Wake up Call

Cruz

"I blew it Mr. McQueen. You told me not to do the race. I should have listened, and now I'm back in here, eating some sour ice cream," she said as she pushed the bowl away.

She could see that he was a little too concerned. He might not be saying anything, but she knew deep down that he was worried.

"I'm fine Mr. McQueen don't worry about me," she said with a crooked smile.

"No you're not. Listen Cruz, you don't need to beat yourself up about this. It was an accident."

"Will you stop making excuses for me? I overreacted! I should've been more professional about it."

"Cruz it's not your fault. You can't control these things-"

"But I could control the choices I make. If I would've listened-"

"Cruz it's over now. Just let it go."

"I can't let it go! Do you understand what this little episode did to my career?!"

"Cruz you need to stop. You can't let the press get to your head. Right now, all you need to focus on is getting better," he said as he pulled some covers over her.

He rolled away from her and headed to the door.

"Wait where are you going?" she asked as her engine began to race again.

"I want you to recover Cruz. I think you need some space. Take care of yourself and don't turn that TV on. I'll be back later," he said as he closed the door behind him.

As the door closed, she turned to pick up her diary. She began to write:

Way to go Cruzie, you've done it again! I'm starting to think that Mr. McQueen is even more concerned about my health. What if he lets me sit out on all the other races in the season? What if he goes to the Rusteze Racing Center and gets another rookie to replace me while I recuperate? No Cruz, he can't do that. We both work for Tex now. But what if he talks to Tex and convinces him to put in a replacement for the races? After all, he can talk a snow mobile into an air conditioner! I need to get out of this hospital-fast!

Lightning

Back at Radiator Springs...

All of the townies were doing their normal activities: Mater was making art out of his junk, Sheriff, Sarge, Fillmore, and Ramone were at Flo's, Red was watering his flowers, Lizzy was sleeping in her shop, and Guido and Luigi were fixing up the tire shop. No one noticed McQueen enter the town; he wanted it that way. He went over to the Cozy Cone Motel where Sally was watching the television on her desk. She glanced up from the monitor and saw McQueen.

"Hey Stickers!" she said with a big smile.

"Hey Sal, how's everything?"

"Oh there's not much going on around here. Did you see Cruz today?"

Cruz was the last thing that Lightning wanted to talk about. All he wanted to do was spend time with the love of his life. He and Sally haven't had much time to spend with each other lately. Between being Cruz's crew chief, training the rookies with his new training programs, and now constant hospital visits, they rarely saw each other. But Sally never complained. She was always faithful: she never questioned his multiple visits to Cruz, she even went with him on some occasions. There was nothing going on between him and Cruz, but Sally never blinked. She was good to him and he was determined to be good to her. All he wanted to do was show her how much he adored her, but Cruz's panic attacks got in the way.

"Yeah I saw her," he said in a low voice.

"Well, how is she?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean 'you don't know?"

"Well, she's not doing as well as we hoped," he said looking down at the ground.

"What happened?" Sally asked with a worried look on her face.

"She thinks that I'm embarrassed by her. The media is tearing her apart Sal, and she's not taking it well," he said as he knocked his tire against the desk.

Sally made her way closer to him. She rested her tire on his side. She could see the grief in his face. She knew that he loved Cruz like a daughter and she surely appreciated him taking care of herself and Cruz.

"Hey, of course she's feeling that way. The press is never easy, I mean look at how they dogged you out after the crash."

"Yeah Sal but Cruz is different. She is very sensitive. I can take that kind of backlash all day long but she thinks about it a lot."

"What did you say to her?"

"Of course I told her that what she thinks isn't true, and that I'm very proud of her but she just kept on saying that I was making excuses for her. She also remembered the Willie's Butte incident and was scared that it might happen again."

"Oh yeah, that's understandable. Well, what did you do?"

"I just gave her some space and told her to get some rest."

Sally gave him a stern look. "That's what you said?"

He was confused. "Um yeah?"

Sally shook her body. "Lightning, that girl needs a serious wake up call! I'm going to go visit her tomorrow."

"Sal-"

"You can't stop me Stickers, I'm going!"

That was it. He knew that he could never get Sally to change her mind. Hopefully her "powers of persuasion" can work on Cruz.