Wheatley had been invited to the neighbors house with Chell, but he was far too antsy to enjoy the visit. He couldn't stop thinking about his conversation with Chell about Michael and jealousy and trust, and somehow it was doing something to him, making him hot and red and fidgety like the day he had seen Chell with him. He tried to sit next to her but every time he looked at her his stomach turned to knots (she looked so at home here with these people, she kept smiling and laughing and talking. Her voice was so light and airy and sweet. Her eyes sparkled when she spoke and he remembered how those same eyes had held the entire galaxy only a few weeks ago.) he found himself on his feet and pacing within less than a minute. The neighbors were trying to talk to him, they had invited the pair over so they could get to know him a bit, but Wheatley was not his usual chatty self and he brushed most of their questions off with one worded answers.

"Wheatley," Chell looked up at him with an amused expression and tired eyes. This behavior had been going on for about an hour now and he expected her to scold him. "You're making me nervous."

"What?" He skidded to a halt, causing his hosts to chuckle. Wheatley wasn't sure why but for whatever reason they seemed to find him and his nervous little mannerisms endearing. His face turned pink at the attention and he looked down at Chell who was nestled on the couch. "Why?"

"The pacing." She said softly.

"Sorry." He mumbled apologetically, "I can't help it."

"Yes you can. Come sit. Be social." She patted the empty cushion next to her and Wheatley moved to sit there until Elizabeth stopped him.

"Michelle." Wheatley turned to see the older woman giving her a lightly chastising look from her place beside her husband. Her voice was like that of a mother scolding her child, and much to Wheatley's surprise it actually seemed to effect Chell, because her gaze dropped from his face down to her hands. "Be nice. You weren't always so social either, when you were new to town." Despite the fact that she was scolding Chell Elizabeth's voice was soft and sweet. She looked up at Wheatley with warm brown eyes. "Is anything the matter, dear?"

"Oh, um, no." For some reason he found himself looking down at his hands. "No, nothing's wrong I just, um, I'm a bit tired. Just tired. Um, a lot's happened in the past few days, and I'm not really used to all this excitement. Not used to being around so many people, um, not that I don't enjoy it, I do, but, um, I'm just not used to it. It's kind of hard to get used to. Harder than I thought it would be." His gaze flitted to Chell before returning to his lap. "So, um, I'm really very sorry if I'm coming off as anti social with all my, um, pacing and quietness and all that. I'm not trying to come off as antisocial, that is not my goal, but I am sort of tired and lost in thought and... Well not to sound rude but I could use some fresh air." Once Wheatley finished speaking he realized that he had started pacing again and quickly stopped.

Elizabeth gave a soft little laugh. "You can leave if you want to, Wheatley. Don't let us keep you if you don't want to stay."

"Yeah," Wayne added, "If you're jittery, a nice walk might do you good."

"Are you," Wheatley tentatively looked to Chell for approval. "you sure?"

"Go on." She sighed, giving him a tired smile.

"Thanks." He smiled, heading for the door. "See you back at the house then, yeah?"

Chell nodded and with that Wheatley left. Once he was gone Chell gave Elizabeth a slightly amused look that read why did you do that.

The older woman snickered. "Oh, don't give me that look. I remember the first time you were stuck in a room full of people."

"That was different." Chell said softly.

"I don't know dear," Wayne chuckled, "You made it very clear to everyone involved that you wanted to leave."

Wheatley was very happy that the neighbors had let him go. His mind kept telling him that the things he was thinking were dangerous, and thinking about them while being that close to Chell made him afraid she'd somehow read his thoughts.

They had been living together for a few months now, and everything had been going perfectly until that stupid Michael had shown up. They hadn't argued once since Chell started speaking, she'd started taking him around town more often and introducing him to more people, they'd even gone back to the farm to help the kids pick apples. Chell seemed to trust him again. In the past month especially she was much more open around him: smiling at him, and holding his hand, and curling up next to him on an almost daily basis. Wheatley loved it. He wanted to make Chell happy, and being around her made him happy.

What he hadn't realized (until Michael came around) was that her being with anyone else made him unhappy.

