Nightmare on Fleet Street (Part 5)
Chapter 17
Never before had anyone stood up to him like that. Especially not a woman. A harsh sounding croak came out of the judge’s mouth as he opened his eyes. The dim light of the room seared his head, and he immediately felt dizzy despite lying on the ground.
She had hit him. No one had done that before either.
Turpin closed his eyes, groaning, before slowly reopening them. The pain stayed, but he managed to notice that he was not alone on the floor. Bamford was situated next to him, mouth hanging open.
A shadows suddenly appeared over him and he tried to look up. A boy was standing over him, holding the seat of a wooden chair.
He opened his mouth to try and say something before the seat came crashing against his head.
“Toby!” Johanna gasped, shrinking into her chair. Noticing Mrs. Lovett hit the judge (she hadn’t really been looking) was one thing, but to see the boy strike the man over the head with a chair was another. “We could have just told someone he was awake.”
“They’re busy.” He mumbled, slowly walking back towards his chair.
The girl got a sneaking suspicion the boy had simply wanted to hit something.
--
“As much as we are all getting out of this,” James slowly started. “I need to treat you.”
“You will not come near me!” The barber spat.
“You don’t ‘ave a choice.” Mrs. Lovett nearly hissed, putting her hands on her hips.
“I do.”
“Ya don’t.” Standing over Sweeney, she put her hands over his arms and raised an eyebrow at him. “Try an’ move.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Be careful. There’s some glass in there from your not so gracious exit from my shop.”
“I’ll be taking the cost of the window out of yer rent.”
“I don’t pay rent.”
“Ya do now!”
James placed his fingers at the sides of his head and took a deep breath, hoping to stop a headache from occurring. “I’ll just get something.” He mumbled, turning away from the pair. He thought their yelling was bad sign, sort of a good one for him, but he had been able to look just past that, and he noticed what accompanied the yelling. The two hadn’t taken their eyes off each other for one second, and though their words were harsh, it wasn’t in their eyes.
A bad sign for him. He wandered around the room collecting supplies as their bickering continued.
“That hardly matters anyway! You don’t even have a shop anymore!”
“Then ye’ll be payin’ fer the whole bloody buildin’!”
“I will not!”
“Will not? More like ya don’t ‘ave the money!”
“That just leaves you the short end of the stick!”
“Short end? Ya ‘ave a debt ya can’t pay. They’ll be interest ta that!”
“Interest to what Nellie?”
Total silence fell on the room and James nearly dropped several phials as he turned his head to stare at Sweeney.
“Wot did ya call me?” Mrs. Lovett whispered, her hands slowly coming away from Sweeney.
“Mrs. Lovett.”
“Ya didn’t.”
“Then why are you asking?”
The apothecary felt very out of place, standing in the same room as them. If the barber was capable of moving James was sure he and Eleanor would be slowly coming together. He coughed loudly to gain their attention and then strode back over to the table. “Take this.”
“I’m not taking anything.” He grumbled.
“Sweeney.” He glared at Mrs. Lovett who just put her hands back on her hips. She continued, unfazed by his look. “Jus’ take it.”
--
Since he knocked out the judge, Johanna had refrained from starting anymore conversation with Toby. The child frightened her slightly, and she wondered what he would think if he knew he reminded her of the barber. He most definitely wouldn’t take to it kindly.
Tobias tried to relax his muscles and stop thinking. His mind was full of so many possibilities and what ifs all going at high speed that he felt his head was going to explode. He needed a break from his thoughts, wanted a break. The boy turned his attention hesitantly to the blonde girl, who was sitting rather nervously in her chair. A part of him realized she was probably nervous because of him, making him feel guilty.
“Do ya.. do ya want to talk at me about anythin’?” He asked quietly.
“Like what?”
“I don’ know. Tha’ boy ya like?”
She blushed slightly, realizing that ‘a boy I know’ had translated easy enough for the lad. “Anthony?”
Toby nodded.
--
“What did you do to ‘im?!”
“I just gave him something-”
“James, what did you give him?” Mrs. Lovett’s voice was going higher in pitch with each angry statement.
“I just wanted him to stay out for a while, so he wouldn’t hurt himself further.” He continue patiently.
The baker glared at him and he felt chills in his spine. “’E’d better wake up.”
“Eleanor, it was just something to knock him out so I could bind up his ribs.”
The woman leaned against a clear section of his work space, crossing her arms and reminding him of a teenager. She didn’t look at him, and instead turned her attention to wall. “Wot are we gunna do?” She finally asked.
He stayed quiet, not understanding what situation she wanted an answer for.
“’Ow much food to we ‘ave? Water?”
James finally understood, but remained silent so she could carry out her thoughts. Eleanor was an amazing woman, able to push aside nearly anything to look at the real problems. What was really going on, and what affected all of them.
“Are we gunna ‘ave ta move? Can we?”
“Of course we can make it to another place.”
“Can Sweeney?”
The way she casually adapted to the use of the man’s first name irritated him, but he pushed the feeling away. “The man seems able to manage.” His voice was steely despite his attempt sot mask his emotions.
Her brief silence made him wonder if she hadn’t caught his tone of voice. He rather hoped she hadn’t.
“Are ya jealous?”
His squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. “I think I am.”
“Did ya think anythin’ we ‘ad was goin’ ta come back?”
“I rather hoped it would, Eleanor. Our... parting from one another was less than perfect, but we didn’t sever things very surely.”
