A/N

This is meant to be a light hearted piece while I take a short break from the more intense 'Dilemma of a good man' story. It will be mostly a back story covering the births of the first seven children until Maria appears with baby number 8. Hope you enjoy it. As always, getting feedback is wonderful. I do not own TSOM.

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"For heaven's sake Georg you're carrying her like she is a live torpedo that could go off at any moment." Agathe laughed at her husband who was carrying their one- day old daughter at arms length rather than holding her close against him.

"Well this is the first time I have ever carried a baby," he muttered. "Frankly It's less frightening to carry an armed torpedo. What if I drop her?" He was glad the baby was swaddled because he had heard that babies had floppy necks and the thought horrified him - he shuddered at the grotesque images flickering through his mind.

He had been rather shocked at how quickly Agathe had become pregnant – their daughter had been born a mere 10 months after their wedding. In truth he would have preferred having his wife to himself for some time before any children came along.

His fellow officers had already told him horror stories about neglected husbands - with wives lavishing all their love on the new baby, while the poor husbands had to beg for scraps of attention. And as for marital relations…well, his fellow officers had warned him, he could forget about that for many months….if ever. The best thing for it they assured him, was to take a mistress.

Georg had protested that he loved his wife too much to hurt her. They had just smiled knowingly. The trick was to never let the wife find out, and besides, they said, many wives were relieved not to have to deal with their husband's incessant demands. Georg had disagreed but kept it to himself. After having finally grown tired of meaningless, if very pleasant liaisons, he had fallen deeply in love, and he would never jeopardise that.

The birth itself had been pure agony – at least for him anyway. Despite his increasing collection of medals for bravery, it seemed Agathe was much stronger than him when it came to childbirth. He could not bear to hear her crying out in the pain of her contractions, gasping for breath as waves of agony swept through her. She had clutched his hand so tightly he had wondered if the bones would break as he had tried to be comforting and loving.

Every minute had seemed like a week to him and - Dear God - she had been in labour for 14 hours. He had been so glad when he had been finally shooed out of the room by the rather ferocious midwife who clearly saw him as nothing but a nuisance. He would have hugged her in gratitude for getting him out of there if she had not brusquely told him to leave immediately, looking as fierce as a rottweiler.

Outside the room he had collapsed in a chair, sweating profusely and feeling a bit light headed, desperate for the whole thing to be over and done with. He had felt quite queasy, which was astonishing really since he normally had a cast-iron stomach. On more than one occasion on his U-boat he had been the last man standing, lashed to the conning tower on lookout as gale force winds rocked his boat, while his entire crew succumbed to sea sickness in the teeth of a ferocious storm.

But here he had felt distinctly squeamish as he had seen bundles of towels being prepared for….. well actually he didn't know what the towels were for – undoubtedly for something unspeakable, and quite frankly he didn't want to know.

He wondered how he could persuade Agathe to only have one child. Although she was rather naïve about such things he had had many years experience successfully avoiding becoming a father. He simply could not bear to go through all that again. He would find a way to talk her into to it - especially since it was common for women to die in childbirth. He felt a clutch of cold fear in his heart at the thought of losing his beloved Agathe.

Lost in his thoughts he had heard the piercing shriek of the baby almost with surprise. When they had called him back into the room to look at the squalling bundle in Agathe's arms he had been curious - wondering if the rush of love would be instantaneous the way he had heard other fathers speak of it.

Agathe showed him the baby, tearful with joy. "We have a daughter," she announced as he kissed her lovingly. "Isn't she beautiful?" his wife had asked. Looking at the scrunched up face he had made a valiant effort to sound convincing as he replied "Yes she's lovely."

He stared at the baby, amazed at the tiny scrap of humanity, with her eyes screwed shut and a frown on her brow – and he wondered guiltily if she had inherited that from him. She certainly seemed to have his temper - she was making strenuous attempts at screaming but with her little unused lungs it came out as squawks.

As he looked at her without feeling anything earth-shattering he was suddenly worried – what if he didn't know how to love her or to be a good father? His own father had died when he was a small boy so he had no role models to look to. He resolved to do his best to pretend to love her even if he felt nothing. He did not want Agathe to be disappointed in him.

He reached out a tentative finger to stroke the soft downy chestnut hair and was surprised at the softness of her skin. She finally stopped those ear piercing shrieks as she fell asleep and he saw with surprise that she had a sweet little rosebud mouth and her hand and fingers were like a little starfish waving around.

He sat on the bed with Agathe, his arms around her tightly as she held the baby and leaned back against him, and it did feel lovely and peaceful. Agathe was exhausted and soon fell asleep.

Not knowing what else to do he gingerly lifted the baby from her arms to take her back to her crib near the bed. The baby let out a squawk of protest and he froze in fear, sweating, heart pounding and thinking he would much rather face a fleet of enemy war ships than deal with this, but she went back to sleep.

