Disclaimer: I live in the 21st century, not the 19th. I do not own.

To new allies...

(Prequel S.7 ep 7 The Snowmen)

Vastra and Jenny investigate a rather unusual case. Which turns into the one of their lifetime.

-o0O0o-

„Inspector Abberline! To which circumstances I owe the pleasure of this surprise?"
Vastra smiled and sat down her cup on the table next to her chair the moment Jenny lead him into the Conservatory. The short, young man with the brown hair and the mustache fiddled with the hat in his hands while his gaze never left her scaly face. "Well, It's more a short notice than an actual visit, Madam. I was on my way back to the station for the final debriefing of those Underground-Murders, when I passed by."
"So you solved that case?" , asked Jenny exited.
"Of course! We're not that helpless, Miss, "he winked, but then fastly added: "But naturally, we always welcome the help of a brilliant mind like yours, rushing to the aide. There are some very strange things going on out there an average person would never be able to comprehend ,less than actually understand, Madam."
"You flatter me, Inspector. Is that crime you're asking me to help you with this puzzling?"
"You must think very low of me, Madam, to expect me to use such despicable methods to gain your favor." But his flirtatious smile was forced, and Jenny suddenly realized, it was the first time he ever saw her wife without her veil.

"Still," he continued, "I'm not sure as what to categorize that strange happenstance. It's not exactly a crime, more likely an unimportant incident and the Chief-Inspector didn't want you to bother with it, but I think you should know of it nevertheless."
"Oh?"
"It's really nothing," he quickly reassured, "just a lunatic woman. She turned up yesterday at the police-station, searching for you. We know her for a few months now, she always appears out of nowhere for a few days in a part of London searching for help for an acquaintance of her, apparently living in a box on a cloud above London before disappearing and resurfacing in another district. She is currently babbling something about mice. We had to take her into custody."
Jenny rose one eyebrow. "A man living on clouds?"
"As I said, she's crazy. A pity, she seems wealthy and well mannered. We're trying to locate her family but it's fruitless."

"Oh, It's possible, to live on clouds. Well, theoretically." Vastra mused absentmindedly.
"I beg your pardon?"
"You just need the technology to compress the water vapor high enough… "
She returned from whatever memory she was pondering. "You said she asked for me?"
Jenny needed a second before she caught on, then she brighted up. "Madam, you think…"
"Perhaps. No, most certainly."
A man in a box. With the technology to be able to live on a cloud. Who was she kidding, of course it was the Doctor! And that woman probably his companion. Oh, that poor girl!

And if it wasn't him, they still needed to find out who was able to purchase such technology in this century on this planet and more important, where did they came from.
Abberline on the other hand was completely taken aback by their sudden excitement. "Madam, please. There is no reason to talk with somebody in that state of mind, I assure you. It's just an unimportant incident and I truly apologize for wasting your time with this. I wasn't aware, this would spark your interest…. in a matter of no interest at all."
"But she poses no threat."
He winced and Jenny didn't need Vastra's fine sense of smell to realize his discomfort. She felt a little bit sorry for him. After all, he decided to come here and inform them, despite the wish of his superior who clearly had depicted exactly this situation. "Yes, she's harmless but spluttering the same utterly nonsense all the time. She asks if we like mice and also for a potato-shaped mannequin, and tells you about that man in the clouds."
Jenny's neck tingled. "A… potato-shaped mannequin?" Strax?
He rolled his eyes. "Yes! It is not a good Idea, we had several psychologists talking to her but she shuts down all the time. She's completely absent. She even described you as … Pardon, I don't want to offend you, but she asked for 'Madame Vastra, a Silurian Detective, a lizard-woman from the dawn of…"

"What!"
He visibly shrunk under their stares. "Well, I told…"
"Nobody knows that word. How Interesting. May I be as bold and accompany you to the station in your carriage? Jenny, my veil please. We're going out!"
She nodded a fast "Yes, Madam." before she left that poor guy with her. Definitely the Doctor or one of his companions. Or maybe the Doctor himself? He could change his body after all. But why would he then talk about mice all the time? But she knew Vastra's species!
Jenny grabbed Vastra's Veil and a hat for herself. The Season, as the English summer was called, was short but warm. Time to investigate the mystery of the mice- loving, too-much-knowing lunatic woman. She really needed a shorter name for that before Strax returned. Normally he was the one coming up with the too long, bad names, after all.

