A/N Thanks for the reviews. The next chapter will be posted soon. Hope you like.

Chapter Nine ~ Nightmares.

At ten o'clock the lights in the public third class rooms were switched off, encouraging the passengers to retire for the evening.

That night, it took Rosa a long time to get to sleep. The smiling face of Philip Herlington haunted her mind, or rather it was his thoughts on first and third class system that prevented her sleep. He seemed bitter, angry against the class system that deprived him of good living. He desired to be up their amongst 'the highest layer of society', maybe he deserved it, maybe he didn't. But he was born a third class person, and therefore he would die a third class man.

She could hear the soft breathing of managed to fall asleep. But her dreams were hauntingly real that night, and she found herself Mia from the lower bunk, and smiled. At least little Mia would be reunited with her mother soon. It made everything else seem worth it. Lottie and her mother were also fast asleep. In fact Rosa felt alone, completely alone in the full room. She felt she was only one in the entire world awake.

Gradually her tired eyes began to close, and she suffering for having finally closed off her mind to reality.

(dream) There was a screeching, screaming cry, as the room whirred round and round. She felt dizzy and sick. The walls were grimy, and covered with a red sticky substance, the bed was lumpy, and stuffed with hay (easier to clean) the sheets were a horrible decaying yellow, their original colour lost completely. On the bed lay an exhausted, sick woman. She was very young, and her eyes were troubled with hurt and pain. They were dull, lifeless, like the rest of her. By her side stood a cruel looking woman, Mistress Larkson. She held the new- born baby in her filthy, greedy hands. "He's healthy." She said, in her rasping voice. The woman reached out for her baby, but her arms clasped on thin air. . .(dream ended)

Rose sat up in bed, drenched in a cold sweat. Her heart pounded in her chest, and her eyes watered with tears. She remembered it like it was only yesterday. She had lay there in that grimy, disgusting bed, over powered with the death that had filled the room. Mistress Larkson had stood, cackling by her side.

She had had her baby, she had heard it crying, rather feebly for a new born, but crying none the less. It was a boy, a small, tiny, little baby boy, whom she desperately wanted to cherish and protect.

But her arms clenched around nothing, around the foul smelling air. The tears bulged in her eyes, just as they had done then. And once more she refused to let them fall.

She desperately wanted her baby, she began to wonder what had happened to him. Mistress Larkson had taken him away, her eyes had never fallen on his beautiful face. He was probably still there, stuck in hell. Her eyes filled, and the tears bulged, but still they did not fall. She touched the empty space next to her, if only she could have him, with her right now.

Her thoughts were disturbed by a shuffling from below her. Mia was stirring. Oh, poor beautiful Mia. Abandoned by her mother, but how can a mother do that? She wondered, bitterly. How could a mother willingly chose to live without her child?

But she, Rosa, could be Mia's mother. She could look after her, and give her the love, only a mother can provide. She wanted to protect the seven year old, from all the horrors and hatred that consumed the world. She wanted to protect her. She sniffed back the pain, as she lay alone, rocking from side to side in the dark.

Life wasn't fair. Here Rosa was, with so much love to give, all she wanted was her baby back, and poor Mia all she wanted was her mother. But Mia's problem would be solved in a matter of days, she would have her heart's desire, and then what would happen to Rosa? She'd be shut out in the cold, the gooseberry, the forgotten one. She stifled a bitter laugh, as she turned over on to her side, clutching the fresh smelling linen to her face. And then there was Philip Herlington, his obsession with first class went too deep for it to just be jealously, there was hurt buried inside that man. Mia stirred, she heard Rosa's heavy breathing, and pushed herself up. "Rosa, are you okay?" She asked.

As she heard Mia's innocent voice, the tears overflowed from their barrier, she couldn't contain them any more. They splashed down her young cheeks. "Yes, Mia, honey. I'm okay, it was just a nightmare."

"We'll be in America soon, then everything will be okay."

Rosa nodded, wiping her face with the clean, linen sheets, so different to the sick room back at the work house. . .her hand brushed against the world as her head spun.

"I don't know what I'd do without you, Rosa." Mia said, as she settled her head back down on the pillow.

Rosa smiled. "Me neither." She whispered to the night.