Ready to Make Nice

Written by: adpi24

Disclaimer: Sorry still don't anything.

Pairing: Cal/Rose

AN: Thank you so much to Starlight63, Angel of Beauty and JustplainLilly for the reviews!

Edit: Thank you to Angel of Beauty for telling me what Cal's father's name was. I should have just popped in the DVD but that would have been too easy. LOL.

Also, I am out of town until the 6th. I will try to write chapter 5 when I can. So please be a bit patient on that chapter.

She made sure to approach Cal from behind; she took his hand in hers and said to the group of women.

"Is there a reason why you are flirting with my fiancée?"

The women looked at her with surprise and disdain. The blonde glared at Rose and spoke up.

"And you would be?"

Rose smiled politely, "Rose DeWitt-Bukater" she let go of Cal's hand and held her right one out to shake their hands while conveniently moving some hair out of her face to show off her engagement ring. "And you are?" she asked.

"Helen Fosser"

"Josephine White"

"Betty Davidson"

"Alice Stockton"

Rose shook all their hands, then immediately reclaimed Cal's left hand in her right one.

"Now that I know who you are, can someone please answer my question?"

The women all shared glances with each other, "what was the question?" Alice asked.

"Why were you" Rose said looking directly at Helen, "actually all of you, flirting with my fiancée?"

"I apologize for the mistake." Josephine said and took her leave, Betty and Alice followed suit in apologies. The only one left was Helen, who stood there defiantly.

"Well for one thing, we were under the impression that you were dead." Helen stated coldly.

"Oh, when did I supposedly die?" Rose asked coyly.

"On the Titanic."

"So supposedly I died on the sinking of the Titanic, which was not four months ago, and you think it's okay to be flirting with him. Would you want someone to start flirting with you while you were still mourning the loss of one you loved?"

Rose didn't expect her to answer the rhetorical question; the women stood glaring at one another. Rose never expected to feel this much jealously of women flirting with Cal. She had witnessed it many times during their courtship and then engagement, but she let it slide. When it occurred during their engagement she was starting to resent the way he was treating her, so she didn't even care if a woman flirted with him.

Rose put her left hand on her abdomen and looked straight into Helen's eyes, "So really, my final question to you would be, do I look dead?" Rose asked politely, yet firmly, to Helen.

"No, as a matter of fact, you look pregnant."

"Well, it could be because I am." Rose replied, smiling politely to Helen, "Now if you would please excuse us, I need to speak to my fiancée in private."

Helen nodded and walked away. Rose turned to face Cal; his face was marred with shock. Before she knew what was happening, Cal had embraced her. They stayed that way for a time, when Rose began to feel the pressure.

"Cal, I can't breathe."

"I apologize. I just…"

"I know" Rose paused, "Cal, we'll talk later. Right now, we have this amazing party that your parents have thrown and we need to mingle."

"Rose, I apologize for everything I…" Cal said trailing off.

"Cal, I accept your apology and like I said, I promise we'll talk later."

"Okay"

"Okay then." Rose said smiling, "I really need to eat. I've been so nervous about seeing you again that I haven't eaten, and needless to say, your child hasn't been too incredibly happy about that."

Cal looked down at her burgeoning abdomen, and then looked back up at her. Rose took his hand and placed it on her abdomen.

"We'll talk later."

Cal nodded, he lifted his hand from her abdomen and took her hand in his and walked over to the main table, where at the moment his parents were.

Cal looked at her with confusion and fear in his eyes. She smiled, "its okay, I've got it all taken care of."

"Oh my god, Rose!" Frances Hockley exclaimed.

"Good lord!" Nathan Hockley stated.

Rose released Cal's hand and went to his parents, who were now standing. She embraced his mother, who was at this point crying. She went to his father, ready to shake his hand, when he pulled her into a hug.

"We heard you were deceased. What is going on?" Frances asked.

"You're pregnant." Nathan stated.

By this time Cal was now standing behind Rose and had pulled a chair out for her to sit down.

"Thank you Cal" Rose said and took a seat. She gestured for his parents to do the same. They sat down directly across from her. Cal took a seat to her left.

"I will start with the obvious, yes I'm pregnant. I am almost five months pregnant, I estimate that I am due in late November or early December."

