During the three weeks of January that Jenny's arm was in cast for, Vastra learnt a vast deal more about her little ape. Some she'd already guessed; such as the fact that Jenny did not like to be idle for too long. It was somewhat of a re-run of when they'd first moved into 13 Paternoster Row. Only this time, Vastra struggled to find something to appease Jenny.

Rides in the cab jolted her arm too much even with Parker's son's most careful driving. He'd passed his interview well enough that he'd started his employ and was turning out to be gruff person who didn't seem overly interested in anything except horses and food. The Irregulars eyed with him with suspicion the first few times he sat in the corner, slicing chunks off a piece of cooked meat and eating them with his knife.

He had Parker's same accepting nature and batted not an eyelid at the fact that a widow lived so close with her maid and investigated crimes and ran a small gang of street urchins to help them. He won Soljer over by giving him a new knife with which to whittle and after that the urchins took Cris's lead in accepting him.

Vastra wouldn't let Jenny train at first, even with her left hand. She compromised that Jenny could practice the basic stances, as that required leg work and could be done with a light weight stick rather than the heavy wooden swords. She sniffed and conceded that practicing with both hands would give Jenny an advantage in combat as well but watched like a hawk for any sign of pain at which she promptly made Jenny stretch and finished the session.

Jenny argued frequently as to what they would do if a case came up, or Croup and Vandemar returned. But Vastra countered that the Doctor had dealt with Croup and Vandemar and the New Year was currently turning out to be very quiet in so far as cases went, which merely increased Jenny's grumpiness.

"I would have thought, following all the excitement, you'd be glad of a break!" Vastra commented as Jenny sulked in the living room chair, when even crocheting turned out to hurt her hand too much. But Vastra too was finding the quietness difficult to tolerate. It seemed all the criminals of London were having a lazy new year, or the police were being more efficient than usual.

Determined to do something, Jenny tried doing things with her left hand that she would normally do with her right and Vastra ended up watching, intrigued as Jenny tried left handed drawing, left handed cooking, left handed writing and left handed sewing.

The drawing was messy; Jenny hadn't been the most artistic person beforehand. The hand writing illegible, even more so than usual. The sewing turned out crooked and loose and the cooking Mrs Parker said she'd take over until Jenny recovered, coming in early to feed the Irregulars and make up something that could be easily reheated for dinner. Vastra, rather diplomatically for her, did not comment on any of this but merely encouraged Jenny in whatever happened to be her next project but after the attempt to sew her sleeves failed, Jenny rather gave up on it and resigned herself to boredom.

12th January 1888

To cheer her up, Vastra took her to see George, as several of her dresses now had a sleeve cut in two on them so she could get them over her cast and she would need new ones once the cast was removed.

"You been in the wars then ey Miss Jenny?" he commented as he measured her once more but neither Jenny or Vastra felt like explaining.

"Happened during a case." was all Jenny offered. She hoped the dresses would have slightly less lace, but they were still first and foremost maid's dresses. He made her caps as well.

"To play the part, it is well to look the part." He told her as he draped a new apron over her head. "There. The most ordinary maid in London. But we know better ey?" he added hastily as he saw Jenny's expression.

It didn't improve Jenny's mood but with the recent visit from Queen Victoria, she thought more on what would happen. Perhaps, after all, there was a certain amount of wisdom in it all. Being ordinary gave protection. Even with their cases, no-one thought much of a maid wending her way in and out of crowds, as if on errands. And people were always more careless around the invisible servants of society. She knew that from her times as an urchin and she knew it was what made the Irregulars so effective at their work as well.

"S'pose I should concentrate on calling you ma'am as well then." Jenny sighed as they made their way home in the cab, Parker driving them for a change as they'd promised no high speed action.

"So long as you don't call me that in the bedroom." Vastra grinned and Jenny coughed, going red in the face.

"I'm just thinkin'." She said, when she'd recovered.

"On your friends again? I suppose you are right. There are more things to be walked in on than just…"

"Right ma'am. If we're gonna keep it as a ruse." Jenny sighed. "People with cases come callin' to the house after all."

"The Irregulars know at least." Vastra tried. "And the Doctor."

"An' 'e don't like it either does 'e." Jenny snorted as the cab pulled into the yard and she jumped down, striding indoors.

Vastra hurried after her and caught her in the hallway. "I think it would be fairer to say, he is thinking of himself, not this."

"'ow'd'yer mean?" Jenny flung her cloak onto its hook, holding out her left hand to take Vastra's cloak off her as well.

