IF
Chapter Six

Sure enough, Cal had that one drink and left without looking back. As soon as the man was out the door, Jack let out a sigh of relief. He had done it; he had convinced Cal that Rose was dead. All he had to do was make sure that he didn’t come back. That was the last thing he needed. Around midnight, Jack closed up Burt’s for the night and went upstairs. It appeared as if Rose was asleep, but the second Jack sat down on the edge of the bed, she rolled over. She was crying softly. Jack brushed some hair out of her eyes.

"What’s wrong? Cal’s gone; you don’t have to worry about him coming back anymore. He had one drink and left," he said in a soothing tone.

"It’s not that. One year ago right now, right this very second, do you know where we were?"

"On the Titanic. She had just hit the iceberg. You told me that when she docked you were going to get off with me, and I told you that you were crazy. Look at us, Rose! It might not have been the Titanic that docked in New York City, but we made it. The past is the past, and yours was horrible, so you just have to forget about it." Jack kissed Rose’s forehead and slid into bed next to her.

The next morning, Jack let Rose sleep in a little. Around nine o’clock, she woke up and went down to the bar. There was Jessica, sitting at the counter.

"Morning, sleepyhead!" she exclaimed cheerfully. Rose groaned loudly as she poured herself a large cup of coffee. "Now, that’s not very ladylike, is it?"

"You sound like my mother. I tell you, this past year has been the quietest year ever, and that’s with running this place and two children! I can still hear my mother’s voice in my head. ‘You know I don’t like that, Rose’ or, ‘You’re to stay away from him, Rose.’ I still remember the last thing she said to me. ‘Get in the boat!’"

"Don’t you miss her at all?"

Rose smirked. "Honestly? No. She and Cal were horrible to me. I had no say in my life. I hated Cal. The only reason I had to marry him was so we could get money. We were broke. We didn’t have a penny to our name, but we did have a good name, so we used that to our benefit. I hated living like that. I love my life! I have the freedom that I used to dream about, and I’m madly in love with Jack. High society isn’t all it seems. You always care about what people are saying. If your name is as much as tarnished, then you’re ruined. I told Jack that I was getting off the Titanic with him the night it sank--actually, about thirty seconds before it hit that iceberg." Rose laughed bitterly. "Can you imagine my mother and Cal’s reputations if the Titanic hadn’t sank, and I got off with Jack? I would have liked to see that!"

"I never realized that you hated your past that much. I thought that it was all depression from the sinking, not hatred towards your family."

"To me, Jack, Cora, and Marly are my family. That’s it." Rose finished her coffee and went back to the kitchen to find something to eat.

*****

Rose tried to keep busy all day, and was fairly successful with it, too. She was always serving someone, cooking, or taking care of Marly or Cora. She needed to keep her mind off the visitor from the previous night, and the fact that her life had nearly fallen apart exactly one year ago.

"Rose, are you okay?" Jack asked her as he wrapped his arms around her small waist. They had closed up for the night, and Rose was putting the last of the glasses beneath the bar.

"Yeah," she replied. "I was thinking about when we first met. I thought that you were crazy, and you thought that I was crazy, and I never told you this part."

Jack kissed the nape of her neck. "Which part?" he whispered into her hair.

"The part where I looked into your gorgeous blue eyes and fell madly in love within seconds. I never told you that. I trusted you with my life, and you proved to save me and feel the same way about me."

"I fell in love with you before we even met. I bet you didn’t know that! I saw you out on the first class deck in a green and white dress and couldn’t keep my eyes off you. Tommy said that I wouldn’t even get near you, but look at us now!" Jack quieted down. He still missed Fabrizio and Tommy, but knew they were in a better place. "I love you, Rose Dawson," he said into her hair.

"I love you, too, Jack Dawson," she replied.

When Rose had stepped onto the Titanic, she had thought that she was just going to go home to America, to get married to Cal. She didn’t think that there was any way out of it, but there was, and his name was Jack Dawson. He had truly saved her, and she made sure that everyone they told their story to knew that.

The End.

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