Making History

She was beginning to regret taking this job. Since arriving, she had been pushed, pulled, and held in place. She had her body, endurance, mental capacity, and patience measured by scientists who seemed to have something more important on their minds. She'd been given shots, pills, and liquids, but not lunch.

Nobody had told her the facility was six stories underground, and all that weight above her head made her nervous. Nobody even looked at her straight, as though she was just an object to be analyzed and cataloged. She was beginning to think of just screaming "I QUIT!" and storming out before they thought up another tedious, useless task for her to do, when he walked in. Well, fell in, really, seeing how his foot caught the doorstep.

Papers exploded into the air, a muffled cry coming up from somewhere beneath them. As the mess cleared, she found herself gazing at a young man, a little older than she was, with messy blonde hair and wide, blue-green eyes. He was flat on his rear, covered in everything from sticky-notes to a manila folder. A few forlorn scraps of paper clung to his clipboard, making it clear where the stuff had come from. He smiled sheepishly up at her from behind wire-framed glasses.

She laughed. He looked so ridiculous, sitting in the middle of a snowfall of notes and forms, she just couldn't help it. After a moment, a nervous chuckle joined her.

"Well, s'pose I probably look right silly, don't I?" She nodded, beyond speech for the moment. "You'd think I'd've learned to pick my feet up when going into a room by now! Dunno how many times these thresholds've got me like that…little help?" She nodded again, and knelt on the floor, helping him gather up the various things that had escaped his faulty clipboard. As she handed him the stack, she got a bright smile in return.

"Thanks, love. You're a life saver." She was still giggling, and was glad he didn't notice the way it picked up when he said that. It wasn't that big of a deal, really. She watched as he got that same distant, distracted look the other scientist had had as he sorted the papers, but it was gone again the moment he looked up. "I don't think we really need to run half of these again. They've got more than enough for an average, it's not like the human body fluctuates that much in…how long have you been here?"

She shrugged. He frowned. "Well, that can't be good. Did you have supper?"

Supper? The last thing she'd had was a bowl of cereal at six, before she left home. She'd been wondering about lunch. She shook her head. The frown turned into a scowl briefly, and he muttered something about boneheads who expect to get science done without enough brain to get an energy bar or something! before producing half a sandwich from one of his pockets. "Here. I had the other part for lunch. It's, ah, fluffernutter." He blushed at the last part, clearly embarrassed that a scientist working for one of the biggest corporations in the country would eat anything with the word "fluff" in the name. "Good for energy, and peanut butter's got protein, so…um…wow…"

She'd crammed as much of the triangle of food into her mouth as she could, managing to get the whole thing down in three bites. The sheepish smile was back when she looked up, his eyes sparkling with laughter just above it. "They…really didn't give you anything, did they?" She shook her head, and smiled her thanks.

He nodded and set about with the routine, taking her blood pressure, pulse, and breath rate, as well as hitching her up to a few machines she didn't really know the purpose of. Unplugging her from the last one, he glanced at the data and grinned. "Well, not surprisingly, you're a good deal calmer than the last few tests."

Shuffling the papers a bit, he paused thoughtfully, before opening the door. "I think that's it for today, so I guess I'll get you to stasis for now. Oh, don't worry," he added, seeing her shocked expression, "It's perfectly harmless as long as you get someone to wake you up after a certain period of time. Everyone in this facility has caught a few winks in there during overtime. I'll leave the contract with you, I guess, and I do definitely recommend reading it before you sign anything, because you never know what the higher-ups try to sneak in in the fine-print." He whispered the last part, to keep other people in the hall from overhearing them. They'd stopped outside of a simple brown wooden door as he handed her the manila envelope. He opened it to reveal what looked at first to be a low-class hotel (or perhaps high-end motel) room, until you noticed the tiny, high-tech gadgets tucked into the corners.

She stepped in and looked around, taking in the space with a slow nod. Behind her, the scientist coughed lightly, making sure he still had her attention. "I'll, um, be back in a few minutes. I can probably smuggle you some ravioli out of the cafeteria."

She turned and smiled her thanks. His whole face brightened into a return grin, and he began to shut the door. It popped open again, though, before it was more than half way closed. "Oh, and, I thought I should say, in case you've already turned in when I get back, I'm really looking forward to working with you! Let's make some history down here, okay?"

She giggled, nodding again. He said something like brilliant! and hurried back out into the hall, the door clicking shut behind him. The test subject turned, taking in her new room with a critic's eye. She smiled. Maybe I won't quit, after all.


Little past-fic for you. Chell-centric.

I swear, that guy was just supposed to be some random scientist who was new enough that he still saw test subjects as people. And then he opened his mouth, and turned into Wheatley! I don't know how it happened, I really don't...

Ah well. R&R