Ada and Kay look at the apartment with a combination between the orphans.
"Thank you all for your assistance. It looks wonderful." Ada books shelves are filling up; the radios are used for entertainment and the apartment is alive with color. It is not the same since Odea has come into her life.
"It is our pleasure." Mirum begins to leave, "We best return home."
April asks Kay in a soft whisper, "Do you have food?"
"A bit." Kay responds honestly.
April looks to her mother, "May we have Ada and Kay for dinner?"
"They are welcome, but at their risk." Alaya begins open the door, "We best be heading back."
Odea grabs Ada's hand, "Let's go."
April takes Kay's arm.
Ada dares to ask, "What is going on?"
April quietly responds, "Our mothers are not pleased that we ..."
Alaya spins around and hisses under the perception device, "Not one more word child."
The walk back to 15 Savile Row was quiet.
Alaya turns off the perception device, leaps from landing to landing and enters the kitchen to by her wife's side. "How are you feeling?"
"Tea helps." Fiona offers a muted smile.
"We have been thinking ..." Jenny begins to talk.
"Not now, all the girls are here," Alaya informs her wife and mother. "Where are Jennifer and mother?"
A large thud comes from above.
Alaya runs out of the room and heads up to the gymnasium.
"Where is mother going?" April asks.
"Vastra and Jennifer are sparing," Jenny replies before she sips her tea.
The girls quickly run up the stairs to watch the event.
"Do you suppose human families have this kind of drama?" Fiona asks Jenny.
"My did from time to time. In the end, we were not a family anymore." Jenny looks up at the ceiling. "They are still fighting. It is a good sign. Do we dare?"
Alaya waves her wife and mother over to the extra seating on the padded floor.
Jennifer and Vastra are sparing with their personal katanas and naked.
Year 1932
London
Welcome to our morning exercises. Wear what you feel comfortable or not. Please do not be embarrassed our Silurian body movements are much easier without attire.
Ada looks with a blushed face as Madame Vastra and Jennifer are naked.
Ada raises her hand.
"Yes, Ada?"
"I thought Odea doesn't wear clothing when she exercises?"
"You are correct, she usually wears as little as possible. Her body likes the cold."
Ada goes over and unbuttons the shirt, pulls down the trousers and tosses them to the side. Ada does not linger or look at any body part. She returns to her original position and nods to Vastra.
Vastra nods back and grins.
Vastra and Jennifer lick the air and smiles as something other than their opponent is in the room.
It snaps them back into their discussion.
"Am I not in charge of my team?"
"I am in charge of the family."
"We have the same goal, survival."
"No, our goals are not the same. I want everyone to live to their potential, be happy and live a long life. Survival is not the same as living." Alaya puts her blade down at her side, puts her arm around Jennifer and continues, "You have no choice in if we survive or live, it has been decided way before you were born. It was our burden to decide, not yours."
"We have no choice?"
"Look at your team," Vastra points her katana at the girls. "You have added two more troop members. Tell them you want to focus on survival instead of living? Tell them to stop their education, stop pursuing personal achievements and we will find an island to live out our lives."
Jennifer looks at her team with sadness in her eyes.
"There is a consequence to survival; it will create isolated lives." Vastra points to Alaya, "Did you know that your mother first voted to isolate ourselves?"
Jennifer shakes her head yes, "I read the voting tally." She looks to her mother, "Why did you change your mind?"
"Because isolation would not guarantee safety, protection from harm or even a long life for your mother. I wanted more than that for my Fiona. She thrives on challenges."
Jennifer looks to her Grand Mama Vastra, "I want that for the people I love. I want more than just existing."
"Good. Now, answer me this - having knowledge of the future what does a survivalist want?"
"Avoidance. To stay away from danger and keep safe."
"Having knowledge of the future what does someone do if they want to live?"
"They make adjustments, not to stand out or count cards to build enemies."
Vastra pats her granddaughter on the back, "I believe you are ready to lead your team. I am going to take a shower, and we all shall meet back in the drawing room for dinner."
"Dinner? We forgot!" Alaya and Fiona remark as they run downstairs.
