So, who's up for a bit different of an AU, one that doesn't play within the cannon timeline? I think there's three of you who knew this AU was coming and got a little bit of a preview. One of you doesn't count as you've helped me play and figure out this. I plan on giving a different take on this one as well, but for now, let me introduce you to a version of the Titanic AU. This piece should be a bit more cute than overly sad.

They were both well into their 90's now, and still surprisingly agile for their ages. Emily seemed a bit more frail than him, but they both could be considered a healthy weight and not just skin and bones. They definitely didn't have the strength they used to though.

Neither of them drove anymore, so Aaron had come to pick them up for their anniversary party. The entire family wanted to celebrate their 70 years of marriage.

Sometimes it was hard to believe it had been that many years. They certainly had their trials and tribulations throughout their years, but they had made it this far. Farther than what some had ever thought they would.

It was amazing to see how much of their extended family came. Stephen, Bernard, Lynda, their spouses and kids. Henry and Joan's kids had come with their own kids, and Ruth and John's kids and grandkids. Of course Aaron was the one who brought them, so his little girl and his wife were there along with his parents.

Emily's brother had passed years ago, his own siblings had passed over the last few years. In some ways it was amazing Ruth had made it to her 90's as she had always battled with her illness. Then John had passed only a couple years back. They missed most of them, though he certainly didn't miss her brother. But they were here to celebrate their anniversary, not miss those who were gone.

They received rounds of congratulations for hitting their 70th. They had a love-seat of honour that they could make use of once they got tired of standing or walking around.

Once they had both sat down, Jess came and crawled up to snuggle between the two of them. Their little great granddaughter.

He could already tell that she was going to follow in her daddy's footsteps. She was just as enthralled by racing as Lightning was at her age.

"Granddad? Tell me a story?" She asked after she had gotten his attention by poking his arm.

"What story do you want to hear sweet pea?" She studied him in the way only a four year old could, sticking her tongue out just a little as she thought.

"I wanna hear about how you and grandma met."

"Well, that's certainly suitable for today isn't."

"If only John were here to tease us about it."

"Mmm, now it was a long-"

"Wait!" The little girl screeched. "I wanna get daddy so he can hear it too."

She squiggled from where she was and darted off to find her father. They watched as Jessica darted around looking for her father. He searched out Emily's hand while watching Jess run, and kissed the back of it.

"I have a feeling that I'm going to be telling more than just how we met."

"I have a feeling it will be to more people than just our grandkids." He nodded his head in agreement.

Jess was dragging Aaron along with her, with Sally following behind, grinning while watching her husband be dragged over to them. A few of the others had noticed the commotion and followed to see what was happening.

Jess let go of her dad's hand once she got back to them, and crawled back into where she was.

"Okay granddad, I'm ready now." People had figured out what was happening and had pulled up chairs. He waited until everyone seemed to be done and he started.

"It was a long, long time ago. It was before you were born," he poked her in the stomach a little to make her giggle, "before your daddy was born, and before his mom was born. Over 70 years ago now, and it all started when your Uncle John and I switched ship crews. We were on the SS New York, but switched over to the Titanic so we could get home sooner. The Titanic, from what I saw of it, truly was a magnificent ship of it's time. Before we left I had to go to the bridge for my first shift of the trip, I didn't want to be late, so I was rushing. Can you guess what happen because I was trying to rush?"

"Did you bump into someone?" Jess's little eyes were round.

"I did, and do you know who it was?" She shook her head.

"It was grandma, with her grandmother, Nanna. I said sorry for bumping into her, and left on my way. That was the first time we had ever seen each other." He lowered his voice conspiratorially for what he was about to say, everyone might be listening, but he was telling this for Jess. "Grandma at the time, didn't know what a ship's bridge was. She only learned that at a later time from me."

"Jesse! Are you ever going to let that go?"

"No, it was endearingly naive, and made for a good laugh." He looked Em in the eye.

"Seventy some years later, and you still find it amusing." Emily shook her head at him.

"Grandma, granddad, I wanna hear more of the story."