"With Rose. He was foolish. He wasn't honest." Vastra hung it up herself. "When he first met us, he imagined friendship between us, not…he is wary of both of us getting hurt."

"Croup and Vandemar. They 'urt me. Cos it was that easy to figure out." Jenny stared at the coat rack thoughtfully.

"I do not wish for you to be hurt again." Vastra said in a quiet voice, thinking that that wasn't precisely what the Doctor had been implying.

"Well then. S'pose I'd better keep up with the lace an' ma'ams." Jenny sighed.

Although she was agreeing to it, Vastra could sense that the young woman was far from happy with it as an arrangement. Her heart dropped slightly. She went to pull Jenny to her but the young woman moved away. A phrase echoed in Vastra's mind. "Maybe I don' want the world to make sense." She could understand Jenny's frustration now. But apes were violent if it didn't. And Jenny had been hurt. It felt natural to seek Jenny out but if she made a habit of it, how much harder would it be to keep up the façade in public? How much was she willing to risk for Jenny's safety? "I would go back to the circus before I would see you hurt like that again, little ape." She had once told Jenny. But it felt a lot harder to say "I would rather not touch you than see you hurt like that again." Easier to endure pain than to forego pleasure.

That night, Jenny deliberately stripped down to her drawers, and then as Vastra watched curiously from the bed, removed those too and straddled Vastra as she lay back. The Silurian caught on to her urgency and hunger, as if it were a tangible taste in the air. She had promised Jenny here at least. Complete vulnerability here then, to make up for the loss of closeness elsewhere.

19th January 1888

Despite such pleasant pastimes, Jenny finally had enough of being stuck indoors and, after a brief argument with Vastra, drifted aimlessly through the streets of London. She walked down Burton Street where she saw a small-ish shop declaring itself to be Garland & Lockhart, Photographers and an idea struck her head. She went in, bought half the shop on recommendation from the gentleman who was running it (who informed her the entire shop had been renovated after a fire had burnt the building) and spent an entire afternoon listening and watching intently as the equipment was demonstrated and she was regaled with the full history of the shop and its proprietors. She thought to herself that she would've liked to meet Sally Lockhart. She sounded the Adventurer type herself. And she'd made an unconventional lifestyle work out, with a few tragedies and mishaps.

Vastra raised her eye ridges when Jenny arrived home, looking slightly dusty but happier than she had been for the last two weeks. Whatever the ape had been doing it seemed to have worked.

20th January 1888

The next day, after half a dozen wooden boxes arrived at their back door, she followed Jenny into a small back room off the kitchen. The Paternoster Irregulars and Parker and his son were roped into carrying the boxes through.

Vastra had been considering making it her study; they didn't really use it for anything but Jenny immediately started setting up equipment and storing chemicals and books on the welsh dresser in there. She hung a line from one side of the room to the other, enlisting Vastra's help to tie it up.

Vastra did so wordlessly, until eventually Jenny seemed to have set up a small black box on a tripod with a black curtain hanging behind it. She ducked underneath, carefully holding her broken arm to her, and tugged on a piece of string with her left hand. There was a loud crack, a bright flash of light that made Vastra recoil and then an acrid burning smell.

Jenny re-emerged looking victorious, her eyes shining with delight and then spent the rest of the day mixing chemicals, quite literally singlehandedly. Vastra left her to it, lurking in the background, poring over the books with a mild interest.

Finally, Jenny declared satisfaction and Vastra and the urchins gathered in the door way as a sheet of paper was dipped first in one tray of clear liquid and then the others before being hung up on the line.

"It's the Madame!" Thrupp was the first to see it.

"You took a picture of me. How flattering." Vastra said drily.

"Welllll I tried drawin' yer but that din't turn out too well did it ma'am?" Jenny pointed out.

24th January 1888

A few days later they made the journey to Elizabeth Garrett Anderson's New Hospital for Women and Children, where the physician removed Jenny's cast with a vicious looking set of scissors.

Jenny marvelled at how light her arm felt but Vastra and Elizabeth both sternly reminded her there was another month to go before Jenny could start training again.

Her arm twinged more with the cast off, although she was glad to be able to wash it again as it had gotten itchy beneath the plaster of Paris.

13th February 1888

With only a week to go before Jenny could once again start training, the anniversary of their meeting came round. Again.

