Chapter Three -
"That's a lot for such a short life," said Tommy.
"Why did he kill them?" Jack asked. He now had found the answers to the questions that had been plaguing for four years. "If we're immortals, how come Dan died?"
"Are you comfortable?"
"What?" Jack was puzzled.
"I asked you if you were comfortable. Are you physically comfortable at the moment?"
"No."
"Didn't think you would be. This is going to take awhile.we'll probably die from the exposure a few more times before anyone finds us. It'll probably take a few days before they start searching for bodies."
"Great."
"Welcome to eternal life, Jack Dawson."
***
Lying on the same board Rose was rescued from, Tommy let Jack into the world of immortals, then, every few hours they would drift off to sleep, then eventual death. For better or for worse, the cold got to them before starvation did. Each time Jack fearing it was the end, but knowing deep down he would come back. Tommy, although he had experienced his own death in one way or another a hundred times over, still waited as he froze with a quiet seriousness.
Days later, when they were rescued by the crew of the Mackay-Bennett, Jack and Tommy lay still and sleep like, until they were bagged on board. Once they docked in Halifax, the pair snuck off ship.
"That's the longest I've ever had to play dead before.in all 542 years," Tommy said, trying to lighten the mood. ".We'll find them, Jackie, I promise." He put a reassuring hand on his young friend's shoulder. Jack had almost given them away with his nightmares. He had just seen a thousand people die, found out the mystery behind the destruction of his family, all the while not knowing the fate of his friends. Rose was missing, although Tommy had assured him she would have been picked up. Fabrizio had gone before Tommy came to, and he lost him from there.
They worked their way down to New York to locate the missing parties: nothing. Not even the Dahls or the Cartmells. The lists kept coming and the names never appeared, except for Rose, her name was all over the papers. She was dead.
"She's a clever girl, Jack. Do you really think, at least after all you told me, that she'd go back to them?"
"I dunno.God, even the one drawing of her.all my work.Davy Jones' Locker."
"Come on," said Tommy, as he paced in their little hotel room near Battery Park, "I got you a present."
"My birthday is in December," Jack said, nearly smiling for the first time in weeks.
Tommy pulled out an Excalibur and placed it in Jack's hand.
"This," he said, "is the only thing should never lose." Then he retracted, "well, almost never lose, lost my last one with Titanic."
"Where did you get this?" Jack examined it. It was double-edged with a gold handle.
"You mean these?" Tommy pulled out his own sword, a rapier. He explained while feeling out his new weapon, "While you were out scavenging for pencil and paper I ran into an old friend, and I got him to do a favor for me.not for the swords, but for the money."
"Old friend as in.?" as held up his sword.
"Yeah, boyo, we served together."
"In what war?" Jack had become addicted to Tommy's stories. At first he was one of the older guys, now he was living history.
"The one that started your country."
"Tom, you in were in the American Revolution?"
"Yeah, lived in Massachusetts for twenty years, got to like the place, got to like the locals, never got to like the bloody English."
"Is that what made you leave Ireland again?"
"No, I love America, but it was love and women. One crazy one that tried to convince me to go along with her and this Sin Fein feller, name's Annie Devlin, she's one of us and she's a fanatic, don't go near her, boyo-oh, and stay away from that ex-cop that tried to take you out on Titanic-"
"You mean Lovejoy? He's an immortal?"
"Yeah, so stay clear of him too, as I was saying, which is the reason we're goin' down to El Paso, the other woman I owe a ring and the rest of her natural life."
"What's her name?" Jack laughed inwardly at the thought of the old man in love.
"Rita. Rita Alvarez."
Jack stopped when he felt the presence of another immortal. He looked around.
"Don't worry about that one," Tommy said as he opened the door.
"Tom," nodded the stranger.
"Connor."
***
After a few nights with Connor MacLeod the pair, skipped off for El Paso. Connor was dark where Tommy was flamboyant. It unnerved Jack. He liked him; he liked hearing about people who'd lived for centuries, knowing he was one of them. He also knew that whatever darkness lurked inside a good man like Connor could lurk in him one day. Maybe that was just the way it was if you lived long enough. He could remember seeing a little bit of the Dan sometimes. Maybe Tommy was just good at hiding it. He was older than Connor, and Dan...Jack had no idea how old Dan was.
"Almost four hundred years, that guy's still looking for something," Jack said, as they boarded the train from Dallas.
"That's just Connor.and the immortal that killed his teacher in front of his wife is still alive and well," Tommy explained.
"He failed to mention that."
