Hi, so here is the third chapter and I am glad to get it to you. Hopefully you will enjoy it and I will be able to get Chapter 4 to you without any delay.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just the character of Isabella and the names of the unknown steerage passengers.

Please Read and Review.

Some Kind Of Tomorrow.

Chapter 3-In Search Of Forgiveness Not Permission

Jack Dawson comes to dinner, Rose goes to a dance and Isabella meets Tommy Ryan who opens up a door with a whole new world of possibilities behind it.

The man who saved Rose was coming to dinner. Rose had said so with a very un-Rose like expression. It was startling to see such a change in her when she came for lunch. Isabella had not gone to the deck to see them, spending time with Rose's mother was quickly beginning to create a headache. The woman was so self absorbed that even being around her was beginning to put her teeth on edge.

Instead she went to the Turkish baths. She was surprised to see such an invention on the Titanic as her Uncle had always thought that were slightly heathen but as she sat in the steam room letting the heat sweat out all her problems she thought that she was enjoying the experience.

There was no denying that it was a joy to be on this ship. She had heard that even the other passengers were enjoying themselves in the other classes and by the time she was all primped and pressed for dinner she found that she was enjoying the experience.

She had dressed in a gold dress with gold overlay and gold jewels and she had pinned her hair back with gold hairpins in them but it was still a lot looser than her Uncle would have expected form her but she did not care. She had maybe a week or so before they docked in New York (less she suspected because of the speed the ship was sailing at) and then she would be married and Isabella would be damned if she did not do what she wanted to do in the meantime. And if that meant going to dinner with her hair loose then she was going to go to dinner with her hair half up half loose.

When she entered the room she saw Rose in her dark purple dress talking to what Isabella knew was the third class passenger who had saved her. He was in borrowed clothes she knew and he kept looking around as if deeply uncomfortable with where he was. Isabella could understand the feeling.

"Rose" she said and the red headed woman turned around smiling. Isabella suspected it was not Cal that was the reason behind that happy smile and she felt her heart break a little. Her friend was reliant upon this man, he made her happy and the reality was that there was no happy ending in sight for her.

"Isabella. Come and meet Jack. Jack Dawson meet Isabella Ismay the niece of Mr Bruce Ismay. Her Uncle designed the ship"

Jack Dawson took her gloved hand and kissed it with a small bow and Isabella had to resist the urge to giggle. Honestly in ten seconds he had proved himself better mannered than many of the upper class men that she dealt with.

"Pleasure to meet you Miss Ismay. Your Uncle has designed a wonderful ship."

"Even the Steerage decks?"

"Oh yes Ma'am. Far fewer rats and when we do see them they are well behaved"

Isabella laughed out loud startling several people and not caring. Rose grinned and suddenly between the three of them they were laughing and joking as if they had been friends for years. They were both seventeen, Jack Dawson was twenty and they were from opposite ends of the earth and yet being with him felt natural to her. Rose though…for Rose it was a liberation.

Cal took Rose's arm much to Jack's obvious displeasure but he recovered himself quite well and instead smartly offered Isabella his. She took it relieved not to be walking into dinner with her Uncle. Again she felt the utter desperation creep in and she had to stop her hands from shaking. Jack Dawson seemed to pick up on it though and he covered her hand with his own.

"Forwards march" he muttered and Isabella managed a small smile that turned into a little giggle and together they went into dinner.

Again the Titanic's cooks outdid themselves. For the start of the meal there were lobster claws and salmon tartare. That was followed by a cold watermelon soup and a mint sorbet to cleanse the palette and then onto the main course of sirloin of beef and spring vegetables. There was the cheese course and then a rather pleasant vanilla crème Brulé. Of course there was the copious bottles of champagne flying around and butter and bread and the never ending service which to her was quite natural but she could see on Jack Dawson's face that to him it was alien beyond belief.

The conversation was rather pleasant and it flowed well. Ruth DeWitt Bukater tried on many occasions to show Jack up but the rest of the table seemed almost charmed with him. It was as if he was almost as strange to them as they must be to him. There was no stronger division than between the classes and Isabella personally did not know why. Jack Dawson was charming and he was brilliant and he spoke with a charm that would not be out of place in first class. Compared to the cockiness of Cal, Jack Dawson seemed to shine with the quiet restraint of a man who knew who he was and was damn proud of it. Isabella personally could not blame her friend for looking at him as if he was the only man in the room though it was a stupid thing to do. There was no future with Rose and Jack. There was no future for any of them that was not picked out from the cradle the day they were born.

