Chapter VIII

A/N: Finally with the movie! One thing I will make clear here. I DO NOT LIKE ROSE. She won't play much of a role in the story till towards the end of the movie stuff. She's minimal. I do find old Rose slightly more interesting than young Rose. Recognized dialogue is not mine. Thanks go out to cowgirlbookworm who helps so much! Looking forward to seeing what you all think! SSD

Her uncle was going back down to the ship. He'd tried to cajole Olivia into joining him yet again, but she'd still refused.

"Seeing her coming out of the darkness like a ghost ship still gets me every time. To see the sad ruin of the great ship where she landed at 2:30 in the morning on April 15th 1912 after her long fall from the world above."

Snorting, Olivia pressed the intercom button to his submersible, "So theatric Uncle Brock, did you ever do plays in college?"

He continued, "Dive 6, Here we are on the deck of Titanic, 2.5 miles down. 3,821 meters. Pressure outside is 3.5 tons per square inch. These windows are 9 inches thick and if they go.. it's sayonara," Uncle Brock drawled.

"If he plans to keep on trying to convince you to get into one of those things, he'd not doing a very good job," Will said from the chair next to her.

Biting her lip, Olivia looked at Will side-eyed. Damn him for looking so good in uniform! Navy uniforms were different. Not even Air Force uniforms could measure up.

She was nearly done with her paper. Whilst ogling Will's profile, Olivia heard the whoops and general caterwauling that signified her uncle must have found something.

"Let's go see what your uncle found," Will got up from the chair.

The two of them had to stop at Olivia's room to pick up a poop bag for Orion.

As they got to the main deck, she heard the whispering crew. It was too crowded for her to get through. Orion whined, ears back.

Olivia flicked a glance at Will who just started walking through people.

In no time at all, Will was back.

"Well your uncle, found a safe. Good cause for excitement. Upon opening however, there was no necklace," he reported.

Whilst they were walking back, Olivia decided to ask, "You know, we've known each other for some time now. And I've never asked you about your time on the ship underneath our feet."

Even though there was no necklace, there were still things to go through. Like the sketchbook and the money which would be worth something after it had been restored.

The phone rang. Looking at the caller ID, Brock groaned. It was at least one of the main investors.

Taking a deep breath he answered saying: "Hey Dave, Barry hi. Look, it wasn't in the safe. But hey, don't worry about it, there's still plenty of places it could be. Hell yes, the floor debris in the suite, the mother's room, the purser's safe on C deck, a dozen other places, you've just got to trust my instinct. I know we're close, just go through a little process of elimination. Hang on a second..." he trailed off.

One of the drawing that was in the process of being restored/conserved was of a naked young woman wearing a necklace.

A familiar looking necklace.

"Where's the photograph of the necklace," Brock called out scrambling, sure enough it was the Heart of the Ocean.

Now he had a news crew to deal with for a small documentary. Olivia would be involved in it.

While getting ready for another dive later, Bobby handed him a phone saying, "Trust me, you want to take this call."

And boy was he thankful he did. Brock had quite a bit to do in the meantime.

Including researching this Rose Calvert. And he knew just who to delegate that task to.

After knocking on the door to Olivia's room, Brock heard some grousing before the door opened.

"This had better be important," his niece grumbled.

"It is. I need you to dig up everything on a Rose Calvert. She claims to have been on the Titanic as Rose Dewitt-Bukater."

Olivia blinked, "How old would she have been in 1912?"

"She was 17."

"She's over 100. Talk about the wonders of modern medicine. Highly unlikely, but I'll bite. Let me get dressed and coffee going. This will take all night," she cracked her neck as she went to the bathroom.

Will watched the unloading of the luggage that the purported Titanic survivor Rose Calvert had brought with her.

As the old woman was eased out of the helicopter, Will wondered if he had lived, would he have looked that old?

There was a little yapper of a dog in her lap. A fascinated Orion eyed the dog with glee at the idea of a playmate on board. Or more likely, a snack given the size difference between the two animals. He hoped Olivia was still sleeping after that all nighter of research she'd done on the woman.

Someone must have woken Olivia up, for by the time Rose and her granddaughter were unpacking, Olivia was there in jeans and an ASU t-shirt.

She nodded at him in greeting before going to examine the woman's pictures. Even to him they looked similar to the drawing that had been found.

Scribbling on a piece of paper to hand to her uncle, Photos look like drawing you found. You aren't being taken for a ride.

After the old woman said she'd like to see her drawing, Olivia held back to ask, "What do you think?"

"Well the pictures from when she was young certainly match the naked drawing," Will drawled.

"What do you think of the drawing as a man," Olivia asked casually.

Will knew he was in danger. Carefully he replied, "I believe any man confronted by a drawing of a naked woman would look, but she can't compare to you."

She looked him over. "Good answer." Orion twined around her legs as she walked into her room.

"Now that we're in here, I think I am ready to talk about my time on the ship."

Will had never seen Olivia move so quickly. She scrambled for a recorder, poured herself something to drink, poured Orion some water, got into her chair then asked, "When do we start?"

Olivia could hardly believe it. Will was willing to talk.

Rearranging her recorder one last time, she took a drink from her water bottle. It had a little bit of whiskey in it. Okay more than a little bit.

She wished she could give Will something to drink.

"I think I'd like to start on the day of departure. I was on the docking bridge as the ship began to leave. Only a hair's breadth was between Titanic and the New York. Upon the late arrival in Cherbourg it was fairly calm. I actually got to sleep till about half an hour before my watch so I didn't have to deal with any arsehole frogs."

Olivia rolled her eyes. Some things didn't change!

"Queenstown more passengers were taken on board as well as some last mail sent. Lights and I were wearing our Chief and First officer jackets to wind up Henry a bit. We still needed some entertainment."

"There's a picture of you two together in those jackets," she replied.

"Of course there is. Anyway I had to hurry up to the bridge. I barely beat Captain Smith. He told me to take her to sea and stretch her legs."

What did you think of the ship at that point," Olivia inquired.

"I spent most of my time in the officer's quarters or on the bridge. She seemed to be a fine ship, handled well. I heard that Mr. Andrews was fussing over minor things in the passenger areas. Something about too many screws on the hat hooks. Anyway my favorite spot on the ship was a little ways off the bridge on the starboard side. Lifeboat 1 was in it's davit behind it. It provided a nice view."

Orion watched his favorite hoomans from his bed. Just what was taking them so long that they were meant for each other?

Much time recently was spent in Olivia's room talking whilst leaning towards each other.

Maybe they were getting a clue after all. Now if they would just kiss!

A/N 2: What fun this was to type. I'm happy to finally get to the movie. I can't wait to have Will talk about the sinking! What would you like him to discuss? For the record, he didn't shoot anyone in this story! *glares at James Cameron* Looking forward to seeing what you all think! SSD