Archive of Our Own

Graduation, the last few days of Arcadia Bay were quickly approaching as Rachel crossed off another day on the small calendar hanging on her locker. There was less then two months of school left, the fever was spreading through Blackwell like the flu. After graduation her and Chloe would be free from Blackwell and free to focus entirely on their new lives in California. A lot had happened in the years she had been dating Chloe, from getting stabbed in the arm by Damon Merrick to long nights studying when her father had gotten Chloe back into Blackwell. Concerts and fights with their parents, and long weekends away from each other for Cheerleading or Softball on Rachel’s part and Science Olympiad or Swim meets on Chloe’s.

Chloe had kicked it into high gear their Junior year, after they had a long talk about what they wanted to do. Rachel had mentioned wanting to graduate before leaving so they could get a clean break and had convinced Chloe to take up her father’s offer to get back into Blackwell. As much as Chloe hated the place, she couldn’t argue that she needed a high school diploma at the least. The more they hung out, the more Chloe wanted to do things with her life. She revealed a lot to Rachel in the last few years about how she wanted to invent things as a child, how good she was at it and how good she still was. Rachel did her best to help bring out the best of Chloe. And in return, Chloe had brought out the best in Rachel.

“Hey Beautiful, come here often?”

Speak of the devil.

Rachel smiled as she closed her locker and leaned against it, looking over at the dorky grin being offered to her by her guardian angel. Chloe was leaning against the lockers, her burgundy Blackwell Science Olympiad blazer over one of her punk graphic T-shirts. Honestly, seeing Chloe in that blazer was one of Rachel’s favorite things about convincing Chloe to join the team in the first place.

“Far too often.” Rachel replies with a smirk, “Hopefully not for much longer. Summer’s just not too far away.”

“Can’t wait,” Chloe agreed as she leaned closer to her girlfriend, “Just a few gigs short of another grand to add to our escape fund.”

The two had been scraping together money for the last few years, Rachel got a lot of her money from tutoring and the hush money her dad gave her, which had doubled since his plans to get rid of her birth mother came out. Chloe took up shifts at Two Whales and fixed cars on the side. Her car fixing gigs usually got her a few hundred bucks a shot thanks to wealthy Blackwell students with expensive cars.

Chloe’s phone buzzes and she sighs before pulling her phone out, “If this is Brooke going to bitch to me about being late for a Science Olympiad meet again I will punch her…nope it’s Frank.”

Frank Bowers, Chloe ex-drug dealer. Rachel had convinced Chloe to give up the cigarettes and drugs, it wasn’t an easy argument, especially after learning about Chloe’s insomnia and PTSD that kept her awake at night. Chloe was irritable for two weeks, but the recovery in stamina was well worth it. And Rachel surely wasn’t going to complain about the lean muscle Chloe had developed from their hiking trips and swimming.

“What does he want?” Rachel asked, annoyed. Despite Chloe not owing him money anymore, the perverted old man still managed to get Chloe to run jobs for him at Blackwell. Once he had done it by standing outside of Rachel’s window one night and threatening Chloe so she’d intimidate some football jock to pay Frank for the Oxy he was owed. Another time he threatened her mom.

“For me to shake down Prescott for some money he owes him.” Chloe sighed pushing off the lockers and adjusting her beanie. This one was a black one with a Jolly Roger on the side, a birthday gift from Rachel a year ago.

“You should tell him to fuck off.”

“I can’t” Chloe pocketed her phone, “If I tell him no he’ll go after my mom…or you.”

Chloe looked defeated in that moment, Rachel huffed as she turned to adjust to face Chloe, leaning her back against the lockers. Frank was…different after Damon’s death, meaner, colder, maybe he was always like that. Damon did say Frank had a dark side that they wouldn’t like, maybe this was it.

“Anyway, It’s Nathan, how hard could it be to shake him down?” Chloe shrugged, “Add it to my long list of Blackwell misdemeanors.”

Rachel scoffed and shook her head with an amused grin. Chloe had turned into a A-B student and thanks to her position as Blackwell’s star freestyle swimmer, she was almost completely untouchable by Principal Wells. All her pranks or misdemeanors were forgiven much more easily then before. That and an athletic scholarship on top of her science one was much needed financial relief for her mother. Rachel had been surprised to know Chloe was that good of a swimmer, but she supposed it made sense. Chloe had told many stories of her father taking her sailing and taking her to the beach as a child. Chloe practically grew up on the water, playing pirate on the Oregon Coast.

