A/N: Hopefully just one more chapter after this…

Chapter 17- Regensburg

I spent the length of almost four years in Regensburg. The winters were the worst but at least I had Max to help keep me warm. The first year was the biggest struggle. I had no trouble finding employment in a local shelter, helping the elderly but finding a place to stay with Max proved to be difficult. I often fed him my leftovers to save on money.

As for the disguise I had done so much thinking on, it turned out to be not much. I used Wicki's knife to chop chunks of my hair away. I was horrified at first. After all, I had felt that my long locks were something that helped define me as a woman. I remember crying a bit, thinking I looked like a boy and might very well be mistaken as one but I grew used to the look. Bleaching it platinum with peroxide helped but made it very brittle and so I was forced to keep in above the chin. I often ended up hiding under a hat.

I snuck into the Cathedral when I could to admire its beauty and be left to my thoughts. I did my best and took whatever precautions needed to ensure I wasn't being watched or followed. In the four years spent there, I had seen Hans a handful of times but he had never seen me. I wondered if he was even looking. Had I been forgotten?

Overall, my time was peaceful and passed with little worry until the morning after Goebbel's movie premiere in France. It was written all over the papers and shouted through the radio waves- there had been an attack on the theater as it housed all of the rotten eggs of this war. Besides Hitler and Goebbels, few names were listed and most bodies were charred beyond recognition. Dread filled my heart because I knew Hans would've surely been there. However, it seemed silly to me that he would not have seen the vulnerability of having all of them in one place. I held little hope that he saw the events of that night coming in enough time to get himself out of trouble.

I sat in the third row, alone in the Regensburg Cathedral during the twilight hours of the night. I rested my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands. It was all over.

I did not know whether to be relieved or heart-broken. With the weight of the war lifted from my shoulders, I did not feel relieved. All day, I had felt drained by the sun's bright light and unwelcomed in the free streets of the city. It seemed that all I could do now was to wait for confirmation of his death.

Military wives were lucky. I had seen one in her moment of grief as a military postman delivered to her the message of her husband's death. It was heart-breaking to watch but at least she had closure. Not knowing was much worse.

I heard one of the cathedral's heavy doors creak open. The slightest sound at this time of night seemed louder than an airplane flying overhead during the day. I did not turn to see who had entered as I was sure people were thankful for the end of the war and came to God whenever they could. I heard no footsteps but there was a small protest from the bench behind me as someone took a seat. It was odd, I thought, that a stranger would seek solitude so close to another.

When he spoke the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end yet I couldn't help the small smile that grew on my lips. I knew that voice as distinctly as I knew the touch of Max's fir.

"Oh now I thought I'd find you here," he said.

"Hello, Aldo." I did not turn to greet him but my heart lifted all the same.

"Yea, it's me. I thought you might not remember."

"With an accent like that?" I teased. "Gosh no, you fit right in here."

Suddenly the dread came back without restraint. Why did he feel the need to come see me?

"I heard what happened at the theater," I said. "Was that you?"

"Yea, that was us." He paused and each of us waited for the other to speak first. "Our bargain is still intact though," he said, finally. "He ain't dead yet."

"Yet?"

"Well we all gotta die some day."

I shifted my head to the side, not fully turning as I spoke. "So Hans is all right then?"

"Yea, your Landa is fine."

"And you came all the way out here to tell me this?"

"Yup." Another silence grew and I could tell there was something more he wanted to say but apparently I wasn't asking the right questions. Honestly, I didn't know what to ask.

"You know," he started, "I've heard a lot of stories in my lifetime and a lot of crazy ones out there on the battlefield. For some reason yours stuck with me. I don't know if it's 'cause you're a woman with a war story or if it's 'cause when you were speaking about that Landa, you had the same look in your eyes that my Mrs. gives me right before she tells me she loves me. Either way, your story stuck." I heard him scratch the stubble along his chin. "That and I just didn't think it'd be fair to ship him off to Nantucket without you knowing."

"Nantucket? In America?"

"Per his request."

"I see. So you worked out a deal?"

"I guess you could say that," he said. "He's feathered himself a nice little nest out there."

"You don't seem too thrilled."

"Well, no but he did help end the war. He had ample time to stop us if he thought things could continue."

"Thank you, Aldo."

"So are you gonna come with or stay here?"

"Has he asked for me?"

"Well no, not exactly," he said.

"What do you mean 'not exactly'?"

"I mean he didn't braid my hair and gab about his love life or nothing but he might've let a little something slip. He just didn't realize I knew you and your story."

I finally turned towards the man sitting behind me and found a small smile gracing his lips but his eyes shied away from mine.

"Well, go on," I said. "Spit it out."

"You know, there's a sayin' where I come from that if you love something, you let it go and if it comes back to ya, it's yours. That's how you know for sure."

"So?"

"So?"

"You haven't answered my question, Aldo."

"The detective might've mentioned lettin' go or losing something some four years ago and that he reckons he lost it for good 'cause it never came back," he said.

"What do you care about the colonel's feelings?"

"I don't," he said. "I'm looking out for yours. So what'd'ya say? Can you forgive the man? After all, from a military stand point, I do feel he was lookin' out for ya… protectin' you and all by not telling you what he knew. So are you gonna come and at least say goodbye to him?"

"Are you sure you don't care? You sound an awful lot like you do," I said, still thinking of what the right choice was.

"There's just something strange about seeing a man like Landa broken."

"Broken?" I asked, standing. "What did you do to him?"

"Now, now," he started. "I honored our agreement. He ain't dead."

"I have to go get Max," I said, heading for the cathedral doors.

"Does that mean you're coming with?"

"Wait here," I said and walked back onto the busy streets of Regensburg.