Disclaimer: The Mouse owns lots, I own little. Also, there is an allusion here to Star Trek: TOS. That belongs in spirit to Roddenberry and to whoever is in charge of Star Trek stuff these days.

For the Readers' Consideration… a few quotes from Pirates of the Caribbean, spoken either by or about Captain Jack Sparrow:

"Me? I'm dishonest. And a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly… stupid." Jack then proceeds to do something either expectably dishonest or honestly stupid, depending on how you look at it, in freeing Will and starting a fight with Barbossa. …."Me? I'm dishonest." …

"She's safe, just like I promised… So we're all men of our word, really…"

"I think he's telling the truth…"

"Of the two of us, I'm the only one who hasn't committed mutiny. So it's my word we'll be trusting." Although Jack scarcely intends to fulfill his end of the bargain anyway in shouting the name back to Barbossa…

So which is he? Honest or dishonest?

Chapter 19: Dishonesty and Suspicion

Jack had fully intended to take Gwen back to the island that night and renew their search without Jacobs along to sidetrack them. But now Jack was beginning to question Gwen's motives. Something about her didn't set right in his mind, was troubling him.

When the lass had first pieced together, while they were sitting in the Turners' parlor, that her family had conspired against her and that her own fortune was basically forfeit to their greed, she had seemed appropriately shocked.

But now that he thought about it, she had never been even close to being hysterical. Hadn't shown any of the overt signs of devastation he should have expected from a young well-bred lady upon discovering her life and her future were in ruins.

There was no denying that she had come with him far too willingly after that. And while, at the time, it had seemed she didn't really realize her part in bring him to this particular island- considering recent developments, he couldn't quite let himself believe that to be entirely coincidental.

Above and beyond that, she had consciously and purposefully advanced to a physical relationship with him far faster than he would have done. In fact, he had not actually had any original intentions of violating her in any way at all, despite that first kiss he had stolen. Lapse of judgment and impulse control was all.

Jack knew perfectly well that, despite all appearances, Gwen could not possibly be interested in abandoning her noble virtues solely for the fun of doing it, as he had allowed himself to believe she had. Considering the high class she had come from, he should have realized before now that something was amiss in her behavior. He was a pirate, an errant ne'er-do-well with morals of doubtful worth and a propensity for drinking and singing rowdy songs. It hardly made sense for her to go willingly into the unsanctified arms of a scoundrel like himself.

That is, it made no sense unless she had some darker motive. And that was precisely what was troubling him the most. It was easy enough for him to accept that someone would try to deceive him. In the sort of life he lived, it was to be expected. Had happened plenty of times. Some more hurtfully than others. Well, he wouldn't think about that.

Anyway, the fact that it seemed Gwen was a culprit of deception made no difference. But he couldn't fathom what it was she wanted, what she was trying to use him to get to. Or where Jacobs figured into all of this. How was Jacobs still alive, what had really happened to the ship and crew, what did Gwen know about it and why, and how did the compass fit in? Perhaps there was something about the treasure that hadn't made it into legend. Something that perhaps Gwen, mysteriously, knew about and wasn't telling him. The same way that there was something mystical about her that, amongst other things, made his compass behave so eccentrically…

The door to his cabin opened, and Jack barely glanced at Gwen when she entered his cabin, one hand pressed to her collarbone, her eyes shadowed and shifty.

She was trying to recount when she had last seen her locket. She knew she had had it when she first came aboard the Pearl a few weeks ago. Jack had pointedly inspected it then.

But she'd also had it later. She distinctly remembered toying with it in those long hours when she had been locked in the brig on that first day. So he hadn't stolen it, at least not then.

She tried to remember whether or not she'd had it in Port Royal, but couldn't seem to bring the memories into cohesiveness.

Gwen frowned, putting away her wandering thoughts for a moment and focusing on Jack.

He was leaning back in his chair, his booted feet resting irreverently up on his desk. In one hand he held a tankard of rum, which he was staring into, or perhaps staring through, with a dubious but hopeful expression, as though he expected for some sought-for answer or solution to present itself momentarily if he just contemplated long enough. His other hand toyed with his compass, flipping it open and then closed again with a smart clap, and then open and shut, and open...

