Chapter 2

Time passed but Nellie couldn't move. Her unbelieving eyes found it quite difficult to accept what they were seeing, but there was no denying that the barber who defined her life was standing right in front of her at that very moment.

Mr. Todd remained standing still, just like the flabbergasted baker. If he had been any other man, Mrs. Lovett would've used this opportunity to attempt to come up with a plan that could get her out of the situation, but now that she was so close to Sweeney again, thinking was a difficult thing indeed.

The feelings that had rushed through her just a few minutes ago, when she had simply been looking at the house where she used to live and work, returned as soon as she fully realized that Sweeney Todd was the man who had dragged her into the abandoned alley.

Even when she had been completely unaware of the fact that she would be face to face with the barber himself within minutes, it had been impossible for her to make sense of the countless emotions that arose within her as soon as she thought of him.

But now that she was standing only a few meters away from her, the assault of her thoughts and feelings regarding him was so powerful that it almost overwhelmed her. The baker's knees buckled, the intensity of the barber's gaze only adding to her confused and shocked state.

Sweeney took one small step in her direction, crossing some of the distance that was still between them. A part of Mrs. Lovett knew that she should step back, flee for her life again now that she was once more within reach of the man who had tried to kill her all those years ago.

She couldn't do it however. There was a force stronger than herself that prevented her from moving and didn't allow her to think. Even when the barber stepped a little closer to her again, eyes never ceasing their intense scrutiny of her face, she remained standing where she was.

The baker was vaguely horrified by her complete lack of reaction, by the fact that she couldn't decide whether she mostly felt fear for the demon who had attempted to murder her or affection for the barber who she had loved for as long as she could remember, even when she fully knew what sort of monster he had become during the last gruesome minutes that they had spent together in the bakehouse.

She couldn't even tear her gaze away from him. His eyes alone held her just as captive now as he in a way had always done, but she was rather sure that there was something in his gaze that had never been there before. She had no idea what this could be however and she might as well never know, having not a clue when – or if – she would be free from the spell that the barber was obviously still holding over her.

The sound of laughter reached the darkness of the alley and the ears of the two people who were standing in it. It distracted Mrs. Lovett for the shortest moment as she recognized Teddy's voice. She instinctively looked around for the boy, breaking her visual connection with Mr. Todd.

The baker couldn't see Teddy, but his voice sounded as cheerful as it usually was, both suggesting that he was safe and had already forgotten about what the barber had just done to him.

The distraction brought her some much needed clarity and relative peace, especially because it was quite a lot easier to breath now that she wasn't staring in Sweeney's mesmerizing eyes any longer.

As she listened closely, wanting to be sure that Teddy was safe indeed even though she couldn't see him and couldn't protect him, the boy's laughter mixed with the voice of someone else – a girl.

Because of this, the baker was reminded of the girl who had been with Sweeney, the one who had been interested in Teddy's snowman. Mrs. Lovett had been too preoccupied with both the barber and the boy to pay much attention to her, but now she realized how odd it was that the demon barber was accompanied by such a young and innocently looking girl.

At first sight, the man and the girl couldn't be more different from each other. In fact, Mrs. Lovett couldn't think of a single reason why the two of them were together in the first place. It didn't make sense for Sweeney to accompany a child; he couldn't stand people, let alone young ones. It had been clear enough whenever he only had to be in the same room as Toby all those years ago. Judging from the way he had flung Teddy out of his way as if the boy wasn't a human at all, suggested that he hardly had changed.

Teddy said something that Mrs. Lovett couldn't hear, but whatever he said amused the girl to such extent that she laughed, the sound of it echoing faintly between the walls that surrounded the baker and the barber. She couldn't be sure whether the girl who Teddy was talking to was indeed the same as the one who had accompanied Mr. Todd, but given the circumstances it was rather unlikely that this was someone else.

Even as she wondered about Teddy, the baker's eyes moved back to Sweeney's face. It was a habit that had formed during the few months that they had shared a house and was so strong that the time that they had spent far away from each other hadn't made an end to it.

The expression on the barber's face was one that she had never seen before. Not since he had returned to London ten years ago, at least. It would go too far to describe the look on his face as one of happiness, but his expression was certainly more delighted than anything she had seen since he had escaped from the colony – whether it was in their house in Fleet Street or in her own dreams.