-o0O0o-

Although she looked normal, there was something off with her. Jenny stepped closer to the bars of her cell, but the woman showed no sign of registering her. Well, she was wearing a white veil so Jenny couldn't be sure but.. wait.
"Why is she still wearing that veil?", she whispered to Vastra and Abberline, who stood a few steps down the corridor, so they weren't visible unless the prisoner chose to come close to the bars. He frowned. "I have no Idea. She shouldn't have those cloves, either. I… I never noticed before… She came in with that parasol on the table over there, and her face veiled. Maybe they gave it back to her after…"
Vastra interrupted. "You just said, you noticed her having it in here for the first time. Don't let your mind search for reasons and therefore ignore the uncommon. I think she did have it all the time."
"But why would anybody take it from her? It is protocol during the arresting procedure to always unveil a prisoner!"
"Now you're asking the right questions."

Jenny ignored them and concentrated again on the calm, even almost statuesque figure, sitting in the darkness on the plank bed with her straight back half turned to them and her shackled hands neatly folded in her lap. Her face behind the veil was invisible in the dark but she seemed to stare out of the tiny window into the blue afternoon sky.
Jenny cleared her throat. "Miss?"
No reaction.
She tried again, but the result stayed the same.
"Madame? My name is Jenny Flint. I need to talk to you. I'm not a doctor, just…"

"Do you like mice?"
Her voice was beautiful, warm and comforting and most importantly clear, not that lunatic whispering of a crazy person.
"Here we go again," groaned the Inspector silently. As he saw the questioning gaze, both of the veiled detective and her handmaiden , he quickly explained. "Every time someone mentions a doctor she starts to ask about mice."
As if summoned, the high voice with that surprising low hum, asked again: "Do you like mice, Misses Jenny Flint?"
"Ehm, it's 'Miss Flint'."
"You are married. Are you married? Your tie is red, so it's a timeline where you are. Are you? Never the less… Do you like mice?"
What in the name of…! Unsure she glanced to Vastra, who nodded encouraging. "I've never thought about that, Madame."
"Once you're able to speak their language, they are sweet and very joyful company. Very intelligent, they're even able to grasp the basic of human science, and they often provide you with a rather unique view on the universe. They are marvelous."
"I ..well, as a Housemaid I kind of see them as a pest but putting it like that, they sound like being enjoyable to have around."

There was a small chuckle. "Oh, they certainly are. But they also are very short-lived, about 1-2 years. Now imagine, there is a man keeping them for company because of the benefits I just told you about. And this man has to say goodbye every year to some of those mice he loves so much. Especially because not all mice die of a natural cause, sometimes one escapes , sometimes the cat takes one, sometimes one gets sick and withers away. And so he has to say goodbye, again and again and they keep breaking his hearts.. And this goes on and on for many, many ,many years, certainly half his life. What would you do in his position? "
"We do not talk about mice, do we?"
"Of course we do."
But they didn't. She was trying to make a point with this. But which?
"What would you do?", the woman asked again.
"I would stop," muttered Jenny.
"Despite their wonderful features? The joy, that brings their company. After all, those are just simple mice, are they not? "
Jenny shook her head. "Still, Madame. Always have to say good-bye to friends? I mean, they are friends even if they are only mice. I couldn't do it."

Seeing your friends die, while you were forced to continue living because your lifespan was tenfold as long as theirs... What a bitter, sad person this man must be. Haunted by ghosts, always on the run and never standing still, just like…

Just like the Doctor.
That woman was found several times wandering the streets of London in search for help for a man living in a box.

"What happened! Is he all right?"

