I do not own Sweeney Todd, ps: I haven't seen the movie in a while so if the dialoged is a bit off please forgive me
"Come with me." Mrs. Lovett led them upstairs to Ellie's quarters, the door squealed as it always did, "I've been meaning to oil that." Ellie muttered. Sweeney looked at the door way as if frightened to enter, "Come." She took his arm with a smile, "Nothing to be afraid of."
Ellie gave her father some space to take in his surroundings and tailed , who knelt to the dirty floor and wiggled a loose board out of the wood. "Are those…" Ellie leaned over her shoulder, "Yep," nodded and lifted the box out of the dirty floor.
"I don't believe it." Sweeney breathed, Ellie was unsure if he was referring to the razors or the room. "When they came for the girls, I hid'em, thought 'who knows, maybe the silly blighter'll be back again." She dusted off the case and pulled open the lid so the barber could look at the set of straight razors that still shone bright in the sun light.
"Crack in the head wasn't I'll" Nellie joked
Sweeney seemed in a trance, so Ellie spoke up.
"Those handles are chased silver ain't they?" she asked, "Daddy?" he glanced at her for a split second, "Silver." He whispered, "Yes."
Mrs. Lovett glanced at Ellie, "Ellie, be a dear won't you and go watch after the shop, I think your father needs a few moments." Ellie looked at her dazed father and nodded, slowly making her way down the stairs, hearing her father's faint singing. Something wasn't the same about him, he was darker now.
Haunted.
But who was she to complain, she had what she had always wanted, her father was home. With a small smile she hopped the last few steps, her good mood returning. Ellie wasn't fooled for a moment, both the baker and her ward knew that no one would enter the shop, but Nellie had always been infatuated with Elinor's father, might as well let her have her time, and Ellie would catch up with her father later.
Ellie occupied herself with cleaning the tables that hadn't seen a costumer for weeks. A few minutes later Mrs. Lovett clammered down the stairs looking slightly miffed. "He's he doing?" Ellie asked
"Just fine love." She smiled, "Just give him time, he's been through a lot." Ellie nodded as the baker resumed her spot behind the counter. "So how did he get here anyway?" she asked. "I'm assuming he broke out dear, but remember, you must refer to him as ." she warned.
"Of course."
Hours later, after the shop had closed and the night grew dark, Sweeney finally emerged from upstairs. Ellie dropped her book and slowly walked to him, taking in his sullen appearance, "Are you okay?" she asked. "I'm fine" he assured her, "we have much to talk about."
She led him into the parlor where Mrs. Lovett took that as her sign to leave. "You have grown up so much." He cupped her face tender, "Daddy, I am so sorry I left Johanna alone with that horrible man…"
"Shh, shh, shh. It's okay" he grabbed her hand, "Now, Mrs. Lovett and I have made a plan." He smiled "I have taken on a new identity as Barber Sweeney Todd, I will live and work upstairs until I gain the trust of the Judge and when I do," he paused.
"I plan to kill him." Ellie closed her eyes, "Ellie?" he asked. She held up one fingers and took a few deep breaths, "Okay." She said finally.
"Okay?" Sweeney eyed her, "Daddy, I lived with that horrid man for twelve years before I could legally leave, every night I close my eyes and I can still see him, the way he would leer at Me and Johanna and every time I get so angry I just…" she cut off and gripped the couch cushion.
Sweeney held her hand until she unclenched and looked at him, a fire blazing in her eyes that had lied dormant for years. "So yes, I am completely fine with you taking the Judge's life."
Sweeney smiled, "Now, catch me up, tell me all the high lights of your life, your interests." He insisted.
"Okay, let's see, I enjoy music, I hate Judge Turpin, I have worked here for three years, and that about it." She shrugged.
"You're grown now, any young men come to call?" Sweeney asked in a protective grumble, ready to stand down a hoard of suitors, "No, I think my complete lack of allure has already shot that horse in the face." Ellie nodded.
Sweeney eyed her in disbelief, "It's true, they all think I'm…. odd." She muttered, growing up, the other children would avoid her because the entire town thought her father was a criminal"
"My daughter Odd?" Sweeney shook his head, "What would give you an idea like that?" Ellie bit her lip, "I don't know, it's just, people talk." She looked down.
Sweeney smiled, glad to finally catch up with his eldest daughter.
"No, you're not odd it's true." He sang, "No family could be saner." Ellie looked up. "Except one uncle who might…" Elinor looked discouraged, so Sweeney stopped there, "We'll let that pass."
He stood up and took her hands, "In all you say and do, you couldn't make it plainer, you are your mother's daughter therefore you are class." Ellie sat on the couch arm.
"So I should just accept I'm simply not like them?" she sang with him. "They are the common herd" he brushed off, "you should take my word. You are unique." He insisted, "Crème de la crème"
He sat next to her, "no matter what, I'm on your side." He smiled, "And if my point of view is somewhat misty eyed."
He remembered that sweet little girl with large dark eyes and a bow in her hair, Ellie was always her daddy's girl, she would sit on the large leather trunk in his shop and watch as he worked.
"There is nothing clearer in my life than what I wish and feel for you." She looked up at him with a smile, "And that's a lot, no matter what."
Every word people said about Benjamin Barker was wrong in his daughter's eyes, "No matter what they say." She sang in a high clear voice, "you make me proud. I'd love the funny way you'd stand out in the crowd."
"It's my intention, my invention, to show the world one day." He took her hand and spun her, "just what we've got."
"No matter what." Ellie nodded in agreement
"Now some may say that all fathers just exaggerate." Sweeney shrugged, "That every daughter's great?" Ellie asked, "And you are." Her father insisted, "And every daughter tends to say her father's tops."
"She'll pull out all the stops to praise him." Sweeney smiled, "And quite rightly." Ellie assured.
"No matter what the pain." Sweeney sighed, "We've come this far." He held Ellie's cheek, "I pray that you remain exactly as you are." She closed her eyes and held his hand. "This really is a case of father knowing best."
"And daughter too." Ellie cut in,
"You're never strange." Sweeney sang,
"Don't ever change." Ellie asked.
"You'll all I've got" they sang in harmony,
"No Matter what."
As they finished, Mrs. Lovett peeked through the doorway, having eavesdropped on the entire conversation. "Did you tell her the plan?" she asked, snapping the duo out of their reverie, "Most of it," Sweeney smiled slyly, "tomorrow we will all go out to the market, say there is an Italian "barber" that is there every Thursday."
He stressed the word barber, and Ellie knew exactly who he spoke of, Adolfo Pirelli. A fraud and cheat. "Soon everyone will know of the new Barber on Fleet Street, and…" he faced Ellie, "his beautiful assistant."
"Are you mad, what if someone recognizes you?" she looked at Mrs .Lovett, "What if someone recognizes me?" she whispered.
"Cherub, the judge hasn't seen you in three years, you have changed so much since then, and you could easily pass as a Mr. T's daughter." Mrs. Lovett insisted, "What will I call myself?"
"You will be Eileen Lorelei Todd, that way you can keep your nick name, you were born in Antwerp and your mother died of consumption when you were ten and you help manage the family business." Sweeney took her by the shoulders and led her to the couch, "its fool proof."
"Are you sure it will work."
"As long as you keep up the act, none will be the wiser." Sweeney smiled, "That way you can still act like my daughter."
"What do you say?" asked.
Ellie smiled, "I say we're both mad." She eyed them both,
"I'm in."
The song Sweeney and Ellie sing together is No Matter What from Beauty and the Beast.