Gladys walked into Aperture for her second day of work. As she made her way to her office, she made sure to glare at Greg, menacingly. He shrunk back into his chair and looked back at his screen.

Gladys opened the door to her office and sat down at her desk. Yesterday, she had been told by one of the various secretaries that when she came into work everyday that she would sit at her desk and check for any orders, unless she had been instructed otherwise. Her desk had a computer, drawers for filing, and a plaque that had her name on it. She noticed that it was a little bit cheaper than all of the other scientists', but maybe she just thought that.

Gladys quickly checked her emails and looked for any sign of orders on her desk. When she saw nothing, she moved on to looking over her notes from yesterday. As she opened her notes, she looked at a perfect replica of the what was on the whiteboard yesterday. She continued to edit the long string of numbers listlessly as she thought about yesterday.

Why had everyone been so rude? Honestly, they couldn't possibly think that I was bad at science. Seriously now. Had they even paid attention to what I did? She was still receiving odd glances from the others, even after she'd proven herself. She just couldn't get these thoughts off of her mind.

Gladys picked her head up and looked at the door as she heard a knock. Caroline walked in the office, closing the door behind her. She sighed and pushed a hair from her face.

"So Gladys, how's work going?" She said, sounding completely comfortable around her.

"It's perfectly perfect, in every single way!" She exclaimed with mock enthusiasm. They both broke into a fit of laughter.

"So Caroline, how's work going?" Gladys repeated back to Caroline. Although she had a joking tone, she was completely serious. To be honest, she looked like she had just crawled out of the abyss. Caroline noticed the look of concern on Gladys' face, and decided she might as well tell her what was on her mind.

"Actually, it's been a pretty good start today. I haven't had that much work to do." Caroline said. Gladys was shocked that she could actually say something like that.

"Why would you say something like that?" Gladys said, saying exactly what was on her mind. "It's obvious that you're overworked. Sit." She got up from her chair and gestured towards it.

"No, Gladys, it's okay I-"

She narrowed her eyes. "No, Caroline. Sit." She said, a bit more forcefully.

Caroline gave up instant and sat down on the chair heavily. "You're quite the charmer."

"I try." She replied. "So anyways, tell me. Seriously."

Caroline took a deep breath. "Okay, so I went to my cubicle and sat down and noticed that there was a sheet of paper on my desk. I immediately got up because I knew that mean that I was needed somewhere. It said 'please report to my office' and was signed by Cave. I knew that it was written by someone else, because he would not be that formal and he is normally not very active the first half hour of my shift. Maybe it was written by a secretary. I don't know. So I went there and he told me that I needed to pick up a file from another worker, but didn't tell me what it was. So I went to that worker and he told me that he had lent it to another employee so that he could take a look over it. So then I went to that worker, and the same thing happened. I ended up having to go to eight different employees until I ended up at the one I started with. He pulled out the file that I needed and said 'oops, I made a mistake, I had it all along'. Everyone in the office tried not to laugh and he had a little smirk on his face. I knew that his story was a complete lie. He should just go and-" Caroline stopped herself. "Sorry."

"Its fine." Gladys said with a light laugh.

"So," Caroline said, changing the subject. "the reason I came here in the first place was to tell you to come to lunch. I think you forgot to eat yesterday."

"Oh." Gladys replied. "Alright, sure. I don't really have that much to do. I don't think the other employees trust me with much."

"That's so rude. They all know you've 'got twice as much IQ as they've got brain cells, then times eight'" Caroline said, quoting Mr. Johnson. They both laughed.

"Alright, let's go." Gladys announced.

As they both walked into the small, grey room, Caroline waved to a man at the corner table. He waved back. "Who's that?" Gladys asked. She noticed that he was the one who was nice to her at the meeting.

"That's Wheatley. He's one of the only guys who are nice to me here. He's actually quite sweet." She said while they were walking towards him.

"'Allo, luv!" Wheatley said to Caroline as they sat down. He had black, rectangle glasses, bright blue eyes, messy blonde hair, and a british accent. He was fairly scrawny.

"Oh, you're Gladys, the new one, yeah? I saw you yesterday at the meeting. She was brilliant, Caroline!" he exclaimed. "Oh, you should've seen her. She was writing numbers and signs I didn't recognize, and she figured it out the second she sat down! You should've seen the look on ev'ryone's faces!" Gladys blushed.

"You seem to be worshipping me." She said flatly, although the 'indifferent tone' didn't quite work with the face she was pulling.

