Hi, and here is another chapter, I am leaving this note short and sweet this time so enjoy.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.

Please Read and Review.

Also as I said in the last chapter I am back at work now so updates might be a bit few and far between for a while.

Drifting Back

Chapter 3-The Ministry Of Virtue.

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.

Virginia was hot. The second they stepped off the train the heat hit them. This was April however and the heat was a balmy kind of heat that made them smile. What it was going to be like in the depths of August, Tommy really couldn't think but he was sure that he wouldn't like it. He was from Ireland by way of England and he was used to cold weather but he would be the first to admit that after that night when Titanic had gone down and he had clung to those oars and everything had felt like it was about to drop off he would take any kind of warmth whenever and wherever he could get it.

Weather he would think that in August he wasn't sure. That being said he wasn't sure weather or not he would be here in August. If they weren't…then…then he didn't know where they would be but he was sure knowing how everyone felt, that if they stayed together it would be warm. Nothing but warmth.

Isabella took his hand and their linked their fingers together. The sun was just setting and Jack who had the confidence passed a sleepy Cora to Rose and set off to the ticket station. He came back after twenty minutes looking reasonably pleased with himself.

"I got us the name of a boarding house and a taxi firm that will take us no questions asked to the base of Patterson Mountain. It will cost a fair bit but we surprisingly have loads of cash"

Tommy knew he meant the cash that Rose had found in her pocket when she too had been on board the Carpathia. Rose flashed her husband a look that Tommy didn't quite understand but he had been sat on a train all day and every bone in his body was requiring rest. Also he knew that it was another night he and Isabella would be parted and he found himself wishing that Theo Patterson would be alright with him and Isabella and throw a quick wedding. He didn't sleep well when she wasn't with him. He was used to her by his side and he found it difficult to imagine that this was a convention that she was comfortable with considering she was walking around without a corset and when the wind blew it was going to be obvious.

And he was dying for a cigarette.

"We can take a room tonight and start tomorrow and then we can be in Patterson Mountain by lunchtime apparently there is a small store and we can get directions from there but—"

"I want to do this alone" Isabella said cutting across the conversation. Helga opened her mouth but Isabella was suddenly speaking across her, her hand coming out to stop the flow of conversation. "I love you, all of you and words cannot express my thanks that I don't have to do this alone but I need to be the one who sits down and explains this to him. Me and Tommy because…because he's thought I was dead for seventeen years and even if he has put the pieces together from press articles then he thinks I went down with the ship. When he sees me it's going to be the shock of his life and whatever happens from that point onwards I don't…I don't think a group of us being there is going to help. So…so it should be me and Tommy and if we come back it went badly and if we don't it went good and Tommy can come back in the morning and tell you all"

"And if goes badly enough that you need backup?" Jack said shrewdly.

Isabella was already shaking her head though. She didn't know what made her so certain that out of all his reactions, this mythical, mystical, unknown father of hers wouldn't take a shot at her but she was sure of it. Out of every conversation that she'd had about him (which admittedly was just the one) she thought that he was non-violent. He might not want her in her life and she was as prepared for that as she could be but she was sure he would not shoot her.

Then again…no…no…she was sure.

She had to be.

"We survived the Titanic" Tommy said casually. "If we can make it off there then I reckon we've got at least one more life in us. Besides…I'll be with her if he tries anything I'll get her out of there pretty quick. She's not wearing a corset now so it should be easy. Unless you want to get trousers?"

"No" Isabella said rolling her eyes as everyone gave a tired giggle. "No darling let's not push the man too much"

"Let's get some sleep" Rose said finally. "We can plan this out in the morning but I for one am tired and I need to sleep and so does Cora. Isabella are you happy having her for one more night?"

"Of course I am" Isabella said with a smile. Cora was still drifting between awake and sleep but she managed a small smile.

And that was how they found themselves at Mrs O'Leary's. It was clean if not run down and Tommy found that his head hit the pillow the second he hit the bed. He had slept in rougher and dirtier places than this but he thought of Rose and Isabella who were used to first class and privately he couldn't help but hope that the house where Isabella's father was, was clean and that he wouldn't mind two people who were riddled with nightmares sleeping together for comfort if not for sex because he was still waking up seeing the lights of the Titanic flicker on and off and he felt like he could still hear the music from the band who had played until the very, very end.

Isabella was awake. Her stomach was in knots and she couldn't sleep. She was here. She was in the same state as him and soon she would be with him. Tomorrow one way or another she would have answers and that was all that mattered.

But it terrified her.

