Grace could see the large outline of the Titanic from the small pub she sat in with her brother, Jack, and their friend, Fabrizio. She stared at it in wonder, daydreaming about what life must be like for those on the ship.
"Jack, you are betting with everything we have."
Grace turned around at this, eyeing the table at which Jack and Fabrizio were playing poker. Fabrizio was right- all of their money and any sort of possession they owned that could hold even the slightest bit of value was laid on the table, ready to be taken by the Swedish men and the woman playing against them.
"When you got nothin', you got nothin' to lose," Jack replied.
Grace smiled. Even if Jack lost all of their money, she knew they'd survive. They'd been through worse than having no money, and survived because they had each other. As long as the pair were together, nothing could harm them.
She heard the group of three converse with each other in a language she couldn't understand. One sounded mad at the other, and as she examined the betting pile further, she could guess why.
In the center of the pile of spare change and a few watches were three tickets for the RMS Titanic.
Grace felt her heart soar as she looked at them. There was nothing she wanted more than to go on the Titanic. The newspaper clippings she had read about it made it seem magical, and seeing it outside the window made her wish it even more.
Carefully, Jack set one card down on the table and took a new one from the pile. He stared at the new card, his face and eyes expressionless. Usually, Grace could tell when Jack was excited, sad, angry, jealous, any emotion really, but at that moment, she was sure even someone whose entire life was dedicated to reading other's emotions wouldn't be able to tell whether Jack was about to lose it all or win it all.
Jack took the cigarette out of his mouth. "Alright," he said, "moment of truth. Somebody's life's about to change."
Grace couldn't hide the faint smile on her lips. He was being so dramatic, she thought.
"Fabrizio?"
Fabrizio sighed, setting his cards on the table. Grace looked down at them.
"Niente," Jack said.
"Niente," Fabrizio repeated, glaring at Jack.
"Olaf?"
The first Swedish man set his cards on the table.
"Nothing," Jack said. "Sven?"
Sven laid his cards down.
"Uh oh. Two pair," Jack said.
Grace's heart dropped. She knew it was silly, but she had rather gotten her hopes up about sailing back to America on the Titanic.
"I'm sorry Fabrizio and Grace," Jack said, his voice sad.
Fabrizio began to protest, Italian slipping in between his English. Grace gave Jack a weak smile.
"I'm sorry," Jack interrupted his friend, "you're not gonna see your mom again for a long time."
Grace froze, watching her brother. "Jack, you don't mean-"
"Cause we're going to America! Full house, boys!" Jack slammed his cards down on the table.
Grace's mouth fell open, her jaw practically on the floor. She ran over to jack from the window, hugging him tight.
"You won, Jack! We're going home!" she screamed, jumping up and down like a child.
Fabrizio grabbed the tickets, spinning around with them. Jack and Grace began scooping the money off of the table, which was quickly stopped when the first man, Olaf, grabbed Jack by the collar of his shirt. He looked very angry, and said something in Swedish before holding up his hand in a fist.
"He won fair and square, and you know it," Grace said, holding her head up high.
Jack winced, bracing himself for a punch that didn't come. Instead, there was a bang, and Olaf turned his fist on Sven, knocking him to the ground. The woman the men were with looked angry and quickly helped Sven to his feet, glaring at Olaf.
Jack, Grace, and Fabrizio laughed. Jack took the tickets from Fabrizio and kissed them. "I'm going home!" he whooped, squeezing Grace and Fabrizio in a tight hug.
"I go to America!" Fabrizio announced to the pub, smiling widely.
"No mate," said the barkeep. "Titanic go to America. In five minutes."
"Shit," Grace whispered.
"Come on!" Jack said.
Quickly, the three of them scooped their winnings into their pockets and hurried out of the pub.
They began running, sprinting as fast as they could through the crowd watching the mighty Titanic, holding only a bag of their clothes.
