Written by Anne Blair
Based on some situations originated by James Cameron.
Rose stepped into the boat anxiously, her
heart pounding with dread. Cal had said that he had an arrangement with an
officer on the other side of the ship, but even if he did, why would he help
Jack? Why would he help someone he had tried to frame?
She froze, wanting to step back out of the
boat, but Jack pushed her forward. He knew that this was probably the last time
he would see her, but he had to get her into the boat. Rose couldn’t die in the
bitterly cold water, as so many of the passengers on the doomed ship would.
Rose turned around, clutching Jack’s hand as
though she would never let go. They held on as long as they could, until Rose
was pushed into a seat on the far side of the boat and their grip was broken.
Jack stepped back, watching as Rose huddled miserably in her seat, her body
engulfed in Cal’s oversize coat.
There was a jolt as the boat began to be
lowered, and some of the women in the boat cried out in fear and surprise. Rose
clutched the seat, frozen in place. She looked up at Jack and Cal standing at
the railing. Jack’s face was sorrowful, while Cal looked down at her with a
smirk.
"You’re a good liar," Cal whispered
to Jack as soon as Rose was out of earshot.
"Almost as good as you," Jack
returned. "There’s...uh...there’s no arrangement, is there?"
"Oh, there is. Not that you’ll benefit
much from it." He gave Jack a triumphant look. "I always win, Jack.
One way or another."
Jack turned back to watching the boat being
lowered. He hadn’t believed Cal from the start, but he pitied Rose. If Cal
really did have an arrangement, he would survive, and Rose would be back in his
grasp.
Jack knew better than anyone how acutely Rose
longed to escape from her world. It hadn’t just been the suicide attempt two
nights earlier. Her whole outlook on life was different from those around her.
She was fiery, spirited, and was struggling desperately to get away from the
life that had been chosen for her from the day she was born, before it
smothered her. She had tried to fit in, to be a member of high society, but she
didn’t fit into the staid, self-satisfied world she had been born to. She
wanted more from life than money and status; she wanted to be free and to live
life on her own terms. She had only begun to do so when they had struck the
iceberg, and now her new-found independence would be nipped in the bud by her
overbearing mother and fiance.
Rose stared up at the ship as the lifeboat
descended, her tear-filled eyes fixed on Jack. Would she ever see him again?
she wondered. She felt as though she couldn’t bear to leave, and looked
anxiously at the passing decks. If only she could get out of the boat...but she
felt as though she couldn’t move. She sat, frozen in place, as the boat passed
the last of the decks and landed on the water. She looked up one more time as
the boat began to float away, then buried her face in her hands, unable to bear
the sight of the dying ship.
*****
As soon as the boat had begun to float away,
Jack turned from the railing, hoping against hope that he could find a way off
the ship. Cal strolled confidently down the deck, looking for the officer he’d
made an arrangement with, while Jack looked around, hoping that there were
still some lifeboats left.
Only the collapsibles were still with the
ship. All of the other lifeboats had been launched, most only partly filled.
The death toll from Titanic would be high.
Heading in the direction of the collapsibles,
he saw one of the officers aiming his gun at the group of men surrounding it.
The jostling crowd was trying desperately to find a way into the lifeboat, and
the officer was just as determined to only allow women and children on.
Jack saw a few familiar faces in the crowd,
Fabrizio, Tommy...and Cal. As the officer, Murdoch, pointed the gun at the
increasingly frantic crowd, he shouted, "Back! Get back!"
Cal pushed forward. "We had a deal, damn
you!"
Murdoch pulled the stack of bills from his
pocket and threw them in Cal’s face. "Your money can’t save you anymore
than it can save me! Get back!"
So that was Cal’s deal, Jack thought. He’d
bribed an officer to let him into a boat, and the officer had chosen not to
accept the bribe.
One man rushed forward, trying to get into
the boat. Murdoch turned and fired, narrowly missing the man. The frightened
crowd pushed forward, shoving Tommy directly into Murdoch’s sights. He fired,
and Tommy fell back, mortally wounded. Jack tried to push through the crowd,
but it was too dense, and he could barely hear Fabrizio shouting over the
noise.
"Tommy! Oh, no!" Looking at
Murdoch, he shouted, "Bastardo!"
