An: Who's seen that movie with Robin Williams and Cuba Gooding Jr? That was an epic movie. I cried so much. It's also a Shakespeare quote I think from Hamlet.

17th March 1888

Jenny had no desire to go to sleep and promptly dressed with vague plans to break Matthew out of the police cell. It kept her mind off what had happened. She didn't want to know what Vastra had seen to make her say "You're alive!" in such away nor did she wish to tell Vastra what she had seen, not so close to April.

"What on earth are you doing?" Vastra asked, as Jenny buckled on her sword once more, having watched bemusedly as she got dressed.

Jenny didn't reply, merely ran her finger along the blade to check for any damage from it having split stone.

"Jenny."

"Just goin' to break Matthew out. Then we can pay Jim somethin' an' go home."

"I'll pack, shall I?" Vastra raised her eye ridges.

The gently mocking tone made Jenny stop. She stared at her hand on the door handle and realised it was trembling. But she didn't want to face it, the conversation that waited, the questions that lurked and the images that threatened to return. She opened the door.

"Jenny!"

The sudden distress in Vastra's voice made her pause once more, now frozen in a moment of indecision.

Vastra decided for her by closing the door. Jenny didn't resist, letting her hand fall from the handle as it swung away from her. Her shoulders sagged as the door clicked shut.

Vastra was looking at her with a detached calculating expression. Jenny took a long slow breath and let the same detachment calm her.

"When you said "you're alive" what did you say that for?" She asked in a flat voice as Vastra made to move past her.

Vastra turned to face the door, as if now contemplating her escape. They stood side by side, both staring at it for a few moments.

"It was a nightmare. As he said. Merely a nightmare."

"What did you see?"

"Us. In the future. And then Croup and Vandemar came…"

"An' they killed me." Jenny finished matter-of-factly. She glanced sideways at Vastra and saw her pale and shaking. A nightmare. She frowned. But if it was just a nightmare…the man had said they created their own nightmares. But how could she have created an entire Silurian city, the language, the disaster that had befallen them? She had no knowledge of it. "Sounds like you ended up in my nightmare."

"It is mine too!" Vastra snapped, whirling round and walking over to the bed.

Despite the awfulness, Jenny felt strangely touched by the declaration. "Nah, musta bin mine. Cos I think I ended up in yours."

"Mine?" Vastra looked puzzled.

"I saw…your city." There was no reply. "The fireball." A soft gasp. "An' yer sisters." Jenny closed her eyes and waited, dreading Vastra's response. When she eventually plucked up the courage to turn around after what seemed an eternity of silence, she saw Vastra staring at her, a strange hungry expression in her eyes. "Really them too. I mean they were speakin' Silurian an' I don't even know what that sounds like. Or I didn't. So, it musta bin your nightmare."

"What else did you see?" Vastra asked in a light voice, as if asking Jenny what she had seen in the market that day.

Jenny took off her sword and strode over to the bed, plopping down on it.

"I saw all these pods and alcoves. I woke up in one. I found this big room with a long table and I think I saw yer aunt but then I got captured." She glanced at Vastra. "I saw you and I said yer name but you just hissed at me so they put me in this cell. I guess cos they thought I was some kind of weird bald ape."

Vastra snorted but when Jenny looked up again, Vastra's mouth was quirked up at one corner in a wry smile.

"I was still in me nightgown an' everythin'. After a while they came and got me out and took me back to the hall only now it was filled with Silurians. An' they brought up a picture out of thin air. I dunno how they did that. But it showed the Earth an' planets an' this great fireball…"

"An asteroid." Vastra corrected her absentmindedly.

"This great big asteroid comin' towards the Earth. An' so your aunt started directin' everyone off. She came up to me an' took me to where all yer sisters were already in pods. She put you in one an' then was about to put me in one but I thought I couldn't be put in a pod to wake up at the same time as you. I thought I'd time travelled y'see. So I ran back to the hall but Croup an' Vandemar were there too."

"Croup and Vandemar were there?!"

"Yeah and then it got all weird cos I went at 'em with me sword which yer aunt had given back to me on'y Vandemar's mouth got too big an' I fell in it. An' then there was just darkness before this odd… I think it were a girl at least, came an' took me to that country place. So it musta bin a nightmare after all. Cos that wouldn't have happened if I'd time travelled."

She looked up at Vastra once more to find the Silurian looking relieved.

"Just a nightmare." Vastra repeated, with a small huff of air.

