AN: *Long but important author's note* I'm now letting you guys know that this is going to have future Chelley, so if you cannot tolerate the ship, it's just a warning that it may happen. (*hides in corner* Um… and I'm not a bone fracture expert… I DID do my research for about an hour but if something is incorrect, let me know.) And if Wheatley is out of character, I apologize; give me some feedback if you think he is though. He is a very challenging character to me, and I don't really know why, because some authors are amazing at him without even trying… *Cough* Author of Blue Sky *Cough*

Oh, this is the longest chapter in this fan fiction so far; it filled around 9 pages in Word. I hope it's worth the wait. Also, this is where the teen rating starts kicking in, I had fun writing insanity on the last few paragraphs but I understand that some people find it highly distasteful. If you are one of those people, just a warning on the big italic past tense paragraphs near the end, (you will see what I mean when you get to it…) it contains a lot of that stuff. Also, I have a writer's block; this took 7 hours give or take, so please give me criticism! :D You guys are lucky that I love you and myself enough to do this!

Chapter 3 (Sticks, Stones and Broken Bones)

Once he was back home at the laboratory, Wheatley couldn't stop thinking about how he needed to help her again. He needed to do this. He needed to save her. It felt like it was his full responsibility that she was stuck on the cliff side with a broken leg. If he was there, he would have told her something to prevent that, but there's no going back on the past, it's impossible. However, now that she is stuck and for the first time, there's nothing she could do to get out of there without assistance, he felt like he was programmed to help her and keep her alive. The whole thing felt kind of ridiculous. Did he also mention that no one in this world is going to stop him and in the process, he might get in big trouble or do something stupid, anyway? Oh, yeah, he might have said that earlier. Well, he will like to repeat that nothing is going to stop him (except maybe fear and a death risk, then he'll leave and abandon the mission as long as she'll at least be a little safe) He wants to be as selfless as possible though, he wouldn't want to be selfish like he was when he was in control of the facility. There was no doubt, he was going to help at all cost, but the ongoing question still ringed into his ears (for the last time, it's not literal, stop bugging him…). It was a question of how. How was he going to do this? Just how? He isn't necessarily good at this type of stuff, such as taking care of humans, especially if they are in pain. I mean, he had an excellent plan, something considered rare for him to accomplish, but how would he not, you know, mess something up in the process? Especially if he would hurt old what's-her-name. He didn't want to hurt her ever again, maybe when he was in chassis and fully power mad, but not now. Not ever again. Although, he is afraid that he will let her down for the second time. If there was a thing that Wheatley was good at, it was at messing something up. Another thing was that he was good at was failing without even trying one bit. He would just close his eyes and something horrible would happen that he was accused of, which sometimes, this was quite accurate.

Well, the only way that he would be able to help her, is if he asked Her if there even was an old medical wing in Aperture at all. He didn't know if there was, but he could at least ask for directions. She would probably become really curious if he would ask that, either that or she just won't care one bit, let's just bet our lives on the second one. Oh, he would have to face his fear just to help her without anything in return. Sometimes this is rare for him to do. Wait, what is he thinking? He will get a reward, eventually, and that would be her forgiveness and old friendship…maybe. You see, he wasn't good at making friends. Every personality construct would make fun of what he was programmed for before they would even get to know him. It was frustrating making new friends, especially the test subjects. They would all have major brain damage, and most of them died before he even got to know their names. He was friends maybe with the humans a long time ago. If you could count them as friends anyway… He would just chat with them sometimes but most of them just replied with, "Shut up, Wheatley, I'm working on some high tech stuff right now." or some of them were at least a little polite and with diplomat style, they would say, "Sorry, I can't talk right now, hon. Maybe after work." Either way, the point is that they didn't really listen to him one bit or even cared for the matter. It was probably because he failed at his one job that he was programmed for: to distract Her, to prevent her from killing and murdering everyone in this very room, by just lowing her intelligence. That was what he was made for, being an idiot. Golly, do know how many times anyone would get fun of that job? Well, mainly put it, it was a lot of times.

