Halsey - Gasoline

Chapter One - Aperture

It was the evening of March 11th, 2015.

Chloe would be twenty one today.

Max brought Kleenex and a wealth of flowers each time she came along to visit, and this time was no exception. Max placed the bouquet of flowers in front of her knees, and began to apologize for the third time she'd been here.

"Chloe... I'm sorry. I'm sorry that...that I couldn't save you. You wanted so badly for me to let you go, because you were selfless in the end. You wanted the storm to disappear, to save Arcadia Bay...to save everything. And I still let you go." The tears began to fall, and Max gently rubbed them away with a Kleenex. "But..I thought, since it's your twenty first birthday..." She reached into her camera bag and pulled out a bottle of the beer Chloe had always drank in front of her. "...that I gave your favorite drink another chance, because I know, in whichever universe you've survived in without the aid of my time travel, you'd want me to drink with you."

Max reached into her pocket and grabbed a bottle opener she'd found in Chloe's personal items Joyce had given her for safe keeping. She popped the lid off, gave it a quick glance, and put the rim to her mouth. Finding the taste rather satisfactory, She tipped her head back and swallowed hard. Gulp after gulp. The alcohol rained off of her chin and down her Jane shirt, but Max didn't care. At this point in time the alcohol felt amazing in her throat.

As the last of it went down, Max took the bottle from her mouth and set it beside her, burping up a bit of liquid that hadn't quite made it just yet. In fact, she felt like she could puke at any given moment now. Suddenly feeling like she needed to, Max ran to the nearest tree, leaving the bottle behind, and let loose.

For a straight minute the brunette hurled painfully, hunched over her stomach, hand bracing her on the tree. When she finally stopped she fell to the side and landed in the grass, the world spinning around her as Max laid there. It had to have been a good moment or two, because the clouds had completely shifted before she closed her eyes the first time.

She started to hear voices. Nauseous enough to fall back down, the brunette scrambled to her feet to retrieve the empty alcohol bottle near Chloe's head stone, only to land in the grass once more. Another attempt and she finally got to it. Max stuffed the bottle in her bag and ran in the other direction to find cover before whoever came up the path could see her. She tripped near a larger headstone she stopped by, but crawled the rest of the way instead of trying again.

"I don't know, Kate. Max was so different after Chloe died." It was...Victoria's voice? Talking to Kate?

Max looked around the concrete to confirm what her ears had told her. The two girls, Kate wearing a black turtleneck and blue skinny jeans, and Victoria in a beautiful black halter dress, slowly walked up along the path into the cemetery.

"Her photography is lacking so much lately, and I don't mean that in a bitchy way." Victoria continued on.

"It just lacks positivity." Kate said in return. Victoria nodded her head in agreement.

"Never knew she could get so depressed so quickly. She just...takes black and white photos now with that digital camera of hers. I see some of her blog posts and it's just... What happened to Max Caulfield? The mild goth getup? The interest in alcohol?"

Kate figured she knew why, but she wondered if it were appropriate for them to discuss it in such a place as this. Everyone knew that Chloe was Max's closest friend. Of course, Kate knew a bit about Chloe when she still attended Blackwell, but nothing as near the amount of information Max spewed out in a single second when asked about her. How much of an influence the bluenette had been on Max she couldn't begin to imagine. Max gave up the quirky, nerdiness of her former self only weeks after, and Kate figured that was because of Chloe's absence.

Note to self. Chloe was more of a figure to Max than anyone probably realized.

"I don't really know. Maybe...maybe she gave up on the positives to focus on the negatives." Kate's sudden, yet gentle grip on Victoria's forearm caused them both to stop. Max looked on, wondering where this'd go next. She was intrigued by the conversation they were having about her, as the words coming out of their mouths were fairly accurate. Max did give that up because she missed her blue haired friend. It was the only way she could feel close to her.

"You're probably right, Kate. Ugh, I just feel so shitty about it."

The two continued to walk.

"It's not your fault, Victoria. You did what you could to try and reignite the flame in her."

