Jack and Rose made haste in their effort to find something to serve as a floatation device. The life boats were staying far away from the chaos in fear of being swamped by desperate survivors.
"Look Rose, over there!"
A large finely carved wooden door came into view as they swam towards it. Awkwardly they both tried to mount it, only for it to resist and turn over under their weight. Jack instructed Rose to get on it and he rested on the side, keeping his upper body out of the water.
"Jack, you'll freeze" she cried, trying to pull him onto the door with him.
"It's fine Rose, we'll take it in shifts. The boats will come back, they have to" he smiled weakly.

A man paddled over to them, hoping to use the door as his salvation.
"Sir please, it's just enough for this lady. You'll push it under" pleaded Jack between foggy breaths.
"Let me try at least, or else I'll die."
"You'll die quicker if you come any closer. Don't you think I'd be up there too if I could be?"
The man nodded sadly and acknowledged the truth.
"Yes, I see. Good luck to you two then."
"Same to you sir."
And without conflict or protest, the man swam away. Jack felt the guilt resonate within him as the man searched aimlessly for his own buoyant debris.
"It wouldn't have done us any good if he had stayed" soothed Rose quietly, as if reading his thoughts.

The air was filled with pleas for the boats to return, Jack knew that they had to row further out to account for the suction but the others all screamed urgently in fear that they'd perish in the water. The shrill whistle of one of the chief officers could be heard and Jack hoped that this would be recognised by the saviours as a sign of authority.
"We're gonna make it Rose."
For a while they just drifted under the countless stars, trying to take their mind off the tragedy that was occurring. Rose was now in the water, despite Jack's protests that he could stay there longer.
"It's getting quiet" she mused.
Jack, who was lying on his back, sat upright to face her.
"I don't know about you, but I intend to write a strongly worded letter to the White Star Line about this" he said with a boyish grin.
Rose laughed weakly and ran her hand through his hair, resting it behind his head.
"I love you Jack Dawson."
He smiled at her admission and knew that if he did die, he would die a happy man.
"I love you Rose Dewitt Bukater."
"Dawson" she said softly, much to his confusion. "When we get out of here, make me Rose Dawson."
He nodded furiously, making an unspoken promise to make both of their every dream come true. Jack laid back down and smiled, fighting to keep his eyes open.
"Rest if you need to Jack, I'll wake you up when it's time to change places."
And with that, he closed his eyes and prayed that they'd make it out together.

"Come Josephine in my flying machine, up she goes" sang Jack, as he drifted back into consciousness. His eyes snapped open to stare at the vast sky above him, his peace only broken by the distant sounds of shouting. They had come back! They'd come looking for survivors. Jack sat upright to face Rose, who was sleeping on the edge of the door.
"Rose" he whispered, barely audibly.
She didn't respond.
"Rose, the boats came back, we've got to go" he urged, brushing the hair away from her face. Her face was rimmed with frost, her hair dusted with cold frost crystals and her skin as pale as chalk.
"Rose, why? You said you'd wake me up. Why didn't you wake me up Rose?" he sobbed, holding her still body to his chest.

A light flew past his shoulder and Jack knew that he had to act fast. Steadying his feet, Jack stood atop the door and waved his arms, yelling in a cracked voice for rescue to come. The floodlight hit his face and he shielded his eyes from the harsh glare.
"We've got a survivor!" came the yell from the boat as slowly it made its way towards Jack.
The lifeboat pulled up beside the door with Officer Lowe at the helm, navigating between the dead bodies that littered their path.
"Two survivors" said Jack, indicating Rose.
Officer Lowe looked past Jack's shoulder at the girl clinging to the wooden frame of the door.
They hauled her onto the boat and checked her vital signs. Silence.
"She's gone" said Lowe, dipping his head and clamping a hand on Jack's shoulder.
"No, check again. She's a fighter. She's not dead!" begged Jack, scrambling over to her body to find a pulse. But there was none.
"I'm sorry, we need to save room for more survivors" said Lowe, as grief overtook Jack.
They took her frozen body out and left it on the door, to float beneath the stars that Jack and Rose planned to watch together every night.

Present

"Fifteen hundred of us not lucky enough to find a boat went into the water with the Titanic. There were twenty boats nearby and only one had the humanity to come back. Only one. Six of us were saved from the water, including myself. Six out of fifteen hundred."
Jack looked away from the porthole to see the faces that surrounded him. His nurse was dabbing tears away with a handkerchief, obviously emotionally moved by his tale. Bodine sat silently facing the floor. Lovett, for the first time, was lost for words.
For the first time, Lovett realised that the tragedy of the Titanic was very real and that he was poking around a ghost ship.

"And then what happened?" asked Bodine after a long bout of silence.

"Afterward, the seven hundred people in the boat had nothing to do but wait. Wait to die, wait to live, wait for an absolution which would never come."

Silence enveloped the room once more as Jack turned to face his audience.
"But we lived… I lived. For Rose."