Thanks everybody...:-)

"Grace! Grace, you have to stop, you only get three turns!" Olivia shrieked happily.

"To hell with that," Grace shouted as she continued to swing, "damn piñata…"

"You said the h word and the d word," Mason announced.

Grace uttered a much worse profanity under her breath and swung once more, connecting solidly with the piñata and nearly killing the party of twelve other children in her mad dash for the candy flying in multiple directions.

"Grace, for God's sake," Will yelled, but he was grinning.

A good year and a half had passed since anyone had seen Karen, and as Olivia had turned eight two weeks after she left, she was now celebrating her ninth birthday. The weeks following Karen's disappearance had been utter pandemonium; everyone had tried everything humanly possible to track her down. Grace, Daddy, Will, everyone. But she hadn't left a single trace as to where she might be. Olivia lived those days with mixed feelings; relieved. She was free from the beatings. No new bruises took place of the old ones, and save for one or two stubborn scars, it was almost as if Olivia had never been touched. More fear. Karen was gone now, but she could always come back. Grief. A part of her was loving Karen, missing her, loving and missing the part that was pleasant to Olivia, who had fun with her, as rare as it was. If only Karen could have been like that all the time. If only.

The truth had never come out, not all the way. Even Grace, Olivia knew, could not even begin to fathom what she had been through with Karen, but she had been as good as her word to keep Olivia close to her, which Olivia had every reason to suspect Grace had encouraged Will to do as well. They had. And in a sense, put her back into the childhood she was meant to have.

Life had moved on for Daddy. Not easily, but Olivia saw him. Saw him struggling, saw him in the rages directed toward herself and Mason that really had nothing to do with them at all. Heard him pacing his room at night. Even possibly crying at one point, which Olivia couldn't be completely certain of. She almost doubted it--Daddy didn't cry. Ever.

This had all been just over a year and a half that felt like ten to Olivia.

"Okay big girl, I need another garbage bag over here."

Olivia smiled as she passed the requested bag to Will. It was now late afternoon, the party had come and gone. Will, Olivia, and Grace were giving the grounds people a hand cleaning up, though Grace wasn't so much helping as she was nabbing the remains of cake and candy she was finding on leftover plates.

"Will," Olivia called to him quietly as she came upon a spare bag of full water balloons that hadn't been used during the water balloon dodge ball game. He dug into the bag, smiling rather wickedly as his gaze zeroed in on Grace, her back to them both, licking one of the party plates in attempt to scrounge up any cake crumbs she could. She had no time to react before she was ambushed by Will and Olivia.

"Oh my God!" she shrieked, wasting no time grabbing for water balloons herself and retaliating. They were so busy running, screaming, jumping, giggling that they didn't notice the cab pulling up to the driveway of the Walker manse.

"Hey, are you guys going already?" Olivia complained, the first who glimpsed it after somersaulting to avoid a balloon.

"Going?" Grace followed her gaze. "I didn't call a cab, Will, did you?"

"No, Stan said he'd have the car bring us back whenever we…" Will trailed off when they saw someone emerging from it.

Olivia found Grace's hand subconsciously and clung to it. She was seeing things. She had to be. And if she wasn't…

"Is…" Will murmured.

The visitor stood there. Just watching them, uncertain of what her next step should be. But then her eyes went to Olivia, and she knew. Olivia clutched at Grace even more tightly as the visitor drew nearer, and Will edged closer to Olivia and Grace, placing his hands soothingly on Olivia's frail shoulders.

"Hiya, Orphan Annie."

Karen had stopped within four or five feet of them. "How ya doing?"

Olivia couldn't even think of answering her.

"Yeah, I don't blame you." She smiled at Will and Grace a bit. "Hey Sue. Hey Fashion Don't."

They nodded vaguely at her.

"You wouldn't want to give Annie and me a few minutes, would you?" Karen asked them, and Will and Grace gently disentangled themselves from the gradually panicking girl. Grace felt it mounting and gave her a squeeze.

"We'll be right over there, where you can see us if you need anything," she whispered into her ear.

