title Panic Prone

author pinkeop

summary To end this catastrophic scene awake and breathe in... ( Continuation of Girl Anachronism and Scream )

authors note I thank my dog, Rio, and Ravin' Raven for this story. And of course, you, my lovely reviewers! I'm glad you guys were happy I was writing this! Hehe.

Haha... I wont say much more, other than I TOTALLY enjoyed writing this.

Enjoy.

Love!

Pink Elephants on Parade

--

Puppy Love

Her name was Banana. Not only was Banana ugly as sin, but she was the most disgusting, matted, scruffy, foul-smelling little demon Analise had ever encountered. Her hair was brown and black, long and hanging around her belly, infested with bugs and matted in places with tangles and it was even falling out a bit. Her big, blue, sea side eyes looked up at her with the most pitiful expression on her low-jowled visage, however, and Ana couldn't just leave her sitting there out of the street next to the gruff looking man that obviously wasn't taking any sort of care of her. And so, on that one trip to the market in search of some potatoes and onions, Ana returned to the house with the desolate looking dog on the end of a rope and 3 pounds less in her purse.

That was how Ana found herself in the washroom, changed into a pair of trousers and one of Sweeney's shirts instead of the heavy, public dress, with little Emszi propped up on a pile of blankets on the floor beside her and Banana in the tub, seeming to enjoy the buckets of cold water and the sweet smelling vanilla soap. It was people-soap, really, and she'd stolen it from Sweeney Todd in lue of giving the animal a bath- under the pretense that she needed to wash Emszi then herself -but this poor thing needed a bath, and she needed a bath badly!

Banana stood and shook for the hundredth time and Ana let out a squeak of surprise. Emszi, not yet old enough to know what was going on, made a delightful gurgle at her mother's sound of slight dismay.

"Damnit, you icky thing!" Ana whined. "Can't you just sit still?" The dog turned her head and surprised Ana with a long lap up the side of her face. The woman's jaw dropped and she jerked back, glaring at the animal.

"Ew," she hissed, then pushed roughly on her hind quarters. "Sit, would ya?!"

Banana sat, her tail splashing the water back and forth as Ana lifted onto her knees to scrub the soap deep into her fur, her sleeves soaking wet and pushed up over her elbows. Ana had never had a pet, before. She'd always wanted a dog, but she couldn't right remember why she'd never had one. It was something important, biting at the edges of her vision, but long since forgotten in lue of this new life she had now. This new life that she had now with this new, disgusting dog.

"Your Papa is not going to be happy about this, Emszi," Ana said conversationally, running her fingers over Banana's cheeks, making sure not to get the soap in her eyes. She glanced back at her daughter, who was watching the scene with wide eyes, unawares of the gravity of the situation- her mother had brought a dog into the house. A dog invested with little nasties.

Ana paused mid scrub as the sound of the floor above them creaked ominously. Banana looked up too, her ears- one of which looked like it'd gotten chewed off by someone desperate for a meal -flat on her scalp.

"Uh oh," Ana muttered as the floor above groaned with the footsteps of her husband. Her heart pattered in her chest, hoping desperately that he would not venture below to figure out where she'd disappeared to for the last hour.

The sound of the kitchen door shutting loudly alerted Ana that God hated her. Grabbing the last bucket of cold water, she poured it over the dog and washed away the last of the soap. She was still pitiful looking, but at least she looked a bit cleaner. Reaching for a towel, Ana went to dry her. But Banana had a better idea.

The damn demon dog leapt from the tub and before she went to seal Ana's fate, she shook her body and sprayed both her and Emszi with soapy water. Still dripping wet, she tore off through the open door way and down the hall. She did not walk. She did not trot. She did not run. She took off like a bat out of hell down that hall. Ana could see her take a sharp left turn right into the kitchen.

Ana picked Emszi up, the child not as happy now that she was significantly wet. She heard, from the kitchen, a howl. But it was not from the dog, for right after she heard the most terrifying thing she'd ever heard.

"ANALISE!!"

Ana swallowed hard and found herself soon in the kitchen. Banana was determined to get at Mr. Todd, but the man had managed to keep the table between himself and the ugly beast. Holding her daughter in one arm, she want to grab Banana by the back of her neck.

"What the hell is this?!" Sweeney Todd roared. Emszi began to cry, a wail to match her father's voice.

