Title: Abandon Ship, or Abandon Hope, Aye

Author: Kristin aka Kiara Alexis Klay

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Disclaimer: PotC belongs to Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer. I'm going off memory, so some of the dialogue may not be entirely accurate.

Summary: Warning, major DMC spoilers; don't read if you haven't seen the second movie.

Rating: PG

Pairing: None, vague JE and WE

Abandon Ship, or Abandon Hope, Aye

"Abandon ship. Use the longboat."

Jack gazed upon the carnage the Krakken had wrought, that beastie of beasties, that terror of the deep, the great leviathan…well, you got the picture.

Masts were splintered like sticks, sails were shredded like bread slices, bits of the railing and the crew were scattered about. The combined smells of blood, torn bodies, and the Krakken's charred flesh lingered into one conglomerate that was defined by one word: death.

Dimly, Captain Jack Sparrow, master of the Black Pearl, heard his first mate and possibly closest friend Gibbs sputtering about, protesting Jack's soft order to abandon ship. Gibbs perhaps more than anyone aboard knew how much the Pearl meant to Jack, and he couldn't believe that his captain would willingly desert his beloved ship so easily.

Part of Jack agreed with Gibbs, who was even now arguing with the Whelp on abandoning ship, wanting to rail and lash out at the Whelp for daring to suggest and agree with those two horrible words: abandon ship. He hadn't spent ten years pursuing that traitorous second mate of his Barbosa, just to see his beloved Pearl return to the depths he'd wheedled her out of.

He may have been a pirate, but he was honorable to a certain point. Not that he'd admit it, and anyone suggesting such a thing would walk the plank. But he admitted reluctantly that he had an okay streak, a streak that annoyingly vexing conflagration that called herself Elizabeth would say was due to his being a 'good man'.

Elizabeth.

That firebrand of an untamed woman, he had no idea how luck- er, unfortunate, the Whelp was in being stuck with her. Obviously, she had reeled him in somehow…and he seemed content, even ecstatic about being chained down to one woman.

If they stayed, Elizabeth would die. They all would. So Jack Sparrow had uttered the words he'd never thought he'd have to say. This was different than watching that wretch Barbosa sail away with his ship. At least then there had been the possibility of rescuing his girl.

Gibbs and what remained of his crew looked at him in shock. Pintel, the Bird, his master Cotton, the Shorty, and the rest all stared as if he'd suddenly sprouted a beard of tentacles and was now calling his self Davy Jones. The Whelp gazed at him as if he were trying to figure out what was in it for Jack, and Elizabeth…she was watching him with hooded eyes, masking her thoughts.

"She's just a ship. Abandon the Pearl. Use the longboat." He repeated, firmer, and more the captain who was to be taken seriously than the bumbling lucky spirit he often was.

The longboat. The same vessel he had commandeered during the second attack with all intention of saving his own self, until that blasted compass and that bewitching woman's words in his head had made him turn back.

He turned his back on them again, hearing the orders as Gibbs railed the six humans and one bird into action.

He didn't want to see the look of satisfaction from the Whelp's eyes, or the despair and confusion on his crew's faces, or Gibbs' worried glances his way. Those stares seemed to burn into his back, but he ignored them, mind reaching out and taking as much of his ship in as possible.

Running a loving hand in a tender caress no woman had experienced at his behest, Captain Jack Sparrow trailed his fingers against the weather-smoothed wood, the remnants of his pride and joy and freedom.

Gibbs' voice repeated a phrase over and over in his mind, a mantra that was the only thing that kept the master of the Black Pearl from giving into the gnawing despair.

Abandon ship, or abandon hope, aye.

-Finis-

A/n: All right, major spoilers for DMC, but this was a scene that had gripped me and struck me as the most powerful.

Here, we see Jack as the man in his most vulnerable and revealing moment, not the pirate or the screw up, but pure Jack. It nearly broke my heart.

Hope you liked and enjoyed. This is my first foray into the PotC fanfic world; I usually stick to other genres. Please read and review, my muse Jareth loves them and so do I!