Part Forty. The Chassis

It was a good thing Caroline was as stubborn as her mum, Wheatley mused to himself as he made the trek from her room to GLaDOS's chamber. He'd woken up in the middle of the night, as usual, and upon noticing Caroline's absence known exactly what had happened. And he was glad of it. He'd not spent a night away from GLaDOS since that one nasty fight they'd had and he had no intention of ever doing it again. He took his place next to GLaDOS's core and nestled into her contentedly. Much better. The pillow was better than just sitting on the floor, but it was cold and quiet and unfamiliar. Honestly if he'd been incapable of just popping into sleep mode he'd've just sat there until Carrie had left anyway!

"What took you?" GLaDOS somehow snapped quietly, and Wheatley jumped as his optic snapped open. He turned to look at her, plates narrowing confusedly.

"Why're you still up?"

"Don't tell me you seriously don't know."

After a little bit of confused thought he remembered the last time they'd been separated at night. Neither of them had slept well, now that he thought of it. He smiled a little sheepishly and looked down at the floor. "I uh, I guess I should've figured that out, yeah."

"Figure it out faster next time. I'm exhausted."

Wheatley frowned. It was her fault he'd left in the first place! He almost sent the words to his vocabulator to articulate this when he realised it was probably not the best idea to start an argument just then. He didn't want to wait, but it'd be better. She'd be a bit more receptive after she'd had time to stop thinking about being angry.

She was snappy and irritated the next morning, however, and Wheatley wasn't feeling quite as upset about it, so he kept quiet. Apparently she'd told Caroline they were going to do something, but as much as he understood her enthusiasm he knew it was in everyone's best interest for him to take the little core someplace else. She was far too excited to care about that, though, and for the morning and half that afternoon Wheatley took her for a walk, kind of, through those bits of the facility she wanted to see that were off the beaten track, as it were. She was frightened at first, of what Wheatley wasn't sure. He knew she wasn't afraid of meeting Doug again, but it was odd that she would fear getting lost when he was right there. That seemed to be it, though, because she kept looking behind her. To be sure, he asked her, and she told him that she was afraid because she was out of range.

"But I'm right here," Wheatley said, confused.

She looked at the floor tiles and bounced her handles a little. "I know."

"Then what is it?"

"I woulda been okay yesterday," she mumbled, "but Momma couldn't hear me."

Wheatley tried really hard not to be offended. He tried really hard not to be upset, and he tried really, really hard to fight off the hurt. But he couldn't. He told her he thought it was time they headed back and left her to do whatever she felt like doing in her room. He went to his hole and stared glumly out at the vibrant blue sky.

Wheatley knew he was not the most capable person ever made. He knew he was, at his core, a screwup. He'd accepted that. There was no point in denying who you were, after all. It was better just to accept it and head on with your life. But the one thing Wheatley did his damnedest to do well was raise Caroline. He was always thinking of her, always watching out for her, always trying his best to think of how he could be a better dad.

It never mattered.

Caroline always ran to GLaDOS. She always wanted GLaDOS's attention and approval, never Wheatley's. He almost felt like he was invisible, sometimes. And used. Caroline only turned to Wheatley when GLaDOS wasn't available or when she was too much for Caroline to handle. He bounced his lower handle in frustration. Seriously. Was it his lot in life to always be second best? He wasn't doing anything wrong by Caroline, was he? He was patient. He always listened and tried hard to advise her in a useful way. But it wasn't enough, because he didn't carry the authority that GLaDOS did, the gravitas, that indescribable thing that drew her to her mum as if by an invisible force! Whatever it was, Wheatley didn't have it. And he wanted it, wanted it desperately, but he did not know what it was so he couldn't even begin to work towards it. And the more he thought about it, the more spiteful he felt, so that by the time the sun had faded and his system was having trouble deciding on which exposure to receive the visual data with he was quite a lot angrier than he'd been in a while.

When he returned to GLaDOS's chamber, Caroline was playing with some apparatus he'd never seen before. It seemed to be a very long slide of some sort, where she put tiny little balls at the top and had them roll down to the bottom. She seemed quite enamoured with it, giggling when some part at the bottom collapsed and she had to trap the little balls with her maintenance arm, but GLaDOS, as per usual, was not participating. This only irritated Wheatley more. He always played with Caroline. Not just sat there staring until she got bored.

