A/N: Thanks to my anonymous reviewer and to the others! Also to everyone, who put this story on his story etc. alerts.
Four days already since the dreadful encounter with Caledon Hockley, four days since Jack had left to his dead-end journey and still no word of him.
Cal kept him locked up in a room, but didn't tell anyone, especially not Ruth.
Ruth Dewitt Bukater may accept someone like Caledon, a man belittling her daughter and framing his friend, but surely she won't condemn kidnapping and serious blackmailing. In a way Fabrizio felt sorry for her. He never had any children, but he imagined his mother and what it must be like for her, if he would be dead. Of course his mother didn't even know that he had been on the Titanic.
Cal brought him food every day himself. He didn't send a servant. Fabrizio found, that despite all his efforts not to show, he couldn't keep the fact away that something wasn't right with him.
Sometimes in the middle of the night, when everybody else was sleeping, he could hear Cal, who of course must think that he was in a deep slumber as well, raving around, almost running and mumbling something. His office must be near his prison room as he could hear Cal shouting at his partners, if they could be called like that.
At other times Fabrizio would look out of the window and see Ruth sitting in the garden doing nothing, a little something in her end, most likely a photo of Rose. Surely she missed her daughter and didn't deserve to lose her in this way. But then again no one was able to change the past. And Jack bringing back the diamond wouldn't bring her back to life.
Sometimes Fabrizio thought that he heard her crying, but it must've been his imagination. Ruth Dewitt Bukater never cried. He understood already that nothing was more important to ladies of the high society but to keep their inner feelings hidden from the outside world. Ruth Dewitt Bukater was no exception. And yet Fabrizio could tell that there was something changing inside her.
Still she was admiring Cal, thought him to be the greatest man on earth and worshipped him in an almost unusual if not abnormal way. But her adoring wasn't without any doubts anymore. Ruth herself must've wondered how Cal managed to get of the ship, while her own daughter had to die. Sure he was one of the richer classes, one of the people, who actually counted for her, but…Fabrizio would watch her sitting under the apple tree doing supposedly nothing, but in fact doing much more than ever before.
Finally there was something cracking up in her mind and even though she wouldn't say out anything aloud, wouldn't confirm anything, it was clear from her actions, her sometimes cold glances at Cal she was giving him, when she thought that no one else was looking, that her opinion about him was slowly but steadily changing.
Why did he live, while my daughter had to die? – Surely that was what she must be thinking.
Walking over to the desk, Fabrizio poured himself another glass of water.
To Dionysius, the tyrant crept…
Surprisingly enough after the first dreadful encounter with him, Cal in fact didn't act at all like a bad person. Fabrizio had to admit that Cal provided well for him and safe for the locked door and the barred window; it was more like living in a hotel.
And much more comfortable than sleeping under a bridge – Fabrizio thought bitterly.
Cal was playing games of course and Fabrizio knew it. If someone should find out his little secret, he could tell him that he had even been taking care of the man trying to rob him. In the eyes of someone like Ruth and the other high society he would be even more of a hero. The great Caledon Hockley thinking of everyone, even a person, who would want to rob him.
Fabrizio laughed pathetically, watching Ruth again. She was standing up, walking back into the house. Sometimes he wondered, why he didn't just shout out of the window.
It would be easy for her to let him out and Cal wasn't around the whole day, he'd go to work, go to meet his partners or even a new lady. Actually he must be meeting with someone seriously as Fabrizio could smell the penetrant scent of a perfume.
No, not something a high society lady would use, quite the contrary…
He laughed again, this time disgustedly. Fabrizio couldn't imagine Jack replacing Rose with a whore so soon. Jack and he would never take advantage of someone's desperate needs.
Looking into the garden once more, Fabrizio saw that Ruth had disappeared.
What would Cal do to him, if Jack didn't make it back in time?
Caledon Hockley was no man to make his threats lightly, but then again, Fabrizio could tell that the diamond was more important to him than taking his life.
Would he wait any longer then the arranged week?
At night the normal composed Cal would wonder around, even though Fabrizio never saw him, he knew that it couldn't be anyone else. He would talk about Rose, about the sinking…and Jack. Fabrizio knew that he despised him. Speaking of Rose, hadn't she admired Doctor Freud and didn't the dream interpretation mention something about things coming out in your dreams?
Was he sleepwalking?
Caledon Hockley losing his control in a normal state that was something that seemed impossible for Fabrizio. Only when no one was near him something of his other side was coming out.
Last day there had been a dinner party, quests wriggling around the house. Fabrizio knew, because Cal had even brought him a cake later on. He didn't know what Ruth was thinking, but he could imagine that her mind about those kinds of festivities had differed since the sinking. Whenever she was talking to someone nowadays there was always a hint of sadness in her voice and gone was the presumptuous tone, replaced by a much more uncertain one. Yes, the once pushy Ruth Dewitt Bukater must've finally understood that richness and money didn't always save one's life.
Fabrizio felt a hint of victory in his mind.
Not the Fabrizio would be mischievous, he never would over the death of a person, but still, if anything good did come out of the sinking, her daughter being dead, it was her changing attitude about Cal. Now Ruth Dewitt Bukater wouldn't just believe anything he told her. Fabrizio was sure that now Cal wouldn't just be able to buy his way out or frame an innocent person for stealing a diamond. Nowadays Ruth would ask questions of that he was sure and Cal must be as well.
At times Ruth would ask Cal about the fact, why he was still here, or at least she wanted to. She would open her mouth, form the words, but they never transformed in a tone…Fabrizio could see them standing in the garden. And Ruth not quite her old self…not herself at all…
Why did she have to die, while you lived?
It was almost pathetic and at times Fabrizio wanted to shout at her – why don't you just ask?
But the words never left his mouth either. And in between Cal got the opportunity to plan things out further, without anyone having the slightest knowledge of what he was going to do next.