(no subject)

[yessirmrjohnson]

There was something off about Cave. It bothered her as she made his coffee and plagued her mind as she went about typing up his reports. By time she had to bring him his lunch, she was convinced she had to ask him. It was probably all in her head, the lack of that personal smile in the morning, the quietness on the radio between her desk and his.

No, it was probably all in her head. Not worth worrying about and certainly not worth bothering him over. With a deep breath, Caroline lifted his lunch tray and knocked twice before stepping into his office.

"Here is your lunch, Sir."

Comments

[paysthebills]

"I didn't forgive her. Remember? I fired her. She was an invaluable asset towards scientific research, and I fired her. I only forgave her after she showed up several months later with a sincere and heartfelt apology."

He stopped with the photos, finally, to have his eyes meets Elena's. It was a steely, contemptuous gaze, filled with a cold anger.

"And I don't recall hiring anyone to make decisions. The most complicated decision you need to make is where we go to for lunch. All the rest are mine to make. That's not your place to do so."

He turned his attention back to the photos.

"She understood that, for the most part."

[yessirmrjohnson]

"Cave, she was trying to ruin things between us. I've never seen a more jealous woman in my life. You have no idea how rude and horrible she was to me every day at work. Once she gets out of that thing, you should fire her again. I would."

[paysthebills]

"So, you forged my signature and put her into a life threatening test...because she was rude? And after Caroline is done this test you illegally signed her on for, should she survive, I should fire her again.

Are you from pre-school Elley? Mean ol' Caroline wouldn't stop picking on you, making fun of your hair? What the hell is wrong with you?"

He served himself more whiskey, to calm his nerves. Nerves which were growing increasingly agitated.

[yessirmrjohnson]

"Please." She huffed. "She loved you, any preschooler could see that and she would have done everything to ruin our happiness. I did it for us. She'll be fine, I don't even see why you're so upset."

[paysthebills]

"Caroline was my assistant. Purely professional. You can ask anybody. She was my..."

Friend? Come to think of it, said the whiskey, from in the recesses of Cave's mind, you don't actually have any friends do you? She's the closest thing you have. Well, HAD, if she doesn't make it out of this test.

"It was a purely professional relationship. Ask anyone."

He kept repeating the words, hoping that background noise would drown out the truth the whiskey was trying to force upon him.

[yessirmrjohnson]

"Wait here." Elena left and came back with Jenny. "Would you please tell my fiance that I'm right and Caroline had a thing for him."

Jenny looked from the woman and then to Cave. "I, er, well yea." She shrugged as if it were common knowledge.

"See? The whole facility knew." Elena lifted her chin in pride for being right.

"We assumed she wasn't your type." Jenny continued. "I've worked here five years and I can remember at least seven guys she's turned down in favor of 'work' When Miss Elena showed up everyone finally got the picture of the kinda girl you were into. I think that's why she let Miss Elena do all that stuff to he-" There was a quick nudge from Elena and Jenny quickly shut up.

[paysthebills]

That was certainly enough to warrant Cave's attention. He...hadn't known. How could he have? Or, according to his staff, how could he not? He closed his eyes, the whiskey still tormenting his with terrible, terrible memory. Her last words managed to draw his focus.


"Oh? Stuff, you say? That's interesting. What kind of stuff, Jenny?"

[yessirmrjohnson]

Elena shook her head and Jenny looked between the woman and Cave again, deciding to side with the one signing her checks.

"S-shining her shoes in front of everyone, picking up scattered tacks, refiling whole cabinets again and again. Made to make hand written copies of research instead of copying it. Made to walk around the facility barefoot. Doing all the work herself while Elena read magazines or filed her nails."

Elena quickly came over to Cave's desk. "You don't know what it's like for women in this sort of place. I needed to express my dominance or she'd never respect me. To be honest she should have never come back. Cavey, baby, you love me. Why are we even arguing over some employee on parole? We have a wedding to plan, sweety."

[paysthebills]

Cave laughed, but there was an odd wrongness about it. It lacked happiness, or joy, or any of the other, positive emotions associated with laughter.

"So, Elley-welley. She was horrible because she shined your shoes? And picked up tacks? What a fucking nightmare! I don't know how you managed, especially with her doing all your work for you. Poor baby.

Jenny, would you say a 'this sort of place' is particularly terrible for women?"

[yessirmrjohnson]

"Well for us plain looking girls, it can be." Jenny nodded. "Not all of us can work as hard as Caroline did. Other girls got looks to help them get places." She glanced at Elena who glared at the woman. "Not saying about your tastes in women, Sir. Your business and all."

[paysthebills]

"Caroline wasn't plain. She was a beautiful woman and I won't have you insinuating...that isn't important."