"What is it?" Gwen asked, coming out of her reverie enough to notice that looked just as pensive as she was.

Jack's eyes shifted slowly to her, as though it were a more difficult task than it really was.

"What's what, luv?" he asked blandly, tilting his head back to meet her gaze more evenly.

Gwen perched on the edge of the table.

"Why so pensive?" she asked. "What are you trying to sort out?"

"There's treasure out there somewhere," Jack said, careful not to drop hints of what he had really been considering or that he was onto her deception.

"Under how much water? You honestly think you can retrieve it, even if you could find it?"

"Ye're a fine one to try to discourage me, aren't ye?" Jack grinned lopsidedly. "Unless you've got a coin-purse with quite a lot of gold hidden somewhere under that dress-" here he paused to rake his gaze licentiously down her body- "which I doubt… then I would think it would be in your best interest to help me find that blasted treasure hoard. You owe me."

Gwen pursed her lips at his reminder of the silly ransom. "I hardly think I owe you anything, Sir Pirate, since I've got no family to be returned to and since you haven't quite done your duty in preserving my innocence."

Jack started to protest to her teasing, but she cut him off.

"Besides which… Bill told us it sank. It could be anywhere around this entire island. And unless you know a mermaid, or can convince some of your old sea-turtle friends to help you, I'm anxious to see how you're going to manage raising it from the sea-floor."

She had obviously been talking to Gibbs, hearing some of the older man's tellings of the legends of Captain Jack Sparrow. But Jack hardly noted this.

"'Bill,' is it?" he asked, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

"Jacobs," she clarified, as though she thought perhaps he had forgotten the name of their unexpected guest. "Oh, come on, Jack," she said when his expression didn't change any, "it doesn't mean that I'm… well, he's old enough to be my grandfather!"

Jack raised his hands, surrendering the point to her. He had implied that she might be becoming overly familiar with the old man, but he certainly didn't mean it that way. He made a face at the thought, but she continued without commenting on it.

"He played several hands with us this afternoon."

"Oh? And how did he fare?" Jack asked, sounding casually indulgent, but truly waiting to see if she might slip and accidentally reveal some clue as to what she really knew about Jacobs and what her plans might be.

"He won," Gwen said simply.

"I thought you were the resident champion," he observed.

Gwen merely stared at him for a moment, intrigued, though not necessarily surprised, that he somehow kept track of the gaming below decks. "I just get lucky," she shrugged, glad that Jack hadn't just heard her complaining about Jacobs' luck being greater than hers. When he didn't respond, she went on, "In the last round I had five Jacks, but it wasn't enough."

"Five?" he asked, lifting an eyebrow. He restrained himself from suggesting to her that one Jack was often more than enough.

"Don't look at me like that. I didn't cheat," Gwen insisted.

"I never said ye did," Jack answered, though he was intrigued by her defending herself so quickly.

"Deuces were wild, and I landed a pair of them. But Bill had five kings. No one else was left to challenge him, so he won. And it was also time for the evening meal," she finished, helping herself to the offerings of the nightly food tray.

After a moment Gwen piped up again, sounding more helpful, "What are you intending to do about getting your treasure, then?"

"It's not underwater," Jack said. He kept a sharp eye on her to see if any of his suspicions, as he shared them, solicited any unwarranted reaction from her. "I think it's somewhere on that island. Jacobs wanted to go back for something before we left-" the way that Gwen impulsively bit her lower lip at this wasn't lost on Jack- "and I think it had something to do with his hoard." So there was something she was hiding from him.

Gwen wondered why she hadn't told Jack about the little slip of paper with its scrawled writing. She'd completely forgotten about it during the day due to all the excitement of the castaway being brought aboard the ship. She wondered if she should tell him now, but for some reason, she found herself remaining silent.

Jack let his feet fall to the floor and set his half-drunk rum down on his desk. Flipping open his compass as he stood, he took Gwen's hand and turned it palm-up. Gwen immediately regretted keeping the note secret from him as the compass-needle spun around to point… not at the note stuffed down the front of her dress, as it had been pointing at earlier, but off toward the island visible as a dusky shadow on the water in the sunset-scene outside the window.

