Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hangovers are a bitch, aren't they? Of course, its the price you pay for the fun you have the night before, right?

"Hah. A Price is paying the price."

The little snort of laughter from my side surprises me, thin arms curling around me, pulling me tight to a bare chest.

"Max…?" The hope in my voice is audible.

A sigh, then the arms withdraw. With a creak of the springs, the other girl gets out of my bed and starts hunting around my room for her clothes.

Shit.

Its been nearly five years and I still can't get her out of my every fucking waking thought. My best friend, my sister, my first mate on the SS Pricefield…

… Look, we used to play Pirates. Long story. It made sense to us, I swear. She used to look so cute in that bandana, eyepatch barely covering the freckles scattered across her face.

I shook my head violently, trying to stop the memories from pouring back in. Memories of the day she left Arcadia Bay. The day she left me.

"I… I'm sorry, Beth." My voice sounds pitiful, weak even to me.

"I know, Chlo. Me too." The little blonde shrugs into her jacket, walks over to gently kiss my forehead, moving my hair out of my eyes.

*Flashback*

"Just go!"

Sitting at the top of stairs, body wrapped in an old hoodie of my dad's, sobbing into the lining, I made quite the fuckin' sight. Max stood at the bottom of the stairs, doing that arm holding thing she always does when she's upset.

"I'm sorry, Che… I..."

"The Fuck you are. FUCK OFF AND LEAVE!"

"I don't want to leave, Che, its not my choice."

"The hell it isn't! Fuck off, I never want to see you again!"

"Che, Please."

"Just go away. Please." My voice was hollow, broken. Fucking pathetic.

The minute her lips touch skin, a rough voice rings out from downstairs.

"Chloe Elizabeth Price, you get your ass down here right now, Soldier!"

Shit again. The step-douche is back. Probably seen the hella mess we made last night. We always were... athletic.

Beth leans her forehead against mine and exhales gently. "Guess I should be going, huh?"

I groan and pull myself out of bed to help her out the window. "I guess. Fucking Prick would kill me if he found that I'd been sneaking you up here."

She looks in at me from the windowsill and laughs. "Sneaking? Considering the mess we left downstairs, I don't really think sneaking is the word."

I smirked back. "You're probably right. Now scat, I gots to go antagonise the Fuhrer."

She gave a dapper little salute and flipped back off the roof. I love when she does that kinda shit. Perks of fucking a gymnast, right?

"I'm not kidding around, Chloe! Now!"

Yeesh. Hella pushy, right?

"I'm coming, I'm coming, yeesh, gimme a fucking second!"

I stumbled over to my door and pulled on some clothes. A random band tee and some jeans I had to crowbar myself into, then my laced up military boots and my trademark beanie.

I yanked open my door and thudded downstairs, swinging on the pole at the bottom and stumbling into the dining room.

The place was a mess, discarded clothes and shit everywhere. Beth and I can't help but make a mess when we hook up.

David was standing in the middle of the room, face red and that stupid little mustache of his wobbling as he raged back and forth.

"Damn it Chloe, this place is a tip! Your mother and I have to live here too, can't you think of somebody besides your useless delinquent self? A good soldier ALWAYS keeps their bunk tidy, why can't you?"

"'Cause I'm not a fucking soldier! I'm your step-daughter, asshole! If you care about my Mom at all like you fucking claim, why don't you stop treating us like a platoon of your damn troops or just fucking leave us the hell alone!"

He storms up to me, pushing my shoulder. "Useless fucking girl. You're good for nothing but making our lives harder. Your Mom's been through so much, can't you just try be tidy and good for once in your life?"

"Fuck this and fuck you, David."

He raises his big, meaty hand and slaps me across the face. Hard, too. I could feel the tears in my eyes.

I storm out, slamming the front door and stomping over to my truck.

Shit, fucking Nazi can't ever see reason! It's so not fair. Dad dies, then Max leaves, then Rachel fucking disappears, then I get stuck with that asshole!

Crap. I think I just ran a red light…

I swerve the truck and roll up the dirt path to American Rust, my home away from hell. David hates me coming up here. Thinks I'm gonna shoot up or cut myself on a rusty nail or some shit. Paranoid bastard.

I parked the truck and swung out of the cabin, heading over to the pile of scrap and junk that was American Rust. There was a little shack on one side of the place where Rachel and I hung out.

There was an old couch that Rachel had helped me pull in a couple years back. The thing was comfy as shit, but ugly as fuck. Kinda purpley-orange fabric.

I swung my arm down and grabbed the beer bottle next to it and took a long swig as I walked to the couch.

I fell down onto it, pulling off my beanie and running my hand through my hair, trying to throw off the old memories pouring back into my head. Shit I really didn't want to remember anymore.

The first few days after Max left were the hardest. Mom was still a wreck over Dad and I was lost and alone. I spent most of my time flipping between crying over Max and crying over Dad. Mom and I barely saw each other, both hiding and grieving our own way.

Mom slowly pulled herself together after that. Got back to work, started to realise that Dad wasn't coming back and this was the way the world was now. I… didn't.

I just ran away from everything, trying to feel something, anything that wasn't about Max or Dad. Booze, drugs, chicks, dudes, whatever it took. None of it really worked though. That shit filled the hole for a while, but it never helped for long. Until Rachel came along.

She was so... Alive, y'know? Made me feel almost like Max did. Like anything was possible and all that hopeful shit.

I... I...

Is my ass singing Sparklehorse?

Oh crap, my alarm. I nearly forgot. I had a party to get to. Some Vortex Bash they were throwing over at Blackhell. I was gonna go, nab some free drinks and maybe pick up a chick to bring home for some fun. Or hell, maybe two.

Time to blow this shitty joint, anyways. Memories aren't any fun.

I hopped up off the couch and wandered over to my truck, hopping in and gunning the engine for Blackhell. Made it there pretty quick, swinging onto the main road and pulling into the lot at the bottom of the school.

Could hear the music blaring in the gym from there. Loud, heavy beats that rattled my skull and pushed all the hella shitty thoughts right the fuck out. Normally, I wouldn't be caught dead at one of these parties, but needs must, right?

I hopped out of my ride and swung over to the main door, breezing past the little blonde chick on the desk, who kinda babbled at me. Cute, but no mere bouncer can stop the likes of Chloe Price!

Shit, everytime I come in here, I'm still struck by how fucking BIG the gym is. Place looks tiny as fuck from the outside, but inside, BOOM. Like a TARDIS. Well, it is supposed to have a swimming pool, right? Maybe this bit of it just got lost and landed in this shithole. Be about the only fucking cool thing to happen in this hellhole anyways.

The Vortex Douchebags had set up their little 'VIP zone' at one end of the gym, hidden behind the DJ and some hella tacky curtains. Oh look, yet another flunkie on the door. Well, curtain. The Party was a typical Vortex Club one. Bright lights, loud music, plenty of people, all hoping for a way into that exclusive VIP section.

The place was packed already by the time I got there. Kids dancing and macking on each other left, right and fucking centre. I pushed through the crowd and headed straight for the bar, grabbing a cold bottle of something from the bar and swinging across to a sofa, taking a swig from the bottle as I flopped down onto it.

Ew. Raspberry Cooler.

Crinkling my mouth up in disgust, I tossed the drink into a nearby bin and headed out on to the dance floor, hunting for tonight's distraction. Maybe a brunette tonight? Short brown hair, maybe a couple of freckles...

Max...

Nah, maybe a redhead. Get me some firecrotch.

I quickly found one. Leggy girl, pale skin, blue eyes. Alice or Alexa or some shit like that. After a couple more of those shitty beers, we were getting on pretty well, so I invited her back to my place, Price Charm, don't fail me now.

She giggled. "Sure. Just let me grab my coat."

I grinned.

Damn straight.

"Great. Just gimme a mo and I'll be right back. Meet you in the parking lot?"

She leaned in and kissed me. "See you there."

I rushed to the bathroom, only to find a tall blonde girl sitting in a pool of vomit, swearing and screaming at two other girls running around her like drunk idiots. Victoria Chase, pretty princess bitch queen of Blackwell and her cronies I forget the names of. Always gotta be the centre of attention, huh?

Well, shit. I don't have time for this. I'll just hold it till I get back home. Chloe Price, Bladder of Steel. I grinned and quickly headed over to the car park to meet my 'date'.

A sudden scream pulled me out of the little mental tune I was dancing along to as I walked. I looked around, trying to see what the fuck was happening. Looked in the lot and some blonde guy was trying to wrestle a girl into his car. Shit, is she drunk? She looks hella zoned.

Asshole.

Shit, I know I'm a bitch, but even I can't just sit by and watch that shit happen. I storm over and pull him off her.

He barks out. "What the fuck?"

Nathan Prescott. Shit. My fucking luck to interrupt the self-proclaimed King of Blackwell trying to rape a girl. I gritted my teeth, pulled back my arm, desperately trying to recall those three judo lessons Max and I had before she left. What was it the instructor said before I broke his damn nose?

Oh yeah.

I kicked him in the balls and then brought his head down onto my knee, breaking his nose with a nice, loud crack.

"You fucking bitch, do you know who I am? I will kill you!"

Posturing little prick. I hit him again, right hook right across the jaw. He fell to the ground and didn't get back up. Badass ninja skills, Price.

The girl had fallen against his car seat, groaning and whimpering, her eyes foggy, but still like, moving and shit. That was good, right? Meant she wasn't dead, at least. Her eyes fixed on mine and I could see the confusion. Asshole must've drugged her or something, just drunk doesn't do this to you.

"Hey, um. I'm Chloe. Don't worry, you'll be ok. I'll keep that asshole away from you." I said, gently, surprised at how soft my tone was. Not very badass punk now, are you Chlo?

I picked her up, bridal style, carrying her over to my truck. I put her down on the seat, carefully moving her head so it didn't hit anything. It'd be just my luck to rescue a girl and give her a concussion in the process.

I edged into my seat, turned my keys in the ignition and pulled out of my space, turning on the road to the hospital.

Shit. This was not gonna be fun. Hadn't been in a hospital since the day dad... I gave my head a violent shake. Not the best time for that Chloe, this girl is hella out of it. She might pass out or choke on her vomit or something and because I'm a dumbass, I'll screw it up and she'll die and it'll be my fault again!

Breathe, Price.

I took my first good look at my passenger then. She was a short girl, wearing a plain, but pretty little dress that went to just below the knee. A sundress, I think, but that shit was never my Mastermind subject. I wore jeans and tank tops for a fucking reason. Like I care about fashion tips from Cosmo magazine or whatever.

So, clearly not a Vortex groupie anyway, those slutbags were happy to wear dresses that barely covered their ass half the time.

She had a small cross necklace around her neck. Pale skin, pretty blue-brown (Hazel, that's called Hazel.) eyes, despite the whole drugged up look, she had an innocence to her that kinda reminded me of Max.

She'd be hella impressed with me. Taking on the big bad Prescott's to save some girl I didn't even know. She'd give me one of her sweet smiles and beam at me for hours.

Shit. I miss you so damn much, first mate.

The girl groaned and slurred in a light, airy voice, her eyes blinking owlishly at me.

"Wassat? Where we gooooing?"

"I'm taking you to the hospital, I think you got drugged or something."

"no, no, no. No hosp'tal. P'rnts will kill me!"

I sighed. Great.

Parents must be hella strict types or something. Fucking idiots that'd blame her for the Presc-shit drugging her. I know parent drama though, no way I'd put her through that if I could avoid it.

"Ok, fine, I'll take you back to my place. No hospital tonight."

"thnks Blue, you th'bessst." Her slurred best was accompanied by a raised finger, shakily prodding me as she grinned.

I couldn't help it. I grinned back.

"Its Chloe, but you're welcome. What's your name?"

"Kate. 'm Kate. An' you're Blue." She giggled, wafting at my hair.

If anything, my grin got bigger. What the fuck is wrong with me?

The house was empty when I got back, thank dog. No way I could get her past the Step-Fuhrer. I carried her up the stairs and gently placed her on my bed, wrapping her up with as many blankets as I could find. I think that's right? Vaguely remember House saying something about keeping patients warm, anyways.

Once I'd gotten her settled, I took the chair. I got hella snuggly when I'm asleep, don't think the girl would appreciate being groped in her sleep by a total stranger after what just happened, even if I did totally just save her life.

I dozed off pretty quickly, the booze and the stress tiring me out pretty damn well. I dreamt of freckles and brown hair, same as every damn night.

Chapter Text

I woke up to the sound of crying. Blinking the sleep away, I stretched out the kinks from sleeping in an uncomfortable fucking chair and looked at my 'guest'.

She was sitting on the edge of my bed, covers thrown off, head in her hands, crying.

I sat, staring for a moment, trying to work out what the hell to do about this crying girl in, well, on, my bed before a little voice in the back of my head that sounded suspiciously like Max said "Talk to her, dumbass."

"Hey. Uh, You sleep okay?"

Wow. Well done, moron. Those're your comforting words?

I rubbed my neck a little, trying to get rid of some of the aches in my spine. Crap, I used to be able to sleep anywhere or anyway and wake up fine. Must be getting old. Her head bolted up towards me, panic written all over her face. She forced herself to take a few deep breaths before replying.

"Not really no. I don't remember most of last night and the parts I do remember I'd really rather..."

Another deep breath.

"Sorry for dumping all this on you, you probably don't care about this, just being nice, being a good samaritan to the drunk Christian girl or..."

While her babbling was endearing, she was starting to get hella worked up, playing with that little cross necklace, so I interrupted.

"Nah. All part of the knight in shining armour service, ma'am" I threw up a salute that would probably make Step-douche cry for a week.

She giggled. Honest to dog giggled, her face wet with tears, but her smile and eyes shining like the sun and stars.

Sun and Stars? Seriously, Price? Way to get hella mushy on this girl already.

"Thanks, um. I'm sorry, I don't remember if you told me your name."

I smiled at her, trying to be reassuring or something, I guess. I think I probably came off as kinda sick-looking, but still. Thought that counts, right?

"Chloe Price, at your service, milady."

I gave a little flourish and a bow. She giggled again for a moment, and I couldn't help but smile along with her. She went all serious after she'd calmed down, looking straight at me.

"As much as I don't want to know, I think I have to ask. What happened to me last night?"

I told her everything I saw.

She was crying again by the time I finished my story. I put my arm around her shoulders, trying to offer what little comfort my useless damaged self could.

"Thanks." Kate sniffled. Wrinkled her nose up like a rabbit. It was kinda cute.

"Anytime, Kate." She smiled, thinly and glanced around my room.

"So, your room has some very... interesting posters?"

I took a look around. Huh. Far more tits on my wall than I'd noticed before. Meh.

"Yup. Got a punk rebel image to maintain, don't I? Can't have that without a little boob action on the walls."

Once again, the giggles start. Man, I could get used to hearing that sound. Still giggling, she reaches over and pulls me to my feet.

"I'm sorry, Chloe, but I really should be going soon. I don't want to impose and I have classes in a few hours."

She stood up from the bed and held her hands out to me, pulling me up to stand in front of her. For some reason, I felt disappointed. Christ, Chloe, pull it together. You against the world, remember?

Can't trust anyone...

She did have a pretty laugh though.

Fuck it.

I let myself be pulled up, then hung my arm over her shoulders, guiding her downstairs.

"And, I figure, if it's okay, I could at least make my saviour some breakfast? I'm told I do divinely good waffles, pardon the sacrilege."

I grinned. "I do love waffles. And saviour, really?"

She smiled back. "Of course. I hate to think what Nathan would've done had you not been there. You might've saved my life."

I blushed. Honest to dog, blushed. Well, so much for the hardcore punk rep I'd worked so hard on.

"Well, I'll do anything for a hella rad stack of waffles. Let's getcha set up in the kitchen, I think Mom still has some batter and shit somewhere."

We headed downstairs to the kitchen. I waved my hand at the door when we walked past.

"Your stuff's over there."

She turned from her bags to walk into the front room, stopping as she saw the mess.

"Thanks, I... Oh, Wow."

She looked around the lounge, a sheepish look on her face.

"Did I make all this mess?"

I peered over the kitchen counter to see what she was talking about.

"Huh? Oh, nah, it was like that before you got here. Me and a... Friend got a little energetic. Gimme a minute to get your stuff set up in there and I'll clear the place up a bit."

She waved a hand. "It's ok, really. I don't want to put you to any trouble. You've done enough for me already."

I shrugged. "Meant to tidy up anyway. Besides, you're cooking me breakfast, least I can do is doll the place up a bit. Makes me look all respectable, right?"

Kate mumbled a reply, grinning as she looked at all the pictures my mom had stuck up all over the living room walls.

"Aww. You look so cute in this one!"

I glanced over. Crap, baby picture. I started poking through some of the cupboards as she moved around the room. My mom had a lot of fucking pictures.

"I like this one." She was looking at a picture of the me and mom sitting at one of the booths in the Two Whales.

I hummed a reply as I hunted for the waffle shit. Christ, Mom really needs to organise these cupboards. Can't find fucking anything.

"Is this your dad?"

Kate appeared at my side suddenly, holding out a Polaroid of me and Dad holding a huge salmon. Some competition we'd entered before I met Max. We came second.

"Yeah, that's him. William Price."

She looked down at the picture and smiled. "He looks nice. What's he do?"

Shit. Shit. Shit.

"Uh, well, um, nothing now. He died five years ago, so..."

Her head shot up suddenly, her face falling. "Oh, dear lord, that's terrible. I'm so sorry Chloe, I didn't mean..."

I wafted my hand at her, keeping my face stuck in the cupboards to hide the crying. Fucking weak. Gotta be strong, Chloe. You against the world, remember? Crying gets you nowhere.

"It's fine, Kate."

I took a deep breath.

"Go grab the ingredients from the fridge, I'll try find you a waffle pan."

I felt her hurry off and quickly wiped the tears from my eyes. Pull yourself together Price, damn it!

I found the damn thing in the last fucking cupboard I looked through. Bloody typical, I got no fucking luck.

"Got it!" I swiped the damn thing from the cupboard and held it up proudly to Kate, who grinned.

"And I have the eggs, flour, milk, vegetable oil, sugar, baking powder, salt and vanilla. Do you, uh… want to help?"

"Uh, nah, i'd better not. Probably burn the house down. Me and Kitchens don't really get along. Gotta tidy this shit up, anyways."

She laughed, a light and airy sound. "You and my dad would get along famously. He burnt soup, once. Or twice."

She moved over to the oven and started mixing and adding and all the rest of that baking kinda shit.

I started ambling around the room, arranging and tidying the clothes, messed up shit and just general mess that Beth and I had made. What can I say, we get hella athletic on our nights in.

We chatted as she cooked and I tidied. She told me how she was a student at Blackhell, mainly focusing on art. I told her some of the quirky hijinks that got me expelled.

I told her a little about Joyce and David and she talked about her family. Her mom sounded like a real bitch, strict and fucking oppressive. Apparently her folks were part of some weird Christian group, one of those strict fundamentalist ones. Guess her Mom took the guilt part of her religion way too seriously.

We bonded a little over that, I think. Misery loves company, right

I got to telling her about some of Max and mine's old Hilarious Hijinks. This one time when we drunk like, a whole bottle of Mom's wine.

I say we, but I think Max had like, 3/4s of the bottle. She was vomiting and hungover for hours. Vowed never to drink again after that.

Joyce was so pissed. She'd called Max's folks, frantically apologising for nearly killing her daughter only to find Ryan couldn't stop fucking laughing. He'd kissed Max on the head, proudly proclaiming his daughter had her first hangover.

Vanessa was not so amused. Max burst into my room the next morning, crying her fucking eyes out because of the shit her fucking Mom had said to her. Bitch.

I watched her as she cooked, hair tied back, one of Mom's aprons tied at her waist. It was kinda cute and hella housewifey. She'd said she was sorry about my Dad. That I didn't deserve that and it wasn't my fault.

It… yeah.

Um…

Anyways, Kate was real good at the whole cooking thing. She stirred and poured and dabbed all while still talking to me. Real fucking impressive. Every little movement she made was smooth, like she'd been practising for fucking hours.

Guess her dad being such a shitty cook and her mom being such a controlling bitch meant that she was cooking a lot of the time.

I looked up from the huge pile of clothes I'd ended up with. Few of mine, few of Beth's. Guess she'd learned to carry an extra change of clothes on our little hookups. Either that or I'd been so hella out of it I hadn't noticed she'd left naked.

"Tada!"

She did a little flourish and bowed, displaying the waffles like a fucking art piece.

I grinned. "Very nice. Just let me go put this stuff away and I'll grab some juice. Apple or Orange?"

"Apple, please. Orange juice always gives me acid reflex."

I bowed deeply, Twirling my hand as I did. "Your wish is my command, milady."

She stifled a giggle and got to serving breakfast. I hurriedly put away the bundle of clothes and went back into the kitchen to grab a couple of glasses. That was when it hit me.

I kinda totally ditched the girl from yesterday. Damn, she was hella hot. Weird, could'a sworn we were supposed to meet at the parking lot. Should've seen her there, its not like its a fucking national park or anything.

Meh. Fuck it. Not like I can do anything 'bout it, never got her number. Heh, like I ever do. Might as well just forget about it. Probably never see her again, so…

I shook my head to clear it and grabbed the OJ and the apple from the fridge, pushing it closed with my foot as I balanced the glasses in one hand and the cartons in the other back to the table, where I dumped them with a clatter and sat down.

That was how Mom found us a half hour later when she got back in. She had the late shift on thursdays, so didn't get back till early Friday. She stops in the hall, dropping the bags as she spots the cleaned house.

"Chloe?" She sounds completely shocked.

I'm kinda proud. My Mom is normally the most unfazeable woman you'd ever meet, and I rendered her hella speechless. Christ, the way she was reacting, you'd think I'd never cleaned anything before… well, admittedly it'd been awhile since I had, but still! A little less shock would be nice. Should be grateful she didn't have to do it, like usual.

She stood there and blinked for a few seconds before picking up the bags again and stumbling into the kitchen. Kate quickly jumped up to help. I waved up from the table and answered Mom, mouth still full of Waffles.

"mff-Hey Mom, this is Kate. Kate, this is Joyce, my mom."

Once they'd put the bags down, Kate stuck her hand out and said "Hi Mrs Price, it's nice to meet you."

Mom looked down at her hand and shook it, laughing in that warm, motherly way she does so well. She always was far better with people than me. "Lovely to meet you too, sugar. Oh, and its Madsen, now, but you can call me Joyce. I love my daughter, but I know Chloe can't cook to save her life, so I guess Breakfast was on you, huh?"

Kate looked down and shuffled a foot, blushing. "Um, yes? I hope that's ok?"

"Sure, Hon. If it makes ya happy, glad my little kitchen could be of service."

I saw Kate take her hand and lead her over to the table, where she sits down, Kate rushing off and coming back with a plate and a glass.

"Please, eat, drink. It's the least I can do after your daughter saved me yesterday. She's my angel."

Kate's earnest face and my mom's proud expression... I blushed like a friggin tomato.

"Angel, huh?"

I've never heard her sound so proud.

She looked over the table at Kate. "So, what did my daughter save you from, exactly? If you don't mind my asking."

And so the whole shitty story was told again.

Mom's eyes were red by the time Kate finished and she'd placed one of her hands over Kate's. Some reassurance thing a screw up like me wouldn't ever have thought of.

"Well, I never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad Chloe was at that party to help you out, Hun."

I grin. "You shoulda seen me, Mom, I whacked that Presc-shit good."

"I'm sure you did. That was delicious, Kate, thank you."

She laughed faintly and got to her feet, picking up the plates and glass as she did. Kate immediately took them from her.

"Please, let me, Mrs Madsen. Like I said, it's the least I can do."

The astonished expression was back again. "Well, ok then. If you insist, Kate. And please, call me Joyce. It's ok, I won't bite."

As Kate smiled and bustled off with the dishes, Mom leaned towards me and grinned. "I like this one, Chloe. Seems like she thinks the world of you."

"Yeah, she's... pretty cool for a bible thumper. Think I could get her in a mosh pit in a couple of months though."

"Hmm. Well, You never know Chloe, she might even get you into a church."

"Church? Pfft. I'd burst into flames the moment I walked in."

"Hey, you heard the girl. You're an angel now." She smiled again and ruffled my hair. "I'm proud of you, Chloe."

I rescruffed my hair, and spoke, awkwardly. "Yeah, yeah. I'm sure one of the non-vortex douchebags at the school would've come along if I hadn't. But hey, looks like I finally made the 'respectable friend' you always wanted."

She sighed. "I never cared if your friends were 'respectable' or not, Chloe. I just wanted you to let someone in. You've been so closed off ever since Max..."

I picked my plate up and stood abruptly. "I think I heard Kate call me. She probably needs my hella expertise in the Kitchen."

Her shoulders fell, her tone defeated. "Sure Chloe, go check on your friend."

I hurried to the Kitchen, carefully avoiding Mom's gaze.

Kate didn't say a word, didn't even look up at me, just handed me a towel. She washed, I dried.

A few moments later, I heard my Mom sigh deeply, then get up and go upstairs, closing her door quietly.

"Who's Max?" Kate asked quietly, voice full of concern.

I froze. "She's... she's just somebody I used to know."

Kate smiled. "I'm not that type of Christian, you know. I've got no problem with homosexuality. If it's a loving relationship, I think God would be ok with..."

I jerked, splashing water everywhere. "What? Max wasn't a, she was just a friend."

She blushed. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you, it just... she seems like she means a lot to you."

I sighed. I guess I was gonna have to talk about this sometime, might as well be with her. "Christians have, like, confession shit, don't they? Confidential and that?"

She laughed, lightly. "That's more priests than just any Christian, Chloe. But I promise not to tell anyone anything if you don't want me to."

I nodded hurriedly. "Ok, just, gimme a minute. Haven't talked about this before. Well, once. But that didn't turn out well either."

She just sits there, face concerned, but patient, kind.

It took me a little while, but eventually I told her the whole sordid story of me & Max, from the day we met till the day she left.

*flashback*

I jumped up and stormed down the stairs at her. "JUST GO!"

She flinched back from me, eyes falling to the floor and she backed up to the door, tears starting to fall.

"I'm sorry, Chloe. I just don't know what to do. I don't want you to hate me."

She pulled her eyes up from the floor, watching my face quietly.

I avoided her eye. "Too late."

She started crying, then. I turned and stomped back up the stairs, slamming my door.

"I'm so sorry, Chloe. That must've been so hard for you, at such a young age." She reached over and put her hand over mine.

"I can't believe a 'cool kid'" Hell, this girl could pronounce the shit out of inverted commas. "like you didn't have any friends after Max's family left."

I sighed. I seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

"I did have one… she was the coolest, y'know? Like a force of nature, all on her own. She was smart, popular, gorgeous and just… she was my angel, after my Dad died and Max left me."

"What happened?" Kate's little face was the very picture of concern and curiosity. Like I could tell her to fuck off. It'd be like kicking a puppy. And setting it on fire. And playing it Good Charlotte songs.

So, I told her. Told her about our plan to get outta this place. Told her how Rachel had just… disappeared one day. Told her how I'd thought she'd gone without me. Told her how I sent her a text every month hoping she'd reply. Told her how she never did.

Before I know it, I'm on the floor bawling, my head in Kate's lap, as she gently strokes my hair.

I feel so pathetic, crying my eyes out on a girl I barely know and I tell her as much.

She smiles, sadly. "It's ok. I'm just happy I can help. Besides, you saved me, it's only fair I return the favour. And I'd... like us to be friends, if that's ok?"

Blinking away tears, I look up at this kind girl. "Friends?"

She nods, solemnly. "Friends."

I wipe my eyes and let Kate 'help' me up. Girl had the upper body strength of a gnat. She must'a seen her watch or something because she suddenly shouted. "Oh no! My class starts in an hour and I've still got to feed Alice and take a shower and...!"

I put my hands on her shoulders. Now here was something I could help with. "Don't worry 'bout it Kate, I can give you a lift. I'm hella fast. I'd tell you to ask the cops, but they haven't caught me yet."

I yell bye up to Mom and drag Kate out the door, swinging over to grab her bag as we left. She looked... worried, when she saw the truck.

"Hey, don't worry. She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid.."

She smiled, thinly, clearly not getting my amazing reference. Eh, no time to show her the masterpiece that is Star Wars right now, Chlo. Maybe later.

We get in and I hit the accelerator. The truck tears off down the road toward Blackwell. Kate hung onto her seat as I took corners far faster than I really should've, but fuck it, it's hella fun! We made the 20 minute trip in 10. Damn, I'm good.

I swung around the corner into the Blackwell Lot and glided the truck into a space.

"Houston, we have touchdown."

I turned to look at Kate, who seemed to be a bit... nervous. Her hair was messed up, she was clutching the handle of the door so hard her hand was red and looking at me with wide eyes. "Woah."

I grinned, rakishly. "Enjoy the ride?" I said, wiggling my eyebrows.

She blinked. "Woah."

"Yeah, this baby can really take corners, can't she?"

I checked the dash clock.

"You should probably get going if you wanna get cleaned up before class, Nerd. You look like ten miles of bad road."

She quietly collected her things and opened the door, before turning back to look at me and speaking in that gentle little voice of hers. "Thanks, Chloe. For everything, today and last night. If it's alright, I'd like to see you again, soon?"

I shrugged. "You sure a good bible-thumper like you would want to be friends with a 'good for nothing delinquent' like me?

She smiled. "If it's all the same to you, I'd like to make up my own mind about that."

She reached around into her bag and pulled out a little leather-bound book and a hella expensive looking fountain pen. She scrawled down something on a page of the book before tearing it out and thrusting it in my direction. "Call me sometime? Please? I really would like to be friends with you, Chloe Price."

I looked at her pleading expression and large doe-eyes just begging me to take her number. "Fine, fine. Just stop giving me the kicked-puppy face. I can't say no to that."

I reached out and took the number from her, getting another dazzling smile in return.

I actually did call her later that day. We were chatting about some old book she'd just finished that she wanted me to take a look at. I tried to protest, telling her that I didn't really read. All she said was "Nonsense, everybody reads. Just, take a look, if you don't like it, you can just give it me back, right? But I'm pretty sure you will. Are you free tomorrow?"

I pondered the question for a second, before saying. "Yup. Like a fart in a bathtub. Whatcha wanna do?"

She giggled. "You are a truly singular person, Chloe."

I blushed like a fucking tomato, intensely grateful that we were on the phone and she couldn't see my face.

"And I was thinking we could get some tea. I know a fantastic little place on the waterfront. It does coffee as well, if that's more your thing."

"Sounds good, Katie. It's a date."

I did have tea when we met up, actually. At her prodding, of course. And I had it at every meet-up after that. They were kinda weird at first, but fun. We're both very different people, but we got on surprisingly well.

Presc-shit and his blonde bitch, icky Vicky, were giving Kate a lot of trouble though. Kate called me a bunch of times, in tears over something those two assholes had said. She refused to tell me what they were saying to her though, always protesting that it didn't matter.

I think it was maybe, the third or fourth call in the second week we'd known each other when I found out what they'd said. Turns out something had happened at that party before I could get there.

It was a little after lunch and I was lounging about the Casa del Pricefield at American Rust, feeling sorry for myself as usual, drinking and listening to old songs Rachel had gotten me into. Proper indie stuff. I'd always tried to think about what the lyrics meant, find that hidden meaning in the song. Rachel hadn't. She just wanted something she could dance or sing to.

I heard my phone go off and fumbled about in my jacket pockets for the thing. "Yeah? Who is it?"

I had an old phone, so no caller ID.

"Hi, Chloe." Kate sniffled. She sounded awful, like you do when you've been crying hard for a while. I sat up.

"Fuck. Are you ok? What did those assholes do this time? I swear to dog, one of these days I'm gonna whack that Asshole."

She started sobbing. "There... there was a video. Of me, on the night you saved me. I was, kiss... Kissing a whole bunch of people!"

Shit, what the hell?

"And my church saw it! They told me I was a sinner and..."

"Woah, woah, woah. Slow down. Is it a fake? It's gotta be a fake, right? You wouldn't ever do something like that."

She took a few long, deep breaths. "No. It's... It's definitely me. I don't understand, I don't remember anything like that!"

"You don't remember? Well, you were hella out of it when I found you. do you think maybe you...?"

"No! I barely had a sip of wine! I drink more than that in church and I never frenched the damn priest!"

"I believe you, Kate, but if it's real like you say, you must'a kissed all those assholes for some reason?"

I thought back to that night and her foggy eyes. I thought she'd just been drunk when Presc-shit was trying to shove her in his car. Shit, what if...? No, even those vortex club pricks wouldn't go that far just to prank the bible-thumper, right?

"Kate, I'm not saying anything for definite, but… you seemed really out of it when I picked you up. Do you think you might've been… roofied?"

"Roofied?"

She sounded puzzled. Fuck, didn't her 'rents let her watch those dumb after school-specials 'bout drugs? Thought Christians would've been all over that hugs not drugs type shit.

"Drugged, Kate? Rohypnol."

She was quiet for a little while, obviously thinking about it. "I don't know, maybe? Should I go to the police? Maybe they can investigate or something. They could tell my Church that it wasn't my fault!"

Crap. Bad idea. Crap, crap, crap, crappity, crap. Why's she gotta sound so fucking hopeful? Have to be realistic about this shit though.

"We can't, Kate They won't do anything."

"What? Why? Don't they have to look into this stuff?"

Fuck. Shit. I hate being fucking realistic.

"The Prescott's own the pigs. Daddy dearest pays them off to get Nathan out of trouble. How'd you think he's missed jail all this time? Fucker isn't exactly subtle. Prescott bribes them. Without proof, they won't do shit and Prescott will know we're onto him."

"But, but... They have to investigate! There's nothing else I can do!"

She sounded... broken. Fuck, I hate this, but it's gotta be done. If she goes to them and just gets laughed outta there... I don't know what she'd do. Going to the cops now would just make things hella worse.

"We have to do this ourselves, Katie. Me and you, every step of the way, you got that?"

"Thanks, Chloe, but I think I'd be better doing..."

I interrupted, before she got any more ideas in her head.

"No. We're friends, Kate. Friends stick together, right? I'm gonna help you get rev... justice. We just gotta get some proof before we go to the cops, ok?"

She sighs, but I can practically hear her smiling. "Ok, Chloe. But we do this right. No felonies or anything, please?"

I grin. "That's my girl. Sure thing, boss. No going lone avenger on his ass. So, wanna come get some eats with me? Mom's in the diner, so you know it'll be good. We can plan our superspy evidence hunt"

"Sorry, Chloe. I have homework. But I have some free time tomorrow morning, if that's ok?"

"Sure thing, Katie kat. See ya then. Call if you need anything, ok? Even if it's just to complain about how shitty homework is."

She laughed, still sounding bad, but a bit better. "Will do Chloe. And thanks, for helping, I mean. I'm glad I met you."

"Same here. Now, bugger off and work. Somebody's gotta pass an exam around here and it sure as hell won't be me."

"Yes ma'am. See you tomorrow."

Chapter Text

The next morning was fucking cold. Some 'low pressure' something or other had drifted in over Oregon and dropped the temperature by about a bajillion degrees. But meh, the cold never bothered me anyway.

Yeah, I saw Frozen, so what? Kickass movie.

I was in my usual tank and jeans combo, with my beanie down to my eyebrows and waiting, totally calm and patient outside the Two Whales.

Kate was late.

Like, really late.

Like, really, seriously, worryingly late.

Ok, so, it was only by like 15 minutes, but still, I can worry if I want… fuck it. I pulled out my phone and shot off a text.

Chloe - Hey K8 U OK? UR RLY L8

It was about ten minutes of frantic pacing and muttering enough swearwords under my breath to make a sailor blush before I got a response.

Kate - Hey Chloe, I'm so sorry. I got delayed a while, but I'm free now. Be there in 5.

Chloe - K CU SN

Shit. Something bad must've happened. Bet it was the fucking queen bee-atch and her cronies again. Victoria had made it her mission to give Kate as much shit as she could over this video.

I'd had to stare her down a couple times now after she tried bitching at Kate with me around. Guess she'd decided to go for her alone now, huh.

"Hey Chloe!"

I felt a hand on my shoulder, jolting me out of my little melancholy mood and scaring the ever loving shit outta me. Not that I'd ever let on, Chloe Price has a reputation to keep up and nerves of steel.

Ok, fine... so, I screamed like a fucking five year old and flailed around, falling to the floor and who or whatever the fuck it was that put their hand on me jumped back.

Ow...

I rubbed the back of my head and looked up at Kate, who was peering down at me from her all of 5ft nothing with a concerned look on her face.

"Chloe, oh no! Are you ok? I'm so sorry, I was just excited to see you and I didn't think and I..."

I interrupted her word-vomit with a wave and a mumbled "It's fine."

Had to cut her off fast when the floodgates opened or she'd talk us both to an early grave. Don't get me wrong, it's cute for the first couple of minutes, but after she talked about nothing for a straight half hour, I learnt to stop it fuckin' quick or else.

The back of my head felt wet. What the fuck? Its freezing and I manage to find a puddle?

I pulled my hand back and found it a sort of pretty reddish colour. Huh.

"Chloe, you're bleeding! We've got to get you inside and I can clean that up for you. I did make it happen, right?"

Kate immediately grabbed my hand and started pulling me towards the diner, chatting all the way.

The non-bloody hand, I mean. That would be gross, otherwise. Fuck, she must move hella quick, we just, like, blurred right up to the door.

The door flapped as we entered, that stupid double-hinge thing making it swing back and forth wildly. Mom looked up from behind the counter, her usual grin falling as she spotted me, hand on the back of my head. "Oh lord, Chloe darlin', are you ok? What the hell happened?"

I waved, kinda at her. From the puzzled wave back that the guy on the end of the bar threw back at me, I mighta missed a smidge.

"Hey Mom, nothin' much, just a little head wound. Bleeding a bit, but I'm fiiiine. Got any waffles?"

Mom leaned down to look in my eyes. "Chloe. You are not 'fiiine'. You hit your head, you gotta go get checked out." She turned to Kate.

"Look, darlin', normally I wouldn't ask, but I can't leave right now. Wouldya take Chloe to the med centre? It's just around the corner. Tell him I sent you and he won't charge you anything."

Kate nodded. "Of course, Mrs Madsen. I'll call you with any news."

Mom sighed dramatically. "Good lord, Kate, how many times do I gotta tell ya, it's just Joyce to you, hun. But thanks. You take good care of my daughter."

-----

Shit!

I squeezed my eyes shut and flinched when a light suddenly beamed straight into my fucking skull. I heard a wearied sigh.

"Look, Miss Price, I'm not exactly thrilled at the circumstances either, but if you wanna get better, stop bloody moving. You've only got a mild concussion, so it could be worse. Least it ain't Lupus."

The doc was sitting on his stupid plastic swivel chair, a brown cane propped up against his leg, shining the fucking bat-signal into my head. He picked up his cane and pushed off from the bed I was sitting on back over to his desk. He started typin' some shit into the computer and askin' me a whole buncha irritating questions about my head and how it felt.

"Why are you asking me all these fucking questions? Can't you just give me a pill and let me go?"

He grimaced, running his hand across his stubbly grey beard. "If only, the government says I gotta fill in one of these report things for every damn thing I do. Apparently, 'keeping it in your head' is not a proper filing system. Meddling bastards."

I grinned. "Tru dat. So, how am I, doc? Hella fit like a fiddle, right?"

He peered at over his computer and just raised one grey, grizzled eyebrow. "Hella? Seriously? Kids today..."

Kate giggled from off to my left, holding her hand over her mouth to try keep it quiet. The doc eyed her from his chair. She giggled even harder.

"Look, Miss Price, you seem to be ok for now. You got a concussion from your little fall, so I'm gonna need to get someone to stay with you for the evening. Make sure you don't die in your sleep or something."

Kate hopped to her feet and stepped forward. "I can do it. Least I can do for getting you in this situation, right?"

The Doc finger-shot at her with a little *pyowng*. "Well then, guess we have a deal. Now, scat. My show's on soon."

I hopped off the bed. "Sure thing, doc. We're gonna... woah!" Fuck, I felt hella dizzy. Doc might be right about the, y'know, concussion thing.

Kate rushed over and took my arm before I collapsed or something equally dramatic. I leant into her far more than I really wanted, but fuck it. The room was spinning and she made it not so fuckin' wobbly. I'm stubborn, but I'm not insane.

We hobbled out of the room, waving bye to the doc and getting a grumpy waft back and headed out to the parking lot, getting into my old truck.

Kate drove. I wasn't really in any condition to.

Kate was a sloooooow driver. 5 to 10 miles under the speed limit at all times, slowing before every single fucking turn, the goddamn works. (Sorry, Kate!)

Was hella cute, really. She was all concentrating on the road, head low on the wheel, totally focused on where she was going.

Kinda ignoring me, but it was cute enough that I forgave her.

We got back to my place in around 30 minutes, like, double the time it would've taken me. She helped me out and we worked our way into my house and into the front room. She dumped me on the couch where I landed with grace, style and very little pained moaning. "Stay here a second, I'm going to go grab you some water."

I grinned up at her. "Yes ma'am. Right here."

She skittered off into the kitchen and I heard the faucet go and a whole lot of clattering and thunking around.

I heard her call in. "You feeling ok, still?"

Sweet girl. Always thinking of everyone else first.

"Yeah, I'm good. Surprisingly comfortable on this piece of shit couch."

She laughed. "Good to hear. You make sure not to move, remember what the Doc said. I've got to look after you till at least tomorrow."

Her voice was firm, uncompromising. She appeared at my shoulder, looking down at me on the couch, shaking a fucking ladle at me.

"So stay. Let me take care of you. Or I'll get mean and have to do something to punish you. Not entirely sure what though. I never was very good at that stuff, not even when I had to look after my sisters when they were young. Never could do that whole discipline thing."

She trailed off at the end, clearly realising her rambling threat did not have the impact she really wanted it to, before smiling at me and pushing me back down on the sofa when I tried to sit up.

"Staaaay. I mean it." She poked me in the shoulder with the ladle.

"Gotcha, Katie. Really. I'm staying right here."

She smiled at that and went back into the kitchen. Long story short, she made us some waffles and sat with me for the rest of the day, chatting about all sorts of shit.

Pretty sure we were talking about what kind of furniture we'd like to be at one point.

Kate wanted to be a chair. Weirdo. Everyone knows, tables are where it's at.

We moved up to my room when Mom and Step-Douche got home, playing some of my old music CDs. Low volume, to keep the douche happy. I sprawled into my desk chair and Kate perched on the end of the bed as we listened.

She'd never even heard of Syd Matters, can you believe it? Or Mogwai.

She wasn't really into most of what I liked, which didn't surprise me. Kate definitely seemed like more of a mainstream type. Pop and that kinda stuff. Not really my thing, but each to their own, I guess.

She did like Angus and Julia Stone though. Probably the lightest of my musical reper...

Repper?

Repo?

Ribbledibblethwibblefarble?

...

Collection. My Collection.

Anyway, yeah, she liked them. Of course she did, Rachel liked them, after all. She always had so much more in common with everyone than me. I offered to burn her a CD of some stuff, and she accepted with a blush and a shy grin.

"Thanks Chloe. You're, you're always so nice to me." She paused, taking a long, deep breath.

Huh? Where the fuck is THIS going...?

"I don't really have that many friends, not even in my church. Most other people just see my faith and back off. I only ever really got along with my sisters. Everyone else... not so much."

Another deep breath.

"I always thought I never really would have any. Friends, I mean. Uh, what I'm trying to say is thanks for being my friend. It means a lot."

Shit. Never thought she'd have as shitty a time with people as me. She's always so nice, you'd think people would like that. I spin around on my desk chair, hop off and crash down next to her on the bed, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her down.

"Sure thing, Katie kat. We're buds now, right? Gotta stick together."

She fucking BEAMS at me. Crap, I wanna find whoever didn't tell her how awesome she is before and punch them. Lots.

She nods her head for a second, eyes unfocusing. "Wait, I know this one! What is it?"

I smirked. She'd picked a hella good one to recognise. "Its Youngblood Hawke. We come running. Hella sick tune, right?"

"Yes! It's so catchy!"

"I'll put it on the CD."

We chatted for the rest of the night and most of the next morning, then went to the Two Whales for breakfast. Kate got a call then, telling me she had to go.

I think it was her Mom, from the pained sounding sighs from Kate and the muffled yelling through the phone.

I gave her a lift back to her place. Her house was a typical suburban shithole near the outside of Arcadia Bay. Garden was fucking pristine, flowers, trees and a fucking 'water feature' to match. I never understood these places. Why would you buy a house you can barely afford, so you can go to a job you hate so you can pay off your architecturally inflated socio-geographic penis.

Probably a compensation thing.

I looked at some of the other houses on her road. One of them had pillars.

DEFINITELY a compensation thing.

She got out and knocked on the door. Her dad answered, hugged her before bringing her in. Least the girl had one actual parent.

I watched her go inside before driving off to this shitty bar where they didn't card me. Place was a dump, but at least I could drink there. I waved to the bartender and got a nod back and a glass of something brown pushed towards me. I downed it in one and tapped for a refill. Damn, that stuff fucking burns!

There were more folks in here than usual tonight. Must be a special occasion.

Then again, this place isn't exactly the sort of bar you take the folks to. Pretty sure the food from this joint would kill ya before you finished it. Half the reason I liked the place.

My eyes drifted along the bar, across the faces of every grim faced fucker say along it and I swept over to look at the tables and booths dotted around the...

Wait.

Was that...?

I flicked my eyes back over to the bar.

Well now, what have we here? A little lost rich boy?

Nathan fucking Prescott, moneyed up little prick he is, just does not drink in a shitty bar way outta town. And yet, there he was, bold as fucking aluminium? Steel?

Meh. Whatever he was, he was chatting up some blonde chick leaning on my damn bar! The bruise on his nose from the day we met was pretty much gone and what was left gave him a kinda rakish look, like a prettyboy merc from an old movie or something.

Heh. Looks like he's trawling for new prey. Not gonna find any A-List Models here, buddy, just trucker bitches and drunk bitches. I watched him smile and charm the blonde bimbo in her too tight top and too tight shorts. She giggled and leaned into him and I shuddered. Poor girl had no idea who she was flirting with.

I don't even know what made me do the stupid fucking thing I did next, but I did it.

I drain my drink and unbutton my top a little, trying to plump up my pretty much non-existent cleavage.

That taken care of, I walk up to the bar, swaying as I went. When I reached the bar, I deliberately bumped into him. The girl shrieks, so I know I knocked his drink all over her. Re-fucking-sult.

He whirls on me, leaving her spluttering and wailing behind him. He looks like he's about to flip out, so I lean into him and put my hand on his arm before he can start. He didn't seem to recognise me, so I guess I knocked the fucking memory of me right out of his head when I kneed him there.

"Oh, I'm sorry, it's so crowded in here."

I glance down at his now empty glass and put my hand on his arm.

"Oh no, did I spill your drink? I'm so sorry, do you want me to get you another?"

He grins at me, the girl behind him forgotten as he fucking drags his eyes down my body. Perverted asshole.

"Nah, it's fine. Not like I can't afford another. Hell, I could buy this whole fucking bar with pocket change!"

He shouts that last bit and sweeps his arm out across the room. A couple folks look over at him annoyed, but quickly look back to whatever they're doing when they realise who it is that's disturbing their drinking.

I look down at my feet, flicking my eyes up at him and I give a shy little smile. "Wow… I bet you can get away with doing all sorts of things…"

I squeeze his bicep and trail my hand down his arm with that last line, half expecting him to push me away. If anything, his boyish grin gets bigger. You know, it's too bad the guy looks like he eats puppies and kittens for lunch. He might be kinda hot, otherwise.

"You bet I can, babe. We own this town."

Christ, seriously? Arrogant prick. Then again, it was kinda true, so...

I laugh, airily, trying to do that femme fatale thing from the Bond Movies. "I like a man who knows what he wants. I don't think I've seen you in here before. What's your name?"

He leans in towards me. Probably angling for a better view down my top. "I'm Nathan. What can I call you?"

"The name's..."

Shit, I can't tell him my real name! Think of something, think of something…

"Max. I'm Max."

He leans in further and murmurs in my ear.

"Hey Max, so, how about we take this back to my place?"

Booyah, another point for Price!

I pull away and smile. "I'd love to. Meet you outside?"

"I'll be waiting. Don't take too long." He shoves his hands in his pockets, dumps his empty glass on the bar and heads outside without looking back.

I wave the bartender over and, checking that nobody was watching, slipped him a twenty. "Just the usual, Bart?"

He wandered off to the other end of the bar and picked up a bottle of Jack, coming back over to me. He handed me the bottle, quickly putting a small baggie in my other hand that I whipped away into a pocket.

I turned from the bar and went out to find Nathan.

-----

My back hits his door as we fall together, kissing frantically and pulling at each others clothes. He fumbles for the handle and we fall back into his door room, him landing on top of me, making me grunt with pain. What? The guy was heavy. Sure, most of it was muscle, but still.

He kissed his way down my neck, murmuring sorry into my pulse point as he went. I stopped him as he got to my collar, pushing his shoulder gently. "Are we really gonna do this on the floor with the door open?"

He blinked and grinned. "You are such a chick."

I opened my eyes in mock surprise, looking down at my rack.

"Really? Are you sure?"

He laughed, before getting up and pulling me to my feet. I let go and look around the room. "Nice place you got here."

There was a double bed pushed against the wall to the right of the door, and a desk beside the window, next to a bunch of shelves. The left wall had a huge fucking TV that dwarfed the one Step-Douche had bought. There were some expensive looking surround sound speakers dotted around the room. I walked over to the wall opposite the window, running my finger along the shelves and looking at the three pictures there.

Oh, Repertoire! That was the fucking word! Crap, that'd been annoying me for hours. Anyways...

The fucking things had spotlights on them. Who the hell has spotlit pictures in their house?

He moved to the bed and lay down on it, one leg swinging off the end as he watched me wander around his room. "Eh. Its a shithole, but its my shithole. Nothing like my room at home."

I laughed and brought out the black bottle of Jack. "Well, does the shithole have any cups in it?"

He waved over at the shelves. "Cupboard on the right, babe. Make mine a double."

There was a stack of plastic cups in the cupboard.

I pulled the top two, careful to keep everything I did hidden inside the cupboard, then poured a shitload of whisky into both, quickly tipping the stuff from my little baggie into one of them, giving it a little shake. I stood up, put them on the shelf and moved over to his speakers. There was an IPod docked into it.

I tapped it on and scrolled down his playlist. Ew, Good Charlotte. No wonder the guy was such an asshole. I picked something at random and turned up the volume. It was some techno club song I didn't recognise. Heavy on the bass, low on everything else, y'know?

I straightened up, starting to dance along to the beat, when I felt two arms wrap around me from behind and Nathan started kissing my neck again. "Now, we've got music, lighting and booze. Wanna get the party started?"

"One more drink, then hella yes."

I went went back over to the shelf and grabbed the two cups, handing one to Nathan and bringing the other up to my lips, downing the whole lot and throwing it off into the corner before advancing on Nathan, who'd gone back to lounging on the bed. "Now, where were we?"

He smirked. "Well, I don't know about me, but you're about to be on the floor."

He held up the empty plastic baggie. Shit. Oh, Shit.

I looked over to the cup I'd thrown into the corner, then back to his smug face, each getting blurrier and blurrier every time I did. "You bas… you bastard!"

He jumped up from the bed, getting right up in my face. "Nobody challenges me. NOBODY! This is what you get for protecting the Marsh girl."

That was the last thing I saw before my vision went black.

I came to a little later, blinking my eyes. I felt the wall behind me and a sheet under me. There was a really bright light on me and everything felt kinda fuzzy and really out of focus. I saw the outline of something moving towards me from the direction of the light. I blinked and shook my head, trying to clear the kinda dull feeling in my head.

As the thing got closer, I could kinda make it out. It was Nathan, on his hands and knees, crawling towards me with a camera up to his face. I wriggled, finding my hands were tied together.

"Quiet now."

His voice barked out. I stopped wriggling, keeping him in my line of sight as I tried to blink the blurriness out of my eyes.

He smiled. "Now, now. Don't panic. I just want to take a few pictures."

He moved in closer, clicking the camera every step.

I shifted, trying to get my feet under me and keep track of my limbs, which all kinda felt like they were stuck on 8 different people.

He got right up close, the lens of his stupid camera like, right next to my face. When he was close enough, I pushed off the wall and barrelled into him, knocking him over.

I kicked him in the stomach when he landed. "Fuck!"

I didn't wait for a second. I just ran at the door, thudding into it when I found it fucking locked. I kicked at the thing, again and again until the lock broke, then I ran out, stumbling my way out of the building back home.

-----

Shitshitshitshitshit. I fucked up, big time. Letting that creepy asshole get the better of me like that, stupid, stupid, stupid!

I thudded backwards into my bedroom wall. Shoulda known better.

I slid down it to curl up on the floor. Shoulda DONE better.

Damn it, Chloe, always the screw up, aintcha?

Bet Max would've done better. Hell, I know Max would've done better. Smartest person I ever met. Waaay too smart for the likes of me.

But, she's gone now, right? Gone like Dad, Gone like Rachel…

…

Shit. Things were desperate, so I did the one thing I'd forbidden myself ever to do.

I called Max.

I listened to the phone ring. Once. Twice... Three-ce?

This is a baaad idea, my brain singsonged. Shut it, Brain! You need this. Like you said, she's the smartest person we know, she'll know how to get us out of this fine fucking screwup we're in.

Aren't you forgetting something? My Brain asked, sarcastically.

No…? What?

SHE LEFT! SHE LEFT US! She left Mom, She left Arcadia, She left YOU!

She left me…

Wait, listen.

...Answering Machine. Fucking Answering Machine. Damn it. Of course she didn't pick up. Bitch didn't give enough of a shit to answer me, but that didn't stop me from leaving a message anyways.

"Hey Max, it's, it's Chloe. Um, I don't know if this is still your number, but it's the last one I got, so…"

I sighed.

"You probably won't be surprised to hear this, but I screwed up, big time and I don't know what to do. I need help."

I got up from the floor and moved over to lie on the bed, running my hand through my hair.

"I saved some girl, Kate, from this rich prick kid trying to cart her off and do fuck knows what. Then, y'know me, can't keep myself from making hella stupid decisions, I thought I could try drug him and search his room for proof of what he did.

I choked up, trying not to cry.

"But he, he, he drugged me instead, the little bitch. I think he was gonna try… to… FUCK. I feel like I'm being crushed under, just, the fucking weight of all this."

"This is a bad ideaaa" My brain singsonged again.

Quiet!

"Max, I'm sorry. You left me and I want to hate you so much, but I just can't. I need you. I need you to come back. I need your help, first mate Max, I need hella help."

I took a deep breath.

Come back?

Help?

Fuck, she wouldn't even pick up the damn phone. I felt that old defensive anger flowing up, red haze over everything, like the world was out to get me all over again.

"You know what? Fuck that noise. You don't care. You didn't even pick up the fucking phone. For all I know, you're sat listening at the other end, just waiting for me to shut up and go away. You don't care now, you didn't care when you left. So forget it. Forget it! You hear me? Forget it like you forgot me!"

My voice rose to a full fuckin' yell at the end of it and I may have thrown the phone at the wall, hard enough to dent the damn thing where it collided with a thud.

It slid to the floor and the screen cracked.

Bit like you, eh Chloe?

…

...broken…

I cried myself to sleep that night. Yet, I still dreamt of freckles and long brown hair.

Chapter Text

I woke up with someone shaking my shoulder and someone else holding my fucking head inside a ringing church bell.

"Chloe?" Kate said, shouting into some kinda megaphone pressed to my head, while pointing a torch straight into my eyes.

"Ow." I said.

"Are you ok?"

"Ow." I repeated, annoyed, because that really should've been a good enough answer.

I blinked against the light. "Ow. Too bright. And stop shouting."

"I'm barely whispering." She screamed. Her dainty little flats slammed down on the floor like fucking Godzilla as she went to close my curtains.

"What happened?" She asked.

I blinked and squinted over at her. She was crouching by my smashed phone.

I shrugged. "It pissed me off."

She left for a sec and I just sat there, trying to make the room stop spinning. Hangovers are still not fun. And I didn't even get any fun the night before… I shook my head quickly, trying not to think about that, wincing when the pain got kicked up to fucking eleven.

Kate godzilla-stomped back in and slipped a glass and a pill into my hands. "Take this. Its an aspirin. It'll help your head."

I straightened slowly and took the pill, lying there as I waited for the fucking thing to kick in.

Kate put her hand on my shoulder. "Are you ok?"

"Dunno. My head hurts."

"Ah. Drunken night of fun with your friend Beth again, hmm?"

I waved her off with one hand, holding the other to my head. "Nah. But it doesn't matter. Whatcha doin' here?"

"Well, I came to see if you'd like to get some breakfast. I called, but…" She looked back over her shoulder to my phone, still where I'd thrown the fucking thing last night.

I laughed. Well, tried to, but the aspirin hadn't kicked in yet, so it came out more like a pained howl. "Yeah, I'm gonna need a new one of those, I think."

She put out her hands to help me up. "Shall we? I think I can hear your stomach rumbling from here and I know how cranky you get when you haven't eaten."

I let her help me up with a mumbled "Yeah, yeah, gimme a minute. Need to visit the little punks room."

She nodded. "'Kay. I'll wait for you out by the truck."

I waited for her to leave and went to check on my phone. Booyah! It switched back on! Nokia for the win!

… no response from Max … Fine then. Fuck her.

I shove the phone into my pocket and walked out after Kate.

-----

We found our usual table and Joyce immediately came over. "Hey Chloe. Glad to see Kate managed to get you out of Bed."

"Hey Mom. Yeah, the lure of breakfast was too much to resist."

She laughed and pulled her pad from her apron and a pencil from her ear. "Well then, what can I getcha?"

"Just the usual, please Joyce."

I chime in. "Same here!"

Kate looks at me sternly. Well, as sternly as she could. Which wasn't fucking very. But, I sighed and gave in. "Same here, please, Mom."

When she left, I turned to Kate. "So, how's shit up at school? Vicky still givin' you trouble?"

"Not so much. But I've been spending more time off site with you, so I don't run into her as much."

She looks down sadly. I sigh and put out a hand to lift her head back up. "Y'know, just say the word and I can whack the bitch. She'll be sleeping with the fishes before she can say um... don't throw me in with the fishes? She deserves it. Eye for an eye, right?"

Kate just half smiles at me. "An eye for an eye and the whole world is blind, Chloe. She doesn't deserve that. Nobody deserves that."

I just happen to be looking over Kate's shoulder at just the right time to see Nathan Fucking Presc-shit walk in the door. He looked over the room, his eyes flicking from person to person until they hit me. Then, he smiled and turned to sit down on a booth the other side of the room. I go back to paying attention to Kate just in time. "...and that's why I don't want you to do anything, Chloe. Promise me you'll leave her alone? Please?"

I shrug. "Yessir, boss. Leave the nice blonde bitch alone."

She sighs. "Thanks, Chloe."

I shrug again and Kate stands up. "I'm just going to the Bathroom. Text me if the food comes?"

"Sure."

She wanders off, carefully not looking at the Presc-shit staring at her the whole time. Before I know it, I'm standing up, walking over and sliding into his booth. He leans back and smiles. "So, Max, wasn't it? Come back for another round?"

I grab his collar and pull him to me, leaning right in. "You even look at her ever again and I will end you."

He laughs in my fucking face. "Sure, anything else you want? Keys to the mansion, my camera, my watch? Get real. You wanna threaten me, you're gonna have to do a lot better than that, Price."

Shit, he knows my name! Say something brave, Chloe. Don't ever let the wolf know he's got you.

"I want 10 Grand."

He just laughed harder. "Or fucking what? You'll threaten me some more?"

Well, fuck it. Just gotta take a stab in the dark and hope I fucking hit organs. Hope my poker face is hella convincing or this is gonna go shittily. "Or I take the recordings I got of you last night to the cops. Think they'll like to hear what you tried to do to me?"

His expression dropped and his voice was quiet and menacing. "What."

"You think I did that shit last night without a plan? Fuck, I'm not that stupid."

Well, I was. But he didn't need to fuckin' know that.

"So, you pay me hella dough or I get you thrown in jail. Capisce?"

I pushed him back over to his fucking seat and went back to my booth, just in time to see Kate come out of the bathroom. My Mom stopped her on the way, holding a couple of plates and said something. Kate laughed and took the plates then came back over to me, sliding my waffles over to me.

I just picked the waffles up like a sandwich and took a huge bite, ignoring Nathan, still glaring at me. Kate laughed. "Chloe!"

I looked up at her and shrugged, opening my mouth to talk, bits of my delicious breakfast going all over the table. "What?"

She laughed again. "You are incorrigible."

I grinned."Thanf oo."

-----

Shit. Blackhell, again.

Nathan called last night to set up the drop for the cash. He picked the fucking girls bathroom at Blackwell for the place, perv. No idea how he got my damn number, either, but fuck it. Guess he bought my hella ballsy bluff. Maybe I should try poker, 'cause my bluffs are hella awesome.

I checked my dash clock. I was running a little late, 'cause I stopped to blaze up my truck before I went in. Meetups with rapist rich pricks made me nervous, so I needed to calm the fuck down.

I ambled up the front stairs, pushing open the glass double doors and carefully avoiding eye contact with the Blackhell fuckwits wandering around like sheep.

Luckily, there were no staff around the doors to stop me. I was expelled, after all and so not really supposed to be on campus. Sometimes I think Step-douche has a point about those cameras, getting in here is way too fucking easy.

I stopped outside the bathroom, leaning against the wall and taking a deep breath. Fuck it.

I pushed open the door and stepped into the bathroom to find Nathan fucking talking to himself in the mirror. Crazy fuck.

"I hope you checked the perimeter as my step-ass would say?"

I scooted along the cubicles, pushing open each door and scanning for eavesdroppers. Letting people listen in kinda defeats the point of a secret meeting, right?

I found nothing and turned back to him. "Now, let's talk bidness."

He didn't even look at me, keeping his eyes on the sink. Bitch was scared of me, I so got this. "I got nothing for you."

"Wrong. You got hella cash." I retorted.

"That's my family, not me." Pfft. Fucker, trying to weasel his way out of our deal.

"Oh boo hoo, poor little rich kid. I know you've been pumping drugs 'n shit to kids around here."

I circled around him, gettin' right up in his face.

"I bet your respectable family would help me out if I went to them. Man, I can see the headlines now..."

"Leave them out of this, bitch."

"I can tell everybody Nathan Prescott is a punk-ass bitch who begs like a little girl and talks to himself…"

He pulls a gun on me and pushes me against the wall, pushing it against my fucking stomach. A fucking gun!

"You don't know who I am, or who you're messing around with!"

"Where'd you get that? What're you doing? Come on, put that thing down!"

"Don't EVER tell me what to do. I'm so SICK of people trying to control me!"

Ohshitohshitohshit, this is not good. Fucker was crazy. I tried reasoning with him. They always do it with the crazies on TV, right? "You are going to get in hella more trouble for this than drugs!"

"Nobody would ever even miss your punk ass, would they?"

Shit, this fucker was strong. But I had to try something. I flipped suddenly and managed to get an arm free to punch him in the head and pushed him back.

"Get that gun away from me, psycho!"

He let me go when he moved and I just kinda slid down the wall to the floor. He didn't go very far. Just pushed him back a couple feet. He suddenly got hella angry and he raised the gun.

