Disclaimer: Disclaimed.

Notes: Full of lyrics and references to the musical and the String of Pearls! I attempted to stay as in character as possible. Sorry, I didn't write the accents (like Mrs. Lovett's 'ave's and whatnot).

"Don't I know you, mister?"

Sweeney Todd paused for a moment as the old beggar woman looked up at him. He was in a hurry, but those eyes…those eyes looked familiar. And the hair…yellow as wheat…

He gasped. "Lucy?" His voice was nearly a whisper.

The woman hesitated, eyes roving, as though attempting to remember something from many years past.

"Benjamin?" she finally said. "Benjamin!"

A million thoughts ran through Sweeney's head, starting with "She's alive," moving to, "Mrs Lovett lied to me," and ending with, "The judge!"

As if responding to his thought, he heard Judge Turpin call from below. "Mr Todd?"

"Quick, hide in here," Sweeney said, guiding Lucy to the trunk. He threw open the lid.

A small, thin face under a blue cap looked up at him.

Why is there a boy hiding in my trunk…?

The eyes, for the second time, made him pause. He glanced at Lucy. The boy's eyes – no, the girl's eyes – matched exactly.

"Johanna?" he gasped. This was all too much to deal with. And the judge was coming up the stairs.

"Out," he ordered Johanna, gesturing for her to leave the trunk. She complied, eyes wide. "Both of you, stay here, no matter what. Stay until my return."

He had said it all quickly, but he felt certain they understood. Then Sweeney rushed out of the shop, meeting the judge halfway down the stairs.

"Where is she? Where is the girl?" he demanded.

"Down below, your honor," Sweeney said soothingly. "In the bakehouse. The young sailor was worried you would come and said she would be safest down there. Thank heavens he did not molest her." As he spoke, Sweeney guided the judge down to the first floor of the shop.

They entered the bakehouse. Judge Turpin seemed frantic, wanting to reclaim Johanna.

"Where is she?"

"With her mother," Sweeney said, his open razor held behind his back. "Where she belongs."

The judge spun around, staring at Sweeney. "What was that?"

"No doubt the years have changed me, sir," Sweeney replied calmly, admiring his razor in the faint light from the oven. "But then, I suppose the face of a barber – the face of a prisoner in the dock – is not particularly memorable."

He stepped toward the judge, who automatically took a step back, now against the wall.

"Benjamin Barker!" Judge Turpin said, shocked.

"BENJAMIN BARKER!" Sweeney shouted.

With that, he slit the judge's throat, avoiding the spray of blood that shot out. It wouldn't do to be covered in blood when he went back to Lucy and Johanna.

The judge lay dead at Sweeney's feet by the time Mrs Lovett came out of the shadows, where she had watched the conversation.

"What do you suppose judge tastes like?" she asked.

Sweeney spun to face her. She had to pay for her lies.

"Mrs Lovett, you're a bloody wonder," he growled.

"What're you talking about, Mr T?" she asked, startled by his tone.

"You knew, from the moment I first walked into your shop, you knew my Lucy lived." He took a step toward her. She backed away like the judge had done.

"I was only thinking of you," she said hurriedly as Sweeney approached.

"You lied to me."

"No, no, not lied at all. No, I never lied. Said she took the poison, she did, never said that she died. Poor thing. She lived but it made her weak in the head, all she did for months was just lie there in bed. Should've been in hospital, wound up in Bedlam instead. Poor thing. Better you should think she was dead," against the wall now, Mrs Lovett became desperate, "yes, I lied 'cause I love you, I'd be twice the wife she was, I love you!"

Sweeney, only a foot away from her, pressed his razor, still covered in the judge's blood, to her throat. "What's that you like to say, love? Life is for the alive?" His voice was no louder than a breath. "I believe you're about to join the dead."

Mrs Lovett could say nothing. She stared at Sweeney, eyes wide.

He slowly lowered the razor. After all, it wasn't like he had killed Lucy on accident. "Find Toby. Make sure he won't go to the law. Burn the bodies. And never lie to me again."

Mrs Lovett let out a slow breath of relief as Sweeney spun and headed up the stairs. She jumped as she heard the door slam shut and the latch click.

Toby ran to her from who-knows-where in the bakehouse. "Mum, what's going on? Why were you helping Mr Todd? Did he try to kill you?"

Mrs Lovett hugged him and stared at the door at the top of the stairs, hoping it would open again.

Sweeney Todd all but ran up the stairs to his shop. Anthony had arrived. He and Johanna held each other tightly. Lucy seemed to still hold some traces of madness as she murmured to herself, but Sweeney was sure she could recover.

He opened the door slowly. Anthony glanced up. "Mr Todd!"

"Not Todd," Sweeney said. "It's Barker. Benjamin Barker."

Anthony blinked in confusion. At the sound of the name, Lucy looked up and ran to Sweeney – Benjamin, now.

Benjamin Barker hugged his wife to him. "Anthony, Johanna, I'd like you to meet my wife, Lucy."

"Oh, sir," Lucy said.

"Sir?" Anthony asked, sounding even more confused.

Johanna didn't know what to say.

Benjamin laughed – the first time in over fifteen years – and gestured for them all to sit. There was no furniture in the room other than the barber chair, but Benjamin pulled the trunk over next to it. Anthony and Johanna sat down on it. Benjamin guided Lucy to the chair and they sat.

"There was a barber and his wife," he started. "And she was beautiful…"

"You told me this story," Anthony realized. "The barber was you, wasn't he?"

"And Lucy my wife," he agreed.

"What is going on?" Johanna asked, now frustrated.

Benjamin continued. "A foolish barber and his wife. She was his reason and his life, and she was beautiful, and she was virtuous, and he was naïve. There was another man who saw that she was beautiful – a pious vulture of the law, who, with a gesture of his claw, removed the barber from his plate. Then there was nothing but to wait-"

Lucy joined in, singing softly, as though remembering the words to an old song. "And she would fall, so soft, so young, so lost, and oh, so beautiful."

"And Benjamin Barker went to prison, Lucy Barker to Bedlam, and their daughter…" Benjamin trailed off, gazing at Johanna.

"Me?" she asked in a whisper.

"He adopted you, like his own," he said. "And you are beautiful and pale with yellow hair, like your mother."

Anthony couldn't believe what he was hearing. "So, all this time, Johanna singing in the window, and she was your daughter?"

"Johanna Barker," Johanna murmured. "No, Hope. Johanna Barker, soon to be Hope." She smiled at Anthony, who grinned back.

"Ah, miss," he said. "Kiss me."

"Oh, sir…"

Benjamin and Lucy turned to face each other as the young couple kissed.

"Lucy," he said urgently, gripping her hands. "Are you all right?"

"There is evil here, Benjamin," she said. "She's the devil's wife."

"I know," he replied. "I know, but now you're here. She won't bother you again. The evil is no more. What do you remember of me, of our life together?"

"I remember…" she said. "I remember dancing into the night, I remember the way you laugh, I remember…" She shuddered suddenly, and Benjamin pulled her in close.

"But we are together again," he said. "At last, my family is complete again."

Note: I'll update whenever I finish a chapter, which, depending on how my writing is going, could be anywhere from a day to a week, but hopefully no longer than a fortnight (two weeks). I have no idea what's going to happen beyond the next couple pages, so no idea how long it'll be. Hope you enjoy!