Here we go, continuing on from last chapter's appalling cut-off point.
Sorry about that, and I really hope that this chapter will make up for it.
Remember – any and all helpful suggestions to do with Fay/Phoenix and
Matthew are welcome (and very very necessary!)
***
A Hard Man To Predict
In Norrington's cabin on the Dauntless, Jack is laid full length on the luxurious sofa, whilst Phoenix sits on the desk and Matthew on the desk's leather chair. Phoenix decides to get straight to the point.
'Matthew, what the hell is going on?'
He looks a little shocked at her swearing, but ignores it.
'Well, everyone was frenetic when they found you gone – it was your aunt who realised you were missing. She worked out where you were, although we only thought you'd gone off to play pirate or something, but we didn't tell the Rear Admiral that. I didn't realise...'
'Yes,' Phoenix says unenthusiastically, 'I am the result of an indiscretion on the part of Captain Sparrow over there.'
'Bloody right, my girl,' Jack concurs.
'Anyway,' Matthew continues, 'Mr Turner persuaded the Rear Admiral to take a ship out to Tortuga to go and find you, and I managed to convince them to take me along too. We weren't supposed to be policing the sea, really, just they saw the Pearl and it was too good an opportunity for them I suppose...'
Phoenix is struck by how much gaunter he looks, and how much older. It's as if the last few weeks have somehow forced him to grow up. Even his eyes seem different – no longer cornflower blue, but a dirty kind of grey.
Jack's voice breaks into her reflections.
'Dear William is aboard? Well, bless my blackened soul I haven't seen the boy for years. Although he's not a boy now I imagine. Where is he?'
'I was coming to that, sir,' Matthew responds curtly. 'He was taken ill three days out of port with some kind of fever. He's in a sort of makeshift hospital on the lower deck. They would have taken him back, but he wouldn't let them. He said they had to find Faye or else his wife would never forgive him for losing her.'
Phoenix smiles a little. Evidently she wasn't so friendless at the Turners' as she'd supposed.
'Well, having rescued the damsel in distress, are you intending to return to Port Royal?'
'Yes,' Matthew answers confidently. 'That was the general idea and I don't see why we shouldn't stick to it.'
Phoenix's jaw drops. 'Excuse me, but the damsel in distress is entitled to her own opinion! I fully intend to stay on the Black Pearl for the foreseeable future, so I can see a very good reason for not following your carefully laid plan.'
'You really want to be a pirate?' Matthew asks, horrified.
'You really want to be a pirate?' Jack asks, overjoyed.
'Yes.'
'Are you sure?' they enquire in unison.
Phoenix wavers. She knows she could die, she knows she'll leave her old life behind irrevocably; she knows the dark side of piracy.
'Maybe...maybe I could stay for a while and...see how it goes?'
Both Jack and Matthew nod sagely, each expecting to pull her around to their own point of view. A knock on the door disturbs their conference, and one of the midshipmen guards edges slowly into the room.
'Mr Turner is asking for you sir,' he says nervously to Jack.
'Well,' Jack says as he gets up off the sofa and heads to the door, 'I shall leave you two alone to discuss...whatever you wish to discuss.'
While he follows the guard out across the deck, and down into the improvised sick bay, he considers what his chances are of keeping his daughter. Plainly the boy was in love with her, but could he seriously expect to win against the ocean?
In the cabin, Matthew and Phoenix sit in silence, hearing nothing but the sound of each other's breathing. After an endless age, Matthew can't stand it.
'Are you really serious? Do you really want to sail with him on the Black Pearl?'
'As serious as a heart attack. I don't know if I'll stay on the Pearl, but...A very wise person once told me that if you would regret not doing something for the rest of your life, then you should just go and do it.'
'You don't know how much I wish I'd never said that.'
The silence returns. Phoenix looks at Matthew while he stares at the floor, and knows in her heart of hearts that she can't leave him again, no matter how wonderful life on the ocean might be. Matthew tries to imagine life without her, and all that he can see is darkness. If she goes away, he might as well be dead.
'I'll come with you.'
'What?!' Phoenix's jaw drops – this is utterly beyond the bounds of the possible.
'Do you honestly think that I would let you go so easily?'
She can see right into his soul through those iron coloured eyes, right into his heart.
'No. I wouldn't want you to.'
A different kind of silence is now between them. Not for lack of words, but because there are too many words to be said.
'Norrington isn't going to like it.' Phoenix points out. 'And I think we should ask my father if you're going to come too.'
Phoenix steps out of the cabin, and demands that they be taken to see Captain Sparrow and Mr Turner. When they arrive in the small room that is serving as a hospital, the two old friends have almost talked themselves out.
In her now typical blunt style, Phoenix does not mince her words.
'Father, Matthew would like to sail with us.'
Jack shrugs. 'I thought he might want to. Can you fight, boy?'
'I taught your daughter.'
'Wait.' It is Will who has spoken, a shrunken figure laying in a tangle of blankets on an aged bed.
'Yes, master?' Matthew answers.
'You want to leave? With him? Be a pirate?' His master's voice is hoarse and shaky.
'As long as Faye wants to, yes.'
