15. It seems like only yesterday
It only takes a minute for the doors to open again. When Sarah sees a figure emerging from the room that Clementine is in, she pulls away from Nick's embrace and wipes her eyes. Hopeful and nearly smiling, she tries to race inside, but the woman closes the doors behind her back before Sarah is able to.
"Nick," the woman greets upon noticing him, and Sarah finds her casual tone quite unusual considering the circumstances. "I was beginning to think you guys weren't gonna come back."
She must be about the same age as him, maybe a little older, with light brown hair that is neatly tied away into a low ponytail. She's wearing a white long sleeve shirt with a loose floral skirt that lengthens down to her knees, holding a clipboard and pen in her hands. Her appearance is oddly clean and pleasant. Since the walkers, Sarah knows she has never seen someone look so… normal.
Nick scratches the back of his neck, inhaling through his teeth. "Yeah, we, uh… kinda got held up."
"Is Clementine gonna be okay? Can I see her?" Sarah asks the woman frantically, entirely ignoring their small talk.
"It's, um…" she glances nervously in Nick's direction, as if exchanging silent words with him, before facing Sarah again. "It's probably best if you stay out here. They're gonna need some space for a little while."
A confused expression crosses Sarah's face as she realizes that the woman had entirely ignored her first question. "No," she argues. "No, I—I have to be with her, she needs me!" Sarah attempts to push her way past the woman and into the room, refusing to accept that answer.
"Hey, hey, hey," Nick grabs Sarah by the shoulders before she can get reach the door, pulling her back. "Sarah," he says calmly.
"No!" shouts Sarah, aggressively trying to shove Nick away as he continues to restrain her. Eventually, she stops thrashing, but Nick's hands remain on her shoulders as he tries to calm her down.
"Sarah, I, uh… I think you should listen to Elizabeth. It's… probably best if you don't see her right now."
The girl doesn't respond to him, and is instead only breathing heavily through her nose now and staring hard at the ground, as if trying to contain her anger.
Nick looks worriedly to Elizabeth, who returns his uncertain glare. Cautiously, he guides Sarah towards one of the chairs next to them in the hallway. "Just… sit down for a minute, all right?" he encourages in a soft voice.
With her hands shaking, Sarah lets him sit her down without protest, still panting for air and avoiding eye contact.
He kneels down in front of her so their eyes are level, then pulls out his water bottle from the backpack on his shoulders. "Here, just have a sip of water. It'll make you feel better, I promise."
For a while, she only stares at it, as if she's not sure whether she wants it or not. But considering how long it's been since the last time she drank, Sarah reluctantly accepts it and raises the canteen bottle to her lips, her cheeks glistening with tears.
Nick rises to a stand, relieved. Sighing heavily, he turns back to Elizabeth and pulls her aside so Sarah is unable to hear. "I'm… sorry about that, she's… she's just a little bit overwhelmed right now," Nick tells her in a hushed voice. "I don't think they've really been apart like this before."
"I see," Elizabeth nods in understanding, subtly peering over Nick's shoulder towards Sarah.
"I guess it's just with… meetin' new people and goin' to a new place all in one day. It's been pretty tough on her." He plants his hands on his hips, sighing again upon remembering everything that happened earlier. "Those girls were all alone out there for… fuck if I know. God knows how long."
"And… you knew them? I mean, before?" asks Elizabeth, crossing her arms across her chest.
"After, actually," Nick corrects. "Luke knew them too, but… they're like family to us, you know?"
"Yeah," she says, "I know."
They both look to Sarah again, silently observing her from a distance. She's staring blankly at the ground now, completely unmoving and holding a disturbingly dead look in her eyes.
"I'll talk to her. See what I can do," promises Elizabeth.
"Yeah, that'd—that'd be great."
She brushes past him, heading back towards Sarah, before Nick grabs her by the arm.
"Wait," he says, keeping his voice quiet. "She, um… she gets scared pretty easily so… you know, try not to say anythin' that'll make her upset."
"I'll try not to." She cautiously steps towards the distressed girl, stopping a few feet away and peering down at her in the chair. "Sarah, is it?" she asks her in as friendly a voice as she can muster. "My name is Elizabeth. Nick here was just telling me that you knew each other before."
Sarah remains unresponsive, nothing on her face indicating that she had even heard the woman.
Elizabeth turns awkwardly towards Nick, as if asking for assistance.
"You're a doctor?" Sarah finally mumbles, her broken voice hardly audible.
"Yeah," Elizabeth smiles, pleased that Sarah is at least acknowledging her. "I know I'm not dressed like one right now but I was a doctor before, you know… the world turned to shit and everything. We have quite a few people here that used to be doctors, actually."
"So…" Sarah sniffles, her eyes still watering with tears. "You can tell me what's wrong with my friend?"
Feeling heartbroken at her words, Elizabeth hesitates.
"Sarah," Nick takes a seat next to the young girl, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "She just wants to talk to you for a little bit first. Is that all right with you?"
"I guess so," shrugs Sarah.
"She's just gonna ask you a few questions. About Clementine," informs Nick.
Approaching them, Elizabeth sits down on the other side of Sarah and angles herself towards her. "Just start from the beginning," she says. "Tell me what happened."
Sarah takes a deep breath. She tells her everything, from the very moment Clementine had fallen, all the way up until now. Speaking about it all just makes her emotional because it's as if she's reliving it, but she manages not to cry again, and instead only feels numb as Nick and Elizabeth listen to her in silence.
