2035.
Reunion.

It took Chell and Doug almost two weeks to reach Wyoming. Neither of them were experienced hikers, and their injuries slowed them down quite drastically. Doug's leg, although stiff, had healed to the point where it was giving him almost no pain, but Chell needed frequent rests, which annoyed her no end.

Their supplies lasted them well, and they were able to restock the essentials at the residential areas they passed through. Doug carried his share of their luggage on one side and the cube on the other, without uttering a single word of complaint about the weight. The cube had almost become their mascot. They'd begun using it as a table when they made camp for the night, sitting either side of it as they shared their food. Chell was never without her notepad, so their conversations flowed easily, if a little slower than they'd used to.

Doug had read her account of old Aperture with interest, asking her a multitude of questions about what she'd seen. She'd answered as best she could, but the place had made her uneasy. Aperture's history catalogued a train wreck of bad decisions and financial difficulties, up until the point where Caroline had taken over from a dying Cave Johnson. Chell was still puzzling over what GLaDOS had said to Doug, the way she'd been so confident that Chell wouldn't get sick from moon rock poisoning. Although it sounded like the A.I. had been alluding to Caroline having a hand in her boss's death, Chell couldn't match that conclusion up to the bright, enthusiastic voice she'd heard on the pre-recorded messages, the voice of a woman who'd clearly idolised Cave. In the end, she had to accept that she'd never have the answers, and that Caroline could have had many reasons that she simply hid from everyone. It was frustrating, but the events were long over and done with. They were best left in the past.

Camping out in the open was becoming the norm, as they very rarely found anywhere to shelter, but they'd been lucky with the weather so far. It hadn't rained once since they'd left Aperture, and the dry, dusty landscape was starting to show signs of needing a shower or two. Chell wondered if the portals that had delivered the Combine had somehow messed up the weather. Some of the people in the towns they passed through had given them more information in addition to what Trevor had told them. The Combine hadn't been the only alien lifeforms to come through. There had been others, some of which had been friendly, but they'd all been transported away by whatever the resistance movement had done. Chell found the whole thing difficult to get her head around, but she and Doug had enough information to blend in now, which was all that mattered. They didn't relish the idea of anyone taking an interest in Aperture. Brad and Trish had been bad enough, and they had to hope that Trevor would keep an eye on them.

The closer they got to Wyoming, the fewer breaks Chell had to take. Her stitches dissolved after ten days or so, but she was still cautious of the wound. It was healing nicely, but still sore, which she was starting to get annoyed about. Her annoyance led to the only fight she and Doug had ever had, but even then it lasted barely two hours before they both apologised and talked it over. Chell supposed it was only natural, as they were living side by side with only each other for company, but she didn't like arguing with him. It left a gnawing, unsettled feeling in the pit of her stomach.

It was strange, but since their first hug, right before Doug had put her into short-term stasis, they'd been a lot more open about physical contact, as if that hug had broken the dam they'd both previously maintained. Part of it was about seeking comfort, Chell knew. It was nice to squeeze an arm in consolation or bump shoulders while sharing a joke. They both suffered from nightmares, and had become each other's support, each taking it in turns to calm the other with a hand to hold, and in Doug's case, soothing words muttered.

Chell's nightmares hadn't started until she'd been properly rested. The first few nights away from Aperture, she'd been too exhausted and too sore to dream anything that really bothered her. After Trevor and Gerry's hospitality, and after she'd had time to grieve for her father, she suddenly found her sleep interrupted by flashbacks of her experiences. Sometimes it was GLaDOS who haunted her, sometimes Wheatley, sometimes the threat of being pulled into space, and once it was a distorted version of Cave Johnson, who climbed out of his portrait and tried to inject her with praying mantis DNA. Hindsight had made that one seem ridiculous, but it had been disturbing at the time, and she'd been glad that Doug hadn't pushed for details. She never asked him about his dreams either. She was fairly sure they were similar to hers, if not worse.

