A/N: Final chapter. Thanks to everyone who commented and favourited. I'm glad you've enjoyed taking this fluff-infested journey with me :)

Chell's phone vibrated, dancing across her bedside table. She ignored it, inwardly groaning as she clung to her sleep with both hands. Peace reigned again for a while, but was broken once more by another obnoxious buzz.

"Are you going to get that?" Doug asked her, voice croaky from sleep.

Chell lifted her head from his shoulder, freeing her hands to sign, 'What for? You're here.'

He chuckled, and she settled back down, silently humming as he traced paths down her back.

"Pretty sure it's not me this time," he said.

Then I don't care.

The third time it happened, she sighed heavily in aggravation, leaning over Doug's chest to reach for the noisy disruption to her peaceful morning.

Mel 8:07am
Come on, why r u ignoring me?

Mel 8:11am
I know ur not busy!

Mel 8:17am
Ur definitely awake, I know u! WTF are you doing?

Chell silently groaned. She loved Mel to pieces, but not first thing in the morning, and definitely not when she had the man she loved in her bed.

A mischievous thought occurred to her, and she tugged the covers aside, aiming her camera at the end of the bed, where their legs made a pleasing contrast of pale and tanned on her terracotta sheets.

"What on earth are you doing?" Doug's tone was confused, underlined with mild amusement, but not concerned in any way. She was humbled by the trust he placed in her.

She clicked a photo from the knee down, then dropped the phone to sign, 'Making my friend shut up.'

Me 8:20am
[1 attachment]
I'm a little busy

Doug huffed a quiet laugh, reaching down to pull the covers back across them both. "There's an evil streak in you."

Chell was on the brink of defending herself when Mel's reply came in.

Mel 8:21am
Chell! WTF! Who? :O
OMG is that the artist guy?
Chell?

Chell snorted at the explosion of shortcuts and exclamation points, flipping the phone to show Doug the message.

"She…sounds exhausting."

'She is, but she's great.'

Me 8:22am
Yes, it's the artist guy, and yes, I'm being careful. Talk later :P

Mel 8:22am
Nooo! U can't leave it there, tell me what happened!

Decisively, Chell switched her phone off and set it back on the bedside table.

'Do you want a cup of coffee?' she signed, since they were both very much awake.

"I…can't stay," Doug said awkwardly.

Chell fought to conceal her disappointment, mindful that a lot had happened and he probably needed space. She clearly wasn't as successful as she'd hoped, as he took one look at her face and reached for her hand.

"I don't want to go," he told her earnestly. "But I have to. I've taken the meds I had with me. I need to take my morning dose."

Clarity hit her like a bucket of cold water, dousing her in embarrassed relief.

She pulled her hand away to reply, 'Of course. I'm sorry, I forgot.'

"It's fine. Do…do you want to come with me?"

She took in his hopeful expression, a smile spreading its way across her face.

"I can make you breakfast," he added, lips quirking upwards when he saw her nod.

'And Mel won't know where to find me,' Chell signed, making him laugh.

"A definite bonus. I'm not ready to share you with other people just yet. Or…for you to share me, I suppose. Either one."

She nodded in agreement. Since the park, they'd been enclosed in a little bubble of discovery and contentment, where there was only the two of them. Chell didn't want to have to burst it so soon, and plainly neither did he.

It was a laughably short drive across town to Doug's home. Chell estimated that she could walk it in twenty minutes, and she marvelled that he'd been so close the whole time. It had her puzzled over his appearance at the bus stop, however, and that was the first thing she asked when he was free to look over at her.

"Oh, you remember that?" His face took on a slightly sheepish expression. "I'm sorry for my umbrella dripping on you, by the way. I was in kind of a mess that day."

She shrugged off his concern.

"Then when the driver said your name I nearly had a heart attack!"

Chell smiled, imagining his shock, relating it to her own when Henry had bellowed at him in the corridor at Aperture.

"Uh, to answer your question, that was the closest bus stop to where my car broke down. It had just been towed by the repair guys." He sought the correct key in the bunch, fitting it in the lock.

