Well, hello and welcome back! Found this little thing on my computer, then realized it's been quite a while since I updated this story, so here you go! It is more on the sad side with a lot of hurt/comfort, but I hope you enjoy it all the same. Thank you to those who have come back to check out this new update! (Again, I don't own these characters)

Remembering

I awoke to the sound of Jack choking back a scream as he bolted straight up in bed. Drawing his knees up to his chest and burying his face in the crook of his arm, he struggled to catch his breath. "Jack?" I whispered, reaching out to place my hand on his shoulder. He was trembling. "Darling, what's the matter?"

He shook his head. "S'nothin, Rose. Go back to sleep. Sorry I woke you."

I let my fingers travel up into his hair, rubbing his neck and gently pulling at the golden strands in the manner I knew he found soothing. "Don't worry about me. What's wrong, Jack?"

"I said it's nothin'," he snapped.

I pinched my lips together, knowing I could not force anything from him. But I did not recoil from my husband. If he did not leave me when I was at my lowest point, I would most certainly not be leaving him.

We sat quietly in the darkened room for sometime, until Jack finally said, "I'm sorry, I... I just…" His breath hitched and his voice broke. A sob escaped his throat, and his hand found mine, clutching it tight in his own.

I gently urged his head to rest on my shoulder, our hands still clasped together even as I wrapped my other arm around him.

"I-I keep seeing them, Rose. Tommy, Fabrizio, Cora," he sobbed into the fabric of my night dress, each name that fell from his lips like a dagger piercing my heart. I felt hot tears prick my own eyes when he turned to look at me. It pained me to see him in such a way. Gone was the carefree spark that had danced across his face when we first met. That innocence he once carried in his heart, despite the hard life he'd lived, had vanished. The joy that used to simply radiate from him had dimmed. Some of what I once treasured so in my beloved Jack would never return. It was something I'd come to accept. Neither of us would ever be the same.

"They're dead, Rose," he cried out, guilt choking him like a noose tightening around his neck. "They're dead! And I'm alive!" He shook with the force of his sobs, anger twisting the features on his handsome face. "Why am I alive? Why did they have to die?" his voice grew much softer then, misty blue eyes looking to me for answers I didn't have. "Little Cora reaches out for me and I can't... When I close my eyes I see them. I hear them, Rose. Their cries for help... their desperate screams. But they're frozen. Dead in the water. They deserved to live, more than I did. What've I ever done to deserve this? Why am I still alive? Why me?"

I pressed a desperate kiss to his hand. "Because I need you, Jack," I whispered, unable to even think of what my life would've been like had I lost him, "and I love you. I can't live this life without you."

He leaned his head down against my shoulder, and I could still feel a few tears soaking through my nightgown. So many times I'd woken up terrified, shaking, and sobbing from dreams about that awful night, but I'd always awoken to the protection and warmth of Jack's embrace. And now he'd have mine.

"My love," I spoke ever so softly, holding him close, "I know it's confusing now. I know it hurts, sometimes as though it will never truly heal. But they would not have wanted you to suffer the same fate they did. They would not want us to spend our future in the past. We must continue on. We must live for them."

We sat in silence, tangled in the bed clothes and each others arms. Jack's hold on me did not loosen. His arms were wrapped securely around my waist as though afraid that if he let go, I'd disappear just as those in his dream had. I took his hand and kissed it. Jack brought our interlocked fingers to rest between his chest and mine. Our hearts were beating out a steady rhythm, reminding us that we were both very much alive. Despite all we'd been through, we were alive. We were together. Jack gave my hand a squeeze. "Never let go, Rose."

"I'll never let go, Jack. I promise."