"So, how in the Hell did Sarah wind up with a baby?" John asked later that morning when it was just the two of them while Alex played in her room.
Ellie had just come back into the living room after a long conversation with Sarah, "Do you want the long version or the short version?" She asked, "Keep in mind the long version is in Aramaic..."
John grunted in amusement at her pop culture reference. "Short and sweet, Doc."
"Okay, so the short version is her sister wound up in a sticky situation on her most recent work trip. Apparently, Carina was teamed up with what turned out to be a crooked CIA agent who had, unbeknownst to her, hired mercenaries to kill some rich couple in some Eastern European country. She was told that some gang had killed them, she later found out the truth. Turns out the CIA agent was after the couple's baby, as the last heir on either side, the baby stands to inherit a substantial amount of wealth and power." Ellie explained, "Carina figured out his game, smuggled the baby out and took it to Sarah and Chuck to protect it since they apparently have some kind of clearance and protection from the government."
"Likely that and the fact her file, has no reference to any familial ties." John added, "I did a did a deep dive on her a few years back when I had to work with her, the only information about family connected to her are her deceased parents, but no names are listed for the parents. NSA did the same for me when I changed my identity to join black ops." He shrugged, "So Miller's plan was to drop the kid with Chuck and Sarah to raise?"
"I guess so," Ellie admitted, "Sarah didn't say anything about Carina giving her any documents..."
"Likely to keep the baby's new location under wraps," John stated.
"Not that it matters, since Chuck can..." She stopped, then sighed, "I don't want to keep secrets from you. Chuck was, likely still is, a pretty good hacker; when he gets back from wherever he is, he'll likely try to create legal looking documents for the baby."
"Out of curiosity... do you know what his handle was?" John asked.
Ellie snickered a bit, "Piranha... Silly, I know, but growing up we watched that movie with Tim Allen, 'Jungle to Jungle' and he fell in love with that kind of fish."
"Ellie, if Chuck is who you say he is, he's not just 'pretty good,' he's one of the most elite, and illusive hackers in the world." John informed her, "I personally have known of three different task forces in the NSA who have been charged with finding him and forcibly conscribing him to work for the NSA."
"Oh my God!" Ellie gasped.
"Wait, back up a sec, Miller was on an op with the CIA?" John gave his wife a questioning look, "She's DEA, last I checked."
"Yeah, you'd have to ask her that," Ellie shrugged, "All I know is what Sarah told me. I doubt Carina will be more forthcoming with us than she is with her own sister."
"True," John sighed, "I may still try to get more information out of her next time our paths cross. If only to get the CIA puke's name, I'd like to have a few strong words with him… in a back ally… with Vera… come to think, there won't be much in the way of talkin' going on."
Ellie rolled her eyes, knowing exactly what John was thinking, "That's technically murder."
"Not if I get it sanctioned," Her husband countered.
"Hey Marine," Ellie placed her hands on the sides of his head and redirected him until his eyes met her, "As much as I love that you are so protective of our family, this is not your job, and it is not your fight."
"But Doc, that ass…" John began to protest.
"Will get what's coming to him one way or another," Ellie cut him off, "Your job is to stay here, with us, and not do something that could land you in the gulag. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, Ma'am," He rumbled, wrapping his arms around his wife and pulling her into his lap, "Have I ever told you how sexy you are when you get all bossy?"
"You may have mentioned it a time or two," Ellie smirked, accepting the warm kiss he pressed against her lips as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "But our daughter is in the other room."
"Then we take this little party into our room, lock the door, turn on the radio…" He gave her his best smolder.
"As fun, and as tempting, as that offer is," Ellie gave him a sweet kiss, "It's almost noon, and Alex will be wanting lunch soon, so rain check?"
"I promise, I'll be fast," John nearly whined.
"You know just as well as I do, that will be worse than just waiting a little bit longer," Ellie softly smiled at him.
John grumbled his agreement and helped his wife slide off his lap. "I'm gonna need a minute."
Ellie gave him a knowing look before heading to the kitchen to start getting what she needed together to make lunch for the family. John only needed a few moments to calm down and was soon heading down the hall to his daughter's room to tell her to clean up and wash her hands for lunch.
"Mama, when are we going to go see Aunti Sarah, Uncle Chuck, and the baby?" Alex asked one morning as Ellie was helping her get ready for school.
"Where did you hear that they have a baby?" Ellie asked.
"I heard you and Daddy talking about it," Alex shrugged, "Does that mean I have a cousin now?"
"Kind of, kiddo," Ellie hedged, knowing from her conversations with Sarah, nothing permanent had been put in place for the baby, "The baby isn't really theirs, at least not yet."
Alex gave her a quizzical look.
