A/N: Thanks to spikessweetgirl75 for your feedback and to all who favorite and follow this story, it means a lot!

This contains the climax of the story, the part I am most excited to write, I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I will enjoy writing it!

The Epic Survival

Carrick followed the two young third class men up the Grand Staircase and watched as they went into Hockley's cabin. Wondering what in the world they were up to, he slowly made his way down the hall and peeked into the room.

Inside, the blonde man opened up Mister Caledon Hockley's safe and took out a brown leather book of sorts and tucked it under his arm, before telling his partner to hurry up and get back out on deck.

Not wanting to be seen, Carrick hurried up and rushed back down the hallway before the two men exited Hockley's cabin. It was beyond him why they would leave with nothing more than a ratty old book, but due to the dire circumstances that he currently faced, he decided not to question it. He had far more important things to worry about than the mischievous acts of two third class rats, like staying alive so that he could continue his life of crime in New York City.

...

Joseph finished off his third glass of brandy and scratched his chin. He was much calmer now with all of the alcohol coursing through his veins, but still, he worried for his life. Looking up towards the top of the Grand Staircase, he noticed that his partner had re-emerged, but was not looking in his direction.

Could this finally be my chance to escape? He thought, a twisted smile forming on his face. He quickly got to his feet and slipped out onto the crowded and chaotic deck, luckily unnoticed by his partner. He knew that he needed to find his family as soon as possible. He had to warn them and tell them that he was on their side.

Suddenly, he saw them standing near one of the side rails, talking in low whispers. Not only did he see his younger brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law, but there was also a young boy with them. He recognized the boy from back home in Dunfanaghy and realized at once that he was the youngest O'Neal sibling by the way the boy clung to his elder sister.

I've got to warn them before it's too late. "TOMMY!" he screamed, charging across the deck towards them. He even pushed a few panicked passengers to the side in the process, but he didn't care... he needed to reach his family.

Tommy turned sharply on his heels, to see his elder brother rushing at him from the other side of the deck. "GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!" he shouted, nearly tripping backwards in his panic. He grabbed his fiancé and soon-to-be brother-in-law and stood in front of them. He was sure that his brother was going to try and shoot them.

"Please listen," Joseph panted, holding his arms up in surrender as he skidded to a halt in front of them. "I'm not here 'ta shoot ye... I'm trying to tell ye that I've changed sides...I want to be good again," he explained, choking as he tried to catch his breath. "Please come with me and I'll protect ye from Carrick, he's the one who wants to shoot ye, I swear!" he pleaded, warm tears rolling down his face.

"DO YOU THINK I'M A BLOODY EEJIT?" Tommy roared furiously, warm tears forming in his own eyes as he pulled his loved ones close. "WHY THE HELL SHOULD WE TRUST YOU?" he demanded angrily. After all that his elder brother had put them through, it was not in his nature to forgive nor trust so easily. "YOU'LL PROBABLY LEAD US RIGHT INTO YER PARTNER'S SICK LITTLE TRAP, ADMIT IT YE BLOODY COWARD, ADMIT IT!" he shouted, pushing his brother backwards.

"YOU BLOODY EEJIT, IF I WANTED TO SHOOT YE I'D HAVE DONE IT ALREADY!" Joseph screamed in his brother's face. "LOOK, NO GUN!" He proceeded to throw his gun over the side rail and watched with a twinkle of insanity in his eyes as it made a tiny splash in the freezing ocean.

He had lost all sense of what he was doing at this point. He was so desperate to get his family to believe him that he was now willing to do anything to even get them to listen, including disposing of his gun even though he knew he may need it at a later time.

He'd expected his brother to be angry with him, after all the drama they had been through since reuniting on the ship, but he had to admit that his feelings were hurt. Even though he knew it was silly to feel the way he did, he couldn't help it. He was trying to save their lives for goodness sake; and his brother just kept pushing him away.

"YER BOTH ACTING LIKE EEJITS, THE SHIP'S BLOODY SINKIN'!" Shannon cried out in exasperation as she hugged her little brother. "NOW CAN YE STOP THIS INSANITY SO WE CAN TRY TO SURVIVE THIS BLOODY MESS?" she scolded furiously. She hated seeing her fiancé fighting with his elder brother more than anything in the world. She didn't know who to believe or what to think anymore. All she knew was that their survival was essential.

"THAT IS WHAT I'M TRYING TO DO!" Joseph shouted angrily. "DON'T ANY OF YE UNDERSTAND THAT I AM TRYING TO HELP YE?" He had reached his absolute boiling point now. He was trying to save their lives, and all they were doing was damning themselves further by arguing with him instead of taking his help.

