A New Beginning

Chapter 23: Prisoner

Chapter 23: Prisoner

"Ma 'me I assure you she'll be okay..."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, it's minor hypothermia and dehydration, she will make a full recovery."

It's nothing, but darkness. The voices are loud and strong, and they make her headache. She's surrounded by something soft and the warmth around her is slightly comforting. Rose has little strength in her body; her joints feel stiff and her mouth is dry.

Very slowly she tests out her limbs to see if they are working. She doesn't want to open her eyes just yet to face a screechy voice that is oh so familiar. Questions begin shooting through her mind, but the major one is, where is...

"Jack..." Rose says weakly.

Ruth enters the cabin when she hears the noise.

"Rose darling, you're awake!" Ruth screeches falling to her knees in front of the bed Rose has been lying in. Tears are in her eyes and she pulls Rose into a tight embrace, so tight that Rose grunts in pain as her limbs are quite sore and her breath is being squeezed out of her.

"I'm so glad you're okay, I was so worried, you have no idea how worried I was, but then Cal saw you being brought on board and he carried you here to me, saved you from being thrown into third class..."

Rose blocks out anything else her mother says, she's still trying to process everything and come fully into consciousness again.

"I'll call the doctor over and have him look at you," Ruth says and leaves the cabin, locking it behind her.

Rose attempts to sit up, her body protesting for her to lay still. She lays in a bed in a small cabin with the heat turned up to the maximum. There are blankets all around her as well as cushions underneath her head. She pushes back a few of the thick blankets to bring herself into a sitting position. Across the room from her is a mirror. The figure staring back at her is thin and pale, with her face sunken in slightly and her flaming hair a matted, partially dried mess. She no longer looks beautiful nor does she feel like it. Her face is showing the experience of the sinking, someone who has seen horror and sadness, someone who has lost everything. Her green eyes reflect the sorrow and despair of the night's events. She then thinks about where this is coming from...

Jack! She had to find him. They were both in the lifeboat together when she passed out, he must be okay... he must.

She starts to get out of bed, pushing back the covers and sitting up fully. She looks down, realizing that she is in a heavy unknown nightgown and barefooted. She shudders thinking who took the time to put her in these things. Her body aches the entire time she tries to put her feet on the floor.

Just then Ruth comes back with the doctor. He is dressed in a white coat and carries his bag with him. Little does either of them know that this same doctor had just treated a young man with a bullet in his leg, who is heartbroken over the loss of his wife.

"Rose get back in bed!" Ruth orders.

"I need to find Jack!" she insists, the anger of her mother's word empowering her to rebel.

"You need to be in bed," Ruth says, back to her usual ways of ordering her daughter around to keep her in line.

"Please Mrs. Bukater, why don't you go get your daughter a cup of tea while I examine her?" the doctor suggests, attempting to keep the peace.

"If only Trudy were still here, she could fetch it..."

"Mother...!" Rose growls.

"PLEASE, Mrs. Bukater, it would be in your daughter's best interests to do as I ask," the doctor insists. Rose can tell by his voice that he is becoming impatient with her mother as well.