I don't own Hetalia okay? And as per usual so no one can't say they weren't warned, the foreign languages were obtained via Google Translate and there will be a guide at the end. There is only a few more chapters to this story I have planned so thanks to all who have reviewed, faved, watched and read so far! Anyway, enough of this A/N, on with the fic!

Alfred steadily made improvement in his health over the next few weeks until Ivan was certain he had beaten the illness and could breathe like normal. Doctor Héderváry had come back into town after a trip to some of the native villages and had cleared Alfred for light to medium work to make sure that all the pneumonia was healed up. After one afternoon of chopping firewood, Alfred saw Matthew come home from working at the shop. "Mattie, I've put this off for a few weeks because of Kalina's passing and something like this seemed a little tactless to ask about at the time, but..." He began as Matthew sat down.

"But what Al?" Matt asked.

"I met your old companions in Dawson City and they are living pretty good, well they're happy with what they have now." Just how do I say, hey you got a huge chunk of gold after Ivan's third I promised him as his payment for being my guide. He thought while looking at Matt. He had been able to charm people into lowering prices when need be but for some reason this seemed different.

"They are?" Matthew asked good for them.

Alfred paused, thinking of what to say next. Better just spill it."Well I had mentioned that I met Tino and Berwald in Dawson and they had assumed you were dead. But they did find a good claim the summer after you left and thinking you would either go up there yourself or as if they were almost expecting me to come after you," He continued.

"So?" Matthew asked.

"Well they saved a third of their claim for you. When they saw me, they thought I was you and then gave me your share. It's not mine, I found me some to have some extra money for a little while but nothing like this."

"Like what?" Matthew asked.

"Give me a sec." Alfred went to the room he was sharing with Ivan and dug through his pack and pulled out the large golden nugget. Lifting it out, he carried it to the living room and placed it on the coffee table. Seeing Alfred carry it, his eyes widened. "That!" He placed it on the table with a thud.

"No wonder you got worn down on the journey from Dawson to here."

"And it's like they say, it's heavier than it looks." Alfred said. "Now I may have always been stronger than you, but you carry that on your back with everything else you'd need to survive a 500 mile trek in the winter. I had promised Ivan in Seattle a third of whatever I had gotten on the trip. I intend to keep that part. You marrying his sister is the only way I could get him to keep it. But that leaves two thirds more. This is worth a good bit." Matthew looked at the rock, wiped some of the dirt off it and picked it up, feeling the weight, looking at it further. "What are you doing?"

"Getting a feel of it. I have to know the good stuff from the fake. Gilbert taught me. Some people do pay in gold more than currency." He said as he looked at it all, tapped a few times, got a small drill and drilled a few holes. "God. That is 100 percent real. And you didn't get robbed?"

"Almost did." Alfred said dropping his voice when he saw Katyusha in the kitchen. "I don't think the guy knew what we had and that he'd have robbed anyone who crossed his path. Had to shoot the bastard after he got a shot off at Vanya." Alfred said seriously, eyes darkening at the memory. The life he had to take and the life he had to save. He then noticed Matt's worried expression. "Now do not tell Ivan I told you but he got shot and I had to put the guy down."

"You mean?" Matthew began and Alfred nodded.

"It was him or us." Alfred said darkly. "But I need to talk to you about what to do with that, as it is yours."

"Well they gave it to you." Matthew said.

"Well it was your share from the agreement. I was only it's executor." Alfred said.

Matthew looked at the huge golden slab and eyed it. Here was Alfred showing him all this money. "You do know this is worth a lot. I mean a lot. Judging by the weight and even after Ivan's third, that comes to 15,000 dollars. FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS. You know what that can do?"

"What we wanted to do when we left." Alfred said. "If you were dead, I would have taken it home and told Mother and Papa to do with it whatever."

"But I doubt they've seen this much money in like ever in their lives. They'd have to have have saved literally every penny since they worked to have this." Matthew said awestruck. "And they were saving this from their claim for me?"

"Apparently." Alfred said. "I was as shocked as you were. But the fact of the matter still stands. It's yours and you get to decide what to do with it."