She snorted. “Now ya make it sweet.”
“I was angry, and so were you.”
“Don’t try an’ patch us back together.”
“Why? Why Eleanor? How do you expect me to react? You were practically my fiancé! And then you threw me out and locked up your shop. How do you expect me to react to seeing you with him?”
“I am not with ‘im. An’ ya know very well why I sent you away.”
Even through her sternness and everything she tried to direct towards him, James heard the longing in her voice even during the barber’s brief mention. His grey eyes flickered towards the barber’s still form and scowled.
“You throw me out and don’t talk to me for years, but when a supposed dead man shows up at your door and starts to murder people you decide to cover it up for him?” Feeling restless, James moved towards Eleanor. “The two things, small by comparison, I had done frightened you! And yet this, man doesn’t?” She looked up as he neared her, and she didn’t move of change her facial expression when he put his arms to either side of her, pining her between him and the wall. “I thought you loved me.”
She looked worried, almost scared, and their were tears at the corner of her eyes. “I did too.”
James stared at her, hurt and longing on his face, unknowingly mirroring the look the baker normally gave Sweeney every day. He slowly leaned closer to her.
--
At first it was the exhaustion, simply dragging him back to that blissful state of unaware. But like before, he fought against it, only this time he couldn’t win. He felt like panicking as unconsciousness seemed to force itself on him. Sweeney wanted to open his eyes, speak, move, anything but lie still and sleep. What had that apothecary given him? He needed rest, yet the forcefulness of the drug made him uneasy. Plus there was strong suspicion in the back of his mind about the man and everything he had to do with Mrs. Lovett.
Surely, in all her endless conversation, something about him must have come up?
He stopped himself from thinking ‘she wouldn’t hide anything from me’. She had lied about Lucy, and even without the aid of whatever drug was in his system Sweeney was sure he would have been unable to define his emotions on the matter. His emotions had been strange that entire day, and looking back on the past with a new perspective was not something a man like him could do. Things weren’t supposed to come along and change his life. That couldn’t happen, he was an unchangeable force, nearly a machine over a human being. But Mrs. Lovett had done it.
Nellie had gotten under his skin so deep that, on occasion, she forced him to think about things differently. To think about new possibilities. Sweeney Todd did not want to think about those types of things.
The barber fought a moment longer against drugs, exhaustion and weakness before letting himself drift off fully.
He didn’t even want to touch on the fact Nellie was coming to mind more than Lucy.
--
Chapter 18
It was a familiar feeling, and one that did not particularly bother Nellie. But the butterflies and hammering heart were absent; if they had ever been present. She pulled back from James’s kiss and looked down.
She took a breath to steady herself. “J-” The baker paused, collecting herself. “Mayhew.”
The apothecary had pulled back from her, and she was determined not to look at him.
“Don’t.”
The man practically stumbled back from her, heading towards his side of the room. “That’s how everything is going to end? ‘Mayhew. Don’t.’?”
“I jus’ can’t. An’… I don’t want to go back ta that.”
“You… you love him, don’t you?”
She looked up, surprised to see the question on his face, and nothing else. Not angry, or sad, just looking for an answer. All Nellie managed was a nod. He turned away form her so suddenly she was unsure if he had really moved. The silence that filled the room scared her, just as much as the unknown of what James could be thinking at that moment.
“I…I’m going ta go check up on Johanna an’ Toby…”
“I need to make a salve for his wounds anyway.”
The unnatural calm in Mayhew’s voice made Mrs. Lovett dash out the door with only a parting glance to Sweeney’s form.
--
“And then he came! Oh, he said he wanted to help me escape and-” Johanna’s breathless retelling stopped short when the parlor door suddenly opened. She and Toby stared at Mrs. Lovett, who had pressed her back against he door the moment she was inside. She was taking slow breaths to calm herself, making the young pair suspicious of what had caused her distress.
“Ma’m?” Johanna asked tentatively.
Her eyes snapped to the girl and she stared a moment before seeming to realize how strange she appeared. She coughed lightly and stepped away from the door. “Sorry luv.”
“Is Mr. Todd going to be alright?”
“I ‘ope so. E’s asleep now.”
Toby turned away from the baker, and instead focused his attention to the unconscious men on the floor.
“No trouble from them, then?” Mrs. Lovett asked, taking notice of them when Toby looked away.
“The judge.. woke up.” The girl spoke hesitantly. “But, uh… Toby knocked him back out.”
“’Ow?”
“He hit him with the chair.” Her voice dropped to nearly a whisper.
“Is ‘e even still alive?!” Mrs. Lovett asked, striding over to the man’s body to check for a pulse. Mr. Todd would be more than angry if his revenge was taken from him. The baker highly doubted anything would be able to compensate for the murder of the judge. She kneeled down slowly and placed her fingers to his neck.
“Well?”
Mrs. Lovett looked up in surprise at hearing Toby’s voice. Her heart sank slightly when she realize he wasn’t looking at her. “Thankfully, luv, yes.” The baker stood back up.
“Thankfully?” Johanna gawped.
“Mr. T-”
“’E wants ‘im dead.” Toby overrode Mrs. Lovett. “We was in the bake house… Looked right like a demon, an’ all ‘e said was ‘judge’.”
Granted, Sweeney tended to get carried away when the judge was involved, but Mrs. Lovett doubted the man could strictly look like a demon. Then again, she recalled the brief look of sick joy on his face when he smashed the beadle’s head to the wall. The judge would have probably received much worse, with a much more delighted look to go with it.
