Chapter Text
She had been left with no choice, it was as simple as that.
When Chell took her first steps into the wheat field, she was optimistic; the sun was shining, the world outside was full of mystery again. She knew a lot of time had passed, but she had hoped to find a city soon. Maybe humanity hadn't changed much.
After a week of walking north from sun up to sun down, living only on the berries and various other strange types of fruit she could find (each new type she tried was a game of Russian Roulette; it might be poisonous, it might be safe, or it might give her food poisoning like that round purple-bluish one did) she realized she would not survive long out here with sources of fresh water few and far between, limited to small ponds and puddles she stumbled upon every so often.
She eventually made the gut wrenching decision to turn back, knowing that giving herself up was the end of her freedom, what she had fought for and tested for and been shot at for and exposed to deadly neurotoxin for and had nearly died for.
But she had to live. She couldn't just allow herself to die.
As she took a breath, opened the shed door and stepped onto the platform, the elevator almost immediately began moving down with a small hitch.
This time, there were no singing turrets, no grand welcome.
As she passed into GLaDOS' chamber, she felt her stomach sink and the mechanical chuckle that bounced off the walls didn't help.
"Back already?" the A.I. turned in her chassis towards her former test subject, and the grin was almost audible in her voice. "I thought you would have lasted longer."
Chell glared daggers at her former captor, but nights of fragile and uneasy sleep on a hard ground, malnutrition and dehydration had taken their toll on her. She was already swaying uneasily side to side with exhaustion, threatening to collapse.
A deal was worked out between them, except this time, Chell had some semblance of leverage; GLaDOS knew she could destroy her if she was pushed too far. But Chell also knew the consequences of biting the hand that fed her. Literally.
Chell would test. Eight hours a day at least, like a regular job. She would be granted personal time, time for sleep, or relaxation, or "doing whatever it is you do when you're not destroying the facility." But she would also be fed, taken care of, and left well enough alone outside of testing.
"Like a pet," Chell thought with disgust as she drifted off to sleep in one of the beds in the employee dormitories after her first day of her return to testing.
Chell was surprised to find that she was treated... quite well. Much better than before. The insults were kept to the occasional joke about her nonexistant chubbiness, or her adopted status, or her attempted escape with Wheatley. And even when she did, it seemed more good-natured than before. Like a punch on the arm between friends than a punch in the face by an enemy.
She knew something had changed between them down there, in the bowels of Aperture.
GLaDOS had fed her quite well, actually- given her access to the facility cafeteria where vast stores of food had been kept to upkeep the large amount of employees Aperture had once had. It was all non-perishable, and still edible after all these years.
This arrangement was actually working out, surprisingly.
Until Chell got sick.
It was nothing much, just a common cold. But being in this sterile facility for so long had weakened her immune system, so it completely took it out of her. It hit her out of the blue; she slept completely past the alarm.
About ten minutes past when she was supposed to report for testing, GLaDOS' voice came over the intercom.
"Wake up, test subject," she cooed in a mock sing-song voice. "There's science to be done."
Chell finally pried her eyes open, but buried her face in the comfort of the pillow even more, and pulled the covers up over her head. Her head was pounding and every bone in her body whined with a dull ache. She just wanted to sleep; she didn't care if GLaDOS made her do sixteen hours of testing tomorrow to make up for the eight she wanted to miss today, she felt awful and wanted to return to that wonderful dream she was having...
"Hey, don't go back to sleep," GLaDOS admonished. "Get out of bed."
Chell started to turn over and ignore her until a thought popped into her mind.
How did GLaDOS know she was still in bed? There were no cameras in her room-
Chell threw the covers off and almost leaped out of bed, quickly scanning the room and ignoring the pain that pulsed through her body.
A mechanical sigh echoed through the room. "Well, yes, I do have hidden cameras in the room. You were going to find out eventually, I suppose. They're in all the employee dormitories, though, so it's not as if I set up something special for you."
No. She knew GLaDOS. She had been watching her.
She had watched her while she slept.
She had watched her undress and take showers.
She had watched her-
Chell's face grew red hot with embarrassment and she she almost fell back onto the bed. Her face contorted in a mix of rage, humiliation, and shame.
"Is that what you're so embarrassed about?" GLaDOS gave a haughty little chuckle. "It's human sexuality. I don't care about it in slightest."
It didn't make the wet blanket of humiliation that had been thrown onto her any less heavy.
"Don't think I watch you all the time, either. I check in every once in a while. See how you're doing. But unless you're planning to destroy the facility again, I have no interest in what you do in your personal time."
Chell swallowed the lump that was in her throat and tried to remind herself that this was an A.I. she was talking to. A computer. Computers didn't have sexualities.
"Anyway, if you can jump out of bed like that, you can test. Now report to the elevator."
She slowly shuffled to her bathroom and took some of the spare cold medicine she found, and then made her way to the elevator.
It may not have been eye contact technically, but Chell still couldn't bring herself to so much as glance at any of the cameras.