The staircase had faintly reminded Rose of the Titanic. Of course, Jack would not be waiting at the bottom for her. The pain was no longer on the surface of her emotions when those thoughts crossed her mind. Instead, it was a deep pain in her heart that she had come to accept over time as something that would never heal or go away. It was simply a part of her.

Furthermore, this morning's confrontation with Nathan Hockley helped ease the pain somewhat. She knew that even though Cal had managed to survive, his life would forever be marred due to his actions that night on Titanic.

Unaware of being observed, Brandon continued hanging the brightly colored lanterns. Rose's eyes were filled with love and admiration as she watched him work with the skill of a great artist. His body was delicate looking, yet you could see the taunt muscles of his chest and arms as he climbed up the ladder. His hair had grown a bit longer since she first met him. It gave him a more rugged, handsome look she thought.

He was wearing black trousers and a matching black shirt. Although Rose could not quite understand it, Brandon was very fond of wearing black. To her, black represented mourning of the dead. She had already done too much of that in her nineteen years on this earth.

As usual, Brandon was barefoot. He had a habit of going barefoot blaming it on his Chinese mother. Rose loved to tease him endlessly about being uncivilized. If her mother thought Jack was an insect, she could just imagine her reaction to Brandon.

It had crossed her mind once to contact her Mother, but she knew she would never understand or accept Rose Dawson. Rose had felt it best to save them both the heartache and let Ruth think she had perished on Titanic. Besides the Rose that Ruth knew did die that night. 'Some things are best left alone,' she thought.

Realizing someone was watching him, Brandon turned and spotted Rose staring at him from across the room. His eyes filled with love at the sight of her.

"Rose!" he shouted, leaping from the ladder.

Brandon moved with the grace of a cat. In one leap, he jumped from the top of the ladder to the ground and pulled her into his arms. He kissed her passionately on the lips and she returned the kiss with equal passion. "Sorry I am late," she said breathlessly after his kiss, "But I had some unexpected unfinished business to attend to."

Detecting anxiety in her voice Brandon asked with concern, "Everything okay?"

"I am fine, really," Rose replied, smiling reassuringly at him.

Brandon had discovered very early in their relationship there was a part of Rose she would never tell him or anyone else for that matter. He had discussed it with Allan once and the only answer he got was something had happened to her but she had never confided in Allan either. Both men agreed it was something they should not push her into talking about. Whatever had happened to her obviously affected her deeply and was best left up to her to tell when she was ready. Realizing that making an issue of whatever happened earlier this morning would be futile Brandon smiled back at her.

Rose noticed the uncertain look in Brandon's eyes and she chose to ignore it and said, "Well, well let's get some work done shall we, before we run out of time."

"I wasn't the one who was late," Brandon answered back, forgetting his concern.

That was exactly what Rose had hoped he would do. Some things would always be just between her and Jack.

Jack and Tommy were seated back in the first class deck of Titanic. They were still trying to stop laughing over this morning escapade between Mr. Nathan Hockley and Rose.

"I'll bet Daddy beats Caledon senseless when he gets home," Tommy said, laughing at the thought of it.

"Serves him right for all the under-handed, sneaky things he did to me and Rose, of course," Jack answered.

"I hear young Rose put on quite a show for you two lads this morning," Thomas Andrews said, startling the two young men, "Wish I could have seen it with my own two eyes. Never did care too much for any of the Hockleys."

Tommy stood up. Slapping Mr. Andrews on the back, he said, "Rose really put the limey bastard in his place."

Thomas sat down in Tommy's chair and looked compassionately at Jack. He knew as funny as the whole situation was it pained Jack greatly. "You are handling things very well, son," Thomas said to Jack when the quiet between the two men became uncomfortable.

Jack knew Mr. Andrews was the only one who really understood how hard this was on him and the depth of the pain he suffered. He was thankful to have him to lean on and talk openly to about Rose. "Well I reckon I don't have a choice in the matter. I asked Rose to make me a promise, now I must be man enough to make sure she keeps that promise," Jack stated as if it were an obvious fact.

"Yes, young Jack, you do," Thomas said softly.

Jack's ability to foresee the future had told him today would be another milestone he was going to have to accept and he was grateful to have Thomas sitting with him. Both men continued to look down at the wedding already in progress.