Author's Note: Welcome! I am so thrilled to be sharing my first Annie story to this page. I have loved the Annie fandom for much of my life, starting years and years ago when the 1982 Annie film was the only movie my younger self wanted to watch over and over again. I have seen it more times than I can count and, even though I've certainly enjoyed future tellings of the story on film and on stage, the 1982 movie will always have a special place in my heart. Even years later, I found myself imagining what happened to the characters I loved after the end of the movie. What did the future hold for Oliver, Grace, and Annie as they became a family? What obstacles would they have to overcome together, and how? I've had one version or another of their continuing story in my head for a very long time but only recently have taken the time and effort to draw out the ideas and put them all down on paper.
This story is very much set in the 1982 movie-verse—there are references to Annie's attempted kidnapping and rescue, the inclusion of characters like Punjab and the Asp, etc.—but I hope that readers who prefer other versions of the Annie story will still see plausible depictions of the characters they love here. Writing this story has been a wonderful and nostalgic trip down memory lane, and I hope you love it.
That's enough from me for now! Happy reading!
CHAPTER ONE
"Gentlemen, the simple fact of the matter is that I pay far too many taxes to this city—and to the State of New York, for that matter—to accept that this is the best your government is capable of!"
Grace Farrell sighed and pressed a hand against her temple in a vain effort to relieve the pressure headache that was building behind her eyes. Oliver Warbucks had been in a bad mood all day, but his temper had noticeably worsened throughout the course of this painful meeting. He was a man who had grown used to seeing others follow his instructions without question or hesitation, but the two men seated in front of them in the library had for the last thirty minutes been sorely trying his notoriously limited patience. The sweltering sunshine of the midsummer afternoon seeping into the library through the glass balcony doors was not helping at all, either.
"The conditions you claim to be 'acceptable' are barely fit for pigs and dogs, let alone children," he went on, his voice growing louder with each word. "And the most you've been able to bring me since the last time we spoke is a promise that in the next few years you'll consider thinking about planning for potential new requirements!" He was practically shouting now, and he slammed his fist down on the desk in front of him. "That, gentlemen, if I can bring myself to call you by such a term, is complete hogwash, and I won't stand to be taken for a damned fool in my own house!"
"I assure you, sir, no one is trying to call you a fool of any kind," Anthony Donatelli said in a tight voice. "Mr. Warbucks, ever since you brought these allegations to the attention of the New York City Board of Orphans, we have been doing our utmost to—"
"Well, your utmost is a sorry sight," Oliver growled.
"Our funding has been cut every year since this depression began!" Mr. Donatelli's deputy, a slight man named Phelps, interjected. "Our department used to get much more funding than the state assembly is giving us now. We simply don't have the funds to do more."
"Indeed!" Donatelli emphasized. "Mr. Phelps is right. Our resources have shrunk consistently every year since 1929. We have seen significant reductions in our allocations from the state assembly, and unfortunatelythe number of orphans and alleged orphans being foisted into the system only continues to increase the longer this depression goes on—"
This was too much.
"With all due respect, Mr. Donatelli," Grace interrupted him, hoping that her tone masked the frustration she was feeling, "You paraded these figures in front of us during our last conversation, and we are not denying the fact that budgets across the state are tight right now. We are not asking you to do miracles with less funding than you had before this depression." She cast a sidelong look at Oliver, who nodded mutely for her to continue as he buried his face in his hands out of frustration. She took a breath and turned a hard stare back to the men in front of them, who were clearly itching to get up and leave. "But the fact remains that the money you do have is not being used wisely, and we see a great need for a true investigation into how your department is spending the resources currently allotted to it."
"Precisely!" Oliver shouted, his head snapping back up. "That's precisely what your damned department needs. Accountability for results!"
Grace laid a hand on his arm before he could jump out of his seat in complete agitation. "For instance, Mr. Donatelli," she pressed on, "the New York City Board of Orphans is authorized to spend one hundred thousand dollars per annum on education for orphans in your system's care. But based on our own observations and the testimony of multiple children who until recently resided at the Hudson Street Orphanage for Girls, there is little evidence whatsoever that any of the children there had so much as seen a teacher for the last several years, let alone learned anything from one. You certainly cannot claim that Miss Hannigan was qualified to fill that role." She knew she had done a poor job at disguising the contempt that infiltrated her voice at the mention of that woman's name.
