In the Master at Arms' office, Jack pulls on the pipe with all his strength. It doesn't budge, not one bit. Soon, he hears gurgling sound. Water pours in from under the door, spreading rapidly across the floor.
"Sh-!" He tries to pull one hand out of the cuffs, working until the skin is raw...He yells in agony as he does. He looks back at the door, horror in his eyes as the water continually creeps higher and higher. Jack clangs his cuffs against the steel pipe, and yells at the top of his lungs.
"Help! Somebody! Can anybody hear me?!"
Outside, the only thing answering him back was the steady streaming of the North Atlantic, and the empty corridors, but there is no one nearby to answer Jack's pleas for help.
Back in First class Thomas did all he can to contain his composure, to look for his Jack. He frantically looked around the Grand Staircase landings, in the hopes of finding an officer, anybody. He was already getting warm, as he tossed off his coat, carelessly leaving it behind as he looked for some sort of assistance. Soon, he sees Mr. Andrews, looking forlorn as he went up the stairs. He caught up to him, breathless.
"Mr. Andrews, thank God I've found you! Where would the Master at Arms take someone who was under arrest?!"
Mr. Andrews looked at Thomas very sternly. "What are you still doing here? You need to get yourself to a boat right away!"
Thomas shot back, still holding onto Mr. Andrews' shoulders. "No! I'll do this with or without your help, sir. But without will take longer." He says, looking into the shipbuilder's eyes.
Mr. Andrews gave the young man a deep, tired sigh. But seeing the determination in the young man's eyes, he decided to help. "Take the elevator to the very bottom, go left, down the crewman's passage, then make a right."
Thomas' eyes soon lit up. "Bottom, left, right. I have it." He wanted to show a gratitude to the man, but he shook hands, before leaving towards the elevators.
"Hurry, Thomas." Mr. Andrews says, softly. Soon, Thomas makes it to the elevators. There he finds the attendant, blocking the entrance as he tells the people that they are closed. Thomas walks up to him.
"I'm sorry sir, but the lifts are closed." he says, still standing his ground.
Without thinking he grabs the attendant and shoves him back into the elevator.
"I'm through with being polite, dammit! I may never be polite the rest of my life! Now take me down!" The operator fumbles to close the gate and start the elevator, while Thomas glares at the man. In the lifeboats Margaret and the two seamen are rowing, and they've made it a hundred feet or so, away from the ship. Enough to see that the ship is angled down into the water, with the bow rail less than ten feet above the surface.
"Come on girls, join in, it'll keep ya warm. Let's go Rose. Grab an oar!" Margaret says, but Rose doesn't pay attention, as she just stares at the spectacle of the great ship, its rows of lights blazing, as it slants down into the sullen black water of the Atlantic, and of her brother, who was foolishly still in the ship.
Through the wrought iron door of the elevator car Thomas can see the decks going past. The lift slows. Suddenly the freezing water is swirling around his legs. Thomas yelps in surprise. So does the operator, as they are both hit with the shock of freezing water. The car has landed in a foot of freezing water, shocking the hell out of him. He claws the door open and splashes out, hiking up his ankles so he can move. The lift goes back up, behind him, as he looks around.
Left, crew passage. He spots the sign above and sloshes down the flooded corridor. The place is understandably deserted. He was now on his own.
"Right, right... right."
He turns into a cross-corridor, splashing down the hall. A row of doors greeted him on each side of the corridors. With his heart hammering in his ears Thomas places his hands like a megaphone around his mouth.
"Jack! JACK!"
Jack is hopelessly pulling on the pipe again, straining until he turns red. He collapses back on the bench. realizing he's screwed. Then he hears Thomas' deep voice somewhere out in the corridor. Relief finally flooded Jack once more. He badly missed Thomas, and was willing to do anything to be back with him.
"THOMAS! In here!"
In the corridor Thomas hears Jack's voice behind him. He quickly spins and runs back, locating the right door, then pushes it open, creating a small wave. He splashes over to Jack and tearfully throws his arms around him.
"Jack, Jack, Jack... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..." Thomas cried, then kissed Jack with ever growing passion.
They are so happy to see each other it's embarrassing.
"That Lovejoy put it in my pocket." Jack says.
"I know...I know..."
"See if you can find a key for these. Try those drawers. It's the little silver one."
He tearfully kisses his face and hugs him hard again, then starts to go through the desk. Thomas was going through the drawers, and was losing hope after he couldn't find a key, when Jack asked."
"So... how did you find out I didn't do it?"
"I didn't," he gave Jack a kind smile, then brushes his wet hair from his eyes. "I just realized I already knew."
They share a look, then Jack snapped out.
"Keep looking!"
He soon goes back to ransacking the room, searching drawers and cupboards. Soon, he stops trashing the room, and was breathing very hard.
