The Unexpected Knight

by InvisiblePrincess2002

AU. While at home at the end of summer vacation, Tootie is sexually assaulted by a family friend. When she later learns that she is pregnant and is worried about her unborn baby's fate, Blair steps in and offers to help. However, both girls are concerned that when Mrs. Garrett eventually finds out about their plans, she won't be supportive.

10. Our House

Chapter 10: Our House

It was twenty minutes after eight that evening before Mrs. Garrett finally emerged. She knew she should have left much sooner than she did to go out and give everybody the good news, but she just hadn't been able to tear herself away from Tootie and the baby until then. She knew Dr. Jeffries had been called away to take care of another woman in labor that had just arrived at the hospital minutes after Baby Danielle was born, so she wasn't sure if anyone had gone to talk to everybody else yet.

And the instant she saw the look on Mr. Ramsey's face, she knew they hadn't been notified. The poor man looked absolutely sick with worry, and as Mrs. Garrett walked up to him in her blue-green scrubs, she could see it that he was almost crying.

"My little girl?" he said to her in a shaky voice.

Mrs. Garrett then put her hands on his upper arms, and he responded by doing the same, and she told him gently, "It's alright, Mr. Ramsey. Tootie's alright. She was very brave, and she came through it well."

Harrison heaved a sigh of relief in that moment, and his entire body visibly relaxed. "Thank You, Jesus," he whispered.

"And the baby?" asked a worried Natalie. Now, practically half of the entire Eastland student body and most of the faculty was out in the hospital waiting room. Everybody else was sitting down, but Mr. Bradley, Natalie and Jo stood up the second they saw Mrs. Garrett. Jo was now quietly standing behind Natalie with one hand on Nat's shoulder.

"The baby is a beautiful, healthy little girl," Mrs. Garrett assured them, and then Natalie and Jo instantly hugged each other. Everybody else got up a couple of seconds later and began hugging and celebrating as well. "She weighs seven pounds, two ounces, and her name is Danielle Louise."

"Aw," Natalie said with a big smile. "I can't wait to see her. I can't wait to see Tootie, either."

"I'm not usually into babies, but I have to admit it that I'm really lookin' forward to seein' the kid, myself," Jo confessed.

"Well girls, I think it'll be a little while yet before Tootie and Danielle are ready for visitors. Tootie's been through an awful lot today," Mrs. Garrett reminded them.

"I don't doubt it," Harrison said seriously. "However, I would like to see my daughter this evening if the doctors will permit it."

"I'm sure they will," said Mr. Bradley.

"Natalie, Jo, I think it's better if you girls headed on home and waited to visit Tootie and Danielle tomorrow morning. We ought to let Tootie get some rest," Mrs. Garrett told them.

"Right, Mrs. G.," Jo agreed. "Come on, Nat. Let's get back to school."

"Okay, Jo," said Natalie, and then after exchanging pleasantries and goodbyes with Mr. Ramsey and Mr. Bradley and everybody else, she and Jo got on Jo's bike and went back home.

A few minutes later, Tootie's father came to see her. Tootie had only nibbled at her breakfast that morning, and that had been all the food she'd had through the day so understandably, she was pretty starved, which was why she was wolfing down the dinner they brought her when her dad walked through the door.

"Hi, sweetheart," he said warmly as he walked into the room, and then they hugged.

"Hi, Dad," Tootie responded, and then she went right back to eating.

Harrison chuckled and asked her, "Is somebody hungry?"

"I didn't have a lot to eat at breakfast this morning, and I haven't had a chance to really eat much of anything all day. And I have been working pretty hard throughout the day, you know," she reminded him.

"You certainly have been. Eat away. Please."

"Have you seen Danielle?" Tootie asked between bites.

"Not yet. Speaking of my granddaughter, where is she?"

"Blair took her out to the waiting room to show her off to everybody. You probably missed her."

"Right," Harrison said, and then he remained silent for a long moment. Finally, he told his daughter, "You know, Tootie, it's not too late to change your mind about the adoption."

Tootie stopped eating in that moment, and then she said to her dad, "I don't want to change my mind, Dad, and besides, I already signed the papers a little while ago. I love Danielle more than anything, but I can't take care of her the way Blair can. I'm not ready to accept all of the responsibility for Danielle's entire life. I realized that the moment I first held her in my arms. I'm just a kid, and I know that. I'm not ready to be a full-grown adult right now, and I'm certainly not ready to be a mother right now, either."