Her head moved so Jenny could make out the profile of a long but slim face with an small, sharp nose.
"You are Jenny Flint. But you are alone. No.. You're not. There's someone else. Your wife. Who are you married to here? Are you married to Madame Vastra? There is a human over there and you should be in the company of a Sontaran, not a human. That is wrong, you should not…. Should not…"
Jenny leaned forward, trying to catch a bit more of that strange woman's face, the bars pressing on her cheeks. "Who are you!"

"Nobody," she answered in an airy, dreamy tone with a hint of eternal sadness. Maybe she was crazy after all.

"I don't think so," Vastra choose to step into the prisoners point of view. "Strax has his monthly free weekend."

The woman's head moved a bit to the side as if she was pondering something. "I see. I haven't noticed that. So this is Inspector Abberline… Well, at least the humiliation of the stay in this filthy cell and the use of my acting skills were fruitful."
She rose and bowed in a strange manner. "Madame Vastra, I presume. Luck and precious Times."
Vastra stiffed surprised by the sudden change of attitude. "Indeed."
Then she caught herself." You seem very acquainted with me and my staff, unfortunately I can't claim the same regarding your identity."
"Which is of no importance right now. The little riddle I have given your human however, is not. But regarding the stories about you, you have solved it already anyway, have you not?"
Jenny haven't ever heard that strange accent and those little mistakes in the speech pattern before, and she 'd meet plenty of people, alien and not.
Who… what was she!
Vastra's voice interrupted her pondering. "The proportion of the life span between man and mouse corresponds to that between man and one Timelord's regeneration."

"A what?," blurted Abberline out.
"A Timelord," repeated the woman patiently.
"A Lord. Of Time."
"So to speak, yes."

His laugh was a little bit too high. "Right. All Right. I beg your pardon, Madam, but this has to end right now. This woman clearly is out of her mind, and I refuse…"
"Oh, I assure you, Inspector, she is not, "Vastra interrupted.
"What?"
Jenny cleared her throat. "What Madam is trying to say is, we actually know that particular person, this Timelord, quite well."
"You know the Lord of Time. Who lives on clouds."
" A Timelord. It's a whole own species. We weren't aware of the rather unusual choice of his current settlement, but yes."

Abberline wiped his forehead with a hand chief. "Oh dear. What's next. Those scaly features of you are no eczema but your skin because you are a lizard?""They actually are ,"Vastra corrected.

"You have lost your handchief, Inspector." The now completely white man with that slightly green nose slowly turned to the bars. In their argument they had completely forgotten about the prisoner and she had used the time to come to the bars. She was surprisingly small, now that Jenny could compare her height to Vastra and herself. Strange how somebody with such a big presence could be forgotten or go unnoticed by anybody , just like that. She picked up the little square of textile the Inspector had dropped in his shock in a graceful movement and presented it to him. Something was wrong about that. Terribly.

"Your shackles," the Inspector squeaked.
In the name of… He was right! She had been shackled to the wall! She wasn't able to come this near to the bars! But there were none.
But ….Jenny had seen them!

"There never had been shackles, " the woman said kind but matter-of-factly.
"Yes there were," Abberline started shaking now, and the only reason Jenny didn't took a step backwards was Vastra not moving a fingertip. "Don't play your crazy mind tricks with me. I know what I've seen. I know, what I've done! I've personally overseen you being shackled to this wall!"
"No, I was not," she repeated calmly. "At least not in this timeline."

Jenny's eyes boggled.
Vastra took a surprised breath.
And Abberline choose the sweet embrace of unconsciousness over that bizarre reality.

The woman hid her silent chuckle behind her hand. "I know it is horribly rude, but it is so adorable how the human mind shuts down, whenever it experiences an overload of uncomfortable information."
She leaned forward and lifted her veil to get a better look. "That poor man. I didn't thought I have scared him that much. I already chose to stay inside the bars."

