A/N: This is an idea that has been floating around in my head for quite some time now and so I thought that I would write a bit of a pilot chapter so that I could get a feel for what you guys think of it! I want to know if you think it's a good idea and if I should continue it, but most of all I would like to know what you truly think of this chapter! Happy reading, my lovelies!

Running his hand slowly along the length of his beloved's back as she slept near enough on top of him, Georg turned his head in her direction and kissed her on the forehead before smiling when she buried her nose in his shirt-clad shoulder and mumbled in contentment. Even though he was freezing and in agony with his back thanks to another night spent sleeping on the ground, seeing Maria so at peace for once helped to keep him from minding much. It had been quite a challenge, finding a sheltered area in which to sleep in the mountains, which had meant that they and the children had had to sleep out in the open most nights and there was no denying that she had struggled. Broken sleep was all she had succeeded in getting and he had hated knowing that even in those times she'd been in a constant state of worry and unable to truly relax.

He couldn't quite explain how relieved he had been when they had come across the small cave just as the sun had been setting the night before, knowing that his wife would feel far more secure and able to sleep with some kind of roof over her head and something standing in the way of the entrance. Of course, he had been right and the clear proof of that was in the way she was sleeping soundly in his embrace at that moment. He studied her features while she laid beside him with her head on his shoulder and her fingers curled into the front of his shirt, attempting to understand why a woman as beautiful and perfectly charming as her would choose to spend the rest of her life tied down to someone like him. It was a question he had asked himself many a time while in Paris with her and he still had yet to reach a conclusion. It just didn't make sense.

She must have sensed that he was staring at her or brooding about her once again because she started stirring against his chest after a couple of minutes, his lips curling up into a tender smile when her eyelids fluttered ever-so-slightly and he caught a glimpse of her cloudy blue eyes. 'I actually manage to get some sleep for the first time in days and you decide to wake me with your brooding…' Her voice was still quite rough with sleep and he chortled when she tutted at him while sliding her hand up his chest to the side of his neck, the two of them indulging in one of their deep morning kisses as he held her close with the hand at the base of her spine and her thumb ran along the sharpness of his jawline. 'Dare I ask what you were brooding about this time?' She breathed when he pressed his forehead against hers once he'd pulled back from her.

'I just can't seem to get my head around why you would want to be tied down to such an old man…' He told her with a shrug of his shoulders.

She sighed and let her hand fall from the side of his neck so that she could reach up and push several strands of dark hair away from his eyes. 'First of all, I'd like to point out that you are an incredibly attractive old man,' She said in jest before pecking quickly at his lips and giggling at the expression that was written across his face when she looked at him again. 'My darling, it would take forever and a day for me to list all the reasons why I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I…I think the main reason I agreed to marry you was because no-one's ever made me feel the way you do. I'm honestly not sure if there's a word to describe it, but whenever you look at me I get a feeling in my stomach that I just can't explain. I felt it for the first time when you sang for me and the children on the night of the puppet show, and then it just…didn't stop…'

'Well, I have to say it's reassuring to know that I can still give a woman butterflies at my age.'

'That's another thing,' Her hand returned to its original place upon his chest. 'I don't care about the age-gap between us one bit, Georg, truly. You might be older than me, but that's one of the things I love the most about you because you're so experienced. If I had to choose between you and some…some childish boy, I would choose you and I mean that with everything I am. You respect me, you're patient, you're gentle and you love me unconditionally which is all I could ever ask of you. I didn't enter into this marriage lightly, my love, I entered into it knowing what I was taking on and what I was going to get out of it. I'm happier than I've ever been in my life and I promise that I'm never going to regret my decision.' She felt her heart swell when a tear escaped his eye and rolled down his cheek, and once she had wiped it off she kissed him slowly.

