Wow! Thank you all so much for your generous reviews! I usually wait two or three days between posting chapters, but since you guys are all so determined to find out about what happens to Mac...

Frankie gave a heavy yawn as she struggled to keep her eyes on the road. It had been a while since she had a decent night's sleep, two weeks, to be exact. Since then, she hadn't known a peaceful slumber since.

Now, whenever she went to bed, most of her nighttime hours were spent wide-awake, constantly rolling about restlessly and staring up at the ceiling with baggy, bloodshot eyes. She was never able to relax; all she could do to pass those long sleepless hours was constantly worry and mourn, always fretting about Mac and how he was doing, and incessantly bemoaning the fact he was gone. Whenever her heavy eyelids finally did close shut for a brief couple of hours of uneasy sleep, even then she found no respite from the living tragedy her life had suddenly become. It seemed all she could possibly dream of was poor Mac, shivering with fright, crying out for his friends…crying out for her…and alone…all alone…

Suddenly, while trapped aboard her dismal train of thought, the road ahead suddenly began to blur rapidly.

Oh God, not again. Frankie thought as an irrepressible sob escaped from her throat. As her eyes suddenly began to water furiously, she hurriedly turned the steering wheel and eased the Foster's bus against a nearby curb. By the time she had put the vehicle into park, the tears were already pouring down her cheeks in tiny rivulets. Quickly she tore the keys from the ignition and dived to the bus floor, so as to avoid being seen in such a pathetic state by passing pedestrians.

Frankie curled up into a trembling little ball and buried her head in her arms while her body was wracked with harsh, uncontrollable sobs. She remained tucked into her little bundle of misery and bawled loudly, like an infant crying for its mother. The girl made no attempt to try and stifle her flamboyant display of utter grief, she stayed as she was and let her woes flood out like water from a bursting dam, Frankie was simply unable to do anything to control the unspeakable anguish that possessed her.

"Mac…oh God…Mac…" she sobbed as she drenched her sleeves with tears.

As absolutely wretched as the pitiful sight was, unfortunately, this was not the first time such a breakdown occurred. In fact, this was exactly why Frankie had been fervently struggling to keep all her attention and energies focused on her duties as resident caretaker. It felt like nearly every time she thought too much of the little eight-year-old, she would be thrown into uncontrollable fits of crippling anguish, where the pain and sadness that she now felt constantly would suddenly overpower her completely, making the young woman as helpless as a newborn baby.

Still weeping uncontrollably, Frankie managed to reach into her sweater pocket and fished about until she found the object of her desire. Removing it with a badly quivering hand, Frankie stared at an old, worn photo and the two figures that adorned it. One of them was her, clearly in a happier time and all smiles as she crushed the second occupant of the picture in a tenaciously warm bear hug. Mac, the other inhabitant of the old Polaroid, meanwhile tried to put on a fake gagging face so as to make it seem as if Frankie had been lovingly choking him when the shot was taken. However, apparently the silliness of the moment had been too much for both of them, and both images smiled back with ridiculously happy grins at the unknown photographer who managed to snatch the golden moment in time.

Frankie was only able to glance at the picture for the briefest of moments before fresh tears blurred her vision again as she elicited heartbroken moan.

"It's n-not fair…it's j-just not f-f-fair..." She managed to choke out before the swirling rage of emotion consumed her again, rendering the girl unable to speak.

She didn't curse fate for taking away Mac's mother and brother in a horrific car accident. God only knows that had all been beyond anyone's control. But even after all this time, Frankie just couldn't stop blaming herself for letting Mac get taken away from her.

Frankie couldn't care less that she carried no blood relation to the child, or the fact that she had gladly fretted over the child like a mother hen while other girls her age had barely begun to think of marriage. None of that mattered because he was family to her, and likewise she was supposed to be his big sister.

She was supposed to be the one who would gladly fuss over Mac when his mom was too busy with work to look after her youngest son. She was supposed to be the one who would protect the little boy when Terrence picked on him. She was supposed to be the one person who would always be there to happily take him in her arms whenever it felt like the rest of the world was rejecting him for who he was. Frankie was supposed to be that one person who would always love and care for him no matter what, because that was what good big sisters did, and that was all she wanted to do.