Doug was edgy on the day they walked into Wyoming. Chell couldn't blame him for that, nor was she surprised, but his anxiety wasn't helped by the fact that he'd woken up twice during the night. She'd spent several minutes on both occasions tracing soothing circles on his back with her palm, waiting for his ragged breathing to adjust. Idly, she'd noticed that his spine didn't stick out quite as much as it had done, and that regular food was doing him good, but she'd been mostly focused on his agitation.

As they walked into the city he was quiet and tired, but his eyes were alert, taking in everything. Chell had never been to Wyoming before. Her dad's work hadn't allowed them to leave Upper Michigan much. In her opinion, the city was looking pretty good. The streets were smooth, the houses well-maintained. But for the lack of cars on the roads, it almost looked…normal.

"My parents used to live near Battjes Park," Doug told her as they walked. "I think I still remember the way."

Aside from a couple of wrong turns, he was largely correct. The house was a generous size, in good condition, although its roof was a mixture of old and new tiles, and the fence around its back garden was in need of repair. Doug stared at it for a good long while, his hand nervously opening and closing in a fist as he worked up the courage to approach and knock on the door. Chell hovered by his side, trying to be supportive without seeming pushy. She knew how difficult it must be for him. His relationship with his family had picked back up in the years before GLaDOS, but he hadn't seen them in person in a long time.

"I'm…not sure I know how to do this," he admitted quietly.

Chell squeezed his shoulder, offering him a tiny, encouraging smile.

He turned to her, eyes full of uncertainty. "What if they're…?"

You'll never know if you just stand here, she urged him silently.

But then the decision was made for him. The front door opened, revealing a young, dark-haired woman, just a few years off thirty if Chell was any judge. She glared at them both with an openly hostile, suspicious look.

"Any reason why you're just staring at my house?" she snapped.

Her harsh tone seemed to jolt Doug out of his stupor. "We're…um… Sorry. Uh…does…the Rattmann family still live here?"

The woman narrowed her eyes at him. "Why?"

"I'm looking for William and Charlotte," he told her hesitantly. "They, um, used to live here...years ago."

She scrutinised him for a long moment, then said, "Wait here a sec," before disappearing back into the house.

Doug and Chell waited in awkward silence, hoping she hadn't gone to fetch a shotgun or something equally unwelcoming. When she returned, however, it was with an older woman, her mother, judging by the resemblance. The newcomer's gaze swept over them both, coming to rest on Doug, where her expression became a picture of stunned, confused disbelief. Doug was staring back, his mouth slightly open in shock, and Chell suddenly realised.

She's his sister.

They did not really look alike. Where Doug was all angles, his sister was curves, but their hair was the same deep black, although hers was now generously laced with grey, and their eyes were the exact same shade of blue. She looked to be in her early sixties, a fact that Doug was clearly having trouble adapting to.

"I…I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare," the woman said, stepping out towards them. "You…you look…"

"Julie?" Doug managed to get out.

At the name, the woman halted, her eyes widening. "Who are you?" she asked, sounding half afraid of the answer.

"It's me. It's Doug."

She visibly reacted to his words, closing her eyes as if she'd been slapped. When she opened them again, her voice was cold. "That's impossible. Doug's dead. And even if he wasn't, he'd be sixty years old by now. What are you trying to pull?"

"Julie, I mean it. It's me," he told her earnestly. "There was an incident at Aperture in 2007. The place locked down. Most people died, but those who survived were put in cryogenic storage, that's why I haven't aged in over twenty years." He sighed wearily. "You have to believe me."

"Prove it," the younger woman spoke up.

"What?"

"Go on," Julie added, folding her arms. "Tell me something only Doug would know."

Chell heard the faint tremble in her voice, and knew that her aggressive stance was just hiding how emotional she truly was. Chell figured that Doug looked enough how Julie remembered him to add credibility to his story.