Neither one of them felt as though they needed to rush through the kiss, not when their children were all still snuggled up to one another and snoring away down the far end of the cave, and so Georg brought his hand to the back of her head and threaded his fingers through the short hair there which made her sigh and grasp his shirt in her hand. He was quite certain that he could have laid there with her for the rest of time, wrapped in their intimate embrace while the rest of the world faded into nothingness, but life just wasn't that fair and so it didn't surprise him when the urge to breathe crept up after several perfect minutes and he was all but forced to bring their kiss to an end. 'I love you,' He brought her flush against his chest with the hand settled on the small of her back and brushed his nose against the tip of hers. 'Truly, madly, deeply…'

'I love you too, Georg, and I always will,' She promised him before draping an arm over his stomach and tangling a leg with his so that the two of them could start settling down together again. Resting her head on his chest, she gazed over at the children and smiled at seeing the seven of them so peaceful. Marta and Gretl were both asleep between Liesl and Brigitta, the two elder girls curled around them in an attempt to keep them warm, and Louisa was sleeping on her stomach not too far away from them with Friedrich and Kurt. She understood that not a single one of them were hers, of course she did, but she was just as proud of them all as she would have been if she were their real mother for both their bravery and good behaviour over the past couple of days. They hadn't bickered once and the older ones had been so lovely to Marta and Gretl.

The younger girls, for the first couple of nights, had been the victims of horrific nightmares and disturbed them all with their cries but none of them had minded. Instead, they had taken it in turns to hold them close and tell them stories until they had felt safe and settled enough to fall asleep again. It was truly an honour to be their mother and she hoped that, should God intend to bless her and Georg with a child of their own at some point in the future, she would succeed in bringing them up to be just as loving and compassionate as their older brothers and sisters. 'I think we ought to think about making a move soon, darling,' She tilted her head back on her husband's chest and looked up at him when he ran his fingers back and forth over her hip through the layers she had on. 'If we don't dawdle, I think we'll reach Hede's villa around tea-time.'

'Do…do you think Hede will approve of me? I don't want what happened with your mother to happen with her, especially if we're to live there.'

The memory of how things had gone when his mother had come to visit during their engagement made Georg sigh as he gazed into his wife's eyes and saw the uncertainty that lived in them. Both of them had known that she wouldn't be pleased about him breaking things off with Elsa so that he could be with her, not when Elsa would have brought so much money into the family, but neither of them had expected things to be as bad as they had been. His mother's attitude towards Maria when she had stayed with them, for lack of a better word, had been abominable. Nevertheless, Maria had been incredibly patient and tried her hardest to remain civil with her because she hadn't wanted to upset the children. For most of the week she had succeeded in doing just that, but on his mother's last night with them she had crossed a line at the dinner table.

She had asked her who would be walking her down the aisle at the wedding.

To the children, no doubt, her question would have been an innocent one and it wouldn't have appeared as though she'd had malicious intent. Oh, but she had. He had seen it in her eyes when she had looked across the table at her and the tiny smirk on her lips had been unmistakable. In the letter he had sent to her back at the beginning of their engagement, explaining that he and Elsa had called off their engagement and he was set to be married to Maria before the year was out, he had told her about her family situation because he hadn't wanted her to bring it up. He had intended to make her aware of the fact that Maria's father had passed when she was a child and her uncle was no longer in the picture. Not once had it occurred to him that she would use such a thing – such an awful, sensitive thing - against her to make her feel uncomfortable.

Maria had excused herself from the dinner table after that and even though he had wanted nothing more than to give his mother her marching orders then and there, he had been more concerned about his fiancée. He, too, had left the table minutes after she had all but raced out of the room and he had wasted no time in going upstairs after hearing her slam the door to her bedroom. He hadn't cared that she had wanted to be alone for a time. He had needed to reassure himself that she was all right and so, without asking her permission, he had walked into the room and the sight of her sobbing into her pillow had honestly broken him. Everything that his mother had said and done to her had exhausted her, and when he had joined her on the bed and wrapped his arms around her from behind she had asked him if he thought she was worth all that.

It had been such a ridiculous question.

If she had thought that he was going to allow his mother's disapproval to change his mind about her, then she had been very sorely mistaken.