I closed my eyes and flinched. Fuck, this is it. Sorry Mom. Sorry Kate. I tried. Sure you'll do better without me, anyway.

And suddenly, the door fucking exploded inwards as a massive dude charged in, knocking Nathan like, four times the fucking distance backwards I did and grabbing him by the neck.

The guy kept going with him until he hit the back well, still fucking holding him by the neck. He slammed Nathan into the wall a couple times and then just dropped him to the floor.

He just kinda lay there, whining and moaning. It was epic. This random dude just saved my life…

The big buy looked left, off into the corner and nodded. "Howdy boss. Nice ta see ya. Got the bastard."

Big guy sounded Texan. Insert joke about the cavalry here.

But the next voice sounded small, quiet and more importantly, so fucking familiar.

"You too. Good work, Travis."

A tiny girl stepped out from the shadows behind the stalls. She was wearing a pink tee, some ripped jeans and a pair of ratty looking converse.

"Holy. Shit."

She came! I called and she actually fucking answered!

"Hey Chloe. Heard you were in a bit of trouble."

She smiled at me. Hella awkwardly. Way more awkwardly than she used to, and that's fucking saying something.

I sat and stared at her for a sec, probably in some kinda fuckin' shock. Her expression got worried and she leant back, one hand going straight to her hip and she turned back to look at that Travis guy.

"She's not saying anything. Do you think we might need to check for a head injury or something?"

The big guy standing over the little whimpering pile of shit that was Nathan Prescott looked at me and shrugged. "No idea. Should probably get her outta here, though. Mite rude to leave her with this asshole."

Max sighed. "Good point."

She walked over to me and put one hand on my shoulder, shaking me gently.

"Come on Chloe, lets get you out of here. We can talk more when we're safe. Travis, make sure the asshole is still breathing and we can go."

Travis turned back to Nathan.

"Fu…"

A shot rang out. Travis was now on his knees in front of a fucking furious Nathan Prescott. Max whirled, dropping me and bolted towards the big guy, reaching out her hand…

"Holy. Shit."

She came! I called and she actually fucking answered!

"What the fuck?"

Max seemed freaked out. She raised her right hand and just stared at it for a second, before her face got angry and she suddenly spun and started kicking Nathan in the stomach. Again. And again. And again, before the big guy slid in front of her and held her shoulders.

She stopped kicking and took a deep, kinda ragged breath.

He calmed her down. I'd never seen her so fucking angry. Hell, before she left she was as shy as a mouse. What the fuck happened to you in the last five years, Max?

"What's wrong, boss?"

"I, I don't know. I saw you, I mean, I…"

She sighed and ran her hand through her hair.

"I… I need a drink."

"Not on a job. Even one you took without telling the rest of us."

Max looked indignant. "This one's personal."

He smirked. "Yes ma'am. Is it her?"

He looked over Max's shoulder at me.

"Yeah…"

Max shook her head, her face goin' back to the calm confidence she had when she first stepped out of the corner of the room.

"Check his gun. I'll grab Chloe and we can go."

"Thats more like it, Boss."

He turned and picked up Prescott's gun, played with it a sec and it just kinda fell apart.

Max came over and put my arm over her shoulders and hoisted me up. She was still short as fuck, so it was kinda weird.

"Woah, woah, woah, Max, I can walk!"

"Ah, so she does speak. You sure?"

I pushed her off and took a couple of experimental steps. I wobbled a bit, but I could so do this. Chloe Price, legs of steel!

"Very nice. Your house free?"

I shrugged. "Sure, everyone should still be at work."

She nodded. "Ok then. We have a safehouse."

A glance back at Travis. "What wheels did you bring?"

"Just my ole truck. Figured discreet would be more advantageous."

"Excellent choice. You're driving then."

I chimed up. "I've got my truck parked here as well."

She waved a hand at me, really fucking dismissively. "Too recognisable. We're taking his."

Wow… hella forceful, first mate. She really had changed. Max from 5 years ago could barely look most people in the eye.

Heh. Like you can talk about change, Price. You're not exactly the girl you were then, either.

Travis leads us out of the main building, which was pretty much empty. Classes were on I guess. Wonder what Kate's doing right now…

We head across the grounds to the parking lot, pushing between a couple of girls who were walking and talking, leaving them yelling at us while we just kept walking to the lot.

There was a big old truck in the lot, a couple of spaces over from mine. The thing looked like it was from like, a hundred years ago and ran on fuckin' coal or something. I started to walk around it. It looked more beat up than my old truck did. Fuck, were those bullet holes?

I think I'm gonna call it The Tank.

Max helps me into the back seat of The Tank and hops in after me. Travis swings into the front seat, switching on the ignition.

The engine roared like a fucking dragon and we slowly chugged out to the lot entrance.

"Which way, Boss?"

The answer was immediate. "Right."

"Good to know you remember where I live. You remember my phone number too?" I said, completely calm and with minimum bitch.

"Of course." The calm and confident voice again.

"Then why didn't you fucking use it?" I snarked, bitterly.

She sighs. "Not not, Che, ok? Once we get someplace secure, I promise you'll we'll talk."

She turned away from me and stared out the window.

I blinked at her. Shit. I think she just shut me down. Pretty smoothly, too. She really has fucking changed.

I looked at her then, trying to put this Max against the one I remembered. She sure hadn't gotten any taller, still seeming the same tiny hipster I knew 5 years back.

Even the way she sat was different. The old her had always say like she didn't wanna take up any room. Knees together, shoulders tight, arms held in her lap. This Max sat like a suit. Owning the space and all that shit.

Hell, it was kinda hot. Confidence is sexy, right?

Think she looked kinda tired though. Bags under her eyes, lacking that old Max enthusiasm that she had for everything.

Fuck, I still wasn't completely sure this wasn't some kinda fucked up dream, maybe I was still drugged up at Nathan's, with him taking pictures. I shuddered. That was fucking scary. Honestly, I was still trying not to think about it. So much for Chloe Price, nerves of steel.

We sat quietly until we got back to my place. The big Texan spent the entire trip brooding in the driver's seat and occasionally calling out requests to Max for directions. She really did remember exactly where I lived.

He reared the truck back on the drive and we all got out. I slid my key into the lock and was about to turn it and push the door open when Max's hand shot out and locked onto my arm. "Wait."

"What was that, Tish? Say again."

Who the fuck was Tish? She looked like she was just talking to herself. I gave her a questioning look.

"Who the fuck are…?"

She took something small from her ear and put it in mine. I heard a girl's voice ramble on about cameras. Cameras?

"What the fuck does she mean cameras? Is someone watching my fucking house?"

She took the earbud back.

"Apparently. Seems someone put a whole system of them throughout your house."

For fucks sake! We can't ever get a damn break.

"Typical. Fucking typical. You know who?"

She cocked her head, probably listening to the chick in her ear. "Nope. It's not somebody outside though. Seems like a local signal. Your mom gotten really into surveillance lately?"

Lately…? Fuuuuck. "No, but my step-douche has. This is exactly the sort of shit he'd do. Paranoid asshole."

She tipped her head again. "Anything you can do? No? Damnit. Alright, alright. We'll just have to leave it for now."

She let go of my arm and gestured for me to open the door. I did, grabbing her arm and pulling her in with me, getting a little squawk of irritation from her.

Travis followed us in, smirking. Dick.

I reached over to Max and pulled the little ear thing out of her ear and stuck it back in mine. "Hey, so what can you do about these fucking cameras? Can you tell me where the fuck they are?"

"Hey, whoever you are, first I am workin' out of a damn truck. Literally, a truck. I can barely even get wifi here. Second of all, who the hell are you? The Boss took a damn phone call and ran off out to this… tiny little shithole town in the middle of nowhere and it's all for you, so who in the samhain are…?"

The voice cut off suddenly as Max pulled her earbud back out of my ear and stuck it back in hers with a glare back at me.

"Tish, it's me again. Yeah, it's a long story and I don't know most of it yet, so shut it."

She looked back at me. "You up to telling us about whatever shit it was you got yourself into?"

"Yeah, I guess. Just need to call someone first."

They both froze. The hell "...someone?"

I shrugged. "Yeah. Kate. She's part of this whole thing."

"You trust her?"

I laughed. "Hella yeah. She's a good one."

Max visibly relaxed and sat down on my couch.

"You moved it. And you got a new TV."

"Yup. I think Step-Douche thought it would make me like him. Fucker doesn't know shit about me."

I walked over to sit on the opposite end from her, throwing one arm over the end and planting my feet on the coffee table.

Travis took a chair from the table, spun and straddled it, arms leaning on the back facing us.

I tuned out their chattering and wiggled my hand into my jeans to pull out my beat up phone to text Kate.

CHLOE- CAn I Haz K8?

KATE- Chloe! Great timing as always, I just left class. How're you?

CHLOE-Um yh bout that. Need 2 talk 2 U come to my house?

KATE- Sure, Chloe. Anything you need. I'll be there as soon as I can.

CHLOE- Snds gd C U SN.

I slid it back into my pants. Wink wink.

"She'll be here as soon as she can. That good with you?"

Max shrugged. "It's not like we can go pick her up right now, so it'll have to be."

"So…" I drawled.

"So…" Max said back, infuriatingly calm as ever.

"You want anything to drink?"

"Got any scotch?"

My jaw dropped. "Wow, you really have changed."

"Yeah. So? I need a drink and I left mine in the car."

Travis was making throat slitting motions behind Max, mounting No!

"Um, sorry. No Scotch. David's not a big drinker."

"Damn. Ah well." She ran a hand through her hair.

"So, you drink now. After you threw up when we got into Mom's wine, I never thought that'd happen."

She met my eye. "Yes, well. Things change."

"I know what you mean… Look, I…"

She interrupted me with a wave. "Can we do this later? I'm really not in the mood."

Fucking hell.

I stood, grabbed her hand and dragged her upstairs, ignoring the lazy smirk that Texan bastard gave me as I walked past. I pulled her into my room and slammed the door behind her, leaning against it.

"What the hell happened, Max? You fucking left me and never called."

She eyed me. "As I recall, you told me to 'fuck off and die and that you never wanted to speak to me again'. That doesn't tend to make people want to call back."

"I was fourteen! You can't blame for being pissed that you left me! It wasn't fair!"

"And you can blame me for leaving? Like expecting me to stop my parents moving was 'fair'?"

Her expression never changed, her voice never wobbled.

"No. No way. This one's on you."

Fucking what?

"Excuse me?!"

"You heard me. You pushed me away, not the other way around. This. Ones. On. You."

She punctuated each word with a hard poke to my chest.

"C'mon Max, be reasonable! Sure, I should've remembered you take things hella literally sometimes, but you shouldn't have taken what I said to heart like that! Dad had just died. We both fucked up, big time, so can we just start over?"

I put my hand on hers, closing it over as she flinched, trying not to react at the fact she did.

"I miss my first mate." Christ, fucking needy, Chloe, scare her away again why don't you? Tone it the fuck…

She sighed. "Fine, fine. We can start over."

I grinned. That went far fucking better than I hoped. "Great!"

I leaned back on the door and flashed a smile. "So… seems like a fucking lot happened in Seattle. You got a team now, and fucking ear thingys? You like James Bond up there or something?"

She smiled back. "Something like that. Look, Chloe, I'm…"

Whatever she was gonna say was interrupted by a knock on the door behind me. I whirled and yanked it open to reveal the smirking face of Travis. "WHAT?"

"Uh, your friend is here. She's down in the kitchen. Thought you'd wanna know, darlin'."

I leaned back and raised an eyebrow. "Don't 'darlin' me."

He grinned. "Sorry ma'am." Raised his arm in a lazy salute.

"Don't sass me dude. I will punch you."

His grin widened and he raised his hands to surrender. Smart guy, knows I'd whup his overly muscly ass, easy.

Max chipped in behind me. "I think the triple black belt, marine cadet, Texan son would probably win that one, Chloe."

I spun, hand to my chest. "So little faith, Maximus. Well, I'll just have to prove my badassitude to you sometime."

We headed downstairs to find Kate sitting quietly on the couch, staring out the window. She turned when we walked in and a smile lit up her face.

"Chloe!"

I grinned.

"Always a pleasure, Kate. Let me introduce you. Kate, Max, Kate, Big Guy."

Her smile fell and her hand stopped midway to shaking Max's tiny outstretched hand.

"Max? You mean she's…?"

I quickly interrupted. Didn't want Kate saying anything I'd regret. This Max and I just got shit sorted, hells no am I letting my stupid old mouth ruin it again.

"Yeah, Kate. My old friend. She's back. And brought a big, grumpy, Texan dude who apparently ate all our fruit."

The big guy in question bit down on a pear, shrugged and grinned at Kate. "What can I say, I like to eat healthy. I'm Travis. Nice to meetcha miss."

Kate blushed. "You too."

Max, Kate and me took seats on the couch and Travis sat back on his chair.

Max sat up, held her hands in her lap. "Still no scotch?"

"Sorry Maximus, no can do."

"Darn. Well, Kate, right?"

"Yes, thats right. Kate Marsh."

The fucking calm and confident voice was back again in full fucking force. "Please. Tell us what happened."

So, we told her. Max nodded when I told her how out of it Kate was and Travis growled. Honest to dog GROWLED. It was kinda hot.

"Bastard. You just don't DO that to a lady."

"Prescott…? Son of the guy who owns half this town, right?"

"More like three quarters, but yeah. Thats the fucker. Little SOB, living off Daddy's money."

Max sat back and watched me silently as I spoke. Could practically see the cogs turning behind those calm eyes of hers. It was like looking into a calm lake. Utterly and completely still.

"So yeah. Thats what I needed your help with Max. We need proof of what he tried to do to Kate and I have no fucking idea how."

I stopped talking and we all went quiet watching Max think.

She nodded once and I grinned so hard I thought my face was gonna fall off.

She's staying!

"Fuckin' Awesomesauce, Max. You're gonna need a way into Blackwell and a Place to Stay, right? I'd try get you in here, but I think Step-Douche would blow a gasket or something…" I rambled.

She smiled. "Already taken care of, Che. You're looking at Blackwell's newest student."

I laughed. Smooth as fuck, Max.

"Damn, you are good. Pity I got kicked out. We could've been neighbours!"

"Well, you can still come to visit. No state line between us anymore, hmm?"

"Hella yeah, dude. Hanging is in the plan."

Max suddenly quirks her head. Think she's listening to the cranky girl in her head again. She sighed.

"The others'll be here in a couple of days. Cassie had to get a last minute flight from Paris."

"Ah. Well, we'll arrange accommodation when they arrive."

Kate chimes in. "What about you, Travis? Do you have anywhere to stay?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm gonna go get a room at the Great Northern. Damn fine coffee."

She smiled gently. "Yes, and their chef is very good. I always loved his salmon fillets."

"Is that so? Well, I'll have to check that out sometime."

Max stands up. "Well, sounds like we have a plan. Let's go steal us a school."

We all get up to follow her out. "Are you heading back to Blackwell, Kate? We have a stop to make first, but we'll be heading there afterwards to move me in."

Kate speaks up, softly. "Yes, I am. I need to get back to Alice and maybe I could help with your move?"

Max smiled. "Who's Alice?"

Kate blushed sheepishly. It was hella adorable as ever. "My Rabbit. Like Alice in Wonderland?"

"Oh, I love that book! Did you ever read the looking glass one?"

I stood and watched as Kate and Max wandered out the door, chatting enthusiastically about books.

I looked over at Travis. "So... Triple black belt, huh?"

"Yup. Impressed?" he grinned.

I looked at his arms. Muscle. I looked at his stomach. More muscle. "Pfft. I could so take you."

I walked out the door, leaving him laughing behind me. Asshole.

I sat, staring out the window of the front seat. Kate and Max took the back and were still chatting away.

"Huh? Why are we here? Oooh, is it for food?"

Travis muffled a laugh in the front seat and Max smiled. "No, I'm afraid not Chloe. I just need to get my bag from the car."

She slipped out of the truck and wandered over to a car in the lot.

I jumped out of the truck and followed her over to some Dodge muscle car. She was searching through the trunk.

"Fuuuuck, Max. This thing yours? Its fucking awesome!"

Max smiled her awkward little smile. "Yeah, this is my baby."

She picked a couple of boxes out of the trunk, throwing one to me. "Get the books from the Glove Compartment and anything you can find in the right footwell."

I shrugged and started getting the shit she wanted. "Alright. What's this stuff for, anyway?"

"First rule of disguise, Grasshopper. Always give people what they expect. Expectations are like a form of camouflage. If you use them right, you can blend into the background and people will barely even notice you're there."

Shit. She might be the same height as my Max, but this one talked like she was in the army with Step-Douche.

We finished stripping Max's awesome car of stuff she wanted, lugged it over and shoved it in the truck bed and got back in.

"Alright, let's get going. Take a left."

-----

We got to Blackwell pretty quickly. I was kinda surprised, this thing looked slow as fuck, but I guess Travis could drive like I could.

He kicked us out on the curb at the front of the school. "Alright, this is our stop. Everybody out. Travis, you go get settled at the Northern. We'll meet you at Two Whales tomorrow."

He saluted. "Sure thing, Boss. See ya then."

We all got out, Kate and I each took a box and Max slung her bag over her shoulder. She leaned into the window and talked with Travis for a sec before he drove off.

"Come on then. Check in is soon. Where's the main reception?"

I pointed over to the main building. "Right in there."

Max looked it over. "Huh. Right. Let's get going then."

Kate chimed in. "I'll see you in the dorms. If I go now, I'll be able to get Alice fed and be able to help you faster."

"Sure, Kate. See you then."

Kate gave me her box and hurried off to the dorms.

We got into the main building and went to the main office, where Max took over. She suddenly dropped her shoulders and hunched a bit, making herself look more… shy, I guess. It was kinda cool to watch, actually.

"Um… hi?"

The receptionist looked up at her from her seat. "Yes, dear? How can I help?"

"Uh, my mom said I should come here? For my key? ...I'm new."

She suddenly jumped, like she'd just remembered something, pulling a piece of paper out of her bag and handing it to the receptionist. "Oh yeah! I have this?"

The receptionist grimaced. Oh, fuck. What's she gonna tell us? "Uh, I'm afraid I can't help you with this. You'll have to wait for the…"

"Ah, Doreen, you don't need to bother the Principal with this. I can show her around."

A new woman came in. She was a short, squat black lady. Looked kinda familiar…

She turned to look at me. "Ah, Miss Price. Nice to see you again. Even nicer to not have you mixing explosives in my classroom."

Ah shit! Miss Grant! She was the chem teacher. And they were stink bombs, not 'explosives'. Yeesh. Still hasn't got a sense of humour.

"Nice to see you too, Miss."

She took the paper from the receptionist and looked it over. "So, Maxine, is it?"

Max, still doing her shy thing or whatever, looked at her shoes and just said "Yes, miss. Well, it's Max, but yes. Thats me."

"Huh. Well, we don't usually get students this late in the year, but you're welcome nevertheless. Ok, it says you're in room 219, in the Prescott Dorm."

"Prescott Dorm?"

Miss Grant smiled. She didn't look happy though. Just kinda… sick. "Delights of Corporate Funding. The Prescotts 'kindly' donated and helped us build it. The principal named the building for them."

I butted in. "Look, Miss, Could you show us to her room? These boxes are getting heavy."

What? They were!

She laughed. "Same as ever, aren't you Chloe? But fair point, you probably want to get moved in as soon as possible, right Max?"

Max just nodded.

"Ideally. I'm wiped."

"Alright, follow me. And let me help you with that, Chloe. No sense you lugging them about all by yourself."

I handed her a box and we set off to the girls dorm building. Separate dorms. Don't want your high school students fucking and keeping everyone up. Walls were thinner than my wallet.

Well, they fucking would be, if I had a wallet.

As we walked through the campus, Grant just went on and on about how the grounds used to be some Native American something or other. She told the same damn story every year. I didn't listen the first fucking time, either.

We got to the door of the dorm and Miss Grant handed Max a set of keys and a slip of paper. "Ok, Max, here are your keys and the code to the building. Your room is last on the right on this floor."

She handed me the box back.

"I figure I'll let you two get on with it. I really should be getting back to work. Nice meeting you Max, hope to see you in class."

She left and Max turned to me, body going back to the calm and confident pose again. "Come on, Chloe."

Max quickly checked the dorm map and we headed down to find her room. The dorms all looked the same. One long corridor of rooms, line of shitty wood doors down either side.

Could hear music coming from down the corridor. Sounds like Max's neighbour 'cross the hall is hella into dubstep. That's gonna make for some fun mornings…

Every door had these little whiteboards next to them. Some of the other girls had put stuff up. Max's Dubstep Playing neighbour had some cheesy quote from that little indian guy. Gandhi, I think.

Max pulled out the key and pushed it into the door. "Alright, let's get this place set up. Put the boxes down on the bed."

The place was pretty bare. There was a desk, a fucking single bed and one of those wall-cupboard things. Guess Blackwell didn't believe in comforts.

I hefted the two boxes I was carrying to the bed and dumped them on it. Max stuck her bag in the cupboard and came over to look through the boxes with me. "Take this. Put it over there."

Kate wandered in about 30 minutes later. Well, she knocked and waited until I went over to open it. Girl was waay too fucking polite sometimes.

"Hey Kate. How's the bunny?"

She smiled at me. "He's fine. Fully fed and put to bed."

We worked like that for a couple of hours, Max handing me and Kate things and telling me where to put them, then getting irritated and moving shit when she didn't like where I'd put them.

I grinned when I saw what was in the bottom of the box. "Holy shit, can you play this?" I pulled out the acoustic guitar and strummed it.

Max shrugged. "Sure. Comes in useful on occasion. Performed in a country bar once or twice. That was a fun job. You play anything?"

Kate chimed in from where she was sat on the bed. "I play violin. I've never really performed though. I'm not really good enough for that yet."

Hah. Modest Katie Kat. I've heard her playing in her room a couple times. She's pretty damn good.

"Don't put yourself down, Katie. You're fucking awesome!"

Kate smiled. "Language Chloe. But thanks."

I bowed and turned back to Max and asked, kinda shocked."You played? Like, in front of people?!"

"Yes Chloe. That does tend to be included in performing."

Huh. Pretty sure that was sarcasm... "Wow. Never thought that'd happen. Seems like you've done some fucking awesome stuff in the last 5 years."

"It certainly has been... interesting. Put that over there for now."

She crushed the two boxes and tapped her ear. "Hey Tish? Is the truck en route? Excellent."

"I'm sorry, who...?" Kate started, confused. Not that I could blame her. I knew and I still found it fucking weird only hearing half the conversation.

Max held up a hand and paced over to the window, so I went up to Kate and whispered in her ear. "She's got an earbud thing in her ear. Lets her talk to this cranky girl on the other end. Its hella cool."

"Well, Max certainly is a woman of hidden talents."

I grinned as I looked back at my first mate, finally back where she belongs. "She really is..."

Max finished and turned back to us. "So, my furniture will be arriving tomorrow morning.

Electronics should be here right about..." She held up a hand and looked at her watch. "Now."

Just as she said that, there was a knock at the door. Still smooth as fuck, Maximus. She bowed with that awkward grin and dropped her shoulders, hunching a bit and looking towards the floor. Guess she was doing her 'art of camouflage' thing again. Still hella awesome to watch.

She opened the door. There were a couple of big dudes there with a little pile of boxes. "Are you Caulfield?"

"Um, yeah. Thats me."

"We got some of your stuff here. A lotta tech. Where do ya want it?"

Couple of hours later, with some help from the dudes, we had Max's room set-up just how she liked it. Literally, 2 minutes after we finished, there was a knock at the door.

Max sighed and went back into shy mode, then opened the door. "Uh, hi?"

There were a couple of girls stood in the corridor. One was a pretty, busty girl with auburn hair. Damn, she was hot. I think I recognised her from a party Rachel dragged me to. The other was a perky brunette. Kinda cute, in a Lois Lane sorta way.

"Hey there, new girl! Just wanted to say hi, welcome you to the neighbourhood. I'm Dana, this is Juliet. Jules, for short. Nice to meetcha! What's your name?"

"I'm Max. This is Chloe and Kate. And I recognise you, actually. You're editor of the paper, right? I saw your picture in the hall."

Juliet shrugged. "It's a hobby."

Dana elbowed her in the side, laughing. "Don't listen to her, Max. She's gonna win a Pulitzer someday."

"Really? She's that good, huh?"

"Well, they don't call her the X-Treme reporter for nothing. She's like a wolf, hunting down everyone's secrets."

Max smiled, shyly. "Well, I look forward to reading the next issue. Do you, like, wanna come in or something?"

"Sure! We aren't interrupting anything though, are we?"

I interrupted before Max could say anything. "Nah. We were gonna plug the TV in and have a movie night. You're hella welcome to join."

The two kinda looked at each other and did that weird thing with expression talking that some girls can do without actually saying anything. Shit always confused me.

Dana nodded. Juliet turned and grinned at Max. "We'd love to. Whatcha watching?"

Max turned back to me and shrugged. "Chloe?"

I smiled. "An old favourite."

-----

"All those moments... will be lost in time... like tears in rain. Time to die."

We all kinda sat quietly for a sec. Bladerunner seemed to have that effect.

Juliet spoke up first. "Wow. That was awesome, Chloe. That Batty guy was fantastic."

Dana. "Yeah, he was. But Harrison Ford shirtless… rowr, am I right?"

Heh. "Sorry Dana, right parts, but totally wrong manual."

She quirks her head at me, looking confused before her face clears. "Shit, NOW I know where I know you from! You were with Rachel, weren't you?"

Well, fuck…

"Uh, yeah. We were together. That a problem?"

She waved a hand. "Oh fuck no, you two were adorable. Just wanted to say I'm sorry for what happened. It can't be easy on you."

Heh. No fucking kidding. Conceal don't feel though, right?

"Thanks."

…

Kate stood up. "Well, it's been a lovely evening, but I'm afraid I've gotta feed Alice and go to bed. Early period tomorrow. Goodnight everybody. Can I talk to you, Chloe? In private?"

Dana and Juliet hopped up as well. "Yeah, we should probably be going as well. This was fun though. We gotta do this again."

Juliet nodded. "Definitely. You have great taste in movies, Chloe."

They both said their goodbyes and left. Kate wandered out just after, reminding me to come by. I turned to look at Max, who was rooting about in her wall-closet thingy. "Hey, Max?"

She didn't even look at me. "Yes, Chloe?"

I sighed. "Thanks for the save today. In the bathroom, I mean. If you and Travis hadn't been there, Presc-shit would've… so, Thanks."

"Sure. Who's Rachel?"

I sighed. I fucking knew she was gonna ask, once Dana mentioned her. "Rachel was… my angel. She saved my life, Max, when dad died and you left. She disappeared a year ago. Just, gone."

Max frowned at me. "Rachel Amber? I saw the posters around town. You put those up?"

I grinned, proud as fuck. "Yup. There's one on every wall in Arcadia."

"Do you think her disappearance might be related to what happened to Kate?"

"Fuck, maybe. Prescott could've done this before. And was always watching her. Bastard!"

Max stood in front of me, holding her Pjs. "This is good. Multiple victims means more evidence to find. If she's alive, we'll find her. Now, unless you want to get an eyeful, I suggest you go find your friend. Kate did say she wanted to see you."

I took a deep breath, trying to calm down. "Yeah, she did. Bye Max. See you tomorrow?"

She smirked. "Don't worry so much, Chloe. I'm here to help, remember? I never leave a job unfinished."

-----

I wandered into Kate's room to see her sat on her bed. "Hey Chloe. I just wanted to see how you were doing. I know it can't easy having Max just turn up like this."

I shrugged, sheepishly. "I kinda called her..."

Kate's eyes went wide. "Really? But what about her leaving? I thought you were angry about that?"

I paced across her room to the window. "We talked it out. Kinda. I think its ok? Fuck, I don't know. I'm just so stoked to have her back, y'know?"

I went over to sit next to her on the bed. "I'm kinda freaked out though. She's changed like, a hella lot. Maybe this was a bad idea..."

Kate smiled and put her hand on my shoulder. "She does seem more… confident than when you knew her last. But you aren't the same as you were then either. Give her a chance. The Bible tells us to have an open mind about people. You're my best friend, I don't want to see you give up before you even start."

I smiled. I don't care what anyone else says. Kate Marsh is good people and I'll punch anyone who says .

"I guess I can try that. Thanks, Katie. Now, It's getting late. I'm gonna go."

I got up and walked to the door. "Uh, Chloe?"

"Yeah?"

"See you tomorrow? Breakfast at Two Whales?"

I doffed an imaginary top hat and bowed. "'Till tomorrow, milady."

She giggled even harder. I climbed out the window, snuck to my truck and drove off, speeding straight for home. I climbed up into my room and for the first time in 5 fucking years, there was no brown hair and there were no freckles in any of my dreams.

Chapter Text

The next morning, I swing out of bed to get ready for my breakfast date with Kate. Couple minutes later, I was all decked out in my usual getup and thudding downstairs to grab a drink to go. I wandered around the kitchen, grabbing a glass from one of the cupboards, then opening the fridge to find… no fucking OJ. Shit.

I turned around to see my Mom and David sat at the table, Douche reading the paper and Mom just holding a piece of toast and looking at me in shock. Twice in one month, I'm on a roll. No fucking idea what she's shocked 'bout this time though.

"Mornin' Mom. David."

She sounded confused still. I got nothin', though. "Mornin' Chloe. Uh, what are you doin' up at this hour?"

Huh? "At this hour? What fuckin' time is it? Wait, is it still thursday? Damn it, did I sleep the whole fucking day?"

"Language, Chloe! And it's six thirty and still thursday. It's just… you ain't been up this early in years."

Oh. That. I shrugged. "Well, I got a breakfast date at the Two Whales. Didn't plan on being up this early, but what the hell. I got some peeps I can go hang with till then."

Mom and Step-douche looked at each other. Mom grinned. Douche was douchie. Douchey? Whatever. He was prickish.

"You mean with Max?"

I think I was the fucking shocked one now. "How…?"

Mom shrugged. "She came by the Diner yesterday. Said you called her. Oh, I was so happy to hear that, Chlo. You two always were so stubborn, I thought you'd both..."

I cut her off before she could keep going, grabbing some toast and heading for the door. Too much shit to do. "Sorry Mom, later. Gotta dash!"

-----

"Max?" I asked, gently as I crawled in her window.

What? I needed something to do 'till Kate was ready and hanging with Max seemed like fun. Hell, maybe I could get her to teach me some of that disguise shit. There are hella people in this town I'd wanna avoid, y'know?

Or, I could, if she was in her fucking room. Bed was made, everything was where we'd left it last night, but, no Max. Well fuck. At least I know she's not fucking left again, she wouldn't leave all her shit if she was just gonna go, right? ...Right?

… I'm gonna call her. Yeah, calling is good.

I pulled out my phone, wincing at the cracks in the screen, scrolled down to Max's number and called. "Chloe." Her calm, confident voice again. Great.

"Hey Max. Whatcha up to?"

"I'm out."

Oh. Well, that fucking clears it up. "Anywhere awesome?"

She sighs. "If you wanted to meet, you could've just said so, Chloe. I'm with Travis at the Great Northern. There'll be a plate of waffles waiting for you."

I grinned. "I'll be there. See you soon, Maxie."

Just before I took the phone from my ear to hang up, she said. "See you soon. Oh, and Chloe?"

I frowned. "Yeah Max?"

"Close my window on your way back out."

She hung up.

How the fuck…?

-----

The Great Northern was this hella shitty-looking ginormous log cabin thing a little ways outside the Bay. I pulled my truck into the lot and hopped out, heading right for the door.

I ninja'd my way past the door-dude and followed the signs for the food hall. Shit, this place really was fucking huge. I think it took me like, ten minutes to find the damn hall.

I wandered in and headed over to the main area bit to find 'em. Spotted them in a corner booth talking and laughing with each other. Max looked… happy. It was kinda weird. This Max didn't really seem the type. She was awkward as fuck.

I stuck my hands in my pockets and wandered over to them, waving as they noticed me walk up. "Hey dudes. Whatcha talkin' about?"

Max smiled into her coffeecup as Travis ran his hand through his hair and looked sheepishly away. "Uh, a job we had a while back. The boss was just reminding me how I should avoid harnesses at all times."

I cocked my head. "What?"

Max sniggered. "We were hitting this airline company CEO. Travis was up on the roof waiting to cover the team's exit. Long story short, something went wrong and we needed him down with us, fast. Now, we were 20 floors down. Travis is fast, but there's no way he's running down all those stairs in time and the elevators were locked down."

She sounds like she's choking back laughter. "So, he looks at Cassie's harness. It's a climbing thing she uses to climb up and down buildings. And he just, goes for it. Ends up falling down to our floor, hanging upside down by his ankles with his arms and legs just tangled up in the lines."

I laughed. I gotta admit, thats a fucking hilarious image.

I think I ruffled his feathers a bit though. He seemed kinda cranky. "Hey, just 'cause I ain't all aerodynamic, don't mean you can laugh at me."

Max chuckled. "The few seconds the security guys holding us stared at him hanging outside the window gave us time to turn the tables. That was a close one."

"Seriously, Max. You gotta tell me more 'bout this shit sometime. Sounds like you got adopted by the fucking CIA up there."

Well, fuck. The awkward smile is back. "Uh, not exactly. And no, I don't."

Whatever. I was curious, but no fucking way am I gonna push with this. Might drive Max away again... I shook my head, trying to shake that thought right the fuck out. "Eh. Later then. So, whats the plan for today? Got any super-sleuthing you want my help with?"

She took a gulp from her coffee mug, and her back straightened, the calm fucking voice coming back into play. "Actually, yes. Tell us what happened with Prescott."

Huh? "But we already told you what happened, the shit with the car and the drugs, remember?"

Max rolled her eyes. "Yes, you told us what happened to Kate. But not to you."

Well, shit. I wasn't even gonna ask how she fucking knew. Psychic bitch. I sighed. "Look, I didn't wanna talk about it with Kate around. She worries, y'know?"

"Yeah. But now, she's not around to worry, and we need information."

She look at me, expectantly. I sighed. "Fine, but this is some heavy shit, can it wait till after coffee and noms?"

"Sure. Not too late though. I have class at 9."

I sighed, again. Shit, I was doing that a lot today. "Thanks, Max."

She waved over a waiter. "Hey Paul. Can we get those pancakes now? And coffee, two sugars."

I grinned. "You remembered!"

She shrugged. "William let you have some of his once. Then, you drank it every morning for 4 years. Hard to forget that order. Besides, its important to remember the little things."

The waiter nodded and rushed off, appearing a minute-ish later with my plate and a mug that he slid onto the table with a smug smile. Smooth motherfucker.

We chatted as I ate, made some vague small talk about movies and stuff. Wasn't much time for anything else, I finished pretty quickly. I was fucking starving.

"Uh, ok. Where do I start?"

Max smiled. "The beginning is preferable."

When I finished, Max asked. "A camera? He was taking pictures of you?"

"Yeah. Why, that important?"

She thought for a sec. "Possibly."

Travis was just sat watching us chat, drinking his coffee. He grinned and winked when he saw me watching him. Ass.

"Dumb plan though, darlin'. Didya really think he wouldn't recognise ya after you punched his face in?"

I shrugged. "Didn't really think. Had a thought and just kinda went with it. Stupid, I know, I fucked up."

Max waved her hand at me. No, it was too fucking dismissive to be a wave. She wafted her damn hand at me. "Nonsense. You survived. If you do something stupid and survive, it becomes a smart risk. It's only a fuckup if you die."

She grinned. And despite everything, I grinned back. Fuck, better smart risk that fucking stupid mistake, huh? Maybe I could do something right.

"If you say so, Maximus. Smart risk it is."

She smirked and took another drink of her coffee.

I leaned and put an arm over the back of my chair. "So, how'd you two meet, anyways? Fucking After School Cooking Club?"

Max laughed again. "I'm afraid not. Travis is an excellent chef though. He'll have to cook for you soon."

Just as I was about to reply, my phone buzzed.

KATE- Hey, Chloe. Ready for breakfast? Waffles are on me! :)

Heh. Girl definitely knew the fucking way to my heart. Stomach, gets me every time.

CHLOE- CHange of plans. Meeting w/ Max gr8 Nthrn CU SN?

KATE- Max? How are you feeling with her? Are you ok?

I smiled, far more fondly than I was really willing to admit. She just… gets me, y'know?

CHLOE- Fine K8 we R gd. So U in?

KATE- Of course. So, uh, CU SN?

CHLOE- Hells 2 the yeah

I looked up. Max was laughing at some shit Travis had said. "Please, your food was the only thing keeping me going in there. One can only eat so much jello."

In there…? Jello? Shit, was Max in hospital?

I chipped in. "So, uh, Kate's gonna come eat with us."

Max seemed pleased. "Excellent. I do so like that girl."

Travis grinned. "Yeah. She is a mite easy on the eyes."

I glared at him. "Hey, you stay the fuck away from her. She's not interested."

He put up his hands, fucking grin getting bigger. "Hey, I wasn't sayin' nothin'. Just remarkin' that she's a fine looking woman."

I glared. Harder. He just laughed more. Bastard.

Max waved him aside. "Be nice, Travis."

My phone buzzed. I eased it outta my pocket. Fucking tight-ass jeans.

KATE- The Doorman won't let me in. Could you come tell him I'm invited?

CHLOE- yh 2 secs

"Hey, Max? Kate got stopped at the door. You gotta go let her in."

Max slid her coffee away from her and got up. "Of course."

She headed off through the fucking maze back to the door, leaving me with a grinning Travis. Prick. But hey, maybe he'll actually tell me something.

"So…" I leaned forward. They always did that in the movies when they wanted to talk 'bout secret shit, right? Gotta be a reason for it.

He leaned forward as well. "Soooooo…"

"Tell me about Max." Hell, direct worked for her right? Maybe she had him trained really fucking well.

He frowned, looked kinda surprised. "The Boss? Why do you wanna know?"

I shrugged, trying to seem innocent. "She's changed, like, a hella lot." I smirked. "Also, I'm hella nosy."

He laughed. "Well, fair enough. Alright, well… The boss is… smart. She understands people, like, the way they think. Scary as all hell sometimes, too. The rest, well, you're gonna have to ask her."

Well, that was fuck all to go on. Explains the whole psychic-like shit though. I nodded. "Thanks, Travis."

"Anytime, darlin'."

I smiled. "What did I tell you 'bout sassin' me, dude? Do you want me to punch you?"

He grinned, leaned in. "Try it." Then, he winked and smirked at me. Bastard.

But, before I could punch the smug dick, Max and Kate came over. I got up and swept Kate up in a huge hug, swinging her around me like the tiny human she was. "Hey there, Katie Kat!"

She grinned and leaned her forehead against mine, beaming. "Good morning, Chloe."

I was half tempted to put her down, but I kinda wanted to see how long I could hold her up. Prove the Price Strength.

…

Pfft, if you believed that excuse, pretty sure Max has a bridge to sell you.

"You hungry? I can get the waiter to bring over some more waffles. I… maybe, kinda ate the rest…?"

I shrugged sheepishly. She just giggled, leaned back against me. "Of course you did. You wouldn't be Chloe otherwise. Om nom nom, right?"

I grinned. "Hella right."

We just kinda stared at each other for a while, both smiling like fucking idiots.

"Ahem."

We both snapped our heads to Max, who was chatting to the waiter. Travis was still fucking smirking.

I glared at him, looked back to Kate. "So, waffles?"

She just blinked at me. "Um. Yes. Waffles. Good."

I let her down and we shuffled over to the table, sitting in hella uncomfortable silence.

Max smiles. "So, syrup with your waffles?"

We chatted for the rest of the morning, just tryin' to get to know each other again, I guess. This Max was pretty damn cool. Far cooler than fucking screw-up Price. She fucking did something with these five years, what did you do? Drank and smoked and pissed around.

I sighed. Kate nudged me. "You ok?"

I smiled. I think. By Kate's face, I probably fucked that up, too. "Eh. Didn't sleep well."

Her face fell and she just looked sad. Fuck no, not having that shit. I made the effort and grinned. "Hey, don't be sad Katie Kat. Just means the hella coolest bitch in town needs waaaay more coffee."

She giggled. "Just don't have too much. I've a feeling a hyperactive Chloe would be something truly terrifying."

Max smiled. "Oh, it is. She practically bounces off the walls. Toddlers can't even match her energy."

Kate giggles just got worse. "Oh lord, I can imagine that. Bet she must've been a handful."

Max shrugged. "Well yes." Grinned, a lot less awkwardly this fucking time. "But thats half her charm."

The entire table laughed at that... jerks.

Some indie guitar song started playing in Max's pocket. She pulled her phone out. "Ah. I have to get going. Travis, dig up what you can about the missing girls. Kate, we share this class, right?"

Kate stood. "Yes. Photography. Do you have a camera?"

Max shrugged. "Not anymore. Figured they'd have some to lend."

"They do, but they like you to have your own too."

I chipped in. "Hey, Max? I think I gotta solution for that. Can we make a stop first?"

Max nodded.

-----

"Come on!" I yelled to Max as we hurried into the house. "or Double-time, as Step-Douche would say."

She followed me in, leaving Travis and Kate waiting in the truck. I was kinda nervous 'bout that, but whatever. We headed up to my room. "So, you don't have a camera anymore?"

She shrugged. "No. I got rid of it after..." She shook her head. "No. Not anymore."

I grinned. "Well, then. I know your birthday was last month, so I guess this can double."

I rooted through my shelves for... ah! I pulled it out of the pile of shit it was hidden under and presented it to Max with a smile. "Here."

Max looked down at the camera. "No, Chloe. I can't accept this. This was your Dad's."

I shrugged. "Yeah, well. He'd be happy it was actually getting used. I haven't touched the thing since... well, y'know."

She still fucking looked unsure. Damn it, whadda I have to say... Oooh, try this. "Rule one of Disguise, Max. Everyone expects a photography nerd to have her own camera, right?" I grinned.

She smiled back. "Touche, Chloe. Thank you. I'll look after it."

"I know you will, Max. 'cause I'll whup yo ass if you don't."

She leaned back, crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "You think you could?"

"Hey, fucking badass here, remember? If I can take Travis, I can take you."

She smirked. "Uhuh..."

I made another of those fucking quick decisions and threw a punch at her shoulder. Ten seconds later, I was upside down on the floor with Max's trainer planted in the middle of my fucking back. "Max?"

"Yes Chloe?"

"How many muscles do we have?"

"About 850ish. Why?"

I moaned. "All of them are pissed at me right now."

She laughed and pulled me up. "Well, maybe that'll teach you. Don't telegraph your moves. We'll have to work on that."

We headed back to the truck, Max now fully loaded up with her photography shit.

Travis pulled out of my driveway and gunned it for Blackwell.

-----

"Ok... Here we are."

Max walked us up to the door of the photography classroom. There were already people inside. Could see that Dana girl chatting with some guy I kinda knew. Hayden, I think.

Kate came over and hugged me. "Breakfast was fun. We should do it again sometime. If thats ok?"

I hugged her back. "Sure thing, Katie. You in, Maximus?"

She smirked. "Of course."

Direct as ever...

I was about to say bye and walk off, when...

"Holy. Shit. Max?!"

Max turned to see... Icky Vicky, standing there, looking fucking shocked for the first time, like, ever. It was weird. Her fucking ever-present glare was gone and her mouth was wide open.

"Tori?"

Max ran over and swept Victoria fucking Chase up in a hug. She sounded... happy to see her. Damn happier than she'd been to see me, anyway. Like, what the fuck? Chase didn't hug back. Just kinda stood there, dazed.

"I.. I... What are you doing here, Max? When did you get out of...?"

Max cut her off before she could finish. "I'm a student. Look, I have a camera and everything" She tapped on my dad's polaroid. Huh. Wonder what Icky Vicky was gonna say.

Victoria grinned. "Well, looks like you're still in the retrozone, Max."

Max rolled her eyes and fucking followed her in. "I'm never gonna live that down, am I?"

I just blinked for a few seconds and shook my head. Max and Icky Vicky were friends?

What.

The.

Fuck?

I am SO asking about that shit when she gets outta class. I turned to leave but… Kate was fucking shaking. Shitshitshit. I hurried over. "Hey Katie. You ok?"

She looked up at me. She looked like she was about to fucking cry. "How can Max be friends with that… with that... Gosh-darn fudging bully?!"

I just looked at her blankly for a few seconds before bursting into tough and awesomely cool fits of fucking completely uncontrollable giggles, desperately trying to calm my shit.

What? I'd be sympathetic, but her swearing is just too fucking cute.

She scowled at me and opened her mouth to speak, but I interrupted her with a wave and a last giggle. "Sorry Kate, I'm sorry. I just… your swearing is fucking adorable. But you're damn right. We gotta talk to her. Just… wait till after your class, right? You gotta pay attention and all that shit. Pretty sure not listening is what got me expelled."

Kate smiled. "Are you sure it wasn't the pot and the thing with the popcorn in the Principal's car?"

I shrugged. "Nah. Wells probably ate the fucking lot. Om nom nom, right?" I booped her nose on the 'right'.

She giggled, wiping her eyes. Hey, I got her to smile, mission accomplished.

"Thanks Chloe. I'd better be going."

I grinned. "Yeah, might wanna wash your face first. You look like you've been smoking hella drugs. You don't wanna get expelled for that too. Who else is gonna support me in my old age?"

Kate raised an eyebrow. "Oh? I'm saddled with you for life am I? Well, I suppose, if I must..." Kate sighed, hella dramatically.

I headed out to the lot, looking for Travis' truck. He was sitting in the cab reading. The cowboy fucking reads? Wow…

I hopped into the cab next to him. "Hey, Travis?"

He didn't even look up. "Darlin'."

… bastard.

"So, you're digging shit up, right?"

"That's what the boss told me to do."

"Can I help? I haven't really got anything else to do."

He actually fucking looked at me this time. He frowned. "Ain't exactly gonna be entertainin' work, darlin'."

I shrugged, hoping he'd buy this. "Like I said. Nothing better to do."

He just looked at me for a minute. I held his gaze. He grinned. "Sure. We can get some coffee and I'll tell you the lot."

Fuck yes! Chloe Price, for the win! I nodded. "Yes boss!"

He carefully put this old leather strap in his book and shoved it down the side of his seat. "Alrighty then. Let's ride."

-----

We'd taken mine and Max's usual booth in the Two Whales. Joyce glared at me when she came over to serve us. Think she was still pissed about this morning. But, she put on her waitress-face and smiled. Think she didn't wanna argue in front of Travis.

"Howdy ma'am. Travis Bailey. I'm a friend of your daughters."

He stuck out his hand. Mom smiled and shook it. "Nice to meet you, Travis. So, how do ya know my daughter?"

Travis shrugged. "Through a, uh, Mutual Acquaintance. Max Caulfield?"

Mom smiled at him, glared at me. "Oh, you're a friend of Max's? From up in Seattle, right?"

He nodded. "That's right, ma'am."

Joyce waved him off. "I feel old enough already, kid. Call me Joyce, please. And very nice, whatcha all been up to up there?"

I cheered up, then. Maybe Travis would let something slip. Only way I was gonna find anything out, 'cause Max was so fucking secretive.

"Not much, ma'am. School, mostly. Seattle is kinda a dull town."

...or not. So much for that idea.

"Thats a shame, kid. Oh, gotta grab your coffee, back in a mo."

Joyce just rushed off.

Travis turned back to me. "So, I hear you know some of the cops in this town?"

Huh? The fuck's he mean?

"What?"

He rolled his eyes. "You got nabbed by the cops a few times. Think any of 'em will talk to ya?"

"Uh, yeah. Probably. Why?"

Travis just grinned and told me the plan.

"Oh, you have GOT to be shitting me…"

-----

I twisted and looked back at Travis behind me, rocking a pair of aviators and a brown leather jacket he'd pulled outta his truck. "I am so gonna kill you."

He rattled the handcuffs around my wrists, pulling me towards him. "Shut it. Keep to the plan."

The fucker dragged me into the station and straight up to the front desk thing, dumping a gym bag on it. "Howdy, ma'am. Now, I was wonderin' if I might bend your ear a moment."

The receptionist looked up at him, sighed. "Yes?" She spotted me. "Chloe? What's the problem here?"

Travis leaned over the desk, looked over his shades at her, flipped open some leather wallet thingy. Couldn't see what was in it, damn it. "Now, I caught this lil' filly selling some uh… less than legal substances over near the bay for a statewide group. She's agreed to talk 'bout the ole' rip that got her sellin', but I need to borrow one of your interrogation rooms, if you wouldn't mind, of course, darlin'?"

Shit, he was hella playing up the whole flirty pretty-boy cowboy thing, wasn't he?

The receptionist blinked. "Your eyes are really blue…"

She shook her head quickly and blushed. "Uh, sure. Down the hall to the left. I'll go let the captain know you're here."

Shit, like sure, the dude was handsome, but… fuck. Girl must be hella hard-up, right?

Travis winked at her. "Nah. No need to go botherin' the old man on my account, darlin'. I'll be outta your hair right soon, anyway."

He pulled me away from the desk and dragged me off to the door the chick pointed at.

I hissed at him. "Get these fucking things off me!"

He rolled his eyes. "When we're in the damn room. Stick to the plan."

He pulled me into their stupid fucking interrogation room and dumped me on a seat, throwing the gym bag on the other. "Hey, Tish? Can you get into their system? Yes, I put the thingy in her computer like you said. Ok, really? Grand."

He turned to me. "Alright, let's get these things off ya then."

So, he finally unlocked the fucking handcuffs. Those things were so not the fluffy hella fun time kinda handcuffs, these fucking hurt!

I rubbed my wrists. Seriously, fucking ow! "Fucker. So what the balls do we do now?"

"Now, we gotta get into that records room across the hall. You're suppos' to be a prisoner, so stay put while I check it out."

I grabbed his arm. Damn, the fucking thing felt like grabbing a rock or some shit like that. If this is what living in Seattle does to your muscles, then I'm so hella going there, become a bodybuilder or some shit like that.

"What the fuck was that thing you showed her? Why'd she even let us in?"

He smirked, flipped it open to me. Fuck, he's got a state trooper badge! "Holy shit, you're a trooper?!"

He grinned and winked. "Not exactly, darlin'."

Not exact… Fucking hell, I'm really fucking beginning to hate the shit outta that goddamn (Sorry, Kate!) phrase.

I grumbled under my breath. "Fine, don't tell me anything. Fucker. Go do whatcha need to do."

He saluted. Really, really well. Bet Step-douche would hella LOVE this guy. "Yes ma'am."

He crept over to the door and eased it open, looking up and down the corridor. "Alright, Tish? Now."

He leant back in and looked over to the corner to the camera on the ceiling. Someone had drawn a circle around it and another circle next to it, like an eye.

They'd made a fucking smiley face with the camera!

I tried not to giggle. Giggling didn't seem very CIA.

Couple seconds after we looked over, the little red light on the camera went out.

"Thanks Tish, you're the best. Come on, Chloe."

"Alright, we've only gotta few minutes 'till the someone comes to check on us, so we better make this fast or this job gonna copper a bet." He listed a few files we had to find and we rooted through boxes hella fast for them. About 5 minutes later, we had all the files.

"Alright, lets blow this joint."

As we got to the reception door, he raised his voice and deepened the accent. "Now, we gotta get your deadbeat boss in the act and I don't care a continental what we gotta do. The plan's fine as cream gravy, so just you stick to it."

He waved to the receptionist. "Thank you, darlin'. You've been very helpful."

We left before she could even reply.

-----

Travis parked up the truck in the Two Whales lot and dug the files outta his bag, handing me half. "Have a look through, see if you can find anything."

I flicked through the files, pictures, printouts and pages of shit about the missing girls. Huh. One of them was called Chloe too… weird. She went missing when she was still my fucking age…

Wait.

I flicked back through the others. Marie, Alice, Frankie, Ivy… Shit, they all went missing in their teens! Maybe that's something? Hah, Chloe Price, hella kickass investigator!

"Hey, Travis?"

"Hmm?" He didn't even look up again.

"Mine all went missing when they were hella young. None of them could even fucking drink legally yet."

He nodded. "Mine too. When's your earliest?"

I flicked back through. "Alice White. 'Bout ten years ago. You?"

"Jolene Parker, 8 years back."

He sat and thought for a sec then put out a hand for the files. I put everything back in and gave him them. "Huh. So, seems like we got a kidnapper with a fetish for young girls that started a decade ago. Good start."

"That was hella fun. This what you guys do up in Seattle?"

He shrugged. "Sometimes. Different strokes for different folks, right? Same with jobs. Gotta walk through fire for all of 'em at one point or another though."

His phone buzzed. "Message from the Boss. Wants us back at the school. Something happened with your friend."

Fuck. "Shit, get fucking driving then!"

The truck roared off towards Blackwell.

Chapter Text

The lot was deserted, except for my team and the three men Travis was currently fighting. Each had a cleaver and was heavily tattooed. 49ers lead by a charming Red Pole called Han Liang.

I smiled. “I love Triads. They’re so… direct.” I leaned back on the hood of my car.

“Should we help him?” The tall brunette to my side asked.

I checked my watch. “Police response time here is 15 minutes. We have time. Let him have a little fun. He hasn’t really gotten to let loose this job.”

Travis ducked under a cleaver that narrowly scraped the top of his head, before letting loose a flurry of blows into its wielder’s abdomen. I watched as he cried out and stumbled back. “Ouch. That’s gonna hurt tomorrow.”

The girl next to me smiled. “They never learn.”

Travis whirled and caught another goon in mid-swing. He grabbed his hand and twisted, making him drop the cleaver. He planted his foot in the goon’s stomach and kicked him into the tall chain-link fence running around the lot.

I snorted, shook my head. Idiots. “Do they ever, Laura?”

She laughed, watching as Travis stumbled. He was holding his side, like he’d taken a hit. The two goons still standing advanced on him from either side, laughing.

“Apparently not.” Laura said, dryly.

The left goon swung his cleaver and Travis exploded into motion. He raised his arm to block, grabbing the guy and throwing him into the other. He pulled one up off the ground and punched him into unconsciousness. The other he kicked in the gut.

I gestured to Laura. “You’re up. Get Liang’s location.”

She bowed to me and smiled. “I know the drill, Max.”

She walked over to the now groaning goon. “Mr Cao! Fancy meeting you here! You look as handsome as ever, of course.”

I grin. Laura could do fuck you better than anyone else. I leaned back against my car again as I watched her interrogate the goon.

She’d get the location soon enough. She always did. Once we had it, the plan was to lure Liang out to a meet with an aeronautics company VP he was running money through.

Cassie was in Paris, so it was up to me and Tish to get into their offices while they were distracted and loot his safe for certain… necessary documents.

We need to research that maintenance company they use, what was it, Medford Ltd? Can get Laura to mock up two company uniforms, that’s our way in.

My planning was interrupted when my phone started ringing.

Who the hell…?

I sighed.

Probably the mark. He wasn’t supposed to call this late, so something must’ve gone wrong. I took a breath and slipped into character. I pull my phone from my pocket and flip it open.

I nearly dropped the damn thing when I saw the caller ID. Chloe Price Calling.

Fuck. Five years, nothing. Now, she calls? Something must’ve happened. Stay calm, Max. You can’t let her back in. Remember what fucking happened last time?

I took a deep breath, focusing to steady my mind. Mind on the moment…

I stare at the phone for a few minutes, watching as it rings, trying to build up the courage to do… something. Then… 1 New Voicemail

Damn it. Damn it all. What the hell could’ve happened? Last I saw her, she was telling me to… well, it was quite a final goodbye. What could possibly have made her…?

… I sigh. Damn my curiosity. I put the phone up to my ear and play the message.

“Hey Max, it's, it’s Chloe. Um, I don’t know if this is still your number, but it's the last one I got, so…”

I was in my car before the message even finished, roaring out of the lot, ignoring the confused shouting of Travis and Laura behind me.

...Damn my curiosity…

-----

5 hours driving later and I found myself standing by my car outside the Two Whales diner. It hadn’t changed at all. The lot was empty except for my Dodge and a… less than adequately parked RV with BRKG BD license plates.

I smirked. Cute.

I just looked at the diner for a while, thinking about the last time I was here. It was a couple weeks before William died. We had pancakes.

So much happened here… I took a shaky breath, trying to slow my mind. I took my little flask from my pocket and took a gulp. I felt my nerves settle as the alcohol entered my system.

I took a breath, composing my face into a blank mask. Then, I went into the Diner.

The oldies american atmosphere hit me immediately. There was a battered jukebox in the corner. It was playing some country song I recognised, but couldn’t name. The waitress was a smiling older woman. She was gliding from customer to customer with the long ease of practice. Hell, there was even a cranky old guy with a dog sitting in the corner. The long line of grizzled truckers along the bar only served to complete the image.

I quickly scanned them, noting and observing. Hmm. Telltale bulges in jackets, slight shifting of posture. Three concealed firearms, but only one badge. The man in the corner appeared merely cranky. Likely, not a threat. The rest of the room seemed sage.

No immediate danger. Excellent.

I looked down at my rumpled suit. Hmm. Probably not the best choice. The Max Caulfield these people remembered would not wear this. Rule one of disguise, Caulfield.

I slipped back out of the diner and went back to my car. I opened the trunk and fished out one of the gym bags.

Taking care to avoid attention, I went back in. Headed straight for the corner bathrooms. It was surprisingly easy.

I quickly changed in one of the cubicles, checking the fit of my new outfit. I slipped my little flask into an inside pocket of my hoodie and moved my phone to my jeans. They, and the converse, were the perfect Hipster-waif disguise.

I stepped up to the mirror, sliding the gym bag onto the sink top beside it. My suit was carefully folded inside it. A surprisingly difficult feat in a cramped cubicle.

I stared at myself in the mirror, carefully donning the character of Maxine Caulfield, photography devotee and hipster music fan.

It was harder than I thought. It’d been awhile since I could afford the… naivete my younger self had shown, not since…

I smiled, shook my head. Can’t think about that now, Caulfield. Mind on the Job.

I picked up the gym bag and left the bathroom, edging into a booth. I ran a finger along its surface as I sat down.

Max and Chloe 4-eva 2004.

I smiled, faintly. So many memories in this damn town.

Barely a minute after I sat down, the waitress hurried over. She poured and slid a mug of coffee over to me before she even started speaking. “Hey, miss, sorry for the wait. Been one hell of a morning. What can I getcha, hun?”

I smiled. “Um, hi, Joyce? I don’t know if you remember me, um…”

She blinked at me for a moment, before a smile spread across her face.

“Max Caulfield… Well, ain’t you a blast from the past. Look at you, all grown up. And into such a beautiful young woman, too. How you doin’, kid?”

“I’m ok. It's good to see you again, Joyce. You look the same as ever..”

She leans back and raises an eyebrow. “Like I’m still a waitress at a crummy diner?”

I laughed internally. Challenge accepted.

“No, like you’re still the prettiest woman in town. I hope I look as good as you when I’m your age. And this place isn’t crummy! You do the best Waffles in two states. I should know, right?” I gave a self-deprecating little laugh.

She smiled warmly. “Thanks, kid. Smart as ever, I see. And I suppose you would. Heh, maybe I should get that printed on the menus. An endorsement from Max Caulfield, world famous photographer would certainly come in handy.”

I shrugged bashfully. “Might be a bit premature, Joyce. I’m not even out of College yet.”

She chuckled. “You’re a talented kid, Caulfield. Even if you don’t see it, we do. Oh, before I forget, what can I getcha?”

“Oh, that's easy. One stack of your belgian waffles, please. 5 years and nothing else has come close.”

“Sure thing, Max. One Price Special, comin’ right up.”

Joyce chuckled as she wandered off to get my order. I glanced up to check no-one was watching before pouring some of my little flask into my coffee.

Heh. I always did prefer my coffee Irish.

Joyce returned a few moments later and slid into the seat across from me. She had a mug of her own. Although, it probably lacked my little pick-me-up.

A little twitch of the eye. Slight curling of the mouth. Eyes unfocused. The woman looked like she had something to say.

I decided to go first.

“So, how’ve you been, Joyce?”

Her easy smile falls a little. “It’s been real hard, with William gone. But I met a great guy. Right here in this place, actually. He’s a real gentleman. Wrote my number on his receipt and we’ve been together ever since.”

I swear, the woman blushed and smiled like she was my age.

“Glad to hear it, Joyce. If anyone deserves a little happiness in this craphill world, it’s definitely you.” I smiled fondly at her. Hey, the woman was a second mother to me. More so than my actual one, at times. She definitely deserved to be happy.

Be-Beep be-beep be-beep.

Joyce jumped briefly, her hand to her chest. "That'll be your waffle, hun. Back in a mo."

She scuttled off to the counter. She moved gracefully, ease of long habit coming through. I sat back in the booth. My attention drifted out the window.

I watched the lives of the town around me as I drank.

I noted all the little details I’d trained myself to.

The occasional car roared by. A cranky fisherman was yelling about poor catches. Some trucker was griping about route trouble. A couple walked past, talking quietly. All seemed… off somehow.

Something was very wrong in this town.

I took another gulp of my coffee. Hmm. Finished it.

Joyce was back, balancing my plate and a new pot of coffee.

“Refill, hun?”

I traded my mug for her plate. I think she might’ve ignored the smell of booze. Or just not noticed. Probably the second one. Either way, she refilled the cup and returned it.

“So, Kid, what brings you back to our little town?”

I shrugged. “Actually, Chloe called.”

Her eyebrows rose almost to her hairline. Her eyes bulged. It was somewhat comical, actually.

“She did? Well, that's great. I thought that girl was gonna stay angry forever.” There was a brief, but noticeable pause. She continued, somewhat… delicately. “Has she… told you any of what happened the last few years?”

“No. She just called. Said she wanted to see me.” I looked down at my cup, biting my lip. Bought me a few seconds to format my response. Probably best not to tell Joyce about Chloe being drunk. Girl really needs some self-control. Keep the booze in check. Control is key.

Joyce say back, shaking her head. She was all fondness and exasperation.

"Sweet lord, I do love that girl, but she ain't half bad at tellin’ folk things. Guess she mighta wanted to tell you in person, so I ain't gonna spoil anything. Just, be prepared, hun. You mighta stayed the same all these years, but Chloe’s changed a lot."

I laughed internally again. Joyce had no idea how wrong she was about me.

“Do you know where she is? Haven’t been able to reach her.”

Joyce looked thoughtful for a second or two. She had a little frown she did when thinking. Quite easy to notice. Joyce was always an open book with her feelings.

“Uh, she said something about meeting a friend at Blackwell, I think. Kate Marsh. She really left in a rush this morning, so she’s probably still there.”

I smiled. “Thanks Joyce. You’re the best.”

She grinned. “Now, I don’t know about that, kid.”

She looked back over her shoulder. Another customer, wanting her attention. One of the truckers. "Sorry, Hun. Duty calls. Just... be patient with her, ok? Chloe's been through a lot these last five years." She hurried away, pulling out her pad. The waitress smile flicked on.

I quickly finished my waffle and left. Dropped off my suit in the car. No self-respecting hipster would turn up in something like my Dodge. The bus was more Hipster-Max's style.

I took a seat on a wall near the bus stop. Next bus was... 8 minutes away. I pulled out my copy of "Dream Park". Hoped to kill the time reading, but I was interrupted by a yell.

A purple haired girl had shouted. Very 'emo' in her look. Ah. A passing car had splattered her with mud. She bent down to pick up a book. It had fallen into a muddy patch.