He wasn't even looking at her anymore. This usually would've bothered her – the attention of Mr. Todd was to her more valuable than anything else – but now she was rather glad because of it. It gave her the opportunity to study the man without having those dark and distracting eyes focused on her.

But the expression on his face made it impossible for her to think rationally anyway. For so long she had dreamed of seeing him like this – but she wanted herself to be the cause of such a drastic change in the barber's usual gloomy mood, not some girl who could've been Johanna's sister.

Indeed, there was no reason for the barber to look after the girl, let alone be as overly protective as he had been when Teddy had tried to prevent the girl from touching his snowman. Absolutely no reason at all, unless...

The baker's eyes widened as she realized that there was only one possible reason why the barber behaved in such a way around the girl like he had done.

Mere moments before, she had been unable to even decide whether she was mostly relieved or afraid to see Sweeney again. All those emotions were mixed now with a new one, a feeling that she had hardly experienced since that night that Lucy had died by the hands of her own husband.

Blind jealousy rose inside her, overpowering the few logical thoughts that she was still capable of, and even her sense of self preservation. It was not that the barber hadn't already compromised that many times before, but this was different.

She had always been sure that Mr. Todd couldn't possibly hurt her more than trying to kill her after all what she had done for him. It seemed however that he had insulted and pained her in an even more cruel way than she had already thought.

Tears sprang to her eyes as she looked at the barber, at his face that was so much more beautiful now that his lips were turned slightly upwards and there was a hint of a sparkle in his eyes, almost smiling a little because of the cheerfulness of a child that should've been her own.

She forgot about the other child that was playing just outside the alley as the pain of not being the one who held the barber's affection overwhelmed her more powerfully than it had ever been before.

Only minutes ago, she had met the barber again, whether this was for better or worse. But now it was clear to her that it didn't matter at all – she had lost him once again already, long before they had met in front of the building where they used to live.

"How could you?" she shrieked, approaching the barber on shaky legs. She didn't know what she intended to do or hoped to achieve and even vaguely realized that anything she'd do would only make things worse. But the anger she felt because of what she was now convinced that he had done was stronger than anything else and made it impossible for her not to do something to out her rage and frustration. "How could you!"

Sweeney's eyes flashed back to her, his expression now one of confusion. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could do so Mrs. Lovett had reached him already and assailed him, fists hitting his chest.

Punching him however didn't bring any relief at all; he just kept standing there, completely unimpressed, as if he didn't even feel the impact of her fists. She felt ridiculous and pathetic now that she was basically humiliating herself in front of the man who she had loved for so long. It seemed however that there was no way back for her, no possibility to prevent herself from taking out her contradictory feelings on the man who never ceased to cause them.

Tears were leaking from her eyes and she hated herself for it, proving once again to him how weak she was. Rage and frustration still rushed through her being and even though she sensed that it wouldn't make any difference, she wished that she could hit him like this as long as she wanted, so he would at least be aware of some of the pain he had inflicted on her.

He grasped her forearms easily however, as if she was nothing but a small child. The baker tried to resist, attempting to tug her limbs out of his hands, but it was no use. He backed her against the wall, at almost the same spot where he had pushed her against it before.

The reaction of the baker was completely different however this time. She now knew who she was dealing with, that this man made everything so much worse than she had initially feared. But still, what bothered her most now had nothing to do with Teddy's safety, or her own.

She looked in his eyes again as he forced her to stay still, trapping her body with his own. There was a gleam in his eyes that she hadn't seen there before and the way he was pressed against her was quite different as well now that she knew who he was.

There had been times that she had longed to read something like this in his eyes, something of which she didn't know what it meant only that it was unlike the looks of hate and melancholy that she was used to. There had been days that she had dreamed of being touched by him like this. But now that those things were happening at last, she could only think of the way of which she was sure now that he had betrayed her.

"That girl," she whimpered, her voice partly disappearing just like her strength, "why?"

The last word completely summarized her lack of comprehension regarding his behavior, but she knew that it didn't matter. It was not as if he would ever understand how horrified she was that he had not only discarded her ten years ago as if she was nothing but an insect, but mostly that he had found a replacement for his late wife even though he had sworn to her that he would never do so. Judging by the age of the girl, he must've done so almost immediately after both of them had escaped from Fleet Street.

