I' bringing these chapters out as fast as I can. As soon as I post one, I'm typing up the next one. I'm so proud of myself.
Hey guess what? I OWN TITANIC!!!! THE MOVIE, THE CHARACTERS, THE IDEA, IT ALL, MAN! Really???? NO!!!
Jack turned, breathing heavily, to Rose's lifeless body. His stomach turned over unpleasantly. He kneeled down beside her and checked for a pulse. Thank God, he thought when he felt the steady thumping. Then he noticed two dark stains in the ground, one by her leg, which was scraped, and one by her head. Jack just stared, horrified.
By now Molly had run down the stairs, shoving past Cal's sons of bitches (Molly was not very happy right now) who were carrying their employer, and gotten to Jack. She saw the blood and fought the urge to vomit. Not that gore sickened her; she had seen a lot of that, being a nurse. But the idea that one person could do that to another was what made her want to regurgitate all she had eaten that day. It was also the fact that this was her friend who was wounded so horribly.
"We have to get help," she said, "We have to get her to the hospital."
Jack just looked at her hopelessly. "She's in horrific condition and we don't have the money-"
"Yes we do. The tiny bit of profit that I've made over the past two months I have saved for something like this, some kind of emergency."
Molly grabbed Rose under the arms, motioning for Jack to help. They carried her to a very small, local hospital. She was immediately taken into a room. A receptionist led them to a room with chairs and motioned for them to sit. Molly did so; Jack, however, couldn't sit. He needed to keep moving to keep his mind off what might happen to Rose.
After an excruciatingly long wait, the doctor who had taken Rose came out and said, "You may come see her now. She is still unconscious, though. We don't know how long she will stay so. She took a bad wound to her head, but we are glad to say there is not concussion or bleeding in the brain. We also cleaned and bandaged her leg."
They were led into a plain white room. There was doctor's equipment in it. But the only thing they noticed was the bed, or rather, the redhead lying on it. In the two months living in Wisconsin, she had gotten much tanner and her cheeks had been more colored. That was all but barely gone. Rose was as deathly pale as she had been when she was floating on a bit of driftwood in the middle of the North Atlantic. And that scared the hell out of Jack. She had lost so much blood. They had come so far and now she was practically dying. All because of Cal.
Jack sank into a chair by her bed, looking completely hopeless and defeated. That freaked Molly out. Jack was a fighter. He de-froze himself because there was a chance that the girl he loved was still alive. He had lived through some of the worst wounds she had ever had to deal with. Yet here he was, totally and utterly defeated, and Molly's whole picture of Jack shattered.
Jack was staring at Rose, pain at not knowing what was going to happen on his face. The doctor had seemed optimistic enough, but there was no missing the worried look in his eye that suggested that Rose might not be okay.
He took her limp hand in his, gripping so hard his knuckles turned white. Molly could tell he was fighting tears. She dropped into the chair next to him and put her arm around his shoulders. He made no movement to show that he noticed, other than reaching his other hand up to his shoulder and put his hand on hers.
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Rose opened her eyes to bright sunshine, head pounding.Someone was gripping her hand so tight her fingers felt cold and cut off. She began to sit up.
As soon as she moved, Jack, who had been holding her hand, stood. By then she was fully upright. He kissed her long and hard.
When he broke away he was practically laughing in relief. "I thought you were going to die!" He kissed her again, pulled away and shouted, "Molly! She's okay! Go get someone!"
She heard Molly's relieved, "Oh, thank God!" and her running footsteps.
"You were out for a week, and we were starting to give up hope-" Jack then hugged her with all that he had.
Molly came running in, followed by the doctor who seemed slightly calmer. She ran to Rose and hugged her every bit as hard as Jack had, shouting, "Never scare us like that again!"
"You did give us quite the fright, Mrs. Dawson," said the doctor, "They tell me that you got pulled out a window. You're leg was cut, but that healed while you were still out, and you too a nasty blow to the head that could have been real problematic if they hadn't brought you here when they did. By tomorrow you should be fit to leave."
True to his word, she was let out the next day after dinner and a last check-over. The three walked back to the house.
They took their time, and by the time they got back the sun was nearing the horizon. Molly went in the house and Jack, after motioning for Rose to stay there, ran after her and came back out with his drawing supplies, calling to Molly "Don't wait for us, we'll be out late or won't come back tomorrow morning!" When he got to Rose he grabbed her hand and led her into Chippewa Forest. Rose hadn't been here since their first day. But Jack was pulling her along at a run, seeming to know where he was going. In a little over five minutes, they burst through a last few trees and they were at the Falls.
