He was going to rip those Ray-Bans right off the kid's face.

They had gotten absolutely nowhere and he was sure Storm was dragging his feet on purpose. An entire day was gone, no chance of getting it back and he felt like he was worse off than when he had started. Less than a week until Florida and he wasn't even back up to his usual pace.

He was glad he had opted to call Sally early that morning as opposed to a Skype call. He could at least train his voice in to a more optimistic tone. He could barely hide the look of desperation from himself and he was sure Storm was loving it.

Lightning had underestimated her, though, again. Not five minutes in to their conversation and she was interrupting him.

"Stickers, be honest with me."

He'd paused, about to brush it off and say that of course he was being honest with her, everything was going great, he'd be back in the winner's circle in no time.

Instead he stumbled a bit over his words, trying to think of how exactly to phrase it. He ran a hand through his hair and looked up at the sky, picking out random shapes in the clouds as he spoke. "I j- I dunno, Sal. I know I've said a million times how things just aren't the same but- maybe- maybe this is-"

Sally cut him off once more, her tone serious but sincere as she lowered her voice. "You know what I think you're missing?"

He huffed quietly, staring out at the waves and wishing she were there with him. He lowered his voice to match hers. "What am I missing?"

"Motivation."

"I've got plenty-"

"Just-" She interrupted him again. "Listen to me for a minute."

"Sorry."

"You can spend all day out there driving around in circles and looking at the numbers on the dash. You can figure out the science and the statistics and how much drag is affecting the car all day long but that's not what racing is to you."

"What is racing to me." He stopped in surprise as soon as he'd said it, blinking a few times at how ridiculous a question like that must have sounded coming from him. Had he actually just said that?

"I dunno, Stickers. What is racing to you?"

He was silent, holding the phone to his ear as he continued to watch the surf hit the rocks down near the pier. A little closer to where he stood was the IGNTR 2.0 driver. He must have been bored out of his mind. The last thing Lightning ever expected to witness was Jackson Storm throwing shells back in to the waves. It seemed too normal, or mundane, for him.

Sally's voice brought him back out of his revelry. "If your heart's not in this, then no amount of training will make up for it."

Lightning inhaled slowly through his nose, considering what she'd just said as he continued to look out over the water. "You're right..."

"Of course I am." She replied a little more enthusiastically than necessary. "I'm your lawyer."

He finally chuckled lowly at that, closing his eyes and running his free hand over his face. "Ok, change of plans."

"Are you really going all zen on me McQueen?"

"I'm not even sure what that means, so I'm going to go with a big ol' no. Just answer my question."

He shouldn't have gotten a sense of enjoyment out of how uncomfortable Storm looked sitting in the living quarters of his trailer. Lightning had only told Mack to drive, he wasn't even sure where they were other than that their destination was Florida.

Storm eyed the space with his usual haughty expression, sitting at the little dinette after forcefully turning down Lightning's offer of soda, coffee, or whatever it is you next-gens drink.

Maybe it was just too homey of a space for Storm, Lightning figured it wasn't sleek and high tech enough. It certainly couldn't be the abundance of family like photos Lightning had plastered all over the place.

His particular favorite had been one they'd emailed to Sally one year. He'd had to have it printed out and thrown on the paneled wall over the little sofa. He couldn't even remember what state it was, but after one of the races he and Mater had gone hiking in the local state park. They thought the staged image of him hanging on to the edge of the cliff face was hilarious.

Sally hadn't found it as funny.

Or maybe it was just the fact that there were multiple images of that hillbilly town. Lightning grinned faintly to himself over the fact that that had been his name for it at one time.

He was staring at a candid photo of himself and Doc, neither of them looking toward the camera or even aware someone was nearby with a camera. He can't remember the conversation but he remembers the race and how rough it had been. There'd been trouble with the car the entire day but he'd still pulled it off. He thinks the photo must have been snapped during the brief rain shower. Drivers had actually had time to get out of their cars. He'd unzipped his suit, his hair was a mess and his expression was that of confusion, even as he listened to whatever Doc must have been telling him.

He was dragged from his thoughts when Storm finally came up with an answer.

"Racing is nothing-"

Ok that wasn't what he expected, but he had his attention.

"-and it's everything."

"Now who's going all zen..."

"You're the one who asked."

Lightning only stared briefly with a disinterested look before getting up to open the little fridge. Maybe he should try a different tactic. "Where are you from?"

The sudden shift in topic seemed to take Jackson off guard, he glanced over his shoulder toward Lightning with lowered brows in a I see what you're trying to do manner.

When Lightning only looked back at him expectantly he shrugged a shoulder, yeah, why not humor him at least. "Maryland. Small town outside Baltimore."

"Get out. I'm originally from Annapolis. Lived there till I was about nine."

Jackson knew that, or some of that, but continued to watch him dully.

Lightning sighed, went back to his task of grabbing the glass Starbucks bottle from the fridge and slid back in to the dinette seat. "Look. I don't like this any more than you do, but we're stuck with each other for an entire week so could we maybe just for a few days drop the I can't stand the sight of you act and act like normal, adult, human beings?"

He was a little surprised to see the corner of Jackson's mouth turn up in something other than a sarcastic, egotistical, grin.

"Sure, Champ. You got it."

Never mind...

He left the dinette and moved to the more comfortable sofa across the small quarters and took Storm's example of staring at his phone for the next hour and a half. Glancing up at one point, he noticed them pulling off in to a large rest stop beside other tractor trailers. Without a word to the other, he left the space once the truck was parked and let the door swing closed with a bang behind him.

"Hey, Mack."

Mack stopped short from his walk toward the rest area and turned to face him. "Hey Lightnin', how's it going with the ol' Storm Cloud back there?"

"Wonderful..." He glanced back toward the truck before looking back at Mack. "Hey, I wasn't paying real close attention to the exit signs, how far have we gotten?"

"Oh." Mack removed his Ruzt-eze hat and wiped his brow before returning it. "We're just along the edge of South Carolina, we'll be in Georgia tomorrow morning."