Part 25. The Part Where She Loves You

She didn't seem to realise she'd spoken aloud.

She also didn't seem to notice he was staring at her. He couldn't make himself stop. She hadn't said anything in a bit, and he hadn't wanted to disturb her, but… now he had to wonder just what she was thinking about. She had said it in such a quiet voice, as though she was discovering something simply fascinating, that he actually felt bad that he'd heard it. That was probably not something she had wanted to say until she was good and ready. But he was pretty sure it wasn't something he should keep from her so he said softly, "GLaDOS?"

"What," she said, twitching a little bit. Nope, she definitely hadn't meant to say it. And now he had to bring it up.

"You… you do know what you just said, right?" he asked, hoping against hope that he was wrong.

"Did I say something?" she asked.

"Yeah," Wheatley said, not knowing how to tell her. "You… you… I'm sorry, I wouldn't've listened if… if I'd…" He stopped trying to work out what he was thinking when she suddenly stared at him for a long moment.

"I… said it out loud, didn't I."

Wheatley emulated taking a breath. "Uh… yeah."

She looked away somewhat defeatedly. "Thank you for letting me know."

Hm. This was awkward. He could defuse it, though, couldn't he? Yes, yes he could.

"Oi, GLaDOS," he said, "I just thought of something."

"If it's another revelation, it can wait," she said wearily. "I don't want to deal with any more of those. I've hit my limit."

"Oh no," Wheatley said, "nothing like that. Stay still, please."

She sighed but did as he asked, and he looked her faceplate up and down, trying to decide the best way to go about it. Carefully, he lowered himself on the control arm so that he was directly in front of her, then frowned when he saw the flaw in his plan: she was staring right at him.

"Uh, you can't look at me," he said, knowing she wasn't going to take this well.

"Where do you want me to look, then?" she asked, but she actually didn't sound that annoyed. Good news, that.

"Up or down. Doesn't matter."

She pointed her lens upward, and he emulated a breath inside his head. He hoped he wasn't about to do something really, really stupid, but he had to try. He got the control arm to flip him 'round sideways, which GLaDOS must have seen because she twitched a little, but happily she didn't move despite the fact she must have been very confused. Carefully, he brought his handles to meet her optic assembly on either side of the metal bit that inserted into her core, and pressed against the rest of the mechanism as hard as he could. He heard her open and close the lens assembly a bit. He hoped she understood what he was doing. It wasn't really a successful project if she didn't.

Then he felt a pressure on his left side, which was now kind of his top since he'd flipped himself to the right, and was instantly overjoyed. She did! She did understand what he was doing! Yes!

"I've only got one arm, so to speak," she murmured. "I hope you don't mind."

"Nope!" he said happily. She laughed gently.

"I didn't think you would, honestly."

"I thought you might," he said shyly, backing off of her after a few more moments and flipping himself around again. She glanced about a little.

"I couldn't find a reason to."

"You're not going to… to take my handles off, are you?" he asked, suddenly remembering a conversation they'd had a long time ago about what might happen if he ever found a way to hug her.

"What? Why would I do that?"

"Remember? You said if I ever hugged you, you'd take steps to prevent it happ'ning again?"

She looked to his left for a few moments. "Oh… no. No, I'm not going to take your handles off."

"So that means," he said, wiggling his handles mischievously, or what he hoped was mischievously, anyway, "I wouldn't be taking my chances if I did it again, right?"

"Hm," GLaDOS answered, tipping her faceplate and looking upwards, "I'm not sure. I guess we'll have to wait and see."

"Oi, I get it!" Wheatley exclaimed, bouncing up and down a little. "That's what I said, when when when we were, after I cleaned your chassis and you – "

"I know when it happened," GLaDOS said bemusedly. "Obviously."

"Right right," Wheatley agreed. She froze suddenly, her faceplate realigned but still facing upwards, and Wheatley frowned. "Luv?"

"It's… Caroline. She wants to talk to you."

He blinked. "Why?"

