**I do not own these characters. READ AND REVIEW! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!
I REALLY WANT TO KNOW WHETHER OR NOT I SHOULD CONTINUE THIS STORY! IT DOES
GO SOMEWHERE AFTER THE SINKING, I PROMISE!
Rose was marched past crowds of other passengers, standing in huddles and talking like it was all some cruel joke.
Only she knew it wasn't.
Cal held her back and stopped her, so that she was pulled against him. She went rigid instantly at his touch, and threw herself away from his shoulder. There was only one shoulder she wanted to be near.
Now, more than before, she felt the bitter cold of the night as she stood in line for a lifeboat. As the chill seeped through her coat, a dazzling white light lit up the sky. She lifted her face just in time to see orange embers burning above Titanic against a deep black sky.
Distress rockets.
The crew was becoming more desperate and exploding rockets into the air to attract nearby ships to come to the wounded liner's aid. White rockets always meant trouble at sea.
"Any room for a gentleman, gentlemen?" Cal asked nervously, trying to get off the foundering ship.
"Only women at this time sir," a crew member politely responded. Cal pretended to smile, and then melted back behind the wall of people to rejoin the DeWitt - Bukaters.
"Will the lifeboats be seated according to class?" Rose's mother's voice appeared at her side. She turned to see the short woman with a hand raised in the air. "I hope they're not too crowded," Ruth went on.
Although Cal smiled weakly, Rose's insides were shattered. Too crowded?! What did she mean, too crowded?! Praise God if they were too crowded! This wasn't the newest gown, or a new dollar bill. This was human lives!
"Oh mother," she fumed, "shut up!" Her mother turned to her, shocked, as Rose grabbed her shoulders. "Don't you understand?" Rose cried, shaking her. "The water is freezing and there aren't enough boats. Not enough by half." She looked around, past Ruth's frantic eyes. "Half the people on this ship are going to die."
As the light went out from her mother's face, Cal turned to sneer again at his bride-to-be. "Not the better half," he stated matter-of- factly. Stunned, Rose let go of her mother and turned to look at him. "You know," he went on, "it's a pity I didn't keep that drawing. It'll be worth a lot more by morning."
Illumination from the ship's deck showed the burning anger in Rose's eyes as she stood, horrified, staring at the man next to her. "You unbelievable bastard," she whispered, sickened, her voice tremoring with emotion.
Cal shrugged as Ruth stepped into the boat, sitting next to Molly Brown. "C'mon Rose darlin', there's plenty a room for you," Molly urged.
Rose didn't notice. Her brain was throbbing with hurt. Suddenly, like all the other times in her life when choices mattered, the answer to her question was so clear that she felt blown over.
Jack was innocent.
It hit her without warning.
She recognized the emotion that she had been trying to ignore since he had been taken away. She loved him, and because of their love they had been separated and he had been found guilty. Because he cared for her, he was now trapped in a sinking ship.
What had she done?
She couldn't let him die. She had to go to him. It was a physical need, to feel him against her, to let his arms hold her. She turned against her mother's pleads. The crewmen who had been extending his hand to help her board stood helplessly.
Rose turned and began walking away, dazed and unaware of anything else going on around her.
Vaguely, she heard her mother screaming, "Rose! Rose, come back here! Right now!" Of course, she didn't listen.
Something grabbed her arm, a hard, steel hand. She was forced to turn and look into Cal's leering face. Oh God! There wasn't enough time.
"Where are you going?" He asked in a rage. Abruptly, he noticed the lovestruck fires behind the irises of her eyes. "To him?" He roared, refusing to call that filth by name. "To be a whore for a gutter rat?"
Now was the time to speak her mind. How dare he insult Jack, who was more of a man than he would ever be?
"I'd rather be his whore than your wife," she breathed with death in her voice.
His face contracted, and she saw the surprised, angry look he shot her. She didn't stay any longer, but turned and started hurrying away. She didn't go fast enough.
"No! I said no!" Cal shouted and grabbed her elbows again. He began to shake her as she fought against him, grunting with the effort as passerby stared. She soon realized that although Jack was stronger than this man, her strength was far beaten. Using the only weapon she had, she hawked back all of her saliva and spit into Caledon Hockley's eye. Shocked, he let go of her to wipe his face. She turned and tore away from him, ignoring her mother's shrieks as she was separated from her daughter.
