A/N: Me no own, you no sue, all right? All right.

Tourniquet: Chapter 4- So Close

Mrs. Lovett barely slept that night. Her mind was restless. She contemplated whether or not she still really did have feelings for the demon barber. Whether or not it was right. Whether or not she was betraying herself. Her mind would tell her one thing while her heart would tell her another.

In the end, she decided that to try to forget the whole thing and start anew. For her sake, and Toby's.

This was easier said than done.

She yawned and climbed out of bed. She got dressed and headed to the parlor. She opened one of the curtains to look out the window and saw that the sun was actually out for once. She smiled. "Maybe its not going to be such a bad day after all."

Mrs. Lovett rounded the corner leading to the hospital. She passed through the large oaken door at the main entrance and into the lobby. She maneuvered her way through to the other side of the lobby to Dr. Waldman, who was presently taking care of Toby. He was walking through the lobby while thumbing through a rather large stack of papers, not paying much attention to were he was walking.

Dr. Waldman was a older man, in his late 50's early 60's, and rather short in stature. His hair was greying but you could still see a bit of his original hair color, which was dark brown. He also had large, bright, expressive hazel eyes, which told a lot about what he was thinking, even when he didn't express it verbally. Presently, he had a rather quizzical look on his face as he looked through his stack of papers.

"Dr. Waldman, sir.", Mrs. Lovett said a little hesitantly. Dr. Waldman stopped and looked up, almost dropping his papers, and looked rather startled.

"Oh, 'ello, Mrs. Lovett.", he said with a most benevolent air to his voice. " 'ow are you this morning?"

"Fine, thank you.", she said "How is Toby?"

Dr. Waldman sighed. "Well...", he said after a short pause.

"Well, what?" Mrs. Lovett said worriedly. "What do you mean by 'well'? Is something wrong? Is he alright? Oh, please tell me!"

"Well, he's got quit a high fever and a bit of a hacking cough as well. I don't think he has an infection but I'm keeping a close eye on him just to be sure. I've given him so medication to keep his fever down, and to control that nasty cough he has as well. We wouldn't want those stitches in his neck to start to come out because of that.", Dr. Waldman said.

"Oh God...", Mrs. Lovett said, trailing off a bit. "Well, is he going to be all right? Oh, please tell me he's going to be all right."

Dr. Waldman put a hand on her shoulder. "Calm down, he's going to be all right, he's in good hands. He should be better in a week or so and he should be able to go home. You can go see him if you wish; he's probably asleep, though."

Mrs. Lovett nodded happily. "All right, thank you, thank you sir!", she said and rushed off down the hall.

Mrs. Lovett cautiously opened the door to Toby's room and slowly walked in and over to his bedside. He was sound asleep. He defiantly didn't look well. His hair was plastered down with sweat and he had a drawn, haggard look to his face. She brushed a few strands of hair from his forehead. "Poor thing.", she whispered softly.

She sat down on the edge of the bed and watched him sleep. She noticed that he was breathing heavily, his chest heaving with every breath. It looked almost painful for him to breath. He coughed and turned over to his side with a sickly groan.

She placed a hand on his arm. She sighed and tried to hold back the tears that were forming in her eyes. "God, I hope the doctor is right."