Room 308, Very Early Monday

[bitten_notshy]

Jack woke up as the sun rose, but he was in no hurry to get out of bed. He had what he assumed was a pleasant but strange dream still playing through his head and no classes for hours.

Besides, bed was a good place to be. There was someone in it with him.

In a moment, he'd figure out why it was extremely odd that the figure had dark hair; for now, he just rolled toward the warmth and snuggled in.

[OOC: For She Who Sadly Is Not Running Off to New York With Him. Set before this, 'cause that's how we roll.]

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[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

Rose came awake nearly at once, her internal clock well-set by a half year of morning training. But there was someone right there, and that hadn't happened in a while, and surely she had a few minutes to luxuriate in the warmth and comfort before getting up?

She shifted towards Jack without analyzing the problems there, the weekend's dreams making this all feel so right and safe and mmm, that was his hand to play her fingers over gently.

[bitten_notshy]

Holding hands under the covers was nice, nice enough that Jack wasn't examining the situation too closely yet either. Jack shifted, moving so his hand was resting lightly on her side, and spoke without opening his eyes much wider. "Hi. Morning."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"Meh, morning," Rose complained a little. Comfortable and warm and cuddling. So not a bad thing at all. She could easily fall back asleep, and from the sound of it, so could he. "Does it gotta be?"

[bitten_notshy]

"I don't have class for hours," Jack answered, cuddling in even more. He wasn't usually much of a cuddler, but it was morning and bed was warm and there were those lovely dreams still on his mind. "We could just stay here."

Then he realized he recognized the voice and got a niggling hint something might be not quite right. "... Rose?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"...Jack," Rose replied, opening her eyes finally. Okay, why was she in bed with Jack?

She rolled over a little to look at him then her eyes widened as the events of the past few days caught up.

This might not be good. "Morning?"

[bitten_notshy]

Jack pulled himself up to sitting as he looked at her, watching her react (and feeling a stunned expression cross his own face). He loved Rose, in a way; it just wasn't the kind of love that ever expected to be in this situation with her again.

"Rose," he repeated. "I might have gone insane, but were you by chance dreaming about looking different and having been on a ship?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"The Titanic?" Rose asked, a little dryly because even half-awake, she was pretty sure it wasn't a dream. Well, that and she'd noticed the long skirt that Rose would never, ever, ever wear on the chair. "Yeah."

She sat up as well, pulling the sheet with her and then reaching up to try to run her fingers through what was probably a rats' nest of hair. "Pretty sure that was real. Or as real as it gets around here."

[bitten_notshy]

"Probably," Jack had to admit, and took a cue from her grooming to try to smooth down his own messy curls. It gave him something to do with his hands.

"So we ..." Did the obvious, yes. "I suppose I should just be grateful it was you."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

She snorted a little, giving up her hair as a lost cause and just twisting it back before she wrapped her hands around her knees.

"Yeah, could've been someone totally disgusting. Except you wouldn't've thought that cause - we - they were like freaking crazy about each other." She shivered a little. "Weird."

[bitten_notshy]

"Well," Jack said loftily in an attempt to make her smile, "I am irresistible."

More thoughtfully, he added, "If they're real people, I hope they made it work. It felt like they were meant to be together."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

He totally got a little smile out of that. "I dunno," she managed to tease. "Your counterpart was a lot taller..." But then so was hers.

Rose shrugged a little, serious again. "Yeah. I doubt it. You know what happened to that ship they were on, right? The Titanic?"

[bitten_notshy]

"He was too tall," Jack nodded firmly. "I'm sure he was always hitting his head on things."

He shook his head at her comment. "I don't know the name, no. Something went wrong?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"It hit an iceberg," she said, looking down, weirdly and totally unhappy about the girl she'd been. She'd been so madly in love with her Jack, and she'd had the freedom to make that choice at least, and it had probably ended up destroyed. "There weren't enough lifeboats and like most everyone died." Rose shrugged a little, knowing full well history wasn't usually her thing. "They made a movie."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack had been mildly astonished Rose knew details about something that had happened eighty years before she was born, but the movie comment put it into perspective.

It was hardly the important thing, anyhow.

"Oh," he said, finding this news of a shipwreck in the distant past weirdly depressing. Jack Dawson had been so glowingly happy and hopeful about everything that it was hard to wish him anything but the best. And to find out he was likely gone in a matter of days -- "That's awful."

