A/N: I wrote the beginning of this a couple of months ago and never finished. Last night, though, I decided that it needed an ending...and voila! This story was made! :] Towards the very end it might seem a bit rushed...so, sorry about that. I was kind of like writing and thinking: "Only a few more sentences...oh my gosh, is it done yet?!" Sooooo yeah.

Anyhoo. This doesn't have anything to do with the whole Jack/Rose fling from the movie....just, you know, in case you were wondering. This is why it is NOT in fanfiction. Because it doesn't have anything to do with that!! Okay? Okay. :)

Enjoy!

There was not a trace of fear inside the first class passenger's eyes. They were sipping their tea and smoking cigars as if a slight problem had just occurred and they were pleasantly trying to ignore it. There was one man in particular who almost seemed to be trying to get himself drunk. Emma watched him for a very long time until a familiar hand latched on to hers.

"Emma, what are you still doing down here?" the owner of the hand asked. Emma turned to face the boy who was staring at her so intently. She did not have the right to call him a boy anymore; she knew this. He was quickly maturing into the man she had once told him he would never be. However, he was still her boy. If he grew into a man, he would no longer be hers.

"It's cold outside," she said in response to the question. Bradley turned her face towards him so that she was looking directly in his eyes.

"You need to get off this ship," he said, carefully enunciating as though terrified that she would somehow not hear him. Emma pulled away from him and looked through the open doorway that led out to the ship's cold deck. There were so many people out there and they all seemed to be saying something. Some were crying for their husbands, others were yelling for a lifeboat, and still others seemed to be laughing. Laughing in the face of death. Emma shivered. The thought of death scared her, yet she was not pretending that it was far away.

She knew the Titanic would sink tonight. It was just a matter of time before it sucked her down with it. She'd rather go down with the ship if Bradley would not come with her to safety.

Slowly, her eyes filled with tears.

"I can't leave you," she whispered. Bradley let out a loud sigh of impatience and grabbed her shoulders, once again forcing her to look at him.

"Emma!" he said loudly, giving her a shake for good measure. "You have got to leave! If you don't, you're gonna die!" With trembling hands, he released her. Emma had never seen him so scared before.

With a muffled sob, she threw her hands around his neck and silently begged him to hold her close to him. He complied. She tightened her hold on him and bit her lip to keep from crying.

She allowed herself to focus on Bradley and Bradley alone. He had her in his arms and was caressing her hair, kissing the top of her head, letting his tears fall on her...She didn't want to let go. She could not let go of this. Bradley was all she had.

He pulled away from her much too soon. Again, he grabbed her shoulders but much gentler this time.

"Please," he said in a voice that was trying not to crack, "please, Emma. You have to promise me you'll leave. You have got to..." he swallowed and focused very hard on the wall behind Emma as if trying to regain his composure.

"Bradley, I can't do this alone," Emma said, willing him to look at her. He didn't.

"Either you do it alone or you die," he said bluntly. This was why she loved Bradley. He was not afraid to speak the truth.

"Yes? And what about you? You expect me to sit on that lifeboat and stare up at this godforsaken ship and think calmly about how you're probably drowning somewhere!?" Emma demanded. Bradley opened his mouth to retort, but was cut off by a bellboy that had just rushed into the dining hall.

"Lifeboats," he panted, "one left. Women and children...need get on..." He looked directly at Emma and she could tell that he was petrified of dying. Bradley said nothing, but grabbed Emma's hand and pulled her out of the dining room and out into the bitter cold. Emma had no shoes or jacket and tried to huddle as close to Bradley as she could. She knew where he was taking her. She also knew that he would not change his mind.

Before they reached the deck, he gave her hand one last squeeze. Then, he pushed her forward and into one of the officer's arms. Emma felt as though she was watching herself scream and kick the guards as they threw her into the boat. Her mind was numb. She couldn't be here by herself. Bradley...she needed Bradley.

When she had finished her tantrum, Emma looked up and saw Bradley smiling down at her.

"Emma," he called out, unnaturally calmly and with a smile on his handsome face. She just stared up at him.

"I love you."

And then, he walked away. Leaving Emma to sob into her freezing hands as other women tried to comfort her.

*~*

"Can I get you anything, miss?" asked the man who had wrapped Emma in a warm blanket. She frowned at him as though trying to make sense of the words he had just spoken to her. It took her several moments to understand that the syllables that were coming from his mouth were complete sentences.

It was so cold.

"Nothing, thank you," she muttered, pulling the blanket tighter over her shoulders.

"Just let me know," he said with a gentle smile before walking away to tend to the other new passengers aboard the ship.

Emma was on the Carpathia. She didn't know how she'd made it through the long hours of the morning. The whole time she'd been numb. Terribly numb. She had watched with the other women as the Titanic sank into the icy waters. She had screamed into the night as she realized that Bradley would never hold her in his arms again. She'd called his name again and again. She'd demanded that they turn the boat around to go look for him...as if he somehow could have survived. She'd had women whom she'd never met in her life pull her close and whisper that it would be alright. But it wasn't alright. It wouldn't be alright.

