Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

A/N: Please read and REVIEW!! It's my first SOM fic.  I don't care if you love it or hate it, just please be honest and review.  Please please please.

DISCLAIMER: Anything you recognize, I don't own. This includes the situations, places and characters (The Sound of Music) and the title (My Girl by The Temptations).

~*~

Maria stood in her room leaning against the large, heavy doors.  She breathed deeply to hold in the tears and finally, she had calmed herself down slightly.

Hadn't the Baroness told her mere nights ago that the Captain loved her?  While she hadn't been at all happy with this thought, she found it quite hard to believe that he had descended her to the level of the servants. 

In fact, Maria was not even getting paid for her work, she was working as part of her job as a postulant.  She was doing charity.

But what about the children?  She sighed again.  She couldn't leave them.  A little knock on the door startled her and she turned to open it.

"Maria, what's wrong?" asked Gretl as she stepped into the room.

"Oh, nothing, sweetheart, I was just thinking."  Gretl nodded knowingly, "sometimes when father thinks about things, he looks like that too."

"Gretl, I can only shudder to think how many secrets you have spilled to the various governesses over the years," came a voice from the doorway.  Both Gretl and Maria turned around at the sound of the voice.

"Captain!" said Maria, startled.

"I'm sorry, Freulein, I didn't mean to disturb," muttered the Captain sheepishly as he retreated to the hallway.

"Oh, not at all!" exclaimed Maria, "was there something you wanted?" she added for respect's sake.

"No, I'm sorry to disturb, it was wrong of me," he repeated, looking more forlorn.

"Father, I think you should ask Maria why she was crying before," suggested Gretl, "instead of running off again."

The Captain looked at Maria strangely.  He was trying to figure out what she thinking, but at the same time, she knew why she was feeling what she felt.

"Ahh, Maria has been thinking," he said wisely.

"And the Captain has been listening at the door," joked Maria.

"Okay, I admit you've caught me," he said throwing his hands up in the air, "and I also think that there are six very excited children standing just down the hallway.  So, we'll have to continue this rendezvous after the bike-riding escapade you are about to lead my children on!"

"I do not lead your children on escapades!" Maria cried with false indignation.

"Adventures, then, whatever you prefer to call them," they smiled at each other, Maria's spirits lifted.  She just didn't understand why the Captain wanted her to eat in the kitchen.

He looked at her, anticipating her next move.

"Well," he finally prompted her impatiently, "are you, or aren't you going to take the children bike-riding?  Need I come with you to supervise?"

Maria's face blushed a deep crimson.

"You can come if you want, Captain, only, well…"  Maria hesitated, but Gretl finished for her,

"Father, she has to change her dress!  She can't ride in that!"  Maria's face blush an even deeper red and the Captain's ears turned pink as he stepped out of the room followed by a grinning Gretl who closed the door softly behind her.

I know this chapter was pointless, so sorry for that.  Please REVIEW!!