"It was the ship of dreams to everyone else.

To me, it was a slave ship taking me back to America in chains.

Outwardly, I was everything a well brought up girl should be.

Inside, I was screaming."

-Elderly Rose, Titanic

Friday, April 12, 1912

17-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater was screaming inside. She was going back to America, back to her ancestral home in Philadelphia. She should be happy to go back, but she was miserable. For financial reasons, her mother Ruth was forcing her daughter to marry Caledon Hockley. But the man was an arrogant, insufferable bastard.

She stepped inside her suite and set down her key. She stood in front of the mirror, struggling to get the dress undone. Unable to without the help of a maid, she screamed and pulled out her hairpins. She knocked over jewelry boxes and ripped off her necklace, not caring if it broke. She tried calling her maid Trudy's name several times but then she remembered she was in the first-class servants' dining room having dinner.

Rose took a deep breath. I know what I have to do. I have to die. It's the only way out.

She saw her whole life as if she had already lived it. An endless parade of parties and cotillions, yachts, and polo matches. Always the same narrow people, the same mindless chatter. She felt like she was standing at a great precipice, with no one to pull her back, no one who cared or even noticed.

Jack lay on a bench at the stern of the ship smoking a cigarette and staring at the stars. His mind was on the pretty first-class redhead. Sammy and Tommy were wrong. Why shouldn't he have a chance with her?

He heard someone running and turned to watch. It was her, the pretty first class redhead he had his eye on. She was crying and clearly miserable. She approached the rail and stepped over, taking special care not to trip.

Jack approached her slowly. "Don't do it," he said. Rose turned to face him. "Stay back! Don't come any closer!" she warned. "C'mon, just give me your hand. I'll pull you back over!" he offered, slowly walking towards her. "No! Stay where you are! I mean it! I'll let go!" Rose threatened. Jack prepared himself for the verbal attack that was sure to come. "No, you won't."

"What do you mean, no I won't? Don't presume to tell me what I will and will not do! You don't know me!" she snapped.

Jack shrugged and held up his arms defensively. "Well, you would have done it already," he argued.

Rose rolled her eyes. "You're distracting me. Go away!"

Jack shook his head. "I can't. I'm involved now. You let go, and I'm gonna have to jump in there after you," he explained. "Don't be absurd. You'd be killed!" she exclaimed.

Jack smirked at her. "I'm a good swimmer," he replied casually.

"The fall alone would kill you," Rose pointed out.

Jack thought for a second. "It would hurt, I'm not saying it wouldn't. But to tell you the truth I'm a lot more concerned about that water being so cold," he told her.

Rose looked down at the freezing bluish-black water below her, now very scared. "How cold?" she asked suddenly.

Jack had already removed his vest and started untying his shoes. He thought for a second. "Freezing, maybe a couple degrees over," he replied. "You ever, uh, ever been to Wisconsin?" he asked, hoping to distract her. He had removed his shoes by this point.

Rose stared at him, confused. "What?"

Jack shifted on his feet. He smiled uneasily. "Well, they have some of the coldest winters around. I grew up there, near Chippewa Falls. I remember when I was a kid. Me and my father, we'd go ice fishing out on Lake Wissota. Ice fishing is you know where you-"

"I KNOW WHAT ICE FISHING IS!" Rose snapped.

Jack held up his hands defensively. "Sorry, you just seemed like, you know, more of an indoor girl... Anyways, I uh, I fell through some thin ice. And I'm telling you, water that cold, like right down there? It hits you like a thousand knives stabbing you all over your body. You can't breathe. You can't think. At least it's not about anything but the pain," he said.

Rose took in his words, realizing she was really scared now.

"Which is why I'm not looking forward to jumping in there after you. But like I said, I don't have a choice. I guess I'm kinda hoping you'll come back over the rail, and get me off the hook here," he continued.

Rose shook her head. "You're crazy!" she snapped, annoyed.

Jack chuckled as he stepped closer. "That's what everybody says, but with all due respect, miss, I'm not the one hanging off the back of a ship here. Come on, come on. Give me your hand. You don't wanna do this," he coaxed gently. He held out his hand to her.

Rose took one last glance down at the freezing Northern Atlantic ocean below her, at perhaps her last chance to end her miserable existence.

Jack grinned. "Whew! I'm Jack Dawson."

