Disclaimer: Doctor Who and anything related to it does not belong to me.

A.N. Once again, thanks to everyone who reviewed, particularly those who weren't signed in that I can't thank in person. Sorry this chapter is so late, the past two weeks have been hectic. I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

Chapter Two: In which Jenny receives an offer she can't refuse, and one that she can.

As the door slammed behind the Doctor, the silence that followed was deafening. The two remaining occupants of the house eyed each other warily, both unsure how to respond to the presence of the other. Vastra started as Jenny shifted herself from the sofa on which she had be laid, and began to neatly fold the blanket that had been covering her. She took her time over it, determined to remember the feel of the thick wool between her fingers, sure that she would never again hold something of this quality.

It was Vastra who broke the silence. "I no longer have a family, either." It was an awkward sentence, as an icebreaker, but it caused Jenny to look up in startled anticipation of what the strange lady would say next. "You said that you don't have a family," Vastra addressed Jenny again, explaining why she had felt this information was important to impart. "That is something we have in common. I am sure you have noticed that I am not a, human being." She said the words as though there was something else she would like to substitute. Something not as polite. "But my species is of this Earth."

Jenny would have liked to retort that she had certainly never seen anyone like Vastra on this Earth, but she had seen just how deadly the lady could be, and the Doctor's comments about Vastra eating her rang in her mind, so she stayed silent.

"Many years ago, before you apes had evolved to what you are today, Silurians were the dominant species upon this planet. But we were forced to hibernate below the Earth's crust for billions of years. I was awoken by men tunnelling an extension to the London Underground, only to find that those same men had killed my sisters." Jenny could hear the restraint in Vastra's voice and was grateful for it. She would not have cared to be in the position of those men who had killed Vastra's kin, whether the deaths were accidental or not.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am," Jenny spoke sincerely, intoning the statement with the reverence it deserved. "Some people do bad things to those who don't deserve them. Don't ask me why, Ma'am, for I fear I won't be able to give you an answer. I only wish they didn't."

Her answer seemed to surprise Vastra. The lizard woman, Silurian, Jenny remembered, looked at her curiously, eyes wide. Then a look of comprehension dawned on her face. "You speak of the apes who attacked you?"

Jenny was speaking of people in general, but she nodded. It was easier to let Vastra believe that she was speaking of a specific case. She didn't want her to ask how Jenny's own family had died- particularly because they hadn't and Jenny wasn't sure what story she would come up with on the spur of the moment. Still, there were hundreds, thousands, of orphaned children in the city of London alone. Illness and starvation claimed more than they should. Perhaps Vastra would believe that was what happened to Jenny's family too.

Still, perhaps a different topic of conversation would be better.

"Why do you need a butler, if you don't mind me asking, Ma'am?" Jenny recalled the Doctor's rebuke about a butler and a maid.

"A very good question!" It was not Vastra who answered, but the Doctor. Neither woman had heard him return. He walked cautiously towards them, a tea tray with a china pot, cups and saucers and all manner of cakes balanced on it, all balanced on top of a large pile of cloth. Vastra rose with grace to rescue the tea and the Doctor ditched the mass of material in front of Jenny, snatching the first piece and unfurling it to reveal it was a dress. Holding it in front of himself to model it, he looked at Jenny. "I thought you could use something to replace yours," he gestured at the dress she was wearing, and now that she was no longer covered by the blanket, Jenny took the time to inspect the damage.

The dress was a right off. Even if Jenny had the materials to repair it, it would be more patches than the original material. And then there was the blood and grime that she was not entirely sure she could scrub out. She looked up to find the Doctor holding the, frankly gorgeous, dress towards her.

"I'm not going to wear it," he said as a manner of explanation. "Well, probably not."

Vastra snorted as she poured the tea. "How come you never bring me nice dresses?"

"I gave you a sword!" The Doctor turned to her, protesting, even as he dropped the dress into Jenny's hands, shocking her into a stupor with the feel of it. This was of an even higher quality than the blanket. She clutched it, unwilling to let it go yet wary of what she would be asked for in return.