Rose had to hurry. But, with fresh, numbing despair, she realized she had no idea where in the ship Jack was.
Jack had recovered from the blow to his stomach and now stood straight again. He could hear a rushing sound, which he took to be water. Even though he couldn't see it yet, he knew the Titanic was sinking. The steepness of the floor beneath him was proof.
"Help!" He shouted. "Can anybody hear me? Will someone help me? Please!" Of course, no one came.
Where could Jack be? She tried to remember any hint that the Master of Arms could have given to where he was taking that man. No memory at all.
Then another vision swirled into her head, one of Thomas Andrews with his notebook. He knew 'every rivet' in this ship. He could tell her.
She began to race down the Grand Staircase, hurtling past people who were making their way upstairs, laughing. How could they laugh? It seemed a breach against humanity, against the world.
Rose streaked on the marble floor and slipped into the hallways of the first class staterooms. She knew that the shipbuilder would be herding men, women, and children to the lifeboats.
"Mr. Andrews!" She cried, staring desperately down the corridor. "Mr. Andrews!" She took off right, her breathing labored, until she turned again and saw him - walking quickly down the carpet, opening doors and calling those inside out on the boat deck.
"Oh, Mr. Andrews, thank God!" She sighed, grabbing his lifevest in anxiety and looking into his eyes. Before he could say anything, she spilled out her question. "Where would the Master of Arms take someone under arrest?"
He didn't understand how severely she needed this information. "What?" He asked. "Rose, you need to be gettin' to a boat right away!" Mr. Andrews began to try to walk her down the corner.
"No!" She exclaimed. "I'm doing this with or without your help, sir, but without will take longer."
He shook his head in worry and sighed, but then met her fear-filled gaze and finally answered. "Take the elevator all the way to the very bottom. Go down the crewmen's passage. Take a left, then a right, then go left again at the stairs. You'll come to a long corridor." She managed to absorb the information and fled without thanking him.
Jack pressed his head against the cool steel of the pole he was chained to and sighed.
"This could be bad," he mumbled.
No sooner were the words out of his mouth than a more obvious trickling sound filled his ears. He turned to the source of the noise and saw it - water was now streaming under the walls to him.
"Oh shit!" He yelled. "Oh shit!" He climbed up the beam and pulled, trying to break the chain binding his hands together. It was of no avail.
He looked helplessly at the icy, churning sea that seemed determined to swallow him.
Rose flew past the Grand Staircase, shoving people out of her way. "Excuse me," she mumbled, out of breath. "Thank you."
After what seemed like an eternity, she was in front of the elevators. A crisply uniformed crew member, however, stood blocking her way. She ran into him in her haste, trying to push him into the machine.
"I'm sorry miss, but the lifts are closed," he declared firmly.
Rose's heart pounded. There was only this man standing between her and Jack. She was not going to let him risk her love's life.
"I'm through being polite, God damn it," she seethed, shoving him back. "Now take me down!" Frightened, the bellhop again shoved the lever down. "E-deck," Rose ordered as she closed the heavy iron doors.
Jack was now up to his shins in sea. The water was rising incredibly fast and was extraordinarily cold.
"Come on, come on, come on!" He shouted desperately, trying to slide his hands out of the cuffs. They wouldn't budge. His face turned red with effort, but in the end all he could do was turn and watch the ocean, dread in his eyes.
Rose was breathing harder, fear outlining every exhale she made. By now, the man was calmer, but there was no conversation. She watched the floors flash by, unsure of what she would find. Was she too late? Oh God, if Jack was - no, she mustn't think that way.
Water suddenly rushed into the lift, swirling and churning around her legs. She screamed, her worst fear confirmed.
"I'm goin' back up!" Again, the bellhop moved to the lever.
If anything, she now knew that she had to get to Jack as soon as possible. "No!" She cried, shoving him away from the controls and opening the doors. "No! No!"
She stepped out of the elevator, wanting to gasp. It felt as if she was deep in ice, the cold was so piercing.
"Miss! Come back!" She ignored the wild calls. "I'm goin' back up! I'm goin' back up!"
