HEARTS CAN BREAK
Chapter Three

It was a monument of glazed crystal, reflecting blue and white tones on the wooden deck. Their eyes moved up and down the enormous height of the berg as it towered over them. Ice as white as snow rained on deck.

"Get back!" Jack shouted, moving in front of Rose to shield her as they both stared at the berg.

They watched as it seemed to glide past them as the pearl color faded into the velvet night as it scraped along the starboard side of the bow. Jack could picture the metal and steel being slashed and water colder than imaginable streaking through the ship. Titanic was a miracle. His fears were groundless. Yet as the iceberg disappeared, he found that he was left shaking in its place. He ran to the rail, following its path until it was out of sight. He turned.

Rose was white as a ghost. All of the glow and blush from their experiences had vanished behind a frothy, terrified expression that chilled his insides. He wrapped his arms around her as she leaned against him, trying to protect her from something he was already pondering.

The Titanic wasn't unsinkable.

Rose shivered and allowed Jack to turn and guide her back to deck, where he picked up a chunk of fallen ice. It showed no signs of melting, but stayed hard and frozen.

"Do you hear something?" Rose asked suddenly.

Jack stood empty-handed and listened.

Rose realized it wasn't a sound, but rather the absence of sound. The steady, throbbing engines deep inside the ship had stopped completely. It was as if the Titanic's heart had died, leaving the liner lifeless. She shook with barely sustained dread, not wanting to know why they were at a complete standstill.

They stood for several minutes, musing in absolute bewilderment, until Rose began to shiver, not with fear, but with cold.

"C'mon. Let's go inside," Jack whispered, engulfing her in his coat. She looked up at him, welcoming the sureness of his voice. He leaned over her to kiss her hair, but at the last second she turned her head and he was kissing her lips instead.

They stood, mouths melting against each other's, for as long as Jack dared. He was aware that Rose could get sick if she stayed chilled for too long, so eventually he broke the kiss and began to help her up the flight of metal steps to a higher deck.

As he opened the top gate separating the foremast from the steerage area, the lovers passed four men talking rapidly on their way below. Rose recognized Captain EJ Smith, Mr. Andrews, and Officer Wilde, but was puzzled by the identity of the last crewmember. They caught snatches of conversation.

"She's all buckled up in the forward hull, and the mail hold is worse."

"Can you shore up?"

"Not unless the pumps get ahead."

"Have you seen the damage in the mail hold?"

"No. She's already underwater."

Jack whistled as the men bustled past. He held Rose's hand while he watched the captain's straight, square shoulders fade into the darkness much like the iceberg had.

"Whew. This is bad," he muttered. He shook his head.

Rose, who seemed to have recovered some of her voice, sighed. "We should go tell Mother and Cal," she stated. Jack looked down at her face. What did she mean? Was she saying that the night had meant nothing to her, that she wanted to return to society? That she wanted to marry a scumbag like Caledon Hockley?

She met his gaze with her sapphire eyes and shook her head. "No, darling," she whispered. "I'm still staying with you. You can't get rid of me that easily."

He cracked that grin of his, which was interrupted by a quick kiss and Rose's hand tugging his to the first class section of the ship. He followed, feeling guilty that he could smile so broadly while the ship was crippled. But then again, they couldn't really be in danger, could they?

When he woke from his train of thought, he realized they were stepping into the lift on E-Deck, the very same one they had tumbled out of hours before.

"B-Deck," Rose ordered as the bellhop now pulled the lever into the up position. She wrapped her soft, light arms around his neck and stroked a turn of hair from the back of his neck. "It'll be fine," she soothed. "They can't change my mind. Not now, not ever. Just--trust me."

He laughed a little. "Okay," he answered. Yet his heart was throwing itself against his ribs and his head felt light and dizzy. Jack was never this afraid of people. They could do nothing to him. He took a deep breath as the elevator creaked to a stop and the doors were opened. Rose led him out onto the linoleum floor that lay beneath the Grand Staircase. The first man that greeted the both of them was Spicer Lovejoy, who had obviously been waiting.

"Just keep holding my hand," Rose muttered as they walked to him.

"We've been looking for you, miss," Lovejoy drooled, a fake smile pasted on his face. The couple completely ignored him and took quick, determined strides to Rose's suite.

Jack felt something heavy on his side but thought it to be his own nerves. Although his hand was in his coat, he didn't explore the pocket. He was too uneasy about the meeting that was about to occur.

However, unknown to Jack and Rose, Lovejoy had been sent on a mission to frame Jack Dawson. He had stealthily slipped the priceless Heart of the Ocean, the blue stone Rose had worn for the drawing, into Jack's pocket. Because Jack hadn't investigated, the scheme would go undetected. For just a moment, Lovejoy longed to take the jewel back out, but remembered that this boy had run from him, taking Mr. Hockley's fiancée in body and heart. He didn't regret any actions.

