Chapter Text
1935
Newt is in a terrible mood. He began his day by shouting at an idiot trainee who accidentally let half the creatures in rehab loose. They’d been able to wrangle everyone back into the center, but a handful of the beasts were re-injured — stitches torn out, healing bones broken again, fevers from overexertion — which was incredibly poor timing given that three dragons were due to arrive that afternoon. Newt set his veterinary staff to work triage, causing them to fall behind schedule on the other creatures’ needs.
When he finally received the dragons three hours late, the critical information files he was promised would accompany each were missing, and one of them happened to be seriously ill with no prior mention of any illness. After he finished quarantining the irascible dragon and finding space for the other two, he received a scathing letter from a publisher disparaging his entire manuscript and suggesting that he seek another “hobby.”
All in all, by the time he gets home, Newt is ready to punch a wall. Only for the sake of seeing Ally and Graham had he taken a risk and allowed a hopefully trustworthy intern to stay late and finish things up so that he could make it back to his family by half six. He knows he’s been absent lately: a ring of smugglers was discovered in Uzbekistan, and for some unknown reason creature cruelty and abuse has been on the rise. This means later nights, more beasts, not enough staff, and no time or energy left to work on his book. He must admit that he also suffers occasionally from tunnel vision, but as far as he can tell his behavior hasn’t really affected his family. After all, Tina has certainly stepped up to the parenting plate ever since Ally was born and Newt’s career took off.
When he opens the door, however, Tina’s kneeling down and comforting a hysterical Ally while Graham sulks in the corner. There’s no dinner in sight, the apartment is a mess, and Newt nearly turns around and leaves.
“Daddy!” Ally cries, launching herself at him. He feels terrible at the frustration bubbling up when she does, but he pries her arms from around his neck and drops her back onto the ground.
“Daddy’s tired,” he says brusquely. His daughter’s face falls. Dammit.
“Newt,” Tina says, eyes flashing a very clear warning.
He takes a few calming breaths.
“Well,” his wife groans as she gets to her feet, “I’d better start on dinner.”
“It’s nearly six o’clock,” Newt snaps.
She raises an eyebrow at him. “So?”
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what his answer is. So, you’re supposed to have food on the table when I get home from work. What is wrong with him? He’s never like this, never one to take his wife or family for granted. And yet.
“Fine,” Tina says smoothly. “Grammy, apologize to your sister.”
The three-year-old trots out of his corner and glowers at Ally. “Sorry,” he says insincerely.
Ally looks at Newt helplessly. Normally he’d step in, tell Graham to give a proper apology, but this time he turns away bitterly. Resigned, his poor little girl says kindly, “It’s okay.”
Tina is glaring daggers at Newt from the sink. He avoids eye contact and retreats into the bedroom to change, closing the door with considerably more force than necessary. All but ripping off his tie, casting his waist jacket aside and kicking off his shoes, Newt stands, panting, in the middle of the room. It’s his family, for god’s sake. It’s his job to put on a brave face. He’s mature enough not to take his anger out on his innocent children. He is.
He must ask Jacob how he manages to be so jovial all the time. The Kowalski brood is quite lively, to say the least, but by some miracle both Jacob and Queenie seem to manage the chaos seamlessly. Jacob has yet another branch of his bakery opening up in London this summer, but his long nights and stress don’t take a toll to the degree that Newt’s clearly do. Perhaps there’s some sort of little-known charm or potion for strung-out fathers.
“Honey?” Tina calls from the kitchen. With one more sigh, Newt returns to the living room.
“Yes?” he asks in a less-than-pleased voice.
“We’re out of milk and eggs.”
“So?”
“So,” Tina says in a dangerous voice, “I need them for dinner. Ally has to keep drinking milk, the Healer said we’re barely keeping her weight up as it is —”
“Alice is fine,” Newt retorts.
“Whatever is going on ends now,” Tina says through gritted teeth. “Honey,” she continues loudly in a normal, superficially cheerful voice that fools no one, “if you wouldn’t mind getting some milk and eggs, I can get started on the rest of dinner.”