Finally the dinner was over and Jack Dawson bowed again kissed everyone's hand (including Molly Brown's—Ruth walked away in a horrible show of rudeness—and the mistress of Mr Guggenheim who battered her eyelashes at him) and then came back to kiss both her and Rose's.

Then he was gone and Isabella thought that she wanted nothing more to do than to follow him. The most interesting, human person on this ship who had saved Rose's life and already Cal was being told it was too extravagant to let him up onto the dining room to as Ruth put it 'Mingle with his betters'.

She was about to snap social standing aside when Rose tugged at her hand shooting her mother a rather horrible look. "Come on" she whispered. "Jack's going to take us to a real party"

"What does that mean?"

"It means…I do not know but come on"

And stupidly Isabella followed.

She was glad she did. As it turned out it was the best decision of her life.

The dance was in full swing when Jack came down. Once again he was dragging that red headed first class girl with him but as Tommy looked up he saw that there was someone else holding her hand and with a swoop in his stomach he saw it was her.

The dark haired girl.

She was dressed in gold with her dark hair flowing down her shoulders and even as Tommy looked at her he knew it wasn't the booze lining his stomach that made him think she looked like a Queen. There was some immediate silence but Jack distracted them by saying that Rose and Isabella were his friends and could the band just please carry on playing!

Declan had never needed an excuse to play and soon things were normal again and steering the two girls by the hand Jack brought them to the table.

"Tommy, Fabrizio, Helga this is Rose and Isabella. Were gonna show them what a real party looks like"

"Well alright then" Tommy said and the dark haired girl looked at him with those eyes. Honestly she was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen—and he had seen a lot of woman over the course of his lifetime—and he knew that feeling in his stomach had to be a bad thing.

Fabrizio came back with what looked like a round of beers and some of that Russian vodka.

"Ah" Isabella said one dark haired curl falling over her shoulder. "Vodka, thank God"

And she picked up her shot glass and downed it in one.

There was a pause where everyone including Bridget, Mary, the children, the Cartmell's and a Russian gentleman looked at her with awe.

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph" Tommy muttered.

"What" Isabella said looking around with those dark eyes. "You did not think I was just a pretty rich girl did you?"

Tommy laughed.

"Tommy Ryan" he said holding out his hand and she took it. "Isabella Ismay" she said over the music, "But please do not hold that against me"

"Daughter?"

"Niece"

Tommy opened his mouth but before he could say anything Helga looking so endearingly shy opened her mouth.

"I like…dress" she said gesturing and Isabella smiled.

"Thank you" she said "I like your shawl, did you do the embroidery yourself?"

Helga blinked so utterly shocked that someone dressed like she did liked her that she didn't know to say. Fortunately Helga's mother did and then without warning all three of them were having a conversation in very silted English about threads and silks. Mrs Cartmell was drawn into the conversation as was Mary and suddenly there was a little crowd of woman by the piano talking about silks and satins and how nothing was better than good clean wool and not the cheap kind.

Fabrizio shrugged.

"Women"

"Ah no truer words son" Burt Cartmell shouted as he downed his fifth beer and Jack took his little girl to the dancefloor. "You never learn to understand em but my God you cannot live without em"

Tommy laughed and lit his cigarette as Isabella came back from the corner to grab her beer. She drank it fluidly and then put it down.

"Oh it's fabulous here" she shouted and Tommy could see a pink flush come to her cheeks.

Little Daniel came over as the song changed.

"Hello"

"Why hello…do you like the ship now?" Isabella said taking the cigarette Tommy offered. She took two drags on it like she had done it before and he watched utterly entranced.

"No" Little Daniel said his face crumpling. "Too much water"

Isabella sighed.

"I know what you mean. How about we have a dance? Will that cheer you up?"

Little Daniel's face split into a huge smile and Isabella beckoned his sister over with one hand and pulled her onto her now empty chair with a giggle and a shout of laughter.

"Now you mind my hairpins for me won't you? Do not let any pirate's take them"

And she passed their hairpins to her tugging out her dark hair so it fell flowing over her back and Tommy found that he wanted to do something very stupid in that moment like take that mass of dark waves and bury his face in them.

But she was on the dancefloor and she and the little boy were dancing around and twirling and Little Daniel was screaming with laughter and Tommy thought he could watch Isabella's laughing face forever as she swirled around with him in that gold dress.

Eventually the song ended and he put out his smoke as Little Daniel bowed and Isabella curtsied back.

