Chapter Twenty

Fiore Towers Apartment Building

#39 West 45th Street

"Come on, Rose!" Jack yelled from the kitchen. "I really don't think Cora cares about how your make-up looks, and we've gotta pick up Fabri and Helga in ten minutes!"

Tonight was the night Rose was going to babysit Cora while her father unveiled some sort of grand exhibit at the art gallery. Jack didn't know if that would make his job easier or harder, but either way he was excited to have a night that was a little bit different from every other one. However, he was going to be very late for said night if Rose didn't hurry up in the bathroom and get ready to go.

Finally, after what felt like hours, Rose emerged from the bathroom with her jacket over her arm. As she shrugged her shoulders into the sleeve and gestured to a see-through plastic tote bad resting on the table, she said, "I said nail polish, Jack, not make-up. And it's for Cora, not me. I thought I might do her nails tonight if we get bored."

Sure enough, the bag was full of at least twenty different colours of nail polish- everything from soft pastels to vibrant rainbow colours and dark shades like navy and black. Jack didn't remember how old he was the last time he babysit somebody- probably his neighbours sometime before his parents died – but all he'd done was give the kids a bunch of snacks and parked it in front of the TV while they ate themselves into a sugar high then crashed and burned. Parents always marvelled at how he got the kids to go sleep so early, but the truth was that he had been the worst babysitter on the planet. Rose was a different story. She was good at this, he could tell. God, she was going to make the most amazing mother ever.

"Oh, whatever," he retorted, not particularly feeling like showing Rose just how awestruck he was with her at the moment. "Let's just get out of here, alright? We don't want to keep anybody waiting."

Rose picked up her bag and linked her arm through Jack's, practically yanking him out the door as though she had been the one rushing the entire time. That was probably Jack's favourite quality of hers, if he could choose one- that inside she was so much older than her seventeen years, even if only because she had to be, yet sometimes there was this childlike playfulness pouring out of her. As weird as it was, the best way Jack could describe it was like that peanut-butter-and-jam-in-the-same-jar stuff that was really popular when he was little. Two completely different flavours that went so well together that one day somebody decided to shove them into one jar and create the best thing in the world.

Jack couldn't help but laugh at that, which made Rose raise one eyebrow at him as they stepped into the elevator. "What's so funny, love?" she asked.

Smiling at her, Jack replied coyly, "I was just thinking how you remind me of peanut butter and jam."

"What?" Rose asked incredulously, staring at Jack as though he had two heads. She was so cute when she did that, which much to Jack's dismay was quite often.

"I'll tell you some other time," he promised as they stepped out into the lobby, not particularly feeling like justifying his upside-down frame of mind at the moment. Outside, the breeze brushed sharply against Jack and Rose's faces. With each passing day now the air grew chillier, and Rose was thankful that she wasn't going to be walking around on swollen ankles or carrying an extra forty pounds during the hot summer months. She was going to be finished with being pregnant by June 8th… she still couldn't stop thinking about that. June 8th. On that day she was really going to be a mommy. Every time she thought that, a smile danced over her face and nothing else could work its way into her mind. It just made her so happy that she could almost ignore the freezing wind and imagine that it was already a blissful summer day and she was holding her baby in her arms.

Both Fabrizio's family's apartment and the art gallery were almost on the other side of town, so Jack and Rose had decided that it would be a lot cheaper to take the subway instead of a cab. That meant, though, that they had to walk four blocks to the subway station, and Rose hadn't been expecting it to be as chilly as it was. Dressed just in skinny jeans and an oversized turtleneck sweater, she wound her arm around Jack's tightly in an effort to stop herself from shivering. It took Jack only a few minutes to realize how cold she was.

"Are you cold, babe?" he asked, already shrugging his shoulders out of his leather jacket.

Rose shook her head. "I'm fine, Jack. Don't worry about it. No, Jack, you'll freeze! Jack!" she continued to protest as Jack wrapped his coat around her and stood outside in the cold in just a button-up shirt.

"I'll be fine, Rose," he insisted, kissing her on the cheek. "You're freezing. Don't worry about me."

