Hi, so here is another chapter and this one breaks from most of this story and focuses on Maria and the children and specifically Friedrich and Louisa. I genuinely believe that out of all of the children, Liesl, Friedrich and Louisa probably knew enough about the Nazi's to know what they were capable off. The conversations about faith and some of Maria's background are fictional so please keep that in mind and the next chapter will return back to where we left of in chapter eleven.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.

Please Read and Review.


Uprising

Chapter 12-In the Midnight Hour

In Switzerland Friedrich and Louisa talk about the world they are living in the changing times, the events that might take place should Germany not stop their advancement in Europe, and how helpless they feel cooped up. Maria attempts to help her eldest two children with their separate crisis's of confidence or faith whilst having her own faith that her husband and children will return to her.


The night had gone dark and Friedrich had just finished telling the last of the stories in the big book of fairy tales that he found in the bottom of Brigitta's bag to his two little sisters. Gretel was not sleeping very well since they had found the hotel with the one room for them all and her tossing and turning in turn woke up Marta and then someone had to tuck them back into bed before Kurt woke up. Even in these times Friedrich knew his brother slept like the dead and when he woke he couldn't go back to sleep easily.

He looked around the room and then closed his eyes feeling older than fourteen. They had gone straight from the train to the hotel, their mother had gone out that night to alert the train authorities in case their father came looking for them and then she had come back looking tired and as wan as the rest of them but with some milk, some bread and some cheese which they feasted upon like it was their last supper. The nights where they had sat around the dinner table cold frightened children either dreaming that their father was home to share a meal with them or sat like they were on pincushions when he was were becoming a distant memory.

So it seemed were the five courses they were served. Now it was simple food that they could eat cold more often than not as the money their mother had taken from their father's swiss bank account was to be spent sparingly.

The big bed had been taken by Marta, Gretel and Kurt who were small enough to have room in it to make it comfortable. Louisa took the small sofa in the room and that left their mother and Friedrich to take the floor. When Friedrich had protested their mother had waved down his objections pointing out that she had spent most of her teenage years and early adult life in a convent and this was surely not the first time she had been uncomfortable. This had left Friedrich with nothing to do but lay his head down his own body often or not thrumming with exhaustion and fall asleep as easily as he had done when he was a child.

But that had only been for the first couple of days. They were now heading into day four of his father's disappearance and his sister's kidnap and Friedrich was feeling very much at the end of his tether.

If it was bad for him then it was even worse for his eldest remaining sister.

Their mother had pulled them aside to tell them what had happened that night and while Friedrich had known in the sinking pit that was his stomach Louisa had not. She had gripped Friedrich's hand in shock and then let go and pulled herself together in a way that Friedrich had never seen her do. He had the typical relationship with his sisters that all brother's do but he had to admit that he was proud of Louisa's composure in that moment when she had found out that the world was going to hell in a hand basket and they were being swept along for the ride.

But as they days went by for Louisa who was always outdoors it was clearly becoming harder and harder for her to adapt to being cooped up inside with no news and no clue on weather or not the danger had passed them. After all she had whispered one night to Friedrich, if the Nazi's had already invaded their country with just the slightest pretext then what was really stopping them from invading Switzerland or even the world.

Friedrich hadn't commentated but he had worried enough in the dark for both of them.

He worried about his family trapped like spiders in a jar in much the same way his sisters were. He worried about the state of his country…if he could even call Austria his country right now. He was stateless he supposed. He turned to lean back against the pillows of Louisa's empty bed closing the book and breathing through his nose. He was alone again.

Louisa had taken to doing the midnight train runs to see if their father or sisters were on the ones steadily pouring in from other European nations. There was a pause where he sat there and rubbed his hands over his face pressing them into his eyes. His mother had gone to the local church. She had taken to going late in the afternoon and she had been on her knees all night. It was a convent (of course it was) and with more and more refugees pouring over the border she was spending more and more time there. Friedrich didn't mind. If his mother had half an idea of what Louisa was doing in the dead of night then there might have been an open rebellion.

