WiR: The Medal

"All right, Wreck-it. You've got five seconds to tell me what you're doing here."

Calhoun stood with one fist on hip and the opposite hand balancing her rifle against a shoulder, scowling up at the bulky man who'd dared return to Hero's Duty after the debacle at Sugar Rush a few nights ago. Ralph stared at her a moment, wide-eyed (a bit intimidated, she realized with a certain satisfaction), before finally holding out one large fist, opening it to reveal a gleam of gold on his palm.

"I... well, I thought I should probably bring this back."

Her eyes flicked to the medal, brow raising as she studied it a moment before looking back up at him.

"Huh. So you actually got hold of it." She pursed her lips; whether it was to hide a smile or a grimace even she couldn't say for sure. "Markowski said that was what you were about." A pause, and she allowed herself the tiniest quirk of the lips. "Fix-it might've said you'd gone squirrely over it, come to think of it."

Ralph scowled slightly, starting to protest. Then he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yeah. Guess I kinda did." He was still holding out the medal, Calhoun having never moved to take it; he shifted his weight, rolling his shoulder lightly. "Uh, what happened to that guy anyway? Haven't seen him at Tapper's again, I kinda wanted to, uh, apologize."

"You won't see him at Tapper's anytime soon," Calhoun drawled, both brows raised now. "Letting a civilian get hold of Marine equipment is a pretty serious offense. Let alone letting a civilian put themselves in the bug's den."

Ralph squirmed on his feet, looking away.

"It, uh, wasn't exactly his idea. He told me no actually, but he... kinda... ran into a wall." Calhoun's mouth quirked again in spite of herself; this seemed to encourage Ralph and he grinned, rocking on his feet. "I mean straight into a wall, knocked himself cold. Bet he was lucky the rest of your guys didn't see that, heh!"

Calhoun had gotten her amusement under control and merely stared at him; after a moment Ralph cleared his throat, gaze lowering slightly.

"I mean, uh. It's not like he gave it away and all."

"Didn't figure," Calhoun said evenly. "But he still lost it. Ease up, I didn't ditch him in Undead Apocalypse if that's what you're worried about. He's confined to game is all, until he can catch Felix." She shrugged, remembering only a moment later that she wasn't supposed to be on first-name basis with these yahoos. "Fix-it's been learning to help with after-closing clear-outs, so he gets plenty of chances."

"Yeah, I knew he'd started hanging out here before we meet at the race." If Ralph had comments about the name slip or Felix's new routine, he kept them to himself; smarter than he looked, she decided. "Catching him, though? Yeesh. Have you ever seen him get going, I mean really get going?"

"Yeah. First time he came in we mistook him for a hostile." Calhoun grinned a bit. "About four of us opened fire and not a one of us could hit him." Her tone was more admiring than she'd meant it to be; Ralph stared at her with brows raised until she cleared her throat, glancing again at the medal he was offering.

Seemed he wasn't getting the message.

"Isn't your arm getting tired?"

"Well, uh, yeah." He puffed his cheeks in annoyance. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? I wanted to apologize get this back where it belonged, though, so I hunted out where it fell after I threw it and--"

"Keep it."

He cut off immediately, blinking at her.

"Wha...? But--"

"You heard me." She shrugged lazily, reaching out to shove his hand down; he complied, blocky fingers closing over the medal. "Keep it."

"But...." He looked at the medal, bewildered. "I didn't...."

"You earned it," she said simply. Ralph shook his head slightly, and she scowled. "Don't question me, civilian. One: you made it to the top of the tower."

"Didn't fight bugs though, I just climbed the outside, and--"

"And made it through the eggs, didn't you." She waited for his nod. "Wouldn't have thought you could to look at you. Anyway, the only rule is make it to the top. Two: you cleared out Sugar Rush when no one else saw a way. Granted it was just cleaning up your own mess, but you did it."

"I had to," he said quietly. "Vanellope... she...."

"I know," she said just as quietly before clearing her throat and assuming her usual tone, the Sergeant tone. "And three: your sugar solution gave me one hell of an idea. Sugar Rush has a built-in beacon; bet we can rig it elsewhere and secure every game in this arcade."

Ralph nodded thoughtfully.

"Yeah? Hey, yeah! I mean, the street lights in Niceland, or Burger Time's stoves... I bet we could."

"Yup. I probably would have thought of it sooner or later, but your little volcano sacrifice sped it up." She shifted her weight slightly. "Anyway. Surge Protector didn't alert when you moved the medal between games today, did he?" She waited for Ralph to shake his head, and nodded in response. "See there? It's yours."

"I...." He nodded after a moment. "Thanks."

"Don't thank me - you earned it. And don't try that again."

"Ohhh believe me, I'm done medal hunting," Ralph said. "I mean, uh... yes ma'am." He saluted, and she decided to ignore the sarcastic flavor of the gesture as she turned to march off.

"Good. Come on, then - you can talk to Markowski, and then we'll head out to Cavity Queen's race once cleanup's done. We'll discuss the beacon initiative with Fix-it while we're at it."

He hesitated a moment, looking at the medal again and then at her retreating figure. Then he hastily tucked the medal into his overalls and hurried after her.

"Yes ma'am!"