yessirmrjohnson | (no subject)

Cave let out a shrill whistle, serving both to drown out whatever Elena was saying, and get the attention of his departing assistant. No one walked away from Cave Johnson without his approval.

"I said I was demoting you, not transferring you to Mexico. But if that's that way you feel, fine. Whenever you feel your jobs worth it, come back and apologize. To both of us."

It was three weeks since Caroline had left and no one heard from her. She made no effort to contact him or answer any calls that may have been made to her. Elena happily took the prized desk by his office, but tried to spend more time in his office. She hated dealing with all the other employees and the stuff they put on her desk might as well be in Greek.

Elena sighed on the corner of his desk where she was filing her nails. "Why don't you hire an assistant for me, Cavey? I don't have enough time to spend with you."

"An..assistant? You are the assistant."

Cave attempted to understand the suggested assistant-ception, and failed.

"Anyway, there really isn't money in the budget for that right now sweetheart. Perhaps after the next round of hiring."

While Caroline's departure had indeed freed up a significant chunk of money, he had to keep that money open in anticipation of a new head of research, a title that was unofficially held by his former assistant. While he was more than capable of running things on the business side, he would begrudgingly have to admit he didn't actually know enough about science to work the research side of things.

Unfortunately, he'd either found all potential applicants rude, incompetent, or as disgusting as all get out. The position went brutally unfilled in Caroline's absence.

After two months and the position still unfulfilled, their developments began to stagnate. Memos and communications broke down in the office due to the fact that Elena couldn't care less about what was on them or where they had to go. She figured if she did a bad enough job, Cave would give in and hire her a lackey to do the boring things. Besides, she had bigger things on her mind.

"Cavey," Elena cooed as she just walked into his office without asking. "You know what I just found out? Jenny in accounting just got engaged. She looked so happy I was pretty jealous. My mother keeps bothering me about when I'll get married, but I tried to explain to her how busy you are." She took her normal perch on the corner of his desk. "I know you'll ask someday."

"Jenny? Really? Huh. Never thought she'd corner some poor shmuck."

A short silence before Cave realized what she was getting at.

"Of course...not that I'd need to be cornered. Heavens no. Nope. Why, I was certainly planning on asking. You know, when the time is right."

Cave coughed, expertly covering up his mistake. Or not.

"Just don't wait too long, I want to look good in our wedding photos." She leaned across the desk and gave him a kiss before heading out.

It was raining that night. Around two in the morning there was a loud banging at the door. Behind it was Caroline, soaked and shivering.

Cave answered the door wearing a velvet robe, bed head, and a grumpy face. The man was clearly sound asleep before Caroline's disturbance.

"Caroline? What the hell are you--?", his question cut off by a loud yawn.

"Do you know what time it is? Whatever you're here for, it can wait until tomorrow."

He turns, about to close the door.

"I-I know." She wobbled in a way that might only be familiar from his own experience. She was drunk, a state he'd have never seen her in in all of their years. "I walked here. From down town." It was a ten mile walk at least. "I needed to see you I..Just. Just listen?"

Cave raised a concerned brow, and took a quick lock outside. Two in the morning or not, he'd rather people didn't see a drunken woman stumble into his house. And he wasn't about to turn away a drunken woman to do on a ten mile walk in the middle of the night. Legal responsibility or no, there are some things that simply aren't done.

More to get her inside where people couldn't see her than of a sense of concern, Cave ushered her inside.

"Fine, fine. We can talk a bit, and then I call you a cab. Okay?"

She nodded and hurried inside. Once Cave closed the door, she blurted out the first question "How. How's Aperture doing? Is it ok?"

"Oh you know. Fine, overall."

It wasn't a lie. The company, while not remotely as profitable as it was without her, was indeed still making money, despite the lack of focus on research. Of course, he wouldn't tell her that.

"And how are you holding up? Doing lots of...whatever it is...you do?"

She sat there near his door, worried if she kept standing on her wobbling and sore feet she might fall over. "Really? I. That's good. Good. I'm glad. That's...so she's good? Better than me? Prettier, a lot prettier and just as smart. I, well I can't blame you for trading up. You were always shrewd. Ap-Aperture deserves a good, pretty, smart woman. You, hell, you deserve one like her. I. Good good it's good. You didn't even need me." She let out a laugh that slowed into sobs as she covered her face with her hands.

