Safe in Your Arms

Chapter 20

Tina nodded. 

"What happened?"

"It's nothing. I just -- I just learned where my sister is."

"Where is she?" Achilles asked.

"Germany."

"What?" he exclaimed. "Why on earth would she be in Germany?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Tina muttered.

Achilles shrugged. "OK." He started telling her about something that had happened while she had been in Paris. Tina's mind started wandering and, no matter how hard she tried to keep it from doing so, it always settled on Newt.

He had been so comforting to her since the incident in Paris. It was almost a month and a half since that had happened. Newt genuinely cared about how she was feeling and he really wanted her to feel better. And there was something he had said . . .

Beautiful. Newt was the only person, besides her sister and parents, who had ever called her beautiful and he meant it. He had called her beautiful twice and she could see in his eyes that he meant it. 

"Achilles," Tina said, interrupting him.

"Yeah."

"Do you think I'm beautiful?" She looked up at him. He looked startled.

"What? Of course -- Of course, I think you're beautiful," he stammered.

Tina frowned slightly. "Really?"

"Of course."

"You've never called me beautiful," she pointed out.

"I haven't?" he asked. "Well, I -- I never really thought-- I --" His shocked expression turned into a smirk. He leaned forward till his lips were a few inches from her ear. "Beauty isn't the important thing. You are a beautiful woman but that's not why I love you. I love you because you're an amazing person."

Tina turned and offered him a smile. He pressed a kiss to her lips.

Tina unfolded the newspaper and studied the picture of her sister. It hurt her so much to see Queenie like this. Her eyes ran over the text below the picture. It was difficult to read now, there were so many ink smudges, but she could still make parts of it out.

Germany.

London wasn't that close to Germany, but it was a good deal closer to Germany than New York was. Had she still been living in New York, she never would have considered doing what she was planning to do. But she was in London. She was already halfway to Germany. She quickly got to her feet and made her way over to the dresser. Dropping the newspaper on the dresser, she pulled a drawer open. She dug into the drawer and pulled out her passport.

As she closed the drawer, there was a knock on her door. She knew the door was opened so she turned to see Newt standing in the doorway. His eyes went straight to the little book in her hands. He took a step forward and closed the door behind him.

"What's that?" he asked quietly. He grabbed the passport from her hand before she could hide it. "What are you doing? You're not thinking of going after your sister are you?"

Tina quickly took her passport back. "I can't just wait around. I know where she is now. I need to find her."

"Tina, please. You can't."

"Why not," she demanded. "What? You don't think I'm capable of it? You think I can't take care of myself? You think I won't be able to find Queenie on my own?"

"No, Tina," Newt said, shaking his head. "No, that's not it. I know you're capable of it and I know you can find Queenie. That's what I'm afraid of. It's not just Queenie. I'm sure Grindelwald's followers will be keeping a close eye on her and making sure they don't lose her. She's a Legilimens. She's very valuable to them. They won't let her get away that easily. I know you can take care of yourself but even you can't protect yourself against all of Grindelwald's followers."

Tina stepped forward. "Then come with me. You know Queenie and you know Europe. You've traveled a lot more than I have. You can help me."

"No, Tina, you don't understand. We have to wait for Dumbledore. The only chance we'll have is if Dumbledore is with us."

Tina sighed. "I know." Her shoulders slumped and she set her passport on her dresser.

"Promise me you won't try to go after her, Tina," Newt said.

She didn't respond.

"Tina, please promise me you won't go anywhere," he repeated.

She let out a long sigh. "I won't. I'll stay here," she mumbled.

"OK." Newt rested his hand on her shoulder for a moment then left the room.

Tina turned and looked back at the picture. She sighed again and folded the newspaper in half. Then she slipped it and her passport back in her drawer. She closed it slowly and took a seat on her bed. Then she buried her head in her hands and let herself cry.

A/N: I've finished another chapter. Yay! I hope you enjoyed it. Please vote and comment.

Now I've got to go work on my TechEd project.

Have a good day!

Bye!