Georg and Maria early marriage – after the honeymoon.

One shot. AU | Film version of the family however following closer timeline to real events. The Captain and Maria began their happy marriage in their beautiful home in Austria with their family. Set after their honeymoon.

Come back to sleep – Chapter 1

Maria was awoken by a loud clap of thunder. She sat bolt upright in bed, a flash of lightning briefly illuminating the room. Unconsciously she reached over to Georg's side of the bed and found it empty. He must have gone for a wander around the house again. Storms often disturbed him, which she was just getting to know. The bangs and flashes transported him straight back to the war and he couldn't settle with the weather waging its own war overhead. Maria just wished he would wake her so she could comfort him the way he often did when nightmares disturbed her own sleep. With a sigh she swung her legs out of bed, scrunched her toes in the thick carpet pile, and then found her nearby slippers.

Closing their bedroom door with a soft click, Maria made her way towards the stairs to find her husband. She smiled to herself when passing the nursery wing and hearing no disturbance. They were all clearly still sleeping soundly, unlike her first night at the villa all those months ago. She had often wondered why Georg was awake that night, especially now she knew that the children's rooms were too far away from the master suite to be overheard, even if they were singing loudly and jumping on the bed. The answer presented itself during their last night in Paris several weeks ago when Maria was awoken with a sharp elbow to the ribs.

'Goodness, Georg. Please be careful,' she shifted away from his thrashing. He let out a moan of distress.

'No. NO,' he exclaimed. Maria sat up, startled, and received a swift kick to the shin. Georg was having a nightmare. A particularly unpleasant one. She had to do something. He was fighting invisible demons and she needed to bring him back to her. Mustering the new courage she was gaining from exploring their relationship, she grabbed at his flailing arm stopping a thump to her stomach in the process. She simply held his hand. Firm. Something solid for him to cling to, to stop the spiral. Using her free hand, she stroked from his fist to his elbow in soothing motions and within a few moments he grew more calm until his eyes snapped open.

'Maria,' he scrambled to sit up and grasped her shoulders to hold her at arms length. 'Are you alright? Did I..,' his eyes searched her looking for any sign of injury or distress.

'Darling, I'm fine. Just fine. You're here with me, I could never be anything else but fine.'

'But,' he started. 'The nightmares. They are,' he searched for the word, 'intense. I don't ever want to hurt you. Please be honest with me. Have I hurt you tonight?'

'Your elbow may have connected with my ribs and I may have received a kick or two, but,' she widened her eyes stopping his protests, 'I am absolutely fine. You, however, are not. Talk to me. Tell me what's happening.' She placed her hand on his cheek smiling sadly as he closed his eyes and leant into her touch. So Georg did. As he started speaking Maria turned to lean against his chest. They stayed like that, his chin on her head, holding each other whilst Georg bore his soul to his wife. He spoke about the war, his submarines, the men he killed, the men he couldn't save. It all flooded out of him like a dam breaking, all the while the storm raged overhead causing Georg to flinch periodically.

'I'm haunted by my past, ruining my present as a punishment.' He kissed Maria's temple as he finished. She sat quietly, contemplating.

'You shouldn't forget those things,' she said. 'They are part of who you have become. But I don't want you to feel guilty and allow these memories to consume you. War is never simple. You did what you needed to survive. You did what you must to come home to your children. Just please, let me be here with you when your mind takes you back to that time. We are together. We can bare this together. You are repairing my past every day. Let me help with yours.' She gazed up into his eyes and placed a gentle kiss at the corner of his lips. 'Besides, I'd like to think I am not the present punishment you speak of?' she quipped with a slight smirk.

'Maria,' he began sincerely. 'You are the greatest thing that has happened to me in many years. I do not deserve you. Each day I spend with you is more wonderful than the last.'

In an unspoken agreement they both shuffled back beneath the covers again, Georg pulling Maria closer to his chest.

'Please stay with me,' he whispered, flinching again at another thunderclap.

'If I can be of any help,' she smiled remembering the first time she had said those words. Then she added 'always Georg. I will always stay with you.'

He kissed her collarbone before wrapping his arm over her waist securing her against him. Maria loved being surrounded by his protective embrace and Georg knew that holding the best thing in his life would comfort him beyond what words can explain.

