SUMMARY: Starts off when Elsa first arrives. Georg is in love with Elsa and is thinking very seriously of marrying her. The only trouble is, Maria is still in love with him but he only thinks of her as a friend. What happens when a friend of Georg, Max and Elsa's falls in love with Maria? Guest appearance made by Charley Jackson.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Sound of Music or any of its characters, not even Charley. All rights to him go to divadarling. Big thanks to you for letting me use him!
QUICK A/N: So I realise many people don't really like Elsa, but I noticed something in her while being in the musical and watching the movie over the last 3 weeks. She really isn't an evil person. And I really believe she wanted to love the children she was just very unsure of how to do it and scared. If you look very closely when she first arrives, you will see the look of horror on her face when Georg blows his whistle at the children. The way Eleanor Parker portrayed her almost made her seem like a victim rather than a villain. Really, she is, especially when you look at her when she is saying goodbye to Georg. She is crying, so it is quite obvious she loved him and he left her heart broken. I think she deserves to have a story written about her where she marries Georg. So anywho, enough of my factoid ramblings, on with the show! Enjoy!
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No Way to Stop It
Chapter One
"This really is exciting for me, Georg, being here with you."
Elsa turned away from the lake to look at Georg. He smiled at her and gave her a small chuckle. "Trees, lakes, mountains, when you've seen one, you've seen them all."
Rolling her eyes, Elsa turned to face him completely and lightly hit him on the chest. "That is not what I mean and you know it," she informed him.
A look of mock realisation crossed Georg's face. "Ah, you mean me!" he said. "I'm exciting."
"Is that so impossible?"
Georg shrugged slightly and shook his head. "No," he confessed slightly reluctantly. "Just highly improbable," he added jokingly.
Elsa gave him a sympathetic look and linked arms with him as they started walking away from the lake. "There you go," she said quietly. "running yourself down again."
"Well I'm a dangerous driver."
Laughing, the two of them continued to walk along the side of the lake arm in arm. Elsa turned to look at Georg's face; he looked so much happier when he was here, more peaceful. Of course, he was always happy to be with her in Vienna. Why else would he visit so often? But there was something about this place that made him different, and so far she has seen more of that man here in the last forty five minutes than she had seen in Vienna for the last three and a half years. It was almost exciting for her, a wonderful experience.
"You know," she started. "You're – you're much less of a riddle when I see you here, Georg."
He turned and looked at her with a mock expression of confusion. "In my natural habitat?"
"Yes, exactly!"
He chuckled slightly as they walked a little further down the side of the lake. "Are you trying to say," he started. "that I'm more at home here among the birds and the flowers and the wind that moves through the trees like a restless sea, hmm?"
Elsa turned and looked at Georg with a realistically surprised look in her eyes. "How poetic!" she complimented.
He gave her a friendly smirk and stopped walking to turn to her. "Yes, it was rather, wasn't it?"
Elsa laughed as Georg linked arms with her again and continued walking. "More at home here than in Vienna?" he continued jokingly. "In all your glittering salons? Gossiping gaily with bores I detest? Soaking myself in champagne? Stumbling about to waltzes by Strausses I can't even remember?" He stopped again as she turned to look at him, laughing. "Is that what you're trying to say?"
"More or less, yes," Elsa giggled.
"Now, whatever gave you that idea?" he asked dramatically.
Elsa laughed again and then looked around once more. It was peaceful here; she could see why he liked it better here than in Vienna. It was certainly a lot quieter than busy Vienna. "Oh, I do like it here Georg," she sighed, taking in her peaceful surroundings. "It's so lovely and peaceful. How can you leave it as often as you do?"
He shrugged and looked around. "Oh, pretending to be madly active, I suppose," he replied. "Activity suggests a life filled with purpose."
Suspiciously, Elsa raised her eyebrows. "Could it be running away from memories?" she asked quietly.
"Mmm," he replied looking around at his surroundings. "Or perhaps just searching for a reason to stay."
Smiling, Elsa rubbed his arm as he snaked his arm around her shoulders and they began walking back the way they came.
"Oh, I hope that's why you've been coming to Vienna so often," she smiled looking into his eyes. "Or were there other distractions there?" she added with pretend seriousness.
Georg chuckled. "Oh, I'd hardly call you a mere distraction, darling," he replied as he moved to tickle her.
Elsa laughed and moved away daintily. She stopped and then turned to smirk at him. "Well, what would you call me, Georg?" she asked in a sweet voice.
He looked at the woman in front of him for a few seconds and thought. "Mmm," he thought. "Lovely." Elsa bowed her head as she blushed slightly. "Charming, witty, graceful. The perfect hostess. And, uh," he paused as he decided whether or not he should say it. "You're going to hate me for this – in a way, my saviour."
"Oh, how unromantic," Elsa said with a slightly disappointed look on her face.
Georg shrugged and took her hands. "Well, I'd be an ungrateful wretch if I didn't tell you at least once that it was you who brought some meaning back into my life."
