She stretched and climbed out of bed. 'Thank God for the Red Cross,' she thought, looking at her appearance in the mirror. She resembled a drowned rat. None of the Titanic survivors were allowed to depart the Carpathia the night before unless they had somewhere to go. That was how she found out about the free room in John Jacob Astor's hotel. The Red Cross had given out small bags with toiletries. 'I am going to have to buy new clothes but at least I can take a bath,' she thought, as she tried to get a comb through her tangled hair.

A short while later she came out of the bathroom feeling refreshed and energized. She couldn't remember it ever feeling this good to take a bath. Looking in the mirror she thought, 'Much better. I don't look so much like a drowned rat.' Rose was still a little pale, and her dress was stained from the night of the sinking, but it would have to do. 'The dress,' she thought.

"You look nice," Jack had said to her, after she changed when he finished drawing her. Tears filled her eyes. She would never forget his intense blue eyes looking at her while he sketched her. She had never felt so loved as she did under Jack's artist eyes. She could see his love for her in those eyes, they were forever engraved in her memory. She knew at that moment Jack would be the first and only. "Put your hands on me Jack," she had told him.

Jack hovered next to her. His eyes were drinking in her beauty. Their souls had joined and he was recalling that night with bittersweet sadness. "Nervous?" he had asked her in the Renault.

Rose felt that familiar warmth and she knew he was close by. She heard him in her soul. "No Jack," she whispered out loud. "I was with you," she said, close to sobbing again.

"When the ship docks I am getting off with you" she could almost go back to that moment when they ran to the deck of the Titanic, laughing. Just before an iceberg changed both their lives forever.

Jack's heart broke; it seemed to be doing that a lot lately. "Don't cry Rose, I did get off the ship with you. I am in your heart," he whispered softly to her.

She heard him in the depth of her soul. As she wiped the tears from her eyes she whispered "Yes, Jack, you did. I have a lot of living to do, for both of us."

With that she tucked her precious "Heart of the Ocean" in her pocket and walked out the door.