A/N: Thanks for those who did review the last chapter and to the reviewer named: '( )', who asked, maybe Cal and Rose will pair up, maybe not….I can't tell that yet, it's a secret, ya have to keep reading. ;)
Cal awakened the next morning, and walked out onto his deck, to see Rose sitting at a table filled with breakfast foods and drinks. Cal scoffed and smiled briefly at her as he sat down in a chair next to her.
"Ruth, you're here—early this morning." Cal said with a brief laugh.
Ruth stared at Cal coldly.
"Mr. Hockley, do you love my daughter?" Ruth asked.
Cal looked at Ruth with a surprised grin and sighed with a simple nod.
"Well, of course Ruth," Cal answered with assurance, "how can you even ask such a thing?"
Ruth shook her head slightly and frowned.
"Well then, why won't you marry her, Mr. Hockley?" Ruth asked. "I don't understand."
Cal looked down and scoffed and smiled.
"Ruth, she doesn't WANT to get married right now." Cal replied strongly. "No matter if—if I want her to marry me or not, and to force her will only push her away. We'll get married when the time is right."
"No!" Ruth yelled.
Ruth sighed and briefly closed her eyes with a frown. Cal stared at her with confusion. He had no idea why she was pushing this 'marriage' thing, he had no idea that the real reason was so that all of the debts she had accumulated from her husband could be paid off.
"Mr. Hockley, Rose is a young girl who simply doesn't know what she wants." Ruth said lightly. "She doesn't realize that—"
"Ruth, stop it, alright?" Cal said in a slightly angry tone now.
Neither Cal nor Ruth had realized that at this moment, Rose was listening a few feet away, from within Cal's room.
"Ruth, Rose indeed DOES know what she wants," Cal said strongly. "I think she made it very clear what she wanted, yesterday morning. Why you're pushing her to marry when she clearly isn't ready to is beyond me, but I'm beginning to see what she meant when she said you were controlling."
Ruth gasped loudly and looked at Cal with shock. Cal looked at Ruth warmly and gently and briefly held her hand.
"Ruth, Rose and I will get married, when she says she's ready." Cal said lightly. "I don't want to push her like I did before and end up losing her and I—I ask of you to please not do the same. Don't push her into doing something. If—if Rose ever left me, and I found out it was because of you pressuring her to marry me, well—well I'd simply go into a murderous rampage on you, Ruth, and we don't want that, now do we?"
Ruth stared at Cal with slight fear on her face, she nodded once with nervousness as she sat back in her chair. Cal smiled his proud, arrogant smile and sat back and took a sip of his coffee as he laughed briefly. At that moment, Rose walked out onto the deck and sat down in a chair across from Cal. She smiled at Cal sweetly. She looked at him with a new found respect she never had for him before, it was probably because she had never, ever heard Cal defend her to Ruth before and the fact that he did this morning, just made him even more attractive to her.
"Good morning sweet pea." Cal said with a bright smile. "How was your sleep?"
Rose nodded with a smile as she poured herself coffee.
"Quiet pleasant, dear, thanks for asking." Rose said cheerfully. "Good morning mother."
Ruth looked at Cal, who was giving her a warning look and then Ruth looked at Rose and faked a brief smile.
"Good morning, Rose." Ruth said in a low voice.
At that moment, Lovejoy walked out and sat at the table, next to Rose and cal and sighed with a frown, as he held the side of his head gently. Cal looked at him with a cold and confused look.
"Lovejoy, WHAT are you doing here?" Cal asked coldly. "I didn't request for you to be with us this morning."
"I know, Mr. Hockley, Rose did however." Lovejoy said with a sigh. "And I have no idea why, I'm really not feeling too well to go out of my room this morning."
Rose laughed.
"I'm sure, with the way you were drinking last night." Rose said with a laugh. "You have a hangover?"
Lovejoy nodded slightly.
"Yes and a very bad one." Lovejoy said in a low tone. "I took something for it, so hopefully, the pain will subside. I did so much drinking that I don't even remember much of anything from last night."
