It was not the first time I had heard Johanna scream out for me, leaving me helpless by my own choice. I refused to allow myself to go back to her. What emotion would be shown to me? Simply a fretted frustration. Pacing the floor, I could only listen as she shrieked. Listen as Mrs Lovett slammed the door after her. Listen as Anthony broke down in tears of anguish.

At least I was not alone in my helplessness.

I shuddered, irritated with myself again for associating myself with him in my own mind. Slowly, the thoughts began to leave me, and I was left again only with the pain of remembering Johanna's screams.

"Love?" sounded a voice from the door. Yet again I was left with only Mrs Lovett for company.

"Is she back in her room?"

"I suppose yeh 'eard, then," she said softly. "Yeah, she's in 'er room. The sailor boy's waiting around with Toby in the parlour."

"He's not with Johanna?"

"The boy 'asn't seen 'er 'ave a fit like that before. Probably overwhelmed 'im a bit."

For a moment, I did not respond. There was that moment's silence required simply to ponder over Johanna, alone in her room.

"Are you sure he is not with her now?"

Mrs Lovett shuffled her feet slightly, awkwardly.

"Yeh'll only see 'er if she's alone?"

"I don't wish to be in the same room, acknowledging the competition."

"Johanna was wanting you even while she 'ad Anthony."

"She'll have to learn," I said almost cruelly. Mrs Lovett jumped slightly.

"Yeh were only arguing with me the other day over 'er situation."

"That was utterly different." I walked towards the door, attempting to leave to finally see my daughter again. Mrs Lovett grabbed my sleeve at the last second, looking at me seriously.

"It'll be different when I say so. Yeh told me yeh loved 'er more than I loved my Toby, and I'd never say anything so bloody cruel about 'im!"

"Then you too will have to learn a few lessons."

"Well, yeh seem to 'ave set me straight on a few things, ain't yeh?"

I blinked, slightly stunned. A bright red colour had came to Mrs Lovett's once pale cheeks, her hair seemed to become even more frizzy simply with her irritation. I could not think of anything to say, but instead pushed her hand away from me, sighing irritably.

"Yeh know I'm right," she told me the moment she lost her grip on me.

"I know that you are impossibly stubborn, and I know it is in your best interest for you to leave your nose out of it."

"Mr T, yeh're forgetting everything yeh ever wanted! Everything yeh told me yeh wanted," she added, her voice trembling. I paused, taking a brief moment to contemplate. The moment, though, was only that: brief. I left the room, no longer thinking of Mrs Lovett's words, but instead on the fact that finally I would be able to see my daughter in peace.

Somehow, the space between my private study and Johanna's bedroom had become longer. I cared not, though. At last, I had made it to her door without thought of turning back. If I were to be struck dead at that moment I would not have cared. I had least made it so far.

"Johanna?" I said in a hushed voice as I opened the door. Johanna sat there, cross legged, fiddling with her hair on the bed. The moment she heard my voice, she jumped to her feet and bound across the room, wrapping her arms around me.

"Papa! I thought you would not come!"

Rather than weeping, Johanna laughed as a child, still clinging to me as if it had been months rather than days since we had seen each other. I returned her embrace, simply standing there a moment as she giggled.

"Johanna, you look as if you have not rested in days," I exclaimed when finally I pulled her away from me. She shook her head.

"I don't think I have."

"Anthony was supposed to-"

"Don't worry, Papa," she said cheerfully. "He got tired and went to sleep. Everything worked out."

I could not fathom the smile on her face. I do not think that she understood what I had meant to say, and yet she seemed pleased enough to have soothed any fears she thought I had.

"You are going to have to sleep sooner or later." As I spoke, my eyes wandered down to her stomach. Somehow, it had grown ever so slightly. Johanna seemed not to notice it, but I feared it would not be long before she did. Even in her insanity, she was not silly. Soon enough, she would find out.

"Papa, I am not tired. I will sleep when I am."

"Then be tired," I said. Johanna only laughed and skipped back to her bed, sitting as she had before, but instead smiling rather than awkwardly fiddling with her hair.

I watched my daughter for a short time, then sighed in a slightly frustrated tone. As I should have expected, she had not at all groomed herself. I doubt that she would have allowed Anthony to do so either. I took hold of the hairbrush I had left pointedly on her dresser the last time I had seen her . Obviously, there was not a single sign of it having been used.

"Come, it is time you finally had your hair combed."

