A/N: I'm so glad you all enjoyed the first chapter! This one's short but sweet(...ish)

When Newt stirred again, he was lying on his side, propped against the pole. An experimental twitch proved that his thumb had been healed and his cuffs put back on. Before he could decide whether moving was a good idea, he felt the sting of medicine on one of his cuts. He started fully awake, looking up to see Queenie kneeling over him.

"Relax," she soothed. She had rolled her sleeves up and donned some gloves; there was a bottle of dittany and a pile of bandages on the floor beside her. "I'm just patching you up. The boss came down after dinner to find you'd passed out trying to escape. He laughed, but I suppose he found it admirable enough to let you rest."

If he could've, Newt would've shifted away, but she had him effectively trapped between her and the pole. "I would relax better if I hadn't been kidnapped and tortured."

Queenie's fingers hesitated for the briefest moment. "This wouldn't be happening if you'd just cooperate, honey."

Newt lifted his head in disbelief. "Are you- are you blaming me for this? Queenie, Grindelwald is kidnapping people. He's torturing them, killing them."

"He's trying to make the world a better place," she insisted. "When he's done, I'll be able to marry Jacob."

"No, you won't," Newt pushed. "Queenie, I've seen what he does to Muggles. It's- it's barbaric. He kills babies."

Queenie shook her head, her voice hardening. "He- he doesn't."

"Queenie, he told me he's manipulating you, just look at my memories-"

"No!" she snapped. "He says you'll just try to use my sister against me."

Newt fell silent, looking up at her in despair as she avoided his gaze. He knew how to get even the most uncooperative, deadly magical creatures to let him take them to safety, but when it came to the few human friends he had, he was at a complete loss.

Queenie finished up, collecting the unused supplies and conjuring a rope to tie his cuffs to the pole. "Please," she murmured, "just tell him what he wants to know, and this'll all be over."

"No, it won't," Newt whispered.

If I tell him what he wants to know, it'll get Tina and Theseus killed.

If Queenie heard the despairing thought, she gave no indication of it as she walked away, simply telling him "Grindelwald will be back in the morning."

-FB-

Theseus picked half-heartedly at the small dinner Tina had cooked up for them. He hadn't wanted to take a break, but she had relayed Jacob's unfortunately good points, and he had reluctantly agreed. They had been silent ever since.

Finally, Tina broke it. "Is it good?" she asked tentatively.

"It's… it's good," he said, trying to sound genuine. "Sorry, it is, I'm just… you know."

Tina nodded, nibbling at her forkful of food. "Queenie… Queenie's the real chef. She loves it. Cooking."

Theseus smiled a little, nostalgic. "From the moment he was old enough, Newt was always offering to help Mum in the kitchen. He never got very good at it, but he loved it."

"You must have a lot of childhood stories."

"Oh, so many. Did you know that the first time Newt broke his arm, he was trying to climb after a squirrel and the branch broke beneath him?"

Tina laughed. "That sounds like Newt."

"Yeah," Theseus murmured, letting the word trail off. He looked left, to the framed photo on the counter of him, Jacob, Bunty, Tina, and Newt. "We were in the war together, you know, Newt and I. Same unit. He got drafted, and I practically begged my commanding officer to pull some strings to get him and his dragons assigned to our unit. It worked, and for nearly the entire war, I watched it eat away at his heart and soul. I watched it nearly kill him in so many ways, and I couldn't get him sent home, where he belonged. But I never once felt as terrified for him then as I do now. Because at least then, I was with him."

Tina reached across the table, squeezing Theseus's hand in both of hers. "We'll save him, Theseus. We will. Because failing is not an option."

As he looked up to meet her eyes, his gaze fell on the scarf she now wore – the one Newt had bought her – and the words slipped out.

"You love him, don't you?"

Tina blinked, pulling back abruptly. "Wh-what?"

"Please. I see the way you look at him. The way you stand behind him and glare at anyone who insults his various oddities. And I hear the way you talk about him when he's not around."

She cleared her throat, brushing her fingers along the hair by her right temple. "We were… ah, we were going to tell you at lunch-"

"That you're dating?"

Her eyes jerked up, flying wide. "You know?"

"I wouldn't be much of an investigator if I didn't."

"We didn't want to…"

"Remind me of what Leta and I had?" Theseus finished, offering up a reassuring smile. "Tina, I will never begrudge you and Newt your happiness, no matter how you find it. And I would be honored to have you as my sister-in-law."

"I- We aren't- It's not-" Tina spluttered.

Theseus smirked, taking his plate to the sink. "I know, you've only had three dates."

"How did you-"

"I have my ways, Ms. Goldstein. I have my ways."

And if his ways involved eavesdropping on Jacob helping Newt choose his outfits, well, he didn't have to admit that.

-FB-

Queenie laid in bed, watching Pickett sleep on a scarf she had put on her nightstand for him. It had taken him about an hour to stop trying to break the thin magical thread tying him to her lamp, and watching his struggle had made her wonder.

Well, that wasn't quite true. From the moment Grindelwald had announced his plan to kidnap Newt, she had wondered. And then when Newt had called her naïve. And then when she had heard his screams, muffled in her ears, agonizingly clear in her mind. And then when she heard his heartbroken thought, that he had to suffer to protect her sister and his brother.

She had wondered for days now – longer, if she was truly honest with herself – was she on the right side? Had she chosen correctly, back in Paris?

This is war, my dear, Grindelwald had told her the first time she saw him torture. This is war, and war often requires nasty measures.

It made sense, she told herself, even as a voice in the back of her head that sounded like Tina whispered that her sister would never torture someone for information. And she especially wouldn't let someone, even her superiors, torture someone she cared for.

Just look at my memories.

Newt had always told her not to read his mind. For him to blatantly tell her to do it now…

We'll change the order of things, Grindelwald had promised. We'll make things right.

She remembered the image that had flashed through Newt's mind when he thought of Tina, the image of Tina in a fancy dress, glowing in the sunlight, beaming as she played with Pickett.

Why should their love flourish while mine is doomed?

Queenie clenched her eyes shut, curling up tightly, her arm pressed over her ear.

As much as she missed Tina, as much as she hated what was happening to Newt, she couldn't go back to them. They were fighting to restore order, to keep it the same, to keep the same laws that made her love illegal. Grindelwald was promising the opposite.

No matter how much it broke her heart, she had to hold on to that promise.

But at what cost?

-FB-

Newt laid on the cold hard floor, contemplating another escape attempt. He felt a little stronger, after Queenie's ministrations, but he didn't trust that another attempt to dislocate his thumb wouldn't end in passing out again. And there really wasn't much point to further escape attempts if he couldn't stay conscious to see them through, not to mention the unknown number of Grindelwald's followers he would have to fight off with neither his wand nor his creatures whilst injured.

No, it was best to stay put. Stay put, and wait, and hope.

"Where are you, Theseus?" he whispered into the empty room. "Where are you, Tina?"

Of course, no one answered him. Not even the soft squeak of a creature.

Swallowing down the sudden surge of loneliness, Newt curled up as best he could, wriggling for several minutes before finding a vaguely comfortable position that alleviated some of the pain. Tucking his chin against his chest, he closed his eyes, and tried not to dream of Theseus and Tina getting killed trying to rescue him.