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PIXAR AND DISNEY

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Rated M for language and sex.

To the Guest

ndye838I hope you keep it up with your stories i just can't stop reading them I could read them all the time - Yea, I am happy that you're enjoying them. I'm doing the happy dance(don't ask, it's not a pretty sight)

Chapter 10-A New Injury-

Lightning drove out of the structure and to his trailer. His axle was incredibly sore and tender. "What did the doctor say?" Sally asked. "I must have driven over a piece of debris or something," Lightning said. "It split my axle open. He put four staples in my axle that get taken out in a week." Sally nodded. "I'm sorry I wasn't a good crew chief," she said. "You did great for your first time" Lightning said. "It takes practice and experience to see everything you need to see out there." Sally nodded. "Well next time Mack or Abby should probably do it. I guess racing just isn't for me." "But…I'm so proud of you" Lightning said. "Yeah, well my flight leaves in a couple hours. I'd better get to the airport" Sally said. "Okay Sweetie" Lightning said. He pulled forward, hugged, and kissed Sally. "I'm going to miss you," Sally said quietly. "I'll miss you too," Lightning said. "It's only three more weeks though." "That's too long," Sally said. "Compared to three months, I think it'll fly by," Lightning said. "Fair point" Sally said smiling. Lightning pulled forward and kissed Sally again. He ignored the paparazzi around him and Sally, snapping pictures of their intimate moment. "Bye," Lightning said backing up. "Bye," Sally said. She turned around and drove away. Lightning watched his fiancé drive away and then finished packing his equipment. "Abby and Mack you ready," Lightning asked. "Yeah, Boss," Mack called out. "Alright then let's go" Lightning said. He drove around the trailer, backed up the ramp, and closed the door.

Six hours later Lightning asked Mack to stop so Lightning could drive around for a few minutes. His axles tended to cramp up if it was stationary for too long. Lightning drove down the incline and pulled into the well-manicured parking lot of a rest stop along the highway. "Thanks, Mack," Lightning said. "No problem, Light" He said. "I need to drive around for a few minutes; I'm really stiff and sore." "Is your axle acting up?" Mack asked sympathetically. "Yeah" Lightning said. "Go ahead and stretch," Mack said. "It might make you feel better." "I can't really stretch my axle like I would love to do" Lightning said, uncomfortably shifting. "I'm afraid I'll rip the staples out, and then I would be in a lot of pain" "Oh," Mack said, nodding wisely. "I see your problem." Lightning did a couple of slow laps around the rest stop. "Feel better?" Mack asked "You seem to be driving better." "Yeah, are you and Abby ready to hit the road?" Lightning asked. "As soon as she finishes her drink we will be." Mack said "I don't want Doc mad at us for showing up late. He's been very moody lately." "Abby you spend a lot if time with him" Lightning said. "Has he said anything to you about anything that has gotten him upset?" "No, he's usually sleeps or watches TV most of the time." Abby said "When we do talk, it's about the things like the weather. He has not said anything that would make me think he's upset about something. Normally when he's upset or mad about something, it's the other way around. He complains about it is for days. I now know all the curse words in the English language because of him." Mack and Lightning laughed. Lightning knew Abby was Russian by birth, so English is her second language. Her parents immigrated to America when she was just a young child. Mack and Lightning have witnessed Doc's legendary swearing, and his love for the f-word. Ten minuets later, they were back on the road.

The next morning: Lightning arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He got off his trailer and drove directly to Doc who was waiting for him. "Hey, Doc" Lightning said, driving very cautiously to Doc. Lightning's staples were bothering him and, his axle was very swollen and felt warm to the touch. "Hey, Kiddo," Doc said. His brow furrowed. "Why on earth are you drivin' so funny?" "I sliced my bad axle open," Lightning said. "I have four staples in it and it's extremely sore and tender." "How in the fuck did you do that?" Doc asked, almost angrily. "I don't exactly know, but I'm assuming that I ran over a piece of debris from that big wreck on Sunday" Lightning said. "When I took my brace off after the race, Sally noticed that I was bleeding. So we went to the track doctor. He said that there was a gash that needed four staples." Doc nodded. "So you're still racing Sunday?" "Yeah," said Lightning "Good" Doc said. Lightning nodded and shifted uncomfortably as one of the staples pulled on his axle. "You're in no condition to train," Doc said. "You have always raced well at this track so I'm going to recommend that you take the week off." "I'm sorry, Doc," Lightning said earnestly. "I didn't see that piece of debris. The track doctor said it would have sliced my axle in half if I hadn't been wearing my brace." "I know that you didn't mean to," Doc said heavily. "But, I would like to take a look at it." "Right now?" Lightning asked. "Yeah," Doc replied. "Let's go to the medical building." Lightning followed Doc across the large parking lot, putting as little weight on his front right tire as possible.