Yep. Alien. Definitely alien, despite her completely normal, human like features.
Vastra checked his pulse before she stood up. "Tella, am I right."
Her polite smile didn't change but there was a sparkle in her( admittedly quite beautiful) eyes. "Lady Storyteller, please. I've already given up to convince the Lord Regent to stop crippling my name like that, but this doesn't mean I like it."

"Lord Regent?"piped Jenny up.
"The Doctor, my dear" explained her wife, "He once was the President of Gallifrey for a short time. And I think he will stop calling you that nickname if you stop to call him by his title."
"Oh, certainly."She grinned with a delightful glint in her eyes and it was so charming, they both had to grin back. Then she sighted. "At least now I know why he had chosen to come here. He trusted you enough to tell you of my existence."
Of her… Oh.
OH!
Stupid! Of course!
"You'r' a Timelord! You'r' the Timelady who refused t'come to Demons Run! Who told Rory exactly what'll happen!"
The light-brown haired woman nodded gracefully. Which left one question. "I beg your pardon, Mad… Milady, but what are you doing here?"

"Well, I only was able to extract your names and the time from his TARDIS, before he realized what I was doing and … dismissed me rather forcefully. So I had to search the complete planet for three persons and after I found out Vastra was a well known Detective, the best option seemed to consult the next station of executive enforcement. Unfortunately, they were already aware of my early, admittedly desperate attempts to find you, so I had no choice as to play a lunatic but harmless damsel in distress and to leave enough clues not only to finally get somebody interested enough to report back to you but also to lure you here."
Vastra chuckled. "Fascinating. But I think she meant to ask about the reason for you traveling to earth, this … time-place. Given the secrecy of your existence and what the Doctor told about your aversion to travel. Let alone your missing access to traveling devices. You must have gone to immense length to come here."

"I did indeed. But all this is clearly outweighed by the things at stake."

-o0O0o-

"Retired?"
Lady Storyteller nodded and took another sip of her tea. It had been a true pain to convince the Chief Inspector that she was sane enough to be let out of the cell, but absolutely impossible to set her free, so they had to settle for the compromise of Abberline's office to talk. The poor Inspector had simply shook his head and left, grumbling something about not even wanting to know.

"Settled, withdrawn, retired. Call it as you wish. He cites it as his exit. I quote: "He's finished with the universe, quote."
"What," Jenny asked, "But why? He is ... Well, he's Doctor! "
"Mice," answered the Timelady meaningful.
Jenny gulped. Loosing friends all your lifetime because their lifespan was too short. But this was different. This was the Doctor!
"But he can't simply..."
"Jenny, dear," Vastra interrupted " If the Doctor has decided to do so, we should accept his decision."
Lady Storyteller froze and glanced over the rim of her cup with those deep blue, age old eyes. Wait. Hadn't hose been green before?
"No, that is exactly what you should not, Madame Vastra."

"I beg your pardon?"
"What?"
Although it seemed impossible, the lady straightened up in her chair even more. "The Doctor is known for his wrong decisions but this is the worst he has ever made. I admit, at the beginning I was very pleased, but then I realized that something was missing. He is simply no longer himself. "
Vastra's tongue slid over her lips. "You ... are you a friend of the Doctor?"
"To declare our relationship as a friendship would probably be utterly glossed over. And although I use the word acquaintance, it is way too distant to describe it, too. There is no terrestrial word, I'm afraid."
"I see. But you are close enough to him so he cares for you."
She thought a second, then slowly nodded. "I suppose so."
Jenny frowned. "So, If you are a friend, If he cares for you like one, I mean, why don't you just tell him that you don't like his decision?"
"He chose this time-place. If he asked me for my opinion, he would have come to me. But he lives in the TARDS on a cloud above Victorian London, unconsciously knowing he has friends down here who only want the best for him. "

Vastra rose her equivalent of an eyebrow. Her cheeks were still a darker green from the exited compliments the lady Storyteller had blurted out the second the Silurian had lifted her own veil.
"But how do you know that his decision is wrong, if I may ask. Maybe, he needs a break. A vacation. Everybody does. Me ,too. Even if the human society is surprisingly pleasant, they are still apes, pardon my dear."

