Jenny had been in the strangest mood for what seemed like a very long time and for the life of her Vastra just couldn't figure out what could be the cause. She knew that human emotions were often erratic and that, more often than not, they could be changed very quickly, but Jenny's mood swings were becoming more and more unpredictable and it was reaching a point where Vastra was beginning to worry. She supposed Jenny was still recovering from the shock of losing her family and the heart ache that it had caused, and of course she had almost died not too long ago, but even with those emotional blows in mind she could not understand how one minute the girl could be angry at her for some comment or another that she had made against the human species and the next she could be practically ripping her clothes off in a moment of passion. There was something wrong, Vastra just couldn't figure out what it was.

As she stepped out into the garden one warm spring morning she caught sight of Jenny sat leaning against the tree at the bottom of the garden looking up at the sky. She wondered how long the girl had been there. When Vastra had woken up that morning Jenny hadn't been by her side and her breakfast was nowhere to be seen. Although there had been a few occasions on which this had happened in the past couple of weeks it still seemed out of character in Vastra's eyes that Jenny would waste time like that. The girl had always said to her in the past that she would much rather use her time productively than sit around daydreaming, and yet there she was doing just that.

Vastra made her way down to the tree that Jenny was sat under and carefully lowered herself to sit down next to the girl. Jenny didn't look at her. At first she didn't even acknowledge her presence and Vastra wondered if she had done something to warrant receiving the silent treatment. She didn't think that she had. Jenny had been a little snippy with her the night before but that was only because Vastra had insisted that she stay home rather than working the case she had planned for that night. In all honesty she had thought Jenny could do with a rest. The girl had been complaining all day about how tired she was and Vastra had thought she could do with an early night; Jenny on the other hand did not agree and so, stubborn as she was, she had sat up until Vastra had got home and then insisted on making love to her until the early hours of the morning. The Silurian had thought they had ended the night on extremely good terms so she was confused as to why Jenny was ignoring her. It wasn't until the girl gently lowered her head onto her shoulder that she realised that she was not being ignored at all.

"Sorry darlin', I got a little distracted. I'll be in to make your breakfast in a minute, I promise." Jenny's voice seemed distant and her eyes continued to scan the sky above them, carefully scrutinizing each cloud or bird she caught sight of while being careful to avoid looking directly at the sun. Vastra curled her arm around the maid's waist and pulled her closer to her side. She stroked the girl's hip gently with the tips of her fingers and pressed a kiss to her head. It concerned her how distant Jenny seemed to be getting. She was having moments like this more and more often lately, interestingly enough beginning around the same time that her mood swings did.

"Is everything okay my love?" She asked softly. She turned her gaze down to Jenny who had curled herself into the other woman's body and watched as the girl pulled her attention away from the clouds for long enough to look into the Silurian's sharp and yet soft blue eyes.

"O' course ma'am, why wouldn't it be?"

"You just do not seem to be acting like yourself as of late my dear, I have been worrying about you." Jenny frowned slightly. Had she been acting differently? She didn't think so. What was Vastra trying to say? The maid parted her lips to speak but Vastra quickly cut her off. "Wait, no, that is not what I meant. What I mean is, you have been awfully quiet and distracted dear." She had seen the thoughts crossing Jenny's mind as she had spoken and knew the girl was about to misinterpret what she had said. She could almost sense an argument brewing and thought it best to change what she had said. Unfortunately, she wasn't sure she had made it much better.

"Quiet? I wasn't quiet last night was I? Or yesterday while I was workin'? Or over dinner? I don't think I've been quiet at all ma'am, what on earth are you talkin' about?" Vastra cursed herself internally. She should have known better than to say anything. Jenny's mood was too unpredictable to take risks like that, and she almost always found fault with anything Vastra said. It was almost as though she wanted to have an argument.

"That is not what I meant either dear. I just mean, you have been going off by yourself a lot. It made me feel as though something may be wrong. If there is something wrong Jenny you do know you can talk to me don't you?"

