"You're really gunna meet him?"
"I don't know." Lightning glanced up at his fifteen year old daughter. "I have a brief cameo, it probably won't even be shooting the same day."
"But he'll be there."
"I don't know, honey." He'd been silently dreading the days that she would reach this age. When she'd stop staring at him with star struck eyes and start noticing boys.
She'd broadened her horizons, not by too much, but she wasn't always carting around Piston cars anymore. She wasn't always wearing her dirt track racer shirt. Jess had started throwing in the current pop culture movies and her current favorites were the Marvel superhero movies.
Lightning had been asked if he could do a cameo, along with Jr, Bobby, and Cal in some movie called Logan-...something or other. She didn't know.
What she did know, was that Sebastian Stan was supposed to be in it.
"But if you meet him can you get me his autograph? A picture!"
"I can try."
She went bouncing out of the room and down the hall to her mother's office, and Lightning could hear her humming excitedly as she left. He'd never expected his Jessica to be so star struck over an actor. She was usually so level headed and reserved.
"Dad says he'll get a picture with 'im if he can."
Sally set her work aside and looked up at her daughter. The freckles across her nose had faded, she wasn't tall by any means, but she'd really grown a lot that summer.
She motioned for Jess to come closer and when the girl was within reach she wrapped her arms around her and pulled her onto the chair with her. "You know he might not meet him."
"Yeah..."
"It'd probably be easier to go straight to Twitter."
"I don't have one."
"We'll figure something out."
"If I don't find this guy, Jess probably won't speak to me for a week."
Jr watched him with an amused expression from where he sat under the over sized tent in the infield at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Their roles were easy. They didn't have to spend hours getting makeup and costumes ready, they'd brought their old racing suits and makeup came around to make sure they looked just right for the few minutes they'd be in this movie.
Lightning stood just outside the tent, squinting in either direction and looking back down at his phone.
"So she's how old now?"
"Fifteen. Well she'll be fifteen. Her birthday is next week."
"Thanks for reminding me. She'll be driving in a year."
"She's been driving."
"I mean with a real license on the road."
Lightning hesitated and looked up. Jr was right, and the idea of Jess driving on the highway was more frightening than if she were to take a stock car on to the track right now.
He shook his head and went back to figuring out how he was going to make this work.
"What are you watching?" Lightning asked when he returned home. He knew Jess wasn't going to be happy with him. He'd called ahead to break the news that he hadn't gotten a picture. He could tell she was disappointed but she didn't throw a temper tantrum.
He watched as she clicked through a few episodes on Netflix and tilted his head when some very familiar vehicles showed up in the thumbnail images.
"Jess what is this?"
"Cars-toons." She glanced up at him briefly. "It's based on Radiator Springs, remember? They made a whole huge show about it."
He vaguely remembered a few from when Jess was very young, but he had no idea Netflix had teamed up with that one animation company and then run with it.
"I thought they were just short movies?"
"No, it's a tv show now."
"Huh..." He set his luggage down and sat beside her on the couch, staring at the tv. "You like 'em?"
She nodded and looked at him. "Wanna watch my favorite?"
He nodded, staring at the logo and description beside the episode lists, animated versions of everyone's cars were lined up across the descriptions.
Jess clicked through the list and moved to lean back against her father and he automatically put his arm over her shoulder, still staring at the screen.
He read the title and description as the loading bar slowly moved up to 100%.
He suddenly remembered the hassle Sally had with copyright. They didn't change names, they didn't change the makes or models of cars. This cartoon was using real people and places. No one in Radiator Springs had a problem with it, it was just a lot of red tape to deal with during production.
Monster of Progress
Lightning McQueen has come to stay in the sleepy little town of Radiator Springs. When the racing headquarters threatens to build too close to his friends' beloved landmarks, it's up to Lightning and the townsfolk to stop the dreaded machine of progress.
That had never happened, but he supposed it was a cute idea for a kid's show.
The opening theme was well done, a rendition of Life is a Highway with dizzying clips of cars racing, scenes from an animated version of town, and a phenomenal mock up of Flo's cafe. He nearly laughed out loud at the little forklift that was supposed to be Guido. Lightning was impressed, even if it took him a little to get past the idea that a red car with a face was supposed to be him. A logo looking somewhat like the V8 used on many cars flashed up on screen before fading to black and then fading back in to a scene of a dusty looking junk yard.
Boy did they have Mater to a T.
He watched with a slowly growing smile until the tow truck turned to the racecar.
"Why don't you go ask Doc? I mean he can fix just about anything."
They'd even animated the Do Not Enter signs on the garage doors...
Lightning fought to bite back a pained smile.
How did animators put so much emotion in to a car?
What was worse, was if he closed his eyes he could imagine Doc was there in the room.
He took a deep breath and huffed, glancing down to see his daughter's eyes glued to the screen as the episode continued. Of course the big bad racing headquarters had to settle on building outside of town, everyone was happy again and the episode ended with a lead up to the next episode. The little blue porche deciding it was time to reopen The Wheel Well.
He was a grown man and he knew he'd end up binge watching a cartoon.
"That's really well done." He commented as it immediately rolled into the next episode.
"Yeah. I like them." She nodded and looked up at him.
"Hey...sorry I couldn't-"
"It's ok, Daddy. I'm sure kids act the same way about you."
That was a strange thought.
"I couldn't get a picture, but I was able to get this."
He pulled his phone from his pocket, clicked through the gallery and tapped on a video before handing her the phone.
She took it from him, looking at him with lowered brows before turning her attention to the screen.
Jr, Cal, Bobby, and Lightning all stood in their racing suits with their helmets on. Jess made a face, confusion evident when Jr flipped up the visor and started singing happy birthday.
They turned it in to a round, and every time they started over, the next driver in line popped up the visor.
When they reached the end, her father removed his helmet completely.
But it wasn't Lightning. It was Sebastian Stan.
He took the phone from who she guessed must have been Lightning. "I heard it's your birthday next week and that you didn't get to come out to the set, so I want to wish you the happiest of birthdays, Jessica. Eat lots of cake, or ice cream, or lots of both because it's your birthday and you do what you want. I'm sending an early birthday gift with your dad, but you can't open it till your birthday! Haha-"
The phone could only record so long, they'd found that out, unfortunately too late, but Jess looked like she was about to scream, so Lightning figured it was ok.
Her eyes were huge and her jaw had dropped, looking up at him before throwing her arms around his neck. "Thank you! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!"
She tore off down the hallway, screaming for Sally, with Lightning's phone in her hand.
He smirked and leaned back in the couch, grabbed the remote, and clicked back up to the very first episode on the list.
AN: Messed with some timelines on this but was struck with the idea after seeing a trailer for Logan Lucky. I've also heard Sebastian Stan is super friendly and loves his fans.
Also, autocorrect is the enemy. I always find stupid typos after I've posted.