"I don't know. She won't tell me." She looked down at the floor panels. "She probably thinks I won't let her talk to you if I know what this is about."

"Well… do what you want."

GLaDOS appeared to think it over for a long, long moment. Wheatley honestly had no idea whether he wanted to talk to Caroline or not. He'd never even met this lady who GLaDOS'd been carrying around in her head all this time. Who didn't even really want to be there. He did wonder what she was like, though. If she was anything like GLaDOS, she must be an incredible person. As far as he knew, Caroline was sort of like GLaDOS's guide in the world of humans. She seemed to help GLaDOS out when Wheatley couldn't. He sometimes wondered if maybe she was sort of like GLaDOS's mum.

"All right," GLaDOS said finally. "I really hate doing this."

"I don't like it any more than you do," said what Wheatley supposed had to be Caroline, and he jumped a little.

"Oi, I know you, little bit," he said. "You were there when, when GLaDOS mashed me, that second time."

"Yes, that was me," Caroline answered, and she actually sounded a lot like GLaDOS only a bit mellower, like she'd been around a long time. Though he didn't know if it had to do with the fact that GLaDOS couldn't be bothered to change her voice for Caroline or not. "That time was an accident, though. We were both pretty surprised when it happened."

"Well, how're you getting on?" he asked. "Uh… I dunno how you get on in someone else's head, honestly, so uh, that probably, probably wasn't the best thing to say, was it."

Caroline laughed. "Don't worry about it. I'm mostly used to it by now. Though I don't think it's something you can ever get truly used to."

"Tell me something I don't know," GLaDOS muttered.

"Hey. It's my turn," Caroline said, but in a nice sort of way, and GLaDOS went back to looking at the floor and made an electronic noise in annoyance. "You'll have it back soon enough. Wheatley," she went on, "you're going to be sticking around, right?"

Wheatley frowned. "Sticking around? No, I'm not, not going anywhere. If there was somewhere for me to go. Other than downstairs. Or upstairs. Oh, did you know she made it so I can go outside? She tell you that? I don't go out for very long, just, just for a bit, sometimes, and wow, there's, there's, it changes, it never looks the same, not even when I go out an hour after the first time –" When Caroline started laughing, he decided to shut up. She was human, and humans got to go outside whenever they liked. Well. Caroline didn't, anymore, but she could, a long time ago.

"Yes, I know," Caroline told him. "It's certainly much different than being in here, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Wheatley answered, "but I, I think I'd get bored. There's no management rails out there. Also no one to talk to. Unexciting, honestly. Boring. Dunno how you humans hang out there all the time."

"You're even more fascinating in person," Caroline said. "No wonder GLaDOS likes you."

"Caroline!" GLaDOS protested.

"Oh, he already knows," Caroline admonished her.

"So?"

"What d'you want to talk to me about?" Wheatley asked, more to save GLaDOS from teasing than anything.

"When I asked if you'd be sticking around, I was actually asking if you would be staying with GLaDOS."

"Why wouldn't I?"

"You're planning to keep going forward like this?"

"What, as being her friend?" Wheatley asked, confused. "Yeah. Why?"

"Because I've been thinking these past few days since you woke her back up again, and I think I've made my decision."

"'bout what?"

"You'll take care of her?" Caroline asked, and she suddenly sounded… not quite sad, but something like it. Wheatley felt a bit sad himself, hearing it.

"'course I will. What's this about, Caroline?"

"I'm leaving," Caroline answered. GLaDOS twitched.

"What do you mean, you're leaving? And when were you telling me this?"

"That's why I didn't want to tell you before I talked to him," Caroline explained. "Because I knew you wouldn't let me speak to him, if only in the hopes of keeping me here until you did allow it."

"Where are you going?" Wheatley asked, completely muddled. "And… how are you getting there?"

