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The Texas heat in August was always awful. It felt like the sun was trying to cook every living thing in its path alive. As if the entire state became an oven during those months of the year. The second he had arrived here, he started sweating when he’d gotten out of the car. He immediately wanted to go back to Arizona where the heat didn’t feel like it was sticky. The Texas heat was wet and heavy. It weighed him down like a thousand pounds of water. Heavy and thick.
He didn’t know how Cal was able to handle this Texas weather. It was constantly burning hot. The weather was completely unpredictable. The storms were dramatic and intense, crashing through the sky and igniting the sky. Then somehow the weather would completely switch to a three week drought where there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky at all. He hated unpredictability. He hated inconsistency. He hated it all.
The last place he wanted to be during early August was Texas. It was genuinely miserable. Yet, the racing schedule didn't exactly care about his opinions beyond a certain point. Or at all really. At least now he didn’t have to worry about his former agent pestering him about all kinds of random meetings and interviews. If Harv had scheduled him for something, there was no missing it. Not if he was sick. Not if he felt bad. Not if he was tired. Nothing.
He was glad that Doc and Sally had knocked some sense into him a while ago about that man. Harv had been all kinds of trouble that Lightning was glad he had gotten out of. The man was bad for him. He constantly pressured him into bad situations that he didn’t want to do. It was a lot. He shook his head. It also wasn’t his problem anymore.
He rolled over on his bed where he had been laying. He really needed to get to sleep. Doc had told them they were doing early morning training and the last thing he wanted on top of the annoyance of the heat was being dead tired. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to stop his racing brain from keeping him awake. It didn’t help all that much.
He rolled back over onto his other side. He really didn’t want to go out and practice tomorrow morning. He could already feel sweat sticking his clothing to his skin. He could already feel the sweltering heat burning him alive from the outside in. He didn’t want to deal with that right now.
Well, his mind sidetracked, technically he wasn’t dealing with it right now. The faster that he inevitably went to sleep, the sooner that he would have to be up tomorrow to go out into the heat. He really didn’t want to do that. Technically speaking, the longer he waited to fall asleep. The more time he would have before the next morning came. Realistically, that was stupid reasoning, but in his brain, it made enough sense that he didn’t want to sleep.
It also didn’t help that he was nervous. This was one of the first big races this season. It was super important that he did well enough to start the season in a good place. He knew he was good at racing and had all the capability to place super high, but that didn’t stop the tight knot of nerves in his stomach.
They always started low and deep behind his stomach and slowly crawled up into his lungs and throat. They burned with his deep and dull ache that constricted him. His heartbeat wouldn’t race, it would amplify until it was the only thing that he could hear. Having awful anxiety may seem like it would make competing in a super intense sport difficult, but to him, racing was the only time that the constant heavy weight dropped off.
He felt like he was flying when he was racing. Quick enough that none of his problems could get anywhere near him. He craved that feeling in his everyday life. He huffed, remembering the morning. That feeling did not include practice. Practice was hot and sweaty and annoying with no reward. He knew that was dramatic. Obviously there was a reward for practicing. Practice made progress. It made him even better at what he did. He was still allowed to complain about it though.
He really needed to go to sleep. The longer he stayed awake now, the more tired he would be tomorrow. He was not a morning person. He didn’t think a thousand gallons of coffee could even make him a morning person. He would rather practice at 9pm than any time before 10 in the morning. Waking up early wasn’t his thing. Harv had hated that about him. He again shook the thoughts of his old agent away.
He tried counting sheep. It didn't really work. He really didn’t want to practice. The thought reoccurred, returning back to the foreground of his mind every couple of minutes. Whether he actually didn’t want to practice or not now didn’t matter. His brain had convinced himself that he didn’t want to. Therefore, he didn’t want to.
He wanted to sleep in. He was so tired. Lightning cleared the thoughts. He needed to sleep. Maybe he should have taken a melatonin before attempting to sleep. Maybe he would be having more luck right now.
It didn’t help that they were in a hotel and he was sleeping in an unfamiliar bed. He always took to sleeping in his own bed the best. Being in some random place that he didn’t feel safe or right in never really worked to well with him.
He pulled his blanket farther over his shoulder. He just needed to relax. He closed his eyes and forced himself to talk long deep breaths. The only thing he focused on was the air moving in and out of his lungs. Nothing else mattered besides the gentle rhythm. In and out. In and out.
His body slowly melted into the bed. His head stopped running in circles. He yawned once, his eyes fogging over. It didn’t take long from their for the sweet release of sleep to overcome him.
As expected, when he woke up the next morning, Lightning was exhausted. The last thing he wanted to do when his phone started beeping at 5am was to get dressed and go run practice laps. He knew if he didn’t get up though that Doc would be banging against his door and telling him to get to it in about ten minutes.
