Yay! Next chapter complete! falls over dead Now just ot finish it before PC Repair's over... Well, random info: Thanks to my wonderful beta reader, Nao-chan! I got my driver's license today!! celebrates Now, it'll be LEGAL when I steal my brother's car to pick my friends up! gets slapped by common sense Anyway, on with the story...

Fast Cars and Freedom
Then You Stand
 Part 2: Ready to Run

'You feel like a candle in a hurricane
Just like a picture with a broken frame
Alone and helpless
Like you've lost your fight
But you'll be alright'

Doc Hudson, while more than used to Arial spontaneously bursting into his office, was still quite stunned when the red-haired girl banged his door open and simply stood there, soaking wet, rain pouring down behind her, with her hands balled into fists and eyes glazed over. That was never a good sign. A bolt of lightning struck behind her, making her seem to be no more than a dark shadow standing in the door.

Doc retained his senses enough to finish the stitches on Sarge's arm ("And what did you do this time?" "Don't. Ask.") though neither man took their eyes off of Arial for more than a few seconds.

"You two knew, didn't you?" she asked calmly, acidly. Doc flinched.

Stab.

"Knew what, Arial?" Doc asked calmly.

Pull.

"Don't bullshit me, old man." Even Sarge winced that time.

Stab.

"Who told you?" If Arial noticed the even sharper than usual bite in Sarge's voice, she did not acknowledge it.

Pull.

"Some guy up at the Wheel Well."

Stab.

Doc smiled grimly, "I always said that you're just like your dad, kid."

Pull.

Normally, that line pulled at least a small smile from Arial, but this time she just glared.

Stab.

"Your dad was the best racer in the world, Arial," Sarge finally admitted, returning the deadly glare with practiced ease, "The best I've ever seen, and there's nobody around here'd tell you different." He closed his eyes, letting the angry mask fall for the first time Arial could remember, "When your dad died it... it hit all of us really hard... but no one worse than your mom."

Pull.

"She made us all swear that we'd never tell you about him, about the racing, really, anything about the real Lightning," Doc added, "We thought she'd get over it after a while..."

Stab.

The glaze hadn't lifted from her eyes, but it did nothing to conceal the tears in them.

Pull.

"She was trying to protect you, Arial."

Doc cut the excess suture line, wiping away the last of the blood on Sarge's arm absently, and set aside his tools. With a loving smile, he held his arms open to Arial. She made a small noise that might or might not have been a word and collapsed into the old racer's embrace. "I'm so sorry, Arial," he whispered, gently stroking her choppy mass of red hair, "I'm sorry for everything..."

Sky blue eyes lookin' up at me

"Thanks, Doc." Sally set down the phone with a relieved sigh, "She's at Doc's. He says she's gonna stay with him for the night."

"And you're letting her?"

Sally cringed, giving her a husband a hard look, "Something happened up at the Wheel Well. She's scared. She looks up to Doc."

"Doc's not her father."

"Neither are you," Sally winced even before the words had finished leaving her mouth. The force of the blow knocked her to the ground.

Like I have all the answers

"I hate her,"

Doc sighed hand handed the steaming mug in his hands over to Arial, making careful note of the dozens of small scratches and scars that covered her small hands, "You don't hate her."

She stared at her mug for a few minutes, lost in thought. Finally, she looked up from her cup, giving him a hard, sharp look, "What else has she been hiding from me?" A few choice secrets came readily to mind, but Doc remained quiet. "I saw that."

"Saw what?"

"That look. What else have you guys been hiding?"

If there was one thing Arial had that Lightning didn't, it was an unnervingly sharp mind, one that never failed to surprise the adults around her. Suddenly, something flashed dangerously in her clouded blue eyes, "You! You're the Hudson Hornet, aren't you?!"

Doc blinked. Yes, definitely very sharp. He couldn't help it. He laughed.

"What's so funny?" she asked angrily.

Doc smiled weakly, shaking his head, "Your dad didn't figure that out until he found my Piston Cups stashed out in my garage, and he grew up knowing my name. He may have been a good racer, but he wasn't the sharpest of screws." This made Arial laugh, too. Doc smiled and leaned over to plant a gentle kiss on her brow, "You're your dad's, alright, kid, but you've got a little bit of your mom in you, too."

A pair of arms snaked their way around Doc's neck and hugged him tightly. Arial pressed her face into the crook of his neck, "Thanks, Doc."

I hope I have the ones you need

"No, no, you've gotta make it less obvious, Dad, or she'll notice it and skin us all alive!"

"I think you might be givin' her a little too much-" BANG!

Sally stormed into the Body Shop, barely even looking around before finding the two hunched over a design page, "What happened at the Wheel Well?"

Ramone and Angel exchanged looks and bit down the urge to say "The inevitable," and instead remained hunched over the design they were working on.

Sally glared at their backs in exasperation, resisting the urge to grab Ramone by his dreadlocks or Angel by his cornrows and haul them out of the shop. "Ramone!" she stomped her foot instead.

"If she ain't told ya yet, it ain't our place," Ramone replied.

"Go ask her yaself," Angel added bitterly. Neither bothered to look up from the sketch.

"She won't talk to me!" Sally shouted in exasperation.

Father and son finally sat up and turned to Sally, identical furious looks on their faces, "Good."

I've never really done this, now I know what scared is

"Nice bruise."

Arial grunted in response.

"Fell down the imaginary stairs again?" Doc couldn't help but wince as he studied Arial's back for the millionth time since she'd first come to him with that burn on her arm.

She laughed mirthlessly, "More like fell really hard back-first into a wall."

"And these?" he tapped the yellowish bruises on her bare shoulders.

"Seatbelts?" she suggested weakly.

"Bullshit." Doc sighed, tracing the bruises that lined Arial's back, the healing cuts and healed scars, "She didn't want this." Doc had spent more time cleaning Arial's wounds than most of the boys in town combined. For once, she didn't need to be fixed up. All that he could prescribe now is well deserved rest and maybe a shot of whiskey.

"Then why does she let it happen?"

Doc had no answer for that. He never did. Instead, he replied, "You know, you're almost thirteen."

"Yeah, so?"

Doc stared at Arial's bruises for a moment longer, the scars he'd tended and the broken bones he'd repaired. There was a burn reaching from the top of her left shoulder that went down in to her elbow, and in some places her wrist, that looked more like flames than a grease burn. She always said it was her favorite scar.

"'Round here, you're legally old enough to choose who to live with, if your parents are split up or... someone petitions the courts to adopt you." Arial went rigid, her hands going up to toy with the key to her Mustang, which she always kept around her neck. "I..." he touched her arm, "Only if it's what you want, Era..." Arial smiled at the old nickname. Doc had said it meant 'wind,' like her personality, always moving, always changing, a gentle caress that could easily turn to a devastating icy fist.

Without making a sound, Arial stood up, pulled her shirt back on, and headed out the door. For the first time in her life, Arial realized that she didn't want Doc to see her cry.

End Part 2

Please R&R, Thanks Nao-chan!!