Thursday, May 6th, 1915

For the first class passengers, the voyage had been another dream of ordinary luxury, even if it was the one hundred and first, a special number behind the more commemorative one hundred. In the light of an eight year career at sea, the surroundings were exquisite and the service was excellent. The rich, the powerful and the beautiful had mingled in a spectacular voyage of peace and prosperity away from the war of troubles. Old and new friends appeared in their finest clothing for dinner, the final meal before the arrival at Liverpool tomorrow afternoon or later. There was even a Seamen's Charities concert that took place in the lounge that evening with Hilda Stones singing "Rosary" and Charles Frohman was holding a party in his cabin with Josephine Brandell and Rita Jolivet in attendance.

Even as the wealthy passengers raised their glasses and funded the concert, a similar event was taking place in the third class dining room only three decks below, but in another world. Like before, they were drinking, jogging and dancing the many ways of Irish, English and American.

After telling Chloé and his father that he would be going out for a long walk, Adrien spent the day in third class, getting to know more about the passengers and Marinette's friends. Nathanaël also expressed interest in art, wanting to meet Sir Hugh Lane before the arrival in Liverpool. Mylène wanted to sing in the opera and sing with Ivan in his own band, if not act on the silent screen. Alya was ecstatic over some word about the Indian passengers onboard, especially when Adrien mentioned her and Nino having the same nationality.

At 7:50 PM, Lusitania received her first submarine warning. The sender was Vice-Admiral Charles Coke of Queenstown, Ireland. His message was directed to all British ships far beyond the vicinity of his post:

"Submarines active off the south coast of Ireland."

Wireless operator Robert Leith passed this message on to the bridge. The Admiralty however, was less than concerned, but the ship's officers were now well aware of the dire situation effected by the war. Captain Turner left his dinner party early, returning to the bridge by 7:52 to check on Lusitania's approach to the war zone. At first, he was puzzled by the vagueness of the warning and asked for a repetition.

Fifteen minutes later, another message arrived.

"To all British ships 0005: Take Liverpool pilot at bar and avoid headlands. Pass harbours at full speed. Steer mid channel course. Submarines off Fastnet."

Now acknowledging the full details of a threat to his ship, Captain Turner snapped into action. For reasons concerning safety measures, he informed the passengers at the concert during the intermission that they would safely arrive under the Royal Navy's care and ordered the lifeboats to be swung out, but no drill had taken shape, causing George Kessler to pester Staff Captain Anderson about the lack of such a drill that would seem necessary. He also ordered all port holes closed and all the lights in every cabin turned off. He also insisted that passengers should not smoke out on deck. This gave Gabriel a smile in favor of hosting an anti-smoking campaign. But Chloé, who had been waiting impatiently for Adrien to join her in the first row, turned to Sabrina, who was sitting on her right hand side, saving the seat for Adrien and planning to remove herself once he arrived, but he did not.

"Have you seen Adrien?" Chloé asked her.

"Nobody else has seen him since this morning," Sabrina shook her head slowly.

"Tell me something I do not know," Chloé placed her hands on her hips in a privately un-ladylike way. "Gabriel is worried sick. Now find him before he decides to jump ship."

Sabrina nodded in her best impression of a militaristic valet.

The instructed blackout soon reached the third class areas and when Adrien heard the news, he and Marinette decided to head back to the Regal Suite for her drawings and his luggage. Once they arrived at B-56, Mr. Myers was already there, resting in silence. He was awakened by the door opening.

"Who is it?" he asked.

His initial thoughts may have been a steward or a bellboy, but it was only Adrien with a special guest.

"Is this is the Marinette girl you have told me about?"

"Yes," Adrien nodded. "I've come to retrieve my luggage. In case you do not understand, I am moving in with Marinette."

"Then by all means," Mr. Myers let them aside. "Please stay as long as you can."

But they reckoned without Sabrina, who by now had deduced that he was back in his cabin. Adrien had just about retrieved his diary, when he heard a faint knock coming from the door on the port side suite.

"Adrien? Are you in there?"

There wasn't enough time to escape with a heavy suitcase, so they decided to leave it behind and come back for it when the ship reached port.

"Shoot!"

Adrien and Marinette left the room, closing the door. The sound of the door shutting caught Sabrina's attention. She turned around and yelled the sight of Marinette.

"You?! I am taking you back to third! And when I do, I'm going to glue you to the floor!"

"Only if you can catch me!" Marinette teased.

She and Adrien broke into a run, surprising Mr. Myers. Adrien lead her into the grand entrance towards the elevator. They ran into it, shocking the hell out of Stanley Rourke, the lift attendant.

"Take us down! Quickly!" they shouted.

Mr. Rourke scrambled to comply. Marinette even helped him close the steel gate. Sabrina ran up as the lift started to descend. She slammed her right hand on the bars of the gate in defeat. Adrien made a very rude gesture in the form of lifting his left middle finger, and laughed as Sabrina disappeared from his view. Rourke gaped at him.

