Chapter Text
It seemed half the ship’s passengers ran to the railing to lean over the side as it floated passed the Statue of Liberty. Newt stayed seated on a bench and swallowed apprehensively as he watched the New York skyline fill the horizon.
It had started off so simply. Theseus had brought around an old school friend who had come over from America on a business trip. Percival Graves as he introduced himself was a pleasant man, a skilled duelist, and took an interest in Newt’s work with creatures that was surprising. Getting along with the man had proven to be easy and that was just as surprising given that Newt wasn’t the most socially adept person Hogwarts had ever turned out.
It had culminated on a rainy night with a well stoked fire and a bed that wasn’t really meant for two people. Percival was gone the next morning, but sent a note that he had been called back to America unexpectedly. He sent other letters after that as well, asking about Newt and his creatures, telling him to be careful in the wake of Grindelwald’s growing number of attacks.
Newt was touched to be considered so important to someone outside of his family and had even started to look forward to the arrival of post.
Then suddenly the letters just stopped coming. It wasn’t something to be overly concerned about at first. He was traveling the world and post was often times difficult and slow, but the weeks rolled by and still nothing. Not even when he had sent letters of his own, one even asking if he had done something wrong. He had never received a reply. Newt was initially hurt, but tried to take it all in stride. Percival Graves wouldn’t have been the first person to leave him without so much as a goodbye.
That was until the nausea, bloating, and occasional vomiting turned out not to be a bad case of food poisoning.
He was thrown from his thoughts as the latch on his case flipped opened. He swiftly closed it again and set the case on his lap.
“Dougal, you settle down now, please. It won’t be long.”
Newt kept the case on his lap and was grateful his coat still easily hid the slight bulge of his stomach.
He knew everyone was nervous with traveling such a long way, and frankly he was too. Still, he felt Percival had the right to know about the impending child and it wasn’t something he wanted to send in a letter. So he planned a stopover on his way to Arizona. To tell Percival of his condition and finally know for certain if there was anything left between them. He was glad really to be going to the wide open wilds of Arizona afterwards, because if this didn’t go well Newt knew he would need time to think through the next step in his life.