This should be illegal, Cave thought to himself. This, right here. How was a man supposed to deal with a situation like this in the best of times, let alone at 2AM? This simply wasn't fair. He knelt down, and awkwardly attempted to pat her back in consolation.

"Aperture could always use someone like you, Caroline. There there."

Uncertain of the right face to make, his sleeping mind settled on a half confused, half smiling expression. He really didn't know what to make of this.

"But do could you? Am...was I just another employee to you? I-I mean after all this time and everything and all it takes is one pretty, pretty face and... You're so smart, it can't be because you don't understand. You're just too nice to tell me. But I've got it, I've got the picture. I did try though. I tried to look nice everyday. I could have spent a little more time in the morning, but I was so excited to get to work I didn't put on nearly as much makeup as I could have or put as much thought into which shoes might match may purse. Oh! It's my hair isn't it? If you had wanted someone blonde, I would have dyed it for you. It's. Late for that. It's late right now. Oh god, I'm. I shouldn't have come. I'm sorry. I'm sorry to you and your girlfriend or fiance, or whatever she is now." She struggled to get up, but managed to twist her ankle wrong and toppled for the floor.

"You were always special, Caroline..you were always.."

A small smile curls at the edge of Cave's lips, as he loses himself on the long road of memory lane, recovering from his reverie just in time to be toppled over by one (1) drunken ex-assistant.

Just barely managing to catch her, and moreover, himself, he slowly uprights himself.

"Maybe you want to talk with me about this in the morning, alright? I accept your apology. If you apologize to Elena tomorrow, we'll be square."

"You love her, don't you? She makes you happy?" Carline slipped back to a safe seated position, trying not to notice the pain coming from her twisted ankle.

Cave let out a small sigh before answering, not really all comfortable with the situation.

"Yeah. I really do. And she does. She really, really does."

A moment of silence that lasted for days passed before he said anything else.

"Let me call you a cab."

"Ok. I'll wait outside." She managed to her feet and limped for the door. She got outside and sat on the first step by the door.

Cave noticed her limping, and rubbed his eyes in frustration. He couldn't very well just leave her outside waiting like that, could he?

Throwing on some more respectable clothing, he joined her on the step.

"Are you okay? I mean, your ankle looks bad but...are you okay? I didn't peg you for the drinking type."

In fact, if he scoured his memory, he'd find her to be more of a 'never drinking type'.

"Is it your job? We can work something out if that's it."

He wouldn't outright say it, but it unnerved him to see her like this.

"What job? I haven't worked anywhere since the whole thing. Just lost everything good in my life, everything I ever wanted because I couldn't stand to see another girl come in and take away the most important person in my life away and take my spot. But I'll play nice. I'll apologize, even though-even though I still don't think I should, but I will. Because... because without Aperture..and you, I. Don't have many reasons to wake up in the morning."

Cave's eyes darted around, looking everywhere but her. It was like looking into the sun, it wasn't impossible, but it was difficult, and only doable with great pain.

"Caroline...I had no idea. I had always... but I didn't...and then..."

He let out a frustrated sigh. She was tipsy, what was his excuse? An arriving limo thankfully saved him from saying any more. He helped her into the car as best he could, giving the driver stern instructions to see to her safety.

"Good Night Caroline. See you tomorrow for work, alright?"

Caroline showed up for work early to find a desk next to Elena's. With a weary sigh, she placed her box on the desk and managed to Cave's office trying to hide any hint of a limp or the hangover pounding through her head. She gave three knocks before calling through the door.

"Mr. Johnson?"

"Come on in, Caroline."

Upon entry to Cave's office, she'd find the place drowning in papers. Caroline's replacement clearly lacked the same manner of efficiency she'd had.

Cave was at his desk, where the papers were at least in a controlled chaos, with vague borders determining the 'to read' pile from the 'already read' pile.

"Alright then, let's get down to it. Same pay, similar responsibilities, nearly same title. Questions?"

He wouldn't give something to his girlfriend and then take it away. Not really wanting to know the answer, Caroline took a deep breath and lifted her chin.

"Will I be working under Elena?" God, she tried to keep her expression neutral.

"Of course. I'm not in a position to out and out replace her. You'll be answering to her most of the time, and me if necessary. Aside from that, your job should be...mostly the same."

He looked one his desk, trying to figure out where he'd start his day from. Settling on a thick packet that would keep him busy through lunch, he continued.

"Well, I think that's about it for the introductions, don't you? Go on and unpack your things. Elena will be here soon enough, and she'll tell you what she needs from you."