They arrived home early the next morning. Doc hadn't realized he, too, had fallen asleep until he opened his eyes to find the sun just beginning to peek over the landscape.

Lightning had worked himself into another frenzy when Doc woke him—one that was brought to a swift end when Doc related the call he'd received last night from Sarge.

"Okay… Okay, so they stalled for me, but that means he's still here…"

The entire drive back, Doc had let the kid rant out his worries, but once they'd set foot in the house, he had made it clear that the time for what ifs was over.

"And remind me never to fall asleep against the fender of a car again," he'd groaned, massaging his now aching back the best he could.

Lightning's smile hadn't quite reached his eyes, but it was a start nonetheless. "Sure thing, Doc."

After that, the kid had collapsed on the couch and caught a few more hours of sleep.

And for a short while, everything was fine.

Until the sheriff showed up at the side door.

"Just wanted to let you know," he said, lowering his voice a bit when Doc gestured toward the sleeping kid in the living room, "that agent of his is up and about, no doubt looking for the two of you."

With that news now weighing on his mind, Doc tactfully moved the conversation outside.

"What's goin' on, Hud? Not that I'm trying to pry, but it sure makes it hard to help you out if I don't know what it is I'm supposed to be doing."

Heaving a sigh, Doc shook his head and leaned against the side of the house. "You've probably figured out by now that Harv isn't the most… pleasant person to be around."

"Understatement of the century, I think."

"Truly. Lightning's contract expires soon, that's why his agent is hounding him like this. That, and the fact that he's realized Lightning just might not be open to renewing it."

"That bad, huh?"

"Worse." Doc sighed once more. "It would take more time than we have to tell you everything, but the short of it is: I'm not letting that man and his twisted contact come within ten feet of the kid."

The sheriff gave a sly grin. "Want me to throw him in jail for a few days?"

Doc couldn't help but chuckle. "As much as I'd like to see that, I think it'd do more harm than good."

"You know," Sheriff said after a moment, "I thought the fella was going to give himself a double hernia last night, he was so riled up."

"I hope he didn't give you too much trouble."

"No more than we gave him, I reckon. Mater just about talked his ear off and I'm sure if he ever sees Fillmore's van again, it'll be too soon."

Doc's second chuckle was cut off by a dull thud that sounded in the kitchen, which preceded a muffled curse.

Here we go…

The sheriff frowned and followed Doc inside.

Lightning was just about to throw his phone against the wall when Doc clamped a hand around his wrist.

"Now, I know you hate your phone right now, but I happen to like that particular pattern of wallpaper."

"I just got off the phone with Mack," the kid bit out as Doc released his grip, confident there wouldn't be a new dents in his wallpaper anytime soon. "He said Harv's going to have him fired if I don't show up and talk about that stupid contract! Harv's threatened that before and nothing ever happened, but I think this time he actually might make good on his threat. He's so damn—ugh!" Lightning threw a sharp kick at the nearest chair. "I hate it when he uses Mack as leverage!"

"All right, so he's here to talk business," Doc began, keeping his tone calm and hoping it would begin to soothe the kid. "Why don't you invite him over and we'll get this taken care of?"

But the kid was already shaking his head. "I don't want him here. He already ruins everything, I don't want him ruining this house, too. It's so… so peaceful here."

And if Doc's heart hadn't already been breaking for the kid all week, he was certain it would've started up right then.

"Okay, so we'll call him up and arrange a meeting at Flo's."

"But there's probably going to be shouting and I…" Lightning wrapped his arms around his chest. "I-I don't want to do that to her."

"Son, I think she can handle it."

Lightning didn't seem convinced, but he nodded anyway. "Sure, I guess. Hey, Sheriff," he went on, appearing to notice the man's presence for the first time, "Harv's front headlight is broken and he won't get it fixed. Can you arrest him for that?"

Doc forced a wry grin even as his insides rebelled against him. "Nice try, rookie. Why don't you go get changed and I'll give Harv a call."

The kid perked up at this. "Wait, you will? You'll call him for me?"

"After Texas, I think it'd be best, don't you?"

"Yeah, you can be like…" Snapping his fingers, Lightning searched for the right word. "Like, my in-between or something. Oh, my representative!"

