Hi, so here is another chapter-and there are only four more left to go! I hope you enjoy this chapter as we are now beginning winding down this story. Thank you all so much for your continued interest and I will do my best to bring you the next one sooner rather than later.

Friedrich makes a return in this chapter and that leads directly the cliff-hanger. Iwo Jima was a real battle (as we all know) and it was a brutal one as for the first time the American's lost more men than the Japanese with many being wounded and airlifted to hospitals both in Australia and back to the States.

Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine.

The speeches in Italics are from Harry. S. Truman who spoke candidly about the destruction of Germany and the Atomic bomb. Both speeches were done at separate times his German speech was after the bomb had been dropped and used to justify dropping it in the first place, but I combined them together to give a more real scope of the wars on the two fronts and the desperation felt as one war ended but another war raged on. The speeches were taken off YouTube where you can find nearly all the speeches recorded by ex-Presidents. I have tried to keep it as historical accurate as I can especially when bringing in Friedrich and hopefully I have done that but please keep it in mind that this story and the history is never set in stone.

Please Read and Review and let me know what you think and I will see you for the next chapter.

And Enjoy.

A Sister's Love.

Chapter 26-Do Not Go Gentle

Liesl and Brigitta have a much needed conversation as the war comes to a close. A bomb is dropped on Japan. A there are two surprises waiting for the sisters.

March 1945

He woke up coughing harshly against the bright lights. He was not on a battlefield somewhere he knew that much. His arm was killing him all over again and it would just be his look to survive Peleliu only to lose it at Iwo Jima.

But Christ it was a terrible battle.

He felt his eyelids flutter again and he struggled to keep them open. More than once he had seen death happen to a man who let himself slip from consciousness to unconsciousness and who had never seen the light of day again. That was not going to happen again. He was not going to die in a hospital bed.

"Easy there brother"

He knew that voice.

"Kurt?"

"Yes Friedrich it's me"

He turned his head a little to see his brother in his air force uniform sat there watching him with a wry smile.

"Water"

"Yes"

He took the water greedily and then when he was done he leaned back against the pillows.

"What—"

"You tell me. We got a telegram you were wounded again and that this time you were coming to the States, which was a nice shock for mother and father let me tell you because they did not know you had been wounded in the first place. What the hell happened?"

Friedrich shrugged. Kurt had never actually gone up in a plane yet and if truth be told his brother was not a long way off. If they could get this war over with before his brother had to see even the half of what he had seen…

"Where are—"

"Mother and Father are interrogating your Doctor, Gretel and Marta are at home with the baby. Your in San Francisco, I only managed to get a three day furlough to come up here and see you yesterday. You've been out of it for a while but the Doctors are pleased"

Pleased…pleased meant going back. Friedrich had learnt that kind of jargon a long time ago. He had learnt to understand it and he had learnt to except it. But he was not sure how much longer he could keep going dodging death. Especially when it seemed that death wanted him for his own.

"My arm?"

"Your going to struggle but it's there. Doctors aren't entirely sure that you will regain full function in lifting it above your head or if you'll have the strength in it but with some work…and you can still use it, you still have it attached—"

"Heavens for that" he muttered. His brother was a straight shooter always was and Friedrich liked that about him but he was sleepy. Must have been the bloody drugs he'd been put on. When he woke up he was going to have to speak to Liesl about that. She'd know what to do. She was a nurse after all.

And then it hit him.

Liesl. Brigitta. His mother, his father.

He woke immediately grabbing Kurt with his uninjured arm.

"Get father"

"What?"

"Get father Kurt now and…did they bring my bag with me?"

"Your personal effects no? why?"

"Just get father and get him here. I have to tell him something and then…just get him Kurt please"

"Alright" his brother said shooting him a look that clearly suggested he thought he'd lost his mind. "Alright brother I'll get him but—"

"Tell him it's about Liesl and Brigitta, just get him out of the room and get him here before they dope me on more drugs. Don't look at me like that just fucking do it!"

He coughed a little and Kurt nodded his eyes wide. He threw the chair aside in his hurry and was out the door quick as a flash. Friedrich leaned back on the pillows and had to work very hard to keep his nausea at bay. He needed to get himself under control before his father arrived.

