Chapter I

A/N: Inspiration comes from the most unlikely of places. I wasn't looking to start another story, but… I really liked this idea. It would not leave me alone. The fanfic that jumpstarted this idea is called Hearts on the Ocean. But it had a few things that confused me. Like how a ghost didn't know he was dead. Among other things. The basic plot is similar, but there are and will be differences. The ghost is of a different person who died on the Titanic. The Cowgirl Bookworm should be pleased. She helped quite a bit. He's less of a pain in the ass to write here than he is in my other Titanic story, not sure why. This story takes place in the present day portion of Mr. Cameron's epic, but will start about three and a half years prior to the events of the movie. Italics are thoughts. Looking forward to seeing what you all think! SSD

Just keep your eyes on the horizon, that's the key Olivia Lovett kept repeating this mantra as she took her first steps out of her bunk room on the Keldysh.

Ever since she arrived three days ago, seasickness had been her constant companion. Her other companion was her husky Orion. He was of little help, beyond his presence, though soothing, whilst she was moaning in her bed. Olivia had known it would be coming and had tried to prepare for it, but none of the usual remedies were working very well for her.

At least her Uncle Brock was able to come and walk Orion for her. Even some of the Russians had taken pity on her and her beloved pet. Her husky was fast becoming the expedition mascot. At the moment he was leaning against her legs.

Olivia was not the only one suffering from seasickness. The expedition robotics expert Lewis was also suffering. She had given him one of the boxes of Dramamine to.

Hell I get sick on Lake Pleasant!

Right now she missed her desert home of Arizona. Olivia and her twin brother Octavian had stayed there permanently after going to Arizona State University for college. There had been three main reasons: The school had what they wanted to study, nicer weather than Maine, and most importantly it got them away from their parents.

Still it's nice to be back on the water again. For the smell at least.

However, this made Olivia think of clam chowder and how creamy it was and how it smelled. She was now running to the nearest rail of the ship and promptly emptied everything that she'd managed to eat that was in her stomach into the grey North Atlantic.

"Most people on board are traveling by ship. You on the other hand are traveling by rail. I thought you were feeling better?" It was her uncle who began rubbing her back.

"I was. Then I made the mistake of thinking about food. How are things going," Olivia asked after wiping her mouth. Orion was sitting next to her feet.

"We're getting ready for the first dive tomorrow. Have you been able to research at all?"

"Some. I can give it to you tonight or in the morning. Hard to believe there's something worth more than the Hope Diamond underneath these waves. I just hope it isn't cursed like it," she answered.

"Do you think we'll find that mummy," her favorite uncle asked grinning.

Rising to the bait Olivia growled, "That's an urban legend and you know it uncle. It's a bad one too. The one about the Newfie swimming around is far more believable."

"There's my Titanic historian. I only brought it up to distract you. Come on. Let's get you to the mess hall. There's some chicken soup with your name on it."

He was happily laying at his human's feet as her elder pack member made her eat. Orion had noted she had not been feeling well, moaning ever since arriving to this wobbly place.

There were plenty of smells in this room, not all of them pleasant. His favorite smell was the treat his human gave him whenever he did something she wanted him to do correctly.

She seemed to be walking better, his human; no long looking a funny color.

Now they were back outside, he could smell the salt in the air. As well as oil. Orion didn't like that smell and neither did his human so they stayed well away from it.

There was a new-ish smell on the air. A musty smell that Orion had only gotten that faintest whiffs of before. He had to investigate it further. With a yip, he tugged his leash out his human's hands and took off running, barking all the while.

Time had clearly passed. How much time he could not tell, but judging by the fact that the women were wearing trousers and no one seemed bothered by it, a considerable amount of time had gone by.

At least the layout of the bridge had not changed to much. He could still make his way around it with ease. Though he had to wait for the ship's officers to move before he could examine things as closely as he would like, otherwise they would pass right through him, noticing the cold spot.

There were already rumors floating around that the ship was haunted, at least among the crew.

Will couldn't help but smile when he spotted several make gestures against bad luck. Sailors were still as superstitious as ever.

If they only knew.

There was a dog on board the ship. Will did not know the name of the breed, but it looked to be some kind of sled dog he had seen in pictures from newspaper articles of the Arctic expeditions before his demise. Hearing a dog's happy bark and seeing a dog's antics brought back memories.

The dog's name was Orion. He was already dreading the day when the animal was going to leave. Will had forgotten how much he enjoyed having a dog around. It certainly livened up the monotony his existence had become, especially when the dog would start sniffing and Will could almost swear that those eyes could see him.

Orion belonged to one of the American researchers. Others had been taking care of him while the owner found their sea legs. Apparently the animal's person was violently seasick.

