A/N: I'm so sorry. I've had this ready for a while but couldn't find the time to post it. I'm really sorry. Thank you popjin and for following this fic.
Amora crinkled her nose as she walked into her office. She would never understand why Mr. Johnson insisted in putting these pure white panels into every office. They smelt like really strong paint. The woman decided that it would be better for her health if she stayed out of the room for a couple of more days. She shrugged feeling glad that she had asked for the rest of the week off to visit her family for the holidays. Amora waited outside of her office for the reporters to come. She had received two calls yesterday from two stations asking for a tour of the facility. Amora took a deep breath and planned out the tour. This was one step toward rebuilding Aperture's reputation and soon Aperture would be back on top. She smirked slightly at the image of Black Mesa falling back into its place.
"Howdy, Mora," Rick's voice called out. He looked a little worse for wear as if he was running.
"Good morning, Rick. You look out of breath," Amora said concerned, "Do you need to sit down?"
Rick shook his head looking offended, "I'm an adventurer. I don't need a lady rest. I do need some lady advice though. You're a woman, Amora, so could you help me?"
Amora wondered briefly what he needed, "How can I help you?"
"It's Caroline. I have tried everything to get her attention, but all she does is ignore me," Rick said sounding frustrated.
"Have you tried being her friend and not listing off pick-up lines?" Amora asked knowing the answer. Rick had the decency to look slightly embarrassed. "Woman like men to enjoy their company, they like men to acknowledge what they have to say, and most of all they want to be seen as a person and not some trophy."
Rick looked down at his feet. "You sure that will work?"
Amora nodded, "Yes, but if she isn't romantically interested in you, you have to move on. There's plenty of fish in the sea. And I'm sure you'll have plenty that would love to be caught."
"Thanks, Mora. Be careful," Rick said ruffling her hair before he left her alone in the hall.
Amora straightened her hair huffing in false annoyance. She leaned on the wall of the hallway and continued to wait. There were a couple of unfamiliar voices from the lobby. Amora deciding that the voices must belong to the reporters.
Amora jogged slightly to see a man and woman signing in with Caroline. "Good morning, Caroline," Amora greeted. She turned to the reporters, "Hello, my name's Amora. I'm the public relations manager. I'll be giving you a tour of Aperture."
The man stepped forward and gave a wide a smile, "My name's Rowley Scott Stephens. I'm the head anchor of Worldnews." Amora shook his hand and was relieved when he released his crushing grip on her hand.
The female reporter not wanting to be overshadowed stepped forward to shake Amora's hand. "My name's Brianna Stacks. I'm sure you've seen me on the evening news."
Amora smiled, "I have seen both of your works. I'm very impressed with your dedication to reporting truths." Amora gave a grateful nod to Caroline who was starting to walk to Mr. Johnson's office. "If you would follow me, I'll take you through the labs."
Amora walked into the Polymer lab first followed by her two tails. "Andre, are you here?" She called out. Amora turned to the reporters, "Andre is the head of the Polymer lab. He's a brilliant man." The woman caught one of the scientists, Greg, was his name if she remembered correctly. "Greg, is Andre here?" Amora asked.
The man shook his head negative. "He's working in another lab for the next couple of weeks. I can show you what we are working on now." Amora thanked the man and allowed the scientist talk about how the lab was researching something called an emancipation grid. The intention of the grid was to reduce the waste that the facility produces and may even work as a way to reduce polymer waste in landfills. The reporters dutifully wrote down whatever Greg told them. Amora thanked the man for his time and continued her tour.
The next stop in the tour was the genetics lab. Amora led the reporters into the lab to see Craig bent over a microscope. "Good morning, Greg," Amora called out causing the man to jump slightly.
He straightened his glasses and his eyes ran over the trio. "Salutations. How may I be of assistance?" he asked cautiously.
"I was hoping you could show us some of the things you are working on," Amora asked looking expectantly at the man. She had warned all of the lab heads that the reporters were coming today so they would be prepared.
"Of course, currently the focus of Aperture's genetics lab has been to join the effort in the genome project. We're making large strides to map out the genome. After this project, we'll be working on brain mapping. If you don't mind, I have to return to work."
While Craig wasn't the most willing of employees, his insight was being noted at a furious pace. "The last lab I'll be showing you is the robotics lab. I suggest that you remain close to the walls. The scientists that work in the lab are often very busy and don't really look where they're going." Amora chuckled as she thought about the several times Wheatley almost bumped into her.
The reporters followed her footsteps as scientists hurried to and fro carrying various electronic bits. Amora saw Wheatley's blonde mop of hair and called out, "Wheatley." The blonde man fumbled with his equipment but caught it.
"Miss Amora, uh, good morning. Or is it afternoon. 'Ello. It's lovely today," Wheatley seemed to be more nervous today than normal and was starting to ramble more than usual. "I mean if you like the snow. I love the snow. You could build snowmen, snow forts, and snow angels. Oh, sorry. I started to ramble didn't I?" Amora nodded holding her chuckles.
" If you are looking for Neil, he is over there looking at the moon rocks he brought back. They're very interesting. Very…rocky and gray. I should be getting back to the work," Wheatley ended lamely before hurrying away. Amora watched him leave confused on his nervousness.
