As soon as Robert was in his room, he picked up his laptop, sat on his bed, and did the only thing he was interested in doing anymore. He went on the internet and clicked on the bookmark he'd made of where he'd last been on Google Maps. He began scrolling down the coast of the state of Washington. He hadn't made it that far the night before, but he was taking his time. He didn't want to miss it because he wasn't being careful. He knew it was there. He'd find it eventually.

---Then---

Georgie was sitting on the couch next to Robert's mum, when he came downstairs, carrying his open laptop.

"Look, Robert! I'm knitting!" she said excitedly, holding up a small dark blue rectangle on a knitting needle. "Your mom is teaching me!"

"You already knew how to knit, Georgie," his mum said kindly.

"Yes, but I forgot. You had to teach me until I remembered," she said, smiling happily at his mum.

"I want you to look at something," Robert said, sitting next to her so she could look at the laptop screen. "Is this someone you know?" he asked knowingly with a smile. Georgie's hand flew to her mouth and her eyes went wide.

"Robert! That's Grandma May!" she nearly shouted, then pointed to the screen. "That's her address! How did you do that?"

"You had me memorize her name and the city she lived in so I could find her, remember? I looked her up. I told you, Georgie. You can find anything on the internet."

"That's wonderful, Robbie! You found Georgie's grandma!" his mum said excitedly.

"Well, not really, Alice. She's my foster grandma," Georgie said. "She was a friend of my parents. When we moved near Chicago, my mom wanted to get a job working as a school teacher. That's the job she used to have before she moved to America." Robert hadn't heard that before.

"Grandma May was one of our neighbors. My mom knew she worked as a teacher in Chicago and asked her about it, because she was trying to see if she could get a job there. She never got the job but they became really good friends. Frankie and I always called her Grandma May because we didn't have grandparents anymore." Then Georgie's voice got quieter.

"The day my family was in the accident, I was with her and I – just kind of – stayed with her. The state made her my foster parent because I didn't have any other relatives, you know? I was an orphan. But I always called her my foster grandma. I loved her like she was my real grandma," she finished quietly.

"Well, I think you should call her," Robert said.

"Really?" she said in a hushed voice, as if she couldn't believe it, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Yeah, you want to talk to her don't you? Tell her you're alright?" he asked quietly. She nodded, too overwhelmed to say anything as she blinked hard. He had an idea.

"I'll tell you what. Let's get you set up with an e-mail address and when you talk to her, you can give it to her. That way you can write to each other whenever you like and you can even send her pictures."

It was the perfect distraction, and she was excited when it was time to make the call. He handed her his mobile and she carefully pressed each number, then placed it to her ear. When she heard it connect through, she smiled at Robert, saying excitedly, "It's ringing!"

She was sitting so close to him, he could clearly hear the woman on the other end say, "Hello?" when she answered.

"Grandma May? It's Georgie," she said, her voice already wavering.

Robert heard a shriek and then, "Georgie! Is that really you?" Georgie collapsed against him, immediately overwhelmed.

"Yes! It's me – Grandma – May!" she was barely able to say because she was crying so hard. Robert couldn't help remembering the night he'd returned home and how emotional he'd been when he'd heard his dad's voice. He felt his throat getting tight and even his mum wiped her eyes listening to their reunion.

"Oh, thank God! Georgie, I've been so worried about you! Are you alright?"

"Mm-hm," was all Georgie could manage, as she sobbed into Robert's chest.

"Are you still in England?" Robert was stunned. He'd had no idea Georgie had been in the country before.

"Mm-hm."

"You never wrote back to me! Did you get the letters I sent you?"

"Uh-uh," she sobbed.

"Georgie, what happened? Where have you been?" Georgie couldn't say anything as she sobbed even harder against Robert.

"Georgie, are you there?" she asked more frantically.

Robert took the mobile from her and said, "Hi, uh, May? My name is Robert Bennett. I'm Georgie's boyfriend."

"Oh, hi – Robert." she said, obviously startled. "Is Georgie still there?" Her voice was a little deep, and he noticed her accent right away. It was different from Georgie's, almost richer sounding.

"Yes, uh, I'm afraid she can't talk right now. She's uh, crying. I wanted to give you her e-mail address so you can –."

"Is she in England? What happened to her?" she said desperately, interrupting him. He immediately felt uncomfortable.

"Yes, she's in England," he said, avoiding answering her other question.

"I was so worried about her! I knew I shouldn't have let her go!" she said quickly. "But I didn't have a choice! You understand that, don't you? I had no choice!" she pleaded desperately, as if she was worried he would blame her.

"Uh, yeah. I understand," he said, feeling even more uncomfortable.

"I knew there was something fishy about it from the very beginning! They'd been searching for her relatives for years and then all of a sudden some distant uncle contacts them and wants her? I knew they didn't check him carefully enough! They just wanted her out of the system! They just wanted their numbers to look good!" she said bitterly.

"Was he French?" Robert asked quickly, and saw his mum look at him sharply. He avoided her eyes.

"No – he was British," May said, sounding startled. "Why? Did he take her to France? Is that where she was?" she asked more desperately.

"No, I uh, was just was wondering. That's all," he said, quietly.

"They just sent her off to him, sight unseen! Never even met with the man!" she continued bitterly. "They wouldn't give me his real address! I had to write to her through the agency! They said I couldn't know where she lived or even have a phone number. They said I might try to see her. They said she needed to have a clean break from me so she could bond with her new home." Robert could tell she was crying now.

"I didn't want to put her on that plane! I just knew something terrible was going to happen to her! I just knew I was never going to see her again! But I didn't have any choice! If I didn't do it, they were going to take her away from me and send her anyway!" Robert listened to her cry for a minute before she recovered enough to continue.