I saw the cover. Some chick-lit novel. "Love today or die forever". I'd seen it on Cassie's shelf back in Seattle. Supposed to be some kind of best seller.

"You ok?" I asked.

She whirled, dropping the book back into the mud. "What?!"

I kept my expression concerned. "Are you ok? You got kinda splattered there."

She breathed out. Trying to calm down.

"Um, yeah. I'm fine. But..." She looked back to the mud. "My book!"

She daintily picked it up. Just held one corner. There was no way she was gonna save that.

She closed her eyes, breathed in deeply. Could see her mouthing one to ten. Quite emphatically, too.

"I was twenty pages from the end, too." She sighed, dropped the book. "Ah well."

"I'm s-sorry about your book. Was it good?" Hipster Max seemed a sympathetic persona. Awkwardly sympathetic, but still.

She looked at me like I was stupid. "Well, duh. Wouldn't have been reading it otherwise, would I?"

I flicked my eyes to the ground. "I don'know, might've been a lit assignment or something. I haven't started Blackwell yet, but I figured they do that and..."

She interrupted my deliberate ramble. "You're starting at Blackhell?"

Not yet, but it makes a good cover. Might need one if Chloe's problem requires an extended stay.

"Yeah. I start next week. Blackhell? I guess you don't like it there, huh?" I flashed a quick, small smile.

She shrugged. "Nah. The school's ok, I guess. Just the people in it that suck, y'know?"

I smiled again. "I know exactly what you mean. There's always that one clique, right?"

Back in Seattle, that clique was lead by Tiffany Reynolds. Suburban Soccer Mom-let type. Had this yippy little dog. Vicious thing. She brought it everywhere. Which, of course, was overlooked because she was a rich bitch. She made my life hell.

My first day, she had her jock boytoy cram me in a locker. I never thought people actually did that! I was a lot more timid back then, so I never said anything. And so it continued. Endless bullying. By her and everyone else. Hell, she even stole my fucking lunch money. My entire first year of Seattle school was hell.

I smiled to myself. She learnt to regret her behaviour. They all did. We made sure of that.

"Yeah, at Blackwell, we have the 'Vortex Club'. All the mean bitches and bastards with all the money in this school."

Money and Power, huh? Sounds useful. I noted it for later. Maybe a scapegoat, maybe allies. Either way, they could be useful. Damn, I hated not knowing the situation. I needed to find Chloe.

"The Vortex Club?" I giggled. "Sounds like a supervillain group. Hail Hydra, right?"

What? It's important to be able to relate to people. Nerdy references come in useful for that. Besides, Marvel is awesome. Don’t hate. The comics weren’t really my thing, but I dabbled in the movies. Was really looking forward to the Wolverine movie later this year.

She laughs. "You're probably right. Like, they're all plotting a takeover or something. Rule us all with booze and parties."

"Works for me." I laughed. "I'm Max."

"Alyssa." She turned as the bus pulled up. "See you around, Max."

We boarded the bus, headed for separate seats.

I pulled my earphones out, cued up my playlist. Full Circle by Half Moon Run started playing. My entire outlook may have changed in the last few years, but my music taste was still the same.

-----

I got off the bus, took my first good look at Blackwell. Damn, this school looks expensive. The buildings were… Wait. Is that girl flying a fucking drone?

Huh. Looks like a… HiFly. B400 Evo, I think.

Not a bad piece of Tech. For an amateur.

The DJI Phantom 3 is far better though. Tish swears by it for discreet flyovers.

I headed into the building. I’d have to ask at the desk where to find Kate Marsh. I needed to splash some water on my face first. I headed over to the bathroom.

The place was covered in graffiti. Some rather crude.

I was washing my hands when something caught my eye. A small blue butterfly flitted in. I moved over to see. Something about it was just… beautiful and unique. Like a snowflake. Before I knew it, I was reaching out to touch it. I flitted onto my hand and…

It bit me! It fucking bit me! What kind of butterfly bites?

I blinked. The butterfly disappeared. Just… gone.

And suddenly, a guy entered. I peeked around the corner at him. Expensive clothes, letterman jacket, gelled hair. Wealthy kid. He was talking to himself. Sounded rather anxious.

“It’s cool, Nathan… Don’t stress… You’re okay, bro. Just count to three…”

He moved over to the mirror. Definitely anxious.

“Don’t be scared. You own this school. If I wanted, I could blow it up. You’re the boss.”

And then, a girl entered. Tall, thin, Blue hair. Pretty, in a punk rock bad girl way. I wonder who she is. One of Nathan’s flunkies? Probably not. He wouldn’t be nervous for someone he knew.

“I hope you checked the perimeter, as my step-ass would say?”

Wait…

I recognise that voice...

.... Chloe?

-----

I gave Travis directions to the diner and settled back to talk to Kate. We wandered through a few topics. Mostly small talk, movies, music, books and so on.

My chat with Kate was cut short. We’d arrived at the Diner. Chloe, as nosy as ever, asked. “Huh? Why are we here? Oooh, is it for food?”

Heh. And Joyce said she’d changed. Still as ravenous as I remember.

I smiled. “No, I’m afraid not Chloe. I just need to get my bag from the car.”

I slipped out of the car. I headed quietly across the lot to my Dodge. I popped the trunk and started collecting my things. I needed some supplies for my room at Blackwell.

Seconds later, Chloe hops out and follows. I shake my head. Girl never could sit still.
“Fuuuuck, Max. This thing yours? Its fucking awesome!”

I smiled. Her enthusiasm was adorable. “Yeah, this is my baby.”

Eh. What the hell. She’s here, she can help. “Get the books from the Glove Compartment and anything you can find in the right footwell.”

I took a couple of boxes from the trunk and threw them to her. She caught them and shrugged. “Alright. What's this stuff for, anyway?”

Joy. Lesson time. I smirked. “For my room. First rule of disguise, Grasshopper. Always give people what they expect. Expectations are like a form of camouflage. If you use them right, you can blend into the background and people will barely even notice you’re there.”

Chloe was quiet for a second or two. She shrugged again and did as I asked. I like to think she heard the lesson, too. Might come in handy for her, later on.

We finished quietly locating my things and returned to the truck. We put the boxes in the bed and got in. Travis looked at me for directions. Time to get to work.

“Alright, let’s get going. Take a left.”

-----

Travis dropped us off and headed off to his Hotel. We went to get me enrolled. Kate hurried off to the dorms. Feeding her rabbit. I’m sure we’d see her later. She seemed… hesitant to leave me and Chloe alone. Wonder why.

I fell back into character as we entered the office. Slouched my shoulders and hunched my posture. I flicked my eyes to the ground. Shy people are always underestimated. Chloe watched me with fascination.

I scurried up to the desk. “Um… hi?”

The Receptionist glanced up at me. Woman looked harried. Guess private schools take a lot of organising. “Yes, dear? How can I help?”

“Uh, my mom said I should come here? For my key? ...I’m new.”

I jumped, like I’d forgotten something. “Oh yeah! I have this?”

I handed her a transfer notice. Forged, of course.

The receptionist grimaced. “Uh, I’m afraid I can’t help you with this. You’ll have to wait for the…”

A short black woman entered. “Ah, Doreen, you don’t need to bother the Principal with this. I can show her around.”

She turned to look at Chloe. “Ah, Miss Price. Nice to see you again. Even nicer to not have you mixing explosives in my classroom.”

Seems this woman was Chloe’s teacher. Before the expulsion, anyway. Also, explosives? I’d have to ask Chloe about that later. Hell, maybe I should introduce her to Hans. She’d probably get along with the crazy German bastard.

Chloe muttered at her. “Nice to see you too, Miss.”

She took my paper from the receptionist and looked it over. “So, Maxine, is it?”

I looked down at my shoes. “Yes, miss. Well, it's Max, but yes. Thats me.”

“Huh. Well, we don’t usually get students this late in the year, but you’re welcome nevertheless. Ok, it says you’re in room 219, in the Prescott Dorm.”

We headed outside to find my room.

-----

“All those moments... will be lost in time... like tears in rain. Time to die.”

I sat for a few moments. Just pondering that ending. Why would Batty help someone trying to kill him? Heh. The Robot is a far better person than I am. Decker killed all his friends, right? I’d have let him fall.

I sat and listened to Dana and Chloe talk. Hmm. Apparently Chloe used to date this girl, Rachel. I thought for a second. Where have I heard that name…?

Dana and Juliet left, Kate soon after. I went to find my Pajamas. Chloe stopped just before leaving. She turned to me. “Hey, Max?”

“Yes Chloe?” I asked.

She sighed. She sounded… tired. “Thanks for the save today. In the bathroom, I mean. If you and Travis hadn’t been there, Presc-shit would’ve… so, Thanks.”

“Sure. Who’s Rachel?”

Chloe sighed again. Deeper, this time. “Rachel was… my angel. She saved my life, Max, when dad died and you left. She disappeared a year ago. Just, gone.”

Ah. There it is. I looked up at Chloe. “Rachel Amber? I saw the posters around town. You put those up?”

She grinned. She looked so proud. “Yup. There’s one on every wall in Arcadia.”

Hmm. A disappearance and an attempted abduction. Both at Blackwell. Hmm. I tentatively ask. “Do you think her disappearance might be related to what happened to Kate?”

Chloe paused for a sec. “Fuck, maybe. Prescott could’ve done this before. And he was always watching her. Bastard!”

She stormed about. I could see her eyes flicking around. I knew that look. Anger.

Excellent. She’ll need it.

Ah! Here they are. Huh. Seems Chloe can follow instructions. I pulled my PJs out, got up and walked over to her.

“This is good. Multiple victims means more evidence to find. If she’s alive, we’ll find her. Now, unless you want to get an eyeful, I suggest you go find your friend. Kate did say she wanted to see you.”

She stopped, took a deep breath. Ten in through the nose. Ten out through the mouth. “Yeah, she did. Bye Max. See you tomorrow?”

She sounded… nervous. I think she was worried about me leaving again.

I smirked. “Don’t worry so much, Chloe. I’m here to help, remember? I never leave a job unfinished.”

She said goodbye and left. I changed and moved to the bed. I cast my mind back over the day's events. It’s a good reflective method. Useful to pinpoint mistakes.

Mainly, I thought about whatever the fuck happened in that bathroom. I mean, my visualisations of my plans are vivid, but never to that degree! Implies it was… real?

I thought for a second. Time to test my theory. I hopped up from the bed. Now, where did I tell her to…? Ah! There. I hurried over to my window.

A baseball, signed by Tim Davis. He was a pitcher for the Mariners, back in Seattle. My dad took me to a couple of games.

I tossed it in the air.

Then, I raised my hand. My right, like I did in the Bathroom. I watched as the ball suddenly reversed. It came straight back to me! I reached over and plucked it out of the air.

Holy. Shit. I looked down at the ball. Huh. I threw it at the window.

It shattered, obviously. I heard shouts coming from my floormates. Again, I raised my hand. And again, time reversed around me. When I lowered my hand, the window was repaired and the ball was in my hand.

I kept playing around with my new ability. After about the fourth try, I began to feel dizzy.. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. There was blood. Damn.

Seems like my new power has a drawback. Interesting.

But what the hell gave me this ability? I mean, I've raised my hand before. This never happened then. So, that means it's a new effect then. Something after I came here?

I cast my mind back again. Nothing jumped out at me. Hmm.

Eh. I’ll work it out soon enough.

I glanced over at the clock. 2 am. I sat down on the floor, cross-legged. I calmly controlled my breathing. 10 seconds in, 10 seconds out. I began a few meditation tricks I picked up. I sat there for 30 minutes, then headed to bed. Big day tomorrow. Well, later today.

-----

As usual, I woke up early. 5 sharp. I never slept much nowadays. I collected my shower things and moved to the bathrooms. Empty, of course. No teen student would be up this early. Well, except me. But I preferred the quiet.

Staying in a dorm is just weird. Like a mix of Scout Camp, Cheap Hotel and a Sleepover. I grabbed my shower things and went to the bathrooms.

I showered, thinking about last night. This power could definitely come in useful. I'd have to train it first, of course. To test my limits and hopefully expand them.

Seemed like I could only reverse a short time, for now. A few minutes, at most. If I could increase that... Hmm. Definitely useful.

I finished my shower and returned to my room. I dressed, gearing up for the day.

My first class was... 9 AM, Photography. With Mr Mark Jefferson. The man had been a famous photographer in New York. A few years ago, he returned here. He'd wanted to give something back to his hometown, he claimed. It'll be interesting to meet him. I was a fan, years ago.

I called Travis. "Meet you for Breakfast?"

I could hear the smirk in his voice. "Well, Good mornin' to you too, Boss. Oh, I'm fine and you?"

"Smartass. Are we meeting or not?"

"Sure thing. We needta talk, anyway."

"Yes. We do. See you then."

I hung up. Taking care to avoid security, I left campus. It wasn't difficult. Now, if they added lasers... That'd be a challenge. And make things better. As Cassie puts it, Lasers make EVERYTHING better.

-----

Travis eyed me as I sat down. "So. Chloe Price, huh?"

I shrugged. He just looked at me, eyebrow raised. I sighed. "Yes. She needs our help."

“Yeah, I got that. But I’m more concerned ‘bout you.”

I frowned. “Me? Why?”

He just looked at me. “You know why. She flipped out on ya once and it almost killed you. She sounds even less stable now. This time, it ain’t an ‘if’ she’ll flip out, just a ‘when’.”

He looked down into his mug. “I don’t wanna see that happen to you again, Max.”

I smiled at him. There was a reason I trusted Travis. He worried far too much though. I planned for everything. “Thanks Travis. But don’t worry so much. I’m stronger now. Besides, it's just a job, right? We help and we move on.”

He looked at me, scornfully. “Pfft. Max, this was never just a job. Just... be careful, darlin'”

Chloe walked up and waved at us. "Hey dudes, whatcha talkin' 'bout?"

She sat down. Well, flopped down. I get the feeling she wasn’t up this early very often.

I waved over the waiter. Probably best to get her fed before she gnaws off an arms or something.

-----

"Ok, here we are." I lead us up to the classroom. Chloe turned to Kate. They hugged. "Breakfast was fun. We should do it again sometime. If that's ok?"

Chloe smiled, happily. "Sure thing, Katie. You in, Maximus?"

I smirked. "Of course."

Chloe turned away to leave when a shocked voice shouted "Holy. Shit. Max?!"

I turned to see... Oh. My. God. Victoria? This was where she left for?

*Flashback*

Victoria was crying. “I’m sorry, Max. I’m so fucking sorry.”

She was telling me she had to move. Far away, to some other state. Some other city. I stopped listening. All I heard was ‘leaving’.

Leaving Seattle. Leaving me.

I was crying too. I found myself shouting at her. “Tori, don’t make it sound like this is something you want. We both know it's your fucking parents! Don’t just go along with what they want! Tell them what you want for once!”

Her shoulders fell and her voice became robotic, monotone. “It's a great school, Max. The best school. It’ll help me achieve my ambitions. Help me become great. I’m a Chase. We have to be great.”

She was just mimicking her parents. I could tell. I could always fucking tell. I laughed, bitterly. Demanding assholes. “Their fucking ambitions, you mean.”

I could feel my heart racing. Hell, I could hear it beating. My blood was roaring in my ears. I felt short of breath. I tried to gasp.

The world looked almost faded, like an old movie. Alarms were going off around me. People crowded in, talking in faint, dulled voices. I couldn’t concentrate on any of them.

I could just see Victoria and her long, golden hair. It looked stark against everything else. The one bit of Brightness in the Dark. “I’m sorry Max, I’m… sorry.”

She started to leave and I tried to shout something, anything to keep her here. But I couldn’t speak. I could just struggle to breathe and watch as she walked out of my life. I saw the flash of a needle and felt myself slip into darkness.

*Flashback Ends*

I just stared, slackjawed. "Tori?"

I ran over and hugged her. Damn, it was good to see her. She looked good. Four years had really changed her. She'd cut her long hair into a pixie cut. She didn't hug me back. Just stood there, confused and shocked. Tori always hated surprises.

"I.. I... What are you doing here, Max? When did you get out of...?"

I cut her off before she could finish. Seems I was more aware of our audience. And there were certain things Chloe couldn't know. "I'm a student. Look, I have a camera and everything" I tapped on William's camera.

Victoria grinned. "A Polaroid? Well, looks like you're still in the retrozone, Max."

I rolled my eyes and followed her in. "I'm never gonna live that down, am I?"

Sheesh. Never say anything dumb in front of that girl. Memory like a steel trap.

-----

The classroom was pretty much as expected. Covered in pictures and equipment. There was a fancy, high-tech whiteboard at the front. Well, high-tech for a civilian group. The Law Enforcement version was significantly more interesting. Hence why we have two.

We sat down near the back. Neither of us really said anything. I don't think she knew what to say. I certainly didn't. All my planning and I never expected this.

"So, Tori... Uh. I don’t really know what to say. How have you been?"

She rubbed the back of her neck. “Good, I guess. I’m, I uh…”

As she spoke, a tall, leggy blonde and a grumpy looking girl with black hair bounced over. The blonde looked at me. “Hey Vic, who’s the new girl?”

She sounded chipper. Oddly friendly, for a Vortexer. They were definitely Vortex material.

The black-haired girl looked me over and smirked. Ah. The bitchy fashionista staredown. Tiffany was far better at it than this girl was. She could reduce a girl to tears with a 30 second glance-over and smug smile. I looked down at my shoes, still playing the shy character.

She waved a hand at me. “This is Max. She’s…” She looked to me, questioningly. “An old friend?”

I shrugged and smiled. “That works.”

I looked the two over. The blonde was wearing ridiculously short shorts and a crop top. The black haired girl was in some designer-wear. Looked expensive.

Kate walked in, staring at the floor.

Shit, something's wrong. But what? She was fine when we got here. Could it be Tori?

Her eyes flicked to me, then to Tori. Ok, so, definitely Tori. But why? I sighed internally. Looks like there's more to help with than just Prescott. She slowly walked over to us and sat down.

Damn, I really need a drink. Breathe, Max.

A tall, dark haired man walked in. He was handsome, in a pretty-boy older guy sort of way. Seemed the ‘cool teacher’ type. He scanned the classroom, eyes stopping on me.

He clapped his hands. “Alright, everyone. Please, sit down and let’s get started. Now, for those of you who haven’t noticed, we have a new student with us. She’s a transfer from exotic Seattle. Care to tell us something about yourself…?”

He checked a paper on his desk. “Maxine?”

“Max. Never Maxine.” I blurted. “And um, no thanks. I… just wanna get started.”

No way was I going to design a character on the spot. I needed to plan my game before I decided who Max needed to be.

He laughed. “Dedicated already! I’ve a feeling we’re going to get along, Max.”

He turned his focus back to the class.

“Ok, now as you all know, the Everyday Heroes context deadline is coming up soon. You each need to submit a picture showing an ‘Everyday Hero’. Remember, you’ll be flown out to San Fransisco for a presentation of your work. Winning this will really help your career, so get to it.”

He walked forward, to stand in the centre of the room. Who teaches like that? He’s got his back to half the room! Guess Mr Celebrity still liked being the centre of attention.

“Albert Hitchcock famously called film “Little pieces of time”, but he could be talking about Photography, as he likely was.”

He stood in the middle of the room, gesturing with opposite hands with each opposing word.

“These pieces of time can frame us in our glory and our sorrow; from light to shadow; from colour to chiaroscuro.”

He leaned back against the empty centre table and threw a question out to the class. “Now, can you give me an example of a photographer who perfectly captured the human condition in black and white?”

Everyone just looked around or avoided eye contact. I smirked to myself. You’d think students at a prestigious school like Blackwell would be more… enthusiastic. I was pretty sure that one of the girls at the front was asleep.

He sighed. I got the feeling this was a common occurrence. “Anybody? Bueller?”

Tori raised her hand. “Diane Arbus.”

Jefferson perked up instantly. It was like a drowning man reaching for a lifeline. “There you go, Victoria. Why Arbus?”

Victoria leaned back in her seat. “Because of her images of hopeless faces. You feel like, totally haunted by the eyes of those sad mothers and children.”

She sounded a little… what's the word? Desperate for his attention? It was odd. Back when I knew her, Tori wasn’t the type to judge herself by others. Heh. Time really does change people. It certainly changed me. And Chloe. So, no real surprise that Tori is different now.

Jefferson laughed to himself. “She saw humanity as tortured, right? And frankly it's bullshit.”

Someone giggled, reached over to show their neighbour something on her phone. Jefferson waved his hand at them. “Shh. Keep that to yourself.”

He returned to his lecture. Confident guy. Seemed to be a good teacher. Most of the students were hanging on his every word. Probably something to do with the famous, hot older guy thing, but he could definitely play a crowd. “Seriously though, I could frame any one of you in a dark corner and capture you in a moment of desperation, and any one of you could do that to me.”

He shrugged. “Isn’t that too easy? What if Arbus chose to capture people at the height of their beauty or innocence?”

Why do teachers always ask rhetorical questions to make a point? So damn irritating.

He looked around the room. “She had a brilliant eye, so she could have taken another approach.”

Victoria shrugged. “I have to admit, I’m not a big fan of her work. I prefer… Robert Frank.”

Jefferson nodded appreciatively. “Me too, Victoria. He captured the essence of post-war, beat America. And there was honesty about the economic conditions of the era.”

He gave a suave smile and continued. It was odd, it seemed both amused and irritated at the same time. “And that's why today, we’ll be studying Chiaroscuro. That beautiful word about the contrast between light, and dark. The shadowplay that gives photography such… visual power. Its basic yin and yang. Black and white images are effective precisely because of their contrasts.”

Tori’s phone buzzed. Zach was calling, whoever that was. She ignored it.

“Originally, in the renaissance, it was a drawing technique, but now it's commonly used in photography to achieve a sense of volume and layering. It can also be used to tell a story, the battle of the pure and light against the dark and evil.”

He smirked. “Even in film, chiaroscuro serves to highlight opposing forces. For example, in the film Metropolis, chiaroscuro lighting is used to create contrast between light and dark mise-en-scene and figures. The effect really highlights the struggle between the destitute workers and the wealthy capitalists.”

He stood from the table. “So, that’s what we’re going to be working on.” He picked up a pile of files from his desk and began handing them out. “Each of these holds an assignment. You’re going to be working in groups for this. I want a plan from each group by the end of the lesson and a submission by next week.”

Kate’s eyes never left her paper. Tori immediately hopped up. “Come on, Max. You’re going to work with me, Taylor and Courtney, right?”

I sat back in my seat and crossed my arms. “Actually, I was going to work with Kate.” I looked over at her. “I mean, If you want to Kate?”

Kate smiled. It was barely there, but still. “Sure, Max. I’d like that.”

Tori frowned at me, then shrugged. “Fine then. Taylor, you’re with us. Courtney…” She waved a hand. “Go work with Dana and Hayden or something.”

The two blondes came and sat with us. The black-haired girl, Courtney, stood there blinking for a second. Her shoulders slumped and she slunk off to sit with Dana, who greeted her as perkily as ever. Hmm. Seems she’s the weak link of Tori’s little posse.

Jefferson came over and handed us a folder. “Sorry to throw you in at the deep end, Max. But we’re always short on time here. Feel free to come talk to me if you have any questions. My door is always open.”

Tori immediately started talking about some photography stuff. I hadn’t touched a camera in years, so I understood basically none of it. She began listing off names and styles I’d never heard of. Damn, I can’t wait for Tish to get here. I need to do some serious research to pull off this role.

I decided to chip in and break the flow. “Kate, what do you think?”

She shrugged. Never even looked up. “I’m sure whatever Victoria wants will be best.”

Victoria smirked and preened. “Damn right. Max, If you want an A, listen to me, not the Bible Basher here. There’s a reason I’m Mark's favourite.”

… Wow. My friend is now a bitch.

Long story short, we made a few brief plans with words I’d never heard and arranged to meet the next day to go over more ideas. Jefferson seemed pleased with our progress at the end of the lesson.

The bell rang and Jefferson sighed. “Alright, everyone. We’ll continue this next lesson. Scat.”

Everyone rushed out. I don’t know why, there were just going to another lesson. High School students were weird. Tori stood up. “What do you have next?”

I shrugged. “Free period. You?”

Her face fell. “English. We’ll have to get together for lunch. You’ll meet me at the main door?”

Huh. It was weird. The self-assurance she’d had all lesson had gone. In its place, was… nervousness? Hmm. Maybe she hadn’t changed as much as I thought.

I nodded and smiled. “Sure, Tori. We can catch up then.”

She grinned and started collecting up her things. “Au Revoir, Max. Till later.”

I watched Tori leave and turned to Kate. “Want to go get some tea?” I smiled. “I’m buying.”

She shrugged. Didn’t even look at me. “I can’t. I… I have homework.”

She quickly collected up her things and scurried out. Her eyes never met mine. I sighed.

Damn it. I really need a fucking drink.

-----

I walked down the steps in front of the school. Time to start snooping. I need to look into Nathan Prescott. Victoria, Dana and Kate were busy. Tori and Dana were in class. Kate was... avoiding me. So, I can't ask them. That means, I need someone else. But who?

Prescott was President of the Vortex Club. I can use that. A club of rich alphas? Bound to be politics there. Just have to find my smoking gun. I scanned the grounds for any vortexers.

Speak of the Devil. Nathan was over by the pool building. Talking to some little brunette. Stella Hill. I'd barely spoken to the girl. Shy girls aren't exactly sociable. Saw her name on my floor. Room 217. She was quiet too. Mostly stayed out of the way. Not exactly Vortex material. So, what was she doing with Prescott? Something to look into.

I kept scanning.

Ah. There. Hayden. Relaxed stoner, quite smart, well liked. Good place to start. I wandered over.

"Hey Hayden."

He looked up and grinned. “There she is, the new girl. Max, right?”

I shrugged, sheepishly. “That’s me, alright. You look relaxed, Hayden.”

He waved a hand dismissively. “It’s a skill one cultivates at Blackwell. Especially when one represents the Vortex Club.” He shrugged. “Not to boast.”

“What the hell is the Vortex Club anyway? Seems so… elitist.” I crossed my arms. I may have also glared at him. School Cliques just seemed an excuse for bullying to me. It was that way back in Seattle. The rich kids lording it over the others. Well, until we came along.

Hayden laughed. “Only if you’re not cool enough to get in. And it doesn’t hurt your resume.”

“But, do you really want Nathan Prescott to represent?”

Hayden scoffed. He sounded irritated. I guess he'd heard this before. Seems Prescott isn't widely liked. “Oh, please. Nathan is like everybody’s voodoo doll. ‘Kill the rich kid.’ He’s alright and a fun guy to hang with. Fuck the haters.”

I leaned back, raised an eyebrow. “He seems genuinely unstable to me.”

Hayden shrugged again. He seemed to do that a lot. “Nathan has his extreme moments, but don’t we all?”

I smirked internally. Not everyone. I couldn’t see Kate ever being anything close to ‘extreme’. At worst, she might make frowny faces...

"I guess. Thanks, Hayden. I'll let you get back to it."

“Bye Max. Now, I have to get my chemical on and study. We should get you and Dana out one night…”

I waved to him and wandered away. Sounds like the Vortex Club are loyal to their leader. We'll have to work on that. Divide and Conquer. I think I’ll head back to my room. There was no-one else to interrogate and I needed to kill some time. Maybe finish my book.

I got about halfway there when I spotted Kate. She was being harassed by some uniformed asshole. Looked like security. Had that same self-important bearing. I hid quickly. The man was yelling at her. Something about the Vortex Club. And… drugs? He thinks Kate is a dealer? Seriously? I barely knew the girl and I knew that was insane.

I grimaced. He was being vicious. Kate was not the sort of person that could take this.

I raised my camera and snapped a picture. Useful evidence for blackmail. Or to get him fired. Unfortunately, I left the flash on. I hadn’t used a camera in years. Security Asshole’s head immediately flicked to me. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

He started moving towards me.

Oh, shit. I quickly raised my hand. Time spun back around me. I watched as he moved back to Kate. When the rewind stopped, I decided to intervene.

I stomped forward and jabbed him in the chest with my finger. “Hey. Leave her alone!”

“I’m just doing my job. This girl…”

I jabbed him again. “This girl nothing! You leave her the hell alone, understand?”

He looked back to Kate. “This isn’t over.” He jabbed a finger at me. “And you, I’ll remember this.”

I smirked. “You do that.”

He stormed away. Kate immediately hugged me. Burst into tears. I silently thanked fate that I wasn’t wearing my suit. After briefly wrestling down my panic, I hugged her back.

I put one arm over her shoulder. “Come on, Kate. Let’s get you inside.”

I escorted her to my room. She was still crying. I didn’t seem to be doing much. I’m not exactly reassuring. I decided to call in the cavalry.

MAX- Something happened. Get here now. Bring Chloe.

Chapter Text

The Tank skidded to a halt outside Blackwell, but I was outta the truck before he’d even fucking stopped. I raced to Max’s room, shoving people out of my way.

What?

Yeah, yeah. I know it’s ‘rude’ or whatever, but I got hella more important shit to deal with right now. What the fuck happened to Katie?

I slammed the door open to see Katie crying on the bed. Max was sitting next to her, patting Katie on the back and talking to her quietly. She looked up when I came in.

I hurried over and sat on Katie’s other side. Max moved off the bed over to the window. I put my hand on Katie’s shoulder. “Heya Katie. What’s gotcha down?”

She tried to talk, but just kinda sobbed instead. I sat and hugged her until she started to calm down.

She took a few ragged breaths. Her eyes were red.

Fuck, whoever made her crying is going to fucking die. Painfully.

I tried for funny. “Come on, Katie. This is my favourite top.” I leaned my head down, tryin’ to catch her eye. “I’ll be hella upset if you cry all over it. Might actually have to wash it for once. And we both know how that’ll fucking go.”

Kate sorta sob-giggled. It was weird to hear. Hella heartbreaking, too. But hella weird.

“Dav-David, he thinks I’m… part of the Vortex Club. He s-saw me at that Party, now he thinks I’m dealing smack or something. Max, she saved me from him.”

I looked over at the window. Max was gone. Shit, I hadn’t even heard her fucking move. No wonder she’s the fucking Blackwell Ninja.

Eh. I’ll thank her later. Once I find out what the fuck happened with her and Icky Vicky. Seriously, how the shit do they know each other?

“Well, my step-douche always was hella stupid. We’ll just have to kick his damn ass if he tries it again. Pretty sure Max’ll help get him off your back, right?”

Katie wiped her eyes and frowned. “Maybe."

I frowned. “Whadda ya mean maybe?”

She shrugged and said, in a small voice “She’s friends with Victoria now. What if she decides not to help us anymore?”

I ignored the little fucking voice in my head that agreed with her and shrugged. “Eh, you worry too much. She promised she’d help, right?”

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then another. Then another. She opened her eyes again. They were fucking red.

Seriously, I so wanna go kick Step-Prick’s ass right now.

I sighed. Katie wouldn’t want that though.

Damn. Why does she have to be so nice?

Pfft, who’re you kidding, Price, you wouldn’t have her any other way.

“I hope you’re right, Chloe.”

I shrugged, pushing down the fucking anxiety and panic. Like, I’m not saying she would, but what if she did leave? Again?

Katie laughs. It sounds kinda hollow. Like a fake TV laugh. “Enough about me. How are you doing, Chloe?”

I half-smiled at her. “Fuck if I know. Gotta find out what the fuck’s goin’ on with Max and Icky Vicky first.”

Katie smiled back and shooed me out. “Go find her then. I’m good. Thanks for the shoulder to cry on.”

I grinned. “Sure thing, Katie Kat. Happy to help.”

I left Max’s room and went into the corridor. Max and Travis were chatting quietly. I stomped over to Max. "Can we talk? Like, now?"

Max just raised an eyebrow. "Sure."

I glared at Travis until he put his hands up like he was surrendering, grinned and went outside.

Max watched him leave, then crossed her arms and looked at me. “Yes?”

“What the fuck is with you and the bitch?”

She frowned, looked kinda confused. “What?”

I scoffed. Come on Maxie, thought you were supposed to be some sorta people-genius now? “The Bitch? Victoria Chase, Queen fucking Bee of Blackwell? The girl who’s been bullying the shit outta Katie for weeks now? Ringing any fucking bells?”

Max shrugged. “We were old friends in Seattle. We lost contact years back. It was good to see her.”

I snorted. “Well, ain’t you just got a fucking great taste in ‘old friends’. That it then? You gonna go party with the Vortex fuckers now?”

She laughed. “If I need to. Why?”

“If I need to.” I singsonged, sarcastically. “You’re ditching me for her! I just got you back and now she’s gonna fucking take you aw…”

A loud fucking cough interrupted me. I whirled to see Icky fucking Vicky stood there, one eyebrow raised.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

Victoria quirked her lips in a smug smile. Bitch. “I’m just here to pick up some books for my next class. What about you? I didn’t realise they still let punk trash like you on campus.”

Oh, that’s fucking it. I started to roll up my sleeves and stalk over to Victoria when Max just appeared in front of me. Like, literally. I don’t think I even saw her fucking move. “Don’t, Chloe.”

What the fuck? “Are you fucking serious, Max? You’re siding with that Bitch over me?”

I threw my arms up in disgust. “Fucking fine then!”

I yelled some more shit about Victoria at Max and punched the wall next to her.

OW!

Fucking Ow!

That was a stupid fucking idea! Why do they make that shit look easy in the movies when it hurts so fucking much in real life?!

I stormed the fuck out, ignoring Travis trying to talk to me as I flew past him.

-----

I punched my steering wheel. Ow! Fuck, I gotta stop punching shit when I'm pissed off.

How could she fucking do that? After what that bitch did to Katie? I growled to myself. Hella shitty, Max. Turning up and making me think she fucking cares then just ditching me like garbage! Again! This is why you can't trust fucking anybody, Price!

I jumped, mid-rant at a little knock on my window. I snapped my head around to look. Katie was stood there, half-smiling. "Can I come in?"

I nodded, staring out my window, avoiding her eyes. I really didn't wanna know if she was disappointed in me. I mean, Max was supposed to be helping us. I ignored the little voice in my head that said "Why the fuck wouldn't she be disappointed? You're a screw-up, Price."

Katie got into the truck with me. "Are you ok?"

I sighed. "Max is ditching us for Icky Vicky and the Vortex Dickbags." I was kinda surprised at how defeated I sounded. Guess it’s good I don't talk to myself. I'd be so fucking depressed hearing that voice all the time.

Katie frowned and put her hand on mine. "Are you sure? I mean, I don’t know her very well, but that doesn’t seem the sort of thing she’d do.”

I scoffed. “She practically said it to my face. Bitch doesn’t care at all.”

Her shoulders slumped. “Oh.” Then, she frowned.” But she helped me find you! Told me to come check on you. Why would she do that if she didn’t care?”

Huh. I was gonna ask how the fuck she found me. I was parked kinda outta the way, so… Max really helped?

I sighed. “Shit. I don’t know, Katie. I just don’t fucking know any more.”

Crap, this emotional shit is hella tiring. “It was so much fucking easier to hate her when she’d fucked off to Seattle, y’know?”

Katie smiled. “It usually is. Maybe you should give her a call. Ask to hear her side of things. It might clear the situation up a little.”

I glared at her. “Why are you always so reasonable? Makes it really fucking hard for me to be all irrational and pissed off.”

She grinned and poked me in the chest. “I’m the yin to your yang. Someone has to balance you out, grumpypants.”

Was about to answer when my phone buzzed. I pulled it out and showed Katie.

MAX- Two Whales. 30 minutes.

Yeesh. Fucking demanding.

I was still kinda pissed, but fuck it. I tried to think of not going, but I just kept seeing Katie’s face looking hella disappointed.

I felt like I’d kicked a puppy.

A hella cute, hella fuzzy little puppy.

I sighed. Fuck it.

“Alright, let's get on with it.”

“So, we’re going to meet her?”

She sounded… hopeful.

I smiled. “Yup. Something something listen to her side of the story, right?”

She beamed at me. “So you DO listen! Aww.”

Yeah, yeah, Katie Kat. We drove off, heading for the diner.

-----

I just kinda stared blankly at the diner for a sec. Katie nudged me. “We going in?”

I shrugged. “Yeah, just… gimme a minute. Need to just chill for a sec, y’know?”

Kate frowned for a sec before the realisation kicked in. "Oh, you need to uh... bake?"

I smirked. "Got it in one, Katie Kat. It's just... I..."

Kate waved a hand. "No need to explain, Chloe. You do what you need to. I'll see you inside?"

I nodded. "Yup. Gotta hear Max out, right?"

Katie smiled. "Good. Don't take too long, or I'll eat all your waffles."

I gasped with mock shock. "You'd eat ALL my waffles? The horror!"

She shrugged. "You'll just have to be quick then."

She hopped out of the truck and leaned in the window. "Om nom nom, right?"

Despite the fucking anxiety trying to rip my heart out of my damn chest, I grinned. "Damn right, Katie."

She laughed and headed into the Diner, waving at me as she went in.

I sighed and pulled the spliff from my glovebox. I inhaled deeply and found my mind going back to the first time I ever saw Max here.

*flashback begins.*

I’d got suspended after beating the shit outta some bully in school and, since we were even poorer then than we are now, Mom couldn’t afford to take the time off at the Diner, so I got sat on a barstool and told ‘not to move a damn muscle, young lady’.

This was early days, diner-wise, so it was still fun to listen in on people’s drama. We used to eavesdrop on everyone and make up stories and shit. But apparently, this day, I’d gotten so hella bored. I’d played the entire jukebox at least twice, doodled all over a booth and just kinda ran out of shit to do.

Just at the end of the lunch rush, this family came in. There was an older white guy, gone grey waaaay too early and wearing a cheap-ass suit and his wife, a Native-American Breakfast Club-era Molly Ringwald lookalike. They’d got this tiny fucking little girl with them. Seriously, I’m pretty sure I joked to mom that if she turned the fans on, their daughter would just blow away. Max swore that actually happened once when she and I were going home from school.

Anyways, they wandered over to a booth, bickering about some shit or other and Mom hurried over to take their orders.

“Afternoon, y’all. Welcome to the Two Whales, what can I getcha?”

The guy slumped. “Look, we just sat down. Can we please have a minute?”

Mom nodded, put on her waitress smile. Even in the early days, she was damn good. “Sure thing, just holler when you’re ready.”

He nodded and Mom wandered back over to me. “Listen in on the new folks, Chlo. Sounds like it should keep you entertained awhile.”

I shrugged, pretty desperate for something to do, so I went with it. I got most of it from that day and just asked Max to fill in the gaps later. Turns out they’d just come back from a big meeting with Max’s teacher. Something about Max not making friends. She just spent all her time daydreaming and staring out the window.

The two parents were really upset about it. Pretty sure her dad was close to crying. They started really bickering with each other. Mom was serving the next table over, tryin’ to eavesdrop on them, so I saw my chance and took it.

Apparently, mom got a one of those feelings that something bad was about to happen. She looked over to me, found me gone and freaked. Max’s folks looked over to see what the hell all the fuss was about and noticed Max was AWOL too.

So, now we got two shit-scared parents freaking out wondering where the hell their kids have gone. They’re both shouting our names around the diner loud enough to wake the fucking dead. Can’t really blame ‘em, I guess.

Mom says their eyes locked and they just knew, like a kinda universal parent distress signal or some shit like that.

“Chloe Elizabeth Price.” My Mom says.

“Maxine.” They say back. “Maxine Caulfield.”

Important details exchanged, they all go back to yelling. Between ‘em, they search the entire diner, probably annoying the shit outta the customers. One guy, sat near the door, points outside and says “Your kids went outside, I think. Taller girl and a smaller one, right?”

Our folks don’t even answer him, just hurry outside to find us.

‘Course, I had no idea any of this shit was happening at the time. I’d pulled my skateboard out and was doing tricks in the parking lot. Anything to get out of that fucking boring-ass diner. I didn’t know ‘Maxine’ had followed me out.

I’d fallen off the fucking skateboard and landed on my ass. While I was picking myself up and dusting myself off, I noticed little Maxie watching me. I stuck my hands in my pockets, thumbs out, and wandered over to her, skateboard under my arm. “Hey. You ok?”

Max didn’t say anything. She didn’t say much back then. Even less than now, actually.

“Hey.” I repeated. “You ok?”

She looked up at me. “I’m fine. I like your skateboard.”

I grinned. “Thanks. I’d let you have a go, but it's only for big kids.”

She slumped down on the stairs and looked down at her feet. I could see she’d started to cry.

“Why are you cryin’?” I was really starting to feel kinda bad. “I’m sorry.”

I walked over and sat on the stairs next to her. “You can have a go if you really want.”

She didn’t seem to be crying any less, so I tried again. “Is it your folks?”

She nodded quickly. Bingo. “Do they do that a lot?”

She shrugged. “Sometimes.”

“They seem kinda loud.”

She didn’t say anything. I kept going. Why not, right? “My parents argue sometimes too.”

“Do they make you speak to the counselor?”

“Not yet. But they might after today.” I grinned. “I broke a boys nose after he pulled some girls hair.”

She smiled, ever so slightly. “Really?”

I nodded. “Yep. So, what do your friends say about your folks when they’re at your place?”

She shrugged. “I don’t have any friends except The Captain.”

“Who’s the Captain?”

“My bear. But mommy says I can’t take him to school anymore after I swallowed his eye, so I just sit by myself.”

“You swallowed his eye?” I asked.

“Yep.”

“That is pretty rad.” I smirked. “What did it taste like?”

“Dunno.”

“Oh… So, whadda ya do when you ain’t in school?”

“Sit by myself. Stare at things. Mommy says I should make friends, but I don’t know how. When I asked my teacher, she just stared at me.”

I don’t really know what made me say what I said next. Some kinda fate or benevolent god must’ve taken mercy on my dumbass self, ‘cause I just said “I’ll be your friend.”

She actually looked at me then. She seemed kinda… shocked, I think.

“Really?”

I grinned. “Yeah. You’re cool. Weird, but cool. I’m Chloe Price. Nice to meet you.”

I stuck out my hand. She just stared at it for a while, before lightly shaking it.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Maxine Caulfield.”

“Maxine, huh?” I said, drawing the A out hella long. “I like it. Kinda long though. Needs to be shorter. It should be like…. Max.” I nodded to myself, grinned. “Yeah. Max. I like it. By the power infested in me, I dub thee, Max.”

Yeah, I know its ‘invested’ now, but I was like, 5, gimme a break.

She frowned. “Max?”

“Yeah, Max. That’s your name from now on.”

She smiled. “I like it… Max.”

“Good.” I said. “Now, we better get back in before our folks flip.”

I hopped up just as the door of the Diner flew open. Max’s parents ran out, shouted “Max!” They ran over and her dad picked her up and they did the whole hallmark happy family hug thing.

I got no such luck. I got Mom rushing towards me. She looked kinda angry. Sounded even angrier when she got to me. “Chloe Elizabeth Price, what in hell were you thinking?”

Obviously, Mom has REALLY fucking mellowed with age.

I shrugged. “I was bored, Mom”

She looked at me like I’d just told her I’d levelled Washington with a fluffy blankey and a feather pillow.

“You were bored.”

I shrugged again. “Yeah.”

Max’s folks, meanwhile, were asking her the same thing. “Maxine, why did you go outside?”

Max smiled and looked over at me. “I was bored, Mom.”

Max told me later this was the first time she’d ever called her ‘Mom’ and not ‘Mommy’. She pointed over at me. “Look Daddy, I made a friend!”

Ryan looked over at me, like he wasn’t entirely sure I actually existed. Maybe I was a hallucination or a dream or some shit. Basically, his entire look just said: ‘What.’

After blinking at me a couple seconds, he looked back to Max. “You made a friend! That’s fantastic, Honey.”

He was so happy, you’d have thought he’d just struck gold. He promptly marched over to my Mom, who was still reaming me out and introduced himself. Mom looked at him like he was insane. “Excuse me?”

“My daughter tells me she was just speaking to yours…”

Mom immediately interrupted, in full damage-control mode. “Yes, I’m sorry my daughter dragged yours outside. Don’t worry, I’ll pay for your meal, just please don’t…”

He interrupted her back, an action which back then, could easily have resulted in death for all involved. “Oh, no. It's fine. It's just, Max is usually really, really shy and…”

Max’s mom came over as well and continued. “Well, if she’s made a friend, thats amazing. It's made our year, honestly. We were just wondering if we could arrange a playdate?”

“If you wouldn’t mind, of course.” Max’s dad looked at Joyce hopefully.

Now, the Caulfields were acting all hella weird. But, Mom, being a southern girl, wasn’t one to shy away from weird. She was still kinda pissed at me though, so I guess she took a few moments to calm down and think shit over.

She nodded. “Well, Chloe’s grounded at the moment, but I don’t see no harm in lettin’ em play today. If they’re still friendly, we can exchange details and get another playdate when Chloe’s outta the pokey?”

They both beamed. “I think Max’d like that.”

I looked at Max, Max looked at me. We both grinned.

*flashback ends*

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Hella awesome history, with Pirates. Heh. Fun times. Kinda a mixed bag for her 'rents though. Goin' from a quiet, shy kid that didn't do much to having me dancing around the house must have been hell. Eh. At least I had two eyes, unlike The Captain.

I looked down at my spliff. Finished. Fuck it, enough delaying, I can so hella do this shit. I stuck it in the ashtray, swung outta the truck and wandered over to the diner.

-----

Shit, the place was busy, even for the lunch rush. I pushed my way through the customers and tried to find where the hell Max and Kate were. I found 'em in our usual booth, chatting with Mom. Travis was there as well. Mom and Kate were laughing and Travis had a smug grin on his face.

I slid into the booth next to Kate. "Hey Mom. Whatcha talkin' 'bout?"

"Joyce and Travis are comparing disasters. You really weren't kidding when you said you and kitchens didn't get on, were you?"

I turned and glared at Mom. "Which story did you tell them?"

She shrugged, all pretend innocent. "Oh, just the one about you and the can of campbell's soup."

I groaned. "Seriously? I thought we agreed that was never gonna be mentioned again!"

Joyce just smirked. "Consider it payback for this morning."

I felt like that dog from Wacky Races. RassnFrassnRassn Mom RassnFrassn.

I threw an arm over Kate's shoulder. "So, you full of waffles yet?"

Kate smiled and slid a foil-covered plate over to me. I took the foil off to see the deliciousness underneath. "Kate, you are a fucking saint."

She shrugged. "It's not exactly walking on water, but I'm sure the church will consider keeping you fed a miracle."

The entire table laughed at that. Bastards. "I'm not that bad, am I?"

Kate patted my shoulder and nodded. I sagged my shoulders. "Damnit."

Kate giggled. It was fucking adorable as ever.

I glanced over at Max. She had the blank, all-business look on again and was staring at me. Some asshole shouted for "better fuckin' service" somewhere over on the other side of the room. Joyce shrugged. "Duty calls. Talk to y'all later."

Max watched her go and then turned to me and Travis. “Report. The cops have anything interesting?”

Travis shrugged. “Lotsa other disappearin’ girls, started ‘bout a decade back.”

Max smiled and nodded. “Not much to go on. But a good start. Have any trouble?”

Travis leaned back and winked at me. “Nothing we couldn’t handle, right darlin’?”

I glared. He grinned. Bastard.

“I thought I told you not to fucking call me that!”

…yeah, I may have shouted that kinda louder and kinda pissier than I meant to…

The entire diner went quiet for a sec and looked over at me, before shrugging and going back to their food. I sat down with a thud and took a deep breath.

Max looked at me. "Can we talk outside?"

I looked over at Kate, who gave me a reassuring nod and smile. I sighed. "Fine. Come on then."

We headed outside and crossed the road. There was a little bench looking out over the bay. Max sat on it and looked at me. "What's wrong?"

I just stared at her like she was fucking insane. "Everything's wrong! You're gonna leave again!"

She sighed. "Look, Chloe. I told you, I never leave a job unfinished."

I shrugged and snarked at her. "You said something pretty similar before you left last time. What the fuck's stopping you leaving for Victoria now?"

She looked me in the eye. "Chloe. You were my friend here. Victoria was my friend in Seattle. Now you're both my friends here. I'm not picking one over the other."

"You did before, back at Blackhell." I crossed my arms and glared.

She smirked. "No, I stopped you getting arrested for assault."

"If I have to." I snarked. "That's what you said."

She laughed. "Yes, Chloe. If I have to to help you. I'm thinking it might be useful to get the Vortex on side. Should help get more information on Nathan."

...Shit...

I kinda deflated. "I'm sorry, Max. I'm a paranoid fucking idiot."

She nodded. "Yes. You are. Shall we go back inside?"

Wow, Maxie. Don’t pull the punches, do ya? I shrugged, sheepishly. Max rolled her eyes. "Lighten up, Che. It's not like you killed anybody."

...the awkward smile again...

I smiled back and we headed back to the booth. Kate was the only one there. She was looking off at the bar and giggling. We looked over to see Travis and Mom both cooking shit. Travis was doing it all with big flourishes. He looked like one of those cheesy-ass stage magicians.

I slid into the booth next to Kate, Max took the opposite side.

A couple seconds later, Max cocks her head. I took a guess that she was doing the ear-listening thingy again. “Thanks, Tish. See you soon.”

Max and Kate chatted for a while. Back on the books and shit. I just sat back. Fuck, I was never this fucking quiet till Max came back. Too much shit on my mind, I guess.

Max looked over at the door when the bell tinkled. A couple folks walked into the diner. There was a tall, brunette Native American girl and a little Asian girl with the most multicoloured fucking hair I’d ever seen. She was fiddling with some doodad in her hands and the hot brunette was kinda directing her around with her hands.

When Max spotted them, she grinned. A proper grin, not the awkward smiles she usually does, either. She hopped up from the booth and hugged the Native American girl, then ruffled the hair of the little Asian. She turned back to me and Kate. “Well guys, this is Laura.”

She nodded to the Brunette, who gave a smile and a curtsey. “And this is Cassie.”

The little Asian didn’t even look up from whatever the fuck it was she was fiddling with.

I waved. “I’m Chloe, and this is Kate.” Kate smiled at them.

Laura directed Cassie into a booth and sat next to her. I finally got a look at whatever the fuck it was she was playing around with. It looked like some kinda technical thing, with hella wires and circuitboards and shit.

Laura frowned at me before looking over to Max. “Is this her?”

Max nodded. “Yep. She’s the client.”

Laura rolled her eyes at Max, then smiled at me and extended a hand. “Lovely to meet you. I’m Laura Onai.”

I shook the hand lightly, like she was the Queen of England. I dunno, it just seemed the right thing to do. She shook Kate’s hand as well. “Charmed to meet you, darling. I just love what you’ve done with your hair.”

Kate smiled and blushed. “Thank you. I like yours too. The feather is pretty awesome.”

Laura shrugged. “It's a family heirloom, actually. Belonged to my great, great and so on grandfather. He was a medicine man.”

“Oh really?”

She nodded. “Oh yes, the way the stories tell it, he was quite a rebel when the British came.”

Max nudged her. “Laura?”

Laura looked over. “Yes?”

“Work now, chatting later.”

Laura pouted. “Oh, you are just no fun at all.” She sighed hella dramatically.

Max rolled her eyes and smiled at me and Kate. “We need a base for Tish. If we leave her in that van, we’ll never hear the end of it. Talk to Johnson and see what you can find.”

Laura nodded. I could see the cogs whirring behind her eyes, just like with Max. Guess it's a thing with these guys. “Certainly, it will be done. Shall we go now, or may we eat first?”

“Later. The base is critical.”

Laura rolled her eyes. “Oh, very well. Slavedriver.” She smiled and gently nudged the asian girl. “Come along, Cassie.”

Cassie hadn’t said a word or even looked up from her tech. Laura guided her up and out of the diner, waving to Travis as she left. He was still behind the counter.

I smirked when they left. "So, that's the gang, huh?"

Max nodded. “All except for Tish. She’s still in the van.”

Some acoustic song I didn't know started playing from her pocket. She pulled her phone out and answered the call. "Tori? Yes, we're still on for lunch."

She laughed. "Yes, I'm looking forward to it too. Want me to bring you anything? I'm at the Two Whales, so I could bring another doggy bag. No? You sure? Alright. See you soon."

She hung up and looked over at us. "You want to come too?" Travis wandered back over as she was asking. "Where ya goin', Boss?"

"Lunch with Victoria. You're going to go check on the others."

He laughed. "Yes boss. I'm gonna grab some things from the kitchen for ya. Gotta make sure you eat somethin’ good, right? I’ll meet you outside." He wandered off to talk to Joyce.

Max watched him go and then looked back over at me. "So. You coming?"

I shrugged. No way I was gonna leave Max and Victoria alone together. Sure, she said she wasn't gonna ditch me, but I'm not fucking taking chances. "Sure."

Max smiled over at Kate. "What about you, Kate? Will we have the delight of your company?"

Kate just froze. Pretty sure she was trying to find a polite way of saying "Oh, FUCK no!". But, ifb Max was gonna 'reconnect' with Icky Vicky, I guess we were gonna see more of her, so... I nudged her and mouthed. "It'll be ok, please come?"

Kate nodded to me and looked back at Max. She shrugged. "I guess."

Max clapped her hands together. "Excellent. Shall we go?"

-----

Seriously, it is way too fucking easy to get into this place. There’s like, 3 of us and we just walked right in without anybody stopping us.

‘Victoria’... I prefer Icky Vicky really, but I guess if Max wants to be friendly, I can be sorta friendly too. Not too friendly though, baby steps.

Anyway, she was standing over by one of the side walls in the big main hall, waiting. Max strode up to her. “Hey Tori. Are we heading outside?”

Victoria looked over the rest of us, then back to Max. “Uh, I was kind of hoping it’d just be the two of us.” She ignored Max’s question.

Max shrugged. “It’s not.” Victoria's mouth dropped open. Ok, that shit was annoying when she did it to me, but DAMN, if it didn’t feel hella good to see Victoria come up against direct Max. “We can still talk though.”

Victoria kinda composed herself and just nodded. “Of course. Shall we?”

As we went outside, Max made the introductions. “I believe you know Kate and Chloe.”

Victoria smirked. “I think everyone knows Kate by now.”

Max stopped, stared at Victoria. “Don’t, Tori.” Her voice was hard, like the voice she used to order Travis about. All business...

Victoria’s eyes went wide. Heh. Bet she’s kinda scared of Max now. Hell, I sorta am.

She shrugged and smiled. "Of course. I'm nothing if not merciful."

I snorted. Fuck that.

"So, where we gonna eat?" I asked.

Victoria rolled her eyes. "On that full candlelit banquet table, where do you think?" Her voice oozed sarcasm with an added shot of bitchy.

Max warned her again. “Tori, be nice.”

Victoria sighed. “Sorry, Chloe.”

I shrugged. “Whatever.”

I tried to sound all casual and shit, but I was kinda flipping inside. Max just got the Queen Bee of Blackwell to fucking apologise! Holy Shit, right?

Max took a look around the place and picked a spot in the front bit of Blackwell, under a hella big tree. Other than the drone flying through every 10 fucking seconds, it was a nice spot. Could use a rusty car or two, but whatever. We all sat down and got to om nomming our noms. Kate and I sat to one side, Victoria sat on the other, Max leant back against the tree.

Kate put the big paper sack she’d got from Travis in the middle of the group. “Gift from Chloe’s mother. Dig in, it’s delicious.”

I looked over to see Victoria and Max quietly chatting. Victoria seemed kinda… irritated. Then she sighed and nodded to Max.

“Uh, Kate, can I talk to you for a minute? Alone?”

Katie frowned and looked to me. I shrugged. She took a deep breath and nodded, then got up to follow Victoria a little ways away. I just stared at them. No way in hell was I letting Victoria hurt her again while I was here.

She was just standing in front of Katie, awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck, like she was hella nervous. They were too far off, so I couldn’t really hear much, but I did catch Victoria fucking apologising. I gaped at Max, who just shrugged. Fucking hell, Maximus. Never mind Katie, you’re the fucking miracle worker...

Kate looked like she was about to cry, but she just moved forward, wrapping her arms around Victoria. She looked hella shocked and in different circumstances I’d have probably found it hella funny. She kinda moved her arms around for a sec, like she wasn’t sure what to do with them. She looked over at Max, who just nodded and smiled. So, I guess she was reassured or some shit, because she hugged Katie back.

About a minute later, they pulled apart and walked back to us. Katie was smiling, happily. Victoria just seemed kinda flustered. She had her usual bitch-face on, but her eyes kept flicking around, settling on Katie for a second, before just flickering around again.

Katie came back to sit next to me and Victoria went back to Max. She looked over at me and Kate. “So, how do you know Max?”

She sounded… actually fucking interested. I was hella pissed off now. “So what, is that fucking it? You bully the shit out of Katie and we’re just supposed to make nice?”

“Ugh, just.” Victoria shook her head. “I actually try to be nice, and this-”

I just kinda stared at her, open-jawed. “You wanna try and be fucking friendly? With us, ‘the bible-basher and the punk trash’?”

I was gonna keep going but I was kinda interrupted by a dude shouting at us. “Hey you, bitch!”

We all looked over to see Nathan Fucking Prescott charging towards us.

He stops a foot or so away from Max, right in the middle of all of us. “Max Caulfield, right?” Max looks up at him and raises an eyebrow. “Yes?”

“You’re one of the Jefferson Photo-groupies.”

Max shrugs, corrects him pointedly. “I’m one of his students.”

He rolls his eyes. “Whatthefuckever.”

Max sighs, stands up and looks him straight in the eye. “Take a step back, Nathan Joshua Prescott.”

“Heh, Vic here tell you my name or something?” He laughs. “ Oh man, and you’re telling me what to do? Everyone tries… they try…” He sounds like he’s trying to be threatening. All macho and shit. But he’s got fucking nothing on Max. He tries to push her down.

Max doesn’t, fucking, budge. She looks down at his hands, then back up at him. She grins. She kinda twirls her arms in between his, pushing his hands outwards and away from her. He glares. “You don’t wanna get into this with me, you twee bitch. I could kill you in front of all these people and fucking get away with it.”

Max half smiled. “Bring it.”

He pulls back a fist and tries to punch Max. Max just… isn’t even there when he throws it. Shit, that girl moves fucking FAST. As he tries to adjust and punch her again, a bark comes from behind us. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

Late, as always, Officer Dickhead charges onto the scene, pulling Nathan away from Max and twisting his fucking arm behind his back. Fuck, hearing the little cries of pain from Nathan was so worth the interruption to Noms.

“Get the hell off me! I’ll have you sued for fucking assault, asshole!”

David rolled his eyes. “I’m so sorry about this, Miss…?”

He looks over at me and frowns. “Oh. Chloe. What are you doing here? You aren’t supposed to be on campus.”

I roll my eyes. “Chill, Officer, I was just having lunch with my friends.”

He stares at me for a sec. Probably thinks he can sherlock whether I’m lying or something. Fucking idiot.

“Fine, Chloe. Just don’t let me catch you being anywhere you shou…” Nathan tries to get outta Step-Douche’s hold. David just twists harder, making him yell out again. Damn, such a fucking satisfying sound. “Anywhere you shouldn’t be, ok?”

I shrugged. “Sure.”

He looks back at Max. “Oh, it’s you.” He looks over at Kate. “And you.” Shit, I think Step-douche might be going blind. Took him this long to notice them? Not like they were fucking hiding. I notice he was basically ignoring Victoria. I smirked at that. He sighed.

“Look, I need your name in case the Principal wants to ske you about this.”

Max shrugged. “I’m Max Caulfield.”

Nathan stopped struggling and frowned at that. “Max…” He smiled and looked over at me. “So that’s who…”

Shit… I’d kinda forgotten that I used her name on him. Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck.

David twisted his arm again. “Quiet, Prescott.”

“Thanks, miss. I’ll let you get back to your lunch.”

Dumb-ass duty done, he wandered off, dragging Nathan to the Principal's office. Fucking pointless, he’d just get let off again.

We watched him get carted off. Victoria just breathed out, hella deeply. “Well, jesus. What the hell did you do to piss Nate off that badly?”

“Oh, just breathed in his direction…” I muttered.

She turns on me, sounding hella defensive. Probably of ‘Nate’. “Look, he has a lot of issues, ok? But it's not his fault. His dad treats him like shit.”

Max scans the area, noticing a whole bunch of people are still looking at us. She turns back to Victoria. “Come on. We’re going somewhere less… public.”

Victoria frowns, but nods. Max just turns and walks off towards the dorms, leaving me, Kate and Victoria to just pick up our shit and follow along.

We headed into the dorms corridor. Max was standing by Victoria’s door, waiting. She gestured to the door when we got there. Victoria stuck her key in and opened it. We all crowded in and shut the door.

I looked around the room. How many times am I gonna get a chance to see how the rich bitch lives? Katie joked that the place probably looked like those fucking display apartments they put in furniture stores. All modernist white and glass furniture with fancy artwork on the walls.

The place actually looked kinda… comfy. Sure, there was art on the walls, but it was pretty cool. The furniture was just wood. Looked expensive too, but it wasn’t exactly high-end. Victoria went over to the desk on the far wall and sat in the spinny chair. “Make yourselves at home.”

Max and Kate took the sofa, leaving me sitting on this hella uncomfortable looking monstrosity next to her printer-table thingy. It looked kinda like one of those old leather armchair things the old professor guys always have in their offices in like, every old movie.

Victoria turned to Max. “So…? What the hell happened, Max?”

I chipped in. “Well, she stopped him shooting me, for one…”

Her mouth dropped. “She what?”

I smirked. “Yup. I was blackmailing the fucker. He brought a gun, tried to fucking shoot me! Max and Travis beat the shit out of him though.”

Victoria just blinked at Max. Looked like she was thinking about all this shit. “I wondered how the hell he got all those bruises. He wouldn’t tell me… What were you blackmailing him with?”

“Do you remember the party last friday?” Max asked.

Victoria frowned. “You mean the one Kate…” She slumped her shoulders, not looking at Katie. “Sorry. I didn’t mean...”

“She was drugged, Tori. By Nathan. He’s done it before.”

Victoria’s eyes bulged. She looked hella shocked. I was kinda baffled, I mean, Presc-shit isn’t really that stable. Can’t be that much of a jump to believe he’d do all this sick shit, can it? “Are you sure? He has his issues, but I can’t believe...”

Max nodded. “We’re sure. He tried it on Chloe as well. That's why she was blackmailing him.”

“Shit.” She frowned. “Wait, Travis? Travis is here?”

Victoria knew Travis? What the hell? Max shrugged. “Yeah. He came down with me. Chloe is an old friend. She called, asked for help. We’re here to provide it.”

Victoria looked straight at me. She looked angry. Shit, what the fuck is her problem now? “Wait, wait, she’s…? She’s the reason you…?” She cut herself off, was just glaring at me. “Uh, Max? Can we talk outside? Now?”

She stalked out of the room. Max turned to us and shrugged. “5 minutes.” She followed after Victoria.

Katie watched her go and smiled. I looked at her, one eyebrow raised. “So what, is that just it? She fucking tortures you for weeks and one little apology means all is fucking forgiven?”

Katie just shrugged. “It was a cowardly apology. I’m quite sure Max pushed her into it. But she still apologised, Chloe. It's a sign.”

I snorted. Shitty sign. But fuck, if she meant it, I can play nice.

An alarm went off in Kate’s pocket and she pulled out her phone. “Oh, gosh. I’m running late for art.” She stood up.

