Ride

Chapter 19- More Time Goes By

Chapter 19- More Time Goes By

Fudge didn't know how she did it, but she managed to stay awake until four-thirty. She got woken up at half past six for a dinner of roast chicken, broccoli, mashed potatoes and gravy. She had the exact same problem she'd had with her lunch; it was delicious, but she didn't really feel like eating.

"I know, honey", Flo repeated as she brought some food closer to her mouth, "but you still gotta eat."

The former show car refused to leave until Fudge had eaten every single bite, which she did reluctantly.

Even though it was only seven o'clock by the time Flo was gone, Fudge fell asleep right away and stayed that way until morning. When she woke up, she heard the familiar sound of the reveille in the distance.

"WILL YOU TURN THAT DISRESPECTFUL JUNK OFF?!"

"Respect the classics, man! It's Hendrix!"

Fudge heard that and burst into tears. There was only one place in the entire world where she could hear that as soon as she woke up and that was at home! She was just so happy to be home!

It wasn't long before both Flo and Lightning showed up. Again, Flo had a tray of food, which she insisted on making sure Fudge consumed. After that, Flo left, but Lightning stayed. As he promised, he spent the whole day with Fudge. The first thing he did was get her changed from dirty pyjamas into clean ones.

The two spent a very quiet, comfortable day together. Most of it was spent continuing with the thank-you letters, watching movies and TV. Lightning read to Fudge for a little while from some of her favourite books. They also spent a little while talking. At first, that was kind of awkward. Of course, they already knew each other and all that, but for some reason, it felt like they didn't. It was probably because they'd been through so much over the last couple of months. Would it be okay for them to talk about something else? Slowly, they started to talk about other stuff like who they thought was going to win the Piston Cup with Lightning not racing and Fudge's plans once she'd made a full recovery.

"I can't wait to go racing again!" she declared at one point.

Those words made Lightning hesitate. Fudge wanted to go racing again?! He hadn't even considered letting her do that again! How could he?! He'd almost gotten her killed! Even now, there was no guarantee that she would ever walk again! Fudge knew that he felt guilty about the whole thing (it was kind of obvious with the countless apologies she'd received from him), but she didn't know how much it had affected him. She didn't know about the nightmares he had constantly about that fateful night. She didn't know how hard it had been to get back out on the track, knowing what he'd done to her. She didn't know about how he'd gone at the first race of the season and left not even a quarter of the way through. She didn't need to know about any of that. He never wanted to go through this ever again. He never wanted to put her through this ever again. Besides, even if he did, he knew he had a zero per cent chance of getting Luigi's blessing after this.

Finally, the only response he could come up with was, "Well, that won't be for a while, Fudge-O. For now, you just focus on getting better, all right?"

"All right", Fudge agreed.

It was a pretty easy day for Fudge. On the other tyre, Lightning was pretty busy for most of it. Well sure, he was watching movies and talking to Fudge (a lot of their talks over the next few weeks were deep and serious talks about their thoughts and feelings and stuff like that). However, while he did all of that, he brushed her hair, cleaned up after her and even helped her in the bathroom, which was very awkward. She didn't know how he put up with her. She must've been a pain, needing everything doing for her (and Luigi would leave him notes with tasks to be done; that way, he could avoid talking to him), but not once did Lightning complain. Though, Fudge felt like he had every right to do so. Still, she appreciated everything he did for her and had to smile when "Count on Me" by Bruno Mars came on the radio; the song was very fitting.