Chapter 2- Together in Paris
JACK'S P.O.V.
When I woke up the room had Lizzy, Brock and Lewis on the other three beds. Rue was still beside me. She had, in truth, taken all the covers. I surrendered them to her as she slept soundly and slowly got off the bed. Outside the windows it was dark. A clock on the bedside table that Rue had called a 'digital clock' said '10:47'. I silently walked through the curtains into the sitting room. My stomach growled but all the materials around me were foreign so cooking was not a possibility.
I grabbed a bag off the table.
"Dor-eet-ohs?" I murmured reading the bag.
I pulled at the sides until the top of the bag popped open. Inside were a bunch of triangular orange dusted crackers. I delicately picked one up and sniffed. It smelled of queso dip. I cautiously took a bite. It crunched slightly and I cringed hoping not to wake anyone.
It wasn't until two seconds later that I realized how delicious it was. I shoved more in my mouth not carrying about the crunching of the crackers or the obnoxious crinkling of the bag.
"Hungry?"
I turned my head to see Rue standing in the doorway of curtains with a smirk on her face.
"A little," I smiled.
She grinned and walked towards the sink. Rue sighed and pulled down two small cardboard packages.
"Noodles?" she asked.
I shrugged and nodded. She filled a glass measuring cup with water and put it in a white box with a black screen on the door of it. It made beeping noises as she pressed the numbers on the panel. A light illuminated the inside and the machine hummed to life. I jumped.
"That's a microwave. You know? The cooking machine I mentioned?"
I nodded in a daze. She laughed softly sitting at the small table. She gestured to the seat on the other side and I sat down placing the chips on the couch.
"So… where were we before you fell asleep?" I asked.
"Whoa-whoa-whoa! YOU fell asleep on ME, Jack," she protested.
"What? You're crazy. It was you," I replied.
Now I was just trying to irritate her. It was funny. Her indignant reaction was cute.
"Jack Dawson, you fell asleep on me!"
I smiled.
"What was your full name again?" I asked.
"Rue Rose Dewitt Dawson Calvert."
"Explain the significance of each please," I requested.
She gracefully stood to her feet and waltzed over to the microwave just before it 'BEEEEPED' loudly. She opened the microwave and removed the glass of hot water. Rue opened each cardboard container and began to pour the water inside.
"Well, Calvert was the last name of the man my Great Grandmother ended up marrying. My last name was Meyer, but my mom divorced her previous husband about four years ago so we went back to Calvert. Dawson was my Great Grandmother's false maiden name. Her true maiden name was Bu-"
"Bukater," I finished.
"Yeah, that, but she preferred Dawson… At least that's the name she gave them when she was rescued from the Atlantic. They say she took the name… because of you, Jack. She wanted to be closer to you so she took your name as her own. Cal and her mother never found her. They thought she was dead. She was anything but," laughed Rue softly.
"And Rose and Dewitt are for your Great Grandmother," I said.
Rue nodded as she set a steaming foam cup before me with a plastic fork stuck inside. She dipped her fork in her own and pulled out curly noodles. I inhaled it.
"Smells like chicken…" I mused.
"Chicken flavored Ramen Noodles. Best invention ever."
I raised my brows and took a bite.
"Okay, that is a steaming cup of dreamland," I sighed.
She laughed and shook her head, letting her red curls bounce.
"And what about Rue? What is a Rue? Is it just a name or does it stand for something?"
"Well, my resemblance to Rose was prominent from the second I was born. I was going to be Rose Dewitt Dawson, but my mom thought that I deserved to be my own person so she chose Rue. It's a strongly scented evergreen shrub, sometimes used in folklore. Or, you can go by the emotional definition which is regret and sorrow. Personally, I would rather be a piece of greenery than sorrowful and filled with regret," she grinned.
"Gee… I'm gonna have to go with the folklore shrub. A sorrowful shrub. Gee. Being named for sorrow and regret makes you sound like a bastard child…" I grimaced with a wink.
She laughed happily as she scooped out more noodles.
"Thanks, I never thought of it that way till now, Jack!" she whispered.
