Chapter 1 - "New Beginnings"

The sun rose and shined its glow on Radiator Springs. The sunlight came through Lightning and Sally's window and the shades made lines on their hoods. They were still sleeping.

Sally only had mattresses in the cones where a car was living or staying for an extended period of time. Otherwise, she used little mats the cars just parked on.

Lightning's right rear tire hung off their mattress and his mouth hung open. A little spot of drool nestled in the corner of his mouth. Sally leaned her front bumper on her left front tire like a pillow and Lightning was doing the same. Her other tire was holding Lightning's. Their hoods gently bobbed up and down as they breathed. Their pillows, which were supposed to have their front bumpers on them, have fallen off of the mattress and onto the floor. Their blanket was scrunched up at their rear bumpers.

Seven hours later..

"LIGHTNIN'!" yelled Mater from outside. Lightning groaned and forced his eyes to open. He squinted at the alarm clock: 1:00 PM

He gasped and looked at Sally, but immediately stopped, and couldn't help but smile at her sleeping face.

"She's an angel," he thought, "I won't wake her."

He rolled off the mattress and opened the garage door. When the door opened, Mater examined Lightning, whose eyes were bloodshot at the corners of his windshield. He saw Sally was still sleeping.

"Dad-Gum! You was asleep?"

"Yeah, we were up really late last night," Lightning replied.

Mater studied the floor with the pillows on it inside the motel room and the scrunched up blanket on the edge of the bed.

"What were you doin'? Fightin'?"

"Mater, what do you need?"

Mater's jaw dropped, "Don't you remember? You need to talk to Bubba for me. Look what he did!"

Mater showed his left side to Lightning. There was a giant dent on his door and some of his rust was knocked off.

Lightning's face quickly turned from calm to serious, "I'm so sick of this guy."

"Well then come and beat 'em up fer me!" Mater replied.

Lightning sighed, "No, Mater. We're not fighting."

"See ya later! Just drop by my place and we'll go!" said Mater and he was on his way.

"No, Mater! We're not-"

Mater was already too far gone.

With a gentle sigh, Lightning turned to Sally and drove over to her. He nudged her fender lightly with his hood, "Hey, sweetie..wake up."

Sally opened her eyes slowly. She saw the sun high in the sky, "What time is it?"

"One-ish."

Sally groaned, "That late?"

"That late," Lightning replied.

Sally thought for a moment, but then her eyes widened. She looked over at Lightning, "I need to go to Doc's later. I need him to check something for me," she continued.

"Are you okay?" asked Lightning. Sally nodded and said, "Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."

Lightning sighed, "Well, I'm going to go talk to Bubba."

"I'm telling you that's not a good idea."

Lightning smiled. He was happy that she cared so much.

"I can handle anything, baby," he turned to leave the cone, "Want anything while I'm out?"

"No, thank you."

"Alrighty, I'll see ya later, sweetie."

He drove out of the cone and down the road toward Mater's. Sally got ready and quickly left to Flo's V8 Cafe.

There was loud 50's music playing in the air, which made it hard to hear.

"Flo!" Sally called out. She looked around at all the stations. Mia and Tia were taking orders from cars.

"She's inside!" yelled Mia.

"Thank you!" Sally replied.

Sally drove around the "drive thru" sign, "Flo!"

Flo recognized her voice and turned around to the window with a smile, "Hey sweetie! What can I get you?"

"You can start by giving me some courage," Sally said.

Flo lifted one of her eyelids, "What do you mean, honey?"

"I need someone to come with me to Doc's and, well, since you're my best friend, I want you to come with me."

"No problem. The girls can run the cafe for a moment," she unclipped her tray from the side of her body, "Come on!"

When they arrived, Sally pressed her hood through the swinging doors with Flo following close behind. It was different. Before the town became popular again, it was just an examination room with supplies. Now, there was an entire waiting room and reception desk. There was still just one examination room though.

"Can I help you?" asked a female voice.

Sally looked at the desk and saw a yellow GTO.

"Yes, I need to see Doctor Hudson today," answered Sally.

The GTO typed something in her computer, looked up at Sally, and said, "Very well. Please park in the waiting room."

Sally went to turn around with Flo, but just then, Doc rolled out of his office and peeked at the GTO.

"Who is my next-", Doc started. He noticed something on the GTO's computer screen, "Nurse GTO, please, get off your HoodBook page."

Nurse GTO's yellow hood became red where her eyes met her hood, "She's right there, doctor," she pointed to Sally.

Doc smiled big, "Come on in, Sally. You too, Flo. If Sally wants you to."

They both drove into his examination room and Doc closed the door behind them.