He had held her in silence for quite some time, brushing his nose against the back of her neck and offering moral support while she had cried, but she had eventually turned over in his arms and kissed him on the cheek before settling against him. It was then that she had admitted that she couldn't face his mother again and he had sworn to her that she would be leaving first thing in the morning. He hadn't expected her to fall asleep on him, but when she had and he had been positive that she was comfortable he had left her to get some rest and returned downstairs. Once he had found his mother in the drawing room with the children and asked her to join him in his study he'd given her a piece of his mind. He had made it clear that he had found her actions outrageous and he'd wanted her to pack her bags that night and be gone before breakfast.

She had tried to fight with him, but he had been having none of it and had felt a sense of achievement when she had stormed out of the room.

'Georg?' The feeling of his wife's hand running down his cheek pulled him from his thoughts and he ran his hand along the curve of her waist.

'I promise you, my love, that Hede is nothing like my mother and she's going to love you almost as much as the children and I do,' He pressed his lips softly to her own. 'She told me over the phone that she's looking forward to meeting you and the children already know all about you.'

She smiled. 'How many children does Hede have?'

'She has two sets of twins at the moment, so four, but she's currently about two months off from having her fifth,' He replied. 'The two eldest, Mia and Elena, are three and the two youngest, Valentina and Lorenzo, just turned one at the start of last month. I have a feeling Hede's going to be grateful for the extra help because she made it sound as though the four of them are quite a handful.' The two of them chuckled quietly.

'Well, we're used to that…'

'Mmm…' He hummed in agreement with a kiss to her temple before turning his head in the direction of their children at the sound of a whine.

Marta rubbed at her eye with the back of a hand as she stirred in Brigitta's arms before pushing her hair out of her face and sitting up, her lips curling into a smile when she looked in the direction of her parents and noticed that the two of them had already woken. 'Mother, I need to go to the toilet,' She whispered so not to wake up everyone else while crawling over to where her parents were resting. 'Will you take me, please?'

'Of course I will, precious, I'll just put my shoes on and then I'll be with you,' She told her before Marta nodded and started crawling out of the cave through the little entrance. 'You don't mind watching the children until we get back, do you?' She asked Georg softly after turning to him.

He shook his head. 'I'll try and wake them all while you're gone and then we can think about leaving when you're both back.'

'I love you.'

'I love you too.'

She pulled him down into a kiss before sitting up and reaching for her shoes which were lying near her feet, and once she had tugged them on she ran a hand through her hair and started crawling out of the cave like their daughter had done. 'Come on then, you, the faster we get there the faster we'll be able to get back to where it's warm.' She grasped Marta's hand in hers and gave it a squeeze when she giggled and cuddled against her, and after bending down to press a kiss to the top of her head she started to guide her in the direction of the trees in the distance.

She hadn't the first clue of what life for her and her family was going to be like once the nine of them had crossed the border into Switzerland, but there was one thing that she was certain of and it was that there would be no more threat and they were going to be able to stay together.

There had never been a prospect more wonderful than that.

'You're the reason your father was almost killed.'

'You're the reason your family was almost caught.'

'If it hadn't been for you, your father never would have been in danger.'

Liesl gazed up at the clouds in the hope that doing so would help to keep her from crying as she plucked the petals from the daisy in her hand while sitting on her own, the taunting voice in her head growing louder with every moment that passed as she tried her hardest to block it out. She didn't want to believe that she was the one responsible for everything that had happened between her father and Rolf back at the convent. She didn't want to believe that, should it have been one of the other Nazis to catch them, she would have been the one to blame for her family being separated and potentially harmed. It made her feel sick to think about what could have been and she doubted she'd ever forgive herself.

She had had many sleepless nights during her time in the mountains which meant that she had been able to do quite a lot of thinking, and she was sure that she'd succeeded in pin-pointing the exact moment Rolf had begun to change. It had been her mother's first evening at the villa. He had been telling her that Colonel Schneider had come to Austria from Berlin, but just before he had revealed where the Colonel was staying he had panicked. He had explained that no-one was supposed to be aware that he was there and that she wasn't to inform her father, and the only answer he had given her as to why was that her father was so Austrian. It was obvious to her now, however, that it hadn't been that at all.

