A Girl Who Races

Hospitals...

Doc listens to the soft beeps of the hospital machines. Sally is parked beside him with Jakob sitting beside Sally in a chair, staring out the window. Amelia came out of surgery about an hour before now and Lightning is still knocked out cold, the doctors are waiting for him to wake up before they operate. They temporarily put clamps where the fluids were leaking and fixed anything that was life threatening, currently he is in a stable condition.

Doc looks up from the ground to see Amelia shifting in the bed, she soon opens her eyes, to look at him. "Hey there kiddo." Doc greets her.

"Hi." Amelia says weakly, her voice dry from not using it.

"How are you feeling?" Sally asks.

"I don't know, ok, I guess." Amelia looks over to McQueen beside her, her expression instantly changes to one of sympathy and worry. Doc notices the change.

"He's going to be ok." Doc reassures.

"Has he even woken up yet?" Amelia asks.

"No, he's still knocked out from his impact with the barrier." Sally says. "That was a bad crash, for both of you."

"Were any of the other racers hurt?"

"There were a few with some dents and scratches, but they all came out fine. The car that hit you had a pretty bad dent on his front bumper but I'm sure he'll survive." Doc smirks a bit.

"You know" Amelia starts, looking around the room with disgust "I hate hospitals."

Sally giggles, even Jakob laughs a bit even though he seems to be awfully gloomy and quiet.

"When can we leave?"

"You're not going anywhere for awhile." A new voice enters the conversation, Amelia looks to the door to see a doctor in a white coat standing there, he has a small forklift beside him. "I'm here to see if you've woken up, my name is Dr. Warren. How are you feeling?" The doctor asks entering the room.

"A little sore and tired but I'm feeling good." Amelia replies.

"You took a pretty wicked crash there. Good thing those race cars are decked out with the newest and safest equipment."

Amelia nods.

"I'm going to check your wrapping ok."

"Ok" Amelia gives the doctor permission. He lifts her shirt until he can see the injured spot under the wrapping, happy to see only a few blood stains creeping their way through the wrapping before putting her shirt back down again.

"It looks like your well on your way to getting better already." The doctor concludes. The forklift behind him jots down some notes but doesn't say anything.

"Does that mean I can leave soon?" Amelia asks eagerly.

The doctor chuckles. "No, it doesn't, you'll be here for about 4-5 days at the least. We have to monitor that wound."

Amelia pouts for awhile.

"Looks like she's getting back to her normal self already." Sally giggles.

"I'm going to let you move around a bit, if you like you can sit up on the bed but don't go any further than that ok. You guys" the doctor says turning to Sally, Doc and Jakob "make sure she listens."

"Can do." Doc replies

"I'll be back to check on McQueen in a little bit." He says before leaving and closing the door behind him and the forklift.

Amelia sits up crossing her legs with a few winces while moving leaning up against the back of the bed. "So, where is everybody else."

"They're in the waiting room. The room isn't big enough to fit all of us in here." Jakob says. "We're taking turns staying in the room with you guys."

"Ah ok. Well I gotta say, this is the biggest hospital room I've ever been in."

"It's the only hospital room you've been in." Doc points out.

"Which still makes it the biggest." Amelia smiles.

"What happened to the..." Amelia cuts her sentence short when she sees Lightning move slightly beside her, concern filling her features.
Lightning groans as he starts coming to. All attention on him now.

"Hey Lightning." Sally says gently as she slowly approaches him. He opens his eyes slightly, and blinks them a few times to adjust to the lighting in the room. He looks to Sally, then Doc and Amelia.

"Hey." He replies weakly.

"I would ask how you're doing, but, I think I already know the answer." Amelia says trying to sound cheerful from her bed as she smiles softly. Lightning lights up at her comment and chuckles a bit, but it comes to an end as he tightly shuts his eyes and bares his teeth while his front tires turn towards each other from pain. Amelia winces slightly from her bed. Doc can only imagine the pain he's in, he remembers his crash was similar, except he had a softer racetrack.

"Oh, Stickers." Sally says sympathetically, hating that she feels so useless when he's in so much pain.

He waits for the wave of pain to pass before he opens his eyes again.

"I wish there was something I could do to help." Amelia says. McQueen doesn't respond though, not wanting to talk, worried it might bring another wave over him.

"I'll get the doctor" Jakob offers.

A few moments later Jakob comes back with Dr. Warren.

"Hey Lightning." Dr. Warren says. Lightning glances at him but then adverts his eye line to the floor again. "You had us worried there for awhile. We'll get you all fixed up and you'll be racing again before you know it. Now that you're awake we can schedule your surgery, I'll book it for tonight, that's the soonest we can get you in."

Dr. Warren addresses everybody in the room, "I'll give him some pain medication to help a bit." He says as he walks towards a small tank of fuel, labeled with some sort of fancy scientific name for pain medication. He puts the small jug up to McQueens fuel intake and tips it up. "It might make him a bit drowsy."

Sally nods.

Once Dr. Warren finishes he heads back out, Amelia waves goodbye to him. She turns to look back at McQueen but he's already asleep again. "A little drowsy... he's already fast asleep." Amelia jokes.

"It's probably for the best." Doc says, "lets hope he stays this way till the surgery."

Amelia nods in agreement.