Weird idea, I know, but I felt like it was something that happens to every child and I wondered how the residents of Radiator Springs would handle it. So, here it is. Enjoy. :)

Ducky

"Fudgie?" Luigi called. "Are you ready to go?"

"Wait! I almost forgot!" three-year-old Fudge cried, making a beeline for the couch and grabbing a stuffed animal. "Ducky come too!"

Luigi smiled. He and Guido had given Fudge Ducky when she was a baby. She couldn't sleep without him and they had to pry him off her with plenty of tears whenever they had to wash him. She took Ducky with her everywhere, including Flo's, which was where they were going now.

"Okay, Ducky is more than welcome to come", Luigi informed his daughter, to which she beamed. He helped her onto her leash as he kept talking. "But I think everyone else is waiting for us."

It turned out that they were. For the past couple of years, Luigi and Guido had always been the last ones to arrive at Flo's in the morning. That was just because they had to get their child ready as well as themselves, which was not always an easy task. Sometimes, Fudge refused to cooperate (usually, with her diaper change). Not that it really mattered. With no customers or business, it wasn't as if they were on a schedule or anything.

When the residents of Casa Della Tires got there, Ramone was in the middle of describing a movie he'd seen on TV the night before to anybody who would listen. (It must have been a horror movie, based on the way poor Red was shaking!) Meanwhile, Fillmore was once again trying and failing to convince Sarge of the benefits of meditation.

"Buon giorno!" both Italians greeted their friends warmly.

All conversation came to a temporary halt as everyone looked up.

"Buon giorno!" they replied. Now, everyone was at the café. Their group of nine had become a group of twelve. Thirteen, including Ducky.

Flo scooped Fudge up right away and gave her a big kiss as she did every morning. "Mornin', honey! How are you today?"

"Good!" the three-year-old answered, loving the attention. "Ducky here too!"

"Morning, Ducky!" everyone chorused, amid smiles and chuckles.

"Are you and Ducky ready for breakfast?" Flo asked Fudge.

"Yeah!" She grinned.

"What is the magic word?" Luigi prompted her in a singsong voice.

"Peas?"

Flo smiled and went back to the kitchen. Pretty soon, both Fudge and Ducky were enjoying waffles. The entire town melted at the adorable sight in front of them.

"I've never seen a duck eating waffles before", Sheriff commented.

"Well, Ducky does!" Fudge insisted indignantly.

"So, what do you and Ducky have planned for today?" Red wanted to know.

"We're playing hide-and-seek!" Fudge announced. "Do you wanna play with us?" The invitation was extended to all of them.

Most everyone did. Sheriff had to patrol the town and Doc was going to give Sarge a tune up, but everyone else agreed to play.

It was a fun morning filled with laughter. Although, Fudge had a favourite hiding place that she used every time (inside a stack of tyres). So, the others had to pretend they didn't know where she was.

"Well, honey", Flo announced finally, "I think we've got time for one last game. Then we'll have some lunch."

"Can I look this time?" the three-year-old requested. "Please? I never get to look! I want to look!"

Nobody had any objection to that, but Luigi did want someone to go with her and hold onto her leash, so she wasn't going around town by herself. Red wound up with that job, but he'd leave the seeking to her. Before she went off to count, she gave Ducky to Luigi.

"Ducky wants to hide!"

Her father smiled. "Okay."

So, Fudge counted. She was only three, so she didn't know how to count to a hundred just yet. She could count to twenty, though (something she would often show off to the rest of her family every morning). So, she did that before yelling, "Ready or not, here I come!"

So, Fudge took off. Red smiled as he watched her run on her tiny little legs. It was quite cute. The little girl was quick to find Mater hiding behind one of the abandoned buildings. Both of her dads were inside another abandoned building near the window. Lizzie had gone home (probably because she forgot about the game). Ramone was behind the Stanley statue. Flo was behind the sign for the drive-in theatre. Fillmore was inside the firehouse. They were trying to go easy on her. She was only three, after all.

Now, there was only one left.

"Where's Ducky?" Fudge wondered.