Murdoch looked at the scene in shock,
realizing the magnitude of what had just happened. Stepping back, he saluted,
then put the gun to his head. Another officer shouted in alarm, but it was too
late. He pulled the trigger and tumbled into the water, now only a few feet
below.
Pandemonium ensued, the crowd rushing about
in a panic. Jack was swept along, upward toward the stern, as members of the
crowd who had given up hope of getting into a boat rushed higher, away from the
ever-rising water. He looked for Fabrizio, but did not see him.
*****
Rose huddled deeper into Cal’s coat, trying
to ignore the groans of the dying ship and the terrified cries of those left
aboard. Pushing her hands into her pockets, she felt something hard and cold.
Pulling it out, she recognized the Heart of
the Ocean. Cal had put it in his pocket before putting the coat on her.
That was why he’d put it on her, she thought
sadly. It wasn’t to warm her, or even to cover up her sodden dress, but to
protect his fortune. He knew that she could get into a lifeboat, and that his
investment would be safe. For a moment, she considered tossing the coat
overboard, but practicality won out. She had no other clothing but her soaked
dress, and the air was bitterly cold. She was still cold, but the coat kept her
from freezing.
Putting the diamond back into the pocket, she
felt the other pockets in the coat, wondering if Cal had stashed any more
treasures in it. Reaching into the inner pockets, she felt the bundles of cash
that he had placed there.
Putting her hand back in the outer pocket,
Rose discreetly removed the diamond. Feeling behind herself, she tied it
securely into the sash of her dress, winding the silk around it. Cal could have
his money back, she thought, but the diamond was hers. He had given it to her
two nights before as a gift, and after she had been drawn wearing it, she felt
that it was more her possession than before. If Jack lived, she thought, they
would decide together what to do with the gaudy jewel. If not, she would keep it
as a memento. But whatever happened, Cal wasn’t getting it back. He would be
furious, of course, but pickpockets abounded, even on the Titanic, and it would
be easy enough to pretend surprise at the knowledge that he had placed the
diamond in his coat pocket. After all, how could she be responsible for losing
an item that she didn’t know was there?
*****
Jack clung to the railing as the stern rose
higher into the air. Around him, people clung to anything they could hold on
to, or fell, screaming, as the ship’s angle grew ever sharper.
Wrapping his arms more securely around the
rail, he looked at the people around him. A mother was holding her crying son,
whispering that it would soon be over. One of the Titanic’s employees, a very
drunk Baker Joughin, was standing near him, holding onto the railing. Farther
down, a priest was praying and quoting the Bible. All around him, people cried,
or prayed, or just stared in shock.
There was a cracking noise from deep within
the ship, and the ocean liner began to split in two. People who been near the
water level on the ship were flung into the water, some sucked into the ship,
others tumbling into it or falling around the outside and swimming away.
The ship fell back level, crushing those who
had been unlucky enough to be in its path. There were cries of "We’re
saved!" But even as people rejoiced, the ship began to rise again, pulled
by the weight of the broken half. Higher and higher it went, as people lost
their grip and fell screaming into the sea below.
Jack pulled himself over the railing,
clinging to the outside of it as the ship went vertical. It bobbed that way for
a couple of minutes, and then began to flood. As it filled with water, it sank
faster and faster.
Jack gripped the railing, staring down in
terror as the water rushed up. At the last minute, he took a deep breath and
let go, struggling against the suction and the bitter chill of the water as he
tried to make his way to the surface.
*****
Rose looked up as the cracking noise sounded
across the water, staring as the ship fell back level. Hope grew within her,
until the ship began to rise again. Even when it had become vertical in the
water, some people pointed and declared that the ship couldn’t sink.
Rose watched, hoping that they were right, as
the ship bobbed in the water, silhouetted against the stars. Then, with a
series of exploding sounds, it began to sink.
She couldn’t look away as the ship
disappeared beneath the sea, moving faster and faster. Time seemed to stand
still as the leviathan disappeared into the ocean depths. It seemed hours until
the ship disappeared under the water.
Rose continued to stare, shocked, almost
believing that she could hear Jack calling out to her. After a moment of
silence, the water was filled with screaming, struggling people, begging for
the boats to come back.