“Why does he want him dead?” Toby had informed Johanna that Mr. Todd hated the judge, but what would drive a man to want to see someone dead? And what could have caused it, for that man to put himself in danger to achieve the other’s death? He had been in a right state when he appeared in the parlor, but he had leapt up at the sight of the judge, suddenly full of energy. It seemed rather unnatural, now that Johanna thought back on it.
The children fixed their eyes on Mrs. Lovett, who was fidgeting and doing her best to ignore them.
‘Tell them’ was hurriedly followed by ‘don’t tell them’ in Mrs. Lovett’s mind. She wearily plopped herself down into a chair as Toby and Johanna kept staring at her. The order of her thoughts made things even more difficult. A great part of the woman wanted everything off of her chest, but another part warned her the story wasn’t strictly hers to tell; though the fact Johanna was in fact Sweeney’s daughter did give her a right to hear about it. Though Mrs. Lovett had, not too long ago, been attempting to hide the full story from the girl.
Would Sweeney be angry if she told his daughter? Or would he be glad it wasn’t him saying it?
“Mrs. Lovett.” The sharpness in Toby’s voice, the cold indifference in his tone, dragged Mrs. Lovett fully into the harshness of her reality.
She grasped her skirts tightly, knuckles turning white as she took a deep breath. “Johanna.. Ya remember what I told ya about Benjamin Barker?”
The girl nodded, trying to understand what Sweeney Todd had to do with her father. Toby was not so patient.
“Wot’s this ta do with Mr. Todd?”
“Hush.” Mrs. Lovett snapped, though in a strangely gentle tone. “Benjamin Barker.. Johanna’s real father..” She added that for Toby’s benefit. The less I ‘ave ta repeat the better. “Is Mr. Todd.”
--
“Awake already?”
The glum, rather un-energetic question confused Sweeney. He squinted his eyes and examined the man leaning over him, trying to understand where the bastard murderer of his wife was. The apothecary grimaced slightly and turned away from the barber.
“Generally people are out for a great deal longer.”
“You drugged me.”
“You took it.”
“Was that your excuse with Lucy?” He spat, part of him simply hoping to rekindle the flame of annoyance the man had previously carried.
“If the comparison of this to what your wife did finally lets you understand she did it herself, yes.” The sudden violence in the man’s words made a tiny smile curl onto Sweeney‘s face.
Whatever made the apothecary angry was probably also what made him sad. The barber’s mind didn’t take too long to form a conclusion. “Where’s Mrs. Lovett?”
“Went to check on the others.” James waved his hand vaguely to the door, still keeping his back to the barber.
Sweeney wasn’t sure what it was, but something definitely hurt when he realized the baker wasn’t watching over him as he slept. He warily lifted a hand touched a bandage on his chest. Who had done that? A hand suddenly grabbed his wrist, and his eyes darted up to the apothecary’s.
“Don’t play with your bandages.’
“I wasn’t playing.” Sweeney growled, yanking his hand away. He felt the movement jar his side but ignored the pain.
“Regardless, you should be sleeping anyway.”
“Why?” The barber challenged, annoyed at being ordered around.
“You’ll heal faster. And all of your moving around will probably rub off some of the ointment I just got on you.”
Sweeney attempted to raise his head but was pushed back down by three cool fingers on his forehead.
“If you aren’t going back to sleep, at least try not to move around.”
The barber narrowed his eyes, feeling his blood boil.
“Eleanor will probably kill me if she sees you moving around.” James grumbled, once again turning away.
To his bitter disappointed Sweeney felt his rage slip away. “What did she say?”
“When?”
“I was asleep.”
“You have no business in our affairs.”
“When it involves my wife, it most certainly does!”
The man whirled around, angry once more. “Not everything Eleanor and I did revolved around that nit! And not everything she talks about has to do with you! The sooner you realize you aren’t in charge of the world, the better.”
--
The possibility of Mr. Todd having a family had been a strange thing to entertain, but being told the young blonde sitting next to him was in fact that man’s daughter did not fully process with his brain.
“They don’ even look the same!” Was all the boy could say.
Johanna had gone stone silent.
“A lot ‘as ‘appened ta Mr. Todd.” Mrs. Lovett continued. “’E’s changed since.. really bein’ ‘er father.”
“What.. what did he do?” The girl whispered. What had changed her father from the sweet man Mrs. Lovett had told her about, to the enigmatic murderous one she had just seen?
“Nuthin’.”
“Wot do ya mean wot de ‘e do?” Toby groused, he disliked being in the middle of a conversation where he didn‘t know everything.
“How could he have done nothing Mrs. Lovett?” Johanna asked.
“The judge was after your mother.” The baker sniffed. “Shipped ‘im off. ‘E was gone fifteen years ‘fore ‘e made it back. So don’ neither of you judge ‘im for wot ‘e is now!”
The boy fidgeted nervously. Mr. Todd being a convict was not a strange thought, but a faultless Mr. Todd being sent away brought a new perspective. Something was definitely off about the man, but Toby had never even thought of him as any other way. Having always assumed the barber had been ‘bad’ made him feel guilty.
“I’m not going to judge him.” Johanna managed to smile at the baker. Mrs. Lovett really was in love with Mr. Todd. Her father. It was such a strange thought, and one she would have to slowly get accustomed to. “But… what happened to my mother?”
