A Racer's Heart

Chapter 8: The Race Begins

Lightning's POV
I wake up with a banging on my door. "Hey Lightning, ya ready?" to see Y/N again "Y-yeah yeah, I-I'm ready." I open my trailer and my car was brought out, but before I did anything else, I thought I saw a glimpse of (h/c) hair. Maybe I must be seeing things.

3rd person POV
The three cars lined up at the starting line, McQueen was hesitant about it. He still kept thinking about Y/N and the others from Radiator Springs, but he missed Y/N the most. Suddenly the race began, the King taking a large lead, leaving the two racers behind. Chic was overall pissed and kept pushing the limit.

"The King still has a huge lead! But what's this? Chic and McQueen are neck and neck!" the announcer says as Chic glares at McQueen before pushing him out of bounds. "Are okay kid?" "I don't know Mac, I-I-" "I didn't come all this way just to see you quite." "Doc?" McQueen looks where Mac was supposed to be but sees his friends and Doc as his crew chief. "Guys you're here! I can't believe this." "I knew didn't have a crew chief, but I didn't know it was this bad." "I thought you said you never come back." "Well I didn't really have a choice, Mater didn't say goodbye." "Goodbye! Okay I'm good." "Haha. Is Y/N there too?" "No, she's not at home either." "What?" "She may have slipped into your trailer." "But I didn't see her in my trailer, maybe she must've snuck on Mac's truck then." "We'll figure this out later, but if you can drive as good as you can fix the road, then you can win this race with your eyes shut. Now get get back out there."

McQueen then zoomed out of the pits and began to go as fast as he could but was still behind the King and Chic. "Kid, you can beat these guys, find a groove that works for you and get that lap back." filled with confidence McQueen went as fast as he can and managed to catch up with the King and Chic. He manages to pass both of them but was a lap behind! After a couple laps around he managed to get back in the game with a lead lap. He gets neck and neck with Chic behind he hits McQueen, causing him to spin behind Chic. McQueen comes back in the game by driving backwards, passing Chic he makes second place!

Chic catches up as well and hits McQueen again but gives him a flat tire. "Doc, I'm flat. I'm flat." "Can you get back to the pits?" "Y-yeah I think so." he says before making it just in time for Guido to change his tires at lightning speed. He gets out of the pits and takes the lead, only to get passed by Chic and King. McQueen gets neck and neck with Chic again but when Chic tries to hit McQueen again he messes up and all three spin out of control! McQueen slides into the dirt but manages to use Doc's drifting trick, he slides across the dirt cleanly. He gets in first with a big lead! Chic on the other hand was still behind the King, he gets angrier and angrier. He bumps into the King's car which spirals out of control and goes flying, crashing into the ground and begins to skip across it like a skipping stone on water. McQueen looks at the screen to see what had happened and sees the King's car all broken up.

McQueen stops just at the finish line before Chic passes him. McQueen then has a flashback to the portrait on Doc's wall, reminding him that Doc never got to finish his last race. McQueen backs up the where the King was and pushes his car past the finish line. That's where everyone began to celebrate, medics rushed over the King, pulling him out of the car. They took off his helmet but it wasn't the King, it was Y/N?! Doc couldn't believe his eyes, he takes off his headset and runs straight to Y/N "Why did you do this Y/N?" he spoke softly to her as tears went down his face. McQueen also got out of his car and rushed over to her, seeing blood trickle down her face, her (h/c) hair with hints of periwinkle in it all messed up, her breathing was slowing down, he could no longer see her beautiful (e/c) eyes.

After the race she was rushed to the hospital. Doc was worried as hell, Sally pasted back and forth, McQueen wouldn't talk to anyone after that.

Time skip after a couple of days

McQueen set up his racing headquarters at Radiator Springs which attracted a lot more people, so the stores were back in business. A lot of the shops reopened as well, Doc and McQueen and a father and son relationship, and they raced against each other from time to time.

McQueen walked back from another race with Doc, which he TOTALLY won by the way, on his way back he saw a car that looked familiar drive up to him. "Been a while since we talked, ay McQueen?" a woman's voice said as she got out of the car, McQueen give the woman a confused look before seeing it was Y/N. He ruches over to her, picking her up with hug and spinning her around "I thought you wouldn't come back!" he says looking at her beautiful features, her soft (h/c) hair with hints of periwinkle, her beautiful (e/c) eyes, her soft looking lips, and her wonderful voice that made him wish it wasn't a dream. "It's gonna take more than a car crash to kill me!" she says giggling, returning the hug. "Hey guys! Look who's back!" Sally says running over to her and giving Y/N a tight embrace.

Everyone came outside and ran over to Y/N, giving her hugs and all. "Where grandpa?" "He's still in his garage, come on!" McQueen said dragging Y/N over to his garage. He bangs on the door before shouting "Doc! Someone out here wants meet ya!" "Oh great, another fan. Tell them to leave before I-" Doc pauses mid sentence as he sees Y/N, in perfect health. He hugs her as tight he could "I thought I lost you." "It's great to see you again grandpa." Y/N said as she cries into his shoulder. "How did I get to have a strong granddaughter?" Doc says wiping her tears away. "Oh Y/N, there's something I wanna show ya." McQueen says dragging her to a cliff with the view of Radiator Springs.

"It's beautiful McQueen, but why are we up here?" "So I can do this." McQueen then kisses Y/N passionately, which surprises her at first but she then kisses back. "Y/N, will you be my girlfriend?" "Yes! Yes! A million times yes!" she shouts jumping on him, McQueen catches her as they both spin around. "I love you Y/N." "I love you too McQueen." "By the way, I never told anyone one this so this is between you and me. My actual name is Montgomery, I changed it when I started my racing career." "Well then I get to call you Monty from now on then." "Please don't." "I'll do it in private then when we're alone, how about that?" "Alright."

Here's what Y/N looks like, don't mind the eyes I just colored them cause why not not. And the periwinkle hints in her hair will play a roll sometime later.

Out in the distance at Doc's garage.

"What?! Can't this wait until tomorrow!" "I'm sorry sir but this needs to happen now." "She may be your daughter, but she's my granddaughter, she's still young, can't she wait until the right age?!" "Fine I'll make an exception, only for her. But I heard about the crash though, apparently the King suffered from an accident and couldn't race so somehow Y/N raced for him." "That explains how she got there." "And you were supposed to keep an eye on her?" "I worked for your pathetic agency, it got M/N killed! I'm not letting Y/N die because you weren't there!" "It's your family's tradition isn't it? As far as I know the Hudson family has worked with agency for generations." "So what, Y/N has a long way to go. She doesn't need to know anything." "If you say so, but she will need to know sooner or later. Goodbye Hudson." "Goodbye to you to, Finn."

Be ready for book 2!