Pairing: Driscoll/Jimmy
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: King Kong doesn't belong to me. Nor does Adrien Brody. Alas.

Worth Fighting For

Jack Driscoll does not believe in endings.

After Hayes dies, Jimmy clings to him and cries into his neck; it's wet but not altogether as bad as might be expected.

"He fell," Jimmy moans. "He fell. Oh God, he fell." The boy's thought process is stuck on loop, like a gramophone jumping on a scratched record.

Driscoll soothes him, making odd shushing noises and cooing the sort of nonsense best suited to very small babies. He trails a hand through the boy's hair and rubs a few strands between thumb and forefinger; Jimmy's hair isn't exactly silky but it's softer than Jack expected it to be.

He holds Jimmy a little tighter, just because he can.

"Not in vain," Jack finds himself whispering. He's not sure where the words come from – somewhere deep inside, no doubt – but they seem appropriate enough.

After a while, Jimmy stills a little and the sobbing all but ceases. Slowly, Jack extricates himself from the boy's arms. "Not in vain," he repeats.

They stand and prepare to fight: side by side, shoulder to shoulder. Jack is already thinking about Ann again, and that glorious scene back in her cabin. She looked so beautiful with her hair of frosted gold and her glimmering green eyes.

He doesn't notice when Jimmy's eyes settle on him; he doesn't see the boy swallow and look away.

He cannot know that Jimmy has, yet again, found someone worth fighting for; that yet another ending is transformed into a beginning.