disclaimer: I own nothing
Author's Note: Some political junk mixed with some fluff. Everyone who's read so far, thanks! Still no betaing on this story, but hey -my beta read it four years ago and liked it, so good enough for me. It looks like updates are going to be every four days instead of two to four days. Enjoy!
Newt had to go out the day Queenie and Jacob moved into the room they found. He was partially unsure about leaving Tina alone after the night before, but she insisted that she would be fine.
There were a few things for the creatures that he needed to pick up and he wanted to talk to his publishers about delaying any possible new additions or sequels to his book. While it was something that Newt wanted to do, eventually, with Tina so close to giving birth, he wanted to clarify his intentions when they were very interested in it happening soon. Maybe in a few months. Maybe Tina and the baby could come along.
Newt liked that thought, even though he knew it may not happen. He would, of course, have to discuss it with Tina. But it was nice to think of something that they could do as a family. And the baby would grow up around creatures no matter what.
Newt was walking home now. It was well into the afternoon, but things had taken longer with the publisher than he'd anticipated. Though they had completely understood why he had wanted the meeting, to Newt's relief. There were plenty of people out and Newt was relieved that the somewhat odd things in the bag he was carrying were not visible to the Muggles. He jogged up the stairs to the house, pulling out his keys.
To Newt's surprise, he ended up locking the door instead of unlocking it. Confused, he now unlocked it and opened the door.
"Tina?" he called, walking in.
There was no response.
"Tina?" he repeated.
"In here, Newt." Tina's tone was odd and Newt walked through the living room doorway.
He stopped when he saw Tina sitting at the kitchen table with two wizards. More specifically, Travers and a wizard that Newt did not know. Travers smiled a little at Newt as Newt discreetly set his bag out of in the hallway.
"Ah, Mr. Scamander. Your wife said you wouldn't be gone for much longer."
"Mr. Travers." Newt acknowledged, knowing that whatever reason the ministry wizards were here couldn't be good.
He walked into the kitchen. Tina stood with some difficulty, a hand going to the small of her back. Newt walked over to her and wrapped an arm around her waist, giving her a kiss on the top of her head. He could feel the tension rolling off of her.
"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."
"There's no need to apologize. We've been having quite an interesting conversation with Porpentina."
"May I ask why you're here?" Newt said, not lowering his arm from around Tina's waist. She leaned against him slightly.
"We've come to inform you of a decision the Ministry has made."
Newt's gut twisted slightly, expecting the worst.
"Regarding what, precisely?" he asked.
"Your habits of traveling internationally."
"I haven't travelled internationally since I've been married."
"Which has been about two and a half months, Mr. Scamander." Travers pointed out. "For now, the Ministry has decided that our best course of action is to place you under an international travel ban."
"What?" Newt blinked in shock at this.
"If you travel outside of Britain, you will be arrested and charged. Do you understand that, Mr. Scamander?"
"Yes, but-"
"Why?" Tina interrupted.
Newt looked at her. For once, he just wished Tina would stay out of it and not speak her mind. Travers seemed taken aback.
"Pardon me?"
"For what reason are you placing Newt under an international travel ban?" Tina said.
"We have not forgotten the events of New York and the role he played in them."
"That was well over a year ago. Why is the Ministry only doing this now?"
"Your husband, Mrs. Goldstein, left Britain before the Ministry could pursue this matter. Now that he has returned, we are taking the measures we intended to months ago."
Newt felt Tina bristle and squeezed her waist gently.
"What about me? I was involved with what happened in America."
Newt closed his eyes briefly at this.
"You are still a citizen of America, Mrs. Goldstein, and therefore we can not ban you from travelling internationally, because it would prevent you from returning to your home country." Travers said.
"Thank you, Mr. Travers." Newt said as politely as he could manage.
He had a feeling that Tina was not far away from loosing her rage on the two wizards and that would not end well.
"We'll see ourselves out." Travers nodded to them and walked out, followed by his silent companion.
Neither Newt or Tina said anything until the front door closed. When it did, Tina pulled away from Newt and turned to face him.
"Newt, I'm so sorry." she said.
Newt took nodded a little.
"It's all right, Tina."
"Newt-"
"I wasn't planning on going anywhere any time soon, Tina."
He rested a hand on her belly to prove his point. The baby was very active and Newt felt that it was probably responding to Tina's wound up emotions. He hoped to deter her before she went into a rant about it.
