They'd wandered two days travel from the shell of the town when it happened.
Wheatley woke to the sound of Chell doing that food-coming back-up thing. He mentally classified that as one of the worst sounds in the world and crawled from the makeshift shelter of sheet metal and sticks to where she leant against the tree, holding her stomach, hair splayed over her shoulder and face.
"Oh love…" he mumbled, stretching one hand out, hating the sight of his bony fingers and hands seemingly made of nothing but knuckles touching her, rubbing the middle part of her back where the long support bit of human backs ran. He sought for a frame of reference on why this was happening and recalled the few times he'd eaten food Chell hadn't already approved. "Bad food? Was it those squishy things in the red stuff? Cuz they looked pretty awful."
Chell shook her head; this turned out to be a mistake as she arched over again, the rest of last night's warmed-up beans coming up in an acidic rush. She spat twice and stood up, determined that this would be the last wave. She didn't have the energy reserves to throw up all of their meagre food, pregnancy or not.
She stumbled slightly as she stood, for a moment the world went swimmy, but god, there were arms, long and gangly, lacking any muscle definition, curling around her and a chest for her to fall against. Not as much use as a companion cube? GLADos could kiss Chell's well-toned ass if she thought that was true.
His voice was high and distressed, "Love? Chell? Aggh… I don't know what to do! What am I supposed to do?"
She managed to lift her head, to meet his frantic electric-blue eyes and give him a weak smile. This seemed to calm him enough for him to take in the next gesture, of her lifting one hand to her lips and swallowing imaginary fluid.
"Water!" He chirped, always eager to help when he knew how, and darted from her side to their makeshift packs. Chell grabbed one of the tree branches to stop herself falling when he removed his support; eager to help and a bit thick, she corrected herself.
The canteen was offered and she sipped, spat again, and drank. God, the water was good, good, clean… fresh… well, all right, possibly swarming with parasites and radiation, but anything would have tasted like ambrosia after the artificial foods of Ap-
She shook her head. No, no thinking of that place. Other things to think about now. Whatley, herself. Other humans.
"Better?" Wheatley whined anxiously, eyeing her for signs of discomfort. She nodded, handing the canteen back and walking (slowly) to their shelter. She began to pull out their packs, to go through what was in them in her firm, calculating way, while behind her his voice went on in soothing litany;
"We won't eat anymore of those red things, if they make you sick. I mean, let's face it ol' Wheatley wouldn't last five minutes with you sick. Getting better though, right? Every day, getting a bit better at this human lark… I think I'm doing better anyway. Lots of controls to work out still; I've got more to control than you too!" He paused, looking himself up and down, "I'm bloody massive compared to you. Why is that?"
Chell glanced over her shoulder, smiled faintly. It was a never-ending source of fascination to Wheatley that their bodies were so different. Where she was small, barely five feet tall and with tan skin, he was pushing six feet with corn-blonde hair (she'd discovered after convincing him that bathing wouldn't short-circuit him). The physicality's of male and female were marginally easier to explain, she'd found. He seemed to comprehend that there were two basic sorts of human, just why that was, was another mystery to him.
"Oh, just one of those male-human vs. female-human things?"
He was learning though. She almost wondered if part of the sphere programming had been an inability to learn from past mistakes, because things seemed to be going in and sticking now. He'd got the hang of scavenging on his own and she was working on teaching him about fire.
He seemed to sense that she didn't have the answer to his question and shrugged, placing his hands behind his head and whistling between his front teeth again. He seemed to do that when he was thinking.
He was, in his own odd way, handsome. Chell was willing to admit that part of her affection was probably because he was the first other human she'd ever seen, as well as being her first ever friend in the facility, but there was something there that appealed to her on an aesthetic level. With a little more muscle, he could be a protector, a little more knowledge about food and water and he might be capable of taking care of her.
It would be easier, she felt, if they could just find some more humans. Not least of which because then he'd see that humans in fact came in all shapes, sizes and colours. She'd be able to relax a little about what was going to happen when…
Well, no sense avoiding it, when the baby was born.
He was still no closer to working out that one, she noted. Sometimes as they walked she'd catch him muttering 'Two hearts, three' to himself and occasionally 'Wheatley, Chell, little stomach.' It would have been sweet if she wasn't so worried.
They packed up and moved on quickly, there was a large building on the horizon that Chell was keen to get to before she got much bigger; it was a warehouse, warehouses held useful things, maybe other humans, food, weapons. Anything.
They'd gone little more than two miles when they both heard the noise. A high-pitched wail, growing closer with every second. Rapid footsteps, someone running.
Chell spun, hand yanking the sharp piece of metal from the belt made of her tied-together jumpsuit arms, Wheatley staggered back and scanned the ground for a stick or a stone; definitely needed to get Chell to give him a sharp metal thing too, he noted.
