A/N: Okay, first of all, I do NOT like this chapter. I thought about it and tried a bunch of different things and realized that no matter what, I was not going to find a way to mak this chapter something that I was particularly fond of. So here it is, and I hope it's not too awful.

On that note, I am finding that it is much easier, as well as a lot more fun, to write from Rose's point of view rather than Jack's, so you can expect a lot of that, I think.

Also, as far as updates go, it's now March Break, so I'm hoping to update more often then I have been. There will probably be another update tomorrow. If not, it'll be late Wednesday night or Thrusday morning. I'm and Irish dancer, and Wednesday is St Patrick's Day, so it's an absolute write-off. Thursday I have a two-and-a-half-hour road trip, which means I have two-and-a-half hours of nothing to do. Hopefully I'll get a lot of time to write then. Basically, I'm hoping to have at least Chapter 12 up by the end of the break, so we'll see how that goes.

And, finally, thanks again for reviewing! Here goes Chapter 8! :D

Chapter Eight

52-11 111th Street

Flushing Meadow Park, New York City

Thank goodness for small miracles. It hadn't occurred to Jack that he had absolutely no idea what to wear or how to act or what to say at this dinner party Rose's mom was having. Somehow, by the grace of God, Cora's aunt Molly was one of Rose's people – in wealth, anyway. Certainly not in personality. In fact, her ex-husband was a business partner of Rose's late father, which meant that if Mrs DeWitt Bukater wanted to keep up the family's image, she had a duty to invite Molly to the night's affairs. She had been kind enough to let Jack borrow some clothes of her son's after bringing it to his attention that he owned absolutely nothing that would be appropriate.

Now, all dressed in a tuxedo with his hair slicked back, Jack was more ready than he ever would have been without Molly's help. He was also a thousand times more nervous. He hadn't thought about the practicalities of the night- how he would have to make himself seem worldly and well-mannered and poised and all of the things he most certainly was not. What was he going to say to Rose, and more importantly, to her mother and Caledon Hockley?

And speaking of him... he was the man who'd grabbed her in the art gallery. He was that 'family friend' who had been waiting for her at the restaurant. Now more than over, Jack wanted him dead. Couldn't he see that he was ruining Rose's life? Did he have any idea how much she was suffering at his hands? And if he did, did he care at all? Jack believed that marriage should be for love, not money or power or social status. Not only did Rose not love Cal, he clearly didn't love her, either.

He and Molly had been waiting in the entrance area of the Terrace on the Park for about ten minutes. Apparently the hostess was going to be fashionably late, but he didn't mind much. Never before had he seen such luxury all in one building. Although he stood in the foyer, where most people were coming in from, there was a grand, spiral staircase in the middle of the room that the hostess and her family were supposed to be entering. That meant that every single man in New York City's elite society was going to watch as Rose made her grand entrance, and every single one of those men was going to want to get to know her better, to say the least. That made Jack's skin crawl, but it also motivated him to make a good impression.

Hoping that no one would notice him, he practiced what he was going to say when he saw Rose.

"You look lovely tonight, Rose," he whispered to no one in particular. "Let me just say, Mrs DeWitt Bukater, that your necklace compliments your eyes. Ah, and you must Mr Hockley. Pleasure." Not that he wanted to say that at all- in fact, just the thought made his stomach turn over. Just that he thought it would appropriate.

Mostly, though, he was nervous about what to say to Rose. She'd obviously figured out by now that he had never been to anything like this before and had no idea how to act. He just hoped that he would be able to show her how amazing she was without embarrassing her in front of all these rich, stuck up people who would probably be judging every move she made. He continued to practice talking to her.

"And how are you this fine evening, Rose? That dress looks lovely on you. And your hair is gorgeous." Jack was so caught up in his fantasy that he just barely noticed as every head in the room turned to look at the angel that was gracefully making her way down the staircase. Oh, shit! Had she seen him talking to himself? The slightly bemused look on her face told him she had. Now he really looked like an idiot.

Rose, however, looked absolutely stunning. She worse a deep burgundy strapless gown that was covered in opalescent jewels. Her flowing red hair hung down her back, but her bangs were pinned back with sparkling diamonds. Cora was right- it was the exact colour of a rose in full bloom. Rather than walking, she appeared to be floating down the stairs. In fact, Jack would have forgotten that she had feet at all had it not been for her strappy silver heels peeping through the hemline of her dress once in a while.

