A/N declaimer I do not own Sweeney Todd
"Benjamin! Benjamin Barker!"
The dock was teeming with people, mostly sailors who were preparing to set sail. Among them were there guards, and between them, a pale, sullen man. His hands were cuffed and one of the guards clutched it with sweaty hands. At the sound of his name, he turned searching desperately for that sound.
"Benjamin!"
There. He spotted her. Red tangled hair. Flour- dusted corset. White complexion. There was no doubt about it. It was her.
"Nellie!" He shouted lunging in her direction. He gasped as the sharp pain that ran rejiggered his wrists as the guards pulled him back. "Please." he pleaded. Give me a minute with her.
Nellie was standing before him panting. Benjamin was shocked to see tears trickling down her pale cheeks. In all the years he'd known her, she'd never cried. Not once. And they'd known each other since he was sixteen. Even when her sister, Sarah, died of smallpox, she'd not she'd a tear. Oh, sure she'd been upset, but she put on a brave face. That was one do the things he liked about her.
"You have five minutes."
Then the cuffs were off and his arms were around her. "Nellie." He murmured. His face presses into her messy curls, "Where is Lucy? Where is my wife?"
"At home," Nellie gasped between sobs. "I tried to get her to come, but she wouldn't. She said it would only hurt more l. And she didn't want to bring Johanna down to the dock, not during flu season, love."
Although he was disappointed, he refused to let it show, whispering, "Take care of her for me, will you pet? And my little girl. Make sure she knows her daddy loves her."
Nellie didn't respond, but the tears flowed faster, her sobs gaining volume.
"There, there Nellie. Was it something I said?"
"Oh Benjamin!" She cried. "I'm such a coward!"
"Hush Nellie." Benjamin whispered. "You're the bravest soul I know. Lucy is going to need you. She's not strong like you. No one is."
Nellie shook her head "if I were breve, I would've told you years ago! I never would of hidden it."
Benjamin was puzzled, and it showed, though she couldn't see it. "Hidden what?"
Nellie pulled back to look at him, a glimmer of a smile on her pale pink lips. He watched her tear-stained face while her eyes roved his.
"I'm in love with you." She breathed.
Lucy held Johanna to her chest, looking out her window to the dark, stormy sky. "I have to go to him." She whispered.
"Nellie!" She called walking over to the door. She peered down the stairs, listening for the bakers hurried footsteps, or her rolling pin pounding dough. "Mrs. Lovett?" All was silent.
She gently laid Johanna in her crib, wrapped a shawl tight around her shoulders, and rushed down the stairs. Nellie was no where to be found. Saying a silent prayer that Johanna would be alright on her own, Lucy left the shop.
The streets were nearly deserted, an ominous sign of a coming storm. Lucy paid the weather no heed, too determined to find her husband and say one final good bye, to look at him and to embed him in her memory.
At long last she reached the docks. Now, if she could only find Benjamin.
He took a deep breath, staring down at her with mild surprise.
Nellie forced her gaze away, her sallow cheeks tinged with pink. "I'm sorry." She mumbled. "I shouldn't have said that. Here you are, leaving your wife and child, against your will, and I'm troubling you with some stupid-"
Her sentence ended abruptly as his lips met hers. It started as a awkward kiss, but then as they moved to embrace each other it became more comfortable. He held her close, thinking of the friend she'd had been. How much he cares about her. And how he was glad to be spending his last moment in London with her.
And both were so wrapped in this unexpected goodbye, they failed to notice the ashen-faced angel struggling for breath.
A/N: I know I had to cliff hang it a bit. Reviews are appreciated and please if you have any ideas where I can go with this let me know, I have some ideas myself just trying to develop them and I'll try updating as soon as I can.