Oh, good God, just go face her anyway. You're going to be standing here forever at this rate. Wheatley likes to think that his old human friend was depending on him when he was about to confront Her. Who knows? Maybe she is depending on him, for the first time in a long time. Wheatley tried to make himself relax, but failed in the process when he questioned, "Hey, um can you hear me? I would like to ask a question, it's really important. It would only waste about a minute of your time, at the most, and possibly even a few seconds! That's all it would take…"

"What do you want this time?" GLaDOS's cold voice echoed around the facility's walls, her voice was like a harsh winter storm that will forever terrify and haunt him. He didn't know what a winter storm looked like but I suppose you get the point. Are they terrifying, anyway? He would like to know if he was using that correctly. Anyway, as he said before, there was a chance that she will kill him and she could murder him quickly or slowly. Either way would be painful, and her voice always reminded him of that chance. There's no doubt that one day she will eradicate him or punish him in a very gruesome way. He ignored the feeling right now, although it was very difficult to ignore.

"Um, I was wondering if there was possibly an old medical wing in the facility, and if on the slim chance there is, where exactly is it?" Wheatley finally asked. He gave himself a silent victory in his head; he finally had the nerves to do that!

"Look, moron. I understand that you are an idiot but I didn't know that you were that unintelligent to think that a medical wing can help you. Because it can't help you." GLaDOS coldly replied.

"Uh, I knew that. Although, could you possibly just answer the question? –Oh God, that sounded rude, didn't? I didn't mean that, sincerely didn't mean it. I know my place; I'm not in control of this facility. You are, you are the… erm, boss, and you could potentially murder me any second. Uh, please don't do that by the way, I know I deserve it, but you get the point. So, you must be asking yourself, 'Why should I help you?' Here's your reason: I found—" He trailed off. "Don't say that you found her you moron, that will only make things worse!" Wheatley thought to himself before saying, "You know what, it's just really important to me right now, and since I'm staying here for a long time, I would just like to know. You know, just for old times' sake." Wheatley tried to reason.

"Well, since it's so important to you, I won't tell you. Instead, I'll just watch to see you fail at a simple task. It would be fun…for me. And just to get the fun started, there is a medical wing; you just need to find it on your own. There, are you happy now?"

"Hmm… I'm going to be honest, I'm not quite as happy, but cheers for listening, anyway!" Wheatley thanked with somewhat fake happiness at the last bit.

Surprisingly, out of nowhere, She laughed. Oh, it wasn't a happy laugh, not the ones that would make you want to laugh or smile along, either. It was cold, and it was like a rattlesnake finally ejecting it's venom into a human's bloodstream except with no warning, unpredictable. (Rattlesnakes do that right? Maybe that's something he should look into because he is not quite sure about that. For it does sound utterly terrifying... Just the word, 'Rattlesnake', ugh…)

"I'm kidding. You will be searching here forever. As fun as that would be, it get annoying quick. The medical wing is by the old abandoned relaxation centers. You should recognize them…" GLaDOS finally spilled it out and then continued, "And since I'm being so nice to you, I'm letting you know that your punishment is going to be twice as cruel, moron. Just a friendly reminder that I would like to put out there…"

"Um, Thanks, I guess…" Wheatley stated, trying not to panic at her last few words that she uttered to him.

It took him a few minutes to find it and it was frustrating GLaDOS, he could tell. Eventually she just stopped paying attention and went back to cooperative testing with those two testing bots. Eventually a few minutes became a few hours at the rate where he was going. Stop judging him silently and give him a break, just a portion of the facility is never ending, especially if you count the thousands of the now empty relaxation centers that were just a shadow of Aperture's past self. It was creepy that he was working here just a few weeks ago. It felt weird and abandoned; no one was here right now. Everyone was dead. She would probably be able to list all the deaths by their old names (although some of them were classified such as old What's-Her-Name was…) The death list would probably go on forever with stuff like: fell into a toxic pit, bled out because bullets from turrets made their skin like Swiss cheese, starvation, dehydration, forgot their long fall boots, becoming hostile with Her and then received lungs filled with neurotoxin, any attempts at wanting to be free, etcetera, and so on so forth. They were all horrible and dumb ways to die. And all of these people had lives, they had parents who cared about them (maybe…), friends who wondered where they went (again, that's a maybe…), and just a full out life besides just testing. The thought always haunted Wheatley. They were all gone and it felt like the ghosts of their now deceased bodies were haunting this place. Absolutely terrifying.