Grace and Jack laughed as they ran, racing each other to see who could make it to the grandest ship ever made first. Grace pulled up the skirt of her pale pink dress to midway up her calves to better avoid tripping on the thin material.
"We're practically goddamn royalty!" Jack shouted as they grew ever closer to the ship.
"We're going home, Jack!" Grace said excitedly, pushing people out of her way.
"Come on, I thought you were fast!" Jack shouted back to Fabrizio, who lagged a few feet behind the two siblings.
"We're passengers!" Grace yelled at the ship as they ran up the ramp.
Jack handed the man their tickets. "Have you been through the inspections?" he asked, eyeing them.
"Of course," Jack answered. "Anyway, we don't have any lice, we're Americans. All of us."
This wasn't hard to tell with Grace and Jack. Both blonde and blue eyed with American accents, there was no doubt in anyone's mind where the two came from.
Fabrizio, with his slightly darker skin, dark hair, and Italian accent, was as undoubtedly from Italy as his friends were undoubtedly from America.
However, anyone could live in America, really, and as long as Fabrizio didn't say a word, he could very well be from there, as Jack claimed.
The officer studied Fabrizio for a second before replying, "Right. Come aboard."
The three sprinted past him and onto the ship, running through the halls, excitement streaming through their veins.
"We're the luckiest sons of bitches in the world, you know that?" Jack shouted as they rushed past the passengers on the ship.
"I couldn't agree more!" Grace shouted back, a wide grin on her face.
She was really there. She was really on the Titanic. After months of dreaming about being able to sail home to America on that very ship, she was finally going to do just that.
They ran up to the deck of the ship, seeing the large crowd of people standing to watch the Titanic leave the dock.
"Goodbye!" Jack shouted.
"We'll miss you!" Grace added.
"You know somebody?" Fabrizio asked.
"No, that's the point," Jack said.
"Oh," Fabrizio said. "Goodbye! I will never forget you!"
The three continued shouted farewells to no one as the ship pulled away, waving until the people on land became small dots.
"Come on, let's go to our room," Grace suggested.
"G-60," Jack muttered as they walked through the halls. "G-60, G-60…"
"Here," Grace said, finding the room marked G-60.
Jack opened the door. "Hey, how you doing?" he asked as he walked inside, Grace and Fabrizio right behind him. "Jack Dawson, nice to meet you."
He extended his hand to a man sitting on the bottom bunk of a bed who shook it, looking very confused.
"Grace Dawson. Mind if I take the top bunk?" she asked, also shaking the man's hand.
He looked at her, very puzzled, yet nodded.
"Great." Grace set her bag of clothes on the bed above the man and climbed up.
"Who says you get top bunk, huh?" Jack was asking Fabrizio.
"Where Sven?" the man in the cabin asked in a Swedish accent.
"No need to worry about him," Grace told him, leaning over the side of the bunk to smile at him.
Grace, Jack, and Fabrizio were standing at the front of the Titanic. The wind hit their faces and blew Grace's long, loose blonde hair out of her face so it floated behind her.
"Hey, look, look, look!" Jack said, pointing over the side of the boat.
"Dolphins!" Grace exclaimed, leaning over the railings.
She watched as the dolphins jumped majestically in the air, racing against the Titanic.
"Look at them jump!" Jack said excitedly, pointing towards the whole group of them.
"They're so… graceful," said Grace admiringly.
"Like you, Gracie," Jack said, laughing.
Grace grinned, keeping her eyes on the dolphins.
"I can see the Statue of Liberty already," Fabrizio said, pointing to the distance. "Very small, of course."
Grace laughed, squinting into the horizon. She felt magical, like she could do anything and everything.
Jack climbed onto the railing. "I'm the king of the world!" he shouted, throwing his hands in the air and whooping.
"And I'm the queen!" Grace yelled, also climbing onto the railing. Nothing could ruin that moment. Everything was perfect. Standing on the front of that ship with the wind hitting her and blowing her hair backwards, she felt like she was flying.
