A/N: Thanks to EVERYONE for all the reviews, I truly appreciate it!

As dinner went on, Rose found herself able to tear herself from the worries of Cal's dream. The evening was spent with them enjoying dinner and Jack telling his stories of ice fishing in Wisconsin—which Cecily knew of and about very well.

Jack: And I think my father and I had caught the biggest damn fish that winter. (Cecily and Rose and Jack laughed)

Cal took a sip of his wine and raised an eyebrow and smiled at Jack briefly.

Cal: That was you and your father's hobby? Ice fishing, (scoffs and laughs) that's a poor man's game, Dawson.

Jack looked at Cal as his smile began to fade. Jesus, could Cal be THIS much of a jerk?

Jack: How would you know, Cal? I bet you never even been ice fishing.

Cal: No, we of the higher society have more interesting hobbies. (laughs) Ice fishing, really sounds fucking boring. (laughs and looks at Cecily and sees she's not laughing and neither is Rose. Cal stops laughing.)

Jack: This weekend, I'll take you and Cecily and Rose ice fishing, you'll see first hand how fun it is.

Cecily: (gasps and smiles) Oh that would be fun, Jack!

Rose: (smiles) Yeah, I love to go Jack.

Cal: (coldly) No, I can't. I have a business meeting, its on—well its no use in telling you, you wouldn't understand Dawson.

Rose: Do you HAVE to be rude the entire night, Cal?

Cal laughs and shrugs.

Cal: I'm just being honest, sweet pe—(stops and catches himself) I mean Rose. Dawson knows nothing about business. Oh and Dawson, I left you and Rose a box filled with food, for you two to have. Since you two are poorly without food. (laughs)

Cal smiles at Jack, feeling he had finally threw a hard enough insult Jack's way to get him to stop being so nice to him. Fortunately, Jack knew what Cal was doing, Jack wasn't stupid.

Jack: (scoffs and shakes his head) That's it, Cal. I'm done being nice to you. You are a arrogant, vain, prideful bastard and its no wonder Rose left you.

Cecily tried to hide her smile, although she could feel it creeping on her face. Cal immediately looked enraged and sat forward in his chair and looked at Jack with a eyebrow raised.

Cal: Dawson, I know you have better sense than to say something like that to me, while just inches across from me.

Jack (stares Cal in his eyes and smirks) I just did, Cal. (stands up) Cal, you are egotistical and mean and cruel and you know what? I was trying to be your friend because I felt sorry for you.

Cal: (raises both eyebrows and scoffs with a smile) Sorry for me!

Rose stands up and looks at both Jack and Cal with a worried look.

Rose: Jack, don't. Let's just go.

Cecily: (smiling) No, Rose, this is getting fun.

Jack: Yeah CAL, I felt sorry for YOU. You need to snap into reality, you may have all the money in the world but you have NO friends, Cal. Rose and I are your ONLY friends.

Cal laughs heartily.

Cal: I have no friends! I have more friends than you have paper in that poor man's drawing book of yours Dawson!

Jack: Really Cal? How come they never visit? You and Cecily have been here for what? Two weeks now and not ONE of your "friends" have come to visit you. Sure you have financial acquaintances but friends—REAL friends? No Cal, you have none and you wanna know why! Because you're mean Cal! You act like those who don't have the money and prestige that you have are beneath you! No one will ever like you with an attitude like that and it's the MAIN reason Rose left you for me! So tell me, Cal, what kind of man does that make you! That your OWN fiancée couldn't stand you? Hell Mr. Andrews couldn't even STAND you! So what does that make you, Cal? That makes you a pathetic rich guy who no one likes because he acts like an arrogant bastard. As long as you're looking to be friends with those who only have a gold mine, like you have, Cal, you're going to forever find yourself disliked by A LOT of people and without friends.

Jack raises his eyebrows twice and smiles. He looks at Rose and goes to her and takes her hand. Cal looks at Jack, blinking heavily.

Jack: Let's go Rose.

Jack and Rose take the box of food by the door and leave out the house.

Cecily: (tries to hide her smile) Are you alright, Caledon?

Cal looked to the side where she was and rolled his eyes at her and walked away to his bedroom and slammed the door shut behind him.

