A/N: Here's a new chapter! Hope you enjoy. Thanks for the lovely reviews.

Isabella Cherone...you are so close to knowing the whole "deception thing"!! I'll give you a hint...it's not "rules" but it's a type of rule. It's ONE of the rules. It applies in most relationships.

tinydancer69 I'm sorry if I was confusing. But it was neccessary! Let me give u a summary...the chart is telling them that the key to opening the chest has something to do with 'deception' but they can't figure out what that really means.

This chapter continues being a bit confusing (especially the part where they start talking about the past) so read carefully but things start clearing up from the next chapter.

luckyloser07 I'm glad u like the this fic. I really like Will so I tend to do him justice and she'll love him even through the end. But there'll be JEness too.

Rest of u! Thanks for the reviews. Now R&R

Elizabeth put the empty bottle back on the wooden table. "Hah! Told you I could drink the whole bottle in one breath without choking or burping."

"But I bet you can't drink three bottles of rum and then drink three bottles of milk without throwing up."

"Bring it on!"

They'd just spotted a cruise ship and were waiting in the distance for it to pass. All of the lanterns were blown out and The Black Pearl was hidden well against the black color of the night.

Meanwhile both the captain and the lady were entertaining them selves with wagering, drinking and talking.

"I'll go bring the milk than!"

Just then the Pearl's first mate showed up with a dutiful frown upon his face.

"You should be ashamed of yourselves! Both of you." he scolded them.

They laughed drunkenly.

"Bu' Mr.Gibbs I din' do anything this time...I swear!" he slurred with a seriouse expression, placing a hand on his heart. "It was all 'er fault."

"My fault?!" she shreiked and hit him over the head.

"Ouch! Tha' hurt."

"Sheep shit and all that other stuff too! Instead of gettin' darn wasted you should figure what ever it is the charts are trying to tell you."

They considered him for a moment.

Jack leaned towards her , using his hands to sheild his mouth from Gibbs as though sharing a secret with her. "As much as if pains me to say this...I think he's right."

"I think he is."

Jack seemed to resume his captain persona. "Mr.Gibbs?! Bring us some water and make sure no one disturbs us."

Gibbs saluted him. "Aye, aye captain!"

"Now! Let's see." he spread the charts in front of him once again and started turning them. He was surprised to find a moon and a sun forming on the opposite sides of the charts. Once again he saw the familiar words he'd seen before. Above the sun was written "She is sunrise." and under the moon was written "He is sundown.". He shook his head and turned the charts again until it showed Isla del desconocido.

"Deception...deception! What does that bloody mean? I was always rather good at decieving people but I didn' expect anyone to want to deceive me, ye know? Because why would anyone want to do such a thing?" he rambled on in a drunk manner.

"Even if we find out what it means...it can't be an object so how can it help us open the chest?"

"I believe as with most things regarding our old mystical era...the means to opening the chest are completely and utterly immaterial."

"No key Jack?" she asked teasingly.

"As strange as it may be, for if there's no key what's to open the chest eh? But no darlin', I don't think there's a key this time round. "

"That makes it that much harder."

"Aye, that it does."

They both stared at the charts for a long while. Frustrated that an answer wasn't emerging like it usually did.

Finally Jack rolled up the charts and stowed them away.

"What are you doing?! We should work on the charts!"

Jack rolled his eyes. "Luv," he began like a school teacher lecturing a dumb student. "I don't care about what Gibbs says, the fact is that when an answer doesn't present itself you don't go chasing after it like a man desperate for some lovin', you let it come to you. You let the answer flow around in the air until it's lonely and then...it just comes to your brilliant mind. That's how it always works for me."

"Are you talking about the answer or are you talking about ladies?"

"Both as a matter of fact. "Hard to get" is a game that proves affective in many cases." he informed her as he took a sip of rum. Suddenly his face brightened with an idea.

"What say you to a drinking game?"

"What kind of drinking game?!"

"Well I was jus' wondering about what you've been up to these past couple of hundred years and I though it unfair to just demand to know so I propose, we drink and drink! First to throw his...or her insides up is first to share a story. In exchange the other party shares a story too. Deal?!"

"Deal! But I must warn you that I've become an able drinker through the ages."

He grinned. "No doubt! But being that I was an able drinker to begin with I still have a head start on you."

"We'll see!" she said taking a huge sip of rum.

"We will." he agreed with a smirk, taking a larger sip than her.

After five minutes of drinking Jack spoke again. "How are you doing?" he said. He was careful to speak clearer than usual.

"I'm doing great. You?" she answered sounding equaly sober.

"Never better."

