The once shabby, run down establishment has become a thriving business as several people mill around inside, all of them eating pies with smiles on their faces. Outside the structure is a small outdoor eating space, complete with Chinese lamps to light the modest area and some plotted plants and birds in cages. A new sign is above the once barren shop that proudly proclaims 'Miss Canal's World Famous Meat Pies' in big bold letters. The outdoor area is filled to compacity with people standing in some cases as they munch on the delicious looking pies in their hands. The beggar woman from before is now looking at the food in their hands, watching as they chomp into the freshly baked pies. She yearns to approach, though she is still sure that this is the same place that fills her with fear the hunger is stronger, but before she can approach Nathan comes bursting out from the interior of the establishment. He is clothed in new threads, his worn out clothing a thing of the past.
He stands before the building, his eyes bright and his hair shimmering in the light from the streetlamps that line the streets. Several people walk past him into the brightly lit shop as he calls out, "Ladies and gentlemen, May I have your attention, please?" Some people stop at his loud call. "Are your nostrils aquiver and tingling as well at that delicate, luscious ambrosial smell?" More people stop, noticing all the business in the indoor and outdoor eating space of the large structure, others continue on pass though the smell of the food being served reaches their nostrils. "Yes they are, I can tell..." He moves about, keeping up with the people that are strolling by him or even the ones that enter the building behind him. "Ladies and gentlemen, you can't imagine the rapture in store," Nathan states happily as another couple enters the building. "Just inside of this door!" He follows behind the couple, heading into the gated area of the outdoor eating space, his smile bright as he checks on each of the patrons, all of them unable to talk to him as they inhale the pies on their plates.
Paulina exits the shop, her hands full with a tray of more of the steaming pies. Along with the up do of the shop she has gone out and changed her appearance with a new dress, her hair cut short and makeup on her face. She smiles at all the people crowding her shop. Spotting her young ward she calls out, "Nathan!" The small red headed lad comes to her side and she quickly gives him instructions to fill the ale at one of the tables off to one side. As he does this neither has noticed the beggar moving toward them, her body moving slowly across the street.
She moves around, throwing instructions to the small boy, while conversing with her patrons, all of them happily filling their faces, unaware of what they are eating. As Paulina turns a corner she notices the beggar woman just feet from the fence, her large eyes a dull amethyst tone. She looks so dirty, her face almost sunken from lack of food or something else. "Nathan! Get rid of her!" she snaps as she turns to walk around each table, keeping her patrons rather happy with all her attention. While the lad is shooing the strange woman from the edges of the shop, Dan comes out from the room above, his blue eyes taking in all the people eating the pies. He paces back and forth on the small balcony that connects to the stairs to the outdoor space. He seems to be looking for someone, but is unable to locate whoever it is. Paulina warns her patrons to enjoy their meal, that there is nothing more to fill their stomachs with as she is all out of the filling for the pies. Turning a sign over her door to 'Sold Out' a man enters the area, his form moving to walk up the stairs where Dan awaits him. "Fresh supplies," she murmurs as the pair of men disappear into the dark haired male's barber shop. As she turns from watching Dan she sees that the beggar is in the actual shop now and commands her ward to remove the offending woman. It is strange how vicious she becomes over the raven haired woman, though as she is dirty and an beggar it makes sense that she doesn't want her customers harassed.
The next afternoon finds Nathan running around a nice looking park, a tree behind him shades Dan and Paulina as the pair sit on a blanket. The raven haired male seems lost as the woman next to him talks about how well business is doing and about what she could do to aid in making the shop even more successful. "... which is not to say we couldn't get some nice taxidermy animals to bring a touch of gentility to the place. You know, a boar's head or two..." she fades off when she notices that Dan isn't looking at her, his eyes dazed as he watches something in the distance. Around them are happy couples, their heads touching as they walk by with happy smiles. Her eyes narrow slightly. "Mr. P, are you listening to me?"
"Of course," he says, though he isn't really giving her his attentions. She means nothing to him... no, only getting his revenge on the one male responsible for his plight and that of his family is on his mind.
"Then what did I just say?" she asks, leaning closer to him, but he just mutters to himself.
"There must be a way to the Judge!" Paulina frowns now, her eyes turning into slits when she realizes that not only is his attention not on her, but he is still obsessed with killing the judge. She just can't understand what good it would do to kill the man, but then again she is only concerned with what she wants and that is the man before her and money.