"Good bye, Sabrina!" he laughed heartily.

Unwilling to give up, Sabrina took to the stairs, hoping to find Inspector Pierpont along the way for assistance. The elevator landed on D-Deck and Adrien and Marinette took the stairs down to the next deck. Mr. and Mrs. Brown of Buffalo, New York, who were returning from the concert, watched them pass with uneven eyes. The two young lovers nearly spilled Stewardess Marion "May" Bird's load of laundry on their way down the corridor.

Laughing as they stopped by the fireman's entrance, Marinette commented.

"Pretty tough for a girl like her. She seems like a cop."

"Actually her father was," explained Adrien. "He was a gendarmerie hired by Chloé's own father André to keep her out of trouble after some crawl through a less reputable area of Paris."

"Montmartre?" asked Marinette.

"Exactly. Roger thought that the best way to keep her in check was by giving her a playmate, his daughter, which is Sabrina of course. Now she waits on her hand and foot, but she does not mind doing all the hard work."

"Sort of like what we are doing now?"

"The hard work?"

"Yes."

Marinette leaned forward to kiss Adrien, her right hand on the door handle and opening it. They fell into the room just as Sabrina came into the corridor. Unsure of their current whereabouts, she gave up the search.

"Chloé is not going to be too happy about this," she muttered to herself, walking slowly back up the stairs.

Inside the fireman's entrance, the sound of heat and coal shoveling sourced from the ladder that Adrien pointed to Marientte.

"After you, m'lady."

The ladder inside the entrance led to Boiler Room 2. Marinette and Adrien looked around in amazement at the figures shoveling a day's worth of coal into the forward boilers. Trimmers were pushing wheelbarrows full of coal into nearby piles and smoke peppered the faces of the black gang.

John O'Connell, one of the younger stokers, was coming back from a reading of the Cunard Daily Bulletin with the literate members of the engineering crew. He was hoping for another round of shoveling coal into the boilers when he saw Marinette and Adrien. It forced his hopeful smile into a frown of confusion.

"What are you two doing down here?"

Adrien and Marinette ran, the heat and fumes covering them in small amounts of soot. They dodged the stokers and trimmers, who looked back at them in surprise.

"Don't mind us!" Marinette shouted over the din. "You're doing a great job, keep up the good work!"

They kept on running the length of the boiler rooms until they came upon the hold. Adrien came upon the large crates of food and books, with Marinette stumbling upon a crate of the ammunition. Brass fixtures used for motorcycle and automobile parts were hidden from view in some crates and sewing machines bound for Manchester were clearly labelled around the edges. At that point, Chloé, finished with the concert, scowled as she left her seat for her stateroom.

"Look what we have here," said Adrien to Marinette.

They decided to have a little bit of fun with the crates, some of the ones that were opened gave them a short-termed moment of amazement like opening presents on Christmas morning. Adrien's eyes smiled with interest at the packages of jewelry and precious stones that dazzled with color in his eyes...though he seemed to be rather curious about one crate that was locked. Supposedly it was labeled with "ammunition", his fears of his native land manufacturing machines and cartridges for the war in Europe were calmed by Marinette, who held him from behind.

"Where to, sir?"

Adrien whispered in Marinette's right ear.

"To the stars."

Rather, they went back to Marinette's cabin around 9:00. Alya, Alix and Ivan were already asleep and the bed was big enough to fit both of them. Adrien jumped into the bunk, feeling the cotton blanket clash with his trousers. Their breaths were loud in the moment of darkness and silence. They smiled at each other in this great moment of truth.

"Are you nervous?" asked Marinette.

"Au contraire, mon cher," Adrien whispered back a reply.

She cherished her face, while he kissed her artistic fingers. The fingers of a girl who was strong and modern unlike the upper-class beauties.

"Put your arms around me, Marinette."

And thus their love was locked, they kissed and slid down the bed under a welcome weight...away from Chloé, away from the wealthy snobs who looked down at those less fortunate, away from the war that seemed out to get it's hands on the ammunition down below in the hold.

Lusitania, steaming hell-bent through the darkness, quietly entered the war zone. The lookouts and the wireless operators were well-prepared for an attack from the German captains and their menacing submarines. Back in the Regal Suite, however, Chloé was checking the safe and making sure that nothing was missing before the arrival in Liverpool. She found Marinette's sketchbook along with the drawing of Adrien, along with his note that read:

"Dear, now you can keep us both locked in your safe,

Adrien"

Sabrina watched from the doorway, not willing to get within at least one foot of Chloé's rage over this taunting letter. Fortunately for her, Chloé was calm and collected, and she took a sharp breath of the conditioned air before shoving the items back into the safe.

"We should throw her overboard the minute we arrive," Sabrina suggested.

Chloé turned to her so-called friend with a conspiratorial smile.

"I have a much better idea and we will do it in the morning. That chink Marinette will so embarrassed."

Little did they know that below the surface, another plan, albeit more devious, was taking shape.