Hi, so here is another chapter, I hope you all enjoy this chapter and please stay tuned for the final three chapters of this story.

I rewrote the ending of this so I hope it makes sense and you all enjoy it. As always I will try and update sooner rather than later.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine in this chapter.

Please Read and Review.


That's My Story

Chapter 12-Rock And A Hard Place.

The Captain and Maria are forced to make a decision that will change the family forever. Louisa and her father share a moment before she is forced to leave the only home she has ever known.


Their father was standing in the front of their house and for a moment Louisa was gripped with a memory so powerful it stole the breath away from her. She remembered suddenly her father standing there once before when she had come home from Church, Liesl on one side of her and Brigitta then a small child on the other. Fredrich had ran ahead with Kurt and Frau Schmitt had taken them to church to pray for their mother who was ill. She'd taken one look at their father standing there and had ushered them upstairs and Louisa even at the delicate age of eight had realised that something was wrong.

That night she had learnt that her mother had died.

That night her life had never been the same.

And she had the same sense of terrible foreboding now when she saw their father ripping up the red flag and throwing it into the dust.

They ran towards him and their new mother of course they did and Louisa found that she was searching for something when she looked at him. She didn't know what but she saw that the smile was still the same, the smell of him and for once she leaned into the hand on her shoulder. She wouldn't say just how deeply she had missed him or how deeply she had been afraid of this world, of what was happening, of what it all meant or of what Herr Zeller would do to him. Somehow she imagined that would come out at a later date when the police came knocking on their door.

Her eyes were on their new mother though she was not understanding a word of what was being said. Her smile seemed genuine but Louisa was aware of the hushed whispers that taking place and the glances between her uncle and her father. She closed her eyes and then opened them again after a pause deciding to dawdle in her walk even as everyone rushed off to the terrace to open their presents.

Liesl hooked on arm around her shoulders and the other around their new mother's (saying mother as if their old one didn't exist still felt strange to her. She was unsure if she would ever get used to the idea even when the world wasn't falling to hell right in front of her eyes and together the three of them walked into the main house Liesl just in time to see Uncle Max make a comment about how they know had to work with 'these people for the good of Austria' and their father's loud and rather scathing reply that made her shrink back.

Their father had never done anger the way other men employed anger. His fury was often soft and muted but still had enough force behind it to send even a grown man shaking to his knees. She had never seen him explode like that, not even when they had climbed out of the lake shivering and dripping wet wearing curtains in front of the Baroness. It was enough to take her breath away and tighten her grip on the back of Liesl's dress.

Their father whirled around and seemed to realise that the three of them were looking at him. His eyes however were not on his new wife but on his daughter and looking at him there and then Louisa thought that something had changed in the month they had been gone if their father could look at her and Liesl like that. It was if he was seeing without seeing and realising something, Louisa had no idea what, she and Liesl had not changed in the month that they had been gone. Instead they had dropped all the pretence of growing up unless you counted the fact that Louisa now had three bras instead of two and Liesl still had her lipsticks only this time one red and one a dusky kind of pink that didn't make her look like a prostitute.

For a moment they stared and then their father jerked his chin towards the terrace. "Louisa would you mind going to check on your siblings and making sure they've not run wild outside for me? I need to make a phone call"

Louisa nodded moving to the terrace but as she made to slide past her father a hand came out and caught her wrist. She turned to stare at him sure her surprise and her probable concern etched on her face. The harsh lines etched into the skin of her father's well-worn face softened for a second and a knuckle came out and brushed her chin. This time Louisa relaxed even though she was still somewhat confused. She had no idea what was going on here but she could remember her father doing that to her when she was scared and had a nightmare and had wanted to climb into his bed where he was with mother and beg him to protect her. It was a comforting memory, actually come to think of it, it was one of the few that she had.

She moved outwards into the terraced balcony and then down the steps to where the other children were unwrapping presents. Gretl had her new doll, a beautiful china thing with real hair and bright eyes and a blue dress that was puffy and made with real silk, Marta had her pink socks as well as some pink leather gloves in the softest rose colour that she was already wearing. Kurt had a collection of British First World War toy soldiers to join the already impressive collection of nations residing upstairs. Fredrich received a new penknife that he was twirling around his fingers (though why their father had decided that the son that was nearing manhood needed a knife Louisa couldn't think. Brigitta was staring with a rather shocked look on her face at the books in her lap.

"He knew" she said upon seeing Louisa's expression. "He knew that I was reading about current events, he knew half of the books were banned and that I was ordering them in, I didn't realise he knew"

"Of course I knew" said a voice to there left and Louisa jumped a little turning to see their father leaning by the stone steps, Liesl who had sat down (though Louisa couldn't honestly say when she had appeared looking calmer than she had seemed in a long time) grinned reaching for her own wrapped present.

