Jack slowly walked down the hall, seemingly heading towards Rose's room, feeling dejected. He had hoped to have good news when he saw Rose again. He had hoped to be ready to plan a gala so he could officially ask her to marry him and they could all relax and look forward to the future. Instead, thanks to fucking Hockley and his big mouth, their whole plan was at a standstill once again. This time, the person to impress was his own father! Ugh! It made him so angry and regretful that he had returned to this world without Rose! If he had been thinking properly, he should have just told Rose the truth from the start, run off to a justice of the peace, get married, and then return to Boston as a happily, joined couple! There would have been no waiting about it and Hockley would have been out of Rose's life for good!

"Hey!" Emilie was suddenly by his side, a big smile spread across her face, certain that her Uncle's answer was a positive one. "So when is the engagement gala? Rose and I have some shopping to do! It's going to be the biggest event that Coney Island has ever seen! Mark my words!"

"There's not going to be an engagement gala...at least not anytime soon," Jack sighed, hating to give bad news...no the worse news he could ever give. Why did Hockley have to call? What was the point? Rose will never marry Cal, whether Jack was in the picture or not. Of that he was positive. Then again, he had been positive that his father would readily approve of his plans to marry Rose. Shows how much he knew about the world he was dealing with.

"What? What happened? Don't tell me that you chickened out and didn't talk to him about Rose!" Emilie gasped, nearly outraged! She wanted this engagement almost as much as her cousin did! She liked Rose a lot and believed that she was the one girl that would fit Jack perfectly. She wasn't silly or money hungry like the other girls. She was smart and well-read! She actually can hold interesting conversations and made what could be a boring outing interesting and fun! She could see Rose as a part of the family! Someone she could actually be friends with and not just a loose acquaintance like so many of the young ladies of high society. They had a lot in common. It'd be a crime for her uncle to not approve of an engagement between Jack and Rose!

"No, I didn't chicken out. I told him everything. How I felt about Rose, how I met her...why I really came home, everything. I wore my heart on my sleeve and hoped for the best."

"Well, then what happened?" Emilie frowned, feeling impatient.

"Hockley happened. Fucking Hockley called father and told him all about Rose's family financial problems. Because of that, father wants to think about it and will give me an answer at the end of summer!"

"What?! Why would the Hockleys care so much if you marry Rose?"

"Because fucking Cal Hockley wants her for himself, obviously. He probably caught word that I was interested in Rose and the call to my father was his attempt to put a brake on things. As if I'm that controlled by father. Like I won't marry Rose anyway!"

"Damn it...well I must say that I am highly disappointed. I mean, this was supposed to be a fun relaxing summer where you get married at last and now that's all ruined! What are you going to do now? Run off with Rose? I would," Emilie folded her arms, angry with her Uncle for letting stupid gossip get in the way of his son's happiness. Actually, she was rather surprised that he would.

"I could...I...fuck, I don't know. I just know that I want Rose and even if I don't get to be with her, I at least want to help her stay out of Caledon Hockley's clutches! She deserves better than that arrogant asshole."

"She does have better. She has you."

"But this will make her feel insecure about me...about us! She already told me that she still feels that she's standing on quicksand. This will make it even worse."

"Well then, you'll just have to reassure her! Make her see that no matter what, you are going to marry her! Even if you both have to run away to do so! I don't think it'll come to that."

"But if it does, that's what we'll do."

"Make her see that, Jack. Make her see that you're a sure thing. No matter what Uncle Al decides, you are going to marry her!"

Jack nodded, agreeing with his cousin. He'll have to make Rose feel secure about his intentions and he had every intention to make her his wife. He didn't care what Albert Dawson may have to say, just like he didn't care about Ruth Dewitt Bukater's opinion as well! He'll just go to Rose, explain the situation, and they can both make a decision then on what step to take next.

"Where is Rose now? Is she in her room?"

"I heard her say that she wanted to take a walk in the garden. I am on my way to join her...are you wanting to come along?"

"You know I do," Jack chuckled, again feeling grateful to have a cousin like Emilie and that she was fully on his side with this. "You're going to want to charge a chaperon fee sooner or later."