“Just be careful,” Rachel started as she tugged Chloe closer by the blazer, “Nathan’s been…weird lately. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Relax Rach, he’s pretty harmless, besides I’m pretty sure he’s scared of me.” Chloe pointed out as she rested her arm by Rachel’s head, “But if it makes you feel better, I’ll talk to him on campus. It’s not like he can do much with other students around right? He doesn’t want to get on Mr. Fancy-Photographer’s bad side right?”

Rachel didn’t have many classes with Nathan this semester, but one she did have was Photography with Mr. Jefferson, a famous photographer who started teaching at Blackwell at the beginning of the year. Mr. Jefferson was…strange, Rachel didn’t particularly have a good feeling about him, which was confirmed by Chloe since she had passed him in the hallway once talking to one of the other female students. That’s when Chloe made the comment that he seemed to like younger girls almost as much as Frank did.

With the way some of the students fawn over him and how much he gives them in return, Rachel wouldn’t be surprised.

“I don’t see what Nathan sees in him. But hey, all the girls are excited for a chance to go to San Fransisco with him for that Everyday Hero contest.”

“No one thinks that’s weird? Not at all? That a high school teacher wants to go on a one-on-one with a student?” Chloe pointed out waving her one free hand around as she spoke.

“Blackwell’s too busy swimming in the tuition money from all the new students who came to learn from him.” Rachel shrugs, “It’s probably going to be Victoria anyway, or Nathan, he seems to like their photography the best.”

“What did you submit?” Chloe asked, tilting her head.

“A picture of my hero of course.” Rachel grinned and ran a hand down Chloe’s arm, “What else? He hated it though, said I take too many photos of my girlfriend.”

“You kinda do.”

“Nope, I take the perfect amount of photos of my girlfriend, who need I remind her, has an entire album on her phone of just me.”

“I like taking pictures of pretty things.”

“Oh, I’m pretty, am I?” Rachel teased as Chloe leaned in closer, pressing their lips together in a soft kiss before pulling away slowly, brushing her nose against Rachel’s as she pulled away.

“Not very modest about it either.” Chloe teased as she pushed off the lockers and stood up straight. “I gotta go talk to Mrs. Grant, she said she wanted to see me this morning.”

“Another Olympiad thing?” Rachel asked as Chloe nodded.

“Yeah, she didn’t say what though, I’ll see you after Chem?”

“I suppose.” Rachel sighed dramatically, pulling the taller girl in for another quick kiss before Chloe turned to head off to Mrs. Grant’s classroom. Rachel watches her turn the corner before pushing off the locker and heading towards the Drama Lab. Dana and Hayden were playing out a scene and Rachel almost laughed at the irony of it. Those two had become well-versed in acting and were regulars on stage, much like Rachel herself.

“Hey Rachel,” Steph offered as she looked up from her sketchbook. Steph and Chloe had gotten close over the years, Steph had been a good friend to Chloe and was good at watching her back where Frank was involved when Rachel couldn’t be there.

“Hey Steph,” Rachel smiled and sat beside the young stage manager, “What’s up?”

“Waiting on the Sophomore that’s going to replace me as Stage Manager after graduation.” Steph stated as she put her book back in her backpack.

“I bet Mr. Keaton’s upset to be loosing you,”

“Ha, He’s upset to be loosing everyone this year, have you seen the Sophomores and Freshman?” Steph waved a hand to the corner of the room where a few underclassmen sat, “I’m glad I won’t be here.”

The two chat more before Mr. Keaton comes in starts class. It’s mostly about the last performance of the school year, the school was doing “Little Shop Of Horrors” and while Rachel was a Shakespearean nerd by trade, she was equally as excited for this play as any other.

As soon as the class is over, Rachel and Steph walk together to their next class, English with Mrs. Houda. Steph’s in the middle of a DnD story when they hear it.

A bang

Not just a bang but something so loud and eerie that it stops everyone in the hallway. Rachel sees Mr. Madsen rush into the girls’ bathroom where the bang come from. There’s yelling and Rachel can make out Nathan Prescott’s form as David tackles him.

