《 Skip a Beat 》

Now

A month passed.

Tina still visited every day, and whenever she walked through the door, it made Newt's heart flutter happily. He grinned at her with the biggest smile.

Theseus sometimes visited a couple days in a row, and Newt appreciated every second of it, even though he couldn't say so. That made him feel empty and hollow. He wanted to say so much to his friends, to his brother, but he couldn't do anything beyond blinking and smiling slightly. Even that sent a jolt of pain through his nerves.

Leta, Jacob and Queenie alternated their visiting days: one day it was Leta, who strode through the door with Tina at her side, and they both sat in cushioned chairs for a while, talking to him about everything that happened at home, and updating Newt on how his creatures were. Occasionally, they began talking to each other, and forgot that he was listening. All Newt could do when that happened was sit uselessly in the bed and raise an eyebrow at them when they kept yakking on about how good Queenie and Jacob's dinners were.

Another day, it could've been Jacob who tagged along with Theseus and Tina. Once, Jacob accidentally knocked over the wheelie table in the corner of the room, sending needles and metal instruments clattering to the floor. He didn't visit again for a couple days after that, but Newt always looked forward to him striding through the grey door again, and he always managed to remind Jacob about the wheelie table incident, whether it was looking pointedly at the table in the corner until he noticed, or merely grinning maliciously when he walked in.

Another day, it could've been Queenie, who skipped in at Tina's side, breaking into a huge grin when she saw Newt smiling back at her. Having Queenie around was a huge advantage at times, because she translated his thoughts into words. Then again, she also revealed a few personal thoughts that he'd rather not express, grinning evilly at him the whole time. One particularly wet day, when Tina and Queenie walked in completely sopped, the legilimens decided that she'd tell her sister that Newt thought she looked like she'd been caught in a whirlwind and a tsunami at the same time. Tina raised an eyebrow at him, and Newt scowled. Then stuck his tongue out at Queenie, which sent Tina into hysterics.

About three times a month, all five of them visited him, and the most recent time that happened, Nick walked in to change Newt's bandage. Newt panicked, scrunched his eyes shut, and pretended he was still unconscious the whole time Nick worked, and everyone else had to bite their lip to stop themselves from bursting into laughter.

After Nick left, Newt gave them a meek, lopsided smile before Queenie told everyone that he thought Nick was "trying to smash his head in at first," which earned him something in between a scowl and a grin from Theseus.

The visits went on for a month, with no advance on Newt's condition.

It was the thirty-sixth, thirty-seventh... no it was more than that... Tina had lost count of the amount of times she'd visited him since he gained consciousness, but she'd fallen into a routine of visiting him every day, and it had been a month and a bit.

She went alone this time, the sound of her black work flats clicking against the floor echoing around the empty corridor. Tina hadn't bothered to change out of her black pants, white blouse, and thick navy overcoat. They were the most comfortable clothes she had, and she wasn't going to sacrifice comfort for looks.

She reached the grey door at the end of the corridor and passed the chairs outside. It seemed like years ago when they sat anxiously in those chairs, waiting to hear an update on Newt's condition. She chuckled softly to herself and quietly pulled open the door.

At first she thought that Newt had been moved to another room.

For a couple moments, Tina couldn't do anything but stare at him, sitting- sitting on the bed, grinning back at her.