The couple walked the remainder of the way to the bus station in a comfortable silence, Rose only thinking about how good Jack was to her. She was a lot warmer now, but it was evident by his shivering and the bright red colour of his nose and the tips of his ear that Jack was freezing his butt off. Normally Rose would have insisted that he take his jacket back, but she him well enough by now to know that there was no point. When Jack set his mind on doing something for someone else, there was no stopping him.

When they finally stepped into the station, Rose was expecting an instant rush of heat which would allow her to give Jack his coat back so that he could warm up. Unfortunately, she'd forgotten that the New York subway system didn't have heating. What sort of crackpot idea was that? The city had had subways for how long now, and nobody was smart enough to install heating and air conditioning? Still, she couldn't let Jack shiver silently any longer, so without a word she shrugged out of the leather jacket and placed it on Jack's hands.

He rolled his eyes but obliged, and Rose could tell that he was instantly more comfortable. Re-linking their arms into each other's, Jack and Rose paid for their bus ride and settled down in two seats next to a window.

"Do you think you're gonna have fun tonight, Rose?" Jack teased. He'd been making fun of her relentlessly for the last week because the reception at the art gallery was an eighteen-and-over affair. In nine months, which in Rose's opinion couldn't come fast enough, she would be eighteen, but for now she was stuck playing babysitter while everybody else, including Jack, went out. What Jack clearly didn't understand, though, was that not only was she used to being the only one left at home, she really didn't mind babysitting.

Rose's mother wasn't very close with her family and they'd severed the last connections with the world outside the Upper East Side after her father had died, but when she was twelve and thirteen she would sometimes watch her little cousins for an hour or two. Rose had loved little kids since she was about seven, and although Jack thought she was just making excuses, there was a part of her that would almost rather be looking after Cora than at a party. She'd seen enough of them over the last couple of years to last a lifetime, and every little thing that reminded her of the life she'd left behind was like a tiny stress fracture that she knew was eventually going to render her useless. It just hurt too much.

"As a matter of fact, I am," Rose whispered, brushing Jack's wild hair out of his eyes. Although she had no idea where it came from, she suddenly had the urge to say, "Although I think I'd be having more fun if I were with you."

Jack smiled at her coyly. "Calm down there, Rose. We're in public."

"That's why God invented whispers," she replied, kissing him softly on the tip of his ear. Rose had absolutely no idea what had gotten into her lately, but sometimes she felt like all she wanted was Jack. Somewhere in the back of her mind she thought she'd heard sometime that being pregnant changed your hormones around and sometimes altered your sexual desire, but she didn't really care to think about that. In these moments, which seemed to come onto her all of a sudden and with absolutely no warning, all she cared about was Jack.

Wrapping his arm around her, Jack replied, "Tell you what, Rose. You know I gotta work tonight, but if you want I can tell Mr. Cartmell that, with you being pregnant and all, I don't feel comfortable with you travelling in New York City by yourself. Then we'll see if we can't find a few minutes extra and then you can tell me how much fun you're having."

Jack would never deny Rose anything because he loved her too much, but in truth he didn't really know how comfortable he was with her newfound displays of sexuality. It wasn't like it wasn't anything girls her age weren't doing all the time, and if anything it was more justified because he and Rose really loved each other and were going to be together for the foreseeable future. It wasn't as though she was getting drunk all the time and sleeping with every guy she saw, but still. Rose was so young and so beautiful and so not like most seventeen-year-old girls, and there was a part of Jack that didn't like taking that from her.

Resting her head on his shoulder, Rose whispered, "I love you Jack."

"I love you, too, Rose," he replied, and softly kissed her mane of dark red curls.

They rode the rest of the way in silence, resting on each other as people floated in and out of the subway around them. Finally, when the bus lurched to a halt for the ninth time, Jack and Rose shuffled out of their seats and out into the cold again. Thankfully, though, the DeRossi's apartment was right across the street from the station, and after a quick dash across the busy street, they stood in the warmth of the entrance area. Jack pressed a button the wall so that Fabri could buzz him in, and in a moment there was an answer on the other side of the line.

"Hello?" said a little girl's voice that Rose did not recognize. Evidently Jack did, though, because he smiled. Rose always found it kind of funny that people smiled when they were one the phone and stuff like that, even though the person on the other line couldn't see you.

