#{seth: thread}

Like his brothers, Seth always noticed the pretty women around him and about a block back, he noticed the pretty woman with dark curly hair. She was totally out of his league- not that he was thinking of approaching her, maybe if they were at a bar, but certainly not here out in the open. He shoved his hands into his pockets and buried his head in the collar of his coat as he continued down the sidewalk, occasionally walking in zigzag pattern. It was too fucking cold out.

It was a sheer miracle that he remembered where he was going and how to get there. His goal of getting back to their seedy motel room never once left his mind, he was worried he would forget it if he thought of anything else. Now while he hadn’t forgotten the woman’s face, he had forgotten just how far he walked since first spotting her. He gulped and his fingers started to twitch. His heavy footsteps took him into the nearest alleyway and his fingers slipped into the pocket of his cargo pants, pulling out the slim knife he always kept there.

The head of dark curls passed by and he lunged out, wrapping a hand around her mouth as he tugged her into the alley with a knife at her throat.

“Why-why the fuck are you following me?” He hissed, giving her head a little shake. With the knife still in the same place, he adjusted his other hand so it was wrapped around her chin, pointing it up and forcing the back of her head against his shoulder. “Answer me.”

Seth collected his serving of deer burgers from Lydia, giving her his sincere thanks for her hard work, and went to find a spot to sit and eat. Most of the community had grouped together naturally and while Seth felt comfortable enough with everyone to sit wherever he wanted, he decided to try and sit with someone he didn’t know so well. His eyes scanned the crowd until they honed in on Lacey. While Seth knew of her, he hadn’t yet had the opportunity to speak much with her.

The frivolity of the community party certainly helped Seth to momentarily forget that everything was just terrible. He was content to watch the others drink, dance, and merrily enjoy the night together, as if he was living vicariously through them. He sipped his water, proud that he had managed to resist the temptation of alcohol all night. The temptation remained manageable, even when he caught glimpses of his ex-wife, Peyton, mingling with the rest of the crowd.

Each glimpse was a reminder of their last conversation, in which Seth had revealed the terrible fate of their son. Since then, Seth had given Peyton space to grieve. He wasn’t certain if she even wanted to see him so he avoided her. All he wanted to do was hold her and apologise for not being a better father but he didn’t have the right to do such things until Peyton made it clear she was ready for them.

Seth watched the rest of the community as they celebrated a much-needed win. He slowly nursed his water, hoping no one was going to point out he wasn’t drinking beer or anything stronger. At least one person had to keep their head and Seth had nominated himself in that endeavour. He didn’t want to throw away his months of progress of being sober after all.

--closed thread for @peyton-arquette--

Seth liked being able to clear new people from their mandatory quarantine. He liked being able to give them the good news that they had a clean bill of health and they were now welcome to make the Crescent Hospital community their new home. It was usually a happy task. Seth had heard tales of some newcomers giving their discharging medics a hard time but he had yet to experience that for himself. His fellow medics were already discharging the other newcomers so Seth grabbed the file of the remaining one and started to make his way to their room. 

When he got closer to their room, he realised he should probably give their file a quick glance-over. It was good practice to know at least a patient’s name before talking to them. Nothing destroyed a patient’s trust in a doctor faster than a doctor who appeared to not know what they were doing. He leaned against the wall next to the patient’s door and opened the file.

Name: ARQUETTE, Peyton

Seth’s heart stopped.

He stared at the name as if such an action would change it. He checked the rest of the patient’s information and that only confirmed what he feared. In that room, waiting to join the rest of the community was his ex-wife, mother of their son.

On the one hand, Seth wanted nothing more than to hold Peyton again. He was extremely relieved to know with certainty that she was alive and healthy. But on the other hand, if she really was here, he was going to have to tell her what had happened to their son, Joshua. He had yet to tell a soul what had actually happened to him. Those who knew of him here only knew that he was dead; they didn’t know how he died or how it was Seth’s fault. As a doctor, he had experience of delivering bad news. The best way to do was to be honest and clear about the necessary details. But it was never easy. Peyton deserved the truth, no matter how awful it was.