Harrison nodded and said, "I understand. I just wanted to remind you that I'm behind you should you decide you didn't want to go through with the adoption."

"I appreciate that, but I know this is the best thing for both of us. Besides, Danielle will be living right next door to us. We'll see her all the time."

"That's true. I'm very grateful to Blair for everything she's doing. It means a great deal to me to know that Danielle will always be nearby."

"It means a great deal to me, too."

Harrison took a seat in one of the chairs next to Tootie's bed then, and he joked, "I am certainly starting to feel a bit over the hill now that I'm an old grandpa."

Tootie laughed a little and told him, "Come on, Dad. You're not that old."

"It feels that way, though, especially when I see how grown-up you are. You may still be a kid, Tootie, but your decision to step aside in order to do what you feel is best for Danielle – and to allow yourself to remain a teenager a while longer – is in fact the most adult decision you've ever made. I don't think I've ever been prouder of you. And even though you and your mother have had your share of problems between you during these past several months, I know she's just as proud of you as I am."

"Have you called Mom and told her about the baby yet?" asked Tootie.

"Not yet. I will when I get home."

Tootie nodded, and then she simply continued eating in silence for the next couple of minutes until she finished everything on her plate. Once she was through, Harrison asked, "So outside of the hunger, how have you been feeling tonight since the delivery? How's the pain?"

"Dr. Jeffries ordered some pain medication for me. One of the nurses gave it to me after I was brought here to my room. I'm still having some pain, but since I took the pain medicine, it's not nearly as bad as it was."

"I'm so glad to hear that. Speaking as a man, I can't even begin to imagine what you've been through today. I've really been worried about you, darling."

"I won't try to pretend it was easy. Mrs. Garrett told me this would be the hardest thing I've ever done, and she was right. It was. But I'm still glad I did it. I know it was worth it to give Danielle life."

Harrison looked into his daughter's eyes in that moment and told her with great respect, "Tootie, you really are something."

Tootie smiled and said, "Thanks, Dad. Wait 'til you see Danielle. She really is something, too."

"I don't doubt it if she's anything like you," Harrison said lovingly, and then the father and daughter simply sat together in silence for the next few minutes.

Finally, Blair returned, cradling Baby Danielle in her arms – who was now all decked out in the most adorable pink and purple baby pajamas from Bloomingdale's. Blair was still so enraptured by her new adoptive daughter that she hadn't even changed out of the blue-green scrubs from the delivery room yet, which she certainly would have done a long time ago under different circumstances. Now, though, she simply couldn't get her mind off Danielle.

"Ah, Blair," Harrison said with a smile as he rose from his seat.

Blair returned the smile and said, "Hello, Mr. Ramsey. I don't think you've had the chance to meet our new little princess yet."

"No, I haven't."

"Mr. Ramsey, meet Danielle," Blair said as she gently placed the infant in his arms. "Danielle, meet your Grandpa Ramsey."

"Oh, my," he gasped as a tiny tear escaped from one of his eyes. "Hello there, little lady." Danielle then cooed in response, and Harrison, Blair, and Tootie all laughed. "Tootie, this is just like holding you when you were a baby."

"You know, we've all been saying the same thing," Blair agreed. "Danielle looks so much like Tootie's baby pictures."

"She sure does," Harrison concurred. "You are just the most precious little baby in the world, aren't you?" he whispered, and again, she cooed. "And you're as talkative as your birth mother," he kidded, and Blair and Tootie giggled a bit.

Harrison spent the next twenty minutes or so holding Danielle and getting acquainted with her, and then when both Tootie and Baby Danielle yawned at the same time, he and Blair took that as their cue to say goodnight. Mrs. Garrett remained true to her word and she returned to see Tootie shortly after Blair and Mr. Ramsey left her room, but since Tootie was clearly exhausted, she only stayed about a minute or so before she said goodnight as well.

Molly, Cindy, Nancy, and Sue Ann were nice enough to take over in the kitchen and cafeteria for Mrs. G. in the girls all day the following day, which allowed all of them to go to the hospital and spend the day with Tootie and Baby Danielle. Dr. Jeffries informed them that Tootie and Danielle were both in excellent shape and could go home the next morning, which they were all glad to hear. Like Tootie, Blair, too, had chosen to finish all her schoolwork and final exams early, so she now had plenty of free time to take Danielle home from the hospital tomorrow and start caring for her.

