Note: Ah cliffhangers, such fun! I knew you'd all love me for that one... Not to worry tough, I was also impatient to see how it would turn out (funny that considering it's my story) so I was forced to write this next chapter very fast so that we could all find out! On a slightly more depressing note there are three ways that part of this could go and I think one of those ways could end in something very painful both for me to write and for you to read. I kind of hate my own imagination right now but something tells me I'm going to be taking that painful path so you may all want to prepare yourselves for something horrible to pop up within the next few chapters. I apologise profusely in advance. Enjoy the chapter my loves!
Love always
Shadow of a Black Rose xxx
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When Vastra opened her eyes she had no idea where she was or what had happened. The last thing she remembered was begging Jenny to put the child down and then... nothing. Everything went blank in her mind after that. Sitting up she looked around herself. The room she was in was odd to say the least. She seemed to be in a warm comfortable bed (well, as comfortable as a lady can be when waking to find herself still fully dressed in her Victorian attire despite having been asleep) but aside from that the room looked more like a nursery than a bedroom. There was a toy train racing around a track that circled the edge of the room, a grotesquely large teddy bear sat propped up against the end of the bed, hammocks in the far corner and about a hundred other children's toys all zooming around and making an unholy racket. Where on earth was she and how had she got there?
"Ah, good, you're awake." A familiar and chirpy voice danced through the room from just outside the door and Vastra audibly groaned at the sound of it. Of course it was him. Who else would decorate a bedroom as though it were an amusement park? But, if she was in the TARDIS then how had the Doctor found her? All of a sudden a nauseous feeling manifested itself in the pit of Vastra's stomach. In her confusion she had almost overlooked the most important question of all - where was Jenny? Pulling herself out of the bed she rushed through to the TARDIS console room, her heart racing. The Doctor grinned at her as she entered but Vastra was in no smiling mood.
"What happened? How did I get here?" Her voice was harsh and demanding. Under normal circumstances the Doctor would have berated her on her bad manners but since he knew she had had a rough evening he deemed it more appropriate to answer his friend's questions.
"It's all fine, nothing to worry about. I found you just in the nick of time. The Earth didn't freeze. That not-so-friendly friend of yours is gone..." He was about to continue but Vastra cut him off. Her patience levels were at an all time low, a bad sign for her considering she had never been particularly good at being patient.
"What about Jenny, where is Jenny? Oh god, please tell me she's okay!" She felt dizzy with worry. Why did the Doctor never answer the real question. Didn't he know that the only thing she really cared about was Jenny's wellbeing? She asked other questions but that did not mean she really cared for the answer. Of course he didn't. He was the Doctor, the man was totally incapable of understanding relationships or real levels of emotion. He looked at her with a perplexed look on his face for a moment. It was as though he didn't know who Jenny was at all. "Jenny... Doctor, where is she?! I swear if you don't tell me I'll..." Without warning, a cough resonated from behind the Silurian and she span around to find Jenny stood a few feet behind her, a small smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.
Vastra couldn't speak. She'd thought, as she'd begged Jenny to put the child down, that she was going to lose her. She'd thought the worst when she had woken without her darling girl there with her. Within seconds Vastra had leapt over the short distance between them and pulled the girl to her chest, holding her so tightly that Jenny could barely breathe.
"Well, 'ello to you too" Jenny laughed slightly, embracing the lizard woman tightly and blushing a little as Vastra tilted her head back and kissed her. They'd never kissed in front of anyone before and of all people to be their first witness Jenny wasn't sure how she felt about it being the Doctor. As she pulled away from her love's lips gently Jenny felt something wet on her cheeks and, looking up at Vastra she understood. There were tears rolling down the woman's cheeks, following the pattern of her scales all the way down to her chin before gently dropping from her face. "'ey now, twice in one day," the maid brushed away one of the tears from her mistress' cheek, "that's a little excessive don't you think?" Vastra didn't care, she pulled Jenny back to her lips and continued to kiss her over and over until she finally felt certain that it was really her and that she wasn't just imagining that the girl was okay.
"Urgh, kissing and crying, why are couples so fond of that?" Neither of the women were listening, too lost in each other to even notice the Doctor's presence. As Vastra finally let their lips part she stepped back and looked Jenny over, checking for any slight signs of harm or distress.
"Are you okay my love? Are you hurt? What...?" Jenny pressed a finger to the Silurian's lips to silence her and Vastra immediately stopped speaking. Tears still leaked from the corners of her eyes and as Jenny removed her finger from the woman's lips she brushed each one away.
"I'm fine," she whispered, "Not even a bruise on me, I swear."
"But how? How is that possible? The child she was about to... and you wouldn't..." It was all becoming a little too much for Vastra and she simply couldn't find the words to ask all of the questions that were whirling around in her mind. Sensing her love's discomfort Jenny held her close, rubbing her lower back to calm her.
"Shhh, it's okay darlin'. Just calm down now."
"Actually Jenny, Vastra makes a good point. You see, I've been doing some tests since I picked the lot of you up and it turns out that you may just have saved the future of the human race by refusing to listen to your lovely... whatever you refer to each other as." Jenny would have rolled her eyes at the Doctor's immaturity but her mind was more focused on what he had just said. Saved the human race? Her? Surely not. "It's funny, everyone's always thought the Braxenon to be a weak race considering the whole name and death correlation thing but I think you just found the escape clause. You see, what happens when a Braxenon dies it that the ice particles suspended in their system take control of their entire being, filling them up until they're this big ice bomb type of thing ready to explode. But you counteracted that. Your body heat and your determination that that little girl wouldn't die feeling alone somehow melted the ice. I suppose. Not a very technical way to explain it but it's about right. You saved that little girl and the whole future of the human race."