Rose gently patted him on the hand and smiled briefly.
"Well coffee should do a lot to help as well, Lovejoy." Rose said with another brief smile.
Cal stared at Lovejoy as he poured himself coffee. This was something Cal certainly didn't approve of, having LOVEJOY have breakfast with them? The only thing Cal wanted Lovejoy to do was to guard, to assist—not to dine and sit with them as if he were their best friends—because to Cal, Lovejoy wasn't. However, as he looked at Rose's face, he knew he couldn't object, for if he did, it would only start a beginning argument between him and Rose and with them seeing Jack Dawson the previous night, who knows, it might be just the type of argument to send Rose right into Jack's arms.
"So, Trudy told me that last night when you came to your room, before you went to bed, you checked your clothes for lice." Rose said as she looked up at Cal with a smirk. "She said you were afraid the dirtiness of third class had rubbed off on your clothes—including the lice they carried. Cal, honestly, I wish you'd stop thinking of the third class as dirty. They aren't."
"YES they are, dear," Ruth said scolding. "Have you seen the way they dress? Its despicable."
Rose scoffed and rolled her eyes at Ruth.
"Oh please mother, you think everything is despicable." Rose said with a laugh.
Cal looked down and blinked repeatedly and then looked up at Rose and shrugged.
"Well, I—I mean they DO carry lice, Rose." Cal said. "And I mean they are the LOWER class, and we are FIRST class, I have to keep some sort of guarding mentality regarding being around them, especially when they look so—poor."
Cal and Ruth snickered and Rose stared at Cal with complete coldness.
"Cal, they are STILL human beings." Rose said coldly. "Honestly, its hard to imagine that you're human when you talk about those who are less fortunate than you are, like they may be animals. It completely disgusts me, Cal."
Cal stared at Rose observantly, he could tell she was getting angry, he always knew when she was getting angry by the way she would roll her eyes at everything in front of her, by the way she would slightly slam down things in front of her, yes he knew she was getting angry and immediately guilt struck him. He sighed and looked away from her with his face filled with guilt. He looked back at her with a hint of sorrow.
"I'm sorry, Rose." Cal said lightly. "I—I'll try harder to not think of those who are—less fortunate than I am, as animals. I promise. I—I can't change overnight, it takes time, but I will. I'm sorry, I'm sorry about last night with Trudy and the clothes and all—I'm sorry."
Rose looked at him briefly with coldness and nodded before picking up a newspaper in front of her, opening it, and reading it, blocking Cal from seeing her face. Cal looked at Lovejoy who was sipping coffee, but who glanced at him (Cal) briefly, and then Cal looked at Ruth, who was trying her best not to stare at him. Cal looked down at the table and frowned slightly.
"Great!" He thought to himself. "You've already disgusted her, the first day that you said you'd change towards her, that's great, Caledon, now you already have a strike against yourself, in no time, she'll be RUNNING to that Jack Dawson."
Cal continued to stare down at the table, guilt written all over his face, as well as hints of despondence. Rose peeked her head out from her newspaper and saw this. She put the newspaper down and reached across the table and gently took hold of Cal's hand and briefly smiled.
"Its fine, Cal, really." Rose assured. "I understand, honestly."
Cal looked up at her with seriousness.
"I'm really sorry, Rose, I'll—I'll try harder to—to like—them." Cal said, finding it hard to even spew the word like out of his mouth when talking about the third class.
Rose nodded and smiled as she sat back in her chair and took a sip of her coffee.
"So, this morning, what are we to do?" Rose asked with a smile.
"Um, well this morning, I have to meet with Mr. Guggenheim, Mr. Astor, Mr. Ismay and Mr. Andrews." Cal said. "In the smoking room, we're going to just discuss politics—the mill that my father and I own, business things, then after that, I'm free for the whole day, so maybe we can—"
"The smoking room?" Rose asked in an irritated voice. "The smoking room? With the other men? THIS morning? This SATURDAY morning?"
