Chapter 83: Circus of Surprises

Within several hours, Emma brings Sybil downstairs. She finds Holly making a special breakfast for the birthday girl, soft pancakes for the teething toddler. To everyone's surprise, Ruth De Witt Bukater is helping by squeezing oranges to make fresh juice, while Molly manages the coffee and tea.

"Where's Peter and Carl?" Emma asks.

"Peter's in the den talking to Mr. Jamieson and Carl went to get a newspaper."

Emma sits her sister in the high chair, takes a few slices of orange from Ruth, cuts them into small pieces and puts them on her sister's tray. She then goes to join Peter, knowing this will be all about Jack.

"Yes, he did," Peter says into the mouthpiece. "He took the car."

Emma sits at her father's desk, waiting patiently for the conversation to finish so she can talk to her fiancé.

"We don't doubt that the police will be here soon," he continues, brushing some blonde hair out of his face. "Yes, we know they're going to want to interview us… We'll do our best I assure you… We're not sure what he was thinking, just as the tables were turning in our favour. Yes…yes…yes…yes…yes… absolutely not… no. Thank you, sir, we'll tell her." He then puts the earpiece back on the hook and looks at Emma.

"The Jamieson family wish Sybil a happy birthday," he says, forcing a meek smile. Emma returns the gesture.

"What did he say?"

"It's already in the newspapers."

"Really?" she asks in disbelief. "I didn't think the news would travel this fast."

"Well it does, apparently it's on the front page and we should expect reporters at our doorstep and in our yard within a few more hours."

"As well as the police," she sighs sadly.

Peter merely nods.

"I guess… we'd better be as honest as we can," Emma mutters. She puts her head in her hands and lets the tears fall again. Everything about this was just awful. If anything, it was a total disaster. This is not how she wanted her sister's first birthday to go. It was supposed to be a happy occasion, filled with love and laughter; creating happy new memories and letting Sybil know that she was loved. Fulfilling that promise to herself that the toddler would have as normal of a childhood as she could. She would then go back to work and take the day off two weeks later to properly mourn her mother. Part of her wishes that they hadn't buried her parents overseas, instead of keeping them close, so she could visit them every so often. Of course, there were their grave markers in the New York Cemetery, but their ashes had been scattered in Ireland, to honour her father's wishes and the main reason behind their trip home on the infamous Titanic.

Peter wraps his arms around her and kisses the side of her head.

"It'll be okay," he whispers. "We can always celebrate it after everything is cleared up."

"What makes you think it will ever be cleared up?" she whispers.

The two of them embrace and remain in silence until the dreaded heavy knocking on the door. Summoning all their courage, they exit Andrew Carson's office and go to the door.

Several officers stand there as Holly talks to them, keeping herself slightly hidden behind the door. The chief locks eyes with the couple and smirks ever so slightly as if he's happy to finally be able to put the spunky Emma in her place.

"Everyone in this house must come with me to the station and this house is now a crime scene."

Emma rushes over and picks up her sister, who was nibbling on a fresh pancake. Sybil looks at her with wide blue eyes, there is much confusion and disdain of being taken from her meal on her face but her elder sister presses the tiny girl against her chest as if to protect her from what was to come.

…

"Do you have someone who can solidify this alibi?" the lead officer asks.

Emma sits the same interrogation room that she and Peter had sat in when they were working with Jack, only this time she's on the other side of it, but fortunately not handcuffed to it.

"Yes, my fiancé, Peter Whitman, my head lawyer, Mr. Richard Jamieson and my secretary, Felicity Arthurs can back up my claims."

"And you're sure you had absolutely no idea that Mr. Dawson was planning to escape."

"No. Never would I ever say that to him. I am a woman of the law, and like you, I encourage all of my clients to follow it. In fact, I was coming to the office to tell Mr. Dawson the news about Mr. Hockley."

The policeman frowns, wanting to poke holes in the girl's story, but it was difficult considering she knew how to work interrogations better than anyone. She remains firm and steadfast in her story.

"Why would I try and help my client escape from prison when I was trying to get him out the legal way?" she asks in frustration. "You know that the law is like any other business and if something bad happens, it looks bad on you as well as my firm, so tell me, why would I want him to escape?"

"I'm asking the questions around here," the man hisses in a gruff voice.

Emma folds her arms in annoyance and keeps herself poised and professional.

"But Mr. Dawson was living in your house was he not?"

"Yes, he and Miss DeWitt Bukater were living with us."

