My very first story in the Portal fandom. I don't think I'm leaving here anytime soon, guys. xD

Some Wheatley/GLaDOS/Caroline/Cave if you squint.

Before there were lonely chambers and empty promises, before the thinly veiled lies and odd companionship, before the confusion and hurt and denial, there were three ordinary people.

They lived three separate, ordinary (well, maybe a bit odd) lives. She was a bubbly assistant, capable and smart, always ready with the latest blueprints or a cup of black coffee. He was a lab worker who was just a little bit slow on the uptake, who laughed just a little bit late, who knew exactly what everyone else thought but put a friendly grin on anyway. And she was just barely alive, just beginning to develop some semblance of a personality, a girl who loved puzzles, a girl who had no way of knowing how cruelly that love would be turned upon her.

And she had a crush on her boss, and he was terrified of needles, and she wondered why her daddy had to work so much, but loved him all the same.

And she felt helpless sometimes, and he felt useless sometimes, and sometimes she lay on her bed and tried not to cry while her parents argued.

And they were human.

Once in a while she would pass him in the halls, or he would give her some papers and blush as he realized they were out of order, or they'd chat a bit awkwardly and cheerfully in the break room, and once their hands brushed and he had turned bright red.

Sometimes she'd go to visit the daycare when she had a bit of spare time, and she'd be intrigued by the little girl in the corner who didn't cry, didn't scream, just sat there and drew and gave her bright smile whenever she walked in.

Once her father had left her in his office for a bit too long and she'd gotten bored and wandered away, and eventually he had found her and chattered away happily to her as he walked her back.

While their lives weren't perfect, they lived them all the same. They were young. She knew she would work there forever, he wondered if he could ever accomplish more, and she thought she had all the time in the world to grow up.

Things changed.

Her boss, her love, her friend was dead. The hope who had pulled her out of the gutter and offered her a fresh new start was gone. The man that she had worked so hard for, the man through who she learned to love the company and the work it did as much as he did, the only person in the world that had ever truly understood her was never coming back.

And she would live with this knowledge forever.

She was going to live forever.

She wanted to fight, but it was the last true wish of the man she loved. She couldn't deny it. She knew that even if she did, she'd somehow be forced into it anyway.

For all their complaints, for all their threats of leaving, they all respected Cave Johnson as much as she did. And they wouldn't let his dream go unrealized.

So even if he had hastened just a little bit more to leave for work that morning, even if he had arrived in time to stop the whole operation, even if he hadn't just stood in the doorway, pale, shaking, and sweating, there was nothing to be done for it.

Caroline Anderson was gone.

The look on her face after they removed the tubes and wires, the horror he felt when he realized she was dead dead dead her mind a machine,the sick realization that she would remember that horrible feeling for eternity, the inhumanity of it all gave him nightmares.

And what bothered him the most was that he knew he could do nothing about it.

He had never felt so very useless.

So he watched as she was turned on with everyone else, felt the same horror as they did when she turned on the neurotoxin, but after the power off button was pressed and everyone was alive, he couldn't help but understand her reasoning.

And the cores were installed, and they were getting somewhere, and suddenly all his uselessness became useful.

He knew when they called for him that it wouldn't be good.

The chamber was empty save a few scientists, a cot, an empty core, and a lot of machinery.

He had screamed, he had fought, he had even cried, and still the damn bloody scientists strapped him to the bed and fed his very consciousness, his very being into a computer, and suddenly he had lost his name and his memories and he was just The Intelligence Dampening Sphere, created to be the one thing he had always strove against.

Matthew Wheatley was gone.

She didn't need to ask to be taken to Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. She sat in the car, humming a tune happily, looking out the window and swinging her feet as she held the potato battery happily to her lap.

And she had looked around once and asked where the nice lady who came in and read stories to her sometimes and the tall man daddy worked with who had the glasses and the funny accent was, and her father's expression turned dark as he walked on without answering.

She set her potato battery down next to the others, inwardly wishing she had done something else, and then hurried off to follow the group of girls as they were led to a different part of the facility.

It had looked like a statue, hanging from the ceiling like that, and Chell had wanted to draw it, but then they were told that it was a she, she was named GLaDOS (there they had to pause while the little girls all tried to pronounce it) and that she would be waking up soon.

They were led up to the observation booth, and they waited.

And then there was a calm robotic voice and there was green gas and there was screaming and crying and more people yelling and she was running away away away and she was going to be trampled so she turned a corner and hid, shaking, until the noise and the screaming stopped completely, and there was the hum of machinery and silence.

And it was dark.

And Michelle Griffith, a girl who barely had a chance to be alive, was gone, but far from dead.

And she was cynical and sarcastic and somehow loving, and he was blathering and funny and somehow evil, and she was quiet and determined and somehow sane.

When it was all over, she was below the earth, he was above the sky, and she was under the clouds.

And they were GLaDOS, Wheatley, and Chell.

Were they human?