An: Jenny Flint is a lightweight pass it on.
The bar which Jenny and Jess ended up in was not the most reputable of establishments. A fist fight had already happened (Jess claimed it was over her) and several patrons been thrown out. Jenny was sure Missus Blackett's gin bar was far less rowdy and the tom bar Lettie had taken her to, downright classy in comparison. They were currently seated at a small table near the bar which by the looks had been used as a knife rack and hadn't seen the clean side of a cloth since it'd been placed there. And it wobbled.
Which wasn't helping Jenny who was staring at her third pint trying to keep it in focus. She was amazed that Jess could be on her sixth pint when, with Missus Blackett's help, she'd polished off the better half of a bottle of gin earlier. Still, the alcohol was perhaps subduing her reaction to Jenny's story, which she told in full, with pauses only when Jess went to get more beer.
"Blimey…" Jess looked sadly into the bottom of the empty glass that had, up until quite recently, contained her sixth pint. "A Silurian ey." She struggled with the 's'. "Don't that beat all. 'Splains the veil." She gestured vaguely at her face and nearly poked herself in the eye.
"Yep. I c'n see through it. An' some others."
"Oh ho ain't we fancy. My apologies that I am not so talented." Jess huffed, glowering at her finger for its betrayal. "So along with this lizard woman…that you met in a circus and then later down an alley, there is this Doctor bloke," the finger pointed at her "what travels in time an' you…" it prodded her in the arm, making Jenny lose concentration on her pint. "You…are meant ter be in Japan. Right now. This precise moment."
"On a boat there."
"But yer here."
"An' there."
There was a pause. The finger swayed gently, as if in a breeze before pointing down on the table.
"I have heard some drunken bollocks in my time, but that!" the finger returned its attention to Jenny. "That is impressive. An' yer only on yer third pint." Jess eyed it suspiciously.
"S'true."
"Din't they teach yer how to drink in the reform school?" Jess asked in a mildly disgusted tone of voice.
"I stole it fer others, never touched it meself." Jenny shrugged.
"Saint Jenny…" Jess snorted. "In love with a lizard. I take it back. Yer couldn't make it up. Not after only three pints. Mus' be true."
"S'true."
Jess stared very hard at the table for a few minutes and Jenny solved the issue of attempting to concentrate on her pint by downing it in one.
"Well then…" Jess said slowly and deliberately. "s'pose I'd better be gettin' yer back to yer wife. Mistress. Both. Don' want to get in trouble wiv 'er either way. C'mon." Jess hauled Jenny up from her chair. "An' don' you dare splat on the floor neither. This is a respectable essh…eh…eshstablishment, this is."
Jenny might well have gone splat on the floor but it was a long way down and she currently didn't feel she could reach it.
"My sister. The lightweight." Jess snorted in disgust. "C'mon." She half walked, half carried Jenny out into the night.
Jess hummed quietly as she walked as jauntily as a person can, when helping an inebriated person to walk. Her rhythm was constantly being spoiled by Jenny staggering or tripping on an uneven bit of flagstone. All the serious drunks were still in the pubs and the really serious drunks were in no condition to cause them trouble. There was a distant sound of an argument and some off-key singing somewhere down another street; apart from that it counted as quite a quiet night in London.
"S'not fair." Jenny whispered after they'd walked a little way.
"Wot isn't?"
"I love 'er."
"Ah. A confessional drunk." Jess sighed. "Well at least yer not a violent one. Them's the worse." she felt Jenny heave and directed her towards the gutter.
"She's a stupid…bleedin'…" Jenny wiped her mouth. "lizard."
"So she's not like…a human who's just got a bit of problem. She's an acutal diff'rent species…"
"Silurian."
They staggered along in silence for a bit, the jaunty walk slowly disappearing until Jess halted altogether. "An' you love 'er."
"Yep." Jenny sniffed, a little sorrowfully.
"But she don't know this I take it."
"Not at this precise moment."
"Aye an' it's prob'ly best she don't get ter know at this precise moment either. Ain't exactly romantic."
"I c'n be romantic."
"I don't doubt but not wiv sick down yer dress. Blimey. An' I've got to take you back to 'er an' somehow explain..." Jess paused, contemplating how exactly to explain, and also contemplating explaining to a Silurian who reportedly ate people, the current situation. "Bugger that." she concluded. "Yer comin' back to mine." Jess adjusted her grip and steered Jenny down a side street.
23rd December 1887
Jenny woke up with a groan and rolled over instinctively to search for Vastra and fell off the narrow bed she was in.
"An' a good mornin' ter you too. How're yer hangin'?" Jess wandered over and handed her a cup of tea.
