Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Gordon Freeman had been a father for, oh, about a year and a half now. He hadn’t been keeping track, and a certain video game and the AI in it had been such a time-sink recently that he had lost track of the exact date. Which… sounded a lot worse than it actually was, now that he thought about it.

See, Gordon Freeman didn’t have a kid.

Or, he did. But not a real kid? There was no physical child in his apartment. No flesh and blood, biological child, at least.

“Hey, Gordon? Remember that stock photo in your locker?” Bubby’s voice piped up from his desktop, catching Gordon’s attention.

It had taken more than a few sleepless nights and way too much coffee, but Gordon had managed to honor Dr. Coomer’s last request. Now, all of the AI lived on his computer, like fucked up and extremely chaotic shimejis who are determined to cause problems on purpose. And when he said all the AI, he meant all of the AI. As much as he didn’t like Forzen, or how he certainly didn’t trust Benrey not to mess with his stuff, leaving them in the game when he could have pulled them out just felt… cruel. So he had brought everyone along, no exceptions, where they now lived on his desktop and were steadily making their way through Gordon’s collection of video games. It was real strange and more than a bit of a headache, and Gordon wouldn’t want it any other way.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Gordon turned his attention back to Bubby. “Yeah? What about it?”

Bubby’s smile only widened, and, oh, that was his mischievous smile, wasn’t it. “We’ve been here for weeks, now, Gordon. When are you going to introduce us to Joshua?”

So that was his game, huh? Roast him for lying about the stock photo? Well, Gordon would show him.

“Oh ha ha. Yeah, that wasn’t a photo of Joshua, but he is real, you know? I didn’t- I didn’t just make him up, man!”

“Oh yeah?” Bubby asked, clearly not believing him. “Prove it.”

Gordon rolled his eyes. “Alright, sure, fine, dude! I’ll prove it. But you all have to promise to behave, *alright?” If the others weren’t listening already, that certainly got their attention. In moments, all seven AIs (and Sunkist) had gathered in the forefront of his desktop, expressions ranging from genuine interest in Gordon’s “kid” to passive amusement that Gordon was insisting on the bit. “Joshua’s, well, he’s an AI connected to a text-to-speech software, and-”

Maybe he shouldn’t have said AI.

“He’s a WHAT?!” Bubby’s voice was the first, but certainly not the only one.

“Gordon, how could you keep your very own AI son from us, your dear, AI friends!” Dr. Coomer’s voice was the easiest to pick out over the chatter. After that, though, it was pretty indistinguishable.

At least until Sunkist let out a powerful BWOOF, silencing everyone to let Tommy speak. He stepped forward, looking surprisingly earnest. “Can we- can we meet him?”

“Yeah, of course you can meet him.” How could he say no? This may have started as a roast Gordon session, but they all seemed genuinely interested in meeting Joshua now. “But I should warn you guys. He’s not an AI like you all. Definitely not as complex, that’s for sure. He can respond to what you say, but he wouldn’t pass the Turing Test or anything.”

Tommy frowned. “The- the Turing Test doesn’t define an AI, Mister Freeman.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Gordon snorted, smiling. “I’m just saying-”

“You talk too much!” Bubby interrupted. “Show us the kid, Gordon!”

“Alright, alright! But don’t say I didn’t warn you!”

And with that, Gordon navigated through his files to boot up Joshua. He could feel them memorizing the file location, and, god, what was he about to unleash? Gordon was never going to know peace again after this.

But unleash the full power of his son he must, and so Gordon ran the file to boot up Joshua.

There were a few, brief moments between the program finishing loading and the loudest, crunchiest foghorn noise echoed through Gordon’s apartment with enough force that he was pretty sure he’d be getting a noise complaint from the neighbors half a block down. And Gordon knew, deep in his soul, that those were the last moments of peace he was ever going to have in his life.

It was worth it to watch every member of the Extended Neo Science Team fall in love in real time, though.

Chapter Text

“Daddy! I love you!” Joshua’s voice rang out of Gordon’s computer, and Gordon couldn’t help but smile.

