Thank you to everyone who reviewed, and once again I don't own anything that I don't own so nobody sue me! If anyone tries, well, let's just say I have a very good friend with an anger management problem...

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A Hard Man To Predict

Several days later, the daily unpleasantness of the Tortuga dawn is forcing itself on the eyes of Captain Jack Sparrow. His tired and mainly hung-over crew are making the ship ready to set sail, under his not-so-watchful eye. At present, he is following the progress of the merchant vessel that is coming into port.

That kind of ship only ever takes food of some kind as a cargo, nothing of much interest to a pirate, but it is not the ship itself that he is watching. It is the figure standing on the prow of the ship that has caught his eye. As the ship draws closer, the figure comes more into focus. A girl in a black dress, with her dark hair blown back by the wind, and - Jack rubs his eyes just in case they are misleading him – around her head is tied a red bandanna just like the one he himself is wearing.

Something in the far reaches of his brain kicks him very hard, but he can't place the memory. All he knows is that he has seen this girl before, somewhere, long ago. He is disrupted from these thoughts by one of the crew, asking whereabouts some crates should go now the main hold is full. Jack shrugs the question away, and goes back to work.

-------

Faye gets off the ship, and looks around her. She wrinkles her nose at the stench, and tries to ignore it. She can see people already scurrying about, carrying baskets, and these people have the word 'maid' written all over them. Faye sighs. She needs a job if she is to stay here for any length of time, because she doesn't know when, or if, her newly acquired father will be back again. She has no idea how to go about actually getting a job, seeing as how she more or less grew up into her last one, so she simply walks further into the town, waiting for inspiration to strike.

She hasn't gone far when she spots one of these women outside a tavern, sweeping the steps. It's a difficult task as she has to sweep around several unconscious men, and as Faye draws nearer, she can see that the woman is crying.

'Excuse me,' Faye begins, 'I'm sorry if this is rude, but are you alright?'

The woman seems startled to be spoken to, and when she looks up Faye sees that she has cuts across her face, and a black eye.

'No, I'm not alright. And it's not rude, that's the nicest thing anyone's said to me in weeks.'

'Do you work here, then?'

'Yes,' the woman sniffs. 'I want to leave but I have nowhere else to go.'

'I'm sorry for asking so many questions, but what happened to your face?'

The woman shrugs. 'I got caught up in a bar brawl two nights ago, and the night before that as well, when I was clearing tables. Honestly, the brutes that come here need to learn the difference between a woman for sale and a woman who just wants to take their glass back to the kitchen.'

Faye doesn't know what to say, and there is an uncomfortable silence for a moment.

'Why not go and work somewhere else?'

'I tried. They're all like this around here. But anyway, why are you here? This is not place for a girl like you.'

'I know. But I have to wait for...someone.'

The woman gives her a wry smile. 'Believe me; your sweetheart won't take any notice of you here. Get back on the ship you came from, and go home.'

The woman returns to her sweeping, but Faye catches her by the arm and drags her attention back.

'Listen, I understand that this is a bad place, but I can take care of myself. I need a job, and if everywhere is as bad as everywhere else here, then I might as well not walk any further. Do they need help here?'

She stares at Faye in disbelief. 'After all I've said, and after looking at me, you still want to work here?'

'Yes,' Faye states simply.

'Don't say I didn't warn you. I'll take you inside to see the management – her name's Scarlet, and for heaven's sake don't ever do anything to annoy her. I'm Lydia by the way.'

'Well, I owe you a favour Lydia.'

'No you don't,' Lydia says as she herds Faye inside 'you'll be cursing me for ever having allowed you inside here in a week or two. What's your name, anyway?'

Faye is ready for this question. She has no intention of telling anyone her real name, and there is another one that she found more fitting for her in her new change of lifestyle.

'Phoenix,' she tells a disbelieving Lydia, 'my name is Phoenix.'

'Unusual name...'

Phoenix, neé Faye, smiles. 'I had unusual parents.'

-----

A fortnight later, halfway to Mexico, Jack knows where he has seen that girl before. He turns the ship around, and heads back to Tortuga, much to the chagrin and general confusion of his crew. He prays that she will still be there, the girl with the phoenix.