"Nah! This is my entertainment. I always loved a good romance," Emilie grinned, linking arms with Jack as they headed for the garden. "Besides, I'm sure that you'll return the favor someday."

"Just as long as the guy loves you like I love Rose."

"Oh, I sure he will, my dear cousin. You've set the bar pretty high."

Jack just smiled and escorted her out into the family garden, where they found Rose, wearing a silk and lacy nightgown that had a Chiffon with Milanese tape lace bodice band with a coat of cream gauze with hand made Irish Crochet, sitting among the daisies, looking up at the star-filled sky.

"Made a wish yet?" Jack was the first to speak, drawing the redhead's attention away from the sparkling lights above.

"No. I'm still waiting for one to fall," Rose smiled, getting to her feet to meet the cousins. "I'm glad to see that Emilie brought you. It's a great night for stargazing. The sky is so clear here. A lot clearer than it is in Philadelphia."

"And Boston. The city light drowns them out, unfortunately," Jack sighed, motioning for Rose to return to the garden bench she had occupied before his arrival.

"You know, we should move somewhere where we can see the stars all the time. No city lights to make them disappear," Rose happily sighed. Ever since Jack's proposal, she had been in a great mood. No thoughts of Cal or annoyances with her mother were there to dampen the natural high she was on.

"We will. Just say the word," Jack grinned, taking a seat next to her while Emilie decided to go explore the fountain a little ways back, wanting to give them some privacy

"The word," Rose laughed, her eyes drifting back up to the stars. "It's so vast and endless. Kind of reminds me that we're all just a speck of dust in god's eyes. Mother, Cal...they're meaningless in the grand scheme of things."

"Yeah," Jack sighed, his mind going back to the meeting with his father. He wished that he could agree with Rose's musings at the moment, that their problems were tiny and minuscule and didn't mean much, but to him, at that moment, they meant everything.

"That was a rather lackluster yeah," Rose brought her attention back to Jack, noticing how he wasn't even smiling, which was strange because Jack was always smiling. At least whenever she saw him he was. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Jack sighed again, hating to bring her good mood down, but there was no choice. They had to talk and discuss what steps to take next. "Well, I had just gotten through talking with my father."

Rose frowned, her heart beginning to drop. Just looking at Jack, she knew the news was bad. "What happened?"

Jack took her hand and looked her square in the eye. He did not want her to doubt him for a single second, despite his bad news. "First of all, I want you to know that nothing has changed. That I am going to marry you no matter what. Even if we have to go to a justice of the peace and elope. All of this...jumping through hoops we're doing...it's just a nicety. Giving them a chance to do right by us. Alright?"

Rose swallowed down her nervousness and nodded.

"Okay. What happened is that my father had received a call from Nathan Hockley. He told him all about your family's predicament."

"What?! But why? What purpose could...ugh! It's Cal. He must have realized that you're wooing me and like the manchild he is, he went crying to daddy," Rose's eyes flashed angrily as her hands tightened around Jack's. "This is absurd! So now, thanks to Cal, your father said no? Is that it?"

"Well, he didn't actually say no. But he wants to wait until the end of summer to make a decision. He wants to give it some thought, despite the fact that we have more than enough money! Despite the fact that you're why I've returned home at all! Despite the fact that I've finally found a high society girl that...that I love more than anything. Even art. And that says something because you know how much I love art."

"So what do we do now? I mean...Jack, we're in quicksand again!"

"No, we're not! Hockley thinks that like him, I'm easily controlled by my father! That this inheritance is everything! He doesn't realize that he has it all wrong. I can't be controlled! I won't be! We'll wait. Give my father until the end of the summer. If he says no, then we elope. One way or another, you will be my wife and free from that asshole Caledon Hockley. I don't care what I have to do to make it happen."

Rose sighed, trying to hang on to the cheerful mood she had been in just a few minutes earlier. A few minutes earlier, she had been full of hope and love and looked forward to a future that she had been sure was all but guaranteed. But now she was quickly falling back to not being sure about anything. The sun that had shined on her future, so bright and pretty had been an illusion.

"I wish Cal would just...go away and leave me alone! Gah, his father doesn't even want him to marry me! I don't want to marry him!"

