Author's Note: Hey! Long time no see! (or read, I guess. Lol, bad joke, lo siento!) Anyways! Y'all know -or at least many of you know- that I'm from the state that says "y'all too much. Aka, Texas. Things in Texas have settled down a bit after Hurricane Harvey, and I'm back to life as it should be. Hopefully I'll have another chapter out soon after this one! And it's going to be on my top five favorite chapters list! That is if I had one, but you get my point. Anyways! BIG THANKS goes to all of you for sticking around! Don't forget, there's a playlist on Spotify! It's the title on this fic, and if you have a suggestion, shoot it at me in a pm! Also, there's an ig account! Anyways, onward to what you wonderful humans have been waiting for!Also, the dates are kinda jacked up now, so just go with this one!
Chapter 32: Some Arguing
December 3, 2000
Slowly, for some, but quickly for one, the days went on. The days, turned to weeks which melted into months and eventually a year. As far as her education went, Harley was in the middle of her first semester in her junior year of high school. But today wasn't about studies and tests.
"Today is the day." Harley said confidently as she made her way to Willy's Butte with Sheriff at her side.
"Alright. Confidence, I like it." he said as blink the sleep from his eyes. Harley look over and chuckled.
"Is the thingy down here?" she asked, getting a scoff, an almost laugh from Sheriff.
"The radar speed sign?" he asked with a raised an eyelid. Harley nudged him slightly.
"Yeah, that thingy." She laughed, and he joined in. Once at the Butte, Harley looked around, spotted the radar, then looked around once more. "Let's do this." she said with a determined expression. Sheriff smile and began driving off.
"I'll go and take my post, I'll be calling out your speed too!" He called back.
"Sounds good!" Harley called back as she went off to the starting line. She revved her engine just as Doc was driving up to watch. Sheriff looked up and saw his old friend, then sighed. He was told to not let Harley know he would be making an appearance. So he kept his mouth shut about it, and he didn't ask why. Doc had his own reasonings, and Sheriff respected that.
"On your mark," Sheriff called, cueing Harley to rev her engine, "Get set!" sheriff paused and watched from a distance Harley's expression dissolve from a wide grin, to one of intense focus and determination. Doc took notice as well and studied every millisecond of it.
"Hm.." Doc muttered to himself. "Interesting…"
"GO!" Sheriff called and Harley took off in a cloud of dust. She had improved and now was just a few feet shy from the top of the wall. Doc unconsciously nodded, but Sheriff was too busy cheering on Harley to notice. He then looked at the radar and eating for a three digit number to appear ready to shout it out as soon as she passed. In seconds, she zoomed by and he yelled out as soon as he read it.
"One hundred eighty-three!" Sheriff called with a smile. "That tops-" Sheriff shifted his eyes to find Harley, expecting her to have stopped, but she kept going for another lap. "Uh," he went back to the radar. "One hundred eighty-five!" another lap "One hundred eighty six!" another "One eighty-eight!... One eighty-nine!... One eighty-nine!"
"One eighty-nine…" Doc repeated softly. "That's her top speed?"she kept going and going, every lap topping at one hundred eighty-nine miles per hour. After countless more laps, her speed began to decrease and Doc shook his head disapprovingly.
"One hundred seventy-nine…" Sheriff half heartedly called. "One seventy-eight…" he shook his hood. "Harley! Harley you need to stop…." He yelled, but she kept going. "I'm not calling it out anymore!" She stubbornly kept going, forcing herself to go faster and she began to overheat. "Harley!" he yelled more forcefully. Doc was tense as he watched her push herself to her limit. He thought about making himself known, but just as he was about to, she slowed to a stop.
"That… that's not good enough…" Harley said as she gasped for air.
"Your topped off at one eighty-six last week, Harley. It is good enough." Sheriff argued, but Harley wasn't satisfied.
"No!... no it's not... " Sheriff sighed. Feeling Doc's stare on him.
"Harley-"
"Uncle Strip told me the my dad's top speed was one ninety-four when he was sixteen!" She spat back. "That's where I need to be! Where I should be!"
"That… that was your father not you." Sheriff continued to reason with her, but to no avail. Doc could sense that she was about to storm off, so he left before he was spotted.
"I'm a Stockrim! I'm David Stockrim's daughter! I should be at that point by now! No excuses!" she spun around and kicked up dust in Sheriff's face, and as he coughed, he called out to her.