Nevertheless, she had to set the dress aside to accept the tea and cakes proffered at her. The tea was strong and sweet and it calmed her shaking hands and the cakes soothed her starving stomach. Jenny had to restrain herself from scoffing them all as quickly as she could- that would not be polite or ladylike at all.

She had all but forgotten her question when the Doctor decided to answer it. "Vastra here is a detective- when the police can't solve a crime, sometimes people with a lot of money ask Vastra to solve it instead."

Jenny swallowed a piece of scone, lathered with cream and jam, whilst she thought on what to say. The whole situation was rather surreal and she was still expecting to wake up in some cold, damp street, or worse, have been taken to a workhouse due to her injuries. Clutching the china cup and letting the heat from it burn her palms, she looked at Vastra and murmured, "You must be very brave, Ma'am."

Vastra scoffed, "Hardly. The crimes I solve are usually those that involve the theft of some worthless item that is priceless to somebody or another. As soon as the thief is caught, he usually gives up." She shook her head slightly, clearing some errant thoughts from it and coming back to the matter in question. "However, most of my clients are rather wealthy, upper class, individuals."She said the words, 'upper class' with some distain. "And therefore my skills matter very little to them if I seem to be unable to pay someone to open my door to receive them." Vastra appeared to find the notion completely absurd and Jenny would like to agree with her, but she was working class herself, barely staying out of the workhouses, so who was she to dictate how society operated?

"Plus, it would add to the mystery of the fabled cloaked detective of Paternoster Row," the Doctor added cheekily. "It kind of spoils the mystique when you show yourself to any passing stranger at the door."

It sounded like a joke, but Jenny realised that it was nothing more than a poorly veiled warning. What would the world do if a lizard woman, from a time earlier than humans could remember, was discovered and presented to the world at large. Yes, Vastra could hide her face and perhaps pass her scales off as a skin condition of some sort to a minority of people. But if enough were to see her then they would start asking questions. And many would not like the answers they received. If someone like Jenny was seen as wrong, as unnatural, what would the church and what would the Queen make of Vastra?

Jenny took a sip of her tea and looked around the room, contemplating. There sat Vastra, adding liberal amounts of jam to a scone, perhaps more refined than any of the upper class in London, and infinitely more clever. Across from her sat the Doctor, repeatedly trying to rest his feet on the table and getting them knocked right back down each and every time, throwing small, black pontefract cakes in the air and catching them in his mouth.

But one was a lizard, a walking, talking, rather sophisticated lizard, but a lizard nonetheless, and the other, in his odd manner of dress, had eyes that had seen so much more than could ever be told, at least, in Jenny's lifetime. And then there was Jenny, a match girl from Finchley, who desired the company of women to that of men.

The oddest thing was that, of the three of them, she was probably the most socially acceptable.

As night wore on and the tea was abandoned, Jenny was given leave to use the washroom and change into a clean dress. She had deliberately chosen the least excessive of the dresses the Doctor had provided her with. In her experience, everything came at a price, and as kind and generous and the Doctor seemed, Jenny did not want to tempt fate, only to be presented with a price that she could not afford. Still, the dress was dark and heavy, stifling in the current weather but as soon as winter hit she would appreciate it all the more.

As she washed, she found more cuts along her legs. Her knees looked as though the skin had been ripped off them, but she found them to be clean. Vastra and the Doctor had obviously tended to her when she had been unconscious. Mottled bruising was finally appearing on her arms and she was grateful that the sleeves of the dress covered them.

After she had dressed, she perched herself on the edge of the bathtub to contemplate her situation before heading back to the inevitable chattering of the Doctor. If she was to turn up at the match factory in her new finery and with no matches and no money, there was a chance that the owners would call for the police to arrest her for theft. There was a chance that the Doctor could explain away the situation for her, he seemed the sort who could talk his way out of anything, but it was unlikely that her status as being employed would last for much longer. And if she was unemployed and homeless that meant only one thing.