"EYE, BULL SHITE!" Tommy roared, slamming himself into his elder brother and toppling onto the deck on top of him. "I WILL NEVER TRUST YE AGAIN, YE DESPICABLE MURDERER!" He started to punch and kick his brother out of frustration. He didn't have it in him to ever forgive his brother after leading such a criminal life, and he certainly wasn't about to trust a word out of his mouth either. Yet there was a part of him that so desperately cleaved to have a relationship with his elder brother again, and that was what made him so frustrated, so angry towards him.

The last time they had genuinely gotten on well with each other had been nine years ago. They used to accompany their father on fishing trips and work together to prepare bait to catch the fish in the lake with. Good times they were, good times that Tommy was sure he would never experience with his elder brother again. Unbeknownst to him, Joseph was thinking exactly the same thing.

"STOP IT, BOTH OF YE!" Shannon screamed, harshly throwing the brothers apart. She was sick and tired of their constant fighting, especially now that all of their lives were on the line. She couldn't handle all of the extra stress.

Tommy scrambled to his feet and brushed himself off. "I HATE YE so much!" he hissed furiously.

Joseph shook his head and straightened his coat and tie. "Well that's a damn shame, because I sure as hell LOVE YE!" he roared back.

Shannon stepped between them before they could touch each other again. "I honestly don't give a fecking shite how ye two feel about each other, the ship is sinking and we need to get the hell outta here somehow!" she snapped angrily.

...

Carrick looked over the rail of the Grand Staircase and scanned the large first class lobby area for his partner. When he didn't see him, he rushed down the steps, and realized that water had started to gush up onto the deck from the lower decks.

Oh shite He thought, not wanting to be caught in the flood's path. He hurried up and ran out onto the boat deck, and was shocked to his very core when he saw what his partner was up to; Joseph was struggling against his younger brother, whose name he couldn't quite recall at the moment, and it seemed as if he was trying to...help him.

Absolutely enraged, Carrick charged into the struggle and pushed the two brothers apart. "SO YE WERE GOING AGAINST OUR CAUSE!" he roared at his partner, decking him square in the jaw and watching as a tiny drop of blood oozed out from his lower lip.

"Rick-o... this has to end," Joseph pleaded. "I-I can't shoot my own family..." he tried to explain, but his partner would have none of it.

"So you've gone soft, have ye, Joey?" Carrick taunted. "Ye don't care about spending the rest of yer life in prison?" he asked in a low hiss, shaking his partner furiously.

"I've had enough of you and your criminal ways, Mooney, I never meant for things to escalate this far..." Joseph hissed back, stepping away from his malicious partner.

"Well there's no going back now, Ryan, otherwise you'll meet a miserable end like the coward ye are..." Carrick growled in reply, slowly advancing towards his partner with his gun pointed straight for his chest.

Joseph now greatly regretted throwing his gun overboard. He closed his eyes as he grabbed the railing behind him and he let the sounds of the screaming passengers and the officers firing their guns take over. Oh God... is this how it ends? He was afraid, but only a little, as he knew that he deserved what he was going to get.

However, when nothing happened, he slowly opened his eyes once more. He soon realized that his younger brother, soon-to-be sister-in-law, and little Rory were all standing beside him while Carrick stood in front of them with his gun pointed straight towards them.

"It ends here. Right the feck now," Carrick said in a low whisper, wavering his gun between the four of them. "Who's first?" he asked teasingly, as if they had a choice.

"Just take me, they won't tell a soul," Joseph pleaded in a low howl, stepping towards his partner. "Come on, I'm the one who wronged ye," he begged hopefully, trying to get his partner to spare his family. It's the least I can do for them... to get them to trust me, after all that I've put them through. Please, God, do something...anything... or I will.

Just as he thought he would have to take drastic measures, Shannon broke into hysterics. "IS THIS HOW IT'S GONNA BLOODY END FER US?" she screamed, almost attracting the attention of some nearby crew members. "AFTER EVERYTHING WE'VE BEEN THROUGH TO EVEN GET ON THIS SHIP?" she sobbed furiously into her fiancé's soft shirt. "HELL NO, IT ISN'T... WE AREN'T GONNA BLOODY GO DOWN LIKE THIS, YE FECKIN' COWARD WITH YER FECKIN' GUN, WHY DON'T YE FIGHT LIKE A REAL IRISHMAN, EH?" Her eyes flashed from a cheery bright blue to a blood-shot and furious red. "WITH YER BARE, FECKIN', HANDS!"