“What the hell,” Rachel murmurs as she rushes toward the commotion, hearing Steph at her heels as she swings open the door.

Her world crashes around her the second she notices what’s happened.

Nathan’s crying on the ground under Mr. Madsen’s weight as he talks into the security guard com on his shoulder, telling Skip to call an ambulance immediately. There’s a gun on the tile a few feet away, forgotten. And laying on her side in a puddle of her own blood was her girlfriend. It’s enough to make Rachel freeze, staring at the scene dumbly as she feels Steph push past her.

It this how Chloe felt the day Rachel got stabbed? Frozen in a state of fear and disbelief as it happened before her.

“RACHEL!” Steph’s voice knocks her back into reality. She sees Steph pointing at her, hands red from trying to stop the bleeding on Chloe’s stomach, “for fuck’s sake! Your shirt! Now!”

Rachel pulls the flannel from her shoulders and hands it off to Steph as fast as she can. Steph uses the shirt to try and stop the rapid bleeding from the girl on the floor. Rachel drops to her knees on the other side, coming out of her stupor enough to press her hands against Steph’s in their attempt to control the rapidly growing red puddle spreading across the floor.

___________________________________

Rachel hates hospitals.

She hates sitting in hospital waiting rooms and looking up at Chloe’s name on the screen in the ER as the doctors tried to patch her up. Steph sits next to her, rubbing her hands together unconsciously, she had already washed them four times trying to get Chloe’s blood off. Even though it couldn’t been seen, it still felt like it was there. Rachel understood as she looked down at her own hands, Chloe’s beanie trapped in a death grip between her fingers.

David’s sitting on a chair across from them, looking stoic, but is far quieter then Rachel has ever seen him. Seconds later Joyce bursts through the door, close to tears.

“What happened?” The older blonde asks as she surveys the room, David gets up slowly walking over to the older woman.

“She’s in surgery now, The doctors will come tell us when they have news.”

“How did this happen?” Joyce is close to sobbing and it breaks Rachel’s heart to see the woman like this, “How did my daughter get shot, David! At school no less, where you’re supposed to be protecting them!”

“Joyce, please calm-“

His sentence is stopped short by Joyce’s hand that had shot out to connect with his cheek. The sound of the slap echoes through the small room.

“Do not.” Joyce starts as she waves her hand at her husband, “Tell me to calm down. That is my daughter in there!”

The slap had been enough to completely paralyze David, who stood there in shock as tears ran down Joyce’s face.

“My baby girl could end up dead because some kid was able to get his hands on a gun and bring that into a private school where I sent my daughter because I was told it would be safe! Clearly that’s not the case is it David?” Joyce’s face loosing all anger and holds only sorrow, “I will not burry my own daughter David.”

The room is silent, Joyce turns to wipe the tears from her face and looks over at Rachel and Steph as if she’s seeing them for the first time, just noticing their presence in the room. Joyce takes a few steps closer and looks down, noticing the dried blood on Rachel’s jeans.

“Are you girls OK?”

Steph must be just as tight throated as Rachel, because no words come out of either of them. Rachel feels fresh tears threaten to fall before Joyce rushes forward, wrapping an arm around both of them.

“It’s going to be OK.” Joyce offers in spite of everything, that only makes Rachel cry harder, burying her face in the older blonde’s shoulder as she feels a hand run up and down her arm. “It’s going to be OK.”

___________________________________

Three hours

In that time Mikey and Drew had joined them in the waiting room. Joyce had taken a seat next to Rachel, leaning forward with her head in her hands as they waiting for someone, anyone to tell them what was going on with Chloe.

Rachel’s parents had joined them as well, her father entering with the promise that Nathan will pay for what he’s done and Rose sitting next to Joyce and offering kind words to help them through.

“You don’t seem worried,” Rachel honed in on Drew who was going through his phone, Drew looks up and places his phone down.

“Price is stubborn as hell, I don’t believe for a second she’d go down without a fight.” Drew offered, “Besides, Mikey said I had to come so I wouldn’t go after that punk Prescott instead.”

