Hi, so here is the final chapter of this story! I want to say a huge thank you to all of you who have read and reviewed and favourited and followed this story it means more than anything I can come up with.

As always I will take a break from this fandom for a while to tackle some new stories but I already have several stories and one shots for this fandom in mind so I can assure you, you will be seeing more of my work.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine here.

When i started this story about Louisa I dedicated it to the wonderful actress who played her. Once again i would like to dedicate this story to Heather Menzies.

Please Read and Review.


That's My Story

Chapter 15-We Build, We Fight.

The Von Trapps escape to the mountains, towards their new life. Louisa takes the opportunity to take stock of all that has happened and what is in store for her future in the final chapter of this story.


It was hard going.

That for the first day as the night turned into morning and the wind blew around their ears were the only thoughts that occupied Louisa's thoughts. Twice she had to sit down and had it not been for Friedrich in the first hour letting her lean her head against his shoulder she would have been completely sure that she would have lay down on the harsh earth and the rocks and the mud and would have been simply to shocked at the events that had taken place to get back up again.

Fortunately her brothers and sisters had come together in a way that they had never done before, even when things between them, the governesses and their father had been so bad they could all barely be in the same room together for more than a short period of time.

But it was hard going nonetheless.

Louisa was used to being outdoors. In fact out of all of her sisters she was the one who was used to being outdoors the most. And yet she found it hard.

She didn't know why.

Perhaps it was because the magnitude of what had taken place was finally crashing down upon her. Perhaps it was because they had managed to do the impossible. Or perhaps it was the simple reason that they had survived what had seemed impossible. Louisa had no idea but she knew that her father seemed to relax a little with every step they took away from their car and over the mountains helping each other when it became rocky.

Twice she nearly went over on her ankle. Brigitta who had managed to keep indoors as much as she could was struggling more than everyone else including the little children. Gretl soon had taken up position upon their father's back as they climbed over the rockier parts of the mountains where the path became non-existent and the dangers became more and more present. Kurt and Fredrich were walking together chatting together as if this was a mere excursion out into the woods, the only thing missing was the football that one of them usually carried at their sides.

Brigitta was behind her, she was still looking over the mountain at the hills and the dips in the landscape that were scattered with the snow that never melted and the feel of the sun and the wind on their faces. The abbey had been so long ago that neither one of them could remember the cold air when it slapped them in their faces. Liesl usually sombre and quiet came next and Marta struggling a little with the terrain with their mother clutching onto her arm and chattering away with the same childish glee that she usually did at home.

Louisa was unsure weather or not it was easier that their younger siblings didn't know much of what was going on or if it was just irritating. Either way she found she was biting her tongue. She didn't want to do that but she was easily irritated these days. There was so much uncertain in the air right now and there was so much that was unsaid. There was no clear or clean cut path that they were on only the knowledge that they were leaving behind the only life that they had ever known because of something that they didn't know could end. In those long hours walking through the mountains Louisa found herself wondering what was the point? What was the point of running away from Austria if Hitler turned his attention to Switzerland, to America, to England? What were they achieving?

And would this war even happen?

There were so many questions on the tip of her tongue and Louisa found herself slipping back into the patten of hating her father, once again he had pulled them away from her life, from her comfortable life and had asked only that they trust him. How were they supposed to trust a man that had abandoned them time and time again too many times to count?

Louisa thought about this as they made camp for the night. There was nothing that could be done, indeed it was too dangerous for them to continue in the dark. She was so utterly done that she couldn't help but walk towards a rock away from the warmth of the fire and sit down there.

She felts someone sit down next to her. It was Liesl. Her sister's dark hair was tied back with a clip and she had her hat in her hands, she leaned her head for a second against Liesl's shoulder and neither she nor Louisa commented on the fact that either one of them had been crying through their long walk through the mountains and towards freedom.

"I'm sorry about Rolfe" Louisa said finally. "I think…well…I think in his own way, the boy he was before the German's invaded did love you"

Liesl shook her head. "I don't know" she said finally. "I wonder if he ever had feelings at all. I wonder…sometimes when I think of the way he used to talk about me or sing about me despite the fact that I was only a year younger than he was…I wonder what kind of woman he wanted, looking back even before the Nazi's invaded Austria, I am not sure that I would be the only woman who would give him what he wanted"

"Good thing you didn't fall into bed with him then" Louisa said bitterly.

Liesl said nothing, there was nothing to say. The secrets that they shared between them as sisters were too strong to say out loud where men like their father and their brothers, boys turning into men were standing. After all what was the point of it all?

"Father has the right of this you know" she said suddenly into the silence.

"You've changed your tune. Once not so long ago you were prepared to elope or sleep with Rolfe for the pleasure of seeing father's face when he got wind of your activities"

"Ah I don't deny it. But I've changed, I've become older and wiser in the last twenty four hours than I would have done in the last year or so. Life is not perfect, it's messy and complicated and I realised that grief is a bitch—pardon my language—and that doesn't discriminate. I get it…I get it why he's the way he is. I get that father isn't perfect. It took me a long time but since Rolfe pointed a gun at him I realised that none of what had taken place before mattered much. All that matters is that we are alive and together. So many families already are not and the war hasn't even begun"

"Do you really think there is going to be a war?" Louisa asked finally into the silence.

"Yes" Liesl said finally. "One way or another I think there is going to be another World War. And I think all we can do is try our best to outrun it and pray like hell that it doesn't take anyone from this family. At the very least that's what I'm going to do right now."

Louisa wiped her eyes on the edge of her sleeve and when she spoke it was with a voice that was so unlike her own she wasn't even sure the words had sprung from her lips.