"Something…okay," Doug conceded, pausing to think. "Um…when I was six you told me that Santa Claus was an evil pixie who would break into the house and take credit for gifts that Mom and Dad bought us, and you said he'd hurt me if he caught me looking out for him." His face took on a wobbly smile as he recalled the incident. "I was so shaken up I was going to tell Mom. You got scared I'd get you in trouble and you admitted you'd made it up. You made me swear never to tell anyone, and I never did."

Julie pressed her lips tightly together, her eyes suddenly glistening with unshed tears. "Go on," she said.

Doug nodded, clearly seeing, as Chell was, that he was getting through to her. "I asked Dionne Woods to the prom and you gave me dating advice. Then in college, when I started dating Lucy, you gave me…uh…different couple advice, and we both got really embarrassed about it." He cleared his throat, continuing in a softer, sadder tone. "When I finally called you again, after…after I'd learned to cope with my condition…you yelled at me and then spent ten minutes apologising. But…you were right. I should never have left it so long. In hindsight it just seems even worse, but I was stupid and…"

His words were cut off as Julie darted forward and hugged him, her tears now running unchecked down her cheeks. Doug suddenly broke down too, hiding his face in her shoulder.

Chell watched them, feeling strangely emotional herself. When she cast a quick glance at Julie's daughter, she was looking much the same, all traces of snappishness gone.

"I can't believe you're here," Julie said through her tears. "And…still young! But you're alive. You're alive. Thank god."

"Mom and Dad?" Doug asked quietly, pulling away.

Julie shook her head. "They're dead, Doug. I'm sorry."

He nodded. "I…think I knew that," he said shakily. "It seemed…too much to hope for." He closed his eyes for a brief moment, regaining control. Opening them again, he asked simply, "How?"

"In the war. You…know about that, right?"

"Yes. So…it's been a long time for you. Since they've been gone."

"Twenty-six years," Julie confirmed with a sniff. "And nearly nineteen since I lost Luke. You remember him, right? You met him one Thanksgiving." At Doug's nod, she added, "He joined the resistance movement. Got himself killed. I don't even know the details."

"Julie, I'm so sorry," Doug said earnestly. "I remember you telling me that he was the one."

Julie gave a watery smile and a brief laugh. "I remember that too. I was right, you know. I married him after the war. This one was only two years old." She jerked her thumb in the direction of her daughter, who smiled sadly.

Chell didn't recall Doug ever mentioning a niece. When she glanced his way, she saw the confusion in his face.

"I tried to call you so many times when I found out I was pregnant," said Julie, sighing. "I wanted to be the one to tell you that you were going to be an uncle. But I could never get through. After a while I got worried, and Luke and I drove up to Ishpeming to try and find you. The town was half empty, and those that were still there told us that there'd been an accident at Aperture and everyone had been killed. Anyone who went over there to try and get in never came back. Eventually people just stopped going. We had to turn back and…accept that you were gone."

"I'm so sorry," Doug murmured, although it wasn't his fault.

Julie waved off his apology and turned to her daughter. "This is your niece, Angela."

Angela looked a lot like her mother, but her eyes were dark brown, and her hair had a distinctly auburn tint to it. She extended a hand awkwardly, which Doug shook.

"Pleased to meet you," she said, her tone and manner more polite than it had been initially. "I've heard a lot about you."

"Oh," Doug muttered warily.

"Good things," Julie assured him, dabbing her eyes with her sleeve.

Doug smiled at her, then turned to Chell. "This is Chell," he announced.

Julie did a tiny double take, meeting Chell's gaze and smiling before looking back at her brother. "Chell? As in…Chell from work? The one you wouldn't stop talking about when you used to call?"

Chell shot Doug an amused, slightly surprised glance, one eyebrow raised. Oh really?

Doug gave an embarrassed laugh, looking at his feet. "You have a disturbingly good memory," he muttered. "Yes, Chell from work. She was my only friend until I started working with Henry and Robert, of course I talked about her."