To Jack's immediate pleasure, she was on her own. Cal was walking a few steps ahead of her, with a woman on his arm who could only have been Rose's mother. Although he was disgusted with himself for even thinking such a thing, he was sort of jealous of Cal. It made him feel awful because Cal was the force that was slowly chipping away at Rose's life, but still... at least he had her. For now, anyways.

"Hello, Jack," Rose said, smilingly politely at him.

"Good evening, Rose," he replied, taking her hand and gently kissing it. She tried to look somewhat confused, but Rose couldn't hide the blush that crept up her cheeks. Trying to make her feel a little bit less awkward, he shrugged and said, "Saw it in a movie once. I always wanted to try it."

Molly, who had approached the pair from behind, laughed heartily, which seemed to help Rose break out of her shell. It was interesting to Jack that Rose had grown up in this world, and yet she seemed hardly more comfortable in it than he did. Obviously she didn't like it, but at the same time, he'd sort of expected her to be used to it.

"See, Jack?" Molly asked. "It's not so hard, is it? Living like this!"

Jack looked up at Rose, really wishing Molly hadn't said that. Thankfully, Rose appeared not to have noticed, as she was still smiling at Molly.

"I guess not," he said, trying to sound more at ease than he was.

"Well, c'mon, guys! Let's not stand around here all day. The party's inside," Molly said.

Linking his arm in Rose's, Jack made his way through the hoard of people standing around in the foyer and the doorway of the banquet hall. Rose seemed to know everyone- she smiled and waved at them all as they passed. Jack had no idea how you could remember so many names and faces- his world was just himself and Fabrizio, and sometimes even that was too much. He was slowly beginning to understand what it was about these people that got so under her skin. They all looked so fake- fake smiles, fake laughs, fake hair... it was actually amazingly easy to tell which girls had extensions or whatever they were called in their hair and which ones didn't. The whole picture was such a huge, fabricated lie. It was a race to be better than the next person. Evidently, no one had stopped to think that maybe, if they all stopped being so fake, it would be so much easier for them all to be equal.

"See that girl over there?" Rose whispered to Jack, indicating a petite brunette about her age. "Her name is Madeline Astor. She's my age and we'll be coming out together at the same debutante ball." Jack didn't know what Rose meant by coming out, but it clearly wasn't what his first thought had been. Rose continued to whisper in his ear. "She's also carrying her boyfriend's baby. See how she's trying to hide it? Quite the scandal..."

As scandalous as it was, it didn't appear to stop Rose from approaching Madeline and greeting her with a warm smile. Jack decided then and there that he was never going to understand these people, and that his life, while far more simple, was also much more enjoyable. You didn't have to think about things- you just did them.

"Rose!" Madeline squealed, smiling that fake smile that Jack had noticed earlier. "So nice to see you! And who do we have here?" she asked, taking Jack in from head to toe, which made him very nervous. Was she judging him? Making a mental note about Rose, perhaps; that she wasn't really worth knowing because she went to parties without whoever she wanted to, rather than who would make her look good? A horrible thought occurred to Jack- what if he was destroying Rose's future? If he did something wrong tonight, she might not be allowed into the circles she'd grown up in. He really had to make a good impression now, not just for his sake, but for Rose's.

"Madeline, JJ," she said, turning to the man beside Madeline who must have been the boyfriend she'd spoken of, "I'd like you to meet Jack Dawson."

The man named JJ extended his hand to Jack and smiled. "Are you of the Boston Dawsons?" he asked, which meant absolutely nothing to Jack, except for the fact that he might have some long-lost rich relatives in Boston.

"Nope," he replied. "The Chippewa Falls Dawsons, actually."

JJ nodded, looking slightly curious but mostly approving, which told Jack that he had one-upped him. While Jack knew full while that the Chippewa Falls Dawsons were of no importance to these people, JJ evidently didn't. It seemed to Jack as though he had made him feel somewhat inadequate- how could a man of his social status not know who the Chippewa Falls Dawsons where? It took a great deal of effort on Jack's part not to burst out laughing.