*****
Jack found his way to the surface and drew in
a deep breath, filling his lungs with air. He had no idea how long he’d
struggled beneath the surface, but the water around him was filled with
screaming, thrashing people, clawing and struggling with each other, fighting
over pieces of debris, trying desperately to get out of the water.
As someone knocked against him, Jack knew
that he had to get out of the crowd. Swimming away from them, he looked for
something--anything--to get himself out of the water.
At last, he saw something ahead of him--a
piece of wood floating in the darkness. Swimming toward it, he pulled himself
onto it. It was a door, torn loose from its hinges by the force of the water,
that had resurfaced after the ship went down.
Shivering, he held onto the door, praying
that the boats would return to search for survivors.
*****
It had been about fifteen minutes since the
ship had gone down, and the screams and cries from the water had begun to grow
fainter. As several of the boats were brought closer together, Molly Brown
demanded that they go back to search for survivors.
Hitchens, the seaman in charge of the boat,
would have none of it. "They’ll pull us right down, I’m tellin’ ya!"
he snarled at her.
"Knock it off. You’re scarin’ me."
She turned to the others in the boats. "Grab an oar, girls."
No one moved. She looked around in disbelief.
"I don’t understand a one of ya! It’s
your men out there!" Still, no one moved. "There’s plenty of room for
more!"
"And there’ll be one less if you don’t
shut that hole in your face!"
She sat back, about to admit defeat, when a
voice sounded from a nearby boat.
"Yes! We need to go back!"
Everyone turned to see who was shouting. Rose
stood in a boat only a few feet away, while others in the boat tugged at her,
trying to get her to sit down. Shaking them off, Rose lunged out of the boat
and into her mother’s boat, almost overturning it.
A few women shrieked as the boat tilted
precariously. Rose stumbled, nearly falling from the boat. Hitchens tried to
regain order, giving his unwanted stowaway a shove.
It was the worst mistake of his career. Ruth,
Molly, and one of the other women grabbed Rose before she could topple
overboard, pulling her into the boat. Ruth turned a scathing look upon the man
who had nearly harmed her daughter.
He shrank under Ruth’s accusing look. When he
tried to grab the oar from Rose’s hands, Ruth grabbed it. Her eyes were as cold
as ice as she told him, "We are going back to look for survivors."
"We aren’t going anywhere," he shot
back. "I am in charge of this boat--"
"Shut up!" Rose and Ruth told him
in unison. Each of them grabbed an oar, as did Molly. As they began to row, a
few other women took their lead, taking oars and propelling the boat through
the water. Hitchens grumbled and cursed at them, but was met only with more scathing
looks and a few threats to report him once they were rescued.
*****
Jack lay on the door, staring up at the sky.
The stars were bright overhead, and seemed so close that he thought he could
touch them. A shooting star streaked overhead, and he wondered, vaguely, whose
soul it was. The screams from the water had long since died away, except for a
few shouts from those who were still alive.
He had hoped, at first, that the people in
the boats would respond to the cries for help from the water, to the sound of
the whistle that an officer carried. Now, the officer lay against a floating
piece of debris, dead from hypothermia. The cries from the water had grown
fainter and fainter. It was almost silent, except for the lapping of the water
around him.
Was Rose all right? he wondered deliriously.
Had Cal found her? Had Cal even survived? He hadn’t seen him in the water, so
he had no idea what had happened. Cal might well have found his way into a
boat, and if he had, Rose would never be able to break free. He turned his
attention back to the sky, wishing that he’d told her he loved her when he had
the chance. Now she would never know.
He lay quietly for several minutes, feeling
the life drain out of him, until a strange sound reached his ears--the sound of
voices, and of oars slapping against the water. Turning his head, breaking the
ice that had frozen his hair to the door, he looked toward the sound.
A half-full lifeboat moved in the direction
of the crowd, the voices of several women calling out, searching for survivors.
Suddenly alert, he watched the boat move away from him, heading toward the bulk
of the crowd.
Pushing himself off the door, Jack swam in
the direction of the dead officer. Grabbing the whistle, he put it to his
mouth, blowing as hard as he could. The sound was faint at first, almost
inaudible, even to himself. Then, as he drew more air into his lungs and tried
again, someone from the boat heard him.
"There’s someone there!"
A few minutes later, the boat made its way
toward him. Those rowing it were inexperienced, and couldn’t move it quickly,
but they made it.
