Title: New Father

Rating: T.

Warnings/Pairings: Douglas Rattmann as a single father, Spoilers for Portal/2

Summary: Douglas Rattmann was never cut out to be a parent, but he finds himself thrust into the role when a young girl is orphaned under his watch.

Author's Notes: Hooboy. K-Mart was around in the 50ies/60ies wasn't it? Also: My Wheatley does take cues from Mr. Merchant in a lot of ways – but my uncle and his 3 brothers were all at the high end of the 6-foot to low 7-foot range and you had better believe I, being ungodly short demanded rides from them when I was a kid and it was AWESOME. Unfortunately, it's undignified for people my present age to ask to sit on anyone's shoulders.

Chapter 2

Rattmann left Chell lying on the couch, tucking the blanket around her as she slept. He wrote a note to say that he'd gone to the store. Normally even someone of his limited interaction experience would have realized that it was potentially a bad idea to leave a young child unattended. Chell on the other hand, during the short time she'd been under his care had his full confidence.

As it turned out almost the only store suited to his purposes happened to be a K-mart. He felt odd buying little girl's underclothes but the cashier didn't seem to care. He purchased a number of items that looked like they would fit her unimaginably tiny frame not even realizing that he was mentally considering the idea of her growing into some. Then it was off to the 24 hour convenience store for some cereal and milk. He bought some orange juice as well and picked over the women's section of the magazine rack for any that talked about recipes. He knew he had to learn how to cook at some point; he couldn't consistently rely on take out and staples.

She was awake when he got back, eating a piece of toast. His immediate reaction was one of concern. When had he last bought bread?

"You don't want that Chell, it's stale...wait." The situation caught up with his brain "You managed to get the toaster not to burn everything? That's pretty amazing. I've got a degree in science and I couldn't even do that!"

She gave him a funny look, gestured to the scraped off bread mold and cut crusts sitting on the counter and shrugged again.

"Really." he repeated, digging in the fridge until he found a tiny jar of ages-old marmalade and presenting it to her. She dug out a glob and ate it on her last bite all in a go. If nothing else she was a typical child in the fact that she really did seem to like sugar.

After a moment the queer expression turned into a real smile. He guessed her parents hadn't been the sorts of folks to dole out a lot of praise.

"Well here. Have some proper breakfast and uh, you'll have to come into work again with me today. I bought you clothes." He frowned and hurriedly pulled out a pair of scissors to chop off the tags.

She took them with another smile and went to go about her morning routine without any further prompt from him. Doug took a seat at the table with his coffee, staring into the granules a long time before he realized he'd forgotten to add the water. What was he going to do with her? Aperture had a day care but that was for toddlers. Not even the smartest kids there were appropriate for Chell. He considered. Maybe one of the test subjects on staff?

Chell looked nicer today and she seemed happier as well. He got a hand-squeeze for his trouble that seemed to be a positive statement on his clothing choice. Once more, she was intent on petting his car, a ritual repeated from the other night when he took her into the car park this morning. He wondered if she might have grown up with animals. She was delighted by his Johnny Cash tape when he put it on the radio.

Upon arrival at work the test subjects were waiting, and Rattmann couldn't help but swallow a lump in his throat. He always dreaded this first part of the morning, muscles straining until he could escape to his small office. Now he had the added bonus of realizing he'd have to find one of them to take Chell for the afternoon, but which? Stanley Howard pumped full of all those hormones for 'emotional' purposes was straight out of the question. Feather Moon the 'fact finder' would probably breathe marijuana smoke on his Chell.

Since when had she become 'his' Chell? Logically, at 15:35 yesterday afternoon. Emotionally, well…he had to focus.

The idea struck him as he thought of families. That was an idea: a babysitter. That's what parents did, wasn't it? One or two of these test subjects were intern students who would jump at the chance for some extra cash. Just as he was trying to decide between the inquisitive Milicent Everclear and their Conversion Gel Project intern Leslie Nolan, he received a soft touch on his arm.

He looked down to see Pricilla Marsden and froze. He'd been fascinated by her from day one but she was his test subject and therefore off limits. Doug Rattmann wasn't a teenager and he had no qualms (well, perhaps a few) about what her fate would be, but he was old and wise enough to push them aside for Science. Besides. She had to remain pure. Moral. Nonetheless, he couldn't help the thrill that traveled up his arm when she touched it. She pointed over at Chell who was making soundless 'whoops' of excitement from her perch atop…Wheatley. That damn Wheatley Harris. First Pricilla Marsden and now his Chell? What was it about that bloody Harris fellow? He did the only thing that Douglas Rattman knew how to do in such a situation. He scribbled a note that Wheatley would not be testing today and would instead be playing babysitter, mumbled the day's instructions to the rest of the subjects and scurried off as fast as his legs would take him while refusing to acknowledge the world around him until he was safely in his den.

He'd been a scientist this long. He'd maintained his detachment from the world around him this long. How was it that he could not even concern himself with the fate of a woman he found himself attracted to, but his heart was ripped from his body when he thought of Chell even so much as excited to be around someone else more than him?

Chell was fascinated by the tall man. She went to inspect him, looking up – very far up. She backed up so she could look at his eyes. They were tired too, just like the man who had taken her home. Like a lot of people here.

He glanced down at her. He wasn't like the man who took her home. He wasn't nervous. He was hoping she would talk and she sort of wanted to. He bent down and asked her if she wanted to get onto his shoulders.

Chell furrowed her brow. That sounded strange but he scooped her up without warning and placed her atop his shoulders where she immediately clutched tufts of his hair.

"Now Luv, ol' Wheatley quite likes his hair where it is, yes, please stop pulling it out, there's a good girl."

She tentatively let go, as his hands wrapped around her legs and she hung on for dear life to his now accessible forearms. He walked forward suddenly and she gasped in delight. This wasn't scary, it was FUN!

He looked down below to the violet-eyed woman at his side. "Well there you have it then, just goes to show. Bloody Rattmann as a dad. Always had him figured for an unlovable git."

Chell scowled and yanked at his hair again, eliciting a yelp. She smiled, satisfied. The woman chuckled a bit. "I think our little friend thinks he's a fine dad."

Wheatley patted her leg. "Oh, always liked the Rat…mean always did like Rattmann. Douglas, yes that's it. Always did like Doug. Lovely man. Perfectly wonderful. Model of…testing…science."

"That'll do, Wheatley."

Chell pat the soft hair this time as a reward for saying nice things about her father.