And then the land of pain free oblivion awaited.

He didn't want to wake up again. He could hear the screaming, the bullets, the sounds…he didn't want to smell it or taste it like he could the blood on his tongue.

He didn't know fully what had happened on the island of Iwo Jima but he knew enough to know that it was bad.

Very, very bad…

How much longer could they carry this on for?

August 6th 1945 (The Day the Bomb was Dropped)

There was much to celebrate but a sense that though the end was in sight they were not there just yet. All over the world the news of Hitler's death and then the almost universal German surrender that followed was felt with a bone aching relief by everyone who had managed to make it through the war.

London was ablaze with glory and drink and men and woman pouring home. Celebrations were cropping up in America and the police did nothing to stop them. Austria had thrown open the boarders welcoming the American's in anyway they could. The Italians were thrilled that Mussolini was gone, the Soviet Union could smell victory in the East and all throughout Europe there was a sense of peace. It was reflected even in the weather, the sun was shining, there was not a speck of cloud in the blue sky and neighbours and communities came together to toast the boys coming home.

In Australia they did all of that but they also worried about the Pacific. The Japanese had not surrendered nor had they given any indication that they were going to and there was a sense that the troops in Europe already battered and exhausted would be turned to face the equally exhausted Japanese and then what would happen.

The night they heard that Austria had been liberated by the allies Brigitta had climbed into Liesl's bed. Since her pregnancy she had moved into Edith's room and they had spent a memorable day fixing up a small nursery in the room. Her sister was now big…very, very big and when the baby moved she could feel it. Brigitta thought it was the strangest feeling in the world when she had first felt it though Liesl acted as if nothing had happened.

Anyway the night that Austria was liberated baby belly or not the two sisters had clung at each other and it had taken a long time for either one of them to go to sleep. Eventually they'd had to carry on as normal but for that night…that one night that they were free to feel what they felt as their home was liberated. For the Von Trapp sisters, both of whom remembered intimately what the day was like when they had been forced to leave in the first place.

And now it was all over. Five years later.

Austria was different, they were different, the world was different and there was nothing to do but ride the wave of emotion as it came crashing down and hit them again and again and again.

The next morning they had carried on like normal and then by the end of the week it was almost all over. Hitler was gone, his army was crumbling and at last they could turn their attention to the Japanese the last enemy in the way of a peaceful life.

And yet between them…so much was left unsaid.

And Brigitta knew that she had to be the one to say it. Or at the very least start the conversation off because if there had been a warning shot with the surrender of the German Army then she knew what was going to come next.

She chose her moment one morning in the kitchen as Liesl was making tea. Since she had become pregnant—or at least pregnant enough to be unable to hide it—she had not taken any shifts from the hospital. It wasn't so bad…they had money—certainly enough to make do and Brigitta was sure that when school ended she could earn a little pocket money through some work at the local liberty. Besides…they had been on their own for so long they were used to it now. Brigitta honestly didn't know how she would have done it without Liesl.

"Liesl?"

"Hmm?"

"I need to talk to you about something"

"Is it about your monthly bleeds?"

"No" Brigitta said scowling. They'd had that conversation shortly after Jon had left. Suffice to say she knew what to do in a pinch. It was the nurse in Liesl, mixed in with the big sister, she never had any issues with saying what she thought.

"It's about what happens when the war ends"

Liesl had been sat at the table listening to the radio the cool breeze blowing in through the open window and with this she turned her head though her eyes remained closed.

"Oh?"

"I've been thinking. I want to stay here. I don't want to go to America. I appreciate we have to find mother and father but…but this is my home. And I want to stay here when I have a family and friends"

Liesl opened her eyes and regarded her with that frank gaze.

