"Something got her and I didn't pay attention, nononono! Is she in danger? I have to hel- Oh there she is." he exclaimed looking directly underneath him at the sleeping bundle. The floor was almost icy, and despite having her jumpsuit top wrapped round her body, he noticed that the tips of her fingers were a pale lilac. However, Chells face was peaceful, and that was the first time that Wheatley had ever seen it so. Her eyelashes fluttered ever so slightly in REM, he managed to bore that image into his memory, before selecting 'Recharge' and hanging limply, eye shut.
Chell, awoke, first feeling a pang of fear when remembering she was still in Aperture Science, but seeing Wheatley cheerfully gaze down apon her she immediately calmed down and returned a grin.
"Yay, you're awake! Now you can look at what I made you. I really think you're gonna like it. Seriously..."chuntered Wheatley, gesturing to his creation like a five-year-old pointing to a sandcastle he'd made. Chell stretched, arms numb from the cold, and steadily got up and walked across curiously. Wheatley was almost quivering with excitement and urged her forwards.
What was discarded on the floor was a black keyboard, and a mashed one at that. The letter P was missing, there were some straggly wires sprouted from it's top, and occasionally a flash of electricity spluttered out from the left side, which Wheatley told her to ignore. All in all, Chell was perplexed, but not wanting to upset Wheatley she feigned a smile and gave a thumbs up for whatever it was that lay at her feet.
Wheatley managed to put on an even more dramatic tone. " Whatever you type will be sent straight to me, so we don't have to be in the same room to talk! Go on, try it. Go on.". Chell stooped down and hammered in 'thanks wheatley' and hit Enter. There was a silent pause. Wheatley flickered his gaze between Chells face and the keyboard. He sighed a little.
"Are you sure you pressed enter properly, because I don't think it's been,um , sent, unless you- It's okay! I've got it, I've got the message, there was just a delay is all. Right." He quickly processed the message, and his optic lit up even brighter that usual.
"No problem!" he said, all chipper. "Now , what do you want to spend the rest of the day doing? Because, if I'm honest, I can't think of much really. Apart from testing. I kinda want to do that but you know. No test subjects." Wheatley then began to study Chell, and she took a step back and folded her arms across her chest, hoping he wouldn't come to the conclusion of...
"Hey! I saw you test for Her, so can't you do the same for me? Err, please." The lights dimmed, casting an eerie shadow across the core. She tried to judge his features, to see what consequence there would be. He seemed much larger and menacing. Chell fiddled with her present, and then started typing. 'if you want me to, i dont mind' In fifteen seconds the lights went up again.
Seeming happier than Chell had ever observed before, Wheatley said "Great! Just go through there, good, don't forget your portal gun, okay, and let the games begin!" She left her keyboard in Wheatleys area and went through an emancipation grill, to stand at the first test chamber. To go through everything again.
Wheatley had put a load of monitors on almost every surface that wasn't a portal one, and so she could always catch a pixelated glimpse of him. He enjoyed testing to such an extent that Chell had to cringe as he moaned, but whilst going through the chambers she felt alright. Good, even, in her element. She waved at each monitor, and Wheatley would nod curtly back. In one instance when she accidentally smacked the screen of one with a weighted storage cube and Wheatley seemed to be a tad miffed with her, she blew a kiss to the monitor. This caused both to feel embarrassed, Chell turned practically magenta, and on Wheatleys side the announcer loudly went "LIQUID COOLANT NECESSARY!". Wheatley exclaimed and encouraged her to just go to the next test.
Eventually, Wheatley got exasperated with the testing, as his happiness deteriorated. Chell didn't understand, GLaDOS had never got this mad with her; well, not until she tried to escape Her malevolent grasp, but when she was just solving it was all okay. Wheatley blew up when she got through another one of his chambers and unlocked the door.
"What was that?! That was nothing! That was nothing!" Chell halted mid-step, and looked at the monitor with a pained expression, but he ignored it.
"Come on, more tests, that's what we need. Yeah. Definitely. More testing." He insisted "Lets go then, next one." She wouldn't budge. Wheatley began to use his commanding voice, but slowly let it slide when he realised how cruel he sounded. He thought for a little while, humming, and then said "Right, okay, I understand, it's been a long day. You should probably get back here now." With a large amount of noise, Wheatley dropped a stairwell that narrowly missed crushing Chell.
"Well, I think this should take you back up again." he informed Chell as she hurried upwards, boots pounding on the metal, trying her best not to fall into the abyss. Wheatley turned the monitor off abruptly. When Chell made her way back up into their lair, she made a lunge at the keyboard. 'wow, those were some difficult tests, wheatley. i'm so tired'. Chell didn't type all she wanted, about how she felt Wheatley was acting different and how he was becoming sharper and more mean. Wheatley made a small punctuated laugh at the compliment.
"Er, thanks! If you're tired you can go back to sleep again. Although the floor isn't very nice, I admit. Not for humans to sleep on. Quite uncomfortable. Ooh! Here's a thought; How about I go to where all the humans were, the beds! I'm sure there must be an option for me to lug one of the suspension beds over here, maybe have to shake a corpse out, so you can, you know sleep..." Chell grimaced, her expression telling Wheatley it was a terrible idea without the aid of the keyboard. Wheatley stopped, and then moved closer to Chell to see if he could get any other facial clues off of her. She noticed that he was radiating a cosy amount of heat, and tapped him before jumping up and laying atop his gargantuan frame; there was a curve just the right size to relax.
'i could rest here, if you don't mind' He was in two minds about this. One half told him that she was an insignificant human who should be killed for even existing in such close proximity. How dare she take advantage of the all powerful. Yet the other half reminded him that it was her, and found it charming really wanted to be by him. Science with sweet company. "Uh, oh, um, okay. Don't break me or anything." Chell exhaled, a soft smile on her face, and drifted comfortably off. Wheatley tried to look at her again, but couldn't (not without causing her to fall off at least). He settled for listening to the gentle breaths as Chell went further into her slumbers.
"This is what it should always be like." he said quietly.