"Orange, I think you should know that you're doing a wonderful job. And that Blue is planning to throw you into that pool of water over there. Just a bit of-"
A splash echoed throughout the chamber as the shorter robot struggled to stay above the surface. It failed, and sank into the depths before appearing again through a vital apparatus vent. It confronted its taller, laughing counterpart, and a portal feud ensued.
GLaDOS shook her head, and pulled the floor from underneath them, dropping them both into the water.
"Stop fooling around before I disassemble you." She threatened.
The robots reappeared in the chamber, and looked at each other before shrugging it off to finish their initiative.
The A.I. turned her attention away from them, feeling much like an unfortunate mother or babysitter. She had taken a break from Caroline's memories in order to keep up with the facilities scheduled maintenance. Not to mention, the two test androids were starting to rush through the chambers. She needed to find ways to slow them down while she rearranged the next tests to harder difficulties.
While doing so, the thought of little Caroline making puzzle after puzzle in her office overtook her. The woman had actually found the task fun. Oddly enough, the more GLaDOS thought about it, the more she understood why the human had taken joy in it. But GLaDOS was designed to test, it was her specialty. She didn't even have to think about how to make one, she just did it. There was no sense of self-gratification from that.
She hurried through the maintenance, and soon the whole laboratory was in top condition. However, this did not keep her from slowing down her test bots a bit more by seeing how they would perform in pitch black darkness. Ultimately, it gave her some time to get back to her main activity, one she was determined to finish.
Caroline was pulling her in with a little less force each time, and it may have been because of that determination GLaDOS harbored. She saw it as a means of cleaning through her files, deleting anything she saw unfit to be remembered.
So far, nothing had been erased from the files.
She ran through her former life as a secretary, watching the growing bond between Cave and Caroline. Cave wasn't getting any younger, but his demeanor always had that juvenile, bullet-proof sense of gusto Caroline admired. The girl on the other hand was a bit of a walking contradiction. By no means would she let people push her around, yet it was hard to stand her ground when she cared so deeply for the people around her. She couldn't take charge because she never envisioned herself as authority; she only catered to it.
Cave saw through her acts, though. Whenever he was in a good enough mood he'd cook up a spiel about how people were going to take advantage of her if she didn't start acting like the associate of Cave Johnson. Sometimes he'd try to get her to stand up to him, but she found it extremely hard to even raise her voice to the man. She supposed it was because she respected him too much.
On the bright side, she had gotten to the point where she could almost tell everything her boss was thinking. It was pretty easy, actually, since he only showed a good few emotions to the general public. Anything that included sentimental thinking was strictly kept in his office, and shown only to Caroline. For that, she was quite honored.
One such example was when the company was going through a number of lawsuits. Probably one of the best examples seeing as they gave GLaDOS some of the more vivid images in the set.
Caroline was placed at her desk, signing papers and listening to music on her radio. At this point Johnson was pretty busy with Aperture's success, and was spending less time in his office. The radio kept her company, even if it did only get one station with about one or two songs. She sang along with them anyway.
The girl sighed and stretched her arms, it had been a long morning. Her plan was to go down for some sort of breakfast so she had enough energy to read all the fine print on that days mail.
No sooner had she started getting it out when Mr. Johnson walked in. He walked over to Caroline, and greeted her with an enthusiastic slap on the back. He then took a glance at the mail in her hand.
The woman had been too distracted by Johnson's appearance to notice the letter in her hand from the U.S. Senate, reading that it was urgent material.
Caroline forgot all about her breakfast as Cave took it from her hand. He tore it open, and began reading. The room seemed to go cold, and she swore she could hear both of their heartbeats speed up.
For the next few minutes all that could be heard was a plethora of foul words, followed by mentions of how there was no such thing as safe science, and a few mutterings of Black Mesa.
Caroline remained calm throughout all of it before closing her eyes and saying "Sir, you need to sit down."
"I'll sit down when I'm damn ready!"
It was like talking to a child. She got up and put both of her hands on Cave's shoulders, holding them firmly but gently. Staring straight into his eyes, she spoke again. "Sir, listen to me. You need to sit down. This isn't good for your blood pressure."
He stammered a few times before nodding his head, and taking a seat in her chair. He buried his face in his hands, repeatedly saying that this couldn't be happening.
Then he slammed his fist down on the table, and began swearing again. It was actually a very hard sight for Caroline to watch, it had to be something big to get Johnson as riled up as he was.
Her hands returned to his shoulders, and she hesitantly began massaging them to calm him down. It was an act she had done only once before, but it seemed to have worked then.
Finally, Johnson let out a long sigh, and held his head with only one hand now. Caroline continued her massage, smiling a bit out of pride for herself ,and how Johnson was beginning to get a grip on the situation.
"What are you going to do now, sir?" She said softly, keeping a relaxed tone between the two.
He looked up at her with a crooked smile, "Get me the best attorney you can find! We're going to court!"
She smiled back, and picked up the telephone.
Eager to see the outcome, GLaDOS fast-forwarded through the memories until she saw Caroline and Johnson standing outside the supreme court building in Washington D.C.
"Are you sure you'll be alright, sir?" She asked, a horrible feeling rising in the pit of her stomach. She wasn't allowed to go into the hearing, it was only going to be Cave and his attorney. Caroline prayed that the lawyer she got would be good enough to win a loosing battle.
"Don't you worry your pretty little head, Caroline. I've got this under control. Going to show those government leeches that Aperture Science has done nothing wrong."
The feeling was starting to rise up in the woman's body. "Good luck." she said, trying to muster up a sincere smile.
She waited outside for about an hour, occasionally hearing Johnson's voice boom from the court room. When he reappeared again, his face was as red as a beet, and sweat was visible running down his neck.
His anger was completely evident, and from that alone Caroline knew they had lost the case. Promptly, she took a handkerchief from out her purse, and wiped away his perspiration.
Johnson remained speechless for the next three days.
GLaDOS followed suit, and stayed silent for the next three hours due to pure rage.
A/N: Wow, these chapters just keep getting longer and longer. This was actually a really hard one for me to write out. I couldn't think of another semi-light moment for Caroline, and I needed at least one more before I got to the darker stuff (which starts in the next chapter, so get ready!) Then this whole scene popped into my head while playing through Portal 2 again, and well, there ya go. (I love making GLaDOS pick on ATLAS and P-BODY. The poor things. XD) As always, reviews are greatly appreciated!