Chapter 31

Cal continued to pull at Rose's clothing, getting more and more frustrated at her movements underneath him. He didn't want to kill her. She was no good to him dead but he knew that if it came to it, he wouldn't have a choice. He glanced up at the pocket knife he had left lying on the pillow. It was slowly covering the white pillow in red liquid from where he had thrust it into Jack stomach, hopeful that he had hit as close as possible to his previous injury. His eyes fell back down to Rose who was softly crying into the pillow. His was too focused on her that he didn't hear the footsteps behind him.

Jack had slowly managed to waken up and had felt surprised at the coolness of the floor against his cheek until he felt the shooting pains going through his stomach. He lifted his hand up to look at it and nearly felt himself passing out again as he saw the blood covering it. Just then, he lifted his head as he heard noises coming from the other room. Quickly looking around he saw that Rose was nowhere to be seen. He tried to stand, almost falling back down as he gripped onto the wall, leaving traces of blood where he went. He limped through towards the bedroom where he heard the sounds coming from and he felt that all too familiar feeling of rage building up inside him as he saw his precious Rose being pinned down by a large man, a man he could only assume was Cal, since he could only see his back. Jack quickly looked around for anything he could use when his eyes fell on a vase on a nearby table. He knew Rose had shouted at him about breaking things, but somehow he didn't think she would mind now. He crept towards the table as quietly as he could and grabbed the vase before slowly making his way into the bedroom. He snuck up to the foot of the bed, raising the vase up above his head. Rose was suddenly aware of someone there and turned her head to look past Cal, her eyes widening as she saw Jack standing there. Cal noticed her reaction straight away and began to turn round to see what had caught her attention. Just as he did, Jack brought the vase reigning down onto his head, knocking him out completely and causing a deep cut in his temple. Jack knew he didn't have much time. He pushed Cal from the bed and grabbed Rose's hand, pulling her towards the door. They made it out into the foyer when they heard movement behind them. Well aware that Cal was now awake, Jack fumbled with the lock as he finally unlocked the door and pulled it open. They fled down the steps as quickly as they could with Jack trying to run through the agonising pain he was suffering. As they made it outside, their eyes scanned the street until the spotted the patrol car parked a little further away. They rushed towards them as they heard the building door swing open.

"Jack, come on!" Rose cried. "He's coming."

They made it to the patrol car, bashing on the window as the officers jumped from their seats and out of the car. They pulled their guns from their holsters and pointed it in Cal's directions.

"Stop right there!" One of them called out, but Cal continued to stagger towards them.

"She's mine Dawson! She'll never be yours!" Cal yelled out.

"I'm warning you Hockley. Don't move any further!"

But Cal kept coming. The officers looked at each other before giving the nod. Rose screamed out as the bullets fired from the guns. She buried her head into Jack's shoulder, covering her ears and keeping her eyes tightly shut until the noise stopped. When it finally did, she slowly opened her eyes and looked up the street and let out a gasp as she saw Cal lying lifeless on the ground.

"It's over Rose." She heard Jack whispering in her ear. She turned to face him and rested her head against his as she heard the officers radio in for help.

...

Rose sat beside Jack in the ambulance as they rode to the hospital. When the officers had checked Cal, they had shaken their heads as they realised that he was no longer alive. His body had been picked up and taken to the hospital mortuary. Rose watched as a paramedic tried to stop the bleeding from Jack's stomach. He had explained that because Cal had only used a small pocket knife that it was likely the wound wouldn't be very deep and they would be able to stitch it up. After he had been checked over and stitched up, Rose was sitting beside Jack's bed, gripping onto his hand.

"I'm so sorry Jack. This is all my fault." She whispered.

Jack stared at her. "What? Don't you ever say that. How is this your fault?" he caressed her hand.

"If you had never met me, this wouldn't have happened. You wouldn't have been in hospital twice and Stacey wouldn't be dead right now." She whimpered, tears falling from her eyes.

"Rose, if I'd never met you, I'd probably still be living with Fabri, drawing pictures, getting by and doing not much else. You've made me a better person and I'd never regret meeting you." He smiled.

Rose leaned forward and kissed his hand. She finally felt relief that this nightmare was over and now she and Jack could concentrate on their lives together, not having to keep looking over their shoulder, wondering when Cal might show up again. She smiled at him as she saw their whole future in those baby blue eyes.