"What's your name, kid, what's your name?"

Jack held the crying boy in his arms. The little kid just kept crying, so we ran towards the stairs. We got halfway up when we heard the door burst and the water rush down the hall. Shit!

The gate was locked.

"Help! Help us! Please!"

A man came bolting out of a door.

"Sir! Sir, please help us!"

The water was up to our waists now. The man started up the stairs, paused, and turned back. Shaking, he tried several keys, but none worked.

'Please! Please hurry!"

He dropped them.

"I'm sorry," he stuttered. "I…I dropped the keys. I'm sorry."

No shit you dropped them!

Jack hands the boy to me and ducks underwater. The gates open just as the water rises to neck level. I swim to the next set of stairs, check to see if the boy is okay, and then look for Jack. He is nowhere to be found. "Jack? Jack!" He surfaces, gasping for breath. Oh, thank God!

We head upstairs into the steward's passageway, but come across another dead end. Jack slams his shoulder against the door and it breaks. We are free! The tilt of the deck is a bit more pronounced now, but a steward is still persuading the first-class passengers around us that everything is fine. He spots us coming through the broken frame and starts to follow us, nagging about paying for the property we broke, how we can't go that way, blah blah…

"Shut up!"

Jesus, that man is clueless to how much danger we're all in! Worrying about something that'll be at the bottom of the ocean in God knows how long!

On the deck Officer Lightoller, I think his name is, is standing to our left directing women and children into a lifeboat. The cold Atlantic ocean is slowly but steadily growing closer to where he stands. Jack turns to me.

"Rose, Rose you gotta go with them. I'll find my way onto the boat. Don't worry, Rose."

But I refuse. "No, Jack. You are going first, or else I'm not going anywhere. That's the way it's going to be." He looks at me sternly, but I do not break my gaze. He sighs and turns. He makes his way to Lightoller, who lets him in, as a few other men who are holding children are let on in a lifeboat behind us. I move towards the boat and join Jack.

Everything looks great, except for whom else but Caledon Hockley shoves his way through the crowd with a kid in tow. Jack and I exchange a glance and he moves to the far side of the boat. Don't let him know you're here, the look said. I'll tell him you didn't make it.

I grab a shawl from the bottom of the boat and use it to hide my face. Cal climbs into the boat, but the water is rushing up too fast. The boat threatens to capsize. I hold on for dear life as Jack hands the boy and helps the other men trying to free the boat. We break off and start rowing away from the suction. When all is calm, Cal sits and glances over at Jack.

"You!" he spits in that all-too-familiar way. Jack does nothing but glare back, daring Cal to call him out on faking fatherhood. And Cal for once shuts his mouth. He can be condemned for the very same thing, and he knows it. I turn my back, and listen. I hear Cal whisper "Rose?", and Jack reply solemnly "No".

Then silence.

A part of me feels sorry for Cal; he loved me, after all. But another part of me reminds me he tried to kill us, and despite the fact he just saved a little girl's life, he probably only used to just to save his pure-blood ass. Jack did it to save me; he knew I wouldn't go anywhere without him. That's different than Cal's motivation. Jack isn't selfish. And I bet Cal won't even consider adopting the girl! Jack would, I would. The boy probably lost his father, just as the girl probably did too. Who could condemn the poor souls to a life of foster families, orphanages, and doubt as to where they came from? These kids deserve to know of their parents' fates. They deserve to be loved and cared for. Perhaps Jack would agree to adopting Cal's "child" too? I shall have to ask him.
It's so quiet now.

Our lifeboat is gliding through the glassy waters following a boat with a green lantern. A row of lights can be seen at the horizon—a ship? Well, if it is we have at least four hours before reaching it.

Plenty of time to brood about Cal.

Plenty of time to freeze to death.

Plenty of time to forget about my family.

And plenty of time to think about my new one.