#i think chell would only agree to test again for glados if she felt confident about the fact that she wouldn't try killing her anymore

[tracfone]

Glados, watching chell knock on the door of the wheat field shack: oh thank god, finally someone who appreciates my interests--

[bondibee]

whoa remember when I made Content

Here’s a technically nsfw LaaC thing! Yeehaw  In which GLaDOS just wants to do a perfectly innocent test and Chell is a little shit

Chell had been back in Aperture for a little over a week already, but it didn't feel like it had been that long. Settling into life back underground was proving a little harder than she had anticipated, even though it was remarkably comfortable compared to the way she'd been living on the surface. There was nothing GLaDOS could say to get her out of that big soft bed before noon, or stay in the shower for less than thirty minutes. It was odd in a way, to think of Aperture as comfortable considering her history with the place, and those less than pleasant memories still held a prominent spot in Chell's mind. For as nice as her new little apartment was, finding a rhythm with GLaDOS, her only companion down here, and presumably the person she'd be spending the rest of her life with at this point, was… tough. They'd learned a bit about each other during their long climb back up from the depths of the facility together, enough for Chell to realize she might've been unexpectedly fond of the AI, but it wasn't as if they'd grown up together. GLaDOS seemed a little unsure of the situation herself, and for the most part acted as if Chell wasn't there unless she wanted attention, of one form or another. She was obviously out of her element, but then, so was Chell. She didn't exactly have a slew of successful romances to look back on for reference, not counting a messy slew of one night stands and drunken club encounters. So the cycle of their days together was still rocky, with neither party entirely sure how to interact with the other now that the initial joy of their reunion had worn off.

For Chell, figuring out just what exactly she was supposed to do now was the hardest part. GLaDOS didn't give her any restrictions other than “Please don't break anything.” which Chell was pretty sure she could ignore without too much consequence, so really the world was her oyster. But she was bored. Before returning she had given some thought to what she might spend her time doing down here, but not much. Honestly she was still shocked that GLaDOS let her back in at all, her goodbye had seemed so final. Chell had half expected GLaDOS to just shoot her through the door or, much more likely, not respond at all. She hadn't really considered that she would just… walk right back in. That GLaDOS would want her back. But she did. And now Chell was here, and she had to figure out what to do.

For now her usual afternoon go-to activity was to pester GLaDOS in the central chamber while she tried to work. It wasn't as if Chell could go much further than there and a few repurposed offices without any portals, so it was either that or… stare at the ceiling. So she finally dragged herself out of bed and pulled on a jacket- GLaDOS kept it freezing in here- and headed down the hall.

The core was predictably in the middle of the chamber, her massive robotic chassis hanging still and dark in the center of the room. She was human today, luckily. It was much easier to talk to her like this, but there didn't seem to be any clear reasoning behind which body she chose to be in at any given time. The instant Chell passed through the door GLaDOS broke her attention from the array of monitors before her and shot her gaze over to her visitor.

Chell waved.

“Oh, hi.” GLaDOS said, sitting up straighter in her chair and running her fingers carefully through the snowy hair covering her blue eye. She fidgeted slightly before settling on crossing her legs. “To what do I owe the honor…?”

Chell chuckled softly as she approached the glass platform where GLaDOS sat. She shrugged in response, hands in her pockets and eyes downcast. She felt a little underdressed now with her gray sweatpants and messy hair still loose around her shoulders. Glados always dressed much too nicely to just be sitting around all day, Chell thought. Black heels, black stockings, tight black skirts, today the blazer was black too. It couldn't be a comfortable go-to outfit, but it did look nice. Perfect hair, perfect makeup, perfect nails, perfect posture. GLaDOS was beautiful, strikingly so, in a way that made her hard to look at for long without making Chell turn her head away in nervous laughter. GLaDOS herself was equally awkward, though she did a better job of hiding it.

“Well,” she said, “Do you need anything?” GLaDOS tilted her head to the side slightly, giving a glimpse of her right eye as her gaze flicked over Chell curiously. “...Or are you just going to stand there looking pretty?”

Laughter broke from Chell's lips, and a slightly unsure smile came to GLaDOS’s. Chell leaned over before she had a chance to think through it too much and caught the core's chin in her hand, guiding her into a kiss. If nothing else it put GLaDOS at ease a little, Chell could feel her relax and she sighed softly into the kiss. This time it was GLaDOS who bashfully averted her gaze, looking down at her lap when Chell pulled away.

“Well, uh, it's nice to see you too.”

Chell smiled, and nodded to the empty space beside glados in her chair.

