Hi, so here is another chapter-I had so much fun writing this one so I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.
Alexander is mentioned a little bit in my story A Sister's Love if there is any confusion. As with this there is a time jump and the same for the next chapter.
Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine.
Please Read and Review.
Poetic Justice
Chapter 7-Risk
The world goes to War, America tries to stay neutral. Louisa looks for change but what she get's is not necessarily what she wants.
Alexander Von Trapp was born on the 5th January 1939. Louisa had been at what had passed for a school when it had happened and she'd come home with the children chattering away to be told in hurried Austrian by a neighbour that their father had taken their mother to hospital because the baby had decided to come now.
That had set the children off. Friedrich had ruled as the eldest sibling that they would go to the hospital even though Louisa wasn't sure if they were wanted. She knew the mechanics of childbirth and though children held no interest for her she had to admit that if she'd just had one the last thing she would want was five more turning up.
At least not right now.
When they got the hospital she noticed (even if Friedrich did not) the slight curl of the lip that the nurse had when she saw them was enough to set her teeth on edge. Louisa knew what they were acting up about. They spoke Austrian and English but all of them could read, write and speak German. It was a thing in Austrian schools as easy as learning to English. The accents tended to run a little close together as well. For the average intelligent person Louisa wouldn't have had to explain that Austria and Germany (despite Germany's insistence) were two separate countries. That Hitler was evil for what he was doing and what he was saying, that the reason they were here instead of being in Austria were fairly straight forwards. Clearly no friend of Hitler's would have ran away!
Stupid fucking ignorance Louisa thought scowling at the blonde bitch until she looked away clearly uncomfortable at the fact that she had been caught out by a just turned fifteen year old girl who was clearly unafraid.
Either that or stupid, Louisa didn't know what she was at the moment and she was mature enough to admit that. Sometimes she thought she was on top of the world, other times she thought that she was going to scream and shout her frustration out to the world.
Ignorance was the most damning thing right now. With the world poised for the second time on the brink of war and every American politician trying to see into the future to know what side they should be supporting she thought that ignorance was the worst thing that could happen. Ignorance was the thing that let the Nazi's get away with so much. And there was no excuse.
None.
"Maria Von Trapp" was all she snapped at the woman and she was pointed towards a room. Kurt had Marta, Friedrich had Gretl and Louisa resisted by some superhuman effort she didn't know she possessed not making a hand gesture as she passed.
See…maturity. In spades.
Their mother was sat on the bed. If Louisa was being truthful she looked like she'd been battered both inside and out. She was sweaty and shifting as if she was in pain but there was a radiance about her that Louisa thought threw everything around her into shadow and shade. She didn't know what it was, maybe the glow of a new motherhood or something that she had once gotten off the back of a magazine but she thought that it was true nonetheless.
Their father was stood by her side and Louisa thought that they looked the picture of a happy family. Unbidden as everyone else surged forwards she blinked and suddenly it wasn't the red-headed governess there holding a baby it was a blonde haired woman and their father was younger than he was now and instead of five children one of whom was more a man than a child crowding round it was just the two, the dark haired girl and the blonde boy watching their little blonde haired sister.
She didn't know what made her think of her mother or her when she was a baby. What made her think of that moment that for all she knew had never taken place in a hospital she didn't know but suddenly the yearning for her biological mother was so strong she had to turn away and use the excuse of shutting the door as a way to ground herself and her emotions.
Yeah. Anyone who said that the teenage years were a piece of cake clearly had never been a teenager.
"Children" her father said smiling and Louisa looked at him with blue eyes for a second as he turned away gazing back at the baby in their mother's arms. "Children this is your new brother"
Another boy.
Wonderful.
She thought of what Brigitta would say and she suddenly felt a pang of longing for her silly little baby sister.
But before she could dwell on this loss her mother was beckoning her forwards to see the new baby.
He was admittedly very cute. Louisa had no idea what to do with babies, she had been too young the last time a Von Trapp had been born but she had to admit that as far as babies went this one was very cute. He had the Von Trapp eyes, the blue that most of them had and there was something about him that reminded him of Liesl but for the life of her she couldn't put her finger on it. He had dark hair plastered to his head and his fingers peeping over the blanket were tiny and moved slowly like a spider.
"His name is Alexander" their mother said gently. "Louisa would you like to hold him?"
Louisa wasn't sure that she wanted to hold him but her mother had already put the baby in her arms at that point so she just went along with it. He was heavier than he looked. Weightier and she cuddled him a little. He was utterly adorable and for the first time since Austria she felt her heart crack a little. The shell that she had been clinging to, the wall in which she had been forcing her emotions behind, her pain, her misery, her guilt, her anger, had been cracked open and a little bit of love seeped out.
She had to concede the point.
Babies were adorable.
At least this one was.
"Hello" she said to the baby. She wasn't sure what else she was to say standing their in her too small coat. The baby just looked at her.