There was more silenece as they each finished their own bottle and uncorked another. The second bottle too was finished without another word. At which point Elizabeth started to feel very drunk indeed. Two bottles of rum in half an hour and an empty stomach...must be some sort of record. Still she refused to let herself feel sick. She just sipped some of the water Gibbs had left on the table.

"Oi! Luv you're not supposed to drink a thing bu' rum."

She grinned drunkenly. "You said nothing about that."

"Pirate!" Jack grinned.

"As you've said many times before." she snorted as he leaned forward to brush a strand of hair away from her eyes. She felt a rumbling sensation in her belly though she wasn't sure if it was because of the encounter or the alcohol.

"You can never state the truth too many times lass." he grinned as he tucked the hair behind her ear distractedly.

"And here I was thinking that stating the obviouse was useless. Sometimes you're too much for me Captain Jack Sparrow!" she struggled to get the words out as the tingling sensation in her stomach grew stronger.

"Now! Lizzie, Lizzie! I thought you like our games. Lay back and enjoy it, remember that a soul affraid of losing never learns to play."

She grinned trying to silence the sensation in her stomach with another swig of rum. She leaned close to him. "A soul immune to losing never enjoys the game."

He cuckled. She could feel his breath against her lips. She could smell the rum too. The smell of alcohol in his breath some how made her feel a bit sick.

"Well said!" he mumbled huskily. She struggled to chuckle but failed horribly due to the sick feeling that was growing in her belly.

"Lizzie?" he called after her as she rushed to lean over the railing and throw up all the rum she'd consumed. Realizing that she'd finally buckled he grinned and poured her some water. Sitting back she wiped her mouth and drank the water he offered her with a mumbled "thank you".

"I'm waiting luv. Tell me a story." he said still smirking.

"You're ruthless!" she mumbled weakly but managed a smile.

"Pretty much. Now tell me."

"Ok! I'll tell you about the time I was in the second world war-"

"What?!! You were in the war? Oh of course! What am I thinking? There's a war and Elizabeth bloody Swann's not there leading the battle? Not likely! Strange we didn't meet though." he grinned.

"You were in the war too?! How did you-"

"Tsk. Tsk. It's your turn to talk, not mine."

"Very well. As I was saying...the year was 1940 when I joined the Royal Navy under a false name. Women weren't allowed to take an active role in the war until 1941 and even then they weren't more than telegraphists, nurses and occassionaly pilots so I took upon myself to use my power of immortality to protect the merchant ships crossing the Atlantic from the German battleships-"

"Oh dear god! You protected merchant ships?! Didn't I teach you anything? Think of it! The pirate king herself aiding merchant ships instead of raiding them."

"I saw it my duty to help my country so I made everyone believe I was a man which was very difficult-"

"But at least you had expirience." he grinned.

"Our job was partly escorting unarmed ships with valuable cargo and partly protecting the English Channel against German invasion but I was part of the land army for a while as well. Harsh times really! I was aboard the HMS Royal Oak, a revenge class battle ship, when there was a submarine attack in the middle of the night and the ship started sinking. Fortunately there was a smaller vessel called Daisy2 attached to the Royal Oak and the commander of Daisy2 managed to cut it free before the Royal Oak sank. Many of the men were saved by Daisy2. But I'll never forget the hundreds of men wearing barely more than their nightclothes as they swam through the surface covered with fuel oil." she paused, looking lost in her own world as the memories came rushing back. "The oil made swimming in the chilling water that much harder. I watched so many men drown in the thick substance...I felt the sensation of my lungs filling with oil and then emptying again. I felt death that night without dying."

She looked rather shaken. She didn't even look at Jack, she just stared at the table, lost in her own thoughts.

The way she talked actually got Jack feeling for another human being besides himself.He lay a hand on her shoulder but he didn't pity her. He didn't say he was sorry for her because he wasn't, because a strong woman like her didn't need anyone's pitty. Because all he felt for her was awe, respect and compassion but he would never pity her.

"Elizabeth, I'm-you're very brave." he smiled genuinely.

"Thank you." she smiled back. "It means a lot coming from the man who looked the kraken in the face."

"Ah! But the women who left her friend to the beastie and had to live with the guilt was just as brave." he grinned teasingly but he actually meant it too.

She chuckled. "I believe it's your turn to entertain me."

"Well your form of entertainment was rather grim and sadning but I intend to carry it on in a lighter note."

"Do tell."

"Have you ever met Poseidon?"

Elizabeth shook her head "no" with wide eyes. "And you have? He's real?"

"As real as Calypso! Well I had this thing with his daughter Rhode-"

"You what?!"

"Well ye see, after getting me ship and crew back and marooning Barbossa we arrived at Aqua De Vida aye? So as we got there I found a beautiful woman...a beautiful human woman might I add, all alone on the island. So being the quite charming man that I am ...certain things happened between us that are quite shameful to mention. Later I found that she was Rhode daughter of Poseidon who'd turned herself into a human so she can...perform acts of seduction on yours sincerely."