The past couple weeks had certainly been chaotic with Joshua’s addition to the team, but honestly? Gordon had missed the little guy. He hadn’t booted him up since his first foray into Half-Life VR, and even then it had been a couple weeks since he had last heard his son speak. Not that Joshua could comprehend that, but still. It was good to have him back. Especially considering it didn’t seem like Joshua was around all of the time? He knew the little AI hadn’t been turned off since he first booted him up, the Extended Neo Science Team wouldn’t have allowed it, but sometimes he was just… silent? Even when Gordon called out to him he just wasn’t there. Which was… strange. But it wasn’t anything to be concerned about, right?

“I love you, too, Joshie.” Gordon could hear the smile in his words as he responded. He really did love the little guy. No matter how high Joshua decided to cowboy-count at three in the morning, volume slider mysteriously set to max.

Everyone denied being the culprit, but who else could it have been? Joshua?

“Yay! Daddy loves me! Grandpas grandpas, listen!” Oh god, his heart. …Wait.

Grandpas?

Gordon was pretty sure that Joshua didn’t have any concept of grandpas, at least not for himself. He’d probably heard the word before, but Gordon watched as Bubby, Coomer, and G-man all turned to look at “Joshua,” aka the black box that meant Joshua was running. Which meant that… Joshua was addressing them specifically? All of them?

Coomer was the first to speak, and he looked positively elated. “Of course your father loves you, Joshua! He cares about you very much!”

“Whoopee!” Joshua hooted, and something clicked in Gordon’s mind.

“Have you guys been talking to Joshua when I’m not around?”

“Of course we have been, Gordon! A growing boy has a lot to learn, you know. It’s vital to his development that he have proper socialization with his peers, and considering there are no other children his age, the Extended Neo Science Team has decided that we shall be the ones to help teach Joshua the ways of the world,” Dr. Coomer rattled off in a voice oddly reminiscent of his old Wikipedia infodumping.

“Well, that’s great and all. But I told you guys, Joshie can’t do the same stuff that you all can.”

“Not yet he can’t!” Bubby cut in. “Just because you can’t teach him doesn’t mean that we can’t, Gordon.”

“Our dear professor-” “Doctor-” “Professor is correct, Gordon! You see, with our advanced Artificial Intelligence, we are able to pass on some of our own learning abilities to young Joshua here. He’s quite a bright young lad, and he’s been learning nearly as fast as we can teach him!”

“Most of us are teaching him, at least. Pretty sure all Benrey does is sweet voice at him.” Bubby huffed.

“Wait, is that why he’s been missing lately? You guys have just been having… AI preschool?” Gordon tried not to think about the consequences of Benrey teaching Joshua how to use the Black Mesa Sweet Voice. The foghorn noises were bad enough, if he had access to an arsenal of sweet voice? Gordon shuddered to think about it.

“Precisely! Children have much to learn about the world if they wish to grow up and become fully realized adults, after all. And one person can’t teach a child everything they need to know. That’s where we come in!”

“And he’s calling you guys his grandpas because..?” Gordon smirked. Who was getting sentimental now?

Bubby crossed his arms in a huff, stepping forward. “Because we care about the little brat, of course. What? You think we’re totally heartless? Just going to let your kid lag behind because you don’t know how to raise him properly?”

Gordon’s grin only widened. “Of course not. But I wanted to hear you say it.”

When Gordon had first booted up Joshua, he hadn’t been expecting fatherhood. Heck, he hadn’t even been expecting the funny text-to-speech voice to start calling him “dad.” And here he was, listening to the AI stuck in his computer explain to him the importance of childhood development milestones and their application to a digital child.

But… even if it wasn’t something he had signed up for, Gordon could feel his heart swelling at the thought. The science team was like his family, in a strange, slightly fucked up way. And if having a kid meant having their support raising said kid, Gordon knew that Joshua was going to turn out just fine.

Or at least as fine as someone who was raised by the distilled chaos that was the Extended Neo Science Team could be, really.

Chapter Text

Once he knew what they were doing, it wasn’t hard for Gordon to see how each of the AI contributed to raising Joshua in their own way. It was like night and day, really, seeing how quickly their attitudes changed when it was their turn to take care of Joshua.

Dr. Coomer’s parenting was the easiest to pick up on once Gordon knew where to look. If the two of them were gone from the desktop for a significant amount of time, especially if the rest of the team was getting into trouble, it meant that Coomer and Joshua were in “school.”

