Newt opened his eyes after a few moments and focused on breathing slowly. The alpha and beta women - Tina and Queenie - were standing a short distance away, and the muggle beta was crouching in front of him. Seeing Newt's eyes open, he smiled and stuck out a hand.
"Hey. You gave us quite a fright there. We thought I'd be least scary, so..." He paused, then held out some water. Newt eyed it suspiciously, and there was a whimper from the blond beta. She turned to bury her head in her sister's shoulder.

"You should drink something. Look, I wanna apologise about hitting you earlier."
Newt felt his heart sink. It was a kind action, he knew that. But the muggle man had hit him with the case when he'd thought he was a beta and hadn't regretted it. It was only now he knew Newt was an omega, weak, that he cared.
"It's alright." He whispered, but he took the offered water and sipped it.

"Queenie said she was sorry she frightened you." Jacob told him, and he was frowning a little as he spoke. Newt supposed he was trying to remember the words. "And that reading Brits, especially purebloods, is hard for her. It's the accent."

Newt blushed a little, trying to keep the same thought rattling around his mind, until Queenie glanced over at him.
"Honey, please can you stop that? You're only frightening yourself and giving me a headache."
Ashamed, Newt nodded, and Queenie took a couple of steps closer.
"I'm going to try and not read your mind. And I gave Teenie some of my perfume to help mask her scent, if that'd be helpful?"
Newt nodded, not trusting himself to speak. She smiled at him, and took another step closer.

"I'd really like to hug you honey. It seems to me that you must be scared, all the way out here on your own-" Newt dug his nails into his palms in an attempt to stop himself thinking about the case, about the fact that he wasn't alone. Queenie continued as though she hadn't heard his thoughts. "But I could tell you wanted to see Director Graves with all that yelling. It's a little late to see him tonight, I'm sorry, but you can stay here tonight and Teenie can take you in the morning. Is that alright?"

Newt nodded quickly, careful to stare to the side of her. She had stopped a short distance away, but he was still nervous. He needed to be out finding his creatures and he was thinking again and if They found out his thoughts... He could feel another panic attack building, but Queenie quickly backed away blinking back tears.
"We're going to have some food now. You need food." She murmured, heading to the kitchen and starting to work. With hers and Tina's eyes off him, he could relax a little. He just had to get out and find his creatures.

Jacob appeared to be focused on the cooking, so he started to make his way over to the door, resting his hand on the doorknob.
"Mr. Scamander, you prefer pie or strudel?" Queenie called out, and Newt froze, then stepped away from the door, trying to look like he wasn't planning to escape.
"Um. I really don't have a preference."

Tina glared at him, and he shrunk back.
"You said your brother-"
"I didn't." Newt mumbled. "I said he was my alpha. He is." His thoughts clamoured in his head. Shouldn't answer back. Shouldn't argue. Shouldn't lie.

"You prefer strudel, huh, honey? Strudel it is." Queenie's voice rang out loud and clear, pulling Newt's thoughts from their spiral. Tina was still watching him.
"Sit down Mr. Scamander, we're not going to poison you." Awkwardly, he walked over to take his seat, trying to not notice the glances Queenie kept shooting towards him, her eyes shining bright with unshed tears. She floated over the plates with a smile but didn't seem to expect him to look up at her. For that he was grateful.

The food itself was delicious. Queenie and Jacob were deep in conversation about cooking, and Newt let the noise wash over him, reaching to his side every few minutes when he heard the case pop open. His creatures were getting hungry. He should have been finishing the rounds by now, and instead he was feeding himself. He never ate before his creatures, not if he could avoid it. Theseus always used to laugh when he turned up late for dinner with straw in his hair, but he liked it that way. He was responsible for them. They came first.

Tina was watching her sister in mild concern.
"Don't go getting too attached Queenie. He's going to have to be Obliviated. It's nothing personal."

At that, Jacob fell silent. Newt risked a glance at him, and saw how frightened he looked. As Queenie reached towards Jacob he stood up smartly.

"Miss Goldstein." Tina first, he wouldn't dare address a beta before an alpha. "Miss Goldstein." That was to Queenie, who was fussing at Jacob's side. "I think Mr. Kowalski could do with an early night. And besides, you and I will need to be up early tomorrow morning to find my Niffler so-"
"What's a Nif-Oh that's adorable!" Queenie squealed. "Please bring it back so I can meet him?"
"He's a terror." Tina muttered. "You guys can bunk in there." She gestured towards a back room, and Newt nodded quickly, walking there. Jacob followed Newt to the room, and Newt paused.

