It's been a year since she was released from Aperture, and still she watches the sky at night, imagining that somehow he can see her. Imagining that somehow he knows she's sorry.

She thinks about him all the time, to the point where it interferes with her everyday life. She's thinking about him now, as she makes her way through a busy sidewalk with a few books in her arms, heading home from the library. People bump against her from all sides, but she pays no attention to them until all of a sudden someone bumps her from the front. She gasps in surprise as her books fall to the ground, and she drops to her knees to gather them up.

"Oh!" The man who bumped her at least has the decency to bend down and help her pick them up, and once she's got them all back in her arms, she gives him a terse smile and tries to leave, but he's having none of it. "I'm really sorry! Wasn't watching where I was going, and, well…I hope you're all right. You're not bleeding or anything, are you? Are your books all right?"

But she's stopped listening, because the face is not familiar, but that voice. It's his voice, and her mouth drops open as she realizes who's talking to her. But he's talking like he's never seen her before, and she wonders why he doesn't recognize her.

"Professor Pendleton Wheatley," he says, giving her a friendly smile when she doesn't respond. "I work at the university just around the corner. I teach physics. Actually used to work at Aperture Science—have you ever heard of it? It was the leader in its field for quite some time. I worked in the field of artificial intelligence." He sighs. "Of course, there hasn't been any research that could even come close to that in decades."

She still doesn't respond, because her brain is working overtime, trying to figure out what this all means. All she's been able to work out so far is that this man isn't him. He sounds like him, might have worked to create him, but he's not him.

"So!" he says after another moment. "Do you have a name? Or do I have to guess?" He gives her a large smile that somehow reminds her of his robotic counterpart, and she has to fight to keep tears from coming to her eyes. She thinks she's doing a good job, but he notices anyway, and he looks worried. "Are you all right? I didn't hurt you when I knocked you down, did I? Tell you what, let me buy you lunch to make up for it, all right? It's the least I can do."

She shakes her head as fast as she can, still unsure of what's going on, but positive that she can't be around this man who calls himself Wheatley any longer. He looks a bit hurt, but stands to the side as she shoves her way past.

"Maybe some other time, then?" he calls out hopefully as she blends into the crowd.