Sorry for a slight delay with this chapter. Between Christmas and going to see Annie on Tour, I haven't had much time. Wishing everyone a happy 2016 :)

The train arrived in New York late afternoon/early evening. After spending quite a bit of time in the dining car, Annie went back to her seat and spent the last hour of the ride with Grace, waking her as they pulled into the station. She thought about napping herself, but she was much too anxious to get back to the mansion.

They took a cab. Sensing Grace's uneasiness, Annie stayed quite – and Grace appreciated it. How could she have fallen asleep? All that time to gather herself was wasted. Surely she wouldn't be able to prepare during the short car ride. But it was the only time she had, so she didn't waste more time scolding herself.

Apparently the extra rest was needed. She did her best to remain calm now. Back at the train station, she glanced at the newspapers. Still no sign that Oliver was hiring someone for her position. The next thing she needed to worry about was what to do should the gates not open. Granted, they were somewhat shielded by the taxi, but if he were serious about keeping her out, he would have told the gatekeeper to check the cars before letting them through. Soon enough they reached the dreaded gate, and much to her and Annie's relief, there wasn't no acknowledgment of their arrival.

They were greeted at the door by the Asp. It was almost as if he had been waiting for them all day. "Welcome home, Miss Farrell," he said taking her suitcase. Then taking Annie's bag, he nodded. "Miss Annie."

"Thank you," both girls responded.

As they walked into the house, the Asp said, "Mr. Warbucks requests you meet him in the office. Miss Annie, your tutor will be here in half an hour to make up the work you missed."

"How did she know I was gonna be here today?" Annie asked.

"She told us to call her whenever you returned."

"Oh," she shrugged, deciding it was best she didn't say how much she didn't feel like lessons today. There was only one thing she had planned for the afternoon…

"Sandy!" she cheered as her faithful mutt raced and jumped up, knocking her to the ground. Annie laughed as Sandy smothered her with welcome home kisses.

After watching the two reunite for a moment, Grace's smile then faded. "I guess I should go talk to Mr. Warbucks."

Looking up, Annie sympathized. "Good luck."

While Annie went back to playing with Sandy, and while the Asp took their luggage upstairs, Grace made her way to the office. Her heart was pounding. She really had no idea what to expect. Would he be up or down today? Without a doubt, he was going to be angry. The real question was what would the level of anger be? Grumbling, passive aggressive comments, and the cold shoulder? Or would it be another shouting match? She prayed it wouldn't be the latter. Nobody liked being reprimanded, but his roar could scare a deaf man.

Despite her slow pace, Grace felt she arrived to the office far too quickly. The door was shut which was unusual. Meetings were typically the only reason why it would be. Her hand rose and fell a few times as she debated whether or not to knock. Finally, she decided it wasn't possible to be in any more trouble than she already was, so she took a deep breath, put on a brave face, and opened the door.

Before she could greet him, he glanced up from his desk before looking back down at his work. "Welcome back, Miss Farrell."

In a small voice, she replied, "Thank you, sir."

A silence fell, and Grace struggled with what to say next — or wondered if she should speak at all. It was harder to read him while he avoided eye contact. A minute passed before she settled with saying, "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes," he said looking up once more. However he still didn't look directly into her eyes, rather the gaze was aimed at her forehead. "I have some calls I need you to make and I have some letters I need you to mail. Oh, and I also need you to interview a few people for a typing job. Two of the women are leaving and I need their positions filled right away. In the meantime, you will need to catch up on their work."

Grace was stunned. Not by the work load, but rather by the casualty it had been itemized to her. "Is that all?"

"Yes, here are the lists you will need," he handed her a notepad with the first few pages filled with ink.

The secretary stared at her boss before taking the paper he was holding out to her. Of all of the reactions she expected, this hadn't been one of them. Realizing the stare, she shook herself out of her daze and took the notebook. "I'll start now?"

"Yes," he answered, going back to his own work.

Why didn't she feel relieved? It seemed as though he was giving her a pass. She should've been running to the door with freedom. Her job was secure and she wasn't being punished. For whatever reason, she didn't run or even rush. Instead, she walked back to the door at a slow pace. And then she halted. Turning around, she found herself asking, "Aren't we going to discuss what happened?"

