MAJOR ARCANA
The Making of Titanic- the untold story


The following sotry is a combined effort of the forum and it's tallented members. I changed one sentence to make it flow a little easier into one story rather than several :-)

Kate glanced at the clock in the make-up trailer to discover it was nearly 11pm and he still hadn't shown up. She had hoped to run lines with him one last time before the shoot but by now she knew they'd have no time to do so. It was getting dark and then they'd only have 7 or 8 hours to get good night scenes in. All at once ther was a buzz throughout the trailer and she knew it meant he was coming. She saw him step in, his bright blue eyes preceding his handsome form. His hair was disheveled, tossed mostly to one side and flopping boyishly over part of his face, making his dashing good looks only better.

"Kate, I need to speak with you in private for a moment."

The others left and Leo took a seat, slouching miserably to look at himself in the long, full-length mirrors that decorated every wall.

"You wanted to talk?" she asked, not wanting to force him into it if it were really important enough that he could not say it in front of the crew.

He nodded. "I'm not feeling very well, Kate..."

Feeling like his older sister, she felt his forehead. "You're very warm." She took a seat beside him. "Come to think of it, you don't look especially well, either. Are you-"

In less than a second, he took in a deep breath and let it out again with a deep and powerful sneeze, "HAHSHHUSHH!" spraying freely in front of him a little and bending forward at the waist. "'Scuse me," he murmered, a bit embarassed. "I think I've got a... a... ah-HASHHH!"

"A cold?" she finished for him. She found a tissue from one of the makeup stations and handed it to him. "You shouldn't be working today."

He shook his head. "You know what the director'll say. We have to... HAHSHUSHH!" he covered his mouth this time and stuck his hand out towards her in silent asking.

She handed him another tissue which he wiped his nose with, leaning back with a small groan. "You're not going to tell anyone, are you, Kate?"

She shook her head. "Not if you don't want me to, leo. But you have to promise me to go right back to your trailer and get some rest as soon as the shoot is over for the night."

"Kate-"

"Hey, you need to take care of yourself. I don't want to have to kiss you while you're coughing and sneezing like this, ok?"

He nodded, blew his nose and threw away the tissue just as the make-up crew returned.

"Sorry to come back so soon, but we need to get you both ready in ten minutes."

Kate and Leo took their seats, though Kate kept her eye on her co-lead. She could easily see that he was ill but knew the make-up would help to hide it... if he could just keep from showing the other symptoms long enough for them to get it on him.

"HahSH!" he let out a quiet breath after stifling the sneeze.

"Why, bless you, Leonardo!" one woman said with a light laugh.

He smiled his wide, cute Leo smile and charmed them all. "Thank you, Jo-Ann."

He managed to get through the rest of the session without anything further and followed Kate out of the trailer, putting a hand on her shoulder to steady himself as he descended the stairs on weak legs.

"Leo, I can make an excuse... you don't have to-"

"I'll be all right, Kate." He loved it when she treated him like her little brother. "But thanks anyway."

As no one was watching, she quickly touched her palm to his forehead, being extra careful not to smudge any of the make-up, though he had sweated some of it away already. He seemed to be just as warm, but no worse. "Okay."

* * * * *

As luck would have it(bad luck to be exact) it happened to be the night to shoot parts of the deck scene, mainly the row-boat scene. Billy spotted them first, calling the dierctor's attention to them.

"Fine, good. It's about time. Every minute that passes is thousands wasted," said James Cameron who was impatient at the moment. "Please everyone, get raedy. We'll take it from the beginning just as Rose says goodbye and goes down on the rowboat with her mother."

Leo sneezed loudly and, even amidst a croud of extras, it was eaily heard. "Excuse me," he said, playing off his embarrassment with a laugh in his typical joking style. Though the only thing he could think of was what he knew would come next.

"Water!" someone shouted, and in turn each actor was douced so that they looked as if they had been in and out of it. While the water was realatively warm, it felt cold against their skins when the night winds and fans blew strongly. Leo couldn't keep from shivering.