“Oh! Yeah, go ahead.” She scooted over a little to give Chell more room, but it was still a comfortable squeeze with both of them there. Chell was getting used to sitting in here with her, after a while GLaDOS would relax against Chells shoulder and let herself be held. Today though there were dozens of thick black cables extending from her back, a new development and an explanation for the strange affixed to her back. The wires ran up to the chassis in a messy tangle and Chell couldn't quite figure out a good way to get an arm around GLaDOS without touching them, which she didn't really want to do. While she considered the situation, GLaDOS sat up abruptly.  

“Oh- hold on.” She leaned forward and turned on the microphone, Chell noticed the harsh shift in her tone when she spoke into it. “What are you two doing? Honestly I should've scrapped you for parts ages ago.”

Chell swung her feet awkwardly, recalling feelings of watching a friend get yelled at by their parents.

“Yes, you.” GLaDOS continued, “Who else would I be talking to?”

Chell could hear faint distressed beeping behind GLaDOS’s sigh as she slumped back in her chair. “Ugh, sorry. They're useless.”

Chell glanced over the monitors for a few moments, and she had to agree. The test the poor little bots were trying to solve was simple enough, and Chell had it figured it in just a few seconds.

“...Frustrating,” she mumbled.

“You don't know the half of it.”

“...I could do it.”

At that GLaDOS shot up straight and looked Chell dead in the eye. Almost immediately though she caught herself and relaxed, looking back at the monitors nonchalantly. “Well, I… I'm sure you could.”

Chell raised an eyebrow in questioning.

GLaDOS continued, “I mean, if you felt like it… there are a few tests you could try. Just some I had lying around.”

Chell smiled, and nodded. Back when she first met GLaDOS she had thought that testing was pretty fun, up until she tried to kill her. The ones after they both woke up again probably could have been fun too, if GLaDOS hadn't still been trying to kill her. But, now GLaDOS was much less likely to commit any murders, so why not give it another go? It wasn't as if Chell had anything better to do down here, and maybe it would be something they could do together.

“Really…?” GLaDOS asked, probably thinking back to the same close calls that Chell was remembering. “It… is dangerous you know. There are no safety considerations in place.”

Chell rolled her eyes. She’d made it through all of GLaDOS’s little tests this far, a few more would be a breeze. Not willing to give the core any more time to doubt Chell got up and stretched her arms, signaling just how ready she was to do anything other than sit around bored for another day.

“Well, fine, if you're going to be so pushy.”

Within no time Chell found herself holding a shiny new portal gun, disappointingly not the same one she'd carved her name into before, with new long fall boots on her feet and very little patience. She bounced idly in the elevator as it went down, and down, and down, to wherever GLaDOS had been building the new testing tracks. Chell tried to keep a mental record of where exactly she was going, just in case she needed to get back out. Finally the elevator slowed its descent, and came to a smooth stop. The doors opened, and Chell all but ran down the dark hall, ignoring the sign on the wall like she always had.

“Think you can beat your record?” Came GLaDOS’s familiar voice over the speakers, a strange callback to before they were quite so friendly. Chell nodded confidently to the nearest camera, and set off.

------

So, maybe that confidence was a bit premature. It took Chell what felt to her like an eternity to solve the relatively simple puzzle, and then once she did figure it out it took even longer to actually execute it. Thankfully GLaDOS had been fairly quiet the whole time, Chell didn't really need any comments about how much difficulty she was having catching a stupid cube. All she had to do was push the button, and then jump in the portal, and if her timing was right down the millisecond, apparently, everything would work and she could take the cube to the laser, and the laser through the portal, and maybe then GLaDOS would let her get some lunch. Chell took a breath and tried her best to calculate the time again, before giving it one more try.

This time would have been perfect, but instead of catching the cube she managed to slam into it mid air and ended up landing hard on her side with a small cut on her cheek. She groaned in frustration, and tossed the portal gun away toward the far wall.

“Hey, careful!” GLaDOS chided, “Do you have any idea how expensive that device is?”

Chell nodded against the floor, pretty sure that GLaDOS had told her before exactly how expensive it was, and she hadn’t listened. Slowly she sat up, and steeled herself to try again. It was going to work eventually, it had to, she just had to keep trying.

Thankfully it only took two more tries to get it right, and from there the rest of the test was easy. Chell carried the cube over to the laser and angled it through the portal to activate the switch. As she lined it up properly GLaDOS spoke over the speakers again.

“There, fina- ah-”

The sound of the speakers abruptly cutting out was covered by that of the exit door sliding open. Chell looked up curiously, signaling to the camera by the door. What happened?

