A/N: Thanks for the review Louise XD, I lav you! And to HourGlassMage, I am glad you are glad that I wrote this story, even though you reviewed the first chapter and you may never see this!
Oh Classicmovielover, on the thought of people being stupid about the Titanic, there is a boy in my history class and I overheard him saying to someone "Only 100 people have seen Titanic!" I think he meant the wreck, but that doesn't stop me and my friend Louise mocking him with quotes from Titanic 1997 slightly changed, like, "But this ship can't be seen!" "She's made of iron, sir, I assure you, she can," and "Rose, you can see the Mauritania, but you can't see Titanic!" Invisible Titanic boy is very annoying, but amazingly he got the highest in the year in history, beating me by a few marks, bad times, boy thinks Titanic has only been seen by 100 people, beats me at history, makes me very sad. I should stop talking now, because it is story time!
Chapter 35
Rachel's POV
My final day on Titanic was a lovely one. After a walk on the deck, Jack and I got a late lunch from the first class kitchens, before returning to the deck to sit on the steamer chairs and eat together. We were in a far better mood with each other now, but I could tell that Jack was exhausted. I let him sleep for a bit on the deckchair while I walked by myself after I had returned the dishes we had used to the kitchens. It was around four o'clock in the afternoon by the time I was walking and there were far more people around than there had been earlier, some passengers spoke of a church service that they had went to, but I was too distracted to eavesdrop. I reached a point between the third and fourth funnels, counting along them with one finger, feeling rather childish, yet strangely happy.
"Smoke, smoke, smoke, dummy," I whispered in reference to the huge stacks of yellow and black, gently leaning back with tightly pulled cables helping to hold them in place. They were far more impressive than can be imagined, far bigger than photographs suggest.
Between the third and forth funnels is where the ship broke in two, I imagined the solid wood under my feet snapping, the monstrous groan of strained metal tormented by tons of water. I gripped the railing in terrified fascination.
"Tonight will look..." I thought to myself, "amazing!"
The sky was getting more orange coloured as the sun started to slip below the horizon. I knew I would have to return to Jack. I found him awake, still on the deck chair, lying back, but his eyes still looked tired.
"You didn't sleep well, did you?" I asked, sitting down on the wooden deck chair next to him.
"I didn't," he said bluntly,
"I didn't think you would," I whispered, hoping that I sounded concerned,
"It's nearly eight," he said, looking at me and making me realize how long I must have been wandering around for, "we should get back to the wireless room."
"Yes, we should," I said, standing up and taking his hand to help him up.
"Titanic's last sunset," Jack whispered, pointing out to the horizon where the vibrant sun was being concealed by the ocean.
I sighed, it was so beautiful and so sad, other couples were walking about the ship, looking content in each other's company, but Jack and I weren't like them. Everyone on this ship had one thing in common for sure, tonight would change their lives, possibly ending them. Jack and I were burdened with knowing this.
"Let's go," I told him, linking arms with him as we walked.
When we got to the wireless room, Harry informed us of a message that he was going to leave to the bridge,
"It's from this ship the 'Californian', they seem quite close," he said as he opened the door, "Another ice warning, I'll leave it to the bridge, then I'm coming back to sleep for a bit."
"Sure thing," Jack smiled as we both sat down at the desk.
Jack let me send messages for the first two hours of his shift, in this time we received an ice warning from a ship called the 'Mesaba' at around twenty to ten. I wrote the message down in pencil in my messy handwriting, and then I placed the paper under the ship in a bottle for dealing with later. Harry's gentle snores came from behind the curtained off area, he had fallen asleep practically as soon as he got back from the bridge delivering his message. Jack handed me messages to send, there were so many of them, but Jack's sweet smile encouraged me to keep sending, I couldn't do as many words per minute as Jack or Harry, but I was getting better all the time, not that it would be much use soon. At night time the wireless had a stronger signal, so were able to reach the 'Cape Race' station on land hundreds of miles away. The messages were all quite dull though and mostly from people arranging transport for when they arrived in New York,
"Please have my car waiting for me!" one said, they were all quite similar to that, or else boasts of being on the world's greatest and grandest liner, though they wouldn't be on it for much longer.
At ten I removed the earphones and handed them to Jack as we swapped seats, my legs stiff from sitting for that long period of time. I gave him a quick kiss and he laughed kindly, I knew that he liked it. Jack's use of wireless telegraphy was much more impressive than mine, he looked as if he was barely paying any attention, yet he was still much faster than me! But I wasn't jealous; I could only feel proud of him.
"It sure shows that you are the best in the world." I informed him between messages,
"I know," he smiled jokingly, "damn, I'm good!"
At twenty past eleven Jack removed the earphones and looked over at me,
"The 'Californian' should message us in ten minutes," he said, sounding almost nervous,
"This is your chance," I smiled, "don't be nervous about it, just be polite!"
"They are so close that I'm not putting the earphones on, it would be too loud," he said,
"Are you ready for this, Rachel?" a familiar woman's voice laughed, it echoed around the room "survive the sinking and get your life back!"
I could not tell which direction the voice came from and Jack didn't seem to notice. I felt cold fingers on my shoulder, not like the comforting cold that Jack had had when he was my angel, and I turned to see the face of the lady in white, that demonic angel.
"He's going to die," she smiled, her perfect features pulled into a cruel smile, cool blue eyes glinting and straight white teeth slightly showing past pale pink lips.
"Shut up!" I screamed, unable to bear her, screwing my eyes up so I didn't have to look at her.
"Rachel?" Jack asked, concern obvious in his voice,
I looked back to him; he had a confused expression on his face.
I felt helpless, "Jack, the lady in white, she..."
I turned to face her again but she was gone,
"She really doesn't like us," Jack said quietly, his eyes facing down as he contemplated this,
"I know," I felt extremely annoyed, "she's a bitch."
Jack laughed at my insult, as it was really not enough to describe that woman; we heard Harry let out a tired groan.
"Do you want me to take over yet?" Harry called out; I must have woken him with my shrieking,
"Not yet," was Jack's reply,
"Right," Harry replied, sounding relieved that he could lie in bed a while longer.
Suddenly we heard loud Morse coming from the earphones, the suddenness of it made me jump, Jack stared at the earphones in surprise, before grinning.
"The 'Californian'," Jack smiled,
I wrote the message down; it was so loud I had no need for the earphones.
"I say old man we are stopped and surrounded by ice," was the message,
"Good evening, thank you old man, what's up?" Jack replied quickly,
"Last message for the night, powering down now, good night," the other operator messaged back,
"No wait..." Jack started messaging, but there was no reply,
"I can't believe it!" Jack exclaimed, "He switched the wireless off anyway!"
"Well, at least you have redeemed yourself now," I said, putting my hand on his.
"That's true," he smiled; he looked far calmer now than he had a couple of minutes prior. There was nothing that he could have done.
I glanced at the clock, twenty five minutes to twelve, five minutes to the iceberg.
A/N: What's that, in the distance? It's not an iceberg is it? I'll not make a big long author's note here too!