Rose turned and watched as the sea was empty from the elevator while it began creaking to higher decks. She was alone.
And so was Jack.
The ghostly glow of water on the white walls made her skin even paler than it was with cold and fear.
"Crewmen's passage, crewmen's passage," she muttered to herself. Her eyes caught a sign above a hallway that read CREW ONLY. "Crewmen's passage." She turned and began wading down the corridor.
Now the water was seeping over the top of Jack's boots. Panic and terror flooded his mind as he clambered on the top of a desk.
After making two turns, Rose found herself at the stairs. She managed to fight to the long hallway Mr. Andrews had directed her to. She gasped.
The hallway took a right and a left. There were tens of doors. She had no idea which one her love was behind.
"Jack!" She cried out. The lights flickered. Horror crept into her soul. How much time was left? "Jack! Jack!"
Suddenly Jack stopped his struggle with his handcuffs. There was a sound, a beautiful sound, humming in his ears.
"Jack!"
He knew exactly who was calling his name.
"Rose!" He bellowed.
Rose eyes flew to every side of her, as she stood panic stricken. However, she suddenly heard a voice that made her insides go calm.
"Jack!" She yelled. She began to follow the sound of her name and the banging of metal on metal.
"Rose!" She heard. "I'm in here, Rose! I'm in here!"
She ran against the current of the water until she was led to a door, which she shoved open.
"Jack!" She cried again. After she shoved a stand out of her way, she saw him, standing on a desk, and the relief and love that flowed through her was indescribable.
"Rose!" He whispered.
"Jack! Jack!" She continued to exclaim until her arms were around him. Feeling his body pressed to hers was a balm to her soul. "Oh God! Oh God! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" She kissed him, putting her hands at the back of his blonde hair so she could pull him to her. She allowed his tongue to again dip in her mouth as she let love take her over.
When the kiss broke, Jack looked at her. "That guy Lovejoy put it in my pocket!" What hurt Rose most was the pain in her eyes, the pain that she had caused.
"I know! I know!" She cried and hugged his neck. He enjoyed the moment for as long as he could. The ship was sinking fast, and he needed to get her out of here.
"Listen, Rose, you're gonna have to find a spare key, alright? Look over there in that cabinet. It's a little silver one, Rose."
She managed to break herself from him and make her way to the wooden cupboard Jack was nodding his head to. She opened the glass door anxiously and began to frantically run her hands over the sets of keys. They knocked against the solid back and tinkled as she raced down every row.
"Silver, silver, silver - " she muttered. Then, with hysteria in her voice, she cried, "These are all brass ones!"
Jack however, was not going to become frenzied, for her sake. He had to get her out of the bowels of this floating palace. He would never forgive himself if he caused her death.
"Check right here Rose," he softly suggested, now tilting his head to the desk where Lovejoy had last been. She ran to it and pulled out a drawer, not concerned with anything except freeing her love.
It was while she was ransacking through the papers and tools inside it that Jack finally built up the courage to ask her the question that had been racing through his mind. "Rose," he began.
At the sound of his voice saying her name, Rose automatically froze and spun to look at him.
"How'd you find out I didn't do it?"
Finally, a smile washed over Rose's chalky face. "I didn't," she chattered. "I just realized I already knew."
He allowed her answer to flow over him. She trusted him, she knew him. She had come back from her own decision.
It was then that he felt water swirling around his knees.
"Keep lookin'," he reminded her, trying to point his chained hands at the desk.
"Oh!" She exclaimed tearfully and went back to tearing through the desk. Jack watched her, nervously, as the seconds ticked by. If it came to it, he would tell Rose to leave him, that'd he be alright. Of course he wouldn't, and she'd know it, and she wouldn't leave. He prayed to God that she could get him out of there before that time arrived.
"No key!" She whispered, fear etching her voice. "There's no key!"
Oh God, Jack thought. Oh God please. Get us out of here.
When he spoke, he was calm again. "Alright. Rose, you're gonna have to find some help." He paused and looked deep into her sapphire-jade eyes. "It'll be alright."
Rose looked down at the sea. It would not be alright. It would not, that is, unless she trusted Jack.
