20th April 1888

Peggy had fallen asleep sometime in the wee hours of the night, although whether through the pill or sheer tiredness, Jenny couldn't tell. She'd stayed up all night watching her closely, monitoring her breathing. She'd rowed with Vastra again, Vastra worried Jenny would have a relapse of her cold if she didn't sleep. Jenny didn't care. She was troubled by the fact that Peggy would risk her life to help Jenny. But, as Vastra pointed out, Jenny had done much the same for Vastra, risking incarceration to rob a bank and facing abusive factory managers. Jenny struggled with where the difference lay, between her helping Vastra and Peggy helping her.

Vastra was curled up next to Peggy, under many blankets and her cloak. Jenny shifted her gaze to Vastra. The difference was Vastra was irreplaceable in Jenny's life. Peggy was her responsibility, much as all the urchins were in one way or another. But Vastra was unique, not just in her green skin, but in the way Jenny felt about her. She got up and bent over Vastra's form, drawing back the veil that was necessary whilst they slept in a stranger's house, and pressed her lips gently against a crest. She stood up and saw an eye open slowly to gaze at her in annoyance and then firmly close. Jenny grinned and tossed the veil back over Vastra's head. With a soft hiss, Vastra drew her head into the pile of blankets, disappearing completely.

Jenny leant against the windowsill to look out at the farm coming to life once more. She'd observed such a staid routine to it over the few days they'd been there. In their life at Paternoster Row, the only routine was the hungry urchins in the morning and her own ablutions. No two days were ever the same, in terms of the work they did. Although a lot of the cases had involved travelling recently. She wouldn't mind a case in London, on her own turf. Waiting around in strange places made for a strange tension. Vastra being unable to remove her veil, the extra precautions, not knowing the lay of the land. There was something comfortable about London for Jenny. She knew how to survive there. Although, she conceded, the air was certainly cleaner in the country, even with the smell of animal dung that lingered.

She washed her face in the bowl to completely wake herself up and then moved to Peggy's side and shook her gently. The young woman didn't stir. Jenny stared and then went to find Mrs Jenkins.

"Is this how Mari was? When you first tried to wake her?" Jenny asked, pointing at the sleeping form of Peggy.

After a brief confused glance at the mound that was Vastra, Mrs Jenkins came around the bed to look at Peggy.

"She won't wake either? She's been the stricken the same?" Mrs Jenkins gazed at Jenny in horror.

"She took a pill. We suspect it to be the one that induced the sleep in Mari." Jenny explained, a little uncertain as to how to explain where the pills came from. "Fortunately, we believe we have something that may be the cure." Jenny turned her attention back to Peggy, shaking her once more and calling her name.

There was no response. Jenny picked up the small vial of liquid from the bedside table. She took a deep breath. Mrs Jenkins backed away nervously. Jenny closed her eyes and offered a small prayer to whatever gods might be listening. It had to work. If not, both Peggy and Mari were now lost. Her hands surprised her by being steady as she worked the lid off, opening Peggy's mouth and poured a few drops into her mouth. She had no idea what dose to even give her, she realised, shaking a few more drops in. She dared give no more.

"It may take a while to work, as the pill originally did. I will administer more this evening, if she hasn't woken by then." Jenny put the bottle back down, her heart sinking even as she attempted to remain professional and optimistic in front of Mrs Jenkins.

"I'll make breakfast." Mrs Jenkins wasn't fooled. Her shoulders sagged and she left.

Jenny threw herself back into the chair, frustrated anger rising in her.

"Perhaps she needs more." Vastra's head emerged from the pile.

"An' perhaps I'll bleedin' give her too much! And then what!" Jenny tried not to shout.

"You should sleep, my dear." Vastra got up and draped a blanket over Jenny.

Jenny balled it up and threw it across the room. Vastra moved away to check Peggy over, opening her eyes and listening to her breathing, checking her pulse. With a glance at Jenny, she took the bottle and poured a good half of it into Peggy's mouth. Peggy swallowed and stirred but did not wake.

