An hour later, Jack and Rose were in the backyard, sitting in front of a roaring bonfire. They were joined by Fabrizio, Helga, Tommy, and even Molly. The group had formed a circle around the fire and passed a joint around. No one knew how it happened, but at one point Tommy and Jack had started wrestling for some reason or another. Tommy managed to pin Jack down and win.

They started bringing up old memories. They laughed at the time, just a couple years back, that Jack fell from the tree house and broke his arm. "But I never cried," Jack protested. He looked at the joint in his hand. "In fact, I'm pretty sure I laughed my ass off."

"Did the doobie you smoked right before have anything to do with it?" Fabrizio joked. Jack laughed and nodded. "I've never seen Molly so angry."

"I was pissed," Molly agreed.

The group continued to talk about old times. Fabrizio and Rose went into the house to raid the kitchen for munchies. They didn't make it back outside, distracted by the food. Rose leaned against the counter, an open bag of chips in her hand. Fabrizio stood next to her, his Hershey chocolate bar already half gone.

"Man, my life was so different just two weeks ago," Rose commented in between bites. "If Jack hadn't showed up -"

"I was there too, you know," Fabrizio joked. Rose threw a chip at him.

"Shut up," she said with a laugh. "What made him decide to do it?" she asked him.

"Jack was miserable Rosa. He was hurting so much. Then we found out that the day we returned home was the same day as your wedding." Fabrizio took a swig of his Coke. "I took every opportunity to point it out as a sign."

"I'm so grateful you did," Rose said with a sincere smile. But then her face suddenly turned somber. "You're like a brother, Fabri. Jack's the love of my life." Fabrizio walked to her and hugged her. "I can't lose you guys. Either of you."

"You won't lose us." Rose felt a single tear roll down her cheek. "I've got his back and he's got mine," Fabrizio assured her.

"He asked me to marry him today," Rose said suddenly. Her and Jack hadn't told anyone yet, but Rose couldn't hold it in any longer.

Fabrizio chuckled happily for her. "Took him long enough." Rose pulled away to wipe away her tears and flash him a weak smile. "Rosa, Jack's going to be fine."

"I wanna believe that, but I'm so scared to," Rose confessed. She felt her throat twitch as she held in a sob that had crept up on her without warning. Fabrizio hugged her to him again and Rose began to cry softly.

Rose didn't hear Jack walk in, but Fabrizio did. He didn't need to, but he motioned for Jack to come over anyways. Rose sensed Jack's hands before they even came to a rest on her shoulders. She turned into his embrace. Jack nodded in thanks to Fabrizio, Fabri nodding in response.

"What's wrong sweetheart?" he asked, tightening his hold on her. Rose began to cry a little harder, but it was only for a moment. She sucked in a deep breath.

"I'm more scared of losing you than I realized Jack." Rose pulled from his arms and wiped her tears away. "I'm sorry," she whispered, suddenly ashamed.

"There's nothing to be sorry for Rosebud." He smiled slightly at her. "Or afraid of. I'm a survivor remember?"

"You can't control everything Jack. You got lucky when you fell out of the tree house," Rose began, returning to the earlier conversation. "Luck runs out."

"Rosebud -" Jack began before she cut him off. She felt her fear begin to take over, and she gave into it.

"You might die Jack," she blurted. "You asked me to marry you! What if we don't get that chance? Aren't you scared?" Rose stopped trying to hold back her tears and let them flow down her face, not bothering to wipe them away. "Tonight could be our last night together," she whispered hoarsely.

Jack reached out and pulled her into his arms again. "I'm terrified," he confessed. "I just keep telling myself that I didn't tell you that I love you just so you'll lose me." He nuzzled his face in her hair, inhaling the scent of her. Rose pressed her face into his chest, listening to his heart beat.

His lips were on hers before her sigh ended. Rose had lost count of how many times he had kissed her, but out of all those times, he had never kissed her like he was kissing her now. Jack placed his hands on her face, stroking her cheek with his thumb.