Grace sat next to Jack, watching him sketch a young girl with her father standing on the side of the ship.
"I'll never understand how you got to be so good, Jack," Grace commented, watching his light strokes move across the paper.
"Practice, Gracie. Practice," Jack said.
Ever since Grace could remember, Jack had been obsessed with art. Drawing was his true talent, but he would never pass up the opportunity to see other artist's work.
Grace loved looking at art as well, and wasn't too bad of an artist herself, although she was nothing compared to Jack. Besides, she couldn't draw people. She could never get the bodies proportioned correctly with the head, and faces were a mess. She was better at drawing landscapes, capturing the flowers and sunsets on spare sheets of paper.
"This ship is, uh, nice, huh?" Fabrizi said. Grace turned to see he was talking to a man standing a few feet away.
"Yeah, it's an Irish ship," the man replied in an Irish accent.
"It's English, no?" Fabrizio asked.
"No, it was built in Ireland. Fifteen thousand Irish men built this ship," the man told them. "Solid as a rock. Big, Irish hands."
Grace saw dogs being led down to their deck.
"Typical. First class dogs come down here to take a shit," the Irish man said.
Grace smirked. "It lets us know where we rank in the scheme of things," Jack said, looking up from his drawing.
"Like we could forget?" The Irish man put his cigar in his mouth, and held his hand out to Jack. "I'm Tommy Ryan," he said.
"Jack Dawson," Jack replied.
He shook Grace's hand next. "Grace Dawson. Jack's sister," Grace told him.
"Fabrizio," said Fabrizio, also shaking Tommy's hand.
"Hello," Tommy said, leaning back against the ship. "Do you make any money with your drawings?" he asked, gesturing to the picture sat in Jack's lap.
Grace looked at Jack, waiting for him to reply, but words never came. Instead, he shifted his gaze to the first class deck, where a woman was walking out. She had red hair that was tied regally back, and laid her arms on the side of her balcony, staring out at the ocean.
Tommy looked from Jack to her. "Oh, forget it boy," Tommy said. "You'd have angels fly out of your arse before getting next to the likes of her."
Grace smiled. "I like you," she said. "I think we could be friends."
Tommy smiled, raising his eyebrows. "Your brother fall for first class girls a lot?" he asked.
"No, actually." Grace shook her head. "This is the first time he's been like this."
"Well, when he comes back to reality," Tommy said, glancing at Jack, who seemed to only have eyes for the girl, "remind him that people from steerage mixin' with first class never works out."
"Will do," Grace said, smiling.
She looked back at Jack, who seemed to have no idea what they were saying.
The redheaded girl turned her head to look at Jack staring at her. She turned it back to the ocean for a moment, then back to Jack.
Fabrizio waved his hand in front of Jack's face, chuckling.
A man walked up behind the girl. They exchanged a few words unheard by those in third class and the girl walked away, back into the first class section of the ship.
"Never gonna happen, Jack," Grace told him. "Never in a million years."
Grace was supposed to meet Jack on the deck of the ship that night. She'd had to run back to their room to grab a jacket when she felt the cool evening breeze.
"I told you to grab one," Jack told her as he sat on the bench and pulled out a cigarette. "Older brothers always know best."
"Oh, shut up," Grace told him. "I'll only be a few minutes."
She had walked back through the narrow hallways of the ship to their room, searching through her bag of belongings until she found a jacket at the very bottom.
It had only taken her about seven minutes, but when she got back to the bench she had left Jack on, he was nowhere to be seen.
"Jack?" she called. "Jack?"
She began to walk towards the back of the ship, wondering if he had decided to go over there.
When she got there, she saw him standing by the railing.
"Oh, Jack there you-"
Grace stopped in the middle of her sentence, because she saw the rest of the scene. Standing next to Jack on the opposite side of the railings was a girl. The same girl that had been on the first class deck earlier that day, the one Jack had been so enchanted by.
