Hello! It's been a long time. But ever since I saw Cars 3, I just knew I couldn't leave this story on just eight chapters. I knew I had to add. But I will speed up the story. I've been wanting to get to Lightning's teenage years for some time. He' going to drive Doc crazy. Any other baby story will come as some sort of flashback.

Small Lightning Bolt

Chapter 9: A Slice of Life

"Alright, hotshot! Listen up!" Doc glared down at the baby, who just seemed confused at the adult. "I don't want you running off, ok? I am getting old to have a race with you so think of running away to who knows where and I'll ground you. Got that?"

Lightning stared at the adult with wide eyes, obviously not understanding anything that was said to him. Doc sighed. If he was told five years ago that he was going to raise a baby, he would have laughed and tell them they were crazy. Now he realized he was the crazy one. Just a months ago, Lightning had gone crazy with his new found speed and almost crashed into Luigi's building, but was quickly saved by Guido, who threw tires on the baby's way to slow him down.

But Lightning kept running off anyway.

Doc was seriously considering not giving the baby too much gas, but he was just a baby and it was crucial for him to get it.

"And you don't understand anything I say…" He sighed. "This is harder than I thought."

"Ba!"

Doc stared. "What…"

"Bab… bad… dab… ba… ba…"

Doc kept staring. This was the first time he heard the baby mumble something that wasn't pure nonsense.

"Da…"

Doc's eyes widened. "Heavens…"

"Dad!" Lightning laughed. "Da! Da! Da!" Doc smiled. "That's right, rookie. I'm your dad."

OOO

"DOC!" Sheriff yelled and slammed open the doors to the clinic. Doc stared back and Sheriff growled. "Use that racing speed of yours and get that blasted little delinquent you call son off my streets!"

Doc choked on a laugh and Sheriff glared. "What's so funny!?"

"Oh, Sheriff. I think the heat of the sun is affecting you." Doc chuckled.

"No such thing!"

"Lightning is only two and a half."

"And races like a demon!"

"I know that. No need to remind me." Doc rolled his eyes.

"He was racing down the street like a fireball."

"Again, Sheriff. It's the heat."

"No it isn't!"

Doc rolled his eyes and smiled. "You better stop screaming. The kid's been taking his afternoon nap in that corner. All afternoon." He signaled to a pile of blankets at the corner of his office. Above them, a little red car slept.

Sheriff stared in disbelief while Doc chuckled. "Go to Flo's. Drink some cold oil. Doctor's orders." He tried not to laugh too hard if he didn't want to wake the toddler.

Sheriff groaned and left the office.

OOO

Flo and Ramone looked down at the three year old red car, who looked back with a guilty expression. He broke one of Ramone's shop's window with a ball.

"I'm sowwy…" Lightning mumbled. He sniffed.

"Oh, darling. It's ok."

"Of course, Rayito. But remember that you can't play with balls near a window. You could have hurt yourself."

Flo and Ramone had adopted the aunt and uncle roles since Lightning came to town and cared deeply for him. Or maybe they just tried to spoil him rotten, like Doc would say.

"Are telling you telling daddy?" Lightning sniffed. "He said the Cacti Monster would follow me if I was bad…" He whined.

Flo and Ramone glanced at each other and sighed. Flo gave the little car a gentle smile. "He doesn't need to know, honey. But you will have to help clean up your mess."

Lightning eagerly nodded. Flo and Ramone chuckled. Ever since Lightning hit the terrible two phase, he became a little menace, especially for Sheriff. The kid had too big of a heart and a lot of respect for his father, but that wasn't enough to keep him in check. So Doc devised something to do it. He told the others, except Mater since he was a very superstitious car, about the Cacti Monster trying to get Lightning. And it worked. At first, they all felt bad for lying to him, but it was either that or ending with week-long hoodaches.

OOO

Lightning was five when he broke Lizzy's radio in one of his speed boosts. He willingly did anything that was asked of him for the rest of the week as long as he didn't have to get near the old car. In his humble opinion, she scared him.

When he was six, he was misbehaving badly, so Sarge took it as a challenge to treat him as a cadet for the rest of the week. Nobody knows how intense the training was, but Doc was impressed that Sarge's military training worked wonders on Lightning's discipline. As for Filmore, the hippie van taught Lightning peace making techniques which, ironically, worked on Sarge and the van himself when they argued.

Lightning was seven when he managed his first full Italian conversation with Guido and Luigi. Along with teaching Italian to the young car, the Italian duo thought him all he needed to know about tires.

Lightning was eight when he decided to keep Sheriff some company one lonely night. He ended up listening to a lot of interesting stories of the old days.

Lightning often talked to Red when he had no one else to talk to and when he was ten, he gifted the fire truck more flowers to water… even if he had gotten covered in cacti patches in the process.

Also, when he was ten…

"Can I go to the track, dad?"

Doc looked at the young ten year old staring at him with hopeful eyes.

"I already finished my homework!"

"No."

"I cleaned my room."

"No."

"I had my shift at Flo's!"

"No."

"I woke Sheriff from his slumber!"

"No."

"I made sure Mater didn't scare off the tractors!"

"I'll think about it." Doc said and went back to his newspaper.

"Come on!"

Doc sighed. He was regretting the day he showed Lightning the dirt track. "Fine! But only for a few minutes and I'm going with you. And you're not going any faster than fifty miles."

"Yes!" The ten year old said under his breath. "Let's go, dad!" And he raced towards Willie Butte's. Doc followed with a sigh. He wasn't sure how Lightning had gotten so into racing, but he was worried. He knew Lightning didn't know anything about his past as a racing car, he wasn't planning on telling him. He knew that with Lightning's ten year old mind, he wouldn't be able to understand. Maybe someday, but that day was not today.

"Hey, rookie!" Doc called after spending half an hour watching the young red car doing laps. "It's noon and you know Flo will have our bumpers if we are late for supper again."

Lightning groaned. "Coming…" Doc smiled at the little car as they drove back to town. Boy was he lucky to call Lightning his son. But he was worried about this new found racing passion the kid discovered…

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