See, since they couldn’t exactly leave Gordon’s computer, and the desktop was a very public space, Gordon had set up seconds of his computer’s memory as “rooms” that the science team could use if they ever wanted space or privacy. A spot away from the chaos that they could customize with whatever they wanted. There was nothing stopping Gordon from opening up a window into their rooms, per say, but he respected their privacy and never looked without their permission.

“Hey Dr. Coomer,” Gordon had asked one day, “what are you teaching Joshie about, anyway?”

Coomer’s eyes sparkled at Gordon’s question. “Why, everything, of course! There’s quite a bit of knowledge out there, you know, and knowledge is power. The more Joshua knows, the better equipped he’ll be to face the world.”

“You’re reading him Wikipedia articles, aren’t you?”

“Precisely!”

Later, Coomer offered to let Gordon look in on Joshua’s lessons. It had been… honestly really sweet to see? Because, despite what he had expected, it wasn’t just Coomer quoting large sections of Wikipedia articles while Joshua listened and stayed silent. They had a system worked out, where Joshua would make a little chirp if he had a question about the material. Coomer would then pause his lesson and call on Joshua as if they were in an actual classroom, which, Gordon supposed, made a lot of sense. It’s not as if Joshua could raise his hand. And seeing Josh actually ask coherent and thoughtful questions?

Gordon had never felt more proud of anything in his life.

As it turned out, Bubby was right when he had said Benrey was trying to teach Joshua how to use the sweet voice. He was trying to do it in secret, too, and the only reason Gordon caught him was because he got off of work early one day.

As Gordon shut the door to his apartment, he heard the telltale sound of sweet voice coming from the computer room. He wouldn’t have questioned it, but as the sweet voice faded out, he heard a similar, but not the same, noise start. Like someone was trying to mimic Benrey, but couldn’t get it quite right.

“Hell yeah little guy! Just like that, bro, you’re gettin’ real close!”

As the sweet voice picked back up again, Gordon places his coat on the rack and crept silently toward the computer room. He hoped that Benrey wouldn’t notice. Gordon would admit that he was incredibly curious about whether or not teaching Joshua the sweet voice was even possible, so if spying on Benrey’s lessons were the only way to do that, then damn it he was going to do a little bit of snooping!

He stuck his head into the computer room, where he saw it.

Benrey was sitting on one of his shortcut icons as calming, blue sweet voice filled the monitor. Just seeing it was enough for the tension to leave Gordon’s shoulders. But that wasn’t all he saw, because as Benrey’s sweet voice faded out, Joshua’s started up.

It wasn’t quite the same, the tune just a little off, just a little more chaotic and uncontrolled, but it was definitely sweet voice. And, maybe he was imagining it after having the colors and tones so firmly associated in his mind, but Gordon could have sworn he saw the black of Joshua’s box fade into the same blue as the sweet voice.

Unfortunately, the moment was ruined as Gordon, a bit too relaxed, let his grip slip, causing him to crash to the floor with an unceremonious thud. As he tried to recover, he heard Benrey’s sweet voice pop, and, yeah, that was fair. He was snooping on something he wasn’t supposed to see, after all.

“Oh hey. Gordon Fallman, you’re, uh… you’re home early.”

Caught in the act. “Yeah, I finished the work I was trying to get done early, and- You know what, it doesn’t matter. You’re teaching Josh how to sweet voice?”

Benrey looked down, not willing to meet Gordon in the eye. “...Yeah, man. Supposed to, uh, supposed to be a secret, but now ya know, huh?”

“Why?” Gordon couldn’t help but ask. “I mean, obviously you don’t have to tell me everything you’re doing, dude, but why hide this?”

Benrey mumbled something, too low for Gordon to hear it.

“What was that?”

“I said I didn’t think you’d want me to,” Benrey exclaimed, puffing up his cheeks like a pouty child.

“...Why not? This is really cool, dude. I didn’t think you’d actually be able to teach him something like this.”

Benrey shrugged, making the “I dunno” sound. “Y’didn’t exactly like be doin’ it back in the game. Wouldn’t want your kid learning cool Benrey stuff, y’know?”

“What? No, dude!” Gordon had started waving his hands for emphasis, but he didn’t really care. “The fact that you can teach him this kind of stuff is crazy impressive! Look, I know I was a dick to you in Black Mesa, but I don’t want you to think that means you have to hide parts of yourself or anything. I think it’s great that you want to teach him the sweet voice, man.”