"What did you see anyways? In this future? Wot were we like?" Jenny tried an offhand grin and was amazed to see Vastra's skin darken, a sign she was blushing. "What? Carn't be nuffin' that bad surely. Apart from Croup and Vandemar." Vastra remained staring steadfastly at the ceiling. "What did you do, walk in on us in bed or somethin'? She gave a small snigger.

Vastra looked askance at Jenny.

"Wot? Really?" Jenny's eyes widened.

"No! Nothing like that. It's just…" That snigger…it sounded so like the snigger Jenny in the future had given. "I was in Paternoster Row. You were playing in the snow with some children, urchins I assume."

"And?" Jenny waited impatiently for the cause of the blush.

"And we…Well…we were just talking. You realised quite quickly I wasn't…the right Vastra."

"Me from the future y'mean. And?"

"And then Croup and Vandemar showed up." The scales went pale. It was Vastra's turn to shake uncontrollably. "And you…they…"

Jenny did not need Vastra to finish that sentence. Gingerly she reached out but Vastra merely stood there, her hands grasping at her head crests.

"'ey!" Jenny sprang up alarmed as Vastra folded over, sagging at the knees. "S'just a nightmare!" She caught Vastra as the Silurian collapsed. "That bloke, 'e said…we build our own nightmares. It was a nightmare thas all." Jenny was sat on the floor now, holding her. "Musta got it mixed up. All this walls of reality collapsing."

It was a string of hope and Vastra clung to it. Just a nightmare. Just reality collapsing. Not the future, just a vision, or a memory.

"So your nightmare was being married to me?" she asked, attempting to make light of it, to make a joke, still lying in Jenny's lap.

"Wot?" Jenny's voice rose to a strange pitch. Vastra silently cursed her errant tongue. "We was married?"

"Yes." Vastra disentangled herself and got up, brushing off her skirts.

Jenny stared at the floor for a few moments. "Were we 'appy?"

"Well it all seemed quite idyllic I suppose." Vastra raised her eye ridges at the question, her voice dismissive "That is until Croup and Vandemar showed up." She shrugged. "It was a nightmare."

"Well, yeah. Just a nightmare." Jenny idly traced the grain in a floorboard.

"Perhaps we should get some proper rest. If we're planning on breaking Matthew out of prison."

"Yeah." Jenny agreed distractedly, getting up in a daze. Something for the future, that's what she'd told Vastra, when the Silurian had asked her about marriage. As much as it had just been a nightmare, obviously, had to have been, not the future at all, not if it included her death by Croup and Vandemar's hands…but still it left Jenny a little envious that Vastra had seen it.

18th March 1888

Jenny walked out the Hotel in the morning, with thoughts of a brief reconnaissance trip and meeting up with Jim to hear all the news, only to find Jim and Matthew waiting for her.

"They let 'im out as soon as they brought up the real Jenny Greenteeth." Jim explained. "Right away."

"I got a caution not to go round dressin' up as monsters again." Matthew admitted with a wry grin.

"But apart from that he's free an' clear."

"So what happens for you now?" Jenny asked him.

"Back to work." Matthew shrugged his broad shoulders, tugging his cap onto his head. "Just thought I'd let you know." He stood awkwardly for a few seconds and then held his hand out. "Thanks for all yer help. An' tell yer missus thanks as well."

Jenny flushed a little at the "missus" this time but shook his hand all the same. She'd been contemplating asking him to come back to London with them but it wouldn't change the law or his circumstances. She watched as he tipped his hat and sauntered off in the direction of the railway.

Jim stood next to her watching him as well. Wordlessly she handed him a guinea from her purse.

"Thanks for all your help." She echoed Matthew.

"You goin' back to London now?" he asked, pocketing the guinea swiftly.

"The next train that'll take us." Jenny replied emphatically.

Jim scuffed his boots against the still broken step. "I'd come wiv yer but I got family. Me Nan an' the like y'see."

Jenny nodded.

"You could come back. Or I could come visit some time."

"We always welcome young scamps round fer breakfast at 13 Paternoster Row." Jenny told him lightly.

He grinned up at her. "Well then! That's a fair promise. I guess I'll be carryin' yer baggage in a small while then." He winked and ran off to start work.

Jenny updated Vastra as to the latest developments and Vastra agreed that she'd had more than enough of Swindon and was perfectly willing to return home. Jenny crossed to the station to buy tickets as Vastra packed their cases, carefully placing the swords at the bottom of them.

It was mid-afternoon when Jim hauled their luggage into their compartment and stood waving on the platform as the train whistle blew and Jenny and Vastra left Swindon behind them at last.

An: bloody finally. Soz for the haste in the ending but I want to get back to London! And far less convoluted plot arcs.