disclaimer: Still own nothing.
Author's Note: Sorry this is so late! I totally forgot, because I working on getting this on to AO3. I'll post another chapter tomorrow to make up for it.
If anyone is still reading this, please enjoy.
Almost a week later, Queenie and Jacob announced their intention to leave London the next day. Newt couldn't say he was surprised, but he knew he would miss them. Tina's reaction seemed to be similar.
"We'll come back when the baby is born." Queenie said.
"Then we'll be seeing you soon." Newt said with a slight smile.
"Yeah."
"Where are you going now?" Tina asked.
Newt was surprised by the question, considering that Tina hadn't wanted him asking anything similar before.
"Uh...we don't really know yet." Jacob said, sounding awkward.
Tina nodded. She didn't say anything, but Newt could guess at what was going through her mind. He insisted on making dinner that night because of Queenie and Jacob's departure and felt he did a rather good job of it.
They stayed up quite late that night, all of them. When Queenie and Jacob finally left, Newt and Tina went to bed. Newt wondered if Queenie leaving was something he needed to talk to Tina about. She had needed her sister, probably still did, but he knew it would be unfair to hope or expect Queenie to stay longer than she already had. He didn't bring up the subject, however, because Tina, looking exhausted, was asleep almost as soon as she had crawled into bed.
They said goodbye to Queenie and Jacob at the train station the next day. Jacob hugged Newt and Newt hugged his friend back.
"If you two ever come back to New York, stop by the bakery. Anything will be on the house." Jacob said as he stepped back.
"Thank you, Jacob." Newt said. "The two of you are welcome any time."
Jacob nodded. Tina and Queenie embraced tightly and when they parted, Queenie handed Tina a soft looking package wrapped loosely with brown paper and twine.
"Open it." Queenie encouraged.
Tina did and smiled, laughing slightly.
"Thank you, Queenie."
Newt saw that it was a small quilt, in ivory and green, made of the material Queenie had bought before.
"Let us know when the baby comes. Hopefully we'll be back before then."
Tina nodded. They said goodbye after this and Newt and Tina stood watching as Queenie and Jacob headed to catch their train. They stood there until the train began to pull out. Newt looked at Tina and saw that there were tears in her eyes. She was hugging the quilt to her chest. Newt wrapped his arm around her waist and had to clamp his other hand over Pickett, who had tried to come out of his pocket with a concerned squeak.
"Not now, Pick." he said quietly.
"Are you okay?" he asked Tina.
Tina nodded.
"Yeah. I am."
Newt said nothing more and they walked out of the train station.
Later, at home, Newt found Tina in the baby's room with Minty. Minty was perched on her mistress's shoulder and Tina was standing by the cradle.
"Tina?"
Tina turned.
"Yes?" Her hand went up to stroke Minty and Newt saw that Tina had placed the carefully folded quilt in the cradle.
Newt walked over to her and said nothing for a few moments.
"Are you okay?" he asked, repeating his previous question. He felt that Queenie's departure may have been effecting her somewhat.
Tina nodded.
"I am. It's just..." Tina trailed off, not seeming to know how to describe what she was about to say.
"You're worried for them." Newt filled in.
Tina nodded.
"And it's strange. I've been responsible for Queenie pretty much our entire lives. We were always going to go our seperate ways, but..."
"You didn't expect it to be like this."
"No. I didn't." Tina reached up and gently touched the Thunderbird on the mobile, causing it to sway slightly. "It ended months ago, really. When she left. But I don't think I was ever prepared for everything that came after."
Standing behind Tina, Newt slid his arms around her, hands resting on her swollen belly. The baby stirred beneath his hands.
"You never could have expected it."
"No, I couldn't have." Tina said quietly.
"Do you regret any of it?" Newt asked.
"Yes." Tina turned her head slightly. "I do. But if I could, I don't think I would change it."
There could be something to say about that, but Newt didn't know what it was. He felt if he were able to somehow go back and stop Tina from being raped, he would. But he wouldn't change marrying her or even the baby. It was a complicated thought, twisted up together with a lot of emotions and circumstances. Minty leapt down Newt's back and trotted out of the room.
Tina leaned into Newt for a moment.
"This isn't one of the things I regret." she said.
"I'm glad."