But then there was her, the rebel and the mute, the only known survivor and escaper of this place. She also was very handy with a portal gun a few buttons, no doubt, probably the best he had known. And she was free. The only one who was free, in fact and was not dead. Just the thought that his old human friend left this place without a thought of giving up or dying in the process, is completely and outstandingly unbelievable. She was undeniably unlike the rest of the humans he'd known. Everyone else died, and there is nothing anyone can do to help them. This was why it was so important to him that he wanted to help her. He didn't want all of the test subjects to die, especially her. She was much cleverer and more intelligent than the rest. She just couldn't die, and he kind-of worried if he was already too late. It was 7:00 in the morning right now, [it was always noon in Aperture though, for no one ever slept and everyone rarely went into sleep mode. Except him, Aperture was boring when you weren't programmed to do something, so every night he would get into sleep mode.] However, who knows? It was cold out there, and probably even colder last night, because he heard the sun sets in the outside world once it gets later in the day. Maybe she was freezing out there and dies because of it. Then again, maybe he's just being neurotic and freaking out too much… He doesn't know too much about humans, but they die of the most ridiculous reasons, so there's a chance that she's already dead. Oh, it's better if he just doesn't think about her and thinks about something happy, like puppies and rainbows and things like that out in the real world, and not an artificial one like in Aperture. However, that is much more difficult than you would think.

After a few hours of searching, he found it. Boy, he was relieved and he hoped that there was something for a broken limb or two that will still work. Let's cross our fingers that he's lucky and finds what he needs [Oi, but not on both hands, that is bad luck…] There was no cameras in sight, but that didn't make him feel secure one bit, he was still on the lookout if GLaDOS was watching his every move. In Aperture, security and privacy isn't guarantied and he hated that fact. That was probably why he liked the outdoors, there was privacy and no one could hear what you were saying as long you weren't screaming at the top of your lungs or you weren't in front of someone. Or at least he hopes that no one is watching him… It would be horrible if anyone knew what he was going through right now. In particularly, Her.

In the medical wing, there were old medicine bottles filled with pills or liquids for dealing with pain, lunar or portal surface allergens, bullets in your skin, scientific gels that somehow made their way into a skeleton, the after effects of brain mapping intelligence and personalities, common illnesses such as the flu and colds, and many more painful or annoying things that troubled humans. However, there were no bottles of medicine for broken limbs. Wheatley started to lose hope, he couldn't give up though. There just has to be something for broken bones! This was Aperture science, they thought of almost everything for anything anyone could think of and there is nothing for broken bones, not a thing?! Not even first aid kits that could help her? This was ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous! He started to search in cabinets frantically but didn't find anything different for about twenty minutes. No, he can't leave her like this. This was probably the only way to forgiveness. He promised himself that he would help her! That he would get her out of that cliff side that she was stuck in. He wanted to help her so desperately it was kind-of scary but he still didn't want to come back just to say that there was nothing to help her and that she will probably end up dying next to the muddy stream by the cliff side. No, this cannot be happening! He wants forgiveness and none of these medicine bottles are going to help him.

Suddenly, he noticed a last lonely bottle in the corner of the dusty unused room. Once he read the bottle [he had to admit that he had to tilt it to different angles to actually make out the words] he couldn't believe it! The dusty unused bottle read in orange and black ink, "Aperture Science Medical Service™: Skeletal Traumatic Fracture Gel Treatment" Wheatley honestly didn't know what half of that meant, but he vaguely knew what a fracture was. (Wasn't it a broken bone?) Either way he just hoped and guessed that it was. Obviously, he also knew what treatment meant. It was the words of 'skeletal' and 'traumatic' that he didn't understand because it wasn't in his vocabulary. Traumatic sounds more like dramatic, and that's what he guessed for the word's meaning. Let's just hope that it's what he thinks it is, and give it to her, huh?

