March 1913

Rose set down the newspaper, a feeling of hope tugging at her heartstrings. She'd just been reading about the women's suffrage movement, specifically the article in the paper about the first suffragist parade that had taken place in Washington, D.C. a few days prior.

Her hand went to her stomach, a bump barely viable, but where a life had certainly been sparked within her. If she weren't with child, she knew that she could've convinced Jack that they needed to go to D.C. for themselves and partake in the march one way or another. But in her current condition, she didn't want to risk anything.

So, she sat content in her cramped garrett, awaiting Jack's return from the market. With the winter seeming to give it all in its final weeks, she didn't want to venture out in the cold with him. Not to mention the burden of constant sickness she experienced during the morning.

Over the course of the last eleven months, they'd been making their way across as much of the country as they could. So far, she'd fallen in love with Santa Monica more deeply than anywhere else. And as of late, Chicago wasn't proving to be a viable contender in the faux race she'd created in her mind.

It wasn't that there was anything wrong with the city; she even enjoyed living in their garrett more than she thought she would. No, it was more that she missed the sun and the feelings of bliss that came with the ocean breeze. It was somewhat ironic, she thought, how much she'd come to love the ocean, despite the horrors she'd witnessed at the hands of it.

Everything seemed more simple down in California. The winter in Illinois had proved to be just as harsh as Rose remembered, and it wasn't something that she'd been missing during her time on the West Coast.

Their next and final stop for the time being would be Wisconsin. They were already close enough with them being in Chicago, and with a baby being expected by August, Rose had convinced Jack to return to the town he'd run from all those years ago.

At first, he'd been apprehensive to do so, not quite satisfied with how much there was still out there to explore. But, there was no way to resist the look in her eye and the hand that grabbed at his when she told him that they still had time.

"We're still young, Jack. There's so much time to travel, only now we'll have a little one to do it with." She placed his hand on her abdomen, "We can show them the world."

Rose smiled at the memory, eager to make their way to Wisconsin. Their plans were to leave the following month. With all the money they'd been able to gather, they both hoped to find a place to ground themselves in for the next year or two.

When the door began to creak, Rose finally lifted herself up from her slouching position against the bed. In the mornings, the air was so cold and frigid that getting out of bed proved to be difficult until later in the day. It was something that Jack warned her of time and time again, and in turn became one of those things that, out of pride, she'd never admit bothered her.

"Hey, sweetheart," Jack greeted her from the doorway, closing it quickly to keep the cold out.

For a moment, she just watched him remove his gloves and hat, placing them on the small wardrobe in the corner of the room. When there was a lack of response, he looked up at her from the laces he'd just been untying.

Rose blushed, knowing she'd been caught staring. "Sorry…"

Chuckling, Jack set his boots on the floor next to the bed, before climbing back under the covers with her. "Don't apologize for that."

"Sor-" she started to say again, laughing when she caught herself. After both their voices steadied again, she reached for the bag he'd brought in, "Find everything okay?"

"Yeah," he breathed out quickly, still feeling chilled from the cold. But once he saw Rose shiver, he removed his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. "I only got a few things, but it should last us another week or so."

At this, she smiled, grabbing at the edges of the fabric and pulling them inward towards her chest. It never ceased to astound her just how caring he was towards how, how he always put her first. Moments like that only helped to push away any of her worries about them becoming parents.

The thought of children reminded her of their ever looming move, "I'm entirely ecstatic to see where you grew up." When Jack only threw a glance toward her, her face dropped. "What?"

"How would you feel if we made another pitstop or two before Chippewa Falls?"

In truth, she wasn't too keen on the idea. At least not yet. If he was suggesting it, certainly he had something to say, and it wasn't worth getting into a fight over if he had a legitimate reason for the question. "Whatever for?"

"I've been given a job opportunity down in St. Louis."

"Missouri? We'd just be getting further from our destination."

"It wouldn't be for so long - hopefully. And besides, I'd be able to pick us up a lot more money, seeing as we've been offered a place rent free."

At that, Rose's jaw dropped, "Rent free? Who's offering you this job, Jack? What profession?"

"You know how I've been working part-time at the Aker's estate? Well, Mr. Aker saw me working on a sketch during my break and forwarded a piece of my art to the owner of an art gallery over in St. Louis."

"When did this happen?"

