Wake up. get dressed. Make breakfast. Scare pigeons out of the church. Prepare the soup. Hand out the leaflets.

It was all as it should be, everything a normal day would entail, and yet nothing felt normal. The world was tilted, off-balance, viewed through a cracked mirror and Credence knew why.

Iliana...

Three days, she'd said. Three days wasn't so long. Not in the grand scheme of things. He'd gone three days without seeing her before, even a week. But that was before...

Before she welcomed him into her life, her world. Before she grabbed him and kissed him. Before he realized that just maybe the thing he wanted most in the world wasn't entirely beyond his reach.

When he awoke the next morning, not remembering having fallen asleep, apparently not having even bothered to undress, he had found the piece of parchment on the floor. It was now tucked into his pocket, his talisman when the feeling of abandonment and fear that she wouldn't come back after those three days got too strong. He would slide his hand into his pocket and touch the parchment, a solid, physical reminder of her schedule.

I don't want to hurt you.

This was hurting him. Whether or not she knew it, it was. He played through the night over and over in his head, to the point where Chastity had to physically grab his hand to stop him from over salting the soup into inedibility. Every moment was engrained in his mind and he played through it a hundred ways, wondering what he could have done, what he could have said, that would have made her stay.

He didn't know.

All he knew was that he needed her back.

"Three days," Credence whispered to himself, and wished he knew a spell to make time move faster.

This was not good.

This was extremely very not good.

This bordered on bad.

Disembarking the ship had been easy. His suitcase had passed Muggle inspection in a dozen countries and the US was no different. It was after he left the docks that things started get slippery.

Apparating had seemed rude, and so Newt had resolved to walk to the Cactus Cat. After all, there were things to see in New York besides Elvira, and he did want to see them. If he was honest with himself, he was stalling a bit, wandering the streets looking for anything that caught his eye.

His eye had been caught by a rally, the Second Salemers that Elvira had written him about, and it was when he stopped to listen that everything had really gone to pieces. Somehow, within a few hours of arriving in New York he had not only not managed to get to the Cactus Cat yet, but he was in the company of a MACUSA witch who seemed to think he was some kind of smuggler of dangerous animals - technically true in the letter of the law, if not the spirit - and a Muggle who'd gotten a bad bite off a murtlap and was having an allergic reaction.

Why had he dared to expect this was going to go easily?

"I know where to take him," Newt said to Tina, shifting his grip on his case to free up his hand a bit more. The handle was squeezing his fingers painfully as he tried to adjust his hold on Jacob's arm. The Muggle was teetering dangerously and he highly doubted Tina was enough to keep him upright on her own. Admittedly, not that he could have easily managed it alone either.

"What does that mean?" Tina asked suspiciously, and Newt explained,

"I have a friend in town. They will have the ingredients I need to fix this." He jerked his head in the direction of the bite on Jacob's neck.

"This friend of yours," Tina narrowed her eyes, "did they enter the country illegally with a suitcase full of monsters too?"

Newt blinked at her askance. "I really couldn't say. But I do know that she'll be able to help."

The witch was looking at him like she trusted him about as far as she could throw him - could throw Kowalski - but she also knew that Newt had more knowledge about his creatures than she did. If he said that this friend of his would be able to help them cure whatever ailed the No-Maj, then she would be smart to believe him.

She was already on thin ice at MACUSA. Best to do what she could to mop this mess up before she was the next Irene Kneedander.

"Okay," Tina agreed, tightening her grip on the No-Maj's arm. "Take us there."

Newt wasn't sure about this - Elvira had made her feelings on MACUSA quite plain - but Tina alone couldn't do much to affect her. She might have once been an Auror, but now she was Wand Registry and didn't seem particularly well thought of in her ex-department. With that in mind, Newt closed his eyes, focused on the address Elvira had mailed him, and turned sharply on the spot.

When the crushing sensation ended, he found himself in an alleyway that looked just as shady and run-down as every other New York alleyway he'd passed. There was a haze of magic in the air though, he could feel it prickling his skin. There were wards here, powerful ones, stronger than one would think a simple bar really required.

"Come along," Newt said, and started walking out onto the street. Hopefully people who see them next to a bar and connect the dots that Kowalski had simply had too much and he and Tina were escorting him home. They would be inside quick enough, but he wasn't eager to break anymore laws today, not when he was fairly certain he was already in the double digits as far as the number of charges that could be levied against him.