"You live a long time, Jackie," he sighed, "You have a lot you'll fail to mention."
"What happened to his wife?"
"Heather MacLeod.she's been dead 350 odd years of old age."
"You know her?"
"Yeah, I knew her," he said, "gorgeous lass in her day, lovely lady if I ever met one, even past her day.Ramirez was a good friend, too." "And he's been after this guy for over 300 years?" Jack said, thinking.
"Kurgen? Yeah. And don't even think about it now."
"I wasn't thinking about anything."
"You've thinking about it since you left Wisconsin and you've been thinking about it really hard since before we were in Halifax."
"You'll train me. You're my teacher now right. We get to El Paso, you find your girlfriend, and you said you'd teach me how to fight."
"I did. This isn't a bar fight, kid. But I can't make up, in your entire lifetime, what Clement's learned in two thousand years."
"He's two thousand years old?"
"Give or take. And his quibble with your friend Patterson was a good century old. I think he was about a thousand. Didn't even know he was gone till I met you."
"Quibble?" Jack asked, ignoring the rest.
"White settlers moved in. Killed all his people. His wife and adopted children included."
"Why?"
"He takes. That's all people like Clement know how to do. Makes this Hockley feller look like a kitten."
"I'm not chasing after Cal."
"Good. He's just fragile guy in a grand shell. Just a lost bastard that couldn't have his way and reacted with violence. There are a thousand like him born every day. Then people like you come along, prove him wrong, and his little brain pops."
That made Jack laugh for a moment. Tommy laughed with him for a moment, until Jack grew silent again.
"Remember their lives, not their deaths," Tommy said. Dealing with immortality was harder than fighting, harder than that one moment you when you kill a man. Tommy didn't know for sure what happened to Rose. But she had to have survived the sinking. What else came he didn't know.
"She's been dead longer than I ever knew her," Jack shook his head a little. He couldn't keep doing this. "So you know Clement?"
"Only by reputation."
"If you get him, you are going to have to get good first. And that takes a while. In the meantime, don't let revenge eat you first."
"Is that all?"
"No, today is a day for life!"
"You're getting drunk when we get to El Paso."
"Not as drunk as I'm getting myself."
Jack had the sinking feeling that Tommy too, had failed to mention a very important detail.
"That's a lot for such a short life," said Tommy.
"Why did he kill them?" Jack asked. He now had found the answers to the questions that had been plaguing for four years. "If we're immortals, how come Dan died?"
"Are you comfortable?"
"What?" Jack was puzzled.
"I asked you if you were comfortable. Are you physically comfortable at the moment?"
"No."
"Didn't think you would be. This is going to take awhile.we'll probably die from the exposure a few more times before anyone finds us. It'll probably take a few days before they start searching for bodies."
"Great."
"Welcome to eternal life, Jack Dawson."
***
Lying on the same board Rose was rescued from, Tommy let Jack into the world of immortals, then, every few hours they would drift off to sleep, then eventual death. For better or for worse, the cold got to them before starvation did. Each time Jack fearing it was the end, but knowing deep down he would come back. Tommy, although he had experienced his own death in one way or another a hundred times over, still waited as he froze with a quiet seriousness.
Days later, when they were rescued by the crew of the Mackay-Bennett, Jack and Tommy lay still and sleep like, until they were bagged on board. Once they docked in Halifax, the pair snuck off ship.
"That's the longest I've ever had to play dead before.in all 542 years," Tommy said, trying to lighten the mood. ".We'll find them, Jackie, I promise." He put a reassuring hand on his young friend's shoulder. Jack had almost given them away with his nightmares. He had just seen a thousand people die, found out the mystery behind the destruction of his family, all the while not knowing the fate of his friends. Rose was missing, although Tommy had assured him she would have been picked up. Fabrizio had gone before Tommy came to, and he lost him from there.
They worked their way down to New York to locate the missing parties: nothing. Not even the Dahls or the Cartmells. The lists kept coming and the names never appeared, except for Rose, her name was all over the papers. She was dead.
"She's a clever girl, Jack. Do you really think, at least after all you told me, that she'd go back to them?"
"I dunno.God, even the one drawing of her.all my work.Davy Jones' Locker."
"Come on," said Tommy, as he paced in their little hotel room near Battery Park, "I got you a present."
"My birthday is in December," Jack said, nearly smiling for the first time in weeks.
Tommy pulled out an Excalibur and placed it in Jack's hand.
"This," he said, "is the only thing should never lose." Then he retracted, "well, almost never lose, lost my last one with Titanic."
