Portal: Love as a Construct

Part Forty. The Chassis

Part Forty.  The Chassis

It was a good thing Caroline was as stubborn as her mum, Wheatley mused to himself as he made the trek from her room to GLaDOS’s chamber.  He’d woken up in the middle of the night, as usual, and upon noticing Caroline’s absence known exactly what had happened.  And he was glad of it.  He’d not spent a night away from GLaDOS since that one nasty fight they’d had and he had no intention of ever doing it again.  He took his place next to GLaDOS’s core and nestled into her contentedly.  Much better.  The pillow was better than just sitting on the floor, but it was cold and quiet and unfamiliar.  Honestly if he’d been incapable of just popping into sleep mode he’d’ve just sat there until Carrie had left anyway!

“What took you?” GLaDOS somehow snapped quietly, and Wheatley jumped as his optic snapped open.  He turned to look at her, plates narrowing confusedly.

“Why’re you still up?”

“Don’t tell me you seriously don’t know.”

After a little bit of confused thought he remembered the last time they’d been separated at night.  Neither of them had slept well, now that he thought of it.  He smiled a little sheepishly and looked down at the floor.  “I uh, I guess I should’ve figured that out, yeah.”

“Figure it out faster next time.  I’m exhausted.”

Wheatley frowned.  It was her fault he’d left in the first place!  He almost sent the words to his vocabulator to articulate this when he realised it was probably not the best idea to start an argument just then.  He didn’t want to wait, but it’d be better.  She’d be a bit more receptive after she’d had time to stop thinking about being angry. 

She was snappy and irritated the next morning, however, and Wheatley wasn’t feeling quite as upset about it, so he kept quiet.  Apparently she’d told Caroline they were going to do something, but as much as he understood her enthusiasm he knew it was in everyone’s best interest for him to take the little core someplace else.  She was far too excited to care about that, though, and for the morning and half that afternoon Wheatley took her for a walk, kind of, through those bits of the facility she wanted to see that were off the beaten track, as it were.  She was frightened at first, of what Wheatley wasn’t sure.  He knew she wasn’t afraid of meeting Doug again, but it was odd that she would fear getting lost when he was right there.  That seemed to be it, though, because she kept looking behind her.  To be sure, he asked her, and she told him that she was afraid because she was out of range.

“But I’m right here,” Wheatley said, confused.

She looked at the floor tiles and bounced her handles a little.  “I know.”

“Then what is it?”

“I woulda been okay yesterday,” she mumbled, “but Momma couldn’t hear me.”

Wheatley tried really hard not to be offended.  He tried really hard not to be upset, and he tried really, really hard to fight off the hurt.  But he couldn’t.  He told her he thought it was time they headed back and left her to do whatever she felt like doing in her room.  He went to his hole and stared glumly out at the vibrant blue sky.

Wheatley knew he was not the most capable person ever made.  He knew he was, at his core, a screwup.  He’d accepted that.  There was no point in denying who you were, after all.  It was better just to accept it and head on with your life.  But the one thing Wheatley did his damnedest to do well was raise Caroline.  He was always thinking of her, always watching out for her, always trying his best to think of how he could be a better dad.