Lila looked at Toby through the bars of his holding cell back in London. Her face was completely composed and expressionless as she surveyed the small boy curled up in the corner. He looked back at her miserably.

"You do believe me, don't you?" Toby asked finally, "Someone must believe me." Lila sighed and sank to her knees on the other side of the bars. She looked him levelly in the eyes.

"Believe what, Toby?" She asked, "What is there to believe?"

"I didn't kill the judge." Toby hissed desperately. "Johanna hates me for it, but I didn't kill him."

"Are you sure that's why she's upset?" Lila asked, biting her lip.

"What else could it be?" Toby asked. Lila looked him over again; his bloodshot eyes were red-rimmed and remorseful. His manner was frantic and lips were tight. He'd always been such a good little boy to her. Toby had a good soul, she knew he wouldn't do anything rash, and would definitely not do something like this without reason. She had noticed his fierce way of protection the day he fought off Mickey with the fire poker, she thought of it often since then. A boy who would normally not hurt a fly would do anything to protect someone he loved. Looking at him now Lila decided that he did love Johanna and Anthony, if for no other reason than for taking him in when he had no place to go.

"I don't know, Toby." Lila said at last, exhaling loudly, "I just thought she'd find it forgivable."

"Why?" Toby asked in surprise. He thought about it, but couldn't find a reason that Johanna would forgive him for allegedly murdering her guardian.

"It's just that…from the things I've heard he didn't sound like someone that the world would particularly miss. I overheard Anthony telling Archer about it. Judge Turpin kept Johanna locked up tight, he did. Would treat her like a daughter one day, a wife the next and a leper the day after that. Of course, she hardly noticed for a while, couldn't bear thinking of her father in a bad light. But then again, I'm not sure she thought of him as a father. Did you know that? The Judge wasn't even her real father. I'm not sure how she got to his care, and frankly neither is she. But he raised her practically as his own and…Toby? Are you alright?" Lila cut herself off concernedly, for Toby had frozen in place. His brown eyes didn't blink, his small chest didn't rise, didn't fall. "Toby?" Lila called, even though he was scarcely a few yards from her. "Toby! What's wrong?" She demanded. For several minutes she watched him, breath and heart racing, waiting for his mind to return. Finally, his eyelids closed and his chest rose, sucking in a deep breath.

"Johanna wasn't his daughter." Toby repeated dully, eyes still closed. Of course, his mind was putting pieces together he squinted his eyes tighter, trying to bat his memories away before they settled in him. Lila watched him oddly.

"No." She said slowly when it was clear he wasn't going to continue, "He wasn't. She doesn't know who was. But here's an odd thing. With Judge Turpin dead Johanna inherits everything, can you believe it? The others are at his house now, mostly they're trying to figure out who her real parents are, but the papers are proving very hard to find."

"Why would she want to know?" Toby whispered.

"Wouldn't you want a chance to know your family?" Lila asked in surprise.

"My family," Toby growled, "doesn't matter. They've been gone as long as I can remember, they were good for nothing. I can't go looking around for empty tombstones, don't you see? Sometimes it isn't worth it. Sometimes it's better not to know! It's not important where you came from, only who you end up with."

"Well I'd have been nothing without my family." Lila stated softly, "Johanna has the right to know." Toby twitched, the pain of knowledge scorched him throughout his body. He shivered, even though sweat was gathering on his forehead.

"Tell her to stop." He whimpered, "Tell her she shouldn't know…it isn't worth it…I know…"

"You know what?" Lila urged eagerly when he didn't finish his sentence, "You know of Johanna's family?" Toby tried not to answer his head lolled from side to side before a couple of quick nods escaped him, he grasped at his hair, the memories were coming back, and there was nothing he could do to stop them. "Tell me, Toby. Tell me, then." Lila said, leaning away from the cell, sensing his inner turmoil.

