Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Kate Marsh was dead.

She should have been dead. She remembered jumping and falling. She remembered the sight of Max desperately reaching after her. She remembered the gasps and screams as the ground rushed up to meet her.

Mercifully, she did not remember the impact.

By all rights, she should have been dead. Why then was she back on the roof of the dormitories?

The world swam in and out of focus. Everything was… muted and fuzzy. Sounds echoed strangely, somehow too loud and too quiet all at once.

She felt… she didn't feel much of anything. Just a moment ago, she had been cold and wet, but now… She held up her hands and watched the raindrops passing straight through them.

She should be panicking. Part of her was, but mostly she just felt the same yawning emptiness from before, that all consuming hopelessness. She had meant for it all to end… but it hadn't. Instead of waking up from the nightmare that her life had become, she found herself in a completely new one.

The sound of distant sirens brought her attention back to the present. Somewhere below, people were shouting. Kate turned, blinking to try to focus her vision. Max was where Kate had last seen her, only she had fallen to her knees and her shoulders shook as she sobbed.

Unlike before though, there was a third person on the roof with them. She was leaning over the edge at whatever lay below. Her black t-shirt and white shorts were utterly out of place in this weather and Kate realized with rising horror that the girl's blonde hair was untouched by the rain.

"Oh god, Max. I'm so sorry," the stranger said. "You tried your best, you really-"

The girl froze as she turned back to look at Max, her words dying as hazel eyes fixed on Kate.

Kate knew her face. It was hard not too when it was plastered all over the school in the missing posters. Hell, Kate had hung up a few herself in the dorm as a favor to a friend.

"Rachel Amber?" Kate gasped, finally finding her voice.

Rachel's eyes widened.

"Holy shit," she replied. "Holy shit! You can see me?"

"Yes, but what is… what is going on?"

Rachel's eyes darted unconsciously back to the ledge and whatever lay on the ground below.

Kate took a few steps forward. She already knew, but part of her still didn't believe it.

"Whoa!" Rachel said as she held out an arm to forestall Kate. "You don't need to see that."

"It's me down there, isn't it?" Kate said, her voice rising.

"Yeah," Rachel said with a nod.

Kate's breath hitched… or it would have if she still had lungs. She tried taking a few gulping breaths, but the sensation of breathing was distressingly absent.

Rachel watched her with a mix of sorrow, pity and understanding.

"Are you..." Kate asked. "Are you also…?"

She couldn't bring herself to say it, to give words to what had happened.

"Dead? Yeah," Rachel replied. "At least, I think so. I don't… I can't actually remember dying. It's kind of a blur."

"Is this hell?" Kate asked, distantly surprised by the evenness of her voice. Suicide was a sin. It was one of the worst sins one could commit since there was no chance for absolution afterwards.

"I don't know," Rachel replied with a shrug. "I don't think so. I always kind of imagined hell with more fire and brimstone and less… Max Caulfield."

Kate looked back at Max who was still kneeling on the gravely roof.

"What about Max?"

"Well… it's… weird," Rachel replied. "It might not be the same for you, but I can't get more than maybe fifty feet from her. I've been stuck following her around since yesterday afternoon. That's not even the weirdest part though… well, maybe it'll be easier to just let you see it for yourself."

Kate had a million more questions, but at that exact moment the door to the roof burst open and Kate found herself looking at one of the very last people she had ever wanted to see again.

David Madsen didn't see her though, he looked straight through her at Max. Then to her absolute horror, he proceeded towards Max and walked straight through her. She couldn't feel it, not in any kind of physical sense, but there was a distressing sensation of non-being as her body broke apart like mist and reformed as he passed.

"Shit, sorry," Rachel said. "I should have warned you about that. We can't interact with the living in any way I can figure out. I tried the whole possession thing, like in that Patrick Swayze movie... It didn't work."

"Max?" Madsen said, one hand half reaching for her shoulder.

Max turned to him in surprise. She blinked a few times and her expression of numb shock turned to accusatory contempt. Madsen noticed and actually flinched slightly, withdrawing his hand quicker than strictly necessary.

"Let's go, Max," he said gruffly.

"Come on," Rachel said to Kate. "It's a lot less weird if we follow along on our own."

Then, more from reflex than anything, Rachel placed a reassuring hand on Kate's shoulder. The two of them blinked in surprise as it actually made contact. Kate didn't feel it exactly, but there was a sort of solidness to it. It was the most solid sensation she had experienced since falling.

"Huh…" Rachel said in surprise. "That's interesting."

Rachel's touch lingered for another few moments, maybe longer than necessary, but just shy of awkward. How long had Rachel been trapped in this in-between state? How long had it been since she had anyone to talk to?

Together, they drifted after Max, down the stairs and out into the quad. Max froze at the sight before them and gasped. Kate tried not to look too closely at the sheet covered mass that was being loaded onto a nearby ambulance.

Where was justice in any of this?

"When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous and terror to the evildoers"

A week ago she had believed that.

Evil had been done to her, but nobody cared. She had gone to that party and been drugged. She made out with half the girls' swim team while somebody filmed the spectacle. She had been taken somewhere against her will, she didn't know where or what had been done to her, but she had awoken the next morning with a feeling of deep violation.

Principal Wells had deflected when she went to him. He only offered empty platitudes and emptier promises that he'd look into the master. Jefferson had crossed his arms and furrowed his brow and asked her whether it was all in her head. Madsen had treated her with suspicion and hostility, as if she were the one who had instigated the whole thing.

With one exception, her classmates didn't care either. Half of them helped spread the video into the darkest recesses of the internet, and the other half distanced themselves from her, as if she were unclean.

And her family… 

Her aunt's words of hellfire and damnation had been a shock, but not entirely unsurprising. The conversation with her parents had been far worse. Her mother admonished her for the harm this would do to their family's reputation and how Kate needed to get on her knees and beg the Lord for forgiveness. Her father, more calmly expressed his worry about the negative influences of the school. When she tried to explain what had happened, they had dismissed her. If she had dressed more modestly, or better yet, if she hadn't gone to the party at all, she wouldn't have been singled out.

She cried herself to sleep after that conversation.

The next morning, she received a post card from her father that somehow made her feel worse.

"You'll always be my brightest light against the dark."

Not a single mention of justice or grace, just a hollow platitude... Now that light was extinguished, consumed by the darkness. 

"What the fuck is he doing here?" Rachel exclaimed, stopping abruptly.

Kate had been so lost in thought, she hadn't even really noticed they had entered Wells' office, where several people had already gathered. Rachel hardly seemed to notice any of them, she was staring in shock at Nathan Prescott.

Wait, why was Nathan here?

"Shouldn't the police be questioning Max alone?" Kate asked.

This seemed to shake Rachel out of her shock and she turned her gaze to Kate in disbelief.

After a moment, she scoffed.

"You've never dealt with Wells before, have you?"

Kate shook her head.

Wells started speaking before Kate could question further, "I know this isn't pleasant for any of us, but we have to go over what happened before Miss Marsh...before she did what she did…"

"Kate," Rachel said softly as she laid a hand on Kate's arm. "You don't need to hear this. We can probably wait in the secretary's office."

"No, I…" Kate said, not sure how to ask the question on her mind. How do you politely ask someone how they died?

"What… what happened to you?" she asked finally.

Rachel's expression shuttered and she looked away. Kate worried that she had overstepped but Rachel sighed.

"I… I don't know," she admitted. "I know I was at a Vortex Club party. Somebody must have slipped something into my drink because I blacked out. The rest is just a blur. I was someplace bright… just this horrible bright light that felt like it was burning away my soul. And there were voices, at least two. I don't know who the second person was, but one of the very last things I remember is Nathan Prescott's fucking face looking down at me."

A drugged drink. A bright room. Rachel's story was distressingly familiar.

"But how did you-" Kate began before being interrupted.

"Shhh! She's about to do the thing, watch!" Rachel said, suddenly perking up.

Kate was startled by the sudden change in demeanor and threw a questioning glance back at Max. The girl was raising her hand and fixing an expression of concentration on her face.

"What-?"

The world lurches. Kate staggers and a pair of hands steady her. Rachel's hands. Kate blinks in confusion and building panic. The room around them is blurry and the colors have an over-exposed quality to them. Only she and Rachel seem solid and present.

Max is still sitting, still focusing on something, but there's a second Max. The phantom is superimposed over her, moving strangely as if…

Everything is moving in reverse, Kate realizes. The voices she couldn't quite pick out before are the entire conversation being rewound. Wells rises from his chair and walks backwards to the window…

The world lurched back to normal and Kate staggered again.

"I know this isn't pleasant for any of us, but we have to go over what happened before…" Wells was repeating the exact words he had spoken just a few minutes earlier.

"What the fuck was that?" Kate gasped, instinctively trying to gulp air into her non-existent lungs.

"Holy shit," Rachel replied. "Kate Marsh knows how to curse."

"Did we just… time travel?"

"We did," Rachel said. "That's Max's special gift. Welcome to the Twilight Zone."

"I don't understand," Kate said as her mind still reeled. "How is any of this possible?"

"I have no idea," Rachel replied with a shrug. "When I woke up in the world of the living yesterday, Max was sitting at her desk, quietly trying not to freak out. I really don't think she could do it before that. Whatever it is that gave her this power, I think it's part of the reason why we're still here… Oh, watch this."

Wells was still talking, "...Miss Caulfield, why exactly were you on the roof with Kate Marsh? Did she tell you her plan? Or anything at all? Please, tell us everything."

"All I know is that Kate was at a party and Nathan dosed her. She got wasted and kissed some boys on a viral video without a clue."

"I dosed her?" Nathan asked. "Without a clue? Have you seen the video? Whatever. Kate was loaded and playing the field-"

"Oh, fuck you, you little shit," Rachel muttered.

"That's not what she said earlier," Kate said quietly.

"Yeah," Rachel replied. "She's doing the whole Groundhog Day thing. She's trying to figure out how she wants the conversation to go.”

Kate watched the conversation play out and felt a new flavor of despair grip her as Max's words fell on deaf ears.

"I'll have to investigate to see if this accusation is true. Therefore Max, I'm obliged to contact your parents and suspend you for a few days," Wells said.

"He doesn't believe her," Kate said, not quite able to believe it.

"Why would he?" Rachel asked. "It's her word against Nathan's and the Prescotts are the ones writing the endowment checks to the school… it looks like Max is ready to rewind again. Are you ready?"

Kate swallowed and nodded.

"Yes…" she replied, and then more honestly, "no."

Rachel took her hand and interlaced their fingers.

"I got you, it's going to be-"

The world lurches. Everything is moving in reverse once more. Kate feels reality pressing in on them, trying to resist whatever Max is doing.

Rachel's hand is solid in hers. It steadies her, calms her.