That was something Mrs. Lovett wasn’t going to reveal. It had just barely come out to Mr. Todd, and she doubted the message had sunk in. Telling a girl that her father was murderer was one thing, but then going around and informing her her mother was an insane beggar on the streets seemed a low blow. And, as selfish as it sounded, Mrs. Lovett was rather hoping Johanna could view her as a mother instead.
“She’s gone.”
Johanna recognized the tone in the baker’s voice, she had used it before when she withheld information and intended to keep it. But she had broken down and told her all the previous times she attempted to conceal something. All she needed was to wait, the truth was bound to come out eventually.
The parlor door creaked open, and the room’s attention went to who opened it.
James looked coldly at the room‘s occupants. “Eleanor, may I speak with you a moment?”
--
Chapter 19
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 turning 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. “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 I 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 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.”
--
When James left the room, Sweeney was tempted to scream all manner of nasty things after the man. Instead, it came to him he was, in fact, very tired. And thirsty, which irritated him, and briefly made him want to scream again. Instead of sleeping, the barber allowed all of his anger to build up and keep him awake. How dare the man accuse him of being so self-centered… how dare he continue to insult his wife in such a manner?
Glaring at the ceiling, he hardly noticed the approaching voices. Oh, he had gone off and run to Eleanor, had he? What was she going to do, coax him into drinking more medicine? He turned his head towards the door just in time to see her walk through it.
A very annoyed expression was fixed on her face, but the moment her eyes went to him she seemed to relax and smile.
“Thank God ‘e didn’t kill you!”
That wasn’t what Sweeney was expecting. As Nellie moved towards him he craned to look around her, catching sight of the apothecary loitering at his own door.
James sighed. “I told you I didn’t.”
“’Ow can you expect me to believe you? After everythin’, after what you jus’ asked me to do.”
Sweeney’s eyes snapped away from the apothecary and landed on the baker’s in shock as she placed a hand softly to his cheek.
“After everything,” James stressed. “How could you think I would want you dead?”
Instead of glaring at the two other people in the room, as part of his mind was trying to get him to do, the barber found himself staring at Nellie’s face. She was smiling, but he brushed that fact aside. She had smiled at him countless times before. He just never took the time to really notice then…
The baker let out an exaggerated sigh, smile fading. “Ya know very well why I’m assumin’.”
“Are you still going to do it?”
“Do what?” Sweeney demanded, just realizing they were talking about something he didn’t know. He mentally cursed Nellie’s eyes for being so distracting.
“On the account of ya making me the last bloody ‘ope, I’ll be doin’ it.”
Why wasn’t she answering him? “What?” Sweeney repeated, tone sharpening.
“Here, I’ll get it.” James headed across the room and began to dig through his things.
Mrs. Lovett attempted to follow him, but Sweeney grabber her arm. “What are you doing?”
“She’s saving us.”
His eyes darted over to the apothecary, annoyed that he wasn’t getting his answer from whom he was asking it from. “From what?”
“The beasties luv.”
“Shouldn’t he be fixing his own problems?”
“I said the same thing.” The woman sighed.
“Then why isn’t he? What are you doing?”
Surprised, though oddly enjoying the attention the barber was giving her, all Eleanor could do was stare at him. He was staring back at her, and didn’t seem to find anything odd about his behavior.
“I’m tryin’ ta spread ‘is cure luv.”
“Cure? What’s the point?”
“If it works, it’ll stop the spread. If it doesn’t, we’ll be runnin’ from the rest of the world fer the rest of our time.”
“It’ll spread that far?” An unfamiliar note of worry and surprise crept into his voice.
“I’m afraid so.” James kept his gaze on the objects in his hands over looking towards the pair. He felt an uncomfortable feeling creep back into him just by being in the same room as them. Just like he didn’t belong.
“Why is she doing it?” The barber growled, fixing the apothecary with a well built up glare.
“’E made me unappetizin’ ta the monsters.”
“What?” Sweeney turned his head back to Nellie, making him feel uneasily dizzy.
Apparently noticing his unease, she frowned and pulled her hand from his grasp. “Ya feelin’ any worse, any bet’er?” She asked worriedly, placing a hand to his forehead.
“Once again, I’m fine.” He swatted her hand away.
“You have at least one broken rib and split open most of your back, losing a lot of blood in the process.” James protested.
“I’m alive, I’m fine.” Sweeney snapped back.
Nellie bit her lip, still looking worried.
“I’m fine.” The barber repeated, glad the familiar feeling of annoyance for the woman was back in place.
She slowly nodded her head, still looking worried. Her mouth opened slightly as if she was about to say something, and then she closed it quickly. Sweeney narrowed his eyes in suspicion, now detecting more than just worry for his health.
“Do you want to leave right now, Eleanor?” James prodded softly.
The barber gave a silent huff at the other man’s insistence.
“The sooner the be’er I suppose.” The woman sighed. “’Ere, give ‘em ta me.” She held out her hand to the apothecary.
The phials chimed softy as they collided during the exchange of hands. Before Nellie could pull away, James took hold of her hand.
“Standing water, groups of them. You can burn it, but I don’t know how much good that will do.”
Her lips curved into a slight smile as she pulled her hand away. “Yes James.”
Sweeney watched her head for the door silently, mad at himself for feeling so strangely when James had taken her hand. The baker paused in the doorway, looking back at Sweeney and glad to find a small, yet worried frown on his face.