She waited, but no response came, so she just shrugged and headed onward. It was a little strange to not hear GLaDOS’s voice as she walked into the elevator and waited through the short trip down, but Chell supposed the AI didn’t really have a reason to talk to her much now, since she was no longer trying to get under her skin. Even so it was somehow eerie to enter a new test chamber and hear nothing, so Chell paused in front of the first camera and waved to it.

“What?” GLaDOS asked, after a short delay. “Yes, I see you.”

Chell tilted her head to the side as she listened to the voice. GLaDOS must have still been in her human body, if the heavy breath behind her words was anything to go off of. Her tone was so different than it had been just a few minutes ago, but at the same time there was something familiar in it, like Chell had heard her talk this way before… Oh.

Chell couldn't stop the low chuckle that escaped her throat at that dawning realization.

“What? What are you laughing at?” GLaDOS insisted, her voice unmistakably hurried and unsteady.

Chell could practically see the flush on her cheeks as she spoke, remembering clearly the AI’s trembling words as she lay panting in Chell's bed the other morning. She shot a quick smirk at the camera, and walked on into the test chamber. ‘In it for the science’ she said. Yeah, right. Chell would have scoffed before but now the situation was just funny, and kind of cute. And it gave her notably more motivation to finish the next test. It wasn't difficult, and she was pretty certain she had it figured out after her first scan of the room. However as soon as she started placing portals, GLaDOS spoke up.

“Wait- I-” She sputtered. Chell paused in her tracks and looked back at the camera with feigned curiosity. “You… don't have to hurry, you now.”

Chell chuckled again to herself, and carried on. GLaDOS might have said not to hurry, but this chamber was simple, and it wouldn't take long no matter how Chell solved it. As she stepped carefully over another laser a low, approving hum sounded over the speakers. If GLaDOS had been like this from the start maybe things would have been different, at least a little. But then… why hadn't she? Chell thought about it as she maneuvered behind a turret to place a portal on the far wall- GLaDOS had never been so compromised by testing before. Maybe it was her new body? But then she ran tests from it often enough, and didn't seem to have any trouble. If anything watching Blue and Orange test just seemed to annoy her. For a moment Chell wondered if it was just because it was her, if GLaDOS had feelings for her now and that somehow changed things. She shook her head, deciding that was silly. The only other variable she could think of were the new wires connecting GLaDOS to her old body.

Slightly distracted by her musings Chell picked up the turret and carried it over to the ledge, and dropped it into the acid below to get it out of the way.

“Oh.”

Chell looked back at the camera again, and it actually turned away. She grinned. GLaDOS really was adorable sometimes, when she wasn't awful. What else would she like? Chell wondered, looking around the chamber for another turret to drown. Unfortunately there was only the one, so she kept going.

It was easy enough, and the solution Chell saw upon first entering the chamber turned out to be the right one. It took her less than 10 minutes to get the cube she needed over to the button that would unlock the door. As she trotted over to it GLaDOS’s voice came over the speakers once again, sounding impatient despite her best efforts.

“Oh, good, just- … Well, you know what to do from here.”

“Hm?” Chell paused, setting down the cube. Had GLaDOS almost said the solution?

“No don't put it down, come on!”

Chell raised an eyebrow, and smirked. She picked up the cube again.

“Good, just- Chell!”

The test subject's shoulders shook with silent laughter as she set the cube down again, this time right next to the button.

“I know what you're doing. It's not funny.”

Chell shrugged and nodded, thinking that it was in fact pretty funny. She climbed up and sat on top of the cube.

“Oh now you're just being mean.” GLaDOS whined. Her voice was becoming notably less patient, and less composed. Chell stretched her arms and leaned back, relaxing against the cold metal of the cube.

“Chell. Chell get up.”

“Hm?”

“Come on, it's right there,” GLaDOS groaned, “Stop stalling!”  

“Said not to hurry.”

“What- ughh.”

Chell yawned and closed her eyes, laughing to herself at GLaDOS’s frustrated groaning.

“Fine, I see, clearly this chamber was too challenging for you to solve.”

Chell rolled her eyes, GLaDOS could do better than that.

“You're just- where are you going? Hey!” GLaDOS called after Chell as she hopped off the cube and wandered over to the ledge. She aimed her portal gun at the far wall again, lining up a shot.

“What are you… don't you dare. You'll have to do it all again- no!!” Chell could hear GLaDOS hitting something, the arm of her chair maybe? As she stepped through the portal and back to the other side of the room, and back through the emancipation grill right in front of the entrance. Both the portals immediately blinked out of existence, along with the cube.

GLaDOS let out the most exasperated cry Chell had ever heard, her voice getting quieter near the end as she presumably moved away from the microphone.

“Ughhh! You. You have to be the worst test subject who has ever set foot in this facility.”

“High praise.”

