Okay, so I was so excited about this chapter, that I wrote it to quickly and decided to post. I had originally planned to post the last chapter on April 10, and the epilogue on April 15, but it didn't go as slow as I had planned. Yup, this is the last chapter. I have an epilogue that I'm finishing up.
This chapter is written more as flashes. Everyone is sort of all over the place and I wanted to show that.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
The group was staring at Elena and Damon with a multitude of expressions. Some were shock, others horror, most sadness. When the story continued, it was Damon that spoke, instead of Elena.
"Fifteen hundred people went into the sea when Titanic sank from under us. There were twenty boats floating nearby, and only one came back. One. Seven were saved from the water, including Annabel and I. Seven, out of fifteen hundred."
As he spoke, he paused to let his words sink in. Elena looked slowly across the faces of Katherine and the salvage crew on the Keldysh. Stefan, Jeremy, Trevor, and the others… the reality of what had happed hit them for the first time. With the couple's story, they felt like grave robbers. With the couple's story, they had been on Titanic in its final hours. For the first time, Stefan forgot the diamond.
"I have never been as scared as I was that night," Elena said softly, "In the lifeboat, believing Damon to be dead. That was the first time in my life I ever realized that Klaus did truly care for me, when he stopped me from going in after Damon. I would have been killed. I would have never been able to swim fast enough. Afterward, the seven hundred people in the boats had nothing to do but wait...wait to die, wait to live, wait for an absolution which would never come."
The faces of the saved were solemn as the melancholy set it. They sat in the lifeboats, waiting for someone to save them. They were so quiet, most seemed to be sleeping, but they weren't.
Ismay was in a trance, trembling and staring ahead. Klaus sipped from a hip flask offered to him by a black-faced stoker before passing it to Elena who had woken with a dead look on her face. Isobel hugged herself, rocking gently. Alaric soothed a child's cries for their father as Tyler comforted countless woman aboard their boat about their husbands, reading Bible verses to them from a pocket Bible that he had with him.
In Boat 14, Damon lay with the blanket wrapped around him. He had woken again as the little girl in his arms had hit him again in another restless dream. Her glossy black hair fell from the blanket that she was swaddled in, her face as white as the moon. A man next to him jumped up, pointing and yelling. Elijah sat in the boat with them, not even noticing the man and the little girl in the blanket. He had somehow managed to have not died from exposure. He wrapped the blanket tighter around him. In another boat, shouts of excitement and joy came across the water. As the word spread, so did the thrilled feelings that came to them. To Elena, everything was silent and in slow motion as the people stood and cheered. She wished she had jumped with Damon. She wanted to be dead with Damon.
Lowe lit a green flare and shot into the air it as everyone shouted and cheered. Elena didn't react. She had turned off any human emotion.
Golden light washed across the white boats floating in the calm sea the color of the rosy sky. Around them floated icebergs. The survivors could see the Carpathia from where it sat nearby and lifeboats rowed toward her.
The ship's hull loomed overhead as Collapsible C reached it, the letters Carpathia visible on the bow. Elena watched blank faced, her small bag with the clothes in it wrapped around her wrist, helped by seamen and Klaus up the rope ladder, other survivors following, to the Carpathia' gangway doors.
Woman hugged each other and cried. Trudie Peterson saw young Elena and hugged her, causing Elena to feel the first emotion in hours, confusion.
"Who are you?" she whispered, hardly able to find her voice.
"I was on the lifeboat with your mother," she said smiling sadly before she suddenly shouted, "Elizabeth Forbes!"
"Trudie!" Elizabeth hugged the woman. "You're alive. When Caroline and Jenna and I heard the news this morning, we were sure…" he conversation faded into the distance in Elena's ears. A blonde girl with bouncy curls hugged her.
"Do I know you?" Elena asked, her voice a bit stronger.
"No," the girl said softly, "I'm Caroline Forbes. You must be Elena. Ms. Peterson and Mrs. Fells told us about you. Mother told me to take you to our cabin and let you put on some warm clothes and get some rest." Elena nodded, letting the bubbly blonde guide her to their cabin.
J. Bruce Ismay climbed aboard the ship, guided by a crewman towards the doctor's cabin as he took the Walk of Shame, unable to meet their accusing gazes. He had abandoned the ship, a thousand or so others dying. Better men than him met their watery graves during the night. He could have sworn he heard someone mutter "coward" under their breath as he past by. And really, that's all he was. He was no hero and he knew it. He knew it.
