Thursday, April 25th, 1912

Jack yawned as he woke up, looking over at his beautiful, sleeping wife. He looked at the clock and saw that it was already 9:00 am. "Wow," Jack thought to himself. "Rose and I must have been exhausted to sleep in so late." It was true that they were both exhausted from the past week. Things had been so hectic – getting off the Carpathia, getting married, and then moving to Chippewa Falls. Jack and Rose were both happy to finally have settled down for a bit.

Jack and Rose decided to take Jack's parents old room as their bedroom, as it had a bathroom attached and was larger than Jack's old room. Rose was worried about Jack staying in his parent's old room, but he insisted that he would be fine. So far, so good.

Since it was already late in the morning, Jack decided to wake Rose up, which he did by giving her a soft kiss on the lips.

Rose groaned as she opened her eyes. "Jack?"

Jack smiled and kissed her again, this time on the forehead. "Look who's awake! It's nine in the morning, sweetheart. We should get some breakfast."

Rose agreed and started to get up, changing out of her nightdress into a dress she could wear for the day. "I can smell Lilly cooking breakfast from up here. We should go help her."

"Alright, let's go," Jack said as he took her hand and led her down the stairs.

Lilly looked up from the eggs she was frying for breakfast when she heard Jack and Rose walk into the kitchen. "Good morning, you two! Charlie's already left for work, but let me serve you guys some breakfast."

"Thank you, Lilly. This food looks delicious," Rose said as Lilly scraped some food onto plates for Jack and Rose.

All three of them sat down at the table, too busy shoveling food into their mouths to speak at first. Finally, Jack spoke up. "So, where does Charlie work? I forgot to ask him last night."

"He works at the factory in town. He works Monday through Friday, but it pays well and he gets the weekends off, so it isn't too bad," Lilly said.

Jack nodded, wondering if they were hiring. He and Rose still had a lot of money left from Cal's coat, but he wanted to work. It made him feel like he was providing for Rose. Plus, it was better for them to keep Cal's money in savings, in case they ever needed it for something. "Lilly, do you know of any places that are hiring in town? I want to start working so that Rose and I could save the money that we do have."

Rose smiled and took Jack's hand lovingly. She was so proud of him, wanting to work and provide for the two of them.

"Actually, I think the factory that Charlie works at is hiring. You should go down there and talk to the owner – the job isn't too hard, and it pays well. Since you're related to Charlie, and Charlie is a good worker for them, I bet you'll get the job," Lilly responded.

"That sounds like a good idea. I think I'll go apply there today," Jack said. Working in a factory wasn't exactly his dream, but it would pay the bills until he could find work that he enjoyed more, hopefully something involving art. "Rose, what would you like to do today?" Jack, always putting others before himself, wanted to make sure that Rose would be okay if he went off to go talk to the owner of the factory.

"I'm not sure. Maybe I'll go uptown and do some shopping. I'd like to explore the town, since I've never been here before. And we do need some more clothing and things – we only bought enough in New York for a few days," Rose responded. She really wanted to explore Chippewa Falls some more, since she hadn't seen much of the town yet.

Jack got up from his chair and kissed his wife on the forehead before taking his dishes to the sink. "So, you'll be alright if I go over to the factory?"

Rose got up and followed him to the sink, putting her dishes in there as well before putting her arms around her husband. "Of course, Jack."

"I'll take care of her, Jack. I want to get to know Rose better, anyway," Lilly chimed in.

"Alright, well I'm going to leave then. I love you, Rose," Jack said before kissing his wife and going out the door.

"Love you too!" Rose shouted as he walked off the porch and started towards the road.

Rose stood in the kitchen for a moment, happily watching her husband until he disappeared down the road. God, she loved him so much. How could she get so lucky? Her thoughts were interrupted by Lilly, who said, "You guys seem really happy together."

Rose smiled. "We are. I'm so lucky I found someone as wonderful as Jack. He truly does have such a kind heart."

Lilly smiled back at Rose as she started to wash the dishes from breakfast that were in the sink.

"Oh, Lilly. Let me help you with that," Rose said as she grabbed a dish from the sink and started to rinse it off.

"Thank you, Rose. Sometimes it gets tiring cleaning up after a man all day!" Lilly laughed. She knew that her and Rose were going to get along great.

Rose laughed as well. "I'm sure it does. You and Charlie seem to be very happy together, too, though."

"We are. He's a wonderful man. I know he's extremely happy that Jack has returned. From what I've heard, they were really close when they were growing up."

Rose nodded. "Yeah, Jack told me last night how happy he is to be reunited with his cousin. Charlie's pretty much the only close family that he has around here."

"Yeah, same for Charlie. His parents are in Cedar Rapids, but we don't see them much. It's nice to have family around."