He hadn't wanted her to inform him because he had known that he hated the Nazis and all they stood for and had known how he would react.

There was no doubt in her mind that, if she hadn't been so naïve and blinded by love, she would have realised that much sooner than she had.

The sound of footsteps approaching from behind led to her glancing over her shoulder and seeing her father made her smile ever-so-slightly. 'You've been sitting here on your own for some time, my love, so I was wondering if you wanted some company?' He asked after reaching her.

'That would be nice.' She nodded.

With her permission, he sat himself down beside her on the grass and put an arm around her before pressing a kiss onto her temple when she laid her head on his shoulder and cuddled up to him. Neither one of them said anything for a long while after that, choosing instead to take in the sight of the land that they would soon be calling home, but Liesl eventually tilted her head back on his shoulder and his heart broke at the sight of her crying. 'Father, I'm so sorry…' She managed to choke out through her tears before he shushed her and ran his hand over her hair.

'Liesl, I haven't a clue what you're apologising to me for because you haven't done anything wrong.'

'But…but I'm the reason we were all caught and Rolf ended up threatening to kill you,' She reminded him while he set about drying her cheeks with the sleeve of his shirt. 'If I had kept silent, then he wouldn't have known that we were there and we would have been able to escape much easier and without being followed. I ended up making things much harder than they needed to be and…and I keep imagining what would have happened if things hadn't worked out. I keep dreaming about…about concentration camps and never seeing any of you again, and that makes me feel ill enough, but then I think about how it would have been because of me. I would have been to blame, father, and I hate knowing that!'

It was only when she felt him wrap his arms tightly around her that she realised she had burst into body-wracking sobs and hid her face in his chest, his shirt muffling the sound as she clung to him as though her life depended on it and he left countless kisses to the crown of her head. In his arms, she felt like a little girl again. He had always been there to give her a cuddle if she had fallen over or had an awful day at school as a girl, and having his arms around her still managed to make her feel as safe and loved as it had all those years ago. 'Not one part of what has happened over the past couple of days has been your fault. You might have gasped when you saw Rolf, but so would anyone in your position.'

'But…'

'No, listen,' He brought her back from him by the shoulders before going into the breast pocket of his jacket for his handkerchief and handing it to her so that she could wipe the tears from her cheeks and underneath her eyes. 'Rolf was your first love, darling, and it must be so hard to have your first love betray you like that. It isn't as though you were in control at that moment, Liesl, you were terrified as it was and he had his back facing us which meant that you couldn't have known it was him until he turned around. I can't even begin to imagine how that must have felt, but I'm positive that most women would have the same reaction as you if the man they loved betrayed them so they could join the Nazis.'

Liesl sucked on her bottom lip as her eyes stung with tears once again. 'I thought he genuinely loved me, but he was just using me all along…'

'I could kill him for the way he treated you, but I'm also grateful in a way because it means that you're free to meet someone who will love you unconditionally and see you for the wonderful young woman you are,' He caressed her cheek with the back of his hand. 'It won't be for a while yet, I'm hoping, but when you decide to settle down I want you to settle down with someone who has nothing but respect for you. I don't want you settling for just anyone, Liesl, I want a good and honourable man for you and I want to see you happy with whoever you end up marrying.'

'Even when I do find a good and honourable man, you still won't be too pleased when I ask to bring him home for the first time.' She smirked.

He chuckled. 'True…'

She rolled her eyes good-naturedly at him before wrapping her arms around him and resting her head on his chest, a deep sigh leaving her as she closed her eyes and allowed him to run his fingers through her hair for a couple of minutes. 'Thank you for making me feel better, father.'

'You're my little girl, you don't have to thank me, I'm always going to be here to give you a cuddle when you need one,' He murmured into her hair before pressing one last kiss to the top of her head. 'Now, your mother and I were thinking of having a quick game of cards while we wait for your brothers and sisters to finish their game. You're quite welcome to join us if you'd like, but it's fine if you would rather stay over here.'

'No, I think I'd like to play,' She admitted. 'I beat both of you every time.'