Several pairs of hands reached for him,
dragging him into the boat and taking the whistle from him. He knelt in the
bottom of the boat, shivering violently, until the most welcome sound he had
ever heard reached his ears.
"Jack!"
Rose climbed over the seats and threw her
arms around him, ignoring the shocked stares of the other women in the boat.
Quickly, she shrugged out of Cal’s coat and wrapped it around Jack, taking a
couple of blankets offered to her by one of the other women and wrapping them
around both of them, holding him close.
*****
The Carpathia arrived a few hours later to
pick up the survivors of the Titanic. Only six people had been saved from the
water after the ship had gone down--five rescued by Officer Lowe when he went
back to search for survivors, and Jack, rescued by a boatful of determined
women.
Jack awoke from a sound sleep as the lifeboat
made its way toward the Carpathia. He was lying in the bottom of the boat,
wrapped in blankets. He glanced around, suddenly alarmed, wondering if Rose was
really there, or if the whole thing had been a dream.
It hadn’t been a dream. Rose lay beside him,
swaddled in the blankets, her arms wrapped securely around him. She was
sleeping, a slight smile on her face.
He woke her as they neared the ship. She sat
up, rubbing her eyes and wrapping her arms around herself against the cold.
Jack wondered where the coat had gone, and then realized that he was wearing
it. In the confusion, he hadn’t even noticed that Rose had put it on him.
He wrapped one of the blankets around her,
helping her up onto a seat as they waited to be brought on board. When it was
their turn, he followed her up the ladder, trying to steady her as she
attempted to climb in her long dress.
Once on board, he looked around at his
rescuers, and was surprised to see Ruth DeWitt Bukater among them. She looked
at Jack and Rose, her expression unreadable, before she walked away.
*****
Later that day, Jack and Rose were sitting
together on the third class deck of the Carpathia, sipping cups of tea. They
looked up as they heard a commotion from the stairwell.
"You won’t find any of your people down
here, sir. It’s all steerage."
They looked toward the disturbance, watching
as Cal walked past the steward, looking at the faces of the survivors. Within a
few minutes, he had found them.
"Rose!" he called, striding toward
her. "Sweet pea, I’ve been looking all over for you--" He saw Jack
sitting beside her--wearing his coat. "Well. You survived." He looked
from Jack to Rose, seeing the stubborn expressions on their faces. This
wouldn’t be easy.
"What do you want, Cal?" Rose asked
him, her voice cold.
Cal straightened, trying to look dignified in
his ripped tuxedo. "I’ve been looking for you, sweet pea--"
"Don’t call me sweet pea. You know I
don’t like that."
"Rose, it’s time to stop playing this
game and come back where you belong. You’ve had your fun." He looked at
Jack. "I recognize that coat. I want it back."
Jack shrugged, pulling off the coat and
handing it to Cal. Cal quickly went through the pockets, discovering
immediately that the diamond was missing.
"All right, Dawson, where is it?"
"What?"
"The diamond."
"I assume that it’s at the bottom of the
sea, with the Titanic."
Cal shook his head, a look of fury crossing
his features. "I put it in the coat pocket. Since you somehow wound up
with the coat, I can only assume that you have it." He looked at the
severed handcuffs still on Jack’s wrists. "Either you give it to me, now,
or I can assure you that you will suffer the same consequences as last night,
but my fiancee will not rescue you this time. Empty your pockets."
"Cal, stop!" Rose exclaimed, tugging
on his arm. "Jack doesn’t have the diamond." She untied her sash,
removing the necklace. "I have it."
Cal reached for the diamond, but Rose put it
behind her back, out of his reach. "You gave this to me three nights ago,
as a reminder of your feelings for me. You can’t have it back."
"Rose, give me the diamond." He
gave her the menacing look that had so often made her back down before, but
Rose wouldn’t have it.
"Is that what your feelings for me mean,
then? Are they something you can take back when it’s convenient?"
"I never gave you that necklace."
She stared back at him, refusing to give in.
"You did."
Cal lost his temper. Grabbing her arm, he
tore the diamond from her grasp. "You worthless little slut," he
hissed, slapping her across the face.
Jack had just grabbed Cal’s arm, pulling him
away from Rose, when a sharp voice rang out behind them.