Outside, Jack and Rose walked back to their home next door, before Jack could go inside, Rose grabbed his arm and turned him to face her. Jack knew he was going to hear it from Rose about being so rude to Cal.

Rose: (smiles and kisses him on the lips) I have never been proud of you than I was a few minutes ago. (Jack and Rose laughs) I've been wanting to say something like that to Cal for the longest.

Rose hugs him as he laughs and they go inside their home.

Theme Song: "Memories" ~Barbara Streisand (From the play Cats)

Cal was pacing back and forth in his room, Jack's words going back and forth in his mind, like a scratched skipping disk. He sat on the edge of his bed and felt a rush of emotions come over him, when he replayed what Jack said about him losing Rose. That really hurt, because no matter how many time he hit Rose, or threatened her, he DID love her. Cal began to think on how nice Jack had been to him—even while on the Titanic—diving into the water to save him, all the compliments, all the niceness Jack had showed him. Was Cal really being mean to him? Too mean to him? Too cruel? Too rude? Cal had promised himself as a child growing up, that he never wanted to become the rude, snobbish, abusive, monster that his father was, but was—was Cal actually the monster that his father was? Even though Cal would never admit it to Jack or—anyone for that matter, he knew what Jack said was true, Cal didn't have any real friends. Would it really hurt for Cal to try to be friends with Jack? Jack did seem pretty fun and interesting. Maybe Cal would be nice to Jack as a way of taking on a kind of charity case. Cal sighed and shook his head and swallowed hard. He knew he'd probably regret what he was about to do, but he was going to do it anyway, because well….either he was going insane or he was actually gaining a conscious for how he had treated Jack.

Theme Song: "Best Friend" ~ Brandy

Cal left out his bedroom and was relieved not to see Cecily anywhere in the house, he assumed she had went for her daily evening stroll around the neighborhood as she occasionally would. Cal walked next door to Jack and Rose's home and sighed and raised an eyebrow out of hesitation. Sure, Cal raised his thin, eyebrows a lot but there was always a meaning behind it—this time, it meant he was hesitating. He knocked on their door and Jack opened the door. Jack leaned up against the door entrance and gave Cal a look like "what the hell do you want?"

Jack: (coldly) Cal?

Cal looked down and scoffed and smiled his 'signature, "trying-to-be-cool" Cal' smile.

Cal: (looked up at Jack and blinked heavily) Um, Dawson, I—I (lower voice) apologize. (sighs and frowns briefly) You—you've been trying to be nice to me—up until tonight and I haven't shown my best behavior towards you—despite you taking ROSE from me. (clenches his teeth and shrugs) anyway, if you want to be (between clenched teeth) friends, then—fine. (fakes a brief smile) It's going to take me a while to get used to that but, alright.

Jack smiles and nods.

Jack: I apologize too then, Cal. I didn't mean those things I said, I guess I was just angry. I'd really like for us to be friends.

Cal: Yes, I can see that, it be—(unhappy tone) nice.

Jack extends his hand to Cal.

Jack: Friends? (smiles)

Cal nods hesitantly and quickly shakes Jack's hand.

Cal: Yeah, sure Dawson.

Jack: (laughs) You can call me, Jack, Cal.

Cal: (smiles briefly) No, I like Dawson better. (Jack scoffs and smiles and shakes his head) Have nice night, Dawson.

Cal starts to walk away.

Jack: Cal, what was your business meeting about?

Cal sighed with frustration. He didn't feel like talking to Jack—even though he DID come over to apologize to him.

Cal turned and walked back over to him.

Cal: Well, if you must know, I have this business proposal I have to get together on designing this new building project down in Manhattan and I have to come up with a bright, new design portrait of it, and I—(grits his teeth and frowns) I have it in my head but I just can't—well I can't design it on paper, I found an artist who could draw it up but he won't be available until next month, they're pulling every artist in New York together to work on some high class hotel project somewhere in downtown New York.

Jack looked at Cal and smiled.

Jack: (smiles) You can't design it on paper? (laughs) Cal, you know me, why didn't you ask me? I could design it for you. You've seen my drawings.

Cal: (looks at Jack) I saw the one you did of my FIANCEE—yes.

Jack's smile faded and he shook his head.

Jack: EX—FIANCEE, and yeah, well it was a good drawing, I could draw the design for you, if you wanted.

Cal looked at Jack with a raised eyebrow, blinking heavily. Cal was silent, thinking.

