ALL THE WAY
Chapter Fourteen

Jack walked down the quiet hall, tiredly making his way toward his old bedroom. The whole house was asleep, and he could think of nothing better than doing just that.

He had been up for the last hour, sitting downstairs in the kitchen and thinking about what to do with the house. He just couldn't make up his mind, though. And besides, he wanted to talk it over with Rose, and she hadn't been around lately. Either she was just very busy, or just avoiding him. He didn't know. Everything was scrambled around in his brain and he couldn't think. The only thought that was clear right now was the thought of sleep.

Yesterday, he and Rose and decided to sleep in that bedroom, mostly because of the reason that sleeping in his old parents bedroom seemed creepy. Instead, Jillian, Danielle, and the twins had taken up residence in that room and Michael, Luke, and Alex had made up a makeshift sleeping area in the spare bedroom. Sarah Kate, Robert, and Debbie were sleeping downstairs in the living room, and would simply fold up their blankets and put them in the corner when it was time to start the day.

Quietly, Jack pushed open the door to his bedroom and crept inside. To his surprise, an oil lamp was still burning on the desk. Rose, though, was lying on the side of the bed closest to the wall, her back facing the door. He couldn't tell if she was sleeping or not; she made no sound and didn't move when he came into the room.

Sighing softly to himself, Jack kicked Rose's discarded clothes aside and stripped down to just his pants. He quietly turned off the lamp and climbed into the warm bed next to Rose, who still did not acknowledge him.

"Rose?" he asked softly into the darkness.

"What?" Rose responded dryly, and almost with a hint of bitterness.

This shocked Jack. Usually Rose loved it when they would lay in bed and talk. Something was going on. So he reached over and turned the lamp back on, filling the whole room with light again. Now he could talk to Rose properly.

"What's going on, Rose?"

"I don't know what you mean," she said back, not bothering to turn over and look at him.

Jack sighed heavily and reached over to roll Rose onto her other side so she would look him in the eye. She stubbornly looked at him.

"Jack, leave me alone. I'm tired; I want to go to bed. If you want to talk to someone, go talk to Sarah Kate. She'll talk to you."

And then it all clicked in Jack's mind. He knew why she was avoiding him, not talking or bothering to be around him. He had been spending a lot of time with Sarah Kate lately, leaving Rose in the dust. She had every right to be acting the way she was.

"Why, Rose Margaret, I believe you are jealous," he accused, almost teasingly.

"Jealous! Me? That's absurd."

Jack clucked and took her reluctant hand in his own. "You are jealous, Rose," he told her.

Rose stopped looking at him and instead looked down. "I don't know what you are talking about, Jack," she mumbled quietly.

"Rose..." Jack hinted as he lifted her head up by tipping her chin up.

Rose gave up. Jack was giving her the look that meant that he knew what she was thinking and could read her mind.

"All right, you win. Maybe I am jealous. But Jack, I have a good reason. You're always with Sarah Kate, you're always talking to her, you're always talking about her. You've hardly said anything to me in the last two days that didn't involve her. Ever since she got here it's 'Sarah Kate this' and 'Oh, guess what Sarah Kate said?' I want you to get close to your cousin again, Jack. I'm happy for you. But, Jack, I miss us." She paused and took a deep breath. "I don't know why this is driving me crazy," she continued. "It just is. It never bugged me before. In fact, I love Sarah Kate. It's just--"

"You feel left out," Jack continued softly before Rose could say anything.

Rose nodded as she looked at Jack. "Yes," she sighed heavily. "I'm sorry, Jack."

"Hey," Jack whispered before kissing her forehead. "It's okay. I have been a jerk, too. I should have realized what I was doing."

Rose smiled. "And I'm sorry I got so jealous. I do love you."

"And I love you. Now, tell me, what's been going on the past couple of days that I should know about?"

"Well," Rose giggled, snuggling closer to Jack until she was wrapped up in his arms. "I took Michael and Jillian sledding yesterday. And, I was going down this huge hill and I was on one of those sleds that you turn. You know what I mean? The one with the little metal thing on the front? Well, I was on one of those and I couldn't figure out how to turn it and I ran into this snow-covered bush. The sled flipped over and I went face first into the snow." She started laughing and glanced up to Jack with adoring eyes. "Michael was laughing so hard that he had to sit down. And Jillian just helped me up and then she laughed about it with me."

Jack chuckled heartily and kissed Rose again, this time on the lips. "I wish I could have been there," he told her.

"Oh, me, too," Rose agreed. "You would have laughed and then I would have pulled you down next to me and planted your face into the snow." She laughed at the thought. "So, what happened with you?"

