Wheatley winced. His hacking trick had not worked. They usually didn't and he was well aware of this. He took a nervous step back, his uneasy smile turning into a cringe. 

"I-I'm sorry... I didn't mean to offend." He ran his hand through his hair (a nasty little habit, really, as it made it stick up in the most peculiar positions). "I... will just go and leave you alone now."

Wheatley turned his back on the group and took a few steps forward. He stopped and looked over his shoulder with a sheepish expression. He hoped he wasn't going off alone. He still believed that the group should stick together. He turned back around and moved forward three more steps before deciding that was far enough.

He sat down cross-legged in the grass, leaning his elbows on his boney knees and putting his face in his hands. He was trying to think of something to do. A *good* idea. Something he'd never really thought of. He calculated all kinds of complicated possibilities that all ended in the same thought. *Bad idea. Terrible idea. Where do you even come up with this stuff?*