"She called me to tell me she'd arrived and then I never heard from her again. I wrote and wrote to her but she never wrote me back. I was so worried about her," she said plaintively, her voice breaking.

"She was such a sweet kid. She'd been through so much. Losing her parents and sister like that. And then all that mess with the foster homes. By time I got her back she was a wreck! It took me years to get her back to where she was happy again! But she was never the same after that, Robert! Never! And just when I got her to the point where she was happy they made me send her away! She was so brave at the airport but I knew! I knew she didn't want to leave me!" There was another pause while she cried and Robert blinked back his own tears, imagining a young Georgie at the airport being forced to leave the one person she had left in her life who loved her.

"Where is she now? Can you tell me? Is she still with that man?" she asked him desperately.

"Uh, no. She's living with me now, with my parents, actually. I'd like to give you the address and phone number – and her e-mail address," he said quickly, hoping to stop her from asking more questions. He didn't feel like it was his place to tell her what had happened to Georgie. Georgie had to be the one to make the decision of what to share, and to whom.

"Oh, thank you! Just a give me a minute, I need to find something to write it down with."

Robert gave her all the information and took her e-mail address for Georgie. By then Georgie had recovered enough she could talk, and took the mobile back from him.

"Grandma May?"

"Yes, Georgie!"

"I never forgot you! I missed you so much!" she said tremulously.

"I missed you too, Georgie!"

"I prayed to you every single day!" she said fervently. Robert could tell she didn't realize she'd misspoken.

"I prayed for you too!

"I'm going to write to you soon, okay?"

"Okay, Georgie.

"I love you, Grandma May. Good bye"

"I love you too! Good bye."

It took Georgie a good half hour to recover from the call. While she sobbed on Robert's chest, he stroked her hair and thought about what May had told him, his heart breaking for her. He'd had no idea about so much of it, that she'd been through so much even before she'd lost her freedom.

The fact that she'd been in multiple foster homes was a shock. He couldn't imagine what it must've been like to go through that while she was dealing with the loss of her family. And then to be sent off to live with some unknown man in another country? How could anyone be that cruel to a child? To take her from a loving home and just send her off like that to live with a stranger?

It wasn't hard to guess what had probably happened to her once she'd been forced to leave May. If the man who took her really was British, she'd been handed over to the sick bastard, probably sold, Robert thought bitterly. He couldn't help remembering the small passport photos of Georgie, thinking how terrifying it must have been for that sweet young girl with the braces on her teeth to go through all that, and the murderous rage for the bastard burned through him again.

After the call had stirred up so many painful memories and emotions, he wanted to do something special for her, something that would make her feel better. "Georgie lets go out for a bit, yeah?" he said gently, once she was calm in his arms.

"Okay, Robert," she said quietly, still subdued from the phone call. It was only a ten minute drive and Georgie looked like she couldn't believe what she was seeing when he parked the car.

"Robert! Starbucks!" was all she could say, and the look on her face when she beamed at him let him know he'd made the right decision.

"D'you remember the name of that coffee drink you liked?" he asked, smiling at her.

"Mocha – mocha – mocha," she said, trying to remember.

"Mocha cappuccino."

"Right, mocha cappuccino," she repeated firmly, and then said it a few more times quietly to herself.

"Y'know cappuccino is Italian, right?"

"It is?" she asked, her eyes wide.

"Yeah," he said smiling. "Didn't your dad ever tell ya?" Her smile fell and he immediately knew he'd said the wrong thing.

"He was gone before I had one," she said quietly. Of course, she would've been much older than eleven going off with her friends to get coffee at Starbucks.

"I'm sorry," he said gently. "Well, I know you'll remember what it's called now, since you're Italian and all, yeah? Let's go inside, alright?"

Georgie ordered her drink, saying the name carefully as if she was afraid of making a mistake. When the girl behind the counter asked, "What size d'ya be wantin' then?" Georgie looked at her blankly.

"Tall, grande, venti. What d'ya be wantin'?" she prompted. Georgie slumped a little and turned towards Robert.

"I don't understand what she's saying to me," she said quietly, looking defeated. He knew it was because the girl had a different accent than she was used to.

"She'll have the tall," he said, and paid the girl. While they were waiting for the coffee, Georgie leaned against him and he put his arms around her.

"I thought I would understand since it's the same," she said sadly, as if she had failed somehow.

"Don't worry about it. Y'know sometimes when I watch American TV programs and films, I don't always understand what they're saying."

"Really? But you always understood me, didn't you?" she asked, looking up at him.

"Always," he said, smiling at her.

"I always understood you too. Do you think it's because we were always meant to be together?" she asked solemnly, looking at him with her intense gaze. He couldn't help laughing a little because it surprised him.

"Definitely!" he exclaimed, smiling at her, but he couldn't say more because her coffee was ready. He warned her to be careful in case it was hot when he handed it to her. She took a sip, then closed her eyes and smiled like she was tasting heaven.

"Well? Is it as good as you remember?" She opened her eyes and beamed at him while she nodded.

"Chocolaty?" he asked, and she nodded again, apparently rendered speechless.

She didn't speak again until she'd finished the entire thing.

---Now---

Robert didn't realize how tired he was until he started nodding off over his laptop. He bookmarked the place he'd reached on the map, put the laptop on the bedside table and laid down, pulling the bedcovers over his head. He turned off his mind and soon fell into an exhausted sleep.

****

I hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about Georgie's history. This isn't the last of it, she has a very rich and complex story of her own. I also want to say I don't intend to imply anything negative about the Illinois foster care system. This is just a story, and what I wrote was for dramatic purposes. :)

Dedicated to baileyspin – my knitting Alice, spinning buddy, and very good friend!  Thanks for reading and enjoying my stories, Alice!