"But I already told you ma'am, there aint nothin' wrong!" Vastra sighed. There it was. The accent. Whenever Jenny began to get annoyed her accent had a tendency to get stronger and stronger. Vastra was thankful for it in some ways, it at least made it a little easier to prevent an argument from occurring, but once an argument had begun it also made it a great deal more difficult for the Silurian to understand what her maid was saying.

Extracting her arm from around Jenny, Vastra pressed another kiss to the girl's temple and muttered "I only mention it because I worry my dear, and I only worry because I care." She went to pull herself back up from the ground but stopped when she felt a small warm hand pulling her down again.

"Wait..." Jenny had tears in her eyes all of a sudden and Vastra immediately changed her mind about leaving. She took hold of Jenny's hand in one of her own and lifted the other to brush a stray tear from under her eye. "I'm sorry," the girl sniffed, squeezing her mistress' hand tightly, "I've been so awful to you lately. I'm always losin' my temper with you. I don't know what's wrong with me, I just can't control it." The tears were rolling freely down her cheeks and her grip on Vastra's hand was almost crippling.

"Oh my darling, my poor darling girl..." she loosened Jenny's grip from her hand and pulled the girl onto her lap. Jenny automatically curled into Vastra's body and buried her face in her neck. The Silurian could feel warm tears rolling down between her scales and soaking into the fabric of her dress as they reached her shoulder. She hugged Jenny tightly to herself. Vastra hated watching the girl cry, it broke her heart. It was a little comforting to know that Jenny was just as confused as she was about her mood swings but it also made her worry a little more. If Jenny couldn't explain the cause then what on earth could it be?

"I don't know why you're still puttin' up with me, I really don't." the girl sobbed. Vastra thought her heart would shatter that second.

"Don't you dare ever think like that. I love you. I love everything about you. Jenny, have I not told you that I am yours - always!" She gently tucked her fingers under the maid's chin and tilted her face up to look at her. "Now, you listen to me my love, it does not matter to me how many times you lose your temper with me or how many times we argue or disagree, nothing will change my love for you. Nothing could make me want to stop having you in my life." Vastra had hoped reassuring the girl of her love would make her smile but somehow it only made Jenny cry more. She pulled Vastra's face to her own and kissed her deeply, tears still rolling down her cheeks as she did so. She had needed to hear that Vastra wouldn't be scared off so easily. She had needed the reassurance.

"I love you so much, you know that don't you?" Jenny honestly wasn't sure. She knew she said it often enough for the woman to know but that didn't mean that Vastra really understood. It didn't mean that her darling lizard could entirely comprehend just how much she meant to her. "Even when I'm bleedin' awful to you an' I act like I 'ate you." A small smile tugged at the corners of Vastra's mouth and she tucked a stray strand of Jenny's hair gently behind her ear.

"I know" she whispered.

"No, but really? I'd do anythin' for you. Sometimes I get so scared that I'm not enough an' that I need to try 'arder to be more for you. I'm just a silly little 'uman girl, I'm nothin' compared to you. I just..." Vastra had heard enough. She knew where Jenny was going with that train of thought and she had no wish to hear it. She kissed the girl again to shut her up and as she pulled back she shook her head and sighed. Did Jenny really see herself that way? As something so inferior just because of her species? Vastra supposed she didn't help matters. Even though she tried her hardest not to she still had difficulty holding back jibes against humanity. A few days before she had as good as said they were no more than mindless animals. She didn't mean to be offensive, she just forgot that Jenny was human. She had spent so long with the girl, loving and adoring every bone in her body, that in her mind she was an honorary Silurian. She was every bit as intelligent as any Silurian Vastra had ever known and every bit as capable in battle. In some ways Jenny was even superior - that little bit of human emotion and compassion just pushed her that one step further than Silurian capabilities.

"You may be a silly little human girl my love but you are my silly little human girl. You are everything that I need and more. I do not want you thinking that you are not enough, do you understand? Put those thoughts out of your mind." Jenny nodded. She knew that Vastra was right and that she shouldn't be thinking so ill of herself. It was just so difficult for her not to look at herself in comparison to the Silurian when their lives were so closely intertwined.