“I hate you.”

“I hate you too.”

Chell blew a kiss to the nearest camera, and went on her way to solve the test again. This time around it only took a few minutes, mostly just the time it took her to walk around, she wasn't in any rush after all. All the while GLaDOS grumbled and admonished Chell from the central chamber, the pitch of her voice rising with the rate of her breath as Chell made it back over to the door with her new cube.

“Okay, now just. Don't do that again.”

Chell paused, and thought about it. She thought about it some more.

“Chell!”

“Where does it go?”

“Oh my god.” GLaDOS groaned. Chell swore she could hear her foot tapping quickly in the background. Chell laughed, but she couldn't keep this up forever. It was a little mean, and GLaDOS was starting to sound less playfully annoyed and more genuinely angry, so she moved the cube over the button. GLaDOS’s breath caught in her throat in response- her fed up growling giving way to silent anticipation.

But, Chell wouldn't let her off that easily. She lowered the cube down slowly, and just barely let it rest on the button. The door wasn't even activated, but apparently that was enough for GLaDOS’s system if the squeaky gasp that escaped her was any indication. As soon as that sound left her lips though, Chell moved the cube away again.

She grinned at the ensuing scream that cut through the room, accompanied by the clattering of a clipboard hitting the floor.

“Chell for fuck’s sake.”

“Language.”

“Ugghhh.”

“Ask nicely.”

“What…??” GLaDOS sounded absolutely attacked, her voice shrill and uncomfortable and breathy. “No! Just put--! Ughh, Chell come on.”

Chell shook her head, still holding the cube just a hair's breadth above the button. She wished that she could see GLaDOS’s face, she could hear the movement of fabric and would've killed to see GLaDOS squirming and fidgeting in her chair. Chell looked at the camera and raised an eyebrow. Well?

“You do not need me to ask you to do your one job.”

“Hmm…” well that wasn't the right answer. Chell lifted the cube up higher and started to move away. Flicking her eyes back to the other side of the room again.

“No-! No no, wait, don't start it over again!!”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah- just. Finish the test.

“Finish the test…?” Chell repeated, trailing off in suggestion of one more little word.

“No.” GLaDOS said sternly. Her voice was starting to lose some of the edge of frustration, so Chell quickly tapped the cube back down on the button. GLaDOS squealed in response, a cute high pitched little sound that quickly degraded into a shriek of annoyance.

“You're awful!! God!”

Chell rolled her eyes and nodded.

“Y-you can't stay in there forever, you have to solve it eventually!”

Chell shrugged.  

“Look just do it and I'll- I'll give you something. I promise, you'll like it!”

“Hmm…”

“You're ruini- ah!! Stop that!!” GLaDOS yelled over Chell's laughter as she tapped the cube down again, her voice now shrill and wavering.

“Ask.” said Chell.

“I am asking!”

Chell gave the camera a look. GLaDOS knew what she needed to do, it wasn't hard.

The AI groaned deep in her throat, and grumbled again, “No.”

Chell sighed, and turned back toward the ledge, taking the cube with her.

“No!! No- no no, wait, turn back around, Chell!! Don't you dare.”

Chell paused, but didn't turn around.

There was a moment where she could tell GLaDOS was thinking, mulling over the options in her head. She mumbled and whined and cursed, before finally, she did it.

In a low, growly voice, GLaDOS mumbled “Please.”

There, now was that so hard? Chell smiled triumphantly, and finally dropped the cube on the button.

The noise that GLaDOS made in response was positively lyrical, a deep, throaty moan that Chell was starting to become familiar with but still sent a rush of heat through her body. She stood still for a moment listening, picturing GLaDOS’s pink cheeks and furrowed brow- the tremors of her body as her voice finally gave way to ragged panting.

“Move.” GLaDOS commanded between heavy breaths. Chell startled from her position of staring vaguely in the direction of the speaker and hurried through the open door and onto the elevator. Even GLaDOS’s harsh tone didn't wipe the smile off her face though, she felt as if she'd just learned some great secret.

“Feel good…?” She asked as the elevator doors closed behind her.

“Shut up.”

Chell smirked, but that faded when she realized the elevator was moving in the wrong direction, remarkably fast.

“It seems you found an… unexpected bug.” GLaDOS said as the elevator rose. “How nice.”

A sudden worry overtook Chell- GLaDOS didn't exactly sound happy. She racked her brain trying to remember if there were any good routes away from the central chamber, just in case GLaDOS was really angry with her. Slowly the elevator came to a stop, and the glass doors opened.

Chell scanned the room, but GLaDOS was still sitting on her throne, legs crossed, chin in her hand.

“Come here,” she said.