She asks Sarah how long Clementine has gone without speaking, or eating, and whether she had taken any medication, as well as if she'd been showing any unusual behavior. She writes it all down on her clipboard, and Sarah doesn't really question why she is asking such unusual things. She just answers without even thinking about it, as if she's not really listening at all.
To Sarah, it feels like they've been sitting there for hours, though it may have only been ten minutes. But she isn't really sure how much time passes before Nick tells Elizabeth he thinks that's enough for now.
"You've been very helpful to us, Sarah," she says after thanking them both for their time, satisfied with the information she's obtained.
"I have?" Sarah asks in a small voice.
"Yes. It might take us a little while, but we're gonna figure out what's wrong with Clementine as soon as we can." Elizabeth briefly gestures towards the door. "I got people in there working on her right now so when we do, we'll be sure you're the first person to know, okay?" She gently pats the girl's knee for comfort.
Sarah isn't entirely satisfied with that. She doesn't want to wait any longer, and she knows they still aren't going to let her see Clementine. But the understanding side of her knows that there's probably nothing else they can do right now, and she decides to accept it anyway. "Okay," she murmurs, her head hanging low in disappointment.
Sarah remains seated as Nick and Elizabeth rise to stand and move a few feet away from her. She knows they're probably talking about her again, but she finds that she doesn't really have the energy to care. With their hushed voices nearby, she doesn't even try to listen to what they're saying. Instead, she waits until she hears the door clicking shut, figuring out that Elizabeth has left them alone and gone back into the room.
It goes quiet again, and just as Sarah looks up at Nick, they hear a shuffling sound that echoes throughout the hallway combined with heavy panting, startling them both.
"I'm here… I'm here," calls out a voice from the end of the hall, a figure stumbling around the corner and almost sliding across the floor. "I came as fast as I could."
Sarah recognizes that voice so quickly that her face instantly lights up as she jumps out of her seat. "Luke!" she shouts over to him, grinning ear to ear.
"Sarah," he breathes, and she's already sprinting down the hallway and leaping into his open arms so fast that her feet leave the ground.
Her arms are wrapped tightly around his neck, Luke embracing her with everything he has and laughing at the same time. She can't help but laugh too just from the joy and nostalgia that suddenly hits her all at once.
"Oh, we've missed you so much," chuckles Luke. He leans back, lifting her even further off the ground and making an exaggerated groaning noise as if she weighs a ton, but Sarah only continues to giggle at his theatrics. It makes her feel like a little kid again.
Luke sets her down, instantly touching her face, his hands soon moving to grab her shoulders then her arms. "Hey, I think you've gotten a bit taller since the last time I saw you," he grins widely, "You've got like a whole new look goin' on here, don't you?" he realizes, sounding impressed.
Still giggling uncontrollably, Sarah shyly brushes a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Wait until you see Clementine," she says.
"Shit, where is she? She okay?" Luke's smile instantly drops, his eyes worriedly scanning around them. He'd been so caught up with Sarah, he never even noticed that the other girl was no where to be found.
"She's in there. Doctor's are lookin' at her right now," Nick nods towards one of the doors down the hall, but Luke is already running towards it. "Wait, wait," Nick steps in front of him. "We can't go in there, yet. Elizabeth already told Sarah…"
"I just wanna see her," Luke interjects and brushes past him without care, continuing down the hall.
Nick and Sarah only watch in silence when he suddenly freezes directly in front of the door, staring in shock through the window and not saying a word.
For a second, it looks as if he might fall over. "Holy shit," he finally says under his breath, running a hand through his hair.
Looking through, there's a handful of other people in the room, but they're entirely invisible to his eyes. All he sees is the girl lying still on the bed in the centre of the room, and the mere sight of her alone, even from a distance, almost makes him feel as if he can't breathe.
"That's her?" he asks in disbelief. As Nick and Sarah also approach the door, Luke still can't seem to look away. "I can't believe that's really her right there."
He isn't sure if it's because he believed she was dead, or because of how different she looks now, but a part of Luke feels as if he might be dreaming. Sarah had changed too. But Clementine - she looks like an entirely different person. It isn't until now that he realizes how both of them had just passed him by, growing this entire time, without him ever even knowing they were alive.
Despite the melancholy feeling, Luke begins to laugh again after a minute. "I can't believe you found them," he turns to Nick next to him, briefly stroking the side of his face before pulling the other man into an embrace.
"I was gonna come get you," Nick says when they pull apart.
"It's all right. Maddie came and found me as soon as they got here. Said she'd figured I'd wanna know where you were," explains Luke while crossing his arms, the three of them now peering through the window together. "I was on patrol earlier, but I ran straight here as soon as she mentioned Clementine. Didn't even listen to what else she had to say."
As they all stare after Clementine in silence, wearing sad smiles on their faces, it's as if they'd all forgotten each other were there. Caught up in the sight before them, no one is really sure what to say anymore.
"Jesus… what the hell happened to you guys?" Luke mutters to Sarah while shaking his head, finally breaking the silence.
"I…" stutters Sarah, already exhausted from being asked that so many times today.
"Luke? I, uh… I was thinkin' Sarah could maybe use some fresh air right now," Nick suggests, sensing the girl's discomfort.
"Oh, right. Right," Luke nods in understanding as realization hits him. As Nick and Sarah turn away, Luke only takes one hesitant step from the door before stopping again, looking as if he doesn't want to leave.
"Hey," Nick's hand reaches out to touch his arm. "She'll be okay. Someone'll find us when they're done."
"Yeah," Luke clears his throat while nodding. He shoots one final glance through the window before following them down the hall, walking next to them. "We got some catchin' up to do, right, Sarah?"
