Georg simply forgot how to breathe. He was rooted to the spot, his mind hardly daring to believe what he was seeing. Surely it was entirely impossible. Surely his eyes were deceiving him.
"I thought you might be in need of a best man, my friend."
There was no mistaking that devilish grin...
Max.
Before Georg could blink, before he could attempt to shift the world the right way up again, before he could choke for the breath his lungs so desperately needed, his feet were carrying him down the aisle and he was breaking into a run, terrified that if he didn't move fast enough it might all turn out to be nothing more than a hallucination and his friend's ghostly duplicate would suddenly disappear before his very eyes. But he didn't disappear. He merely grinned wider, opening his arms to Georg until they finally collided in a bear hug embrace that nearly knocked the impresario off his feet. Max winced a little as though in pain but his rumbling laughter could soon be heard above Georg's thundering heartbeat and before long the bewildered children were suddenly enveloping the two men in fierce hugs of joy and wonder, their little arms wrapping around any part of their uncle and father they could reach.
Maria's own heart hammered against her ribs from her place at the alter, entirely overwhelmed by a deep and stirring sense of joy that manifested itself in the tears that sprung to her eyes and the wide smile that spread across her features. She watched the touching scene, her hand pressed to her heart in empathy as her stoic groom attempted to keep his composure, his jaw clenched in his efforts to bite back the raw emotion that threatened to show itself as he clung to his friend. How beautiful he was, how fierce and passionate the emotion that lay hidden beneath the seemingly impassive exterior. It moved Maria deeply to know that only those closest to him would ever see the stirring man underneath.
He pulled out of Max's embrace and looked back at her then, catching her eye in a watery smile of elation that took her breath away - and he beckoned her over, silently willing her to take her rightful place beside the family. It wasn't long before her own arms were wrapped around Max, the joyful tears spilling over onto her cheeks not only for herself but for Georg, who's happiness was her happiness, who's sadness was her sadness, who's every struggle and every triumph would be hers to feel just as he did.
"How in God's name.." Georg began, finally finding his voice as his bride embraced the impresario, who looked equally as disheveled as Georg himself had done when he'd first made it to Davos.
"Later Georg," Max interrupted, cupping each of the children's beaming faces with a withered hand, "I'll explain everything later."
Georg didn't argue but as he studied his friend's ruddy face he could've sworn he'd seen a hint of disturbance in his glistening eyes - a shadow that seemed to darken his features as though he were recalling some troubling memory. But it vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
"Now let's see the two of you get married before she comes to her senses!" Max quipped, clapping Georg on the back as Maria and the children took their places at the other end of the aisle. Once out of earshot the impresario leaned towards his friend's ear mischievously, "I know the real reason you're glad to see me old man.."
Georg raised his eyebrows in question.
"Now I'm here, you'll have a babysitter for your much awaited wedding night.."
They shared a wry smirk and Georg felt a surge of hot anticipation course through him as his gaze fell on Maria waiting for him at the alter. In his shocked state, he hadn't even considered what Max's arrival might mean for his and Maria's privacy. She'd only ever joined him in passion under the constraints of a roomful of children just next door and the thought of how uninhibited she might be with nothing in their way sent an unanticipated bolt of electricity down his spine.
"Well, truth be told - " He turned back to his friend wickedly, "- 'awaited' probably isn't the right word.."
Max gave a hearty guffaw, "You dog! Old habits die hard, no?"
Georg flashed a sheepish grin before sobering and grasping Max's shoulder. When Max winced heavily again, Georg quickly removed his hand and looked at him questioningly, but Max simply shook his head, a silent affirmation that it was to be discussed later. Georg acquiesced - he couldn't describe how much this man meant to him, how the cloud over his head seemed to be miraculously dissipating in his presence. They'd been through thick and thin together, highs and lows, watched men die together, seen new life born - and he couldn't put into words what their friendship meant to him. Instead he simply patted the impresario's cheek warmly and said, "I've missed you brother."
Max gave another boyish chuckle, despite his withered appearance, "I'll remind you of that when you're sick of the sight of me!"