Cal: (sighs and rolls his eyes at Jack and frowns) Fine, Dawson, how much?

Jack laughed at seeing Cal get so frustrated, Jack liked annoying Cal.

Jack: Nothing.

Cal looked at Jack and smiled.

Cal: Nothing? You don't want—ANYTHING for the job?

Jack: Nothing except, you get me in contact with one of your big leaguers—to get my work noticed in an art gallery or something.

Cal laughed and looked down at the ground and nods.

Cal: It's the least I can do for you offering help with my design by drawing with your mediocre art skills, Dawson. Alright, come on to my house, so we can get started, I need the design done by tomorrow, so it can be approved for the meeting Saturday.

Cal walked away smiling. Jack scoffed and shook his head and followed Cal to his house.

LATER:

Theme Song: "Lean on Me" ~ Club Nouveau

Jack had spent almost two hours at Cal's working on his design, with Cal telling Jack exactly how he envisioned the design in his mind . When Jack was finished drawing the design, he showed it to Cal.

Jack: Alright, there ya go, Cal. Your design as you see it.

Cal took the design from Jack and looked at it. Cal raised an eyebrow and stared at it with a serious expression. Jack looked at Cal with a worried expression.

Jack: What, you don't like it?

Cal: (smiles briefly) No, its pretty good, Dawson. Alright, thank you, now get out.

Jack looked at Cal with a surprised look.

Jack: Gee thanks Cal.

Cal: I'll put you in touch with some of my colleagues tomorrow, who could help you with your art.

THEME SONG: "A Life So Changed" ~Titanic

Jack looked dissatisfied with Cal's response but nodded and walked to the door.

Cal: (low voice) Jack.

Jack turned and sighed with frustration with Cal and looked at him with a blank look.

Jack: Yeah, Cal.

Cal: (looked down and then back up at Jack and smiles briefly) Thank you—for this, I mean it. (nodded in Jack's direction)

Jack: (smiles) You're welcome, Cal. See you tomorrow.

Jack left out the house and Cal looked down at the photo and scoffed and smiled.

Jack walked back into the house where Rose was and saw Rose lying on the sofa. She sat up and looked at Jack as he walked over and sat beside her. She lied her head in his lap.

Rose: Did Cal make nice with you? (laughs)

Jack: (laughs) Yeah, Cal said he wanted to be my friend and apologized. I think he's turned a new leaf.

Rose sat up and looked at Jack with surprise.

Rose: CAL apologized?

Jack: (nods and smiles) Yeah

Rose: (smiles) Hmm, now THAT is surprising.

Jack: I just got finished drawing some new building design for his business and in return, he said he'd put me in touch with one of his big leaguers to help my art get noticed.

Rose looked at Jack with complete surprise.

Rose: HE DID?

Jack nodded and smiled.

Jack: I told you, Rose, Cal just needed to be pushed to find that inner niceness inside him. Its great, right?

Rose smiled and kissed Jack.

Rose: Yeah it is, if anyone could get through to him, it was you. You can do anything, Jack. That's why I love you.

Jack laughs.

Theme Song: "Walking On Broken Glass" ~ Annie Lennox

Cal walked into his home, happier than he had felt in days. He walked in the house whistling, and happy. He saw Cecily in the kitchen and walked over to her and spun her in his arms and kissed her. Cecily laughed.

Cecily: Well, what's got YOU in a great mood?

Cal: (smiles) The design Dawson drew for me yesterday, I presented it to prospectors and they LOVED it, and so when I present it at the meeting this weekend, it will be a green light for me to open my business in one of the busiest, most richest states I know—New York. (laughs and kisses Cecily)

Cecily: (smiles) Oh Cal, that's great, I'm so proud of you!

Cecily hugged Cal and Cal blinked heavily.

Cal: (low voice) I love you Cecily.

Cecily pushed him back and looked surprised.

Cecily: You what?

Cal: (scoffs and smiles briefly) I—I said I love you. God, get your hearing checked, sweet pea. (laughs and walks away) I'm going next door for a brief while. I'll be back later.

Cal walked out the door of the house and Cecily scoffed and smiled. She knew she had loved Cal, days ago – even before she got off the Carpathia, and she heard him say it to her but she knew he never meant it until now. This time, she knew he meant it. He loved her, like he loved Rose, once.