Jack smirks – it is just as he thought.
'But Norrington...'
'He doesn't have to know.'
'What about the smithy?'
Matthew hesitates. The scheme is ridiculous, how could he sail with pirates? But he looks at Faye, with her dark hair and red bandanna, and it isn't ridiculous. 'Please let me go master.'
Will remembers through a fevered haze what it was like to be young and in love. How intense, how soft, how beautiful, how agonising.
'Go,' he says simply.
'Thank you sir,' Matthew says, and is echoed by Phoenix, who becomes Faye again for a moment.
'Since all parties are in agreement,' Jack breaks in, 'I think the sooner we go, the better. Goodbye, dear William. These two'll be alright.'
'I doubt it, Jack, but I trust you. Goodbye.'
The ships are still close together, and it is a simple matter of waiting for an opening to grab a convenient piece of loose rigging, and swing across. It is managed with the minimum of fuss, and it is not until the Pearl is actually pulling away that the redcoats wake up. A few rifle shots are fired, but it is too late. Phoenix and Matthew sail off into a new life. For now, at least.
--------
Back in Tortuga, there are many ships docked. On one of these ships, a man sits at a table, pouring over a map of the Caribbean. Behind him, sitting on an unmade bed, a woman is pulling on a shirt.
'Tell me again,' he tells her, with menace in his voice.
'Her name is Phoenix. She is seventeen, eighteen maybe. Long dark hair, brown eyes, lightly tanned skin. She wears a shortened dark dress, boots with a dagger tucked into each one, and a red bandanna.'
'And you're sure she's his daughter?'
'You should have seen them fight. Exactly the same style, exactly the same expression. I didn't know how the other people didn't spot it.'
'If you're wrong, then you know what happens.'
She wants to kill him more that anything, she wants to take her hands, the hands that have to touch him to appease his anger, wrap them around his throat, and squeeze until the life drains out of him.
'You're a bastard, Santos.'
He turns to face her, and flashes her a smile that on any other man would be called charming.
'Ana, Ana, darling, you know I'd never hurt a hair of your pretty little head. It's your illegitimate brat that will suffer.'
Ana lowers her head to hide the tears of shame and rage. Her fists clench. They both know that she is capable of killing him, but they both know the consequences if she disobeys.
'He took her away with him on his ship. They were headed to Port Royal, or at least in that direction.'
'Oh, wonderful. So how many square miles of sea is that to search, Ana?'
'We'll find them. And you'll get what you want.'
'You'd better hope I do.'
She'll have her revenge on him for this. The indignity, the humiliation, the terrible fear every second of every day for her son. God knows, this wretch has it coming to him.
***
A little mystery, anybody? Please review!
***
A Hard Man To Predict
In Norrington's cabin on the Dauntless, Jack is laid full length on the luxurious sofa, whilst Phoenix sits on the desk and Matthew on the desk's leather chair. Phoenix decides to get straight to the point.
'Matthew, what the hell is going on?'
He looks a little shocked at her swearing, but ignores it.
'Well, everyone was frenetic when they found you gone – it was your aunt who realised you were missing. She worked out where you were, although we only thought you'd gone off to play pirate or something, but we didn't tell the Rear Admiral that. I didn't realise...'
'Yes,' Phoenix says unenthusiastically, 'I am the result of an indiscretion on the part of Captain Sparrow over there.'
'Bloody right, my girl,' Jack concurs.
'Anyway,' Matthew continues, 'Mr Turner persuaded the Rear Admiral to take a ship out to Tortuga to go and find you, and I managed to convince them to take me along too. We weren't supposed to be policing the sea, really, just they saw the Pearl and it was too good an opportunity for them I suppose...'
Phoenix is struck by how much gaunter he looks, and how much older. It's as if the last few weeks have somehow forced him to grow up. Even his eyes seem different – no longer cornflower blue, but a dirty kind of grey.
Jack's voice breaks into her reflections.
'Dear William is aboard? Well, bless my blackened soul I haven't seen the boy for years. Although he's not a boy now I imagine. Where is he?'
'I was coming to that, sir,' Matthew responds curtly. 'He was taken ill three days out of port with some kind of fever. He's in a sort of makeshift hospital on the lower deck. They would have taken him back, but he wouldn't let them. He said they had to find Faye or else his wife would never forgive him for losing her.'
Phoenix smiles a little. Evidently she wasn't so friendless at the Turners' as she'd supposed.
'Well, having rescued the damsel in distress, are you intending to return to Port Royal?'
'Yes,' Matthew answers confidently. 'That was the general idea and I don't see why we shouldn't stick to it.'
Phoenix's jaw drops. 'Excuse me, but the damsel in distress is entitled to her own opinion! I fully intend to stay on the Black Pearl for the foreseeable future, so I can see a very good reason for not following your carefully laid plan.'
'You really want to be a pirate?' Matthew asks, horrified.
'You really want to be a pirate?' Jack asks, overjoyed.
'Yes.'
'Are you sure?' they enquire in unison.
Phoenix wavers. She knows she could die, she knows she'll leave her old life behind irrevocably; she knows the dark side of piracy.
