Hi, so here is another chapter and I hope you like it. I will try and get the next chapter up for you sooner rather than later.

The inns and the outs of the various immigration system of Austria and Europe in the 1930s are not my strongest suit but I hope I have done it justice.

Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine.

Please Read and Review.

A Sister's Love

Chapter 3-Access

Liesl and Brigitta leave Austria for the last time and Liesl has to find a way out of the political nightmare that has become Europe in 1938.

It was Sister Bertha who took them to the station. She had a connection…if one could it that with someone at the station and she managed to get them through the gate with little fuss. It was hard to see who was friend and who was foe. There were men in that horrible brown shirt uniforms that Ro…that Herr Zeller's men had been wearing were there and Liesl glared at them even as they were hushed along the platform.

Most of the people gathered on the train seemed to be looking harassed, worried, many were parents saying goodbyes to children who were looking utterly terrified and Brigitta gripped her hand a little bit tighter as they followed the sister who seemed to command respect even from the Brown Shirts.

Soldiers too were milling around but they seemed to be utterly uninterested. Liesl took stock in five minutes the fact that Nazi or Austrian if you had money or jewels to sell they would let you onto the train. The train itself seemed mostly run down and though the boarders were closed it seemed that to neutral countries they were still open.

Sister Bertha had a quick word with the train guard who nodded. She blessed him once and then turned to face them.

"The train will take you to Switzerland. You know what to do then?"

Liesl nodded. The hope was to find their family but she had feeling that considering the Mother Superior had tried and found nothing that it would be get onto a boat that would take them to a neutral country. She had never spoken to her father about where they might go but she would have thought America would have been the obvious choice, there was Britain, Canada and Australia but she was so hopelessly unsure and though she had money and jewels she felt so unprepared that half of her wanted to stamp her foot on the ground and demand that the nun take them back to the abbey so that they could hide out this horror in Austria.

But the second she thought that she dismissed it.

To do such a thing like that would be to put the abbey in grave danger and the nuns had already risked their lives and their livelihood too many times for her to ask more of them. Now it was time for them to be on their own, to survive on their home and hopefully one day before she was old and gone, before this nun was old and gone she would be back here in the home of her family, in the country that she had been born and raised in and had become her enemy overnight.

And also…she knew that they would not survive it. Neither she nor Brigitta were girls best suited to be confined to the church walls.

Sister Bertha blinked rather rapidly.

"You know your mother…we do not have favourites. As nuns you understand. It would not be proper"

"I understand" Liesl said and she did. She touched the nuns hand once and that seemed to give her the signal to recover herself quickly. She made the sign of the cross over their heads and then they were on a rapidly moving train and she was gone and so was everything else.

Brigitta slid their suitcases into the compartment on top kneeling on the hard wooden seats and Liesl sat down feeling utterly exhausted and their journey she knew had not even begun. She sat back down again and wrapped her hands around her waist as if holding herself together. They were out of the city now, into the countryside and Liesl closed her eyes and wanted to sleep but she couldn't. Everytime they pulled into a station she felt her stomach tense. Soldiers tended to come on and off some in Austrian uniforms some in German though Liesl supposed they were technically the same thing now because Austria and Germany were supposed to be the same country now.

Brigitta would know the ins and the outs of it but here was not the best place to start a political discussion.

Sometimes the soldiers would come on looking for something or someone and everyone would avert eye contact. Liesl hugged Brigitta closer and prayed it was not them every time and then only once they had gone did people relax. But there was no chatter, no card games and any kind of loud noise or laughter was shrill, unnatural and muted quickly.

Eventually night fell and Liesl fell asleep with it. Brigitta was curled up like a cat next to her head resting on Liesl's lap and so when Liesl woke up with a stiff back and an even stiffer leg it was to see her ten year old sister watching her with wide eyes, wide with the knowledge that somehow they had crossed the border and were in Switzerland.

For now they were safe.

For now they were out of Austria and Liesl wasn't sure what to do with that information. She wanted, no she longed to go back and yet she knew that she had to keep going forwards. She was so utterly exhausted that she didn't know if she could and yet…

And yet…

They carried on.

They always carried on.

Sister Bertha had ensured that they had the night at a nunnery in Switzerland that the nuns corresponded with. Getting through the immigration checks was easy as well as Liesl and Brigitta as two unaccompanied females were not considered significantly at risk. She'd wanted to check the docks to see when the nearest ship was coming but she was still so desperately unsure of whether or not her mother and father had arrived in Switzerland or even how to find them. Refugees were pouring in over the boarders from all sides desperate for a safe haven and even though most of them weren't staying for citizenship they were getting a few nights rest and then going forwards desperately trying to find a home.

