An: Torchwood though…I forgot to put about Torchwood in.

Jenny flopped down on the sofa opposite Vastra, laying the cloth across her nose. She shivered as the cold water dripped down her neck and inside the collar of her dress but the coolness eased the last of the stinging out of her nose. She massaged it gently with her finger tips, wondering if it would swell up. She could hardly go open a bank account with a nose that looked like a tomato. She'd struggle to live up to the character description the solicitor had written as it was. If she came in looking like a drunkard who'd been in a brawl…

"Does it hurt?" Vastra walked into her field of vision, peering down at her.

"Stings a lil bit." Jenny replied, her voice muffled by the cloth.

"I am sorry Jenny." Vastra said contritely.

Before Jenny could think of a reasonable response to this, the Doctor burst back through the door again, hand in hand with Rose. She was dressed in a completely different outfit that was shockingly revealing, at least to someone who'd spent their life in the Victorian era. Jenny didn't quite know where to look.

"Yes. Hi again." The Doctor waved at her, taking her expression to be shock at his sudden reappearance. "By the way, just to let you know, I may have annoyed the Queen."

"The Queen?" Jenny let the cloth fall from her face as she stood up.

"Yes. As in she may have been banished us slightly from the empire."

"Who's the Queen?" Vastra turned to ask Jenny.

"You've been living in the Victorian era for how long now Vastra?" The Doctor tutted. "Queen Victoria. The Queen. Regent Princess everything. Anyway, there was an incident involving werewolves…"

"And mistletoe." Rose winked at Jenny and stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth.

"Yes and…"

"A werewolf?" Jenny determinedly didn't blush.

"Oh you'll be fine, see? Plenty of mistletoe about the place…" The Doctor paused. "Why DO you have so much mistletoe..."

"The werewolf has gone now anyway. We defeated it but the Queen was not amused." Rose was struggling not to laugh.

"Yes. And I lost that bet." The Doctor tutted. "Anyways. Visiting might be a bit trick in the future but I'll do me best! Oh! And watch out for Torchwood, Vastra. You're not an alien but you never know."

"Torchwood."

"Mm. The Queen set it up oooh…what year is this? 1887? About 8 years ago now? More than enough time for it to start investigating. So I'd keep the scales under wraps if I were you."

"Don't I always?" Vastra sighed.

"No." The Doctor pointed at Jenny. "You have a habit of getting them out to terrify apes."

"I was never terrified!" Jenny objected. "And not an ape!" she picked up the cloth and threw it at him.

"My point is," he fielded it expertly onto the sofa arm, "even though you aren't an alien, they'll still think you're an alien so just…just keep it among yourselves ey?" The Doctor tugged at his hair in exasperation. "Anyway. I can't stay too long in case they decide to come and investigate me. If they know about the TARDIS they'll have people out looking. Bye!" He grabbed Rose's hand and they dashed out the door again.

In the stunned silence that followed, Vastra raised her eye ridges. "Well…" she turned to Jenny and was amused by the expression on her face.

"He could've told us sooner! What if they sent people round to the circus? What if that bloke at Scotland yard tol' people? What about them men in suits who was investigatin' the Kraal…"

"Jenny…"

"Maybe we oughta move. But where? She owns 'arf the bleedin' world."

"Jenny."

"I won't let 'em lock you up! I promised!"

Vastra almost laughed at the seriousness but then remembered Jenny's fear of asylums. And her own memories of the circus. Jenny tugged her dress sleeve as she fell silent and she hugged the little ape to her, as much to comfort Jenny as herself.

"I believe if they wished to arrest me they would've done so before now. As the Doctor pointed out, I'm not exactly one to lie low."

"But you'll be careful? At Scotland Yard an'…"

"Yes." She entwined her fingers with Jenny's and squeezed reassuringly. "Now! I believe we have a bank account to set up hm?"

Parker still looked shamefaced and awkward as he readied the cab for them to go out.

"Is she mad at me, Miss Jenny?" he whispered to her as she went to follow Vastra into the cab.

"Wot f…oh! Nah. She was just a bit surprised is all. She don't really get mad 'bout things like that." What with kisses and the Doctor's visits, Jenny had nearly forgotten about the horse in the house incident. But it was true, she thought as Parker clicked Alice out the yard. Vastra didn't really get angry at anything, apart from questions about her past and particularly evil criminals. Considering most people Jenny had known, Vastra was refreshingly free in her behaviour and took most things that were out of the ordinary in her stride. Jenny grinned to herself as she remembered a certain tea party. With a start, Jenny realised she hadn't thought about Mrs Blackett for ages and resolved to go out the next day and buy her a present and visit. The name rang a bell; she'd heard it recently for all she'd forgotten. Blackett. That was the surname her sister had been using. Surely a co-incidence though.

