A/N: This is it...the last chapter. It's so hard to believe. As I know some of you are aware, I started writing this fanfiction over five years ago, left it for a time, and only now came back to fix and finish. I really, really hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. To those of you who have stuck with me from the first chapter, I hope you enjoyed this 'adventure' with me! To absolutely everyone who reviewed, I cannot thank you enough.

The next morning, despite having only a few hours of sleep, Maria woke with the sun feeling full of energy. Her muscles were already twitching when she awoke, and she recognized she could not spend another minute in bed.

She jumped slightly as her bare feet hit the cool floor of her room, recognizing for the first time that summer was truly over.

As she quickly prepared for the day, her mind wandered to the night before. After collecting the five-dozen roses (she had counted seven times since Georg had kissed her goodnight) and blowing out the hundreds of candles they had retired to what she now considered 'their' sunroom, where Georg patiently had answered all her questions. After Maria had gone to bed the night after the concert, he had met with an old friend, that part was true. It just happened that this friend was in Vienna, and sold jewelry.

Picking out the ring had been easy, he told her. He picked the best representation of his family…their family now. Maria, like the large diamond, in the middle, with the seven children and himself on either side.

Practically asleep, he had driven back to the villa only 2 hours after arriving in Vienna, which was when he had found Maria in the study. He had resigned to a simple proposal as he thought the children would require his attention for the day, but when he realized that they were preoccupied, his original plan was put into place with the help of Frau Schmidt, whose household duties had been fulfilled by the children.

Dressed and ready for the day, Maria sighed as she removed the beautiful ring she had been fiddling with and admiring all night, and carefully placed in on a chain so it could hang around her neck beside the whistle. The children were observant, and she and Georg had not spoken about how to break the news to them. The night was only for the two of them, he had told her.

With a light heart and a skip in her step, Maria hurried downstairs towards the kitchen for her routine tea. The children did not have to be woken for another hour at least.

Turning the corner towards the kitchen, Maria stopped in her tracks as Georg emerged from her final destination with two large mugs in hand.

"I had a feeling you would be coming to join me" Georg greeted his new fiancée with a smile that filled Maria was peace and joy.

"I had hoped to find you" Maria agreed, accepting the mug from Georg.

There was a moment of awkwardness, as the Captain tried to lean in to kiss her, but the tea sloshed about dangerously, forcing him to back away with a sheepish smile.

Neither needed to verbally suggest their destination – both automatically made their way towards the terrace where they had spent so many mornings together watching the sun rise.

"How did you sleep?" Georg asked once they were both comfortably seated on the banister, their hanging legs entwined.

"Like an insomniac" Maria laughed, resting her head on the Captain's shoulder while cradling the mug in both hands.

Her answer set off Georg's warning bells, but he tried to remain calm, kissing the top of her head before asking "What's wrong?"

Maria was surprised at the worry in Georg's voice. She had not realized the possible misinterpretations of her words after his proposal.

"I was too excited my love – some part of me was certain that when I woke up I would have found yesterday was a dream"

"Do you often have such dreams about me?" Georg teased

Maria buried her head a little deeper into the notch between Georg's shoulder and neck, and Georg smiled to himself as he felt the warmth of her face through the thin material of his shirt.

"Never as perfect" she admitted, hoping he wouldn't pry into how long she had been having these dreams about him. He let her off the hook this time.

"Perfect?" he asked with the glorious smile that lit up his face audible in his tone.

Maria raised her head so she could look her fiancé in the eyes.

"When I was young, I never dreamed of my perfect wedding like the other girls. Most of them knew the colour of their bouquet before their multiplication tables, and the cut of their wedding dress before they could spell crinoline. I always thought they were crazy; I mean a wedding is just one day in a whole lifetime. But at night, when my mind was too full to sleep, I would dream of the perfect marriage – of the person I would share my life with and what our life would be like."

Maria inhaled sharply before continuing. "Georg, you exceed every hope my young mind ever created. The life I had hoped for pales in comparison to the one you have given me, and I spent last night in disbelief thinking of what my life is becoming. What you did for me last night…"

Maria shook her head, unable to verbalize what she had felt the night before.

"…no one has ever known me as you do. I never thought it was possible to love someone like I love you."

Maria knew she was rambling, internally struggling to find the correct words to convey the multitude of thoughts racing through her mind.

"So yes. Absolutely perfect" she announced triumphantly with a laugh.

Georg could feel his heart pounding in his head and his chest in his throat as he leaned over as carefully as possible so as to not spill the lukewarm drinks and gently kiss his fiancée.

"I could have asked dressed in a paper bag with rotten eggs being thrown at our heads…the fact you said yes would have made it perfect regardless" Georg responded truthfully, pleased when he earned himself a joyful laugh.

"And…" he continued "I have a feeling when the girls find out that you have absolutely no plans for a wedding, they'll be beyond thrilled. I'm sure they'd love to help you with whatever planning you're willing to share."

"Georg, we need to talk about that. How to tell them."

"Did you have something in mind?" Georg asked, willing to bet his home that Maria would have a very strong opinion about how to approach his children…their children…about everything.

Their children.

Georg smiled to himself at that thought.

"I think we should tell them sooner than later. They have a right to know what's going on in their own home."

"I agree – as wonderful as an actor as I'm sure you are, I have a feeling Brigitta and Liesl would be able to find out something's going on quite quickly."

"They are extraordinarily perceptive" Maria agreed.

"It was almost as if they realized we should be together before we did" the Captain agreed.

Both paused, thought, and simultaneously their heads turned to look at each other with incredulous expressions.