Part 1/ Part 2/ Part 3/ Part 4/Part 5/ Part 6/ Part 7/ Part 8
Never before had anyone stood up to him like that. Especially not a woman. A harsh sounding croak came out of the judge’s mouth as he opened his eyes. The dim light of the room seared his head, and he immediately felt dizzy despite lying on the ground.
She had hit him. No one had done that before either.
Turpin closed his eyes, groaning, before slowly reopening them. The pain stayed, but he managed to notice that he was not alone on the floor. Bamford was situated next to him, mouth hanging open.
A shadows suddenly appeared over him and he tried to look up. A boy was standing over him, holding the seat of a wooden chair.
He opened his mouth to try and say something before the seat came crashing against his head.
“Toby!” Johanna gasped, shrinking into her chair. Noticing Mrs. Lovett hit the judge (she hadn’t really been looking) was one thing, but to see the boy strike the man over the head with a chair was another. “We could have just told someone he was awake.”
“They’re busy.” He mumbled, slowly walking back towards his chair.
The girl got a sneaking suspicion the boy had simply wanted to hit something.
--
“As much as we are all getting out of this,” James slowly started. “I need to treat you.”
“You will not come near me!” The barber spat.
“You don’t ‘ave a choice.” Mrs. Lovett nearly hissed, putting her hands on her hips.
“I do.”
“Ya don’t.” Standing over Sweeney, she put her hands over his arms and raised an eyebrow at him. “Try an’ move.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Be careful. There’s some glass in there from your not so gracious exit from my shop.”
“I’ll be taking the cost of the window out of yer rent.”
“I don’t pay rent.”
“Ya do now!”
James placed his fingers at the sides of his head and took a deep breath, hoping to stop a headache from occurring. “I’ll just get something.” He mumbled, turning away from the pair. He thought their yelling was bad sign, sort of a good one for him, but he had been able to look just past that, and he noticed what accompanied the yelling. The two hadn’t taken their eyes off each other for one second, and though their words were harsh, it wasn’t in their eyes.
A bad sign for him. He wandered around the room collecting supplies as their bickering continued.
“That hardly matters anyway! You don’t even have a shop anymore!”
“Then ye’ll be payin’ fer the whole bloody buildin’!”
“I will not!”
“Will not? More like ya don’t ‘ave the money!”
“That just leaves you the short end of the stick!”
“Short end? Ya ‘ave a debt ya can’t pay. They’ll be interest ta that!”
“Interest to what Nellie?”
Total silence fell on the room and James nearly dropped several phials as he turned his head to stare at Sweeney.
“Wot did ya call me?” Mrs. Lovett whispered, her hands slowly coming away from Sweeney.
“Mrs. Lovett.”
“Ya didn’t.”
“Then why are you asking?”
The apothecary felt very out of place, standing in the same room as them. If the barber was capable of moving James was sure he and Eleanor would be slowly coming together. He coughed loudly to gain their attention and then strode back over to the table. “Take this.”
“I’m not taking anything.” He grumbled.
“Sweeney.” He glared at Mrs. Lovett who just put her hands back on her hips. She continued, unfazed by his look. “Jus’ take it.”
--
Since he knocked out the judge, Johanna had refrained from starting anymore conversation with Toby. The child frightened her slightly, and she wondered what he would think if he knew he reminded her of the barber. He most definitely wouldn’t take to it kindly.
Tobias tried to relax his muscles and stop thinking. His mind was full of so many possibilities and what ifs all going at high speed that he felt his head was going to explode. He needed a break from his thoughts, wanted a break. The boy turned his attention hesitantly to the blonde girl, who was sitting rather nervously in her chair. A part of him realized she was probably nervous because of him, making him feel guilty.
“Do ya.. do ya want to talk at me about anythin’?” He asked quietly.
“Like what?”
“I don’ know. Tha’ boy ya like?”
She blushed slightly, realizing that ‘a boy I know’ had translated easy enough for the lad. “Anthony?”
Toby nodded.
--
“What did you do to ‘im?!”
“I just gave him something-”
“James, what did you give him?” Mrs. Lovett’s voice was going higher in pitch with each angry statement.
“I just wanted him to stay out for a while, so he wouldn’t hurt himself further.” He continue patiently.
The baker glared at him and he felt chills in his spine. “’E’d better wake up.”
“Eleanor, it was just something to knock him out so I could bind up his ribs.”
The woman leaned against a clear section of his work space, crossing her arms and reminding him of a teenager. She didn’t look at him, and instead turned her attention to wall. “Wot are we gunna do?” She finally asked.
He stayed quiet, not understanding what situation she wanted an answer for.
“’Ow much food to we ‘ave? Water?”
James finally understood, but remained silent so she could carry out her thoughts. Eleanor was an amazing woman, able to push aside nearly anything to look at the real problems. What was really going on, and what affected all of them.
“Are we gunna ‘ave ta move? Can we?”
“Of course we can make it to another place.”
“Can Sweeney?”
The way she casually adapted to the use of the man’s first name irritated him, but he pushed the feeling away. “The man seems able to manage.” His voice was steely despite his attempt sot mask his emotions.
Her brief silence made him wonder if she hadn’t caught his tone of voice. He rather hoped she hadn’t.
“Are ya jealous?”
His squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. “I think I am.”
“Did ya think anythin’ we ‘ad was goin’ ta come back?”
“I rather hoped it would, Eleanor. Our... parting from one another was less than perfect, but we didn’t sever things very surely.”
She snorted. “Now ya make it sweet.”
