CHAPTER NINE

The next morning Rose wakes up early and just stares at her sleeping husband before getting up and heading downstairs, where the smell of eggs and bacon drifts from the kitchen. Rose enters and sees Susan setting in a chair, reading the newspaper. Taking a deep breath, Rose enters, determined to get to know the person who was a big part of Jack's life.
"Good morning," Rose nervously smiles, standing in the doorway.
"Oh. Good morning," SUsan turns to acknowledge Rose before turning back to the newspaper. "I see you're an early riser, unlike Jack. He always was a late sleeper. It's nice to see that not much has changed. So Rose...how long have you known Jack?"
Rose doesn't know how to answer this. Should she tell people that she had only known Jack for over a month, or should she make up something? No. She had to start off on the right foot. She had to be truthful. "For over a month. I know it seems sudden, but I feel like I've known him forever."
Susan looks closly at Rose, examining her face as she talked about Jack and found the shine of complete and total adoration. This girl really did love Jack, but how deep was that love and was she the type of person Susan would want as a friend?"
"But you haven't," Susan puts down the paper. "I bet you don't even know what his favorite color is."
"Maybe not, but I do know..."
"What?" Susan asked, setting up. "Tell me what else you may possibly know about Jack other than he's the nicest guy you've ever met and that his eyes are blue and that he's dirt poor."
Rose searches her mind for one detail she had learned about Jack since they had first met, but couldn't find anything except for the general stuff he told her. "What is this? An interrogation on how well I know my husband? I may not know much about Jack, but I have my entire life to find out. Besides, I don't need to know what his favorite color is to know I love him more than life itself."
"Rose...I didn't mean to offend you. I was just curious about how long you knew each other. That's all," Susan apologized. "By the way, his favorite color is red."
Rose can't help but smile. "I guess I should tell him my favorite color is blue. I guess that's why I love gazing into his eyes all the time. They're the most beautiful thing's I've ever seen."
"They are the first thing that grabs ya," Susan laughs.
"Morning girls," Mrs. Emma enters the room, a pot of flowers in her hand. "I see Mrs. Dawson is an early riser. Would you like some breakfast Rose or do you want to wait for Jack?"
"I think I'll just wait for Jack," Rose smiled. "In fact, I think I'll go wake him up now. It was nice talking to you Susan."
"You too Rose," Susan nods as Rose heads upstairs.
"Looks like you've made a friend," Mrs. Emma smiled.
"I was just feeling her out ma," Susan said. "I'm still not sure about her, but she does have a fire in her. I can tell that much."
"Well at least you're being civil to her. I'm grateful for that much," Mrs. Emma sighed, taking a plate out of the cabinet.

Jack groans as sunlight begins to filter through his closed eyelids. "Ten more minutes pa and then I'll rake the yard," he groaned.
Rose giggles and plants a kiss on his lips. "Come on sleepy head. It's time to wake up and eat breakfast so we can head out to your house before it gets too late."
Jack blinks against the light as he opens his eyes. "Ok ok. Since you insist."
"Don't be grumpy. You can sleep all day tomorrow if you like," Rose brushes his blond hair away from his eyes.
"Do you ever sleep in Rose?" Jack asked curiously, getting up and pulling a shirt over his head.
"No. Not really. For some reason I can't stay asleep past seven o'clock."
"I can change that," Jack pulls her into his arms and begins kissing her. "Another visit to the stars can make you a very late sleeper."
"Jack....please...we have to get up. Mrs. Emma and Susan are waiting for you," Rose giggled, trying to resist his advances to no avail, but he sighs and releases her anyway.
"Ok ok. Since you insist," Jack smiled. "My beautiful Rose..."
"Jack," Rose blushes. "You have to stop doing that."
"Doing what? Calling you beautiful? But you are."
"You are definately what my grandmother would call a charmer. You could probably charm the stripes off a zebra," Rose giggled.

"Are you two awake in there?" Mrs. Emma's voice floats through the door. "Breakfast is ready! I make Jack's favorite. My blueberry pancakes with maple syrup and an omelet made with colby cheese!"
"Blueberry pancakes!" Jack's eyes light up. "Come on Rose! You haven't tasted anything 'til you taste Mrs. Emma's blueberry pancakes!" Jack is about to head for the door.
"Jack, aren't you forgetting something?" Rose asked, eyeing him with a wierd look on her face.
"What?" Jack is confused.
"Your pants," Rose begins to giggle uncontrollably.
"Oh right. Almost forgot," Jack smiled sheepishly. "Thanks."
"Are you two coming?" Mrs. Emma asked.
"We'll be right there," Jack hops in his pants and pulls Rose out the door behind him