Again, she pulled the blanket tighter over her shivering shoulders. How long had it been since she'd stepped foot on the Carpathia? She didn't know. Nor did she care.

"Excuse me?" a young girl said, breaking into Emma's jumbled and twisted thoughts. Emma looked at the girl who was green eyed and sad.

"I think this is yars," the girl continued. It took Emma's vision a few moments to focus and she realized that the girl was holding out a gold ring.

"W-w-what?" she stammered, teeth chattering from the cold.

"I was watching," the girl said in a thick, Scottish accent, "when they put ya down. This fell out of yar hand." She held the ring out further as if making sure Emma could see it.

"You must be mistaken. I have no gold. It must be someone else's." The girl shook her head hard. Her small mouth was set in a firm line.

"I know it's yars, miss."

"Child, I don't have any gold. I took nothing with me. This is not mine." The girl took a step closer, still holding the ring out.

"Ya kept repeating someone's name when ya dropped it. 'Bradley' I think it was. They tried to tell ya to quiet down but ya kept screaming his name. He gave it to ya. I know he did," the girl said softly. Her round face was streaked with tears and dirt, her shoes were gone, and her clothes were torn. But her eyes were remarkably bright. Bright and determined.

"Bradley gave me many things...but gold wasn't one of them," Emma said with a small, sad smile. The girl looked rather defeated and began to walk away. Emma sighed and shivered from the cold and from the mental reminder of Bradley. She didn't know what she was going to do once she reached New York. Most of her family was dead. Bradley had been the only person that she'd known well. And he was dead.

"Miss?" the young girl asked, breaking once more into Emma's wild thoughts. She looked up at the girl who was standing above her with tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, dear. It's not mine," she repeated before looking away.

"Is yar name Emma Darby?" the girl asked delicatley. Emma froze upon hearing Bradley's heart seemed to stop beating and she couldn't blink the tears that were in her eyes away. Her vision was becoming blurred as she slowly nodded.

The girl smiled a bit as she placed the ring in Emma's hand and then went back to her spot on the shaking hands, Emma brought the ring up to eyelevel. Gold lettering swirled around the inside of the ring. It took a very long time for Emma's eyes to clear and her hand to stop shaking long enough to read the inscription.

You are my bella and my bride, Emma Darby. I am always and forever yours: Bradley.

Emma closed her fingers around the ring and pressed her newly made fist to her forehead. Tears rolled and cascaded down her cheeks. Strangled noises were coming out of her throat, her body was shaking violently, and her face was contorted in misery.

"Ma'am?" the same man who'd given her a blanket earlier asked. His voice was urgent but Emma took no heed. She ignored him and continued to release her dying soul to the uncaring world.

"Ma'am, are you alright?" he asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. She didn't have the heart to shrug him off.

"Sir, she's lost someone very important to her. Let her cry," the Scottish, little girl whispered. Soon, the hand left Emma's shoulder.

It was a long time before Emma was able to take control of the violent emotion of misery. Hours passed before her tears began to slow entire time, she kept a tight hold on the simple, gold banded ring. She did not wear it. Holding it tightly in her hand almost made her feel like she was somehow reaching past the clutches of Death and touching a piece of Bradley. It was only a small piece. But it was something.

Another thing that did not change during the long hours was the presence of the small child. She did not ever leave Emma's side. She did not speak or offer words of comfort; she just sat there, watching and waiting.

"I know what it's like," she finally said when Emma was no longer crying but staring out into the sky with dead eyes, "to lose someone ya love. My parents died last summer from the small pox. My uncle died last night, too. He was trying to save me and my brother. My brother didn't make it out of the Titanic either."

Emma looked over at the girl and offered her a sad smile. She felt her heart break all over again for this little girl. The girl saw her expression change.

"I'm not asking for pity. I'm just letting ya know that I know how ya feel. I'm sorry I even gave ya the ring. Ya probably coulda done without it...." Emma shook her head.

"No. I'm glad you did. Thank you....it's a part of him....something I'll be able to keep," Emma said quietly.

"Awright," the girl said with a grin that quickly dissappeared. "I'll be seeing ya, miss."

"Wait," Emma called out before the girl could dissappear.

"Yah?"

"What is your name?"

"Illya."

"How old are you?" Emma asked further, still clutching the ring.

"I turned ten years old last night," she said with a deep breath. Emma smiled sadly.

"Happy birthday, Illya. You will always be in my thoughts."

"Aye, miss. Thank ya."

And she left Emma to stare out into the sea and wonder why she and Illya had been chosen to be cursed with the horror of reality.

A/N: So yeah. Kind of depressing...sorry.

Reviews are much appreciated, though! :)