AN: Hope this is long enough for you! :D Reviews are love!

"There - there's a m-m-man i-in o-o-o-one o-of t-the rooms a-and," Toby stuttered. Nellie rushed up to him and hugged him comfortingly.

"There, there," Nellie cooed stroking his head lovingly. "Now what's wrong, love?" she asked.

"There's a dead man in one of the rooms," Toby answered, his voice as calm as he could manage, which was hysterical. Nellie's worried eyes met Sweeney's shocked ones.

"Toby, love," Nellie said kneeling in front of Toby, taking his hands in her's. "That man was a very, very horrible man," she informed him. "He tried attacking me. . .again, it was self-defense, you have to understand that, Toby," pleading in her voice and eyes as she looking into Toby's frightened eyes.

"B-but y-you killed him, Mum!" Toby cried out frantically.

"Toby, Toby, please believe me," Nellie begged, tears welling up in her eyes. Flashbacks of Albert beating her flashed back to her coincidentally at that very moment. Something between a sob and a scream escaped her throat. "He was a very bad man! Beat me every day he did, Toby, please!" she opened her eyes, which she hadn't realized were closed, and stared into Toby's, tears sliding rapidly down her face.

"D-Don't cry, Mum," Toby said quietly, voice hardly above a whisper. He moved one of his hands to wipe a tear away. "I-I believe you," he said.

"Oh, Toby!" Nellie cried, her voice cracking as she threw her arms around him in a hug. He hugged her back, stroking her head gently.

"Please," Toby pleaded. "Stop crying." Nellie pulled away from the hug, forcing a smile on her tear-stained face.

"I'm fine, love," she assured him. "Nothing to worry about," she insisted.

Nellie very nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She whirled around.

"Oh! Sweeney, it's you! Gave me a fright you did!" she exclaimed. Sweeney held his hand out to her. Nellie, taking the hint, grabbed it and used it to haul herself up.

"Don't you think it's time for the young lad to get to bed?" Sweeney asked pointedly.

"Oh, yes. That would be a good idea," Nellie agreed. "Toby," she said. "Come with me, I'll show you to your room," she helped him off the sofa.

"Alright, Mum," Toby said obidently.

"Be back in a tick, love," Nellie promised Sweeney before taking Toby's hand and leading him down the hallway.

Sweeney sat on the sofa, a heavy sigh escaping his lips. He rubbed at his temples, trying to get rid of the headache that was beginning to form. Go away! he commanded it in his thoughts. MAKE ME, a voice answered back. What the hell? Sweeney wondered. LET ME MAKE THIS AS CLEAR AS I CAN - YOUR DAUGHTER DIED, YOU MISS HER, YOU LOVE YOUR WIFE MORE THAN ANYTHING - YOU FEEL TORN BETWEEN HER FEELINGS AND HER SAFTY, SO THAT'S WHY YOU'RE HAVING A HEADACHE, the voice explained. Okay, Sweeney agreed. But who are you? YOUR CONSCIOUNCE, WHICH YOU HAVN'T HEARD FROM IN A WHILE, the voice answered. Oh. It made sense.

Sweeney was jolted out of his thoughts by Nellie's voice,

"Sweeney, you hear me?"

"I do now," Sweeney answered.

"Deep in thought again?" Nellie asked.

"More like having a conversation with meself," Sweeney corrected. Nellie sat down next to him on the sofa.

"Having a conversation with yourself?" Nellie asked, not sure if she'd heard right.

"Yes," Sweeney answered.

"Why?" Nellie asked.

"Me consciounce has come back," Sweeney answered. "I'd been ignoring it for so long, I thought it had vanished," he explained. "But I've just been proved that's not the case," he added.

"Okay," Nellie said, not sure how else to respond. "We got a body rottin' away in our room," she reminded him, changing the subject. "We'd best tend to it," she strongly suggested.

"Not yet," Sweeney protested.

"Why not?" Nellie asked.

"I just want to sit here with you," Sweeney answered. Nellie's face softened.

"Love," she said. "There'll be plenty of time for that later," she reasoned.

"No, Nellie," his eyes showed pain when he looked at her. "I need to know you're mine, that you're here, that you're safe," he said. Nellie let him pull her into a hug.

"I'm here, love, I'm here," she said soothingly as his hands trailed up and down her back. "Love you,"

"Love you, too," Sweeney replied as he twirled one of her curly locks around his finger. He took a deep breath, the scent of her was intoxicating. He let it out slowly. "I'm okay now," he said. He let Nellie move out of his embrace.

