An: well yes

11th February 1888

The image of Vastra, overcome with metal, scorched through Jenny's brain and she jerked awake.

"Vastra!"

"I am here, little ape." The Silurian grunted sleepily.

Jenny sat up causing mutters of protest. A rather horrific thought had just occurred to her and really, it was the only conclusion possible.

"Vastra. Them cybermen. The Doctor and Jack were talkin' about upgrades. How they'd tried to upgrade humans? What were they tryin' to upgrade 'em to?"

"Into other cybermen of course." The tone of Jenny's voice made Vastra sit up beside her.

"So them cybermen we killed yesterday, they were…"

"Human, originally. Jenny…" Vastra saw Jenny's expression and read what the young woman had just realised. She grabbed Jenny's arm. "Yes, human. Originally. But no longer. That is what the upgrade does. It makes them not human. You couldn't have saved them. An upgrade has never been reversed. Never. The Doctor explained yesterday to me."

"I killed 'em." Jenny said softly, distraught.

"Yes. You did. Those are hardly the first deaths you are responsible for." Softness would not work, Vastra reasoned, better to be upfront. "If you wanted to merely save the lives of apes, should you not be killing me?"

"What?"

"I am responsible for numerous ape deaths. And eating them."

"Yeah but…"

"If you are going to have exceptions to your rules, then your morality is flawed. And if it is flawed anyway, you might as well make yourself an exception to the rule. Console yourself; there are people who are alive today who are not cybermen because you killed them. As there are people alive and undamaged because of the criminals I have killed and eaten. As you are alive and undamaged because I killed the Tong gang."

Jenny sat, her jaw clenched but there was no real argument against any of Vastra's points.

"You killed all them people down in the underground."

"Yes."

"Don't you ever feel guilty about that?"

Vastra considered this question. "Are you going to claim they were innocent? Apes are…were food for my kind. You do not feel guilty when you eat a pie."

"But we're not apes." Jenny protested.

"As I've learnt. But please do not expect me to embrace ape morality when it is so largely flawed itself."

"So 'ow come I got a free pass then?"

"My morality is flawed."

"Huh?"

"You are an exception to the rule."

"Why?"

"You are something good. Something human. And I like you little ape." Vastra reached out and stroked her face.

"Thas no kind of reason!"

"Why not?" Vastra leaned towards her.

"Whoops! Hope I'm not interrupting anything!" Rose burst through the doorway. She was out of breath, her jacket was ripped and covered in black marks and there was soot on her cheeks.

"What happened?" Vastra got up hastily, leaving a red-faced Jenny on the futon.

"Well we found the base alright. The Doctor blew it up. S'why…" she gestured at her clothes as she dug in her bag to find a new jacket. "Bleedin' expensive this was too." She sighed, holding the old one up.

"As he does."

"Anyways. Some of the cybermen escaped through the vortex to here. So we thought we'd come back, grab you and then head off to track them down. The Doctor doesn't think they'll get far without a cyber controller but they could still cause a lot of damage and it'll be easier if there're more of us. C'mon!"

After a day spent tracking down the few stray cybermen who'd escaped, Jenny was certain of three things. One, Cybermen were definitively not human anymore. Two, Rose and the Doctor seemed to be together. She'd suspected as much but watching them move through the woods, second guessing each other, laughing and joking she was pretty certain that they were as together as you could be without openly declaring it. Three, Captain Jack Harkness flirted far too much with everyone but specifically far too much with Vastra who seemed far too happy about it. Not that Jenny Flint was jealous.

"He's always like that, don't worry." Rose whispered to her when they stopped. The Doctor was scanning the area to check for any more signals and Vastra and Jack were talking a little ways off.

"Why should I worry?" Jenny snorted. "Makes a change her gettin' along with a human."

Rose grinned sympathetically. "Well I s'pose she don't meet many that can see beyond the scales."

"No." Jenny replied soberly.

"'sides you were the one she was about to snog this morning."

"She weren't doin' nuffin' of the sort!"

"So you've never kissed or anythin'?" Rose teased.

"'ave you an' the Doctor?" Jenny retaliated, causing Rose to look at the ground, scuffing it with her boots.

"We're not like that." she muttered, tucking a strand of hair back behind her ear.

"What's goin' on you two?" The Doctor bounded up to them. "All clear!" he waved the scanner at them. It was making despondent intermittent bleeps. "Oi! Jack! Vastra!"

"If you could, I'd be most grateful." Jenny heard Vastra say as they walked to join the other three.

"Of course, Madame Vastra." Jack winked at her. "Think nothing of it."

"We headin' back then?" Rose asked, nudging the Doctor with her arm.

"Headin' off more like. Job done here."

"Aw but it's the Chinese New Year tomorrow!" Jack complained.

"So? We're in Japan!" The Doctor said dismissively.

"It gets celebrated here too." Rose reminded him.

"Not in this era."

"So we could have our own celebration! Sure you could find some fireworks from somewhere!" Rose grinned at him, sticking her tongue out to the side.

"Fine." He sighed. "But if we get arrested, I'm blamin' you!" he waggled the sonic screwdriver in her face.

"It sounds intriguing." Vastra commented. "I did not realise there were different New Years."

"'ow can there be different New Years?"

"Ah, well you see…" Captain Jack spent the rest of the journey back to the inn explaining about lunar calendars.

"The Silurians use a similar calendar." Vastra nodded wisely, causing Jenny to roll her eyes.

After yet another bath to get rid of the sweat and grime of chasing cybermen, Jenny sat on the futon waiting for Vastra to get changed.

"I wish you could come to the baths with us."

"I think the apes would object to that, my dear." Vastra gracefully donned the robe that Jack had handed her.

"We c'ld build one. Back home. With steam an' the like. Be brilliant fer winter."