Tina reached back, hand resting on Newt's cheek for a moment. She lowered it and turned to him. She smiled.
"I think that's enough dwelling for one day." she said.
Newt smiled back. They left the room and headed downstairs. Tina headed to the Tadfoal. Already, it was bigger and more developed than it had been when they had brought it home.
"Will it hatch soon?" she asked.
"I think so. But I'm not sure how old it is." Newt said as he grabbed some bandages from behind her.
One of the Auguries had a sore foot that needed tending to. The creatures took longer than usual and when Newt was done, he found Tina sitting by the kelpie, using her wand to toss fish far out into the water. Beneath the surface, the kelpie darted back and forth, snatching them as they hit.
"You're going to make him fat if you keep feeding him like that." Newt said.
Tina laughed.
"He needs the exercise."
"I think accompanying it with food defeats the point."
Newt sat down beside Tina and simply watched for a while, enjoying the peace of the moment.
XXXXXXX
The Tadfoal hatched five days later.
Newt and Tina stood at the edge of the pool. It was hard to tell, but Newt could see the nearly transparent cracks on the surface. The Tadfoal was thrashing inside, fighting to be born, but it wasn't making much headway. Newt slipped into the pool. It only reached about as high as his chest and he went over to the egg.
"What are you doing?" Tina asked, sliding into the water after him.
"In the wild, the mother helps the foal." Newt explained as he gently touched the egg. "The egg is too tough for it to get out on its own. It's a measure of protection against predators."
He ran his hands over the egg, feeling for a weaker point to assist the foal. Tina reached out hesitantly, but when Newt didn't tell her to leave it alone, she felt the egg as he was. Tina found the spot first and dug her fingers into the crack, working to expand it.
"In the wild, the mare uses her teeth and then consumes the egg." Newt told her, holding the egg steady.
Tina looked up at him. "I'm not doing that."
Newt laughed.
"I just thought it was an interesting fact."
Tina stepped back when she had widened the hole somewhat. The Tadfoal's nose shot out and the egg thrashed out of Newt's hands. A small hoof squeezed out beside the nose, then the rest of the head. Eyes still closed, the baby shook and fought back and forth until its tail slid out and it was suddenly free.
Instead of shooting to the surface, the foal started to sink, flicking its tail in a manner useless to get it to the surface. Tina reached down and caught it, helping it the surface. As soon as it's nostriles were free of the water, the foal inhaled and then exhaled sharply, snorting out water with a loud squeal, thrashing its legs. Newt laughed at the sound, smiling and Tina allowed him to support the foal as she lost her grip on it.
"Well done." he said as the little horse stilled in his arms, breathing in and out, looking around itself.
Tina was smiling at it.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Female." Newt answered, glancing up at her.
Over the next few minutes, the Tadfoal began to squirm in Newt's arms, testing her tail and her legs. She still hadn't gotten the hang of it when she tried to get out of them.
"Help her, Tina, please." Newt said, sliding the baby into her arms.
"What are you doing?"
"Making a bottle." Newt said, wading back to the edge of the water and hoisting himself out.
It didn't take long to make a bottle -Newt had been experimenting with making ones that would be suitable for a hippocampus. He warmed it with magic and returned to the pool, where Tina was guiding the foal in a slow circle as it continued to test its tail. Newt slid back into the water and gently touched the nipple of the bottle to the foal's lips. She didn't know what to do with it at first. Newt couldn't blame her. It was foreign to every instinct the little hippocampus had. But when he squeezed some milk out, she latched on hungerly and began sucking.
"What do they do in the wild?" Tina asked.
"The mother keeps the baby close enough to surface of the water so it can breathe. Some of the others in the herd help. When it can swim, they go below the water."
"Can they breathe down there?"
"Somewhat. They do need to come up for air every now and then, because they can't absorb enough from the water." Newt said, tipping the bottle a little higher so the baby could get more.
They were both silent, watching the foal with smiles as it guzzled the milk. She finished the bottle and then swished her tail again.
"Let her go now, Tina. Let's see how she does." Newt said, setting the bottle on the edge of the water.
The foal swam around them carefully and then managed to get the hang of it.
"Can we leave her alone?"