Mrs. Garrett and Mr. Ramsey stayed at the hospital until around noon, and then they sensed that the Four Musketeers really wanted to just hang out together for a while, so they bowed out. Natalie, who was clearly the most dramatic and the biggest worrier of all the girls, couldn't stop fussing over Tootie. She asked her countless times if she was alright and kept fluffing her pillows for her and offering to bring in more blankets in case she was cold, which made Tootie laugh a little. And naturally, as Tootie's best friend, Natalie proved to be Danielle's most possessive aunt. She held her for the longest time and absolutely refused to turn her over to anyone else, even Blair or Tootie. Jo, however, did get a chance to hold her eventually, and while she tried to act all tough and nonchalant about it, they could all plainly see the tenderness in her eyes as she looked down at her.

And while the girls spent the day getting acquainted with little Danielle, they all got to talking about the big changes that were going to be happening in their lives starting next semester. Jo would be living in the dorm at Langley and Blair and Tootie would each be living in their own homes, obviously, all the while Natalie would be the only one of the four of them living at Eastland with Mrs. Garrett. Their happy mood turned pretty somber when it hit them that the Four Musketeers would be officially breaking up next semester. But then they got to doing some brainstorming, and by the time Mrs. Garrett came back to the hospital later that evening, they had come up with what they were sure was the perfect solution to their dilemma.

After knocking on Tootie's hospital door and walking inside, Mrs. Garrett said, "Good evening, girls."

"Evenin', Mrs. G.," said Jo.

Mrs. Garrett then walked up to the chair next to Tootie's bed that Blair was sitting in with Danielle in her arms, and she smiled, bent over, and kissed the baby's forehead. "Hello, Danielle," she said in a funny baby voice, and Danielle responded with some lively cooing, which made Mrs. Garrett laugh. "Oh, Blair, Tootie, I can't wait to babysit her," Mrs. Garrett told them a moment later.

In that instant, all the girls looked at each other knowingly, and then Mrs. G. said, "Uh oh, girls. I don't like those looks on your faces." Then she held up a finger and started jokingly wagging it at them and teased, "You're all up to something."

"You can relax, Mrs. Garrett. It's nothing bad," Blair assured her. "We've just been doing a lot of talking today about our situation. Or rather, what our situation is going to be next semester."

"Things have been so crazy lately that we haven't really had a chance to slow down and think about what things are going to be like for us in the fall. We've all been getting ready for our final exams and graduation, not to mention the arrival of this little one," Natalie explained as she lovingly touched Danielle's cheek. "And not to mention…you know, Miss Gallagher," she said more soberly then, and everyone got solemnly quiet for a moment, especially Jo. "But today, for the first time, we finally got the chance to really start thinking about what's going to happen to us next semester. Tootie will be living with her dad. Blair and Danielle will be living in their house. Jo will be living in the dorms at Langley. Mrs. Garrett, and you and I will be the only ones left who will still be living at Eastland."

"Yeah, that's true, Natalie," Mrs. Garrett said seriously. "It'll be a big change."

"It'll be more than a big change, Mrs. Garrett. We'll be splitting up. We won't be living together as a family anymore," said Tootie.

"However, it doesn't have to be that way," Jo chimed in. "We've all been doin' some talkin' today, and we've made a big decision."

"Oh? And what big decision is that, girls?" Mrs. G. inquired.

"As you already know, Mrs. Garrett, I have a five-bedroom house right next door to Tootie's and her dad's place. I have my room and Danielle has her nursery, and Tootie has her own room, too. That leaves two vacant bedrooms. It'll be less expensive for Jo if she moves into one of them and lives with me rather than in the dorm. And we were thinking that Natalie and Tootie can share Tootie's bedroom, and you can have the last one. You can come live with us at my house. I mean, there's no rule that says you have to live over the Eastland cafeteria in order to work there, right?"

"Of course there's not," Natalie said before Mrs. Garrett could answer.

"And that way, our family will be staying together. We won't be all split up living in different places next semester. I'll be living with my dad, yes, but I'll be right next door and I'll be staying over at Blair's house with Danielle and the girls all the time."

"What do say, Mrs. G.? Wanna come live with us over at Blair's place next semester?" asked Jo.

"Now wait a minute, girls. Hold on," Mrs. Garrett said cautiously. "Natalie, you should discuss this with your parents first."

