ALL THE WAY
Chapter Twenty-One

Ruth blinked once, stood still for a moment, and then blinked another time. She couldn't believe her own eyes. Standing in front of her was no other then Jack Dawson, the man she believed she would never see until she was dead and gone. Her mind immediately started to raced with a million thoughts. Either he had survived, or she had died just now. Confused, Ruth looked around at her surroundings. The green grass was still there, the sun was still setting, and all the people she had seen before were still standing around. There were no angels playing harps, no fluffy white clouds, no pearly gates. She couldn't have died, and that could only mean one thing. Ruth gulped and tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come.

Jack was obviously less confused than Ruth was at the moment. He knew he wasn't dead. He knew he had survived. But the shock was as great. Never, in all his years, did he imagine he would end up staring Ruth DeWitt Bukater in the eyes. Rose had made it very clear that she wanted nothing to do with her mother years ago, and after a while, Jack had just stopped suggesting that she get in touch with Ruth. As much as he would have liked to see Rose patch things up, he was relieved that they wouldn't have to deal with her. That all just changed and he quickly started looking around for his wife. This was certainly something that she was needed to be notified of. He scanned the area, not finding her anywhere. Jack sighed and then turned back to Ruth. He looked at her for a moment while he decided what to do. Finally, he did the only thing he could really think of.

"Ah, hello, Ruth."

She was taken aback by that. Her expression changed from shock to a slight frown. Not knowing what else to do, Ruth simply spoke a quick hello. She couldn't think of anymore then that. Averting her eyes, she pretended to rummage around in her oversized purse for something. Her ticket accidentally fell out of her hand as she did so, but before she could grab it off the ground, Jack reached down and handed it to her. She took it cautiously.

"Enjoy the play?" Jack mentally kicked himself; what a stupid question. Here he was, standing in front of a woman who he assumed thought he was dead and he asked her about the play? He really was an idiot, and this proved it.

Ruth cleared her throat and then, confused as she was, started talking to him. "I did actually, very much." There was an awkward silence for a minute. Neither knew what to say next. Finally Ruth spoke up again. "You're Jack Dawson, right? I'm not just imagining or seeing things. I mean, it's really you...alive."

Jack chuckled to himself. "Yeah, that's me. Alive and kicking in Santa Monica, California."

Ruth's eyes widened. She had known for the last few minutes, but something about hearing it from Jack made it really sink in. Jack Dawson was alive, and had been for all these...what had it been now, eighteen years? Her face went white and she suddenly felt faint. Jack saw her state and quickly reached over for a nearby lawn chair. He sat it behind her just as she started to sit down. Her head was filled with new thoughts, of Jack, the girl on stage, his strange twist of fate, and of Rose. Where was she? Had she survived as well? She looked up at Jack, who was looking around again, obviously trying to seek someone out of the crowd. Then, all at once, the main girl from the play came running out of nowhere with a boy, who looked to be about the same age, or a year older. They came over and stood next to Jack for a moment, before his attention turned to them. Ruth listened as they exchanged words.

"Dad, is it okay if we go to Charlie's for a soda?" The girl asked this while the boy looked on hopefully. Ruth was shocked. The girl who looked so much like Rose was Jack's daughter? Something was going on here.

"Who's we?" Jack asked back.

The boy answered that quickly. "Me, Jillian, Meaghan, Matthew, Grace...ah...who else, Jill?" He turned to the girl and gave her a questioning look.

"That girl who played Hortense...Dorothy. And…um…a couple of other kids from the crew and stuff. Please! It's sort of like an unofficial cast party."

Jack gave the two children a look, and then said, "All right. That sounds fine...if you take Luke with you. Be back by dinner, which is in about an hour." There was a groan from the kids, but they agreed and then scampered off. Jack turned back to Ruth and gave an apologetic smile.

"My kids," he explained simply, not offering the fact that they were Rose's children as well.

Ruth nodded her head; she had seen that. She was still sitting in her chair, confused and shocked beyond all words. The girl...Jillian...was really getting to her. She looked, and sounded, like Rose so much that Ruth could have sworn it was her daughter at fourteen. It took a few minutes before Ruth noticed that Jack was looking at her, almost expecting her to say something.

