OK, this one's a bit lighter.
No rights to any characters, yada, yada.
Once Mary told Ellie about Graham's plans for Clara, it was decided that they needed to sit down with the adults of Castle Carmichael and give them at least an overview of what came from Graham, and "Bella", Graham's megalomaniacal plans were the easiest to get through, as they didn't involve them directly, but the breeding experiment hit home at everyone involved (especially Stefan), and led to some private talks between Mary and Sarah about the parallels between their scripted roles in the program. Even with the particular elements of his plans for the girls glossed over, what he had planned for the children shocked and horrified all of them, and the others now understood why Chuck, Sarah and Mary had been so on edge since the take down, Casey and Carina had thought it was about the killing, but they now realised that that was the least of it.
There was another element of the breeding plan that Chuck discovered in Graham's records when he was he was working through them with his father (as the Intersect expert) and Ellie (as their resident neurological genius), Graham's records included extensive genetic analysis of the three of them, and the prime focus of this analysis was the trigger genes which enhanced their abilities in regard to the Intersect. The key element appeared to relate to Norse bloodlines, and specifically Berserkers. There was limited test evidence recorded as the incidence of "true" Berserkers in recent times was quite rare, but the theories appeared to relate to a hyper sensitivity to adrenalin, in small doses it increased the strength, speed, co-ordination and mental acuity, so that they became supermen (or women), and neural pathways appeared to differ from "normal" people as well, in large doses (equating to instances where "normal" people perform acts of extreme strength etc due to adrenalin), the Berserkers would be out of control, far stronger and faster than anyone else could possibly be, not reacting to injures and not capable of rational thought while in that state. The extreme state was obviously not the target for the experiments, but rather the "enhanced" state, as these capabilities along with the different neural pathways enabled a capability to host and utilise the Intersect that "normal" people couldn't reach. As they had scientific data there which may help them understand what was happening to them (and the kids, and Sarah, as she was rated right up there in compatibility, too, so she must have those genes as well, which possibly explained why she was the only one other than Chuck who didn't go crazy or delusional with the Intersect, and her usual superhuman fighting abilities), they were putting all the time they could spare into looking into it. Chuck was still looking for any genetic analysis on Sarah, but hadn't found that as yet.
A few weeks after Sarah and Carina returned from DC, they got a visitor at Castle Carmichael, the General, her first priority was of course to see her daughter, but after that she asked to see Chuck, Sarah, Casey, Mary and Carina in private. Once they were in the room and in lock down, she came to the point, they'd finished the interrogation of the woman they'd known as Bella and had gotten quite a bit of intel about the BGRU organisation and Graham's plans out of her, she'd wanted to give the girls the option of dealing with her, but she didn't survive the questioning, and yes, she had personally witnessed her body being cremated, so there was no way that she was returning. Her "partner" was also gone for good, but unfortunately the children's real parents had had no family to take them in.
Everyone was quiet for a minute, then Carina asked what would happen to them, she answered that they'd go into foster care if no-one was prepared to take them in, at which point she had Carina, Casey and Sarah simultaneously saying that they'd take them. She first turned to Sarah and said that four children were enough, weren't they? and that she knew that she was mainly trying to protect them from the foster care system. When Sarah nodded, she turned to Carina, asking if she really wanted to take the children on as well as Charlie? Carina nodded with tears in her eyes, and she turned to Casey, asking if he would be happy for the children to be with Carina, as she presumed that he mainly wanted to protect them too? Casey nodded and she smiled, saying that that was good, as the paperwork was already written up for Carina and Jeff. They all looked at her accusingly and she shrugged, saying that she knew that they would all be determined to ensure the girls were looked after and safe, and that Carina would be the one with the strongest case to adopt, so it was a good bet that preparing the paperwork for Carina ahead of time would work out. Carina just held out her hand for the paperwork and went to ask Jeff (and Charlie) what they thought of the idea.
While Carina was gone they discussed the mileage that they were getting on mopping up the BGRU remnants and connections. They were still processing the disks sent in from the BGRU sites, once they cracked the encryption they'd go through all the files to determine whether there was any new intel, or whether it just confirmed what they already had. They'd also kept the searches running for the others they had on their lists that weren't confirmed dead yet, and there were more than a few big names on those lists. They'd generally get at least one or two hits a week on those searches, but they were hardly enough to be building any patterns off.
Around that time Carina returned with Jeff and the signed paperwork, asking when they could get the girls out of the system and here in a proper family environment? The General made a show of ensuring the paperwork had been completed properly, then pulled out her phone to call her aide to bring them around, saying with a grin that they'd been at the park a few streets over. The look that Carina gave her reminded her of the one that she'd given her in DC a few weeks previously, but she was sure that Carina's mood would be considerably better in a few minutes, and it was. When the SUV pulled up in the drive and the girls got out, they ran to her for a hug, and they all knew that it was going to be alright.