"See, he knows his big sister" their father said and her mother smiled. It was a simple comment but suddenly the longing for Liesl and Brigitta was so strong she thought she was going to drop him.
Because the truth was this baby might never get to know his actual big sister. Or his other one. And so she handed the baby back to her mother suddenly desperate to get rid of him.
If anyone picked up on it they didn't say but she could see that Friedrich was looking at her and she knew that he too had felt the comment like a lash on his back. Louisa looked at him for a second and saw a flash of overbright blue and then she closed her eyes and looked away.
Nobody noticed.
She didn't expect them to.
She woke up two weeks later in pain. She didn't know what it was that had woken her but the bed felt…wet. She shared a room with Marta and Gretl both of whom were sleeping but she sat up brushing her blonde plait out of her face and she winced. There was something wet in the bed and she didn't know what it was but she knew that she didn't like it. She knew that something had happened she just couldn't understand what.
Striking a match and lighting the candle at her bedside she shifted a little to see the sheets. They were stained red.
She had bled.
She didn't know what had caused it and for a second she wondered if she had injured herself. It was three in the morning and the baby had not slept at all. Sleep was few and far between these days and so whenever she got sleep her head hit the pillow and stayed there.
But then she remembered.
Frau Schmitt had told Liesl, Liesl had told her and Brigitta. Liesl had been fourteen when it had happened and she had been calm and controlled and had gone up to their bedroom and routed around the bed until she had grabbed a box and then disappeared into the bathroom. Then she had come and told Louis and Brigitta what had happened. She had explained that she had become a woman and that it was her bodies way of telling her that she could have children now. At fifteen the twelve year old Louisa had not comprehended the idea of Liesl being a mother. Now staring at the blood staining the sheets and the idea that it could happen to her was enough to make her shake.
She wasn't ready.
She wasn't ready.
For all that she said she was, for all that she was impatient to become a woman she was not ready for the evidence literally staining her sheets.
Shit.
Gretl turned and she put the candle down grabbing the sheets and ripping them off uncaring of the fact that her nightdress was stained, that her bedcovers were all on the floor. She staggered downstairs to the kitchen and turned the tap on trying to scrub away the blood.
"Louisa"
"Shit"
She turned. Of course her mother was up, of course the baby was up. Of course that was just the way the world worked because since when was the world that good to Louisa Von Trapp.
And then to cap off a wonderful day her father came down. No doubt he had heard the noise. In all fairness it wasn't like Louisa had tried to be quiet. In fact she was sure she'd been panicking too much to stay quiet even if she had tried.
Her father took one look at her standing there, at the blood and then he seemed to go a shade green.
Fucking men.
She might have said that out loud because a smile tugged at his features for a second. Louisa wasn't sure, all she knew was that she was dangerously close to tears.
"Georg take the baby to bed" her mother ordered. "Leave this one to me"
Her father disappeared and Louisa was stood there next to her mother.
"It's alright darling" her mother said softly. "It's alright. Let's get these sheets sorted"
It wasn't alright. Nothing was ever going to be alright again Louisa thought bitterly wiping her face.
But in this moment she was willing to try.
Her mother's arm came around her and Louisa leaned her head against her shoulder willingly taking the comfort.
Anyone who said this woman shit was easy had clearly never been a woman.
On September 3rd 1939 Europe officially went to war for the second time within two decades. Louisa who had been sat with her family listening to the broadcast listened to the world as she had known it, the world she had grown up in, officially ended.
She didn't know what was going to happen now but she knew that that world, her mother's world, her father's world, Uncle Max, the Baroness, Liesl, Brigitta, the hills, singing, the nuns…all of it had ended. The world had ended as she had known it.
As Chamberlain spoke from Britain she thought that the world had changed in seconds. When all of this was over the world would either be shrouded in fascism or a new world of freedom, democracy and independence. She knew which one she was pulling for.
She knew what she wanted. She was a woman now. A strong woman. She trusted her judgement. She knew her own mind. She might be considered a child at fifteen but she was not. Soon America would enter the war and she would be ready. She would build a life and the men who had tried to tear her down would realise that she was stronger than them.
She caught Friedrich's eye from where he was sat on the floor and he flashed her a grin that told her all she needed to know.
He was ready too.
They were fifteen and seventeen (just). They were like every other fifteen and seventeen year old (just) on the cusp of adulthood anxious for something to shake up their life. Anxious in a way for war.
Of course they had no idea then what the true cost of the war would be and as she sat there on her small couch Louisa Von Trapp would admit that. So would Friedrich. They had no idea what was waiting for them.
But soon they would know.
Soon they would know.
And there you go, will see you next time.
Next Chapter-As news of the war gets increasingly worse everyone is on pins and needles waiting for the inevitable. And then Pearl Harbour happens. (Bit of a shorter filler chapter covering the events of the war)