Hi, so here is another chapter and we are now at halfway past this story! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I will do my best to bring you the next one sooner rather than later.

Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine just this chapter just the Garvey's

Please Read and Review.

Any historical inaccuracy I apologise.

A Sister's Love

Chapter 15-Bad Guy

There are reunions, plans for the future and a trip back to the hotel where a shock awaits them. Second Part of the Two Part Handler.

They walked to the hospital which was a good thing because Brigitta was sure that if they had driven they might have been shot. All of the police were out, all of the soldiers that they could muster were all around the town and it was clear that the hospital was overrun. All around them the scenes of destruction littered the ground. Cars were on fire, buildings with dark smoke filling what had been this morning the bright blue sky. Brigitta watching the utter chaos that was unfolding and thought that this was just one moment, one city and in one time and place. Europe was supposed to be battered by bombs, England was supposed to be under constant bombardment and it had been a long time since she had even thought about what was going on in the Pacific. She had missed what was going on. She had missed it and she wanted to get back in the game. She was a reader, a voracious reader and she loved politics and it was damn time she got in the game. This was the Second World War. If she survived this she wanted it to be remembered. All of this. Because she wouldn't put it past whoever the next guy was in charge to pretend that it didn't happen.

And this…all of this…it had to mean something.

Eugene next to her was rather silent. Without warning his hand bumped hers and she felt her fingers entangle with his. Again her heart beat a little bit harder…this had never happened before. Maybe she had a hidden heart condition?

That might explain why she was struggling to breathe normally when he held her hand. Maybe Eugene like a heart attack was a silent killer?

Luke Garvey had a word with one of the police officers guarding the hospital. Clearly he was well known and well liked here and well respected and he got them through the crowd of clamouring people desperate for news easily. Eugene tugged at her hand and Luke stood behind them pushing them forwards so that they were in front and they were ahead of the manic crowd desperate to get in to the hospital and check if their loved ones were alive or injured or God forbid…

At the thought of Liesl dead Brigitta stopped. Her oldest sister was perhaps the only thing she had left. The one person in her family that she had left. She had been the mother and the father and the protector of her ten year old sister before she had even hit seventeen and Brigitta knew that they were lucky. They had a home, and something that resembled a new family and papers with the Red Cross and perhaps soon…who knew? Perhaps soon they would be together as a family again? But there was no scenario where she had faced waiting out the war for better or for worse without her sister. And it was only 1942. The stakes were achingly high and there was no guarantee that they would live through it and see things to absolute victory.

It wasn't just survival. It was Liesl. It was her big sister who had tucked her into bed as a child and pried books from her hand when she had been too tired to let go, it had been the girl who had sang and danced with them and who had spoken about taking her first sip of champagne and who had stood in front of them when their father had been in a bad mood. It was her silly big sister who laughed with them and cried with them and who had been more of a mother to them than anyone else that had come before Fraulein Maria.

If Liesl was dead then Brigitta did not know how to be. She did not know how to be a walking, talking person without her sister to guide her. She did not even know how to get out of bed without her and the thought made her knees week and shaking so much so that Eugene turned to face her when she stopped dead in the hallway, suddenly unable to breathe for quite a few different reasons.

"It will be fine" he said quietly. "It will be. It's what I tell myself whenever we get lists of the dead and we don't know if Jack is on it. I tell myself it will be fine because it's Jack and he can survive. And if your sister can survive all that you have then she can survive this to."

Brigitta nodded. She knew that he was right but that still didn't want to speculate. When she saw Liesl, when she felt her sister's arms around her then that was when she would relax and not before.

They carried on walking silently together side by side until they hit another corridor. Luke seemed to know where they were going but it didn't stop the sights from being seen. There was death and decay all around here. Bodies being pilled up outside and all around them was the sight of bleeding and moaning and injuries so horrific that it was hard not to look away when all you wanted to do was look away.

It was the terrible, terrible cost of war and this was just one hospital in a country that had managed to avoid being invaded. For the hospitals in countries facing bombardment it must be hell. For the countries invaded it must be hell. War was hell.

And Brigitta knew that the one man who could stop it—indeed the one man who had started it had no idea of the true cost of war. Because you never started a war knowing what the cost would be. She was thirteen a child in the eyes of many and she knew that. A child as young as Gretel would know that.

Suddenly the crowd cleared.

"SUSANNAH"

And then Brigitta saw her.

"LIESL"

And she was running and though her hand was still entangled in Eugene's she didn't want to let go. So she didn't. And so he was dragged along with her to the bed where her sister was sat, pale with a bandage wrapped around her head but also smiling when she saw her.

