Jenny passes through each check-point without issue. She has explained each time what she is doing with the food, clothing and other miscellaneous items. "My daughter-in-law, a surgeon, is leaving for Serbia. I wanted to make sure she has these things before she leaves."

Now Mrs Jenny Flint finds herself on France soil and immediately goes to someone of authority. "Excuse me, I need to arrive at Wimereux as soon as possible. Can you direct me?"

The female police officer quickly responded, "Ah yes, you want to get to Woman's Hospital?"

"Yes, please."

The female police officer points to a small taxi with three nurses entering, "These women are also heading there. You may join them."

"Thank you." Jenny quickly walks towards the taxi and tells the nurses of her destination.

The taller nurse, "We are headed that way. Please share the journey. Who is the lucky staff member getting this package?"

Jenny sitting in the cab holding the large box, "Doctor Fiona Flint-Saint Clair."

"We heard. How terrible for her, she is such an asset here. Her work is clean, never complains and is intelligent. Not snobby or stuck up."

"Yes she is quite the woman. She is my daughter."

All three nurses sit up straight and quickly compose themselves.

Jenny looks at their posture, "What did I say?" Looking around to see if someone of authority has walked in their view. "Why have you all gone stiff?"

"Are you one of the detectives?"

Jenny sits a little taller, while trying to hold the box on her lap. "Yes I am. We work for Scotland Yard,"

Quickly all the nurses move their legs and adjust. The blue eyed brown curly hair nurse finally speaks, "This is too long of a journey for you to hold that box. Put the box here and I can put my short legs over."

Everyone adjusts quickly and soon Jenny places the box on the floor. "Thank you very much."

The taller nurse, "Tell us a story of how you solved a mystery. It would be entertaining and we would very much love to hear the story in your words."

Jenny blushing, "I am not much of a storyteller or have the dramatic flair of my daughter."

The taller nurse laughs, "Nobody has the flair for dramatics like Doctor Flint-Saint Clair. If she wasn't such a terribly good surgeon I would pay to have her read me the phone directory."

The other nurses nod in agreement. Jenny laughs out loud, "That would be an interesting career change. What are you names?"

The taller nurse, "I am Rachel."

The blue eyes curly hair nurse, "Molly."

The quiet one with glasses, "Abbey."

"Good to meet you ladies. Give me a moment to gather my thoughts." Jenny goes through a list of adventures. "This is a recent mystery ... it all started with Military equipment disappearing ..."

By the time they reach Wimereux Jenny adds the last touch, " ... all because the military boots they wore under their cuffed trousers."

All the nurses applauded Jenny's climatic story. Each just thanked her over and over. The taxi pulled up to the make shift hospital and Jenny began to pay, the driver turned to her, "There is no charge for delivery. It goes on the account for the WHC."

Jenny, pulling the large box out the back-seat. "How do I get back to the port? I have to return before noon tomorrow."

"Someone will be here at ten in the morning to take you. If not me, someone else. Have a good visit and thank you for the story."

Jenny walks through th front door and goes to the administration desk. A nurse looks up, "May I help you?"

"I am here to see Doctor Fiona Flint-Saint Clair."

"One moment" as she dials a number up on the phone. "Please inform Fiona Flint-Saint Clair she has a visitor. Yes? Thank you." The nurse looks to Jenny, "She is now in her room. You can go through those doors and make the second right, up a to the third floor and she is in room 326."

"Thank you." Jenny follows the nurse's directions. She hold the box and taps the door with her foot. She hears a meek voice inside the room, "One moment".

The door opens and Fiona's ask. "May I help you?"

Jenny puts the box on the floor to face Fiona.

Fiona's eyes open wide, she falls back and grabs the chair for support. "Mother Jenny!" She grabs Jenny like a lost doll and pulls her close. Jenny hugs just as deeply.

Fiona pulls her inside as Jenny retrieves the box. "What are you doing here?"

"We received your telegram. You need provisions." Jenny opens the box up

Fiona touches Mother Jenny's hand and softly, "I miss my family."

Jenny pulls Fiona close with as much compassion as possible. Fiona starts to cry and it breaks Jenny's heart. The two stay in the embrace for over thirty minutes as Fiona slowly brings herself to composure.

Fiona goes over to her side of the room, "May I make tea?"

"That would be wonderful."

"I am sorry. I have been without human contact. I fear the next assignment will leave me stranded."

Jenny sitting down and taking things out of the boxes on the table.

"How is my Alaya?"

"She misses you. She understands, but misses you."

"How is Mother Vastra?"

"She misses her little one."

"How are you?"

"I will feel whole when my family is intact."

Fiona nods and tears up as she pours the tea into cups. "This is not the best tea in the world, but it all I have."

Jenny nods takes a sip and fights it down her throat, "It is not bad, I have had worse."

"Mother Jenny, lying is not becoming."

Jenny smiles, "Here is what I brought ... " Jenny shows her the different types of oats she has packed, a bit of black bread, cornmeal and other sort of hearty grains. "Vastra insisted you have a jar of 'leather'. This is a jar of dried fruit and peanuts. Alaya shelled these herself." She holds up a heavy cape, "This will keep you warm at night. Vastra insists you have her old sleuthing cape. She is almost twice your size, but she is right it will keep your warm and dry. Also, here is some tea."