She was infuriated that after leaving her family, her home, and everything she knew, some lunatic named Carrick Mooney was going to end their lives aboard a sinking ship. She thought he was nothing more than a coward, hiding behind his dangerous hand-weapon, and dared him to use his bare hands... that way, at least it would be a fair fight. She also found herself trusting her soon-to-be brother in law. Even though he was a criminal who had abandoned his family and screwed them over countless times, he still seemed to have a heart inside his chest. And a brain inside his head.

Carrick found himself at a momentary loss for words, as he simply watched the young girl's rant. He found that his insides had gone numb, and he lost all control in his arms and hands... the gun began to lower. No!

Joseph immediately seized this opportunity to knock the gun out of his hand. He charged him, and watched as the gun landed with a loud clatter and slid across the deck. "BLOODY BASTARD!" he yelled, grabbing the gun and running back inside the ship.

"GO, RUN!" Tommy roared, pushing his fiancé and her little brother ahead of him as they too charged back inside.

"OH NO YE DON'T!" Carrick scrambled to his feet, nearly tripping and landing flat on his face as he rushed after them. "GIVE ME MY FECKIN' GUN!" he shouted at his partner, throwing passengers out of his way left and right.

When they got back inside the ship, freezing seawater was rapidly gushing up from the lower decks and flooding the first class lobby area. Joseph scrambled up the left side of the Grand Staircase and held onto the banister at the very top, pointing his gun down towards his partner. The screams of hundreds of panicked passengers filled the air.

Tommy, Shannon, and Rory ran up the right side of the Grand Staircase and huddled together in a warm embrace on the floor at the top. The once beautiful first class deck was now completely flooding and hundreds of passengers held onto the pillars for dear life.

"NOW YOU'LL BE SORRY!" Carrick shouted, charging up the steps after his partner. He was infuriated that his partner had had the nerve to go against their cause, and now he swore to make him pay.

"OH NO I WON'T!" Joseph roared, firing his gun in his partner's direction. He honestly didn't even care what he was doing anymore. If he could murder the O'Roarke's son, he could certainly murder his evil partner. The world would be better off anyways.

"I'm scared," Shannon whimpered, burying her face in her fiancé's chest.

"Shh, it's going to be all right," Tommy whispered, softly stroking his fiancé's hair.

The freezing water rose ever higher and the passengers that were trapped under the large glass dome continued to scream for their lives. Joseph continued firing his gun to keep his malicious partner at bay and Carrick continued shouting profanities at him to try to get him to back down.

Suddenly, there was a loud moaning-creak from up above, and the large glass dome above them burst and shattered. Passengers screamed in horror as they held onto the rails and tried to dodge the falling glass.

"Jesus," Shannon whispered, shaking in her fiancé's arms. The smell of the fishy Atlantic waters wafted up her nostrils as they continued to flood higher and higher.

"It's all right," Tommy whispered back, softly kissing his fiancé. He noticed some blood and glass floating in the water and cringed.

The lights started flickering on and off and everyone's lives seemed to flash before their eyes as they realized that they had reached the climactic end of the sinking. This was it. The ship was about to break apart and go under.

Just then, there was another loud crack, and part of the ceiling collapsed on the left side of the staircase. Without really thinking, Tommy screamed his elder brother's name, but there was no answer. Jesus, Mary, and ...Joseph?

He realized then and there that he did in fact forgive his brother. His brother who had saved them. His brother who had been willing to sacrifice himself for their safety. A million thoughts flooded through his brain, numbing it. What if his brother had just been crushed by the falling ceiling? Then he'd never get to tell him that he forgave him, and he'd never get to apologize for doubting him, and he'd never get to...

Suddenly, he felt something smack into his forehead, and everything went black. Shannon screamed his name. The ceiling on their side of the stairs had started to collapse, and a piece of debris had knocked him unconscious.

...

Carrick's eyes widened in horror as leapt out of the way of the falling debris from the ceiling. Opening his eyes, he didn't see his partner anywhere, and secretly hoped that he'd been crushed when the ceiling had fallen in.

I've got to get out of here. He hurried up and jumped out one of the windows, landing back out on the flooding boat deck. With that, he swam off the deck and grabbed hold of one of the nearby collapsibles.

Unbeknownst to him, Joseph had also managed to barely escape the falling ceiling and had swam out one of the windows. The young Irishman, looking like a drenched sewer rat, swam for his life in the freezing water. He had to survive this. He had to.

