A/N: Long time, no update! I'm back to updating this story, though I'm feeling a bit stuck around chapter 25, so hopefully I'll be able to work around that block without too much waiting between chapters. In the meantime, I can upload the next few with no problem. I hope you enjoy! As always, let me know what you think.
January 1917
On the morning of January 1, 1917, Rose was awake for two reasons: the smell of bacon and the bedsheets being tugged at. "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy," a little voice whispered, and though being woken up prematurely always seemed unpleasant, Rose couldn't help her growing smile as her eyes woke up alongside her ears and nose. She kept them closed as she rolled onto her side and Josie put her small hands on Rose's shoulder, trying to shake her awake now. In order to surprise Josie, Rose had to slow the progression of her smile and pretend to still be asleep, before wrapping her arms around her daughter. Josie shrieked as she was pulled onto the bed and smothered with kisses, relapsing into a fit of giggles. "You're trapped now. That's the price for waking me up," Rose joked as she hugged Josie tightly.
After Josie's laughter died down, Rose loosened her grip and started to get up and ready for the day. "What's your father up to?" she asked while shrugging on a robe and socks.
"It's a surprise!" Josie exclaimed, taking her mother's hand. "Let me show you!"
She and Josie walked out of the bedroom to find Jack in the kitchen making breakfast. "A lavish meal for the lovely bride," he proclaimed and gestured to the plates of bacon, eggs, and pancakes.
"This looks beautiful." Rose sat down at the table as her stomach growled at the sight. "And delicious."
"I made the toast!" Josie piped in, jumping up and down beside Rose until she was sitting on Rose's lap receiving another hug.
"Thank you, darling. This is the best wedding present. A good meal with my family…" She smiled up at Jack as he poured out glasses of orange juice. "We could sign the papers now and end the day here and I'd be just as happy."
Jack chuckled as he sat down to join them. "I appreciate the sentiment, but after all of the money we're spending, and the people coming into town… I think we should go through with what we have planned."
"Of course," Rose said. While filling her plate with the assortment of fresh foods, Josie squirmed off of her lap. "I can't wait to walk down that aisle and marry you, Jack Dawson. To still be Rose Dawson…but officially."
Since Josie was still a tad too short to reach the table, she was able to peek over the top of it if she stood on the tips of her toes, and so she slid a plate (with much effort) towards Rose for her breakfast. Rose filled it with child-appropriate portions and helped seat Josie at her chair, which boosted her up to the table.
"Two hours until we need to be at the town hall," Jack noted, more so for Rose than himself. Since they weren't that religious or traditional, and they only had a small group of friends and family they were inviting anyway, they decided on getting married at the local town hall instead of a church.
"That's plenty of time," Rose replied while nonchalantly cutting at a stack of pancakes. She'd been hinting at her dress and elaborate hairstyle she had planned for the wedding all week, which left Jack suspicious of the time, but she was still aiming for quick and simple along with elegance.
After closing her show last week to a standing ovation and bringing home another bouquet of flowers in a sea of congratulatory blossoms and notes from admirers, Rose went out with Olivia and Joanne after their shift to buy her wedding dress. A week was cutting it close, Rose recognized that—but her life had been chaotic since committing to the show! Plus, she didn't want anything too expensive or showy. Just something affordable yet chic, like—
"This?" Olivia kept picking up and holding every option on the rack. "Or this one?"
"I think what Rose wants is for us to get in and out of here, Liv. Look over here. Isn't this perfect?" Joanne held up her suggestion, one which seemed a bit more antique and dated for Rose's liking, but was closer to what Rose was looking for than Olivia's.
"Ooh, look at this one!" Olivia rushed to a mirror and held the dress against her body before showing Rose. "The bodice, the waist, the train… I think you need to try this one on!"
"Have you been checking the prices at all, Liv?" Joanne barked while putting her dress away. "We're not debutants inheriting a steel business."
After glimpsing the price tag, Olivia blushed and returned the dress, becoming more cognizant of what she recommended after that.
Meanwhile, Rose was skimming through the dresses as well, hoping to land on one she liked. Chippewa Falls was such a small town, and with this being the only dress shop, if she didn't find anything, then she would have to commute all the way to Eau Claire and—
"Rose, how does this one look?" Olivia called out.
When Rose turned around and her eyes met with the fabric held up in Olivia's arms, she knew that it was love at first sight. The dress showed off a bit of her collarbone and had a slight train, a sash to nip in and flatter the waist without being too restrictive, and delicate sleeves that went down halfway between her shoulder and elbows… And with the price being just in her range, Rose left the store feeling like the bag in her hand was gifted to her, and thanked the sky and the stars for starting her week off without a hitch.