"They look like nice children," Ruth offered, glancing at Jack while she said so.

Jack was pleased. Ruth was being civil with him. That was a good sign...maybe it would be less of a trauma when Rose showed up.

"Yeah, they are," he said, smiling softly.

"How old are they?" Ruth asked, trying to keep a conversation going. She couldn't stand the silence...it allowed her mind to wander.

Jack was once again happy with the way this was going. Ruth was definitely showing some interest. This might not be as bad as he originally thought it would. And as long as she had questions, he would answer them.

"Michael, that boy you just saw, is fifteen and Jillian is fourteen. I've got two others as well, Luke, who you probably heard me mention. He will be eleven in November. And then there is Danielle, who is almost eight."

Ruth offered a small smile. Jack certainly had a big family. Now the question was who the mother of all these children were. She was excited, and somewhat scared, about what he might answer to that question. Rose would be a shock, and anyone else would be confusing considering the girl, Jillian's, looks.

"Have you been married long?" Ruth asked, trying to get Jack to answer her other question without actually asking it.

Jack flinched. It looked like he was going to have to tell Ruth about Rose sooner then he hoped. He took a deep breath and wondered how to answer the question. A direct answer would be shocking...but maybe just a date would be good.

"Yes, actually. It was eighteen years this May."

The mental calculations in Ruth's mind quickly came into focus...eighteen years...that would be 1912! Her heart skipped a few beats as her mind raced around what this meant. Rose had to be alive. That could be the only explanation. Jack wouldn't have married someone just weeks after the sinking unless it was indeed Rose.

Jack noticed Ruth's paled face and knew that she had figured it out. He was about to offer an explanation when a voice behind him called out cheerfully, "Jack!" He spun around and saw none other than Rose coming towards him, with a big smile on her face. He tried to block her view of Ruth so that she wouldn't see her mother before he could tell her.

"Jack, honey, I couldn't find..." Rose's voice dropped off immediately, and Jack knew that she had seen.

Ruth too, had seen. And for the second time that day, she couldn't believe her own eyes. Rose was standing no more then five feet from her, alive, talking, walking, and...Ruth's eyes widened...pregnant! Her daughter was not only alive, but pregnant, married to Jack, with four other children. Ruth's brain physically ached as she tried to take in all this information at once and for a moment she thought she might be sick.

Rose only continued to stare at Ruth from over Jack's shoulder. At first she had felt shock, but now it was anger. Her eyes began to slant and she glared at the woman sitting in the chair. How dare she come back and disrupt their lives like this! She moved around Jack and quickly walked over to her mother. Jack quickly followed behind, wanting to make sure Rose remained as calm as possible.

"What are you doing here?" Rose asked icily.

Ruth's eyes widened and she sat back in shock. Rose was obviously still upset and from the looks of it, extremely mad. Her nostrils were flared out, her eyes were slanted and raging, and her voice was hard. Before Ruth could even explain anything, Jack, to the rescue, cut in.

"Ah, sweetheart, I was just outside looking for you when I ran into your mother. She had no idea that we were here. Or even alive, I suspect. We had only been here for a few minutes before you came up." He stopped for a moment and tried to figure out what to say next. The two woman were still staring at each other, one in disbelief and the other in anger. He had to fix this somehow. "Um…look, Ruth...we haven't had dinner yet...would you care to join us back at our house? That would be all right, wouldn't it Rose?"

Rose turned and glared at Jack. He had backed her into a corner and he knew it. She hated it when he did this. It made her look like the bad person if she disagreed with him. And not wanting that to be the case now, she unenthusiastically agreed.

"Great!" Jack exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "We just have to track down Danielle and then we are set."

"She's in the car," Rose said, folding her arms over her chest, "which is where I am going." She spun around on her heels and then started across the grass towards the parking lot.

Jack sighed and turned toward Ruth. "I'm sorry," he apologized to her. "She's been short with everyone lately."

Ruth nodded understandingly. "It's fine, Jack. I can imagine I irritated her emotions, and I probably deserved what I just got, considering everything."

Jack tried to laugh, but he couldn't bring himself to. He was worried about how this was going to go over now. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he extended his arm to Ruth, who stood up and accepted it gently. She was still hesitant about this whole thing. But she went along with it, and would go along with it. Anything to make Rose like her again.