Chell cautiously stepped into the room, and walked about halfway over to the central platform.

“That was not nearly as satisfying as it might have sounded to some people.” GLaDOS glared from the shadow of her chassis, tapping her foot on the glass platform.

A tension left Chell's shoulders as she realized she probably wasn't in danger, and slowly she closed the distance between herself and the core.

“No?”

“No. And you don't get to start things like that and not finish them properly.”

A small smile tugged at chells lips as she walked up the stairs. “Oops.”

“Just come here, you monster.”

Chell grinned, and scooped GLaDOS up in her arms. The smaller woman melted into her body instinctively, wrapping her arms and legs around her easily.

“You know,” she said, “you still have to finish the rest of the tests.”

Chell rolled her eyes, and shut GLaDOS up with a kiss.

[sweet-christabel]

A Trusted Friend In Science

FF.net: (x) AO3: (x)

Chapter Thirty-Seven - 2036. Living With It.

The sun was hot on the back of Chell’s neck; once a welcome heat, now an annoyance. She wiped a hand across her forehead, adjusting her hat. She’d made it herself, weaving strands of straw together until it vaguely resembled a wide-brimmed fedora. It was the most hideous-looking thing she’d ever seen, and she wore it with pride.

She moved into the shade of the house, swinging her basket to the ground. Sitting on the blissful coolness that was the porch, she set to work washing her morning’s haul in a bucket, sighing as she dipped her hot hands into the water. She appraised each potato as she scrubbed it, searching for imperfections. It was with some irony that she reflected on her thriving potato crop. It was by far the best-growing food product in the garden. Although she was grateful to have a thriving crop of anything, Chell couldn’t help but wish for greater success with the tomatoes, beans, wheat or any of the fruit trees. Anything but potatoes. She ate them, of course, but it was still disconcerting to cook something that had once spent considerable time talking to her.

“Not the same potato,” she reminded herself, as she had done countless times since.

A chicken rounded the corner of the house, beady eyes appraising her with a suspiciously judging expression.

“Oh, don’t you sass me, madam,” Chell addressed it sternly, gesturing with the potato she happened to have in hand. “Start laying again and maybe you’ll have earned the right to look so snooty.”

The chicken nonchalantly stared at her for a moment, before pecking at the grain that littered the ground. Chell watched it and its companions while she worked, amused by the way they fussed around the yard, their world reduced to the haphazard wire fencing that she had constructed around the borders of her garden. The house was a comfortable size that she had built herself, (with a lot of help from kind volunteers), and the garden was her livelihood. She’d designed it mostly for function, with the vegetable beds, fruit trees, and hen houses taking up much of the space, but she’d left room for flowers and a bench, and a modest memorial spot in one corner. Since it was the only house and garden for several miles, there was plenty of room for expansion if it was needed.

She was just rinsing off the last potato when a noise caught her attention. Glancing sideways, she heard the rattle of a key, then the door to the tiny outbuilding opened and a scientist stepped through. Her scientist, to be exact. She felt a smile break out on her face.

Doug looked stressed, his hair sticking up in wild spikes, but he returned her smile when he saw her, weaving his way through the chickens to sit beside her on the porch steps.

“Hi,” he greeted, ducking under the brim of her terrible hat to kiss her.

Chell obligingly pushed it up out of the way, tasting coffee on his lips, inhaling the faint, unchanged scent of the labs that hung about him like a cloud.

“How’s your day going?” she asked when he sat back.

“Slowly,” he replied at once. “The device is fighting back at every turn. The calibration needs tweaking. Again. I can’t seem to get it quite right.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” she told him, gently chiding. “You’re building a country-wide – potentially world-wide – travel network. It was never going to be straightforward.”

“I know,” he said, folding his arms over his knees. “It will come together eventually, I’m sure. It’s just sometimes…I kind of wish that Caroline had dreamed slightly smaller.”

She tried and failed to hide her amusement. “I’m sorry, but she was right. It’s stupid to have working portal technology and confine it to puzzle-solving. It should be used to cross long distances, especially now that the world is how it is.”

“I know that,” Doug said with a sigh, running a hand through his hair. “I think she’s right too. I just have a headache. I want to get on with the work, not be tied up reporting to the damn president. I’m a terrible frontman for this project.”

“I disagree,” Chell countered, setting the potato down and drying her hands on the legs of her jeans. “The only reason I want you to step down from that position is because you don’t want to be there. But otherwise, you’re actually pretty good at it.”

“The only reason I’m staying put is because I don’t trust Kleiner with it,” he confided.

“Kleiner seems happy tinkering with the robots. And Angela’s keeping an eye on him.”