"Where did you get this?" Jack examined it. It was double-edged with a gold handle.
"You mean these?" Tommy pulled out his own sword, a rapier. He explained while feeling out his new weapon, "While you were out scavenging for pencil and paper I ran into an old friend, and I got him to do a favor for me.not for the swords, but for the money."
"Old friend as in.?" as held up his sword.
"Yeah, boyo, we served together."
"In what war?" Jack had become addicted to Tommy's stories. At first he was one of the older guys, now he was living history.
"The one that started your country."
"Tom, you in were in the American Revolution?"
"Yeah, lived in Massachusetts for twenty years, got to like the place, got to like the locals, never got to like the bloody English."
"Is that what made you leave Ireland again?"
"No, I love America, but it was love and women. One crazy one that tried to convince me to go along with her and this Sin Fein feller, name's Annie Devlin, she's one of us and she's a fanatic, don't go near her, boyo-oh, and stay away from that ex-cop that tried to take you out on Titanic-"
"You mean Lovejoy? He's an immortal?"
"Yeah, so stay clear of him too, as I was saying, which is the reason we're goin' down to El Paso, the other woman I owe a ring and the rest of her natural life."
"What's her name?" Jack laughed inwardly at the thought of the old man in love.
"Rita. Rita Alvarez."
Jack stopped when he felt the presence of another immortal. He looked around.
"Don't worry about that one," Tommy said as he opened the door.
"Tom," nodded the stranger.
"Connor."
***
After a few nights with Connor MacLeod the pair, skipped off for El Paso. Connor was dark where Tommy was flamboyant. It unnerved Jack. He liked him; he liked hearing about people who'd lived for centuries, knowing he was one of them. He also knew that whatever darkness lurked inside a good man like Connor could lurk in him one day. Maybe that was just the way it was if you lived long enough. He could remember seeing a little bit of the Dan sometimes. Maybe Tommy was just good at hiding it. He was older than Connor, and Dan...Jack had no idea how old Dan was.
"Almost four hundred years, that guy's still looking for something," Jack said, as they boarded the train from Dallas.
"That's just Connor.and the immortal that killed his teacher in front of his wife is still alive and well," Tommy explained.
"He failed to mention that."
"You live a long time, Jackie," he sighed, "You have a lot you'll fail to mention."
"What happened to his wife?"
"Heather MacLeod.she's been dead 350 odd years of old age."
"You know her?"
"Yeah, I knew her," he said, "gorgeous lass in her day, lovely lady if I ever met one, even past her day.Ramirez was a good friend, too." "And he's been after this guy for over 300 years?" Jack said, thinking.
"Kurgen? Yeah. And don't even think about it now."
"I wasn't thinking about anything."
"You've thinking about it since you left Wisconsin and you've been thinking about it really hard since before we were in Halifax."
"You'll train me. You're my teacher now right. We get to El Paso, you find your girlfriend, and you said you'd teach me how to fight."
"I did. This isn't a bar fight, kid. But I can't make up, in your entire lifetime, what Clement's learned in two thousand years."
"He's two thousand years old?"
"Give or take. And his quibble with your friend Patterson was a good century old. I think he was about a thousand. Didn't even know he was gone till I met you."
"Quibble?" Jack asked, ignoring the rest.
"White settlers moved in. Killed all his people. His wife and adopted children included."
"Why?"
"He takes. That's all people like Clement know how to do. Makes this Hockley feller look like a kitten."
"I'm not chasing after Cal."
"Good. He's just fragile guy in a grand shell. Just a lost bastard that couldn't have his way and reacted with violence. There are a thousand like him born every day. Then people like you come along, prove him wrong, and his little brain pops."
That made Jack laugh for a moment. Tommy laughed with him for a moment, until Jack grew silent again.
"Remember their lives, not their deaths," Tommy said. Dealing with immortality was harder than fighting, harder than that one moment you when you kill a man. Tommy didn't know for sure what happened to Rose. But she had to have survived the sinking. What else came he didn't know.
"She's been dead longer than I ever knew her," Jack shook his head a little. He couldn't keep doing this. "So you know Clement?"
"Only by reputation."
"If you get him, you are going to have to get good first. And that takes a while. In the meantime, don't let revenge eat you first."
"Is that all?"
"No, today is a day for life!"
"You're getting drunk when we get to El Paso."
"Not as drunk as I'm getting myself."
Jack had the sinking feeling that Tommy too, had failed to mention a very important detail.