Authors Note: I don't know EXACTLY where i'm going with this

Authors Note: I don't know EXACTLY where i'm going with this. It's Definetly AU so Sweeney's OCC. Um...yeah, if you need help just reread the summary. Enjoy and please REVIEW!! so that i'm inspired to keep going!

Disclaimer: Nothing but the plot belongs to me...oh wait I OWN ABIGALE HA! umm Okay so that's it. The title comes from the song Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte (Pavane for a dead princess) And doesn't belong to me. okay.

Pavane pour ma infante defunte

Chapter One: Rose of Battle

"Beauty grown sad with its eternity,

Made you of us, and of the dim grey sea.

Our long ships loose thought-wooven sails and wait,

For god has bid them share an equale fate."

-from The Rose of Battle, W.B. Yeats.

I walked into the shop that day. Expecting to see Lucy, and a grown Johanna. But instead it was empty.

There were no customers, no Lucy, no Johanna like I had expected. At least not quite yet.

A shrill voice came from the parlor of the little house, "mum! The door opened." The voice called.

"Could you tell them we're closed?" Another voice called back. "Thank you dearie." Came a third.

The girl who waltzed out, stepped back at my figure in the doorway. Her brown curls floating past her shoulders.

Her chocolate eyes set on mine...her mouth slightly parted, and her milky pale skin glowed in the light.

She didn't shoo me out. "You look familiar." She said. "Wot's your name?" She asked, keeping her eye on me, but not moving closer.

Before I could answer, the door opened, hitting my back. I moved aside, to let in a hyper blonde.

Johanna. Those were my only thoughts. "Abi, who's this?" She asked...stepping away from me and toward Abi.

Abigale. Was this Abigale? Thoughts in my mind raced. My eyes darting back and fourth from the light haired girl, to the dark haired one.

"He looks awfully familiar..." The dark haired one said to the blonde. I wasn't sure of their names yet.

"He does." "You have similiar noses..." The blonde observed, looking at the brunette, who's hands immediatly went up to her nose.

"You have smiliar jaw lines..." The brunette told the blonde. The two girls stood staring at the man for a moment.

"Wot's going on?" A woman came out of the parlor. Her black dress trailing behind her, book in her hands.

Our eyes met for a breif second. "Benjamin." She squeezed out. Both the girls hid behind her, scared of what to do. What to say.

I said nothing at this. "Benjamin." She tried again. I knew she knew, we knew each other all to well.

I glanced at Abigale, who now stood protectivly in front of Johanna. "Johanna. Abigale." I whispered.

"Where's Lucy?" I asked. "Poisoned herself. Both my girls know that...she's not here anymore Be--Mr. Barker." She finished.

"Raped by the judge." She continued. "Then took aresnic. I'm sorry. I couldn't be there. I had both of them to look after."' She looked down.

"Judge?" I asked. "Wanted the girls too...but in a technical way they are both blood related to me." She sighed deeply.

"Can we continue this conversation in the parlor?" I asked. It made more sense than in the doorway. Not that sense was my

first priority. Nor was sanity...but I didn't want my girls glaring at me while I was standing there. "'Course." She replyed.

She led both the ladies into the parlor, I trailed after them. I couldn't stop looking at them. "Abigale. Johanna" I whispered.

"How does he know our names?" Johanna asks, sitting very close to Abigale and Mrs. Lovett.

"I think...you two should leave...while we discuss this...and then come back in...alright?" She asked.

The two girls looked at eachother, before standing up, and walking out of the room without another question.

"How are you here?" She asked, her eyes focussed on my stiff face. "When did you come back?" I asked, my eyes fixed on her hazel ones.

"I've been back long enough to know about Lucy...about Johanna...your daughter." She looked up at me.

"When did you come back?" I asked again. "I came back...when I heard a certain Benjamin Barker was shipped to Australia." She responded.

"You were gone, but when I got here...you had a daughter...and a pretty wife...she didn't know who I was...of course." She averted her eyes.

"What happenned after that?" I questioned her, searching for her lost eyes. "Judge invited her to a party. Got raped. Poisoned herself. Died."

"Abigale. She's one year older than Johanna." He stated, looking to see if he was right. "Yes. She is." she paused.

"They're both beautiful girls." She finished. "What happenned with you?" She asked me. Her eyes finding mine again.

"Rescued by a sailor...escaped from Australia. Came home...find out that my wife poisoned herself..." I stopped midway...

"Met my two already grown daughters...wished I could turn back time...nothing much you?" I finished it sarcastically.

