Rose could hear the ice-cold water sloshing gently against the boat as the gentle breeze tossed her fiery red curls around her face. She shivered, half awake and snuggled closer to her blanket. Eventually she could feel someone lift her onto a stretcher and carefully carry her onto another boat. Turning slightly to the side she fell asleep.
"Wake up sweets." Rose's eyelids fluttered and she was blinded by the sunlight coming into the large infirmary. A chubby nurse with short frizzy coffee colored hair stood over her straightening up the small white table next to her cot.
"Thank goodness, I thought you'd never wake up!" chuckled the woman. "I'm Betty McArthur" Betty wiped her sweaty brow before presenting her hand to Rose, assuming she would shake it. Rose just answered:
"Rose, nice to meet you" Rose said. "Where's Jack?"
"I figured you'd ask that" Betty chuckled again "You've been shouting his name in your sleep for a while." Rose blushed.
"Do you know where he is? She asked again impatiently.
"Well, there is a survivor's list over on that wall over there, lemme just get you a wheel chair and we you can go and check it out. Eh?" Rose nodded as she struggled out of bed and into the black leather chair. Wheeling herself over she shuffled through the pages and into the D section.
"Darwin, Darwoll, Dawson! Jack Dawson!" Rose smiled and wiped the happy tears of relief away from her cheeks as she shuffled back to her cot. Betty grinned back at her and walked off to tend to the woman to Rose's left. Rose shouted out to her.
"Betty, where would Jack Dawson be?" Betty pointed over to a corner far over from where Rose was.
"Right over there honey, just wheel yourself over, but don't stay too long, I need to fix you up in a bit." Rose grinned and wheeled off. She came across a corner of men, varying in ages, some as young as 14, some around 60. Most looked like first class men. Rose spotted a blond head in the back and craned her neck to see if it was Jack. Feeling a surge of excitement pass through her body she went to see him.
"Jack!" she yelled as she steered to the side of his green cot. "It's me, Rose!" Jack didn't move. He was breathing deeply, Rose observed but he was unconscious. Rose caressed his cheek.
"It'll be okay, I'm here Jack. I'll never leave you."
After returning to her bed to visit with Betty for some medication and hot tea Rose asked if it would be all right to lie next to Jack. Although Betty was reluctant she agreed that Rose could for a short while.
"He needs all the support he can get." Agreed Betty, and she handed Rose an extra blanket for Jack. Rose snuggled up to Jack's cold and lifeless body, feeling his belly move up and down with each strained breath he took. Rose could feel his discomfort and cried. She cried because she missed Jack, she cried because of what had happened earlier on the boat, but most of all she cried because of what she had to do: give up her old life and everything and everyone in it and start anew with Jack.
She knew it was what she had wanted all along, but the pangs of heart throb that were coming from her now were unbearable. She loved Jack with all of her soul, and she knew that she always would, but part of her wanted to hang onto those last few shreds of that fancy, and exquisite life of dancing, cotillions, and polo matches. It was what she knew, what she had been trained to do for seventeen years.
She had faith in Jack. Despite the factors that would make them struggle to survive like having close to no money, no home, and no job, she knew that they would do fine.
Rose took a strained breath. The survivor's list! Mother and Cal will know that I'm here! She rushed to Betty without her chair, limping. She would have to change her name to escape.