Her hair was down now, and Grace saw her loose curls blow in the wind. She had turned her head upon hearing Grace's voice, and Grace could see the tears on her pale face. Suddenly, Grace realized what was going on.
"Don't do it," she told the girl.
"Go away," the girl commanded as Grace began to walk nearer.
"I just want to stand near my brother, if that's okay with you," Grace said, a touch of sarcasm in her voice.
The girl eyed her, and Grace walked carefully towards her brother, standing on his other side so Jack was between her and the other girl.
"You let go, and I'm gonna have to jump in there after you," Jack said.
"Me too," Grace agreed, tucking some hair behind her ear.
"Don't be absurd!" the girl said. "You'll be killed!"
"We're good swimmers," Jack said, untying his boots. Grace took off her shoes as well.
"The fall alone would kill you," the girl said nervously.
Grace shook her head. "Not if you do it right."
"It would hurt, we're not saying it wouldn't. To tell you the truth, I'm a lot more concerned about that water being so cold," Jack said.
Grace took off her coat, shivering in the cold breeze.
The girl looked down at the sea then back up at Jack and Grace.
"How cold?" she asked.
"Freezing. Maybe a couple degrees over," Jack said casually.
The woman looked apprehensive.
"Have you ever been to Wisconsin?" Jack asked suddenly.
The girl was puzzled. "What?" she asked.
Grace made eye contact with Jack and realized where he was going with this.
"Well, they have some of the coldest winters around. We grew up there, near Chippewa Falls."
"When we were kids, our father would take us ice fishing out on Lake Wissota," Grace said.
"Ice fishing is, you know, where you-" Jack said.
"I know what ice fishing is!" the girl snapped.
"Sorry," Jack said. "You just seem like, you know, kind of an indoor girl."
"Anyway," Grace said, rolling her eyes at her brother. "We were playing around, and fell through some thin ice."
"Water that cold," Jack said, "like right down there, it hits you like a thousand knives stabbing all over your body. You can't breathe, you can't think… at least not about anything but the pain." He paused for a moment, looking at the water. "Which is why I'm not lookin' forward to jumping in there after you. But like I said, I don't have a choice." He removed his final jacket from around his shoulders.
"We're kind of hoping you'll come back over the railing, get us off the hook here," Grace said. She really did not want to be in that water, but if this girl was going to jump in, she would do whatever it takes to save her.
"You're crazy!" the girl cried.
"Don't worry, I tell him that daily," Grace said. "But with all due respect, he's not the one hanging off the back of a ship."
"Come on," Jack said. "Come on, give me your hand. You don't wanna do this."
Jack extended his hand slowly to the girl, who carefully took it. She moved her feet, turning her whole body to face the two of them.
"Phew," Jack said, smiling.
"Jack and Grace Dawson," Grace said, smiling at the girl.
"Rose Dewitt Bukater," said the girl.
"I'm gonna have to get you to write that one down," Jack chuckled, making Rose laugh slightly. "Come on," he whispered.
Rose moved her foot to take a step up, but slipped on her dress fabric and fell off the railing completely.
Rose screamed as she dangled from one hand off the back of the ship.
Grace moved closer to the rail, holding her hand out, which Rose was able to grab onto as well.
"We've got you!" Jack shouted. "Come on!"
They began to pull Rose up together, but Grace's hand slipped out of Rose's and she fell down again, once more only holding onto Jack's.
"Help please! Help!" Rose shouted. "Please help me!"
"You're gonna be alright, okay?" Grace said, extending her hand once more.
"We've got you. I won't let go," Jack said. "Now pull yourself up!"
Grace and Jack pulled on Rose, helping her up the side of the ship.
"Come on, you can do it," Jack said.
They were able to pull Rose over again. She clung onto Jack's neck and the pair fell into Grace, knocking all three of them to the ground with Jack on top.
They lay there, catching their breath when men came running up, obviously having heard Rose's cries for help.
Jack quickly sat up, his eyes wide.
