Making It Count
Chapter One
Nearer My Love To Thee
Notes- First Titanic story, be gentle. Jack survival fic, Jack and Rose move on after the sinking of Titanic, but never forget that night.
Rating- T, I don't think it will go up but I never make my ratings definite.
Warnings- Mild language and some sexual references, intense drama and some scary situations.
Tag- There was a part to her story Rose never told.
Come Josephine in my flying machine
And it's up she goes, up she goes . . .
The incessant throb of frostbitten flesh long in the cold consumed many that night, freezing lungs past hypothermia, numbing 1500 people into a sleep they never would awake from. Four near deaths shook in a boat, having just been pulled from the icy black water and wrapped in a blanket, their eyes curious as to who might also be saved.
"Is anyone alive out there? Can anyone hear me?"
The shout was a dull, deep awakening for the fiery haired ice sculpture, her eyes drifted slowly open and she realized someone was shaking her awake, she muttered something about lighting a fire when a familiar voice called to her. "Rose? Rose? There's a boat, you've gotta get up, they've come back! Rose? There's a boat!" His voice threatened tears. "Please Rose, keep your promise to me."
Dread filled her as the nights events weighed in, Titanic had sunk, so many people were dead around her, having not survived the freezing waters, she and Jack had made love in J.J. Astor's car, and then it had happened, the ship had sunk beneath their own hands, she lay there hours later, and she did not think even with the will she could move. "Jack, I . . ."
He read her eyes, which had filled with hot tears, warming her cheeks as they slid down but they too froze, Jack looked to the boat, which was slowly floating away, he took a deep breath. "Wait, come back! Over here, here, come back!" It was no use, the water had done too much damage and his voice was weak, he slipped away from the door and found the man who had a whistle, pulled it from his dead lips and blew, hard into it several times until the boat came back, he pointed to Rose. "We need help, my girlfriend, she can't move."
"Can't move because she's dead?"
"No, she's just so cold, please, over there on the door." He kept frantically looking back, coughed several times, she was shivering and he felt horrible. The men helped him up out of the water and wrapped him in a blanket, then rowed through the corpses to Rose, where they hauled her in. She was wrapped in a blanket as well but huddled close to Jack, shivering with him. "Looks like you've both got hypothermia, don't worry tho, everything is gonna be all right now."
"It is, Rose." Jack promised, kissing her temple and holding her close to him. "From now on I promise you, everything will be ok."
Warmth was a relief, soothed the body and awakened it from it's dark, painful slumber. When Rose herself woke she was lying on an infirmary cot, Jack holding her close, a nurse knitted in the corner of the room, and several other survivors lay conscious and unconscious. Rose snuggled more closely to Jack, who grinned and nuzzled his nose into her neck, caused her to giggle. The nurse looked up at them and smiled, rested her weary hands in her lap. "You two are free to go on deck now, you're doing much better than you were."
Jack opened his eyes and looked to the old woman, smiled warmly. "Thank you, so very much." He flipped her one of the few coins from his pocket, then gathered the half asleep woman in his arms, and went onto the deck above with the rest of the steerage passengers. Before he got far from the stairwell a man with a clipboard stopped them. "Names?"
"Jack Dawson and . . ." he glanced to Rose, knowing she would be taken to her mother and Cal if he told them her real name. "And my wife, Rose Dawson."
Rose's eyes opened and she eyed him curiously, but shrugged, figured it wasn't worth asking, she had planned to become his wife anyhow. Well, she'd hoped to become his wife. She slipped back into sleep and felt him sit down, she snuggled into his shirtfront and felt him wrap her in the blanket and lean his head onto hers.
She watched her sleep and looked up when he heard a crewman tell someone the area was all storage and of no use to him, he looked at Caledon Hockley with hate, leaned down, under the blanket so his and Rose's heads weren't visible, and waited until he heard the creep go back upstairs. He yawned sleepily, nuzzled Rose again and drifted off, awoke to rain some hours later . . .
"It's as big as the ship was."
"No, this is 300 and some feet high, the ship was bigger." Jack assured Rose as they stood, gazed up at the gigantic statue as rain poured on them. A man made his way over, he too had a clipboard. "We need your names for the survivors list to be published."
"Jack and Rose Dawson." Rose answered quickly, Jack looked at her strangely and she smiled when the man walked away. "We may be living the poor life now Jack, but I do want some kind of wedding banns to be printed."
He smiled fondly at her and pulled her into a sweet, loving kiss. They finally let the third class passengers off the ship, were offered places in shelters as most of them had nothing and nowhere to go. Rose sighed as they got in line to go to a shelter, with a group of people, and placed her hands in her pockets absentmindedly. Her eyes grew wide and her jaw hit the ground, Jack looked at her, his brow furrowed in curiosity. "What is it?"
She pulled her hands out, one was full of a LOT of cash, the other had MORE cash, and the beautiful necklace Cal had stuffed in there, she looked up at Jack with the biggest smile he'd ever seen and he swept her up with a whoop of happiness. She shoved it all back in and they followed the group to the shelter, were presented with clean clothes the next morning and resources for getting jobs. Jack took twenty dollars of the money before he left (they'd counted over 30,000 dollars) and came back that afternoon with a golden smile. She was curious, to say the least.