It was a modest house he let her into, tidy but lived-in, and he gestured her through to an open-plan living room and kitchen. There was a paint-splattered easel set up near the largest window, and Chell headed towards it eagerly before halting to sign, 'May I?'

Doug looked uncertain, but there was an edge of resolve in his nod. "Please."

Sending him a reassuring smile, she walked around to peer at his work. The easel was a mass of rough charcoal lines, almost a third covered with paint. The piece was abstract and surreal, and very little of it made sense to her, but it was beautiful.

"It, uh…" Doug said, walking up behind her. "Sometimes it helps. On bad days… To…to expel some of the…" He gestured to his head, shaking his hand in demonstration. "The noise."

Chell nodded her understanding, stepping closer as she spotted something, a figure in one corner.

'Is this…?' she signed, turning.

"You? Yes. I…heh, I guess you stayed with me. Subject 1498, I mean."

She raised an eyebrow, corners of her lips lifting. 'I didn't know you admired subject 1498 so much,' she teased him.

"She was quite something," he said softly. "Shrewd, tenacious…and that was before I even got to see you in a test chamber."

'You were watching yesterday, right?'

"Yes. I've never seen anyone test the way you did. To see you holding a device I built, using it to pull off moves like that…it was incredible."

'I still can't believe you actually made that thing!'

He chuckled at her expression. "Why?"

'It's…intimidating!' she replied, shaking her head slightly. 'You're so smart.'

"There are different types of smart," he said with a modest shrug. "I just happen to be usefully academic. You're the smart one."

She snorted sceptically.

"You bypassed a convoluted test solution and found a more efficient way. You essentially hacked that test chamber. It's never happened before."

She shrugged, and Doug's expression made her think that her achievement was more significant than she probably realised.

"I don't think we're going to agree," he said at length. "So let's just say that we're two intelligent people spending time together."

Chell grinned, nodding.

He got to work assembling ingredients while she perched on a barstool and watched, rattling off comments whenever he looked her way. He flatly refused to let her help, smirking at her disgruntled face as he placed a cup of coffee on the countertop in front of her. After swallowing a couple of capsules from the pill bottle by the sink, Doug took a sip of his coffee, hissing a little as he did so.

'Hot?' she signed.

"Yeah. I never learn."

She silently sniggered, sniffing appreciatively at the steam curling off the top of her cup.

"Chell, can I ask you something?" At her nod, he continued. "This isn't an accusation, so please don't take it as one. I'm just curious. Were you going to tell me that you were mute?"

Brows raised in surprise, she considered. 'Probably.'

"Why didn't you? I hope it wasn't that you felt you couldn't. Especially after…"

He let the sentence hang, but Chell finished it in her head. Especially after I shared my condition with you.

No doubt the reason he left it unsaid was because it did sound accusatory.

'If we ever planned to meet I would have told you,' she signed.

Doug kept his eyes on her as he whisked batter in a jug. The only sound was the gentle tapping of his fork against Pyrex while she continued her explanation.

'I was just enjoying being able to express myself like everyone else. In a text no one can see that I'm lacking anything. I don't make people awkward because they can't understand me.'

"But I can understand you," he stated adamantly.

'Not everyone can sign.'

"I didn't just mean the signing thing. Sometimes I look at you and I feel like I can hear your voice in my head. And then you sign, and it's so close to what I thought you were thinking. It's…kind of unnerving. But in a good way. Does that make sense?"

Chell held his gaze for a long moment. 'Not even a little,' she told him honestly, 'and yet…somehow, yes.'

"And last night," he added, voice soft, kitchen paraphernalia forgotten in his hands. "Neither one of us spoke then. You can't convince me that we didn't know what the other was thinking."

She swallowed, skin suddenly feeling too tight. She shook her head just a trace, unwilling to look away. 'We knew,' she signed. 'I knew.'

Doug nodded, smile turning a touch embarrassed as he broke eye contact and resumed whisking. Chell bit her lip against a smile of her own. He was so intense, yet still so endearingly diffident. The longer they spent together, the less she saw of the nervous, awkward Doug, and she hoped he'd one day be entirely comfortable around her.

