[Doctor Who: Fiction] "Body Heat" [Jenny/Vastra, G]
Title: Body Heat
Rating: G
Word Count: 1,931
Fandom: Doctor Who
Pairing(s): (pre-) Jenny Flint/Vastra
Setting: sequel to The Lizard Womand and On the Case
Summary: Silurians cannot regulate their own body temperature - but humans can.
Body Heat
It was the coldest winter on record. The icy wind cut through even the heaviest clothing, swirling the snow into treacherous drifts at every corner.
Jenny hurried through her errands, bundled in her cloak, but she found that even such a biting chill was bearable when she knew that there was a warm fire and a hot cup of tea waiting for her when she got home.
It was strange that she already thought of Paternoster Row as her home, but she had never felt more at ease anywhere since her mother had died.
Jenny let herself into the kitchen and immediately began pulling off her heavy woolen cloak. The fire was already blazing and Jenny’s fingers ached as they warmed too quickly. There was a kettle waiting on the stove, almost to boiling, and she poured it into the teapot, leaving the tea to brew while she put away her shopping. The tea had steeped by the time she had finished and her fingers had warmed enough to comfortably hold her cup.
Fortified by the refreshment, Jenny started through the house, stoking the fires that burned in every room. Last of all, she entered Madame Vastra’s study. Nearly all of her employer’s plants had been moved into this room, leaving only a clear space around the hearth, stacked to one side with thick logs.
“Ah, Jenny,” said Madame Vastra, looking up from a large ledger book.
Jenny bobbed a curtsy. “I’ve tended all the fires, miss,” she said. “Would you like me to make you some tea?”
“Not just yet,” said the lizard woman. “I would like to begin by saying that I am very pleased with your work, both the domestic tasks and your martial training, new as it is for you.”
“Thank you, miss.”
“And I am also pleased to see you make use of my library,” Madame Vastra continued. “Although, I don’t know if you will find its contents quite up to your intention.”
Jenny felt herself flush. “I meant no disrespect, miss. I know you’re not any kind of lizard- Silurians are surely a fine and noble people, though you’re the only one I’ve met. But I thought the ideas might be useful to help me tend you, the fires and such…”
“Jenny, my dear, I am flattered that you would go to such efforts on my account. And the fires have been lovely. I simply meant that, while I claim common ancestry with many species of modern lizards, there are few aspects of Silurian physiology that are in any ape- forgive me, human- textbook. If you wish to learn about them, I will have to teach you myself.”
“Would you, miss?” Jenny asked, breathless with hope. “I’d be so grateful.”
Madame Vastra smiled, a warm caring smile. “Perhaps the greatest thing I have done in this time is hiring you, Jenny Flint,” she said, and her maid flushed for an entirely different reason.
That night, after a lesson on Silurian anatomy and a round of practice with wooden training weapons, Jenny’s arms ached, but she still went through the house, tending the fires. She banked each one carefully, to burn as hot and as long as she could make them. Then, remembering something from one of her books, Jenny braved the frozen garden to fetch several of the largest stones she could carry, which she warmed slowly in the fire, wrapped in soft towels and slid under the covers at the foot of Madame Vastra’s bed.
Her employer came in just as she was finishing, wrapped in her thickest nightgown and several shawls.
“It’s something o keep you warm, miss,” Jenny said. Each of the previous nights had been colder than the one before it, and even with the roaring fires and their new-fangled gas heating system, she was worried about the cold-blooded Silurian.
Madame Vastra touched the top of her bedding. “This is delightful! And very thoughtful. I shall enjoy it very much, thank you. Good night, Jenny.”
“You’re welcome, miss. Good night,” she replied, and headed for her own room.
Something woke Jenny in the middle of the night and she lay there, shivering and trying to figure out what had woken her, until she realized that it had been the shivering itself. She slid out of bed, wincing as her bare feet hit the icy floor- the fire was still burning, but the gas grate was completely cold.
Jenny had learned a great deal since coming to work for Madame Vastra, but the workings of a gas-and-steam heating system were still beyond her, especially at this time of night. She crouched beside her hearth, soaking up the warmth and preparing to add another long-burning log when she stopped, suddenly.
Her room was near the top of the house, far away from the engine that spread hot steam throughout the system of grates. But Madame Vastra’s chambers were directly above it, taking full advantage of the warmth, and without it running, the other woman would get no more heat from her low-burning fire than Jenny was.
The maid was on her feet again instantly, pulling the quilt from her bed as she went and wrapping it around herself. The corridors were colder than her room, but Jenny hardly noticed. She stopped at Madame Vastra’s door and knocked, rather more loudly than she’d meant to. “Miss?”
There was no answer.
Jenny pushed the door open and went in. This fire had been a little bigger to begin with, so it was still burning a bit brighter than her own had been, but there was still a definite chill to the air.