Sweeney however just looked at her, as if he wasn't impressed at all by the way she had just thrown herself at him and didn't feel anything as she cried right in front of him, something which she had always made sure not to do. He probably truly wasn't influenced by either part of her behavior, which wouldn't surprise the baker at all, but she couldn't tell. The expression on his face was once again just as blank and unreadable as it had been when they had worked together ten years ago.

She felt like she was left boneless by his close physical presence, even when she reminded herself that it was completely irrational to react to him like that. But even if she wouldn't have been immobile simply because his body was pressed against her own to keep her in place and prevent her from hitting him again, she wouldn't have been able to fight him.

Fleeing from him had saved her life ten years ago and she highly doubted that this situation was any different, but her treacherous body was simply content being trapped by Mr. Todd.

He stared at her in the way he had done earlier, taking in her face and hair. Mrs. Lovett hated herself for it, but she couldn't help but wonder how much she had changed physically since they had last seen each other, and what he would think if this.

She had been rather sure that he wouldn't be aware of the lines around her mouth and eyes, which were deeper and much more visible. She took pride in her hair, which was still just as long and fiery as it had always been, but it wasn't as if he would notice. But there was something in his eyes now, something deep beneath the seemingly blank surface, that made her wonder if this really was the case.

A few stubborn tears were still rolling slowly down her cheek, another source of weakness that she couldn't change. The baker blinked rapidly, hoping to appear at least a little bit stronger than she actually felt.

Mr. Todd moved his right hand towards her and she flinched, not knowing what he was going to do, although it would doubtlessly be something that she wouldn't like at all.

To her bewilderment, his fingers brushed against her cheek, wiping some of the tears away. If she hadn't known any better, she would've described the gesture as gentle. This only made her more confused however; he had never acted towards her like this, especially not after she had just launched herself at him.

He repeated the movement, fingertips brushing lightly against her skin. Mrs. Lovett sighed in spite of the situation, her being giving in to the touch immediately even though it seemed highly unlikely that the barber was doing this without a superior motivation that was far less pleasant than those caresses.

But the baker wanted to enjoy the touches as long as they lasted. She had dreamed of moments like this for almost as long as she could remember, but had never truly believed that she would ever experience them. So now that it was happening, no matter how unlikely it seemed, she savored it, even if it was the last thing she would ever do.

The gentle touches became caresses as he had banished all tears from her face and although Mrs. Lovett didn't trust the barber at all, especially not now that he was behaving like this, she gladly let him.

She trembled as his fingers brushed against her cheek and nose, his movements still careful and almost tender. Her eyes fluttered close and she fully leaned back against the wall, needing all the support she could get now that the barber was assaulting her senses in such a completely unexpected way.

Even though she felt that it probably wasn't without risk, she leaned in to his touch as she was safely standing against the wall, wanting to feel as much of him as possible. If she didn't know better, she would've sworn that Sweeney gasped when she tilted her head fully against his extended hand.

"It's too late."

His voice was so soft that she almost didn't hear him. She didn't understand what he meant with this however, but she didn't care. He caused sensations that were unlike anything she had ever known, so sweet and perfect that she wanted the moment to last for a very, very long time.

His fingers moved downwards, towards her lips. The baker held her breath in anticipation, her body trembling at the mere idea of being touched by him like that.

The caress she had been expecting however never came. Instead, his fingers suddenly were gone. Before the baker even registered this, Sweeney twined his hand in her hair and yanked at it, forcing her face to angle towards his own.

Her eyes flew open, meeting the ones of the barber himself, which were darker than they had ever been before. Fear did its best to make an end to the unjustified euphoria she had felt seconds ago, but she still couldn't help but feel grateful for what just had happened, no matter what it really meant and no matter what he was going to do now.

His face was very near to her own now and although the way she was standing was uncomfortable because of the way Sweeney forced her to do so, she once again couldn't help but be glad for being in such close proximity of him, of having the chance to get lost in his eyes like she had never been able to before.

She thought at first that it was only her imagination, but when his nose and lips were almost touching her own, it was clear to her that he was indeed moving closer to her. Both the rhythm of her breath and her heart altered significantly when it really looked like he was going to kiss her.