Cal was perched nervously and unsurely on the sofa. He had seen the artist's work and had gazed upon it longingly. He would give anything to make Rose DeWitt Bukater look at him like that, like she was in love with him. With feeble efforts he had attempted to win at least some affection, but he had known all along it wasn't working. He had given her the diamond because it was the only way he knew to show his feelings. Obviously, all had failed. He had turned into the man she saw him to be, a rotten bastard who was plotting against the steerage gutter rat she had taken a liking to. Depressed, he grabbed a cigar, lit it, and blew rings of smoke around his head.

Jack and Rose walked in, Rose's hands playing around Jack's fingers, her mouth set in a determined line. Everyone froze upon their entrance as Lovejoy shut the door silently behind them. Ruth had not seen the sketch, of course, but had been pacing madly in the back of the stateroom. She stilled now, looking with horror upon the man whom her daughter was basically entangled with.

"Something serious has happened," Rose began, as calmly as she could. She was, of course, referring to the iceberg, but not another soul in the room saw it that way.

"Yes, it has," Cal growled. Jack moved closer to Rose, as if to protect her should anyone try to become physical. Cal saw the movement, slight as it was, and realized it would be not be very gentlemanly to knock his fiancée down in front of the Master-at-Arms, nor very smart.

"Indeed," he continued maddeningly. "Two things have disappeared from me this evening. Now that one is back, I have a pretty good idea where to find the other." His dead brown eyes swept Jack's form. "Search him."

Jack let go of Rose's hand. "Ah…now what?" he groaned. She looked confused.

"Come on. Take your coat off, sir," the chief officer prodded.

"Cal, we're in the middle of an emergency. What's going on?" Rose asked angrily. Cal's thoughts were swept from his head by the look his wife-to-be was giving him. Although she was, he had no doubt, in a fury, her fiery red hair and now icy blue eyes were so attractive to him that it was all he could do to open his mouth.

He was saved from having to respond by the master's assistant, who pulled a glimmering something out of Jack's pocket.

"Is this it, sir?" he asked exasperatedly, eager to get this done and over with. A blue diamond dangled from his thick fingers, throwing patches of light around the room.

"That's it," Cal answered.

Jack's eyes widened as his expression thinned. His voice, however, grew stronger. "This is horseshit!" he yelled, filling the whole room with his words. Rose looked shocked and hurt. Jack's insides turned. Oh, God, he didn't want her to hurt. If anything, he longed to take away her pain.

"Don't you believe it, Rose. Don't!" he went on desperately. She looked from him to Cal and longed to throw herself into those strong, tan arms--for Jack to make everything go away.

"He couldn't have," she murmured, her voice loudening.

"Of course he could," Cal retorted, throwing a rehearsed look of disgust at the blonde-haired young man. "It's easy enough for a professional."

"But he was with me the whole time--this is absurd," she continued furiously.

As Jack shot questioning glances between the two, Cal leaned to whisper in Rose's ear. "Perhaps he did it while you were putting your clothes back on, dear."

Rose shook with terror and shock. Jack, her Jack, would never do this to her. But what if her Jack wasn't the real man…just a pawn in the game for money…what if…

Jack saw the battle going on behind her eyes. "Real slick, Cal--Rose, they put it in my pocket," he murmured, his voice rising in panic.

"Shut up!" Cal yelled. There was no way that this scoundrel was going to ruin his plan. But then Lovejoy came to the rescue.

"It isn't even your pocket, is it, son?" Lovejoy asked, patting the nametag in the collar. "Property of AL Ryerson," he stated as it was handed over to the assistant.

"That was reported stolen today," the Master-at-Arms commented.

Now Jack was pinned against a wall for something he hadn't done. "I just borrowed it. I was gonna return it." He was speaking to Rose, wanting to take the betrayal from her eyes. It was the truth. He had taken the jacket so that he would be admitted undetected into first class--the only sure way of talking to Rose.

Cal seemed to find it all very funny. "Oh, an honest thief?" he mocked, laughing. "We have an honest thief here, do we?" The two strong men began to try to drag Jack away.

"You know I didn't do this, Rose," he pleaded, looking deep into her eyes, the eyes that had met with his in the Renault, the eyes that had stared at his face during the forbidden drawing. "You know me."

Painfully, Rose was aware for a split second that she did know, but then her mother held her back. She had broken her promise. Her mind was changed. With an aching heart, she watched the man she longed for be forced into the hallway.

"C'mon, now. There's a good lad." The officer tried to persuade him.

At the moment, however, nothing mattered more to Jack Dawson than convincing Rose that he loved her. How dare they try to make him out to be this evil?

"Rose! Rose!" he yelled, trying to get her attention, trying to get her to meet his eyes. "You know I didn't do it! You know me!"

The door was shut firmly behind him, leaving Rose with a mix of emotions. There was guilt, shame, anger, pain, and something else she didn't want to identify. Not yet. The thing that hurt worst, though, was that she was trapped back in her prison with the very people she detested, and yet she could only think about the man who might have betrayed her.

Chapter Four
Stories