Disclaimer: I do not own the movie Titanic of the characters. I only own Anna and Harmony.
Chapter Eleven: Goodbye, But Not For Forever…
The water at the base of the sinking ship was white and foaming. People who fell down the length of the ship into said water, disappeared completely. I was shaking not only from fear, but also from the cold. The air whipped around and stung my skin and made eyes water even more. As the ship began to sink farther down into the water, Jack yelled,
" This is it!" Jack grabbed my hand tightly and wrapped an arm around my waist, holding me close.
" Oh God! Jack! Oh my God!" I said as the water neared us and people were engulfed by it, some never to resurface. Fresh panic washed through my veins and I felt like my heart was going to break through my chest.
" The ship is gonna suck us down. Take a deep breath when I say." Jack said. As the water got even closer, Jack released my waist and just gripped my hand tightly. " Kick for the surface and keep kicking! Do not let go of my hand!" His hand was the only thing keeping me from screaming and sobbing. I was going to do my best not to let go. I nodded. " We're gonna make it, Rose!" He looked at me. " Trust me." I looked at him.
" I trust you!" I yelled over the roar of the water, which was all but feet away from us.
" Ready? Ready? Now!" Jack yelled. Together we sucked in as much air as possible as I started to feel the water hit my skin. As the ship disappeared from the world, into the water, so did we. The water was like liquid ice. It stung my skin and I was shaking even more. Jack and I released the rail but kept holding each other's hands as tight as possible. I could still hear the creaking and groaning of the ship as it continued to sink deeper.
I did as Jack told me to, and kept kicking. I felt his hand in mine and then I felt him grip the shoulder of my lifebelt and turn me towards him. There was a sudden forceful, steel strong pull. I gripped Jack's hand tighter than ever before, but I felt it being ripped away. I desperately searched for him but couldn't find him. I felt my lungs start to hurt as I stayed down in the water. I kicked my way to the surface and when my head broke through the water I gasped for breath than heard all the screaming and shouting. The ocean was no longer an ocean. It was like an ocean of panicked people.
" Jack!" I shouted. I looked at the people around me but I didn't see him. " Jack!" I called in a panic. I began to swim through the water, shouting his name, and scanning the people's faces. As I swam past a shaking, panicking man, he grabbed onto me, and pushed me underwater, trying to keep afloat. I struggled underwater and managed to surface.
" JACK!" I called before the man pushed me under again. I surfaced again in time to hear Jack shout,
" ROSE!" He swam over and looked at the man. " Let go of her!" He angrily yelled. He punched the man three times in the face, and I honestly didn't care if the man was hurt, which he probably was.
" Jack!" I said in relief.
" Swim, Rose! I need you to swim!" Jack urged. He gripped the shoulder strap on my lifebelt and we began to swim. " C'mon!" Swimming through the water would have been hard enough with our mostly frozen limbs, shaking body, and chattering teeth, but with everyone who went into the water flailing, it caused the water to churn and make it extremely difficult to swim through.
" It's so cold!" I managed to say.
" I know, c'mon! Just over here! Keep swimming!" Jack said as we came to a less populated part of the water. There was a floating wall panel. " Here! Get on it! Get on top!" Jack said helping me pull myself up. As I lay on the ornately carved wall panel I panted and tried to catch my breath. I gripped onto the edge as Jack pulled himself on. The panel tilted and we both fell back into the water. Jack pushed me back on and slowly pulled himself to the edge of the panel. He rested his arms on the wood and I pulled myself so we could rest our foreheads together.
" It'll be okay, Rose." Jack said shakily. Now that I was out of the water, I could feel how cold I was. All of me was shaking and I wasn't able to stop. An Officer holding onto a deck chair a few feet away was blowing a whistle. He yelled something about boats and continued to sound the whistle.
" The boats are coming back for us, Rose." Jack told me looking over my shoulder. I knew they wouldn't. Not till it was too late. " Just wait a little bit longer. We're away from the suction. We'll be okay."
" Jack, come up on the panel." I insisted trying to pull him up.
" No! I can't, it only holds the weight of one person. You need to stay on. I'll be okay. He gripped my hands and kissed my knuckles. I would have started crying right then, but I was so drenched I wouldn't have been able to tell.