The journey to the bank passed in silence, the rattle of the cab over the cobbles and the muffled noises of the street outside the only sound. Jenny was lost in her own thoughts. The decorations. The kiss. The Doctor. Torchwood. They'd only returned from Japan the day before and already so much had happened. She absentmindedly touched her lips, remembering the kiss. How Vastra had been waiting for her to ask. She wondered whether Vastra knew what kisses could also be. As the Doctor had remarked, Vastra had been living among humans for a while now. Or surviving might be a better term. Her own feelings on the matter she wasn't about to examine any time soon. She liked kissing Vastra and she left it at that. But it intrigued her that Vastra seemed to like kissing her back. Her mind wandered on the subject and the thought of the Silurian's tongue popped into her head.

"Are you alright?" Vastra asked, looking over upon hearing a faint squeak from Jenny. The young woman had gone very red. "Is it your nose?"

"No." Jenny's voice was strangely high-pitched.

"Then whatever is the matter?" Vastra's brow furrowed.

"Nuffin'! Nuffin'. Just…was thinkin'. About everythin'." Jenny coughed, trying to get her voice to sound normal again. That had been a thought. "I mean, s'just excitin'. Y'know. A bank account."

Vastra blinked, noticing a strange desperation in Jenny's eyes that begged to be believed. "Well, we're almost there." She'd question the ape on it later on.

The cab drew round the final corner and then there was the bank. Jenny recognised it from having come with Vastra to set up the Silurian's account, with the papers and references forged by the friend of the pawn shop owner. The large reception area, with wilting potted plants, the heavy scent of the wooden desks and the squeak of leather seats mixing with the low tones of conversation and the scratching of pens. But now she was here for herself, not merely a shadowy figure of a maid, accompanying her mistress. They left Parker minding the cab and walked in, Jenny clutching the paperwork.

Vastra sailed up to the front desk, all confidence and haughtiness. The clerk bowed and although terribly confused at their request didn't dare argue or comment. Jenny smothered a grin, thinking back to the solicitor and how even he had been steamrollered by Vastra. She wondered whether Inspector Gregson had had a similar experience upon first meeting the vigilante who dropped criminals off on his doorstep. Jenny had only met him the once (and had refused to meet him again after her treatment by the man at the counter) but he didn't seem strong-willed enough to stand up to Vastra in full flow.

The clerk handed over a small book with her details written in it in a tidy but cramped handwriting style. "You will need that if you wish to make a withdrawal or to close the account. If you could sign here?" she duly leaned over and made her scrawl of a signature. "Excellent. And then again in the book please. Your name is now in a ledger and that is that." The clerk smiled nervously at Vastra, who inclined her head in return.

"Excellent. I believe that is all for today then."

"Good! Good. Thank you for your custom. I hope…uh that this has all be to your satisfaction." He eyed Jenny somewhat warily, still trying to decipher how this young maid with a reddened nose had managed to secure half the savings of a rich widow. It seemed like something that would happen in a novel or a magazine series.

"Yes." She nodded, clasping the book to her.

"Well I hope your experience banking with us is an agreeable one." He smiled somewhat falsely and waved as they walked out.

Jenny sagged into the cab seat opposite Vastra and then opened the book they'd given her. She had to stifle a second squeak at the amount of money in the account.

"You sure this is only arf?" she waved the book at Vastra, who took it delicately.

"Yes. Half each, as promised."

"S'a lot fer 'arf."

"Do you not recall how much we…" Vastra's eyes looked up to the cab seat above her head suddenly. "…acquired?"

"Yeah but I thought most of it went on the house an' fixin' it up."

"Some of it yes. Remind me to teach you sums as well as reading at some point."

Jenny snatched her book back and scowled at Vastra. "I c'n count jus' fine thank you. I just ain't used to such big numbers."

Vastra nodded in acknowledgement, not wishing to argue the point further. It had been a long day and she was tired and hungry.

Jenny watched the Silurian sink back in the seat and stood up to lean out the window. "Oi Parker!"

"Yes Miss Jenny?"

"Mind stoppin' off at the butchers on our way home? Meat fer dinner an' the like."

"Right you are, Miss Jenny." Parker twitched the reins to guide Alice down another street.

Vastra looked at her quizzically.