Her hug was as warm as ever and Brigitta thought that perhaps only she, who had been the closest to Liesl even before the world had come away from them realised that her sister was shaking violently.

And it was not from cold.

For a second, for the longest second imaginable they clung to each other and it was only when Liesl pulled away and introductions were inevitably made that she realised she was still holding Eugene's hand. By the time she thought to let go of it she was surprised to feel almost disappointed and for the love of all that was holy she did not understand why!

There was the sound of more running footsteps down the corridor and though Luke was wrapping his arms around his daughter and she was tucked up in Liesl's it was actually surprising to think that someone else was out there.

For a moment…for one stupidly endlessly long moment that was not in fact very long but just the opposite she thought that her father was coming down the hallways, crashing into whatever and whoever in his desperate attempt to find them and then there was another man in the room in uniform and she realised it was Jon. Jon who had been with his grandmother. His grandmother who she knew was in trouble and he had left his grandmother's side and come to find them the two girls he had saved from danger and taken a shot on time and time again despite the fact that he had never known them or had reason to or had reason to trust them and though Brigitta was thirteen she could not help but look towards Eugene and look towards the boy she had trusted with her life in a moment of terror and horror and wonder if what she was feeling was just an inkling of what Liesl was feeling.

They should have taught them how boys worked in school she thought irritably. It would have been more useful than math and science anyway.

"Jon"

"Jesus" he said and Brigitta realised in his panic that something was blending into his accent. Jon hated any mention of his German background but it was now clear to her that he had it. But as she realised this she knew that it didn't matter because you could not blame a country for one man. Germany was not an evil country. Germany was just a country that in had been ruled by an evil man since 1933.

But a tyrant was always overthrown and perhaps now was the time.

She hoped so.

"Were fine Jon. We're fine"

That was Liesl and she met her husband's eye with a smile. Brigitta managed a smile too and Jon sat down on the bed breathing heavily as if he was winded.

They sat there with the Garvey's for a long time and Brigitta knew that no matter what happened she was going to remember these people for the rest of her life.

And that had nothing to do with the fact that she was still feeling funny whenever she looked Eugene dead in his brown eyes.

Luke took Eugene home, Susannah was staying but there was an assumption that neither of them were going tonight. While many were fleeing Darwin, Jon was under the assumption that as long as they could stand they were going to go back to the hotel. If the hotel was still standing they would reunite with Edith and they would be together for as long as possible.

Jon took Liesl's hand in his own and wrapped an arm around Brigitta. Brigitta was so tired and so drained that she did not think to stop herself from leaning into the touch. Besides even if she did then she was not going to stop herself. Jon was family. God knows he was the only family they had now.

They got the hotel and the hotel was still standing but Jon paused. He stared at himself in the hotel mirror and Brigitta found herself hopping from foot to foot impatiently. She wanted to go and see Edith and then sink into a warm bed and pretend that this terribly long day had not happened.

She did not have time for formalities she thought scathingly as Jon put on his hat and nodded to himself.

Little did she know that he was preparing himself for something.

Little did she know that he knew what he was preparing himself for.

But he did.

And it became apparent when they entered the hotel.

She had a moment where she thought that the reason the hotel manager was coming towards them with such a sombre look in his eye was because he like the rest of them was just relieved to see them alive. That today had been such a terribly long day for everyone in this town that the fact that they had staggered back through another warzone alive was something that was almost a surprise.

Certainly, after what she had seen Brigitta could not disagree with that inevitable conclusion.

"Mr—"

"Captain"

"Captain?"

"Yes. It is Captain Van Braun"

The manager swallowed. Brigitta found Liesl's hand.

Whatever this was it was not good.

Liesl gripped back. Looking back there was a part of Brigitta that realised that her sister suspected what was coming and then there was Jon standing there knowing what was coming.

It was only her that was blissfully ignorant.

"It's your grandmother"

Edith?

Jon gave a slow long smile as if he was almost amused by what had happened. It was the same slow long smile that he had given her when he had heard her story in that little place in Switzerland and it was the same smile when he had realised that he was going to marry Liesl just to keep her safe.

It was the smile of one who was utterly defeated and again she did not know that then, but she would.

One way or another.

But Jon was already speaking.

"You don't have to tell me "he said quietly. "I already know."

And when he next spoke it was final.

"My grandmother is dead"

And there was nothing beyond that.

And there you are, I hope that you enjoy this chapter and I will do my best to bring you the next one sooner rather than later.

Next Chapter-Liesl has a plan which Jon does not get as feelings between them develop, Brigitta has a pen pal and the War begins to come home when the American troops hit Australia.