Chapter 13

Up on deck, a group of third-class passengers emerged from their cabins and began playing with a large piece of ice that had rained down on the ship's deck, as they tried to make a game of sorts. Jack and Rose peer over the starboard rail of the ship, as if trying to assess the damage for themselves.

"Well, it looks alright. I don't see anything." Jack says, his hair hanging over one eye

"Could it have damaged the ship?" Rose asks, with a little concern.

Well, it seemed like much of a bump." he says, continuing. "I think we're alright..." He shakes his head, then looks towards the rear, until Rose playfully tickles Jack in the back of his neck. He falls onto the deck, before collecting himself, then playfully picks up Rose, as if ready to throw her overboard.

"No! No! No!" Rose shrieks, as a couple of steerage passengers looked at them. He puts her back on deck, before they embraced, then making their way to the upper decks.

An upper-class passenger watched on as Jack and Rose walked past everyone while the third-class passengers continued to kick around a small piece of ice. The man tells the third-class passengers below as he watches from an upper deck, "Oh, well played, sir," then laughs as he watches a ruckus group playing with ice, but not noticing the two couple below as they make their way around the rowdy group.

"I'd say, let's go down and join the fun." the man says, eager to join the passengers below.

"But they're steerage passengers." the young girl tells him, as they both watched on.

The couple finally made their way up a short flight of stairs below the captain's bridge, as Jack opened the gate for them to enter. They began to overhear conversations to the captain about the damages done to the ship.

"Boiler Room 6 is flooded 8 ft. above the plate and the mail hold is worse. She's all buckled in the forward hold."

"Can you shore up?" Captain Smith asks.

"Not unless the pumps get ahead." One of the officers says with concern.

"Have you seen the damage in the mail hold?" Andrews asks.

"No, she's already under water..."

"This is bad," Jack says, after they had witnessed what happened and listened to the conversations. They knew they had to do something, and Jack knew he wouldn't like it. Suddenly, a young man bumped into Jack, hard. Jack looked at the man, as if he wanted to pick a fight with him. The young man quickly brushed himself off, then found another piece of ice, before running to the upper decks. Jack looked at Rose in bewilderment, before making their way back inside the ship.

Meanwhile, a group of men were standing near a reception room entrance, discussing what had happened earlier.

"Yes, I saw it. Huge thing." a passenger says, and another responded, "Good Lord..." The first passenger says, "You can't see it now though. Must've just shaved by..."

Just then the young man that bumped into Jack came running in with his piece of ice. He asked, "What you think of this for a souvenir?"

The first passenger: "Where'd you get that from?"

The young man: "It's off the berg. There's tons of it out-" He nearly runs into another passenger, like he did with Jack earlier.

Rose eventually knew she would have to tell Cal and her mother about what has happened, despite the implications it would have on the couple. Before they turned the knob, Lovejoy opened the door, and greeted the couple with a devilish smile. Officer Lightoller and a couple of other officers were in the room as well. Cal gets up from his chair, setting his brandy down on the table.

"Ah. Sweetpea. Care to join us for a little 'celebration'?" Cal sneered. Rose looks puzzled. Lovejoy sneaks the Heart of the Ocean in the coat pocket Jack had on, the coat he swiped from earlier. Meanwhile the Titanic is on the move again, at half the speed, on behalf of Mr. Ismay that he needed to be in New York, to surprise the papers.

"Where is Jesse?!" Cal literally barks into Jack's face.

"I-I don't know. We have only met at the stern and the dinner…"

"Liar!" Cal picks up his brandy and throws it at the wall again. Lightoller lightly flinches, then gathered his composure, as Cal wipes his face, silently chuckling.

"I know he's on this ship somewhere, but I dare not to go down that filth." He walks over to his safe, takes out a small revolver and pockets it. Then he remembers the Heart of the Ocean.

"Search him!" he ordered. Lovejoy pulls out the necklace.

"Is this it?" Jack was stunned, a shocked look on his face, while Rose's heart drops, and her eyes go wide in horror.

"This is horsesh-! I haven't done anything!" he blurted.

"Maybe he did it while you were putting on your clothes, dear. Tell us where Jesse is, and no one will get hurt" Cal says. Rose is on the verge of tears, as she tries to believe Jack.

"Rose, you know I didn't do it. Lovejoy must have slipped it in my pocket…" Jack's words fell on deaf ears as they looked at the jacket Jack had on.

"Remove the coat, son." An officer says. Jack takes the coat off, and the officers take a look at the tag inside the coat.

"It's the property of A.L. Ryerson." one officer says, "It was reported stolen earlier."

