Charlotte Taro had felt the shudder of the ship as she was granted access back into her cabin. She was in the middle of throwing back on some of her hold clothes just because they were comfortable when she was lurched forward and then back as the ship grinded against grit. Cold grit…she dreaded.

She had run down the passage and up the stairs out onto the deck towards the bow only to stop dead upon realising she didn't have to go far to see what had happened. The iceberg was enormous, immovable even against the force of the Titanic as it collided in full swing. Dread filled Taro up to the tip top of her being as she watched it simply bob unflinchingly as they, themselves, sailed passed, wounded, no doubt. She was frozen to the spot managing a glance up at the bridge but nobody was there.

"Did you see that?" a thrilled voice came from behind her, someone she didn't know, an excited third class passenger who ran to the rails to peer over the side to try and get a second glimpse at the gigantic perpetrator. She ignored him and found her feet, setting off in search of answers before anything else drastic happened. Upon her journey towards the limit of third class passengers, she found Jack and Rose also hanging over the rail in an effort to grasp the reality of what had just occurred,

"Charlie!"

Taro had just placed a foot on the first step towards the bridge when she was discovered,

"What?"

Jack and Rose hurried over to her in a perplexed flurry having also been first hand witnesses to the most unexpected of all things only to have it float on without any menice…or so it appeared, the reality of it was somewhat different.

"Did you see that?"

"Of course I did, I was upfront and personal with the damn thing,"

"Did you see it hit?"

"No…no, that I missed," she still had her foot on the first step, desperately trying to indicate that she wanted to go, "I'm glad I did, the amount of ice that's now on the deck would have hurt should it have fallen on me head,"

"I bet," Jack looked over his shoulder again,

"Should we tell someone?" Rose asked, a little nervous and despite knowing exactly what she meant, Taro could not miss such an opportunity to be sarcastic,

"Of course, 'Excuse me Officers, did you see that big chunk of ice in the water? I think it hit us' – but they might already know,"

"Taro," Jack glowered at her but Rose had her own fire,

"I meant other passengers – Mother and Cal, but you know that so don't act high, mighty and sarcastic now when we really need to think,"

"Righto," Taro took a step back, removing her foot from the step in surrender, "I'm sorry, you're right,"

"No," Jack took up the conversation now, his shoulders straight and alert, "We shouldn't tell any other passengers just yet until we know what's really happening,"

"Jack's right, we should wait until we're all told about what's happening…"

Just then, Officer Boxhall, Mr Andrews and a couple of the other crew members started down the steps Taro was about to ascend. Mr Andrews asked something about one of the rooms – the cargo hold perhaps, Taro didn't catch it, but she did hear Mr Boxhall say,

"No, Sir, it's already underwater,"

Their voices were low and agitated, their movements rushed yet swift. Whatever it was that worried them was big and seemed to confirm the trios concerns,

"This is bad," Jack mused, frowning over the deck the men had just descended upon.

"We should tell mother and Cal,"

Taro glanced at them, drawing her eyes away from the crew now on deck, examining the damage from above,

"I'm going to find out what's happening,"

"From who?" Rose called after her as she climbed the stairs two at a time,

"An Officer!"

"Which one?"

She rounded a corner calling,

"Any one!"

OoOoOoOoO

Murdoch and Lightoller stood in the board room while they waited for the return of the Captain along with Mr Boxhall and Mr Andrews, awaiting further instructions. Wilde entered their domain with an impatient look on his face, clearly wanting answers as to what should be done. Lifeboats? Flares? Carry on sailing? What? No one knew. Murdoch was better at hiding his impatience but he was staring at his feet so it didn't matter in that regard. He didn't see the iceberg, he didn't direct the helmsman in time, the poor lad looked as shaken and unnerved as Murdoch felt, maybe more so. He didn't see anything and even upon being told to turn hard to starboard, he was probably still unaware of how close the berg was – he was acting on pure faith, putting all his trust into Murdoch's instructions and that hurt Murdoch too for he had failed on that account as well, they still hit it. Porting around the berg saved the stern but if the worst was happening, then it made no difference. He felt Mr Lightoller put a quick hand on his shoulder but it was Mr Wilde, who spoke,

"What actually happened, Mr Murdoch?" his tone was strong and authoritative, demanding an understanding. Mr Murdoch recounted his tale as best he could whilst trying not to let his voice break – he didn't see it!

