Title: Families.
Summary: Jenny thinks about family on Christmas morning.
Rating: T for vague sexual references and homophobia.
Word Count: 1046
Other Chapters: No.
Disclaimer: The British Broadcasting Corporation owns Doctor Who and all related trademarks. I do not in any way profit from the use of these trademarks.
Pairings: Vastra/Jenny
Contains: bitter-sweet
Warnings: homophobic family
Jenny Flint had known, once, what it felt like to wake up in the warm, smooth arms of a human girl. She'd once been employed by a Marquess, and she'd spent many long summer nights hidden away with a dark-haired kitchen girl, braving just five more minutes in each other's arms again and again until one of them had to start work or until they heard footsteps. Her name had been Mary, and she'd been soft and she always seemed to smell of baked goods. They'd been caught and sacked together, and then they'd thought it best they went their separate ways.
That had all changed, and not for the worse. Jenny's madame was like a cool sheet draped over her in this house that was always baking. There were ridges in the scales, but the scales themselves were smooth so the ridges just added a bit of texture. They were hard like protective armour rather than soft like a pillow. Madame hissed in her sleep sometimes. That was better than snoring. And that forked tongue... Jenny liked that. Reptiles were different. Better in some ways, not really worse in any ways once you knew what to expect, but just... different, in a lot of ways. Jenny had fantasized plenty about her wedding, as a girl, but she'd never imagined that she'd actually end up marrying a lizard woman in a ceremony from the dawn of time. That had been a strange wedding. No family, no priest, no rings; just a sacred plant in a sacred goblet and vows that bound them for life. This was probably just as well, Jenny didn't care for priests, and she hadn't really had any friends or family to invite. They'd figured they should invite the Doctor, since it was owing to him that they even found each other, but they hadn't known how to contact him.
Jenny crawled out of the bed. She was always up before madame, is not because she had to get breakfast made and everything ready before madame woke up then because madame was often out late after dangerous criminals that she didn't want Jenny tailing with her. Jenny never objected to being stuck at home, though Strax sometimes did. Jenny knew what her madame did with the most dangerous and vile of the criminals she caught, and Jenny had no desire to see it, though she didn't doubt that Strax could stomach it easily enough.
But madame hadn't been out late last night. They'd spent Christmas Eve together, with Strax too. The three of them had eaten a wonderful dinner and Strax and then they'd all gone into the den and Strax and madame had talked battle strategy while madame played with Jenny's hair. It had taken madame a long time to wrap her mind around hair, but when Jenny let it slip that she liked having her hair played with, madame had made the effort. Today, plans were simple. Breakfast, presents, early dinner. They'd gather around the fire and Jenny would explain the holiday to madame and Strax once more, and hope that this time they understood it properly. They probably wouldn't. It was a silly holiday anyway, when you thought about it from an outsider's point of view.
The day got off to a rough start at breakfast.
As calmly as she ever spoke, madame said, "Your family didn't write to you."
Jenny paused with her food half to her mouth. "Well, they never do, do they? We've been married three years now and they haven't even met you."
"And you've never been to see them."
Jenny shook her head. "Haven't done since I was fourteen. Why would I start now?"
"It just seems... appropriate. If this holiday is a time to be with the family for many people, as you told us last year that it was, why do you never have contact with yours during it?"
Jenny forced a smile. "I'm with my family right now, aint I?"
"Don't be foolish, boy," Strax said, "She clearly means the family that raised you. You know, your commander and the fellow soldiers you shared barracks with."
"... That isn't how family works in this society," Jenny said, because sometimes, if she corrected Strax gently, he listened. "And, well, my family hasn't wanted much to do with me ever since... well... ever since they realized I was serious about finding a wife some day." She took a bite and chewed. "They wouldn't like us, if they knew us."
Madame let out a low hiss. "I am sorry, darling. Perhaps one day, your race will catch up to mine."
"Do you miss your families?" Jenny asked both of them.
"Never!" Strax said immediately. "A good Sontaran soldier never forms emotional attachments!"
Jenny didn't believe this. It seemed to her that if that were true, the Sontaran race would have died out a long time ago. Still, it was like Strax to say that. Jenny looked over to her madame.
Madame just smiled. Jenny knew what that meant.
"Did you have any holidays like that, before us humans came along?" Jenny asked.
"No," madame said. "We... Well, actually, we didn't have any holidays at all. But family was always important to us, and..." she sighed.
"And you miss yours," Jenny said. It seemed silly that Jenny was fine with being alone for Christmas—she'd been alone for most of the Christmas' of her live, at this point—but her wife wasn't. Jenny was the one who still had fond Christmas memories of her taking a long Christmas walk with her father as a little girl, and of her brother passing around the sweets their parents had saved up all year for. She hadn't ever stopped loving her family, even after how horribly they'd treated her, but she'd be lying if she tried to pretend she didn't prefer her new one. She'd found acceptance in madame's arms and love in madame's bed, and she wanted nothing more than a thousand more Christmas' in front of the fire with madame and Strax, just as the three of them were.
Madame smiled, and she reached across the table and took Jenny's hand. "I miss my old family. I'm glad to be able to share the holiday with my new one."