After breakfast, Jack helped Josie into her dress and shoes while Rose started enacting her "surprise." She slipped into the gown without any strain or effort (though she would need someone to button and zip up the back fully), tied the sash, and got straight to her hair and makeup. With all of the stage performances she had been doing, she'd taken a liking to adding some color to her lips and definition to her eyes, even if she was raised on the idea that too much color cosmetics were impolite and for a certain type of working woman. After years of high society living, she was an expert at styling her hair, her mother still having no idea that she had asked the maids to teach her how to do some of them instead of just keeping her hands off.
With Josie energized and ready to zoom out of the house, Jack knocked on the bedroom door so that he could start getting ready too before she blew a hole into the wall. When Rose opened the door, he was taken aback by her bold simplicity: rosy lips, black eyeliner with a beige flush across the eyelid, and a hairstyle that took most of her hair up onto her head and had some pearls pinned throughout. Mesmerized, Jack wished to play with one of the curls resting on the nape of her neck and undo all of her progress.
One corner of her mouth turned up in a seductive twist, and she stepped back to let him in. "Can you button up the back for me?" she asked while showing him her skin, exposed by the gaping back of the dress. Jack followed through with her request, studying the way the white dress cinched her torso and brought out her curves that drove him insane, again fighting the urge to take her waist in his hands and place his lips on her neck.
"Mommy, you look like a princess!" Josie exclaimed as she ran into the room and in circles, taking one of Rose's hands and jumping up and down. "My mommy is a princess!"
"Yes, and that makes you my little princess," Rose said while clasping her hand around Josie's before she could escape. "Let's leave your daddy alone now to get changed, then we'll be leaving, okay?"
When Jack was finishing up, a honk from an automobile jolted him. "Jimmy's here!" Rose called to him, and he heard the front door open and shut followed by muffled voices speaking. "Daddy, we need to hurry!" Josie exclaimed while pushing open the bedroom door. Jack picked up the pace, smoothing his hair back one more time with a comb for good measure before piling on his winter jacket over his suit jacket and heading out to meet his wife-to-be and best friend.
At the town hall, everyone was waiting for them already: a small group containing Ruth, Molly, Olivia, Jimmy's parents (and Jimmy, once he joined them), Ilya and Lucas, and Joanne (who dragged along her husband). By the way they all fidgeted and talked at a rapid pace in anticipation of the ceremony, their guests seemed more eager to have a wedding than the bride and groom were.
Josie jumped out of the car and ran towards her grandmother and Aunt Molly waiting outside of the town hall, trying not to shiver in the Wisconsin winter wind, with Molly swinging her around in excitement. "You ready for this?" Jack said while helping Rose out of the car.
When Rose grabbed his hand and looked into his soulful eyes, she was reminded of how she couldn't be more comfortable with a decision in her life. "Let's do this."
With the ceremony so informal, the guests filed into the small room and sat in their seats while Jack took his spot at the front by the officiator. Meanwhile, Olivia helped adjust Rose's veil while Rose fixed the pink bow tying together some of Josie's long, blonde curls. "What are you going to do with these?" Rose asked her distracted daughter, who was stuffing her hand in the basket of flower petals she was given.
"Throw them around!" Josie exclaimed while tossing a fist in the air, disposing of some flower petals in front of the town hall door.
"Yes," Rose said while she and Olivia tried to keep their laughter at a low volume. "Now, Josie! Mommy will follow right behind you."
Olivia led Josie out into the room, where she was fawned over while she threw the petals in large clumps. Once she reached the front, the attention proved too much, and she hugged Jack's leg to hide from her audience. "Good job, Josie," Jack whispered, which caused Josie to smile through her shy blush.
Once Rose stepped out, Ruth gestured for Josie to come over and sit on her lap, and everyone admired the bride while trying not to laugh at Josie's commentary; since she didn't know what it meant to control speaking volume, everyone could hear her say, "My mommy is a princess!" Fortunately, by the time Rose reached the front, Ruth was able to get her to quiet down so they could listen to the rest of the ceremony.
Though Jack had seen Rose all morning, having her stand in front of him during their wedding was different. The way her eyes glimmered while looking into his. A light blush spread across her cheeks as her gaze drifted down, as if they hadn't been living together for years and had a baby already. With the white veil framing her face, she was more ethereal, and Jack was reminded, as he often was every day, how he had gotten so lucky with that hand of cards in Southampton to lead him to this moment.