"Hey, Carina. It's Jack. Can you buzz us in, sweetheart?"

"Sure!" the little girl names Carina exclaimed. Rose looked at Jack inquisitively, wondering who Carina was.

Opening the main doors for her, Jack answered her silent question. "She's Fabri's youngest sister. Mr. and Mrs. DeRossi have six kids and Fabri's the oldest. He has two other sisters, Gabrielle, who's seventeen and Rosalia, who's twelve. Then his brothers Matteo and Sandro are twins, and they're fifteen. The DeRossis came to America when Mrs DeRossi was pregnant with the twins," he continued to explain as they got into the elevator that would take them to the fifth floor. "I've known them for about three years, and they have nothing but they're probably the most loving…"

Jack trailed off as they climbed into the elevator and looked at Rose as though he was very sorry for something he had said. For a minute Rose didn't even understand- that was how distant she already felt from the life she'd walked away from just a week ago. That was probably because, although it had only been a week since she really left her mother and Cal for good, she had left them in mind and spirit the day she met Jack- maybe even before.

After a moment's pause, Rose laughed and replied, "Jack, you should know that doesn't bother me. I don't care anymore."

"Well, I guess that's a good thing," he replied, wrapping his hand around her waist, "because you're about to meet them."

The door to an apartment a fair bit bigger than Jack's but surely not big enough to house eight people swung open and Jack and Rose stood facing a girl who wasn't exactly little but not quite a teenager yet. Her dark chestnut waves hung down the middle of her back, and her sun-kissed complexion reminded Rose of the girls on the Riviera when her parents took her a couple of years ago.

"Hi, Jack!" she exclaimed. The girl's English was accented as well, but only vaguely. Placing on hand on her hips and looking up into their eyes, she asked, "Are you Rose DeWitt Bukater?"

Rose held onto Jack's hand a little bit tighter and looked up at him, as though searching for an answer as to why Fabri's sister knew who she was. When his eyes gave her no response, she smiled at the girl and said. "That's me. Are you Rosalia?"

She nodded but said nothing else on that note. Instead, she raised one eyebrow and Rose and remarked, "I saw you in a magazine one time a little while ago. I thought you were getting married to some rich guy," she concluded, gazing piercingly at Rose and Jack's intertwined hands.

Wow, this girl had attitude! Either that or she, apparently like most little girls who knew him, had some weird possessiveness over Jack, and she just happened to be a little bit older and had more tactful ways of displaying it.

"Well, Rosalia," Rose explained, trying not to speak to her as though she was a small child but really not knowing how to handle it, "I guarantee you I'm not marrying that rich guy from the magazine. Cool?"

Rosalia looked as though she was about to speak again, but a shout from the kitchen turned everyone's attention that way.

"Rosa!" a woman called with a thick Italian accent. "Invia con Jack. Viena via da li!"

At first Rose was taken aback by Mrs. DeRossi's shouting at her, and looked up at Jack, hoping he'd understood what she was saying. When Jack shook his head and pointed at Rosalia, who was already stomping off into what must have been her bedroom, everything made sense. Whatever her mother had said, it had gotten Rosalia off her back, and that was good enough for Rose. Still, if they spent any more time with the DeRossis, the whole Rosa thing could become really confusing.

As Rose and Jack stepped into the cramped space, Mrs DeRossi emerged from the kitchen before anyone else got the chance to greet them. She wrapped her arms around first Jack, then Rose, and kissed them both on each cheek.

"Ciao, Rose!" she exclaimed. "I am Isabella DeRossi, Fabrizio's mother. You can 'a call me Bella. Please, come in! You two are hungry, no?" she asked as Fabrizio and Helga stood up to say hello to Jack and Rose.

Helga was dressed in a short, flouncy black skirt and a white lacy top, and her hair fell in curls around her pale face. Most girls probably would have seen her and felt some sort of inert desire to go wherever she was going, but Rose felt exactly the opposite. Although the way they were dressed was really casual compared to anything Ruth would have shoved her into for this thing, just seeing Jack, Fabri and Helga ready to go to a party made Rose's stomach turn over. She was so over it, and she was so glad that she didn't have to go.

