a/n: I truly apologize for this super slow update. I've been really busy lately, so this may be my last update until, let's say, June. But don't worry; I'm not giving up on this story, and hopefully it will be completed sometime this summer! Anyway, thanks for your reviews. Please keep them coming! They mean a lot to me!
So sorry.

Romen

Disclaimer: Anything familiar is not mine. Everything unfamiliar is.

Chapter 8

Resolved

Susan tapped her foot, crossing her arms as she looked up the stairwell. "Oi, Will; come down! I'm not going to do work for two people today. Will!" She scowled, rolling her eyes and moaning something that sounded like, "Why me?" before heading up the stairs and hurrying through the hall.

The sun hadn't yet risen. She could see the faint blue light coming in through the window at the end of the hall, making her eyes feel heavy. In her opinion, no natural creature should be out of bed before noon. Ignoring these thoughts, however, she knocked promptly on the door adjacent to her own room.

"Wiiiiiiillllllll," she said slowly, her voice drawling on. "Are you asleep?" No answer. 'Well this is quite odd,' she thought to herself, this time knocking a bit louder. "Out of bed. I want to get an early start today so I can have some fun. Will, out of bed! WILL! GET UP!"

Just as she was about to start banging on the wood, the door slowly slid open. She was taken aback at the very disheveled (needless to say, grumpy) looking Will before her. She quickly regained her composure, coughing into the back of her hand.

"Why aren't you dressed?" she snapped. "We need to get a move on."

"I'm not going," he said softly, making as if to shut the door.

"Wait just one second!" She put her hand on the door knob, stopping him from shutting it. "What do you mean, 'you're not going'? It's your job to help me."

"I mean what I say, and I say that I'm not going!" he retorted, pushing forward.

But Susan resisted. "Well I mean what I say, and I say that you are! You have no reason not to help me."

His face twitched. "Get out of the way."

"I'm not moving! You have to help me!"

"Get out of the way!"

"No!"

"Out of the way!"

"NO!"

There was a second of silence before he pushed forward with surprising force, sending Susan flying backwards and the door slamming shut. She stood, straightening her bonnet before marching towards the door and pulling it open with determination, glaring at the shocked boy before her.

"You're in my room!" he exclaimed.

She rolled her eyes. "Ingenious deduction."

"Get out of my room!"

"No," she snarled. "Now you better get down there to help me."

"I could have been...been...This just isn't proper!" he protested.

Susan, for one moment, was distracted from the topic. She bristled. "Elizabeth can come in your room, can't she?"

Will blinked. "Well, yes, but, she's only been in here once or twice and...That's different..."

"There's nothing different about it," Susan snapped.

"Well," he spluttered, his face reddening, "she just doesn't barge in either! At least she has manners!"

"That's not the point!" She crossed her arms, her lip curling. "The point is that you're supposed to help me with the work!"

"I would, but I can't!"

She cocked one eyebrow higher than the other. "What are you talking about?"

Will ran a hand over his face in frustration. "Yesterday...That woman, Mary, she told Governor Swann that I was the one that took the cross."

Susan made a strange choking noise. "Wh-What?"

"She just...took me to Governor Swann and said that I was the one who took the cross."

"And, did he believe you?"

Will paused before shaking his head. "No. So I've been punished."

"Why would they punish you? You weren't the one..." An expression of understanding flashed across Susan's face as it all clicked. "So...you didn't tell them."

"No."

"You idiot!" she cried. "What did you do that for?"

"Me! What do you mean? You should be thanking me!"

"You're such a goody-two-shoes," she sneered. "I know that this probably makes you think that you're all perfect and noble..."

"You're so ungrateful! The least you could say was thank you! I did this to keep you out of trouble! And don't think that it didn't once cross my mind to tell them that it was you..."

She rolled her eyes. "Stop shouting."

"I'm not shouting!" he shouted.

"Whatever. I'm going to go work now, since you're stuck in here. But don't think that I'll keep you out of any trouble or turn myself in so you can leave your room. I'm not stupid, you know."

"I wouldn't have expected you to do anything decent! Perhaps I should just tell them that you were the one who took it!"

She opened the door, whirling around and glaring at him. "I'd like to see you do that, William Turner. I'd like to see you even try."

"Do you always have to have the last word!"

She chewed on that for a second. "Yes." With that said, she slammed the door shut behind her.

(Space)

"How is that coming along, Miss Swann?"