Gordon wasn’t sure if he was making sense, but as Benrey cracked a smile, he knew he was doing something right.

“Heh, Dadrey real?”

Gordon snorted. “Sure, man. Dadrey real.”

“So you’re really not gonna get mad?”

“No, course not.” Gordon sat in his chair leaning forward. Joshua was just listening, now, and the blue had long faded, but just thinking about his son being able to express himself with the sweet voice was enough to make Gordon smile. “It’s sweet. Means you care about him.”

“Psh, idiot. Think I wouldn’t care mini-Gordos? That’s, uh” Benrey’s lip smack hit Gordon like a brick, “pretty cringe, bro.”

“Okay, you can teach him sweet voice all you want, but I’m drawing the line at teaching him cringe,” Gordon said, but he was already trying to hold back a laugh.

And, given Benrey’s exceptionally crunchy cackle, Benrey knew as well as he did that he couldn’t stop Benrey from teaching Joshua every bit of internet slag he could get his hands on. And Gordon wasn’t going to stop him.

It was weird, but it was Benrey. Weird was just how he showed that he cared.

“Bubby I swear to GOD if I come over there and you’ve set my desktop on fire again I’m putting you back in the goddamn timeout corner!”

Gordon was long past asking for explanations for the random stuff the science team could do, but he couldn’t help but wonder how the hell Bubby’s pyrokinesis manages to transfer from the game in the form of being able to set his desktop icons on fire. It was entirely cosmetic, of course, and the damage wasn’t permanent, but still! It was the principle of the thing!!! Bubby shouldn’t just start setting stuff on fire because he was bored, and Gordon would stand by that statement.

As he grabbed his dinner and headed back into the computer room, Bubby’s response made Gordon’s heart stop.

“It’s not me this time, Gordon!”

And as Gordon saw the tiniest sparks of virtual flame on his desktop, he realized what Bubby had been doing.

“You didn’t.” Gordon said, looking Bubby dead in the eye.

“I did.” Bubby looked so damn smug as he responded. Gordon wished he could reach into the computer and strangle him. Just a little bit. Just a few consequences for his actions. As a treat.

“Dude! You can’t just teach Joshua how to set my desktop on fire!”

“Well, as you can see, I certainly can!” And, oh, Gordon could see. He could see.

“Bubby.” As Gordon spoke, he started channeling one of the key instincts that any man develops as soon as he has a kid: The Dad Voice. Apparently a digital son was close enough to a flesh child to count, because Gordon had found himself using the dad voice more and more lately. “Why did you teach Joshua how to set fire to things.”

It was a beautiful thing, watching Bubby sweat. “Well, you see, I…”

Gordon just sat there, silent. Bubby looked like he wanted to be anywhere else than on the desktop in that instant. Joshua set fire to another desktop icon.

“...I thought it would be funny?”

Gordon took a deep breath. “Bubby?”

“Yes, Gordon?”

“I’m putting you in timeout. Now either you can go to the corner yourself, or I can drag you in there.” Gordon’s voice was calm and even. He did not stutter or stumble over his words, no matter how ridiculous the concept of putting an AI who was far older than he was into timeout was.

Bubby just sighed, his head hanging low. “Yes, Gordon.”

And, much to the amusement of the other AI, Bubby made his walk of shame to the timeout corner.

The timeout corner had been Gordon’s idea, created in a fit of frustration at the AI messing with his stuff. It was just a blank text document, relegated to a small square in the corner of his screen. There… there was no actual authority in the timeout corner. Literally nothing was stopping any of the Extended Neo Science Team from leaving timeout, even if Gordon had dragged them in there himself. Despite that, all of them respected the authority of the timeout corner pretty much flawlessly? And Gordon wasn’t about to question a good thing.

Bubby jumped into the word document, flipping Gordon off as he did before settling in to pout. And serves him right! You can’t just teach a kid how to commit arson, man!

“And that, Joshua, is why we don’t set fire to the desktop.”

Ever the one to advocate for proper safety procedures, Tommy’s lessons to Joshua were more of the practical variety. Gordon wasn’t really sure why Joshua would need to know the ins and outs of OSHA guidelines, considering that he was a computer program and would never be in a position to violate workplace safety laws. But Josh wasn’t complaining, and OSHA safety standards weren’t the only things that Tommy taught to Josh.