He managed to find his way to his seat, despite the blood alcohol level.

"I need to be alone right now. You're dismissed.

He looked at his fiance.

"Both of you."

[yessirmrjohnson]

Jenny hurried out but Elena hesitated. "Cave, I'm sorry I got Caroline mixed up in this experiment, but there's no reason to be mad. Please don't be mad at me, Baby, I'll make it up to you." She slipped around the desk, leaning in for a kiss.

[paysthebills]

He placed a finger to her lips, effectively kiss-blocking her.

"Baby, I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not certain I'm sober enough to make good decisions right now. I love you, and I accept your apology. But I need to be alone. Now. Before I do something foolish, that I might regret.

I'll see you tomorrow morning, Elley."

[yessirmrjohnson]

She looked like she could cry. "I. I love you baby, I just wanted to make sure you staid mine. I didn't mean to hurt you." She got up and left as he asked.

[paysthebills]

He followed them, and locked the door behind them. There he sat alone, only him, Mr. whiskey and the truth. And, faced with the myriad of bad decisions, combined with concern for his only friend and first love, he wept.

Time, as the say, heals all wounds. In the morning, Cave was right as rain. In two, he was right as rain, and no longer hungover. By the third day he'd managed to forgive Elena and by the end of the week serious planning for the wedding had begun. Such things falling squarely outside of the scope of Cave's interests, he would allow her to handle most of the planning. Hell, he didn't even have anyone to invite.

[yessirmrjohnson]

The price tag for the wedding kept climbing. Caroline's gift was spent on flowers alone. She pushed for it to be as soon as possible, while Caroline was asleep. She was scheduled to wake up on the 4th, so the wedding would happen on the 2nd.

"Mr Johnson, this is Stacey, your wedding planner." She chirped happily on the phone. "We finally have everything in order and I've got the last bill for you in the mail. It's 3.4 million, the honeymoon is looking to come out around $500,000, and then there's my commission which brings the whole deal out to 4 million even. Before taxes."

[paysthebills]

Cave took a moment to spit the coffee he was drinking across the room.

"And what, exactly, was all that spent on?"

He was already trying to figure out a way to get this wedding written off as a tax deduction. Maybe insurance would cover it. This was a KIND of natural disaster, right?

[yessirmrjohnson]

"Location, food, lodging, workers, entertainers, decoration, the wedding dress was nearly a million on its own. You gave your fiance the right to make executive decisions with your money. All these services and products have already been bought and booked. You have to pay the money."

[paysthebills]

Cave muttered several things under his breath. There's gotta be SOME kind of tax dodge here. It would be okay. He was a billionaire, wasn't he? Just a drop in the bucket. So...why did this bother him so much?

It's not hers. It's not right.

He took a deep breath, trying to push away his bad thoughts.

"Of course. It's not an issue."

[yessirmrjohnson]

"Wonderful! I look forward to seeing you there!"

The wedding came up pretty quickly. It was set in a garden and there was pink pretty much everywhere. Pink cake, pink canopy, pink everything. There was extravagance in almost everything with disgusting overspending everywhere you looked. Nothing in it reflected Cave at all. The hundreds of people there were all strangers for him. No Aperture employees were invited, not one familiar face in the crowd.

At least Elena was beautiful in her custom made dress with hand placed real diamonds. And she looked incredibly, perfectly happy. They had a fabulous honey moon booked for the whole next week in Europe. Just the two of them.

[paysthebills]

Cave looked...well, he didn't seem unhappy. That has to say something, right? Look at how pretty Elena is. Everything is amazing and immaculate. The European trip should be amazing.

So why couldn't he enjoy the moment? Was this just jitters? Sure. That's gotta be it. Cold feet. Everyone gets 'em.

Caroline would hate this. It's so tacky, even by your standards.

Cave looked around the room recognizing no one except the bride. Well, of course. He didn't invite anyone. He had no one to invite. He didn't even have a best man. The only person in the world he'd entrust such an honor to was locked away in stasis for two more days. If she survived.

He sighed, maintaining a stone face forward.

[yessirmrjohnson]

It was the 4th and they were in France on a yacht when a call came through to Cave from Aperture. "Sorry to interrupt your honeymoon, Sir. I thought you'd like to know the results of the stasis tests."

[paysthebills]

He apologized to his now wife, taking the call.

"Go on."

His heart was pounding. He just wanted to know she was okay.

[yessirmrjohnson]

There was a long pause but finally a familiar voice replied. "I'm fine, Sir. The test was a success."

[paysthebills]

Cave nearly collapsed in relief. It was as though he'd been holding his breath a month, only breathing just now.

"Oh. Oh thank-- I was so worried. I'm so sorry. About everything. I didn't know, and-- and I should have."