Chapter 1 - Second Chances

Disclaimer: The characters that make up the Portal universe do not belong to me. I do not own them; although, most of the time, I wish I did. Instead, they belong to their respected owners.

I just have one thing to say, and then I will let you go! I do have some ideas of my own but I will take requests. It can be a whole summary or just a word, whatever. Also, these stories may or may not have a two-shot. I will tell you in the beginning of every new chapter. So, don't worry!

This one-shot is just a warm-up for me and to see if you guys like where I'm heading with these.

Prompt: Starting Over
Summary: She had given him a second chance even though he did not deserve it. Why?
Warning: Contains Chelley, if you squint

To be honest, he did not deserve this; any of this. He kept telling himself that, everyday. That he should have been in line for something far, far worse; something so terrible that some of his thoughts would seem almost merciful. Even his banishment should have been longer. After all, he had tried to kill her and that annoying AI on several occasions. Wheatley sighed, he truly did deserve worse.

So, why was she not succumbing him to that? For lack of a better word; torture? Why did that mute woman offer him smiles and hugs, a place to live with a roof over his head? Why not leave him out to rust, or hand him off to GLaDOS? Something as simple as that.

And, one day, barely containing a frustrated yell, the talkative sphere decided to ask.

His split optic rolled up to look at his companion's tan face. She had just returned from her morning job at the coffee shop that was a block or two away, and he could tell - it had been hard. "How was your day, luv'?" He started.

Chell casually shrugged her shoulders, before plopping down on the dark-colored sofa next to him. Even though the time that she spent with that wise, older woman was plentiful - and were showing positive results - she still preferred hand signals. 'Sign language.' Wheatley reminded himself. But when she made no shift to elaborate, another sigh was heard.

"Oh, well, that's good then." Inwardly, he kicked himself; why was he being so awkward? "A-Anyways, I've been thinking, y'know, like always, since there isn't much to do here but look out the window, or watch the telly. And since you're gone for a while, being by myself, I had a lot of time to think about this." He paused, looking everywhere but at her. "You remember what happened back-back there, don't you?"

Chell nodded, and shifted so that instead of watching the television, her attention was focused solely on him. "Yes,"

"O-Of course you do. Silly question to ask you, really. I-I mean, who would-" Wheatley sputtered, only to stop for a second when she had tapped the top of his hull. "Right, right. Sorry. Today, I-I've decided that I wanted to ask you something. And, I've thought long and hard about this, s-so may I?"

Her eyebrows furrowing together in an obvious sign of confusion, Chell motioned for the robot to continue. "O-Of course,"

Wheatley relaxed; her eagerness to listen to what he had to say seeming to pluck an invisible weight from his chest - if he even had one. With a shaky intake of breath - regardless if the action was prerecorded - Wheatley forced the question out; "Why didn't you leave me behind?" At her lingering façade of confusion, he continued. "What-What I mean is, when you found me, you could have left me there; to rust. You didn't have to take me back home with you, y'know. To be honest, you could have even taken me back to Her. O-Of course, I'm glad, completely and totally content, that you didn't. Don't get me wrong, luv'. B-But," he admitted, "weren't you angry with me?"

"Yes," Chell answered. "I-I was, for l-long time."

Immediately, the robot's expression fell. So, he was right. "An' you probably still hate me, too." He mumbled.

Chell giggled softly and moved to pick him up from his spot on the couch, holding him close. And the soft, hand-knit blankets - which she had done herself - fell to the carpeted floor; lying unforgotten. To say that he was surprised would have been a small understatement. His upper handlebar twitched, one part of it rising higher than the other half. His blue optic rolled upwards, wanting to stay locked on her grey-blue eyes."Why are you so happy, mate? Aren't you supposed to be bloody livid, still? I-I mean, I sure would be, if I were in your shoes - is that what your people say? I tried to bloody kill you, not only one, but-but many times! W-Why-"

She shook her head and pressed a finger to her lips. "I w-was mad. Not anymore." Chell slowly said, trying her best to say each word as clearly as possible. It was a slow process - but she had improved. "Wheatley, y-you made a mistake. It's okay."