Jack thought for a moment. "Well," he finally said, "I listened to Sarah Kate talk for two days. And that was about it."

"Nothing else happened?"

"No," Jack replied and then he laughed.

Rose smiled softly as she started to look around the dimly lit room. Remembrances of Jack's childhood still hung around, reminding them of what used to be. It was old, and yet, you could tell that even back when Jack was younger, he still had the same style and flare for things as he did now. The only thing that struck Rose as odd was that there were no books. Jack loved to read, they both did in fact. A nightly ritual at home, hours would be wasted on a good book. Sometimes they would read separately, and sometimes it was one reading to the other. But either way, there were always books present.

Rose turned back to Jack. "Did you not read as a child?" she asked gently.

Jack nodded and sighed deeply. "Yeah, I read. But we didn't have money for books." He stopped and a faraway look crossed his face. "The library is really where I got everything from. I liked it all right, but not like I love reading now. Back then there was always something else to do, except for at night. I would lay in bed for hours, just absorbing the words on the pages. What about you?"

Rose smiled a wistful smile. "Are you kidding? Books were my only escape." Dramatically, she waved her hand through the air. "If I couldn't be permitted to go places and do things, I got my information from those books. I read everything from how to play sports, to hunting books, to romance novels, and history. History was my favorite. Napoleon, Alexander the Great, Ancient Rome, The Civil War, Aztec Indians. Oh, and Ancient Egypt--that was my favorite." Rose stopped and giggled. "When I was about ten," she explained, "I went through a period of wanting to be an Egyptian Princess. Mother never knew of course. But Father did, and he humored me so much. He would go along with my games and teach me all sorts of new things." A shadow crossed her face. "But then, things just started to change. Father died, Mother took over my entire life. Reading was the only thing I had left, even if I couldn't let myself get carried away like that."

Jack was quiet for a minute. "You know," he finally said. "There are so many things that we don't know about each other."

Rose glanced up at Jack with wondrous eyes. "What do you mean, Jack?"

Jack sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "I mean, like we know everything about each other that has happened since 1912. And we know a lot about things before that time. But there is still so much. Like that thing about the books, I never knew that, Rose. And what, we've been married fourteen years. I...it...it just seems kind of weird. You think you know someone so well, then bam! You learn something new. Like that jealousy thing, Rose. I never thought you would be the jealous type. Of course, I never thought I would be that insensitive, but still."

"Yes, that is true. But Jack, that's not always bad. Its called discovery, and rediscovery. It's all part of being married--even if that period has been fourteen years."

Jack nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I see what you mean," he said, sitting up and leaning on his elbow. He looked down at Rose. "It's sort of...seducing and sensual, too."

Rose burst out laughing. "What are you talking about? How did you get something sexual from what I just said?"

Jack grinned and brushed some loose hair out of her eyes. "When you said rediscovering, I thought of us rediscovering certain body parts and certain other things about each other," he said in all seriousness.

Rose couldn't help it, she started laughing again and shook her head. "Thirty-four, Jack," she reminded him. "You're thirty-four years old."

"Yes, and you're thirty-one, but that doesn't stop you," Jack lovingly argued back. He moved again until he was laying on top of her. "So, what do you say, Rose. We never did have our adventure, I guess you would call it, in the crawl space under the stairs."

Rose giggled softly. "No, we didn't," she agreed as she looked up at his piercing blue eyes, which, at first glance, looked as if he were having trouble keeping open. "And you're right, right now would work, too."

With that Jack leaned down and was about to kiss her, when a huge yawn escaped his mouth. He sort of went limp on top of Rose and she started laughing softly, realizing how exhausted they both were.

"Oh Jack, darling you and I are both tired. Let's just forget it tonight. Tomorrow night works, too," Rose offered when she noticed Jack's eyes were almost closed.

Jack shook his head and managed to open his eyes up. "I'm up, I'm fine," he mumbled groggily.

Rose laughed at his foolish comment. "Jack Dawson, you are not fine," she said, putting him in place. "You're falling asleep right in front of my eyes." And as if to seal her comment, he yawned loudly again, moved off of her, and fell back onto the pillows. "See!" Rose giggled after he finished.

"Okay, maybe I am a little tired," Jack said after Rose's last accusation. "I give up."

Rose kissed his forehead and ran her fingers through his hair one last time. "Good," she mumbled, snuggling back down into his warm arms.

Jack closed his eyes tiredly and kissed her the top of her head one last time. "All right. Good night, Rose. I love you. Sweet dreams."

Rose grinned adoringly up at Jack as she scooted up so that her head rested against his. Closing her eyes, she took his hand and whispered, "I love you, too, Jack. Good night."

Chapter Fifteen
Stories