"What's wrong?" asked Doc. Sally looked at Flo and then to Doc, "I'm..in need of a test."

"What kind of test?" asked Doc.

Sally smiled, "I want to see..if.."

"If?" asked Flo, "...oh!"

Doc's mouth dropped and Flo smiled wide. She began jumping up and down on her tires, "You and Lightning are planning a-!"

"SHH!" Sally motioned her tire up and down, as if she could swat Flo's volume down.

"Well, it's a good thing cars are able to tell much quicker than other species," said Doc, "Just come here on the lift and I'll tell you what to do."

Lightning arrived at Mater's. When he looked inside of his yard, Bubba had Mater hanging on his tow cable.

"Put me down!" Mater demanded.

"Nope!" Bubba teased. He rocked back and forth, swinging Mater around.

"Let me go!"

Bubba laughed, "Let me down!" he said in a mocking tone.

Lightning rolled his eyes and drove into his yard. He spoke to Bubba's taillights, since he was facing away from him, "C'mon, Bubba. Don't you ever get tired?"

Since Mater was hanging on Bubba's tow cable behind him, he was looking right at Lightning, "Hiya, buddy!"

"Hey, Mater," said Lightning.

Bubba lifted Mater up a bit more, then flung him down hard. Pain surged through Mater's shocks. Bubba turned around and glared at Mater, then pushed him out of range of his sight of Lightning.

"Oh yeah?" asked Bubba, "What are you going to do about it, Racecar?"

"Grow up, Bubba..really. This stuff is getting a little-"

Bubba slapped Lightning's face with his tire.

"OW!" yelled Lightning. He sunk his hood to the floor and brought his tire up to cover where Bubba hit him.

"Heh, you was sayin'?"

"Get away from my best friend!" Mater screamed.

Mater jumped to land on Bubba, but Bubba caught Mater with his tow hook and flung him to the ground again.

"You wanna see your best friend?" asked Bubba, "See 'em!"

Bubba pulled Mater, swung him around, and let him go.

Lightning's eyes widened and he yelled, as Mater about to fly into him.

The sharp bash slammed into Lightning's left side.

"HEY!", called a deep male voice, "What's going on here?"

Bubba rolled his eyes at the voice. He knew exactly who it was: Sheriff.

"O-Oh...", Bubba began to stutter, playing it off as if Lightning and Mater were causing the problem, "They were just fightin' and I was stoppin' it, officer."

"You boys are a real pain in my trunk," Sheriff looked over at Lightning, "Lightning, Sally needs you at Doc's."

Lightning could feel his engine sink, "Is she okay?"

Sheriff turned his tires out, shrugging.

"Mater, I have to go," Lightning's adrenaline let him push himself up and speed out of Mater's yard.

Once he arrived at Doc's, he stopped at the reception desk.

"Where's Sally?" Lightning was panting. Nurse GTO pointed to the examination room. She noticed the dents around his side, "Are you okay, Lightning?"

Lightning ignored her and went into the examination room. Doc, Flo, and Sally looked at him, but they were not smiling.

"What happened to you?" asked Doc.

Sally's eyes became a bit red. She knew confronting Bubba would be trouble.

"I'm not the important one right now..," Lightning noticed Sally's eyes, "Sally.."

"Come on, Flo. Let's leave them alone," said Doc. Flo nodded and drove out of the room with Doc.

"You said you were just going to talk to him..," said Sally.

"He started it."

"You promised."

"I was just talking to him. Then he punched me."

"Then what's that dent on your left side?"

"That was a flying Mater."

Sally was silent.

"Sally, I'm a lot more worried about you right now. You were fine this morning-"

"And so were you."

"What is going on, Sal?"

"Lightning..," she kept her eyes on his, "You've loved me for a while now right?"

"With all of my heart. You know that."

Sally's eyes widened, still red from the tears before, "And you'd support any changes that happen to me...and you?"

Lightning nodded, "Anything."

"Well..Stickers..," Sally looked at Lightning with an unmistakable expression. The corners of her lips curled up into a smile.

Lightning gasped, "You mean-"

Sally nodded her hood slowly.

Lightning started to breathe heavily, "Oh my manufacturer..."

"I know!"

Flo bashed through the doors, "So! How do you feel about it Lightning!"

"Flo! You can't just do that!" Doc said.

Lightning laughed lightly, "You were both listening the whole time, huh?"

Flo and Doc looked down at their hoods and nodded in shame. Lightning looked back at Sally, who smiled even bigger.

"So?" Sally said softly. She noticed Lightning eyes getting a little lazy, "Lightning…?"

He immediately turned onto his side and fainted.

Flo chuckled, "Doc, you're gonna need another room in this place."