"I will, Mrs. Garrett, but I'm sure they'll agree."

"If your parents agree to this, you'll still need Mr. Bradley's approval as well," Mrs. G. reminded her.

"I know that. Don't worry. Like I said, I'm sure my parents will agree, and if they agree, I don't see why Mr. Bradley would have any problems with it."

"Anyway, Mrs. Garrett, what do you think?" asked Tootie.

"Come on, Mrs. Garrett. You know you can't say no to this. We need you," Blair told her. "And you know that even though you're not our mother biologically, you always have been a second mother to all of us, and that in turn makes Danielle your official surrogate grandchild. You know Danielle needs her Grandma Garrett."

"That's right," Natalie agreed.

"Mrs. G., you might as well give in. You know they won't let up 'til ya do," Jo teased, and Mrs. Garrett laughed.

"Oh Blair…girls…I don't know what to say," responded a very choked-up Mrs. G. "Blair, it means so much to me that you would ask me to live in your home. I…to tell you the truth, nothing would make me happier than to move in with you girls next semester." Danielle cooed again, and Mrs. Garrett laughed and added, "And you too, Danielle." When she said that, the girls laughed too. "But Blair, I insist on paying my share of the living expenses."

"That's really not necessary, Mrs. Garrett. I can easily pay for everything myself. It's no big deal."

Edna stubbornly shook her head and said, "Either I pay my own way or I don't move in at all."

Blair nodded then and told her, "Okay, Mrs. Garrett. It's a deal."

"Good," she said with a big smile. "Oh girls, you don't know what this means to me to know that we're all staying together like this."

"It means a lot to us to be together in Blair's house, too…it even means a lot to Jo!" Tootie quipped.

"Well, Blair's house wasn't my first choice," Jo kidded, "but even I've gotta admit, it beats livin' in the dorms…even though we will be spendin' all our time changin' diapers and heatin' up bottles and moppin' up drool like we did that night we had to take care of Emily."

"That's another reason I'm so happy we're doing this. With all of you at the house, there'll always be somebody there to take care of Danielle in the evenings while I'm at class…which means I won't have to worry about hiring a live-in nanny."

"Yeah, that's right, Blair," Mrs. Garrett concurred. "We'll all be right there to help out with our new baby girl."

"We won't get a wink of sleep again for the next four years or so," Natalie teased. Then she smiled and added, "I can't wait."

Yet again, Danielle made her presence known with some loud cooing, and everybody laughed.

The next morning, Tootie and Baby Danielle were discharged from the hospital right on schedule, and Tootie decided to go home with Blair rather than with her father because she really wanted to be near Danielle, which Blair understood. Blair laid Danielle down for a nap soon after they all got home from the hospital, and Tootie went into her designated bedroom at Blair's house to lie down as well. But even though Dr. Jeffries said Tootie was doing well, Harrison was still pretty worried about her considering all she'd recently been through, so he left work early and came to Blair's house at around three that afternoon to check on her.

Tootie was sitting up in bed reading a book when her father knocked on the door and walked in. Her room in Blair's house looked very similar to her childhood bedroom in the Ramseys' Washington, D.C. home, and Harrison immediately noticed that when he came inside.

"Hi, Dad. You're home early," Tootie observed, and then Harrison sat down on the side of Tootie's bed.

"Yeah, I took the rest of the day off. I just wanted to come and check on you; see how you and Danielle were getting along your first day home from the hospital."

"Thanks, Dad, but you really don't have to worry. Danielle and I are fine. Well…okay, I'll admit I'm pretty tired and sore, but you know the doctor prescribed some pain medicine. I took some a little while ago and it's been helping."

"Good. I'm glad. Dr. Jeffries tells me that in six weeks, you should be back to normal. I'm glad you've finished your schoolwork early this year so you can begin your summer vacation. The summer break will really give you a good chance to rest up and recover."

"Yeah. After the school year I've had, I think I could use a good rest."

"You'll get no argument from me."

"I popped my head in the nursery for a minute just before I came in here to see you. Danielle's in there sleeping like a little angel."

"Yeah. I've gone in there several times today, myself, just to watch her sleeping. She's so adorable when she's asleep. There's really nothing in the world like it. And Blair's really going crazy over her. She's already planning her first trip to Bloomingdale's."

Harrison laughed and said, "Bloomingdale's? Don't you think she's a little young for a shopping spree through Bloomingdale's? She's not even a week old."