Unfortunately, it seemed too late to do that and Newt had to listen to it as he fetched his bag and went down to put the things inside away. She had worked herself up greatly by the time they went upstairs. Newt was only partially listening at this point, saying things where he felt he was supposed to. It didn't take long, but Newt had heard enough when they were back in the kitchen and he turned to Tina, taking her gently by the shoulders.
"Tina. Stop. Please." he said gently, though he almost felt like laughing.
Tina stopped talking.
"I understand what you're saying, but there isn't anything we can do about it at the moment. And right now, we have more important things to think about than going outside of Britain. "
Tina nodded. Her cheeks were flushed slightly and her eyes were bright. Newt laughed at this point and rested his forehead against hers. Despite the news they had just received, it felt good just to laugh.
"What's so funny?" Tina asked as he shifted, chin resting on her shoulder.
"You."
"Me?"
Tina seemed startled by this, perhaps on the verge of taking offense.
"You're wondeful, Tina." Newt said, not releasing her for a moment.
Tina laughed, but in a way that she didn't entirely understand why he was saying this. Between them, the baby kicked, still seeming riled up. Newt and Tina released each other.
"I think you both need to calm down a little."
Tina's increased anger and subsequent rant probably had something to do with the pregnancy, but Newt knew enough by now to not say anything.
"Maybe." Tina agreed.
Apparently Tina had missed lunch because of the ministry wizards and Newt had as well, so Newt made a quick meal.
"What did they talk to you about before I got home?" Newt asked once they were sitting down and eating.
"Asking me about you. How I like Britain so far. Travers talked about the Auror department a little."
Tina was suddenly quiet. Newt closed his eyes for a moment. He had a feeling why she was.
"Did he speak to you about the rape?"
"Tried to. A little."
Newt felt a surge of anger. He wasn't usually prone to such sudden bursts of the emotion, but this was one of the few things that could trigger it.
"He moved on pretty quickly."
Tina stared at the table. The mood swings seem to be back today. Newt clenched his jaw. He had no love for Travers and knew that there was no way the man could have known about the day they'd had yesterday, but there had been absolutely no reason to bring it up. Tina reached forward and took his hand.
"Newt, please. Let it go."
Newt said nothing, but stared a little mutinously at the table top.
"People like Travers are going to bring it up." Tina's tone was almost gentle.
"It doesn't mean they should, Tina."
Newt wasn't entirely sure how to explain his feelings towards the subject without making Tina angry with him, even though it would be inadverdently. Tina withdrew her hand from his. She hadn't been eating much before, but her hunger must have taken over, because she finished the meal.
"Why did you want to talk to your publisher?" Tina asked him as he was cleaning up afterward.
Newt paused, wondering if she would see the irony in what the meeting had been about and him coming home to discover that he wouldn't be able to travel internationally anyway. He told her.
Tina stared at him. Newt sighed slightly.
"I know." he said.
Tina stared at him for another moment, then smiled slightly.
"You wanted us to go on an expedition together? With the baby?"
"We would have had to talk about that, of course. I mean, I would completely understand if you didn't want to." Newt said immediately.
"I would like it." Tina said.
Newt felt his eyebrows go up.
"You would?"
Tina nodded.
"And I like that you want to share something that you love like that as a family."
Newt smiled at this.
"Well, it's out of the question for the foreseeble future in any case." he said as Minty padded into the kitchen.
"It could happen some day." Tina pointed out, hand going to Minty as the kneazle launched herself up on to her shoulder.
Newt nodded, smiling again at the thought.
XXXXXXXX
Later that night Newt and Tina were alone. They'd had dinner with Queenie and Jacob, as had become usual. Newt wondered just how long Queenie and Jacob were going to stay. He knew they were all aware that this was something that couldn't last, but none of them had openly broached the subject.
Newt knew that Queenie and Tina had spoken about them returning when the baby was born, if they had left by then. Newt wondered where Queeie and Jacob would go after here.
Newt and Tina were in their bedroom, Newt riffling through some of his notebooks, looking to see if he'd written down how to get rid of scale parasites from occamy. While they weren't dangerous or anything else, they were annoying to the occamy and would quickly spread to the rest of the nest. Tina was leaning back on the bed, pillows beneath her back, watching him.