Speaking of the devil he thought as he brushed Marta's hair off her face. The door had opened then and Louisa had slipped in as quietly as she had slipped out. She had her coat tucked around her and her head-kerchief tied around her blonde curls. She shook her head as she clapped eyes on her brother and Friedrich shrugged. He had not been holding out hope that his sisters and his father would be with her but still…

"It's mad out there" she said dropping into a seat and kicking her boots off.

"More trains but…" she bit her lip. "Countries are closing the borders. You know…it's a very real possibility that father, Liesl and Brigitta wont make it out in time"

He bit his lip. That too had been a concern of his more so than his sister prowling train tracks at night on her own. Their mother knew what she was doing in the daytime but not at night and if she did she would have a fit.

"I should have stopped them" Friedrich said voicing a fear of his. "If I had been more a man like father I would have stopped Liesl from taking Brigitta or I would have had the sense to go with them so they weren't on their own. I was a damn coward Louisa. It should be me in Herr Zeller's clutches not them…there…girls…oh you know what I mean" he said quickly upon seeing his sister's raised eyebrow.

"If you had been captured father would have just gone after you and we would still be in the same boat that we are in now" she said finally.

Friedrich shook his head not dispelling his doubts. He had not been the man his father had been expecting him to become. He took a deep breath and then leaned back on the couch resting his head in his hands. Louisa watched him.

"We are going to go to war aren't we Friedrich?" she asked finally.

Friedrich looked at her for a long beat. Liesl knowing about the Nazi's he could believe especially since her boyfriend was one of them and he too had scanned enough of Uncle Max's papers after the wedding to know what was going on but he didn't know how much Louisa knew. His sister shrugged.

"I think…I think Hitler has to be stopped" he said carefully. "But I don't think Austria could stop him"

Friedrich paused groaning sitting back and feeling the muscles in his back protest. He looked over at the book that Brigitta had taken as one of her few possessions. The book had been their mother…their birth mother's and she had read the stories to them tucked up in the nursery as they had fallen to sleep. After she had died Liesl at the age of thirteen had taken up the challenge. Her voice had never cracked over the words, she had always had a smile for them. Friedrich had never seen her cry over their mother. She had been the epitome of stone and he had loved her for it because it had given him an excuse to not be brave and to cry.

'God will protect you' their mother had said by way of a blessing at bedtime. He looked over his younger siblings and looked back at Louisa.

"God will protect them" he said. Louisa let out a rude snort.

"No he won't" she muttered. "Look at what we've been through. Mother, father being as cold as stone and Uncle Max dropping by, the Baroness, Mother…Maria that is that mother…now this. We fled our own country in the middle of the night and lost two sisters and a parent doing it and you want me to have faith in a God that right now I don't think gives a damn about us and probably never has"

"Louisa don't say that" Said a voice from the door and Louisa and Friedrich both turned around to see their mother fresh from church looking at them. If she noted Louisa was still half dressed as if she had been outdoors then she did not comment on it.

"Why not?" Louisa asked tossing her blonde hair back, there were times when Friedrich had to admire her daring. "It's true. Father and Liesl and Brigitta are not going to come back. The boarders are closing, the Nazi's are winning and…nothing is going to stop us from losing them…" she broke off when her voice wavered and Friedrich couldn't help but feel like this whole thing would be avoidable if he had just stopped Liesl from taking Brigitta away from the group.

And why had he not done that?

Their mother crossed the room and had Louisa in her arms before he could think twice and before Louisa who was not the most comfortable with physical affection in the family could react as well. Louisa leaned back against their mother's shoulder nestling into the hug after a second like some sort of lost baby bird.

"There is always hope Louisa" their mother said shooting a look to Friedrich as if to make sure that he understood that she was talking to the both of them. It was as if she had read his mind somehow and she knew what was bothering him and she was telling him that it was ok.