Lightning peeled himself out of bed and moved towards his suitcase. He pulled on his under shirt and shorts. He would put on his other gear once they got out near the car. Right now though, he still had his teeth to brush and hair to comb. He quickly did those two tasks, throwing on some deodorant in the process.
As he looked in the mirror, he cringed at how he looked. He appeared just about as tired as he felt right now. His eyes watered at the force of yawn that broke out of him. He shook his head, splashing his face with water and wiping it dry with a soft towel before heading out of the bathroom. He quickly tied up his sneakers and packed a bag before heading out the hotel door.
He almost forgot to grab his key on the way out, which would have forced a very pissed Doc to ask the front desk for another, so he was glad he didn’t do that. It had happened far too many times before where Lightning had carelessly forgotten to do something and then Doc had scolded him for it.
Lightning supposed he deserved it when he made dumb mistakes such as those. HE threw the key card in the bag he packed and ran out the door, making his way down towards the lobby. Doc was already there when he arrived. The old man was sipping on a mug of coffee that Lightning presumed was black. He didn’t look all that tired at all and it confused Lightning how a man that slept so little was never tired somehow. It was probably one of those old man abilities that Lightning wouldn’t understand for a long time.
The man nodded his head as he saw his apprentice come out of the elevator. Doc was probably just happy that Lightning hadn’t slept through yet another morning training. He was working on his discipline. It wasn’t something he’d ever had to worry about until Doc became his crew chief. The old man was patient with him, but sometimes all the patience in the world wasn’t enough for some of the dumb mistakes he made.
The breakfast bar was calling his name and Lightning served himself a bagel slathered in creme cheese. He liked the strawberry flavor of creme cheese the best, but they only had the regular, so that would have to do.
He sat down in the seat across from Doc, then immediately stood back up, remembering that he had wanted to grab some apple juice. The machine buzzed as it filled his small glass. He’d never understood why hotels provided such tiny glasses for all of their drinks. He balanced the liquid in the cup as he made his way back to Doc. The old man looked up from his coffee when Lightning sat back down.
The blond racer gave his mentor a big smile before stuffing his face with a bagel. Doc shook his head fondly, muttering something under his breath that Lightning couldn’t make out. He guessed it was somewhere along the lines of ‘stupid kid though.
It didn’t take him very long to eat his singular bagel and drink the juice. He briefly grimaced at the feeling of bagel floating around with apple in his stomach, but he knew that his gut would settle before they started laps. He stretched his arms back over the chair, smiling at the way his back cracked. Doc scoffed.
“Keep that up and you’re back will be worse than mine.” The old man huffed. His morning voice was thick with that South Carolinian accent that Lightning had come to find comfort in. Lightning could only smile as he stretched his legs out too.
“You wish,” He teased and Doc only rolled his eyes. Lightning laughed loudly, but not to an obnoxious extent for so early in the morning. While the lobby wasn’t crowded, there was still a good amount of people eating breakfast. None of them seemed very concerned with any of the others, so the last thing Lightning wanted was to cause a scene.
They only sat for a couple minutes more before Doc was ushering him up and out of his seat so they could start the day. It only took a bit of convincing for Lightning to pull himself up and help his crew chief load the trailer. It wasn’t like they could even go to the track until Mack was down here, so technically he had a couple extra minutes to sit down and relax before-
“Morning Lighting, Doc,” The truck driver greeted happily as he stepped out of the elevator. Lightning frowned. Well there goes that. He quickly smiled at the older man and wished him a good morning as well. Mack went straight to loading the car, claiming to have already drunk his coffee and gotten his calories in. Lightning wasn’t really sure that he believed him.
They eventually got the truck completely loaded and got themselves situated. Mack started the truck and began taking them towards where the track down here was. It was so hot outside. Lightning huffed as he stared out the window. The ground around him was sweltering.
The drive to the practice track wasn’t that long. It was only a couple of minutes before the man pulled into a parking space and turned the truck off. Lightning sighed. He dragged his body off of the seat and stepped outside. The heat immediately burned his skin. He wanted to go back inside the truck and go home.
Immediately, he realized that he should have hydrated more and scolded himself for not listening to Doc about that yesterday. He told Doc that he had hydrated, but the man would quickly catch onto him if he started complaining too much about the heat. So he sucked it up and pretended that it didn't bother him.
“Stretch your bones, rookie,” Doc instructed, “Mack and I will set up the car.” Lightning gave his mentor a mock salute and began stretching his calves and quads. They weren’t tight or anything as he hadn’t done anything too physically demanding recently. Still, he continued to follow his mentors orders.