The couple had dropped by to pick up Fabrizio and his girlfriend tonight because Mr. Cartmell had told Jack that if he wanted to bring any guests he could, so long as they were of age. He knew how, as much as he loved his family, Fabrizio liked to just get out of the house sometimes and looked forward to the day when he saved up enough money to get his own place, so Jack had asked them if they wanted to come along.

After doing that weird man-hug thing with Jack that Rose never understood, and kissing her on both cheeks, Fabrizio turned to his mother and said, in perfect Italian, "Mamma, te l'ho detto già che stiamo per essere in ritardo. Non è necessario per sfamare tutti coloro che vengono in questa porta!"

"Capisco che, Fabrizio! Perdonami per aver cercato di essere gentile con gli ospiti!" she yelled back. One of Rose's favourite things about living in New York City was listening to random arguments in other languages, especially between druggies on the street. Once, when she was ten, she had stopped dead in her tracks to listen to two Japanese people argue on the street. When her mother realized she was gone, she'd yanked her away and scolded her about it for days. Every time that thought flickered through her mind, Rose had to suppress the urge to laugh.

Biting the inside of her cheek, Rose tried to glance up at Jack inconspicuously, but she probably didn't do a very good job, because as soon as their eyes met, Jack bit his lip and his shoulders began to shake.

Practically yanking Jack and Rose out the door behind him, Fabrizio said, "Qualunque cosa, mamma. Stiamo lasciando. Arrivederci a tutti!"

Rose looked over her shoulder and managed to call out, "Thank you, Mrs. DeRossi!" before Fabrizio slammed the door shut behind them. He lead the way into the elevator, arm linked through Helga's, and when the door was finally closed, he leaned back against the wall and sighed.

"I am 'a so sorry, Rosa," he explained, laughing slightly but rubbing his temples in slow circles nonetheless. Evidently something either his sister or his mother had said was really embarrassing, because Rose had never seen him looking anything but ecstatic until now. "My sister, she is 'a not normally like that… I am 'a sure my mother is 'a gonna tell her, but still… I'm very sorry."

Rose laughed and smiled at Fabrizio. "Don't worry, Fabri. Little girls like Jack, I get it."

As Jack's face turned a thousand shades of brilliant red, Rose couldn't stop the mile-wide grin creeping up her face and reaching her eyes. After a moment, she started to laugh out loud, and was followed shortly by Helga, Fabri, and, finally a still cherry-coloured Jack. Rose was thankful nobody else was in the elevator with them, because by the time they reached the lobby, all four of them were struggling to keep their feet on the ground, even as they supported themselves against the wall. By the time the elevator grinded to a halt, everyone's face was the same shade of red as Jack's, and none of them even remembered why they were laughing in the first place.

They were all still laughing as they piled into the cab that would take them to the Cartmell's house. As they drove, Jack, Fabrizio and Helga talked amicably, but Rose couldn't help but rest her head against the window and watch the only place she'd ever call home fly past her yet again. Lately it seemed like Rose's life was changing every day, and just watching the city go by seemed to her almost symbolic for this change. She was still the same person, but just as New York City looked different during every season and at every time of the day, Rose felt like the person she was inside was just a base layer for things that were constantly added and taken away. It was hard to really know yourself when you were always changing like that.

When the cab pulled up in front of the Cartmell's cute little suburban home – still, in Rose's opinion, the best place in the world to live – she got out first but walked a few paces behind everyone else, who were still laughing amongst each other. Rose was noticing that she got like this a lot lately- suddenly very reflective and melancholy, for no apparent reason. She plastered her face with a fake smile as Jack rang the doorbell, but in an instant it was replaced with a real one as Cora swung open the door and wrapped her arms around Jack's waist.

"I missed you, Jack!" she exclaimed, jumping up and down. "I haven't seen you in like a month!"

Lifting her up into his arms obligingly, Jack said, "I missed you, too, Cora." Rose couldn't help but be amazed at the gentle way he held her in her arms and then placed her back down on the ground, making her feel nothing but loved. She couldn't wait until the day when he did that with their own children. Rose instantly remembered the first time she danced with Jack, in this very back yard, and thinking how someday, ten years down the road, they'd be doing the same thing, only while trying to balance their own sleeping daughter between them. Evidently that day was going to come sooner than planned, but the more she noticed how gentle and loving Jack was, the more she was okay with it. If nothing else, this baby would always have their parents to love and support them.