"Wanna play, Daddy?" Caroline asked, unsuccessfully waving at him with the maintenance arm and scattering her apparatus all over the floor. GLaDOS looked at the mess cursorily but otherwise didn't even move. Wheatley heroically did not glare indignantly at GLaDOS on his way over to Caroline, though he sorely wanted to. But he knew Caroline hated it when they fought, and while they were actually overdue for an argument, he didn't feel like starting one right now. What even would the point be? GLaDOS always won.

Caroline grew tired before too long and Wheatley quite helpfully volunteered to pick up for her, to which she happily agreed. After he'd finished he considered forgoing his usual spot to snuggle Caroline instead, but again he decided he didn't want to deal with the consequences. And because he was such a good – a good – he didn't actually know what he was, since he was pretty sure there was some word other than friend to describe his relationship with GLaDOS, though he was a bit iffy on boyfriend. But anyway. Because he was so spectacular at that, he settled himself beside her and glared at the floor. When she did not make any attempt to communicate, let alone acknowledge that he existed, he said, in as neutral a tone as possible, "How's your day gone?"

"Fine," GLaDOS answered. "Just working."

"On what?" Wheatley asked, pretending he cared. Okay, well, he sort of did, but right now he was trying to be aloof and – and – self-righteous, so he couldn't act like he cared.

"That thing I can't talk about."

"Quite the project, isn't it?" Wheatley pressed, because hearing that only made him more irritated. She always had to be so mysterious and secretive.

"If I didn't have to do it, I wouldn't be."

"I'm sure you could figure something out if you really wanted to," Wheatley snapped, unable to contain his frustration any longer. GLaDOS sighed.

"We've already been over this. Thinking about it is a huge risk in itself. Now stop. Asking."

Fine then, Wheatley thought to himself, frowning hard at the floor. I won't care about your life. I won't ask about it and, and I won't even think about what you've been doing. Other than right now, because now I'm sort of… stuck thinking about it. But later I won't. Just like you don't care about what I've been doing.

Now Wheatley was getting a bit scared.

Every now and again, he'd be playing with Caroline and she'd just shut down. No warning, she wasn't tired. She just shut off, and Wheatley would stare at her worriedly until she came back online, and oddly enough she didn't seem to realise what was going on. She just cheerfully went back to what they were doing. He debated whether or not to tell GLaDOS, because she probably already knew, and if she didn't, well, there was probably a reason. But eventually he couldn't stand it anymore and went to ask her about it. Even though he was still angry with her, Caroline was a much higher priority than maintaining his distance.

"Yes, I know," GLaDOS told him, looking up from one of her monitors. "I'm working on it. She just needs moved to the newer chassis. It's a bit earlier than… no. No, that's… not true." She shifted uneasily, looking back at her monitor. "I just… didn't want this day to come."

"What day, luv?" He was concerned at her uncharacteristic uncertainty, though he was pleased she had stopped herself before she'd lied. He was having trouble holding onto his anger now, though. "And what's going on with her? Is she broken?

"No. Her hard drive is at capacity."

"And… the new one's not ready?"

GLaDOS shook her head. "No. It's ready."

"D'you think something bad's gonna happen if you put her in the new one?" Wheatley asked in a hushed voice.

"Do you remember being young, Wheatley?" GLaDOS asked quietly.

"A little."

"It doesn't last long, does it."

"No," Wheatley said, realisation dawning on him. "And… she's been like this a long time."

"That's right. I shouldn't have done it, but I was a bit more… lenient with the updates than I should have been." Her chassis sank a little. "I was trying to draw it out, you see. And it lasted three years. But she's outgrown that chassis, so to speak. I can't draw out the updates anymore. The last set is one package. So after she's reinstalled in the new chassis, she's going to… age, I suppose you could say. She'll have everything she needs for full sentience and autonomy, just as we did. She won't be as she is for much longer."

"So," Wheatley said, thinking hard, "you're saying she's not supposed to have been like this for this long. She should have, should have become like us earlier. But you held off. So she's just hitting that point now."

"That's right." She was staring pensively at the monitor. "As I mentioned. I shouldn't have done that. But I was selfish."

"How?"

"I wasn't ready," GLaDOS answered softly, looking at the floor. "I'm… still not."

"Is she going to change that much?"

"She's going to grow up, Wheatley." GLaDOS laughed bitterly. "Don't we all change a lot when we grow up?"

"Well… she'll still be her," Wheatley said, a little confused as to what GLaDOS was so upset about.

"Maybe. Some people don't change at all when they age. Some people change a lot. I know I did."

