A/N: I get into Hattie's situation later in this chapter. But don't worry. Certain things I can't let enter my brain, as an extremely visual thinker, so I don't give details, I just hint at stuffs like with Charles' situation in a very special "Full House" episode, "Silence Is Not Golden." (It had to be that bad in the '40s for her to end up there).

This is on hold just for a bit because I have been busy and not written the last chapter. So two more wait and maybe one epilogue. After those two it will move to movies for a while before being back to the plays section of Annie once the epilogue is put on.

Chapter 6 - Gifts, and The Rest of the Story

"9 years."

Annie looked at Tessie as they waited expectantly for Duffy to return from a date late in 1942. "What was that?"

"Can you believe it's been 9 years since you snuck out and then Daddy Warbucks wound up getting you?"

"No, I can't. I wonder what Daddy's lawyer has to share with us; he said he was coming over," Annie remarked as they waited in the office of Warbucks Home for Girls.

A gaggle of girls rushed toward the door, causing both former orphans to remark that they must have seen Duffy pulling up. Sure enough, the former orphan, who had gone from rising Broadway star to replacement orphanage helper due to the war, stepped out of the car which had parked in the driveway with a great big smile.

"Oh my goodness! Did he propose?"

"That's right, Tessie, just like I suspected," Duffy beamed. "And none of that quickie marrying at Grand Central Station like some do. I'm willing to wait til John comes home.

There's a war to be won," she added with a hint of a sigh in her voice as another car pulled up.

They spoke about the wedding Duffy and John would have once the war was over before greeting Grace, the attorney, and their guest. Rose came out to usher the girls in who had been anxious to hear about the possible proposal.

The attorney, Mr. Morris, introduced and then let the man walking with a cane, who was around 50, speak first. "I came to look at this fine Institution," the man said as they went inside. "I'm thinking of giving my estate to it. It's not much, just several thousand dollars," he said to their startled looks.

"That's not why we're shocked," Tessie said. "Oh my goodness, do you know who owns this place?"

"Yes, I'm aware. Let's just say that is the rest of the story," he said.

As they sat in the headmistress's office, the man began to share something like might be expected from Paul Harvey decades later. In fact, it would become one of his "Rest of the Story" stories, told with the surprise twist of who had set something up.

"You can tell I don't get around well. I was a wee tot in August of 1896. There was a gigantic heat wave then, and like many children in New York's crowded tenements, I hung out in the fire escape to try to stay cool any way I could. Unfortunately, I got sleepy and the next thing I knew I had fallen and was very badly hurt."

"I guess your legs and probably some other stuff was messed up, huh," Annie speculated.

"Yes, quite a bit," the man said. "Thankfully, the Police Commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt, really looking after the people in our crowded area. But two men were especially responsible for my getting swift and speedy treatment. One was a driver who I never did find the name of. Tthe other was the man who had quickly set up this ragtag outfit of people to transport the wounded, deliver ice, and so on during that massive 10-day heat wave. I have been rather unhealthy, begging at time but able to scrape by and save up a few thousand dollars in my life. And I kept looking for who it was that had rescued me. But until recently details were scarce," the man said. He paused to cough, his lungs were clearly not in great shape.

Rose and a couple of the other girls also enjoyed hearing the story - storytelling was one of their favorite pastimes. The girls asked who it was.

"It turned out, I had been looking in the wrong place. I had been looking for someone who was down and out like myself, and in the delay I ended up losing the chance to find the driver. Instead, while he doesn't like to boast about it, the person who set up this operation, and convinced Roosevelt to get him some government money for it, he was down and out as a child, but by that time he'd begun to make a decent amount of money taking advantage of every opportunity. So much so, in fact, that he would use it as a springboard to become one of the wealthiest men anywhere. You see, the man responsible for my getting care that speedily, because of the network he set up, was none other than Oliver Warbucks," he concluded.

"I love when Daddy Warbucks tells stories like that of how he started making money," Annie beamed.

"He's had quite a few adventures like that, hasn't he?" Grace said. "He knows how to take advantage of situations."

"So, this is a way to give back to him without feeling like you're just adding a cup of water to the Atlantic Ocean," July analyzed.

"A very clever way to put it," Mr. Morris said. "He had contacted me some time ago, and I told him that there was a philanthropic organization that would be perfect. It's nice to have some good news. With the court case that I'm hearing about now…" He suggested that Rose take the girls elsewhere, since it was not very pleasant. Once the girls were gone, he told the sad story.

"Oh my goodness! Good thing the doctor was alert," Tessie said mournfully.

"Indeed. Add in some school absences where the parents were very evasive and the authorities were able to step in."

"It's rare, but in extreme cases it can happen." Grace recalled Annie had even read where Andrew Jackson, as a judge, had removed a child from a drunken father.

"Like what people watched for here back then." Duffy spoke adamantly, thinking about how mean Miss Hannigan had been. "Thankfully, we didn't let it get like that. We put our feet down - literally!" Having made her quip, she got back to the present. "So you're saying this Hattie girl is our first chance at one of those special cases?"