They weren't used to this almost playful General (or more to the point, Diane), and if she stopped to think about it, neither was she, but this "family" (which she was glad to be a part of) affected people in mysterious and usually wonderful ways, it was only since Josie's true story was outed in the family that she'd managed to have a proper relationship with her daughter (within the confines of the family), and she was only now realising how much she'd missed that before. These people could and did take on the evils of the world without hesitation, but they brought out the humanity in the most hardened examples of the species (like herself), they were, are, truly remarkable.
The girls shared a room at first, as they felt safer together, and it didn't surprise anyone that they had nightmares most nights, like Charlie had in the beginning. Carina was incredibly touched when Charlie offered the sound system from his room with the Chuckles music for the girls, because it made the bad dreams go away for him, she kissed him and thanked him, but said he could keep his, they'd give the girls their own one. Charlie was right, when she set up a sound system with Chuck's singing repeating all night, the girls' nightmares dropped off as quickly as his had. She hoped that the girls didn't have anything to compare to Charlie's nightmares about Bryce to haunt them, but that household would have been terrible, especially with that evil bitch there. Sarah gave Carina "the look" when she joyfully went up to Chuck to hug and kiss him one morning a few weeks after the girls moved in, until she explained that playing Chuck's recordings at night were working to get rid of the girls' nightmares the way they had Charlie's (and that it was Charlie's idea).
There was another reason that Sarah was questioning of Carina's kissing Chuck, since the take down of the Puppet Master and the core BGRU facilities, he'd been going into overdrive with training, usually spending a couple of hours a night down in the main gyms in the bunkers trying to work himself to exhaustion in an attempt to get some sleep, and the effects were very quickly becoming noticeable. Chuck had always been relatively fit, more so after he went into training after he downloaded the Intersect 2.0, but these nightly workouts and sparring sessions that he was having with anyone who happened to be up were getting him ripped, he was looking like the stereotype rugged, powerful spy he used to envy now and all the girls were noticing. Sarah didn't like to think of herself as jealous, she knew that Chuck loved her and that she was the most beautiful woman in the world to him, but seeing other women looking at him that way, even her best friends, got her hackles up. That was part of the reason (probably a large part if she wanted to be honest) for her to talk Casey to letting Heather move into one of the bedrooms in his place, so that she wasn't down in the bunkers alone with Chuck most nights.
It was a few months down the track from the take down, when things seemed to be getting back to "normal" (as much as that word fitted them), that the next bombshell dropped, Sarah got a call from the General, asking her to come up and see her as soon as she had a chance, she asked if Chuck should come and got a distracted reply that that would probably be a good idea, so intrigued and worried, they called for one of the SonicStars to be ready and headed to the airport when Ellie came over to keep an eye on the kids. As they so often were, they grateful that they'd managed to get the SonicStar development pushed up so they could always have one on the line waiting for them, as it cut the hop over to DC to a fraction of the time that the usual business jets took. The General's protection detail was waiting for them when they landed, and they were whisked in to her office as quickly as escorted official vehicles could go. When they got into the office she asked them if they'd like a drink, not a good sign, so when they politely declined she sighed and pushed a folder across the desk to them.
Sarah's first words were predictably "I'm going to kill him!" Chuck started rubbing her back to try and calm her down as he pulled the folder in front of him and started reading. Jack Burton had engaged legal aid to try and make a deal to wipe out the rest of his sentence by telling the authorities about the activities of his daughter, her husband and their associates. He'd provided snippets of things he'd seen and implied that he could tell them a lot more if they made a deal. Even what he'd told them to try to entice them into making a deal was enough to get him locked away in a supermax facility for the rest of his life, but worse than that he'd identified them, Emma and Molly in his comments and told where they all lived. They looked up at the General and asked what actions had been taken so far, and she advised that he'd been extracted from the prison, the legal aid people who'd been involved had been grabbed and put into witness protection (with very clear directions on what would happen if they EVER spoke a word about what put them there). When Sarah asked who else he'd talked to, she was told that he refused to discuss that until he saw his lawyer. She nodded and called her mother to tell her to pick up Molly and get to Castle Carmichael straight away, then asked the General where her father was.
There was no way that Chuck was letting her go in there by herself (if anyone was gong to kill Jack to would be him to save her the guilt of killing her father), but Jack made it very difficult to try for a good resolution, given that his opening words were " Hello darlin', so you've finally come to get your old man out of prison?"
When Sarah's fist lifted him and the chair off the floor so that he landed a few feet behind with the chair on top of him, Chuck had to grin as he said "Saw that one coming". If Jack had been more than half conscious he would have wondered about how easily Chuck lifted him and the chair with one hand each to set them upright in front of the table that Sarah was now sitting on. Chuck went to her, squeezed her arm and kissed her on the forehead and she reached up to squeeze his hand with a smile, as his touch had the calming affect that she so desperately needed at that point.
