A/N

YOU GUYS DON'T KNOW HOW SORRY I AM FOR THE CODE AND FOR ME HAVING TO RE UPLOAD I AM EXTREMELY SORRY ABOUT IT.

Gladys sat heavily at her desk, sighing. Today was Friday, and she got weekends off. As she was anticipating the end of the day so she could finally leave, the day felt longer than ever, and Gladys was checking the clock in her office constantly. Every minute felt like an hour.

She had a meeting today, and she was completely ready. Gladys got access to all the things that the others were doing, and things that she didn't even know they were excluding her from. She paid close attention to what they'd done, and how she would fix the idiotic mistakes they'd made. Honestly, if they were intelligent enough to make it onto this project, you'd think they could be smarter than a third grader.

Gladys glanced at the clock and realized that it was time to head to the meeting room. She gathered her supplies, got up from her desk, and headed to her destination.

When she approached the room, she noticed Caroline standing in front of the door, who focused her attention to Gladys as soon as she saw her.

Caroline smiled. "Good luck."

Gladys walked into the room and noticed she was three minutes early, and there weren't many people in the room. She pulled her papers out and began to look over them. She smirked to herself. They better not be expecting me to be a complete failure. I can't wait to see the looks on their faces when they realize that I'm not a moron. She thought.

"Oh! 'Allo!" A familiar brit yelled. Gladys looked up to see Wheatley, and smiled. "Can I sit here? Is, is that okay?"

"No. You cannot sit there. That seat is preserved for anyone but you, because they all hate me, so I must sit with them. Obviously." He looked disappointed, and began to turn around to leave. She poked him lightly in the back. "That was sarcasm. Yes, you can sit there." She said, smiling. His face instantly lit up, and he quickly made his spot there. Suddenly the rest of the people filed in, all at once. When they saw her, the conversations almost seemed to stop all at once. She waved unenthusiastically at them.

As the meeting started, Gladys felt a familiar happiness again. She felt it mostly when she was doing science, and she could tell that they were going to be very stumped, very soon. It was almost her time to show off. Then she looked over and saw Wheatley looking bored and confused.

"Hey, Wheatley." She leaned and whispered. He jumped a little bit, then gave his full attention towards her. "Here, you go up there. I know how to fix that problem. Just look at these and try to remember what to fix. I'll help you out if you get stuck." Wheatley looked surprised, but wasn't about to decline the offer. He quickly nodded and slid the papers towards himself. After taking a quick look at them, he raised his hand, and snickers came across the room.

"Uh, I think that, I um, know how to fix the problem that we're having, I think."

"Wheatley, are you sure?" The head of the project asked. Obviously, everyone in the room found it amusing that he thought he could even process it, let alone figure it out.

"Yup! I'm uh, pretty confident, if I may say so myself." He got up, and headed towards the whiteboard. Whenever he'd get stuck, Gladys would quickly write something on a paper and hold it up, so he could see it. Everyone's attention was on Wheatley, and they were sitting in the back, so it was pretty easy to get away with. This was strange to Gladys. She'd never thought of helping out anyone like this before, and didn't think she'd get any satisfaction out of it. It made her a little bit happy on the inside, and she didn't understand why. She had never felt this way before and didn't know how to react, and she didn't like that.

After Wheatley finished, he stood tall and proud, while everyone was in a shocked silence. He looked at Gladys and smiled awkwardly, and she just had to smile back. I hope he knows how silly he looks. He walked over to her, and since there wasn't anything to look over for the day, the meeting was over.

"Hey! Thanks for that!" He said as soon as she got up. "What'd you do that for?"

"I don't know. But you did great."

"No, no, you're the one who actually did the work."

"No," She said, narrowing her eyes and poking a finger into his chest. "You did great. You got up there and did it, so therefore you did great."

"Okay!" He said, holding his hands up in surrender. Gladys immediately laughed. "So, lunch? We're meeting Caroline, right?" She nodded. "Good, lets go!"

As they made their way towards the lunchroom, Wheatley decided to made conversation. "So, Gladys, how has your day been?"

"Pretty good. I don't think anyone made fun of me. To me of course." Wheatley grimaced and put his hands on his hips.

