****Game Life****

Ralph went through the day on auto pilot. His coworkers tried hard to cheer him up some without obviously messing up the game but nothing helped. His downcast gaze didn't even meet Vanellope as she was shown as the winner on the roster. When she was able, she gave gave him concerned glances.

Truthfully she felt a bit guilty. She HAD pushed Ralph into getting involved with Dani but dang it what was she supposed to do? He needed someone and Dani had been perfect it had just never dawned on Vanellope she would disappear. Since she was brooding she wound up accidentally driving into a cupcake and finishing dead last in the race. It wasn't often she was last but it did happen after all for her to use her powers to win every race was the wrong thing to do.

She hoped she could think up something before the arcade closed to try to help Ralph. She hated the hang dog look on his face. She loved him and his heart ache made her own heart hurt. Another quarter was put in and she was about to start another race.

Felix was also unsure of what to do or how to help his friend. He tried to think of how he would feel if his wife suddenly left him. He realized just the thought shattered him and any desire to go on in the game life. In fact such a thing might make him go turbo and kill himself outside his game. This thought worried him more and he tried to think of what to say or do to try to help Ralph get through this.

**********Real Life **********

Dr. Ralph Malloy found himself outside Dani Mcdeal's room for about the hundredth time meaning to ask if he could have dinner with her. She was going to be discharged in a week if she showed no signs of going back into her coma. Despite what she had been through she was healthy and calm although there was something pensive in her gaze when she looked at him that he couldn't place. He didn't know if she liked him, didn't care for him or just thought he was damn nuisance.

A nurse paused next to him raising her brows. He realized that she had the dinner tray. He told himself to take it in and strike up conversation about how she was doing. No strike that, it was doctor patient talk. He should go in and ask if her family and friends would be planning anything to celebrate...no strike that she had one friend and her parents had died while she was young.

He looked at the food. No strike that the food looked awful he wasn't even sure what the hell they were feeding her. He stepped out of the way realizing the nurse was waiting a bit impatiently now. He dunked out of the way when she went in still trying to figure out what to do or say to see if his patient was interested in being more then just his patient.

Dani glanced at the door and sighed. He had chickened out again. She badly wished Ralph..well strike that Dr. Malloy would just come in and ask her out. She knew he wanted to her friend had told her about the talk about fishing, going to see the Phantom of the Opera musical, camping. For such an intelligent man he sounded really laid back and down to earth like her father had been.

Sadly he was a lot more like Ralph in Fix it Felix in the sense he apparently suffered from low self esteem and shyness. She had been trying to think of something to bring him around. That is if she could ever get him in here more then five minutes. She glanced out and saw the sun was going down. Her lips quirked up as she wondered what Ralph in the game Fix it Felix was going to say when he found out about her surprise and what could she say to the big doctor with the kind eyes when he came in to give her the latest updates.

*****Game Life ****

" For the last time I'm fine! I don't want to go to tappers I want to go home!" Ralph threw his hands up and then rubbed his face roughly. Vanellope had practically attached herself to his leg and Felix had one arm while Q-bert had the other. Did they think they could drag him to tappers? It was absurd. To prove it he simply started walking towards his shack dragging his friends behind him. Vanellope tried to glitch and found herself snatched up.

" Look little Mrs. Farthead you're not glitching me any where! Why don't you go get a drink and sneak if over here? We can have a bonfire..." For a moment his eyes kind of swam away remembering who had made the fire pit they all enjoyed so much but he quickly pulled his focus back. "...maybe roast some marshmallows cause I'm FINE and I just want to relax at HOME."

They seemed to realize he meant to stay put because they let go of him and merely followed him to the fire pit. A little work soon saw a lovely fire going. Ralph declined to join any of the discussions. Sometimes he would grunt something or tip his head but mostly he sat pounding down huge amounts of marshmallows.

Finally Felix gave in and left to go out with his wife. The bonus level guys went to their own homes. Vanellope stayed staring in the fire.

" You know stinkbrain..."

" I'm going to bed Vanellope." Ralph got up and put out the fire. Vanellope frowned but couldn't think of anything to say.

" K. See you tomorrow ya big goon."

Ralph waved at her. Once he was inside he leaned briefly on the door. He wasn't tired but at the same time he was. He realized his life was going to turn very dull if he spent his free time sleeping so he didn't have to think. Sadly though it was what he saw in his future for a while. He slipped out of his overalls and his shirt until he just had on his shorts and slipt into bed. He double checked it because occasionally an errant code could send a glitch through a game that was so tiny it wasn't dangerous but they WERE as annoying as bed bugs.

He slipped his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. He found himself day dreaming of what he missed and what could have beens. He believed he and Dani would have gotten married. Vanellope could have been their maid of honor he would have asked Felix to be best man. He would have helped her get over her fear of snow with lots of patience and practice. They could have gone to other games and had fun in some of them. There was so much he had to say that he hadn't realized he wanted to talk to someone about. While he lay there thinking a lump appeared under the blanket growing larger until it was easily as big around as one of his arms.

He grunted annoyed. He knew that feeling...errant code the darn things were such a pain in the...he yelped when he opened his eyes.

" HOLY CRIPES IT'S HUGE!"

He flipped the blanket down expecting a virus they had missed. Instead he saw Dani laying on him her chin resting on her hands, She laughed softly at him.

" It is? Really? Wow can't wait to see it then."

"Dani?" Ralph stared at her suddenly thinking he was loosing his mind and seeing things. He reached out and tapped her a bit harder then he meant to.

She yelped and set up rubbing her head. " Easy Ralph...I don't want to experience a coma in here."

" But how are you?...Are you still alive out there? What the..?"

