(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

[yessirmrjohnson]

"It's pretty clear that the only science you've been interested in recently is Biology. That's not a statement on her, but on you, Sir. Maybe I wouldn't have had to make CEO decisions if we had one in the building."

[paysthebills]

"Is that so!? Well, I think I don't need a personal assistant in the building at the moment.

On your way out, pack up your things so Elena can move into her new office. Consider yourself on unpaid leave. Come back when you're ready to apologize."

And with that, Cave begins scouring the papers on his desk with disgust, tracking all of his forged signatures and figuring out what he's 'agreed' to in the past few days.

[yessirmrjohnson]

Caroline's anger turned instantly to shock as she looked from Elena and then back to Cave. A soft laugh of disbelief slipped out before she could stiffle it. She took a step or two backwards.

"I can't believe it. Well, you can forget it. I quit. I used to work for a man who had a great vision. Someone who loved science, someone who believed in Aperture. If I wanted to work for a panty-chasing sleaze who neglects everything for an easy lay, I could have invested years anywhere else. I was there for you when you had nearly nothing and I was by your side as you become something great. I was there when this place was a hole in the ground and I've given you every day of every year since then. And this is how it's going to end?" Her eyes fell to the desk and she flung a hand in a wide gesture towards them. "You'll find every decision to be one you would have made, each vital to Aperture, and every single one of them time sensitive. God, I hope she was worth it."

"And you-" Caroline pointed at Elena. "I hope you're prepared for everything you've signed up for. For Aperture's sake. I hope you're twenty times smarter than you look, otherwise you won't stand a chance here."

She turned back to Cave. "I couldn't be more disappointed. You ended up being just like everyone else." And with that, she turned for the door.

[paysthebills]

His demeanor calms a bit, the steam leaving him with his prior outburst.

"This isn't about women, you moron. The point was you don't get to make decisions like that without my say so. Did you think I couldn't be bothered with that?

What the hell is wrong with you? What's all this about?"

[yessirmrjohnson]

That stopped Caroline dead in her tracks and she turned, anger again on her face, arms crossed. "What did you call me? Cave-" The name slipped from her mouth before she could stop it, and at this point formality didn't much matter. "I called you, I left messages, I knocked on your office door a number of times. My buzzes to the office went unheard. It wasn't for a lack of trying. I even stopped by your house only to find her. You turned me away from the office on three separate occasions. I thought you made your priorities pretty clear and to be honest, I have too much work to do to hunt you down and make you do what you used to love to do."

[paysthebills]

Gave glanced over at Elena, who shrugged and gave a nod in response. Cave took a deep breath.

"Fine. I've been lacking in attention lately. That doesn't give you the right to go and forge signatures. That's a line you don't cross. What am I supposed to do here? Thank you for forging my name on several highly sensitive documents? You're aware of the several implications this has, aren't you?

But, I suppose the fault lies with me. After all, you shouldn't be worrying about this kind of thing in the first place. You have too much work to do."

Cave looked up at nothing in particular.

"Alright. How about we start small, hm? We'll take turns. I'm wrong for ignoring the company, and you're sorry for..."

Cave trailed off, letting her fill in the blank.

[yessirmrjohnson]

Though Caroline sighed and her expression softened into blankness, her stance remained as defensive as ever.

"You're still demoting me, aren't you? I've worked with you for this long and you don't know me well enough to know that I'd only do something like that in desperate times?"

"Don't use the past to excuse something you've done in the present." Elena spoke up. "You've broken his trust. He has every right to fire you and make it so you never get a job anywhere in the field again. You should be begging him to stay, not chiding him."

[paysthebills]

Cave paused a moment, letting Elena get her two cents in.

"I don't see how I'm supposed to let this one go. Did you call me a...what was it again, Elena?"

"Panty-chasing sleaze, sir."

"Right. Did you do that because of desperate times? You're lucky all your getting is demoted. I haven't heard one word of apology to me, or my gal here."

[yessirmrjohnson]

Her anger had waned some which made her next choice a difficult one. Would she swallow her pride and take whatever menial job he had in mind and watch that... that woman in her place? Or would she walk out, letting him rot with his choices? Aperture had been her home for years, he had been her constant.

"I won't apologize for doing what needed to be done." Caroline's eyes closed and she took a deep breath to keep them from watering. "And I won't stick around and be wasted in some mail room as she pretends to be me."

There were no taking those words back, no way to return to how things used to be. Finally she opened her eyes, clearly on the verge of tears. "Good bye a-and good luck."

She turned and rushed for the door, making it out before she'd even give him a chance to speak. Elena hurried to Cave's side.

"It's better this way. You're Cave Johnson, you don't need some back stabbing floozy to run the company you built. Forget about her."

[paysthebills]

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."

[yessirmrjohnson]

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."

[paysthebills]

"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.

[yessirmrjohnson]

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."

[paysthebills]

"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.

[yessirmrjohnson]

"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.

[paysthebills]

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.

[yessirmrjohnson]

"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?"

[paysthebills]

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?"

[yessirmrjohnson]

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

[paysthebills]

"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?"

[yessirmrjohnson]

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.

[paysthebills]

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.

[yessirmrjohnson]

"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.

[paysthebills]

"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."

[yessirmrjohnson]

"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.