"Good morning. Did you sleep ok?" She just nodded as she lay her head on his chest and slowly drifted back to sleep.
"We're supposed to reach New York today." Jack said as he brushed a curl out of Rose's face.
"Really? That's great. I can't wait to get off this god damned ship!" She said with a yawn. "Jack, what time is it anyway?"
"Somewhere between 8 and 9 in the mornin'."
"Is it really? Gosh, I must have been tired! Come on, we'd better get ready." She said as she quickly got out of the bed.
Rain was pouring in sheets as the Carpathia slowly made its way into New York's Harbor. 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.
"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.
"Yeah, she is strong and she's got that fire inside of her that nobody can put out. She reminds me of someone I know." He said as looked deep into Rose's eyes. Rose wrapped her arms around Jack as she lay her head on his shoulder.
Just then a steward walked over to them, tapping Rose on the shoulder. "Can I take your names please?" He was holding a clipboard and an umbrella.
Rose grinned as she said, "Yes, Jack and Rose Dawson." The man wrote it down, thanked them, then walked away.
Rose dove into Jack's ocean blue eyes as she said, "I love you Jack Dawson."
"And I love you too, more than anything. Strange how life works out, huh? It must have been fate."
Rose smiled as she dug her hands into her coat pocket. She felt something cold and hard. As she pulled it out, they both gasped when they saw the Heart of the Ocean.
"What… I… how? Oh my God! I just remembered! This is Cal's coat! He must have put it in his pocket before he put the coat on me! To think that it survived the sinking!" Rose said as she held the stone in her hand.
"But why would he have it in his coat?" Jack asked.
"I know exactly why! He probably put it in here for safekeeping. He never imagined that I was going to jump off the lifeboat." She dug her hands back into the pockets. There was more. She removed 4 stacks of $20 bills. Both Jack and Rose were speechless.
"Jack… what… do you think we should do?" She said as her trembling hand held the stacks of bills.
"I… don't know." Was all that he could manage to spit out. "As much as I would hate to be depending on Cal's money for our survival, but in a way I feel that he kinda owes it to us." Rose said as she stuffed the bills back into the coat pocket.
By the time that the Carpathia reached the pier, nearly everyone was on the deck. Rose noticed the growing amount of people lining the dock. Camera flashes were going off like crazy. "It sure is going to be tough to get past all the press." Jack said as though he had been reading her mind.
As they made their way down the stairs and onto firm ground, they saw their chance to escape. About five feet in front of them was a woman in her late 30's in an embrace with a man that Rose assumed was a friend or family member. All attention was on them as Jack and Rose slipped quietly out of the crowd unnoticed.
They made their way down the street until they stopped in front of a small hotel. Jack led Rose inside, where they found a room to stay for the night. As they opened the door to their room, Rose felt a rush of excitement as she thought about her new life with Jack. For once in her life, she felt happy, truly happy.
Chapter 9
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