He scoffed. 'More like we let you win.'

'Whatever you need to tell yourself, father…' She patted his arm.

The two of them chuckled together while rising from the ground and once they were on their feet they started to make their way over to where Maria was sitting with the playing cards in hand. 'Let me guess…' Maria smirked at her eldest daughter and swept her fingers across her cheek once she and Georg had sat themselves down on either side of her. 'We're going to be enjoying the quickest game of watten again, aren't we?'

'It's not my fault that I'm so good at it! Mother had us playing it all the time while we were growing up!' Liesl laughed.

'Mmm, she did…and you still have yet to lose a game.' Georg playfully grumbled.

When Liesl shrugged her shoulders in response and leaned back on her hands while Maria set about shuffling and dealing the cards, he looked over at his little girl and sighed at knowing that she was no longer as little as she had once been. He could no longer hold her in his lap like he could Marta and Gretl and she no longer came running to him whenever she had a nightmare like they did, and sometimes it hurt him to think about how much of her life he had missed out on. He just had to keep reminding himself that, even though she would be seventeen before he knew it, she was still his little girl where it mattered. She still needed him for love and advice and he was always going to make sure she had it.

Always.

Georg all but hammered on Hede's front door as he and the rest of the family stood out in the pouring rain that evening, and when he glanced over his shoulder at his wife and children his heart sank at the sight of them soaked through and huddling together in an attempt to warm up. It had taken far longer than he had first anticipated for them to make it down the mountain and travel to Zurich and he dreaded to think about what time it was, but in the grand scale of things, none of that mattered. In his opinion, the only thing that mattered was that they had reached Zurich in one piece and no longer had to be worried about running out of food or not being able to find somewhere secure to spend the night. From this moment on, the nine of them would have a roof over their heads and hearty meals instead of mere pieces of fruit and stale crackers.

They no longer had to be anxious about a thing and knowing that made him happier than he could explain.

The sound of hurried footsteps on the other side of the door prompted him to turn around again and he couldn't keep himself from smiling at the sight of Hede when she opened the door to him. 'Goodness me, you all must be mental! Get in here at once before you catch your deaths,' She stepped aside and watched the nine of them rush inside the villa before closing the door and turning to them all with a shake of her head. 'You should have found a hotel for the evening or at least telephoned me so that I could have come and fetched you. What were you thinking?'

'We didn't want you to be put out, not in your condition.' Maria explained with her arms still wound tightly around a shivering Marta and Gretl.

Hede rested a hand on her belly and stroked her thumb against it through her dirndl when the baby within her kicked as though it understood that Maria had been referring to it. 'Something tells me that you're Maria,' She laughed. 'Georg's told me so much about you in his telegrams.'

'All good things, I hope…' Maria smirked as she looked up at her husband.

'What else would she hear from me?' He brushed her cheek with the back of his hand.

'I'm afraid dinner ended quite some time ago, but I had a feeling that you would be hungry when you arrived and so I asked Frau Camenzind if she wouldn't mind putting a couple of trays together for you. Raphael and I went out this afternoon and picked up a couple of things for you – nightgowns and pyjamas, that kind of thing, so you can all head up to your rooms and bathe and get changed if you'd like and I'll ask Leandra to bring the trays up in about an hour-or-so,' Her heart raced at the sound of her nieces and nephews sighing quietly with relief at her words. 'Children, you'll be sleeping in the room next to my children. If you go upstairs and turn left, your bedroom is at the very end of that corridor.'

The children wasted no time in leaving their parents' sides and hurrying up the staircase, the thought of bathing and changing into something clean and warm clearly the only thing on their minds at that moment in time. 'Maria, Georg, I asked Frau Portmann and the maids to clean and air out the guest bedroom at the end of the hall in the right wing. I've given you some old dresses of mine so that you have something to wear until you can make or purchase some of your own, Maria. I'm not too sure if they'll fit you, but you can always make altercations to them if it's necessary. Now, I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave you both because I told Mia and Elena that I would read to them before they go to sleep.'

