A tall man makes his way outside through the snow to a large pole barn. Turning on the lights there are 5 vehicles, an 86 camaro with super fat tires, a minivan sitting down on the floor, a big lifted pickup truck, a normal sized truck with a big supercharger sticking out of the hood and a big red go kart, the man looks around the barn then walks to the lifted truck and hops up inside of it firing it up after hitting the button to open the door on it. He rolls out through the deep snow heading to work. He drives for almost an hour before arriving at a large mall. Heading inside he makes his way through a hobby shop to the front door. He unlocks it and raises the gate leading into the mall, heading back inside he switches on a model train and it starts making its rounds around the shop, he also switches on a miniature roller coaster track but the the car on it stays put. Tyler heads to the back of the shop and begins dragging out a quarter scale RC Dragster, the dragster being about 6 feet long with a wing that rises 3 feet into the air. He walks out through the door pulling the dragster into the mall directly in front of his shop then makes his way back inside pulling out a large tool box. he opens the tool box and starts pulling panels out of it and lays them out in front of the windows looking into the store. Continuing to pull panels out it begins taking shape revealing a dyno for small machines especially rc cars. Another shop owner makes their way out from down the hall taking a look at the setup.

"Hey Tyler, you doing a test and tune today?" Tyler looks up. "Yeah we are. Getting ready for this weekends competitions and letting people run their cars before they get on the track to see if they can get any more power." The other shop owner looks down at the dragster inquisitively. "This the new project that I have heard rumors of?" Tyler nods his head. "Indeed it is. It is a scale top alcohol dragster in every detail." The guy looking surprised says. "So this thing makes...2000 actual horsepower?" Tyler smiles and shakes his head. "Top alcohol, not top fuel. Top alcohol uses alcohol not nitromethane. Top alcohol make around 3300hp so this thing is closer to about 825 actual horsepower. Still nothing weak but nowhere close to the same power as top fuel. This thing will still run in excess of 65 or 70 actual miles per hour." The other owner just shakes his head. "If I were to come to your shop later on would there be a possibility of me being able to buy one of your dragsters to run it in the races this weekend?" Tyler nods his head. "Of course, you may not be able to do much tuning and tweaking before this weekend but you could possibly run in the stock class or bracket races." The other owner smiles. "That is fine by me, I will probably do the stock class races, I have no clue how to run bracket so my best bet would be to do the stock." Tyler chuckles. "Alright, I still have some work to do before I open the shop so I will get back to work." The other owner nods his head. "Sounds like a plan, I will see you later on today."

The man walks away back to his store as Tyler works on his dyno and getting the rest of the shop put together. Hour passes and he opens up the shop for the day and heads behind the counter sitting down checking out different cards from the glass case waiting for people to start coming in.

"Hey there, yeah there is a sears store just about a quarter mile down the parking lot but their automotive store doesn't open for another 2 hours."

Hearing her mention not having a signal he nods his head.

"Yeah, won't have a signal for a while, the tower for the area was disabled overnight by a freak snow storm. Only way to get a signal with a cell phone is if you have a personal cell phone antenna."

He takes the cards that he was checking out and sets them back in the case.

"You are gonna have to wait some time for anything to be honest. You are welcome to check the store out for a while see if anything interests you, we have porcelain knick knacks that you can paint yourself, painting supplies, as long as it can be considered a hobby or craft you can likely find it."

Suddenly a kid walks into the store carrying a big blue rc monster truck. he sets it on the counter top and waits to be helped.

"Excuse me, gotta help this guy out."

Tyler makes his way over to the kid.

"What can I help you with?"

Tyler asks with a smile, the kid wasting no time raises the body from the shell and shows the engine, with black on top. Tyler shakes his head in disappointment.

"Wrong fuel mixture?"

The kid nods his head.

"Bought it used off of craigslist, guy gave me a bottle of premixed nitro, said it called for 5:1 ratio nitro mix."

Tyler shakes his head.