"They made me, the ultimate player of capture the flag, the jailer, and you my prisoner, didn't they?"

"I'm sure they unplugged the oven…I asked cook the next day and he said it had been working fine. Though I can't imagine what their original plan was for that one."

"The sudden desire for music lessons?"

"Your impromptu makeover?"

"Kurt asking for Shakespeare lessons?"

"The breakfast in bed?"

"The concert last night?"

"The chores today?"

"Though I agree these are all strange behaviours, Georg I don't understand how they thought some of these things would bring us together."

"I have no idea, my love, but whatever their inspiration, it worked."

Maria snuggled closer to Georg, her mug long abandoned on the rail as her hands were enveloped in his.

"How could we have been so blind?" she marvelled to herself softly, knowing he could still hear her.

"To their plans, or to each other?" Georg responded in an equal tone.

"Either. Both. Or better yet, how could they have been so perceptive of something that didn't exist?"

"It was there, we just didn't know about it yet" Georg kissed her on the crown of her head. "Or we weren't ready to admit it yet. Do we tell them we know what they were up to?"

"No, in some way they are responsible for this…for us. I don't think we'll ever know to what extent."

"Give them the sense of pride and accomplishment?"

"Exactly."

"Spoken like a true mother"

Maria quickly jerked out of Georg's arms to face him.

"Mother?"

Though she had finally accepted that she would be the wife of Captain von Trapp, it had never crossed her mind she would also become the mother of seven children. Seven children she loved with all her heart, but…

"Georg…what will they think? Especially the older children. I can't pretend to be something I'm not. Agathe will always be their true mother; all I can offer is friendship, support, and of course love."

"Maria, my love, that's what a mother is. Though I am sure they will all always have a place in their hearts for Agathe, by the time I returned from Vienna at the beginning of the summer, they loved you as any child loves a parent. You have shown them respect, compassion, dedication, joy, and love. You are already in every way their mother; this is simply a formality."

"Thank you, Georg."

Maria cuddled into Georg's arms, relishing his warmth in the cool morning air.

"May we tell them today? Together after breakfast?" she spoke quietly to not disturb the peacefulness that had settled in the morning air.

"Together" he repeated, kissing her gently on the lips.

Wrapped in each other's arms, stealing kisses as the sun rose above the mountaintops, the pair soon lost track of time. It was only when Maria's stomach rumbled that Georg glanced at his watch and realized it was half an hour past the time the children should have been woken up.

Hand-in-hand, with eyes only for each other, Maria and Georg walked through the doors back into the house…and right into seven bodies that were staring at them with open mouths and wide eyes.

Taking in the large panes of glass behind them that revealed where they had just spent the better part of an hour, the Captain groaned. "Apparently they are better planners and schemers than we" Georg sighed in a voice quiet enough that only Maria could hear him.

"It worked!" Kurt exclaimed, finally breaking the silence.

"It?" Maria asked, expertly raising a single eyebrow and trying not to smile.

"Our plan" Kurt continued matter-of-factly. "I can't believe Brigitta and Liesl were right! We'll never hear the end of this."

"Your plan?" the Captain asked, squeezing Maria's hand, and tried to follow her lead and suppress his laughter.

"We had a plan?" Marta asked, scrunching up her eyebrows in concentration, oblivious to the significance of having seen her father and governess embracing on the terrace.

"To make Father and fraulein Maria fall in love!" Kurt rolled his eyes at his younger sister, forgetting she and Gretl had not been involved in the scheming. "We've only been talking about it nonstop for weeks!"

The older girls and Friedrich were still speechless, their eyes traveling between the two entwined hands and the adults' amused and slightly guilty expressions.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Marta's eyes were filling with tears, the most sensitive of the seven.

"We can plan too," Gretl pouted with crossed arms, sensing her best friend's sadness and more upset about this than of being left out of her sibling's activities.

Maria and Georg exchanged a long look and, with a slight nod and smile, Maria bent down to eye level with the two youngest girls.

"How would you two like a very special job for me?" Maria asked as seriously as she could manage, barely containing her joy admixed with anxiety.

The two nodded vehemently.

Maria took a deep breath to gather her courage and was reassured when she felt Georg's hands on her shoulders.

"Would you two be my flower girls?" Maria asked in a voice loud enough for the other children to hear.

Her words were greeted by a moment of silence followed by a flurry of gasps and exclamations.

"But that means…"

"What?!"

"When?

"How?!"

As she stood Maria felt Georg's arm wrap around her waist and hold her close to him, and Gretl and Marta ran forward into her open arms, too young to ask questions. She freed one hand, undid the clasp around her neck and allowed the ring to slide off.

With a final look at Georg, she slipped it onto her fourth finger, where it would remain for decades to come.

"Is this for real?" Liesl asked, unable to move for fear waking up.

"Only if it is alright with all seven of you." Maria firmly replied, her grip tightening around the Captain's hand.

"Alright? I have been dreaming about this since your first night here." Liesl breathed, enveloping Maria in a hug.

"How is this possible?" Brigitta asked aloud, fixated on the shining diamonds.

"I was lost and was sent an angel, sweetheart, who won my heart with a love song" the Captain responded poetically, pulling all seven children into his arms, his eyes looking deep into those of his fiancé.

The Captain could not keep his eyes off of her. There truly is nothing more irresistible to a man than a woman who's in love with him.

And though this gaze, Maria was overwhelmed knowing he was as deeply in love with her.

Music acts like a magic key, to which the most tightly closed heart opens."

- Maria von Trapp