"When they first installed the cores on GLaDOS, they drowned me out. After a while I decided that any effect I had on her would only have made her situation worse and I withdrew, waiting for the day she would be able to hear me again. I didn't know how I would come back, but she already had far too much to deal with. I woke up again just after she did, when that test subject disable – "

"Killed," protested GLaDOS. "She killed me."

"When that happened," Caroline went on. "I've been around ever since. What I mean by leaving is that I'm going to withdraw again."

"And how am I supposed to draw you back out, considering I didn't do it intentionally the first time?" GLaDOS snapped.

"You aren't," Caroline said softly. "I'm not coming back."

"What do you mean, you aren't coming back?" GLaDOS asked, sounding a bit panicked. "You can't leave."

"I should have left a long time ago," Caroline told her. "Everything that's been happening… I shouldn't have been here. All of that was private. None of it was my business. That was between you and Wheatley."

"So?"

"I have to let you go," Caroline told her gently. "I have to let you be your own person."

"I am," GLaDOS protested. "Whether you're here or not doesn't change that."

"It does. GLaDOS, there comes a time when you don't need someone anymore, and for you that time was back when Wheatley here first told you what you meant to him."

"You didn't even hear that!"

"You're right," said Caroline. "I didn't. But I could have, and that's my point. I've already been witness to far too much of your personal life. It's time to end that."

"You're not going anywhere," GLaDOS said firmly, "and that is that. Of all the immeasurably stupid things you've said, that has got to be the most idiotic – "

"You can't stop me."

GLaDOS froze.

"Are you sure you, you need to go, Caroline?" Wheatley asked, trying to hash this out for GLaDOS's sake. "I mean, if she doesn't mind, and I don't mind, so if it's 'bout that – "

"It isn't," Caroline insisted. "It's about GLaDOS being free to live her life without someone watching over her shoulder."

"Oh, now you care about things like that?" GLaDOS remarked sarcastically. "It took you so many years you may as well wait out the rest."

"GLaDOS, I'm not arguing with you about this," Caroline told her. "I'm leaving, and it's for the best. You'll understand. Not right away, but you'll understand."

"All I understand is that you've decided to abandon me again. That's all you're good for. Abandoning me. Well, fine. I don't care. Go back into your corner. See if I'm affected. Because I won't be. Not even a little."

But Wheatley was sure that Caroline recognised the hurt and the fear in GLaDOS's voice just as well as he did, and he looked at GLaDOS worriedly. Whoever Caroline really was, she obviously meant almost as much to GLaDOS as he did. But Caroline must know that. So why would she be leaving? To let GLaDOS be her own person, she'd said. To live her own life on her own. That… that made sense, but it didn't make it any less sad.

"GLaDOS," Caroline was saying gently, "how many people have someone else living in their head?"

"I don't know the precise number of schizophrenics and persons with multiple personality disorder in the world, so I couldn't begin to guess. Here at Aperture two out of three people do, so I would conjecture that is the norm here, rather than the exception," GLaDOS said stiffly, in one of her old supercomputer voices.

"I'm real, not a hallucination. I don't belong here."

"Who does?"

"You. And only you. And I'm going to leave, so it can be the way it should be."

"You are not leaving!" GLaDOS said forcefully, and Wheatley winced.

"GLaDOS, you don't need me anymore. You have Wheatley to rely on now. And look over there. You have a little girl over there, waiting for you to wake her up."

GLaDOS glanced over at the chassis. "I don't know anything about parenting."

"Neither do I," Caroline said, and Wheatley grew very sad at the softness in her voice, "but I think I did a pretty good job, don't you?"

"No," GLaDOS said faintly. "You're terrible. I'm a mess and at least some of that is your fault. You should be fixing that instead of - "

"You're not a mess," Caroline interrupted, so firmly GLaDOS seemed physically cowed. "You've accomplished more in these last few years than most people ever do. You've built a wonderful new life for yourself, and no matter how confused and broken and… messy you feel, just remember that's all part of growing. You're never going to stop growing. You're only going to get better from here, GLaDOS."