"No, come on, really, how was your day? Tell me everything. All the stuff you've done, all good things, all the bad, just everything. How've you been, luv?" Gladys stopped in her tracks.

"What was that."

"Hm?"

"That word you called me. 'luv'."

Wheatley blushed. "Oh, um, sorry. It's just a sort of thing that comes from being British. I got it from Bristol, to be specific. Since that's where I come from. Bristol in good old Great Britain. I can, uh, stop it, if you'd like. I should remember by now Americans don't like that."

"No! No. It's okay. I'm okay with that." Gladys immediately realized how frantic she sounded, and tried to straighten her voice out. "If you so desire."

"So," He said, not even noticing the changes in her voice. "About your day. What's happened?"

"Do you really want to know?" Gladys asked, and Wheatley eagerly nodded. "If you say so. Today, I came into work. Then I got weird glances from others, to be expected, then I walked into my office. I looked over the papers that I prepared, then started the papers that were left on my desk for me to fill out. It was boring. Then I went to a meeting. You probably know the rest."

"Aw that was boring, luv!" He exclaimed, clearly already comfortable with using 'luv' again. "Tell me all the details, I said! Everything! You just did the little bit of it."

"I did tell you."

"No, you said words. Do you need help?"

"Don't suggest something as stupid as-"

"That's a yes. How did you feel when you walked in." She sighed.

"Superior."

"That's… That's a start. Why?" He had a worried expression on his face, like he didn't expect that answer.

"Because I was looking down at them and they decided to make fun of me with their eyes. That was a metaphor. If you couldn't tell. But they just looked dumb and I felt tall and better." Gladys said what she truly felt at the time, and was trying to be completely honest with him.

"Um, okay, moving onto the next thing, which was… Ah, looking over papers. How'd you feel about that?"

"Happy. I was going to laugh at their stupid little faces when they realized that I had access to files they restricted. It wasn't hard. I probably could've done it without a brain. Do you know what the password was? 'portalgun'. Seriously now, what is the point of asking all of these questions?"

"So you can get all of your emotions out. I think that helps people when they're stressed. I think. How did you feel about filling out paperwork?" 'This is good,' Wheatley thought. 'She's finally talking about herself, since she seems to not even care about what she feels most of the time.'

"It was dumb. Boring. I felt like I was being used as a secretary, and not treated to fit my rank."

"That sounds really boring. Like you said. How did you feel about the meeting?" Gladys instantly tensed up. 'I don't know what to say.'

"I felt like it was a meeting."

"What's that supposed to mean, luv?"

"It means that I felt like I was in a meeting. Which I was, by the way."

"But-" He started.

"Oh, look, we're here." Wheatley slumped a little bit, but walked towards their table with Gladys.

"Hey! How's your day?" Caroline asked as they both sat down. Wheatley just laughed.

"Already tried that, sorry." She just gave them a weird look, but decided not to press, and to just change the subject.

"So how was the meeting? Did you guys do good? Was anything figured out? I want to know everything that happened."

"Oh you wouldn't believe it!" Wheatley yelled. He instantly quieted his voice once everyone else in the break room stared at them. "Gladys let me go up there and say her notes and sound smart. She's pretty good at doing that sort of stuff. Science, I mean. Now everyone thinks i'm less of a moron than before. Everyone looked pretty shocked."

"Oh, that is an understatement. I wish you could've seen the looks on their faces, Caroline. They looked so… Idiotic." Gladys purposely avoided the use of the word 'moron' around Wheatley. She was smart enough to know he was sensitive to the word, and didn't want to upset him. She didn't quite know why.

"Sounds exciting. I wish I was there. But happy Friday!" Caroline shouted.

"Oh, are Fridays holidays now? I wasn't aware. How can we celebrate?" Gladys said, with a flat tone, although she had a small smile. She couldn't help it, Caroline was just really good at brightening her day.

"Yup! And I've got just the thing." Caroline grabbed a stray piece of paper from the floor and rolled it into a cone. She plucked a pen from Wheatley's coat and drew little circles onto it, then plopped it straight onto Gladys' head. She did not look amused.

"What is this, and why is it on my head."

"It's a party hat! For Friday." Gladys crumpled it up flicked it at Caroline. Wheatley and Caroline laughed.

"Anything exciting happen?" Wheatley asked Caroline, as soon as the laughing died down.

