A New Beginning

Chapter 44: Bad News

Chapter 44: Bad News

"Alright, Hockley you're free to go," the guard says. "One of your colleagues paid your bail."

Cal stands up and walks out of the cell. His head is pounding from the liquor and his entire body aches from the fight he had. He's just glad he's out of that filthy cell, no upstanding member of the community should be put into such a situation. He follows the guard as he goes to collect his belongings, including his jacket, pocket watch, and other things. He walks by a mirror on the way out. He has a bad shiner in his right eye and a cut lip.

"Darn kid, thinks he can protect a lowly maid," he grumbles. His hair is also messed up and his clothes are rumpled. There is also some dried blood on his cheek from where someone broke a bottle over his head. He cannot believe he spent the night in prison. This would not sit well with anyone at the office, especially his father. If anything, it was the maid's fault for provoking his outburst. She knew where Rose was and refused to tell him.

"I bet she still knows where she is," Cal mutters as he steps out into the sunlight.

His colleague, Johnathan is waiting for him at the bottom of the steps of the station.

"You alright Hockley?" Johnathan asks.

"I'm fine, thank you," Cal murmurs, walking along past Johnathan.

"Must've been some bar fight, that shiner is gonna last for days."

"It wasn't a bar fight; I was trying to find my fiancee. I was...asking her maid where she was and some no good kid thought I was attacking her and attacked me."

"That's awful," Johnathan says. "But you should know better Hockley, this will be all over the office, we'll have to put the rumours to rest sooner rather than later. You're lucky that you called when you did, otherwise, this would be in the papers."

Cal just keeps walking forward, toward the New York steel company office. He just wants to go back to his office and get some sleep. He refused to sleep on the cold metal bench in the holding cell at the station. He takes the back staircase to his New York office, leaving Johnathan behind without even a thank you. When he enters his office, his secretary looks up at him from her desk with concern.

"Oh sir," she says. "What can I do for you?"

"Get me some coffee and cancel my morning meetings," Cal growls.

"Y-Yes sir," the secretary nods before leaving her typing to get some coffee.

Cal goes into his office and sits down in his chair. He lays his head on the desk and shuts his eyes. He slowly begins to lose consciousness when his secretary knocks on his door.

"What do you want?" he growls.

"I have your coffee sir and your messages."

"Bring them in and get out!" Cal orders.

The secretary comes in with a hot cup of coffee and several pieces of paper.

"Just three messages sir, one from the company in Philadelphia, another from your father and another from Mrs. DeWitt Bukater."

"Thank you, Francine, now get out," Cal grumbles.

Francine shuts the door behind her.

Alone at his desk, Cal takes a sip of the hot coffee and looks at his messages. The one from his father was simply wondering where he had been and the one from the Philadelphia office was business as usual. He read the message from Mrs. Bukater. She was wondering how the night went and if Rose behaved herself. Cal was afraid that he would have to break the bad news to the waiting mother, that her daughter disappeared like a thief in the night. He groans and rubs his eyes, carefully due to his black one.

He wonders why he got into this in the first place. He'd only agreed to go to the dinner because of Ruth's insistence that Rose was still behaving recklessly. He knew he had to keep his eye on Rose, and yet she managed to slip from his fingers. He had searched the hall for what felt like hours, trying to find her. He had the staff look in every place possible, he even asked Margret Brown if she had seen Rose, but still nothing. He realized how much of a fool he'd been. He took a cab to a bar and drank his weight in alcohol while trying to figure out where Rose might be. Despite his intoxication, Cal remembered the address of Rose's hotel and figured she might've gone home to avoid any further time with him. He took another cab there and only found the maid. Then all hell broke loose.

He picks up the phone and dials the number.

"Hello?" Ruth says from the other end.

"Hello, Mrs. DeWitt Bukater," Cal says.

"Mr. Hockley, how did it go last night? Did Rose behave herself?"

Cal swallows hard. Despite all his wrongdoings, he never wanted to be the bearer of bad news. This could very well kill Mrs. Bukater.

"Everything went fine until...Ruth...Rose is missing."

There's a large pause.

"MISSING!" Ruth screeches from the other end. The sound of the telephone hitting the ground is heard.

Cal listens as he hears Ruth sobbing and the housemaid doing her best to console the mother.

Eventually, the maid picks up the phone.

"Tell Mrs. Bukater that I'm calling the police and there will be searches going on for her. I will keep her informed."

"Very good sir, have a good day."

Cal drops the earpiece on the receiver and puts his head in his hands.

He cannot believe that he just did that, causing a mother an emotional breakdown and it wasn't even his fault. When Rose, ran off she never thought about what this would do to her mother. It was incredibly selfish of her to do so, not considering others needs. Cal takes a sip of coffee. For a brief second, he wonders...

Could the gutter rat be alive? Is he the reason she ran away? He shoves it from his mind. He never saw the man on the Carpathia and it was highly unlikely that he could've survived anyway. He was sure the corpse that was buried at sea was him and even if it wasn't, his name wasn't on the survivor's list. And yet his influence had reached her, changed her, made her want to run away. Him and those brats with the baby. He was glad that he'd put bullets in both of them, maybe they'd learn they shouldn't meddle in other people's lives. Rose was meant to be his wife and if she thinks that running away would allow her to escape from him, she was wrong...so very wrong.

Cal picks up the phone again and asks for the operator.

"The police please..." he says.