-----

Faye is back to thinking of herself as plain old Faye again. Down on her hands and knees scrubbing at the stairs for the fourteenth morning in a row, she appreciates the irony that she left life as a maid in a wealthy house, and is now a maid in a wealthy whorehouse. Lydia is generally is too busy to take much notice of her – a situation that Faye knows all too well from years with Susie. Faye does her best not to feel slighted by this, and convinces herself that it's all for the best, really.

For the first time since she actually started earning money, Faye is spending it on a regular basis. Tortuga has a good many armouries, and Faye is building up an impressive weapon collection. After her first night in Tortuga, she sleeps with a loaded pistol under her pillow, despite the fact that she has only the haziest idea of how to reload it. After her second night in Tortuga, when Scarlet made her work in the bar, Faye shortened her dresses, bought a pair of boots, and has a long dagger safely tucked into each one at all times.

The girls take it in turns to run the risk of working in the bar serving drinks, but despite Ajedrez, the well-muscled Spaniard that Scarlet hired to keep order, there is a brawl every single night, sometimes more than once. Tonight, Faye remembers with a grimace as she moves down to the next stair, is her turn.

-----

It is not as bad as the first night she worked in this ninth circle of hell that masquerades as a tavern. It is worse. There are more people, and the stench of sweat and beer and blood is almost overpowering. Faye is ordered to and fro by the 'ladies' she works for and their companions, and gives thanks at least that nothing too awful has happened yet.

Unfortunately for Faye, however, it is just about to. Faye has two tankards of beer in each hand, and is making for a cluster of men in the far corner of the room, but on the way she trips over the dress of one of the younger whores, and in some complicated way manages to drop all four tankards as well as throw beer in the face of the woman's companion. He stands up, dislodging the woman – her name is Cate, Faye remembers from somewhere – and snarls at Faye.

He is tall, wide, and stinks like a sewer. His face is a crisscross of scars, and one of his ears is half missing. Almost casually, he hits Faye hard across the face with the back of his hand. She feels as if her eye is about to explode, but at the same time she feels a red hot rage build up inside and fill her with loathing for the detestable creature. Just at the moment her blood boils, the man laughs.

'Stupid little'- He gets no further.

Faye rises from the depths, and with all the force of her anger and disappointment at the last pointless two weeks of drudgery, he knee makes contact with his most vulnerable spot. He looks surprised for a moment, and Phoenix, no longer dreary Faye the put-upon maidservant, takes advantage of this to hit him as hard as she can in the stomach. He is drunk she realises, or else he would probably have been able to tear her head from her shoulders.

He doubles up, and she steps smartly around him and brings her fist down on the back of his neck then on the precise spot on his thigh that she knows will deaden all feelings in his leg. Deprived of balance, the man falls sideways onto the floor, still conscious, but surprised and somewhat humiliated. She whips the dagger out of her right boot and presses it against his throat.

The man tries to get up, but only succeeds in drawing a spot of blood on his own throat.

'As soon as you can walk again,' Phoenix tells him in a pleasant voice 'get out. You can come back when you learn how to behave.'

She stands up slowly and steps away from him.

'In fact,' she says as she sees Ajedrez looking on incredulously, 'my good friend here will help you out. Won't you, Ajedrez?'

Ajedrez nods, still in amazement, and hauls the incapacitated pirate out into the street. Twirling her dagger in her fingers, it is only now that Phoenix realises that the room is silent and everyone is watching her. Scarlet is making her way over, and Phoenix awaits the tirade.

'Ordinarily,' Scarlet tells her, 'you'd be out of here before you could blink, but ordinarily, no one could beat that man in a fight.'

Phoenix doesn't know what to say. 'Aren't you going to send me away?'

'I think, after that little display, you might be quite a crowd draw. From now on, you work down here every night and if anyone hits you, you give as good as you get. Understand?'

Phoenix nods, unsure whether to be pleased that has still has a job, or terrified that she may now have to fight for her life every night.

'Good.' Scarlet looks at this girl, with her boots and her bandanna, and forces down a sensation of déjà vu. No matter. It's a risk having her of course, but if there's a chance she might bring in more customers, it's a risk worth taking. 'Now though, go and sweep the upstairs hallway – you can't be seen wiping up beer spills tonight. And please, stop waving that dagger around. It's unnerving.'

Phoenix obediently tucks her dagger back into her boot, and goes to fetch a broom.

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