"You said it. He's a manchild. If he can't have you, no one can."

"So we wait?"

Jack nodded. "We wait. We'll trust that my father sees sense and will come over to our side."

"And I'll tell mother not to get too comfortable. Don't act so...entitled. We'll have to make the best of impressions."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea. But don't think that I'm not a sure thing. I promise you, I am. I love you, Rose. I am going to marry you. Cal is already a distant memory for you. Don't doubt that."

"It's hard not to when he keeps popping up like this," Rose lowered her gaze, not wanting him to see the tears in her eyes. Not tears of sadness, but more of fear. Fear that somehow, Cal will have his way and snatch her future with Jack away from her.

"I know it's hard, but remember. You have the last say. He can't force you to say yes to anything. He won't even have the chance."

…..

Albert Dawson stood at his bedroom window that looked out at the garden estate as he watched his son converse with the young Rose Dewitt Bukater. He would have found it inappropriate if Emilie was not with them, standing by the fountain to give the couple a little bit of privacy. He watched as Jack took the girl's hands in his own and looked at her in the way that he knew that he looked at his own wife. He watched as the young couple embraced and kissed almost passionately before parting and bidding each other good night with Jack heading in first then the girls.

"It looks like our son has fallen in love."

Startled, Albert looked over at his wife, whose presence he had been unaware of up until now. "What do you think of the Dewitt Bukater girl?"

"Well, I can do without the mother, but the girl is lovely. She reminds me of Jack. In fact, they do fit each other somehow, don't you think?" Irene Dawson smiled, but the smile faded as she saw the troubled expression that her husband wore. "Alright, what's wrong? Don't you like Rose?"

"I do. Even though Jack may have a different opinion."

"Okay, husband, what happened? Tell me," Irene sat on the edge of her bed and patted the space next to her.

Albert sighed as he sat next to his wife, again running the conversation with his son through his head. "Jack showed up in my office this evening. He wanted me to approve of his plans to propose to the girl. To marry her.

"What?! But he hasn't known her for a full year yet," Irene was taken aback, even though she shouldn't be. She had only known Albert for a good three months before she knew that she loved him. It shouldn't surprise her that Jack had inherited her tendency to fall in love with someone so quickly.

"Actually, it's been a little longer than that. It turned out, he met Rose during his time in Philadelphia."

From there, Ralph told Irene everything. How Jack had met Rose and that the girl was the true reason for their son's return home and the call from Hockley and his answer to Jack's request. When he had finished, he could tell that his wife was not at all happy with him.

"Ralph Dawson! Are you telling me that our son came to you, told you all of that and you let gossip from that arrogant bully Nathan Hockley give you pause?" Irene stared at her husband in disbelief.

"Irene, you don't understand. The girl's family is in debt. Debt that needs to be paid. A marriage between them..."

"Would not even put a small dent in our finances! Goodness, Ralph! Your son is in love! He has found his soulmate and you want to think about it because of money!"

"What would you have me do?"

"Say yes, that's what I would have you do! Goodness, just think if he hadn't met that girl. If he had no reason to return to us...who knows when we would have seen our son again! Thanks to that girl, my son is safe at home where I can see him and hold him and not worry that he's sleeping under some bridge!"

"You still hate me that I allowed him that adventure, don't you?"

"I don't hate you. I just didn't think it was a good idea. Anything could have happened to him out there with us none the wiser. But thanks to that girl, he's home and you're telling me that you want to think about it before approving an engagement."

"I didn't say no."

"You might as well have! I can't believe you, Ralph. I just hope that you don't assume that you have the final say. I know Jack. If he truly loves that girl, it won't matter what you say. He'll marry her anyway. It's best that you just go ahead and give your approval so I can be there to see my son wed instead of congratulating him after the fact."

Ralph sighed and bowed his head, still feeling unsure about the situation, but his wife's words had reached him somewhat. He had that girl to thank for his son's return. He owed her for that much anyway. And Irene was right. Jack wasn't going to be controlled by his decisions. He'll marry the girl anyway. Maybe he should give his approval. Allow his son as much happiness as he could in a world where he felt like he didn't fit in.