Hi, and here is another chapter, I am leaving this note short and sweet this time so enjoy.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.

Please Read and Review.

Also as I said in the last chapter I am back at work now so updates might be a bit few and far between for a while.

Poetic Justice

Chapter 3-Plain Sight

Maria's illness continues as the family move into Switzerland leading to a shocking revelation. With options rapidly running out of time and no news from the Red Cross, Georg Von Trapp begins to break down.

They got into the capital of Switzerland just in time for the radio announcements that though the British and the American Governments were deeply concerned about the German occupation of Austria they had decided in their infinite wisdom that they were not going to do anything about it. Louisa was not sure that she was expecting anything different to be honest. So much of the German advancement into Europe was because other governments did nothing to stop it. She could hear Brigitta in her head swearing in that serious way she did that at some point they were going to have to get involved if only to stop their own countries being invaded via fascism but Louisa was not sure. A part of her wanted the countries with their politicians making all the right noises and doing nothing about it to understand the bone aching fear and fury that came when your country was being taken from you but there was nothing that you could do about it and you had no support but she supposed that was too harsh.

Right now everything about her was harsh. She was angry and she clung to that anger because it was easier than feeling all the other emotions that she was feeling because if she did…if she did start feeling them, then she was going to break into pieces and she was not sure with so many of them feeling caught on the raw that they could survive her breaking down as well.

At some point she knew that her father was going to smash into pieces. He was going to collapse. Already he looked like a dead man walking. The decision to move away from the mountain top had made him worse rather than make him better and even though one of them went to the Red Cross every day there were so many refugees pouring over the boarder that it was hard to keep track of names never mind actually get a staff member to remember them all.

It was Louisa that volunteered to go out each day. She did it mainly because her mother was still racked with some mysterious illness and her father had laid down on the bed and sometimes struggled to get up and partly because she needed to get out of the two sets of rooms that they were in. Friedrich was more admirable because Friedrich had the patience to deal with the children always clamouring looking for answers. Kurt to his credit knew that something was wrong and he knew that the chances of finding his sisters were slim but Marta and Gretl were still children and children who still struggled to understand why they were not going to school right now and were instead hiding behind closed doors like rats.

She knew her mother was struggling to let her out of her sight but Louisa loved the walk down to the Red Cross. She loved the streets that were always full and she enjoyed the sights and the sounds and the smells of the people and places she ran into.

The Red Cross station was rammed with refugees registering and registering missing family members. Everyday there was another list of names and though she dutiful checked each and every day for the two weeks that they were trapped in those little rooms while their father lay there staring at the walls and not speaking or seeing or eating she checked but there was no Liesl Von Trapp and there was no Brigitta Von Trapp there. She didn't go there expecting it if she was being honest. She knew that there were still refugee trains making it past the boarder, but Louisa had very carefully at the age of fourteen done her best to dim the hope in her to a manageable expectation.

It was getting easy now though to tell the difference between the rest of the refugees coming in and as a way to avoid going back home she would sometimes help anyone who needed it. She'd had the same formal education her brothers had, had and that included languages and Louisa had always excelled at languages. She spoke fluent Austrian, German and English as did most of her family but she had also learnt French and to some extent Italian. While working at the refugee centre she also picked up some of the Slavic languages. She began to learn the painful process of speaking and understanding Russian a complicated language that was even harder for her tongue to use than it was to listen too.

She thought that she knew the different groups.

The Jewish refugees were the obvious ones. They huddled together and kept themselves to themselves and Louisa approached them with a gentle intent. She knew full well the horrors that they were escaping from and if there were spare…anything they were going to get it as far as she was concerned. There was something about the cautious way the children smiled that pulled at her a little.

She saw some of the gypsies come through as well. They too were cautious with anything that was handed out and they were suspicious of outsiders in their closely knit group but they had a community that she liked watching. They did not care where they were or where they slept or what they ate as long as they were together. The children were more friendly than the adults too.

Then there were the communists fleeing persecution from the East. On her first day working at the centre she had been told only to approach them if she was certain they would not hurt her and Louisa being the fearless person that Friedrich thought she was had immediately gone over to them. Actually they were grossly misrepresented. Most of them were fleeing their homes for expression an opinion or doing something that the government didn't like and Louisa could understand and sympathise with that immensely. She did not run away from a challenge and she remarked one day as she was pouring tea to one of them that she didn't like the picture it painted.

He had laughed. He spoke some English enough for her to grin at her with teeth that had not been cleaned she reckoned in several weeks but when he spoke his words rang through her like a bell.

"Ah child you have to run to survive. And if you do not survive then how can you tell your story?"

It sounded like such a Brigitta thing to say that she was not sure weather not she could speak. He seemed to understand that and he patted her on the arm and then tore into his bread as if he had not eaten in weeks which to be fair most of them had not. Louisa watching him had turned her back to hide her face and then the next morning he was gone. That was not unusual, most of them were gone the next morning. They were nameless and faceless people in a world which was rapidly turning upside down but that night as she laid on her little nest of blankets and listened to her mother retch in the small water-closet she found she was holding her St Christopher's pendant and thinking hard on what he had said. They had to survive, and if they survived then they ran.

