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.・゜-: ✧☾ ☽✧ :-゜・.
Levi pushed open the clinic door, the smell of antiseptic hitting him instantly. Something about it felt... wrong. Not the smell, it was the silence. Too still. Too empty. His chest tightened as his boots struck the corridor floor, each step louder than it should have been.
As he entered, he found the bed stripped of any presence, the thin blanket folded neatly at the end like she had never been there at all. Counters were wiped down except for a scatter of gauze, a half-rolled bandage, and a few crumpled wipes. Blood stained the white cotton in a rusty bloom. His eyes locked on the red, and in an instant, the floor seemed to tilt beneath him.
They'd taken her.
The words hammered in his skull, over and over, drowning out rational thought. He had left her again. Left her when she was weak. When she needed him. And now..
Flashes burst behind his eyelids, violent and fast. The Governor, forcing him to watch. Her body hitting the ground after the gunshot. The Claimers, their hands on her, her voice breaking. Terminus, her face twisted in terror as they dragged her.
His stomach lurched like he might be sick. No. No. Not again. Levi spun on his heel and barreled down the hallway, his eyes slicing into every open doorway, scanning for any sign of her. Empty. Every single one.
At the end of the corridor, a man's back came into view. Levi didn't think, his body moved before the thought even formed. He grabbed the collar, yanking the man around and slamming him back against the wall so hard that the air punched out of his lungs in a gasp.
Coming face to face with the man, he saw that it was Nicolas that he was holding. Levi's hand clamped at the man's throat, his forearm braced hard across his chest. The clatter of metal echoed down the hall as the equipment Nicolas had been holding hit the floor.
His hand was at the man's throat, eyes burning with a desperation that was barely contained beneath the surface. "Where is she?!" he snarled. "Where's Stella?"
Nicolas' eyes were wide with fear and panic and his face had been drained of all color. "Wait, wait, wait, Levi-" he stammered, hands lifting in shaky surrender. "She's okay."
Levi pushed him harder against the surface behind him. "Where is she?!" He bit out through gritted teeth. "I swear to God if you people-" The boy's knuckles grew white as he squeezed Nicolas's collar.
The man's hands shook in the air as he spoke. "She's.... She's with your people. Rick... the dad, asked her to be moved."
Levi blinked but didn't loosen his grip on him. "What?"
"W-when you were with Deanna... and they had stabilized her, Rick insisted she'd be with family," Nicolas explained, his voice trembling as much as his hands. "That's all I know, man. Please."
