Chapter Seven

It was one of those days where Wheatley wondered if getting out of bed was worth it.

He stared dully up at the ceiling, mouth agape, wanting nothing more than to ignore his blaring alarm clock and curl up into a ball again, but there was a problem: he had to go to work. And he badly wanted to phone in and tell them he was sick, because his nose was well and thoroughly stuffed up and his throat sore and swollen, but he was reluctant to do so over a cold. Even if his head was pounding and his eyes hurt.

Groaning, he threw off the blanket and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, a hacking cough coming up out of his lungs. Great. If only GLaDOS could catch colds, he'd have had an excuse to stay home, but unfortunately he did not happen to have a computer virus. He tried to imagine what she might look like if she had a computer cold of sorts, but couldn't. Oh well. Best time to get going, then.

Somehow he made it to work without incident, even though he was pretty sure his eyes weren't open for most of the trip, and accidentally drove his car over the concrete block marking his parking spot. He got out of the car and looked disinterestedly at the tilted vehicle, kicking at the front fender half-heartedly as if that would move it back, then shrugged and retrieved his box, closing the door with his elbow. He had no idea whether it was stuck or not. He'd managed to get it off the last time he'd done that, so he decided to leave it for now and hope he was motivated enough to do something about it later. Else he was going to have to call the towing company again, which he only did as a last resort. He was pretty sure they were upping his charge every time he called them, but he wasn't confident enough to call them out on it and he always forgot to ask for a receipt.

He walked slowly into GLaDOS's chamber, sniffing every second and a half or so, wondering if she would mind if he left early. He felt simply awful, and he hadn't worked out what they were going to do next. He also didn't have the energy to think of a plan. Between yesterday's headache and the hour or so he'd spent sitting in his car, he should have recognised he was coming down with something and planned accordingly. But Wheatley's plans never went accordingly anyway, so he supposed it didn't really matter.

"'allo," he said hoarsely, and GLaDOS looked up quickly from her little robot, which she appeared to be carefully arranging into a sitting position. "Look, I –"

All of a sudden she'd whirled on him, knocking him over and pinning him by the waist to the glass with one of her maintenance arms, and bent so low over him that her body was almost pressed to his. He raised his arms helplessly, staring at her with eyes wide in terror, but she only lowered her core to the side of his face and started… she was… nuzzling him. He had no idea where she'd got that idea from, or the whole trapping him underneath her bit, but after a few moments she backed off and let him up. His heart was pounding away painfully in his chest, and he gasped a little and brushed at his shirt. Well, at least he could breathe now; the fright had cleared out his nose.

"Had… had a good night there did you?" he asked breathlessly, as she looked at him a bit curiously, and she nodded enthusiastically and tapped her core. His brow furrowed. She'd had another dream? But… how could that be a good thing?

When he asked her, she poked him in the chest. "Me?" he said faintly, face screwing up even more. "You had… a dream about me?" He felt strangely flattered to hear that she'd dreamt about him and it had put her in such a good mood. She waved in the general direction of herself and then tapped the box.

"We were playing with the toys?" he asked. She nodded once and then turned her attention to the box, inspecting the latches closely and flipping them open without too much trouble. He was honestly baffled at her control of the maintenance arms, and he was outright stunned when she opened the rear door of the truck as if she did it every day. You're not going to need me for too much longer, he thought, sadness coming over him, and he sank into a sitting position, rubbing at his now stuffed up nose. "GLaDOS," he said, now glad he'd left Henry's box of Kleenex in the box of toys, "you can do whatever you like today. I'm not feeling well. Got a bad cold, see. Don't really want to do anything. You can just play, and I'll just, I'll just watch."

She regarded him pensively, and he got the impression she actually wasn't too pleased with that arrangement. She went back to pulling the toys out of the box, unearthing a little tin of action figures from a science fiction film series that had come out a few years back, and she looked at them with only a moderate amount of interest. She put the figures with helmets in a pile and put the rest of them back into the tin. Wheatley dabbed at his nose with a tissue and watched as she put the tin back into the box.

She had put away all of the figures with human faces.