"I was paying the bills remember? You think I didn't see the authors that were coming into my house—some of which I don't approve of my girl" he said though he seemed more amused than annoyed. "They should keep you busy, a couple were written by American politicians and one was written by a journalist who was in the USSR recently. But…" and here his face became serious. "Nothing German Brigitta. And I would like to see your book lists before you order, the world is changing and I the law is changing so fast that even I don't know where it will take us. Whatever happens I want to keep you safe. So can you please let me see the books that you are reading—if there is anything that I don't think is safe or approve off I will let you know, perhaps there are some books I can read with you and talk through with you. If you'd let me."

There was a pause while Brigitta stared on in amazement. Louisa didn't blame her in the slightest. She too had the feeling that the earth had just shifted.

"Alright father" Brigitta said with a soft smile, pink dusting her cheeks. "But I don't think I'll politically agree with you."

Their father laughed and the sound was both soft and genuine though there was worry at the end of his voice and his eyes were filled with a kind of pain Louisa couldn't understand. "No, I don't suppose you would" he said finally. "But I'm up for the debate"

He pulled away turning to look at them. "Liesl what do you think of your present?"

Liesl jumped a little turning to open the small box. Inside were a pair of gold earrings, they were set in a sort of looping gold with rubies in the centre. Louisa remembered that the rubies might have been their mother's but she didn't remember the earrings, it was funny really, the little things that you did remember.

"The earrings we picked up in Paris, as for the earrings well…your mother would want you to have them"

Liesl looked down at the earrings and then up at their father, she seemed to emotional to speak. For a second the two of the stared at each other as if they were having some kind of conversation and then Liesl crossed the small space between them and hugged him. Louisa watched and wondered weather or not she was the only one who could see the emotion behind an everyday action.

"Louisa have you opened yours?"

Louisa blinked and then looked away to the parcel Brigitta was holding out for her. She opened the parcel with trembling fingers and paused looking at what was inside. Despite how she had always claimed she had felt she didn't know what to say right about now. The paper fell to the floor as she saw what was in front of her.

It was a sketchpad of creamy paper, more than she had ever been able to grab her hands on and the kind of pencils that she never would have had enough money for. For a second she stared and then when she looked up at her father it was too see that same small smile on his face as before.

"Now you can have another book instead of drawing on whatever you want rather than on the scraps of paper that I keep finding all over the house. And…and your really quite good…when things settle down Louisa perhaps you should see weather or not you can go to art school."

Louisa opened her mouth and then shut it again feeling like if she spoke her emotions would be all over the place. Her throat felt to tight to speak and she could feel her eyes welling up. She nodded not daring to comment on the fact that art school was something she had privately been looking at as well but had never said anything because she had known that her father would never entertain the idea of one of his daughters swanning off to art school in the countryside. Instead she didn't say anything, she was still finding this strange.

Their father didn't seem to say anything to that. It was like he didn't know what to say anymore than they did. It made the whole thing incredibly awkward. Instead he turned to see their mother standing there watching him, at her small nod of encouragement he turned and Louisa could see the age bleed back into his eyes, the worry, the fear and everything else in between that he had tried to keep from them. She exchanged a look with Liesl, and she knew that they were once again both thinking the same thing. There was a pause before Liesl spoke up.

"Father, is something wrong?"

Their father took a deep breath and then moved to hoist Gretl on his knee. Marta came to sit on one side, and he wrapped an arm around Brigitta's thin shoulders. He seemed to be struggling with how to speak. Louisa swallowed as everyone came a bit closer. There was something wrong here. There was something, very, very, wrong here. She felt her hands go cold and she curled them into fists turning her eyes away from her father and looking over the lake that was ebbing and flowing, feeling the sun on her face and the wind in her hair and the sounds of the birds as they circled the mountains that always had snow on them even in summer.

She was still marvelling at the beauty of her home, of her country, of the place where she had grown up in when her father told them that they were going to have to leave it and perhaps never come back.


She stared at her bed in shock, it was half rumpled from this morning because she had not made it. The pillows with their silken pillowcases were hap hazard and thrown across the bed. Her shoes were under the bed itself the leather glinting off one of the red shoes. Her books were on the edge of the nightstand, her kohl eyeliner in the draw underneath the vase of white roses that had been her wedding bouquet and that needed to be thrown out.

For a second she couldn't speak as she looked at how she had left things this morning when she had woken up as she had always done and not apricated that it was the last night in her own bed.

Brigitta next to her was pulling her thick rucksack down. They were all taking a suitcase and then a rucksack depending on what they could carry. Louisa had watched as their mother had packed their clothes winter and summer ones though she noted that there was more of an effort in taking the winter ones. The suitcases would be dealt with by their father through connections he had, they were going If all went to plan to Switzerland. Though she had hardly listened to the bloody plan.

She felt close enough to tears as it was.

Brigitta was muttering behind her throwing books and papers into the bag. She was throwing her diary into the bag as well though Brigitta could have been throwing a gun into her bag and Louisa wouldn't have noticed.

"Girls?" came a voice behind them and Louisa didn't turn but knew that her father was stood behind her. Brigitta did turn and when she spoke it was with a voice that was far too wise and far to brave to belong to a ten year old.

