Fanfic: In The Fast Lane

10: The Next Morning

Chapter 10: The Next Morning

Harley drank her soda and relayed the stories of Sarge and Pops to Sheriff and Flo. They all laughed then Sheriff looked up to see that the sun was going down.

"Oh, Harley, we should go meet up with Doc…" he said, his laughs fading. Harley copied him, her bright expression fading as well.

"Right…" she said and looked down at her empty cup. "Okay." Sheriff slowly began to drive off, only picking up speed when he was sure Harley was right behind him.

They made their way quietly to the courthouse. Harley glanced at the tire shop and saw that Guido and Luigi had fixed up most of it from the night before. She sighed and sped up slightly to catch up with Sheriff. They drove through the door of the huge building and navigated the hallways straight to Doc's office. Sheriff slowly pushed the Duke open and Harley followed him inside. She looked down at her hood but could feel Doc's gaze on her, and she felt a shiver go down her cab.

"Thank you, Sheriff." Doc said finally and Sheriff nodded.

"I'll just leave you two then." Sheriff said and drove out the door. Harley continued to stare at her shiney hood.

"Har…" Doc said and she sank lower onto her tires. "Harley, can you come here please?" He asked kindly, but she shook her hood. Doc frowned. "Why?" she shrugged her tired and Doc gave a tired sigh. "Okay, then, that's fine." He said patiently. "Then just listen, okay?" she nodded and still avoided looking at the blue car. "Harley, I have something very important to tell you: there's going to be a hearing about-"

"What's a hearing?" Harley interrupted. Doc stopped and just looked at her. He hadn't heard her voice since she compared him to that Dodge awful car the night before.

"Uh, it's an event that a few cars will attend. There's going to be a state judge and he's going to tell us where you're going to, uh…" he looked away from her and at his desk. "Where you're going to live." Harley then looked up at him, but once his eyes moved back to her, her eyes quickly darted back to her hood.

"Okay…" she said even though she was confused about how one car she doesn't know will decide that.

"And, uh, one of your family members will be there." Harley looked at him now and he unconsciously smiled at the sight of her green eyes.

"Who?" she asked and Doc came back to reality.

"Uh… your uncle." he said and Harley furrowed her eye lids.

"I've never met him either." she said to herself thinking again of the judge and looked back to her hood.

"Well, your, uh, patents were not able to come, so they are going to send your uncle instead…" There was heavy silence and Doc quietly cleared his throat. "Isn't that going to be, uh, fun, Harley?" she shrugged and Doc looked down. "Well… the hearing will be next week…"

"Where do you think I'm going?" Harley suddenly asked. Doc was taken by surprise and blinked a few times.

"I'm... not sure." Doc honestly said and Harley seemed to sink even lower. "It's getting late, maybe you should rest up." He said and Harley nodded. "I'll be at the clinic in a little bit. Let Sheriff take you ho-," he stopped himself and paused. "take you to the clinic." He corrected.

"Okay…" Harley said but didn't move for a beat. Then she reversed and pushed out the door. Sheriff was there waiting and lifted himself up.

"You okay?" he asked and she nodded without looking at him. "Did he say I need to take you back to the cling?"

"Yeah…" A beat and then Sheriff turned on his engine.

"Let's go then." he said and began to drive off, but drove slowly. Harley was not in the mood to drive in any kind of fast pace. They got all the way to the light before anyone said anything.