"I suppose, but Max never answers her phone. I sent her a text yesterday asking how she was doing and she just...nothing. It just kind of sucks that after all I did she still never cheered up." Max unlocked her phone and opened the messaging app. Victoria was right. Max never responded to her. Victoria's eyes stopped at Chloe's headstone, realizing the fresh bouquet of flowers that had planted there. Kate realized the exact kind and arrangement, especially the distinct blue of the plants. They were flowers Max absolutely adored. She'd seen them in a lot of the pictures Max took. Victoria had been thinking the same thing, slightly depressed that someone had come to grieve not even minutes ago. Kate knew it had to be Max and wondered if she were still around somewhere.

"Listen, Kate. I can't be here right now. This place saddens me. I'm gonna head home. Maybe we can stop for tea tomorrow, or something."

"Okay, take care." Kate said sweetly as Victoria waved and turned to leave. Max watched her exit the area and turned her attention solely to the blonde who had sat herself in front of Chloe's headstone now.

Kate's eyes closed and she muttered something Max couldn't hear. As she inched around the corner of the headstone she used for cover, Max didn't realize she stepped on a branch in the process until Kate's eyes flashed open. Max retreated in almost an instant, but Kate caught a glimpse of the girl's leg before she could get it fully back around the concrete.

"Hello? Is someone there?" Kate called out. Max tried to stay calm behind the headstone, but she began to hear footsteps in the grass. Her heart thumped away in her chest and she wondered if Kate could hear it from where she sat.

"Hello?" Kate's voice was too close now. It was only a matter of seconds.

Max covered her eyes.

Kate gasped when she saw the sight of her.

"...Max?"

"Uh, hey...Kate." Tears fell from the brunettes eyes beneath her hands as the words stuttered out of her mouth.

Kate knelt in front of her. "Are...are you okay? You look so worse for wear I..." Kate stopped when she smelt the distinct scent of vomit and alcohol, and looked closer to see that Max had spilled something on her shirt and sweatshirt. It wasn't the only thing she smelt either. Weed was somewhere to be found too, and she realized that was almost the entirety of the scent.

"Max..please, look at me." Kate put a hand on her shoulder.

Hesitantly and shakily, Max took her hands away from her face. She looked at Kate with bloodshot eyes.

"Oh my... Max, what happened?"

"I- I just, wanted to celebrate Chloe's 21st with her." Bashfully the brunette looked away. Kate had a difficult time taking in the view before her. Max's hair was significantly darker, almost black, and the heavy liner dripping from around her eyes enhanced the exhausted look on her face. She wore her signature shirt but with a black hoodie, and ripped skinny jeans to follow with evenly black combat boots. Kate didn't recognize the person she was looking at anymore. The way Kate saw it, this could have been Chloe 2.0.

"Max, do you need someone to talk to?" She asked her softly.

"I just...need a moment."

In the time it took Max to respond, Kate already had a number dialed in her phone for an emergency mental health hotline. She held her thumb above the green call button, ready to press it if she thought otherwise, or couldn't help the girl in anyway.

"Kate... I need to tell you something. Something I've never told anyone except Chloe when she was still alive."

"Go on Max, I'm listening. I'm here for you."

Max took a deep breath.

"I traveled through two timelines to save her, I saved her from death so many times, tore apart my dreams to save my best friend..."

"Max, what are you talking about?"

"I...I can time travel."

It had only been a couple of years since Kate decided to be a therapist, and she hadn't seen many people under her undergrad certification, but what Max had told her she couldn't compare to anything she'd heard so far. She also couldn't let that kind of information leak at a hospital. Kate thought for sure someone would try and put Max into an asylum. In fact it probably wouldn't even be clear where she'd go and why.

Only one thing was clear: Max was a trainwreck waiting to happen. But Kate was there to the rescue.

Kate let the pot of water come to a boil, silently viewing her patient through the separation of walls between the kitchen and the living room. Max sat at the dining room table but practically laid her torso across the top of it. She looked even more tired from the time she found the poor girl. Her face almost fell to the side as she rested it on. Max definitely didn't look like she gave a care at this point. Even her bag hung from her torso in an uncomfortable looking position.

