Title: New Father

Rating: T.

Warnings/Pairings: Douglas Rattmann as a single father, Wheatley/Morality Core, One-sided Doug/Morality Core, 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: Do I have anything of note to say? Eh, not today. (Rare, I know.)

"Oh hello Douglas. Who is this?"

Doug had never trusted Caroline. She had such a false manner about her all the time. Her voice was so sweet and everyone else thought so highly of her, especially Cave Johnson. Nobody argued with Cave Johnson. It was like arguing with a wall. Neither Cave nor the wall gave a shit about any opinions besides his own. As to Caroline, Douglas thought her repulsive but he was smart enough to keep his opinions to himself. He gently gave his small companion a little shove and she dutifully disappeared into his office.

"Shy."

"Oh well that's rather too bad. You adopted her, didn't you?

"Yes."

"Parents didn't really want her. What a shame." Her voice was genuine but she gave the kind of sad expression that wasn't reflected in her eyes. Everything about Caroline was a lie except maybe her affection for Mr. Johnson.

Caroline strolled off and Douglas felt a surge of hatred for her before he followed his young charge into the office.

He tried to affect a positive attitude. Chell didn't seem perturbed at all by what Caroline had said. She seemed to have a thicker skin than almost any adults he knew.

"So Miss Chell, would you like to spend the day with Mr. Wheatley again?"

She nodded enthusiastically much to his disappointment. He refused to refuse her.

Pricilla Marsden arrived instead of Wheatley when he called. Doug wanted to be furious at her. He knew exactly what she was up to with that moron and considering she answered when he had called HIM, they weren't being subtle about it either. They were both test subjects and he was a scientist and that meant that she was off limits, as he had to remind himself at least a dozen times every day. It didn't stop him from finding a way to brush up against her, or smell her hair or touch her hand…

He gave himself a little mental shake.

"Hello Chell!" Pricilla was rewarded with a hug.

"Could you spend the day with Chell again please? I…"

"I know why you're so uptight Doug. It's okay."

Rattmann froze solid. How had she found out about his feelings for her? He'd been subtle hadn't he?

"It's so awful what happened to that little girl from our test subject group. The little one who was always asking questions. Millie? I know it's got to be terrible for you, but I have faith you'll find her. I don't think there's anyone so cruel as to be able to keep that sweet child hostage." Cilla actually hugged him but Rattmann couldn't enjoy it. He knew exactly where Milicent was. The downstairs lab was over run with a mechanical voice constantly asking questions.

He pulled away from the woman. "I…I need to work. Take Chell."

Cilla was so used to their head scientist not wanting to be around other people for long she didn't question it. Thankfully.

The instant the two had left, Doug sat down in his chair, putting his head in his hands. He was a monster. An utter monster. No matter what kind of good deeds he did he would never be able to make it up. He could try though. Nothing bad would happen to Chell. Never. Not even if he had to die for her.

"Oh hello again Chell!"

Chell watched as Wheatley had to lean down, very far down, to kiss the far smaller Cilla. She realized that her adoptive father really liked Cilla but it was pretty obvious to her that even though sometimes Wheatley said stupid stuff this girl liked him better. That was just the way the world was sometimes. She remembered when her father had once hit her mother and said that Chell was a 'bastard child' and her mother was a 'slut'. They stayed together though.

"Chell, I was thinking about this and I have an idea."

Cilla sounded so serious that both Wheatley and Chell looked up.

"Your Daddy probably hasn't told you because he doesn't want you to be scared, but Cave Johnson – that's your daddy's boss - has organized a 'Bring Your Daughter To Work Day'. I guess you'd be wondering why it's 'Bring Your Daughter To Work' and not 'Bring Your Son' or 'Bring you Child'. Something very scary happened here. A girl who was about eighteen years old went missing one day. She was a test subject, just like Wheatley and myself."

Chell nodded in her own, serious way. Obviously Wheatley and Cilla were shaken up about it.

"How about if Wheatley and I were to help you make a project for the Science Fair Competition. I bet your Dad would be really happy if you helped out."

Chell nodded.

Wheatley groaned. "Oh no, the only things I can do are potato batteries…and even then I wasn't very good at them."

Chell smiled and put her hand on his leg – that was as far up as she could reach. If it would make Doug happy, she would do anything…and if all it took was a potato battery? That was simple.

Making the battery was simple, but Wheatley pointed out they needed a big poster board to write down hypothesizes and results.

Chell knew that Doug had all sorts of paper and posterboard and markers in his office and before either of her two guardians could stop her she'd taken off.

She soon outstripped her caretakers – Cilla wasn't the most athletic woman and Wheatley's sense of direction was abominable. She arrived in the office and pulled up as she watched her father. He hadn't heard her come in, but he wasn't working like she normally found him. He'd moved the huge file cabinet away from the wall and was drawing on the expanse of wall just behind it.

Once, Chell's mother had sent her to her room without supper for that so Chell could understand why he wanted to hide it. It was better art than she could do and she quietly sat herself down and watched.

There were a lot of various sketches, but she focused on what he was presently working at. It was something very sad. There was a small ball with an orange center, kind of like a glowing eye. Then there were also the people. One woman, crossed out, Two men and a woman crying and also another man she didn't know. She eventually recognized that two of the men were Doug himself and Wheatley and that the woman looked a lot like Cilla. It didn't take too long for her to realize that must be the serious thing she'd been told about.

Rattmann suddenly turned around, dropped his marker and stared for a long time at Chell as always unsure how to react.

She hugged him, her small arms around his waist and her face burrowed into his middle.

He hadn't known it was possible to feel more remorse than he already did.

"You know." He said, feeling his stomach drop out from under him.

She nodded and squeezed him tighter.

He knew he didn't deserve it at all, and he was about to do worse. There were still seven more cores to make, after all. He knew he was being selfish – unduly so – by hugging her back but at this point, anything went.