He grabbed her and gave her a hug sure she would just disappear on him.

Dani hugged him back and he could feel her. She nuzzled his neck and slid her fingers briefly in his hair.

" Are you really here? " He asked. She pushed away from him and met his eyes.

" I'm here for good. I promise."

Ralph frowned " If you gave up your life..."

" I didn't." She gave him a smug look " I told you I'm a hell of a hacker."

" So how did you do this? " Ralph sat up causing her slide down until she was sitting spread leg on his lap. Realizing that wasn't going to be conductive to the conversation he wanted to have he quickly laid back down. It must have looked like a weird and comical sit up and he blushed realizing she was still straddling his lap. She leaned forward and began rubbing his chest.

" You can't destroy energy Ralph. You can only move it or make it stronger. That day you were in your game I snuck over to Malcom's game and duplicated my energy. Then I went to all the unfinished bonus levels I could find and hijacked the unused codes. Then I used my energy to program the codes into me."

Ralph blinked at her " So...your bits and pieces of unused codes? "

She nodded " yup. Not like anyone was going to miss them."

She had started rubbing his stomach now. He was having a hard time concentrating.

" So...are you a game? "

She leaned forward and pressed her lips against his. She trailed them onto his cheeks , his forehead nuzzled his ear.

" No I'm going to be working as a high end surge protector. I think the arcade is going to connect to the World Wide Web soon so we're gonna have to be extra vigilant when that happens. Viruses and malware and all that stuff I'll be part of the team that protects the games from that."

She started sliding her shirt off.

" Whose web? " His voice had gotten a little thicker and he cleared his throat.

She leaned froward again brushing her breasts against his chest, It felt like a tingling shock and he found he liked it..alot.

He shifted so he could slide her under him. He was very carefully to check every where to make sure nothing was going to fall on them , he wasn't going to crush her, she wasn't going to fall off, and about a hundred other things that might ruin this moment.

" Um...listen I'm not really all that experienced with this." He slid her hair out of her way so he could nibble on her throat.

She sighed letting her head fall back giving him more room " That's alright...we have lots of time to practice..."

" I'm probably not the most gentle man in the world..." He reached down to slip off her bottoms accidentally ripping them as he did so.

" You're doing fine..." She moaned.

He froze " Are you ok?"

" Don't stop!" She ordered.

He hastily went back to kissing and rubbing his face against her stomach.

Dani found that he had spoken true, he wasn't the most practice guy in the world, but for her he was perfect. He might have believed he wasn't the most gentle man in the world but his voice shook with emotion when he entered her and whispered her name. He had handled her like glass and she had found herself crying slightly at how good it had been to feel so cherished and so loved when she had lost all that.

" Tears? " He looked stricken.

" Of joy...only of Joy...I love you Ralph."

Ralph held her close and didn't release his grip even in their sleep and the dreams of white flurry death suddenly no longer made her cringe in fear in her sleep for she knew she was safe and always would be. Small knowing smiles graced their sleeping faces.

**********Real Life *********

" Your Cat Scan looks great Mrs. Mcdeal." Malloy said nervously clutching her file in front of him as if he thought he might accidentally overwhelm her without something between them. She had to admit he was pretty big but when he gave her that nervous smile and those dimples popped up and those brown eyes shone with good sweet humor.

Well she could just eat him up and in the way that implied.

" Uh do you have any questions for me? " He was already backing up making his escape.

" I talked to my friend and i found out you owe me." Dani said. She looked at her hands fiddling with the blanket in her lap.

" I'm sorry." Malloy paused and gazed at her confused.

Here goes nothing Dani thought. " Yea she said you promised to take me lunar eclipse watching, fishing, out to a comedy club to a musical...I mean I hope you meant that because those are just awesome sounding dates."

" Dates? You mean you..really want to? Go out with me? Like on a date date? "

Dani bit her lip to keep from smiling the poor man looked bowled over.

" I can't wait actually. Unless..." She opted for a slight pout " If you just feel sorry for me don't bother but I'm hoping you find me kind of attractive because I find you attractive and I just thought..."

" You think I'm attractive? " Malloy blurted out. Then he winced. Hadn't she just said she did?

" Dr. Malloy if you weren't my Dr. right now I'd be all over you. I like the way you make me feel. Like a feeling I haven't felt in years since I lost my family."

Malloy had a slightly dazed look on his face " I do? "

Dani nodded. " You make me feel wanted..you went above and beyond to take care of me...but you also make me feel safe because of the look in your eye when you told me about the two orderlies that tried to rape me. I know if anyone tried to hurt me there'd be hell to pay so I'm not alone anymore."

Dr. Malloy cleared his throat." Mrs. Mcdeal I ...don't know what to say..."

" Ask her out you idiot!"
" For Christs sake Malloy does she need a sign?"
" Doc I heard everything you promised my friend and you said you meant every word!"

Malloy turned and glared briefly at the door were Dr. Shane, the RN and even Jennie Dani's friend were eavesdropping.

He walked over and shut door with an 'Excuse you!' then closed the blinds. He turned to look at the woman on the bed. He was struck again by how pretty she seemed to him. He cleared his throat and walked up to her. Shyly he picked up her hand and kissed it.

" Mrs. Mcdeal as soon as your discharged it will be my pleasure to take you out."

Dani leaned back and raised a mischievous brow " I'll bet I can get myself discharged tonight!"

Thank you for reading Wrecked Life I hope you enjoyed it. I am working on a fan fiction comic for Zootopia if you are interested you can find it in the following links 210944595669908/photos/rpp.210944595669908/1541659839265037/?type=3&theater and also art/Datenight1-Copy-732936368