Mrs. Lovett was inwardly looking for an explanation for this most unusual behavior, even now not believing that he was truly going to do what she thought – and secretly hoped – he would. She couldn't think of any reason however why he would approach her like he was currently doing, especially not one that would benefit her as well.

The only possible outcomes were unpleasant for her indeed, but once again she found herself incapable of being bothered by this. She felt Sweeney's breath against her skin and her eyes closed on their own accord once more, her body surrendering to the barber even though she had learned the he was capable of truly horrible things and that she didn't mean anything to him – a combination that had already turned out to be a very bad one once before.

The kiss, when it came after a few more endless seconds, was a surprise, even though she had seen it coming. But the idea of Sweeney Todd kissing her was so absolutely ridiculous – just as unlikely as running in to him in front of their former home in Fleet Street after ten years – that it didn't seem to be really possible even when he had moved his face so close to her own.

His lips rested against hers for a moment and even though the touch was so light that she hardly felt it, it was overpowering to such an extent that her baker feared that she was going to faint. She had always imagined that actually kissing Mr. Todd was quite an overwhelming thing indeed, but in reality this turned out to be even more so than she had thought.

"Too late," he whispered against her lips, and although she had still no idea what he was talking about, the only thing that mattered were the sensations that were caused by the movement of his mouth against her own.

Even if they would've been standing like that for a few hours, it would've been too short for Mrs. Lovett. But the chaste kiss ended much sooner than that, before the baker had been able to fully comprehend what was going on.

Sweeney tugged at her hair again, causing her mouth to open in a silent scream of surprise. This was nothing compared however to the wave of shock that went through her when he took this opportunity to kiss her again, using her instinctive reaction to gain access to her mouth.

The kiss was harsh and clumsy. During the first few seconds, Mrs. Lovett was too bewildered to even realize what was happening, let alone react in a suitable way. Mr. Todd was rather insistent however, continuing to push her against the wall as he held her firmly and invaded her mouth with his tongue.

Although her being was hardly capable of analyzing what was happening, the baker didn't need any thought or knowledge to understand what was going on at that very moment. Even though nothing of all of this made any sense to her, her body knew subconsciously what it had to do.

This was probably caused by all those long and dark nights that she had spent alone in her bed for such a long time, longing for a man who wasn't hers. Even when they had fallen in a relatively civil system of communication during those last few weeks before the Judge's death, it had been clear to her that the barber wouldn't even consider thinking of her the way she wanted him to.

Mrs. Lovett had been convinced that he would never love her. This was a painful realization indeed, but it wasn't in the baker's nature to give up. Even though she knew that the wouldn't care for her emotionally, she had begun to try to find ways to seduce the barber in a less complete way. If his body was the only thing she could have, then she would gladly take it.

In those weeks before he took her last hope away from her, she had actually thought that she'd be able to tempt him enough. In retrospect she realized how stupid it had been of her; she should've known that even this was a kind of love that the barber didn't want to share with anyone except for his lost wife.

But she hoped when she still had the smallest bit of reason to do so. She had fooled herself in many ways, but even she hadn't believed that the barber would be tender and gentle with her if that moment of surrender ever came.

In the darkness and solitude of her bedroom she had imagined rough kisses, firm hands in her hair and on her breasts, bruises on her thighs and arms. It didn't matter to her however that the only kinds of intimacy she could imagine with the barber were filled with violence and disdain. If that was the only way that she could have him, it was better than not having him at all.

Ever since he had returned to London ten years ago, Mr. Todd had been a most unpredictable man. Mrs. Lovett had known that if there would come a day that he would give in to her desires, she wouldn't get any warning. It would just happen and she would have to take her chance immediately, before the shortest moment of 'weakness' that the barber allowed himself was over.

Whenever he had come closer to her than usual, she had been alert – not to attempt to get away from him unharmed, but to make sure that she would notice it immediately when his indifference towards her had come to an end at last. She always watched him, always reminded herself to take that one chance as soon as it presented itself.

The few times that he had stepped into her personal space however he had only done so to shake her up or press a razor against the pale skin of her neck, taking out a part of his endless anger on her. Never there was even the slightest hint of something more than that. And even when he had made clear in the ultimate way that he didn't want to have anything to do with her, she spent the years that followed fantasizing about moments of anger that turned somehow into something much more than that.