"Hi, Rose," Cora said, sounding a little bit less enthusiastic but happy nonetheless. Rose was glad that Cora had apparently gotten over her resentment at least enough to want to see her. "Hi, everybody!"

Cora's father appeared at the door behind her a moment later and told everyone to come in. He showed Rose around the house and told her that he'd already ordered pizza and left money for it on the kitchen table, and that since it wasn't a school night Cora's bedtime was ten o'clock. Everyone else filed out the door and into the cab, but before Jack left he gave Rose a hug and kissed her quickly.

"See you tomorrow, love," he said with a smile. Then, before she even had to remind him, he bent down and gave Cora a hug, too. "I'm gonna miss you, Cora. Remember, you're still my best girl, kay?"

"Okay! Bye, Jack!" Cora exclaimed, waving from the hallway as Jack shut the door behind him and went off to join the rest of the adults. It was so weird for Rose to think of them as that way, but not herself. She decided that just because the law says you're still a child doesn't necessarily mean you're not grown up.

As the door closed, Rose turned around to Cora and sat down at the table, ready to ask her all about school and her family and friends and what she liked to do and all of those things little kids liked to be asked because it made them feel special. Cora, however, clearly had other plans. She sat down at the table across from Rose and rested her hands on the table as though to say that she meant business. She's probably seen her dad do this a thousand times, Rose thought.

Raising one eyebrow and reminding Rose very much of herself at that age, Cora asked, "Are you Jack's girlfriend?"

At first, Rose was a little bit surprised that Cora had such nerve. As annoying as it could be, Rose liked that quality in little kids. It meant they were going to grow up to be strong adults. Well, that's what she thought, anyway. Her mother thought that it meant they were going to become spoiled brats someday.

Smiling at the little girl sitting across from her and resting her hand of the small one on the table, Rose said, "Well, Cora, I guess you could say that. Jack and I love each other very much."

"Oh," Cora said, tilting her head to the side a little bit and staring at Rose, as though trying to process the information. Rose knew that at Cora's age, people probably didn't think much of their parents really being in love with each other- they just knew that they were married and that they loved their children. She still remembered the time she realized that relationships were about love and not just being together all the time; it was the same day she realized that her parents were not in love. She was eight years old and they were walking around Central Park when Rose noticed that all of the other couples were smiling and laughing and holding hands, while her parents walked on opposite sides of her, hardly speaking to each other. Almost a decade later, Rose still didn't understand the whole that had been at work in her parents' marriage- she was just glad to be free of it.

Just then, the doorbell rang. Rose grabbed the money from the table and called over her shoulder, "Be back in a second!"

She opened the door to reveal a scrawny teenage boy in an oversized uniform whose smile revealed his braces. The sad thing about the stereotypical pizza-delivery kid is that it's usually true. Rose smiled at him as she took the pizza box out of his small hands and told him to keep the change. She would give some of her own money to Mr. Cartmell and no one would be the wiser. When she got back into the kitchen, Rose saw that Cora was still sort of staring at her, and it looked as though she was thinking really hard about something. Having been on herself not too long ago, Rose knew enough about young girls to know that clearly whatever was on Cora's mind wasn't just about Jack.

"Cora," she began, picking up her tote bag full of nail polish and swinging it over her shoulder, "are you allowed to eat in your room?"

Cora shook her head, and Rose said, "Well, guess what? You are tonight!"

Before Rose could even blink, Cora shot up out of her chair and bounded up the stairs, her footsteps surprisingly heavy for a girl her size. She stopped dead in her tracks on the second floor landing and called out, "Rose, you're the best!"

Rose laughed to herself and slowly climbed up the stairs behind Cora, careful to crane her neck over the pizza box so as not to trip over her own feet. When she got to Cora's room, which had each wall painted a different shade of purple, with silvery curtains hanging in front of two bay windows, Rose saw that Cora was already seated, cross-legged, on her double bed. Rose sat the pizza box down in front Cora and sat on the opposite end, resting against the headboard.