The figure came hurtling out of the midday sun; Chell's mouth dropped open and the blade fell from her hand.
It was human. Small, skeletal, and making a god-awful noise, but it was human! She reached out a hand for the poor… man?
He sped past her, arms akimbo, and barrelled straight into Wheatley, throwing both of them to the ground while the stranger continued yammering away at a speed he had no chance of deciphering. Chell let out a growl and seized the pitiful creature's back, yanking him away and reaching for her blade again- if he'd hurt Wheatley-
It occurred to her that the frail figure of a man was wearing what she would forever call Aperture orange at the same time as the frantic gabbling slowed down enough for them both to take in one word;
"SPAAAACE!"
Bight yellow eyes pinballed around their sockets as the man, barely more than a boy, if Chell was any judge, curled in on himself in the characteristic rocking of the deranged. "Space, space, too much space, wanna go home now. Space!"
Chell, still slack-jawed, turned to where Wheatley still lay on the ground; he looked as blank as her.
Still, he was in a better position to get something out of this and shifted to sit up. When he'd been turned, Chell had put her arms around him and made him calm. He sensed that asking her to do the same here wouldn't be a good move.
He could try talking. Talking could work, he was good at that in the same way Chell was good at the physical contact thing. He licked his lips;
"Um… mate? You… all right?"
Well that was a bloody stupid question, any programmed-to-be-stupid man could see that this fella was not all right. Wheatley took in the bruised and bloodied feet and surmised he'd been running for a while. Not had someone to guide him not to step on the sharp things either.
"Space. Space is dark. Wanna go home. Spaaaaace!"
Wheatley tried again; "Calm down mate, you are home. Sort of…" he paused, considering the next move, "Can't help but notice you're um… a bit human."
The Space core's madly spinning eyes stopped briefly, staring at Wheatley. "Astronaut?"
Having no reference for that, Wheatley twisted to where Chell stood. She shook her head, then mouthed one word, slowly and as clearly as she could for him to lip-read.
"Oh, right!" Wheatley chirped, "Ok mate, any idea why you're human?" he paused, an unpleasant memory flickered to the front of his mind; of operating rooms, memory banks being torn away, his body falling away like wet cake only to be pulled back together into a shape he didn't understand. "Actually, probably best not to think about that! Did… did SHE send you?"
The space core blinked, then shuddered. "Space… dragged back from space…" his voice shifted, to a higher pitch, an imitation of a voice that still haunted both Chell and Wheatley's nightmares; "Corrupted core meat-bag transfer experiment complete. Experiment status; somewhat successful. Releasing subject… enjoy your space." It shuddered again, then screamed "SPAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAA-"
Chell reached out and slapped the man, and his scream cut off, overwrought and exhausted, the small man fell against Wheatley, bright hysterical eyes slamming closed as unconsciousness took over.
Wheatley shuddered, shifting him away to lay across the earth. Now he was still, they both saw the tag sewn onto the front of the poor thing's jumpsuit, in the same place as their own. Terrible as Wheatley's ability to read was, he could comprehend the name She gave her little experiment.
SPACE
"Sh… she made him a human." Wheatley muttered. Stating the obvious, that was a good start. "She made him a human like me and then chucked him out. Why?" he sounded… so pleading, as he turned to Chell for some explanation, "I know she's bloody horrible but- but why? Why just throw him out? That's just… bloody pointless."
Chell had a shrewd idea, frowning to herself she dropped to her knees to confirm the already growing suspicion. Wheatley watched, momentarily speechless, as she rolled the poor core's trouser legs up.
Ah.
Thin but deep scars ran up the backs of it- of Space's legs. Matching Chell's own set. Long-fall boots.
A second examination, this time of it's right arm revealed deep bruises that matched a semi-permanent set on Chell's arm.
Wheatley blinked hard, Chell had a horrible feeling he was trying not to cry. The idea of water coming out of him distressed the former core, he called it 'leaking', so he tried not to do it often, even when the nightmares were strong or the flashbacks painful.
"Tests." He grunted, then reached to the former Space core's arms, lifting him up onto his back. The poor creature was seemingly weightless, a pale shadow of a human being.
Wheatley was strangely silent as they set about putting up a shelter. No chance of travelling; they didn't even need to discuss the idea of leaving this sad figure behind. Mutely the tall man dragged Space into the shelter and threw one of their scrounged blankets over him.
Chell made the fire, she didn't yet trust that Wheatley could do that alone; he seemed to get the theory of metal on stone making sparks, but she had visions of him lighting himself on fire and-
"She put him in a human and then she threw him away." Wheatley muttered. "Put him in one of these bodies that don't seem to work properly, no offence, love, and then she made him run tests. And he wasn't any good at them, poor sod, and she threw him away."