"Vastra found the tea?"

"No, this we had to buy"

Fiona laughs, "Poor Vastra." She takes one of the new tea bags and pours new cups for Mother Jenny and herself, making sure Mother Jenny has the first steep.

"Anything from Alaya?"

Jenny pulls out the few letters, "I rushed out of the house to make the Dover ferry ... I grabbed what I could."

Fiona sips the tea with ease and starts to read the first letter, she smiles and continues. She leaps up! "What she ... was shot? Where? How? ... " She continues to read the letter, flipping it over and grabbing the other letters. "Mother Jenny, it is not finished. Is she OK?"

"Alaya is fine, the bullet went in the shoulder. It was a man back from the war, he was angry because he lost his leg. He was angry and he was creating havoc when he drank. Store windows smashed, prostitutes beaten. She located him and tried to apprehend him, but he just pull his weapon and shot her. The perception devices have a flaw, it doesn't show damage. Therefore when Fiona took the bullet into her shoulder, it looked as if nothing happened. Underneath the perception field our Alaya was bleeding. Alaya said it stunned the man when it looked as if his bullet didn't touch her. He looked down the gun barrel confused and that is when she pulled him down. She dragged him all the way to the police station. She could not document that he shot her, but he was found guilty on many other charges ... "

"... once inside the police station Alaya stopped the bleeding in the loo with a makeshift bandage. But it needed to be properly tended. She walked all the home, she barely made inside the door. Miss Shaw grabbed her before she collapsed onto the floor. Miss Gardner came to get us directly. We didn't know what happened until we looked down at her bloody footprints. I immediately switched off the device and saw nothing but blood from her shoulder to her blood soaked socks. Vastra took her upstairs. We put dressing on the wound, cleaned her up and let her rest."

Fiona, putting herself in a physician role, "How did you handle the blood loss?"

"She healed quickly and luckily the bullet went through the scales out the back."

"Is she truly fine?"

"Yes. She took a few days off to heal and was back to work with vigour."

Fiona looks down at the letter and begins to tear up. "If she gets shot, harmed ... and you are not around. I shutter at the thought. Does she not understand?"

Jenny quickly brings Fiona back to her, "We gave her your letter."

"Why?"

"She was going to Brussels to be by your side."

"What was her reaction to the harsh information?" Fiona looks down at her half empty cup of tea.

"Our brave Alaya fainted and fell to the floor. Vastra needed to dip her tongue into the smelling salt to revive Alaya."

"She is scared, but now she'll be cautious."

Jenny nods in agreement, "She has also become more protective of her mothers. Her and her mother are working on a thin bullet-proof vest. So far the ones they have tested are too heavy to wear. At least they are busy together."

"I am here until ten tomorrow morning. Do you have surgeries tonight?"

"No I have none scheduled. We depart close to the same time. Do you want to spend it together?"

"Do you have a spare bed?"

"Oh yes, two of my room-mates have left as they return to serve in London."

"Why not you?"

"Dr Elsie Inglis." Fiona pauses and starts to breath a little harder, "I will miss Christmas and now I am sitting here doing nothing because of an ego maniac. It has been too long since I have been home. Why won't she let me be? Now I am pushed further into harms way, further away from London. Serbia?"

"I do not like this woman."

"Very few do, I still can't image Flora being intimate with this angry woman."

"From what Flora tells me, she wasn't always like that but developed into harshness the more education she received. She found that even though she was more qualified it ate her inside as men with lessor qualification received positions and opportunity. Elsie became so bold it drove Flora away."

"That is very sad. But that doesn't give her a right be mean. There have been many requests from Women's Hospital Corps to the Scottish Women's Hospital Committee to continue my service with Louisa and Fiona. Each time denied with a line item that if reject my service my qualification for a physician are null. I honestly do not believe my mother intended me to be held hostage by studying medicine." Fiona goes silent.

Jenny patiently waits a few moments, "It seems you developed a reputation for the dramatics ..." and proceeds to recount her taxi ride from the docks.

The two spend the rest of the evening together catching up and having a meal together in the cafe.

Once Mother Jenny was asleep Fiona wrote to her wife.

It was difficult to share a taxi ride to docks and now as they separate into different directions. Fiona throat is caught. She pulls mother Jenny close. "It was wonderful to see you again. I do love you and Vastra like my own mother. You need to know how important you both are to me. Tell Alaya I love her and I am well. I will do my best to eat. Here is my latest letter and my medical logs. Alaya knows what to do with this." Fiona steps back, "Tell Fiona to stop getting shot."

Jenny heads to the ferry. Fiona watches Jenny go up the ramp, into the bowels of the ship. She watches and looks ... she found Jenny and starts to wave like it is the last wave she will make in her Mother Jenny's direction. Fiona pulls up the hood to her cape, checks the straps on her backpack of food, picks up her carpet bag and heads towards her assigned ship. Her ship is opposite side of the docks from Mother Jenny's, further away from London and her family. Tears are flowing down her cheeks.

If Fiona had eyesight like Vastra she would have noticed Jenny too was crying. Jenny purposely let them fall down her cheek so as not to let Fiona see her wipe them away.