FLATLINE.
— i had teeth, too

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Quinn Walsh's world ended long before the dead started walking.

She is born half-gone already, cut from the womb of her mother like a tumor the size of a football, silent and malignant, 3 pounds 9 ounces of limp, dead flesh. Lungs underdeveloped, skin as thin as paper, and not a single sound falling from her blue lips, Quinn's life seems to stop before it has even begun.

(Perhaps it would be better this way.)

But from the steady hands of the finest surgeon in all of Georgia, Quinn is put back together; lungs and heart and hands and teeth, until Victoria Walsh is handed a small, pink bundle and told that her baby is saved. Victoria and Shane know the moment they bring her home that this is not the child they once made. But from ignorance comes bliss, and childhood for Quinn Walsh is made of melted ice cream sundaes and sunlit walks through straw fields, movie nights and late-night football games. A passing glance from anyone and nothing seems wrong, Quinn Walsh is the perfect amalgamation of her parents. Her mother's looks, her father's temper. They are perfect.

(Only Rick Grimes sees through the cracks.)

Quinn's life ends for the second time when she's 11-years-old, thrown from the backseat of her mother's red Hyundai and into the road, chest caving inward, struggling for breath like she's just been born again, another halfway corpse for the doctors to piece back together.

Only this time, Victoria isn't there to hold her. But Shane is, petting her head while they put her under, explaining through unsteady whispers that Mommy is as close to dead as it gets, that Mommy didn't tell Daddy about the donor card, the D.N.R, and now the doctors are going to kill Mommy so Quinny can live.

When she wakes up, Quinn is even more the synthesis of her two parents. Her father's temper, her mother's heart. The same rhythm she once heard while leaning against her mother's chest thumps unfamiliarly against her ribcage. Shane likes to listen as well, in the dead of night when the terrors keep him up and calling his dead lover's name, Quinn wraps her arms around him and lets him cry while Victoria's heart fits strangely into her own body.

Quinn's world ended the moment her father stopped looking at her like a daughter, and instead a stranger with a heart he wanted for himself.

So when fever spreads and the apocalypse tears her life apart with bloodstained teeth, Quinn wonders if she is closer kin to the walking corpses than she is to the survivors, because what has Quinn Walsh ever been if not the living dead?

Kathryn Newton / Quinn Walsh.

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Jon Bernthal / Shane Walsh.

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Michelle Monaghan / Victoria Walsh. 

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Billy Crudup / Dr. William Enoch

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Andrew Lincoln / Rick Grimes.

Sarah Wayne Callies / Lori Grimes.

Chandler Riggs / Carl Grimes.

Norman Reedus / Daryl Dixon.

Steven Yeun / Glenn Rhee.

Laurie Holden / Andrea Harrison.

The Walking Dead Cast  / Themselves.

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Content Warnings.

Character death, canon-typical violence, blood and gore, suicidal thoughts/ideation, physical disability, religious trauma, PTSD, psychological abuse, murder, grief, torture, mentions of racism and misogyny, depictions of surgery and section, unhealthy family dynamics, and typical TWD themes.

Author's Note.

Ah, yes, another fic I've been hyperfixating on and decided to publish even though I haven't even finished season 2 ✌️. ANYWAYYYS welcome to FLATLINE, my official introduction into the TWD universe. I would like to start off by saying that I am very new to this fandom and don't know everything about it yet, so there will probably be many canon-related mistakes but I ask that you please ignore those because this is a very long series and it's very intimidating and that really stresses me out

In summary, FLATLINE follows 15-year-old Quinn Walsh, daughter of Shane Walsh and Victoria Walsh, an original character. Victoria dies pre-apocalypse due to surgical complications after she and Quinn are involved in a car accident. Quinn ends up needing a heart transplant and is given her own mother's heart, something that is VERY traumatizing to both her and Shane, and impacts their relationship for the rest of their lives. When the apocalypse starts, Quinn is part of the Atlanta group alongside her dad, and deals with the impact of the end of the world in some very... Interesting ways.

This fic will feature LOTs of flashbacks to pre-apocalypse, detailing Quinn's childhood and life after her mother's death. While I love the show, the most interesting parts about TWD have literally nothing to do with the zombies, but instead the relationships and conflicts between the characters, so that is what FLATLINE will focus on most.

Quinn's character is partly inspired by Alicent Hightower (House of the Dragon), Meredith Grey (Grey's Anatomy), Alex Stern (Ninth House), Max Mayfield (Stranger Things), Will Byers (Stranger Things), Ronan Lynch (The Raven Cycle, The Dreamer Trilogy), and Ellie Williams (The Last of Us).

As for what tropes to expect from this fic, FLATLINE features lots of daddy issues  (duh), found family, the most adorable BROTP between Quinn and Daryl, Pro-Lori rhetoric (That's a MOTHER right there), and angst. Like, way too much angst. Enjoy!

Started: September 19, 2023

Finished: