It was late when Jack returned to the small apartment that he shared with Fabrizio. He could have been home hours earlier, but he felt like taking a long walk instead and think about what he had just discovered. He just couldn't believe it. Of all people that a girl like Rose could be engaged to, it had to be Caledon Hockley. Jack couldn't think of a worse choice! Caledon Hockley was everything that a girl like Rose would want to avoid! He was arrogant, rude, sexist...he was just a complete and total bastard and did not deserve Rose! He would trample all over her fiery spirit until it was snuffed out for good and that would be a shame! Why would she choose a man like that? It completely had him astounded and confused and yes, even a little bit angry!

"Jack, you is back?" Fabrizio stuck his head out of his bedroom door.

"Yeah, I'm back," Jack sighed, collapsing onto the hard couch, his mind full of Rose and her engagement to Caledon Hockley. He just couldn't understand why she would marry someone like Hockley! It made no sense!

"You are not happy. What happened?" Fabrizio stepped out of his room to walk over and join his friend/employer on the couch. Jack and Fabrizio had been friends since Fabrizio's father had brought him to the United States and had gained a job with the Dawsons, who had a son the boy's age and became an instant playmate. Jack and Fabrizio had been friends since they were both ten years old and when they reached their teen years and Fabrizio needed a job and Jack needed a personal valet, Fabrizio volenteered. At first Jack was embarrassed by the arrangement, because he didn't feel right having his best friend serve him, but he soon realized that Fabrizio working for him meant he got to spend most of the day with his friend, which meant more chances of actually having fun and they became inseperable. In fact, Fabrizio was more of a brother to Jack than a valet, if they were both being totally honest.

Jack sighed and shook his head. "No. I am not happy. I am not happy at all. Rose is engaged and you won't believe to who."

"That is too bad," Fabrizio frowned, hating to see his friend/employer upset. "Who?"

"Caledon fucking Hockley! That pompous asshole that father had me spend time with last year. You remember him, or rather his valet Lovejoy."

Fabrizio grimaced at the memory. "That Spicer Lovejoy was scary. Are you sure that they're engaged? Rose doesn't seem the type to fall for such a man."

"Oh, Hockley made it loud and clear that they were engaged and Rose looked...well mortified to be honest. Something tells me that she doesn't want this engagement at all. In fact, she seems to want to escape the first class life completely," Jack sighed, sitting down on the edge of his bed. "I have to admit, I know the feeling of wanting to escape. If only it was so easy for her to do so. She deserves better than that entitled, egotistical, pompous...argh!"

Fabrizio watched as Jack picked up his pillow and tossed it across the room in a burst of anger. "Calm down, amico. Maybe things are not as bad as they seem."

"Or maybe they are. There's no way that she can want to be with someone like that. A girl like Rose...she wants adventure and respect. She has dreams and ambitions of her own...things that men like Hockley frown down on in a woman. She needs to be with someone kind and creative and would give her the kind of freedom she needs. Not someone that would keep her in a guilded cage! She needs someone like..."

"You?" Fabrizio arched a brow as he interrupted Jack's rant. He couldn't help but be concerned. He had never seen his friend obsess over a girl like this.

"Maybe."

"You don't know this girl, Jack. She don't know you. She thinks you are a poor boy. She does not know who you really are."

"Doesn't matter. I can help her, Fabri. I can get her out of that...abomination with Hockley. I mean...you met her. She is not like the other first class girls I've met. She is kind and smart! And funny and determined! She has her own mind! She has this fire and...if she marries that bastard, that fire will burn out. Maybe not right away because she's strong, but...someday, that fire will burn out and she'll be like all the other first class women and that would be a shame. I need to help her somehow..."

Fabrizio sighed, already knowing where this was going. He couldn't say that he was happy about it. He had really been enjoying his time away from Boston and that kind of life. Here, he was Jack's best friend and they were equals. In Boston, he was still Jack's friend, but...people would treat him as a servant once more. It won't matter how Jack saw him. "In order to help her Jack...we must go back."

Jack sighed, gave his friend a grim smile. "I know."

"Are we going back?"

Jack chewed on his bottom lip, thinking it over. He really wasn't ready to leave this life of freedom behind and return to his own world. But staying meant forgetting about this amazing girl. He would never find another girl like Rose, not in a million years! She needed someone to step in and stop this mistake from happening and the only way for that to happen was for him to go home. If she was just any other girl, he would just walk away and continue on this little adventure and put off his return to Boston society indefinitely. But she wasn't just any other girl. The way just being in her presence made him feel...it was something he had never felt before. She was worth it in his eyes. It wasn't like he had to return for good. Once he had Rose safely in his arms, they could both take off and live their lives the way they wanted to, high society be damned. It was going to take time and work to get her away from Hockley. The sooner he returned home, the sooner he could work on doing just that.

"Yes. I suggest that you say your goodbyes tomorrow. It'll be our last day here..."

"What about Tommy? He has been such a good friend to us...he will hate us for lying to him."

Jack sighed, feeling a heavy weight on his shoulders. Tommy would most likely hate him once he found out the truth, but it couldn't be helped. He was going to find out eventually anyway. "We'll tell him the truth together. I doubt you'll have anything to worry about though. I'll be the only one he'll hate after it's all said and done."

Fabrizio shook his head, feeling sad for his friend. He knew that if it wasn't for his constant companionship, life in Boston would be a lonely one for Jack. Here, Jack had plenty of friends and people that cared about him. His sunny, carefree personality just drew people to him. Without the barrier of wealth, Jack made friends easily. In the time they had been here, they had become a part of the community. A part of the family sort of speak. After tomorrow, that will all be over.

"I doubt he will hate you. You are not a easy person to hate."

"I am sure Hockley would disagree with you there," Jack snorted, before getting to his feet to pace the floor again. "Wait, we won't talk to Tommy yet. I need...I need to see Rose one last time. I should make sure that I'm right and that life with Hockley is something that she doesn't want. I could be wrong and the past few days was just a curiousity to her and she is looking forward to being Hockley's arm piece."

"That is a better idea. There is no purpose in ending our life here just yet if she doesn't want help."

Jack looked at his friends, his eyes unhappy. It would hurt if Rose did want the fate that was awaiting her. He didn't know how it had happened, but he had come to care a great deal about her in the short time they had known each other. In a way, they were kindred spirits, which is why he felt he knew her so well. "What if she doesn't want my help?"

"Then you must let go, amico. Find another girl."

"That's just it, Fabri. I'm afraid that there is no other girl...at least not one like her."

...

Rose stood before her floor length mirror, studying her reflection as Trudy undid the corset she was wearing. The confrontation between her mother, Cal, and Jack was on her mind. That had not been the way she had pictured her outing with Jack ending at all. Of course, she knew that there could never be anything serious with Jack, not even friendship, that at some point her contact with him would have to come to an end. But she had never dreamed that it would be so abrupt. That the last she'd see of him was him facing Cal, who looked less than pleased to find his fiancee in the company of another man.

Jack. She had never met anyone like him before. He was kind, sweet, brave, and handsome, not to mention talented. He listened to her without interrupting, he really listened. He wasn't just pretending to, like Cal and her mother often do. He really seemed interested in her opinion and seemed to understand her in a way that no one else ever had. She wished that they could have had more of a friendship, but such a thing was unheard of in her world. She was not only engaged, but was in a higher station than Jack. First class girls did not associate with the lower class, especially not it's men. All in all, she was pretty sure that she was never going to see Jack Dawson again and that made her more sad that she was allowed to be.

"Trudy, I'll take over here. You may go," Ruth entered the room, startling Rose out of her thoughts. Both her mother and Cal had not mentioned Jack when they had all returned to the setting room of the mansion. Her mother had set her down and had some tea poured and Cal came in a few minutes later. Rose silently sat by as her mother and Cal spoke of the arrangements for the coming marriage, neither one of them paying her any mind. All Rose could do was sit there and listen and wonder when her mother would pull her aside for a good lecture about associating with strange men when she had someone like Cal.

Finally, it seemed that the moment had arrived. Cal had left a few hours ago, so there was no need for Ruth to keep her voice low. She could yell at Rose as much as she wanted to without giving her future son in law any bad impressions.

"You are not to see that boy ever again, Rose," Ruth's voice was hard and commanding as she loosened the ties of the corset with sharp, jerking movements, as if she was trying to shake some sense into her daughter's head. "Do you understand me?"

Rose wanted to roll her eyes. It really was pathetic how predictable her mother was. Predictable and annoying. Wasn't this her life? Shouldn't it be her decision on who she had contact with? Of course, she knew it wasn't. She knew that when it came down to it, her mother controlled everything. These past few days had been some kind of fluke. Somehow, Ruth had loosened those reigns, allowing Rose to escape for a few days, but now her small bout of freedom was over. Ruth was pulling her back in, maybe even tighter than before, but that didn't mean that she couldn't put up some resistance.

"Oh stop it, mother. You are going to give yourself a nose bleed."

Ruth turned her daughter around and gave her a stern, hard look, wondering what it was going to take to get Rose to understand. This was no time to play games. Men like Caledon Hockley did not come along everyday. If they were going to survive, Rose was going to have to do her part. There was no choice anymore. She was no longer a little girl. It was time to grow up!

"This is not a game. Our situation is precarious. You know the money's gone."

"Of course I know it's gone. You remind me every day."

"Your father left us nothing but a legacy of bad debts hidden by a good name. That name is the only card that we have to play. I don't understand you. It's a fine match with Hockley. It will ensure our survival.

Ruth's words hit Rose like a block of stone. She could feel the weight of them pressing her down more and more, trapping her in a life that she did not want, but she had no choice to live. "How could you put this on my shoulders?"

"Why are you being so selfish?!" Ruth snapped, her annoyance flowing over into her voice. Why couldn't Rose see? This was how their world worked. It had always worked this way.

"I'm being selfish?!" Rose snapped back, disbelieving that her mother couldn't see what this was doing to her. She was only seventeen years old! She had so many dreams that she wanted to make come true, but with her mother placing their survival on her like this, she doubted that those dreams would ever be reality.

Ruth stared at her daughter, knowing that what she was about to do was not ethical by any means, but she knew that her daughter loved her, that she didn't want to see her hurt or destitute. Rose was an emotional girl. Sometimes, it was manipulating those emotions that got the girl to calm down and do what was expected of her.

"Do you want to see me working as a seamstress? Is that what you want? To see our fine things, sold at action? Our memories scattered to the wind?" the last part was said through a stifled sob, and by the softening of Rose's features, Ruth knew that her manipulation had worked. Rose would stop resisting. She'll do what she was told to do and marry Caledon Hockley, saving their space in high society.

"It's so unfair," Rose frowned, all will to resist her mother's plans crumbling. Ruth was right. Rose did love her mother enough to not fight her on this plan. For now, anyway.

Ruth looked at her daughter, almost feeling bad for her, but not quite. This was just the way it was. Their lives could be so much more worse than this, she was sure. "Of course it's unfair. We're women. Our choices are never easy."