"As we've already explained to you, Miss Farrell," Donatelli practically spat through his teeth, "we must defer a great deal of authority down to the level of the orphanage supervisors. I simply haven't got the staff or the time to ensure that every single one of them uses every single dollar—"
"Mr. Donatelli!" Grace exclaimed, feeling that she was perilously close to losing her temper just as Oliver already had on multiple occasions. "This is not a matter of every single dollar, but rather one single dollar! As Mr. Warbucks can attest, his daughter Annie is almost eleven years old, and her reading ability is far below where it should be for a child of her age. Some of the six- and seven-year-olds from the orphanage barely know the letters of the alphabet! And that's to say nothing of any other subjects—mathematics, history, civic education, the sciences!—that schoolchildren are expected to be familiar with."
Mr. Donatelli sighed, rubbing his temples with his fingers. "We've already acknowledged that the supervisor of that particular orphanage was not up to the task and have taken steps to—"
"You are attempting to divert us again from the subject at hand, Mr. Donatelli," Oliver growled.
"And this issue of their education is related to other deficiencies in your department's management of city orphanages," Grace continued. "Education in this state is compulsory until the age of fifteen, as I'm sure you gentlemen are aware. And yet, again, multiple of the older children from the Hudson Street Orphanage attested to being frequently hired out of the orphanage as domestic servants in private homes. There is a workroom full of sewing machines more suitable for a shirtwaist factory than a children's home. During the hours these children spent laboring, they were not in school at all, but rather earning pittance wages that were promptly taken from them by Miss Hannigan."
"Agatha Hannigan will never work in another New York City orphanage in her life—nor in any orphanage in the state!" Mr. Donatelli exploded, his voice rising. "We've already seen to that! After her trial and sentencing are complete, she is highly likely to remain in prison for several years! I have replaced her with a supervisor who came highly recommended from another orphanage in Buffalo. Therefore, can we not consider your interest in this matter to be resol—"
"We most certainly cannot," Oliver interrupted. Grace did not bother trying to restrain him again as he rose out of his seat, pointing an angry finger at Mr. Donatelli. "This matter is bigger than Miss Hannigan, and you know damned well that this matter is bigger than just the Hudson Street Orphanage! You'll have a hard time convincing us that the conditions in that orphanage were merely an outlier while the rest of your facilities are up to snuff. You are miserably failing the children in your system, Mr. Donatelli, and your complete reluctance to acknowledge the reality of the situation is, frankly, quite remarkable. This is a matter of responsibility to the public and to the taxpayers!" He was shouting by this point. "And damn it all to hell, this is a matter of moral responsibility to the poor souls forced into your care who don't have billionaires ready and willing to adopt them!"
Grace felt her heart swell with love and admiration upon hearing Oliver's speech, and she couldn't help the smile that blossomed on her face. Only a few weeks prior, she never could have imagined that she would witness such an impassioned call to action from him on any subject other than the international steel trade, oil and natural gas exploration, or banking regulations. And to hear him speak so heatedly, so vigorously on the rights owed to poor orphan children who deserved better than the hand fate had dealt them! It warmed her heart immeasurably and reminded her once again why she had fallen in love with him.
And speaking of the poor soul who had melted the ice around Oliver's own heart …
Grace heard Annie's shoes clattering as she ran across the marble floors in the hall outside the library doors—and the telltale excited woofing of the dog who was her constant companion—several seconds before the girl in question burst into the room. Her mop of curly red hair looked particularly frizzy in the summer heat, and her face was glowing with excitement.
"Daddy! Grace! They're here, they're here!" she shouted. "Tessie's new parents have come to—" Observing for the first time that Oliver and Grace were not alone in the room, her eyes went wide as saucers. She skidded to a halt and nearly tripped over the Persian rug in front of Oliver's mahogany desk. "Oh gosh, I'm sorry! I didn't know you were in a meetin'!"
"That's quite all right, Annie," Oliver said gruffly. "I think we've made all the progress we're likely to make today. DRAKE!" He cast a hard look at Mr. Donatelli and Mr. Phelps, both of whom rose from their chairs as soon as they sensed that the chance to escape their painful cross-examination was at hand. Drake's stalwart form appeared in the library doorframe.
"Sir?"