"There's no silver key. They're all brass ones!" They look around at the water, which had now submerged the room. Jack has pulled his feet up onto the desk.
"Then you're going to have to find some help." Jack says, panting now, with fear in his eyes.
"Right," Thomas muttered and nodded, then hastily left the room.
"I'll just wait here!" Jack says awkwardly, then looks down at the swirling water. Thomas splashes down the hall to a stairwell going up to the next deck. He climbs the stairs, his wet clothes leaving a trail like a giant snail. The weight of it is really slowing him down. He rips at the buttons and quickly throws down the heavily soaked clothes. He quickly bounds up the stairs in his undershirt and trousers, to find himself in-
A long corridor that was part of the elaborate passageways of steerage hallways forward. He is alone here. A long groan of stressing metal echoes along the hall as the ship continues to take on the weight of the Atlantic. He runs down the hall, unimpeded now.
"Hello? Somebody?!" He was greeted with sounds of his own echoes, followed by the groans of the ship.
He turns a corner and runs along another corridor in a daze. The hall slopes down into water which shimmers, reflecting the light. The margin of the water creeps toward him. A young man appears, running through the water, sending up geysers of spray. He pelts past Thomas without slowing, his eyes crazed.
"Help me! We need help!" Thomas tries to get a grip on the man, only to lose it. The man doesn't look back. It is like a bad dream. The hull gongs with terrifying sounds.
The lights begin to flicker and then go out, leaving utter darkness. Then they come back on. He soon finds himself hyperventilating. That one moment of blackness was the most terrifying of his life. Soon, a steward runs around the nearest corner, his arms were full of lifebelts. He is upset to see someone still in his section. He grabs Thomas forcefully by the arm, then pulls him along as if he were a wayward child.
"Come on, then, let's get you topside, miss, that's right." he says, as he mistakenly thinks Thomas is a woman.
"Wait. Wait! I need your help! There's-" Thomas began, as the man's forceful grip began to hurt his wrist.
"No need for panic, miss. Come along!" he says.
"No, let me go! You're going the wrong way!" the steward doesn't listen. And he won't let go of Thomas' grip, either. He shouts in his ear, and when he turns, he punches the steward squarely in the nose. Shocked, he lets him go and staggers back, making him lose the lifebelts in the process. He looks down at his bloodied hands.
"To hell with you!" he says, still clutching onto his bleeding nose.
"My pleasure! See you there!" Thomas shot back, as the steward runs off, holding his bloody nose. Thomas frantically looked around, until he sees a glass case, and inside held a fire axe. He swallowed hard. He knew that was the only thing now that would free Jack, but was almost afraid if things went wrong. But what choice did he have? He used his elbow, and with all his strength, he broke into the glass, then pulled the axe, before running back the way he came.
Back at the stairwell he looks down and gasps. The water has flooded the bottom five steps. He goes down and has to crouch to look along the corridor to the room where Jack is trapped. Thomas plunges into the water, which is up to his waist... gasping before he powers forward, holding the axe above his head with two hands. He grimaces at the pain from the literally freezing water. Once Thomas arrived to the office, he saw Jack had climbed up on the desk, and is hugging the water pipe. Thomas slowly wades in, still holding the axe above his head. He brought the axe slowly.
"Will this work?" he asked.
"I don't know, but I guess we'll have to find out," Jack answers. They are both terrified, but trying to keep panic at bay. He positions the chain connecting the two cuffs, stretching it taut across the steel pipe. The chain is of course very short, and his exposed wrists are on either side of it.
"W-w-wait! Try a couple of practice swings over there first." Thomas hefts the axe and thunks it into a wooden cabinet.
"That's good. Now try to hit the same mark again" Thomas swallowed hard, as he aims the axe at the mark he made. He swings hard and the blade thunks a few inches from the mark. Thomas felt disappointed, but there wasn't much time.
"Okay, that's enough practice."
He winces, bracing himself as he sees Thomas raising the axe. He has to hit a target about an inch wide with all the force he can muster, with his hands on either side.
"You can do it, Thomas. Hit it as hard as you can. I trust you." Jack closes his eyes. So does Thomas.
The axe comes down. K-WHANG! Thomas gingerly opens his eyes, then looks... Jack is grinning with two separate cuffs. Thomas drops the axe, all the strength going out of him.
"Nice work, there, Paul Bunyan!" he grabs Thomas and hugs him as hard as he can, while he can feel Jack's separated handcuffs digging into his back. They both share a quick yet passionate kiss, before Jack slowly climbs down into the water next to Thomas. He can't breathe for a second.
"Sh-! Excuse my French. Ow! Ow! Ow! That's cold! Come on, let's go." They wade out into the hall. Thomas starts toward the stairs going up, but Jack stops him, then points. There is only about a foot of the stairwell opening visible.
"Too deep. We gotta find another way out." Jack grabs Thomas' shirt, to find yet another escape route.