"Right. Well, I think it's time I made breakfast, don't you?" Before Vastra could even answer the girl had lifted herself out of her love's lap and was heading back towards the house. Just moments ago she had been in floods of tears and all of a sudden they had evaporated and it seemed as though nothing had happened. Vastra didn't think she would ever get used to these mood swings of Jenny's.

~.~.~.~.~.~

As Vastra entered the drawing room later that day she was surprised to find a familiar blue box parked up in front of the fire place. She wasn't really in the right mood to be entertaining that day but considering how rare visits from the Doctor were she supposed she shouldn't be picky. Hesitantly she crossed the room to the TARDIS doors and knocked firmly three times. Almost instantly the door swung open and the Doctor appeared with a big grin on his face.

"Oh good, you're in!" He swung himself out into the room and spun once before stopping directly in front of his friend. Vastra was sure he was expecting something from her but she had no idea what it was he was expecting. He rocked back and forth on his feet and grinned at her for a good few minutes before he finally came to the realisation that she had no idea what he wanted her to say. "Well, aren't you going to tell me?" That confused Vastra even more. What on earth was the man on about now?

"Tell you what?" Her head tilted to the side ever so slightly and she furrowed her brow in confusion. Was she supposed to have news for him? The problem with having a time travelling friend was always that he never turned up where he expected to.

"Oh come on, you don't have to pretend!" He leaned towards her conspiratorially and whispered "I know..."

"You know what?" Vastra could see the pattern this conversation would be taking. Clearly the Doctor was oblivious to the fact that she really had no idea what he was talking about. She was almost certain that he would practically have told her what she was supposed to be telling him before she even knew what it was herself. The Doctor rolled his eyes and grinned again.

"You know... Jenny!" Well that was maddeningly unhelpful. Of course she knew Jenny, or she should hope she knew her considering how many intimate moments the two had shared. Realising that Vastra still wasn't playing along the Doctor sighed. "When I was trying to figure out how she didn't die on that case I did some scans on her, you know, just routine stuff..." Vastra still looked puzzled. "Oh dear, you really don't know do you?"

"Don't know what?" Jenny had heard the Doctor's voice from down in the kitchen and as she entered she brought with her a tray laid out with tea for the three of them (Vastra's cup containing a little blood, of course). She placed the tea tray down on the coffee table and indicated for the other two to sit.

"Yes, she's right, you will need to sit down." The Doctor muttered and he pulled up a chair opposite the two ladies who settled themselves on the sofa behind them.

"Doctor, you are talking in riddles and you know how it frustrates me. Please, if there is something we need to be told could you have the courtesy to just tell us." The Doctor fell silent. His eyes flicked between the Silurian who was regarding him curiously and her maid who was listening to the conversation while pouring the tea. He had a look of utter bewilderment on his face. Surely they should know by now. He knew he was later than he'd intended to be in talking to them about it, surely they couldn't still have no clue what was going on. Vastra, realising that the Doctor had lost himself in his own thoughts as he often did, waved her hand in front of his face and persisted, "Doctor! You said something about Jenny and scans... what is it? Is there something wrong?"

Jenny, who had just finished up pouring the tea, looked up at the mention of her name. She was intrigued by what could possibly have gotten the Doctor so excitable that concerned her. The Doctor still didn't speak. He couldn't believe that they had missed it altogether. Both women continued to look at him expectantly and he finally snapped back from his musings.

"She's pregnant." Jenny had just taken a sip of tea but as the words left the Doctor's lips her eyes bulged and she immediately spat it back out again.

"What?!" She was coughing and spluttering, attempting to calm herself while mopping up the mess she had made with her tea. Surely she had heard him wrong. He couldn't possibly have just said...

"You're pregnant."

"But... Doctor, I know mating is not exactly your area of expertise but surely even you know that is impossible." Vastra was trying to maintain her composed facade. Her heart had almost stopped when the Doctor had first said it but she had quickly calmed herself knowing full well that he couldn't be right. Biologically it was impossible. She and Jenny were both women. It simply did not work that way. And yet, it would account for the girl's mood swings and distraction.