...

Shannon broke into hysterical, shuddering sobs as she desperately shook her fiancé. "TOMMY! NOOOOOOOOO!" she wailed, scorching hot tears rolling down her face. She closed her eyes and hugged him tightly, weeping helplessly into his soaking wet shirt. "DON'T LEAVE ME!" she screamed in horror.

Her mind immediately raced to the worst possible scenario, that her beloved fiancé had left her, but he was still breathing... if just barely. She couldn't and wouldn't live without him, she needed him more than anything or anyone in the world. She bit her lip to suppress her sobs, and for just a moment, she wished that the entire ceiling would just collapse on top of her too.

Without Tommy, there would be no bright future in the city of Chicago. There would be no six babies to look forward to. There would be nothing but darkness and pain, because there wasn't another man alive in the world that she could love as much as she loved Tommy.

"PULL YERSELF TOGETHER, FOR GOD'S SAKE, SHANNON!" Rory screamed at her, his eyes wide in horror as he shook his elder sister back into reality. "HE'S STILL BREATHING, WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE... NOW!" he wailed, wildly gesturing towards an open window.

He began to panic even worse than before. His elder sister was an emotional wreck, and he depended on her for his own survival. He didn't know what to do without her guidance, and he was horrified for his young life. He needed her to pull herself together. It was the only way to get out of this mess.

"HOW IN THE WORLD AM I SUPPOSED TO CARRY HIM, RORY?" Shannon screamed back at him, her own eyes filled with tears as she scooted over and hugged her younger brother. "WHAT THE HELL ARE WE GOING TO DO?" she wept, trying desperately to lift her fiancé.

"I'LL HELP YE, COME ON, WE'VE GOTTA DO THIS TOGETHER!" Rory shouted, grabbing one of the unconscious man's arms and draping it over his shoulder, nearly falling backwards in the process.

"HURRY UP THEN!" Shannon yelled, draping her fiancé's other arm around her own shoulder.

Both of the O'Neal siblings managed to lift Tommy enough so that his face was above the water, and then swam for dear life towards the open window. The water outside was even more frigid, as the cold sea air was blowing on them as well.

Thank God for the lifebelts. Shannon couldn't remember a time when she'd been more freezing in her eighteen years of life than she was right now. "Just keep swimming, don't stop until we reach the boats up ahead, you can see their lanterns," she panted, choking on the salty seawater as she swam.

She closed her eyes and imagined herself anywhere else but in the middle of the freezing Northern Atlantic. She pictured herself having a romantic picnic with Tommy under the stars. It was the only thing she could do to keep herself going.

It was a cool, dark night. The stars glimmered brightly in the sky. They were sitting out on the deck of the Titanic, but it wasn't sinking.

She wore a pretty pink dress and her hair was down and wavy. Tommy sat in front of her wearing a nice pair of trousers and a clean vest and shirt.

They were having a small supper of porridge and bread and cheese. It wasn't much, but it was delicious nonetheless.

"I have something for ye, sweet," Tommy whispered with a wily smirk, pulling a fresh red apple out of his trousers pocket.

"Oh, where did ye get it, love?" Shannon whispered back with a soft smile, gently taking a bite out of the juicy fruit. It was truly delicious.

"I stole it, o' course... it's a sweet apple for me sweet girl." Tommy leaned in close and planted a soft kiss on her lips.

"Yer a sweet boy." Shannon giggled as she kissed him back.

Suddenly, she heard a young boy's voice calling her name. It was coming from far away, and she opened her eyes,

"SHANNON, THERE'S A BOAT!" Rory shouted, pointing ahead. "IT'S JUST A FEW MORE FEET AWAY, COME ON!" he yelled, paddling for his life against the frigid waves.

"GO, RORY, HURRY!" Shannon screamed, kicking hard against the cruel Northern Atlantic waters. "GO AND DON'T LOOK BACK!"

As the O'Neal siblings swam for their lives towards the nearing lifeboat, they recognized a familiar ginger-haired lady. It was Mrs. Brenna Hannigan, huddled in a plaid blanket near the end of the boat.

Shannon screamed, "MRS. HANNIGAN, HELP US!"

Mrs. Hannigan turned abruptly at the sound of her name to see two teenagers carrying an unconscious young man on their shoulders. "JESUS, MARY, and JOSEPH...SOMEONE GET THESE POOR CHILDREN IN HERE NOW!" she yelled to the crew-man steering the boat.

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