"Doctor?" Clara said by rote. "Why are we at 13 Paternoster Row in 1893?"
The Doctor looked up from a read-out on the TARDIS's console that did not do much more, in point of fact, but play Flappy Bird. "Now, that's hardly fair. When we weren't here ten minutes ago, you didn't ask why we
weren't
at 13 Paternoster Row in 1893."
"It's just that we seem to check in with those three an awful lot. Can't you just add them on Facebook so we aren't running back here every week to see if everyone's okay? It's starting to feel like we're on a TV show."
"Oh, no, I've never go into television. They'd probably change my character into a woman or some such." The Doctor shivered, which Clara thought was going a bit overboard. "But yes, in point of fact, if you must know, for your information—"
"Done making up a lie yet?"
"There is an island—"
Clara got an early start on rolling her eyes.
"—and in this island is a yellow light, which is very important. Very, very important indeed. So important I can't even tell you how important it is. That's how important it would be if I could tell you how important it is. And this island is also a prison for being of ultimate evil, only kept in check by the island's protector, who is also in charge of protecting the yellow light. Only we need a new protector, because the old protector is going to let himself die, so out of a hundred or so very special people who all happen to be destined to get onto one plane due to fate and free will, I'll just see who survives the crash of that plane, the complete lack of modern resources, the hostile natives, and this arbitrary monster, and whoever survives will end up being the protector. But in a nice way."
Clara shook her head. "God help if anyone ever has to sort out all your excuses."
"Also, no one on the island can get pregnant. That's very important—or not important at all—one of the two." Springing down to the walkway, the Doctor barreled out the door. "Anyway, while I deal with that, you stay with our good friends Vastra and Jenny!"
Perhaps they had visited Paternoster Row a few too many times. The TARDIS had materialized atop an ungardened spot inside the house's courtyard, and Jenny was waiting with a tea tray.
"Hello, Doctor. Visiting long? Madame Vastra is waiting for you upstairs."
"Thank you, Jenny." He took a cup and wandered around with it, as if getting his sea legs on the posies. "See to Clara, would you, best if she sleeps away from the time vortex for a night or too."
"Something wrong with a time vortex?" Clara asked, leaning against the TARDIS's doorway, but in a slightly suspicious way.
"Not unless you're pregnant. Or are planning to get pregnant. Or were born from a pregnant woman."
***
"You'd better not tell me this has something to do with magical numbers that are very lucky but also kill you," Madame Vastra said in her sitting room.
She had a French armchair soaked in neoclassicism specifically for the Doctor to sprawl in sideways, back against one armrest and knees clipped over the other. "No, no—I'll be honest. Mostly honest. It's Clara. She seems like she's in a bit of a
funk
lately."
Vastra jotted down a line in her letter to Mr. Doyle. Although she implicitly trusted his authorial vision once he'd been given a description of a case by Jenny, she did like to add a few insights for him to incorporate, giving the reader a look into the deductive process. "A funk? If
you
think she's depressed, it's a wonder she survived the suicide attempts."
"She's not depressed, not per se, but I do worry about her demeanor, her time with me. She'll leave one day, you know—people only travel until they get somewhere. And usually, it's because they find someone. But Clara doesn't seem to be meeting anyone. And it's an awfully big TARDIS. Awfully big..."
Vastra dipped her pen in an inkwell a few times before responding. "Seduced another one, have we?"
"
I am a married man!"
"You dress like a hipster and travel to the earliest bit of the 21
st
century. You should know this will end up a problem."
"I can't help it! I'm a sexy bitch, yes, admitted, but I'm not bad. I just regenerated that way." The Doctor gave up, slumping down until his back was on the floor and his feet up on the armrests. "You and Jenny, you've never ever fancied me. I don't know how you do it, but you have to share your secret with Clara."
Vastra blinked. "That might be a little difficult."
