Thank you to all my lovely reviewers and I'm sorry this has been such a long time in coming, but the story underwent some rather drastic rewriting due to a lack of plot. I'm very sorry and it (probably) won't happen again. Oh, and I DO own POTC – hey did anyone else see that pig fly past? I am deeply disappointed about the lack of Oscar for Johnny...excuse me while I go and cry...read the chapter until I get back.

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A Hard Man To Predict

In a film, it is easy to show the passage of time, by, say, pages tearing themselves from a calendar or a tree changing with the seasons, or clouds flickering across the sky. With writing it's a little more difficult, but just imagine the calendar, the tree and the clouds and it has the same effect, more or less.

Many years have passed since Faye saw Jack Sparrow swim across the bay to the Black Pearl, and in that time, much has changed. Everything has changed in fact. Miss Elizabeth Swann has become Mrs Elizabeth Turner, and when she moved into a new house that the Governor had had built for her and Will, Faye and Susie moved too. Susie is now the housekeeper, and Faye is Elizabeth's personal maid.

Stannard also moved with the Turners, as the head butler. Susie and Stannard were married not long after Elizabeth and Will, so Faye does finally have an uncle. And yet, both these marriages have something sad in them for Faye. Susie is now much too busy to really have time for her anymore, not that she ever had much time anyway, but Faye feels overlooked much more now than she ever did. As for the lady of the house, well, Faye has lost her childhood friend. Her only friend, in fact, as growing up in the Governor's house left her isolated.

Elizabeth has children of her own, two boys. It is part of Faye's job to look after them and see that they don't get into too much mischief. Jack, the elder son by two years, was named after Faye's idol, and like his namesake, he has an almost magnetic attraction to mischief. Edward, the younger son, is a chubby bouncing four year old who resembles his grandfather the Governor in almost every respect, and is utterly devoted to Faye. Faye loves them both, and tries hard to keep them happy and out of trouble, but is very conscious of her failings at bringing up children.

As for Will, he now owns the smithy where he was an apprentice. He has an apprentice too, Matthew, who is only a few years older than Faye. Between Faye and Matthew, though, there is something of a secret.

All this time Faye has been outwardly the perfect servant. She does as she's told, is clean and tidy, and learns things easily. She has less freedom now than she did when she was younger, but her habit of early rising for those few liberating hours each morning has not left her. At dawn, she gets dressed and heads down to the smithy where Matthew waits for her.

This morning, however, she is ahead of time, and finds the smithy still locked. She sits down on the steps to wait for Matthew, and watches the sun come up over the town. It is not long before she sees him coming down the street with the keys in his hand. Faye gets up, and he quickens his pace towards her.

'You're a little late, aren't you?' she says as he reaches her.

He makes a face at her, and goes up the steps to unlock the smithy door. He holds it open for her, and she curtseys in a gesture of mock respect. They both laugh, and go inside.

Matthew starts up the forge, and Faye feeds the aged donkey while she waits for him. She likes being here, she feels at home. There is none of the stiff formality that exists between some people at the Turners' house, and she can relax without worrying whether a bell will ring and she'll have to go and clear up Edward's latest breakage, or make Miss Elizabeth something to eat.

'Alright, I'm done,' Matthew calls to her, and sure enough the forge is roaring.

Faye takes two swords off the wall where they hang, and throws one to Matthew. Casually, he reaches out and catches it almost expertly.

'Very good, I'm impressed. '

'I had to catch it or else it would have sliced my ear off.'

He moves to face her, with the shining blade held out in front of him.

Faye runs her sword down his, enjoying the noise it makes. 'Only a little,' she says, and grins.

The two are well matched. Will taught Matthew to fight when he took him on as an apprentice, and Matthew began teaching Faye after they met when she was sent to the smithy on an errand. That was several years ago, and most mornings since they have practised against each other.

Matthew fights honourably, just like his master taught him to, but Faye has adapted these teachings and has become much more of a dirty fighter. She sees no reason for there to be rules, and this simply means that Matthew must be very much on his toes during these morning sessions. He already has a livid scar on his left shoulder from last year when Faye got overenthusiastic.

They have a complex set of rules for deciding who wins, which Faye rarely pays attention to. Questions would be asked if either of them were found to have serious wounds, as they were when Faye stabbed Matthew, so the concept of first blood to be drawn is out. Today, fortune favours Faye. Matthew ends up flat on his back with Faye's sword at his throat, and his own sword kicked away across the floor.

'You cheated.'

Faye smirks. 'You always say that.'

He hauls himself to his feet. 'That's because you always cheat.'

Faye shrugs. 'I should go back to the house.'

'I'll see you tomorrow?'

'Of course.'

There is an awkward pause, the same one that there is every morning. Matthew looks at Faye, and wonders if she knows how he feels. Maybe tomorrow he'll tell her. Blue eyes meet brown, then brown cut away. Both Faye and Matthew pretend the pause didn't exist.

Faye turns, and heads out of the door into Port Royal's morning. All the way home she thinks about the sandy-haired blue-eyed Matthew, and about the way he looks at her. She wonders if he knows how she feels. Maybe tomorrow she'll tell him.

Once she gets back to the house, she sneaks up to her room and washes again. She checks herself in her mirror quickly, and pulls the covers up over her bed. The room is getting dusty; she should really clean it a bit. She runs her finger along the mantelpiece- it's filthy, and the phoenix is covered in a layer of grime. The phoenix... Memories come back to Faye, all in a rush. 'Legendary Pirates', the jail cell, the hanging, the escape, her red scarf...What happened to the scarf?

Faye dashes over to her dresser, and goes through ever drawer until, finally, at the back of the bottom drawer she finds it. It is a little crumpled, but she shakes it out, and on impulse, ties it around her head. She looks at herself in the mirror again, and wonders if she'll get away with it. Probably, she decides, and she moves out of the door, and down to start another day as a housemaid.

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I really thought that poor lonely Faye needed some kind of a love interest who would suit her. Hey, an apprentice and a pirate (of sorts) fighting in the smithy...hmm, déjà vu...