what was i made for, walker

037. medals

Janie walks into Cordell's room as he finishes getting dressed for the lunch the mayor invited him to.

"You clean up nice." Janie remarks, watching her dad fix his tie.

"Thanks." Cordell chuckles. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing." She shrugs. Cordell frowns and turns to her, but his attention diverts to her cat when Nutmeg runs in and jumps on the bed.

"Wh-- hey. No. Get off." Cordell orders the cat.

"Oh, come on, dad, she loves you." Janie says.

"No. No, she loves to annoy me." Cordell argues.

"Tomato, tomahto." Janie shrugs, standing in front of his hamper. She backs up against it, tossing the shirt in it.

"What are you doing?" Cordell asks.

"What?" Janie asks.

"You wanna be a little more obvious?" Cordell scoffs.

"Oh, my God, fine. I stole one of your shirts to sleep in the other night." Janie admits.

"Why?" Cordell frowns.

"Because I couldn't sleep and you weren't home." Janie says.

"Ah." Cordell nods. "Just make sure to always return them."

"Yeah. Yeah, sure." Janie nods, knowing she still has a few in her dresser. "So, uh... why wasn't I invited to this fancy mayor dinner? I got kidnapped too."

"You, uh... you were, actually." Cordell informs.

"What?" Janie looks at him.

"Yeah. I just... I figured you didn't want to go so... so I declined for you." Cordell says. "I mean, un-unless you wanted to. I-- I can call Kevin, I guess."

"Free food? Sure." Janie says.

"You're 15. All of your food is free." Cordell remarks.

"Not all. I pay for some. Plus, I work at the Side Step so I kind of work for it." Janie points out.

"Yeah, but you get paid money." Cordell says.

"I stand by my statement." Janie says.

"Okay, baby, it-- sure, free food. But also... probable talk of captivity. You know, PTSD and-- and all that." Cordell says.

"I still just hear free food." Janie says.

"Honey--"

"Look, if I decline to answer something, they can't really force it out of me, can they? What, are they gonna torture me?" Janie quips.

Cordell sighs, his jaw clenching.

"Bad timing?" She asks.

"Terrible joke." Cordell corrects.

"Question -- if I'm the only kid who got kidnapped, does that make me the favorite child or the least favorite child? I mean, either way, not sure the other two are jealous, but..."

"Janie Maybelle." Cordell sighs.

"Fine. Fine. Dark humor gone. I want food. I wanna go." Janie states.

"You're positive?" Cordell asks.

"Mm-hmm." She nods.

"Fine. I'll call Kevin. You have..." Cordell looks at his watch. "20 minutes."

"Sweet." Janie gets up and leaves.

"Wha-- hey, your cat!" Cordell calls out.

"She's not going anywhere! You might as well bond!" Janie calls back.