Chapter 3: Won't you stay?

She couldn't help herself and the next minute she was in his arms, struggling to hold her tears back. "Good heavens, Chris, is it really you?"

"Of course it's me, duckie!"

Louisa was still leaning against the trunk of the tree. She had followed this scene with much interest. Who was that man embracing her governess?

"And look at you, you've cut your hair!"

Maria smiled, not really knowing what to say as she was still overwhelmed with this sudden surprise. "How long has it been?" she then finally continued.

"I think like seven or eight years." Chris just couldn't believe it. Here after so many years he was standing back with Maria. Their reunion had been exactly like he had dreamed it to be.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, her smile never leaving her face.

"Well, I got enough money to travel back, so I thought: why not visit that little scamp Maria?" Maria was simply over excited and again she embraced him, one as enthusiastic as the other.

"It's so awfully good to see you, Chris!"

"Same here, I've missed you a lot, duckie."

Louisa figured those two were old friends, any little child could've noticed that. And finally her governess remembered she was standing there witnessing the whole scene. She turned around, taking Chris's hand and lead him over to Louisa.

"Oh Chris, I'd like you to meet Louisa. She's one of the seven children I'm keeping an eye on." She blinked at Louisa, causing the girl to chuckle.

"Louisa…" she motioned with her hand at Chris, before returning her look at him as well, "…Chris. We were best friends for most of our lives."

"Nice to meet you, sir," the girl uttered politely.

"Likewise, young lady," he spoke with a friendly smile, making Louisa feel comfortable right away, which Maria could see. She was glad the two got along. "Why don't we go back and introduce you to the others?" She continued cheerfully.

On the way back, Maria and Chris were talking about their lives, what all had happened in the time they had been apart from each other. Of course Louisa had been listening to every word they said, and often she was even included into the conversations.

Once back at the garden, the other children were awake, but still lying on the grass, until they saw a strange man walking with their governess and sister. Immediately they sprung up to know everything about him. Maria did her story, with Chris cutting in occasionally. Everyone was excitedly listening to their story and some memories of those two playing tricks on people.
But because of the sudden new guest, nobody had heard the captain coming outside. He too was watching the whole thing with quite some interest until Marta finally noticed him.

"Oh father, come here! We want you to meet someone!" She exclaimed merrily as she was running to her father to take his hand and lead him to their guest.

"Captain…" Maria again began, "…this is Chris," and next she turned to Chris, "This is captain Von Trapp."

"I must say, sir, you have quite charming kids."

"Yes… " Georg replied, not really there with his mind. There was just something about that Chris, something he'd better watch out for.

"Chris and I have been best chums for as long as I can remember, but he moved away with his family when we were 16…" Maria went on as she saw the two had fallen silent.

"Georg darling, I would like for you…" Elsa stumbled outside towards the captain when she saw a tall, handsome but young man standing there. "I don't believe we've met."

"This is Chris, Elsa," Georg said without even moving his attention to her, "Maria and he seemed to have been best 'chums'."

Maria was so happy with her friend back at her side that she couldn't see how much the captain was taken aback with his arrival. She simply couldn't stop smiling and this certain spark had filled her eyes every time she looked at him. Georg noticed all of it and wondered why it bothered him so much. Of course he felt happy for her, but somehow the two of them acting the way they did got on his nerves. He didn't quite know why.

"Oh where are you staying, Chris?" Maria remembered to ask him. Would he be staying in the town? Would he be leaving again? She sincerely hoped not.

"I don't know, Maria. The first thing I did was searching for you."

Maria had a certain gloomy glow in her eyes now and that bothered Georg even more than seeing her together with that Chris. So even though he'd much rather see him go, he just knew he couldn't do that.

"Why don't you stay here a couple of nights? It gives you and Fraulein Maria a chance to get reacquainted," he said in a rather stern tone, but Maria had failed to hear it. She was too excited with this news to notice anything. "Really captain?" She asked so happily that Georg made sure he had made the right decision.

For a moment Maria's feelings simply overtook her, and before she knew it she was embracing the captain and had given him a kiss on his cheek. But realizing what she was doing, she pulled herself back. That same blush as always filled her face and she murmured a quiet "Thank you."

It hadn't left Georg unaffected, the minute he had felt her body so close to his, her lips on his cheek, he got shivers down his spine. Still a bit startled, he tried to utter "All right everyone, dinner time…" as firm as usual, but this time he failed his stern tone. And everyone walked inside, everyone besides Maria and Chris.

"Are you that happy to see me?" Chris asked mischievously as they were out of hearing reach from the others.

"What do you mean?" Maria asked unaware of his suspicions.

"When he said I could stay, you just kissed him."

"Yes well, the thought of you staying simply overwhelmed me," she responded, a pink fled taking place on her face and as she turned to see Chris when he didn't say anything anymore, she saw him looking very suspiciously at her with a spark in his eye that only she knew far too well.

"What?"

"Nothing," Chris smiled, knowing Maria hated it when he did that. He just walked further, with Maria two steps behind. He knew his staying here was going to be good.