Olivia turned back to the one who had caused so much pain, hurt, sadness, the remnants of the terrifying nightmare she had lived whenever she could feel her now healed arm twinge.

"You have no reason to want to talk to me." Karen's voice was soft. "And if you wouldn't, I'd understand. It would be okay. But…well, I'm not going to count on you believing me right now when I say things are different, but I'll say it anyway." She chuckled uneasily. "Things are different. I don't know. Are they…are things different for you?"

Olivia nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

"Different better?"

She hesitated.

"You can tell me the truth, honey." Karen smiled sadly. "You'll be right."

Olivia hesitated some more before nodding again. Neither of them spoke. Just watched one another.

"Oh hell." Karen had been trying to control the urge to cry all the way over here and could no longer do so. "God, I don't know what I was thinking. There's nothing I can say to you, Olivia. Nothing that takes back those months when hell was your whole life. It just doesn't work to tell you I'm sorry, but…I have to tell you. I am. If you were me, could know…and I wish you were, just for a minute. Just so you could. I…there's help. There were things that I…well, you knew. How much I wish you didn't know, but...anyway, I found some. Help, I mean. And now it's your birthday, so I thought…you know, I thought it could be…maybe a gift, but now, looking at you…oh God, you've gotten so tall. Anyway, I can see that we…how in the hell could you forgive this? I don't know. So…" Karen leaned forward and kissed her. "Happy birthday, kid." She turned to leave.

Olivia was going to let her. She really was. She could not think of one positive thing that might come out of her remaining, but before she could stop herself,

"You know…Daddy missed you."

Karen paused but didn't turn around. "I missed him too. I just…I didn't think…I was hurting him more by staying." And you, they both knew she wasn't saying.

"But he was crying. And he never does that. No matter what happens." She was certain now that he had.

"He was?"

"Yeah. And…remember when we got my dress?"

"For the wedding?" Karen chuckled fondly. "Yeah. I do."

"I never got to wear it."

"I know. That's all right. I suppose your father's sent everything back by now."

"No. It's all still here."

"Well, then I don't see why would want to wear it, unless it was for another wedding."

"I don't know."

"Olivia--" Karen drew in several deep breaths, trying to keep her voice steady. "I never meant to come here and ask anything from you. That's not why I'm here. Or I didn't think I was, but…I just need to know. Could you…even if it wasn't today…is it even possible for…maybe you would…think about forgiving me?"

Olivia's eyes filled with tears. How was she supposed to answer that? And even if she knew…could she? What came with Karen were memories of anguish, of despair, yes, but a strange fondness for her at the same time. How could she live with her, if she wouldn't end up being true to her word…but how could she live without her?

Olivia's tears were all it took for Karen's own eyes to well up again.

"I didn't think so," she whispered, beginning on her way again.

"Karen…"

She almost didn't pause this time, but eventually did.

Karen whirled around, tears trickling down her face. "Oh my God, Olivia, I'm so sorry." Never in a million years would Olivia have anticipated Karen doing what she did then; she was lost in Karen's arms, stiffening initially at the unexpected embrace, but soon let herself give into it. They let go after a short time, even Karen had her limits. As changed as Karen claimed to be, Olivia was sure this was something that most likely would not. And there were many things Olivia would never know about Karen, would never understand. Even that Karen herself wouldn't. And for the time being, that was okay.

"What about your father?" Karen asked Olivia after a few moments of silence.

"What about him?"

"I…" Karen bit her lip as she gazed at the towering manse. "I wouldn't be surprised if he never wanted to see me again."

Olivia pulled her gently forward. "Then we should go find out."

Will and Grace smiled as they passed, and Olivia squeezed Grace's hand with her free one, letting go more quickly than Grace could recall her doing at any other point in the past year and a half. Grace, and Will, had been Olivia's solid ground, the ones holding her close, the ones making sure that she stayed seven going on eight, then eight going on nine versus eight going on forty. And now they understood through Olivia's gesture, even if Olivia was slightly too young to understand herself, that she was letting them go. Because as willingly as the pair had given themselves to the responsibility, their time had passed. It was time for the rightful people to step into their rightful place, and Will and Grace were sure that some way or another, they would.