Kate poured both of them a cup of tea. She dropped a bag of green tea in hers, and Kava with just a hint of lemon in Max's. The Kava (a natural root that calmed anxiety) was to calm Max's nerves, and because that was the only type of tea Max seemed to drink around her. Kate didn't mind the taste or the effects, given that it calmed her own anxiety many times over. In the case that Max couldn't calm down over talk, Kate had a back up plan, yet it was rather drastic in comparison to what she was going to try first. Time travel. Yikes.

Max didn't even give so much as a glance at Kate as she set the tea down in front of her. She only smelt the hint of green tea and Kava in the cups themselves, and that was enough for her. Kate took her seat across from the depressed girl and gingerly sipped on her own cup, hoping Max would eventually do the same.

"I killed my best friend" Max said in a hoarse voice. "She wanted me to go back and let her die like before the first time I've seen her in five years. The storm came to Arcadia Bay on Friday of that week. It wanted to destroy everything...even me." Max's head lowered into her crossed arms and the rest of her body moved closer together.

Kate wondered if it was a literal Storm or not, but the amount of detail she'd put into its description made it seem as real to Max as it did Kate. The way Max shrunk into herself suggested that it was more real to her all the time.

The storm scares Max. Trigger?

She wrote down everything Max had been saying to her, reminding herself how fragile Max seemed at any given moment. She was careful with her questions, too, and kept a close eye on her body language.

"And the lighthouse..." Max shuttered. Kate made a note of it. Of course she knew which lighthouse she was talking about. Max mentioned it in her childhood stories over tea time when things didn't look so bleak for the brunette, and that was in September, three weeks before the week of October 13th.

"What about the lighthouse, Max?"

That garnered a scared look from her. It was kind of strange Max didn't use that as an outlet of personal solace, Kate thought. From what she could tell it held many great memories of both her and Chloe.

"It...it crushed me, the first time I saw the Storm...woke up in Jefferson's class not even a second later. But...oh my god, it felt so real."

A dream. A lighthouse. A storm. Kate wrote in tandem.

Suddenly there was a grip around Kate's wrist that stopped her writing. She looked up and saw Max staring at her.

"Max?" She asked.

The brunette took her hand away, doubling back as if she had no idea what just happened.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what that was."

Involuntary action. Lighthouse = definite trigger. She wrote.

Max finally took a sip of the tea provided to her, and held onto the cup with white knuckled fingers. It looked like it could break under the pressure Max was putting on it, but Kate would rather a five dollar cup break than Max's composure.

Victoria had mentioned that Max began to use a digital camera over the old Polaroid she carried around with her. Since Max left, Kate hadn't seen eye or tail of the old device.

"Max, why did you start taking pictures with a digital camera instead of your old one?"

"Because I used several pictures that had come out of the old one to screw with reality." Max said non chalantly.

Polaroids = bad memories and portals to another point in time.

"And...how did you manage to use those to do that?"

"I focused in on them, like a real camera does. I use a digital because the photos just don't work the same way, I've tried. I only used polaroids as a failsafe. Easy to rip up and burn."

Personal protection emplacement.

Kate had gotten the gist of what was going on now, and she tried to use her own memory to try and piece it together. With barely a recollection of that week aside from Chloe's demise, Kate didn't remember of anything else.

"Max, what happened that week you said this occurred?"

Max scoffed. "What didn't happen that week? First I save my best friend after watching her get shot, she almost dies twice in the junkyard the next day, then you commit suicide, I jump back into my body from five years ago and change the fate of Chloe's father, putting her in a wheelchair, reverse that decision, help her find Rachel Amber's dead body in the junkyard, discover the dark room..." Max trailed off for minutes going into detail in that week. But Katehad commit suicide?

Patient aptly describes a suicide during the week. It was mine.

Kate was a bit worried by that statement. She'd never shown Max any side of her depression, so the fact that Max knew told her how eerily accurate things were beginning to sound. And Rachel's body had been found in the junkyard after Jefferson's arrest. That was something the whole town knew.

Max described to her the nightmare in cold hard detail, including when she was walking through the doors of their dorm rooms.

"Max, can you...show me, that you can time travel?" She asked hesitantly.