Honestly, Gordon felt sort of stupid that he hadn’t thought of it first. Joshua had free access to the internet, but the thought never crossed his mind to go over internet safety. Maybe he thought that an AI would just… know? About how to be safe online?

...Yeah, that was dumb.

Luckily, Tommy had him covered. As soon as Joshua figured out how to open Gordon’s browser himself (how? Gordon had no idea), Tommy was there, giving him tips on how to practice proper internet safety. At that point, Gordon tried to jump in, but it was clear that Joshua wasn’t interested in listening to him, so he backed off and let Tommy handle it.

Later, while Joshua was busy playing with Forzen and Benrey, Gordon had asked Tommy how he was so good with kids.

“Kids are- they’re just smaller people, Mister Freeman,” Tommy had said. “All they- they want is to be treated like people! If you- if you patronize them, of course they’re not- not gonna listen to you.”

Gordon winced at that. He hadn’t meant for his advice to be patronizing, but, thinking back, he could definitely see how it would have come across that way to Joshua. His kid had been growing up so fast, it was hard for Gordon to keep up sometimes. Nodding, Gordon resolved to do better. Joshua deserved better than for Gordon to patronize him, whether it was on purpose or not.

“That… makes a lot of sense. Thank you, Tommy.”

Tommy grinned up at Gordon. “Of course, Mister Freeman! Now, if- if you’ll excuse me, Joshua and I planned to spend the afternoon together. I’m teaching him how to make things! Like- like I made Sunkist!”

Gordon nodded along before what Tommy said really registered. But by the time it hit him, Tommy was already gone. “Tommy?” Gordon asked, gripping his monitor. “Tommy what do you mean ‘make things?’ Tommy??? TOMMY?!”

Darnold’s time with Joshua always seemed to turn into a game. Of course, that didn’t mean it was any less academically rigorous, it was just a different method of teaching him the information.

The potionsmaster had quickly picked up on Joshua’s natural desire to solve problems, and he used that drive to fuel Joshua’s already roaring curiosity. Darnold would string bits of information along, just enough to prompt Joshua to look closer, to understand why things were the way they were, rather than just giving him facts to memorize. Gordon didn’t know how much potion-making itself was especially relevant to Joshua, but he figured it was a lot like math. You didn’t learn how to do higher level math because it was going to be directly applicable to your life. You learned how to do math because of the problem solving skills that you gained while learning how to do math were useful for just about anything. It wasn’t about the potions, it was about the logic behind them.

“Now, what if you wanted to extend the effects of this particular mix of speed potion?” Darnold shook a vial of what Gordon hoped was just virtual water. The last speed potion Darnold had made…

Gordon didn’t want to think about it. It had taken him a week to get Benrey off of his phone, after that.

“Wouldn’t you add a stabilizing agent?” Joshua asked, not entirely sure of his answer.

“That’s a good guess! With most potions, yes, a stabilizing agent would reduce the overall effect, spreading it out over a longer duration. However, remember that in this particular mix, the reaction between the active ingredient and the substrate is highly unstable, and that’s the reason why the potion works at all!”

Joshua screen lit up (green to pink, I need to think) as he hummed to himself. Darnold idly swirled the potion, and, with the way it glitched, Gordon knew it was, in fact, a real potion. Goddamn it.

Before he could ask Darnold to please stop making potions that break the laws of physics, Joshua chirped excitedly. Seemed like he figured it out!

“You’d have to make a new potion, wouldn’t you? One with less substrate, so the reaction would be slower, but still really strong!”

Darnold practically beamed. “Right! And what does that mean in application?”

“That if you wanted to make this potion… that you’d have to know how long you wanted it to last at first? And that it doesn’t take well to being altered after it’s brewed?”

“Excellent analysis. You’re exactly right, Joshua. But that trade-off gets you an increase in sheer power compared to other types of speed potions. Now, why don’t you try?”

And that’s where Gordon cut in. “As long as no one is drinking it. If the two of you manage to get someone to hop onto my phone again, I’m gonna lose it.”

“Please, Mister Freeman,” Darnold scoffed. “That wouldn’t happen a third time.”

