A New Beginning

Chapter 56: Try Again

Chapter 56: Try Again

Rose comes down to the kitchen for breakfast with a letter in her hand.

"What do you have there?" Peter asks, putting Sybil into her highchair.

"A letter for my mother," Rose says quietly, keeping her eyes down at the piece of paper.

Jack stands up immediately and puts his arms around Rose. He kisses her neck.

"Really?" Emma says, stirring the eggs in the skillet.

Rose nods. "I decided both of you were right. I thought long and hard about everything and decided to write to her to tell her I'm okay. My mother never did anything life threatening to us and the worst thing she did was forbid Jack and me to be together. It's not like she can't do anything to us now." Rose looks down at the diamond ring on her finger that clasps her growing baby bump. "And if what the private investigator told us is true and she really does miss me, I think it's best that I at least let her know I'm okay."

Emma smiles warmly and serves the table scrambled eggs. She's happy that Rose is taking action, burying at least part of the hatchet. Emma was never going to have a mother again, neither was Jack, so they were going to have to make the best with those they had left. No family was ever going to be perfect and it was clear to all of them, minus the baby, that Ruth DeWitt Bukater had good, but misguided intentions for her daughter.

"I don't doubt that she'll put up a fight, trying to convince me to come home and marry Cal, but she doesn't have power over me anymore," Rose says as she grabs Jack's hand tightly. "Over us."

"I've been thinking about that actually," Emma says, pouring some warm milk for her sister. "And I think the best way to ensure she doesn't have power over you is to get married really soon."

Jack chokes on his eggs, Rose drops her fork onto her plate and Peter practically sprays his juice across the table.

"What?" Rose gasps.

"Well, you two are engaged now, but it's technically not legally binding yet. Someone could still do something to prevent you two from being together, so my idea is that we do a double wedding soon, for Peter and I to be 'officially' married and for you guys to finally start your lives together and prevent your mother or anyone else from keeping you apart."

Rose looks over at Jack and then down at her engagement ring. She and Jack had just gotten engaged and were simply enjoying the fact that they were together again. It had only been two months since the disaster and more than a month since she and Jack had been reunited, Rose just wanted to spend some time with her beloved artist and celebrate the things that life had to offer them. She wasn't even thinking about marriage yet, despite just recently being engaged, she just wanted to take it one day at a time. At the same time, Emma did have a point. If she and Jack got married soon, then there was nothing that either her mother or Cal could do to keep them apart. Plus, their unborn child wouldn't be considered a bastard, despite being conceived out of wedlock, and their lives could truly start, they could buy a house and move to wherever they wanted, maybe to Chippewa Falls, Jack's hometown or even Europe. It's something that Rose had always dreamed of; being Mrs. Rose Dawson, raising their child and living a comfortable life, maybe being able to get a career as an actress someday and the first step to that was to be pronounced man and wife.

"I'm not saying it has to be tomorrow at the courthouse, maybe a nice fall wedding or something quaint like that. Nothing too extravagant, but a small ceremony where you can celebrate your love for one another and finally be together forever and always."

Rose smiles when she hears the family vow said out loud. It was exactly the way she and Jack felt about each other, likewise for Emma and Peter. The couples' love was strong and it kept them together, overcoming obstacles and reassuring one another that they could do anything, that their love would survive no matter what. It felt right to be united in God's eyes and affirm their love for one another as a couple