"Gentlemen, I was hoping to reach a more mutually agreeable conclusion to today's conversation, but I have begun to feel that we are shouting at a particularly dense brick wall," Oliver said. "My preference would have been to avoid the need for involving—" he shuddered at the word, "politicians in this matter, but given your resistance to discussing the issues at hand in a manner befitting responsible public servants, I must be in touch with the mayor and governor—"
"Sir," Mr. Donatelli interjected quickly, "we would of course much rather continue this dialogue with you than raise these matters up the chain."
"Then give us a clear demonstration of your commitment to reform, Mr. Donatelli," Oliver said firmly. "I am willing to acknowledge that significant change of the nature we are seeking will be difficult. However, I am not willing to be run through the same tired excuses for why such change is impossible. Change is only impossible if you keep your head stuck in the sand and refuse to recognize the need for it!" He scowled. "Good Lord, I'm even starting to sound like a damned Democrat! I've been spending too much time with FDR!"
"Gentlemen," Grace said quickly, moving to usher Mr. Phelps and Mr. Donatelli out of the library before Oliver lost his temper yet again, "I'll be in touch about a follow-on meeting. In the meantime, please consider this your notice that Mr. Warbucks is entirely serious about this matter and will not allow it to be swept under the rug." She glanced at him with a slight smile on her lips. "Even if further action requires engagement with politicians and Democrats."
After Drake had shown the two bewildered civil servants out of the room, Annie exhaled loudly. "Sounds like it was a real doozy of a meetin'! What did they want?"
"It's more what they didn't want, Annie," Oliver grumbled, replacing the fountain pen on his desk from a spot in the corner where he had flung it across the room in agitation ten minutes earlier. "They absolutely refuse to consider the notion of any reforms to New York's orphanage system!"
"Gee," Annie said, her eyes wide. "They still don't wanna help make the orphanages a better place to live? But why?"
"Change can be difficult for some people to accept, dear," Grace said. "Especially change like this that requires effort and initiative. Sadly, it's often easier for people to settle for how things are, rather than to imagine how they should be."
Annie nodded sagely. "Well, I know me and the other orphans have been glad to help even if talkin' about all those stories from the orphanage isn't fun. I'm sure if you keep at it, they'll listen to ya!"
"They may be left with little choice," Oliver said darkly. "Annie, why don't you run and help Tessie bring her belongings down the stairs. We'll meet the Wilburs in the entrance hall in a moment."
"Okay!" she chirped excitedly, turning on her heels and racing out of the library. Sandy barked and galloped after her.
"Well," Grace said with a sigh after the two of them were alone in the library. "That could have gone better."
"What a ridiculous demonstration of utter pigheadedness," Oliver groused. "We couldn't get them to veer even for a second off the same script they clung to the last time they were here. And they came with zero new ideas, not a single concrete proposal! It's all excuses, excuses, excuses." He paused, and his dark eyes met hers for a few moments before she saw his tense posture relax as a smile appeared at the corners of his mouth. "You, on the other hand, were brilliant."
She smiled, feeling her heart skip a beat as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and, kissing her on her temple, began to lead her out of the library. "You think so?"
"Needless to say, I'm realizing how many precious opportunities I've wasted over the last five years to have you rescue me from my own terrible temper." He sighed. "I wish I were going to have more time to keep turning the screw on those buffoons over the next few weeks. But when the Thompsons arrive for the merger negotiations in a few days, all hell is going to break loose and I won't have a spare moment to give."
"I know," she said sadly.
"But you might," he said, giving her a serious look. "And I daresay you'll be more effective than me at corralling the arguments we'll need to present to the mayor and the governor and push past those damned bureaucrats."
"There are a few additional state laws that I want to research," she said, nodding. "Armed with that evidence and the testimonies we've been collecting, I don't think it will take much convincing to get the mayor and governor on your side."
"Our side," he corrected her, smiling as he caressed her cheek with his thumb. "This is as much your fight as it is mine. After all, if you hadn't gone into that horrible orphanage in the first place …"
"Many things would be different around here," she said, leaning forward with a smile of her own and kissing him softly.
As they walked out of the library hand in hand and approached the mansion's grand staircase, the sounds of commotion down in the entrance hall grew louder with each step. Grace could already hear Sandy zooming around, his paws clattering on the marble floors, and Annie's high-pitched voice chattering at a hundred miles a minute. Oliver squeezed her hand before dropping it as they descended down the stairs, where a small crowd of the household staff had gathered.
