Chapter Seventeen

When Maria had put the children to sleep, she went to Georg's study. Most evenings they shared private talks but some nights when Max was home, he would join them, though Max had retired early as well also in need a good night's sleep. Maria pushed the study open the door and looked inside, but Georg wasn't there.

He must still be sleeping, she reasoned, as he had been exhausted. She still couldn't believe he had forbade her to help. Still, the boys needed someone to keep them out of trouble and it was good for her to bond with just them for a time.

Maria fixed a tray of cookies and tea to share with Georg. He'd slept through supper, and she knew he'd be hungry. He would never admit it, but he liked sweets in the evenings. It seemed to make him sleep more restfully.

Maria set the tray on the floor so that she could get into their suite. Sure enough, Georg was sound asleep on their bed. He looked peaceful when he slept, several years younger.

"Georg," Maria whispered gently touching his left hand. On it was his wedding ring, the ring she had given to him a few months before. She loved to see that he wore it always, so many men she knew took theirs off. "Georg, I've brought you some tea and cookies."

Georg stirred at the gentle sound of Maria's voice. He smiled at her through sleep filled eyes then pushed himself upward. "I don't have a bone that does not ache," he complained as he reached to turn on the bedside table lamp. "How long was I out?"

"Several hours," Maria replied. "It's no wonder either, you've barely slept in over a week and when you did it was in a child size canopy bed. Of course, you're stiff. Here, I fixed a variety of cookies and a hot cup of tea."

"What would I do without you?" Georg asked. The light was hitting Maria's face, she looked radiant and happy. "You are so beautiful. You're glowing, Maria. You really are."

"I'm…I'm almost afraid to say it, Georg," Maria whispered looking down at their joined hands.

"Say what my Darling?" Georg asked.

"I'm happy," Maria admitted. "The children are well and we're together. It was a little unconventional, but I am truly, truly happy. I only wish…"

Her voice trailed off and her eyes seemed to glaze over. Georg raised his eye brows and shut his eyes for a minute. He must have slept too long, he was getting a headache, though this was a banner moment for him and Maria. He didn't want to lose the connection. "Wish?" he pressed.

"I wish that I wasn't so scared," Maria admitted. "There are times when I want to be your wife in truth, when we're alone in the dark and you're holding me close, I want to…to be with you that way, I truly do. Then there are times when you're sleeping and you…"

Maria's eyes dropped down towards Georg's manhood and blushed. "You're body reacts to having me close and I just…I can't breathe, all I want is to run away."

"I'm attracted to you, Maria," Georg replied. "There's no denying that, and if my body is reacting to that, I am sorry but…"

"I'm not upset about it happening," Maria replied. "I'm upset that I'm still frightened of it."

Georg reached out to touch her cheek. When he did, Maria could feel the heat in his touch. Not the heat of attraction, a physical heat. "Georg, your hand…"

Maria reached down and brushed the hairs on Georg's forearm against their natural grain. He hissed in pain and pulled back. "Georg von Trapp," Maria looked at him a bit more intently. "Why didn't you tell me you aren't feeling well? You have a fever."

"It's nothing," Georg replied. "I didn't realize or I'd never have let you be so close to me. You should leave, go to the chlldren's wing."

"And spread this right back to them?" Maria shook her head. "No, that whole thing was ridiculous in the first place, but I did it for you. In the second place, who is going to care of you? Max and Friedrich? We can't reexpose Frau Schmidt or the girls to this, it'll be doubly serious if we do. You are my husband, and I am your wife, I'll be fine and if I'm not, it's the will of God. We didn't take one-sided marriage vows! Now, I'll get you a few aspirin while you drink all of that tea. I won't take an argument, Captain."

Maria should have taken Georg's lack of argument as a sign of how badly he felt. She got him the medicine and went to fix him another cup of tea. She agreed to sleep on comfortable sofa in their suite so not to breath in his germs all night long. She gave him a light kiss on the cheek, "You were about to say something, before I realized you were running a fever…" Maria wanted to know what his words would be. He always had a way to comfort her and make her feel less awkward about herself.

"I was only going to say that one day, over time, you might come to trust me enough that you'll feel it's safe to be intimate with me," Georg murmured softly. "But if not, I know what I signed up for. I get to live with the woman I love, I get to see you before I close my eyes at night and I get to see you first thing in the morning. That is good enough for me. I love you, loving you means I have to love all the things about you."

"And I love you," Maria murmured. "Very much. Sometimes, in my mind, I pretend this baby is really yours, that it was made in love and not in such…terror."

"The baby has no fault here," Georg said gently. "It didn't ask to be conceived at all, it just was. It…he or she…has a reason to be here, God has a reason for all of this. You know He does."

Georg was right. God did have His reasons and so many times mere humans were not privy to them until He saw fit to show them the way. "I do," Maria whispered. "He even has a reason for you being sick, even if it is that you get your rest. Lie down under the covers, go to sleep. Perhaps you can sleep this off and feel better in the morning."

"I don't feel sick now," Georg scoffed. "Just tired. I will sleep, I just wish you would do so somewhere else. If I got you sick…"

"I have never had influenza in my entire life, even when my parents had it so badly, I was fine," Maria assured him. "Now, stop worrying and go to sleep. Call out for me if you need me. I'll be right here."

Georg gave in and closed his eyes. He has missed Maria's softness curled up beside him at night, and it seemed he was destined to miss it a few more times before they could be reunited again.

It hurt to hear her admit that his unconscious arousal made her uncomfortable. The hatred he had for the men that hurt her, first her uncle had betrayed her trust, then some random stranger…If he could only get his hands on them, even Max wouldn't be able to talk him out of killing them both, slowly, then reviving them and doing it again. Death wasn't good enough for those men if he could call them that at all.