He couldn't lie and claim he thought they'd survive; instead, he draped an arm over Rose's shoulder in an attempt at comfort.

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

If she wanted to be a guardian, she had to be able to stay strong and comfort herself, not look to other people.

But Rose still leaned into Jack's half-hug, wrapping her arm around his waist. "It's totally unfair."

[bitten_notshy]

For once, Jack couldn't find words; he just nodded, pleased to have her comforting presence. "If they were real," he tried in a steadier voice. "We could find out what happened, maybe? Doesn't the Internet know things like that?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"Probably, yeah," she agreed finally. The realness of this being Monday morning set in a little more, and Jack felt more real beside her. "The Titanic's a huge thing. We could probably find it all on wikipedia and not even really have to look."

Rose paused for a second, trying to figure out her answer. "Do you want to know?"

[bitten_notshy]

"I always want to know." That was the detective's ward talking. It was automatic.

And it didn't hold.

"... no," he admitted. "If there's any chance they made it to their New York, I want to pretend they did. Do you?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

She leaned her head on his shoulder, attempting to picture what that life would've been like. Rose didn't know nearly enough about New York or anything like that, but she could remember the glow in the other Rose as she explored so many new things with her Jack. She'd been able to throw her life alongside his without any complications (or so it seemed to Rose), and the unselfish part of Rose, the part that wasn't just a little jealous couldn't help wanting any happiness they could've found.

"I hope they did," she said softly. "They'll have so much freedom."

[bitten_notshy]

"They weren't brought up for anything," Jack said. "Rose was, I mean, but she could just -- there were people to catch her if she left. She wouldn't have hurt anyone by doing it. And Jack was completely free."

He owed Sebastien his life. He couldn't imagine anything else. But sometimes it would be nice to --- not.

Jack gave her a dreamy smile. "I want to imagine they had nice lives."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

Rose nodded, almost smiling at how perfectly Jack had managed to put her thoughts into words.

"Not that we're jealous," she said wryly. Cause she wasn't. Well, maybe a little. She smiled back at him then leaned up to give him a kiss on the cheek. "They did, dammit. Totally happy and all sunlit and disgustingly romantic."

[bitten_notshy]

"They did. And of course we're not jealous," he said, and reached to squeeze her a little before standing up. Motion was good; if he stayed in bed he was going to get maudlin.

"Can I ask a favor before I let you go find Dimitri?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"Like my first reaction is to automatically find Dimitri," Rose scoffed. And then glanced at the clock because it was getting towards that time. She stood up too, wrapping the sheet around her - it wasn't like he hadn't seen it all before, but... - and wrinkling her nose at the outfit she'd been wearing yesterday.

"Ask away." Then - she glanced up at Jack, twisting her lips a little. "You're totally going to ask me not to mention it to Emma until you can, aren't you."

[bitten_notshy]

"No, but training is about the first thing you do in the morning," he pointed out, before laughing. "I was. You know me too well. You're good with that?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"I have another 20 minutes," Rose smirked. But she rolled her eyes at him just a little. "Take a million years like Alex, and all bets are off. I'll never be able to watch what I say until she tries to destroy me or something."

[bitten_notshy]

"She'd try to destroy me first," Jack said. "If I don't manage it during class today I'll find her tomorrow. Promise."

Class wasn't likely to be a good time for a serious talk -- unless Mitchell took another week off -- but he wanted to tell Emma sooner rather than later. He knew secrecy would be the part that would bother her the most.

He eyed the clock, considering twenty minutes. "I can go get us coffee so you don't feel like I'm watching you find your clothes." Because, yes, he'd seen it all, but things were Different now.

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

Rose looked down, feeling a little helpless and hating it. They had no control over this shit, and it was fucking frustrating.

"Sounds good," she agreed, figuring the lack of secrecy thing was the best bet. But the offer was funny and sweet, and she gave him a little smile. "...if that doesn't feel totally stupid, yeah, I'd worship you for coffee."

[bitten_notshy]

It was horribly frustrating, but there was nothing to do except accept it as the price of the island and try to go on. Try to make it normal.

"It doesn't feel stupid at all," Jack said, and yanked on the first shirt that came to hand. "I'll be back in a few."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"Your shirt's on backwards," Rose smirked (even though she didn't know if it was or not) as she turned away to see if she could manage to put those clothes back on. Jack might end up with some clothes stolen for a day.