He took a deep breath and went to the door. He held Peyton’s file in one hand. With the other, he knocked on the door and then opened it. 

--closed thread for @ofbeatrizflores --

The hospital and its ground weren’t small by any means. The buildings were quite large and there was still more room yet to be filled by other survivors who may yet find this safe haven. Despite all of that space waiting to be filled, there were times when it was impossible to be alone.

Seth supposed there was a benefit to this. No one would have to face the terrors of this world alone here at Crescent Hospital. But there were times, like this moment, when Seth would give anything just to be alone; even though being completely alone utterly terrified him.

Being alone forced him to confront the things he had done and the things he regretted. All those times when he would’ve, could’ve, should’ve done something different. All those regrets had driven him to the bottle in the days before Crescent Hospital and if he hadn’t been found and brought here, those regrets probably would’ve killed him too. But facing those regrets kept him humble, or so he thought. Or, and this might be the more accurate reason, it was a way of punishing himself for surviving.

But today, he wasn’t going to get a chance to self-punish himself because when he thought he was alone, someone else was already there.

--closed thread for @javiortiz​ --

So far it had been a slow day in the clinic for the community living in Crescent Hospital. One of the children had come in complaining of tummy ache but that was the result of eating one too many candy bars. Nothing to worry about and nothing too taxing for Seth’s capabilities. The child was soon sent back to his class for the day with the stern instruction of staying away from the rations or else Seth will have to tell his mother.

It was certainly a change of pace from Seth’s previous family practice. Most days, way back before the beastly outbreak destroyed life as everyone knew it, Seth would be facing back-to-back appointments with little to no time for himself until the end of his shift. Gosh, he missed those days sometimes. It didn’t feel like it at the time but they were much simpler than now. Now weighed on him, grated on him.

Seth was pulled out of his gloomy thoughts by the sound of someone entering the clinic. “Ah, at last!” He exclaimed, clapping his hands together. “A customer! What can I do for you today?” He got up from his seat at the old nurses’ station and went to see who had come by for a visit this time.

--closed thread for @vaguedisguise​--

Seth walked into the clinic, which had been the Crescent Hospital’s Emergency Room back when the world was still whole. It wasn’t time for his next shift as one of the on-site medics but sitting alone in his room wasn’t helping him in the slightest. Sitting alone was going to slowly driving him mad, even more mad than he was already. He needed to be around people, even if they didn’t actually talk to him and he just busied himself doing an inventory check of the clinic’s supplies.

Already in the clinic was Kyungah, one of the other medics. She seemed to be busy, with a pad of paper in front of her and a pencil in hand. Seth walked around the perimeter of the clinic and went into one of the store cupboards. He began going through the motions of doing an inventory check but his heart wasn’t in it. Apparently busy work wasn’t going to help him through this down-turn of his mood. He gave a long sigh and while he was alone in the store cupboard, allowed the mask he metaphorically wore around others slip a little. His expression darkened and his eyes narrowed with a mixture of grief and rage. His fists curled tightly until his knuckles went white and his cut-short nails managed to bite into his palms. After a moment, Seth sighed again and put the mask back on. He rolled his shoulders back, held his head up high, and smiled. He was going to be OK, somehow.

“Hello Kyungah,” Seth said as he went back into the main clinic. He stood by the nurses’ station where Kyungah was sat, still with her pad of paper and pencil. He glanced at the page she was working now and saw a beautiful rendering of a young boy. He hadn’t seen Kyungah with the boy in the picture nor did he recognise him. A chill ran down his spine as he supposed that perhaps the boy in the picture was related to Kyungah but was maybe missing or worse. Kyungah had never mentioned him before and Seth wasn’t going to pressure her for answers now. If he was supposed to know, she would tell him in her own time.