Toby, Toby, Toby

I couldn't believe it, I just couldn't bloody well believe it! Trying to hold in a gasp through a near-teary smile, I peered through the crack of Sweeney's door even more eagerly than I wos at first, trying to hide meself well enough even in my joy. Toby, my Toby, was shavin' his first customer! But tha' wasn't the bloody amazin' part, mind you. What was truly incredible was that throughout the whole thing Sweeney was standing behind him, one hand on his shoulder and the other hand guidin' his 'round the man's face. He was almost done with his shave, and I could tell from where I was hidin' that there wasn't a spot of blood on him!

'Well,' I thought dryly, 'That does make 'is shaving style a bit different from his father I suppose.'

Toby's glittering eyes turned up towards his mentor, and I blinked, turning away from the door and closing it gently before I finally let out a gasp of realization and surprise. His father! Did I just - I shouldn't 'ave assumed that Sweeney had already talked to him an' all, but that's not why I was tearin' up like a blubberin' sea otter righ' at that moment. I understood the look in Toby's eyes, and the near out o' place smile on Sweeney's face all to well. His father...my son....Our son! Oh, Toby...

Toby an' me an' Sweeney, a family at last? I couldn't believe it. Well actually I damn well could, after all this time an' all tha' bloody business we deserved it! - bloody business, oh Lord. I rolled my eyes at my accidental inner pun. And it was this buggering bought of typical crazy-woman humour - Tho neither of me two men would EVER hear me call it that - that finally brought me to enough sense so that I could remove my arse from it's precarious position against the closed barber shop door. Bein' booted down the stairs by an over-active lil' child as he bust down the door for dinner did not seem fun at all to me, and well, if Toby was the one to open the door, forget it. Me bones would be in a jumbled heap before they could even make it down the stairs!

Speakin' of, I clambered down the stairs in my hurry to start the dinner I knew they'd both be wantin' so bad, even if it wos still a bit too early, an' a bit too light out to be hungry myself. I figured I'd either tell them tha' I saw 'em n' figured them out after dinner, or let them figure out themselves from my positively glowing nature. I do confess though, tha it takes almost next to nothin' to put me in a good mood lately, wot with wot has been goin' on round here. Maybe they won't notice.

"Good Lord woman! Has Christmas come early? Did you tamper with our meals tonight?" Drawled Sweeney as he sauntered down the stairs, smirking. Speak of the devil. Speak of the gorgeous, bloody brilliant, mind buggering, insufferable devil!

"Love, what are you going on about now?" I shot back lightly, stirring up the beginnings of a stew I was magically able to throw together in the minutes before he came down those stairs.

"You're grinning from ear to ear, Mrs. Lovett. Can't have you splitting your face open from the exertion, now can we?"

I melted a little bit inside, and came to the abrupt realization that I may as well never get used to the playful version of Mr. Sweeney Todd. That didn't mean I wasn't goin' to be playful back, however. I leaned over the counter so we wos face to face and said as seriously as I could manage through my smile,

"Really now? Something wrong with my lips you say? Maybe you could fix that, love."

"Of course, my pet. How could I refuse?" He said with dark mischievousness. I was shocked he played along wit me game so easily, and quickly took advantage, leaning forward even more and pulling his head down to mine. Never, in all my days, did I think this could happen. But it wos, an' I was cut off by all further thought as our lips met an' I was kissing him again, with much more intensity than our first. I felt like singing, crying and laughin' all at once when he pulled me up to sit on the counter, and kissed me deeper. When he sadly broke away, I was shockingly glad he did, but tha' was only cos' Toby chose that exact moment to come barreling' down the stairs like the demon barber was coming after him. Which was ridiculous, really, because he was right here.

I chuckled inwardly and hopped of the counter like it was burning me, repositioning myself behind the pot of soup and brushing my skirts off frantically as if they was caught on fire too. Toby, of course, was oblivious to all this as he skidded to a halt in front of me and cried out,

"I shaved my first customer today! An' I just finished cleaning up the mess and I didn't cut him! I only needed a bit o' help too!"

"Toby that's wonderful!" I exclaimed, perhaps making it a little too obvious that I already knew all this with my over enthusiasm. But what was I without a little bit of over enthusiasm now an' then?

As if readin' my thoughts, Sweeney looked at me with a surprised look in his eyes and a large smirk.

Toby beamed at my praise and clambered up onto the counter to whisper something in my ear,

'I think, mum - Mr. T wants me to be his son.' I wrapped my arms around him lovingly, happy that the words were finally spoken, and looked over his head at Sweeney, though I was still talking to the boy.

"Really now?" I asked playfully, and he nodded against my neck, "Well, then you don't want to deny him that honor then do you? Go give your new father a big hug." Toby laughed delightfully as if he understood my plan, and Sweeney's eyes bugged out as he came face to face with more of a flyin' squirrel than a boy leaping upon him and sending him crashing to his bum on the ground.

"Owww" He moaned, lifting Toby off him only partially so he could kneel comfortably,

"Son, I think you just shattered my bloody behind." Said Sweeney with a slight bit of embarrassment mixed with amusement and agony, if that was possible.

"Tha's ok, sir. I'm pretty sure Mum can fix it like she did all those cuts on your face." Toby responded immediately.

Sweeney's eyes widened slightly and looked up at me with a hilariously amused grin that soon turned suggestive as I realized the possible implications of what Toby just said, and I blushed.

"I may have to take your mother up on that offer, but now doesn't really seem like the appropriate time..." Conceded Sweeney, still laughing adorably.

"Hmm", he continued, "What do you say to that Nellie?"

He smirked up at me, leaving a very confused boy to ponder why his mum was turning the shades of a ripening tomato, for cor's sake, and his new father was hugging the living daylights out o' him like he just told the funniest joke in the world.