A/N: All the songs in this chapter were written by me!
It was later, that night, after both of their shops had closed. They hadn't really settled anything that morning and he'd decided that it was time they had another talk about their plans, the future, the sea...
When he came down from the barbershop, he found her staring out the window apparently deep in thought. Funny, he was usually the one doing that.
She didn't seem to notice he'd come into the room as she began to sing softly, to herself.
"I'll catch your tears as they fall.
In my hands I'll hold them all.
Every one a drop of moonlight,
Every one a shinging star.
Born only when you were sad,
But look how beautiful they are.
Each one a pretty pearl,
Or diamond from your heart.
Of course, your smile is prettier by far."
He recognized that song. It was the lullabye he used to sing to Johanna. But coming from Mrs. Lovett, the song was different. It was not the sound of a parent hushing their crying child. It was the sound of someone mourning for a long-lost memory...
He joined her at the window and began to sing. A different song, a new song. Sweeney Todd's lullabye, not Benjamin Barker's.
"The rubies fall into the night.
I couldn't find them if I tried.
They fall from my throat.
I choke on them and throw up.
The rubies fall.
They are my blood.
The rubies fall outside of me.
They cannot be contained.
Disaster races in their wake.
I wait for it to fall.
The rubies fall into the light.
They rest on the bones.
They shine on the ground before the grave.
The rubies fall into the night.
I couldn't find them if I tried."
As he finished singing, he turned his head slightly so he could look at her.
She reached out and cupped his face in her hand, brushing her thumb over his cheek as if wiping away tears, but he had shed none.
Smiling softly, she sang the last lines of the old lullabye.
"I'll catch each teardrop as it falls,
And build you a castle of crystal walls."
And then the tears came.
As he held her small body close against his for the second time that day, as he finally released fifteen years' worth of pent-up grief, he realized that he'd always thought of her as strong not because of her physical strength at all, but because she possessed incredible emotional strength.
Well, she had to in order to be able to do the things she did for him...