Hello everyone! Sorry this is late; but I had a very busy summer, and soon I'm going to be busy with school again. So I figured I'd get another chapter out.

A lot of different music was played during the writing of this chapter, and I don't know if you'll like it or not. But I wanted to get it out right away, so here it is! A reminder that I do not own Wreck it Ralph, only Angelina and Lemona, my OCs. And though I can't remember all the songs I listened to, I do remember "Say Something," "All of Me," and "Let Me Go." (I don't own the songs either!)

If you have any constructive criticism, I don't mind you sharing it because I love learning so I can improve my work. But I don't like flames!

So without further ado, I hope you enjoy Chapter 15 of "This Shouldn't Be Happening!" and I invite you to read, follow, favorite, and review!

Chapter 15

Lemona had known that the next day, after receiving the message via messenger that he was needed to help transport Angelina's new kart to the castle, Ralph would arrive. Thoughts of seeing the giant again had made the night difficult to sleep through, as reminders that he was one of Turbo's many enemies kept beating on her brain. But when the new morning came, she told herself that Ralph was also Vanellope's best friend, and resolved not to complain about the 'halitosis riddled warthog.' She found that repeating the insults helped keep the guilt of her betrayal at bay. Even the smile she gave Angelina was genuine as she dressed the child and whispered that she was going to show her a great surprise.

When the child cooed and tried to smile back, Lemona noticed no teeth, but the yellow jumper she was buttoning up seemed a little snugger. The growing process wasn't going at a sonic speed, but a squirming feeling in her chest told her it was going quicker then everyone had expected.

"What are you going to do?"

Vanellope's words from the day of Angelina's birth sent pixelating shivers through Lemona that jumped to Angelina, turning them both momentarily a shade of baby boy blue. Luckily when Lemona could see the baby under her hands again, she was giggling, which told her that the glitching had only tickled her. As Lemona picked her up and brought her close to her chest, she refused to let those worries destroy her good mood. There would come a day where she would consider what she wanted to do for Angelina, but today was not that day. Today was a day of celebration.

But, when the time came to leave and she entered Vanellope's throne room turned office, her feet stopped her from going any farther then the doors. Blood running like cold gasoline, she discovered Ralph's enormous, ground trembling footsteps had covered up the pitter-patter of quieter and much smaller feet.

"Good morning to you Lemona! Hope you had a dandy sleep last night! Feeling better today?"

"What is he doing here?" The last time Lemona had seen Felix had been the night of her breakdown, and her skin flushed at the memory of him seeing her in that state.

"Felix offered to give us a hand with bringing the kart back here," Ralph responded, but Lemona was too stunned to fully understand what he was telling her. With eyes widening, and heart pumping electricity and sugar particles through her binary veins and arteries, she backed up. And instead of feeling wafer wood against her back, there was the tensed grip of a gloved, four-fingered hand on your shoulder. A breath that came from nowhere drifted into her right ear, so cold that it chilled every inch of her insides.

"You're mine."

Lemona could hardly hold back her cry as the voice in her ear faded into mist that lingered even as she looked behind her to see just the two office doors. It was so hard for her to understand what had happened, she almost told herself it hadn't. But she knew even before the words mentally came out that she couldn't lie to herself.

"Lemona? Jiminy jaminy, are you doing alright Ma'am?"

It was then that everything fell into place in Lemona's mind.

Felix wasn't doing this just so he could be a good little good guy. He was here to try to replace somebody. The one person who should have been with her to celebrate watching her daughter receive her first kart. With his overly cheerful attitude and never ending mottos and slogans, it was a good effort. It made Lemona sick to her stomach.

"I'm fine," she snapped, fully aware that everyone had been waiting a good while for her to answer. It didn't make her list of things to care about though. At the moment, there was only one thing that mattered, and it was bolded, underlined, and flashing neon lights on the entire page.

Adjusting her grip of Angelina in her arms, she turned again, and fully faced Felix. Instructing herself to look like the queen she once thought she'd be, her back straightened, and her eyes narrowed into sharpened daggers. "Actually Felix, though your offer is quite generous, we don't really need you to come. Three seems like plenty to me. You'd most likely get in the way."

Felix's smile faltered for the tiniest bit of a second, and Lemona took joy in the nervous twitching of his eyes when it did recover. That would show him that she didn't need or want him to take over for Turbo.

"Oh! Well…I couldn't just stay here and do nothing. Maybe I could hold Angelina for you! Surely you want to be careful that she doesn't touch you and cause your glitching to act up."