"It'll be okay, luv." He went up close to her, looking down at her concernedly. "Even if she goes through a lot of change, I suppose, well, long's we don't she'll, she'll still have something to uh, to… to steady herself against, I s'pose."

"I know. I just…" She shook her head again. "I suppose I'm just… going to miss this part."

"So'm I," Wheatley told her. "But it'll be neat to have her grown up with us too, right?"

"I suppose," GLaDOS said, though she didn't sound convinced. "Go and get her and I'll get this over with."

Wheatley did as he was asked and retrieved Caroline from whatever game she'd been playing with Atlas and P-body. She was rather more excited than he'd seen her in a while, but she always did get excited when GLaDOS wanted her for something. The frustration flared in him again but he forced it back. He would have to work that out later.

"Hi Momma!" she called out cheerfully, and GLaDOS looked up at her.

"Hello."

"Whatcha doin'?" Caroline asked, looking up at GLaDOS's monitor.

"What we're going to do," GLaDOS told her seriously, "is move you into a new chassis."

"You're gonna give me a new body?" she gasped, staring at GLaDOS with a wide optic.

"That's right," GLaDOS answered. "And you won't shut down spontaneously anymore."

"Huh?" she asked, turning to Wheatley.

"You won't uh, you won't fall asleep all the time," he told her.

"Ooh," Caroline squealed, facing GLaDOS again. "An' all you gotta do is stick me in there?"

"Yes."

Wheatley leaned around Caroline to see that GLaDOS had brought out another Core similar to the one Caroline already had, but about twice the size. It was still not as big as Wheatley's, but he figured it might be that Moore's Law thing that GLaDOS had mentioned a while back and decided not to ask.

"I'm going to put you to sleep," GLaDOS went on. "You'll wake up in a few minutes."

"Okay!" Caroline dutifully faced herself towards the floor, and within a few minutes her chassis had gone completely silent.

"This is going to take a while," GLaDOS said to Wheatley, glancing at him. "To make things as easy as possible for her, I had to make an image, which I now have to install on the new hard drive. I don't know how long that's going to take."

"I… I'll wait here, with you," Wheatley said quietly. He felt oddly nervous, now that Caroline was gone.

"She'll be back soon," GLaDOS said gently. "Just the same as she was five minutes ago."

"And the change will come after."

"Yes."

GLaDOS returned to whatever she'd been working on, and Wheatley just sat nearby and waited. After a while, GLaDOS said, "Wheatley."

"Mm?" He looked up, concerned despite himself. He almost thought there was a…. a rawness, sort of, to her voice. Which was quite odd and quite rare.

She lifted her core so that she could see him. "I'm not completely oblivious. I know you're upset about how she feels about me. Well. I haven't done anything about it because everything is about to change."

"What d'you mean?" Wheatley asked, feeling a bit panicked. Everything was about to change just because Caroline had a new chassis? Was that even possible?

"Caroline… is not going to listen to everything I say unconditionally, now," GLaDOS said. "Right now, she doesn't understand why I do what I do and she doesn't really want to. But that's about to change. She's going to start questioning me and my behaviour, and I'm not going to have any answers that will satisfy her."

"Not… not sure I understand you there, luv," Wheatley said weakly.

"If I tell her I'm working, that usually satisfies her, right? She's not too happy about it, but she listens. In the future, she's going to question that. She's going to have a hard time believing I really have that much work to do. Which I do. I'm not making it up. But she's going to think I am." She looked a bit pensively at the floor. "A lot of what I do isn't… concrete. That is, I can't actually demonstrate that I've done it. I can't show her updates to the facility that I make, for example, or other assorted changes. She's going to want me to prove what I'm doing, and honestly I won't blame her. But the fact that I can't is going to bring change."

"Like… like what."

"She's not going to trust my judgement anymore," GLaDOS said quietly. "She's going to start second-guessing me."

"How d'you even know this'll happen?" Wheatley protested, moving a little closer. "Are you sure you're not, I dunno, just completely off with this uh, this estimate, that you're making?"

"I know it will happen because it's what I would do," GLaDOS answered. "It's what I did do, a long time ago."

"She's not you."

"She's not you either." She lowered her core. "Which is regrettable, because you're… the only person who has ever accepted me. There's no guarantee she will in the future."

