A/N: I feel the need to put a warning on this chapter as well. Could be a trigger for some. Also, the story is written to demonstrate the feelings and decisions of the characters as I understand them. It is not reflexive of my personal opinions, it is simply my interpretation of a specific character.

In other new, I have finished the story, and I do promise a happy ending to it all. I will begin updating daily now the story is completed in my archive.

Chapter Eleven

The examination seemed to take forever. Frau Schmidt stayed with Maria. She clung to the older woman's hand the entire time the doctor was checking her over. "You are dehydrated Fraulein. Are you drinking enough water? Are you eating a balanced diet?"

The doctor looked at Frau Schmidt more than Maria as she set the menu for the villa. "Yes," the housekeeper replied. "I make sure, we have seven young children to feed, and I make sure they eat very well. Fraulein Maria eats very well, we all do."

"Are you able to sustain your meals, Fraulein Maria?" the doctor pressed.

Maria shook her head, "Not all the time. I've been getting headaches since…since I fell up on the mountains. I tripped when I was up there and since then, a few weeks after, I got dizzy and I have headaches and they make me feel sick, like a burning."

"May I examine your stomach?" the doctor asked. "I'll be as quick and gentle as I can, I promise."

The old family doctor realized that if he was anything other than that Captain von Trapp would be on him like a moth to a flame. He'd warned him that Maria was afraid of doctors and didn't appreciate unfamiliar or unnecessary touch.

Maria nodded and took a breath as the doctor proceeded.

Twenty minutes later, the doctor came out to speak to a very nervous Captain. It had taken a long time for the exam to be completed. 'How is she?" the Captain asked quickly.

"She's dehydrated, but not excessively, and I would venture to guess she's also deficient in some of her vitamins from the emesis."

"Well, can you give her an injection of those or is there something we can cook for her or a tea she can drink?" the Captain pressed.

"We have to be careful how we treat her, Georg," Dr. Kretzer sighed. "Her condition, as I'm sure you're aware, is delicate and the amount of emesis is complicating things. Add to that fatigue, and you have some very serious risk factors for miscarriage."

Georg felt like he was hit by a train. His heart literally stopped; he could have sworn. "Miscarriage? That's impossible, Fraulein Maria is a former nun, she…she is far too virtuous, never mind shy to…You must be mistaking Andres."

"There's always the chance that I can be wrong," Dr. Kretzer admitted. "But it's a slim chance. Georg, Fraulein Maria is pregnant."

Red…that's what the Captain saw. His eyes were totally incapable of vison. When he got his hands around Heinrich Mueller's throat…He knew, inside his heart, he knew that if the doctor was right, and he usually was, Maria did not get pregnant while participating in anything willfully. If she was pregnant, she got that way by force.

"Georg…" Dr. Kretzer spoke loudly to try to get the Captain's attention. "Georg!"

"I'm sorry, Andres," the Captain replied. "I'm…What did she say? When you told Maria about her condition, what did she say?"

"I didn't tell her Captain," Dr. Kretzer replied. "The way she's behaving, she said she fell a few months ago, but when I asked her about other injuries, cuts, bruises, pain, anything she only said that her hips had hurt. Not one hip, both hips; she said that she had some scratches on her legs…what she told me Captain…I don't think she knows."

"So, you think it is what I think it is?" the Captain sighed. "That she was not a willing participant in creating the baby?"

"That's exactly what I think," Dr. Kretzer replied. "And the news is going to be difficult for her to deal with. I wanted to consult with you first, I wanted to see if there was a slim chance that you and she…"

"No, no never," the Captain replied.

"Perhaps you should be there when we tell her. She seemed to be comforted by knowing you were nearby," Dr. Kretzer informed him. "There are herbs, there are women in the hills that help a girl in trouble, perhaps you want to consult with one of them."

"Andres, I have known you 20 years but…the fact you could even suggest such a thing! No, she would never forgive herself," the Captain replied. "I'll tell her alone, I'll tell her and then I'll…I'll do the right thing, the baby will have my name, no one will ever have to know what really happened. Maria's lost enough control, she's lost…I'll handle it from here. If you can help her body fortify itself to withstand the pregnancy, I'd be most grateful."

And there it was. Dr. Kretzer left some medications with Frau Schmidt and some dietary instructions, before leaving the villa promising to recheck Maria in one week. That left the Captain, still pacing the halls in the middle of the night. Max had seen to the children and had retired himself. Maria was sleeping, she was exhausted, she had pushed her body beyond what she ever should have.

When morning came, he would send Max and the children into town, and he would see to Maria. He had no idea how he was going to do this, but he knew that it had to come from him. Something changed between them as he'd comforted Maria earlier that night. There was a newly forming bond there, Maria was letting her guard down with him, but for the wrong reasons. Instead of being her guiding light, as he wished to be, he was her port in the storm. Still, that was something, he could build on that, they could build on that.

As for Heinrich Mueller, he was lucky the Captain was more occupied with Maria than his anger. Every fiber of the Captain's being wanted to get in the car, drive to the Mueller home, and strangle the man to death very, very slowly; after he castrated him, of course.

