Jenny was surprised to see Nicole standing in her doorway again only a few days after her conversation with her Majesty.

Even more surprising was that she was back in her maid outfit, and that she had given a new one to Jenny as well. With some alterations.

The maid uniform Jenny received was grey and white rather than the standard black, and had the same locks at the sleeves and collar, the inside of the dress feeling like that same conductive material that lined her jumpsuit. More than that, the shiny heels she was given also seemed to lock at their clasps.

'Her Highness said that this might be a good way to help get back some of my old memories,' Nicole had explained as she helped Jenny get dressed, 'So I'll be your proctor for today! Though I guess you'd still be teaching me stuff, so you're still sorta my mentor.'

Jenny looked down at herself. It felt so strange to be wearing this uniform again. Sure, there were some differences. She still knew that she was going to get zapped if she swore, but the way the dress fit so comfortably held a strong sense of nostalgia.

That feeling only got stronger as she worked alongside Nicole, pushing the cart along their familiar routes within the mansion's halls and corridors, cleaning all the same furniture and decor, and dusting off all the old techniques she had held onto over the years she'd been away.

Though the silence was usually not broken but rippled within with murmured instructions and delegations of tasks, Jenny's words were the first to break the surface.

'So, hey. I bet you must have some really good stories about the crazy stuff you've done here at the mansion. Want to spill the beans?'

'Oh like play! I mean, I'd love to but I'm not sure. That was all Precious after all, and sometimes memories can be hazy between those headspaces. I don't think I remember actually doing any kinky stuff at all at the mansion, even when I was "myself" as you might have known me.'

'Wait, seriously?' Jenny asked, 'What about the nights you had with Liz? You both usually went to the staff play parties together.'

Nicole's expression brightened, those little dimples coming back into her cheeks with her smile.

'I went with Liz? What was it like?'

Jenny leant against a barrister idly scratching at her hair, 'The parties were pretty good, though I never really vibed with anyone that much. But you and Liz really seemed to hit it off there. Especially that first night, they had this great crimson outfit on, I was so jealous of the leather and boots. And the way they had you bent over that bondage couch was pretty delicious as well…'

Jenny could see Nicole begin to get flustered. She knew she wanted to know more, that she could sense something on the edge of her mind but not truly perceive it. Remembering her role here, Jenny tried to oblige.

‘I mean, I never had the kinda thing you and Liz had going on. You two would go at it pretty much every chance you got at the play parties, always trying something new. Neither of you seemed to get bored of the other. Honestly I was kinda jealous, I’d never felt that kind of connection with anyone working there.’

‘What about while you were travelling?’ Nicole asked, ‘I bet you’d have met someone while you were travelling? Or been to some great parties?’

Jenny gave a mildly despondent exhale through her nose, ‘I hate to admit it Nicole, but if I had met someone out there who meant that much to me, I would have never come back.’

A grim silence descended between the two as they continued their work, a leaching mould of regret blooming in Jenny. Why the fuck did she say that?!

The pair worked to clean more, eventually coming to the library. Jenny tried to put her mind at ease, taking the more physically demanding task of polishing the brass fixtures while she left the dusting to Nicole.

‘Jenny,’ Nicole asked to break the silence, her tone reserved but curious, ‘What did you do while you were travelling?’

She paused before throwing herself back into work to try and push the thoughts away, ‘I just did all the things people usually do when travelling. Learned things, saw sights, talked to people.’

‘You didn’t make any friends? You didn’t go to any parties?’

‘No I-’

‘Jenny,’ Nicole said, startling her. While they talked she’d gotten much closer and put her gentle hands onto Jenny’s, ‘I need you to be honest. For me and yourself.’

Jenny hated feeling like this. It was worse than getting a stern talking-to from Jasmine, this gentle interrogation Nicole was putting her through.

‘I wanted to keep a low profile,’ she admitted, ‘I mean at first it was great. I did whatever the heck I wanted and nobody could tell me no. But after a while I … something felt wrong about being around other people. So I just travelled alone. I didn’t go to any parties or made any friends. I didn’t … I mean I had needs, I just guess I felt like I couldn’t act on them somehow.’

Nicole’s eyes were full of emotion, but not one Jenny could easily place. It was hard to look at her. It was humiliating enough to admit she hadn’t had sex once since leaving the mansion, another entirely to say that she was scared to.

She supposed Nicole just had a way of teasing that out of her.

‘Jenny,’ Nicole said with slight hesitation, ‘I think I’d like you to domme me.’

Confused, Jenny tilted her head at Nicole. Where had this come from all of a sudden?

‘That’s … kind of you. But I don’t think I should.’

‘Jenny,’ Nicole insisted, her voice containing an uncharacteristic sternness, ‘I want you to domme me.’