Jenny made a non-commental noise.
The storyteller's eyes sparkled. "I completely understand that, for obvious reasons. But this is different. See, the Doctor wasn't the first, neither the last young Timelord who went rouge. That's why nobody cared for him until he started to interfere with time. There was actually a really high amount of academy graduates who run away, just to return completely disillusioned a few centuries later. The light in their eyes were gone and they often became the most dutiful and addicted to our eternal society. Simply because they knew the meaning of eternity. Our isolation wasn't only caused by our power or because we choose it, it was primary because of our lifespan. There were few species living as long as only one of our regenerations and even less as long as our whole life. Believe me, if Gallifrey would still exist, the Doctor would go back, too. You have not seen the emptiness in his eyes. All the stars that burned there, they're all gone."
Her voice grew more serious. "Help him."
Her whole facial features, the long narrow sharp nose, the small mouth, the narrow but defined eyebrows, and the round chin, held a strange, dignified authority that caused jenny to shudder. "He is not made to stay in one place, and you both know that, you feel it."

"But how! You know how stubborn he can be!.. Do you?"
"Well he is stubborn enough to trick himself into believing he is actually finished and retired. "
"But, you just said he is."
Lady Storyteller leaned forward.

"So why doesn't he return to Gallifrey? To be more precise, why doesn't he come back to his own species. Because every second there is a timeline in which he return to his wanderings, his true self. And the TARDIS knows that, and that's why she's here. Because every time he returns to be the Doctor once more, you two, three if you count that sonteran clone, are somehow involved. I don't know how you do it, but for him apparently being finished with the universe, there are way too much possibilities to return to save it. He is sulking. Nothing more, nothing less. Since 60 Years he is sitting on his cloud and sulks, hiding himself from the universe because he secretly knows that only one thing needs to happen and he will be back. I was at least able to convince him to come down here after half a century up in the sky. The rest is with you. He told you about me, he trusts you."
She smiled absentmindly and somehow she looked like the ancient, alien being she truly was. "He told the most amazing stories. He lost that, too, you know. He's less talkative than an archivist in the depts of the academy's library."
With a small chuckle the mask slid back into place perfectly. "I never thought I would miss that flood of words."

Jenny exchanged a look with Vastra. He was here since sixty years? All the time , he had been up there? Also, if the Doctor didn't talk anymore, something must be seriously wrong.
"We will keep an eye out for him," Vastra promised.
"Definitely," confirmed Jenny.
The Storyteller nodded gracefully. "I thank you. I'm truly I your dept. Whenever there is something I can do for you, I'll be of service. And thank you for the gift of your time as well."
Vastra smiled. "It was a pleasure to finally meet you, as well."

Jenny scratched her ear. "What're you going to do, now? If I may ask."
"Apparently they plan to assign me into a mental asylum, but with the stories I've heard about this centuries methods of treatment, I rather avoid that."
"So, you're simply going home."
"Probably. Maybe with the inclusion of a little side trip. Do not worry. I have rather effective methods of convincing people to let me go."
"Why don't you stick around a bit. You surely could help us."
Her eyes sparked.

"I thank you for the offer, but the Doctor must not, under all circumstances ever become aware of my involvement here."
Vastra rose the equaling of her eyebrows. "He doesn't know you care for him!"
"He destroyed everything I hold dear. I haven't forgiven him, but he may get the impression if he finds out."
Jenny shared knowing glance with Vastra, but both chose to keep quiet on that matter.
Better not to irritate the last Timelady.

They talked for another two hours carefully getting to know each other and the Storyteller slowly living up to her name, until Abberline interrupted them to inform them of the end of his shift and therefore the end of their visiting time. But it was only until two weeks later, when they accidently met the Doctor down on the kais of the river and saw the dead emptiness in those once so burning eyes, they understood the slight tremor in the Storytellers beautiful voice whenever they spoke about the ancient wanderer.


AN: Oh dear, an update!
Yes, I'm not dead. I simply had other things to do.

