ROOKIES

Making Things Right

SHERIFF

He finds me sitting alone, sipping at a hot mug of coffee. When he walks out of our room I notice that he's wearing one of my (or his, it's hard to tell) shirts and it's three times to big. Despite my anger (and because I didn't sleep I week last night) I have donuts made, coffee-shimmering. We draw out chairs and sit facing each other. elbows on knocked-up knees.

"good morning." i say.

"sarge make his complaints yet?"

"of course." i tear a donut apart (bless my soul, i really DO care for him too much) with my hot fingers and pass it to doc. he doesn't wait before biting into it and wiping the jam away. he's hungrier then normal.

"so i take it you did some thinking?"

he yawns. "didn't sleep at all."

i raise an eyebrow. "another coffee?"

"four."

"NO."

he leans forward and laughs. you can see his eyeshadow from here- special ala-delux navy blue.

"i'm going back." he says and there's a definite tone in his voice that i can't deny.

'to racing?"

no ones smiling now. "to racing." pause, "i did a bad thing, love. a very bad thing and i would like to make up for it if i can." without thinking, i grab his hand. there's still sugar on his fingers.

"i'll be right behind you the whole time. they'll love you and if they don't, well the jail is looking kind of empty these days."

he laughs again, loud and clear. Grabbing another coffee, off the counter, he says,

"for once, i feel so ready to go back."

"and you're going to wear my shirt?" he should be in a suit, that's what they liked. done up, all good and proper so they could see him gleam. NOT wearing his husbands t-shirt.

doc throws his drink down so fast i swore he'd get burns. "hell yeah, i am."

SHERIFF

It doesn't take us long to rally up the troops. Mater follows along like a blind dog, Luigi, Guido, Sarge, Filmore and Flo aren't that hard to find either. Then there's Sal.

I walk in to find her just out of the shower, squeezing her hair dry with a towel. Underneath her blue dinner jacket is a plain t-shirt that reads 'I love Radiator Springs.' Whatever else, you had to admire the girl, nobody had a stronger love for their town then she did. Hell, Sal would probably still love her town even if it decided one day to swallow her up, munch on her a little bit and then spit her out into pieces of blue.

"Sal." I say. She turns to look up at me. She's not shocked that I'm here even though god knows I would be considering the fact that it's early morning and I look like I'm dressed for war, "Mr. Fabulous has done it," I say, "We're going to make it right."

Sally stares at me, stuck halfway though the process of brushing her hair, "What do you mean?"

"Doc's done it. I can't believe he actually pulled it off but he's brought us, all of us, tickets to fly into Los Angeles."

And now I've shocked her. Pink rises in her cheeks, "And?" She asks.

I sway in front of her. My light, my happiness, fills this room.

"Sal'," I say, "How would you like to go to the races?"