There was a reason she wanted Tommy with her and Tommy alone tomorrow. And that was because Tommy wouldn't judge her or blame her or try and comfort her if it went badly. She didn't want anyone to see her break but the one man who had already seen it. But between the Titanic and the train she had thought about it and—

She sat up and paused listening. She was listening to her body. Listening to what she thought…she made to lie down again and then bolted upright. She knew the warning signs and she managed to shut the door to the bathroom and she retched into the sink vomiting the little lunch and the little dinner that she had had.

Wiping her mouth on the back of her hand she took a wet flannel and watched as the sick went down the rickety old sink. She took the wet flannel and pressed it to her clammy forehead and she ran it down her neck and let the cool water calm her down. Stepping outside of the room while Cora was still sleeping she went outside. The front door she had been told was locked at ten o clock but the back door was kept open for the cool breeze and as she slipped out she was surprised to see Rose there her hair in a loose knot at the back of her head.

"I could not sleep" Rose said by way of an introduction and Isabella sat down on the small stair next to her.

"Neither could I?"

"Nervous?"

"Terrified"

"I do not blame you. Jack has family in Wisconsin, I think when things are settled we will go back and see them but Jack remains so unsure…and I am not sure that they will like me"

Isabella said nothing. Her stomach was still churning and she felt like she was going to be sick again and she could not define why. She was shaking again.

"I am sure that he will like you" Rose said. She nodded and she turned at the pattering feet to see Helga her hair tied in a braid again smiling down at them.

"Are you both alright?"

"Were fine Helga we are just…thinking…"

"Can I ask something" Rose said finally into the silence. "Do you want children?"

"Children?" Isabella asked but Helga spoke before she had even finished the sentence.

"Yes"

"Christ your sure" Isabella said watching her. "I don't…I haven't…thought about it"

"Well you should" Rose said smiling. "Jack wants children he told me so last night. He wants us to keep Cora—"

"Who is more comfortable with you" Helga interrupted but Rose shrugged. "She is more comfortable with Jack than anything else. And besides…I thought…I thought it would be just me and him at first. I didn't think that children were something…Cal wanted children sure but he wanted boys and even then he wanted them for his company. My mother was the same, only one child born to her and a girl. Someone who couldn't carry on the family name. How disappointing it must have been"

"My Mama…she never minded. I know that I want lots of children. With Fabrizio" Helga said softly and Isabella smiled. What she wouldn't give to have that kind of certainty. Helga might be the one person out of the six of them who knew exactly what she wanted and how to get it. There were no ghosts in her closet and no family members out to drag her away from the man she loved. She had calmness and a certainty that were beautiful things and Isabella had never envied her more than she had right now. Right now out of the three of them her confidence was extraordinary.

"I never thought about them" Isabella said finally. "I still haven't. I haven't thought or even thought to ask Tommy but…but I suppose children with him wouldn't be too bad. I just…I just wouldn't know how to do it"

"Do what?"

"Motherhood. Come on Rose look what I grew up with, what we both grew up with. Nannies and governesses and being told what to do and what to say and what to think. How do I be a mother with that kind of background? And that's before you get to the differences between us. I had nobody, just an Uncle that hated my very existence and a grandmother that never touched me and kept me as some kind of trophy. At least you had Ruth and Ruth—"

"Isabella if you say that Ruth cared in her own way I will scream"

"I think considering we are here on the good will of the old bat upstairs you might regret it if you do"

Rose laughed and Isabella staggered to her feet. As she did a wave of dizziness hit her and she had to lean against the wooden frame of the door.

"Isabella?"

She felt Helga touch her arm and she smiled though she was still very dizzy.

"Nerves" she said. It was the truth at the very least. She was beyond nerves at this point. She was utterly terrified right now.

"At least tomorrow you will know" Rose murmured. "One way or the other and…and whatever happens you will always have us"

Isabella took a moment to let that sink in. This camaraderie, this female friendship that she had missed out on for her entire life before this.

Titanic really had been the ship of dreams.

In so many ways.

"Thanks" she said softly.

She made it back to bed and put the wet flannel on her forehead in the dark. Cora breathed in and out next to her. For once she had slept through the whole night and Isabella slept but little. It was nerves she was sure because tomorrow at some point her entire life was going to change. They would go to the little store, the rest of them would get directions to the boarding house for the night and she and Tommy would walk up to Theo Patterson's front door and that would be the end of the seventeen years of knowing and not knowing and thinking and not thinking and the end of the lies that Bruce Ismay had told to justify his appalling actions to everyone but himself.

It was nerves she told herself sternly, it was nerves making her dizzy and making her body ache and making her throw up. That an a delayed reaction to the sinking.

After all…what else could it be?

And there we go, into the main plot now.

Next Chapter-Isabella and Tommy set out for Patterson mountain and meet a boy on the way.