Present Day
"I'm coming! I'm coming!" You yelled when they continued to yell your name down the halls of the hogsmeade.
You tossed Clint the rope that he used to restrain Ben more, Winston keeping him on the ground.
"There are three of you in here and you can't bloody keep him under control?" Newt said, entering the room.
"Slim it! We're doing the best we can! Ben's a jumpy one!" You snapped, slowly filling up a syringe with sedative and flicking it to get the air bubbles out, "Hold him still!"
Both Winston and Clint did as you said while you injected him slowly in the neck, keeping his head pinned until his thrashing limbs fell limp against the floor.
"This is not how I wanted to spend my shucking evening," You grumbled, then added, "Not Ben's fault but still."
"Should have done that to begin with," Newt said.
"We have a limited amount of sedatives. We don't exactly give it out like candy." You stood up straighter and glanced at the black veined boy strapped to the bed.
"Keep him on a dosage of it. He'll keep us awake all bloody night with his whining," Newt told Clint and Jeff.
"Watch your mouth, it's not Ben's fault he was stung and he's going through it the best he can," You snapped, "I don't want him awake and in pain, keep using sedatives when he starts to come to."
Even if your time as the Keeper of the medjacks was in the past they both still listened to you, knowing that out of the three you remained the most experienced in this field.
You stalked out to disinfect the syringe and place it back with the few left in the med jack storage. Newt followed behind you.
"Sorry-"
"Don't worry about it."
"Okay."
You turned to him and he grabbed your sleeve to stop you from walking away.
"I didn't mean to sound harsh," He said.
You nodded, "I know. Don't apologize, I know it gets on your nerves. Just don't talk about him like he's the scum of earth."
"Right, I won't," He agrees, letting your sleeve go.
You sat in one of the wooden chairs in the room, Newt sitting on a bed beside you.
"How's the greenie doing?" You asked.
"Pretty klunked out still, Chuck should be with him by now," Newt replied.
You nodded, "Good, Little man will be good for him."
"I had the same thought. You can't hate Chuck, he can be annoying at times but you can't hate him."
"That's opinion based," You said, "I think he's wonderful."
"Yeah well you're a bloody sucker when it comes to him, would give him the moon if you could."
You shrugged but didn't argue.
"Is the greenie anything good?" You continued.
"Maybe, don't know, might have him work in the gardens with me and see how that works. Might be a builder but he seems smarter than that," He smiled a little.
You looked him up and down with suspicion, "What? He good looking?"
Newt leaned back and looked away from you at the far wall, "He ain't half bad. Nice eyes."
"Fruity," You noted.
He shot you a look, "Slim it."
You held your hands up in surrender, "Just messing with you, I'm not one to talk."
"Oi, Newt, Y/n, Ben's doin something strange!" Winston yelled.
"If he's not murdering someone then let him be for christ sakes," You muttered but got up and trotted back over with Newt to the hogsmeade, climbing the stairs and seeing Alby already crouched over his bed. Both of you followed suit.
"He's been muttering all sorts of nonsense," Alby explained.
"That's not uncommon," You reminded him.
"That's what I said too and then I heard what he was saying. Keep muttering it over and over again like a buggin 'chant," Alby says, "Listen."
Everyone goes quiet until Ben's drowsy voice comes again, muttering in a tone just barely audible, "Wicked, Thomas, time bomb, girl."
"Not creepy at all," Newt said.
"Wicked, that's what's written on the back of the beetle blades, we know this. Time bomb, well that sounds just lovley doesn't it. Girl, no clue. And I've never heard of Thomas in my life so-"
"It's the greenies name," Newt interrupted, "Thomas."
"Guess that's something you two should check out then."
You stood back up straight and rolled your shoulders out, glancing at the door and seeing a brown haired face peering through the crack in the door. You hadn't seen that face before, hadn't ever seen those wide eyes peering around the glade. They were staring right at Ben, unconscious and looking like death reincarnated. Then they looked up to you and they swelled with more fear than they had looking at Ben.
"You keep a watch and make sure he doesn't say any more weird klunk, I'm going to make sure no one's down in the med hut while it's empty," You said with a heavy sigh.
They didn't reply, listening closely to Ben so you opened the door and shut it firmly behind you, watching the boy stumble back and open his mouth to say something.
You clamped your hand over his mouth and made a shushing gesture, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him down the stairs, muttering a quiet, "You owe me,", under your breath.
You reached the bottom and let him go, letting him walk out on his own past Gally and his group of nuisances. They smirked at him but didn't say anything, letting you walk with him out in silence.
"Wild guess," You began right when you were out of earshot of them, still making him walk with you, "You're the greenie."
He didn't reply, looking shook up in the head.