His person was a younger woman who had finally made an appearance a few hours earlier. Unfortunately for her, she made a run for the ship's rail to throw up again almost the moment she was outside.

Once he left the bridge, Will heard barking again. Orion was barreling towards him, leash still attached.

The dog started trying to butt his hand to try and get him to pet him. He'd been right about the animal being able to see him. When that did not work, Orion began batting his paw at him, whining.

Watching the dog tilt his head in confusion Will replied sadly, "I'd love to pet you boy, but I can't."

He went quiet when the owner caught up to her dog, "Orion don't do that again! I don't know what possessed you to do this, but you can see here, there's nothing to see," she knelt down, petting the dog, trying to soothe him.

Thinking nothing of it, Will said, "I think he saw and smelled me!"

Barely looking up she said, "I was unaware that the Royal Navy was involved here."

Gulping through his shock at someone (a human) being able to see, hear, and speak to him, Will asked, "You can see me?"

"Why else would I be talking to you," was the sarcastic reply. Orion was squirming trying to get to him.

He had to scramble for an answer that wouldn't scare off his first living breathing, talking interaction with another person, "People have talked to the air but not to me. At least not for a while," he replied.

"I find that hard to believe. A uniform works wonders for a man. My name's Olivia Lovett by the way. This naughty Husky is named Orion. And you are," she inquired.

"Just an old sailor whiling away his days." The truth would likely terrify her.

"Even old sailors have names," Olivia snorted before peering at him curiously, "What's with the Force Ghost glow?"

"Haven't you seen St. Elmo's Fire before? Sometimes the sea causes things to glow," Will explained.

"The Force Ghost glow is around you. And how do you have a White Star Line insignia on your cover," she was starting to back away, eyes wide.

"I worked for them, once upon a time," there was no further way to hide it now.

Olivia laughed nervously, "You've had your fun with the historian. They haven't been in business since the 1930s when they merged with Cunard. The joke's up."

"It's hardly a joke, not out here lass. I know what you all are out here doing, a joke is far from appropriate when you're floating above over 1500 graves," he knew his glare chilled her from the shiver Olivia gave before he continued, "William Murdoch, First Officer of the Titanic. Now that we've been properly introduced, could you tell me what year it is? How long has it been since the sinking?"

The girl went pale. Clearly dealing with a ghost was not in her repertoire of skills. Recovering her senses, she replied, "I know exactly where I am. I've made a particular study of the Titanic. I'm a historian, that's why I'm here. It's been 81 years since the ship sank. The year is 1993."

"My time does indeed fly. So what is the target of your grave robbing," he sneered.

With narrowing eyes, Oliva hissed, "Not that it's any of your business, but lost property. If you'll excuse me, I do need some sleep. Come Orion."

Will watched her leave, keeping his mouth shut. 81 years. He would have to find some way to find what had happened in that time. Everyone he had known and cared about were long dead.

None of the other people aboard were capable of interacting with him. Will would have to get Olivia to cooperate with him and that did not seem likely now.

That would take time. The only thing he had in abundance.

The past three days had been filled with inexplicable happenings aboard the Keldysh. Most of them happening to Lewis. Many of his belongings had been moved around, his desk completely rearranged, the instructions for the robots got misplaced, and much of his food went missing only to be found hidden in strange places all over the ship.

Brock had noticed the sailors getting edgy as well. Uncoiled ropes, changed knots, and the use of knots that had not been in use for several decade and needed to resort to knives to untie. Cold spots were frequent as well.

He himself had stuff moved around. That was the extent of what most of the researchers had endured. The female researchers had been left alone.

So there's a chivalrous prankster on the loose. Now they just have to be caught. Brock thought as he walked towards his niece's room.

Olivia had been holed up there for the past three days pouring over books for any kind of hint on the Heart of the Ocean. When she wasn't doing that, she was working on her thesis. And when his niece wasn't doing either of those things, she was spending time with Orion, eating, drinking, and sleeping. Interactions with other people were infrequent, but that was just the way she was. There was still time for her to get to know the other researchers.

Once he got to her door, Brock noticed the line of salt in a semicircle around her doorway. After he knocked on it, she called out, "Who is it?"

"Me. There's a meeting in the mess hall. You haven't been out much, but the ship is under siege from a spirit of some kind and everyone but the few women on the research team have had to deal with some kind of trouble from said specter. The meeting is how we are going to deal with the problem."

"Why not try an exorcism," Olivia muttered acidly as she clipped Orion's leash to his collar before following him out the door.

"You sure you're feeling better," Brock asked. The tone she was using was usually only reserved for her parents or younger brother Tristan.