The second attempt at the ceremony had occurred without interruption, and as Max had stood by Georg's side, he'd realised that he'd never seen his friend so broken and yet so anchored, so happy all at once. Clearly he was tormented, plagued by a deep sense of loss that hung over him like a sickness. But the way he gripped at Maria's hands, the way he looked at her as though she were the entire world - it was clear he'd found his harbour, his bulwark, his very foundation in this unlikely young woman. This innocent girl who seemingly knew nothing of the world and its horrors, and yet somehow knew exactly how to give this experienced and learned man the strength he needed to survive. She'd saved him from the depths of despair more than once, almost effortlessly, as though it were her very character that breathed life into his aching heart. She'd achieved in six months what others had tried and failed to do in four years: bring back the Georg they all knew and loved. And now that he was susceptible to falling into despair for a second time in light of the terrors that lay on their doorstep, she was right there next to him, anchoring him, doing everything and anything to prevent his descent, to keep him with them.
It was deeply moving to know that his friend would be able to conquer whatever life threw at him while this woman stood by his side. And yet she was hardly even aware of her stirring influence over Georg, evident in the way she gazed into his eyes with fervent awe, as though he were God himself. In each other, they'd found an unexpected attraction, a unanticipated connection, and later, an accidental love. It was quite simply beautiful to behold. And as his friend had finally taken his young bride's face in his hands and kissed her deeply, it had been Max who'd clapped and whooped the loudest, whistling his congratulations in a mischievously low octave filled with suggestive implications for what was to come later. Georg had shot him a warning look then before grinning from ear to ear and wrapping his best man in another exuberant hug.
"You thought that was risqué, just wait until the best man's speech!" Max had teased, wiggling his eyebrows. Georg had chuckled then, but still he couldn't shake the feeling that Max's jovial witticisms were nothing more than a distraction meant to hide the shadows that were still lurking behind his eyes.
The post wedding celebrations had taken place down by the riverbank underneath their willow tree as the sun hung low in the sky as though blessing them with its warmth and good fortune, the wild flowers and Edelweiss dotted amidst the grass swaying gently against the summer breeze. Blankets from the accommodation and a mini feast of provisions bought from the local store made it a humble but joyous occasion, the children's innocent laughter rising high and shrouding them all in a blanket of peaceful contentment.
Now that Max had found them, Maria knew their time had come. They would need to leave Davos very soon - a place that, in its own unique way, had become their second home these past few weeks. A place that held great joy and overwhelming sorrow, a place they would never forget, a place that spoke of hope and dismay, love and hatred, danger and family, peace and turmoil. It would always be the place in which their life together first began and she knew, as she glanced up at Georg's marking on the bark of the willow tree above them, that she would always think upon this place with happiness in her heart.
"A toast!" Max yelled, whipping a small bottle of sparkling wine from his inside pocket and brandishing it at the couple across from him on the picnic blanket.
"Where on earth did you get that!" Georg asked, incredulous. They'd barely been able to justify the meats and cheeses they'd bought for the feast, let alone a bottle of wine, "acquired with my own money no doubt!" He added bitterly.
"Guess again, Georg," Max grinned, popping the cheap cork and taking a hearty swig before passing it to Maria, who looked at him in sheer bewilderment before shrugging her shoulders and taking a mouthful of the bubbly liquid.
"I may have pinched it," Max confessed, as Maria began spluttering on her share.
"Max!" Georg chastised, "the grocer here doesn't make very much money, you can't just go stealing the produce!"
"I didn't take it from the grocer, what kind of sponge do you take me for!" Max retorted, offended, "I stole it from one of the Nazi soldiers before I fled."
Georg's eyes darkened dangerously, "well in that case.." He took the bottle from Maria's hand and took several large, angry swigs, flinching as the bitter liquid hit his tongue.
"Not the best vintage, I must admit," Max chuckled as Georg passed the cheap bottle back to his friend, "but I've been carrying it with me in the hope that I'd eventually find you and I could finally open it to celebrate my success."
