This chapter is rather short, but there's a new one coming very soon.

I've realized that it has been 7 chapters and not even 24 hours have passed; the next chapter will (finally) take place the next day, and it should be up soon, as I said before. :)

Thanks to those who reviewed/alerted/favorited!

I hope you like this chapter!

Disclaimer: The characters in this story are not mine.

Now that Lucy was asleep, it was time to think about Mr. Todd's sleeping arrangements. The most logical solution to Nellie was to let him sleep on the sofa in the parlor, but she didn't feel quite right about making him sleep there. She supposed he could take her bedroom, and she could sleep on the sofa.

Or, She thought mischievously, We could both share my bedroom. She knew that wouldn't be happening, but couldn't help thinking about it anyway. She smiled to herself, thinking of Mr. Todd sharing her bedroom.

Nellie shook her head, trying to force the thoughts to go away. It was too soon for anything, and even though she couldn't help but fantasize, she knew that her fantasies would quickly cause her to get her hopes up. And Nellie also knew that getting her hopes up made it all the more easy to get her heart broken.

"That'll be enough of that." She said to herself, pushing the last of the bedroom sharing thoughts out of her head and making her way to the kitchen. She briefly thought of sleeping in Johanna's room while Mr. Todd took hers, but in the end she decided against it, reckoning that she could handle one night on the sofa.

"It's late, love, we should be heading to bed." She said upon entering the kitchen. "You can take my room tonight, and I promise we'll have the room over the shop ready for you by tomorrow."

As usual, she was met with silence.

"Is that alright with you, love?" She prompted.

"I'm not tired." He replied.

Nellie sighed. It was the same answer as before. Not hungry, not tired, all he had done since she had given him those bloody razors was stare at them, fiddle with them, and it was beginning to irritate her. She glanced over to where she had left his supper before; it was still there, untouched.

"Well, then. I suppose I can't make you sleep, now can I?" She mumbled, more to herself than to him. Once again, she wished he wouldn't be so difficult. Nellie sighed again.

"Alright, dearie, you do what you like, then. If you do get tired," – she doubted he would sleep even if was, though – "You can sleep on the sofa in the parlor."

She wished he would give at least some acknowledgement that he heard her, she felt somewhat uncomfortable speaking to him when he gave no answer. Like talking to a wall, She noted.

"I'll see you in the morning. Goodnight, love."

She smiled at him, which of course went by unnoticed, and headed out of the kitchen, through the parlor, and into her bedroom. She changed into her nightdress and sighed when she looked into the mirror. She always looked worn out in the evening, but tonight she looked especially exhausted. Her hair was even wilder than usual, and the dark circles around her eyes seemed more prominent. Sighing for what seemed like the hundredth time that night, Nellie pulled the pins out of her hair and ran her hairbrush through the tangles only a few times. It was useless anyway; she hadn't brushed her hair properly in years.

Nellie got into bed and blew out the candle. Pulling the covers around herself, she let her mind wander back to Mr. Todd. She did pity him in a way; after all, he was expecting to come home to a loving wife and child, but instead he got a madwoman and a missing daughter. Not to mention learning that the reason his wife is mad is because she tried to take her life after being raped by Judge Turpin. No, that wouldn't be easy on anyone. And to make matters even worse, his wife went into a panic each time she saw him.

Nellie grimaced. She didn't like to think of Lucy as Mr. Todd's wife. Lucy seemed too childlike to be a wife to anybody. In fact, she was hardly a proper mother to Johanna; Nellie was the one who had done all the mothering these past fifteen years.

But either way, it couldn't be easy for Mr. Todd. The only good thing that happened, she realized, was that he got his razors back. She cursed herself for giving them back to him so soon. She would have liked to sit down and have a proper conversation with him, perhaps over tea, but now with his mind on those razors all the time, that was very unlikely to happen

With a final sigh, Nellie turned on to her side, and it wasn't long before she fell asleep, dreaming of Mr. Todd and how nice it would be if he actually paid attention to her.

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Let me know what you think. :)