"Stop!" Ana said harshly. "You're scaring your child!"

"Then get that beast out of here!" He said sharply. "I shan't have dogs trapsing about my parlor, now get it out! Only look at him- he's going to fly at me!"

By this time, Ana had managed to grab a hold of Banana, the dog sitting happily at her heels, not seeming a bit to notice the instant tension she had caused.

"Look, there!" Ana said. "She's sitting pretty. Now quit your yelling."

"I want that thing out!" Sweeney roared, flicking his razor open. Ana stood instantly infront of it protectively.

"Put that away," Ana snapped. "Now."

The man hesitated- she was holding his child and, well, that was the smallest of insentive not to rid his hair of this wench just yet, despite the fact she had had the audacity to bring a dog into his home.

The razor was pocketed.

"And he is a she, and her name is Banana, and I got her for Emszi." Ana went on, her finger tips lightly brushing over the dog's head. "You should have seen her, Mr. T, she was all matted and gross and the man that had her wasn't taking care of her, and I thought, how sweet for Emszi to grow up with a dog, with a friend she could always count on. Man's best friend and all, you know. And..." She trailed off with the devilish look that glinted in Sweeney Todd's eyes.

"Where did you get it?" the man asked softly. "I'd like you to take it back."

"I can't," Ana murmured. Emszi was quieting her crying now that her father had stopped his yelling. "I bought her off a homeless man..."

"You what?!"

Emszi began to wail again. Ana groaned and rocked her gently. "Hush, babydoll, hush," she whispered, holding her against her chest. Banana had taken off to explore the rest of the kitchen, sniffing about the walls and floor. Sweeney Todd was keeping the entire kitchen between him and the dog, and he soon found himself at his wife's side.

"Get rid of it," he snarled as soon as Emszi had quieted once more. Ana glared up at him.

"No!" she said. "I paid three pounds for her, I will not just get rid of her!"

She saw her husband's jaw clench. His hand move to the back of her neck and she felt those strong fingers clench her softly. Instead of saying anything, he simply gripped her hard enough to leave a bruise, then scooped their daughter out of her arms. Ana took a weak step back, watching as he rocked the child in his big arms. She felt almost upset at him, but let it go.

The rest of the day, Sweeney spent up stairs, declaring that as long as the dog was staying, he was going to be no where near it. Ana thought he was bluffing, but she went about her day as normal, but in the normal parts where she would be normally interacting with her husband, she was instead telling Banana that, no, she could not lay on the sofa.

By evening, Emszi was fast asleep for the night in her crib and Ana was sitting in the kitchen with some tea and Banana was laying on the floor. Above, the rythmic pacing of her husband was far too familiar, and an eerie feeling clenched Ana by the throat. She felt like she was back in London- but the kitchen was too big and the light came in from the wrong side when the sun had set and there was a dog smelling like vanilla laying on her floor.

"Well," Ana said. "You wanna sleep with me tonight?"

Banana raised her head, cocking it to the side.

"Come on, then," she said, pushing herself to her feet. Banana scrambled up after her, trotting delightedly at her heels. But once she got to the room, Banana, rather than going inside, simply laid outside the threshold.

Ana knelt down and burried her face into the dog's fur. She smelt like vanilla. Like Sweeney. Pouting, she pushed herself to her feet and shed herself of her trousers and boots before climbing into bed. She fell asleep not long after her head his the pillow.

It was way into the night when Ana was jostled away by the matress sinking. She rolled over, one hand flailing to find what was climbing onto the bed. At first she thought it was the dog. "Banana, gerroff the bed," she mumbled softly, but then her hand smacked into soft, taught flesh. An arm hooked around her waist and she was tugged warmly into her husband's embrace.

"S'me," he said softly. "Go back to sleep."

"You came to bed," Ana whispered softly, turning around to nestle her face into his chest, nuzzling her nose against the soft, sparse hairs that sprouted there. "I didn't think you'd come to bed."

"Go back to sleep," the man said, exasperated.

"Are y'still mad at me?" she asked quietly.

"Do you ever shut up?" he asked, running his hand down her side softly, soothing her back into unconciousness. Ana sighed. It was absolutely amazing how he could go from howling angry to kissing her forehead and reassuring her that not even a dog, a scruffy, ugly, vanilla smelling dog, could keep him too far away from her.