One day Friedrich had gone out and it was just her and her father. Friedrich sat with him most days but today their mother had gone out and had insisted that Friedrich and the children join her.

Louisa had still been asleep and so when she had woken up it had just been her and Georg Von Trapp—or what was left of him and Louisa decided that this time she would speak her mind and damn the consequences because if there was one thing that she learnt from working in that refugee centre day in and day out it was that life was too short to do anything other than to speak your mind and your mind and your voice and your ability to use them were the most precious things in the world. It was the difference between a free world and one enslaved and Louisa was sure of herself to know that she never wanted to be a part of an enslaved world.

"I met a communist the other day" she said finally. "And he told me that we have to survive in order for our stories to be told. And you know what he was right because if we don't tell our stories, if we don't have a voice then what is the point of this entire thing? Why did we run? So will you please get up because there is only so long that Friedrich, mother and I can carry the show and quite frankly you owe us"

His eyes found hers and Louisa pressed forwards as only she could. She knew, as only she could that she had him. And she could get him out of this.

"You left us for years" she said speaking softly. "You left us and you fed us crumbs of affection and were surprised when we got fed up with trying to make a feast out of them, you were the one who said that we had to run, you were the one that did it without a plan and we all followed now will get the fuck off this bed and be the father your promised you would be? Or is this to be like mother? Your excuse for checking out on us again and letting us raise ourselves again? Because we might have forgiven you the first time but speaking for myself if you do that again then you and I are done. And I mean it father…we are done, you and I…we don't get past this, were finished, over and you can lose three daughters to the carnage instead of two and you can know that with me…it was one hundred percent your fault. Now I am going out now to see if mother is back and when I get back I guess one way or another I will have your answer"

And with that she pushed herself off the hard wooden floor and went downstairs. Her face was wet and her hands were shaking but she knew she was calm on the inside. One way or another this had to be said she knew that. Admittedly it might be harsh for her father to hear but she knew that it had to be said. And one way or another she would know her answer when she returned.

The truly terrifying thing was, was that she didn't know what answer she wanted.

"Sister"

"Kurt" she greeted running her fingertips under her eye. "I was just taking some air mother—"

But her mother had gone past her and she caught Friedrich's eye. He shrugged.

"She went to the doctor came back out and said she was going to have to speak to father urgently I don't know what is going to happen all I know is that she said she had to speak to him"

"I too have spoken to him"

Friedrich looked at her.

"Oh Christ" he muttered. "What have you done now?"

"Nothing" she said sharply. "Nothing but thank you for the implication"

Kurt dithered, he had Marta by one hand and Gretl by the other and both of them had the patience of a fly on the wall.

"We should go up" Louisa decided. "We need to get him off the bed and into action if we have any chance of getting out of here before the borders close"

"What have you heard?" Kurt asked eyeing her with interest. Louisa rolled her eyes.

"Nothing brother, I just know that the Germans will not be content with invading one country and Herr Zeller is not going to be content with leaving father to his own devices. Especially not after the convent"

"I've been thinking about that" Friedrich said quietly. "Maybe we should have looked there. The whole place was under guard in the days afterwards and we couldn't get near it but do you think that Liesl and Brigitta never got out? That the nuns re-hid them when we got separated?"

Louisa considered it. "I don't know" she said finally. "It's a nice idea but there's no way to prove it and…and I think we have to keep going through whatever comes next. And we have to move on and I don't want to but…" she caught Kurt and Friedrich's eyes and knew her own emotions were reflected back in their eyes.

"Should we sing about our favourite things?" Marta asked quietly.

"What good would that do?" Kurt snapped.

"We never sing anymore" that was Gretl. "We used to sing"

"Yeah well…we used to have a home" Kurt muttered. "Come on let's go up"

And so they went up and Louisa felt her heart race in her chest and her stomach flip flop. She didn't know what to do and she felt a kind of terror surge through her, she was sure she was going to be sick.

But…but then there he was. Stood there with their mother hand in hand and hugging the children that ran to him. Friedrich shook his hand but Louisa stood back looking at him. He didn't move to embrace her nor did she run into it but she saw his eyes look at her.

She didn't know what his expression meant.

"Children, your mother and I have some news. You are to have a new brother or sister."

Louisa's eyes slid to Friedrich's and she knew that even as the rest of them celebrated and they did join in, that they were thinking the same thing and it wasn't very nice.

But that wasn't the problem. The problem was that she had no idea what had gotten through to him in the end, her words or their mother's news and that she thought was what was going to keep her awake for a long time because she was not sure that she wanted to hear the answer. Or that she was going to like the answer.

Of what that meant for their relationship, in that moment Louisa really couldn't think.

And there you go, I hope you enjoy and I will post sooner rather than later.

Next Chapter-The Von Trapps make a decision that will forever alter their lives in the wake of recent revelations.