She noticed that Nicole was holding her hand firmer now, almost to the point that it hurt.

‘I shouldn’t. Nicole, please. Not after everything. It’s … it’s gone too far.’

Nicole bit her bottom lip.

She murmured, quietly enough for only Jenny to hear.

‘Bad Jenny.’

The shock from Nicole saying the activation phrase hurt more than the actual electricity that ran across the lining of Jenny’s uniform.

She looked at Nicole, not knowing what to feel. Betrayal? Anger? Fear?

‘Your contract says you have to follow the commands of the manor playthings,’ she explained, trembling tension in her words, ‘If I tell you to domme me, you have to. That’s what you agreed to.’

Nicole drew a breath, steeling herself to punish her friend, ‘I want to forgive you, Jenny. But I want you to forgive yourself too. And words won’t be enough for that. I have to show you.’

Jenny was totally speechless. She stared into Nicole’s eyes, seeing nothing but her forced conviction.

‘I … I can’t.’

‘Bad Jenny.’

Another electric shock jolted her mind, and Nicole still held her grip on Jenny’s hand.

She tried to keep her head oriented, to not be thrown off by the disorienting shocks.

‘Nicole, please! Jasmine will kill me if she finds out! She hates me more than anyone!’

‘Bad Jenny,’ another harsh jolt, ‘Mistress was the one who instituted this rule. She knew what she was doing when she did.’

‘But I-’

‘Bad Jenny.’

Jenny gave a yelp as another shock arced across her. It felt like each time Nicole said that stupid phrase the shocks were getting stronger, targeting more sensitive areas.

‘Nicole, fucking stop it! Cut it o-Ow!’

Another shock, this time from her own accidental cursing, brought forth an anger that Jenny was trying to keep buried inside her.

She didn’t know if it was self-loathing, indignity at her situation, humiliation for abandoning what might have been her only friend in the world, or just that she kept getting electric shocks arcing across her cunt.

Nicole gritted her teeth.

‘Bad Jenny. Bad Jenny. Bad Jenny.’

Nicole repeated herself, never letting go of Jenny’s hand as she twitched and jolted from the electric shocks from her uniform. She didn’t want to make her angry, she hated that she might upset her, but she couldn’t think of any other way to snap her friend out of her spiral of self loathing.

As she was about to say the phrase again, Nicole yelped as Jenny’s hand roughly gripped the side of her head, fingers twisting painfully through her hair.

‘That’s it! Fine, you really want me to domme you? Is that what you want?!’ Jenny screamed, eyes wild and full of fire.

Nicole breathed a sigh of relief, ‘More than anything.’

SLAP!

Nicole reeled from the mark of the handprint left across her face as Jenny seethed.

‘The only fucking thing I want to hear leaving your mouth that isn’t a safeword is “Yes Miss,” understand?!’

‘Yes Miss,’ Nicole beamed.

Both Jenny’s pulse and temper were up, to the point where the electric shock from her swearing didn’t even register.

Honestly, for that one time it almost felt good.

Righting herself and standing to her full height, Jenny looked around the library to try and take stock of what in the immediate area she could use to make an example of her awfully insistent friend. A comfortable looking chaise lounge rested before some wide arched windows, its green velveteen cushioning awfully inviting.

But looking closer at the room she began to notice something strange. Everything Nicole had touched, all the things she’d either assigned herself or been given to do by Jenny, it was all slightly off. On closer examination it was worse than that. Books had been put back into their shelves out of order, dust had been gathered to sweep up and then just left where it lay – or worse, pushed under the bookshelves!

Jenny was incensed, ‘Nicole what the hell! You’re meant to be my proctor today, are you trying to get me in trouble or something?’

‘Yes Miss.’

Absolutely incredulous, she looked at Nicole as she gave an absent-minded grin. Oh, she got it. She was only responding with “Yes Miss” like a huge brat.

‘Okay fine, we’ll play this by your rules,’ she seethed as she dragged Nicole towards the chaise lounge, picking a hefty atlas off the shelf as she passed it.

Jenny bodily tossed Nicole at the foot of the chaise lounge, sending her tumbling to her hands and knees before she pressed her foot to her behind, pushing her down further until Nicole was caught beneath the furniture.

‘Lemme ask you Nicole, do you really want me to beat the shit out of your ass with this book? You seemed pretty eager for me to domme you.’

Without even a moment’s hesitation Nicole responded to Jenny’s call with a dreamy ‘Yes Miss.’

‘Then lift your ass so I can see it,’ she said as Nicole complied, idly flipping through to a random page of the atlas, ‘Huh. Did you know that the Polish town of Zgorzelec has no known founding date?’