Max's head shook, and a worried face spread across her face very quickly.

"No...no, no, no, please don't make me do this." She began hyperventilating.

"Max, max, calm down. I'm not going to make you."

"Kate!" Max grabbed her wrist again...and raised her right hand.

A strong warping sensation took over Kate's senses. There was an orange glow as bright as the sun that overlayed the room as the walls twisted.

Max was having a panic attack, and rewinding time in the same moment. Kate's head began to hurt.

"Max, Max, you need to stop! Whatever you're doing, stop!"

And just like that it was over. Max breathed so hard that she moved in her seat. She let go of Kate's wrist and came out of the time warp hyperventilating.

"It's okay Max"

"No, it's not, i- I did it again, and I took you with me! I've never done that before. Oh my god I could have killed you."

Kate needed a moment to process what just happened. She leaned back in her chair and looked at the pad in front of her. It was missing words. Lots of them.

Kate's own eyes went wide as her heart rate rose, but she took a deep breath, watching Max have the panic attack before she realized it may be a bad idea not to be physically touching her if the rewind were to happen again. That seemed to be the way Max took her with, she supposed.

Patient has time rewinding powers. I just experienced it for myself.

"Hey, it's Kate. Could you come over here for a moment? I've got Max at the apartment and...well, she's not okay." Max heard her from the other room. "Yes. Yes, I said it's Max Caulfield. I know, I know, listen, I need you here. Can you get here soon? Alright. Okay."

The front door opened. Two medics walked into the house, greeted by Kate. One was female, the other male. But the female had a face she recognized.

"Taylor?"

"Hi Max. How are you feeling?" The strange smile that took over Taylor's face made Max feel very uncomfortable.

"Terrible" she said honestly. Taylor took a look at Max's hands. They were still shaking.

"Her nerves are shot" Taylor said to her partner, who brought out a small heart monitor to check Max's pulse.

Taylor connected Max to the machine and watched as the monitor beeped away at a constant 86bpm.

"Blood pressure is a bit high. Have you been getting nose bleeds?"

Max nodded.

"Do you take any medication?"

She shook her head.

"Looks like some kind of stress to me." Taylor's partner chimed in. Taylor almost glared back at him before Max grabbed her wrist. Kate's eyes went wide, fearing the rewind might happen again in an instant. But Max's right arm stayed stagnant beside her. Max also stared off into oblivion, not even her eyes moving an inch.

Taylor looked at the notion before turning to Kate.

"She's done that before." Kate confirmed.

"You've seen her do this?"

Kate nodded. "Yes, right before you got here. I think it's some kind of a trigger."

"What caused it?" She wondered, examining Max closely. Max's eyes wandered to Kate, and as they met stares Kate realized the girl had finally come out of her trance.

"I don't know for sure, but it could have been because of that week in October."

Taylor nodded. "I see. That was a hard time for you."

Max was silent on the matter. She didn't know how to process Taylor, of all people, talking to her.

"Do you want us to take you to the hospital?" Taylor asked the brunette.

"Uhm, actually" Kate interrupted "she'd like to stay here."

"Alright. That's fine as long as she's under surveillance." Taylor stood. "Kate. Walk with me for a second?"

"Sure."

The evening air outside Kate's apartment was cool.

"Look, I know there's more to it than this." Taylor began.

"How so?"

"She's not just stressed out, she's scared, Kate. She won't even talk to me. Why? I don't know. Maybe you do, but she's frightened about something. Where did you even find her today? No one's heard from her in a long time."

"Crying behind a gravestone in the cemetery. She was visiting Chloe, since it's her 21st birthday today. She was also drinking and puking, at least I assume she was."

"I know, I saw the beer bottle in her bag. You should give her a different shirt by the way. That one she's wearing reeks of a bad day."

"I'll give her one." Kate said with a sigh.

"How are you doing?"

"Me? Oh, I'm fine. My nerves are a bit shot too, but I've just been busy with this certification."

"I understand. You do look a bit tense but I won't bug you over it."

They walked in silence for a few moments. Kate posed an odd question.

"What would you do if you could time travel?"