Luigi took her hand. "Let's look for him."

Fudge looked in a stack of tyres. No Ducky. She looked behind every building in town. No Ducky. She checked the tall grass and the tree in Fillmore's yard. No Ducky.

"I give up!" the little girl announced finally. "Where's Ducky?"

Luigi gave in too. "Okay. I will show you." He led her over to a different stack of tyres to the one she searched.

Fudge peered in. "He's not there!"

The Fiat's eyes widened. "What?" That couldn't be right. He, too, looked into the stack of tyres. Sure enough, there was no Ducky. How had that happened?

He tried not to let his panicked state show. "Ducky is being very silly. I helped him hide and now, he is hiding from me."

Fudge giggled. "Silly Ducky!"

"Well, I am getting hungry", Luigi declared. "I think it is time for lunch."

"But what about Ducky's lunch?" his daughter protested.

"I am sure when Ducky is hungry, he will come out of his hiding place", Luigi assured her.

Fudge seemed to accept that, albeit reluctantly. She was getting pretty hungry herself. So, they all went over to Flo's for lunch.

Once they were all gathered inside, Guido took Fudge inside to wash up. They would always do that before each meal. Not only because she needed to wash her hands before eating, but so the rest of them had a chance to talk without a little kid around. This time, a very urgent conversation took place.

Luigi shook his hood in disbelief. "I don't know what happened. I know I put Ducky in that stack of tyres. I know I did not move him... None of you moved him, did you?" He was almost positive that nobody had; he just wanted to be one hundred per cent sure.

As he expected, everyone shook their hoods.

"What are we going to do?" the Fiat wondered. "Fudge is going to be so upset."

"He might still turn up, honey", Flo reasoned. "For now, let's just pretend that Ducky's still hiding."

"But then what?" Luigi demanded, his voice getting louder and shriller. "If we never find him, Fudge is never going to believe he is still hiding."

There was a moment of silence as everyone considered that.

"I don't know", Flo admitted, "but why don't we just cross that bridge when we get to it?"

Ramone nodded in agreement. "Our daughters lost toys all the time. I don't think we ever had one we didn't find."

"Flo and Ramone are right, man", Fillmore spoke up, full of his usual positivity. "Ducky can still turn up. I mean, he has to be somewhere, right?"

"Right!" everyone agreed in unison.

Despite her family's reassurance, Fudge was a little concerned all throughout lunch. She kept asking things like, "Where could Ducky be?", or, "Do you think he's scared?" It broke their hearts to see the little girl so upset and scared.

Not surprisingly, the second she was done eating, Fudge shouted, "I'm finished! Let's go look for Ducky!"

It was obvious that she didn't want to wait. So, they all finished up their own lunches as quickly as they could and searched the town high and low. Eventually, everyone was out of ideas. And Ducky was still nowhere to be found.

"It's not fair!" Fudge wailed. "We've looked everywhere!"

"Well, we can't have looked everywhere, or else we would've found him", Doc pointed out logically.

Only Fudge was no longer listening. (After all, you can't reason with a three-year-old.) She flung herself down on the ground and started bawling.

"Oh, Fudge!" Luigi exclaimed, scooping her up. "Don't cry!"

"I want Ducky back!"

"I know you do", Luigi assured her. "We will still keep looking. I am sure we will find him."

Fudge sniffled and looked up at her father angrily. "You lost Ducky!" she proclaimed accusingly.

"What?" Luigi blinked, clearly not expecting that response.

"You lost Ducky!" his daughter repeated. "You lost him! You were helping him hide, but YOU LOST HIM! You're stupid!"

"Hey!" Luigi shouted. "Don't you ever talk to me like that! That is very rude!"

"I hate you!" Fudge cried.

Now, that hurt a little bit. Fudge had never said that to Luigi before. For about half a second, he was tempted to tell the child that her mother had abandoned her in his garbage. Of course he didn't do that. There was a time and a place for that and this was neither. Still, he couldn't help but think that if she knew the truth, then maybe she wouldn't have been so quick to say that.