“Miss?” Jenny tried again.
The lizard woman was curled up in her huge bed, under every spare blanket in the house, and she wasn’t moving.
Jenny clutched her own quilt tighter and reached out to touch Madame Vastra’s shoulder. Even through the fabric, she was cold, and Jenny felt a sweep of panic as she leaned down to rest her ear over the other woman’s heart. For a long moment, she feared the worst, but then she heard it, a heartbeat.
“Oh, thank the Lord,” Jenny breathed, almost slumping over the bed before she remembered herself.
She raced back to the hearth, piling logs onto the glowing embers, stoking the fire as high as she could. Jenny had begun to sweat, sitting so close to such a hot fire, and it cooled almost painfully on her skin when she left to check on Madame Vastra.
There was no change. Her heart continued to beat, slow and steady, but she showed no signs of waking, no matter how hard Jenny shook her.
The maid wrung her hands. It had been a long day- if she sat up to tend the fire, she might be too tired to help Madame Vastra if something really went wrong. But if she left to sleep in her own room, the fire might go out while she was gone. She would simply have to try and sleep beside the fire, like Cinderella in the fairy tales… but how would she know if Madame Vastra was warm enough?
Jenny’s face began to heat again, and she took a step back from the fire.
Warm, she thought. Warm-blooded.
The first thing Jenny had done when her new employer had made it clear that the library was hers to use, had been to look up with word ‘mammal.’
Mammals were warm-blooded, able to regulate their own temperature, no matter the weather. Jenny might feel the cold, but even a low fire could keep her from freezing. Reptiles, though, were cold-blooded and at the mercy of their environment. And there was only one method Jenny could think of that would guarantee Madame Vastra stayed warm enough during the night, even if Jenny herself fell asleep and the fire went out.
Carefully, she spread her own quilt over the mass of blankets already on Madame Vastra’s bed and slid in beside her, pressing herself tight against her side, feeling the chill of the other woman’s body seeping into her, only to be replaced by her own mammalian warmth.
Jenny had had occasion to touch her employer before, of course, but fleeting practical touches, helping her dress or their new and still a little terrifying weapons training. This, though, was completely different and as she felt Madame Vastra begin to warm, shifting in her sleep instead of lying still and cold, Jenny drifted off to sleep herself.
Jenny woke up slowly, warm and content, and for a moment, she stayed still, simply enjoying the feeling. Then, with a start, she realized where she was and that the soft, warm something against which she was pressed was breathing.
“I know you are awake,” said Madame Vastra. Jenny felt her voice as much as she heard it, and she realized that she had her forehead pressed to the other woman’s chest, just above her heart. “Perhaps you could explain this?”
Jenny pulled away sharply, welcoming the sudden chill when she slid out of their nest of blankets, as it cleared her head quickly. “I’m so sorry, miss,” she said. “But the gas heat went out last night and it was so cold and I didn’t know what else to do when you wouldn’t wake up-”
“I didn’t wake?” Madame Vastra interrupted. She sat up as well, looking just as poised and elegant in her nightclothes as she did in her finest gown. “Then you attempted to do so?”
“I… I shook you quite hard, miss,” Jenny admitted. “I’m sorry.”
A warm hand landed on her knee. “Do not be sorry, my dear. Your quick thinking may have saved my life.”
“Miss?”
“Tell me, Jenny, when you came into my rooms last night, what was the thought process that preceded your actions?”
Madame Vastra had not moved her hand, and Jenny took a deep breath, focusing on that touch.
“You told me, during our lesson about your people, that you’re cold-blooded, like a reptile,” she said. “And I read in one of those books that a reptile can die if it gets too cold, just freeze ‘cause it’s got no way to heat itself. I couldn’t be sure that your fire would burn hot enough, long enough, for you, so I thought that I could-”
Jenny broke off abruptly as Madame Vastra leaned over and kissed her, just a quick, dry press of lips against her own, but it was more than enough to derail Jenny’s entire train of thought.
“Miss?” she squeaked.
The Silurian woman smiled. “You’d best get dressed, my dear,” she said, “and start something substantial for breakfast. I’ll telephone the gas works company myself.”
“I…” Jenny began. “Yes, miss. Right away.”
Only force of habit allowed Jenny to dress herself properly and begin making porridge in the kitchen. The food was hardly up to her usual standards, but given her current state of mind, she was lucky that nothing had burned- her thoughts kept returning to the kiss Madame Vastra had given her…
She had liked it.
Brief as it had been, that kiss had warmed Jenny almost as much as the roaring fire, sending her mammalian blood speeding through her veins. She was no shrinking violet - she’d had suiters in her time, and even kissed a handful of them.
But this was something different. Not just because Madame Vastra was a woman, or an alien, or her employer. Jenny wasn’t sure what the difference was, exactly, but she could feel it.
And it was definitely something she wanted to feel again.
