Hello everbody! Here's chapter 17... ^_^ Enjoy!

Usual disclaimers here: I don't own TSOM and the Irish folk songs I'm using here either...

A huge thanks to my prereaders and reviewers.

Innsbruck, October 5th 1919, afternoon

It was one of these beautiful autumn days in the mountains. The trees had put their majestic red and golden costumes on. Many people were walking in the park, some quickly going to deal with their businesses, some enjoying the fresh and pure sunshine just as the couple who was sitting on a bench with their daughter, chatting happily.

"You didn't tell me about that, Captain. That's not very kind from you part!" Agathe gently scolded Georg. "If you want me to accept your proposition, my dear sea captain, you'd better not be so secretive," she added playfully while stroking her fiancé's hand.

"Didn't you know how much Mani is a good singer? And he can sing opera too, you know!" Maria exclaimed with growing enthusiasm.  The little girl was sitting between Agathe and Georg, and to an observer who did not know them, the three really looked like a family.

"A family..." Georg thought lazily, ignoring his companions' endless comments about his singing abilities. Stretching a bit in the fresh sunshine, he could not help but wonder how much his life had changed within a few months thanks to Maria. He had been a depressed, angry and lonely man. Now he was the happiest man in the world who was going to marry a sweet and generous young woman next spring. He had been a rebellious and restless young man. Now he was going to adopt an adorable little girl as soon as he got married. His life was just perfect and it was all Maria's deeds. Slowly coming back to reality, he noticed that both Agathe and Maria were looking at him pleadingly. He shook his head stubbornly.

"Sorry ladies, there's no way I sing here in the middle of the park. Maybe another time?" Then, lightly hitting Maria on the nose, he chuckled: "And I don't think that Figaro's song would be the most accurate song now!"

Frowning a bit, the little girl got nearer the young woman, cuddling against her.

"You're not very kind, Mani," she stated and made a face at him.

"I must agree with Maria. That's not very kind, Captain Von Trapp," his bride-to-be added with an intoxicating smile.

Georg stared at them in wonder. They had grown so fond of each other in less than two months, just like a mother and a daughter should be! Agathe was so generous. She had accepted Maria without asking any question. Moreover, she was supporting him in his intention of adopting the child and even had agreed to become her new mother once they got married. On the other hand, after a rather difficult first contact, Maria enthusiastically had accepted the idea of being part of the family he and Agathe wanted to build.

Flashback

He was at a loss. He did not know what to do. Since he had begun to date Agathe two weeks ago, his relationship to Maria had become more and more tense without he could do anything to improve the situation. At first, she used to run to her room and sulk until dinnertime as soon as they would come back from some outing with Agathe. Worse, she had refused to come at all today and stayed in her room, brooding all day long. Now, she was even refusing to talk to him. He stood in front of her door, anxiously waiting for Ingrid to come out. At last, his friend went out the girl's room, slightly shaking her head.

"So what? What's with her, Ingrid?" he asked anxiously.

The young woman, who had just proceeded to put Maria to bed, sighed.

"Well, I think she's jealous," she stated seriously.

"Jealous?" he exclaimed with utter surprise. "Jealous of what?" Anxiety and incomprehension were filling his blue eyes.

"Take a guess..." she answered, sighing again.

He knew the answer too well. He just had refused it at first.

"But... Agathe likes her very much! She had liked her since the first day! Moreover, I never will leave her alone, she knows that!" he protested. Thinking that Maria could believe that he would abandon her because he was dating the young woman was felt like a vicious blow right in his heart.

"Yes, I know that, Mani," Ingrid gently said. "Still, have you really explained the situation to her? Children sometimes need clear explanation."

"But, she knows that..." he tried to answer.

"Of course she does! But she needs you to confirm it clearly. Actions are not enough, Mani. She needs words. Your words," she interrupted him, gently putting her hand on her friend's shoulder. "Go now. You know what you have to do," she added before going to her children's rooms, leaving him alone in front of Maria's door.

Georg Von Trapp had fought many battles. However, the once naval hero now was afraid at the idea of going and talking to the little girl who refused to see him. Breathing deeply, he lightly knocked at the door.

No answer.

He tried again, louder.

No answer once more.

He would not go anywhere if he went on like that; he decided to come in the room. Maria was in her bed, her back to the door. She was weeping softly. Sighing, he went to the bed and sat next to her, putting a hand on her trembling shoulder.