"How to explain this?" Ellie muttered under her breath before leading Alex out to the living room and sitting the girl on the couch while she perched herself on the coffee table, similar to how she and her husband usually did when presenting new or important conversations with their daughter. "Okay, so you know how when Daddy and I got married, we sat you down and talked to you about adopting you?"
"Yeah, because my first mommy went to heaven," Alex nodded, "And because you love me like a mama loves her little girl, you wanted me to be your little girl and take care of me like a mama should."
"That's right, sweetheart," Ellie gave her a small smile, "And you know how Aunti Carina travels around helping people all over the world, like Daddy does sometimes?"
"Yeah," Alex nodded.
"Well, Carina was clear on the other side of the world and found the baby alone," Ellie started, "She found out that a very bad man sent the baby's mommy and daddy to heaven, and she had no one to protect her and love her. Carina wanted the baby to be far away from the bad man and be with a family who could take care of her and love her, and she thought, 'Hey, Chuck and Sarah would take really good care of the baby!' So, she took the baby to them to take care of."
"Why didn't she bring the baby to us?" Alex challenged, "You and Daddy are great, and I'd be such a good big sister!"
"I know Sweetie," Ellie soothed her daughter, "And some day, hopefully, you'll be a big sister. Part of the reason Aunti Carina didn't bring the baby to us is that we don't know if the baby will be able to stay or not. Right now, Sarah and Chuck are fostering the baby, which means they are taking care of her until we know if she can stay or until a forever home for the baby comes along."
"We could be her forever home," Alex protested.
"I think Chuck and Sarah eventually want to be her forever home," Ellie explained, "They love her and take care of her like a mommy and daddy are supposed to, but because of how she came to live with them it may be a while before they can adopt her and be her forever family. Theres a chance that becasue she came from really far away, when they find the bad guy who sent her mommy and daddy to heaven, she might have to go back to where she came from so that someone who lives there can be her forever family."
"That sucks," Alex huffed.
"Yeah, it can." Ellie agreed.
"But why can't we go see her?" Alex asked.
"Well, Chuck and Sarah are still learning how to take care of her," Ellie explained, "Your daddy and I have told them to take their time and let us know if we can come up to meet the baby. Until then, we must be patient, and pray for them and the baby."
"Okay, Mama," Alex nodded with a sigh.
"How about I ask Aunti Sarah about facetiming sometime this week?" Ellie suggested, "I know she misses us just as much as we miss her."
"Yeah," Alex smiled a little.
"Good," Ellie nodded and stood, extending her hand to her daughter, "Now, it is time for all good little girls to go to school. Since we had our talk, we don't have time to walk to school today, so I'll have to drive you. Grab your bookbag and we'll take my car."
Alex nodded and headed to the front closet to retrieve her backpack while Ellie grabbed the girl's lunch and her own from the fridge. Meeting back up in the living room, she slipped Alex's lunch box into her bookbag and led her into the garage, where her car was parked. Once everyone was loaded up and buckled in, they made their way to the school. Ellie walked her to her classroom and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead before heading back to the car and heading to work.
It was later in the week and the Casey family were gathered in their living room, the screen of their television showing the outgoing call message of their video conference system. While it had been set up initially so that John could have video conference calls with his NSA contacts, they mostly used it to call Chuck and Sarah nowadays. Finally, the call connected, just in time to avoid a 'contact unavailable' message, and revealed a harried looking Sarah.
"Hey, hi, sorry," She apologized, "I was in the other room and almost didn't hear the call coming through."
"Hi Aunti Sarah!" Alexandra waived to her aunt.
"Hey Peanut, how are you?" Sarah asked.
"I'm okay," Alex shrugged, "I miss you and Uncle Chuck."
"I miss you too," Sarah sighed, "It's really been too long. We can't really get away for a visit. Maybe you guys could find time to come up?"
"I think we could make that work, right John?" Ellie turned to her husband.
"As far as I know, I don't have anything coming down the pipeline and should have some leave available." John nodded, "I know we're coming up on Thanksgiving in a little over a month now, but maybe we could make the trip the weekend before or after Halloween."
Sarah looked off camera for a moment before turning back to them, "Would the weekend after Halloween work? Carina will be here then, she said that she might have some sensitive intel for John that is best handled in person."
The way Sarah had said that caused John to sit up straight. There were only a few things, or really one in particular, that would require Carina to pass the information off in person. While he knew his duty, now that he had a family, he sincerely hoped whatever came of the intel Carina intended to give him wouldn't interfere too badly with their holiday celebrations. The last thing he wanted was to have to deal with an upset wife and distraught five-year-old due to him being absent during one of the crunch of holidays that occurred the last few months of the year.
"I'll see to it that we are here." John stated with a perfunctory nod.