"Course you are, you look like a newbie," You answered yourself, "You thought you would just see what the screaming boy was about or what?"
He spoke now, "N- no, well, I saw Newt go up there and I- I just thought. That guy Gally said something about a changing, then Chuck left somewhere- how much trouble am I in exactly?"
"I won't tell Alby but I'll tell Newt so he knows that's why you're messed up," You said, releasing him outside your workshop, "Have you eaten dinner?"
He shook his head, "I don't know if I can eat right now."
You looked him up and down, "You're fine."
"Y/n! Y/n you found the greenie!" Chuck exclaimed, running on his short legs to you and panting heavily, two brown bags of food in his hand, "I left to get lunch and I came back and Gally said you dragged him out by his ear!"
"I didn't get dragged out by my ear!" Thomas protested.
You snorted and patted Chuck's back, "It's all right little man, you and greenie can eat lunch in here."
"Got it! Come on Thomas," Chuck said, walking into the workshop proudly.
Thomas's eyes almost bugged out of his head when he looked around, his head whipping back and forth to all the shelves of supplies.
"What's all of this?" He asked finally.
"Supplies, gadgets, things people need fixing," You said, "If you like it up here your eyes would fall out of your head in my main workshop. Only my apprentice and Newt go down there though."
"Apprentice?"
You nodded to Chuck, "Him, obviously, genius two point-o right there."
"Oh," Thomas kept his opinions and thoughts to himself and just sat next to Chuck who handed him a bag of food.
You kicked at the opening to your workshop with your foot lights until the stairs fell and you were able to walk down them, your metal brace clanking loudly with each step. From your stash of snacks you grabbed the graham crackers that Chuck always seemed to like, bringing them up and handing them each one before sitting down and eating your own.
"So this is all yours?" Thomas clarified, "You made all of this?"
"All mine," You agreed.
"Are you like a mechanic?"
"Mechanic, inventor, mad scientist, take your pick," You munched on a cracker, waiting for more of his questions, "Come on, I know you got more questions in you."
"What's the changing?" He blurted immediately, "Why did that guy look like that? Why's everyone so secretive? What are grievers?"
You glanced at Chuck, Chuck who didn't know the answers to those questions himself and you intended to keep it that way.
You technically weren't supposed to tell greenies this stuff either as you weren't technically a keeper but if you were in his position you could imagine the constant stream of dead ended answers would get aggravating.
"Grievers are big ugly lectronic beasts but they're covered in slime, something like a disgusting hybrid of a spider, crab, hairball, computer, slug. But they're faster than you could ever believe. They have stingers too," You explained the information you could tell with Chuck in the room, "You get stung by a griever, you get grief serum, that fixes you up but you go through the changing. It's painful and horrible and traumatizing, meant to make everything seem hopeless and destroy any motivation you have. It works most of the time, changes people, makes them different. We're all secretive because those who go through it don't like to yap about it and neither does anyone else. We don't tell greenies this stuff because we don't want you to klunk your pants."
Thomas nodded, happy with the answers, "Why are you telling me stuff then?"
"Because Y/n is technically not a keeper," Chuck answers for you, "They call it the gray area of the rules. Long story."
You know for a fact that Chuck didn't know half the truth of the story, you fibbed about your accident, why you had to quit running, everything horrible inbetween. The things he didn't need to hear.
Thomas finished his sandwich and wiped his hands off on his pants, "You and Newt have the same leg thingy on, what's that about?"
"Well Y/n broke their leg while running and it never healed right, Newt came up with a limp," Chuck explained. You didn't say anything, didn't want to tell the truth but by the way Thomas's eyes moved from you to him you could tell he knew that wasn't the whole truth. For once, he doesn't ask questions about it.
"I made the braces," You continued, diverting the topic, "Only for me and Newt, helps with running and pain. We could run miles on these things without doing any damage."
"That's," He thought for a moment, "impressive, who else works with you."
"No one, all me greenie," You said.
He looked at you for a long time, just staring with an expression like he was trying to piece two things together but he looked away soon and stared at the table deep in thought.
A loud rumbling sent Thomas toppling out of his seat, head looking around as a few things on the shelves gave a little shake without any threat of toppling off. Chuck looked amused and you grinned at the devilish expression.
"It's just the door closing greenie," You told him, "The worlds not ending yet."
"Doors?" He questioned.
"Yeah, you know, the giant gaps in the walls. They close at night, that's when the grievers come out," You said.
"Oh," He got to his feet quickly and ran out without further comment, probably to inspect the doors as they closed.
Chuck huffed, "I should probably follow him."
"Yeah, keep him out of trouble," You agreed. And then Chuck was up and gone along with him, running as fast as his legs would take him.
You shook your head at him and left the trash sitting on the table for tomorrow's problem.