"It seems surreal that months ago I was just turning thirteen, I thought that meant I was grown up. Now I don't feel so sure"

"I think we've all had to grow up very fast. I am not sure any of us will be children again. But I do think that as far as father and mother are concerned it will be harder for them than it will be for us. After all…we are children no longer. For any parent—to have their child ripped from all that they have known, through no fault of their own…I imagine that must be more painful that one could imagine. And because of that I find I can forgive. And I can not take a step back into my previous life. And I think Louisa that you can do that as well. Sleep on it."

Louisa rolled her eyes and leaned back against the hard stone of the rock.

"I liked it better when you were helping me pick out a lipstick that matched my eyes" she said bitterly. Liesl grinned at her but said nothing else. She wrapped an arm around her and Louisa rested her head upon her sister's shoulder wanting nothing more to do than to sleep away this nightmare that had now become her day to day life.

They remained like that for some time until they were called for dinner which was some bread and cheese. It filled a hole but Louisa was too tired to care about anything other than that. Instead when she put her head to her arm and slept imagining it to be the bed that was still unmade in her bedroom that was still warm and inviting, all she could do was pray that tomorrow they would get over the border before the Nazi's caught up with them.

It was not an inspiring thing to wish for.


The next morning they were walking again and Louisa found it difficult to keep up instead lagging behind. Their mother had her arm this time around Liesl and Louisa knew that while she had once been her sister's confident another woman had taken her place. Louisa found she was glad. Liesl's secrets had kept her awake on more than one night and had nearly gotten them killed. Someone smarter than her must be able to talk some sense into their sister and remind her that there was still time to grow up.

Friedrich was now with Gretl, Kurt with Marta and Brigitta was walking alone. Louisa knew her younger sister well, she knew what she was doing, for every mile that she was walking a story idea was popping up in her sister's head. She was a reader, she was a writer and someday in the not to distant future when this…well…whatever this conflict with Hitler would become ended, Louisa fully expected a fully published account of their experience courtesy of Brigitta Von Trapp to grace the shelves of whatever country they were residing in.

She was unaware her father had doubled back until she was being offered an arm.

"Would you mind helping an old man out?"

Louisa giggled unable to stop herself. She linked arms with her father without a second thought.

There was a pause where they carried on walking.

And then.

"Do you know when I met your mother, your new mother that is, there was a part of me that did not recognise my feelings towards her. And I made mistakes, many of them in fact, but she told me that one day I would wake up and find Liesl a woman. She spoke of Liesl…however I think she was also informing me about you. She told me that one day I would wake up and you would be a woman and I wouldn't even notice it. I think perhaps she was right, for I look around and no longer see the little girl I once knew"

Louisa said nothing for a second, she was still not used to this amount of comfort coming from her father.

"It will take time" she said finally. She knew her father knew what she was talking about and he nodded looking out over the landscape as Austria became Switzerland. They carried on for a while before Louisa could ask the question.

"Will we ever come back?"

Her father stared out over the mountains and did not speak for a second.

"I don't know" he said "But to stay…to join them…" he shook his head. "Louisa I could not do it. I could not join them and they would have never have allowed a man like me to sit on my hands, nor was I sure that we could do that. We've gotten out just in time. Soon I fear…I know that we wouldn't be able to do that. It's not an easy thing I've asked you to do. And I hope one day we can return home. But I cannot say."

"Even if we do" Louisa said finally into the silence as the realisation of what this meant came crashing down upon her. "Home will never be the same"

And she was right, home would never be the same, the country would never be the same, the world would never be the same. Louisa would never be the same. She had left the old Louisa with the old world in her old house with the windows facing the lake and the bed that was still unmade and the housekeeper and butler and the red shoes still somewhere under the bed. Some other sort of girl would wake up tomorrow. She was not sure she would be ever ready to contemplate that loss. She shut it away, one day she would mourn this old world and that blonde haired girl who had thought by being thirteen she was invincible. That girl in two months had learnt a lot.

"Home" her father said finally. "Is where your family is. I don't care where we end up, or weather or not this makes sense anymore as long as my family stays together, and I will fight for that until my last breath"

Louisa nodded, her throat was too tight to speak but she finally found she could say the words that had long ago eluded her.

"I love you father"

There was a pause as they both acknowledged how long it had been since either one of them had said that to the other. When her father next spoke she could hear the tremor in his voice even though he did his best to hide it.

"I love you too Louisa"

She leaned her head against his arm.

They carried on walking like that for a very long time.


That night they crossed the border from Austria into Switzerland. Some of the strain off both of their parents faces went. They found a little farmhouse, the older couple content to give them the barn to shelter in. It had seemed they were not the only family to flee over the borders.

Dinner was warm and as the rain finally pattered down onto the roof Louisa found that she was exhausted. But she had something to do before she went to sleep.

She reached for the sketchpad that she had carried with her, the one her father had given her, the creamy pages untouched and the new pencils. She reached for the first page and began to draw all that she could remember. The memories, the pain and the loss and the love and her family, all that she could record about this time. She found that the drawing came to her easily. She found that she needed to get this out. She had to remember, her legacy would be to remember.

"What are you doing Louisa?" Brigitta said sleepily into the silence. Louisa made another stroke with her pencil and smudged out the line so that the lake she was drawing was separate from the rough outline of the garden she had once played in.

The answer was simple and it came to her lips with very little thought. As soon as she said it she knew it was true. The tight band around her heart loosened a little. She would be alright, they would be alright. She just had to hope and trust and love. And so upon that realisation she could tell her sister just what she was doing and know it to be true. It was true. And so she answered.

"Telling my story"


I hope you all enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. During this trying time I wish all you and your families the best of health and I hope to be back to this fandom soon.

As always stay safe and have fun reading. Again many, many thanks for all of your support throughout this story. See you all soon. x.