Alaric and Tyler followed Honoria Fells to the cabin of Elizabeth and Caroline Forbes, a first class mother and daughter aboard this ship and was relieved to find Elena fast asleep in Caroline's bed, Bonnie and Caroline calmly sipping tea. Caroline hand her feet resting on one of the other chairs' arms, her stocking showing and shoes on the floor beside her. Jenna entered the room and told Elizabeth, Honoria and Trudie that she had found Joseph's cousin who was coming to see Joseph's estate. Elizabeth, Trudie, Honoria rushed out and Bonnie offered the Jenna a cup of tea. Jenna laughed, telling Bonnie to sit down and relax. Alaric pulled out a chair for her, and she took it, wide eyed.
Damon and Anna were helped onto the ship. They were draped with blankets and given hot tea. A man ran towards them, a steward, and helped the two stand, saying he had specific instructions to bring them somewhere. He led them to the first class room of Jenna Sommers and knocked three times. She opened the door and welcomed them in and he soon understood why. In chairs, Alaric and Tyler sat.
Elijah found Klaus standing awkwardly on the deck, amidst the confusion of the survivors. The deck was crammed with huddled people, and the recovered lifeboats of Titanic. On a hatch cover, there was an enormous pile of lifebelts. The two men talked for a minute before Klaus sent Elijah to find Isobel amongst the survivors.
It was late afternoon before Elena walked out, dressed in one of Caroline's dresses. She saw Klaus, only moments after the valet had left, and walked over to him, thanking him for stopping her. He nodded. He asked her if she was going to stay with him when they landed and she told him that she needed some time away, time to find herself again. He nodded numbly as she pulled the expensive engagement ring from her bag and placed it in his hand, closing his hand tightly around the ring. She walked away and never heard him whisper that he loves her. She didn't need to hear him. He had seen she had a new ring that had taken its spot on her finger.
When Elijah appeared again with his ex-fiancée's mother, Klaus told them Elena had died in the sinking.
Damon woke in a panic. Anna was gone, Ric was nowhere to be seen, and Tyler was gone. Jenna had disappeared as well. He heard the door open and was attacked with kisses and was squeezed tightly.
"You are so stupid!" Elena muttered between kisses, "Don't ever scare me like that again," she said softly before pressing a hard kiss to his lips.
Damon savored that kiss. It was hard and clumsy and awkward, but it was the best thing he had ever felt. When they pulled back, his lovely wife rested her forehead against his, panting.
"We're supposed to be outside on the deck," she murmured, "All survivors will be kept separated from the passengers on board," she said in a voice that clearly mimicked someone else. Damon nodded.
"I need to find Alaric anyways." She grinned, clearly thrilled to have found him, and pulled his arm until he was sitting up in bed. They both were laughing and kissing and holding each other close when Jenna walked in and smack the back of the prince's head.
On deck, Damon found Alaric and Tyler, both in a better mood than they were on the previous boat, in the steerage section, helping to comfort and take care of passengers. His wife took off to help with other passengers. His father would love her, Damon knew, for she had that same generous spirit his mother had. Anna was trying to make people laugh, and her and the other children were acting ridiculous to do so.
"You won't find any of your people back here, sir. It's all steerage," Damon heard a steward tell a tuxedoed man he recognized as Klaus. Klaus waved off the steward and spotted Damon and approached.
"Yes, I lived," Damon said, "How terribly awkward for you."
"Whatever happens between you and Elena, you better take care of her. She's worth it." Damon smiled.
"I know."
"She doesn't have a cent to her name either," he warned.
"I don't love her because she's first class or because I would have assumed she had money. I love her because I love her, simple as that." Klaus nodded.
"Under other circumstances, I might have liked you. Dare I say it, we might have been friends." Damon chuckled.
"And maybe, if the circumstances were different, I might have met Elena first and our situations might have been reverse. But it was because she was stuck in that awful first class world she needed me, so I am grateful to you for that." Klaus nodded, wondering where this steerage man was going with this. "I will take care of her, not because you want me to, but because I want to. I will treat her every bit like a princess that she is, because that is what she deserves, but at least with me, she'll be free to leave when she wants. Goodbye, Mr. von Swartzchild." Elijah joined his boss beside him and Damon turned to him. "Signor Smith, of the London Smiths," Damon greeted pleasantly, "I was asked to give you this small token from Elena and I to show our appreciation..." Damon mimicked to Elijah. He punched the valet in the stomach hard enough so that the older man fell over, clutching his stomach and gasping. "Compliments of the DeSangues," he told the valet before calmly walking away. The two men gapped.
Elena stood at the railing of the Carpathia, at nine PM on April eighteenth. She gazed up at the Statue of Liberty as if it were welcoming her home with her glowing torch. A set of arms wrapped around her waist and she leaned her head back onto Damon's shoulder.