Julie sent Chell a wink, clearly falling comfortably back into her role as big sister. "It's lovely to meet you."

Chell nodded and smiled.

"I'm afraid she doesn't speak," Doug explained when Julie looked a touch bemused.

"Oh. Okay. Something to do with what happened to you?"

"Yes. I'm hopeful her voice will return when it's had time to heal."

Chell rolled her eyes, feeling a little self-conscious when he caught her doing so.

With a tiny, amused smile, he added, "Chell disagrees with me on that one. She's pessimistic like that."

She looked at him incredulously. I am not!

"You are a bit," he retorted teasingly, reading her expression.

She sighed loudly, lifting her gaze to the clouds as she put forward her lack of amusement.

Doug laughed, a much lighter sound than she'd heard from him in a long time. She couldn't help but smile at it, shaking her head as she met his gaze. Julie smiled too, although there was something benevolently calculating in it. Then her expression switched to one of confusion.

"Doug, what is that thing you're carrying around?"

Doug's smile dropped as he glanced over his shoulder at the companion cube. "Um…long story. It has sentimental value."

Julie raised her eyebrows sceptically. "Well…okay then."

"Mom, shouldn't we go inside?" spoke up Angela. "They both look exhausted."

"Of course!" Julie exclaimed, shaking her head. "I'm so sorry. You…you threw me off. To say the least."

"It's okay," Doug soothed her. "We understand."

Julie ushered them all inside. Chell followed Doug into the spacious hallway, watching him attempting to look at everything all at once.

Is it how you remember it? she wanted to ask him.

"You redecorated," he said.

"A couple times since I inherited the house," Julie nodded. "I couldn't stand to see it looking like Mom and Dad had it. I only stayed here because Luke said it would be a great house to raise a kid in."

"He was right," Angela told her, squeezing her arm.

Julie sent her a smile, then gestured them through the nearest door. "Come and sit down."

Chell entered the light, airy room, sinking gratefully down into a corner of the couch, dropping her backpack by her feet. She couldn't deny that comfort was welcome after two weeks of camping, although it had been strangely peaceful to trek across the countryside.

Angela disappeared to fetch drinks, and Julie and Doug talked of their lives, catching up. Angela soon returned with glasses of apple juice, which gave Chell the sugar boost she hadn't known she'd needed.

Doug told their story almost from the beginning, omitting some of the details for the sake of clarity. Chell added things occasionally via her notepad, but he had it all covered pretty well. Julie and Angela listened with interest and horror, the latter with an additional touch of fascination.

"So you two had no idea about the war or the occupation?" Angela asked.

"None," Doug told her. "We only heard about it a few weeks ago, from a man in Ishpeming. He said the resistance dealt with it after they had help from someone important."

"Gordon Freeman," Julie put in.

"Yes. He seems pretty well known across the whole country."

"Not just the country," said Julie, "the entire world knows his name. People looked up to him as a symbol of hope. They called him the One Free Man."

"Mom, he hates all that stuff," Angela put in defensively.

Chell glanced at her curiously, wondering if she knew the man they'd heard so much about. It certainly seemed so based on the way she'd spoken. Doug apparently thought so too, as he asked her directly.

"Oh, my Angie knows him all right," Julie said proudly, before her daughter could answer. "They worked together. I told her stories about you when she was growing up, so I guess it's no surprise she ended up a scientist."

"Mom…" Angela murmured, exasperated and a little embarrassed. "I've worked with Gordon a handful of times. I know him a little bit, that's all. Mostly I worked with his associate, Dr. Kleiner."

"Freeman is a scientist?" Doug asked, sounding surprised. "From the way people were talking about him it sounded like he was some kind of super hero."

"He's both," Julie declared.