Georg smiled appreciatively, touched that his friend had never lost hope.
"Champagne?" Leisl's voice called from where the children were dipping their feet in the water, approaching the adults hopefully, "could I taste my first, father?"
Georg snorted with mirth and shot Max a look of pure fire when he made to offer the bottle to the girl.
"Absolutely not Leisl, and besides, it's not champagne," Georg interjected authoritatively, "it's some form of pig swill that will most likely put you off alcohol for the rest of your life."
"All the more reason to let her try it," Max muttered, eliciting a look from Georg that could kill a man at ten paces.
Leisl retreated in disappointment and Georg took the chance to broach the sensitive topic of Max's escape.
"Enough of the fun and games Max," he murmured solemnly, fixing his friends with a pointed look, as Maria also leaned closer, "what happened after we parted ways?"
Max sighed heavily, the previous shadow in his eyes replacing the gleeful sparkle that had danced there mere moments ago. He took another swig of the cheap wine and inhaled deeply before finally explaining, being careful to keep his voice low lest one of the children should hear.
"I got away from the villa in the car but they pursued me," he began, refusing to meet Georg's eyes, "when they finally caught up with me they managed to drive me off the road into a ditch before pulling me from the car. When they realised I wasn't the man they wanted, they beat me pretty badly and torched the vehicle. By the time I came to, they were dragging me away and I realised your car was up in flames along with my papers, which I'd left on the passenger seat. I managed to break away from their grasp long enough to salvage the papers just in time but.."
He pulled his shirt collar down slightly to reveal blackened patches of charred skin across his shoulder, where marred flesh looked as though it had melted against the bone. Maria's hand flew to her mouth and Georg's face thundered with unrelenting rage.
"They imprisoned me, interrogated me, pressed me for.. for information," Max's voice wavered slightly and Georg knew all too well what he meant. He felt the bile rise high in his throat and a surge of white hot anger shot through his entire body, his fist clenching dangerously at his side until Maria took note and stroked his knuckles, loosening them under her featherlight ministrations. Where had they marked his friend? Where had they done the most damage?
"I'm not sure how many days passed but eventually they let me go," Max continued, his voice thick with turmoil, "I figure I was no longer of use to them. I wasn't sure what to do at that point so I made my way back to the villa in the hopes that I might find something to spark some inspiration but when I got there it was surrounded by army vehicles." He flashed Georg a weary look filled with apprehension, "I'm sorry Georg, but Heinrich Himmler has taken up residency in the villa - he's been using it as his summer home.."
Georg's rage took a form it never had before, firing through every synapse, every nerve, every vein as though he were about to burst into flames. He shook from the force of it as the muscles in his neck strained against the skin and Maria gripped his face in her hands, attempting to bring him back to them with nothing more than a look.
"I'm just glad you're safe," he finally breathed through clenched teeth, livid that his friend had been subject to such horror, furious that his beloved home was in the grips of a Nazi thug.
"I did a little snooping amongst the vehicles and that's when I came across the wine," the impresario explained, smiling proudly despite the difficulty of his recollections, "knowing that I was unsafe and that I'd find no answers at the villa, I hitchhiked my way to the borders. I begged, pleaded with travellers until a kind soul finally allowed me a seat in their vehicle so that I could pass through. My damaged papers were questioned instantly, so I had to wait it out and beg for another lift," he fixed his eyes to the ground, his face set in heavy frustration, a sadness enveloping his features.
"I was malnourished, exhausted, injured.. it felt like an age before I finally made it to Davos. I'd lost track of the days, I had no idea how long you'd been gone. But I held out hope that you'd somehow still be here. I made my way to the accommodation we'd agreed on and they pointed me in the west direction of the town, though they had no idea where it was you had moved on to. But still, I was filled with hope - hope that you'd be waiting for me," Max met Georg's eyes properly for the first time during the painful exchange, "I spent the majority of the morning inquiring, asking questions at any bed and breakfast or hotel I came across, until finally, I found the one at the top of the hill. The little lady behind the counter asked me if I was here for the wedding and it was then that I knew I'd found you. She told me if I hurried, I might just make it in time."