“Yes,” he agreed. “He’s good at running that department, I have to admit. But still…he’d have the right to get in on this, especially as one of the founders of this new Aperture. I think…I think I’m going to hand over to GLaDOS.”

Chell raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Will President James deal with an A.I.?”

“Once I introduce her to him, she’ll probably make a convincing case for herself without my help, but I’ll try and persuade him. How’s your day going?”

“Not bad,” Chell reported, nudging the basket with the toe of her boot. “I got a lot of potatoes again. You can take them back with you if you want. Gerry can use them in the cafeteria.”

Once again, Aperture ran alongside their lives, engulfing almost everyone they knew. But this time, it didn’t feel oppressive. Perhaps it was the state of the war-torn world they lived in, and the fact that the lab’s resources were being used responsibly for the first time in years – possibly ever – but Chell knew that neither one of them felt tied to it this time around.

After they had returned from their initial conversation with GLaDOS, both had formed set opinions about the propositions she had laid at their feet. Sitting in the back of Gordon’s car, they had shared those opinions and made plans for the future. Chell had admitted how returning to Aperture had made her feel safe, and Doug had said the same, confirming her suspicions that they were united in the realisation that escaping had done nothing to sever their ties to the place. It was there that their feelings differed.

Chell had resolutely decided not to take GLaDOS up on her offer. She had been tempted. The thought of resuming her old job, assisting with the running of the facility, and the familiar and new challenges it would throw up had looked appealing. It would have meant a place and purpose, an answer to the uncertainties she’d been worrying about ever since they had re-joined society. But it would have been the easy way forward, and Chell had never done anything the easy way. Instead, she’d set herself the task of becoming self-sufficient, of building a place to live not far from Julie and Angela, so that Doug could spend time with his sister when he wanted. It was the toughest challenge she’d ever faced, but she’d weathered it and emerged triumphant, providing not only for herself and Doug, but adding to the food supplies of the city of Wyoming and Aperture’s cafeteria. Compared to some of the farms, what she contributed was tiny, but it was all helpful, it was all needed, and it gave her more satisfaction than she’d anticipated upon starting up.

By contrast, Doug had become an Aperture scientist once more. For him, it was not about taking the easy route, but a desperate need to go back and fix what had gone wrong. There was no way to undo the past, of course, but Chell knew how much he needed to turn his work there into something more positive than it had been. He wanted to help move the company forward, to contribute to making the world better. She understood his reasoning, even if she couldn’t do it herself. He was trying to change his own perception of the place, so that it held no power over him. He could never forget that GLaDOS had killed his co-workers, just as Chell could never forget what had happened to her father, but they both knew it worked the other way too: GLaDOS would never forget how they had worked to bring her down twice. Tentative trust began to build up, bizarrely based on a foundation of mutual distrust. From there, they were all able to move forward.

Doug was working closely with GLaDOS to put portal technology to the more practical use that Caroline had first envisioned. It enabled him to live in Wyoming and commute to Ishpeming in a single footstep. Chell had built him a small outbuilding, where he had installed one of the panels that she remembered from tests, the ones that had supported the pre-placed portals. It linked to a similar small room inside his lab. Both were kept securely locked, for safety and privacy reasons, and they had proved a successful first application of the technology. Now they were thinking bigger, finding ways to cross states, even continents, as Chell’s shot to the moon had already proved that range wasn’t an issue. Doug was busy developing different portal frequencies so that there wouldn’t be any mishaps with destinations, working on the back of the techniques GLaDOS had developed when building the co-operative testing initiative, which allowed for four portals within the same puzzle.

New Aperture, as they had nicknamed it, had changed many of the lives around them. Chell sometimes went in with Doug, running through a few test chambers for old time’s sake. GLaDOS seemed to enjoy the opportunity to be spiky with her again, and Chell didn’t mind it so much now that she’d ensured the proper safety features were in place. Without deadly lasers, toxic goo, or lethal turret rounds to deal with on top of the barbed comments, the comments alone seemed much easier to brush off. Secretly, she knew it would have felt very strange to test without hearing them. She’d always enjoyed the challenge of the tests, somewhere deeply buried under the stress, anger and fear. Sometimes she relished the chance to set her garden aside and focus her mind.

Kleiner had happily accepted a job in the labs, and he was working on a series of non-sentient robots to aid with manual labour, dabbling in artificial intelligence on the side. Doug’s niece, Angela, had joined as his assistant, and to ensure that he didn’t get too carried away. Gordon had been offered a post, but had politely refused on grounds of enjoying his retirement. He had, however, taken on the task of distributing some of GLaDOS’s cures, which had only served to heighten his hero status, despite his adamant claims that he had had nothing to do with their development. He quickly gave that up, not just because of the attention, but also due to the fact that he and Alyx had their hands full following the birth of Eliza, their daughter. Occasionally, he would take some time out to visit and join Chell in running a few co-operative tests, and the two often engaged in friendly competition, despite the fact that the tests called for teamwork.

