Me and my 'creative support team' (Katrina, whose birthday is TODAY (25TH
March) so everyone say happy birthday to the co-author of this wonderful
story!) are having some plot problems. We know what's going to happen, more
or less, except for what's going to happen with Faye/Phoenix and Matthew.
Will they get married; will Faye decided she wants to be a pirate; will
they end up hating each other? Anything I/we use will obviously be credited
to you. Anything (almost) goes!
***
A Hard Man To Predict
It takes Phoenix no time at all to pack. All that she has acquired in Tortuga are her boots, her daggers, her pistol, a few other assorted bits of weaponry, and an outfit of men's clothing. She bought this last because she thought it might be more convenient, but she felt like such a fool wearing it that she simply consigned it to the bottom of her case. She takes it with her though, just in case it comes in handy.
Jack buys off Scarlet with a handful of assorted coins of various nations, and all that remains is for Phoenix to seek out Lydia and say goodbye. She finds her cleaning a window on one of the upper floors.
'Lydia? Are you busy?'
'Well, a bit, but'- Lydia catches sight of the case – 'where are you going?'
'I'm leaving. My father is taking me away.'
'Your father?'
She gives a potted version of the truth, which still leaves Lydia astounded.
'You're joking! Captain Jack Sparrow?'
'Yes. And I'm leaving with him right now. Goodbye Lydia. Good luck.'
Lydia smiles. 'The same to you, Phoenix. I see what you meant about unusual parents.'
With that, Phoenix turns and leaves her last semblance of stability, and goes downstairs to where Jack is waiting.
-----
'So,' Phoenix begins as the two of them are sat on opposite sides of the small table in his cabin 'where should we start?'
'What's your name, love? You never did tell me.'
'Phoenix.'
'Is that what they called you at the Governor's house?'
She shakes her head. 'They called me Faye.'
'Why the change?'
'Because Faye was a boring little girl who scrubbed floors for a living. I don't want to be her anymore.'
Jack nods, he can understand wanting to be someone else.
Phoenix leans forward over the table.
'Tell me about what happened with you and my mother,' she demands. 'My aunt told me a lot, but really I think you're in a better position to fill me in on the details.'
'You're very impatient aren't you?'
'Yes. I am also very curious.'
The story pours out into Phoenix's waiting ears. Their meeting, their time together, and how he only realised he was in love with her mother at the moment he had to leave her. He tells Phoenix how, nearly a year later, he came back to find her mother, but then had to give her up for lost.
'When I saw you in that cell the night before I was going to be hanged, I couldn't believe it. Even without the phoenix, just the way you looked...'
She smiles a little at this. 'I know, I look like you.'
'No, it wasn't that. There was just something about you that reminded me of Maggie so much, it almost took my breath away. But tell me something, why didn't you let me out of that cell?'
'It...it never occurred to me.'
He raises an eyebrow in disbelief, but accepts her answer and moves on.
'You have to tell me some things now, love. First of all, how did you learn to fight like that?'
With a pang, Phoenix thinks of Matthew for the first time in days.
'A friend taught me.'
'Ah. I have to say, though, I like the daggers in the boots idea. Very cunning.' Phoenix shrugs. 'It wrecks the boots. You have to rip the lining to tuck the blade in. I had to shorten all my dresses to make sure I could actually get them out again in a hurry.'
'Why did you do it anyway?'
'I could hardly carry a sword around Scarlet's with me, could I? It would have drawn too much attention to me.'
Jack is incredulous. 'You have a sword?'
Phoenix gets up from her chair, and squats down on the floor to open her case. As she pulls out all the metalwork she bought in Tortuga, Jack is secretly more and more impressed. Finally, at the bottom of the case under a wide assortment of clothing, she finds the sword she took from the Turners' wall. She takes it out carefully, and waves it through the air under Jack's nose.
'Will Turner made it. I've...borrowed it. Temporarily.'
'Tomorrow I'll have to see if you can use it. I'm not having anyone on my ship that can't defend themselves.'
Quick as a flash, Phoenix is behind Jacks' chair, pulling his head back by his long hair, with her sword pressed up against his throat.
'Believe me, Father, I can defend myself.'
She lets go of his hair, and takes the sword away from his throat.
'What did you say?' he asks, turning to face her.