"He worked at Black Mesa," Angela explained. "So did Dr. Kleiner. They were both survivors of the incident, along with another friend of theirs, Eli Vance. Eli's dead now, but the three of them were the scientific backbone of the resistance. Gordon also took on some more…hands-on tasks for the resistance, some of which kind of turned him into a soldier, almost. He paired up with Eli Vance's daughter, and they made quite a team."

Doug met Angela's gaze. "We were told that Freeman found something that forced the Combine back to their home world."

"Gordon wasn't the one who found it," Angela said with a quick head shake, drawing a strange look from her mother. "That was one of Eli's associates. But he was the one who used it to finish it all. Alyx Vance helped, although she didn't want to. Right before her father died, he had an argument with Dr. Kleiner. He didn't want to risk using the thing, but Kleiner said they should. With Eli dead, Kleiner got his way, but Gordon and Alyx insisted on handling it."

'What was this thing?' Chell scribbled on her pad.

"Well…normally I wouldn't even have said this much," Angela admitted, curling her hands around her glass. "But I made an exception because…well, it was something that Aperture built."

Doug looked at her in confusion. "It was?"

"Yes. A ship. It was found somewhere in the Arctic."

His eyes widened. "You mean…the Borealis?"

"The what?" put in Julie.

"Aperture thought it was lost," Doug went on. "Well, I guess it was."

"Yes, the Borealis," Angela confirmed, her voice quiet.

Chell shot Doug a puzzled look. The name sounded familiar, but she couldn't think why.

"I think I told you about this once," he said. "The ship that disappeared right out of the dry dock in the 70s."

With a jolt of realisation, she remembered the conversation, and recalled stumbling across the dry dock on her trip through old Aperture.

Only Aperture thinks it's logical to build a dry dock miles beneath the surface and far away from the coast.

"In my time, the ship had become a kind of mystery, a…fairy tale story that people joked about in the break room," Doug went on. "Nobody really knew what had gone on there, and nobody took it very seriously."

"Maybe they should've," said Angela, putting her glass on the coffee table and folding her arms. "It contained sophisticated but unstable teleportation equipment, purely experimental. That's how the ship ended up in the Arctic in the first place. Gordon and Alyx had a difficult battle with the Combine before they managed to secure it. The Combine had killed the woman who located it initially. Eventually, they were able to teleport it back to Dr. Kleiner."

"And they figured out a way to teleport the Combine out?" Doug surmised.

"Yes, pretty much. We're…still not really sure how. Dr. Kleiner was experimenting and…something worked." She shrugged.

Chell bit her lip, frowning. It was not reassuring news, although she was hardly surprised at Aperture technology being so unpredictable.

"He accidentally pulled all alien life out of Africa," Angela continued, drawing yet more surprised looks from her mother. "Gordon figured out what he'd done enough to repeat it, but I don't really understand it. I don't think Gordon understood it. He just made it work somehow."

"Aperture experiments are volatile," Doug said grimly. "They can be impossibly effective and achieve incredible things, but they're almost always lethally dangerous."

"Gordon held a similar view. He wanted to honour Eli Vance's wishes and destroy the ship. Dr. Kleiner assured him he would."

"Good, because I don't–"

"But that's just it," Angela interrupted uneasily. "He didn't do it. He kept it, insisting that he could figure out how it worked and make it safe. That's why I eventually stopped working for him, I couldn't keep going back to that thing."

Doug looked instantly worried, his brow furrowed. Chell felt suddenly wary watching his expression change, almost how she'd felt back at Aperture: a tense kind of restlessness.

"That's…not good," Doug murmured, running a hand through his hair.

"Part of me didn't want to leave," Angela said with a shrug. "Mom persuaded me, but honestly…that thing gave me the creeps. We'd been working with it for over six years, but Dr. Kleiner was no closer to figuring out how it works. Even if he managed to stabilise it…I don't know. Being able to teleport between worlds seems all wrong."

Chell gave a quiet huff of laughter. That's Aperture all over.

Angela glanced at her blankly.

