Jack, still feeling sick, had managed to convince the doctor not to mention to anybody that he had woken up again, not even Rose. He had speculated about telling her, but then decided against it. He had however, summoned up the doctor to keep an eye on her.

Since Rose and Mr Lindsay had left him no one had come for a visit.

They probably think that I'm dead already. I bet Mr Lindsay is jumping of joy.

Jack stood up walking over to the window. He had been lying in bed for so long that his steps were not surprisingly very insecure and he had to talk hold of the wall beside him to keep himself from falling.

However, it felt good to be able to stand on one's own again.

"Yes, madam…no, madam," he could hear a nurse talking outside.

He was used to this kind of talk. It was followed by some loud shriek.

Most likely it was bad news.

Ah, well…

His mind wandered to the day, when he and Fabrizio had first celebrated Christmas together with Fabrizio's mother. She had instantly taken him in and treated him like a long lost son. He smiled at the thought of it. Clearly Fabrizio's family hadn't been rich, perhaps even poorer than his own, but he had never once heard his mother complain.

Still there had been one subject that no one had ever brought up and Jack hadn't dared to ask and this was the question about Fabrizio's father. Not even later on, when they had travelled across Europe had Fabrizio ever breathed a word about him.

The voices outside had returned.

"Please, doctor, tell me…"

Rose?

So, she had returned.

Jack was almost on the point of going outside and tell her everything and ask her, if it was true that she had taken up with Mr Lindsay.

"Mrs Dawson, I already told you that there's nothing new. Really, you should go home and lie down…"

Rose looked up at him.

Home? Which home exactly was he referring too? Jack and she never had one and Mr Lindsay…? She dreaded the day he would demand it from her again. It sent shivers through her body.

"Doctor, please…just let me see him for a moment…"

Poor Rose, she was unmistakably on the point of breaking into tears.

"Mrs Dawson, it's not that I want you to…," the doctor struggled with the fact of holding them apart.

But it had been Jack's wish right?

"Then, why am I not allowed inside?"

"Because, he needs his rest. Mrs Dawson, considering your state I don't think it is good for you to be up all night. Your husband wouldn't want you to put your baby in danger either," he tried to reason with her in this way.

"But…"

"Yes, Rose, he's right," a voice behind her rang up. "You've got to listen to him," he added grinning at her.

Rose for sure thought she had misheard.

"Oh, dear, look at you. You look a fright. Come on let me take you home."

"Cal?" she looked at him confused.

What are you doing here?

"Didn't you call me?"

Indeed she did, but she hadn't thought that he would really bother to come. In fact she had believed that he hadn't even been told about her phone call.

"Well then, here I am. I want to help you."

"Cal, I don't think that…"

"But I do. Now come on," he had a firm grip on her shoulder drawing her around.

Yet, there was something strange about him. There was something in his eyes that she had never seen before – they were showing some kind of care for her.

"Jack, is…"

Surely he would change his mind, when he heard the whole truth.

"Rose, dear, I'm sure we can discuss this at home too."

"I'm not going back with you to Philadelphia!" she stated matter of fact, just to earn a laugh from Cal. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, Rose, dear, of course I wasn't speaking of Philadelphia. I know that your…ahem...husband is ill and that you want to visit him regularly. No, I was talking about a hotel. I've booked a few rooms. I'm sure you like it."

Rose noticed that this had been the first time he hadn't used any kind of sweet abbreviation, when voicing Jack's name.

"Mrs Dawson, I can only say that I fully agree with this gentleman. You need your rest."

"And Jack?"

"He will be here tomorrow as well, Rose."

Inside Jack had to admit that Cal really had a point here, though he wasn't so sure, if he wanted Rose to spend her time with Caledon Hockley. Having to choose between Roger Lindsay und Caledon Hockley was kind of like having to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea.

However, Rose took the task of wondering what he should do away from him by deciding herself.

"Alright, Cal, I come with you, but I'm not staying in the same room as you," she stormed away and both Cal and Jack had to smile.

Cal now remembered what had originally drawn him to Rose. It had been her demanding nature, which any other debutante had so totally lacked.

….

"I hope everything is to your convience, Rose," Cal said entering the room.

"Yes, Cal thanks, but I don't think that…"

Cal took a few steps forward sitting in front of her and taking her hand in his. It had been so long since they had been together like this not even being chaperoned by her mother.

"Rose, whatever you want to tell me. Allow me to tell you something first," Cal spoke slowly and almost shyly.

Cal was shy?

Rose didn't recall that side of him.

"Cal, I…"

"No, don't interrupt me now. Let me get this straight."

Rose looked up at him.

Was he sweating?

She had never seen Cal being nervous about anything. He had always been sure about everything he was doing, even about asking her hand in marriage. He had known that her answer would be yes, not showing the slightest incident of being edgy.