Resentment turns Newt’s vision red. “I just changed.”
“You can go like that,” Tina says offhandedly, and begins chopping up vegetables.
“I just got home.”
“Newt, I’ve been home all day with the kids, who’ve been at each other since breakfast,” she says in exasperation. “I’m only asking for ten minutes of your time.”
He glares at her; steam might as well be coming out of his ears. “I’m tired.”
“You’ll feel better after dinner,” she says shortly. A wave of her wand sends the chopped vegetables into a large bowl. Then she turns to Newt, one hand on her hip and leaning her side against the counter. “Could you please go get the milk and eggs?”
“God, you’re just like Leta sometimes,” he snarls, and instantly regrets it.
Tina’s face goes cold. “What did you just say?”
“I’ll go get the —”
She grabs him by the wrist, glances over at their children — who, for once, are playing nicely together — and leans closer. “What is your problem?” she hisses.
“I’m sorry, I’ve had a long day —”
“So have I!”
“Yes, but you haven’t —”
“You really want to go there? Should we start comparing our days and argue about who works harder? Because if so,” she says, slamming a cutting board on the counter, “then dinner is never going to be made.”
“Fine, I can eat elsewhere.”
“You’re kidding me.”
Before he can shoot back at her, he feels a tug on the hem of his shirt. Glancing down, it’s his daughter, who asks in a small voice, “Daddy?”
“What?” he snaps.
“Graham bit me.” She holds up her hand and sure enough, there’s a nasty red bite mark. Tina has been dealing with their son’s biting habit for weeks now; he notices a few more marks on Ally’s wrist and looks at his wife questioningly. She nods: those were from today. Well, I was dealing with hordes of traumatized beasts, he defends himself unconvincingly.
“What do you want me to do about it?” he asks Ally.
“Why are you angry?” she says imploringly. “I didn’t even cry.”
His heart breaks. Everyone knows that Ally is his favorite, that she’s been his kryptonite from the first time he held her. He’s lost his patience with her only a few times in the past four years. But at this point, he’s utterly and completely done with everything, and finds himself brushing past even the little girl he loves more than life itself.
“Come here, sweetie,” Tina murmurs, kneeling down to inspect the injury.
“I’ll be back,” Newt mutters. Ally turns around and gazes at him dolefully, while Tina’s expression is indescribably not okay.
He steps out onto the landing and stands there, trying to calm himself. Just as he’s about to Apparate to the store, however, he realizes he forgot his shoes. With an angry groan, he opens the door again and Summons them from the bedroom. Unfortunately, his son, toddling around the living room, is caught in the crossfire, and as a result gets smacked in the back of his head, falling forward onto the carpet with a loud yowl.
“Why were you standing there?!” Newt says furiously.
“Newt!” Tina barks. One glimpse is enough to tell that he’d made her cry, that the second he slammed the door her lower lip started quivering and her face crumpled as she gave into tears, carefully hidden from their children. He knows the look, and it wounds him to the core.
“I’ll be back,” he says again, and shoves his feet into his shoes. Graham has sat up on the carpet, sobbing as Tina races over to comfort him.
“Mumma, it’s bleeding!” Ally cries from the kitchen. “It’s bleeding a whole lot ‘cause of the heel —”
“Newt,” Tina stops him in his tracks. “I need a little help.”
“No,” he sneers, “you need milk and eggs.”
Her jaw actually drops before she snaps her mouth shut. “Okay,” she says, and unfolds herself so that she suddenly seems much taller than him. “Grammy, you’re fine,” she tells their son, and gives him a kiss. “Ally, put the bandage on like I showed you.” Ally nods, red pigtails bobbing up and down. “Daddy and I need to have a talk,” she informs both children. “Could you go to the playroom?”
“C’mon, Graham,” Ally says dutifully, taking her brother’s hand. “Mumma and Daddy need to talk.” For once, her brother listens.
