#creaturecase | 004

Dear Newt,

I’ll apologize in advance for the hastiness of this letter. I’m writing it as soon as I can and we’ve got to leave in just a few minutes. You know I was supposed to only be turning in the yearly report and that got balled up. We’ve been on an investigation for-- six weeks now?

I was supposed to be back next week. As you know. Unfortunately, it looks as if that’s changed. Again. There was another sighting of a group they believed to be Grindelwald’s followers. So I’m stuck here. I’ll write you as soon as I can. Might not be for a few days, but I’ll still be at Queenie’s and Jacob’s when I can.

Sorry we have to keep rescheduling that day trip.

Love,

Tina

Reflecting back on that day it was the most formal letter she’d sent to him in years. Not that  she usually had to be sending him letters. Having been on loan to the Ministry of Magic for the fight against Grindelwald had come with its benefits-- The main one, of course, being there had been a lot of day trips. Usually in the case helping take care of his creatures. Other times to quick beast surveying within apparating distances. 

It was a year of the two of them having tiptoed around the subject of courtship until one of those fateful days Tina had enough and kissed him. Of course, since then those days hadn’t changed their outings at all-- And if you asked Tina when their courtship had began she would have been a little flustered to put a date on it having realized that, aside from the kissing, it had been going on much longer than either had assumed.

She’d grown reliant of his company while in England. Days with Newt were a breath of fresh air away from high risk missions and the deaths that accompanied fighting against Grindelwald’s followers. She’d become so accustomed to seeing him and the creatures at least once a week that it was odd not to be surrounded by them. She missed Sapphire and his silly Niffler. And that’s how she knew something was really wrong.

Of course, she missed Newt quite a deal more then any of their creatures. The letter she had written was nearly three weeks ago marking this three months in America. She found she didn’t quite feel as home as she used to in New York. Oh, she still knew the streets--- But she felt out of place. More so now that hers and Queenie’s old apartment was being rented out by someone else. Queenie and Jacob now living together happily allowed Tina to stay with them during the duration, but she couldn’t help feel like an intruder no matter her sister’s and brother-in-law’s rebuffing.

It just wasn’t home. Of course, no place felt at home when at any given second you’d receive an owl or an alert telling you to be in the Auror department within a few minutes. Luckily, all of the calls had largely been false alarms and those that weren’t were far from as bad as she’d seen in England the past few months. Or maybe she’d just become desensitized to horror, but she doubted it was that.

Her days off were beginning to feel more stressful then her days in. At least while she was working she had something to focus on. The first time she had offered to help in the bakery when she had time to do something that had failed miserably. Not to mention it just didn’t help-- The case helped, Newt helped. And she hated to admit how much of her heart seemed to be with the man now, but it was.

She noticed. Queenie noticed. Queenie kept giving her sympathetic looks and Tina cursed herself for not being better at Occulmency. So instead she’d shoo her sister out the door offering to take care of the baby. While not quite the same as dealing with beasts, Tina was quite good at taking care of things now-- Even if she doubted her mothering skills.

Which is why at the moment she found herself rocking the toddler in her arms and staring out the window to the street below. Which is why she’s thinking about the letter she’d sent Newt several weeks before and how she had wished she had something more or something different-- But, to be fair, Tina had been called out and wanted to get something to him.

Still. The only sign of affection she had given him was a simple ‘Love Tina’ and  an apology for missing another “date”. Well, really, it was the same one they’d been talking about-- as if clinging to the day they’d meet up again. And sadly the more it got pushed back the more she had to come to terms with the fact that she did miss him. And Mercy Lewis did she love him.