Jack stood in the lobby of the inn. He had to know if Rose was real. He had been sitting in a doctor's office in Madison when he picked up a magazine that was on the table.

Magazines at doctor's offices always annoyed Jack. These doctors would put out magazines and books they had never read. And most of them weren't even interesting. They had medical journals, and tabloids. No newspapers, no New Yorker magazines. They just had the stuff no one ever wanted to read.

But this time they had something else. Jack was at the dentist and he was relieved not to be met by the tabloids and gory medical journals. He sat down and looked at the selection, and saw a hospitality magazine.

The inn on the cover. There was something about the inn on the cover. It was quaint while also being large, and was beautiful yet understated. Jack didn't know what it was about the inn on the cover, but it was just begging to be picked up by Jack.

Finally, he obliged. He picked up the magazine and flipped through it, stopping at the page with the larger story about the inn on the cover. He read for only a moment before looking at the small picture of the manager. It was Rose.

Jack couldn't breathe. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. He must have been imagining it. So he looked at the caption for the picture. "Rose Dawson," it read. So not only was Rose alive, but she took Jack's name.

Holy shit. How did he not know she was alive? How was it possible that sixteen years passed and Jack hadn't known she was alive? Rose was alive this entire time, and Jack didn't know.

Jack was still convinced he was making this entire thing up. But there was one way to be sure that he wasn't imagining it. He could go to the inn. It was in Branford, California, and Jack could go there and see if it was real. So he did.

Now here he was. Standing in the lobby of the Branford Inn. He felt like an idiot - a delusional idiot - and after waiting there for thirty minutes, he knew Rose was a figment of his imagination. But suddenly, she entered the lobby and went behind the front desk. "Branford Inn, this is Rose," he heard her say.

He waiting for the phone call to end, and then he went over to her. He still couldn't believe she was real. Standing in front of her, he just waited for her to look up. Look up, he was screaming in his head. "Checking in?" Rose asked. She still hadn't looked up.

"Yes," said Jack without thinking. He didn't have a reservation, but whatever. How could he get her to look up? This was going too far.

"What's the name on the reservation?" Rose asked. Jack was losing his patience at this point, but Rose asking for his name gave him the opening he needed.

He chuckled. Finally! Finally this could all be over. "Jack Dawson."

•••

Rose suddenly looked up and saw a familiar face smiling at her. She gasped, then froze and didn't know what to say. What could she possibly say? He was dead. Frozen at the bottom of the ocean. For sixteen years. So how was he here? How was he even alive?

Rose was still frozen. She had dreams about this, but somehow he wasn't disappearing like he had in her dreams. He was standing there. Right in front of her. "Jack?" she said, a tear running down her cheek.

Jack put his hand on Rose's. "I'm here," said Jack, smiling. "Is there somewhere we can go and... talk?"

Rose finally came back to her senses. She took the hand that was atop hers and walked to her office with Jack. Finally they arrived. "I-I don't understand. You were dead. For sixteen years, you were dead."

"I'm not dead," said Jack, his hand still holding hers. "I'm right here."

Rose was crying now. "You were dead. You are dead. I must be going crazy."

"You're not going crazy. I really am alive." Rose was still crying, and Jack put a hand against her damp cheek. He leaned in and gave her a light yet loving kiss. Rose wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. The kiss intensified until Rose pulled away.

"I still don't understand how you're alive. I watched you go underwater. I watched you die."

"When I was underwater, I had a final surge of adrenaline and made it back to the surface of the water. You weren't there, and I thought you were dead. I made it onto the same piece of wood you did, and a boat came back and took me aboard. I made it to Carpathia, put my name on the survivor's list and looked for yours. You weren't there. No one by the name of 'Rose' was there. So I assumed that you were dead."

"I put my name on the list. But I didn't write Rose Dewitt Bukater," said Rose.

Jack smiled lovingly. "I know. Rose Dawson. I love it."

Rose smiled in return. "Wait. But how did you find out I was alive?"

Jack reached into his bag and pulled out a magazine. It was the magazine on the inn, and it had Rose's picture and name in it. "I found this, and decided to come here and see if it was real. And I'm so glad it is," said Jack. "What I don't understand is how you were saved."

"A boat came back for me and I blew the whistle around a crew member's neck and the boat came back for me. And I made it to Carpathia as well, and put my name on the survivor's list." Rose gasped. "Oh my god. I didn't check the list because I assumed you were dead. You must have put your name on the list before I did."

"I guess so," said Jack. "What happened after that?"

"Well, I docked in New York and stayed with my sister for a while. Then I moved here, and lived here ever since," said Rose. She hadn't brought up Josie; it wasn't the right time. "What happened to you?"

"I moved back to Chippewa Falls, back into my family's home, and started working. I threw myself into my work as a distraction, and that's it. That was my life."

Rose groaned. "Ugh, I can't believe I was so stupid. I should've just checked the list. Then we could've avoided all of this."

Jack took a deep breath. "Rose, I have to ask you a question." Rose nodded. "Are you... married? Or with anyone?"

Rose smiled. Now she was glad she had never dated. "No," she said. "I couldn't ever bring myself to. And I didn't want to. Have you?"

Jack smiled, shook his head, and kissed Rose again. They kissed, and then went into a hug. "I missed you so much," he whispered.

They sat in Rose's office, on the couch, just cuddling. Jack was holding Rose in his arms. Rose was leaning against Jack's chest. She took a glance at the clock. "Oh no!" Rose shot up. "I have to go home."

"Wait, why?" Jack asked.

Rose hesitated. She needed to go home since Josie would be calling any minute, but she wasn't ready to tell him about Josie. She didn't know why, but she wasn't. "I have to feed my dog. I haven't been home all day." It was true. She hadn't been home all day. But there was no dog.

"Can I come with you?" Jack asked.

Rose knew she couldn't let him. She wanted to but she couldn't. It would put both Josie and Jack on the spot and it just wasn't the right way to handle this. "I can't do that. But listen, come by my house tomorrow morning at eight o'clock. And I'll spend the day with you." Rose scribbled down her address. "And you have a room here."

"Sounds good," said Jack. Her act wasn't fooling him. He may have only been with her for three days, sixteen years ago, but he could still tell that there was something she wasn't saying.