{A/N: I want to apologize for my absence and the lack of updates on all of my stories. I had some health issues that had affected my ability to write and concentrate on the stories, not to mention writer's block. Hopefully, this is the first of more regular updates and there won't be such a long break again. Thank you for your patience!}
Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin
Shock coursed through Jack as he stood next to a childhood friend and stared at two friends that he had thought were lost to him on board a sinking ship and was now being held at gunpoint by a former neighbor on the porch of his childhood home. It felt so surreal, he could barely believe it.
"They're who I was telling ya about back at the store. You know them?" the clerk from Sokup's whose name is Joseph questioned, disbelief at the edge of his voice.
"Yes, of course, I do...I thought that they were dead, though…," Jack rubbed the back of his neck, feeling embarrassed to have assumed the worse. Of course, Fabrizio had survived! Just like Jack, he was a survivor and if Tommy stuck with Fabrizio, he had a good chance of surviving as well! He had been foolish to have assumed otherwise!
"You thought we were dead? We thought you were dead, boy-o!" Tommy stared also unable to believe his eyes.
Joseph scratched the back of his neck and watched as Jack went to hug the two men that had arrived in town asking about his childhood home. He couldn't wait to get back home and tell his parents about the new developments.
"Jack? Is it really you?" Fabrizio questioned, his mind having trouble processing that his best friend wasn't dead after all. He had to wonder, if he had been wrong about Jack's death...was there hope for Helga? Was she still out there somewhere, most likely alone?
"It's really me, Fabri and it's you! You really survived!" Jack released them and stood back, his mind still reeling.
Taken aback and a little annoyed, the farmer with the gun cleared his throat. "I hate to interrupt this...reunion, but may I ask what is happening here?"
"It's obvious, isn't it? Jack Dawson is back and he obviously knows these two," Joseph chuckled, folding his arms over his chest. "This is quite a welcome home."
"Jack Dawson?" the older man frowned and stepped closer to get a better look at the young man that had just arrived. "Why I'll be damned, it is Jack Dawson! Looks just like his ma and just as tall as his pa!"
"You remember Mr. John Mann, don't you Jack?" Joseph chuckled. "He helped restore the place."
"Of course I remember, but sir can you please stop pointing that gun at my friends?"
"Oh of course," John Mann lowered his gun and nodded his head. "I'm sorry about that, son. I had no idea that they were friends of yours."
"More like brothers, or at least Fabrizio here is. We traveled Europe together. Tommy is a more recent friend," Jack hurriedly explained, hoping that a more detailed introduction wasn't needed. He didn't think he could handle talking about Titanic. That subject was a reminder of what he had lost, even though he had found two of his friends again, but his heart will always ache for Rose. He couldn't understand how he had lost her. He had thought that her fire would burn bright and carry her through, not that it would be so easily snuffed out. "Fabrizio and Tommy, this is Joseph, an old friend, and Mr. John Mann, he was a family friend and neighbor…"
"Why did you come separately?" Joseph questioned.
It was Tommy who answered, knowing that the tragedy had affected Jack and Fabrizio more than him, but the looks of it. He hadn't lost a lass like his friends obviously had, so it was a little bit easier to talk about for him.
"We were in an accident. We had gotten separated. We had looked for Jack, but there had been no sign of him. We thought that he had been killed. So we decided to come here. Fabrizio wanted to see where his best mate grew up and we thought that there may be people here that would probably want to know what had become of him...it was just...harder than we thought it'd be."
Jack felt his chest fill with emotion, touched that his friends thought so much of him as to want to come to his hometown and let anyone he had cared about know of his fate. When he had left Chippewa Falls five years ago, he had thought he'd never have a family again, that no one would ever care for him as much as his deceased parents had. It touched him to know that Fabrizio cared so much for him enough to come to a strange town to tell strangers that he wouldn't be coming home.
"It sounds like you have some good friends there, son."
"Let us be on our way, Mr. Mann. Let these fellas catch up with one another," Joseph grinned, wanting to get back to his store and share what had just happened with his parents. "Don't be a stranger, Jack. Stop back in when you're in town again. Ma and Pa will want to see you."
"I sure will. Thanks for the ride," Jack smiled, genuinely thankful. So far, returning to his hometown had indeed been a good idea.
"I'll be on my way as well now that it's clear that you know these two and there's not a problem. Be sure to stop by if you need anything," the old farmer waved as he turned to go back home.
Jack waved goodbye as the two men left, leaving just himself, Fabrizio, and Tommy standing on the porch of his childhood home, staring at each other with a mixture of disbelief and relief.
"I can't believe that you guys are here in Chippewa Falls of all places," Jack broke the silence. "How long have you been here? Where are you staying? What have you been up to?"
"We've been here for about a month, give or take a few weeks. We've been staying at the boarding house in town and working at the brewery. We were hoping that maybe we could save up enough money to buy this place.
"Really? Why would you want this old place?" Jack chuckled, surprised that his two friends would want to do anything that would tie them down to a small part of the country that they had come to explore.
"Well, we thought that maybe it would be what you would have wanted...to have your family home be owned by someone that knew you...I guess we were trying to keep your memory alive somehow...but now there's no need for that, boy-o. You're alive and well. You don't need us to remind people. You're here to do that yourself," Tommy grinned, playfully punching Jack's arm.
Jack had no words to describe what he was feeling at that moment, to know that not only were there people in the town that still cared about his family to guard his family home but to also know that the friends he had made on his travels had cared for him enough to guard it as well. All he could do was hug his friends and be thankful that they had survived after all.