“I was angry, and so were you.”
“Don’t try an’ patch us back together.”
“Why? Why Eleanor? How do you expect me to react? You were practically my fiancé! And then you threw me out and locked up your shop. How do you expect me to react to seeing you with him?”
“I am not with ‘im. An’ ya know very well why I sent you away.”
Even through her sternness and everything she tried to direct towards him, James heard the longing in her voice even during the barber’s brief mention. His grey eyes flickered towards the barber’s still form and scowled.
“You throw me out and don’t talk to me for years, but when a supposed dead man shows up at your door and starts to murder people you decide to cover it up for him?” Feeling restless, James moved towards Eleanor. “The two things, small by comparison, I had done frightened you! And yet this, man doesn’t?” She looked up as he neared her, and she didn’t move of change her facial expression when he put his arms to either side of her, pining her between him and the wall. “I thought you loved me.”
She looked worried, almost scared, and their were tears at the corner of her eyes. “I did too.”
James stared at her, hurt and longing on his face, unknowingly mirroring the look the baker normally gave Sweeney every day. He slowly leaned closer to her.
--
At first it was the exhaustion, simply dragging him back to that blissful state of unaware. But like before, he fought against it, only this time he couldn’t win. He felt like panicking as unconsciousness seemed to force itself on him. Sweeney wanted to open his eyes, speak, move, anything but lie still and sleep. What had that apothecary given him? He needed rest, yet the forcefulness of the drug made him uneasy. Plus there was strong suspicion in the back of his mind about the man and everything he had to do with Mrs. Lovett.
Surely, in all her endless conversation, something about him must have come up?
He stopped himself from thinking ‘she wouldn’t hide anything from me’. She had lied about Lucy, and even without the aid of whatever drug was in his system Sweeney was sure he would have been unable to define his emotions on the matter. His emotions had been strange that entire day, and looking back on the past with a new perspective was not something a man like him could do. Things weren’t supposed to come along and change his life. That couldn’t happen, he was an unchangeable force, nearly a machine over a human being. But Mrs. Lovett had done it.
Nellie had gotten under his skin so deep that, on occasion, she forced him to think about things differently. To think about new possibilities. Sweeney Todd did not want to think about those types of things.
The barber fought a moment longer against drugs, exhaustion and weakness before letting himself drift off fully.
He didn’t even want to touch on the fact Nellie was coming to mind more than Lucy.
--
Chapter 18
It was a familiar feeling, and one that did not particularly bother Nellie. But the butterflies and hammering heart were absent; if they had ever been present. She pulled back from James’s kiss and looked down.
She took a breath to steady herself. “J-” The baker paused, collecting herself. “Mayhew.”
The apothecary had pulled back from her, and she was determined not to look at him.
“Don’t.”
The man practically stumbled back from her, heading towards his side of the room. “That’s how everything is going to end? ‘Mayhew. Don’t.’?”
“I jus’ can’t. An’… I don’t want to go back ta that.”
“You… you love him, don’t you?”
She looked up, surprised to see the question on his face, and nothing else. Not angry, or sad, just looking for an answer. All Nellie managed was a nod. He turned away form her so suddenly she was unsure if he had really moved. The silence that filled the room scared her, just as much as the unknown of what James could be thinking at that moment.
“I…I’m going ta go check up on Johanna an’ Toby…”
“I need to make a salve for his wounds anyway.”
The unnatural calm in Mayhew’s voice made Mrs. Lovett dash out the door with only a parting glance to Sweeney’s form.
--
“And then he came! Oh, he said he wanted to help me escape and-” Johanna’s breathless retelling stopped short when the parlor door suddenly opened. She and Toby stared at Mrs. Lovett, who had pressed her back against he door the moment she was inside. She was taking slow breaths to calm herself, making the young pair suspicious of what had caused her distress.
“Ma’m?” Johanna asked tentatively.
Her eyes snapped to the girl and she stared a moment before seeming to realize how strange she appeared. She coughed lightly and stepped away from the door. “Sorry luv.”
“Is Mr. Todd going to be alright?”
“I ‘ope so. E’s asleep now.”
Toby turned away from the baker, and instead focused his attention to the unconscious men on the floor.
“No trouble from them, then?” Mrs. Lovett asked, taking notice of them when Toby looked away.
“The judge.. woke up.” The girl spoke hesitantly. “But, uh… Toby knocked him back out.”
“’Ow?”
“He hit him with the chair.” Her voice dropped to nearly a whisper.
“Is ‘e even still alive?!” Mrs. Lovett asked, striding over to the man’s body to check for a pulse. Mr. Todd would be more than angry if his revenge was taken from him. The baker highly doubted anything would be able to compensate for the murder of the judge. She kneeled down slowly and placed her fingers to his neck.
“Well?”
Mrs. Lovett looked up in surprise at hearing Toby’s voice. Her heart sank slightly when she realize he wasn’t looking at her. “Thankfully, luv, yes.” The baker stood back up.
“Thankfully?” Johanna gawped.
“Mr. T-”
“’E wants ‘im dead.” Toby overrode Mrs. Lovett. “We was in the bake house… Looked right like a demon, an’ all ‘e said was ‘judge’.”
Granted, Sweeney tended to get carried away when the judge was involved, but Mrs. Lovett doubted the man could strictly look like a demon. Then again, she recalled the brief look of sick joy on his face when he smashed the beadle’s head to the wall. The judge would have probably received much worse, with a much more delighted look to go with it.