Cal's parents glanced at each other, silently acknowledging to one another when, in fact, Rose had become pregnant.

"And as for the second part, you believing I was deceased, it comes down to an error."

"An error?" Nathan questioned.

"There was a considerable amount of chaos occurring on the Titanic during the sinking. At one point, I hit my head and was knocked unconscious."

"Why wasn't Caledon with you at the time?" Nathan asked firmly, starring down at his son.

"It wasn't Cal's fault, I had insisted on going back to the room for a precious item I had forgotten and you know how stubborn I am. It was on my way back from the room that I hit my head. A fellow passenger from steerage found me. We were unable to make it back to the lifeboats prior to them all be lowered. This kind passenger guided me around the ship and told me what to do to survive. His name was Jack Dawson."

Rose paused to take a sip of water before continuing her tale, "When I got aboard the Carpathia I was taken to where steerage passengers awaited. I had no memory of who I was except that my first name was Rose and that a man named Jack Dawson helped me. With no knowledge of who I was, I told the man on the Carpathia that my name was Rose Dawson."

"A nice woman by the name of Mildred O'Rielly took me in. I eventually obtained work at a garment factory to pay for my rent. It was about three weeks ago that I accidentally hit my head at work and my memory came rushing back to me."

"Why didn't you try to locate Cal, us, your mother then?" Frances asked.

"Because I didn't know where you were." Rose said "at least that part is the truth" she thought to herself.

"I went around to some of the upscale boutiques and I found out from some wonderful ladies about this party. I knew you all of you would be here then, so I waited until this evening.

Frances got up and walked over to Rose, "I'm so happy that you are alive and well Rose."

Rose stood up and accepted Frances' hug. "Thank you"

The rest of the evening became a blur for Rose. After they ate, she and Cal walked around saying hello to people. All of whom were absolutely shocked that she was alive. Luckily, since she had told her "amnesia" story once, Cal played along and began to tell people she suffered amnesia along with his parents.

As it got close to nine, Rose whispered in Cal's ear that she was getting tired but that they needed to talk tonight. Cal simply nodded; he left Rose for a moment, told his parents that they were leaving. The two walked together to the coat check. They retrieved their coats and Cal was again surprised to see that Rose was had brought the coat he gave her on Titanic.

They walked out to the waiting chauffer and Cal instructed him to the Hockley brownstone.

"I still have most of the money and necklace. They are in a safety deposit box back at the room I'm renting." Rose said.

"Okay" Cal said mutely.

"Cal, will you do something for me?" Rose asked

Cal looked up at her, "anything?"

"Be honest with me. Tell me exactly what your thinking, what you are feeling."

"Rose…"

"No, Cal! That is all I ever wanted from you. I wanted you to talk to me, to tell me things, to share things with me. But you refused. You just assumed that because your father treated your mother that way, that I would want the same thing. But I didn't Cal! I didn't! Why couldn't you see that?"

Cal took a deep breath and brought his hands to his face. After a moment he put his hand back on his lap and looked at her.

"I was horrible to you Rose."

"And I was horrible to you Cal. We were horrible to each other."

"All I wanted was for you to love me."

"Why couldn't you see that I did love you? But the moment you started pushing me away, when you started treating me like I was a mere possession, I honestly began to despise you Cal. I'm not anyone's possession, least of all yours. I was going to be your wife."

Cal sat silently and took in what Rose was saying. They remained in silence until they arrived at the Hockley brownstone. The chauffer opened their door and Cal exited first, and then helped Rose. They walked into the house where they were greeted by servants. Some were confused by Rose walking in, others, who knew Rose, were shocked to see her alive. Cal quickly explained that Rose was his fiancée and that she had had amnesia the last couple of months. He also explained that they would need a room fixed up, immediately, for her. The staff quickly got to work.

"Cal, I would really like to change out of this dress, Margaret wouldn't have some nightgowns here would she?"

"I believe so. Let me ask Grace, she is the head maid."

"Thanks."

Cal and Rose went up the stairs, Cal escorted her into what would be her room for the evening and left to go find Grace. He returned approximately fifteen minutes later with a nightgown for her.