THE END
Current Mood:
calm
Rating: G
Word Count: 1,931
Fandom: Doctor Who
Pairing(s): (pre-) Jenny Flint/Vastra
Setting: sequel to The Lizard Womand and On the Case
Summary: Silurians cannot regulate their own body temperature - but humans can.
Body Heat
It was the coldest winter on record. The icy wind cut through even the heaviest clothing, swirling the snow into treacherous drifts at every corner.
Jenny hurried through her errands, bundled in her cloak, but she found that even such a biting chill was bearable when she knew that there was a warm fire and a hot cup of tea waiting for her when she got home.
It was strange that she already thought of Paternoster Row as her home, but she had never felt more at ease anywhere since her mother had died.
Jenny let herself into the kitchen and immediately began pulling off her heavy woolen cloak. The fire was already blazing and Jenny’s fingers ached as they warmed too quickly. There was a kettle waiting on the stove, almost to boiling, and she poured it into the teapot, leaving the tea to brew while she put away her shopping. The tea had steeped by the time she had finished and her fingers had warmed enough to comfortably hold her cup.
Fortified by the refreshment, Jenny started through the house, stoking the fires that burned in every room. Last of all, she entered Madame Vastra’s study. Nearly all of her employer’s plants had been moved into this room, leaving only a clear space around the hearth, stacked to one side with thick logs.
“Ah, Jenny,” said Madame Vastra, looking up from a large ledger book.
Jenny bobbed a curtsy. “I’ve tended all the fires, miss,” she said. “Would you like me to make you some tea?”
“Not just yet,” said the lizard woman. “I would like to begin by saying that I am very pleased with your work, both the domestic tasks and your martial training, new as it is for you.”
“Thank you, miss.”
“And I am also pleased to see you make use of my library,” Madame Vastra continued. “Although, I don’t know if you will find its contents quite up to your intention.”
Jenny felt herself flush. “I meant no disrespect, miss. I know you’re not any kind of lizard- Silurians are surely a fine and noble people, though you’re the only one I’ve met. But I thought the ideas might be useful to help me tend you, the fires and such…”
“Jenny, my dear, I am flattered that you would go to such efforts on my account. And the fires have been lovely. I simply meant that, while I claim common ancestry with many species of modern lizards, there are few aspects of Silurian physiology that are in any ape- forgive me, human- textbook. If you wish to learn about them, I will have to teach you myself.”
“Would you, miss?” Jenny asked, breathless with hope. “I’d be so grateful.”
Madame Vastra smiled, a warm caring smile. “Perhaps the greatest thing I have done in this time is hiring you, Jenny Flint,” she said, and her maid flushed for an entirely different reason.
That night, after a lesson on Silurian anatomy and a round of practice with wooden training weapons, Jenny’s arms ached, but she still went through the house, tending the fires. She banked each one carefully, to burn as hot and as long as she could make them. Then, remembering something from one of her books, Jenny braved the frozen garden to fetch several of the largest stones she could carry, which she warmed slowly in the fire, wrapped in soft towels and slid under the covers at the foot of Madame Vastra’s bed.
Her employer came in just as she was finishing, wrapped in her thickest nightgown and several shawls.
“It’s something o keep you warm, miss,” Jenny said. Each of the previous nights had been colder than the one before it, and even with the roaring fires and their new-fangled gas heating system, she was worried about the cold-blooded Silurian.
Madame Vastra touched the top of her bedding. “This is delightful! And very thoughtful. I shall enjoy it very much, thank you. Good night, Jenny.”
“You’re welcome, miss. Good night,” she replied, and headed for her own room.
Something woke Jenny in the middle of the night and she lay there, shivering and trying to figure out what had woken her, until she realized that it had been the shivering itself. She slid out of bed, wincing as her bare feet hit the icy floor- the fire was still burning, but the gas grate was completely cold.
Jenny had learned a great deal since coming to work for Madame Vastra, but the workings of a gas-and-steam heating system were still beyond her, especially at this time of night. She crouched beside her hearth, soaking up the warmth and preparing to add another long-burning log when she stopped, suddenly.
Her room was near the top of the house, far away from the engine that spread hot steam throughout the system of grates. But Madame Vastra’s chambers were directly above it, taking full advantage of the warmth, and without it running, the other woman would get no more heat from her low-burning fire than Jenny was.
The maid was on her feet again instantly, pulling the quilt from her bed as she went and wrapping it around herself. The corridors were colder than her room, but Jenny hardly noticed. She stopped at Madame Vastra’s door and knocked, rather more loudly than she’d meant to. “Miss?”
There was no answer.
Jenny pushed the door open and went in. This fire had been a little bigger to begin with, so it was still burning a bit brighter than her own had been, but there was still a definite chill to the air.
“Miss?” Jenny tried again.
