BREAKING FREE
Chapter Three
When Rose came to, Jack was still
there, holding her hand. She was lying on her bed, still not quite able to
believe what she had just seen. Was it really him? Or was she going crazy? She
was honestly more ready to believe the latter. Wait. He was speaking now! The
other dreams hadn’t spoken.
"Rose," he said,
"you sure faint easily!" He smiled. "Well, I guess that’s what
you get after being brought up in the lap of luxury."
"Jack!" she cried,
almost knocking him down with a hug. "Oh, Jack! What happened? You were
dead!"
"Me?" He laughed.
"Dead? Yeah, right, Rose. You can’t get rid of me that easily!"
"But Jack, I saw it all! A
boat came. I tried to wake you, but you were completely frozen!"
"Yeah, I was, but I wasn’t
dead. I felt so paralyzed. Remember what I told you about drowning? You just
freeze up. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t even open my eyes, but I still wasn’t
dead. Once I was under, I knew that you had survived, and I didn’t want you to
be trapped again, so I tried so hard to open my eyes and swim towards the
boats. I was so tired when we reached the Carpathia, I just collapsed onboard,
and the nurse wouldn’t let me out of the infirmary for days. Otherwise, I would
have found you sooner."
Rose kissed him. "Oh,
Jack!" she said again.
The dinner horn started to sound.
"Jack, do you have anything to eat down there in third class?" she
asked.
"Not here." He sighed.
"There are too many passengers aboard now, so there’re no more food for
third class after second’s finished."
"Well, why don’t you dine
with us tonight?"
"Oh, yeah! Your fiancé will
just love seeing me at the table! Don’t forget, Rose, even though the Titanic
is gone, the world hasn’t changed enough to allow us to be together. You’re
still engaged, and I still have absolutely no money."
"I know, Jack, but you need
to eat something. I’ll just have you to dinner this one time. Cal would never
want to hurt anyone in public anyway, and we won’t give him reason to. If we
pretend to just be friends, then no one will suspect anything, and Cal won’t
want to change that."
Jack sighed. God, she could be
stubborn sometimes. After all, he was hungry. "Okay. Fine. Just this once,
though. I’m only doing this because I trust you! If anything happens…"
Rose laughed. "Jack, what
could happen? We’re both survivors!"