Disclaimer: All recognisable character's belong to Pixar. All OCs belong to me.

Chapter 1

January 2008

Someone knocked loudly on the bedroom door. It was Doc.

"Get yourself up, son," he ordered Lightning.

For the past two weeks, Lightning had been staying with his step-father, Doc, and his mother, Elinor, in their home behind the Radiator Springs clinic, while the racing museum and his own home behind it underwent an extension. Lightning had wanted to stay over at the Cozy Cone motel with his girlfriend, Sally, but both Doc and Elinor had put a stop to it.

"Call me old-fashioned," Elinor had said, "But a couple should not start living together unless they are properly engaged."

"But, mum…! Things are different now!" Lightning had protested, glancing at Doc for support. But Doc had just shaken his hood.

"Your mother's quite right, Lightning," he'd said.

Lightning had pouted. "You're only on her side because you're married to her."

"Lightning…" Doc had growled sternly. Since his marriage to Elinor, Doc had adopted a more father-like growl, instead of the gruff, indifferent growl he used to have. To Lightning, it showed that the old race car really did care about him as a father would.

Lightning had been quick to back down after that! As he'd left the room, he'd heard Doc mutter under his breath, "Teenagers!" He was sure Doc had rolled his eyes as well.

Now, it was 6am, and Doc was waking Lightning up for his racing practice down at Willy's Butte. Or at least, he was trying to wake Lightning up for his racing practice down at Willy's Butte. But, as usual, the young race car wasn't interested in getting up so early. In the near distance, Doc could hear Sarge and Fillmore having their usual morning 'battle of the bands'. With a groan, Doc entered Lightning's bedroom. He couldn't help smiling when he saw Lightning hiding under his favourite red blanket, snoring softly. He sounded perfectly content. It was almost a shame to wake him.

Doc gently nudged Lightning's front left fender. "Wake up, Lightning. It's time to train."

Moaning with annoyance, Lightning reluctantly peeked out from beneath his blanket. "Go away!"

Doc chuckled. He'd lost count of how many times Lightning had said that to him of a morning. It had almost become a game. Using his tyre, Doc pulled the blanket off Lightning.

"Come on. Get yourself up. It's time to train."

Lightning just groaned again, and he closed his eyes. "Seriously, Doc… I'm not up to it this morning."

Doc frowned with concern. "Are you sick?"

"I don't know…" Lightning sighed. He looked ready to fall asleep again.

Doc left the room, returning a moment later with a thermometer. Lightning slowly blinked open his eyes.

"Open your mouth," Doc ordered him. "We'll see just how sick you are!"

Lightning hesitated, but then he turned away from Doc, refusing.

"Do as I say, or I'll shove it up your exhaust!" Doc growled.

The threat worked, and Lightning reluctantly opened his mouth. Beside their undercarriage and fuel tank inlet, a car's exhaust was a very personal part.

Doc gently placed the thermometer underneath Lightning's tongue, and Lightning closed his lips around it. After a couple of minutes, Doc took the thermometer out of Lightning's mouth. He frowned when he saw that it read 99˚F.

"You do have a very slight temperature," Doc informed him. "Because of that, I won't pressure you to train today if you really don't feel up to it. However, to be on the safe side, I'd like to thoroughly examine you later, okay?"

Lightning nodded, closing his eyes again. He was fast asleep again almost before Doc had left the room.

…

A few hours later, Elinor gently woke Lightning. He reluctantly opened his eyes.

"Hey there, sweetie," she said soothingly. "Are you feeling any better?"

"A bit," Lightning sighed.

Elinor placed his breakfast in front of him. "Here's your breakfast. Hudson would like to see you once you've finished it, to do some tests. He's just treating a little boy with a dislocated axle right now."

"Sounds painful," Lightning muttered before placing his lips around a straw. He wasn't hungry, but he sure was thirsty!

"I understand he did it falling into a cactus patch," Elinor said with a wink. "I seem to remember another car who has a habit of driving into cactus patches…"

Lightning groaned. Trust his mother to bring that up! At least the prickly cactus reminded him never to make the same mistake again!

Ten minutes later, Lightning entered the main part of the clinic. He was just in time to see Doc filling a syringe with painkiller for the young injured car. The little boy huddled up against his mother, whimpering fearfully.

Lightning felt sorry for the young car. He couldn't have been more than six years old. Lightning had had enough surgical procedures in his life to not be afraid of doctors. But not being afraid of them didn't mean he had to enjoy them. No car liked having a doctor poking around at their engine bay or undercarriage, but most just put up with it as a necessary evil. Even with Doc as his step-father, Lightning's view on doctors hadn't changed. He regarded himself as having a healthy respect for them.

Lightning drove closer to the little boy. "Hey there. What's your name?"

"M-Mark," the child whispered. Then, looking up at Lightning, he gasped. "Y-you're Lightning McQueen!"

"Now, how on earth did you figure that out?" Lightning teased.

"I've watched all of your races," Mark answered, starting to smile. "You're really fast!"

"How fast do you think I can go?"

"Hmm… A hundred miles per hour?"

Lightning chuckled. "Nup! Guess again."

"A hundred and fifty miles per hour!"

Lightning shook his hood. "Would you like me to tell you?"