It wasn't. She couldn't tell him that he wasn't a coward or anything less of a man in comparison to his father. There was only one person who did that and a part of Friedrich wondered if his father who had become a changed person overnight would tell him that there was nothing he could have done and mean it rather than just lie.

He privately hoped there would be a war. He hoped in a way that he would be old enough to enlist for it. For the right side at least. He wanted to go and fight for whatever country refused to let the Nazi's bully them into a takeover at the slightest pretext. He wanted to go and put on a uniform and be a part of something bigger than himself and fight and die for a cause that was bigger than his own life just like his father had. He hated the Nazi's and he would do anything to help bring about their destruction of that he was sure.

He looked down at his hands and curled them into fists thinking of his sisters trapped in Austria the country which had been their home until a week ago.

"We feel helpless" was all he said and Louisa buried her face in their mother's shoulder as if she no longer had the fight to keep herself upright. She had banked all of her hopes on one day seeing their father and her sisters get of a train and even though it was day four of their separation he could tell Louisa was struggling to reconcile herself to being the oldest sister for much longer when the role had been Liesl's for all of her life.

"I know darlings" their mother said. "But you must have faith,"

"Yes" Louisa said impatiently "But how do you know that It's all going to work out. How can you have that much faith in God that you believe that He's going to deliver us our family?"

Their mother paused as if she was considered what to say and then…

"When I was a little girl I knew living In my home was not going to make me happy. My mother was very sick and my father had died in the war and when I was lonely I would climb to the top of that mountain the one I took you to when I taught you to sing and when I wasn't singing I would pray that somehow I would find my happiness. And then I heard the nuns singing in the abbey and I had faith, Even when I was sent away from the only home that I had truly thought I belonged to I had faith…and then I married your father and was granted all of you. I have faith that your father will do anything in his power to get our children back and come back to me. I have faith that this conflict will be over soon and I have faith because Louisa sometimes faith is all that keeps people from losing their minds. During the last war faith was all a lot of people had myself included. Faith in God is important and your father promised me that he would do all in his power to come back with our children so we could be a family. Have you ever known your father to break a promise?"

The answer was yes but before Friedrich could say it Louisa interrupted again.

"Not like that no."

Well…no he supposed she had a point.

"Good" Their mother said smoothing Louisa's hair back again. "Now get ready for bed both of you. It's nearly midnight and we have another long day tomorrow"

Friedrich nodded even though the movements felt wooden and he got undressed and curled around the blankets as their mother gave Louisa her night time blessing. Friedrich felt her hand on top of his hair and heard her goodnight but he pretended rather childishly to be asleep and if she saw through it she (blessedly) made no comment.

He could only hope she was right and that they would see their family soon and that faith would restore itself back as a solid strong fixture in their daily lives.

He knew he should also hope and pray that war would not come. He knew a little of what the devastation the last war had caused. He knew that the world had never been the same. Their country had once been part of another country for crying out loud. He knew millions had died and millions had been displaced and the world would give Hitler whatever he wanted in order to stop it from happening again. He knew this but being the eldest boy he knew he should pray that he was never called up to fight. But he couldn't.

Because right now the anger curdling in his stomach was so strong it was overpowering. The guilt he was feeling was enough to make tears rise in his eyes and he couldn't help but wish for a war so that he could prove to his father in this long midnight hour that he was a man and not the damn coward he thought he was for letting his sisters become (for all he knew) casualties in this build up to what felt like the end of the world.


Next Chapter-Georg, Liesl and Brigitta disembark in Milan and try to find a train to take them to Switzerland to their family and to safety. Georg must reconcile himself to the fact that his children's innocence is gone forever and tries to explain what is happening.

And i hope you enjoy it. I hope the next chapter will be published sooner rather than later so stay tuned and tell me what you think.