Jack had the wonderful sensation of light shining into his partly closed eyes as he strained to sit up out of bed. He looked down at Rose who was snuggled next to him. She was so peaceful looking. He lovingly stroked her hair with the utmost care, gently placing tiny kisses on the tip of her nose and neck. I must be the luckiest man on earth, he thought. Rose's sleepy eyes fluttered slowly and she opened mouth to yawn. On noticing Jack, a smile instantly spread across her face and she brought her hand up to rub his unshaven cheek. "Good morning Jack."
"Mornin'. Sleep well?" She simply nodded and laid her head on his chest, slowly drifting back to sleep.
"We're supposed to reach New York today." Jack said he brushed a curl out of Rose's face.
"Really? That's great! I can't wait to get off this goddamned boat…" She said while fiddling with the buttons on Jack's shirt, revealing his bare chest. He simply smiled, glad to see that Rose's fiery spirit was finally coming back. "Jack, what time is it anyway?"
"Somewhere between eight and nine in the mornin'."
"Is it really? I guess we'd better get ready then." Rose lifted her head only to see Jack putting on a mockingly saddened face.
With his bottom lip in a pout and his eyes making her heart melt, Rose knew that whatever Jack was about to say, she wouldn't be able to resist.
"Awe, Do we have to just yet? Just five more minutes?"
Rose giggled and gave in. "Alright, you win. Five more minutes."
Jack smiled triumphantly, pulling Rose into a hurried kiss and quickly throwing the sheets over their heads, trying to hold off the morning sunshine for as long as possible.
***
It wasn't until late that night that the Carpathia finally reached New York Harbor. The rain was pouring in sheets and Rose stared at the Statue of Liberty. She had never paid much attention to it before. For some reason, it had a different meaning to her now.
Jack came up behind her with a blanket. "Rose, you're soaking wet! Let's get you inside before you get sick. Here," he said as he wrapped the blanket around Rose, trying to the best of his abilities to shelter her from the downpour.
"She seems so proud, so strong, like nothing could ever harm her." She said as she kept staring at the statue. Jack followed her gaze and finally saw what Rose had been staring at so intently.
Jack sighed gently as he looked up at the looming yet comforting presence of the statue. He could feel the water soaking up every bit of dryness he had left of him but quite frankly, didn't care. His hair was now dripping wet in his face as well as Rose's, giving her more of a rugged look, rather than the clean cut and neatly pressed coifed hair-do he had always seen her in.
"Yeah, she is strong. She's got that fire inside of her that nobody can put out. She reminds me a lot of someone I know." He said as looked deep into Rose's eyes. Wrapping her arms around his cold and wet body, Rose didn't feel like she had a worry in the world. Life was perfect now…now that she had Jack.
A steward walked over to them, tapping Jack on the shoulder. "I'm quite sorry to disturb you sir, miss. But the White Star Line is requiring that we take everyone's names. So may I please take both of your names?"
Rose looked up at Jack. They hadn't talked about it much really, if at all. What should they tell the man? On looking up into Jack's eyes, Rose found almost a telepathic message being sent between the two of them. They both nodded and immediately Jack knew the answer. He smiled, holding Rose's hand tightly but lovingly and answered the officer, his eyes never leaving Rose's.
"Yes, Jack and Rose… Dawson." The man wrote it down, thanked them and then walked away. Rose was now protected. Nobody would ever find her. She was dead as far as the world was concerned…she died on the Titanic on April 15th, 1912. As far as her mother or Cal knew, she had never made it to a boat in time. Her life was now a clean slate. She could start all over now and now she had Jack to start all over with.
She wanted to express to Jack the excitement and joy she felt, but it seemed like words were useless. Only three, simple words came to mind though and when she spoke them, they were from the bottom and truest depths of her heart.
"I love you."
"I love you too, more than anything."
She dug her hands into her coat pocket, in hopes of warming them from the bitter cold. But to her surprise, she felt something cold and hard rather than the warmth she had been searching for. Grasping the object, she gently pulled it out. Looking down, a small cry left Rose's lips as she looked down at the shining diamond laying in the palm of her hand. A flood of memories seemed to sparkle in it as the past few nights replayed in both of their minds.
"Oh my God Jack…" Rose just stared at it unbelievably. She felt she could hardly speak above a whisper. "Oh God, I just remembered! This is Cal's coat. He must have put it in his pocket before he put the coat on me." Both Rose and Jack marveled at the diamond, Rose turning it in the dimmed light of the deck. "To think that it survived the sinking…"
"But why would he have it in his coat?" Jack asked.
"Safekeeping most likely. He probably never imagined that I was going to jump off the lifeboat." She dug her hands back into the pockets to replace the diamond. But to her disbelief, there was more. Carefully removing her latest find, her eyes fell on four stacks of twenty dollar bills. Both Jack and Rose were speechless to say the least. All they could do was look up at each other, ready to shout and cry all at the same time.
"Jack… what… do you think we should do?"
"I… don't know."
Rose studied the bills and carefully replaced them in the coat. Her eyebrows furrowed and she looked up at the darkened sky. "You know something Jack? Maybe we were meant to have this money. It'll give us a new start. Someone's looking out for us Jack, I just know it."
The Carpathia docked later that night. As they stepped off the ship and onto firm ground, relief and happiness spread through both of them. They were finally home. They had survived and were home, safe.
It wasn't long before they found a place to stay for the night. They had money in their pockets and had each other to keep them going. Life was good and content. For once in Rose's life, she felt happy…truly happy.
*Please Note that while rewriting Chapters 1-6, I decided to delete chapters 7 & 8 and fit them into Chapters 5 & 6. So instead of having to go through all the Chapters from here on and change the Chapter numbers, I'm simply skipping from Chapter 6 to Chapter 9...Sorry for the confusion!!