"Guy either doesn't know what he is talking about or he just wanted to screw you over money wise. This engine is a non nitro engine, I could either attempt to repair it or do a trade in, keep in mind either way you will pay about the same. I am sure I could scrap the block itself and salvage the internals for something else."

The kid looks at him.

"What kinds of engines do you have and does it have to be more expensive?"

Tyler shakes his head.

"I can do a trade down and knock off the cost of the working parts though like I said I could probably scrap the block. Seeing the black I am sure the block is now warped beyond repair plus the internals could be damaged as well. You will still probably have to pay 90% of the cost of the new engine."

The kid looks down.

"Might as well just do the trade in." Tyler nods his head and moves down the case.

"Come on down here, this is where we keep or 1/6th scale engines. If you need any help deciding just let me know."

Tyler heads back down to the seat he was in a few minutes earlier.

Tyler decides to take his break for lunch. Walking to the back he opens a door and peaks in.

"Hey Tim, I am gonna go to lunch. You need to come up front and watch the store."

Tim stands up from his chair.

"Alright. So how long are you gonna be gone then?"

they start heading up to the front of the store.

"About an hour."

Tim just nods his head and heads behind the counter as Tyler heads out.

He walks to his truck and fires it up, taking off he hits the road and drives through town, eventually coming on a car in the ditch. He pulls off the road and hops down into the ditch, noticing that it is the girl from earlier. He pulls out his cell phone, managing to get a signal with it. He dials 911 and waits by the car checking to make sure she is alright.

Groaning and sitting up, Ele realized she was freezing on top of her head hurting like someone had just taken a hammer to it. Blinking, she looked up and panic choked her as she realized she was in a wreck. Struggling with her seatbelt, Ele looked out the window and saw someone approaching her car. Relief washed over her as she waved through the window and opened her door.

"My seatbelt is stuck!"

Ele said, panic making her voice high and strained, she was coherent enough to recognize the guy from the store though. He had seemed nice enough, but that didn't keep Ele from being suspicious. She was a city girl after all, she may have not known how to drive in snow, but that didn't make her an idiot, the city streets were harsh to women who didn't have a good head on their shoulders.

The pungent smell of gasoline filled the air, and Ele began hyperventilating, her breath coming in and out quickly,

"Oh my God! It's going to blow up!"

She cried, tugging at her belt harder.

He opens the door and grabs a knife from his boot.

"I will get you out."

He pulls the belt out far enough to get the knife in and slices straight through. He helps her out and gets her to the top of the ditch and into his truck, turning on the heater as he waits for help to arrive. He hops in the truck with her and takes in the warmth.

"You alright now?"

Watching the man cut her belt and help her out, Ele bailed from the rental as quick as she could and gave the man a grateful smile as he ran the heater. Putting her hands up to the warm vent, Ele nodded then groaned when her head throbbed. Putting a hand to her head, Ele winced and her hand came away wet,

"Oh no..."

She said, looking at the blood. Biting her lip to keep the tears back, Ele sighed and looked at the man,

"I should have listened to you and just waited. Thank you for getting me out of there."

Looking down at her bloody hand, Ele chuckled, feeling light headed and strange,

"I guess you don't wanna shake my hand right now, but my name is Ele!"

He smiles.

"We will get you taken care of, Ele. Name is Tyler."

He grabs a handkerchief and shakes it out.

"I am gonna grab some snow really quick."

He hops out and grabs a chunk of clean snow. He balls it up and starts sucking on it. After a minute of this he is left with an ice ball. He hops back in the truck, wiping her forehead with the handkerchief then places the ice ball against the cut.

"Gonna be really cold but should numb it enough, hopefully it won't require stitches but it probably will."

Ele watched Tyler as he got out of the car, but her thinking was too foggy to quite make sense of what was happening. When he got back and dabbed at her cut, Ele winced, but remained still as he took care of her. That was nothing compared to the shocking cold of the ice ball though and the young woman yelped as the ice stung her head. In a few seconds though, the throbbing lessened and Ele sighed with relief. She made a face when he mentioned stitches though,

"I hate needles, can't they just put a bandage on it?"