Elsa smiled and linked arms with him once more as they began walking again. "Well," she began. "I am amusing, I suppose. And I do have the finest couturier in Vienna. And the most glittering circle of friends. And I do give some rather gay parties."
At that, Georg laughed. "Ho, ho, ho, yes," he chuckled.
"But take all that away and you have just wealthy, unattached little me . . . searching just like you."
Georg smiled and put his arm around her shoulders once more as they made their way to the veranda. As they approached the steps, he noticed Max sit down with yet another plate of food. He turned and smirked at Elsa and then chuckled. "Still eating, Max?" he asked. He made a few tutting sounds. "Must be unhappy."
Max turned and looked at the two of them as they joined him. "That marvellous mixed quartet I've been trying for months to steal away from Saul Feurock," he told them.
Elsa sat down in the chair next to him and touched his shoulder. "What happened, darling?" she asked as a servant came up behind her and poured a cup of tea for her.
Max looked at her with a look on his face that would make one think that Elsa should already know what happened. "Yesterday," he began. "Sascha Petrie stole them first!"
Georg sat down next to Elsa and out her hand in his. She turned to look at him and then playfully rolled her eyes at Max. He tried not to chuckle as Max continued his story dramatically.
"If there's one thing I hate, it's a thief!"
At that, Georg did chuckle. "But, Max, you really must learn to, um," he paused as he thought. "love yourself."
Max looked at him with disbelief. "For this I had to call Paris, Rome and Stockholm."
"On Georg's telephone, of course."
"Well how else could I afford it?" he asked. He leaned back in the chair and took a deep breath of the country air. "Oh, dear, I like rich people." He looked at Elsa who rolled her eyes once again. "I like the way they live. I like the way I live when I'm with them."
Both Georg and Elsa stood up from their chairs and ignored him. Elsa reached into her handbag and pulled out a cigarette and her cigarette holder along with matches while Georg looked around his property as if he had lost something. "I wonder where the children are?" he wondered aloud.
Elsa walked over to lean on the stone wall around the veranda and chuckled slightly. "Obviously they must have heard I was coming and went into hiding," she replied, although she knew his question was rhetorical.
"I was hoping they would be here to welcome you," he mumbled. "Uh, Max . . . uh, do step out of character for a moment and, uh, try and be charming."
Georg turned and walked into the villa, continuing his search for his children. Max watched closely as he went. As soon as he saw the door close, he stood up from his seat and sat on the stone wall next to Elsa. "Well?" he asked.
Elsa continued to look out to the lake as she lit her cigarette. Quickly, she put out the flame on the match and then turned to Max. "Well, what?" she asked, slightly irritated.
He shook his head and her and crossed his arms. "Have you made up Georg's mind yet?" he asked curiously. "Do I hear wedding bells?"
Elsa smiled and turned away from the lake to face the same direction as Max. "Pealing madly," she said enthusiastically.
"Honest?"
She shrugged and started to turn back around. "But not necessarily for me."
Shocked, Max stared at her. "What kind of talk's that?"
Elsa turned her head to look at Max with disbelief. "That is none-of-your-business talk, Max!" she informed him matter-of-factly. "I am terribly fond of Georg and I will not have you toying with us!"
Max shifted impatiently on his spot on the wall. "But I'm a child. I like toys," he told her. "So, tell me everything."
Elsa thought about it for a second. There was always an upside to telling Max: obviously someone to confide in when she couldn't tell Georg everything. But there was also a downside to it. Max could be terribly demanding when it came to gossip. He was almost like a little old woman. Once he found out one thing, he wanted to know everything that happened in that category and wouldn't stop until he found it all out. Almost like his search for performers in the Salzburg Festival. As soon as she thought of the downside, she instantly shook her head at Max.
"Aw, come on," he begged. "Tell Max every teensy weensy, intimate, disgusting detail."
At that comment, Elsa smiled, amused. Comments like that were the reason she fell into Max's trap every time he wanted to know something. "Well," she started, turning around to face the same way as him again. "Let's just say I have a feeling I may be here on approval."
Max nodded, thankful she finally decided to talk to him about her and Georg. "Well, I approve of that," he agreed. "How can you miss?"
Elsa looked ahead of her in her own little world. "Far too easily," she whispered.
Chuckling, Max shook his head. "If I know you, darling – and I do – you will find a way."
She came back to the world that Max was in, but continued looking in front of her. "Oh, he's no ordinary man."
Max guffawed and then looked at Elsa. "Wah-ho, he's rich!"
Ignoring him, Elsa continued on. "When his wife died, she left him with a terrible heartache," she whispered with a hint of sadness in her voice.
"When your husband died, he left you with a terrible fortune."
Shocked, Elsa turned to look at him and then swatted him across the shoulder. "Oh, Max, you really are a beast!" she said mockingly.
"You and Georg are like family to me," he explained as he hugged her around the shoulders. "That's why I want to see you two get married. We must keep all that lovely money in the family."
Elsa looked up at him and giggled. That was all Max could ever think about! He definitely loved money, that's for sure. Where all the money he made from talent-scouting went, she had no idea. It was very probable that he spent it on some silly knick knacks or something. It wasn't like he didn't make enough money out of the deal. Especially when he was the one who earned all the money from the acts and not the performers themselves.