“You think his parents will try to get him out of this?” Steph asked, voice a little hoarse, despite not breaking down as hard as Rachel did, there was no arguing that she was upset about their friend’s condition.

“Nathan was arrested, but his parents are trying to bail him out.” James Amber offers from his place against the wall, giving his daughter and the other members of the room space, “I told the office to keep me in the loop.”

He turns to Joyce with a sympathetic look, “He won’t get away with this, I’ll be sure my office prosecutes him.”

“That will mean nothing if Chloe doesn’t make it.” Joyce shoots back.

It’s quiet again. Soon the door opens and a doctor in a white coat walks out, almost everyone in the room jumps to their feet.

“Mrs. Price,” The doctor asks as Joyce steps forward, “You daughter is stable for now. She’s suffered severe blood loss. The bullet didn’t directly hit any of her major organs, luckily. We did have to remove part of her liver and her lung shows signs of bruising on that particular side” The doctor gestures to his side to show Joyce where, “but that could have been far worse. She does have a few minor injuries as well. She sprained her wrist when she fell after she was shot and sustained a minor head injury from the fall. The next 24 hours are very crucial.”

“But…she’ll make it?”

“She’s not out of the woods yet, we’re monitoring her up in the ICCU. It’s unlikely she’ll be waking up any time soon.”

“Can I see her?” Joyce asks almost begging. The doctor takes a look around the room.

“I wouldn’t allow a large group in the ICCU, but you may go see your daughter. You can bring someone with you if you wish but I wouldn’t bring more then that, we have other patients in the ICCU as well who need rest.”

“Of course, thank you doctor.”

The North brothers stand as well as Steph,

“Let us know if you need anything, Mrs. Price, we’re going to head out for the night.” Drew offered Steph and Mikey nod.

“You’ll let us know how Chloe’s doing right?” Mikey asked sheepishly.

“Of course, I’m glad my daughter has so many people looking out for her.” Joyce offers a watery smile as she gives the boys and Steph one more hug before they leave. Rose and James go to do the same, as Rachel goes to follow then she feels a hand on her shoulder. “You’re welcome to come with me Rachel,”

Rachel looks over at Joyce with a hopefully look.

“After all, you are my daughter’s favorite person. I’m sure she’d like to see you.”

Even if she was unconscious. Rachel murmured a goodnight to her parents as her and Joyce navigated through the hospital to the ICCU. The ICCU was on the fifth floor, and the only way to get in was to pick up a phone on the wall and announce which patient you were there to see. One of the nurses would then unlock the door.

There’s a nurse sitting in Chloe’s room watching Chloe’s vitals on a computer in the room and typing notes. The nurse smiles when the two come into the room. Joyce rushed over to Chloe’s side, as the tall teen lay on the bed, IV and monitors attached to her. Oxygen mask on her face. Monitors beeping and blinking around her showing her various vital signs. After a few minutes of Joyce speaking in hushed tones to Chloe the nurse offers to fill Joyce in on all the details of her surgery and her condition. Rachel takes the opportunity to take a seat next to Chloe’s bed, reaching a had up to take Chloe’s in her own. Her hand is cool to the touch and doesn’t respond to Rachel’s even as she rubs her thumb along the back. Wishing for that classic hollywood scene where the unconscious patient moves or squeezes the person’s hand back.

It’s so quiet in the room, Rachel realizes. The hospital room itself is dark, there are lights in the hallway and nurses walking from patient room to patient room. A few nurses stationed inside rooms with patients. The beeps and hums of medical machines surround them.

___________________________________

Rachel wakes up from her nap at the sound of the nurse’s shoes making a round around the monitors and screens by Chloe.

“Sorry to wake you dear.” The nurse whispers as she takes a few notes down on the clipboard.

“Is Chloe OK?”

“Yes, sweetie, nothing to worry about. We monitor her very closely here so if anything goes south, we can catch it before it becomes too serious.”

“OK,” Rachel looked over to her girlfriend, she rubs her thumb across the back of Chloe’s hand.

“They bright her things back from the ER.” The nurse offers gesturing to a box that had been placed on the table close to where Joyce was sleeping on a chair. “I think she had a deck of cards on her if you’re having trouble falling asleep. I hear a good round of solitaire usually makes one sleepy.”