He had no idea what she was doing after that, but whatever it was, she was very involved in it. She built some sort of staircase, kind of, around the largest toy robot, and she positioned all the little figures on the staircase so that they were facing it. She had folded up the rest of the robots and they appeared to be leading the other cars someplace, but for some reason the Batmobile and the blue sports car didn't get to be in on the whole thing and were sitting off to the side. After a particularly harrowing cough Wheatley moaned and leaned his aching head against the railing, pushing up his glasses and covering his eyes, and when he'd finished rubbing his eyes he settled his glasses to see GLaDOS looking at him curiously. "I told you, I'm ill," he told her, wincing at the soreness in his throat. "I…" He wasn't sure if she understood the concept of pain or not. "It hurts, all over. And I can't breathe. And…" Oh, what was the use. She didn't understand breathing, or swelling, or tiredness. "Y'know what I wish I had? Some tea. My mum used to make me the loveliest peppermint tea when I was sick, y'know, just nothing in it, just plain, just like that, and even just the smell of it made me feel better. I dunno where she got it from, but it was delicious. My mum and my dad and my sister, there, they all took that one with the honey and the lemon in it, but for me, nah, always the peppermint, there. And my mum'd laugh and say, 'Always got to be out of the box for ev'rything, don't you, Wheatley?'." He shifted his weight reluctantly, but his bottom was almost numb and that was never fun. "I should call her. Haven't done that in a while. Bloody expensive, though." He yawned and settled back against the railing again. God, he was tired all of a sudden. He looked through half-closed eyes up at GLaDOS, who was still watching him carefully, and asked tentatively, "You don't… can I take a bit of a nap, luv? I'm just… I'm getting sleepy, and I'm not doing anything anyways. That alright?"

She nodded, pushing the Batmobile and the sports car over to him, and he lay down on his side with his head on his left arm and wrapped them up in his other hand, smiling faintly. He didn't know why she'd done it, but she seemed to understand the concept of needing comfort, at least. He watched her drive the little cars up to the tower around the robot, too sleepy to do anything about the mucus dribbling out of his nose other than to sniffle half-heartedly, and eventually his eyes closed and he fell asleep.

He jolted awake, sitting up, startled, because he could've sworn he'd been lying on his mother's couch, which he hadn't seen in years. But though his mother's living room was not real, the tang of peppermint definitely was, and he looked around in confusion to see a black Aperture Laboratories mug sitting on the glass just in front of him.

"What the –" He stared at it, scratching his head in confusion and pushing his glasses up farther, but it didn't disappear or turn into something more likely. "GLaDOS – there was no one in here, was there?" he asked, craning his neck towards her. She shook her head and went back to pulling at the undercarriage of the Beetle, presumably trying to separate it from the top. "Well… how'd this get here, then?"

She gave him a glance but did not try to answer, and after his syrupy brain slogged through the possibilities, he gaped at her, disbelieving. "You did not make me a cup of tea."

She dropped the car and bent down, nodding indignantly and tapping the glass next to the cup. "But how?" he asked, leaning forward on one hand and gesturing wildly with the other. "I s'pose you could have, if you used the cam'ras in that one break room, there, but… that doesn't explain… you couldn't have, you can't use the cam'ras…" He broke off when she looked away, her chassis twitching a little, and his eyes widened. "You can use them," he breathed, placing his other hand against the glass. "You've just been pretending you can't."

She looked down, twisting the claw against the glass, and he reached out and touched the side of her core. "I won't tell," he whispered, even as he did so wondering why he was. "It'll be our secret."

She perked up at that, picking the Beetle up again, but he still wasn't done asking questions. "But how did you know how to make it?" he asked. "Don't tell me you've figured out how to get into the database too."

She continued fiddling with the Beetle, using her second claw to poke him in the shoulder. "From me? But I never showed you – wait. You… you watched me do it?"

She nodded and moved the claw back to wherever she was leaving it, and he didn't know whether to be flattered or creeped out. She watched him when he left the room. She had enough control over the cameras to not only watch him, but to follow him to his destination. "GLaDOS… d'you watch me often?"

Shake.

"Then how did you know I was there, was uh, was in the break room?"

Another shake.

"You didn't know?"

She shook her core in such a way that indicated she was bored of this line of inquiry, but he couldn't drop it until he got a firm explanation out of her. "Were you watching someone else?" he tried, not able to think of another explanation.

Nod.

"D'you watch them often?"