Before Mark could reply, Doc quickly and skilfully inserted the syringe inside his fuel tank, and he depressed the plunger. Startled, Mark yelped, and he started to cry. His mother gently comforted him.

"There now," Doc said kindly. "It's all over now." He looked at Mark's mother. "He should be fine to drive on it now. Just make sure he doesn't do anything silly or it could dislocate again. The painkiller should make him drowsy for a few hours anyway."

"Thank you, Doc," the mother said.

"Mark?" Lightning called gently.

"Y-yes?" Mark sniffled.

"I can go at over two hundred and twenty miles per hour."

Mark's eyes widened in amazement until his mother nudged him.

"Come along now, Mark. We need to get back to the motel, and we mustn't waste Mr McQueen's time. I'm sure he's very busy."

Mark looked rather disappointed until Lightning quickly rubbed his tyre on Mark's side, giving him an autograph. Mark grinned, before he hurried after his mother. Lightning turned to face Doc.

"That was nice," Doc said. "I was having a lot of trouble with him. Thank you for distracting him. Are you feeling any better?"

"Yes."

"Did you eat all of your breakfast?"

"No."

"Why not?"

Lightning shrugged. "I wasn't hungry."

Doc stared thoughtfully at Lightning for a moment. Lightning knew that Doc was concerned that he might be coming down with something.

"I think I'll run some oil and fuel tests, just to be sure," Doc finally said.

Lightning groaned. He knew what that meant. Needles.

"Are you going to stay still for me, or do I have to restrain you?" Doc asked.

Pouting, Lightning drove onto the hydraulic lift, giving Doc his answer. Doc pressed a button, and clamps shot out from beneath the rolling road, securing Lightning to it. Lightning closed his eyes as Doc prepared the hypodermic syringe. Having been through all this before, Lightning had already popped his hood by the time Doc came over to him.

"I see I've got you well-trained," Doc chuckled.

"There's no point in resisting the inevitable, is there?"

"No, I suppose not. Now, keep still."

Lightning winced as Doc stuck the needle inside one of his oil lines. He could feel the oil being taken out of him. Doc didn't take much, but it was enough to make Lightning feel faint.

"I wonder how many of your fans know you're a fainter?" Doc asked in an attempt to snap Lightning out of it, while he sealed the hole the needle had made in the oil line.

"None, I hope," Lightning said softly.

Doc chuckled. "There now. That's all over with. Lucky it's the off-season, so if you are coming down with something, it shouldn't affect your racing."

Lightning didn't bother to reply. Instead, he closed his hood. Doc brought over a large syringe with a long tube attached to the end. He'd just inserted the tube inside Lightning's fuel tank, when the race car finally fainted. Grunting, Doc proceeded with the procedure. He carefully removed a small amount of fuel from Lightning's tank, before taking it over to the bench for testing.

About an hour later, Doc had Lightning's test results. Lightning had recovered from his faint by then, and so he joined Doc inside his office. Doc was glancing through the results on his computer, looking for anything abnormal.

"It all looks fine to me," he said at last. He looked straight at Lightning. "There's nothing wrong with you."

"Are you sure?" Lightning asked. "I'm still feeling a bit run down."

"Are you hungry yet?"

"No, but I am thirsty."

"Okay. I might take your temperature again."

Doc placed the thermometer inside Lightning's mouth again. When he read it, he shook his hood with concern.

"It's now reading ninety-nine point two," he told Lightning. "It's gone up from earlier this morning."

"Maybe I am coming down with something."

"Maybe…" Doc looked at the computer screen again. "But it's not a virus or an infection. That would've shown up in the tests. I'm going to keep taking your temperature for the next forty-eight hours. If you are coming down with something, we should know by then. In the meantime, keep drinking and please try to eat something. And your training is cancelled until this is over and dealt with."

"What do you think it is?"

"I don't know at this stage, son. I'm sorry, but you've got me completely bewildered. I'll do some research, and I'll let you know if I find anything significant. Off you go now, but please stay within the town. I don't want you breaking down in the middle of nowhere."

"Okay," Lightning agreed.

…

About an hour later, Mater slowly entered the clinic looking very upset. "Doc?" he called.

"What's up, Mater?" Doc asked, coming over. "You look as though you've lost your best friend."

Mater's lower lips twitched as he struggled to hold back his tears. Doc immediately realised his mistake.

"Oh, Mater! I'm so sorry. What's wrong?"

"Lightnin' jus' snapped a' me, an' alls I asked him ta do was go tracta tippin' tonight. I though' youse should know, since yer his step-dad an' all."

Doc let out a long sigh. "I'm sorry he treated you badly, Mater, but Lightning's not feeling too well at the moment. That's no excuse for bad behaviour though. Where is he now?"

Mater shrugged. "Las' I saws, he was headin' to da café."

Doc looked out of the window. Sure enough, Lightning was over at the café, drinking a can of oil alongside Sally.

"Mater? If you hear him arguing with anyone else, send him to me at once, please."

"Sure, Doc," Mater replied despondently.

"Don't take whatever he said seriously. He didn't mean it, and I'm sure he'll be sorry for it once he's thought about it."

"Yeah. Okay." And Mater slowly left the clinic.