Yes, this is the end. I have so many mixed feelings about ending this story, but most of all, I'm grateful to my readers, especially those of you who have taken the time to review. I know my updates have been slow, so thanks for still following along with this story. I hope you're satisfied with this ending. As I said before, I don't generally like romance, and I never wanted this story to move into Georg/Maria, but I do think there's a tiny hint of it in the last line. I like the idea that Max was secretly a Georg/Maria shipper but had the sense to be subtle about it. :)

Chapter 24
And Last

Captain von Trapp's return from Vienna went worse than Maria had ever feared. Since there'd been no communication from him at all, Maria hadn't had been expecting him back in the least. Even if he'd just caught her and the children outside doing something simple, just playing or having a picnic, that probably would've been bad enough, with the children all wearing the playclothes that he'd specifically forbidden.

But no, Captain von Trapp had to come home to find that they'd all taken the rowboat out onto the lake. He had to come home just in time to see his children get so excited at seeing him again that they all stood up in that tiny rowboat, which overturned and dumped them, spluttering and shouting, right into the lake — which, to Maria's surprise, was quite cold.

What happened next seemed to happen so quickly that Maria had trouble remembering it all later. The surprise of seeing the Captain again, the fall overboard, and the shock of the cold water all left her skin tingling and her heart racing. Luckily, the children all managed getting themselves to the terrace safely while Maria struggled with the rowboat and sputtered something like, "Oh! You must be Baroness Schraeder!" and felt like a colossal fool. Gretl was the only one who couldn't navigate the water by herself, but the children, as always, looked out for each other, and Louisa scooped her up and helped her out of the lake.

But the argument between herself and the Captain, after the children had been sent inside and the Baroness made herself scarce, was the part that could never quite stay pinned down in Maria's memory. No doubt she could ask one of the household staff what they'd said to each other, for surely everyone in Aigen had overheard them. Sometimes it seemed very much like the dream she'd had earlier in the summer, before she made the children resume their school lessons. But more than that, whenever Maria thought back to it later, it seemed like a passage from the Bible.

And a great and mighty wind tore into the mountains and shattered the rocks...

"Do you mean to tell me that my children have been roaming about Salzburg dressed up in nothing but some old drapes?" His voice and his temper rising on every word, as he waved the wet scrap of Louisa's kerchief in her face.

And after the wind, there was an earthquake...

"Well, you've got to hear from someone, you're never home long enough to know them!" Even if the Captain dismissed her and sent her back to Nonnberg Abbey now, would the abbey even take her back after this? She was soaking wet and probably looked indecent, and she was yelling at her employer on the very grounds where he'd once told her that shouting was specifically forbidden, and all summer long she'd been disregarding the rules the rules that he'd left in place for his children.

And after the earthquake, there was a fire...

"I am not finished, Captain!"

"Oh, yes, you are, Captain—!"

But after the fire, there came a still, small voice...

Later — it was probably only a few minutes, though it felt much longer — by some miracle, the Captain caught her in a private moment on the stairway before she reached her room. And he almost groveled to her.

"Fraulein, I... behaved badly."

There was something so broken in his face, something so vulnerable in his tone, that even though Maria had been spitting mad at him just a few moments ago, outside on the terrace, now all the fight was suddenly gone out of her.

"You were right. I don't know my children."

This man on the floor below her was nothing at all like the stern, distant sea captain who'd left for Vienna weeks ago, without so much as a backwards glance at his children, and then hadn't even telephoned or sent them a postcard since. She supposed that perhaps the Lord had made him new again, too, just as He had done with Elijah.

When Maria crept back downstairs and into the parlor wearing dry clothes, she knew that it was true, for things were going better than Maria had ever hoped. The Captain was sitting on the divan with his children all gathered around him, chattering away. The Baroness Schraeder from Vienna — who looked as glamorous as a movie star, just as Maria had imagined — sat beside him, listening with a smile and a polite curiosity on her face, holding the little bouquet of edelweiss that Gretl had given her in one hand.

It was a heart-warming scene to see. If the children already thought higher of the father who'd just returned home than they did of the governess who'd been with them all summer, Maria didn't even mind. That was exactly as it should be. Maria didn't want to interrupt, so she tried to slip into the room unnoticed.

And just as she did, the Captain's voice cut through the children's chatter. "Well, it sounds like you've been busy while I've been away. Tell me, what was your favorite thing that you did this summer?"

The children all began talking over each other then, and to Maria's surprise, no two of them said the same thing as their favorite. Each of their answers brought back happy memories for Maria.

"Well, one day," began Liesl, who was sitting on the divan on her father's other side, "instead of us just learning from our schoolbooks, Fraulein Maria let us all think up our own lessons, and then we took turns teaching them to each other. That was interesting."

"My favorite was that day when Fraulein Maria finished sewing our playclothes," Kurt answered, grinning, "and we went outside and played in them for the first time."

"That day we all rode bicycles along the lake," said Friedrich.

Brigitta titled her head thoughtfully, then said, "I think what I liked best was that day when it rained and we made the paper boats."

"I'd almost forgotten about that," said Louisa. She nudged her sister's shoulder as she said to the Captain, "And did you know, Father, Brigitta was the one who finally figured out how to waterproof the boats to make them float."

"My birthday," said Marta.

"My overalls!" Gretl exclaimed.

Maria brightened when she noticed that there was someone else in the room, too — a dandy-looking mustached man in a suit was leaning against the back wall as if he didn't want to interrupt, either. Although she'd never seen him before, she knew instantly that he had to be the famous Uncle Max. The Captain had said that Max would be coming back from Vienna with them, and besides, this man had a gleam in his eye and a quirk to his lips that exactly matched the teasing letters he'd sent the children.

"Oh, you must be Herr Detweiler," she said softly, smiling, as she sidled up next to him on the wall. She stuck out her hand, and Max shook it warmly.

"Ah, guilty as charged, I'm afraid," he answered, chuckling a bit. He glanced over at the group of von Trapps and added, "But I assure you, whatever Georg might've told you about me, it wasn't true."

Maria chuckled a bit, too. "It's so nice to finally meet you. I thought from your letters that you two seemed as different as night and day."

At this, Max was silent for a moment, then gave Maria a thoughtful, sideways look that she didn't quite understand. Even though she'd just met him, she could already tell that it was uncharacteristic for Max to look so serious.

"That," he said slowly, "is exactly what Agathe always used to say."