Maria and Georg nodded in response before he laid a hand on his sister's arm. 'Hede, thank you. It means a lot to Maria and I.'

'You don't need to thank me, Georg, I'm only doing what you would do for me if our roles were reversed,' She pointed out. 'I'll say goodnight.'

'Goodnight…' Maria and Georg replied before watching her all but waddle through the hall and ascend the same set of stairs as their children.

Once they were alone, the two of them looked at one another in silence for a moment before she took hold of his shirt and pulled him close so that she could catch him in a kiss that was soft and languid. It was clear that she had taken him by surprise because he stiffened for a second, but soon enough his hands found her hips and she giggled as he backed her against the nearest wall while responding earnestly to her kisses. She wrapped her arms around his neck and threaded her fingers through his wet hair once she could feel the wall against her back, the feeling of his hands burning a path from her hips to her waist and back again causing her to sigh with delight as she melted further into his embrace.

It had been days since he had held and kissed her with such wild abandon and she wasn't all that certain how she had managed without it, but just as she began to lose herself to him and the rest of the world started to simply fade away she felt rather a large sneeze beginning to build. Reluctantly, she pulled back from him just in time to turn her head and lift her hand to her face in order to catch the loud sneeze she released. 'I think we ought to head upstairs so that you can change out of those wet clothes,' Georg sighed while running a hand over her hair when she looked up at him. 'You've been sneezing all afternoon, my love, and the last thing I want is you coming down with something now we're here.'

'I think you may be right.' She nodded.

'Can I get that in writing?'

'Oh, shut up.'

The two of them shared a smirk before he kissed her forehead and took her hand in his so that he could guide her through the hall and up the stairs, and once they had managed to navigate their way through the corridors and located their bedroom they were both pleasantly surprised. It was a spacious room with an en-suite and a balcony that looked out over the grounds at the back of the villa, but the thing that caught their attention the most was the bed. It may not have been as grand or luxurious as their bed back in Paris, but after sleeping on the ground for the past couple of nights it was the most welcoming sight and they could hardly wait to climb in. 'Would you like a bath tonight?' He asked gently.

'I'm exhausted, but I probably should because I stink and my hair looks a right state.' She groaned.

'You're still the most beautiful woman living as far as I'm concerned.' He smoothed his hand across her lower back through her soaked jacket.

'Once a charmer, always a charmer…'

'It's not being a charmer if it's true,' He gave her a squeeze before leaving her side and padding over to the wardrobe to find her a nightgown. 'Change into this and put your wet clothes into the basket, darling, and then you can have a lie on the bed for a bit while I get the bath going.'

Giving him a mute nod in response, she allowed him to hand her the nightgown and brush a kiss against her lips before he turned around and wandered into the bathroom. It had almost been two months since the wedding and she was still struggling to think of a single word that truly described the depth of her love for him. He'd taken such good care of her as well as their children during their time in the mountains and even though she knew that he had been terrified himself, for she had seen right through his little façade, he had pushed his worries to one side and thrown himself into caring for them. In her opinion, he was the most amazing father and husband and she couldn't have been prouder of him.

She walked over to the bed and laid the nightgown down at the end of it before unbuttoning the front of her jacket and peeling it off her body, the sensation causing her to grimace before she tossed it into the laundry basket and set about drawing her turtleneck over her head. It didn't take too long for her to wiggle out of her skirt and take off her slip after that, and once she had managed to get her nightgown on she put her other clothes in the basket as well to be cleaned. Instead of walking back over to the bed and falling into it as she had intended, she chose to enter the en-suite and walk up behind her husband before wrapping her arms around his waist and kissing him softly on the back of his neck.

He turned in her arms and rested his hands on her shoulders after turning off the hot tap and ensuring that the water wasn't scalding, and she gave him a tired smile when he ran his hands along the outside of her arms through the sleeves of her nightgown. 'I have to admit that I feel a little better without those wet clothes on,' She laughed before he pulled her close and she wrapped her arms around his middle while laying her head on his chest with a sigh. 'Do you think you might bathe with me? There's enough room in that bath for the two of us and, not to be rude, you're just as in need of a bath as I am.' She tilted her head back on his chest to gaze up at him and the look in his eyes made her heart swell.

