Suffragettes, by livii

[elliptic-eye.livejournal.com]

Story: Suffragettes
Author: livii
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 1135
Author's Summary:
Characters/Pairings: Martha/Jenny (from "Human Nature"/"Family of Blood")
Warnings: none

Recced because: Martha's connection with fellow servant Jenny is generally quickly forgotten by fandom (and by the episode itself). But this fic takes the brief glimpse we got, capitalizes it, and brings a nuance and life to the period that Martha and Jenny lived—together.

Suffragettes captures everything that was just offscreen but could be felt: the camaraderie, the little mundanities of a borrowed life (that was still a life), the humiliation. The anger. And it explores a bonus dimension between Martha and Jenny, as well. I first read this when it was first posted, and it still bowls me over a bit.

Martha finds she hates scrubbing floors. She also hates polishing military antiques, peeling mountains of potatoes, and most every other task she has to perform, day in and day out, head down, not complaining.

Her favourite task is beating the rugs. She lets loose, outside in the crisp air, furiously working up a storm of dust and dirt and emotions.

Jenny never joins in; she takes a rest under a tree, waiting and watching, while Martha does the job twice as well as it needs to be done anyway.

Go. Read. Enjoy.

Comments

[livii.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you, hon! I was doing a quick flist scan before bed and was so pleased to see this. I wrote this to a ficathon prompt and was so glad to get the opportunity to do so!

[elliptic-eye.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome! I'm awful about reviewing, so, er, yeah, this is what I would have put in a review if I'd gotten around to it like I should have. *facepalm*