"H...Harley!" he coughed then rolled his eyes with a sigh. "She gets so mad sometimes…" he said as he followed her.
Doc had made it inside his clinic where he could always be found before and after Harley's practices. And if he wasn't there, he was in his garage where no other car had set one tire in but Doc himself.
Harley drove home in a hurry. The top of her hood was slightly flushed with color as her eyes began to show hints of frustrated tears. As always, there was a large cup of cold ice water waiting for her in the clinic with Doc. He had his trunk towards the front doors of the clinic as he pretended to look through papers.
"Hello, Harley" He said without glancing away from his paperwork after the teenage Cadillac burst through the door. He slid the cup of water away from him and Harley quickly came over and practically inhaled a large gulp of it.
"Mm, thanks, Doc." she said and huffed.
"You're back so soon." He said, still not looking at her.
"Doc, I've been gone for…" she looked at a clock behind him and studied it for a brief second. "...for two and a half hours…"
"You've been gone longer before…" Harley shrugged and took a few more sips.
"I guess so…" she said the turned to leave to her room.
"Just a second." Doc said then turned to face her. "Make sure you get Red to wash you off. You're covered in dirt." Harley scoffed then nodded.
"Yeah, okay. I will." She said then tilted her hood. "Is that it?" she asked.
"No." Doc said then waved a tire towards himself. "Come here." Harley so he, but obeyed. "Pop your hood."
"What? Why?" she asked. "I don't have check up today." she pause and thought about it. "Do I?" Doc shook his hood.
"No, but Sheriff has been so kind as to tell me that you seem to be pushing yourself a little to hard." Harley scoffed at the accusation.
"Ha! There's no such thing." she said and again began to drive off.
"Oh yes there is!" Doc insisted. "I've seen it; I've been in this town long enough." Harley rolled her eyes then down as she was told. "Harley, when's the last time you got coolant from Flo?" He asked and she shrugged her tires.
"I don't know.. a while I guess. If that bad?" Doc sighed and shook his hood.
"Yes, Harley, it is. You're running low on coolant." He said and gave her a now so she knew she could close her hood. "If you end up having none, you're going to overheat your engine." he began to drive out of the clinic. "You'll do that quicker seeing as you practice daily. After that, then what?"
"Then I'll have you fix it, duh." Harley said and followed him.
"You're going to drive from wherever you are with a busted up engine to have me fix it for free?" Doc asked with a raised eyelid.
"Well, no, my driver will drive me to Radiator Springs so you can fix it." Harley smiled smartly while Doc sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Heed my warning and go ask Flo for coolant.." Doc said getting a sigh from Harley.
"Alright, fine." she said, then turned to leave but hesitated at the door as a question began to burn her thoughts. "Hey, Doc?"
"Yes, Harley?" he asked and drove towards her.
"Are you still, ya know.. anti-racing?" he asked, making Doc raise an eyelid.
"Elaborate please.." he requested.
"You know what I mean.." she said, staring at the bottom of the front door to the clinic. "Are you still against me racing?" Doc sighed and looked away from her, taking a moment to collect his thoughts in the topic.
"Harley, you have always had a hard head.. You'll never change your mind about racing." Harley then looked at him, now at sixteen, but a few inches shorter than him, her eyes not having to look up as much as she did when she was younger, but Doc still saw those young eyes.
"That's not what I asked…" she said with a strength and confidence that pulled a glance from Doc. But a glance was all that was needed to reminded Doc his "little girl" had grown up to a young lady.
"Harley…" he said and looked down. "I've seen what that habit of high speeds can do to a car first-hand…" he paused and sighed. "..it's not pretty.."
"You were a doctor for those idiots who pretended they knew what they were doing down at Willy's Butte, of course you saw the messy party of it!" She started.
"Harley, it's not just that," Doc furrowed his eyelids as Harley raised her voice at him, "I've seen what that world does to women! They don't want female racers!"
"But there have been some!" Hartley countered.
"And what? Do you think the RSN cars welcomed them with open tires!?" He shouted back.
"Well, no, but if they can do it, so can I!" Doc hit his tired on the ground in frustration.
"Easier said than done!" He scolded her.
"And how do you know!?" she spat back.
"I just do!" Doc said then pointed a tire out the door. "Now go do what I told you to do!"
