Chapter 39: He Needs Her

A/N: Title a bit pointless but I had to name it something. Okay official apology for my overly long absence, I am working seven and a half hours a day, I have then an hour and a half in which I am usually eating before I go back to theater for another...three hours at least..sometimes five. So if the updates have been slow, forgive me. I love all you guys who review, you really make my day and thanks so much for your understanding. :-D

To MusicalTwin: Okay I can't reply to your reviews but you always say the kindest things. Thanks so much, glad you liked it. :-D As far as what you said about my Nancy goes, that's eternally sweet of you, thanks so much!!! It really means a lot when somebody says something awesome about my stage performances like that. :-D

Warning: Contains violence, swearing, tears, and remembered promises.

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In the next two days Nancy was out of bed and back to work. She acted as though she'd just gotten over a cold as opposed to having just escaped her death. The young woman thought nothing of it, and was instead very happy that she had got to see her old friend one last time. Bill however, was shaken up in ways he couldn't even wrap his head around. When he woke up, the first thing he did was to check that Nancy was still breathing. When he went out on the job, all he could think was what if somebody breaks in while I'm gone. He became his own worst nightmare as he feared losing his girl. He couldn't sleep, barely ate, and it was all because of her.

It took Bill about a week to find himself becoming angry with Nancy. Who was she to invade his thoughts night and day? How dare she make him ware himself out with needless worry? Bill was thinking this all as he walked back from a job one night. It had been a good house, the owners hadn't even been home for God's sake! And yet he was walking back with pockets barely full because he'd been worrying about Nancy so much. All his brain had instructed him to do was to get home to her.

It was those eyes, the piercing blue ones that never seemed to shut. They simply bore into his soul day and night. Those eyes rimmed with tears could make him go weak. Those eyes in anger could knock him to his knees. And when she looked up at him the way she had a habit of doing, with all that...love. It was tearing Bill up, and he couldn't stand it. Those eyes were captivating, those eyes were intoxicating, and if she kept this up, those eyes would be Bill's downfall.

"She never closes those damn eyes," Bill growled viciously. "You know that? Never!" Bulls-Eye looked up at him as though he was mad while they walked through the streets of London, dead quiet in that hour. "She's determined to drive me mad. But I am not mad, Bill Sikes will not be mad," he growled as he tore through the streets, his pace quickening in his anger. Had anybody seen him they may've found it useful to point out that Bill was talking to himself, but nobody was about. Not that Sikes would've cared, he was still going on, his anger growing with every step. "She's trying to make me weak. She's trying to control me." Sikes was livid now. He couldn't bare looking at those eyes, not one more day. Not one more minute.

He stormed through the streets, dawn was breaking over the horizon. Everything was read this morning, red like that dress she wore, red like her gorgeous hair. All the things that made Bill weak. But not for long, he just had to get her to close her eyes. And if she wouldn't close them, he'd close them for her. Bill bounded up the steps to his home, this had to end now.

"Nance!" he roared as he opened the door. Nancy started slightly and nearly dropped the plate of eggs she was setting on the table.

"Bill," she gasped as she looked up from the plate. "You scared me." Bill was enraged, she was doing it again. Looking up at him through her lashes, trying to make him weak. But it wasn't going to work this time. She gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek before looking up at him smiling. "How did it go? I've got some breakfast for you there if you're-"

"Who the bleedin' hell do you think you are Nance?" he growled. Nancy gasped as he put her arms in an iron grip. He squeezed harder and harder until she was buckling under the pain.

"Bill! Bill you're hurting me!"

"I will not be weak, do you hear me?" His voice was unlike anything Nancy had ever heard, so loud. He was screaming so loud!

"Bill!" Her eyes widened in alarm as his grip tightened all the more, he was furious. His cheeks were burning scarlet with his anger and Nancy felt momentarily a fear for her life.

"Close your eyes," he ordered. "Stop weaving your spell on me you she-devil! Close your damn eyes!" Nancy hadn't the foggiest idea what he was screaming about but his anger shot through her veins and all she could do was widen her eyes in shock and bore them up into Bill's. They were tear brimmed, wide, and still looking up to him with love. And that was too much for Bill to take. He released her only to be able to real back his fist and punch her square on in the eye. Nancy screamed as the hit propelled her with such force that she went crashing in the table, toppling it over. Nancy looked up at him in terror, already feeling the eye he had hit swelling shut. Bill stood there looming over her for another moment and then he regarded the spilled breakfast table. "Clean this up," he ordered before he promptly turned and exited the flat, feeling quite smug with himself.

Nancy stared after him in shock, clutching her eye and fighting against tears that were already readily falling. She could've curled up and died right then and there. He didn't love her, he couldn't love her. Not if he'd hit her like that. But he was still her friend, she still loved him, and he was still hers. He needed her there, and she'd be with him just as long as that was so. Somewhere in the back of her mind she was reminded of a promise she'd made to Johnny the night he'd left all those years ago. Determined to be a woman of her word, Nancy rose to her feet and squared her shoulders. Bulls-Eye whined and looked up at her with eyes full of questions as she began picking up the mess around the toppled table. Nancy looked down at the dog and smiled through her tears.

"He needs me boy," she said giving the dog's ears a scratch. "And I love him," she continued quietly. "That's all that really matters."