So when she found herself in the alley with the barber, surrounded by nothing but darkness and silence, she didn't really have to think. Giving in to whatever it was that he wanted was a reaction that she had considered and mentally practiced so often, that her body didn't need confirmation from her mind to know what to do.

She had absolutely no idea what the barber wanted, what he tried to achieve this way. She didn't have a clue what had happened to him during the past ten years, whether he had changed as much as the previous time that he had been gone for so long.

The baker also sensed that he couldn't possibly be up to anything good. He probably had used the time that had passed since she had managed to escape from him to think of the ultimate way to kill her after all, just in case he would find her again. That night, she had been silly enough to pour out her feelings of love and adoration for him at the moment that he least wanted to hear it; doubtlessly, he was using it against her now.

She wouldn't be surprised that he was doing this only to distract her, to stab one of those razors of his in her back when she was kissing him. Surely, his crazed mind would consider it the ultimate way of vengeance, a scheme even more glorious than the one to kill the Judge and the Beadle had been.

Although thoughts like this were rushing around in the back of her head, warning the parts of her desperate body that might listen, the baker ignored them even as those same thoughts reminded her how this had worked out for her the last time.

Even if she would've been fully aware of the risk, the baker wouldn't have been able to do anything else. It was only natural for her body to give in to the demands of the man who she probably still loved as much as she had always done. In a way the same went for her mind; it had both desired and practiced reacting to his violent affection for so long, that it had no choice but to do so now.

So when Mr. Todd kissed her, even though it absolutely made no sense to her at all, she simply attempted to kiss him back, trying to deepen the kiss.

He growled when she reacted to him this way. She had no idea whether he was angry or upset because she kissed him back, or if this was perhaps the sign of confirmation she had always been looking for.

His arms went around her waist, holding on to her so tightly that it hurt. Because of the force of his touches and kisses she was backed up against the wall behind her once again.

The kiss was painful and indeed rather unpleasant, but it was much like she had expected it. She herself was rather incapable of returning it without despair and fierceness, her nails clawing at his neck to keep close to him and her teeth biting on his lips harder than they should, just like he did.

She was too lost in the moment to realize such things however and a part of her knew that the same was true for the barber. It was more about the apparent impossibleness of finally connecting with him this way than the actual experience of doing so.

"You didn't wait for me."

Mrs. Lovett hardly heard him, too caught up in the painful pleasure he was causing. The accusing tone of his voice was something she had never heard before though, or at least, not with the edge of regret that he didn't fully conceal.

"Look who's talking," she managed to say just before he bit down on the exposed skin of her shoulder, leaving more marks. She didn't mind at all however. The things he said reminded her of the child that seemed to belong to him. "That girl of yours..."

"Victoria is twelve," he growled after another moment, moving his mouth to her other shoulder.

He bit with such force that he actually broke her skin. The baker groaned as the sharp pain mixed with the tormented pleasure she was feeling already. She didn't understand his anger, but if it was his rage that somehow caused him to act like this, she was grateful for whatever it was that had caused it.

Under the barber's assault she had no chance whatsoever to consider the cryptic remark he just made, the girl's age failing to be of any importance to her at that very moment.

Mr. Todd moved his face lower, hands roaming over her hips and lower back as he licked the blood away that his teeth had just drawn. She threw her head back, hardly aware of the added pain as it accidentally slammed against the wall, of which she had forgotten that it was right behind her even though she was leaning fully against it now that her legs were far from stable.

He tore her old coat open as if it had never been closed at all, sending the buttons flying in various directions. The air that the fabric had partly protected her from was cold, but it was a welcome feeling against her flushed skin.

Her hands twined in the barber's hair, pushing his face more firmly against her body. To her delight, he moved further downwards, biting and kissing his way to her breasts. He smeared blood over every inch of skin that his lips touched, but Mrs. Lovett couldn't care less.

She was panting, head resting against the wall and knees shaking when his tongue and teeth assaulted her skin. Before he reached the edges of her dress however, he didn't simply tear them out of his way like she had vaguely expected him to. Instead, he moved up again, pulling her closer for another demanding kiss.