"The bloody old Judge! Always harping on the bloody old Judge!" she snaps, her teal eyes flashing in anger, but just as quickly she tries to get him to think about the fact that they are doing so well with what meat he provides. She moves to kneel behind him, her small hands coming out to rest on his shoulders before she begins to massage his tense muscles. He winces at her touches. "We got a nice respectable business now, money coming in regular and since we're careful to pick and choose only strangers and such like that won't be missed... who's going to catch on?" He shifts forwards to remove her from touching him, but she wants him to be hers and not bent on revenge when it will do her little good for him to attack a rather well known man and a man of the law no less.
"Oooh, Mr. Phantom," she murmurs next to his ear, her breath warm against his continuously cold skin. "I'm so happy I could," she pauses to bestow a kiss on his exposed neck, unaware of the face he is making at her intimate touches. "Eat you up, I really could! You know what I'd like to do, Mr. Phantom?" Another kiss on his neck, but closer to his cheek as she moves to kneel beside him. "What I dream if the business stays as good, where I'd really like to go?" He says nothing, his mind on the judge and the disgust that fills him at her kisses, her affection. He is dead to it, but knows that he must work with her, at least for now. "In a year or so... Don't you want to know?"
"Of course." He really doesn't care what her plans for the future are because as far as he is concerned he will be gone once he completes his revenge. Paulina doesn't seem to believe him and asks again to which forcing a smile to a face, abet a rather annoyed one, he says, "Yes, yes, I do, I do." She leans back as her mind fills with all the things she yearns to do if the life they have now keeps going the way it is.
"I've always had this dream of living at the seaside ..." Her mind is filled with them sitting on a beach, Nathan playing with a ball down by the surf as they sit as they do at that moment, both of them in swimming attire of that age. His suit is black and white striped and covers him from the neck to the knee. Her own is like a little dress, the appearance of a sailor suit with a small red handkerchief around the color. "I got a picture postcard from me Aunt Starla once. Oh, it seems like such a grand place... " She looks to where Nathan is off spinning in the middle of the large clearing. "And all that fresh aquatic air's bound to be good for the lad's poxy lungs..." She sighs at the wonderful dream in her mind, though Dan isn't really all that excited by her plans. "By the sea, Mr. P, that's the life I covet; By the sea, Mr. P, Ooh, I know you'd love it! You and me, Mr. P., we could be alone!" That thought makes his lips twist in revulsion. "In a house we'd almost own, down by the sea..."
"Anything you say," the dark haired male grumbled, tired of listening to her speak of such foolish ideas, but remaining quiet otherwise. He did not want to feed into her insane future plans.
"Wouldn't that be smashing?" In her mind they were now on the porch of the home she wanted, a nice two story building painted blue and yellow as the pair of them sat in wicker chairs. She sings of all that they would do in their new home. "With the sea at our gate, we'll have kippered herring wot have swum to us straight from the Straits of Bering. Every night in the kip, when we're through our kippers, I'll be there slippin' off your slippers." In her mind she is walking into a nice little dining area, several people at her table all cheerful and talking loudly, though Dan is there too but looking rather uncomfortable with the company.
Then they are walking along the boardwalk, the pair dressed to the nines with matching outfits. "I can see us waking, the breakers breaking, the seagulls squawking!" Even in her dreams he looks quite sour and withdrawn. She leans over in her dreams to lay her head on his shoulder as they walk past other couples doing the same thing. Nathan joins them for a moment before wandering off ahead of them, the couple stopping by the railing as she smiles up at him.
They are then in a church, the pair standing before a preacher as he asks them to repeat the vows as he says them to them... Dan, in real life is looking at her dazed eyes as she finishes telling him of her plans... the plans that fill him with horror and revulsion. He doesn't want to marry her and settle down. He had his one love, the one that had been taken from him and he has no room in his heart for anyone but his lost wife. Nathan runs over, his chest moving harshly as he smiles down at them. Paulina blinks as she finds herself still sitting on the blanket under the tree, the male next to her giving her a look that she can't seem to read, but it doesn't look like love. The sun sets before them, the colors changing from bright and dreamy to dark and dreary. The three of them look pale in the late evening lighting.