With slight difficulty, he opened the bottle. There was still plenty leftover, to his relief. It was a translucent milky green gel, he could barely read the directions but all he could understand was that you applied the gel to the skin and flesh around the broken bone and in about 2-3 weeks, it would heal, without surgery or bandages or anything that requires a fully trained doctor. And if you know Wheatley, he is the opposite of a fully trained doctor. Heck, he didn't even know how some the medicine in this room fixed humans and was surprised he could understand this one. He had no idea how it worked without bandages or hospitalized treatment but this was Aperture science we are talking about here. The inventers of the portal gun, (which the idea is ingenious in itself, but creating it required an Einstein) gels that made you jump and run, and brain mapping intellect and personalities into AI's and computers, allowing their past human selves to live forever. It was best if you didn't ask questions as long as it worked and did the job, there's no point in questioning it. He closed the lid and gave out a not so silent victory.

He couldn't get off the feeling that GLaDOS was getting suspicious on his actions, especially if she saw him having an artificial panic attack trying to find the right medicine for the human. Might as well hide the medicine or at least try to not let her see it, it would only make her more curious and curiosity will make her find out eventually what he is hiding. He cannot make her find out that he's taking care of GLaDOS's main past downfall and enemy, and he still didn't know if she let her go or she escaped herself. She'll possibly think he is plotting to get himself free when that is not entirely true. Either that or she will assume that he will kill her as well and have just this strange murder party with the human. Hmm…yeah, that actually sounds fun if he was a murderer this time around. Maybe she also regrets letting her go and then will take her in the facility again, so the human would think that Wheatley betrayed and used her all this time by revealing the truth to GLaDOS. Ugh, let's not think about 'maybes' and 'mights' or 'possibilities', he always comes up with the worst expected situations when he thinks like that. Might as well go with the flow; see if She doesn't even notice when he asks to be outside, and if she does notice what's he's hiding, well, he will be the only one punished, right? It's risky but helpful to his old friend (he told himself that he will learn her name this time around maybe in a few weeks or months) if he makes it without Her punishing him or even caring for that matter.

He went back in the main chamber room (formly known as his "lair") after 2 hours of just walking around the facility and getting lost every few minutes. Of course She gave him her evil trademarked, what-are-you-doing-here-moron look.

"Erm, could I go outside?" Wheatley asked very nervously, trying to hide the bottle and it was actually working, to his very much surprise. If only he could keep the poker face that he was pulling, because he was absolutely horrible at lying or hiding things, especially to things he fears. She didn't say a thing, only brought down the lift. Wheatley had the feeling that he couldn't hide this forever, She was so much more intelligent than him, she'll probably figure this out the second time he goes outside if he isn't careful. He needs to be so much more careful and less conspicuous and a mystery. However, he's really lucky this time. Really, really lucky he got away with that.

Eventually, he walked near the cliff side by the apple tree and found her lying with her back to the floor. He started to panic because her eyes were not open. It was still fairly early, however, and she may be fast asleep. And to his relief after he got closer, she was, because her stomach kept moving up and down in a gentle and relaxed slow motion, the first sign of a human breathing. Which he was surprised he noticed that, usually he couldn't tell whether if people were dead or asleep. There was a lot of things that particularly surprised him today…He backed up again after knowing that she was alright, because she could wake up at any moment and he didn't want to terrify her the moment she got up.

People looked much younger and better when they were fast asleep, to say the truth. Wow, that's sounds creepy, doesn't it? Although, it is true. The dark circles around her eyes seemed nonexistent and despite her wounds, she looked healthy and well for a human. He's not quite sure if healthy counted if you could see their cheekbones and ribs jut out inside their skin but other than that, she looked healthy and young.

His artificial heart sunk when he recognized a gash, however. It was a severe burn on her left shoulder about the size of a large baseball. It was blistering and charred around the edges of the wound, and it exposed some bleeding muscle. Gosh, it appeared that it probably hurt like Hell. And he knew where it was from. It was from him and he remembered the story the moment he saw the gross looking injury.