*****

The car trip home didn't go over well at all. Rose insisted, somewhat stubbornly, on sitting in the back seat with Danielle and not up front with Ruth and Jack. No one had said a word at all, except for Danielle who kept asking who "that woman" was, until Rose told her to hush. Thankfully, the school was only minutes from the Dawsons’ house. The unbearable silence had been only for a short while.

After arriving home, Rose had sent Danielle up to play and then left into the kitchen without a word to either Jack or Ruth. It had been a few minutes before he motioned to her to go into the kitchen and Ruth had nodded before disappearing in the same direction Rose had gone. Jack had sighed before sitting down on the couch, where he now was. This was more than he had wanted to deal with right now. He had hoped, initially, that Rose would kiss and make up with her mother and everything would be fine. But now it was abundantly clear that it would not happen that easily.

He was pondering these things when Danielle wandered into the parlor and stood in front of him. It was a moment before Jack noticed her, but when he did, he smiled and drew her close to him.

"Hey, Deenie," he said softly, kissing the top of her chestnut-brown hair. "How are you doing?"

Danielle shrugged her shoulders and then said, "Okay, Daddy."

Jack pulled her onto the couch and sat her next to him. "Just okay?" he teased, hoping to get a smile out of her.

"Yeah," Danielle mumbled. She was quiet for a minute, and then asked, "Daddy, who is that lady who came home with us?"

Jack mentally groaned. He really didn't know that say to her...what could he say? Almost every answer he could think of would go against everything the children had been told growing up. He wasn't about to do that without Rose's consent.

"Um..." He stammered to find an answer. "She's just someone your mother knew a long time ago, and she hasn't seen in a while." He didn't think Danielle actually believed him, but she was pretty good at acting like she did.

"Oh, so is she staying with us?"

"I don't know right now," Jack answered, happy he could finally give an honest answer. "I guess we'll see."

*****

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, things were not going too well. Rose had pretended not to notice when her mother came in, and instead concentrated on getting the potatoes in the oven and a salad started. She was still very angry, and not knowing what to think, didn't know what to say. Secretly, she was a tiny bit happy that her mother was now clued in, but mostly, she just wanted to cause her pain for all the hell she had put her though. Looking at her daughters now, she could never imagine doing what Ruth had done. It was disgusting and a coward’s way out. No one deserved that.

Ruth watched intently as her daughter angrily chopped carrots. She knew that Rose was upset, and she had every right to be. She just wished that she would talk to her. They had been here for some time now, and not a word. Just the endless sound of chopping. It was actually getting kind of annoying. How many carrots could one person handle in a salad? Ruth watched for a few more minutes before she finally had to break the ice.

"So you're not going to talk to me?"

Rose spun around, the knife still in her hand, and glared at her mother. It would have been funny, because she looked awkward like that with her stomach, but Ruth dared not laugh.

"What am I supposed to say to you, Mother? You just come here, without any warning, and just expect Jack and I to forget everything and forgive you?"

Ruth stood up and came closer. She stared at her daughter and just shook her head. "Do you even think I had any indication that you were still alive? Don't you think I would have tracked you down years ago, if I had known?"

Rose didn't know what to say to that. Ruth had a pretty good point; she would have tracked her down years ago, had she known. She looked down at the floor, avoiding her mother's look, and didn't respond.

"Rose, listen to me. I know I made some awful mistakes, and I can't take them back...even though I want to so badly. You have no idea how guilty I've felt all these years. And now, we've been given a second chance, Rose. We can patch things up and have a real relationship."

"How do I know that you're telling the truth, Mother? How do I know you're not going to drag Jillian out of here and try to marry her to some Hockley relative or something?" Rose turned back around quickly and started working on the salad again, leaving her mother with that question. It was one she thought Ruth would take a long time to think about, but she was wrong. Her mother spun her around forcefully and looked her directly in the eyes.

"Because I have changed, Rose. That's why," Ruth said, strongly and evenly. "I've been living in New York for the past eighteen years, supporting myself without the help of the Hockleys, who, by the way, threw me out a month after you left. I had to get a job, live off myself. I had to buck up. And you know what? I did it, and I learned a hell of a lot in the process."