"Sorry sweet pea, we did go a little off topic, didn't we." Jess nodded her head.

"Now, where were we?" He looked thoughtfully into space.

"Bumped into grandma."

"Ah, we didn't see each other for a couple days after that, and when we did, Uncle John and I were working a lifeboat. The Titanic had hit an iceberg and was sinking. Grandma, her mom, Nanna and eventually her dad all ended up in our lifeboat. I had helped grandma get in and later helped warm up her hands a bit; it was too cold for my liking." He held her hand, he wouldn't let go until after they were done.

"Uncle John was teasing him about missing the Georgian heat, while granddad was calling him Mr. Used to Winter." He gave his wife a side glance.

"Don't look at me like that Jesse, you know John would have brought it up." She rubbed her thumb over his hand. He admitted his defeat, they might as well add those missing add-ins that John would have made. He almost missed the teasing.

"He would have. We watched from the lifeboat as the ship sank. It was cold, dark and no fun at all."

"Granddad? Grandma? Were you scared?"

"Terrified." He gave Em's hand a squeeze, and she gave him one back.

"So scared, granddad was scared, but you couldn't tell. He and Uncle John were in charge of the lifeboat and they did a very good job of keeping calm while being terrified." With her free hand, Emily brushed through Jess's hair.

"Once the sun started to come up, we were rescued. A ship called the Carpathia had come to help, everyone on the lifeboat was taken on board and taken care of."

"Granddad even came around to make sure we were alright, if we had been on his lifeboat. Even when he should have been getting sleep himself."

He saw heads shaking at that. At the time he had needed to know their passengers were fine, even above his own health.

"I slept for a good 12 hours after that. I was incredibly restless after I woke up. There was nothing for me to do. So, I took to making rounds, visiting everyone who was on my lifeboat, sometimes with Uncle John, sometimes without."

Jessica let out a small yawn. "Did you visit grandma?"

"Of course. Grandma, her daddy, and her Nanna, all become very fond of me, quite quickly." He looked towards his wife just in time to see her roll her eyes.

"It wasn't as quick as you make it seem. Nanna's fondness began when you first bumped into me with your polite response, sending her into a lecture of manners over money." She had been looking at Jess, before he spoke again, looking directly at her.

"That's something that you took to heart."

"Shush you, I'm not finished. Daddy's fondness started when you told him you'd find him and did. Mine started sometime on the lifeboat I'm sure, though Nanna may have planted a seed in the beginning there."

He looked back down at the little girl beside them. "Let's just say as much as I checked on grandma and her family, they checked on me, particularly grandma."

"Was I? I don't think that I was."

"Mmm, that's not what John would say. Even then he said you were fawning over me, and nothing I said could convince him otherwise. I tried to tell him you were just being friendly, then he used that against me for years."

"If I didn't know the story behind that, I'd exclaim that's where it came from. I might have just slightly, been fawning over you. You did rescue daddy, and made sure I was in the lifeboat."

"What happened after you left the ship?" Jess yawned again.

"Grandma and I kept in contact by writing letters and visiting. We eventually got married and had your daddy's mom, who grew up to marry your daddy's dad, much to the pleasure of Uncle John. They eventually had your daddy, who married your mom, and they in turn had you."

"Grandma? Can you tell me about after the ship?" Jess asked as she laid her head down on his lap, and he petted her hair.

"Mm, once off, I was talking with granddad before old friends came and scared him off. By the time I could go looking for him again, he had already been taken away to be asked questions about the sinking since he was crew." Jess let out another little yawn and snuggled further into his lap.

"I met Aunt Ruth for the first time. We sat together waiting for granddad to be returned. I told her my version of events of what had happened while we waited, only to find out that none of the crew were being released anytime soon. My daddy, Nanna and I, didn't go home until granddad could."

"She's asleep now Emily." He said softly.

"Tired from gathering everyone up for story time, I'm sure."

Aaron had gotten up and reached his arms out to his daughter.

"Here granddad, I can take her from you."

"She's fine where she is Aaron, she's not bothering me on my lap. Let her sleep." He waved him away.

