Prologue
Authors Note: It's my first be gentle please. Reviews make the author happy!
A man takes a sip from a leather flask. He is going to
die. I am going to die. But strangely I feel no sorrow for my own
death that would surely be soon in coming but the pain a feel like a
gaping hole in my chest is rather for the man holding me. I am not
afraid to die. But I am afraid for him….
God she's beautiful. No He shouldn't be thinking like that
now He's gotta to focus. How does he get her outta this? He can't have
her afraid it hurts to much. Alright asses the situation, find a
solution. He can do this. Okay so they have a couple of minutes before
they break in half He thought. He just had to hold onto her until then
and when they came back down they could climb over the rail and go
straight down. Alright here we go.
Oh god! Oh god! Her stomach was in her throat they were
falling! Her neck snapped up as they hit the water. Jack was saying
something "Come on Rose climb over" his hands around her waist. Even
in this situation She still felt the warmth of his touch spread
through her body. She blushed at the memory of the Renault. It's funny
how She'd known Cal for three years and just met Jack three days ago
and yet... I love him. The Thought rang through her head like a bell.
I love him. Her mind traveled back to the first time She heard his
voice. Don't do it. A scoff escapes her lips as the irony hit her.
"Jack, this is where we first met"
Her words broke his heart. He couldn't stand thinking that it
was all for nothing. He made a split decision. She is going to make
it. Even if I don't. They were rising up now almost straight up in the
air. Even thinking about hitting the water made the hair on the back
of his neck stand up. She's so delicate. What will it do to her?
"Oh god!" this is really it. As they descend into the watery
depths below Jack shouted instructions over the roar of the massive
ship surrendering to its icy fate. The frigid spray stung her face as
Jack told her to take a deep breath. They are almost there. OH GOD the
pain! Her chest constricted as the cold, the unbearable cold gripped
hold of her. I cannot feel, I cannot think! Running out of air they
twist and turn in a watery ballet fighting against the pull of the
great ship as it continues it's fall into it's crushing grave. It's so
cold! She saw tiny pinpricks of light as she ran out of air. She
couldn't tell which way was up or down and her grip on Jack's hand was
slipping! It was like holding onto a grown man that was being dragged
down by an 80 ton ship while kicking upward. And just like that, he
was gone. She grasped wildly around for his shirt, his hair, anything
to cling to but found nothing. Swirling in the icy blackness she began
to rise upward. The suction of the once great vessel had released it's
hold on her.
"Don't let go of my hand Rose you hear me? Don't let go!"
her hand was so soft. He had never felt skin so soft. He barely felt
the crushing cold as they plunged into the icy depths, focusing only
on getting her to safety. The ship pulled so hard, he couldn't hold
on. He was dragging her down. Her hand slipped and she was gone. He
opened his eyes against the sting of the salty water and saw the light
above him. He was a fighter. He would not let go. He kicked harder
than he ever had, his lungs bursting, every muscle wrenching against
the water and slowly he rose upward.
Her head broke the surface and she opened her mouth to gulp
down the air but instead her mouth was flooded with salt water and she
was once again submerged. She pushed and up she came. Gulp "JACK!" and
back down. Again. The pressure would not decrease and she felt for
certain that this was the end. And just like that, it was gone. She
turned and her heart soared when she saw his face. All pain was
forgotten. He was all right.
The roar was deafening as Jack's sopping head broke the
surface. People screamed and clung to anything in sight for survival.
How would he find her?
"Rose!" nothing "ROSE!"
"JA-" her voice! He swam toward to strangled sounds ignoring the fact
that he was so cold he could barely breathe. He saw a flash of red
hair being pushed under the water. Fury overcame him as he punched the
man clinging to her once, twice, and he was gone.
"Rose!" he brought her blue lips to his icy ones for a fleeting moment
before pushing on. "You have to swim Rose can you do that?" she nodded
and they began maneuvering themselves around the dying people and
toward the edge of the desperate group. Jack didn't quite know what he
was looking for until he bumped into an ornately carved door. They
both lunged forward trying desperately to cling to the detailed
mahogany surface with no avail. Jack let go. Rose slid out of the icy
water and onto the door. He nodded. Good. She was safe. He swam
painfully to the front end wear her head was. Her hair fanned out
around her, quickly freezing. He knew what this meant. Body heat was
lost eighty percent faster in the water then the air.
"I don't know about you but I plan to write a strongly worded letter
to the white star line about all of this." he tried desperately to
bring a smile to her beautiful face.
"I'm so cold"
"The boats are just waiting for the suction to go down. Then they'll
becoming back. We just gotta hold on until then Rose" it was funny. A
few days ago survival was the only thing that mattered to him. How was
it that this rich spoiled girl had come out of the blue and so
radically changed his perspective? For her her... He was willing to
make the ultimate sacrifice.
