As terrified as she was about how unsettlingly possible the worst of her potential outcomes could be, she still had plenty of hope that it would never actually have to come down to the forced separation of her little family, and that justice would be served.
Thus, absolutely nothing could've possibly prepared her now for this living nightmarish hell she had been mercilessly cast into.
"…No! No! Please, no! Not again! You can't! You can't! Not again!" Frankie shrieked herself hoarse between the powerful sobs that wracked her body. As she was nearly blinded by the rivers of hot tears flooding down her cheeks, she fought and struggled like a young woman possessed to try and escape, and to put an end to this unthinkable horror.
Alas, they had come prepared. Her best efforts were little match for the two hulking policemen that dwarfed her while they each held on firmly to her arms, while her wrists lay so tightly handcuffed together behind her back she was beginning to lose circulation in her hands. Nearby, a third behemoth of a law enforcer struggled to hold in place what was basically a plastic pet carrier that rocked about violently as its azure captive struggled to break loose.
"Mac! Mac! Mac!" the pained screams rang out as twin blobbish stubs protruded from between the bars of the door and reached frantically out of mad desperation.
Not too far off, she could hear her grandmother and Mr. Herriman arguing vainly with a few other officers on the front porch of Foster's. Meanwhile it seemed like every single resident in the house was wordlessly watching the dreadful spectacle unfold from every window in silent horror as the caretaker stood in the middle of the front yard, shackled and helpless before them all, as she persistently refused to accept the agony that had become her reality.
"You can't do this! You can't! No! Please, don't!" she howled her undying defiance to the heavens as she continued to squirm like mad in a useless attempt to free herself, thrashing about and digging her heels fruitlessly into the lawn like some captured wild beast. Alas, the officers held firm, and only tightened their grip until it felt like her arms were being crushed in twin vice-grips. Despite the pain, she continued to put up her futile fight, and as she struggled on, an all-too familiar woman stepped before her to shoot a fierce glower through her heavy glasses.
"Miss Frances, I specifically ordered you not to interfere!" the social worker reminded in that terrible, frosty tone as she nursed a fresh bruise marring her left cheek.
"No! You can't do this! You can't! You can't! I don't abuse him! I don't! You've got me all wrong! Please! I-I didn't mean to! Please, you have to listen to me!" Frankie only begged shamelessly. Backing up a pace, the spectacled woman merely replied,
"It didn't have to come down to this; if you just would've let me take the boy without-"
"Go to hell!" Frankie just screamed hoarsely at the top of her lungs before attempting to spit square upon the social worker's face.
It just couldn't end like this; they just couldn't do this, not after all that she had been through. The young woman burst out sobbing anew in insufferable anguish, while the other woman just turned her gaze away from the pitiful sight.
"Wait until I leave with the child." She calmly ordered the officers restraining the hysterical redhead. "Then you can take her off down to the station-"
"No! Nooooo! No! Please, don't!" Frankie erupted screeching in protest again, kicking up chunks of grass and sod as she struggled to pull herself free. "You can't! Mac! Mac!"
Peering through the iron fence surrounding the property, she could barely make out the sedan, where a terrified little boy sat in the back seat, banging furiously on the windows and crying her name over and over as he tried to get out.
"Frankie! F-Frankie!" Mac's muffled, weepy cries echoed in her ears as the caretaker powerlessly watched the social worker wordlessly walk towards her car and climb into the driver's seat. As the engine was ignited, adopted little brother and adoptive big sister wordlessly stared into each other's tear-streaked features for a few moments, with horrified disbelief stamped upon both their expressions.
As soon as the car suddenly began to pull away, Frankie was immediately gripped by an excruciating surge of panic the likes of which she had never experienced before, and while howling like a wounded beast, she made one last attempt to get to the little boy before he was gone.
"MAC! MAC!"
With strength borne out of sheer desperation, she suddenly broke loose from the vice grip the officers held upon her, and for a few moments she saw the faintest glimmer of hope as she tried to race away. However, she had barely taken one step before she could feel a veritable giant of a police officer grab her by the back of her neck.
"Urrk!" she gagged violently as her captor brutally hurled her to the ground then quickly pressed a foot onto her stomach, effectively pinning her in place. As Frankie thrashed about, gasping raggedly for breath as he swiftly increased the pressure, the officer yelled,
"She just won't stop fighting!"