The lizard woman was curled up in her huge bed, under every spare blanket in the house, and she wasn’t moving.
Jenny clutched her own quilt tighter and reached out to touch Madame Vastra’s shoulder. Even through the fabric, she was cold, and Jenny felt a sweep of panic as she leaned down to rest her ear over the other woman’s heart. For a long moment, she feared the worst, but then she heard it, a heartbeat.
“Oh, thank the Lord,” Jenny breathed, almost slumping over the bed before she remembered herself.
She raced back to the hearth, piling logs onto the glowing embers, stoking the fire as high as she could. Jenny had begun to sweat, sitting so close to such a hot fire, and it cooled almost painfully on her skin when she left to check on Madame Vastra.
There was no change. Her heart continued to beat, slow and steady, but she showed no signs of waking, no matter how hard Jenny shook her.
The maid wrung her hands. It had been a long day- if she sat up to tend the fire, she might be too tired to help Madame Vastra if something really went wrong. But if she left to sleep in her own room, the fire might go out while she was gone. She would simply have to try and sleep beside the fire, like Cinderella in the fairy tales… but how would she know if Madame Vastra was warm enough?
Jenny’s face began to heat again, and she took a step back from the fire.
Warm, she thought. Warm-blooded.
The first thing Jenny had done when her new employer had made it clear that the library was hers to use, had been to look up with word ‘mammal.’
Mammals were warm-blooded, able to regulate their own temperature, no matter the weather. Jenny might feel the cold, but even a low fire could keep her from freezing. Reptiles, though, were cold-blooded and at the mercy of their environment. And there was only one method Jenny could think of that would guarantee Madame Vastra stayed warm enough during the night, even if Jenny herself fell asleep and the fire went out.
Carefully, she spread her own quilt over the mass of blankets already on Madame Vastra’s bed and slid in beside her, pressing herself tight against her side, feeling the chill of the other woman’s body seeping into her, only to be replaced by her own mammalian warmth.
Jenny had had occasion to touch her employer before, of course, but fleeting practical touches, helping her dress or their new and still a little terrifying weapons training. This, though, was completely different and as she felt Madame Vastra begin to warm, shifting in her sleep instead of lying still and cold, Jenny drifted off to sleep herself.
Jenny woke up slowly, warm and content, and for a moment, she stayed still, simply enjoying the feeling. Then, with a start, she realized where she was and that the soft, warm something against which she was pressed was breathing.
“I know you are awake,” said Madame Vastra. Jenny felt her voice as much as she heard it, and she realized that she had her forehead pressed to the other woman’s chest, just above her heart. “Perhaps you could explain this?”
Jenny pulled away sharply, welcoming the sudden chill when she slid out of their nest of blankets, as it cleared her head quickly. “I’m so sorry, miss,” she said. “But the gas heat went out last night and it was so cold and I didn’t know what else to do when you wouldn’t wake up-”
“I didn’t wake?” Madame Vastra interrupted. She sat up as well, looking just as poised and elegant in her nightclothes as she did in her finest gown. “Then you attempted to do so?”
“I… I shook you quite hard, miss,” Jenny admitted. “I’m sorry.”
A warm hand landed on her knee. “Do not be sorry, my dear. Your quick thinking may have saved my life.”
“Miss?”
“Tell me, Jenny, when you came into my rooms last night, what was the thought process that preceded your actions?”
Madame Vastra had not moved her hand, and Jenny took a deep breath, focusing on that touch.
“You told me, during our lesson about your people, that you’re cold-blooded, like a reptile,” she said. “And I read in one of those books that a reptile can die if it gets too cold, just freeze ‘cause it’s got no way to heat itself. I couldn’t be sure that your fire would burn hot enough, long enough, for you, so I thought that I could-”
Jenny broke off abruptly as Madame Vastra leaned over and kissed her, just a quick, dry press of lips against her own, but it was more than enough to derail Jenny’s entire train of thought.
“Miss?” she squeaked.
The Silurian woman smiled. “You’d best get dressed, my dear,” she said, “and start something substantial for breakfast. I’ll telephone the gas works company myself.”
“I…” Jenny began. “Yes, miss. Right away.”
Only force of habit allowed Jenny to dress herself properly and begin making porridge in the kitchen. The food was hardly up to her usual standards, but given her current state of mind, she was lucky that nothing had burned- her thoughts kept returning to the kiss Madame Vastra had given her…
She had liked it.
Brief as it had been, that kiss had warmed Jenny almost as much as the roaring fire, sending her mammalian blood speeding through her veins. She was no shrinking violet - she’d had suiters in her time, and even kissed a handful of them.
But this was something different. Not just because Madame Vastra was a woman, or an alien, or her employer. Jenny wasn’t sure what the difference was, exactly, but she could feel it.
And it was definitely something she wanted to feel again.
THE END
Current Mood:
calm