Elizabeth glanced up from her piece of parchment. "Fine, Miss Briggs." She looked back down at what she had written, barely keeping herself from heaving a sigh as her eyes trailed back over to the window.

It was a beautiful day. There was hardly a cloud in the sky. She was used to looking out and seeing Will and Susan on the quilt (probably bickering more than they were actually working), but today neither was in sight. She dipped her pen in the ink well, writing so her governess wouldn't think that she wasn't working.

Helen Briggs had been Elizabeth's tutor for a little over three years now. She adored Miss Briggs, and thought she was very pretty and lady-like, though she was quite the libertine. She was often giving Elizabeth books of all sorts, many of them about famous and infamous pirates, since Elizabeth seemed to have a fascination with them. She had also heard (from the Cook and Mary, of course) that Miss Briggs claimed that she would never marry, thus she would never have any children. Elizabeth thought she was far too lovely to resign herself to the life of a spinster, and hoped that she would eventually change her mind.

Elizabeth, distracted by her thinking, clumsily dropped her pen. She bent down to pick it up, her hand brushing over a loose floorboard. She blinked. This had been one of the places where she had hid Will's medallion before finally settling on the fact that it would be safest in the hidden compartment in her desk. Thinking about it made her flush. She had been foolish to even consider that he was a pirate. It hadn't taken her long to learn of his intense dislike of unlawfulness. However she had heard of pirates who had pretended to be someone else, someone of a respectable stance, while in disguise. Still, it was extremely hard to picture him running around like a rogue, looting and plundering. It was so unlikely that it was almost comical.

Despite this, it was too late to give it back to him now. What would she even say? She could just hear herself now. "I'm sorry, Will, but I took this off of your neck when they brought you onboard because you looked like a pirate." Even in her mind it sounded completely ridiculous. This time a sigh accidentally escaped her lips as she sat up in her chair, leaning back over the surface of the desk.

Miss Briggs took off her small golden spectacles, placing them in her handbag. "I think that this is enough for today, Miss Swann. You have done well."

Elizabeth couldn't help but brighten. "Really? Thank you, Miss Briggs." She stood, pushing her chair in and holding the door open for her governess. "I've been trying to study a bit harder."

The tutor smiled as they traveled down the stairs. She was about to say something when a loud shriek broke the silence.

"Get back here, you little rat! Get back here!"

Susan darted across the floor, stopping abruptly at the foot of the stairs. She held a book close to her chest, her blond hair plastered to her face as if she had been running at a very fast pace for a very long distance. She drew in a shaky breath as the governor entered from the parlor, looking perplexed. At that moment, Mary flew into the room, her hand clutching Susan's shoulder.

"Now I have you, you little lying wench!"

"Please, Mary, explain what is going on here?" He glanced at the girl before looking at the maid.

"She ran off with my very valuable Holy Book! It's been passed from generation to generation..."

"Oh, this is yours?" Susan feigned innocence as she turned around. "I'm sorry ma'am. I mistook it for my own! Let me give it back to you." Suddenly, it slipped from her hands, landing on the floor. Mary let out an inaudible shriek. "Oh, forgive me my clumsy mistake." Elizabeth thought she saw Susan roll her eyes, something she was quite fond of doing.

"You've probably bent the pages! It's ruined, I tell you! It's..." She fell silent as she opened the cover, her hand touching something concealed within the pages. "What...How did this get in there?"

"You found your cross!" Susan exclaimed gleefully. "What a coincidence! It was there all along!"

Mary's eyes narrowed. "You did something. I don't know what you did, but you did something..."

The governor heaved a frustrated sigh. "Please, Mary, I believe the child is correct. It was just a most fortunate coincidence. Besides, now you don't have to worry about its well-being."

"Hmmm..." Mary turned away. "I suppose you're right. Thank you, sir." She hurried off, mumbling to herself as she ran her hand over 'the valuable artifact'.

"Oh, Father!" Elizabeth cried, rushing down to him. "Does that mean that Will isn't in trouble anymore?"

The governor smiled. "Yes, it does. I am most sorry to punish him like this, especially when he was telling the truth all along." He turned to Susan. "I must also thank you for helping us to clear up this matter."

Susan said nothing, but simply curtsied, smiling sweetly.

"May I go tell Will, Father?" Elizabeth pleaded. "May I?"

"Run along."

Elizabeth hurried off, leaving an amused looking Susan in her wake.

TBC...

That was fun to write! I wish RL wasn't so busy. Hopefully I will have another chapter out here soon.

Please review!

Romen