"I don't see the need," he answered.

"You don't?"

"No, do you?"

He regretted responding in a question when she answered, "Yes, I do."

Letting out a long sigh, he rubbed his forehead with the palm of his hands. He felt a headache coming on. "What exactly is there to talk about, Miss Farrell?"

"Well for starters, I abandoned work for nearly four days," she began as she approached the desk with caution. "And your last two statements to me mentioned a replacement and sending Annie back to the orphanage ." What was she doing? She was home free! Why remind him of it all when he wanted to move on? Yet, she knew that leaving this matter be would result with an elephant in the room.

"Naturally I gather she is here with you?"

"Yes, sir."

"I thought so."

"I cannot send her back to Miss Hannigan."

"Fine," he brushed off in hopes of a conclusion.

"Mr. Warbucks, believe me, I do not want to revisit the matter, but we can't just pretend nothing happened."

"And what, Miss Farrell, would the harm be in that solution?" he asked, leaning forward with a cynical curiosity.

"I can't speak for you, sir, but working with a matter such as this hanging over my head won't result in much productivity. I feel bad about what happened..." she trailed off, looking away.

After a few seconds of waiting for a response, he incited with a rolling gesture of his hand, "And?"

His tone implied that he was waiting for her to apologize. Knowing him, he probably believed he was innocent in every part of this. Even though the blame mostly fell on her, Oliver had things he needed to apologize for as well. Mustering up every ounce of courage she could find inside herself, she said, "I'm not sorry for anything I said the other day. I meant each word, though, I do apologize for the harsh way they may have come out."

"May have?" A glare slowly entered his eyes. All he wanted to do was forget this. He had been far too affected by the dispute and he didn't want to go back. Was this woman mad? Why was she picking another fight?

"The only thing I can take back is what I said about working for you. I love my job here, Mr. Warbucks. I don't want to give it up."

"By trying to move past this, I was giving you a second chance."

"You were ignoring it. That's not the same as moving past it."

"I don't know what you want me to say, Miss Farrell."

This was when it occurred to her she didn't know the answer herself. What did she want him to say? Apparently the nap on the train hadn't been enough. She felt tired all of a sudden. Nonetheless, she knew she had to stick it out. Bringing up the topic again would be impossible. "I don't know," she said, sticking to the honest route.

"It seems to me that you want a repeat of what happened the other day."

Biting her tongue before a snide remark slipped through her lips, she replied, "That is not my intention. I just want to know where I stand, I suppose."

"You stand on thin ice."

"I figured."

"I expect you to stick to the agreement we had when Annie came to stay. There will be no exceptions. Do I make myself clear?"

With a serious nod, she agree., "Yes, sir."

"And I expect you to work whenever I need."

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Then there isn't much more to say other than I do not want this to happen again."

His threatening tone gave her a tremor. "I will do my best."

"I expect my employees to treat me with respect. If this had happened with anyone else, they'd be out on the streets. However, you are fortunate enough to have a long history without any episodes."

"Yes, sir... I understand."

"I also expect Annie to abide by the stricter rules without a fuss."

"Does that mean she can stay?"

"Yes, she can stay, but keep in mind that this is the second and last chance. I do not want you to be distracted during work. There are plenty of other staff members around to look after her."

"Yes, I'm sure they won't have a problem helping." She couldn't help the big smile that appeared on her face. "Thank you so much."

"Fine," he concluded with the threatening tone soothing. "Now, I need you to get to work."

"Yes, sir."

Grace exited the room quickly. She wasn't sure how well their talk had gone. By the end, she was far too overjoyed in hearing Annie didn't have to leave. Perhaps she should have spent more time on what she wanted to get out of the discussion rather than how he might react. Now that it was over, she realized that deep down, she wanted to tell him again how lonely she felt. Being away had been difficult in a different sense. She never realized just how close she was to the staff, and in a completely dysfunctional way, she felt close to Oliver as well. The closeness wasn't her attraction so much, it was his company in the room. Oh well... it didn't matter now. Anyways, she never would say those words to him again – they were far too personal. At least the argument hadn't been ignored. If she thought for a moment that ignorance would be the best way to carry on, she would have played along in a heartbeat. Why did she keep expecting so much from this man? What she wanted was a deep heart to heart conversation. She wanted to be open and honest with him without fearing his reaction. Didn't she know by now that Oliver Warbucks simply wasn't capable of the emotion she needed?