"Not for long!" his equal brutish partner growled as he removed his peeper spray from his belt. "Hold her still, I'll-"
"AUGH!"
The young woman cried as she shot up in bed, with hands thrown up over her face. As soon as she realized though that her eyes weren't burning with the sting of mace, the extraordinarily confused girl slowly lowered her hands and bemusedly took stock of her surroundings as her chest heaved up and down.
She was in her own bed, in her own moonlit room, with the clock on her nightstand reading some ungodly late hour in blaring red letters. Besides the cold sweat that drenched her to the point where her violet nightgown now clung uncomfortably to her body, nothing else appeared amiss; everything seemed to be perfectly fine.
Once she understood that she had just awoken from a dreadful nightmare, the still slightly-disorientated girl sucked in a deep breath heavily and lay back down, only to shoot up again like a spring a second later as a sudden, horrifying thought forced her heart to skip a beat.
Just a dream, or terrible memory?
This slightest shadow of a doubt was all it took to throw her into a fresh panic. With unmatched speed and agility she leapt from bed and sprinted headlong from her room and across the hall. With her eyes not nearly fully adjusted to the dark, she relied almost entirely on memory to guide her, and after blindly bumbling around and eliciting a few muffled curses, she made it into Mac's bedroom, though not before banging her shoulder upon the door frame first.
Once she had stumbled to where she thought his bed was, Frankie started feeling about frantically as her heart pounded like a kettledrum in her chest. Finally, much to her inexpressible relief, her fingertips brushed a few strands of hair, which was followed by the sounds of someone stirring in their sleep with a barely audible murmur. The woman waited a few more moments to let her eyes adjust to the darkness, and once she could make out the figure of a certain slumbering little boy, Frankie elicited a loud gasp.
Needless to say, however, considering the intensity of her nightmare, she wasn't exactly ready to just head straight back to bed for a few more hours of sleep, as expressed by the fact that her hands now shook uncontrollably. Moving with the utmost delicacy, she gingerly sat herself upon the bed top where she began to absentmindedly stroke Mac's head as she tried to gather herself back together.
It had been nothing more than a dream, she reassured herself. The most frightfully realistic one she could ever recall having, true, but nevertheless, only a dream. Yes, that was right, it was all coming back to her now, the social worker had visited only yesterday. They were still all together, nothing had happened yet…with heavy emphasis on yet.
It did little good to remember the undeniable fact that her nightmare was more than just the result of the previous day's stress; it was an all-too-feasible possibility for them all in this unexpected mess she found herself helplessly trapped in. Once she reluctantly realized this, almost instantly chills began to race up her spine all the way to the back of her neck, and the enormous knot in her stomach seemed to expand and tighten threefold. As much as she wanted to hope and hold onto a shred of optimism, she also couldn't help but remind herself that at the moment the cards were stacked against her; her naturally short fuse and the fact that social workers consistently rubbed her the wrong way had allied together to form the unthinkably horrendous disadvantage. They were what got her into this mess, and if anything, could very well turn her dreams into reality.
Frankie groaned as she gloomily mulled over the harsh truth. Usually in times of such deep distress, she would confide in none other than the child himself, who could usually give her exactly just what she needed, be it a few words of encouragement, or even just a comforting hug. Unfortunately, she still couldn't bear though to break the news about the new threat to their lives, not just yet. His short life up to that point had already been grossly unfair in far too many ways as it was, and the very thought of putting him through more trauma agonized her more than the fright she felt at that very moment, a near-impossible feat.
Suddenly, her reflecting was interrupted when the child started to whimper a little in his slumber. Acting quickly, the maternal young woman leaned over and began to shush softly into his ear, all the while stroking his head as delicately as she could. Once Mac quickly calmed down, Frankie took a few moments to tuck him in and plant a light kiss on his forehead before settling back down into silent contemplation.
At least he could easily be comforted when the need be, she mused. But who was there to reassure the reassurer?
"…Pssst! W-Wilt? Wilt?"
It didn't take long for the hushed whispers and gentle shaking to rouse the gangly figment out of a deep sleep.