"I never leave the house," she reminded me bitterly. "What use have I for brushed hair?"

"Plenty enough as long as I say you do."

Johanna pouted frustratedly, holding onto a lock of her hair, as if such would protect her. My lip twitched, the closest sign I had to a smile for quite a while. I sat beside her, trying to manoeuvre around Johanna so as to be able to reach her hair. Unfortunately, she had become quite smart enough to fidget.

"I can do it myself," she finally said irritably. I nodded triumphantly, handing her the brush. Johanna lightly made her way to her window, sitting on the ledge and staring at me one last time before finally raking the brush through her hair.

Still sitting on the edge of the bed, I surveyed Johanna for a while. She barely noticed, only looking at me twice, each time smiling simply and poking her tongue at me. I chuckled to myself, admiring her slightly in the way she could still be so carefree. Of course, it came at a price.

While watching Johanna, a thought came to my mind. Finally, I had the family I had wished for since I had come back to London. My pretty little girl, beautiful and pale, the way I'd dreamed she was. My Johanna, sitting by the window, just like her mother…

At this thought, I jumped to my feet.

Pretty women…

Johanna stared at me, smiling slightly.

Sitting in the window, or combing out their hair…

Clenching my fists, gritting my teeth, my decision was hasty.

Something in them cheers the air…

"I will only be a short while," I said hurriedly, reaching the door in a matter of strides.

"Papa?"

I heard Johanna's light footsteps behind me, and so quickly closed the door behind me, my fists tightening as I heard her soft knock on the door, becoming more rapid by the second.

"Papa, what is the matter? Papa, please, speak to me!"

My intentions were not to listen to her any longer. I could not listen, lest I should have done something I would regret. I stumbled towards the parlour, confused and desolate in my mind. For a bleak second, I feared for my own sanity. I had to grip onto it, though. One false movement and I would be left in the same state as my dear Johanna.

As I had hoped, Mrs Lovett sat in the parlour, Toby sitting on her lap. Anthony sat across the room, a dark look in his eye which became increasingly darker as I walked in. Toby and Mrs Lovett looked up from the book they had been reading together. She smiled while he seemed to cower in fear. With all three staring at me in such a varying way, a normal man would have crept out of the room without another word.

I was not a normal man.

"You," I said lowly, directing myself to Anthony. "Johanna's alone."

Taking this immediately as invitation, Anthony rose from his seat and was out of the room within seconds. He said not another word, but as he passed me I could hear his breath had become much quicker. I uttered a low growl, audible only to me, but ignored him. My head snapped to Toby.

"You can follow him," I added briskly. Toby looked slowly towards Mrs Lovett, waiting for permission. She smiled softly at him.

"Go on, love."

Slowly, Toby nodded and the two rose. Toby did not look me in the eye as he left, but there was no doubt he was uneasy. Again, I could not truthfully say I cared. Once the boy was gone, there was silence between I and the woman across the room from me. She cleared her throat after a short time, as if trying to awaken me from my trance like state.

"Mr T? Yeh wanted something, love?"

"In certain words, you could assume so," I said simply before I walked to her, and within the second I had her encased in my arms, my mouth crushed upon hers. Mrs Lovett struggled out of pure shock, but soon she began to soften. Although, when I say soften, she began to respond in an almost beastly fashion.

"Mr T!" she gasped breathily when she finally turned her head to breathe. I brutally twisted my fingers into her hair, bringing her lips back to mine. Mrs Lovett did much the same thing, almost making sure that I could not leave.

"Yeh mean- yeh mean we're gonna be married, Mr T?" she asked, panting by this point.

"Whatever you say."

"We'll be a family! Like- like I said, Mr T, won't we?"

"Whatever you say," I repeated, almost snarling it, anything to keep her quiet. It seemed almost impossible. She was far too excitable.

Mrs Lovett refused to leave my side that evening. She babbled on about different plans for the wedding, occasionally grabbing my shirt and pulling me into another long, desperate kiss. I barely listened to her. Not that I had to, of course. She did not notice that I had not moved the entire evening. She did not notice that any kisses bestowed on her were as listless as her precious daisies in winter.

I no longer could summon the strength to try and make an effort. Besides, it was not for Mrs Lovett that I would allow this marriage to take forth. It was for Johanna. Finally, she would have a mother figure, whether she knew it or not. She would finally have the family she had desired for fifteen years as I had.

And by God, she was finally going to have a father who she was not in danger of.