"By the time we get back home it'll be spring."

Jenny paused. The day after tomorrow would mark the first anniversary of her coming to live with Vastra and they were a month and a half away from home at least. Although she doubted Vastra had even made a note of the date anyway. She looked up at the Silurian and let out a puff of air, the beauty of the green scales striking her once more.

It was midnight and they had snuck back up to the artist's shack in the woods. The Doctor had rigged something up out of what looked suspiciously like components from a cyberman's arm blaster.

"Get ready to run." He muttered and tapped the set up with his sonic screwdriver. It blasted streaks of red and white light high into the air, illuminating the woods for miles with a shrill whistling sound. Jenny gaped speechlessly at the sky as Jack and Rose danced, whooping. Vastra snuck up, embracing her from behind, shivering slightly. As the display finished, they heard shouting and raised voices from the woods around them.

"Whoops! Time to go!" Jack grabbed Rose's hand and darted off. Vastra stared, panicked at Jenny and then drew the swords she'd strapped on over her robe.

"Oi! What d'you think you are? The Last Samurai?" the Doctor grabbed them off of her. "Come on!"

They arrived breathless and gasping back at the inn; hastily sneaking back to their rooms. Vastra held out her hand for the swords but the Doctor refused.

"You can't have Japanese swords from the 1300's in London in 1888. It'd be an anachronism."

"Anna-what?" Jenny asked.

"Something out of time. Not meant to be there. I'm sure there're plenty of other weapons for you to get hold of if that's what you want." He seemed put out and Vastra didn't press this issue, retiring to their room to curl up in the futon. That surprised Jenny more than the Doctor's attitude. The Silurian seemed rather attached to the swords and she was expecting Vastra to fight for them.

"What're you lookin' so glum for Jenny Flint? Don't tell me you wanted swords too." The Doctor groaned as he put them in his room.

"Nah. I ain't that good with 'em anyways."

"Well what's the problem then? You just helped saved the world!"

Jenny shrugged but the Doctor merely stood there in silence, an inquisitive look on his face and something about the silence dragged the answer from her.

"She missed me birthday. An'…an' then we missed Christmas. And New Year. Travellin' here. An'…an' tomorrow's the first anniversary of when I went ter live with 'er an'…"

"And yer in Japan." The Doctor finished.

"I ain't sulkin' about it."

"'Course not."

"She prob'ly don' even care anyway."

"She might not."

"It don' matter."

"Yes it does. Christmas. Birthdays. Anniversaries. Nothin' matters more. Biggest things in the universe." The Doctor threw an arm around her shoulders and gave them a squeeze. "I'll see what I can do."

"Do?" Sadness was dispelled by confusion as he walked off.

"Oof! I'm exhausted." Rose returned from visiting the toilet. "C'mon Jenny. Time for bed." She yawned and Jenny followed her into their room, sliding into the futon next to Vastra.

In the morning Jenny packed their things back into the carpet bag and suitcases. She debated asking Vastra to stay one more day to celebrate the anniversary here but they'd caused quite a ruckus yesterday with their fireworks and she didn't think it was safe to. It was a shame; she quite liked Japan, cybermen aside. With a start, she thought about Parker and all the Paternoster Irregulars and how they were getting on. She should've given them more money to get through the winter. How had they even coped?

Vastra had already gone to meet the Doctor and Jack; Rose was now chivvying Jenny out the door with a suspicious grin on her face.

"Ah! Jenny! Ready to go?" the Doctor asked when they walked out.

"Go where? We leavin' already?" she asked.

Captain Jack winked at her and then offered his arm to Vastra with a "My Lady".

"Thank you Captain." She took it graciously.

"Mm! See you soon Jenny!" Rose hugged Jenny.

"Huh?"

"Jenny?" Jack offered his other arm to her. She took it gingerly.

"Bye!" Rose waved at them.

"See you in a bit Jack." The Doctor called, almost as a warning.

"We ain't goin' anywheeeeee…" Jenny felt her voice being lost in something and her words turned into a soundless scream. She clung to Jack's arm and then WHOOMPF!

They landed in a thin coat of snow in the yard of 13 Paternoster Row.

"Ugh. That is a very nasty form of time travel." Vastra shook herself. "And we don't have our luggage."

"Ah!" Jack clicked his fingers. "I will be right back." He disappeared. Jenny had been gaping round the yard but turned to gape at where Jack had been instead.

"Here we are!" Jack dropped the carpet bag and suitcases onto the cobbles. "Hope everything's there. The…items you requested are in your suitcase." Jack bowed formally to Vastra. "See you two ladies soon I hope." He waved. Jenny saw him press something that looked like a bracelet this time before he disappeared.

There was a second's silence and then Jenny let out a stream of expletives.

"Really!" Vastra looked at her in surprise.

"'ow'd 'e do that! 'ow did we do that? What even is that thing?!"

"It's a type of vortex manipulator I believe. The Doctor mentioned it."

"Vortex?"

"The Time Vortex."

"Ti…time…"

"I mentioned the Doctor travels in time yes?"

"Did you?"

"I must've done at some point."

"So…we just…"

"Travelled in time, yes." Vastra sniffed at the snow distastefully.

"Oh."

"I wonder what date it is." Vastra shivered and made her way indoors.

Annoyance at Vastra leaving her to carry their luggage again grounded Jenny back in reality and she collected it up and staggered after her.

An: Poor Jenny. My google history reads "lunar calendar, Japanese toilets, cyber conversion and the Meiji era." If I'm being tracked by governments or apps or what have you, they must be having fun. I think Captain Jack never had to give up his vortex manipulator to the Ninth Doctor (he uses it to get off the game station after all) so hopefully that works! I wonder what the date is…