"No!" He shouted, balling his hands into fists and clapping them against his ears. "No!" His body shook with sobs and rocked from side to side. Lila stood and stepped away, looking at Toby with concern. This poor boy, she thought to herself, he wasn't a stone cold killer, and he couldn't be faulted. Something was controlling him; something truly horrible was responsible for transforming this innocent boy into the possibly murdering hysteric that cowered before her now.

"I'll come back." She promised him, though she wasn't sure he could hear her. And as she left she added under her breath, "I believe you."

Johanna was curled up on a couch in the study, staring blankly into the dying fire in the hearth. Archer and Anthony roamed the parameter of the room, sometimes pulling books from the shelves and flipping through the pages, sometimes just moving the books to see if something was in between them. Lila walked into the room and looked around, disheartened by the somber mood. Archer and Anthony glanced at her when she closed the door behind her. Johanna didn't move.

"Johanna?" Lila asked softly, walking tentatively to the couch where Johanna was and sat down. Johanna nodded in acknowledgement, her brows furrowing though her eyes continued to refuse movement. "Johanna, I spoke with Toby." Both Archer and Anthony stopped moving about the room and turned to watch Johanna apprehensively. Johanna's head snapped to look at Lila with wide, incredulous eyes.

"What?" She hissed. Lila met her gaze firmly.

"Dear, dear Johanna. You took this boy into your arms while he was covered in blood and tears with a razor in his hand and bodies in the basement. Why? Even you would know better than to invite a murderer into your home."

"I didn't know he was a murderer." Johanna mumbled.

"No, you didn't think he was a murderer. You knew that the little boy was at the very least in the wrong place at the wrong time. And at worst committing the crime that he confessed to; killing the barber." Lila said.

"Why?" Johanna whispered, more to herself than to Lila, "Why would he kill the barber and not the Judge? Not the Beadle? Why admit to one if not the others?"

"Perhaps one was his only crime."

"Who killed them? If not Toby than who was responsible?" Johanna demanded.

"Why are you holding a grudge?" Lila asked curiously, Johanna looked away. "You didn't love the Judge as a father or anything else. You didn't even like the man."

"I hated him." Johanna said through numb lips.

"Why the remorse? Whoever killed the Judge saved you just as much as Anthony did. And just think about it for a moment, Johanna." Johanna looked up in confusion; Lila put her hands on either side of the younger woman's face. "It's Toby. Precious, loving, smart, irreplaceable, your Toby." A tear slipped down Johanna's white face.

"I don't know why I care." She answered finally, "It's just…that I can't find my real family… judge was the only family I ever really had."

"Not anymore." Lila said firmly, "And you should speak to Toby."

"Why?" Johanna demanded sharply.

"The boy knows your story. Toby knows who are, if no one else does. Ask him about your parents." Johanna wrenched herself away from Lila and stood, knees shaking.

"Toby?" She asked in wonder, "My Toby? He never said…they never said…" She stormed out of the room and raced up the stairs, kicking open the door to her bedroom. She stood and stared at the room at large for a moment, letting the unhappy memories surround and fill her. Angrily, she ripped the covers off the bed. "All those years I cried here." She growled, kicking over her nightstand, "All those years I suffered, never knowing how I was." She ripped a painting off the wall and threw it to the ground, shattering a vase down after it. "And someone who could claim me was so close that Toby knew about it!" She kicked open the window and threw her now-mangled pillows out of it. "And they never claimed me! Toby never told me! No one ever did!" She continued to throw everything that could break around the room. "I just wanted to be loved and be free and this is what it got me!" She shrieked, her eyes settled on the birdcage by her window, she lifted it with shaking hands. The birds inside had long since died, she peered at the lark inside; dead in captivity, as she would have, no thanks to anyone. With a final shriek and fresh burst of tears she threw the cage out the window with all her might. It landed in the middle of the street and, as Johanna watched, was squashed beneath a passing carriage.

Sorry this took forever! Between this, youtube and school I'm a little overbooked!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!!!

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