Suddenly, the two of them heard Georg yelling. Elsa looked up and saw him standing on the far side of the veranda talking to a telegram boy. They began to move closer to where to two were talking when they heard, "Heil Hitler!"
Elsa turned and looked at Max in alarm. What is happening to Austria? she thought. Even children were joining the wrong side.
"Who are you?" she heard Georg ask.
The boy looked at Georg and then back at Elsa and Max. "I have a telegram for Herr Detweiler," he explained with a whole lot more confidence than Elsa had heard him speaking with only moments before.
Max stepped forward to grab the telegram. "I'm Herr Detweiler."
"Yes, sir," he began to move forward to hand the telegram to Max when Georg snatched it right out of his hands and handed it to Max.
"Alright," Georg said impatiently. "You've delivered your telegram. Now, get out."
The boy quickly looked at Georg, then at Max, then at Elsa, almost as if waiting for someone to tell him Georg didn't mean it. When no one spoke up, he quickly and clumsily grabbed his bike and rode away. Once he was out of sight, Max opened his telegram and Elsa slowly walked up to Georg, placing her hands on his shoulders. "Oh, Georg," she whispered. "He's just a boy."
Georg tensed up and kept staring at the spot where the boy had just ridden away from. "Yes," he replied simply, in a slightly sharp tone. "And I'm just an Austrian."
"What's going to happen, is going to happen," he started, still reading his telegram. "Just make sure it doesn't happen to you."
Georg turned to look at Max, outraged. "Max!" he yelled. "Don't you ever say that again!"
Max stared at him shocked. "You know I have no political convictions," he explained calmly. "Can I help it if other people do?"
Georg continued to stare at him with fire in his eyes. "Oh, yes, you can help it!" he said with his voice still raised. "You must help it."
Max turned and walked away, slightly flustered, as Georg leaned on the wall to the veranda, deep in thought. Elsa took a quick glance at him, looked away, and then looked back when she noticed the upset look on his face.
"Hello?" she whispered gently. "You're far away. Where are you?"
Georg continued looking ahead in his own little world. "In a world that's . . . disappearing, I'm afraid," he whispered back weakly.
Elsa smiled sympathetically and put her hand on top of his. "Is there any way I can bring you back to the world I'm in?"
Georg smiled and was about to answer when he heard voices coming from the lake. Elsa watched as he stood up quickly and ran down the steps to the gate. She slowly followed him. As she neared closer to the lake, she realised why he had followed the voices; these must be his children, she thought. They seemed to be singing a very ragged version of some made up song. It was quite entertaining though.
When she was about half way to where Georg was standing, the children all stood up in the boat and started waving to their father. "Oh, Captain," she heard someone, presumably the governess, call. "You're home!" Obviously, one more person standing up was all the boat could take. As soon as she stood up, the boat tipped over and everyone fell into the water.
Instantly, Elsa ran down to where Georg was standing as he opened the gate that led to the lake. "Come out of that water at once!" Georg roared.
Elsa watched, amused, as the children and their governess sloshed around in the water. "Oh!" she heard the governess exclaim once more. "You must be Baroness Schraeder!"
Elsa tried not to laugh but failed, although she quickly covered it up when Georg sent a look her way. The children climbed out of the water, sopping wet, and began slipping around on the marble pathway. "I'm soaked to the skin!" she heard one of the children say.
Suddenly, she heard a whistle and all the children gathered into a straight line. Elsa turned and looked at Georg horrified that he made his children answer to a whistle. He slowly walked up and down the line, inspecting his children and pulling a bandana off of one of the girl's heads. Once he was finished, he stopped by her side again and looked at them.
"This," he started. "Is Baroness Schraeder." The children examined her for a second, the younger ones almost staring in awe. "And these," he added, signifying the line of sopping wet children. "Are my children."
Elsa nodded at him and then turned and smiled at the children. "How do you do," she asked politely. The children all smiled and nodded in acknowledgement.
"Alright. Go inside," Georg started. "Dry off, clean up, change your clothes, report back here!" He waited a few seconds for them to move. "Immediately!"
The children all scramble and slipped up the steps into the house. The governess began to follow close behind them with a disgusted look on her face, but Georg stopped her. "Fraulein, you will stay here, please!" he shouted at her.
Elsa looked at the two uncomfortably and began to consider whether or not she should stay, when she remembered Max. "I, uh, think I'd better go see what Max is up to." She gracefully walked past the governess and into the house.
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Sorry guys, that's where I am leaving you today. I actually wanted to put a whole lot more in this chapter but I wanted to post it before bed and I didn't have time to write anything more than this. I am super busy lately, considering I am in this musical as well and our opening night is Friday. I understand that this chapter is a lot like the movie, but this is where I wanted to start my story and once we get into the next chapter, it won't be exactly like the movie as I will be adding scenes with Elsa in between the ones we see in the movie. Hope you guys enjoyed, and remember to press that pretty blue button to review! I might just tell you how opening night went if you do!
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