Line after line. Scene after scene. Take after Take. Leo began coughing at parts, and holding back in others, his face flushed with light fever and his nose beginning to run from the cold. He sneezed a dozen times, managing to rub his nose enough to hold each off until he heard the faithful "Cut!" and was relieved to let himself go a moment or two. As time passed, he began to care less and less about being embarrassed to be sick, and more about being able to act and stay in character without showing any signs. In less than two hours, Leo found it impossible to keep his teeth from chattering while he delivered his lines. "You... y-you n-n-need t-to go... HAHCHUSHH!" he sneezed, srubbornly trying to continue, feeling the part taking control of him and not wanting to loose that just because of a small cold and a fever.

"Leo?" Billy asked, concerned.

Leonardo looked up, turned to see Kate off camera, looking just as concerned for his welfare, if not more so. He nodded, trying to answer, when he suddenly felt faint. "I don't f-fell... HAHHSHOO!" he sneezed once, his soft, handsome face falling with the urge, conforming to the natural way of the cold as two more sneezes came upon him. "HAhhCHOOSH! HAHHSHHHH!" he sneezed, holding his hand up in a fist before his face. He then lifted his hand to his head, closed his eyes, and passed out.

* * * * *

"Leonardo?" he heard Kate's voice. He opened his eyes to see her beside him. He was wrapped in blankets and lying on the floor of the deck. "How do you feel?" He felt tired, weak, and sick.

He sneezed, lifting a hand to cover his nose and mouth. "HAHHSHHHUSH!" with a now wet but almost-chilled sound to it. "'Scuse m..." he tried, only to close his eyes again with the next, "HAACHHH!"

"It's going to be all right, Leo," he heard. "I'm right here." He passed out once again.

* * * * *

The next time Leo opened his eyes, it was not to the blackness of the night on the set, but to Kate's soft, caring face, and the warmth and comfort of her trailer.

"Kate, what happened?" His gorgeous blue eyes danced with fever, which, Kate noted, had steadily worsened since earlier that evening.

"You passed out, and I brought you back to my trailer. You need rest." She glanced at the door with an expression of worry and fire. "James is out there arguing with the vultures over what to do.

They want you to go back out there and keep working!" Kate could feel her blood boiling, and for a moment, felt as strongly for Leo, who had become like her younger brother, as her character Rose felt for Jack.

"Kate, it's okay. I think I could do a few more scenes." He pulled himself up into a seated position, trying to keep his teeth from chattering. Just then, the door to the trailor burst open and James Cameron came bustling in, a trail of assistants following not far behind.

"Leo," he said, assessing the situation quickly. "How are you feeling?"

"I feel... Huh... HUH-CHOOO!" He sneezed loudly into the crook of his elbow, as he had no available tissue.

"He's feeling sick, can't you see that?" Kate respected James a great deal, but she knew enough to tell when someone was too sick to work. "He has a fever, and he should not work tonight. It'll only make him worse."

"How high is the fever?" James asked.

"I don't know," Kate admitted. "I don't have thermometer." Placing her hand against Leo's sweaty, make-up stained skin, she added, "Over a hundred. Maybe one-oh-one, one-oh-two."

James rubbed his own forehead, thinking. "All right, here's what we're going to do. I want you," he said, pointing at Leo, "to take a two-hour rest. That means sleep. We'll do some of Rose and Cal's scenes for the next few hours. Do you think you might be able to work again in a few hours?"

Leo stole a quick glance at Kate before answering. He knew she wouldn't like it, but he said, "Yes, I think that would be fine."

"Good. Now get some rest." With that the director and his followers were gone, leaving Kate and Leo alone in the trailor.

"I don't like this, Leo," she said, taking in his still shivering, weakened form.

"I know. But the Titanic doesn't stop just because I'm sick." He flashed her his famous heart melting smile before dissolving into a coughing fit.