Though the hero didn't try to reach for Angelina, Lemona swung her up higher in her arms, and pulled her closer. Her methods almost made her look like she was trying to hold the child behind her back. "No!" The force behind the word made everybody jump, including herself, and a curse escaped her mind when Angelina started whimpering. Reluctantly, she had to bring Angelina back to her original position to calm her down as she tried to think of an explanation for why Felix couldn't hold her other than, "I don't want you to even think about touching my child because she's not yours, and she never will be, so stop trying to replace the man I love."

"She actually doesn't gain control over me when she touches me," Lemona didn't even try to smile when she spoke this time. If being polite and friendly hadn't gotten Felix to take the hint, maybe the opposite would. "I think it's because she's made with part of my code. Or it could be Turbo's part of her code that causes it. He was able to touch me too."

This time Felix didn't try to hide his wince. "Well…Alright Lemona, if you're sure. I guess I'll just stay here and-"

Before she could hear the rest of what he was going to say, Lemona was out the door, not even giving him a 'thank-you.' As she walked, she knew that Vanellope and Ralph were behind her, but she made no motions to acknowledge them, instead choosing just to talk to Angelina quietly under her breath so only the three of them could hear. And she said three, because there was a certain someone whispering in her ear again.

"Excellent, my little lemon drop. Get as far away from them as possible. Spending so much time with them isn't healthy. They're trying to take you away from me and ruin what we have between us! You need to show them that it isn't working."

It was words like those that made Lemona wonder if Turbo was somehow able to watch over them from wherever he was. Perhaps before he'd left, he'd given Sugar Rush one last hack. No matter what was causing it, it made her feel like he was actually there with them, able to join in this joyous celebration.

Though only a few days old, when Angelina saw her kart, she squealed and cooed, actually clapping her hands for the very first time. It filled Lemona with pride to see that somehow her daughter's programming had known to turn her daughter into a healthy, glitch-free racer, as opposed to what the programmers had made her. The idea of one day getting into a kart again and racing against her widened her hopeful smile. When Ralph went ahead to push the kart to the castle, Lemona focussed on how her daughter reached out to the vehicle with her chubby baby arms the entire way.

She should have known that something would happen to ruin everything.

It was hard to convince Angelina to cheer up and eat lunch after Ralph pushed the kart away into a different location of the castle where the baby couldn't see it. But after making a promise that they could go and look at it later, Lemona got her to settle down enough in the kitchen to get a few swallows in.

They were both beginning to relax, when somebody burst in.

"Welcome back Lemona!"

The shock of the unexpected visitor caused Lemona to slam her hand down on the table in front of her, sending shock waves of pain down her entire arm. Though she'd felt worse pain from Turbo's punishments, it still caused her to gasp. The sound was not heard by Felix however, who was trying to talk her ear off while casually strolling towards her holding a pie.

"I know I said I would stay here, but I just felt so gosh-darn awful lounging around and not doing anything when this was such a big day for you and Angelina! So I hopped on over to my game and asked Mary to help me bake you a pie. It's lemon meringue. I wanted to make an angel food cake or a fruitcake too, but Mary only knows pies, and I only had so much ti—Oh my land!"

Almost dropping the desert on the table, Felix pointed to Lemona's hand, which was now just giving off a gentle throbbing. "Your poor hand! Here, let me help you!"

As he whipped his hammer out of his tool belt, Lemona shoved her wounded appendage underneath Angelina, ensuring that she was still lying safely and comfortably in her arms. "Felix, I'm fine."

"You most certainly are not! Now give me your hand, and let me…" His words suddenly trailed off, and his mouth dropped open in a wide O shape. Lemona stared in confusion at his expression, wondering what he was looking at. Then she followed his gaze down, and realization crashed down on her.

Her shirt had been slightly unbuttoned in order for Angelina to feed. Which meant that Felix could see her bruises.

They'd become such a regular thing living with Turbo that eventually she'd forgotten the feeling of her contusions, and her clothes had done such a good job of covering them up that eventually she'd just forgotten that they were still healing on her skin. The purple and blue spots popped out on the pale skin of her shoulders and upper arms. She thanked Tabikomo that the ones on her chest area had healed long ago, even before Angelina had been born. She saw Felix's eyes trail down even further, to stare at her legs, covered up by her leggings, and she knew exactly what he was thinking. He was wondering if there were marks he couldn't see, on her legs, her waist, her back. The answer to the question was yes, of course there were. And she was glad he couldn't see them. She could see the pity in his eyes, and she hated it. She didn't need or want him to feel sorry for her. She'd deserved every one of those bruises. She'd been taught important lessons through them.

She and Felix stared each other down, him with sorrow, and her with fury. Her stare was a challenge. "Say something," her mind raged. "Just try it."

