Jenny rose early on Christmas Eve; she'd arranged everything for lunch time, but it would still take a while to cook the entire meal. She'd successfully banished Strax to the stables, charged with cleaning out Alice and hopefully not terrifying her. Vastra proved more difficult to get rid of; she prowled around the house, lingering in the kitchen doorway occasionally to watch Jenny. Jenny eventually thrust a tablecloth at her and told her to the lay the table.

"For how many people?" Vastra asked, having observed Jenny's feast coming together, and deducing that they were expecting guests. And if the table was being laid, not just the urchins either.

"Don't set places. Just generally lay things about. But artistically, like." Jenny flapped a tea towel at her distractedly, leaving Vastra to interpret 'artistically'. "Oh! And open a bottle of wine. And make sure it is wine an' all! You can open a bottle of…your own stuff but jus' keep it separate."

Vastra bowed her head half-mockingly. "As you wish."

George was the first to arrive, brandishing a bottle of wine and gazing up into Vastra's veil. Jenny had gone upstairs to bathe and dress in fresh clothes, so it had fallen to Vastra to answer the knock at the back door.

"George!" Vastra was all astonishment.

"Madame! A pleasure to see you ey? Merry Christmas!" He wandered past her into the kitchen and was accosted by Strax, who informed him that the suit needed upgrading as it had no weapons system to speak of.

She'd barely gotten over the shock of George visiting her when the urchins gambolled through the door, delighted to see Strax and confused as who George was. He introduced himself and immediately made firm friends by regaling them with gruesome stories from the circus and all the accidents that had happened over the years. Vastra ushered them all into the living room and waited patiently at the foot of the stairs for Jenny to come back down. The day was clearly going to be one for surprises, for Jenny was wearing a plain black skirt with a shirt and her waistcoat.

Vastra stared at her appreciatively, making Jenny blush slightly. "I very much like this outfit. Is this your gift?" she played with a tendril of Jenny's hair.

"You can change into something else, if you want. Whatever you like. That's…this is my gift to you. A day when we can just be ourselves. No hidin', no pretendin'. No-one but us and those who know about us."

"That explains George. I believe I know what I wish to wear." Vastra grinned and went upstairs.

Jenny went into the living room to greet George and the Irregulars. She waved at the muffled thanks the urchins chorused at her as they devoured their presents, having already retrieve them from underneath the tree. Boggin must've helped them read the labels, she deduced, from the fact that the ones for the other guests were still intact. George sidled up to her as she was knelt down examining them.

"It is working so far ey?" he whispered.

Jenny took a deep breath. "So far." She stood up and brushed off her skirt, her hands inevitably folding themselves into the material, twisting it.

"You are still nervous?"

"Carn't always tell how it's goin' to go." Jenny shrugged. "And sometimes…unexpected things or strange things."

"Stranger than a lizard woman?"

Jenny thought back to her recent experiences on the TARDIS and nodded slowly. George seemed suitably impressed but didn't question her further, retreating to the table to get another glass of wine.

A knock at the back door brought Jenny out of her reverie and she went to answer it with no small degree of apprehension. If it was who she expected, this was the guest that could cause problems between her and Vastra.

"Jenny! Merry Christmas!" Lettie burst through the door, hugged her tightly and then swanned past her. "Thought I'd better use the back door. Don't want to give the grand house a reputation. What do you think? Festive enough?" she twirled, and Jenny leant against the door to take in the vivid lowcut scarlet dress, trimmed with white lace. The emerald green muff was a little much. The cape, when it was flung at her, was an entirely impractical black velvet, lined with satin. She shooed Lettie into the living room and hung the cape up in the hall before following her to introduce her to everyone.

Strax called her boy and commended her on so ostentatiously wearing the colour of blood, the urchins seemed a little in awe and George was enchanted. Jenny was glad, she'd been nervous about dumping her old friend in the midst of strangers, and she could tell by the over-exuberance that Lettie hadn't been completely comfortable. Wine helped immensely and soon Lettie was badgering for the story Jenny owed her about how she'd ended up working for the Amazing Lizard Woman. With George's assistance for the details involving Vastra and for what he undoubtedly thought was amusing commentary on Jenny's appearance when she'd first been brought to the shop, Jenny told her everything.