She turned and waded to him. "I'll be right back," she said, and then kissed him for as long as she could before turning and whooshing from the room.
"I'll just wait here!" He called after her.
Rose was marched past crowds of other passengers, standing in huddles and talking like it was all some cruel joke.
Only she knew it wasn't.
Cal held her back and stopped her, so that she was pulled against him. She went rigid instantly at his touch, and threw herself away from his shoulder. There was only one shoulder she wanted to be near.
Now, more than before, she felt the bitter cold of the night as she stood in line for a lifeboat. As the chill seeped through her coat, a dazzling white light lit up the sky. She lifted her face just in time to see orange embers burning above Titanic against a deep black sky.
Distress rockets.
The crew was becoming more desperate and exploding rockets into the air to attract nearby ships to come to the wounded liner's aid. White rockets always meant trouble at sea.
"Any room for a gentleman, gentlemen?" Cal asked nervously, trying to get off the foundering ship.
"Only women at this time sir," a crew member politely responded. Cal pretended to smile, and then melted back behind the wall of people to rejoin the DeWitt - Bukaters.
"Will the lifeboats be seated according to class?" Rose's mother's voice appeared at her side. She turned to see the short woman with a hand raised in the air. "I hope they're not too crowded," Ruth went on.
Although Cal smiled weakly, Rose's insides were shattered. Too crowded?! What did she mean, too crowded?! Praise God if they were too crowded! This wasn't the newest gown, or a new dollar bill. This was human lives!
"Oh mother," she fumed, "shut up!" Her mother turned to her, shocked, as Rose grabbed her shoulders. "Don't you understand?" Rose cried, shaking her. "The water is freezing and there aren't enough boats. Not enough by half." She looked around, past Ruth's frantic eyes. "Half the people on this ship are going to die."
As the light went out from her mother's face, Cal turned to sneer again at his bride-to-be. "Not the better half," he stated matter-of- factly. Stunned, Rose let go of her mother and turned to look at him. "You know," he went on, "it's a pity I didn't keep that drawing. It'll be worth a lot more by morning."
Illumination from the ship's deck showed the burning anger in Rose's eyes as she stood, horrified, staring at the man next to her. "You unbelievable bastard," she whispered, sickened, her voice tremoring with emotion.
Cal shrugged as Ruth stepped into the boat, sitting next to Molly Brown. "C'mon Rose darlin', there's plenty a room for you," Molly urged.
Rose didn't notice. Her brain was throbbing with hurt. Suddenly, like all the other times in her life when choices mattered, the answer to her question was so clear that she felt blown over.
Jack was innocent.
It hit her without warning.
She recognized the emotion that she had been trying to ignore since he had been taken away. She loved him, and because of their love they had been separated and he had been found guilty. Because he cared for her, he was now trapped in a sinking ship.
What had she done?
She couldn't let him die. She had to go to him. It was a physical need, to feel him against her, to let his arms hold her. She turned against her mother's pleads. The crewmen who had been extending his hand to help her board stood helplessly.
Rose turned and began walking away, dazed and unaware of anything else going on around her.
Vaguely, she heard her mother screaming, "Rose! Rose, come back here! Right now!" Of course, she didn't listen.
Something grabbed her arm, a hard, steel hand. She was forced to turn and look into Cal's leering face. Oh God! There wasn't enough time.
"Where are you going?" He asked in a rage. Abruptly, he noticed the lovestruck fires behind the irises of her eyes. "To him?" He roared, refusing to call that filth by name. "To be a whore for a gutter rat?"
Now was the time to speak her mind. How dare he insult Jack, who was more of a man than he would ever be?
"I'd rather be his whore than your wife," she breathed with death in her voice.
His face contracted, and she saw the surprised, angry look he shot her. She didn't stay any longer, but turned and started hurrying away. She didn't go fast enough.
"No! I said no!" Cal shouted and grabbed her elbows again. He began to shake her as she fought against him, grunting with the effort as passerby stared. She soon realized that although Jack was stronger than this man, her strength was far beaten. Using the only weapon she had, she hawked back all of her saliva and spit into Caledon Hockley's eye. Shocked, he let go of her to wipe his face. She turned and tore away from him, ignoring her mother's shrieks as she was separated from her daughter.
