I smiled and kissed him "I don't want to hurt you either." I let my eyes search his face "This might sound Crazy and a little bold but when we get to New York, I'm staying with you. If you go back to Southampton, I'll be there." I blushed slightly "If you'd like me to be."

He smiled and nodded "I'd very much like to you be."

I smiled and kissed him again "Do you think I would have died if I had fallen?" I questioned.

He shrugged "No, but it's hard to say, factors in where you hit the railing before you went overboard." He once again held me close.

"We don't tell this to my mother." I mumbled against his chest "We must not tell her. She would lose her mind if she had thought I was about to go overboard." I laughed slightly "Actually, she might commend you and honor you in a certain way mothers know how." I smiled and kissed at his throat "Erik." I whispered.

"Hm?" he responded.

I giggled slightly and shook my head "Nothing."

He looked at me and laughed slightly "Well, you should lie back down. I do have to tell your mother, she'll be worried. I think you might have hit your head on the side of the railing when I had pulled you up." He knitted his eye brows "Sorry 'bout that."

I smiled and settled back down in his bed "does this mean I get to stay here, all night?" I grinned widely.

He shrugged "I suppose so." He stood up "But, if your mother wants to take care of you, I must give her the leeway to do so."

I frowned slightly and Erik left the room. I waited for what seemed like hours before Erik had come back, my mother close on his heels "Christine!" My mother rushed to the bed and grabbed my face in her hands "my Baby!" She looked back at Erik "Thank you for saving her!" My mother looked back at me and kissed my forehead "How are you feeling, Christine?"

I laughed slightly and pushed her hands away from my face "I feel fine mother. Just a bit tired." I smiled and wiped my hands on my skirts.

"Dear, come on and lets get to bed yes?" My mother helped me stand up.

I looked at her "Actually, Erik here was going to take me down to the infirmary." I looked at Erik, who was watching my mother and I intently "he had just brought me back to his quarters because it's quite close to the infirmary and when I get finished, I promise I'll come back up to our cabin." I smiled and put my hands on her shoulders "I promise."

My mother sighed and looked at me "Christie" she exhaled deeply and pulled me into a hug "You're such a strong willed person. Always wanting to be on your own" my mother smiled and looked at me "You're an adult. I suppose you don't need told when you can get back." My mother smiled and kissed my forehead "Just return to me safely?"

I smiled and nodded "I promise."

My mother pulled me in for another hug "Christine" she whispered "Erik is a real gentleman. Even more so than Raoul." She giggled softly "Your father told me earlier that First Officer Erik seemed to really enjoy his time with you and that you looked happier than he's seen you in a long time when you're with Raoul. He wants you to be happy darling. He knows you picked the right person." She smiled and pressed her cheek against mine "Don't let him go."

I smiled "I won't" I whispered back "Mother." I said loudly "I'll be back when I get back from the Infirmary. I promise."

My mother smiled and put a hand on my cheek and smiled "I know." She then turned to Erik who was standing with his hands behind his back, just like he did when I had first met him "Take care of Her, First Officer Holloway. She's my only baby."

He nodded, "Of course, Ma'am."

She smiled and patted his shoulder "You're a good man Erik, a good man." She smiled and walked out.

I laughed slightly and strolled over to Erik "Well, I wasn't planning on going to the infirmary." I inhaled slightly and shrugged "I thought perhaps we could go up to the boat deck and look at the stars."

He looked at me "That would be delightful."

I smiled "Well, you might want to get a coat on. Before I fainted I noticed how chilly it was." I looked at him and grabbed the duvet off his bed. "I believe this will do." I laughed slightly and made my way out of Erik's cabin. It was at the other end of the ship that my stateroom was on; also it seemed to be a different floor.

Erik left his room and then locked it behind him, quietly. I assumed the other first class patrons who worked on Titanic also slept in this corridor. I wondered which one Captain Smith was in, was he close? Did he hear Erik and I through the walls? I was sure that the steel of the ship was thick enough to block out any sounds of the room on the other side, but one couldn't help but wonder.

Erik and I started to walk down the corridor before he turned to me "I believe we should take the lift." He searched my face "I know you dislike it," he whispered "But I think it would be best, you just fainted."

I opened my mouth in protest, I wasn't going to take the lift as I felt they were death traps but then I closed my mouth as I watched Erik's expression "If we must, Darling." I stepped on the elevator clutching the blanket tightly. Erik came on the lift and told the young man to the boat deck. I inhaled sharply as the Lift jerked to life, humming a dull song as it moved carelessly up to the very top of the Ship.

Erik and I moved quietly down to the stern of the ship, out of the prying eyes of the night watch in the crow's nest. I laid the blanket down and sat on it like I had done plenty of nights back home in London.

"It's beautiful out tonight." I looked over at him "Where I live in London, it's hard to see the stars. But normally every night before I went to bed, I'd try to look at them" I smiled and looked down at the blanket "I'm a lucky girl to have such understanding parents, how they know I don't like a conventional life." I smiled.

"How understanding?" he glanced at me.