"What purpose does providing room and board for an engaged couple for free, serve you?"

It takes all her strength not to roll her eyes at this clueless man. "Because they are my friends and it was a safe place to live to avoid Mr. Caledon Hockley."

"Don't bring another man into this. Were you close with Mr. Dawson?"

"He was my best male friend. Why does this matter?"

"Because if he is indeed your 'best friend' as you claim, you could very well have helped him plan some sort of escape. According to the records, you and your co-lawyer were having a private meeting with him in his cell block right before he vanished."

Emma cannot believe this. She grinds her teeth together and lets out an angry huff. If Jack had just stayed put, Cal would be the one in this room being interrogated, the officers would be able to poke holes in his story and force him to reveal where Rose was being kept. Jack would've been cleared of all charges, Rose rescued, and they could all celebrate Sybil's birthday properly.

"Maybe if you told me the truth, you wouldn't be so frustrated right now."

"Fine, you want the truth? Jack and I did not part on the best terms. The last we spoke to him was two days ago, in the morning, which is supervised by your officers I might add. We were discussing the threatening note that somehow was delivered to him with his food. He angrily begged us to get him out, I told him we were doing the best we could, he yelled that it wasn't enough. I was left speechless and then Peter and I left to confront your chief with the new evidence. You should ask him to clarify this and then we went to my office for the rest of the day and we were there all the next day until your station called us about the new evidence against Caledon Hockley and we were going to tell our client about it when we found out he escaped. So why are you standing there and accuse me of helping Jack Dawson escape when he was mad at us when we left?"

She sits back in satisfaction, anger, and some guilt. She wished beyond everything that she and Jack had left on better terms. They were friends, after all, best friends, in fact, Emma would entrust her life and Sybil's life with Jack and no doubt he would say the same unless… unless he hated her and Peter now, for not doing what they could to save Rose. They were trying to save him from being trapped in jail… was that so wrong?

"But he did take your car, didn't he?"

The poor excuse for an interrogation lasts another hour at least before someone finally tells this officer to back off, Emma kept her story consistent the entire time and never changed a single detail. She knew how to make a statement that could free her if she was ever arrested or accused of these convoluted crimes. She'd seen her father catch a witness in one single detail of their statement, which ended up sealing their fate for the jury. She knew the system like the back of her hand, and she never wavered.

When she was finally free to leave the room, but not the station, she goes out to see Holly sitting on one of the benches with Sybil in her lap. The woman seems to be playing with the toddler, counting her fingers and doing other hand games. Her eyes go up to her would-be sister in law.

"How did it go?" the mother asked.

"How do you think it went? They accused me of nothing, but absolute nonsense. They don't have a prayer to convict us of anything. I kept my story the same and that's all there is to it. I kept telling them they are interrogating the wrong people, but of course, they didn't listen."

"Should I be worried?"

"Not if you tell them the truth," Emma says firmly.

"She's been missing you," Holly says gently, indicating the one-year-old. Sybil looks up with the lively blue eyes and smiles widely. She begins babbling and reaches her hands out to her big sister to pick her up. Emma happily obliges, swinging her sister into the air and giving her many kisses, to which the birthday girl squeals in unequivocal delight.

"One kiss to plant the seed, and two kisses to help it grow," she says happily, tearing up slightly. That was the tradition her parents used to do all the time, one kiss for every year she'd been alive and an extra one to carry over to the next year. She knew that her mother and father would be happy that she carried on this tradition and Sybil didn't mind in the least.

"I wish I could take her home, but that's an alleged crime scene now," she says. "Plus, they probably won't let us leave anyways."

"I don't think you can leave," Holly says.

"What do you mean?"

"Holly Gregson," officer calls.

"You go in," Emma says.

"Just go look outside and you'll see what I mean," the quiet mother says before going into the interrogation room.

The young girl takes her sister down the stairs to the first level of the building and walks through the busy police station. She stops at one of the windows and is nearly blinded. She holds Sybil's head to her shoulder to prevent her sister from meeting a similar irritating fate.

Outside on the streets are hundreds and hundreds of reporters. Flashbulbs are going off every few seconds and the pops of gunpowder echo through the window. Not that you could hear the pops considering all the shouting and talking the people are doing. They are taking pictures of the building as if it will give them a story. She sees several officers on the street, keeping the crazy crowd back in order to prevent a riot breaking out in the station. A man spies Emma and Sybil through the window, he shouts and points and suddenly the attention shifts to the two Carson sisters. They hurry towards the window, thank goodness, the station is much higher than they can reach. They start shoving microphones up as if Emma is going to talk to them through the glass. She glares at them before turning and disappearing into the dimly lit building. She bounces her sister on her hip when she notices a discarded newspaper on an empty desk.