With relief he put her delicately on the sheet, as carefully as if she were a stick of dynamite and then with almost pantomime ridiculousness he tiptoed away so she wouldn't wake up again.

The days passed peacefully. He felt utter contentment as he watched the baby nursing with Agathe. His already exquisitely lovely wife had acquired that luminous beauty that motherhood bestows – an ethereal serenity and a lovingly joyful grace. It reminded him of one of Michelangelo's Madonna and Child paintings he had seen in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. He hoped it wasn't sacrilegious to think such things.

As his week of shore leave neared its end he noticed the baby had started to fill out and her face was really quite pretty with her startling blue eyes. When she had been born Agathe had said that she looked like him, and at the time, looking at her small red wizened and wrinkled face he had felt slightly offended. But now that her features were clearer he could see the resemblance. He had been astonished to see her blue eyes looking around one day.

Agathe placed her in his arms often, determined to make him love her, and it was true he was feeling the first stirrings of something in his heart as the tiny baby made her comical faces and gasy smiles.

Once when he was lying in bed Agathe had placed the baby on his bare chest and the little thing had been so comfortable rolled into a ball that she had fallen asleep, curled up like a little hedgehog. He had fallen asleep soon after. Deep sleep was a luxury that he could only afford on home leave. When on his patrols, as Commander he subsisted on 4 to 5 hours at a time and needed to be ready and alert for immediate action on waking if his crew called him or the emergency alarm went off. So it was rather blissful to fall asleep for many hours at home with baby Liesl snuggled on his bare chest, and it became a regular habit. Agathe found it adorable.

He departed back to the naval base early one morning. He could not bear goodbyes with Agathe because she tended to cry and that was more than what he could cope with. So he usually took the cowardly way out and left a rose and a loving note on the pillow beside her.

He left a contented man, Agathe had made sure he knew that he had not been replaced in her heart and had been lovingly attentive. Although there were things they could not do yet she had more than made up for it.

He looked in at the nursery before leaving, where the formidable nurse was attending the baby. She at least gave him some privacy with his daughter. He murmured "Goodbye little one", feeling a bit embarrassed since she could not possibly understand him, but she gave him an answering squawk and looked his way. He kissed his fingertip and put it gently against her cheek, feeling the first stirrings of awe that this tiny person was theirs and he was a father.

When he came back next she had changed so much from what he remembered that he almost wondered if it was a different baby. She was very sweet and alert and he enjoyed carrying her. He soon lost his self-consciousness about talking to a being who had no clue what he was saying. Agathe had watched with happiness as he spent increasing amounts of times watching his darling little girl sleeping, awake, gazing around and babbling.

He carried her around so much that even Agathe scolded him that he needed to put her down to sleep sometimes. Certainly the nursery nurse would look at him with fierce disapproval although she never said anything to his face, just muttering dire warnings under her breath about spoiling children.

They had a family photograph done, with Agathe holding the baby in her pretty christening frock, while Georg looked at them both. He took it back to his U boat and placed it above his cramped bunk in the captain's cabin where he would see it every day and he would often kiss his finger and then press it to the two beloved faces in the photograph.

Sometimes when the U boat surfaced at night, he would relieve his command to his Second Officer and he would climb up on deck and sit with his back against the conning tower, reading Agathe's letters by the light of a small hurricane lamp on how Liesl was growing and changing. As he gazed at the moonlit waters and the moon itself he wondered if Agathe was also looking at the moon at the same time from their home, holding their precious daughter and pointing out the sky full of stars to her. Perhaps she was telling Liesl about her sailor father who knew how to navigate by the constellations.

Over his next several home visits his love for his daughter continued to grow in leaps and bounds, every time he saw her he felt that rush of love that other men had spoken of. He felt truly blessed to have his two wonderful females in his life, giving his life a richness and meaning that he had craved for in his previous more dissolute and hedonistic life style.

He still remembered the first time he had sung Edelweiss to his precious daughter. She had been about 8 months old and had patted his face lovingly, sticking her fingers in his mouth and cooing along as if she were trying to join him in harmony. Every time he sang it to her afterwards she would respond happily with adorable toothy smiles.

When Liesl was 18 months old Agathe came on a surprise visit with the baby. She had charmed her way into the naval base, since family visits were strictly forbidden. But she used the illustrious Whitehead name to her advantage and the Commander of the base had agreed to let her stay for the two days of Georg's shore leave as long as she was discreet.

Georg had been delighted. As he had powered into port and given the orders for docking at the base, his Chief Engineer had called from up on deck, "Captain, there's someone to see you. I think you should come up, sir." Puzzled, Georg had climbed out of the hatch onto the deck to see Agathe waiting on the dock with baby Liesl in a pram.

