Hey everybody! Once again, I'd like to apologize for the Author's Note, but I think that this chapter will make up for it. Please go vote on the poll on my profile if you haven't already. It would make my day! Please enjoy! Oh wait, I don't own Wreck-it Ralph or any of its characters. Okay, we're good.

The Fix-its : Chapter 5

The party was a grand success. Apparently, Felix and Ralph's style was pretty popular. There were characters from every game in the arcade at the party. Tamora stood near the door to greet everyone, and she had to try her hardest to smile and not look angry when people did a double take when she introduced herself as 'Mrs. Tamora Fix-it.'

For code's sake, she thought, we've been married for six months now. You'd think that they would stop staring already. She breathed a sigh of relief when her men showed up. She shook all their hands, letting a smile slip onto her face when she saw Corporal McClellan. On his arm was the girl from the library, Sarah.

"Sarah, I, um, what are, um, how do you know Corporal McClellan?" Sergeant Calhoun was thoroughly surprised to see her. I didn't know that he was married!

"Sergeant, this is my brother, James," Sarah said with a smile.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, I thought that it would be all right if I brought my sister," the young man quickly apologized.

"No, no, it's fine; it's just that I didn't know that you two knew each other. I met Sarah today. I'll make sure to talk to you two later."

Luckily, the McClellans were near the end of the sea of people to find either Sarah or Felix. As she looked around to see if anybody she recognized was close, she ran into Sarah.

"Sarah!" Can you come with me for a moment?" she called over the loud music that was playing. She could see Vanellope and Felix dancing on the multicolored floor of the penthouse. She laughed quietly as she moved to the side of the room where tables were set up. Tamora and the librarian sat down at the bar. Here one could almost hear oneself think. "Did you tell him?" the soldier asked. Sarah simply shook her head. "Thank you."

"May I assume that this is an announcement party?" Sarah asked.

"Yes," Calhoun answered as the bartender walked up.

"Would you ladies like a drink?" he asked while getting out two glasses.

"No, thank you," Sarah answered.

"I'm fine," Tamora added.

"But Tamora, surely you want something. It could lead to some fun later tonight." The sergeant gritted her teeth.

"I said that I'm fine."

"You should! I have a wonderful special that I'm sure you would enjoy," the bartender prodded. She had never wanted to punch anyone in the face as badly as she wanted to right then. Her hands were under the counter, balled into fists. She felt someone take her hand and gently pull her away onto the dance floor.

"I think that now would be a good time for you to go dance with your husband," Sarah's caring voice counseled. Tamora breathed in, and out.

"Thanks civilian. I don't usually, well, never mind." Now is no time to be showing weakness, she thought as she put on a fake smile and went to meet Felix on the dance floor.

xThe Fix-itsx

Finally, it came time for the announcement. Everyone was happy and laughing as they gathered in front of the stairs, where Felix was standing. He had wanted his wife to stand with him, but she insisted that they would look ridiculous, so she stood off to the side, leaning against the wall.

"Attention, everyone," called Felix as he waved his magic hammer in the air. The crowd quickly settled down, looking towards Felix expectantly. He cleared his throat, and said

"As you all know, my lovely wife Tamora and I married about six months ago, on March 2th." His wife snorted. Of course he calls me lovely, that adorable little pansy. I'm about as lovely as an angry porcupine. "Well, just a couple weeks ago, we got some wonderful news." Everyone started talking amongst themselves. Felix had to band his hammer against the doorframe to get the people's attention. "If y'all had kept listening, you would know what it was by now," he gently chastised. "Anyway, my wife Tamora and I are expecting a baby!" For a split second, there was not a sound from the crowd. They looked at Tamora, then back to Felix with looks of utter shock. Just when the silence was becoming awkward, Vanellope glitched onto the stage and yelled

"So I'm going to have somebody my age to play with?" Felix smiled and nodded. "Yea!" Ralph laughed and started to clap. Soon the whole room followed suit. The Nicelanders swarmed up on the stage to congratulate the dad-to-be. He looked over to see how many of his wife's men were surrounding her, but she wasn't there. He quickly scanned the room. She was not there. He wanted to leave to go find her, but the Nicelanders were so insistent, and it would be rude to turn them down. Maybe she just went to the bathroom or something.

After a good ten minutes of congratulations, Felix knew that his wife was not going to come back. He quickly jumped off the stage and dashed out the door. His cheeks flushed at the thought of his scandalous behavior, but right now, his lady was more important. He ran to their apartment, but she was not there.