"Well, if it means anything… I don't think you were an accident child at all, Rue," I said softly.
Her wide grin softened to a look of wonder and enchantment.
"Thank you," she smiled looking me straight in the eye.
At a moment like this, Rose would have blushed and looked away, embarrassed but happy. Rue was wearing her heart on her sleeve. She kept eye contact and showed she was happy to my face.
I grinned at her and she smiled back. Rose's smile. Identical. She noticed my intense staring and sighed, looking into her cup.
"I'm beginning to think you only like being around me because I remind you of my great-grandmother."
I shook my head with a small smile playing on my lips.
"No. Not like her at all really."
She raised an arched brow at me and cocked her head ever so slightly.
"Really? I was told I acted a lot like her," she replied.
"Not the Rose I knew."
"You didn't get to see her after she made it back to land. I don't know much about how she acted before she got off the Titanic but I know that she became a very outgoing and adventurous person."
"Rose was very polite and kind… but she was a spoiled brat. She was bossy and could be very immature… but she was so complex. A complexity that made her interesting. She was stuck between being a porcelain doll and becoming a tumbleweed in the wind like me," I said nostalgically looking away.
I looked back at Rue who was staring solemnly downward. Had I offended her?
"To imagine Rose with that…fire all the time is too much. Her vulnerable side gone and her fiery side all out there for the world to see?"
"Is that…bad?" asked Rue.
I raised my brows and shook my head.
"No. Sounds like my dream girl. Rose was already my dream girl and what I loved about her was that fire. When you love someone, you accept them for the good and bad. Well, I accepted her for the fire I loved, and the bratty conformist I wanted to disappear. To have all fire would mean she was even more flawless than before. I don't know if that would have felt fair. She'd get me with my faults and things she loved and I would get her with everything I loved and no strings attached."
"I don't think you have any faults, Jack," said Rue softly.
I looked at her. She was still looking into her cup of noodles. I took a large bite from my cup and wiped off my hands. I stared at her deeply.
"What's wrong?" I questioned.
She sighed and stirred her soup before meeting my eyes. She let them pierce me. I was listening intently now. All my attention to her.
"Nothing is wrong. It's just… guys who like fire in a girl don't mean what you mean. They like a fire that makes the girl want to hop in bed with them and have sex. They interpret my fire… as a desire to constantly have sex. They think I'm easy."
"And do you…have sex with them?" I asked.
"No. No, I don't. They'll… ask me to go on a date with them… then when they try to make a move and I refuse… they get angry. Once, I went to this firework show with this guy, Reed, and we were in his car and he kissed me. It was our first date and I thought it was a bit forward but I went with it anyway. Well, he began to feel me up. Touch me everywhere and I told him I didn't like that. He kept doing it and I told him I didn't like it again. He touched me again and I punched him in the face. He kicked me out of his car and drove off. Then he told everyone at school I wasn't as easy as I seemed so one asked me out again."
I stared at her in pity. How pathetic.
"The whole walk home… I cried. I remember thinking then that… when he told everyone and no one asked me out again I wouldn't want to be with them anyway. They would use me. They would just have sex with me and leave me. So I am waiting for a guy that wants to know me and not… sex me," she sighed.
I stared at her. Rue looked uncomfortable as she lounged back in her chair, staring at her foam cup. I had to change the subject.
"So… how hard did you punch him?" I asked.
She laughed softly and looked at the ceiling assessing the power of her punch.
"Enough to make his nose bleed."
"That's pretty damn hard."
"Yeah, he cried."
"He cried?" I laughed.
"Oh yeah. That's probably one of the main reasons he kicked me out."
"What a pansy…" I smiled.
"I'd like to see you withstand a punch from me without crying."
We stared at each other with intensity and mock ferocity.
"Some other time, Rue," I said softly.
She smiled at me and collected her cup from the table.
"You done?" she asked gesturing to my cup.
I grabbed it and sucked out the broth before swallowing the last clump of noodles. She sneered comically and I handed it over. Rue dropped them in the trash and sat down on the couch. I stood from the table and joined her.
"Rue, why do people not value fire like yours today?" I asked.
