"Uncle Wheatley, do you have a blue marker or pen?"

"I'm afraid not, love. Sorry," I replied.

"I only need blue to finish it though!" she sighed, "Could I ask around?"

"Alright. Just don't wander too far, okay?"

"Okay!" She scrambled to her feet and ran down the hall.

I groaned, and put my face in my hands. My strength was running thin. I didn't know how much more of this job I could take before I broke.

A muffled voice reached my ears from the headset on my desk. I picked them up. "Yes, hello?" I said.

"Mr. Wheatley?"

"Yes?"

"Mr. Johnson needs some files delivered to his desk."

"Alright." There was a short silence.

"Should I send them to your computer for printing?"

"Oh, me? You want me to deliver them?"

"That's your job, Mr. Wheatley. I'll fax them to you. Don't waste any time. Mr. Johnson is not a patient man." The voice was gone.

I couldn't quite believe it, although was a simple task. They wanted ME to deliver papers to Cave Johnson? I had never met him before, but he was the head of the company!

The fax machine behind me whirred to life and started spitting out paperwork.

I quickly gathered them off of the floor and ran out of the room, forgetting about Chell once again.

...

I knocked on the door. "Hello? I have some papers for Mr. Johnson?"

"Come in," called a voice.

I opened the door to reveal a rather nice office amongst the clutter that was Aperture Laboratories.

"Set them on the desk," the man commanded.

I obeyed.

"Now go," he said, without looking up.

As I turned to leave, a flier on the wall for Project Android caught my eye. I hesitated at the door. "Sir," I said, "Could I ask you a question?"

"Make it quick," he replied, starting to flip through the file.

"It's about Project Android. I was just wondering- Well hypothetically of course, if it was, and this could be for a friend, a family member- how could-"

"Quicker."

"Where- could one... sign up for it? The experiment... thing?"

Cave looked me dead in the eye. "Do you want to join Project Android, Mr. Wheatley?"

"Well I... I don't know."

He studied me for a moment. "Talk to one of the recruitment people down on level 10. Act quickly and you might get a spot."

"Thank you, sir," I said, turning to leave once more with my heart pounding.

He called out to me again, "Wheatley."

"Yes sir?"

"Is this yours? It seems to have gotten mixed up in this file." He held up a drawing.

"I don't-" I spotted Chell's signature in the bottom corner. "Yes yes. I'll take that." I reached over the desk to take the drawing, but the CEO tightened his grip.

"You'd do good in Project Android, Wheatley. I suggest you fill out a form as soon as possible."

I chuckled nervously. "Erm...yes. Thank you...uh, sir." I grabbed the paper and hurried out of the room.

...

"Where did you go?"

I cringed and spun around. "Hello love," I said, "I'm so sorry about that. Had to run something up to Mr. Johnson. I apologize for leaving you. Really. I'm sorry."

Chell smiled. "It's okay. But I hope Mr. Johnson wasn't too hard on you. He's not very nice."

I laughed. "He was perfectly fine, actually. Gave me some good advice...I think."

"That's good. But I lost my drawing! I worked so hard on it!"

I took the drawing from my pocket. "This one?"

She gasped in surprise and took the drawing. "Yes, this is it. Thank you so much, Uncle Wheatley!"

"What is it, if you don't mind my asking?"

She turned the picture around. There wasn't anyway that I could properly name it. It was a metal sphere with a round glass piece in the center and two black handles, one on the top of the glass and one on the bottom. "It's a little robot. I needed the blue for the eye."

"Oh. What's his name? Or hers?"

"I don't know. I just made him up." She returned to coloring.

I considered what Cave had told me. Valerie said she was a test subject recruiter. That was who I needed to see to sign on for Project Android. But did I want to sign on? Hadn't I already settled with myself that I DIDN'T want to sign up? That I didn't need upgrades?

I leaned back.

Cave Johnson himself had told me that I should. That I would do well in the project. I was left with a difficult decision. What should I do?

My eyes drifted back to the flier. It wouldn't hurt to talk to Valerie about it. Just to check up on what I would actually be getting myself into.

"Hey, love," I called.

"Yeah?"

"I've got to head down a few floors to talk to someone. Want to come?"

"Yep. Coming... Here." She placed the drawing on my desk and took my hand.

...

"Level 10," said an automated voice.

"Come along," I said, beckoning to the girl.

She ran towards me, grabbed my arm, and swung onto my back.

"Gah! No!" I laughed. I reached behind me and tickled her sides.

"NO!" she squealed.

"Mr. Wheatley!" shouted a voice.

I stopped suddenly and Chell's screaming ceased.

Valerie stood only a few feet away, tapping her toe on the ground.

"Mrs. Valerie," I said, sliding Chell back to the ground.

"It's Ms. Valerie actually. And this is not a field trip area. This is a high security facility, with top secret data. Children are not allowed."

"Oh no," I said, "Believe me, Chell is very well behaved. She won't go messing with things that-"

"I wasn't talking about the girl," she said.

I stuttered. "I, er... well..."

"I'm afraid you'll have to remove yourself from the premises, before I call security."

"No no, please!" I said quickly, "I just needed to talk to you about something. About..." I glanced at Chell. "About Project-"

"Project Android, yes," she sighed, "Everyone wants to talk about Androids." She checked her watch. "Well I have a few minutes. Shoot."

"Well, I uh... I just wanted to... How- how would one sign up for it?"

"There are registration sheets at the front desk. Just ask nicely. Anything else?"

"What exactly is..."

Chell was listening attentively.

"Erm... How is Caroline?"

Valerie's face brightened. "Oh she's just fine. The transferal is going wonderfully. If we're lucky, it'll be done by the end of the week."

"That's brilliant," I said.

"Yeah. She's doing great... There are slots open if you still want to..."

I nodded. "Yes. Right. Well I still don't know if I want to. But... figuring things out."

"Well... if you ever need help, I get off at 4:30 on weekdays and 3:00 on weekends. If you want, we could get together and work on the details of your decision."

Chell tugged on my sleeve. "Uncle Wheatley? Could we go now?"

"Hm? Oh yes. Of course. Goodbye Valerie."

"Goodbye," she replied as I stepped into the elevator. "Oh and I gave you my number for a reason," she added, "Call me." She made the phone signal with her hand as she shrank out of view.

I chuckled to myself, but Chell looked most displeased. "Who was that?" she asked.

"Just someone I met the other day."

"When you forgot to pick me up? Because you were on a date?"

My face reddened. "It wasn't a date. We just had coffee!"

"Oh grow up, Uncle Wheatley. That's what all adults call a date."

My face reddened further.