The workhouse. That dreaded place where people only went when they had no other option left in the world. Many considered death less of a punishment. But what else could she do?

Her heart was heavy as she entered the sitting room again and, as horrible as this night had started off, its conclusion, though unexpected, had been interesting and pleasant and Jenny found herself wishing that dawn would not break come morning.

Vastra appeared to be struggling to stay awake when Jenny rejoined them. A large meal, she explained with a yawn that displayed her very white and very sharp teeth, always left her sleepy. The Doctor, on the other hand, was full of exuberant energy. Jenny wondered if the man needed sleep at all. He peppered Jenny with questions, about herself, her job, her aspirations in life. Jenny surprised even herself with her answers. She had always been a bit of a dreamer, but she had never revealed those dreams to anyone else. Her mother had firmly put her in her place for it as a child, reminding her of her station. But there was something about this man that made her want to tell him. When she told him that she had slowly been teaching herself how to read, he had dived towards the bookshelf in search of something suitable for her.

He listed off names of books and authors, some that she had heard of and many more that she hadn't. Then he came to one, Harry Potter, which he lifted off the shelf in a flourish of excitement before coming to a very abrupt and very confused halt.

"Vastra, where did you get this?" he gave the dozing Silurian a prod and brandished the book at her.

If possible, her reply confused him even more. "You gave it to me." Her eyes remained closed and her tone suggested that her involvement in the conversation was over.

"Right! Of course I... Wait. I don't remember giving you these."

One blue eye opened, giving the Doctor a look of quiet exasperation.

"Oh! I see, right, I must remember to do that sometime!" The Doctor seemed to have caught on to whatever Vastra was meaning because her eye closed again and the Doctor put the book back on the shelf with an apology to Jenny, "Sorry, maybe you can read it in a hundred years or so."

Jenny was thoroughly confused.

Their conversation continued until the first rays of light came through the window. The Doctor carefully and cautiously asked her about the men who attacked her, and why they did so. He seemed relatively unimpressed by her first explanation of, 'This is London. This happens to people every day.' Instead of accepting the obvious answer, he managed to pry out of her, rather painlessly, it has to be said, that Jenny believed that the men were searching for her in particular. Vastra seemed to wake up at hearing that, and she watched Jenny as she spoke, giving her such great attention that Jenny could feel her cheeks colouring and her voice got quieter and quieter until she finished her story in barely a whisper, staring at her hands, which were worrying at her new dress.

Once again, she missed a loaded look between Vastra and the Doctor, but she could not miss how the Doctor took her hands in his.

"Jenny," he addressed her, and she could almost feel him trembling in anticipation. "I travel through the stars, through time and space. It's amazing, brilliant, really! But it's more fun when there's someone to share it with. And you're smart, you're don't faint when you see someone like Vastra, you're perfect, really! And so, I was wondering if," he was standing now, her hands still held tightly in his, "you would be my companion?"

He continued rambling, about what, Jenny did not notice. She stopped hearing anything past the word, 'companion'. He seemed to completely miss the young match girl tensing up, ready to flee, and he seemed to have disregarded the sharp gasp of warning from Vastra, that sounded more like a hiss.

Jenny finally gathered her wits, dismayed that she had been so easily misled into believing the Doctor's intentions were honourable. Food and clothes. She should have known they wouldn't come cheap. She wrenched her hands from the Doctor's, standing up and striding towards the door, as far away from him as she could get, before turning to face him.

"Now, you see here, Mister. I don't know what sort of girl you think I am but I will not be bought by kind words and pretty dresses. I thank you kindly for helping me tonight, but if you think I'll be giving you any favours you can think again!"Jenny seethed, her hands in tight fists as her sides.

The Doctor looked confused and bewildered at her reaction and made to let out some defence of himself, before he was grasped by Vastra, who tugged him towards her and hissed in his ear, "I think you could have used better wording than, 'companion', Doctor." He still didn't seem to comprehend and Jenny caught Vastra's blue eyes rolling heavenwards before hissing in his ear again, much quieter this time.

