Hi, so here is another chapter and I hope this gives you some insight into what Friedrich and the Von Trapps have been going through. I hope you enjoy this chapter and I will do my best to bring you the next one sooner rather than later.

This is the spoiler chapter for a sequel I have floating in the works which looks at this story from the other Von Trapp perspectives most specifically Louisa. If this is something you think you might be interested in then please let me know likewise if it is not.

Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine just this little plot.

And the creation of Alexander is based on the fact that both Georg and Maria are young enough to have more children.

Please Read and Review and let me know what you think.

A Sister's Love

Chapter 18-Friedrich

Without ruining any plans for a potential sequel we see Friedrich's perspective of the last few years and the events that led him to a hospital bed in Australia and to a reunion with both his sisters.

His arm hurt.

Actually that was an abject lie, his arm was in agony. Utter agony. He had never before understood the true depths of the word. When she had been seven Brigitta had broken her arm falling out of a tree. Their father had come home for three days and Friedrich who had been watching from the top balcony as he had stalked into the house like the King of the World had seen the barely disguised panic in his eyes.

Now it was worse.

It was much worse.

They had escaped the abbey and been at the base of the hills before they had realised they were two members of their family down. His father had gone insane with worry. Had it not been for their mother he'd have stormed down the hill and tried to take on all the German soldiers single handed. As it was they had to get out of Austria. There was no iffing and butting there was the simple fact that they had to get out. They had to go over the hills and get into neutral territory as soon as possible.

It had not been an easy thing convincing Georg Von Trapp to go as well.

It had been hard to explain it to the rest of them as well. Kurt was all for following their father's footsteps and storming the soldiers that were combing the hills looking for them (it had not taken Herr Zeller long to command a car and start looking) and Marta and Gretel had gotten upset at the thought of leaving. It had taken the considerable efforts of their mother to deal with their father so Louisa and he had come to a mental joint conclusion that everything else would have to be down to them.

And somehow they managed it.

They managed to get over the boarder and into Switzerland two days before boarder guards were posted stopping the steady dripping flow of refugees into neutral territory. It was at that point where there was no option to go back that the naval commander in Georg Von Trapp seemed to die. They had found a small house in the city centre and he simply just lay there for days at a time staring at the wall.

It was hard to explain it to everyone else—Louisa especially for his eldest remaining sister had gone down the route of anger—but Friedrich thought he understood. He was grieving but in his own way. He was grieving but in the only way he knew how to grieve. Silently. Friedrich could not blame his father for the grief that racked his silent body for five whole days and five whole nights. The grief ran through all of them.

He was the one who ended up sitting next to his father in that small, tiny room as every day his mother or Louisa went out for news. Nine times out of ten it was Louisa because…well…that was another story.

But nothing was ever heard of either one of his sisters ever again.

On day five somehow his father managed to drag himself out of bed and carry on. They didn't have a choice really. The situation was ever evolving and it was changing time and time again and they had to get to a country that was going to stand against the Nazi's. There was no way that they were safe here. Countries that had claimed neutrality in the last war were being invaded in this one or at the very least being compliant when the lists were drawn up.

They had to carry on.

And that was when it led them to go to America.

It had not been easy. They had always been planning to go to America throughout this whole debate and Friedrich had spent a month cooped up in a tiny cabin on what could only be described as one of the most unclean ships in human history. It had not helped matters much that Louisa had gone into a spiel about the Titanic halfway through which had set Marta off like a shot. Most of the time Louisa was happy being far away from them sitting on the deck of the ship and Friedrich went and sat with her—it was clear that when the war did break out the navy was not going to be for him.

The two of them had sat there on a small patch of the deck and watched as the sun rose and the sun set. Neither one of them spoke much to the other and neither one of them sang but there was an understanding that they were in this together. That the two of them were going to be the ones to carry all of this forwards along with their mother and father. And that the world that they had known was falling apart beneath them and there was nothing that they could do to stop it. They would be a part of this new world in America. And that new world wouldn't have Liesl or Brigitta in it.

Cash was never a problem. Their father had loads of money in Swiss banks that he could access and Uncle Max had managed to ensure that a furnished house was waiting for them. Their Uncle was trying to get out too but he had told father via their one phone conversation that they'd had that he was going to try and help other families get out as soon as possible. Two weeks later Austria was at war and that had been the last that they had heard of him.

But they had managed. Somehow. Someway they had managed this little ragtag family to keep their heads down. They had managed to keep their heads held high and keep their family together. They had settled in Wisconsin which Uncle Max had recommended because there seemed to be a settlement of Austrian families there. Indeed they had been lucky to get into the United States at all. Immigration was so tight that as their father told them when the two empty places at the table got too much for each and every one of them—they were lucky to have escaped after all.

Looking at his father and how much he had aged since their escape Fredrich wondered just how much he believed that. The man seemed to have aged decades in weeks and months and time constrained to just that. The joy that had re-entered his life had all but disappeared but the fact that their mother was pregnant had brought it back again.