/:accessing memory/

/: date: 4/18/2056, 9:47 p.m/

He was yelling as loud as he could, half the reasons he didn't even know why and the other half was because he was losing his mind and going into insanity and frustration. He was absolutely mad. Two cores were attached to him, saying things that threw him off of his focus. One of them was flirting to the woman attacking him; the other was chanting about how great outer space was and how desperately he wanted to go there. There were just so many voices…Too many voices, most of them were yelling. There was so much yelling, most of it was from him but the anger in the corrupted chassis seemed much louder than his own voice. No one else could hear its haunting, corrupting voice, as long as you weren't plugged in into the chassis. It was chanting and yelling many things that he should do or say, expressing every single drop of anger to his former friend that he really didn't feel at all. The chassis was repeatedly throwing lies in mind and it was making him mad. He wanted it to stop! Then there was her, his ex-best friend, acting as if this was a daily part of her life, not saying a word, nor going into panic even though bombs were being thrown at her every five seconds and there was a countdown clock to an upcoming explosion. Adrenaline was pulsing through her veins and her clothes were dampening with sweat. He couldn't turn the bombs off, but he remembered vaguely that he wished that he could at that time. Most of the bombs weren't even hurting or affecting her one bit, but it was being used against him, only making him more troubled and livid than he was before. Every time he would wake up, there was a new core on him. Another distraction, another problem that he couldn't erase and another voice.

So, as he was throwing the bombs repeatedly, yelling and accusing her of things that she didn't even do, eventually he got the upper hand on her tricks. Once he put up the bomb-proof shields on him, which almost completely protected him, she was getting a little frustrated on trying to find a way to reflect a bomb back at him to a weak spot. He could tell because of her expression but also, but this was also her fourth try at it and she was running out of time. Probably all of that yelling didn't help her concentrate. He felt happy and he was enjoying himself, he even remembered cheering about his success. Wheatley was getting very close to slaughtering her, actually both of them and even himself in the process if that countdown clock went faster. He didn't care at this point in time. He was too insane and far gone, there was not a care in the world, all he wanted right now was to murder her, something She could never accomplish. That's all he wanted right now, it was huge obsession of his. He would give up his artificial life just knowing that he could do something no one else could accomplish and that was killing this seemingly defenseless and weak woman. Heck, she isn't even an AI! It could be easy, like breaking a toothpick. He didn't need her anymore. She could get out of his way and out of his mind. Wheatley didn't even want her anymore, now that he found those two bots. He didn't have any reasonable thought and went ballistic and almost impossibly red as beet with rage that was pointed directed at her as he was jeering and screaming at her.

Eventually, there can only be so many tries before she gives up or just dies. She has to stop working one day! Whether that is here or out in the real world, she's going to die either way. And that day is going to be today! And her warm blood is going to be on his hands and her dead body is going to fall right in this room! She'll die, right here, right now. There will be no mourning and he believes that he will never get haunted by this. This will be an achievement, a big major victory in his life. He is going to be her downfall, her end to the story, in which the epilogue is already starting, love! He didn't know or even care if he was going insane, there was nothing that felt greater than right now and other people will get sick thinking about this, but to him it felt great! Oh God, he didn't know why this felt so marvelous! It felt so amazing thinking about that he's really going to take life away from her! He will have his revenge finally after all the things she has done to him! Absolutely no one is going to stop him, either way. And he'll show them that he's not a moron; after all, what kind of moron can break this clever girl? What kind of moron can kill this clever girl after all she's been through? NOT HIM. Not old little Wheatley! If he was such a moron, he couldn't murder this really intelligent and bright woman, with the mind of a fast railroad track, because no simple moron can kill a person like that! You'll have to have some type of brain chip in you to be able to do that! He'll show Her, oh yeah, he'll show Her, right here, right now in this very room, his lair. She'll be amazed! It would be just like a magic trick, with him being the puppet master, involving blood, it would be great! Everything was going to be just…fine!