That made Taylor stop in her tracks.

"I'd do what Max did and try to save her friend before an asshole like Nathan could kill her."

"Wait. You know?"

"It's not hard to look over at your pad and make the connections. It wasn't exactly hidden, Kate. I know you're an honest person. How does she do it?"

"Her right hand. Or both. Or the left. I don't know. But she took me with her when she grabbed my wrist."

"How far?"

"A few minutes, at best. But the room was...warping around us, like reality was taking itself apart and putting itself back together. It was kind of frightening."

"I can imagine, because there's never been historical entry about time travel. There's speculation, but no one's met a time traveler. It's just tragic that Max gets this power and something like that happens to her."

"I know. What do you think we should do?"

"Just keep a close eye on her. I think it's better she stays with you because she's familiar with you as a person. Just make sure she's calm, and that nothing can set her off. Do you know where she's staying right now?"

"At Chloe's place, I assume. With Chloe's mother and step father."

"Oh no," Taylor sighed "well, a night away should give you enough room to find out how to help her. Best of luck to you on that by the way."

Kate walked back into the house with Taylor in tow, noticing Max hunched over in her chair, Chloe's beanie covering her mouth in her hands.

"Thank you for coming on short notice" Kate thanked them.

"Anytime. And Kate, if anything else happens, make sure you let me know."

"Will do."

The medics left the apartment after one last vital check on Max.

Kate stood with her hands on her hips, wondering what to do next. It was getting dark already. Kate unlocked her phone and checked the weather. Light showers for the rest of the night. She sighed.

"Max, do you want a different shirt to wear?"

The brunette looked down at her stained Jane shirt.

"I guess I could use one, yeah." Max sounded defeated. This whole day had been one weird cluster fuck.

Kate returned with a plain white t shirt and handed it to the girl. Max silently changed shirts, leaving the other one on the table next to her.

"Max, where are you staying?" Kate asked.

"With Joyce and David."

"In Chloe's old room?"

Max nodded.

That couldn't have been anywhere near therapeutic.

Kate didn't say anything in response for fear of engendering a negative impact on the brunette.

She just sighed again.

"Kate," Max said "why are you letting me stay here?"

"Because I'm worried, Max. You've changed so much in the past two years, and you've practically disappeared off the face of the Earth."

Max brought her knees to her chest and hugged them.

"I stayed with my parents for a year after Chloe died, but I came back because I couldn't stand being away for so long. Sometimes I manage. Other times I want to die. But I know it would only hurt my family."

Kate breathed a silent sigh of relief. Max wasn't suicidal, that was a start. A good one.

"Are you okay with being here?"

"I'm fine, Kate. It's better than being around the things that make me upset."

Kate knelt next to her. "Max, maybe it's you move out of that place. You need to be somewhere away from Arcadia Bay."

"I know" Max released her legs and made way to stand. "You have a guest room?"

"Right down the hall, all the way to the left. The bathroom is before it."

Max said nothing as she made her way to the bedroom and shut the door behind her. Kate was slightly dumbstruck by the brunette's sudden absence. Max left both her bag and her stained shirt on the table.

Leaving behind personal belongings. Definitely a sign of self loathing. That, or she just doesn't care.

Kate separated the bag and shirt and tossed Max's clothing into the pile of dirty laundry not many feet away in the hallway. Out of curiosity Kate looked through Max's bag.

The old bag used to hold her old camera, but Kate noticed the newer looking NIKON D810 sitting peacefully inside. She took it out and eventually found the power switch. She navigated to the pictures already taken, and almost dropped the camera when she saw one particular photo.

It was Max, in the nude, in front of a mirror. She blushed even though she wasn't in the same room as the brunette. Kate knew karma caught up with her for going through Max's things already, so she set the camera down and powered it off.

Kate continued on through the bag. Used tissues, the beer bottle, a hair clip, and a 6 inch long apparatus she didn't recognize.

Kate grabbed the pink device, twisted the bottom of it and found that it was in fact a vibrator.

Kate took her hands out of the bag and held them away from her before washing them in the sink.

Note to self. Never go through Max's bag that she carries around with her.