This time, his smile was a bit more genuine. "Sure, kid, I'll be your representative. How does noon sound?"

"Hey, the sooner the better."

"Not too soon, though. We still need time to brief your lawyer."

"Oh, shoot! That's right, Sally called last night when I had my phone off. I'll need to call her back after you're done."

Handing Doc the cell phone, Lightning dashed up the stairs.

And Doc's grin faded. "See what I mean?"

The sheriff blew out a sigh, shaking his head. "Where'd he even dig this guy up, anyway?"

"I think it was Harv who found Lightning. Back when he was a teenager, I think."

"Which doesn't seem to me like that was too long ago…"

Lips pursed, Doc found Harv's contact and took a breath.

It was time to end this.

The agent answered after one ring. "There you are! Now, you listen to me you ungrateful wretch. I've been trying to get a hold of you for almost three days. Did you hear me? Three days."

"I hear you loud and clear," Doc replied, savoring the stunned silence as his voice filtered across the line in lieu of Lightning's. "Now, it's your turn to listen to me. Despite technically being forced into this position, Lightning is willing to meet with you around noon today at Flo's Cafe. Is that acceptable?"

"I don't have to listen to you. Who even are you? You show up out of nowhere and practically take over the kid's life and—" A huff. "Look, I don't do business with crew chiefs. You put Lightning on right now or I'll fire you like all the rest."

The touch of desperation lacing the agent's voice was music to Doc's ears. Time was quickly running out and Harv knew it.

"Last I checked, you didn't hire me. The kid did. Now, is noon at Flo's acceptable?"

He could tell the man was itching to say no. To demand a word with Lightning and continue burning his entitled way through town.

Though it took a moment, Doc finally got the begrudging affirmative he had been expecting, one obviously forced out through clenched teeth.

Doc smiled. "Perfect. We'll see you then."

Without giving Harv a chance to get another word in, he ended the call.

"Whew," Sheriff said, scratching his head. "He sounded madder than a hornet in October."

"I'm looking forward to the moment this is all over." Harv's voice still burned in his ear and Doc briefly wondered if this was how the kid felt after each phone call from the man.

He thought back to that first day in Florida. The kid had been so confident in his agent; so oblivious to everything Harv had been putting him through. That, or he just hadn't wanted things to change. Doc knew a thing or two about wanting to keep things as they were—sometimes change was too hard or too painful.

It was a much wiser, though still a bit uncertain, Lightning who had sat on the plateau last night.

It's true that change was often difficult, but it was one of the more critical aspects of life. Doc didn't even want to think about what life would be like right now if he hadn't opened himself to change that night the kid had been swept out of town by the media…

"You know…" The sheriff's voice cut through Doc's musings. "That agent fella said something odd last night when he was trying to get ahold of Lightning." Doc furrowed his brows slightly, waiting for his friend to continue. "Something about the kid not being able to ignore any of his calls 'cause there's something about it in their contract."

As Sheriff shrugged, Doc held himself back from strangling the phone in his hand. Maybe there really was something to throwing it against the wall after all…

"Did he say anything else?"

With a humorless chuckle, the sheriff shook his head. "He said a lot of things, a few of which I don't feel like repeatin'."

Doc pursed his lips. "Well, that seems about right."

Before he could say anything else, Lightning came bounding back down the stairs.

"So," the kid said, his tone the epitome of forced nonchalance, "what'd he say?"

Handing over the phone, Doc smiled. "He agreed to meet us at twelve. That gives us a couple hours to figure out our game plan."

Lightning nodded, chewing the inside of his lip. "Yeah… Yeah, that sounds good. Uh, I think I should call Mack, just to update him and all that, and then Sally, too."

As the kid drifted out of the kitchen to make his calls, Doc found himself making an outlandish wish: if time travel were real, he would take Lightning and skip past this whole mess. He would skip ahead to a more peaceful time, where Lightning was settled in with a solid new agent and they were all celebrating the kid's first Piston Cup victory.

Despite everything, Doc felt a smile lift the corners of his lips. It was a lovely thought, the fact that the kid would keep brightening up Radiator Springs for the foreseeable future.

Hard to believe there was ever a time where you wanted to send him away.

