She woke the next morning and sensed someone next to her once again. She turned over carefully and saw the back of the lizard woman's head. Without thinking, she reached out to touch the head spikes and the next thing she knew she was pinioned to the bed by a murderous lizard.
"Touch me again, little ape and I shall kill you."
"Sorry. Sorry." She whispered, trying not to tremble in fright. This one did seem like a genuine threat. Eating was a little more than a beating after all. However, nothing could stop her from muttering "not little, not an ape" under her breath.
The lizard woman snorted and curled back up. Jenny dashed out the bed as fast as possible and shimmied down the drain pipe once again to relieve her herself.
When she returned the lizard woman was up, draped in several blankets and had made tea as a peace offering.
"Sorry." Jenny said again, more sincerely, taking the cup she was handed. She wondered how she would feel if the lizard woman just randomly started touching her hair. It struck her suddenly that as much as she was a lizard woman, and as much as she had spent time in a circus, she wasn't a freak or anything. She should've known that already. She flushed in shame but then her stomach grumbled.
"Hungry again already?" The lizard woman gave a quick quirk of a grin and handed her a handful of coins out a small box on a desk along the back wall. "Go get food."
Jenny dressed quickly and ran to a nearby shop. She bought a pie and some bread and some apples and then ran back, negotiating the drainpipe even with her packages with a skill born of snaking.
The lizard woman watched her with seeming fascination as she crouched by the fire, an odd sight in her black dress, tearing into the bread rolls, eating the pie with her fingers. Not that the lizard woman could exactly talk about table manners.
Jenny wrapped the rest up and placed it by the fire to keep it warm for lunch, licking her fingers. She looked curiously at the still staring lizard.
"What…was that?"
"S'pie."
"Pie."
"Like…pastry…an' meat."
"Meat?" That got her attention.
Jenny carefully unwrapped the pie again. "Try a bit. S'good."
The lizard woman gave her a look that said she didn't entirely trust an ape's opinion of food but delicately picked up a piece of meat. Her tongue snicked out and she swallowed.
"Hm. What kind of meat?"
"Beef I fink."
"Hm."
"Prefer people?" Jenny grinned.
The lizard woman gave her an odd stare but made no further comment and led down on the pallet bed with a book.
Jenny looked around, wondering what to do and decided to investigate the flat.
Vastra ended up watching out the corner of her eye despite herself as the young woman ran silently, moved silently. It was intriguing, watching an ape move in this fashion. It reminded her of a hatchling. She only needed a darting tongue to taste the air. Vastra snorted at her idea and went back to her book.
She saw Jenny stop out the corner of her eye. Three…two…one…
"Whatchoo readin' then?"
Even though she'd been prepared it startled her a little. The ape was silent, she'd give her that.
"A book."
"Wos it about?"
"Apes." Jenny looked with a most unimpressed expression on. She remembered it. "Humans, then."
Jenny sighed. "What kind of people?"
"How should I know? The Doctor recommended I read some books to get to know the habits of ap…humans." Vastra huffed. "Said it would help me integrate." She studiously returned to her book and there was a moment of silence before…
"Did I 'urt you when I touched yer…"
"Crests. And no. The idea that an ape could hurt me."
"Not an ape!" Jenny stuck her tongue out again and didn't wait for the lizard woman to stick hers out in return. She returned to scouring the flat.
It wasn't large, a square room with the bare boards underneath a sloping roof. An attic room more than anything. The pallet bed and chest were tucked in an alcove in the corner. Further along the wall was the window overlooking the back yard. Along the next wall the fireplace, large enough to boil a kettle and to keep the room warm. On the hearth rested a tea pot and some cups. Along the next wall a set of steep narrow stairs, down which she hadn't yet ventured alone. And then the back wall with the plain table that served as a desk, two stools shoved underneath it along with a small pile of books. It was strewn with papers, pens, old posters from the circus and the small ornate box that Vastra had given her money from. Jenny steered clear of it, not wanting to be accused of stealing.
She looked in the chest but all that was in there was a pile of ragged dresses. She glanced at the lizard woman and then lightfooted across the floor and down the stairs.
They went onto a landing with other rooms leading off of it. A brief investigation turned up a very smelly bedroom and a bare room with a tin bath and a fire place in it. A string was hung from wall to wall, draped with stained underwear and clothing. Down another flight and the stairs came out into a small kitchen with a hob. An old woman was snoring in front of a fireplace, a bottle knocked over next to her feet. Jenny wrinkled her nose in disgust at the smell of alcohol. She was amazed a spark from the fire didn't set the whole building ablaze. Apart from a sack of potatoes in the corner there didn't seem to be much else in the way of food. The cupboards she opened deftly were filled with chipped crockery and old dishes. The table was clean but pocked with burn marks and knife holes. She wandered through the door, wincing at the squeak, into a largish room, dominated by tables and chairs and a bar.
She wandered casually over to the bar; behind which was a row of spirit bottles and leant on it, wondering if the amount of alcohol in the place was the reason the lizard woman had chosen it for quarters. After all, no-one was going to believe someone who'd been here and glimpsed a lizard woman were they. She snorted in contempt and turned round and ran straight into the old woman, who turned out to be a lot more solid than Jenny had given her to be.
After an ear-splitting rant about little urchins coming into her shop to steal gin, Jenny got dragged out into the street and the door slammed on her.