Tootie laughed as well, and she told her father, "You don't know Blair. Blair lives for Bloomingdale's. It's a miracle she didn't personally cut the cord, clean Danielle up, wrap her in a blanket, and whisk her away to Bloomingdale's the minute she was born."

Harrison chuckled and shook his head. Then he said to Tootie, "She's bought this gorgeous house, which I might add is in the perfect neighborhood to raise a child. She's certainly gone all out where Danielle's nursery and wardrobe are concerned. I even overheard her on the phone at the hospital last night talking to her father about starting a college fund for her. She's preparing for Danielle's college education and she's only about one and three quarter days old. I must say that it is quite a relief to see Danielle in the hands of such a dedicated…" he started to say, but then he allowed the sentence to trail. He was afraid to finish it for fear of hurting Tootie.

But then Tootie said, "Mother, Dad. It's a relief to see Danielle in the hands of such a dedicated mother. It's okay. You can say it. Blair is Danielle's mother, Dad. I accepted that long before I gave birth to her. It's alright to say it out loud. You won't hurt my feelings."

Harrison smiled and patted her leg. "Tootie, you are being remarkably mature about this. I want you to know how proud of you I am."

"Thank you, Dad. I didn't have a lot of choice, though. I basically had to grow up pretty quickly over the past nine and a half months."

"I know, honey," he said softly. "I know. But now that the pregnancy and the delivery is all behind you, you can pick up with your life again; go back to being a teenage girl. You can start thinking about your own future and what you want to do in the years ahead."

"I've already done a lot of thinking about my future over these past few months, and let's just say I've changed my mind about some things."

"Such as?"

After a pause, Tootie answered, "I don't think I want to be an actress anymore."

Harrison did a good job of hiding it in that moment, but the truth was, that sentence was music to his ears. "Oh? May I ask what made you change your mind about that?"

"Well, what Earl Brown did to me last August had a lot to do with it. And I'm not the only one who's been sexually assaulted. In one way or another, all the girls have. Well, Natalie, Jo, and Blair haven't been raped like I have, but they've all had guys attempt to have sex with them against their will in some form or fashion."

"Is that true?" Harrison asked, truly shocked by what Tootie had just told him.

"Yes, it is."

"I know about what happened to Natalie a couple of years ago. What happened to your other friends?"

"Well, back in my first year at Eastland, Blair was dating this hunk named Steve, and he took her out on a date in his van one night to Skyview Ridge Road, a.k.a. Make-Out Mountain. She had made up her mind before that she wanted to start experimenting with sex. Steve, on the other hand, wanted to take things slow. Well when Steve figured it out that Blair was only interested in fooling around, he got angry and he shoved her down in the van and pinned her down and started…you know."

"Yeah," Harrison said soberly.

"And Blair got scared and started crying out, so he stopped and then he tore out of there in his van and got a speeding ticket."

"How old was Blair when all this happened?"

"She was fifteen. Don't worry, Dad. Blair's not like that anymore. She even stopped dating altogether, as a matter of fact, because she said that she didn't want to bring a series of boyfriends into Danielle's life and have Danielle bond with them and think that each one of them was going to be a father to her and get hurt. She used to play the field all the time, but ever since she decided to adopt Danielle, she completely stopped dating. She hasn't been out with a boy in months, and believe me, for Blair, that's saying a lot. She says that she wants to make sure that the next man she allows into her life and Danielle's life is going to be the man she marries."

Harrison nodded and said, "I admire that. That's a very wise decision."

"I think so, too."

"So anyway, back to your friends, that really is terrible what happened to Blair. She may have been in the wrong that night and it may have made Steve angry, but that is absolutely no excuse for him physically threatening her like that."

"It certainly isn't."

"And you say Jo's had an experience like that as well?"

"Yeah, she has. Shortly after Jo first came to Eastland, an old childhood friend of Blair's whom she hadn't seen in years, Harrison Andrews, transferred to Bates Academy, and he asked Jo out to a cotillion at the country club. He figured that because Jo was, to use her phrase, from the wrong side of the tracks, she was easy."

"Oh, no."

"On the night of the dance, he took her out back behind the club to the golf course, and he pushed her down into a big sand-trap. She got away from him before he was able to do anything, and she even hit him with her shoe before she came back home."