"Father can I take mother's books from the library? I mean the ones that she used to read to us, and the maps that you kept from the first war?"

"You can take anything of your mother's that you want Brigitta, but the maps are not important. Take one if you have the room but don't worry yourself about the books—most can be replaced"

Brigitta nodded and then disappeared leaving the two of them in the room. Louisa wished it wasn't so. She was so much more sure of herself when she wasn't with her father alone in a room where she was already battling her emotions.

Her father crossed the room and pulled out the rucksack that she usually slung over her back as she was going to school. Louisa stared at it, seeing it without seeing it and feeling her eyes blur up with tears. She did not know what to do now she was fleeing the only home that she had ever known.

"Louisa" her father said his hands coming out. She couldn't help but flinch away from him even as her body trembled with sobs. She didn't turn back to see her father so therefore she did not see the look that came upon his face when he saw her there trembling with supressed emotion.

"It's not fair" she said finally. "It's not. Why us? Why our country? Why now?"

These were the questions she knew that millions of people weather now or in years to come would be asking. Louisa might only be thirteen but she knew that.

Her father crossed the room and after a pause in which his face crumpled somewhat (as if he knew that this wouldn't be welcome) he opened his arms. For the first time since she had been child—Louisa went into them and she allowed him to hug her close and bury his face into her hair. She didn't comment on what that meant to her. She did not think that there were words for that.

Instead she allowed his embrace to comfort her.

"You are so strong my girl, I ask that you only be strong a little longer"

"It's not fair"

She kept saying his even though it didn't change anything. It didn't mean anything either. She was not the only girl in this country packing up her life into scraps, complaining about how it was unfair.

"I know," her father said finally his own voice so soft Louisa had to strain to hear him. "I know. But Louisa, I cannot serve the Nazi's. I hope one day you understand why"

Louisa already did understand why but she did not want to say that. Instead she buried herself into the suit that her father was wearing as if she was trying to hide from the danger that was growing with every second that they were staying even within the comfort of the room that had been hers for as long as she had lived.

Her father pressed a kiss and then his head against her hair. Louisa said nothing even as he pulled away.

"Pack your bag Louisa"

The first thing that went into it was the sketch pad that he had bought her and the pencils, the paints and the brushes, the movie stars that had been on her wall, then went the kohl pencil and the bras and the picture of her mother and the teddy bear she'd had since she was five. After that what little room she'd had left in the bag she would sling across her back was dedicated to memories she'd had as a child, pictures of everything and anything she could lay her hands on and the silk pillowcase she had laid her head upon that morning as if to remind herself that nothing ever changed when it was clear that everything had.

She closed her eyes and then opened them again staring at herself in the mirror, the blonde hair tucked underneath the green hat that she had had since she had been in school—a time which she had lived in so long ago even though it had been weeks ago. Even though she had left that room she had grown up in with the bed still unmade.

There was something in her sisters expression, in Liesl's expression which told her that her big sister too was struggling with the knowledge that was to come. Louisa buttoned up her coat and took one last longing look around the bedroom, around the foyer, the ballroom and the lake before she buttoned up her coat and tucked her hands into her leather gloves.


She didn't look back as she left the house but as she walked down the drive her hands wrapped both around Brigitta and then tucked around Liesl's thin shoulders as they walked together, the Von Trapp girls together out of the house that they had been born into, out of the life they had been born into and then out into the world that they knew nothing about.

Louisa did not look back although every instinct she had told her to turn back at the very least to say goodbye to their Housekeeper and their butler (though she knew her father would have found Frau Schmitt a job regardless, but the woman had been with them from the very beginning and had been on more than one occasion been the only parent that had managed to be there.

She did not look back at her home as she left it.

She did not look back at that messed up bed that was still the same as she had left it and perhaps a bit more warm and a bit more inviting.

She did not comment on any of that even though he knew that everyone around her was feeling the same thing.

But as she looked at the family ready to escape she found that despite who she was and what she was raised to be...she was not going to leave feeling scared and terrified or kicking and screaming. She had no idea what was going to happen now to her or too her family but she knew she was not going to leave the only home she ever knew kicking and screaming and crying. She had too much pride for that. She had ben raised with too much pride for that.

Louisa had to believe that they would be back again. Back to the house and back to the unmade bed, back to the warmth and the rocking of the lake.

And back to Austria, her country, her home, her peace.

Louisa did not look back, either way she knew who she was, what was happening and the reality of coming back (though she refused to admit it)

She was proud of herself. She did not look back.

It killed her to walk away from their childhood home but she did not look back.

Looking back she would think that it was a miracle she had manged to do that.

The door to the house swung shut, Louisa's whole body seemed to sort of shiver with something that she knew had nothing to do with the temperature though she would never admit it.

She did not look back. Whatever happened as darkness came upon them and they left the house for the last time…

She did not look back.


And let me know what you think. I will try and update sooner rather than later.

Next Chapter-Louisa and her family are ambushed and end up singing at the festival before they begin a daring escape that will forever alter their lives.