Portal: Love as a Construct

Part Seventy-Seven. The Step Forward

Part Seventy-Seven. The Step Forward

Wheatley did not stay with her the entire morning. He was stiff and sore from having a giant robot pressing on him for who knew how long, and he needed to have a bit of a stretch. So off he went, yawning a little because he felt like it, and it was a good thing he did leave, because he caught Caroline on his way out.

"Hang on there, princess," he said, shoving her away from the doorway. "Not now."

"But – "

"Nope. Get going."

She complained all the way to the one kitchen GLaDOS'd opened up for use, where Chell was eating some nasty looking cereal out of a black Aperture Laboratories bowl. He didn't know one type of the stuff over the next, of course, but he could not imagine why anyone would find that gloppy beige stuff at all appetising. "G'morning, Chell," he said cheerfully.

"Hey," she said, grinning up at him. "Patched things up, I see."

"Better."

"Must've been a long night." Her eyebrows quirked, and it seemed to have something to do with all those references to whatever it was humans had influenced Caroline about that he still didn't know, but he decided to take it literally.

"Extremely. But ev'rything's okay now. She'll feel better when she gets up."

"Did she cry again?" Caroline asked suddenly. Both Wheatley and Chell frowned at her.

"Again?" they asked in unison.

"You know," Caroline said, fixing her gaze on Chell. "When I sent you to see her."

"She didn't cry," Chell said, looking confused.

"Then what happened?"

"We just talked. That's all. You thought she was crying?"

"She was going to!"

Chell shrugged and went back to her cereal. "She didn't."

Wheatley made a note to talk to her about that.

Caroline left, muttering to herself, and Wheatley turned to Chell. "She's such a joy, really," he said, half apologetically. Chell laughed.

"Did she, though?" she asked seriously.

He nodded grimly. "She did."

Chell shook her head slowly. "She must have had a lot to cry about."

"Yeah. But it's done now. I got it out of her, and... hopefully she's, uh, she's going to stop burying it, now."

"And she agreed to marry you."

He smiled broadly and nodded.

"Congrats," Chell said, grinning, and she extended her hand. Wheatley shook it.

"Thanks," he said. "I know sounds like life with her is a nightmare, but it... it's not, really. She's wonderful. Just... not too... happy lately."

"I'm glad someone's there for her," Chell said softly. "You've done a great job, Wheatley. I mean that."

He shrugged and looked down at the floor.

"I gotta go," Chell said, standing and picking up her bowl. "Gordon's got something important to do and I have to keep an eye on Richard. To his regret. Caroline ever give you a hard time about that?"

"We don't watch her," Wheatley answered absently. "She can do as she likes. She thinks we watch her, sometimes, but we don't. The panels keep an eye on her in case she gets lost, but they're uh, they're laying rail for her anyway, so, so it's not like we can really stop them."