"So are you going to stand there smiling at me or are you going to tell me how it went?"
"I got a job in an art gallery, I also got to bring you this." He walked back out the door, and came back in with a large framed painting, she was not familiar with the artist or his work but she adored it. "Oh, Jack, it's wonderful, who?"
"Gustave Mureau, it's called Dance of Salome, isn't it fantastic? I bought it for seven bucks!" He watched as she admired it silently, her big, fascinated smile told him enough, she loved it.
The next day both went to a pawn shop and sold her engagement ring, brought $5000 to add to their savings, and two weeks later when they thought they were stable enough, they rented a small apartment above a dressmaker's shop, where Rose learned to work just in case. It was funny, her mother had recently scorned a seamstress job, but Rose found it soothing, even tho she had never worked in her life, she liked being able to do something while Jack was away.
She told Abigail, the owner of the shop all about how she had met Jack and about what had happened on the ship and in the water and then how they had come to this all. The woman was fascinated, and asked Rose if the two of them had plans to marry anytime soon.
"Oh, I don't know. We want to get on out feet and make sure we are well steady before we do, I suppose. Jack has never brought marriage up."
Abigail frowned. "Forgive me Rose, but, are you living in sin?"
"No, no. I went to confession last week and we haven't been together since that night. We sleep in the same bed but we've been so exhausted I don't think either of us have thought about that." As she began to hem a skirt her mind jumped to holding onto the railing those last few minutes, she could still feel them rushing forward towards the water, heard jack speaking to her, saw that black abyss heading right for her. She also felt the needle miss the hem and poke her finger, drawing blood.
"Shit!" She looked into Abigail's shocked face and calmed, sucked the finger. "I'm very sorry, I don't usually swear it's just . . . Well, I've never been poked by a needle before and that REALLY hurt."
"Have you ever worked at all before?"
"Not in the least, I know I have to get used to it but I almost wait for something to preoccupy me. I do hope you're not upset."
"Not at all, I understand. My mum had to go from riches to rags, learn to work and support herself. It takes time but you'll learn to love this job, it keeps you occupied while that lover of yours deals with the rich ones in town."
She was running down a flooded corridor, trying to find stairs but the water level kept rising, and stairs were nowhere in sight. Finally she found some and ran up them, and up more and more until finally she reached the main deck. Not a soul was there, but the water level kept rising until the front of the ship was covered. She looked about, no lifeboats, looking out to sea she saw thirty, all full of the other passengers. Where was Jack?
"Rose, quick, here!"
She saw him behind the railing and ran to him, kissed him and climbed over, grabbed the railing as the ship broke and started to tilt. They watched the first half slowly sink and then drift into the blackness, they bobbed, then the ship started to surge forward. "The ship is gonna suck us down, when I say, take a really deep breath and do NOT let go of my hand."
"All right."
"Ready, now!" The ship went underwater and she let go of the railing, but kept a tight hold of Jack's hand, he swam her to the door and she climbed on, coughed water out a few times. She looked to him and he smiled, a boat came up behind him and he was pulled in, she held her arms out to him but he shook his head. "Bye Rose!"
"No, wait!" She watched it float slowly in the distance, Jack, Cal, her mother and Molly waved teasingly to her, and tears fell down her face. "Jack wait, I love you, Jack, JACK! I'll die out here!" She looked into the black waters and saw the Titanic, sitting on the bottom of the ocean, bow and stern staring at each other, and suddenly, as if being pushed, she fell in and met it.
"NO!" Jack jumped as Rose bolted up screaming the word, felt his pulse double in his chest. "Jesus Rose," he was surprised when she curled up in a ball and began to sob loudly, she lifted her hands and covered her eyes. "No, no, no, no, no, no . . ."
"Aw, Rose, what was it? What did you dream?"
"You left me," she felt his arms tighten around her. He grimaced at her words, stroked her shoulders. "On the door Jack, in the middle of that water, and you and they were all on a boat and took you and you all left me and I fell onto it, I fell through the water to the ship."
"Oh, Rose, sweetheart. . ." he kissed her temple and her neck several times. "You know I'd never do that, I love you, far too much. I know we haven't spent much time together and all but we have each other, and that's a lot."
"I know, I know but it felt so real, and it all won't go away, the ship is gone I just want it to all go away." She sobbed loudly, leant closer to him. "But it won't go, Jack, I can't make it go away."
"Aw Rose, it won't leave any of us, that's not something you just up and forget." He turned her to face him fully, stroked her tear dampened cheek. "None of what happened matters now, I love you so much, and our life together is going to be so much better, we're gonna get married, and make all those babies, and we'll die old together Rose, the exact same minute so we're never apart."
She smiled at him, feeling better and nuzzled his chest, holding him close. "Oh, Jack. I don't know what I would have done if I'd never had met you."
"Neither do I," he said softly, a devilish grin lit his face. "But you never would have jumped."
He began to laugh when she swung up at him. "Shut up."
PLEASE review! I know it isn't much or very good but your thoughts make it better! I'm totally open for some constructive criticism.