Hello and welcome to my new Titanic story, "A Second Chance." I'm your writer and host, Lady Elena Dawson. Some quick facts about me: I first joined FanFiction in 2011 to write Titanic fanfics. I wrote some for a couple years (you can still find them on my profile, though my writing style has evolved a bit since then), switched to other fandoms, then retired (for the most part) in 2016. I used to be an avid user and writer of this site... Most of my stories were written when I was in high school, and now I am a college graduate. (Yikes. Just...yikes.) Titanic has been my favorite movie for over ten years since I first saw it when I was 12, and has played an important role in my life. While other interests have shifted and changed, Titanic has always been with me. Around Valentine's Day of this year, a local movie theater was showing the movie for a limited screening and I hopped on the opportunity to see it in theaters again since I hadn't seen it on the big screen since the 2012 3D re-release. That experience lit a fire in me... It also inspired me to write something a bit more lighthearted, so here I am with this story. Unlike my previous stories where Jack lives, I'd call this a more traditional "Jack lives" story, which I really wanted to try out. I hope you enjoy it, even if it has been done so many times in so many different ways already!

I have most of this story outlined, with eight chapters already written. My plan is to release one chapter a week, and my hope is to keep writing between those updates so you'll get the full story without any delays. We'll see how that goes, because unfortunately, I do not yet have the guts to be a full-time writer and I have a job spreading science fun to kids at a local museum (which I may end up switching to a research assistant in a lab? I'm a young chemistry grad with no idea what I'm doing), so I write as a hobby and not as a career. I always loved writing fanfic as a way to keep my writing skills fresh and my creativity flowing when I would have brain blocks with my own characters and plots. It's fun to get back into it for the foreseeable future! (I do have another story in mind...)

[Note: I found it challenging to keep inside either Jack or Rose's head, so I switch between them a lot. I know it's not considered appropriate to write changing POVs in one chapter (at least, my creative writing professors wouldn't think so), but I thought since this is fanfiction and not a published story, I'd play around with it just for fun.]

A Second Chance

By Lady Elena Dawson

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Titanic (1997).

When the Carpathia officer asked for his name, Jack lied and said it was Joseph Taylor. He'd been scooped out of below-freezing waters only hours before, and the last thing he needed was a psychotic fiancé towering over his bedside, powerless to protect himself.

As Jack enunciated the words "Joseph Taylor," he swallowed the spit in his throat and felt it burn. He coughed, and his head exploded. His entire body was on fire, and he sweated despite his head being covered in ice when he was pulled out of the North Atlantic ocean.

When he was pulled out… He could vaguely remember anything about that. He remembered her hand shivering in his, keeping their palms warm, and then feeling a warmth spread from his nose to the tip of his toes. He remembered the stars above him dim, and the next moment, pressure was being pounded onto his chest, and he was unable to move due to being wrapped in a heavy blanket. The person whose hands were reviving his, draped in damp red curls, a hand over her mouth as he coughed despite having swallowed no water. Her tear-laden eyes were the first thing he saw when his sight adjusted to being brought back into the world.

Rose. His Rose. She'd promised she wouldn't let go, and despite his chances of survival dropping to near zero, he was given a miraculous second chance. How she convinced the officers aboard the lifeboat to drag his lifeless body in with her was another story, a story he had yet to hear since he passed out immediately after seeing her tear-filled eyes lit up by the starlight.

Her hand slipped into his as she sat down on his bedside. Her fiery hair, which had attracted his sight to her the first time he'd laid eyes on her, was duller, but still full of life. Somehow, they were still alive. Her palm was cool in his, and he had to blink a few times to make sure he was really there. That it was Rose who was smiling at him, clasping his hands in hers as she massaged his knuckles. "The doctors say you should be fine in a few days," she said, and her usually melodic voice was broken up by a dry crackling. Despite how broken she sounded, her pale face was brightened by a smile: a smile of relief, joy, and gratitude, because she had brought him back to life.