“Bye, Katie Kat. Draw me something pretty. I’ll need it after this shit.”

Kate smiled. “I’ll do my best, Chloe. And it’ll be ok. See you later.”

She walked out. Max and Victoria walked back in. “I have to get to Class. We’re going to talk about this shit later, ok?”

Max shrugged. “If you like, Tori.”

Victoria huffed, not looking at me. Pretty sure it was deliberate, but I got no fucking clue why. “Good. Now, get out. I have to change.”

We left and headed across the corridor to Max’s room.

I walked in and slumped on Max’s bed. “Uuugh. That was hella not fun.”

Max didn't say anything. I looked over to see her staring out the window. What the fuck was more interesting out there than me, I had no clue, so I went to check it out.

I couldn't see anythin' special. Just the usual Blackwell pricks wandering around. Wait... Is that Step-Douche? Talking to fucking Presc-Shit?

I elbowed Max. "What the fuck is Step-douche doing with Prescott?"

She shrugged. "Don't know. But this makes him a suspect."

Chapter Text

I stretched out, feeling all my muscles relax. Oh man, I haven't slept this fucking well in years! Why is it so warm? What the fuck happened to the shitty-ass Oregon cold? Mom must've finally gotten the fucking heating fixed. I tried to roll over and kinda freaked out a bit when my blanket like, cuddled closer to me. I mean, what the fuck?

I stretched into the blanket a bit more and my blanket fucking snuggled back. Ok, this shit is happening. What the hell? Blankets shouldn't fucking do that.

I opened my eyes and blinked at the light shining in my eyes. What the fucking hell is going on? My room isn't bright in the mornings!

I blinked hard a few times and the black spots in my eyes cleared.

Wait. My blanket isn't snuggling me. Its covering me like a good blanket should.

I look down to see a mess of dirty blonde hair and the small, happy face of Katie fucking Marsh cuddled into my shoulder.

I shift a little, kinda trying to work out what brought on this little fucking development. The minute I do, she snuggles with me, mumbling. "Nah, m'spot s'right here. Stay st'll spot."

I grin at that. Even dead to the world, she's fucking adorable as shit. Then, I remember last night. We were watching… uh… something? I guess we fell asleep. But what the fuck do I do now? Should I wake her up?

I suddenly freeze, ramrod straight (Hah!) as she rolls and suddenly her face is smooshed against my right tit.

Yup, wake her up! DEFINITELY wake her up. I shake her, gently. “Hey, Katie. KATIE. KATIE!”

She bolts awake, then blinks and smiled dopily up at me. "Hi."

I couldn't help it. I grinned back. "Hey."

We just kinda lay there like that for a while, smiling at each other like fucking idiots. All I could think was just how cute she looked.

A smaller voice in the back of my head thought about how nice it'd be to wake up like this every morning.

But I didn't listen to that voice much anymore. That fucker told me the same thing about Rachel...

Then, her eyes flicked down. I think she realised she was smooshed into my boob, because she just blinked a few times, then flailed the fuck away from me and off the bed. “Uh, we… w-we should get up.”

We were both just standing around in her room, looking fucking anywhere but at each other.

Well, she was standing. I was sitting. Whatever.

Shit, this is awkward. Fuck. I opened my mouth to say, I don’t know, fucking something, but...

BANG BANG BANG

Pretty sure Kate jumped at the fucking opportunity to get out of this awkward shit. I know I would’ve. "Uh... I'll get that."

She headed over to the door and yanked it open. Max was standing in front of the door, playing with her phone. Her head shot up when the door opened and she blinked at Kate, looking kinda surprised. I kinda was too, I mean, the door left a mark in the wall where she'd slammed it.

"Uh. Hi? This a bad time?"

Kate sighed and ran her hand through her hair. "No, Max. It's ok. How are you?"

She blinked and spoke carefully. "Fine... I'd ask how you are, but the wall speaks volumes. The group found a base. Thought you two might want to come." She peered around Kate at me, still sitting kinda gormlessly in the middle of the bed. Her eyes spotted the bedding stuff scattered about the room and she smirked.

Wow. Dirty fucking mind. Shame on her for jumping to that fucking conclusion.

Heh. You wish you and Kate could jump to the ‘fucking conclusion’, dontcha?

WOAHWOAHWOAH! Where the shit did THAT fucking come from?

Ok, Price. Breathe. Now is hella not the time to do this.

Christ, shit was not this fucking complicated with Rachel.

Yeah, well, Rachel wasn't a fucking hardcore BibleBasher that probably had to stay a virgin till marriage.

Aaargh.

Max nodded. "I'll take that as a yes. Be outside in 30."

She turned and left, and Kate closed the door. She stayed facing it though.

I sighed. Shit. "Um. Should we, uh, talk about... uh, 'this'?"

I could hear her take a deep breath and she nodded quickly a couple times before turning around.

She brought her eyes up from the floor to meet mine.

She held that for a whole five seconds, before she just blurted out. "I'mgoingtogetashowerbye!" and bolted out of the room, leaving the door wide open.

I just stared at the open doorway for a second before facepalming.

"Well, shit."

-----

I drove to the lake, following Max's directions. She told me to stop at this big old church. It'd been abandoned for years, even before she left. I looked over at her. They fucking bought a church? Wow... They must be hella rich.

I smirked. Maybe I could get Max to be my Sugar mommy?

She hopped out of the truck and ambled over to the door. I looked over at Kate, sighed when she blushed and wouldn't look at me and we both got out to follow her. She walked up to the big wooden double doors at the front of the church and pushed them in.

Kate and I just followed her in, gawking at the place. Everywhere seemed to be covered in scaffolding and that stupid plastic sheeting shit that they have in like, every building site. Max didn't look at any of it, marching over to a door in the corner.

We headed over. I could hear... Laura, I think her name was, yelling inside. Something about money. Oooh, are we gonna find out how rich these guys are now?

Max just pushed open the door and walked in. We followed her through.

Holy. Shit.

There was an entire fucking wall covered in screens. There was one big one in the middle and a load of little ones around it. The big one had a giant hooded face on it. I could just see like, the chin and mouth. I think it was an old woman. The skin looked kinda... wrinkly and she was wearing lipstick.

Laura was shouting at her. "Damn it, Johnson. We need the money!"

Wait. Is this THEIR Sugar mommy? Damn... There goes my fucking retirement plan.

Max nods to Laura and turns to face the hella awesome screen. "Hello, Ms. Johnson."

Ms. Johnson nods and smiles. "Maxine. Always a pleasure."

Max's smile is quite a bit less friendly. "Not if I hear you aren't doing your job. You are the Banker. We need funding."

The old lady's smile becomes as unfriendly as Max's in a fucking instant. "Your grifter here was refusing to divulge the nature of this contact. Since I am usually the one to find contracts for you, I am understandably reticent to fund this mystery contract that you ran off to answer. While in the middle of another contract, I might add."

Max nods. "That's fair. But, this one is..." Max looks over to me. The hood turns to me too. When Max's eyes go back to the screen, the hood stays staring at me. "Personal."

Max cocks her head. "I could call in Manila, if you really feel that strongly."

The hood snaps back to Max. "Manila?" She sounds... wary. "This is important to you."

Max shrugs. "I told you. It's personal."

The old lady hood is quiet for a minute or two. Kate and I are just standing quietly. Laura looks like she wants to reach through the screen and strangle Ms Johnson. Max... Max is as calm as fucking ever.

Then, the hood nods. "Very well. I'll do what I can. Would you like anyone in particular?"

Max nods back. "Giovanni and his boys. They're good with old buildings."

The hood slumps and sighs. "Giovanni? Do you have any idea how expensive that will be?'

Max just stares. "No. That's your job. Go do it."

She turns back to Laura and does that throat-slitting thing with her thumb. Laura nods and the video call hangs up.

I chip in. "So, what's the Banker for? Is she like your Sugar Mommy?"

Laura laughs. "Something lik..."

I point at her and interrupt. "If you finish that damn sentence, I will fight you, dude."

Laura smiles, all flirty and challenging. "Try it. I dare you."

I wander over to the screen and tap on it, expanding some desktop file. I grin and spin it around. This thing is great! Max has all the cool toys.

I jump when Max coughs at me. I roll my eyes and stop the file thingy spinning. “Spoilsport.”

Kate giggles.

Max sighs. "She has two jobs. First, she finds our contracts. She checks out clients beforehand. Running them through her provides added security for us. Second, she helps fund the contracts and handles our money."

I think for a sec. "So, half agent, half accountant?"

Max nods. "Essentially."

I stare at her for a full thirty seconds. "See, was actually telling me shit so fucking hard? Or do you just get off on being mysterious fucks?"

Max just smiles. "Something like that."

I roll my eyes. "Goddamnit."

Kate giggles at me. I grin back and we just sort of... stare at each other for a few seconds, smiling. It was... weird, to say the least. Max coughs and we both blush and look away quickly.

I look over at her. "So, now you're telling me shit, what the hell is a contract? Are you guys like, paid for this? Are you gonna give me a bill or something when we win?"

Kate giggles. "That would be a bad idea." She puts her hand over her mouth like she's a kid sharing some big secret. "Chloe doesn't even pay her parking tickets."

Max shrugs. "Neither do we. But no, no bill. We operate on an... alternate revenue scheme."

"What the fuck does that mean?"

She shrugs. "It's complicated. Basically, Ms Johnson can trick the stock market. There's a special stock. It's like a bet against companies succeeding. We take that bet, and destroy the company. We make money from that."

Kate chips in. "Companies? So, you're like modern day Robin Hoods? Taking from the corrupt rich and helping the poor?"

Max looks over at Laura. Laura mouths "Smart Girl." I grin. Damn right she is. My Katie Kat is bright as a fucking button.

Wait... 'My...?' Where the fuck did that…? Nope. Nevermind. Not touching that thought right now.

Max smiles. "Not always, but a lot of our work is in corporate corruption. Simply, we help people. We fight the fights others can't. There are a lot of monsters in the world. We give them something to be afraid of."

I grin. "Little Maxie, the big bad wolf! Hah! Thats fucking awesome."

She shrugs. “We do what we can.”

Katie nods. “That’s all the Lord asks of us. To do our best.”

Max laughs. “Well, we definitely do that much.” She cocks her head. “Everyone? Get here now. Briefing.”

Fuck, back with the military voice on the earpiece again.

We chat about shit for a little while. Max tells us about a couple of her old jobs. Apparently, they once had to do security for Taylor freaking Swift! Max’s smile got a little wider when she was talking about that one… No idea what that means…

Anyways, the others filed in pretty soon, except Tish. She was apparently “Fixing something in the van and was listening in on comms.” Meh. Not like I’m gonna miss her. She sounded like a bitch on the ear thingy.

We all sat or leaned against the boxes and shit sitting around the room, looking towards the hella awesome big wall screens.

Max steps up to the front and clicks a little remote thingy at the screens. A whole bunch of pictures of Nathan come up. There’s one that looks like a school pic, one of him talking to David, one of him in a bar, one of him in class. Huh. Looks like they’ve been following the fucker.

“So, this is the main target. Nathan Prescott, son of Sean Prescott, CEO of the Prescott Foundation.”

Travis chipped in. "What about the mom?"

Max shrugged. "Died when he was 4. Car accident."

Car accident..? Shit.

"So, the kid has money and protection. The law here might as well be Prescott Security. Sean pays them under the table. We can't use them to prosecute Nathan."

The screen flicked up a pic of a vortex club party poster. "Nathan is the President of The Vortex Club. Opinion seems divided on him there. Some members like him, others don't. We might be able to use that. His strength is in his allies. Take them away…” She grinned. “And he’s alone. He’s weak. So, we need to take the Vortex from him.”

The picture changed to one of step-douche. “And this… is David Madsen. He’s…” Max shrugged. “He’s an asshole and a bully.”

The pic changed again to one of the prick getting all up in Kate’s face. He was yelling and jabbing a finger at her. Shit, this must’ve been what made her cry before.

“He’s head of security at Blackwell. Uh… Chloe?”

I sat bolt upright. “Yeah Max?”

“Anything you can tell us about David? He’s your step-father.”

I shrugged. “He’s ex-military. Real hard-ass. Met Mom in the diner. They got married like, four years back.”

They all looked at me blankly for a second. “And…?”

I shrugged again. “Thats ‘bout it. We fight, it’s not like we chat over fucking tea and biscuits.”

Max nodded. “Fair enough. Its somewhere to start. Tish? Look into his military history. See if there’s anything we can use. Cassie, you and Travis find his car. Take one of Tish‘s bugs. If you can find Nathan’s truck, plant one there as well.”

She clicks again and a whole bunch of pictures pop up on the screen. “These are…”

“Wait, wait. What the fuck?” I hopped up and moved over to the screen, tapping one of the pictures. It was the tall, pale redheaded chick. “I know this girl. She was at the party.”

Huh… Alexis Rodgers. Pretty name.

“You sure?” Travis asked.

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I’m fucking sure. I picked the girl up. Was gonna meet her at my truck, but I kinda ended up hanging with Katie instead.”

I looked over at Katie and smiled. She blushed and looked down at her feet.

Max looked between me and her with one eyebrow raised. “Ok… Well, that leads nicely into my next point. The disappearances began nearly 10 years ago. Nathan would’ve been 9 when the first girl disappeared. He’s not our target. But clearly, he’s helping them now. We need to find out what he knows. Then we take him down. That's the play. ”

She stuck her hands in her pockets and looked around the room. “So, everyone has their job. Let’s go steal a club.”

I headed over to Katie and slung an arm over her shoulder. I figured hey, if we weren't gonna talk 'bout this morning, we might as well just get the fuck on with it. “Hey Katie, wanna come get some noms? My turn to buy, right?”

I guess she agreed, because she just smiled. “Sure. I’ve got some time before class.”

She turned over her shoulder and called back to Max. “Would you like to join us for breakfast Max?”

Max waves a hand at her. “Nah, thanks. I’ve got things to do here. Have fun though.”

With that, we blow the joint, heading back over to my truck and driving off to the Diner. We take our usual booth.

Joyce flies over like, as soon as we sit down.

"Well, howdy y'all. How're ya doin', Kate?"

Kate smiles. "I'm fine, Joyce. How are you?"

She shrugs, looks around the empty diner. "Well, I just got done with the mornin' rush, so I am damn tired."

I've kinda lost attention at this point, and am staring out of the window, so I nearly miss it when Mom asks for my order.

I rattle off my usual order, Kate asks for the same and Joyce hurries off to get our food. We don't really chat, just sort of sit there, actually comfortable with the quiet. Well, until it was ruined by a loud, gruff fucking voice ringing out from the counter.

“Fucking kids…”

Oh shit. David! We quietly looked over at the bar. Step-douche was talking to Mom. Apparently, some Vortex shits had broken in somewhere at the school and he had to stay late. Paperwork or some shit.

Ooh. Max wanted to know shit about David! Maybe she could get into his stuff while he was out. He spent like, half the time he was home in that fucking garage, so there had to be some interesting shit in there.

I pulled out my phone and dialed.

“Hey, Max?”

“Yes, Chloe?”

“You know how you wanted to know shit about Step-Douche? Well, the house is gonna be empty for like, the whole of tonight. He’s stuck in work after some vortex thing, so you’ll be able to go through all his shit in the house tonight.”

“Excellent idea. I’ll see you then.”

Chapter Text

Ratatat-tat.

“One sec, Mom. I’ll get it.”

I hop up from my perch on one of the stools by the breakfast bar thingy and hurry over to the door, throwing it open to see Max… and Laura, looking as calm as ever. Max smiles amusedly at me. “Well, hello to you to, Chlo. I hope you don’t mind, but I brought Laura. She had nothing to do, so…”

I look the other girl over again and grin, throwing up a salute to Max that would make Step-douche jump off something hella tall. “Eh. You’re the boss.”

I sweep my arm out and bow, like a posh-as-fuck doorman from an old movie with like, royals or something. “Welcome to Casa de Price. We hope you enjoy your stay.”

Max rolls her eyes and walks in, Laura trailing on her heels. Joyce wanders out from the kitchen, wiping her hands with a cloth. “Well? Who is it Chloe?”

The smile across her face when she sees Max makes me annoyingly happy. Mom hasn’t smiled much in the last few years. I sigh internally. I probably haven’t helped with that.

“Max! How lovely to see you!”

She sweeps Max up in a hella big, hella delighted hug, swinging her around like a tiny doll. Max laughs, sounding just as happy. “You too, Joyce. I told you I’d be sticking around.”

Joyce puts her down. “That you did, that you did.” She looks over at Laura.

“Who’s your friend, Max?”

Max waves a hand at her. “This is Laura. She’s a friend from back in Seattle.”

Laura leant over to Joyce and extended a hand out to her, doing that little aristocratic head bob posh people always do when meeting each other. “Hello, Mrs Madsen, it's lovely to meet you.”

Mom certainly seemed to like her, grinning as she shook her hand. “You too, hun. And you can call me Joyce. Any friend of Max’s is a friend of mine.”

“Thank you, Joyce.”

“Now, are any of you hungry? I’m gonna start cookin’ tea shortly and I’m happy to cook extra if you girls want to stay.”

Max shrugged. “We’d never say no to your cooking, Joyce.”

Mom laughed. “Well, then one fine cooked meal coming right up. David’s out workin’, so it’ll be just us girls.”

I snorted. ”No Step-douche? Fine by us.”

Joyce sighed. “Chloe… I’ve asked you not to call him that.”

“Sorry, sorry. You’re right.”

I took a deep breath and said, my voice deadpan. “No Step-prick? Fine by us.”

Laura snorted and looked over at Max. “She really is exactly as you described, Max.”

Max talked about me? Huh…

Mom sighed. “Incorrigible as always, Chloe. Right, well. I’d better get to it. Talk to you later, Girls.”

I turn to them. “Come on. Let’s go upstairs.”

Laura laughs. “Well, isn’t she forward? And so early in the conversation, too. How promising.”

The amused leer she gives me as she says ‘promising’ was so… flirty, even I blushed. And everyone in Arcadia knows I’m normally hella unflappable.

Max rolls her eyes. “Come on, Laura. Leave the poor girl alone.”

She pouts and stomps her foot. “Aww. You’re no fun.”

“Nope. All business, Laura.”

She smirks, and then we head up and get settled in my room. I lounge back on the bed, fiddling with a joint and my old lighter. Laura took my desk chair and Max just leant back on the wall by the door.

“I like your mother. Hell, I hope I look that good when I’m her age.” I glare over at Laura, who just gives me a sassy grin. “You have to admit, she does look good for her age. Excellent legs. Does she run or something?”

I shrug. “Yeah. A few miles every morning before work. She’s not really a fan of cars since… well… not anymore.”

Laura nods appreciatively. I’m kinda weirded out. She seems to really be like, appraising Joyce. On one hand, ew, that’s my Mom. On the other, go Mom. You still got it.

Booyah! I finally got the fucking joint lit. I really should replace that old lighter, but I just couldn’t bring myself to. Rachel had gotten it for me after our first date. It was hella expensive. She’d gotten a sappy little message engraved on the inside. It was… well, the nicest thing anyone had done for me in years. Just made me fall in love with her even more.

What did it say? No way in hell I’m telling you that. That’s between me and her.

“So, my step-douche is set up in the garage. I bet you’ve got a hella smart plan to get in, right Max?”

I went to take a drag from the joint and stopped. Max hadn’t responded. I looked over to see her running her hand along our old height marks, smiling faintly. She looked… wistful. I think. I couldn’t read this Max at all half the time. Not like I used to.

“Max? You remember when we started those?” I said, gently. Her eyes flicked up. “Hmm?” She shook her head. “Yes?”

Before I can answer, I hear a voice boom out from downstairs that I was really fucking hoping not to hear tonight. “Chloe! Chloe? I’m coming up, we need to talk.”

I groan. “Fucking step-douche must’ve stopped in on his way back to work. You’ve got to hide! He’ll flip out if he sees you here after what happened with Kate.”

Max and Laura looked at each other, then smirked over at me. “Don’t worry so much. Control the situation, remember? Just stay quiet. Hand me the joint.”

I hand it over and go back to lounging on my bed.

He’s fucking bitching before he’s even two steps in the fucking door. “What’s going on in here?” He glares over at Max and Laura. “Why are they here? After what she did today...”

I roll my eyes. “Stop freaking. They’re fine, they’re my friends.”

“Great. More of your ‘friends’.”

He stands in the middle of my room, glowering at us all. He’s like a caged dog. Just waiting for someone to make a wrong move so he can bite them. “One of my guns is missing. Did you take it?”

Shit. Play it cool, Price. Play it cool. I rolled my eyes. “Oh god, I didn’t take your stupid gun. You do know I believe in gun control?”

He scoffs and pauses for a sec, zoning in on Max. “Is that Grass in your hand, girl?”

Max just nods. “Yeah, I’m sorry. Its prescribed.” She almosts folds herself smaller, looking hella pitiful. “I get really horrific anxiety attacks.” She puts her hand on her bag. “I have an MMJ card, if you need to see it. I know you have to be sure of these things.”

She clicked her fingers, like she’d just remembered something. “Oh, and I want to apologise for that incident at school. I’d had a tough day and I’m very protective of my friends.”

David opens and closes his mouth like a fish. “Uh, no. That’s okay. Just be sure it doesn’t happen again.”

She smiles. “Thank you, Officer. I know you do good work over at Blackwell, and I hate to be a problem.”

He actually smiles back. “Thank you, that means a lot. Max, wasn’t it?”

She nods. “Yes sir. That’s me. And this is Laura.”

Laura nods elegantly. “Charmed.”

He nods back. “Nice to meet you both. I hope we don’t have to repeat before. It's not like I want to fight with students. I’m just doing my job.”

Max nods, sympathetically. “I know, and you do it so well. But if you could lay off Kate for a while, I’d be very greatful. She’s been bullied a lot by the Vortex Club.” She sits up, like she’s having a “EUREKA!” lightbulb moment. “In fact, it’d be great if you could keep an eye on her? She could do with a protector at the moment.”

Step-douche nods, grimacing slightly. “She has? Damn. Sure, I can do that. I gotta make up for adding to that, anyway.”

Max almost gushes her thanks. David nods. “All in a days work, miss. Now, if you’ll excuse me, duty calls.”

He turns and leaves, nodding at both Max and Laura and giving me a sort of warning glance.

The minute the door closes, I just gape at Max. Holy. Fuck. That was impressive.

Max leans back over my desk, drops the joint into the little ashtray and gives me a flamboyant bow. “And that’s how you do it.”

Laura claps.

“How the fuck did you do that?”

Max smiles. “Expectations. Sometimes, playing into them can be useful. David expects respect, so I gave it to him.”

She cracks her neck. “Well, we know he’s gone now. Let’s get to work.”

-----

Joyce calls in from the kitchen as we wander past. “Hey girls. As Chloe would say, grub’s up.”

Max smiles. “It’s only been a day since my last trip to the Two Whales and I already miss your cooking, Joyce.”

Joyce laughs. “Aren’t you sweet? Well, you’re welcome here or at the diner anytime, Max. Same to you, Laura.”

Laura nods. “Thank you, Joyce. You’re very kind.”

Joyce wanders in, arms hella full of plates. Laura quickly runs over to help, taking a couple of plates from her. “Please, let me.”

Joyce hands her a few. “Thank you, dear.”

We all sit around the table, taking a plate full of food.

I sort of drift off, just eating and not really listening to the others talk. Fuck, I did not realise how hella hungry I was.

Max suddenly chimes up. “I need the bathroom. It still in the same place, Joyce?”

Mom smiles. “Same as ever, Max.”

“Thanks.” The minute Max stands up, Laura chips in with another question about something.

I watch as Max heads over to the stairs, changing direction at the last second and sneaking over to the garage door. I almost facepalm. There are two doors and she goes for the one in the same room as Joyce?

The minute the door is closed and she’s inside, I almost sigh in relief. I see Joyce frown at me and realise I kinda actually did. “What’s wrong, Chloe?”

I shrug, trying to cover. “I was just really frickin’ hungry.”

Joyce smiles. “Still the bottomless pit, eh, Chloe?”

I smirk. “You know me so well, Mom.”

Mom looks over at Laura. “So, how do you know Max?”

Oooh. Another possibility of actually finding something out!

Laura smiles. “We met in her first year of school. She was so shy and cute. I saw her being accosted by some bullies, so of course I stepped in. A mug of coffee and a cup of tea later and we were fast friends.”

Shit… So, Max was bullied… Crap, I felt bad about bitching at her now. Sounds like her new life without me wasn’t as fucking perfect as I thought.

Joyce smiles. “I’m glad you were there to help. Max always was a quiet child. Cute as a button, too. I think I have some pictures around here, if you wanna..?”

Laura grins. “Of course. Especially any baby pictures you might have. They’ll make marvellous teasing material.”

Joyce laughs. “Well, I’ll see what I can do.” She gets up and heads to the other side of the room. “I know they’re around here somewhere.” She walks past the door by the television to look through one of the shelves by the TV and as she does, Max opens it and walks straight into her.

I swear, my heart hella stopped. How the fuck we were gonna explain this, I have no fucking clue.

Joyce gasps and then looks at her, confused. “Uh, hey Max? What were you doing in there? I thought you were in the…?”

Max flinches, raising her hand and…

“Still the bottomless pit, eh, Chloe?”

I smirk and open my mouth to answer. Just before I can, Max’s voice rings out from upstairs. “Uh, do you have any tissues Joyce? I have a little nosebleed.”

Joyce yells upstairs. “Under the sink, Max! Are you ok?”

“Fine! Just need to clean up. Uh, I can’t find those tissues?”

Joyce sighs. “Chloe, would you go help her? They’re in the sink cupboard.”

I nod and hop to my feet. “Sure Mom, back in a tick.”

Laura stands. “Let me help you with these plates.”

I hear mom protesting, and Laura saying “Nonsense, it’s the least I can do. I’m happy to help.”

I charge up the stairs, slowing to a stop when I see Max standing at the top, holding a tissue to her nose and the box of them under her arm.

I stare at her, puzzled. “I thought you couldn’t find them?”

Max rolls her eyes. “Of course I found them. I needed to talk to you. In here.”

We head in. I slump back down on my bed, relighting my joint. “You ok, Max?”

Max shrugs, sitting down on my desk chair. “I’m fine. Just a nosebleed.”

I frown. “You sure? You look a bit... “

She holds the tissue to her nose, tilting her head. “Seriously, Chloe. Stop worrying.”

Laura walks in and leans back against the door. “I love your mother. She’s delightful.”

I roll my eyes at her. Yeesh. Down, girl.

I take a drag from the joint and look over to Max. “So, what did you find?”

“Not much. Seems he’s investigating… Wait.”

Max cocked her head in her ear-piece listening gesture thingy. “Hey Tish. Uhuh. Damn. You sure?”

Max sighed. “You hear that, Laura?”

Laura nods. “Tish always did struggle with… diplomacy. I can drive back. Will you be ok?”

I chip in. “I wanna show Max something. I can ferry her back to the church when we’re done?”

Max shrugs. “Sure. What are we doing?”

I grin. “I’ve seen your lair, now you can come see mine.”

Max smiles. “Sounds like fun. I’m in.”

We yelled bye to Joyce as we left and headed outside. Laura waved goodbye and went over to a hella expensive looking sedan. It was hella big, hella black and hella shiny. Our ride… wasn’t.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my old truck, but it does look like fucking tetanus city. If I ever had the money, I was gonna get it polished and done up proper, but I barely had enough for breakfast most days.

Anyway, we hopped in and roared off to the junkyard.

-----

It was hella late afternoon when we got to my super-secret lair. Not quite dark yet, but a couple hours away from it. I lead Max over to the middle of the junkyard, with my hands over her eyes.

When we got there, I took my hands away and threw my arms wide and twirled. “Welcome to American Rust, my home away from hell.”

Max scanned the place and smirked. “I like it. Very you.”

She’s probably making fun of me, but fuck it, I’m in a good mood. I’ve got some hella fun shit planned. “Now, you gotta find me some bottles. There’s a shitload of them around the place.”

She frowned again. “Are you serious?”

I hit her with the puppy-eyes. “Pretty please…?”

She rolled her eyes and grumbled. “I have to find dirty bottles while you chill. That is not fair.”

She protested, but she actually went! I cannot believe she’s actually fucking doing it!

I just sat back on a car, watching Max trudge around the yard hunting the bottles, laughing internally the whole damn time.

A few minutes later, she wandered back towards me with an armful of bottles, looking pissed I sent her on a hella difficult ‘treasure hunt’. She found all 6! Wow... “What are we doing with these? Are you that desperate for a drink?”

“Something like that.” I laughed internally. Maybe now she’d understand how annoying that phrase is. “Give ‘em here.”

I wandered over to a pretty flat surface of crates and random wood bits and started lining them up. I turned back to Max and threw her a grin, doing that whole magician ‘tada’ arm thing they always do. “And Va-Lah! We have us a range!”

“Its Voila. And what do you plan to do with it?”

I pulled the revolver I’d nabbed from Step-douche’s gun-rack and pointed it at Max, giving her my best Bond-Baddie-Face. “I expect you to die, Ms Caulfield.”

She just watched me quietly. “So, you did take it. What are you going to do with it?”

“We’re gonna shoot all these bottles and get practice with this thing. I got a shitload of bullets, too.”

Max sighed. “You’re serious about this...”

I pointed the gun experimentally down at the bottles, closing one eye, then the other, flipping it from hand to hand, that sorta shit. “Hella yeah, dude. We need to be prepared if Nathan comes after us again. You shoulda taken his gun in the bathroom.”

“Which would’ve pissed him off more. Don’t poke the bull unless you have to, Chloe. He needs to believe he has the upper hand.”

I rolled my eyes and took a shot at the first bottle. “Booyah!” I twirled and punched the air. Probably shouldn’t have done that with the hand with the gun in it, but fuck it! I one-shotted that bastard!

I took aim and managed to hit the next couple of bottles. I completely missed the fourth one though.

I loosed off a couple more bullets that went hella wide. Fuck. I kept firing until I heard the gun click empty.

Max appeared at my shoulder and snatched the gun outta my hand. “Stop it with the fucking impulse shots. Guns aren’t toys, Chloe. You’re going to kill one of us, at this rate.”

I snorted, eying the 3 shattered bottles. “Pfft, like you could do any better.”

Max stuck the gun in her waistband and pulled one from inside her hoodie, firing off at the rest of the bottles, then whirling to shoot at a bunch of cans and shit stacked up around the junkyard.

She. Didn’t. Miss. Once.

I stared at her, open-mouthed. “How the fuck did you do that?”

She smiled. “Parkour Paintball, three times a week. We also have a shooting range back in Seattle.”

Parkour Paint… Wow.

She quickly picked up a few bottles and cans from around the yard and lined them up on the range, then she pulled my gun from her waistband and loaded it up again. “Besides, what's the point in shooting if you’re just going to miss?”

She handed me the gun. “Try again. And this time…”

She moved up behind me, pushing me down on one knee and resting her chin on my shoulder. I smirked. Still a short-ass.

“This time, do as I say.”

She put her hand over mine on the gun. “Line up the sight at the end with your target.”

I shrugged. What the hell. She seems to know what she’s doing.

She guided the gun to point down at one of the cans. “See the way it lines up?”

I nodded. “Good. Now, take a breath. Hold it and squeeze the trigger smoothly.”

I did what she said and hit every fucking target. Booyah!

Max clapped me on the shoulder and got up. “Well done. There may be hope for you yet.”

I was about to turn and reply when a gruff, rough voice rang out from behind us.

“Hey, it's Thelma and Louise. Or is it Bonnie and Clyde?” My shoulders sagged.

Shit.

I turned to see Frank swagger into the junkyard, smirking at us. “I heard the shots and the breaking glass. Its cute that you’re playing with guns. Just like me at your age.”

I scoff. “We’re not anything alike, man.”

The smug bastard gestured to himself, then me. “We both need money. In fact, you need it so bad, you owe me a shitload. Don’t you, Chloe, huh?”

I leant back and crossed my arms, glaring at the fucker. “You’ll get your money.”

He laughed to himself. “Don’t they all say that? Even when they’re broke and acting tough…”

Then, he threw his arms wide and smirked over at Max. What the hell? I immediately zoned in on his right arm, blurting out “Where did you get that Bracelet?” at the asshole.

He looked down at it, then glared back at me. “A friend, and it's none of your goddamn business. You’re my business now and I…”

I interrupted his attempt to get back in control. “That’s Rachel’s Bracelet, why the fuck are you wearing her bracelet?”

I darted around to get a better look and tried to pull the bracelet off him.

He yanks his arm away from me and holds it above his head. Outta my fucking reach. Asshole. “Calm yourself, alright? It was a gift.”

Lying fuck! He thinks he can lie to me? Seriously?

“No, it wasn’t. You stole that shit. Give it to me right now, asshole.”

The fucker pulled his stupid little flick knife. “You better step back before you regret it, girl. I mean it. You want me to cut you, bitch?”

I backed off. You would too if you knew the shit he could do with that fucking knife. I’d seen him hit a bullseye across a crowded bar after half a bottle of vodka.

“You have until friday to pay me. Don’t ever pull crap like this again, girl. It will be the last time you do.”

As he turns to go, I step back and point the gun at him. “No way, asshole. Give it here.”

He turns back to look at me and his eyes bulge. I grin inside. Now who’s acting tough, asshole?

As his knife flies into my shoulder, I wonder dimly why I let the the guy who could throw knives hella well get far away from me…

Eh. Not like I ever really thought shit through.

I drop the gun and my hand falls to the knife. Huh. Fucking Ow.

I slump to the floor and look over at Frank.

Holy Crap.

He looks… upset? The fucker is upset that he fucking stabbed me? I blinked at him as he started forward toward me, rambling about blood and shit.

Well, he tried. Like, two steps into it, he freezes as a little cough echoes from behind him. He swivels his head, keeping his body hella still. It’s Max, standing on the deck of our old ship, gun outstretched.

“Back. Off.”

He grins at her. “You don’t have the balls, little girl.” Then he just darts towards me.

I try frantically to get away, crawling backwards on my hands until my back hits something hard. He, on the other hand, only takes two steps before a bullet knocks his leg out from under him.

He grins at me and keeps crawling. Another bullet flies into his shoulder and he collapses face down on the ground in front of me.

Max hops down off the deck and strides over to his body, now in a hella wide pool of blood.

She flips him over and pulls him up by the collar of his shitty old jacket. “What’s your name?”

Frank coughs blood and mutters. “What? You just shot me, bitch and you want to know my bloody name? Fuck off.”

He coughs and laughs. “I knew you Blackwell shits were gonna be the death of me. Fucking entitled brats.”

She shakes him. “What’s your goddamn NAME?! I need your name!”

Something in her voice must’ve gotten to him, because with his last breath, he says… “Frank… Biddle… Bowers…”

Wait…

BIDDLE?

Fucking Biddle?

Max stares down at him for a second, before sighing and standing up. She looks to him, then to me. Then, she just raises her hand and....

“Chloe, I need you to not do anything rash.”

I look back over my shoulder at her. “What? Why? What’s wrong”

“A man named Frank is about to enter the junkyard. I can’t have you attacking him. Whatever happens next, I need you to stay out of it.”

I scramble to me feet. “What? How do you…?” I shake my head. “Nevermind. Hella no! What if you need backup?”

She sighs and puts her hand on my shoulder. “Chloe, if you tried to shoot him, you’d be more likely to hit me. Sit this one out. We don’t need to fight him.”

I wanna protest, but… I missed more of those bottles than I hit. Fuck, I hate being sidelined. I vowed then and there to get more training from Max, so I could fucking help next time.

I grin, trying to get a smile out of her. “Fine. But you owe me.”

She just glares at me.

Aww. I really wanted a bit of dramatic banter. It’d make this hella cooler. I wander over to a crate and plonk myself down on it to wait. Max stays standing a little ways off.

About 30 seconds after I get settled, Frank swaggers into the yard, grinning at Max, then at me.

“Hey, it's Thelma and Louise. Or is it Bonnie and Clyde?”

I shout out to him. “What do you want, Frank?”

He grinned. “I’m glad you asked. Same thing I always want, Chloe. My fucking money.”

“You’ll get your money. I need more time.”

He shrugs and throws his arms wide. “Well, you have no more time. I need it now, Chloe.” What the hell? I immediately zoned in on his right arm, blurting out “Where did you get that Bracelet?” at the asshole.

He looked down at it, then glared back at me. “A friend, and it's none of your goddamn business. You’re my business now and I…”

I was about to mouth off at him again, demand he give me what he hella obviously stole, but I remembered my promise to Max. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck!

“Whatever. Just give it here. Please?”

He glowers at me and backhands me to the floor. He raises his hand to hit me again, but Max shouts from behind him. “Stop!”

He pauses, then turns to glare at her. “And who the hell are you? Thought Chloe was solo since Rachel went missing.”

“You thought wrong. How much does she owe?”

He leans back and crosses his arms. “Three grand.”

Max blinks over at me. “Holy shit. You owe that much?”

I shrug, and she smirks back at Frank. “But what idiot lets someone like Chloe get that far in debt? You’d got to have known she wouldn’t be good for that much.”

He glares at her again. Max just stares back.

Frank broke first, charging Max and doing that rugby flip over the shoulder thing. He whirls on her as she hops back to her feet, and they start to circle each other.

Frank was bigger and faster than Nathan, so I was kinda worried. They were staying a distance apart, sizing each other up. Frank moved first, swiping high with the knife. Max ducked under it, but at the hella last second, Frank changed the angle of the strike and scored a scrape down her arm.

Max immediately kicked him in the fucking crotch and moved back out of knife range. There’s no way in hell I can help here, so I’m just stuck watching from where I fell. Frank eyes the cut and grins, before grimacing, probably at the pain in his crotch. I smirked.

He sees me smirking and growls at me. He flicks a look back to Max, who’s gone. He turns back to me and grins, ready to throw that fucking knife. I freeze, preparing to like, roll out of the way or something. No way in hell I’m just lying down and dying. Um… Well, no way I’m dying. Whatev...

Max’s confident voice rings out across the junkyard. “Stop.” Frank looks back over his shoulder, paused in mid-throw.

Max, blood running down the side of her face, has her gun lined up with his head. She pulls at something and the gun makes a loud clicking sound. I think that was it being loaded? Probably trying to show the gun actually had bullets in it.

“Go. Now.”

He puts away the knife. “Fine. You win this round, girl. But I still want my money. Get it to me by Friday, or we’ll be doing this again.”

He stomps off, grumbling and muttering to himself. The minute he got outta view, I slumped down, head in my hands. Oh fuck, that was hella close…

Max came over to me and put her hand on my shoulder, handing me my gun back. “You ok?”

I looked up and just stared at her. “You were actually gonna shoot him… You wouldn’t even kill spiders in the bath 5 years ago.”

“I still don’t.” She smirked and shrugged. “Not with a gun, anyway.”

I laughed. That was bad, but fuck it, I laughed. “At least Frank is gone. He won’t fuck with us again, he just wants his money.”

“How the hell did you get in debt to him, anyway? Who even is he?”

“Local dealer. I get my weed from him. He isn’t as hard as he fronts. All he cares about is his cash, stash and his mangy dog.”

I sighed. “And I owe him because I made the stupid mistake of borrowing money so Rachel and I could bail outta of here. I planned for us to leave without paying him off.”

She frowned. “That was stupid.”

I scoffed. “Yeah, well. I didn’t have a banker to pay for my shit, ok? I had to take what I could get.”

I slumped my shoulders. “Yeah, it was stupid. But it was all I had. We had to get out of here, Max. Me and Rachel. We just… had to, y’know?”

Max shrugged. “Where do we find him?”

I looked over at her. “Why?”

“So we can pay him off. The Prescott's are enemies enough.”

“No way. I don’t need you to pay my fucking debts for me, ok? I had the situation under control.”

“Chloe, I know control. That was not it. Let me help. It’s what we do, remember?”

I was gonna mouth off again, but I remembered what Kate had said about listening to her.

“Yeah, fine… He’s got an RV. He moves it around the bay when he’s selling.”

“An RV?” Max rolled her eyes. “Things can’t ever be easy.”

She cocked her head. “Cassie, Travis, you get all that? Good. Take another tracker and find that RV.”

“Now, what was that you said about his bracelet?”

“Rachel used to make these little bracelets outta all sorts of shit. Shells, little bits of string, whatever she could find. I have like, 5 of them. Why the hell does Frank have one?”

“I have no idea. Maybe it was payment for drugs?”

I shrugged. “Could be. No way she’d just give him one.”

“We’ll have to check out that RV next time he’s out.” She sighed. “Chloe, I…”

Her phone rang and Max just pulled it out and scowled at it. “Damn it. One second, Chloe.”

She put her Max-disguise back on again and answered the phone. “Hey Taylor.”

She paused for a second, listening. Taylor was the blonde bimbo Victoria hung around with, I think. She sounded friendly, from what little I could hear.

“Sure, sounds fun! See you soon.” Max hung up the phone and turned back to me. “Duty calls. Seems they want to plan our project.”

“Heh. Ditching me again already?”

Max sighed. “Don’t. We said that was done, remember?” She checked her watch. “Look, I really have to go. Can’t blow my cover. Talk to you later, Che.”

Wait, what? “Uh, Max? We took my truck here. How are you gonna get there?”

She smirked. “Advantages of a team, Chloe. Laura can pick me up.”

I nodded. “Oh. See you later then.”

“Of course. Oh, and I almost forgot, here.”

She reached into her pocket and threw me a little metal case. “To clean out that gun.”

I just stared at her. “Cleaning?”

She smiled. “Oh yes. You do not want your gun jamming. Take care of it.”

I flick open the case and look at the little assortment of brushes and shit. I sigh. Yay. More fucking work. I look back up to ‘thank’ Max, but she was gone.

Fuck, I really hate it when she does that...

Chapter Text

Travis stared at me over the rim of his coffee cup.

“You’re gonna hafta tell her somethin’ eventually, boss.”

He always could read me. I guess that’s the reason he was the only one who ever got through to me.

I smirked and took a sip from my cup. “Eventually is a vague term.”

Travis rolled his eyes and focused on me, directly. “Max. She’s not gonna be happy knowin’ shit all about you forever. You gotta tell her. Soon.”

Damn. I put down my coffee mug. “I don’t know if I can. What if she asks about…”

He snorted. “Then she asks. You don’t gotta tell her everythin’ right now. Just tell her somethin’.”

I sighed. Shit. Why is it always bad for me when he makes sense? “I’ll think about it, Travis. No promises.”

He leans back in his chair. “Good enough for me, darlin’. Let’s get the girl some waffles. She’ll be here soon.”

“Yes. And get some more coffee.”

He grinned. “This place does make a Damn Fine Cup Of Coffee.”

-----

Kate was in tears, sitting on my bed. I had my arm around her, but I don’t think it was doing much.

Sympathy and empathy… They don’t come easy to me. Not anymore.

So, when Chloe bolted into my room, barely even looked at me and took over with Kate, I left them to it.

“Come on Katie, this is my favourite top. I’ll be hella upset if you cry over it. Might actually have to wash it for once. And we both know how that’ll fucking go.”

I smiled and rolled my eyes. Chloe’s sense of humour definitely hadn’t changed. I figured they’d want a moment to themselves, so I headed outside.

Travis was leaning against the opposite wall, watching appreciatively as Dana sauntered past. I swatted him. “Don’t even think about it, Travis.”

He shrugs and grins. “Nothin’ wrong with lookin’, boss. Not like I’m gonna pursue anythin’.”

I roll my eyes. “You never pursue anything, Travis. You’re a habitual manwhore.”

He nods. “Yup. Sounds ‘bout right. Better me than some schmuck who’s gonna feel all crappy afterwards, right?”

I smirk. “Of course. By that logic, Nikki Sixx was just trying to save people from all that heroin.”

He rolled his eyes. “Pfft. Like Nikki Sixx rationalises anything he’s ever done.”

I laugh. “Probably true. So, how did Chloe do? She keep her head?”

He grinned. “No more than usual. She did alright, for a rookie. Why, you plannin’ to bring her into the crew?”

I smile enigmatically. “Something like that.”

We chat a little more, about this and that. Mostly that. Well, until the conversation inevitably turns back to business. “So, you’re plannin’ to get inta this Vortex Club, huh Boss?”

I nod. “They’re Nathan’s support structure. We need to dislodge him from his throne. I figure the easiest way is a coup.”

He nods. “Like you did in Oman?”

“Exactly. Fear and Love, Travis. But first, I need to become a member. I’m going to talk to Tori about that soon.”

He frowns. “Tori, huh?”

I roll my eyes. “Let it alone, Travis. I’m stronger now, I’m not going to let it happen again.”

He sighs. “Maybe, boss. Maybe. Don’t mean I ain’t gonna worry about it though.”

I deftly change the subject. “So… how ‘bout them redsox, huh?”

He rolls his eyes. “Baseball? Are ya serious?”

I smile. “It’s America’s pastime, Travis. Of course I’m serious.”

We actually manage a decent sports conversation, given that neither of us follows baseball too closely. I think Travis was taking mercy on me when he let me change the subject.

-----

Chloe stormed out of my room and marched up to me. Fuck, what’s annoying her now?

“Can we talk? Like, now?”

I raised an eyebrow. What the hell is this about? Must be something to do with Kate. “Sure.”

She turned a glare on Travis until he grinned and surrendered, heading outside. I watched him leave and turned back to Chloe. “Yes?”

“What the fuck is with you and the bitch?”

Ok…? Even I’m lost here. “What?”

She scoffed. “The Bitch? Victoria Chase, Queen fucking Bee of Blackwell? The girl who’s been bullying the shit outta Katie for weeks now? Ringing any fucking bells?”

Oh. That.

Sure, Victoria was a bitch, but… she’d gotten me through a tough time. I owed her a chance, at least. A chance to be better. If I gave Tiffany fucking Reynolds a chance, I could give Victoria one.

There’s no way Chloe would understand that. Not without me explaining things I don’t want her to know just yet.

So, I just shrugged nonchalantly. “We were old friends in Seattle. We lost contact years back. It was good to see her.”

She snorted. “Well, ain’t you just got a fucking great taste in ‘old friends’.” I could practically hear the inverted commas. “That it then? You gonna go party with the Vortex fuckers now?”

“If I need to. Why?”

“If I need to.” She singsonged back. “You’re ditching me for her! I just got you back and now she’s gonna fucking take you aw…”

I heard a cough and saw Victoria standing a few feet behind Chloe. I sighed internally, again. Please don’t make this worse, Tori.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

I rolled my eyes. This is going to end with Chloe trying to hit Tori, isn’t it?

“I’m just here to pick up some books for my next class. What about you? I didn’t realise they still let punk trash like you on campus.”

Yes. Yes it is. Fuck. I have to stop her before she does something stupid. Again.

I moved over between them. “Don’t, Chloe.”

Her jaw dropped. “Are you fucking serious, Max? You’re siding with that Bitch over me?”

She threw her arms up, disgusted. “Fucking fine then!”

She yelled some more and punched an admirably sizeable hole in the wall next to me. We’ll have to get her working on that arm. Then, she stormed out, ranting and raving.

As I watched Chloe leave, I reached one hand up and massaged my brow.

Fuck. Now I really need that drink.

-----

I crept into the garage, closing the door quietly behind me. The room was empty. Excellent.

I pulled a pair of dark leather gloves from my pocket and started rooting around in a tool cabinet next to the door. Skimming through the surprisingly decent quality tools, I found a picture of David in uniform at Blackwell.

I smirked. Probably oppressing someone.

Just as I was about to push the picture back in, I noticed a glint of plastic. Whatever it was, it was slightly buried under a monkey wrench, so I eased it out, careful not to break it.

Damn. Concealed carry license. Something to keep in mind, if I ever need to mouth off to him again. I put both the license and the picture back where I found them and slid the drawer closed, moving to the next one.

Oooh. Security ID for Blackwell, that could come in handy. I scanned the card with a special app Tish had developed. With the card-maker back at base, we can duplicate this easily.

I smiled at the next thing I pulled out. A picture of David, in full uniform, marching along a dusty road. Presumably Afghanistan, based on the flora and fauna.

What? It’s very distinctive. You spend 3 weeks in not one, but two deserts running from angry locals and you tend to realise the difference.

He seems happier. I guess the simplicity of war was easier to deal with than Chloe. I slid both items back into the drawer. I can understand that. This is one of the most complicated jobs I’ve ever taken, and I’m including the one with the pyromaniac midget sextuplets.

Ah. And speaking of concealed carry… I flicked a switch, illuminating the large, fully stocked gun-rack blocking the back door. He had quite a nice collection. With one missing. Hmm. I wonder where that went. Presumably, he isn’t wandering around armed, not without his Concealed Carry license. I noted it to look into later and turned off the lights.

There was a line of cupboards above a countertop with a laptop and a collection of files on it. I started at the left.

Heh. Re-sult, as Chloe would say. "Hey Tish. I found that Camera network."

"Ya did? Whose is it?"

"Look's like David's. Seems he's very into home security."

There was a map of Blackwell, with a series of red circles across it. Placement of Cameras.

Interesting. Appears he wants to add cameras to Blackwell. He seems to have a decent coverage. If he succeeds, we can tag on to his network and add some of our own.

"Of course he is. That asshole don't care about anyone's privacy."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "After that job in Calais, I don't really think you can talk, Tish. And I really liked that hotel, too."

She bristled at that. I could hear her grumbling.

I moved on to the right cupboard. Ew. Corned Beef. No wonder he's an asshole. That stuff would make Francis of Assisi psychotic.

The notes on his desk seemed fairly run of the mill. Mostly family records. Bills and the like. The Price's were... not well off. Although, with a waitress and a security guard being the only paychecks, that's not surprising.

I moved to the next set of drawers. Three of the four were just full of assorted tools. Nothing of any interest. The fourth, however, was full of personal items. There was a combat knife with ‘to my field angel, keep those wings up’ engraved into the blade.

Hmm. Interesting to think, David might have been an angel to someone out there.

I definitely didn’t expect the next thing in there. It was a birthday card to Chloe, thanking her for bringing David into the family. Undelivered, of course.

Under the card was a picture of Joyce and David at their wedding. Even I had to smile at that. It was actually kind of sweet. They looked happy.

I refilled the drawer and closed it. Maybe there is a chance for this family, after all.

I scanned around again. Damn. There has to be something else. I flicked my eyes up around the the upper walls. Maybe a vent?

Wait. Is that? Yes! On top of a small cupboard was a stack of files.

I ninja-kicked off the side wall and grabbed them from their little hiding spot, landing with an uncomfortably loud thud on the ground.

Shit. I froze.

One…

Two…

Three…

I sighed in relief. No Joyce. Thank fuck for that. I really had no idea how I’d explain being in here rather than the bathroom upstairs.

I stopped by the car. What if…?

I leaned through the window and opened the sunvisor, finding a receipt for bacon, eggs and coffee clipped there. There was a message from Joyce along the back, talking about how much of a gentleman he, presumably David, had been. Of course she’d made the first move. Joyce always was a bold Georgia girl.

That was the thing about rooting through people’s personal effects. It always humanised the target. Heh. Jimmy always used to say that. I haven’t thought about him in a long time.

I shook my head, clearing the old thoughts and moved over to the laptop. “Tish, I have a laptop here. Can you hack it?”

“Depends. Do you have one of my memory sticks?”

I checked my pockets. “Nope. I think I gave it to Travis.”

“Well, goddamn it woman. You serious? Just ask for more next time. Jeez, ain’t like I can’t make more like that.”

I could hear her tapping a few keys through the earpiece. “Well, then you gotta work out the password your own self. You find any of his personal shit while you were all searching around?”

“A few things.” I listed off everything I found. “His family is important to him. Maybe I should try something related to Chloe and Joyce?”

She hmmed. “Try the date from the receipt. Beginnin’ of an era and all that.”

I shrugged. As good a place to start as any, I guess. I typed the date into the computer and… bingo.

“I’m in.”

“Well, wooptidoo. Download the files and email ‘em to me.”

Jeez. The idiot had all his secret snooping files in a folder on his goddamn desktop. So much for over-paranoid about security. I opened the file and flicked through quickly.

Christ. This is alarmingly in-depth. He’d been following Kate, and Rachel and keeping very detailed notes on their movements. I might have to tell Chloe about this.

I copied the files and emailed them to an anonymous account of Tish‘s, deleting the record once I was done. Easy. I relocked the laptop and turned to leave.

Fuck. Joyce is right outside. I could always go to the other door, but…

I looked down at my hand. I do need to test this power. See how fast on the draw I am?

I took a deep breath, and pushed open the door.

-----

“Back. Off.”

The asshole grinned at me and spat. “You don’t have the balls, little girl.”

Internally, I rolled my eyes. Like he can say any better. The man was panicking over stabbing Chloe. He was clearly more bark than bite.

He darts towards Chloe, probably to use as a shield. I actually do roll my eyes this time.

Then, I put a bullet in his fucking leg.

While he does scream, the asshole does manage to keep going. I was quite impressed.

He screams in pain. Aww. You’d think the thug had never been shot twice before. I hop down off my perch on the boat and stride up to him, resisting the urge to step on his leg.

I glance over at Chloe. Excellent. She left the knife in. Means she isn’t going to bleed to death while I deal with the necessities.

I crack my knuckles and flip him over. I need his name.

*flashback begins*

The man slumped against the wall, hands tied behind his back, was older, all greying hair and grizzled skin. I kicked him awake.

He blinked a few times before spitting a gob of blood and teeth on the ground. He looked up at me and smiled. “Heh. Beat me at my own game… I’m proud of you, girl. Proud of you all… Remember that.”

His eyes fluttered shut and he smiled.

I pulled the trigger.

*flashback ends*

“What’s your goddamn NAME?! I need your name!”

With his last breath he gasps “Frank… Biddle… Bowers…”

I let him fall back to the ground.

I sigh.

I stand back up.

I look at Chloe.

I raise my hand.

-----

I slide into the car with Laura, immediately raising a hand to stop the word salad I know is coming. “Yes, I should’ve been more careful. But I needed information on Frank. Chloe owes him big, and it seems a legitimate claim. That makes him dangerous, you know that.”

Laura laughed. “Everything we do is dangerous, Max. Rule 7, as you may recall?”

I rolled my eyes. Laura did love to use my own rules against me. “Yes, but we can take the danger. Chloe, as much as she fronts, cannot.”

Laura scoffed. It was very unladylike for the eternally composed girl. “She would, if you’d just take her on. You need to train the girl, Max. Or…”

I interrupted. “Actually, I did. Basic firearms training. I left her a cleaning kit.”

She stared at me, slackjawed. “You left her with the gun?”

I rolled my eyes. “We shot all the bullets, Laura. And after David found out it was gone, he’s going to keep his under tight lock. She’ll be fine.”

She laughs. “I’m sure. Although, this is Chloe we’re discussing. Are you quite certain she can’t acquire more bullets elsewhere?”

I frown. “Possible, but unlikely. She’ll be fine. I taught her enough.”

“As you say, Max. Just keep it in mind.”

I glance out the window. “Turn here. Blackwell is the next right.”

“So… this Frank fellow has one of Ms Amber’s bracelets, hmm?”

I nod. “So Chloe seems to believe. I assume we agree, it probably means Rachel was fucking him.”

She rolls her eyes. “Not at all, Max. They were likely just Tennis Partners. Good lord. Yes, of course they were involved.”

I nod again. “Damn. Chloe is not going to take that well.”

Laura smiles, thinly. “She is somewhat… high-spirited.”

I roll my eyes, this time and put on a New York accent. “Jeez, ya think?”

She laughs. “You’ll need to approach her delicately.”

She clicked her fingers, like she’d remembered something. “Ah yes, speaking of delicate, I managed to take over from Tish before she… instigated an incident with Giovanni and his charming gentlemen. Apparently, they should be touching down later today. Do you want to meet him at the local airfield?”

I nod. “Sounds good. Johnson paid him already?”

“Of course. After you called in Manila, she’s been the very soul of generosity.”

I smile as we pull up outside Blackwell. “Excellent. Thank you for the lift.

-----

I headed into Tori’s room to find… Taylor and Kate staring at me expectantly. I frown. “Where’s Tori?”

Taylor shrugs. “I don’t know. I keep texting her, but she’s not responding.”

Huh. From Taylor’s slumped shoulders and slightly defeated expression, I’m assuming radio silence is never the norm for Tori. “Should we go find her?”

She shrugs again. “Nah. I think we can just get started. She’ll turn up when she’s done with whatever, right?”

...shaky logic, but I guess I shouldn’t expect too much from Tori’s flunkies. “If you say so. Shall we get started then?”

She nods. I head over and sit next to Kate. We spend the next forty minutes or so going over the plan we did in lesson. I’d sat with Tish and researched photography for a few hours, so I was a little more understanding of the technical terms.

Taylor looks up from her phone. “Uh, Max?”

I look at her expectantly. “Yes?”

“Victoria’s outside. Dana says she sounds angry.”

I sigh. “Finally. I’ll go check on her, I guess. I’ll try make this quick.”

I open the door and step out into the corridor.

Tori is striding back and forth in the corridor. “...a disaster. It’s going to be a fucking disaster.”

Christ. This job is just endless drama. I sigh internally. God, I need a drink.

I walk over and put my hands on her shoulders, holding her in place. “Calm down, Tori.”

She tries to wriggle away, but there was no way that was happening. “Tori, calm down. Tell me what’s wrong. Maybe I can help.”

She glares at me when she can’t get free and sighs. “The DJ for the next Vortex Party just fucking cancelled. Asshole!”

I nod slowly. “Ok… and?”

“And there’s no fucking way we can have a party without music, dumbass!”

I frown. “Doesn’t anybody have a stereo? You can hook those up to the speakers in the gym.”

She gapes at me. “A fucking stereo? Are you serious? There’s no fucking way these people will stand for that. Every Vortex Party has had live music since the club’s goddamn inception.”

She slumps in my hands. “Fuck, if I don’t come up with something, I’m finished. There’s no way they’ll let me stay a member.”

I resist the urge to point out that if that’s all it takes to lose favour, she has some shitty friends and just shrug. “Well, if you need something live, I can play.”

She immediately focuses on me. “You can? What?”

“Guitar, a little bit of piano.”

She thinks for a moment. I’m mildly irritated to see her look unsurely at me for a second before the desperation takes over. “Fine. But I need to see what you’ve got. There’s no way I’m letting you go up there with that indie shit you used to like.”

I grin. “Tori, I wouldn’t expect anything less. Now, can we get on with this fucking project?”

Chapter Text

I grumbled as I cleaned out the gun. “Fucking Max giving me fucking work to do… Damn it.”

I grumpily packed the brushes and shit back into the little box Max gave me and slid the gun into my jeans.

I’m so bored. I’m not doing this shit anymore. I’m… I’m gonna go find Katie. Maybe she can keep me entertained for a while.

Then, it clicked. Crap, Katie’s working with Max and Bitchtoria and Bitchtoria’s little minion. Fuckity Fuck. Gonna have to amuse yourself for a while, Price.

I hop up from the hood of the car I was sitting on and wandered over to Casa del Price, flopping down onto the ugly couch pushed up against one wall. Fucking place. Full of good memories and shitty memories alike.

I looked over at our little doodles scattered over the walls and grinned. Heh. Rachel and I put so much fucking word into these shitty things.

My grin fell when I saw the one by the window. Well, the hole that we used as a window, anyway.

‘Rachel was here’

I sighed. What the fuck happened, Rach? Where are you?

I can feel myself getting more pissed off. My little internal monologue gets hella external and I pretty much start shouting at the walls. “Where did you go, Rachel? What fucking happened?”

I punched the wall again. Shit, I really have to learn not to fucking do that. My hand is all bruised and purple. I snort. “Punching stone walls, Price. Not your smartest move ever.”

I really don’t wanna go see Doc Holme again. Cranky old bastard. I think for a minute. Hospital, also a no-go. Not stepped foot in there since…

Since...

Not an option.

Then, I get my eureka moment. Oooh. Max’s little group must have something, right? They’re all hella hardcore criminals and shit, they can’t go to a hospital with a bullet wound or whatever, the cops would get them!

Decision made, I get into my truck and gun it to Max’s Church.

-----

When Laura sees my hand, she laughs. “Get into a scuffle, did we?”

I growl at her and she raises her hands, grinning. “My apologies. May I take a look?”

We head into the big computer room and over to a metal cabinet. She opens it and pulls out a medkit. “So, I’m afraid it’s time for the usual banal chitchat that so often accompanies these things. What happened?”

I shrugged, which got me a glare from her when my hands moved. “I might have punched a wall.”

She snorts. It’s hella me for someone so… ladylike. “Well, that sounds like an intelligent thing to do. Did it insult your family? Impugn your honour? Steal your girl?”

I’m pretty sure she’s making fun of me and ask her exactly that. Her face is the very picture of innocence…

“Making fun of you? Perish the thought.”

I snort at that. “Forget it.” She leans back and starts packing things back into the medkit. “That should do nicely. Make sure to keep it clean and try not to pick any more fights with walls. They are apparently worthy foes.”

I flex my fingers. She did a pretty awesome job. Guess I was right coming here.

As Laura puts the medkit back in the cabinet, I chime up. “So… Max was bullied in Seattle?”

She smirks. “Nice try, Chloe, but that information is Max’s and Max’s alone to share. I shan’t be breaking her trust.”

Fucking fuck. “What is it with you people and secrets?”

She laughs. “We’re con artists and criminals, darling. Secrets are our bread and butter.”

I grumble to myself. Eh, maybe she’ll be willing to talk about her. People like talking about themselves, right? “Con artists, huh? So, what’s your job in all this?”

She turns, striking a pose and raising a hand like she’s got a wine glass in it or something. She looks like that guy with the skull from that Shakespeare play. It’s fucking ridiculous. “I… am the Grifter. I play whatever role the job requires and I ensure the others are equally disguised whenever necessary.”

She ends with a theatrical bow.

Huh. “You do disguises?”

She shrugs. “Indeed. Costumes, make-up, hair, it all plays into our contracts in some way.”

She starts telling me stories about how her whole acting and disguising thing helped with jobs and I kinda get fascinated.

-----

And that’s what Travis and the little girl with the weird coloured hair walk in on about 3 hours later. Damned if I can remember her name. Began with a C, I think.

“So, if you find it necessary to lie, endeavour to be slightly out of breath before you start to speak, it makes deceit far more difficult to detect.”

I’m just sitting in a desk chair, head balanced on my hands watching her with fascination. “Wow. That’s hella cool. It seriously works?”

She smirks. “It worked on every mark I’ve tried it on thus far.”

When she sees the other two come in, she turns to them. “Hello, you two. Were you successful in your task?”

Travis nods. “Sure were. This town is tiny, it weren’t exactly hard. Prescott was at the school and Bowers was down on the beach.”

“So, how do these tracker things work?” I ask.

I meant to ask Travis or Laura, but instead, I get Tish‘s voice from speakers scattered around the room. For once, she actually seems kinda friendly. I guess asking her about tech shit is a hella good way to make friends. I hear her tapping keys and a map of Arcadia Bay appears on the big screen. There are 2 big red dots flashing. “It’s pretty simple. I retasked a satellite to monitor our signals years back, so we got real-time tracking wherever we want it.

I grin. “Huh. That is seriously cool.”

“It really is. Nobody ever understands how valuable and cool the shit I do is, y’know? You gotta have tech support as well as the punching and the climbing up buildings, or nothing gets done. Without me, there’s no cool gadgets or anything!”

