The rest of the night was quiet. Fabrizio had decided to take Sarah to the boarding house where she and Leah had once stayed, so they could have a private honeymoon. Tommy and Leah kept Lily with them. Tommy kept both girls preoccupied by telling them stories about his boyhood in Ireland. As for Jack and Rose, they spent it to themselves, sequestered in their room, where Rose thought over the confrontation with Cal and what he had said about her mother.

"Jack?" Rose sighed, sitting up in the bed, her eyes troubled. "Do you think that I'm a horrible daughter?"

"What? No way! Why would you ask such a thing?" Jack pulled himself up into a sitting position as well and took her hands in his.

"It's been well over a year since Titanic sank and I hadn't bothered to even send my mother a card stating that I was alive and well. I think of if Lily did such a thing, how would I feel? I'd be devastated and that's what I did to my mother, Jack. How can I not be a bad daughter?"

Jack hated seeing Rose like this over someone like Ruth, who did not care at all about what she was doing to her daughter. "Rose...when you talk like this...I think of the crying young woman that I had to talk out of jumping off the back of a ship. I think of the despair and melancholy I saw in those beautiful eyes. Then I think of the mother of that girl. A woman so cold and cruel. All she cared about was money, not the fact that her daughter was so desperate that she was willing to throw herself off of the back of an ocean liner. When I think of that, all sympathy I have for Ruth dries right up. So no. I don't think that you're a bad daughter. I think she's a bad mother and she is just reaping what she sowed."

"But still...I wasn't right for allowing her to believe me dead for this long. And now...Cal will probably contact her and she'll come here ready to rip my life here apart. It's to be expected."

"Hey, do you think I'd allow her to do that to you?"

Rose looked into her husband's eyes and knew that he wouldn't. That he'd stand between her and a million Ruths just to protect her. Knowing that made her love for him grow even more. "Oh, Jack...I just feel so wretched. I don't deserve your love!"

"Oh baby, of course, you do!" Jack wrapped her in his arms and held her tight against his chest. "You deserve my love and so much more, Rose! Don't let anyone, Cal or Ruth make you feel any different! Look, I've met a lot of people in my travels. Good and bad, and let me tell you, you're one of the best people I've ever known, Rose!"

"I almost killed you," Rose began to sob, remembering that horrible night in the North Atlantic, when she was on the door and Jack was stuck in the freezing waters. How he had almost died because of her.

"What's that? What are you talking about?" Jack frowned, confused.

"I should have found a way to get you on that door, Jack. We could have taken turns or something…"

Jack couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Don't be stupid, Rose. We were both freezing out of our minds and could barely think much less move. When I tried to get on the door too, it nearly flipped over. It couldn't hold both of us and I wasn't about to let you stay in those freezing waters, no way."

"Jack…"

"It came down to this, Rose. It was my choice. It came to me, or you, and I chose you. I will always choose you. Don't you get it? I loved you just that much back then and I love you even more now. There was no way I was going to let you risk your life for me more than you already had. It was my choice and I don't regret a thing. Like I had said, I'm grateful for you, Rose. I'm grateful."

Rose burst into even more tears and clung to Jack tightly, grateful that this beautiful man had survived and loved her as much as she loved him. She didn't know how she had gotten so lucky to have found Jack and be able to keep him, but whoever had sent him to her, she owed them a big thank you.

Finally, Rose felt herself begin to calm down as she found herself somehow on Jack's lap, cuddled in his arms with her face pressed against his chest. She looked up into warm blue eyes that were so caring and empathetic. She stroked his warm cheek with trembling fingers. "Make love to me, Jack?"

"If you want…"

She leaned in and claimed his lips as her hands found his shirt and began undoing the buttons. Once the buttons were undone, she pushed the shirt off of his shoulders and pulled away so he could quickly pull her nightgown off over her head, revealing her beautiful body.

Jack's eyes drank her in, wishing that he had his portfolio so he could sketch her again and this time put the sketch somewhere safe for his eyes only. She really was a perfect work of art and she was all his.

She was in his arms again, kissing him deeply as her hands slid down his chest and gripped his pajama bottoms, and pulled them off. She moaned as she felt his desire press against her, hard and insistent, yet so hot, feeling her with a deep desire that could not be quenched. Her lips were connected to his he flipped her over onto her back and lowered himself into her waiting heat. Their movements were slow and rhythmic, their lustful moans mixed together in a melody that only they knew. Rose clung to him desperately as she felt him move within her and Jack kept his arms tight around her as the climax sent them over the edge with them both crying out almost joyfully.

Panting, they came to lay next to each other, staring into each other's eyes, their love for each other more than clear in their smiles and the gentle way they touched each other.

"Feel better?" Jack smiled, still in awe that this beautiful woman loved him so much.

"More than better. Right now I feel like I can fly," Rose smiled, just allowing herself to swim in the blue depths of Jack's eyes and feel the love that was shining there, all for her. "Maybe I'm not an awful person after all. Not when you love me like this."

"See. I'm glad that you're seeing things my way."

Rose simply laughed and rested her forehead against Jack's. "I love you so much, darling. I'd do anything for you. I hope you know that."

"I know, Rose. You don't need to prove anything. I see it all in your eyes."

"Promise that you'll be mine forever?"

"I already have," Jack chuckled, but his eyes grew serious as he kissed her once more. "But I'll promise you again and again and as many times as you need. I'll be yours forever, and beyond that if possible."

"And I'm your's Jack. Forever, today, always."

…..

Ruth Dewitt Bukater Drake had just finished her evening tea when the telegram came to her. She looked at her husband, a businessman whom she had met one month after the sinking and had taken a liking to her, and frowned.

"Whatever can this be about? Hardly anyone telegraphs me," Ruth frowned as she saw who the message was from. "Caledon Hockley? Why I haven't heard from him in ages! Ever since dear Rose's funeral!"

"What does that idiot have to say now," Randall Drake asked. He had no love for any of the Hockleys and had been horrified by Ruth's connection with the family and felt bad for her that it had cost her the only daughter she had from her last marriage. It was a sad tale and he knew that Ruth had never fully recovered from it. The poor woman was full of sadness and regret whenever her daughter was ever mentioned, which is why Randall had made it his mission that Rose's name was never uttered in his house. He did not want his new bride to feel the painful loss any longer.

Ruth opened the small envelope and gasped as she read what was written on the card. "Dear lord…"

"What is it, darling?"

"It's...It's Rose. She's...she's alive! My daughter is alive!"