"Wait a minute! This is the Cactus Cat!" Tina exclaimed when they stepped out onto the road. Next to them, hidden from No-Maj eyes, was a door with a picture of a cactus painted on it. That was the only visible mark to let passers-by know where they were, but it was enough to make Newt twitchy and nervous. This was not how he'd wanted to meet Elvira, not at all, but the fact remained that she was just behind that door and it was a bit late to back out now, no matter what Tina thought of him.

"Hang on!" Tina yanked them to a stop by pulling on Kowalski, who mumbled in protest, something about biscuits. Newt was forced to a stop as well, looking back at her questioningly.

"My friend is in there," Newt said calmly, pointing to the door and trying to seem much more relaxed about the situation than he actually was.

"Look, I don't know how close you are to this friend of your, but that place is the worst bar in Manhattan!" Tina hissed. "Werewolves, vampires, backdoor deals, gambling, illegal hooch... If it's illegal, it goes on in there. We can't take a No-Maj in there!"

"He's quite unaware of what's going on around him," Newt reminded her. "And besides, there's really nothing for it." He pushed the door open and this time Tina was the one scrambling to recover as he started to haul Jacob inside.

The Cactus Cat Lounge was exactly as he had imagined it. There were elements of roughness, of course, lingering in the darkened corners, the warped boards on the floor, the faint scorch marks on the bar from spells gone wrong, the haze of smoke in the air. But up on the stage there was Iliana Velikova in a glittering mint green dress and pearls, the wooden tabletops gleamed, there were glasses, some empty, some full, flying to and from the bar out to customers, and the brass fixtures gleamed. It was obvious that the owner took pride in the place, even more so when Newt watched a man flick a cigarette butt carelessly to the ground, only for it to seem to stop in midair, hover for a moment, and then settle itself into the ash tray on the table which gave an angry rattle at being ignored.

"Ah, Ellie, another..."

The voice drew his eye to the bar, and there she was. Elvira's hair was pinned back tightly in a braided bun, a couple of loose bits having come loose to frame her face, and her mouth was painted a brilliant red. She was wearing a starched white button-front shirt and arm garters that matched her topaz waistcoat. In fact, it was nearly the same color as his. She was smiling, one hand lingering on the head of a cane resting against the bar on her side while the other was perched on her hip. She was shaking her head at the man who'd spoken, a man with the sallow face and scarred hands of a seasoned brewer who didn't see enough sun.

"What's her name this time?" Elvira asked him knowingly, her eyes flicking to the cluster of new customers by the door as she reached for a bottle of firewhiskey.

The bottle hit the ground with a crash that made the whole bar stop dead, turning to look at her, but Elvira wasn't paying attention. Iliana stopped singing, eyeing her sister and the newcomers curiously, before surprise and understanding washed over her face. Newt shyly slid away from Kowalski, leaving Tina to muscle him into a nearby chair, and stepped forward.

"Hello," he offered, the back of his neck and his ears going red at the attention. Many people were looking between him and Elvira, whose hand was still framing her grip on the bottle that was shattered around her feet.

"Oi, what are you lot staring at?" demanded the man Elvira had been about to serve. He waved his wand, letting out a series of sharp pops that startled everyone out of their stupor. "Crawl back in your glasses, the lot of you!"

Elvira shot the man a grateful look, and with a wave of her hand his empty glass began to fill up again. He took it and raised it to her in toast, but she was back to staring at Newt.

He had expected her to step out from behind the bar, but she did no such thing, and when she moved he wondered why he'd expected anything less. Her hands planted on the bar and in one smooth motion she vaulted across it, her boots thudding as they hit the floor heavily. The reason for her cane was obvious - she had a limp favoring one leg, and she'd left her walking stick behind by the bar as she crossed the room, mouth open loosely and just staring at him. Newt watched her approach silently, shoving his hands in his pocket to keep from wringing them nervously. Instinctively, he dipped his head to hide behind a tumble of ginger curls, eyes starting to slide away from her to the floor.

The pointed toe of her boots came to a stop a few feet from the end of his loafers and for a moment, nothing happened. Newt could feel the curious eyes of the other customers darting to them and away despite what the man at the bar had said, but Iliana was singing again and drawing eyes from them decently well.

"So, what, you came all the way to New York to stare at my floors, English?"

He'd heard her voice before - she'd put special effort into that - but it was very different hearing it come out of an open locket or a lurid red envelope. This time she was right there, and he could hear her soft inhale before she spoke, could hear the laughter in her voice clear as day.