That was what she was supposed to do. But if she had really been the model sisterly figure she gladly claimed to be, then why was Mac taken from them in the first place? Why was it she now had no clue where he was? Why was it that she was now bawling like a little girl who had dropped her ice cream cone?

Frankie couldn't help but blame herself for all of it, blame herself for being such a hypocrite in her eyes. For saying she loved the little boy as the brother she never had growing up an only child, then losing him the instant he needed her the most, when she was the only family he had left in the world.

"Pal…I'm s-so sorry …" Frankie moaned unhappily as she covered her face in shame. She didn't care what others thought. In her own eyes, she was nothing but a liar, a hypocrite, a coward, and any other demeaning name she could think of to berate herself with. It didn't matter whether she was exaggerating or not. She had failed in her duty to protect Mac, an atrocity that to her was nothing less than a mortal sin.

"Why? W-why? Why?" Frankie implored miserably, looking upwards from the filthy bus floor to the silent heavens. Why her indeed? Why did it feel like everyone she loved had to be taken away from her? Why was she being forced to relive the trauma of her past by being shoved again into this brutal nightmare of sleepless nights, agonizingly long days, and never-ending grief?

Finally, the emotional fit seemed to begin to release its clutches on Frankie. Little by little, the unstoppable flow of tears dried into tiny trickles, and soon she was able to gain control of herself once again. With a sniffle, Frankie rubbed the remaining tears from her puffy red eyes and cleared her vision. She grabbed hold of a nearby bus seat and used it as a support to lift herself to her feet. While she paused to finish the quick recuperation process, Frankie glanced about bitterly out the bus windows at the various passersby.

Every time she spotted a child with its parent or other family member, Frankie had to swiftly suppress the urge to begin bawling all over again. It was almost as if she were losing her mind with grief at this point; it felt like every kid she saw reminded her of him.

Damn mind tricks. Frankie thought miserably as she continued to stare out blankly at the outside world. That little kid on the corner looks so much like Mac. And…and that brown-haired one with his mother! Ooooh, and that one in the red shirt, I couldn't sworn it was him, and…

Frankie glanced across the street and groaned. Okay, maybe every child that crossed her line of vision remotely resembled Mac in some manner, but now it just felt like the heavens were purposely toying with her for nothing but a bit of cruel amusement. She narrowed her eyes bitterly at the small child playing about in the fenced schoolyard just across the road, right outside the town park. Either that child was Mac's clone, or Frankie had finally lost it completely.

What the hell? Dammit, this just isn't fair! He looks exactly like him! No good little punk, messin' around during his recess…wait, because that IS a school, isn't it? Hold on…

Frankie squinted her eyes to get a better look. To be perfectly honest, she had never really noticed that building before. Despite all her weekly trips to the grocery store, or even all the time she had visited the park literally next door to this peculiar structure, from the times Wilt took her when she was little and whenever she just needed to take a walk, this was honestly probably the first time she had actually stopped to take a good look at it.

It was an old, rectangular redbrick building, composed of about three floors and complete with a blacktop playground and chain-link fence that encircled the entire complex. It looked unsuspicious enough, but Frankie still couldn't help but notice the large stone crucifix that adorned the top of the building's main doorway. What was it, a Catholic school or something? She leaned forward a bit to make out the lettering on its main sign.

"Saint…. Saint Joseph's…Orphanage." Frankie read to herself slowly. When she finally understood what she had just said, she gasped and stood back a bit, rubbing her eyes wildly.

No, no it just can't be. You're just tired, that's all. Frankie tried to reassure her frazzled self. It's just a coincidence. You just gotta snap out of it. You just need something to knock you back to your senses, something like...like…

SLAP!

"OW!" Frankie yelped as she furiously rubbed her badly stinging cheek. Perhaps a quick pinch on the arm would've been better than a slap on the face. However, this was no time to argue with herself about the proper manner in which to knock one back to their senses. Frankie now hurriedly pressed her face against a bus window to get a clearer look.

