Work Text:
“You really want to hang that up in here?” Caroline asked again, hoping maybe her boss would change his mind this time.
“Why not?” Cave asked, shouting over the sound of himself hammering hooks into the wall. Although Aperture had a custodial department like any other company, Cave usually believed that he couldn’t trust the quality of any work done around here unless he did it himself. “It’s a good picture.”
“It is not,” Caroline argued, stepping forward once again to critique the portrait of herself and the CEO that sat propped against a table. “That doesn’t look like me at all.”
“Well, it’s one of those, whaddiya call it? Impressionist paintings,” Cave offered. He wanted to tell his assistant how beautiful she looked in the rendering, but he knew she wouldn’t listen anyway.
“Is it?” Caroline answered playfully. “Then why did he bother to capture your ugly tie in such painstaking detail?”
Cave scowled at her. “I like that tie!” he asserted, though, not wanting to get sidetracked by a second argument, he refrained from saying anything else.
Caroline crossed her arms. “I still don’t know why you wanted me to sit for this."
“Because you’re my partner,” Cave said, as if it was obvious. He put down the hammer and nails he was holding and walked over to her. “Remember all those years ago when I said you were the backbone of this facility? Well, I meant it. You do more work around here than anyone else. Hell, probably even more than me. That deserves to be recognized.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t have to do it like that,” Caroline argued again. No matter how much recognition her boss wanted to pour on her, she always seemed to bashfully refuse it. Caroline preferred to work behind the scenes, even if it meant years of toiling with no obvious reward.
“I wanted to,” Cave answered her. He gave his assistant a tender smile before turning back to the portrait. “You, standing there next to me,” he pointed. “That’s how it always is. That’s how this company’s run.”
Caroline couldn’t help but smile, and looked down at the floor to disguise the fact that she was now blushing.
“If anyone deserves to be in a portrait next to Cave Johnson, it’s you,” the CEO assured her. “I know you better than anyone else. I know everything you’ve done for…”
“Better than anyone else?” Caroline interjected.
“…Well, yeah,” Cave answered. As he regarded the suddenly sly expression on his assistant’s face, he wondered what she was up to.
“Is that so?” she asked him.
“Why wouldn’t it be?” Cave said defensively.
“You spelled my name wrong.”
“I.. that’s…” Cave stammered, looking at the small gold engraving that sat under his own on the painting’s frame. He looked back up at his associate in confusion. “What do you mean? C-a-r-o-l-i-n-e. That’s not wrong.”
“C-a-r-o-l-y-n,” Caroline said simply.
Cave was dumbfounded for a second. “l-y-n?” he repeated, the embarrassment creeping into his voice. Caroline nodded.
“Well has it always been like that?” Cave asked, fully aware of the ridiculousness of the question. Caroline nodded again.
“You’re telling me I’ve had it wrong for…” Cave tried to count the years in his head, growing more and more incredulous as he processed it. “Well why didn’t you say anything???”
Caroline smiled at her boss’s reaction. “It doesn’t matter, sir,” she said. “It’s just a few little letters.”
Cave scratched his head, feeling like a fool at the realization of his mistake. He’d always considered his assistant to be the most important person in the company - and in his life, for that matter - and yet he’d failed to do something as simple as learn to properly spell her name. “Gee, I’m sorry, Caroline,” was all he could offer.
“For the record, I’ve always signed my name your way, to prevent any legal issues,” Caroline informed. “Actually, I kind of like it. This job gave me a new life. It’s only fitting for a new name to come with it.”
Cave was appreciative of her words, but still unconvinced. He knelt down in front of the portrait and began removing the screws holding her name plaque in place. “You should be immortalized properly,” he argued, handing her the plaque.
Caroline rolled her eyes. “I don’t need to be immortalized at all,” she insisted again.
Cave had already turned back to the portrait, however, and was lifting it up onto its hooks. “I’ll have a new plaque made, I promise,” he said as he straightened it out on the wall. “As soon as some room opens up in the budget.”
Cave stood back to admire the piece. Caroline placed her hands on his shoulder as he did so, unconsciously adopting the same pose she displayed on the canvas.
She’d never admit it, but it was a good painting.