《 Skip a Beat 》

On your side

To his side, Tina frustratedly held her head in her hands. They'd been at it for almost three hours, with no results.

"Can't we ask the ministry who he is?" Newt asked her.

"They don't know either," put forward Tina. Leta and Newt absorbed the information. The former thought hard for a bit, flicking backwards through frayed pages.

"No one has any idea?" she asked bemusedly, but somehow, managing to sound grave as she spoke.

Tina moaned dejectedly, scrubbing her face. "I don't know."

None of them had a clue about any of it. Every time they had a question about the meaning of the prophecy, or the mystery initial on the tag, or how Grindelwald had the orb in his possession- the list was endless... they'd all been answered with the same phrase: I don't know, I don't know, I don't know...

"There are no answers anywhere." Tina angrily tore off a hunk of sandwich before gulping it down. "There's nothing," she mumbled while chewing.

"There can't be nothing. There's never nothing. We'll keep searching, don't worry." Newt reached out his right hand- the one without the pressure clamp. It trembled a bit, as if he was hesitating, then he gently placed it over Tina's closed hand, resting on the open-splayed pages of her book.

She risked a glance up at him from beneath her fringe, and their eyes locked. Newt offered her a crooked smile.

"Er- am I interrupting something?" playfully lilted a voice.

Newt, Tina and Leta whipped around to face the source of the voice, issuing from the green door.

"No," hastily said both Newt and Tina as Nick hovered uncertainly in the doorway, a knowing smirk dancing across his freckled face. The former hurriedly moved his hand away from Tina's, and he could've sworn that her gaze stayed trained on him for a long while after that.

Nick chuckled, ambling towards them with his hands in his pockets. "Try and refrain from engaging in any romantic activity. It sends your heart rate rocketing through the ceiling."

Sure enough, when Leta, Newt and Tina- in that order- turned to glimpse the screen, the green peaks were spiking close together, the rapid beeping piercing the silence.

"Don't say that, Nick! You're ruining Operation Newtina!" chirruped a new voice. Newt, Tina and Leta watched as Charlotte wheeled herself into the room- the shrill robotic voice emitting from her speaker filled the air.

Pickett grasped the side of Newt's breast pocket with twig-like fingers and peeped out, gazing with a sparked interest while Nick inquired his sister as to why she wasn't back in the nurses' office. Charlotte's crushing blue eyes, however, were focussed on the minuscule bowtruckle now perched on Newt's shoulder.

"He's cute! What's his name?" Charlotte's speaker belted out next. Nick paused his lecturing mid-sentence, staring at his younger sister. His eyes travelled to Pickett, who chirped contemptuously.

"Pickett," Newt clarified, letting his weedy little companion climb down his arm and onto his wrist. Seemingly decided, Nick gently took Charlotte's chair by the handles and wheeled it forward until she was at the side of his bed, right next to Tina.

"Uh- would you like to-" Newt held his wrist out towards her, Pickett clinging onto his fingers for balance. Behind him, Tina and Leta fondly absorbed the scene, exchanging a smile at Newt's caring demeanour.

Gingerly, the young girl lifted her own arm, palm faced limply downwards, and Newt pressed his hand next to hers and let Pickett clamber onto her wrist.