"So Cora," Rose started again, reminding herself how special little kids felt when older people took the time to treat them like adults and trying to emulate the people who'd made her feel that way as a kid, "what made you ask if I was Jack's girlfriend?" She opened the pizza and took out a piece for Cora then herself, thankful that there were napkins stuffed inside the box because she'd forgotten all about them.

Cora leaned back against the wall and looked a little bit shy. In a very soft voice, she asked, "Is it okay if I ask you a question about grown-up stuff?"

Rose nodded. She wasn't exactly sure what 'grown-up stuff' was, but she had a pretty fair idea. At any rate, it was the lie parents told their children when they didn't want them meddling in other people's business, and if it had to do with Jack and herself, then it wasn't all too hard to figure out.

"Okay…" the little girl said slowly. "Don't be mad, okay? I just want to know… are you and Jack gonna have a baby?"

That was exactly what Rose had thought. Her guess was that Cora had overheard her father talking about it to Jack that time on the phone the night Fabrizio and Helga came over, and it must have just killed her to wait the long to find out. There were probably some people who wouldn't go around telling six-year-olds that they were pregnant at seventeen, but Rose didn't see any reason to be one of those people. It wasn't like being pregnant could stay a secret for very long anyway.

"Actually, yes, Cora," Rose replied calmly. "Jack and I are going to have a baby. Like I said, we love each other very much, and when two people love each other they have a baby so that they can love the baby just as much."

Was that a good enough explanation? Rose hadn't imagined herself having to explain to a child why two people were having a baby for a long time, and until the words were coming out of her mouth, she still didn't know what she was going to say. Things like that made her really nervous and she was constantly worried about screwing up, but whenever she felt like that, she just told herself that it was good practice for parenthood.

Cora nodded, and both of them were silent for a moment. Rose allowed her mind to wander, thinking that if that baby growing inside her right now was a girl, then someday not too far down the line she might be having a night just like this with her own daughter. All her life Rose had wished for a sister that she could take care of and talk to and give advice to, so she felt oddly excited to be doing it for the first time.

After what felt like a long time sitting in silence, Cora spoke up again. "Rose, people in love are usually the same age right? Cause that's what I thought. So I was wondering, do some of your friends wish they could be in love with Jack? Cause Jack is kind of cute and he has blond hair and blue eyes, and I saw on this TV show once that some girls always fall in love with guys that have blond hair and blue eyes. So I was just wondering, and I also wanted to know if that's how come you're in love with Jack? Cause this one time when Jack first started working for my daddy, he took me with him this morning when Jack was just leaving I saw these two girls standing in the doorway and you could tell they were kinda staring at him, and they were like laughing and stuff. So yeah."

The most amazing part was that it all came out in one breath.

"Woah…" Rose said, still processing exactly what Cora's many questions had been. She also had to resist the urge to laugh as she was reminded of the incident in the elevator less than an hour ago. It really was true- little girls liked Jack. She was going to have to tell him all about this tomorrow.

"That's a lot of questions, Cora… Umm, okay… well, first of all, you're right about one thing." she explained, smiling coyly, as though she was letting Cora in on some big secret, "Jack is really cute. But most of my friends don't know him, except for on. The thing is, though, Cora, and you won't have to worry about this for a long, long time; you don't fall in love with someone because of what's on the outside. People fall in love because of what's on the inside- because the other person cares about them and is nice to them and would do anything for them," Rose finished. In truth, although answering questions about the nature of love to a six-year-old was not how she'd ever imagined spending a Saturday night, it wasn't really as strange as it would have seemed.

A sudden look of realization flashed across Cora's face, and she exclaimed, "Like how Jack saved you from falling off the bridge!"

Oh, God… That wasn't exactly something Rose wanted to remember all the time. She loved the memory of her hand's in Jacks for the very first time, but remembering why she'd even been there that night was something she would rather not have done. Rose hardly even remembered telling Cora that, and she was shocked that Cora herself did. So what was she supposed to say?

"Kind of, I guess," she replied slowly. "Are you finished eating Cora?"

