Coeur de la Mer

Chapter One

Take Her To See, Mr. Collins.

AN- Semi-resembles the film. A sort of parody. Benny/Mimi and a lot more Roger/Mimi. Collins/Angel, Mark/Maureen.

First class. It was the way of life she'd always known, growing up on Park Avenue. Mimi stepped off the shuttle at the Southampton boat dock and gazed out over the harbor at the magnificent ship that floated just a few hundred yards away. She smiled softly and took her fiance's offered hand, moved to stand with him, shortly followed by her mother, who was fidgeting in her newly bought designer clothing. Don't be too grateful Mimi, spoil his excitement.

"I don't see what the fuss is about, it doesn't look any bigger than the Mauretania."

"Don't be silly," Benny said with a scoff. "It's over 100 feet longer than the Mauretania, and far more luxurious. Joanne, your daughter is far too difficult to please!"

She followed him past the people waiting to board, not even taking a second glance at them, not realizing she was cutting with money. It was so important to Joanne that she married into the CyberArts tycoon's money. She'd grown cold to it, numb to her surroundings.

They boarded easily with no questions asked and were shown to their suites. One for each of them, even tho she knew Benny would spend most of his time in hers. And they had a common sitting room. She whined about her luggage and threatened a steward's life, should her things be lost.

Across the street from the dock at a bar Roger Davis took a long drink of beer and laid out his cards with a smug grin. His friend, Mark Cohen's mouth dropped in amazement and the other two men's mouths dropped too, in anger. Sheer hate. He grabbed up those tickets and the $30 on the table and dashed across the street with the blonde film maker and their single bag's of clothing. Ah, the Titanic! The single most expensive boat in the world, theirs for the taking.

They lied about their inspections and got on, found their way to their third class rooms and said hello to their roommates, who were more than shocked to see them and not their friends. Mark tossed his bag onto the top bunk and laid on it, grinned at Roger when his friend noticed him. "Hey! Who said you get top bunk??"

"I did," he said briskly, laying back.

The door opened and a tall black man in uniform walked in, looking back and forth. "Good afternoon gentlemen, I'm here from the captain's bridge seeing about accommodations, are they adequate?"

Roger raised an eyebrow at him, sat on his bunk. "Huh?"

The man sighed tiredly. "Do you like your room, yo?"

"Oh. . Oh, oh, oh. Yeah man, nifty." Roger gave a friendly smile and stuck out his hand. "Roger."

The man looked at it cautiously, then offered a smile and shook it. "Collins, Tom Collins."

Mark introduced himself and Collins left to check more rooms, the two looked at each other over and under their bunks. "Wow, we're really here, eh Markie?"

"Yeah." Mark chuckled and shook his head, pulling his camera from his bag. "I can make one hell of a movie about this, two third class freaks on the biggest ship ever built."

Roger laughed at him and laid back, sighed softly. "Wish I coulda brought my guitar."

"Maybe you'll find one."

"Oh yeah, get arrested for theft on a boat."

"No one said to steal it, shortshit."

"Hey! Who you calling short, peanut boy?"

Collins made his way to the next room and knocked once before entering the single "suite", the person staying there had his back to him and he cleared his throat softly so the man would turn and look at him. He opened his mouth to drone out the same sentence and felt his breath catch when the young Hispanic looked at him. "Uh. . i-is everything adequate here?"

He smiled gently at Collins and looked around, nodded. "Quite, sir." He lifted the wig that had been in his hands up over his head and only then did Collins notice the makeup he was wearing. He stepped closer and offered his large hand. "First Officer Tom Collins."

The transvestite smiled even more, even blushed some and took the hand. "Angel Dumott Schunard."

Collins bent and kissed her hand, looked up at Angel with a soft smile. "If there's anything you need, tell them to send take you to Officer Collins, or better yet." He paused. "I can have you moved to second class, but no higher."

She offered a sweet smile. "I don't need moved honey, this is my place but I will take you up on your first offer some time."

He nodded and swallowed thickly, moved to the door, adjusting his hat as he did. "Well um, all right then Miss Angel. I'm glad things are . .adequate." He stepped out and shut the door, muttered to himself. "Starting to hate that word."

Collins climbed the decks until he reached the bridge, everything was in order. They'd left port about an hour ago, and the captain was on deck, smiling, hands on the railing. The wind was blowing so they had gained some speed, he assumed. "Take her to see, Mr. Collins." He said with a smile. "Let's stretch her legs."

"Yes sir." Collins said with a soft smile and went onto the bridge. "Twenty two nots, full."

The second officer turned the wheel to 'full' so the message made it's way to the boilers. Collins made his way back to the captain and rested against the railing as well. "I've ordered the engines to full speed."

The captain just nodded and looked ahead, blinked a bit. "What's that?"

Mark looked doubtfully at Roger as he climbed the bow of the ship to stand on the railing, his arms spread behind the roping so that he looked like he was flying midair. This looked dangerous, and when Roger beckoned him closer, he backed up further, I don't wanna be swimming with the dolphins, and doubtlessly I will, this is Roger.

"I'm the King of the World!!!!! Oh c'mon Mark, look! Look!"