The Carpathia disgorged the survivors at the Cunard pier, Pier 54. Over thirty thousand people lined the docks and filled the surrounding streets, all wanting to see their loved ones or know what happened, who lived. The magnesium flashes of the photographers went off like small bombs, leaving white spots in her vision. Damon's hand kept in hers the entire time, Alaric carrying Anna and Tyler following behind them.
Several hundred police had to kept the mob back. The dock was packed with friends and relatives, officials, ambulances, and the press.
Reporters and photographers swarmed everywhere. This was the story of the decade… of the century, and they all wanted the scoop. They pushed to try to get close to survivors, shouting over each other to ask them questions.
Elena's hair was covered with a woolen shawl, Damon's with a hat, as was Alaric's. Elena hadn't seen her mother to say goodbye. Immigration officers were asking them questions as they came off the gangway.
"Name?" One asked Damon.
"Damon Francesco DeSangue."
"Name?" Another asked Elena.
"Elena DeSangue." Damon looked at Elena with shock clear in his eyes, "I jump, you jump," is all she said.
"What her name?" he asked Damon, pointing to the little girl that looked a bit like him.
"Annabel W-"
"DeSangue," Anna jumped in, saying. The officer steered them towards a holding area for processing. They walked with dazed immigrants, who were overwhelmed by the scene. The boom of photographers' magnesium flashes caused them to flinch, and the glare was blinding, but Damon's hand always stayed in her hand.
Sudden disturbance came as two men burst through the cordon, running to embrace an older woman among the survivors, who cried out with joy. The reporters loved such an emotional scene, flashes exploding. Damon, Elena, Alaric, Anna, Tyler, and Bonnie, who had somehow found them, used this moment to their advantage to slip away into the crowd, pushing through jostling people, moving with purpose, none challenging them in the confusion.
They walked away, further and further until the flashes and the roar were far behind them. Tears seeped down Elena's cheeks as the thoughts of the past few days set in. Alaric offered Elena a pocket hankie, with she took thankfully, wiping her eyes before they continued walking and never looked back.
Elena sat with the group on the boat, decades after the accident, lit by the blue of the screens. Damon held her hand, never letting go. She held the hair comb with the jade butterfly on the handle in her other gnarled hand.
The Mir submersibles made their last pass over the ship. They heard Yuri the pilot on the UQC.
"Mir 1 returning to surface."
The sub rose off the deck of the wreck, taking its light with it, leaving the Titanic once again in its fine and private darkness.
A halfhearted wrap party for the expedition was in progress. There was music and some of the co-ed Russian crew was dancing. Jeremy was getting drunk.
Stefan stood at the rail, looking down into the black water. Katherine came to him, offering him a beer. He took it and she laid her hand on his arm. "I'm sorry."
"It was never there and your grandma was our last hope but-" Stefan shook his head, taking a swig of the beer. "Oh!"
Elena walked through the shadows of the deck machinery. Her nightgown blew in the wind, feet bare. Her hands were clutched at her chest. Damon stood behind her, walking with her, wearing pajamas with no shoes.
Stefan and Katherine glanced at each other, running as fast as they could from the top deck. Elena reached the stern rail, her gnarled fingers wrapped over the rail and her ancient feet stepping onto the gunwale. Damon stood behind her, not stopping her. Katherine and Stefan raced to her.
"Grandma, wait! Don't-"
Elena turned her head, looking at them. She reached her hand out over the railing, over the ocean, holding something shiny in her hand.
"Don't come any closer." Damon stepped closer to his wife, as if protecting her.
Stefan's eyes were fixed on her hand and his eyes were wide, like a child on Christmas morning, his present so close but so far.
"You had it the entire time?" Katherine asked. She started laughing like a madwoman.
In Elena's mind's eye, her and her group were walking away from Pier 54. The photographers' flashes went off like an ongoing battle behind them. She had her hands in her pockets, still unable to get the chill out of her from days before. She stopped suddenly, and Tyler walked into the back of her. Damon looked at her confused, as did Alaric. Anna's large eyes were fixed on Elena with child-like admiration.
Elena pulled the necklace from her pocket and her companions stared in amazement.
Back at the Pier 54, Klaus searched his pockets again after Elijah had told him that he hadn't found the diamond in the vault and this time, he froze.
"What's wrong, boss?"
"I put the diamond in my coat pocket. And I put my coat...on her." He turned to Elijah, laughing like a crazy person, "I just gave them a great wedding present!" He said as he continued laughing. A wall of a building was next to where Klaus and Elijah were, and he punched it, crying out, "I am so stupid!"