Matthew sat and looked at the gold. He could easily take it and give Katyusha and the twins more than they'd ever need but he had left home to get money to bring back to the ranch in the first place. He had left his parents worried sick, especially after Alfred left because he had failed to tell them what happened and naturally they assumed the worst. He knew what he had written in the last letter they did get and Alfred said he had sugar coated it but there was only so much he could do and make it believable. He never had known Alfred to completely lie but knew that his parents wouldn't want to have heard the worst that he did. I could just keep it all, Al says he has some and that would make it back to Idaho but I did hear him talking to Katy about when he gets home and the rest of his life. He doesn't have a job and family of his own outside this. Going back goes back to the life he had before. Sure Ivan may be up for a trip there but he might not stay on a boring old ranch for the rest of his life just because of Al would he? Maybe, as attached as they are but that wouldn't be fair to force them to that. I have the family to support, so no one would really fault me... Matthew thought as he saw Katy in a fine dress and the twins with the best of everything for children. It was highly tempting. But there was a shift in the vision of Alfred and Ivan in a run down cabin and a situation a lot like when he had first gotten to Dawson himself. I couldn't keep it all. I got this for Mother and Papa and Al and me, not just me. And that was before Al went through a similar hell like I did and I don't think Katy would take it very well if I treated her brother that way, even if he is already paid a third as guide service fees. Al would force him to take it no matter what. "Al, I am only taking 1000 worth. The rest is to go to Mother and Papa. That 1000 is close to a year's wages and I want to set it up as a savings for a rainy day for my family. One thing I learned out there was that if something can go wrong, it will. And it's fine if it goes wrong on me. But I have a wife and kids to think of and they don't need to suffer."

"Fair. I'd hate to see them come down on hard times."

"But the rest is more than enough for Mother and Papa to retire if they wanted to, hire that cook so Papa would never have to eat Mama's cooking and she can focus on her embroidery if she wanted or get a place in town. But you have to do one thing for me and say it is from me."

"What?" Alfred asked skeptically.

"Get Papa a new prosthetic arm. Sure it won't be able to work like his other one but he can at least not have to wear those dumb capes to hide it anymore." Matthew said.

"I'm sure I could get him a very good one like in some of the magazines. I'll see what is in Seattle when we hit it. I'm sure I can find him something." Alfred said.

"Don't leave him with a hook like some sort of pirate from a story." Matthew insisted.

"You think I would do that to Papa?" Alfred laughed. "But Mother thinks he might still wear those capes anyway. You know how flamboyant he can be."

"Uggggghhhhh. Yeah." Matthew said embarrassed.

Meanwhile, that spring back in Idaho, Alice stood at the edge of the property line with a sigh. A few days earlier she had gotten a letter from Alfred explaining he was leaving Valdez at the end of April and would be back as soon as he could. Which would be a few months from that distance. Couldn't have gotten Matthew and his wife to come with huh? It would be frightfully lonely by myself. Francis was falling ill and weaker by the day recently and Alice was growing worried that he might not see either one of his sons return from the Klondike. After he had collapsed on the wagon ride back from town when they picked up the supplies for the planting season, she summoned a doctor to the cabin who had been in checking on him. He had been in the bedroom checking Francis for awhile and she was getting worried. The doctor had recently come out of the cabin with a grim look on his face. "What is it doctor?" Alice asked panicked.

"Malaria." The doctor said with a stern look.

"Malaria?" She asked. This diagnosis didn't seem to make sense now. Idaho did not seem to have the same mosquito and tropical like disease as Louisiana or the southeast. "But we live so far north! We moved this far north and arid to help avoid that!" a note of frustration and confusion in her voice.

"Well you did say Francis was in an Louisiana regiment back during the Vicksburg campaign." The doctor noted.

"Yes, he was drafted in as soon as he had come to this country. They just saw a 16 year old from France and pulled him into the recruitment office!" Alice stated, thinking that maybe the doctor would do more if he didn't think poorly of Francis just because he was forced on the losing side of the Civil War. "But that was over 35 years ago! Isn' the fact he lost an arm to that blasted war punishment enough? The one thing he rued on our marriage was that he could not hold me as close as he wanted to. He is quite the romantic despite our quarreling."

"Well to be honest Mrs. Bonnefoy," The doctor said, Alice so distressed she did not bother correcting him on which last name she preferred like she usually did, "I couldn't give a damn which side he was on. That was a very long time ago. It's not my duty as a doctor to hold a grudge. I was in an Indiana regiment myself back then. But the war is over. I left those grudges at Appomattox. But no, the reason I say that is because when we were talking about his medical history, he mentioned that one of the doctors who was treating him during the war said he ran a high risk for 'swamp fever'. Well that is pretty much malaria and it's only natural to assume that he had been bitten by a mosquito back then."

"I have as well. I swear when I was in the medical corps I had never had so many welts and scratches!" Alice said fear rising her her voice. The doctor had to be wrong in her mind. There was no other reason. "Why does he have it now and I do not!" She demanded.

"Who is to say? Being down in Louisiana, and Vicksburg, it is a mosquito's natural breeding ground. And there are some forms that stay dormant for decades. With his age and weakened immune system after that flu outbreak this past winter, it is believed that allowed the malaria to flare up again. And because he is not a spring chicken anymore, it is not responding well." The doctor explained.