They had decided to exchange short vows, since Rose didn't want anything extravagant. To teary-eyed observers, she said first, "Jack, when I first met you, we were on opposite planes of the universe. Socially speaking, we should have never even met. But I was drawn closer to you the more that you kindled this fire in me, the one fueling my own hopes and dreams that no one else had seen before. We may have struggled, but you've always made me feel safe. You've given me Josephine, who I'm proud to be a mother to every day, and it brings me such joy to see how wonderful of a father you are. You've saved me in every way that a woman can be saved… And though we were never formally married until this day, I always thought of you as the man I wanted to be with until the end of my days."
"Rose, I don't think there's anything I can say that you haven't heard before. When I first saw you, I thought, there was something about that girl. When I first met you, I knew that, like always, I was right." That earned a laugh from the crowd, including Rose. "I thought I was going to drift around for the rest of my life, but with you I saw reason to set up camp somewhere. And even though the great ship sank…" A moment of heaviness washed over the bride and groom, and the other survivors in the room. "I'm grateful that through everything, and all of that suffering, I was brought to you. I wish I still had those tickets because they were some damn lucky tickets for me to be standing here with a woman as amazing as you right now." Another wave of laughter passed through the crowd as Rose's smile widened, pushing a tear out of her watery eyes. "It's an honor to be standing here today and becoming your husband, for real this time."
While everyone clapped to relieve their own building emotions, Rose quickly brushed away the tears on her cheeks and whispered, "You're always better at words than me," at which he replied, "I love you just the same." Josie was sent up to hand over the rings, which Rose crouched down to her level to retrieve and blew her a kiss.
With the exchange of the rings and the phrase "I do," the ceremony ended, and while everyone filed out of the town hall, Rose kept her and Jack's embrace for a minute longer. She didn't say anything, just leant in for a delicate, passionate kiss that was too intimate for public viewing, which Jack reciprocated and repeated a couple of times before anyone noticed they were still inside. "Come on, you two, we're waiting!" Jimmy yelled, breaking their kiss. "Let's get going!"
Rose's eyes glinted with an innocence that was necessary to get through the rest of the day, but underlying that was an allure that only Jack could pick up on and that made him shiver. "We'll continue this later?" she said, her hands (one with a newly adorned finger) running down his arms.
"Of course," Jack said, before pecking her on the cheek and whispering in her ear, "I thought it was tradition anyway."
To make the celebration as simple as could be, they had the ceremony at the town hall, and the reception at their home. If Rose had decided to wait for warmer weather that allowed the snow to melt, she could have had the party outside in the backyard, but because she had wanted the wedding sooner, another indoor party had to do. As Rose changed out of her white dress into something more comfortable, a lavender gown that she had purchased last summer, she gazed at her reflection in the mirror. Aside from the ring on her finger, she didn't look or feel any different, but she still fidgeted with anticipation in her vanity seat as she worked on loosening her hairstyle. Five years ago, when she ran off to be with Jack, she never would have thought she could publicly celebrate their love like this. To have made friends-and to have her mother become more accepting, of all people-to join them in their celebration, she was more grateful than she could express.
As she re-joined the party at last, making a detour in the kitchen first for a glass of wine and some light appetizers she'd prepared (to the shock of everyone there), she overheard Jack's conversation with Jimmy and his parents before he saw her coming. "Yeah, Rose just finished her show, and I have mine opening next week. Not a play, of course… An art show. It's not that big of a deal, just a few pieces of mine that the gallery owner was interested in, and I made a couple new ones too."
"Oh, he's being modest, as usual," Rose interrupted while stepping into the conversation and looping her arm into Jack's. "The entire show is made up of new drawings, not just a couple. Jack's worked really hard on them for months now. We're very excited to see the opening next week." She squeezed his arm. "I believe it'll be a massive success."
"We're very excited to attend too, my dear," Mr. Isaac said, and while he and his wife and Rose shared beaming, proud smiles, Jack blushed in embarrassment from the flattery.
In response to his slight discomfort of his modesty being broken, Mrs. Isaac said, "So, you two… Mr. Isaac and I were talking and we realized, after those lovely vows you made, you've been here for almost three years now and we still don't know how you two met."
