Hi, so here is another chapter and I hope you enjoy. This chapter was a great fun to write as well especially the corset bit. In 1912 some woman did go without their corsets for whatever reason. This was considered rather radical at the time but I loved the idea of this being something that Isabella gave up as she gave up her old life. If Rose can wear trousers then Isabella can burn the old fashioned bra.

Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine.

Please Read and Review.

And again, nothing historical about this. This is just for fun so I hope that you enjoy it. We are slowly laying the ground down for the main part of this story which is coming soon.

Drifting Back

Chapter 2-The Devil Wears Whalebone

Isabella and the group discuss their next move. Jack, Rose, Helga and Fabrizio all enjoy life as married couples. Isabella takes a rather...radical step towards gaining her independence.

Breakfast after everyone but her and Tommy was a very strange affair. The Innkeeper that Jack knew had put his foot down and considering none of them were in a position to argue they all complied and Tommy stayed in the room that he and Isabella had occupied for the night and she and Cora had moved into another room. They'd had to share a bed but Isabella had not minded that. She was still sleeping in her corset and Cora was even worse sleeping in her dress still that was getting older and torn with the days that went by but it was something that they just had to put up with. Cora certainly didn't seem to mind.

What became apparently clear was that she was having nightmares.

Isabella couldn't blame her. She too was having nightmares but hers were more selfish than Cora's.

She dreamt about her father and her uncle in equal measure. She dreamt about her father rejecting her and telling her she was a no good whore like her mother and then suddenly there was her uncle dragging her away from Tommy and she was screaming over and over again as he tried to grab out to her but she woke up the same her face and back drenched in sweat shaking.

She didn't cry out but that was a surprise in itself. She did shred her bottom lip to ribbons when she thought of it laying there in the darkness.

Cora on the other hand did not react the same way. Several times she woke up screaming and crying and Isabella in that one week that they spent together the two of them sharing the one room found that she was woken up by Cora crying out for her mother and father.

"Oh darling" she said one night tucking the girl onto her lap. She too had, had her own nightmares away from Tommy and Cora had shuddered her back to consciousness.

"I see them" Cora cried as Isabella hushed her rocking her back and forth. "I see them under the water and they don't come up Isabella, they don't come up!"

"I know darling" Isabella said her heart breaking for her. She did not know what to say. Achingly she had avoided looking at the papers in the days since she had landed in New York. She was not sure that she would stomach what was being said of her. Of her Uncle. Despite it all she could remember with crystal clarity the joy that was in his face when he had talked of the Titanic, to her it seemed like yesterday and more when they had looked at each other over the breakfast table and they she had felt the same joy that he had felt when it came to the Titanic.

And now where was it? At the bottom of the ocean.

With the 1500, souls who had gone down with it.

So yes…she avoided the papers.

But as she clutched Cora to her the more she thought of having a child herself, of having a flesh and blood baby, a part of her, a part of Tommy and something real, something that her Uncle could not take from her…God knows she was not going to be her mother and be naïve enough to trust her Uncle.

What she wanted…

What she wanted…

She wanted…

She wanted everything and anything. And Bruce Ismay was sure as shit not going to take it away from her.

She was not sure what she was to make of such a thing. Of such a fear that knocked her backwards until her breath had left her. She was still scared of him. A lifetime in his pocket, of being used to the threats and the loveless affection he would show in public had left her scared of that life, or that world. She knew that Rose felt the same, their world had rules, strict rules and walking away from them had consequences. Even now days after everyone thought that she had gone down in the shipwreck she was still utterly terrified. What if her Uncle decided that after his savage beating in the press he needed to regain some of his credibility? What would be better than to find his niece miraculously alive.

The whole thing made her body lock down in terror. She thought that she was going to throw up when she thought of her Uncle so when two days later Tommy asked her if she was ready to leave she jumped on the opportunity to begin to put plans in motion.

If Tommy noticed anything that was odd about that he didn't say it which was a good thing in her opinion. She didn't think that she could speak her mind on this…at least not until there was a good stretch of distance between her and her Uncle.

"Seven tickets to Virginia" Jack said passing them to her over the breakfast table—such as it was. "All paid for. Are you sure you don't mind paying for it?"