The instant she did so, her eyes bulged and her jaw dropped in complete shock at the sight before her. Her sleep-deprived senses weren't deceiving her for once. Unbelievable as it was, they were actually showing her the real thing, only less than a few hundred yards away. This was no illusion, it really was-

"MAC!" Frankie shrieked in unbridled joy. Immediately she yanked open the bus doors, sprinted onto the sidewalk and ran pell-mell across the street, regardless of the busy traffic. Drivers quickly jammed on their brakes and brought their cars to screeching halts to avoid flattening the young woman against the road. Angry motorists blared their horns furiously as she dodged about and around speeding vehicles. But Frankie didn't care about the chaos she was causing, much less how close she was to unintentionally meeting an untimely demise. She completely shut it all out of her mind and determinedly raced forward towards the orphanage, screaming ecstatically at the top of her lungs,

"Mac! Mac! MAAAAAC!"

Mac jumped nearly a foot in the air at the sudden outburst of commotion. He had no idea what was causing the ruckus on the nearby street, but above the deafening horn blasts and curses of angry drivers, the boy was still able to make out an oddly familiar voice screaming his name over and over.

"Huh? N-no," The stunned child whispered to himself while he shook his head furiously in denial. "No, it…it just can't be." Was it just his brain messing with him again? No, it couldn't. Could it?

Finally, after his initial skepticism, he accepted the unbelievable truth; he'd recognize that voice anywhere. It just had to be-

"FRANKIE!" he yelled as he turned around and spotted the unmistakable redhead dodge one last vehicle and began an all-out sprint to the tall metal fence that encircled the orphanage. Immediately the boy made a beeline for her, shouting as loudly as he could.

"Frankie! Frankie!"

Frankie finally came to a rather ungraceful stop as she stumbled into the fence. However, despite this clumsy finish, she laughed hysterically in delight as Mac raced furiously to meet her, building up too much momentum and crashing head-on into the metal barrier in his frenzy.

"F-Frankie! Frankie, y-y-you found me!" Mac stammered incredulously, and in an instant the child was completely consumed by tears as he pressed his face against the cold, metal mesh. Giggling uncontrollably, Frankie dropped to her knees and managed to maneuver her lips through the fence links to plant several clumsy kisses against his cheeks.

"Mac! You're okay! Pal, you're okay!" she squealed in delight. For a few minutes they were unable to say much else to each other, as they became completely caught up in the moment that was simply too good to be true for either of them. Mac couldn't hold back the mix of tears and laughter that had overtaken him, and neither could Frankie stop giggling incessantly like a little schoolgirl. The two simply stared happily into each other's eyes for a few blissful moments, Frankie managing to squeeze her fingers through the fence, which Mac gripped onto tightly.

"Mac, I-" Frankie began to choke out. However, before she could get much further, Mac suddenly turned away as some odd noise behind him grabbed his attention. Upon listening intently for a brief moment, the eight-year-old quickly turned back to face Frankie with an expression now horribly distorted by utter terror.

"Frankie, you gotta go!" he cried frantically as he roughly shoved her fingers back through the fence links. "Now!"

Frankie was shocked. She had only been here for a minute or two, after nearly two weeks of agonizing separation. Why was he suddenly so bent on ending their joyous reunion?

"Pal, I don't…" she struggled to express her bewilderment into words.

"Frankie, please!" Mac pleaded desperately as he hurriedly backed off a few steps from the fence. "Go! Now! You just gotta do it!"

"But we just-"

"FRANKIE!" he screeched in horror as bloodcurdling howl suddenly rent the air.

Suddenly, Frankie's view of Mac became blocked by some obstruction that appeared on the other side of the fence, an obstruction that was all razor-sharp fangs and claws. Before she could react, the mysterious beast's teeth snagged on to a loose fold of green sweater that had accidentally spilled out a little too much through the fence.

"EEEEEEEEEEK!" Frankie squealed in terror. "Lemmego! Lemmego!" she shrieked, wildly thrashing about with the creature that yanked repeatedly at her sweater.