Then Tina leans over and slams the front door. Newt, who’d been leaning on it and grasping the knob for support, nearly topples over. Before he opens his mouth, she casts a Muffling charm on the playroom and turns on him.
“Where should I begin?” she asks viciously.
“Er…”
“First of all, I don’t care what kind of day you’ve had, or whether or not you’re mad at me, but you will not treat your own children that way!” she shouts, cutting right to the chase. “Ally’s been crying for you all day, Graham had absolutely nothing to do with you stupidly deciding to send objects flying around the house with young kids running around, and you will never ignore your injured daughter OR son again.”
“I’m not mad at you —”
“You’re doing an awfully good job faking it, then!” she yells. “You think it’s easy staying at home and dealing with biting and crying and Ally always wanting you and asking why you have to be gone so long? Graham — you’ve barely been spending any time with him, and he knows it. There’s a reason he’s biting, Newt! It’s because he’s getting no damn attention from his own father!”
“I…” Newt knows she’s right; he’s been wearing thinner and thinner in the past few weeks. Much as he loves his son, Ally has always been easier to engage, and try as he might he can’t help but have slight favorites. It’s easy, therefore, for Graham to fall by the wayside.
“And now,” Tina says, her voice trembling, “should we talk about Leta?”
He flinches. “That was very poor judgment on my —”
“I don’t care what kind of judgment you had!” She throws her arms in the air helplessly. “You compared me to the girl who broke your heart, who’s the reason you were so guarded in the first place, who took advantage of you when you were just a kid, and no matter how dumb and insignificant it seems, it still hurt you. You compared me to the woman who betrayed you — the woman you’ll never fully forgive.”
Newt’s eyes flicker wildly about the room, falling on kitchen appliances and portraits and upholstery — anywhere but his wife. “I know, it’s only that...” It’s only that what? What sort of excuse could he possibly give at this point?
“No,” she says, blinking away tears. “I understand.”
He looks at her hopefully. “Do you?”
“You wouldn’t have let it slip if you never felt that way.” She bites her lip and shakes her head bitterly. “You don’t say things like that if you don’t mean them. If you feel like I’m the same as Leta, then you don’t ultimately want to be with me.”
His stomach drops. “No, Tina, I’m so sorry —”
“I don’t care,” she says fiercely. “I really don’t, Newt. I love our children. But — but I let Alec walk all over me, and I stayed with him because I wanted to believe that he still wanted me” — now the tears start for real — “and I will not make that mistake again.”
“I do want to be with you!” Newt insists. After all this time, no matter how comfortable or domestic their relationship gets, no matter how much they may bicker, he’s as in love with his wife as he was when he first fell for her. Even more so, in fact. It dawns on him too late that he hasn’t been showing it.
“Really? Because all you’ve been doing is coming home when you would clearly rather be at work, either staying up until long after I go to bed or going to sleep right after dinner, and you haven’t even read to the kids in weeks.”
“I love you,” Newt says quietly.
“Yes,” Tina says through her tears, “but sometimes that’s not enough.”
She turns her back on him as his mouth and brain are working furiously to come up with a suitable response. Taking a deep breath, she wipes her eyes and rubs a hand over her face. Then she lifts the Muffling charm and opens the playroom door.
“Come on,” she says brightly, taking Ally and Graham by the hands. “We need to go to the market.”
“Can I have a treat?” Graham asks earnestly.
She smiles at him, and despite how upset she was a minute ago, the genuine love she has for her — their — son is so palpable Newt nearly tears up himself. “Of course you can,” she says warmly, squeezing his hand. “You too, Al.”
“What about Daddy?” Ally asks in concern.
Tina doesn’t even look at him. “Daddy’s tired, but he’ll be here when we get back.”
Graham steps in front of his mother and raises his arms. “Uppy?” he says angelically.
Although Newt knows that she’s been doing her utmost not to coddle the kids, Tina picks him up and plants a kiss on his cheek. “It’s been a long day, huh?” she says quietly. He nods and tucks his head into her neck.
“Bye, Daddy,” Ally says a bit forlornly, and the door shuts behind them.