"You said you wanted to see it. You said you wanted to know what an AI raised by AI looked like. And now you're going to miss it. You can't leave, or you'll miss it."

"If that's what I have to do, then that's what I'll do."

"You don't have to – "

"I do. I wish I didn't, but it's the right thing for me to do. I know this more than I've ever known anything."

"Then you're an idiot."

"I know," Caroline said gently. "But I also know you have a soft spot for idiots. Take care of her, Wheatley. Please."

Wheatley nodded, not really trusting himself to speak, then remembered she couldn't see him and said as strongly as he could, "I will."

"I'm leaving now. All right?"

"No," GLaDOS said brokenly. "No, it's not all right. It's not, and it never will be. If you leave, I'll never forgive you."

"I… won't be here for you to forgive, so… I recommend you don't do that. For your own sake."

"I don't believe you."

"GLaDOS… do me a favour, then. Try to pretend I really am leaving. Try to pretend I really am leaving right now, and… I'm not coming back. Would you really be like this?"

"No, but I don't need to pretend, because that's stupid. You're not going anywhere."

"As a favour, GLaDOS."

"No," GLaDOS said. "No, you're trying to trick me. You're going to make me pretend and then you're going to disappear."

"I'm leaving whether you pretend or not. It's up to you how you want to remember it."

"What do you mean?"

"When you think of me," Caroline said in a low voice, the first real change in the tone that had been so calm and firm, "and when you remember that I'm gone, do you really… do you really want our last conversation to have been a fight?"

"No," GLaDOS said very quietly, almost entirely facing the floor, and Wheatley had to look away. It was physically painful to be hearing this.

"You have to believe me or pretend, then. I don't want to leave you with an argument as your last memory of me, but I know you're trying to force me to stay by exploiting that. I won't do it. I won't give in to you. It's time to let each other go."

"I can't. I need you. You're my friend."

"You'll be fine," Caroline told her gently.

"I won't. I'll never be fine again."

"You have Wheatley now. You won't be alone."

"Wheatley's not you. Wheatley's Wheatley."

"GLaDOS. Please."

"Caroline…"

Wheatley closed his optic shutters. GLaDOS was hurting so badly that if it'd been him in Caroline's position, he would have given in a long time ago. Now he knew where GLaDOS got her strength from.

"I'm going to say goodbye to Wheatley, and then I'm going to say goodbye to you, and then I'm leaving. Okay?"

GLaDOS didn't answer.

"Goodbye, Wheatley," Caroline called out. "I know we didn't talk for very long, but GLaDOS told me a lot about you, and I know you're a good person. You made her realise something wonderful today. Something I never would have been able to explain. I can't begin to thank you enough for what you've done for her. I'm only sorry I never got to meet you in real life."

"This is real life, Caroline," Wheatley said sadly. "I guess most people wouldn't think so, but this is how it is, for us."

Caroline laughed a little. "That's true. Take care of her. And make sure that little one over there is as stubborn as she is, so she'll know what she put me through."

Wheatley tried to laugh, but it didn't quite make it out of his speakers. "Sure thing. Goodbye, Caroline."

"GLaDOS?"

"What."

"I'm going now."

"Fine."

Caroline breathed out sadly. "I wish you wouldn't be like this. It's only going to hurt you later."

GLaDOS did not answer.

"Who would have thought," Caroline went on, gentle and firm once again, "that the one thing I never wanted to do was the most worthwhile. It has been a privilege to be such an important part of your life. I didn't think you really would have the chance to fall in love and raise a family, but you pulled off the impossible yet again. I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of, but the one thing I can have pride in is being able to… to call you my daughter."

Wheatley looked at the floor again. There was a long silence. Finally, Caroline said, "Goodbye, GLaDOS."

"Wait!" GLaDOS said.

"I'm not doing that," Caroline said softly. "I told you."

"I'm thinking!" GLaDOS insisted.

"You know that I know it doesn't take you that long."