"We'll have to feed her often and I'll put something in for her to lay on so she can sleep with her head out of the water." Newt said, climbing out of the pool. He helped Tina awkwardly and they sat on the edge, watching the Tadfoal.
"What are you going to name her?"
"I'm not going to name her." Newt said.
"Why?"
"You are."
Tina looked surprised. "Me? Why?"
"Why not?"
Tina seemed to be trying to think of a good response to this.
"Think of it as practice for the baby." Newt said with a smile.
Tina laughed at this and they watched the Tadfoal frisk around in the water, seeming delighted with her ability to swim. Newt wished he had another hippocampus. He and Tina would make very poor substitutes. Tina was watching the foal thoughtfully as it swam back to them, obviously finding security in them. Tina stroked the foal's nose. Newt was silent, letting her think. The foal nuzzled Tina's hand, but it already seemed to be getting sleepy. Newt drew his wand and created a rock in the pool that was high enough for the foal to sleep and still breathe.
"I don't know...how about Tempest?" Tina said as the Tadfoal suckled on her fingers.
Newt smiled.
"I think it works." he said.
The newly named Tempest started to fall asleep shortly after this and Newt guided her to the rock so she could sleep, which she did almost instantly. Newt climbed back out of the water.
"She's going to be so lonely." Tina said, watching the Tadfoal.
"Only until she's big enough to share water." Newt assured her. "And one of us will be seeing her every two hours for a while."
They went back upstairs together, to give Tempest as much peace as she was ever going to get in the basement.
They both returned two hours later to give Tempest her bottle, though after that Newt let Bunty handle it for a while. After he and Tina went to bed that night, Newt was the one that got up to feed Tempest again. Tina had insisted that he wake her, but in Newt's opinion she was the one that needed more sleep. And once the baby was born, she would be the one primarily waking up to feed it overnight.
When Newt was creeping back into bed an hour before dawn, he could tell Tina was dreaming. Perhaps not a nightmare, but not a good dream either. He considered waking her, but instead just slid his arms around her and held her close before drifting back to sleep himself. Tina let him sleep in that morning while she and Bunty took care of the creatures and fed Tempest. Newt was grateful for it. It was impossible to get truly restful sleep when you fell asleep for less than two hours at regular intervals.
"You should have woken me up." Tina said as they watched Tempest.
"We didn't both need to be up." Newt pointed out.
Tina was using her wand to create small spurts of water in the pool, which Tempest semeed to find delightful, if the squeals she gave as she chased them were to be interpreted.
"What's going to happen to her?" Tina asked, looking at Newt.
"When she can survive independantly, I'm hoping to release her into the wild. Hippocampus are herd animals. She needs to be with her own kind one day."
Tina nodded just as Tempest flicked her tail too hard and shot forward a little too far, bumping her head into the wall. The Tadfoal squealed and zipped over to Newt and Tina, clearly upset. Newt took sympathy on her and gently rubbed her head where she'd hit it. Tempest didn't seem to tire of exploring her pool, though there wasn't much to explore and was as mesmerized by the niffler as it was by the gleaming scales on her tail.
Knowing that the niffler wouldn't actually rip scales off of Tempest, Newt let them be, smiling as Tempest splashed water at the niffler and it scrambled backward. It took a seat in Tina's lap, watching Tempest.
"Hey!" Newt gently tapped the niffler's snout as it tried to slide Tina's rings off her finger. "Those are not yours."
The niffler skittered off back into the basement. Tina shook her head slightly at this. They stayed with Tempest for a while before heading back upstairs. As they were leaving, Tempest, who'd been starting to doze off after her bottle, squealed in distress as they began to leave. Tina stopped at this. Newt smiled a little.
"She'll have to get used to us being gone." he said.
"I know. But-" Tempest squealed again. "She's only a day old, Newt."
Tina looked back at Tempest and returned to edge of the pool. Tempest seemed content with this and settled herself on her rock. Newt hovered, smiling as he watched. Once Tempest was asleep, Tina followed Newt upstairs.
"I think you're a mum now." he told her. Tina laughed at this.
"I still have a month."
The words sank in, making Newt pause to think about them. The thought excited him somewhat. And scared him even more.
Author's Note: Not every chapter can be exciting, but I just love Tempest. Had to put her hatching in here.
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