Cassie wanders over to the corner and starts fiddling with some wiring. Literally, less than a minute later, Tish‘s seriously pissed off sounding voice echoes through the room, completely forgetting what we were in the middle of talking about. “Cassie! Leave my fucking systems alone, you mabono!”

Travis sighs. “Tish… What’s the problem now?”

“This, this… zirema won’t stop fiddling with my damn systems! I’m working out of my damn van tryin’ to get all this set-up and every time I get somewhere, she comes in and messes it all up again!”

Laura rubs her forehead. “Cassie” That’s it! I knew it was a fucking C! “Could you please avoid tinkering with Tish‘s wiring? It seems to be making her rather cranky.”

The little girl with the multi-coloured hair shrugs and wanders away from the wiring. “She’s stopped playing about with your stuff, Tish. Can you get on with it? Boss wants connection to the Network up ASAP.”

The answer is just technobabble I hella don’t understand. Travis nods though, so I’m pretty sure it was good technobabble.

That’s when we hear a clatter from the other room. Someone’s opened the big door. Laura and Travis seem totally relaxed, so I guess it’s someone they know?

They all wander over to the door, Cassie included. Laura turns back to look at me. “Are you coming, Chloe? Or would you rather stay there and miss out on all the fun?”

I hop up and hurry over. We walk into the main church hall to see Max with a big, burly guy walking in the door. Laura grins and walks over to him, arms wide. “Giovanni! Always a pleasure. How’s your nephew?”

The man smiles widely back and hugs her, picking her up off the ground and twirling her around like a fucking ragdoll. “Laura, my dear, it’s been too long. You need to tell your boss here to hire us more often. And he’s good, really turned it all around after you helped him out of that little misunderstanding in Budapest, thanks for askin’.”

Huh. He sounds like he’s straight from the set of Goodfellas or The Sopranos. Looks it too. Slightly balding, well dressed, jovial grin. Looks like the sort of guy who’d beat your head in with a tire iron and claim it was ‘for the family’. It’s hella awesome. After shaking hands with Travis and saying hi to Cassie, he turns to me. “Well, who have we here? Is there finally a new member to your little gang?”

Max smiles. “This is Chloe. She’s a client.”

He turns to her and frowns. “You don’t usually let clients loose in your base. What’s different about this one?”

Max looks over at me. “This one is… personal.”

He nods. “Fair enough. To business, then. My boy, Tony, he’s workin’ for his old man now, Tony, he’s got the plans you asked for.”

He turns and shouts outside. “Tony! Get your ass in here!”

Another guy comes in, this one is short and kinda dorky looking. Looks fucking nothing like his dad. He’s got a fucking pocket protector, for fucks sake. “Uh, yeah dad. I got them right here.”

He taps the tube he’s holding. He nearly drops the thing. Giovanni rolls his eyes. “My apologies for my boy, he’s just a little nervous. You’re quite the legend, Max.”

Max shrugs. “Consider it forgiven. Shall…”

She’s stops suddenly, cocking her head. “Really? Damn. Patch them through.”

She looks back at Giovanni. “Sorry, Giovanni. Something’s come up. Laura, you take it from here.”

Laura nods and takes Giovanni and his hella dweeby son off into the back room with Travis and Cassie. Max heads outside, leaving me just stood there.

I stand there for a couple minutes, hands in my pockets, clicking my tongue. So… Whadda I do now?

Well, Laura and that lot are just talking about buildings, so that’s gonna be dull as fuck. Max seemed kinda anxious though…

I’m gonna go see her.

I head outside. “Max?”

She’s leaning against the church, out of the way of all the builders and all their shit that seems to be taking up the entire front of the church. She’s talking on her mobile. “Zuahur, siz var? Ibri komanda ilə bir çatışmazlıq olub. ASAP geri hesabat.”

She sounds pissed off. No idea what the hell she’s saying, but something must’ve fucked up somewhere.

“Zuahur! Lanet olsun. Hesabat vermak!”

There’s a pause and her face pales. "Mən sizə zərər sonra mənim komanda tapmaq əgər Kim, mən sizə sona çatacaq."

She puts the phone back in her pocket and rubs her face with her hand. I wander over. “Hey Max. Everything ok?”

“No. There’s been a set-back. One of my teams has been compromised.”

One of her teams? So, it’s not just these guys? There’s like, a whole organisation? Awesome.

“Are they ok, I mean..?”

She interrupts. “No, Chloe. They’re not. They could be dead for all I fucking know!”

She slams a fist into the church wall and swears. Well, I think what she said was swearing. I didn’t recognise the language, but I hella recognised the pissed off tone.

She sighs and leans her head onto the church wall. I put my hand on her shoulder. Fuck, I am shitty at all this emotional crap. “Well, could you go find out? Tish could…”

“No. Tish can’t track these operatives.”

She sighs and knocks her head against the wall again. She takes a deep breath and straightens up, pushing all that anger back again. It’s hella impressive to watch and I seem to be saying that a lot around Max. Kinda hard not to, really.

“I need to work on this, Chloe. Go home.”

I roll my eyes. Max’s ‘direct’ approach was really fucking annoying sometimes. “Sure.” As an afterthought, I add. “I hope your people make it.”

“I hope so too, Chloe.”

-----

I park outside my house, way after Step-douche’s idiotic curfew. Just before I get out, I remember what Max said about Step-Douche. Maybe there is a way I can get in without another go at the same fucking argument.

I walk in. Step-Dou… David immediately bursts out of the kitchen the minute the door clicks closed. “Where the hell have you been?”

I take a deep breath. Don’t get pissed off, Chloe. Treat him with respect. Ok…

“I’m sorry, sir.” His eyebrows immediately go up. I’d laugh if I wasn’t trying to be all mature and shit.

“I was out with Max, I lost track of the time. I’ll do better next time.”

He blinks at me and his eyebrows go back down. Aww. He looked hilarious like that. “That’s… ok, Chloe. Just, call next time, ok?”

I blink in surprise and quickly hide the reaction. Fucking hell, that actually worked! I nod, then turn and get the hell out before I say something to start the argument up again.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Translations:
Mabono - White Trash

Zirema - Good for nothing Idiot

“Zuahur, siz var? Ibri komanda ilə bir çatışmazlıq olub. ASAP geri hesabat.” - “Zuahur, are you there? There’s been a setback with the Ibri team. Report back, ASAP.”

“Zuahur! Lanet olsun. Hesabat vermak!” - “Damn it, Zuahur. Report!”

"Mən sizə zərər sonra mənim komanda tapmaq əgər Kim, mən sizə sona çatacaq." - “Whoever you are, if I find out you’ve hurt my team, I will end you.”

Chapter Text

I slid into the booth across from Cassie and Laura. “You called?”

Laura smiled. “Indeed I did. Travis claimed you performed adequately when assisting him, so how would you like to provide your assistance again?”

I shrugged. “Sure. Can I eat first though?”

She laughed. “Oh, I’d almost forgotten. Here. These are for you.” She uncovered a plate of waffles and slid it over to me.

I frowned down at them and looked over at her. “How did you…?”

She shrugged dismissively. “I notice things. It’s a somewhat vital practice in our line of work.”

I didn’t respond, I just dug in. “Where’s Max? And big guy?”

She smiled. “They’re checking on the status of that missing team. They’re currently in Azerbaijan.”

Azerbai…? “Cool. Do you know when she’ll be back?”

Laura shrugged, again. “It depends on the state in which she finds our missing fellows. Knowing Max and Travis, it won’t take them long to find them, the state she finds them in will merely determine how she deals with those who put them there. Max does not take kindly to those who threaten those whom she considers to be hers.”

I nodded. So, Max was off scaring bad guys in one of the -istans. Cool. Maybe I should ask if I could go along next time? That’d be hella fucking cool! “Fair enough. So, what are we doing here then?”

Laura smirked. “Max has asked that we obtain your friend Mr Bowers’ ledger.”

I frowned and swallowed. “His what?”

“His ledger. It’s the method by which someone in his business happens to record his sales. In his case, we expect an actual book, rather than anything electronic.”

Huh. Ok. I wonder if me and Rachel are in there? “So, how are we gonna get that?”

“Simple. Frank is over there in the corner, eating some no-doubt delightful dish prepared by your ravishing mother.”

I rolled my eyes and checked over her shoulder and there the fucker was. I don’t get it… I looked back to Laura. “So..? How does that help us get his fucking ledgey thing?”

“Ledger, darling. And think about it. He’s here, so…” She trailed off, obviously doing the teacher thing where they try to prompt you into the answer. I always fucking hated that. If I don’t know the answer, vaguely hinting at the damn thing isn’t going to help me.

I glared at her. “So..?”

She snorted. “So, he’s not in his motorhome. And if he’s not in his motor home…”

Then I got it. “If he’s not there, we can sneak in and steal it, right?”

“Exactly.” She clapped the girl next to her on the shoulder. “This one can pick the lock on his RV and get you both inside. I’ll play lookout and keep an eye on our charming target as he eats.”

I nodded. “Ok, so when are we doing this?”

She smiled. “I thought now would be best. Tish needs the Ledger as soon as possible.”

Fucking hell. I hit her with the doe eyes. “But my waffles…”

She laughed. “Unless you can devour them in the next few moments, I’m afraid they’ll be lost to you forever. No rest for the wicked, as they say. Apparently they didn’t think to include waffles.”

She smiled. “You wanted to understand more about Max and our operations. She thought you’d be interested in providing a little help and learning the ropes, as it were. If you’re not up to it, I’m sure Max will understand.”

I glared. Not fucking up to it? I’ll show her I’m fucking up for all of this. “Just tell me what to do.”

She beamed. “Excellent. Please do keep an eye on Cassie, she has a tendency to, uh, wander off. Oh, and you’ll be needing this.”

She handed me an earbud. I grinned. My own earbud! Fucking finally...

Laura patted Cassie on the head and she got up and scurried out the door, leaving me to hurry after her. “Fucking hell…”

-----

“So, we’re breaking into an RV in the middle of a carpark in the middle of the fucking day while a cop sits in the fucking diner… And you guys think this is a good fucking idea?”

Cassie didn’t say anything, just kept fiddling about with the RVs lock. “Seriously? What if the cop notices or Frank gets up or something?”

Laura’s voice rattled through my ear. “Then I alert you through the earbuds and you get out of there, then Tish scrubs the last half hour of footage from any nearby security cameras. We do know what we’re doing, Chloe.”

Ok, so maybe I shouldn’t think I know better than the fucking career criminals, huh, Price? Damn it. The door clicked open and Cassie gently eased it open before tossing something in and closing it again. I heard a quick whine and then a thunk, like something hit the floor. “What was that?”

“Knock-out Gas. A little something a friend of ours dreamt up in his spare time.”

Fucking knock out gas? Awesome! Cassie opened the door and we snuck in, stepping over the sleeping body of Pompidou, Frank’s dog. She moved the dog over to the front of the RV and sat down at Frank’s computer. I saw her put a flashdrive in it.

I took the cue and started looking around, poking through the kitchen cupboards. Fuck, this place is shitty. And I thought my room was bad. Then again, I’m not a scary drug dealer.

I grimaced as I looked around the place. Ew, dude. Would it kill you to clean up now and again and oh, god I’m turning into my fucking Mom…

I rolled my eyes and headed into the bedroom, trying to concentrate on looking for a ledger. Ok, so it’s not on any of the surfaces and there’s no cupboards in here. Damn it.

I turned to leave, but grinned when I spotted the white vent in the corner of the bedroom. “Cassie, there’s a vent here!”

I turned to get her from the computer, but she’d just appeared at my side and I hella nearly knocked her over. I shook my head, clearing the panic adrenaline of suddenly having someone hella quickly appear right next to you. Fucking Silent-Hill flashbacks, right there… “Can you open it?”

She shook her head. “Needs something to pry it open.”

Right. Something to… I started poking through drawers and cupboards in the kitchen. Oh! I grabbed the knife from the pizza box and headed back in. “Will this work?”

She shrugged and took it from me. “Let’s try it.”

The vent came off pretty easily and I stuck my hand inside, coming out with the ledger! “We got the ledger, Laura. We’re coming back.”

“That won’t be necessary. We’ll simply meet at my car. As I said, Tish needs that ledger as soon as possible.”

-----

We headed into the Church, walking past a whole bunch of burly guys in overalls carrying and hammering and all sorts all over the place. I guess ‘Giovanni’ had gotten to work hella fast. I even saw his hella dorky son Tony wandering about with papers and stuff. He seems like the errand boy. Not strong enough to swing a cat, never mind a fucking hammer.

We headed straight through to the back room, where I saw a tall, thin black girl bent over a computer. Cassie moved over and sat on a table in the corner, but Laura smiled and walked straight over, rapping the black girl on the ass with the ledger.

The minute book touched butt the girl spun around with a fucking bowie knife in her hand! She saw Laura and relaxed. “Don’t fucking do that, Hure!

Laura laughed. “But it’s so fun, darling!”

The girl growled and looked over at me and Cassie, who was just tinkering with something in her hand again. She actually smiled at me. “Hi, Chloe. I’m Tish.”

Oh. I shoulda guessed from the hella loud swearing. I nod. “Hey Tish. What are you doing?”

“Just reconnecting some loose fucking wires that someone” She glared at Cassie. “Switched around without fucking asking me!”

I did the whole concerned empathy face and asked what the wires did, getting another burst of technobabble from her. Sure, I didn’t understand a fucking word, but building bridges, right?

Laura interrupted, passing Tish the ledger. “Could you translate this? The gentleman appears to have a fixation with dog-codes. Test it against the student registers from Blackwell. We have to assume his clientele is local and with their money, the students there seem the most likely suspects.”

Tish nodded. “Right. How long have I got?”

Laura shrugged. “Max would like it done as soon as you’re able. Ideally before she returns from Azerbaijan.”

They started chatting about something hella boring, so went and sat down next to the little multicolour-haired girl on the table. “Hey, Cassie, right?”

She didn’t respond. I kept going. “I was kinda wondering if you’d teach me something about lockpicking. It looks hella cool.”

She stopped tinkering and looked up slowly to meet my eyes. She grinned.

-----

“And go!” I stuck the pick in and started feeling through the lock. Apparently I had to keep the little hook on the end of the pick upwards in the lock. I was looking for the very last tumbler in the lock.

Damn it, where is this fucking thing?! I growled and shoved the pick harder and… I grinned when I heard the little click of the tumbler moving up. Awesomesauce! I let it drop a little, like Cassie told me.

I picked up the tortion thingy and pushed it along the bottom of the lock. Cassie nodded at me. “Gently.”

I twisted the lock counterclockwise, grinning as it turned. At the last minute, I pushed the pick up, clicking the back tumbler up into place. I went back through each one, clicking them up into the lock one by one. When I’d hit them all, I tried turning the lock fully and…

Cassie clicked the stopwatch. “5 minutes, 23 seconds. That’s pretty good!”

I beamed. “Can we go again?”

-----

I nearly jumped when the fucking bell rang. I always hella hated that thing when I was here. Damn. Come on Katie, when will Jefferson end his fucking lesson? He’s gotta have heard the bell go. I leant back against the wall again and just stared at his door.

A couple of minutes later, students flooded out of all the doors and down the halls. I pushed my way through, trying to find Katie, when I saw her being pushed up against the lockers by some asshole jock and a couple of his buddies.

“Hah. Look who it is, the fucking bible-whore. Make out with anyone today, bitch?”

I was about to go over there and beat the asshole into the fucking ground when Bitchtoria suddenly slid in front of him and shoved him back. “Kate is off-limits from now on, do you hear me? If I even hear of you bullying her, I will end you, understand, piss-for-brains?”

I blinked. Wow. Might have to revisit the whole Bitchtoria thing. She might actually be fucking serious about wanting to be ‘friendly’...

I sighed. Damn it, I’m gonna have to play nice. She poked the asshole that was bullying Kate into fucking off, then turned and started talking quietly to Katie.

I headed over and put my arm around Katie. “Heya Katie. You ok?”

Victoria glared at me and opened her mouth to talk. I nodded to her. “Thanks, Vic. Saved me the trouble of beating the shit outta that asshole.”

She blinked at me. “Uh, no problem...”

Katie suddenly chipped in. “Thank you, Victoria. I know it’ll hurt your reputation to be seen with someone like me.”

Victoria interrupted, shrugging. “Meh. Fuck ‘em. They know who rules this school.”

I grinned. “You know, I could get used to have the Queen on side.”

She raised an eyebrow and stared at me for a second before she sighed and looked back to Katie. “I have class, Kate. Are you going to be ok?”

Katie nodded. “Yes, thank you. We’re heading off campus anyway. Lunch at the Two Whales.”

Victoria nods and smiles. “Sounds good. Have fun, Kate. I’ll see you later.”

She doesn’t even look at me as she walks away. What the fuck did I do now? Eh. Whatever. I turn to Katie. “Ready to go?”

She smiles up at me. “Always.”

-----

I slide into the booth, Katie takes the other side. “So, how was Blackhell?”

She smiled. She actually smiled. “It’s good. Victoria is being far nicer.”

I frowned. “So I saw. Nice to you, anyway. Still a fucking bitch to me.”

She thought for a moment. “Well, you two don’t exactly have the smoothest of histories, Chloe. It might take time for that to change.”

I shrugged. “Maybe, but…”

“Hey Chloe?”

I looked up at Joyce. “Yeah, Mom?”

“I…” She smiled at me. “I just wanted to say thanks for being nicer to David. I know you’ve both had your differences, so it makes me happy that you’re both getting along now.”

I shrugged, sheepishly and looked at Katie, who was hella beaming at me. “Eh, it’s nothing, Mom.”

She reached over and ruffled my hair. I glared at her and pulled my beanie on so she didn’t do it again. “No, Chloe. It’s, uh, ‘awesomesauce’.”

I snorted. “Mom, please, please don’t ever, ever say that again.”

-----
Translations-

Hure - Bitch

Chapter Text

“Kaaaaaatiiiieeee?”

She didn’t respond. I tried again. “Kaaaaaatiiiieeee?”

“Chloe, please, I have a test this afternoon. I need to study.”

I ignored her and tried again. “Kaaaaaatiiiieeee?”

She sighed, putting down her pencil. “Yes, Chloe?”

I rolled over and stared at her from where I was lying on her bed. “I’m bored.”

She nodded, not even looking at me. “Hmm.”

Wait, did she just hmm me? Yep, she hmmed me!

I rolled off the bed and ambled over to her, throwing my arms around her and squishing my head to hers, so my lips were hella close to her ears and… “KATIE!”

She jumped and her shoulder collided straight with my nose and knocked me to the floor. She hurried over to me, babbling about how sorry she was and shit like that. I waved a hand at her. “Nah, my fault, Katie.”

She helped me up and sat me down on her bed, before flitting off to find some tissues or something, I think. She did say something at me, but I was kinda preoccupied with the whole hella bleeding from the face thing.

She came back hella quickly and handed me a pack of tissues, going back off to sit by her desk again. “I’m so sorry, Chloe.”

“Seriously, Katie, it’s ok. Kinda my fault for scaring the shit outta ya, right?” I grinned and leaned back, pinching my nose.

She didn’t seem convinced, but she dropped it. She turned back to her desk. We sat in comfortable silence for a couple of seconds until she turned and frowned at me. “Uh, Chloe? You’re ringing.”

I wiped my nose off and frowned down at my phone. Unknown number. Huh. Who’d be calling this early? I answered. “Yeah?”

“Hello Chloe. It’s Laura. Max asked me to alert you to her return. She wants to see you.”

-----

“Too many fucking builders…” I grumbled. All those fuckers had parked hella close to the church, so I was stuck parking a fucking half mile away.

Katie didn’t complain at all though. Just smiled and linked her arm with mine, leaning on me. We walked all the way to the church like that.

I didn’t complain again.

We headed inside, working our way around all the builders and pushed open the door to the backroom.

Max was sitting on a fold-out camping table in the middle of the room in a shirt, with the top turned down to show her shoulders. Holy fuck. She was seriously scarred. There was one going from her collarbone that disappeared off under her shirt, a couple of what I thought were gunshot wounds in one of her shoulderblades and another in the middle of her chest. I mean, Wow.

There was some dude in a white leather jacket running his hands over her right shoulder. He was hella douchey-looking. Travis was sat on a pile of boxes watching and holding a bag of ice on his arm. Laura was at Tish‘s desk. “...some good work, Max. You’ve gotten better since ‘nam.”

Max shrugged. “Yes, well. Necessity breeds opportunity.”

She rolled her shoulders and stretched a little. “That feels better. Thank you, Alex.”

The guy grinned. “Well, I was in the neighbourhood.”

She laughed. “I’m never going to live that line down, am I? Still. Thank you. Laura can drive you back to the airfield.”

He nodded. “That’d be great, thanks. Call me the next time you’re in town.”

Max smiles and nods as he turns to go. She watches him leave with Laura and finally notices me and Katie standing in the doorway. “Hey Chloe. Thanks for coming.”

I unfreeze and rush over. “Are you ok? What the fuck happened over there?”

She shrugged and grimaced, looking back at the dressing stuck to her shoulder. “I got shot.”

I… She… Just… “You got shot?”

She frowned at me. “Yes, Chloe. Do we need to get your hearing checked? I believe Laura knows someone who can help.”

“Me? I’m fine, but you got fucking shot, Max!”

She smiled. “Yes, I did. I’m fine, though. It’s not my first time, Chloe. I’m sure it won’t be the last. Don’t worry so much.”

I blinked. Wow. Ok. Guess it’s just another day at the fucking office for these guys. I wasn’t gonna get anything else on that, so I changed directions. “So, who was that guy?”

She hopped up off the desk, shrugging into her shirt and buttoning it up. “Alex Luca. He’s a doctor. We saved his life. He was in Vietnam with Doctors Without Borders. Some local gang took offense at his saving a competitor of theirs. We were in the area, so we provided an extraction.”

I nodded, numbly. Sometimes I forget how much Max has done in the last five years. Katie sat down on one of the box piles that were still dotted around the room. “I’m glad you came back ok, Max.”

Max smiled. “So am I, Kate.”

I sat on a box next to Katie and looked over at Max. “So, what happened? How’s the team?”

She moved to take a pile of the opposite side of the room, next to Tish‘s desk. “We found them alive. They’re recovering in a safehouse.”

So cool. I was gonna press her for more details, like what happened to the bad guys, but Laura’s amused voice echoed through my head as I remembered what she’d said yesterday. ‘Max does not take kindly to those who threaten those whom she considers to be hers.’

I didn’t ask for more details.

After a couple seconds of silence, Katie suddenly chimed in. “So, Max, would you like to join Taylor, Victoria and I after school? We’re going to finish the project today.”

Max nodded. “Sure. I’ll meet you after class.” She glanced down at her watch. “I have English in about twenty minutes.”

“I have Art next. Can I get a lift please, Max?”

Max smiled. “Sure.”

After arranging to meet up later, Max and Kate both headed off to school. I stood in the doorway of the church and watched them go. Well, what the hell do I do now?

Eh. Guess I can go bug Travis for a while. Maybe he’ll show me some moves?

(In case you were wondering, he didn’t.)

-----

I glanced around the diner until I spotted them and I headed over. “Hey Max. Nearly time.”

Max checked her watch and nodded. “Right. Let’s wrap this up.”

Victoria and Katie stood up, pulling on their coats and collecting their shit.

“Where are you four off to?” Taylor grinned and wiggled her eyebrows at us. I rolled my eyes. If I was gonna be in a foursome, I could do way better than Victoria and Max was basically my sister. I carefully didn’t think about anyone else.

I nodded to Max. “We’re gonna see Max play.”

Taylor grinned and looked over at Max. “Play?”

Max shrugged. “I’m playing a set at the ‘Rammer Jammer’. A little gig to prove to Tori I can play well enough for the party.”

Katie and Max shared a look, then Katie looked over at Taylor and smiled. “Taylor, would you like to come with us?”

Taylor nodded. “Sounds fun. Count me in.”

We headed outside.

-----

When she saw Max’s Dodge Challenger sitting in the lot, Taylor’s eyes bulged and she practically blurted “Holy shit, Max, nice ride!”

I grinned. Taylor was so hella fucking easy to impress, I thought, completely forgetting how hella impressed I was with all this shit when Max came back. I got used to it all hella quickly.

Max shrugged. “It gets me from A to B.”

Taylor rolled her eyes. “Gets you from A to B in fucking style, you mean.” She elbowed Victoria. “It’s awesome, isn’t it Vic?”

Victoria shrugged. “It’s no Mercedes, but yeah, it’s pretty cool.”

Max got in the driver’s seat, obviously. Katie, Taylor and me took the back and Victoria daintily folded herself into shotgun. When we were all buckled in, Max drove to the Rammer Jammer, a shitty little bar on the outskirts of Arcadia Bay. I knew the manager, so I’d gotten her in.

-----

She parked the car on the corner and we headed into the bar, grabbing a booth near the stage.

I checked my watch and elbowed Max. “Hey, Maximus. You’re up next. Show ‘em what you got.”

She blinked and nodded, heading up to the stage.

We all cheered as she went up, getting a hella confident grin and bow back from her.

She sat down on the little stool on the stage, holding her beaten up acoustic guitar. “Hey everybody. I’m Max and, uh…” She grinned at the audience.“I’m here tonight as an audition to play for a friend’s party.” She leaned in like she was sharing a secret. “She has such high standards. So, if you could cheer extra loud, that’d be a big help.”

She waved over at Victoria and shrugged apologetically when she growled and the room burst into laughter. I managed to keep a straight face. She looked like she was gonna kill someone and I was in-range. Self-preservation is a hella powerful thing.

She pulled up her guitar. “Anyway, this first one is for her. Enjoy.”

When she immediately launched into Carly Simon’s ‘You’re so Vain’, I was pretty sure Victoria’s head was gonna explode or something. She stopped a couple of lines in and grinned over at her. “Only joking. Here’s Drops of Jupiter. This one’s for you, Tori.”

She plucked a few slow notes on the guitar and started to sing. I just sat back and listened along with the rest of the room. The guitar on it’s own wasn’t brilliant, the song really sounded like it needed a whole band, but her voice was…

I blinked. Wow. Max had a hella awesome set of pipes. Her voice was kinda smokey, like an lounge jazz singer, but fuck if she couldn’t sing the shit out of Pop.

She finished the song and grinned as applause rippled across the room. “Thanks guys. This next one is Untitled by Alice Phoebe Lou.”

She tapped along the floor pedal again and a xylophone started playing as she sung. It was a weirdly… ethereal song. Never used that word before, but damn, it so hella works.

Nobody said anything, or made any noise as she played. When she finished, a lot of people just sort of nodded. After the song drifted to an end, Max changed out the acoustic for a proper electric guitar. A hella expensive looking one, too. That thing wasn’t in her stuff when we unpacked.

I shouldn’t really be surprised she can just sort of buy shit. Guess bringing up ‘Manila’ made that Johnson lady hella generous. “This next one is an old favourite of mine. It’s got no meaning to me or anything, I just hella like the song. It’s pretty awesome. This is Layla by Eric Clapton.”

As the intro started, I grinned. She’s right, it’s a hella awesome song. I turned to the others. “I’m gonna get another drink. You guys want anything?” They all shook their heads, so I hopped up and made my way through the crowd. The guy behind the bar was watching the stage. “Hey, dude. Can I get…”

He’s not listening to me, is he? I waved at him. “Hey, bar… guy?” Huh. Nothin’. I leaned over the bar and poked the bastard, hella hard. He jumped and glared at me. “Yeah, what?”

“Can I get a beer? Whatever you’ve got.”

He handed me a bottle. “Four dollars.”

I gave him the cash and went back to the table. Max was halfway through her next song. I didn’t recognise it and I missed her little intro bit, so I had no idea what it was. It was pretty good though. Kind of a quickish beat, very rock rhythms.

“This is what we live for!”

She finished the song with a sudden stop and hit the pedal on the floor, ditching the drum beat.
“That’s my twenty minutes up, everybody. Thanks for listening, and for the cheering, you guys did great.”

I stood up to clap. It was hella deserved, I mean, holy crap. That was awesome. My first mate basically just had an entire fucking room eating out of her hand!

As Max was about to step off the stage, someone over at the back yelled out “Encore!”. Another person copied, and then another, and another, until like half the room was practically begging Max to go back up. Max shrugged at us and headed back up to a cheering room.

Max shuffled about and settled back onto the stool. She picked up the acoustic guitar again. “Encore, huh? Sure, why not? This one is an acoustic cover of Young the Giant’s Something to Believe in.”

“So just give me, just give me something to believe in...”

When the song finished, her voice trailed off to a whisper and the room erupted into applause. Fuck, even Victoria was up on her feet. As it all dies down, Max leans into her mic and flashes us an easy grin. “Thanks everybody. I think you just got me employed.”

-----

When Max had finally escaped from her ‘adoring fans’, we headed outside, wandering down the street to Max’s Dodge. Me and Max were lagging behind the others, who were all chatting in a group.

Max was staring off into the distance, looking hella preoccupied. I elbowed her gently to get her attention. “Whatcha thinking about?”

She shrugged and smiled. “Nothing. Just… Playing again, it was… nice.”

I grinned. “Well, let’s see if it paid off.” I called forward to the others. “Hey Vicky, how’d she do? Are you gonna give Max the job or what?”

Victoria turned around and glared at me. “It’s Victoria to you, Chase.”

Max stopped and leaned back, one hand on her hip. “Yes, Victoria. How was I?”

Victoria snorted. “You’ll do.”

-----
Max’s Setlist:
Song for Victoria I: Carly Simon: You’re so Vain - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQZmCJUSC6g

Song for Victoria II: Train: Drops of Jupiter - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xf-Lesrkuc

Song II: Alice Phoebe Lou: Untitled - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msBjw8_Qa9Q

Song III: Eric Clapton: Layla - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX5USg8_1gA

Song IV: American Authors: What we Live for - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIpwuvEBiZI

Encore: Young The Giant: Something to Believe in - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_ZRWZv14SA

Chapter Text

“I need to work on this, Chloe. Go home.”

Chloe, surprisingly, didn’t argue. It seems she’s learning. “Sure. I hope your people make it.”

I smiled. “I hope so too, Chloe.”

We said our goodbyes. I watched her head over to her truck and drive off. She very narrowly scraped one of Giovanni’s trucks on the way out. I rolled my eyes. That girl was a danger on the road, sometimes. Well, most of the time, I amended.

I headed back inside. “Tish? Bring up the last report from the Azerbaijan team.”

She nodded and flicked it up onto the central screen. Ah. One of my few entirely legal operations. Within a relative definition of legal, of course. They were investigating a ruin. I frowned. There was no mention of what they were investigating for, but this particular team had a tendency to go wildly off course.

I turned back to Tish. “I need everything you can give me on Azerbaijan. Briefing in twenty minutes.”

-----

I moved to stand in front of my team. “Here is the status of The Blackwell Job.”

I clicked the remote and a picture of David appeared, along with pictures and brief lists of what we’d found. “David is no longer a suspect. He’s merely blundering through his own investigation. We might be able to use that. He’s linked to the police and he’s not owned by Prescott. He’s too stubborn for that.”

Another series of pictures on him, highlighting specifically the knife I’d found. “Something happened to him in Afghanistan in mid 2007 to early 2008. It’s possible he saved someone from something. It may be linked to his leaving the military. Tish, I need you to check on that.”

I clicked again. This time, the pictures of the missing girls appeared. “We have fourteen abductions in the file. They go back around a decade. Nathan would have been 8 when they started. He’s either a copycat or an apprentice. I’m working on removing his support structure. Once he’s alone, we can take him.”

Travis was frowning. I knew exactly what he was concerned about. But as I told him before, I’m stronger now. It won’t happen, not this time.

I clicked again. This time, pictures of Frank dealing around town appeared. “This is Frank Bowers, local dealer. We know he’s linked to Rachel somehow.” I zoomed in on his wrist to show the bracelet. “Rachel made these for those she cared about. He might not be responsible for her disappearance, but he may know something we don’t. Cassie, Laura, I need you to search his RV.”

Laura nodded. Cassie smiled. “Consider it done.”

I clicked again, showing the Azerbaijan report. “And finally, Azerbaijan. A team has gone missing there. Whoever took them called me. Dropped a few threats as to the team’s fate. Travis and I are flying over. I need the rest of you to keep on this job while we’re gone.”

They all nodded. I smiled. “Excellent. This should be resolved promptly.”

I turned to Travis. “We’re taking your truck to the airfield. Mr Arnold will be there in an hour.”

-----

We watched as the plane touched down. It slowed to a halt and the pilot stepped out, walking over to us. He was a tall, dark skinned man, with short, neatly cut hair. I smiled and shook his hand. “Thank you for coming, Mr Arnold. As prompt as ever, I see.”

He nodded and smiled. “Mr Arnold prides himself on providing the fastest transport for your organisation he can, Ms Caulfield.”

It’s not as strange as it sounds. He wasn’t referring to himself in third person. It was a security measure. Mr Arnold was the head of the transport company. Every pilot, driver or helmsman in it used his name. It was an excellent safety measure. It meant none of his clients could sell them out. Not even I knew who Mr Arnold really was. And he’d never given me a reason to find out.

We boarded the plane and took off.

-----

*Sensitive Stuff*

He was standing by the window, a glass of something in hand as I entered the room. He didn’t even look at me. He just sighed, then started speaking. “I knew the bastard would send someone for me, sooner or later.” He snorted. “I’ve been waiting for years.”

He turned and put the glass down. He looked me in the eye. “Do what you have to.”

I saw the light leave his eyes. Saw the sadness and the resignation. When he hit the ground, I checked his pulse.

He was gone.

There was a scream from behind me. I whirled, readying to shoot…

“Daddy!”

A young girl, no more than 3 or 4, stood horrified in the doorway. Adriana Lewinsky. Daughter of the man I just killed. I kept the gun trained on her.

An older man, greying hair and grizzled skin, appeared in the doorway behind her. He stepped forward and calmly slit the girl’s throat. I stared as she fell and the blood pool started to grow. I could smell it on the air. That acrid iron smell. I could never forget it. He turned to me and said “Max, it’s time! We’re here!”

What? That’s not what he said. He said...

“Max! Wake up!”

He..? What? I…

“Max!”

I blinked awake. Travis was smirking at me from his seat. I took a few deep breaths and glared. “Yes, what?”

Travis nodded his head back at the cockpit. “Rise and Shine, darlin’. We’re landin’ in 5.”

*Sensitive Over*

-----

We landed in Stepanakert airport. It was closed for ‘political reasons’, but bribes open all doors. Especially in a government as corrupt as Azerbaijan’s. Quite a useful holdover from it’s old Soviet Union days.

We were heading to Khankendi, the capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The team’s safehouse was there, near the university. If we were going to find them, we needed their files. Control of the territory was still disputed by Armenia and Azerbaijan. Surprisingly nice place, given the war twenty years ago. Corrupt as hell, but the economy was building nicely.

There was a car waiting for us. Mr Arnold provided excellent service. The airport was nearly 10 kilometers outside the city. We couldn’t walk that far quickly enough. The pilot took off as soon as we were away from the plane. We met another Mr Arnold by the car. After another bribe to the local authorities, of course.

I looked out the window as we drove to the city. We passed a small park. It was coated in the dry-steppe grass common here. There were also red-clay idols staring out from the top of a hill. Tatik-Papik, as I recall. Grandma and Grandpa. They were a symbol of Armenian heritage in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

We also passed a village on the way. It was small, with a few people milling around. It was early morning here. There were next to no other cars on the road. Mr Arnold made excellent time.

He dropped us off outside the safehouse. I smiled at him. “Give my regards to Mr Arnold.”

He nodded. “I will, Ms. Caulfield. Goodbye.” He drove off. I scanned the neighbourhood. The safehouse was a three storey building. It was just off the main university campus. A quiet neighbourhood. I smiled as I saw two girls walk past. They were chatting and laughing. Clearly students, just out of class. How would I have done, if I’d gone to College like a normal kid, instead of this… Instead of Him. What would I be like?

I shook my head, dispelling the thoughts. Mind on the Job, Max. Mind on the Job.

We turned to the safehouse. The front door was open. Shit. “Travis.” I called his attention to the door.

We slipped our guns from their holsters. I took position left of the door. He took the right.

I gestured to Travis. Stop. Listen . I heard nothing and checked with him. He shook his head. Excellent. I counted down. One. Two. Three . I gave the signal and we crept inside.

Our silent codes were a mix of military sign and pidgin ASL. They were quick and flowing, specifically for stealth. We’d developed them right from the beginning. Shouting simply alerted the enemy to your location and plan. Signing was far more subtle.

The room was trashed. There was broken furniture, smashed lights and equipment scattered everywhere. We separated to search the rest of the floor. The other rooms were trashed too, but clear of hostiles.

We were heading up to the next floor, when Travis froze. He gestured to crouch and listen. Damn it! There’s still someone here. Travis took out the Optic Cable and scanned the room above us.

There was a brief pause as he scanned. Two Hostiles. Shotgun, to the right by window. Pistol by door. Orders?

I thought. Shit. This has to be fast and quiet. We can’t afford someone calling the police. I gestured. In knife range?

He shook his head. Damn. Ok, time to do something smart.

-----

We strode into the room, hands raised. “We surrender.”

The two goons immediately spun and aimed at us. Interesting. They were in uniform. Nothing I recognised though, maybe a PMC?

The man shouted at us in accented english. South African, I think. “Who the hell are you? Down on the ground!”

Heh. Maybe smart was an overstatement.

-----

I shrugged experimentally. The zipties were very tightly binding me to the chair. Excellent. The man with the shotgun had put it down. He was now pacing around in front of us. I think he was trying to be intimidating. His friend was downstairs. “How did you find us here?”

I shrugged. “Sightseeing. The door was open. We thought someone might need help.”

He backhanded me so hard the chair nearly tipped over. I looked at his uniform again. There was a patch I vaguely recognised. I couldn’t place it though. “Don’t lie to me, Bitch! Tell me why you’re here!”

He tried a few variants of the same bullheaded tactics. Clearly not a trained interrogator. It got dull, fast. I smiled and looked him in the eye. “Travis? Take him down.”

He laughed, leaning in to match my eyeline. “You’re delusional, mate. What’s your pal gonna do then? He’s zipcuffed to that chair.”

He pointed over at Travis. He was gone.

I’m sure you can guess what happened next. Travis appeared behind, and broke the neck of, the one in front of me. I flexed and slammed my bound arms down on my butt. The ziptie burst open and I took the knife from my boot. I crouched, carefully watching the door. When the pistol wielder rushed in, I hurled the knife at him. He went down in a heartbeat.

I smiled down at the thug beneath Travis’ boot. “Nice work, Travis.”

-----

Travis had tied one of the goons to a chair in the back room. I strolled in. I needed to find out where my team was. He was going to tell me.

I took a seat opposite him and smiled. “Hello there. I’m Max. But you know that already. And you are?”

He glared sullenly at me, not saying anything. I suddenly grinned and reached forward. “Oh yes, I’d almost forgotten.” I tore the tape from his mouth. It left quite the red mark.

He grimaced in pain. I smiled, pleasantly. “So. Name?”

He grumbled. “Samir.”

“Samir, huh? Nice to meet you. I’d shake your hand, but…” I waved to the zipties securing him to the chair.

I stared at him for a second. “Where’s my team, Samir?” I asked, carefully icing my tone. Just enough to make the situation seem serious. I smiled, internally. I’d always be thankful to Miss Haversham, the school librarian, for teaching me that trick.

He scowled and kept quiet. The message was clear. He wasn’t going to talk voluntarily.

No matter.

I got up and slung my arm over his shoulder and spoke, quite amiably. “You know those times when you’re driving down the highway and you get all those bugs splattered on the windshield?”

I smirked, tilted my head at him. “Such a great metaphor for life, don’t you think? There are those days when you feel like that windshield, crushing everything in your way, just keeping on rolling through.”

I shook my head, giving a breathy laugh. “Then, there are those days where you feel that bug’s pain. Heh. Sometimes you’re the bug” I shrugged “and sometimes you’re the windshield.”

I picked up the ice pick. “Today, I’m going to be your windshield.”

I swung the pick.

-----

“They’re in Xanyurdu.” I said, closing the door behind me. Travis hmmed from the couch where he was reading something.

“What’s Xanyurdu?”

I shrugged. “Some village a little north. We’ll need a car.”

He smiled, twirling a set of keys around his finger. “Found ‘em on the other guy. It’s parked on the next street over.”

Excellent. “I’ll drive. Call Sunshine and give them this address.”

-----

I rolled my eyes as the police siren started. Seriously?

I slowed to a halt and the cop car behind us followed suit. We stayed in the car, like good Americans.

He strolled up to the window and said, in Azerbaijani “Excuse me, miss. Do you have any idea how fast you were going?”

I shrugged and smiled at him. "Well, honestly officer the speedometer tops out at 85, so I really have no idea."

He glared at me. Apparently he didn’t appreciate my sense of humour. “License and registration, please.”

I reached for the glove compartment and pulled out an envelope. “Now, I’m sure that won’t be necessary, right? We’re all friends here. I’d be willing to pay the fine?”

There was around 2500 manat in the envelope. A hefty amount. He rifled through it, closing the envelope and smiling at me. “This all seems to be in order. I’ll let you off, this once. Drive safer in the future.”

I nodded. “Of course, officer.”

Once he was out of sight, I floored the pedal. I snorted. Moron. Every note in that envelope was counterfeit. Corrupt officials really should learn the difference.

-----

Travis appeared and crouched down next to me. I caught his gaze. How many hostiles?

2 outside. 3, maybe 4 total. He gestured back. Damn it.

We’d checked around the town. A few targeted inquiries had lead us here. A small farmstead on the western road leading out of Xanyurdu. There were two buildings, a small shack-barn and a two storey house. The barn was empty, so the hostages must be in the house. There were two smoking a little away from the door.

Entry points?

He gestured again. Two doors. Open window on top floor .

Excellent. Lead on.

We scooted around the building and dashed to the backdoor. I nodded to Travis. He slipped the Optic Cable under the door. Clear.

We entered the room. There was a door on the opposite side and another on the right wall. A flight of stairs on our left lead up to the next floor.

We crept across the room, careful not to knock anything. Too many jobs had been screwed up by a smashed vase. I took the left of the door. Travis took the right. He had the longer arms, so it made sense. He could open the door from that side.

3. 2. 1. Travis unlatched the door and eased it open. I peeked outside. The two soldiers were still smoking. They were laughing and chatting. Concentrating entirely on each other.

Me left. You right. Quietly now. I gestured. We watched to make sure they weren’t moving soon. Move up.

I took the left. He took the right.

We left them where they fell.

Travis checked the landing with the Optic Cable. We moved up there when it was clear. There were two doors. Travis checked under both. One room had five figures in. Two standing, Three sitting. We couldn’t see their weapons. The other had two standing with rifles. One was at the window. The other was in the middle of the room. I glared at Travis. 3, maybe 4?!

He shrugged, sheepishly. I didn’t need a code to interpret that. Woops.

I rolled my eyes and went back to planning. My brain started to tick, simulating different ways of entry. Damn. All I could see was death, any way we tried. There was no way we could take 5 at once.

Travis nudged me. Fire in there. He pointed at the second room. Get their attention. Landing is a choke point.

I smiled. It’s good to remember, I have competent friends. I nodded. We crept forward, taking positions at the door. I counted down. 3. 2. 1.

We entered the room firing, taking the two down in an instant. Travis moved off to the left. I moved off to the right. We took a knee and aimed for the door.

When the other soldiers poked their head out of their room, one fell instantly. A second managed to get to the stairs. I rolled my eyes. Really? Outside? Huh. Wait. Where are the other three?

We moved to the window. “Do you wanna get him, boss?”

I shrugged. “Nah. You need the practice. You nearly missed” I kicked the body of the merc Travis had shot. “This one.”

He grumbled and picked up the rifle. He moved over and set up by the window.

I headed back into the other room. I had my gun out, but holstered it when I saw who was there. The three tied to the chairs sighed in relief. My team. Well, most of them.

Sam grinned. “‘Bout time you got here. These assholes been trying to get us to talk for hours.”

I pulled the knife from my boot and cut through the zipties. “I assume you didn’t?”

He shrugged. “Once you got beaten up a couple times in prison, a little beating like those guys gave out is nothin’.”

Sully creaked out of the chair and grinned at me. “Hey Max. Great timing as always, kid.”

I grinned and threw my arms around him. What? The man was ridiculously paternal. He knew exactly how to make me feel like a daughter again. “Hi Sully! Nice to see you alive.”

He smiled back. “Nice to be alive, kid. Now, where’s Nate?”

Elena chipped in. “Yes, where is he?”

I looked over to Travis. “We’re going to find that out now.” I turned to the others. “Take their weapons. We’re going to need you all armed.”

And, as an afterthought. “Oh, and call Sunshine. We’ll be needing them again momentarily.”

-----

I showed him the map again. He was tied to a chair. Behind him was another merc, tied to a wall slat.

“I’ll ask you again” I pushed the knife deeper into his knee. He screamed. “Where has your boss taken my associate?”

He remained tightlipped, so I twisted it a little. “Come on!” I slapped his cheek. “Focus on me, focus! Tell me, or I’ll pop your fucking kneecap off.”

He shook his head, whimpering. I threw a couple of punches to his ribs. There was an audible crack. I hit hard. I roared in his face. “Will you tell me now!?” He nodded, whimpering.

I raised the map, putting the knife between his teeth. “Mark it on this map. Your buddy back there better say the same.”

He hurriedly made a cross on it. I yanked out the knife. He yelped, but held it together. “It’s there! Go ask him, he’ll verify it!”

I moved behind him and pushed the knife into his chest. I let him fall to the floor. What a shame. I was almost impressed at how long he’d held out.

The other merc started to struggle. He shouted at me, too. “Fuck you man! He told you what you wanted! I ain’t telling you shit!”

I smiled, walking towards him. “That’s alright. I believe him.”

I raised the knife.

-----

“Agdam? Where the hell is Agdam?”

We’d moved a table from the wall to the centre of the room. Elena rolled the map out onto it. “We’re here.” She pointed to a small marker near Khankendi. “Agdam is here.” She pointed to the red cross the merc had made.

Agdam was mostly a ruin now. It had been shelled heavily in the war. Then, looters had taken the rubble for construction elsewhere. The only thing still standing was the Mosque. It was in the centre of town.

She tapped it on the map. “The treasure is in there. Mammadov, the Azeri commander, knew they were going to lose the city. His diary claims he hid ‘great wealth’ inside the mosque. Nadine and Shoreline are going to be there with Nate looking for it.”

Nadine Ross… I’d only heard of her. The new head of Shoreline. She’d inherited the company, and it’s debts, from her father. Her company had a habit of getting into civil wars. They always turned nasty. A very shrewd operator, but she was aggressive. I’m sure I could use that.

She rolled her eyes. “It’s going to be a royal pain getting him out of there alive.”

I snorted. “True, but first, we need to get there. Did the mercs have transport?”

She nodded. “Yep and I got the keys. C’mon. Let’s go find their ride. Then we can go get my husband.”

She and I headed outside. A tall, well-dressed woman and several maids stood waiting for us. Their uniforms all had a little smiling sun on the chest. “Well, hello there, Max.”

I smiled. “Hi Susan. Great timing, as always.”

She bowed her head. “Anything for you, dearie.” She gestured to the others to get inside. The others were turfed out soon after. Susan didn’t like outsiders in her workspace. She said they made a mess. She dismissed us with a “As a cleaner, I remove messes. Get out.”

Susan didn’t do subtlety.

We found the Shoreline jeep nearby. We split teams. Travis and I took our car. They took the second.

Travis drove. As we left the farm, I made sure my revolver was loaded.

-----

We saw the desolation before we even arrived. The ruins of the city were visible from kilometers away. The farms lining the road were destroyed. I sighed. It’s alway sobering, seeing things like this. A real example of the power humanity wields.

My thoughts were interrupted by a sudden blast of gunfire. Travis swerved the car and we ducked out. I peeked out over the bonnet and nearly got grazed for my trouble. I angled to Travis. Where are they? I can’t see them.

He shrugged. I’m decoy. You look.

I nodded and moved into place. I looked back at him, waiting for the signal. He gestured. 3. 2. 1.

He leaned out and fired randomly. I leaned out and checked the area. I saw two, no, three flashes from a ditch across the road. We both ducked back. 3 hostiles. 2 left, one right end of ditch.

He nodded. I could hear Elena, Sully and Sam firing intermittently. It seems they’d had the same idea. Use the car as cover. Unfortunately, Sam had angled it so we couldn’t see them. No signalling and shouting was a good way to tip off the enemy.

Cover me. Moving up. I counted down again and dashed right. There was a ruined wall, just big enough for me. I just ran straight for it. I could hear Travis firing behind me.

Shit! I stumbled when a bullet grazed me. I hit the ground, about halfway to the wall. Damn! The assholes could see me! I rolled, narrowly missing being hit again.

Moments later, I heard the rest of the team join in. All suppressive-firing together. Excellent. It gave me the cover I needed to crawl to the wall. I pulled myself up against it and peered over the wall.

Travis took one out with a headshot. I just saw the soldiers head suddenly disappear as he fell. His buddy next to him didn’t even look. Military discipline, people.

They retreated from the ditch, moving to a farm ruin. We followed. Pushing forward, we used the walls as cover. Teamwork was vital in my operation. No lone wolves. The two remaining soldiers kept firing at us. We alternated returning suppressive-fire as we moved.

We ended up in a line. I was on the far right, the others were to my left. Elena was furthest from me. I shouted over. “Elena!” She turned. I’ll get their attention. Fire ASAP.

She nodded. I took a breath. 1. 2. 3. Go!

I leaned out of cover and started firing towards them. The troops ducked behind their wall. When the clip ran empty, the two popped out to shoot at me. That’s when the pincer hit.

Elena rolled over the wall and put bullets into both mercs. They fell quickly. She straightened and holstered her gun.

Sam holstered his pistol and came over to me. Sully and Elena were right on his heels. “Alright, that’s the last of ‘em. Let’s go get my little brother.”

-----

We crept up to the doors of the Mosque. I gestured to Travis. He slid the Optic Cable through the door. Nadine was stomping back and forth, shouting and waving at Nate. He was bound and shouting back. I rolled my eyes. Of course. He had a habit of pissing off his captors.

Honestly, I was surprised no-one had killed him yet. But, that’s where I come in. I will not abide others targeting my people.

Travis nudged me. What’s the plan?

I shrugged. Shall we Italian Job this?

He nodded, smiled and nudged Elena, signing the plan to her. I did the same for Sully and Sam. They grinned.

There was a polite cough from behind us. *ahem*

I turned my head. There were a dozen mercs standing, watching us. A few of them had weapons aimed at us.

Huh.

“Hands up!”

We all raised our hands. Sully’s had something in it. He yelled “Flashbang!” and hurled it at them. We scattered, all moving for cover. The door was a kill-ground, all open space.

I ended up in the husk of a building with Sully. I could see Travis and Sam. They were behind a crumbling wall. I couldn’t see Elena.

Sully and I were pinned down. I couldn’t see where from. I waved over to Travis. Little help?!

He waved back and gestured to Sam. They moved out of sight. Moments later, the fire pinning us down stopped. We popped out of cover. Sam took down a couple of mercs. I hit one, but it wasn’t a killshot.

Between the four of us, we finished off all the troops except one. He was hiding behind a wall, perfect sightlines on all approaches. We were all firing, but none of us were hitting. A lucky shot from him scraped Sam and the older Drake dropped.

Elena suddenly appeared behind him. She planted the barrel of her gun on the back of his head and pulled the trigger. The last merc was down. Excellent. Move in.

We kicked open the doors of the Mosque and started firing. Two mercs went down before the others had even pulled their weapons.

They all went down quickly enough. The advantage of surprise. Nobody was expecting a frontal assault.

Nadine was standing there gaping at us. She was holding something small and gold in one hand. Her handgun was in the other. Nate was a few feet from her, face bloody. He gave us a grin. “Hey guys. Thanks for joining the party.”

It was over and Nadine knew it. She threw down her gun as we moved in. Nate scooted over and plucked something from her hands. Travis forced her to her knees.

“Let me go. Don’t kill me. Please.” Heh. Just saying that looked hard for her. Nadine Ross was not someone who begged.

Externally, I merely shrugged. Inside, I was roaring my words at her. That bitch dared to take what was mine! “You hurt my people. I can’t let that slide. I let you go, others might get ideas in their heads.”

She scoffed. “That treasure was supposed to be worth millions.” She spat a gob of blood. “You would’ve done the same, Caulfield.”

I shrugged. “You know, I just might.” I thought for a moment. She hadn’t actually killed any of my people. Maybe I could use her. I smiled. “I’m taking your company. My organisation could use more muscle.”

She gaped at me. “No fucking way. Shoreline is…”

I interrupted. “Shoreline is mine. With” I put the barrel of my gun against her head. “Or without you. Understood?”

She scowled. “Fine.”

I nodded and holstered my gun. “Get out. I’ll contact you later.”

The others moved to stand next to me. We watched Nadine run off into the distance... I sighed. “Nate. What were you thinking?”

He shrugged and gave me a sheepish grin, holding out a gold idol. “Treasure?”

I snorted. “Try to stay out of trouble, please. My organisation pays you for legitimate work. Not your old freelance approach. Understood?”

He nodded, rolling his eyes like a petulant teen. “Yes, boss.”

I sagged. “Good. Now that’s over, shall we be going?”

I took two steps and hit the ground.

-----

“Hold still! Or I’m gonna rip somethin’.”

I grimaced as the needle pushed through my skin. “I wouldn’t squirm so much if I had some damn anaesthetic!”

He snorted. “Yeah, well. You were the one who wanted to get back to Arcadia all quick-like. I coulda grabbed some back in Khankendi.”

True. The plane wobbling everywhere couldn’t help much, either.

I grit my teeth as he pulled the thread tight. “We have a job going on there. We can’t afford any delays.”

He laughed. “Delays, huh? For the job? Or the client?”

“Both. It’s bad practice.”

He nodded, rolling his eyes. “Sure thing, darlin’.”

I growled.

-----

I leaned back into a chair. A flash of pain from my wound made me grimace.

Laura poked at my hastily stitched wound. I hissed. “Stop doing that!”

She smirked. “Apologies, darling. Merely seeing whether I might need to call for a professional.”

I rolled my shoulder and nodded. “Good idea. Who’s around?”

Tish called out. “Luca’s on a flight out from Portland in a few hours. Could get him here pretty soon.”

I nodded. “Do it.”

Chapter Text

"Katie! Come oooooooonnnn. Couldya hurry up?"

"Just five more minutes!" She called back.

I groaned and ran my hand across my face. Women. And yes, I realise the fucking irony, but I'd gotten ready for this thing in like, fifteen minutes. I'd been stuck outside Katie's room for like, an hour at this point and I was getting cranky. Bored Chloe is not a happy Chloe.

Ten minutes later, Kate finally cracked open the door. Her eyes are wide, like a tiny terrified chipmunk. It is hella fucking adorable. "I cannot believe I'm wearing this... Promise you won't laugh?"

I grin. "Wouldn't dream of it. Now, come on! Lemme see!"

She steps back, letting the door open to reveal her...

Woah.

I lean back, running my eyes down the pretty white sundress. "Damn Katie." I blurt. "You look hot!"

Smooth, Price. Very smooth...

She flushes and her eyes immediately drop to the floor, but I can see she's trying to fight a hella pleased smile. "You... you think so?"

I run my eyes back up to hers. I grin. "Oh, yeah."

-----

We take a right out of her dorm and head across campus to the gym. The party was already in full swing and there were vortex douchebags and bitches scattered all over the campus.

I feel Katie tense up more and more the louder the music gets. I hella understand why. Her last party was hella shitty, but no fucking way am I letting that happen again. I lean in. "It’s gonna be ok, Katie. If anyone tries to pull any shit with you, I'll kick their fucking asses, ok?"

Katie wasn’t ever gonna encourage violence or anything, but she definitely relaxed a little after I said that. She gave me a little smile and we headed into the gym. We breezed past the Vortex Door-bitch and went into the party.

The place was fucking packed. Guess that’s why there was a shitload of people outside, they couldn’t fit that much douchebaggery in one gym. There had to be two or three hundred people in here!

I gotta admit, Victoria did a pretty good job with this one. I nudged Katie and waved over at the bar. She nodded and we headed over. There were hella bottles and cans scattered all over the bar, with the ‘harder’ stuff kept behind. I grabbed a beer for me and hand a second one to Katie.

She shakes her head, sticking up her hands in protest, but I stick the bottle in her hand and lean in. “Keep a hold of it. It’s like… what people expect. You’ll blend in and people won’t try give you another one.”

Katie frowned, but she shrugged and took the bottle. I grinned. “Can you see Max anywhere?”

She smiles and nods towards the stage set up by the far wall. I look over, trying to peer over the crowd, but I can’t see anything. I stare at Katie. I’m like, twice her height, if I can’t see Max, how the fuck can she?

She rolls her eyes and takes my hand. She moves me over to where she’s standing and points. There’s a crack in the hella huge crowd and I get a flash of Max, up there on stage. Trevor and Justin are up there too. Hah, wow. I kinda knew they played, but... Never thought they’d be sober enough for this shit. They’re pretty good, too.

But Max… Max is fucking rocking it. My first mate was up there, in a hella classy black dress, like a fucking rockstar. I've no clue what she's playing but, whatever it is, she can sing the fuck out of it. Kate just murmurs "Wow..." in a shocked voice that makes me grin.

She’s hella right. Ever since Max came back, life has just been one fucking ‘wow’ moment after the next.

Heh. I grin. Wouldn’t have it any other way. I take a swig from the bottle and sway around to the beat. I look through the crowd. They’re all following the music, some drinking, some dancing, some macking on each other.

Victoria really aced this one, huh?

“Well, I’m certainly glad I have your approval.”

I whirl to see the Queen Bitch herself smirking at me. Ok, so, said that out loud then. Inside voice, Price. Learn your fucking inside voice.

Katie smiles. “You really are good at this.”

Victoria gives a half smile and shrugs. “It’s hardly difficult. Bully the A/V dweebs into doing the lighting” She nods towards Max. “Get a band” She smirks. “and buy a shitload of booze.”

Katie shrugs and smiles again. “Maybe so, but you’re still good at it.”

Victoria nods her head again. She looks over to Max, swaying back and forth to the music. We all watch Max dance about on stage. She’s old-school rocker, performing for the crowd and hella enjoying it. None of that standing around and playing shit. I was half expecting her to take a dive at one point.

Max finishes her song and announces a break. “We’ll be back in five.”

She hops off the stage and heads over to the bar. She hesitates for a second before asking for a water. I remember what Travis said about her promising to not drink on a job.

I shimmied over and gently elbowed Max in the side. “So, this match up to the shindigs you went to in Seattle?”

Max smiles wistfully, keeping her eyes on the crowds milling around us. “Actually, I never went to parties back up in Seattle. In my first year, I was bullied. After I… well, after, People were scared of me. The only parties I ever went to were jobs.”

I smirked. “Wow. That was hella open of you. No ‘something like that’ this time?”

She shrugged. “I know Laura told you. About the bullying, I mean. There’s no reason to hold that back.”

“Awesomesauce. This mean you’re gonna stop saying that ‘something like that’ shit all the time? I really fucking hate that phrase.”

She smirked. “I know.”

Heh… Bitch.

I stuck my hands in my pockets and leant back on the bar. “I’m hella glad you’re back, y’know. Life was…” I sighed. “Life was kinda shitty, after you left. But, this last week, it’s been hella fun.”

She smiled. “Same here.”

We were both smiling at each other when Victoria suddenly burst from a crowd and hurried over to Max, grabbing her hand. I could see Max tensing and deliberately relaxing when Victoria grabbed her. “Max! Jesus, there you are! You need to get back up on stage, now. I’m not paying you to chat!”

Max smiled back at me as Victoria dragged her off. “Sorry, Chloe. Duty calls.”

I catch Max’s mutter as she leaves. “And you aren’t paying me at all, cheapskate.”

I snort with laughter. Arms suddenly wrap around me from behind. “Heya Blue!”

Blue? What..? “Katie?”

I turn and see her swaying in front of me. She’s beaming at me and her cheeks are red. I stare, hella shocked. I was gone for like, 2 fucking minutes.

“Victoria said I should, um, loosen up. Somethin’, somethin’ be myself, I think. So, um...” She shakes the bottle I gave her. It was fucking empty.

I am. Going. To. Kill. Victoria!

Just when I was about to turn and charge off at Icky Vicky, Katie wraps her arms around me again.

Katie’s head shoots up. She grins. “Oh, I love this song!” She fidgets about excitedly. “Will you dance with me? I wanna dance, Blue!”

Like I’m gonna let drunk Katie out of my fucking sight. But, she’s happy and so fucking cute for now. So, I grin. I can kill Victoria later. “Hella yeah, Katie.”

We headed out onto the floor.

I twirled her around, she beamed and giggled like a fucking six year old. It was hella adorable.

We danced until Max’s song ended. Katie stamped her foot like her mom was forbidding her from cookies. I managed to get her to the bar for some water.

I was just handing her the cup when Victoria stormed up to me. She looks hella pissed off. Pretty sure she’s been hitting the booze hella hard too, she’s red-faced and wobbly.

“Where the fuck do you get off talking to her, after what you did?”

I just blinked at her. Huh? “What the fuck are you going on about?”

She jabs at me with a finger. She’s definitely pissed ‘cause it wobbles all over the fucking place. It’d be kinda hilarious if I wasn’t hella confused already. “Max, you piece of shit! You nearly fucking killed her and I had to pick up the fucking pieces!”

I’m confused and kinda pissed off right now. “What the fuck are you talking about? Max is fine!”

She scowls at me and makes a weird, angry sounding noise. Then, she storms out, leaving me fucking baffled. I blinked. What the fuck was that?

Katie ambles over and plants her head between my shoulderblades. “Heya Blue! Let’s go dance again!” She giggles and tries to twirl me around. I end up having to catch her so she doesn’t end up ass in the air on the floor.

Katie is not a very steady drunk. But her fucking puppy dog eyes get to me and we head back out onto the dance floor. I can talk to Max tomorrow.

-----------------------------------------------

I hit the descending cadence of the second verse. Trevor and I shared a grin. I’d asked around and he and Justin came up. Trevor apparently played guitar and Justin was an excellent bassist. They’d invited a drummer friend from the next town over.

We’d had barely any time to rehearse. Turns out the three were actually talented enough to work through it. Guess you can judge a stoner by their cover. Specifically, their cover of The Kooks’ Bad Habit. Ours was certainly going down well.

You say you want it, but

I scan the dance floor for Kate and Chloe. I pick them out right in the middle. They’re dancing happily with each other. The entire world scaled down to the two of them. Oblivious...

you can’t get it in

Neither of them notice when the hulking jock stumbles over. He pushes at Kate, makes some joke about kissing. Kate flushes and coils back.

The guy, being a typical idiot, pushes forward anyway.

you got yourself a bad habit

He doesn’t notice Chloe’s fist flying at his face. He goes down instantly. Chloe follows him down, punching and punching until Kate pulls her away. They hug and scurry off the dance floor. I lose track of them and they fade into the crowd.

