A.N. Last chapter! I'm not planning on doing a sequel, so what you see is what you get. Enjoy!
Caroline sat with those who had been most instrumental in trying to help find her father in the same diner where all this had started. They were all on one side of the table, her on the other.
"It's been nearly six months," Caroline said. "We've had nothing. I got polite letters saying basically 'no, we ain't seen your poppa; now please let us deal with the important bits of this war.' Well, not that exact. But they mean that."
"It's been the same for me and Dave," Les reported. "Even when I actually visited them in person, it was the same message."
The others nodded.
The bell over the door jangled. In walked a man who was, at everyone's guess, living on the streets. He was tall and gaunt, pale skin stretched over his skeletal frame. His hair was long and matted, and the color of dirt. A beard and mustache grew thick, obscuring his features. "Fe..." he whispered, looking at the table.
The group at said table barely spared him a glance as they continued discussing their search for Jack Kelly.
The tramp laid his hand on Caroline's shoulder. "Fe," he repeated, more loudly this time.
"Leave her alone," Spot ordered. "She's a perfectly respectable lass, and we plan on keepin' it that way."
The tramp backed off a foot or so. Caroline's eyes were glued to his face.
"Caroline, ignore him," Dave said. "He's only an old tramp who wants things from you that are by no means appropriate for a young girl to be doing. Now turn back around-we need your input."
Instead of listening to her uncle, Caroline turned her whole chair around to face the man who had called her Fe. her brow furrowed as she searched his face.
Her eyes grew huge and she mouthed a word. The man dipped his head in acknowledgement.
Caroline screamed and launched herself at the man. "Poppa! Poppapoppapoppapoppa!" She threw her arms around him in a hug.
"Jack?" Spot asked, incredulous.
"Seeing your own wife killed and being a prisoner of war does things to a fellow," Jack said.
"But you called Caroline, your daughter, Fe, instead of her name," Dave said with understandable confusion.
"It's his special name for me," Caroline explained. "Poppa, I'm so glad you're home."
A.N. And that's that. Sorry for the vaguely sucky ending.