"I..." He hesitated, and made his way to the bed nearer the window, so that in an emergency there was an escape route. "If it's all the same to you..." He sat on the edge of his bed and toed off his shoes, then lay down wearing his clothes. "I'd rather sleep like this?" An omega's body was for their alpha alone to see. Even being seen in nightclothes was indecent. Theseus wouldn't mind of course, but Newt could feel his fear crawling under his skin like a flobberworm. He didn't want to make it worse in case he passed out again.

"Whatever you feel good about." Jacob said. "Queenie... she didn't say much. But she said someone had hurt you real bad. I know I'm not... I know I'm not magic. But I'm not going to let you get hurt again."
"I don't need protecting because I am an omega." Newt murmured, laying down in bed and wrapping a quilt around himself, staring at the wall and trying to focus on his breathing. Theseus knew he was in New York. It would be alright. He would meet Graves tomorrow and get his creatures and all would be well.

"I know you don't." Jacob said. "But you're my friend."

Newt nodded, a little stiff, then the door opened and Newt closed his eyes. Tina walked in.
"I thought you might like a hot drink? There's marshmallows..." Newt heard her hand over Jacob's mug, then place his own on the bedside table.
"The toilet's down the hall on the right." She snapped, and Newt cringed. He hadn't meant to lie. Letting people think what they wanted about Theseus had never hurt him before, always been a shield, but now he was frightened of what he had done.

"Thanks." Jacob murmured as she walked out of the room.

Newt waited until the door closed, then jumped from his bed and headed to his case. The creatures had waited long enough for their meal, and he would be able to help with Jacob's injury. He climbed down, resting his head on the wood of the ladder for a moment and breathing slowly. Jacob had said he was his friend. No one would be able to hurt him in the case, he knew that, knew his creatures were on his side. Cautiously, he reached up and tried to wave Jacob over.
"Come on."

After a moment, footsteps approached, and then Jacob fell in, missing the ladder entirely. Newt turned away to hide a smirk, searching through his bottles for the potion he was looking for.
"Sit down." He instructed, feeling safer now that he was home. He walked closer, turning Jacob's head so he could examine the bite.
"That's definitely the Murtlap. Normally betas don't have a reaction, but because you're a muggle you must have a different physiology..." Relieved, he returned to the workstation, mixing together a poultice which he applied to Jacob's neck. "Stay still. That should stop the sweating, and these-" He handed over two pills, one red and the other green. "Should sort the twitch."

Newt considered as he removed his coat and relaxed a little, starting to hack up a carcass for the graphorns. He had a lot to do, and he was running late. He threw the meat into a bucket and passed it to Jacob.
"Take that."

He picked up his own tablets, swallowing them quickly.
"What are those?"
"Suppressants." Newt said, before blushing. He knew omegas shouldn't take them, but in his line of work heats were an inconvenience at best and fatal at worst. "I made them. So many of the traditional ones contain parts of creatures - there's one that uses bowtruckle fingers of all things..." he reached to pat Pickett, who was sat on his shoulder. "But I found a formulation that no creature has to suffer to create."

His own medicine taken, he started to wonder if any of the creatures were behind on their own. One of the mooncalves had an infected foot he would need to check, the erumpet was in season – and probably missing, he reminded himself. Rose needed milking again, so he pulled her cocoon from where it was resting against his arm, and carefully he squeezed her until her venom started to drip into the glass vial.
"Come on Rosie..." He murmured.
"What've you got there?" Jacob asked from his seat, seemingly intrigued. Newt's face lit up.

"She's called the "Swooping Evil", not the friendliest of names, but quite agile. I've been studying her, I think her venom could be useful to remove bad memories." He threw her out towards Jacob, and Jacob jumped back as Rosie hurried into Newt's hand. He rubbed the cocoon with his thumb and smiled.
"Probably shouldn't let her loose in here though-" He walked over to the door, resting his hand on the handle. He glanced back at Jacob and smiled again. Friends, Jacob had said. It had been a long time since Newt had a human friend.
"Come on."