Sinking with the Titanic, Rose ends up on a ship with the pirate Jack Sparrow and a sea goddess' diamond heart. When she tries to free the cursed Will Turner things get complicated, but falling for a dishonest pirate on rum withdrawal is an even wor...
With a twinge of longing she wished she was back in that house with sober Jack, just passing the time and doing nothing special. She had enjoyed being with him despite his grumpiness and cheating in dice. She missed sleeping together, hearing his even breathing and feeling his warm form next to her.
Then she saw the last frame, which had a drawing of herself made by the other Jack, Jack Dawson. In the picture she was naked, wearing only the Heart of the Ocean.
How erotic that moment had been! She still felt a flutter of excitement at the memory. The cool air against her bare skin, the dry rasping of his pencil, his eyes coming up to look at her over the edge of his sketchpad.
She longed for that Jack too. They had gotten much too little time together and no real closure.
Rose heard a noise from the other room and her mother entered.
"There you are. Are you wearing those vulgar boots again? You know I don't like that." Her voice was as calm and impassive as always.
"Mother..." Rose whispered, reaching out her hand towards the woman but then dropping it, not quite daring to touch her in case she would prove to be an incorporeal ghost.
"Turn around, I'll help you with your corset." As in a dream, Rose obeyed, discovering she was suddenly in her shift. She felt her mother grasp the strings and pull. The woman was no ghost then, an incorporeal being was certainly not capable of lacing up a corset. "I don't get you," Ruth scolded. "How could you be so selfish? Drowning with that boy instead of marrying Cal, ensuring our survival." She tied the final knot and twirled Rose to face her. "Do you know what I must do now?"
Wordlessly Rose shook her head.
"I have to work as a seamstress. Thanks to you, our fine things were sold at an auction – our memories scattered to the winds. Now I have to work for a living. Was that what you wanted?"
Feeling a pang of guilt, Rose opened her mouth to say no, but shut it when she recalled the friends she had made on the Titanic. All of them had been hard working men and women; Fabrizio, Olaf, Helga, Tommy... Jack Dawson.
"Don't be so proud. There is nothing wrong with honest work," she said.
"This from you, who loves a pirate." Mother's voice was teeming with scorn. "He's never done an honest day's work in his life. And you're becoming just as bad as him."
"I am not like a pirate! I would never sink that low," she protested, offended.
"Oh, so you think yourself better than him? You say I'm proud, but you're no different."
She was right, Rose did think herself better than Jack. He was the pirate, the thief, the drunkard – whereas she was generous and noble, who had sacrificed her life for Will and Elizabeth.
The truth of Mother's words stung, but Rose knew she had needed to hear them.
She thought about the pirate way of living. Was it so different from what her family had done? They had lived on 'old money' earned by her ancestors in dubious ways, often by using others – the poor and the less educated, who could be made into indentured workers and slaves. And she had accepted it, wearing the fine clothes and jewellery, eating the expensive food.
As for giving up her life... In all honesty she had not really had much choice. She had given the Pearl Box to Will because she knew the alternative would have made her miserable; hated by everybody, leading an immortal life alone in a world she did not know.
She had no right to look down on Jack and his lifestyle – especially knowing how limited his choices had been as a teenage father. One whose own father also was a pirate.
"I'm not better than him," she said at last. "We both are what we are because of who we were born to."
Mother's gaze softened and she smiled fondly, stroking Rose's cheek. "Well done. You passed the first test."
"I did? What do I win?"
Mother pointed at a door that had appeared on the other side of the room. "Passage to the Second Class. Good luck!"
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A/N:
This was just the first test of several... Rose has come to a strange place indeed!