"Precisely. Now, she is really nasty herself sometimes, at least for a seven-year-old. So I want to warn you just in case you aren't ready yet. Obviously with the war on, the full contingent is not here," the lawyer added. There were still some who had had training, such as July and Rose, but the replacement ones hadn't, and the ones coming back from the war might have to be retrained anyway once they saw what the situations would be like.

"I told him I would let it up to you. It will be a couple of months yet, she's in a government orphanage temporarily, so you can repare, but you can also decline." Grace thought she knew what their answer would be.

She was right. Annie piped up, "We can do this. We've started some classes already to learn about kids like that." It certainly wasn't as advanced as advanced as it would become, but there was knowledge of anxiety and trauma in general. "Maybe it's better more of us are here to help." The others agreed.

"I thought so. The staff remaining, and al of us, can can certainly finish learning what we need to know before she 's going to need your tenderness and understanding, but also young ladies who are familiar with what the other orphans will feel like when she comes. So if she does get too nasty you can get tough while still showing you care," Grace said.

The guest was glad to see this. "I did marry, my wife had been sickly, too, having been an orphan. I guess we fell for each other and figured no one else would care about us. When she died in childbirth, I was devastated. I eventually just left our baby at an orphanage."

After a little pestering by Annie, July dared to ask what the child's name was.

"I couldn't give her one. I knew I was consigning her to a hard life but I hoped, with what I had heard about a young teacher, that maybe she could have a fresh start." He couldn't remember details, but knew it had been later in the spring of 1920.

"Did you hear this part of the story before?" July asked Annie, who nodded.

"I'm the one who told her after I heard it," Grace admitted.

July blinked back a tear. After inhaling deeply, she decided she might as well say it. "You may not believe this, but I might be your daughter." The others said there was definitely a resemblance.

The explanation made complete sense. July wasn't sure how to continue, but now that she knew someone who was likely her father, she just felt like sharing a lot of things, if not her feelings - including having to be the real mother figure, with Annie as her apprentice, at the tender age of 11 after Miss Kathy had left in 1931.

The man was stunned as July told about everything that had gone on in her life. "That is enough adventure for 3 lifetimes. I am honored to have a truly amazing daughter." He got choked up. "I hoped for something wonderful, yet I didn't want to even think about…" He didn't say, but that uncertainty was why he had decided not to name her.

"At least now you know who you can leave your estate to," Annie said to lighten the mood. She could tell that none of the others knew what to say. The man agreed that he would leave it to July.

"So…I forgive you," July said after a few moments. It was something she'd always wanted to say. "It was very rough. But I have a Heavenly Father who has adopted me as His child. I've filled the void with that, though it has been hard at times. God came to Earth as His own son, Jesus Christ, and died to take the punishment for my sins and rose from the dead. And, now He lives in me. And I realize He has lived in me since that day I called on him while reading that Gideon's New Testament in the orphanage. I trusted Him to save me from my sins and make me new inside. Do you have that forgiveness and salvation from God?" July asked, ready to share how easily he could just call on Jesus to save him and make him new right now, and He would.

The others gently excused themselves as July and her biological father spoke about that and other things.

They ended up upstairs in the headmistress's quarters. "It looks even more like a studio apartment with this small conference table now, " Duffy said. "Good thing we expanded it, too. We can stay here while helping during the war, with the bedroom dividers."

"This war could go on a couple more years. I wouldn't be surprised if we have no men helping at the Home For Boys by the end of the war," Grace said. Annie piped up that Drake, their butler, was always welcome. "Well, then, only one. And he certainly doesn't have any training."

"He could copy us. July and Kate were so excited soon after they got out and moved in with their future adoptive parents. We know how to make kids happy," Annie said.

Tessie agreed. "We were all so excited to have our own families. It's really something special for everyone to remember."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

July blinked back a tear as she looked thankfully at the new Bible her parents, Dr. and Mrs. Huntington, had just given her.

"It's a lot better than just that little New Testament, isn't it?" her adoptive father said.

"It's so nice to know I'm loved." July still struggled sometimes, but as she told them, "I can forgive whoever left me. I just hope I have the chance to meet them and tell them that," she said. "That would really be sad if I never did. Annie always had that dream, and while I really knew they had to be gone…" She wasn't sure how to continue.

"I think Annie thought that in the back of her mind also," Mrs Huntington said.

Kate wasn't thinking about that at her age. Instead, she flipped to a page in the front. "Look what they put in here; they put one in mine too."

July looked at what Kate was talking about: The family tree had been filled out listing her and Kate as the Huntington's children. She wept as she hugged each of them with incredible gratitude. "Thank you so much!"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

"I remember her telling us," Duffy muttered. "It's one of those things she'll always remember about her parents now."

"It's why we have the memory room," Annie added. "it's sad when kids come to us and they don't have any; but that's why we try to give them happy times. "

"From what that lawyer said, what Hattie went through might be worse than not having any memories," Tessie lamented. The other's nodded slowly.