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It starts with a knock.
Max is obviously shocked. She wanted to change the past to have Chloe be happy with life, not have her unable to live it with her. And she is also all of a sudden thrust into this Max’s life. Mad Max, Vortex Clubber. Everything has changed so much. Too much.
She tries to visit Chloe more often. Needs to see her. She changed the past for her, after all. Chloe is the last thread of humanity she has as this teenaged time jumper.
To her surprise, while this Chloe is frustrated with life, she is happy. She smiles genuinely, sings songs with her mom and dad. She has pictures of a life Max wasn’t a part of but feel immersed in as memory after memory is shared.
It makes tears sting her eyes as she laughs and smiles on what she missed out on. And Chloe finds it odd, a hurt pulsing in her heart like there is something her mind forgot in another life. A different life.
So Max tells her about the rewind. She’s sniffling and smiling and trying not to break down or snap as she proves it. Just like the diner. From a different world. And Chloe has the same excited spark in her eye, laughs about how they can be superheros. Crimestoppers. No. Timestoppers.
And Max can only laugh and shake her head before her look softens and saddens significantly as Chloe looks down at her chair. Chloe shrugs the look off and Max is amazed at how adjusted Chloe is. It’s not just a resigned acceptance. It’s a complete one. The final stage of grief overcome in the time Max was away.
But Max has to be sure. She did this all for Chloe to be happy.
“Are you...happy?” she asks slowly, her hand reaching over to take Chloe’s.
And Chloe smiles and nods.
“It’s all kind of fucked up right?” she replies, then continues, “But I’ve had support from everyone, even when I was raging my hardest.” She laughs and squeezes Max’s hand. “And now you’re here too. I don’t think I’d change that shit.”
Max laughs. “Yeah. Sounds like you had a hella rad life.”
“’Hella’,” Chloe repeats. “Pfft, I think I might use that.”
Max snorts. ‘You don’t know how much you use it,’ she thinks.
There’s a pause that isn’t uncomfortable but in Max’s mind there is tension.
And then Chloe says, “Are you happy?”
Max feels like she tripped into another time jump stream, memories of her timeline. The real one. They flood her. The bathroom. The carpark fight. The junkyard and the traintrack. The pool. Her room. Their kiss. And then their separation outside of Blackwell.
“As long as you’re happy, Chlo,” Max says, unaware of the tears streaming down her face, “I’m h-happy if you are.” She coughs on her tears, her nose running terribly as she sobs into Chloe’s knees.
Chloe shushes her and strokes her hair and Max can feel the absolute love and feels so selfish because it’s not the love she wants. And, to herself, she thinks it’s probably the only real love from Chloe she will actually get.
“I am so happy you’re here and with me. And this shit. This isn’t your fault.”
“Y-you don’t even know-”
"I think I do, Max, and it’s okay. Really,” she says, “You probably have gone through so much fucked up shit with that time jumpy thing.”
“Hell yeah, girl,” Max jokes weakly. Chloe still runs her fingers through Max’s hair.
“I’ll be fine, Max, I want you to be happy too,” she murmurs. Max nods her head into Chloe’s legs and sits up, eyes red and puffy. Chloe snorts lightly and says: “What have you been tokin’ up?”
Max laughs. “I don’t think that’s the way to say it.”
“Ah, well, you’d know.” Words Max has said thrown right back at her. That’s right. This timeline she’s...
“Do you still have that photo from when we were kids? Pancakes with your dad?” she asks. She still feels guilt clog her chest and tries to take deep breaths through her nose. She struggles with her nose blocked from her crying.
“Downstairs. Dad will show you,” she answers.
Max nods while Chloe wheels herself to her window.
“I missed you so much, you know?” she calls from her position before Max walks out. “But I’m glad you visited. Before you leave.”
Max stops and turns.
“You’re a lot smarter than the Chloe I know,” she says jokingly. Chloe laughs.
“Yeah, well I’ve had a lot of time on my hands,”
Max walks back and pulls out her camera.
“One for the road?” she asks. Chloe tilts her head slightly.
Max takes a picture. Only the one. With her eyes scrunched tight with a smile smile on her lips as she kissed the side of Chloe’s forehead, the other girl grinning happily with tears just cornering her eyes.
“Bye, Max.”
“I’ll be back, Chloe.”
“I know.”
And Max leaves the room to get the picture. She remembers where Joyce had put the album but thinks it best to ask William. She wants to hurry. Feels like she needs to.
“Will?” she calls, and the man appears out of the garden, dusting his knees off of soil and plucking some gloves off.
“Y’need somethin’ Maxie?” he asks, the same serene smile as Chloe on his face.
“Um, yeah, can I see the photo album, please?”
“Sure thing, kiddo, right here,” he says, wiping his feet before entering the house. He goes to a different place. The mantle of the fireplace. And he gets out the album.
“It’s not as good as your own, I bet, but they’re still memories and moments captured,” he comments.
“Thanks, Will,” Max says sincerely. William tilts his head and walks into the kitchen to get a drink.
Max tries not to tear through the pages but she needs that photo. The album is much thicker than her timeline. Probably because it’s full of photos with Chloe this time, rather than bits and pieces of her and her happiness.
She finds the photo though, holds it delicately as she thinks about the Chloe she left behind. Her Chloe.
She stands and walks up to William, giving him a big hug and trying this time to definitely not cry.
“I gotta go,” she says into his shirt, “But I’ll come visit again soon.”
He laughs and hugs her back, warm and large.