Wells rises from his chair and walks backwards to the window…

"-fine," Rachel finished, flashing her a smile. "See, you got this."

Kate made a small smile of gratitude before frowning again.

"Max told me not to go to the police this morning," Kate said. "She said she was still gathering evidence. I didn't understand why she wouldn't just tell somebody."

Rachel wrapped an arm around Kate's shoulders.

"I'm sorry," Rachel said. "It really sucks finding out you can't rely on the authority figures you put your faith in. Believe me, I know. At least we've got Max on our side. I haven't known her that long, but I know she won't stop until she figures this all out."

"I just...can't believe it," Max told Warren. "It's like it wasn't even real...watching her drop like a weight... I really thought I could save her...like a superhero…"

There was a question burning in Kate's mind. She didn't want to ask, but she had to know.

"Rachel? Did Max use her powers to try to save me?"

Rachel hesitated and averted her gaze uncomfortably.

"I don't know if I should tell you this," she replied. "But Max literally froze time to get up on the roof this afternoon."

Kate looked back at Max, and studied the look of devastation on her face. There was still a faint trace of blood around her nose. Max's powers undoubtedly exacted a physical toll, Kate had seen hints of that in the office. What was the cost of stopping time completely?

"I didn't let her save me," Kate said in a small voice. "She's hurting and it's because of me."

"Yeah, well… we all fuck up, don't we?" Rachel replied. "I guess sometimes it's one gigantic one and sometimes it's just an endless parade of little ones, but in the end we wind up hurting the people we love… Sorry, I'm really bad at this. I've never had to comfort a dead girl before. Then again, I've never been dead before either."

She wiped at her face absently.

"God, I can't even cry any more…"

Max was still speaking to Warren, "...I'm working on proving that Kate Marsh is connected to Rachel Amber...somehow. Along with Nathan and Mr. Madsen."

"Ha," Rachel said humorlessly. "We sure are… Connected, I mean. It's all fucking connected."

Rachel pulled her knees to her chest and hugged them tight. Kate felt a stir of sympathy and a desperate need for connection in the face of… whatever it was that had happened to them.

She had been so wrapped up in the grief over her own life that she had barely considered Rachel's. According to the flyers, she had been missing since April and as far as Kate knew, only one person even still cared that she was missing.

Where was the justice for Rachel?

"Well," Kate said tentatively. "At least we're not alone."

Rachel offered her a weak smile.

"Yeah, at least we got that… You know-"

Rachel cut off at the same instant that Kate felt it. It was a chill at the core of her, some twisting wrongness in the fabric of reality.

"Rachel?" She asked, but the other girl was staring forward in disbelief.

Kate followed her gaze and struggled to comprehend what she was seeing. Solar eclipses didn't just happen. Her father liked to talk about the music of the heavens, the divine clockwork that made it possible to predict the motions of the moon and planets years in advance. The two of them had even already talked about making plans for the one in a few years… those plans would never happen now. Kate found herself fighting down the despairing guilt that came with that thought.

"That's… that's not normal, right?" Rachel asked her. "This is like apocalypse type shit."

Rachel's words called to mind the bible stories of the sun turning black, of the hand of God reaching out in divine retribution to cast darkness over the land. Those stories had frightened her as a child, but she was old enough now to question the literality of them. Witnessing the sight before her, she felt like that scared little girl again.

Was this God's wrath or was this cold malevolence something else entirely?

Lightning flashes and deafening thunder cracks like a gunshot almost an instant later.

Kate is standing amidst trees. The wind howls and raindrops relentlessly stab into her… wait…

She can feel the rain. Her clothes are soaked and a chill is creeping into her bones. She can feel.

But...

Despite the cold and wet, despite the wind whipping at her hair, there is a sense of unreality to this place, wherever it is. It's not the same as when she found herself back on the roof, but she isn't sure if she's alive again or still a ghost.

"Rachel?"

She spins, searching the trees frantically for Rachel, but she is alone.

No… not quite alone. She spots a lone figure in the distance, frantically staggering up the hill.

"Hello!" Kate shouts, but her words are lost in the howling wind.

Kate staggers forward, fighting her own way against the elements. As she stumbles upward, a flash of light catches her eye. Through the pounding sheets of rain, she spots the lighthouse.

She knows this place. She was here only a few weeks ago with her sisters. Why is she here? More importantly, how is she not dead?

She emerges from the trees and halts in shock. She knows what a tornado looks like, she has seen plenty of them on the educational programming that slipped through her mother's censorship. None of that prepares her for the sight before her now. This one is… massive, impossibly large. It seems to occupy the entirety of the bay. Her stomach twists in dread as she realizes Arcadia Bay and everything and everyone she's ever known are directly in the path of destruction.

"Oh my God," she says breathlessly. The phrase is a small blasphemy, but what else can this storm be than an act of God Himself?

She feels it again, that same terrible malevolence from the eclipse, only so much more intense now.

Kate isn't alone. She wipes the rain from her eyes and spies the figure she had seen earlier. Kate recognizes the unassuming gray hoodie and the short brown hair, soaked as they are. Max is gripping the back of the bench before her with white knuckles. Her back is to Kate, but Kate recognizes the curve of her shoulders. It's the posture she adopts sometimes when working on math or physics homework and she encounters a particularly difficult problem. Kate knows Max is watching the storm with intense focus, as if it were a problem she can solve.

"Max!" Kate shouts as loud as she can to be heard over the fury of the storm.

Max makes a startled jump and spins to face Kate. She looks at Kate and her eyes widen in shock. She raises her hands to her mouth as she gasps.

"Kate?"

Chapter Text

"Kate!" Max shouted as her phone buzzed next to her.

She whirled in her chair as if she expected to find Kate behind her again. Her eyes darted frantically to the shadowed corners of the room and her breath came in quiet, ragged gasps.

It was nearly midnight and they were back in Max's room. The open window let in only the softest breeze and the sounds of crickets and the occasional calls of night birds. A single desk lamp and the fairly lights cast the room in a comfortable glow. It was so utterly mundane that Kate could almost forget the vision of the storm and the events of that day.

Almost…

Kate was still dead. The memory of physical sensations from the storm vision were rapidly fading like a dream, the cold and wet being replaced by now familiar numbness. She couldn't feel the breeze from the window, the sounds from outside were muffled. There was that ever present, yawning hollowness in Kate's heart.

Max's phone buzzed again, and Max's face fell as she realized once again that Kate was gone. She closed her eyes and dragged weary hands across her face with a sigh.

Oh God, how Kate wished she could take it all back. She wished she had Max's powers, so that she could undo everything, replaying it the way she wanted until she got it right.

She yearned to be seen. She wanted those gray-blue eyes to see her again. She wanted to tell Max… what exactly?

Everything had been such a confusing mess since that stupid party. Max alone had been there for her… a light in the darkness.

But Max had seen Kate.

This Max, her Max, had been there in the storm with her. Kate called to her and she heard.

Except…

Belatedly, guiltily, Kate realized someone had been missing from the vision of the storm.

"Rachel!" Kate called, suddenly fearing she and Max were alone.

"Huh?"

Rachel was sitting on Max's bed, blinking in confusion. She definitely hadn't been there a moment earlier, and there was an ethereal quality to her, a strange translucence as if she weren't fully there yet. It was gone in the blink of an eye. Kate would have thought it had been her imagination if Rachel didn't look so dazed.

"Rachel, are you alright?"

"Yeah… I'm… I'm fine," Rachel replied. "What happened?"

"What… you didn't see that dream or whatever of the storm?"

Rachel's expression sharpened into full coherence as she leapt to her feet and seized Kate's shoulders.

"You saw the storm!?" she demanded.

Kate felt a spike of panic. The almost solidity of Rachel's grip, the intensity of her eyes, terrifying Kate in that horrible familiar way; like she had been caught doing something she wasn't supposed to.

"Y-yes," Kate said in an instinctive rush. "I was at the lighthouse and there was a tornado over the bay and Max was there and…"

Rachel's eyes widened and her expression became guilty and stricken as she withdrew her hands.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

Kate tried and failed to take a calming breath. The reminder that she no longer possessed lungs sent another jolt of panic through her. She closed her eyes and counted to ten, willing herself to calm.

"What was it?" Kate asked finally. "It was like a dream, but Max was there."

"It wasn't a dream," Rachel said flatly. "It's like a vision or something. Max has been seeing it since yesterday afternoon. I guess she saw a newspaper on the cliff because she's convinced it's all going to happen on Friday."

Kate felt herself shiver despite no longer being able to feel any cold. The eclipse, the storm, both had the same rage, the same malevolence. It was all connected somehow.

Max slipped her phone into her bag and moved to get out of her chair. Something caught her eye on her laptop and she began scrolling furiously. Kate looked over her shoulder and caught sight of the comments on her wall.

"EPIC FAIL"

"Hope you at least got a selfie out of this."

"Maybe you shouldn't have helped Kate."

"When we lose a game, nobody dies. Just saying yo"

"And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also…"

Max slammed the laptop shut.

"Fuck," she muttered as she wiped at her eyes.

How… how dare they?? How dare they treat Max like that after she was the only one who tried to do anything to help Kate?

She felt rage curling inside her, bringing a frighteningly familiar chill, that unearthly coldness she had felt during the eclipse… or the storm. It was as if the rage inside of her was screaming and the storm was answering.

"Kate."

Rachel's hand gently fell on Kate's back, breaking whatever spell she was under.

"Are you alright?" Rachel asked.

"No," Kate replied. "Did you see what they wrote? How could they say those things to her?"

Rachel wrapped her arms around Kate.

"I'm sorry Kate," she said. "People are just… fucking awful. They know what they did to you and they're trying to pass the blame on to Max to absolve themselves of responsibility."

It was true, wasn't it? Kate had tried to be kind and gracious. Despite that, or maybe because of it, her classmates treated her like shit.

Except Max. Max had cared.

Max was now crouched over Alice's cage, murmuring softly as she passed fresh veggies to her. Max had taken Alice without question. Even with everything going on that day, she had taken time to start researching rabbit care.

Kate joined Max by the cage. The rabbit sniffed at the air. She could almost believe Alice knew she was there.

"It's okay, Alice," Kate said softly. "Max is going to take good care of you. She's going to be your mom now, okay?"

She found Rachel looking at her with a soft expression, some strange combination of sorrow, awe and pity that would have invoked a flutter in Kate's heart if she still had one.

Kate was not all prepared to dissect that tangle of feelings at that moment. She ducked her head and quickly followed Max out the door without a word.

The sight in the hallway contained a sight that stopped her in her tracks.

"Oh…"

She watched as Max knelt before the candles and photo in front of her room.

