A/N: One shot, Liz's point of view. Set near the end of Dead Man's Chest, right before everyone's about to abandon the Black Pearl. Her thoughts on what she has to do and why she does it. Review and let me know if it's any good. I don't mind a bit of constructive criticism, just please don't flame, because my self esteem can't take it.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Because if I did, I wouldn't be posting things on a fanfiction site.

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Down to the Depths

The Black Pearl was dead. Certainly, she hadn't sunk yet, but that didn't mean she was still alive. She had been beaten by a gigantic sea monster, and there was no hope for survival. Some of the crew, not to mention Will, would have carried on defending her until the very end, but when Jack said no, they had no choice but to listen. When Captain Jack Sparrow says to abandon the Black Pearl to a watery doom, you know all hope is lost.

The men began to pile into the single longboat (those of us who remained anyway), but I stayed for a moment. I owed it to the Pearl to at least say goodbye. And that's when I saw Jack, standing by what remained of the ship's mast. He was touching the ship with a gentle hand, and the sadness was visible in his eyes even from this distance. Leaving the Pearl was costing him a lot. He was saying his own goodbye. I moved to call him, make him come and get on the longboat so we could just get out of here. The Kraken might be back any minute, and I wanted to get to land as fast as we could.

That's when it hit me. It wasn't the ship that Davy Jones's monster was after. It was Jack. Who got on Jones's bad side? Who gave him a payment that escaped and stole the key to boot? Who still owed a debt to Jones? It all came back to Jack. I had to do something. If he came on the longboat with us, sure the Kraken would attack the Pearl first, then it would probably come after us, and Jack. We would all die anyway. There was only one thing to do, and as much as I didn't want to do it, no one else could. Jack couldn't leave this ship.

Wait, I thought. What am I doing? I can't make him stay here. Jack is an entirely selfish being. He just wants to save his own skin, even if that involves all the rest of us getting killed in the process. But when I thought of the lives that would be lost if he came with us, including mine and Will's, I made up my mind.

But how on earth was I going to manage this? My mind raced, and I was tempted to simply get into the longboat and order them to paddle for dear life. But of course, that wouldn't work. Then my mind rested on Jack's odd form of a proposal, and the fact that we had been so close to kissing. I knew he wanted to kiss me. A woman just knows these things. Not to mention, he basically told me flat out that he wanted me. Maybe this was something I could use to my advantage. Then I noticed a pair of handcuffs attached to the mast, and the plan formed in my head on the spot.

Captain Jack Sparrow was sexy. I have to admit that before I get on with anything else. I don't know what it is, but there's something about him. He's got this peculiar charm; whatever he says, whatever he does, you're just drawn to him. You can't help it. You have to look at him, and watch him closely, and wait for the next insane thing he'll pull out of his sleeve. I swear if anyone was born to be a pirate, it was he.

I may be attracted to Jack, but I was never in love with him like I was with Will. However, Will was the only man I'd ever been involved with. Being the Governor's Daughter didn't give me much freedom to flirt or even associate with men aside from in the social circle. I hate to admit it, but I was curious. I wanted to know other men. I wanted to know what it was like to be romantic with them, to kiss them. Jack was right there, lusting after me, so I decided to take the opportunity to have a little fun. Will wasn't there. He wouldn't ever know. Plus, the Sparrow Charm on full blast is extremely hard to resist.

But I knew that I still loved Will. That thought was always in the back of my mind, despite how I tried to ignore it, even when Jack's lips were mere inches away from my own. The thought of how hurt Will would be if he knew how I'd behaved towards Jack made me a slight bit guilty, which was not at all normal for me. I said to myself that we were not married yet. Will Turner was not my overlord. If I wanted to flirt with the captain of the Black Pearl, then that was what I was going to do, and he couldn't stop me. But if Will saw what I was about to do now, would he ever forgive me? All I could do was hope that he wouldn't happen to look this way. I didn't have any other choice. Not if we wanted to stay alive.

If I was going to this, it was now or never. Swallowing my pride for the time being, I strode over to Jack. I began to talk a bit, trying to figure out how to do this. I was nervous as hell thought, that something would happen, and I would mess up. Finally I gave up all pretenses, moved forward, and kissed him.

The sensation was amazing. Jack's lips were rough, and tasted of alcohol, but he definitely knew how to kiss. I'd never felt anything like it before. All thoughts of anything but the man in front of me were immediately discarded, and I focused all my energies on him. He slid his tongue into my mouth and I felt a chill run up my spine. I wanted him, plain and simple. If he wanted to have me, right here, right now, I was his. Will had never kissed me like this.

Will. The though of my fiancé jolted me to my senses. Though Jack was still kissing me, I was once again reminded of what I was here to do. Deftly I grabbed the handcuffs hanging from the side of the mast and closed the empty cuff over Jack's wrist. At the noise, and probably the feeling of cold metal on his skin, Jack pulled away from me, and the look in his eyes burned. I didn't want to do it. I wanted him to place his lips back on mine and kiss me with everything he had. But that wasn't part of the plan. Instead, I told him exactly why I was doing this. I told him that I was sacrificing him so that the rest of us could live. And what does the bastard do? He smirks and calls me a pirate.

That sealed it. No words of romance, or goodbyes, or even a plea to let him go. Even in the face of death, all Jack Sparrow did was joke. I turned on my heel and, using all the power in me not to run, I went to the longboat. When the crew asked me where Jack was, I lied, saying that he had chosen to stay on the ship to save us. I was shocked that they actually believed me. But when I looked up at Will, the look on his face scared me. I knew then that he had seen us. There was too much emotion in his eyes, and not the romantic kind. I couldn't deal with that now though. Not just yet.

Underneath me I felt the boat begin to move. All I could do was stare limply at the wood on the bottom, wishing that this was a dream, and that I would wake up any minute. When we were quite far away, the boat stopped and all of us turned around simultaneously to look back. The Kraken was there, its tentacles wrapping slowly, damningly, around the Pearl's hull. I blinked away tears as we sat in silence watching the ship go down, along with one of the greatest men I have ever known. Soon he would be dead, and I had killed him.