Prompt: "We got stuck in an elevator for three hours and now I have a huge crush on you." AU!

The lights flickered first as the elevator started going up from the first floor. Chell passed it off as nothing to worry about.

The man next to her, however, visibly shuddered at seeing it happen.

They flicked again around the third floor. Not as reassuring.

Finally, they went out and stayed out between the fifth and sixth floor. Right where they both needed to be. The elevator groaned as it came to a halt, and the man next to her leaned against the wall in terror.

Oh no. Chell couldn't believe what had just happened. The elevator had stopped between floors. Suddenly, the elevator was illuminated in a white light, and she turned to see the man behind her holding the source from his phone.

"Never though that would be handy," the man breathed out, who clearly appeared to be concerned for his life. "Do you think the cable's going to snap? What if we run out of oxygen? Oh my God, we're going to die here!"

Chell really wasn't in the mood for someone's ramblings at that moment. She had an interview in fifteen minutes, and this elevator wasn't going to stop her.

Maybe she could pry the doors open. Being stuck between floors didn't necessarily mean they were perfectly trapped. They could crawl out the hole. Darn. If only she had a crowbar.

And even if she did have a crowbar, there was the chance the elevator would start moving, effectively crushing either of them if they tried to get out, leading to the worst.

Sighing, she sat on the floor of the elevator, and watched as the man frantically pushed the emergency call button at a rate of five times per second. That was the next thing she was going to try herself.

When he finally stopped, they listened, waiting for anyone to reply.

Nobody responded. Chell assumed that everything in the building was down from the power outage, and that nobody could hear them.

Nothing to do but simply wait.

The man slid down next to her, heaving an even bigger sigh than the one she had done before.

He decided to start the conversation after two minutes.

"What's your name? I've never seen you around here before."

Chell did a double take. Hadn't this man been freaking out a couple minutes ago? He adjusted the flashlight so they could get a better look at each other in the dark elevator.

While she could've sworn his mouth dropped a little bit and his pupils dilated, she chalked it up to the bad lighting and replied. "Chell. You?"

"Wheatley," he responded, grinning widely. "I'm going to assume you don't work here, because if you did, well I bet I would've seen you more often, and I don't forget a face! Well, that's a lie, sometimes I forget the faces in the cubicles next to me, but you know, when you've got a massive wall between you and the guy next to you, you kinda forget who you're looking at sometimes!"

As he rambled on, Chell studied his face and voice. He had brown, curling hair and striking blue eyes. When he walked into the elevator, he wasn't quite a full head taller, but he was still most certainly taller than most people she knew. She also hadn't noticed until now that he had a British accent. He must have been in America for a while, as it wasn't as distinct as it must have once been.

"What're you here for, anyway?" Oh, he was back to asking her questions. She went along, seeing that talking was helping to calm him down.

"Interview," she said plainly.

"That's probably not going to happen now." Wheatley watched her face as she seemed to be in a complete state of calm. Her grey eyes were steady and brown hair still perfectly tied back. Her dress jacket didn't even look crumpled.

"I'm sure if all the power's gone out, they're not going to bother hosting the interview in this state. There's no point in doing so. You'll have to come back another day."

Chell huffed. There was no way she was waiting another day. Suddenly, she looked past Wheatley and saw the two buttons on the elevator. She wondered if the solution could be that simple.

Wheatley began sputtering as she reached across him without concern. She smelled like flowers.

Trying the door open and door close buttons, Chell hoped it would maybe work to get them out of there, but to no avail. The elevator remained dark, the lights remained off, and the doors remained shut.

Sighing with defeat, Chell pulled back into a sitting position, Wheatley relived that she wasn't leaning across him anymore.

"There's always prying the doors open," Chell said, standing up again, but Wheatley reached out and took her hand to stop her.

"No! Don't do that!" He suddenly seemed scared for her safety. "Maybe it'll all start up again and you'll be trapped between floors! You could get squished and…" He gulped. The thought of something happening to her seemed to clearly disturb this man.

Chell debated commenting on the fact that they would go up and climb out of the elevator... Was she prepared to take that risk? If the elevator came back on, could something happen?

Chell pulled her hand away and gripped the door, and paused.

Wheatley nervously bit his nails. This just, in all honesty, did not seem safe. But in that moment, Chell was struck by an idea. She instantly felt her pocket where her phone usually was… and discovered it wasn't there. Where was it? Had she forgotten it? Looking around, she saw her bag on the floor of the elevator, and remembered changing bags this morning, and the phone must have not made it in the next bag…

Turning on Wheatley, who was still shining his flashlight, she pointed.

"Emergency. You have a phone. Call someone."

It took Wheatley a few moments to process the demand, but the second her eyes narrowed, he unlocked his phone and called someone he knew in the building.

"Hey, Rick, buddy, pal, friendo…! …Yes, we are too friends, shut up. Anyway, listen, the power went out and—right, of course you already know that. Kinda affected most of this side of the building. But just listen—listen, okay? We're in a bit of a situation, me and this lady here, the elevator seems to have stopped on us—"

Chell heard his friend's response through the phone as they yelled. "You're WHAT? Oh my GOD, WHEATLEY. STAY THERE. Did you even call emergency services yet?"

"No!" he responded, his friend's yelling clearly raising his anxiety. "We- the button- we tried it!"

"CALL THEM ON YOUR CELL PHONE! Oh my God, Craig, Wheatley's in the elevator—"

The phone beeped, and Wheatley stared at it in disbelief, as if he couldn't believe his friend had just hung up on him. For a good reason, but still, his friend had hung up.

Chell gave a small smile and sigh of relief as Wheatley dialed emergency services. At least one of them had remembered their cell phone.

As they waited for something to happen, they began talking a little more. He told her about all of his friends up there in the offices ("Good people, they are. Y'know, they care. Little rude at first, but we all came around and got used to each other.") and Chell told him about why she was looking for a new job ("Former boss… she was a little too bossy. In a bad way. And really rude to me. Bad work environment."). They bonded in that short time in the elevator, as emergency help came about twenty minutes later.

Despite the fact she was being checked out by everyone and thanked profusely by Wheatley, Chell just had one thing on her mind.

She wanted to get to her interview.

About ten minutes after they got out and were waiting in the room, a secretary came out and informed Chell that she would still be having her interview if she was up to it.

Nodding to confirm, she turned to Wheatley, and said, "You can go now, if you'd like."

But he stood his ground and shook his head. "No, I've got something to say to the people you're interviewing. I'll go with you."

Chell mentally sighed, hoping he wouldn't say anything that would ruin her chances, like the fact she couldn't escape an elevator herself and that she had forgotten her cell phone when an emergency situation was going to occur… Although, it most likely wasn't going to ruin her.

Another ten minutes passed and Chell was escorted in, Wheatley following close behind her.

As they entered, the three interviewers raised an eyebrow at seeing Wheatley enter the room as well.

"Mr. –" they started, but were unable to finish as Wheatley interjected.

"No, listen here. I know my opinion means literally nothing to you folks, but…" He pointed to Chell. "Hire her."

With that final statement, he walked out, Chell turning to smile at him as he closed the door behind him.

The three interviewers looked at each other, trying to figure out what the lowly office worker had meant, and asked Chell to clarify, which she gladly did.

Wheatley, on the other hand, gave a small skip walking back to his desk.

If she got hired, maybe he would get to see her every morning.

Wouldn't that be swell?