The past was always going to be full of mistakes; there was no point in dwelling on them.

So, Doc focused on the immediate future. They had until twelve o'clock. All the time in the world.

Somehow, some way, they were going to win this. Harv would turn tail and run, wishing he was the one who had an entire town backing him.

Doc was sure of it.

He hated to bring everyone into this.

Fillmore, Sarge, Flo, and Mater were already involved, and now Sally.

He'd heard about last night from Mater, and while the story of the town's antics had brought him a certain amount of sick satisfaction, Lightning couldn't help but think that he'd already put enough of a wrench in Radiator Springs' peaceful atmosphere with his mere presence there.

Though he tried to convince himself that the same people who drove all the way out to California on short notice for his last race wouldn't mind being pulled into whatever chaos Harv was about to bring to town, Lightning still couldn't shake the guilt.

They don't deserve this.

Kicking at a stone on the pavement helped release a bit of the frustration that had been building in his chest since last night.

Mack was all understanding reassurances when Lightning had called him, as he knew the trucker would be, but it still felt so wrong and twisted.

None of this should've happened.

He kicked at the stone again.

I never should've let it get this far.

Maybe it would've just been better to sign the stupid contract and get it all over with.

Yeah, like you really want to do that now…

Doc had opened his eyes over the course of the last week. Sometimes, it took an outsider to point out something that once seemed so normal; to show you just how wrong and disturbing it all really was.

There would be no going back. Maybe the Lightning of a few days ago could have turned around and acted like nothing bad had been happening, but now…

Now, he couldn't wait to get Harv out of his life. Which also made him feel guilty. The man had done so much for him over the past couple of years.

Don't I owe it to him to…

To what?

"As much as I know you'd like to think so, Hot Rod, he's not your friend. He never was."

He sucked in a breath, rounding another building on his way to Sally's. The phone call had been short and she'd invited him over to talk "legal matters," though he suspected she really just wanted to see him in person.

It hadn't even been a full twenty-four hours since they last saw each other and he already missed her.

Going away for an entire race weekend was going to suck. Big time.

He didn't register the hand clasped around his wrist until he felt himself stumble behind the decrepit wall of one of the town's many abandoned buildings.

"There you are!" Lightning forced himself not to cringe at the familiar voice. "Finally! What does it take for a guy to get a chance to talk to his own client, for crying out loud?"

To the man's credit, Harv released his arm the second he'd pulled Lightning out of sight of the main road, but that didn't stop the skin from throbbing.

Lightning opened his mouth only to have a deafening silence come out. He was supposed to know what to say. He always knew what to say.

It's just Harv. You've talked to him a million times.

Yet, this time felt different. Harv felt different.

He felt wrong.

In typical Harv fashion, he knew what to say when Lightning didn't. "Listen, what's all this crap about you not answering my calls?"

"I-I…" Lightning cleared his throat, hoping it would also clear his head. Somehow. "I just needed a break."

"From me?" Harv barked a laugh. "Come on, baby, it's me. You know me! You've known me for, what? Close to three years now? Okay, maybe more like two, two and a half—probably closer to two… But still, that's way longer than you've known any of these guys, and yet you're letting them talk you into ghosting me! You've never done that before, so I know someone told you to, don't try to deny it."

"We made history! His-tor-ry!"

Lightning swallowed at the memory of that first meeting between Harv and Doc.

"He definitely did."

"I just had my phone off for a while, okay? It's… It's really nothing personal."

"Really?" Crossing his arms, Harv shot him a skeptical look. "Because it sure feels personal."

"Yeah?" Though his head was still spinning, a new thought came to mind. "Well, you've ignored my calls several times before."

"That's different."

Lightning felt his brows dip. "How is that different? There were times I needed you and you acted like I didn't even exist!" Because two could play at that game.

"I was exhausted because you—"

"Hey, don't you dare turn this back on me…"

"Come on, kid, I never—"

"How is that different?"

"I'm the one who got you this far. I made you. So don't you dare tell me how this is somehow all my fault. I wasn't the one yawning every five seconds on a live broadcast."

Lightning pushed away the memory and kept up his glare, staring the man down with a resolve he hadn't felt since San Antonio.