"Hey ship-girl..." he said tentatively.

No answer.

"Listen, I'm so sorry. I think I didn't explain myself well."

"Lemme alone," she muttered, stubbornly facing the wall.

"Maria..." he pleaded.

"I don't want to talk to you!" she definitely stated between two sobs.

"Maria, listen, please..." he repeated. He never had felt so helpless. "I always will love you, you know that."

"I want to go back to our place in Vienna. I hate this town," she shouted while violently turning back. The young man sighed once again. Ingrid had been right, as usual. He gently stroked her wet cheek.

"Listen to me, please," he asked with an almost timid voice.

No answer.

"It's true I like Agathe a lot. It's true I want to spend as much time as I can with her and even more." Now, the little girl was staring at him angrily. "But it doesn't mean that I like you less. You're my little angel, I already told you many times, didn't I? I will never abandon you." He stopped talking, not really knowing how to go on. He felt a bit relieved when he noticed that Maria's stare had softened a little. "Still, even if we were happy in Vienna, don't you think our situation was a bit strange? You often repeated I was not really good when it came to making diner, combing your hair or choosing a dress, remember?" He stopped once more. He was arriving at the most difficult part. "You know, I really don't know much about these things, and I don't think I would be able to improve much on my own. I can't **cannot** be your father and your mother at the same time. Still, I'm sure I will be a better father if there was someone who looked after you as a mother should. Don't you want to be part of a family again, Maria?" he asked tentatively at last.

"I have no mother. I have no family. The only person I have is you. I don't want to lose you!" she suddenly cried, tightly gripping his waist. He gently stroked her hair.

"You will never lose me, Maria, I promise," Georg stated solemnly. "Besides, you know, or you don't know, that Agathe likes you very much. She was sad when she saw you didn't come with me this afternoon."

"She was?" the little girl asked timidly.

"Of course she was! And I'm sure she will be better at the combing or dressing things than me, you know!" he answered more cheerfully. He leant over her and kissed her forehead. 

"Why would she want to look after me?" she inquired in a doubtful yet hopeful tone.

"Well, because neither I nor she can imagine our future without you, I guess," he answered while taking her in his comforting arms. "I'm asking you again. Don't you want to be part of a family again? Don't you want to be part of my family?" he whispered, holding her tighter to him. The little girl did not answer. Instead, she cuddled closer to her beloved Mani, a hopeful smile beginning to appear on her still wet face.

End flashback

It was unbelievable! Since that day, Maria never had refused to go to town with him and Agathe once again. Besides, much to his delight, she and his bride-to-be became closer and closer as days went on and Maria now seemed to accept the young woman as her new mother without any restriction.

"My dear captain, you won't get away from that pretending to dream and stare into space." Agathe's sweet voice woke him up from his reverie. "Maria and I just agreed that we wouldn't go anywhere until you decided to show me your singing talents."

Indeed, there was no way he could escape that... They were doing that a lot lately. One of their new favourite occupations was joining and endlessly bothering him, it seemed. He sighed.

"Okay ladies. You won. But just one!" he reluctantly accepted at last and began to sing this beautiful Irish folk song he had learnt during his days at the Naval Academy.

"Oh the lark in the morning she rises from her nest
And she mounts in the air with the dew on her breast
And like the pretty ploughboy she'll whistle and sing
And at night she will return to her own nest again."

Lovingly looking at the two women in his life, he started singing the first verses of The Lark in the morning.

"Lay still my fond shepherd and don't you rise yet
It's a fine dewy morning and besides, my love, it is wet."

"Oh let it be wet my love and ever so cold
I will rise my fond Floro and away to my fold."

"Oh no, my bright Floro, it is no such thing
It's a bright sun a-shining and the lark is on the wing."

The future family was so absorbed in the sweet melody and the promises of happiness it seemed to evocate they did not noticed a couple tentatively walking towards their bench.

All of a sudden, Georg felt Maria gasping and clenching to his chest. She was shaking. Surprised, he looked up to see what suddenly had frightened the little girl. Then he saw two people standing in front of them. The man was looking at them with wonder and confusion whereas the woman's expression was less than benevolent. The latter finally spoke with a rather cold voice:

"What the hell are you doing here Maria? You had scared us to death!"

Innsbruck, Von Berg's villa, October 15th 1919, evening

"I don't wanna! I don't wanna! I don't wanna!"

A desperate Maria was clutching to Georg's shoulders as if it could help her to escape the sudden nightmare that mercilessly had shattered their lives.