As Vastra interpreted what Jenny believed the Doctor had implied, a range of emotions passed over the Doctor's face. First, there was shock, then he looked aghast as he realised how his little speech might have sounded. Then, finally understanding the implications, he blushed scarlet, moving to hide behind Vastra with a strangled cry of, "Sorry!"

Vastra sighed, with a mutter of, "Hopeless mammal," before turning to Jenny. "I can assure you, his intentions are innocent, even if his wording could use a little work." She glowered at the man peaking at Jenny over her shoulder. "But the Doctor is correct, Jenny. You cannot return to the match factory, not if the Tong wish to kill you. It is not safe for you."

Jenny didn't even pause to marvel at how comfortable she felt speaking to this very strange stranger. "But what choice do I have, Ma'am? I have to work. I need to earn money for food."

Vastra sighed, sitting down again. It was a strange sound, her sigh. A strange sight as well. Her tongue darted across her lips and Jenny was surprised to notice that it was pink, like her own. She had expected it to be green... "I do not know. But we'll think of something, Jenny. We'll think of something..."

The Doctor, who was now standing to Vastra's side and looking a bit sheepish, offered another suggestion. "You do need a maid, Vastra."

The Silurian's mouth opened sharply, perhaps to rebuke the Doctor or perhaps to defend her kitchen, but she froze, understanding dawning in her eyes. The Doctor gave her a small grin and a shrug, trying to act modest, but failing miserably. His eyes glowed brighter than Jenny had ever seen.

"Jenny!" Vastra announced brusquely.

Jenny barely managed to let out a, "Yes, Ma'am?" before Vastra continued.

"Would you be able to open the front door and greet any guests that may arrive?" Vastra's gaze was shrewd as ever.

"If it would please you, Ma'am."

Vastra gave her an almost feral grin. "How would you like to work as my maid?"

Jenny's eyes grew wide. Would she like to work in the household of a woman who hunted criminals, wielded a sword and could possibly teach her more than anyone else in London? Of course she would! It was a massive step up in the word, even from working in the relative warmth of the factory.

But Jenny had one condition.

"Do you promise not to eat me, Ma'am?"

Vastra let out a sharp laugh whilst the Doctor was doubled over in hysterics. Jenny didn't know why. She had heard enough this night to truly believe that Vastra ate human beings.

"Yes, Jenny. I promise not to eat you. Unless you become a criminal of the worst kind, of course," Vastra placated her.

Jenny could live with that. She had no intention of becoming a criminal. A voice in her head reminded her, devilishly, of the reason she had been forced to leave her parents' house, but that sort of behaviour wasn't illegal for girls, she countered. "Then yes, Ma'am. I'd very much like to work as your maid." She gave an awkward curtsy.

The Doctor was grinning, genuinely pleased, but he made one last offer, "Are you sure I can't tempt you with a trip to the Medusa Cascade?"

Jenny shook her head, feeling light and relaxed now her future was a bit more certain, and she was more sure of the Doctor's intentions, or lack thereof as well. "Sorry, Doctor. I'd like to see a bit more of Earth first."

Dawn had fully broken now, and Vastra showed the Doctor out to a strange blue box parked in a nearby alleyway. She had promised Jenny her own room, and the Doctor had left the dresses for her.

How could her life have changed so dramatically overnight? It was incredible- a dream come true. She was careful not to pinch herself as she explored the house, terrified that she might wake up.

Last, but not least, she approached the kitchen that the Doctor had shied away from, she creaked the door open and peeked through.

Well, she thought, as she stared at the raw meat on the table and the blood that graced the walls and floors, making the room look more like a butchers than a kitchen, maybe not a dream...

A.N. Once again, sorry this took so long! I hope you enjoyed it. So now we know how Jenny got her job and next are the trials and tribulations of dealing with her new employer! Please let me know what you think!

~Sweetdeath04