'I said I could defend myself.'
'No, before that. You called me Father.'
Phoenix shrugs. 'It's what you are. Unless you want me to call you Captain' –
'No, no, it's fine, it'll just take some getting used to that's all.'
The sword is beginning to get heavy in her hand, so she reaches past him, and lays it on the table. She makes her way back to her chair, and flops down into it. It's been a long day, and she can't be bothered to be ladylike. Not that it matters in front of a pirate, of course.
'I'm going to be curious again,' she warns.
'Hm? Oh, go ahead.'
'Why do you have so many beads and things in your hair?'
'Just because. I pick them up here and there, from different places. Would you like one?'
'That depends. Are they lice-ridden?'
Jack frowns slightly. 'I'm a pirate, not a barbarian.'
He gets up, and goes to stand behind her. Carefully, he unties her bandanna and runs his fingers through her hair to get the few tangles out. As he starts to weave in several small tight plaits into the top layer of her hair, the ludicrousness of the situation strikes her. She giggles, and small girlish giggle, worthy of Cate or one of the other whores at Scarlet's.
'No one would believe that an infamous pirate captain would know how to braid hair.'
She can hear the amusement in his voice when he answers 'And no one would believe that a lady's maid could best any pirate, even a drunk one, in a fight with daggers that she kept in her boots.'
She laughs. 'Touché.'
There is silence for a while as Jack's fingers work their magic on Phoenix's dark mane. He ties twelve thin taut plaits in all, and ties her bandanna back on her head so that one carefully lies over the top of it. He takes a glittering silver ornament from his own hair, and painstakingly knots it onto the end of the braid overhanging her bandanna.
She holds it up to the flickering light of the candles on the table, and examines it.
'Where did you get this?'
'In Nassau Port, about twenty years ago. I...borrowed it from a street vendor.'
Phoenix spins round, and narrows her eyes.
'You sacked Nassau Port.'
'Can you blame me for keeping a little something to remember it? That was one of my proudest moments.'
Phoenix yawns hugely, and then feels slightly guilty about having shown herself up.
Jack smirks indulgently. 'Would you like to get some sleep, love?'
'Yes please, or I think I might just fall down right here.'
'Well, I won't ask you to sleep in the hold with the crew; frankly it's disgusting down there.' He thinks for a moment. 'I could rig you up a hammock in a small storeroom next to the galley if you like. We don't use it much.'
Phoenix gets to her feet. 'That would be wonderful, thank you.'
'Don't mention it.'
Jack disappears to make good his promise, and Phoenix lovingly piles all her weaponry back into her case. The last thing she puts in is her sword, trying hard not to think of Matthew. He must be so worried about her...Her eyes begin to fill with warm tears, but she is jerked out of her emotion by Jack barrelling through the door and announcing that her chamber is ready.
She takes her case, and follows him out onto the deck in the cold night air. From her vantage point she can see the night streets of Tortuga, and she is glad to be sleeping in a place where she doesn't have to keep a pistol handy. Jack takes her down a small set of wooden steps, and into what must be the world's shortest corridor, with only three doors off it. He cursorily point out the kitchen to the left, the hold to the right, and the storeroom straight ahead.
Inside the tiny room is a chipped jug and basin, placed on an old crate along with a small shimmering candle, several other crates carelessly strewn about, and set in one wall is a small grimy porthole. The hammock is strung up between two sets of nails and runs the entire length of one wall. Phoenix smiles, and sets down her case.
Jack is stood awkwardly in the small doorway.
'Not what you're used to, is it love?'
'It'll do just fine.'
On an impulse, she gives him a swift businesslike kiss on the cheek.
'Goodnight Father,' she says, as he wonders what to make of this sudden intimacy.
'If you want anything I shall be in my cabin.'
He turns to go, but then changes his mind, and sweeps his daughter up in a bear hug the like of which she has never had before. She returns it just as forcefully, each of them silently rejoicing in having found the other.
Abruptly, he drops her, not quite sure what to do now. Phoenix sees that evidently coping with strong emotion is not his strong point.
'Goodnight,' she tells him again.
'Goodnight,' he answers, and steps out into the corridor, closing the door behind him.
