"Mother!" Jacob exclaimed as his mother fell back in a faint. It took all of Olivia's strength to keep her mother off the floor.
Jack on his part was stunned silent, not knowing what to do. Not only Rose was alive, but by all chances...the boy that looked like him...was his son. But he was being presumptuious. He winced, remembering when Rose had once called him just that. Rose. He hadn't set eyes on her in twenty years and here she was in his house. Taking hesitant steps he walked over and was only able to stare. She looked older. So did he, but it complimented her. She was still very beautiful, but there was a maturity to that beauty.
"Sir, can you help us?" The Caledon clone asked, looking at Jack with eyes that matched Rose's.
"Um...okay...we should get her to the couch. I'll carry her over," Jack lifted her into his arms, marveling at how light she felt. Light and perfect. Like his arms had always been meant to hold her. Trying not to think of that fact, he carried her over to the couch and gently lowered her down onto the cushions, all too aware of the three young people gathering around them both.
"You know our mother?" The girl asked. She looked more like Rose, except her eyes were a warm brown and her hair dark like Hockley's.
"A long time ago," was Jack's distracted answer. He couldn't take his eyes off of her. Where had she been all this time? Why had he been unable to find her on the Carpathia? Why did the oldest boy look so much like him, but the younger kids more resembled Hockley and her? So many questions, yet he wouldn't be able to get answers until she woke up.
"Who are you?" The boy asked, still thinking that the man looked like an older version of his brother.
"You're Jack, aren't you? Jack Dawson?" his doppelganger answered for him, his eyes examining him curiously. "She thought you were dead."
A groan from Rose disrupted Jack's chance to answer and his full attention was on her again. He watched as her eyes blinked open and looked at the young man that looked so much like him. She gripped his hand. "Oh Jacob...I think the trip is getting to me. I thought...I thought I saw...Jack..."
"You did see Jack," he stepped into her line of view and she gasped as their eyes met. Pure and total shock was in hers, as his was beginning to fade. Her eyes drank him in. He was even more handsome now that he was older. His hair was darker and his body was more muscular, but he was still Jack.
"Jack? But you...you died...I...I had let go of your hand and you sank...," tears were in her eyes and her voice cracked as she went over the memory.
"I woke up underwater...and I guess they saw me and pulled me in the boat and the next thing I know, I'm waking up in the infirmary...but...I looked for you. I checked all the lists and there was no Rose Dewitt Bukater on them," He knelt next to her, his own tears nearly choking him. She's alive! His Rose had survived and was alive all this time and he had no idea! "Rose...you're here...I thought I'd never see you again..."
"I don't understand..."
"Mother," his doppelganger spoke up, before they could say anymore. "I'll take Max and Olivia outside and let you two talk. I imagine you have a lot to say."
"Oh Jacob...yes...that's a good idea," Rose smiled and sat up. She placed a hand on his cheek and smiled. "You always know what to do...just like...," her eyes drifted to Jack and she wanted to cry right then and there.
"We'll be outside," Jacob reassured, grabbing his siblings and leading them out onto the porch.
Jack watched them go as Rose repositioned herself into a sitting position. Her own thoughts were a mess. She couldn't believe it. Jack was alive! He had been alive all along! Where had he been? Why hadn't he been here when she and Jacob had needed him the most?! She didn't know whether to be happy that he was alive or sad that he had missed out on Jacob, or angry because he hadn't been there to protect them from his crazy aunt and uncle.
"We have a lot to talk about," Jack swallowed down his nervousness, not knowing what to say to her. What could he say? He could ask her about her life. Where she had been? Was the boy named Jacob his? Did she marry Hockley and if so, where was the bastard? What was she doing here?
"Yes we do. I just don't know where to start."
"I looked for you. On the Carpathia. I looked at all the lists, trying to find you...but they had you down as deceased," Jack looked at her, clear pain in his voice as he remembered the pain from such a discovery.
Rose looked at her hands, remembering that moment when she decided to let Rose Dewitt Bukater died. It had been one of her lowest, most lonliest moments. But she had been determined to keep her promise back then. She hadn't known about Jacob yet, but still, she had cherished the freedom that Jack had given her and she had been determined to grab it.
"That's because I told them that my name was Rose Dawson. It was to hide from mother and Cal...and to honor you. I had no idea that there was even a possibility that you could have survived...I had tried so hard to wake you up...but you wouldn't...I almost gave up. I had almost just laid there and let myself freeze right along with you. But then I remembered that promise you made me make and I didn't to disappoint you. I had to keep it."
"I see..."
"But Jack...what happened to you? I was out there on my own for four years...and I came to Chippewa Falls and you weren't here. Where were you?"
"New York, Canada, everywhere but here. I couldn't come back. My parents had died here and...the memories...it was just too hard to come back so I traveled around until I was drafted into the war...then when they sent me home, only then did I return here."
"Oh," She bowed her head, wiping away her tears.
"Rose...are those your children?"
She looked at him and nodded, knowing where this was going. She had no idea how he was going to react, what to expect.
Jack remained quiet for a few minutes, his mind working. He lifted his eyes to look outside and saw the boy's blond head, so much like his own.