Rose smiled and went back to washing the dishes, happy to be making a new friend. Her life with Jack was starting out wonderfully.

"This is the clothing store in town," Lilly pointed out as her and Rose walked down the main street of Chippewa Falls. They had spent the last hour exploring Chippewa Falls, with Lilly showing Rose the stores in town and other sites. Rose had brought a little bit of money with her, hoping to buy some things for herself and Jack. "Would you like to go inside? The owner here is a sweetheart. She'll help you find whatever you need."

"Sure," Rose said as she opened the door and her and Lilly walked inside. "Oh, look at these beautiful dresses! Which ones should I buy?"

Lilly picked out a lavender dress and a light blue dress. "I think these colors would look good on you. What do you think?"

"I love them! Actually, those are two of my favorite colors, especially lavender. My mother always hated it, so I didn't have much of anything in the color," Rose said as she shook her head. Lilly wondered again about what had happened to Rose's family, but she figured that Rose would tell her eventually. Rose's comment sure didn't make it seem like she liked her mother all that much.

"I like the colors, too. What about some clothes for Jack?" Lilly suggested.

Rose and Lilly purchased the dresses, along with some shirts and pants for Jack, which Rose figured would be enough to last them for awhile. They also purchased some night clothes and undergarments, which Rose and Jack were definitely in need of. After leaving the clothing store, Lilly took Rose to a café down the street for lunch. The food was great, and they spent lunch talking and getting to know each other better. They learned that they were a lot alike, and they both knew that they would be great friends.

After lunch, Rose started thinking about the fact that she hadn't gotten Jack a wedding present. He had gotten her a beautiful ring, and she hadn't gotten him anything in return. Suddenly, she had an idea. "Lilly, is there a jewelry store in town?"

"Why yes, actually. It's right down the road a little, why? Would you like to go there?"

"Actually, yes. I haven't gotten Jack a wedding present yet, and I really want to. He got me a beautiful ring, and has done so much for me – he deserves it."

Lilly nodded and led Rose into the jewelry store.

Thirty minutes later, Rose had a beautiful pocket watch that she had engraved for her husband. Rose thought it was a wonderful gift, and she couldn't wait to give it to Jack.

"That's beautiful, Rose. Jack is going to love it," Lilly said as she admired the watch.

"Thank you, Lilly. I really hope he does."

"I'm sure he will. Hey, would you like go to the grocery store with me? I need to get some food to make dinner with," Lilly asked.

Rose perked up at this idea. Growing up in the Dewitt-Bukater household with maids and servants, Rose hadn't learned much about keeping up a household – cooking, doing laundry, and the like. She had always wanted to learn, and had snuck down late at night to help the maids with things, but Ruth caught her once and forbid her from spending time with the maids again. Now that she was married to Jack, Rose wanted to learn to cook and clean for her husband. "That sounds like a good idea, Lilly."

At the grocery store, Rose and Lilly picked out some vegetables and some pasta to make for dinner that night. As they were leaving the store and walking back to the Dawson residence, Rose finally got the nerve to ask Lilly the question that had been bothering her since they arrived at the grocery store. "Lilly," Rose started out, nervously. "Do you think you could help teach me how to cook? I never learned.. and now that I'm married to Jack.. I'm kind of embarrassed that I don't know how. We had a cook at my house growing up, and my mother didn't want me to learn how. She said that I would never need to know how and it was a waste of my time…." Rose rambled on, nervous at what Lilly's response would be. What if Lilly made fun of her incompetence?

"Aha!" Lilly thought to herself. "I always knew that Rose seemed to be very proper. Not that that's a bad thing, she's extremely kind.. but now her mannerisms make more sense, knowing that she's from a wealthy family.."

Noticing how nervous Rose was and that she was rambling on, Lilly snapped herself out of her thoughts and spoke up. "Rose, of course I'll teach you. Why don't you help me with dinner tonight? I'll teach you everything that my own mother taught me."

Rose sighed in relief, glad that Lilly was so welcoming. All of her nerves about being in Chippewa Falls had disappeared by now. Everyone that she had met was so kind, especially Charlie and Lilly. "That sounds great. Thank you, Lilly."

"Anytime. Let's get back to the house and we'll start up dinner. Jack should be back soon, and Charlie gets off work at four"

Rose nodded and let Lilly lead her back to the Dawson house, ready to surprise Jack with his gift and hopefully, some new cooking skills.

A/N: Thank you everyone for the reviews! This story seems to get more followers and favorites every time that I update, which makes me SO happy! In a chapter or two, I think I'm going to skip ahead in time a bit. I don't want to bore everyone with Jack and Rose's regular daily life! A special thank you to Princessa Rose Bernstein for her detailed reviews after almost every chapter. I love reading them! I'll update soon! Please review!