It didn’t take long for Doc and Mack to set his car up and get it ready to race. Lightning started pulling his fire suit on and grabbed his helmet from the truck. He made his way towards the car and Doc looked back at him, pulling his headset on over his ears. His mentor nodded at him.
“You ready?” Doc asked him. Lightning nodded quickly, making sure his ear piece was in before pulling his helmet over his head. He climbed into the car’s cockpit and started buckling himself into all of the safeties.
The man slammed his door shut and did a check over their headset to make sure it was working correctly.
“Loud and clear,” Lightning chirped back with a big smile. He could hear the smile in Doc’s laugh from his antics. He let his mentor step to the side before flicking his visor down and revving the engine of his car. She was a beauty and Lightning loved every second of driving her. It’s the closest thing he would ever feel to actually flying.
Planes didn’t count. He hated plane rides. There was far too much that could go wrong at any given moment for him to enjoy planes. He remembered the first plane ride Doc had forced him to go on. Back to back conferences in LA and Nashville. He had hated every single minute. Not only the plane ride itself being hell, but the airports were worse. Everybody pushing and bitchy about themselves. Crowded and overwhelming. He had hated it. Doc saw it at the time and promised him that every time that time allowed, they would be driving from now on. Lightning really appreciated the old man for that. Doc was one of the first people in a long time, including the other Radiator Springs residents of course, that genuinely cared about him. He wanted Lightning safe and happy and comfortable and he was still trying to figure out how to navigate actually receiving care from others. It was definitely a learning curve, but he was working on it.
The moment his engine started, Lightning could already feel the heat pooling into the cockpit. Every second reminded him slightly more why he absolutely hated Texas. It was too hot. It was far too hot.
“Start simple, just a couple slow laps,” Doc instructed through the headset. The sudden voice caused him to jump just a bit.
“Got it,” He responded back, switching the car into drive and pulling onto the asphalt track. The dark concrete beneath him only made the heat worse as it sucked in the light beaming down on it. He was already sweating beneath the helmet. He blinked the moisture out of his eye lashes and shook his head.
He progressed slowly through the laps, learning the practice track. It was just a standard shape, yes, but many tracks tending to have small things that could throw a driver off like uneven strips of concrete or weird textures on the turns. It was better to know that those imperfections were there when e was going 20mph and not 120mph.
There wasn’t anything particular about this track that was throwing Lightning off. It just seemed like the standard, run of the mill race. He could do these with his eyes closed if he wanted to. Lightning grinned as he came back around to the front after his third lap. He opened the door as Doc stepped towards him.
“Anything I should know about?” His crew chief asked him. Lightning shook his head.
“Nope, it’s even and steady,” He grinned at the man. Doc gave him a brief pat to the shoulder before stepping away from the car and slamming the door shut himself.
“I’ll give you a count,” The voice was through his headset this time. “One. Two. Three-“ Before the word was even finished his pedal was slamming down against the floor of the car and he was thrown back into the seat as he accelerated. He kept the gas pressed into the ground as he built up speed. He came up to the first turn and took it safe. Standard around the edge. He didn’t try and fancy cut or move just yet. He would save that for the actual race, not the practice laps where Doc would probably tell him off for being reckless and cocky.
Each lap was Similar to the one before it. Accelerate on the straight, play it safe on the curve, and repeat. He was getting into a great rhythm by the time he really thought about the thick cloud of heat settling over the car. Every minute that passed, the temperature climbed higher and higher. The heat reflecting off the concrete, bleeding from the engine, and burning from the sun was suffocating him in a hot wave. His entire body was sweating. However, he was used to being forced to race through less than ideal conditions, and also he needed the practice racing in the Texas heat, so he kept going.
He knew that if he had drunk more water before this had all began like Doc told him to initially, he wouldn’t be feeling it as hard as he was right now. Time and time again the man proved to have the wisdom and experience that he needed and time and time again Lightning struggled to listen when he gave it. He really didn’t want to be old off by the former racer right now about taking care of himself, so he just kept racing.
He ignored the gradually increasing temperature. He ignored his stomach swimming inside of his body. He ignored it when his sweat went from sticky to cold against his skin. He needed to keep racing. He needed to be better. He needed to prove to Doc that he was getting better and that he was worth coaching. He knew the mindset was just his old insecurities fighting to the forefront of his mind, but he couldn’t help it. He needed to be good enough.
Only when his visions started swimming in front of him and his head started getting light and airy. Usually, he would push through any type of injury in order to keep driving, but dizziness was a recipe for disaster. If he ignored his too long he would pass out behind the wheel and kill not only himself but potentially others. So, using his better judgement for once, Lightning slowed down to a stop as he came back around the front this time.