“I’ll have Joyce prepare a special treat when you do. Sad you can’t stay a little longer. Been a while.”
“It has. But Blackwell, y’know?”
“That I do, Max. You take care now. Joyce’ll have none of it if you don’t.”
“I know. Later, William.”
“G’bye, Maxine.”
Max leaves the house, sits on the curb by the bus stop, and looks at the photo.
And then she jumps.
-
The memory replays again, from the time the picture is taken, and Max doesn't hide the keys before William leaves, She just hugs Chloe before he does, makes a promise that she’s sorry and will tell her something soon. Slips her necklace around Chloe’s neck and apologizes again before the memory ends. Chloe is confused and sounds hurt for reasons she can’t fathom yet.
-
Max is crying in her room. Her tears smudge the ink of the photo just a bit but it can be wiped off easy.
Her phone buzzes with a text and with all her time powers she is still surprised to see it’s Chloe. Blue haired Chloe. Rocker Chloe. Her Chloe.
I’m sorry.
Max looks at the time. Only 6 minutes passed. She sighs and then jumps again, this time by the sound of a knock.
“Hey, Max?” Chloe’s muffled voice comes through.
Max stands slowly, her legs wobbling for her entire experience, and crosses her arms over her chest as if hugging herself.
“Th-The door is unlocked,” she says, voice shaking against her will. She coughs it away and tries to stand properly.
“I- uh- found something back in my truck that shouted ‘Max is actually right and Chloe is actually a jerk’ and just- yeah,” she mumbles, digging into her pockets and pulling out a necklace. Max’s necklace. “I shouldn’t have said shit was your fault. Or that I was completely abandoned. Even though I felt like I was, that was just my feels and shouldn’t have held that against you when you didn’t have a clue.”
“Chloe, I-”
“Look. If I had your rewind powers, I’d take it back. For reals. I just- got hella angry because of that shit with Rachel and you already pointed out I sorta mega crushed on her so basically what I’m trying to get through my own head to say is.
“I’m really, really fucking sorry about everything. About screwing up and yelling at you and everything else I fucked up in my life, more so with you because, pfft, that’s who I’m fucking apologizing to.” Chloe takes a deep breath to sigh in irritation with herself.
“You were right though,” Max finally says, uncrossing her arms, “To an extent, it was my fault. Time, y’know?” She sighs and pulls out the photo of her and the Chloe from the jump and hands it to her Chloe.
“Wow...Just. Holy shit.” Chloe sits on Max’s bed and stares at the picture.
“I was part of the Vortex Club, have I told you?” Max starts, laughing softly as she sits next to Chloe.
“Get the fuck out...” Chloe murmurs, surprised. “Well, actually, that’d sorta explain the preppy get-up.” She traces the Chloe in picture. “And...me?”
“You were happy. Or, are. Time and tense suck,” Max says, “But she genuinely is a happy girl.”
“In that chair? Bullshit,” she replies bitterly.
“No lie. I even told her about my powers and she didn’t want me to go back. She didn’t even mention it.”
Chloe purses her lisp.
“And...Dad?”
“Alive, tired, but happy too.”
“That’s good. I guess.”
They sit in silence, Chloe still tracing the photo.
“Why didn’t you stay?” she asks after a while, turning to Max, “Apparently I’m Little Miss Angel and Happiness with no working legs but an actual working family. You are mega popular and probably were ace in classes. That’s the life, right?”
Max doesn’t have to think about her answer. She just looks at Chloe with a smile and takes her hand with a gentle squeeze.
“’I’ll never leave you’, right?”
Chloe’s cheeks redden and she looks flustered with how she averts Max’s gentle gaze. Max’s smile widens a fraction.
“And if we leave, we leave together,” Chloe says, Her voice makes what she says sound like a question. It probably actually is.
“Together,” Max affirms. Chloe squeezes Max’s hand back and they lean forward, pressing their foreheads together with their hands linked.
“Mind if I crash here for the night?” Chloe mutters.
“My bed is smaller than yours so don’t hog the blankets,” Max jokes.
Time passes like a blur but a moment still sticks out to Max.
Chloe pressing her lips on her forehead softly and whispering goodnight into her hair as they press close under the covers.
***
Maxine blinks out of a haze and finds herself on the side of a street. It’s familiar, smells like home away from home, and her feet find herself walking up to a familiar house.
She knocks on the door.
“Max? You’re back? I thought you were leaving. Rethinking that dinner invitation?”
“I- uh-”
“Come on in. I’ll call up Joyce and you can spend some more time with Chlo.”
“O...kay.”
Max walks in and she feels odd, warm and also sticky. Like it’s humid. She plucks off her cardigan before looking around. She notes the new things around the familiar house and then up the stairs. Picture frames as far up as one could see with smiling faces and scrunched up noses in each one.
She glances away from them for a moment to look at the haggard looking man, looking less tired each second he spoke with his wife. She hears his laugh and it rings in her head before she shakes it off to look back up the stairs.
She makes her way up, the third step creaking under her feet like she swears she can remember. And then she’s in front of a room. The entrance is wide and open and she steps forward.
Chloe sits in her chair, her back facing the doorway, but she still knows. And she turns to face her guest and unknowing visitor.
“Hey, Max,” she greets, meeting the same surprised expression she saw the first time. Not for this Max though. And that makes her heart flutter more than then.
“I must be high,” Max murmurs under her breath stumbling over to Chloe’s bed and taking a seat in it. Chloe snorts.
“We have a lot to catch up on.”