The little girls nodded vigorously, shaking her curly head of hair all over the place. Rose jumped off the bed, closed the pizza box, picked up her tote bag and made her way across the room. She stopped in the doorway, waiting for Cora to follow her. She looked confused for a moment, so Rose just smiled and said, "Come on, Cora! I have an idea."

Clearly Cora was a fan of Rose's ideas since they involved eating in her room, as she sprang up from the bed and bolted down the stairs. Yet again, she reached the foot of the stairs before Rose was even halfway down, and she was sitting in an oversized armchair in the living room by the time Rose caught up. Rose noticed that the Cartmell's house was very nice – they evidently had money – but that it also felt a lot like a home should. It occurred to her that this was the first time she'd ever felt a balance between home and money, and that it was a feeling she sort of like having.

As Rose sat down on the couch, Cora asked, "So, what's your idea? Is it fun? Cause your last idea was really good!"

Rose smiled. This thought had popped into her head really all of a sudden, and normally it wasn't something you'd do with a girl a little bit older than Cora- maybe nine or ten- but she was evidently a little more grown-up than most kids her age, and Rose used to do this with her little cousins all the time. It had a way of making kids feel more mature and accepted.

"We are going to have a sleepover," Rose declared. "What's your favourite movie?"

Cora's eyes lit up, just as Rose knew they would because she'd seen it happen dozens of times before. "I have like 700 favourite movies, Rose," she explained excitedly, already rummaging through a pile of DVDs next the flat-screen TV. "But can we watch Enchanted?"

Rose surveyed the case the Cora had laid in her hands, vaguely remembering this movie. She'd never seen it, but she'd heard about it when it first came out. It had been a long time since Rose was six years old and she didn't even remember the kind of movies kids that age watched, but she knew enough to appreciate the fact that she wasn't about to be forced to watch High School Musical or the Hannah Montana Movie.

She nodded and got up to put the DVD into the player. "I don't see why not. Oh, by the way," she said, suddenly remembering something. "I brought a whole bunch of nail polish so we could paint your nails if you wanted. How does that sound?"

"Awesome," Cora replied, "but can we have popcorn? There's some on top of the stove."

Of course. Popcorn. How could she have forgotten? Rose laughed to herself and went off into the kitchen to go make popcorn. In a weird way, she really wished Jack could see her now, taking care of a little kid and doing everything in her power to make her happy. It was ridiculous, she knew, but there was some nagging voice at the back of her mind that wanted desperately to prove herself to Jack when it came to this kind of thing. He was twenty years old and had been living on his own for five years- evidently he would be more than capable of taking care of a child. Rose, on the other hand, was only seventeen, still in school, and basically the definition of a spoiled brat. The logical half of her mind knew she was being completely stupid, because Jack had complete faith in her, but still… the voice of her mother pursued her at all times, telling her she wasn't good enough. If only her mother could see her now! As she took the popcorn out of the microwave, Rose felt an overwhelming sense of pride. She really could do this, couldn't she?

"Alright, Cora," she said, pouring the popcorn into a bowl and setting it on the coffee table, "do you want me to do your nails now or later?"

"Now, please," Cora said happily as Rose pressed the play button. "Can you do them purple?"

Rose laughed, remembering the colour scheme of Cora's room. "I'm guessing purple is your favourite colour, eh?" she asked, grabbing a few tissues from a box on the table and situating herself on the rug and opening a bottle of metallic, lilac-coloured polish.

"It is," Cora replied enthusiastically.

As Rose painted first Cora's fingers then toes, they talked a lot about all sorts of things, with Rose letting Cora lead the conversation where ever she wanted to take it. At first they talked a little bit more about Jack, who was evidently a favourite topic of Cora's. Rose remembered being young and being infatuated with guys much more than twice her age, but she didn't think she was quite as young as Cora. After a while the conversation drifted to Cora asking questions about middle school and even high school, which at first was kind of surprising to Rose, but after a while she realized that she, too, had been curious about those things at a very young age.

A couple of times they sort of zoned out of conversation to watch the movie, and when they did talk it was mostly casual stuff- well, to Rose anyway. Of course these things probably seemed like pressing matters to Cora. Still, it was very much to Rose's surprise when Cora's voice took on a tone serious beyond her years and an expression that wasn't quite right on such a little girl.