Here is where they spent the fading hours of their honeymoon, slotted together like two pieces of a puzzle that just fit. Like they were always meant to be.

The first room Maria checked was the ballroom. Georg often spent time alone with the grand piano in the evenings. But the room was still, the lid of the piano closed. She made for the kitchen instead, knowing where she would find him. She could make them both a hot cocoa which she sensed he might need.

Minutes later she brought the steaming mugs back upstairs to the entrance hall and turned towards her husband's study. Whilst nowhere in the house was off limits to her now, and Georg had made it perfectly clear this was her home to be wherever she liked as she pleased, she still didn't like to disturb him in his study. It was the one place he could still find peace and quiet from the children and do his work undisturbed. She knocked gently before entering.

'I thought you could do with the company,' she said placing his mug on his desk.

He looked up from the papers he was busy scribbling over and smiled in response before continuing with whatever it was that she had interrupted.

She waited a moment sipping her mug whilst she perched on the arm of the sofa before softly saying 'You promised, Georg.'

He placed his pen down.

'The nightmares have changed.'

'Oh?'

'I receive my orders with the target to pursue. We lock onto it and then release the torpedo. The second we do I know something is wrong but none of the others feel it. None of them seem to know what is happening. But I feel it in my gut and that's when the dream shifts and shows me the target we have successfully hit. Except for some reason it's you I see. You and the children. Drowning.'

She moved quickly across the room to him, placing her own mug beside his as she did, and taking him in her arms.

'How many times has this happened?'

'Just tonight.' He said pointing at the ceiling as another thunderclap split the sky overhead right on cue.

'I told you to wake me. You never have to do this alone anymore.'

She was cradling his head against her chest and he had wrapped his arms around her waist from where he was sat.

'Listen. Feel that,' she guided his ear over her heart. 'You haven't lost me. I'm on solid land, safe, with you.'

He pulled away.

'I don't think you understand just how much you mean to me, Maria. If I thought I was lost after Agathe, that is nothing compared to the mere thought of losing you. I would be broken. Left in pieces that no one could put back together as there would always be one missing. When I wake in the morning and find you are already out of bed, I panic. I think you've run back to the Abbey, or something terrible has happened. You complete me when I didn't realise there was something missing. You are my everything.'

'Georg Von Trapp, you are my everything. Before you I had nothing and no one. You have shown me more love than I can ever hope to deserve. I am now a wife and a mother. I have a best friend, soul mate, and lover. If I mean even half as much to you as you do to me, we are a lucky pair indeed.'

At that he pulled her face to his and kissed her softly. He cupped her cheek as Maria tightened her arms around his neck. They clung to each other like their lives depended on it, their lips dancing a familiar routine. Maria maneuvered herself into her husband's lap and began pulling his dressing gown open wider to gain access to his muscular chest. Georg tensed and stopped.

'Maria, I can't. Not whilst the storm is going on. I don't want to panic and hurt you. Just sit with me a while.'

'Of course,' she smiled and leant forward to retrieve both mugs from the desk. She placed one in his hands. They sat together like that for nearly an hour as the storm gradually grew quieter overhead. Maria distracted Georg by telling him her afternoon with the girls. Marta and Gretl needed to be measured for new dresses as they were quickly growing out of their current wardrobe. Liesl was helping, whilst Brigitta was getting the sewing supplies ready for the lesson Maria was going to give her. Louisa had been sticking to Maria like glue ever since they came home from Paris, which was sweet. Clearly she was starting to open up in her own way and it felt like Maria's final acceptance into the family. Georg simply listened, smiling.

'What?" she asked. Catching the look on his face.

'You are a remarkable mother and I love you.'

'I love you too.'

'Thank you for being with me. And for this,' he drained the rest of the cocoa putting the empty mug on the desk.

'I will always weather the storm with you.' They looked into each other's eyes and giggled at the turn of phrase.

Georg stood up keeping Maria in his arms and she let out a beautiful laugh.

'I have legs, my love.'

'I see no reason why I cannot carry my beautiful bride back to bed.'

He left the study not bothering to turn the light off and returned to their bedroom where they fell into bed, happy, and very much in love.