"Hey Kate," Max said in the soft way she always did. "I… I'm so, so sorry I couldn't save you. Kate, I would give up my power if I could have one last rewind to save you."

Max reverently picked up a candle and lit one that had gone out.

"This is my prayer for you, Kate," Max said with a hitching voice. "Bless your gentle soul…"

Kate's heart ached… a strange experience in the absence of physical sensation.

"Max," Kate said. "It's not your fault."

She tried to place a comforting hand on Max's shoulder. Predictably, her hand came apart on contact, but not before the very briefest moment of connection. She might have thought she imagined it if Max hadn't gasped and spun around to search the dark hallway. Max's breath was sharp and quick, with hope or terror, Kate couldn't tell.

Max whispered a single syllable, "Kate?"

"Max!" Kate said urgently. "Max, I'm here? Can you…"

Max couldn't hear her. She gave up her search with another weary sigh and wiped the tears from her face.

"Kate," Rachel whispered. "What just happened? Did you… touch her?"

"I-I think so," Kate stammered. "I don't know how I did it."

Max rose to her feet and Kate reached out again. Her hand faded to nothing. She tried again to the same effect. She made a small whimper of frustration and clutched her hand to her chest.

"Hey," Rachel said softly. "That was… that was real. We have time, we can figure out how to make it happen again."

Kate forced a smile and they moved to catch up with Max, who had rounded the corner to the shower room. She hesitated for a moment at the sight of Taylor brushing her teeth and quickly grabbed the farthest sink from her to splash water on her face.

"Hey Max," Taylor said, breaking the tense silence. "I… I saw you go up on the roof to try to help Kate... I can't believe she jumped…" Taylor said.

Something dark passed over Max's face. Her first clenched and she turned off the water with slightly more force than necessary.

"You should believe it!" Max shouted. "She jumped because you and everybody here bullied her!"

"What?" the blonde girl gasped. "You're, like, blaming me?"

"As a matter of fact, yes," Max shot back as new tears fell from her eyes.

"Then just get out of here! Like, stop-"

"No!" Max yelled. "You stop! Stop pretending like you and Victoria and everyone else haven't been bullying Kate ever since she went to that party! I saw that note you threw at her yesterday! I'm not going to let you just stand there and pretend that you weren't one of the people who put Kate up on that roof!"

Taylor had taken a step back and was staring at Max in horror. Her breathing was starting to come in quick gasps that Kate recognized as a panic attack.

Max turned away from Taylor, tears streaming freely down her face. She stared straight through Kate, but her hand drifted to the place where Kate had touched her shoulder. Max made a sigh that was half sob and scrubbed the tears from her face before raising her hand-

Time reverses. The whole conversation undoes itself and Kate watches Taylor's horror fade back to numb grief. At the end of this only Max will remember.

And Kate. And Rachel.

-the world lurched back to normal and Kate found that she had begun to acclimate to Max's rewinds. This one wasn't nearly as much a shock as the previous had been.

"I… I saw you go up on the roof to try to help Kate... I can't believe she jumped…"

"I can," Max replied. "I just wish I could have stopped her... Are you okay?"

Rachel scoffed.

"I wouldn't have reversed that," she grumbled, "not after everything she did to you."

"I think…" Kate began, not entirely sure what she wanted to say. It hadn't been her imagination, Max had touched the exact spot where Kate had touched her. Was it conceit to think that Max was trying to honor her memory by showing kindness?

"Maybe it's for the best," she said finally. "Maybe Taylor needs a little kindness right now to help her see the light. Everyone deserves a chance at redemption."

Rachel cocked her head and narrowed her eyes.

"You really believe that?" she asked. "You really believe she deserves your forgiveness?"

"I… it's not up to me," Kate said, then before Rachel could retort with something, "I'm sorry… I'm not trying to be preachy or anything."

Rachel went quiet and turned to examine the mirror, where Max and Taylor's reflections were still talking. There was no reflection for Kate or Rachel.

"When you say everyone deserves a chance…" Rachel said lowly. "Does that include us?"

The question hit Kate like a blow.

Rachel turned.

"You didn't deserve any of the shit that happened to you," Rachel told her, "but I've been watching you. You blame yourself."

Kate reflexively took a step back. She had always hated being seen, to be laid bare like this was something terrible.

It was true. It was all true. Yes, jumping had unequivocally been her choice, her sin, but she couldn't help but feel responsible for everything that had led her to that point.

If she hadn't gone to the party, if she hadn't accepted that drink, if she hadn't jumped, then after wouldn't be where she was now. There was a rational part of her that was aware that she wasn't solely to blame, but eighteen years of sermons and bible lessons had caused guilt to calcify around the core of her. She had made poor decisions and she was being punished.

"I… I hurt someone," Rachel admitted. "I hurt someone I love. I hurt her in ways she doesn't even know about."

Rachel's eyes were shining with tears that would never fall.

"Are we being punished? Do you really think this is hell? Is this some kind of fucked up purgatory?"

"I don't know," Kate replied. "I was always taught that purgatory wasn't real… I… a lot of things have happened today that weren't supposed to be real."

Rachel's face was a mirror of the despair that had been eating away at Kate since she died… or maybe since the party… or longer if she was being honest with herself. Maybe Rachel and Kate were reflections of each other in this place, just two dead girls that got left behind. The thought reminded Kate of another time, another person who had been alone. She had to say something, she had to be strong for Rachel. She had to be strong for herself.

"Rachel, I just… I have to believe there's a reason we're here. I think maybe we're meant to help Max somehow."

To Kate's surprise, Rachel wrapped her arms around her and pulled her close.

"It'd be super fucked up if I told you I was happy you were here," Rachel murmured, "I'm just grateful I'm not alone."

Kate found herself clinging to Rachel, desperate for the strange not-quite-feeling of the hug. She could almost imagine the warmth of the other girl's body.

Max finished her conversation with Taylor and the two ghosts trailed after.

"So… how exactly do you know Chloe?" Rachel asked.

Kate unconsciously hunched her shoulders.

"Oh… uh… from middle school," Kate replied. "Seventh grade was my first year in a public school. It was right after Chloe's… right after her dad died. I don't know if we were friends really, but we spent a lot of time together, just being alone."

Rachel gave her a sidelong glance, and Kate felt a slight unease, as if Rachel were reading the truth of her once more.

"I… oh! No! Not like that," Kate blurted, realizing the possible implication of her words. "Besides, I think Chloe thinks I'm boring."

Rachel let out a laugh. It was the first time Kate had heard her really laugh, genuine and warm.

"I think we both know that Chloe Price has a very skewed definition of boring. She did tell Max you were cool, which is high praise coming from her."

"Really?" Kate asked, perking up.

There was that knowing sidelong glance again, but with a slight crinkling of amusement in the eyes. Rachel winked and Kate would have blushed furiously if she had been alive.

Was she that obvious? Or was Rachel just that good at reading her?

"We fell out of touch," Kate said in a rush. "She went to Blackwell and I didn't, at least not until after she got expelled. I didn't even think she remembered me until I saw her on campus last month. She asked me if I could help put up…"

She trailed off uncomfortably. Rachel touched her arm gently to stop her.

"Did you help her put up my missing person flyers?"

Kate nodded. Rachel blinked, slightly stunned.

"Thanks… I guess."

They were making their way through the quad now.

"Speaking of Chloe," Rachel said, "Where is-"

"BOO-YAH!"

Max jumped and gasped as Kate let out a squeak of alarm.

"Fucking hell, Chloe!" Rachel shouted. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

A shadow flitted across Chloe's mischievous expression. Those blue eyes that had haunted Kate's dreams slid past Max and lingered in the vicinity of Kate and Rachel.

Max opened her mouth to rebuke Chloe, but faltered as she saw the other girl's expression. She looked over her shoulder to where Kate and Rachel stared in shock.

"Chloe, what…?" Max asked finally.

"I… I thought I heard something," Chloe said. "Uh… shit, sorry…"

"Chloe, what the hell are you doing scaring me like that?" Max demanded. "I watched my friend jump off a roof today. I'll NEVER get that image out of my head. You trip out at me for not being there for you, but is this how you're there for me?"

"Max, I'm sorry. I suck," Chloe responded. "I just… I don't know how to deal with this, so I act like an idiot."

Chloe let out a ragged breath and wiped at her eyes.

"Fuck, Max. She called you this morning and I told you not to pick up your phone. We could have fucking done something. I don't know, picked her up or whatever. God, I saw her two weeks ago and something felt off, but I was so wrapped up in my own shit, I didn't really care."

"Chloe…" Max said softly. "What happened to Kate isn't your fault. You couldn't have known this would happen."

"She was my friend," Chloe said quietly. "Kind of, I don't know. We met in middle school… right after you left. We didn't really talk much, but we had this whole ritual where we hung out at this one spot. I felt… it always felt like she had no expectations of me, like I didn't have to pretend to be okay around her. I… I didn't keep in touch with her when I came to Blackwell. She was there for me and I just left her behind… and… oh fuck. I'm sorry, Max. I didn't mean-"

Max didn't say anything. She just pulled Chloe into an embrace. Chloe sniffled as she buried her face in Max's hair. Kate felt that ghostly heartache sensation again. It wasn't either of their faults, why couldn't they understand that?

"Max," Chloe asked after a moment, "do you think Rachel's…?"

"Alive?" Max responded. "God, I hope so. I have to think that. It… it feels like she's guiding us to the truth."

"Fuck the truth," Chloe snapped, then more softly she added, "I just wanna find my friend right now. It scares me to think of where she might be."

"We'll find her, Chloe," Max assured her. "And we'll get justice for Kate."

"And while we're at it, figure out how to use your badass powers to stop a tornado from wiping out Arcadia Bay," Chloe added.

"No pressure," Max muttered.

"Well…" Chloe replied, "I used my own badass superpowers to grab… drumroll please…"

She reached into her jacket pocket and whipped out a set of keys.

"The spare keys to Blackwell!"

"You are such a boss, Chloe!" Max said excitedly. Then more hesitantly, "I don't want you to get in any more trouble."

"With all the other trouble dropping around here, who gives a fuck any more?"

Max forced a smile.

"I'm so glad you're my partner in crime."

"As long as you're my partner in time."

Rachel groaned.

"Oh my God, Chloe," she said with an exasperated smile. "She's such a dork. I can't believe-"

Rachel cut off abruptly and threw out a protective arm in front of Kate as Max and Chloe ducked behind one of the signs on the quad.

"Rachel, what…?"

Kate stared at Rachel's arm. There was torn duct tape around the wrist that hadn't been there before. Her skin was pale and dirty. Kate glanced at her face and gasped in alarm.

Under smudges of dirt, her skin was pale and sallow. Dark circles like faint bruises sat under red eyes that burned bright and wild with terror. Kate noted a line of bruising along her neck and felt an echo of sensation in her own neck - the piercing of a needle in skin.

