Okay, third chapter done! falls over Me 'n Nao were up till almost 2am my time finishing this... Holy hell... Well, thanks to my great reviewers/readers. I hope to have the last part of Then You Stand done by Wednesday. I've got it sketched out on paper, just need to transfer it to the computer.

For the record, the little bonding moment between Mater and Arial has been floating around in my head since the first time I watched Cars, and I'm so freaking happy to finally get it out of my head! It's depressing!

Fast Cars and Freedom
Then You Stand
Part 3: To Remember Tomorrow

'The stars that pierce the sky
He left them all behind
We're left to wonder why
He left us all ... behind

Dreams of his crash Won't pass
Oh how they all adored him
Beauty will last
When spiralled
Down.'

Flo felt more than saw the small girl enter her cafe. Not a strange thing, really, Arial normally seemed to slip through the shadows almost completely unnoticed unless she wanted you to notice her, but there was something in the air that night that made her look up.

"Hey, Flo," was the only thing Arial could say to the worried expression her godmother gave her.

Flo stared at the redhead for all of a minute before turning quickly back into her kitchen. Arial fell into her favorite over-sized, squashy armchair near the front entrance and rested her head on the armrest. It was one of the many that had somehow ended up there, in the corner the normal "crew" usually occupied. At the moment, the cafe was blissfully unoccupied. When Flo returned, she gave the girl a loving smile and pushed a hot mug into her hands filled with cocoa laced with just a little bit of whiskey, the favorite drink of all three of Radiator Springs' resident racers. "Wanna talk, honey?" she asked, pushing Arial's legs over a little so she could sit next to the girl.

"Did Angel tell you what happened?" she asked absently, sipping her drink.

Flo nodded, "Sally came by earlier askin' what happened." Arial went rigid. She was not ready for her mom to know that. "The boys didn't say a word, and neither did I."

Arial smiled, "Thanks, Flo." They sat in silence for several minutes, Arial quietly sipping half-heartedly at her drink while Flo waited patiently. When she wanted to talk, she would talk. "What if you had an out?" she finally asked, not looking up, "what if someone you love didn't?"

Flo smiled sadly. Spend enough time heading off born troublemakers like Ramone and Angel, and you learn to be just as fast in mind as in body, and that came in handy when dealing with the mental games that came with Arial from time to time.

"Do you suffer with them? Do you escape?" Flo gazed sadly at the girl, lost in the cruelty of the world and the harshness of the people in it. "Can I just walk away from her?"

With a sigh, Flo put an arm around Arial and hugged her close, letting the smaller girl rest her head against her chest, "You gotta remember somethin', honey..." She closed her eyes and kissed Arial on top of the head, "Some of us have outs from the beginning, we just fool ourselves into thinking we can't take them." She hugged Arial again and got up, sparing the girl a loving smile before returning to her work.

Arial sat there for a long time.

Sometimes I'll protect you from everything that's wrong
Other times I'll let you just find out on your own

Sheriff always wondered what possessed Arial to spend hours at a time sitting in his car behind the Radiator Springs sign with him. Sometimes they would talk about nothing, sometimes about things that were really important, though never about what was happening at Arial's home. Sometimes they would simply sit in total, comfortable silence for hours at a time until Arial fell asleep or Sally sent Mater to come get her. Somehow, he doubted either of those things would be happening tonight, though.

"Would he really be allowed to do that?"

Sheriff barely glanced at the child sitting next to him before laughing out loud. That had to be the fifth time in two hours she'd asked that question. He could understand her shock, of course, and a lot of the other things that were probably going through her mind right now. He could still clearly see Mater at five years old wearing a very similar, pardon the pun, lightning-struck expression the day he had learned that he was being adopted.

It had taken just under two hours for the inhabitants of Radiator Springs to learn what had transpired at the Wheel Well the day before, another day before the tight circle of loved ones that had managed to gather themselves around Lightning McQueen's daughter learned that Doc intended to adopt her. Arial alone seemed to have trouble believing that it was really happening, which resulted in some very odd behavior.