"Yes, we'll make sure this coat makes it back to its rightful owner." another officer says, patting the jacket, as Lightoller handcuffs Jack again.

"I-I was only borrowing it. You know I was going to return it…I swear…" Jack stuttered.

"Well, we have an honest thief here" Cal laughs. Rose did not know what to believe anymore. One moment they were on cloud nine, now they are caught in a nightmare, in one of Cal's carefully threaded web of deceit. She wanted to just fall in a heap and cry right then and there, on the floor. She knew if Jesse were here, Cal would kill him as well.

"Take this one away, as the master at arms will have his way with him." Cal says. "And find me the other one."

"I didn't do anything-Rose please…You know I didn't do this!...Please! You know I didn't do this! Rose?!" Jack yells back as he's hauled off.

"Stop struggling son, it won't do anything for you." another officer was heard saying. Out in the hall, an officer came to Lightoller, telling he was needed at the bridge, post haste. He agrees, then changing hands as they continued to lead Jack away from the first class part of the ship.

"Ah Rose, if you, Jesse, and that gutter rat were here, I wanted all of us to have an evening of celebration, but I have to apologize for how things turned out tonight." Cal says, but Rose knew better. "Even though he gave me that black eye, I still wanted to mend things for all of us." Rose felt her tears welling up as Jack had been hauled away, and the thought of Cal killing Jesse.

In the hallways around them, some people began to wonder if the ship had once more lost a propeller blade. Even the stewards in the café agreed that the ship had lost a propeller blade. A steward nearby who was cleaning utensils even says, "I'll tell you, she's thrown a propeller blade. I was in the old Majestic, when the same thing happened."

Steward #2: "Bah!"

"We'll be going back to Belfast, you'll see." the steward says, as he continues to clean the utensils.

Jesse emerged from his cabin, wondering what the hubbub was all about. Passengers yelled throughout the corridors, some ran past him; others spoke in languages he never quite understood, except a little bit of Finnish, Norwegian, and French. There were rumors being spread, regardless of languages being spoken, that the ship had run into an iceberg; others were saying that it lost a propeller blade, something Jesse knew would happen, but it didn't occur to him the ship would hit an iceberg. He flicked his head, then got back to his cabin to get his light jacket from his bed, then decided to go up on higher decks, to see what was truly happening.

Jesse entered the spiral staircase, only to find the holds below eerily quiet, except for some occasional yelling, though muffled, that seemed to come from the boiler rooms, and the sound of machinery moving, albeit slowly, and he could feel the steady vibrations as the cylinders completed their revolutions. He took a quick look below before he ascended the steep stairs. Unbeknownst to him, there was water already creeping up the stairs one deck below him, slowly but surely. Before he made his way to the well deck he was stopped by two stewards, as they shone a flashlight at him.

"What are you bloody doing here?" one of them asks, but before Jesse could answer, another spoke. "Can you come with us?" He took ahold of Jesse's arm, the other followed behind as they made their way through a passage below the well deck.

"Mr. Hockley is looking for you." One of the stewards sneered, as he began to play with Jesse's soft hair. They made their way through the corridor, while the two stewards were sort of torturing Jesse, mainly playing with his hair, as they made their way to Caledon Hockley's stateroom. As Jesse was being escorted through the corridors of the ship, he soon heard the shrieking, whistling sound coming from atop the decks.

In the Marconi room Bride enters, in his pajamas after being awakened by the hubbub and the fact the ship had come to a stop.

"What's up?" Bride asks.

"Oh, we're stopped and blowing off steam. Something's wrong, I don't know what. Run into a bit of ice, I think." Phillips says, while he's shuffling papers around, to make way for incoming distress signals from other ships.

"Well, I can't sleep with this racket going on. Do you want me to give you a hand?"

"Oh, I finished the Cape Race traffic. But you can help with the accounts if you'd like."

"Well, I'll get some clothes on." Bride turns back to his room, to change out of his pajamas and into his uniform. He then asks from his cabin. "Do you think we'll have to turn back?"

"Uh, don't say. But of we do, we won't get a moment's peace in here."

The captain, upon his arrival back to the bridge after seeing the damage for himself, has ordered the engines to be stopped for the last time, and residual steam to be vented through the funnels as to not blow the ship apart, as more and more water entered the ship. Mr. Ismay is distraught by the unfolding situation, but kept insisting the ship must keep going if they are going to be on time. Captain Smith argues there's going to be no way the Titanic will be able to go on much further, after Ismay said, "I built this ship, I know what she is capable of."

Smith fires back, "She's not capable of anything!" Then he turns his attention back to his officers. "How much time?"