Finally however, with a savage tear, the thing managed to make off with a large chunk of the girl's right sleeve. The second she was freed, Frankie fell backwards onto her rear and instinctively scuttled away from the danger. As her heart palpitated wildly in her chest, Frankie remained where she sat safely on the cold pavement for a few moments, staring unblinkingly with bulging, saucer-sized eyes at the living horror before her.

At first glance the beast looked like a giant lizard of sort, like a komodo dragon or something of that nature. However, instead of the usual reptilian appendages, its four legs resembled those of a cat's; thin, sinewy, and claws resembling daggers protruding from each of the three fingers adorning every foot. The rest of its body, about the size of an Irish wolfhound, was very much dog-like in shape, and covered in thick, jet-black scales as dark as the night. The thing's head was that of a lizard of some sort. However, whereas most reptiles had two eyes adorning their heads, this thing had but one large, blood red eyeball perched atop a long stalk that disgustingly wiggled about incessantly. Meanwhile, its end was marked with a long, whip-like tail that forked midway into two smaller whips that moved about independently of each other.

The weird, reptile-mammalian-God-knows-what hybrid hissed fiercely at Frankie as it paced back and forth restlessly on its side of the fence, barring razor-sharp fangs at the young woman and every once in a while darting out its long, dark purple forked tongue. Now, only after observing the monstrosity for but a moment, most people would've immediately gotten to their feet and run for their very lives, absolutely convinced that the gates of hell had opened and one of Satan's minions had been let loose upon the world.

Not Frankie, though. She didn't spend most of her life living in a home for imaginary friends without being able to tell an extreme-o-saur when she saw one; and this was undoubtedly one of the dark rejects of the imaginary world.

"W-wh…w-what's…th-that?" she whispered softly while pointing with an uncontrollably trembling hand.

Mac's head and shoulders drooped sadly as he explained. "His name's Rex…He used to belong to some kid who came here a while ago, I guess... after that kid was adopted though, he left his imaginary friend here, so…now he's the property of the orphanage."

Frankie turned her head slowly to stare head-on into the child's eyes with a look of mortified disbelief.

"Wait…they…he…"

"No, no, no it's not that!" Mac quickly interrupted. "Please, it's not what you think! The nuns here are very nice, they take real good care of us, I swear! Rex is just like a guard dog, he doesn't bother any of the kids! Honest, he barely even notices us! I promise! He's trained only to make sure no one tries to break in…"

The boy took a hard gulp. "…and I guess keep any of us from breaking out."

Upon finishing his sentence immediately Mac tried to suppress a violent sob, but it was of no use. Despite his best attempts to fight it, within moments he was completely overcome by emotion and swiftly broke down weeping, now shedding his tears in absolute despondency.

"Frankie…" he struggled to whimper between his sobs. "I…I…th-they say someone m-m-might adopt m-me and…b-but I…I don't want t to, I-I don't w-want to be t-taken by someone I..I-I don't even know, because…I…a-and… and…I miss B-Bloo and I just…I-I just…"

He looked straight at her with puffy red eyes. "I want to go home." He wailed in despair before burying his face in his hands as he became inconsolable with grief.

Frankie just stared back wordlessly, her expression badly distorted by the intense emotional pain that tore furiously at her heart. Never before in her life had she ever felt so frustrated and helpless. At that very moment, she wanted to do nothing more in the world than to be able to get up from where she sat, gather the weeping little boy in her arms, and simply reassure him that everything was going to be alright, no stranger was going to adopt him, because his big sister was here to make it all better. But alas, despite the fact that she was only five yards away, the tall imposing fence, guarded by the pitch-black demon that continued to eye her warily as it prowled about the other side, hopelessly separated her.

Frankie was the closest she had been to Mac in weeks. Yet paradoxically, at the exact same moment she felt that she had never been farther from him as the frightened child now cried uncontrollably, and she was unable to do a thing about it. The girl sniffled as she could feel her heart ache.