Rachel smiles as she quietly moves over to retrieve the deck of cards from the box. It a worn deck held together with a rubber band. “I gave these to her a little while after we started dating, she always got dealt a bad hand, so I wanted to give her a way to reshuffle.”

Rachel carefully removes the rubber band and looks through the worn cards. “Her mom said she used to love magic tricks when she was a kid, I thought giving her something else to do to destress would help her quit smoking.”

“That’s sweet.” The nurse commented with a smile. “Did it work.”

“Yeah” Rachel smiles as she flips through the cards, each card had a little message of encouragement signed with a heart and her initials. It was sappy, but she wanted Chloe to remember that she was there, that she’d always be there.

“Is that what the ravens are for?” The nurse asked gesturing to Chloe’s arm where her tattoo was. The tattoo was a storm of ravens wrapping up her arm and ending a little past her elbow. She had voiced wanting to get a full sleeve at one point, but had been sketching ravens one day when the inspiration for this tattoo came to her instead. The ravens circled around her arm decorated with the light outlines of gears and feathers in altering black, blues, and purple.

“Chloe thinks bad luck follows her around.” Rachel mentioned running her finger over one of the ravens. “Based on recent events, she might have been right.”

“Luck is a difficult thing,” The nurse started, “I’m sure it was very unlucky to be in that bathroom when she was shot. But the outcome could have been far worse.”

“Maybe.”

___________________________________

Chloe feels groggy when she tries to open her eyes to the bright room around her. She immediately closes her eyes again with a groan.

“Miss. Price?” She hears from above her in a voice she doesn’t recognize. “Miss. Price, can you hear me?”

“No shit,” Chloe grumbled as she feels something being removed from her face, she’s slowly becoming aware of the pain slowly making itself more present as she woke up more. Chloe chances opening her eyes again, looking up at the older woman in white scrubs. “Who are you?”

“Chloe!” That voice she recognizes. She sees her mom rush over to her other side, quickly running a hand through her hair with tears in her eyes. “Thank the lord!”

“Mom? What’s going on?” Chloe tries moving her hand as she speaks but quickly finds it trapped. She looks down to see a messy mane of blonde hair across the face of the sleeping occupant of the room.

“Honey, don’t you remember?”

Chloe frowns, looking at her mother for a second as her vision starts to clear and the pain in her torso increased.

“Remember what?”

Rachel shifts on her side, clearly stirring from the noise increase in the room. She grumbles something in her sleep causing Chloe to smile faintly at her.

“Sweetie, what’s the last thing you remember?” Her mother asks and Chloe thinks for a second.

“I remember walking Rachel home, and then waking up here.”

The room is silent for a few minutes while the unfamiliar women takes notes on a clipboard.

“You’re in the hospital sweetheart.” Joyce runs her hands through her daughter’s hair again, “You got shot at school, you’ve been here all night.”

“Shot?”

“You really don’t remember,” Joyce sighs but looks relieved a second later with a smile, “It’s OK, you’re going to be alright and that’s all that matters.”

Rachel shifts again from her spot next to Chloe.

“You really worried her Chloe,” Joyce says, gesturing to Rachel with her free hand, “I’d be very surprised if the poor girl sleep much at all night with you in here.”

“That wasn’t my choice!” Chloe raised her free hand, only to drop it when pain shot through her arm “Can we rewind to the part where I was shot? How the fuck did I take a bullet? Also why does my wrist hurt? Please tell me it’s because I punched the guy who shot me.”

“Sorry Sweetheart, can’t say for sure what happened.” Joyce explained, “All we do know is that David rushed in the bathroom and found you and Nathan. You hurt your wrist when you fell, you also banged your head, but the doctor said that was minor, you did need a few stitches for the cut though.”

“Nathan Prescott?” Chloe frowned farther, trying to pull any memory of the incident, but she can’t, she can’t remember a thing about it.

“Don’t worry about it, the important thing now is that you’re OK.” Joyce leans down to kiss her daughter on the forehead, “The doctor’s going to come in and see if we can get you out of ICCU. After that we can talk about getting you home.”

“The sooner the better, you know how I feel about hospitals.” Chloe mentioned as her mother chuckled.