Andrews answers, "An hour, two at the most" as he knew very well that half would not survive. Even the captain knows this, then turns to Murdoch.

"And how many people are on board, Mr. Murdoch?" Murdoch answers back, with uncertainty

"Two thousand, two hundred souls on board, sir." With that, Smith turns to face Ismay, and says, "I believe you may get your headlines, Mr. Ismay." He then turned around to his officers in the room. He took a deep breath, and began to speak, just as Lightoller and Boxhall walked into the room.

"Gentlemen, we are in a precarious position. We must be prepared to abandon ship. Mr. Murdoch, you will muster the passengers." he then turns to Lightoller.

"Mr. Lightoller, you will have the boats uncovered and swung out. Mr. Boxhall, call all hands and get them to the boat stations. Mr. Moody, you will help Mr. Lightoller. Everything will be done quietly and calmly. There must be no alarm, and no panic. Carry on, please." Soon, the officers started to scatter about, fulfilling their duties of waking the passengers and having them convene at the boat deck.

The captain enters the wireless room, as Jack Phillips and Harold Bride stood at attention.

"The ship is badly damaged. Send out the call for assistance." the captain says, then gets the Marconigram and starts writing in the position and the distress for the men.

"The regulation distress call, sir?" asked Phillips.

"Yes, and at once. Soon as you're in touch with a ship nearest to us, tell them we're going down by the head, and we need immediate assistance. Understand?" he hands them the Marconigram with the position, then leaves the room without saying anything further.

"Blimey." Phillips says quietly, then begins the distress call for any ships to respond to Titanic's aid.

…

Titanic starts sending a CQD to any ships who might respond. Ships within a 10-hour radius of Titanic begins responding, including the Norddeutscher-Lloyd immigrant ship, the S.S. Frankfort, who was the first to respond to Titanic's distress, the Russian-American Line's S.S. Birma, the Canadian cargo ship S.S. Mount Temple, and including her own sister, the R.M.S. Olympic, as well as the Cunard Line's R.M.S. Carpathia. Meanwhile, the Leyland steamer continues to watch the scene unfold, but is unaware the Titanic is beginning to sink.

…

Bride walks back into the room, as Phillips continues sending distress for all to receive.

"Any luck?" he asked.

"Frankfurt. 150 miles away. The Olympic says the Mount Temple is nearer."

"Well, there must be someone nearer still." Bride says, then gave a lighthearted joke. "Try sending S.O.S. That's the new call. You might get the only chance you have." he smiled. Phillips looked back, then returned, as he gave the new signal a go (thus making it a famous signal thereafter).

Back in the stateroom Cal is pacing around, after striking Rose about why she was with the gutter rat, as he liked to call Jack that, and that she should be honoring him instead. Lovejoy had gone with the officers to see Jack's punishment. The door opened. In came two stewards, with Jesse in tow. Rose swallows, her eyes grew wide with horror, and her heart beats a little faster.

"Get your hands off me!" Jesse snarled. The stewards push Jesse inside. He brushes himself and straightens his jacket, then blows his dark hair out of his eyes.

"Careful. This one is a little rough, sir. A little ruffian, he is." A steward says, laughing, then reaching up to ruffle Jesse's soft hair once more, as he couldn't get enough of the boy's hair, but he quickly ducked down.

"Thank you, gentlemen." Cal acknowledges. "Ah, Jess. My good man. At last we meet." Cal continues, as if they were the best of old friends. Jesse flicks his head once more, as Cal takes sip of his brandy, straight from the bottle.

"What's this about?" Jesse asks, crossing his arms. He knew Cal was up to something no good. Otherwise, why would he be dragged up here?

"Now, now. We are here merely as friends, I would like to put the past behind us and to rekindle that friendship, to get to know each other better." He walked up to Jesse, then patted his shoulder. "Hmm, you do have a nice, firm demeanor. Tell me, how…?"

"Alright. What are you up to, really." Cal pulls out the revolver from his coat pocket.

"This is what you get for crossing Caledon Nathan Hockley!" Rose's heart stops beating and drops to her stomach. Jesse stood his ground, his temple beating.

"W-what are you going to do to him?" Rose frantically asks, beginning to sob. Tears began flowing, for fear her friend might be killed.

"Something I should have done a long time ago!" Cal pulls back the hammer, gun still trained on Jesse, as he pointed it right between his eyes. Jesse only looked at him, as he felt the seething anger boiling within him, but he kept his nature. Despite what was going on within his body, he kept his composure, waiting for the right moment. Rose swallows hard, then closes her eyes, when she suddenly hears a shot going off.