"And so you did.." Georg murmured deeply, gripping the impresario's good shoulder with such compassion in his eyes that Max felt an uncharacteristic lump form in his throat, "I owe you my life, my friend."
After much insistence from Max, Georg had finally agreed to let him watch the children back at the accommodation while he and Maria took a short bus journey to the next village, where they were to spend the night in a humble little hotel by the hills. He'd been reluctant to spend any more money than they had to, what with times being so uncertain, but Max had insisted that a man only got one wedding night. When Georg had pointed out that he had in fact already enjoyed one wedding night his lifetime, Max had shrugged mischievously, a wicked glint in his eye, and retorted that if a man were lucky enough to have two wedding nights while he was still young enough to enjoy them, then he should damn well make the most of it.
Georg grinned at the memory as he pulled his new bride gently up the stairs towards their bedroom, knowing full well he was being entirely less than subtle in his enthusiasm. But he simply couldn't help himself, she looked more than alluring in her cream dress, her startling innocence irresistibly juxtaposed against the ferocious passion he knew lay underneath. He allowed his mind to wander back to their last two encounters, the way she'd tasted, the way she'd felt when she'd finally sheathed him - new, unbearably soft, skintight against him - and it stirred him deeply to know that he was the first and only man to have touched her and kissed her in those heavenly places. If she had not given herself to him, she would've given herself to Catholicism - no other man had ever or would ever know her body as he did. No other man would know just what made her tremble in his arms, just what made her gasp his name in broken whispers, just what made her throw her head back in the heights of rapture. And it filled him with a fierce, possessive male pride that caused the blood to start flowing south before he'd barely managed to get her through the door. But despite his growing arousal, he willed himself to take things slowly, to treasure the evening of privacy with his beautiful bride and love her delicately, slowly, passionately -
That is, until he locked the door and turned to find her standing with her dress pooled at her feet.
"Oh god.." he breathed as a fresh wave of arousal coursed through his veins, his hungry eyes raking over her figure, along her chest where her breasts almost spilled from her bra, up her thighs where her garters were wrapped erotically around the silken skin, to the apex between her legs where her underwear concealed what he so desperately wanted to see. Instinctively he went to flick the light switch behind him, as was his habit, but she shook her head slowly, causing his hand to freeze mid-air and drop back to his side helplessly.
"Leave it on," she whispered, her voice low and thick with lust, an irresistible blush creeping up her neck at the implication of her words, "I want to see you. I want you to be able to see me when...when I come apart for you."
Georg swallowed hard. The sound of her chaste voice combined with the salacious promise that her words held as they tumbled from her unsullied lips was simply the most erotic thing he'd ever heard. Still, he didn't move, rooted to the spot as he battled inwardly over whether the give in to the primal urges roaring to life in his gut, or to honour his decision to love his new bride gently.
"Darling.." he choked, "Don't you think... I mean, we have all night to.."
But his words died on his lips as she slowly reached up behind her back and undid the clasp of her bra, allowing it to slip down her arms and tumble to the floor with her dress. His breath caught in his throat and his whole body stiffened with desire as he drank in the sight of her. Despite having made love to her before, their passion had been conceived in the middle of the night, under the cover of darkness, under restraint. This was the first time he was truly seeing her body in all its glory and the sight left him utterly breathless, as though it were the first time he'd ever set eyes on a woman.
And before the gentleman in Georg had a chance to argue, the carnal beast within him was forcing his burning body towards hers until he was pulling her closer possessively by the waist and taking a nipple between his teeth with a growl of repressed lust. He suckled at her skin desperately until she gripped at his hair and cried out from need. Where before, she'd silenced herself against the threat of being heard, now she threw her head back and moaned with uninhibited passion and it made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Too long he'd waited to be with her again, too long he'd been forced to restrain himself, and after all - had he not promised to refrain from suppressing this particular side of his need for her? He had to stop thinking of her as an innocent, for she was anything but - proven in the way she suddenly ripped his head from her breasts and melted into his mouth in a demanding kiss, tugging his shirt tails impatiently from his trousers and letting her hands roam up his torso as he bit back a groan.