But here we are. The first part of the two shot I promised such a long time ago.
With Tella on the loose.
Alone.
In Victorian London.
Don't ask me how she got there. And yes, at this point she cares deeply for the Doctor and values his friendship, but is still too stubborn to confess this to herself. Otherwise she would never go to such lengths to help him, she is easily convinced to help people, yes. But she is also very unforgiving and holding long grudges with the excellent memory of a… well, Timelord. Maybe I'll write her trip in another, separate story from here because that definitely has mature content. Spoiler: She currently uses a vortex manipulator.

Vastra and Jenny are very difficult to grasp, but I hope I got them. The meeting of the three of them is one of my favorite scenes with Tella and it exist in at least five different versions from her breaking into their house, to meeting them on the street and this one as the newest one.
And yes, you've read that one part quite right. The Doctor threw her out after he realized her trying to power up the TARDIS to gain the information she needed to find the Paternoster Gang.
Oh and please I have no Idea how long he actually was on that cloud, simply it being very long. To be honest in my head canon it actually were over 200 years, because guys, he himself calls it a very long time. It is a bit bizarre to think about how often he was in Victorian London in all his regenerations and all the time the eleventh hung out on that cloud, sulking in his TARDIS. So I trimmed it down to 60 years.

And I have a few announcements to make.

First: This fic is neither dead nor will I abandon it. At least not without a proper summary at the end about the storyline. I owe you that much. Because I have readers!
Thanks to ComeHellOrHighWaterBringItOn for your fav, 500ml for following this collection and SilverGhostKitsune for your short but on the point review. I hope you enjoy this new chapter as well.

Second: I will revamp it. I still don't have a Beta, but a friend reading this and knowing Tella's full story advised me to publish those one-shots in chronological order. This little collection started out as a fun project, inserting an OC in different Episodes of the show as an what if. But Tella refused to stay that and now she is a full blown character with a development worthy of at least a chronological order to fully enjoy it. So be prepared for shots randomly appearing in-between the ones already posted. I will include a note on the beginning of the least chapter whenever this will happen. If you're curious, currently this fic has about 24 story-aces, seven of them already here.

So please enjoy, and as always read and review.

Greetings,
Alkatie

PS: The following is pure ramble about season 10, because OMG!
What a great season so far!
I love Bill, and I really look forward to write her. Her TARDIS- interduction scene is currently my favorite one. I hate that she needs this long but those few seconds where she goes like " I know this is hard to believe. I know you're not exactly a sci-fi person…." BÄM! TARDIS. This is so awesome! She is wonderful and I already have some dialogues with Tella, which is always a good sign. Also her and the Doctor have some truly marvelous interaction and even better dialogue, in every Episode so far: I can't even choose which example to give. Her worrying about the grandfather-paradox in thin ice? Finally someone cautious about that. Her straight way of demanding answers and not letting the Doctor talking himself out of anything. Priceless.
Which leads me to our Timelord, because him having Pictures of Susan and River on his desk? Also choosing Bill because she smiles whenever she's confused, just like his granddaughter. And this before even the opening titles?! Damn, Moffat! Also did you noticed how childish and exited he is while showing Bill the TARDIS and talking in that Australian restaurant about not being human? So sweet. I'm just a bit worried about that knack for illegal activities which appeared out of nowhere in Thin Ice. I mean he did steal the TARDIS and he always had a soft spot for pranks and tricks but still. Also him needing orders because he serves humanity, came also out of nowhere. Has it something to do with that mysterious oath he took? Or Clara being bossy? We'll hopefully see. He apparently spent 50 years at that university after all.
And then there is Nardole. I hated him in Husbands of River Song And Return of Doctor Mysterio, but loved him in the pilot, just to hate him in the following parts again. Hmn. Anyway, he's just like Tella. Those two will surely be great together. But definitely steal each other lines. So maybe not.
We'll see. First watching the next episode and hoping it will be as good as the others were so far.
No emojys, by the way.
Thank you, Doctor Who, for ruining just another harmless thing of my everyday-life forever.

30042017