Chell nodded. That did seem to be the case. She wasn't sure she liked his tone though, or that he wasn't wasting words. Wheatley chattered incessantly, he didn't sit and stare like this, he couldn't be silent for longer than ten seconds at a time.
One gangly hand went out and ruffled the brown-black hair on Space's head. The young man whimpered and roused enough to mutter "Space." Before dropping back into whatever dreams he was having.
"Poor bloody failed experiments… three failed experiments, that's us." Wheatley muttered. "Not that I think you're a failure, love, you're brilliant, you're more… broke the programming." He scowled, frwoling out the words as he waved between himself and the pathetic sleeping figure, "s' me and this poor bugger, failed experiments. Built to bloody well fail."
Chell licked her lips, she was starting to get it now. Anger, a whole new emotion for Wheatley, her cheerful, chattery Wheatley. In some ways, she was proud; getting angry on behalf of someone else was one of the marks of the humanity that he was so eager to acquire. On another level though, it worried her, it was too, too close to the way he'd spoke when… when…
Unbidden and unwelcome, the memory came rushing back.
"I've sacrificed and sacrificed to get us here! And what have you done? Nothing! Well now look who's the boss… it's ME!"
"Chell? Love?"
"I AM NOT A MORON!"
"Chell!"
"Could a moron PUNCH! YOU! INTO! THIS! PIT!?"
And the sensation of the world falling away…
Chell wrenched her mind back, forced herself back to the present. She waved a hand before her eyes and pulled a fearful expression, a signal she was sure he'd get, usually it was reserved for when one or the other woke from a nightmare.
"Bad dream?" he questioned, then frowned, "You're awake though love. Dreams are only when you're asleep, you told me that." He paused, then realisation dawned. "Oh! Like a dream only awake! I get those. Memories. Right."
Another of those long silences. Chell rubbed her head and examined the tins they'd scavenged, Space would need something to feed him up… if they could get him to wake up and comprehend 'eating'.
"Memory of what, love?" Wheatley piped up, still not moving from Space's side. "I mean, I can guess, but… specifics. Like, with me it's always the transfer…" Wheatley shuddered almost imperceptibly, then smiled a little, "but… saying it makes it…" he waved his hands, "less real. I don't know. I'd… I'd like if I could do that for you."
Chell shook her head, taking the chance to warm the tin over their little fire.
"No, love?" He sounded hurt.
How to explain this?
A hand gripped her wrist, gentle, but insistent. Electric-blue eyes were full of concern. "Love…"
Well, he wasn't going to learn unless she taught him. And how could she refuse those pleading eyes?
She picked a stick from the fire-side and traced it through the dirt. He grinned and watched, he liked to watch when she made things, it was one of those bloody ingenious things humans did, making things.
She drew, and she drew a circle, with one great eye in the centre and a smile beneath. He tilted his head at it, "Is that me?"
She nodded, then began to add to the happy little sphere while he babbled on;
"Oh. Oh blimy, look at that, happy little core Wheatley, hovering along his little command rail… oh, that's not a command rail, is it? Coz command rails are long and thin and, no offence to your picture-making skills but…" he trailed off, tilting his head at the addition she'd made. A great, curving shape rising out of the top of the core, all wires and panels.
He swallowed hard, she reached and swept her hand over the core's smile and eye, then re-drew them, the smile inverted, the eye narrowed.
He went pale. "Oh. That's… right. Yeah. When I… when… when all that happened." He seemed to make the connection, twisting towards her suddenly, "Just then when I was getting all hot and growling about her… it made you think of then, right?"
Chell nodded, a little ashamed of the admission herself, logically, the two moments were worlds apart, and this one was actually rather nice; the AI turned human was able to empathise, able to get angry on behalf of his fellows. That was a far cry from the maniacal laughter and punching Chell into a pit.
Huge arms curled around her, warm body pressed against her, all skin and bones but human, and unquestioningly, hers
"Oh love, I'm so sorry… don't think I'll ever say sorry enough, will I? Tell you what, I'll just keep saying it when there's nothing else to say and you let me know when it's enough, right? Ok, starting now; Sor-"
Chell's hand leapt up and covered his flapping lips before he finished the first apology. She gave him a gentle smile that meant so much more than words ever could.
Behind her hand, he grinned goofily. She lowered it and brought her lips to his, sighing softly through her nose before slipping away to return to their food. He shifted back into what she considered to be a 'worried parent' pose by the sleeping Space core.
(A/n: You unlocked the achievement: Spaaaaaaace! XD
:) Nah seriously, got a bit of a plot bunny in my head over this all of a sudden, and Spacey's my second fave core. Plus it gives our beloved idiot a chance to train up as a dad a bit. Hope you liked, r&r!)