𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐞 𝐚 𝐬é // 𝟐𝟔
Tara was sat in the Director’s office at length that afternoon.
She was trying her absolute best not to scream as she repeatedly reminded the board of the section in her contract that did not allow her to take on the duties of an Auror. But they were being annoyingly persistent, arguing that these were mitigating circumstances and that the Auror’s needed someone to look to.
“This is ridiculous.” she spat angrily. “You don’t get to claim consideration over these wizards now. If you actually cared about their well-being, you would have never sent them on such a risky, under-investigated mission in the first place!”
Her words had finally managed to silence the group of men around the meeting table.
Tara took a deep breath to compose herself, laying her palms flat out against the cold surface in front of her.
“I will take this position. Not for you, not for the Ministry, but for Theseus. Because he is a friend, and I value his welfare, and that of all these Auror’s, far above your power-hungry, vindictive agenda.” she spat.
“How dare you-!”
“I will resign then.” she interrupted sharply. “If you cannot handle critique.”
Again, the room fell silent.
“Your mistakes got those wizards hurt. Yours. I highly encourage you to take the time and think about that.”
After that, Tara had stormed out of the room entirely, not bothering to stick around for any of their responses.
Tara owled Newt later that night, and upon receiving an unnaturally quick response, took him to St. Mungo’s to see his brother.
The younger Scamander was understandably distraught, though did his best to hide it from her. But she had learned to read Newt’s micro-expressions over the years, and could easily make out the concern etched in the corners of his eyes, even as he actively tried to blink it away.
And after that first night, Tara found herself at St. Mungo’s every following day.
She spent her morning and afternoon hours at the Ministry, struggling to keep Theseus’ affairs in order while simultaneously balancing her own training sessions, which were still scheduled haphazardly here and there.
But the evenings, those were spent at Theseus’ bedside.
Often, she would find herself as one of very few people inside the hospital as a whole. And would occasionally accompany Newt during his own visits, only to then stay and prolong her own, often until the early hours of the morning.
Tara could feel herself wearing thin, torn between several places at once.
But in the quiet moments at night, when it was just her, listening to the steady sound of Theseus’ breathing…that was often the time she found herself the most calm.
On the other hand, those were also the moments that she felt the most pain in her chest.
One night, she had sat down next to the hospital bed, her hand gingerly reaching out to rest on top of the unconscious Auror’s. Her thumb had been absentmindedly tracing incoherent shapes along his skin, observing the few scattered scars across his knuckles.
In her mind, as if often was those days, was playing out countless versions of what could’ve happened back in Germany. And in an effort to turn off those thoughts, she leaned forward to rest her head against the very edge of the mattress.
She hadn’t intended, or even remembered falling asleep. But suddenly, she had found herself startled back awake by the sound of someone softly calling out her name.
Tara’s head shot up, her eyes flying open in a panic, only to find Newt staring back at her from the hospital room doorway.
Instinctively, she slipped her hand off of Theseus’, dropping it back down into her own lap.
“Newt?” she whispered in surprise. “What are you doing here?”
“I was just dropping off some vials of Murtlap Essence. The Poison and Disease department is studying them and requested some pure samples.” he explained, gesturing over his shoulder. “What about you? It’s rather late, no?”
Tara tilted her head up to look at the clock on the wall opposite from where she sat.
It was nearly midnight.
“Damn.” she mumbled, rubbing her eyes with the heels of her palms. “Must’ve dozed off.”
“You don’t look like you’ve been sleeping much.” Newt noted rather bluntly. “Why don’t you go home, get some rest?”
“No, I-” she quickly bit down on her tongue with a wince.
Newt blinked in surprise.
“Sorry.” she said, shaking her head and rising to her feet. “You’re right. I should get going.”
“Are you sure?” Newt had asked her as she attempted to move past him.
Tara simply nodded her head in response, ducking out into the hallway.
Newt watched her go, up until the moment that she disapparated.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* : ｡☆ﾟ.･ ───
The following evening, Tara was right back in the hospital.
She had watched the doctors remove a good portion of Theseus’ bandages, which was a good sign, as was explained to her. A fact that she assured them would be passed on to the other directors.
But he still hadn’t woken up.