Kate wasn't surprised Max didn't have an actual purse. She used her camera bag for literally everything. Kate figured it was just too easy. She was kind of disgusted by the vibrator, but Kate didn't judge her for it. Max didn't have anyone to take care of those things for her. Not that she knew of anyway.

Kate stood at the counter with her hands under the running water. She wondered how Max would feel in the morning, seeing as it was only 8 o' clock in the evening. Hopefully she would be better considering it was a nice and quiet environment for her to sleep in. Kate's apartment was always quiet, and she prided herself on having a nicer place in northern Arcadia Bay where it was near silence all around. At least Max wouldn't have Joyce and David to bother her, and Kate figured she'd just let Max sleep as much as she wanted tomorrow morning.

Even Kate needed sleep soon, though she wasn't as exhausted as Max, she presumed.

Max shed her clothes, except for the shirt Kate had given her, and slid into the bed.

Max tossed and turned in the silky sheets for what felt like an hour before she fell asleep. The slight pattering of rain on the windows kept her awake, but being that there wasn't any thunder, Max took deep breaths and calmed herself enough to begin to relax. Thankfully she learned to dissipate the anxiety that came along with rain over the years. Holding Chloe's beanie close to her face, Max let the smell overtake her senses. She faintly heard the sound of running water before she drifted into a dreamless sleep in the silence of Kate's guest room.

The morning came swiftly, Max opening her eyes without such a recollection of a dream state. The beanie was still gently cluched between her fingers for which she was thankful.

Max lifted herself off her stomach and rolled to the side. Chloe's necklace hung from her neck, and she stared at the three fake rounds joined together by a string. She smiled at it. Above all, Chloe's necklace was something she cherished the most besides the numerous pictures they had together. She could have jumped anywhere in time she wanted, with any picture, but she knew it wasn't a good idea.

"No more screwing with time." She told herself. Max swung her legs off the side of the bed and examined the room around her. She barely remembered entering the guest space at all last night. The walls were pristine white, a blue carpet almost the same shade as Chloe's hair laid carefully placed under the bed and around the edges. Max dug her feet into the softness and thanked whatever being watching over her that she had woken up in a safe place. David and Joyce's home was comfortable, no doubt, but it held too many memories of the Price family and way more artifacts than she liked.

Maybe moving out of Arcadia Bay really would help her. Maybe Kate was right. But where would she go? Would she go to a school of psychology like Kate?

Kate the therapist. She thought that was slightly ironic, the circumstance being that in the alternate timeline Kate never survived. But in this one she prevailed over things Max thought she wouldn't, and that made Kate almost glow with a certain radiance in her presence. She loved the fact that Kate was there for her like Max was in the opposite timeline.

The brunette poked her head out and into the hallway. Kate's door was open slightly. She quietly stepped into the hallway and looked inside.

Kate slept peacefully on her side, white translucent blankets draped over her small frame, making her look like a sleeping angel. She stirred in her sleep as the sun began to coalesce through the window next to her bed. Max took herself away from the view and went to the kitchen. She vaguely remembered the coffee pot on the counter next to where they sat last night, and made that her center point.

Max slipped a K-Cup into the machine and placed a small black mug she found neatly arranged in a random cupboard underneath it. The coffee brewed instantly, and thirty seconds later Max took a sip of the flavored coffee.

Kate groggily strolled into the kitchen in from the hallway in her nightgown, and noticed Max sitting on the counter, absently staring into the corner of the kitchen. She held a steaming cup of coffee at her side. Kate assumed she'd just woken up not that long ago.

"How are you this morning, Max?"

The brunette's soft eyes met Kate's.

"Fine," she said softly, taking another swig of coffee. "I actually haven't slept that well in a long time."

Sleep takes away anxiety.

Kate found herself slightly smiling.

"Did you dream at all?"

Max shook her head. Kate was beyond relieved to hear that. She ejected the empty K-cup and popped in her own, pressing the brew button.

"Kate... I didn't like seeing you depressed."

Kate's eyes went wide. She stopped and looked at the brunette. She had to remind herself of the circumstances surrounding her.

