Chapter 2

First Meeting

AN: Thank you all so much for your wonderful reviews and to gleelover117 for letting me know that you are okay with the direction I am taking. Here is the next chapter I hope you enjoy!

Rachel spent the rest of her day trying to avoid her mother and Finn which didn't really work and soon she found herself sitting at dinner with them listening to them go on and on about the same mindless things as they always did. She soon excused herself and went back to her room. She sat in front of her vanity and looked at herself in the mirror. She didn't recognize the person looking at her and as she thought about her life she became more and more upset with it and soon she was tearing her hair down and pulling her jewelry off and throwing it about her room. Rachel didn't know how she had come to this conclusion but she soon found herself running towards the back of the ship desperate to escape her life by any means possible.

Sam lay on a bench on the 3rd class deck looking at the stars and taking a drag from his cigarette. He had been thinking all day about the dark haired beauty. He couldn't get her out of his mind. Her hair, her eyes, the way she held herself, the way the light hit her. She was mesmerizing. He was sure he would never see her again but it would seem that fate had different plans because he heard someone running his way and he say her go straight past him towards the back of this ship.

Rachel soon found herself standing at the rear of the ship looking into the water below. She kept looking behind her to make sure there was no one to stop her from going through with her only escape plan for as long as she lived she would always be someone else's puppet. She took hold of a pole and stepped over the railing and climbed down. She turned around carefully tears streaming down her face as she leaned further out.

"Don't do it." a voice said from behind her. She turned to see the boy who had been staring at her earlier standing a few feet behind her.

"Stay back, don't come any closer." Rachel said looking back to the water.

"Come on give me your hand I'll pull you back over." He said extending his hand in her direction.

"No stay where you are, I mean it, I'll let go." Rachel said watching him. He stepped closer showing that he was only going to throw his cigarette over the edge.

"No you won't," he said shoving his hands into his pockets.

"What do you mean 'no I won't' don't presume to tell me what I will and will not do, you don't know me." Rachel said shocked at his words. It seemed all men wanted to tell her what to do. Even complete strangers.

"Well you would have done it already." He stated simply.

"You're distracting me, go away." She told him turning back once again to the water.

"I can't I'm involved now. You let go and I'm gonna have to jump in there after you." He told her stepping closer to her.

"Don't be absurd. You'll be killed." She told him looking at him in slight disbelief. How could a complete stranger care if she dies or not.

"I'm a good swimmer." He said with a shrug.

"The fall alone will kill you." She informed him looking at the drop before her.

"It would hurt; I'm not saying it wouldn't. Tell you the truth, I'm a lot more concerned about the water being so cold." He says taking his boots off. Rachel looks down at the water and back to him.

"How cold?" she asked with a small stutter in her voice.

"Freezing, maybe a couple degrees over. You, uh, ever been to Wisconsin?" Rachel looked over him confused by the question he just asked her.

"What?" she asks.

"Well they have some of the coldest winters around. I grew up there near Chippewa Falls. I remember when I was a kid, me and my father; we went ice fishing out on Lake Wisstoa. Ice fishing is, you know, where you…" he said

"I know what ice fishing is." Rachel nearly shouted at him becoming frustrated. She was trying to kill herself and was hanging off the back of a ship and he was trying to explain ice fishing to her.

"Sorry. You just seem like, you know, kind of an indoor girl." Sam said looking her over. She was even more beautiful now then he remembered with her hair flowing. "Anyway, I, uh, fell through some thin ice; and I'm telling you, water that cold, like right down there." He said gesturing towards the water below her. "It hits you like a thousand knives stabbing you all over your body. You can't breathe, you can't think, at least not about anything but the pain." He said pulling his jacket off. "Which is why I'm not looking forward to jumping in there after you?" They simply stare at each other for a moment and Sam is really hoping she won't jump at this point. "Like I said, I don't have a choice." He said removing the vest he was wearing as well. "I guess I'm kinda hoping you'll come back over the railing and get me off the hook here." He said stepping closer to her still.

"You're crazy." Rachel told him. Sam had to chuckle a little at that.

"That's what everybody says but, with all due respect, miss I'm not the one hanging off the back of a ship here. Come on," He said extending his hand to her once more. "C'mon, give me your hand. You don't want to do this." He said looking into her sad brown eyes. Rachel looks at him for a moment before letting go of the railing and placing her hand in is and turns back around to climb back over.

"Whew!" He exclaimed really glad that he was able to talk her out of it. "I'm Sam Evans." He said.

"Rachel Barbra Berry." She said.

"I'm gonna have to get you to write that one down." Sam said smiling at her and Rachel laughed a little. She began to climb back over but slipped on her dress that got caught on her shoe and losing her footing slipped from the ship. The only thing keeping her from plummeting towards the water was Sam holding her back. Rachel screamed and begged for him to help her.

