A/N - This is a longer note than I generally like to write, but I feel the need to explain some stuff in order to pre-empt some inevitable questions. Skip if you want.
First and foremost I have to stress one thing, even though I'm sure it will lead to some pre-judging: this story is based on Titanic: the Musical (yes, it exists) not the movie. I know I just lost, like, all my potential readers with that one statement, but I do wish you'd hear me out. If you don't know the musical, or just hate musicals in general, that should not hamper your enjoyment (hypothetical enjoyment, of course) of this fic. No one here will be bursting into song at any time, I promise. I simply need to clarify that you won't be running into Jack, Rose or anyone else from James Cameron's film in this fic. I've put this in the movie section because I hope that many fans of the movie are like me and enjoy the film for the historical content as well as or more than the Jack/Rose business and therefore would still like to read a story that doesn't have anything to do with those characters. I choose to write based on the musical only because I feel that the film did a more than adequate job wrapping up everyone's stories and thus I have no real pressing need to expand on what the movie already told us. On the other hand, I was immediatly captured by the characters that populate the stage show and the potential for stories therein.
Neatly segueing into point two: the characters. Kate McGowan, Kate Murphy, Kate Mullins and Jim Farrell were all real people who really did sail on the Titanic. However, for reasons best known to the writers of the musical, they have been highly fictionalised in that context. I have always assumed that this was a symbolic choice – picking real names to attribute to characters that were really more intended to symbolise the entirety of their class. Thus, I choose to think of these characters as fictional people who happen to share the same names as actual historical figures. If you stick around to the end of the story, I'll give some background on the real people for the curious.
This story takes place during the time frame of the musical and thus there will be scenes from the musical in the fic, just without the singing (obviously). Unlike Jack & Rose of movie fame, Kate et al are not in every scene of the musical. You in fact miss about three days of the voyage from the POV of 3rd class. This story is my attempt at filling in the blanks. I'll stress again that it won't matter at all if you've not seen the musical, it just bears mentioning that there will be lines from the script in here.
I will take a moment here to say that I love this musical to pieces. I'm a scary musical theatre nerd who has seen and/or is familiar with a frankly alarming number of musicals which I mention only to give a frame of reference when I say that Titanic sits consistently in my top five. Lots of people would disagree with me, but I'll defend the show until I drop dead from lack of oxygen.
Lastly, I am a Titanic geek. I have always been fascinated and haunted by the story of the ship and her passengers and crew. I sincerely hope that I do them justice in this fic.
Disclaimer: Peter Stone and Maury Yeston wrote the musical and James Cameron wrote the film, but they can't lay claim to the Titanic any more than I can. She belongs to history and memory.
Sail on, sail on, Godspeed Titanic
Cross the open sea.
Pray you journey sound, 'til your port be found
Fortune's winds, sing Godspeed to thee.
The early April sunshine spread cheerfully across the docks at Queenstown, Ireland illuminating the people swarming the area like moths drawn to the light. Bright sparks of morning sunlight glistened on the water, tracing a path out to the great ship sitting a mile off shore, setting her gleaming new decks shining, her pristine white paint blinding. Or at least, this was how Katherine McGowan – Kate to most of the world – imagined that it would look being that she could not actually see the damn ship just then.
Kate had been warned that all passengers travelling third class had to pass a mandatory health exam before boarding any White Star liner. She had hoped that perhaps this wasn't true and that she might be permitted to board unmolested. These hopes had been immediately dashed by a pair stuffy-looking uniformed men who ushered her brusquely towards the exam stations without so much as a 'good morning Miss' and directed her into one of several lines of people waiting to be examined.
The examinations were taking place in a low-slung building whose actual purpose Kate could only guess at. Because of this, she had gotten no more than a glimpse of the great Titanic before being shuffled inside. That was just typical, Kate thought, shooting an irritated look at the ceiling; she got a ticket on the grandest ship in the world and she couldn't even get a proper look at the bloody thing.
To keep occupied and to stave off the nerves, excitement and slight anxiety that were making her insides flutter, Kate surveyed her fellow passengers. They were mostly Irish, like her, and so somewhat less exciting than the mix would have been at Southhampton, but Kate could still find ways to amuse herself. She wondered, for example, whether the couple to her immediate left were newlyweds, or brother and sister and if they were aware that they had dressed almost identically. She wondered if the young girl in front of her was glowering so fiercely because of being forced to wait in this line, or because her mother wouldn't stop berating her for not wearing gloves and if that little boy in the peaked cap clinging to his father's hand realised that he was leaving his home forever.
