Prologue
Rose Dewitt Bukater lay shivering on the rogue door she and Jack had found as Titanic sank, softly singing the song Jack had taught her the night before. "C-come Josephine in m-my flying machine going up s-she, goes, u-up she goes…" It seemed only years ago that she had sang and danced with Jack, laughing at what was one of the best moments in her life. No mother telling her what to do, no Cal forcing her into trivial matters she would rather live without and no snobby rich people putting her under pressure and causing her to throw away her dreams. In the midst of her reminiscence, she heard a voice calling out to her, "Is there anyone alive out there? Can anyone hear me?"
Rose quickly turned to Jack, ice covering her flaming hair, giving it a silvery sheen. "Jack," she whispered, "There's a boat, Jack." However, Jack remained unresponsive. Rose began to become frustrated, why would he ignore her at a time like this? "Jack! Jack! WAKE UP, JACK!" She yelled as loudly as her weakened voice could allow. The realisation slowly dawned on her. Jack wouldn't ignore her after all they had been through. There could only be one reason Jack wasn't answering her. She remembered the promise she had made to him, and quickly called out to the boat leaving, "Come back! Come back!" But those on it could not hear her weak cries. Rose pulled Jack's frozen hands of the wood and kissed them, trying to make good of her promise to him. "I'll never let go, Jack. I promise, I'll never let go." She then let go of him and let him sink into the dark waters below. Tears ran down her face only to freeze in the cold air around her.
She pulled herself off the door, trying to swim to the corpse of the man, who had been blowing his whistle, hours before. As she swam towards him, another survivor, a man, swam past her, pushing her down in an attempt to get to the man's whistle. "N-no! " Rose's desperate cries were muffled by the heavy weight of the freezing water she was now engulfed in. A million thoughts ran through her head, as her short bittersweet life, flashed before her eyes. She saw her father and mother arguing in the vast hall of her home, she saw her mother introducing her to Caledon Hockley, telling her it was a good match and she saw Jack laughing and holding her hand as he pulled her through the boiler room, past all the confused engine workers, yelling at them it was dangerous.
His smiling face was the last thing on Rose Dewitt Bukater's mind, as she sank into the dark depths below.