AFTER TITANIC
BOOK ONE
Chapter Thirty-Three
Rose awakens to find Jack still
asleep. Kissing his lips softly, she gets up and dresses. She was
going to make Jack a wonderful breakfast. His award for what he
did for her yesterday.
She's breaking a egg into the skillet when there's a knock at the
door. She opens the door to Kathy holding the twins and a elderly
man who looked slightly familiar. Rose can't help but think that
Jack was about the same height and build.
"Hello Kathy," Rose smiled. "Jack told me you kept
the twins for us. I'd like to thank you."
"Don't worry about it Rose. I wanted to watch them. They're
so gorgeous. You and Jack sure do make beautiful babies,"
Kathy forces a smile.
"Is everything ok?" Rose is suddenly concerned, seeing
the worried expression in Kathy's eyes.
"I'm fine. Can we come in?"
"Oh of course. I'm sorry. I don't know where my manners are.
My mother would die if she knew how rude I'm being. come right on
in," Rose steops aside as Kathy and her companion enter.
"So you're the woman that my grandson had decided to settled
down with," the old man looks her over.
"Grandfather! Don't be rude!" Kathy glared. "I'm
sorry Rose. He just got in last night and just learned that Jack
has returned. Oh yeah, this is our grandfather Emmanuel Dawson.
Grandfather, this is Rose....Jack's wife. They've been married
for a year now."
The elderly man nodded. "So where is my free-spirited
grandson."
"I'm right here," Jack appears at the top of the
stairs. His expression was very serious and wary.
"Good morning darling," Rose went to greet her husband.
"Morning Rose," Jack smiled down at her. "Why
don't you go put the twins in their beds now. I'm sure they've
missed it."
Sensing the bad vibes between Jack and his grandfather Rose
immediately agreed and took the children upstairs.
"It was funny Jack. I'm sure you'll have a laugh," His
grandfather smiled. "I ran into Madeline Astor after J.J's
funeral and she mentioned a young man she had met aboard the
Titanic. Said his last name was Dawson of the Chippewa Falls
Dawsons. She was wondering if I was of any relation. I of course
asked for a description and realized that my grandson was on
board the Titanic and was most likely dead. When I came by
yesterday...and found out that I not only had
great-grandchildren, but my grandson was actually alive and well
and had returned."
"Oh Jack, why didn't you tell me you were on the
Titanic?" Kathy asked.
"Katherine please," Emmanuel holds his hand up for
silence. "I'm talking to your cousin here."
"What do you want me to say grandfather? You want me to
explain why I didn't say. I was of the Boston's Dawsons? Well I
will because I wasn't. I never was. Admit it, everytime you look
at me, you see the woman you hated more than anything...you see
my mother," Jack stands face to face with his
grandfather."
"Listen Jack, I'm not
going to deny that I hated the woman you called mother, but that
has no hold on how I feel about you. You're the only son of my
Jonathan. You're all I have left of him and so are your
children...his grandchildren," Emmanuel sighs tiredly.
"I love you Jack and I love your twins. You're my family. I
don't want my feelings about Emma to stand in the way of
that."
"Even though if it wasn't for her that we wouldn't exist? I
don't get it. Besides Grandfather, I want my children to hear
nothing but good things about their grandmother. I don't want you
to slander her in front of them like you've done a million times
in front of me regardless of how I felt."
"So is that why you're so angry? Why you took off without
saying good-bye? Why you let me believe you were dead for a full
year now? Because of how I felt for your mother?"
Jack didn't say anything. He just stared straight out the window
at the pier.
"Jack please...I promise I won't even bring her up to the
children. Just let me be part of the family."
Kathy has had enough. Jack had to know the truth and he needed to
know it now. "Jack...grandfather's dying."
"Katherine!" Emmanuel glares at her.
"What?" Jack asked, his brow furrowing. "You're
dying?"
"I have a brain tumor Jack. The doctor's only give me a
couple of more months to live. Now don't be sad for me. I'm an
old man and I've lived my life. The only thing I want now is for
my grandson and his family to come back to the family...for my
family to be complete."
Jack stares down at the ground. He's not able to believe this
recent news. His grandfather was going to die and he had wasted
so much time being angry and here he was being a hypocrite and
encouraging Rose to make things right with her family. Well...he
had to do the same thing. He had to sit things right with his
grandfather.
"Jack?" Kathy asked uncertain.