She finally believes what Peter had told her this morning. Mr. Jamieson was not exaggerating. Therein fully glory is a picture of the empty cell that once held Jack Dawson. The title reads:

Charged Felon and Ravager escapes New York City Police

She couldn't believe how quickly the news had spread. She takes the paper back upstairs and sits with Sybil in her lap to read it.

Most of what the paper is saying is absolute garbage composed of exaggerations, lies, and most likely gossip. They were calling Jack insane, saying he could escape from Alcatraz with these kinds of skills, he's broken out to ravage more women and that people should lock their doors at night. She becomes so very angry at this slanderous rag that once she's through reading it, she lets Sybil rip it up and play with the pieces however she pleases.

She's so angry at the reporters, making up such lies about Jack, Rose, her law firm and so on. The one thing they did get right was the incompetence of the police force. She wants to go out there and set the record straight for these piranhas, willing to make up anything and everything to sell papers. However, her father had told her that only speak to the media when it was absolutely necessary, sometimes it could work in their favour, but most of the time it could destroy a case as well as a firm's reputation. It would also paint the police force in a bad light and they will pretty much do whatever the public wants. She didn't desire to be associated with this circus, but…

Suddenly, a thought manifests in her head. Maybe she would have to join this circus if it would get the police on the right track.

She takes Sybil and goes down to Jack's office. She'd only visited it a handful of times, but all she needed was a pencil and paper. It was unlocked, and her heart grew heavy looking at the amount of dust that had accumulated in the room since Jack had been housed in another part of the station. It was dark and a mess, which would be expected of an artist's "studio." She grabs a couple pages of paper when she notices a leather-bound portfolio laying on top of the desk. She knew he had two of them, one for here and one at home, which was still untouched in his and Rose's bedroom.

She picks it up and opens it to one of the first pages. In it, is a charcoal drawing of Jack and Rose hugging and dancing together. She can't help but smile and tear up. Jack had captured the movement of the two of them beautifully; the strong curves of Rose's hips, the waviness of his own hair as well as the bounciness of the redhead's curls and the swirling motion of her dress. Her mind goes back to the conversation on the ship, where she and Jack compared sketches and he said how he preferred to capture things in the moment, with people posing, while she preferred movement and landscapes. She sniffles a little bit and Sybil looks at the picture too, mesmerized by it too.

Emma takes the portfolio back to the benches outside of the interrogation rooms and looks through the drawings.

All of them are beautiful, some are still unfinished, but there's one that makes her heart drop and let the tears flow freely. It's a sketch of her and Sybil together, Sybil's head resting under her sister's chin, Emma holding her sister tightly, and both of them looking at their imaginary artist. She cannot believe that Jack drew this completely from memory, being able to capture the softness of Sybil's eyes, the roundness of her cheeks and the sharpness of her own heart-shaped face. It truly is a work of art and on the back, it reads.

Sybil and Sister,

November 6th, 1912.

Emma does her best to wipe away the tears with her sleeve. Today was that day marked on the back. He had drawn this for the little girl's birthday, most likely so that it could be framed and hung in her room. It truly was a masterpiece and it hurt her to know that he wasn't going to be able to give it to her properly. She holds the picture up for Sybil to see.

"That's Sybbie," Emma says softly. "And that's Emmy…"

I guess she does get a birthday gift after all…

Emma felt unbelievably guilty. With all the wedding planning and now the jail stuff, she had forgotten to get Sybil a present for her birthday. She wanted to get her sister something extra special and she knew her father, as he was in his last month of life, had wrapped his and their mother's gifts, not to be opened until the little one was a year old. She cries a little bit harder and kisses her sister's head.

"I sorry your birthday has to be spent this way," she murmurs.

The tot's blue eyes scan the picture with much fascination, but soon her childlike curiosity got the better of her and she tried to grab it. The bigger sister puts it away before it gets wrecked.

"Sorry I ruined the surprise, Jack," she whispers.

…

As the day begins to fade into evening, Peter and Emma are now talking to Mr. Jamieson, discussing Miss Carson's plan. She'd written it on the pieces of paper, which were also covered with sketches of her own. She missed drawing and her life had been so busy that she hadn't been given a chance to go back to it. So to pass the time with her sister, she drew whatever came to mind.