The guy is helped up by another jock. He drags himself over to a couch. Someone hands him a drink and the event is forgotten.

yeah, a bad habit, yeah a bad, bad habit

I smirk, seeing Trevor and Justin showboating for the crowd. They’d been doing it all night. I’d almost think the two were trying to impress… ah. I spot Trevor sneaking a glance at Dana. Seconds later, Justin does the same.

They’re competing over a girl. I almost roll my eyes. Men…

A bad habit such a bad, bad habit. It’s a, a bad habit

I strum the final chord and listen as the rest of the band flows to a stop.

The few people still upright clap. I smile and bow. “Thanks. It’s been fun. Now, clear out before Tori comes back and gets all growly. You won’t want to piss her off, do you?”

I grin as the mild fear ripples through the crowd. People start milling out, leaving the ‘staff’ for the evening to tidy.

Once my guitar is stowed, I turn to my ‘band’. A fistbump and a ‘dude’ to Trevor, a nod for Justin and a smirk to the Drummer. “Thanks, guys. You were great.”

Trevor grins. “No problem, dudette. Any time you wanna jam, we’re down. Right guys?”

The others nod and I find myself smiling. It’s nice to talk to people without an agenda. I check my watch. “I’ll take you up on that sometime. Right now though, I’ve got to go.”

I wave and head out of the gym.

-----

I spot Tori sitting on a wall, smoking. She certainly makes a picturesque image. Very Audrey Hepburn. Her hair and face were illuminated by the moonlight. I smile and pull out that old camera Chloe gave me. I carefully take a knee and find Tori in the viewfinder.

She nearly falls off the wall in shock when the camera flashes and whirrs. I laugh at the glare she throws my way. “Sorry, Tori.” I shrug. “It was a good picture.” I sit next to her on the wall. She grins at the polaroid I hand her.

She looks down at it. The picture has her as centre focus. She’s looking off into the distance. The moonlight reflects off her eyes, giving them an introspective shine. Tori’s clearly fighting off a smile. “Not bad, Caulfield.”

I raise a disbelieving eyebrow. “Not bad? It’s a great picture, Tori.” I smile. “But when the model is as good as you, greatness is unavoidable.”

Her cheeks flushed, from both alcohol and embarrassment. I take that as my way in. “So, you left early. What happened?”

“Why?” She mutters. “So you can use it against me later? Digging for dirt so you can drag me down?”

I frown. She doesn’t let  “No. But talking about it might help. It helped me, when you came to visit.”

"So, what" Victoria spat. "Are you my fucking therapist, now?"

I flicked her gently on the nose. "No, dumbass. I'm your fucking friend. I just want to know what’s wrong."

She scoffs, swatting at my hand. “I don’t need your pity , Max.” The bitter venom in her voice is clear. She sighs and rubs at her eyes. “I didn’t want to leave, you know.”

Oh, so we’re talking about this now, are we? “You still did.” I mutter.

Her face tightens. “I fucked up, back then, okay? I’m sorry I’m not fucking perfect!” She’s shouting at me now. I sit and take it. She rants and raves a little more, about stuff that’s happened since she left. Stuff with her parents, with Nathan, with the ‘eyes of the world’ on the Chase name.

“Chases are somebody, Max. Chases have to be perfect, because everyone is looking at us.” She spits.

“You’re not perfect, Tori.” Her face drops into anger. There’s a little hurt in there too. The scared little girl, lashing out at the world. “Like you are either? Running back to the girl who nearly fucking killed you?!”

I’m so sorry, Tori. I should’ve fought harder. I should’ve made you stay. All these things run through my head. But I just shrug. “She needed help. I came. I want to help you, too”

She snorts. “Chases don’t ask for help. A Chase stands on their own two feet.” Parroting her parents again. I sigh, inwardly. Her fucking parents...

I place a hand on her shoulder. “Then don’t be a Chase. Just be Tori.” I lean in, whisper in her ear. “I like her far more, anyway.”

She froze, staring at me in shock. I smirked. Pretty sure that pissed her off. She quickly pushed the shock away, retaking control. The Ice Queen Cometh.

“You’re being awfully bold, aren’t you?” She frowns. Not in irritation, but almost… regretful. “You really have changed.”

I shrug. I give her a sad smile of my own. “It’s been five years. Haven’t we all?”

She stares at me for a second. I can’t tell what’s she’s thinking.

She leans in and plants a kiss on my cheek. “Goodnight, Max.”

I stand and watch her stumble into the dorms. That’s when I notice she never answered my question. Damn it.

I grin and head to bed. Mighty fine shindig.

-----

Max’s Setlist :

Song : Brother and Bones: Back to Shore - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHfPbed4BgU

Song : Young the Giant: It’s about Time - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO6LJUyNA0M

Last Song: Poets of the Fall: Lift - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ompevuR1644

Chapter Text

I wake up suddenly to a shitload of sunlight and a sleepy little grumble. Oh, fuck… My head is killing me. I blink my eyes open, and shut them again hella fast when the light glares into my skull like a fucking spotlight.

Huh. I think, muzzily. I’m kinda cold...

I frown. Um… Am I..?

Yep, I’m naked. Great. What the fuck happened?

I close my eyes and rest my head on my pillow. Ok, so I was at the party…

I grin. I punched a guy.

My face falls. Katie got drunk.

I frown. I got drunk too.

My eyes flicker open. We left together.

I look to my left.

Oh, shit.

Katie is there. She’s also… um… Eyes up, Price. I look back to her face guiltily.

Shitshitshit What the fuck happened?

Ok, ok. Um. Did we..? I run my hand through my hair. Shit, I can’t remember. I could fucking cry. You had to go and fuck this shit up, didn’t you, Price? Now she’s gonna hate you and never want to see you again and it’s all your fault, same as usual!

Come on, Price. You don’t that we… Maybe we actually just slept together, rather than, y’know, sleeping together.

Oh, please. Who are you kidding, Price? Dumbass. You fucked up and now she’s gonna leave just like Dad, just like Max and just like Rachel.

Her eyes flicker open. She sees me and smiles. She sees my face and the smile disappears. She frowns. She looks down.

Her eyes fucking snap closed and she pulls the sheet up to cover, um. ‘Herself’... “C-Chloe?”

“Yeah?” I grimace. This is not gonna be fun.

“Why am I… Why are we...?” She drops her voice to a whisper. “Naked?”

I sigh. “I don’t know. I think we… y’know. Last night.”

Her shoulders sag and she puts her head in her hands. “Ohgodohgodohgod. This can’t be happening. It can’t be that, can it?” She whirls on me. “There’s got to be some simple explanation for why… you and I… would be…” She sags again. “Oh god…”

I’d probably be offended if I wasn’t desperately trying to keep my shit together. Why do I always fuck everything up? Whywhywhywhywhy..?

She gets out of the bed and starts pulling on her clothes. I just sit there, mentally punching myself like the fucking asshole I am. I’m such a stupid fucking idiot when I’m drunk. I knew Katie couldn’t hold her booze, I should’ve stayed sober or something! Damn it...

I look up when she’s fully clothed. “So, should, we… um…” I run my hand over the back of my neck, avoiding looking at Katie. “Should we talk about this?”

Kate shakes her head. “I can’t. I’ve got…” She pauses. She looks horrified. “I’ve got church, oh lord, I’m late!”

I sit up in bed, still naked, watching as she freaking bolts out of the room.

“Well, shit.”

-----

I raise an eyebrow as I watch Chloe enter. Her shoulders are slouched. She’s not smiling. I roll my eyes in realisation. Ah. Trouble in paradise.

Chloe raises her head to meet my eyes. “What?”

I smirk. “Nothing. What’s wrong with you?”

She glares, snaps back. “Nothing. What’s wrong with you?”

I snort and roll my eyes. Tish interrupts. “This fucking thing!” She waves a little book at Chloe. “Your zirema of a friend, Frank coded his ledger!”

Chloe nods, shoves her hands in her pockets. “Yep. That sounds like him. What’s the problem, can’t you crack it?”

She slams a hand down on the desk. “It’s not a cipher. It’s nicknames! We can’t work out who his clients are!”

Chloe shrugs. “I can go ask him.”

Tish whirls on her. “Are you serious, Mahono? You think he’d just give you the names?”

Chloe glares at Tish. “I bet I can get him to talk before you can work that shit out.”

Tish jumps up, hustling over to Chloe. “You’re on! What are we playing for, Zirema?”

Chloe thinks for a second then grins. “

Tish nods. She throws me a grin. “You’re going down, Price. Here, I’ll even tell you where he is. Even the odds for you a bit. He’s on the beach.”

I nod. “Pfft. Easiest bet I ever made, ‘Mahono’. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes!”

Max puts her hand on my shoulder. “I’m coming with you, Chloe. We’re still not certain he isn’t involved. If you tip him off about our suspicions, he might come after you.”

I look at her. “You sure? I mean, you kinda pulled a gun on him. Not exactly gonna make him play nice.”

She smirks. “He’s a businessman. He’ll understand. And know that if he tries anything, I’ll do it again.”

-----

I pull up at the edge of the beach. “Ok, so. Gotta get the code from him. Any advice?”

Max smirks. “Easy. Don’t lose it. Don’t piss him off. Keep him talking, get him to open up. Maybe something about that dog of his.”

I nod. “Ok, yeah. I can do that. Yes sirree, I can do that. Sure, no problem, I…”

Max just looks at me. “Chloe?”

“Yeah?”

She points. “Frank is over there. You aren’t going to get the code by babbling to yourself. I’ll be here if it goes wrong.”

Right, ok then. Let’s do this shit. Wait, no. What was it Max said? Let’s go steal a drug dealer.

Cool. I hop out of the truck and walk over to Frank’s RV. I knock and wait. Max stands out of the way, off by the truck.

A couple seconds later, the door opens. “Oh look. The wonder twins. The Deadline was yesterday. Do you have my money?”

I open my mouth to retort, but I remember what Max said. Calm. And I gotta win the fucking bet. “Not yet. I wanna talk to you about something else though.”

He leans back, crosses his arms. He sounds kinda entertained. ‘Tickled’ as my Mom would say. “You have some serious ladyballs! You’ve been blowing me off about the cash for fucking months and you ‘wanna talk about something else’? What the fuck is so important?”

“We need the names of some of your clients.”

He actually laughs at that. “Oh, really? Well why didn’t you just fucking say so? Why don’t I give you the keys to my RV while I’m at it?”

Not like these guys need them. That’d be cool though. A proper roadtrip in one of those… Damn.

I sigh. “Look, Frank. This is important.”

He snorts, rolls his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Everythings important these days. But, you don’t seem to be bullshitting me.”

“I’m not. Look, I just need a little bit of info, then I’m outta your hair.”

He scoffs. “It always starts with just a little. But I guess you know all about that, don’t you?” He leers. Asshole.

I sigh again. “Frank, I didn’t come here to start a fight.”

Ok, shit. Now he’s getting pissed off. “You… you come in peace? After your little friend over there pulled a gun on me?” He nods over at Max.

“She was protecting me, Frank! You had your knife out, we were all kinda freaked out.”

He mulls it over for a sec before shrugging. “Fine. We’re cool. But my dog isn’t. Try anything and he’ll bite your head off. He’s done it before.”

I nodded. “Fine. So, look. we need the names of some of your clients.”

He frowns. “What the fuck for?”

Fuck it, I know Max said not to tip him off, but what the hell, right? I’m gonna try honesty. “We think Nathan drugged a friend of ours. We wanna know if he got the drugs from you.”

I knew that was the wrong fucking thing to say like, immediately after it came out of my stupid mouth. Frank just glared at me. “Are you fucking serious? No deal. What people do with my shit after I sell it to them isn’t anything to do with me.”

I scoffed. “Come on, Frank. If something like that happened to Rach, wouldn’t you wanna know?”

He sighs. “Fine.” Wait, what? That really did work? Booyah, bitches! He rustles about in his pockets and thrusts a folded paper at me. “Here. I don’t know, I think you might be full of shit. But I want to believe you.”

I take the paper, trying not to fistpump or some shit like that. I nod. “We’ll try.”

I say bye and walk back to Max. She smiles and nods, then we get back in the truck.

-----

We head back in to see Tish just typing shit into her computer hella furiously. She looked like her head was gonna explode or something.

I swagger over, flop down into the chair next to her and throw her a grin, holding up the paper Frank gave us. She stares at me for a second, then grins. “Duzvi… You fucking Zidzoro Hure… How? Did you bribe him?”

Oh, man… I keep my face hella straight, and look her right in the eye. “Something like that.”

She stares at me for a second then breaks down laughing. “My favourite client yet, Boss.”

Max smiles. “At least we can cross of another suspect. He’s not consciously part of this. He’d never have given you the code if he was.”

“Ok, so.” Tish takes the paper and starts typing shit into the computer.

“Ok, so. Nathan is Rotweiler.” She types more stuff and starts muttering to herself. Max moves over to sit on a crate. I take the one next to her as we watch Tish type away.

“How long..?” Max shushes me. We sit for about five minutes until Tish suddenly says she’s done.

Scanned pages of the ledger appear on the big screen. Tish types again and suddenly words start flashing by and running down a little toolbar thing like the Matrix. It’s hella cool. I look back over at her. “What are you doing?”

She grins. “Running a…” And that’s all I get. Fucking technobabble, dude. “And then, little Zirema (Little, I’m fucking taller than she is?!) we get…” She clicks and a the ledger disappears, replaced by 7 little lines of text. “Every deal Nathan and Frank have ever made.”

Max walks over and taps on one. It gets bigger. “So, we know when he bought drugs. We just need to tie that to the party…”

She turned to me. “When was it?”

I thought back. Shit, it’d been nearly a month now. Wow. So much has fucking happened in a hella short time. Kinda cool, but… I shook my head and focused on Max. “Uh, the fourth.”

“Tish? Any deals on the fourth of october?”

More typing. “Yeah. These two. Around 11pm.”

She turned back to me. “You said Kate was out of it when you found her?”

I nodded. “Yeah. She was hella loopy and barely conscious.”

Max thought for a second then turned back to Tish. “Check the drugs he ordered. Find out if they can cause those symptoms.”

Tish nodded and got typing again. Max thought for a second, then tapped her ear. “Meet at the Church ASAP. Briefing in fifteen.”

-----

The rest of Max’s team filed into the little room. They’d still not got proper furniture, so we all just took a box.

Max stepped up to the front. “The current status of The Blackwell Job is good.”

She clicked a button and pictures of Frank, Nathan and Step-Douche popped up. “We’ve managed to narrow our suspect pool down.” She clicks again and David’s pic expands to fill the middle of the screen.

“David is definitely not involved. He’s just a PTSD’d Veteran trying to be a cop. Tish is still investigating that issue he had in the military though. We may be able to use him to legitimise the case. He’ll appreciate the heads up. He might even be able to barter a police position.”

She clicked again. Frank’s picture popped up now. “Frank Bowers isn’t a suspect. He might be involved though. We believe Nathan bought the drugs he used on Kate from him.”

Travis chips in. “He mighta used them on your friend too, Chloe. If she’s part of the pattern, he could’ve done the same to the rest of the girls.”

Max interrupts. “No, he’s new to this. The missing girls go back ten years, Nathan can’t be doing this alone. He’s an apprentice to someone.”

She points to Travis and Cassie. “The trackers you two put on his car have been giving out data. We need to retrace his movements, see if he met up with anyone. If he’s got a master, we can follow his leash right to him.”

“So…” She clicks and Nathan’s picture expands. “Nathan is our prime suspect for now. He’s clearly brittle. If we weaken him enough, he might tell us about his master. So, we need to find out how to do that. I’m working to remove his support structure. Cassie and Laura, I need you to take a run at his car. See what he’s left inside it. Travis, you play watchman for them.”

I just sit back and appreciate what’s happening. How cool is it to be in a proper high-tech spy briefing? I feel like I’m in the CIA or something again. Hella fucking cool.

“Chloe.” I look at her, kinda surprised. Me? What do I do?

“I need you to keep an eye on Kate. She’s a thread proving what our masked master did. He might try to eliminate her.” Shit… Katie. I open my mouth to interrupt, to say something about me fucking up. Again. But I kinda get distracted when she tosses me a little plastic box. “This is an earbud. Keep it in and we’ll hear if anything happens.”

I looked down at it and grinned. “I get an earbud..?”

Max rolls her eyes. “Yes, Chloe. You get an earbud. Tish will teach you how it works. Plus, how to look after it. You do not want it breaking in your ear.” She warns.

Wait, why not? “Uh..?” I look over to Tish. She runs her finger over her throat..? Oh. Oh! Shit. I’m definitely taking care of this thing.

“Ok, you all have your assignments. Once we’ve taken care of the Frank issue, we’ll plan our attack on Nathan.”

Everyone nods and heads out. Cassie and Travis stop by Tish and get a couple of little doodads from her before they leave. I walk over to Max. “So…”

She looks up at me and frowns. “So..?”

I really have no idea how to ask this. “Icky Vicky, uh, Victoria said something. Last night. Something about you.”

Max just… froze. I’ve seen people try to be still before, but Max just… stopped. It was like looking at a wax statue of her. Seriously fucking creepy. Fuck it. I kept going. I have to know. “She said I nearly killed you. But you’re here? You’re ok? I just… I wanna know, Max. I have to know. What the hell happened?”

Max didn’t say anything. She just stayed frozen until suddenly, she blinked. Her face got sort of animated again and she sighed. “Not now, Chloe. I have to be at Blackwell. We’ll do this later.”

She strode past me and straight out the door. Fuck, that’s almost as bad as ‘Something like that.’.

I sigh. Well, shit.

Chapter Text

I drove to Blackwell. Now I'm angling to be Vortex, a flash of wealth is useful. I swung into the lot and parked. Ok, straight to the dorms. Kate's room is... Here. I knocked on her door.

A few seconds passed. I knocked again. Damn. I glanced up and down the corridor. Nobody there, excellent. I pulled my picks from my sock. The lock was child's play. I pushed open the door and... "Shit." an empty room. Where the hell is she? I relocked the door and left.

The minute I was outside, I tapped the earbud. "Tish?"

"Yeah?"

I paused as I got into my car. "Where does Kate live? I need the full address."

Tish rattled off Kate's street and house number. "Thanks, Tish." I tapped them into my GPS and sped off.

-----

I stopped on the corner of Kate’s street. I parked and got out. I took out my earbud and put it in my pocket.

I took a breath and knocked on the door. Barely a minute later, a man opened it. He was tall, broad-shouldered and strong. Also, he looked bizarrely like Tom Selleck. "Yes?"

I smiled pleasantly. It was a good smile to use with authority. It quietly murmured "I'm sorry to bother you." and begged forgiveness. Most older figures fell for it easily. They love to play protector. "I'm Max. I'm a friend of Katie's."

He was shocked, and it showed. His eyebrows all bunched together and his eyes widened. His mouth even dropped open slightly. I guess Kate’s had never had friends over. "Oh, well then. Please come in." He stepped out of the way.

I walked past him into the house. "Thank you, sir."

He shrugged. "Please, call me Richard."

I smiled again. This one was shyer, happier somehow. Smiles are useful things. You can use them to say lots of things. "Ok, then, Richard. Is Kate here?"

He nodded and gestured for me to follow. He took me through to the dining room. "Hi Lynn. Katie? A friend of yours is here to see you. Max?"

Kate was laughing and chatting with a young girl. Thirteen or so. A sister, I think. They had similar features. She looked up in mild shock when I came in. It was adorable. She looked like a . "Oh, um. Hi?"

"Hey Katie." I got a strange look when I called her that. I was about to ask to talk, but I was interrupted. Richard clapped a hand on my shoulder. "So, Max, would you like to join us for dinner? There's plenty." He leans in and jokes, Sotto voce. "My wife always cooks far too much anyway."

I share a look with Kate and shrug. I can spare the time. "Sure, Richard. I'd love to."

He points me to a seat next to Kate. I wander over and sit down. The young girl quickly draws me into the conversation. "Have you heard Taylor Swift’s new album?”

I grinned. I think I just made a friend for life. When I tell her I met Taylor, her eyes widened. Kate was grinning. She immediately demands I tell her everything. Lynn certainly is excitable.

About ten minutes later, a woman walks in. She’s trailed by a girl about my age. Kate’s mother and another sister, I guess. They’re both holding dishes of food. “Dinner is served.”

She frowns at me. “And who is this, Richard?”

“This is Max. She’s a friend of Katie’s.” The woman looks me over. Her disapproving look is too much. A good disapproving look needs restraint. Too much disapproval and you just piss people off. They want to rebel against it. She had one of those looks.

She and the other girl put their dishes down. The mother introduces herself. “I’m Miranda. This is Sarah.” She gestures to the older girl. “I take it you’re joining us for dinner.”

I nod. “Yes, I… If that’s okay with you, I mean.”

She shrugs. “Of course.”

Lynn cheers as they put more dishes on the table. Its quickly filled with a lot of food. All home-cooked, by the look of it. The rest of the family join the three of us at the table.

I look at the others and wait. Sure enough, they all link hands and say grace. I join in. It’s polite, if nothing else.

The moment the hands drop, Lynn digs in. Kate and the other sister laugh and follow suit. Richard and his wife are more restrained. They hand out food to the others from the dishes. I guess they’re traditionalists. This is the most Waltons moment I’ve ever had.

Once everyone has food, Richard speaks. “So, tell us about yourself, Max.”

Huh. Ok. Keep it simple. Richard will not like the Vortex persona. “Well, I used to live here. I just recently moved back for Blackwell. This is the end of my first week.”

He smiles. “Oh, really? How are you finding it?”

I shrug. “It’s been good so far. It’s very different to my school in Seattle.” It really wasn’t. Blackwell had all the same cliques. They were just less threatening. Like I said, Tiffany could out-glare any of the Vortex crew.

Lynn chips in, her mouth full. "What do you study?" Miranda throws Lynn a glare. Lynn just shrugs and grins back.

I focused on her. "I'm an art student, like Katie." I shrug. "I'm more for photography though. I don't have Katie's gift for sketching."

Kate blushed. Richard almost beamed. "She is talented, isn’t she? I always told her that those drawings of hers were excellent.”

“Dad!” Kate squeaks out. Her mother scowls. “Kathryn! Don’t shout at the table.”

We chatted whilst we ate. It was… nice. I hadn’t had a family dinner in years. The team were too busy and my family… well… We hadn’t done anything like that in a while.

Miranda stood up to start collecting plates. I saw my chance for a brownie point. This family seems the type to applaud hard work. So, I stood up. "Please, let me. It's the least I can do."

Kate's mom just blinked at me. "Fine. Sarah, show her where everything is." I smiled and we started collecting plates. I followed Sarah into the other room. She quietly showed me to the sink. She reached down and pulled the cleaning supplies from a cupboard. I got to it.

Kate walked quietly into the kitchen, standing off behind me. Knowing who's in the room with you can save your life. Especially in my line of work. She simply watched as I dried the last plate. When I'd put them all on the rack, she moved forward. I felt a tap on my shoulder. "Max? Can we talk upstairs?"

I nodded and followed her up to her room.

She closed the door behind us. I scanned the room. It was simple, materially speaking. No TV, no computer. She had a small bookshelf, a bed and basic furniture. The bureau and comfy chair against one wall was probably the most decadent thing here. There was a cross on the wall above her bed. A mirror hung opposite the bed above her dresser. Remove the cross, add a liquor cabinet and you've got my room.

Kate moved across the room and sat on the bed. I took the comfy chair. I waited for her to speak. Sure, I'd come here to talk, but it's polite. I'm a guest, right?

"My parents like you, you know."

I shrug. "Of course they do. I'm very good at my job."

Kate doesn't smile. She just stares into the middle distance. Definitely trouble in paradise. I focus on her, keeping my voice sympathetic. "Chloe?"

Her eyes immediately flick up to mine and she blushes. "How..?"

"How did I know? Easy. Chloe had the same face on this morning." I smirked. "She wouldn't tell me what happened. It was easy enough to guess there was trouble with you though."

Kate looked back down to the floor. She sighed. I decided to try cajoling. "I can't help if you won't tell me what's going on. She's my friend. You're important to her. I just want to help."

She sighed and took a deep breath. She seemed to be trying to calm herself. “Something happened. After the party. We… um… weweredrunkandmaybehadsex.”

My eyes shot open. Wow. I did not expect that. I look at Kate. She’s… actually, I’m not sure what she is. It’s difficult to tell whether she’s mortified, terrified or devastated. Probably a little of all three.

“I just don’t understand how this could’ve happened. It’s such a disaster…” Her voice was forlorn. Her shoulders were slumped. “I had to… I was supposed to… And we…” She’s speaking quicker and quicker. The babble is almost indistinguishable. She finishes with a “And neither of us even remember it!”

I stay quiet. Wow. They were that drunk? That’s… I shudder. I carefully close the box on certain memories. “Maybe you two should talk? This seems like something you should talk about.”

She flushes. “How do we even begin to talk about… that?” She shakes her head, suddenly determined. “No, I just… We… I don’t know. I need to think. I need to… I need to pray. I’ll talk to her later.”

She abruptly changed the subject. It was desperate and hopeful. I indulged her. I’m hardly one to deny her avoidance tactics. Besides, I get the feeling she really isn’t ready to talk yet. No sense forcing the poor girl. Not yet, anyway.

We talked awkwardly for a few moments until my phone rang. Laura. I excused myself to Kate and answered. “Good evening, Max.”

“Laura. Need something?”

“No, I merely wished to report in, as per your request. We planted the tracking devices on the necessary vehicles. I believe Tish is currently adding them to her software.”

I smiled. “Excellent. Good work.” I frowned. “Why didn’t you use the earbud?”

“Oh, I’m afraid there was some problem with the connection. I tried to contact you using it and you didn’t respond.”

I remembered the earbud in my pocket. Oh. “Sorry, Laura.”

“Nonsense. It’s really no problem at all. I have rather a large number of other calls to make as well, so it’s rather convenient, actually. The London Team is having some issues acquiring the new safehouse. So, I’m going to assist the poor darlings.”

I nod. “Excellent. Keep up the good work, Laura. I’ll talk to you later.”

We say our goodbyes and I hang up. I turn back to Kate. “I have to go. It’ll be ok, Kate. Just talk to her.”

We headed downstairs. I told her it wasn’t necessary to see me out. She insisted anyway. As we walked up to the door, her dad came over. He shook my hand and told me I was welcome back any time.

I smiled and nodded my head. I didn’t quite meet his eyes. “Thank you, Richard.” I hugged Kate. After a stunned second, she hugged me back. “Bye Katie.” I left.

-----

I ambled along to my room. For once, the dorm was quiet. I smiled. I always liked the night. The quiet, the solitude. It... made it easier to forget.

I unlocked my room and entered. Then, it was the usual room check routine I did every night. I scanned everywhere someone could hide and checked if anything had been moved. You might consider that paranoid, but it was a survival necessity. Luckily, my room was undisturbed and empty.

I moved over to the bed and sat down. I carefully removed my shoes and slipped them under the bed. I take a deep breath and stood up again. I started to move through my Kata. My arms and legs moved through the familiar patterns. I felt my mind clear. All my worries about Chloe faded.

Ok, now I’m ready. I take the Tim Davis baseball and smash the window.

I raise my hand.

The shattered window restitched itself together. I smiled. I'd been practising every free night and morning I had. My stamina had definitely increased. I could repair the window 50 times before I got nosebleeds.

Now to try targeting this. I took the stick I'd collected from outside and broke it into three. I focused on one piece and raised my hand. Come on, come on. Reverse the single piece. I could feel a vein pulsing in my forehead. It was vastly uncomfortable to say the least.

I grinned as I watched two of the three pieces reverse. I picked up the baseball and dropped it. It immediately fell to the floor. It worked! I’m only reversing the stick!

My mind started to race with plans and applications. Imagine what I could do with this!

I take a breath. Ok, I have to retry this. Ensure I’m really not going crazy. I rebreak the stick and try again. Lo and behold, the single piece repairs itself.

I smash a glass and a number of other things too. Every time, I could repair it piece by piece. Excellent. I smiled faintly at my hand. This power will definitely come in useful. I wonder if I can target specific people, too?

Then, my face dropped. I’m going to have to tell the team soon, aren’t I? I’ll need to think up how to convince them. Maybe a demonstration?

Regardless, I’m exhausted. Manipulating the flow of time is hard work. I changed and went to bed.

-----

I screamed in pain as my arms strained. They were tied to the ceiling by a long rope. I felt like my shoulders were going to tear. It fucking HURT.

The room around me was dark. There were two lights. One was on the pool beneath me. The other was focused on a figure. I couldn't make her out. From shape and size, definitely a woman though. She was standing by the pool. I grimaced and strained against the rope again. Fuck. Securely tied.

She took the cigarette from her mouth and laughed. It was a weirdly pleasant sound. "I'm afraid you're not going anywhere, Ms Caulfield. Those ropes are quite secure."

She stepped forward. Fuck. Elaine Montsignore. She was French Intelligence turned freelancer. She was also the target of our current contract. "Fuck you, Elaine."

She laughed again. I think that was her default reaction to most things. "Charming as ever, I see." She nudged something forward with her foot. It was a head.

-----

I woke up with a start, breathing heavily. God-fucking-damnit… I hate that one.

I rub the sweat from my face and get up. I’m not sleeping again for a while. I never do.

I steady my hands. Fuck. I need a drink. But Travis would kill me. I’ll try a walk. Those usually help. I get up, get dressed and head outside.

I walk over and sit down on the bench. There’s something so serene about this place at night. Chloe and I used to go up to the lighthouse after dark. We’d look out over the bay. It was nice.

That was when I noticed the blonde hair disappearing into the treeline. Interesting… I followed along. Victoria was nimble when she tried. I guess seeing her in heels all the time coloured my view. I thought I was more careful than that.

She pauses in a clearing, bending down to fiddle with something. I step out of the forest behind her. “So. You told Chloe.”

I see her shoulders droop. “Yeah, I sort of did.” She turns to look at me. “I was just so angry! I know you told me not to worry, but I can’t help it! You nearly died, Max! You spent six months in a fucking hospital ward! And she’s just...” She growls and stabs off into the distance. “there! Like nothing fucking happened!”

I sigh. “Because she doesn’t know.”

Her jaw drops. “She doesn’t know?” She sounds utterly baffled. “Jesus, Max, how the fuck can she not know?”

“Because I never told her.” I say, matter-of-factly. I shrug. “I never saw the point. I don’t hold a grudge.”
“How?” She sounds utterly disbelieving. “Why don’t you hate her?”

I shrug. I did, once. But… not any more. “I’ve had four years to reflect. We both made mistakes. We both could’ve handled things better. And in the end, I survived and I prospered.”

She snorts, disbelievingly. “Her mistake put you in hospital. If I was in your shoes, I’d never forgive the bitch.” She snorts, her derision clear. “But you always were more merciful than I was.”

Oh, Victoria… If only you knew.

“It did.” I grin. “It wasn’t all bad though, wasn’t it? If I hadn’t been there, we’d never have met.”

She rolls her eyes. She’s smiling though. “I guess.” She clicks her fingers, remembering something. “Oh, and I got you into the Vortex, by the way. I hardly had to persuade anyone. They spent most of the meeting fangirling over you.” She snorts. “You have a fan-club now, congratulations.”

I smile. “Thanks, Tori. The party was excellent. You did well.”

She waves a dismissive hand. “It’s nothing. You were responsible for that more than I was.” She focuses on me. “I still don’t understand why you wanted to join. It’s hardly your thing.”

I throw her a sardonic smile. “I just want to spend more time with you, Tori.” She knows I’m bullshitting, but she doesn’t ask further.

I grin. A thought occurs. “Out of curiosity, did you ever tell Taylor about me? I’m sure she asked where you disappeared to week after week?”

Tori shook her head. “She did, but… I didn’t. I never had a clue where to start. How do you even begin to describe our… us?”

I smile. “True. It really was... odd.” I pause. “But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Me either.” She smiles back. We spend a few moments like that. Just smiling at each other. She looks away first, flushing brightly.

Her smile falls and she frowns. She looks back to me. “So, how’d Travis end up here with you? I haven’t seen him since the hospital.”

I shrugged. “We were friends. After you left, he was all I had. I kept him around. Sentimentality, you know.”

Tori grins again, wickedly. “Not to mention the rugged Texan thing.”

I shrug. “Not my preference.” I smirk at her. “I’m more into the elegant socialite look.”

She flushes when she gets it. I mimic her wicked grin. She snorts with laughter. “You really are incorrigible, Max.”

Conversation lapses for a minute or so. She stares at me for a minute. There’s something on her mind. Something just out of reach. “Wait.” Ah. There it is. “What the hell are you doing out here?” She snaps.

“Following you.” I retorted. “What are you doing out here?”

She holds up her camera. It’s an… SLR, I think. I’m still not an expert on photography terms. “The moonlight creates good lighting for nature pictures.”

I smile, faintly. Tori always was dedicated to her craft. “You can get back to it then. I should be going, anyway.”

She grits her teeth for a second. Her camera goes back into the bag. She steps toward me. She reaches out and hugs me. “I’m glad you’re here, Max.”

“Me too, Tori. Me too.”

I walk away from Victoria and towards the main campus. I don’t notice Wells until he spots me. He’s sitting on the veranda by the Dorm gate. He calls out. “What are you doing out of bed this late, Max?”

I shrug. “I just needed some air, sir.” I frown. Is he… drunk? Maybe he’ll let me share the bottle. No. You promised, Max. No. I look at him. Something is wrong. I fill my voice with compassionate interest. “What about you sir? You seem… down.”

His shoulders sag. I notice the bottle on the floor next to him. “Blackwell was my responsibility… and I’ve let her down.”

I frown. Interesting… “How so, Sir?”

He takes a swig. “The goddamn Prescott's. I took their money. I let the Devil into my school.”

“The school needs funding, sir…” I offered.

He snorted. “Funding from the Prescott's just isn’t worth it, Max. Years of covering up that little shit’s screw-ups isn’t even worth double the money they give us.” He sighs again. “I should never have made that deal.” I can hear the regret in his voice. I know the feeling. You make a deal you think you want in the moment. It’s only later that it comes back to haunt you.

I have a lot of deals like that.

“You’re doing the best you can with what you have, sir. That’s the mark of a good leader.”

He looks up at me, almost pathetically grateful. “You think so?”

I nod. “Yes, sir. I do.”

He nods, more to himself than me. “I just did what I thought was right. I always wanted to be a Principal, you know. Even when I was young. Helping a generation of new minds through their studies, guiding them to the thing they’ll do for the rest of their life…”

He sighed and creaked up from the deck. “I should go. Thank you, Max.”

I watched him stumble away from the dorms. He doesn’t remark on why I’m out of the dorms again.

As soon as Wells was out of earshot, I put my earbud back in. "I've just had an enlightening conversation with Wells. He's apparently paid by the Prescotts to help cover Nathan. Track his car, get his phone and emails. We'll check his office tomorrow."

I get a little chorus of "Yes, Boss"-es and remove the earbud. I move to sit on the bench.

My mind inevitably goes back to Chloe. I call Travis.

“Howdy, Boss.” Travis’ folksy Texan accent echoed down the phone.

I sighed. “She asked. Actually asked. And I don’t know what to tell her.”

I heard him sit down. “How ‘bout the truth?”

“I don’t know if I can.” I rub my hand across my face. “Shit, Travis. She blames her Dad for being in a fucking car accident. How do you think she’s going to take this?”

“Well, she ain’t gonna take ‘something like that’ for an answer, Max. You’re gonna hafta tell her somethin’.”

“Why the fuck do you think I’m calling you?” I snapped.

He sighs. “Look, boss. If you don’t think ya can tell her ‘bout that, what can you tell ‘er?”

That’s… a good point. “So, start small? Work up to it?”

He shuffles. “Exactly. And let her know that’s the plan. She’s pr’bly jest as paranoid ‘bout this as you, Max.”

“Ok.” I take a deep breath. “I can do this.”

“Yes, you can. If ya can beat a guy to death with his own arm, ya can do this.” He’s lucky he’s Travis. I’d never take this from anyone else. But I trusted Travis with everything. He’d been with me since the beginning. “So, getcha ta bed. You’ve got school in the mornin’.”

He laughs.

Asshole.

Chapter Text

Grargh… Whassat? I slammed my hand around on my bedside table thingy, trying to punch the shit out of whatever had the fucking balls to wake me up. Oh. Text.
I blinked at the screen, trying to get that weird brightness blindness black spot thing to go away so I could see the fucking thing.
MAX- Come to the Church.
Seriously? Aurgh. I roll out of bed and stumble to the kitchen. Coffee. I’m gonna need lots of coffee.
-----
I walked up to the outside of the Church to see Kate just sitting on the steps, waiting. I took a deep breath, stuck my hands in my pockets and wandered over. "Hi."
"Hi." She didn't meet my eyes. Shit. We just stood there in silence for a second until she took a deeper breath than I did and pretty much forced herself to look at me. "So, you got the message from Max, too?"
I nodded. "Yep."
Silence again...
I scowled at myself. "Fuck it." I pushed past Kate and opened the door into some little porch-type area. Kate followed quietly behind. This definitely wasn't here before. Guess the builders must've added it. It was nice. Fit with the old church look pretty well. If I hadn't been here before, I don't think I could tell it was new. These guys were good. I could hear faint guitar music from inside. Max must be playing, I guess. I looked at Kate, then went in.
Then I stopped. Holy. Shit.
The work-guys and scaffolding and boxes and shit everywhere were gone. The church-bench things (“Pews, Chloe.” Said the little Kate-voice in my head.) were now scattered about, all next to little tables and shit. Where the altar used to be was a little bar and a stage. Max was sitting on the edge of it, next to a grand piano. She was gently strumming on a guitar and singing along.
We both just stood there for a minute in shock. The place looked seriously different. The old, decrepit church had turned into... into a fucking coffee shop. There was all sorts of equipment and shit behind the bar.
Travis walked out of the back room and laughed when he saw our faces. "Hah. Y'all look like ya just found a badger in your cornflakes."
I... what?
Max stopped playing and looked up at us. She put the guitar down and hopped off the stage, striding over. "Hi. Glad you could make it." She looked at me then at Kate, who was still staring about the place. Shit, it's probably weird for her, right? I mean, it was a church before, so... I don't know.
I looked over at Max. "This place looks fucking awesome. Your builder guy works hella fast."
Max shrugged. "Giovanni is expensive for a reason. He's very good." She turns and looks about the room again. "It's exactly what we need. If people don't have expectations for you to hide in," She opens her hands to wave at the room, like an estate agent showing off some big space. "then give them some. The coffeeshop is a shell for the operations underneath."
Huh? "Underneath?"
She shrugs. “We thieves do like our burrows.” She smiles.
Travis laughed and walked up next to her. "Do you wanna show them or should I?"
Max smiles. "You can take this one."
He nods and takes us into a side room, opposite the one all Tish's computer shit is in. It's put together kinda like an office, desk in the middle and bookshelves along the walls. He reaches over and taps a brick in the wall, then stamps on a couple of random floor stones. The minute he hits the second stone, there's a click and one of the bookshelves just sorta drops. There's a gap there where the wall should be, and a fucking staircase going down.
I stare. "Holy shit, you guys have a secret door."
"You bet we do, darlin'." He walked over and stepped into the gap. "You comin'?"
We both nodded and hurried in. He elbows a switch on the wall and the bookcase closes behind us again.
We hit the bottom of the staircase and went down a long stone corridor. Travis was grinning the whole time, probably hella laughing at our reaction, which was kind of a "What the fuck is happening?" thing. Well, probably no fuck in Katie's head.
We hit the end of the corridor to find a big, metal door, like something of the fucking Enterprise. Travis tapped a few keys on a little numberpad next to the door (4927, in case you were wondering) and went in.
"Holy shit, dude! This is hell awesome!" I grinned and wandered over to the huge boxing ring in the middle of the room. Weird to call it a ring, when it's a square, but whatever. It was there and it was hella cool. Don't even get me started on the fucking weapon wall they had next to it. There were swords, guns, axes and all sorts of cool shit on it.
I wandered over to the little kitchen next to the ring. It just looked like two lines of expensive counters. I only knew what it was when I tapped the top of one and a little rectangle in the middle sunk down to make a sink. Fuck, even the kitchen is awesome!
Travis leant back against the wall next to the door and watched us basically just fucking gawk at this place. Could you blame us? I mean, they'd built a fucking Batcave! So cool. "Door over there is rooms, door back there is Tish's computer room and we've got an armoury over there."
Huh... "Wait. I've seen documentaries and shit. Digging takes ages, how the hell did you get this whole place built?"
He shrugged. "We didn't. Gio just renovated the old catacombs. Expanded out to make the other rooms. Besides, that ass could knock up a Pyramid in a week and it'd still be standing a thousand years later. Like Max said, he's good."
Wait... "Catacombs? Are there dead people in the fucking walls?" Suddenly this place wasn't so cool anymore.
He laughed. "Not anymore, darlin'. Jeez, haven't you heard of diseases? Nah, Gio moved 'em, all respectful-like."
Katie didn't say anything, just sort of nodded awkwardly. I guess people living in a church was probably against some rule. Can you go to hell for that? I bet you can go to hell for that.

I just sorta kept talking Travis' ear off asking questions about this place. Turns out they'd built a lot of these things all over the country. The 'Syndicate' (That's Max's group) had a safehouse like this in every major city. So fucking cool.

We walked through to the computer room to find Tish fiddling in some open panel on the wall. "Hey Tish!" I yell out.

There's a thud, and a hella lot of muffled cursing. Her head appears out of the panel. "Hey, Zirema! Welcome to the Burrow. Whadda ya think?"

She waves at all the tech in the room. And there is a LOT of tech in the room. It's like being on the bridge of the Enterprise. I wander over to the middle of the room as Tish is talking and pull myself up to sit on this long kitchen counter thing that goes across the middle of the room, so that you could sit next to it and look over at the hella big screen. "It's hella fucking cool. You've got so much awesome stuff in here!"

She grins. "You bet we do. Only the best for us, Mabono." She hops out of the hole and wanders over to this big box thing under the screen. She taps her hand on the top, like some gearhead dude showing off his hella sweet ride. "This baby connects to The Network and face-rec from the FBI, NSA, ViCAP, Interpol, the FSB and Mossad databases. It's the perfect tool for us."

Shit... These guys hacked the CIA! Wait. "What's the Network?"

"Our version of the Cloud. It's shared between all our safehouses. Every client, every clue, every juicy lil secret." Travis grins. "Anythin' we need, the Network got."

There's a crackling, then a voice echoes through the room. "Travis, Chloe, Kate, I need you upstairs now."

Tish rolls her eyes. "You heard the boss. Fuck off and let me get back to work." She crawls back in the panel. Katie and I follow Travis back upstairs.

We find Max in the backroom. All the computers and boxes and stuff are gone, now there's just a bunch of lockers and storage stuff in there. She's sorting through stuff in one of the lockers. "Hey guys. Enjoy the tour?"

I grin. "Hella yeah. This place is awesome."

She shares a look with Travis. Very 'Told you so' with a bit of "Aww, newbie." in there. Hella patronising, really. "Oh, would you be able to give Kate a lift, Chloe? I need to find Tori."

I shrug. "Sure." Katie still doesn't look at me. "If that's ok with you, Katie cat?"

She nods. "Sure."

Max grins, "Great!" and walks out the door.

We all sort of blink at that, and follow her head. Katie and I head for my car, still hella quiet. We make it all the way to Blackwell without saying a word to each other.
-----
"Hey, Tori. Thanks for meeting me." I didn't need to look up. The clacking of her heels gave her away. I could feel rather than see her scowl. She didn't like being outsmarted. She never really did.
That's what made it so fun!
I put my book in my bag and stood up. "Shall we?" I was half tempted to offer my arm. The height difference would make that comical.
She nodded and followed quietly. I watched her out of the corner of my eye as we walked. Something was off.
"Fuck... I so don't need this shit right now." Victoria muttered, hand massaging her temple. I frowned and followed her eyes to... ah. Nathan. He stormed over, right up to me.
"I bet you're so proud of yourself, huh Max? Getting into the Vortex like that?"
I shrugged. "They recognise worth when they see it."

He grinned. It wasn't a happy grin. More like a wolf spotting it's lunch. He'd find me a difficult meal to swallow. "Are you challenging me, Feminazi?"

I snort. Oooh, Clever. I pretend to think it over for a second. I focus my eyes back on his. "Yes."

He laughs. "You have no idea who you're fucking playing with, do you?" He threw me another wolfish grin.

I pause, tapping my foot and play-thinking. I even stroke my chin, for added effect. "Let me think about that."

I make a show of it. I tsk, I click my teeth, that sort of thing. After a full minute of this, I grin. "I think I do. Bring it on, Rich Boy."

He laughs. He actually laughs. This might actually be fun. "I'm gonna enjoy beating you, bitch." He turns to Tori. "Come on, Vic. Let's ditch this loser." I turned to look at her. She didn't look at me. "I'll see you later, Nate."

He glared at me again, then looked back to Tori. He thought for a second. Probably wondering whether to push the issue. After a few seconds, he spun and stalked off.

We watched him leave. Tori looked at me. I looked back. She arched a brow, obviously expecting something. I had no idea what and I guess it showed. She scowled and started striding. This was an old trick of hers. Trying to outpace me kept me behind, kept me apart.

"Tori, wait." She turned to me, arching a single brow. Every inch the Ice Queen of Blackwell.

"Yes?" Then it hit me. I'd run through the entire last week. This was the only thing it could be.
"I'm sorry I wasn't around to help with the project on Thursday." I did actually feel bad about that. It was a rule of my organisation. Everyone does their share.
She shrugged. "It's fine. Like you'd be able to help, anyway."
I stared at her. "What?"
She sighed. "I'm not blind, Max. You didn't know anything in Mark," She hesitated, then corrected herself. "Mr Jefferson's last lecture. I know there's something you're not telling me. The old you would've known everything he was talking about. You didn't even know what Chiaroscuro was for fucks sakes."

I smiled, fondly. Victoria always was sharp. "Tori, you're right. There are things I'm not telling you. And I can't tell you them yet." She was so right. Damn it. I sighed. "Still. I'm sorry I wasn't there. Even if I would've been useless."

She frowned, obviously pissed that I wasn't talking. But she didn't push. "It's fine. Just be better next time. I..." Her cheeks flushed pink. "I was worried."

She... worried about me? I smiled. "You don't need to worry, Tori. I promise I was fine."

She scowls. "Jesus, Max. That's so not the point of this, asshole. Just... don't do it again, ok?"

I shrug. "I can't make that promise, Tori. I might need to go again." I try to catch her eye. "All I can promise is that I'll come back ok."

She nods.

We stayed silent for the rest of the walk to Blackwell.

I spotted Mrs Grant and another teacher talking by the steps. We headed over.

Mrs Grant beamed at me as we walked up. She was my science teacher now. My first impression stuck, and she liked me pretty well. I wasn't her teachers pet or anything, but we got along. "Hey, Max. Victoria."

"Hello, Mrs Grant." I smiled. Victoria just nodded, ever aloof and untouchable.

The teacher standing with her grinned and stuck out his hand. "Hey. I'm Richard." Mrs Grant glared at him. He wilted a little. "Mr Rodgers."

I smile and take his hand. "Nice to meet you, Sir. This is Victoria." After I throw a glare at her, she extends a hand too. She shakes his hand like a noble and a peasant. He grins, taking her hand and shaking it harder. "Nice to meet you, too."

Mrs Grant interrupts. "We were just talking about Mr Madsens new 'proposal'. I say he can't possibly be serious."

Mr Rodgers... Ok, look. I can't call him that and keep a straight face. I hate that show, seriously. Richard, shrugged. "I don't know, Michelle. Maybe if they'd had cameras, my daughter wouldn't be missing."

I frown. "Your daughter, sir?"

He nods and looks at me. I can see the exhaustion in his eyes. I remember that feeling. Just asking why over and over. Why should I keep going? Whats the point? "My daughter went missing at a Vortex Party. Something happened there and she's just... gone."

Victoria nodded. I like to think her eyes softened, but... "I remember. The police came to talk to some of us. Jesus, we never saw anything. I'm sorry, sir."

He nods, eyes wet. "They're still investigating. Nothing yet, but..."

Mrs Grant puts a hand on his shoulder. "Don't give up hope yet, Richard. She could still be out there."

He snorts. "Was Rachel? Were any of them? How many missing girls do you think the Arcadia Bay Police Department find?" He says this with utter derision. Spits it, really. Clearly doesn't think much of their ability to find his daughter. He must be the father of the last taken. We might have to have a talk soon. "How many, Michelle?" She doesn't answer. He sighs. "I have papers to grade. I'll see you later. It... it was nice meeting you two." He walks off, punching a locker as he goes. A freshman jumps in terror as he passes.

Ms Grant sighs. "Poor man. I really should be going too. I'm teaching soon. See you in class, Max."

Well. Seems Blackwell is just flush with clients. I'll tell Travis to check into this guy later. We kept walking, heading for the classroom.

-----

They flocked to us, the minute we walked in. "Max!" and "Hey Max" and "You were awesome." and so on. I looked over to Victoria, who was rolling her eyes. "You really weren't kidding, were you?" I played nice, smiled and shook hands. I guess I've got fans. Anything that gets the job done.

Hayden sauntered up to me, going for a fistbump. I smiled and fistbumped him. "Hey, there's the rockstar!"

Jefferson swaggered in, coming up against the crowd. "What on earth is happening here?" He nodded when he saw me. "Ah. Our resident virtuouso. Alright everyone, sit down. I'm sure she'll sign autographs later." The class laughed and headed to their seats. Kate, Tori, Taylor and I sat together. Jefferson moved to the front of the class. "Okay, so I hope you've all finished the project as it's due now."

Everyone sort of muttered and talked amongst themselves for a minute or two. Jefferson quieted them with a swipe of his hand. "I said now, class. A pile of on my desk, please."

Everyone milled up to the desk one by one. The little pile on his desk grew and grew. When everyone had sat down, he stood up. "Thanks everyone. I'm sure I'll love looking through your work. Now, on with todays lesson."

"...And that's why I say, always take the shot." The bell rang, marking the end of the lesson. Mr Jefferson pauses. "Well, that's all we have time for today, people. Read Chapters 3 and 4 of Monty's Intro to Photography and I'll see you tomorrow." Everyone nods and starts milling out. I look to Tori. She's chatting with Kate and Taylor. Her other friend, Courtney, is hovering around.

I send a text to Chloe.

MAX- Meet outside Blackwell. 8pm sharp.

I walk over to Tori. I catch her attention and she looks at me. "So, Two Whales?"

She laughs.
-----
"Hey Chloe."
I nearly fucking screamed as Max just appeared behind me like a fucking genie. She just gave me the calm and cool look like I was dumb for screaming. In her eyes, I probably hella was.
I turned and glared at her. She smirked. "You came."
I shrugged. "Duh. You said to meet here."
She nodded. "Fair point." She whistled. Travis, Laura and Cassie just sorta... appeared. Fucking hell, I'd never even seen them. These guys are good.
Travis grinned as he sauntered over, clapping me on the shoulder. "Hey Darlin' You ready for a lil B&E?"
What? "B&E?" I asked, ignoring the 'Darlin'.
He laughed. "Breaking and Entering." He turned me around to look up at the school. "It ain't exactly Fort Knox, but we need in."
"Why?" What could be interesting to them in there?"
Max waved to the window by the door. "Wells' Office. He may be covering for Nathan. It's unlikely to yield much, but" She shrugged, shouldering a gym bag. "every little helps."
Max turned to Laura. "Find a lookout spot. You're our spotter." Laura nodded and walked off into the dark. Max gestured to Cassie. "Get us in."
Cassie ran straight at a lamppost by the door and jumped. She kinda hooked her heels around it, spinning up like that weird whirly carnival ride, then flew into an open vent, head first.
I blinked.
Holy. Shit.
Max smirked at my expression. Bitch. Just 'cause she's used to all this, doesn't mean I am. And THAT, was fucking impressive. Some real Cirque du Soleil shit. Maybe that was it. Cassie was definitely tiny and agile enough to be a hella good gymnast. I'd have to ask Max later.
We stood around, me trying to stay out of sight and them succeeding, until the doors swung open. Cassie stood there, her crazy-coloured hair blowing around like one of those shitty bead curtains in tornado season.
Max nodded and walked right past her. Travis followed, but threw out a grin and a 'good work' as he went past. I trailed behind, still kinda shocked at Cassie.
Max turned to her and Travis, tossing the bag from her shoulder over to Travis. "Plant these. Usual sightlines. Keep contact with Tish and return to base when you're done." She turned to me. "You got your earbud?"
Oh, shit! I fumbled it out of my pocket and stuck it in my ear, grinning sheepishly at Max. She rolled her eyes and walked through the door to the reception bit. I grinned as I remembered the last time we'd been in here. Max had done her awesome disguise thing. I frowned. Still needed to ask her about that.
She went over to Wells office door and kneeled, pulling some little silvery credit card out of her pocket. She flicked it and a couple of little picks fell out. So fucking cool. She caught them, put the card back into her pocket and started on the lock.
"So, what was in the bag?"

She twisted something in the lock. "Button cameras and Microphones. Your, uh, 'step-douche's' network won't cover everything we need. So, we're supplementing it with our own. Between us we'll cover everywhere we need."
Huh. Cool. And then Tish's voice crackled in my ear. "So we'll see anything that happens in there. All of it gets sent to my computers back at base. Real-time, too."
I frowned. That's pretty far. Even I knew that. I asked Tish and she laughed. "That's easy, zirema. Satellites. One of the Boss's friends owns a few, so, we own a few. Pretty fucking cool, right?"
I grinned. "Hella right."
Max opened the door with a little "Yes!"
I clapped her on the shoulder. "Nice work, sista. So, what are we looking for?" I walked past her into the room.
Wow. "This guy has a hella tacky office. Look at all this fancy faux art crap. He's got money, but no fucking taste. No wonder he keeps this shithole locked all the time."
That's when I spotted what was on his desk. "A bronze bird? How can you trust someone who has a fucking bronze bird in his office? No wonder I got expelled."
"Uhuh. 'cause if he'd had a Monet or a Picasso, you'd still be here." She paused. "Maybe I should give him one of mine."
I growled. "Eat me."
Max snorted. "Lay down, the height difference isn't that much."
Woah, what? I just kinda spluttered and buffered a bit there. Then I pulled myself together and just shook my head. Keep it together, Price. She grinned evilly at me and I just glared back. There was a shitload of stuff scattered all over the place. I didn't even know where to start. "What do you want me to do?"
Max smirked again and waved over to a cabinet by the back wall. "There should be student records around here somewhere. Try the cabinet." I nodded and wandered over, rifling through one of the drawers. Nah, just financial shit. I moved on to the next bit.
Max sat in the big chair and plugged another of those little USB stick things into Wells' computer. "Tish? Copy the harddrive and emails. Plant trackers in any communication programs. If we can get his correspondence with Prescott, we can prove a link."
"Can do, Max." Tish's voice paused. "Aww, the bastard uses his birthday for a password. That is adorable. I'm in." She reported.
I looked back over my shoulder at her. "Looking for some suspicious shit?"
She nodded. "Anything we can find. If Prescott money is covering up Nathan's actions, we can find out. All we need is a lead." She glared at me. "And you should be searching. Back to it."
"Rassnfrassnrassn" I grumbled, but I got back to it.
Max stood up and went to search the other wall of cabinets for stuff. Oooh, was that..? Yes! Booyah! "Max? I found Nathan's file." I opened it and flicked through. "Shit, this asshole's record is spotless. No way this shit is real."
"Probably a result of Wells' cover-ups. Put it on the corner desk and keep looking." I nodded and wandered over to the desk Max pointed out and Katie's file was just, lying there, open on it. Well, that's fucking lucky. "Hey, I found Katie's file too."
Max appeared at my shoulder, scaring the shit outta me. I kept it together though. Barely screamed at all this time."And I found Rachel's." She handed me the file.
Rachel... Shit. I hadn't really thought about her in a while. Between Katie and having Max back, it'd kinda... slipped behind. But I know this shit had something to do with her disappearance. Maybe she found out or maybe Nathan just grabbed her, but I'm gonna find out what happened. And if he had anything to do with it, I'm gonna fucking kill him.
"Anything in there?"
I scanned through it quickly. Just a lotta stuff 'bout how perfect a student she was for this place. "Nah." I slid the file under Katie's and moved on.
"There's some real interesting stuff on this guys hard-drive, boss."
Max tapped her ear again. "How so, Tish?"
"Well, that money trail you wanted? We found that. Boy, did we fucking find that. These guys really need to hire a good accountant, get all this stuff hidden."
Max smiled. "Excellent. Anything else?"
"Yeah, but..." She let out a long string of swearwords I didn't even have a chance of catching. "You need to see this." Tish sounded... disturbed. I think we got our clue.
There was a beep from the computer and we walked over to look at the screen. Max tapped a few keys and a picture showed up.
Oh... oh god...
It was a dark picture, some kinda drawing. It just said 'Rachel in The Dark Room.' over and over. Was this Nathans? "Max..?"

She held up a hand to me and tapped her ear again. "Tish. Did you bring your scanner?"
Her response came immediatetly. She sounded confused. "Sure. It's still in the van though."
"Excellent." Max turned to me. "Take pictures of Nathans folder with this." She threw me a little ball-thing. This thing was a camera? Hella cool... "We can test the handwriting back at base. See if this is his work."
"You can do that?"
Max nodded and went to open another cabinet of files. I started going through Wells' desk. Well, I tried. But the top two drawers were just full of hella dull shit and the bottom two were locked. I called out and Max came over. "Move over."
I shifted out of her way and watched her open the locks in a couple of seconds. She reached in and pulled a big sheaf of files out, scattering them over the desk. I opened the other one. Oooh. I took the bottle out and looked at the label. Damn. Wells might have some good taste after all. I went to open it when Max's voice rang out. "Put it back, Chloe. Letting Wells know we were here defeats the entire point."
Aww. But she had a point. I put the bottle back into the drawer and closed it, joining Max in looking through the files. I grinned when I noticed a familiarly thick one. "Hey, this one's mine!"
Max smiled. "Thick. Lot's of... extra-curriculars, I presume?"
I shrugged. "Something like that."
She laughed and started reading over my shoulder. "Popcorn in the Principals car, huh? How original."
I snorted. "Speak for yourself, Maximus. I bet you never pulled a prank a day in your life."
She just opened another file. "Maybe a few. Remind me to tell you about them sometime."

She stops and looks at the file. "Wow. This guys file reads like my rapsheet."

I frown. "You have a rapsheet?"

She rolls her eyes at me. "Chloe, please remember I'm a criminal. Of course I have a rapsheet. I have bounties on my head, for fucks sake."

That's a good point. And holy shit, Max is WANTED? Wow... "Who the hell put a bounty on your head?"

She snorts, still reading. "Who hasn't? We’ve made our fair share of enemies. French Government, The NSA, At least 3 Tongs, Chinese Intelligence, Russian Intelligence, an African Warlord I forget the name of, Both Koreas..." She trails off. "Wow. I should introduce Wells to Bo sometime."

Wow. She's pissed off a hella lot of people in the last five years. And Bo? "Who?"

"He's my PR guy. And Wells certainly has a talent for cover-ups. Money well spent for the Prescotts."

She has a PR guy? What kind of criminal group has a fucking PR department?

"And then there's this." She handed me a piece of paper. It was a letter from Prescott to Wells, threatening to pull funding if he didn't cover up one of Nathan's benders. I read through it and rolled my eyes. Shit, no wonder Wells drinks so hella much if he's gotta deal with this kinda shit. "Damn. I kinda feel sorry for him."
"He made a deal with the Devil. Even if he didn't know what he was getting into." She looked me in the eyes. "Don't feel sorry for him. He made his choice, now he has to live with it."
"Alright, Boss. I've got everything I can from this." Max nodded. "Us too." She turned to me. "Time to go." She picked up the files and started wandering around the room, putting them back wherever we got them from.
I just plonked myself down into Wells' stupid leather chair to wai... woah. I nodded, appreciatively, running my hands over the chair arms. This is one ugly-ass chair, but it's hella comfy.
Oooh. An idea popped into my head. I ran my hand along the chair, grinning. I looked over at Max. "Max?"
She didn't even look at me. "No, Chloe. We are not stealing the chair."
My mouth dropped open. Holy shit. Max is psychic! "How the fuck..?"
She smirked. "Easy. I know you. And we are not taking the chair."
I ran my hand along the arm. "But, Maaaax!"
She snorted. "No. Come on. We have to go." Spoilsport. "Fine." I stood up and hugged the chair. "Sorry bro. Not this time. I'll come back for you, I promise."
Max laughed. "No comfy chair left behind, huh?"
I nodded. "Damn right."

We headed out of the building and took a left out the doors. I couldn't see Travis or Cassie. I guess they'd finished and gone home. It was getting pretty late. Max's phone started ringing. She pulled it out and looked at the screen. "Damn. I need to take this. One minute."
She put the phone to her ear and wandered off a little ways. "Guten Tag, Herr Minn."
I sauntered down the stairs and leant on a lamppost, watching her go.
Damn, no wonder she does this shit. It's hella fun. Imagine being James Fucking Bond for a job!? I grinned. I so needed to get her to tell me some more stories.
"Chloe?"
I turned to see Victoria standing over by one of the weird artsy-board things Blackwell had out front. She walked over. "What the hell are you doing out here?"
"Well, nice to see you too, Vicky." I grinned. She rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean. Why are you here?" She looked about the place for a sec. "Is Max here?"
I nodded off into the dark. "Yeah. She's taking a call."
She frowned and looked where I nodded, probably trying to see her. "Jesus." She sighed. "Look, Price. I need to ask you something and I will fucking kill you if you tell her, ok?" She didn't even wait for me to answer, just kept on going. Victoria did that a lot. To us 'mere mortals', conversations were something that happened between two people. Victoria always thought she should have one all on her fucking own. "Did you two... were you ever?" She scowled, like she was frustrated with herself. I could hella understand, I was frustrated with her too. Plus, we were talking about Max. She's hella frustrating as like, a character trait. "Were you ever together?"
I nearly laughed. "Me and Max? Nah. She's like a sister to me, dude." I smirked. "Why? You thinking of uh, getting in there?"
She blushed. She actually fucking blushed! "What? No, of course not. Jesus, don't be stupid. I was just asking."
Heh. Seems like Icky Vicky wants Maximus. This is gonna be fun.

Max walked over. "So, we have keys. Wanna go let off some steam?"

I frown. She grins and nods her head back at the building behind her. I frown again. I grin. "Splish splash?"

She nods. "Splish splash?"

We both take off for the pool, leaving a hella confused Chase following behind us yelling "What the fuck are you two talking about?"

-----
I grinned, wickedly and looked over at Max. "Girls or boys?"
She didn't bat an eye. "Girls." Victoria just stared at her. Max didn't notice and just walked past us into the locker room. I looked at Victoria's slackjawed face, laughed and followed Max in. Victoria followed us in a couple seconds later, after she'd shaken herself out of it. Watching her get thrown by new Max was hilarious.

Huh. That means Max wasn't like this when they met, right? Maybe she got all CIA after Victoria?
"Oh, shit!" I grinned when the lights flicked on in the pool. Max grinned at me from the office. "Found the lights."
I stripped off as I walked over to the pool and jumped straight in. I squealed as I hit the water. "Shit! It's hella fucking cold!" I could hear Max and Victoria laughing as I surfaced. I blinked water out of my eyes and tried to glare at them. Max went next, leaving her clothes in a little pile next to the office door.
I looked her over and... wow. Maxie had been through some shit. The scar at her collarbone went down her right boob. There was a small, thin scar near her stomach, and another long, vertical one on each thigh. There was another gunshot wound by her kidney and one in her shin. They were all striking and white against her skin. I gotta admit, I was kinda shocked. I knew she'd get into hella dangerous situations sometimes, being in her line of work, but that much..? Fucking hell...
"You coming in, Tori?"