"I got to listen to Cave ranting, if that counts. Today was actually pretty slow. I've got a lot to do for the rest of the day, though. I hate weekend paperwork."

"I'm staying to help you, so you won't have to worry." Gladys said.

"You could've left before lunch, but now you're going to waste your time helping me? I don't need help, Gladys. It's fine."

"No. I'm helping. It's not like I have anything to do."

"Don't you want to go out and have fun? Don't you have anyone to go out with?" Gladys was quiet for a moment.

"I'm helping you. That's final."

After lunch, they said goodbye to Wheatley, and started on Caroline's papers.

"You're pretty good at filling out papers. When'd this happen?"

"Well, it happened the day that I could understand how to write" Caroline laughed. "I had to fill out papers similar to these all week. I don't know what the purpose of these are, really, if I had already fill the other ones." Caroline looked shocked.

"Gladys!" She yelled, getting Gladys to look at her. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Why would I? I can't think of anything that would come out of it."

"I could've made sure you do, uh, science-y stuff."

"Science-y stuff?"

"Scientists don't just fill out papers, Gladys, they do science. I know you love science, so why would they make you do papers instead? That's stupid. I should go down there right now and make you do science."

"No, it's okay. I'll figure something out."

"Good. You're not here to be a backup secretary. Not if I can help it." Caroline's face was deep red. Why was she so angry? Nobody should care about me that much. That's dumb.

It was silent for a few minutes, except for shuffling of papers. Caroline finally spoke.

"Why don't you have anyone to go and have fun with? Is everyone you know busy?" Gladys was quiet. "Gladys?"

"I don't have anyone. To 'go and have fun with', I mean."

"Not even parents or anything?" She asked.

"I don't know them. They decided I wasn't good enough." When she looked up a few seconds later, she realized that Caroline was right in front of her.

"Gladys. Your parents are awful. They aren't good enough for you." She said, poking her nose.

"Well thanks, Caroline, when you put it that way, I feel much better." Gladys said sarcastically.

"Everyone needs at least someone to have a little fun with, to talk to, to consider a friend. And I will be more than happy to be that person. I'm serious, Gladys. You mean something to me." Gladys just stared at her.

"You're not being funny Caroline." She said after yet another moment of silence. "This is a cruel joke. And I don't like it."

"No, Gladys! Listen to me! I don't think that you're a bad person. And whatever makes you think that I would try to hurt you like that, you need to believe me instead." Gladys was surprised by how frantic Caroline sounded. She looked down.

"I just never considered that there were people who won't try to hurt me."

I can't even imagine that. Me and Wheatley can be the people who won't try to hurt you." Gladys considered this for a moment.

"Promise?" Caroline smiled.

"Promise."

AUTHORS NOTE

I am so sorry about the code thing that happened! I'm not quite sure how it happened, because that didn't show up for me before I published it. I'll try to check it more to make sure that it doesn't happen again. I'm a little embarassed ;-;

As for the story, Gladys is sort of scared of her emotions, because she hasn't experienced happiness from helping others. She really hasn't helped others with out being forced to, so it's really weird for her. She doesn't know how to feel about her emotions, so she hides them and doesn't even like to think about them. That's also a big reason she refused to open up about the meeting with Wheatley, because she doesn't really know what they are. Also, as for the little outburst with Caroline, she still has a little bit of distrust with them. She's truly never had anyone who hasn't wanted something from her, so she suspects that they are the same way. This will be explained a little bit more next chapter with Little Gladys! (Yay!)

Wheatley tries to get Gladys to open up for three reasons: 1. He's grateful for the meeting and wants to help her out. 2. He sees that she's stressed, even if she herself doesn't notice straight away. 3. He really wants to help her because she hasn't been mean towards him and he already considers her a friend.

Caroline cares about Gladys because so far, she's one of the only actual friends she's had for a long time, because she's so invested in Aperture. Even the secretaries dislike her because she is a higher rank secretary, so she doesn't really fit in. Her and Gladys are in the same sort of position, so she tries to help her. She feels bad for Gladys and refuses to let her feel bad about herself.

I hope you enjoyed, and a review would be greatly appreciated! (I'm still sorry about the code, I'll try to make sure it doesn't happen again.)