"But-"
"Go!" Harley glared at him then gave an angry sigh and dashed out. Doc remained still until she was gone, then shook his hood.
"She will never understand until she gets run over…" he said and drove off. "No one taught me that.. she should be grateful I'm trying to teach her…"
Harley raced over to Flo's with angry tears threatening to tint the bottom of her windshield. Being that the day was still, young and early, Flo and Sheriff were the only two at the Café.
"Hey, sugar!" Flo said as she saw her drive up, but noticed the film of disappointment that tinted Harley. "What's the matter?" she asked.
"Nothing, I'm fine…" she muttered, trying to blink away the tears.
"Harley," Sheriff added in, "lying to law enforcement is illegal." he said, only halfway joking.
"Well it's a good thing I'm not them, right?" she said and drove up to Flo. "Doc said I'm low on coolant."
"No wonder you're in a bad mood." Flo said with a smile in attempt to cheer her up, but she knew full well that coolant wasn't the only issue. "Come on, I'll go get ya some." Harley went off with Flo, leaving Sheriff to wonder. He look at the clinic then decided to go and figure out the situation.
Heading to the clinic, Sheriff sighed and shook his hood. Thinking of different scenarios wasn't always a good thing seeing as a few hypothetical conversations ended in Harley and Doc arguing over a single topic.
"Doc?" Sheriff called out as he drove into the clinic. "You in here?" he looked around, but it was empty. "Hm.." drove out and was about to leave and return to the café but glanced to his left instead. He began to slowly drive towards Doc's garage. "Hey, Doc, ya in there?" just as he was about to open the door, he heard a shout behind him.
"Hey!" Sheriff spun around and saw who he was looking for.
"Oh, Doc, there you ar-"
"What are you doing?" he asked, a very serious expression covering his face.
"I was just looking for you…" he said slowly as he studied him.
"Well, you we're looking in the wrong place.." Doc said and began to drive off. "Did Harley go find Flo?" he asked, quickly changing the subject.
"Uh, yeah.. she seemed pretty upset." Sheriff said and followed behind him.
"I was too," Doc agreed, "Harley should know and be responsible for something as simple as coolant, Flo is always reminding her-"
"That's not who I was talking about…" Doc stopped just as they got to the front of the clinic. "Harley. Why is she so upset?" Doc sighed and shook his hood. "Did she ask you again?" Doc looked away and went inside of the clinic. "What did you tell her?"
"I told her the truth." Sheriff sighed and shook his hood.
"Which was what exactly?" he presses on.
"Why are you being so persistent? I told her the truth about racing, what more is there to say?" Sheriff drove up beside Doc.
"Plenty, actually." Sheriff continued. Doc turned to face him.
"Look, she has no idea what she's putting herself up against!" Doc started to lose his temper. "She doesn't know what that world is what they expect, she can't go any faster than one hundred-eighty nine miles an hour!"
"She's practicing, she's improving. Give her time." Sheriff tried to argue.
"No, that down at the Butte. That's not racing. That wasn't even a Sunday drive. That was a couple of laps, racing is 500 of those!"
"She'll get there." Sheriff said, keeping his calm, but Doc went on.
"Racing is everyone fighting to move up, lap after lap, inside, outside, inches apart, never touchin'.That's racing! She has no idea what she's facing!" Sheriff looked at him questionably.
"And how would you know?" He asked. It was then that Doc realized he said too much. "Doc, tell me the truth, why do you hate racing so much?" Doc looked away and slightly drove off. "Doc, I know you've been keeping something from us, the least you can do is tell me what it is…"
"Okay…" he said with a sigh. "I told you where I was from, right?"
"Yeah, Northwood, why?" Sheriff said and drove towards him.
"Well, back in Northwood," Doc started, "there was a track. There was a race every weekend there.. anyone who was at least sixteen could enter. My father used to always take me every weekend. I asked him if I could race for my sixteenth birthday, and he saw no harm in it and said yes.