She shrugged.
"It was not respected in my day either. It's pretty unfortunate."
"In the 60s and 70s girls were liked for being like me. Now, the fire I have reflects how good you are in bed," she scoffed.
"Well, maybe you can bring it back."
She shrugged.
"To be honest… I don't care what anybody thinks about me."
I smiled at her and nodded.
"You shouldn't care," I replied.
She beamed and nodded. Suddenly I found my head inclining towards her. She was leaning towards me too. I watched as her eyes slowly closed. My eyes closed. Our lips brushed and-
"SHRIING!"
The curtains swung open, and we both moved back. It was awkward and she was very obvious. Her eyes were looking everywhere but at me. I looked at her in disbelief. Lewis stood before us with a look of confusion.
"I-" Rue began.
"Don't care to know, thanks very much," Bodine said putting on a pot of coffee.
Rue looked from him to me. Instead of getting up and leaving… she smiled and nodded at me. Why? Because she had fire. A fire that kept her from being embarrassed or permanently hurt. A fire that gave her optimism to keep moving forward. A fire I was falling in love with. Looking at Rue, I felt like I had on the Titanic. In love…
Rue's Point of View
It was odd. The instant connection I had with Jack. I wondered if it was in my head and I was only thinking it because of the way he and my great grandmother had hit it off. Either way, I had laid there and watched him sleep for hours before I actually dozed off. It was amazing to see. A young man who my great grandmother had loved and lost, come back over a century later…for me to fall in love with him.
I looked at Jack for a moment in the midst of Bodine's awkward presence. Quickly I shook out of it. Shook out of my trance on the magical Jack Dawson. His ice blue eyes looked at me and a small smile played on his lips. I smiled slightly falling back into those enchanting eyes. Seconds later I realized I was doing it again. I quickly stood and looked at Jack. He looked puzzled. I sighed and went back into the bedroom shoving the curtains shut.
My mother and Brock were talking in angry whispers on the bed.
"Well, I have a daughter!" she hissed.
"I don't care!" he replied.
They looked up and saw me staring. I sighed.
"Want me to go?" I asked.
They looked at one another.
"No, no. I was just leaving," my mom said rising to her feet and exiting angrily.
I looked at Brock and bit my lip.
"Rue, I was-"
"Don't even worry about it, Brock," I cut in walking to my bed.
I sat down with a large sigh and raked my fingers through my fiery mane.
"Something wrong?" he asked.
I stared at my feet and refused to meet his eyes.
"No," I said quietly.
"Is it Jack? Did he hurt you?" Brock questioned.
I could feel his eyes scrutinizing me.
"No, no, that's not it," I said with a grim laugh.
I wish he was. I wanted to hate Jack Dawson but instead I found myself enveloped by him. I didn't want to like him. He only liked me because I looked like his Rose. He wanted her. My personality was different from hers. He even had said it. Jack had loved my grandmother's fire… I was too fiery. I was all fire, he had basically said. Too much for him.
He liked the idea of being with Rose's twin great granddaughter.
"Rue?" Brock said.
"Hm?"
"You are… falling in love with him… aren't you?" he asked.
I massaged my temples.
"I don't know what you are talking about," I said looking at him deeply.
He gave me a sympathetic smile.
"There's nothing wrong with falling in love," he grinned.
I laughed softly and shook my head.
"How do you believe in love when my mom is being a total bitch about being with you?" I asked.
Brock smiled at me and shrugged.
"Because in the end, her choice will make her happy. I only care about her happiness. When you truly love someone that is all that matters."
"What are you saying? That you love my mom? How? You've met her twice in your life," I said scornfully.
"Sometimes you know immediately. You should understand that better than me," he smirked with a shrug.
My brows furrowed and eyes narrowed. Not a look of anger. A look of wonder. How could he tell?
"Why are you so afraid of liking Jack?"
"Because it isn't me he'd love! It's Rose!" I hissed.
Brock frowned.
"How do you know?" he asked slowly.
I stared at him for a moment slowly breathing in and out.