Rose smiled shyly. "Rose DeWitt Bukater."

Jack laughed. "Gonna have to get you to write that one down."

Jack started to help her over the rail, and Rose was glad that she'd made the right choice. However, she failed to notice that the hem of her dress was in the way. Just then, she slipped on it and lunged downwards. She screamed.

Jack panicked and tightened his grip. Rose was screaming frantically for help, and Jack held her, but just barely. "Listen! Listen! I've got you, I won't let go! Now pull yourself up, come on!" Jack urged.

Some 25 feet above them, Quartermaster Rowe and some crewmen heard Rose's screams. They rushed down to the scene. Jack managed to pull Rose over the rail, and she landed on top of him in an awkward heap.

Quartermaster Rowe rushed over and saw red, completely misunderstanding the situation. "What's all this? YOU STAND BACK, AND DON'T MOVE AN INCH!" he yelled. Jack stood up and put his hands in his pockets. Rowe turned to the crewmen. "Fetch the Master At Arms!" he ordered. The crewmen ran off and reappeared with Rose's fiance Cal and his manservant Lovejoy.

By the time they got down there, Jack had already been handcuffed, and Rose was shaking on a bench.

Cal rushed over to Jack and pushed him backward. "Completely unacceptable! What made you think you could put your hands on my fiancé?!" he raged. Jack said nothing. He couldn't do much being handcuffed anyways.

Rose was still shaking, so Colonel Gracie wrapped her in a blanket and offered her some brandy, which she politely refused.

"Look at me, you filth!" Cal barked.

"Cal!" Rose interjected. Cal ignored her.

"What do you think you were doing?!" he snapped.

"Cal stop, it was an accident!" Rose yelled.

Cal spun around and let go of Jack. "An accident?!" he asked in utter disbelief.

Rose looked at Jack, and then back at Cal. "It was! Stupid really...I was leaning over, and I slipped." Cal eyed her suspiciously. Rose swallowed nervously. "I was leaning far over to see the uh, the uh-"

"Propellers?" Cal guessed with an eye roll.

Rose nodded. "-propellers, and I slipped. And I would have gone overboard, but Mr. Dawson here saved me, and almost went over himself!" she explained.

Cal scoffed. He looked at the Colonel in disbelief. "She wanted to see the propellers!" he mocked.

Colonel Gracie chuckled. "Like I said, ladies and machinery do not mix!" he agreed.

When? When did you say that?

Jack gave Rose a confused glance.

The Master-At-Arms looked at Jack. "Was that the way of it?" he asked.

Rose glanced at Jack, begging him with her eyes to go along with it. Jack nodded. "Yeah, yeah, that was pretty much it," he said. Rose looked at him, and he could see the gratitude and relief that shone in her eyes. He smiled at her.

Colonel Gracie grinned. "Well, the boy's a hero then! Good for you, son! Well done!" he congratulated Jack. "So, it's all's well and back to our brandy, eh?"

Cal turned to Rose and rubbed her arms to warm her up. "Look at you. You must be freezing! Let's get you inside." He put his arm around her and began to lead her inside.

Colonel Gracie cleared his throat. "Perhaps a little something for the boy?" he suggested.

Cal turned to Lovejoy, not wanting to look ungrateful. "Ah yes. Mr. Lovejoy, I think a 20 should do it," he called over his shoulder.

Lovejoy nodded and pulled out Cal's wallet. Rose scoffed. "Is that the going rate for saving the woman you love?" she asked him.

Cal smirked. "Rose is displeased! What to do...? I know." He turned to Jack. "Perhaps you could join us for dinner tomorrow evening, to...regale our group with your heroic tale," he suggested.

"Sure, count me in," Jack said.

Cal smirked again. "Good, it's settled then." He walked away with Rose. Lovejoy and the Colonel followed. "This should be interesting. "

Jack realized he was out of cigarettes, so he whistled at Lovejoy. Lovejoy turned. "Can I uh, bum a smoke?" Jack asked. Lovejoy held out the cigarette tin, and Jack took two. He lit one and put the other behind his ear for later.

Lovejoy looked down. "You'll want to tie those. It's interesting. The young lady slipped so suddenly, and you still had time to remove your jacket, and your shoes," he pointed out. Jack looked down at his untied shoes, as Lovejoy walked away. Jack shook his head disbelievingly after everyone had left.

What a night!