"Well, my best friend at the time was a year older than myself. He had asked his father for the same gift. So one weekend we went to the race and my friend was racing in it. It was his first race, and of course he had been practicing, just like Harley. The race was going good, but I could tell by the look on his face, it wasn't what he was expecting… then he lost control…" Doc paused and looked at the ground. "He spun out and crashed. I watched him roll into the dirt and beat himself up. He couldn't even drive himself out of that mess; hr had to be towed. It took a while for him to get put back together, and when he finally did, he asked his father if he could have another shot. When he denied him that chance, he went behind his back and asked the officials at the track, they told him he could've been a great rookie, but they said after that crash, he was history. They moved on. He never raced again." he looked back at Sheriff with his eyes narrowed. "I almost watched him die that day. His first race was his last, and could've easily been his last day on this earth…" he turned to drive back out.
"Doc, wait, I-"
"You wanted to know why I hate that godforsaken sport, didn't you? Well that's why.." Doc said as he stopped in front of the door. "Now go and tell Harley I'm not the bad guy here.. I don't want to see her get herself killed because of something as simply as lack of knowledge of what she's doing.." he left and headed straight for his garage. Sheriff followed him but stopped as he realize where he vanished to. Sheriff considered following, but knew when Doc fled to his garage, he wanted to be left alone. Sheriff sighed and went back to the café. Flo and Harley were both outside, only now, Ramone had joined them. Harley seemed to be in a better mood, but was still slightly down.
"'Ey, Sheriff." Ramime greeted him getting a slight nod in response. "Where ya been?"
"Just, talking to Doc." he said, getting Harley's attention.
"What did he say?" She asked, catching Sheriff off guard.
"Uh, nothing." Harley raised an eyelid, knowing he was lying. "We just talked about, uh, your schooling." Harley scoffed and shook her hood.
"You're a terrible liar." She stated, "It was about racing -my racing- wasn't it?" Sheriff sighed a defeated sigh.
"Yes. Yes, it was." Harley slightly nodded as the air felt heavy.
"What did he say?" she asked, Flo and Ramone both listening closely while Sheriff hesitated to answer. "Did you convince him?"
"Well, Harley… I, uh… I think you should think about what you're doing…" he admitted.
"What?" she asked in confused disbelief. "So what, he convinced you? You're one his side?"
"No! No, I'm not on anyone's side. I just-"
"Just what? Agreeing with him? How could Doc possibly convince you!" she said, trying to disguise hurt with anger. "You don't want me to race?" she asked.
"Harley, it's not like that, I just think… maybe.. he's got a point."
"Got a point? So you don't want me racing then?" Sheriff was beginning to get frustrated while Harley felt a pang of betrayal.
"Harley, we don't want you to die!" Sheriff blurted out.
"I'm not going to die!" She shot back.
"Doc's friend almost did! He was sixteen, Harley!" Harley stopped and considered it. Sheriff saw the opportunity to explain. "When Doc was a kid, back in Northwood, his friend entered his first race and it was almost his last.. that's why he hates racing, Harley. The racing community shunned him.. and that was it." Harley sighed because to her, it made sense.
"He… never told me that…" she said and looked down. A single word caught her thoughts. "Where's he at?" she asked while Sheriff took a deep breath.
"In his garage. But I wouldn't bother him." Harley looked back up with slightly furrowed eye lids.
"Why not?" she asked.
"No one messes with him when he's in his garage." Ramone said and she turned to him.
"Why not?" She asked.
"We just don't, honey." Flo interjected.
"Hm…" Harley thought for a few brief seconds then began to leave.
"Harley?" Flo called out, but she ignored them and kept going.
"Harley, don't!" Sheriff said but again, she ignored and went straight to Doc's garage.
Doc had been looking through a few faded newspaper clippings. They were shuffled all over the floor and he moved them gently with his tire. He always spent time in his garage whenever he needed to be alone. And to remind himself that the racing world is not a kind one. He suddenly began to hear the sound of tires outside. He listened closely and realized it was coming closer. He quickly turned off the light and began to drive out. Just as he closed the doors, he saw Harley waiting outside.
"Harley?" he said, somewhat surprised that she looked rather calm and collective. It made her looked slightly older.
"Can we go for a drive?" she asked without smiling.
"A drive?" Doc said and couldn't help but think back to a young Harley asking the same question. It made him smile. "We haven't gone on one of those in a while." Harley then smiled and nodded.
"Yeah, too long." Doc nodded and began to drive off. Together, they drove right by the café and the others watched. "Those two can't stay mad at eachother for very long, can they?" Flo asked with a slight chuckle.
"No, they never could… still can't." Sheriff smiled as he watched his old friend and relaxed.
