Portal: Love as a Construct

Part Ninety. The Talk

Part Ninety. The Talk

All right. Okay. He was calm now. He was calm. He'd thought it all through, and he knew what he was gonna say and how he was gonna say it – nicely, and calmly – and it was all gonna be fine. He still didn't think he'd overreacted, not really. The joke had obviously been much crueller than was reasonable or necessary. GLaDOS should have known that, and Wheatley knew that she did! But some things were more important than being right.

When Wheatley arrived in GLaDOS's chamber late that morning, Carrie was there with her, the both of them looking at... well, he had no idea. Something Science-related, probably. He emulated taking a breath and steeled himself. This was probably going to be one of those difficult conversations.

GLaDOS glanced up upon noticing him, and her glance was decidedly... not good. "Are you done yelling at me?" she asked, and Wheatley supposed he did deserve a little bitterness for that. Not as much as she'd just given him. But some.

"Yes," he answered. "And we're uh, we've got to have a talk. About all of this."

"Fine." She turned to face him but did not send Carrie out of the room. So she probably thought this was going to be a short conversation. Well, it might be. But he didn't think so.

"First off," Wheatley said, having decided that the best way to lead into this was to say something she would not expect, "I apologise. For uh, for the yelling. And also for, for getting angry over the facility thing at all. Because it... well, it... wasn't any of my business. It really wasn't. It was between you, and, and Carrie, and whoever uh, whoever she wanted to share it with. And it wasn't me! And that's fine. It's all fine." It actually wasn't fine, not yet, but that was something Wheatley had to get through by himself. Nothing she or they could do about it. He noted with some relief that GLaDOS's stance had softened – not very much, but enough that he could notice. Good. She was listening, then. "But there is something um, something about all of it that isn't fine."

"And what is that," GLaDOS asked, near tonelessly.

"See, I don't – don't understand, really, why I couldn't be told about this place. Just that uh, that it exists! And that's all! Nothing else. And I was thinking about it, and I, I was trying to come up with, with why, and all I got was... was that you didn't want me to know because if I did, then I would uh, then I wouldn't want to go there. If. If we ever have to. Because you didn't want to, to tell me that I had to go, and I couldn't stay here with you."

She didn't say anything to that. Carrie was looking between the two of them anxiously, but Wheatley was sure he had a handle on this. It was going well.

"I mean... you know where it is, right? You could just... send me off anytime! Wouldn't be hard, would it? I'm not that big, I – "

"I don't know where it is," GLaDOS interrupted quietly, and Wheatley's internals seemed to freeze.

"What... what d'you mean, you don't... don't know where it is."

"I can't know. If the G-Man returns I will be his first and possibly only target. I don't know anything about how he operates. I only managed to keep him away from Aperture for so long because I couldn't tell him where I had sent the Borealis. Because I didn't know." Her serious stare was making him nervous. "He won't believe that I would be willing to send my daughter someplace without knowing where she is. And that is exactly what will keep her safe."

"Okay," Wheatley said, fighting to keep control of his voice and struggling to remember all of his points, "okay. That's... you've thought all that out nicely, good, uh, I'm glad. But... but it just means you'll be here. By yourself. And... and what, he just, he just does as he likes with you, and you don't, you just –"