So You Saved an Orphan. . . Now What?

Okay, so your heroine has saved the dashing prince from captivity by a fierce dragon (ha!) or your heroes are responsible for freeing a passel of orphans taken captive by an evil lich. Ideally, you've done something heroic, saved lives, gotten a parade, had a statue built in your honor, and you ride off into the sunset. Ideally.

But even if all of that stuff happens, you still have to figure out what to do with your newly saved subject. Exactly what do you do with the fifteen orphans you just rescued? It isn't as though they have a home to go back to. What about the prince who now feels honor bound to marry your heroine? Or heck, your heroes save a bunch of foreign slave girls who can't go home because it was their father's who sold them to the evil pirates, what do you do with that?

Here's the thing: I don't know.

This is where I get hung up, as a player, in taking the next step and my GM is merciless about this. He's the "oh, you just did something awesome and saved a kid? So what do you do with him?" kind of GM. Victims don't just go away because my heroine's heroic moment has passed. They stick around and I have to figure out what's to be done with them. This has, in fact, been the subject of several games wherein I struggle to find a place for these wayward NPCs.

And I'm often given to wonder how other groups deal with this particular issue. What others do with these NPCs in need of further saving. So help me out here.

• What do you do with those your hero has just saved? 
• Is it an issue in your game?

I'd love to hear how you resolve these issues so that next time I can be prepared, rather than shuffling them off on some church or whatever. Or worse yet, adopting them. My characters are terrible about taking in the wayward, homeless child. The absolute worst!