A/N: Here is chapter 12. If I haven't misnumbered somewhere along the line there are 24 chapters including an Epilogue that ties it all up. I can't thank you enough for the follows, the favs and the reviews.

And yes, this is another cliff hanger. I didn't plan it that way, it just kind of happened. Still, let me hear from you. I'll try to post before work tomorrow, unless I stay up too late working on Brigitta's "Comfort" story, in my little disjointed series. Then it might have to wait until my dinner break.

Enjoy!

Chapter Twelve

The Captain couldn't sleep. He didn't even bother to try. He had no idea how he was going to talk to Maria about any of this. She'd obviously repressed the memory of her assault, or she would never have been able to keep up appearances. The doctor indicated she had been getting sick often, but she never let anyone see. It was almost that it was her instinct to hide. She did it all the time, whenever they would get close physically, she would back up or recoil, even if it was just slightly. Sometimes she'd relax and let him touch her cheek or her hand and others she wouldn't.

The Captain knew to offer marriage, even to insist on marriage, would mean he was sealing his own fate as well as Maria's. She liked him, but she didn't love him. She couldn't love him. He was far too old for her. The idea of him touching her in an intimate way was probably repulsive before all of this. To offer Maria and her baby his name meant he would be forfeiting any chance he had at being intimate with a woman again. Still, it felt right, it felt like it was the only choice.

He remembered some sage advice he received early in his life; beauty fades, sex fades, but friendship lasts a lifetime. He could live with that, he really could.

The children were up with the sun that next morning, all worried about Maria. The Captain had Frau Schmidt divert them from her room so that he could speak to them, and so Maria could get some much needed rest. "How's Fraulein Maria?" was the question of the day.

The Captain had to choose his words carefully, he knew. He couldn't let the truth be known to the children, or anyone except Max and Frau Schmidt. "She's still sleeping, it seems that sometimes she doesn't feel very well, and her tummy gets upset. When people have upset tummies too often, they can get a little sick, so the doctor wants her to drink a lot of water and get a lot of rest until she feels better. We need to help her and let her rest so I except all of you to be good and to obey whatever you're told. Understand?"

Seven heads nodded, though Liesl held a silent conversation with the Captain through looks. "Liesl, take your brothers and sisters to breakfast, I'll have a tray prepared for Fraulein Maria and join her this morning."

Liesl turned the children with Friedrich's help to the dining room while the Captain arranged for Maria's tray. He felt like he was going to get sick to his stomach, he knew that emotion so well, though this was not the time to give into uneasiness.

"She's insisted on getting up, Captain," Frau Schmidt told the Captain as he approached the room. "She didn't sleep very easily, I stayed awake to listen for her if she needed me. She tossed and turned a lot, and she was nearly ill twice but there's nothing in her stomach."

"I'll see to her now," the Captain replied. "And thank you so much for your diligence and your discretion."

"If I may, Captain," the housekeep began. "Is Herr Mueller still in possession of his masculine anatomy or have you separated him from it as I wish to do?"

"I haven't seen Herr Mueller about any of this, as much as I'd like to, and as much as I don't want him to get away with it, I think discretion is key right now. We have to think about Maria first and foremost and she seems to have connected me with security and safety."

"Yes, well," Frau Schmidt sighed. "Try to get her to rest at least for the rest of the day. The doctor said she needs it, the child needs it too."

The Captain knocked on the door and when Maria called out her permission, he slowly entered the room. "Fraulein, what are you doing out of bed? Get back under the blankets at this moment, please."

"I really do feel fine now, Captain," Marie replied. "Just a little sour stomach."

"This tea and toast should help with that. If you won't go back to bed, please at least come and sit on the terrace with me where it's quiet. I'll bring your meal, just bring that blanket and we can have a talk."

Maria agreed. She did enjoy the one-to-one time she spent with the Captain and the idea of a quiet breakfast after a restless night was appealing. When Maria was settled and holding the warm cup of tea in her hands, the Captain sat down and turned to look into her eyes.

"I don't like the look on your face, Captain," Maria said sipping at her tea. "Did the doctor find something in his exam? Am I ill? Is that why I'm having headaches?"

The Captain sighed, "No, he didn't find any illness though I suspect you are having more than just headaches, am I right? Your stomach? You're getting ill quite often, aren't you?"

Maria shut her eyes and took a deep breath before she nodded. "Sister Catherine, from the abbey, she got headaches and sick to her stomach a lot. They called them migraines. I do try not to let them get to me."

"You have to stop that," the Captain implored. "It's not just you that you need to worry about now, Maria. You have something far more important…"

"I don't need to be reminded of my responsibility to the children, Captain," Maria defended. "But how can I care for them properly if I let a headache send me to bed?"