"Here you go. Margaret left it the last time she and Thomas visited."

"Thank you"

They stood in silence for a moment, when Cal became uncomfortable; he tried to make a discreet exit, when Rose stopped him.

"Do you mind helping me unzip my dress?"

"I don't think…."

"Cal, seriously." Rose said and closed the door behind him. She then took both of his hands and placed them on her abdomen, "you've seen me naked, and how do you think we made this baby? All I am asking you to do is unzip my dress. I have undergarments on."

Cal nodded. Rose turned around and he unzipped her dress. She stepped out of it and he bent down and picked it up, walked over to the closet and hung it up. By the time he had turned around to face Rose again, she had already slipped off her undergarments and put Margaret's nightgown on.

Rose sat down on the bed, leaned against a pillow and propped her feet in front of her.

"Cal, why don't you sit down so we can talk?"

He nodded and pulled the chair from the desk and sat right in front of the bed.

"Now will you please be honest with me and tell me how you feel? I've been honest with you thus far; I expect it from you now."

Cal took a deep breath before speaking. "You are right Rose, I should have never treated you the way I did. I am not going to make excuses. I've spent the last 4 months thinking about nothing but our relationship."

"And?"

"I think we were both hasty in our engagement."

Rose was surprised she never expected Cal to say that to her.

"You had just lost your father; your mother was pushing you into an engagement with me so that you would be secure. My parents were pushing me into an engagement, with anyone because here I was thirty years of age and god forbid wasn't married yet. I was honestly mostly thinking about the money I would inherit from me marrying."

"Cal, I want you to know that even though we were both being pressured by our respective parents to become engaged, I can honestly say that when you asked me to be your wife I was overjoyed. Even though there are parts of this life that I despise, I did and do want to be secure."

"Why did you come back Rose?"

"Honestly?"

"Of course"

"Our baby" Rose said, "I wanted to make a fresh start. Away from what I considered at times meaningless conversations with other socialites. In this society, I can't even undress myself Cal. I have to have a maid with me. I hate that. It felt so liberating these last couple of months living in, pretty much, poverty. I dressed myself. I had to cook for myself. I cleaned up after myself. I don't mind getting my hands dirty Cal."

"Where I can say I don't"

"I know you don't. And I understand that about you. And it's fine, but please understand that there are things that I want and need to do on my own."

Rose took a breath, "anyways, I'm deviating from what you asked me. Like I said I was living in practically poverty. I was making roughly twenty dollars a week, more if I produced more garments. I think a part of me knew I was pregnant when we boarded the Titanic, but I wasn't quite sure. The other part of me just assumed I was late because of the stress regarding the wedding plans and our fights and lack of communication."

"Once I truly realized and then accepted I was pregnant. I thought long and hard and I made the decision and I need to do what is best for my child, our child. So essentially I got selfish. I want what is best for our child. I could not, by myself, give our child what it will need. Plus, I didn't feel if was appropriate for you not to know your child and our child has every right to know its father."

Cal sighed and sat back in his chair. Rose moved herself to the edge of the bed and sat in front of him.

"Cal, I know I'm being selfish right now, but can you blame me. Do you not want our child to have what it should have?"

He nodded in agreement.

"But we need to make some conditions."

"Conditions?"

"Yes"

"Like what?" Cal asked

"One, we are to treat each other as equals. You will respect me and I will in turn respect you. I will be honest with you and again, in turn, you will be honest with me."

"Agreed"

"Two, I don't want either of our family names to be effected because I am pregnant outside of wedlock, so I want us to marry."

Cal looked at her surprised by the suggestion, "Are you sure?"

"I'm not saying our marriage won't take work, because it will. We will have to listen to one another, talk to one another. Not let our parents intrude in our lives as much."

The latter comment caused Cal to smirk and Rose continued, "But I do have feelings for you Cal. I did love you at one point."

"And I, Rose"

"Do we have an agreement then?" she asked.

"Yes"

AN: This chapter, especially the end was hard for me to write. I was trying to still show the strong willed Rose, take charge person, but I was also trying to show that a part of her is used to the "first class" life. I'm not sure if I accomplished it so much.

I went through and changed all the Georges to Nathan. If I missed any please let me know.

Let me know what you think.