"Tammy? Where are you?" he called, dashing through the halls. Finally, he went up onto the roof. It was the last place that he knew to check. "Tammy? Are you up here?" He could not see anything, but he thought that he heard something from what he knew was a corner of the building. He listened as hard as he could, trying to work his way over to the noise. He paused as he heard it again. It was a sob. Walking slowly, Felix made his way over to the edge of the building and walked forward cautiously. Soon he could see the silhouette of Tamora, with her knees pulled up to her chest and her forehead on her knees. He sat down next to her. He gently rested his hand on her back. She was shaking like a leaf. After a minute, Felix asked quietly

"Tammy, what's wrong?" She did not say anything for a second, but then her voice pierced the silence.

"I don't know if I can do this." Felix did not answer, so she kept talking. "My programmers wrote into my code that I was bullied as a child. The other kids didn't like me because I was tough, and I didn't like the pink bows and butterflies like they did. I don't want that for my baby. I thought, for one fragment of time, that characters would accept him, even if he wasn't programmed, but…" her voice cut off, and more sobs could be heard. Her husband rubbed her back comfortingly. "Felix, you saw how everybody reacted. Well, you probably didn't see it; you never see the bad in people, but I saw the disgust, the horror, the fear on some people's faces. Our baby is already hated, Felix, and he isn't even born yet!" Tamora had never broken down completely before, but something about the whole day, just straw after straw had been layed down on the camel's back of her emotional barriers, and something had snapped. The handyman next to her let her cry, waiting patiently until the storm calmed. Finally, he asked,

"Tammy, what's your birthday?" Seriously? We have more important things to talk about, Tamora thought. Almost as if he could hear her thoughts, Felix said "Trust me, Tammy." The raw emotion that showed through that simple command was enough to make Tamora answer.

"November 15."

"Is that a real birthday, or is that programmed?"

"Programmed."

"Do you know when my birthday is? It's August 23, 1957. That's a real birthday, not programmed." Tamora did not understand what he was talking about. Every video game character has a programmed birthday; it comes with being created.

"What?"

"My game wasn't originally my game. It used to be my pop's. He was married; it was a programmed marriage, but he loved my mother. After Fix-it Felix had been plugged in for five years, my mom found out that she was pregnant. Back in the beginnings of arcade games, it was fairly common for video game characters to become pregnant, because the child would be looked upon as a glitch, but my mother's pregnancy came at the tail end of that trend. By the time I was born, everyone looked at my mom as if she was a cybug. I learned later that a game in our arcade had been unplugged because a child was born in it, and the players reported it to the manufacturer. Ever since I could remember, characters would stare at me as if they didn't know what a child was. I remember one day, somebody pushed me, and I fell down and got scraped up. I ran home crying, and my mother told me that even if people were mean to me, if I was nice to them, they would warm up to me. Ever since then, I've tried to be as sweet as apple pie to everybody. Now when I go out, people usually wave and smile at me, bu there's still a few of the older characters that ignore me when I walk by. Anyway, the point of all that was to say that I know, and I'll be there with you the whole time."

Tamora was shocked but enthralled by the story. She could hardly believe that her sensitive, sweet, adorable husband had been disliked by everyone and had an interesting backstory. And he had been born!

"How did you get your name on the game?" she asked. Felix chuckled gently in the darkness.

"When I turned twenty-two, my dad gave me my golden hammer and let my play as an alternate main character. 'Fix-it Felix' became more popular than ever, and the arcade revenues went up so much that Mr. Litwak contacted the manufacturer. They sent someone to the arcade, and they took my game with them. Next thing I knew, the game was named 'Fix-it Felix Jr.' and my parents were completely gone. I learned that every Fix-it Felix game in the country had been changed in the same way. The programmers had copied my code and added it to thousands of games across the country." He fell silent, and nothing could be heard except chirps from the crickets in the woods and the faint hum of music from the penthouse. Tamora's mind raced, trying to wrap her head around what Felix had just said. Finally, the fact that his parents had essentially died clicked, and she said

"I'm sorry. About your parents, that is."

"Thank you, but that's not the point. Tammy, don't worry. Those characters don't hate you, and even if they did, you wouldn't need to worry about it. I will always be here for you, and we can face the world together." He reached out cautiously, and his hands found her shoulder. His hand climber up to hold her cheek, and he leaned forward, gently kissing her on the lips. He silently rejoiced that he didn't miss. He meant to pull away quickly, but she grabbed his collar and pulled him closer. By the time they went back to the party, both of the parents-to-be were beaming.