Once Lightning and Doc arrived in the medical building, Lightning drove up the examining table's ramp. Doc drove under the table and flipped the light on. "Geeze, Rookie!" Doc exclaimed. "Is it bad?" Lightning asked, wincing as Doc examined the injury. "It's not good. You must have driven over a piece of metal; it's the only thing that would cause this amount of damage. The wound is deep, but it's clean cut so it should heal well." Doc said. "There's a lot of swelling, you need two more staples than what you got and it's also infected. Did the track doctor even bother to clean the wound before he stapled it shut?" "I don't know, he seemed to be upset with me coming in after the race." Lightning said "He did not discuss with me what he was going to do, he just did it." "Did you get some antibiotics?" "No, the doctor said nothing about antibiotics. Are you going to put the staples in?" Lightning asked. "Eventually, I'm gonna have to" Doc said. It's very long gash without anything holding it together. I'm also ordering you antibiotics" "Is the infection bad?" Lightning asked. "No, not yet" Doc said "If I leave it like that, it will be. I'm going to get some local anesthesia, I need to remove those staples and thoroughly clean out the wound. Doc said. "Just sit tight I'll be back soon." "That's just great" Lightning said to himself "It sounds like my axle going to painful for a while."

Forty minutes later, Doc came back with a tray of tools and a nurse. "Lightning this Nurse Harper, she's going to assist me in cleaning out your wound." Doc said "She's going to inject some local anesthesia into your axle so you won't feel anything." "That's a type of painkiller, I can't have painkillers" Lightning said. "Lightning relax, it's not a painkiller and it has a different chemical compound. It is very short lived and can only be used by a doctor." Harper drove under the table and flipped on a powerful light and shined it on his injury. "Ouch, Lightning that looks like it hurts." Harper said when she saw the condition of the wound "Are you ready for the injection?" "Yes… just get it over with" Lightning said as he felt the needle in his axle. There was some intense burning feeling for a few seconds and then his axle went nub, then gradually he couldn't feel anything. "Ok, Rookie" Doc said as he pinched his axle a few times to see if he could get any reaction from Lightning. "We're ready to start. You might feel some pulling and tugging but nothing else. We are going to document your injury so we will be taking pictures as we work." Doc picked up a device and started removing the staples.

"The track doctor did a poor job in cleaning this injury, the infection gets worse as we get deeper." Harper said as she started to clean his wound. Every now and again they would stop and take a couple of pictures. "This is worse than I expected" Doc said. "Look what I found." It was a small shard of metal. Harper got a specimen container and Doc put the metal shard in it. Doc found a few more shards. "Kid, once we are done, you need to file a complaint ageist the doctor that treated you" Doc said angrily. "I just found a ninth piece of metal in your axle. One or two I would expect, but nine, this is just unacceptable." Pain suddenly shot through his axle as Harper pulled a big shard out of his wound. Lightning groaned and shifted uncomfortably. "I know kid, hang in there, we're almost done." Doc said knowing that the anesthesia was starting to wear off, and Lightning was starting to feel what they were doing to him. Harper finished cleaning the wound by flushing the era with Iodine. "Doc, are you done?" Lightning said "My axle is starting to really hurt, please hurry." "We just need to get the staples in and then we'll be done." Doc said as he drove over to a drawer and pulled out a large medical stapler. He drove back under the examining table. Lightning closed his eyes and held his breath. Doc pulled the trigger on the staple gun. Lightning jumped as he felt the staple shoot into his axle. "Ugh," Lightning groaned "I hate getting staples." "You and me both, Kiddo," Doc said as he added another staple. "Just hang in there; I'll be done in a few minutes." Lightning's stomach lurched as intense pain shot through his axle as Doc added another staple. "But you would need a lot more than six staples if you hadn't been wearing your brace." Lightning swallowed a few times to keep from vomiting. "Ok, that looks much better." Doc said driving from underneath him.