So again, Tara was sitting alone at his bedside as it closed in on ten o’clock.
She had been staring harshly at the light scar that stretched down the left side of his face. One of the nurses she had spoken to had said that it, and the others, should disappear within the next few weeks, a process sped up by their treatment of course. But Tara knew that she would never truly banish the image of them from her mind.
Turning her eyes away from him completely, the witch’s attention instead honed in on the shoddy, white bed sheets beneath his body.
She felt tears beginning to well up in her eyes again, and covered her face with her arm in a desperate attempt to force them back. It was so damn quiet in that room too, so she held her breath as tight as possible in order to keep any sounds she might make from echoing off of the empty walls.
She hated the image of herself crying silently in an otherwise empty room, but as the days continued to drag on, it was getting harder and harder for her to fortify her defenses.
Eventually, she could feel the energy beginning to leave her body completely. Slumping forward, her head gently hit the edge of the hospital mattress, and it was only when there that she finally let her tears flow freely, her hands curling tightly into the sheets.
“Come back.” she whispered directly into the fabric. “You promised me you’d come back. You promised…”
She kept repeating the phrase until she eventually passed out.
And when she dreamt, she dreamt of him. As she often had in the past week.
He usually wouldn’t say anything. He would just stand there, a gentle smile on his face. One free of scars and bruises. She would attempt to call out to him, but no matter how much she begged him to speak to her, all he would do was continue to smile.
But that night, her dream had shifted. It wasn’t like the others. Because in it, Theseus had moved. In what looked like slow motion, his arm reached out to her, eventually resting on the side of her head, languishly beginning to run his fingers through the tangled strands of dark hair.
And then…he spoke.
“Wake up.” he beckoned, a smile still painted on his dreamy expression.
Confusion wracked her subconscious.
“Tara…wake up. Wake up-”
A jolt traveled through her body, the same sensation one might get when falling from a great height. Her eyes quickly fired open, only to find herself once more staring into the blank, white bed sheets of the hospital bed she had fallen asleep against.
Letting out a brief, dismissive huff, she had moved to push herself back up into a seated position, when suddenly, her muscles went rigid.
Something was gently combing through her hair.
Tara bolted up straight, causing the hand that had been resting on the back of her head to float down onto the sheets. And when she looked to her right, she found a pair of eyes ever-so-slightly peering out from behind hooded lids.
“Theseus?” she whispered, her voice trembling. She still wasn’t totally convinced that she wasn’t still dreaming.
A gentle, but tired smile appeared on the Auror’s face.
“Hey.” he whispered back with a bit of difficulty.
Tara pushed back her chair with a startled purpose. She stumbled over her feet towards the top of the bed, her hands hesitantly reaching down towards his face.
“I- you’re awake. How- how do you feel?” she coughed out.
Theseus smiled back up at her wearily, a soft grunt escaping his lips as he shifted against the mattress.
“Like I got hit by a train.” he said in jest.
Tara didn’t laugh. She just kept shaking, her hands still not daring to actually touch his skin.
“I’ll go get the doctor.” she whispered quickly, turning around to do just that.
Theseus had, far too quickly for a man who had just awoken from a coma, reached out to grab a hold of her wrist before she could move from his bedside.
“Tara, wait. What’s wrong?”
The witch scoffed in disbelief.
“What’s wr-” she couldn’t even bring herself to repeat the sentence. “Theseus, you’ve been unconscious for seven days. They- they couldn’t even say for sure if you would wake up at all. I-” her voice cracked as she frantically shook her head.
“Tara…”
She slipped her arm out of his grasp.
“I’m going to get the doctor.” she repeated, peeling out of the room.
Soon thereafter, the doctor on duty, as well as a nursing assistant piled into the room, immediately moving to help ease Theseus back into the realm of consciousness.
Tara was watching on warily from the back corner, only dropping her gaze when she would see Theseus’ eyes flicker over towards her position.
After a while, the doctor stood back from the bed, informing Theseus that they would like to monitor him for at least two days more. But after that, he would be free to go. As he continued to explain logistics to the Auror, his nurse had crossed the room to stop in front of Tara.
“You said you knew his family?” she asked, to which the witch nodded affirmatively. “Would you mind contacting them for us? I’m sure it would be good for him to see them.”