Harv didn't even try to come up with an answer, simply waving his infamous dismissive hand. "It just is. And what's all this about twelve o'clock? Since when did we ever need a specific time and place to do business together?"

"You always come back around. Now, you still wanna make it up to me for blowing it with Dinoco, right?"

Lightning took a deep breath. "Maybe..." Breathe, McQueen. You can do this. "Maybe I don't want to do business with you anymore, Harv."

The agent laughed again, a grating sound Lightning had never particularly liked. "Good one, kid."

"I'm serious."

The agent's humor shifted to a hard glare in less than half a second. "Look, who else is gonna want to take you on, huh? I believed in you when no one else would, remember?"

"I know, and I'm grateful for everything you've done for me. Really. But I think it's time for us both to move on, you know? You can find some other up and coming rookie and make a star out of him or something."

"I already have a star!" Lightning steeled himself against the rising fury in his agent's face. He hadn't seen the man this mad since Talladega… "I made you! And now you're just going to throw it away, wreck everything we have, just because you think you've found some better friends?"

"In case you've somehow forgotten, I'm Lightning McQueen and you're not. I can do whatever I want, and right now, I want to go home."

"No!" Lightning snapped, jabbing a finger at his own chest. "I made me. Maybe you paved some of the way and maybe you gave me opportunities I might not have found on my own, but another agent would've done the same thing! I'm the one who got me this far. I'm the one who straps myself into a ticking time bomb just waiting for someone to make a wrong move and smash me into a wall. I'm the one who has the guts to drive two hundred miles an hour mere inches away from forty-two other cars all hell-bent on coming in first place. I'm the one who made me, you're just the one who sits back and takes all the credit! Doc was right, you never cared about me. You only care about yourself—"

The sound of the smack startled Lightning more than the act itself and for a long moment, he just stood there, letting the shock roll off his body in waves.

What the…?

Then, the pain swooped in hot and heavy, pulsing and pulling at his cheek. Before he could put a comforting hand to the abused patch of skin, however, Harv grabbed his arm once more and yanked him close.

"All right," the man hissed in his ear, "I'm done playing games with you, do you hear me? I don't care what they tried to tell you about me, but if that contract doesn't get signed before the end of the day, I will personally see to it that your life becomes a living hell, got it?"

Pulling away only made Harv's grip tighten and Lightning fought to hold back a wince. Heart hammering in his chest, memories of Talladega flashed across his mind.

"Do you get some sort of sick satisfaction from making me look bad?"

"Harv, I spun out. It's a race, stuff like that happens. I swear, I didn't do it on purpose—"

"You threw the whole race! And in the first stage, too!"

The lack of understanding. The pacing back and forth. The fury.

"I swear, Harv, I didn't—"

That same hand clamping around his arm.

"All right, sure. Now it's my turn to talk and your turn to listen."

Squeezing, pulling, controlling.

"One more performance like whatever the hell I just saw out there and we're done. I don't support losers, so you either show me that you're a winner or you're done. You hear me? Done."

This time, Lightning couldn't hold back a slight shiver.

"You know I can do it, too," Harv went on. "So, I suggest you rethink whatever little strategy you've been cooking up with that new crew chief of yours. Because I can ruin him, too. Kapish?"

Despite his earlier resolve, Lightning felt his head nod as he tried once more to free his arm.

He remembered tugging down the sleeves of his jacket under the sweltering Alabama sun. He remembered the bruising, the divots where nails had dug a little too deep.

And he remembered the deep feeling of loneliness that had washed over him that night; remembered convincing himself that everyone had bad days. Everyone got angry once in a while.

Harv hadn't meant it then. Right…?

"Good." When he let go, Lightning had no doubt that, this time, he did. "I'm glad we understand each other."

Yeah. Now, Lightning understood perfectly. It just took a couple years…

As Harv disappeared around the corner, Lightning sagged against the wall, tugging the sleeve of his jacket securely down over his arm.

He didn't even want to look at it. He knew what he'd see. Same as Talladega.

Harv's threat buzzed in the air, nearly suffocating him every time he tried to take a breath.

Maybe…

Maybe it wasn't too late to turn back and forget this whole thing after all.