"Now we shall wait. Rest. I'll watch over her." Vastra offered.

Jenny didn't reply, stood up and stomped downstairs. She ignored Mrs Jenkins' call to breakfast and walked straight out the house. The horses were all busy so she walked, walked, and walked. Without any purpose or intention, she ended up walking up Flint Mountain once more, as the steepest hardest walk she knew in the area.

She couldn't stand another minute of sat there waiting. She climbed up onto a protruding nacelle of the spaceship, not yet sunk into the mud, and sat there, staring morosely into the pool. She wondered about the Ellylon and Mrs Rowlands. Mrs Rowlands who could see through Vastra's veil. What else could the woman see? But it had been the aliens, and not some mystical fae creature that had caused Mari's sleep. She hoped that Mrs Rowlands' prediction that only the creatures themselves could remove the curse was not true. It might be, she supposed, if they were dealing with fairies. At any rate, the aliens themselves were gone to who knew where.

Hunger got to her eventually and she was about to hop down from her perch when a small voice came from the bushes behind her. Cursing that she hadn't brought her sword, Jenny leapt down, hiding behind the nacelle.

"I said! She hasn't woken up yet has she."

It sounded like a small child. Jenny peered hesitantly round to see one of the aliens emerge from the bushes. It looked smaller than the ones she'd seen last night.

"No. She hasn't. No thanks to you." Jenny took a leap of faith and walked round to stare down at the child. It looked slightly crestfallen.

"She was my friend. I didn't want them to. But I couldn't stop them either." It wriggled its shoulders, causing a small rattling sound.

"She used to come up here to play with you." Jenny calmed herself down. Getting mad a child, even if it was an alien, wasn't going to help matters. It nodded in reply to her statement. Jenny stared at it, trying to size it up. Explorers wouldn't have taken children along with them, would they? Not from the harsh conditions Vastra had described to her of the spaceship. "You…were born 'ere weren't you. On Earth."

It nodded again, a little more warily.

"Is that why they left you behind?"

"They didn't leave me behind!" It scowled. "I chose to stay behind."

"To help Mari?"

"I don't know how to. They gave her something. I don't know what it is. They wouldn't let me see." The child shrugged. "They wouldn't let me help her. They said it was the only way to keep people away. They said I was stupid for playing with her and bringing her up here. After they killed the man too."

"What's yer name?" Jenny's heart sank slightly at the news but she couldn't in good conscience leave a child up here on its own. Perhaps the Doctor could fashion another device like Vastra's veil.

It rattled off an incomprehensible sound.

"What did Mari call you?" Jenny wasn't even going to attempt to reproduce it and doubted Mari had either.

"She called me Bach Wrach."

"Well…you'd better come with me anyways. If we can get Mari to wake up, I'm sure she'll be glad to see you." Jenny contemplated the struggles of smuggling an alien into the farmhouse. But anything was better than leaving someone up on a lonely mountain by themselves for another night. It followed her cautiously at a distant, moving in small hops and scurries.

Jenny skirted the major roads, wishing she'd brought her cloak to hide the young alien under and they managed to sneak round to the back of the farmhouse without anyone seeing them.

"Wait here." Jenny gestured for Bach Wrach to hide in the bushes and went to fetch a blanket from the stables. She threw it round the young alien but all it really achieved was covering it up. With a sign, Jenny decided to take her chances. It was now after lunch and the downstairs was deserted, apart from a brief lingering smell of food which made Jenny's stomach growl. Promising herself food the moment she deposited Bach Wrach with Vastra, Jenny made her way upstairs.

Vastra glared at her for a moment. "I was wor…" The Silurian stopped as she saw the mobile blanket following Jenny.

"They left something behind." Jenny shrugged.

"They didn't leave me behind. I stayed behind." Bach Wrach corrected her, throwing off the blanket. Jenny rolled her eyes.

"It's Mari's friend."

"I'm not an it either."

"They're Mari's friend." Jenny sighed.