She mumbled, and in the distance Ele could hear sirens coming closer. Flashing lights reflected off the snow and blinded the delirious Ele,

"wow, they get here quick don't they?"

She asked, giggling again as her door was opened by a paramedic,

"Wait..."

Ele said, turning to look at Tyler with worry on her face. She reached out to him,

"I don't wanna go alone!"

"They are really good at stitching. The shots hurt but it will be good before you know it."

Hearing her mention the quickness of the ambulance, he nods.

"Yeah, they usually have an ambulance stationed at a central location since the city is fairly large."

Hearing the sirens he watches for them until he catches sight of them, hearing her ask for him he smiles at her.

"I will follow you, I am just taking about an hour lunch."

He says as they bring her to the ambulance. He gets behind the ambulance and waits for them to take off.

In the ambulance, Ele was numbed and lightly sedated as she was transported to the area hospital. It was a tiny hospital compared to what Ele was used to, and inside an old doctor came to inspect Ele once he had been briefed on the conditions of Ele's injuries. He took a look at the gash on her head and shook his own,

"Tsk, tsk young lady... Driving around in this weather in a town car!"

A nurse came over with a suture kit and Ele caught sight of the tools. Even in her sedated state, she whimpered and looked around,

"Where's Tyler? He said he'd be here."

She asked, her voice slurred.

Tyler walks into the room where she is being cared for.

"I am here Ele."

He says to reassure her. The nurse looks over to him.

"You her boyfriend? Husband?"

He shakes his head.

"No, just pulled her from the car and helped her out earlier this morning."

He says as he stands where Ele can see him. He looks down at her.

"Concussed?"

He asks the doctor and nurse.

"Certainly is, gonna have to take it easy for a while."

Ele felt poking and stinging around her head and she closed her eyes against the pain, she really didn't like needles. Her hand reached out and gently grabbed the cuff of his jacket. Taking a deep breath and trying to calm down, Ele spoke again,

"But I have to get to the White Horse Inn tonight!"

She groaned, and the nurse placed a hand on Ele's head to keep her from moving while the doctor put in the stitches.

"Don't think you are in any shape to drive that far. You are a couple hours away in clear weather."

Tyler says.

"Are you booked there tonight?"

He asks as he stands next to her, trying to keep her mind off of the stitching.

"Tonight, tomorrow... However long it takes me..."

Ele said, keeping her eyes closed and drawing in a deep breath. There wasn't any pain anymore, her head was numb, but she could still feel pulling and pressure and the thought made her feel ill.

"However long it takes me to finish this business deal and write my report. My boss wants me out here so I can 'get deep in the job'. Whatever that means."

The doctor jumps in.

"Not going to happen. No stressful situations for at least 2 weeks, preferably 4. You may not need bed rest but you should at the very least get yourself in a low stress to no stress environment for the next week."

Tyler chimes in.

"Hey, my buddy Vale has a resort. I won 3 weekends at the resort. You can use the vouchers since I don't plan on staying there myself."

Ele made a noise of disbelief as the doctor finished up the stitches. 2-4 weeks of not working? Did this country doc not understand that Ele's life revolved around her putting out fires and calming stressful situations? She was a fixer, that was what her life was about and had been for the past five years. She'd clawed her way up from receptionist during her college years, to consultant, and now she was to go to business advisor for top companies in the state!

"I need to call my boss..."

She said as the doctor moved away and Ele tried to sit up on her own, a wave of dizziness stopped her halfway,

"My boss is going to kill me!"

"It is unfortunate to be sure but you sustained a nasty concussion."

As she sits up and starts getting dizzy they gently lay her back.

"No sudden movements miss, just a quick glance can do this."

Tyler stands next to her.

"We will get you to a payphone soon, the cell tower is back online but the signal is weak. You can call him then, I am sure he will understand your sitch."

"I wish..."

Ele muttered, laying back down, more willingly this time as she was watching the room spin around her. Sighing, Ele turned her head so she could look at Tyler,

"At least let me reimburse you for the resort vouchers, I can't just take them from you without giving something in return."