Isabella shot him a look over her coffee. She found with each passing day in New York she was becoming incredibly fond of it and she took it with ample milk and sugar and found that it woke her up—or at least gave the impression she wasn't riddled with nightmares.

Somehow she suspected that Cora wasn't going to tell the truth anytime soon.

"Well considering how you are all putting your lives on the line so that I can find my father that is saying something"

Jack flashed her a genuine amused grin. Rose who was still half asleep on his shoulder said nothing but Isabella watched out of the corner of her eye at the two of them and she thought perhaps she was not the only one who would soon like to be out of New York and away from the first class survivors most of whom were still milling around the Upper East Side looking for survivors and trying to figure out what they were going to do.

"It's not first class" Jack said quietly. Isabella rolled her eyes heavenwards.

"Oh drat—you mean no champagne with our smoked salmon and caviar? Rose…tell me how do you think we will survive?"

Everyone laughed at that one including Jack. Tommy's hand slid around the small of her back and then he paused. Isabella knew what he was expecting and she knew what was missing and she gave a little giggle at his reaction.

"Jesus H. Christ"

"Tommy!"

"Sorry Helga but…seriously Isabella did you?"

"Yes" Isabella said rolling her eyes at his boyish reaction trying not to show that she was more than a little pleased. "I took my first steps into the world of absolute heathenness. Enjoy by all means"

"Sweetheart I think you did that the first time I had my hands between—"

"Tommy" Rose hissed looking wide awake now and aiming her foot under the table—from the yelp at her left she had missed Tommy and gotten Fabrizio. Tommy looked at her and then saw that her eyes had slid to Cora who was slurping at her milk with a tired expression.

"Oh…yeah…I…yeah fair enough. Sorry Rose"

"Where was your hand Tommy?"

"Err...it was trapped between something very wet"

Jack spat a mouthful of his coffee all over the table. Fabrizio was also laughing until he choked and had to be hit over the back by Helga who had flushed crimson and yet was biting her lip in that easy way that said to them all that she too knew what they were talking about from experience and not from listening to gossip and rumours. Here they were three girls from three very different backgrounds. All of them having found love and escaped tragedy. If Isabella was off a mind for it, it started like the opening of some penny dreadful.

"Like the water?" Cora said her face curious.

"Yes" Rose said with a dreadful look at the three men at the table. "Just like the water Cora thank you. What have you done Isabella?"

"Something radical, I decided to stop wearing my corset. The devil created whalebone, the devil can wear whalebone"

Rose blinked.

"Jesus"

"Do you not…" Helga said shaking her head. "Feel…naked…"

In truth she did a little but the fact that there was nothing crushing her ribs made her feel alive in a way she had not felt in days. She was choosing her own destiny, a man by her side that was her choice, a life that was open to her and so her own choice of clothing shouldn't be too radical?

Then again, men did love telling woman what to do with their bodies.

"You should try it Rose"

"Really Jack. I think wearing trousers is quite enough at this stage"

"If you are giving up wearing a corset, and Rose is wearing trousers then we should do something radical too Helga" Cora said in all seriousness her little face a picture of thought. "We are all…what are we Isabella?"

"Woman of the new world Cora"

"That."

"You could cut your hair"

Helga's expression told Jack what she thought on that one. So did Fabrizio's.

"We could get tattoos"

Now it was Jack's turn to frown.

"No you couldn't Cora."

"We should start packing what little possessions we own so we can get out of New York before we get spotted by someone in the press?" that was Rose and it cut off Cora's response. Isabella was not sure what kind of response it would be or what the girl understood about why they were leaving so soon but she knew Cora was a lot smarter than people gave her credit for.

It was almost funny in a way watching Rose who had been the cold hearted seventeen year old this time last week playing mother. Though…she did wonder weather or not it was playing. Certainly Cora seemed to fit in with Rose and Jack more than she did with anyone else. If they chose to live apart (which at some point even if it was in Virginia she knew they must do) then she suspected that the youngest girl here would follow her fellow red-head and would no doubt be wonderfully happy.

"Wonderful idea" Isabella said dryly quirking a smile in Tommy's direction.

Tommy the bastard was still laughing.