'Maybe...maybe I could stay for a while and...see how it goes?'
Both Jack and Matthew nod sagely, each expecting to pull her around to their own point of view. A knock on the door disturbs their conference, and one of the midshipmen guards edges slowly into the room.
'Mr Turner is asking for you sir,' he says nervously to Jack.
'Well,' Jack says as he gets up off the sofa and heads to the door, 'I shall leave you two alone to discuss...whatever you wish to discuss.'
While he follows the guard out across the deck, and down into the improvised sick bay, he considers what his chances are of keeping his daughter. Plainly the boy was in love with her, but could he seriously expect to win against the ocean?
In the cabin, Matthew and Phoenix sit in silence, hearing nothing but the sound of each other's breathing. After an endless age, Matthew can't stand it.
'Are you really serious? Do you really want to sail with him on the Black Pearl?'
'As serious as a heart attack. I don't know if I'll stay on the Pearl, but...A very wise person once told me that if you would regret not doing something for the rest of your life, then you should just go and do it.'
'You don't know how much I wish I'd never said that.'
The silence returns. Phoenix looks at Matthew while he stares at the floor, and knows in her heart of hearts that she can't leave him again, no matter how wonderful life on the ocean might be. Matthew tries to imagine life without her, and all that he can see is darkness. If she goes away, he might as well be dead.
'I'll come with you.'
'What?!' Phoenix's jaw drops – this is utterly beyond the bounds of the possible.
'Do you honestly think that I would let you go so easily?'
She can see right into his soul through those iron coloured eyes, right into his heart.
'No. I wouldn't want you to.'
A different kind of silence is now between them. Not for lack of words, but because there are too many words to be said.
'Norrington isn't going to like it.' Phoenix points out. 'And I think we should ask my father if you're going to come too.'
Phoenix steps out of the cabin, and demands that they be taken to see Captain Sparrow and Mr Turner. When they arrive in the small room that is serving as a hospital, the two old friends have almost talked themselves out.
In her now typical blunt style, Phoenix does not mince her words.
'Father, Matthew would like to sail with us.'
Jack shrugs. 'I thought he might want to. Can you fight, boy?'
'I taught your daughter.'
'Wait.' It is Will who has spoken, a shrunken figure laying in a tangle of blankets on an aged bed.
'Yes, master?' Matthew answers.
'You want to leave? With him? Be a pirate?' His master's voice is hoarse and shaky.
'As long as Faye wants to, yes.'
Jack smirks – it is just as he thought.
'But Norrington...'
'He doesn't have to know.'
'What about the smithy?'
Matthew hesitates. The scheme is ridiculous, how could he sail with pirates? But he looks at Faye, with her dark hair and red bandanna, and it isn't ridiculous. 'Please let me go master.'
Will remembers through a fevered haze what it was like to be young and in love. How intense, how soft, how beautiful, how agonising.
'Go,' he says simply.
'Thank you sir,' Matthew says, and is echoed by Phoenix, who becomes Faye again for a moment.
'Since all parties are in agreement,' Jack breaks in, 'I think the sooner we go, the better. Goodbye, dear William. These two'll be alright.'
'I doubt it, Jack, but I trust you. Goodbye.'
The ships are still close together, and it is a simple matter of waiting for an opening to grab a convenient piece of loose rigging, and swing across. It is managed with the minimum of fuss, and it is not until the Pearl is actually pulling away that the redcoats wake up. A few rifle shots are fired, but it is too late. Phoenix and Matthew sail off into a new life. For now, at least.
--------
Back in Tortuga, there are many ships docked. On one of these ships, a man sits at a table, pouring over a map of the Caribbean. Behind him, sitting on an unmade bed, a woman is pulling on a shirt.
'Tell me again,' he tells her, with menace in his voice.
'Her name is Phoenix. She is seventeen, eighteen maybe. Long dark hair, brown eyes, lightly tanned skin. She wears a shortened dark dress, boots with a dagger tucked into each one, and a red bandanna.'
'And you're sure she's his daughter?'
'You should have seen them fight. Exactly the same style, exactly the same expression. I didn't know how the other people didn't spot it.'
'If you're wrong, then you know what happens.'
She wants to kill him more that anything, she wants to take her hands, the hands that have to touch him to appease his anger, wrap them around his throat, and squeeze until the life drains out of him.
'You're a bastard, Santos.'
He turns to face her, and flashes her a smile that on any other man would be called charming.
'Ana, Ana, darling, you know I'd never hurt a hair of your pretty little head. It's your illegitimate brat that will suffer.'
Ana lowers her head to hide the tears of shame and rage. Her fists clench. They both know that she is capable of killing him, but they both know the consequences if she disobeys.
'He took her away with him on his ship. They were headed to Port Royal, or at least in that direction.'
'Oh, wonderful. So how many square miles of sea is that to search, Ana?'
'We'll find them. And you'll get what you want.'
'You'd better hope I do.'
She'll have her revenge on him for this. The indignity, the humiliation, the terrible fear every second of every day for her son. God knows, this wretch has it coming to him.
***
A little mystery, anybody? Please review!