"Okay, but if she starts getting to heavy or squirming too much, I can take her."

"I'm old Aaron, not decrepit. Let her cuddle, she's not the first one in this room to have fallen asleep on my lap, and there's very few here that can say that they haven't, you included. Most of those are spouses, and I've even had a few of them fall asleep on me."

"I get it."

"Are you sure?" He raised his eyebrows at him.

"Yes granddad."

"Emily, Jesse, what was it like when you first got married?" Sally asked.

"Hard. It takes a lot of getting used to living with a spouse especially when the two of you come from two very different worlds."

"I grew up as a high society girl, and never wanted for anything truly until after the Titanic. It was an eye opening experience, which made my life fuller afterwards. Jesse knows this, and it caused a bit of strife before we got married, but if it weren't for that sinking, I might have never looked twice at him."

"The mixing of our two classes didn't happen much in those days. The rich and high society married the rich and high society, and the poor married the poor. First class and third, were a rare combination and at times, the two different lifestyles clashed hard. Abigail was caught in the middle at times and while Nanna and Edward were good at not looking down, the rest of the family before I gained my captaincy, couldn't care less."

"Dad..."

"You were dear, and you didn't like your grandmother because you could tell she didn't treat you the same as your cousins." Emily said.

"Mom, I may have been caught, but I did enjoy my childhood. We've quite moved away from Sally's question now, about the beginning of your marriage."

"Mmm, right, I'm getting a bit more scatter brained these days. Well, I didn't know how to do anything besides a little bit of cooking, when we first got married. I was so lost and clueless about my new lifestyle. There were lots of tears in the beginning."

"That took a lot of adjustment for both of us, and arguing."

"We pushed through though. I just kept learning and we started to learn how to compromise with each other."

"You never seem to argue." Lightning stated.

"We've also been married for 70 years, we're quicker at finding compromises or conceding to each other. We still argue on occasion, but we've always kept a united front in public, we would have been torn apart if we hadn't." Emily explained.

"You've been married, what, five years Aaron?"

"Hey, it's been longer than that granddad, it's been eight." Lightning crossed his arms.

"Sorry, EIGHT years, that's nothing in comparison."

"Lightning, I doubt that there's any way to win what ever you think you're trying to win against your grandparents. They have the experience advantage."

"Sal!''

"Shh, don't wake Jess."

"Fine. Hey granddad, since we're talking about how you and grandma met, would you tell how mom and dad met?"

"You just want to torment your dear old dad, don't you son?"

"I don't know what you mean dad. Me? Torment you? Nah, I'd never purposefully do that."

"Right, because my son's too nice to ever do something like that."

"I think your mother would do a better job to tell this story, or even John used to tell it well."

"I'd like to hear your perspective granddad."

"Mmm, lets see then." He closed his eyes thinking back to that particular time. "Your mother was about 18 at the time making your father 21, a medical student. Something John wouldn't stop bragging about. He had a captain as a brother-in-law, and a nephew who was going to be a doctor. Ruth, your mom, and grandma were all on this trip, and it was fairly early on that it became obvious that we had a stowaway on board." At that he couldn't help but glare at said stowaway. Nick looked away sheepishly, good, he deserved to still feel sheepish about that.

"Abigail was the one to spot him and brought him to John."

"I just have to make mention that even if I hadn't recognized your name, I would still have recognized uncle John's influence on you by that bow. Also I know you must have known exactly who I was when I introduced myself, because Uncle John always talked about family."

"I did, I was really hoping you wouldn't know who I was though."

"Are you two done now? I do believe I was in the middle of telling a story."

"Yes daddy."

"Yes sir."

"Good. John in turn brought him to me to be dealt with. He was assigned cleaning duties throughout the ship, and a certain young lady at the time took to following the stowaway around distracting him from what he should have been doing. Abigail coaxed John to give her Nick's address so she could send him letters. And as John so often liked to say, it always starts with letters."

Happy April Fool's Day! Like I said at the top, you will be seeing a different version of this. It'll have some parts that are similar, but quite a few changes too. As well as it being much longer.