The thousands of tons of water spilling over the sides of the cliffs took her breath away just like they had the first time, but this time she saw water bursting through a white set of locked double-doors and enveloping a man and his son. But before she could dwell on it the image was gone, leaving her with they beauty of the waterfalls and she forgot about it.
Jack, still holding on to her hand, pulled her close. She barely had time to register the feelings swirling through her head when his mouth descended on hers, kissing her slowly and passionately.
It seemed like several days of only sunset before he pulled away. When he did, Rose said, "Well, you dragged me all the way down here and I have a feeling that it wasn't just for that."
"No," he said, grinning, "That was just a bonus." He held up his drawing supplies. "I'm gunna draw you Chippewa Falls."
"But I thought you said that you couldn't get it-"
He put a finger to her lips. "I have a feeling that I can do it now."
Rose had no idea why that would be, but she felt touched. Something that Jack couldn't do on his own, he could do for her. Rose just watched as he set up, intrigued. The last time he had done this she had been the model and unable to watch him. Jack put the pencil to the sheet and began to draw.
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When he was finished, he handed it to Rose. The sun had sunk beneath the horizon and the last rays were barely still there.
"There's no point in going back now," Rose said reasonably, "I don't think even you could find your way through those trees in the dark."
"I could if I tried," Jack replied, smiling, "But you're right, there's no point. We'd be back by morning anyway. And besides, I don't want to leave just yet."
He was still on the stump while Rose had taken up residence on the ground a while ago. He slid down so he was sitting next to her. He put his arm around her, and took her hand in his own, and kissed her.
He pulled away and she settled against him, his arm still around her, her hand still enclosed in his. And that is how the morning found them.
Rose woke up first. She found herself on the ground, still holding onto Jack's hand. I must have rolled over or something, she reasoned, and sat up.
Jack was still slumped against the dead tree trunk. He was also still sound asleep, but uneasily. He was jerking and his mouth was forming words she couldn't hear.
Suddenly he sat bolt upright, wide awake, yelling, "Rose!"
He turned his head in her direction, pulled her to him and kissed her like his life depended on it. He pulled back, breathing heavily.
Rose was a bit unnerved. "What happened?" she said, wondering what could put Jack into such a state of panic.
Jack seemed to be regaining control. "Just a dream," he said, breathing calmer, "It was only a dream." He sounded as if he was trying to convince himself of that.
Rose nodded. She was a little afraid of going to sleep every night, for fear of what the Dream King might have in store for her. So many horrible things had happened to them that it was natural that both of them, and even Molly, would have nightmares. She didn't press the subject.
They began walking back to the house. Rose had a weird feeling in her stomach, but didn't know why, nor did she know what it was, so she didn't think much of it. Jack was completely silent, leading the way without thinking. His mind was on other things. He kept seeing Rose holding a baby and Cal standing over them holding a knife. It was only a dream.
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They had been back for a while. Rose was chatting with Molly, random things like the whether and what had happened when Rose had been unconscious, when Rose fainted. The irony. Molly yelled at the top of her lungs for Jack, who was up in the attic. He came running down, saw Rose, ran to the sink, got a cup of water, and dumped it on Rose's head. She jolted awake.
Jack looked at her, concerned. "Rose, are you okay? Can you walk?"
Rose looked a bit annoyed at being pampered like she always had, but she just nodded. "I think I need to see a doctor." Her voice sounded slightly distracted and in other worlds.
Molly nodded and together, they helped Rose walk to the more populated part of town where there was a small doctor's office there for minor things.
Rose was ushered inside and Jack and Molly were told to wait on the benches provided for this kind of thing.
After about half an hour Rose came out, mood completely changed. She was nearly jumping she was so happy and excited. "Thank you!" she yelled after her.
"My pleasure, Mrs. Dawson," he replied, but he realized nobody was listening. He looked at the happy couple and their 'housemaid'. Their lives were about to change.
Rose ran to Jack and threw her arms around his neck. His went to her waist. "I'm having a baby," she said, grinning, "Due in December."
Jack wasn't expecting that. Neither was Molly, apparently. She screamed "OH MY GOD!!!!" as Jack kissed Rose.
Jack thought as they walked home, Rose and Molly jabbering excitedly. What was nine months before December?
The answer came to him almost instantly. It was stupid even to ask the question. April.
How do you like it? I have no idea what pregnant women feel, and I won't do research to figure it out, so I made it up. Rose got dehydrated or something, that's why she fainted. So yeah. Hope you liked it, cuz I sure did!
-Arnold-