Nikki POV
A little over an hour later we walked out of the medical center. I was flipping through my leather-bound notebook. The whole experience was a little nostalgic to me. Sam had taken the newborn records, I took the adoption ones. I tried not to find parallels between me and any of the kids I found, but I couldn't help it. I tried to force myself no to think about it as I sighed at the 14 names in my notebook.
"This...This is a lot..." I sighed, flipping the page. "Hey, should we-Sam?" I broke my question off when I saw that Sam wasn't next to me.
He was a few steps behind me, eyes pinched shut as he rubbed his forehead. "Sam? You ok?" I asked, walking back to his side. He didn't change his pinched, in pain expression, but he nodded.
"Liar," I mumbled, gently putting a hand on his arm. When I did, I gasped, yanking my hand off his arm. I stared at my palm, expecting to see a burn. When I'd touched him, it felt like I was touching a hot iron. Thankfully, Sam didn't notice. I stood next to him, worried. He looked like he was in a lot of pain.
He opened his eyes a second later, gasping for air like he'd been holding his breath. He rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand, but then stumbled back a few feet as he pinched his eyes shut again, hands pressed to his temples.
"Sam!" I said, a little louder, taking his arm again, wincing when I touched him. I tried to ignore it, but when I got on my tiptoes to gently grab his hand, trying to pry it from his head, I had to drop it. It hurt too much.
When he finally seemed to snap out of it, he was gasping for air again, more than before. He kept his hands at his temples, eyes open and brows furrowed.
"Sam?" I asked hesitantly. He looked at me like he forgot I was there. "Sam?" I asked again when he didn't say anything.
He looked at me and blinked a few times. "A train." He blurted out, like he'd come to some epiphany.
"What?" I asked, confused.
"Trains. Train tracks, a station something." He said, starting to dig through his own backpack. "I need a map." He muttered.
I unzipped the first pocket of my backpack and held a county map out to him, I'd grabbed it when Sam was talking to the receptionist. He grabbed it and started to frantically search the page. He must have found what he was looking for, because he grabbed my wrist and started to pull me towards a park across the street.
"C'mon," he said, although it was a bit redundant. I just followed him, happy that it didn't burn to have his large, warm hand wrapped around my wrist, which seemed so small in his grasp.
"Where are we going, exactly?" I asked, jogging to keep up with his long, quick strides. He dropped my wrist and slowed to look at the map again.
"It was a house, I could hear the train whistle, it's gonna be by train tracks," he said, stopping at a corner, before breaking into a jog down a different side of the park.
"What? When did you hear a train whistle?" I asked, running to keep up with him, I skidded to a stop when he paused to look at the map again. His backpack was sliding down his arm, and his jacket was flipped back, sliding down his other arm.
He stumbled to the left, one hand rubbing his forehead as he swayed. He pinched his eyes shut and let out a low, painful groan as his other hand, still holding the map, moved to hold his other temple.
I suddenly grabbed his arm, ignoring the burning in my hands and gave a hard shove towards a bench just as his knees wobbled. It was a good thing I did too, if I didn't, all six foot four of him would have tried to lean on me for support and five foot seven me would have ended up on the ground under six foot four him. I think I would have broken a rib.
It wasn't until Sam snapped out of his trance that I realized I'd used my little magic side effect. He was taking deep, gasping breaths again, and looking around slightly confused. "Why am I on a bench?" He asked randomly.
"Sam, what's going on?" I demanded, giving him my best glare.
He blinked once, his face blank. "I-I'll explain later, we gotta find them." He mumbled, fixing his jacket as he got up. I stayed on the bench, crossing my arms.
"What are you going?" He asked, his voice anxious and confused.
"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on." I said, not really angry at him. I just wanted to know what was going on.
Sam sighed and sat next to me. "I'll explain it all later, ok?" I raised an eyebrow at him skeptically. "I promise." He added.
"Promise?" I repeated. He looked at me with those puppy-dog eyes, eyebrows pulled together and up in the center as he nodded.
"Well, lead the way," I sighed, standing back up.