The Fiat took a deep breath, trying to calm down. He knew Fudge didn't mean it. He blamed her outburst on not just missing Ducky, but also the fact that it was naptime. He had a feeling that Fudge wasn't going to have her nap that afternoon. Not without Ducky.

"Fudge", Luigi began in a low voice, sounding calm, but stern, "I am sorry. I did not mean to lose Ducky, but you must never talk to me- or anyone else- like that ever again. Do you understand?"

Cowering, Fudge nodded. She still wasn't used to her Papà talking to her like that, but now that she was three, they'd decided that she was old enough to know right from wrong.

The rest of the day wasn't much fun for anyone. When Fudge wasn't crying, she was sulking. Again, everyone knew it was a combination of missing Ducky and skipping her nap.

Everyone who was free took turns either comforting the girl or going out to look again. Although, both of these tasks were to no avail.

Finally, in the early evening, Luigi sighed. "I think it is about time to take Fudge home."

"Good luck!" Flo whispered, smiling sympathetically and the others echoed this.

Luigi sighed again, scooping his daughter up. "Let's go, Fudgie."

By this point, Fudge had been fine for a couple of hours, but as soon as she was put into bed, she was crying again.

"Ducky must be scared!" she wept. "Where is he?"

"I don't know", Luigi answered honestly. "I am sure Ducky is scared, but you know what?" He waited for Fudge to ask, "What?", but she didn't, so he kept talking. "I am sure that even though he is scared, he is also being very brave... Can you be brave too?"

"No!" Fudge shouted, crying louder.

Both Guido and Luigi had a feeling that it was going to be a long night. Unfortunately, they were right. Fudge kept them up pretty much all night. They tried to calm her down and get her to sleep with stories, songs, cups of water, hugs. Nothing worked.

Eventually, she did manage to fall asleep. Although, her dads believed that it was just from exhaustion. Not that it really mattered. She was finally asleep. There was just one little problem... Guido was still holding her.

"(I am afraid to put her down)", the little forklift whispered to Luigi, still rocking his daughter. "(I don't want to wake her up.)"

"(Here.)" Luigi held out his tyres and Guido passed the sleeping three-year-old to him. "(I will take her for a little while.)"

So, they spent the rest of the night taking turns carrying Fudge around the tyre shop to keep her asleep. Needless to say, neither of them got much sleep that night. Sure, each of them drifted off a couple of times while the other one was carrying Fudge, but it never lasted long.

"WILL YOU TURN THAT DISRESPECTFUL JUNK OFF?!"

"Respect the classics, man! It's Hendrix!"

Luigi let out a moan. To him, that was a reminder of a wasted night, time he could've spent sleeping, so he wouldn't feel like his eyelids weighed a ton. Judging by the look on Guido's face, the forklift was thinking the same thing.

They were pulled out of their thoughts by a light tap on the front door. It took all of what little energy Luigi had left just to call, "Come in!"

The door opened and in came Flo. One look at the two Italians' exhausted faces and she was instantly sympathetic.

"Uh-oh! I feared this might happen."

"Fudge fell asleep around ten o'clock", Luigi whispered, still not wanting to wake her up. "We were up all night, trying to keep her that way."

"Well, I'm here now", Flo pointed out, taking the little girl from him. "I'll take her now and you two go get some sleep."

Ordinarily, both Luigi and Guido hated letting Fudge out of their sight for even one second. This time, however, they were far too tired to protest. So, Flo carried Fudge out of the tyre shop and over to the café.

When she got there, everyone else was having breakfast. Immediately, they, too, could all guess that their Italian friends had had a rough night.

"You know", Ramone began, "I really don't think we're going to find Ducky."

"We still might, man", Fillmore countered.

"Yeah, but I don't think it's very likely", Sarge disagreed.

Right at that moment, Fudge stirred and opened her eyes.

"Did Ducky come back?" she asked immediately.

"Sorry, honey", Flo replied ruefully. "No."

The three-year-old's face fell. Then she looked around and she had another question. "Where's Papà? And Babbo?"

"They're at home, sleeping", Flo explained gently.