Newt glanced up the length of her, a quick slide rather than a lingering stare despite the fact that he would have quite liked to stand there and take in all the details of her like she was an exotic creature he was studying. Her hands were on her cocked hips and one eyebrow was arched, a wry half-smile on her face as she stared at him expectantly, amusement glittering in her eyes.

"Better," she approved, and stuck out her right hand. "Good to finally meet you, English, I've been looking forward to it."

Pleasantries, he could do pleasantries without sticking his foot too far in his mouth. Newt reached out and took her hand to shake. It was callused and warm. "I have as well. I had h-hoped it would be..." his eyes darted, "a bit less of a mess when I finally did."

"Mess?" Her eyes finally slipped past him to the others who had followed him in. Newt watched as her eyes settled first on Kowalski with confusion and concern, and then slid to Tina, who was standing there with her hands crossed over her chest and a scowl on her face. Elvira's answering scowl was fierce enough to make Newt cringe.

"Funny, I seem to remember this place being raided because Jefferson Bardou, an unregistered werewolf, was spotted here, and you said you didn't know him," Tina said sharply. "But I'm pretty sure that's him playing cards with Maas Oldhof, who is also wanted by MACUSA." She pointed damningly at a smoky corner of the room where a cluster of men were playing some kind of card games, with a few coins and a battered pocket watch sitting in the pot.

"Funny how you're suddenly such a stickler for the law now that you're not an Auror. Course, I suppose it might help you get your position back if you were the one to get the Cactus Cat shut down." Elvira arched an eyebrow and there was a mocking lilt to her tone as she asked, "Where'd you end up? Wand Registry, was it?" She smiled smugly.

Tina stepped forwards angrily "Listen here-"

In response, Elvira reached out her hand and made a snatching and yanking motion in the air. A sound like a church bell being rung echoed through the bar, drowning out Iliana's song. There was a moment of shock and then, with speed that made Newt's head spin with the realization that this was a practiced maneuver, everyone bolted. Some headed for a side door that led into the alleyway they had Apparated into, some bolted past them for the front door, and another group, including Oldhof and Bardou, slipped deeper into the building. In the space of thirty seconds the bar had entirely emptied of everyone except them.

The man who'd quieted everyone earlier was the last one out, dropping a scattering of coins on the bar before slowly swaggering toward the door.

"Swell night, Ellie, back tomorrow." He tipped an imaginary hat to her and then glanced at Tina. "Goldstein. Word of advice - Aurors aren't ever going to touch our girl here, so why don't you lot just take a flying leap, huh?" And with that he was gone, slamming the door behind him.

There was a sharp snap. Iliana had jumped down from the stage, abandoning the soft, sultry look she had adopted for her performance. She approached with an easy grace and, looking over her features, Newt could easily believe she was half-veela.

"Unless I miss my guess, that's a No-Maj you've got there," Iliana said calmly, nodding in Jacob's direction. "And one that is in need of some help."

"Hell," Elvira murmured. "What's wrong with him?" she asked, and moved forwards, breezing past Newt and approaching Kowalski in the chair. She crouched down and Newt caught sight of a twitch in her jaw as she did so, some joint letting out a faint pop. The cane really wasn't just for show. Newt desperately wanted to know what had happened, but this was hardly the time.

"Huh." She reached out and tugged the corner of Kowalski's collar away revealing the bite on his neck more fully. "I don't recognize this bite." Her eyes flicked to Newt questioningly.

"A murtlap," he replied swiftly, moving to her side and observing the bite. It was slightly inflamed and still red. Not surprising, considering it was still technically a fresh bite, but still. He would have liked it to be a bit less swollen though. "Ordinarily it wouldn't be a problem, but he seems to be having a bad reaction to it. I was h-hoping," he admitted bashfully, "I might be able to make use of your potions stores?" he asked hopefully.

Elvira looked up at him and grinned. "Say no more. I'll take it from here, Goldstein," she added, making a faint noise of discomfort as she pushed up into a standing position. There was a crooked grin on her face as she glanced back at Iliana.

"Go on, fix up the No-Maj, I'll lock up," Iliana assured her, waving her hands encouragingly.

"I can't just hand him off!" Tina insisted. "He's my responsibility! I especially can't hand him over to you!"

"Not up to you," Elvira replied with a wink and a shrug. "Go on home to Queenie, I'll mop up this mess."