"I don't know Vastra, there's never been a Silurian/Human... you know... mating and all of that. For all we know, it is possible. Inter-species relations are always tricky."

Jenny seemed to have completely lost the ability to speak. She was staring at the Doctor as though he had sprouted two extra heads and, although her lips kept parting, no words were formed in her attempts to speak. Vastra, on the other hand, was not so dumbstruck. She looked over at Jenny for a moment but turning back to the Doctor she frowned slightly.

"You're serious, aren't you?" He nodded and smirked slightly at the look of shock on Vastra's face. Slowly the Silurian lifted her tea cup to her lips and took a sip before placing it back down. Her hand subconsciously reached for Jenny's as she gulped down her tea and Jenny finally managed to snap herself out of it for long enough to shuffle closer to her love and take her scaled hand in both of her own. "How long?"

"About two months, give or take however long it took me to get here. Time travel, what can you do." He shrugged and looked between Vastra and Jenny, waiting for one of them to say something. The two women turned to look at one another in silent bewilderment and the Doctor sighed. "You know, I was hoping for a bit more excitement."

Jenny seemed totally lost as she looked at Vastra and, although the Silurian wished she were more certain about the situation, felt just as confused as her darling girl. Silently the two seemed to have a conversation with their eyes, communicating to one another every fear and uncertainty they felt. Of all of the reasons they could have foreseen for the Doctor's visit this had not been one of them. He had caught them off guard and neither Vastra or Jenny had any idea what they could say to him.

"Doctor," Jenny finally managed to choke out, looking away from Vastra reluctantly to face him, "I know under normal circumstances you'd be gettin' a more positive reaction, but this isn't somethin' we were prepared for."

"Oh, no one's ever prepared for it Jenny. That doesn't make it any less of a good thing!"

"What she means, Doctor, is that we do not know what to expect from a child of ours. Will it be more human or more Silurian? How are we to raise a child of mixed species within Victorian London? Surely you realise that a child will not be as easily concealed as myself." Vastra seemed particularly worried about that point and she was about to continue when Jenny cut over her.

"I aint gonna lay an egg am I...?" The terror in the girl's eyes was clear but the Doctor still couldn't suppress a chuckle. "Oi! This is no laughin' matter! Vastra's always said, she was 'atched, not born. 'ow would you feel if you'd just been told you were gonna be layin' an egg rather than givin' birth like every other woman on the planet?!" He knew he shouldn't have been laughing but Jenny's protestations only made the matter funnier. It took a few minutes and a stern warning look from Vastra but eventually the Doctor pulled himself together.

"You won't lay an egg Jenny, that's not how your body works. You don't have the parts that Silurians have to make eggs. Your child will be born relatively normally, that's a fact." Jenny blushed a little, feeling slightly silly for thinking of herself laying an egg. She would have laughed had it not been for the 'relatively' in the last part of what the Doctor said.

"Relatively?" Apparently Vastra had picked up on that too as she scrutinized the Doctor closely on hearing the word. "What do you mean 'relatively normal'?"

"No one can say for sure how it will work. I can't tell you what the baby will look like or how much of each of you it will have in it but that's the same as any other baby. I'm sure it'll all be fine." Vastra looked doubtful and Jenny still appeared to be terrified but both nodded their heads anyway.

"Well," Vastra muttered, gently extracting her hand from Jenny's to stand up, "I think perhaps we will need a little time alone to come to terms with this. Thank you for coming Doctor." He couldn't help but feel that she didn't sound thankful at all, but he supposed he understood why.

"I'll come and check in on you in a week or so," he smiled but he received none in return. "Nice to see you both." He allowed Vastra to usher him back into the TARDIS and then he was gone.

Jenny sat perfectly still as the Doctor left. Her eyes were fixed on the floor just at her feet and at some point her hand had made its way to rest on her stomach. Something told her it was going to be a long night trying to get used to this idea, but she had to admit she wasn't entirely opposed to it.