"I'm sorry." She managed to say between sobs. "We should call the girls back in...we have much explaining to do." She forced a smile.

She stood up, and walked over to the doorway, "okay, we have a lot of talking to do..." She called both of them back in.

Still a little shaken up, they sat down on the couch across from me, studying my face carefully.

"This is your father." She said upon sitting down. "Both of us?" Abigale asked for an absolutly stunned Johanna.

"Here we go...this is a long story...and no happy endings either..." She murmered the last part. "We'll tell it together." I stated surely.

"Alright. Abi, you know you're one year over than Johanna." She started. "Of course, mum." Abigale answered locking eyes with me.

I decided to do this my own way. "I had a childhood love...wasn't really childhood, all the way up until I was at least nineteen...

She was a beautiful girl...stunning...and rare. I had a little girl with her, but once her baby was born, she ran away from home..." my voice

trailed off. "Where'd she go?" Johanna asked, her shimmering blue eyes looking up at my dark ones.

"I never found out...she took the baby with her...my whole world fell apart...I don't remember why she ran away...

But I was sure I'd never see her again." I paused, looking up down at the floor. "And then...I met another woman...

beautiful and stunning..." I stopped, I knew I said we'd tell the story together...so I looked over at Mrs. Lovett, and gave her a vague nod.

"And they got happily married and had another daughter. Unfortunetley, shortly after her birth...he got shipped to australia on a false charge

by the worse judge in the world...who wanted his wife for his own...so he called her over to his house..."

"AND HE RAPED HER! THAT'S LUCY...THE WOMAN YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT!!" Johanna shouted...interupting.

"You seem to know the rest of the story..." Mrs. Lovett's eyes went downcast. I looked over at her sadly.

"That woman was your mother, Johanna, and the one who ran away was yours, Abigale. And your both mine..." I sighed.

"So I'm not really related to her?" Abigale looked over at Mrs. Lovett. "Abi, she's the one who ran away." Johanna said calmly.

"Oh." Abigale shrunk down in her seat...looking a bit scared. "Time for bed..." Mrs. Lovett's voice awoke everybody from their thoughts.

In unison, both the girls walked off to their room, leaving Mrs. Lovett and I sitting in the parlor in a deep silence.

"Nellie." I whispered. She lifted her tear filled eyes from the floor. "Why?" She knew what I was asking, why did she run away?

"The judge wanted my child. We weren't married Benny." She let her tears fall. "You shattered me..." my voice faded away.

"I know. I'm sorry." She let some more tears fall. "Two beautiful woman...who allowed me to call the mine...they both bring beautiful

children into the world...and then disappear without a trace. I come home after fifteen years to find my two daughters...

the ones I never got to watch grow up. I come home to find my wife dead...and the girl I was in love with here." I scoffed.

Mrs. Lovett reached and pulled all the pins out of hair, and laid down on the couch. "Love is no fairytale." She reminded me.

I didn't know what I wanted at the moment. I didn't know if I wanted to cry...if I wanted to go somewhere far away. If I wanted to...

go up to my girls and hug them. "We could give a family another shot..." She suggested, scared of my reaction.

"We'll try..." I looked over at Nellie. Her hair cascading down her back, her eyes full of tears.

"Once upon a time London was a beautiful place." She let a tear fall walking over to me. I slid my hand around her shoulders,

reminding us both of how it used to be. "So this is our fate...better make the best of it." I smiled at the last part.

The corners of her mouth turned up a little. "What did you think happenned to me and Abi?" She asked me.

I pulled her in closer, "I thought...you'd died...and I'd have to write a pavane pour ma infante defunte" I smiled at the last part.

"Your princesses aren't dead...our fates are twisted...but we're still here with them." I looked into her eyes,

swimming with saddness. "The past is always behind us, love." I reminded her. "And revenge is always in our minds..."She sighed deeply.

"Now I remember why I fell for you..." He smiled. "Let's try again..." She cried onto my shoulder.

"To what, have a life? Or write our pavane?" I asked playfully. "Relive our fates...let's hope we never get to the pavane's" She returned my smile.

This was our chance at a new life...a new fate...for us, and our daughter...s...I looked out the window to see the gloomy London...The beautiful

always suffer a horrible fate...I laughed inside at this thought. Then imaged Abigale's eyes and Johanna's hair...and smile...I'd never seen her smile.

I decided it was worth a shot...though revenge was fresh on my mind.

End note: First chapter...crappy I know, it'll get better. Review?