"I know" she said finally. "You are not the only one who thinks that but—"

"You have a husband" Brigitta pointed out. "And I've lived with you and just you for five years I don't know how to go back and be a part of a big family, at least not one like ours, you heard Friedrich it's all fallen apart…it's all coming away and there's nothing that can stop it. I want to stay here and I want to stay here with you. And when this is all over I need you to understand and tell father why. I don't mind if he wants to come here, personally I think It would be wonderful but I made my home here, I can't be another nameless, faceless refugee hoping against hope that the door to freedom is open. I have a home. I have papers, I am Australian. I want to look forwards to the future and I want to forget the past. The past is just pain and misery and moonlight on a lake. I am done with that. Please understand what I am trying to tell you"

It came out a bit garbled, it came out a bit more messy than she would have wanted it to but she knew her sister understood her. Liesl opened her mouth and then music that had been playing on the radio stopped and the newscaster cut them both off before either one of them could even think about speaking.

"We interrupt this broadcast with some breaking news from the White House in Washington. Please stand by for the President of the United States"

And then there he was. Brigitta sighed for a second but listened nonetheless. Truman was not Roosevelt but he was good.

"My fellow Americans. I have just returned from Berlin, the city from which the Germans intend to rule the world, it is a ghost city—"

He carried on this way for sometime about the destruction of Germany and the revengement of it's people. Brigitta didn't care. She had no sympathy in her. The German people had put that man in power and that man had ruined the world. He had come close to completely annihilating the world. It made her too angry to think about it.

Maybe someday.

In truth she was close to tuning him out but then he began again and she understood what he was saying and when she understood it she felt her blood run cold.

"A short time ago, an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima and destroyed it's usefulness to the enemy. That bomb has more power in it than 20, 000 tons of TNT. The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl Harbour and they have been repaid many fold and the end is not yet. With this bomb we have now added a new and revolutionary increase in destruction to supplement our Armed Forces. In their present form these bombs are now in production and even more bombs are in development. It is an Atomic bomb…"

He carried on explaining the mechanics behind it. Talking about the sun and the universe. But then…

"We are now prepared to destroy more rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have in their cities"

He carried on talking but to be honest her body was so locked down in horror that she couldn't have told you what he was saying. Eventually Liesl turned the radio off and looked at the window onto the street.

"It never ends does it?" she said almost dreamily. "We just keep finding new ways to kill people. This will be the bomb that one day will end the world. What's the point of having a fight if your enemies can drop hell down on you from the sky and vaporise an entire city?"

Brigitta swallowed. She needed a glass of water or else she was going to be sick.

It was then that Liesl did a very funny thing. Her hand which had been on her belly dropped off and she gave a little gasp and then turned around her face white.

"What?"

"I think…I think…"

Brigitta stood up and walked around the table to see.

"Oh shit. Water. You do pick your moments don't you?"

"Language and yes, yes the baby does. Will you get your coat and hail a cab, I want to be in a hospital"

"Ok—but I don't need a coat, it's August."

"Well lock the door behind us"

Christ even in labour Liesl was Liesl.

Brigitta had never seen a childbirth before and after seeing this she was not entirely sure if she ever wanted a child herself. Granted the nurses had been most kind and had allowed her to stay in the room while Liesl was ready but then she had given a large shout and Brigitta had just had enough time to see something red and slithery looking before she was shunted out of the room as if she was a hat rack.

When she was eventually allowed to come back in half an hour later it was to see her sister sat there with a baby in her arms.

"It's a girl" Liesl said her face shining. "Come and look at her Brigitta she's a perfect baby girl"

Brigitta didn't know much about babies—she had been too young when her younger sisters had been born to notice anything other than the fact that their faces screwed up a bit when they cried. But looking at this baby she thought she was the most perfect thing in the world.

It was hard to tell what she looked like but she had dark eyes and dark hair and small fingernails, the smallest most perfect little fingers and toes that you had ever seen.

"She is" she said wiping her fingers under her eyes and smiling through the tears. "Oh she is"

"I thought…Elizabeth, I don't know why it's just a name I liked. Elizabeth Van Braun"

"Jon will love it"

"Yes…and…I thought…Brigitta for a middle name? For her godmother"

She turned her head and brushed her hair back.

"Me?" she said unable to keep both the surprise and the emotion out of her voice.