"Hmm? Wha…?" he answered with a gaping yawn before wrenching his good eye open to get a bleary look at his midnight visitor. "Huh? What the…"
"…H-hi." the familiar lanky redhead murmured softly, averting her gaze a little in embarrassment as she poked her head beneath the bunk bed.
Once Wilt detected the obvious quaver in her tone, and realized how oddly moist her hands felt, all vestiges of drowsiness abruptly faded away as he was immediately beset with alarm. It took but a matter of moments for him to understand that something was obviously upsetting his "kid."
Without so much as a word, the deeply concerned crimson thought slipped out from under the bed and was on his feet in an instant. With a weak smile of gratitude Frankie quietly led him out into the hallway.
Once he had taken care to shut the bedroom door behind him, Wilt, sensing the young woman's desperate need for solace of any sort, immediately plopped himself onto the floor and rest his head against the wall. Frankie, without a word of objection, instinctively sat down and started leaning heavily against his shoulder with a distressed whimper.
The towering imaginary friend frowned as he felt her alarmingly clammy skin while he wrapped a winding arm about her shoulders. He would have had to be an absolute dimwit to not know what was mercilessly tormenting her. Unfortunately, what was there to say to attempt to assuage her obvious fright when such an unspeakably horrendous threat loomed so close? After struggling valiantly to try and find the right words, the poor creature was only able to whisper lamely,
"It's…it's okay…it's going to be all right…"
"How c-can we even say that?" Frankie croaked morosely. "You know what happened… I was basically told I'm going to lose Mac the second that-"
"Frankie, I know things don't look too good right now, but I don't think-" he fervently tried to console her before she started shaking her head pessimistically.
"This isn't just some misunderstanding we can clear up like just that, this is serious. I-I could actually lose…th-they might…"
The very thought frightened her so badly she was temporarily at a loss for words, as her lanky imaginary friend replied somberly as ruffled her hair a little,
"I know, I know."
For a few moments, the two silently sat there in the dark, each gazing into empty space as Frankie suddenly confessed bluntly,
"…I-I'm…I'm scared."
Wilt couldn't even remember the last time he had heard her openly admit to being frightened. Instinctively, he hugged her a little closer, as he could somehow shelter her against the despondency that threatened to swallow her whole as she started murmuring miserably,
"I…I want to try and fight this anyway I can, but…I just feel like it's me against all of social services, like they're honestly not going to stop until Mac's far away from here as possible. A-and it's not like I can really blame them either…I have the reputation from hell among them already, and...all any visiting social worker's probably going to do is just rile me up until …a-and…it's not fair, Mac…Mac didn't do anything wrong, and… and…h-he's still just a kid, he need to be here, with his…h-his family, b-but because of m-me, now…n-now…"
Unable to go no further, she suddenly clenched her fist and pounded the floor as deep frustration finally got the best of her. As a few tears startled to trickle down her cheeks, Wilt grimaced painfully as he could feel his heart break for the despairing twenty-three-year-old, and for a few minutes, the two just clung to each other grimly, helplessly mulling over the rapidly growing danger that imperiled their tiny family.
"Wait!" Wilt suddenly blurted out as something crossed his mind, startling her slightly.
"What? What is it?" she demanded, as he turned his head and repeated with an unmistakable grin of excitement that nearly lit up the entire hall,
"You said it's just you against all of social services?"
After staring dully for a moment or so, Frankie suddenly caught on. At first, she wanted to kick herself for not thinking of it before in the midst of the hectic turn of events. However, that impulse lasted for but a split-second before she felt a bit of hope, causing her to burst out smiling along with him.
"You're right, there's…but do you really think that maybe…y'know…"
Wilt chuckled weakly as he ruffled her hair. "Well, we wont know unless you talk to your inside contact first, will we?"
RINGRINGRING! RINGRINGRING! RINGRINGRING!
"…Oh God, who the hell?"
After being woken up out of a dead slumber and being forced to blindly grope about in the pitch dark for a few moments as the loud ring violated her eardrums, Kathy managed to locate her phone.
"What?" she answered irritably with a dozy growl. "Who is…huh? Frankie? What the…. hey, whoa, calm down! What's wrong? You sound terrible…"