After a dinner of hot soup and sandwiches, the family bunkered in the drawing-room.
"We are a clan, which means we take care of each other no matter what." Vastra looks to her family. "The first time Jenny and I read this we did it in the privacy of our rooms. We didn't know what to expect. When Alaya and Fiona read this journal, we saw our family in turmoil as how to proceed. We took a vote, and we all decided to keep living and making adjustments."
Vastra grabs her wife's hand, "You do not have the luxury of hiding. The decision has been made, and I expect all of you to instruct the same to your families, in the same way."
Vastra opens up April's journal and reads the inscription.
"My Dearest Fiona ... I am so sorry that I am not going to spend the rest of your beautiful life with you. I have to confess that I have known since you first began to crawl, hints of your future. I knew you would find love in a woman whose mothers are interspecies ... This journal was Alaya's Christmas gift to me the same evening she announces your courtship. My heart sank. I knew it would just be a matter of time before you are married. Every night since I decided to write important events in this journal ... Keep this safe, at all cost and destroy this journal, if necessary ... I also know you will have a good life, love and be loved ... I strongly encourage you to pass onto our future generations. Certain items will not be apparent until much later in the future ... April Saint Claire Ph.D. ..."
Fiona is in Alaya's arms, "That is the last words my mother wrote me. I miss her. She would have enjoyed all of you."
"What happened to her?" Odea asks.
"I told you angels." Mirum
"Seriously," Odea looks to her parents. "What happened?"
Fiona tells the story of April Saint Clair, the Weeping Angels, and the cricket bat.
Jennifer ponders her mother's decision, "You had a choice to stay or return? Why didn't you go with your mother?"
"My life is here. If I would have left, none of you would have been born." Fiona looks to Vastra, "Our choices have an impact on the future of this family." She turns her attention to the four young women, "We have a responsibility to prepare, share knowledge and do what me must to sustain our lives. I could not have imagined my life any different." She grabs Alaya's hand, "Besides I truly love your mother, she is my first breath in the morning and my dreams at night. My heart fibers would tear the moment she is not longer in my life. I would survive, but my life would be taken over with sadness. Please always chose life and love."
Alaya stands up, pulls her wife close and kisses her passionately.
Fiona comes up for air, "My dear, the girls."
"You are all that matters." Alaya comes in for anther tender kiss.
"May we continue?" Vastra coughs a polite interruption.
Fiona and Alaya sit down back in the one seat, this time in more intimate embrace.
Vastra laughs to herself, "The journal is indexed by dates and events ..."
Jenny leads the four into landing and pulls back a wood panel to reveal a knob. She turns it and pulls open the door to the pantry. "This how we survived the great war, two pregnancies, and four toddlers."
The girls look in the pantry. "All this?"
"We all pitched in and did what we could to prepare. With the combination of ration sheets we were able to feed four healthy Silurian hybrid children."
Jenny looks to Vastra out on the landing, "We must do this again. Since Kay and Ada are now in our lives and more children coming, we have only five years to refill this pantry."
Mirum looks at her mother, "Whose children?"
"Not yet, but it is being planned." Vastra smiles at her wife.
"Truly?" Mirum smiles.
"What are all these jars? There seem to be only one or two jars missing." Jennifer holds one up for everyone to see.
"That is affectionately called leather. It is dried meat, a great source of protein." Jenny smiles and then whispers, "It is not a great source of flavor, even for a Silurian."
"Let us return to the journal."
Jenny brings out tea service with Alaya not far behind with a tray of sweets.
Vastra is reading the seconds of the fighting, prejudices and the world changing in the future. She looks up to the girls, "This is why we wear perception devices ... the paranoid world. You had a chance to live without the devices when you went to Trinity. It breaks our hearts knowing you have to all hide your beauty. We are very grateful that our Mirum doesn't have to hide her outward appearance; it is her burden to hide her Silurian soul." Vastra closes the journal, 'This is a good place to stop for a tea break."
