Chapter 10. Double digits already!

Special Thanks to linalove, me-loves-demon-barber, and Detective Huckle.

Disclaimer: I don't own Sweeney Todd, unless his impregnating my character makes me own him someway…

"Shit!" he paced down the hallway and back again and again and I wondered if it was actually possible to make a hole in the ground from so much pacing. "Shit, shit, shit!"

Although his tone was loud and firm, his vocabulary had severely shortened somehow.

Most likely due to the new of my…pregnancy. Oh dear. If I weren't too shocked to stand from my place on the floor by the toilet I had my head in not an hour ago, I'd surely be pacing like mad too.

"What are we supposed to do now?" He exasperatedly slapped his arms to his sides, staring at me as if I had the answer and denied to give it to him.

"Don't look at me like that. How should I know?" He huffed and resumed his pacing. I stood from my spot and walked past him, into the bedroom and to the bed. "Hey, it's not like I did this by myself, husband!"

"Well, we've got to figure it out somehow. This…it…this shouldn't be happening…" he sighed as he dropped himself by the bed next to me, lying down with closed eyes and a furrowed brow.

As I looked down at my distressed husband and soon-to-be baby daddy, I couldn't help but wonder: was it that terrible to even consider have a child with me? I mean, the more I thought about it, the more I cared already for this baby. Being a mom was something I'd always wanted. Now, after disposing of the chance it occurred, I found out it would happen after all. Problem was, he didn't look at it like that.

"Oh." I realized with a frown and —when had I started pouting so often?—this was going to be harder that expected. Before I reigned over my emotion, a sniff came out of my mouth, startling even to me.

"What is it?" he lifted himself and leaned on his knees to peek at my face, now covered by my hair as I tried to hide my face.

"You…" sniff "don't…" sniff "want…" sniff sob sniff "your baby!" and I broke off sobbing.

"Jesus." Even with my scrunched eyes and swollen face, I could tell he rolled his eyes before putting an arm around me in comfort. Well, intended comfort. I, however, had learned to read him like a book, and so waited no longer to swat him away viciously.

"Don't patronize me! Selfish idiot." After holding his hands up in defeat he sighed, once again, and returned to leaning on his knees with defeat all over him.

"It's not I don't…want it. It just…" There was a silence, even my sobbing pausing in wait for his answer. "It complicates things."

"Complicates things? What the hell is so bad about having a baby? It's not as if we're short of money, space, time…for God's sakes it even would brighten my day! All day by myself in this place, you gone to work in the fanciest barber shop in the district, no one other than the sissy neighbor wives who prattle my head off with downright nonsense every time I see them… I could do with some company and all…"

He kept his gaze downward, his elbows on his knees and hands knotted together making him look like a statue. In an effort to lighten the mood, I gently removed one of his entwined hands and held it between both of mine. "Come on, Mr Todd…"

Sighing, he took his hand away only to wrap his arm around my shoulders. He pulled me to him, his lovely musky scent invading me.

"We'll move your things into this room; make space in yours for a crib."

Out of the blue I had the inevitable urge to squeal like a hormonal teenager. I did and threw my arms around him, tackling him onto the mattress.

"I promise," a kiss to the tip of his nose, "things will only get better with this." And with that I worked on kissing every inch of his face, perhaps as a way or reassurance. However, and he must have had a premonition, now I think it only served as further evidence of the upcoming dangerous mood swings.

……………………….

Some months later….

As soon as I heard the door open, I threw my knitting off my lap and jumped off the chair I was in.

"You're home!" I latched myself to Todd like there was no tomorrow, squeezing the hell out of him. He barely managed to breathe and when he spoke his words sounded strangled.

"As every other day of the week…" he managed to pry my arms off him—gently, mind you—and led me to where I'd been sitting before his arrival, making me resume my task.

"Yes, but today I particularly missed you."

"Really?" Even if I'd seen the roll of his eyes I'd probably still keep greeting him like I did everyday since the pregnancy was acknowledged. No matter my task at hand, it'd come to a halt for me to spring into his arms before he could entirely come into the house.

"You brought me my chocolate?"

He pulled out a paper bag from the inside of his jacket and I'm pretty sure my eyes went wide with adoring anticipation. Fast as lightning I snatched it from him and returned to my knitting chair. I wasn't oblivious to the measuring stare he gave me as he sat on the settee across me in the living room.

"It might be a good idea to slow down on the sweets…remember what the doctor said last time? You should eat more fruit when the sugar cravings come around instead."

"Oh the doctor! As far as I'm concerned, he can take the juiciest fruit of the season and shove it right up his own—"

"Mina!"

"Well I'm sorry for wanting to compensate a day's worth of heavy work carrying your child with a small piece of chocolate. Dark chocolate for that matter. Less sugar than the milky one."

"The problem, my dear, relies not on the fact you have a piece every day. It comes to the size of that daily intake. If you keep on like this, you'll no doubt be able to nurse the child with chocolate milk!"

"And exactly what would be so wrong with that?" Everyone knows just how ridiculous one looks with a smug expression even after all evidence proves you wrong, but in my case, I still couldn't stop relishing in counter attacking his justifications for retrieving my chocolate.

"Well, for starters, the child is more likely to become portly before he's able to stand on his feet."

The smug expression soon fled and was replaced by one of the famous hurt-looking pouts women display upon being subtly insulted. "Oh, is that it then?"

Unfortunately for men, their reasoning capacities are too slow to process the fact they have offended the fairer sex without their notice. Todd was not the exception. "Pardon me?"

"You deny me chocolate as a measure to prevent me from getting larger than how I am now, aren't you? I bet that quack doctor is not even as worried as you claim him to be."

"Mina…"

"No. Why don't you just admit it? God knows you're already sick of your ordinary-looking wife, what makes you think you won't feel worse when if on top she looks like a cow?"

"Mina…"

"Enough! You know what—I don't even want the stupid chocolate anymore. I've inexplicably lost my appetite." I threw the bag at him with what I thought was all the strength I possessed, making it land a few feet in front of him, on the coffee table.

Sighing, he stood up, bent down to pick the paper bag from the table and walked to where I sat grudgingly, kneeling before me. With a gentleness close to never displayed by him, he reached out and tucked a strand of my tousled hair behind my ear. "Wife."

His beautiful voice was so soft at that precise moment I automatically forgave him for any silly reason he'd gotten me upset with. He didn't need to know that though.

"You know my past, my present, and if I asked you my future I'm sure you'd get it right. When I speak of your nutritional necessities, rest assured I do so only in welfare of your—and our baby's—health. No matter how keen you are on finding excuses to think so, I could not possibly live without you in any other lifetime."

I blinked back anguish tears while he stroked my cheek. "Even if I had another chin and a bottom the size of one of Mrs. Robinson's prize-winning pumpkins?"

He gave one of his throaty chuckles, "Even with another chin and a bottom the size of a renamed pumpkin."

"And thighs like two oak trunks and a moustache?"

"Trunks and whiskers included."

"And a horribly hooked nose and green spots on my skin and hips like—"

"Alright then, I think you understood nicely. Let's dine now."

"Can I still have a teensy piece of my chocolate afterwards?"

"Of course you can. With one condition."

"Which is?" His smile turned impossibly devilish as he turned my way.

"You'll have to share with me."

So…kind of lame-ass little update. Sorry! I felt like crap for keeping people waiting for an update for so long.

I'm really thinking on how to work this out, but rest assured I ain't goin' nowhere till I finish this story!

Thanks to my lovely reviewers!! I hope to know what you think!