Oh my gosh, this is chapter 20! This is so awesome! I'm so happy you guys are enjoyimg this AU collection. It's really fun to write! You guys are great!

In celebration, have another WWII chapter!

This one is focused on Astrid and the kids.

Enjoy!

Astrid was fairly certain her boys were the sweetest little boys in the entire world.

They had fallen in love with their little sister the moment they saw her. Together, they made her smile for the first time and whenever they played with her, she rarely stopped smiling. They were so gentle with her and she had no qualms about leaving them to look after their sister for a little while while she got something done. If anything happened, she knew one of them would track her down and tell her. Even then, she checked on them every so often.

The radio was on, on a station that rarely had news, unless it was urgent. It was nice to try and forget there was a war going on, one that left her Henry seriously injured, for a little while. It was playing a slower song, one that the boys usually asked her to change, but they were too engrossed with their sister to pay any attention to the music, it seemed.

She heard little voices from her bedroom and the shaking of a rattle. She had left Evelyn in the middle of the bed and the boys on either side. She couldn't roll over yet, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

"You don't know him yet, Evelyn, but he's real nice and he's lots of fun." Michael said to the baby, who was reaching clumsily for the rattle Timmy was shaking above her head.

Astrid stayed in the hallway to listen. She knew Michael was talking about his father.

"He got sent to the army. In Europe. That's all the way on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, we learned all about it in school. There's a bunch of bad people over there."

Evelyn babbled and stretched up for her toy and Timmy let her have it. She started biting on it with her gums, clearly uninterested in her brother's words.

"The-the bad people maded his leg falled off." Timmy said before sticking his thumb in his mouth. As terrible as it was, somehow Timmy made everything some amount of adorable.

"Did not! Legs don't fall off, Timmy." Michael replied.

Timmy took his thumb out of his mouth long enough enough to say "Mommy said so."

"Mommy said that something exploded and it hurt his leg so bad it had to be taken off by a doctor."

"Oh," Timmy mumbled around his thumb.

"You're not supposed to do that anymore Timmy." Michael reminded his brother. "Mommy said so."

Timmy lowered his hand and pouted a little.

"Don't be grouchy. You said you were going to help me tell Evelyn about Daddy. How can you help me if you're grouchy?" Michael asked gently.

Timmy stopped pouting and looked back to his sister.

"Anyway, Daddy doesn't have his leg anymore and he has to use a fake one to walk, but he can't do it very well yet. He told us in a letter that it hurts. He said that once he can, he'll come home."

"She's always sleepin' when Mommy reads us letters." Timmy pointed out.

"You're right!" Michael said, wide eyed. He looked down at the little baby. "Evelyn, you don't know Daddy loves you."

Astrid felt her heart break a little. No, she didn't. But she would soon, hopefully.

What Michael was referring to, however, was the end of every one of Henry's letters where he wrote how much he loved the boys, and since Evelyn's birth, Evelyn too. Evelyn was always asleep when she read the boys the newest letter, as she read it to them before they went to bed (recently, since he learned when Astrid read them the letter, he had started including little stories at the end of each letter because the boys always loved his stories and he had a lot of extra time on his hands in the hospital).

"Daddy loves you. He says so in letters." Timmy promised Evelyn.

"He loves you very much." Michael added. "Just like we do. And he's going to come home and love you even more because you're real cute. And you're going to love him too."

Astrid smiled to herself. What darling children she had. This was certainly worthy of a letter.

She went to the cabinet where she kept the boys' crayons and paper and also got out a pen. She put a piece of paper in front of three chairs and put the crayons in the middle of the table.

She went to her room again and this time, the boys noticed. "It's about time for your sister's nap and I'm going to write a letter to your father. Do you want to come draw him a picture?"

"Yes!" they cried.

"Alright, I put everything out. Go on ahead. I'll just put your sister down and be there in a minute."

The boys slipped off the bed carefully as Astrid picked up her daughter. Both boys stopped to kiss their sister's head and Michael told her to have a nice nap before they ran to the kitchen.

Astrid cradled her baby close to her. "Daddy really does love you, sweetheart. You're going to be his princess, you know."

Evelyn babbled a little before she yawned. Astrid laughed a little before she kissed the baby's head and lay her in her crib. "Alright, sleep well, Evelyn. I love you."

Astrid left the door of the bedroom open a few inches before she headed to the kitchen. She stopped to turn off the radio.

Michael held up his started drawing proudly. "Mommy, look. I'm drawing all of us together. Me and Timmy and Evelyn and you and Daddy. Do you think he'll like it?"

"He'll love it, dear." she said. It was true.

Michael beamed before getting back to work on his picture beside his serious younger brother.

Astrid smiled at the both of them before starting on her letter.

Dear Henry,

The sweetest thing happened with the boys and Evelyn today.

A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it! Let me know what you thought!

Remember: Requests/Suggestions open until August 22nd!

-Pink