"You…because…because I'd be dead without you sister. Because I'd have died somewhere between Austria and Switzerland. Because you gave me something to live for. Because you were the hope, my best friend and my sister. And I am here because of you"

Brigitta didn't know what to say to that. Instead she hugged her. She tried to put a lot of things into that hug that she didn't think she could say. She wanted to say that she understood. That she felt the same way about her sister that her sister did for her. It was a sister's love that had gotten them through this to this point and it was Liesl, Liesl who had been big sister, Liesl who had been mother without ever being asked and without ever being given a choice as to if she wanted the mantle for her own. It was her sister Liesl that had done it. She deserved everything the world had to offer the good and the bad and so did this baby, born on a dark day but on a day that made it all the more brighter because she would grow up never knowing (pray to God) what the world was like when it was at war.

Liesl hugged her back as awkwardly as she could until the baby squawked a little (there was really no other word to describe that) at being pressed in between them.

But they stayed close the three of them for a long time.

"You need to go" the nurse said with a sympathetic smile. "Visiting hours are over"

Brigitta hugged her sister again and then pressed a small kiss to Elizabeth's head. She was convinced her baby goddaughter/niece was being to recognise her.

Quite clearly she was brilliant.

"I'll come back tomorrow morning with your stuff"

Liesl nodded but so entranced with her baby that Brigitta was sure that if she had said she was coming back tomorrow with Hitler's head in a wicker basket she wouldn't have minded.

She thought she would walk back and then grab a cake from the really expensive shop that did chocolate cake to die for (and she meant that) and then to hell with it, she was nearly sixteen, she would open one of Edith's bottles of champagne and have her first sip of the stuff while she wrote a letter to Eugene.

And then as she began the familiar path down to her home the streets mostly empty the tune popped into her head almost without warning and she stopped her cake box in her hand.

She had not sang in five years. Certainly she had not sang this song since…

Since her mother had come home.

And suddenly she couldn't help herself.

"Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens—"

"Shut up" came a voice from a window and Brigitta rolled her eyes.

"Piss off" she yelled backwards and then she giggled to herself starting again. Honestly she had not even had a drink yet and already she was feeling quite drunk.

"Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens, brown paper packages tied up with string, these are a few of my favourite things—"

She had just turned up onto her gate when she stopped dead. The box nearly fell out of her hand and carefully she put it on the floor in the garden opening the gate and letting it bang behind her. Edith had always hated when they had done that but Brigitta didn't care. Her mouth was open and her heart felt like it was going to stop in her chest and then all of a sudden it was beating again.

Because when she had turned up the path to go to her house there had already been someone sitting on the stoop.

He was thinner than the last time she remembered him and older, there was grey in his hair and in the stubble on his face and the last time she had seen him he had been in dark clothes however in most of her dreams and nightmares and memories he had been in uniform. He was not in uniform now rather dark trousers that had a grey shirt tucked into it. He was wearing a dark jacket—actually—it might have been the same jacket as that night. Gone was the hat though but everything else about him was the same.

He had stood up now and he was watching her with wide eyes his hands were trembling she noticed and she dropped her bag on the floor watching him. She had been ten when he had last seen her, her hair in a little knot at the back of her head. Now her hair was loose and coming to her shoulders from where she had cut it at January. Her body was not that of a ten year old girl but of a fifteen year old woman. Her shoes and dress were different, she was even wearing pink lipstick.

But she knew him.

And he knew her.

"Brigitta" it was all that was said but she could hear the love in that one word and she knew in that moment that whatever she had thought he had not forgotten her or her sister. He was here. He was alive.

He was here.

And when she spoke she was rather pleased to realise that her voice was not shaking but perfectly steady even as her eyes were filling rapidly with tears.

"Father"

Georg Von Trapp looked at his daughter and Brigitta looked back and then his arms were open and she didn't care that she was fifteen, she didn't care that they had not had the closest relationship, she didn't care about anything. She simply ran towards him and for the first time in five years she found herself in her father's arms.

And there you go. I hope you have enjoyed this chapter and the little cliff-hanger (again!) and I will bring you the next chapter sooner rather than later.

Next Chapter-Brigitta and Georg fill in all the blanks as they reunite, Goerg learns just what his daughters have been up to, and Liesl has a reunion finally with her father.