The citizens of Ishpeming had benefitted from Aperture’s re-emergence. Many of them got jobs there, as office clerks or test subjects, (again, with proper safety protocols in place), and Gerry had happily taken over the cafeteria. Chell had learned that he’d shown an interest in cooking before the war, and she was pleased that he’d managed to find a way to integrate it into his life. Trevor, like her, opted to stay aboveground, but he had his hands full growing produce for the sudden influx of residents in the town, mostly scientists who came to join Aperture’s new ventures.

Chell had a pleasing balance of solitude and company between her garden and the labs, and she could escape to either one as she wished. She didn’t even have to worry about Wheatley, as Angela had fallen head over heels as soon as she had been introduced to the talkative core, and had offered to look after him, instantly fascinated in his construction. Although GLaDOS had not relented on her decision to keep him away from Aperture, Angela still learned enough in her spare time to start developing new cores, albeit ones without the combination of ambition, selfishness and resentment that had led to Wheatley’s disastrous time in charge. Wheatley, in return, seemed to enjoy her company without the edge of guilt that would always taint his relationships with Chell and Doug, and the two of them muddled along well together, although Julie found his presence in her house trying, to say the least.

“You know what the hardest thing has been?” Chell spoke up, all the introspection making her want to share some of her reflections.

Doug blinked, momentarily taken aback by the change of topic, unaware of Chell’s lengthy thought process. “What?”

“Learning that we were going about things all wrong by running away from Aperture. We spent so long trying to escape. It was so jarring when it didn’t really solve anything.”

“I know what you mean,” he said with a nod. “The solution to our peace of mind wasn’t escaping Aperture but finding a way to live with it.”

“We couldn’t have figured that out any faster than we did, though,” Chell added with certainty. “We had to spend the time doing what we did in order to come to that conclusion.”

“GLaDOS had to reach it too,” Doug said quietly. “Do you think you can ever forgive her? Truly forgive her, I mean?”

Chell was silent for a long while before answering. She’d asked herself the same question many times before.

“I don’t know. It’s hard. It feels…impossible. But even if I don’t forgive, I do understand. I get why she reacted the way she did. So that’s a start, I guess.” She shrugged. “That’s more than I expected, given our history.”

A comfortable silence fell between them as they sat in the shade, looking out over their garden. Chell never forgot how lucky they’d been, how close they’d come – on multiple occasions – to never having a life like the one they’d built.

“I should get back,” Doug said at length, stretching his legs out.

“You haven’t eaten,” Chell reprimanded.

“I had a sandwich before I left. I just wanted to see you.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere, Mr. Rattmann,” she said with a grin.

“I’ll hold you to that!”

She stood up to give him a hug, sending him off to the outbuilding that housed the portal with her usual parting words.

“Go make the world better.”

Holding the basket of potatoes in one hand, he turned to awkwardly give her a salute before disappearing through the door. She watched him go with a fond smile. Another unlikely hero, like Gordon. Like herself. She knew Doug would never accept the label, but she’d given it to him in the privacy of her own thoughts. The war had made unlikely heroes of many people. Secluded from it in Aperture, they’d faced their own.

Left alone, Chell sat back down on the top step, watching the chickens peck. Wheatley had developed a strange sort of fearful fascination with them the last time he and Angela had visited. He was terrified of them because they were birds, but somewhat mollified by the fact that they couldn’t fly. After pushing past his initial alarm, he’d taken to making brash observations about them, bolstered by the bravado of being propped safely out of reach on the porch steps. He still wasn’t sure what to make of the cockerel.

Chell glanced towards the memorial in the corner of the garden, pondering what she’d said to Doug. She’d been honest with him about how she felt about forgiving GLaDOS. She didn’t know if she ever could, and she had no answers for whether that was fair or not. It seemed utterly unthinkable, if she was brutally honest, and she knew it had played a small part in her refusal to work at new Aperture. But once upon a time, understanding the reasons why GLaDOS had done what she’d done had seemed impossible too, and yet Chell did understand, and even felt a tiny measure of sympathy. That was a step towards forgiveness for sure. The problem was, Chell didn’t know if she wanted to forgive, whether it would feel like a betrayal to her father and all the others that had lost their lives to tests and neurotoxin.

