A/N I'm a little irritated James turned out the way he did in this chapter.. but he got his message across, so I'm not going to change it xD


34

Eleanor crossed her arms and picked a point above James's shoulder to look at. "Wot is it?" She asked.

"He's woken up-"

"He's woken up? Wot are you doin' out 'ere then?" She hissed.

"Look, that isn't why-"

She was already walking down the hallway towards his lab.

"-I wanted to talk to you." He finished to the empty wall. Turning on his heel he quickly headed after her. "Eleanor, something came to mind-"

"Wot came to mind?" She snapped, stopping suddenly and turning sharply on her heel. If simply telling him wasn't enough, Mrs. Lovett felt it would be very justified if she hurt him to get her message across. After all, it's over meant its over.

James nearly collided with her, stopping short himself. "About the cure."

Eleanor stared at him, perplexed. "The cure-"

"Yes, for my.. Er compound."

"Oh my God! You did turn 'im, didn' you?!"

Before she could run down the hall again James grabbed her arm. "No Eleanor, I didn't. I wouldn't."

She stared at him accusingly, but didn't struggle against his grip.

"I was just thinking about what you said earlier, and I realized it would be best if tried my cure."

"Tried?"

"Well, I never really got a chance to test it."

"Ya never tested it!? Ya created a horde of monsters an' ya never cared to figure out if ya could reverse it?!"

"I didn't care then, alright!" He suddenly snapped. "I was trying to do something quickly! And with what I told the judge they could do I was put under even more pressure. All I wanted was something for you to-" James stopped short.

Mrs. Lovett's eyes went wide. "Ya did this… because of me?" She whispered.

He let go of her arm and took a step back. "Well-"

"Why the bloody 'ell would I want a horde of monsters!?"

James almost took another step back at her explosion. "This isn't what I wanted to talk to you about, so can we drop it for now?"

"Drop it?! Drop it-"

"I need you to spread the cure." He cut in.

Mrs. Lovett's anger was zapped out from shock. "Wot?"


Toby and Johanna pointedly did not look at one another. Not only were their own minds racing with what they had just learned, but the raised voices in the hallway put them further on edge. Toby had absolutely no idea who the man was, but Mrs. Lovett apparently knew him enough to yell at him without feeling embarrassed.

His mind cared little for the mystery man though, and his eyes flickered over to Johanna. She was staring at a painting on the wall. Mr. Todd had had a wife, and he had a daughter. A daughter whom he was sitting next to and looking every bit as shocked at the news as he.

No wonder Mrs. Lovett had always been defending him, Toby realized. The man had been through a lot. But did that give him the right to lash out? Especially at the one person who was helping him? No, it didn't, but it certainly gave him an excuse to be angry in the first place. Which completely threw off the boy's reasoning for being able to dislike him for being so angry. Mr. Todd's rather tragic past almost annoyed Toby, simply because it complicated things.

Johanna was having a rather difficult time thinking of anything. Her father was alive. She had seen him.

The girl suddenly found it very funny that Anthony, the sailor she believed herself to be in love with, had saved him. She suddenly wondered if the only reason Mr. Todd was helping him was because she was his daughter. It made sense, but a part of her hoped that even if she was just some girl her father would have been willing to help.

It gave her hope that the good man Mrs. Lovett told her about was still alive. For Johanna did not want Sweeney Todd to give her away when she was married (it was all set out in her mind that after the mess was cleared up she was going to marry Anthony), she wanted Benjamin Barker. Though the thought briefly made her feel guilty, for she wasn't even giving Sweeney a chance to be her father.

Johanna bit her lip. Did she want him to be?


"Ya want me to walk out onto those streets and try spreadin' a cure tha' might not work?" Wot's this? Mrs. Lovett thought in shock. I don' want 'im so 'e tries ta kill me?

"They go utterly brain dead." James said defensively.

"They do not! The only lot I saw like that were the ones who took me 'ere!"

The apothecary frowned. "I guess that only happened to the ones given direction…" He shook his head. "You'll be fine."

"I'll be fine?"

"They wont attack you."

"Wot do ya mean? 'Course they will! They 'ave!"

"Well they might, but once they get close enough to smell you-"

"Smell me!?"

"Well, I didn't want you hurt."

"Didn't wan'…" Mrs. Lovett blinked several times, dumbfounded by the idiot in front of her. "If ya can do tha'…" She suddenly became very much aware that he could. When fighting against the monsters to reach Sweeney, they had clambered towards her, but never actually bit her. "Why don' you do it? Surely ya made 'em incapable of 'urtin' you?"

He simply stared at her, confirming everything.

"James, yer an idiot."

"You used to find that charming." He muttered.

Mrs. Lovett narrowed her eyes. "Don't bring tha' up."