As much as he hated to admit it, Chell was right: he was jealous. It didn't matter that Michael was married (though it was a bit of a relief to know that he wasn't going to just swoop in out of nowhere and take Chell away); he still had a better relationship with Chell than Wheatley did. He wanted Chell to trust him like that. He wanted her to be so open with him that a complete stranger could see them together, take one look at them, and think those two have good history. And he wanted so badly to tell Chell all of this, to tell her what it really meant, but it was too soon and too risky: he didn't want to lose what he already had in the name of something he could never have.

Chell would hate him if she knew, and if she hated him then he would hate himself.

Wheatley surveyed the street to find that wasn't the only person in town who was having a rough morning. One of the kids he had seen at the farm was pacing the streets, kicking up rocks and dust as he went. It looked as though something was wrong.

"Jake," He called once he was close enough, "Is everything alright?"

"Oh, hi Wheatley." The boy smiled up at him half heartedly as he scratched the back of his head. "Yeah. Everything is fine."

Wheatley looked down at him skeptically. "That wasn't very convincing."

"I'm a bad liar." Jake sighed.

"Me too." Wheatley frowned at the pavement. "What's wrong?"

"It's... Um... Well, do you remember Auburn?"

Wheatley smiled. "The little Chell with red hair?"

"Yeah." Jake blushed.

"What about her?"

"I... Um... I've been friends with her for... A really long time... And I think I- I like her... A lot... But I don't know if I should tell her." As the boy spoke he blushed and fidgeted and kept his gaze fixed on the ground. Wheatley wondered if that was what he looked like to Chell when was embarrassed.

Speaking of: "Wait, wait, wait," Wheatley thrust out the palm of his hand out in a stopping motion. "Go back. Rewind there. You like her?"

"Um... Yeah?" Jake replied awkwardly, his face turning a brighter shade of pink.

"Like, like her like her?"

"I guess?"

"How can you tell?" Wheatley's arms flailed beside him and if the look Jake was giving him was any indication he couldn't tell whether or not he was being serious.

"How can I tell that I like her?" He asked cautiously.

"Yes." Wheatley nodded exaggeratedly. Maybe, if he was lucky, he was completely wrong and he had nothing to worry about.

"Well... I'm just... Happy when I'm around her. I like spending time with her."

"That's it?" Humans acted like love was a very complex emotion, but that sounded simple enough to Wheatley.

"No." At this point his face was bright red. "It's not just normal happy, it's sort of stronger. And it's only when I'm around her." Suddenly his expression turned to something caught between coy and suspicious as he noticed that Wheatley had turned pale. "Why?"

Now it was Wheatley's turn to examine the ground.

"Just wondering."

"You're good friends with Chell, right?" Jake asked, smiling.

"I like to think so." Wheatley replied, staring at the ground a little harder.

"How do you think she would react if you told her... That?"

"Um..." Wheatley croaked, his face turning red.

"That's what I thought." Jake said wearily.

"Just because Chell and Auburn are a lot alike, that doesn't mean they're the same person. I'm sure Chell is a lot more unpredictable than Auburn." He laughed weakly, "Either that or you've got your hands full."

Jake snickered. "You're probably right. It's just that I've been friends with her for as long as I can remember and I don't want to ruin it."

"I can understand that," Wheatley said softly, not sure where all this was coming from. "though if she's as similar to Chell as you say she is, I don't think that would happen. If she didn't like the idea she might be surprised or even a bit, er, "weirded out", but I highly doubt she would actually be angry with you."

"Are you sure?" Jake asked skeptically.

"Pretty sure." Wheatley nodded, dazed at what he was saying. "It doesn't make much sense that she would get angry with you when you're trying to do a nice thing. When you're trying to tell her that you care about her. Even if she doesn't particularly want to be cared about. She would probably appreciate it even if she didn't agree with it."

"So you don't think I have anything to lose?" Jake asked weakly.

Wheatley looked down at him thoughtfully.

"Do you think she's worth the risk?"

Jake smiled, his face tinging pink.

"Yeah." He said with certainty, his previous coy smile returning as he looked up at Wheatley. "So's Chell."

Wheatley took his sweet time walking home.

Chell was sitting out on the porch swing when he returned, gently swaying back and forth as she read. She looked relaxed, slumped comfortably against the swing with a light smile on her face. A few strands of hair had managed to escape her ponytail and they trailed behind her in the breeze. Wheatley took the liberty of watching her for a moment before he made his way up the steps.