"You robbed a bank?" she gasped loudly, which got the attention of all the Irregulars, who crowded round the three of them, demanding details.

"Several banks." Vastra called from the doorway. She glowered briefly at Jenny, who didn't need any telepathic ability to know the questions Vastra was asking with it. Jenny was too distracted by Vastra's outfit to answer though.

The Silurian had decided on the trousers from the 'catsuits' that George had made them for robbing the bank, the boots she'd worn to Demon's run and one of Jenny's shirts. It was open at the neck, revealed quite a lot of green skin. And there wasn't a veil or glove in sight.

Ada summed it up perfectly, with a hushed "Cor…"

Lettie snorted into her glass of wine, waving a hand in front of Jenny's eyes when the young woman was still stood transfixed a minute later.

"You said I could wear whatever I liked." Vastra shrugged artlessly as she walked over to the group, slumping onto a chair to stare up at them all.

"Mmhmm." Jenny nodded, her voice a little high-pitched. She coughed. "You look amazin', my love."

"Thank you. Now, I believe you were regaling everyone with stories of our exploits." Vastra grinned, showing her teeth and took up the tale. For the first time, she seemed to be enjoying the sight of everyone staring at her, transfixed by both their adventures and her. Pleased that her gift was going so well, Jenny left her to it, disappearing back and forth to check on lunch and that Strax was keeping away from the baubles.

Jenny had just put the finishing touches to lunch and was bringing it through with the help of Strax when there was another knock at the door.

"Another guest?" Vastra broke off from describing her trip to Egypt. She saw Jenny's expression and frowned as Jenny left to answer it.

Jenny prayed as she walked through the kitchen that it was who she expected or rather, hadn't really expected. She hoped it wasn't a surprise, like some random visitor or the Doctor or an invasion.

"Merry Christmas!" A bottle of gin was shoved into her face, filling her with relief.

"You got my note!" She looked past it at her sister.

"Yup. Sounded like a brilliant idea. Free food, free booze. We couldn't resist." Jess wandered past her.

"We?" Jenny turned to follow her.

"Yeah well Mrs Blackett wanted to come too see, you was her lodgers after all!" Jess pointed over Jenny's shoulders and she was spun round to be enveloped in a hug and loud greeting by the expansive woman. "An' I was tellin' Mrs Blackett all about it and everything, and Harriet said she wanted to come too so…"

Jenny pulled free from Mrs Blackett's grasp to gaze in horror at her sister, but Jess clapped her on the shoulder. "Don' worry. I explained everything."

"Everything?" Jenny hissed, grabbing Jess's hand.

"Yeah. Everythin'." Jess gestured with her free hand for the two other women to go on without her. "Uh. I've got something to tell you. Bit of a…bit of a present. Um. Y'see…" she trailed off.

Jenny frowned, released her sister and stood back with her arms folded, waiting.

"S'about Megan."

Vastra had expected perhaps that the last guest would be Jenny's sister, but she was shocked when she saw Mrs Blackett. She was even more shocked when the old woman didn't even turn a hair when she saw Vastra, very much revealing her scales.

"Truth be told, I knew a while back, not long after you first come to be my lodger. It'd been a busy day at the bar and I'd done me usual, fallen asleep in the kitchen, when I woke up, hearin' you come in from one of yer wanders that you did and I s'pose not knowin' I was there, you took yer veil off. I din't like to say nuffin, what people wants to keep hidden is their own business," Mrs Blackett said in a meaningful tone, "I mean I knew you was from a circus and you get all sorts at the circus…"

"That you do ey?" George interrupted with a smile.