"I can't..." Tina hesitated as Iliana moved forward, a wand gripped in her hand and a tight smile on her face. Tina paled. "You're not supposed to have a wand..."

"File it under crimes you've seen tonight that you can't report," Iliana replied lightly. "Now go on, shoo! Out, out, out!"

Newt was forced to watch in bemusement as Tina Goldstein was banished from the bar by the younger woman who waved her wand threateningly but never actually used it. Tina scampered backwards one step too far and the door slammed in her face, the lock clicking into place. Iliana looked over her shoulder and her sister and in that silent way siblings had - most siblings had, rather, Newt had never been lucky enough to share it with his brother - they had a whole conversation.

"Come on, English, fetch your No-Maj and I'll get you what you need," Elvira urged, waving a hand. A pair of bottles flew from behind the bar and she caught them in both hands, quickly shifting her grip to hold the necks of both between her fingers. One had a familiar hand-written label on it and the other held something dark brown in color.

"What are those for?" Newt asked as he dragged Kowalski's arm over his shoulder and turned to face her. Elvira winked at him wickedly.

"You and me. I promised you a couple of stories, and nothing makes a night of getting to know each other quite like a few drinks." She stretched out her hand in his direction and wiggled her fingers.

Newt stared at her, because he was utterly blown away by the fact that this... frankly wild sort of woman, who owned a bar and drank hard liquor and banished Aurors from her very illegal bar with barely a flutter of her wand looked so delighted at the prospect of spending the evening with him.

Newt took her hand with a faint smile of his own and ducked his head, hiding behind his fringe.

"Ellie!"

They looked up as Iliana took Elvira's cane from behind the bar and pitched it. Newt dropped Elvira's hand and caught it, presenting it to her shyly. She hooked it through her fingers before grabbing his wrist tightly.

"And off we go," she said cheerfully, pulling him into Side-Along Apparration.

It took Newt a moment to realize they hadn't appeared on her front step, as he would have expected, but that they were standing in the middle of her living room. Peering around, he noted that the place was well-furnished, but it was also definitely the sort of room where the focus was on functionality and furniture that would last over things that were expensive and stylish. Wood textures with reddish undertones and gem tones seemed to be the prevailing color scheme and there were little knickknacks scattered everywhere. His fingers itched to go and look more closely at the titles on the bookshelf to see what Elvira liked to read, or to wander over to small pile of papers sitting on an end table. There were a pair of strappy pumps, likely Iliana's, abandoned beside the couch, and an empty glass remained on the coffee table, the last dregs of what looked like tea in the bottom. It was a home that felt lived-in and warm.

Elvira took Kowalski's arm from him and led him to the couch, sitting him down on the cushions with a whump.

"Before you think I was too harsh on Goldstein, you should know that we have a history, her and I," she noted absently as she leaned down to move Jacob's collar away from the bite on his neck, frowning at it curiously. "I respect the hell out of her, but I don't like her all that much." She glanced up at him and offered a weak smile. "I'm sure I made a great first impression." She rolled her eyes at him self deprecatingly and grabbed the empty glass off the table, lifting the bottle of brownish liquid that was likely firewhiskey. She sloshed a generous measure into the glass and pressed it into Jacob's hands. "Here, you've had a helluva day. I think you deserve a nightcap."

As Jacob sipped his drink and gagged at the burning sensation, Elvira straightened up and approached Newt. He noticed that, now that it was back in her hand, she leaned heavily on her cane. While it may not have been entirely necessary for her to use all the time, it was clear that whatever had happened to her leg caused her a great deal of pain, which was surprising. Most magical healing methods patched a person right up without the usual aches and pains Muggle doctors might leave behind.

"What do you need?"

"Only a bit of dittany, if you have it," Newt assured her. "I have everything else I need."

She nodded and moved towards the hall that lead deeper into the apartment. Again, Newt was tempted to follow her, to dig deeper into who she was and her life. He'd felt so guilty for swooping in on her like that, with an Auror and a Muggle in the midst of an allergic reaction to a creature bite in tow, but she was handling it wonderfully, rolling with the punches and going about it as if this sort of thing happened to her every day. He did feel somewhat guilty about her having to close the bar to deal with him, though...

"You sweet on her?" Kowalski's words were slightly slurred and Newt looked down at him in surprise. There was a dopey smile on his face as the Muggle looked up at him, a knowing glint in his eyes. "I saw that."

