Leta, Queenie and Jacob hadn't gone home yet.
Nick seemed thoroughly surprised when he had popped round a while ago and seen them still waiting, but quickly brushed it off and reported that the surgery went excellent and Newt would regain consciousness within a couple of hours.
He added that Dr Mallord had given Newt a needle that would numb his leg and help the healing process quicken, without reaching a dangerous speed. Side effects were expected, but he assured that it was for the best.
He also, on Mallord's behalf, said that letting Newt leave the hospital earlier than planned was a terrible move on their part, apologised, then chewed them out for not coming back for check-ups more regularly.
After sneaking Queenie three vouchers for free coffee from the cafe downstairs, Nick left the ward, winking over his shoulder.
Since then, Jacob had taken to pacing up and down the room, Queenie had already used one of the vouchers and was trying to conserve the rest, and Leta was almost asleep on the armchair next to the bed.
Every once in a while, Newt's eyes fluttered, but stayed regrettably closed.
The afternoon sun casted a golden glow which flooded through the room, illuminating the entire area and casting long shadows behind articles of furniture.
Occasionally, the quiet hooting of the hospital's tawny owls rang through the door as they glided past outside, delivering letters. More often than that, swift footsteps quietly pattered down the corridors, sometimes accompanied by the squeaking of wheels.
Other than that, the room was eerily quiet, bar the heart rate machine, of course. Or at least, until Jacob heard someone groan weakly from behind him.
He whirled around, mid-step, so fast that his neck cricked. Queenie and Leta both glanced up in sync.
"Newt!" gasped Leta, already on her feet. The girls hovered around the left hand side of the bed, trying to give Newt some personal space, but at the same time, too excited at the moment to really care about personal space.
Jacob grinned, moving to join them. Elation zipped through his veins at seeing his friend finally conscious again, even if he looked slightly paler than before.
He looks a bit peaky, doesn't he?
Queenie glanced to her right, not exactly wanting to give an answer for fear of making Newt feel worse- Jacob looked back. She eventually decided on the non-commitment response of, "Mmm."
"Newt?" prodded Leta finally. He actually seemed to hear her this time, blue-green eyes flicking up to meet hers.
Jacob was right.
Newt did look peaky.
The three of them stood uncertainly next to the bed, unsure of what to do as his eyes scanned the room, assessing...
"How long was I out?" Newt rasped eventually, barely more than a whisper.
All three of their expressions melted into a smile- Leta and Jacob swapped joyful glances. Newt could've sworn he heard Queenie let slip a soft giggle. Though her smile faded ever so slightly when she responded.
"Almost seven hours," Queenie answered, sinking back into her chair.
"Seven hours..." breathed Newt, disbelieving and frowning. He tried to do the math in his head, but his brain felt stretched and worn from every angle, like a rubber band too loose to use.
"Seven hours, buddy," echoed Jacob, shaking his head.
Newt tried to reciprocate, but as soon as he moved, a storm of a headache tumbled into his head.
The piercing beeping sounds from the machine next to his bed got a smidge faster. Everything in the room blurred slightly. The lights felt too bright, the blankets too hot... and there were so many cables.
Cables everywhere, tangled around different machines, and most of them leading to him. One or two of them had blood flowing through them- following those cables, Newt felt sick seeing that they lead through folds of white blanket until they were attached to him.
Moving his head again and immediately regretting it as his headache pulsed painfully, he used his eyes to look back at his three companions.
"I feel awful," he rasped quietly. He could've sworn that Jacob leaned slightly closer so he could hear him.
"I don't blame you," replied Leta drily, while the other two gave him sympathetic looks.
Newt silently promised himself that he would talk as little as possible. It felt like shards of glass were stuck in his throat, and he was almost certain that he made a horrible rattling sound when he inhaled.
Newt watched as Queenie retreated to her cushioned chair, Jacob dropping into the seat on her right. Leta occupied the chair next to his bed.
With a gentle creak, the green doors to the right of the room suddenly swung open, and a tall, lean nurse with horn-rimmed glasses stalked in. With a sense of purpose, she briskly began changing the water in the vase next to Newt's bed.
The blinding white lights were starting to make him feel incredibly dizzy, and he was suddenly aware of the fact that he couldn't feel his right leg at all.