"So it din't bother me much. Jess acted like it was a secret that could bring down the empire when she tol' me, thought she was about to say you'd died, the fuss she was makin'. Hope you don' mind I brought Harriet along too. She ain't got no kin and I din't like to leave her alone at Christmas."

Vastra nodded, a little overwhelmed at the unexpected acceptance and excused herself, wanting to find Jenny. She stared at Harriet as she walked past. The woman was looking overwhelmed herself, but Vastra suspected that was less to do with her and more to do with Lettie, who'd already thrust a wine glass into her hand and draped an arm around her shoulders. Well, if it kept Lettie away from Jenny, all the better…

All the warmth that had built up over the course of the morning, drained away, leaving Jenny feeling cold and shaky.

"What about her?" her folded arms became more of a hug.

"I saw her."

"Surprised you remember what she looked like." Jenny said acidly.

"Well you tol' me about where she lived so that 'elped."

"Din't they chase you off?"

"Yeah, well, I wasn't stupid enough to go knock on the door, expecting a welcome an' come on in, make yerself at home, was I?" Jess rolled her eyes. "I went surreptitious like. An' I left a note for her on her bed, explainin' who I was an' the like an' sayin' if she wanted to meet, here was when and where."

"And she came?" Jenny ignored the jibe. She had been naïve, she knew that but still, the young girl she'd seen that day hadn't seemed the type to respond to a random summons.

"Well, it was a bit awkward at first cos she din't remember me and she was all grown up so there was a bit of asking around of random women 'is it you?' before we found each other but yes."

Jenny let out a breath, suddenly aware she'd been holding it. "What was she like?"

"Stuck-up. She vividly remembered yor visit and was anxious as all hells and didn't stay long, except to say hello and ask what the hell. Anyways, long story short, we met up a couple more times."

"When?" Jenny asked wide-eyed and open mouthed.

"When you was gone for all them months. I tol' you, you missed a lot." Jess shrugged.

"You din't mention anything about this in your letter!"

"Cos I knew you'd do something stupid like try an' come after us if you knew! Prob'ly try an' hunt me down with your bloody Irregulars, like you did before. An' we couldn't afford that."

"Wait, is this to do with you an' Mrs Blackett upping an' leaving?"

"Yes. Sort of. No! It doesn't matter. The point is she ran away from home."

Jenny fell back heavily against the kitchen table, before sinking all the way into a chair.

"She remembered the way they treated you an' she ended up a bit scared. But she din't have an out, til I showed up. An' even then, wasn't too 'appy at the thought of leavin' such a nice comfortable life." Jess spat. "But she did. In the end. She did."

Jenny sat, staring at the flagstones, inexpertly mopped by Strax.

"So where is she?" She asked eventually.

"I din't bring 'er today cos I din't want to say nuffin' about…y'know. An' I already felt a little bad springin' Missus Blackett and Harry on yer without a say so. But she's safe. I can bring 'er next time. If you like."

Vastra watched from the doorway, having overheard the yelled bits of the conversation and decided not to interrupt. She found it amusing that Jess had the same habit of twisting her hands into her dress when she was nervous. That was about all she found amusing. Half of her wanted to eat Jess for springing this on Jenny at Christmas, the other half was full of exhilaration that Jenny might be able to meet another of her sisters at last. She caught Jess's eye and the young woman blanched. Well, that was quite enough of Jenny looking so downcast anyway.

"My dear!" Vastra swung the kitchen door wide exuberantly. "Ah. Jess. What a surprise you've brought us." She nodded at Jess. "I have told everyone to start upon the food. No point in waiting." Jess took the hint and fled past the Silurian.

When Jenny didn't look up, Vastra crouched down by the chair. "My dear…" she said softly, tucking the curly tendril behind Jenny's ear. "Thank you for this. You are right. It is exactly what we needed. Now come! Time to be with family." Vastra tugged her upright and hugged her back equally as tightly when Jenny threw her arms around her.

"Time ter be with family." Jenny echoed, looking up with a smile. Vastra grinned and holding hands, they walked into the noisy dining room.