She managed to get them a room in a cheap run down boarding house for the night. The woman behind the counter eyed them both for a second and then her face softened. She promised them peace and gave them a key to lock the door and sent up bread and soup that tasted like it had been in the pot for several days but the Von Trapp sisters ate hungrily. Brigitta fell asleep quickly and carefully locking the door behind her to protect her sister Liesl crept downstairs to speak to Helga the woman who ran the little inn.

"Figured something was afoot" she said—she spoke some German and Liesl had learnt the language at school and was able to converse back.

"You and that young girl. Thought you might be running…parents send you on then? Had a lot of children like that. Jewish ones mostly. Sending the young ones ahead and then praying they can get out sooner rather than later. I've been seeing this my girl since 1933 since that rotten little lunatic took over."

"Were not Jewish it's just my father…he couldn't serve the Nazi's so they came for him and we ran."

"Good for him" Helga said with a nod. "Takes guts I suppose. If they came though here they might have gone to the refugee centre. The Church gives the ones coming in all the help they can get. If not then they've gone on. You can leave a message here for them if you want but…"

But Liesl understood.

"Where do most of them go?" she asked delicately. "America?"

"Depends. Most go where they've got kin so yes America. But the American's are getting picky."

"Picky?"

"Well…they're not a big fan of being seen as the world's problem solver. Not to mention they've got their own problems to be dealing with—can't get a loaf of bread for a hardworking family for nearly ten years or so—oh they say it's improving but…you could try England but then again they tightened the rules on who there taking in as well. Best bet is Australia if you want my honest opinion"

Liesl blinked. Australia?

She had seen Australia on a map once during a Geography lesson and she'd read about the animals there from a book that Gretel had been given on her last birthday but she knew nothing about the place. Helga patted her hand sympathetically.

"I know it's hard love but the best thing you can do is get out of this country as soon as you can. Might sound harsh but very few are staying here. Very few are being allowed to stay here. Once you get settled somewhere you can go through the Red Cross. If your family came through there and I bet this house that they did they should be able to check their records"

Liesl nodded. It was a plan she thought, not much of one but a plan. She would try for America. She still couldn't help but think that this was the place that her father would go. But at least there was a plan in place. At least she knew of a country that was taking in refugees from Europe without asking too many questions.

She could go down to the Red Cross at the Church tomorrow and fill out the paperwork.

She ran a hand across her face and stood up. Helga patted her on the arm.

"Go back to your sister and try and get a good nights sleep girl. I keep a respectable establishment here so there shouldn't be anyone bothering you. Breakfast is at eight sharp. Red Cross opens at nine but you can earn another night here if you can do some mending for me."

Liesl nodded. It felt good to have a plan. And she had a plan.

She staggered up the narrow rickety steps and opened the door. Brigitta was still fast asleep her hand under the pillow clutching the money and the documents tightly. Liesl gently pulled them out from under the pillow and tucked them between them one eye on the door.

Brigitta had fallen asleep fully clothed and though all she wanted to do was to get into her nightgown Liesl lay down on the bed next to her and watched the door. It was locked and she had put a chair under the doorknob and she thought that Helga was truthful in the fact that, this was an establishment that was respectable if not the best. She tucked the blanket around the two of them and hugged her sister closer and she stared at the small lit candle in the corner of the room and tried to breathe. She did this when Brigitta had fallen asleep in the abbey and she'd tried not to think of the boy she had loved and the songs they had sang and the fact that he was now dead just for knocking her unconscious and not giving up her location when asked by his commander.

She liked to think that was how he had died. Protecting…well…not her or Brigitta but the fact that he was protecting something, the little part of him that had been the boy she had loved and not the hard man he had became in a matter of weeks.

Of course it might not be the case but she liked to think of it anyway. But most of all, Liesl wanted to not think of him. Rolf, the summers at the lake, her house, the abbey, singing, her mother, the Baroness, Uncle Max, school…the future…all of now felt like it belonged to a different girl and Liesl wanted so desperately to leave her behind in Austria. She had to be someone new know and desperately hoping that she would wake up in her old bed and this was such a horrible dream was not helping.

There was bang in the street and she knew it was the pub across the road letting out the last of it's drunken customers and she closed her eyes and tugged Brigitta closer to her the money crinkling between them hidden from sight and though she knew she shouldn't finally exhaustion took over and she fell into a light sleep always waiting to see if someone would turn the door.

Nobody did. The Inn locked it's doors at ten but then again, since that night in the abbey Liesl Von Trapp was unsure of many a thing but she was quite sure of this, she would never sleep deeply again.

And there you go, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I will do my best to get the next one to you as soon as possible.

Next Chapter-As Liesl heads to the Red Cross to formulate a plan, Brigitta meets an man who has just as much opinion about the world as she does.