Rose backed away, really shocked. Not only had her mother used he word hell when not talking about religion, but she had also used the phrase buck up. That was totally unlike Ruth. She looked her mother up and down and noticed there were a lot of physical changes as well. Ruth was actually wearing a skirt that came above her ankles, and a reasonably low cut blouse that would not allow for a corset. There was no hat atop her head. Instead, her hair, graying, but not dramatically so, was hanging free in a very stylish, very cute, shoulder length cut. Rose sighed heavily. Maybe Ruth was telling the truth after all, she thought. But it was hard to shake the images of her childhood away. All she kept seeing was her mother's face twenty years ago, hard as stone, telling her about their dire situation. The way she had hit, shook, and yelled endlessly night after night--it was all still fresh in Rose's mind. And then there was the little matter about her husband. The words Ruth had said that April morning were playing over and over. People can change, Rose, she reminded herself, trying to change her own mind. She needed more, though.

"What about Jack?"

Ruth cleared her throat. "What about him?"

"What do you think of him now? Are you going to promise to be civil to him?"

"Of course I am!" Ruth cried out, shocked. "I've been civil to him for the last hour, in case you haven't noticed. He's the one I've felt the most guilty about lately. He didn't deserve to be dragged down because of my stupidity; it wasn't his fault he fell in love with you. I promise to treat both of you with the worth that you deserve. I swear to God, Rose, I've changed. I've wished every day for the past eighteen years that I had another chance with you two. And now look where I am. I am not going to throw this away."

Rose was finding it harder and harder to find a reason not to forgive her mother. The words were sincere enough, it sounded like. And she had been civil, respectful, lord, even nice to Jack ever since she had run into him like that.

"I just don't know," she mumbled, and then sighed. The baby kicked and she placed her hand over her stomach and looked down. She didn't want her mother to see her cry.

Ruth a finger under Rose's chin and lifted it up so that she might look in her daughter's eyes, calmly this time. Those blue eyes, flashing shades of green as they were prone to do, were overflowing with tears. Ruth couldn't help but smile. She knew she had won her over, even if Rose hadn't admitted it yet.

"Oh, my girl," she whispered and softly pulled her into an embrace. Rose reluctantly accepted, slowly allowing Ruth to hug her. It was odd; for seventeen years Ruth had hardly hugged her at all. "I missed you," her mother went on to say. "I can't believe how this has turned out."

Rose pulled away and wiped her eyes free of the tears. "What am I supposed to tell my children?" she asked hoarsely. "They don't know about Titanic, or any of that. I can't tell them now. And besides, they think you're dead!"

Ruth was smiling as she shrugged. "Make something up. I don't really care what you say, as long as it's good things." She reached out and touched the ends of Rose's hair. "You have the most beautiful children I have ever seen."

Rose blushed, and then, for the first time, smiled at her mother. "You're going to have to give me time. It's going to take me a while to get used to you around again."

Ruth nodded. "I understand, Rose."

"And you can't just drop by anytime you want. You're going to have to let Jack or I know. You know, at first, before everyone is used to you."

Ruth nodded once again, smiling this time. She was prepared to do anything that Rose threw her way.

"And you're going to have to let the children call you Grandmother, no matter how much you hate it."

This time Ruth laughed. "Of course I will. In fact, I am looking forward to it."

Rose hesitantly started to smile again. "I guess we can work on this, then," she said softly, before reaching out. This time, it was she who hugged her mother. Ruth responded warmly, secretly cheering inside. She had won. She had gotten her daughter back. That morning she had woken up with no family, and now she had a son-on-law, a daughter, and four, almost five, grandchildren. It was too much, and she softly started to cry, causing Rose's eyes to tear up again.

That was how Jack found them, a few moments later. He stood in the doorway of the kitchen and just smiled as he watched. Things really had changed. He was still shocked, but it was starting to wear off. Then, all of the sudden, there was noise from the front hall. His three oldest were home. Chuckling to himself, he slowly turned went in the direction of their voices, letting mother and daughter have a few more minutes alone before the house was once again turned upside down.

Chapter Twenty-Two
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