Haunted Dreams
Chapter 14
"Good morning." Nettie sang, from the kitchen. As Sweeney sat down at the table, setting Jeramey in his high chair.
"Good morning." He muttered back to her.
"Sleep well?" Daniel asked from across the table.
"As well as a man can sleep with a three A.M. wake up call." He replied tickling Jeramey, who looked up to flash the two a big, toothless grin. They both chuckled warmly. Nettie placed eggs and biscuits on the table.
"Tuck in" She sang. "So, Mr. Todd I was thinking. Daniel and I will probably be staying, even after Nellie wakes up, to make sure everything is still okay. And to help with the baby still of course, because the poor girl will still be weak and injured. How is that gash on her abdomen healing by the way?"
"I change her bandage every morning." Sweeney said. "It's healing up nicely."
"Well at least there's good news there." Daniel replied eating his scrambled eggs.
Sweeney was in a determined mood today. He didn't know why, but it felt like something good was going to happen. "I did some thinking last night" he started telling the two. "Your right. I've been moping and complaining, when I should've been staying positive and thinking of a way to get Nellie back."
"Oh love, there's no need for all this." Nettie said.
"No, yes there is." Sweeney assured her.
"How are you going to get her to wake up? It's not really something you can force." Said Daniel.
"I'm going to follow through with Nettie's plan. I'm going to talk to her. Let all my feelings for her just pour out. And I'll see if anything changes."
"How wonderful!" Nettie squealed in delight.
"It's true. I remembered it from medical school. The coma patient can hear and see everything that is happening around them. It's like their souls leave the body. Nellie's probably sitting in this room with us right now." There was a little sense of a joke to his words but he was mainly serious. Sweeney thought it sounded ridiculous. He was already doubting that talking to Nellie would have any affect, but he wanted to do something. He couldn't stand just sitting and waiting. But Daniel's words... Nellie's soul being in the room with them, he couldn't wrap his head around it.
"So your saying she's a ghost?" Sweeney asked.
"No she'd have to be dead to be a ghost, this is different." Daniel replied. Nettie sat at the table looking confused. Good! Her and Sweeney were on the same page for once.
"Well, I'm going to see what I can do." Sweeney said, getting up from the table to put his plate in the sink.
"We'll watch Jeramey." Daniel explained. "Leave you two to your little chat." He said with a flirtatious wink.
Sweeney walked into the bedroom and shut the door. He took a deep breath and turned towards Nellie. I hope her soul made it back into the room, other wise this will be for nothing. Sweeney thought. He knew her soul was in her body where it belongs, he was just joking with himself. He didn't believe in ghost. When Nellie's mind was all over the place, and she woke up every night screaming. She said she thought Lucy was haunting her. Sweeney just shook his head at this. It was ridiculous, there's no such things as ghosts he told her. She didn't buy it.
Sweeney sat down on the bed next to her. He made a list in his head of what all to say but he couldn't remember any of it. He was never much of a talker. Nellie was the talkative one.
"Umm hi." He started, mentally smacking himself for how pathetic that sounded. "I didn't know if you realized yet, but your family's here."
He took a deep breath. "I've never met anyone, who I wanted to strangle yet love at the same time." He continued with a small laugh. He heard Jeramey start crying from the other room. "Our son's doing fine. He misses you, as does everyone else. It's a boy by the way. You were right, even though I wanted a daughter again so badly. But I like our son, he's sweet, he's cute and devilish just like me" another small, awkward laugh. Another deep breath, as he ran his fingers through his hair.
He picked up her hand in his.
"I'm trying. I'm trying so hard not to loose it." He looked down at her sleeping face. The tears started forming in his eyes again. But this time he didn't fight them back. He took a shaky breath and continued. "I miss you pet. I miss you so much that I can't... just... How could you?! How could you do this to me?! You know how sensitive it is when it comes to my wives. You are the most selfish, stupid, daft, stubborn, beautiful, smart, funny, wonderful woman I have ever met!"
The tears started falling now. "Your such a bloody wonder, you ruin everything, and you fix everything, and I can't believe you half the time. Your just so... flawless, and awful, and I...I ..." He pictured her smile. Those chocolate eyes sparkling with laughter, every time he had a confused look on her face she would laugh, he never understood why. He thought of her auburn curls, that she would always pinned them up on top of her head to keep them out of the way while she cooked. He never liked her hair that way. He remembered the night he pulled those pins out, she protested, but he wouldn't let her have them back. Her hair was so long, so beautiful. Seeing those curls fall down her back was the first time he felt true affection for her.
Now, as he stared into her face, her beautiful face, he realized why he's been feeling the way he has ever since she got pregnant.
"I..." Oh no! Was he really considering this? Once you say it, it's done, no turning back.
"I love you" it started as a whisper. But then it grew bigger and louder and more confident. "I love you." He said shaking his head in disbelief. That was it he thought, all my worrying and stressing, was because it was official, she got under my skin. I'm in love with her. "I love you! I love you, Nellie, I love you! I've loved you all my life and you were right, I was just too stubborn to admit it."
He couldn't see anything, tears were blocking his vision as they poured out of his eyes. "I use to hate myself, I would mentally beat myself up because I hated the fact that I was falling in love with you." Sniffle. "I love Nellie, please, please, please wake up! Please return to me pet." He was on top of her, gripping her shoulders, lightly shaking her. "Please Nellie, I can't do this, I can't live without you. Please don't make me live without you, I can't do it, I won't do it. I'm not raising Jeramey without you! Wake up Nellie, please. Please my pet, my love, come back to me."
He shook her by the shoulders, yelling at her sleeping face as the tears poured down, soaking her hair. "Nellie please." He begged her. "Wake up dammit!" He spat in her face. "I said I love you, what more do you want? Don't you want to see your son? Nellie please... I love you my dear, please."
And he gave up.
He rolled over on the bed sobbing his eyes out. Sweeney Todd has never cried this much. Never. "I never shed tears for Lucy. What are you doing to me?" He told her. He grabbed her other hand. Her palm lay flat against the mattress, he curled his fingers in between her's and held on to her tightly, as he sobbed and sobbed.
Sweeney didn't know how long it's been. He just kept crying and pleading, and praying that she'll wake up.
Her fingers curled up and touched his knuckles.
Sweeney shot up to his knees. "Nellie?" Her breathing was different, she had jagged breaths. "Nellie!" He yelled. She was waking up, she was trying too. "Nellie please, please let me see those chocolate eyes. Those beautiful chocolate eyes. Show them to me now and I'll make sure they never fill with tears again."
Just as he said it, her eyes fluttered. Once, twice, and they shot open, staring right into to his onyx ones.
"Nellie."