"So you're saying," Wheatley said, trying to gather all of it up in his brain so he could examine it better and, "is that she's going to do what you would do and, and just totally uh, just completely –"

"Question authority," GLaDOS interrupted. "Right now, I'm the authority. The older one gets, the more one tends to question it. The more things are seen erroneous about it. She's going to begin questioning me, my authority, and whatever else now that causes her to prefer me over you, and that is when she will turn away from me."

"Where's she going to –" He caught himself before he asked a really stupid question. "Oh."

"That's right," GLaDOS nodded. "She's going to go to you now. She's going to question me and she's going to expect answers from you. It doesn't really matter if your answers are correct, or even if they exist. She's just going to want commiseration out of you, really."

"So… so what you are to her, right now," Wheatley said, "is what… what I'm going to be later."

"Yes."

It was exactly what he'd been wanting so much for the last little while, but… now that he was being faced with having to do it, he really didn't want to. Of course it was kind of frustrating when Caroline went to GLaDOS for everything, even when it was GLaDOS's fault and Wheatley was trying to sort things out, but… he didn't even know if he could be that person! And God, now that he thought of it, it was so much responsibility! He'd never done well with responsibility, and if he screwed any of this up… well, he couldn't even imagine the consequences, they were so huge. "Are you… are you quite sure this is going to happen?" he asked timidly.

"Unfortunately, yes," GLaDOS answered. "It's going to happen."

"And are you going to um… to help me with this, at all? I mean… advise me, or something?"

"It's probably best I don't. She's not going to trust your judgement either if she discovers any of what you say comes from me, which is only going to cause her to be more vindictive towards me. I'd rather not deal with that."

"But… but I can't!" Wheatley cried out. "I can't – can't –"

"Of course you can be her parent," GLaDOS said softly. "You're just going to have to be a little more serious about it, that's all."

"What if I screw this up!"

"I already know you're going to screw it up. But I can't prevent it, so go ahead."

"Gladys!"

"I'm not abandoning you to this by yourself," she relented, looking away again. "I'm just not certain what my role is going to be."

"But you'll… you'll help me, right? If you can?" It didn't really matter whether it was true or not, but he needed her to say yes. Thankfully, she nodded.

"This is a two-person endeavour. I'm not going to leave you to it on your own."

He sidled up to her so that maybe he could sneak in a snuggle if she wasn't paying attention; something inside him was cold and scared and anxious. He honestly wasn't sure he could handle that after all. Yes, he'd been quite jealous, but he'd never actually thought about all the work it would involve. All the risk, and all the potential for failure. Now that he'd actually have to do what GLaDOS'd been doing, he was terrified.

"In all seriousness, Wheatley," she went on, indeed sounding quite serious, "I don't think it will last forever. It's going to take a while, but eventually she will come full circle. Though then it will be because she does understand, whereas now she doesn't care to."

"So it's like… like there's three phases, sort of," Wheatley thought aloud. "There's the… the not understanding, because she doesn't want to, and then the uh… then the not understanding, because um…"

"Because it doesn't make sense."

"Alright, and then there's um, then there's understanding because… it does make sense?" he guessed.

"That's right."

"And… how long's that um… that going to take, d'you think?"

GLaDOS shook her core. "If I knew I would have told you."

"I dunno if I can do this."

"You can," GLaDOS said calmly. "You're not going to like some of it, but you can."

"You didn't even insult me that time," said Wheatley, his voice small. GLaDOS laughed.

"I didn't realise you enjoyed it so much. I'll try harder next time."

"Gladys, I just… if I… if I mess this up, will… will she hate you forever?"

"Ultimately, that's her decision. All you'll be doing is guiding her, as I've been doing. If she decides she still hates me after she no longer needs that guidance, well, I've been hated before." She sounded flippant, but Wheatley could just hear the thread of anxiety underneath. She didn't want it to happen, but she didn't know how to prevent it from happening.

"But I'm tired of discussing this. Change the subject. You're good at that."

He stammered a little bit at that, not realising that was a talent instead of an annoyance, which made her laugh again.

"I can't make conversation out of indecipherable noises. You're going to have to do better than that."

They ended up discussing whether or not she should repurpose the turrets, seeing as most of them had been sitting in storage for years now. She was half for and half against the idea, the against bit mostly being her natural discontent at testing apparatus not being used for testing. But they weren't actually being used for testing anyway, Wheatley did his best to argue, though since GLaDOS did most of the work of the facility there really wasn't anything to do with the turrets other than leave them in storage, which GLaDOS also didn't like because she hadn't built them to keep them in storage. Wheatley was about to suggest asking the co-op bots for their opinion when Caroline's hard drive finally slowed down. Wheatley felt that coldness come back, and he looked at GLaDOS nervously.