"He's...he's my son, isn't he?"
"Yes. He is. His name is Jacob. He's what kept me going for four years after Titanic. It was just us...that was until we came here."
"You was here before?" Jack frowned. He hadn't heard anything about this from any of the townspeople when he had returned home. Of course, some had given him strange looks, but he had thought that had been because he was away for so long.
Rose sniffed, feeling the tears in her eyes at the memory. "Yes. I...I wanted our son to know more about you, so I came here, hoping to find out all I could. When we arrived, that was when I met your aunt and uncle. They were nice at first...but a few days later I had gotten a court document stating that they were going to sue me for custody of Jacob."
Jack was horrified by this revelation. Not only did he have a son, but an aunt and uncle that he had barely known...they had been here to threaten Rose and he had been off wandering the country, afraid to return while all this had happened. How could Rose not hate him right now?
"Obviously it didn't work..."
"It would have. If I hadn't ran back to Philadelphia," Her eyes begged for Jack to understand. She had to go back. She couldn't let them take her baby. "He was all I had left of you. He was the only reason I had to keep breathing and to fulfill that promise you made me make. I had to do what I did in order to keep him, you have to understand that..."
Jack frowned. Not sure if he wanted to hear anymore, but head to. This was the story of his son. This is what had happened to the love of his life. Besides, it was his own fault for staying away for so long. He should have came back home right after Titanic. Maybe then, he would have been here to protect Rose and their child. "What did you do?"
"Well...at first mother wasn't happy to see me, but she had taken a liking to Jacob. I told her what was going on and she...she called Cal."
"Hockley."
Rose nodded. "He was furious at me at first. But he also needed a bride who could give him an heir, so we made a deal. If he helped me win the custody battle for Jacob, I would marry him and provide him with an heir..."
"Rose, no..."
"I had to. I had to do whatever I could to save my baby...your baby...and if that meant giving away my freedom...so be it. So I married him...and he helped me win custody of Jacob and not only that...we found out why those people wanted custody so bad. You had inherited this house from your parents upon their death, and upon yours...this house went to Jacob. They wanted Jacob so they could have this house. Cal managed to evict them and secure Jacob's inheritance."
Jack didn't know how to feel about any of this. Guilt and anger, mainly at himself, some with his relatives, who didn't even have the heart to see about him after his parents had died. Guilt and grief that he had missed so much of his son's life. Jealousy, because it was Hockley who had gotten to be with Rose and Jacob, while he was only god knew where.
"I am so sorry that happened to you Rose...and that you were forced to marry Hockley in order to save our son."
"Believe it or not, it wasn't bad at all. I am not sure how it happened...but your son changed Cal. He managed to charm Cal and bring out a more sensitive side of him. He actually became a different man. A man that I could trust and eventually fall in love with. I know what you're thinking. This is Caledon Hockley, one of the masters of the universe. But by time the custody battle came to a close, Cal wasn't the same man that he had once been on Titanic. He had let go of his father's teachings and stopped hiding behind a mask of arrogance. He was a great father to Jacob and a wonderful husband to me. He gave me the twins, Maxwell and Olivia and for a long time, we were happy..."
Jack nodded, feeling a mixture of emotions. Guilt and horror and that he hadn't protected Rose. That she had been forced by his own relatives to flee back to her old life and marry Caledon Hockley. Jealousy that Hockley got to raise his son and be with Rose. Gratitude that Hockley had some transformation that made him a suitable father and husband and that he protected his son from said relatives. And finally curiousity. According to Rose, they had lived a happy life together and had a family, so where was Hockley now and why were Rose and her children, including his son, here and not living it up in some mansion?
"Where is he? Why isn't he with you now?"
Rose sniffed and looked at her hands, still seeing Cal's body, so still as it was slumped in his favorite chair. "You have to understand. Cal, he loved us. More than he probably thought himself capable of. It broke his heart when the time came to tell Jacob that he wasn't his biological father. He loved him so much and he was a wonder with the twins. But there was one thing he still loved more than us. Money. When the crash of happened...we had lost everything and unlike me, he had never lived without money before. So, he took own life, unable to see a way to live without money."
"Oh my god Rose...I...don't know what to say...I'm sorry for your loss..."
"So am I. I had finally loved him and it wasn't enough. Once again I lose the man I love..."
Jack winced, knowing that he was the first one. How he wished that he could change that. That it had been him that protected her and Jacob and raised their son along side her. But it wasn't. That honor had gone to Hockley, and in the end...he left it behind when hard times hit.
"Things didn't get any better for us. I was left with three children to raise. Jacob had been a great help, but he couldn't stop us from losing the mansion and the numerous evictions we had suffered. We finally decided to come here, since I thought you were dead and Jacob had inherited the house. I had no idea that you were alive..."
"I'm glad you came here, Rose. I am...I had thought I'd never see you again...but here you are and...I have a son that I don't know, but still, I'm happy you're here."
"So am I."
A comfortable silence fell between them and somehow they knew that no matter what happened, no matter how things worked out, the comradarie they had was still there. Despite the years apart.