It was nearly 2am. It would be possible to drive over there now and just…rip him a new…"Georg."

Max's voice interrupted the Captain's brooding. "I keep hearing you walk by the door, what's going on? What did the doctor say?"

The Captain closed his eyes, 'Let's go to the study, I need a drink and I don't want Maria to accidently overhear. What I have to tell her will be hard for her to hear, and I want to do it right."

The two men walked off to the Captain's study and Max fixed them both drinks. "She's not seriously ill, is she, Georg? The children are so attached to her."

"No, she's not ill, but it is serious," the Captain replied. "Maria. I can't even say it to you, how am I going to say it to her?"

"It can't be that bad," Max said as he sipped his drink. "If she's not sick it can't be that bad."

"She's pregnant, Max," the Captain finally choked out. "She's pregnant, and she doesn't even know it. Dr. Kretzer thinks that she's been, that she was forced and so do I."

"Forced?" Max stared at the Captain in disbelief. "By whom? She's always been with the children here at the villa, even in town she's not been alone."

"She was alone with Mueller, Max," the Captain replied. "She was alone with him a few times in town, but no, this happened the night she went missing and I found her in the mountains. She rejected Mueller that day, then I found her up on the mountain. She'd said she'd fallen, but…"

Max closed his eyes for a moment and sucked in a deep breath. "Are your sure, Georg?" he finally asked. "Are you sure that Mueller and Maria never…"

The Captain had to admit that he wasn't completely sure, but the Maria he knew would never consent to this. Never. "No," he replied. "No, they never. She's nervous and self-conscious around me even after we've shared so much, talked so much together. That night, she tried to resign. She said something, it didn't make sense at the time but now when I think back…Dear God…"

"What was it?" Max pressed.

"She told me that she was the only female the girls had to look up to and that she had been deceptive to Mueller, lead him on…It was like she was blaming herself for…"

The Captain was shaking with rage. He reached down for his glass and took the whiskey in one big gulp. Then, before Max could get off the settee, he shot out the door for the foyer to get his car keys from the storage box.

"Georg!" Max caught up to his friend. "Georg, I know what you're thinking, honestly, I want to go over there too, but it's almost 230am and we don't know he did anything yet. We don't know for sure."

"I know," the Captain snapped. "I know for sure. He felt like he had the right to grab her, to touch her without her permission when he was angry. What makes you think that he didn't feel he also had the right to follow her to her safe place and take what she wasn't willing to give?!"

Max had to acquiesce to that, "Even still, Georg. It's the middle of the night. You could be arrested for assault if you do this. What will happen to Maria and the children then? I know you want to kill him; I want to kill him for what he did to Maria, but we can't. There's nothing we can do except help her now. You know it."

The Captain shut his eyes. Max was right. "I have to do something, Max. I can't let him think…"

"All right," Max relented a bit. "But think before you act. Don't do anything in haste, think before you act."

"Haste? Oh no, Max, this isn't haste," the Captain fumed. "If it were I would have already left here for the sole purpose of taking all the time in the world to beat Mueller within an inch of his life."

"And get what out of that? It's not going to undo anything. It's not going to give Maria's baby a father, it's not going to give her back what was taken, is it?" Max reasoned. "It was pretty clear to me earlier that you are probably the only person besides the children Maria feels she can trust. For you to act out this angry impulse will only do more harm to her. She's going to need you to get her through this. She's going to need all of us, but you are the one she held onto, Georg. You were her…"

"Port in the storm." The Captain felt like the wind had just left his sails. He put the keys back where they belonged and held Max's gaze. The look the two friends shared was almost as if they were embracing there was so much understanding and support exchanged in a mere look.

"Come on, now let's go back to the study, have one more drink, and figure out what we are going to do about this," Max coaxed.

"There's nothing to decide Max," the Captain replied. "I've already decided that this is my responsibility even if it is Mueller's fault. I'm going to do the only thing I can do."

"I'm sure your family in Switzerland will be more than gracious…"

The Captain raised his eyebrow. "Switzerland?"

"Of course," Max continued. "We can't send her to Vienna, too many people from your social circle would recognize her. We can send her to your cousin near Zurich, she can have the child there and either have the nuns find it a home or she can come back with the baby and claim it as a foundling. She's a former nun, people would believe that."

"I'm not going to send her to Switzerland, Max," the Captain replied. "I'm going to make an honest woman of her. I'm going to marry her with all possible haste."

"Georg, you can't!" Max exclaimed. "Think of the scandal it will cause the gossip will be just as violating as the act itself!"

"Max, you just got through telling me that I'm Maria's anchor through all of this, and you want me to send her away. No, I can't, and I won't."

"But marriage? The gossip mill will be spinning so fast. Think again of the children," Max reminded him. "There is another option."

Deflated, the Captain sat on the settee. "How do I tell her this, Max? How do I tell one of the most loving and honest people I've ever met that someone…"

"Let your heart lead the way, Georg," Max replied after a minute. "That's all you can do in a moment like this."

"Tomorrow," the Captain determined. "I'll do it tomorrow." He felt confident with that conviction.