Her fingers flew down the row of buttons and he'd barely caught his breath before she was pushing his shirt and jacket from his arms. His tie remained around his neck and he gawped open mouthed at his bride as she gripped the garment in her fingers to tug him closer, pressing her breasts firmly into his bare torso as she licked at his mouth relentlessly. If he'd been afraid of frightening her then he needn't have worried, for their newfound privacy seemed to have elicited a similar primal urge in her that knew no bounds.
Maria wasn't sure what had come over her but she had no intention of questioning it. The knowledge that he was now her husband, the realisation that there was no threat of interruption, the absence of fear in having lain with him before - it left her head spinning as she acted on her body's overwhelming desire to pull him closer. She moved entirely on instinct, and all she could feel was the burning fire licking at her stomach and lower still, knowing that only he could extinguish it. Without so much as a second thought, she grappled at his belt buckle frantically and he was reminded, with a jolt of arousal, of the dream he'd had all those months ago where he'd robbed her of her nightgown and shoved her up against his bookcase. Pulling the belt free and dropping it the floor with a thud, she scrambled to undo his trousers and his eyes rolled back in his head involuntarily as her nimble fingers brushed against his heavy arousal.
Frozen to the spot, eyes squeezed shut in a lustful stupor, he felt her pulling his remaining clothes down to his ankles and then there was an unexpected pause as she suddenly stilled her movements. Opening his eyes in confusion to discover what had stopped her, he looked down just in time to catch her bending her head, moving closer and suddenly grazing her lips against him gently. He couldn't help the strangled sound that tore from his throat, the sight of her on her knees before him and the warmth of her supple mouth making contact threatening to buckle his knees.
"Maria.." he rasped, knowing he was mere moments from it being over all too soon, "Maria darling...the bed.."
When his stubborn little Fraulein didn't listen and continued her dangerously languid kisses, he gathered her up in his arms and carried her to their marital bed, covering her body with his own.
"You'll be the death of me darling, if you carry on like that," he murmured through a smile, kissing her deeply as his hand reached down to caress her, eliciting a gasp from his wife, "and I want very much to savour you. Slowly."
"Not too slowly.." she murmured, her gaze burning into him unashamedly through thick lashes as she writhed against him, making matters more urgent as his heart threatened to burst from his chest.
She ran her hands over his shoulders and down his back then, relishing in the swell of muscle she found there and before she knew it, he was taking heed of her wishes and filling her with a single ardent thrust that made her cry out.
It was neither crazed, nor languid, neither desperate nor gentle - only heated and painstakingly intimate as they lay tangled atop the sheets, their limbs entwined and their eyes never leaving one another as they shared the oxygen around them. As Maria clung to his body, his overwhelming closeness leaving her feeling more protected than she'd ever felt in her life, she thought of how blessed she had been to discover a home in this man. This beautiful, brave, stoic, complex human being who chose to bare his soul to her when few others had ever seen it. This passionate man who loved so fiercely and fought for the things he believed in. This troubled soul who took comfort in her and let down his walls so that he could love her wholeheartedly. This stirring individual who was coming apart in her arms, trembling against her as the pleasure began to climb at the place where their bodies were joined. And it was the knowledge that he had committed his life to her, the realisation that only she would ever see him in such an intimately vulnerable light, the understanding that they were not only deeply in love but joined forever in mind, body and soul, that finally pushed her over the edge of an ecstasy that never seemed to end.
A/N I hope you liked this update. Perhaps more of a filler but I tried to make it as gripping as possible, not entirely sure how well I did. But finally some privacy for our lovers, I hope I've still kept it relatively tasteful.
Also, I did a bit of research and had no idea that Himmler did actually take up residence in the abandoned von Trapp house after they fled. I thought I'd add this in as I can imagine Georg's character in the film to be utterly enraged by this.
Anyway, please do let me know your thoughts.