Rose swallowed hard before she nervously replied "Uh…good afternoon Mr. Hockley. What are you doing here?"
"I'm heading back to Philadelphia. My business here is done. But I still haven't heard your reasoning for being here."
"Oh…uh…oh yeah, I was just here to see my friend off. Isn't that right Mrs. Vanbeek?" Rose looked at Kaitlyn, hoping she would just play along. Kaitlyn was confused at first but suddenly realized who the wealthy man standing before her was.
"Oh, yes. I'm not too familiar with the city so I asked Rose if she could take me down to the station." Kaitlyn said, trying to act as natural as possible.
"Oh, I see. How nice. And where is your little prince charming, Jack?"
"Oh…he…a…is around." Rose said, trying not to show the fear that was growing inside of her.
Cal walked closer to Rose until she could feel his warm breath on her face."You know Rose, I never did figure out why you left me. You could have had anything you that your heart desired if you were still with me. Anything… but no," almost as if on cue, emotions flooded back to him as he quickly stepped away. Rose was startled at first to see his saddened features, but his face grew to a controlled anger in which she knew too well. "you wanted to run off with that…steerage rat." Rose's fear was now completely gone as anger took over.
She looked up into his eyes and summoned every ounce of courage she possibly had. "His name is Jack for your information and he is not and never was a steerage rat! You say you could have given me anything my heart desires, well let me tell you one thing that I know for a fact Mr. Caledon Hockley. Money doesn't buy everything. I know it must be hard for you to understand such a simple concept, but there are so many things that you will never know about life. Money can't buy happiness, luck, and most of all, it can't buy the one thing that I wanted most- love. It's something that you have yet to learn about life, Mr. Hockley. You want to know the real reason why I left you? When I first met you, you seemed like the perfect gentleman, but after we became engaged, I saw the REAL Caledon Hockley. I saw the cold hearted, self centered, rich snob that stands before me now! As you probably have figured out by now, I wasn't exactly jumping for joy when my mother told me that we were engaged. My Mother was the only reason that I even stayed. She pushed me into the marriage. It was guilt of leaving her with no one and no money that kept me there for so long." Rose's temper was raising as well as her voice. Cal was beginning to get embarrassed by the attention that they were receiving. Rose didn't care who was looking at them or what they thought. Cal was obviously uncomfortable with the whole situation.
"Rose, could we keep it down a bit? People are staring." Cal said in almost a whisper.
"Look, I could really care less who is staring at us and what they think." Rose said in the same loud voice that she had been using before.
Cal was now horrified to think about how this would have an affect on his reputation. Kaitlyn was shocked, just standing there. Max Lovejoy was standing behind Cal looking like he didn't even know them and off in the shadows, were Jack and James, just standing frozen to their spots as they watched the scene unfold.
The train whistle blew to let all passengers know of its departure. Cal was relieved to be able to escape. He just nodded his head and looked around at all of the curious faces. He tried to force a smile, but it was no use.
"Well, I have to go. You take care of yourself Rose." He said in almost a caring way. In no more than five seconds, he was already on the train and gone from her life forever. Rose waved jokingly at the departing train. She felt like doing cartwheels as the train disappeared into the distance. He was finally gone, for good.
When she turned around, to her surprise, Jack was standing there. She was completely startled. "Jack?!"
Jack put his arms around Rose and brought her into his loving embrace. "I heard the whole thing. I'm really proud of you. I'm sorry I didn't come over and help you out. I was just speechless. I couldn't even move if I tried." Rose pulled away.
"Don't worry about it Jack. I think it was something that only I could do anyway. Why are you here anyway?"
"Ya know, I was just going to ask you the same thing. 'Cause I know Mrs. Vanbeek over here isn't going to be going anywhere soon."
Rose smiled and replied, "Well, if you tell me why you're here then maybe I'll tell you why I'm here."
"Well, I kinda wanted it to be a surprise, but seeing that I'll never find out why YOU'RE here if I don't tell you, I guess I'd better just tell you anyway. You see, I wanted to take you somewhere special for our anniversary. After getting some advice from a friend, I decided on California."
A grin appeared on Rose's face as though she almost knew what was coming next. "What's in California?" She said mischievously.
"Well, I heard that they have some pretty nice attractions out there. Especially in Santa Monica. I figured we could spend a little time out there and then go wherever we are going after that."
"Jack, it sounds absolutely wonderful! But…"
Jack looked concerned. "But what?"
"Well, I was kinda hoping that we might be able to take a slight detour first. I've always wanted to meet your sister."
"My sister? You mean you want to go to Wisconsin?! Oh Rose, you're truly the best! How'd I get so lucky?" Jack said as he pulled Rose into his arms once again. For 6 years, he had always wanted to go back home to see his little sister. "Thank you Rose. You don't know how much this means to me."
"You're quite welcome. How did you remember about Santa Monica?"
"I wouldn't forget a thing like that."
"Thank you Jack. For everything."
Saturday finally came. Both Jack and Rose had been anxiously awaiting it. James and Kaitlyn had been dreading it, but knew that it was only the right thing to do. They didn't want to see their friends go, but they also knew that they would be safe and secure in California. Ever since she found out that Jack and Rose were moving, Kaitlyn had constantly been complaining to James about moving out there with them. James felt bad about not wanting to move, since he knew that it was so important to her. He just had too much going on.
The train station was rather full. Rose and Kaitlyn were standing on the platform, comforting each other while Jack and James helped with the luggage. There wasn't much luggage, so they were done in no time.
"You make sure to write and keep me informed of where you two are. You let me know how the baby's comin' along, ok? You take care of yourselves now, ya here." Kaitlyn choked out between sobs.
"We will. Here's the addresses of where we will be. When we find a place to live, we'll send you the new address. You take good care of David and Sarah. Oh, I sure am going to miss you guys!" Rose said as she and Kaitlyn threw their arms around each other, both with tears falling freely down their faces.
The train blew its whistle to inform everyone of its departure. Rose and Kaitlyn looked up at each other and tried to force smiles on their faces.
"I have some relatives that live out west. We go out there to see them every once and a while. I know my Aunt Marge wants us to bring the children out during the holidays. Maybe we can visit then."
"Of course! You let us know when and where and we'll make sure we get a little visit in. We'd better go. Take care." Rose gave a final hug to Kaitlyn and James.
Jack looked over at James and shook his hand.
"You take care Dawson. You're a good man. Knowing the girls, I'm sure we'll be seeing each other soon enough."
"I'm sure of it. Take care."
Jack and Rose stepped onto the train just as it started to pull away. They waved their good-byes to James and Kaitlyn then settled into their seats for the long journey west.