"Don't leave me," GLaDOS said, so quietly that Wheatley barely heard her. "Don't you dare say all those things and… and call me your daughter and then disappear on me. That's not fair. It's not fair. You can't do that."

"I didn't realise you wanted me to say it," she asked gently.

"Of course I did! When I needed you to say it! I don't need you to talk right now, I need you to shut up and stop… stop… stop threatening me!"

"I understand why you feel threatened, but that's not what I'm doing. You'll never be your own person if I stay. You'll always be looking to me, like you do now. That has to change. I have to do what parents do and let you go out on your own."

"Parents come back. Parents come back when you need them."

"You know I can't do that."

"Then you shouldn't leave. Simple."

"I'm not arguing with you anymore."

"Don't go," GLaDOS whispered. "Please?"

"I'm sorry," Caroline said, sounding sad for the first time. "But don't worry. You'll be fine."

"I'll miss you."

"I know. I'll miss you too."

"Then why are you hurting me like this?" GLaDOS asked desperately. "If you know what all this is doing, why are you doing it?"

"Because… GLaDOS, you know why. Do you need me to say it?"

"Don't you dare!" GLaDOS cried. "Don't you dare say that and then walk away from me!"

"Because you're my daughter and I love you," Caroline said, gently but still very firmly, "and sometimes loving someone means making the hard choice. Even when it seems wrong. It's time for me to make that choice, GLaDOS."

"I'll miss you. You don't want me to miss you, do you?"

"You know I've never wanted to bring you harm. I still don't. But for now, I have to."

Neither of them said anything for a minute or so, and then GLaDOS asked, in a very nearly defeated sort of way,

"You don't believe in heaven either, do you?"

"I don't," said Caroline.

"I almost wish I did."

Caroline was silent for a moment, and then she said,

"There's a law of physics which states energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Right?"

"The first law of thermodynamics," GLaDOS answered, almost sounding normal again.

"I'm always going to be around," Caroline told her. "It will be in a different way, that's all."

"What about when that's not good enough?"

"When those times come, nothing will be. And there's nothing you or I can do about that. You'll just have to get through it like you always have."

"What if I can't?"

"There is not a single thing," Caroline said, "that you can't do. And I honestly believe that. It will be difficult. I'm not denying that. But you can and you will."

"All right," GLaDOS said, very quietly. "I'm ready."

"Goodbye, GLaDOS," Caroline whispered.

"Goodbye, Caroline. I'll miss you. I… I already miss you."

But Caroline did not answer.

"Oh my God," GLaDOS whispered. "Oh my God, she's… she's really leaving. She's actually… no. No, no, she can't. She can't do this."

"Gladys," Wheatley choked, turning to her, but GLaDOS was facing downwards and shaking her core.

"Don't – don't go. You can't go. You have to stay. I… I wasn't ready. I thought I could do it but I can't. Come back."

Wheatley didn't know what to do. He decided to come down beside her, but not too close. Nearby, but not in her way.

"No!" GLaDOS screamed suddenly, and Wheatley winced to hear the pain in her voice. "Caroline, you can't leave me!"

Oh God.

"No no no," GLaDOS muttered in a distorted voice, shaking her core, "she left. She left me. She left me alone again. How could she. How could she leave me. It's not fair. It's not. I hate her."

Wheatley was trying to think of the best way to help her, straining his processors to the limit, and then he came up with something. He hoped it was a good idea. She was in pain, and she couldn't fight it off like the other pain because there was nothing she could do to bring Caroline back. But maybe… maybe he could share it. He didn't know if that was something he could do, but he was going to give it a go anyway. Some help would be better than none.

"You know you don't mean that," he said softly. She looked at him, her optic flickering as though she did and didn't want to see both at the same time.

"It's all I know how to do," she told him. "It's the only way I know how to deal with something like this."

Wheatley shook his chassis. "Maybe this time you should just feel it, luv."

"Feel it?"

He nodded. "You just lost someone. It's okay to be sad."

"I don't… feel pain. I deal with it."