Jenny was in shock. She'd saved an entire planet and she hadn't even realised that she was doing it. All she'd wanted was to protect the little girl. She didn't know why but for some reason it mattered to her. Maybe it was because of Sam. Maybe the knowledge that she would never see her little brother again had made her desperate to keep hold of some child, somehow. Perhaps Arabella had been a reflection of Jenny's pain over losing her brother. Whatever the reason she had done it. She had saved both the child and the planet. Not bad for her first day on the job.
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Curled up in bed that evening Vastra found that she simply couldn't bring herself to let go of Jenny. The girl had fallen asleep very soon after they had returned home and for hours Vastra had been lay there with her love tucked up, safe and warm in her arms. It was strange for Vastra to consider that it wasn't even a full year ago that she had sworn to take revenge on the human race for the death of her sisters. To look at her in that moment it was barely believable. In her past life Vastra would never have dreamed of caring for a human and yet that day alone she had been in tears twice over her fear of losing Jenny. Before then she had been certain that Silurians were incapable of such an act. How far she had come in so short a period of time.
Vastra had long laid her doubts about her feelings for Jenny to rest. Despite the truth of the fact that her family, much like Jenny's own, would have been greatly displeased by her choice in a mate Vastra had come to an understanding with herself. The fact was that she was the only member of her immediate family left, and the remainder of her race still lay slumbering far down beneath the Earth's crust. Besides, it was a different time and, although the planet was the same physical planet, to Vastra it was a whole other world. She would not deny herself happiness from the prejudice of a society laid in hibernation far below her feet.
Jenny stirred in her arms and Vastra pulled her closer, pressing a possessive kiss to her sweet little human girl's forehead. How beautiful and peaceful she was when she slept. It would sometimes bother Vastra how Jenny's face would be marred with lines of worry and hardship during the daylight hours. For a girl so young she had suffered far too much and despite her beauty it showed. Still, as she slept those signs of Jenny's hard life seemed to melt away and the serenity in the girl's face was so unbelievably comforting to Vastra. She worried about Jenny more often than she cared to admit. She worried about the risk she placed Jenny in now that she was allowing her to accompany her on missions. She worried that one day Jenny would realise that there was more out there in the human world, things that Vastra couldn't give her. More than anything she worried about their future and how one day she knew she would have to watch her darling girl, her precious jewel, wither and die while she lived on. But as she watched Jenny sleep all of those worries would vanish. The possibilities that the future held were endless, but what happened in the present was what really counted and at present Jenny was safe and close and so very perfect.
"You're watchin' me sleep... again." A half smile flashed across Jenny's face and she opened her bleary eyes, blinking a few times until the blurred outline of Vastra's face came into focus. "Y'know, it's quite unsettlin' feelin' eyes watchin' you while you sleep, no matter 'ow beautiful they are." Vastra chuckled and she kissed Jenny's lips ever so softly.
"I know the feeling all too well," she murmured allowing a half smirk to curl her lips, "you didn't really think I was unaware of how you watched me in the mornings when you first came to work here, did you?" Jenny's eyes widened in shock and Vastra's half smirk grew into a whole as she regarded the girl in her arms. "You are not as discrete as you believe yourself to be my love."
"Can't say I didn't try though." The maid giggled and looked up at her mistress who still held their bodies close together. "Why are you still awake love? It's late an' we've 'ad a long day, you need your rest." Jenny was perfectly aware that Vastra was awake because she couldn't sleep. As much as she tried to pretend that it hadn't happened the girl couldn't deny that she had come within an inch of death that evening and she was lucky to be in that bed with Vastra at all. She'd seen how scared Vastra had been. She'd seen her cry for the first time ever, it was enough for Jenny to know that Vastra wouldn't be comfortable enough to sleep for a long while yet.
"I am happier watching you sleep my dear. It will only be for a little while longer, it calms me." The Silurian was trying her best to push away the fear that watching Jenny come so close to death had planted in her heart. She said that watching Jenny calmed her, and it did, but she knew the real reason she was doing it was because she couldn't bear to look away. She was fully aware that her sweet girl was safe again and that she would remain safe as long as Vastra could protect her, but the events of that evening had ended in a lucky escape. Neither of the women had known that Jenny would be able to save Arabella. If they hadn't been so lucky both Jenny and the child would have been dead and the rest of the planet would have been heading the same way. "Go back to sleep love." Jenny nodded but she didn't close her eyes. She looked up at Vastra for a short while longer and she shifted her head so that she could kiss her goodnight.
"About what 'appened," she whispered as she cuddled close against the other woman's body once more, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to 'urt you or scare you... I just wanted to protect that little girl. I know it sounds daft, I didn't even know 'er, but I kept thinkin' about 'er mother and 'ow she would feel if 'er daughter died with no one lookin' after 'er. If I 'ad a chid..." Jenny shook her head and nuzzled against Vastra's neck softly, "it would 'ave broken my 'eart if I were in 'er mother's place."
"We can forget it now. The child is safely home with her mother and you and I are both okay, that is all that is important." Vastra kissed Jenny's head and breathed in the scent of her hair deeply. She understood why Jenny had done it but she wasn't sure she could bear to watch it happen again. "Sleep well my love."