Two Good Friends

Okay, let's see if we can get this story to become more, interesting. Things are going along as usual, Sweeney and Luisa are a happy couple and poor Nellie is as jealous as ever. That is, until an almost incident causes the two women to become, dare I say good friends? And the only way to keep Luisa from really becoming the new Lucy might be for Nellie to save her and put herself into danger.

Nellie Lovett was making her way back to the pie shop from the closest butcher shop; she had just purchased a large amount of meat. Sweeney had stopped slitting throats for a couple of months now, but she wasn't complaining. She didn't have to spend all of that time separating the human meat from human bone any longer and the smell in the bake house was a lot more tolerable than it had been. As she was walking she started thinking about Sweeney and what exactly had caused him to stop making victims out of his customers. Maybe it was Luisa, the fact that he had someone to make him so happy again made him change himself. She was so lost in her thoughts that she wasn't looking where she was going and before she knew it she and another figure had collided. She had fallen to the ground but the other figure only gasped in shock. "I'm so sorry, I wasn't lookin' where I was goin' and… Mrs. Lovett, that you dear?"

Mrs. Lovett looked up to see a surprised Luisa holding her hand out to help the baker up. Mrs. Lovett accepted and said "No apologies needed Luisa, I wasn't payin' much attention meself." She then looked down to the girl that was standing shyly next to her mother holding a doll. "And 'ello to you Joan, tha's a pretty doll ya 'ave there sweet'eart."

Joan giggled and let go of her mother's hand to shake Nellie's. "Hello Mrs. Lovett m'am, this is Susan." Joan gave the doll to Nellie and she examined it. The doll had large brown eyes and long curly dark brown ringlets of hair. The doll was wearing a red and black dress with black shoes. "Hey, her 'air looks like yours." Nellie chuckled and nodded in agreement. "Mum bought 'er for me today. She really liked one with short blonde 'air in a pink dress that was already named Jenny. Then I said that I didn't want a blonde doll and I wanted to name 'er."

Nellie smiled at the young girl. "Well tha's good dear, you wanting to name 'er shows your imagination. And imagination is a great thing love." Joan smiled and took Susan when Nellie handed her back.

Luisa then spoke up. "Oh Nellie, would you like to get together, maybe go shopping down at St. Dunstan's? I mean, you live right below Sweeney and I've gotten to talk to and see him many more times than yourself." Nellie didn't like how Luisa had called Sweeney by his name, the only time Nellie did that was in her dreams. She agreed though and they decided that they'd meet at the entrance at three the next afternoon. They said their good-byes and went their separate ways.

The next day Mrs. Lovett was hurriedly getting ready for her trip to St. Dunstan's with Luisa. She knew that Luisa wanted to spend time with her so that she could simply get to know her, but Nellie's reason was more determined. She wanted to get to know the woman who Mr. Todd was so interested in. Sure she had heard a lot from Sweeney, and sure Luisa was a sweet woman when he or someone else was around. Would she end up being just like Lucy though? Whenever Lucy and she were near someone else, Lucy would act like a proper angel she would, but as soon as the two women were alone she became a two-face pretentious bitch. Nellie wanted to get to know this woman before getting close to her.

As soon as Nellie reached the market she saw a yellow head in the crowd and two hands waving madly in the air as if the person to whom the hands belonged was drowning in the sea. She quickly made her way over to Luisa and the two woman exchanged greetings. They soon found themselves enjoying talking with one another while looking along each stand.

Mrs. Lovett was the first to notice the sky turning a dark purple, she knew that meant night was soon to come. And as much as she didn't want to admit it she knew that night wasn't the safest time for women to be walking the streets, no matter how many other women they were with. Drunken men, married or not, would be out looking for any good-looking woman to have a 'good time' with. And Nellie certainly didn't want her or Luisa to be one of them. So she gave Luisa a small nudge and said with a serious face and tone. "It's gettin' kind of late, think we should go now?" Luisa caught onto her words immediately and nodded. They both grabbed their purchases and left the marketplace. Luisa had bought herself a nice hair clip and a pair of black lace fingerless gloves. After seeing Mrs. Lovett wear hers she had grown an admiration for the gloves and asked if Nellie could take her to where she had purchased hers (glove sisters-lol). Mrs. Lovett had bought a new rolling pin, her current one was falling apart. And a pair of ruby earrings, her business was doing so well nowadays that she could afford them. They were walking back to the pie shop and talking, when suddenly that simply sounded boring to Nellie and she ran ahead with Luisa running after her. Luisa soon realized that this wasn't simply Nellie trying to get to her shop quickly, but a challenge as well. They ran and ran until Nellie took a quick look behind her to see if Luisa was closing in and saw, no one! She looked around frantically and called out for Luisa, but there was no response. She made her way back, looking into alleyways, which was a difficult thing to do since the sky was growing darker by the second. Suddenly down one of the ally's she saw the tall figure of what was clearly a man and a shorter figure which she saw to be Luisa.

