Hi, here you go, another chapter and we are slowly coming to the end of this story so I do hope you'll enjoy and stick with me for the final few chapters (six or so in general).

Disclaimer-Nothing more is mine here but the Patterson family and Isabella.

Please Read and Review.

Drifting Back

Chapter 9-Papa Don't Preach

Theo and Isabella have a conversation about the past, the present and the future. And a letter is sent from one enemy to another.

She was sat out on the porch cup of coffee clasped in her hands looking out over his little ramshackle yard. Picking his way through the sleeping mass of people on his living room (most of them married which had appeased his mother somewhat) he saw her turn around dark hair in it's braid even though she was dressed in that blue dress.

"Mind if I join you?"

His daughter nodded and so Theo sat down coffee in his own hand next to her. It had been a long night, two days ago he had not known he was a father to her and now he was to be a grandfather, the jarring whiplash that she had brought with her was staggering.

Well…as Maud's daughter he wouldn't have expected anything less if he was being honest with himself. When she had told him she was pregnant they had been in bed and he had been kissing that little belly and knowing what is was and yet wanting her to tell him, so convinced that nothing was going to take her from him.

"Sorry about yesterday" she said watching him. "I know it was a lot to throw at you."

"Father and grandfather in two days" he said taking a sip of coffee. "Yeah it was rather a lot to take in I will admit. I'm not as young as I used to be"

She smiled at him. "Still look pretty good to me" she said with a soft smile and he smiled back. She was like her mother in that regard too then, uncommonly kind.

"I didn't want to fuck up your life" she said finally looking out over the yard and the chicken coop and the barn. "It looks like it was a good one before I crashed into it like the iceberg"

"It was" he admitted. "But it's better now you're here. Now that we've got a chance to be together. And…and I wanted you to know something and I need you to understand it. I need you to understand it and I will do my best to make sure that you never have to ask again. But I was speaking to Tommy and…and he told me what Bruce told you. About me and love and not being loved and…and I want you to know that If I'd have had any inkling, any, that you had been alive then I would have walked happily through hell for you. I would have took you and brought you back here and I would have raised you and loved you and it would have been enough, and I would have done it all, taken you to school and tucked you in at night and chased away that bloody boy with a stick and…and it would have been enough. You'd have been enough, more than enough. You are…you are so…I never stopped loving you, even when I thought you were dead. I never could. So whatever that bastard has told you ignore it please. Put it away with the ship and let it drown if you have to but please don't think for even one second that you weren't loved because from your creation to right now I have loved you and I know your mother did too"

He was shaking with the need to get that message across, this the most impassioned plea that he could ever give her because she had to understand. She had to understand that she was perfect in every way imaginable because Bruce Ismay had took so much from him that if he took from him this girl and her love and the light from her eyes and the fire that burned inside of her that her mother had, had then he was going to go quite mad.

"I hoped you know" she said finally tapping her rings against the chipped mug. "I hoped that you would…I didn't want Tommy to know because everything but him went tits up but…but I hoped. It's why we didn't get married when Jack and Rose and Helga and Fabrizio did. I wanted you to walk me down the aisle"

She turned to look at him as the breath caught in his throat. She flashed him that half quirked smile that was a carbon copy of her mothers and he felt something in him settle. At long last something inside of him settled down. Because she was here. She was safe…she was home and the wandering lost child in his dreams was back.

"I would love that" he said finally when he was sure that he could speak. "And I would love you and him to stay. We have that small guest cottage/shed thing and it has heating and plumbing and…and it's not big enough for a small family I grant you but in the early days you can him can stay and…and we can figure the rest out as we go along—"

And indeed they could. They could figure it out as they went along. They could see what was in front of them one foot in front of the other. They could be happy, all of them.

She opened her mouth for a second and then closed it.

"I suppose I'd have to ask Tommy" she said quietly. "But I don't think he will mind"

Considering the way that boy looked at his daughter Theo thought that no, no he wouldn't mind.

"What do I call you?" she asked suddenly as if the thought had just occurred to her.

"Call me?"

"Yes. I…I always thought you were Theo see because of what was written in the book but clearly you're not because everyone calls you Teddy but—"

"Theo was what your mother used to call me" he said cutting off the words that were coming next.

"Theo was the name she called me, I was Theodore when I went to England because my parents and my teacher at the time thought it would make me sounds more distinguished. So when I met your mother I was going by Theodore and when we got together she called me Theo. To everyone else I was Teddy and when I came back I couldn't stand the idea of being called anything else. Theo was her name and hers alone"

Isabella watched him for a second and then she nodded tearing her dark eyes away from him and looking back out over the mountain.

"What was she like?" she asked finally.

"I…" he didn't know how to describe it, he didn't know how to talk about her. So long burying her down into a little box, making sure she was buried and making sure that she was away was the only way he had been able to make sense of it, the raw grief, the fury, the pain and then the love that he had gradually felt for his wife and for his children and the fact that it had helped heal him.

"Can you ask me again sometime?" he said finally. "I just…I haven't spoken of her for so long, I don't know how to speak of her now. I will tell you, of course I will tell you but I…I can't speak to you of her now."

She eyed him for a second and Theo was sure that he had pissed her off but she just watched in that way that made him feel like his insides were being pulled out and examined bit by bit but then she nodded.

"Alright" she said looking back out over the mountain, "I suppose we have time"

"Yes" he said smiling. "I suppose we do"

"You should take this back" she said holding the book out and he looked at the battered book that he had given Maud and he shook his head. He didn't want it, he didn't want it. He couldn't keep living in the past, he had learnt that the hard way. He just had to live in the present.