“Why does he want him dead?” Toby had informed Johanna that Mr. Todd hated the judge, but what would drive a man to want to see someone dead? And what could have caused it, for that man to put himself in danger to achieve the other’s death? He had been in a right state when he appeared in the parlor, but he had leapt up at the sight of the judge, suddenly full of energy. It seemed rather unnatural, now that Johanna thought back on it.
The children fixed their eyes on Mrs. Lovett, who was fidgeting and doing her best to ignore them.
‘Tell them’ was hurriedly followed by ‘don’t tell them’ in Mrs. Lovett’s mind. She wearily plopped herself down into a chair as Toby and Johanna kept staring at her. The order of her thoughts made things even more difficult. A great part of the woman wanted everything off of her chest, but another part warned her the story wasn’t strictly hers to tell; though the fact Johanna was in fact Sweeney’s daughter did give her a right to hear about it. Though Mrs. Lovett had, not too long ago, been attempting to hide the full story from the girl.
Would Sweeney be angry if she told his daughter? Or would he be glad it wasn’t him saying it?
“Mrs. Lovett.” The sharpness in Toby’s voice, the cold indifference in his tone, dragged Mrs. Lovett fully into the harshness of her reality.
She grasped her skirts tightly, knuckles turning white as she took a deep breath. “Johanna.. Ya remember what I told ya about Benjamin Barker?”
The girl nodded, trying to understand what Sweeney Todd had to do with her father. Toby was not so patient.
“Wot’s this ta do with Mr. Todd?”
“Hush.” Mrs. Lovett snapped, though in a strangely gentle tone. “Benjamin Barker.. Johanna’s real father..” She added that for Toby’s benefit. The less I ‘ave ta repeat the better. “Is Mr. Todd.”
--
“Awake already?”
The glum, rather un-energetic question confused Sweeney. He squinted his eyes and examined the man leaning over him, trying to understand where the bastard murderer of his wife was. The apothecary grimaced slightly and turned away from the barber.
“Generally people are out for a great deal longer.”
“You drugged me.”
“You took it.”
“Was that your excuse with Lucy?” He spat, part of him simply hoping to rekindle the flame of annoyance the man had previously carried.
“If the comparison of this to what your wife did finally lets you understand she did it herself, yes.” The sudden violence in the man’s words made a tiny smile curl onto Sweeney‘s face.
Whatever made the apothecary angry was probably also what made him sad. The barber’s mind didn’t take too long to form a conclusion. “Where’s Mrs. Lovett?”
“Went to check on the others.” James waved his hand vaguely to the door, still keeping his back to the barber.
Sweeney wasn’t sure what it was, but something definitely hurt when he realized the baker wasn’t watching over him as he slept. He warily lifted a hand touched a bandage on his chest. Who had done that? A hand suddenly grabbed his wrist, and his eyes darted up to the apothecary’s.
“Don’t play with your bandages.’
“I wasn’t playing.” Sweeney growled, yanking his hand away. He felt the movement jar his side but ignored the pain.
“Regardless, you should be sleeping anyway.”
“Why?” The barber challenged, annoyed at being ordered around.
“You’ll heal faster. And all of your moving around will probably rub off some of the ointment I just got on you.”
Sweeney attempted to raise his head but was pushed back down by three cool fingers on his forehead.
“If you aren’t going back to sleep, at least try not to move around.”
The barber narrowed his eyes, feeling his blood boil.
“Eleanor will probably kill me if she sees you moving around.” James grumbled, once again turning away.
To his bitter disappointed Sweeney felt his rage slip away. “What did she say?”
“When?”
“I was asleep.”
“You have no business in our affairs.”
“When it involves my wife, it most certainly does!”
The man whirled around, angry once more. “Not everything Eleanor and I did revolved around that nit! And not everything she talks about has to do with you! The sooner you realize you aren’t in charge of the world, the better.”
--
The possibility of Mr. Todd having a family had been a strange thing to entertain, but being told the young blonde sitting next to him was in fact that man’s daughter did not fully process with his brain.
“They don’ even look the same!” Was all the boy could say.
Johanna had gone stone silent.
“A lot ‘as ‘appened ta Mr. Todd.” Mrs. Lovett continued. “’E’s changed since.. really bein’ ‘er father.”
“What.. what did he do?” The girl whispered. What had changed her father from the sweet man Mrs. Lovett had told her about, to the enigmatic murderous one she had just seen?
“Nuthin’.”
“Wot do ya mean wot de ‘e do?” Toby groused, he disliked being in the middle of a conversation where he didn‘t know everything.
“How could he have done nothing Mrs. Lovett?” Johanna asked.
“The judge was after your mother.” The baker sniffed. “Shipped ‘im off. ‘E was gone fifteen years ‘fore ‘e made it back. So don’ neither of you judge ‘im for wot ‘e is now!”
The boy fidgeted nervously. Mr. Todd being a convict was not a strange thought, but a faultless Mr. Todd being sent away brought a new perspective. Something was definitely off about the man, but Toby had never even thought of him as any other way. Having always assumed the barber had been ‘bad’ made him feel guilty.
“I’m not going to judge him.” Johanna managed to smile at the baker. Mrs. Lovett really was in love with Mr. Todd. Her father. It was such a strange thought, and one she would have to slowly get accustomed to. “But… what happened to my mother?”