I smiled slightly "well, back in London our house was so large! We had a maid and a butler, and I was taught by a lovely elderly woman who had a little granddaughter named Meg. Sometimes she'd bring the girl over to the lessons and we became close friends." I smiled at the memory "sometimes after the lessons had ended I'd go into the woods with her and Raoul." I leaned back on my arms "Anyway, my mother was from London, or so she's told me, and my father had family from Italy, but he grew up in London just like my mother. His grandfather had started a textile business and when he died, it was left to my grandfather and he gave it to my father when my father hit twenty." I looked at the stars "And when my father hit twenty one, he met my mother who was eighteen. They had me first; I was their pride and joy. When I was six I remember my mother was pregnant, she had given birth by the time I turned seven to a little boy who was born dead." I looked over at Erik "I got to name him; my mother thought he should receive a name and I named him Edward John. He was my little brother. Not too long after my mother buried him next to her family, she went into a depression. My father was always working so he hired a butler and a maid to help take care of me while my mother had locked herself in a room for hours upon hours a day. Eventually when I was old enough I was tutored in the best things and I played with the little girl named Meg and of course Raoul. I loved the woods; it was always a wonderful escape. By the time I turned nine my mother was back to her normal self, or what I had thought to be normal. She never yelled at me for my long disappearances in the woods or that I had came back dirty. She always encouraged it, always told me that I should be independent." I smiled "And I always remember wanting to grow up like her. Sometimes when I was sent to bed, I'd sneak downstairs and watch her and father. You wouldn't believe me unless you saw it but she can hold her liqueur." I laughed and Erik smiled "I don't like the taste of anything besides wine, but she liked it all. But eventually I grew up, and before I knew it I was twenty five, getting proposed to in the woods by a guy I never liked." I shrugged "and when I found you, my mother understood why I couldn't marry Raoul, for I loved someone else." I smiled

He sat down next to me and pulled his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them "You're very lucky indeed."

I glanced at him "What was your family like? You already know firsthand how my family must be."

He sighed and a fine white cloud left his lips. "Well," he took a long pause as if he was trying to find the courage to speak "My mother died when I was young, about four or five. My father remarried a Russian immigrant who thought of nothing but herself. She had my sister two years later and died during childbirth. My father had inherited what little money the woman had, but after she had died he was never the same." He clicked his tongue "He became a heavy drinker, and started to abuse my sister while I was out at the docks making a living for my family." He let his legs go and then laid back onto the deck, I however continued to sit up "I worked on boats my whole life, often I'd take fish for my family to eat that night" he laughed slightly "We had fish every night for as long as I can remember. Fishing boats aren't as glamorous as you might think, Christine" he winked at me but then turned serious again "When I came home one day, around seventeen years old, I saw my father doing horrible things to my sister. He had beaten her and then he raped her. She was only ten." He paused for a long time and gazed up at the sky, finally, after what seemed like an hour of silence, he spoke again "I went to go help her, she was crying and screaming for me and when I got to the kitchen table I simply hit my father in his face." He chewed on his bottom lip "Lucky for my sister, but very unlucky for me. There was a knife on the table." I watched his eyes close and his brows knit together "and my father was much stronger than I was. I was only able to hit him in the face because I had caught him off guard." His breathing got heavy and I grabbed his hand, gently rubbing it with my thumb, somehow thinking it would sooth him "He pinned me against the wall, cut me right on my lip" he blindly put a hand to his mouth "I didn't wail out, as I didn't want to see my father see a weakness, although it had hurt. He laughed slightly and I remember the smell of alcohol on his breath, and then he said to me 'didn't that hurt son? Very well" and then…" I inhaled sharply waiting for what I knew was coming "And then I felt a searing pain in my forehead, then down my cheek and lucky for me the bastard spared my eye." He looked away "after it happened my father went back to my sister, who was sobbing on the floor in a huddled ball near the corner, kicked her and called her a whore. So when he left I seized the opportunity, scooped up my sister and left." He opened his eyes "I pretended she was my wife when we got an apartment. We lived peacefully for a while, I worked while my sister stayed home. Months later learned she had gotten pregnant and…" His voice got shaky "And when she had given birth to the child she had died. I tried to nurture the child the best I could, but within hours he died too." A few tears fell out of his eyes and I wiped them up. "So after that I worked hard on the boats I had been on. And now I'm here, with you."

I watched him reach up and felt him wipe at my face, and that's when I realized I myself had been crying "oh erik…" I whispered and flung myself on him, wrapping him in the best embrace I could. "I—I didn't know. Oh.." I buried my face in the crick of his neck and let the tears fall out of my eyes again "it's not fair that you had such a awful life! Here I was boasting on about my life, calling it wonderful." I sobbed "I must be the world's worst person!"

He laughed slightly and sat up, pulling me away from him, his hands clamped on my shoulders "Not the world's worst." He winked, causing me to laugh a bit "Its life, Christine. There's always going to be ups and downs and you've just got to roll with the punches life gives you." He wiped my eyes and looked at me "And when you ride the waves you find something worth holding onto, even when you've been through the darkest times. You bring light into my life Christine, more than you know."

I smiled and looked at him, wrapping my arms around his neck "You're making me blush, First Officer Holloway." I gently licked my lips and then kissed him passionately. I knew that I could give Erik all the kisses and hugs in the world, but nothing would ease the pain that I knew he went through. Erik pulled me close, his hand rubbing up and down my back, his other hand entangled in my hair. I placed one hand behind his head, the other on his back, pressing him as close to me as I could get him. We stopped kissing once or twice to regain our breath, but they were short breaks, it was if catching our breath was the last thing on our minds.

Our feverish kissing slowed down and eventually stopped. I couldn't remember when I felt happier. I cuddled close to Erik and laid my flushed cheek on his shoulder "it's a beautiful night tonight." I whispered, breaking the silence between us.

"Marry me."

Authors Note: a little soon perhaps? Oh well I want to rush things along. I watched something that gave me this Idea, except they were going to get married in New York and not on Titanic :P. If Erik were to die, or if Christine were to die, I'd want them to be married. Who's going to die though? I unno, you have to read on