Grace sighed to herself. Although their relationship was not a secret—nor had it been, practically, from its first moment—they tried to be discreet about physical contact in front of the staff and other visitors. It got harder with each passing day.
"Oh, Tessie, you're gonna be so happy!" Annie was exclaiming. "And I betcha they'll take you for ice cream and bring you here all the time to play!"
A booming laugh belonging to a well-dressed man with salt and pepper hair echoed across the entrance hall. "You bet we will, Miss Annie! I've got a real sweet tooth for the chocolate ice cream sundae at Rumplemeyers, so we'll be visiting there quite often with Miss Tessie. You'll be welcome to join us anytime—well, if your father says it's all right."
"Trevor!" Oliver raised a hand in greeting as they approached the crowd. He grasped the well-dressed man's hand. "Adelaide." The woman accompanying him smiled as he kissed her cheek. "Thank you for coming. This is certainly an exciting day for everyone here," Oliver declared. "Where's Tessie?"
A small face with mouse-brown hair and fearful eyes peeked out from where she was half-hidden behind Mrs. Pugh's skirt.
"Tessie!" Adelaide Wilbur said with a broad smile. "Come here, sweetheart. I've brought a present for you to welcome you into our family." From a shopping bag at her feet, she produced a beautiful chestnut teddy bear with a large red bow around its neck. She held it out to the young girl. The gathered audience was silent, waiting for Tessie's reaction. Her small eyes studied the bear for a moment before her face broke into a shy grin.
"Oh, my goodness," she said quietly. Mrs. Pugh gave Tessie's hair an encouraging pat, and Tessie took a step forward and approached her new parents. "I've always wanted a teddy bear, never had one in my whole life!"
"Well, this one is yours," Mrs. Wilbur said with a warm smile as she knelt down to Tessie's eye level and offered her the bear. "And you can name him whatever you'd like."
Annie whispered something into Tessie's ear, and the younger girl giggled and immediately nodded. "Yes! Bert! His name can be Bert, after Bert Healy!" The entrance hall rang with laughter, everyone feeling immensely relieved that Mrs. Wilbur's gift had helped break the ice and made Tessie feel more at ease.
"Well, Miss Tessie, I've no doubt you'll be back here in just a few days," Trevor Wilbur said with a smile, "or perhaps we'll be lucky enough to host Annie and friends at our home for an afternoon of play and frivolity."
"That would be swell!" Tessie exclaimed.
While Annie and Tessie embraced, Annie whispering encouragements into her ear, Grace leaned forward and said quietly to Mrs. Wilbur, "We'll be in touch about the schooling arrangements we've been discussing with the other families. We thought perhaps starting in September would make sense, to give the children a bit of time to acclimate to their new homes first."
"Perfect," Mrs. Wilbur confirmed. "Yes, we wouldn't want to overload them with too many changes all at once."
Grace frowned for a moment as Mrs. Wilbur turned her attention back to Tessie, suddenly realizing that she didn't see one face she was expecting. Where was Molly? She scanned the circle of staff and family gathered there, but the smallest orphan was nowhere to be seen. Casting a wider eye around the entrance hall, she spotted Punjab's tall frame standing slightly apart from the gathering, watching Tessie's farewell with an inscrutable expression on his face. She smiled slightly to herself. The man was reserved and often aloof, barely saying more than a sentence at a time and slow to welcome new acquaintances into his circle of trust. But he had grown extremely fond of the orphanage children who had been staying at the mansion since the night of Annie's kidnapping—after all, they had contributed in the most critical way to the rescue of Annie, who he habitually referred to as "the princess"—and she could tell he was sad to see Tessie go.
And so was the small brunette gripping the back of his tunic and attempting to hide from view in his shadow.
"Molly?" Grace said softly, cautiously walking over to her and brushing a comforting hand on top of her head. She felt a pang of sadness when she noticed the tear tracks running down Molly's cheeks. "Molly, dear, don't you want to come say goodbye to Tessie?"
Molly mutely shook her head, gripping Punjab's tunic tighter. Grace knelt down beside her and met her gaze.
"You're going to miss her, I know," she whispered. Molly nodded. "But you know the wonderful thing about the Wilburs, dear? They live just up Fifth Avenue from here."
