《 Skip a Beat 》

Everything I never wanted

Tina might as well have lived in the hospital.

No more healers nor surgeons bothered them for the rest of the day, and she was grateful for that. Grateful, because it gave them a chance to catch up on everything. All of them.

Everyone was eager to hear how the mission went, and Queenie wouldn't stop pestering them until Theseus and Tina told everyone the whole story.

Tina could feel herself bursting with pride by the end.

A one-in-four chance, and they'd made it. They'd returned the files and emerged from the building ruins, standing taller than the bushy pine trees surrounding them.

The radiant smile across Queenie's face told her that she was proud, too. To her side, Newt had the same smile.

Theseus began describing everything after the explosion, and that's when Tina remembered with a jolt...

She slowly withdrew her shaking hands, still around Newt, and, sensing her movement, his eyes followed her. Tina reached into her pocket and pulled out, with trembling fingers, the two snapped halves of her wand.

Newt watched her the whole time, eyes wide, then looked up to meet her stare.

"It... it broke," she rasped flatly, as if it weren't the most obvious thing in the world.

Still, Jacob gasped softly, and Leta held a hand to her mouth.

All of them now had their eyes trained on the battered halves, except Newt, who was still watching her. Tina dropped her gaze, then tentatively set the pieces down on the dingy wooden table next to Newt's bed.

"Oh, Teen..." tried to console Queenie, but she didn't finish her sentence. Tina forced a smile.

"I'll find a new one. It'll be fine," she assured, trying to believe her own words.

"Yeah..." Theseus chewed on a lip. "Hey, you can get a new one at Ollivanders!" he piped suddenly. Newt immediately agreed, and Theseus perkily announced that they could all pay a visit to Diagon Alley the next day.

Confidence bubbling inside of her once again, Tina earnestly agreed to the plan. Striking a glance to her side again, she looked at Newt, then did a double take.

He wasn't smiling anymore. If anything, he looked downcast.

Perhaps noticing her attention on him, he dragged his eyes back to meet hers- and that's when Tina noticed the difference between when she last saw him and how he looked now.

The spark that usually lit up his eyes had darkened- he looked so tired, like an empty shell of a human. So many wires and cables twisted around him, connecting to him, and his breathing was laboured.

She only realised that they had locked eyes when she studied his face again. Marking each little freckle and comparing them to how he looked before.

Something was wrong.

Tina didn't pull away, vaguely curious to see his reaction. A tight silence hung in the room, then, finally, he lowered his gaze to the ground.

Jacob sighed, scrubbing his face.

"You've gotta tell them, Newt," he said finally, his words blowing the silence away into mist.

Newt didn't react, so Queenie spoke up for him.

"One of the rods in his leg shifted when he collapsed, and they did another surgery while you were away. He's not going anywhere for a while," she said softly. Theseus cringed.

Tina found her gaze settling on Newt. His head was bowed, trying to avoid her eyes.

Eventually, he decided that it was inevitable, and looked back.