Disclaimer: I don't own Pirates of the Caribbean, only my original character.

A/N: This chapter was long in coming. It took a while for me to get satisfied with the conversation at the end. When she changes her mind it's especially hard to write. But I think I like it now. I'm now working on chapter 3 which will be more original material and less narrating the movie.

"Why is the rum always gone?" Jack asked himself. I rolled my eyes from my seat in the corner where I was whittling a compass rose into a small piece of wood. He stood up and nearly lost his balance, then realized aloud, "Oh. That's why."

I would have laughed if he hadn't looked the way he did while figuring over his map. I'd seen him tapping his compass and it was obvious he didn't know where we were going, or at least if we kept going in the direction we were, it wouldn't lead us anywhere nice.

Jack picked up his hat and coat and walked out, I assumed to get more rum. My rose was coming along when I heard Jack outside shouting, "On deck, all hands! Make fast the bunt gasket! On deck! Scurry! Scurry! I want movement! Movement! I want movement! Lift the skin up! Keep your loof! Haul those sheets!" I put down my carving and walked out the cabin to find all hands scurrying over the deck with Captain Jack still shouting orders. "Run them! Run! Keep running! Run as if the devil himself and itself is upon us!"

Gibbs ran around the opposite side of the main mast from Jack and asked, "Do we have a heading?"

Jack turned and jumped. "Agh! Run! Land." Jack ducked down to hide.

Gibbs went around the mast and Jack came up from hiding and they both jumped back when they saw each other. "Which port?" Gibbs asked.

Jack answered quickly, "I didn't say 'port,' I said 'land.' Any land." The monkey swung down on a rope and snatched his hat. "Agh!" The monkey climbed up some rigging and screeched at Jack, who hissed back, then it threw his hat overboard.

Everyone ran and leaned over the rail as Gibbs shouted, "Jack's hat! Bring her about!"

"No, no! Leave it." When Jack ordered it, the whole crew turned and stared at him astonished. "Run." And he ran and hid again.

Gibbs shouted back to them, "Back to your stations, the lot of you!" He peered around the steps to the upper stern deck, and found Jack hiding in their shadow against the wall. "Jack?" he whispered.

"Shh." Jack stared up through the confines of his hiding place.

"For the love of mother and child, Jack, what's coming after us?" Gibbs asked, glancing over his shoulder.

"Nothing," he lied, and shook his head to reassure himself.

Gibbs turned and helped the crew, and I was still standing in front of the captain's cabin door. I looked at Jack, and he screamed and ran into his cabin. I followed him in, and shut the door. "Jack?"

He turned around with a scrunched up look on his face and flinched, then started running around the room looking for something. I noticed his left hand in a fist, and he found what he was looking for. He wrapped a piece of scrap cloth around his hand and I knew he was hiding something. I came up behind him and asked suspiciously, "What's on your hand?"

"Nothing," he lied again.

I grabbed it and he tried to pull it away, but I held it tighter. I unwrapped it and nearly fell over at what I saw. I can't say I wasn't expecting it, but I hadn't known the black spot would look so gruesome. Writhing black ink covered most of the palm of his hand, and I shivered at the thought of what it felt like to bear it.

Jack flinched again and this time when he pulled his hand away, I let go. "I knew he was coming. I even warned you." I paused and he flinched at the almost-glare I gave him, but I couldn't actually glare since I was already feeling a million different things just from thinking about him being chased by every sailor's worst fear. I tried to think of something else, so I asked, "Who did he send? Or did he—"

"Bootstrap."

"Bill Turner...he joined Jones' crew? I'd hoped he wouldn't, but...I see he did."

"He looked bloody awful."

"Well, he's practically been eaten up by the sea. I'm not surprised."

Jack scratched his chin and there was a short, awkward silence. Then I had to ask. I realized what it was I had to say, and what I needed to hear him say. I shouldn't have changed the topic in the first place, but I changed it back quickly enough. "Jack, you know you have the same fate. Now you've got the spot, the Kraken will find you. What are you going to do?"

"Run." He walked around me toward the door and nearly went back outside.

I stopped him, saying, "You can't run forever, Jack. You can't last that long running from Davy Jones. This is the Flying Dutchman we're talking about."

Jack turned and licked his lips nervously, then answered slowly and hesitantly, "We kill his terrible beastie?"

I raised my eyebrows wondering how on earth he believed he could do that, though knowing from the sound of his voice, he didn't believe he could. But I saw something else churning in his brain, and brought my eyebrows down again to focus as I said it. "The Kraken isn't all you intend to kill, is it?" Jack opened his mouth to say something, but stopped himself and stared at the floor. I stepped closer and pulled the rolled up piece of cloth with a drawing of a key out of his belt. "And that's what this is for." He half-heartedly tried to take it back, but I held it out of his reach, and he pulled his hand back. If he'd have tried harder to get it back, he would have.

Jack went back out to the deck and I stayed inside, staring at this key. No, a drawing of a key. It used to be far too easy to figure out what Jack wanted, but now he wasn't sure of that himself. I knew he was afraid, and it scared me a little. And I knew what he was going to try to do, but I couldn't figure out if he wanted it. Staring at that key made me feel like things were even more out of my hands. I thought I had the key to Jack's mind, I knew him so well. But I must have lost it somewhere. And if I didn't find the key, pretty soon he'd lose his mind as well.