Alaya rings the bell for four-d at 47 New Bond Street. She waits as she can feel the rumbling of someone coming down the interior stairs.
The doors open. It is Miss Shaw with Miss Gardner standing behind with an umbrella to be used as a weapon. Alaya thinks to herself, 'how adorable'.
"Your services are needed. Please come to the office, after you are properly dressed."
Miss Shaw nods.
"We need you both. So please do not leave your Allie at home alone."
Miss Shaw smiles, "We shall be there shortly. Good evening."
Alaya heads back home. As she follows the pavement to Clifford Street her senses are on standby. Her scales have clamped down on her body like armour. Someone is following me. She casually turns on Cork Street and then again on the mews. That is where she runs, she runs to the end of the mews and climbs the wall. Runs along the rooftops to see who is following ... she look down and see four individuals turning into Cork Street Mews running.
She remains in the shadows from the rooftops. When the four come to the dead end they look around ... she is trying to hear, but no one is talking. She waits and watches. The four head out back to the main streets. A car pulls up and all four get in and drive towards the Thames.
She waits and then climbs down at the dead end. She licks the air and studies the ground. She decides to not do this alone and will return to the spot with her mother. She climbs to the rooftops and heads home.
She enters the drawing-room as Vastra and Louisa update the two.
Mother Jenny looks to her daughter with concern while Alaya can offer no response. She leans into her wife, without a thought Vastra puts her arm around her Jenny and pulls her close.
Alaya comes to stand to the other side of Vastra to catch up on the conversation.
Miss Gardner, "The transportation options are limited between here and Italy. The war has dominated the seas and the rails."
"You will have to go by your wits." Vastra responds honestly. "I would go, Alaya would be halfway across France by now. We are putting all our confidence in the two of you. Which means if your instincts are triggered ... follow them. Trust yourself. When you get our Fiona, come straight home by what ever means necessary. You will have funds at your disposal."
Miss Shaw, "Would you like regular communications by telegram?"
"No! Only under dire circumstances ... and they truly must be dire." Alaya's words just spilled out of her mouth with thought. She can't wait to get her mothers alone to discuss those four men.
"Any questions?" Mother Vastra asks the two young adventurers.
"Just one." Miss Gardner smiles, "When do we leave?"
Late in the evening, after all guests have left, Alaya remained behind in the drawing room. She looks to the map on the wall, re-reads each telegram and re-plays the information in her head. She speaks to the map, "My wife is too far for me to feel. I want her home."
"She will come home, she is doing her best." those soft words come from her Mother Jenny who is standing in the doorway.
Alaya puts her finger on the map at Bari, Italy and looks carefully as she follows the roads winding through mountains, small cities, around lakes and keeps going up the map, crossing water to Dover and finally to London. "It is a long way."
"Yes, she is coming home."
"I have hope, Mother. I am worried because of the unknowns."
"My dear Alaya, there is a war going on... everything is an unknown."
"Mother, have you ever thought about having more children?"
"I have."
Alaya moves to be within a few feet from Mother Jenny. Alaya glides her tongue up and down her mother's cheek. I taste, "Love and curiosity."
Mother Jenny lets out a soft laugh, "I guess curiosity is the best way to explain how I feel."
"What do you feel?"
"I am not sure myself. Thank you for asking. You never asked what your Mother and I about our feeling, it is usually advice you seek."
"Truly? Have I been that insensitive?"
"You have not been insensitive, you are our daughter. It is a rarity to have a child concern with the emotional feelings of a parent."
"I am your daughter, not a child."
"You will always be my daughter and a child. Even when you are a hundred year old half-Silurian, you shall be my child."
Mother Jenny pauses, "You returned late when you went to retrieve Miss Gardner and Miss Shaw. Why?"
"I was being followed."
"Vastra!"
Mother Jenny rarely uses that tone. It made Alaya's scales tense, she doesn't want her mother to worry, 'I need to learn not to be so blunt'.
A light noise is heard through the residence and poof there is Mother Vastra standing in front of Mother Jenny, protective. "Alaya was followed."
Alaya explained what happened and the four individuals.
"Let's investigate and go to the alley."
Alaya nods yes and moves to go upstairs to change herself. She passes by her Mothers, "Fiona would like to start a family, after she is settled back into our lives. She want our children to grow up with friends. Fiona would like me to, delicately, inquire if Mother and I stop injections after she returns home."
Both mothers are still and speechless. Vastra pulls her wife close, "I love my family ... I have the capacity to love more or just our grandchildren. It makes no difference to me. It is your body's burden." She kisses her wife's forehead, "Although, this time around it would be different."
"How would it be different?"
"This time I am prepared for the mood swings, weird food desires and I will always be wrong."
"Oi, was I that bad?"
Vastra pulls away from her wife and teases, "I shall just say I love you." She then leads her wife into their master bedroom. "We need to get ready for the hunt!"
Jenny follows asking again, "Was I that bad? Mood swings? Answer me Madame Vastra or I will show you mood swings."