Sheriff had to wonder if the old racer knew what he was getting into by taking in the hotrod's daughter, "Would you stop sayin' that? You'll jinx yourself." Arial smiled guiltily, making Sheriff laugh again, "I'll tell you a secret, kid. I've known Doc a long time, and I've never seen him get as attached to anyone as he did to your dad. Lightnin' was, as far as any of us were concerned, his son, and I've only seen him behave that way towards one other person."

"Who's that?" Arial asked.

"An amazin' little girl by the name of Arial."

The surprised and delighted look that passed across Arial's face suddenly made all the trouble Sheriff had gone through for her worth it. All the times he had chased her down, all the times he had "conveniently" showed up when Sally wasn't around and Arial was left alone with her husband were suddenly more than worth it. He lived for that smile some days.

But that's when you'll be growin',
And the whole time I'll be knowin

"Mom! I'm home!" Arial called as she dropped her backpack on the floor and poked her head into the kitchen, hoping for some sign of the town lawyer. No such luck. She grabbed her bag and began heading for her room. If she was lucky, Sally and Garon were out somewhere and she'd be able to lock herself in her room before- "Arial!" Damn. "You're in for it this time, you self-righteous little bitch!"

If there was one thing you never did with men like Garon, it was give them a clean shot at your face. That one simple trick had probably saved her life (or at least her looks) more than once since the man had come to live with them. Moving on the simple knowledge that the voice had come from in front of her, Arial twisted her head to the side just in time for the familiar feeling of a fist crashing into the side of her skull knocked her to the ground. Garon hauled her back to her feet by her hair and, putting his other hand around her neck, slammed her against the door to her room, "Think you can just run off like that?"

The world swam before Arial's eyes, but she knew better than to try to fight back. It would only make it worse. All she could do was remember that it would be over soon. 'One more month,' she thought desperately as Garon shouted at her, 'On more month, and I'll be out of here forever...' And then, she blacked out.

You're gonna fly with every dream you chase
You're gonna cry, but know that that's okay

'One more month' became the mantra that carried Arial through the next two weeks of 'house arrest' that Garon put her under as punishment for running off without his permission. That thought alone kept her from tears some night, but it also gave her something to think about, a small idea that began rolling around like a marble in her mind until it was bouncing off the walls, screaming to be paid attention to. The ensuing headache, which in itself was nothing strange, prompted Arial to do something completely suicidal: sneak out while Garon was passed out on the couch.

"Shooot, Lil' Lightnin', you scared me!"

Arial grinned guiltily. She had been sitting in front of the impound for the last half hour, waiting for Mater to get back from his most recent call. "Can I talk to you?"

"O'course, you can talk ter me 'bout anythin', you know that!"

So, the duo drove up to the waterfall on the road up to the Wheel Well, taking a small back road to their secret "hideout" at the base of the waterfall. It was the perfect place to escape from the rest of the world for a while, the one place where not even Doc or Angel could find them.

"You dun' look so good."

"Don't feel too good, either," Arial admitted, "I think one of my ribs is busted..."

"Then why ain'cha at Doc's gettin' fixed up? You're gonna hurt yerself even more!" Mater protested, waving his arms a little for emphasis.

Despite how much it stung to do so, Arial stretched out on a rock hanging over the river the waterfall fell into, "I'll be fine, Mater, really. I just... I gotta talk to somebody about what's goin' on, and I know I can trust you with some of the stupid stuff that I say."

Mater gave her a bemused look, which in itself was usually enough to make Arial laugh, "You never say nuthin' stupid, Lil' Lightnin'."

Arial gave a short, slightly hysterical laugh, then winced and rubbed her sore sides. With a cringe, she pulled up her shirt a little to glare at the purplish-yellow bruising that made up much of her side, "Man, I think I'm gonna look into all the crap Fillmore's been feedin' me about health food... I heard somethin' about it helping with bruising."