Elizabeth was smiling with amusement. "I gather Poseidon wasn't too happy?!"

"No! Not at all! After he appeared on the deck of the Pearl to inform me of what had actually happened and who that woman was I mentioned that he should consider it a blessing that his daughter had such great taste and that it was an honor to have such interactions with Captain Jack Sparrow...not every young lady is so lucky."

"I'm only to assume his sense of humor was none existant?!"

"Aye! So he wanted to kill me but... of course he couldn't. Then he wanted to take me as slave and hand me over to Hades in the underworld." he shivered at the thought. "But he couldn't take an immortal man away from earth either. He then decided to destroy the Pearl with one of those storms of his. Quite nasty he was."

Elizabeth gasped. "What did you do?! How did you stop him?"

"Only what I do best!"

"You ran?!"

"No!"

"You confused him with talking like you usually do and then you ran?!"

"No! I bargained. Cut meself a deal."

"What deal?"

"Ever heard of Aphrodite?!"

"Goddess of love, lust and beauty?"

"Aye! She was rissen from the sea and I found it interesting to note that she holds dear Myrtle, dove, sparrow and swan. Just thought you should know." he said, putting a teasing emphasize on the two last birds. But she chose to ignore that. "Well she had put a spell on Poseidon so he'd fall in love with her. But he couldn't persue her because she was Hephaestus' wife who was the god of smithing...a rather jealous blacksmith god who would humiliate any other god who lay a hand on his wife. Though Hephaestus had no power on humans so Poseidon was looking for a man who could charm Aphrodite into lifting the spell she'd cast on him."

"Poseidon wanted you to charm Aphrodite and get her to lift the love spell she'd placed on him?"

"Aye! So I found Aphrodite -though it be better to say she found me- and used my tested tactics on her. And in the blink of an eye she was telling me how charming and passionate I was. As we were about to go our seperate ways I asked her for a parting gift and she agreed to lift the spell from Poseidon. In return Poseidon promised never to harm me and always to be my protector on my voyages on sea."

"Wow! That's hard to believe."

"It's all true luv. You can ask Gibbs if ye want."

She chuckled. "He would confirm it if you said you'd dived into a valcano."

"Believe what you want but the truth is that I did have steamy encounter with two beautiful godesses! You jealous?"

She grinned. "Not a chance."

She watched the sun brightening the horizon slowly.
"Seems like you've had a rather exciting 200 years." she whispered.

"Not like you yourself have had peace and quiet luv."

She lay a hand under her chin as he yawned. "Sleep sounds good?" he asked.

"Extremely! And what of our sleeping arrangements? I'm not sleeping with the crew!"

"I know you're not! They would've bragged to me about it if you were."

The comment earned him a hard smack on the head.

"Ow! Your sense of humor is worse than Poseidon's! At least he laughed when I told 'im his beard looked better than Davy Jones'." he said rather seriousely."And as far as the 'sleeping arrangements' go. You and I'll share the hammock and the bed in me cabin."

"Who'll take the bed tonight?! Ladies first?"

"No! We'll toss a coin."

He took out a coin from his pocket and tossed it in the air, caught it and smacked it on the back of his other hand.

"You call ." he offered.

"Heads!"

He took his hand off the coin. "Tails!"

"Damn!"

"May I escort you to my cabin young missy?" he smirked as he extended his arm.

She ignored his teasing tone. "Most certainly." she said, taking his arm as they walked to the cabin.

She took her coat off and flopped down on the hammock. It was uncomfortable, it hurt her back and she hadn't slept on one since she was travelling on a merchant ship with her son right after Will's death. She shifted uncomfortably trying to find the best position.

Jack looked over at her from the bed. He sighed.

"Luv, get up! You can have the bed tonight." he got up from the bed. He hated himself for being so nice but he couldn't let her toss from side to side the whole night without getting a wink of sleep.

"No, I'm fine. It's not like I haven't slept in worse places before!"

"Not recently, you haven't! Get up. Captain's orders."

She sprang to her feet reluctantly but in the bottom of her heart she thanked Jack silently.She lay down on the bed as Jack took the hammock.

"Thank you." she whispered.

"Now where have I heard that before?" Jack replied before they both drifted off to sleep.

Like it?! So far so good? Let me know but be kind. BTW sorry for all the talk of the past but it's both important to the characters and it also sets the base for another fic I'm going to do that's associated with this one.

All the historical and mythalogical facts are true (lol! I'm a mythology buff) except for the part about Poseidon being in love with Aphrodite and using Jack to lift the curse.

Next update comes depending on the reviews!