"Saw what?" Newt asked defensively. "No, there's nothing between Miss Blodgarmr and I, nothing at all..."

"Uh huh." Kowalski nodded in a way that made it clear he didn't believe a word of what Newt was saying. "You keep telling yourself that, pal."

Newt flushed as he sat down on a chair and placed the case on the ground in front of himself, flicking the latches open. He looked from it to Kowalski nervously. "It doesn't matter. I... I doubt I'm quite what she expected. I've arrived a bit of a mess, you see?" He smiled weakly before standing from the chair and stepping down onto the ladder that led further into his case, where the remedy he needed would be. He heard Kowalski give a startled laugh above, and smothered his own laugh as the Muggle murmured in awe, "What's in that stuff she gave me?"

"English?"

The sound of Elvira calling his name - his nickname, and he would not start responding to his nationality, damn it, that was a bit too pathetic - above him made Newt pop his head out. Kowalski, in answer to Elvira's questioning stare, was pointing at the suitcase his head was currently sticking out of. With as much dignity as a man mostly inside of a battered suitcase could muster, Newt politely requested, "If you would both join me down here, please?"

There's a sparkle in Elvira's eye as she looks at him and says. "You know, I get the feeling you are going to be a lot more exciting than you gave yourself credit for in our letters." She moves to the couch to help guide Kowalski to his feet and Newt hastens out of the way as she steers the man to the open suitcase. Kowalski stares between it and her questioningly and she nods. It takes a few seconds of tugging and final spell from Newt on his in, but Kowalski makes it inside and Elvira eyes the steeply inclined stairs, more a ladder really, with a hint of nerves. Stairs, really, are her weak point and she's never quite as stable on them as she is on any kind of solid ground. Her knee had given out on stairs before, but usually only after a particularly intense day and night both spent on her feet. That wasn't the case this evening, but she still wasn't keen on the idea of possibly face-planting in front of Newt.

As it turned out, it wasn't an issue. His curly head popped into view and he looked up, seeing her hesitance. He lifted a hand up out of the suitcase and Elvira smiled as she took the first to steps, which lowered her enough to be able to grab hold of him. Her steps were quick but careful and she made her way to the bottom without trouble, lighting on a wooden floor and looking around curiously. There were field journals and textbooks everywhere, anatomy drawings that had obviously bee hand done, labelled bottles or both completed potions and ingredients, hand-rolled pills, scientific equipment, and anything else one could possibly need if one was going to roam the world doing things like rescuing trafficked thunderbirds or trying to save Obscurials. The door opposite the stairs faced outward promising more to this little pocket dimension Newt had created inside his suitcase. It was a wonderful, intensely tricky bit of spellwork, and she knew that from personal experience.

Elvira gave Newt a once over as he filled with a few bottles, pouring them together into a bowl. She was gratified to see the tips of his ears go pink as she concluded, "Definitely more exciting than you gave yourself credit for."

"I can't do it," Credence moaned as Graves enfolded him in his arms.

"I believe in your Credence," the man murmured in his ear, and it felt good to be touched to be held. "You will be honored among wizards if you succeed in this, your name will be remembered forever. You will become the most important of us. I will teach you everything you need to know to be one of us."

Graves thought he meant that he was losing faith in his ability to find the child that the man sought. Credence was certain it could be accomplished, given the signs Graves had told him about. The problem was that he couldn't focus on those signs, not right now. All he could focus on was white-blonde hair and blue eyes looking at him sadly and three days,

Graves couldn't do the things he'd promised because Iliana had already done them. She was the one who took his hand and pulled him gently into her world of magic and wonder. She was the first person to press a wand into his hand and urge him to do something great with it, the first to explain the theories behind the magic, the reason why it worked the way it did. She was his mentor in a way Graves could never be.

But it felt so good to be touched kindly again...

"I want to give you this, Credence."

Graves was sliding a cord around his neck. It was long, and a pendant hung below his chest. It was a triangle cut in half by a line with a circle inside. He'd never seen a symbol like it. He'd have to ask Iliana about it, to see if it was something magically significant, three days...

"I would trust no one else with it," Graves flattered him. "When you find the child, touch it and I will come to you. Then this will all be over and I can take you away from your mother."

Yes. Yes, he would be leaving his Ma behind. Not with Graves, but with Iliana. In three days - two days, now, and he'd carefully avoided thinking that earlier today because then h would be trapped in a loop counting hours and minutes, everything would be okay.