"Alright," she said a little worried now herself and not quite sure, if she wanted to hear what she was about to listen to.

"Rose, I accept that you don't want to…that you didn't want to marry me. It took some time, but I realize now that we probably weren't made for each other and that it was our parents, who threw us together," he was nervous though he didn't quite know why. He let go of her hand and stood up, walking across the room.

It was kind of refreshing.

Rose watched him, when he suddenly came to stand near the mirror. He turned around in a rush almost dropping the vase standing on it, but he managed to catch it in time.

"Honestly, Cal, Jack told me about your threat to him. Do you really expect me to believe that everything is now forgotten?" she asked her eyes wide.

Somehow nervous Cal ran a finger through his hair.

Of course he hadn't forgotten.

The humiliation of being ditched for some poor bohemian…

Everybody knowing about it, laughing behind his back…

No he hadn't forgotten anything, but over the weeks he had come to understand that there were other important things in life as well.

"I did love you, Rose," he quite unsuccessfully tried to get the upper hold of their conversation again.

Only this time Rose was not impressed anymore.

"Remember, when we were doing that long walks together back in Philadelphia and how your Trudy had trouble to follow us?" he laughed slightly, hoping that she would join in, but her face remained stern.

"Cal…"

"Remember, how we made this little trip to the zoo, how the elephant plashed you with water and how horrified your mother had been later on, when she saw you?" his laughter died down the second he noticed her stiff expression.

"Alright, I realize you don't want to talk about this now. I just wished for you…us to recall the good times we had together."

"Cal, as you rightly noted before, it was a match set up between our parents. Now, we don't have to put something into it that was never initially there."

"Didn't you ever love me? Not even one bit?"

Rose was taken aback by the sort of calmness and even more sadness in his voice.

Had Cal really been hurt on a personal level, when she had left him for Jack? She had always thought that it had been an engagement to please her mother, to bear Cal's children, nothing more. It had never occurred to her that Cal would've seen something else in it.

"Cal, I don't think that this is the right time now to discuss this."

She so much sounded like her mother now. The Dewitt Bukater women quite obviously expected everyone to do just what they wanted and to ignore their sometimes offensive lectures.

This time Cal wasn't about to ignore them.

He wanted an answer and he wanted it now.

"That's just about the right time to discuss this!" his fist hit the desk with such urgency that this time there was no saving for the rose bowl.

Rose was shocked for a moment. Despite what Cal had done on the Titanic and before, she hadn't awaited this reaction.

"I didn't beg you to come here!" she spat back at him. "If you don't want to help me, you can leave," she stood up showing him the way outside.

"It's me paying for the rooms, Rose," Cal added quietly.

"Of course it's always about the money, isn't it?"

Somehow Cal felt like is was having a déjà vu. He recalled a quite similar talk he had been having with Clarissa not that long ago.

"Rose, you know that this isn't true. I already told you that for me our engagement wasn't just to please the elders."

"Fine, then why did you shoot at Jack and me?"

This was a though one and Cal breathed in, before speaking on.

"Can't you understand that I was hurt Rose? I wasn't just jealous or as you might say wanting to control you. You were my fiancée Rose and I did care for you. Hell, I still do. Or why do you think I've come here?" he stopped for a moment trying to read her mind. "After your death I was just as devastated as anybody else around you. But not surprisingly you wouldn't understand this. As all you ever cared about was yourself," the last sentence was spoken in a rush in a very ill-disposed tone of voice.

"Cal, I had no idea that…"

"Why would you? After all we were thrown together by our parents, right? Why would you've any kind of sympathy for me? I'm just Cal, the merciless tyrant, whom you can put aside, whenever you wish for it. Letting your mother and me believe that you were dead, Rose…have you got any idea what this did to us?"

Rose had stood up by now and walked over to Cal. Now, it was her to put a hand of comfort on his. Indeed she had never thought about it this way. It hadn't been her desire to hurt anybody, not on purpose anyway, it had just happened.

"I'm sorry, Cal. Of course I'm glad that you came here. It's just that…I'm so confused is all."

Cal looked at her. She looked so vulnerable now, just like he remembered her, before their relationship had been strained. He had to confess now that this had been long before her meeting with Jack.

Her headstrongness, he had in the beginning come to love so much, had proven to be the death blow to their liaison.

"I did have feelings for you, Cal. Probably not love, but above friendship after all."

In another day and age Cal surely would've kissed her now.

"I think it's better, if we'll go to bed. I'm really tired," Rose spoke up interrupting the awkward silence between them.

"As usual you're right, Rose. I wish you a good night," he bowed to her, before extending the room.

Rose began to pick up the shards of the vase, but at once decided that she would leave this task for the chamber maids.

Obviously Cal had changed a lot since she had last seen him.

Little did she know that she hadn't been told everything.