"You mean they left me too?" Fudge started crying.

"No, no, no, no, honey!" Flo comforted her. "They'll be here in a little while."

Fudge didn't look convinced. The others felt sorry for her. Not only was she upset because she missed Ducky, but now, her dads. She always cried when she got separated from them. It was almost as if, subconsciously, she knew about her mother and feared that her dads would do the same thing.

After breakfast, everyone went their separate ways. Sheriff went to his usual spot behind the billboard. Red went to tend to his flowers. Doc had to go to Ashgrove to purchase some medical supplies. Lizzie decided to do some spring cleaning in her shop. Mater went tractor tipping, which he accidentally on purpose forgot to tell anyone. Flo and Ramone were left with Fudge while Luigi and Guido slept. Fillmore wanted to go into the Enchanted Forest collect ingredients for his organic fuel. Somehow, he managed to convince Sarge to go with him.

"Only because I don't trust you not to kill yourself", the Jeep muttered.

Fillmore smiled. "Whatever, man."

So, off they went. Fillmore spent ages studying just about every flower, berry and every other kind of plant. He kept murmuring things like, "These'll be perfect", or, "I can't have these. They're poisonous", or, "If only I could find more of these."

Sarge was starting to get bored. He looked around, seeing if there was anything to do (and preferably, speed things along). He saw endless trees. He saw the remains of the old treehouse Mater and the Donovan kids had made nearly forty years earlier. (The whole thing came down a few years later, landing young Davey Donovan in the hospital.) He saw a long line of ants making their way across the log. He saw...

"Fillmore!" he gasped.

"Not now, man", the hippie van responded absentmindedly. 'I gotta make sure I got enough berries."

"Fillmore!" Sarge repeated more urgently. "Look!"

So, he looked and he, too, gasped. What Sarge had found was Ducky. Or, rather, what was left of him. He was filthy and he'd had most of his stuffing ripped out, as well as his beak and one of his legs. Snoozing peacefully beside him was a coyote.

"How did that coyote get Ducky?" Sarge wondered. "I think we would've noticed if any coyotes got into town yesterday."

"Maybe a bird picked Ducky up", Fillmore suggested. "Then they must've dropped him and then the coyote found him." He sighed sadly. "What are we gonna do?"

"There's nothing we can do", Sarge pointed out matter-of-factly. "It would be dangerous and stupid to try and get it back now."

"I know that", Fillmore acknowledged, "but what about Fudge? She's gonna be crushed, man."

"Maybe it's time she learned about loss."

"But she's only three!" Fillmore protested.

"I'm not saying it'll be easy", Sarge conceded, "but there's no way she's getting Ducky back now and she's gonna have to accept that."

"You're right", Fillmore realised. "I guess we better tell Guido and Luigi. I think we should let them decide how to handle this."

To the hippie van's surprise, Sarge nodded in agreement. It wasn't very often that the two of them agreed on anything.

"Is Fudge here?" Fillmore quizzed the others at Flo's.

"Guido just took her into the bathroom", Luigi answered.

"So, if you wanna see her, you're in for a long wait!" Ramone put in, laughing. The residents of Radiator Springs were trying to get Fudge potty-trained and it was taking forever.

"Good." Fillmore sighed with relief.

"What is it?" Luigi wondered.

Sarge came up and told them what they had found.

"Poor Fudgie", Luigi murmured softly.

"We don't have to tell her about the coyotes, do we?" Lizzie questioned.

"There is no way I am going to do that", Luigi decided finally. "But she is still going to be upset about losing Ducky."

"Maybe there's a way we can soften the blow somehow", Red suggested.

Luigi sighed. "I don't see how."

"Unless..." Everyone could practically see the gears turning in the fire truck's brain. He whispered his idea to Luigi, whose eyes widened.

"That is an excellent idea!" the Fiat exclaimed. "Maybe it will work." He turned to the owner of the café. "Flo! Is it okay if I use the phone? I have to make a very important call."

Flo smiled. "Go ahead, honey."

So, Luigi raced inside and dialled a number.