"It's not my children I'm referring to, Fraulein." The Captain reached his hands out and took the teacup from Maria. He gently took her hands into his and held her gaze intently. "Before I say anything else, I need to tell you something, to ask you something that will make more sense when I'm finished. I need to ask you to permit me to call you Maria, and to please, call me Georg."

"Oh, Captain, I…" Maria blushed. "I have always liked the name Georg, actually. When I was a child and would think about what my life would be like, I would pretend that my husband's name was Georg or Lukas. That's so embarrassing…"

"Funny you should mention that actually," the Captain said in a rush. "Uh, so you wouldn't be opposed to calling me by my Christian name?"

Maria shook her head, "No, Georg, I wouldn't."

"That's good," Georg acknowledged. "Because…Maria, what I need to tell you now really should be something only discussed between the closest friends. I need you to hear me and I need you trust me that everything will be all right. It won't feel like it for a while, but I promise you, I'm going to make everything all right."

"You're scaring me, Georg," Maria said sitting up straight and trying to pull her hands back. "You said the doctor told you I wasn't sick, so…"

"You aren't sick, Maria," Georg repeated. "You're pregnant."

Maria pulled her hands back to cover her cheeks much in the same way she did when they danced at the party. Her eyes grew wider, pupils dilated, and her mouth was slightly agape.

Georg didn't push her, he let the words sink in and simply kept looking into her eyes.

"No," Maria said in a barely perceptible whisper. "No…No, I can't be. I…"

"I know it's scary right now," Georg comforted having the wisdom to keep his hands to himself. "But it's going to be all right. I promise you it's going to be all right. I'm right here with you and we are going to handle all of this together."

Maria kept speaking quietly as if she hadn't heard him. "It was a dream, it was a nightmare, it didn't happen. It wasn't real…It was all a dream, it didn't happen. Oh, Captain, believe me, please believe me, it didn't happen, nothing happened. Please…"

Maria was beginning to panic. Her body shook and her eyes grew even blacker. Her breathing sped up as hot tears began to flow down her cheeks, the reality of the situation finally sinking in.

"Maria, the doctor says he is sure," Georg replied. "I know that you never would have done anything to have this happen, not by choice. I know what must have happened and yes, it must seem like a horrible dream, but it isn't. We wake up from dreams, Maria. There's no escaping this now. Was it the night…was it the night I found you, up on the mountain? The night you fell?"

Maria dropped her hands into her lap and clasped them together, as if in prayer. Georg reached out and covered both her hands with his own keeping his touch very light as if he was touching a little bird. After what seemed like hours but was probably only a minute, she nodded.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Georg asked.

"What could you have done?" Maria asked looking down. "Damage was done already, what good would your anger have been to anyone?"

"I wouldn't have been angry with you, Maria," Georg replied. "You didn't cause any of this, you have to remember that, please. I just wish you felt you were able to trust me, that you didn't have to bury it for so long."

Maria pulled her hands back again and wiped her eyes. "You have no idea what I've buried, don't pretend that you do, you don't."

Georg nodded, "I couldn't. All I mean is, we are friends, aren't we? We care for one another a great deal, I know I care for you very deeply, Maria, I have for a long time. You could have told me then, I'd have seen to it you were examined by a doctor, that you weren't hurt worse."

"I didn't remember then," Maria confessed. "I only remember waking up on the hillside with one of my shoes gone. I started to have these dreams about it, but I have so many things to have dreams about so many things. You just confirmed it for me now that…that what I dreamt was real That it happened."

Georg waited for a few beats before taking a deep calming breath. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for everything that's happened."

"Why?" Maria asked. "You didn't do anything."

"No, I didn't," Georg replied. "If I had…This isn't about that though, is it? It's not about my regret and it doesn't have to be about what happened to you either if you don't want it to be. It needs to be about what happens now. What we're going to do now."

"I don't understand," Maria replied. "Surely you will have to dismiss me or…send me somewhere. I can't have a baby under your roof just like that."

"I would never do such a thing!" Georg said a little more sternly than he wanted to. "Like it or not, and neither of us do right now, you're going to have a baby in seven months, a baby that will be innocent in all of this, that doesn't deserve anything but all the love in the world."

"That's easier to say from your vantage point," Maria replied. "I don't know what I feel about any of it. I just know I can't bring disgrace on this house, on the children."

"My name will protect the children from disgrace," Georg assured her. "All of them, including this baby. If the baby is a von Trapp, yes there will be whispers but no one would dare speak out loud. It will be forgotten in time, his or her circumstances, and as I said, it will be all right. I'll make sure of it."

Maria looked at Georg as if he'd sprung a second head. Was he really offering the baby his name? That would mean…no, he couldn't be? "Are you saying you want the baby to…Are you saying…What are you saying?"

"I'm saying," Georg replied as he came back around to face her. He slowly lowered himself to the ground, palms facing up so she could take his hands if she wished and approached her on one knee. "I'm saying marry me, Maria. I'm saying, please, be my wife."