Rose had to hurry. But, with fresh, numbing despair, she realized she had no idea where in the ship Jack was.
Jack had recovered from the blow to his stomach and now stood straight again. He could hear a rushing sound, which he took to be water. Even though he couldn't see it yet, he knew the Titanic was sinking. The steepness of the floor beneath him was proof.
"Help!" He shouted. "Can anybody hear me? Will someone help me? Please!" Of course, no one came.
Where could Jack be? She tried to remember any hint that the Master of Arms could have given to where he was taking that man. No memory at all.
Then another vision swirled into her head, one of Thomas Andrews with his notebook. He knew 'every rivet' in this ship. He could tell her.
She began to race down the Grand Staircase, hurtling past people who were making their way upstairs, laughing. How could they laugh? It seemed a breach against humanity, against the world.
Rose streaked on the marble floor and slipped into the hallways of the first class staterooms. She knew that the shipbuilder would be herding men, women, and children to the lifeboats.
"Mr. Andrews!" She cried, staring desperately down the corridor. "Mr. Andrews!" She took off right, her breathing labored, until she turned again and saw him - walking quickly down the carpet, opening doors and calling those inside out on the boat deck.
"Oh, Mr. Andrews, thank God!" She sighed, grabbing his lifevest in anxiety and looking into his eyes. Before he could say anything, she spilled out her question. "Where would the Master of Arms take someone under arrest?"
He didn't understand how severely she needed this information. "What?" He asked. "Rose, you need to be gettin' to a boat right away!" Mr. Andrews began to try to walk her down the corner.
"No!" She exclaimed. "I'm doing this with or without your help, sir, but without will take longer."
He shook his head in worry and sighed, but then met her fear-filled gaze and finally answered. "Take the elevator all the way to the very bottom. Go down the crewmen's passage. Take a left, then a right, then go left again at the stairs. You'll come to a long corridor." She managed to absorb the information and fled without thanking him.
Jack pressed his head against the cool steel of the pole he was chained to and sighed.
"This could be bad," he mumbled.
No sooner were the words out of his mouth than a more obvious trickling sound filled his ears. He turned to the source of the noise and saw it - water was now streaming under the walls to him.
"Oh shit!" He yelled. "Oh shit!" He climbed up the beam and pulled, trying to break the chain binding his hands together. It was of no avail.
He looked helplessly at the icy, churning sea that seemed determined to swallow him.
Rose flew past the Grand Staircase, shoving people out of her way. "Excuse me," she mumbled, out of breath. "Thank you."
After what seemed like an eternity, she was in front of the elevators. A crisply uniformed crew member, however, stood blocking her way. She ran into him in her haste, trying to push him into the machine.
"I'm sorry miss, but the lifts are closed," he declared firmly.
Rose's heart pounded. There was only this man standing between her and Jack. She was not going to let him risk her love's life.
"I'm through being polite, God damn it," she seethed, shoving him back. "Now take me down!" Frightened, the bellhop again shoved the lever down. "E-deck," Rose ordered as she closed the heavy iron doors.
Jack was now up to his shins in sea. The water was rising incredibly fast and was extraordinarily cold.
"Come on, come on, come on!" He shouted desperately, trying to slide his hands out of the cuffs. They wouldn't budge. His face turned red with effort, but in the end all he could do was turn and watch the ocean, dread in his eyes.
Rose was breathing harder, fear outlining every exhale she made. By now, the man was calmer, but there was no conversation. She watched the floors flash by, unsure of what she would find. Was she too late? Oh God, if Jack was - no, she mustn't think that way.
Water suddenly rushed into the lift, swirling and churning around her legs. She screamed, her worst fear confirmed.
"I'm goin' back up!" Again, the bellhop moved to the lever.
If anything, she now knew that she had to get to Jack as soon as possible. "No!" She cried, shoving him away from the controls and opening the doors. "No! No!"
She stepped out of the elevator, wanting to gasp. It felt as if she was deep in ice, the cold was so piercing.
"Miss! Come back!" She ignored the wild calls. "I'm goin' back up! I'm goin' back up!"
Rose turned and watched as the sea was empty from the elevator while it began creaking to higher decks. She was alone.