"Wot happened?" she croaked, her mouth felt like a rat had crawled into it and died. She washed it out with a gulp of tea.
"You, me dearest lightweight of a sister, got arf-rats an' ended up declarin' yer love to the heavens an' I thought I'd bring yer back to mine, save yer the embarrassment of declarin' it to 'er."
"I bin 'ere all night?" Jenny said in horror, looking round at the shabby room she was in.
"Slept like a babe. I let yer have the bed. No need ter thank me." Jess sipped her tea, resting against a rickety side table that was the only other piece of furniture apart from the bed.
"I gotta get back." Jenny placed her tea down and stood up, scrunching up her eyes against the wave of dizziness that caused.
"Blimey, if you stayed out all night, yer can stay another ten minutes to have a cuppa an' some breakfast. Ain't like yer a real maid to be mindin' yer job lost." Jess guided her to sit back down on the bed and handed her the tea back.
"You don' understand. She'll be worried sick!"
"Thought she didn't give a snot about "apes"." Jess waggled her eyebrows, clinking her tea cup against Jenny's. "Drink up afore it gets cold."
"She don't." Jenny took another gulp.
"Oh here." Jess handed her a rag. "Cry baby." Jenny flung it back in her face.
"Yer tea was bleedin' hot! It made me eyes water."
"I should 'ope so. Don't drink it so fast, yer ninny."
"This where yer live then?" Jenny asked, looking once more around the room.
Jess followed her gaze. "S'not a patch on your posh place I'll grant yer."
The room was large but bare. Only a bed and a side table furnished it. It was clean enough; even the floorboards looked scrubbed, although lacking in polish. There was a fire place with a rod across for hooking a kettle on, and a chipped brown tea pot was sat on the flag stones. In the corner was a small suitcase with clothes spilling out of it.
"Ain't you got a wardrobe?"
"Rent's weekly." Jess laughed. "I c'n always afford ter pay it mind but it don't do ter get settled in a place. Wardrobes." She shook her head. "The work I do, it ain't like they require pressed an' starched."
"What kinda work do you do?"
"Finished yer tea 'ave yer? Better be gettin' back to her indoors then ey, if yer so worried. Ye c'n tell me all about 'ow yer met 'er next time." Jess stood up in a hurry, placing her tea on the side table and clapping her hands together. The noise made Jenny wince but when she stood up there was no further dizziness and she followed Jess out the door and down the stairs.
Jenny breathed a sigh of relief as Parker answered Jess's wince-inducing knock on the back door.
"Hullo. Been wonderin' where you were." He nodded towards Jenny who hadn't been hiding behind Jess while waiting to see who answered, not in the slightest.
"Hey up. I'm Jess. Jenny's sister. Might've seen me about. We was catchin' up on old times an' the like an' she ended up stayin' over. Bit of a Christmas family get together. I deliver 'er back safe though." Jess tipped a wink and a lazy salute.
"Good to see her gettin' together with her family." Parker cracked a wide smile. "C'mon then Miss Jenny."
She gave a fixed smile in return and ducked her head to walk past Jess into the kitchen.
"Where's V…Madame Vastra?" Jenny asked awkwardly.
"Haven't seen her." Parker shrugged. "Not like I need to. I knows me job." He returned to the wood he'd been stacking by the kitchen fire and then left with a coal scuttle to stoke up the fires.
Jenny winced in guilt. The fires were usually her first job in the mornings, particular in winter, to ward off the cold. She waved goodbye to Jess who stuck her tongue out cheerfully at her before striding off, leaving Jenny to face whatever there was to face.
She eventually found Vastra down in the cellar, training. The Silurian had managed to acquire a set of swords from somewhere; they looked suspiciously like the ones they'd fought with in Japan.
"Present from Captain Jack?" Jenny asked loudly from the bottom step, not wanting to get too near. "Still ignorin' me then?" she sighed when Vastra didn't respond.
The Silurian sheathed her sword and placed it gently on the rack with the other one before walking up to Jenny. Her tongue flicked out. "You stink, ape." was her only comment before stalking past her up the steps.
Jenny rolled her eyes but conceded after a night spent drinking and being sick, she didn't exactly smell of roses. She collected a towel and clean clothes from their bedroom but found that Vastra was already in the bathroom. Cursing softly under her breath, she went and found the tin tub in the stables and filled it with boiling water, locking the doors of the kitchen and hoping the Paternoster Irregulars had already had breakfast today.
A quick scrub and another cup of tea later, Jenny felt more like a human. Her dirty clothes went in the basket for her and Mrs Parker to wash on Monday. But there was another task that had to be tackled first: talking to Vastra.
An: …angst incoming. Next chapter. Author may or may not be suffering from Angst Avoidance.