That was another thing that they had to address. The baby. The new baby. Oh God, Alexander. Not so much a baby anymore but now a four year old boy. A four year old boy who had heard stories about his two missing sisters and had never even seen much more than a picture of them.

For all he knew they could be dead.

When war had broken out it was almost a relief.

Friedrich had been nearing eighteen then. It had been almost a relief to go and sign up especially because the atmosphere at home was still tinged in worry and panic and the never ended desire to find answers that might not be there. The house seemed almost dimmer without his big sister and his little sister. It was hard to imagine a world where Liesl was not there a calm and steady presence gushing about red lipstick or Brigitta pouring over books and maps some of which he knew she had gotten through slightly…dodgy sources in Austria through connections that his sister had who always thought she was there for someone else.

He had grown up with Liesl's calming presence like a mother more than a sister, dependable, solid and always there…he had not been prepared to be the big sibling ever. He had not been prepared to be big brother.

If he was finding it hard Louisa was another story.

When war had broken out they had both been off like a shot. Friedrich had enlisted in the Marines. It had not been a hard choice. He had been in America for nearly three years when Pearl Harbour had happened and one look at what was left of the Arizona splashed all over the newspapers was enough for him to go. The Marine's wanted the toughest and the best and Friedrich had wanted to be that.

He had gone home and told his father after he had enlisted. His mother had not been there she had been giving his baby brother a bath. Alexander had done wonders to bring the light back into his father's eyes but the sadness was still there. Friedrich thought he was surviving not really living and he wanted to ask at what point did his father get any rest?

But he knew the answer to that. When Louisa and he had been having one of the many knock down, drag out fights that they had he had told them that he would not rest until he knew…one way or the other.

That had been Louisa and Friedrich had took a breath. His middle sister and his father rubbed off on each other in the worst way possible simply because they were so alike.

Honestly he was glad he didn't have to play referee between the two of them anymore.

However all his father had said was, "The Navy would have killed you?"

"Yes" he had replied thinking of those months on sea and the fact that his stomach was still recovering three years later.

"Yes, yes it would"

"May I suggest if you wish to loose your virginity beforehand you be careful. I've seen many a man go to war unmarried and come back to a woman he has to marry with a baby on her hip"

"Oh God"

That had been the last conversation he had needed.

His father had put down his paper and stared at him with those shrewd eyes.

"I don't need a hero for a son Friedrich. I love the one I have right now and I am perfectly happy with him as well. Do you understand?"

It had taken Friedrich a second to understand what he was saying.

"Understood father, I'll be careful"

That had been all that they had, had to say on the matter.

Louisa had gone to war too. Technically she was a translator and a decoder for the Office of Strategic Services and she did the 'typing' for one of the officers up there. Considering his sister and what Friedrich knew the OSS did he knew that was only half the story but considering she was away half the time in different states or in different countries word from her had been very few and far between and that was before you got to the fact that his letters were virtually non-existent.

Marta and Gretel were still in school. Marta the last he had heard had, had her heart set on teaching and Gretel had still not decided, she was still young enough to think this all a bad dream. Kurt he knew was simply counting down the days until he could enlist and he was almost certainly going to be Air Force when he went because Kurt had loved the idea of planes. Weather or not he would cope with going up in them was another story.

But for Friedrich it had been the Marines.

Which of course had meant more time on a boat.

He was a good soldier though. He enjoyed the training—well not the running in the baking sun but he enjoyed the brotherhood that developed between soldiers. He found he liked going out with a band of friends and drinking and giggling and flirting until all hours. It made no difference to him (though he was pleased to say he was not going to catch a bullet a virgin) one way or the other but he liked it.

His unit had missed Guadalcanal but they had managed to get some action at Cape Gloucester and then he had been dispatched to the islands and take that damn airfield on Peleliu had seen his shoulder get blown through with a spare bullet. He'd been evacuated pretty quickly but somewhere between passing out and the severe amount of blood loss he had been transferred here.

To Australia.

And he had woken up to find Liesl staring at him.

For a moment he had thought it was a dream.

And then there had been another moment where he was sure that he was dead and that she was appearing to him because she was dead as well.

But then he breathed in and breathed out.

And he was still alive.

His sister was here.

Liesl was here.

"Brigitta" he said finally as she had finished saying his name as if he was a ghost.

"Yes" Liesl said snatching on the word as if it was golden. "Yes she is here, she's alive…were all alive"

Were all alive.

What wonderful words those was.

And as his big sister found his hand Fredrich started crying. He did not know what set him off only that a multitude of emotions were crashing down upon him and he didn't know what to do other than to cry and cry and cry.

Liesl, as she always did seemed to understand.

And there we have it. I hope you like this chapter and I will bring you the next one as soon as I can.

Next Chapter-Brigitta comes to the hospital and their is a reunion between the three Von Trapps, information is shared and things might be (for once) looking up.