Chapter 27: Fighter
"Rose?" is the first word out of his mouth, another survivor.
His blue eyes open to bright sunlight and the white surroundings of the hospital. Jack attempts to sit up, but his body protests all the way. He's dressed in a white hospital robe, the clothes he was dressed in the night of the sinking are folded next to him, as well as the remains of the handcuffs Rose freed him from. In his arm is a needle and tube connected to a packet of liquid next to his bed, feeding fluid into his body. He feels his body shake slightly and most of his strength is gone. The last thing he remembers was that he and Rose were floating in the cold Atlantic water and he made her promise that she would never let go. He remembers how cold he felt and hopeless the situation was. Everything seemed to go black as he heard Rose's voice call for him. He wanted to live, he really did, but his body was giving up and the cold was unbearable. Yet, he survived.
A young nurse, approximately a few years older than him, comes into the room.
"You're awake?!" the woman says in shock.
"I guess I am…" Jack shrugs.
"I will go get the doctor…Two in the past two weeks, that has to be a record!" she says to herself before leaving.
Jack is confused by her words. Two in two weeks? Were there others like him who had been pulled from the water? Where was Rose? Was she one of the others in the hospital? He begins to look around for any signs of those lovely red curls, but he's in a room by himself. She had to have survived, she promised that she would try and stay alive, for him…he had told her that she would grow old and die in a warm bed. He made her promise that she would never let go.
The doctor comes in.
"Two in two weeks, that is some miracle!" he says, a huge grin on his face.
"Where am I?" Jack asks.
"New York City General Hospital," the doctor answers. "You were one of the lucky few to be pulled from the water…"
The doctor immediately sets to work, he orders the nurse to fetch him something warm to eat and then begins his work on Jack.
"How long have I been asleep?" Jack asks.
"About a month…"
"A MONTH?" Jack says in confusion.
"Yes, to be honest, no one was expecting you to survive. You, son, were half-frozen when you were brought aboard and yet you were still breathing. You're a fighter, I must say."
Jack is overwhelmed by the fact that he's been unconscious for over a month and yet he didn't die. He was surprised that the doctor didn't give up on him.
The doctor checks all of Jack's vital signs, heartbeat, and blood pressure.
"There wasn't much that the doctor on the ship could do for you, except try to keep you warm. When you were given to me, I performed several blood transfusions to make sure your circulation wouldn't fail anymore and get rid of the cold blood in your body. Once your body heat returned to relatively normal, we kept you under surveillance, we were unsure for awhile if you would ever wake up…"
Jack is stunned beyond belief.
"Your limbs all seem to be in working order, you were lucky we did not have to amputate any, the blood transfusions work to prevent any vital body parts from failing. You are yet another miracle patient."
The nurse comes in with a hot meal that she lays in front of him. She winks at him before leaving. Her attraction to him is clear, even while recovering, Jack is still considered very handsome to the female nurses. Jack uses his pale hands to reach for his cutlery.
"Please eat slowly," the doctor advises him. "You've been out for a month, so your body will have re-adjust to eating again."
Jack obeys and takes a small sip of soup.
"You and the nurse said something about two in two weeks, were there others like me?"
"Yes, there were," the doctor nods. "You are just one of the several John Does brought to our infirmary, what we meant by two is, you are the second patient in the past two weeks to regain consciousness after being… comatose you might say. There was a young lady who woke up two weeks before you."
That could be Rose! Jack thinks.
"What did she look like?" Jack asks eagerly. "The girl who woke up."
"She had brown hair and blue eyes, she was recovering from a gunshot wound."
Jack's heart sinks. That did not sound like Rose at all and yet it sounds familiar…
"What about the others?" Jack presses. "You said there were others…"
"Are you looking for someone sir?" the doctor questions.
"Yes, a young woman named Rose, she has green eyes and red, curly hair, she and I were together when we were saved…I-I think"
"I'm sorry, sir, there's nobody in that hospital who looks like that and I have not treated anyone named Rose that I know of…"
Jack sighs deeply. He can feel his hope of seeing Rose slowly slip away.
"There is still a chance she survived sir," the doctor offers helpfully. "You and the others were just a handful of individuals from the disaster. The only reason you had John or Jane Doe as your title was because we could not identify you."
"My name is Jack Dawson,"
"Jack, huh? I'll put your name on the record of survivors." The doctor gets up to leave.
"How long will I have to stay here Doctor?" Jack asks.
"About a week or so, your body still has some recovering to do and it needs to regain its strength. Are you meeting anyone on the outside sir?'
Jack sighs, "No sir, not that I know of…"
Fabrizio was dead, so was Tommy and Emma too. Rose was missing. He had no one looking out for him. He begins to wonder why Rose isn't searching for him. Does she think he's dead too? He knew he had to try and find her, he needed to look at the survivor's list, he had to know if she was okay. He had only known her for three days and yet she had stolen his heart. He loved her, that was for certain and he knew that she loved him too, so much so that she risked her life to free him and be with him as the ship was going down.
How can you fall in love someone after only three days? He wonders.
"Well, I'm sure you will be okay…" the doctor smiles.
Jack shrugs. "I've been on my own before."
There is a pause.
"May I ask you something sir?" the doctor.
"Sure…"
"The uh… the broken handcuffs…"
Jack understands immediately why he's uncomfortable, he thinks he might be treating a convicted criminal.
"Yes, I was framed for something I did not do and arrested. I was freed by the girl I love…"
"I see…" the doctor clears his throat. "Do you think they will pursue you any further?"
"No sir, I don't think so. Almost everyone involved went down with the ship, but I assure you, sir, I've never done anything illegal in my life."
Which was only half true, he had gambled on getting onto Titanic and he stole a jacket, but that was all.
"That's good to hear…"
"Sir…?" Jack asks.
"Yes?"
"I was wondering if I could get some pencils and paper to pass the time over the next week."
"Certainly, I will send a nurse out to get some," the doctor says. "It will also be good at making sure everything is working properly and re-strengthen you muscles."
Jack smiles as earnestly as he can and then the doctor leaves.
Jack finishes his meal and leans back. A nurse comes to take it away, smiling the entire time. She is pretty, Jack has to admit, but he only has eyes for Rose.
…
Jack spends the next week sketching and waiting. He does his best to sketch Rose since his only image of her is now at the bottom of the Atlantic. Her eyes, her hair, her smile… He misses her. He tries to sketch other things, but his mind comes back to Rose. He longs for his sketchbook, which of course went down with the ship.
As his release day approaches, Jack tries to think up of a plan of what to do. He knows he needs to get a job of some kind to make money for himself, but he also wants to find Rose again too, do those things they promised to do together in Santa Monica, get to know each other and maybe start a new life together, to allow Rose to break free of her world and ignite the spark he saw in her.
When he leaves the hospital, Jack can't help but feel nervous and scared, just like when he left Wisconsin at fifteen, he didn't have any sense of direction or an idea what he would do, he just wanted to escape the tragedy he left behind. He was doing it again, but this time, he hoped to see someone, someone he loved and cared about. This part he was ready for and he was sure of it. Ready…
For them to start again.