"Good for her! Tootie, that's awful. Eastland is supposed to be a safe place; a good environment for its students. Well, really every school is, but especially places like Eastland. I had no idea that this kind of behavior was so commonplace."

"Sadly, it is, and it's only getting worse. And just look at what's happened to me in my own life, and not just with Earl Brown. Remember that crazy photographer who was going to photograph me in nothing but a wig? And remember what happened to me that time I ran away to New York City to see that Broadway play with the girls when you and Mom said I had to stay at school?"

"I still get so furious every time I think about what that pervert almost got you into."

"So do I. You and Mom were right, of course. I was too young to be running around in New York City without an adult. I realize that now. And I know that everything that happened to me that day only happened because I was so unbelievably naïve."

"You were a child, Tootie. It's completely understandable that you would have such innocence and take people at face value and think the best of them."

"Maybe, but the point is, I'm not a child anymore. I may not be enough of an adult to handle being a mother yet, but I'm also not a little child. I'm not that same reckless little kid who ran away to Manhattan on her own anymore. I'm not naïve about how the world is any longer. Now I realize just how ruthless the world can be. And I see it now that sexual assault and abuse is becoming a real epidemic. It's happened in some form or fashion to all the girls and me, and I had two close calls with sexual predators before I was raped. Something's got to be done about this. I want to spend my life doing something about this. I'll always be in love with the theatre, but the cold, hard fact is, almost nobody ever makes a successful career out of acting and becomes a star. And of all those who do become stars, most of them can't take the pressure of stardom and they end up wrecking their entire lives with drugs, alcohol, multiple affairs, and all kinds of scandals. It's just a lose-lose situation and that's not what I want to do with my life anymore. Now, I want to do something to help make sure no other girl ever goes through what I did."

"That's wonderful, Tootie. Do you have an idea what you want to do?"

Tootie nodded and told him, "Yeah. I know you and Mom have been waiting a long time to hear me say this, so listen closely. I want you to be able to savor the moment." Harrison then jokingly put his hand behind his ear and leaned in to listen. "I want to be an attorney like you and Mom. Only, I don't want to have my own private practice like you and Mom do. I want to be a prosecuting attorney. I want to spend my life putting as many Earl Browns behind bars as I can."

Harrison had to fight off tears then as he said, "Oh, Tootie, you have no idea how happy this makes me."

"Yeah, I know it does. I know you and Mom always dreamed of having at least one of your kids follow in your footsteps."

"Yes, that's true. But before you were attacked last year, the main reason for that was mostly our own vanity. Your mother and I were so self-absorbed that we didn't really care about how you kids felt and what your own dreams and aspirations were for your own lives. We just wanted you to be like us because of our own selfish egos. But now, I just want to say that regardless of whether or not you decided you wanted to follow in my footsteps, Tootie, I still would have done anything I could to help you achieve your dreams. Even if you'd decided you still wanted to make a go of it in Hollywood, I would have done what I could have to help you. It does make me happy, so happy, to know that you want to go into law someday, but I want you to do it because that's what you want, not what your mother and I want. I don't want you to be a carbon copy of myself like I once did. I just want you to know that I'm not like that anymore."

Tootie put her hand on top of her father's in that moment and said, "I do know that, Dad. And I am going into law someday because it is what I want to do. Like I said a minute ago, I want to spend the rest of my life making sure that no kid ever goes through what I have."

Unable to fight it off any longer, Harrison finally broke down and wept, and he told Tootie, "I've never been prouder of you than I am right now, baby." He then threw his arms around her and gave her the longest hug.

The seemingly tough and stern "Rifle Ramsey" remained tenderhearted and supportive towards his little girl as she continued recovering over the next two and a half weeks leading up to Jo's and Blair's graduation ceremony, as did Mrs. Garrett and the girls. Whenever Mrs. G., Jo, and Natalie weren't taking care of their kitchen duties and going to class at Eastland, they were constantly over at Blair's or Tootie's house, looking after her and spending time with her. And naturally, everybody was constantly making a fuss over little Danielle as well. Their family bond only continued to strengthen as they prepared to say goodbye to their old home above the Eastland cafeteria and move on to their new home at Blair's house.