"I will let her know," Sarah gave him a small smile before she was interrupted once more, this time by a tinny cry from the monitor that sat on the end table beside the couch she'd been sitting on, "Excuse me a sec."
The family watched as Sarah quickly rose and walked over to where they knew from their visits the stairs to the second floor were. The could hear Sarah's soft voice over the speaker as the crying subsided. A few moments later, Sarah reappeared, carrying a blanked covered bundle."
"Is that the baby?" Alex gasped in awe, "She's so small!"
"She is, isn't she?" Sarah asked, "Would you like to see her?"
"Yes!" Alexandra shouted, then saw the look from her parents, "Oops sorry, I'm supposed to use my inside voice."
Sarah let out a soft snicker before she turned the baby to the camera. She only felt confident in doing so because Chuck had ensured that both their video calling system as well as the one at the Casey house were secured above and beyond governmental requirements. "This is Amalia, but we've been calling her Molly."
The baby let out a soft grunt and squirmed a bit before blinking open her bright blue eyes.
"She's so pretty!" Alexandra smiled.
"My goodness, Sarah," Ellie gasped, seeing the tuft of curly blond hair atop the baby's hair, "She looks just like you, and with those curls, people will think they came from Chuck. Anyone who didn't know otherwise would assume that she's biologically related to you!"
"Carina's and my grandparents on our mom's side are from that area of the world," Sarah explained, "Not the same country, mind you, but not too far off, about the same distance as we are apart now, give or take a couple hundred miles. So, it's reasonable to assume that some features could be similar."
"True," Ellie nodded, "How are you adjusting to being a mom?"
"It has its ups and downs," Sarah sighed, "It's the best, most tiring, hardest thing I've ever had to do, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. It would be nice if Chuck was home more often, but we knew when he started that it would require him to travel at a moment's notice. Case in point, he was supposed to be home today, but the team manager called his team in for a last-minute trip. I still consult here and there, and will be more involved again, once we have a more permanent solution for Miss Molly's situation. Until then, all I know is what scant details Chuck or our bosses pass on to me, which isn't much aside from the fact they are making progress."
"I can kind of understand that." Ellie nodded, "Working on incomplete data is so frustrating. I come up against that due to HIPPA. It's absolutely necessary to protect our patients' information, but it would be nice if all doctors had a central database or something so that we were aware of any other information that came about from other appointments with other clinicians."
"Government tried something like that a while back," John grunted, "Literally blew up in their faces."
Ellie gave him a questioning look, but let it go when she saw her husband shift uncomfortably, recognizing his tell that he may have said too much. "Do you have everything you need? Can we help in any way?"
"No, I think we're good for now." Sarah shrugged, "At this age all she really does is eat, sleep, and poop. Chuck made sure we had plenty of formula and stocked us up on diapers before he left. We're trying to not leave the house with Molly for the time being, just to be safe."
"That's probably best," John agreed, "I'd still keep a wary eye out, even when you're home. Make sure that security system that Chuck installed is activated, call someone if you notice anything suspicious. I know a few guys who retired out of the service who do private security stuff, I can call them, if you want."
"We're being extra careful, the system is always armed, and Chuck recalibrated the cameras to be more sensitive to motion." Sarah informed them, "Makes the damned app go off every three minutes, if my lack of sleep doesn't drive me nuts, those alerts to anything stronger than a bug farting will."
Alexandra giggled at her aunt's 'bug fart' comment, earning humored smiled from her parents and her aunt.
"Well the offer still stands," John reiterated, "These guys do pretty much everything from light surveillance to full-contact protection."
"I appreciate that, I'll let you know," Sarah gave her brother-in-law a kind smile. "I should get going, I have a conference call with work in a few minutes."
"Okay, we'll see you in a couple weeks," Ellie replied.
"Stay safe," John added.
"We will," Sarah promised.
"Love you, Aunt Sarah, love you Molly," Alex said, waving at the screen.
"We love you too, Alex," Sarah waved back with her free hand, "I hope you have a fun Halloween and I'll see you soon."
After another round of goodbyes, the call was disconnected.
"Well, speaking of Halloween," Ellie turned to her daughter, "You still haven't decided on a costume yet."
"I'm outta here," John grunted, heading toward the kitchen to start supper.
"Coward," Ellie teased him, earning a grunt from her husband before she turned her attention back to Alex.
"I dunno," Alexandra scrunched up her face in concentration.
"How about tomorrow after school, we go to the store and see what they have for costumes?" Ellie suggested.
"Okay," Alex nodded with a sigh.
"Good, now let's go get washed up and set the table while Daddy is making supper?" Ellie suggested, although Alexandra knew it wasn't really a suggestion.
Alexandra nodded and followed her mama down the hall to do as she was told.