"Doc!" he cried breathlessly. "Are you still in Ashgrove?... Oh, you are just about to leave... Well, if it is not too much trouble, do you think you could do me a big favour?... I need you to go to the toy store."

Doc returned a couple of hours later.

"Did you get it?" Luigi quizzed him the second he saw the Hudson Hornet.

"Yep." He held it up to confirm. "It doesn't look like Ducky, though. Fudge is gonna know."

"It doesn't matter", Red assured him. "Part two of my plan will come when Fudge wakes up from her nap."

"Fudge is down for her nap without Ducky?" Doc sounded both surprised and impressed.

Luigi smiled. "It was not easy, but we did it."

Red turned to the Fiat. "Do you have what you need?" he questioned.

"Yes. Right here." He held up what he needed.

"I hope this works", Red murmured nervously.

"You do?!" Luigi asked incredulously. "I am the one who is not going to get any sleep if it doesn't."

"(Look who's here!)" Guido announced, entering the café, carrying Fudge. Normally, she wouldn't be awake yet, but it was no surprise that she was today.

"Ah! Fudgie!" Luigi raced forward to give his daughter kisses. "You are just the person I wanted to see! I have something to show you."

"What?" the three-year-old wondered curiously.

Luigi handed her an envelope. "This came for you in the mail. I think it might be from Ducky."

The three-year-old took the envelope and stared at the words. "I can't read!" she shouted in frustration.

"Okay. I will help you. Just open it", Luigi instructed her calmly.

So, she did. Inside was a letter, which she handed to her father to read. The letter was actually one he'd received from his brother two days earlier, but he knew Fudge wouldn't be able to tell.

Luigi read the letter and gasped. "It is from Ducky."

"What does it say?" Fudge demanded.

"He says that he is very sorry for disappearing, but he has to go away."

"Why?" Fudge asked.

"He has just been offered his dream job and now, he is travelling all over the world", Luigi explained. "He loves you very much and he is going to miss you a lot."

"So", Fudge began in a small voice as a tear slid down her cheek, "Ducky's never coming back?"

"I know it is hard." Luigi gave his daughter a big hug. "But even though Ducky is going to miss you, he is happy travelling around the world... Does that make sense?"

"Like when you and Babbo moved to 'Merica?" the three-year-old questioned, drying her tears.

"Exactly!" Luigi confirmed, amazed that she remembered that. "Babbo and I are very happy in Radiator Springs, but we still miss our home and family in Italy.

Fudge seemed to understand, but she still looked looked sad. "Maybe one day, we can visit Ducky.

Guido and Luigi smiled at each other sadly. It was their dream to take Fudge to Italy some day, but with hard times they were having in Radiator Springs, they had serious doubts that it would ever happen.

"Maybe", they agreed.

"Did Ducky say anything else?" Fudge wondered.

"He did", Luigi replied. "He says that while he was travelling across Europe, he met another duck that needed a home." He showed Fudge that Doc had bought from the toy shop. It didn't look like Ducky. Ducky was yellow and small. This duck was big, blue and fluffy and... "This duck is a girl."

Fudge eyed the new duck sceptically.

"Ducky says he knows it is not the same", Luigi went on, "but he wants you to take very good care of his friend, just like you took good care of him... Can you do that? For Ducky?"

Little Fudge thought for a moment before breaking out into a huge smile. She cuddled her new duck and frowned. "She doesn't feel like Ducky."

Luigi smiled. Maybe the transition wasn't going to be easy at first, but he was sure that in a couple of days, Fudge and her new duck would be the best of friends.

The three-year-old gave this new duck another cuddle and yawned.

Guido scooped her up. "(Do you and your new friend want to go home and finish your nap?)"

With another loud yawn, Fudge nodded.

So, Guido carried his daughter home. Everyone smiled at the sight of her falling asleep in her father's arm, holding onto her new toy.

"Maybe later, I can show new Ducky around", Fudge murmured sleepily.

"(Yes, but finish your nap first)", Guido told her, giving her a kiss

"Red", Luigi proclaimed, beaming, "you are a genius!"