"I am. Just have had some trouble sleeping. Weird dreams. Almost like I was seeing April 14th and 15th 1912 through someone's eyes who was there. Full sensory experience as well. Including when they got into the water. When I woke up, I didn't feel properly warm for over an hour. And that was with a shower," Olivia shivered.

Once the meeting started, everyone was full of ideas, all talking over each other. Someone else suggestion exorcism. It the midst of it all, Brock eyed Olivia watching everyone, almost as if she were entertained. Orion was dozing at her feet, in spite of the noise.

When the meeting had been going on for about an hour and a half, he saw that Orion perked up and began wagging his tail, his tongue out happily. At her husky sitting up, Olivia looked around the room. When her eyes hit near the galley, she rolled them and went back to her notebook, which looked like one of the ones for her thesis. Olivia had been fascinated by the Titanic since she was a kid. Now she was writing her doctoral thesis on it.

A short time later, Orion sprung to his feet and trotted over to an area by the galley. He started circling around a spot smiling all the while.

Clearly irked, his niece slammed down her notebook, stalked over to where her dog was circling, grabbed his leash and walked Orion back to where she had been siting, glaring at the spot where the husky had been the whole trip.

"Something wrong Liv," he asked.

"Nope," she replied too quickly before returning her focus to her notebook. Olivia was gripping her pen rather tightly.

Only paying half attention to the discussion on the ghost now, Brock noticed thick strands of Olivia's dark brown hair coming out of the braid as if on their own and being tied into intricate knots. Sailor's knots.

"Olivia you know you can tell me anything. Is there something the matter," Brock could tell she was pointedly ignoring something. Or was it someone?

"There's nothing to tell, everything's fine," his niece replied in a falsely cheerful voice.

About fifteen more minutes passed, Olivia and Orion were quiet. She was ignoring everything around her. Brock had almost forgotten what was up with her until…

"WILL YOU SHOVE THE FUCK OFF!" Olivia shouted springing to her feet, brown eyes flashing.

One of the Russians piped up, "Why are you telling the air to shove off?"

"Holy shit, she can see it," Lewis blurted.

"You were dealing with the ghost earlier weren't you," Brock asked Olivia who was struggling with Orion who could obviously see the entity as well.

"Yes, I didn't want you to think I was a lunatic," she muttered not look at him.

"Can you hear and speak to him as well," he pressed further.

"Unfortunately yes," frustration clear in her voice as she blew air out of her mouth.

"All those in favor of making Olivia our shipboard ghost wrangler," Lewis shouted.

"AYE!" Almost the entire room chanted.

Brock saw his niece's eyes blaze with a fury he had not seen since his father's/ her maternal grandfather's funeral.

"I can try and talk them out of it," Brock offered. He was going to be having a long conversation with Lewis that he was quite certain the robotics expert was not going to like.

"I am not afraid of any ghost. I can handle him," Olivia muttered before replying, "He can make himself most useful to me. I'll see you at dinner Uncle Brock."

With as much of a spring in his step as a ghost could have, Will made his way to where he suspected Olivia's room was.

He just passed through walls of the rooms, walking around with ease. That was until he felt like he ran into a brick wall at the speed of a galloping horse.

What the devil is going on? Will wondered as he made his way out of the room.

Upon entering the hallway, a familiar voice called out, "I suppose you thought that was terribly clever of you? Now the whole ship bar my uncle thinks I'm a lunatic!"

He looked up to see Olivia walking up with Orion. The dog looked happy to see him; his owner did not.

"Well, at least they know I exist. What did you do to what I assume is your room to keep me out," Will asked, annoyed.

"So salt really does work on ghosts, and I thought it was just a myth," the girl muttered as she swept past him to unlock the door to her cabin, kicking the salt around it to the side.

"Now you can come into my room through my door and only my door. The salt around the walls of my room will be staying in place," Will came in.

He took his time looking around the room, not bothering to open the small wardrobe that had been stuck into her cabin. It was mostly neat, the bed properly made, with a large maroon banner on one of the walls. Olivia was university educated then.

There was a hockey related banner that said: "I walk on water. What's your superpower?" Both were neat and well taken care of.

What really drew Will's eye was the small bookshelf crammed next to Olivia's desk. Double stacked, stuffed full, it overflowed onto the desk. Kneeling down, he took a look at the titles.

The bulk of the books were unsurprisingly on the Titanic, save for a couple that Will would ask her about later. The ones on the Titanic ranged from her history to details on her crew, to even some that said it wasn't even the Titanic that was sunk. Will even saw few books that suggested that the Titanic could be raised and floated. Snorting at that, his finger stopped when saw an all too familiar name as the writer of one of the books.

Charles Lightoller, his old friend and shipmate.