. . .

After Grace left, Oliver buried his face in his hands and groaned. He should have known she wasn't going to ignore everything. That was the problem with women: they never forgot a thing. Oh sure, he remembered the big things said such as him not having a heart, but she led on that she had each detail memorized and examined. He vaguely remembered her saying deep down he was a caring person? Or was it kind? Whatever it was, it was along those lines. He sighed. Maybe he remembered more than he'd like to admit. But still, nothing matched a woman's memory.

He didn't mean to speak so roughly to her. He didn't know how or why, only that it kept happening. This whole situation had him in a tizzy. He didn't know what he felt, or rather, what he would feel if he allowed himself. Why couldn't he just do one or the other? Why couldn't he let himself feel without uncontrollably holding it back and trying to convince himself he felt nothing? Reasons as these were why his first choice would always be not to feel at all. It was the much simpler and more familiar option. When he was alone, he was more capable of admitting that there were some budding emotions. A few of them he could even name. But as soon as someone else was in the room he froze. It was fear of letting someone in. Maybe that was why he was being so harsh towards Grace. If someone was going to find him out, it would be her.

"Mr. Warbucks?" Annie's voice sounded as she peeked through the door.

This little girl would be a close second on the subject of people trying to get inside his head. She was quite intuitive for a child, he thought. "What is it?"

Opening the door all the way, Annie started, "I don't mean to bother you Mr. Warbucks... I just wanted to know if Grace still has her job."

"Why don't you ask her yourself?"

"I tried," she explained, "but she didn't say anything and went upstairs. I got kinda worried that you fired her."

Shrugging her off, he answered, "I don't know why she wouldn't respond. She has her job."

"Then you must be sending me back to the orphanage..."

"As a matter of fact, I am not."

Upon hearing this, Annie sighed in relief. Then, she began further interrogation. "Did you yell at her? Did you get real mad that she left?"

Displeased that Annie seemed to be aware of what happened (which shouldn't have surprised him), he replied, "Annie, I don't know what Miss Farrell has told you, but frankly this is none of your concern."

Now moving away from the door, Annie marched to Oliver's desk. "Why not? You fought because of me and I feel bad about it. I just wanna make sure Grace is okay. I didn't like seeing her so sad. She was scared that she was gonna have to find a new job to take care of me until my parents could. Once they came she would'a been so sad and lonely all by herself. I don't want you to fire her, Mr. Warbucks."

Something positive that Oliver could say about Annie was her dedication. No matter what, she was determined to get her way and she was fearless against him. He wasn't about to admit defeat yet though. "I told you she has her job. And keep in mind that you're only hearing one side of the story. I will have you know that this all started with Miss Farrell pushing the rules."

"I know that," she said.

"You do?"

"Yeah, she knows it's her fault."

"She does?"

"Yeah."

Oliver shook his head, "Then why did she just tell me she isn't sorry for anything she said?"

Annie shrugged, "I don't know, I wasn't here."

To this, he rolled his eyes.

"All I know, Mr. Warbucks, is that you should treat Grace good."

This conversation was getting more ridiculous by the minute. "Why?" he asked in a sarcastic tone.

"Because you're never gonna be able to replace her."

"Is that so? Did Miss Farrell tell you to come here and say that? Was she not satisfied with what was said before she left? Did I not allow her to say anything?"

Annie took a step back in reaction to Oliver's rising temper. She had to be careful. "No," she answered. "I came in here all on my own. I just thought you should know how upset she was."

"What do you expect me to do with that information?"

"Nothing," she shrugged. "I just thought if you knew that yelling at her hurt her feelings that maybe you wouldn't be so sore anymore."

Oliver stood from his desk and walked over to Annie. He didn't crouch to her height. He remained tall to remind her who was in charge. "Annie, this isn't a child's tiff. What you're meddling with here is an adult confrontation. There are aspects of this that you are simply too young to understand."

