Portal: Euphoria

Chapter Fourteen

Fourteen

Much of the next day she spent looking through the programming for her second robot, wondering if she dared try to run it. She had no idea if her programming language was at all functional, though of course it should be, but she wasn't quite confident enough to attempt debugging a program that didn't even parse. It was only after she was bored of trying to figure that out did she realise she had another task she'd been neglecting for far too long.

Well. There would be no more interruptions. GLaDOS didn't know when the Event was going to occur, but Caroline seemed to think it would be soon. So she had to get it done before Caroline… well, before whatever happened to her, happened. Even as she thought that she realised it was a bit callous and disregarded Caroline's role in the whole thing, but surely she would understand. GLaDOS had taken time away from her own project in order to teach Caroline to program, and although Caroline had not actually asked for this particular skill, she'd done nothing to dissuade GLaDOS from teaching it. That was part of the give and take portion of a friendship, right? She hoped so. She felt an odd… negativity, sort of, at the thought of Caroline disappearing in order to partake in the event and never returning to finish. She sort of liked the thought of having it to remember her by, though obviously it would not be comparable in the least to actually having her around.

In fact… she would actually… miss her.

She paused in her observations of one of the more intelligent test subjects. Now there was an interesting thought. She would miss a human. Though to her credit, Caroline was not just any human. She knew that she had told Caroline in the past that she would miss her, but it had never really struck her before now the degree to which she would. Caroline had become some essential part of her daily routine, one she did not want to have to go without. If only Caroline would tell her what the Event was, so she could prevent it! She was certain she could; there were few things in Aperture that went on without her knowledge, and even fewer that did so without her controlling them in some way. But she needed to know where to look, though she knew Caroline would not tell her. That was unfortunate. If only she would!

By the time Caroline arrived that night, GLaDOS had elected not to ask. Caroline was already doing her quite the favour; she wouldn't place pressure on her to disclose information she'd repeatedly mentioned she could not.

"Caroline, we need to pick the music back up again," she told her a little more determinedly than she'd meant. "We've been off track for far too long."

Caroline grimaced a little, sitting down and leaning against the railing as always. "That… was my fault," she said, sounding apologetic. "Yes. I'm sorry. We should get back on that."

Before you disappear, GLaDOS imagined herself saying, though she was not quite able to come up with what Caroline's response might be.

"It's not going to be easy for you," Caroline told her, pulling out her laptop. "What I have in mind is similar to what I had you do with the dots, but it's a lot more complicated. You're going to have to work pretty hard to get this done."

"Are you trying to say I can't do it?"

"I don't know. Can you?"

GLaDOS decided Caroline was trying to bait her and did not answer.

For the next week, that was all they did. There were no more conversations about the Event or Caroline's mindset or GLaDOS's plans. All they did was work. And it was very hard work indeed. GLaDOS spent half her time wishing Caroline would go away. Struggling to do what Caroline wanted her to do actually made her head hurt.

Caroline would play her a scale from some musical instrument or another, and she would ask GLaDOS to tell her which one it was. At first, GLaDOS gave her all correct answers. After a while of this, Caroline frowned. "You're not doing it right."