Jack shrugged his shoulders, "It happened a few weeks back, but I didn't wanna say anything to you until it was for sure. The job I've been offered is simply a short internship. I don't have to accept it or anything, but I have to tell Mr. Aker's my decision by the day after next."

Rose sighed, a little annoyed that she'd been informed of this so late, but not wanting to get upset over it. In the month since her pregnancy was confirmed, her hormones had been all over. On more than one occasion, they'd caused unnecessary fights to break out between her and Jack, and she didn't want this to be another one of those times.

So, instead she just closed her eyes, arms crossing over her chest. "Well then I suppose we still have another day to figure it out, don't we?" Opening her eyes again, she opened the momentarily forgotten bag, "Get anything good?"

"That depends on what your definition of good is."

Rose groaned, looking at him, "Don't tell me we're eating tomato soup for dinner again. I don't think I could stomach one more bite of that if I tried."

With a hearty laugh, Jack pulled the red can from the bag, "Sorry, Rosebud. But it's the cheapest and most filling thing down there."

As two struggling, often unemployed young people, money was hard enough to come by. Not to mention that, on top of all their travels, they were now expecting. Both of them loved their newly gifted freedom more than anything, although Rose could already sense herself becoming more domesticated as she felt her pregnancy surging forward.

In the past, she never thought herself to be particularly motherly. In fact, before Jack, she hardly wanted to even imagine being a mother. She knew it was expected of her and essentially unavoidable, even more so after the engagement to Cal.

Children with him seemed like a nightmare, but with Jack it was a dream come true. With Cal, she knew her children would be out of her control. She'd be no more than a mother to them than hired nannies, nurses and maids would be. Unintentionally, she'd have created more Caledon Hockley's for the world, and she was sure that one of them was already more than enough.

Sneering at the very thought of him, Rose took to unfolding the paper once again. Even after him saving both her and Jack on the night of the sinking, her bitterness overruled her thankfulness for the situation.

"Wait," Jack's voice interrupted her mindless flipping and unfolding of pages. "Go back."

"Hmm?" Rose hadn't really been paying attention to where she'd been looking in the first place, so she wasn't sure what he'd meant.

Instead of saying anything, Jack simply took the paper from her hands, looking through the articles until he spotted the one he was looking for. "Look at this."

Rose took the paper back from him, scrunching her brows at the words printed down in front of her: "Caledon Hockley is reported to be courting Whitney Burgess just eleven months after fiance's death. Philadelphia's Rose DeWitt Bukater was assumed dead after the sinking of the ill fated Titanic last April, marking the end of their year long courtship..."

She stopped reading then, having figured out as much as she needed to know. In spite of what she'd just read, she couldn't help but snicker. It seemed like she got all the information about her former life through newspaper articles.

"Whitney Burgess? Do you know her?"

Thinking for a moment, Rose nodded. "I believe I met her once or twice during galas. She's a nice girl, though I don't think he'll marry her."

"Why not?"

Closing the newspaper, she discarded it to the side, "The Burgess family isn't widely known or particularly wealthy. Not to mention they're rather grand in size. They have five sons, and Cal's not one to be fond of competition. I firmly believe that's one of the reasons why he agreed to marry me, even with all the baggage my name holds."

"Five brothers," Jack whistled, ignoring the other part of her message, not that he intended to. "I can't even imagine that."

"I don't know," Rose shrugged, curling up into his side as she spoke. "I've always wanted another sibling to share some of the grief and burdens I grew up with. Perhaps a brother would've been more of a nuisance in my world, though."

She thought of what life would've been like with a brother. Another male in the house after her father's death certainly would've made things a lot less complicated. The only reason why she'd been forced into meetings with suitors so quickly was so she could clean up the mess that her father left behind.

On the other hand, a brother could've made her life complicated for other reasons. Another man in the house after her father's death would've caused him to feel like he held an authority over her, and someone else trying to boss her around definitely wouldn't have gone well.

A sister could've been more like a friend, perhaps like Trudy, whom Rose missed dearly. If she'd grown up with a sister, she would have felt a lot less alone, that was for sure. That was, unless this said sister had grown up to be a carbon copy of Ruth.

"Who knows, with a brother I doubt you would've needed to get engaged as soon as you were of age."

Rose just chuckled, "That would have undoubtedly made things a lot less complicated, wouldn't it?"

"Never tempt fate, Rose. As awful as your situation was, we may have never met without Hockley. And your mother? She'd just about die if she had to deal with two of you."