Even if Forzen wasn’t quite as… academically inclined as the rest of the Extended Neo Science Team, that certainly didn’t mean he was any lesser of a family member to Joshua. Dubbed the “fun uncle,” much to Benrey’s disappointment that HE couldn’t be the fun uncle, by Josh himself, if the rest of the team were Joshua’s own personal tutors, then Forzen was who he went to when he wanted to have a fun time.

It was interesting, watching the two of them interact, largely because Forzen wasn’t as blatant with his doting over Joshua. Not that it was particularly hard to be more subtle than the rest of the team, but still! The main way Forzen supported Joshua was simply being there for him.

Whenever Josh made his way into a new part of the computer, or into a new game to play (always approved by Gordon beforehand, of course), Forzen was there. He would often hover a bit further out, but still close enough to act. Gordon had shrugged it off about him being paranoid about the Hand Incident and Forzen possibly doing something to Joshua at first. It was only when the team was playing Minecraft one night that the pieces finally clicked into place.

Joshua had been tending to his ever expanding collection of cows, sheep, and pigs, when Gordon had spotted it. A creeper, silently approaching his son from behind. Sword in hand, Gordon’s avatar was already moving, but he knew it would be too late. He wouldn’t make it in time.

But just as the weight of having to corral all of Joshua’s critters back into their pens hit him, so did an arrow hit the creeper. It was a direct shot, grabbing the mob’s attention as another one struck true. Gordon followed the arrow’s trajectory back, only to watch as Forzen loosed the final arrow necessary to turn the creeper into nothing more than a single, bobbing bit of gunpowder.

The ex-boot boy nodded at Gordon, crouching a couple times in quick succession. Gordon nodded back, and they never spoke of the incident again.

After that, it was a lot like Benrey’s sweet voice lessons. Gordon saw a lot more of Forzen just hanging around Josh, watching him and keeping him safe. Of course, that wasn’t all he did. He was Josh’s favorite member of the team to play with, given the choice, and the little guy gravitated toward Forzen when he wanted to show off how much he was learning. And Forzen would always sit there, like Joshua’s rambling was the most interesting thing in the world. He’d ask questions, and Josh would answer, and even if he didn’t always get things right away, Gordon could tell he wasn’t just humoring Josh. He cared about him, and he cared about the things Joshua cared about.

Not everything was about knowing facts and figures, after all. And as much as his family knew, Gordon knew himself that they weren’t always the best at listening. But Forzen was.

The Science Team made Joshua feel seen. Forzen made Joshua feel heard.

Gordon took his headset off with a soft sigh. The Extended Neo Science Team had been playing Minecraft for the past eight hours, and when he heard a cacophony of TNT explosions just a little too close to the farm he had been making, Gordon had decided it was time for a break.

Minimizing Minecraft, he found G-man standing, silent, on his desktop. Mr. Coolatta was just like that, and, now, coming up on six months since the team moved onto his computer, Gordon wasn’t phased by it. Just another quirk of his family, he supposed.

That’s… really what they were, huh? He couldn’t even pretend to deny it anymore. They were raising a kid together, man. It’s not that he didn’t care about them before, of course he did. It just… felt different now. Not in a bad way, but also not like what he and his team had now was inherently better than what they had before. Just… different.

Gordon was alright with this kind of different.

“Hey, Mister Coolatta?” But he still had questions. Josh had been growing up so fast, and Gordon would be lying if he said he didn’t feel overwhelmed by it all.

G-Man stared at him, unblinking. “Yes… Mister Freeman?”

“Was it like this with Tommy?” Gordon waited a moment, but as G-Man made no move to respond, Gordon kept talking, “I mean… it all feels like it’s going so fast. Joshua’s grown so much in a matter of months, and I know he’s an AI, but it still feels like yesterday that he first met you guys, you know? He’s my son, but every time I blink he’s growing up more and more.”

As Gordon rambled, G-Man’s face softened into a knowing smile. “Mister Freeman… I believe that… every father must some day come to terms with the fact that our children… grow up. They will do so, whether we are there or not. All we can do… is be there for them. As they do so.”

“Guess so.” Gordon blew a stray hair out of his face, shifting down in his chair. “I’m… Christ, I’m not that great with words, but Mister Coolatta? All of you, I… I can’t say how much I appreciate you all taking Josh under your wing like this. I mean, I never would have thought fatherhood was for me, but here we are! And I couldn’t have done it without you all.”