Kate adjusted her grip on her single suitcase and shuffled along. The mother and daughter had reached the inspection station, making Kate next in line - thank the Lord for small favours. Kate was travelling alone, having said goodbye to her family the day before. She was trying not to dwell on the fact that she would likely never see any of them again – they had barely been able to scrounge enough money to pay Kate's fare let alone the whole brood, and besides, her brothers had no particular ambition to ever leave Ireland. But this was too important a day to allow homesickness to creep in and put a damper on it so Kate flatly refused to contemplate how alone she was. Even so, Kate had to admit that she would not have objected to having someone to talk to, some other young woman her own age perhaps.
The elder half of the mother/daughter pair ahead of Kate had evidently been found fit to board; she now stood a few feet from the inspection station clutching the papers that declared her to have passed the health exam and waiting for her daughter to be waved through as well. Kate bobbed impatiently on the balls of her feet. Across the way, the waiting mother did the same.
In the queue to Kate's right, someone made a low sound of annoyance. Kate glanced in the direction of the noise and found the culprit to be a good-looking young man maybe four or five years Kate's senior. He had a beat up canvas bag hanging from one hand and he swung this against his leg in an agitated fashion, all the while glowering at the slow-moving line. Kate felt her mouth twist into a little smirk. A surreptitious glance at the surrounding area revealed no obvious spouse or familial relations of any kind which led Kate to draw the somewhat hopeful conclusion that he too was without a travelling companion.
The man caught Kate staring and raised one eyebrow. Kate raised one of her own in return. The man blinked, caught off guard by her boldness, then chuckled, a bemused half-smile creeping across his face, "The way they're takin' their time, ye'd think they wanted us te miss the bloody ship all together." He said, explaining his earlier noise of discontent.
"Ah no, they'd not do that," Kate replied with a wry grin, "Else they'd be havin' te return our fare an' that'd never do."
"Fair point," The man conceded, "Though I still think they're tryin' te make a sport of watchin' the poor Irish run fer the tender ships."
Kate laughed out loud at the mental image of a hundred some odd men, women and children doing a mad dash for the gangway, "Oh lord, don't say that too loud or next thing ye know they'll be bettin' on us like horses." The man started to respond but was, at that moment ushered forward into his exam station, "Hmm, yours is faster than mine." Kate commented, nodding her head in the direction of her own future examiner. He was still busy checking over the teenage girl.
The man flashed Kate a quick grin but was too distracted by the doctor now bustling about in front of him to further the conversation. Kate rocked back on her heels and smiled to herself. Yes, she was hoping to find some nice, single girls her age to befriend, but if she happened to also befriend a nice, single man Kate certainly wasn't going to complain. Of course…she passed a self-conscious hand over the front of her coat, smoothing the material across her stomach. After a second she shook her head as though clearing a fog and forced herself to drop her arm back to her side. Kate had promised herself not to brood, not today.
She was pulled from her musings by the doctor, who had finally finished torturing the poor teenager and was now beckoning Kate forward. The man – Kate wasn't even sure if he was a doctor at that – was young, not much older than Kate herself. He had a look about him that suggested a desire to do his job well conflicting with an absolute longing to be anywhere but where he was. Kate knew the feeling.
"Name please?" The young man said pen poised above his clipboard.
Kate put her suitcase down, but kept a tight hold on her boarding papers, "Katherine McGowan," She peered at the man's notes, "Katherine with a 'K' mind."
The doctor rolled his eyes and corrected the error, "I need to see your papers." He intoned, "And if you would please remove your hat and coat?"
Obediently, Kate handed over her papers but she was more reluctant about the coat and hat. Both were relatively new, in good shape and, put together, had cost more than the entire contents of Kate's suitcase. She draped the coat carefully over said suitcase, taking care not to drag it along the dirty ground. The hat, Kate kept clasped in both hands.
Enough people had passed through the exam station ahead of Kate that she knew that the first part of the check up was scan for lice and other such nasty infestations. Kate, who had never had so much as a nit all her life, couldn't help but feel slightly humiliated by the whole process. She knew that it was necessary and that there was plenty of her caste that wouldn't have been so lucky to avoid such problems as lice or fleas, but there was nothing like a public inspection to remind a person just how low on the social ladder they fell. It made her feel like cattle.
"All right Miss," Kate's young doctor was saying, "If you could just stand still."
Ignoring her stinging pride, Kate refrained from moving so that the man could check her hair and scalp. She couldn't say she envied him that task; her curls were a good bit thicker than she figured any human hair needed to be. While the examiner attempted to wade through her abundant mop of hair, Kate took a moment to peek at the station next to her.
The doctor overseeing the exam of Kate's handsome new acquaintance was a significantly older than the man currently poking about Kate's own head. He had finished the lice-check, which had apparently come up negative as the young Irishman had already pulled back on his peaked cap and was now having his eyes and throat checked for any sign of infection. While the doctor jotted down his notes, the young man caught Kate's gaze for a second time. Kate made a face and rolled her eyes sympathetically. He shrugged and gave her a look of amused resignation, then brought his focus back to the doctor who had just launched into a series of health related questions.
