalow is exposed to the elements, so we would move you to a room in the estate until the storm passes… go do whatever you have planned for today, the weather will be perfect."

Late in the afternoon: Sally's phone started ringing.

"Hello?" Sally said "This is Sally."

"Hello, daughter!" Riley said happily "How are you?"

"Tá mé go maith. (I am good.)" Sally said in Irish "Cén chaoi a bhfuil tú? (How are you?)" "Feicim go bhfuil Lightning ag múineadh tú roinnt Gaeilge." Riley responded "Táim ceart go leor. (I'm fine.)"

"Uh…" Sally said "I don't…" "It's ok." Riley said "I said I see that Lightning has been teaching you some Irish."

"I've been curious about the language." Sally said "I hope you don't mind."

"No not at all! I'm flattered that you want to learn it. " Riley responded "I've tried calling Lightning's phone but it keeps going right to voice mail."

"His phone must be out of power." Sally said "He always forgets to put it on the charger."

"Sounds like him." Riley said "I hated to call you while you're on your honeymoon, but I just got off the phone with a Mexican customs supervisor."

"Hang on…" Sally's said "Let me get Lightning so he can talk to you too. He's sitting in the hot tub, his axle is a little sore today."

Sally drove out to where Lightning was. "Light, your dad is on the phone." Sally said as she reached him "He wants to talk to us about the issues we had at customs."

She put it on speaker so they both could hear.

"Cén chaoi a bhfuil tú? (How are you?)" Lightning said "I was wondering if we would hear from you."

"I'm fine." Riley said "There is a few things that I wanted to talk to you about. They can't wait until you get back. First of all, Bella is worried sick about you. She said there is a tropical storm heading your way."

"Yes there is." Lightning said "The estate is keeping us informed. The concierge said that the meteorologists think it won't be too bad if it hits."

"Well, I'm taking no chances. I'm going to plan for your evacuation, at least it will pacify your mother."

"Ok, if it makes her happy." Lightning said "Is mom freaking out about the storm?"

"Not yet, but she is definitely worried." Riley said "Brody's first court hearing is in a few days and that is keeping her busy."

"Ok." Lightning said "Is Brody still in jail?"

"Yes, we warned him, we were not going to bail him out if he gets into any more trouble. We also have cut him off from his bank account, so he can't bail himself out. It's something Brody has never done, but we didn't want him to have the ability either." Riley said "I don't know where his wife is."

"Wait… did you say wife?" Lightning asked "Is he married… again?"

"Yes, he has, for the third time." Riley said "I hope it lasts longer than five months this time."

"Oh bloody hell." Lightning said "Since he can't hold a job, did you and mom pay for it?"

"No, we refused; Brody was so upset with us, he didn't invite us to the wedding. A friend went, he said that it was trashy. There was at least two fights at the reception, which was held at a bar." Riley said then he changed the topic of discussion "As I was telling Sally, I just got off the phone with the Mexican customs supervisor. It seems you had some problems."

"Yeah, and I'm not very happy with how Sally was treated." Lightning said "The agent acted like she had just shot the Pope."

"Well… I can happily say that everything has been taken care of. That agent is no longer working for them. I've been in contact with my lawyer and he wants to talk to you when you get back." Riley commented just as his radio crackled to life "Hang on Light… *He answered the radio.* "Yes, that's correct… are you sure?… he's an idiot… ok … I'll be right there... Light, Sally, I'm needed on the set so I'll have to let you go. I'll see you when you get back."

"Bye Dad." Lightning said "We'll call you tomorrow and let you know what we are going to do."

Lightning ended the call.

"Light, where's your phone?" Sally asked "Riley said that he tried calling you and it went straight to voice mail. Meaning it's out of power."

"It's over by the hammock." Lightning said "He's probably right, it was low on power the last time I looked at it."

Sally found his phone and sure enough it was out of power.

"I'm taking your phone and plugging it in." Sally said as she headed back to the bungalow "You need to plug this in every night. I do and I don't have issues."

"Yes, dear." Lightning said rolling his eyes "I'll try to remember."

Next Day: Lightning and Sally's wedding paintjobs, which was temporary to start with, was starting to chip off.

"It's a good thing that we are having a spa day." Lightning said as he picked at Sally's chipping paint "We're starting to look a little ragged."

"Stop picking at that, it's itchy." Sally said as she moved away from him "I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did."

They headed to the spa and had an oceanfront massage. After the massage, they headed to the paint department. Sally went back to her natural color. Lightning thought about his racing paintjob, but Sally said she would love to see him in something different. Lightning chose a deep green paint job with silver accents.

"Wow! I love it!" Sally said when Lightning came out of the paint booth "When I said I would like to see something different, I was not expecting this!"

"Do… do you really like it?" Lightning asked nervously "I never had a green paintjob before."

"Yes, it looks very good on you." Sally said "It brings out your eye color."

A huge wave crashed on the shore.

"The ocean looks a little angry this afternoon." Lightning said as he watched the waves "Is it because of the storm?"

"Yes, it has strengthened. It is now a named storm." The paint booth technician said "There's a chance the storm could swing north. Personally, I'm starting to have doubts."

"What is the storm called?" Lightning asked "I bet it's something cool!"

"Do you really want to know?" The technician asked somewhat nervously "It has nothing to do with you, but it's called Tropical Storm Lightning."

Sally nearly wet herself laughing. Sally and Lightning returned to their bungalow and gave each other a hot wax massage.

Guest 2-

Oh dear! Silly muppet Lightning is causing himself all that pain to his axle.-Haha! I haven't heard that term since my grandmother passed. I miss hearing it.

Very stern Sally is ordering him to keep still otherwise no sexual fun.-Sally had to threaten Lightning with something he loved, or he would have taken her seriously

Good thing Doc's in line to help. Probably enjoying the peace back at home though given how sexual oriented Lightning and Sally are.- Yep, Doc is enjoying "normal" life without constantly worrying about them.

Stressful it can be making international calls.- Tell me about. It was probably the hardest thing I had to learn when I was out showing full time.

Doc's getting some hoods up from Michael, Zoe, Lightning and Sally's beach experience. Give him something to look forward to with Sophia.- Yep. And knowing Doc it will be a whirlwind and fantastic honeymoon.

Lightning and Sally are going all out with their trips. Bar crawling and submarining.- Two of my favorite things... bar hopping anyway!

Aww poor Lightning! Really tempts him diabolically to get involved in racing but he knows better than to behave silly.- I wanted to show that Lightning is growing up, and learning to have some self control.

Sally knows how to relax and take his breath away.- Yes she does. Lighting is sexually motivated, he'll do almost anything to get it... Luckily he has a wife that feels the same way. LOL

Please do a little love scene in the next chapter- I didn't have time to write one, but sex is mentioned in the chapter.

I do not own Cars or any of its characters. PIXAR AND DISNEY CLAIM THAT RIGHT. READING ENJOYMENT ONLY

Please read and review! I need criticism and encouragements! Rated M for language and sex.