I grinned, looking over at Victoria. She was staring at Max's scars. Seriously? That's hella bad form, dude. I scowled, but hid it hella quickly. I just smirked at her and called out. "Yeah, Vicki. You scared?"
"No!" Victoria scowled. "But this outfit is worth more than your house." She stepped well away from the pool and started to take it all off. I stared. What? She's a bitch, but she's a hella hot one. I did look at Max once though.
She was staring, too.
When she was just in her underwear, a hella expensive looking matched set, Victoria wandered over and daintily slid into the water. She paddled over to us and we all just sort of bobbed there for a second.
Max and I looked at each other. I grinned, nodding my head at Victoria. "Splish splash?"
Max nodded. "Splish splash."
"What are you two..?" Victoria asked. I pulled my hand back and flicked water at her. She squealed and backed off.
We played around like that for a while, just splashing water at each other. It was hella fun, like we were kids again, playing pirates.
Wait.
I stopped, listening for a sec. I heard another bang and some yelling, like a guy was trying to get in. Fuck. "Shit! Security guys! We gotta go!"

Max and Victoria pulled themselves out of the pool, getting dressed again as we all tried to hide.

Max mouthed at us “Block open the fire door!”. We had no fucking clue what else to do, so Victoria and I went over and did it.
Max crept into the office and fiddled with some electrics. She waited for a second, then sparked two wires. The fire alarms went off and the doors all clicked shut. There was muffled swearing from the other side of the building from the guard.
Max hurried over, pulled us out of the fire door and we ran to the dorms, giggling.
We’re so going to Hell…

Chapter Text

We ran into Victoria's dorm, laughing.

Victoria practically collapsed on her sofa, hand to her face. "Jesus, that was so fucking close. We nearly got caught!" I grinned. Was the Queen of Blackwell worried?

Max shrugged, annoyingly confident as ever. "But we weren't."

Victoria pulled her hand away, staring at Max. The irritated expression faded to amusement. "You get off on this, don't you?"

Max smirked. "Like you haven't done your share of stuff like this, Tori."

Victoria flushes, throwing Max an irritated glare. She glances at me, then leans in to Max and hisses "I thought you said you weren't fucking going to bring that up again?"

Max grinned. "Only when it amuses me."

Victoria rolled her eyes and leaned back on her sofa. "Fucking hell, I'm exhausted."

"Aww, is it past your bedtime, Ice Queen?" I grinned at the answering annoyed glare from Victoria.

"Fuck off, Price." She gives me the finger.

Max looked over to Victoria. "Do you want to come for breakfast with us tomorrow? There's a new coffee place opening. It's in the old church down by the lake. I'm the new manager."

Victoria blinks at Max through her hand. "You're the manager? Fucking hell, how did you manage that?"

Max shrugs. "Yep. My mom knows the owner." She smiles. "Pays to know the right people." Holy shit, if I didn't know that was hella bullshit, I'd fucking believe her.

Victoria smiled. "Sure. See you tomorrow."

Max and I leave Victoria's room and go back to Max's. She walks over to the window and stares out of it.

I wander over to the desk and pull the chair out, swinging myself down onto it. I look over at Max. "She likes you, y'know."

Max frowned. "I'm sorry?"

"Victoria. Pretty sure she wants to get in those HipsterWaif jeans of yours hella badly."

Max raises an eyebrow. "And what makes you think that?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but Max just put up a hand. "One second, Chloe."

She pulls out her phone. "Minn? There a problem?" Her face falls and she runs her hand through her hair. "Shit. Let the Scotsman know what you need. His team should still be in Hanover." She smiles. "Yeah... that should do the trick. Remember, we need this deal. Guten Morgen, Herr Minn. I'll talk to you later." She hung up. "Sorry, what were we talking about?"

"You and 'Tori' having lady-boners for each other."

She nodded, hella unfazed. "Oh yes. That."

I tilted my head. "So, you're into bossy bitches, huh?"

Max smirked, then something weird happened to her face. The smirk didn't go, but her eyes sort of... changed, I guess. I think they were... sad? "She wasn't always like that, you know. She used to be kind, funny, caring..." She sighed, walking over to sit next to me. "Then her parents got their claws into her. To them, she's not a daughter, she's a dynasty. They don't like her 'embarrassing the family name'."

I stopped then. Shit. I couldn't imagine having parents like that. Even in our loudest and bitchiest arguments, I never thought my Mom didn't love me or whatever. That explains so fucking much about Victoria... "Shit..."

Max snorted. "Yep. Assholes. But Victoria wasn't strong enough to resist them. I don't know... I see glimpses of her sometimes, y'know. Like when she apologised to Kate."

I scowled. "And that's supposed to make up for all the shit she put Katie through?"

"No." Max shook her head. "But she meant it all the same. And..." She took a deep breath. I could see the muscles in her neck tensing. Max was forcing herself to tell me this shit.

I wanted to grin and hug the shit outta the little nerd. I had no fucking idea how to say it, but I was hella grateful she was trying, even if she wasn't answering the shit I wanted her to answer.

She sighed. "Look, Chloe. There are things I can't talk about. I just can't." She looked up at me, pleading. "Can't you understand that? I'm trying, Chloe. But..." I got the feeling this wasn't a side she showed people very often. She looked up at me, eyes hella pleading.

"I get it. Really. You can hold onto your secret shit for now." I grinned. "But you're gonna tell me eventually. Remember, I know people now."

Max smiled. "Oh? Scary people?"

I grinned. "Fucking. Terrifying."

She laughed. I stood up. "There's the badass Maximus we all know!"

Max shook her head, smiling. "Thanks, Chloe. Now, you'd better get going. Don't want you getting caught."

I nodded. "Night Maxie, see ya tomorrow." I climb out Max's window and head back to my truck, avoiding the security douchbags on the way out. Guess they're still freaked out that we fucked up the pool. Heh. Dumbasses.

-----

The whole gang was at the coffeeshop by the time I rolled up. I parked my truck in the new lot and headed in. Travis, Max and Victoria were all there. They were gathered around the bar, chatting about something.

Travis was fiddling about in the kitchen, chopping something. I headed over just in time to see him lift something to Victoria's face. "Try this."

Victoria frowned suspiciously at him. He played the hella guileless southern boy. "Come on, now. It won't bite ya none."

She shared a glance with Max, shrugged and took a bite of whatever it was. The frown disappeared and she moaned. "Jesus, that's fucking delicious. No wonder this place hired you."

Travis grinned. "Well, thank you Miss. Very kind of ya to say." He winked and Victoria flushed.

I took the stool next to hers at the bar. "Hey guys. Whatcha doin'?"

Max smiled. "Victoria doubted Travis' cooking abilities. He was just proving her wrong."

Victoria took another thingy from Travis and took a bite. I smirked at her. "The Great Victoria Chase, proved wrong? What is the fucking world coming to?"

She swallowed. "Better wrong than punk trash."

I grinned. "Bite me, Rich Girl." I looked to Travis. "What is that, anyway?"

He said a lot of foreign-sounding words I didn't understand. "What?"

He repeated the words, slowly. I shrugged. "I have no fucking clue what you're saying, dude."

Victoria rolled her eyes. "Of course you don't. Listen here then. Someone's got to teach you about the finer things in life."

I raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Learnt that trick from Max. Victoria scowled and avoided looking at me. "Your ignorance is just too pathetic, Price. And in my benevolent mercy, I'm going to help."

I shrugged. "Fine. I wanna see you do this anyway. Gonna be fucking hilarious to hear you try translate whatever the fuck that was into 'PunkTrash'."

Victoria tossed her hair like a loreal model. "Well, it will be a challenge, but I'm sure I can handle it."

Max just sat back and watched as Travis and Victoria tried to teach me 'gourmet food' shit. Pretty sure she found it hilarious.

After fifteen minutes of watching me mutilate Italian Words, deliberately trying to annoy Victoria, Max pulled out her phone and called someone.

You remember the shy disguise thing she did her first day here? She did that again, but this time it was just with her voice and she was trying to sound all skater-boii.

Did it hella well, too. She sounded like she'd be hella ready for the mosh pit. "Hey, Justin? Max. You up for band practice, dude? I've found an awesome space. You are? Great." She rattled off the Church address. "I'm busy tonight, but how about after class? Awesome. See ya then, dude."

She put her phone away and turned to Victoria. "I have History in thirty. Do you want a lift to school?"

Victoria nodded, putting another thingy on my plate. This one wasn't bad. "Sure. I have class too."

Travis snorted. "That's a matter of opinion, darlin'."

Victoria spun and glared at Travis, then at me when I hella failed at muffling my laugh. Travis just shrugged and grinned at her.

Max rolled her eyes. "Come on, Tori. You can continue cooking class later."

They headed outside, leaving me and Travis at the bar. I grinned over at him. "Just the two of us now, huh?"

Travis shook his head. "Jest you fer now, darlin'. I got a few errands t'run. Try not to break anythin' while I'm out."

I glared at him and stuck my tongue out. He gave me a hella flirty grin and a shrug, then headed outside. I watched him go.

What the fuck am I supposed to do now?

I end up sprawled out on a hella comfy couch in the big arena room, listening to Tish swear a hella lot in the other room. Like, seriously, I learnt some new shit there.

Travis finally came in through the door and walked over to me. "Up ya get, darlin'." He threw something wrapped in cloth that landed on my chest with a fucking painful thud. "You're gon' learn ta use this."

I unwrapped it and grinned, hefting the pistol up. "Yes! Finally!" I pointed it at him, and with a growl in my voice said... "Hey!" The asshole yanked the gun straight out of my hand.

He glared at me. "First lesson. Don't point it at someone 'lessn you're gonna kill 'em, got it?"

I nodded. Good point. He stared at me for a minute, then nodded back. "Good. Now, c'mon." I followed him into one of the other rooms and grinned when I saw what was in it.

"Target Practice?"

He nodded. "Target practice. Max says you're alright, so..." He pulled me over to the range and pointed me at it. "Show me whatcha got."

I thought back. Okay... What the fuck did Max say to do? Shit... Oh yeah! I peered into the little iron thingy on the end of the gun and moved around until it was pointing at the target. I took a deep breath and... squeezed the trigger.

I grinned at the little hole in the 8 ring. I turned back to Travis, who just nodded. "You just wounded the guy. Try movin' your hand..." He literally grabbed my hand and moved it to cup the bottom of the gun. "Here. Now." He stepped back. "Again."

I took aim again and shot. The gun bucked, but hella less than it did before. I still hit the 8 ring, but I got right in the middle of the top quarter. Travis snorted. "You just shot him in the throat. Probably tore his jugular. Gonna get blood spurtin' all over the place. Try shootin' lower this time."

I did as he said and grinned when I got the middle ring! Ok, so it was just scraping the middle ring, but it was better, right?"

I turned to Travis, he just nodded again. "Not bad." I grinned. He snorted. "Not good either. Again."

I rolled my eyes and turned back to the target.

I aimed, and pulled the trigger.

-----

"So. How many of you wish you were back in Elementary School sometimes?" Professor Oldman looked at around the room at us all as we stared back at him, politely baffled by the question.

He grins. "Come on. I know I've wished it a couple of times. How many of you have done it too? Maybe when an assignment was too hard, or a day was too long, you've longed to be a kid again. Life seemed simpler back then, right?"

His grin widens, as hands start to raise around me. Mine doesn't. My life now is far better than it was. I have no nostalgia.

"There we go." He says, laughing quietly to himself. "It's something people throughout history have shared. That belief that the world of the past was better. But history itself denies it. Overall, the human race is an improving lot. Each subsequent era tends to evolve and progress, whether through science, military might or culture, towards the betterment of the world as a whole."

He leans back against his desk. "Two hundred years ago children were working and dying in factories all over the western world. Now you're here." He smiles again. "Although some might argue the children two hundred years ago had it better," He threw out a wink. "You live longer and your quality of life is far in excess of theirs. It makes sense, right? We found the system didn't work, so we changed it and found ourselves better for the change. Overall, lasting change has to be for the better, or we'd just change it to something else. It might take a few centuries, but even we slow humans learn eventually."

Everyone nods as he looks around. Well, everyone except Hayden. I'm relatively certain he's sleeping. "That's something seen throughout history. Last week we mentioned the Peterloo Massacre over in England. Anyone remember when that was?"

One girls hand shot up. I recognised her. Taylor, Tori's flunky. Oldman pointed at her. "Yes, Taylor?"

"The 16th of August, 1819."

She beamed when he nodded agreement. "Well remembered. Yeah, it was a while back, wasn't it? Before my time, even." The class tittered dutifully and he continued. "Between 400 and 700 people were injured, trying to change Parliament. They wanted suffrage, the ability to vote. Which we'd all agree, is a change for the better, right?" We all nodded. "Well, the government disagreed. They'd seen what'd happened with the French Revolution, and logically saw the political radicalism as a threat to their power. Their policies were favoured towards the rich, often to the detriment of the poor. Giving them the vote would likely see them ousted from their positions. So, they cracked down and people died."

He sighed. "Afterwards, the government went after the journalists who'd reported on the massacre. Some went to prison. They even closed down an entire newspaper a year later. All of them, changes for the worse. And, none of them lasted. It took twenty three years, but eventually their demands started to be met, and today, the working class there still have the vote. A lasting change, for the better."

He stood up from his desk, pacing over to the whiteboard. "It's important to remember that we have the benefit of time. We can look back dispassionately at these events. To us, they're just words on paper, right? Which leads me to my final point."

He stops, looking out over the room again. "Perspectives. Everything we know about history is viewed through the words of those who lived it. And they were people too, with their own bias and their own ways of looking at events. It's important to remember that, and take everything you read with just a pinch of salt. Whilst the people within the crowd would call Peterloo a massacre, the politicians of the time would see it very differently."

The bell rang. "Excellent. That's all for today." He clicked his fingers as something came to him. "Oh yes, and the homework essay is due next lesson, not next week, so I don't want any excuses. Dismissed."

I caught Taylor on the way out. "Hey, Taylor."

She turned and grinned when she saw it was me. "Hi Max. Nice to see you again."

I nodded. "You too, Tayls." Probably a little early for a pet-name, but she seemed fine with it. I continued. "I wanted to say thank you for the notes. I'd never have survived missing so much without them."

She shrugged. "You're welcome, Max. Glad they helped."

I put on an expression of consternation. I slumped my shoulders and avoided eye contact. "So, I was wondering..."

Taylor smiled encouragingly at me. I got that same pride I got whenever a mark bought a line.

I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly, bowing my head. I was careful to bare enough neck. It implies weakness and frailty. "So, I've no idea how to write this essay Prof Oldman assigned. I've never written a proper academic essay before... Do you think you could help?" I gave her a look that said 'I hate to be a bother, but I really don't have anywhere else to go...'. Sure, it probably wasn't needed, but never avoid a chance to practice. "Y'know... again?"

She beamed. "Sure, Max! I'd love to help." Probably pleased I'd asked for her help, not demanded it. I got the feeling Tori had the latter tendency...

I grinned, like I was pleased, but still sheepish about the whole thing. "Thanks, Taylor. You're the best. I've gotta run now, but can we work on it sometime later?"

She nodded, still beaming. "Sure Max. See you later."

I smiled, nodded and walked off, throwing a wave as I went. Fraternising done, I headed back to the coffeeshop base. Laura and Cassie were chatting in the main room. I walked over. "Hey."

Laura nodded. "Hello, Max." Cassie, as usual, stayed quiet, just giving a little smile.

I turned to Laura. "I need your expertise."

"In what exactly, darling? I have quite a few areas of expertise."

Laura always was confident. Justifiably so. When you've proved your skill as often as she had, confidence was unavoidable. The simple knowledge that you can beat what life throws at you. We all had it.

"I need to look like someone else for a while."

She smiled. "Mark, client or source?"

"Source. Father of one of the missing girls. The last one before we got involved."

Laura thought for a second, her face curled in recollection. "Ah. Her name was Alexis, was it not?"

I nodded. "That's the one. Her father is Richard Rodgers."

Her eyes widened, almost imperceptibly. As a Grifter, Laura was exceptional at controlling her expressions. But I always could see right through her. "The Crime Novelist?"

I walked through to my office. I took the desk chair, Laura sat primly on the sofa. She always had astonishing posture. Side-effect of a girls prepatory education. "The very same. He and his girlfriend moved here a couple years back. I need to talk to him. He might have some interesting information."

She smiled. "What guise would you prefer?"

"Middle aged male operative. Brotherhood seems easier than flirtation here. Especially if his girlfriend is home. Plus, he's a novelist. The cloak-and-dagger nature of it will appeal." It was always interesting to note dynamics. I'd learnt this particular tactic from street advertising. Who people will stop for tells volumes about them. Richard was a playboy novelist, so he'd respond better to an interesting story.

Laura laughed. "Indeed. Jealousy is a bitch." She said, dryly, her cultured tones curling around the cursewords. It was always fantastic to hear her swear. "Give me a few moments to prepare and I'll get to work. We'll have you looking like a CIA operative in no time."

Laura rose from the sofa and headed out. I stayed in my chair to await her return.

-----

Only an hour later, I looked over my face in the mirror. "As good a job as ever, Laura, thank you."

Laura shrugged. "It's nothing, darling. Easy as pie."

Laura had a true talent for this. With an hour of work, she could make us look utterly different. Gone were my freckles, my blue eyes. My skin was now wrinkled and leathery. I had slight flecks of grey to my hair. She'd even given me stacked shoes to make me look taller. I took off the bib and stood up, looking in the mirror again. I'd changed into my dark black suit earlier. I looked like a spy from an old movie.

Which was exactly what I needed for tonight.

I found the address quickly. It was a small detached on the outskirts of town. Nice place, really. Definitely showed the owners had money AND taste. Too rare a quality, in my opinion. You should see some of the gaudy monstrosities we'd broken into over the years.

I paced around the outside of the house. I needed to find the alarm. Aha! Got it. It was a little high, but I'd gotten to higher walls.

I opened up the casing. Some alarms set off if the signal was interrupted, so I couldn't just cut it out. I wired in one of Tish's spoofers. Any signals from inside the house would be stopped before reaching the box. Tish was already running interference on calls. That'd keep the place clear for the night. Alarm silenced, I climbed back down and found the backdoor. The lock was childs play and I was in.

I opened my bag and set to work.

-----

I sat in a chair in the master bedroom. I took a moment to think over my preparations. Everything was ready. Excellent.

With everything done that needed to be, I reached over and flicked on the light.

The two occupants of the bed shot up, one immediately pointing a gun at me. I smiled. "Hello, Mr Rodgers. Ms Beckett."

The woman eyed me with suspicion. Quite valid, considering I'd just appeared in her locked bedroom. Richard just looked confused. Without taking her eyes, or her gun, off me, she pulled her badge. "You've made a stupid mistake here, mister. I'm a cop."

I nodded. "Yes, I know. Detective Sergeant Kathryn Houghton Beckett." I'd done my research. Beckett was part of the local police branch. One of the few not beholden to the Prescotts. A secondary benefit of tonights visit. "But I'm not here to talk to you." She frowned. I turned to Richard. "I'm here because a grave injustice has been done to you, sir . Your daughter, Alexis."

His eyes shot open, all sleepiness gone. "My daughter? What do you know about my daughter?" He growled.

"I know she was taken by someone. I know the police" I shrugged apologetically at Beckett. "have found nothing. I know someone paid to have it covered up."

He frowned, looked to Beckett. "A cover-up? What the hell is he talking about, Kate?"

She frowned, but still neither gun nor eye wavered. "I have no idea. There's been no evidence..."

I snorted. "Of course there hasn't. As smart as you think you are, you police are so limited. You approach everything directly, never from the side. The people who took your daughter do. They likely have most of your force on their payroll."

Beckett frowned, but said nothing. "A... mutual friend informed me of your situation. I can help, where the police cannot. I just need a few questions answered first."

Beckett snorted, still sure and certain. "No way. We're not answering any of your questions!"

Richard looked markedly less sure of that course. He nudged Beckett. "Kate?"

They had a hurried little conversation. Richard wanted to listen to me, Beckett wanted to shoot me. Richard won with a desperate "But what if he can help? It's my daughter, Kate."

Beckett sighed and looked at me. "Fine. Ask your damn questions."

"Did your daughter have any connection to the Prescotts?"

Richard frowned. "The Prescotts? What the hell do they got to do with this?" He turned to Beckett. "Kate? Are they involved?"

She bristled, but frowned. "No. Not that I'd be surprised if they did, but we've found no evidence of that."

I rolled my eyes. "And you never will. Your station is basically private security for them. Any evidence you do find will never make it to the station. Believe me, we checked. Hence why I'm asking you. Was there a connection?"

"Not my daughter. She'd never deal with those people. My daughter has class." He sighs. "But she did go to their parties a couple times now. The Vortex Club, I mean. I pushed her into going..." He took a deep, shaky breath. "I wanted her to have inappropriate stories to not tell her kids. That was where she was when she disappeared."

I smiled sympathetically. "So, that was the last you saw of her?"

He nodded. "Yeah. She walked out the door and I've not seen her since."

Interesting. "Do you have any of her technology? A phone or a laptop, maybe?"

"Uh, yeah..." He waves vaguely over at a wall. "Her laptop's in her..." Beckett interrupts, glaring at me. Every inch of her demeanour screams distrust. "Why do you want her laptop?"

"I assume she's on social media. Plenty of interesting data to be gathered there. Something might come up."

I ask a few other probing questions about her friends, her school interactions and so on. Nothing terribly interesting. I stood up and bowed. "Thank you for your time. I'll let you go back to sleep."

Beckett's eyes tighten and she raises the gun. "Screw that. You're coming to the station with me."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm afraid that's not an option, Ms Beckett."

She growled and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. I reached into my pocket and dropped her clip, bullet by bullet. Her glare got harder with each one. I smirked. She threw her gun at me and pulled another. Nothing happened. I dropped another handful of bullets, rolling my eyes.

"Thanks for your time. I'll be in touch."

I activated the EMP I'd put on the building supply and the lights went out. Beckett threw her second gun towards me, but I was already out the door. "You get all that?"

Tish laughed. "Yeah, Boss. It's all recorded."

Travis snorted. "You really do got a way with folks, Boss."

I laughed, recovering the EMP. "It's a gift." I went back to my car.

Chapter Text

Travis follows behind me as we head upstairs to the Coffeeshop. "That was frickin' awesome, dude!"

He snorts. "Wouldn't quite go that far, darlin'. Still need a mite more practice, ah reckon."

I roll my eyes. "Dude. I rocked that shit. Should hella put me out in the field." I finger-shoot him. "I cotton I'd take out some bad guys real quick."

He actually laughs at that. "Ain't ready for that yet, darlin'. You're way too slow."

He puts in the code to get back into the upstairs office and looks back at me, looking hella offended. "And f'r gods sake, I don't sound like that."

My turn to laugh now. "You kinda do, dude. Like Tom Waits after he's gargled fucking tar for a weekend."

He grumbles and pushes open the secret door. We head through to the main hall.

There's some guy standing by the coffee-bar talking to Laura. He looks like a Prep School Headteacher with a hella bad Triathlon habit. All tall and wiry. Dresses like a spook from an old movie, too. Black suit and a long coat. I'd be hella surprised if there wasn't a matching fedora on the hatstand in the entryway.

I follow Travis over to them, hopping behind the bar to make myself a coffee. Perks of best friendship with the Boss, right? I look over at them. "So, who's this guy? Another of your 'colleagues'?" The inverted commas on colleagues would probably be visible from fucking space, even if the sarcasm I said them with wasn't.

The guy talks, and it's like listening to Morgan Fucking Freeman. All deep and relaxing. Hella sweet. "I am indeed. Giles Haversmith, at your service."

He sticks out his hand. I raise an eyebrow at it for a second then shake it. What the hell, right? I can do old-fashioned shit sometimes. "Nice to meetcha. I'm Chloe. You here to see Max?"

He smiles. "Not at all. I am merely here for a short reconnaissance assignment. It is concluded, so I shall soon be taking my leave." Fuck, it's like talking to Laura. Can't they just talk normal English? He tips an invisible hat to Laura. "I was taking a moment to chat with an old friend before I go."

"Reconnaissance? Like a spy?"

He smiles again. "Exactly like a spy. I provide a cover for Ms Caulfield when there are circumstances in which it is inadvisable for her to make an appearance."

"Like what?"

His smile gets broader. Something about it seems weirdly... familiar. But I can't work out what. It's kinda pissing me off. "Now, Miss Price," What the shit? I never told him my last name! "are you not aware of this organisations first rule? There are some secrets that must remain so. Sometimes what you know can indeed hurt you and others."

I roll my eyes. Fuck that shit. But I don't wanna piss off Max's pet spook. "Sorry dude. Won't ask again."

He beams. "Capital! Now, you must tell me about yourself. Are you schooled locally?"

We make small talk about my boring-ass life for a few minutes until I realise Travis is fucking LAUGHING at me. I glare at him. "Dude. What?"

He shares a look with Laura and they break down into laughter. I turn back to Giles and my jaw drops. "Max?"

"Hey Chloe." There's a little grey pile of hair on the counter in front of her. The suit is still there, but the old guy face is gone, and now Max's freckles are sitting there, grinning at me.

I look between them all. "Uh... what the fuck is going on?"

Laura smirks, recovered from her laughing fit. "'Giles' was a disguise. Max just returned from a discreet information-gathering excursion. We were rather curious if you'd notice."

Max shrugs. "Still as good at this as ever, Laura." She turns to me again. "So, how did your shooting lesson go?"

I kinda just fish-mouth for a few seconds. Holy shit. "How the fuck did you do that? I just... you were an old guy!"

Max shrugs. "A little make-up and clothing trickery from Laura. Some voice acting and body language modification on my part. Its easy enough, with the right training." She focuses on me. "We could start teaching you, if you'd like?"

I nod eagerly. I didn't even stop to wonder why Max was suddenly wanting to train me. "Hella yes."

Laura smiles. "Excellent. I thought you might say as much. Come and find me the next time you have a free moment and we shall discuss it further."

So hella cool. "Awesomesauce." I reminded myself I wanted to talk to Cassie again, try get some more work on my lock-picking skills. Maybe she'd teach me the cirque du soleil shit too?

Max checks her watch. "It's getting late. You should go home, Chloe. Get some sleep." She thinks for a second. "You can drop me off on the way." She looks over at the others. "Get Tish working on the laptop and phone. Briefing tomorrow."

They both nod and head off with a brief bye. Max turns and starts walking to the door. "Come on, Chloe."

-----

Chloe is quite for most of the drive. She keeps her eyes on the road and drives carefully. I note her slightly absent look. She's thinking intently about something. "Penny for your thoughts?"

She jolts, suddenly and the car lurches into the wrong lane. After some minimal panic, she corrects quickly and looks at me. "What?"

"Penny for your thoughts." I repeat, slowly. "I know that look. You're obsessing over something." I'm quite certain I know what it is. But people don't like it when you cold-read them. So, I ask. "What is it?"

She frowns. "You said you needed training, right? To like, do all this spy shit. So, who trained you guys?"

Huh. So, I didn't know what she was thinking about. I smile. Chloe always was smarter than she let on. Could grasp things intuitively it took me months of work to understand.

I carefully skirt around the edges of memories brought back by the question. There are certain traumas Chloe does not need to know about. This is about five of them. "Do you remember my uncle? Jimmy?"

She cocks her head. "Ryan's brother? The scary ex-army dude?"

I nod. "He recruited me. When he left the army, he set up a... consulting agency." Chloe did not need to know what we did. I couldn't tell her. She'd never look at me the same again. I think back to the covered mirror in my room at home. I barely did either. "He trained me to do all of this." I felt a familiar pang of sad pride. "I was his prize student."

She nodded. "So, what did you guys do? Same stuff you do now? Take down the bad guys?" She mimed a little ker-pow punch.

"I..." Nope. Can't do this. I concentrated for a minute, pushing the memories back. Being in my mind was like that Library from Doctor Who. Normally fine, but poke too far into the shadows... That's when the monsters come out to play. "Something like that."

She didn't ask further. "So, how'd the others get in?"

"Laura and Travis came in on my request. Cassie's an orphan. She tried to pick my pocket in some city in Mozambique. I caught her, we recruited her. Tish, we pulled out of a cell in Langley. The CIA are still pissed at us for that." I smile fondly at those memories.

"The CIA?" Chloe snorts. "Shit, Max, who the fuck haven't you guys pissed off?"

Heh. I laugh, faintly. "Not many people. I've come to view it as a measure of success. If we haven't pissed off at least one douchebag, we've failed."

She laughs and looks back to driving. The rest of the drive is comfortably quiet. Soon enough, we pull up outside Blackwell. She doesn't bother parking. Not that what Chloe did could ever be called 'Parking'.

"Thanks for the ride, Chloe."

She nods. "De nada, Maxie. Anytime."

I hop out of the truck and head in. I make it maybe halfway down the corridor before someone calls out. "Max?"

Shit. I turn to look at them. Dana is peering out at me from her room. "What are you doing out at this time?" She grins. "Ooooh. Hot date?" I decide on honesty. She'd met Chloe before, after all.

I shrug. "I was with Chloe. Please don't tell anyone about this." I didn't really care if she did or didn't. It was a quick track to intimacy though. People liked to be trusted. Tell them a secret, large or small, and ask them to keep it. There was an element of security to it too. You tell me yours, I'll tell you mine.

She grins, obviously pleased. "Of course, Max. Your secret tryst is safe with me. But you're going to have to tell me the whole story sometime. I want those deets, Max!"

I nod and smile, heading off again. I make it back to my room without running into anyone else.

-----

The door eases open. Whoever is standing in the doorway is hidden by the light. I can't see their face. But I recognise the wicked little knife in his hand. One of the three suits turns to look. He explodes into motion, lunging upward. The knife buries up to the hilt under the suits chin.

The man yanks the blade out and the body drops. Without missing a beat, he swipes at the next guy. When he stabs his knife up into the chest of the third, the only evidence he'd ever been close to the second is a thin red line across his throat. The man raises his hand slowly to his throat and falls next to the first.

He slashes at the last guy again, over and over. After a few minutes, he slows to a stop. He's breathing heavily. He turns to me, moving to untie me. His eyes flick across my bruises and wounds. "Can you walk?"

I nod frantically, then flop forward, sobbing into his shoulder. "I... I... thank you!" I'm pretty sure I'm babbling. Much to his annoyance.

He pushes me off and looks me in the eye. "We have to get out of here. You need to keep it together. Remember. The Job comes first."

I nod and wipe at my eyes. I carefully package the fears away. "The job comes first."

He grins. "Bravo. Now come on. Ygritte will meet us along the way."

We run out the door. We take a left and run down a long corridor. There's a sentry post at the end. Two guards get up to stop us. Jimmy never slows. He throws the knife with unerring accuracy into one. The other goes down with a swift kick, followed by a stab from his recovered knife.

The hallway changes from prison into a more professional decor. Office grey walls and carpeting everywhere. We take a left, following a blue line along the wall. We're about halfway when another girl pops out in front of us. The Greenhorn we sent to drop the defences.

We don't stop, so she matches our pace. "I got the perimeter. But I think I tripped something. They know we're here." She looks up at Jimmy. There's a panicked desperation in her eyes. They flick up at him, then away again as she speaks. "I... I'm sorry, ok? I screwed up, but we can fix this, right?" She's babbling now. Barely even pauses for breath. Ygritte hadn't been with the Syndicate long. This was her third... no, fourth mission. She was pleasant, I guess. Greener than Ireland though.

He stares down at her for a few moments. Then, without breaking stride, he grabs her head and slams her into the wall. There's an audible crunch and I watch the life disappear from her eyes in a flash. I feel... well. I should feel sick, horrified even. But I feel nothing. I simply watch her fall and keep moving.

I follow Jimmy through the halls, left, two rights, then left again. We hit the stairs at a run and keep pace for seven floors. We're underground. I think back to when I was dragged down here. Must have been at least twenty floors. Could be thirty. Definitely more than I can handle at the moment.

I start to falter after a dozen floors. Jimmy doesn't notice me fall behind at first. When he does, he comes back and picks me up. Literally hoists me over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. He's running slower now, weighed down by me. But he never stops, up another dozen floors till the wall says 'G'.

He puts me down by the door and peeks through it. He grins and kicks it open, knife at the ready.

He charges through the room, pirouetting and slashing as he goes. Each room is steadily emptied of life. His dance starts slowly, increasing in speed as each body falls. The momentum carries him through the building to the reception. We storm through metal detectors, ignoring the alarms blaring around us.

We're out!

We burst through the doors and run. There's a hail of gunfire from somewhere above. Jimmy dodges right, dropping me, I race forward. Sounds like an IWI Tavor. Tar-21. 30 round capacity. I rattled off the details in my head. Jimmy insisted we memorise things like this. Would 'give us the edge', he said. He was right. I knew they'd just emptied their clip at us. Had to reload. That gave us 3 seconds to move.

I heard the guy swear and drop his clip.

Ok, so maybe four.

I pushed my legs as hard as I could. The burning sensation started as my muscles screamed. Shit. I could hear voices behind me. Tavor guy's friends had shown up. I ran through the outer gate and sped up. There was a barbed wire fence 30ft from the gates.

I risked a look back over my shoulder. Jimmy was nowhere to be seen, but the gunmen were.

They ran out of the gates and fanned out. Each one had a Tar-21, too, aimed in my direction. They pulled their triggers and bullets started flying.

I threw myself forward, zig-zagging around. I manage to dodge most of the bullets easily. But one clips my leg and I trip over. I end up on my back, staring at the approaching goons.

Shit. So, this is how it ends? Sorry, Jimmy. I close my eyes and brace myself. There's one shot. Then another. Then another. I count maybe 8 shots in all. I poke at my stomach. Um. What?

Why am I still breathing? I crack open one eye and look over at the gunmen. Three are on the floor and six more drop as I look.

"You might want to hurry up, Darling." Laura's curt British tones flicker in my ear. I grin. Snipers for the win!

I pull myself up and continue running for the fence. Well, limping. I got shot in the leg, remember?

I stumble just as I reach the fence. As I hit the ground, I feel an arm catch me. I look up to see Travis' grin. "Hey darlin'. Ya havin' some difficulty with ya walk there, eh?"

I roll my eyes and lean further onto him. "Maybe. Get me out."

"Your wish is my command." He puts one arm over my shoulder and props me up. I'm basically leaning entirely on him. Travis drags me through a gap in the fence. A couple minutes later, we make it to a clearing. Travis gently lowers me to the ground. Just as I settle, Jimmy appears with us.

He nods. "You're both here. Excellent."

He puts in a bluetooth earpiece and dials. "Tish? Use the backdoor. Get into their system, find and delete any trace we were there. Nothing left on us, understand?" He looked over at me and smiled. "Great. Thanks, kiddo. Talk to you later."

He hung up and looked over at me. I glared. He frowned. "What?"

"Ygritte!" I spit. "How the fuck..?" That's as far as I get.

He whirls on me. "Impudent Bitch!"

I wake up just as he hits me, muffling my scream quickly. I wait a beat or two. No sounds. I breathe a sigh of relief. Nobody heard me. The hastily erected mental barrier collapses and I start to sob. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit!

I've no idea how long it takes me to regain control. As always though, I pull my thoughts back behind the veil. Nothing to see here.

Nothing at all...

I sigh.

Shit.

I get up and unroll a mat onto the floor. The familiar forms come to me quickly. I slowly moved my arms through each one, feeling my tenseness fade. They were beautiful things. Slow motion renderings of crushing blows. Tai Chi was far bloodier than most thought. Still very calming. I could feel my angst fade away.

Mind calmed, I settled down to practice with my... time travel. I'd assigned thirty minutes to practice this morning. I decided to try something new. I snuck outside and headed to the woods nearby. I scanned about till I found what I needed. I crept up behind a squirrel, near silent. I got within range and raised my hand. I clicked. The Squirrel immediately bolted. I focused on it and reversed it's course until it was unaware of me again. I repeated this as much as I was able.

I managed the full thirty minutes with no bleeding. My range was now ten minutes. Any more than that and I started to get headaches.

I smiled. I was getting quite the handle on this. Will definitely be useful in an emergency.

My phone buzzed. Time for class. I headed back inside and grabbed my shower things.

-----

I wandered into the classroom and took my seat with Kate. "Hi Kate."

She smiled up at me faintly. "Hey Max. How are you today?"

I shrugged, putting on an exaggerated New Jersey accent. "Same 'ole, same 'ole."

She smiled, shaking her head with amusement. I focused on her. "So, how've you been? You and Chloe still...?"

Kate immediately flushed and flicked her eyes to the floor. I grinned. Bingo. "So, that's a yes, then. I take it you still haven't talked?"

Her eyes flashed up to me, flickers of anger lashing out at me. "Are you enjoying this?"

I shrugged. "Maybe a little. Drama, drama, drama. But I'm concerned. It's harder to keep you both safe like this."

Kate sighed. "I should talk to her, shouldn't I?"

I smirked. "Probably. But enough about that. What've you been doing with yourself?"

Kate started talking about her family again. Apparently she'd been to see Lynn perform somewhere. She was quite the amateur thespian.

We'd gotten into chatting when the door was flung open. The Teacher strode in. He threw his bag onto the desk with a thud. "Attention Class!" He barked. As usual, his... expansive moustache quivered when he shouted. Mr Dunn had been a sergeant in the British Air Force. After, he'd earned his teaching experience in Private Schools. So, he was somewhat... brusque. "Today, we're going to be working on SUVAT Calculations. Open your books to page 365."

The entire class suppressed a sigh. Dunn was utterly indiscriminating in his wrath. Nobody wanted to risk 'the look'. It broke into your head and stayed there, demanding you tell it exactly what you think you're doing.

The lesson was as dull as you'd expect. I mean, it's basic physics. I do this stuff in my head all the time. You've no idea how useful it is. Cassie uses it for climbing. We've used it to estimate transport times. Hell, I used it to win a pool game one time. Math is a surprisingly common part of what we do.

When the bell finally rang, we all filed out of the classroom. That lesson felt like an age. Maybe even two. I ended up hovering in the halls. What to do? No reports from the team. I was pondering when a voice pulled me out of my reverie.

"Hey, Max!" I turned to see Tori and Nathan coming towards me. Nathan looked grumpy.

I smiled. "Hey Tori. Nathan."

He scowled at me, then turned to Tori. "Vic..." He whined.

Tori gave him a scowl of her own. "She's in now, Nate. Try to be friendly."

He rolled his eyes. "Vic wants me to tell you there's a club meeting now." He looked back at her again. She motioned, encouragingly. Or, I think it was encouraging. Could have been a threat to crush his windpipe. Either way, he turned back to me. "Come on, Caulfield. Do you..." Shit, this was like pulling teeth for him. "Do you wanna come with?"

I smiled, pleasantly. I could see him bristle. "Sure, Nathan. Thank you for that... well delivered invitation."

Tori elbowed me. "Come on, Max..." She mouthed.

I shrugged and smirked. "So, what's on today's agenda?"

Tori rattled off the list. Nothing terribly interesting. Mostly routine stuff. They were having a party soon though. I wonder if they'll want me to play again. Last time was... fun.

I nodded after each item, asked a few questions. Tori seemed pleased I was taking an interest. Nathan stayed quiet.

We headed into the area the club had reserved. Most school clubs got assigned a classroom. The vortex took a whole corner to themselves. There was a detachable wall between the two rooms. Taking it down expanded a tiny classroom into a sizeable gathering-space. Which was lucky, as the place was full of people.

"Seems we're the last to arrive." I looked over my shoulder at Tori.

She smirked. "Fashionably late." Nathan didn't stay with us. He wandered off into a crowd of jocks. There was a significant exchange of fistbumping. I rolled my eyes at the display.

Tori leans over, starting to point people out. "You remember Courtney?" The dark-haired flunky. Very political sycophant. Conclusion, likely self-interested and untrustworthy. I nodded. "She's Club Treasurer. Basically does all the money-work we don't want to bother with." She grins, conspiratorially. Like she's won some big victory by appointing her there. I resist the urge to roll my eyes and nod again. "Ok, who else do I need to know?"

She peers around the room. "There's... actually, where the hell is..?"

A voice comes from behind us. "Who are we talking about?"

Tori whirls around, glaring at Taylor. She's grinning cheekily at us. "Jesus Christ, Taylor! You could've given us a fucking heart attack!"

She smirks. "I don't know about that, Vic. Max looks calm as ever." Tori flicks her head to look at me. I shrug and offer a smile. I'd heard her coming a mile away.

Tori pulls herself up again and straightens out. "As I was saying, Taylor is our Secretary. She organises everything."

Taylor grins at me, then shrugs to Tori. "Not everything."

Tori rolls her eyes, nudging Taylor gently. "Jesus Tayls, only like, 90% of club stuff. We couldn't do this without you."

She blushes but doesn't say anything. I cock my head. "So. Who next?"

She nods over at Nathan's crowd. "Well, you've already met our Social Secretary."

I look over the crowd. "There's a lot of people there, Tori. Be specific."

"Hayden."

I looked at her incredulously. "Hayden got a committee position?"

She snorted. "Jesus, not by my fucking choice. Nate went over my head with that one. He is Club President, after all. Luckily, and probably unsurprisingly, Hayden isn't exactly the hands-on type." The President in question was laughing in his circle of toadies. I watched him stop laughing and stare down some kid until he fled. The group then laughed at him and went back to chatting. I rolled my eyes. "Anyone else?"

She smirked. "Just moi, of course. I'm the Vice-President. I run the place when Nate's too high to do it himself."

I nodded. Ok, that's the whole committee settled. I scanned the other members. Dana and Juliet were holding court with a gaggle of girls in one corner. There was another group of girls across the room from them. Nathan was still lording it over the jocks. There were a few stragglers around between the groups as well. All in all, an interesting collection.

I turned and wandered over to Dana's group. Taylor and Tori trailed behind me. "Hey Dana, Juliet."

"Max!" Dana chirped, gleefully. She turned to the gaggle. "This is our newest member, everyone."

She went on to introduce each member of her posse. There was Megan, or 'Meghan' as I was so emphatically corrected. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Next was Casey, Delilah, Poppy, Wren, Florence and Michelle. I nodded and mentally linked each name to a face.

"Fucking hell, why would you name your kid Meghan unless you want them to be a super-bitch?" Tish's... astute commentary almost made me laugh in the middle of introductions. I managed to turn it into a cough at the last minute though.

None of them offered to shake hands. A couple did nod and smile though. One of them, Wren, asked "You were the one playing at the last party, right?"

I nodded. "That's me. Tori asked if I'd..." I felt a sharp elbow in my side. "...like to perform and she kindly replaced the DJ with me. We're old friends."

Poppy raised one elegant brown eyebrow. "Oh? And how did you two meet?"

Wow. I was almost astonished at how clumsy she was. Fishing that obviously was just tacky. I smiled. "Well, there were a lot of people in pain and lying around." My grin expands. "A few of them were even tied to a bed."

Tori snorted and I turned to her. "What? It's true."

She cocked her head, thinking for a second. "Actually... Jesus, it kind of is."

They quickly move to other topics though. Apparently I'm not enough to hold their interest. Which was good, for the moment. I didn't need the attention yet. "Did you see the new fullback at practice today?"

Meghan grinned. "I know! So freaking hot."

The girls giggled amongst themselves. I knew enough to run then and there. I hadn't had a full high school experience, but this was enough for me.

I stride up to Nathan's crowd. "Hey dudes." I fistbump Hayden. I don't recognise any of the others, so... Nathan glares daggers at me. I grin in his face and look around the group. "Just meeting the creme de la creme of Blackwell before this thing starts. So, who are all of you?"

My eyes fall on one of them. He's tall, built and attractive. Definitely an athlete. Likely one of the schools stars. I run my hand up his bicep as I run the names. "Although, you don't need an introduction. Zack, right?"

He grins. "Yeah, baby. That's me. And who are you?"

Tori answers him. "This is Max. She's our newest member. We talked about this last meeting." She scowls. "Or were you too high to fucking remember?"

He tries to stand up to her. Really, he does. It's an adorable effort. But he buckles under Tori's glare. "No ma'am."

I muffle a laugh. Tori glares harder. "Fucking right. Jesus, I'm surrounded by idiots. Pull it together, shit-for-brains."

I must admit, it was mildly amusing. Seeing the Quarterback quiver like a freshman was fun.

There's a hammer knock from behind us. I looked back over my shoulder at Nathan. He's moved to the front, by a lectern. He glares at me. "Sit the fuck down, Caulfield. Meetings starting." That's when I notice everyone else is quiet. Just me standing in the middle, one pillar against the tide.

I met his gaze and stayed standing. He growled. I smirked, then bowed and went to sit by Tori. "Right. First item..."

I'll save you the time of listening. Most of it was dull as fuck. Until they got to the matter of the next party. Hayden was talking by then. "So, like, we need some music for the party. Anyone got any ideas?"

Taylor's hand shot up. "As Secretary, I nominate Max again."

Courtney nodded. "If she promises to do it for free again, the treasurer seconds."

Everyone looked to me. I nodded. "Agreed."

Everyone looked back to Hayden. "Hey, I'm cool with it. Nice one, new girl. Max is next party's entertainment."

Nathan didn't get up, so Tori took the floor. "Ok, onto the next item." The rest of the meeting continued without interest.

Afterwards, everyone went back to their groups. I took a spot near the door with Courtney and Taylor. Tori wandered up to stand next to us. "Nate's really pissed off with you. Thinks you're trying to oust him or something."

"Of course not." I smirked back at her. "Like I said. I just want to spend more time with you, Tori." I nodded over at him. "That asshole just rubs me the wrong way."

She sighs. "I know Nate's a little... rough around the edges, but it's not his fault. He's a friend, ok? Could you please give him a chance?"

I briefly played with telling her what we'd found. But I decided against it.

No sense complicating matters.

I nod. "If he plays nice, I can play nice. Okay?"

Her shoulders sag and she smiled. "Thanks Max." Huh. She was really worried about that. Fascinating.

I made a show of checking my watch. "Sorry, Tori. I'd love to continue this, but I need to be somewhere. Can we meet later?"

She nodded. "My room or yours?"

I thought. "Yours."

She smiled. "Au Revoir Max."

I head out and back to my car. I gear up and speed out of the lot. I tapped my ear. "Briefing in..." Half an hour? No, too long. I'd be there sooner. "Call it twenty minutes. See you all there. That includes you, Chloe."

I could hear her grumbling through her earbud. Everyone chorused their yeses though. Excellent.

Chapter Text

Max clasps her hands together and the screen flicks on behind her. "Ok, so. We've eliminated all other suspects." Pictures of Frank, Step-Douche and Wells pop up on screen, then disappear as Nathan's picture gets way bigger. "This is our target, Nathan Prescott."

She clicks her little remote-thingy and the screen changes. "Now, first we..."

I frown and interrupt. "Uh, guys? What about Frank? Isn't he still a problem? He still wants his money, right?"

Max shrugs. "We paid him off already. He was surprisingly cooperative after that."

My jaw drops. "Seriously?"

"Indeed." Laura smiles. "Frank is one of those darling individuals strongly motivated by money. Once we paid your debts, plus a little something extra, he was quite willing to provide any information we required."

I blinked. Damn. I should really learn to stop underestimating these guys. I sit back. "Well, ok then."

Max turns back to the screen. "Now, we're running a two-pronged attack here. First, we need evidence of his crimes." She clicked the switch again. "Here's what we know so far."

She clicks and pictures of Kate appear. "Prescott drugged Kate at a Vortex Party with drugs he bought from Frank" Screenshots of Franks ledger pop up, with 'Rottweiler' highlighted. Shit. Nathan buys a lot of drugs. Perks of being the rich boy, I guess. She clicks and two lines from the ledger select and get bigger to fill the screen. "Purchases by Rottweiler on the Fourth, just before the party. Gamma Hydroxybutyric Acid and Flunitrazepam. Both are popular date rape drugs."

"Is Frank willin' to testify t'Nathan bein' in his lil' ledger?" Travis asks.

Max shakes her head. "No. But we recorded his admissions." She shrugs, throwing out a smug smirk. "Either way, we can show Nathan bought drugs from him."

She clicks again and a bunch of pictures of a hella lot of girls come up. I recognise a couple of the ones on screen from the police file Travis and I got from the station. "Now, we have a list of girls who've gone missing here over the last ten years. Now, Nathan would've been a child when the first disappearance happened. So, we can safely assume he's only involved with the later ones. Maybe as an apprentice, or a copycat, we can't say yet. It's likely not all of them were part of this, but there's definitely a pattern. Unfortunately, we can only link Nathan to Kate, none of the others."

She clicks a button and one picture grows to fill the screen. It's Alexis. Pretty sure it's from her Facebook or whatever social shit she used. She's on a beach somewhere smiling, with her arm around some shirtless guy. "This is Alexis Rodgers, daughter of teacher and novelist Richard Rodgers. She's also the latest of the disappearances. Now, according to her parents, there's no Prescott connection." She smirks. "But Tish found a possibility to investigate."

Max clicks again and a picture of Alexis, Dana and Juliet appears. They're in some hella dark room, with lots of those weird-ass stage lights in the background. Pretty sure they're pissed. "This is Alexis at a Vortex party some months ago. She was friends with Dana and Juliet, they were her in." The screen changes again to show a whole bunch of these pictures. "There's a lot of these, on different dates. She's definitely a Vortex regular, even if she wasn't a member. Nathan tried to take Kate at a party, there's a good chance he took Alexis at one too."

Then, I remembered. I was supposed to meet her in the parking lot, but I got distracted kicking that kidnapping fucker's ass and taking care of Katie. Shit... If she found him afterwards... Maybe he took her to replace Katie! Fuck... "It's my fault."

Max stops. She cocks her head and frowns. "What is? Alexis?"

I nod."Yeah. I um, 'invited her home' before I saw Katie. We were supposed to meet in the lot. If she got there after me and Katie left, that fucking asshole might've..." I sigh. "He might've taken her to like, replace Katie."

Max grins and nods hella slowly, looking thoughtful. "Hah! Yes, this is good."

I stare at her. "How the fuck is anything I just fucking told you good?"

"Because," She waves vaguely to the screen. "If that's true, it means taking her wasn't planned. That means he might've made a mistake. Maybe missed something in the clean-up. It's very difficult to change targets last minute like that. We might be able to find something." She looks over the pictures, muttering something.

I shake my head, completely fucking shocked. What the fuck, Max? "Dude. She could be dead because of me!"

"Would you rather it have been Kate?" Max is direct as fucking ever. She holds eye contact hella steadily.

"No, I..."

"No. You wouldn't. It's in the past, Chloe. You can't change what happened. So pull through and do what you can. Got it?"

I nod. Maybe she's right. Cold as fucking nitrogen, but yeah. I can't do shit about it. All I can do is make sure that fucker pays for it. I meet her eyes and nod again.

She smiles. "Excellent. Now, as I said, there's no link. So, we need to find one." She clicks and a picture of the dorms appears. "Currently, Nathan lives here, in the Prescott Dorm. It's possible he'd have hid evidence here. Or at the very least, forgotten to hide some. So, we'll need to find a way in."

She clicks and... Rachel. Pictures of her are plastered all over the screen. "This is Rachel Amber, she was the victim before Alexis. Nathan reportedly had something of an eye for her. It's possible he's to blame for her disappearance too." She clicks and the pictures of Rach disappear, replaced by the freaky-as-fuck drawing we found on Wells computer. "Rachel in the Darkroom, over and over. Tish tested it, it's definitely Nathan's handwriting."

She crosses her arms and leans back against one wall, looking over her shoulder at the screens. "This doesn't really mean anything concrete, but it gives us a connection. We need to investigate her disappearance further, see if there's a link. Chloe, Laura will need what you remember of when she disappeared."

I frown. "You've got the police report. Can't you just go off the shit I said to them?"

She shrugs. "We could. But this way, you get involved. You wanted to learn what we do, right?"

I nod. "Hella yes."

"Well then," She smiles, gives a little bow. "Welcome to the Team."

I grin. "Awesomesauce!"

Travis chuckles. I glare at him. He chuckles louder. Asshole.

"So, what next?"

"Our competition. Prescott's pet Ministry of Truth, Principal Raymond Wells." She clicks, and guess what? A picture of Wells appears. Apparently even criminals use too much Power-Pointless. "Wells is being paid by Prescott to keep his sons indiscretions quiet. We took his bank records from his computer. Tish traced several depositing accounts to Prescott subsidiaries. They send money to Wells each month. He even gets a small bonus for the big jobs. We've copied his emails," She clicks and the emails appear on-screen. "and the account details for proof."

Tish nods. "And whoever Prescott's pet hacker is, they're fucking good. It took a shitload of tricks to find those accounts. He'd ran it through a fucking encrypted DoD satellite to register the damn account and then sent the money through banks all over the fucking world."

I... have no fucking clue what that means. "Uh, so he's good then?"

Tish grins, and nods. "You bet, Mabono. But as good as the naaier is, I'm better."

Max clicks the remote and the screen shuts off. "So, that's what we know. Any questions?"

Laura nods. "What of the police? Can we find any proof of Prescott's bribes?"

Max turned to Tish. "Tish?"

She shrugged. "Not yet. None of the Wells accounts link to the cops, either. I'm still looking though."

Laura smiles. "Maybe we should set that Detective on the matter? It would be easier to have someone on the inside feed us information rather than needing to break in when we require something." She sighs. "That does get awfully exhausting."

Max nods again. "Good point. We'll start dropping her messages suggesting she look into it."

Travis cocks his head. "So, recon Nathan's room, talk to the cop an' Chloe's memory-test. Anythin' else, boss?'

Max shakes her head. "That's it. Now, everyone. Let's get to work." Everyone files out back to the main room. Laura heads off upstairs, Cassie goes into the armoury and Tish wanders off to what I'm guessing is probably her room.

Max checks her watch. "Hey, Travis?"

He turns to her. "Yeah?"

"I've got an free hour. Want to go a couple rounds in the ring?"

He grins. "Sounds good ta me, boss. Weapons or Fists?"

I watch Max smirk. "Don't you know me at all, Travis? Fists, of course."

His grin gets bigger. They both wander over to the ring. I wander over after them. "Hey, are you just gonna fight in that?"

Travis is in jeans and a button-up plaid shirt and Max is in her usual Hoodie, T=Shirt combo and holy shit, how many of those fucking Doe tees does she have? Max shrugs, calling back over her shoulder. "If we get into a fight, they're not going to let us change into gym clothes. Always learn to fight in normal circumstances. You'll find it easier when you actually have to fight that way later."

I nod. Hella true. I head over and lean on the weird high-tech kitchen counter so I can watch. They really need to put some fucking chairs in here.

Travis leans back and pulls his fists up like he's in a boxing ring. Max's just sorta hang loosely by her sides.

They circle each other, both grinning. Travis moves first, swinging a fist at Max like a fucking sledgehammer. She hops back and the fist just whistles through air. Travis' grin gets bigger as he follows up with his other fist, pushing Max further back to the edge of the ring. Max dodges every swing, never moving more than she needs to. Every time he punches, Travis' gets quicker, until he's doing that whole flurrying shit at Max like Morpheus and Neo.

He doesn't hit her once.

Max doesn't hit him either though. She doesn't even try. Just sticks to dodging the shit he throws at her. When he gets her pushed back against the rope, she dodges sideways and gets behind him, planting her foot on his back and shoving.

Travis takes the kick and gets pushed up against the ropes. He kinda uses it as a springboard to bounce back and try tackle Max. She gets shoved over and ends up on the ground. He waits, patiently, for her to stand again.

The minute she gets back up, Travis throws another punch, but she does this hella weird whooshing dodge thing backwards that puts her right up against the edge.

Then, she stuck her foot on one of the ropes running round the ring and pushed off, flipping over Travis' head. She lands on the other side of him and throws out her arms like she's a fucking Olympic gymnast. She laughed. "Are you not entertained?" She calls, like she's fighting in front of a fucking hall of people and not just me.

I laugh anyway. She throws me a wink.

Travis swung around at her again, but like always, Max just... wasn't there. She pops to his right side and throws a hella rapid bunch of punches into his ribs, making him twitch and change his swing right at the hella last minute towards her. As his fist flies past her face, Max grabs it and yanks him with the punch, pushing him right up against the ropes.

Max waits for him to turn around again, then ducks back as he charges. She darts under his arms, grabs him around the middle and fucking lifts him like a dancer, basically just shot-putting him over her shoulder. He goes right over the fucking ring and sprawls over the floor.

Holy.

Fucking.

Shit.

Max hops over the ropes and lands next to Travis on the floor. She offers him a hand, which he takes with his usual annoying-as-fuck grin. "Good match, Travis. You got me a couple times there."

He snorts, dusting himself off.

Max turns to me. "So, enjoy the show?" She smirks.

I just blink at her. "How the fuck did you do that? You... and he's..! What the fuck?!"

She laughs. "Leverage and Momentum. Used the force of his charge to punt him out of the ring."

Travis rolls his shoulders. I shudder. I can hear them cracking and it is creepy as shit. "Damn, boss. I think you got me good on that flip. Gonna go get some painkillers." He grins at me, tipping an imaginary hat. "Talk to ya later, darlin'."

Max watches him go, then turns to me. "So, you busy today?"

I shrug. "Not really. Why? You want me to help with shit?"

She shakes her head. "No, not today. You wanted to learn, so you're going to learn. Come on." She turns and walks towards the stairs. I follow. "You've had lesson one from Travis and Cassie already. Now, it's Laura's turn. She's going to work on your grifting while I'm at Blackwell."

I nod, trying to be all hella professional and shit. But inside I'm jumping up and down with excitement like a five-year-old on crack. I'm gonna learn disguise!

Max snorts. "Keep it together, Chloe. Have fun, I've gotta go."

We say our goodbyes and go our separate ways at the top of the stairs. I watch Max leave, then turn to look at Laura.She's sat at one of the tables in the main area, drinking something and reading a book. She's playing with her little feather necklace with one hand as she turns pages in her book with the other. I stick my hands in my pockets and amble over. "So, Max says you're my teacher today, right?"

She looks up and smiles. "I am indeed. Please, take a seat."

I sit down in the other seat while she puts her book away. When she looks back at me, I hella feel like I'm just being... assessed.

Laura smiles. "The first and most important lesson I can teach you is this. Disguise is like Magic. It's all about creating an illusion that people want to believe is true. All the acting, the make-up and clothing come together to create that illusion."

I nodded, listening hella intently. "So, it's like, tuned to people, right? You pick shit that they're gonna wanna buy into the most and make it happen."

She tilts her head slightly. "Essentially, yes. We select our roles based on the particular biases and interests of the mark as those they will be more likely to believe."

She lounges back in her chair. "It's why most of our jobs are simply researching those we wish to target. Maybe two thirds of every contract we take is simply investigation and planning, so we can create disguises and ideas that our target will want to buy into."

She clicks her fingers in a hella Eureka moment. "For instance, we targeted a shipping magnate earlier this year who, to all appearances, had no exploitable vices at all. He didn't gamble, was happily married and so on. Apart from his occasional theft of ideas from those under his employ, one of whom requested our services originally, he did very little of interest."

She smirks. "Until we found his childhood dream of making first contact with an alien civilization. That gave us the idea of faking alien signals, disguising ourselves as 'experts' and so on. He wanted to believe it was real, so the question whether it was or not never entered his mind. As a species, we are most talented at fooling ourselves into believing whatever we wish to. Grifting is the method of exploiting that."

"So, that is the theory behind what I do." She stands. "Now, how would you like a more practical demonstration?"

I nod, grinning hella wide. "Hells yes. I'm in."

She laughs. "Come along then. I have my gear downstairs."

We spend the rest of the time trying shit out. It's hella weird, like being in a Beauty Course run by Sherlock Holmes. I get to play with Make-up and Costumes and shit with Laura prodding me into doing specific shit and asking those annoying leading questions teachers always do when you're almost, but not quite there.

So. Fucking. Cool.

--

After a brief walk around the dorms, I head into class. I make it two minutes before the bell. Mr Dunn is already at his desk, looking at some papers. I nod to a couple of Vortexers and head to the back. Kate smiles up at me as I walk over.

The bell rings and Dunn looks up. "Alright class, time to get to work! Today we're going to be working on some spatial geometry, focusing on Euclidian dimensions and Minkowski space."

Um...

What?

I share a puzzled glance with the others on my table. Even Brooke, our resident math genius, looks slightly lost.

He turns to the board (A Blackboard, and the only one in the building) and starts writing. "So, if we assume X is..."

I sigh. This is going to be a long lesson.

*Flashback Begins*

"You don't have a clue who you're messing with, you dumb fuck!" The goon spat a gob of blood and teeth at us. "Do you have any fucking clue who our boss is?"

Jimmy shrugged. "Nope. But 100 people surveyed, and top five answers on the board." He cocks the shotgun and levels the barrel on the man's knee. "Name the douchebag who's in charge here."

The goon spits again. "Vincent... Van go-fuck-yourself."

"Hmm. Vincent Van go-fuck-yourself..." He throws out an arm. "Our survey says..." He pulls the trigger and the goon screams. "Wrong answer."

The goon grits his teeth. "You fucking son of a..."

Jimmy rolls his eyes. "Save it for the quick-fire round, laddie. Onto player two. 100 people surveyed, top five answers still on the board..?"

The second goon glares down at Jimmy. He's not even wriggling against the rope tying him down. "Come on kid, you're on the clock." Jimmy grins suddenly, singing "Badadadadada, dada, dada, dadadada doo." Then, he frowns. "Wait a mo. That's not Family Fortunes. What the hell am I thinking of?" He turns to me, leaving the shotgun pointing at the goon.

"Countdown." I'm standing off to the side of the action, watching impassively.

He grins, clicking his fingers to point at me. "That's the one." He looks back at the goon. "Sorry for the delay, boyo, but that was just gonna irritate me fer ages if I didn't get an answer. Speaking of answers, have you got one yet?"

The guy just keeps up the glare.

"Sorry, lad. I really do need an answer." He pokes the shotgun into the man's crotch. The man looks down at it, then back up at Jimmy. He works his mouth for a second, then spits in Jimmy's face. I expect Jimmy to snap, kill the man, but he just smiles, cleans the gob of spit of his face and looks at it.

"Hmm. Saliva. Well, you never know what's gonna be on the board, eh?" He throws his arm out again. "Our survey says..." The shotgun fires again and the man screams, louder than the first. Not surprising, given where the shotgun slug went.

Jimmy steps left. There's only one more goon remaining. He levels the shotgun on the man's face, ignoring the agonised cries from goon #2. "Two strikes, one more wrong answer and you lose the pot. Now." He opens his mouth to speak.

"John McCruirick! Our boss is John McCruirick, he's down by the docks! Oh god, oh god, don't kill me."

Jimmy lowers the shotgun and paces round the back of Goon #3. "Bing, bing! Right fucking answer. Finally. You go home with all the money."

He cuts the ropes tying the man to the chair. He immediately launches out of it, falling to his feet and backing away from Jimmy along the floor. Jimmy keeps walking till he's behind the second, where he reaches forward and slides the knife into the man's ear. Goon #3, to his credit, doesn't scream. He just watches in silent shock as goon #2 goes slack against the ropes.