Concentrating, as it took a massive effort to move even the smallest thing, it took him at least ten minutes (felt like it at least) to slide the hardcover volume out of the packed shelf. Even then, it took quite a bit of doing for him to hold it reliably and get to Olivia's bed. Will nearly phased right through it before remembering to maintain some corporeality.

Olivia found him like this, with the book on his lap, when she came back from walking Orion, who plopped on his dog bed.

"If you have the book I think you do, I have quite a number of questions for you," the girl said when she sat at her desk, leaning back in her chair.

"Which book do you think I have," he asked in reply.

"Judging by the space on my shelf, you have Lightoller's book. Even if I didn't have my shelf practically memorized, I would've guessed that you would go for that one quickly," she took a drink from the bottle she had with her.

"I did know him, quite well in fact," he answered.

"A lot of the books I've read are pretty clear on that. It's part of the reason why his-" Olivia had a concerned look pass across her face and glanced over at him,

Soon she had a smile on her face when she asked, "You can help me settle a bet I have with my twin brother Octavian. How true is the book dedication?"

She was giggling as flipped the pages for him and pointed: Dedicated to my persistent wife who made me do it.

Will could not help but laugh a bit himself as he said, "Quite true, she was a persuasive woman."

"Why on Earth would you ever bet on that? If you hadn't met me, then you'd have never known," Will countered.

"We were a bit… drunk at the time, and it was only ten bucks," Olivia's cheeks were more than a little bit pink at the moment.

"Unless you were hustling your brother and you've been able to see ghosts all your life, it was a fool's bet," Will declared as he looked through the first page.

"Up until I met you the only ghosts I ever saw were in movies or in stories. I grew up in New England, that part of the country is riddled with ghost stories. Octavian and I would torment our younger brother Tristan with them," she smiled at the memory.

"What a wonder you are," Will grumbled as he attempted to turn the page.

"Trust me, Tristan deserved it. He once locked me in a wardrobe for two hours and didn't get punished for it," Olivia sounded affronted.

"The horror." His fingers passed through the page of the book instead of turning it again. "Bloody book!"

"Would you like me to turn the page for you?" There was no condescension in her tone.

"If it's not too much trouble."

Once she did that Olivia offered, "I could contact Octavian in Arizona to send me some of my books on tape to the ship if you like?"

"Thank you but no," he groused, "I just need to be able to focus. I don't suppose you'd mind terribly if I read these while you're not in here?"

"No, I don't mind. So long as you tell me how accurate they are. And you stay in my room while you do it," she requested.

"As if I would let the others on board see a book floating through the air," Will chuckled.

"That might make Lewis faint. Which would be funny," Olivia snickered.

"He may be knowledgeable in his field, but the man is repugnant otherwise," Will hoped his disgust was clear.

"He's more than a bit of an ass. But he's the only one that can get those damn robots working," Olivia drawled as she knelt at her bookcase.

"Is it worth it? If you'll excuse my language, he's truly a complete and utter jackass," he continued.

Once Olivia found the book she was looking for, she continued, "Well, Mr. Murdoch, we can't exactly send divers down into the wreck. The pressure is too much since it's so deep. You couldn't get me into one of those submersibles for love nor money. Lewis falls into the category of being useful, so you put up with him being a jackass. I'm sure you came across people like that in your sailing career?"

"That I did. But they would be silent upon receiving a command from a superior. I don't suppose you could speak to your uncle," Will hated that pleading tone in his voice.

"Perhaps. I've dealt with worse men than Lewis. He's just loud and grating. He has standards of behavior and lines he won't cross." Even with her back to him, Will could tell that Olivia wasn't talking out of her hat.

Some things don't change no matter how much time passes, Will thought with pursed lips.

"Before Octavian and I went off to college in Arizona I had to deal with a lot of boys who thought that their names were a get out of jail free card. That they could do whatever they wanted. Playing hockey and knowing how to use a hockey stick has come in handy more times than I care to admit," Olivia continued eyes briefly flashing.

"So should I be glad that as far as we both know you can't hit me," Will said to try and lighten things.

"I didn't bring it with me. My uncle said it wouldn't be needed. Besides, Orion here has been a great help in sniffing out the bad apples, she reached over to scratch the dog behind the ears.

"He is an admirable beast," Will replied.

"Funny enough, you're the only male non family member that he hasn't growled at being around me," Olivia had a small, yet slightly confused, smile on her face.

"I'm honored," Will answered, as he held up his hand for the dog to sniff, who thumped his tail in happiness.

A/N 2: What better time to start a ghost story than during October? Looking forward to seeing what you all think! SSD

OC casting:

Olivia Lovett: Jaime Alexander with brown eyes.