And, wouldn't you know it, he did. "Lemona," he finally whispered, his voice a desperate plea. "Please stop pushing me away. I know that Turbo did horrible things to you. I know that somehow he's still got you under his control. I just…I want it to end. I want you to get better."

"STOP PRESSURING ME!" The words jumped out of Lemona's mouth before she even knew she was thinking them. Hurriedly standing up, she felt like her head was about to explode, but as long as she held her child in her arms, she resolved to keep from losing full control. Screaming seemed to be helping with that. "YOU DON'T NEED TO TELL ME THINGS I ALREADY KNOW! I'M TRYING TO GET BETTER! BUT I CAN'T JUST QUIT ON HIM! HE HAD ME WITH HIM FOR NINE MONTHS, AND WHERE WERE YOU? BACK IN YOUR OWN GAME, WITHOUT A CLUE THAT I WAS GONE UNTIL THE CLONE STARTED ACTING UP! YOU COULDN'T EVEN TELL ME APART FROM A DAMN CLONE!"

When she took a second to breath, she could hear her daughter screaming in her arms, and it choked her own shrieks with tears. But she had to continue. She had so much more to say.

"Turbo…he knows me! And I am not going to allow you to just come over here and try to TAKE HIS PLACE! YOU CAN'T DO THAT! We have a CHILD now! And you know what? These bruises? THEY DON'T EVEN HURT! I'M FINE!"

And with that, she spun and ran as fast as her bruised legs would carry her out of the castle. They burned like the engine in her kart, and her arms begged for a rest after carrying their heavy load the entire morning. But she pushed on, refusing to put her sobbing daughter down until she was at the place she wanted to be. Again, she tried to comfort Angelina, but it was hard to make somebody else feel better when you were falling apart too.

The rainbow bridge that led to the game's entrance-way was difficult to run up, but her blistered feet hidden in boots with good grip pushed her until she was at the top. As soon as she could touch the tunnel, she carefully lay Angelina on her back before dropping to her knees. "Shhh," she tried to make her whispers sound calm as she choked on salt-water taffy tears. "Shh, shh, shh, don't cry Angelina, please don't cry. I'm so sorry I scared you. You're okay. You're okay. And Mommy's…. But she couldn't finish the sentence. Because even though she could say she was there, and she loved Angelina, and she was going to protect her for all of the days of her life, she couldn't lie to her daughter. She couldn't tell her that her mother was okay.

Holding her hand up, she pressed forward, hoping that like everybody else, she would be able to put her hand on the other side of the tunnel entrance. She prayed that the border wouldn't recognize her glitch, and would allow her access to the way into Game Central Station. This was a prayer that could not be answered, for as she knelt against what looked to be nothing, the invisible wall sprang up, wavering and wiggling, but never weak enough to crumble against her touch.

"If I could just see him," Lemona whispered, more to herself then to Angelina. "Then I would know if I was strong enough to leave him. I get so close to being better, to being able to stand on my own, and then…I just fall."

"It's not your fault."

Not expecting an answer, Lemona spun around and came face to face with the giant himself.

"Ralph," she choked out, her throat, nose, and mouth still clogged with tears and snot. "You shouldn't be here. I…I don't want to see you."

To Lemona's surprise, Ralph stayed where he was. "Okay," he answered, nodding once. "I'll go. But…Is it okay if I say something first?"

He wasn't demanding that she listen to him. He was willing to ask her permission before proceeding, and this interested Lemona. Sniffing, she wiped her face with her arm, and tried to cover herself up by buttoning her shirt up again, but her fingers were shaking too much to finish fumbling with the tiny pieces. "Sure. I guess so."

Sitting down so that he wasn't towering as much over her, Ralph put his hands down at his sides and tried to look Lemona in the eyes. "You know, you probably don't care what I think, but I think you're really strong."

"What?" Her fingers stopped, and she actually peeked up to look at his face. "How can you say that?"

Ralph shrugged. "I don't know. Pretty easily I guess. You've jumped from a kid to an adult, which not a lot of other video game characters can say. You're given birth to a beautiful baby girl, and you're trying to be the best mother you can be instead of just giving her up. You were taken against your will, held captive by a bad guy for close to a year, and managed to survive."

"Turbo's not a bad guy," Lemona interuppted, eyes flashing momentarily. "You're a bad guy. Turbo was a good guy."

"Sure, those are our roles in our games," Ralph's words came out slowly, as if he was trying to be careful with answering. "That is part of us. But that doesn't make up all of who we are. I may have a short temper and a knack for wrecking things, but I also like having friends. Turbo is good at racing and dealing with code. He has great determination when he wants something. But he can also be arrogant, conceited, and selfish. He needs to be the best, and get what he doesn't have."