"It's not going to happen immediately, idiot," she told him in as kindly a way as something like that could be said. "It's going to creep up on you."

"Even better," Wheatley muttered, and GLaDOS snickered.

"It'll be like a surprise. You're fond of those."

"Not terrifying, life-shattering surprises, I'm not. I like nice surprises."

"We're out of those. We ran out fifty years ago."

"You didn't even exist fifty years ago!"

"I existed in spirit," GLaDOS said sagely, and Wheatley stared at her a bit incredulously. That was a bit philosophical, coming from her.

"What does that even bloody mean?"

"Science," was all she said.

Before Wheatley could get too annoyed with her for answering a question with 'science' again, Caroline's optic snapped open and she stared at the two of them for a long moment. Then she looked around in a panicked sort of way and clenched into herself.

"What is it?" Wheatley asked, alarmed.

"I don't like it," Caroline said, shivering a little. "I don't like this chassis, Momma. I wanna go back to my old one."

"You can't," GLaDOS said gently. "There's no going back."

"I don't like it!" Caroline protested. "It's too big and there's too much stuff in here and I don't feel right and I want to go back!"

"You can't," GLaDOS repeated. "You'll get used to it."

"No I won't!" she shrieked. "I can't get used to somethin' like this! You gotta put me back!"

"I can't put you back," said GLaDOS. "That's you, now."

"Momma, you have to!"

"Your time in that chassis is over." GLaDOS's voice was far more firm than Wheatley's ever would have been. He didn't know what to do. Caroline was far more distraught than he knew how to deal with… and in the future, he was going to have to deal with it.

The thought was terrifying.

"It's time for you to grow up."

Caroline stared at GLaDOS.

"I don't think I wanna be grown up anymore," she said in a very small voice, and without warning buried her optic in GLaDOS's core and started to cry.

Wheatley watched helplessly. There was nothing he could do, and honestly he wasn't sure he wanted to do anything. And as a matter of fact… he and Caroline were both in much the same situation. They were both going to have to grow up a little in order to deal with the future, and honestly he was just as scared as she was. The world seemed so much bigger now, so much more unknowable and foreboding. Was that the world as GLaDOS saw it? And if it was, how did she go on every day? How did the world not crush her, like it felt as though it were doing to Wheatley right now? And poor little Caroline as well!

He waited for GLaDOS to poke fun at what Caroline had said, to remind her of all the times she had wanted to be grown up, or one of the other many remarks she made at such times, but she didn't.

It seemed as though GLaDOS no more knew what to do than Wheatley did. Okay, she probably had a plan, but she was taking her time in carrying it out.

Caroline eventually calmed down and turned around a little so that she was facing GLaDOS's chassis, but she still looked terribly sad. "I'm really scared, Momma," she said, very quietly.

"Nothing has changed," GLaDOS told her. "You have full functionality now. That's it. I'm not sending you out into the facility on your own. You just have more capabilities than you used to."

"There's too many capabilities!" Caroline protested. "How'm I supposed to pick which ones I use?"

"You have to decide that on your own."

"I can't, Momma."

"You don't have to do it right now. You have lots of time. I know this is going to sound insane, but you're actually going to want to eventually. There's no need to be afraid."

There wasn't? Because Wheatley was pretty sure being responsible for Caroline for the next three years was something to be pretty bloody scared about.

The time for sleep mode came and went, but GLaDOS did not mention it. She merely dissuaded Caroline's fears one by one with a quite frankly very impressive calm, and even though she was paying zero attention to Wheatley whatsoever he felt a little bit better as well. He was so envious of GLaDOS just then, he really was. Her ability to explain away anything with logic was astounding. When she'd finally said enough to Caroline so that she finally did sleep, though, he was again feeling a bit panicked. "Gladys, what you said, I… it can't come true," he said, looking at her worriedly. "I can't… can't do what you just did. Can't. Please, I… you've gotta be wrong, luv. It's not gonna happen."

"I think you'll find," GLaDOS said tiredly, "that when it happens you'll come up with something. That being said, I really do not have the energy to console you right now. It's going to have to wait. Or maybe you could be an adult and sort it out yourself."

Wheatley looked silently at the floor.

"I'm sorry." He looked up upon hearing the softness of her voice. "That was… uncalled for."