Despite the fact that Harrison felt it would be too taxing for Tootie and protested, she attended the graduation ceremony a couple of weeks later. She proudly sat in between Mrs. Garrett and Natalie with Danielle asleep in her arms as she watched her friends walk across the stage and get their high school diplomas, and she listened closely to Jo's speech as class valedictorian. Then after lots of tears and hugs at the ceremony in the auditorium, Harrison took Danielle back to his place for the rest of the day while Mrs. G. and the girls finished packing up the rest of their things from their rooms above the kitchen. When they were finally done that evening, they all decided to simply hang out together in the lounge and unwind. Mrs. Garrett, Tootie, and Blair were all sitting together on the loveseat while Natalie sat in one of the living chairs and Jo sat on the right arm of the loveseat.

"Are you going to miss living here next semester, Mrs. Garrett?" Tootie asked.

"I think maybe I will just a little, but I really am looking forward to settling in to our new home. I'm especially looking forward to having a baby in the house again," Mrs. Garrett said with a big smile. "It's been a long time since I've had a little one in my life."

"Reminds me of that night we all had to take care of Emily," said Natalie. "We didn't get a wink of sleep."

"I've barely gotten a moment's sleep since I first brought Danielle home from the hospital," Blair told them. "It has been nothing but constant sleep interruptions, diaper changes, feedings." Then Blair broke out in a big smile and said, "I've loved every minute of it."

Mrs. Garrett laughed. "I loved every minute with my boys when they were that age, too. Ah Blair, enjoy it while it lasts because before you know it, Danielle will be your age. You won't believe how fast kids grow up on you. Why, just look at you girls for example. To me, it seems like just yesterday I set foot on the Eastland campus for the first time and met you girls. Natalie, Tootie, Blair, you were so young. And so were you when you first rode here on your motorcycle, Jo. And now look at all of you," she said with such pride as she took a moment to look intently into each of their faces. "Blair and Jo have graduated today. Blair, you've started a whole new life as a full-time mother. You're both starting college next semester. And Tootie, the way you've risen above what has happened to you, and Natalie, the way you've been so strong for your best friend…I just don't know what to say. You've all grown up into such incredible young women. I just couldn't be prouder of you."

All the girls thanked Mrs. Garrett, and then Tootie said, "You know, you guys, if it hadn't been for all of you during this past school year, I don't know what I would have done. You're all the best friends anybody could ever hope for."

Even Jo got a little choked up in that moment as she patted Tootie on the back and said, "You're not bad, yourself, you know."

They all looked at each other for a long moment and smiled, and then Blair got up and said, "Well, you guys, I don't know about all of you, but I think I'm ready to hit the road. It is getting close to Danielle's bedtime. I should go pick her up from her Grandpa Ramsey's and get her all tucked in for the night."

Everybody else got up then as well, and Tootie said, "I think you're right, Blair. I think it is time we headed out."

"I know I'm certainly not hanging around here and spending one more night in the bottom bunk!" Natalie quipped. "I do not want to have one more night where I wake up and start to feel like I'm in a coffin!"

"It's a good thing we got your bed moved in across from mine the other day," said Tootie. "Now you can just go over to Blair's house with us and spend the night before you have to go home for summer vacation."

"Will you guys please stop calling it 'Blair's house'?" Blair asked them. "It's not 'Blair's house.' It's our house."

"Well since it's our house, too, I'm gonna go move some things around in my room to make space for my bike," Jo teased. "I hate leavin' it outdoors." She then walked out of the lounge, and Blair rushed after her.

"Jo, you are not bringing that bike indoors!" Blair's voice called after her, and Tootie, Natalie, and Mrs. G. all laughed.

"I guess I'm ready to leave, too," Tootie sighed. "It has been a long day, and I am pretty tired. I think when we get to our house tonight, I'm just going to head straight for bed."

Mrs. Garrett put a kind hand on Tootie's shoulder then and said, "That's a good idea, Tootie."

"I think I'll do the same," Natalie agreed, and then she and Tootie left the lounge as well.

Moments later, once all the girls were outside waiting in Blair's Porsche and Mrs. Garrett had the lounge and the cafeteria all to herself, she paused and took her time to have one last look around. She realized, of course, that she'd still be coming back to her job as school dietician next semester, but still, she knew that with none of them living at Eastland anymore, things wouldn't be quite the same. She took a couple of minutes for reflection, and then she said goodbye inside to the way things used to be, knowing that she and the girls still had a bigger adventure than ever ahead of them.

Finally, Edna smiled to herself, thanked the Lord for getting them all through the last school year, and turned off the lights in the lounge and cafeteria.