Hey, guys. This is a one shot I've made for a friend of mine, cause she is our real life Caroline. Hope you enjoy! (And if you do, please review...) ~
Disclaimer: I does not own Portal or any of it's characters. It's all Valve's. If I did own, Wheatley wouldn't be in space, and Chell would talk. XP
What happens underground.
Caroline has always been a determined teenager. Since her years of middle school she knew what she wanted to be, and knew what she had to become. Her dreams were a good college and good job on a great science company. Men? Were never included in her plans.
Today, already a woman, she had managed to achieve her dreams, even if the odds speak otherwise. There was only one thing she had not counted, and who now stood before her, sitting in the chair of president of Aperture Science. His name was Cave Johnson.
Once out of college, with all the merits, thank you, job offers poured in soon. But what most struck her was the one of a small business that was in desperate need, or at least she deduced that because the high salary, of a vice president who care more about science than, perhaps, your own life.
Yes, Aperture Science was a small company at the time, making some military work here and others there. Yes, Caroline had had the most promising proposals. But her instinct told just to accept this, and so she did.
When she arrived at the location indicated, was surprised to see a single house in the middle of a field of wheat. She thought about quitting, but her pride would not allow her to. She would do the interview, and, if approved, and if she wanted to, she would give up.
But Caroline was surprised by the giant structure was underground. Apparently, the place was a former salt mine, which never had worked out (she wondered who was the idiot who tried to find salt away from the sea), and the president had bought the place for installation of the company. And she was startled when she discovered that even before the interview, she had to do a test.
They accommodated her in a room and handed the test in a hurry. All wore white aprons, and were always busy. That was when she was decided there was where she wanted to work.
The test was pure logic. The first questions to solve even a well-trained monkey could do, but as she neared the end, the questions became so difficult and time consuming that Caroline lost track of time. She did not know what time it was when she handed back the test, but most men in aprons were gone. The only one who was found was a boy her age, more or less, and he was a little uneasy. He took her to the president's office, and at that time, Caroline met him. Cave Johnson was waiting, his eyes looking at her intently. The restless boy handed the test to him and he thanked him, calling the boy Doug, and soon Cave and she were alone in the room. He read the papers, asking questions, laughing depending on the response he received.
As she left the company, late at night, Caroline was only three certainties: first, that she had been approved. The second was that she would begin work the next day, and the third was that her new boss was very humorous.
Her first day at work had not been very turbulent. Doug, the scientist of yesterday, presented the staff and the research to her. Caroline had been particularly interested in the proposal of a gel to replace the diets puddings that were sold. She spent the rest of the days helping scientists and leading from one side to the other new fancy ideas from Cave.
Until one day, after nearly a year of work, an idea came into her head. And like every good worker, she immediately reported to the Cave. And the director liked so much the idea that the first reaction we had was hug the girl and spin her around, screaming that they would get rich. And so, the repulsion gel was created.
The initial idea was to reject with the gel every food that was excessive, but for Cave, everything was excessive. So after much discussion, many calculations, unsuccessful mixtures, and explosions all over the buildings, the gel eventually went to the supermarket shelves. And, as Cave would say, Caroline was no longer only Caroline, but the pillars that supported Aperture Science.
They made a lot of money, which enabled them to invest in a major military project. It was the time when Caroline was less involved with the project, and spent more time with the president, in new projects and helping to plan the testing rooms of the military project. Each day they spent more and more time together, and it was inevitable for the woman at the time that the turrets, bots shooters, were ready, she'd be in love with Cave Johnson.
Then came the first dark period. After thousands of lawsuits against the company alleging that the gel repulsion kill people by starvation, they had to cut it off the shelves. The lawsuits left Cave crazy, and who had to make ends meet was Caroline.
To avoid losing more money, she invented the testing rooms of the gel when what it had to repulse would be nothing less than the human body. They began to recruit people, and the charged the registration fee helped to keep the company going. So when the dark period came to an end, and Cave saw who had cared for his precious Aperture Science, Caroline was rewarded.
Both knew that this relationship could not work. After all, he was little more than twenty years older than her. But they didn't mind. All that mattered to them was they were doing science together. They would not marry, and they knew it. Science was more important in their lives.
Some months later, Cave came with a preposterous idea, like all others, and expensive, like all others. But Caroline knew that Cave did not care about the amount of money spent, as long as science was done. And so, the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device went to the paper. That was the most fun time she had in all her life. She and Cave were deeply involved with the research, and every day, something new appeared in the minds of researchers and, consequently, in the project.
They came to an impasse that it worked only in mantis. Therefore, they recruited again, and injected mantis genes in almost an entire army. Some time later, they recruited another army, this time to fight against angry mantis men.
So, they restarted the project, and Caroline came up with the idea of using an artificially created mini black hole. The project was completely restructured, and all the good ideas have been reused. All others, of course, were dismissed from the company.
Due to lack of staff, Caroline and Cave came to live almost literally in Aperture. They ate there, slept there, bathed there, and even, sometimes, disappeared together, to do nobody-knows-what there. Then a few weeks later, Caroline discovered she was pregnant.
In the beginning, she didn't said anything for Cave, after all, she knew that the man did not want a child. But the discovery was inevitable when she failed to hold the nausea at work.