Not that this particularly caused her any problems. She darted down the side alley, hopped up onto the wall and shinned back up the drainpipe.
Vastra, having heard the rant of the landlady from up in the attic room, grinned to herself as the ape reappeared in the window and dropped lightly down into the room. Clearly the climbing skills of its ancestors hadn't been lost. It went to sit by the fire and ate more of the pie, whilst staring into it. Vastra tried to read her book but ended up wondering what the ape was thinking about. She still looked like an oversized crow, with her tangle of hair and ragged dress. She sighed and went to have a talk with the landlady. She'd have to tell her about a new lodger anyway.
"Got a maid 'ave yew ma'am? Well thas good. Old widder like yersel' needs a young bod to run round doin' the chores. Course the rent, the rent but oh mercy! It's that little wretch! Well that explains her presence at least. But she's a scrap of a thing. Where'd you pick this one up? The reform school?"
Jenny had started up at the voice as the cloaked figure of the lizard woman came back in.
"Yew sure about 'er ma'am? She'll be arf-inchin' all yer money next thing you knows." the landlady stage-whispered out the side of her mouth. Jenny's face set into a displeased stubborn look. "Well I'll not charge ye two lodger rent until she's bin 'ere a month. Prob'ly run off with any silver as soon as nothin'. I wouldn't put yew out ma'am." The landlady wandered back downstairs again.
Vastra looked at Jenny from inside her hood and watched as the young ape stuck her tongue out and made several rude gestures at the landlady's retreating back. It made her grin widely. The little ape was spirited, made her tea, was warm…and not afraid. Perhaps the Doctor was right after all and she should keep this one. She considered it a little more seriously, her offer to the ape that it could stay here for now.
Jenny noticed the lizard woman watching and stopped hastily. "Weeelllll, no call for 'er to go round casting asperdistras is there?"
She waited for a reply. Vastra waited to try and understand precisely what Jenny had said.
"Aspersions. And no, not really."
"I mean, just cos I look all ragged ain't no reason to accuse me of bein' a lifter."
"Says the ape who has already tried to pick my pockets."
"Weeellll I din' know you was snipe too did I. Thought you was some nit of a rich widder maybe. Sides I was on'y dippin' cos the peelers were onna look out for a screw."
The lizard woman hung her cloak back up. "I think even the TARDIS translation matrix is failing on that."
"TARDIS?"
"Never mind."
"So it ain't right onna first butchers to say as I'm no good. S'all I'm sayin'."
"No."
Jenny slumped slightly and leaned on the windowsill, looking out at the less than salubrious view. Beyond the back yard, filled with weeds and a log pile were more backyards in similar conditions. "I ain't no good though am I. Pinchin' things, bein' a runner for a gang, bein' a snake, a screw, industrial school, reformatory school, workhouse, prison. On'y place I ain't been is the asylum. You should kick me back out on the street, not buy clothes fer me." She laughed a little forlornly.
"Why?" the lizard woman looked over at her.
"Might pinch all yer money."
"Really?" her tone indicated boredom at the idea.
"Not really. But the gang might come back after me. Might kill yer fer 'elpin' me."
She snorted. "I told you, I ate them."
"You ate that lot. Say there's more?"
A toothy smile appeared. "I certainly hope so."
"You ain't even scared? They're the Tong Gang."
"If they bother you that much, I'll hunt down the rest of them too."
"You'd do that?"
"Why not? It stops them being a problem and provides me with dinner for a few nights."
Jenny felt strangely put out by that. The Lizard Woman wasn't doing it for her. She just wanted food.
"Well then, that's sorted." The lizard woman seemed to take her silence for agreement.
"What is?" she shook herself.
"You can stay here."
"What an' warm yer bed?" she snarked, still feeling strangely hurt.
"You can sleep on the floor if you wish to."
"What would I do?" Jenny didn't think the lizard woman would let her stay just for nothing.
"Whatever it is that apes do. Talk and eat as it appears. The landlady believes you to be my maid, you could try doing that." the lizard woman glanced around the flat after reclining on the pallet bed. There wasn't a lot for a maid to do.
"Yer jus' gonna let me stay 'ere." Now Jenny was confused.
"Feel free to leave at any time." She picked up her book again.
"Gotta be kiddin'. Warm bed, food. Be a daftie to pass up on that." Jenny hugged herself. A beat passed. "Why?"
Vastra gave up on any peace and quiet and set the book down. She walked over to sit on the windowsill. She had met this ape before. The Doctor had suggested her for a companion then. And Vastra was lonely, since leaving the circus. An ape could be useful in her current circumstances. And Jenny looked lonely too, staring out the window. What was it, this feeling? Pity? Empathy? A feeling of shared experience? Or was it the way that Jenny didn't seem to mind the scales? Was she one of the "good" ones after all? Despite her apparently rather criminal past. She put her hand on Jenny's shoulder and squeezed it as the Doctor had squeezed hers on numerous occasions. It seemed to be a comforting gesture among the apes. But she had no other answer to give her and she would have to deal with the Tong Gang it appeared, if she wanted to keep Jenny and to save herself too for that matter. The ape had indicated they would come after her for killing their men. Well it would provide some excitement for the evening she supposed.
Jenny stared after Vastra as the lizard woman walked back out the apartment. She hadn't said anything and she didn't return that night and Jenny curled up on the floor by the fire, wondering if she was out eating the rest of the Tong gang.