The terrifying visage was gone in an instant, replaced with Rachel's familiar appearance, but her eyes were still wide and terrified.

Kate followed Rachel's stare to where Jefferson was escorting Victoria out of the main entrance to Blackwell.

"Rachel, what is it?"

"I… I don't know."

Chapter Text

"Rachel in the dark room"

Those words kept echoing in Kate's mind. The dark room. Had that been where Kate had been taken? Was Rachel still in the dark room? Had Rachel ever left the dark room?

Kate felt a jab at her side. She squeaked in surprise, causing Rachel to snerk with barely contained laughter.

The other girl's appearance had returned to normal as soon as Jefferson had disappeared, but she had been quiet almost to the point of catatonia long after. Only leaving the principal's office had finally snapped her out of it and she was somehow back to get mischievous, irreverent self.

And yet… there was still something in her eyes, the slightest haunted expression. Something about the encounter between Jefferson and Victoria had triggered something in Rachel. Kate couldn't exactly blame her, the whole exchange had left Kate feeling violated and dirty, but seeing Rachel like that had terrified her more than anything else she had seen that day.

Rachel wore a sly grin now, like she knew a secret, like she was about to reveal a surprise. She motioned to the side with her eyes. Kate followed the gaze in confusion and…

And…

Holy crap.

Every thought was purged from Kate's mind as she beheld the full glory of Chloe Price.

"What… what is she…?" Kate stammered.

"What?" Rachel said coyly. "You didn't think they were coming in here so Chloe could just look at the water, did you?"

Chloe had stripped down to her underwear and was walking to the edge of the pool. Chloe had always seemed larger than life to Kate, but stripped down to her skin, she suddenly seemed human. She was tall and slender, lightly muscled, her pale skin perfectly unblemished except for a tangle of roses twined around a skull tattooed on her right arm.

Kate couldn't stop staring. The voice of the good Christian girl in her head screamed at her to stop, but she found that she didn't want to. Her mind hearkened back to middle school to that single moment where Kate had been tempted. She found herself suddenly, desperately wishing she had taken the path less traveled.

Max emerged from the office and halted. Her face a mirror of Kate's own feelings as she stared after Chloe.

Rachel too was staring at Chloe. She chewed her lip and there was a hungry gleam in her eyes, a sort of familiarity.

Kate's eyes drifted back to the perfection of Chloe's body and the three of them watched as she drove gracefully into the water.

"Ohhh yeah, baby," Chloe sighed as she surfaced. "Feels just like a hot tub."

She tilted her head back and sighed, exposing her neck.

Oh God…

The graceful arc of it was so perfect, so vulnerable. Kate imagined doing things to that neck.

The voice in Kate's head was growing louder. She was a good Christian girl. Good Christian girls didn't think about doing… things… like that… not with other girls.

"Tell me you're not going to stand there watching me like a zombie," Chloe said to Max.

Chloe splashed playfully at the other girl.

"Hey!" Max squawked in mock outrage. "Don't you dare!"

"Come stop me, hippie!" Chloe shouted back.

Max was taking off her shoes now.

"Okay, you asked for it!"

Oh God.

The voice in the back of Kate's mind went absolutely silent in shock once more as Max began undressing too.

Kate couldn't tear her eyes away from her.

The contrast with Chloe was startling. Where Chloe was brash and confident in her skin, Max was timid, uncertain. As she undressed, she hunched her shoulders, almost uncomfortable in her skin. Where Chloe had been slender, Max was skinny. Where Chloe was beautiful, handsome even, Max was… cute, pretty. And unlike Chloe's, Max's shoulders were dotted with freckles.

Kate had thought about counting those freckles on one of their tea dates. She had wondered how far they went, did they go all the way down her back or did they stop at the shoulders?

She didn't have to wonder now...

Stop!    Look away!

Kate tore her eyes from Max and found Rachel studying her with that same dissecting expression, like she knew more about Kate than Kate did.

Stripped of everything except her underwear, Max stood, just the tiniest moment of hesitant embarrassment, before running and jumping into the pool.

Chloe laughed in delight.

"Why look, an otter in my water," she said with a devilish grin and started humming the theme from Jaws.

Next to Kate, Rachel snorted.

"Oh my goddddd, Chloe," she groaned. "That was so bad."

Kate was staring again. She couldn't stop staring. Max and Chloe were… well, they weren't technically naked, but did that even matter at this point? They were practically naked, in a pool after hours.

After a moment, the splashing abated and Chloe let herself float on her back with a sigh.

"I wish Rachel was here. She would totally love being in here at night. Wish you guys had met each other."

"We will," Max replied. "We'll find her."

"Fuck," Rachel muttered and went to slump listlessly against the wall.

Kate followed, leaving Max and Chloe to their conversation. She collapsed against the wall with a sigh and slid to sit next to Rachel.

"Hey," Rachel said after a moment. "You wanna play a game?"

Kate looked up sharply in surprise.

"What??"

"Just like a little icebreaker kind of thing," Rachel replied. "I don't really wanna think about being dead right now and I also kinda wanna know what makes Kate Marsh tick. You ever play three truths and a lie?"

"I'm… I'm not very good at lying," Kate admitted.

Rachel smirked.

"No, I suppose you wouldn't be. How about never have I ever?"

"I don't know it," Kate replied. Despite herself, she was becoming intrigued.

"So, it's supposed to be a drinking game," Rachel explained. "But unless you're packing a flask of ghost vodka or something, we'll have to play the sober version. How it works is we take turns saying things we've never done. If the other person has done it, you get a point. Otherwise the other person gets a point. For example, I've never had a pet bunny. I know you have, so I get a point. Okay, your turn.".

"What…" Kate said timidly. "I don't know… what am I supposed to say."

"Just anything, the point is we're learning about each other. Something like 'I've never been to Disneyland.'"

"I haven't," Kate admitted. "I've never even been outside of Oregon."

Rachel's eyes widened in mild shock.

"Oh, shit, for real?"

Kate shook her head bashfully.

"That's just sad…" she muttered. "Alright, my turn. Let's go with something easy. Never have I ever played the violin."

Kate frowned.

"That's not fair. You followed Max into my room yesterday."

"Not like I had a choice," Rachel replied with a shrug. "And since you have a giant poster of Mozart, I gotta ask who your second favorite musician is."

"I guess… Heydn or Bach."

Rachel stared blankly.

"Anyone born in the twentieth century?" she asked with an edge of bemusement.

"Um… Phillip Glass?"

Rachel's expression didn't charge.

"I-I guess… um… there's this one musician on youtube who does… I guess it's electric violin, but she also dances…"

"Alright," Rachel laughed. "You clearly know what you like. Your turn."

Kate's mind raced, trying to grasp at some assumption about the mysterious Rachel Amber.

"I've… never played… the flute," she said finally.

Rachel's mouth dropped open.

"Holy fuck," Rachel muttered after a moment. "I… fuck… okay, yeah, in 6th grade we had to take a music class and I did like three months of flute… but… shit, how did you know?"

Kate made a half-hearted shrug and suddenly felt the need to look anywhere other than those piercing hazel eyes.

"I… I don't know," Kate stammered. "I guess it seemed like the instrument you'd pick."

"Holy shit," Rachel replied. "Okay, you gotta go again. I want to know what other vibes you think I give off."

Kate cocked her head in confusion.

"But it's your turn."

Rachel waved a dismissive hand.

"The rules are made up and the points don't matter. You gotta go again."

"Um… I've never had a cat," Kate said after a moment's thought.

"Nope, sorry," Rachel replied. "Always wanted one, but dad's allergic. Fun fact though, I did beg him for a bunny when I was twelve."

Kate smiled wistfully at that.

Rachel sighed and leaned back.

"Dad said a rabbit would be a lot of work and he wasn't sure if I was ready for that kind of commitment…"

"My mom said the same thing," Kate admitted. "But I managed to win my dad over after surviving public middle school. It is a lot of work, but Alice is perfect and worth the effort."

Rachel's lips quirked and she turned her head to study Kate.

"Never have I ever… bought a one way bus ticket to Portland."

"What?" Kate replied in confusion. "I've never done that."

"But Max found a ticket in your locker," Rachel said. "Were you not paying attention when she was snooping around in there just now?"

"No, I was distracted… did she really find a bus ticket in my locker?"

Rachel narrowed her eyes and nodded slowly.

"Well, if it isn't yours, then whose is it?" Rachel asked.

Kate felt the slightest chill. Given everything else she had seen tonight, this couldn't be anything but nefarious. Had someone planted the ticket? For what purpose? To deflect attention from some other detail about her suicide?

Rachel grimaced, also clearly following that line of thought to its logical conclusion.

"Yeah okay, no dead girl stuff," Rachel said with a forced smile. "It's your turn."

"I've never been kissed," Kate said.

Rachel's smile slipped. Kate had been kissed. That was very much a thing that had happened.

"By… by a boy, I mean… I think…" she amended.

Kate had forgotten. For a brief, wonderful moment she had forgotten the party and the video. Sitting here with Rachel, she had briefly forgotten the grief and misery that had led to her death.

"Uh… that one doesn't have to count," Rachel said softly. "You can go again…"

Kate nodded and considered.

"I've… never had a boyfriend," Kate said after a moment.

Something flickered in Rachel's face. Kate had inadvertently hit somewhere vulnerable. She realized belatedly that she didn't care much for this game.

"Nope," Rachel said finally. "Never had a boyfriend. I don't really do commitments."

She tapped her chin. Slowly, that mischievous grin of hers spread.

"I've never had a crush on Max Caulfield."

Kate's mouth dropped open.

"I don't… I mean, we… we…"

Rachel raised an eyebrow.

"What about the tea dates? Don't tell me those weren't dates."

Kate's mind reeled.

Fuck.

Why was Rachel so good at reading her? Because it was true, wasn't it? Kate Marsh, that good Christian girl, wanted to be in love with another girl.

She opened her mouth and blurted the first thing that came to her mind. It was a stab in the dark, but the hints had been there, staring at her all night.

"I've never kissed Chloe Price."

She wanted the words back as soon as she saw the sparkle in Rachel's eyes dim entirely.

"Shit, Rachel, I'm sorry."

Rachel forced another pained smile.

"No, it's… I kinda walked into that one, didn't I?"

Kate didn't know what to say, so she looked back at the girls swimming in the pool.

She recalled the words her aunt and mother had written her.

"No spirit or devil could have prepared me for what you have done."

"We hope you haven't brought shame on you or our family."

"I will pray for your soul to be saved from Eternal Hellfire."

What did it matter? She was dead already and there hadn't been any hellfire waiting for her. It wasn't like she could get any more damned.

"What's it like?" she asked timidly.