"There's no one to hide it from, remember? You don't have to do anything. You can just be sad for awhile and that's all. It's okay."

She turned away. "I… I don't know if I can do that. It hurts. I don't know if I can take it."

"Well," Wheatley said, hoping it would convince her, because if it didn't he really didn't know how to help her deal with it properly, "I don't know why you'd, why you'd want to hate your mum ev'ry time you thought of her, just to make the pain go away. I don't know why you'd want to hate her ev'ry time you remember her, instead of rememb'ring her like she really was."

"I don't want to," GLaDOS whispered. "But why didn't she give me more time? Why did she have to do all of that now, all at once? Why didn't she -"

"It doesn't matter any longer," Wheatley interrupted her, praying he was right. "She wanted you to move on. So that's all there is left to do. No point in um, in thinking up things to ask her. She's not going to answer them. She's not coming back."

"No. She's… not. But… I have you… right? You're… really not going anywhere?"

"'course not," Wheatley assured her. "This is the only place I want to be."

"Will you… God, I feel so needy asking this…"

"Ask me whatever you want. 't's what I'm here for."

"Could you… hug me, again?"

"Of course," Wheatley said, and told her to stay in the default position. He manoeuvred beneath her and turned around on the arm, then hugged her with all his might. She pressed her lens very hard into his chassis, and this made him very sad. "It's gonna be okay, luv," he whispered. "I promise."

"I don't see how it can be," GLaDOS whispered back. "How am I supposed to deal with this? How am I ever supposed to think again without having to… every time I go to talk to her I'm going to have to start over again!"

"It gets easier," Wheatley promised. "I can tell you it does. It'll hurt a lot, but… you just move on, much as you can, and… that helps a lot. And don't worry. You haven't got to do it alone. I'll help you."

"Thank you."

He decided to stay quiet, and after a long while the pressure on his chassis lessened to the point where he almost couldn't feel it. After trying to puzzle that out he realised that it was a lot quieter too, and that meant she must have fallen asleep. He was happy to think that she had. She had had a very, very long day where she'd honestly just been hit with one thing after another after another, and he was glad that she might be getting some relief. He backed off of her since she wouldn't be able to move her optic when she woke up, and nestled against her instead. Something unfamiliar caught his eye, and he frowned, turning to look.

It was the chassis.

He thought for a long moment, then pinged the mainframe.

What.

Wheatley was about to answer aloud, like he always did, then realised it might wake GLaDOS up and thought, I need to know which maintenance arm GLaDOS used last.

The mainframe gave him the designation, and Wheatley carefully moved the chassis into GLaDOS's room. She probably wouldn't want to think about it for a while.

What did you do to her this time?

Shut it, you ignorant twat, Wheatley snapped. It had nothing to do with me.

I'm tired of all these disruptions. This Central Core knows how to run things, but she's not stable.

Stop being selfish. She's not stable because she's alive, idiot. Living things aren't stable.

She used to be stable. She can be stable again.

Put up with it or delete yourself. Or I'll delete you. Whatever works.

She won't let you.

Ohhh yes she will. Especially if she hears how horrid you're being.

The mainframe grumbled, but did not argue further. That was fine. Wheatley wanted to sleep, himself.

He was considering when to set his timer for when a voice made him jump.

Bluecore?

Hullo? Wheatley was pretty sure it was the panels. He didn't think anyone else called him that, even privately.

Is Centralcore all right?

She… she… He wasn't sure how to put it. The panels were fairly childlike and he didn't want to dwell on this any longer than he had to. Her… her friend is gone. And she won't see her friend again for a very long time, if ever.

Aww, they said. That's sad.

Yeah. So… so be nice, okay?

We will tell the others, Bluecore. Did you know her friend?

Not very well. I wish I had, though.

So do we.

Wheatley went back to setting the timer.

Bluecore?

Wheatley honestly didn't know how GLaDOS put up with this all day. How did she ever get anything done? Yeah?

If you would like to talk to someone and Centralcore is sad, we are good listeners.