Mr Wilde nodded and quite unexpectedly did the same thing as Lightoller, only his was more reassuring, he laid a hand on Murdoch's shoulder and smiled,

"You're alright, Will,"

But the ship wasn't. That came clear when Mr Andrews and the others barged in with multiple maps, heavy steps and heavy breaths. Laying out the maps on the table, the crew was given a second hand account of what was to happen to the ship in the next hour right up until Mr Murdoch was asked how many people were aboard,

"2200 souls on board, Sir," he swallowed.

The Captain's face was pure shock, complete unwanted amazement. The worst had suddenly happened and now they had less than an hour to tell 2200 people that they needed to be organised ready to make the life boat boarding move fast and efficiently and to actually rig the boats and make them ready for the passengers all with knowledge that it would be a slower process anyway for they didn't do the life boat drill scheduled for that day and, the worst of all, there were too few life boats. They had to ensure that 2200 people felt sure they would all be fine when it would be the exact opposite. It was a definite bet to say that passengers would die. The captain declared that it would be best to delay the panic for as long as possible but Murdoch knew that in about 30 to 40 minutes, panic would catch on as people would begin to realise their situation as dire, desperate and hopeless one by one. Bedlam was waiting patiently in the corner.

They were all out the room and on the move within seconds of the Captain giving them orders,

"Mr Lightoller, Mr Lowe," Wilde was saying as they marched through to the helm, "You will handle the boats on the Starboard side. Mr Murdoch, you, Mr Moody and I will be on Port, clear?"

The room was momentarily filled up with "Aye, Sir's" but silence followed quickly as the Officers departed for allocated stations,

"Right," Wilde blew his whistle and suddenly the bottom crew of the Titanic was upon them, being divided into two groups: one to go with Murdoch and another to go with Wilde and before he knew it, Mr Murdoch was shouting orders, hauling ropes, unhooking chains, pulling off the life boat covers – sending half his men up to the second deck to start unhooking the collapsible boats.

"Mr Murdoch!" he didn't register until his name was called a third time. He turned to find Taro standing in an alert, up and ready-to-run sort of position, her hair slightly dishevelled and her cheeks slightly pink. Visions of what had happened only an hour or so before hand came flooding back and he momentarily shut his eyes to try and shove the memories away from what was important,

"Miss Taro,"

"What the hell is happening, Will?" her face showed no sign of nerves, of love, of hate, of anything – this was a different Taro, this was someone ready to fight for her life – he concluded she'd seen something he would come to wish she hadn't have.

"This is not the time,"

"Like hell, it's not the time!" she took a step, "I saw the iceberg, I heard what one of the Officers said to Mr Andrews when they were on deck. This ship is meant to be indestructible and I've just heard that something's already underwater,"

"Look, Charlotte, please –"

"WHAT is happening?" she silenced him momentarily, becoming aware of the fact that she was not leaving without an answer, "Is this ship…sinking, Mr Murdoch?"

He took a moment, glancing around at his life boats, his crew, his unbelievable misfortune and nodded.

"We have an hour, roughly,"

"An hour,"

"Aye," he was distracted again as one of his crew members alerted him to a mishap with one of the boats. He turned from Taro to sort it out, slipping this through there and unhooking that and shoving this here and resorting to cutting it all together proceeding to stand back and examine his work. He grimaced at his achievements, having not quite gotten the desired effect. When he turned back, however, Taro was gone.

OoOoOoOoO

Taro raced down the passage in an attempt to find Fabrizio and Tommy but as luck would so ironically have it, they found her, having been awoken by one of the crew members throwing life belts in their faces and then stepping into ice cold water.

