He fell. He fell through fire and the pressure, stripping him of everything he had left. The atmosphere was eating him alive as he reentered only to make him know of the rapidly approaching earth below him. For the moment, he screamed. He screamed his apologies and his fears. The noise being overcome by the wind and burning. He had no other option though as he slowly shut down.
He wasn't awake for the impact.
When he did wake his body was broken. He couldn't move and was only vaguely aware that something was horribly wrong. He was only vaguely aware of everything. He knew he hurt and he was broken, but that was the extent. He felt something leaking somewhere and his plates shifting over each other. It was almost too much to bear.
He wasn't sure on time, it could have been an hour, it could have been a week. He skipped in and out unaware of everything around him. Till he felt something move him, pry itself into the rock he had melted onto and pop him off. It scraped up his insides and carried him roughly.
He wasn't awake for the travel.
He reawoke to a cold and flat surface beneath himself. It didn't hurt as much but he wasn't in any big hurry to be moving around either. In contrast to whatever he was lying on there was something on him that was warm, nice, a subtle hint of something he'd forgotten. He tried to open his eyes only to find they didn't work. He doubted anything would work.
Drifting in and out of consciousness he felt he had been there for a while. Each time he woke up he felt better though, as if the thing was working on him while he were asleep. He couldn't bring himself to give it much thought though.
The next time he woke it was with much more clarity. He knew he hurt, and he knew he couldn't move. He tried to speak but all he could muster was a shaken breath. A warm hand cupped his cheek, following his jawline and down his throat, only to repeat the process. It was comforting he decided after the fifth or so stroke. He relaxed a bit, wishing he could see the person. Maybe it was her.
After living alone for years, she had finally come to the conclusion that yes, she was the only living human on the planet. If there were others they were so few and far between that she held little to no hope of ever finding them. When she heard the crash she automatically knew something was up.
The smoldering crater surrounded by the glowing embers of his impact is what she found. By the time she had crawled to the center of the wreckage to see his twisted and burned form she didn't expect to be alive. Aperture was full of surprises it seems.
The rock he had hit had been melted to him. Judging by the way he looked and the surrounding crater, she suspected he had been burned alive during his reentry. She remembered something about being able to survive extreme temperatures, survival apparently, but not unbroken.
She pried him from the earth and carried him home. He was smaller than she remembered. A small skinny damaged thing that would die soon. She kept thinking she ought to let him. After so long though, most of the animosity she held for him had simply gone. She remembered that he was kind to her, as was GLaDOS. Kindness could only go so far. She was upset, but she was lonely. She was in need of something, in need of anything.
He quivered in her arms, but already she could see he was healing. It must be the nanobots that covered him on the inside and out. Aperture was amazing. She wasn't sure she could have fixed him if she wanted to.
He lay on the floor of her cabin, a blanket tossed over him for decency's sake. He moved on occasion, sparking or mumbling to himself. She could never figure out what he was doing till the light in his chest returned.
She kneeled by his side and stroked his face. He didn't respond to it and she thought that perhaps he hadn't awoken but then he seemed to settle into the blanket a bit, a small smile forming on what was left of his face. His shoulders stirred, presumably to reach up to touch her hand, but it seemed he couldn't bear to reach.
She gave him a small smile, and he opened his eyes. They were glassy and unseeing. He closed them again and turned his head into her hand, nuzzling against it.
She pulled it away when it appeared he had fallen asleep again.
He was getting better, his skin seemed to be coming back and the small wires and plates seemed to be fixing. Each time he woke he woke with more clarity and would stay awake longer. His first words were along the lines of "hello" and static with coughing. She would respond quietly, not wanting to give in to the robots at aperture she never spoke in the facility.
They were outside now though.
She hadn't spoken to anyone in years, it was just her. a strange sort of cabin fever will creep up without contact, even when she had GLaDOS's simple insults it was at least something, but out here there was nothing. To hear him cough and sputter only to get out a single choked word meant so much that she was willing to answer.
He didn't recognize the voice. It was soft and female though, and kind, just like the hand was kind. "who a-a- who are you?" He asked.
She didn't respond to that immediately, simply stroking the back of his head again. she wished he could see her so she didn't have to tell him, she wasn't even sure he knew her name. "you know me" Chell responded softly.
He smiled and pulled his eyebrows together "I" tszzzt "d-do?"
"Wheatley," she caught her breath "I am Chell" she whispered. At the moment, the fact she was talking to another being was enough she felt like she could cry.
He didn't answer her. Rather he did start crying, and then promptly shut off again.
She let him sleep. Covering him with the blanket and wiping her eyes. "This can be good" she whispered solemnly to herself. "Yes, this can be good"