….
Amora allowed the reporters to leave before heading to the cafeteria to eat her lunch. She sat with her pasta dish, picking at the rhubarb that were strewn about. Someone sat down in front of her. Amora looked up from her meal to see Neil. "Hi Neil," she stated before turning her attention to the strip of rhubarb that refused to be separated from the linguine pasta.
"Amora, I wanted to talk about what happened last night," Neil started looking down at his own plate when Amora looked up at him. She wondered what he talking about before the party from the night before flashed through her mind.
"Oh, don't worry about that," Amora laughed slightly, "I got a little caught up with the party atmosphere." She chuckled again.
"That's what I thought," Neil said with a nod. If Amora didn't know the astronaut better, she would have thought he was disappointed or perhaps he was relieved.
"May we sit here?" Paisley's voice asked. Amora looked up to see Wheatley and Paisley standing waiting for her or Neil to respond. Amora shrugged while Neil answered that they could sit with them. Wheatley refused to look at her in the eyes. "So how are you two enjoying the meal? Amora, you haven't touched any of the rhubarb," Paisley said her voice both disbelieving and offended.
"I had a big breakfast, so I'm having a hard time finishing this delicious pasta dish," Amora lied. "So are you all excited for the holidays? I'm visiting my family later this week." Amora hoped the topic change would stop the chef from biting her head off.
"My family is having a reunion later this week, so I'll be visiting them," Neil stated. "They'll be so excited to hear about my space trip. I'll tell them about the moon, stars, the milky way, nebulas, and the rocket." Amora had a mental image of a crowd of Neils rambling about space; the picture was funny but she tried not to giggle.
"I'll be heading back to my old culinary school and giving a lecture," Paisley said, "I will see my family briefly on the way back to Aperture."
"How about you, Wheatley?" Amora asked.
"Me?" Wheatley asked, "I'll be staying here. Furthering science. Yup, lots of science to do. Experiments to run. And tests to be done." Amora frowned slightly thinking about how the man would be spending the holidays alone. "No time to go back home when we have so much work to do."
…..
After lunch, Amora headed to Cave's office to speak to him about the local middle school's career day and how Aperture should send a representative. She knocked on the door, "Mr. Johnson."
"Come in, Amora," Mr. Johnson's booming voice called out and Amora opened the door slowly. Mr. Johnson was signing paperwork, but looked up when she entered. "Amora, look at this cream I made from the moon rocks Neil collected," the man said excitedly holding up a small jar full of shimmering gray cream.
"So, what is this cream for?" Amora asked hoping that the suspicious material wasn't for human consumption.
"For skin care, of course. Does the moon have wrinkles? No it doesn't. Therefore, moonrocks equals young looking skin," Mr. Johnson said with absolute confidence.
"I don't think that's how it works, Sir," Amora said shaking her head unconvinced. "Don't put any of that stuff on you, sir. At least until you have some animal trials. Anyways, I came to say that I think that the career day next month for the middle school would be a good opportunity to gain awareness."
"That sounds plausible, but don't take away too many of my scientists. I need them for science," Mr. Johnson said, "In fact take the intern."
"I was thinking the exact same thing, sir. Wheatley is closer to the children's ages so will be able to relate to them," Amora said quickly.
"Sounds good. You're dismissed," Mr. Johnson said looking back at the jar of cream in his hands.
Amora was going to tell him not to use the cream again, but decided that the man would know better. She exited the office and started to hunt for Wheatley to tell him the news.
She found him rather quickly. He was bent over some papers. "Wheatley, I have a little assignment for you," she said loudly. The intern moved the papers on his desk frantically.
"Um..Hi.. Just doing paperwork. Yup, a whole lot of paperwork," Wheatley said unsure, "A literal forest of paperwork."
"Okay," Amora responded confused. "I was just going to tell you that you've been chosen to represent Aperture during the middle school's next career day."
The man blinked his blue eyes like he didn't believe what he heard. "That's a big honor. I promise I won't mess this up. Those children will be dying to work here. Yup, little future Aperture scientists. Wait, what will I talk about. Children can't understand science. Or at least the science that we're studying." Amora figuring that he would continue a little longer leaned against the lab table to get comfortable. The man stopped speaking immediately and swallowed nervously. "Is that all you have to say? Not that I want you to leave. I like talking with you. It's just that we both are working and talking can be distracting. I'm sure you can talk and work at the same time. You're clever like that. But I can't work while you're watching."
Amora chuckled," I'll leave, but I wanted to say that maybe you should at least call up your family. I'm sure they miss you." Amora looked down at Wheatley's table embarrassed and noticed what looked like a calendar. "The calendar came out already? I thought it would have taken another week at least." Amora grabbed the calendar looking at the month that it was opened to. Wheatley made a motion to stop her motion. The word 'July' was clearly printed and the picture was of herself. Amora looked at the image in disbelief. She was positive that this picture was never to see the light of day. The picture her was posed in a red two-piece bathing suit.
The only thought that ran through her mind was that Curra better start running now. "I'll be back, " Amora said to a slightly pink Wheatley. With that she stormed out of the laboratory.