"Pal, c'mon…don't cry…" she made a futile attempt to comfort the grief-stricken child, but alas, mere words were useless. If there was only a way she could get over the fence, if she could just somehow comfort Mac…. suddenly, an idea popped into her head.

"Mac, wait!" she cried as she scrambled to her feet while her hands shot behind her neck. Mac momentarily paused his weeping and cocked his head curiously.

"Frankie, what are you-"

"Catch!" Frankie shouted as she wound up and tossed something over the metal barrier. Rex growled disapprovingly at the alien object coming from the outside, but obediently remained where he stood as Mac leapt into the air and caught it.

"Got it! I got…"

Mac paused to examine the object in awe. The thing in his hands was nothing more than a simple silver chain, just barely big enough to fit around someone's neck. However, despite the piece of jewelry's rather plain appearance, he cradled it so gently in his hands and looked at in such in such wonderment, it was as if he was holding the Holy Grail itself or some other precious relic.

"Frankie…this is…"

"I know, pal." Frankie answered. "It's my mom's old necklace, the one that Grandma gave her."

"B-but Frankie…" Mac stammered in disbelief. "It's…I-I can't-"

"Mac, it's not yours to keep." she announced flatly with a look of dead seriousness. However, as the boy became beset by pained confusion, Frankie's tone quickly softened.

"Hold on pal, hold on." She reassured him tenderly. "It's not yours to keep; it's yours to borrow. I just want you to hold on to it…"

Frankie smiled weakly as her eyes began to brim with tears. "…Until I can get you back again."

Mac stared incredulously for a moment, and then hurriedly clutched the old necklace to his chest. "Frankie…you mean…"

"Listen to me Mac." Frankie said softly as she furiously fought back the urge to start crying again, even though a few loose tears had already trickled down her cheeks. "I know things don't look so good. I know you still miss your mom and older brother badly. I know that you're in a strange new place, I know you probably feel alone and scared, and you're frightened about might happen next."

The girl paused momentarily to bite down hard on her lower lip, swiftly suppressing a harsh sob that tried to unsuccessfully escape from her throat. Frankie waited a few moments until it subsided, then continued speaking to Mac as comfortingly as her delicate emotional state would allow her to.

"But whatever happens to you, no matter how you feel, you gotta remember this; you're not alone. You have Bloo, your imaginary friend, and you have Wilt, Ed, Coco, Madame Foster, and everyone else back at Foster's. But most importantly," she added with a sniffle, "You still have your big sister. And no matter what everyone else may say or think, she still loves you very much, and she's never going to stop trying until the day she can take you back home, to your family."

At this point the tears were pouring unchecked down the sides of her face, as they were similarly cascading down Mac's already tearstained cheeks. For a few moments, neither one could manage to say a single thing, and they just stood in painful silence, silently weeping as they stared into each other's eyes.

"I…I-I love you, Frankie." Mac managed to croak.

"I love you too, pal. I love you too." Frankie replied in a hoarse whisper.

For a few more awkwardly depressing moments they continued as they were. Finally however, Rex was pushed to the limits of his patience by the unreasonable time the redheaded intruder had managed to stay without being frightened off by him, and angrily the reptilian extreme-o-saur began to growl and hiss at the young woman, baring his fangs threateningly and displaying his wickedly sharp claws.

"I…I think you gotta go." Mac spoke barely above a whisper. "I don't think the nuns would like seeing you here."

With that he quietly began to back away, hugging the precious necklace close to himself. Frankie wordlessly blew a soft kiss to the misery-stricken child before she quickly whirled about and sprinted furiously back to the Foster's bus across the street.

The situation was still extremely dire. Mac was still up for adoption, which meant a new family could take him away any day now, regardless of how nightmarish the very idea was to him of all people. Mr. Herriman was still brazenly unwilling to allow his sole employee to suddenly take complete charge of an eight-year-old child on top of her full-time job. To top it all off, Frankie's emotional state right now was still less than fragile.

But despite such overwhelming odds, she now at least knew where Mac was. And this was more than enough to keep her flickering hopes alive.

Besides, she thought as she clambered onto the brightly colored bus. How could things possibly get any worse than this?

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