In This Together

The Fix-Its and their children all gathered around the living room, chattering happily after the day's activities were over. The autumn-themed maze game they played was full of spooks and surprises. Gloyd boasted about spending almost an entire weekend setting it up, while a few of the racers pouted bitterly after being tricked so many times.

Gloyd was the master of pulling tricks on his fellow racers. Though, some of the others managed to get the upper hand on him and beat him in the race out of the maze.

Still, he was more than happy everyone enjoyed the fruits of his labor. Several of the kids were happily munching on their candy corn and candy pumpkin prizes, and reminiscing about all the excitement.

"Remember when you almost caught me and I took a left turn at the last minute?!" Crumbelina said, bouncing on her knees.

Gloyd laughed. "Hah! That wasn't as good as when I almost dropped the bucket of water on your head!"

"Oh! What about the time when I snatched the candy corn and ran out of the way while you were on my tail?!" Jubileena said. "I fell flat on my face but I still kept going!"

Felix and Tamora were sitting on the couch, both exhausted after running around and trying to keep up with everyone. But there were huge smiles on their tired faces.

Finally, it seemed they'd gotten a hang of this parenting business. It only took over a week of extreme high-stress and a lot of pep talks. Tamora even stepped out of her comfort zones to give thoughtful advice. She'd always thought she was better at giving commands than giving suggestions.

One evening, Felix turned to her and asked, "Tammy, why is it that we never talked about having a family?"

And Felix had been washing the long line of dishes that were left from the kids after they went off to bed. Tamora was holding a plate and a drying towel when he'd asked her.

She shrugged. "I don't know, never really gave it any thought. It didn't seem like it was possible."

Felix lowered his eyes and his hands gripped the side of the sink. "Why not?"

She paused.

"It's not in the cards." She said, quietly.

"Oh, right." Felix said, glumly.

Tamora could see that the hard truth she'd just given him had disappointed him. She nudged him gently.

"Hey, chin up, soldier." She said to him. "We've got fifteen little rascals on our hands now. And they couldn't be luckier to have a father like you."

Felix smiled up at her. "Thanks, Tammy. It means a lot that you think so. They couldn't be luckier to have a strapping dynamite gal as their ma."

The handyman never realized how much he enjoyed spending time with them and learning about all of their different aspects. They were all so unique, with different mindsets, worries, troubles, and fears.

And the two adults may not have had all of the answers, but they did the best that they could. And that was good enough for all fifteen of those kids.

"Where's Wreck-It and Taffyta?" Tamora asked Felix.

Felix turned to look at the analog clock. "Don't know. They should be back by now."

"Oh boy..." Tamora stood up from the couch. "Should I send out a search party?"

"You don't have to do that." Felix told her. "Ralph's a responsible guy, Tammy. He wouldn't put her in a place where she could get hurt or lost."

Tamora had been having a hard time coming to terms with Vanellope's new place in the world, but she knew that Ralph had been as much of a presence in those kids' lives as she had. And why wouldn't he have been? He was their uncle, after all.

And she always knew she could count on the big guy to be there when he was needed. He was imperfect, empty-headed sometimes, and oblivious, but his heart was usually in the right place.

However, if Ralph returned by himself and allowed Taffyta to make a permanent decision without prior thought or logical reasoning, Tamora was actually going to lose it. That was her own child. And she would tear this entire arcade from the inside out if something bad had happened to Taffyta.

Then there was a knock on the front door, making Tamora jump in surprise.

"Oh, that must be them!" Felix said, happily, and hopped off to open it.

He was met with his close friend and his child, but his child didn't look like she had a good time. She looked guilty because she was avoiding his gaze.

Felix frowned slightly. "Hi guys, did you have fun wherever you went?"

"Yeah, yeah," Ralph assured him. "It's just, uh... we have something to talk to you about."

Taffyta was preparing for the worst. She thought that once she confessed, she would receive the loudest lecture in her entire life. Her voice was quiet while she was explaining her case.

She was carefully watching Tamora's face. She wouldn't have admitted it, but it was Tamora that she was afraid of disappointing. With her no-nonsense attitude and her tough disciplining.

Taffyta wondered why she wasn't physically punished for being so mouthy and rude in the beginning.

"And so, that's why the last race I was in ended the way it did." Taffyta concluded, hiding her face behind her blonde bangs. "I... wasn't thinking properly. I'm sorry."

Felix was dumbfounded, like he hadn't heard of someone altering their code before. Turbo - or King Candy - managed to do it when he took over Sugar Rush and made it his own creation. It seemed to be a simpler thing to do than he expected.

But it didn't work out as smoothly for Taffyta as she thought, he assumed. She had acted without previous experience in coding and wasn't able to race as a result.

Felix ran a hand through his hair, unsure of what to say.

Tamora's hard gaze didn't light up as she listened. It was hard to judge her reaction without hearing what she had to say. Finally, she spoke.

"This wasn't your idea, was it, Wreck-It?" She asked, a hint of venom in her voice.

Ralph shook his head. "I swear on my right hand, Calhoun, it wasn't."

"It's not his fault." Taffyta said. "If he didn't come get me, I'd still be floating in that abyss."