“I’ll see what we can do,” Joyce brushes the hair out of Chloe’s face before straightening up. “I’m going to go update your friends in the waiting room.”

“Huh?”

“Only two of us where allowed in here with you, your other friends came by this morning. Steph and the North brothers.”

“Oh,” Chloe didn’t exactly know what to say. It was one thing to learn that she had been shot, but now she had been shot and everyone had been worried about her. It was…weird.

“You should wake Rachel up and let her know your OK.” Joyce offered on her way out of the room. Chloe smiled and looked down at her sleeping girlfriend.

“I’ll leave you two for a moment as well,” The nurse spoke up, “I’ll let the doctor know your awake.”

“Uh, Thanks,” Chloe nodded before moving her good hand that was trapped in Rachel’s. “Hey, Rachel.”

A grumble, nothing else.

“Rach,” Chloe tried again pulling her free hand free and using it to push Rachel’s loose hair away from her face. Rachel shifts but doesn’t wake up. Chloe sighs as a smile plays on her face. Rachel was rarely a heavy sleeper. She only really crashed if she was exhausted or if she fell asleep cuddled with Chloe. She moved her hand to Rachel’s neck and ran her fingers over the base of her neck where she knew she was ticklish.

Rachel shoots up in the chair, an annoyed look on her face as she blinks a few times.

“Mornin’ Hollywood.” It takes Rachel all of three seconds before she realizes who woke her up. In a spit second she rushes forward, wrapping her arms around Chloe’s shoulders.

“You’re OK” A fresh wave of tears runs down Rachel’s face as she buries it in Chloe’s neck.

“You’re not getting rid of me that easy.” Chloe joked as she raised her good arm to wrap around her girlfriend, “Hey, it’s OK, I’m fine.”

Rachel squeezes her tighter, her body shaking as she cried into Chloe’s shoulder. She was so relieved and tired and just so fucking angry at Nathan.

“Fuck, I thought I was going to loose you.” Rachel sniffled as she tried to calm her breathing.

“Hey, I’d never fucking leave you Rachel Amber.” Chloe promised rubbing the blonde’s back. “Never.”

Rachel composes herself for a moment before she leans back away from a bit to rub her eyes, smearing black mascara in the process. Chloe chuckled softly raising her hand to Rachel’s face.

“That’s not a good look for you,” Chloe smiled as she tried to wipe away the excess black. “Wait, I think I made it worse. Don’t you own like…waterproof makeup?”

Rachel lets out a laugh as Chloe tries and fails to minimize the raccoon look she was surely now sporting. She takes a moment to appreciate the feeling of Chloe’s touch, warm against her damp skin. How much care her girlfriend took to wipe away her tears and running make up. After a moment she raises her hand to clasp Chloe’s wrist. Leaning forward to press a soft kiss to her girlfriend’s lips. Rachel takes advantage of the momentary warmth that spreads through her at the feeling of Chloe kissing her back.

It strikes her that she could have lost this.

This feeling of Chloe’s warm lips against her own, the smell of vanilla and spice that was currently faded and replaced with the smell of hospital washes and medical disinfectants. Chloe’s hand moves to tangle in Rachel’s messy blonde locks as she sighs into the kiss.

A faint rap causes them both to pull apart.

“Good to see you awake Miss. Price,” The doctor greets with a chuckle as she walks in followed by the nurse. “I do hate to interrupt, but we do need to go over a few things with you.”

___________________________________

Turns out Chloe got to come home that evening, she shook it off as a perk of being poor. No use keeping you in the hospital if you couldn’t pay for it. Chloe stepped out of the small bathroom of the small hospital room.

“I got all your other stuff,” Rachel offered as she put the rest of Chloe’s belongings from the patient box into her bag. “Ready to go?”

“Home and crash on the couch.” Chloe smirked as Rachel appeared at her side, she wraps her arms around the shorter girl’s shoulders, “And cuddle.”

“Of course,” Rachel giggled as she wrapped an arm around the taller girl’s torso, careful of her injured side. “Whatever you want.”

“You’ll give in to all my demands?” Chloe asks with a smirk.

“Whatever you want.” Rachel repeats with a coy look as she watches Chloe think.

“I want to crash on my not so comfortable pull out couch with my amazing girlfriend watching a horrible horror movie.”