"It's very risky," Mr. Jamieson says with a frown.

"It is, but what other choice do we have. Yes, Jack is on the run, but he's not the one they should be chasing." She swallows hard.

"It's just crazy enough to work," Peter says. "Besides, the police will do anything the public says."

After discussing it with the police officers, they made a deal with the hoards of reporters to go away and stop disturbing the peace if they were given a story. To Emma, a true story. They set-up a make-shift podium for the three lawyers to stand at. At first, it seemed like Mr. Jamieson was going to speak, but he let Emma stand up and prove herself as the capable lawyer she was.

She stood in front of the flashing cameras, many microphones were up near the podium as this press conference began.

"My name is Emma Carson, lead partner, and owner of Carson Law Firm. All three of us are speaking on behalf of Jack Andrew Dawson, the young man who escaped last night. As one of his lawyers and a very close friend I can tell you with full confidence that almost everything that you have heard or read about him and fiancée Rose DeWitt Bukater in the papers are false…"

Emma then goes on to explain the whole story behind the charges, how Jack is a person of strong morality and how he was wrongfully accused of all his crimes. After her explanation, she allowed a few questions.

"Are you excusing his actions for escaping police custody?" a male reporter asks.

"Not at all. I do not condone his actions, although I cannot blame him for it, considering how much danger his fiancée is in?"

"How much danger? How can you prove that Mr. Hockley is a dangerous man, as you said?"

"My partner and fiancé here cannot walk properly anymore because of the bullet wound in his leg. I have lost feeling in my left arm due to another bullet from Mr. Hockley's gun severing one of my nerves."

"How can you be sure that he was the one who fired it?"

"Because if I am not mistaken, he still has it."

"What made you take on this case?"

"Because I trust Jack Dawson with my life and if I was in trouble, I have no doubt that he would be doing whatever he could to help me. Any more questions?"

…

Sybil rests on her sister's shoulder as the tired group heads back to their home, which has been cleared as a crime scene. Ruth and Molly are especially tired considering they were interrogated the most because they actually saw and talked to Jack. Both Emma and Peter swore that if they were charged as accessories after the fact, they would defend them. Holly and Carl head home to see their son, whom no doubt missed them very much and the tired group heads to bed without a thought of birthday cake or how violated the place felt considering police officers had searched the area.

Emma brings her sister into her room, changes her and dresses her in a nightgown. She sighs heavily and cries a little bit as she puts the toddler to bed.

"I promise that we will do this over again," she whispers. She kisses her sister and lays her in the crib. "I will love you forever and always."

She then goes to the closet and removes two packages that were in the very back. She places them on the rocking chair, each one labelled To Sybil, With Love, Mother, and Father.

…

The following morning, Emma awakens to a loud commotion outside. She peeks through the window to see a large crowd of people gathered at their property line. They had signs that read;

Free Jack Dawson

Go J.D. Go!

Arrest Hockley!

Emma couldn't believe it, but she could not help but smile. When she got the morning paper there was her story on the front page with the headline:

Lawyer calls Justice for Jack Dawson

Her entire story has been printed in full glory and it's told in a way that makes Jack look like the hero he was meant to be. She knew it would not be long before the police would catch wind of this and bow to the public's demands. The public has already started to show their support, and she knew that as the story spreads, there would be more support and in fact, there might be riots at Cal's house, demanding the release of Rose.

She chuckles as she sits down to breakfast with Peter and Sybil.

"It's all about where you send the circus," she says happily, turning the page of the article. "Send in the clowns..."

…

However, it was already beyond what Emma had anticipated so soon after the press conference. As if in an instant, the entire city was trying to help Jack Dawson in any way they could. It went much faster as if by some miracle, everything had changed.

Thousands of spectators and on-lookers packed overpasses along the road to catch any sightings of Jack. In a festival-like atmosphere, many are carrying and holding signs urging Jack to flee, cheering for him, and shouting excitedly, "Go J.D.! Go!"

The crowds would only grow as a small car pulls out of the city, towards the Hockley New York family mansion.

A/N: Hey everyone, sorry for the delay, but it's exams season. Fortunately, I only had one and now I'm back in black (so to speak) Here's an extra long chapter to make it up to Sam Fraser. And for BarryDennen12, thank you for being patient and I've incorporated your ideas into the story. Also, I am going to fix the timeline thing about Sybil's birthday. In the beginning, I said that she was seven months, but in order for her to be born in November, she has to be six months in April while on the Titanic. Did anyone catch my ASOUE joke in here?