"I'm okay Max, I promise. I'm not depressed in this one." The blonde returned to her coffee.

"I'm sorry, it still feels like that week is haunting me. I keep thinking at any moment you'll tell me that you're in a nightmare and can't wake up."

Note to self. Apparently in another universe I'm depressed and or dead.

"Max, you should focus on the now."

"F-f-focus?"

Crap.

Don't mention things about cameras around Max.

"Not focus, just... Try and stay in the now. The past haunts you, and it's better if you don't play on those fears from two years ago."

Max considered the words going into her ears. It had been a long time since that week, almost two and a half years by now.

"I've left multiple of myself in other places." She said dryly.

Kate looked up from stirring her coffee.

"I wonder what I'm like in the others. The first time I jumped back in time to change William's fate I returned to the presence a different person. I was part of the vortex club, best friends with Victoria, and Nathan, and the rest of those...assholes."

Kate cringed at that word. They weren't mean people anymore, Kate thought to herself. In fact, Victoria was almost the complete opposite. She still talked in a sarcastic tone most of the time but the girl meant well.

"Max, have you talked to any of the people from the Vortex since Blackwell?"

Max shook her head. "The last time I heard anything back from them was Friday while the storm was about to take out Arcadia. It was...Nathan. He left me a message on my phone saying he was sorry, and warned me about Jefferson. I don't know what happened to him, but I assume in that timeline Nathan was killed by him."

Kate didn't know how else to respond to her. It was all very confusing and mildly intriguing how much Max had gone through, and although Kate's head was already killing her this morning, she needed to know everything that happened during that week. She'd keep prodding for information here and there, but Kate didn't overdo it for fear of pushing Max too far.

"Victoria's really changed." She said, pulling the cup of freshly brewed coffee from the maker.

"Yeah, I know. I saw you both walking in the cemetery together. And I did get her text by the way. I just don't know what to say to her."

"You should reassure her how you're doing."

Max looked at her. "Why?"

"Max, she's worried. And...I don't know how she treated you in the other timelines, but she was there for you the day Chloe died." She opened the fridge to retrieve the creamer.

Max supposed Kate was right. When she came out of the bathroom that morning Victoria and a lot of other students had crowded around her to comfort her, even students she didn't know, like those from the art group, LGBT, special needs, etc. The biggest surprise was Victoria. She even hugged her and let Max cry on her cashmere. She felt absolutely terrible after making fun of her in class, and vowed not to from that day forward.

Max took out her phone and opened the inbox. Victoria's message was still there waiting for her reply.

Hey Max, it's Victoria. I'm just wondering how you're doing lately. Hope you're alright. Text me back if you can. - Vic.

Max almost cried. Victoria never seemed really care about Max's mental health. Sure she did things for her, but in the alternate timelines Victoria was a complete alpha bitch.

I'm okay Victoria. She sent back.

Kate smiled to herself as Max clicked send.

They were making progress. The fact that Max could come to terms with small things like this would help her in the long run.

Kate pulled a pan out of the cupboard and set it on the stove, warming it before cracking a pair of eggs into the metal.

"Are you hungry Max?"

Max nodded. Kate flipped and scrambled the eggs, then served them to Max on a small white plate. Kate wasn't that hungry, so she turned off the range and watched Max eat while she stirred creamer into her drink.

The brunettes phone buzzed next to her. Max put the plate aside and found a new text from Victoria atop her screen.

Oh thank goodness, it began, I was so worried Max. Where are you now?

Kate's place, Max responded. Across the way, at her apartment near the school, Victoria watched the two words scroll across the screen and wondered how in the world that had occured. She wondered if Max had been in Arcadia Bay the entire two years, and figured that was the case since she was in the obvious position to be at Kate's house.