The officer looked first at Jack, then at Grace and Rose, both lying on the floor, then at Rose's dress, the hem of which was pulled up to above her knee, and finally at Grace, whose shoes and jacket lay discarded in a pile a few inches away
"Stand back! And don't move and inch!" an officer commanded.
Jack stood up, putting his hands in his pockets. Grace sat up, looking between the officer and Jack.
"Fetch the Master at Arms!"
A few minutes later, Rose was bundled in a blanket and Jack was being put into handcuffs. Grace sat next to Rose, her arms wrapped around herself, still barefoot and jacketless.
"Completely unacceptable," said a man walking towards them. "What made you think you could put your hands on my fiance?" Grace noticed it was the same man who had talked to Rose on the deck that day.
"He didn't do anything," Grace said firmly.
Jack looked past the man to Grace and Rose.
"Look at me, you filth!" the man commanded harshly.
"Cal," said Rose.
"What do you think you were doing?" Cal said, shoving Jack.
"Cal stop," Rose repeated, louder this time. She stood up and walked over to the two men. Grace followed suit. "It was an accident."
"An accident?" Cal asked, not believing it.
"It was," Rose said. "Stupid really. I was leaning over, and I slipped."
Jack and Grace made eye contact, both puzzled why Rose was trying to defend Jack.
"I was leaning far over to see the… uh… uh... " Rose said, struggling to come up with the word.
Grace raised her eyebrows.
"The um, uh…" Rose made spinning motions with her hand.
"The propellers?" Grace supplied, watching Rose in disbelief.
"The propellers, and I slipped!" Rose said. "And I would've gone overboard, but Mr. Dawson and his sister here saved me, and almost went over themselves."
"You wanted to see the..." Cal muttered softly. "She wanted to see the propellers!" he chuckled.
"Like I said, women and machinery do not mix," said a man behind Cal.
Grace glared at him. "First class women and machinery don't mix," she whispered.
Cal looked at her, raising his eyebrows but saying nothing.
"Was that the way of it?" an officer asked Grace and Jack.
Jack made eye contact with Rose, who begged him with her eyes not to tell the real story.
"Yeah. Yeah, that was pretty much it," Jack said.
Grace nodded. "Yeah," she agreed.
"Well, the kids are heroes then! Good for you. Well done. Well, all's well, and back to our brandy, eh?" the man said.
The Master at Arms took the handcuffs off Jack.
"Ah, you must be freezing!" Cal said to Rose, who was wrapped in a blanket. No one seemed to realize that Grace had only a thin dress on, and if they did notice, no one seemed to care.
"Uh, perhaps a little something for the siblings?" a man suggested.
Cal stopped walking Rose, and glanced back at Jack and Grace.
"Of course," he said. "Mr. Lovejoy, I think a twenty for each should do it," he said.
Grace and Jack began pulling their jackets and shoes on.
"Is that the going rate for saving the woman you love?" Rose asked.
Cal squinted at her. "Rose is displeased. What to do? I know."
Cal walked over to Jack and Grace. "Perhaps you could join us for dinner tomorrow evening. To regale our group with your… heroic tale," he said.
"Sure," Jack said. "Count us in."
Cal smiled a smile Grace could see was far from genuine. "Good. It's settled then," he said, and turned around. "This should be interesting," he said to a man as they walked away, not intending for Jack or Grace to hear, but they heard it anyways.
"It really should be," Grace shouted back.
Cal glanced back at her, hate in his eyes.
Jack whistled to Lovejoy, the man Cal had spoken to earlier. "Can I, uh, bum a smoke?" He asked.
Lovejoy walked slowly over, holding out a pack of cigarettes. Jack took one, lighting it and putting it in his mouth.
"You'll want to tie those," Lovejoy said, looking down at Jack's unlaced boots. "It's interesting. The young lady slipped so suddenly and you both still had time to take off your shoes and coats."
He gave them a fake smile and turned away.
Grace was not excited for the following evening.