‘Yes Mis-’

‘Bullshit you did!’ Jenny yelled, snapping the atlas shut and slamming it across Nicole’s rump, feeling the electricity in her own uniform dance across her skin. A slightly feral grin spread across her face when she realised she was starting to like the stinging zaps now, ‘What, are you just lying to me for fun now?’

‘Yes Miss.’

‘You’ve got a weird sense of how I’m supposed to help you!’ Jenny hissed, lifting Nicole’s skirt and holding it tight in her fist as she began to mercilessly beat her ass with the atlas.

She gasped and wailed as Jenny beat her, neither of them caring anymore at the cacophony they were assuredly making.

Once Jenny was satisfied at the colour and shade of Nicole’s cheeks, she stood from the chaise lounge with a stern instruction to her proctor to stay. She strode back to the shelf, replacing the atlas in the exact spot she’d plucked it from. She cursed at herself that she’d have to go back with Nicole to check everything they’d done.

‘Graah, just look at the state of this place! Come on Nicole, you have to at least remember how annoyingly high the Mistresses’ standards are! Does this look acceptable to you?’

Nicole sounded like she was about to respond with an affirmative, but stopped herself.

A twinge of worry brewed in Jenny’s gut.

‘You okay Nicole? Do you want me to stop?’

‘Yes I … I just had the weirdest sense of deja vu.’

Jenny sighed, feeling the heat that had been running through her tendons beginning to lessen.

‘Well, I hope you got something out of … whatever the heck came over me, I guess.’

Jenny was suddenly feeling fatigue start to climb through her limbs. She walked back over to the couch and sat down, patting the spot beside her.

‘Okay, time to come back up now.’

Nicole slowly crawled back up from beneath the couch, sitting next to Jenny.

‘Whew. I um. That was more intense than I thought it was going to be,’ Nicole admitted.

Jenny gulped, ‘I’m sorry, I-’

‘No, it’s okay. Really,’ Nicole smiled, ‘I didn’t have to use my safeword, remember?’

‘Okay. Yeah,’ Jenny breathed, ‘Gugh … what a rush.’

‘I’ll say,’ Nicole giggled, ‘You should see my panties, it feels like they’re soaked through!’

‘Tch, cute,’ she snorted, ruffling Nicole’s hair a little. But Nicole’s words were cogent, and Jenny felt her own arousal leaking through her nethers, ‘Ugh, this thing’s a bodysuit too. I’ll be walking around in this for the rest of the day.’

‘Hehe, lucky me; I can just take these off,’ Nicole said, lifting up her skirt and swiftly removing her panties before bunching them up in her hands. As she trotted over to put them into the used cloth bag on the cleaning trolley a thought occurred to Jenny.

‘Hey wait, you didn’t always have a pussy did you?’

Nicole looked back to Jenny with no small amount of confusion.

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean that I definitely saw you with different parts down there when I was here last,’ Jenny explained, ‘I mean, sorry if this is hard to bring up. Then again most of this is I guess. But did you get surgery or something?’

The thought rolled around in Nicole’s head for a moment before halogen hospital lights cracked itself through the plaster coating parts of her mind.

'Could you say the alphabet backwards for me?'

Nicole drew a deep breath through the triangular mask over her mouth and nose.

'Z … X … no, Y … X … W …. uh, V..?'

‘Oh gosh,’ Nicole gasped, astonished at her epiphany, ‘That’s right I … I had a surgery! And Mistress and her Majesty, they took care of the whole thing! They sent me flowers afterwards!’

Jenny was completely taken aback, ‘They just organised everything?’

‘Yeah! They … they really truly cared,’ Nicole was starting to tear up at even this memory, assuredly as fragmented and distorted by time as it was.

Introspection settled on Jenny again. Now that she was looking at Nicole – properly looking at her – she could see how much she had come into her own. How her body had shaped itself, especially her breasts. How even after everything she’d just put Nicole through she wasn’t even breaking a sweat while Jenny was still having to catch her breath.

Yet again, Jenny felt humbled. She’d worked for the Mistresses for so long, and yet it felt like she’d learned completely wrong things about them every step of her way. If they were the ones who had organised this for Nicole, who really truly cared about her comfort and pleasure in her own body … did she really know who the Mistresses were? Did she really understand the shape of their souls?

Jenny tried to clear her head. Poetic introspection like this really wasn't her style.

‘Do you think we should take a break?’ Jenny asked, ‘I get the feeling we both have uh. A lot to process.’

‘Sure,’ Nicole grinned as she sat down next to Jenny again, wrapping her arms around her technical subordinate’s waist, ‘This … this is big for me. Thank you Jenny.’

Emotion welled in her heart to hear that, but even more to know that for the first time – really the only time – when someone said that she’d made a difference in their lives, she believed them.

She was just glad it was a positive difference this time.