On Keldysh, Elena smiled at Stefan's incomprehension. "Even in the worst times, during the Depression, during the World Wars, when we seemed to have nothing, it was hard to think how rich we really were. But every time I thought of selling it, I thought of Klaus, and somehow, we were able to get by just fine without his help."
Jeremy and a couple of the other guys came up behind Stefan, staring at what was in Elena's hand.
"I offered it back to him once and he said no. He said it was a gift to me and he didn't want it, because every time he would see it, he would think of me and he'd think of Damon and so he told me to keep it, and I did."
"Don't drop it, Elena," Stefan said as Jeremy whispered to Stefan, "Rush her."
"It's hers," Turning back to Elena, he said, "Look, Elena, I...I don't know what to say to a woman who tries to jump off the Titanic when it's not sinking… then tries to jump in after it as it's going down… we're not dealing with logic here, I know that… but please… think about this a second."
"She has," Damon spoke, "We came all this way so she could put it back where it belongs."
The massive diamond glittered. Stefan edged closer slowly, holding out his hand. "Please, just one second, let me just hold it in my hand, Elena. Just one, please."
He came closer to her, and it was like when Damon had moved up to her at the stern of Titanic. Surprisingly, she placed the massive stone into his palm while still holding onto the necklace. Stefan gazed into the diamond's red depths that seemed to be more black that red, as if it held all of his answers. It was mesmerizing. It was everything he imagined.
"My God." His grip tightened on the diamond and he looked up, meeting her gaze.
"You look for treasure in the wrong place, Mr. Branson. Only life is priceless, and making each day count, but love is the greatest gift of all."
His fingers relaxed and he opened them slowly. She slipped the diamond out of his hand. He felt it sliding away.
Then, with an impish grin and a burst of youthfulness, Elena tossed the necklace a far as she could, a surprising distance, over the rail. Jeremy gave a strangled cry like a dying animal and rushed at the rail, watching it fade below the surface in horror, to disappear forever.
Stefan Branson's face went through many emotions before it settled on one… and he laughed. He laughed tears came to his eyes and he had to clutch his stomach to keep laughing. Finally, Then he turned to Katherine, holding out his hand, "Would you like to dance?"
Katherine gave a seductive little grin, and nodded. Elena smiled as Damon's arms wrapped around her waist and they gazed up into the night's sky at the stars.
In the depths of the ocean, the diamond sank, twinkling end over end, until it reached the bottom, landing miraculously on the top of Titanic's grand staircase, as if waiting for Elena to come pick it up once more.
On Elena's shelf of carefully organized and arranged pictures: Elena typing on a typewriter, publishing an article… Elena with Damon, his father, Anna and their eldest son… Damon and Elena and their five children, three sons and two lovely daughters, a official photo of the royal family… Elena and Damon and their children and Anna and grandchildren at their seventy-fifth anniversary.
One picture in particular stood out. Elena, circa 1913. She was at Joseph's house in Mystic Falls, Virginia, on a horse in trousers, one hand on her bulging stomach, the other gripping the reins. She was grinning proudly, full of life, smiling at the man behind the camera's lens.
Elena and Damon lay warm in their bunk, much like Ida and Isador Straus the night Titanic had sank all those years ago. They were intertwined, very much in love, and very still. They could be sleeping, or maybe it was something else…
Sorry to those who wanted me to redeem Elijah. I just couldn't. Lovejoy was such an unlikable character and when I stuck him in that position, I just couldn't do it. But at least I didn't kill him! He could have died in the sinking, but no, I dramatically changed history by saving three more people. Poor Cora died in the movie (in case you guess didn't realize, that was who Anna's movie counterpart was) and Jack. But I save Damon, Anna, and Elijah (it's something James Cameron couldn't do!) I redeemed Klaus, sort of. I have the epilogue written for the most part, other than some tweaking and some rewriting here and there.
Review! Review if you'd like a "mini" continuation of post-Titanic experience with our favorite TVD characters. I already have the basis of it kind of set out in my mind, but I want to know if you guys are interested in reading that. It wouldn't be right after the Titanic, maybe some ten, twenty, thirty years later. I'd make Elijah much more likable even (maybe). After all, he nearly died then got punched in the stomach by a Count/Prince who he thought was steerage. (If that's not a slap in the face, I don't know what is.) The story's almost over, but it doesn't have to end! It's all up to you. Make sure you vote on it in the poll in my profile if you're just not into reviewing.
Mainly though, just review! 60 reviews to epilogue!