.Two hours later...
Dawson farm

Rose looked up at the run down building in uncertainty. "Are you sure it's safe to live here Jack?"
"Of course it is. It just needs to be fixed up some. That's all," Jack shrugs. "Don't worry Rose. We'll have this place looking like new in no time."
"Tell me about your childhood here Jack. Was it a happy one?" Rose asked.
"It sure was. I remember coming home from school to the smell of freshly baked bread. And pa...he was always in his easy chair reading the paper. It was one of the happiest times of my life," Jack smiled happily.
"I wish I could've know your parents Jack. They sounded like good people."
"That's because they were good people. The best around," Jack grinned. "Well let's go inside and see what needs to be done. Then we'll take it from there." He takes Rose's hand and leads her inside.
Two hours later the house is in order. Rose happily stretches, glad to be done with the hard work.
"Work well done Mrs. Dawson," Jack comes over to his wife and takes her in his arms as he looked at the newly painted walls done by Rose. "I never thought you were such a good painter."
"Well you see there Jack, you've learned something new about me today. Another new thing is that the walls are now my favorite color...blue...like your eyes," Rose grinned, kissing him litely.
"You flatter me Rose," Jack grinned. "Since you have such great taste I'll leave the decorating stuff to you too. Fix the house the way you want it."
"But what would you like Jack?" Rose asked.
"Whatever you want is fine," Jack smiled. "The only thing I ask is that my parents room remain the same and my mother's good furniture in the setting room stay as well."
"If that's the way you want it," Rose sighs happily as she thinks about how she lucked out in marrying Jack. Cal had a fit whenever Rose had made a suggestion for the house they were going to live in once they were married.
"Rose...you've done such a good job with the walls, I think you deserve a trip to the stars. What do you say?" Jack smiled, nozzzling his nose into her neck.
"That sounds grand," Rose smiled, giving into Jack's advances.
Jack picks Rose up in his arms and is about to carry her upstairs when there's a knock at the door.
"Now who can that be?" Jack rolls his eyes, going to answer the door, not bothering to put Rose down.
"Are we interrupting something here?" Susan asks as Jack opens the door to her and three other girls Jack recognized, even though right now he didn't remember their names.
"Well we were kind of busy, but I can make time," Jack grinned, placing Rose back on her feet. "Come on in."
"I thought I'd bring the girls over to welcome you back to town and to meet Rose," Susan grinned. "You remember Brianna don't you? Didn't you escort her to the fall formal that one year?"
"He sure did," A pretty blond girl steps in front of Susan and takes Jack's hand. "It's a pleasure to see you again Jack. Five years is much too long."
"And these are Sophia and Margaret, the Stratford twins," Susan nods to the other girls. All three of them insisted on coming over here with me to catch up on old times."
"Gee Jack, how many girls do you have to catch up with in this town?" Rose crossed her arms, a bit of jealousy flashing in her eyes.
"Not that many," Jack said, pulling away from Brianna. In fact, I don't really remember these three very well."
"And who's this?" Brianna takes notice of Rose.
"Jack's wife Rose," Susan introduces. "She's from Philadelphia."
"Upper class girl I can see," Brianna looks Rose up and down. "How long have you known Jack?"
"For over a month," Rose smiled.
"Awful short time isn't it? Not even long enough to know what each other's favorite color is."
"Red," Rose said. Jack looked over at her in shock.
"What?" The girl known as Sophia asked.
"Jack's favorite color. It's red," Rose smiled triumphantly.
"So jack. Tell us about your travels!" Margaret takes his arm and pulls him over to the couch. "We're dying to hear about where you've been for the past five years."
Jack glares at Susan. "Oh I've been over to Europe and back. That's all. Just trying to make a living off my sketches. That's all."
"Oh really? May we see?" Brianna asks.
"Well they're all packed away right now. Maybe some other time. In fact, we're going to have to continue this conversation some other time. It's been a long day for me and Rose and we were planning to get some sleep, so if you don't mind..."
"Oh. Of course," Sophia nods. "We'll stop by some other time then."
"See ya around Jack," Susan smiles, just as Jack grabs her arm.
"You're going to pay for that," Jack growled.
"Promises promises," Susan smiled. "Just like old times huh?"
Jack just smiled and released Susan. "See ya later Susan."
"Later. Bye Rose!" Susan waved, following the other three women out the door.
"Old girlfriends Jack?" Rose asked, an eyebrow arched.
"Jealous Rose?" Jack smiled, remembering the flash of jealousy in Rose's eyes.
"Maybe," Rose shrugged. "Maybe I shouldn't be so independent and hang on your every word since those are the type of girls you seem to attract."
"Oh Rose you know those girls aren't my types. I only go for girls who have brains. Like you. If there was a contest Rose, you'd win hands down."
"Rose smiles and immediately goes to her husband. "I love you Jack Dawson. How about that trip to the stars you were talking about?"
"You always have great ideas Rose," Jack once again picks her up and takes her upstairs to his old room where they spent the rest of the day.

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