Portal: Love as a Construct

Part 23. The Reunion

Part 23. The Reunion

It had to be a dream.

He stared at the chassis and the chassis stared back at him, and he shook his own chassis in disbelief and asked, "Is that you?"

As soon as he'd gotten over the shock of realising that he had, somehow, rebooted GLaDOS, Wheatley had immediately rushed to her chamber almost on reflex, moving so quickly that the panels almost couldn't lay rail fast enough. He muttered a low apology to them as he moved because he could tell that they were just as shocked and unable to think as he was, but they did not answer. And now here he was, sitting just inside the doorway of her chamber. Staring at her and praying that she would answer his question in some way that would show him that the unlikely really had happened.

"I... I'm not sure," the construct said. "I think it is."

"How can you not be sure?"

"Because... I was dead. I know I was dead. I remember that. I don't remember coming back to life."

He came a little closer. "Something... something broke, when, uh... when it happened. What was it?"

"One of my processors. One of them has burned out."

"So... so maybe you weren't actually dead... maybe... maybe you were just, I dunno, suspended."

She shook her head. "No, I was definitely dead. I crashed. I know I did. There's only one way I would have gotten out of that."

"I have no idea how it happened. One second the panels are on the ground, the next they're, they're rearranging themselves."

She shook her core again and looked away. "I would have to have been restarted... but I don't even know how someone would do that. The only thing I can think of is... you must have done it by mistake."

"Sounds like me, doesn't it," he admitted. She started suddenly and looked back at him.

"Wheatley... Wheatley, you saved my life."

Wow. Now he was feeling all wonderful and fuzzy inside, and the longer she talked, the less noticeable the pain of missing her became. He still did, a little, because he wasn't quite sure if it was really her and he didn't want to believe it was until he was absolutely certain. "It... makes up for killing you, I suppose."

"It worked, you know," she said quietly. "I was able to make sense of it, but it was too late. I'd been over capacity for too long. I remember... understanding, for just a second, and then the processor burned out, and..."

"And?" he asked softly.

"There were a lot of things in that last second. I was ashamed of myself for not seeing it before it was too late. I was happy that I'd seen it at all. I felt regret that you would never know it had worked, and I was... sad, because... I knew I'd never see you again."

Wheatley whimpered helplessly. "So was I, GLaDOS."

"Thank you," GLaDOS told him softly. "I can never repay you for what you've done."

"It was my own fault in the first place."

"All you did was say exactly what was on your mind. I would never expect, or want, anything less. No matter what happens as a result."

He was whining a little because he was feeling so sad for her, and he made himself stop. Now wasn't the time to fall apart. "It hurt, having you gone. It was... it was horrible. I didn't know what to do."

"That doesn't appear to be entirely true."

Wheatley blinked. "It isn't?"

"I'm picking up a lot of files that have been created since I was... gone. The mainframe is also failing to appreciate that I'm trying to have a reunion here and keeps bringing up things I need to do."