Helga who was the easiest to go outside with Fabrizio and not be spotted had taken some cash and picked them up new clothes. They were mostly hand me downs and out of style but they were clean and that was something. They were all in the clothes that there were wearing on the night the ship went down but Helga who had been in her nightclothes was especially at worse so before the wedding she had snuck out to rummage. The lilac dress and the blue dress that Rose and Isabella had both been wearing were still the nicest things that they owned. Isabella's was in good condition and even though Rose had managed to soak most of the salt out of hers it was still the nicest thing that she had.

They left the boarding house that morning and took the long walk to the station. All the way they gripped each other's hand and Cora had gone on Jack's hip. There was a look between Tommy and Jack that Fabrizio could not and did not want to understand. He and Helga were aware of the danger that was posed to them both with the two woman who supposedly drowned during the sinking especially with Isabella being a wanted woman—so to speak—so they didn't stop and they didn't speak until they were on the train.

Fabrizio had travelled by third class before and to be honest he had stowed away before cowering under sheeting pretending that he didn't exist. Third class was in a way nice on the train and he knew that as they pulled out of a New York station and away from the danger that was posed by Bruce Ismay that everyone was beginning to relax. In truth he was looking forwards to it. Virginia, Jack had assured them all was hot. Fabrizio felt sometimes that he could still feel the cold of the Atlantic in his bones. The two people who had come off that lifeboat with him Giovanni and Grace had gone on to Boston but they had exchanged letters and he hoped that they would find their happy ending. Survivors of that night—the men and woman and children who had actually been in the water were few and far between and so he had scrawled down an address and passed it to him on the Carpathia. He had also written his own mother a letter. He did not know how to put into words what had happened but his mother would understand. They had never really been close but Fabrizio knew if she was still living at her boarding house with her friends and her community then she would understand what he was trying to say.

What would come of it, what would come of all of it he didn't know.

He needed to feel the sun on his bones though, it was hard to describe it to anyone other than him. He was Italian. His father had been Italian, he had never gotten used to English summers. And Helga who was used to the cold had been won over by snow. Apparently Norway had quite a bit of snow and it was a lot better than icy water.

So as he sat down his wife tucked at his side dressed in a neat if not faded yellow dress he found that he was looking forwards to getting out of New York and towards something real.

"Are you happy?" he asked Helga softly. He knew it had been hard on her. She had gone with him on a whim and that whim had resulted in her losing her parents. She'd had no idea what had happened to them and she'd found nobody aboard the Carpathia who had even seen them leave third class. The thought of the formidable woman and her husband drowning behind bars without even getting a chance for it was enough to make his stomach turn never mind his wife's.

"I am…" Helga paused for a second as if she was trying to figure out the words. Her English was much better and one of the things that Isabella had insisted they all get was books, Cora was now reading hers with great interest and Helga had been using hers to gain a better use of the language. The only other thing that Isabella had asked for was a beaten down leather journal and some ink though what she was going to do with that Fabrizio did not know. Rose had not even bothered with the book instead she had been watching Jack who had fallen upon the chalk and the sketchpad with a glee that was almost indecent. Tommy had snagged a newspaper on the way in but had not opened it. It did not matter—they knew what the one story dominating the world was going to be.

"I am happy with you" Helga said finally. "You make me feel safe…loved…and we are going to be together somewhere where you can be Italian and I can be Norwegian"

Fabrizio was not entirely sure if that was a bit simplistic. He could see the hurdles ahead of them. It was painfully written in Isabella's eyes but as New York faded away and he saw what was outside of the city walls he thought that perhaps that it was time to hope.

"I love you" he said finally into the golden hair. Helga snuggled closer her eyes fluttering closed.

"And I love you" she said with a small smile and the Fabrizio was quite content to stay in the window seat with the warm sunshine and his wife in his arms and hope that they all got the happy ending they had worked so hard to get.

They had made it this far had they not?

Who said there wasn't anything that they couldn't do?

And there you go, now begin this story. I do start work back up again so please be aware of that when it comes to updates, as always your reading this story means the world to me and I will post the next chapter as soon as possible.

Next Chapter-The group arrive in Virginia but have a bit of a trek to find Patterson Mountain. Meanwhile Isabella, Rose and Helga contemplate something slightly more worrying for the three of them now they are all married or with men.