So, welcome to Everything Part 2, and yes, you will probably find that there is an equal amount of feels in this one. The original part of this one was written almost right after Part 1 all the way back in September 2017, because I apparently needed a follow up. Enjoy the bitter-sweetness that will be there.

It had been almost six months since Sally had told him that Doc had left him everything.

During then he had talked with Stephen Piston and Lynda Weathers, Doc's one nephew and niece. They had both assured him that they had spent more than one day with their uncle going through photos, nick-knacks, and other belongings, to gather what they wanted.

Truthfully, they were going to treasure those days reminiscing with their uncle more than anything they had picked out to keep. And neither of them needed any of their uncle's Piston Cup stuff, they had more than enough from their grandfather and father, not to mention for Lynda everything that Strip had collected over the years.

They had also pointed out that their brother had never been overly close with their aunt and uncle, so he didn't want anything himself. While that was certainly reassuring to hear, he told them that if there ever was something they wanted to just let him know and he would give it to them.

They had just shared a look with each other after he had said that. Lynda explained to him, he was practically their cousin. They saw him as family because their uncle had treated him as such. It only felt right to them that he would get everything; besides, they knew it was being left in good, caring hands. That meant just as much to them as anything else.

Since then, he hadn't yet looked at anything other than the Hornet and Doc's aviators, which he had taken from the Hornet. When he woke up that morning he decided he wanted to be alone, but before he could, he had to meet up for breakfast with Sally. It was not something he could just blow off, even with the way he was feeling.

It was one of those days where he woke up missing Doc something ferociously; he had actually woken up with tears in his eyes and it was definitely why he wanted to be alone today. It felt like it would be a good day to finally go to the garage and start to work. Maybe sorting through Doc's old stuff would help ease his ache and help him feel closer to Doc again. If not, he could at least pretend that Doc was there with him. But first, breakfast with Sally.

Sally had beaten him there and was already in their regular booth.

oOo

Sally could tell something was up when Lightning entered. He sat across from her, his face set in determination, so she wasn't all that surprised when good morning was not the first thing that left his mouth.

"I'm going to start sorting through some of the boxes in Doc's garage."

"Do you want any help?" She asked even though she figured she knew what his answer would be. He just shook his head.

"I just want to be alone today and looking through Doc's old stuff will at least make the day a little productive." In other words he was missing Doc and was hoping being around his stuff would help. She wouldn't say any of that though.

"Okay. Just come and get me if you need anything. Alright?"

"Of course, thank-you Sally." He had looked relieved at what she had said and she had understood everything that thank-you had meant. For not prying, not inviting herself to help him, for understanding that he needed to do this himself, but still willing to be there if he did end up needing her.

Their breakfast ended up being rather subdued, due to Lightning's mood. She hoped for his sake that he would get something out of working in Doc's garage today. Lightning gave her a kiss on the temple before he left.

oOo

This time, he didn't hesitate before going into the garage and turning on the lights. He did debate with himself on whether to leave the garage doors open while he worked or not. He decided against leaving the doors open; he didn't want people to be able to watch him while he worked, not when there was a high possibility of tears. Besides he could always open them later if it started to feel stuffy.

After looking around trying to figure out where to even start, he decided to start with a small pile of boxes by Doc's desk. There were only three of them, none of them were labelled, and the top two were comparatively light in comparison to the bottom box. He started with the light boxes.

Neither of them ended up having much in them, but he removed everything from the boxes anyway. The one box seemed to have stuff relating to his first week in Radiator Springs. A few newspaper articles from his rookie year with pages printed off from web searches about him; all covered in Doc's handwriting. Doc must have done a lot of research on him from all the notes he had.

It was no wonder why then Doc hadn't been concerned about their little race, he knew that dirt at the time, was a foreign concept to him. He would have to read what Doc had thought about him, he was pretty sure it wasn't going to be flattering. Though, right now he was too interested in what else there was to find though to read them.

In that first box there was also a few VHS tapes for the town's old shared video camera. He wasn't sure he wanted to know what was on them. They all were labelled with his name on them and things like; 'McQueen's best fit', 'McQueen's dousing by Red', 'McQueen meets cactus' (he had a high suspicion he knew what that one entailed of) and one proclaiming 'Winner, Doc's best caught Lightning fit.'

He was going to have to see what Sally was going to say about those, because it seemed like they had filmed his embarrassing first week behaviour. He put those to the side for now and moved onto the second box.

This one mainly seemed to contain a couple of Rust-eze ball caps, a couple of red foam fingers that said McQueen's #1 and a couple of banners that said similar things. He didn't know why Doc had the banner's and foam fingers, or why he was the one holding onto those tapes but otherwise it wasn't anything unexpected.

When he opened the next box though; the heavy one, he got a bit of a surprise. It wasn't the fact that it was filled with notebooks or what appeared to be a couple of photo albums, and some old labelled film reels; with one looking like it was simply labelled '54 Crash. By themselves he wouldn't have thought the contents were all that surprising.

No, what made it surprising was that taped to the top notebook was a note; a note, addressed strictly to him. He was the only one Doc ever addressed as Hot Rod. When he decided to do this, he hadn't thought he'd come across anything like this.

It brought tears to his eyes when he read it and he let out a bit of a strangled laugh before responding out loud. "Hey Doc, it's been awhile, but hey, I actually stayed out of your stuff for once."

He scoffed a bit as he re-read the note again. He didn't think it could come across as anymore Doc than that, leaving him feeling like Doc was right there with him.

He was honestly considering having the note framed. He read it once more.

Hot Rod, if you're reading this you've either been snooping through my stuff again, or I'm dead and it's all yours now. You'll be pleased to know that after our little talk about setting the story straight, I wrote out my life story for you. So, kiddo set the record straight for me, but don't abuse it. And don't you dare scratch the Hornet, it may be yours now, but I will find a way to make your life hard if you do.

Doc

He shook his head with a faint smile.

He was going to read those notebooks, but he wasn't going to read them in the garage. He wanted to keep this discovery to himself, just for a bit, though too. So, he grabbed the box and let himself into Doc's now very dusty apartment.

It was easy to see that no one had been in the apartment since Flo had cleared out all the food stuff. He felt it was only fitting that this being his first time back since Doc passed was after he had gone through some of Doc's stuff.

He settled himself on Doc's couch and started reading, he only took small breaks to either get himself a glass of water or go to the washroom. While he was reading he had become so immersed in Doc's life story that he had completely lost track of time and almost nothing, but what he was reading registered.

Once he had finished reading everything Doc had written, he felt like he knew him so much better than he ever had before. He knew even before he was even done reading everything that he wanted to get it published; he was going to have to type it up before then though.

He also wanted to share it with everyone in town first, before he did that too. Showing Stephen, Lynda and Strip would be a good idea as well. Though he loved hearing about a young Strip Weathers meeting Doc for the first time; with both of them being aware of a school project done on the older man, by the younger; he didn't know what the King would think of that. But even before all that, he'd like to read it a couple more times and type it out before he shared it.

His stomach growled at him and he looked at the time for the first time since he had started reading. He grimaced, it was late, later than he though it was. He hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, and it was well into the evening now.

Sally was going to kill him for not eating; but maybe if he brought those tapes from earlier with him, to ask her about them, it would distract her enough that he could eat without too much of a scolding. For now though, he'd leave the box of journals in the apartment where they'd be safe from prying eyes. He wasn't quite ready to share them, just yet.

It was time to go face Sally's wrath and try to appease her, with what was sure to be embarrassing moments with him.

Truthfully, this was written because I had written Doc's note while originally writing part one and Lightning needed a way to see it.