"Ye see?" Jack said, pretending he hadn't noticed the signs of edginess she was giving off. "He was lying."

Gwen seemed to consider this for a moment. Then, as though arriving at some conclusion, she spoke up keenly, "I wonder if he took it then, if he's so dishonest..."

Jack's eyes narrowed at her. Was she trying to throw him off by accusing Jacobs? She was familiarly calling him "Bill." Were they, in fact, conspiring together, and she was trying accuse him to make it appear that she didn't trust the man?

Gwen's hand rose reflexively to her bare neck. "I don't know when he did it," she went on, "but I can't think where else it can be. He must have stolen my locket at some point today."

Jack only stared at her for a long moment with an unreadable expression on his face.

"No, he didn't," he said at length.

Gwen's hand fell slack against her breast. "Well, where else can it be?" she asked, very deliberately and pointedly.

Jack frowned at the sudden shift from his being suspicious of her to her being suspicious of him. But while he was trying to hide his misgivings from her, she was confronting him. His frown deepened to a scowl as he fought some vague feeling of conviction at the wary look she was giving him, and he realized he hadn't seen her give him quite that same mistrusting look since the first night he had forced her to accompany him at his evening meal.

Not answering her, he hesitated for a moment before crossing to the trunk which sat on the floor at the end of the table. With a sigh, he hefted the lid open and began rummaging around inside. Gwen caught a glimpse of what looked like a few changes of clothes, some books, and -

Jack dropped the heavy lid before she could see too much inside, letting it close itself with a thunk. "Thought ye would've gone through me things by now," he said dismissively. "I would have."

He wavered, not immediately giving to her what he'd dug out of his trunk. "Quod rape potes, nihil restitue," he muttered, mostly to himself.

"I suggest for the sake of your virtutem, you do give it back," Gwen said scathingly. "You forget, I can understand you."

Reluctantly, Jack took her hand again, frowning sullenly as he placed in it her locket as well as the pair of emerald-crusted hair-combs she'd worn on the day she'd boarded the Pearl.

Gwen stared at her returned jewelry for a moment. Closing her hand around the pieces, she then looked up at him with a reprimand screwing her features into a frown.

"Jack Sparrow-"

"Ye got 'em back, luv," Jack interrupted grumpily. She was making him feel like a delinquent youth, which he despised. He was a captain. He could make his own decisions without having someone trailing along behind, telling him whether he was behaving appropriately or not.

Now she was fixing him with a raised-eyebrow, reproachful look.

"I wouldn't have stole 'em from ye now," he said, scowling.

"Then why did you steal them then?"

"Because they were there."

Gwen let her breath out in an exasperated sigh, putting her empty hand on her hip. "And how would that be different from now?"

Jack glowered at her. "Because now I know ye would do this," he said, gesturing at her hostile posture. "And make me give them back."

"And you were accusing another man of being a dishonest old fool!"

"'Ey. Ye can trust me," Jack asserted. He almost added that in spite of her concern over her own missing property, she was the one acting suspiciously.

But before the accusation could slip out, there was an insistent pounding at his door.

"Cap'n!"

Jack didn't answer it immediately, staring sulkily at Gwen. He didn't trust Jacobs. Didn't really trust Gwen anymore. Gwen seemed to be wondering if she should be trusting him, even. Why was his life always getting so bloody complicated?

"Cap'n!"

"What is it, Gibbs?" he called aggravatedly as he crossed to the door and flung it open.

"It's Tom," Gibbs informed him gravely.

"Not again," Jack groaned. He was feeling in no mood to settle a dispute between Cannon Tom and another crewman right now.

Gibbs shook his head. "'E's dead, Jack."

Latin Guide for this Chapter:

Quod rape potes, nihil restitue. (kwohd RAH-pay po-TAYS, nuh-HILL res-TIT-yoo-ay): "Take what you can, give nothing back."

Virtutem (WEER-too-tem): Translates roughly as "virtue." However, our concept of virtue and the Romans' concept of virtue differ a bit. To a Roman, the word conveyed character, ability, courage, all sorts of traits associated with being manly and masculine… Yes, Gwen is referring to Jack's "manliness." You can translate that allusion yourselves.