Mater laughed a little, "So, what's buggin' ya? I mean, ya should be happy. Doc's gonna adopt ya, ain't 'e?"

"I wanna know about my dad, Mater, like about his racing and stuff. How'd he end up here, and how'd he end up makin' friends with guys like you and Doc? Hotshot racers don't normally end up in little nowhere towns like this."

Mater gave her a thoughtful look, leaning back on his hands and staring up at the sky out from under his hat, "I dun' really know where to start. You dad kinda just blew inta town one day, and ended up tangled up in a phone line while he was at it."

"Seriously?" Arial laughed, "How'd he manage that?"

By the time Mater's story was finished, Arial had laughed to hard he was worried she was going to damage her ribs even more. For a long time they simply sat there, stretched out in the sun and watching the clouds drift by. Finally, Arial rolled in her side to look at Mater, "Is that why you always look so sad?"

Mater sat up, "Wha'?"

"Your smile's really sad," Arial muttered, rolling back onto her back and putting her hands behind her head, "it's because I remind you so much of my dad, isn't it?"

Mater closed his eyes, "Of course I miss yer dad, Lil' Lightnin', he was me best friend."

"That's gotta be the weirdest thing I've ever heard of," Arial sighed, "but seriously, am I that much like my dad that it depresses you just to look at me?"

Mater sat up so fast that Arial jumped. He turned a glare on her that would have frightened the most terrifying of monster trucks, "What did you jus' say?" Arial gave him a look that quite plainly said 'What do you think I just said?' Mater grabbed her by the arm and pulled her up, making a frightened look cross Arial's face, "Don'chu ever say somethin' like tha' again, you hear me? I love ya because yer so much like yer dad, understand? I promised him I'd look after you, and ya mean everythin' ta me." He paused, closing his eyes tightly, "Yer all I got left o' him..."

"Mater..." Arial whispered, "I..." unable to think of anything to say, she wrapped her arms around the much taller man's neck hugged him.

Sometimes life's not fair, but if you hang in there
You're gonna see that sometimes bad is good

Doc gave her black and blue ribs an experimental poke, drawing a pained hiss from his patient. He had recently come to the conclusion that, of all the things he would enjoy once Arial was under his care, the one he would most love would definitely be an end to these near-midnight visits that consisted of Mater forcibly dragging Arial in because of some wound or another that she had neglected to bring in herself for some unintelligible reason.

Granted, this one, once he had gotten the information out of her, was probably a little more valid.

"Where was Sally?" She shrugged helplessly, afraid she would do something immensely stupid if she opened her mouth now, throwing up from the pain being the least of them. "Well, nothing broken," Doc announced finally, "just a little bruising again. Be thankful you're a lot tougher thank you look." He pulled out a roll of bandages and began meticulously wrapping them around Arial's damaged torso.

Arial smiled, "Hey, Doc?"

Doc paused, "Yeah?"

"I..." she stopped, closed her eyes.

Doc continued working. There were times when he swore Arial was going on thirty, not thirteen, like right now with that look of sad contemplation on her bruised face. One of these days he swore he would kill Garon himself, just because he had to see that look. He pinned the bandage and gently placed his hands on Arial's shoulders, well aware of the painful bruises there, "Era... you're shaking."

The comment made something snap in Arial's mind. "Do you... do you think my dad would be mad at me if I started calling someone else 'Dad'?"

Doc froze, hands on her shoulders, unable to keep from staring at the blue-eyed child.

"Doc?" she asked uncertainly, "Doc, you're crying..." she reached up and brushed the tears off his face with her burned hand. It made Doc smile, just a little, because he had sworn that the nerve damage was too severe for her to ever use that hand again.

"No, Era." She jumped. "I... don't think he'd mind at all."

We just have to believe things work out like they should
Life has no guarantees, but always loved by me
You're gonna be

End Part Three

Please R&R!