"Oh, come on. Not for Madame Vastra and Jenny Flint! Just take her on a girls' night out, show her the town, find her some cute Irish lad. Make sure he's good at running, though, if I take him along, he has to be good at running."
"Doctor, you do know I'm a lesbian, don't you?"
He looked at her strangely. "I thought you were a Silurian."
***
The next thing Clara knew, her bags were in the guest room and the Doctor was in a carriage topped by Strax, the horses stomping their hooves to go. "Just us guys, eh Strax? We'll just check the city for Daleks, Cybermen, what have you. Clara, you stay here, watch the TARDIS."
"Watch the impenetrable time-fortress that is already hidden in the home of two samurai?"
The Doctor nodded. "If anyone comes near it, just go 'oy, wot d'ya think you're doin'?' They'll probably go. If they stay, just stare at them until things get really awkward. Then—oh, you'll think of something. Strax, let's go!"
The carriage clattered off over the cobblestones, leaving Clara watching it still in a state of disbelief. "Man-cave the size of Scotland and he still needs to have a lads' night."
It wasn't that she didn't like Jenny and Vastra, but, well... they were married and they still kept up this
thing
of Jenny dressing up like a maid and letting Vastra order her around. Clara didn't really approve of such kinkery during the work week. Save that for the weekend.
Jenny was there to see the carriage off, and seeing Clara in a state, she took the young woman's arm. "There now, it's not so bad, miss. There's plenty to do on our lonesome."
"It's Victorian England. That precludes one thing I'd really like to do." She watched the carriage turn a corner in the distant.
As well as
who I'd like to do it with.
Jenny colored. "Well, miss, we do have books of poetry. Vastra has a voice made for recitals. You should listen, it's a good bit of fun!"
Clara tried to be polite as she stepped back inside with Jenny, having had her fill of rude stares over her jeans and Rolling Stones T-shirt. "And what's Plan B?"
"My mistress liberated a very advanced telescope from one of our antagonists. Hard to beat a quiet night of stargazing, eh?"
"I've seen stars up close. Almost got eaten by one, in fact. Sorry."
"Oh. Well then, there's always the opium."
***
Madame Vastra literally had an opium den. It was a small, closed-off room with a skylight and plenty of settees, the light from above shining on the opium lamp's filigree. It made quite an impression. Jenny stared at it every so often and laughed.
Vastra's opium was not even as good as the hash back home in the teacher's lounge, but then, Clara was sure teachers had the best marijuana around. But this gave her a deep-warm buzz, like she'd spent several hours soaking in a hot bath, and all she had to do was lay on her settee and take the toke when it was offered to her by Vastra.
"I do not fancy the Doctor," Clara said with the emphatic quality that came only with bullshit. "Can you imagine having sex with him? 'Oh Doctor, Doctor, Doctor!' Wouldn't know if I was coming or if my aunt'd had a heart attack." Crouching against Vastra's settee, Jenny's intermittent giggling erupted once more. "But he is possibly, potentially, my type."
"You know what a sailor would say? A sailor--!" Jenny broke off giggling, and Vastra fondly rubbed the nape of her neck until she'd calmed herself behind the cupped hands at her mouth. "A sailor would say you need a good rogering!" Jenny wailed with laughter and Vastra gave up on soothing her, merely supplying her with another taste of the pipe.
"I," Clara began daringly, "have been rogered plenty. I could just use a... 'roger' that knows what he's doing."
"Nine hundred years old," Vastra said musingly. Clara didn't think the opium affected her very strongly. "Bound to learn a thing or two." She took Clara's offended glare. "I was just referring to dancing, dear."
"You haven't been to the 21
st
century. You don't know what it's like. Everything is about knowing what you want, knowing what you like—I
know
what I want. I am a control
freak.
If I had a proper robot, I could tell him precisely how hard, how fast, how deep, and that'd be that. My love life, settled."
"Shame that Cyberman the Doctor carries around no longer has a body," Vastra mused again, setting Jenny to more giggling. They were holding hands now.
"But men,