Phoenix looks around her small room, which is more like a cupboard. It is bare, shabby, and even with the light of a solitary candle she can see it desperately in need of a good clean. Even so, Phoenix thinks, I have never been so happy to be anywhere.
***
Thanks for reading – remember, tell me what you think you happen with Faye and Matthew!
***
A Hard Man To Predict
It takes Phoenix no time at all to pack. All that she has acquired in Tortuga are her boots, her daggers, her pistol, a few other assorted bits of weaponry, and an outfit of men's clothing. She bought this last because she thought it might be more convenient, but she felt like such a fool wearing it that she simply consigned it to the bottom of her case. She takes it with her though, just in case it comes in handy.
Jack buys off Scarlet with a handful of assorted coins of various nations, and all that remains is for Phoenix to seek out Lydia and say goodbye. She finds her cleaning a window on one of the upper floors.
'Lydia? Are you busy?'
'Well, a bit, but'- Lydia catches sight of the case – 'where are you going?'
'I'm leaving. My father is taking me away.'
'Your father?'
She gives a potted version of the truth, which still leaves Lydia astounded.
'You're joking! Captain Jack Sparrow?'
'Yes. And I'm leaving with him right now. Goodbye Lydia. Good luck.'
Lydia smiles. 'The same to you, Phoenix. I see what you meant about unusual parents.'
With that, Phoenix turns and leaves her last semblance of stability, and goes downstairs to where Jack is waiting.
-----
'So,' Phoenix begins as the two of them are sat on opposite sides of the small table in his cabin 'where should we start?'
'What's your name, love? You never did tell me.'
'Phoenix.'
'Is that what they called you at the Governor's house?'
She shakes her head. 'They called me Faye.'
'Why the change?'
'Because Faye was a boring little girl who scrubbed floors for a living. I don't want to be her anymore.'
Jack nods, he can understand wanting to be someone else.
Phoenix leans forward over the table.
'Tell me about what happened with you and my mother,' she demands. 'My aunt told me a lot, but really I think you're in a better position to fill me in on the details.'
'You're very impatient aren't you?'
'Yes. I am also very curious.'
The story pours out into Phoenix's waiting ears. Their meeting, their time together, and how he only realised he was in love with her mother at the moment he had to leave her. He tells Phoenix how, nearly a year later, he came back to find her mother, but then had to give her up for lost.
'When I saw you in that cell the night before I was going to be hanged, I couldn't believe it. Even without the phoenix, just the way you looked...'
She smiles a little at this. 'I know, I look like you.'
'No, it wasn't that. There was just something about you that reminded me of Maggie so much, it almost took my breath away. But tell me something, why didn't you let me out of that cell?'
'It...it never occurred to me.'
He raises an eyebrow in disbelief, but accepts her answer and moves on.
'You have to tell me some things now, love. First of all, how did you learn to fight like that?'
With a pang, Phoenix thinks of Matthew for the first time in days.
'A friend taught me.'
'Ah. I have to say, though, I like the daggers in the boots idea. Very cunning.' Phoenix shrugs. 'It wrecks the boots. You have to rip the lining to tuck the blade in. I had to shorten all my dresses to make sure I could actually get them out again in a hurry.'
'Why did you do it anyway?'
'I could hardly carry a sword around Scarlet's with me, could I? It would have drawn too much attention to me.'
Jack is incredulous. 'You have a sword?'
Phoenix gets up from her chair, and squats down on the floor to open her case. As she pulls out all the metalwork she bought in Tortuga, Jack is secretly more and more impressed. Finally, at the bottom of the case under a wide assortment of clothing, she finds the sword she took from the Turners' wall. She takes it out carefully, and waves it through the air under Jack's nose.
'Will Turner made it. I've...borrowed it. Temporarily.'
'Tomorrow I'll have to see if you can use it. I'm not having anyone on my ship that can't defend themselves.'
Quick as a flash, Phoenix is behind Jacks' chair, pulling his head back by his long hair, with her sword pressed up against his throat.
'Believe me, Father, I can defend myself.'
She lets go of his hair, and takes the sword away from his throat.
'What did you say?' he asks, turning to face her.
'I said I could defend myself.'
'No, before that. You called me Father.'
Phoenix shrugs. 'It's what you are. Unless you want me to call you Captain' –
'No, no, it's fine, it'll just take some getting used to that's all.'