Jack nods and looks up at his grandfather. "Ok
grandfather...if that's what you want you've got it. Consider us
home." He went over and hugged his grandfather tightly.
"This is wonderful," Kathy laughed happily.
"Jack, is everything ok?" Rose appears at the top of
the stairs and smiles to see her husband hugging the old man.
"Everything's fine Rose," Jack smiled. "Don't
worry. Come down and meet my grandfather."
"We've already met," Emmanuel nods as Rose came down to
join her husband. "But this does call for a celebration. I
insist on taking all of you out to breakfast. What do you
say?"
"How about the twins?" Rose asked.
"Eliza will watch them," Jack said. "Let me go up
and let her know we'll be gone."
"Don't be too long," Emmanuel calls after his grandson.
"So Rose, where are you from? I can tell from your accent
that you're high society and most likely from Philadelphia."
"You're correct sir. I'm from Philadelphia. My maiden name
is Dewitt Bukater," Rose nervously replied, knowing that
most of society thought she had died aboard the Titanic.
"Dewitt Bukater? There's only one Dewitt Bukater I know of
but her daughter had perished aboard the Titanic. Plus she was
engaged to Nathan Hockley's son Caledon."
"That's because on the Carpathia my last name wasn't Dewitt
Bukater anymore. It was Dawson. You see, I had fallen in love
with Jack. Caledon wasn't very happy with that, so when I decided
to stay aboard the sinking ship with Jack, Cal chased us into the
very heart of Titanic shooting at us. On the Carpathia...I didn't
let him know we had survived. Then I married Jack and when they
asked for my name I of course said it was Dawson."
"Oh I see," Emmanuel nods. "That must have been
horrible for you. To be shot at by the man you thought loved you.
I knew there was something I didn't like about that man. It's
funny, he winced everytime my last name was mentioned...now I
know why. It must remind him of how he had lost his
fiancee."
"How is Cal by the way?"
"He's married that one girl that was after him. They're very
unhappy together."
Jack soon reappeared down the stairs. "She'll watch
them," Jack smiled. "So shall we go?"
Rose nods and follows Jack out the door.
They had just finished breakfast and now was just seated around
the table discussing Jack and Rose's wedding day.
"I do hate it that they didn't have a wedding," Kathy
sighed. "I haven't been to a wedding in so long."
"That would be something to see before I died,"
Emmanuel smiled fondly at his grandson. "My grandson's
wedding day."
"Well I don't see why you couldn't," Jack shrugs.
"I mean, I'm sure Rose wouldn't mind renewing our
vows...would you Rose?"
Rose looked at Jack and saw a begging expression in his eyes. The
only time she saw that expression was when he had asked her to
marry him aboard the Carpathia.
"I don't mind," Rose shakes her head. Then she has a
idea. "Only if it can be a double wedding. Me and Jack and
Eliza and Maxwell."
"Eliza and Maxwell?" Emmanuel asked. "Who's
that?"
"Our roommates. They're engaged and want to be married as
soon as possible," Jack explained. "I must say Rose,
that's a great idea. They'll be ecstatic. Of course, it has to be
alright with grandfather."
"Yeah, since he's paying for the whole thing," Kathy
smiled at her grandfather. "Please grandfather, this is very
important to all of them."
"Why of course it's okay. Money is no object when it comes
to my grandson. But we'll have to get prepared today. Katherine
will take the girls to the dress shop to pick out dresses and
I'll take Jack and this Maxwell to the men store to pick out
tuxedos," Emmanuel nods. "We're going to make this the
grandest wedding that the Dawson's has ever seen!"
Rose smiled nervously, wondering who was all going to be there.
Of course there was going to be her mother and Molly and Amanda
and Jack's friends from Chippewa Falls. Kate of course was going
to be there. There were only two people she didn't want at her
wedding. Caledon Hockley and Hagatha Hitcherman, the woman who
had forced her to leave her husband. That old woman would have a
heart attack if she knew that Jack came from a wealthy family
after all. And Eliza definately wouldn't want her mother and Lee
Conway at the wedding.
"This is so exciting," Kathy giggled. "We can take
Molly with us and the guys can take Tommy. Give them their first
taste of California shopping."
"It looks like Katherine has a new project," Emmanuel
laughs at the light in his granddaughters eyes.
"Well I say we go and get started. We all have a long day
ahead of us," Jack stands from his seat.