Molly didn't say anything for a moment. "How far?"
"Only about a ten-minute walk," Grace said with a smile, trying to put on a brave face for the youngest girl even though she too felt sad. "You'll be able to visit her all the time." She took Molly's hand in her own and wiped a tear away from the young girl's large brown eyes. "So you see, dear, it isn't really goodbye. It's only 'see you soon.' And I'm sure Tessie won't want to leave without a big hug from you to help her feel very brave in her new home."
Molly nodded slightly. Grace dropped a kiss on top of her head as she stood and, with a grateful look at Punjab, led Molly over to Tessie and Annie. As the girls exchanged parting words, she glanced at Oliver, who was deep in conversation with Trevor Wilbur.
"Excellent!" Dr. Wilbur was saying. "Remind me to bring you a folio the next time we're here about the advancements my students are making in the study of the uranium-235 isotope. Your generous funding for the university's new laboratory is exactly what we'll need to take our research to the next level."
"We should be going, dear," Mrs. Wilbur said quietly, tugging on her husband's jacket. "The little one is upset, and it might be an easier goodbye if we don't let it drag on too long."
"Right-o, Addie," he said. He extended a hand again and shook Oliver's vigorously. Leaning in so that the children could not hear him, he said, "Thank you again, Oliver, for this. Since our own James and Betty went off to Harvard and Wellesley last year, it's been far too quiet in the house. And Addie's been pining to hear the pitter patter of children's feet again for years. I have a feeling Miss Tessie will be exactly what she needs!"
The Wilburs and their new daughter bid the gathered crowd a final farewell, with Annie putting on a brave face while Molly cried openly. Tessie, her knees shaking a bit but a nervous smile on her lips, walked out of the mansion's oak front doors with one hand grasping her new mother's hand and the other tightly hugging Bert. Annie, Molly, and several of the staff followed them out into the glowing afternoon sunlight.
"Oliver?" Grace said quietly, glancing up at him as they followed the crowd toward the doors. "I've been meaning to ask you something."
"Hm?"
"Molly," Grace said. "You haven't asked me to arrange any visits with prospective families. What are your plans for her?"
He was silent, watching the driveway. The Wilburs' car was pulling away as Annie, Molly, and the staff waved vigorously. "She does seem upset today, doesn't she? More so than when Kate and July left last week."
Both of them waved from the front doors as the car approached the mansion's main gates and rounded the corner onto Fifth Avenue, finally turning out of sight.
"Unfortunately," Grace sighed. "It's to be expected, I suppose. The girls were all so close. They had survived together under such awful circumstances for so many years."
He glanced at the watch on his wrist. "Good heavens, how much time did we waste in that interminable meeting this afternoon? I've got to get going."
Grace started in surprise at his change of subject. "Going where?" She thought for a moment, trying to visualize the daily engagement calendar she had typed for him the evening before. "I thought your schedule was empty for the rest of the afternoon until dinner. I was hoping we could take the girls to the park."
Evidently he was barely listening to her, already accepting the black jacket that Drake was handing him and motioning the Asp toward the garage to start up the town car. "I've got to see Simon Whitehead about a few things."
Grace raised her eyebrows. This was unusual. It was a rare occurrence that Oliver had meetings that she was unaware of. Indeed, he often struck meetings off the daily calendars she prepared for him, forcing her to make apologetic last-minute phone calls to bankers, world leaders, and fellow tycoons and lie that something urgent had come up. And she couldn't think of any items he needed his private attorney's counsel about.
Donning his jacket, he leaned over to kiss her cheek. "You should still take them to the park, they could use the cheering up. I won't be gone too long."
And with that he and the Asp swept away, leaving a bewildered Grace in their wake.
Disclaimers: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! I'll close here by noting that all the usual fanfiction disclaimers apply to this story. I do not own any of the original Annie characters and intend no copyright infringement. I also have to give credit to an additional film and a play that helped me develop the plot of this story. The film is Au Pair 2, a supremely silly and fluffy old ABC Family movie from 2001 (really dating myself here!) that inspired one of this story's subplots. The play is Annie Warbucks, the sequel to the original Annie play, which provided some inspiration for the latter half of this story. I don't own the rights to either of these productions and have merely adapted some of their elements to help build out this story, while adding my own twists here and there. Thanks for making it this far, and more to come!