"I uh, I don't mean to be, um, really weird, if that's what you're hinting at." Gladys just laughed.

"Well thanks for actually being nice to me." she said. "I get the feeling," she leaned in and whispered, "that some people actually don't like me." she joked sarcastically. Caroline laughed, while Wheatley looked genuinely concerned, as if she had something to learn.

As Gladys turned around, she noticed a table full of people staring at them. She had caught on fairly quickly and figured they were staring simply eating. 'Oh, she's having lunch. I wonder why? I thought she would never eat again.' Gladys thought.

"That's you." she muttered. "That's how dumb you sound."

Caroline and Wheatley looked up from their deep conversation of who knows what. "Hm?"

"Nothing."

Now all of them noticed the far table, because they heard the sliding of a chair. The man Gladys remembered as Greg began to walk over.

"I noticed you were in the lunch room." He said, clearly trying to intimidate her.

"Yes, I noticed that too." Gladys said, standing up. She was easily about half of a foot taller than him, and her long, sleek form towered over him. She narrowed her eyes.

"I thought that you weren't going to come here, seeing as you probably can't find your way around your own house." Greg said, with a smirk. Oh. He isn't intimidated. Pity. Gladys thought.

She leaned in towards his face. "I'll have you know that I was lead here, by my friend. You know what those are. Well, no, I'm sorry. You've only got that table of people who want perks." He looked back at his table, as if to say 'Hey, get a load of this girl. Isn't she just ridiculous?', but was only met with the sight of the others looking down, not being able to make eye contact with him. He grunted and sat back down.

Caroline looked at Gladys and smiled, while Wheatley looked terrified. "That was bloody dangerous, y'know that?" He whispered.

"You just have to find out what they're insecure about, then use it against them. It's pretty simple, and if you're good enough at it, it's pretty hard to get in trouble for. What's he going to say? 'I just found out that I don't have real friends and it's all Gladys' fault'?"

"So like… Poking an open wound?"

"Sure, whatever makes you happy." Now Wheatley looked even more scared than before.

"It's okay, moron." Wheatley usually flinched whenever someone called him that, but when Caroline did it, he looked okay. It even seemed he found comfort in it. How strange.

After lunch, Gladys walked back to her office by herself. She had already memorized the path from the way there with Caroline. As she walked down the corridors, she saw Greg in the path ahead of her. Gladys sighed inwardly. When was he going to quit?

"Hey Gladys." He said, trying to calm himself, but failing.

"Hello."

"I know what you did back there, and I hope it never happens again."

"I'm sorry. I'm genuinely confused. Care to explain?"

"I haven't got anything to explain. You will crash and burn, and if you don't, I will make you." Although she looked calm, on the inside she was panicking. What was that supposed to mean?

"Thank you for your input." She said, ignoring her nerves. "It really matters to me. Really. You should think more often." Greg grunted, once again, and walked past her. She didn't know what was going on with the whole 'acceptance and respect' thing, but she knew she didn't like it.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

First of all, I am EXTREMELY sorry for the wait. I had awful writers block, and I'll try to post as soon as I can for each chapter, which will probably be between 1-2 weeks (Sorry). And on top of that, school just started for me so there might be waits like this one again.

As for the actual story, as you've probably noticed, Wheatley was introduced! Personally, I think that if he was a worker at Aperture, he'd let himself be pushed around, or not understand how badly they're treating him.

Gladys is still getting pushed around, but is already changing to protect herself. There will be a backstory to why she does this sort of thing soon, don't worry. She already is pretty comfortable with Caroline and Wheatley because they are kind to her. They haven't given her a reason for her to not trust them, so she trusts them automatically.

The whole Caroline rant was sort of to express the fact that she doesn't have anyone to say her feelings to, because no one listens to her. At first she didn't want to say what was wrong because if she shows emotion, she is taken even less seriously than before. And when she cuts herself off, she's used to nobody caring. It's sort of like when you're really passionate about something, but the person you're talking to could care less. And when that happens enough, it can feel like no one cares. Personally I think that's extremely sad when someone has to apologize for simply expressing their self.

And as for Greg, he's obviously the main antagonist. And if I didn't say this in the previous chapter, this fanfiction is NOT saying that men are pigs and men are all jerks. This takes place in the 80's, so women obviously weren't treated the same. I just needed to clear that up before I attracted an angry crowd. Hope you enjoyed!