'I love you, Maria.' Was all he whispered in reply.

Once she had left his arms it took minutes for the two of them to rid themselves of their clothes and climb into the bathtub, and they groaned in unison with relief as the warmth of the water seeped into their bones. Georg laid his hands on his wife's waist underneath the surface of the water and pulled her back into his chest, his lips brushing her shoulder as she settled into him and brought his arms to wrap tight around her. 'Thank you…' He murmured into her ear after sitting in silence and brushing his thumb against the plane of her stomach for several moments. 'Thank you for putting up with me and for adoring me the way you do, and thank you for having such faith in me over the last couple of days.'

Maria moved her head from his chest to his shoulder and looked up into his eyes while sliding the back of her hand down his cheek, and when he brushed his lips tenderly against her own she covered his hands with hers and the two of them laced their fingers together on her stomach. 'I didn't doubt your abilities for a moment,' She panted once their kiss had reached a natural end and he had touched his forehead to her own. 'I believed that you had what it took to keep us safe and happy while also getting us over those mountains in one piece, Georg, and you didn't let me down. I haven't said it yet and I apologise for that, but you were so strong and brave and I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am.'

'I was only strong and brave because I had you to fall back on when I needed to. I wouldn't have been able to do that without you.' He sighed.

'We make quite the team, my love.'

'We do…'

The two of them allowed their noses to graze before she turned in his arms again and sank deeper into the bubbles, her eyes fluttering closed of their own accord when he tightened his hold around her middle and began to bury kisses in the short strands of auburn hair atop her head. It was unclear to them how long it would take to find a home of their own and to settle down properly with their children, but they weren't in a rush to get those things figured out. For the time being, all they wanted was to make the most of their newfound freedom and being together.

And so that was what they were going to do.

'I had to do four renditions of Edelweiss and I lost count of the number of times I had to tuck them back into bed, but we finally have two little girls who are out for the count,' Maria's voice prompted Georg to look up from the book in his hand when she walked back into their bedroom after settling Marta and Gretl for the night, and the unmistakable pride he could see in her eyes made him chuckle as she slipped her arms out of the sleeves of her dressing gown and hung it over the back of the chair at her vanity before making some sort of bee-line over to their bed. 'I wouldn't have minded them sleeping in here with us, truly, but I'm exhausted and I could do without having Gretl's foot in my face all night.'

The two of them shared a knowing smile as she set about pulling back the duvet and climbing into bed next to him, and once he had returned his book to the little nightstand he opened his arms to her and allowed her to shuffle into them so that they could start settling down to sleep. He turned the lamp off and plunged the bedroom into darkness once he had felt Maria drape her arm over his stomach and lie her head on his chest, and when he was certain that she was comfortable he began to comb his fingers through the hair he discovered at the nape of her neck. 'I understand that our living arrangements aren't ideal at the moment, but promise that things will start improving.' He said into the darkness.

'We have a roof over our heads and proper food in our bellies,' She murmured back. 'That's definitely an improvement on the past few days.'

He could hear the fatigue in her voice while he held her and she nuzzled her cheek against the thick dark hair that covered his chest, and even though he had wanted to talk for a while he realised that she needed to get some sleep. It sounded as though she was coming down with a bit of a cold and if that was the case then he wanted her to rest as much as she could. 'Try to get some rest, my love,' He sighed. 'You deserve it.'

'I am…' She pressed a kiss to the area between his collarbones before relaxing in his arms again and sighing contentedly. 'Goodnight, Georg.'

'Goodnight, Maria…pleasant dreams.'

A/N: Thank you all so much for taking the time to read this pilot chapter and I hope that you enjoyed it! Again, I would like to know what you think and if I should continue with this idea or not...I also apologise for the ending because I know it was shorter than the other sections but I wanted to get this out so that I can hear what you thought! Thank you for all of your support with my other fanfictions, especially with "Moments", as it really means a lot to me. I'll see you soon! xx