The man had a bottle of alcohol in one of his hands and with his other had Luisa forced against the wall. He swayed drunkenly as he got closer to her, his bad breath getting in her face, making Luisa turn away in disgust. Nellie put her stomach towards the brick wall, wrapping her hand around the edge and quietly looking into the ally, trying to see and hear the conversation. The man took a last swig of the alcohol and threw it far, making it land and break right at Nellie's feet. Nellie had to put her hand over her mouth to hide the shocked scream that almost escaped and jumped back quickly. The man snapped his head quickly in Nellie's direction; she hid herself against the wall. "'Ey, oo's there? Come on shoo yershelf! I worked har ta ge this one."

Luisa knew who it was though and she smiled at the thought of her new friend coming to help her in her current time of need. "Maybe ye just 'eard something?"

The man slapped her hard across the cheek, making her stumble away from him a bit. "Don't ya speak unvess you're spooken to!" He then began to hike up her skirts, but as it was happening Nellie was already sneaking up on the couple. Luisa's eyes widened as she saw Nellie sneaking, but she calmed down as soon as she saw her put her finger to her lips. Mrs. Lovett untied the sash from around the waist of her dress and as quick as lightning wrapped it around the attacker's eyes. He stumbled and slurred obscenities, letting go of Luisa in the process.

Luisa fell to the ground as soon as the man released her, but picked herself up quickly. Nellie tied the sash around his eyes and wrapped her arms around the man in an effort to strangle him, her legs wrapped around his lower back and stomach trying to hold onto him for dear life. Luisa grabbed a hold of Nellie's arm and screamed "Nellie, come on, we 'ave to get back to the shop!"

Nellie slapped her hand away. "No, you go! I'll take care of 'im!" Luisa tried to protest but Nellie gave her a hard glare. She nodded quickly and ran off toward the pie shop.

As soon as she reached the door Luisa could see Sweeny sitting in the shop. She opened the door and ran into his arms. He held onto her tightly and let her calm herself down before beginning to talk. The first thing he noticed, someone was missing. "Luisa, didn't you go out with Mrs. Lovett?" He remembered the baker mentioning that they were going to be spending some time getting to know one another.

Luisa nodded through teary eyes, "Yes, and we was 'aving a really good time. Until we challenged each other to see who would get 'ere first. She was pretty far ahead when I 'ad to take a break to breathe. Then this drunk man, 'e pulled me into the ally like I was some prostitute." Sweeney's eyes darkened, and for the first time in what felt like ages he thought of Lucy.

Sweeney shook away his thoughts of Lucy, trying to concentrate on the problem at hand. "Luisa, where's Nellie!"

Luisa started crying again immediately, not at him yelling at her but at the worry she was feeling for the friend who might as well have saved her life. "I don't know. She wrapped the sash of her dress around his eyes and jumped on top of him so he couldn't go after me. I tried to 'elp 'er but she told me to go straight 'ere and that she'd take care of 'im!"

Sweeny got up quickly and pointed at her. "Tell the boy, Toby, that we have to leave for a few minutes. I'm going upstairs to grab my jacket, then we'll go search for Nellie." Louisa nodded and Sweeney made his way up to his shop. He came downstairs to see Luisa sitting and waiting for him with a frightened expression on her face. He put his hands on her shoulders and consoled her. "Don't worry Luisa, we'll find Nellie. And if he's still there I'll make sure you're both safe from him." Luisa nodded and opened the door, but as soon as she looked out into the street she gasped loudly and whispered "oh goodness."

Sweeney turned to her and asked what was wrong, but as soon as he saw her distressed face he ran to the door. What he saw made him go pale (paler than usual at least) and he felt more uncomfortable than he had felt in quite a while.

So, hope that you enjoyed chapter 4. Can you guess what happened? Well, you'll find out soon if I can get it up quickly enough. Reviews could help me get it up faster though, hahaha. ;) I don't want soda Orange Crush, I am on a sugar rush! Anywayyyyy, glad you liked it if you did. Reviewers will receive a cyber hug.