The young officer did not answer anything. Besides, his throat was too tight to let him utter a word. There were no words to soothe his pain. Maria was going to live with her uncle and aunt again and there was nothing he could do. Nothing at all. He had fought many battles. He had won many battles. However, he had lost the most important one in his whole life.

"I don't wanna! Mani, please, you promised! I don't wanna!" the crying girl on his lap kept on repeating. Georg tightened his grip around his little angel, not wanting to let her go at all.

However, authorities did not care about how much they were important to each other. Authorities did not care about the family they had begun to build step by step. Maria had to come back with her family. The last ten days had been a living nightmare since they had met her uncle and aunt. They wanted Maria back with them. More exactly, her uncle wanted her back as she was his beloved late sister's daughter. He had explained to Georg that he had been told about the young woman death two years before while he was fighting on the Italian Front. Severely injured, he had spent a few months in some military hospital, and, when he had been able to go back to his family at last, his wife had told him that the little girl had disappeared. The young officer clearly remembered the other man's honest and desperate look when he had told him he wanted Maria back because he knew it would be his late sister's wish.  He also had told him that she reminded him of her mother so much. He needed the little girl's joyful presence. On the other hand, even if she did not seem to be happy with that, her aunt supported her husband's wish. A little girl must live with her family, not with some strangers as loving they were, the authorities kept on repeating.

Yet, Georg had tried everything; he had moved heaven and earth... Even if he understood her uncle's wish perfectly as th man seemed to be as desperate as he must have been when he met Maria for the first time. Maybe it was selfish, but it did not matter, he did not want to lose her. He had gone and seen a lawyer. Endlessly, he had explained that he had found her alone in a street of Vienna, that he wanted to adopt her once he got married. He had asked why did people that had not cared about her for months now wanted her back so bad. There was no use. It was as if he endlessly had been hitting a wall for ten days, trying to break it with bare hands. He even had thought of putting his social prestige in the balance. However, he always had heard the same stubborn answer. The girl had to go back with her family.

This afternoon, he had tried to convince the authorities one last time, in vain. He was utterly defeated. He had to give Maria back to her relatives the next day. So he went back to Ingrid's place where Maria was waiting for him anxiously. When he told her the bad news, his heart broke into pieces. There was so much pain and despair filling her wet eyes! He just could not believe that this night was the last one they would be able to spend together.

Maria had been crying for hours now and he could feel his throat tighten with emotion, too.

"I don't wanna leave you! Mani, please!" she was pleading endlessly.

For a few seconds, he even had thought of leaving Innsbruck, taking her with him far away from this nightmare. However, it was not possible.

Maria could not believe it. She was going to wake up and see it was just a horrible nightmare. She was going to wake up and live another happy day with Mani. How was it possible that she would lose anything again? She was sitting on that bench, cuddling against Agathe while they were listening to Mani's beautiful song. They were a family. They always would be together. Then, she recognized her aunt and her uncle. She still could hear the woman's cold voice. "What the hell are you doing here Maria? You has scared us to death!" Of course, she thought she had lost her! She had left her all alone in Vienna on that fateful freezing day! She did not know her uncle but the woman hated her, she was sure. What did not they leave her alone with her new family? She did not want to go back to this horrible farm. There, people were mean to her. There, her mother had died a year ago. There, there was nobody to love her.

"I don't wanna!" she repeated. She wished she could stay with her beloved Mani forever. 

"Don't leave me, please..."

Had she done something wrong to deserve such a cruel fate? It must have been that. She had done something wrong even if she did not know what.

"What have I done wrong?" she asked with a despaired voice.

"You've done nothing wrong, Maria," the young man, his voice shaking with emotion.

"So, why must I leave you? I love you so much!" she protested faintly. "It isn't fair!"

"No, it isn't fair. But we can't do anything about it. There's nothing we can do, that's all," he told her gently stroking her hair.

"But, I don't wanna! I wanna stay with you!" she cried in his shirt.

"So do I, ship-girl, so do I," was all he was able to answer. Now, he really understood what feeling utterly powerless meant. Finding no words to soothe her, he softly began to hum one of the songs she liked so much. A beautiful but cruel song just like the last moment they were sharing.

