《 Skip a Beat 》

High tide

Leta, Queenie and Jacob stared at him, knowing grins being replaced with uneasiness and trepidation. Very clearly, he could sense that they were desperate for news, and shuffled his papers before looking up at them through thin, round spectacles.

"I'm sorry. I should have seen this coming," he started gently.

The trio swapped panicked glances, and Mallord, sensing their fear, hastily continued.

"We ran an x-ray on him, and..." he hesitated, then shook his head, deciding to start again from a different angle.

"An injury like this takes a lot of time to heal. A lot of time. When Mr Scamander recovered from the first surgery, he didn't seem to experience much pain at all. I believe that he'll be paying the toll for that now."

"But... he is okay, isn't he?" asked Leta quickly.

Mallord looked confused for a moment, then nodded vigorously. "Oh yes. Yes, he's definitely going to live."

Leta, Queenie and Jacob breathed a huge sigh of relief in unison, Jacob might even have cracked a tiny smile.

"But," added Mallord, "from the test results that we have received so far, he's obviously placed too much pressure on his injured leg while it was healing. When he collapsed, one of the metal rods in his leg shifted."

An uncomfortably long silence elapsed while the news sank in.

"Will you have to do another operation?" Jacob finally asked.

Mallord pursed his lips. "Yes. Exercising the leg when it's only just started working again can lead to consequences. The metal needed time to secure itself into place. It didn't receive that time."

The heavy silence was broken only by the incessant beeping of the machine.

Leta looked to her right. Newt was still lying soundly in the bed, two white blankets pulled up to his collarbone. The heart rate machine was connected to Newt by a long, clear plastic pipe. A couple other contraptions were attached to the sides of or underneath the bed. Newt's chest was slowly rising and falling with each breath he took. Every time Leta looked towards him, a twang of panic zipped through her veins, as if he'd never wake up again... as if-

"He will wake up sooner than last time, don't worry," murmured Mallord, following her gaze. "It'll be a much shorter surgery, straightening the rod again."

He hesitated again, as if scared of speaking, but then went on. "And I think it would be best to operate quickly, if I have your permission to start."

The trio gaped at him.

"Wait, now?" blurted out Jacob.

"Well," answered Mallord, starting to look a bit tired, "yes. If we leave a piece of metal sticking at an odd angle in his leg, it could grow to become a serious problem. The sooner, the better, I say."

"Well, then, yes. By all means," chipped in Queenie, offering him a sweet smile.

"Thank you," said Mallord. "I'll let the nurses know, and they'll bring Newt up to the operating theatre." With that, he gave them a nod and turned away, lumbering back outside into the corridor. Nick hung around for a minute.

"Where's Tina? And Theseus?" he inquired to the trio. They swapped glances.

"They were called away on an auror mission," said Jacob finally.

"Ah." Nick seemed to look somewhat uncomfortable at his answer. "They after Grindelwald?"

"Mm hm."