Chapter 71: All Over Again
"Rose?! ROSE, WHERE ARE YOU?!" Emma calls, walking up and down the street where the church is, in her own wedding dress and veil, trying to find her friend, also dressed as a bride. Several pedestrians stare at her in confusion, assuming that she's either a runaway bride or an escaped mental patient acting out some bizarre fantasy.
"Emma, come on," Peter says, grabbing her arm. "We have to bail Jack out of jail."
"I know, but where is Rose?" the girl cries, anxiously. She unbelievably confused and scared, not just for Jack, but for her best friend, who has seemingly vanished from the church parking lot.
"She might already be there," her still fiancé suggests. "She might've hailed a cab to follow the police."
"She wouldn't have taken out the heirloom and thrown it on the ground. She knows how much it means to me," she protests. The comb was now in Peter's pocket, having received more additional scratches from being dropped on the ground.
"She's pregnant and distraught, she probably wasn't thinking clearly. Now let's go and get her husband out of jail."
"Okay," the young girl sighs heavily. Something is definitely not right, she can feel it in her bones. Her stomach twists violently thinking about what happened last night in her dream.
Much like her nightmares on the Titanic, foretelling disaster, it seems her dreams had tried to warn her about something once again. She hadn't really thought about it until now, chalking up the nerves and stress of the wedding.
As she'd slept in a separate room from Peter the night before their wedding, per tradition, Emma has spent the late evening looking at family portraits, always coming back to her parents' own wedding photo. They looked very serious, as taking such pictures took much longer than it did now, but Emma couldn't pull herself away from how beautiful her mother looked, so elegant in such a simple dress, which she'd made herself. She stood poised like a real lady of class, a queen, even though she, herself, often looked down at such people and saw them as merely hollow statues. Her father was dressed in his best business suit, a hat cropped under one arm, his eyes staring into the distance, as he pondered their future together. Even though their own ceremony was quite simple, it was a union meant to last a lifetime, even though both their lives did not last as long as anticipated. Emma found herself crying just a little bit, she kept the framed photo next to her nightstand, hoping that they were looking down at their daughter with pride and a lot of love. Their little girl was finally marrying the man of her dreams and starting anew; keeping their memory alive, but moving forward. She kissed the photograph once and whispered, "I love you," to it before turning in for the night.
Her dreams, however, were anything but peaceful.
The dream began with her and Rose walking down the aisle, just like it had done before, their soon to be husbands, standing at the altar, waiting. Despite how happy she felt, Emma felt as if the two were walking, but the aisle just kept getting longer and longer, like they were never going to reach their true loves. The dreamer then decides to pick up speed, reaching out to grab her friend's hand, only to feel cold and rough skin. She turns to see a shadowy man, whom she was holding hands with. She could see Rose being held by several other shadows, their hands over her mouth so she couldn't scream and one of them had a knife to her neck.
"Let her go!" Emma screamed, trying to free her hand from the sinister figure's.
However, the dark hand clamped around her wrist, squeezing so hard it would block her circulation. The young bride began to fight, using what strength she had to escape her aggressor. She punches and kicks the man, and even tries biting, but nothing works. It does not phase this seemingly inhuman person. The man's face was hidden under a wide-brimmed cap and she could see his white teeth underneath them. She tries screaming out for help, but the pews are empty. She turns to see where their fiancés are, but they too are being grabbed by shadow people. Tears are now burning her eyes, the shadow man begins to pull her away from her happily ever after and towards the exit, which is now nothing but a dark void. Emma fights with every fibre of her being to escape, shouting for help that was not coming. The mysterious figure then grabs her around the chest to get her out the door faster, she continues to holler for help, but there's nothing but an empty, dark church, no one to save her. She lets out one final scream before everything goes black and she hears:
"Happy wedding day… I'll see you soon..."
She woke up in a cold sweat and shivering. Emma blinked several times before reaching to light her lamp. Her nightgown was sticking to her and the sheets were a mangled mess. She put her hands on her face and tried to calm herself. Sure, she still had the occasional sinking ship dream, likely based on the traumatic event, but this was something new entirely. Her breath was heavy and her mind was racing, trying to find meaning. Eventually, she went to the bathroom to get a drink of water and then came back, trying to settle herself down again. She looked at the photograph of her parents on the stand.
"What is happening to me Momma?" she'd asked. "What does it mean Papa?"
She longed for an answer. As she lay down again and shut the light off, she assumed that this was nothing more than pre-wedding jitters.
Now, she wasn't so sure.
…
"I'm going to give you one more chance Dawson," the officer warns in a very dark voice.
Jack sits at a table in an interrogation room, handcuffed to the table. He's still dressed in his wedding suit and stares at the policemen around him like they've completely lost their minds. Additionally, these were all his colleagues, people he saw every day, and now they were treating him like a criminal.
His head is spinning as he tries to comprehend what has happened in the past hour. One minute, he's about to marry Rose, the most beautiful woman he'd ever met, and the next he's being handcuffed and carted off in a police wagon. He cannot understand what they want from him, they are accusing him of various things, so numerous he can't keep them all straight. They are calling him filth, and "dirty liar," he wants to open his mouth to protest and remembers what Emma had told him, not to say anything until she and Peter arrived.
His blue eyes make contact with the other man but then looks down.
"You really think the silent treatment is going to help you here?" the gruff man snarls.
Jack bites his lip but remains quiet.
