Nellie Lovett

Chapter 2

"What the hell was that!?" Nellie muttered to herself, starting to pound the dough. "One minute he wants to forget everything, the next he's kissing me again, what is it with that man."

She couldn't deny it though, she was happy, he had kissed her, and not because he was drunk. She loved him, but still felt a little regret for what had happened between them, but now everything was different. He had kissed her. Maybe, just maybe, he like her too. No, she was getting ahead of herself, Sweeney Todd could never love Nellie Lovett, it was just a fantasy.

~*~
Sweeney walked out of the shop, he had made arrangements to stay in an old friends house just off fleet street. He hadn't planned on kissing Mrs Lovett, it just sort of happened. He hadn't ever seen her in that light before, she had always just been his accomplice, the person who literally helped him get away with murder. She was smart, he couldn't deny it, and that was a quality Lucy had never possessed. But more recently he had begun to see her and beautiful, in every way, not just her face. The way she walked, she looked after Toby, how when she made the dough she would sigh whenever she flour in her face. It was the little things. Obviously he didn't love her, he only picked up on those things because...why? Why did he notice it?

He wasn't sure what to do now, he had thought above moving back in and continuing his work as a barber but now he wasn't so sure, he didn't want to get in Nellie's way. Nellie. It was a pretty name, he thought, not as elegant as Lucy but pretty all the same. What was he thinking? he needed to focus on his work.

He went into a pub, he sat up by the counter. "Just some gin please." He asked, before putting his head in his hands. Everything made him think of Mrs Lovett, he knew that she gave Toby gin when he was good, and had drunk a lot of it herself.

The man behind the counter but the glass down in front of him and Sweeney just looked at it for a moment. He wasn't quite sure what he was waiting for, so he drank it all in one go, he was going to have another, but was disturbed by someone calling his name.

"Mr Todd! Mr Todd!" He heard someone call, he had hoped it was Mrs Lovett, he loved seeing her, talking to her, but it was Toby. He walked out and looked at the young boy.

"What is it?" Sweeney said a bit to aggressively.

"It's Mum, she was just making the pies you see, and then this man came in and said he was going to finish what he started...He looked like a bad man Mr Todd, and then she started screaming, I thought I'd best get you." Toby explained, Sweeney could tell he was anxious.

Sweeney remembered hitting the man of her the other night, and ran towards the shop with Toby close behind him. He burst in to see Nellie crying in the corner of the room alone, she was hugging her knees and her arm was bleeding. She looked up and saw Sweeney.

"Mr Todd, what are you doing here?" She asked between sobs.

"What happened?" Sweeney said, running down to her and helping her up.

"He..he..came in, the man from the alley the other night... and he did things, I tried to get him off me but he was too strong..." She said, breaking down into tears again.

"That's it, I'm coming back Mrs Lovett." Sweeney said, putting an arm around her shoulder. He was upset at her, but also at himself, maybe if he had run faster or never left he could have saved from the man. His initial reaction was to go looking for him, to hunt him down and kill him, but he knew Nellie wouldn't want that. She never liked the killing. "It isn't safe for you anymore."

"I don't know Mr Todd, not if you don't want to." She said, looking into his eyes. If she hadn't known any better, she would have thought he was crying to, but she knew this man felt nothing but revenge, so that wasn't possible.

"I do want to." Sweeney assured her. "This is my home; I belong here, and so do you, so I'll stay upstair and you'll stay downstairs, just like we did before, is that okay?"

Mrs Lovett nodded and hugged him. He wasn't quite sure what to do at first, what to do with his hands, but he put his hands on her back. "Nothings gonna harm you, not while I'm around..." He soothed, letting her cry on his shoulder. He was actually surprised that he was able to comfort her, he would have thought that after all this time she would have been terrified of him, but no. She was strong, he couldn't deny it, after Lucy had been through the same thing she had tried to kill herself, but Mrs Lovett would never let Toby down like that, not like Lucy had done to Johanna. Maybe that's why he liked her so much, she was bloody stubborn, if she says that wants to kill the man who attacked her, she wouldn't rest until she did, but Sweeney knew her better than that. She had endured enough killing to last twelve lifetimes, and she didn't want to kill any more.

"I love you Mrs Lovett." He said unexpectedly, causing Mrs Lovett to pull away from him.

"You what?" She said, wiping her eyes.

"I love you, Mrs Lovett, your the best friend I've ever had." He said quickly, not wanting to go into any further detail.

"Oh." Nellie said, a little disappointed. She had hoped for the other type of love, but kidding herself with a dream seemed unfair, she needed to stop thinking that he could ever love anyone else, Lucy was his one love.

Sweeney regretted it. Of course he loved her, more than Lucy, but he could never tell her, for that would be selfish. He could never tell her how he truly felt.

Dw they probs will eventually become a thing, but I haven't decided when or how yet. I know what happened to Mrs Lovett is quite sad, but I wanted to start this story quite sad so it can get happier as it goes! :)