Vastra woke in the early afternoon to find a rather melancholy Jenny sat in their bedroom window, one leg hugged to her chest, the other dangling down off the windowsill, watching the snow from behind a curtain. She looked charmingly relaxed as the leg idly swung, her skirts in disarray.

"What's wrong my dear?" she asked, coming to stand behind Jenny. She hissed in distaste at the snow, the cold was always her mortal enemy and had resulted in her unusual drowsiness. Jenny kept all the fires cheerfully blazing at least.

"Nuffin'." Jenny shrugged, causing Vastra alarm, having learned that lesson already. She settled in the chair below the window, looking up at Jenny.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked firmly.

With a sigh and a slightly caught out look, Jenny replied "Snow."

"It was snowing like this when we first met."

"Mm."

Vastra turned to her partner and stared at her. A year, and then a little extra time in Japan, had given her an ability to read Jenny Flint and Jenny Flint was currently not saying something. Besides, "Nuffin'" meant something big. "Out with it, my dear."

Jenny suppressed a grin at Vastra's persistence. "Bein' on the street, snow killed you. But you'd still play in it all the same. Jus' like all the other kids. Build snowmen, have snowball fights. But afterwards you suffered for it. So it weren't really fun. Ain't no fun getting' cold an' wet on purpose, 'less you can get warm again after."

"And now you can? If you are wishing to play, by all means." Vastra gestured outside.

Jenny eyed her. "I'm eighteen."

"I told you before, play does not stop when you become an adult, and you are not yet fully grown."

"Well you come and play then, if it's so important." The 'not yet fully grown' had stung.

"In the snow?" Vastra snorted.

"You can get warm again after." Jenny's glare challenged her.

The Silurian shuddered at the thought of getting so cold but if it meant Jenny played in the snow and cheered up a little.

"Very well." She wrapped herself up in her warmest clothes, even pulling on the crocheted hat Jenny had made for her over her head crests and stepped out into the snowy afternoon, as overcast and dark as if it were already evening. She huddled into herself as Jenny came out after her. She watched as Jenny stuck a tongue out to catch the flakes and followed suit, gasping at the coldness on her tongue.

She continued to watch as Jenny laboriously made a snowperson or at least a snow pile with another snow pile on top. She decided to help the woman with her artistic endeavours, feeling the snow freeze her hands and together they made a somewhat respectable snowperson to stand in the courtyard.

Jenny stamped her feet and blew on her hands as she stood back to observe their creation. Vastra's teeth were chattering by this time and Jenny slid under her large cloak and wrapped it round both of them. Even through several layers of cold and damp clothes, Vastra could still feel the human's heat and huddled towards it, her body already starting to shut down. Jenny manoeuvred in front of her and drew the Silurian's arms about herself in an attempt to help. Judging by Vastra's sigh, it was appreciated and she grinned.

"Come on, it's bleedin' freezin'." She took Vastra's hand and led her indoors, the Silurian barely able to move and keening in pain. The stairs were impossible so Jenny dragged her into the living room and stripped them both down to their chemises, ignoring the ache in her wrist from the cold. Vastra huddled in front of the fire, hissing and keening whilst Jenny ran upstairs to grab all the blankets she could find, hastily draping them around them both, creating a little fort against the cold. She cursed Vastra for not telling her and herself for not realising. With the fire to her back and Jenny's back to her front, Vastra felt cocooned in a sudden influx of warmth.

"What if someone were to walk in now?" she murmured, drifting back from the loss of consciousness that had threatened her. They'd been so careful of late.

"I'd tell 'em the truth. I let my stupid mistress get 'erself too cold an' I'm warmin' 'er up again." Jenny snorted.

"I'll have to get George to make me some fur lined cloaks for winter." Vastra yawned.

Jenny waited for her to elaborate but felt Vastra's breathing even out and realised she'd fallen asleep. She had no particular urge to move, her body creating warmth for her and she snuggled down more comfortably within the blankets, aware that her explanation would probably not hold up to any scrutiny. She vacillated between caution, annoyance that such caution was necessary and the feeling of comfortable security that Vastra's presence imbued her with. She remembered the twists and turns of Sally Lockhart's story and in the warmth of the blankets and the embrace of Vastra, she settled for the latter feeling. She was with Vastra and that was enough. For now. A thought flared but was tamped down by drowsiness, although it was logged all the same. That Sally Lockhart had left it too late to marry her first lover.

An: Anyone read Phillip Pullman's Sally Lockhart series? Recognise Garland and Lockhart? XD They did a tv series of it with Billie Piper and Matt Smith co-incidentally.