Author's Warning: Like everything else, this takes place in my series, set up by the events in my first story "More Than My Friend" where the big event is that Frankie adopts Mac and becomes his guardian. If you haven't read that story yet, I strongly suggest you do so now, or else you might get terribly confused.

Like a pair of raging rivers, the steady stream of tears gushed from the girl's soft, almond-brown eyes down the sides of her face.

Every night in my dreams,

I see you, I feel you,

In a mere matter of moments, she was practically struck blind as wave upon wave of tears flowed forth unchecked, flooding her cheeks.

That is how I know you go on.

Goo had long since given up the futile struggle to hold them back. After all, there seemed no point in trying to fight the overwhelming urge off, for how in the world would that be able to put an end to her misery?

Far across the distance and spaces between us,

You have come to show you go on.

Thus, the child wept on ashamedly, making absolutely no secret of the utter torment she was suffering through.

Near, far, wherever you are,

I believe that the heart does go on.

The agony was absolutely horrific, yet unfortunately for her, she was completely helpless to do anything to stop it. She had no choice in the matter and could do little more than simply attempt to endure it all as best as she could.

Once more you open the door,

And you're hear in my heart

And my heart will go on.

Unfortunately there was only so much that she could manage to bear, for in the end, she was still only but a child. Bit by bit, her ability to endure the torture slowly waned, and the closer that she neared breaking point, the more her woe was compounded.

Love can touch us one time,

And last for a lifetime,

And never let go 'til we're one.

And still, the hot tears continued to flow.

Love was when I loved you

One True time I hold to

In My life we'll always go on.

It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair.

Near, far, wherever you are.

I believe that the heart does go on.

Finally, unable to withstand it for on ounce longer, Goo finally erupted, and compacted all the pain she felt into one hoarse shriek. "JUST TURN IT OFF ALREADY, WILL YA?"

Once more you open the door-

The music promptly ceased blaring form the small, battery-powered radio the moment the badly startled redheaded woman reached over to it and hurriedly turned it off.

"Whoa!" Frances "Frankie" Foster exclaimed in complete surprise. "Jeez! What on earth is your problem?"

"Goo, are you okay?" Mac asked from where he stood perched atop a tall stool like his near-hysterical friend, so he too could reach the kitchen countertop.

"Am I okay? Am I okay?" Goo jabbered as she wiped furiously at her eyes. "What do you think, Mister Smartygeniuspants? Nuh-uh! Of course I'm not okay! No, not even one teeny tiny little bit! My eyes sting so much it's like a jellyfish crawled in here and stung my face, I'm crying so badly, I'm probably gonna get dehydrated in probably like, the next five seconds, there's not a single thing I can do to stop it because-"

"Well, what did you expect?" Frankie shot right back as she tried to clear her own badly irritated, waterlogged jade eyes. "For Pete's sake, we're chopping onions! You know what happens when you cut these things! And let's not forget that you and Mac volunteered to give me a hand getting super started. Look, I'm sorry guys, but the stew recipe calls for onions, and I don't like doing this any more than you do, but-"

"I know, I know, I know! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Goo whimpered. "It's just that…I mean, come on, Frankie! It's bad enough that we gotta practically blind ourselves! But do we have to listen to this music?"

"…Actually….I'm with her on that." Mac meekly chimed in as he grimaced in disgust. "Seriously, Frankie…Celine Dion?"

"Hey," the caretaker countered defiantly as she pointed to herself. "My kitchen, my choice of music. If either of you find yourself in charge of getting food on the table one night, then feel free to listen to whatever you want. Until then, we listen to whatever I want to, and for your information, I happen to like this song-"

"Celine Dion?" Mac again just repeated incredulously.

"Yeah, I mean, come on!" his pigtailed friend chattered. "Seriously, I thought you were supposed to be all into rock and stuff, or at least you tell us, y'know! But this? This isn't rock! Nuh-uh! It's the stupid theme from that stupid movie my aunt made me watch with her, and-"

"Oh, and heaven forbid that my music tastes actually have any variety at all." Frankie muttered sarcastically as she reached over for the radio again. "Now seriously, these onions aren't going to get chopped any quicker if we just spend all our time arguing about-"

"But it's just so mushy! It's so super cheesy!" Goo squealed shrilly. "It's beyond cheesy! It's even beyond super mega cheesy! It's so disgustingly cheesy, I could listen to a big ol' hunk of cheddar, and you know what? It still wouldn't be even half as cheesy as this mushy-mush stuff you're making us listen to! C'mon Frankie! It's not fair! All we wanna do is help out, but all you're doing is forcing us to this dumb ol's station, and all its super-mega-cheesy mu-"

"Okay, okay!" Frankie swiftly acquiesced to their demands as she left the radio off. "You win! Look, no more, see? You win."

"Thank you." Both the children chorused together gratefully with twin sighs of relief.

Frankie just groaned. "Look, it's all over, all right? Now can we please just get back to fixing dinner before the rabbit stops in and throws a fit?"

Obediently, the children did as bid, and went right back to work helping the caretaker dice up the tiny mounds of white onions, despite how badly their eyes were irritated.

"Yikes," Mac murmured as he winced in discomfort. "Seriously, why do these things have to make us tear up so badly?"

Now that the root of her agony was vanquished, Goo swiftly sprung back to her usual perky, upbeat self as she joked, "Well, better sting than smell, I guess. Remember last week when we were helping Wilt clean out that cupboard, and we found all those nasty old potatoes? Remember?"

The playful reminder worked like a charm, and immediately the little boy burst out chuckling. "Ha! We didn't even know what they were at first."

"Heeheehee! Yeah, and remember how badly Bloo freaked out? He almost screamed his head off because he thought it was a sack of weird-looking giant bugs, and he-"

I'm not gonna write you a love song,

Cause you asked for it, cause you need one-

"FRANKIE!" the little ones immediately started wailing in dismay almost the very instant Frankie turned the radio back on, despite her attempts to try and keep the volume low enough so that it'd be out of their hearing range. Immediately, the redhead turned it right back off before reluctantly returned to her chopping with a rueful whisper.

"Hmph…you wouldn't know good music if it bit you in the butt…"

The End