Mark climbed regretfully behind him to gaze and his eyes widened dramatically when he saw the dolphin Roger was pointing to, leaping before the boat as it moved faster and faster. Mark hurried down when Roger started flinging his arms excitedly. Yeah, yeah, there's dolphins, see? I knew it. I'd freaking die He's psychotic. "Look there's another one!"

"I don't wanna look at the stupid dolphins! I wanna go inside!"

At the bridge, as he received his tea from Officer Collins, the captain smiled.
In her stateroom, Mimi Marquez was (somewhat) assisting her maid in removing many pieces of art from a wooden set of crates, and would set up pieces in various places of the room. Benny walked in after seeing about his own stateroom and sighed in annoyance, gaining her attention enough to get her to raise an eyebrow.

"Not those pieces of junk."

Mimi turned to the maid and studied one piece as she spoke. "The difference between mine and Benny's taste in art is that I have some. They're fascinating, there's truth; but no logic."

The maid did not acknowledge her, just simply asked. "What's the artist's name?"

"Andy Something." She said softly, setting a portrait of a Campbell's soup can up.

"Andy Something. He won't amount to a thing, mark my words." He kissed his fiance's cheek softly.

Mimi raised an eyebrow in question and he cleared his throat, looked respectfully away. "Right well, I'm gonna see what Joanne is up to. Carry on."

"Roger! I said I don't wanna go! C'mon you freakin' . ." Mark shut up and gave Roger the dirtiest look he ever could. "Oof." He muttered when Roger threw him onto a stool. "Asshole."

"I'll be right back!" Roger practically sang, running back to their room. Mark stared after him and swallowed hard, looked down at the counter and then up at the bartender.

"Um, uh, a beer, I guess." He murmured, the man nodded and turned to pour it, Mark turned to look next to him randomly and gulped when he gazed at the dark haired woman sitting in that stool. She was slurping a martini, in an elegant cocktail dress.

The woman looked at him and offered a friendly, sweet smile. Mark smiled nervously back, lip curled most unattractively. The woman laughed a little at him and he chuckled, relaxed slightly and moved his hand to shake with her. "Hi I'm . ."

But he hadn't watched and right as the bartender had reached out with the beer, Mark knocked the glass and it tipped over onto the woman's lap, sending her into a shriek, followed by a hissyfit. She stood and let the dress drip, began rubbing it down with her cloth napkin. Mark quickly grabbed one to help. ". . .so sorry."

"It's all right." She huffed, sighed heavily. "But I'm pretty sure your name isn't 'so sorry', you were in the middle of an introduction." She smiled softly, not really as angry as she had been before she remembered that the dress wasn't hers.

"Oh, right." He laughed nervously and paid the bartender, who went to getting him a new beer. "Mark, Mark. I'm Mark." He said softly, extending his hand carefully. He took hers up and instead of shaking as he had planned, he swallowed his nerves and kissed the back of her knuckles.

She smiled at him and giggled softly, fanned her face a little. "I'm Maureen Johnson." She said softly. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mark-Mark."

He laughed softly and told the bartender to get her another martini on his tab. "So what's a lovely lady such as yourself doing here all by yourself?" He asked her, his head tilting slightly in curiosity. He watched how she moved, how she smiled, how her lip stick was smeared from the incident.

She shrugged a little, sipped the drink. "Well I get bored so I heard about this ship and decided I might try and catch a date here. Guys back in the village tend to consider me a bit of a slut but I'm not, I don't get why they would think that." She looked to him, a softer smile settling on her face. "How about you? Out to break some hearts?"

He laughed a little and shook his head. "Here with my best friend, we won our tickets in a poker game."

Across the room, oblivious to them First Officer Tom Collins was off for the night and had walked in. He'd considered going to go talk to Mark but he had struck up a conversation with a pretty girl so he went and sat down at a table alone. He ordered a scotch on the rocks and lit up a cigarette, sighed as music began to play but looked at the stage when a beautiful voice began to flow through the room. He was stunned to see Angel, the beautiful transvestite there singing.

He listened to the soft, sweet words about love and endurance with a light smile, his cigarette occasionally drawn to his lips for a light drag. He exhaled the smoke slowly through his ever so slightly parted lips. She sang three songs before she exited the stage and went to sit down next to him. She crossed her leg and smiled softly at him. "Can I bum a smoke, sugar?"

"You can bum anything you like." He said softly, withdrew a cigarette and handed it to her. He lit his lighter and placed it to the end of the stick, watched her raise it and take a drag off of it. She exhaled deeply and looked over to him, smiled softly.

"You seemed to really enjoy the show."

"I did."

A soft smile, another drag. "Any favorite parts?"

"You."

She blushed light pink and smiled more widely. "You're really sweet."

Collins stubbed out his cigarette and nodded towards her. "You're cute when you blush."

She stood from the table and crushed out her half smoked cancer stick. "Would you like to go for a walk with me? On the deck?"

He watched her for a moment and then nodded softly. "I would love to." He stood from the table and offered her his arm. She took it and they walked from the room, Mark looking over Maureen's shoulder as they slow danced.