When Chell woke up, it was dark. There were no windows in the infirmary—or, as far as she could tell, anywhere else in Aperture—and all the lights were turned off.

"Hello?" she called. When she received no answer, she struggled to pull herself into a sitting position. "Wheatley?" Upon managing it, she found that not only could she not see any better, but now she was stuck too. "Anyone…?"

"Oh good, you're awake," GLaDOS said through the intercom, startling Chell into falling backwards on the bed. Great.

"Yeah, I'm awake," she said. "Can you turn on the lights?"

GLaDOS made a long "hmmmmmm" noise like she was thinking about it, then said, "No, I'm afraid I can't. I'm very sorry." She still sounded delighted, and Chell wondered why she was still enjoying torturing her so much. Surely even murder didn't deserve all this, but then again, GLaDOS had healed her, and she had let her go. "But I'd be happy to allow the Intelligence Dampening Sphere to turn them on for you."

"NO," Chell said. "I just got up. Can't you let me have just a few minutes of peace?"

"No," GLaDOS replied. "That would defeat the purpose of allowing you a companion. And I am sure that you would not prefer to be left in the dark…all alone…by yourself." Chell groaned, and GLaDOS continued, sounding more cheerful with each word. "However, what you may have is a few seconds of peace. Three, to be exact. Beginning…now."

"Oh, come on—" Chell began to protest.

"—And ending…now," GLaDOS interrupted. The intercom clicked off, and a circular blue light in the corner against the opposite wall lit up and immediately began babbling.

"—and it's fitting because you're quite lovely too, and, blimey! It's DARK in here! When did that happen? Because I'm sure it wasn't dark just a moment ago—"

"Just turn on the light," Chell groaned. "Please."

"Right! Of course." There was a brief pause, the sound of Wheatley moving along his management rail, and no light. "Right. Uh, well, slight problem with that. See, I'm on my management rail, up here, and the mechanism to turn the lights on is near the floor, down there. However, if I were to detach myself from my management rail, I could probably—"

"Aperture Science wishes to take this moment to remind all mechanical personnel that if they detach themselves from their management rails, they will die unpleasant deaths," GLaDOS's voice interrupted through the intercom, sounding as sweet as ever. "And it will hurt."

"—die. I could probably die. So you see, then, why I wouldn't be able to do that, don't you?"

"I wouldn't be able to move you over there anyway," Chell told him. "Do you have any idea how heavy you are?"

"If that's a fat joke," Wheatley said, his voice adopting a hurt tone, "then I suppose I deserve it, but it's still not nice, and I'm not fat. And I've never called—oh, no, I have, but I did apologize for that, so—oh, no, what I apologized for was trying to kill you, so I'm also sorry I called you a fatty. And an adopted fatty. And a—"

"I get it," Chell interrupted. "And it wasn't a fat joke. You're made of metal and I can barely sit up. But there's a light switch almost right behind you. Can you just flip it up?"

"Can't," Wheatley said. "I know you can't see right now, but I haven't got any fingers, remember?"

"Just hit it with one of your handles."

There was a small scuffling sound as he apparently tried to do as she had instructed, and then there was a loud CLONK—the sound of metal slamming into metal.

"OW!" Wheatley cried, zooming backwards—all the way into the other wall. "Ow again! Bloody hell!"

Chell groaned, closing her eyes. This could take forever. "Can't you just turn on that flashlight of yours?"

"What are you, crazy? I'm already in extreme pain!" Wheatley cried. "I don't need to DIE too!"

"You already know you won't die if you turn it on," Chell elaborated, trying to remain calm. "For that matter, you also know you won't die if you detach yourself from your management rail. I'm getting sick of the dark, so turn the damn thing ON already!"

Just then, the intercom clicked on. "Aperture Science wishes to take this moment to inform all mechanical personnel that only a moron would believe that turning on a flashlight could kill him."

"I am NOT a moron!" Wheatley yelled. He flicked his flashlight on, shining it directly in Chell's eyes, who winced and turned her head away. "Stand back! I'm going to detach myself from my management rail too!"

"—And only morons detach themselves from their management rails," GLaDOS continued. "So don't do it."

"All right, well, never mind about that," Wheatley said, calming down. "But you can see now, can't you?"

