Days Later
Newfoundland
Akademik Mstislav Keldysh
Imaging Shack
Looking at the group surrounding her, listening to her every word of her story, Rose looked down at the hair comb with a jaded butterfly on the handled. Her heart ached in sorrow for Jack's death as it had eighty-four years ago.
"We never found anything on Jack," Lewis Bodine, one of the Keldysh submersible ROV Snoop Dog operators said. "There's no record of him at all."
Smiling gently, Rose looked at the uncouth man and replied, "No, there wouldn't be, would there? And I haven't spoken about him in a very, very long time. A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets. But now you all know there was a man named Jack Dawson, and that he saved me, in every way that a person can be saved. I don't even have a picture of him. He exists now only in my memory."
Now fully invested into the old woman's story, Brock wondered what had happened to the other characters in her story, "And Hockley? What happened to him?"
Rose lifted her eyes to him, "We were married, of course, two weeks later as was scheduled."
Bodine's mouth dropped, "I thought—Whoa, that guy is a complete —You married that bastard?"
Amused by the reaction of the room to her revelation, Rose shrugged, "It certainly took time, but, eventually, we began to appreciate each other and that grew to respect. And that respect turned to like, and unable to help ourselves, Cal and I fell love—deeply in love." She broke from her nostalgia and straightened in her wheelchair, "But that is a story for another time, Mr Bodine."
Later
Stern Deck
Dressed in her nightgown, unbothered by the cool wind blowing through her white curly long hair. Rose walked down the stern to the stern rail.
She clutched her hands at her chest as if she was praying.
Finally reaching the stern rail, Rose wrapped her gnarled fingers around it and stepped a barefoot onto the gunwale. She pushed herself up, leaning forward and reveal the Heart of the Ocean necklace clutched in her hand.
She closed her eyes thinking about the moment she realised that the necklace had been in her jacket pocket all along.
I'll never let go. Rose silently prayed and with an impish little grin, she tossed it over the rail.
Rose watched the necklace sink deeper into the sea, twirling until it disappeared into the black infante depths, forever lost but placed to where it always belonged; in the past.
Rose's Cabin
Releasing a breath of relief that the weight on her shoulders finally dissipates after one hundred and one years, Rose finally felt easy.
She smiled down at the photograph. It was taken on her eightieth birthday. The older but yet distinguished nighty-three-year-old Cal stood partially hunched over her, smiling into the camera. They were surrounded by their grown children, their grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. This was Cal's last family photo before his death three months later.
Rose carefully placed the photo back onto the shelf beside a photo of her young laughing children in bathing suits climbing on Cal's back.
Since the night of the Titanic sinking, Rose tried her damnedest to fulfil a complete life as she promised on that piece of wooden debris floating in that freezing water.
She had faced obstacles and overcame them. She found love again, a great love that was supportive and fulfilling.
Cal had been the worst and the best thing in her life. A relationship that began as young love then quickly turned abusive and claustrophobic, then evolved into her most loyal and satisfying relationship.
Between all of that, she found Jack. One could argue, Jack had been her most important relationship because he taught her to live and hold on tightly to your convictions.
Lying back in the bed, Rose stared out the porthole to the stars and sang:
"Come Josephine in my flying machine…"
Closing her eyes, Rose slowly exhaled a long deep breath letting her body relax to the soft ocean waves.
As blackness took over her, Rose felt a piece of her heart split into two.
The wreck of the once-great Titanic loomed like a ghost peeking from the darkness.
The rust and broken decks down a dark corridor transformed back to life and sunlight bathed the grand oceanic liner in a yellowish hue.
Faint waltz music could be heard behind the walls leading to the grand staircase.
The doorman opened the door and nodded his head as a silent greeting as seventeen-year-old Rose entered.
The magnificent staircase was filled with a crowd of beautiful men, women, and children; some faces she recognised but many did hadn't.
Rose walked down the pathway towards the stairs where she saw Jack. He stood by the clock with his back facing her and his hands stuffed into his pockets.
As she walked closer to him, Jack turned around with a smile. He held out his hand for her take.
Wrapping her arms around him, she accepted his kiss feeling finally at peace again to have Jack.
The passengers, Officers, and the crew of the RMS Titanic smiled and applauded as the lambent happiness faded into the heavenly abyss.
There was another piece of Rose's split heart that had found its peace.
Walking onto the sandy beach in a 1930s style floral beach pyjamas, Rose walked over to the bench looking out to the Pacific Ocean.
She recognised Cal, who sat casually on the bench with one leg crossed over his knee and his arm outspread across the back of the bench. He was watching their young children build a sandcastle.
Rose touched Cal's shoulder, turning his attention to her. The corners of his mouth curved into a small smile watching her move around the bench to sit close beside him.
Circling his arm around her shoulders, Cal smiled as she sat back against him.
Rose rested the back of her head against him and tilted her chin upwards to look at him.
Sharing a smile, Cal's free hand cupped her cheek. He bent his head slightly downward and brushed his mouth gently against hers.
Rose opened her eyes to look at him and felt her heart swell for her love for him.
Moving their attention back the children, Cal wrapped his arms tightly around his wife, hugging her against him. They laughed as the kids chased each other with a string of seaweed that had been washed up onto the shore.
A woman with a split heart, Rose had the rare and yet profound experience of having two great loves in her long life.
Jack may have been her first love but Cal was her second chance at happiness.
Rose had tried her best to fulfil her promise to Jack. She had lived a full and beautiful life, filled with adventures, children, trials and tribulations, laughter, and incandescent happiness.
End.