She tried to think about what her father would say, what kind of advice he’d give, but the harsh truth was that she just didn’t know. He’d closed himself off from her in later years, to the point that she was forced to accept that she hadn’t known him very well. At the end, at least. She hoped that he’d have told her to be true to herself, because her own judgement was all she had to go on.

Perhaps she would forgive. One day. And when that day came, perhaps she’d be okay with it.

“Time will tell,” she said aloud. “You can’t force it.”

When she’d first started to develop a friendship with Doug, what she’d appreciated most about him was the way they could bounce opinions off each other, and argue their points in a fair debate. That hadn’t changed, even if everything else had, but their conversations often made her face things she’d rather not. She knew it was good for her, but it wasn’t always welcome. Still, it was a small price to pay to have him in her life.

Her life was good. It wasn’t what she’d expected after everything she’d been through, and she was grateful for every part of it. She’d lived so long on a knife’s edge, with the weight of tension pressing down on her, and then in an adrenaline-fuelled nightmare. There was nothing in her new life that ever surprised her, and she found it refreshing. Eventually, she suspected she’d tire of it and seek out something to keep her more challenged, but for now she relished just how reliable everything was. Nothing changed unless she gave it express permission, and she was more than happy with the feeling. She didn’t want to be surprised by a single thing for a good long while yet.

Much later in the afternoon, while she was elbow-deep in the vegetable patch, there came the rattling of the lock on the outbuilding, and Doug’s head appeared around the door, his expression preoccupied and apologetic.

“Uh…” he said.

Chell stood up, old fragments of alarm starting to uncurl in the pit of her stomach, and she cursed herself for tempting fate with her earlier thoughts. “Oh god, what?”

“I may have accidentally…” He took a deep breath, and Chell braced herself. “…agreed to watch over a toddler,” he spat out, words hurrying over each other after his initial hesitation.

Chell blinked at him.

“She…Gerry found her. In the wheat field, next to the body of her mother. They were starving. I mean…well, the girl had had food, but obviously the mother hadn’t, and…she’s all alone, I figured we could look after her for a bit. We have the space. I know I should have asked you, but…it’s literally just happened and GLaDOS has just invented a no-children policy. Gerry and Trevor don’t have room to take on a child, I don’t want to ask Julie, so I just thought…” He trailed off again and shrugged.

Chell took in his anxious demeanour, taken aback by his obvious desire to help. She’d never really labelled him as the paternal sort. In fact, his own words to her had spoken of his concerns about whether he was even suited to childcare. Of course that had been before, back when he’d still been coping with his condition, not giving himself enough credit for his control over it. Now he was free of it, but barring a residual, outward sense of calmness that he’d never allowed himself before, he was largely unchanged.

She debated whether she could handle taking care of an orphaned toddler, and whether she really felt up to it, but she was already moving towards the outdoor water pump, rinsing the soil off her hands.

“Lead the way,” she said.

“You don’t mind?”

“I was an orphan once too, remember?” she told him, joining him in the outbuilding and locking the door behind them. In a single step, she was standing on the Aperture-standard carpet tiles of his lab. “We should help where we can until we can come up with a long-term solution.”

He met her gaze, nodding firmly. “Agreed.”

Feeling strangely nervous, she added, “She shouldn’t stay too long, though. I wouldn’t want her to get attached.”

“No, nor me.”

“And someone should do something about the poor mother.”

“Gerry’s taken care of it.” He let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair. “If only she’d been able to make it into town.”

Chell reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze. “She still might not have survived,” she said gently. “You know as well as I do that it’s a harsh world out there now.”

He nodded. “That’s why I wanted to help. The girl…she’s not old enough to understand what’s happened. She only knows a few words, but one of them is ‘Mom’…or some variation of it, at least.”

She squeezed his hand again. “So let’s go help.”

Doug looked down at her, and she saw her own nervousness reflected in his face. Briefly, she wondered why they were putting themselves through it, but she knew how desperate he was to help people, to atone for those he couldn’t help before. It was the right thing to do.

Together, they left the small room that the portal was locked away in, walking Aperture’s familiar corridors on the way to their mercy mission. It was simple: they would look after the girl, find her a place to live, someone to love her, then, when she was ready, she would leave. They could handle a short period of responsibility, Chell was sure. It was the simplest plan in the world.

It happened exactly as she’d intended it would. Almost.

They did look after the girl, and when she was ready, she did leave…at the age of twenty-three, when she wanted her own space.

In hindsight, Chell wasn’t surprised that their daughter had come from Aperture. Their lives had always been tied to it. They’d just needed to find a way to live with it in peace, and peace was a luxury they’d finally earned. She could live with that.

The End.

A/N: That’s it, guys, final chapter. Thanks to everyone who came along for the ride. It’s been fun :D