Their noses bumped against each other and their teeth clashed once again, but to Mrs. Lovett it was only a continuation of the kiss that was by far the best one she had ever known, even as she was tasting her own blood on his lips.

Adrenaline rushed through her system as Mr. Todd's hands moved below her back, holding her firmly and lifting her until she was equal to him in height to pin her against the wall with his own body. She wanted to wrap her legs around his waist, both making herself more comfortable and bringing herself even closer to him, but she presumed that Mr. Todd wouldn't like her to take things that far.

Her fear of driving him away by doing so however seemed to be unfounded. The barber himself slid his hands down her legs, drawing up her skirts while doing so, coercing her around him after all.

The fact that she was being kissed by Sweeney was something that would take a long time to sink in. But now that he seemed to want to think things even further, Mrs. Lovett truly was dumbfounded.

There were dozens of reasons why she should stop him. But even if she somehow would've been able to persuade the barber to cease his intimate progress, she wouldn't have wanted to.

Just because the world stopped making sense didn't mean that she couldn't enjoy it, no matter what the consequences would be afterwards. She had never cared too much for the difference between make believe and real life anyway.

Even as he tried to get the old but still heavy fabric of her skirts out of his way, Mr. Todd never stopped his assault on the skin of her neck, biting and sucking as if he had to made up for the years that he hadn't done so. The evidence that he left of whatever it was that he outed by touching her like this wouldn't be gone for a long time. She vaguely wondered how on earth she was going to explain this to Teddy – if there would be a later when Mr. Todd was done with her – but that was another worry that she was both incapable and unwilling to think of just yet.

Fearing that he would simply tear her skirts apart if she didn't interrupt – now that would be difficult to explain to Teddy – she let go off his neck. Trusting that he wouldn't break away from her even if she wasn't clinging to him any longer, she moved her hands to the point where there bodies were now pressed against each other even more intimately than before. She pulled the fabric out of the impatient barber's hands to prevent him from simply ripping it apart, hiking it up with as much care as her heated state allowed her.

Mr. Todd took the chance to put his hands to use elsewhere. His fingers slid up the legs he had just displayed and the baker moaned because of the barber's bold touch.

"Your husband is a lucky man," Sweeney said as he moved his hand higher and higher, roughly caressing every part of her leg that he past.

"I'm... I'm not married," the baker gasped.

Talking wasn't something that she liked to do at that moment, but the barber's presumption was one that she simply had to correct.

He squeezed her thigh as he registered those words, hard. Mrs. Lovett didn't feel as much of it as she would've done in any other situation however. Everything else that her senses experienced was nothing compared to the way she anticipated the presence of his fingers and perhaps even more, just a few inches above the place where his hand was currently rested.

"So you just slept with someone, is that it? Or more than one man?"

There was a rage in his voice that she had never heard before, not even when he had ranted about the Judge and the Beadle before he had managed to kill them.

"I don't... I don't understand," the baker whimpered, disappointment and confusion replacing the lust and triumph that had dominated her just a few seconds before. "What are you talking about?"

"You said you loved me," he hissed in her ear, his fingernails still digging painfully into her upper leg. "You said that you'd be twice the wife that Lucy had been."

Mrs. Lovett's mind spun. She had no idea that Mr. Todd actually remembered that she had said that – she hadn't thought that the barber had remembered anything about her except for the fact that she had lied about the true whereabouts of his wife.

The baker closed her eyes, trying to focus. She had allowed her brain to stop functioning actively as soon as the barber had approached her in that way he had never done before, but this wasn't exactly working in her favor now that he seemed to demand an actual answer of her.

She blinked rapidly, breathing in deeply in an attempt to grasp the meaning of the things that the barber had said to her. He turned out to remember what she had said to him just before he had attempted to kill her. Even stranger, it seemed that he was taking an interest in her personal life. Why would he care whether she was married or not? He had never bothered to be even remotely interested in her private life during those months that they had lived and worked together.

Why did he want to know now – why did he actually seem upset by the thought that she had slept with someone? Ten years had passed after all, she had had plenty of opportunities to form relationships with men who did care about her. She had never done so however – no matter what he did to her, there was only one man who she wanted. But it was not as if he knew that.

"How many where there?" he growled, pushing her more forcefully against the bricks behind her. "How many?"

"No one," she whispered truthfully, "there was no one."