And so was Jack.
The ghostly glow of water on the white walls made her skin even paler than it was with cold and fear.
"Crewmen's passage, crewmen's passage," she muttered to herself. Her eyes caught a sign above a hallway that read CREW ONLY. "Crewmen's passage." She turned and began wading down the corridor.
Now the water was seeping over the top of Jack's boots. Panic and terror flooded his mind as he clambered on the top of a desk.
After making two turns, Rose found herself at the stairs. She managed to fight to the long hallway Mr. Andrews had directed her to. She gasped.
The hallway took a right and a left. There were tens of doors. She had no idea which one her love was behind.
"Jack!" She cried out. The lights flickered. Horror crept into her soul. How much time was left? "Jack! Jack!"
Suddenly Jack stopped his struggle with his handcuffs. There was a sound, a beautiful sound, humming in his ears.
"Jack!"
He knew exactly who was calling his name.
"Rose!" He bellowed.
Rose eyes flew to every side of her, as she stood panic stricken. However, she suddenly heard a voice that made her insides go calm.
"Jack!" She yelled. She began to follow the sound of her name and the banging of metal on metal.
"Rose!" She heard. "I'm in here, Rose! I'm in here!"
She ran against the current of the water until she was led to a door, which she shoved open.
"Jack!" She cried again. After she shoved a stand out of her way, she saw him, standing on a desk, and the relief and love that flowed through her was indescribable.
"Rose!" He whispered.
"Jack! Jack!" She continued to exclaim until her arms were around him. Feeling his body pressed to hers was a balm to her soul. "Oh God! Oh God! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" She kissed him, putting her hands at the back of his blonde hair so she could pull him to her. She allowed his tongue to again dip in her mouth as she let love take her over.
When the kiss broke, Jack looked at her. "That guy Lovejoy put it in my pocket!" What hurt Rose most was the pain in her eyes, the pain that she had caused.
"I know! I know!" She cried and hugged his neck. He enjoyed the moment for as long as he could. The ship was sinking fast, and he needed to get her out of here.
"Listen, Rose, you're gonna have to find a spare key, alright? Look over there in that cabinet. It's a little silver one, Rose."
She managed to break herself from him and make her way to the wooden cupboard Jack was nodding his head to. She opened the glass door anxiously and began to frantically run her hands over the sets of keys. They knocked against the solid back and tinkled as she raced down every row.
"Silver, silver, silver - " she muttered. Then, with hysteria in her voice, she cried, "These are all brass ones!"
Jack however, was not going to become frenzied, for her sake. He had to get her out of the bowels of this floating palace. He would never forgive himself if he caused her death.
"Check right here Rose," he softly suggested, now tilting his head to the desk where Lovejoy had last been. She ran to it and pulled out a drawer, not concerned with anything except freeing her love.
It was while she was ransacking through the papers and tools inside it that Jack finally built up the courage to ask her the question that had been racing through his mind. "Rose," he began.
At the sound of his voice saying her name, Rose automatically froze and spun to look at him.
"How'd you find out I didn't do it?"
Finally, a smile washed over Rose's chalky face. "I didn't," she chattered. "I just realized I already knew."
He allowed her answer to flow over him. She trusted him, she knew him. She had come back from her own decision.
It was then that he felt water swirling around his knees.
"Keep lookin'," he reminded her, trying to point his chained hands at the desk.
"Oh!" She exclaimed tearfully and went back to tearing through the desk. Jack watched her, nervously, as the seconds ticked by. If it came to it, he would tell Rose to leave him, that'd he be alright. Of course he wouldn't, and she'd know it, and she wouldn't leave. He prayed to God that she could get him out of there before that time arrived.
"No key!" She whispered, fear etching her voice. "There's no key!"
Oh God, Jack thought. Oh God please. Get us out of here.
When he spoke, he was calm again. "Alright. Rose, you're gonna have to find some help." He paused and looked deep into her sapphire-jade eyes. "It'll be alright."
Rose looked down at the sea. It would not be alright. It would not, that is, unless she trusted Jack.
She turned and waded to him. "I'll be right back," she said, and then kissed him for as long as she could before turning and whooshing from the room.
"I'll just wait here!" He called after her.