To tell the truth, Caroline did not want to have kids. She knew she could not take care of them, and would have to give up science, which, at her age, was unimaginable. But now that she experienced the feeling of having a little one growing inside her, she did not want to kill this child. Even more, she wanted to see it grow, help it with it first science project, seeing it complete its first test.
She discussed it and Cave. They considered all the possibilities, or at least those they thought they were all.
When Douglas Rattman entered the boss room to deliver coffee, he did not know what he was getting into. Cave made him sit down, explained what was happening and made the man promise to take good care of the child. And, by the method of persuasion used by Cave, Doug had no choice but to accept.
Nine months later, Douglas was the father of a beautiful little girl who was named Chell. Over time, Caroline could see her daughter was being well cared for, due to the rare days when Rattman brought her to Aperture. Then, due to nostalgia and curiosity, the Day of Bring Your Daughter to Work was created.
The rules were simple. Each girl had to do a science project with the help of an employee of Aperture that was not her father or mother. And what was not her surprise to see that her daughter had picked Caroline?
She stayed euphoric all day long, even if the project was a potato battery. She even put a chemical compound that would make the voltage of the potato bigger, even though the side effects of it were not tested yet.
When Chell won the prize, Caroline would not speak that for anyone else, but said only to the girl she was proud of her. And the girl replied that, if she ever knew her mother one day, she hoped she could be the same as Caroline. After that, Caroline has not been seen for the rest of the day.
After a few months, the final prototype of the Handheld Portal Device was ready, and Aperture was nearly bankrupt. But not even Caroline or Cave cared for, because they knew that the propulsion gel that one of the boys had set up the laboratory in parallel with the device, and the device itself would be a blockbuster (even because the propulsion gel tasted like orange).
So even if they could not spend more seven dollars, Cave bet everything and spent seven billion dollars in lunar rocks to a new gel. That was when Aperture faced it's second dark period.
It was found that lunar rocks were pure poison if you stay too long exposed to them. And Cave did. It was a pure chaos when they found out what was leaving the head sick. Nobody else wanted to test for Aperture, even the beggars they were paying to test their products for some time already. Staff was now required to test once a month.
Doug knew that the Aperture Science would no longer exist the way it was after some time. So knowing that Chell, having won the prize of science fair, lived inside the building, Douglas made with her the only thing he knew that would leave her in safety during the crisis: put her to sleep in liquid cryogenic.
Caroline did not know it. At the time, she was busy taking care of Cave, and when she discovered his plans, for the first time she was apprehensive of being there. Cave asked to create a mind-mapping plan. Put, literally, your brain in a computer. And he said that if the project were completed after his death, Caroline would take care of Aperture, even if it meant to place her inside the computer instead.
Then, a week before the completion of the project, Cave died. Caroline was devastated, and the only thing she had was science, because even her daughter wasn't there with her. Every day, Caroline tested, tested, tested, and her anger against humanity only grew. Doug tried to bring the old Caroline, the Caroline he loved, back, but his attempts failed.
When the project was ready, only Rattman realized that the computer had its own personality, and this would lead them to a crash. And when he realized it's personality also hated the humans, he began to wonder if the psychotic were the only sane in that place.
Caroline saw Doug storing the nearly empty bottle of medicine for schizophrenia in the closet, and she asked why. He only gave her a half smile and replied that it was for the end of time.
She didn't want to be placed inside a computer. The fact that Caroline passed much more time with the lunar gel showed only that Caroline really wanted to die too. And if that was not allowed for her now, even with the hate for humans, she would like to keep her humanity, for death was the greatest mystery of science that she still had to solve. Still, the boys from the lab did not hear her, the order of Cave still prevailing. Then she discovered that there weren't humans she hated, but scientists. These scientists in the end were nothing more than her and Cave lab rats. People with no feelings.
She complained when she was taken to the laboratory, and complained further when they held her forced in the chair where the process would be conducted. Douglas wanted to stop the experiment, but nobody heard him. They said that his schizophrenia was attacking again and withdrew from the room.
Caroline's screams were heard throughout all the facility, ending the woman's biological life. Cries that would pursue Rattman for the rest of life.
When Caroline woke up, she was no longer who was in charge. Another person was there, but they did get along to some extent. The two wanted to end the life of everyone in the Aperture Science.
Neurotoxins and cats were asked for doing the paradox of Schrödinger, and were given. But the men were afraid, men are always afraid, and then more voices joined them. GLaDOS, the dominant personality, had had enough. She and Caroline had the death of them all planned for a long time. GLaDOS thought it was time to put the plan into practice. And in less than a few hours, almost all of the Aperture Scientists turned into their test subjects. And for the misfortune of all, none of them solved right the simple tests that she gave, which led them to the neurotoxin.
All died. All but one. In his last act of consciousness, Rattman placed on the list as the next test subject the only person who had the persistence and stubbornness of Cave Johnson. His daughter. He knew that Chell was the only one who could save them all. He programmed for the end of the girl's cryogenic sleep within a few years, giving enough time for him to explore the building and make preparations for Chell, certainly, turn GLaDOS off and save everyone.
And while Douglas Rattman was carried away by madness, GLaDOS and Caroline went into a set standby, waiting for the day when Chell would wake up in order to test continue.