AFTER TITANIC
Book One
Chapter Two
Rose awakens staring up at a plain white ceiling. Where was she? How did she get there? How long has she been in there? And most importantly, where was Jack and was he still alive?
"I see you’re awake," a friendly voice enters the room.
Rose glances to a door to see a heavy-set woman smiling in the doorway, with her hands on her hip. Except for being blonde, the woman reminded her of Molly Brown, one of the few first class women that Rose admired. "Where am I?" Rose weakly questioned.
"The infirmary of course. You poor thing, you nearly died out there. Rest is the best thing for you right now," The nurse strolled over and began fluffing up Rose’s pillows.
"The infirmary?"
"Yap. The Carpathia infirmary. You’ve been out for two days now.. We didn’t think you were going to survive."
"Survive? Oh my God…Jack! Where’s Jack?"
"Enough questions, rest. Getting all upset is not going to help anything," The nurse cooed, sympathetically.
"But you don’t
understand, the man who was with me…where is he?"
"Sleep," was all the nurse said as she strolled out the
door.
All Rose could do was lay there and try to get in control of her reeling emotions. The nurse was right about one thing. Getting all upset was not going to help her find Jack. If anything, it would hinder her search. There had to be someone who could tell her where jack was, even if he was dead…it was better than not knowing anything.
"Oh Jack. Where are you?" Rose whispered her voice on the borderline of tears.
"Rose?" a familiar voice asked, barely a whisper.
Rose startled at the voice; she thought she was alone, the person was so quiet. They must have been asleep.
"Rose…Is that you?"
Half afraid to look to see who was talking to her, in fear that the voice belonged to someone who knew in first class, Rose turned to face a curtain, hiding another person on the side. Knowing that she shouldn’t get up, she slid out of bed and onto wobbly legs. She stumbled over to the curtain and pulled it aside to reveal Jack, who was pale and weak. But his blue eyes were as bright as ever, and his face immediately lit up with joy at seeing that she had kept her promise and survived.
"Jack!" Rose cried in joy and relief. "You’re alive! You’re really alive! I thought you didn’t make it, you were so weak!" She rushes to his bedside and throws her arms around him. She can’t help to notice how cool his hands and how weakly he holds her when he hugs her back.
"I’m a survivor, remember? It’ll take more that an iceberg hitting a ship to do me in," he weakly laughs.
"Oh Jack," Rose begins to sob uncontrollably as the meaning of the tragedy, of what they’d been through hit her. "Oh jack, we could have died…"
"Shhh Rose, don’t even think about that," Jack gently stroked her hair. "We did survive, and everything will be fine now. You’ll see."
"Well, I see you’ve found your friend," the nurse breaks the moment, appearing in the doorway. "Now it’s back to bed with you.. You need your sleep," the nurse heads towards Rose, who tightly clutches Jack’s hand.
"I’m not leaving his side," Rose’s voice is strong and determined. Wild horses couldn’t keep her away from Jack. "He needs me."
"Come now, don’t be like that. I’m sure he understands. He want you to get your rest so you can get your strength back as soon as possible."
"She’s right Rose. That is what I want. The sooner you’re better, the sooner we can start our lives again," Jack sides with the nurse, pushing a red curl out of Rose’s emerald green eyes. "Go to bed Rose."
"But Jack…"Rose pleads with her eyes, begging him to let her stay at his side.
"Go to bed Rose. I’ll see you in the morning. Don’t worry, I’ll be in the next bed right over here," Jack reassured her, gently caressing her hand. "For me Rose. Go to bed."
Rose’s shoulders slumped in defeat. When he asked her like that, she couldn’t refuse him. "All right. I’ll go to bed. But as soon as I wake up I’m going to be at your side and no one will be able to make me leave…not even you."
"Fair enough," Jack nods, yawning himself. "Good night Rose."
"Good night Jack," she leans down and lightly kisses his lips before letting the nurse lead her back to the bed. Now that she knew Jack was alive and well, she could sleep peacefully.