"We're both kind of cynical where Aperture is concerned," Doug explained distractedly.

"Oh."

"I may have persuaded you to leave," Julie said, her tone defensive, "but for a long time, you didn't."

"No," Angela agreed. "I was interested in the work. But I didn't like that we were lying to Gordon and Alyx, and I stayed because I wanted to see if there was any way I could destroy it. In the end, though, it…it was too much."

"Have you told Gordon?" Doug asked her.

Angela shook her head, looking conflicted. "I wasn't sure if I should. I mean…he'll just ask why I didn't tell him before, and…" She trailed off, leaving awkward silence in her wake.

"Well, I'm glad you gave it up," Julie said, smiling. "New Mexico is too far away."

"You can blame Dr. Kleiner for that. He accidentally teleported the ship to the site where Black Mesa used to be, then couldn't get it to move again. He built his lab up around it."

Chell scribbled a question. 'And Gordon has no idea what goes on there?'

Angela read it and shook her head. "He and Dr. Kleiner had an argument a while back. They don't talk much. Gordon's retired now, anyway. He and Alyx settled in Kansas after everything died down."

"There was a call to put him in a position of authority, but he refused," said Julie.

"I think Alyx would have killed him if he'd taken it," Angela grinned.

"Who is in authority?" asked Doug. "I can't believe I've only just thought to ask that."

Chell offered him a small smile when he looked her way, indicating that she'd forgotten to ask it too.

"Technically the president," Julie informed them, "but the government relies heavily on the leaders of individual states, who in turn rely on community leaders. With the population so much lower than it was, there's not a lot of law enforcement volunteers. Things are run much more…what's the word I'm looking for?"

"There's not just one person in charge," Angela cut in. "And as far as I know, other countries have adopted a similar system. We can't communicate over long distances as well as we could. The Combine knocked out the entire cell phone network. Scientists are working on reinstalling it, but without satellites there's not much we can do."

"Who's president?" Doug asked.

"You wouldn't know him," Julie told him, "but it's a man called Edward James. He's nice enough, I guess. For a politician. I don't know how much you know about the war, but for a while Earth had just one leader. Well, representative. Wallace Breen. It was thanks to him that humanity survived at all, but he was in league with the Combine. They accepted his surrender on humanity's behalf, then let him be their spokesman on Earth."

"And what happened to him?"

"Nobody knows for sure," Angela said with a shrug. "But he's almost certainly dead."

A brief period of silence fell over the group. Outside, the sun was beginning to set, casting everything in a soft, golden light.

"So, what are you going to do now?" Julie asked Doug, smiling.

Doug shifted in his seat, raising a questioning eyebrow. "You mean…now that we're free and we found you?"

"Yes."

He seemed at a loss, turning to Chell for help. All she could do was shrug, however. They'd been so fixated on finding Doug's family that they hadn't had chance to consider the future.

"I…I'm not really sure," he said eventually. There was a shadow of some stray thought in his eyes, however, that made Chell think that the statement wasn't as true as he intended.

"Well you don't have to decide right away," Julie declared, sitting forward to gather the glasses together on a tray. "We'd be happy to have you stay here as long as you want."

"We don't want to be a burden on you," Doug told her, snatching the words right out of Chell's head. "I know life is hard these days. For everyone."

"Don't worry about that," Angela assured him. "We can manage. And you're family. I'd like to get to know my uncle better."

Doug smiled at her, but it was obvious that he was still wary of putting a strain on their household supplies.

"Come on," said Julie, getting to her feet, "let me show you to your rooms so you can get settled. It will be nice to actually have them get used!"

Unable to do anything but accept, Chell and Doug stood and picked up their luggage. Julie was right. There would be time for them to figure out what to do, and Chell wanted Doug to enjoy his time with his sister and niece without worrying. She doubted that would happen though. He was a habitual worrier. For herself, it would be an opportunity to rest and regain her strength, and to work out what her place would be in the new society she found herself in.