"Rose," she said slowly, "do you have a mom?"

Great. Lovely. What the hell was she supposed to say to that? Why was Cora even asking that? God, what should she say? She fumbled around for an answer for a bit, staring at the ground.

Well, she did have a mother. That, at least, was truthful. So she could say it, right?

"I do," she said, choking on the words as they came out because she didn't even think of Ruth as being related to her anymore. "What makes you ask?"

Cora was silent for a little while, and she stared off into space, her eyes getting kind of narrow and tired looking. "I was just wondering, because my mom died when I was two. That's why my aunt Molly's here now. She came to help Daddy. Uncle Tommy, too. So I was just wondering."

Instantly Rose was reminded of the night last week when she and Jack had fallen asleep in each other's arms and she had realized that there were so many people who had it so much harder than she did. True, her mother might not even care about her, but at least she had her. At least she'd had her throughout her entire childhood. Rose knew how hard it was to lose a parent, but it would be so much worse to lose them so young.

"I'm sorry, Cora," she said, fully aware that that probably wasn't the right way to express that to a child, but not knowing what else to say.

Cora shrugged. "It's okay, I guess. I don't really miss her. I hardly even remember her."

That just broke Rose's heart. Sometimes she felt like it would just be easier to forget her mother, but would she really want that? And what if she forgot her father? What if she couldn't remember the way he laughed, the way he smelled, the way his smile reached his eyes every time his little girl was truly happy?

"My dad died when I was fourteen," Rose offered, as though it was any comfort. For some reason, she felt tears brimming in her eyes. She hadn't cried over her father in more than two years.

After a long time sitting in silence, Cora fell asleep curled up in the corner of the couch. As soon as the movie ended, Rose did her best to carry the little girl upstairs, which was really difficult but she eventually managed. Not knowing really what to do, Rose flipped through the TV channels and thought really hard about her dad- harder and longer than she had in a long time. She didn't notice at all as the minutes ticked past because she was unable to pull herself out of the past. She wished her dad was still here so badly- he would be proud of her, she just knew it. He would love Jack and support her no matter what, and she could just see him beaming down at his little grandchild in her arms. Jack would have really liked him, too.

Sometime after midnight, Mr. Cartmell arrived home. He offered to go with Rose back to her apartment just to be safe, but she said that she'd be fine and that she didn't want him to have to wake up Cora and drag her along with them. Instead, she walked four blocks to the subway station and got on. It was a pretty quick ride to the stop closest to her and Jack's apartment, and she was standing on the corner two blocks away in less than half an hour.

Rose had never really felt in danger in New York City, despite its reputation, because it really was the City That Never Sleeps. If she were ever to get into any sort of trouble, she figured she could just scream. That would surely get somebody's attention. Well, that was what she thought anyway. What Rose hadn't been counting on was the tingling sensation that ran up and down your spin, the way your stomach turned over and the shout stopped halfway up your throat the minute you felt a foreign hand on your shoulder. The only thing she could manage to do was turn around slowly in her spot, feeling as though her insides were frozen.

Because of the lights, it was still bright in New York at one in the morning- bright enough to recognize a face, even if you hadn't seen it in two weeks.

If it was possible, Caledon Hockley seemed even uglier to Rose now than he had before. His had pressed down hard on her shoulder and she could feel his hot breath running down her neck. She wanted to run in the opposite direction, but the only thing she could do was suppress the urge to vomit. His was contorted into a hideous snarl unlike anything she'd ever seen before.

With an ominous tone to his voice that told Rose she could easily be about to get hurt, he growled, "Why did you leave?"

OMG CLIFFY!
So, sorry for being a fail updater. Unfortunately, starting on July 6
th and going until July 21st I am going to be a fail updater yet again because I have a job on the other side of the country. But, exams are over next week so that still gives me about a week and a half off during which time I hope to update both of my stories at least two or three times. Then, when I get home, I have all summer! :D I promise you I will update at least every Tuesday and Thursday during that time.
Thanks for even bothering to review, by the way, since I'm such a fail.
Love you!