"Not with your flashlight BLINDING me," Chell grumbled. Turning her head hadn't helped as much as she had hoped it would.

"Oh! Sorry," Wheatley said. He turned off the light, and the room was plunged into darkness again. Chell groaned.

"Look, turn it on, but point it AWAY from me. Like off to the side."

He spun to the side and flicked his light back on. Chell smiled as most of the room was illuminated. "Perfect. Thanks."

"So!" he said after a moment of silence. "Um. So. You haven't been here for a while. Right? Because if you have, I haven't seen you, and I've been all OVER this bloody place, so I think that I would have."

"No," Chell said. "She let me go, so I left. Made my way to a town with my Companion Cube. Found some friends, got a job, got a house, got sick, came here."

"How'd you find your way back here, anyway?" Wheatley asked. "I mean, it's pretty well hidden, isn't it?"

"She gave me directions."

Wheatley didn't reply, and Chell was amazed that she'd actually managed to stun him into silence. "What?"

"Why?" he asked. "Why did She give you directions? She certainly didn't care about you when She was busy trying to kill you."

"Why did she bring you back from space?" Chell countered. "She certainly didn't care about you when she was busy plotting different ways to kill you. I'm not sure. I think it has something to do with Caroline."

"Caroline?" Wheatley asked.

"Some woman," Chell said. "She was a part of her. Until she deleted her, or, well, until she told me she did."

The intercom clicked on again. "Aperture Science would like to take this time to inform all patients that Caroline has indeed been deleted. We also wish to remind you that we do not lie, except when it is part of a required test protocol, and further insinuations that we do will result in a deadly neurotoxin being released in the infirmary. That is all."

"Well, that was odd!" Wheatley said, sounding shocked. "D'you know something? I'm starting to get the feeling She's watching us."

Chell rolled her eyes, and addressed her next words to the intercom. "Even he can tell. Are you even trying to be subtle anymore?" There was no response, so she added, "And you're bluffing about the neurotoxin."

Once again, the intercom clicked on. "Due to further insinuations, a deadly neurotoxin is now being released in the infirmary. We are sorry you could not be healed, and have a pleasant day."

There was a hissing noise, and Wheatley shone his flashlight around to reveal a green gas being released from the floor.

"Chell!" he cried. "We have to get you out of here!"

"Aperture Science wishes to take this moment to inform all mechanical personnel that attempts to save the insinuator will result in your own death."

"…Or not!" he said. "But understand that I would like to, I really would, but you understand why I can't, don't you? I'm sorry!"

Chell groaned. He was so useless when he got scared. "GLaDOS!" she said. "Come on, we both know you didn't bring me here and go to all the trouble of healing me just to kill me now!"

There was a pause, and then, "To survive, all you must do is apologize for insinuating."

"Yeah, well, you apologize for eavesdropping!" Chell fired back.

"You have twenty seconds."

With effort, Chell crossed her arms and glared at the intercom. She said nothing.

"Chell!" Wheatley yelled. "Look, I'm sorry, all right? I'm sorry for her!"

"Ten seconds."

"Chell!"

Chell began to cough. It was getting harder and harder for her to breathe.

"Five seconds…four seconds…three seconds…"

Wheatley looked back and forth from the intercom to the woman, feeling helpless.

"Two seconds…one second…"

All of a sudden, the gas stopped hissing and several vents opened all around the infirmary, sucking the neurotoxin in and pumping oxygen out. Although still coughing, Chell took a large breath of fresh air and closed her eyes in relief. It had been a gamble, and she had won.

"…What?" Wheatley asked, staring at Chell. He had squeezed his optic shut for the final second, and was now confused about what was happening. "Shouldn't you be dead? Not that I'm disappointed or anything like that! Because I'm not. But…what?"

"Due to insufficient neurotoxin levels," came GLaDOS's voice, "we were unable to eliminate the insinuator. The neurotoxin already released is being pumped back so that we may reuse it later."

Chell grinned through her coughs. Yeah. That's what I thought. She had a pretty good grasp on how "deadly neurotoxin" worked after researching it extensively for a few months, and she knew that if GLaDOS had left it in the room, sooner rather than later she would have inhaled enough of it for it to kill her. That could only mean one thing.

Caroline was still alive.

[A/N: Thanks again for all the reviews! I really appreciate it. :'D]