"This has been the worst day," Wheatley said heavily. "And it's going to get worse. Great. Just bloody wonderful."

"You're not going to be anymore alone than she will. I'm still here."

"Kinda hard to miss," Wheatley joked a little weakly. GLaDOS turned to face him, sliding her faceplate down to glare up at him with That Look. It was actually very funny when she gave him That Look because she was trying to be intimidating but she was actually being adorable. He was cheered up upon seeing that.

"You're so observant," GLaDOS remarked dryly. "I don't know how I neglected to notice that. You should have told me sooner."

"Maybe you're running out of um, running out of mem'ry," he suggested as she returned to her former position.

"If ever the hilariously unlikely probability that I was going to run out of memory came up, I would merely make more. I have an infinitely large memory. Unlike you, the contents of which I could write to a green bean."

He had no doubts that she actually could write someone's memory to a green bean, but he asked, "Wouldn't it uh, wouldn't my mem'ry be lost when um, when the green bean uh… died?"

"There's something in your memory worth keeping?"

"You," he whispered into the side of her core, and though she tried to pretend that didn't affect her whatsoever he clearly heard her fans react to that statement.

"I'm sure you would… fill that tiny space up with something. Probably moth balls."

"I would see you long before I found any um, located any… any dust to put in there," he answered, a little less suavely than he'd meant, but it was still quite satisfactory to hear her react a second time.

"I'm sure you'd manage to screw that up, despite my obviousness."

And this, Wheatley realised, was something he would always have.

No matter how frightening the future was, in his imagination or reality, no matter what happened or how badly he messed up, she would always be there. She didn't even have to actually address any of what he was thinking. All she had to do was be herself and everything would be alright. And she was damn good at it too.

No matter what happened, he would always have her at the end of the day. He could face anything with that knowledge. He was still a bit apprehensive, but emboldened too. What'd she say about friends, there, way back? They… they made up for qualities you lacked? GLaDOS had said that it made her feel weaker, but honestly, realising that she was there to fill in all the little holes he had made him feel stronger than he ever had. Without really meaning to and without thinking about it, he nuzzled her hard. Probably too hard, come to think of it, but she was tough and obviously didn't really care about scratches.

"What is it now, idiot ball?"

"I love you, Gladys," he said, still pressed against her quite firmly. Her hard drive hitched.

After a few moments of silence she murmured, "I was going to say that didn't do anything to change the fact that you were an idiot, but I think in this context it's fairly inappropriate."

Wheatley honestly didn't care and would have laughed if she'd said it, but he did appreciate that she was trying to be serious. "You c'n say whatever you want, luv."

"I'm going to say 'shut up', then."

"Sure."

And he actually did shut up, instead merely thinking to himself how lucky he was and how wonderful she was, when she said quietly, "Wheatley."

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

Yup. Truly wonderful.

Author's note

I know I'm uploading a lot lately, but school's coming up, so I'd rather dump chapters on you now for you to read later instead of leave you hanging for however long.

Carrie is playing with something called a Marble Maze. It's a bunch of plastic pieces you put together however you like and then you send marbles down from the top. Wheatley doesn't know what marbles are though.

So my thoughts on AI are like this: humans take a long time to mature compared to other species. This has to do with the fact that our brain keeps growing until we're in our twenties. The reason Carrie did not become adult sooner was that GLaDOS deliberately kept her from having full AI. AI would have all the information they needed to mature as quickly as they were able to, since their brains are fully developed from creation. GLaDOS knew that and designed it so that Caroline would have to mature a bit more slowly, so she wouldn't have to jump straight into adulthood like GLaDOS and Wheatley did. And now that she DOES have that adult capability, Caroline is going to start seeing all of GLaDOS's flaws. As GLaDOS said, only Wheatley ever accepted her as she is, and while Caroline unconditionally accepted her before like all kids do to their parents, now she's going to have to decide whether she WANTS to accept her. This is basically childhood condensed: the kid loves the parent because they're the parent, the kid begins questioning the parent and whether they should respect them, and then once they're an adult they (maybe) begin to accept and respect the parent again.

Carrie panics once she's in the chassis because she basically went to sleep as a kid and woke up as an adult. Pretty sure ANYONE would flip out if that happened. The new chassis can handle a lot more data and it's faster, etc, just like an adult brain would be.

That's it for little Carrie, guys! Adding more would have been fun but wouldn't have added anything to the story whatsoever.