He noticed that Madeline, still staring at him, was also whispering something in Rose's ear. She giggled, a gesture which Rose tried to replicate. She couldn't, however, wipe a look of utter disgust from her face, which made Jack want to know what Madeline had said really badly.

"Well, it's been lovely talking to you," Rose said, in a clear attempt to kill the thing dead before it got any bigger. "Good evening."

As soon as they were out of earshot, Jack whispered to Rose, "What the hell was that about?"

Looking back at Madeline and JJ as though to make absolutely sure that there was no way they would hear them, Rose leaned in closer to Jack and whispered back, ''She wants you is all. The men that we get stuck with are all ten years older than us and completely boring. We don't see people like you too often, and Madeline likes what she sees.''

The casual way in which Rose spoke only added to the shock of her words. Jack had been sure that everyone was going to hate him; that he was going to mess up in some way that would embarrass both himself and Rose. Just knowing that people here appreciated him in some way, even in a stupid, superficial way, made him a little bit more confident. Still, a voice in the back of his head told him that a pregnant 17-year-old debutante was going to be staring at him the entire night. How weird was that?

Rose continued to mingle and introduce Jack to a whole range of important people- businessmen, lawyers, models, TV anchormen... somehow, she knew all of their names. Jack could picture Rose sitting in a parlour at ten years old, being forced by her mother to memorize a list of names. From the few fleeting glances he'd gotten of Ruth DeWitt Bukater, it wasn't a hard image to conjure. In some ways- the flaming red hair, fair skin, small frame- Rose was a carbon copy of her mother. In others, they were complete opposites. Not that Jack was the type to judge people by appearances, but thus far Ruth was proving to be demanding, stuck up, delusional and snobbish- just like everybody else in her world, only fifty times worse. Jack was beginning to see why Rose hated her so much.

After about 15 minutes of mingling and idle chit-chat, the guests finally sat down to dinner. It hadn't occurred to Jack so far that Rose had never explained exactly what sort of party this was- just that her mother was giving it and that it was probably going to be really boring. It all started to make sense, however, when Ruth stood up at her place at the table and clanged her spoon against her glass.

"Can I have everyone's attention please?" she declared, instantly silencing the buzz of conversation.

Rose leaned in close to Jack and whispered, "She's going to embarrass me. Whatever she says, don't clap, okay?"

Jack just nodded, to afraid to open his mouth while Ruth had the floor. She might set him on fire later.

"Friends, guests, I would first of all like to say thank you," Ruth continued, in the snobbiest voice Jack had ever heard. "Thank you all for joining us tonight to celebrate the young lives and bright futures of our beautiful daughters. At this time I would like to acknowledge Jessica Lynn McFarland..." There was a brief pause as people clapped haphazardly. "Abigail Nicole Fox..." More clapping... "Grace Amelia Enns... Sarah Lindsay Jraige... Christina Hailey Gaspard... and, the most amazing young woman I know, my daughter, Rose Elizabeth DeWitt Bukater."

The crowd continued clapping, a little bit more enthusiastically now. Jack wondered how painful it was for Ruth to lie like that, when she evidently didn't care about her daughter in the least. Oh well. She had an image to maintain, after all.

Rose rolled her eyes and glared at Jack, as though trying to tell him, 'See what I mean?' If Ruth noticed, she didn't make any mention of it. She continued with her stupid speech.

"I would also like to take this opportunity to make an announcement."

All of a sudden, Rose looked pale and shaky. Had something happened that she'd forgotten to tell him? Jack felt a sudden urge to reach under the table and grab her hand, to tell that it was going to be okay. Of course he couldn't do that; not now, while everybody was staring at her. Her breaths came in short, tight gasps and her eyes wandered all over the place. Whatever was about to happen, Rose didn't like it at all. Jack wanted more than anything to take all of the pain and suffering away, to make her feel like a normal person for once in her life.

"My daughter, Rose, has become engaged to Mr Caledon Hockley. They will be married in the summer. Congratulations, Rose and Cal!"