Rachel glanced at where Chloe and Max were perched at the edge of the pool, talking softly.

"What? Kissing Chloe or kissing girls in general?"

Kate couldn't say exactly which question she wanted answered.

"Either? Both?"

"It's nice," Rachel said contemplatively. "I mean, kissing guys is great too, but it's totally different, you know. I mean, for one there's the stubble, but like… I don't know, all the guys I've kissed did it with like this wild roughness. Girls tend to be slower, more sensual, maybe more vulnerable depending on the girl."

"And… and Chloe?"

Rachel smiled ruefully.

"Chloe's more vulnerable than most. She kisses desperately, like she's afraid of losing you. Under that tough, punk exterior, she wants to be loved more than anything but she doesn't believe that she deserves it."

Kate hugged her knees once more and watched Chloe and Max emerge dripping from the pool

"Gross, I feel like we just went swimming in Chlorine Bay," Max grumbled.

"You look cute with your hair soaked in chemicals," Chloe shot back.

"Thanks, you would know."

Kate forced herself to look away as the two of them dressed once more.

"Hey Chloe?" Max said after a minute. "Thanks… for dragging me in here, I guess."

Chloe gave her a playful shove.

"Hey, what are friends for? You needed a distraction from all the super spooky shit that's going on."

Max smiled in a way that was very obviously forced.

"It's just…" Max began. "With everything that's happened this week… I guess I'm afraid that you…"

She gestured helplessly, not able to put it to words.

Chloe took Max's shoulders in her hands.

"Don't look so sad, I'm never leaving you."

Max opened her mouth to respond, but was interrupted as the door on the far side of the pool opened with a bang.

"Shit!" Chloe spat. "Hide!"

She grabbed Max's arm and dragged her back into the girls' locker room.

"Security must have seen the lights on or something," Rachel said. "I bet there on high alert after… you know…"

She cast an apologetic look at Kate, who just shrugged numbly.

They hurried after Max and Chloe through the locker room to the front door only to nearly collide through the two living girls as they skidded to a halt at the sight of a flashlight waving around beyond the window in the doors.

"Are you shitting me?" Max gasped under her breath.

"Quick!" Chloe hissed. "Hide! Like when we were kids."

The two of them ducked back into the darkness of the locker room as the door swung open. They made it as far as the toilet stalls when a the beam from the first guard's flashlight swept across the wall before them.

Even with Max's time travel powers, Kate didn't see a way out of this, not with security closing in from the only two exits.

"We have to do something!" Rachel said.

"What can we do?" Kate pleaded in reply.

"Hang on…"

Rachel ran to one of the rickety shelving units stacked with spare towels, kick boards and assorted bottles of lost and found shampoos. Kate had always been mildly afraid of those things, they always looked ready to collapse at a moment's notice.

"You'd think Blackwell could afford something a little more permanent," Rachel said over her shoulder with a grin.

She wrapped her fingers around the bar and gave a sharp tug. Kate watched in amazement as there was a brief moment of resistance at Rachel's grip. It only lasted for an instant, but it was just enough to send the entire thing toppling over. The shelf collapsed on top of Rachel with a deafening clatter as the contents of the shelves scattered across the floor.

Both guards rushed to investigate the noise and Kate caught the shadows of Max and Chloe slipping out in the confusion.

Rachel rematerialized amidst the wreckage staring at her hands in wonder.

"Holy shit," she blurted and looked up at Kate. "I did it!"

Chapter Text

"What time is it?"

Kate glanced at the glowing numbers of the digital clock on Chloe's desk.

"It's 3:56," Kate replied. "Twenty minutes since the last time you asked.

"Fuck," Rachel sighed and flopped flat on her back from where she sat in the floor. "How on earth is being dead so boring?"

The one thing Kate had learned in the previous two and a half hours was that ghosts didn't sleep. It was apparently impossible. Despite Rachel's warnings she had tried and failed utterly after Max and Chloe had fallen asleep.

The two ghosts had spent the night in an awkward, pensive silence after the conversation at the pool and the uncomfortable truths they had exposed.

But as the night wore on, minute by minute, Kate became more and more restless as she mulled over the other revelations of that evening.

"Rachel…" Kate began, breaking the tense silence. "What happened to you when we saw Jefferson tonight?"

"Oh fuck," Rachel moaned. "Can we not? I'm not in the mood for any more dead girl shit tonight."

Old Kate would have dropped the subject there. Old Kate would have mumbled an apology and tried to forget the whole thing.

Old Kate was quite literally dead.

If Kate had been more assertive when she was alive, maybe she would have asked for help. If she hadn't been so desperately afraid, she might have gone to Max, and told her everything. Maybe Max might have convinced her to live up on the roof.

She would never know now.

All she could do now was try to help Max in whatever way she could.

"No," she said firmly. "We need to talk about it."

Rachel raised her head.

"What the fuck are you-"

"Rachel, you were murdered," Kate said firmly, finally putting words to it. "That's the only explanation for what happened given everything we've seen so far."

Rachel stared at her in shock, but Kate pressed on.

"And whoever it was is responsible for what happened to me. Max and Chloe are alive and safe right now, but how long do you think that's going to last if they keep looking for you? We know we can affect things. If there's anything we can do to keep them safe, don't we owe that to them?"

Rachel sighed.

"Jesus fucking Christ…" she muttered. "Er… sorry. I just… I want to help, but I can't remember."

"Rachel, something happened to you when you saw Jefferson tonight," she repeated. "Why did you react that way?"

"We…" Rachel licked her lips. "Mark and I, we were… he was going to… he took me to dinner and… the wine maybe… I don't…"

Dead pooled in Kate's heart. Nathan was certainly involved, but Jefferson? She racked her own hazy memories. There had been two voices in the dark room, hadn't there? A second figure… behind… a camera. And his behavior that afternoon, the exchange that pushed her over the edge…

"Did… did Jefferson…"

"I don't know!" Rachel roared, suddenly, inexplicably furious.

A flash of thunder. Howling wind. Stinging icy rain.

A breeze whipped through the room, rustling curtains and papers. Max made a small terrified moan and snuggled closer to Chloe who unconsciously tugged at the blankets to shield against the sudden wind.

Kate was cold, the same chill from the storm vision.

Rachel was trembling and her eyes were wild and desperate when she looked at Kate.

Before she knew what she was doing, Kate was sitting next to Rachel with her arms around the other girl. There was something electric and buzzing about touching Rachel, like she was made of ice that might shatter into a thousand razor sharp pieces at any moment.

It was pain. Kate realized it belatedly. Touching Rachel in this state hurt in some unfathomable way.

Kate held fast.

"It's okay," Kate whispered. "It's okay."

Gradually, slowly, Rachel stilled and the cold sharpness faded, replaced by the familiar dead numbness.

"I'm sorry," Rachel said in a ragged whisper. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

She blinked up at Kate, her eyes bright and wet.

"I can't do it," she rasped. "I can't remember. I don't want to… It's like… it's like there's this locked door in my head, and if I open it... when I open it, something terrible is going to happen."

Kate didn't know what she was supposed to say. A good Christian girl would have some comforting words about grace for a moment like this, but all the hours of Bible study hadn't prepared her for comforting a dead girl.

"I'm sorry," Kate repeated. "I pushed too hard. We'll figure out some other way to help them."

Rachel sighed and pushed away from Kate, who released her reluctantly. She flopped flat on her back once more.

"No, you're right," Rachel said. "We have to help them. I just… I can't do it right now. Maybe it'll be different when the sun's up… Yeah, that's it. We'll work on the dead girl stuff in the morning, I promise."

Kate nodded noncommittally. Then, after a moment, she laid down next to Rachel and stared at the ceiling.

"Thanks," Rachel said after a moment. "For being here and… calming me down."

Rachel shifted her hand and fingers brushed Kate's.

Kate blinked in surprise and glanced at Rachel, but the other girl was gazing pensively into the distance.

It didn't mean anything did it? It couldn't possibly mean anything, they had known each other for less than a day…

But what if it did mean something? Everything Rachel did seemed purposeful. Nothing she did was by accident.

Kate thought about Max and Chloe and all the things she hadn't said or done because she was too afraid of judgment and hellfire.

She turned her hand and interlaced her fingers with Rachel's. A slow smile spread on Rachel's face and she gave Kate's hand a squeeze.

"Do you know any good stories?" she asked.

"Hm?" Kate replied, wondering if this was the beginning of another disastrous game of getting to know one another.

"I swear this isn't round two of never have I ever," Rachel explained, reading Kate's mind. "I just… I need something to pass the time until morning. God... You have no idea what it was like last night, alone and bored out of my fucking mind. I read the same fifteen post-its over and over and over… 'Primer - nested time loops?'... I have no idea what that even means."

Rachel turned her head to face Kate.

"How about something from your favorite show growing up? I bet you were a Veggietales kid, tell me about the antics of Larry the tomato."

"Larry's a cucumber," Kate replied, bemused. "Bob's the tomato. And yes, we did watch it, but it wasn't my favorite."

Kate hesitated. She hadn't shared this with anyone since middle school and that revelation had ended in disaster.

"Promise not to make fun of me," she told Rachel.

Rachel raised her eyebrows.

"Okay, now you have to tell me."

"Promise!" Kate pleaded.

"Okay, okay! I promise. Cross my heart and hope to…"

Rachel trailed off with a grimace and a shrug.

Kate squeezed her eyes shut.

"Star Trek, the original."

"Holy shit, no way-"

"You promised not to make fun of me!" Kate complained.

"I'm not," Rachel laughed. "I just never would have pegged you for a Trekkie."

"My dad grew up on reruns. He had the whole thing on VHS down in the basement. Mom didn't really approve, but he kept pretending to sneak me down there anyway to watch them. I guess that was kind of our thing that we did together…"

"You'll always be my brightest light against the dark."

Her heart twisted at the memory of reading those words.

Rachel squeezed her hand. For a moment, Kate thought she could almost feel warmth in the ghostly touch.

"You okay?" Rachel murdered.

"Yeah… I…"

Kate paused.

"No… not really."

Rachel pursed her lips.

"Dead girl shit or family shit?"

"Both," Kate admitted.

"Yeah… I get that," Rachel replied. "Everything wasn't exactly peachy in the Amber household… nevermind any of that though, that's a future us conversation. Tell me about your favorite episode."

"You really want to hear me talk about Star Trek?" Kate asked dubiously.

"Definitely! If it really is your favorite, I'd like to hear about it. Also, like, we watched part of that one episode in chemistry class, where the guy is fighting the lizard man and he makes gunpowder or whatever. It was campy as hell, but I didn't hate it."

Kate snorted.

"Arena, yeah. That one's got some pretty awful fight choreography. I laughed so hard the first time I saw it."