"Thank God" Mary said as her boy came scampering over. "I have to get these two to bed. Say goodnight now"

Isabella and Tommy waved them off and then she was putting back in her hairpins so that her hair was off her face but still loose.

"Fuck it" Tommy said not caring about his language. He took his hat off and then stuck his hand out.

"Come on"

There was a pause as she stared at his offered hand and he smiled again desperately trying to control the beating of his heart.

"Come on rich girl."

She snorted at him and then took his hand and he wrapped one arm around her waist pulling her close his hand finding the small of her back. Her arms found his shoulder and then suddenly the beat of the Irish music was upon them and they were dancing around the bandstand. The red head was gone with Jack in a whirl of red and purple and Fabrizio was with Helga and he was with her dancing around and laughing.

She was laughing too and he twirled her around picking her up and spinning her around and Isabella Ismays hands were gripping his shoulders tight when he let her down and he thought that the ship could be sinking now and he wouldn't care as long as she was looking at him like that.

(Though he didn't know it those were soon going to be some really famous last words)

Then Rose was grabbing her hand and she was linking their fingers together and they were dancing in a circle on the bandstand and Isabella kicked off her gold shoes and danced with Rose and Helga the three girls together. Cora at Rose's instance came and danced with them before her smiling father pulled her back so that she could go to bed. She hugged both of them before she left and Tommy and he thought to himself as Isabella leaned on his arm that he wouldn't mind having a child like Cora or Daniel if it meant that he got to come home to a woman like this.

They drank more beer and vodka and God only knows what else and then suddenly it was nearing dawn and Isabella was tugging Rose's hand and the fact that they had been sat next to each other with his arm wrapped around her didn't seem to count for anything.

Reality had come with the dawn and like that stupid story he knew that the class barriers had go back up.

He was not sure he wanted them too.

And she was sure that Jack didn't want them too either.

"Some air?" he asked and Isabella Ismay stood up at once and followed him out onto the deck her shoes in her hand and her hair loose again.

"Thanks" she said taking his offer of a cigarette. "I needed that. Rose was right that was so much fun"

"Glad you enjoyed it"

"I saw you, you know" she said quietly. "At the docks"

"I know" he said just as quiet. "I've been thinking about you"

"Thinking about what does the poor rich girl got to complain about?"

"No. I was thinking what on earth can someone do to make the poor girl stop looking so sad"

Isabella snorted.

"My life makes me angry" she said finally taking another long drag.

"And sad. And I know Tommy I have no right to say that. I have a wonderful life. I want for nothing and yet…"

"And yet…?"

"My Uncle tells me I am a girl nobody can love"

She turned away then to hide her face but when she looked back at him her eyes were very wet.

Tommy felt the urge to find Bruce Ismay and smash his head into the wall of the ship until he was bleeding profusely.

"Well that's bollocks. I can tell you that."

She laughed though it didn't meet her eyes and Tommy found his heart was breaking for her and he could not…no he would not let her think such things about herself for even a moment longer.

"Isabella" he said taking her hand in his and pulling her towards the wall so they were out of sight from any of the people above them walking past. He took her chin in his other hand so they were looking at each other and he thought that he could count all the tears on her eyelashes.

They were so close.

And he just couldn't help himself.

Her mouth fitted on his perfectly and he swept his tongue against her bottom lip. Her mouth opened and his tongue fit inside of it and she wrapped his arms around his shoulders and his hand found her waist one securely pressing her against him and the other finally getting into those soft dark tresses.

A door opened above them and it was what they needed to pull apart. He took her chin in his hand again forcing her eyes to met his again.

"You are loved" he said. It could have been the booze that made him say it but it was true and though he couldn't understand how these feelings had come about so suddenly he could understand the depth of them. For a moment there was nothing but the two of them in that moment and then she smiled at him.

"Thanks"

"I mean it" he said totally unsure of what he was saying and knowing it wasn't going to make a difference.

"Come find me if you want to escape. Even if it's just for the length of the ship"

Isabella laughed. "Do not make promises Tommy" she said finally. "That you and I both know we cannot keep"

And with that she was gone and he was standing on the third class deck aware of three things.

One. That she was right.

Two. That it wouldn't stop him.

And that Three. Despite the fact that not less than a day ago he had scoffed at Jack Dawson for doing the same thing he knew he had gone and done the worst thing humanly possible for the both of them and had fallen completely and utterly in love with her.

And there you are. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I will do my best to give you the next one sooner rather than later.

Next Chapter-It's the day after the party and trouble for Isabella and Rose as events from the previous night spill out into the open.