Thinking about Price with a kid
Specifically, Price with a daughter from a previous marriage, just a few years old, that he recently got full custody of, which means that every day is Take Your Kid To Work Day. There are child services on base, a daycare where the kids of service members can play and learn and socialize, but Price’s daughter hates it. She wants to be with her dad, and Price is nothing if not a pushover for his kid(s)
She spends most of her time in the office because, contrary to popular belief, Price spends most of his time in the office. The other officers adore her, especially the other lieutenants, who she follows around whenever they get up to go to the printer or get a drink/snack from the vending machine. She learned to walk late, but she toddles around like she’s making up for lost time, quick and silent and always on the move. She calls the lieutenants “Tenny” and they all start keeping markers and coloring books in their desks for when she inevitably wanders over and turns her big, pleading brown eyes on them
It’s Gaz who coins her nickname: “Half Price”, which inevitably leads to the team starting to call Price “Full Price”, much to his annoyance, but he can’t stay mad when it’s technically true, and especially not when he sees Gaz smile down at little Half Price like she’s his own kid
She doesn’t struggle with Gaz or Soap’s names, which they adore, but she resolutely calls Ghost “Goat”, despite being able to pronounce “-st” in other words. Her favorite word, in fact, is “ghost”, but she refuses to call Ghost that and no one knows why
Ghost doesn’t mind, though; he’s very obviously Half Price’s favorite. She calls all of the 141 her uncles, but Ghost is always the first one that she greets, often shrieking “Goat!” as she careens down the hallway towards him. She’s never been scared of his mask and even grabs at it with fat, curious fingers whenever he picks her up. He’s found her more than once curled up in the beanbag chair Price has in his office, the hard planes of Ghost’s skull mask clutched in her fist as she sleeps
Whenever they go into the field, Half Price stays on base, babysat by a very small list of very trusted officers, and (Full) Price knows that she’s okay, that she’s with capable, trusted people who are more than able to protect her, but he never feels more at ease than when Half Price is surrounded by the 141, knowing that they’d lay down life and limb and most of their morals to keep her safe
When she starts picking up a Scottish accent, Price bans Soap from talking to her for a month, which is the harshest punishment he could dole out (Soap would take three months of latrine duty over not being able to giggle with Half Price over a silly drawing she did), but it doesn’t even last a day, largely because Half Price sobs when Soap says that he can’t draw with her anymore and to go ask her dad why. It’s the most impressive bit of guilt tripping that Price has seen in a while, and he hates that it works so well
When she starts repeating Soap and Ghost’s terrible jokes and flirtatious one-liners, Price really does draw a line, because the last thing he needs is for Half Price to start telling dead dog jokes to other five year olds