"Jesus, hell, this water's bloody cold and now the life jacket's? What's happenin'?" Tommy sounded aggravated, "Did you see what happened?"

Taro nodded, "We hit an iceberg,"

"Yer jockin'," Tommy's mouth fell open at the concept as did Fabrizio's, both men gaping at her in disbelief,

"We should get a move on before the storm hits," she started ahead but Tommy held her back,
"Wait a minute, what storm? Is this that bad?"

"Are we sinking?"

Tommy glanced at Fabrizio and then back at Taro – like Fabrizio had seemingly stolen the question from Tommy's mouth. He waited for an answer, his hand grasping Taro's wrist firmly.

"Aye,"

"WHAT?!" Tommy took a step back, letting go of Taro as he did so but she clamped a hand over his mouth before he could say anymore,

"Keep it down! If ye cause panic down here there'll be a stampede and we'll be dead before the water even reaches our ankles. They're going to close the third class gates and make us wait while they load the 1st class passengers first –"

"Bullshit, how do ye know that?" Tommy spat, "They can' keep us locked down here, we'll be drowned men 'fore they think of letting us through,"

"Drowned or stepped on," Fabrizio added to disgruntled agreement of the others,

"Aye, that's why we're going up now. It's what's been happening the whole time we've been on this ship. It's always first class first – why do you think they call it first class?" she turned but was retained once again and this time she let out what seemed to be a small snarl of impatience,

"What! What now?"

"Jack and Rose,"

"They were above deck last I saw,"

"Yeah well, where are they now?"

"I don't know but I'm sure they'll be fine, now do ye have any more questions or can we move on so that we can get locked out rather than in?" She waited but when no question came, she was on the move, up the steps to the gates only to find they were manned and shut already.

OoOoOoOoOo

Murdoch had just hooked up the last boat on the lower deck when the first of the passengers started strolling out. Oh how he wanted them to just stop being so idle and pull their socks up and recognise a very real threat.

He watched them in a sort of numb stupor for a moment, appalled at how insignificant they regarded people below them to be.

"Mr Murdoch," Lightoller pulled him from his thoughts, "How're your boats looking?"

"Rigged and ready,"

"Women and children first,"

"Aye, Mr Wilde informed me. What are you doing?"

"Making sure you know that! Mr Wilde can't be trusted," he was gone before Murdoch could retort back.

He gathered the passengers before him and gave them the briefing he was given, telling them to move quickly and efficiently and above all, to keep order. At the last instruction, they all looked at each other with puzzlement. But slowly but surely, things started to move. One by one, passengers were getting into the boat and for the first time in his whole career, Murdoch shouted the words,

"And LOWER AWAY!"

Watching as the first of 6 boats his side, was lowered to the sea. He tried to hide it, and he did it well, but he was shaking, not from cold but from a feeling of failure. Why was it not going away?

OoOoOoO

Taro, Tommy and Fabrizio moved through the gathering crowd to the front where Tommy confronted the steward,

"What the hell are ye doing, man?"

"Go back to the main stairwell; everything will be sorted out there,"

"That's not an answer, boyo," Tommy's eyes narrowed and he looked threatening but the steward paid it no heed,

"Go back to the main stairwell,"

"You BASTARD!"

"Tommy, calm down, let's try somewhere else," Taro put a hand on his shoulder as she made her way back down the stairs, Fabrizio and Tommy on her heels,

"I can' believe they're doing this. Look, op here,"

Taro turned and followed Frabizio and Tommy up to a second gate but they were turned away there too.

"figlio di una cagna!" Fabrizio swore, "There's niente this way,"

"Or any way!"

They went down a different passage but upon taking a left turn into rapidly rising water, they turned back, the panic rising in each of them equally as quickly – an hour.

OoOoOoO

The first boat was dispatched quickly enough, Murdoch was now half way through the second but upon glancing at the bow and realising how fast it was going under, he became increasingly aware of the shoving and agitation starting to happen at which point he turned briskly,

"You will keep order here," he looked as many people in the eye as he could resisting the urge to lay a hand on his firearm. He knew his orders would not be listened to for long so he turned back and repeated his words once again, sending the second boat on its lofty, tilting way down the sea.