For the remainder of his cooking time, they went through all their messages, seeking further clarification on points they were curious about. Chell finally had the chance to ask him about the Coleridge cover photo, and determined that not only had he been in her library, she'd missed him by chance because she'd chosen to go through Travel as he'd been departing through Photography the next aisle over.

"What would you have said to me if you had seen me leaving Poetry?" Doug asked her with amusement, setting a plate of blueberry pancakes in front of her.

'I don't know! That's not the point!'

He laughed, handing her cutlery before taking a seat beside her with his own plate. They ate in relative silence, still scrolling through the message thread on Doug's phone, reminiscing.

"Oh god, you literally stated that you're bad at public speaking," Doug said, reading through their early messages.

'I wasn't lying!'

"And that you couldn't speak on the phone…I assumed it was your cold. So, I guess you did tell me."

'I was vague, don't feel bad.'

Then Chell stopped his scrolling with a hand on his arm, withdrawing it at once to sign, 'I can't believe I asked you if you'd ever seen an attractive scientist!'

He smiled at her mortified expression. "How could you have known you hit so close? And besides, I haven't seen any."

'Well I have!' she replied, winking at him.

"And I can easily imagine someone stunning holding a pile of books."

She shook her head, grinning, and he chuckled. They resumed reading, heads close together.

'Do you know how cliché it is to woo someone with poetry?' Chell commented teasingly.

"I wasn't aware I was wooing you," Doug said in mock defence. "I thought we were trading recommendations. I can recite some for you now, though, if you want."

She silently laughed, shaking her head. 'It's fine.'

"No, no, you started this! Wait…how does it go? For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams, of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes, of the beautiful Annabel Lee."

Chell smiled at him in mild surprise. 'Very impressive. Not even I know it by heart.'

"I re-read it when you said you liked it," he explained.

Such a simple explanation, but one that touched her deeply. She leaned over and kissed his cheek, and he smiled self-consciously.

It was a quiet, peaceful day, giving them a chance to realise how well they already knew each other, and to fill in the blanks on things that were still unclear. It was a day that felt like a middle and a beginning, and, to Chell, it was perfect.

A small part of her was a little sad at the thought of losing their first connection, of having to get through her day without feeling the magnetic draw to her phone, but halfway through her Monday morning, she received a text message.

Doug 10:26am
Henry's borrowing my stuff again. How unethical would it be to knock him unconscious and stuff him in a closet?

Chell laughed, feeling ridiculous, and immensely happy. Everything had changed, but enough had stayed the same that she found it difficult to contain her wide smile. She shot back a quick reply.

Me 10:27am
If he doesn't see you, there shouldn't be a problem :)

Later, as they relaxed on Doug's couch, he said musingly, "I guess I shouldn't be too hard on Henry. After all, if he hadn't written a six so atrocious that I mistook it for a zero, we would never have met."

'We still would have met,' Chell said, shuffling back a little to sign. 'I still would have come in as a test subject and you still would have had to translate for me.'

"True." He turned a playful smile towards her. "Maybe you would have acted on your little crush."

'Maybe,' she responded with a coy look. 'Would you have said anything to me? Liked me enough to ask me out?'

"I…I'd like to think I would, but truthfully…no, probably not. I'd have been too intimidated by your beauty and fortitude. It's a pretty intoxicating combination, you know."

She had her legs across his lap, and he rested a warm hand on her thigh, thumb tracing back and forth.

'Smooth-talker.'

He gave a cynical laugh, but smiled. "So I guess I should hope that you would have asked me out."

'I'm sure I would have said something,' she replied truthfully. 'So I guess we're safe in multiple universes.'

"That's a relief, I was concerned," Doug said, deadpan.

Chell sent him an unimpressed look. "I'm happy to just focus on this universe, thank you.'

"Me too. This one has everything I could possibly want," he murmured, raising a hand to cup her cheek.

She returned the favour, sketching the increasingly-familiar lines of his face with her fingertips, choosing to ignore the corny line because he'd said it with such sincerity.

I love you. I'm glad we found each other. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

"Likewise," he breathed, and she kissed him.

The end.