I'm soooooooo sorry I haven't updated in so long! Please don't kill me! My school has been overloading me with hw, and then my main computer broke down, and then I didn't have time, and then my dad's laptop's internet connection died, and now I'm on the computer in my basement. I have a backlog of stories in my fanfiction notebook, and I will do as much as I can as fast as I can.
I own zero, zip, zilch, nada. Absolutely nothin'.
"… Happy Birthday dear Jackie, Happy Birthday to you!"
A little four year old girl with dirty blew curls blew out the candles, with help from Rose, her mom. Her seven friends clapped and 'yay'ed, then bombarded Rose with cake requests.
Rose took out the candles and cut up the cake for the overeager kids, not believing that four years had passed since she had Jackie. Four and three quarters years since the Titanic sank. It was December 14, 1915.
When the party was over, all the children's parents came to take their kids home. Most Rose was friends or friendly with.
The last girl to leave was picked up by her father. Jackie looked at the pair with an odd expression on her face. She said good-bye to her friend and Rose showed them out.
"Did you have a fun birthday?" Rose asked, kneeling so she could be on eye-level with her daughter.
Jackie nodded, still staring at the door. "Mommy, where's Daddy?"
That broke Rose's heart. She had told her close friends a basic overview of her story, but she had never mentioned it to Jackie. It had taken the girl four years to piece it together. If she was old enough to figure that out, she was old enough to hear what had happened.
"It's a long story, Jackie. And it doesn't have a happy ending like in your picture books."
The little girl nodded. She was ready for whatever.
"If you have any questions, ask. You're old enough to understand."
Another nod.
Rose took a deep breath, then began. " First of all, there is something called a class system. Not like classes in school, though. What class you're in depends on how much money you have. First class people have a lot of money and fancy clothes. Second class is normal people, like us. Third class is for people who have very little money. And people from different classes can't talk to each other."
"Why not?" asked Jackie.
Rose opened her mouth to answer, but then realized she had absolutely no idea. It was so stupid. She had Jack had really discovered that. She finally answered, "I don't know." She had heard that someone somewhere had said it was really hard to admit not knowing something, but to Rose, it was a blessing.
"Well, I was in first class. Me and my mother had lost all of our money, but I was going to marry a rich person so me and my mother wouldn't become poor."
"Why did you need to be rich?" Jackie wanted to know.
"Some people think money is everything. My mother was like that. It's strange, but some people do."
A nod of understanding.
"I didn't like the man I was going to marry. I didn't choose him, but no one asked me. His name is Caladan Hockley."
Jackie snorted. "That's a funny name," she said, grinning.
Rose smiled. "I know. But he wasn't a nice person."
"We went to Europe on a big boat. Do you know where that is?"
Jackie shook her head. Rose took out an atlas and pointed it out. "We're here."
"Okay."
"We were coming back here on another big boat called Titanic. Your father wasn't going to go on the boat, but he won a game, and got a ticket. He was very poor, and in third class.
"I hated my life. I couldn't keep going. Me and you dad met while I was trying to jump off the back of the ship."
Jackie looked horrified. "But wouldn't you have gotten hurt?"
Rose nodded grimly. "I wanted to die."
Jackie still looked a bit scared. Rose felt a little bad about exposing her daughter to such horrors at the age of four, but Jackie had asked for the story. And this was the story.
"He saw me and helped me not to jump off. We became friends after that, then I fell in love with him."
Jackie grinned. Even at age four, she was a sucker for romance. "Caladan Hockley- Cal- didn't like that. He tried to keep me away from him. But it didn't work. He hated your father.
"The Titanic was very big, and everybody knew about it. But is hit a big block of ice, filled with water, and sank. It took a very long time, and I was with your dad for most of it. We were on the ship until it was completely underwater. He found a piece of wood that would only hold me, and he froze waiting for a lifeboat. A lifeboat is a smaller boat that they have on big boats so that if the boat sinks, the people can get off. People thought the Titanic could not sink, so there weren't enough lifeboats. More than half of the people on the ship died."
By now, Rose was crying, lost in memory. Jackie wasn't so involved, but she hugged her mother, who squeezed her back.
"The lifeboat came back, but you father had already died. I got on the boat, and we were picked up by another ship, and we finished going to America. Then I found out I was going to have you."
Jackie was silent for a moment. "What was daddy's name?"
"Jack Dawson."
"That's our name!" she said.
"Yes, it is. After he died, I took his name. My old last name was DeWitt Bukator."
"If that were my name, I wouldn't be able to spell it," stated Jackie.
"That's what you dad said when I met him."
-------------------
It was four years, nine months after the sinking, and Jack was sitting on a bench in Central Park.
A little girl with dirty blonde curls came running towards him. She had obviously started running, as little kids tend to do, and lost her parental unit. Or units. She stopped in front of him, looking a bit scared of this stranger.
He stared at her. It was freaky. The frightened eyes that were looking at him mirrored his own. Her thumb went to her mouth.
A voice came into the two's hearing. "Jackie! Jackelin Ariel Dawson!" Rose rounded the corner from where Jackie had come, grabbed her daghter;s hand and whirled her around. "Never run away like that again! You want to run, you tell me, okay?" She hugged the little four-year-old fiercely.
Only when she let go did she stand up, saying, "I'm sorry sir-"
Then she saw who she was talking to. Her voice trailed away. Jack grinned.
Rose, completely aware of her daughter's presence, (A/N- or she would have kissed him till the world exploded) threw her arms around him and hugged him every bit as hard as she had just squeezed her daughter.
When she pulled away, he leaned in to kiss her, but she put a hand on his mouth to keep him from doing so. She tilted her head towards Jackie, who was staring at her parents.
A wistful expression came over Jack's face. He looked at Jackie, then said to Rose, "Who's…?"
Rose could have laughed out loud. He thought she was married? "Yours."
A smile broke out on his face again. "Are you kidding me?" She shook her head, and he hugged her again. After they broke apart again, Rose knelt by Jackie, who had waited patiently, sucking her thumb, a sign that she was either uncomfortable or scared.
"Jackie," Rose said, "this is your father."
There was an awkward silence. Then, "I thought you said Daddy died."
Rose breathed out. She looked up at Jack, who had a much more serious expression on his face now. "I did, too," she replied, looking back at the girl. "It's getting late, and, you need dinner and bed."
They went back to the apartment. Jack looked around while Rose made dinner for Jackie. The four year old was yawning as her mom took her plate away.
When she was asleep, Rose's strong exterior for her daughter broke down. She kissed him hard, then hugged him with all that she had, tears streaming down her face.
When he was able to see her face, he brushed her tears away and said, "Shit, Rose, why are you crying?"
"For four years, I though you were dead! Dead, gone, frozen at the bottom of the ocean! I thought I was going to be a single mother my whole life! I thought I was alone! I couldn't go on, I'm so sorry, I couldn't do it! I broke my promise!"
"Rose," he said, trying to calm her down, "You didn't break your promise. And I'm sorry for putting you through that. Don't blame yourself, all right?"
Rose nodded, and kissed him again, holding onto him like he was going to disappear.
I originally had it end differently. I just thought of that ending. I hope you liked it! And again, I'm soooooo sorry that this took so long! Don't kill me!
I was overestimating a four-year-old's intelligence, I think, but it was essential for the story. So yeah. Next chappie coming up as fast as I can type it!
-Arns-