"Is there anything I can do?" Alice said.

"Make sure he takes the quinine I have left, but damage has already been done. I cannot give you an exact time frame on how long he may have left, but it isn't long. Oh and he had the mail in his hand before he fell asleep. He opened it already. Came from a Matthew Williams in Valdez Alaska Territory."

"Give me that!" Alice took the letter fiercely. A picture fell to the ground.

"Here." He bent down and picked up the picture. " Mr. Bonnefoy seemed really happy to see that." The doctor said as he headed to his carriage. "I will be back in a week to follow up on whatever you may need."

"Thank you doctor." Alice said exasperated as she picked up the picture to see two newborn children dressed up against the cold being held by both Matthew and Katyusha. Smiling, with a tear in her eye, she turned the picture over to read the note. "'Sorry for not letting you know sooner Mother, but here is a picture of your grandchildren Fredrick and Yvonnne, we named them after Alfred and Katy's brother Ivan. Had to feminize Ivan's name.'" She held the portrait close to her heart. "That's a relief." She said as she headed back to wake Francis up.

"Oh Frog-face." She whispered shaking Francis. He let out a snore and she shook him harder. "OI! FROG FACE!" She yelled.

"I am nearly on my deathbed and you still call me that." He smiled placing a kiss on her cheek. "The doctor told you everything I take it?"

"Yes. And you will take your medication before I head back to check on the peremiter." She added sternly. "But did you see what came with Matthew's letter?"

"I fell asleep when I had it in my hand." She gave him the portrait. "Oh." A joyous note came in when he saw it. "So my dear Mathieu has made me a grand-père." He smiled. Turning the picture over, he read the note. "I do not say he has the best naming ability. Maybe Pierre and Emilie?"

"Those are his children not yours and he can name them whatever he damn well pleases, as long as Katyusha agrees with it!" Alice reproached smacking him with Alfred's letter. "And I had gotten news from Alfred too. He's coming back to Idaho with that guide Ivan of his. Apparently poor boy lost his mother the day he came home."

"So sad." Francis said.

"Yes, says here in one of these letters somewhere that Ivan had been away from home longer than Alfred and Matthew so you can imagine what it did to him. Says here that he thinks some time away from home would do Ivan some good. Well if he got Alfred to Valdez from Dawson in one piece, then I guess he must be worth it." Alice said.

"Yes! You know what Al can do to himself when he isn't careful." Francis sprung up in joy. "And I must get things ready for their arrival."

"You will just lay back down there mister and take your medicine!" Alice demanded. "I've bandaged quite a few branding accidents and sprung limbs on that boy to know what he can do to himself. "Besides, he isn't leaving Valdez until the end of April. Depending on how they go, it could take them two months just to reach Seattle, and it's about a month from Seattle to here!"

"I can see the boys" Francis said, referring to Alfred and Ivan, " taking a ship down honestly. If you had been out in the cold for that long a time, spending well a year outside in the worst the Arctic has to offer and you are finally heading home to see your beloved parents, will you want to wait?"

"I guess not." Alice sighed. "I will say I am intrigued about Ivan though."

"I can bet you if I am still alive by the beginning of June, you'll see them coming over the western boundary with Alfred acting like he is a young child again."

"I sure hope so." Alice sighed. "And you will make it well past June as long as YOU KEEP TAKING YOUR BLOODY MEDINCE DAMNIT!" She angrily poured the dosage and shoved it in Francis's mouth.

"Phtewy!" Francis coughed. "It's nasty."

"Better than malaria." Alice smirked.

So how was that? Good? Bad? Short? Long? Let me know in a review. Now the only foreign language in this chapter was "grand-pere" which is French for grandfather. Don't need a whole guide for one word. And Appomattox is where Lee surrendered to Grant, ending the Civil War. (and if you're in the USA and didn't learn that in school I would like some words with your history teacher on that.) But the fun comes in when the money values come in. So following the math of the agreement the nugget would be worth $22,500 in 1899 dollars (which comes to $689,000 approximately today) Matt is keeping $1000 ( about 31,000 today) and sending 14,000 back to the family farm which is about $435,000 today. See how much that all is paying off? And for those of you who did the math, Ivan's share is 7500 or 233,000 but that came from nearly getting killed, freezing to death, being away from home for 3 years, things like that. Big money doesn't come easy kids. But there's a few more chapters and I got a few things planned for this part to make a happy ending. So remember to read (well you just did) and to review. Ciao for now,

otherrealmwriter

aka

Realm.