Kate's young doctor, for his part, finally seemed to finish checking Kate's head, which was a relief if only because she'd been growing concerned that he'd actually lost his comb somewhere in the jungle of her curls. Instead of commencing with the throat and eye exam, however, the doctor lifted the mass of ruddy coils from the back of Kate's neck to examine the fine hairs there. Startled by the familiarity of this gesture, Kate yelped and spun around, dealing her hapless examiner a sharp cuff across the top of his head.
"Oi! Watch where yer pokin' there boy-o!" Kate said indignantly, giving him another smack with her hat for good measure, "We hardly know each other after all."
The young doctor's face went brilliantly pink, "Miss, I assure you that it's just procedure…" he stammered.
"Is there a problem Crowly?" That was the older examiner from next door. Both he and his handsome charge had turned to stare at Kate, bemusement splashed across their faces.
Kate arched one eyebrow and answered in the man's place, "No sir, except I usually need a fella te at least buy me a drink 'fore he goes pawin' round the back o' me neck, yeah?"
"I-I wasn't pawing." The younger doctor – Crowly apparently – insisted, his face darkening to a very pronounced shade of purplish red. This drew a barely concealed snort of laughter from the Irishman. Kate flashed him a quick sideways grin and he touched the peak of his cap in acknowledgment.
The older doctor rolled his eyes, "Get on with it then," He sighed. Kate was sure that she saw his mouth twitch in amusement before he turned away again.
"Right. Right." Crowly, still clearly flustered, said, "You can put your coat and hat back on…er…Miss."
"Thank ye." Kate said, immediately retrieving her coat and giving it a careful dusting off before slipping it back on. Doing up her buttons, Kate gave Crowly – who was staring at his clipboard as though he'd forgotten why he was there – a curious look, "I think yer s'posed te be checking my eyes now."
The young man jumped and turned pink again. Kate decided that he had clearly never had a girl in his life. Poor lad. "I… yes, quite right."
Kate submitted to the eye and throat exam without causing any more of a fuss. Crowly seemed determined to get rid of her as soon as humanly possible now and Kate wasn't about to impede his newfound haste. At the adjacent station, the young man had finished getting looked over and was now being handed his papers. Kate – who currently had Crowly peering down her throat – watched him out of the corner of her eye. He was not only handsome, but seemed to have a sense of humour as well and Kate had been half-hoping that their exams would finish at the same time so that she might talk to him properly.
Though this was apparently not to be, Kate was positive that she saw him glance her way and hesitate before starting out of the building towards the docks. Kate made up her mind then and there that she was going to get to know that particular fellow. If nothing else she figured that he might be able to fill the void left by her brothers.
"Miss?" That was Crowly again. He had finished checking her over and had his clipboard back in hand, pen at the ready, "I need to ask you a few questions."
Kate nodded, "All right, ask away." She chirped feeling quite merry now that the end of the exam was in sight.
Crowly eyed her warily as though expecting her to assault him again then said, "Have you experienced any ill health in the past twelve months?"
It was such an absurd question that Kate almost laughed. Who hadn't experienced ill health in a whole year? "Er… what kind of ill health would ye be referrin' to?"
"Any sort of severe sickness, especially chronic illnesses that might be contagious." Crowly replied, still giving her a distrustful look.
Kate tilted her head to one side and would have looked genuinely perplexed if she'd just been able to keep her mouth from twitching, "Does anyone ever actually say 'yes' te that question?"
"I'm going to take that as a 'no' then." Crowly intoned drily.
"Right ye are." Kate said, pulling the pins from her hat so that she could secure it to her head again.
Crowly gave an irritated sigh, "Look Miss, if you'll just tell me – honestly," He shot her a pointed look, "If there is any medical problem we should know about, then I'll let you run along."
Kate bobbed her head and said around a mouthful of hat pins "Medical things? Like… breathin' problems?" Crowly nodded, "Or… rashes? Bleedin' sores? Boils? Fits?" Each time Crowly nodded, looking as though he'd like to bash her over the head with his clipboard, "What about pregnancy?"
"Pregnancy is not a contagious disease!" Crowly snapped, exasperated.
"Well… some might argue that."
Crowly closed his eyes, and took a deep breath "Do any of those problems apply to you Miss?"
Kate smiled blandly and looked young Crowly square in the face; "Nope, none of 'em."
"Thank God for that." Crowly grumbled under his breath. He signed Kate's paper deeming her fit to board the Titanic and handed it and the rest of her documents back to her, "Run along then."
"Yes sir," Kate grinned. She adjusted her hat, and picked up her suitcase, "Thank ye kindly." Crowly flapped a hand at her as if this might make her leave more quickly. Kate grinned again and headed out to the docks.