Pondering over his words for a second, she had to agree. If she'd never made her way to the stern of Titanic, who knows what would've happened. It didn't mean that she was appreciative of Cal by any means, and definitely not her mother who'd forced her into it in the first place, but she was getting there.

"What about you? Did you ever want a sibling growing up?" Though they'd been traveling and living together for nearly a year, there was still a lot to figure out about the other. The little things that only come into questions during specific situations such as the one they were in.

Jack closed his eyes tight, as if in a deep thought. The silence caused Rose to lift her head up from his chest, and she was met with the sight. She didn't want to disturb whatever was on his mind, and instead waited for him to make the first move. It seemed like an hour, but in actuality was only about a minute.

When he did open his eyes, he spoke in a hushed voice. "I actually did have a brother. I… don't know much about him, admittedly."

"A brother? Why have you never mentioned him to me before, Jack?"

A shrug, "Like I said, there's not much to say. I know his name was Paul, after my father, and that he died at fourteen in some hunting accident. I was only three at the time, so you can imagine that my remembrance of him is slim to none."

Rose pulled back from his chest, grabbing both of his arms and planted a firm kiss against his cheek, "I'm so sorry, Jack."

"It's nothing to feel bad about. I hardly knew him, but I could see how much my parents struggled with his death as I got older. They scarcely talked about him, so I didn't ask. His absence from my life did make me realize something, though."

"What's that?"

Jack smiled, pressing a hand on Rose's abdomen. "I never want to leave our children alone. It's comforting to think that, after we're gone, they'll have each other. If you feel the same, I'd like to fill our home with mini you's."

Rose's blush quickly turned into a childish laugh as she remembered where they were. "I think we should make room for this one before we think about adding any additional feet. We hardly have enough room for us, and with all this traveling we've been doing, I doubt we'll ever really settle."

"I suppose you have a point there. But who knows, maybe you'll fall so much in love with St. Louis that you'll never want to leave."

"I didn't think we settled on going there."

Jack flashed his famous boyish grin at her, "I didn't hear any real objections, either."

Over the course of their life on the run, Rose had taken notice of how badly Jack wanted to stay away from his hometown. He'd never really given her a specific reason as to why he wanted to distance himself so badly, and she could only assume it had something to do with all the heartbreak he'd felt there, and she supposed she couldn't blame him for that.

"What if I fall in love with the infamous Chippewa Falls?"

Jack raked a hand through his hair, "Sure, it's a nice place, but nothing to gush over. I bet there's a million other places you'd like more than that old town. Santa Monica?"

Just the thought of the beach town alone made Rose's skin feel warmer. He sure was right about that, Santa Monica was a lot more her style weather wise, but she just had a feeling deep within her that Wisconsin was where she wanted to ultimately settle.

"I think you're underestimating a winter in Chippewa Falls… I'm just worried about the cold, is all."

That was what he was so bothered about, Rose finally realized. But all his comment did was make her realize that she in fact wasn't in warm California, but freezing Illinois. She pushed her way through the arms of Jack's coat, "I think you're forgetting where we are. We're not all that far from Wisconsin's border anyhow."

Jack laughed at her appearance, "And look at you, already all bundled up."

Rose ended up following suit, the sound of his laughter proving to be contagious. She untucked her upper half from the covers and straddled over his hips so that their faces were just inches apart. For a moment, she just looked from his eyes to his lips, admiring the structure of his face which she'd come to memorize so well.

Feeling her own lips curve upwards, she planted her lips against Jack's. They moved in sync with each other, her hand making its way to that spot on the back of his head. His lips felt like electricity against hers, a spark traveling up her spine.

Once they pulled back, their gaze continued, and Rose was the first to speak, "Can you believe we're going to be parents?"

A sly smirk formed against his lips, and Jack cocked an eyebrow at her. "With how into me you are, I can believe it."

Rose felt her face heating up, and she was sure that her cheeks were as dark as her hair, "Oh, stop it, Jack."

Jack put his hands up in fake defense, "Hey now, I never denied being too into you either."

"You could never be too into me. How could I ever get tired of attention from someone like you?"

Jack reluctantly got out of bed, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. "You flatter me too much, Rosebud."

As she watched him grab at the groceries he'd brought in, she couldn't find herself to be upset at another night of tomato soup. With Jack, he seemed to have a way of making everything in life a gift, and she couldn't be more thankful to start a family with him.

One day, she hoped to show the world just how lucky she was to be with him.