A/N: Hello again, wonderful readers! Sorry it's been a little while, I've been caught up with schoolwork and whatnot. Anyway, huge thanks to everyone who reviewed, I send you free meat pies and gin! ^^

Disclaimer: Me no owney Sweeney Todd...

Christmas passed in a rush, and a rather somber mood at the Barker manor. It was a quiet affair, much unlike the happy chorus of laughs and shouts that normally occupied the house on Christmas Day. With the end of Christmas brought the New Year and an even bitter cold. Nellie wished that Benjamin were there to toast with her, as he always was, but unfortunately, he was once again absent. It was taking quite a long time to adjust to not having him around.

Instead, Nellie found herself on New Year's Day, crouched by the side of her mother's bed with a wet rag, wiping the beads of sweat from the older woman's forehead. Her brow was furrowed in worry, listening to Diana's rasping coughs and shallow breaths. They had already called the doctor, and he had bled her, but left saying there wasn't much else he could do. Hattie and Nellie were trying their very hardest to nurse back to health. Nellie hadn't left her side since she got sick, even though Diana had insisted that she would be better and that it was a simple cold and there was no need to make such a fuss.

But she had only worsened and Nellie only worried more. She had stopped practicing the piano so that she could stay by Diana's side, much to her mother's displeasure. But it was now three weeks and Diana was still unable to get out of bed. Her green eyes were dimmed, and her eyes had dark circles under them. Her breathing was too shallow, and her fever still raged on. On this particular night, Diana started to hallucinate.

She grabbed Nellie and with a strength that she should have been incapable of having, pulled her up to look into her eyes.

"Benjamin! Come back to me, Ben! I'm sorry! J-Just come back to me! Nellie! W-Where is my little girl?!", she said in a raspy voice, her eyes seeming to be lost in a dream world.

"I'm right here, mum."

"Nell! You- you love him! You love my little Ben! I want you to take good care of him!"

"I-"

Nellie never finished her sentence, because the minute that Diana's episode started, it ended, leaving Nellie sitting there in a daze as Diana slept fitfully.

She didn't – no she couldn't love Ben.

Could she?

She groaned softly. She felt so confused, she didn't know how she even felt anymore. One thing was for sure, though. She wasn't sure if her mother was going to pull through. Steeling her nerves against the troubling thoughts, she sat and wrote a letter to Benjamin. He needed to come back just in case he didn't see his own mother before she died.

Die. Death. Dead.

No. It can't happen, she thought. I don't know what I'll do if I lose mum too.

Tears flowed down her face at an alarming rate and she wiped them away stubbornly. Her mum wasn't going to die. She was going to wake up the next day and be her normal self, and drink her tea while Nellie played and sang for her.

She dashed outside and saw one of the young boys that frequented the streets as an urchin. She hurried up to him, calling out.

He ran up to her and she crouched down low, taking hold of his shoulder.

"Can you deliver this message for me? Take it to the big building next to the grocer's , please and leave it with the innkeeper there.", she begged him, depositing the envelope and two shiny pennies in his hand. His eyes lit up at the money as he ran away to deliver her message.

She ran a shaking hand through her curls and heaved a sigh before going back inside.

Benjamin hadn't heard anything from Nellie for three weeks. He was walking home when it began to rain but instead of quickening his pace, he walked even slower. Things hadn't been good at all at home. He and Lucy had drawn even further apart, he even refused to be intimate with her now. Somehow, it just seemed wrong, whenever he kissed her, or touched her.

He sighed and scuffed his boot on the sidewalk before finally making his way into the apartment building and climbing the stairs reluctantly.

When he got upstairs, Lucy was throwing out some old papers. Concerned that she might be throwing away important papers, he politely asked what she was doing.

"I'm just throwing out some unimportant papers, Benny. Don't get so irritated with me."

He rolled his eyes and walked into the bathroom, shutting the door and locking it behind him. As he stood in the shower, the hot water scalding his skin, he couldn't help but feel like something was terribly wrong. He knew what it was of course, it was the fact that he was too much of a coward to return home and beg forgiveness from his mother and sister. Maybe he would go visit them at the end of the week. And if he couldn't visit, he could sit outside his house and wish for a time machine.

Friday evening and the entire Barker house was once again silent. The quiet was unnerving Nellie and once she had even invited the little urchin boy and given him fresh clothes and food just so she could take her mind off of things. In a way, she had taken him in, purely because she felt sorry for such a youn boy living on the streets. His name was Tobias and he had been abandoned by his mother in the workhouse. A man had 'adopted' him, but then kicked him out when he could no longer afford to feed him.

Nellie was sitting next to her mother, one place that had become her regular haunt. The doctor was checking up on Diana. When he finished, he quietly pulled Nellie aside.

"I suggest you call the priest.", he said gravely, leaving a wide eyed Nellie to stand there with her mouth gaping.

No.

It can't happen. It just-

Can't.

Not now.

These were most of the thoughts whirling around Nellie's head as the doctor left. Diana couldn't die. Nellie needed her. She couldn't lose her mother just after she lost her brother. She just couldn't deal with it.

As she once again took up vigilance next to her mother's bed, a fresh batch of tears spilled out of her eyes and over her cheeks.

She woke up later that evening as the sun was just going down. For a moment, she remained disorientd before she caught sight of her mother laying peacefully on the bed.

"Mum?!"

"Nellie. My dear sweet sweet Nellie.", she murmured softly, her eyes blinking lazily.

"Hattie!", Nellie screamed.

"Nellie…."

Nellie grabbed her mother's hand, gripping it as though she gripped life itself.

"Take care of my Ben for me, will you Nellie? You will make a good wife for him.", she said in an airy voice.

Nellie felt like her throat was closing up. No, not now, please, not now!

"You make me so proud, my little Nellie. You were the best daughter I could ask for.", Diana continued, stroking Nellie's tearstained cheek with a withered hand.

"You're gonna be fine, mum. You'll be fine.", she muttered, more to herself than anything.

"No, you must be strong, my Nell. I can see my Ferdinand now. He comes to take me to my judgement…"

"Mum…no! Please, mum!"

With the last of her strength, Diana leaned up and kissed her daughter on her forehead before slumping back on her pillows peacefully.

And so, on the 15th of January, 1828, at 6:45 pm, Diana Barker passed away in her sleep, led away by the spirit of her husband, Ferdinand.

An anguished cry could be heard from miles away, matching the rolling thunder in the distance.

A/N: um... hi? *crouches in a ball* don't kill me yet! your toddett moment has yet to come! *smiles sheepishly* R&R?

~Ele