Tara gnawed at the inside of her cheek.
“Of course.” she replied, swiftly pulling her wand out of her boot and apparating away without another word.
Immediately, Theseus tried to sit up in his bed.
“Why did you send her away?” he demanded, a bit frantically.
The nurse looked back over at him in surprise as the doctor gently tried to push him back down onto the mattress.
“She’s contacting your family, sir.” they explained to him, in between reminders that he should not be moving so fast.
Theseus let out a heavy sigh, his head slumping back down into the embrace of the pillow.
Tara appeared on Newt’s doorstep in a snap of wind.
It was very late into the night, and she had only briefly wondered if he would even be awake before she began knocking on his door.
And she kept knocking. Until she eventually saw the light in his living room window flick on.
Dropping her hand back down to her side, she waited patiently for the door to swing open. And when it did, it revealed Newt. Standing in what appeared to be his work clothes; a pair of faded dungarees and a loose-fitting white blouse.
“Tara?”
“Sorry. I hope I didn’t wake you.” She quickly apologized.
Newt shook his head.
“Not at all. I was just downstairs. What is it?”
Tara took a deep breath before responding.
“Theseus is awake.”
Newt’s eyes immediately widened, and upon seeing his reaction, Tara felt herself slowly begin to shake again.
“The doctors told me to contact his family.”
“Right. Of course.” Newt said, quickly stepping back into his house to retrieve his coat. But when he emerged back out onto the stoop, wand at the ready, he faltered. “Tara? Are you alright?”
When the witch met his eyes, she knew that he could see the way that she was trembling.
“Of course.”
Newt looked wholly unconvinced, taking a single step forward.
“I’m fine, Newt.” she repeated. “I’m-” her throat had suddenly closed up.
Feeling her knees begin to buckle underneath her, Tara lowered herself down to the concrete of his steps, one of her hands clutching at her chest.
The Magizoologist had quickly rushed forward, catching her shoulders before she could fully fall.
“Hey-” he whispered as she curled in on herself. She made no sound, and all he could see were the occasional tremors that flowed through her body. “It’s alright.” Newt said, placing a gentle hand on her back, trying his best to be some form of comfort. But he was finding himself struggling. His own worry for his brother had been bubbling beneath the surface for the past week. And now, one of the strongest people in his life had been reduced to a trembling mess on his front steps.
That scared him more than anything.
“It’s alright.” he repeated. “He’s alright.”
Tara braced her palm against her forehead, nodding as best she could, letting him know that she had at least heard him.
Newt pressed his lips together, gently grabbing a hold of her hands in order to help her back up and onto her feet. Once there, he watched her take a few deep breaths.
“Sorry.” she finally whispered.
Newt quickly shook his head.
“Don’t apologize.”
Tara held her eyes shut tightly, trying to banish all thought, both good and bad, from her mind.
“We should go.”
Newt didn’t respond, simply allowed her to grab a tighter hold of his arm, and apparate the two of them away.
Tara had been pacing out in the hallway, while Newt spoke to the doctors, following his brief reunion with his brother. She refused to listen in on their conversation. In fact, she didn’t want to hear them speak at all. Which had led to her taking multiple laps around the entire floor of the hospital that they were on.
Back inside the room, Newt was nodding in response to the doctor’s explanations of Theseus’ injuries.
“Your brother is a very lucky man, Mr. Scamander.”
In the bed, Theseus rolled his eyes.
“Yes, I would stay that he is.” Newt replied shortly.
The doctor had exited the room not long after that, and the moment that he was gone, Newt had finally turned to look at his brother.
“How are you feeling?”
Again, Theseus made an annoyed sound in response.
“You know, I’m quite tired of people asking me that question.” he mumbled.
Newt raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, well, that’s what happens when you let the Ministry send you on suicide missions.”
Theseus stilled, turning his head in order to face his younger brother with the weakest of scowls on his face.
“We didn’t know. No one did.”
“Even so. You can’t deny that this could have been prevented.”
Theseus heaved a sigh.
“You’ve been talking to Tara, haven’t you?”
Newt paused for a moment before responding.