There lived a lady by the North Sea shore
Two daughters were the babes she bore
One grew as fair as in the sun
So cold, dark, grew the elder one

A knight came riding to the ladies' door
He travelled far to be their wooer
He courted one with gloves and rings
But the other he loved above all things

"Oh, sister, sister won't you walk with me
To see the ships sail o'er sea"
And as they walked the windy shore
The dark girl pushed her sister o'er

Sometimes she sank, sometimes she swam
Crying "Sister, reach to me your hand
Oh sister, sister please let me live
And all that's mine I'll surely give

"It's your own true love I want, and more
That thou shalt never come ashore"
And as she floated like a swan
The salt sea bore her body on

Two minstrels walked by the windy strand
They saw her body float to land
They made a harp of her breast bone
Who's sound would melt a heart of stone

They took three strands of her yellow hair
And with them strung this harp so rare
They took this harp to her father's hall
There to play before them all

But when they set the harp upon a stone
It began to play alone
The first song sang a doleful sound
"The bride her younger sister drowned"

The second string, when this they tried
"In terror sits the black haired bride"
The third string sang beneath their bow
"And now her tears will surely flow"

Of course he could have sung another air. He knew so many happy or hopeful ones... However, the cruelty of their fate hurt him so much he only had been able to think about that sad and melancholic Scottish tune. Those cruel, desperate words expressed his current feelings much better than simple words. So he sang The Cruel sister with a shaking voice, not holding his tears anymore.

Maria could not understand what the words of that song meant. Still the sweet melancholy of the melody was soothing her better than any words could. She loved his baritone voice so much. She listened to him one last time with all her heart for it was the last time she could hear him sing for her...

The song reached its end. Maria was not sobbing anymore even if her eyes still were full of tears. Georg did not say anything but held the girl tight to him. For a moment, both stood silent, enjoying each other presence one last time. Just like the night, they met. At last, Maria broke the silence with a sleeping voice:

"I will never forget you, Mani."

"Neither do I, neither do I, ship-girl," Georg whispered, kissing the now sleeping Maria's forehead. Then the young man waited for the fateful morning to come, holding tightly the little girl against his chest.

Innsbruck, October 16th 1919, late in the morning

Maria's relatives were waiting for them at the railway station. When she saw them, Maria gripped Mani's hand a little tighter but tried not to cry again. She had decided to be strong. They never would see how much she was grieving. From that day, nobody would know of her pain ever, she had promised to herself.

In order to make the parting the least painful possible, Georg had decided to leave Maria to her relatives and walk away as soon as possible. He saluted them politely then gave them the girl's stuff. If he instinctively did not like her aunt at all, he could not help to feel sympathy for her uncle. He seemed to be so lost, so sad... Just like he had been before meeting his little angel. He knelt down and took Maria by the shoulders.

"Well, it's time to say goodbye, I guess," he said with difficulty. "I'm waiting for you to send me a letter as soon as you arrive, okay?"

"Yes," the little girl simply answered.

"Alright then, good bye, ship-girl." With that, he took her in his arms one last time and walked away without turning back, even when he heard Maria shouting, "I will never forget you, Mani!"

The little girl felt utterly desperate but she did not shed a tear. She obediently followed her relatives in the train wondering if she would be able to see him again one day. Her aunt woke her up from her sad reverie.

"I hope you do realize we don't want you to behave like a little princess at home. That's no place for some spoiled child!" she said with a cold voice. "There's much work to do and I don't want you to spend your days writing useless letters to that man. Do you understand?"

"Leave her alone Anna, will you?" her husband cut her sharply. Then, turning to his niece, he added more gently:

"Your aunt was just saying that we can't afford sending many letters for now. Maybe when things get better at the farm, you'll be able to send him letters..."

Maria looked up at her aunt then at her uncle. The woman had been so mean to her since the first day! She perfectly understood that she would not let her have any contact with Mani... But she had decided to be strong from now. Staring at the woman with daring eyes, she answered with forced cheerfulness:

"I perfectly understood that, my uncle."

As soon as he went out the railway station, Georg let his anger and frustration explode at last punching against a wall again and again. That was the end. There would be no coming back. The leaving train where Maria was sitting was taking a part of his heart and soul away little by little. A part of him his little angel had healed and built again. A part of him that now was dead... Calming down a bit, he started to walk back to Ingrid's place. "Maybe I should think of shaving my beard one day..."

Author's notes:

I hope it was not too sad...

By the way, there's still a review ransom here for next chapter, 6 or 7 as usual... Just a little effort, it's worth it, really (at least that's what I'm thinking!)