The sword is beginning to get heavy in her hand, so she reaches past him, and lays it on the table. She makes her way back to her chair, and flops down into it. It's been a long day, and she can't be bothered to be ladylike. Not that it matters in front of a pirate, of course.
'I'm going to be curious again,' she warns.
'Hm? Oh, go ahead.'
'Why do you have so many beads and things in your hair?'
'Just because. I pick them up here and there, from different places. Would you like one?'
'That depends. Are they lice-ridden?'
Jack frowns slightly. 'I'm a pirate, not a barbarian.'
He gets up, and goes to stand behind her. Carefully, he unties her bandanna and runs his fingers through her hair to get the few tangles out. As he starts to weave in several small tight plaits into the top layer of her hair, the ludicrousness of the situation strikes her. She giggles, and small girlish giggle, worthy of Cate or one of the other whores at Scarlet's.
'No one would believe that an infamous pirate captain would know how to braid hair.'
She can hear the amusement in his voice when he answers 'And no one would believe that a lady's maid could best any pirate, even a drunk one, in a fight with daggers that she kept in her boots.'
She laughs. 'Touché.'
There is silence for a while as Jack's fingers work their magic on Phoenix's dark mane. He ties twelve thin taut plaits in all, and ties her bandanna back on her head so that one carefully lies over the top of it. He takes a glittering silver ornament from his own hair, and painstakingly knots it onto the end of the braid overhanging her bandanna.
She holds it up to the flickering light of the candles on the table, and examines it.
'Where did you get this?'
'In Nassau Port, about twenty years ago. I...borrowed it from a street vendor.'
Phoenix spins round, and narrows her eyes.
'You sacked Nassau Port.'
'Can you blame me for keeping a little something to remember it? That was one of my proudest moments.'
Phoenix yawns hugely, and then feels slightly guilty about having shown herself up.
Jack smirks indulgently. 'Would you like to get some sleep, love?'
'Yes please, or I think I might just fall down right here.'
'Well, I won't ask you to sleep in the hold with the crew; frankly it's disgusting down there.' He thinks for a moment. 'I could rig you up a hammock in a small storeroom next to the galley if you like. We don't use it much.'
Phoenix gets to her feet. 'That would be wonderful, thank you.'
'Don't mention it.'
Jack disappears to make good his promise, and Phoenix lovingly piles all her weaponry back into her case. The last thing she puts in is her sword, trying hard not to think of Matthew. He must be so worried about her...Her eyes begin to fill with warm tears, but she is jerked out of her emotion by Jack barrelling through the door and announcing that her chamber is ready.
She takes her case, and follows him out onto the deck in the cold night air. From her vantage point she can see the night streets of Tortuga, and she is glad to be sleeping in a place where she doesn't have to keep a pistol handy. Jack takes her down a small set of wooden steps, and into what must be the world's shortest corridor, with only three doors off it. He cursorily point out the kitchen to the left, the hold to the right, and the storeroom straight ahead.
Inside the tiny room is a chipped jug and basin, placed on an old crate along with a small shimmering candle, several other crates carelessly strewn about, and set in one wall is a small grimy porthole. The hammock is strung up between two sets of nails and runs the entire length of one wall. Phoenix smiles, and sets down her case.
Jack is stood awkwardly in the small doorway.
'Not what you're used to, is it love?'
'It'll do just fine.'
On an impulse, she gives him a swift businesslike kiss on the cheek.
'Goodnight Father,' she says, as he wonders what to make of this sudden intimacy.
'If you want anything I shall be in my cabin.'
He turns to go, but then changes his mind, and sweeps his daughter up in a bear hug the like of which she has never had before. She returns it just as forcefully, each of them silently rejoicing in having found the other.
Abruptly, he drops her, not quite sure what to do now. Phoenix sees that evidently coping with strong emotion is not his strong point.
'Goodnight,' she tells him again.
'Goodnight,' he answers, and steps out into the corridor, closing the door behind him.
Phoenix looks around her small room, which is more like a cupboard. It is bare, shabby, and even with the light of a solitary candle she can see it desperately in need of a good clean. Even so, Phoenix thinks, I have never been so happy to be anywhere.
***
Thanks for reading – remember, tell me what you think you happen with Faye and Matthew!