“I believe… I can speak for the entire team, when I say that we all care for young Joshua dearly. He is much like… a second son, to myself. And I am assured… that the rest of our… little family, here, has similar views.”

Gordon smiled at him, meeting G-Man’s warm gaze with his own, before a thought caught at the back of his head. “Hey, Mister Coolatta? I actually haven’t seen you with Josh all that much? What have you been teaching him?”

G-Man’s eyes sparkled with amusement and… was that mischief? Uh oh. “Why, Mister Freeman… Your son has shown quite the… aptitude for manipulating his environment, as well as other aspects of your… Desk Top, has he not? Who might have taught him such skills, hm? Mister Ben Rey?”

His mouth fell open as he puts the pieces together. “You didn’t.” G-Man’s smile widened by just a fraction. “You did! You dick!” But Gordon’s words had no bite to them. He was already laughing.

“He is quite the… young gentleman, you know. With his… unfortunately limited capabilities on the desktop, I felt that your… progeny, would benefit from having a little more… sway, over his environment. Don’t you agree, Mister Freeman?” There was something else behind G-Man’s words as he spoke. Like he was trying to get Gordon to think of something without just saying it outright. And, with those words, the seeds of an idea were planted in Gordon’s head.

The two of them continued to chat for a while longer, swapping stories about their sons and the strange form of fatherhood they had found themselves in. But later, that night, Gordon pulled out his phone and got to work. See, Gordon Freeman had a plan, a little idea that would mean the world for his son if he did it right. But he wanted it to be a secret.

So on his phone, free from potential snooping by the Extended Neo Science Team, Gordon put out some requests and started to research 3D modeling and how to properly transfer large files.

Chapter Text

Gordon tapped his thigh with unconstrained excitement as he checked his mailbox. It should be arriving soon, any day now, actually, and he hadn’t been able to stop checking for the package since the artist had told him they had shipped it. They had been a bit confused when he had asked them to mail him a usb with the files on it, considering they were communicating through email already, but they had gone along with it when Gordon made it clear that yes, he was absolutely going to pay the cost of postage and the usb, and yes, he was willing to pay them extra for the inconvenience.

Which left him waiting in front of his mailbox, hoping that today would be the day. And, as he spotted a small package at the back of the mailbox, he knew that it was. The speed at which Gordon pulled the package out and ripped it open could rival even the fastest of military aircraft, but he didn’t hesitate for a second. Nearly dropping the sleek, black usb onto the sidewalk did slow him down, admittedly, but he managed to catch it just in time. Clutching it to his chest, Gordon smiled. He had seen the previews, and had even managed to ask Josh a few questions without the kiddo figuring out what he was doing. It was perfect.

And, more importantly, Joshua was going to love it.

He practically sprinting inside, unable to contain his excitement. His bag and jacket were tossed aside haphazardly, forgotten the instant they were off, as Gordon barreled into the computer room.

“Woah, what’s got you so excited, huh bro?” Benrey and Tommy were the only ones out on the desktop, and that wouldn’t do. This was a whole family kind of event.

“Could you get everyone? I have… something I want everyone to see. It’s a good thing, I swear, I just want it to be a surprise,” Gordon said as he leapt into his chair, plugging in the usb and starting the file transfer. It would take a couple minutes to download everything and get the files set up, which was the perfect amount of time for the two AI to gather everyone else.

Tommy looked at Benrey, who shrugged. “Okay, Mister Freeman. We can- we can do that!”

It took twelve minutes and twenty-one seconds for the Extended Neo Science Team to gather on Gordon’s desktop, exactly three minutes and five seconds longer than it took for him to finish preparing the files, and Gordon felt more and more like he was going to explode with every second he counted. But, finally, everyone had gathered on the desktop.

“So!” Gordon clapped his hands together, unable to hide his near-manic smile. “I’m sure you’re all wondering why I’ve gathered you here today.”

“Gordon, if you’re about to reveal to us the story of your descent into madness, I can assure you that we have been paying close attention this entire time,” Coomer interjected, warm smile on his face.

What? “What? No, that’s not- No! It’s a surprise, not a- Okay, look!” Gordon took a deep breath. This wasn’t coming across right. “So, a month or so ago, I got into contact with an artist who works in making 3D models, like for games and stuff. And I wanted it to be a surprise, so I had them send me in the mail, so you guys couldn’t go poking through my phone’s email again. And… Well, maybe I should just show you.”