That was something Mrs. Lovett wasn’t going to reveal. It had just barely come out to Mr. Todd, and she doubted the message had sunk in. Telling a girl that her father was murderer was one thing, but then going around and informing her her mother was an insane beggar on the streets seemed a low blow. And, as selfish as it sounded, Mrs. Lovett was rather hoping Johanna could view her as a mother instead.
“She’s gone.”
Johanna recognized the tone in the baker’s voice, she had used it before when she withheld information and intended to keep it. But she had broken down and told her all the previous times she attempted to conceal something. All she needed was to wait, the truth was bound to come out eventually.
The parlor door creaked open, and the room’s attention went to who opened it.
James looked coldly at the room‘s occupants. “Eleanor, may I speak with you a moment?”
--
Chapter 19
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 turning 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. “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 I 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 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.”
--
When James left the room, Sweeney was tempted to scream all manner of nasty things after the man. Instead, it came to him he was, in fact, very tired. And thirsty, which irritated him, and briefly made him want to scream again. Instead of sleeping, the barber allowed all of his anger to build up and keep him awake. How dare the man accuse him of being so self-centered… how dare he continue to insult his wife in such a manner?
Glaring at the ceiling, he hardly noticed the approaching voices. Oh, he had gone off and run to Eleanor, had he? What was she going to do, coax him into drinking more medicine? He turned his head towards the door just in time to see her walk through it.
A very annoyed expression was fixed on her face, but the moment her eyes went to him she seemed to relax and smile.
“Thank God ‘e didn’t kill you!”
That wasn’t what Sweeney was expecting. As Nellie moved towards him he craned to look around her, catching sight of the apothecary loitering at his own door.
James sighed. “I told you I didn’t.”
“’Ow can you expect me to believe you? After everythin’, after what you jus’ asked me to do.”
Sweeney’s eyes snapped away from the apothecary and landed on the baker’s in shock as she placed a hand softly to his cheek.
“After everything,” James stressed. “How could you think I would want you dead?”
Instead of glaring at the two other people in the room, as part of his mind was trying to get him to do, the barber found himself staring at Nellie’s face. She was smiling, but he brushed that fact aside. She had smiled at him countless times before. He just never took the time to really notice then…
The baker let out an exaggerated sigh, smile fading. “Ya know very well why I’m assumin’.”
“Are you still going to do it?”
“Do what?” Sweeney demanded, just realizing they were talking about something he didn’t know. He mentally cursed Nellie’s eyes for being so distracting.
“On the account of ya making me the last bloody ‘ope, I’ll be doin’ it.”
Why wasn’t she answering him? “What?” Sweeney repeated, tone sharpening.
“Here, I’ll get it.” James headed across the room and began to dig through his things.
Mrs. Lovett attempted to follow him, but Sweeney grabber her arm. “What are you doing?”
“She’s saving us.”
His eyes darted over to the apothecary, annoyed that he wasn’t getting his answer from whom he was asking it from. “From what?”
“The beasties luv.”
“Shouldn’t he be fixing his own problems?”
“I said the same thing.” The woman sighed.
“Then why isn’t he? What are you doing?”
Surprised, though oddly enjoying the attention the barber was giving her, all Eleanor could do was stare at him. He was staring back at her, and didn’t seem to find anything odd about his behavior.
“I’m tryin’ ta spread ‘is cure luv.”
“Cure? What’s the point?”
“If it works, it’ll stop the spread. If it doesn’t, we’ll be runnin’ from the rest of the world fer the rest of our time.”
“It’ll spread that far?” An unfamiliar note of worry and surprise crept into his voice.
“I’m afraid so.” James kept his gaze on the objects in his hands over looking towards the pair. He felt an uncomfortable feeling creep back into him just by being in the same room as them. Just like he didn’t belong.
“Why is she doing it?” The barber growled, fixing the apothecary with a well built up glare.
“’E made me unappetizin’ ta the monsters.”
“What?” Sweeney turned his head back to Nellie, making him feel uneasily dizzy.
Apparently noticing his unease, she frowned and pulled her hand from his grasp. “Ya feelin’ any worse, any bet’er?” She asked worriedly, placing a hand to his forehead.
“Once again, I’m fine.” He swatted her hand away.
“You have at least one broken rib and split open most of your back, losing a lot of blood in the process.” James protested.
“I’m alive, I’m fine.” Sweeney snapped back.
Nellie bit her lip, still looking worried.
“I’m fine.” The barber repeated, glad the familiar feeling of annoyance for the woman was back in place.
She slowly nodded her head, still looking worried. Her mouth opened slightly as if she was about to say something, and then she closed it quickly. Sweeney narrowed his eyes in suspicion, now detecting more than just worry for his health.
“Do you want to leave right now, Eleanor?” James prodded softly.
The barber gave a silent huff at the other man’s insistence.
“The sooner the be’er I suppose.” The woman sighed. “’Ere, give ‘em ta me.” She held out her hand to the apothecary.
The phials chimed softy as they collided during the exchange of hands. Before Nellie could pull away, James took hold of her hand.
“Standing water, groups of them. You can burn it, but I don’t know how much good that will do.”
Her lips curved into a slight smile as she pulled her hand away. “Yes James.”
Sweeney watched her head for the door silently, mad at himself for feeling so strangely when James had taken her hand. The baker paused in the doorway, looking back at Sweeney and glad to find a small, yet worried frown on his face.
Part 1/ Part 2/ Part 3/ Part 4/Part 5/ Part 6/ Part 7/ Part 8