"You know, this place has a whole lot of memories I don't want to be alone with just yet. Some company would be greatly appreciated," Jack stood back, deciding to move ahead with an idea that was just taking shape. "How about instead of returning to that boarding house, you guys come to stay here with me? You can stay for however long you want. Even forever, if that's possible?"
"Are you serious, boy-o? I'm sure that you'd want fairer company than ours," Tommy eyed Jack, thinking about the first-class redhead that the artist had become enamored with on the doomed Titanic. Surely, she must have survived and was probably in town waiting for Jack to return for her.
"Nah, it's just me...unless you guys don't want to…," Jack tried not to wince at the hinting towards Rose.
"Well of course we want to if it's no trouble for ya."
"Of course it's no trouble! Come, pick a room. You can have anyone you want," Jack grinned, picking up the duffel bag he had allowed to fall to the ground when he went to hug his friends.
Fabrizio quickly pulled Tommy to the side. He couldn't help but wonder why Jack was alone. What had happened to Rose? Had she changed her mind and stayed in her world, leaving Jack to return to his hometown alone? He didn't know if Jack would even want to talk about it, especially with Tommy present, but he knew he might if it was just Fabrizio and himself. Before the disaster, there had been nothing the pair had kept secret from the other. Now should not be any different.
"Tommy, you will go get our things, yes?"
Tommy frowned, not understanding why he was expected to do all the work of retrieving their things from the boarding house. "By myself? Why aren't you coming with me, mate?"
"I need to ask Jack about...Rose. I can tell he's avoiding it, I'm just hoping that he'll open up to me...with it just being the two of us, you know?"
Tommy sighed, feeling a little hurt that Jack may not feel as comfortable with him as he probably did with Fabrizio, then he understood that Jack has known Fabrizio a lot longer. Fabrizio was more like a brother where Tommy was still a new friend...a good friend, but still new. "Okay, boy-o. Get it out of both of your systems. I know that you're still mourning that Norwegian lass. Not that I blame you. Right beauty she was."
"Thank you, amico. It won't be long. I promise," Fabrizio nodded, watching Tommy walk away before following Jack into the house once the door was opened.
Once inside, Jack dropped his bag in the middle of the floor and turned around with a big grin. "Welcome home, guys!" Jack's grin turned to a frown when he saw that Tommy was missing. He hadn't been expecting his Irish friend to have disappeared. "Where did Tommy go?"
"He went to get our things from the boarding house. He'll be back," Fabrizio, looking around what looked to be a nice sized foyer with steps to the left, leading to the second floor, a living room to the left, and a hallway that leads into a kitchen and a door that lead to the dining area. It seemed to have been a very comfortable home to have grown up in. It almost reminded him of his own childhood home back in Italy. He turned his attention back to Jack, who looked somewhat somber as he looked towards the steps. If he was going to broach the subject of Rose, it was best to do it now and get it over with. "Jack...why are you alone? Where is Rose?",
Jack froze and closed his eyes against the pain that even the sound of her name caused. His heart ached as memories of those three wonderful days assaulted him. Memories of green eyes, red curls, and soft skin and a drawing that had been his best work to this day. Memories of a woman who no longer existed.
"Jack?" Fabrizio frowned, dread beginning to fill his stomach as he saw the pain in his friend's expression. A pain that he too felt. Jack hadn't been the only one to fall in love on board that ship.
Jack pushed the pain down and looked at his friend, fighting the urge to sob. The guilt he felt...it was nearly overwhelming. It had been his duty to protect Rose, to make sure she had survived that night and he had failed her. He didn't know how. He thought he had done all he could, even staying in the water so she could safely have the door...but somehow it hadn't been enough.
"She's gone, Fabri. I can't explain how it happened...I had her get on a door that was floating in the water while I stayed in the water holding her hand. I...I lost consciousness and woke up sinking underwater. I fought my way back up and when I got back to the surface...she was gone. There was no sign of her. A boat picked me up and when I had a chance to check the list, hoping that there was a chance she was alive...she wasn't on it. There was no Rose Dewitt Bukater to be found. She's gone and it's my fault. I failed her."
Fabrizio walked over to his friend and placed a steady hand on his shoulder. He recognized the familiar guilt in Jack's voice. It was the same guilt he carried when he thought of Helga. It was guilt misplaced, even though his heart told him otherwise.
"No amico. You did not fail her. You did everything you could to save her, yes?"
Jack simply nodded, not looking at Fabrizio with watery blue eyes. "If it weren't for me, she would have been on a lifeboat."
"It was because of you that she found love and happiness, no matter for how short of time it was. That meant all the world. You made her happy."
"I just can't help but feel that there was something I didn't do...something that would have guaranteed that she would be saved. I just don't understand how after everything...how am I alive and she's not? I can't make sense of it."
"I know how you feel, amico. I ask myself every day if there was something more I could have said or something I could have done to make Helga come with me...but there was not. She would never leave her family...just like Rose would not have left you."
Jack knew that his friend was right. Rose made her own decisions and she had decided to be with him. There was nothing he could have done to make her decide otherwise. The fact that she had jumped back onto the sinking Titanic was proof of that. It just hurt to know that she was gone and he was still here without her, despite his best efforts.
"It hurts, even worse than when my parents died...I don't know how I am ever going to go on after Rose..."
Fabrizio wrapped his arms around Jack as he allowed his grief over Helga to rise up to join his friend's over his own lost love. "You will go on. So will I. We will go on together. Like we've always done."
Jack returned his friend's hug, feeling not so alone anymore. Perhaps Fabrizio was right. Maybe he will get through his grief and guilt and be able to enjoy life again and continue making it count, with a little help from his friends.