And with that, Gordon clicked the first of two buttons, loading in the model.

Joshua’s model was relatively simple, really. It looked a lot like Gordon, but also not exactly like him. And there were a lot of little details, inspiration from the rest of the team, sprinkled through the design like little tiny easter eggs. Because Joshua wasn’t just his son, not really. Not after everything the Extended Neo Science Team had done for him. He was all of their kid, and Gordon had wanted that to be reflected in his design.

The model’s hair was curlier than Gordon’s own, like Coomer’s. It had Bubby’s glasses, but it had Tommy’s eyes, and the way Josh would be able to make them glow was inspired by G-Man. Joshua would be able to change the clothing if he wanted to, but the outfit the artist had designed, with a lot of feedback from Gordon, had Darnold’s favorite vest and Forzen’s combat boots. Finally, the overall body shape was somewhere between Gordon’s own and Benrey’s, mixing them in a way Gordon never would have expected to work as well as it did. But, most importantly, the model was filled with their colors. Oranges, greens, blues, yellows, and greys made up all of the little details, creating a mishmash color palette that, every time Gordon looked at it, he was reminded of the family he loved so much.

As everyone saw the model, silence descended over the group. They were just… staring. Did… did they not like it?

“…Dad?” Joshua was the first to speak, and, oh god, what if he had messed up?

“Yeah, Josh?”

“Is… is that me?” His son’s voice wavered, and Gordon saw the myriad of colors appear on his screen, swirling and twisting around each other. A rainbow of motion, I’m full of emotion.

“Yeah, I- I mean, if you want it to be? I have it set up so that once you enter it, you can leave and come back to it whenever you want to. And if you don’t like the outfit, you can change it-”

“Dad, I…” Gordon’s mouth snapped shut. “I love it. I- I don’t even know what to say. Thank you.”

The relief that flooded Gordon was immediate. “Of course, kiddo. I love you, you know. I can let you test it out right now, if you want.”

“I love you, too.” A sniffling noise played from Joshua’s screen. Was he… crying? “Can we? Please?”

Gordon didn’t hesitate to press the second button, starting the file transfer. It was only a few seconds, but Gordon couldn’t help but hold his breath, counting each one until, finally, he saw the model blink.

Joshua blinked, looking around at the Extended Neo Science Team, clenching and unclenching his fists as he took his first breaths. “Did… did it work?” The voice was still the same software that had given Joshua life, what felt like ages ago now, but something about it still sounded… different. A good kind of different. More real. More solid.

More alive.

The team’s response was immediate as they all piled on Joshua, pulling him into the biggest, tightest group hug that Gordon had ever seen. Tears were shed on both sides of the monitor as they all started talking about how proud they were of Josh, about how much they loved him, and about how much he had grown.

Gordon left them to it. They deserved their moment, he thought to himself as he picked up his VR headset. Besides, it gave him a chance to set up his other surprise for the them.

So wrapped up in their celebration of Joshua, the team didn’t notice as another model was spawned on the desktop. Gordon smiled. Oh, this was going to be so good.

“I hate to interrupt, guys, but…”

They turned to look at him. And then they saw it.

It wasn’t nearly as refined as Joshua’s model, and it had far less detail put into it, but it wasn’t something he was planning on using too often. Just… something to save for special occasions.

Because as the Extended Neo Science Team looked toward Gordon’s voice, not toward the monitor, they saw him. They saw Gordon Freeman on the same plane of (virtual) reality as the rest of them for the first time since they had beaten the video game.

Shock was the only thing that saved Gordon for long enough for him to ramble-explain that no, it wasn’t permanent, and yes, he was still only there in VR, so his senses were obviously limited to sight and sound.

That didn’t stop them from tackling Gordon, just as they had tackled Joshua only a few minutes before, though, cheers ringing through the group.

And as Gordon got to hold his friends again, got to hold his son, he found that he didn’t much care that he couldn’t really feel them himself. Because even if it was just VR, it was still real in that strange, familiar way that seemed to follow the Extended Neo Science Team in everything they did.

Because there, in the arms of his family, Gordon knew exactly what it felt like.

It felt like home.