"Mr. Hockley!" Ruth DeWitt Bukater
came across the deck toward them, her eyes blazing. She stopped before them,
looking at Cal with contempt. "Rose told me, more than once, that she had
no desire to marry you." She looked at the struggling trio. "Now I
understand why. If you should ever lay a hand on my daughter again, I will have
you prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Is this in any way unclear?"
Cal stared at her, too stunned to speak. Ruth
snatched the diamond from his hand.
"You did indeed give this to Rose. She
showed it to me the next morning. Legally, it belongs to her. If you were so
worried about your investment, you should have waited until after the wedding
to present it to her." She gave the diamond to a stunned Rose. "Now,
Mr. Hockley, you will go back to first class. You will not come near any member
of the DeWitt Bukater family again--or the Dawson family, for that matter. Yes,"
she said, looking at Cal’s shocked face, "I am well aware of how the
diamond came to be in Mr. Dawson’s pocket last night. It was placed there at
your request, by your faithful valet, who, incidentally, did not survive."
When Cal started to speak, she put her hand up, stopping him. "The
engagement is off, Mr. Hockley. I will not see my daughter married to a man
capable of such things. You care for no one but yourself."
Cal stared at her, his face twisted with
fury. "We had a deal!"
"Just the like that deal you had
with that officer who shot himself last night?" Jack interjected, looking
at Cal with contempt.
"I have no idea what you’re referring
to."
"He threw your money back in your face.
I watched from the back of the crowd."
"Well, Mr. Hockley, it looks like we are
learning more and more about you. I never would have thought you capable of
bribery, or of hitting my daughter, but it seems that you are guilty of
both." Ruth’s voice was full of contempt.
"I had reasons--"
"Yes. You always have an excuse,"
Rose interrupted. "Whatever you did, there was always an excuse, a reason,
as you say. You no doubt have reasons for hitting me, for framing Jack, for
bribing an officer. But I don’t want to hear them." She took a deep
breath. "From this moment on, I do not exist for you, or you for me. You
shall not see me, and you will not attempt to find me. In return, I will keep
my silence, and you will get to keep the honor you have so carefully purchased."
The last word came out in a sneer. "Is this in any way unclear?"
He hesitated. "Rose...you are precious
to me."
"Jewels are precious." She walked
to the railing, turning her back on him. Jack and Ruth followed her.
"Good-bye, Mr. Hockley."
He stood for a moment, unable to believe that
things had ended that way. After a moment, he turned and walked away. Rose
looked back once, watching as he disappeared up the stairwell. It was the last
time she ever saw him.
Jack and Rose looked at Ruth, half-expecting
her to follow Cal back to first class. Instead, she sat down calmly on a bench,
refusing even to look after him.
"Mother?" Rose asked, uncertain of
what had just happened.
"You’re free now, Rose. Just as you
always wanted to be. You can go where you please, do what you please. I won’t
stop you."
Rose’s mouth snapped open and closed a couple
of time as she struggled to find words. "Thank you, Mother."
As Rose and Jack walked to the railing, Rose
was silent, not quite believing what had just happened. Was she truly free? For
the first time in her life, everything was entirely up to her.
Jack stood beside her, looking out at the
sea. Before the confrontation to Cal, everything had been clear to him, but
now...
"You’re really free now, Rose," he
told her. "Free to go where you want...be whatever you choose to
be..."
"Be with whoever I want." She
smiled. "Freedom isn’t much good if you don’t have someone to share it
with." She paused. "I said I was getting off the ship with you, and I
am--just a different ship. That is, if that’s what you want."
"It is. I love you, Rose. I’m sorry I
didn’t tell you before."
She put her arms around him. "You didn’t
need to. I knew."
He kissed her. When they had broken apart,
Rose whispered, "I love you, too. I don’t think I could have gone on and
enjoyed the freedom I have found without you. You opened a door in my heart
that had never been opened before, and there’s no closing it."
She rested her head against his shoulder,
content to just be with him. After a moment, she looked back at her mother.
Ruth was looking away, but she would occasionally glance back at them, a hint
of fear in her eyes.
Rose understood. Ruth feared that Rose would
abandon her, leaving her alone in the world. She looked from her mother to
Jack, then spoke quietly. "There’s one more person I need, in order to be
truly free."
Taking Jack’s hand, they walked back to her
mother.
The End.