"Alright, then let's finish what we started," Nellie said and stood up. Sweeney stood up too and followed her into their room.

Nellie made her way over to the body. She sighed. She knew this would take some effort.

"I'll get the hands, you take the feet," she said. The only way for them to get him out of the house was if the two of them carried him out. Sweeney winced inwardly when Nellie had told him to get the feet. He had a secret hate of feet and couldn't remember how it got started. But he did as was told, but grabbed the ankled instead of the feet, which was close enough. Nellie grabbed the big, beefy hands which had abused her for so many years. She found her hands to small to close around the corpse's hands, so she settled for the wrists.

On the count of three, they hoisted Albert's corpse off the floor and slowly began making their way to the back door. He sure was a heavy one. If they were still running business the way they had in London, he'd be good for about fifty meat pies.

After about ten minutes of snail-like movement, sweeney and Nellie had finally reached the water's edge. They waded about knee deep before chucking Albert's corpse in.

"There," Sweeney said, brushing his hands together, as if that would get rid of the weird, sticky feeling. "Now he can never hurt you again," he said with all seriousness as he looked into Nellie's eyes. Nellie''s teeth were chattering.

"Let's get out of here," she suggested strongly. "It's freezing as hell!" Sweeney smirked a bit at the oxymoron as they trudged out of the water.

Nellie collapsed onto their bed as soon as she got to it. She was exhausted from the days events.

"Revenge at last!" she sighed happily. "No more problems!" but this, Nellie soon realizedm was a lie, for the fact that she was pregnant. The horomones would be kicking in any time, if they hadn't already. She hoped Sweeney would be able to handle it. Nellie turned when the bed creaked, telling her that Sweeney had climbed in. She smiled at him. "'Ello love,"

"Hi there," Sweeney said, caressing Nellie's cheek so lightly it tickled. She giggled. Her smile widened.

"You are so unpredicatable sometimes," she told him.

"I noticed," Sweeney replied. There he was, being unpredictable again. The whole setting of mood changed with those two little words.

"Love, quit hiding, tell me what's wrong. You've been acting strange today," her tone stated very clear that she was worried, as did the look on her face. She took sweeney's hand in her's. "You can tell me anything, you know that," she said. Sweeney sighed.

"Please, Nellie, not right now," he pleaded, sounding as if he were about to cry.

"Sweeney," Nellie said, searching his face. Sweeney pulled her into a hug.

"I just don't know what to do, Nellie," he said. "I know that, just this once, you can't understand. You can try, but you won't in the end, because I don't even understand it meself," he pulled away so he could look into her eyes. "I'm stuck. I feel like being with you makes your life dangerous, that's why I should leave. But I don't want to hurt you emotionally, either. I feel that if I do leave, something bad will happen to you anyway and it'll be me fault for not being here to protect you. I'm so confused! I'm sorry for dragging you into me hellhole of a life, and I feel bad that you love me. No one should love me. I've taken so many innocent lives, and now I'm losing the people I love. I don't want to lose you Nellie. Above all, I want you safe. But I also want you happy, I feel I can't keep you safe and happy at the same time. That is what's wrong."

Nellie was stunned. She hadn't expected a speech, let alone a speech about her. She honestly had no idea what to say or even think. After a while, she finally managed a painful,

"Do what you believe is right, forget about me feelings," a tear slid down her cheek.

"Nellie," Sweeney said, reaching out to her. Nellie turned away.

"No!" she snapped. "Just do what you must. If you must go, go now. The sooner you go, the less pain I'll go through," surely this wasn't the Nellie Sweeney had married. Married, the word repeated itself in his head. He'd seriously considered leaving, but that word nailed him to the spot. Finally he made up his mind, once and for all. He'd rather have Nellie hurt when he was there to try to prevent it, than having Nellie hurt and there be no way for him to stop it or know about it.

"Nellie," Sweeney said and waited for her to face him. When she did Sweeney voiced his decision. "I'm not leaving. I can't. If you were to get hurt I'd rather be there and be able to stop it than to not be," her face still showed pain, and some disbelief. "Stop those tears, Nellie. Wipe that painful look from your face. I'm staying," he brought his hand to her cheek. "I won't hurt you like this again, I swear," he promised. Nellie hugged him and eventually fell asleep like that, Sweeney smiled before he, too shut his eyes and got some much needed sleep.