“Not quite.” he said seriously. “She…hasn’t said much at all, in fact. But she’s been here every day since they brought you in. So, perhaps you should be thanking her instead of making passive aggressive comments.” he said, only the smallest amount of bite in his voice.
Theseus didn’t have a response to that, as it were.
Newt sighed.
“Alright. Do you need anything? Help when you get discharged, or…?”
Theseus shook his head.
“No, I should be fine.”
“Right.”
Newt offered his brother a silent nod as a goodbye before spinning on his heels and leaving the room entirely. When he stepped out into the hallway, his eyes immediately fell on where Tara had turned the corner up ahead. He had only paused long enough to say goodbye to her as well before disapparating from the hospital entirely.
Tara took a pointed breath in, staring at the doorway a few meters ahead of her. And it took her even longer to work up the courage to walk through it.
At the sound of footsteps, Theseus’ head had lifted ever so slightly up off of his pillow.
When his eyes found her face, a sharp breath caught in her throat. She felt like it had been damn near an eternity since she had seen his eyes. It was an alarming feeling, almost alien, so she was quick to drop her gaze as she moved further into the room, eventually sidling up at the edge of the bed.
Theseus watched her every step.
When she inevitably fell still again, a heavy silence blanketed the small room.
“You’re not looking at me.” he pointed out, shifting slightly against the sheets.
Tara didn’t move.
“Your face is busted.”
Theseus scoffed in disbelief.
“Ah, so I’m not handsome enough for you, eh?”
“You’re an idiot.”
Theseus let out a hum, leaning back into the pillows.
“So you’re still mad.”
That finally got Tara to look back up at him, her eyes flaring with anger.
“Mad? I- Are you serious right now, Theseus? Mad? Of course I’m mad! How could I not be? I knew this mission was a bad idea. I knew that it was dangerous, but none of you listened! Do you have any idea what it was like hearing Russell say that you were in the hospital?” she shouted. “Have you any idea-” her voice suddenly failed as a lump lodged itself in the center of her throat.
Theseus’ expression immediately fell.
“Tara…”
She quickly forced her emotions down, taking a moment to calm her breathing as best she could.
Pressing his lips together, Theseus lifted one of his arms up off of the sheets. Reaching out, he just barely managed to grab onto the ends of her fingers.
Tara briefly glanced down at the sight before returning her attention to his face. Her eyes had already begun to water as she shuffled herself closer to the side of the bed, allowing Theseus the chance to completely envelope her hand in his.
“I know that an apology isn’t what you want-” he started, staring back up at her as serious as serious could be. “But I am sorry, Tara. You shouldn’t have to deal with all this.”
“Shouldn’t have to deal…” she let out an empty laugh. “Merlin’s beard, Theseus. I’ll never understand you.”
Somehow, that made Theseus break out into a wide smile. His thumb gingerly traced over her knuckles without daring to take his eyes off of her face.
“Will you stay?” he asked in a quiet voice.
Tara immediately nodded her head.
“Of course.”
And she did just that.
Returning to the chair she had pulled up to the side of his bed, she occasionally spoke to him throughout the night about his injuries and all that had transpired in Germany.
As the hour approached one in the morning, Theseus had begun to fall asleep, evident by the way his eyelids had grown heavy, his head slumping against his pillow. A silence had blanketed the room for a long while by that point, white noise surrounding them instead.
Tara had been absentmindedly running the back of her hand down the side of his face. All of her anger and fear, while still very much present, had finally subsided enough to where she could breathe again. She resigned herself to the fact that he had come back to her. That he was alive.
And that would have to do for now.
She could take the fight to the Ministry another day.
Her hand had paused just beneath his left eye, silently observing the tranquility of his expression in his semi-unconscious state. The nicks and bruises that were scattered about his skin barely stuck out to her anymore.
Suddenly, Theseus shifted against the sheets. Even half-asleep, he appeared to notice the pause in her movements.
He slowly peered up at her from in between his lashes, but said nothing at first.
Instead, it was Tara that ultimately broke the silence.
“I love you.” she whispered earnestly.
A smile quickly grew on his sleepy expression.
“I love you too, Tara.”
The witch blinked back a tear as she watched him finally succumb to his exhaustion.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* : ｡☆ﾟ.･ ───