Rachel grinned.

"See! You love it, so I wanna hear about it."

Kate felt an odd flutter in her stomach, but dismissed it instinctively. She had more important things to focus on than that old familiar feeling.

"Okay, City on the Edge of Forever is my personal favorite, but it's also consistently the best rated episode of the whole series. So… the starship Enterprise arrives in orbit around a planet with ancient ruins that are causing time distortions. Doctor McCoy is treating Sulu in the sickbay when…"

Chapter Text

"See if you can find a suitable outfit in my fashion hole," Chloe called. "Oh, Rachel left a bunch of her clothes with me. She's your size."

Kate glanced at Rachel, who was still intently studying the window. The other girl had been happy enough when Max and Chloe finally awoke, but had grown increasingly aloof as their conversation turned to her.

"Isn't it... weird that Chloe is letting Max borrow your clothes?"

"Huh?" Rachel replied and glanced back to where Max was eyeing the outfit dubiously. "Oh yeah, totally fine. It's not like I'm going to need them."

"But you…" Kate didn't know how to finish.

If there had been any doubt in Kate's mind that Chloe was still desperately in love with Rachel, it had been completely erased by that mornings conversation.

Rachel smirked. It was deflective and it might have fooled Kate if not for the tightness around her eyes, if she hadn't spent all night getting to know the real Rachel.

"If it makes you feel any better, I totally give Chloe permission to lend my clothes to Max," Rachel said. "My style is impeccable and Max would rock that outfit… see, Chloe agrees with me!"

"Stop second-guessing yourself, Max! Put this on and let your inner punk-rock girl come out! You can afford to take chances! Whenever and whatever you want to try... for example, I dare you to kiss me!"

Kate's mouth dropped open. Was this really happening?

"Hell yeah, Chloe!" Rachel whooped."That's my girl!"

"What?" Max gasped, taking a step back in surprise.

"I double dare you. Kiss me now,," Chloe said.

"Holy shit, do it, Max!" Rachel implored.

Despite the awkwardness of unconditional voyeurism, despite her previous ruminations on the fact that Chloe was in love with Rachel, despite her own guilt and shame and self hatred that sat like a stone in her belly, Kate wanted them to kiss. She needed it to happen.

She saw that vulnerable, hopeful expression on Chloe's face and realized she needed her to be happy, even just for a moment.

"Sorry…" Max replied, feigning nonchalance to hide obvious panic. "Not that easy."

Rachel buried her face in her hands and moaned.

"Oh…" Chloe replied, dejection flickering on her face. She fixed an easy grin to cover it up. "Oh, like I am that easy? Just admit that you already macked on me then used your rewind!"

No… no, this wasn't how it was supposed to go. Not again.

Regret and shame had battled each other in Kate's heart for five and a half years. How many nights had she laid awake, wishing she had kissed Chloe under that stairwell?

She needed to do something. It had to be different this time, even if she wasn't the one doing the kissing.

She couldn't let Max make the same mistake.

A wild idea took shape and she wrapped her fingers around the standing lamp by the closet. She focused all her emotion, all of her need and her will, and felt a tingling almost sensation where her fingers touched the metal.

"Kate?" Rachel whispered. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm… I'm fixing things," Kate replied. "Just a little nudge…"

She tugged and the lamp toppled over. The head smacked the ground and the light bulb made a popping crunch.

"Holy shit, Max!" Chloe yelped, jumping off her bed. "I know you have rewind powers and all that, but you can't just go around wrecking my stuff."

"That wasn't me!" Max protested.

Chloe narrowed her eyes.

"Well, I don't see anyone else in here, do I?" she grumbled. "Whatever, can you at least do me a solid and rewind it back to being fixed? I don't want to go begging stepdouche for a new lamp."

Rachel crossed her arms and pursed her lips.

"Okay, you're going to have to explain to me what's going on," Rachel said, "because I'm not following."

"My…"

Kate closed her eyes and prepared herself to reveal the biggest secret of her life.

"The biggest regret in my life is not kissing Chloe," she said. "There was this one moment in middle school where I think it almost happened, but I was too… too fucking afraid. I'm not about to let Max do that to her too."

"Okay yeah. But what does that have to do with the lamp?"

"Just watch."

Max raised her hand.

The world lurches in that now familiar way.

Kate almost welcomes the experience just for the chance to feel something.

The lamp rights itself.

Max keeps going.

The double image of Max flickers, one of her moving in reverse, the other focused, both of them undoing the smallest mistake, the smallest regret.

Chloe rises from the bed. She looks resigned, then disappointed, then slightly hurt, then hopeful, then mischievous.

The world lurches.

"I double dare you. Kiss me now."

Max didn't hesitate this time. She grabbed Chloe's face and brought their lips together. It only lasted for a brief moment before Chloe stepped away in surprise.

"Damn," Chloe gasped. "I didn't think… you're hardcore Max. I should text Warren and tell him he doesn't stand a chance."

Max blushed softly, but crossed her arms and grinned as Chloe retreated back to her bed.

Kate jumped in shock at the sound of slow clapping.

"Kate Marsh," Rachel said. "Poltergeist romantic manipulator extraordinaire. How on earth did you know that was going to work?"

"I didn't," Kate admitted. "I guess... Max wanted to, but just needed an excuse to go back and try."

Chapter Text

"Bitch LIED to my FACE, Max! I can't trust anybody again. Everybody pretends to care until they don't."

The stoplight turned green and Chloe gunned the engine, drowning out whatever Max said in reply.

The peace of the morning had very quickly become a disaster that only became progressively worse as the day dragged on - seeing the text message her father sent Max, watching her and Chloe deal with David and then Frank, watching Chloe's heart break as they found the photos of Rachel...

Kate wanted to go back to that morning. She wanted to bask in that perfect little moment when Max kissed Chloe. She wanted a lot of things...

Now she and Rachel were sitting in the bed of the truck, backs to the cab. Rachel had her knees curled up to her chest as she stared at nothing. The other ghost didn't look dead, certainly not like she had briefly the night before, but she didn't quite look alive either.

"Rachel…?"

"She's fucking right," Rachel said numbly. "I did lie. I cheated and I lied about it.”

Kate wasn't sure how to respond. She had seen the photos herself. She watched as Max discovered Frank's notebook. She read the love letters.

“What would be worse?” Rachel continued. “That I played him or that I really did love him?”

“Did you… love him?”

Rachel's lips quirked in a wry dead girl smile.

“Maybe I did,” she said finally. “Maybe that's my problem, Kate. Maybe I fall in love too easily.”

“But… can you… I mean…”

Good Lord, why was it so hard to ask this question? This question that had been eating away at her ever since she watched Max and Chloe swimming together?

“Can you... love two people at once?”

There, it was out. Kate Marsh, good Christian girl might have been in love. She might have been in love with girl and she might have been in love with more than one.

Rachel's head snapped up and she cast that curious dissecting look at Kate.

Kate flinched from that look. Her ghostly body betrayed her and her eyes darted to the cab of the truck.

Rachel made another wry smile, all too knowing, before sighing and looking back out at the road speeding away behind them.

“Yeah,” she said finally. “I suppose you can. I did. I mean, I did love Chloe... And Frank… and… and…”

There was a flicker. The dead Rachel. The distant sense of doom. An echo of thunder that Kate felt more than heard.

“Yeah,” Rachel repeated, forcing some levity into her voice. “But I guess like any kind of love, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.”

It took every shred of Kate's will not to stare at Rachel. Something had just been revealed. A few things maybe.

Rachel was hiding. She was running from something.

She had fallen in love with the wrong person.

Kate's line of thought was cut short as the truck screeched to a halt outside of Blackwell.

She watched Max hesitate, half out of the truck, wanting to say something, say anything to fix what was broken. She watched Chloe determinedly ignoring her, barely concealing the pain and grief and rage that had defined her life the past few years.

Kate's heart broke twice, once for each of them.

Max drifted back to her dorm, the two ghosts in tow.

Once there, Rachel sprawled out of the floor and let out a defeated sigh while Kate found herself perched on Max's bed, almost knee to knee with Max.

What would she give to sit here in the flesh, to be close enough to touch?

She should have listened. She should have followed Max off that rooftop.

What would she give to undo that single moment?

Together they studied the photograph in Max's hands - a younger Max and a younger Chloe. Together they studied the face of the girl that had haunted Kate's most secret thoughts for years. The Chloe in the picture couldn't be much younger than she had been when Kate had met her, but she was so happy, with none of the hard edges.

After a long moment Max sighed and set the photo aside. As she did, her fingers brushed another, the selfie she had taken in class.

“...called them moments in time…”

None of them had spoken.

“What the fuck was that?” Rachel said, lifting her head in alarm.

Kate merely answered with a baffled shrug.

“What…?” Max asked, equally baffled.

She picked up the photo cautiously and studied it.

The voice echoed indistinctly.

"Rachel, what's going on?" Kate whispered.

"I have no idea..."

The world becomes unfocused and washed out. Colors bleed away around Max, and giant holes in reality form. It reminds Kate of her fumbled attempts at dark room development.

The sensation itself is wholely different from the time travel she has become accustomed to. It feels more like falling than sliding.

The voice becomes more distinct. The world resolves back into something more familiar... a classroom...

"Shh, I believe Max has taken what you kids call a "selfie"... A dumb word for a wonderful photographic tradition. And Max... has a gift. Of course, as you all know, the photo portrait…"

Sensation slammed into her mind.

Kate was alive.

The window behind her was slightly ajar. She could feel the gentle breeze with the very slightest early autumn chill. She could hear every sound in the front quad with perfect clarity: the chirping of birds, the chatter of students, the low drone of traffic.

She could hear her heartbeat. She could feel the blood moving in her veins. They were sensations she hadn't even been aware that she had been missing until this exact moment.

She jolted upright, scattering supplies across her desk. One pencil clattered to the floor to land next to a crumpled ball of paper.

Jefferson didn't notice, made no snarky comment. He didn't even glance in Kate's direction, just kept going on about moments in time or some such. Kate wouldn't have thought twice about that the first time around, but with all the suspicions that had taken root, the inattentiveness seemed particularly intentional, particularly malign.

Kate's heart hammered in her chest, a foreign sensation after being dead for nearly two days.

With trembling hands she instinctively reached to pick up the fallen pencil, fingers brushing the crumpled paper that would have hit her face moments before Max's selfie. She knew what it said, it was just another little piece of the garbage on her spiral.

Dear Kate,
We love your porn video
XOXO Blackwell Academy

What the hell was happening?

She looked to her left, to discover Max staring wide eyed at the room.

Max blinked, her concentration broke and…

The world becomes unfocused once more. The holes tear once again and they fall back forward.

The last thing Kate sees is Max staring at her.