"Hey...um... Chell?"

"Yes?" Sunlight glinted in her eyes as she looked up at him and Wheatley could feel his face turn pink as his stomach did summersaults.

"Can I talk to you, about something?" He asked weakly. "Can we go inside?"

"Sure." She smiled up at him warmly as she stood from the swing. "What do you need?"

"Well, um," He swallowed hard as he tried to avoid her gaze. He closed the door behind them as they entered the house and he followed her into the living room. "Remember how the other day we had that talk about, um, trustworthiness?"

"You mean the jealousy talk?" She smirked as she sat beside him on the floor.

"Call it what you want," Wheatley mumbled to the carpet, "but it... Bothers me." He looked up at her guiltily. "I want you to trust me... and I realize that trust isn't something you can just switch on and off like, well, a switch. I can't... make you trust me again in the space of an afternoon, that would be nice, but it's not how it works. And if you don't trust me, that isn't your fault, it's mine. Though I'm sure that's already blatantly obvious to both of us, yeah?" He gave an awkward laugh as he looked up at her but she looked more concerned than amused. "My point is, I want you to trust me but I understand why you don't. I'm not mad about it. It's not your fault." He gave her a sad smile. "That being said, just because I'm ok with you not trusting me doesn't mean that I'm ok with you not trusting me." Chell gave a lightly teasing smile as she crossed her arms. "I'm not mad at you, I won't hold it against you, but I don't particularly enjoy being, er, not being trusted. So I'm afraid I'm going to have to get you to trust me, again, uh, eventually." He swallowed hard as Chell took his hand."How does one... Go about doing that, though? How do you get someone to trust you after they have trusted you and you blew it?" She brushed her thumb against the back of his hand as he looked away. "I've been thinking about that for a long time. About three years now, to be honest, but a lot this week in particular." He managed to sneak a glance at her. "I think I've finally figured out an answer to it... I'm just not sure it's an answer that either one of us is going to like."

"What is it?" Chell asked softly.

"If.. If I want you to trust me," He swallowed, "I need to be honest with you. Even if I don't necessarily want to... Maybe even if I think the truth might upset you..." He looked up at her tentatively. "Does that make any sense?"

"Yes." Chell felt him flinch as she touched his forehead. "Are you feeling alright, Wheatley? You look a little... Green."

"To be honest, you probably will too, in a minute." He said weakly, offering her a half hearted smile.
She blinked, resettling in her spot.

"Ok."

"Alright um, so I guess I'll just, um, spit it out, as they say. But first I really want to emphasize that this is crazy, and I realize that this is crazy, and it's probably not something that I should even be telling you, but I trust you and I want you to trust me, so I'm going to tell you. Also, I don't um, expect you to er, agree with this. As some might put it. You're probably not going to be one hundred percent ok with this, and that's completely understandable. I'm not sure I am either to be honest, but there it is. So. Do you still want to hear it, after all this? Cause I'm not sure I want to say it, if I'm perfectly honest. I think I'm starting to talk myself out of it. Maybe I should just-"

"Wheatley." She brushed her thumb along the back of his hand and he shivered. "It's ok. You can tell me."

"Ok. Um, Chell," He forced himself to meet her eyes. "I think... I'm in love with you."

-
Author's Note:

That escalated quickly, didn't it?

(Jake ships it.)

Here's a little something for you guys to think about: this was how Pieces was going to end if I only published the last three chapters I had written. The story almost ended right here. What would you think if this was the ending?

*End of serious thought*

Wheatley did not want to do this and I kind of didn't either. I would've waited longer if I could have. The problem is that every chapter of Pieces is based off a prompt (that's why they all have random titles) so I have to do things in an order that makes everything fit together semi coherently. XD It'll be alright.

This was a weird chapter to write. It was kind of all over the place. Hopefully you guys liked it anyways! XD

As if this chapter wasn't already stressful enough for everyone involved, it almost didn't get posted today. Because I'm currently away from home on a different WiFi network which my ancient (but beloved) tablet apparently does not like. Thankfully that problem was found and resolved Thursday. I thought I was screwed.

This is not how the story ends! You get about 40 more chapters! Yea for you. Not for me. XD

Please review! Thank you!