With a shout of joy and surprise he had leapt over the barriers and climbed up onto the dock, taking her in his arms and lifting her off her feet as he swung her around and around in delight, forgetting his watching crew for a moment. "What are you doing here darling? But this is wonderful! I had been so morose that I did not have time to go to you. How on earth did you get past Admiral von Gratz? I didn't think that the cantankerous old sod had a heart."

Agathe laughed happily "I wanted to surprise you since you wouldn't come to me. And I quite shamelessly used the Whitehead name to talk the Admiral around. He said I could stay for a few days. Actually he was quite a dear. I don't know why you say such beastly things about him."

Georg laughed "Darling you could charm Lucifer himself into giving up his kingdom. Anyway it shows my excellent judgement in marrying you. You know I only married you out of my patriotic duty to see that Empire can continue to get supplies from your grandfather's factory," he told her solemnly.

"Well that's just as well because I only married you so that all those poor fathers along the Adriatic coast could finally put away their revolvers and unlock their beautiful young daughters."

She touched his face "But darling, please shave off that horrid beard, it is simply too prickly, and quite frankly it's ghastly. I prefer you clean shaven." Agathe always hated the beard that he had to grow while on board since fresh water to shave was so scarce when they were out at sea.

"Well at least Liesl likes it" Georg responded, as he picked up his daughter and kissed her while her tiny fingers tugged at his beard.

He leaned in to kiss Agathe but there was a discreet cough from down below, and he remembered with a curse that he had duties to finish. He said with a seductive smile, "Give me twenty minutes and I'm all yours." He kissed her hand chivalrously then jumped back onto the deck of his U boat.

"Captain sir?"

"Yes, Mueller?"

"Permission to say, sir, that you have a very beautiful wife."

"I do indeed Mueller, I do indeed. I'm a very lucky man. Right now, men, let's get this boat docked and fully checked - double quick."

They spent a joyful few days together as a family in his cramped quarters on the base. His little girl loved to laugh and his heart would melt at her baby giggles and he would spend hours making her chuckle just to hear that sound over and over again.

More than once Georg was caught in undignified positions playing with his daughter. Agathe opened his door to two of his crew while Georg was romping around on his hands and knees, uncaring that his pristine white naval uniform was in danger of getting marked, as Liesl rode on his back wearing his Captain's hat laughing with excitement. The crew members had struggled to hide their smiles at the sight of their Commander trying to retrieve his dignity as they passed on the message they had to deliver.

By the the end of Agathe's visit to the base she was expecting again. Later Georg wondered how it was that throughout their marriage she always serenely agreed with all his decisions and lovingly affirmed his role as head of the family, while stil managing to get her own way. She had agreed with him completely when he announced firmly that Liesl was to be their only child since childbirth was a dangerous and often fatal business for women.

Still, it was true that it was not her fault that she was expecting again…., or was it? He had been on a particularly long patrol and had missed her desperately while at sea and had been overcome with ardour when he saw her again, waiting for him at the base. She had been so loving and passionate that thoughts of precautions had simply not even entered his head. He sighed. Well it was done now and his biggest concern was that he may not be able to love the new baby as much as he now loved his baby girl.

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"Captain sir?"

"Yes what is Hausner?"

"A message just came from the base sir and I have decoded it."

"Yes, what is it?" Georg asked, wondering why on earth the young Signals man was grinning. He was expecting a new set of coordinates shortly and did not see anything remotely warranting a smile in that.

"Are you sure you want me to read it out sir?"

At Georg's impatient look he read out in a voice loud enough to get the whole crew's attention:

Marine High Command congratulates Captain Ritter von Trapp of U9, on the birth of his son Friedrich Georg on the 4th March. Mother and baby are well.

The crew gave a collective roar of approval, forgetting all protocol in their enthusiastic shaking of hands and thumping on the back of their Commander. Georg grinned good naturedly and thanked them. His first thought was how much he missed his beloved Agathe. His second thought was how glad he was that he had not been there to witness the horror of labour as he had done with Liesl.

Some sort of celebration was clearly expected by the crew. Since they were in peaceful waters he looked through the periscope and gave the order to surface. They all climbed out of the hatch onto the deck, all of them quieter since sounds carry far on water but still in a celebratory mood as Georg distributed the cigars he had kept for this occasion. His Second Officer opened a bottle of sparkling wine which was warm from the steaming heat in the U-boat, but it was the closest thing they had to champagne and they all drank a mug of the warm liquid.

Georg gave a silent toast to his darling Agathe, sending his love across the sea and the miles, hoping she was well and wishing he could be there to hold her and Liesl as they welcomed the newcomer.

When the U-boat dived again, he looked at the family portrait above his bunk. They would have to get another one done – Lisel was much bigger now, a pretty little two year old who could wrap her besotted father around her tiny finger, and they needed to include the new baby. He felt a sense of completion – a girl and a boy - now they could stop adding to their family. He would inform Agathe of his decision.… again.

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