Maria pulled the blanket over her shoulders and closed her eyes. "You'll trust me enough…" the words kept playing over and over again in her mind. She did trust him as he was, it was what he would become if she allowed him to touch her intimately that scared her. Men changed in the throes of lust and passion, and one as powerful as Georg, what would he do to her in those vulnerable moments? She was afraid to know.

Maria fell asleep easily. The nightmares had lessened since the wedding and her emotional explosion in Prague. Telling Georg the truth about her childhood and slowly recalling the events the night she was attacked helped let some of the demons out of her soul.

It wasn't a surprise to Maria that Georg had demons of his own. Most nights he was all right, but some nights the memories of the Great War haunted his dreams. He would wake, usually in a cold sweat, always unable to catch his breath as he remembered smokey air tinted with the stench of blood.

Those were the nights Maria held him, that she soothed him, but really they were soothing each other, they were slowly but surely learning to trust one another. There was no other person Maria would allow to see her at her most vulnerable, asleep, sometimes afraid, and the same went for Georg, he would never let anyone else know how his past visited his present.

When Maria heard Georg muttering in the night, she was sure it was because of a dream. He had been under so much stress and not able to get a proper, restful sleep in days. She sighed and slid off the sofa. She wished he had permitted her to stay in their bed, sometimes, if she did it right, she could get him to calm down without waking him, but she didn't think that would be possible tonight, the dream seemed too far gone.

It was the moonlight glinting off of his skin that made notice it. Not only was his normally healthy complexion deathly pale, but his skin glistening under a thick sheen of perspiration.

"Georg?" Maria moved closer to the bed to confirm her suspicions. Her husband didn't react to her voice, he simply lie beneath their bedclothes shivering in spite of a wave of heat coming off of his body, mumbling things that only made sense to him.

Maria instinctually reached out to feel his head with the back of her hand though she needn't have done so, it was obvious he was burning up with fever. Maria sprang into action, not thinking at all of Georg's directive that she stay as far away from this flu germ as she could. All she could think about was how ill Georg was and that he needed her, not just doctoring, though she'd see to it he had the doctor, but her.

He was there always when she needed him. He held her when she was afraid, he wiped her forehead when she was ill, he let her blame this entire thing on him and took it in stride.

Maria opened the door that separated their private rooms from the rest of the house. The villa was quiet and dark. The grandfather clock read 1am. Maria looked back at Georg, he was terribly ill, the doctor had be to summoned no matter what the time.

Maria pulled on her robe and slid on her slippers. She went to use the phone in the study to call for Dr. Kretzer, but as luck would have it, his wife said he was out attending to a challenging birth and was not at home. She promised to send him the moment he checked in with her.

With a brisk thank you, Maria hurried about the house as quietly as she could. The fever was the real potential killer, and by her estimation Georg's temperature was over 104 and the congestion was more in his lungs, not his head. She had to lower the temperature and ease the breathing first and foremost.

Maria gathered rags, two basins, some warm water, various spices…She fried up some of the strongest smelling onions she could find and blended them with the spices, then hurried back up to Georg's side.

Maria sat on the edge of the bed and took Georg's hand in her own. She felt, rather than saw his eyes open and fix on her. They were glazed over with fever, but he sighed and shut them for just a second when he saw her. 'You are here," he whispered. He flinched as if it hurt him to speak.

"Ssh," Maria murmured, pressing a hand to his lips. "Hush now, don't try to talk. Everything's going to be all right. I'm here, it's going to be all right. Rest."

Instead of obeying Maria, which almost didn't surprise her, Georg lifted his hand and touched her cheek. "You shouldn't be," he murmured. "You can't be."

"Can't I?" Maria pressed. "This is my bedroom too, is it not? I think I can be here if I choose, and I do. Now, rest, please, Georg."

"Such beauty," he murmured. "There's no breeze, but you are so cool…so…" He paused and coughed so hard his body shook. Maria tried to help him turn but he resisted her. "Why today? Why on this day of all days, I won't miss anything about this place and now this…"

It dawned on Maria then that Georg had no idea where he was or who she was for that matter. She reached for the glass of water he must have gotten for himself before he laid down to nap and tried to help him drink. "Take a sip," she encouraged. "It'll help, I promise."

More of the water ended up on Georg's chest than in his mouth, but given the current state of his temperature that didn't matter very much. He kept rambling as Maria held the glass in one hand and his head in another.

Maria began to soak the rags in cool water, she placed one on Georg's forehead, one along his neck, and one on each wrist, trying to get his temperature to drop to a more acceptable level. While the rags worked to cool Georg down, the poultice Maria made worked on the congestion. The odor was difficult at best, disgusting at worst, but it was a proven cure that had been in the mountains for centuries.

All the while she worked he was mumbling, memories of the war she was certain. He talked about torpedos, depth charges, fires, over and over again he talked about feeling the fires of Hell. That was his fear, that was his torment, just as he in some respect was hers.

"There's no fire, Georg," Maria murmured. "There's nothing here but you and me, just you and me. It's all right. It's safe here, you're safe."

Sometimes her soft words broke through and other times they didn't, and he cried out in fear. Maria was as tireless with Georg as he had been with the children. The poultice she made helped to ease his breathing, but so far nothing was combatting the fever. Maria looked up at the grandfather clock; three hours had already passed…and every minute felt longer than the last.

She took a deep breath to calm her nerves. Frau Kretzer had promised the doctor would be out as soon as he could be. Maria just had to trust that he would deliver what he wife promised her, however, trusting in people was something Maria wasn't always capable of doing. This was one of those time.

A/N: So we have a little hiccup for Georg, he falls down with the flu, but not to worry, he has important things to do in the next chapters, so he won't be down and out for long!