Back in the cafeteria, everyone was chatting about the facility and how massive it was. They discussed strategies on navigating the facility and finding Nora with whatever help Doug could provide. Wheatley had many ideas that were shot down multiple times by Arin. Amelia was sitting a little ways off from the others, but Chell was completely by herself, silent as she picked at her food.

Mikey hurried into the cafeteria and sat down next to Amelia.

"There's something I need to tell you," he said quietly. "You're not going to believe me."

"What is it?" Amelia asked with concern. "Do we need to worry about Doug?"

"No, it's not that," Mikey said. "He let me check out the system's files and I found his memories dumped into a folder. I was quickly browsing his memories without him knowing, and I found something you're not going to believe."

"What is it?" Amelia asked, curiosity gripping her. "Come on! Spit it out!"

"I…Well, he saw your mom."

Amelia's excitement fell into disappointment. "Well, yeah. Probably," she said. "She used to visit Aperture a lot while Black Mesa tried to make peace with them."

"No, he saw her recently," Mikey explained. "Like, really recently. Just a few days ago on the street."

Amelia stared at her friend blankly for a moment before asking, "Mikey, what the hell are you talking about? My mom is dead. It had to have been someone else."

"No, he spoke to her!" Mikey insisted. "She told him her name was Leah Oates!"

Amelia now glared at him with tears forming in her eyes. "Is this some dumb way of trying to cheer me up?" she asked in a hard tone. "It's just mean, Mikey. Why would you try to give up my hopes like that?"

"What? Why would I lie about something like this just to make you feel better?" Mikey asked defensively. "I swear I wouldn't do that!"

"Grant told me that she died while trying to get people down to the compound," Amelia said. "Why would Grant lie about something like that? He was one of her closest friends and he was torn up about it. He wasn't lying."

"Maybe Grant thought she was dead but I know what I saw!" Mikey said desperately. He was afraid of the hateful look she was giving him.

"Just stop!" Amelia demanded. "You're being stupid! She's dead! Saying she's alive for the sake of making me feel better is a shitty idea! Just leave me alone!"

She stood from the table and hurried out of the cafeteria. Arin shot Mikey a dirty look before hurrying out after her. Mikey buried his face in his arms on the table as he tried to hold in a sob.

"Hey," Nate said, sitting down across from him. "It's okay. Whatever she's upset about, she'll git over it. You are her best friend after all."

Mikey looked up at him with red watery eyes. "Did she say that?"

"Yeah," Nate said with a sort of guilty smile. "Listen, I shouldn't be tellin' you this, but….Well, she had a crush on you a couple of years ago."

Mikey's face turned red and his heart swelled in his chest. "You're not just saying that to make me feel better, right?" he asked cautiously.

"No, she really did have a crush on you," Nate said. "She wasn't too obvious about it, but I would often catch her staring at you in such a dreamy way. I told her that she had to be the one to make the first move, but she insisted that she didn't want to ruin your friendship."

Mikey's heart was racing now and he smiled at this. "Heh. Wow. I can't believe that."

"Don't tell her I told you," Nate said. "But maybe you should be the one to make the first move now." He winked at Mikey before getting up to return to his seat. He stopped on his way, though, when he spotted the grim expression on Chell's face. He went over to her table and sat across from her. "You okay, Miss?"

Chell looked up at him and gave him an empty smile. "Yeah, I'm okay," she said.

"You've been awfully quiet in here," Nate pointed out. "Something bothering you?"

Chell sighed. "It was just…seeing Doug like that. I didn't know that could happen. It makes me think back to how many times the system could have tried to force me into the mainframe. I wouldn't wish that kind of pain on any living creature, but at the same time, I'm almost glad that it was him and not me. And I feel horrible about that."

"Hey, don't feel horrible about that," Nate said. "It's in our nature to look out for ourselves while also being sympathetic towards other folks. Now, I don't have personal experience with this mainframe thing, but I'm sure Doug will be alright. We'll find a way to disconnect him and he'll be good as new."

"I really hope you're right," Chell murmured. "Doug has been through so much more than I have. I don't want this hellhole to be the place where he lives out the rest of his life."


Doug didn't think to look through the security footage in this chamber until about ten minutes after Mikey had left. He felt so stupid for not thinking of it sooner. He reviewed the footage and saw GLaDOS' head being pried off. It fell to the floor with a heavy, metallic thud. Nora swiped at the kid with the giant claw before she was suddenly pulled off of the mainframe by a different one. The system's voice said something about a Core Rehabilitation Center. Doug had never heard of it before, but he was happy to discover that he could locate it in the facility.

The rest of the footage showed the young man dragging GLaDOS' head out as quickly as he could just before the system tried to connect him with its wires. The wires and cables just missed him as he escaped through a busted panel in the wall. Why would he have taken GLaDOS' head? What had he been planning to do with her?

It wasn't hard to locate the kid. He didn't seem to be too great at hiding out of view of the cameras. Doug could remember peeking into every room and down every hallway in an attempt to memorize where all of the cameras were in the facility. There was a small time lapse where Doug couldn't see the kid or GLaDOS' head at all. When the kid came back into view, GLaDOS' head was nowhere in sight. The kid seemed to have recently taken up residence in the back corner of the Companion Cube department where he could be surrounded by the murals of Nora.

This was fantastic news for Doug. He knew where Nora was and he knew where that kid was. Now he just needed to find GLaDOS to take back control of the facility and he would be golden.