"Do not lie to me again," he hissed.

He withdrew his hand from her leg, only to use one hand to grasp her arms and pin her more firmly against the wall, forcing one of his knees between her legs until she couldn't even move any longer. The other hand went to her face, yanking her chin upwards so she was forced to look him in the eye.

"It's not a lie," she said, trying to sound more powerful and certain than she actually felt. "I haven't married since I... left Fleet Street. I hadn't even considered it. And I haven't slept around either, if that's what you're suggesting."

The look in his eyes was the strangest one she had ever seen. His eyes softened somewhat as she assured him that she was telling him the truth, but there was an anger and a pain in his gaze that couldn't be compared to anything she had seen there whenever he thought of either his family or the ones who had destroyed it.

"But that boy," he grumbled. "The one who calls you 'Mum' and looks just like you. Am I supposed to believe that he just fell out of the air?"

The baker's eyes widened as she realized what the barber was talking about. Of course, he had seen Teddy and he had presumed immediately that he was her son.

"There, see?" he hissed as he saw her reaction, interpreting her look of surprise for one of confession.

"He's not my son," she said firmly.

"Of course he isn't."

His words were rough and angry, but his look was one of sadness, one of pain. The baker felt sorry for him, not wanting to cause him any more suffering even though she had no idea why he reacted to her and Teddy the way he did. A part of her mind was screaming that her pity was completely unjustified, seeing that the same man was currently basically holding her captive and accusing her of all kind of things that she wouldn't even consider was also the one who had almost managed to kill her.

"No he isn't," she said, much calmer than she actually felt. "Teddy is my sister's son. But I'm the one who is looking after him since she and her husband died."

The events of that day had been bizarre and completely unexpected to say the least. Especially Mr. Todd's behavior was so odd that she couldn't really be sure whether this wasn't just another dream, even though the small wounds and other injuries he had just inflicted on her were more than real enough.

The biggest surprise however was still to come. The barber stared into her eyes, looking at her in a way he had never done before, not even during the minutes that just had passed. Two pairs of dark eyes locked and even though his eyes were usually so blank and empty that even she couldn't read them, the baker could now see every single emotion that went through him.

Surprise, relief, shock... joy? The way his eyes almost seemed to lit up after several long seconds could certainly be described as such, although it was strange indeed to see such an expression on his face. It was even weirder of course because she apparently was the one who had caused it... by informing him that she wasn't married and wasn't connected to any other man whatsoever, and that the boy of who he had thought that he was her son was actually her nephew.

He blinked, breaking their eye contact. He focused his attention on their current position instead and she more felt than saw now the blow of horror that hit him when he saw the way he had her pressed against the wall.

Sweeney released his iron grasp on her arms, freeing his knee from its position between her legs. She could tell that he was truly shocked by what he just had done and although she was glad that he seemed to be sorry for handling her as strangely as he had done, she generally didn't tend to like things that confused her or distanced the barber from her.

Whatever it was that was going on seemed to cause both. What worried her most however was the barber himself. He had been strong enough to do to her whatever that he wanted so recently, but now he appeared to be the one shaking on his legs, looking at her as if he had seen a ghost.

"Mr. Todd?" she asked carefully, reaching for him but not quite daring to touch him.

The man looked as if he was going to be sick. Whether she wanted to or not, the baker couldn't help her natural urge to help him, no matter what he had done to her in the past and just now.

"I... I'm so sorry," he gasped, "I shouldn't have..."

She had no idea what he was going to say, but those words suggested that it was safe enough to help him. The baker rushed to his side, hands supporting his taller body. Upon feeling her touch, the barber's legs simply seemed to gave out beneath him.

The baker and the barber ended up in the now muddy snow in an inelegant mess of coats and limbs. He immediately reached for her however, pulling her up until she was sitting right next to him when she didn't resist, not taking his hands away even when their shoulders were touching.

Mrs. Lovett didn't have a clue what was going to happen during the next minute, let alone what the rest of the day was going to bring.

But for now she couldn't worry about it. She was sitting against the man who she loved and who no longer seemed to hold any grudge against her. Even though they were sitting uncomfortably on the wet and hard stones of the alley, in an area of London were probably every inhabitant still wanted her dead, she couldn't feel safer or happier.