"I don't want to hear this," Lemona started, but Ralph was already onto his next sentence.

"You have a strong sour side that can be hard to control. It makes you stubborn, upset, and even a little mean sometimes. But you've also got a sweet side. You love karts, whether you're racing them, fixing them, or building parts for them. You have the determination to solve any problem that comes your way. And you crave love."

Now Lemona couldn't even breathe. She was too fixated on what she was being told, and she couldn't tell whether it was because she couldn't remember the last time she'd gotten a compliment, or because it was true.

"Your brain told you that what Turbo was giving you was love so that you could survive your kidnapping, and now you believe it. You think that what he did to you is the only love you can ever receive. And because you want it so badly, your brain makes you hear his voice, just so you can feel it again while he's gone. But the thing is, I don't think what he gave you was really love. He only really likes and knows one side of you Lemona, your sour side. It seems to me that someone who really loves you will love every piece of you. And they would never hurt you, no matter what. I know you think he was teaching you lessons, but…I think he was punishing you for being so strong. For fighting to escape."

Ralph paused, and leaned forward to try to look into Lemona's eyes again. "Do you remember fighting?"

Lemona wanted to nod, but found herself frozen in place. It all seemed so long ago, like a long-forgotten dream. Running through the caves. Sitting by the doorway, watching the moon and stars and praying for a rocket ship to take her away. Waiting for somebody, ANYBODY, to find her.

"Now you're fighting again, fighting to free yourself completely from his control. Every battle you win makes you stronger. But every fighter falls sometimes. And if you can stand up and continue trying to fight after those losses, then those are the ones that make you a champion. Just look at Vanellope."

This time Lemona felt herself nod. She'd heard Vanellope's stories. She knew of her battles.

Now Ralph hesitated, and Lemona found herself willing to wait for him to continue. "And…I'm sorry about Felix. He's trying to help, but he's not used to dealing with this sort of thing. Heck, I'm not even used to it. Only Calhoun's had experience with this sort of thing. But Felix…he feels like the more you love someone, the harder you should squeeze them. But that leads to suffocation, so…it's not the best method."

Lemona swallowed. "He…he reminds me of Turbo. And I…I just can't be around that. Not until I get this all figured out.

"I understand. And I'm sure he will too. But…just know that we all care about you and support you. Not just Vanellope. I know she's been spending the most time with you lately, but…we all think about you."

A weak smile found its way onto Lemona's face, and she managed to squeak out some words. "Ralph…you're not such a bad guy after all."

"Oh….Thanks." Standing up again, he swayed awkwardly on the balls of his feet, and folded his hands in front of him. "So…are you going to come back to the castle?"

"Um…If it's all the same to you, I think I'm going to stay here for a while. Would you tell Vanellope? In case I don't show up until tomorrow?"

Ralph nodded and smiled too. "Sure."

Then, before Lemona even knew what was coming, Ralph was pulling off his orange plaid shirt and handing it over to her. "Here." It was so large that she could wrap herself up in it three times and still have extra fabric left over. And that was clearly Ralph's intent, because stood, looking even more uncomfortable in his green undershirt and bare arms as he mumbled, "In case it gets cold tonight."

Lemona's heart warmed at the gesture, and a chuckle came out of her. "Thank you Ralph."

Her voice was so soft she didn't expect him to hear, but his cheeks turned red when he mumbled again. "You're welcome." After clearing his throat he tried to speak louder, but the next words still came out quietly. "I'd give you a hug, but…I don't want to make you glitch up. I don't have any black liquorice on me."

Lemona laughed again, briefly wondering if that was the only reason he wouldn't hug her before deciding that it didn't matter. "That's okay."

Taking her words as a dismissal, Ralph gave an awkward wave, turned around, then walked down the hill. The candy was tough, so there would be no footprints left over. No way of knowing that he had been there. But Lemona would always remember.

Picking up Angelina again, who had fallen asleep during the talk, she leaned her back against the invisible barrier, and pulled the shirt over the two of them. Though it was only late afternoon, the trials of the day, both good and bad, had left her exhausted as well. So she fell asleep with Angelina in her arms, Ralph's words in her head, and the scent of bricks and sweat from a long day's work in her nose. And she decided that Ralph wasn't such a halitosis-riddled warthog after all. Maybe he could be her friend again.

Maybe they all could be.

So there it is. I know they've all been ending with these big, emotional talks lately, but I feel like there are a lot of things that people have to say to my dear Lemona. And every new thing she learns helps her get a little bit stronger.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it, and I can't wait to read your reviews! Once again, sorry it's been so long. I love my readers and reviewers, but it's not easy to get chapters written quickly. Hope you all understand.