Jack and Rose both went cold. Over the years, they'd gotten away with slight, vague remarks of their past together, especially around how they met. No one knew the full story of Rose's high-class background—or Ruth's—and how could they, when Rose had her mother around, and they were both just as financially distraught? If it wasn't for the nest egg that Jack's random, distant relatives had left behind, she and Jack would still be living in a cramped apartment somewhere in Santa Monica, and Ruth would still be drifting around trying to get by. No one could know, just by looking at them, of their past, unless they were privy to reading the society columns for years before. Even if people were suspicious of their mannerisms, someone choosing to fall down social classes was unlikely, so they brushed it off as mere speculation coming from a small town obsessed with starting gossip. In the end, none of them—not Jack, or Rose, or Ruth, or even Molly when she visited—had mentioned the Titanic to any of their friends. In that entire room, the only people to know about their time on the ship were the survivors themselves. (Which must have made their vows, in the end, dreadfully confusing to those who didn't know.)
Despite it being almost five years ago, reflecting on that night was just as horrific, even if the reminder of it had less of a sting. Rose and Jack shared a reluctant look, and in that look was an agreement of sorts: no talk of tragedy at their wedding, even if it did revolve around how they met, but they could tread on general facts that others would already know. The Titanic would be pushed off for another time. "Well, I had been wandering around Europe for a while brushing up on my skills, and decided to return home. On that ship, I met Rose…"
"I was in this relationship with another man, though I didn't love him. We were a match made for superficial reasons, so when I met Jack, I left him. Once we got to America, we headed straight to California. We fell in love quickly, but here we are, five years later…"
The way they watered down the story for Jimmy's parents wasn't nearly as romantic or tragic as their experience meeting and getting to know each other was, but for the sake of not having an emotionally volatile wedding, it had to do. "Oh, that's sweet," Mrs. Isaac said, though Rose was certain she was saying that purely to be polite.
"Excuse me, I'll be right back," Rose said, needing to take a breath from the conversation that had resurfaced distressing memories as much as it did lovely ones.
In the kitchen, Rose saw all of the women crowded around Josephine, who wanted to show them a new dance that she created. As Rose watched her daughter entertain everyone, she couldn't help but beam with pride as most mothers did. "It looks like you may get another actress in the family," Joanne commented when she noticed Rose standing on the sidelines.
"Maybe…" Rose stepped into the group and clapped along with everyone else as Josie finished and took a bow. "Or an artist. Has she shown off her drawings yet? Because if not, I'm sure she will before the night is over."
As the crowd dispersed back to other corners of the party, with Jimmy starting a new record on the gramophone he had brought from home and Josie running off to her room to grab some of her drawings, Rose stayed behind with Olivia to pour herself a glass of wine. "So, Mrs. Dawson," she said while Rose picked a white over a red, "it's official. You're a wife to one of the most handsome men in town and a mother to an adorable daughter. Are you thinking of having any more children?"
Despite the pang that ripped through Rose, she kept her composure and grinned while taking a sip from her glass. "I've thought about it," she said, which was something that was still true even with the trauma of the summer still lingering around. "We've thought about it…"
Three months ago, if someone had asked her that question, Rose would have likely turned away and broken down into sobs, but she was able to hold her ground now even though the pain wasn't any less. Before the conversation could continue, a familiar song started playing on the gramophone, and Olivia's smile broke into a wide grin. "Go, go!" she exclaimed, nearly pushing Rose out of the kitchen.
Rose could recognize the tune anywhere, the song she and Jack had both been in love with when they first met, and was the namesake of their daughter. Come, Josephine, in my flying machine, and it's up she goes, up she goes…
"May I have this dance?" Jack said while giving her his hand, in that mock fancy way that had made her laugh when he'd attended dinner with her on the Titanic.
"Certainly," Rose said, holding back a gasp as he held her waist and hand and pulled her close to his body with such confidence and ease, her knees felt weak—just like they did when their eyes first met over the railing, when he smiled at her over stories of Santa Monica, and when he kissed her hand and held her close in a dance much more informal than this. She swore that if he leaned down and kissed her in that moment, she would melt into him like she did at the bow of the ship, as certain as she was that their night would end in the same burst of passion as it did the night of April 14, 1912. As his forehead met hers, and she sighed in the tenderness of his embrace, she realized she was just as intoxicated by Jack Dawson's charm as she was five years ago.
Their personal moment of reflection and intimacy was broken by the excited voice of their daughter. "Mommy, Daddy, it's my song!" she exclaimed while barreling into Rose's legs, prompting them to break up their dance so Rose would pick her up. "Yes, my darling, it's our song," she said, and she and Jack shared a knowing smile, that just because their lives were different now, didn't mean they felt any different towards each other.