"I'm not Rose. Rose was his true love. I am not her. He even said it. I am not his true love. How can you genuinely love someone who is not your true love? It's done. He's done with loving someone for who they are. He'd only love me because I look like Rose," I whispered.
"Then forget him. Just be friends. Nothing says you have to like him," Brock replied.
'I can't forget him. I like him and it scares me because I barely know him,' I thought.
"Oh, so you're in love. Unrequited love. It sucks. I'm it too. Obviously. Well, Rue, here's what we are going to do. I'll stop chasing your mother. I'll let her come to me if she wishes. You will stop rejecting Jack. Express how you feel and your personality. That's the best way to figure out his true feelings."
I stared at Brock. He got off his bed and walked over to me. I stared him up and down.
"Deal?" he asked extending his hand.
I stared from his hand to his eyes. I smiled just a little and shook his hand. He grinned.
"Why don't you stay in here and calm down. I'm going to talk with your uncle. Kind of ignore your mother. Hard to get you know?"
I laughed and lied down on my back with a nod. I heard the curtains rings screech and realized Brock had left.
"Stop rejecting. True feelings," I whispered to myself.
I stared at the ceiling for a moment and slowly sat up. I slid out of bed and walked over to my suitcase. I removed a tight red top with black beading of roses on the front. I slipped on some black jeans and red ballet flats.
I walked to the mirror and fluffed my hair, giving it body. I grabbed my makeup bag and took out the eyeliner. In two swift movements I lined my lashes. Next, came the sparkly beige eye makeup. It made the green-blue in my eyes pop. I snatched my dark lipstick and swiped it on my lips giving myself a bow lip.
In the mirror I admired myself. Sexy. Sensual. Hot. I took a deep breath and walked to the curtains. This would definitely light Jack's fire. I opened them slowly and stepped out. Jack talked animatedly with Bodine. My mom stood making coffee. She looked at me.
"Well, you look nice. What's the occasion?" she asked.
"We'll be landing in about six hours so I thought I might as well dress."
This caught Jack's attention.
"I felt so…" he trailed off looking at me up and down.
Bodine turned around and raised his brows. I casually smiled and plopped onto the couch watching my mom make coffee. I felt Jack still looking at me.
"Jack, continue with the story," Bodine urged.
There was three more seconds of silence. I looked at Jack. He stared at me with a small smile. I gave him a nod of approval. Bodine looked at me for a second then back to Jack.
"Jack. Story. Now," he growled.
"Right. Sorry. So it felt like I was falling asleep, ya know? Then I felt myself sinking fast," Jack said nostalgically.
I wasn't listening. I was too giddy over Jack staring at me so in awe. I sighed.
"Rue-1. Brock-1,' I thought with a small grin.
"So, Rue, are you excited about Paris? This is your first time," my mom said reaching into the cabinets.
"I'm very pumped. I can barely wait," I smiled.
She pulled down two cups and looked at me offering to give me one. I nodded. Coffee sounded great. Too bad coffee didn't wake me up. Only made me sleepier.
"Well, they have a great college for American's who want to act, Rue. We could check it out?" she offered pouring the coffee into the mugs.
"That'd be awesome," I said.
She passed me a mug. I cupped my hands around it warming them slowly. She sat beside me and sipped her coffee. I followed her example.
"So how many times have you been to Paris, mom?" I asked.
"I've been about four times. Each time with your great grandmother."
"Ah… well, did she like it?" I questioned.
"She loved it. It was her second home practically. This is my first time without her," she replied looking into her coffee cup.
"I'm sorry," I replied.
"Don't be, sweetheart."
I sipped my coffee and the room went quiet again. I looked to see Lewis standing and about to walk to the cockpit where Brock was. Jack watched him walk out.
"Jack, when we get in Paris we'll get you some new clothes," my mother said.
"I appreciate it, ma'am," he said cordially.
I looked up from my coffee to see Jack looking at me, smiling. I smiled back and nodded before taking another sip of my coffee.
"So you want to attend a university, Rue?" he asked.
"Yeah. I would study architecture or cinema. I would rather study cinema, but I love architecture. Acting and designing are fun to me."