Tamora uncrossed her arms and dropped them to her sides. "Then what could have possibly pushed you to do something so dimwitted if nobody told you to do it? You could have deleted yourself from the game. Don't you understand that? Isn't that another rule of being apart of an arcade game?"

"I know," Taffyta could have lost count if she numbered the amount of times she heard that in the past few weeks. "It was stupid and I feel like a horrible person for doing it. I just didn't want to let all the gamers down because I don't have any special glitchy talent. I thought I was doing a good thing for the game."

"But there are other things we can do to keep the game popular." Felix assured her, gently. "We can build new tracks, or attach some cool rockets to your karts. Anything but fiddling with the game's database! Good golly, Taffyta, you have to stay away from the code!"

Taffyta refused to cry in front of anyone, but hearing how upset Felix was with her almost caused the waterfall to break. She thought he would have been more understanding. She breathed in deeply. "I wasn't thinking."

"No you were not."

Tamora was clearly angry with her. She sighed and massaged her left temple. "It's hard enough keeping you safe outside of your game, but now we have to worry about you sneaking off and putting yourself at risk in Sugar Rush? A good leader doesn't make such brainless decisions. And I believe that you have the potential to be a great leader, Taffyta, but not if you don't take care of yourself!"

Taffyta was now involuntarily crying a river. It was embarrassing to display such emotions in front of the adults, but she couldn't make it stop. Her mascara flowed over her red cheeks and her nose was dripping. "Oh, I've made a stupid, dumb mistake! I'll never be good enough to guide everyone else around me! I shouldn't have accepted the job! I've done nothing right! No matter what I do to try and make the place better, it just blows up in my face..."

Felix, the big softie, wrapped his arms around her. He hated seeing any of his kids cry. He hated being the one to initiate it even more. "It's okay, kiddo. We can fix this. There's nothing in this entire arcade that we can't find a solution for."

The little girl buried her face in his shoulder. "What's the point? I won't be able to race anymore, anyways."

Ralph stood by the girl's side. "If we can't fix your kart, then we'll build a new one. We're not about to let you sit out on the bleachers."

Taffyta wiped her face off and looked at all of them. "Y-you guys want to help me?" She gazed at Tamora. "B-but, why would you help me if you're mad at me?"

The sergeant lady bend down in front of her, eyes much more sympathetic than before. "We're not mad at you, Taffyta. But it's our job to protect you and keep you safe. If we ever let anything happen to you, we'd never forgive ourselves."

Taffyta was humbled and touched. And she gave them a tearful smile and a small laugh. "For once, I'm grateful for something that isn't being a good racer."

...

After all the kids had gone to bed, Ralph stuck around to bid goodnight to everyone. And he stepped into the kitchen when Tamora stepped away to have a moment alone for herself.

"Hope I'm not interrupting anything." Ralph told her.

"Hello, Wreck-It." Tamora murmured without turning around to face him.

Ralph scratched the back of his head. "Listen, I know you hate me for letting Vanellope do what she wants, but I thought I was trying to help, I just-"

"Save it."

Ralph nodded his head. "Okay, I'll see myself out now..."

Tamora spun around. "You're an egghead, Ralph. Sometimes your elevator doesn't go all the way to the top floor. And you get on my nerves every time you get the chance."

The wrecker hung his head and didn't retort back. He knew he had this coming.

Tamora breathed in deeply and relaxed her shoulders. "But you also came through for Taffyta and Vanellope when they needed you most. I guess I didn't have the right to go ape on you like I did. I was just letting my 'mom instincts' get the best of me." She lowered her head. "Thanks for being there for the both of them. If you didn't help Taffyta out... I don't even want to think about it."

He turned to fully face her. "You kind of did have every right to call me out on it. I couldn't stand the thought of keeping Vanellope from following her dreams. Maybe I was being too hasty, but I told her to check in with me as much as he can. And that if she doesn't think it's the right place for her, she still has a home here."

Tamora didn't expect Ralph to have put at least some thought into this. And she couldn't imagine that it was easy for him. He was the kid's closest friend. If anyone had full right to be torn up about her departure, it was Ralph.

All three of them watched her rise from being an outcast to a racing star, and had been there when life had given her a hard time. Tamora had acted the way she did because it was like having one of her own kids leave without a word. As if Tamora's opinion was irrelevant, or that all the time she'd spent with the kid didn't mean anything.

She couldn't identify what her real emotion was on the whole subject until she gained custody of fifteen.

"You're a good guy, Wreck-It. Even if you are a major numbskull sometimes."

Ralph stuck out his hand. "Let's call it a truce, then. I promise no more wisecracks from here on out."

Tamora grinned and nodded, pretending to spit on her palm. She clamped it onto Ralph's in a tight handshake. "Deal. The kids need all three of us knuckleheads to keep 'em in line."

AN: So I'm getting close to the end here and I'm trying to get out the chapters as timely as possible. It takes me about six hours on average for me to write a damn chapter 'cause I keep getting distracted (Television and Internet and social media).

If new WIR content was to come out, I'd want to see how the adults from the 80s game handle the Internet. I hate how the Disney movies that are super popular are the only ones that get extra content.

Also, I saw a picture of Jessica Rabbit holding Roger Rabbit and it reminded me of Felix and Calhoun together.