Nod. She finally got the two pieces separated, making a noise in self-satisfaction, and she began attempting to fit the top of the Beetle on one of the other cars, trying each one in turn. Wheatley sat there, dumbfounded. He didn't know what to do with that news. She was watching someone in the facility, and pretending she didn't know how to watch them to boot. She really wasn't going to need him much longer. He wished he knew who she was watching, while also being glad he didn't. Whoever that poor sop was, he had her full attention and the reasoning could not be good.

"You don't watch me, right, luv?" he asked hopefully. She shook her head, balancing the shell of the Beetle on top of one of the helmeted figures. "Please don't," he told her. "Leave me to what I'm doing, will you?"

She gave another nod. Then she abruptly reached forward and grasped the cup of tea, pulling it towards her, and Wheatley jumped, grabbing the handle. "What're you doing?" he cried out. "I haven't even tasted it yet!"

She seemed reluctant to risk spilling it, merely tugging at it, and he pulled harder. "I want it," he told her, frowning. "Give it back."

She let go after a few moments of inspecting his face, and he snatched it up and clutched it close. He tipped it up to his face, inhaling, and sighed happily. There was nothing better, there really wasn't.

He wouldn't have expected it, but she had actually made a very lovely cup of tea, and he drank it quickly, with her watching him all the while. Truth be told, the fact that she'd gone to the trouble made him feel better than the liquid had, and it was that which earned her a thorough rubbing. "Thanks, luv," he said softly as she looked up at him. "That was very kind of you. And quite clever, I might add."

When he sat back down, she went back to putting the top half of the Beetle on everything possible, but he could have sworn she seemed listless and… bored. He frowned. He had no idea what he was going to show her after this, and she had only had the box for three days. He pulled it close, thankfully locating a deck of cards and a Rubik's cube, and when she saw those items she immediately dropped the shell and held her claw out. He handed her the cube. "D'you know what to do with that?"

When she responded negatively, he tried to show her, but he'd never been much good with them and only managed to get half of one side in a solid colour. He shrugged sheepishly and handed it back, but she didn't seem to care and only inspected it for a long moment. Then she proceeded to solve the cube so fast and with such dexterity of the maintenance arms that he actually stopped thinking, unable to do anything but stare at her with his mouth wide open. She let it fall carelessly out of the claw when she'd finished, taking the deck of cards from his slackened fingers and getting the box open without too much trouble. Wheatley picked up the cube and stared at it, dumbfounded, until she tapped on his shoulder and then at the cards. He gaped at them blankly for a moment, then realised she couldn't pick them up.

He told her to pick up the rest of the toys if she was finished with them, which she did quickly and without complaint, and when she'd done that he showed her how to build card houses. She grasped this concept rapidly, and within an hour or two had constructed a very lovely house, the likes of which he'd never seen, not even from his dad. And his dad had been very good at card houses.

She carefully pushed her two cars into the top level of the house, but looked uncertainly at the robot. "It probably won't support him, luv," he told her. "They'll have to come out if he wants to have a visit."

"So… what's this supposed to be?" Greg asked, and Wheatley jumped, accidentally knocking over the house. GLaDOS made a noise in annoyance, smashing her claw down on the glass, and Wheatley looked up at her, guilt winding through his stomach. "Sorry," he told her, but she wasn't even looking at him. She was staring at Greg, and as he watched she slowly backed up, chassis tightening.

"She's… look, she's got excellent control of the arms now, I just… I was getting her to use the cards to make sure. She can move, uh, she can control the smallest of objects. She's ready to… to do whatever you wanted her to do with them." Out of the corner of his eye, he could just see GLaDOS dragging the claw very slowly over the pile of cards, and when he saw a flash of metal he realised she was hiding the two cars. Hoping to distract Greg, he went on, "Just let me know what uh, what programs you want her to get started on, and I'll uh, I'll get her on that right away."

"I see what you're doing," Greg said suddenly, but he wasn't looking at Wheatley either. He abruptly leaned over and brushed aside the pile of cards, snatching up the Batmobile. GLaDOS lunged forward and pinned him to the glass, one maintenance arm pinching his free hand to his waist and the other held up in front of the hand containing the car. He turned his face away from her, eyes squeezed closed, because she'd brought her optic very close to his face and turned up the brightness. Wheatley stared, and honestly if he was in Greg's position right then he'd have been terrified, even moreso than he had been that morning. Her size was horribly intimidating, and she had her core so close to his face…

"Get it off me!" Greg yelled, trying to kick her chestplate, but she didn't seem to notice. She didn't move at all.