“Not your bed?”

“I really don’t want to go up stairs.” Chloe explained, she was still sore and really tired. The sooner she could crash the better. “I get to pick the horror movie.”

“Naturally. That’s it? Anything else?”

“I’m a woman of simple needs.” Chloe announced, “I’d also like to see Nathan fucking Prescott get punished for shooting me in the first place.”

Rachel frowned, her father informed them that the Prescott family bailed Nathan out after pulling some strings. Of course. The news didn’t sit well with anyone.

“I’ll punch him in the face if it makes you feel better.”

“Hmm, it would but,” Chloe started pulling one of Rachel’s hands up to her face, kissing her knuckles, “Last time you punched someone you bruised the crap out of your hand.”

“Shoulda seen the other guy.”

“I did, your bruise was worse. You also threw wrong,” Chloe points out as she turns Rachel’s hand over and kisses her palm, “You’d have better luck hitting with your palm then your fist.”

“Duly noted, I’ll bitch slap him until I’m satisfied.”

Chloe scoffs, “Good.”

The two exit the room and head towards the front desk where Joyce was finishing signing Chloe out. She smiles when she sees the two girls approaching.

“Ready to go girls.”

“Very,”

___________________________________

Chloe ends up crashing on the pull out within a few minutes of being home. Joyce shakes her head at her daughter from the kitchen as she reads over the labels on the pain killers and antibiotics the doctor prescribed to Chloe before they left.

There was a weird air as David, who was sitting at the kitchen table, hadn’t said anything since they walked in the door. Not even to complain about Chloe changing the channel on the TV before falling asleep on the couch.

“Do you need help with anything Joyce?” Rachel asked before the silence could become defining. It was strange to be in the house after David and Joyce’s falling out in the hospital. With the news of Nathan being on bail, she was sure Joyce was still on edge. The older blonde smiled at Rachel as she offered.

“No thank you dear. You should try to follow Chloe’s lead and get some sleep. You look like you slept about as well as I did in that hospital room.”

Rachel smiled at Joyce before making her way over to the small living area of the house. Chloe’s house may have been much smaller then her own, but she loved being at Chloe’s. It felt so much warmer then her own household. Her favorite part were the billboards of William’s old photos of Chloe as a child and other family members. She remembers Chloe being worried that her mom would get rid of them like everything else of William’s, but those remained, with a few additions of Rachel and David thrown into the mix.

The living area was home to an old TV and couch that pulled out into a bed. Something Chloe had told her was from when she used to have sleep overs with her friend Max. The two would camp out in the living room and play games until odd hours of the morning, much like she did now with Steph one the occasion that she fights with David and wants to get away for the night. If she didn’t end up on Rachel’s doorstep she would be on Steph’s.

The small trophy case was also a sight. Old science fair trophies that Chloe had won in middle school mixed with a few new ones from Blackwell’s Science Olympiad competitions. There were a few medals hung up for swimming too as well as an old trophy for sailing. Chloe had explained to her that when Arcadia Bay’s harbor was full of life, people used to race sailboats and windsurf. Chloe and her dad competed in a few friendly sailing competitions. Even had a smaller trophy from a fishing thing her and her dad did.

Rachel laid down on the pull mattress next to a sleeping Chloe, who stirred slightly in her sleep as the mattress dipped with the new weight. She had flipped the TV to some science station where they were playing a re-run of Mythbusters. Rachel smiled as she moved the remote from where Chloe had dropped it next to her to the coffee table and laid back down staring at the other girl. Chloe had choice to lay on her good side, curled up a little. She looked younger in her sleep, a lot more helpless. It made Rachel want to protect her. Want to keep watch so nothing could hurt her.

Her eyes grow heavy as everything from the last two days catch up with her. It doesn’t take long before she’s falling into a heavy dreamless sleep.

___________________________________

Rachel found it slightly weird when she opened her eyes and found the room bright with sunlight. Usually David would have the two awake at the crack of dawn, but she supposed with everything that’s happened he’d take pity and let the two girls sleep. Rachel turns her head to looked over at where Chloe had been asleep only to see the space empty.

“Chloe?” Rachel yawned as she sat up, slightly alarmed at the fact that the girl wasn’t sleeping next to her.