Her smile disappeared as she looked back at her father, reeling groggily in the chair as he whined "Why did you do that?" She just glared at him as she asked what he thought he was doing? He started rambling and trying to justify himself, and as soon as Chuck saw where he was going with that he started a silent mantra "Don't play the all I did for you card, don't play the all I did for you card..." but of course he did, and Sarah (quite rightly) went ballistic, demanding to know what he'd ever done for her, and finally letting herself ask him if he had any idea what she'd been put through, been made to do to keep him alive? When Jack came back with a snide crack about how she'd obviously done pretty well for herself with her cushy government job and family and her flash house and cars so life hadn't been that bad for her, he was hit again, and this time he and the chair bounced off the wall because it was Chuck who hit him, a Chuck who was so furious that he was screaming in his face that he never had the right to say anything like that to her after what she'd gone through for him. Sarah pulled him off and held him and kissed him, trying to calm him down, she'd only ever seen him in a state anywhere near close to this twice before, and she couldn't stand seeing him like this. Meanwhile Jack lay on the floor, dazed and terrified, as he'd been sure that Chuck was going to kill him, his daughter was supposed to feel guilty and her husband was supposed to talk her into getting him out, not try to kill him, why would they react like that to what he said? He was the master at reading people and her husband was the soppy schnook who always calmed her down and got her to do with the happy family thing, yeah he'd been mad when he was arrested but that was years ago, they were supposed to have forgiven him ages ago.
They left him crumpled on the floor as Sarah concentrated on calming Chuck down, when Chuck was OK Sarah turned back to her father, kicking him in the gut when speaking to him didn't get his attention. Once she had it she told him to shut up and listen, she was only going to say this once. The stupid little scam he tried to pull to get out of serving his time for what he did had exposed national secrets and endangered her family, her mother and Molly. Emma and Molly wouldn't be able to live in their house any more in case anyone had actually gotten wind of what he'd been telling people about them being family and went after them, they would have to double or triple the security measures around their kids and not be able to give them the freedom to enjoy their childhood for the same reason, so he had once again destroyed the happiness of their entire family for his petty little whims. She then asked who he'd said any of this to other than his lawyers, when he started rambling again she kicked him in the guts and repeated the question, at which point he mumbled half a dozen names. Sarah looked at Chuck and he nodded to say that he had the names, she turned back to her father and asked if there was anyone else? He just looked at him so she kicked him again and repeated the question, so he said no.
Now the penalty for what he'd done to breach national secrets was generally death, but the powers that be had waived that because he was supposed to be family, he was gong to get his wish, he was getting out of the prison that he was in because he was going into a government supermax facility, and that's where he would stay for the rest of his life. How long that life was would depend entirely on whether he kept his mouth shut or not, if he mentioned anything about anyone in the family, or our associates, or the things that he claimed that they'd done, or asked for any lawyers, well we've agreed that the standard approach should be taken when national secrets are put at risk. There were no more chances, he'd had more than his share. She took Chuck's hand and turned to the door, stopping to turn back and say that the only person in the family that would be talking to him after this was Carina, and she most definitely remembered what she'd told him when he went to prison, so if she came to see him there was only one way for it to go. With that they walked out, leaving him on the floor for someone else to deal with, had a talk to the General about the names that she'd gotten out of her father and what should happen to him if he continued this at all, and then returned home.
Obviously Emma wasn't happy about the fact that they'd have to leave their home, but when Sarah explained the risks that existed if anyone came after them when they were out there, unprotected, she understood, especially when Sarah told her that it could be worse than when they were hiding Molly from Reiker. Chuck and Sarah had already talked to his parents and Ellie, and they were thrilled with the idea of Emma and Molly moving in with them, so once it was discussed with Emma and Molly and they agreed, all that was required was to move the things that they wanted in from their house, and sell the house.
Things were rather snug nowadays as nearly every room was taken in most of the houses, since they'd built Castle Carmichael as it was now Jaqui and Piotr had come along, Zondra had joined the team and moved in, Charlie had been adopted and moved in, Josie had moved in, Heather had moved in, Susie and Wendy had been adopted and moved in, and now Emma and Molly had moved in. Chuck looked at the situation and tried to work out a viable solution, so he sketched up a modification to the houses, adding filler sections to bridge between the two houses on each side, these would essentially make the original four houses into two really large houses (in effect mansions) on the outside, but still be effectively six houses on the inside, the original four at five to six bedrooms, and the smaller middle two at three or four bedrooms, the two new ones would also have two or three car garages for the extra vehicles. When he ran it past the others, everyone loved the idea so they got the blueprints done up properly and fast tracked, then got work started ASAP. As always, having almost unlimited funds to throw at the project made it happened all that much faster, and it was done within a couple of months. The beauty of the changes was that they didn't really lose any usable space, as the area between the houses was pretty much dead space, so they gained about 7 bedrooms and the rest, and they still had the common yard to use.
When they were done, Emma and Molly took the middle house on the side with Mary and Casey, and Zondra, Josie and Heather took the middle house on Sarah and Carina's side, and everyone had room to move again. Heather's position was settling in more, the longer she was there. Theoretically she was still there because the BGRU situation was still a long way from being finished, but she'd come through on the Intersect facility raid and on many others since then. She'd proven her loyalty and worth, and she was one of the girls now, so while she was officially a temporary member of the Clan, no-one doubted that she was there to stay.