Vastra stood up and stalked over to the young alien, towering above her. Jenny raised her eyebrows, impressed at the way Bach Wrach didn't back down but stared back at her. She frowned, a thought suddenly occurring to her.

"Bach Wrach…"

"Bach what?" Vastra interrupted.

"Sh." Jenny knelt in front of the young alien. "I know you said they wouldn't let you help Mari, an' that you were born 'ere. But…your language. The written language. Can you read it?"

"Of course I can read. I'm not stupid."

Vastra hastily retrieved the bottle from the bedside table. "This. Can you read this?" Bach Wrach read it in their own language. "And in English?"

Bach Wrach frowned. "Well…it's a name. And then lots of things. There aren't words for them." Jenny slumped a little. "And then it says, "To revive from…I don't know those words in English…two drops in each eye and swallow the rest of vial."

Jenny looked up at Vastra. "How many of the boxes did you bring back?"

"Enough." Vastra smiled and went to retrieve them.

"Peggy first." Jenny said when she returned, taking a vial. "Should we only pour half?"

Vastra shrugged. "For now. We can always pour the rest later."

Jenny took a new vial from the box Vastra offered her. She frowned in concentration as she carefully let two drops fall on each of Peggy's eyes, holding the lids open as she did. Then, carefully measuring, she poured half the vial into her mouth.

"Does it say how long it takes to work?"

Bach Wrach shook their head.

"Assumedly, the stasis pods would monitor the condition, under normal circumstances." Vastra peered over Jenny's shoulder at Peggy.

"Shall we try it on Mari?"

"Well, it says it's the revival liquid, so better sooner than later." Vastra retrieved another vial.

Jenny, Vastra and Bach Wrach walked out onto the landing, just as Mr Jenkins was coming up the stairs. They froze as he looked up at the sound of their feet and saw them. Jenny closed her eyes, realising that Vastra hadn't put her veil down. The silence continued so she opened them. Mr Jenkins eyes were flicking from Vastra to Bach Wrach to Jenny.

"We captured one of the Ellyllon on Flint Mountain." Jenny blurted out. "To see if they could reverse the curse they put on Mari. They cursed Madame Vastra too though, to look…like a lizard. But I've got them under control now. And they say they're gonna undo everything. We're just going up there now to give Mari the fairy potion that will undo her sleep."

Understanding and relief flooded Mr Jenkins' face and he nodded. "I'll come up with you then." He made his way up to where they were standing on the landing. "Well?" he asked, as they continued to stand there.

"Right. Come on you." She grabbed Bach Wrach by the arm, making a show of being forceful. "Time to undo your mischief."

Bach Wrach opened their mouth to protest it wasn't their mischief but closed it after Jenny glowered at them warningly. Meekly, they allowed themself to be dragged along.

Jenny passed the vial to Bach Wrach, who nervously went up to Mari and copied Jenny's actions.

"It…it'll take some time. To undo. It took some time to cast it." Bach Wrach trembled as they turned back round with the empty vial.

"You'll stay here until we're sure it works." Mr Jenkins scowled at them. "And I don't know what we shall do with you after."

"There is a place we know of, that…takes care of things like this fairy creature." Vastra assured him. "We will take them there."

He nodded before turning back to Bach Wrach. "And now take the curse off Madame Vastra too."

Bach Wrach glanced pleadingly at Jenny.

"They've used up all their power. All this cursing people and reviving them. We'll make sure they do it later." Jenny told him. "Now, all we can do is wait. May as well go back about your business." She smiled at him and nodded. He instinctively nodded back and she guided him to the door. After watching him tramp back downstairs, she turned back into the room and closed the door, leaning against it with a heavy sigh.

"Well done Jenny." Vastra clapped slowly. "I don't think I've ever seen you lie so convincingly." She wasn't looking the best pleased Silurian in the room and Bach Wrach was scowling. Jenny didn't care.

"It worked." She stuck out her tongue at them and walked back to their room to watch over Peggy.