HE distantly heard Doc’s voice through his headset and ringing through his ears, but he culdn’t makeout a word of what the man was saying. When his engine finally stilled, he pulled the car into park and laid back heavily against the seat. His eyes were wide as he panted beneath the helmet. He felt awful. His vision was still swirling. He felt like he was going to throw up. Also, his body felt like a mess of jelly.
He struggled through pushing the door of his car open. It was far too heavy against his limbs.
Doc was moving before Lightning even passed out. He had been a doctor long enough to know when someone was about to faint. He could see it in the way the younger man was stumbling around, unable to make sense of his surroundings.
He was able to catch the boy’s head before he hit the ground, ignoring the protests of his back and knees as he lowered himself and the boy to the floor. He made sure Lightning’s head was protected before looking back to see if Mack had returned yet.
The other man had told Doc he needed the bathroom, but the only place near was a gas station across the street. Doc could only hope the man would be back soon with the electrolyte drinks he had requested before the man went.
Before he had a chance to do anything else, Lightning’s body began to jerk. Doc cursed under his breath. He needed to get Lightning out of the heat. Right now.
He ignored the pain in his shoulders and back and he forced his limbs to pick the younger man up, making sure to cradle his lolling head, and move him into the shade beneath a tree right to the side of the track. He carefully laid Lightning’s body in the floor. The boy’s limbs were still convulsing and jerking at random. Doc unzipped the front of his fire suit. He pulled the thick layer off of him and bundled it up, using the fabric to shield his head from the solid ground. He then worked on getting him out of the pants as well, leaving Lightning in only his much thinner undergarments.
They were completely soaked through with sweat. Doc needed to get icepacks from the trailer for the kid, but he worried that the second he left him, that something could go wrong. He worked with what he had. He sat on his knees right beside him. He opened his phone and began timing the seizure, making sure that it didn’t exceed the dangerous limit.
He could only pray to whatever was out there that Mack would be back as soon as possible. Just for good measure, he shot the man a brief text message telling him to hurry if possible and to bring ice packs when he did.
He Stayed by the boy’s side, making sure he didn’t choke on his own tongue or hurt himself. The seizure only last a minute more before the jerking in his limbs slowly came to a stop. Doc appreciated the slight relief, but he knew he still needed to get the kid’s body temperature down.
As if the man had been listening to him, suddenly Doc heard Mack’s loud footsteps crunching through the leaves behind him. Doc looked back. He was holding ice packs and cold drinks. Doc thanked whoever was listening and quickly took the ice packs. He placed them over the places on Lightning’s body that would trap the most heat. Groin, armpits, chest, and neck. He poured some of the water out onto his head and rubbed it over the blond’s forehead. Fluffy hair slicked back from the sweat and water slid over his hand. He shook Lightning gently.
“C’mon kid, let’s get up,” He hummed softly, “Get up.” The blond didn’t move at first, still completely out. Then, slowly as his body finally began to cool, a small groan leaked out of his throat. Doc gave his shoulder another quick shake.
“C’mon kid, there you go.” Blue eyes finally peeled back open and focused. Doc hummed again gently. “You awake?” He asked for good measure. He knew that the boy was, but he still needed to get him aware and taking. Lightning nodded his head, then seemed to regret it as he squinted his eyes. “Words’ kiddo,” Doc huffed. Lightning blinked his eyes back open with a look that screamed ‘really.’ Doc didn’t back down and Lightning sighed.
“ ‘m okay,” His voice was scratchy and thick. Mack was already handing him the bottle of Gatorade before he could even ask. Doc thanked him then pressed it into Lightning’s shaking fingers.
“Drink,” He ordered. He didn’t bring up the fact he knew Lightning had not hydrated beforehand. Not only had he seen the lack of drinking the boy had done throughout the previous day, but he also knew this wouldn’t have happened if he had been hydrated. Doc opted to hold the scolding off until much later thro==ough. The kid had been through enough in the moment and all he really cared about right now was the fact he was alive and still breathing.
Doc was proud of him for stopping when he did. The old Lightning would have kept pushing and probably hurt himself or others. Today, Lightning stopped when he knew he had to stop. It proved to the old man that gradually Lightning was learning to take care of himself. It made Doc smile softly.
Lightning was chugging down the gatorade when Doc looked back down. He reached out and tilted the bottle back a bit. “Slow sips,” He instructed, “I don’t need you choking now too.” Lightning smiled around the bottle, as much as he tried to hide it.
Doc reached up and ruffled his blond hair.
“You feeling okay now, kiddo?” He checked in. Lightning pulled the drink down and wiped his mouth before looking up at him.
“Yeah, Doc, I’m all okay,” He assured. Doc nodded.
“Good, because I’ve gotten used to having you around, rookie.” Doc gruffed through his mustache, but he couldn’t hide the genuine care and concern in his voice. Lightning grinned up at him.
“I love you too, old man.”