“Shower.” Joyce called from the kitchen, the smell of breakfast wafting into the next room. “I think I heard the water turn off a second ago, could you make sure she has enough gaze in that first aid kit to re-wrap the stitches, doc said to keep them clean and dry.”

“Sure,” Rachel said as Joyce motioned to a drugstore bag filled with gaze pads and wrap. Some medical tape and other first aid supplies lingered at the bottom. Rachel turned to take the bag up to Chloe. When she got to the top of the steps she noticed the bathroom empty and Chloe’s door closed.

“Chloe,” Rachel tried again as she pushed the door open, Chloe had been in the process of drying her hair, standing in the room shirtless and with the contents of the first aid kit spread across her bed. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Chloe replied with a sheepish grin, A new bandage was wrapped around her sprain wrist and she seemed to be trying to figure out how to rewrap the bandage around her midsection where she was shot. “Come to be my nurse?”

Rachel raises the bag of medical supplies, “I suppose I am. What do you need?”

Rachel steps forward and examines her patient. The wound from the bullet is bigger then she thought it was, starting a little more then an inch below the other girl’s dark bra,  probably because of the doctor’s opening it more to remove the bullet and assess the damage. The stitches don’t look bad, clean against the bruising that has taken over Chloe’s pale skin. Bandaging the wounded skin is quick work. Rachel takes a moment to enjoy the closeness. Chloe’s skin is still warm from the shower and the smell of vanilla wafts off warm skin.

“How do you feel?” Rachel asks once the bandage is secured to Chloe’s torso.

“Honestly,” Chloe sighs as she wraps her arms around Rachel’s shoulders. “Really sore. It kinda hurts to breath sometimes. And the drugs make me hella tired.”

“That’s why you have to rest dummy.” Rachel offered with a sincere smile, “Seriously, lay down, I’ll bring anything you need up here for you.”

“Giving in to my demands again?” Chloe asked with a smirk, “Careful, I might start getting used to this.”

Rachel chuckles and kisses Chloe’s bare shoulder, “Go put on a shirt, I’m going to take a quick shower.”

“Pft, that’s the first time you’ve ever told me to put on a shirt.”

“As much as I love cuddling with you shirtless,” Rachel hummed with a smirk as she dragged her eyes over Chloe’s topless form, “I have a feeling your mom is going to be checking on you a lot today.”

“Can’t have my nurse getting fired for inappropriate contact with a patient.”

“Nope, can’t have that.” Rachel smiled as she pulled away from Chloe to steal some clothes from the taller girl. She had her own there, but Chloe’s clothes were comfy and warm and smelled like her.

“Hey,” Chloe started as Rachel went toward the door, “If you go downstairs, bring the paper back up?”

“You want the newspaper?”

“Yeah.” Chloe nodded before breaking into a grin, “It’s Saturday.”

Right, comics.

“Alright, I’ll bring it up with breakfast.”

“Thanks honey,”

“Whatever you want dear.”

Rachel smiles before going through the morning motions, shower, downstairs to get breakfast, and dutifully grabbing the paper before going back up. Joyce had handed her Chloe’s morning dose of medication with the instruction she take it after eating.

Chloe’s right where she left her, sitting up on the bed propped up with pillows and scrolling through her phone.

“Breakfast,” Rachel announced as she walked over with the tray. Chloe smiles brightly at her as she moves over slightly on the bed for Rachel to sit with her. Chloe doesn’t end up eating half of what she normally does, but she’s awake and eating something so Rachel doesn’t push, she’s sure the medicine is the cause anyway. She watches Chloe take the meds as instructed, taking them all in one quick shot before turning back to the newspaper.

“Principal Wells isn’t making a statement.” Chloe commended as she filled to a page before deepening her voice in her Principal Wells impression. “I have no comment about this tragedy at this time.”

Rachel rolled her eyes, “Amazing what a Prescott gag order can do.”

Rachel’s expecting a scoff or chuckle in return but nothing comes. She looks over to see Chloe frozen in place staring at something in the paper.

“What is it?”

Rachel leans forward to see the paper, inside a large ad laid out with the words “MISSING” across the top. At first Rachel can’t make sense of it until her eyes scroll over the name.

MAXINE CAULFIELD