"I…" Jack tried to speak, though it felt like a thousand fiery knives stabbing his throat. "Rose…"

She scooted closer to his head, cooling down his flaming cheeks with her dry palms. "You don't need to say anything. You're burning up, you need to rest…"

He summoned the energy needed to reach up and cup her hand on his face. "You saved me."

Her smile faltered slightly. "I couldn't leave you there without knowing for sure you were gone. They wanted me to leave you, I was pressing on your chest for who knows how long… But you came back to me." Her eyes started to water again. "God wanted you with me. I don't know what I would have done without you. I promised you I wouldn't let go, yet I don't know if I could have…" She couldn't finish the sentence.

Jack squeezed her hand. "Rose…" He paused to study her face again, still in disbelief that any of this was real. "Thank you...for saving me."

Her lips turned up at the corners, creating a dimple in her left cheek. "You saved me first. Besides, we have plans together… We're going to go to Santa Monica, right? Ride horses on the beach, ride roller coasters, drink cheap beer…" She gently brushed his damp hair off of his clammy forehead. "We'll never set foot on the ocean again. We'll never be cold again. We'll keep each other warm…" Suddenly, like a flick of a switch, her face crumpled and she was sobbing again. "Dear God." She burrowed her face in his chest. "I thought you were gone. I thought…"

Her hand, once so light and delicate, grasped his bedding with an iron fist. It was the same strength she'd used to hold him up as they aided him onto the rescue ship. She refused to let her arm loosen from around his waist, all the way to the infirmary, though it was all such a blurry haze, he couldn't remember how he made it out of the lifeboat. But he trusted her story of how he was saved, and how she was a part of every second of it. Now he worked through the tightness with his fingers, smoothing out the back of her hand with his thumb. "Rose… Look at me. Look at me." She turned her icy blue eyes up at him. "I'm right here. I promise."

She nodded her head in understanding, but kept crying anyway. He ran his burning hands through her hair, calming her down, still processing everything that had happened in the last few hours since being recovered. She cried into his sheets until her sniffling quieted and her eyes started to close. He nudged her slightly, urging her to curl up next to him, and she adjusted her position before shutting her eyes again, finally falling into a restful slumber.

With his new love curled up at his side, her curls knotted in his fingers, Jack drifted into a feverish sleep, comforted by her rising and falling chest pressing into his side.

Despite knowing each other for only a few days, Jack and Rose had saved each other more times than they could count. These experiences with each other had bonded them, so now when Rose remembered her words from the other day, announcing her desire to leave the ship with him, it felt less crazy and more fitting.

For the next four days, Rose rarely left Jack's side. She would ask the doctor if there was anything she could do to help get Jack's health back on track, no matter what it entailed. She took her meals with him and slept next to him, despite the infirmary bed being made for only one person. For most couples, being together all hours of the day would be an annoying hassle building up to a possibly passive aggressive argument. But Rose didn't want to spend another minute away from Jack until she knew for sure they were safe, and Jack wanted the same.

They weren't going to let each other out of their sight until they were on dry land.

When Jack was spun into the Atlantic with the suction of the mighty ship sinking below him, he suspected he wouldn't be able to find his way to the surface. But then he did. Then, when he couldn't find Rose, he thought he was going to die alone. But then he found her. When he realized that there was no way both of them could float on a piece of wood without submerging too much into the water, he was certain he was a goner that time. He didn't say anything at the time, but Jack believed it was his fate. The moment the water started feeling more warm than cold, he knew that the end was near. His last thoughts revolved around wishing he could be able to land in New York with Rose, travel across the country with her, and get to know her better than anyone else. He told her she'd make lots of babies, but he didn't express the desire to be with her in that way because he was scared she would become too hopeful for his survival. At that moment, he needed her to believe that she could move on and find someone else to spend her life with.

Now that they were together as they'd hoped, what were they going to do?

A/N: Let me know what you guys think!