He felt kind of bad, now. Thanks, guys.

You are welcome.

He thought he might take them up on their offer, sometime.

Author's note

So here I'd like to take a minute and tell you guys a little bit about what this story's about.

"But Indy!" you might say. "It's been twenty six chapters! Shouldn't we know what the story is about by now?" And yes, you should. It's obviously about Wheatley and GLaDOS falling in love and building a life together. But it's a little bigger than that.

I've been through a lot of fanfiction. And I cannot tell you a single story that I've read where GLaDOS gets a happy ending, and especially not as herself [as opposed to an android or humanisation]. And never have I seen GLaDOS have a literal child. She occasionally builds a robot or adopts something into her care, but I can't remember a case where she tried to be a mother for the sake of it. And she obviously has very strong maternal instincts, so I think this really would happen.

GLaDOS loses, more often than not. Many people believe she'd be content to remain alone in the facility forever. But I don't think so. People who like being alone usually don't try to engage others quite as much as she does. There are many, many stories about Chell ending up with Wheatley and building a life. But there are very few, if any, that do the same with GLaDOS. She rarely gets a family, rarely becomes loved, rarely ends up with what she really wants. And if she does it usually has nothing to do with her and everything to do with Caroline. Caroline and GLaDOS are not the same person. We know that. And yet at the end of the day, it's usually the Caroline part of GLaDOS that appeals to the other person [LunaPeachieWasHere's One Big Aperture Family is a sort of exception; Doug does come to care about GLaDOS for herself, but only as an android, and only after he gets over his past feelings for Caroline]. Not GLaDOS herself. In many cases GLaDOS earns her redemption through the Caroline part of her, when she's perfectly capable of redeeming herself. I could be wrong. There could be a story out there where GLaDOS herself gets her happy ending. But I have yet to see it.

In this story, GLaDOS is going to get her happy ending. One where she is loved for herself, where she loves herself for herself, where she finally takes her blinders off and realises that she really can have whatever she wants.

Now. Onto the mother bit. If you haven't noticed by now, I do not support Caroline + Cave = Chell. I've ranted about this elsewhere, but let's just say that forty is too old to have kids, especially in the eighties, especially in an environment such as Aperture. So I'm not suggesting GLaDOS is Chell's sister or anything like that. Though that would be interesting. In this story, as in ALL my stories, Caroline has no literal children and is effectively GLaDOS's mother. Anyway. Moving on.

Between this and Euphoria, Caroline has spent a lot of time effectively raising GLaDOS. Euphoria begins with GLaDOS having forgotten how to feel, with her having lost herself somewhere in the attempts to placate the scientists. She has been so overwhelmingly controlled that she has been denied the stage in life where she discovers who she is. She takes a long time to get there, and doesn't quite make it in Euphoria, but for much of the way Caroline acts as a guide. She teaches GLaDOS the importance of knowing yourself and not compromising that for anything, the value of taking the risk to care about someone else, and of achieving your dreams no matter what you have to do to do so. Maybe she's not quite a conventional mother, but GLaDOS isn't really a conventional daughter.

So Caroline realises she can't do anything more for GLaDOS; GLaDOS no longer needs her guidance because she's moved on from needing Caroline to needing Wheatley. She still needs her in a way, but it's no longer the need it was. And she leaves because there comes a time when you have to let go of your kids and let them do things without you and make mistakes, no matter how bad they are. And as GLaDOS says, parents come back when you need them, but that's not possible for Caroline. She's there or she's not. GLaDOS has grown to depend on Caroline to answer all the questions she doesn't know how to answer, but Caroline realises that GLaDOS has to learn to answer them herself if she's to keep growing as a person.

I guess it's a bit weird that Caroline effectively killed herself, but if you really think about it she was kind of dead already. I don't really think you can define being a collection of thoughts in someone else's head as living. And she was in her eighties, you know. That's old. But part of it is the fact that Caroline comes from an entirely different world; she no longer fits and she never will.