I could barely feel my fingers and toes. My lips were almost completely numb and it was hard to move. All in all, it was almost like going into a severe allergic reaction. I knew the feeling, having to have been hospitalized for one. It was like a severe allergic reaction, but only extremely cold. Not exactly knowing if I would be able to save Jack was the only thought that scared me. Because unlike all the people in the water, I knew that one boat comes back. But it comes back too late.
I looked at Jack, who was shaking and watching me. I managed to pull myself closer to him and give him a brief, half frozen kiss. I could feel him kiss back but both of us were shaking so much. I rested my hands on his and rested my head on my arm.
Very slowly the sound began to die down. There weren't as many shouts, the whistle was no longer sounding, and I could feel the water rolling beneath me. I took a deep breath of freezing air and let it out. I could feel my hair slowly stiffen as frost began to coat it.
" It's getting quiet." I said softly. I knew by now, almost everyone was dead.
" It's just going to take them a… couple of… m-minutes to get… the boats over to us." Jack said shakily. I opened my eyes to look at him. His skin was beyond pale, and he was shaking a whole lot more than me. Frost had begun to coat his hair. " I don't know about you but… I-I intend to write a… strongly worded l-letter t-to the White Star Line about th-this." Jack said attempting to smile. I rolled my head to rest on our hands and leaned my forehead against his. I honestly felt exhausted. My body hurt, my face stung, and I was sleepy. Every time I blinked my eyes closed for a longer time. I honestly started to think that I might be the one who dies.
" I-I love you, Jack." I said shakily and quietly. I saw him look at me with the most concerned, scared look on his face that I had ever seen in place there.
" Don't you do that." Jack said strongly. He shook his head. " Don't be saying your goodbyes. Not. Yet. Do you understand me?" I was shaking and I felt myself close to tears.
" I'm so cold." I shook harder as I said those words and I felt one hot tear stingingly make its way down my cheek. Jack did something that had not been in the movie. He pulled himself up more and wrapped his arm around my shoulders and gripped one of my shoulders and rubbed my back, trying to keep me warm. He pressed his forehead against mine.
" Listen, Rose. You're gonna get out of here. You're going to go on, and you're going to make lots of babies, you're gonna watch them grow. You're going to die an old, old lady, warm in her bed. Not here. Not this night. Do you understand me?" Jack whispered to me. I felt more tears roll down my cheeks, and that was the only thing I could feel besides Jack's hands and his forehead, and even his breath on my face.
" I can't feel my body." I said in a pained voice.
" Winning that ticket was the best thing that ever happened to me. It brought me to you. And I'm thankful for that, Rose. I'm thankful." He said with a smile. I managed to smile back and pull him just a little more out of the water. I was breathing shakily again, this time from the tears. " Y-y-y… you must do me this honor…" He gripped my hand tighter. " And promise me you'll survive. That you won't give up, no matter what happens. No matter how hopeless…" He took a long pause, scrunching his face in pain before looking back at me. " Promise me now, Rose. And never let go of that promise."
" I promise." I said hoarsely.
" Never let go." Jack said. More tears streamed down my face.
" I'll never let go, Jack." I promised and kissed his fingers. " I'll never let go." He smiled as much as he could for as long as he could and kissed my hand. We rested our heads together and I tried to keep the two of us warm. I'd managed to change the script in the slightest. I had gotten Jack mostly onto the panel, maybe it would be enough to save him. If it wasn't, I'd never forgive myself.
At some point I let my head rest against our arms, and I stared out at the water, knowing nothing else to do. My whole body was numb, I could only feel Jack's face against mine and his hand in my hand. Jack and I slowly listened as the yelling completely stopped and the only sound was the water. The ocean wasn't an ocean of panicking people anymore. It was an ocean of the dead. It was a mass graveyard. I couldn't stand the silence any more and I quietly began to sing 'Come Josephine' brokenly.
I saw a glare in my eyes and I thought suddenly maybe I died. Maybe I was dead. But then I saw a boat. I slowly lifted my head, my cheek stiffly pulling off our arms and my hair cracking off the panel as the frost broke. Jack's arm was still around my shoulders and his head still rested against mine. I smiled a bit and began to shake Jack's hand.
