A/N: This idea just popped into my head.
Disclaimer-James Cameron owns Titanic! Come Josephine is in the public domain.
Reviews are always appreciated ;)
c. 1915
It had already been three years since the sinking of the RMS Titanic. After the sinking, Rose had fled her old high society life to travel around the world with Jack, to finally fulfill her deepest desires. He'd taken her to places that she'd only ever dreamed of going. She had been able to see many famous landmarks such as the Sistine Chapel in Rome's Vatican City, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Big Ben Clock Tower in London, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Pisa, as well as explore the various shops, restaurants, and tourist attractions that all of the major European cities had to offer. Jack might have been poor, but he knew how to still have the experiences without paying a lot of money. Rose had been to some of those cities before with Cal, but he'd never let her enjoy it like Jack did.
She'd travelled around with Jack for two years, during which time they had eloped in Rome, before coming back to New York City in 1914. Their daughter Josephine Ruth Dawson was born in early 1915, shortly after Rose turned 20 and Jack turned 23.
Oh! Say! Let us fly, dear Come Josephine in my flying machine One, two, now we're off, dear Come Josephine in my flying machine,
Where, kid? To the sky, dear
Oh you flying machine
Jump in, Miss Josephine
Ship ahoy! Oh joy, what a feeling
Where, boy? In the ceiling
Ho, High, Hoopla we fly
To the sky so high
Going up she goes! Up she goes!
Balance yourself like a bird on a beam
In the air she goes! There she goes!
Up, up, a little bit higher
Oh! My! The moon is on fire
Come Josephine in my flying machine
Going up, all on,
Say you pretty soft, dear
Whoa! Dear don't hit the moon
No, dear, not yet, but soon
You for me, Oh Gee! you're a fly kid
Not me! I'm a sky kid
See I'm up in the air
About you for fair
Going up she goes! Up she goes!
Balance yourself like a bird on a beam
In the air she goes! There she goes!
Up, up, a little bit higher
Oh! My! The moon is on fire
Come Josephine in my flying machine
Going up, all on, Goodbye!
20-year-old Rose Dawson held her 9-month-old daughter Josie, singing softly as she rocked the infant to sleep. The little girl stirred slightly, but her eyes remained closed. Her little chest went up and down as her breathing began to slow. Rose smiled at the precious infant in her arms. Josie looked so much like herself and Jack both with wisps of strawberry blonde hair, a mix of hers and Jack's hair colors, bright seafoam eyes like Jack, and her own moon-shaped face.
"Sometimes I wonder if I really deserve you," Rose mused, stroking the baby's face. "You are so sweet, so innocent, so untainted by society's views and opinions on what you should and should not be."
Josie gurgled but did not wake up.
"Some days I feel so glad that your father rescued me from what could have been, yet others I can't help feeling extreme guilt for just running away... letting my own mother think that I went down with the ship. How selfish I was... but it had been out of self preservation, you see..." Rose continued.
Josie rolled over in her mother's arms with a soft moan.
"Maybe I'm going insane. I shouldn't feel guilty for leaving the people that tried to restrain me in the cruelest of ways, yet I do... and I'm not entirely sure why. I should hate my mother for trying to force me into a life that I didn't want, but I can't bring myself to loathe my own mother, the person who brought me into this world. Because, after all, if it weren't for her... I wouldn't have you," Rose mused as she continued to stare at her sleeping infant.
Josie kicked her little foot and moaned again.
"Your father still doesn't know why I chose her name as your middle name, but I did have a good reason in doing so. I hope you grow up to be everything that she wasn't. I've come to realize that she raised me the way she did, simply because she was raised that way herself. I cannot hate her for acting on all she knew... so by making her name your middle name, it was sort of like giving her a second chance," Rose whispered softly to the baby.
She carried the sleeping infant across the room and placed her in her crib. "And now, I am going to do something that I should have done three years ago," she said, walking over to Jack's art desk and grabbing a scrap piece of paper and a pen. In elegant cursive, she began to write:
Dear Mother,
It's your daughter. Do not be alarmed, for this is no trick.
I am writing this letter to tell you what I should have told you three years ago.
I am still alive and living in New York City with Jack.
Her hand was shaking as she wrote the closing lines of her message.
The reason I ran away is because I couldn't handle the idea of marrying Cal.
Just thinking about it made me violently sick. I couldn't do it, Mother.
So when the ship sank and we were all separated, I seized my only chance
at escape. I am sorry for all the pain I have caused you, but I hope that you
are sorry for all the pain you have caused me.
Sincerely,
Rose Dawson.
Suddenly, Josie let out a louder moan, as she began to stir. Rose sealed the letter and walked back over to the baby's crib. "Shh, go back to sleep," she told her soothingly. The baby rolled over, but her eyes were still open, squinting in the light of the room. Rose reached down and stroked the infant's face. She began to sing to her again.
Come Josephine in my flying machine,
Going up she goes! Up she goes!
Balance yourself like a bird on a beam
In the air she goes! There she goes!
Up, up, a little bit higher
Oh! My! The moon is on fire
Come Josephine in my flying machine
Going up, all on, Goodbye!
What did you guys think?
Should make this a 2-shot and write another chapter where Rose invites Ruth to meet the baby and finally reconcile with her?
I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it :)