Cal looked at her, puzzled and then laughed briefly.
"Well, well yes, Rose, why?" Cal asked with a brief smile.
Rose frowned and shook her head.
"Oh Cal, I was hoping we could spend the entire day together." Rose said. "The morning and the evening. I mean you always spend time in the smoking room, why can't we spend time together?"
Cal frowned at Rose with confusion.
"I always spend time in the smoking—Rose, we've only put on this ship a day, so how can it be that I ALWAYS spend time in the smoking room with the other gentlemen? Besides, this is important, Mr. Ismay, told me yesterday that he had some new business ideas for how to make the mill run more—successfully and so I'd certainly love to hear his ideas."
Lovejoy suddenly sat up and listened more carefully, he wanted to hear out this particular situation was going to play out between Rose and Cal, as did Ruth.
Rose scoffed and rolled her eyes hard at Cal.
"FINE Cal," Rose snapped. "Go smoke and have Brandy's with them and forget about your fiancée and spending time with her and making her happy."
Cal stared at Rose with even more confusion.
"Fiancée—Rose, wait I thought you didn't want to BE my fiancée, yet, remember?" Cal said with a frown. "I thought you said you just wanted us to be a couple but not an engaged—"
"Oh you know what I mean Cal!" Rose yelled angrily. "Whatever our title is together, just GO! Go be with your snobbish boring, male friends and drink and smoke the day away!"
Ruth scoffed and stared at Rose with upset.
"Rose, honestly, don't you think you're being a bit unfair?" Ruth asked. "He spent ALL evening and night with you yesterday, when he was supposed to be at the Gentlemen of Fortune meeting with Mr. Andrews, down in the dining room, can't he have just this morning to himself? And then the rest of the day with you? Must he be around you ALL the time?"
Rose looked at Ruth with coldness.
"Mother, this is between Cal and I, NOT you, so PLEASE be quiet!" Rose snapped.
Ruth gasped in shock at Rose and sat back in her seat with a stunned look. Cal glanced over at Ruth with a slight upset frown and then looked at Rose with guilty eyes.
"Alright, I—I'll spend the morning with you, Rose." Cal said in a low, despondent voice.
Rose smiled brightly.
"Oh will you, Cal?" Rose said sweetly. "How charming of you, dear, thank you!"
Cal faked a brief smile and sat back in his chair and took a sip of his coffee as a look of frustration came on his face. He didn't WANT to spend the morning with her. He wanted to be at the meeting with the other men, the mill was important to him, it was his job, but once again, he had to put off his wants, his happiness—for Rose, he knew Ismay had told him after this morning, he would have no other time to sit down and talk with Cal about the business ideas he had for Cal's mill, so this morning's meeting was very important to Cal—but he was putting it off—for Rose; and it was making him, despondent, sad—sadness was a feeling he hadn't felt since he was a child, when his father used to constantly beat him. As Cal sat there, looking despondent and frustrated, Lovejoy was picking up on it. Rose got up and kissed Cal on the cheek with a smile.
"I'll go get ready for us to spend the morning together," Rose said sweetly. "You can come to my room in an hour and then we can go have fun for the day."
Rose laughed and dashed off the deck and out of Cal's room, as Cal stared down at the table with a hint of sadness, despondence and frustration. They were looks that both Lovejoy and Ruth could see written all over Cal's face. Cal knew he had told Rose he'd make her happy and do whatever she wanted and go where she wanted and such, but he had no idea that he'd have to not do ANYTHING he wanted, or that he couldn't ever again go ANYWHERE he wanted, just to make her happy. What about his wants? What about what he liked? Cal guessed that, all that would have to take a back seat when being with Rose, and if he didn't want to lose her forever, to Jack Dawson, Cal realized he'd just have to learn to put all his likes and dislikes, feelings and wants on the back burner and do nothing but please Rose—however he would soon realize that, that would STILL not be enough for the red head beauty that was Rose Dewitt Bukater, nothing Caledon Hockley did, would EVER be enough for her…..