"I love you Jack." her feeble words made his heart soar and break at
the same time. He wanted nothing more then to repeat the words back to
her but he couldn't show her that it was over for him. He couldn't let
her see he had surrendered.
"Don't you do that, don't say your good-byes."
"I'm so cold." he struggled to say his last words to her, the freezing
water beginning to take its toll.
"Listen Rose. You're gonna get out of here, you're gonna go on and
make lots of babies, and you're gonna watch them grow. You're gonna die
an old... an old lady warm in her bed, but not here not this night.
Not like this do you understand me?" the thought of her with another
man made his heart ache but she was only seventeen. She had so much
life ahead of her and he couldn't let her throw it all away for him.
"I can't feel my body." he had to tell her, he had to let her know how
much he loved her without directly telling her.
"Winning that ticket, Rose, was the best thing that ever happened to
me... it brought me to you. And I'm thankful for that, Rose. I'm
thankful. You must do me this honor, Rose. Promise me you'll survive.
That you won't give up, no matter what happens, no matter how
hopeless. Promise me now, Rose, and never let go of that promise."
"I promise."
"Never let go."
"I'll never let go. I'll never let go, Jack." he nodded once more.
Good. He could die knowing she would be happy. He let himself drift
off into the memories they had shared over the last three days,
reliving them again and again. Barely feeling his last threads of
warmth and life ebbing from his body.
Rose had never been this cold. It was not like getting
into a bath that had been drawn to early, or forgetting your coat
before a winter walk. This was something entirely different. It was as
if ice had threaded itself through her very veins slowing her heart to
a rhythmic thud... Thud... Thud. She couldn't remember what it
felt like to be warm. It was like she would never be warm again. The
only thing that kept her from slipping into the freezing black water
was Jacks steady grip. It kept her centered. And kept her remembering
the promise she had made him. She would survive this. They both would.
She let her mind drift back the short time they had spent together,
and how much it had meant to her. She had spit in her fiancé's eye,
and reprimanded her own mother, she had found a soul that completely
matched her own, she had made love for the very first time, she had
flown. She went back to that day when he had held her fast against the
bow, caressing her hands with his, whispering gently in her ear, come
Josephine in my flying machine, and it's up she goes, up she goes. She
looked up into the vast and endless stars singing softly their song.
"Rose?" Jack tried to say. He heard nothing. Oh no. No, no, no! He sighed in relief as he heard a soft whisper coming from above him. She was singing Come Josephine.
"I love you Rose." It was as if his vocal chords were frozen solid. He couldn't make a sound. He never got to tell her he loved her. It was probably for the best. "Don't forget me Rose" and with one final, frosty breath, he was gone.
Rose awoke from her frozen haze when a flash of light poured her.
"Is anyone alive out there! Can anyone here me!" The boats were back!
"Jack! The boats Jack! The boats are back!" Her voice was barely above a whisper. Why wasn't he opening his eyes? She gently shook his hand. "Jack?" Her voice rose and octave and her shaking became more frantic "Jack!" she couldn't, he couldn't "JACK! Wake up Jack!" A tear rolled half way down her face before freezing in the frigid atlantic air. No, no, no, no! Please god anything but this! She noticed the light beginning to ebb between rasping sobs. "Come back!" She croaked. She shook his hand once more before accepting the facts. He was dead. The pain was unbearable, like nothing she head felt before. It wasn't just her heart shattering into a million tiny pieces, which it was, it was as if her soul had been broken in half, as if a hole had been plunged through her chest.
"I will never love again." She couldn't take it. The pain the unbearable pain! She shut it off. She became removed from her body as if she was watching from far above. Unthinking, unfeeling, she kissed his rock hard hands one last time, and broke them apart. "I'll never let go" she whispered as she watched her love slip away into the silent black water. She blew the whistle, the boat came, but she felt none of it. She had lost her fire.
Jack awoke from the blackness thinking surely he was dead. Where else could he be? He opened his eyes and was assaulted by the sting of salt water and the feeling of sinking. His lungs were desperate for air so he clamored slowly upward. His head broke the surface and he gulped down air. It was too painful for heaven and too cold for hell. Then he saw the door. It all rushed back to him, assaulting his senses. The door was empty. Where could she be? Did she drown? Did the boat come back for her? He turned in frantic circles.
"Rose!" he called. Just then hands pulled him roughly from the water and onto a solid surface.
"My god! He's alive!" Jack opened his eyes to find an officer peering down at him while a women flung a blanket around his shoulders.
"Rose" He croaked.
"Why it's Mr. Dawson!" Bruce Ismay exclaimed.
"Rose!" He said again. The change from the frigid water to the warmth of bodies and the blanket around his should made his eyelids feel like anvils and a fog creep into the corners of his vision. He fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.