"Kate, what the actual fuck was that??"

They were back in Max's room.

Kate was bent over, instinctively gasping for the air that had been in her lungs only moments before.

“We… that was Monday,” she managed after a moment.

“Monday…” Rachel echoed. “Shit. Fuck. That was right when this shit all started. Did we go into the fucking picture or some shit?”

“I… I don't know…"

She tried to breathe again.

"Rachel, I was alive!”

A thud brought Kate's attention to Max, who was on her hands and knees, shaking.

“What the hell?” Max gasped.

They watched as Max's eyes grew wide and she scrambled to retrieve the photo she had dropped on her bed - the one of her and Chloe five years prior.

She stared at the photo, screwing up her face in concentration.

“What is she…" Kate said. "Oh... she's trying to go back to… Rachel! That photo was taken before Chloe's dad died.”

“Oh… oh fuck,” Rachel said. “Joyce said that photo was taken the day it happened. She's trying to fix it.”

Kate dared to hope. If this worked, Max could take away all of Chloe's pain. She could really fix what was broken.

But nothing happened.

“Fuck!” Max shouted and tossed the photo back onto the bed. “Fuck, I'm sorry Chloe. I tried.”

Kate watched as she wiped tears from her eyes.

“Max…” Kate said. “It's okay...”

Max sniffed and whipped her head around, searching the room. Finding herself alone, her face fell.

“Kate, did you just…?” Rachel began.

Whatever she was about to ask died on her lips as Max began frantically looking through her bag for her journal. She fumbled the book, scattering photos everywhere.

“Now what?” Rachel asked dubiously.

“I think… yes. These are all from this week. I think she's trying to fix something else. Something more recent.”

Max made a tiny sound of victory and clutched at a photograph with shaking hands.

A squirrel. A tree trunk with indecipherable graffiti scratched into it. Something about it sparked Kate's memory. She had seen that before, but where?

The world washes out, the holes tear open. The three of them are briefly in two places, they are nowhere.

Kate found herself sitting on a bench overlooking the quad. Warm sunlight and cool breeze kissed her skin once more. She was alive. Again.

It was one of her favorite spots... or it had been before she died... Fuck, she could have watched the whole damn thing from here...

She shook her head in an effort to purge that line of thought.

When was she?

It was late, the shadow of the dorms was brushing up against her knees as she sat. Was this Monday again? If it was, Kate was about to pack up and head to the dining hall for an early dinner only to be accosted by David, accused of drug dealing and worse. And then Max would come to her rescue. Even so, Kate would drift back to her dorm like a ghost, dinner would be half a package of saltines and she would continue her spiral into the night-

"Hey, Kate."

Kate jumped, nearly falling off her bench.

Heart pounding, she turned.

"Max?"

Chapter Text

“Max!”

Kate was on her feet in an instant, her bag spilling its contents carelessly as she threw her arms around Max.

“Wha-”

“It's not your fault!” she said into Max's shoulders as tears burst forth from her eyes. God, it felt so incredible to feel the tears on her cheeks, the aching hole in her heart, the solid warmth of Max in her arms.

“I'm sorry, I'm so fucking sorry,” she continued. “You tried to stop me and I didn't listen.”

Max tentatively closed her arms around Kate.

“Kate, what… what's going on?”

Kate wasn't following the script. She didn't care. She buried her face further in Max's shoulder, not willing to let go.

“Tuesday,” she mumbled. “Or tomorrow I guess… On the roof. You try to stop me from jumping, but I don't listen. Max, I'm so sorry. I wish I had listened.”

Max went still.

“I don't… understand,” Max replied in shock. “How do you know that?”

“I died,” Kate said. “But I didn't… I didn't move on. I've been stuck.”

Max pulled back, eyes wide with bewilderment.

“What do you mean stuck?”

“Like, I haven't been able to leave your side. I think it might have something to do with your powers-”

“You know about that?? Jesus, Kate, I-”

She paused as Kate flinched at that.

“Sorry… so you've just been following me?”

Kate nodded, feeling a spike of guilt as the memories flashed through her head - the pool, the kiss, all the private moments between Max and Chloe.

Max's hand drifted to her shoulder, the one Kate had tried to touch the night before.

“Kate, I'm so sorry. I didn't… holy shit, I didn't realize. Have you been alone this whole time?”

Kate's stomach twisted and she shook her head.

“Rachel,” Kate said softly.

“You've seen Rachel Amber?” Max asked urgently, peeling herself away reluctantly from Kate. “Is she…?”

Kate wiped at her eyes and nodded.

“Oh no…” Max whispered under her breath. “What happened to her?”

“She doesn't remember,” Kate replied. “She either can't or won't… I'm not sure…”

Kate took a shaky breath.

Face it, Katie. Face the truth for Rachel's sake.

“I think they had her drugged. What I told you on Tuesday morning, about somebody drugging me? I think they did the same thing to her.”

“I thought it was all connected," Max gasped, "but… but, she can't really be…”

Kate swallowed, new tears forming in her eyes.

“I'm sorry.”

It seemed so inadequate, but she had to say something.

“Okay…” Max said after a moment. “Okay, how do we stop it from happening?”

Kate blinked.

“Stop what?”

“You,” Max said in a rush. “Tomorrow, how do we stop it from happening?”

Kate took a step back, a sudden thrill in her heart, a tiny bloom of hope.

“We don't know what will happen after I leave the photo memory,” she pressed on as she started to pace. “Neither of us might remember this conversation until we get back to the present. We could… we could write a message. Something that you'll see, something that will convince you to not to do it, at least for a day…”

Kate's mind reeled. What message could they even leave to tip the scale? Between David and Victoria and Jefferson and everything that happened in the next twenty-four hours, what could they possibly say?

Even as her mind raced, another thought took hold

“Max,” she rasped, throat suddenly dry.

Max didn't notice. She was standing there, forehead furrowed in thought.

“Max!” she tried again and Max did look up, a terrible gleam of hope in her eyes.

Kate took a breath.

“Max, we can't.”

Max stared at her for a long moment, not comprehending. The afternoon breeze passed between them. The song of birds and the sigh of the trees surrounded them. Was she really willing to let go again, knowing what she would lose?

“We… can't?”

“Max, if I don't die, Rachel will be alone.”

Max covered her mouth with her hands in shock.

“Kate, no…”

Kate seized Max’s hands in hers. Her own boldness surprised her, but she desperately needed to feel those hands in hers.

“Max, listen to me,” she said, forcing every fiber of her being into focusing on not crying anew. “Rachel was alone before I died… she's alone right now as far as I know. I can't… I can't let her be alone again.”

Max opened her mouth to speak, but a sudden wind whipped through the trees. It swept past them, a brief cold fury. She clutched her cardigan closed and rubbed at her arms to fend off the icy chill.

“What the hell?” Max whispered.

“The storm,” Kate replied, suddenly understanding. “It's… it's related to all of this somehow.”

Max’s glaze snapped back to her, eyes wide.

“You were there, in my dream,” she said.

Kate nodded.

“How-”

“I don't know, Max. The only thing I know right now is I won't leave Rachel by herself. I can't do that. I don't want to go, but I have to. Maybe… maybe once we solve this, once she's at peace, we can go back and try to fix this.”

Max's face fell.

“Kate…”

Kate threw her arms around Max once more.

“Please Max, I have to do this.”

Max didn't reply, she clutched at Kate, tears flowing freely and sobbed.

“Here…” Kate said after a long moment. “I have an idea. If this works, we will know that we can change things. We can figure out how to fix everything.”

She pulled away and dug through her bag for a marker. She popped the cap off and after a moment's thought, scribbled something on the edge of the bench.

“There… if it's still here on Wednesday, there's hope.”

Max nodded and wiped her eyes.

There was one more thing Kate needed to do.

“Max, can you sit with me for a moment?”

“Y-yeah, sure Kate.”

Kate sat and pulled her phone out of her bag. Max joined her a moment later, her hand falling on Kate's. Kate gave her a grateful smile and gave Max's hand a squeeze before dialing.

The phone rang twice before someone picked up.

“Marsh residence.”

“Hi Lynn,” she said, her throat tight.

“Kate? Hi! Mom's not home, but dad’s around somewhere-”

“No, that's okay. I actually just wanted… I wanted to talk to you.”

“Oh, okay! Are you coming home this weekend? I missed you on Sunday.”

“I… I don't know, we'll see. There's a lot going on right now... Hey Lynn, I just wanted to tell you I love you. You and Claire and Mom and Dad. I love you, okay?”

“I love you too.”

“Goodbye…”

“Bye Kate!”

Kate hung up the phone and buried her face in her hands. She began shaking and sobbing uncontrollably as Max wrapped her in a tight embrace.

“I'm ready to go back,” Kate said at last.

“Kate, are you sure?”

“Please…”

Chapter Text

“Kate! What the fuck are you doing?”

They were back in Max's room, back in the present. As soon as the world resolved back into focus, Rachel leapt from where she had sat to whirl and confront Kate, her face a mask of disbelief and grief and anger.

Kate's first instinct was a flinch, to shrink away from the outburst. She forced herself to meet Rachel's hazel eyes.

“You were there, weren't you?” Kate asked.

“Yes, I was fucking there! It's not like I have a-”

“Then you know why I had to come back.”

“No, I don't!” Rachel snapped. “I don't fucking understand. Kate, you were alive. You had a chance to get out of here, but you didn't. For what? Me? I'm not fucking worth it.”

Kate stood and wrapped Rachel in her arms.

“You are worth it,” she murmured. “Nobody deserves to be alone.”

Rachel clung to her like she was drowning.

***

“Matthew 11:28…” Rachel said, reading the message that Kate had written. “Shoulda guessed it would be a bible verse.”

As soon as Max had recovered, she sprinted out of her room, down the stairs and out to the quad to the bench where they had spoken. The message was still there. It hadn't existed before they went back.

For the first time in a very long time, Kate dared to hope that things could be fixed.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,” Kate recited.

Rachel raised an eyebrow.

“Well that certainly describes us, doesn't it?” she asked wryly. “I sure as hell am weary and burdened.”

“I suppose it does,” Kate replied.

Max read the message again and slumped onto the bench. She heaved a sigh and wiped residual tears from her eyes.

“Hey Kate,” she whispered. “Are you there?”

“Max! I'm here!” she replied, pouring all her emotion into the words.

Max’s lips quirked into a tiny smile.

“I can't really hear you, but I think I know you're there… or I'm losing my mind. I can't tell.”

She hesitated a moment before adding, “Hey, Rachel.”

“Hi, Max,” Rachel replied.

Max didn't reply right away. She just sat there with her head cocked, straining to listen.

“And she can't hear me,” Rachel muttered. “Of course not.”