" Jack. Jack." I said in a horribly hoarse voice. I pulled my head away from his and his gently lowered and rested on my arm. " Jack! There's a boat!" I said. He didn't move to answer. No… no! No, no, no, no, NO! I shook his hand harder. " Jack!" I tried yelling but it came out high pitched and broken. He didn't answer. Frost had collected on his hair, the side of his nose, and his clothes. His handsome face was deathly pale. I felt tears sting down my cheeks again. " Jack!" I said as I stared at his motionless body. " No… no!" I said a little louder. I couldn't believe I had let this happen. I could have pulled him up onto the panel myself and not cared if he protested. Why was I such an idiot! I was the reason he's dead. It's my fault.
I felt the silent sobs rip through my body. I reached a hand up to his cheek and stroked it. He was freezing cold. I couldn't bare the thought of him being dead. I rested my head against his as I watched the boat begin to move away. I could here his words in my head. 'And promise me you'll survive. That you won't give up, no matter what happens. No matter how hopeless…' I looked at his face and then back to the boat.
" Come back…" I said brokenly. I lifted my head. " Come back!" I called but it only came out as a whisper. " Come back!" My voice was a little louder, but I knew that by the time I would get my voice loud enough, they'd be long gone. I looked at Jack's face and I looked at the water. I was not going to watch him disappear forever. I would not watch him sink into the water. It didn't look like I was going back to Boston any time soon. So if I get saved, Jack is coming with me.
" I'll never let go, Jack." I whispered.
I began to slide backwards off the panel, yanking and dragging Jack's body up onto it. Once I was in the freezing water and Jack was laying on the panel, I ripped my hand away from his frozen one. I gripped the panel and with a determined look on my face and a determined feeling in my heart, I grabbed the panel and began to swim towards the Officer with the whistle. He was now dead with the whistle stuck in his mouth. When I got to him I gripped onto the deck chair he war frozen to and yanked the whistle from his mouth. I pressed the freezing metal between my lips and began to blow.
The whistle's shrill call echoed eerily over the water. After a few moments I heard someone yell,
" COME ABOUT!" And I saw the boat turn and come back towards me. As they got closer I moved and gripped the wall panel Jack was on. I continued to blow on the whistle and when they came over to me, Officer Lowe had to pull the whistle from my lips to get me to stop. I grabbed Jack's hand and Officer Lowe reached down and wrapped his arms under mine and began to pull me out. I was pulling Jack with me.
" Miss, please let go." Lowe said.
" No! I'll never let go!" I said repeating my promise to Jack.
" Miss, you're going to have to let go of him!" Lowe insisted, trying to pry my hand from Jack's as he pulled me into the boat.
" No! I love him! I am never going to let go. I need him." I said looking at Officer Lowe. Lowe must have seen something in my watery eyes as the other men in the boat began to wrap me in a blanket, because he leaned over the edge and pulled Jack into the boat. The men lay me down in a the wool blanket and Lowe gently rested Jack's body beside me.
" I'm sorry, Miss." Lowe said to me quietly, tears visible in his eyes.
" Thank you." I managed to whisper before silent sobs shook my body and hot tears rolled down my cheeks. I slid one hand out of the blanket and pulled Jack as close as possible. I took his hand and again I quietly said, " I'll never let go."
OOOO
As the sun began to rise and I was warmer that before, I rolled on my side and pulled Jack to me. I rested my cheek on his forehead and desolately stroked his hair, he was still cold but he didn't feel like ice. I just needed to feel him beside me, pressed against me. I didn't bother to see who was staring at me and where we were. I just wanted Jack.
I shut my eyes and continued to stroke Jack's hair and his face. Slowly I began to feel like I was underwater. I could feel the waves. I could feel the water gently rock against me and surround me. I felt it brush my face and I felt a little cold. I let out a long breath and I felt darkness wrap around me, and I felt someone's warm arms wrap around my waist.
Afterword: MY GOD! I CRIED WHEN I WROTE THIS! But please, please, please, please, please, please, PLEASE DO NOT KILL ME. Like I said, I have a surprise at the end of this story! And this is NOT the last chapter. Some of the surprise was in this chapter with Rose/Anna taking Jack with her, but the MAJOR HAPPY FUN TIME surprise is in the next one.
Giving you a hint to the surprise, what is this chapter named? Yep, its Goodbye, But Not For Forever. Sooooooo the next chapter holds the surprise!
I'd love reviews! Thanks!