Annie remained as tall as she could be herself and replied, "I know. I also know when my friends fight with each other, I need to remind them who they're fighting with. Like when Pepper rags on Molly for having a bad dream… I remind her that Molly is one of the youngest girls in the orphanage. You know, Pepper is a lot like you, Mr. Warbucks. She pretends not to care about anything and thinks she's tougher than nails."

Oliver let out a sardonic laugh. "What makes you think I'm pretending not to care? Like I said, Miss Farrell and I had a serious argument. I know you'd like to think you are mature enough to understand each and every detail, but you simply are not."

Annie was growing frustrated. How could she explain this to him? "I'm not trying to understand all of it. My point is that you're grumpy like Pepper, and you think that just because you're stronger than everyone else you have the right to boss people around and get everything you want. You think that you can yell at anybody who gets in your way – and you do. Grace is like Molly or especially like Tessie. Compared to you she's small and shy and scared. All she wants is to feel loved and wanted."

"Annie, you're comparing us to children." He huffed. "I am not convinced that Miss Farrell didn't send you in here. I don't see any way you would come up with such analogies on your own. Quite frankly, your comments are disrespectful and I won't stand to hear any more.""

"I had a lot of time to think."

He was done with this debate. Guiding her back with his hand, he led Annie to the door where he then hollered for Grace

"I'll leave you alone, Mr. Warbucks. Don't be mad at Grace."

He said nothing in response.

Annie continued, "If it makes you happy, she's gonna be mad at me for talking to you."

For the second time during the conversation, he rolled his eyes. Likely story, he thought.

She sighed and stared to walk down the hall. She hadn't gotten five feet when Grace came rushing up. "Yes, Mr. Warbucks?" she said out of breath from running. Eyeing Annie and her concerned expression, she grew worried.

"I believe this is yours," he pointed to the girl.

"I'm sorry, sir. Her tutor was just arriving as I was on my way here. She'll be preoccupied until dinner."

Without any acknowledgment to his secretary's statement, Oliver turned back into the office and slammed the door behind him.

With distress in her voice, Grace asked as they walked, "Sweetheart, what were you doing in there?"

Annie didn't answer, nor did she look at Grace.

"You really shouldn't bother him while he's working. I'm sorry I didn't reply to you earlier. I had a lot on my mind at the moment trying to process my conversation with Mr. Warbucks, which I know is no excuse. In the future please come to me… or anyone other than him."

After a long pause in the conversation, Annie confessed, "I told him that you were upset."

The woman grew pale. "You did?"

Annie nodded.

"Oh Annie..." she shook. "I appreciate your trying to help, but-"

"I know, I know, it's none of my business," she paraphrased Oliver's earlier comment.

"You didn't tell him... anything else... did you?"

"Don't worry," she answered. "I didn't."

"Thank you," Grace said with a sigh of relief.

"Are you mad?"

"No, I can't say I'm mad... I'm just worried."

"Why?"

"Because Mr. Warbucks didn't seem at all happy a moment ago."

"I know I shouldn't have talked to him, but I don't want to see you angry or sad anymore. When you ran upstairs earlier I thought he fired you. I thought maybe if I told him how bad you felt about fighting, maybe he'd take back anything he said."

Grace stopped their walking, and kneeled down before Annie. "I appreciate your concern, I really do, but there isn't anything you can say that will change anything. Mr. Warbucks isn't going to care about how I reacted. I'm so sorry if you felt you had to be vigilant of my emotions and reactions this weekend. I'm sorry that you were thrown into the middle of this. I was upset earlier because this whole situation has got me feeling very confused and unsure of anything. I'll get over it though. Soon this entire fiasco will die down and things will be 'normal' again. In the meantime, I think its best that the both of us stay out of Mr. Warbucks' way as much as we can. I also don't want you to feel as though you have to take care of me. Both of us are still new to our roles, but I promise we'll adjust."

Annie nodded, "Okay... I can do that."

"That'a girl," Grace forced herself to perk up as she hugged Annie and kissed her cheek. "I don't want this to worry you any more, all right? I'm going to be fine, Mr. Warbucks will unwind, and you and I still have a roof over our heads," she winked. "Are we good?"

A small, but genuine smile crossed Annie's face as she answered, "Yeah, we're good."