"Well, get some rest. I'm still going to try to figure out a way to get you out of this."

"Thanks, Kate. Watch out for sharks, now." Kate laughed at their own private joke as she exited the trailor, hearing a faint chorus of sneezes as she did so.

Leo, caught in the throws of a miserable cold, was less concerned for his own welfare than that of Kate's and the movie's. It wasn't like him to miss a shoot, not to mention one as important as this night's was- after all, they could shoot most of the movie only at night and with the days steaily growing shorter there wouldn't be much more time. They were already a few days behind schedule. He hated letting them all down on account of his own discomfort, and decided to follow Kate's and his director's advise in catching a few hours of sleep. He was positive he'd feel much better afterwards.

But it was much easier said than done. He barely got a moment's rest as he fought against his fever, unable to get comfortable under the hot blankets and shivering quite a lot without them. Coughs came and went, though he was mainly plagued with hard, wet sneezes that he'd given up on restraining and covering.

Suddenly he heard someone coming up the iron stairs and in the door. "Leo?" he turned his head to find Kate standing there, wrapped in a blanket, soaking wet.

"Yeah?" he answered, wondering why she was back so soon. The fits of coughing had stolen his voice. Though it now sounded a little deeper, it was weak and very unLeo-like.

She sat down on her bed, looking him over to find him in worse condition than before. "It's a little past 3 in the morning," her accent was richer when she whispered, and it stood out now as she spoke softly, calmly, comfortingly to him. "I convinced James to let you sleep a little longer. How are you feeling?"

He sat up, surprised and stuffy, wondering if, in all his restlessness, he had actually been able to sleep a little. "Past 3? I should get..." he felt the familiar sensation in his nose and let it come, filling his nose gently but fully, forming into a deep, strong, "HAHH-SHOO!" followed immediately by a second, "HARAH-CHUSH!" thowing him forward as if were on the boat already.

He noticed Kate gathing up things and inquired as to what she was doing. She began to reply but was cut short by three more sneezes from Leo, a strong, wet double, "HAHH-CHEOO! HAhhhSHUSHH!" and a few moments of pause where his face froze in helpless, pre-sneeze position before he let it out, "HAPT-SHUSHHH!"

"Bless you!" Kate said, closing the bag and holding her hand out in front of him for her to take.

He looked at her, confused as to what she was doing and a bit hesitant considering his embarrassing spells of dizziness and fainting earlier- a role he certainly did not wish to reprise.

"Come on, Leonardo. I said I was going to figure out a way to get you out of this."

He narrowed his eyes at her, his brows furrowing enough to make him look unresistable.

She broke out into a smile. "Where's your sense of adventure? Don't you trust me?"

He took her hand.



Leo sat wrapped in blankets, basking in the warmth of a lovely sunrise as he sat next to Kate in an old pick-up truck. She had managed to wrestle it away from one of the techies, a lighting crew guy who had a knd heart and a weakness for beautiful women who batted their eyelashes in his face.

And as he sat there with Kate, the only thing he could think of was how wonderful it felt to get away from it all for a while. While he loved his work with a passion many actors never felt, he had to admit that had he not been getting such little sleep and running himself down from working so hard on his character and lines, he might not have fallen ill in the first place. He looked over at her with a weak but large smile, thankful that he had her as such a friend.

She caught his look and returned the smile with pleasure, glad to see the fever hadn't taken everything from him. Suddenly she felt a sneeze coming on. She did her best to prevent it from coming- rubbing her nose, sniffing silently, holding her breath- but nothing at all seemed to help. She covered her nose and mouth with her hand ever so politely and turned her head away from Leo to give a soft but beautiful sneeze, "AhCHEo!" She felt her cheeks flush red and his eyes focus themselves on her with more concern. She turned her head slowly to see him now frowning at her. "Bless me," she excused herself, knowing just as well as he what the small sneeze meant.

Part 2

---

E-MAIL ME
THE TAROT OF SNEEZING