Taro kept popping into his head with each new person getting into a boat, he hoped that she might make an appearance and that he might miraculously find a way to smuggle her on board but if she never showed there would be no hope. But that second boat he sent down carried the majority of his crowd and now he was running out of people to put in lifeboats. He turned to one of his crew mates,

"Where is everyone?"

He pointed down to the bow of the ship which was now slowly rising to a 90 degree angle and up there the crowd was gathering around Wilde who was starting to look desperate, shoving people back while trying to get his boat sorted out.

"Mr Moody,"

"Yes, Sir," Moody stepped forward with purpose,

"Go and bring some of Mr Wilde's passengers down here, we need more people. Hurry, Mr Moody,"

And hurry Mr Moody did. The lad was fast and alert, ready for action and acting on instructions faster than Mr Murdoch had the mind to realise.

"Right! You two with me nou!" he called two men to his side and they followed him up to the top deck where he laid two hands on the collapsible and looked at his men,

"We need to get this one doun,"
"How, Sir, by pushing?" one man asked,

"Aye, we don't have the time to rig it and lower it gracefully. Come lads,"

Together, they lined up and got ready push, hoping that Mr Moody had sense as well fast legs for the passengers certainly would not have any at this point, if this boat fell on them, they would be crushed beneath it and the job of loading people in and lowering it down would be a grizzly one and much harder due to the reluctance to settle in it that they would surely receive.

"Hold it!" he shouted as he felt it being shoved a little too hard, "Hold it!"

But it was too hard, and despite knowing it to be useless, he still shouted, only louder,

"HOLD IIIIITT!" and over the boat went, those who weren't expecting it, falling with it. Luckily Mr Murdoch was not one of them. He jumped down from the top onto the boat, onto the ground, turning to Mr Moody,

"Where is everyone?"

"I tried to get as many as possible but they're disinclined to come near the water, Sir,"

This prompted Murdoch to look down, it was rising fast.

"Keep trying, Mr Moody! Go up and demand the people to come doun,"

"Yes, Sir," and he was off again. Mr Murdoch took a breath,

"Let's get the ropes hooked up!"

OoOoOoOoO

Rose and Jack were missing until they rocked up looking wet and terrified behind Taro, Tommy and Fabrizio. They greeted each other as friends in need would and Jack turned to them all,

"Can we get out?"

"It's hopeless that way!" Tommy gestured up the stairs to a closed gate.

"Alright, let's go this way," he started to move but Tommy, Fabrizio and Taro stayed still,

"Jack, we've gone every way, they're not letting us through," Taro looked at him solemnly but Jack wasn't done. He marched up to the front of the crowd and demanded entry. But to no avail, he encountered the same as them only he was more inclined to act on it. He shook the gate violently and swore at the stewards who were shouting back, telling him to stop but he didn't need a second telling off. He grabbed hold of a bench and started pulling at it, telling Fabrizio and Tommy to help him.

"Oh, Jesus," Taro uttered, immediately taking a step to the side, pulling people with her, while Rose went about doing the same thing; she eventually joined Taro by the wall, letting out a small stressed sigh,

"This is unbelievable,"

Taro didn't respond, opting to rather shut her eyes and wait for the gate to be broken down somewhere in between the roaring voices and clanging of metal. The gate broke soon enough however, and they were through, stampeding through corridors and passages to the decks. But what they met there was not any better than below. Chaos had reared its terrible face and all who were trying to keep order were failing miserably.

The bow was down, Wilde and Lightoller were screaming at their passengers while they screamed back. Disaster.

The four amigos stood in horrified, terrified, stupefied silence for a few moments, taking in what was unfolding so rapidly before them. Taro blanked for a nanosecond, lost in fleeting thought about life after the sinking but that's when the shots rang out, cutting the air like knife.