Since Chloe's death, something had changed Victoria's view on Max. She already knew the brunette wasn't a poser, and figured she was a cool girl, but the problem was that Max was more likeable. No one ever said anything bad about her, and everything bad about Victoria. In the three weeks Victoria knew Max, she figured she was a wannabe hipster. But when Chloe died and Max was obviously struck with grief, Victoria knew that was her chance to make things right if she wanted Max to accept her. She let Max cry on her shoulder, and she too felt like she could shed a few tears as one of the most gentle and kind girls she held in her arms did. Victoria knew people would look at her differently, but that's what she wanted. And mostly she wanted Max to feel like at least someone was there for her. She was also mean to Kate in almost the same bracket of time that she laughed at Max, but was ultimately glad it only got as far as a paper ball and not a viral video, which she deleted as soon as she got the chance. Victoria was worried for a while, but as the months passed and she hadnt seen or heard of such a video being shared around the school she breathed easy. Her and Kate made up the next week, went for tea together, sat at the Two Whales for breakfast before school, and eventually became better friends than either of them could have imagined was possible. Kate forgave her for everything, and Victoria let the girl help her when even she felt no one else was there. Her minions, who she took to calling acquaintances and distancing herself from, no longer influenced her in the worst of ways.

Max was... a different story. Even though she gave as much comfort to Max as possible, Max was always distant with all of them, in almost the same way Victoria was with Courtney and Taylor. Even Kate was pushed off to the side most of the time. Victoria began to say such good things about a girl that used to be just a shy brunette with a camera that it almost backfired on her. But the rest of the school tried to give so much support to the girl. Victoria only felt bad when Max had dropped herself from Blackwell completely because people wouldn't leave her alone. Max just wanted to be left that way, and she went to some extreme measures to do it.

And she was, for two and a half years. Victoria followed Max's blog, on which Max called herself "Noir Angel," but there wasn't much going on that either. She uploaded pictures here and there of Seattle, southern Oregon, parts of California. But she mused they were all old pictures. The last one she uploaded was om the eve of Christmas. Beyond that, there wasn't much else. It wasn't until Victoria found the old camera Max used, along with a set of torn polaroids in the dorm trash bin, that Victoria began to really worry about her. It was the night Max left Blackwell altogether that she found it, so she figured Max had completely abandoned her dreams. All hope regarding Max's photography career seemed so lost to her at that point. She never even entered a photo for the everyday heroes contest, and it wasn't even Victoria who won. It was Kate.

Victoria looked at the old camera sitting atop her dresser and considered telling Max she still had it. But she had no idea what to say to her in a single text message. There was too much time and distance between them for it to matter anymore. She'd taken it in to get it fixed, since it was broken when she found it, so that maybe one day she could return it to her. Not even Kate knew she had it, though, so she was on her own to try and figure out how to get it back to.

If Max didn't want her camera anymore, what was wrong that made her give it up? And if she still didn't want it, what the hell would Victoria do with such an item in her possession?

Victoria got up from her bed and picked up the old camera. She faced it towards herself and examined the front of it. She'd had time to see the raggedy yellow camera up close, but every time she held it she felt weird, like an odd aura had attached itself to the artifact. She ran her fingers off the edge, and accidentally pushed the capture button. The flash snapped up and the camera snapped a shot of her.

The Polaroid inched out of the camera and Victoria's surprised face covered the polaroid. She'd laugh at herself for looking so stupid, but she couldn't knowing how she laughed at Max for doing the exact same thing in Jefferson's class not too soon before Chloe was killed.

Victoria's stomach churned in her abdomen, and the blonde managed a distinct pained frown as she gently set the camera back on her dresser.

Fuck me.

Author's note: I apologize for the extremely long exposition here, but I wanted to get it across that considering the circumstances of the funeral and Chloe's death, that all three of them would change quite radically. My decision to make Kate a therapist came from the fact that her character seems like the one who'd be best for the position. I also wanted to explore the effect Chloe's death would have on Victoria, and Max of course, as we find out she might have minor, or severe, PTSD from the events of that week.

Anyway, besides the point, I'm in Ireland for the next three days, and will try and post the next segment before Sunday. I'd been writing this for three days, and edited for about half of one, so you can kind of gauge where I was on this. Also, hope you enjoyed this first chapter, please leave some constructive criticism, let me know if you liked it, and if you have any large issues with the story or the plotline, please private message me. Also, I'm writing on my smartphone, so indenting is kind of impossible right now. Thanks :D