"I've got you, I won't let go." Sam says trying to pull her back up. Rachel tries to pull herself up but slips again and lets out another scream and cries for Sam to pull her up. Sam soon is finally able to pull her over and they both fall to the deck Rachel clutching to him tightly. Rachel was crying from the terror and it broke his heart and he held her to him.

"Here now, what is this?" Someone asks and Sam looks up to see three crew men staring at him. The scene he knows does not look good. Rachel is trembling and crying lying on a deck with him over top of her and she was just screaming for help. "Stand back and don't move an inch." The man calls and Sam stands up taking a step back and putting him hands in his pockets. "Fetch the master at arms." The man comes over and helps Rachel up one crew member bringing a blanket to wrap around her. Soon Sam finds himself being handcuffed and Rachel is surrounded by men in tuxedos. A tall stupid looking man approached him and he knows this can't be good.

"What makes you think you can put your hands on my fiancée?" He asked and Sam looks over at Rachel shocked that she would be attached to such a man. Finn grabs Sam by his shirt and directs his attention away from Rachel. "Look at me you filth, what did you think you were doing?" He ask shaking him and Rachel is up grabbing his arm.

"Finn stop, it was an accident." Rachel says and Finn looks over at her letting go of Sam's shirt.

"An accident." Finn ask not believing her.

"It was stupid really. I was leaning over and I slipped." Rachel looks over at Sam who is staring at her now in disbelief. "I was leaning far over to see… the uh...the uh…." Rachel says making a circle with her finger trying to think of the word she needs.

"Propellers." Finn offers.

"The propellers and I slipped and I would have gone over board but Mr. Evans here saved me and almost went over board himself." Rachel finishes.

"You wanted to see the propellers," Finn says more to himself then Rachel. "She wanted to see the propellers." He announces to the others with a nervous laugh.

"Women and Machinery don't mix." An older British gentleman said.

"Was that the way of it?" the master at arms asked him. Sam looked over at Rachel and she pleaded silently to agree with her story.

"Uh huh, that was pretty much it." Sam says looking back at Rachel.

"Well the boys a hero then. Good for you well done son." The British man says to him. "Well then all is well and it's back to our brandies eh?" The man says to Finn who is rubbing Rachel's arms and moving her away from the scene.

"Look at you, you must be freezing, let's get you out of here." Finn says to Rachel.

"Perhaps a little something for the boy." The British man says to Finn who turns back to Jack while keeping his hand on Rachel's arm and Sam doesn't like that at all.

"Right I think a twenty should do it Mr. Lovejoy." Finn says turning away and Rachel scoffs.

"Is that the going rate for saving the woman you love?" Rachel asks Finn.

"Rachel is displeased…Mmm what to do." Finn says. "Ah I know." He says stepping closer to Sam. "Perhaps you could join us for dinner tomorrow night to regale our group with your heroic tale?" Finn asks and Sam looks straight at Rachel when he answers.

"Sure count me in." Sam says to him.

"Good. It's settled then." Finn says turning back to Rachel and putting a possessive arm around her. Sam watched them go and whistles to Finn's manservant.

"Can I bum a smoke?' He asks and the man stops opening his cigarette case. Sam takes two cigarettes and nods his thank you.

"You'll want to tie those." He says to Sam and he looks down at his shoes which are untied. "Interesting the young lady slips so suddenly and you still have time to remove your jacket and your shoes." He says to Sam before walking off.

Rachel sat in her room now warm and dressed in her night clothes thinking about the man who saved her while she cleaned her small hand mirror. There was a knock on her door and Finn opens the door. Rachel looks at him in her mirror but doesn't turn around to look at him.

"I know you've been melancholy lately and I don't pretend to know why." He says stepping into the room and producing a box that he was holding behind his back sitting on the edge of her vanity. "I had hoped to save this until the engagement gala next week, but I thought tonight." Finn said opening the box to show Rachel a stunning necklace where the main focus was a large heart shaped stone and a diamond necklace.

"Is it a…" Rachel begins placing her hand on the box.

"A diamond yes. 56 carats to be exact." Finn says taking the necklace from the box and placing it around Rachel's neck. "It was once worn by Louis the XVI and they called it Le Coeur de la Mer, the…"

"The heart of the ocean." They both say at the same time. Rachel touches the stone at her neck and the coldness burns her skin. "It's overwhelming." Rachel says.

"It's for royalty, and we are royalty Rachel." Finn tells her kneeling down beside her and propping himself on his arm." there is nothing I wouldn't give you, nothing I would deny you, if you would not deny me." Finn says to her and Rachel looks down at him. This is the first time he has seemed to really care about her and she is shocked by it. "Open your heart to me Rachel." Finn says and Rachel looks from him back to her reflection and the large stone rest on her skin. This was very overwhelming.

AN: Well tell me what you thought. The scene at the beginning is actually a deleted scene from the movie.