(Future Linnet/Michael fic) - Newt/Tina
Tina was still there when he returned from his trip home to take care of the creatures later that night, curled up on a chair and eyes staring out of the window. She looked up when he entered, absolutely exhausted and drained, and didn’t say anything.
“Wren’s spending the night in the case,” Newt muttered, taking a seat beside her. “She said that she’d look after the creatures, make sure that they’re alright.”
In truth, he knew part of the reason to be that their youngest daughter felt comforted by being in the case – and with the way things were, it was no wonder that she had retreated just like he himself wished he could.
Linnet was asleep in the bed when he cast his eyes over to her cautiously; there was a small frown etched onto her features, her hands curling into her chest. A few cuts and grazes marked her cheek, and he could see the hint of a bruise peeking from beneath the sleeve of her hospital robe.
“How is she?” He found himself asking hoarsely, though he already knew.
Tina was looking down at her knees, unblinking and still. “She woke up just after you left and started screaming; I tried to help, but the Healers…” She stopped, voice wavering now. “They made me leave so that they could calm her down; when they finally let me back in, they told me that they had put her on a Dreamless Sleep potion.”
“Oh.”
They were silent for a few more minutes, merely sitting side-by-side; after some slight hesitation, Newt took his wife’s hand and held it in his own, not sure what he could say to make things seem better. Truthfully, nothing he said could make this situation easier in any way.
“Michael said he’d visit again in the morning,” He heard her inform him quietly. “He wanted to stay but the Healers wouldn’t let him. I had to force both Phoenix and Leo to leave; they both tried to fight me on it, but…” She swallowed the lump in her throat, closing her eyes.
He gave her hand a squeeze, reminding her that he was here for her. “Probably for the best. Are you sure that you don’t want to go home, love? Perhaps just for a few hours to sleep-?”
“I am not leaving her, Newt,” Tina interrupted firmly, though it was obvious that she was pained. “After what they did to her… I can’t. I won’t.”
Newt felt his stomach churn at her words – there was no pretending with this. “Oh, Tina…”
“I should have tried harder,” She choked out, hunching forwards in her seat. “If I had tried harder, we could have found her sooner…”
“You tried as hard as humanly possible,” He murmured, wrapping an arm around her. “And you did find her. She’s safe now.”
She shook her head. “No, she’s not safe. Those men, they…” A sob made its way out of her chest. “They violated her…they took photographs and abused her.”
He inhaled sharply; he could still see the pictures in his mind, could see what they had done to their daughter against her will, and it made him feel sick. “I…I know.”
“She didn’t deserve this,” Tina cried, unable to contain it. “Linnet…she’s still so young. She…She was just doing her job, and they attacked her…they…” Her breath caught, shoulders shaking. “The reports said that there was tearing, a-a-and wounds from where they had…”
Bile rose in his throat, and he found himself embracing her tightly – for he needed her comfort just as much as she needed his. “Oh Merlin.”
It felt as if they were in a living nightmare; Linnet was still a young girl in Newt’s eyes, still the same bright and bubbly child she had been growing up. This was the little girl who had pleaded for a younger sister and been overjoyed when she’d gotten one, the girl who had wept over Dougal passing away, the little girl who had announced at a family dinner one day that she wanted to be an Auror like her mother. She was intelligent, beautiful, fierce just like her mother – but with a heart of gold that made her warm and likeable.
The fact that a group of wizards had tortured and repeatedly assaulted her – Linnet, their eldest daughter who was kind and had never intentionally hurt anyone – so brutally was abhorrent.
“If anyone should have protected her,” Newt found himself whispering. “It was me.”
Tina sat up and frowned at him half-heartedly. “Newt, you know that you’re not to blame… You had nothing at all to do with this-”
“I know,” He admitted quietly, his hold on her tightening. “I know I couldn’t have done anything, really, but all the same… I wish I had been able to do something.”
“So do I,” She agreed, voice close to breaking as she held him to her again; her eyes were filling with tears once more, something that was uncontrollable.
I’m sorry, Linnet…I’m so, so sorry.