"Fine, but we are booking you. Maybe a night in the slammer will get you talking."
Jack clenches his fists but remains passive until the officer leaves. Once he's alone he lets out a sigh of great relief. He then tries to process what has happened to him. He stares at the silver cuffs around his wrists, each one attached to two legs of the table and he has a flashback to the last time he'd been arrested. It was happening again, being arrested for something he did not do. He'd been locked in the lower decks of the ship, destined to drown had it not been for Rose. For a while, he thought she'd abandoned him, avoiding his eyes as he was dragged away, proclaiming his innocence about the diamond and the attack on Peter, but the minute she called out his name, he knew this wasn't true. She believed him and loved him enough to risk her own life to save him. And yet, here he was, locked up with no place to go. He thinks about what crime he could've possibly committed, but there was nothing, nothing at all. Sure he'd stolen a guy's fiancée, but that wasn't a crime… He may have done a few questionable things on the Titanic, like property damage and attacking another man, but that was to protect Rose and it was imperative to their survival that night.
The door opens again and familiar face locks eyes with him.
"Joel," Jack breathes.
"Hi Jack," he says in a hushed voice.
"You have to help me, Joel. I didn't do whatever they're accusing me of. You have to get me out of here man."
"I can't Jack… I'm sorry," the officer sighs heavily, not truly believing that he was going to have to lock his co-worker up.
"You have to tell them I'm innocent."
"I can't."
"Why the hell not?"
"Because I don't have any authority here. I'm just here to bring you to lock up…"
Joel's brown eyes look into Jack's blue ones, both men can see the confusion and hurt in one another's. Jack isn't sure what to believe at the moment, as his co-worker and pretty well his friend, comes to the table, removes one set of handcuffs, and uses the other to cuff Jack's hands behind him.
"Please don't struggle, Jack, it won't make things any better."
A large lump has formed in his throat as Jack is lead out of the interrogation room and down towards one of the holding cells. They pass places that he can remember from the days of working here, but then he's in another area of the building, someplace very unfamiliar.
He's forced down a long hallway, past various cells, some empty and some full. His heart pounds in his chest. He's taken to a cell with merely a bench and tiny bed, surrounded by bars on three sides. Joel unlocks him and then as gently as he can, pushes Jack inside. The officer then locks the cell.
"I'm sorry Jack, I really am," Joel says quietly before turning to leave.
The blonde man watches, gripping the bars with all his might, in anger and confusion, watching his friend walk away.
…
"What authority do you have to deny him bail?!" Emma shouts angrily at the chief of police. Still, in their wedding attire, Peter and his bride stand in the chief's office, trying to get their friend out.
"From the District Attorney's office and we have reason to believe that he is a danger to society," the chief officer says, not even making eye contact with the woman, who is ready to turn the desk over to attack him in rage.
"These charges have no evidence to support them!" the girl protests.
"I just do what the courts tell me to do. There is much evidence to support them."
Emma swallows a large lump in her throat, trying to keep her anger in check. She remembers her father's words about never being emotional in court, but this is her friend in peril and with Rose MIA, they needed to speed this up.
"Let me see this evidence," she says through gritted teeth.
The police officer then hands the folder to Peter, instead of the one who asked for it.
"We received an anonymous phone call providing us with the charges that Mr. Dawson had been given while on the Titanic and that he was never properly prosecuted for them. They also added the additional charge of rape causing pregnancy and child abduction."
Emma goes red in the face and grinds her teeth together. She thinks about the confrontation on the stern, how helpless she felt and how angry she was that no one would listen to her. It was happening all over again here. "It was all a set-up, I know that because I was a witness to it if you're going to arrest anyone arrest Cal…"
"Ma'me, maybe you should wait outside. Please, let the proper lawyer discuss this" the officer says dismissively.
The girl now turns into a bridezilla of a new variety, she cannot hold it in any longer. She knows that because of her gender, she's being seen as inferior, once again.
"I am the proper lawyer! I am sole proprietor and owner of the Carson Law Firm. Any case this firm takes on is under my authority and my authority alone. Peter Whitman is my right-hand man, he and I work on cases as partners, equals…" She lets out an angered breath with that last word. "Anything you say to him will be said to me as well, either that or we will see you in court. I know you've heard of my firm Chief Brody, you don't want to be the defendant in that court."
"Are you threatening an officer of the law?"
"Threatening with legal action yes, nothing else." She adds sternly, doing her best to remain at least a little composed. "Now we both want to see our client now. We are his attorneys and need to speak to him."
The chief stares into the blue eyes of this feisty bride, he does not and will not take authority from a woman, but he did know the reputation of the girl's father's law firm. He didn't want to end up in court unless it was for a legitimate reason.
"Very well, you both may see him in lockup, he's in Block C."
…
Jack paces back and forth in his cell, his jacket, and corsage laying on the bed next to him. He hears the doors at the end of the hall open. He looks, expecting it to be another officer, but instead, he sees a woman in a white dress and a man in a black suit coming towards him.
"Jack!" Emma cries out.
"Emma! Peter!"
She reaches the cell first and hugs her friend through the bars. Peter follows suit. All happy to be reunited once again. Her minds flood with relief
"Are you okay?" she asks.
"I'm fine, where's Rose? Is she, all right?"
Both Emma and Peter's eyes go wide in confusion and fear, realizing that the pregnant friend was missing. The woman who wanted to be safe and free was now in danger and likely trapped…
What do you think happened to Rose? Please read and review.