“I don't understand,” Kate said. “Why can she… feel my presence, but not yours?”

Rachel crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

“I've got a pretty good guess…”

“What do you mean?” Kate asked.

Rachel smirked, but before she could respond, they were interpreted by footsteps on the path behind them.

“Hey Max,” Chloe said guiltily. “Sorry for flipping out earlier, I'm just… woah, are you alright?”

Max wrapped Chloe in a tight hug and let out a shuddering breath, clearly trying not to start crying again.

“I'm… I don't know Chloe. I don't know.”

“Is it about earlier? Because-”

“I talked to Kate,” Max interrupted.

Chloe went stiff in shock.

“I'm sorry, what?”

“I had a picture I took of myself on Monday afternoon in Jefferson’s class and I somehow jumped into it, like I was reliving that moment in the picture. I tried going further back… but it didn't work, so I tried going back to talk to Kate and try to stop her from jumping, but when I saw her, she knew about the time travel because she's a ghost and has been following me around since Tuesday.”

“Hold up, what? Kate Marsh’s ghost…”

“Chloe, believe me, please.”

“Okay… okay, I guess that's not the weirdest thing that's happened this week… but holy shit.”

Chloe paused, eyes widening as she fully processed.

“Holy shit,” she repeated. “Is Kate here right now?”

“I think so,” Max replied. “It's not like they can talk to me or anything.”

“They?”

Max went pale.

“Chloe-”

“Who is ‘they’, Max?” Chloe asked with a low voice. “Who else is there?”

Kate exchanged a wide eyed look with Rachel. There wasn't anybody else that Chloe could possibly mean.

“Kate said…” Max began, then took a breath. “Kate said Rachel is there too.”

Chloe made a sharp inhale and staggered back a step. She grabbed at the sides of her head and shook it in denial.

“No…” she said with a shaky voice. “No, no, no… fuck…”

“Chloe, we don't know-”

“Kate wouldn't lie, Max! Not about this.”

She spun, face flushed and searched in vain for Rachel.

“Rachel!” Chloe shouted into the air. “Where the fuck are you?”

Max glanced at the pair of students at the far side of the quad who had paused to stare in their direction.

“Rachel,” Kate said. “Say something to…”

Rachel wasn't listening. She was staring at Chloe, through Chloe. A breeze stirred her hair and a chill bit into Kate.

Kate's heart filled with dread, no breeze should have been able to move her hair.

Something was horribly wrong.

Max raised a hand half-heartedly.

“Max, I swear to god,” Chloe said, her voice hard. “If you rewind and erase this conversation, and Rachel really is dead, I will never forgive you.”

The breeze stirred the leaves on the trees, prompting Max to shiver and pull her hoodie tight.

“Rachel, what is happening?” Kate demanded.
She placed a hand on Rachel's shoulder.

Thunder flashes. Rain bites into her skin. A tornado bears down on Arcadia Bay.

Kate recoiled her hand with a gasp.

“Rachel!”

Kate needed to think. Max and Chloe were arguing, apparently oblivious to what was happening here on the other side.

Rachel was doing something. Maybe it wasn't conscious but she was at the center of it. What has triggered this?

Was it Chloe?

Rachel was at the center of the storm, that much was obvious. All of them were somehow, Max and Rachel and Chloe… and Kate. What was Kate's role in all this?

She didn't know what she believed in any more, but she felt a sudden swell of conviction. She was here for a reason.

“Chloe,” she whispered, and reached out. She poured all of her emotion into that simple gesture.

The moment her fingers brushed Chloe's arm, it felt like a shock passed between them. The other girl flinched and spun around.

“Kate?”

If Kate had been alive, that would have been enough to send her heart fluttering and bring a lump to her throat.

“It's going to be okay,” she told Chloe. “We will get justice for Rachel.”

Chloe cast a glance towards the memorial by the steps of the dorms before letting out a breath and wiping her eyes.

“Fuck,” she said. “Sorry, I'm… sorry.”

Kate wasn't sure if she was talking to Max or her.

It didn't really matter because the chill faded and Rachel sank to her knees. Kate was at her side in an instant, clutching her tight.

“I've got you, Rachel,” she whispered.

“What happened?” Rachel mumbled in shock.

“I don't know. Chloe found out you were dead and… I don't know. You went somewhere else and I tried to reach you, but I had a vision of the storm.”

Rachel sagged against her and began shaking.

“It's okay,” Kate repeated. “It's okay, we'll figure this out together.”

Chapter Text

“I've seen things you people wouldn't believe... Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion... I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... Time to die.”

Kate starred transfixed at the screen as the final scenes of the film played out. After everything that had happened today, sitting down and just getting lost in a movie was a welcome reprieve… even if it was unlike anything she had ever been allowed to watch before.

She turned, not sure if she was expecting something flippant or profound from Rachel.

But Rachel wasn't there.

Kate fought down the spike of panic. There was no unnatural chill, no sound of distant thunder, no feeling of impending doom. Aside from the TV and light snoring from Chloe's bed and a breeze gently rustling the curtains at the window. That had to mean Rachel was nearby and not… elsewhere. Not in the strange nowhere of the storm.

Outside. Yes, that was it. Rachel had to be outside. She just needed some time alone. Kate unfolded herself from the floor and tried not to fixate on how Rachel had spent the entire evening in an uncharacteristic brooding silence. Nobody had spoken of the implications of what had unfolded as afternoon became evening, of how at Chloe's prodding, Max had tried to jump into every single photo they could find, only stopping when Kate saw the fatigue in her eyes and begged her to stop.

Monday afternoon in Jefferson's classroom. That was the earliest time Max could reach. Before Kate died… but not…

Rachel disappeared in April. Maybe she hadn't been killed immediately, but the undeniable fact was she was not alive by Monday of this week.

Kate pressed the heels of her palms into her face, trying to feel something beyond the vaguest sense of spectral pressure.

This whole situation was so unimaginably fucked up. What kind of God would allow this to happen?

The thought skittered across her mind and she immediately felt a sick sense of guilt. There was a design to this. He had a plan. It wasn't her place to question it.

But she couldn't shake the nagging thoughts at the edge of her consciousness. She knew those thoughts, that despair and hopelessness. They had driven her up to the roof and down again.

She shook her head.

Stop. Katie stop. You're not alone.

She had Max. She understood that now.

She had Chloe too… or she thought she did. Did she? She hoped she did.

She also had Rachel. And Rachel needed someone to comfort her right now.

She made her way towards the window, moving quietly so as to not wake Chloe or Max, a silly thought since she couldn't possibly if she tried, being a ghost and-

Chloe grunted and raised her head to look groggily around the room, first at the snoring Max, then the TV where the credits were rolling to synth music, then... for a brief moment her eyes seemed to catch on the place where Kate stood.

“Whad’ya think, Kate?” she mumbled as she fumbled at the remote.

Kate continued to stare, frozen in shock. Was this really happening?

“I liked it,” she said after a moment, not entirely untruthfully.

The truth was that the film was far outside her realm of experience that she was still struggling to make sense of it. But it was Chloe's favorite, so that was good enough for her.

“Mm, that's good,” Chloe replied before collapsing back on her pillow. “G’night, Kate.”

She watched, transfixed for a moment, as Chloe slipped back into slumber. The wistful feeling that had been building within her flared into full longing. What would she give to curl up between the two sleeping figures?

Did Chloe lie awake some nights and think about that year in middle school that they spent in each other's orbit? Had she felt the same thing that Kate did? The thing she that had frightened her so much?

She could ask.

She may still have the chance to ask.

The fact that she could potentially have the chance to actually have that conversation sent a thrill through her.

She cast a glance at Max and then back to Chloe. Everything was so muddled and confused, hope and excitement and terror and guilt all warring for control.

It was a problem for another day. Right now, she had other business to attend to.

From her vantage point at the side of the bed, she could indeed make out the silhouette of Rachel beyond the window, sitting on the roof with her knees to her chest.

She closed the distance, but as soon as her head cleared the windowsill she felt a wave of vertigo… or something like the memory of vertigo without the actual physical sensation of it. Out here there was nothing between her and the edge, that empty promise of oblivion.

A flicker of a cold sensation in her core was enough to bring her back to the present. She was here for Rachel.

She could face her terror for Rachel.

She carefully crept over and sat down next to her.

“I fucking hate that movie,” Rachel said without looking at Kate . “Chloe made me watch it and I just… God, the whole fucking idea of these people that are just like… designed to die.

She made a sound somewhere between a sob and a sigh.

"That's what we are, isn't it?" she went on. "We're just tears in the fucking rain.”

She unwrapped her knees and leaned back to look up at the stars.

“Doomed by the fucking narrative… that's what we are.”

Kate studied Rachel's profile, the expression of hopeless grief. Her eyes drifted to the fingers splayed on the roof tile, just inches from her own.

The night before, Rachel's fingers had brushed hers as they laid on the floor of Chloe's room together. That hadn't been her imagination, had it?

Her thoughts flicked back to Max and Chloe behind them, both alive and warm. She thought of feeling the sun on her skin when Max jumped back to Monday. She thought of the vibrancy of just being alive again.

She wanted Rachel to feel that again. If only she could share that memory, that feeling…

She held the thought in her head, she held that memory of life and warmth and tried to fill herself with it as her hand slid across the roof and her fingers met Rachel's.

There was… something, a spark or a flame or…

“Kate, what-”

Kate interlaced her fingers with Rachel's and forced their palms together. She closed her eyes and mentally forced that feeling of light and heart against the numb coldness of their shared existence.

Rachel gasped and jerked back up to sitting. When Kate opened her eyes, the other girl was staring at their joined hands, eyes bright.

“How are you doing this? What are you even doing?”

“I just…” Kate stammered. “I just wanted you to…”

She wanted Rachel to understand that she was not alone. She wanted…

Before she could let herself stop, she closed the distance and pressed her ghostly lips against Rachel's.

For a brief moment, she could imagine that they weren't both dead. There was a brief boom of warmth and she could almost feel Rachel against her.

The all to familiar wave of guilt and fear flooded through her, streaked through with embarrassment. She jerked back just as quickly as she had closed the distance and tried not to meet Rachel's eyes.

From the corner of her vision, she saw Rachel's hand drift up wonderingly to her mouth. She had felt it, hadn't she?

“Kate…”

“I'm sorry,” Kate blurted. “I shouldn't have… I thought… I mean… I haven't kissed anyone before… at least not on purpose. That was-”

“Do you want to do it again?” Rachel interrupted with a mischievous gleam in her eyes.

It was the quintessential Rachel expression, the most authentic version of her as far as Kate knew.

Had she been alive, she would have been blushing furiously by this point. She opened her mouth but no words would come out. She finally settled for a tiny shrug and a tinier nod as she squeezed her eyes shut.