The human placed a portal on the ground and on of the side of the wall, trying to think of a way to destroy him. Do you hear that, she wants to destroy him! After all they had been through! After all of the sacrifices he committed to get this far! She wants to kill him and get him out of control! She wants to put Her back in charge, and he thought he was doing a great job at the facility. But no, it's not good enough, isn't it?! No saying, "Nice job, Wheatley for taking great care for this facility! You're doing a better job than Her, mate! I'm proud of you!" No, none of that! All he ever wanted in the first place was for her to be proud of him, but no emotion showed! He wanted her to be proud! He thought they were friends, and that's what friends do, they are proud of each other and happy for each other! This was the only accomplishment he had! No, no all she ever cared about was freedom! She didn't give a bloody care in the world on what happened to little old Wheatley, didn't she!? No wonder she has no friends. And now she finally pays attention to him now that he is the bad guy!? Seriously! She didn't care until he was plugged into the facility! She didn't even notice him one bit! It angered him and even made him feel disheartened with his anger. It was all just a big horrible stew of negative simulated emotions that swirled around him and he didn't know what exactly to feel, say or react. Sadness, rejection, insanity, rage, and anger, a bit of accomplishment, a bit of happiness, frustration, hopelessness, fury, and even more rage and more insanity: this is what he was feeling currently. And it was all because of this one girl! This one girl was causing him so much emotional and physical pain it almost frying his insides! If he wasn't in control of this facility, he would literally not have enough volts to keep all of these emotions! He'd never been this livid before in his life.

As he continued to be upset, he threw one last bomb in his phase before it would stop. Golly, he hated that, that four second pause in-between each 4-7 bombs he thrown. However, to his surprise, she slipped off the edge, fell through the portal she placed a few minutes ago and the corner of the last bomb hit her on her shoulder. She fell through the other portal into the ground and she gave out an "Nnghh!" sort of painful noise. It was the first time he hurt her. It was bleeding and he felt so happy for that. Overjoyed. However, this was also about time that the conscience part of him just basically screamed, "What ARE YOU DOING! This is your only friend, for God's sakes, Wheatley. You're going insane!" It hit his artificial heart, and if the chassis would stop screaming at him and if the attached cores would just shut up for once, he would want to stop and say that he was sorry. However, that didn't happen, he was too far gone to think of reasoning. He ignored it, as she ignored her bleeding wound. She just WOULD'NT give up, and made him upset more than ever. How is she still alive after all this time? For the rest of the fight, her hand was clutching her shoulder in pain, as a red liquid slightly dripped on the heard that red liquid is harmful for humans if they start leaking that. But he didn't care, maybe it would be his favorite color! His favorite liquid…

Eventually a last final bomb hit him and he blacked out. When he woke up a third core was attached to him, allowing a core transfer to begin. Before he even knew what was going on, he was launched to the moon and then stuck in space, with nothing but guilt and an annoying companion by his side. And he thought that it was the end story… He thought it was the epilogue.

/:End of memory/

/:Current_Visual_Processors: Back online/

Be glad that you don't have to relive memories whenever you remember them. That's what all Aperture devices do and it is annoying and frustrating. Oh, he hopes he doesn't have to do that again. Wheatley hopes and prays that he will never see himself insane like that again and never has to feel his thoughts and his feelings during that time. He hates the memories and hopes for them to leave one day. One day, he'll delete them when he figures out how to, that is. It's horrible reliving them. He felt guilty again and if he was human, he would probably cry right now. He wanted to; it would make him feel better.

Although, that's over though, right? He's never hurting her again. Never. He has the medicine, he could help her. Maybe that wound would heal over time, too. She is sleeping peacefully and she's save from his insanity and Her's. She's safe. And he knows that he will never hurt her ever again. She probably doesn't know it, but it was the truth. And he'll show her the truth one day… She has to forgive him, she just has to…

AN: Oh, this chapter was putting stress on my heart, literally, I don't know why I'm stressed right now. Oh well, goodnight. It's pretty darn late where I live. Hope you liked it. Hope you read it too, it was fairly long… Here's how much you read: 5,906 words. Cheers mate! :D