"Me too!" Jack laughed.
I laughed softly.
"Don't be wrong, lady, I love to draw but it's always fascinating to designing a building where somebody is gonna live, ya know? Some place where someone is gonna have a life and family. Look at art… maybe even mine," he mused.
"Well, when I design my first building I'll makeup an art museum and acting studio. We'll hang our art and I'll act for people to keep them entertained. It'll be a big business," I said with a wink.
"That's my kinda plan, miss," he grinned.
I watched my mom and Bodine exchange looks of curiosity. I tucked a lock of hair behind my ear.
"So, did you manage to get any sleep, Rue?" my mom asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"Well, Jack fell asleep and you watched him for a few hours before falling asleep yourself. I was curious," she replied sipping some coffee.
I felt myself blush.
'Thanks, mom,' I thought harshly.
Drowsiness overcame me and I set down my coffee.
"Now, I'm tired," I yawned stretching out on the couch, and kicking my mom off.
"Ouch!" she laughed.
"Yeah, Rue, rest. Now I'm gonna stare at you while you sleep. Does that make you uncomfortable?" Jack asked.
I heard a smile in his voice.
"No, it does not, Mr. Dawson," I replied.
Then the darkness overcame me and I hoped to sleep more than a half hour this time around.
JACK'S POINT OF VIEW
20 Minutes Later…
Rue had been asleep for twenty minutes.
'Mr. Dawson…' she had said.
She had sounded just like Rose. Lewis and Lizzy discussed Paris and the summer home Rose had bought where we were going to stay. Lewis was paranoid the cops would follow us or tell the French Embassy. I was as well… but none of it mattered. Rue was sleeping before my eyes. I couldn't make heads or tails of my feelings for her.
I felt in love… but why was the question? Because she resembled Rose… or because her raging fire personality captivated me. Rue held nothing back. She was not a lady like Rose. She was a woman. A fiery and beautiful woman. Could she ever find the strength to believe me though? I wouldn't believe me, that was for sure.
'No, I love you because you're you! Not because you resemble my other half who I long to be with!' I thought sarcastically.
"Jack? You okay?" asked Lewis.
"Yeah, fine," I replied eyes still on Rue as she slept soundly.
Lewis followed my gaze and sighed, giving Lizzy a look.
"I guess I should move her to the bedroom," Lewis said walking towards Rue.
"No, no, no… I mean, I can do it," I said softly.
Lewis backed up as I delicately rose to my feet. I approached Rue silently.
"Jack…" Lizzy said.
I looked at her.
"She's not Rose."
"I know, Lizzy," I replied.
"Don't break her heart," she added.
"It's obvious you like her," Bodine said with a smirk.
"I do not. I'm a friend. She's helping me. I can't love someone I don't know."
"Or do you know her?" Lewis said.
"Leave the boy alone," Brock said entering.
Lizzy looked at Brock, then her feet, then me.
"Don't hurt her. She may come off as tough, but she's made of glass," Lizzy said.
I was silent for a moment. Lizzy and I made tense eye contact.
"Yes, ma'am," I said softly.
She gave me a nod of approval.
I knelt beside Rue, her rhythmic breathing soft. I slowly slid my left arm under the knee area and my right around her shoulder area. Her head lolled so it was resting on my chest. I slowly rose to my feet and walked towards the curtains. I closed my eyes as I pushed through and look down at her. Her lips barely parted, her brown lashes resting on the hollows of her eyes, she was an art form. True art.
I walked to the bed from earlier and set her close to the edge so I could pull down the covers. I gently slid her into the middle and dragged them over her. She nuzzled her head into her pillow. I brushed hair out of her face and sighed softly. I silently turned around and began to exit.
"Jack…" she murmured softly.
I turned around and looked at Rue. Her eyes still shut.
"Jack…" she murmured again.
"Yes?" I whispered.
"Jack, save yourself…" she mumbled.
I raised my brows. She was sleep-talking?
"Jack, save yourself…" she said again.
Then what she said next made my heart stop beating. It filled me with butterflies.
"You jump, I jump, Jack…"