Newt sighed, tossing another one down on to the nightstand, where the rejects were.
"I know I wrote it down somewhere. But I've never dealt with it myself." he said to Tina, running a hand through his hair.
"You'll find it." Tina said, smiling slightly.
It was a lazy sort of evening, one of the most peaceful they'd had in quite some time. Tina was running her hands in slow circles over her belly in an absent manner.
"You're right." Newt said, skimming through another one.
There was probably some sort of spell he could use to find it, but if there was, he wasn't aware of it. He decided to give up when that notebook yielded no results. He would find it in the morning.
Instead, he picked up a jar and walked over to Tina, offering it to her. Tina eyed it with a slight frown.
"Is that what you used on Minty?" she asked.
Newt laughed at this, shaking his head.
"No." he said, smiling a little. "It's for stretch marks."
One of Tina's eyebrows cocked upward at this.
"I read about it so I followed the recipe and made some for you, if you want it." Newt felt a little awkward about this for some reason.
Tina smiled at this.
"You're sweet, Newt." she said.
"Do you want it?" Newt asked, not entirely certain if this declaration was good or not.
"Well, you went to all the trouble of making it." Tina said.
Newt handed her the jar and sat down on the edge of the bed beside her. He unbuttoned Tina's shirt and, to Tina's apparent amusement, saw the baby moving faintly beneath her skin. He placed his hands on either side of Tina's belly, smiling faintly as he felt the movement.
"I think it takes after you." he told Tina.
Tina laughed slightly, but didn't question it. The baby kicked a little harder at Tina's laughing. Newt leaned forward and kissed Tina's belly just above her navel. Tina smiled and he leaned back as the baby kicked again.
He took the jar back and took the lid off and dipped his hand into it. Despite Tina's questioning, it wasn't anywhere near as thick as the ointment he had slathered on Minty. Tina sighed in contentment as Newt began to spread it across her belly. They were both silent for a minute or so.
"I didn't think it would be like this." Tina said, raising her head from the pillow to look at Newt.
"What would be?" Newt asked, glancing up at her.
"Being married."
"Well, I think we've had a bit of a rough start compared to most." he said, a little quietly.
"That's not what I meant. I guess I never imagined moments like these."
Tina turned her head to glance out the window.
"Is that good or bad?" Newt asked, scooping more of the cream out of the jar.
"Good. Definitely good." Tina said, smiling slightly.
Newt thought about this. He had never truly envisioned married life all that much before he had proposed to Tina. And if he'd thought about getting married before that, it had been with a very vague sense that he knew what marriage was supposed to be like.
"Did you ever think about getting married?"
"I did when I married you."
Newt laughed slightly.
"I meant before. How much did you really think about it in general?"
Tina frowned slightly at this.
"Not that much. I had this vague thought that it would happen some day, but..." Tina trailed off and shrugged.
"Me as well. I never thought about marrying anyone until you."
Newt happened to glance up again when he said this and saw Tina's smile at this. It didn't take him much longer to finish spreading the cream across Tina's belly and when he did, he placed the jar on her bedside table. Newt climbed over Tina's legs and flopped on to his back beside her, letting out a deep breath.
"I love you, Newt." Tina said after a moment.
Newt took Tina's hand and laced his fingers through hers.
"I love you too."
They stayed that way for a while, talking a little, content in the warm laziness surrounding them. Newt started to doze off at one point and jerked up, waking Tina up in the process.
"What's wrong?" Tina asked, sitting up bleary eyed.
"Nothing. Sorry. Go back to sleep." Newt said, rubbing his face with one hand.
"Well, I'm awake now." Tina said grumpily.
Newt didn't bother to argue and they both decided to at least get out of their clothes before trying to go back to sleep. Tina shocked Newt by kissing him deeply, giving him a feeling of where things could head. For some reason the thought disturbed him when she was so pregnant, even though it was her idea. He pulled away.
"No." he said.
Tina sighed, but she didn't seem angry and laughed a little at this.
"All right. It was just an idea."
She gave Newt a much more chaste kiss and lay down, pulling the blanket over herself. Newt sat there for a moment, contemplating this, then lay down beside Tina.
Author's Note: Short, I know. I put two 'sections' in each chapter, meaning one divide. Some are longer, some are shorter. This one turned out shorter. Reviews are always welcome no matter how long it's been since the chapter was posted.
Please review!