And live in the present he would.

"No." he said shaking his head. "You keep that, I used to read it to you when you were in her stomach. So did she. Read it to the baby. Keep her alive that way"

"Do you have a picture of her?"

"No" he said honestly. "I take it Bruce Ismay didn't have many of her around the house"

She shook her head and again he felt a flare of hatred for the man down in his very soul.

"She exists" he said finally. "Only in my memory, but then again that is a good place for her to be. I remember her as she was not what she became. And that's all I want to remember her as"

Isabella nodded. If she didn't understand what he was saying she didn't comment on it and Theo loved her for it. Maybe she did understand. Maybe one day she would. He hoped for it anyway.

"As for what you can call me…" he said getting back to the earlier question she had asked and he thought about it. In an ideal world he would want to be father, the same way he was with his other children. Daddy. Something that proved to everyone that he was her father, something that Bruce Ismay couldn't take away.

But he also knew that it was different for this girl, that it was different for her and for the life that she had known. But he didn't know if he could stand to be called Theo again.

"You can call me Teddy if you want. And…and one day, when your ready if you want to call me father or Daddy like the other children do or…or whatever then that's fine too but I don't want to rush you. I don't want to force you into anything, You take your time and then you come and tell me what you want to do"

She nodded. She was testing each word in her head he could see, the flicker between her eyes and then she asked another question.

"What happens when he comes looking for me?"

There was no question of who 'He' was.

"What do you mean?"

"I know him better than you do" she said flatly. "I've been reading what's been said about him in the press, I've heard it, he's been annihilated and more to the point he knows it. And a lot of that is me, a lot of that is because people believe he left me to die. And then if someone, a reporter finds out the truth, or finds out about Mother the whole thing comes tumbling out. If I was in charge of his press I would tell them to find me, he knows I got off the ship, he knows I went with Tommy, he saw me and I think he knows where I would go next. And so what if he comes here and tries to take me away. Like he did mother?"

And he could see where her thoughts were going. He could see it because it was true and even though he had told himself that he was going to take it slow with her, he couldn't sit here and listen to this and do nothing so he scooted forwards, put his and her coffee on the ground and wrapped an arm around.

She froze a little—clearly she had no idea just what she was supposed to do with this little, common place human touch which he thought so utterly tragic but then she leaned her head against his shoulder and relaxed into it and that was all the opening he needed.

"Let him"

She pulled back to stare at him.

"What?"

"Let him" he said forcibly. "I learnt from my mistakes the last time, let him come, seriously let him come on my land, with my family and try and take you away, you're not a baby anymore you're a grown woman who can make her own decisions, let him try. Let him try to come with you. I have friends here too, I have a Sherriff who I play poker with, I've supplied lumber to nearly all of the judges in this place. Let him try and come for you and I will blow a hole in his head. You can't keep running from him Isabella. If he comes he comes, but you have a family, and that family will protect you no matter what."

She watched him for a second and then she shrugged. "He scares me" she said finally. "Odd but true"

Theo thought about it for a long second and then shrugged. "Nothing else will come between me and mine" he said finally. "Nothing else. Certainly not him. Besides he doesn't have the same power he does now. I don't think he wants the fight. Last thing he'll need is the press getting wind of what he did to his own sister. This is America. The press her can be more condemning than a hanging judge"

She smiled once at that but it didn't quite meet her eyes. He wondered how long it would be before she could think of her Uncle without the terror. He wondered if she ever would. If she ever would want to put down roots and wonder if they would be torn away.

"One day I'll tell you about your mother" he said softly.

"And one day I will tell you about the Titanic" she said just as softly.

"Well we've got time"

She caught his eye and smiled.

"Yes I suppose we do"

And they stayed there on the little porch until Olivia came to get them for breakfast.

The note was passed to him by evening post three days later. It was a scrawl of writing and Bruce Ismay took it off the shiny silver plate and flipped it open. He was drinking scotch. He didn't go out anymore. Nobody would host him.

The writing stirred a memory in him and he turned to read what was on the paper.

"I win"

Who the fuck would dare to send him such a provocative note.

And then he saw that the post mark had Patterson's Mountain scrawled on it.

And he knew.

He gripped his scotch glass so hard he thought it might break and he threw the note into a little ball and threw it into the fire watching it burn.

It might help. Her. The brat. Isabella. She might…if she could give a statement saying that he had helped her to a boat…that he had accidently been thrown into one…then maybe…if she could blame Andrews for the lack of lifeboats…

But would she? He knew that Patterson mongrel too well. If he got his hooks in her then…well…would he?

He had clearly spoken to her, clearly wanted her, why Bruce didn't know but then again…

And he did have some power. He liked to think he had some control over the girl that she would help. God knows she owed him.

He stared at the fire for a second longer wondering, something, a little voice sounded like his mother told him perhaps he had done enough damage but then again anything that could be done to help him should be done. He didn't want the brat back in his life but after all he had done for her she owed him this little press statement that he could give her. And as for Patterson…well…he had been a wet blanket once before. He was able to deal with that the first time.

And so he sat there alone and plotted his glorious return to power.

After all. It was the least that she could do.

And he's back!

Obviously my characterisation of Bruce Ismay is based on the film's version and not the real man.

And there you go, I will see you next time for the next chapter which I hope will be up soon.

Next Chapter-Tommy, Fabrizio, and Jack spend a morning with the Patterson boys who are desperate to become men. Helga has an awakening kind of moment, the town reacts to the story of a lifetime and there's a darkness coming on the edge of the horizon.