Oh, God. Now he understood the desperate look on Rose's face. Cal took her forcefully by the hand and they both stood up at the table. He smiled sheepishly, looking utterly full of himself. Rose, on the other hand, looked like she was going to throw up. She tried to fake a smile, but she couldn't do it to save her life. Jack wanted to stand up right then and there, grab Rose by the hand and run away with her to a place where none of this bullshit mattered. They would run away from Ruth, from Cal, from this absolutely disastrous marriage... just from everything.

After what felt like an eternity, Cal and Rose finally sat back down and the food was served. They started with salads, during which time Ruth took every opportunity she could find to interrogate Jack. All around them, everyone was talking about how superior they were- how much more money they had, how much more beautiful their girlfriend was, how much more famous their family was... for what must have been the first time in her life, Ruth was not interested in any of that. She cared only about making Jack look like an absolute idiot. Rose, for her part, acted surprisingly strong for a person who must have been dying inside. She tried her best to field every one of her mother's questions, for which Jack was extremely thankful. Maybe someday Ruth would take a page from her daughter's book.

"So, Mr Dawson," Ruth said, taking in every inch of him with a critical eye, "what do you do for a living?"

"Jack's an artist, Mother," Rose piped up before Jack had the chance to answer. "And a brilliant one at that."

"That's interesting," Cal said, although his tone conveyed otherwise. "The difference between Rose's taste in art and mine is that I have some."

Jack laughed, trying to ignore the deliberate insults. He really didn't care what these people thought of him any more- so long as he didn't embarrass Rose, he didn't care.

"I'm not really much of an artist," he explained. "Rose is just being complimentary. I sketch people in Central Park and sell the pictures to them. It doesn't make a lot of money but it's enough to live on. Besides, I never really know how long I'm going to be in one place. I was in Paris before I came here, and I traveled all over the Midwest before that."

Ruth grimaced, which only made Jack feel more satisfied with himself. "And you find that sort of rootless existence appealing?"

Jack shrugged. He'd seen a life gone to waste before- dreams postponed in order to keep up with the world, and he never wanted to be any part of that.

"Well," he explained, "it's a big world, and I want to see all of it before I go. My father was always talkin' about goin' to see the ocean. He died in the town he was born in, and never did see it. You can't wait around, cause you never know what hand you're going to get dealt with next. See, my folks died in a fire when I was fifteen, and I've been on the road ever since. Something like that teaches you to take life as it comes at you. To make each day count."

His words appeared to have shocked Ruth, or at least quieted her into submission. Evidently, she'd never before thought that a person of his social status could know anything about life. Molly Brown was the first to speak once he'd finished.

Raising her glass, she exclaimed, "Well said Jack!"

Rose echoed Molly's gesture. Everything about her was so beautiful... the way her long, delicate fingers wrapped themselves around her glass. The way her eyes lit up when she looked at him. Even the stray flyaways that hung down her face... she was just the most gorgeous creature he'd ever seen. As she spoke, her beautiful, loving smile reached her eyes and warmed Jack's heart.

"To making it count."

For some reason, that reminded him of something he'd forgotten about in all of the night's commotion. Cora. Shit! He was supposed to go to that thing tonight! The grandfather clock on the other side of the room told him that it was now 6:30. Earlier that day, Tommy had told him that their party would be starting at four. Jack had already told them he'd be late, but he hadn't meant two and a half hours late!

People were starting to file out now, so he figured that, especially considering he wasn't anyone of any importance to Ruth and her like, he would be safe to leave.

"Umm, if you folks don't mind, I really should be on my way. I wouldn't want to wear out my welcome any longer."

"Have a good night then, Dawson," Cal said, clearly not about to start missing him any time soon. Rose, on the other hand, looked less than pleased to see him go.

Rising from her seat, she asked Jack, "Will I see you tomorrow, then?" The spark of hope in her eyes filled Jack with happiness.

"Of course," he replied, taking her hand and gently placing his lips on it, just like he had earlier. Then, without a word, he turned on his heels and walked out of the room, leaving Rose utterly confused.

He had put a piece of paper in her hand- she'd felt it. In fact, it was still there. What did it say? What if her mother saw it? Worse, what if Cal saw it? She turned away from the group and opened up the folded slip of paper underneath the table cloth. What it said made her heart jump up in her chest. She could do this- she really could. She could make her life worth something.

Make it count

76th and 3rd