We mourned the loss of the baby for a few weeks, but I could sense that Will was relieved. In a way, I understood – for all either of us knew, it was the result of that awful incident with Bruce Junior. It still seemed hurtful for him to feel that way, which only added to my heartache.

I would be lying if I said I got over the loss quickly. It continued to hurt for months, even years. Still, after a month or so I knew I had to get on with my life as best as I could, if only so Will and I could have the life we had planned before.

In the time it took me to get to this point, Will had managed to find a job. He had been sitting down by the fishing docks reading the newspaper when he had seen a couple of young men having trouble with their boat. After a brief hesitation, he offered to show them how to handle the boat, which he knew about from when he was a young boy in Dalbeattie. The men were impressed with his knowledge and obvious experience, and offered him a job with them. Will accepted, and we soon had a tidy sum of money sitting in the dresser. Will insisted on sending Davy his money back before we spent any of it, and then we had time to sort out the house.

We enlisted the help of a few people from the village, people who I knew from my childhood. They helped us to clean out the house, then we started on the woodwork and masonry. It took a few months, but the end result was worth it. We had our own beautiful little house, perfect for our new life.

Will mentioned one day that it was about time that we had our wedding. We had been living there for about six months already, and we had intended to marry as soon as possible. That afternoon, we paid the local minister a visit, and the three of us agreed on a date – the next Wednesday.

It was the most perfect day of my life. The ceremony was small, with only the minister and two witnesses, but I couldn't have imagined a more perfect day. Will and I exchanged our vows and kissed, then spent the rest of the day walking by the sea and just talking. Talking about everything and anything, how much our lives had improved since we had met. How we had managed to pull eachother through the darkest times, and how wonderful our future together would be.


We were quite right – our future was wonderful. After a few years we decided to buy some animals to have our own little farm, which took a lot of time out of our days. Will continued with the fishing for some time, although it was becoming more and more obvious that he missed real sea voyages, like the ones he had used to go on before the Titanic disaster. I continued with my teaching, which I was perfectly content with – but I still felt guilty about Will not being able to live the life he wanted. After a few months of feeling like this, I surprised Will by buying him his own little boat, which he could use for whatever he wanted with complete freedom. And so we started going out on short trips in the boat together, which made Will a lot happier.

We heard a war started in Europe, making us thank our stars that we hadn't stayed there. Luckily for Will, he was never called upon to enlist and he didn't want to leave me alone. We often heard the mutterings of some of the local people, calling him a coward – but we didn't care what they said. We had been through so much to get to this point, why would we throw it all away unnecessarily?

We even had a few visits from Lights, whenever he could find the time. Of course, the war got in the way of his visits for a few years, but once it was over he came down to see us at least twice a year. He often said that his Sylvie would like to accompany him, but it just wasn't easy to organise it. After all, he didn't want to draw attention to the fact that Will was still alive and well.

Unfortunately we never started our own little family. It wasn't through want of trying, but after I lost my baby it seemed that I was unable to carry another. For years I blamed myself, but Will spent so long trying to comfort me that I soon came to accept the fact that we couldn't have children. I thought he would have attached more importance to producing a family, but he swore that he did not care as long as he had me. Admittedly, I was never completely convinced by this claim, but it was beyond my control. That didn't stop us trying, of course, and I know we both lived with the hope that we would one day become parents.

So it went by for all these years. Will and I, always together, in our house in my hometown in New Zealand. Far away from the world of Titanic, far away from the superficial attitudes of the people I had met onboard that ship. I often thought about those days, wondering if the accident could have been avoided. I wondered what had become of Ruth DeWitt Bukater and her daughter, although, of course, I never did find out. I thought of Molly Brown, the woman who had been so kind to me, if just a bit pushy. The officers of Titanic also crossed my mind, and I found myself wondering what they had done with their lives. Then of course there was poor Jim Moody, who lost his life at such a young age. Quartermaster Hichens, who had behaved in such a strange way on Lifeboat Six...Mr Thomas Andrews, the gentleman who had gone down with his ship...could all of this have been avoided?

There was one person I had tried to force from my mind, and I had varying degrees of success in doing so. Bruce Ismay Junior. I had the misfortune of reading about him in a newspaper, years after we arrived in New Zealand. He had married the poor woman Will had mentioned before, they had children apparently. But he lost his inheritance, he lost his savings. His life had crumbled before his eyes. I couldn't help but feel sorry for his poor wife – she had been put through hell with his problems, and she probably didn't even know the worst of it. What he was capable of doing.

Still, whenever the question entered my mind again, I knew the answer. Could the Titanic disaster have been avoided? Certainly, it could have been. So many people could have been saved with the smallest intervention. But, on a purely selfish basis, I knew how I felt about it all. If the disaster had been avoided, Will and I would not be so perfectly happy together. It was the strangest thought to have, but whenever the question crossed my mind I couldn't bring myself to wish it any other way.

The End



A/N – completed at long last! This is a milestone for me – the first full-length story I've ever finished!

I would like to thank everyone who has reviewed this story. Your reviews kept me motivated to keep writing, so thank you very much!

It's been tough keeping focused on this, especially over the last few weeks – I've had more ideas for fanfics running wild in my head, and I've had to try to shut them up so I could finish this one first. I have three new ideas for fics, and none of them are like this. I think two are firmly in the 'humour' genre, which will be a challenge!

Of course, my disclaimer is in the first chapter, but I'd just like to reiterate that most of these characters are not mine. Some are heavily fictionalised (as is probably obvious – Ada Banks, William Murdoch to name but two) and some are based on real life although I may have been extremely unsuccessful with that! Some characters belong to James Cameron (Ruth, Rose – the obvious culprits!). Bruce Junior is mine, and I think he's the only truly fictional main character in this story.

I tried to keep the sinking as close to fact as possible, and drew most of my information from 'Titanic: An Illustrated History', which I would recommend to everyone who hasn't already read it! Of course, credit is also due to James Cameron's movie 'Titanic' and 'A Night To Remember'.

I think that is everything I wanted to say. Thank you once again to everyone who read or reviewed my story – especially to those who did both! I enjoyed writing this story, and I hope to start my next within a couple of weeks!

~Phil