Vastra stands up and heads for the tea tray, "You two have outdone yourselves. Treats!" Vastra takes a bite, and it melts in her mouth. Her Silurian tongue wraps around each bite salvaging each lingering sweetness. "This are amazing, what bakery made these? We need to order more."
"It was not a bakery; it was our Jennifer." Alaya beams proudly.
"My dear, you have the goddess touch." Vastra snatches another sweet with her long tongue. "Where ... did ... you learn to make such things."
"I decided to focus on certain aspects of my life I enjoy." Jennifer smiles to her sister April, "I focused on the wrong things for a bit. I am back on track."
"I am sorry to hear you were distracted; it pleases me that you returned to use with the gift of baking." Vastra goes in for another treat, but it was snatched up by a human hand.
"Sorry Vasta," Jenny bites into the treat, "You must be getting old."
Vastra pulls her wife into her arms and licks the icing off her top lip, "I am old."
Jenny cups her wife's face, "Forever beautiful." Jenny takes a big bite of the treat and places the last morsel in Vastra's mouth.
"Delicious." Vastra says as she pulls her wife in for another kiss.
"Are you kidding me?" Odea looks at the her mothers, "You are reading the most depressing information about the future. My scales have not unclamped themselves, and our mothers are frisky."
Mirum smiles, "They find comfort in their closeness."
"I am not going to be this way when I have children." April shakes her head.
"I said that myself." Alaya pulls her wife close, "It only has gotten worse as we get older."
"My classmates talk about their parents separate lives," Jennifer looks to April, "I don't believe we have a traditional home."
"Do you want a traditional home life?" Odea asks April.
April looks at her grandmother's Journal, back to her family and replies, "It seems that the future is full of non-traditional homes. As long as my Kay loves me, that is all that matters."
"What if Kay loves to be affectionate?" Jennifer asks jokingly.
April begins to blush, "That is will alright with me. I just hope my children are not too disgusted."
Vastra pours herself another cup of hot tea and returns to read April's Journal through to midnight.
The journal is closed. "That is all that is written. April has given us a wonderful gift. It will return to the safe deposit box tomorrow." Vastra attempts to bring a positive voice to her family. "Do you have any questions?"
"We must move soon." Mirum says without hesitation.
Jenny looks to her sad family, "After the war. It will give you time to finish your education, build a career and allow for a smooth transition."
"Your goals have been different than mine." Jennifer looks to Vastra. "I believe we are in sync. I do have a request." Jennifer stands up, "I want to be involved in all future planning committees, transitionary discussions, and all family matters."
Vastra sits back and thinks about it, "You want to be involved?"
Jennifer shakes her head yes, "I want to understand. I want to be an asset, not a burden."
"I see. When do you want to take on this position?"
"Tomorrow."
"Done." Vastra stands to shake Jennifer's hand.
Jennifer quickly hugs her Grand Mama Vastra, "You and I can do this together."
Alaya smiles, "She is a good leader."
Fiona quietly responds, "She learned from watching you."
Alaya looks to her wife, "Truly?"
"I have been paying attention." Jennifer comes to her mother's side. "Inside my mind there are constant battles between being Silurian and being human. You are the only one here we have to survey and to help us understand the complexity and marvelous mixture of our being."
Alaya looks to see her sisters and her daughters shaking their heads yes. "I didn't know."
"Good." Jennifer pats her mother on her back. "I am heading to bed. Good night."
Jennifer stands and hugs Jennifer tightly. "Good night."
One by one each give Jennifer a hug and wish her a good night.
Alaya flops down in the chair, "Me? They have been watching me?"
Fiona smiles, "Who else would they watch?"
Alaya looks up at her Mothers, "I hope I have not let them down."
"Oh dear Alaya," Jenny leans down and kisses her daughter's cheek. "You are amazing."
Vastra pulls her daughter up, "You need to pay better attention. You sure you are a detective?"
"Good night mothers."
Alaya is now being pull by Fiona. "It is time that we go to bed."
"I am not tired."
"Neither am I."
Later that evening the house heard Fiona cry out again.
The four girls thought it was all the reminiscing.
Vastra and Jenny knew differently.
