"Where are you going?" GLaDOS was dressed in her newest attire, a nice white dress shirt and another pair of black pants. Her hair was finally fixed, tied back into a tight ponytail. She sat down at her place at the table, gratefully taking the plate of scrambled eggs that Chell had prepared for her. The woman looked like she was in a rush to get out of the house as quickly as possible, but still quickly wrote an explanation on her pad.
Work. I'm a chef at the Coffee House. GLaDOS quirked her eyebrow, and Chell sighed loudly. It's a small restaurant near the mall. She nodded, scooping the eggs onto her fork before clumsily depositing them in her mouth. I'll be gone all day, okay? There's food in the fridge that doesn't even need to be heated. Don't destroy anything, alright? The android rolled her eyes.
"I think that you underestimate my abilities."
That's exactly what I'm afraid of. Look, if you need anything, just go next door to Mrs. Goldi. She's the lady from yesterday, remember? She'll help you, and if it's really bad, she can bring you to me. Maybe I should just ask her to come over and watch you... Chell pondered this, tapping the marker on her lower lip and purposely ignoring GLaDOS's insulted expression.
"I really, really don't think I need a babysitter. That would just be an accident waiting to happen. And not to me, by the way. I don't die." She didn't actually know if this was true or not anymore. Still, it seemed to at least have an effect on Chell. She sighed, glaring at the android before heading towards the door again.
Fine. I won't call her, but you better behave. Got it? GLaDOS only waved her out the door, and she sighed. She was fairly certain that by the time she got home, the place would be transformed into some psuedo-science lab. Frustrated, she got in her car, fearing that she had just made a horrible mistake.
A P E R T U R E S C I E N C E
Chell leaving the house gave GLaDOS a chance to mull over what had recently happened. She still had no clue about how to go about changing back into her main body, and that was frustrating by itself. More recently, however, she had found herself becoming... attracted to her. She brushed it off as the hormones that buzzed through the android's basically human body. It was still a major distraction, though, and when Chell had touched her stomach so tenderly...
It felt good. So good. That feeling horrified her. It wasn't right at all. She didn't have any feelings beyond neutrality for the human. Love was a foreign concept to her, never having felt it as an AI, but she was fairly confident that what she was infected with wasn't that. Perhaps it was lust? It seemed to fit the description that she had once found a lot better than love.
Either way, it was a feeling that was distracting her from her main goal. It had to be eliminated, but she couldn't get rid of it. Oh, she had tried, but nothing was working. At all.
She sighed, returning to her room and pulling a notebook from under her bed. Several equations and database commands were etched inside, many of which were crossed out. None of them, so far, seemed to be able to work. Half of the ones she tried merely fried her brain for a few moments, leaving her shut down until her emergency systems managed to boot her back up. Trying to find the correct core transfer command was becoming a tedious and painful process.
Perhaps she shouldn't have denied the human's offer of assistance. She was smart enough; after all, she had managed to murder her in cold blood. But there was that problem of the virus that had spread through her system. She didn't want to grow close to the woman, especially if it made her body go haywire. So she continued to work alone, scribbling in about fifty codes before beginning to try them. After five, the world went black.
Initiating the Aperture Science Emergency AI Reboot Procedure. Time estimated; five minutes.
A P E R T U R E S C I E N C E
"Good mornin', Chell. Everything alright at home?" She smiled brightly at her boss, nodding happily. He grinned back at her. "Well that's good, then. We missed you, yesterday! Poor Albert couldn't keep up with all the orders. Then again, the poor boy could only really make our soups, eh? Why don't you go back there and show him how it's done." He winked at her as she stepped into the kitchen. Her young assistant was looking flustered, orders flung everywhere as he scrambled to fill them. The waitress Anna was sitting there, tapping her foot impatiently before noticing Chell enter the room. Her eyes brightened.
"Hey, Chell! Thank goodness you're here! Albert can't cook for beans." Albert turned, looking comically insulted. He waved his arms in the air dramatically before stepping to the side and allowing Chell to take her place. As she gathered up all the orders, he addressed her.
"Oh, I'm not that bad, right Chell?" She didn't even bother writing on her board, allowing her silence to answer his question. Anne burst into laughter. "It's not funny, sis! Chell, I can't believe you just betrayed me like that!" Though he sounded sad, a glance at his grinning face told the former test subject otherwise.
"Oh, go back and wash the dishes. Chell's got it handled." She shooed her twin away towards the other side of the kitchen before scooting her stool closer to Chell. "You look rather happy today. You find someone special? Ah! You're blushing. I called it! Who is it? Do you have a picture?" Chell only laughed at her coworker's enthusiasm.
No, no one special. Just an old friend, I guess. Anne rolled her eyes, placing her hands on Chell's shoulders and wrenching her forward.
"Is your friend hot? Cause honey, you need someone in your life. Boy or girl, doesn't matter to me your orientation. And I'm positive that once you work your silent charm on your friend, it won't matter to them, either. So where are they staying?" She let go of the chef, allowing her to continue chopping the onions that Albert had left mangled.
When she finished the first onion, she wiped her hands and wrote down her answers. She. My friend is a she. Her name is Glados. She's not from around here, really. And she's staying at my house. Anne took a moment to try and pronounce GLaDOS's name before flicking her light green eyes towards Chell's gray ones.
"Well, then, make her gay for you. She's already staying at your house; it's not that big of a step to take!" Chell had been tasting the onions when she spoke, and she literally spit them out at Anne's words.
Um, I don't think she swings that way anyway. Besides we have a lot of history. Not all of it is good. Besides, I don't feel that way about her. Anne only rolled her eyes.
"Oh, please, yeah you do. You can make it work. You're too stubborn to give something up; it's one of your best qualities. Show that Glados what you're made of." Chell only chuckled, remembering GLaDOS's final words to her before she had set her loose in the world. Dangerous, mute lunatic.
She already knows how stubborn I am. I really don't think she needs reminding of that. Anne only arched her brow, taking the plate of salad that Chell handed her. It had been mostly done - and not looking too bad, honestly - when Albert had been in charge.
"Right, well then you don't have a problem. Just don't give up until she falls for you. Hey, table four asked for a small chicken tender plate with fries, just to let you know. Albert kind of crumpled and lost that one." She winked, wiggling before departing from the kitchen. Chell sighed, only continuing to chop her onions. It was amazing. Even at work, the AI seemed to make everything a lot more difficult than it needed to be. Cooking, at least, took her mind off of her problems.
It was the same day that she broke her record for how many dishes she could get done before lunchtime.
A/N: What's this? Progress, sort of? =o
Anyway, Anne is a bit... outspoken xD; She probably won't be seen in many chapters, but she and Chell are pretty close as far as co-workers go. Albert's sort of the same, though the twins tend to bicker quite a bit.
I don't know if I'll be updating over the weekend, due to the fact that I may or may not have internet since my family's going on vacation. If I can't, I'll see you all next week ^_^
Reviews save turrets; just remember that!