Theme Song: "Southampton" ~ Titanic

May 1912

Cal knocked on Jack and Rose's door and Rose opened the door and smiled faintly.

Rose: Cal, hello.

Cal hugged Rose and smiled and kissed her on the cheek.

Cal: Hello Rose, is Jack home?

Rose nodded with a confused smile as to Cal's sudden cheery behavior, it was behavior she hadn't seen from Cal since they first boarded the Titanic. She moved aside so Cal could walk in. Cal walked in and saw Jack in the kitchen washing dishes. Cal walked over to Jack in the kitchen and tapped Jack on the shoulder. Jack turned around and Cal hugged him happily, which took Jack COMPLETELY off guard. Rose walked in the kitchen and looked with surprise at Cal.

Jack: (laughs) Wow, ok.

Cal let Jack go and smiled.

Cal: Um—sorry (scoffed and smiled) I just wanted to say thank you. The prospectors loved your design. I was surprised they loved such third class work but they did and I have you to thank for that.

Jack: (laughs) You're welcome, Cal.

Cal: Also, as promised, I contacted one of my- contacts in Manhattan, named Julius Mcguire.

Jack's eyes widened with surprise.

Jack: Julius McGuire—I've heard of him, he's one of THE biggest art dealers in New York!

Cal: (raises an eyebrow and smiles) Well I suggest you get your drawings ready because you have a meeting with him tomorrow.

Jack laughs loudly and happily and hugs the life out of Cal almost. Rose laughs. Cal smiles and pushes Jack away lightly.

Cal: (smirks) You're happy, I get it, Dawson, alright.

Jack: (laughs and then smiles) Seriously, Cal, thank you so much, this means—SO MUCH.

Cal: (nods) You're welcome, Dawson, thank you. Well I'm going home now, I'm beyond exhausted.

Cal walks to the door and Rose steps in front of Cal and hugs him. Cal smiled and hugged her back, he was almost relieved he didn't still feel that loving yearning he felt for her anymore, but he still and would forever feel a caring for her.

Cal: (low voice) You're welcome, Rose.

Cal let her go and walked to the door of their house and stops and looks back at Jack.

Cal: Oh and Dawson, I'll put a fifty here on the table by the door, buy yourself a nice suit tomorrow, its no use in you going looking like third class, you can try to look decent, first class, and ALMOST as handsome as me. (laughs)

Jack laughs and shakes his head as Cal walks out the door. Jack looked at Rose and smiled.

Jack: Rose, can you believe it? This is the break I've been waiting for?

Rose walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him and smiled.

Rose: You deserve it, Jack.

Jack picked Rose up in his arms and spun her around happily as they laughed with joy.

Theme Song: "Southampton" ~ Titanic

June 1918:

Jack sat in his chair the morning of June 15th, 1918, coughing and feeling feverish from a cold or a flu he was sure he was catching, but he was trying to ignore the symptoms and fake feeling fine, he had spent half the morning rethinking back to when he and Rose and Cal and Cecily got off Carpathia together back in 1912—how they surprisingly found homes next door to each other—their encounters together and- the third day that changed his life forever—May 1912, when Cal got Julius McGuire to meet with him to have his drawings featured in his gallery. After the meeting with Julius, he and Rose's life changed forever, Jack was known all over New York as a talented and up and coming famous artist, soon to be known everywhere. His drawings were known to EVERYONE all over New York, he was getting the attention and prestige that Cal had all his life. Rose's life was even getting better. She had gotten several noticeable jobs as an actress and was about to snag a leading role in a Broadway play. Jack and Cal's friendship had become even more better, sure they had their insults, their minor fights but they were friends, closer friends after that night of May 1912, when Cal had arranged for Jack to have a meeting with Julius McGuire. He and Cal and Cecily and Rose were all very best friends now, Cal even made Jack, god father to the daughter he and Cecily had, that had been born back in April of 1913…and Jack and Rose were expecting a little one as well, yes life for Cal and Cecily and Jack and Rose was great, but things were about to take a turn for the worse in a bitter, sad tragedy, for all of them, just as it had on the Titanic—only this time—only one of them would survive this tragedy….

{To be continued in the story I wrote on this site: "Jack & Rose: A Tragic Love Story"}