"Just give her car back," Wheatley said, trying to be as calm as possible, though the adrenaline had gone and cleared his nose right out again and sent his heart into overdrive. "Give it back, and she'll leave you be."

Greg threw the car away from him, in Wheatley's general direction, and GLaDOS made an awful electronic noise that managed to scare Greg so much that he scrambled backwards with his elbows and heels. She whirled around, snapping the car up before it could fall off the glass. "What in the hell have you been teaching it, you idiot?" Greg yelled, standing up and pressing his back against the railing. "That's just as crazy as what it did when we turned it on!"

"She's a she," Wheatley said, a bit miffed. "And I didn't teach her to do that. How d'you expect me to leap on top of a giant robot like that, mate? It isn't, that's impossible."

"Well, of course you managed to do it, then," Greg retorted, heading down the stairs. "Don't think I'm keeping this to myself, by the way."

"What're you going to do? Punish her?" Wheatley said snidely, regretting it the instant he said it. Now he'd gone and given Greg an idea, probably.

Greg said nothing, and Wheatley turned to GLaDOS, who had not picked the Batmobile up but instead left it pinched inside the claw exactly where she'd caught it. "Look, you can't do that," he told her, trying to be as gentle as possible. "You can't just go leaping on people. Well, you can… you can leap on me, if you like, but just don't… do it like that. You've gone and gotten yourself into trouble, now. When people like that start uh, start getting in your face, you just got to keep your head down, eh? Don't give them excuses to uh, to pick on you."

She looked down at him for a long moment, and he suddenly realised she had not relaxed at all as she usually did once someone left the room. The longer she stared at him, the stronger the unnerving sense of foreboding grew in his stomach, and when she suddenly snapped the claw shut, crushing the Batmobile flat between the pincers, he cried out and backed away from her. Coldly, she did the same to the other car and afterward violently dismantled the robot, staring at him all the while.

"Oh God," Wheatley gasped, somehow managing to stand though his legs were watery and his hands were shaking so badly he could barely find the railing. "Oh God oh God oh God – "

Only after she finally looked away was he able to stumble out of the room, running wildly through the facility and out to his car, where he got inside and slammed the door shut, pressing his forehead to the steering wheel. What had she been doing? She'd just ruined her favourite toys! Did she not understand that he couldn't fix them? Or did she not care? She must have been trying to make a point, Wheatley realised, though it didn't help him feel any better. Thankfully, his car wasn't stuck and he made it home in record time. It was only after he'd woken for the third time that night, skin damp with fever and wracked with chills, that his muddied brain figured out that if she didn't have the toys, Greg could not take them. He sat up, staring blindly into the near darkness. She'd been following Greg the whole time, hadn't she! From the outset Greg had been hostile towards her, and he had taken her things from her three times… and now she'd destroyed them so that he could not take them again. Sadness gripped Wheatley's chest as he slowly lowered himself back down to the mattress. She'd had so little, and now she quite literally had nothing.

He was starting to think getting so close to her had been a very bad idea.

Author 's note

I forgot to mention that the robot is Optimus Prime.

She's playing with Star Wars action figures, which I have a collection of. I don't have any Transformers, though.

So this chapter gets a bit heavier: Wheatley learns that GLaDOS is a lot smarter than she lets on. She's also maturing very fast, as I imagine she'd do in that sort of environment (because she would begin to equate that with survival) so she's getting tired of playing. She is afraid of Greg because she knows he would do her harm, so she keeps an eye on him as much as possible. And then she destroys the toys because, as Wheatley mentioned, she didn't want them taken again. She learns that she's not allowed to have anything, even when it's given to her.

She tried to take the cup of tea because she thought he was making a fuss because he didn't want it. And I know that GLaDOS's chassis in Portal doesn't go down that far, but if you sub in the Portal 2 chassis (which is the one she's in, here) it might. And if it doesn't, I don't really care, because I really like the image of her on top of Wheatley like that. He's just like 'OMG WTF' and she's just like 'Hi Wheatley!' So she's also learning to use her size to her advantage (by trapping Greg).