Suddenly Jack's mouth traveled to her neck. Forgetting that they were in the kitchen, where anyone could walk in, Rose let her head fall back. A small moan escaped her lips. "Jack." He pulled away to look at her, his eyes telling her all she needed to know.

Rose led him upstairs. He closed the door behind them and kissed her again, more frantically than before. Jack's fingers found the buttons on her blouse and undid them easily. By the time he was unhooking her bra, she had already slid his pants to his ankles.

The lovemaking was passionate, heightened by the need to be with each other. Rose felt delirious after, almost dizzy. Jack drew in ragged breaths, resting his head on her breasts. "I don't even want to think about how much I'll miss this," she told him.

Jack moved to pull her into his embrace. "I think about it all the time," he confessed. Rose turned and looked at him.

"And nothing else?" she teased with a grin. Jack chuckled.

"No. There's plenty else that I think of." He pulled her tighter to him, resting his cheek on the top of her head.

"Tell me?"

He kissed the top of her head and pulled away slightly, but still kept his arms around her middle. I refuse to miss one second of her before I leave. Jack smiled tenderly at her. "Sure. But first, c'mon, I wanna show you something." Before Rose knew it they were dressed and walking to the El Camino.

"Jack, where are we going? What about everyone else?" Rose asked, confused.

"I'm pretty sure they'll understand if we wanna be alone," Jack told her, turning over the ignition. Rose chuckled, agreeing with Jack.

They drove to the edge of town. The night was quiet and warm. Crickets chirped, and they could hear frogs croaking from a nearby pond. A water tower loomed before them. Rose felt leery of climbing to the top.

"Aren't we always up in a tree house?" Jack asked. "So this is a little higher," he said, looking up at it.

"It's way higher!" Her gaze followed his, looking up.

"You trust me, don't you baby?" Rose nodded. "Go on, I'll be right behind you." She smiled despite herself, and began climbing up the ladder. Even though it was dark, Rose was still shocked at the view from on top of the water tower.

"Wow! It's amazing Jack!" She looked out over the edge, smiling as Jack wrapped his arms around her. "I almost feel like I'm flying."

They were quiet for a few minutes, just listening to sounds of the night. Jack broke the silence.

"I think about waking up to you every morning." Rose turned in his arms and looked at him. "And then I start thinking about falling asleep next to you every night." She smiled.

"That's what I'll miss more than anything." Rose tilted her head up to kiss him.

"Me too," he whispered when the kiss ended. "But I don't wanna sleep tonight. I can sleep on the train tomorrow. Tonight is for us."

Rose managed to blink her tears back and smiled. They stayed up all night and talked about the future. They still planned to go to NYU when he returned. After they graduated they would travel for awhile, and learn about the world first hand.

"Do you want a family someday Rosebud?" Jack, sitting, leaned against the water tower, his hands behind his head. Rose laid her head on his lap so that she was looking up at him.

"To be honest, I haven't decided one way or another." Jack gazed down at her. "I can picture us having five kids running around."

"Five?" Rose laughed at his sarcastic tone. She knew if she wanted ten kids, he'd give them to her.

"You're right. With the way we are, there might be more," she teased. Jack laughed. "But if we don't have any, I'm okay with that too."

They fell into conversation after conversation. Topics would jump suddenly, but there was never a moment of silence. Somewhere in the course of the early morning hours, birds began chirping, singing in harmony with the crickets and frogs.

The sky began to lighten, though they both tried to ignore it. But the growing light refused to be ignored. Like they watched the sunset the night before, they sat as close as possible, watching the sunrise.

"I realized that I never told you what the first thing I plan to do when I get home is," Jack said suddenly.

"I already know what it is."

"Oh do you now?"

"You're going to marry me," she told him. Jack shrugged.

"Actually I was thinking about a good night's sleep in my own bed," he joked.

Rose laughed. "As long as I'm next to you, I can live with that."