"But I should have known better!" Wheatley scolded, his small spherical body starting to shake due to the long, pent-up anger and hate towards himself that had formed over his short exile in space. "I was the one being bossy and-and monstrous, not you! To be honest, really, I deserve to be back at the Laboratories instead of this lovely place. Mate, you should have just left me there." His tone dropped rapidly, along with his handlebars, and he looked below at the floor with an even sadder expression. "I don't deserve this second chance."

Once again, Chell could feel her heart shatter. She frowned at him - there was no reason to be so hard on himself, like this. Sure, Wheatley had tried to murder her on multiple occasions - basically betrayed her. As well as forced her to solve test after test after, sometimes just for his own pleasure or humor. On the other hand, though, that was never actually, truly him. He had been corrupted by Her body, forced into insanity that had nothing within its sight but testing. So, in a way, it was Her fault that those things had occurred. Not his.

That was why Chell was giving the smaller AI a second chance - although among other reasons. He had apologized time after time to her. And what had happened was in the past. Although she would never forget, she would forgive him; and move on.

However, all she did was simply snuggle him closer - if that was even possible. Her eyes slid close in content as the soft whirring of his inner motors reached her ears; the loud noise that was the television remaining unheard of. Though he refrained from looking directly at her, it was becoming even harder as the seconds passed. His curiosity was spiking; wondering what she was going to say next. He was -

"Yes you do."

-taken aback. "W-What?" Had he heard that correctly?

Chell was now looking down at him, having straightened her posture. "I said, y-yes, y-you do." The former test subject repeated, and sent him a warm smile. "E-Everyone makes mistakes."

"Okay, I guess that's true." The robot slowly nodded. "But you still haven't really answered my first question. Or maybe you did already. You could have left me there, but you didn't. Why? You didn't have to bring me to your home, luv'."

Chell nodded in return. "Y-You're right, I didn't have to." She softly agreed. "But I wanted to."

"Oh, well, that's great then, yeah? Pretty wonderful, if you ask me." Wheatley hummed, his inner circuits nearly buzzing with joy themselves.

After a moment of silence, his optic shot open and he suddenly shattered the comfortable moment. "I-I just want to say thanks, luv', y'know, for bloody well everything. Not leaving me behind in that wide field of wheat. Very positive that I would have gone bloody mad, if I'd stayed there." He mumbled the last part more to himself than to her. "And for not handing me off to Her -"

"You're welcome," Chell cut him off.

Now that he had spoken his mind and the questions had their answers, Wheatley was becoming engrossed with the cartoon. Except, as he listened to the soft giggles of his partner when a brown mouse had knocked a tall, grey cat upside the head, his mind wavered for a moment. Inwardly, he quickly vowed to himself that, no matter what, he would do everything in his power - albeit limited - to make her happy. He would never hurt Chell again, ever.

"The bloody hell was that?" Wheatley yelped, with his single optic widening at the split second of abuse that the small mouse had inflicted on the cat. And with a hammer! "If there something wrong with that mouse? Mad, he is! Thinking that he can take out a cat, something way bigger than he is, with just a wee hammer!" What was with this cartoon any-

However long it took, the polished sphere decided, he would prove that it was not a mistake that she had forgiven him and not a waste of her time. He would show how sorry for what he did and how grateful that he was of her kind ways; for giving him a chance to start anew. That it was worth it.

And maybe, just maybe, Wheatley would forgive himself too.

A/N: Hello! I'm back! It's nice to see you all again! I want to apologize, very much so, for the long wait. I just..guess I lost track of time, plus something pretty problematic has occurred with my family; so, that's taken up a load of space. Stuff like that. :\ But, what I can assure you of is that the next chapter won't take as long to upload (hopefully). No worry there!

Also, I would like to thank everyone who has read my other story - 'A Thousand Years'; that means a lot to me, as well as the reviews. You all know that I simply adore it when I see those numbers go up. It shows me that I'm dong something right..somehow. (:

I hope that you liked it! Maybe enough to review, perhaps? That, too, would make me really happy. I'm not going to stress it too much, now. See that small button down there? Right there? Yes! Please - click that. Of course, if you want to. Still, let me know what you think.

Until next time, ¡Adiós!