Flicking his eyes up again, Newt was also aware of the fact that there were only four of them in the room.
"Where's Tina? And Theseus?" he croaked out. In a heartbeat, Leta, Queenie and Jacob's expressions all morphed into concern.
They all looked at each other, then back at Newt, then at each other again. Newt was starting to feel slightly panicked. Leta indicated him with an incline of her head, willing someone else to speak up.
"Well..." began Queenie. She exhaled through her nose, knowing that she couldn't stop now that she'd started. "They left, honey. They're in New York."
"What?"
It was the first time Newt had spoken something that could be heard when you weren't standing within half a metre of him. Even the nurse fleetingly glanced up.
Queenie cringed, trying desperately to ease the panic in Newt's expression.
"They had to leave, Newt, or they'd be late," she added quietly. He only looked even more horrified.
The beeps from the heart rate machine were getting faster. Alarmed, Leta checked the screen from where she was.
Newt's heart rate had gone from 79 bpm to 124 bpm, the green spikes peaking faster and closer together against the black screen.
Leta scooted closer to Newt, taking one of his calloused hands in hers. It was cold and clammy, and there was a grey pressure peg with a cable clamped onto his pointer.
The beeps were getting alarmingly fast, so much that the nurse glanced at him a second time, then breezed over to tamper with some kind of gear on the machinery.
"Sir, are you alright?" she asked tightly. Newt didn't respond, staring disbelievingly back at Queenie.
Jacob moved to the nurse's side, helping her wheel one of the machines aside so she could reach the other. "Sir, you need to calm down," she continued, fiddling with some of the cables now.
Newt finally seemed to hear her, and Queenie watched as his heart rate dropped from 137 bpm to 96 bpm over a couple minutes. He still looked rattled when the nurse left the room, leaving the vase on the table clean and the water replaced.
Jacob wasted no time in dragging his chair closer to Newt and dropping into it.
"Hey, it's fine. 'Kay? They're alright," he comforted a shell-shocked Newt. Somehow, his friend looked even paler than before.
Newt wished he hadn't tried to sit up. His head hurt even more, and the white hospital lights flashed right into his eyes. He groaned softly and dropped back onto his pillow, closing his eyes.
"Leta, could you get the lights?" murmured a gentle voice that he recognised to be Queenie's. Newt didn't realise that he was squeezing his eyes shut until the soreness disappeared.
Tentatively cracking them open, he realised that the whole room was bathed in shade, the little daylight there was peeking through cracks in the curtains.
Newt tried to thank her, but his throat ached whenever he talked and no sound came out.
Queenie just gave him a weak smile, inclining her head slightly.
"Newt, your heart rate is getting faster again," pointed out Leta.
Newt glanced at the screen, trying to ignore the growing pain in his head. She was right. His heart rate was 106 bpm.
He sighed, resting his head back on the pillow. He was thinking about Tina without even realising it.
"Newt. Stop worrying, she's going to be fine. They're both going to be fine," consoled Queenie, standing to move by his side.
"Yeah, I thought you said worrying means you suffer," piped up Jacob. Newt found himself staring at the ceiling, trying to conceal his smile.
Glancing back at his friends (as much as he could), his smile faded slightly. "But what if they're in trouble? I didn't even get to see them before they left..." He trailed off, staring solemnly into space.
"They have a dangerous job Newt. Trouble is the whole reason their career exists," said Leta quietly, knitting her manicured eyebrows together.
Feeling the urge to need to distract himself, Newt fiddled with the little remote in his hand.
He wasn't usually the kind of person to worry. In fact, he was told often that he didn't worry enough, but this was different. This was about two of the people he cared about most in the world. Where one of his friends was concerned, Newt couldn't help but worry.
"Come on Newt," soothed Jacob. "If anyone's capable of taking care of themselves, it's Tina. She's going to come back just fine."
"Both of them," added Queenie. "You'll see."
Newt nodded, chewing on a lip. Hundreds of thoughts whizzed around his head, contributing to his already throbbing headache.
"Put up a fair fight too," Leta was murmuring. Newt trained his gaze on her, studying her expression.
What?