"You starts goin' yellow when yer hungry." Jenny opened her bank book again to look at the number in it.

"Hm. Thank you."

After a quick visit to the butchers and the pie shop, they returned to 13 Paternoster Row. Parker went off quite cheerfully with one pie and a joint of meat back to his home; Jenny reassuring him that she'd wipe down Alice. It gave her an excuse to not be in the kitchen while Vastra ate. It wasn't that she minded, but it wasn't exactly a spectator event either and she knew the Silurian valued the privacy.

After Alice was settled into her nosebag, Jenny returned to the house to get her own dinner finally. The lunch she'd grabbed with Parker seemed a long time ago now and she yawned as she lit the lamps in the kitchen, scoffing down half the pie quickly and putting the rest in the larder.

She was leaning back in her chair, feeling full and warm when Vastra appeared in the doorway, glancing up at the mistletoe that hung there.

"You alright?"

"I was waiting for you."

"Fer what? You fancy a card game or somethin'?" Jenny was confused.

Vastra grinned at her. "No. I was reading poetry."

"Poetry?"

"Mm. I came across a very interesting poem."

"And you want to spout it at me? Could've done that while I was eatin'." Jenny rocked her chair back onto two legs.

"It's by a man named Leigh Hunt."

"Good fer 'im. Go on then, woss it about." She placed her hands behind her head with a small smile. Vastra reading to her or quoting poetry was one of her favourite pastimes.

"A kiss."

The chair returned to four legs with a small bang. "A kiss."

"Mm. From a woman named Jenny."

Jenny eyed the Silurian where she was leaning against the door frame, gazing at the mistletoe.

"You got one of them already today." She pointed out, fiddling with her cutlery.

"Different bunch of mistletoe." Vastra countered. "And I didn't realise there was a limit."

Jenny couldn't think of an argument against that. Her mind was struck by the fact that Jack had hung mistletoe all over the house. 13 Paternoster Row wasn't that big but there were still quite a few doorways downstairs. The Silurian was teasing her. Or challenging her. But she couldn't take them down either, that would be as good as admitting defeat in that case.

She stood up suddenly and strode to where Vastra was waiting. If Vastra wanted a kiss, then she'd get one. Jenny Flint was not about to back down. She tugged at Vastra's dress to get her to lean down and kissed her soundly, Vastra responding in kind.

"'ow'd it go then?" Jenny whispered, a little breathlessly, as they stopped.

"The kiss? Oh, that was quite…"

"The poem!" Jenny cut her off, noticing that Vastra's triangular scale on her forehead had gone a shade of orange.

"Hm." Vastra hummed in her throat. "Jenny kissed me when we met, jumping from the chair she sat in; time, you thief, who love to get sweets into your list, put that in: say I'm weary, say I'm sad, say that health and wealth have missed me, say I'm growing old, but add, Jenny kissed me."

"They never wrote that."

"I am gifted in many things, Jenny Flint; poetry writing is not one of them. I believe it is a form known as a rondeau. Look it up if you don't believe me. The book is on the arm of my chair." Vastra gestured towards the living room.

Still suspecting that Vastra was pulling her leg, Jenny went to investigate. But sure enough there was a book and upon the page, the poem Vastra had just quoted. Jenny would've blushed but instead she felt strangely touched. That Vastra had read this and had come to find her, because it reminded the Silurian of her? She turned to Vastra who was now standing in the living room doorway beneath, as Jenny swiftly realised, a bunch of mistletoe.

She shot Vastra an unimpressed look but it was very half-hearted and amusement took over as she walked back across, stood on tiptoe to brush her lips against Vastra's and then went to wash up as the Silurian disappeared upstairs.

It was only later when she went to bed, three kisses in two different doorways later, she noticed there were bunches of mistletoe upstairs too.

"I'll kill that Jack! I told 'em not to come upstairs!" she swore, about to reach up and take them down.

"Oh no, it wasn't Jack." Vastra called from the bedroom, having heard the cursing. "I found some spare that he'd left in a box so I put them up."

Jenny's hand froze, half closed around the bunch in the bathroom doorway. Well, it was going to be a fun Christmas. She grinned to herself. It wasn't like she had a particular objection to the game.

An: in which the author realises once again that they have little imagination when it comes to surnames. It's a co-incidence. OR IS IT? Having now pulled it as a gaff, I might have to do something with it.

The poem was a glorious accident. I was reading a book of poems and I came across it as I was writing this chapter and went "welp." Checked it out, was written/published in 1838 so it had to go in after that. Too perfect.