"Well, buddy, I mean..." began to elaborate Jacob, upon seeing his curious demeanour. He sighed, meeting Newt's eyes. "She took one look at you lying unconscious in the bed, and... she said she didn't want to leave," he finished, leaning forward in his chair.
"What?" breathed Newt, not entirely sure why he was asking.
Tina didn't want to leave? Why not? She loves her job...
"Yeah, well..." Queenie subconsciously fiddled with the hem of her pleated dress. "She didn't want to leave you, honey. Said she felt guilty about not being there for you," she said, her grass-green eyes meeting his blue-green.
Newt looked bewildered for a moment, as if it was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard in his life, then his expression morphed into one of confusion. Ignoring the jabs of pain in his throat, he said quietly, "But she was there for me. She's the whole reason I'm alive right now."
"And we know that, Newt. But she still feels- well- like she hasn't done enough," stated Leta, taking him by the shoulders.
Queenie edged closer to her.
"Hey, when she comes back, you can tell her... 'kay?"
Newt solemnly gazed at her, trying not to think too much about Queenie's words.
When she comes back.
Would she come back? Tina could be under attack by an acolyte- by Grindelwald himself... Tina could be dead at that moment, and none of them would know.
Newt inhaled another rattly breath and pushed away the thought.
The best thing to do right now was to remain hopeful. That's the only way he'd get through this. Theseus and Tina would most likely come loping through the doors in four hours' time anyway.
From his left, Newt heard the beeping sounds from the machine grow slower. Queenie gave him a reassuring smile.
"That's right. It's going to be fine. And it's going to make a great story to tell your kids."
"Wha...?" Newt screwed his face up in confusion, then decided it was better not to ask.
Playing deaf to Jacob and Leta's accompanying sniggers, he busied himself with inspecting all of the different gadgets clipped on himself.
Looking down, the obvious one was the clear, winding cable taped to his chest. Newt realised that this was the cable that measured his heartbeat, as he watched it wind around a wheeled stand and connect to the heart rate screen next to his bed.
There was a pressure peg on his right pointer- he remembered that from last time.
Strapped around his bicep was a white, velcro blood pressure monitor, connected to yet another cable and machine.
Along his left arm, there were two cotton buds pressed down with tape- he'd been injected with something. Twice.
Queenie, supposedly having read his mind, smiled sadly and lifted her finger to point at his cheek- a hint.
Lifting his hand to gingerly brush the side of his face, Newt ran his fingers over what felt like a bandage. He backtracked and felt it again- it was a bandage, taped right over his left cheekbone. He probably hit himself when he collapsed.
"Were..." Newt closed his mouth in a vain attempt to cease the slicing pain in his throat, but no avail. "Were there this many cables last time?" he croaked.
Again, his companions, smiles now faded from their faces, looked toward each other. Newt was beginning to feel irritated. They all knew something he didn't. He'd only been out for a few hours- he couldn't have missed that much... could he?
"No, Newt... Mallord said that you didn't go through lots of pain last time... he says that you're taking the toll for it now," stated Leta awkwardly.
Newt loosened a breath, and his throat stung again. Trying not to wince, he nodded vaguely.
It made sense... he just wished it didn't.
When he opened his mouth again, Queenie swiftly cut through.
"Newt, try not to talk. It's not good for you," she murmured in concern, her honey-sweet voice slicing through the thick silence.
"Get some rest, okay buddy?" said Jacob, making for the doorway. "You've been through a lot. We'll tell you everything when you feel better."
Part of him felt irritated again at that. He wanted to know now- he needed to know now. He needed to know everything that had happened since he blacked out, he needed to know what happened before Tina and Theseus left, he needed to know about what had happened to him.
Another part of him was too tired to care. He still couldn't feel his leg, and the beeping noises were starting to hurt his head.
Newt finally obliged, more thanhappy to push away his questions and do nothing for a bit. He inhaled shakilyand lay under swathes of blankets, trying to ignore his returning headache.
And... yes! He's conscious again! Yay!
Hi :)
Sorry for slow updates- school is... school.
I think that I've been stuffing up the characterisation of everyone quite a bit, so I'm really sorry :(
As usual, feedback is always more than welcome :DD Don't be afraid to comment, guys- I love hearing your thoughts and opinions... so feel free to comment to your heart's content <33
Love u all :)
Cateye992, out!