Goon #1, still screaming about his knees, gets a knife to the brain stem, killing him instantly. Jimmy pulls the knife out and walks around the bodies, wiping it off.

He strides over to the guy on the floor and pulls him to his feet. "Get the fuck out. Tell McCruirick we're coming and we're going to make it rain fire down on him and his people. Got that?"

The goon nods hurriedly, pretty much in a blind panic. Jimmy slaps him gently, taking hold of his face and looking him in the eyes. "Tell him we're coming."

Then, he opens the window and throws the man out of it. He turns back to me. "Right, Max. Let's go kill us a mob boss."

*Flashback Ends*

I walk out of class, flanked by Kate and Taylor. They're chatting lightly about evening plans. "Me, Vic and Court are heading out to Arkville. There's a sale on..." That's when I switch off. Eurgh. Shopping.

I match my pace to theirs. It's a comfortable walk, with the two chatting happily. I, on the other hand, am planning. The Boy's dorms are a floor above the Girl's. There's a fire escape at the rear of the building. I should be able to use that to circumvent the door lock. Then, I can check dorm slates to locate Nathan's room. I snort to myself. There's no way he'll...

"Well, if it isn't the Bible Basher. Come to give us a sermon, eh bitch?"

I come back into reality to see three jocks accosting Kate. Taylor is ranting at one, but they're ignoring her. Clearly no authority without Tori present.

One of them grins, running his eyes over Kate. "Hey dude, you saw that video, right bro? I wonder if she'll give us a live replay..."

The middle one laughs. "So right, bro." He leans forward and says something crude to Kate. I roll my eyes. Really?

Kate doesn't respond, eyes stuck to the floor. She's crumpling under the attention. Her brow is furrowing. I can see her eyes start to water. Her lip is even wobbling. I sigh. Damn it. I'm going to have to intervene.

I move forward as middle jock tries to grab Kate. I dart forward and seize his hand mid-way. I quickly twist it, shoving him into the lockers. Kate dashes out of the way at the last second. He wriggles, yelling at me to let him go.

I feel people in the corridor slow and group up. Fuck. We have an audience. Ah well, maybe I can turn this to my advantage. I twist the arm a little harder and the jock whimpers. The other two are standing, frozen and unsure.

I lean forward and talk clearly to the jock. "Kate is now off limits. If I catch any of you violating this, there will be consequences." I twist harder still and he squeals. "Understood?"

He nods frantically, scraping his face on the locker. I was always baffled why they put airholes on these things. I quirked a smile at the other two. "Understood?"

The both nod dumbly. Clearly unused to being challenged.

I grin. "Excellent." I pull the jock back and slam his head into the locker again. Then, I let him go. He sinks to the floor, dazed. "You might want to see a nurse about that."

I turn. Everyone in the corridor immediately swivels, pretending they weren't watching. I almost roll my eyes. Students. They're adorable. I raise my voice. "That goes for everyone. Bullying is a douchey thing to do. Stop it." I let the whimpering jock twice my height speak for the consequences.

Everyone stares at me for a moment, then goes back to pretending. Everyone except for Dana. She rushes out of the crowd and wraps her arms around me. "That was Amazing, Max! How did you do that?"

I shrug. Well, I sort of vaguely wriggle. Man, Dana hugs hard. "I dislike people hurting my friends. And they were hardly the smartest opponents."

She focuses on me. "Can you teach us that stuff? How to defend ourselves, I mean?"

I raise an eyebrow. "Defend yourself from what?"

"Look, I..." She sighs. "There's something you should know about Arcadia Bay, Max..." She leans in, voice hushed. "Something terrible happens here, Max. Girls go missing all the time. Rachel, Alexis, Megan!"

I pause. Huh. I colour my tone with surprise. "Seriously?"

She nods. "Seriously. And the police don't do shit about it. So, if we can defend ourselves, maybe we could stop it!"

I raise a brow. "Ok... What does that have to do with me?"

She gives me a dry look. "Babe, you just kicked Ray's ass and he's twice your size. You work it out."

I stare into her earnest, bright eyes. I sigh. "Fine. I'll think about it. No promises though."

She grins. "Thanks, Max! I'll come find you tonight and we can talk about it! This is gonna be awesome!"

I watch her bounce and flounce away. Shit, that girl has an insane amount of energy.

I turn to Kate and Taylor. Kate is still on the edge of tears. Taylor is staring at me slackjawed. "So, where were we?"

They don't say anything. Damn it. I really have to stop freaking out the civilians. Kate scurries over and throws her arms around me. "Thank you Max!"

I pat her on the back awkwardly. "Sure, Kate. Anytime."

I turn to Taylor. She's gold-fishing, now and staring at the jocks. Her mouth is just opening and closing over and over. It's kind of amusing. "How..? Why..? What..?"

I lean over and poke her. She shakes herself and looks at me. "I..." She shakes her head. "That was..." She finally grins. "I see why Vic likes you."

Heh. I give a quick bark of laughter. I shake my head and smirk. "She does have excellent taste."

Taylor laughs and we continue off down the corridor. "So, Kate, what are you doing later?" She grins cheekily. "Hot date?"

Kate flushes and Taylor laughs harder. "Uh, no, nothing planned, really. I... I was just going to stay in."

Hmm. An idea occurs. "You know, Kate. If you're not busy, you could come play with us?" I offer.

She frowns. "Play?"

I smile reassuringly. "We're practicing for the next Vortex Party later this evening. Thought you might bring your violin and jam a little. No obligations, just a little fun."

Her mouth opens and closes a few times. From her face, she's mulling over a refusal. I open my mouth to try persuade her further. She interrupts, surprising me. She nods and smiles. "Okay."

I smile. "I'll see you there then." We hit the stairs. Taylor points off down the other corridor. "I'm heading this way."

Kate nods. "I'm up another floor." She smiles. And it actually reaches her eyes this time. "I've got art with Mr Johnson."

Taylor's shoulders slump a little. "What 'bout you, Max?"

I shrug apologetically. "I've somewhere to be too." I look down at my watch. "And I'm running a tiny bit late." I turn and head straight for the doors. I call back as I go through them. "Remember, 7pm sharp, Kate! Don't be late!"

I head downstairs and out, straight for my car. I pulled out of the lot and drove to the station. Sergeant Beckett needs her first message.

--

I park around the corner from the station. Hmm. Where's my notepad? Shit. I rifle through the glovebox. Ah, fuck. I think I left it in Tahiti. Damn pickpocketing monkey.

Right.

Well.

I'll have to improvise. "Tish?"

"Yeah, boss?"

"I'm heading into the station. Playing maintenance. Give me a problem to solve."

"Will do." She didn't wish me luck. None of us ever needed it.

I hop out of the car and open the trunk. Hm. I pull out a set of overalls and a toolbox. Maintenance. Fantastic.

When I'm changed, I head into the station. I stop by the desk for a pass. The female desk sergeant looks up at me. Solid with greying hair, the woman is clearly an old-timer. She looks me over. "Whadda ya want, hun?"

I drop the toolbox on the desk. Hmm. Local element should work here. I quickly list off identifying features of the local accent. Mainly mergers and preveler raising. Pacific Northwesterners don't think they have an accent, but they do. "Maintenance. Here to fix the problem ya got with the lights."

The woman frowns. "What problem with the..?"

The lights flicker. I raise an eyebrow. "That one."

I roll my eyes. "C'mon. I got other jobs today and this'll take five minutes." I bluffed, relying on the small town looseness. The worst thing these people deal with is speeding and the occasional drug offence. Tends to eliminate rigid rule-adherence.

She stares at me for a second before shrugging. "Fine, just make it quick."

I smile and tip my cap. "I will. Thanks."

The cops milling around didn't give me a first glance. I resisted the urge to smile. Everyone always ignores the service. It's back to the expectations again. Their eyes just wash over you like a ratty old poster. They did notice the flickering lights though. A couple of them were complaining bitterly. "Shitty station. The stuff around here never fucking works right."

I walked past them for the stairs.

Beckett's desk would be upstairs in the main room. As a sergeant, she didn't merit an office of her own. Not that they'd have one to give her. Small stations are limited on space. The central location would push the invisibility of the overalls.

"Tish?" I murmured. "I need full darkness in three for four."

"Can do. Three minutes and counting, boss."

I found a junction box and tried to look busy. I stood just before the three minute mark hit. I took a quick scan of the room. Helpful to note landmarks and exits. The lights went out. A few people shouted suddenly. It was pitch black, after all. I moved quickly to Beckett's desk, scrawling on the first paper I found.

'Beckett. Maybe these will help you clean house.
-A Friend.'

I scrawled down the account numbers on the back of the paper. The moment I was done, I headed back to the box. I'd just crouched as the lights flickered on. I cursed under my breath. "Fucking close, Max. You're losing your touch."

I headed back downstairs, stopping at the desk. The sergeant bristled at me. "Was the blackout really necessary?"

I shrugged, leaning over the desk. Polystyrene cup of coffee. Perfect. I waved a hand dismissively. "Just had to swap the acriatic inducers. It won't happen again." The gesture actually covered my tossing the small amnesia pill into her drink. She'd forget all about me by tomorrow.

She glared. "Fine. Now get out. I hope you don't treat those other contracts as shoddily as you treated this one."

I smiled, then turned and left. "Tish, scrub..."

"Yeah, yeah, Mabono. Scrub you from the security footage, I know. This isn't fucking amateur hour."

I smiled. "True." I checked my watch. I had an hour to kill before the band got to the church. I think I'll hit The Two Whales. I fancy waffles. I also had a call to make.

--

"Yeah, Trevor. I think if we..."

There's a tiny knock, then the main door creaks open. I see Kate poking her head around it. "Um, hi?"

I turn and smile. "Kate!"

She steps through the doorway. "I don't really know what I'm doing here, I..." She mumbles faintly to herself. "I just..."

I cut in. Don't leave her time to doubt. "Thanks for coming, Kate."

She walks over to the stage. She's still not looking at anyone. She mumbles something faint at the floor. Trevor sticks up a hand and waves. "Hey Kate."

She looks around at the others. "I um..."

She's too nervous. Damn it. Need to do something about that.

"Hey, it's ok." I turn to the others. "Take thirty. Tell Joyce the pancakes are on me."

Trevor nods, smile wide. "Thanks, Max. You're the man."

I am. I so am.

Kate and I wait patiently as they leave.

I head over to the stage and pick up my acoustic guitar. "So, do you know this one?"

I sit down and start strumming.

"I don't recognise myself, look like someone else in the mirror"

Kate shakes her head. I throw her a grin. "One sec." I hop up, and go into the office. Ten seconds later, I've printed sheet music. I head back into the main room. Kate watches me walk across to her quietly. I hand the sheet music and she flicks through it. She looks back up at me. "Uh..."

I smile, hopefully reassuringly. "It's just some fun, Kate. You seem like you need to relax, so..."

She frowns and tilts her head, staring at me. Then, she nods. "Okay." She puts her case down and opens it up.

The violin she pulls out is surprisingly nice. Old, but very well looked after. An instrument with both the love and wear of a lifetime. She sees me watching and smiles. "It's a family heirloom. We've kept it safe through every trouble."

She brings the bow gently across the strings. The sound is beautiful. Perfect and soulful. "Grandfather performed with it in London at the height of the Blitz."

The bow glides into another note. "Great-grandfather played it for troops in the trenches during World War I."

She plays a final note. "It's always been with a Marsh, as far back as we know. My Dad gave it to me when I was twelve." She smiles fondly, cradling the violin.

I smile. "It sounds beautiful, Kate. You've looked after it well."

She beams, pleased at the praise. "Thank you. I try my best to. The violin.. I just feel it's only right to take care of something with this much history, you know?"

I nod. It's good to have respect for the past. Not so much you can't see it objectively though. Too much respect and you get the Amish. Then again, those guys were impossible to con.

She scans over the sheet music, then raises the violin again. I listen to the violin for a second. The music washes over me and I join in.

"I don't recognise myself, look like someone else in the mirror..."

I watch Kate's eyes flutter closed as she loses herself in the music. She sways gently along to the rhythm.

"I know what I did was wrong, I was just playing along, trying to see clearer"

Kate's playing is incredible. Every note is hit, with perfect tone and emotion. She could do this professionally.

I watch her through the whole song. She's oddly perfect for Chloe. External opposites, but inwardly both idealistic and hopeful. If only they could pull their heads out of their arses and talk...

We play the closing notes and the song drifts to an end. Kate opens her eyes. "That... was fun!" She smiles, bright and chipper.

I smirk back. "It really was. Wanna go again?"

She nods, then thinks for a second. She raises the violin.

It takes me a moment to recognise the tune. It's actually an old favourite. I wait for a moment, catch the beat, then join in. "Golden brown, texture like sun..."

She's relaxing, slowly. I mentally patted myself on the back. The violin was a good way in. I catch her eye and grin. Slowly, I up the tempo of my playing. She grins back, matching my speed.

She ups the tempo again in the third verse. I find myself struggling to keep up. Fuck. My mentor would be so disappointed. I double my efforts.

That's when she starts improvising around the melody. I end up mostly mimicking her. Shit, I'm completely outclassed here. She opens her eyes and smiles impishly at me. I almost laugh out loud. The little shit.

I fall behind and she finishes the song on her own. It's something of a humbling experience for me. One of only a half dozen in the last five years.

She looks over at me, sweating and panting, utterly unfazed. She smiles. "That was fun."

I nearly drop my guitar. I wheeze at her. "Yeaaah. Fun."

She laughs. "Shall we play again?"

--

When the others returned, Kate stayed. She even joined in. Not on every song, but more than I expected. I sat out once, watching her Deliverance the crap out of all three of my bandmates. She's laughing delightedly all the while. So perfect for Chloe.

When the others leave, we stay to clear up. Kate helps me flip chairs without complaint. We tidy up in amiable silence. Once we're done, I turn to her. "Hey, Kate? You want a lift home?"

She nods and gives a small smile. "That would be great, thank you."

We head out to my car.

--

I pull up outside her house and turn to her. "Can I come in? There's something we need to talk about."

She frowns. "What..?"

I cut her off. "We'll talk about it inside. Please?" Unsubtle, but I'm too tired for trickery.

She shrugs. "Sure, Max. Come on."

We head over to the door, Kate lets us in. A deep voice calls out as we walk through the hall. "Katie? Is that you?"

Kate calls back. "It's me! Max is here too."

"Max is here?" A tall, Tom-Selleck-esque figure appears in the living room doorway. He looks at me. "It's nice to see you again."

I nod. "You too, Richard."

Niceties with me fulfilled, he turns to his daughter. "Hello, Katie." He walks forward and embraces her. Kate smiles happily and hugs back.

They separate and Richard looks at me. "So, what brings you by..." He checks his watch. "At nearly half past ten at night?"

I shrug apologetically. "Katie has a schoolbook I need for tomorrow, so..." I do that weird apologetic grimace. "I'm sorry about this."

He waves me off. "It's not a problem. Just curious. I am in the career of truth, after all." When I frown curiously, he clarifies. "I'm a judge."

Huh. Interesting. I note it for future use. "Cool." I smile. "Well, It'll be a few minutes then I'll be out of your hair."

Her Dad winks at me as I walk past. I nod to him. I follow Kate upstairs. She walks over to her room, pushing the door open.

I promptly shove her forward and block the door with a chair.

--

I look up as someone gets shoved through the door.

Kate gapes at me sat on the bed, hella shocked.

I run a hand through my hair and grin, kinda sheepishly. "Hi."

She stares. "Chloe?"

--

Kate & Max's 1st Song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28KduHrvCxM
(Tom Klose - To Hurt and To Be Hurt /// Berlin Sessions #50)

Kate & Max's 2nd Song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CBqHw-MS18
(Nouvelle Vague - Golden Brown (Cover The Stranglers))
AN: I know it's not originally by Nouvelle Vague, this is just the version they're playing.

Chapter Text

Katie is standing there, just staring at me in shock. She opens her mouth to talk, but nothing comes out except a weird, strangled-sounding... sound. I run a hand through my hair and grin up at her. "Hi."

She shakes her head and focuses on me, eyes wide like a deer in headlights. "Chloe?"

I shrug. "Uh, yeah... I... Max said to..." I trail off. Wait... I jump to my feet and run over to the door. I shove at it and... that fucking bitch! I turn and nearly run into Katie, who's standing hella closer than I thought she was. I could practically feel her breath on my skin.

I freeze. Woah. She's um... she's hella close... I, um. What was I saying?

Her eyes seem to have gotten even bigger, blinking owlishly up at me while I just sorta stare blankly back, opening and closing my mouth like a fucking goldfish. My brain's kind of short-circuiting over the whole closeness thing. After a couple of minutes, I manage to pull my shit together and actually fucking say something. "So, um... Hi." I smile.

Smooth, Price. So fucking smooth.

She doesn't smile back, just keeps looking up at me with a weird look in her eyes that I can't work out.

I gulp and flail wildly for something else to say and fill the silence. "So, uh. Did Max pull the bullshit routine on you, too?"

She stares silently up at me for a few more seconds, then sighs and walks over to her desk. She drops down into the chair. "We need to talk, Chloe."

Oh, fuck. "We... we do?" We really did, but I was hella surprised Katie was the one to say it. Maybe Max had been pushing her. Like, figuratively as well as literally shoving her into the fucking room two minutes ago.

She nods, tightening her jaw. "We do. We can barely look each other in the eye, Chloe. I... I hate it." Her shoulders sag. "I don't know what to do about everything's been so tense since we... since we..."

"Fucked?" I say, at the same time as she says "Slept together."

Red immediately bursts out over her face and she nods, still not looking at me.

I take a deep breath. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, I haven't a fucking clue what to do either."

She smiles at that, and I get a flash of satisfaction on seeing it, until I look closer. It's not a happy smile. It's too big and it doesn't go to her eyes. Her eyes are still wide open, but she looks like she's trying not to cry.

I fucking hate it. My brain chants over and over. "Your fault, Price. Your fucking fault."

I'm such a bitch.

I take a deep breath to calm my nerves, which are kind of all over the fucking place right now. "Look. I know this shit sucks and you probably hate me for, um, y'know, but I am sorry and I know I'm totally not the sort of person you'd want to... y'know with. Even if you weren't doing the whole saving it for marriage thing."

She shakes her head emphatically, "That's not it, Chloe. Really not it." She flushes and... wait. Is she saying what I think she's saying? I feel a little fucking ray of hope start to break through all the shit whirling around in my head right now.

"It's my family."

Three little words like nails in a fucking coffin. That hope disappears.

"They're going to hate me, Chloe." She doesn't look at me. She's basically looking everywhere except at me. Her eyes flick all over the room like she's a trapped animal, until they eventually hit the cross on her wall and stay there.

Her shoulders slump and her voice goes hella small, getting wobblier with every word she says. "Everything my parents want me to be, everything the church teaches us to be, I..." She takes a shaky breath in. "I can't be. I'm a... a deviant. I'm... disgusting." Her voice breaks on the last word.

That's when I start to get pissed off. Partly at the assholes at her church, but mostly at myself. I was so focused on me and what I was feeling about shit and Katie was just... Fuuuuck. She's been thinking all this shit about herself for days. Days of just running herself in circles inside her head as it all spirals further and further down. I know what that's like and I hate that Katie does too.

I didn't really think about what I said next. I just knew I had to say something.

"Fuck that, Katie."

Her head flicks up to me and her face is completely shocked. "W-what?"

"You're not a deviant, or disgusting, or whatever else you're thinking right now." She opens her mouth to say something, but I stop her. "No, you're not. I know you believe in what you believe and I don't and that your parents and church are hella important to you and shit, but they're wrong."

She still doesn't say anything, so I keep going. Half 'cause I'm getting into the flow of what I'm saying and half just to fill the fucking silence that feels like it's everywhere in the room. When did everything get so damn quiet?

"You believe in that whole God made everything and everyone shit, right? So, whatever your church wants you to be doesn't fucking matter. If God made you, you're like, you are how God wanted you to be, so yeah. Be yourself, whoever that is."

I trail off. Wow. My head kinda hurts now. I immediately drop down onto her bed and flop back against the wall. She doesn't say anything and I stay shut up.

The silence stretches for what feels like an hour. Neither of us are looking at each other.

"You're right."

I turn and look over at Katie. "What?"

"You're right." My mouth drops open. That... worked? "And... and..."

She takes another hella deep breath.

"I like you." If my mouth could drop open any more, it probably would've. "And..." She takes a deep breath. Her cheeks are ridiculously flushed, but she's keeping eye contact and her mouth is set in a hella formidable expression. "And I think you like me. This isn't going to be easy, but... can we, um... try?"

I... I nod. "Okay." Holy shit, Take-Charge Katie is kinda hot.

"Okay?"

"Okay." I grin and put out my hands. She slips hers into mine. Okay. This is really happening. "We're really doing this shit?" My voice sounds pathetically hopeful, even to me.

She smiles back, all soft and hella sweet. "We're really doing this shit."

The stupidest grin ever explodes onto my face. I am losing all my fucking street cred right now, but I honestly couldn't care less. "What about your family?"

"This... this is who I am and this is who I want. If they don't like that then..." She takes a deep breath. "Fuck them."

I giggle. That sounds so weird coming from her. Katie's swearing is still hella hilarious. When I've calmed down, I nod. "Okay. Let's get outta here." I pull out my phone and text Max.

CHLOE - MX U CN LT US OUT NW

She replies almost immediately.

MAX - Check the door.

I push at the door and... it opens? I growl. That conniving fucking asshole bitching... Look. I go on for a while. Katie even gasps at me, hella scandalised, at one point. Let's just cut to the bit where we go downstairs, while I still have some fucking street-cred left, okay?

We come downstairs to find Max and Katie's dad sat at the table, playing fucking cards. Looks like Max is beating him.

He looks up as we walk in, immediately narrowing in on our linked hands with a hella pleased looking grin. I get a brief memory of my own dad, grinning at me. Shit... "Ah, looks like you were right, Max. Locking them together seems to have worked."

Katie's jaw drops. "Dad? You knew?"

"I was involved, yes." He smiles at Max, who gives him a hella pleased smile back. "Max here called me this afternoon, told me the whole story. We, uh..." He shrugs, kinda sheepishly. "We came up with this plan together." He looks vaguely disapprovingly at Max. "I wasn't entirely comfortable with locking you in your room, but Max convinced me it was the only way."

He grins, spreads out his hands like a magician revealing the card was actually behind your ear the whole time. "And she seems to have been right." He walks forward and pulls Katie into a hug. "I'm so glad she was."

Katie just looks... hella confused. "You're glad?"

He looks puzzled. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

Katie pulls away from the hug and looks up at him, hella wide-eyed. "You're... you're not mad?"

He tilts his head. "Why would I be mad? Because you like a girl?"

Katie nods, looking down at the floor.

He smiles, hella kindly and shrugs. "We're all God's children, Katie. I'm just happy you're happy." He smirks over at me. "Although, I'm not sure what it says about my daughter that her type is a punk rebel 'bad grrl' with tattoos."

I stare at his impishly grinning face for a sec before breaking down in laughter. What can I say, Dude has fucking awesome delivery. Katie flushes. "Dad!"

He laughs. "Only teasing, Katie. You just..." He takes a deep breath. "might not want to tell your Mother. You know how she feels about this sort of thing."

"But, she's my Mom. I can't lie to her."

He smiles, sadly. Both their eyes do this weird watery thing and some feeling passes between them that I just don't get. "That's your choice, Katie. Just... please. I love you both and sometimes, well." He grins roguishly and it makes him look twenty fucking years younger. "What your Mother doesn't know can't hurt her."

Katie nods. "I..." Her mouth creases up. "I'll think about it."

"Good." Her Dad straightens. "Now, it's getting late. You should all really be getting to bed. It is a school night, after all."

He turns to Max and pulls her into a hug. "Thank you for helping my daughter, Max. You're a good friend." I'm not sure, but I almost catch a hint of... shame? in her eyes. It disappears hella quickly though and her face drops into the political-schmoozing mask she uses when she's trying to make nice with whoever.

She pulls back and nods. "Of course, Richard. Least I could do." She smirks at us. "It was mostly for myself, anyway. The moping was getting irritating."

I glare at her, then turn to Katie.

Katie and I were... well. Hella fucking awkward. Like fucking high-school prom night all over again. Well, I think it was like a prom would be. I've only seen that shit on TV. I didn't actually go to my prom. No fucking point, I didn't want to and it was hella lame anyway. Just an excuse for douches to get drunk and dress in shitty suits and try to feel up their dates. We both try go in for a hug, and end up all tangled and shit. Our eyes meet and we laugh.

Pretty sure I heard Max fucking snort behind me. I resist the overwhelming urge to glare at the smug bitch (Like she can talk, with her weird flirty thing with Icky Vicky) and concentrate on Katie.

Fuck it.

I lean in and kiss her on the cheek.

She immediately goes red and her face bolts to the floor. It's hella cute.

"Bye Katie!" I grin brightly and turn, walking over to Max. Katie is just left, bright red, and standing in the middle of the doorway mouthing like a fucking fish. If I'd have looked back, I'm hella sure I'd have broken down laughing.

As soon as the door is closed and we're on the sidewalk, Max laughs. "Bye Katie?"

I shrug. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

She shakes her head and rolls her eyes. "You know it's going to be hard to keep it from her mother. Gossip travels faster than light in towns like this. I can likely cover some of it in Blackwell, but..." She looks blankly at me. "Are you two going to be okay with that?"

I think for a second. I kind of am. Fuck them, right? I grin. "Let them talk. We want this."

Max smiles. It's not weird, or fake, or any shit like that. It's one of the hella few real smiles I've seen from her. "Good answer. I'll see you tomorrow. Meet at the Church."

--

*Flashback Begins*

"Bloody fucking shitty-ass... grr..." I mumble, as I try to repair the busted-up machine-pistol.

The short man in the expensive jacket next to me laughs. "Uncooperative firearm, huh?"

I growl at him and slam the gun down. "Damn thing. I can't resocket the receiver assembly."

He grins. "I can do it for you, if it's too hard for a tiny thing like you to manage." His accent is light, just a hint of Parisian. His father was a diplomat in the embassy there. He'd expected his son to join him. Julian had joined us, instead. He was a dandy, and proud of it. His bright and expensive clothing contrasted with my own dark, rumpled suit.

"Don't patronise me, Julian. Our boss does not take such things kindly." I grin back. "And my revolver still works."

He laughs and opens his mouth to retort when something explodes. The plane starts to lean sharply to the left. Everything in the cargo bay starts to slide, testing the security lines. We, of course, have no security lines. I land against the plane wall with a thunk. The breath rushes out of me as I realise what's happening.

The plane is going down.

I carefully push down the panic and focus. Stay in the here and now, Max. I push off the wall and start climbing up the floor. The floor is so tilted as to be almost vertical, so it actually works.

I make it about halfway up when a jolt knocks me down. I land back on the wall again. Damn it. I need to get to a crate. I pull myself up and try again. After I hold on through the third jolt, I think I have it. I carefully work my way up to a crate. The netting around it is still securing it to the floor. I pull myself into it and wrap it around me. It's a faint hope, but the best I have.

The plane hits the ground with a crash. Explosions run along the entire plane and the fuselage crumples. I cover my head and wrap myself in the net tighter. I think I lost consciousness when the plane hit. I'm not entirely sure, even now. I awake to find a support fallen over my legs. My back is still against the cargo I secured myself against.

I shove at the support covering my legs. "Julian!"

I hear a faint mutter off to my left. "Right here, Max. No need to fucking shout."

Oh thank fuck. Jimmy would be so annoyed if the idiot died on my watch. "Are you trapped?"

"No! Just in a shitload of pain."

I laugh, covering my own almost-scream of pain. "Well, we were just in a plane crash. I hear those are bad for people with your weak constitution, Julian."

He scoffs back. "Me? I'm fine! I was just saying that so you wouldn't feel... Ah, shit... weak for admitting you're hurting!"

I laugh. "Well, can you make it over to me? I'm a little stuck."

After a few more minutes of back and forth, he appears over me. "Hey Max. You okay down there?" He grins, but I can spot a hint of a wince there.

I shrug nonchalantly. "Surprisingly comfortable, actually. Plane wreckage is like a memory-foam mattress. Who knew?"

He laughs and kneels down next to me. "Right then. I definitely want to get you out of here. You, in actual comfort? You'll never want to leave."

I snort and shift as best I can, prepping to lift. We go through the usual '3, 2, 1, from the knees' and it works. I slide out quickly and we let the support drop again.

I pull myself up and we get out of the plane. After we're safely away, we turn and watch. Something explodes. I sigh. Well. I need a fucking drink. "Where the hell are we, anyway?"

"Lisbon."

Huh. "Really? Fantastic. I'm tired of this, lets go get something to eat. Let Arnold know to send another plane." I stride off, Julian on my heels and the burning plane behind me. As we get further away, I hear the start of sirens.

*Flashback Ends*

I sat up in bed. Urgh. Time to get up.

--

I walk into the main hall of the Church. Travis was in the ring. He'd set up a half-dozen targets around him. His eyes were closed as he swung the axe around. I wandered over to the kitchen and leant on a counter. Travis knew I was here. I knew better than to interrupt. He'd acknowledge me when he was done. I made breakfast, simple enough.

Fifteen minutes later, Travis hopped out of the ring. He ambled over and sat down. "Mornin' Boss."

I slide a plate over to him. "Morning Travis."

He grunts and digs in. We eat in silence. Neither of us enjoy talking and eating at the same time. When I finish, I push my plate forward. "Where's Laura? She's supposed to be taking today's lesson."

He nods back over his shoulder. "She's in the range."

"Thanks Travis. Stick around. Chloe should be here soon."

He nods and I leave him to his food. In the range, huh?

--

I walked into the range to find Laura already set-up. She looked over at me and tapped her headphones. I grabbed a pair and slipped them on. The power button was... here. "Hey Max."

I wandered over. "Hey Laura. Getting in some practice?"

She smirked and nodded her head down the range. The paper target had been set as far as it'd go. There were holes in all major vitals. I threw a smirk of my own. There was a reason Laura was our overwatch on infil-jobs. Her sharp eye translated well from grifting to snipers. So did her designer taste. Her rifles were the most expensive weapons we had.

I gave her a nod. "Not bad."

She raised one elegant brow. "Not bad? Darling, you wound me." She gave me a mocking grin. Laura could tell a goading remark a mile away. "If you really feel unimpressed, what would you say to a friendly wager?"

I kept the smile from my face. "A wager?"

She smirks. "Indeed."

"For what?"

"A trade of secrets. If I should win, then you shall tell me exactly what your intentions are regarding Ms Chase."

I raise an eyebrow. "And if I win?"

She waves a delicate and manicured hand dismissively. "In the terribly unlikely event that occurs, then..." She grins, wicked and daring. "I shall tell you the story you've desired for ever so long." Damn. She had me, and she knew it.

I glared. "Damn you. Usual rules?"

"Of course. The Minsk Gambit?"I nod. She smirks. "Shall we?"

We both took up position. The targets were set, out as far as they'd go.

Some explanation is in order. The Minsk Gambit was something Jimmy had started. On a training mission in Minsk, believe it or not. It involved a complex system of points based on killing and disabling targets. It was supposed to improve situational application of habits. A headshot is not always appropriate. Thus, the gambit teaches us to read situations and respond accordingly.

It was a hard-fought competition. No quarter was asked, none was given. At first Laura, with her marksman's eye and steady hand, pulled out ahead. I managed to take over later, with a trick shot or three.

An hour later, we'd run out of bullets, targets and time. We both exchanged our pile of targets and counted up. Laura looked up. "1230."

I sighed. "Damn it. 1228."

Laura's smug smile was painful to see. "Excellent. As it should be. In that case, I shall be expecting my truth soon."

That's when we hear yelling from the other room.

--

We rush in to find Tish staring at her screen in disbelief. "I actually fucking found them!"

I walk over. "Found whom?"

She grins up at me, the happiest I'd seen her. That's when I knew. "My family! I know where he's keeping them!"

She hops up and starts pacing back and forth. "We have to go, now! We can get that bastard Arnold to fly us there!"

I sigh. "We can't. We have a contract."

She stops. Her face flashes up to mine, glaring at me in anger. "Are you fucking serious, Max? We dropped a month long contract so you could chase after" She jabs a finger over my shoulder. I almost sigh. Chloe. "that bitch and she isn't even family! It's been eight years, Max. I haven't seen them in eight fucking years! Not since he took them!"

I dart in front of Tish as she rages. I plant both hands on her shoulders and look her in the eye. "Look at me."

She growled, her head still swinging, but complied. She focused directly on me. "I swear to you, once this contract is filled, the Syndicate will put all its resources on getting them out and safe. Understood?"

She keeps up the glare, still petulant. "You know I'm right. We can't go after someone like him without planning. Going in hot would be suicide. That's what got you into Langley in the first place, remember?"

She blanched and her jaw worked a second. She fish-gulped for a few seconds before she caught herself. "You're right. Damn it, Mabono, you're right." She looks up. "When it happens, you're all gonna go in with me?"

Tish looks between each one of us. In turn, we all nod. Travis grins. "Damn right, Tish." Laura nods. "Wouldn't miss it for the world." Cassie just nods quietly, giving a small smile. Tish looks to me. "You have my word." She knows exactly what that means to me.

She nods. "Okay. I'll wait. I don't like it, but you're right." She sighs. "Damn it. I..." She walks away.

We all stand silently and watch her go.

Chloe walks over a couple of minutes after Tish leaves. "Hey Max. So, um." She hesitates, trying to be diplomatic. I give her a faint smile. Nice to see some of our lessons are taking hold. "What the hell was that?"

"It's a long story..." I sigh. "Cassie, make sure to check on her in an hour. You know what she's like when she's angry."

Chloe looks blankly at me for a few seconds. I match her gaze and force a smile. "You're with Laura today. She'll let you know what you need. I have to get to Blackwell."

Surprisingly, Chloe just nods and grins. "Sure thing, Boss-Max. Say hey to Katie for me." She throws up a lazy salute that Travis snorts in laughter at.

I leave them to it and head out.

--

After classes end, I head up to the dorms. Nobody has called, so I have ten minutes for a shower.

Eurgh. It's been a long day. I feel very gross.

I go back to my room first. I'm just getting my shower things when I hear a knock at my door. "Come in!"

Dana pokes her head around my door. "Hey Max? You got a second?"

I shrug, hold up my little toiletries bag. "Actually, I was going to get a shower... I can spare a few minutes now though." I amended, seeing her expression.

She beams and bounces in, perching on my bed. She immediately frowns. "How the hell do you sleep on this, Max?" She pushes down on the bed a few times. "It's so uncomfortable!"

I shrug, offer a small smile. "It works for me. So, what can I do for you?"

She shuffles about on the bed some more. Eventually, she settles with a grimace. Then, she turns her focus to me. Her smile disappears and her face goes serious. "You can teach us to fight, Max! We talked about this!"

For twenty seconds, yes. She acts like she's convinced I already said yes. "Okay, sorry. It's been a long day. I remember now." I tilt my head. "Who is 'us'?"

Dana shrugs. "Me, Jules," She lists off about 5 more names I don't recognise. "We all want to learn. None of us want what happened to Alexis or Rachel to happen to us."

I sit in my desk chair. "Do you know what happened to them?" It's unlikely, but possible. Conveniently useful revelations had happened to us before.

She shakes her head. "No! Nobody does, Max! Not even the police, and they're supposed to be on top of this sort of thing!" Her eyes meet mine. I'm struck by how earnest they are. She believes what she's saying. "You have to help, Max. Please?"

We stare at each other for a second until... I sigh. "Okay." It's hardly likely any of them will actually be able to stop the attacks. Still, this might be useful. They might make noise, or injure Nathan in the process. That would make building the case easier.

She blinks. "Okay?"

I nod. "Okay. I'll help."

Her kilowatt-bright smile flicks back on. "You will? Thank you, Max! You won't regret this, it's going to be amazing," she starts to babble.

I hold up a hand, trying to damn the river of words bursting out of her. "Wait, I need to know a few things first."

She shuts up immediately and nods, looking at me earnestly again. I take a breath. "Is there a gym, or a hall, or someone private we can practice?"

"Um..." She thinks for a second. "I think there's one by Apollo's? Some crazy old guys own it. Um, Brock and Roark, I think? They're kind of..." she trails off again. "unique? Do you want me to check there?"

"No, that's okay. I'll make the arrangements and let you know."

She nods, the kilowatt-bright smile brightening even more. An unexpected feeling of warmth flows through me. "Okay, okay, cool. Should I let the others know or something?"

I shake my head. She really is excited. I remember when I used to be like that. Getting ahead of yourself was so easy in that state. "No, I'll check, then let you know. No point telling them if we can't get the space."

She smiles abashedly. "Good point." She trails off. The blissful silence doesn't last long. Something else occurs to her quickly. Her posture tenses and she flushes. "You were going for a shower, weren't you?"

I shrug. "I was. It's no trouble though. Happy to help."

The tenseness disappeared in a flash and she sighs, visibly relieved. "Ok, good. Thanks again, Max. You're a lifesaver." I just might be. "I'll leave you alone. Enjoy your shower!" She calls back, waving over her shoulder as she leaves.

I blink at the empty space on my bed. It's the only evidence someone was even here. That was slightly... surreal. I check my watch. That entire exchange took less than three minutes. Damn, that girl talks fast.

I shake my head, grab my toiletries and head to the showers. I strip off quickly and turn on the shower. As the droplets fall, my mind finds a familiar memory.

*flashback begins*

It was raining in Stockholm that day. I knew that because I'd been standing in it for three and a half hours.

"Acolyte, this is Dandy. Have you seen anything yet?"

I sighed. Julian sounded annoyingly smug. I tapped my earpiece. "No, but you're more than welcome to trade places, Dandy. See if you can't do any better."

"Wouldn't dare to presume, Acolyte. You've got this. Besides, my clothes can't take the rain like yours can."

"That's a shame. Can't afford the high quality stuff anymore?" I retort.

He laughs. "Au Contraire, Ma Cherie. Only the highest quality clothing falls apart after the barest hint of rainfall."

I snort. I'm about to answer when I spot lights and movement out of the corner of my eye. "Wait. I think I see something." I pull up my binoculars and take a look. It's a silver Volvo. "I have a car. Registration PGX 242."

Julian types into his computer. "That's the one. Target is onsite, moving to stage two."

I follow the car with my binoculars. It parks and a thin, lanky figure exits. They quickly grab a briefcase from the backseat. After a brief scan of the parking lot, they skittered off to the building. The door there had solid security, an 8 digit code and a thumb scanner. Julian couldn't hack it without the thumb. Step 4 would be impossible if the target was pissed after losing theirs, so we had to go through this fucking song and dance.

As it tapped on the keypad by the door, I started counting down. "Three."

I could hear Julian typing into his computer again. "Two."

The figure finishes typing and taps their thumb against the scanner. "One." The light above the door flashes green and they slip inside. As the door slips closed... the light stays green. "We are a go."

Julian's fingers tapped over more keys as he alerted the infil teams. "Fabulous. Proceed with entry."

I stood and started to walk to the door.

"Oh, and Acolyte?"

I hmmed as I vaulted the fence surrounding the lot.

"Do try not to die. The Boss will be so upset with me."

"Hah. I'd like to see them try, Dandy." I laughed. "Besides, we'll be in and out before anyone can get a shot-off."

Several heavily armed men and women slid out of cover around the lot and we converged on the door. As I tapped in the code, an arm clasped onto my shoulder. "Howdy, Acolyte."

I didn't look back. "Cowboy You ready?"

He snorts. "For this? It'll be a cakewalk. We've beaten heavier security than these MoD fuckers can manage."

I stood back and eased the door open slightly. Jimmy's people stacked up along the wall behind me. I gesture. On my mark.

I counted down with my hands, listening for any movement inside. The security desk was just inside and we couldn't have the guard raising any alarms. Go.

The minute I waved my hand, I shoved open the door and strode through. The guard jumped to his feet and started to speak, but he barely got off a word before someone behind me put two bullets in his chest.

Two of them broke off and headed to the security station. I didn't look back, but I knew what they were doing. Standard procedure. Conceal the body and pass security access to Julian. They'd hold the exit for the rest of us.

The rest of us headed for the machine room. The MoD used a bottom-drive elevator, so the control room was on the ground floor. We made our way there quickly, dispatching any errant security guards. All were disposed of quickly and hidden in side-rooms.

I glanced into a security camera as we passed, noting the red light flicker off then on. Julian had the cameras.

We headed into the machine shop and were immediately met with an irate engineer. He was lanky and tall with a thick moustache that quivered as he talked. "Vad ar de..?"

I waved a hand and one of the mercs moved forward, covering the guys mouth. The others fanned out through the machine room, hunting down the other engineers. It was late, so there should only be three on duty. We quickly found them and pulled them to the front. "Hejsan. Talar du Engelska?"

My Swedish was very limited. I had decided to sleep on the flight rather than brushing up. Jimmy would be so disappointed with me.

One of them raised his hand. "I... I, uh, I speak English?"

I smiled. "Excellent. Now, I need you to lock down these elevators, if you would."

He nods and points. "I need to go over there. The console controls..." I hold up a hand. "Art, take him there, get him what he needs." I turn and head for the door. "Come on, Cowboy. We have a target to find."

"Right, Acolyte. What floor's the doc on again?"

Julian chips in. "Cowboy, the target should be in their office. That's on the third floor, according to our intelligence."

Travis taps his ear. "What's the resistance like in there?"

"Well, from the elevator, there won't be much. Two guards in a small security room near the elevator, static cameras covering most corridors, a couple of patrollers, plus a turret positioned by the ." Julian listed off the few defences this floor had. Hmph. Apparently the MoD kept internal security low, focusing on the exterior.

Bad Choice.

We head for the elevators and get in. I reach over and push the third floor button. As the door closes, I pull out my pistol and start screwing on a suppressor. Travis just leans on the railings. We ride up in near-silence, only broken by the sounds of my suppressor.

The elevator pinged and the doors slid open. After a quick glance for patrols, we stepped out into the corridor and headed for the security office. Over the next ten minutes, we systematically purged the floor, office and patrols, then went to find our target.

"Uh, Dandy?"

"Yes, Acolyte?"

"Where's our target?"

I could almost hear the frown on Julian's face. "Um. In their office? I did say that. Are you going senile, Acolyte?"

I swallow a growl. "Dandy, I'm in their office. The target isn't."

"They... they aren't?" Julian's fingers fly across his keyboard. The ratatatat is slightly irritating. "But they're always in their office at this time! Merde!" He types some more and... "Maybe try the lab? But if they're in there, I can't get you in. The security access is higher than I have."

I turn to Travis with a sigh. "

I spot a solitary figure bent over a lab-surface. Finally.

We walk over, stopping a little distance away from them. "Doktor Lofven, Jag formodar?"

The figure whirled and their eyes bulged. "Vem fan ar du?"

I smiled lightly. "We're merely interested in your research."

Their mouth dropped open more to reveal the whitest set of teeth I'd ever seen. "You... you're what?"

My smile never changed. "Your research. We want it. Now, will you show it to us, or will we have to find it ourselves?" Travis stepped up behind me. He had this thing he does with his eyes. Scares the living daylights out of people.

The Doctor stared back at him for a few seconds, their mouth moving soundlessly. They pulled themselves together admirably quickly, scrambling through their jacket pockets and pulling out a small plastic keycard. "Uh, this! This will open the locker, over there!" A shaky, well-manicured hand indicated a large metallic locker that took up one wall. "The prototype is in there!"

I reached out and plucked it from their hand. "Thank you, I'm so glad you could help. And where is the documentation?"

They slumped and pointed again, this time far more resignedly. "In the computer bank. File code AJV0008 through 0037."

My smile grew. "Thank you, Doctor. You've been most helpful. Now, my associate," I waved to Travis. "is going to lock you in your office, okay?"

Lofven nodded. "O-okay."

"Good. Cowboy?"

Travis nodded. "Right, come on, Doc. Don't worry, we ain't gonna hurt ya none."

They left the room and I turned to the prototype cabinet. Excellent. I walked over and ran my hands over its surface. The keycard scanner is... ah. Here.

The door popped open with a satisfying hiss. I reached over and pulled it open. The prototype sat there, a roll of fabric stretched between two rollers. Jimmy's agent was right! I pulled my pistol and loosed off the entire clip at the fabric.

Not a scratch.

Fucking amazing.

Travis came back in as I was stowing the fabric in my backpack. He walked past me, straight to the computer. "-at the hell I'm doin', Dandy. You're gonna hafta walk me through it."

I snorted. Travis never was the most tech-minded person.

"Ah, hello, Acolyte? There appear to be a number of irate individuals in military garb converging on the door. I believe you missed an alarm. Should I fire?" Laura sounded calm and confident, as usual.

I finished packing and tapped my earbud. "Yes, but be ready to move. I don't want them trapping you up there."

"Acknowledged, Acolyte."

I turned to Travis. "We need to leave. Someone called the military."

He snorts. "Seriously? People'll do the stupidest things." He tapped a few keys. "Just give me... done."

He plucked a thumbdrive out of the computer and slipped it into a pocket. "D'ya got the IN thingy?"

"I M." I threw him the little metal tube. "Just make sure to secure it this time. We don't need another Zambia."

He groans. "Hey, I said I was fuckin' sorry fer that. Can'tcha just let it go?"

"I needed four stitches, Cowboy. Four. And I had smoke damage in my fucking lungs." I throw him a glare.

He shrugs sheepishly and stands up, following me out of the room. The door swings shut just as the Incendiary Mine explodes, obliterating the doctor's research.

*flashback ends*

I turn off the water and towel off. My talk with Dana was still running through my mind. Travis will definitely be able to help. I need to get back to The Church.

--

Translations:
Vad ar de..? - Who are...?
Hejsan - Hello.
Talar du Engelska - Do you speak English?
Doktor Lofven, Jag formodar? - Doctor Lovfen, I presume?
Vem fan ar du? - Who the hell are you?

Chapter Text

The Church is empty when I arrive. The main overheads are off, the only light coming in through the windows. I walk through to the back and head downstairs.

Chloe and Laura were sitting at the downstairs kitchen. There was a cup of tea in front of Laura. Chloe'd taken the biggest mug and filled it to the brim with coffee. They were both chatting earnestly. Chloe didn't even notice me enter. Laura, aware as always, did. "Good Afternoon, darling. How was class?"

I snorted. "Very informative." I turn to Chloe. "How was yours?"

Chloe's answering grin was huge and happy. "Fuck, Max! This shit is hella more complicated than I thought, but it's so fucking cool!"

I smirk. "So, good then?"

She rolls her eyes. "Yeah, Max. Hella good. This chick knows her shit."

Laura laughs, flashes Chloe a smile. "Thank you, Chloe. You are a charmer." She looks back to me. "So, do you require anything, Max?"

I nod. "I need to talk to you for a minute. Stay here, Chloe"

Chloe grins. "Talking about me, huh? Don't say anything bad, Laura!"

Laura laughs again. "Wouldn't dream of it, darling." She stands up, follows me over to the door. "So what can I do for you, darling?" Her voice is quiet, kept low to avoid Chloe overhearing.

"Is Travis here?"

She shakes her head. "I'm afraid you just missed him. I believe he's out looking for ingredients. He's quite annoyed, being away from his farm for so long."

I roll my eyes. Travis always insisted on organic produce for his cooking. He was very stubborn about it. My eyes move back to Chloe. "How is she doing?"

Laura's head tilts curiously. "Who, Chloe? She's doing rather well, unsurprisingly. Her... enthusiasm for this work is obvious. She's also far smarter and more intelligent than she seems to believe."

I snort. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure it passed obvious a while back."

"Indeed." Laura's mouth curls into a dry smirk. "She's fascinated by you, you know? And perhaps a little infatuated."

I raise an eyebrow. "Infatuated? Chloe?" I scoff. "I don't think she's infatuated with anyone besides Kate."

She snorts dismissively. It's very unladylike, for the usually refined Laura. "Of course. It's only natural. Take a moment to consider the situation here. Your long lost best friend returns after five years away, the reigning head of an international criminal syndicate of Robin Hoods dedicated to helping those who can't fight for themselves. That would be bound to make an impact on anyone."

"You really think so?" I look back over at Chloe. She's chatting away to Cassie. I mean, I knew she was a little... enthusiastic about this. I figured it was just the glamour of the life. It's very over-sensationalised in TV and movies. But she... me? I need to stop that, now. I... I don't want her trying to be like me.

"Being you is no bad thing, Max."

Oh. I said that aloud.

"You did."

I facepalm. "Fuck."

Laura laughs, light and pleased. I eye her through my hand. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

She shrugs, mouth curving in another smirk. "Maybe a little. You two are rather amusing. Not quite as amusing as you and Ms Chase, but still."

I stick out my tongue and she laughs again. I scowl and waft at her with my hands. "If you're just gonna laugh at me, you can go back to teaching. I need to check on Tish anyway."

Her face falls, taking on an introspective expression. "Ah, yes. I'm a little worried about her. She hasn't left her room since she stormed away this morning."

I shrug. "It's not that surprising. Her family has been gone for a while. It's got to be a shock to be suddenly so close to retrieving them. She'll be fine tomorrow."

She gives a small, smug smile. "And remind me, how are you and Chloe adjusting to being in contact again?"

I glower at her, eliciting a victorious laugh. "You are such an easy target, Max." She shakes her head. "Do try to be understanding with her, will you? Not everyone deals with..." She mulls over her words for a few seconds. "awkward family situations as well as you do." Her last piece of advice given, she walks back and sits down again with Chloe. In seconds, they're engrossed back in conversation.

I watch them talking for a second, before turning and walking to Tish's room. This is going to be uncomfortable.

--

I knock. "Tish?"

"Fuck off." Her voice sounds muted through the thick wooden door.

I keep my voice level. "You know I can't do that." I might be cold, but I look after my people. And... fuck it. Tish was a friend. I don't like seeing my friends hurting.

I hear a loud sigh and groan. A few seconds pass. A few more... Then the door lock clicks. I push it open and walk in.

The room was dark and reeked of alcohol. I could feel my hands start to shake as the smell hit me. God, I need a... Damnit, no. Not now. I focused for a few seconds, steadying my breathing. I don't need a drink.

I. do not. need. a drink.

Oh, who the fuck am I kidding. Damnit, I really do. But I don't have the time. I bludgeon the craving down until it's a dull ache. I can deal with those. "Tish?"

A bottle smashes into the wall next to me. I eye the shards on the floor. "That was a waste." My eyes quickly start to adjust to the gloom. I spot her, sitting against a wall. Well. Slumped against a wall, really. Most of the smell is coming from her.

"It was fucking empty, dzoi." Tish's voice sounds... well. As empty as she claims the bottle was.

"That's good." I offer, waiting for more cursing. Or, well, anything really.

She doesn't say anything, so I walk further in. Tish only has one chair in the room. I sit in it, then turn it to face her. "So. You found them."

She looks up and meets my eyes. "Yeah, I found them." She cracks a grin. "I fucking found them. Heh. I told that bastard I would, right on the fucking day I left. Bosco never did believe I was as good as I was."

I smile. "And you were right. Were the Second Floor helpful? I heard they were helping Paol's people deal with him."

She nods, unable to push back a small smile. "Yeah, they..." She stops, amends, forces her smile back. "some of them are pretty good." She slips back against the wall with a sigh. Her eyes flutter closed.

My smile turns into a smirk. "Well. You know I only hire the best."

She cracks open one eye, glares daggers at me. "Why do you always fucking say that, naaier? Like it's some kind of reassurance and doesn't just make you sound like an arrogant bitch."

"Oh, blatant ego-stroking, obviously." I smirk. "Is it working for you yet?"

Tish pauses for a second, then mimics my smirk. "You haven't fucking changed, have you? Still the same bitch you were the day you and Jimmy pulled me out of that cell."

*flashback begins*

"Remind me why we're here again?" I muttered to the tall, greying man standing next to me in the alcove.

His grizzled face creases into a frown. "'cause lettin' the spooks keep a file on us is a terrible feckin' idea?" His voice is dry and unamused. He'd been on edge since a friend had informed us the day before that the CIA was building a profile on our 'activities'. Any one of our missions alone would get us life imprisonment, so...

Yeah.

We'd set out for Langley that evening.

The next morning, we bluffed our way through the perimeter. Our friend had... acquired a General's ID and uniform. That made the crossing almost infantile. Nobody wants to look a General in the eye. Especially not one that has eyes screaming he'll kill you in twelve different ways if you piss him off, which Jimmy certainly did.

I sigh. "Oh yeah. That." Jimmy suddenly backs further into the alcove and holds his breath. I follow his lead without thinking. I'm used to it by now.

A minute later, three people in suits walked past, chatting obliviously away. We watch them go, then relax. "Hop ya bowsie. We need to go." He hurries out of the alcove and down the hall. Again, I follow his lead. The hallway is as bland as the rest of the building. Off-white walls, no posters of any kind... Not even any signposts for directions. Unusual for a Federal Building, but this was not a usual Federal Building.

I can hear Julian's voice in my ear, rattling off facts like an open-roof bus-tour guide. "-and these offices are part of the bureaucratic division of..."

I quickly tune him out. Irrelevant details.

We turn down another bland hallway. The only interesting thing here is the T-Intersection it leads to. "Boss? Do you know where you're going?"

He shrugs. "Out. The door should be somewhere around... aha!" He launches off to the right, the medals across his chest jingling. He heads out a door into the open air.

I follow, keeping an eye out for agents. Langley was made of two complexes, the Old and the New Headquarters. The office block we were in was in the New Headquarters. We needed to cross the grounds to the Old Headquarters. What we were here for was in there. As I'm glancing around, I spot something out the corner of my... Wait. What? I peer closer in through the line of glass pane windows, recognising the familiar logo. "They have a Starbucks[AN:1] here?"

I tilt my head and read the posters on the wall inside. "How about a cup of classified-acchino?" Ouch.

The next had two men talking in a booth. "Where is this delicious coffee from?" The first says. The second, in a Starbucks uniform, grins. "I could tell you ...but then I'd have to kill you." Oh, jeez. That's awful.

The next one has the same two men talking. "Uh, there's a fly in my latte." The other looks at him in surprise. "Really? But we always scan the coffee for bugs."

Okay. It's official. The CIA has a fucking awful sense of humour.

Jimmy and I hurry past the Starbucks, through an archway into a courtyard area. We don't run though. Just hurry. People pay attention to a running General. They talk, they... theorise. A hurrying one though, they just get out of his way. Julian's voice, still going, tells us that this is the Sanborn Garden. That means we're in the northwest corner of the grounds. The large s-shaped copper screen of Kryptos stands in the centre of the courtyard. Jimmy snorts on spotting it. I catch a muttered "They still haven't a feckin' clue..." as we pass by.

We make it through the grounds to the Old Headquarters. The sun was high in the sky now, just after noon. The ambient noise from the grounds and buildings around us grew. People: agents, handlers, officers, heading to their lunch break.

Jimmy slows as we turn onto the path in front of the OHB. "Two ahead. Are they taking the piss?" I follow his eyes to the two guards by the entrance. They were both suited, casual but alert.

I frown. "What?" Of course they'd have guards on the entrance. Is he really surprised?

He grins. "See the stook on the left, like?"

I nodded. He was in the usual agent mold. Tight cut hair, earpiece, hard glint to the eyes. Jimmy continued "Look at his ribs. Someone's had a bit of craic with him recently."

I focused harder on him, concentrating on micro-expressions and movements. I smiled internally when I spotted the slight tightness in his chest. He was holding himself differently to his companion. The Doctor probably bound his ribs a little tightly. There was... There was an ever-so-slight wince when he breathed! "I see it!"

Jimmy grinned down at me. "Told ya. You're a talented kid, you just gotta focus." He pokes me in the forehead on 'focus'. I roll my eyes and smirk back. "Yeah, yeah. So, we could take them down in less than a minute. Why is that taking the piss? It's not like they don't have stronger defences inside."

He snorts. "True. But remember the first rule 'o defence." He looks at me expectantly.

"Image is important. Your castle doesn't have to be impenetrable. It just has to make people think it is."

"Correct ye are. Now," He waves at the two guards. "Does that look impenetrable? No matter what the inside looks like?"

I shake my head. "No. But we're at the CIA. They're more for the... subtle impressions of impenetrable, right?"

He tilts his head and looks at me. Really, really looks at me. Then, his face cracks into one of those smiles. They don't appear often, but I get a buzz every time they do. In a flash, it disappears, and Jimmy strides away to the door.

The two guards immediately hop to attention as they catch sight of him. Jimmy nods, emanating approval. I, as always, have followed his lead. "At ease." They both relax. Jimmy taps the ID on his lanyard. "I'm General Weissman. Here to see the Senator about Project Indigo. This is my assistant, Jennifer Cartwright. She's under my clearance rating."

I slip my hand into my pocket, and bring up Julian's app. The guard nods, then pulls a small tablet out of his pocket. "General... Weissman, sir?"

Jimmy nods. Julian has shut up, and is tapping buttons. "I need thirty seconds. The remote access is... merde!" The man continues to scan his list. As he continues, I find myself starting to plan exits. "Julian..." I mutter, warningly.

The guard looks up. "Hmm?"

Jimmy elbows me, and I immediately fake a cough. Up from the diaphragm. I offer an apologetic smile. "Sorry." The guard goes back to scanning his list.

One... Two... I can run for the wall over there. Up and over in forty five seconds, no trouble. Julian is still silent in my ear as my thoughts race. "I'm sorry, sir, but... Oh!" The man frowns down at his tablet, thwacks it with his hand. "Huh. My apologies, sir. I think something was wrong with my list. Do come in, General."

Jimmy nods, his composure never breaking. "Get that gear repaired, Agent. You're defending state secrets here! You don't want to let the wrong people in here, do you son?"

The agent shakes his head. "No sir!"

Jimmy nods. "Good man. Now, we have a meeting to get to." He waves a hand to me and we both walk through the door.

Finally. The Old Headquarters. "Dandy?"

"Boss?" Julian sounds nervous again.

Jimmy pauses. "Good work."

"Thank you, Boss." Julian's relief is palpable. "You've got to head down the main corridor. Um..." He takes a deep breath and rattles off a few more directions. "That'll take you to the stairs you need. If... if you think you can do that, without getting lost, I mean?" He jokes, still nervous.

Jimmy stops. "Dandy. Mind on the job, boy. Time fer joking when we're done."

Julian coughs. "Of course boss. Sorry, boss. Okay, so, you know where you've going. I've got to... to... go do something. Back in a minute!" There's a slight buzz as his earpiece hits whatever surface he put it on. I roll my eyes. Coward.

Jimmy and I follow Julian's directions. We pass people in the corridors, but... they're on the way to lunch. Focused on more pressing things. When they see the insignia, they nod, or salute, then hurry on. We're dismissed from their minds as quickly as what they had for breakfast.

Julian's directions lead us to a closed door at the end of a corridor. We walk over and... "Shit." it's locked with a card-scanner.

Jimmy sighs. "Well. That's a feckin' bother." He pulls up the General ID and scans it in. The door lock clicks open. "We've not got long 'til they flag that."

I nod. The ID had been stolen two days ago, marked stolen yesterday. We were lucky no-one had checked it, but... You can't con technology, only hack. I'd been telling Jimmy for months we needed to co-opt the CIA networks. He never listened. Jimmy preferred things... old school. He only dealt with informants face to face. Every negotiation was done in person. Collating information on a computer never appealed to him.

As we hit the stairwell, milling by the bank of elevators there, Julian's voice returns. "Uh. Hi. Sorry. Back now. Are you there?" He gulps audibly.

"We are." I reply. "Where to now?"

"You've got to be... three floors down. According to the floorplan provided, what we're looking for should be in secure storage there." All joking had gone now. Julian was all business.

We take the stairs quickly. Jimmy and I both refused to ever use elevators. Perfect killboxes. And anyone who believes the movie thing about climbing through shafts is welcome to try it. I'll stand by the doors and watch them fall by. We slow down when we hit the landing. There are no cameras down here, just sensors. They take far more work to avoid.

We turn along the landing, moving carefully and slowly. Every so often, Julian alerts us to a sensor. When that happens, we wait patiently until he's dealt with it. It takes a long time. Too long, given the card alert. After the corridor, we find ourselves heading into an open central area. "Where to?"

Julian speaks, "The file should be around there somewhere."

"Anywhere specific?"

"Uh..." He sighs. "No, sorry. Just somewhere around there. I guess you could try looking around?" He offers lamely.

I snort, derisive. "Fucking seriously, Dandy? Fine. Hey, Jimmy?"

He hmms absently. He's poking at a nearby motivational poster. There's a little kitten on it. With an earpiece. And a handgun. I poke him. "Yes, what?"

"It looks like the archives are here." I point to the two corridors. "I'll take the rooms on this side, you take those over there?"

He shrugs, "Sure." and darts off down one corridor. He strides into the first door he finds. I head the opposite way, starting at the far end and working back to the central area. There were five rooms, total. I find nothing of any interest in the first three rooms. Well, nothing of interest to us. Apparently we're doing some hinky things in Afghanistan that may interest the media, but that's all.

I only find one interesting file in the fourth room. It's titled simply 'Area 52.' I look at it for a second, then slide it back into the locked cabinet I found it in. "Nope."

Jimmy's voice calls down the corridor. "Acolyte! I found somethin'."

Having had no luck myself, I was very happy to hear that. I didn't want to go back to prison. I head back to the central area. "Hey, boss, I..."

"Hey, you!" A voice calls out from the third corridor.

I sigh in irritation. Ah, shit. I knew it couldn't fucking last. Jimmy and I share a glance as the guard shouts again. "Hey! What the hell are y'all doing down here? This is a restric-"

That was as far as he got before Jimmy's knife buried itself up to the crossguard in his eye. I rushed forward and caught him before he hit the floor.

Three seconds later, the alarms started.

Jimmy sighed. "Dandy?"

"Merde!" That little waver in Julian's voice had turned into a full tsunami. "I, um, oh-god, I don't know what's happening! I don't know what triggered them and I can't stop them if I don't know what triggered them!"

"Well, ain't this a sorry state of affairs.." Jimmy's voice, on the other hand, was alternating between anger and delight. He loved a difficult exit, but we hadn't found the file yet. Difficult entries made the whole job harder. "Keep working on that, Dandy." He sets the file in his hand on fire and tosses it over into a corner, then turns to me. "Acolyte, the file mentioned an electronic copy. The admin computer should be on your end, go find and delete the file." He goes and pulls his knife from the man's eye. "I'll keep ta the corridors, watch your back."

I nod, "Understood." then turn and run back down my corridor. I hadn't checked the fifth room yet. Luckily it turned out to be the office I needed. There was a single desk in front of a large computer. And I mean large. The bank of server racks dominating one wall was taller than I was. I walked over and sat down. "Dandy? Can you help with this?"

He snorts. "Can I help you with this? Remember who you're talking to, Acolyte? I once made the entire Pentagon Intranet show cat Gifs for a month!" He scoffs, matching the derision of his snort. "Can I help you with this... Hah!"

Jimmy chips in. "I can still hear you, y'know. Stay on the feckin' job!"

Julian immediately breaks into a cough. "Sorry Boss. Will do. I, uh... Sorry."

There's a brief silence...

Uhuh... "So, can you?"

"What? Oh, uh. Okay, first step..." He leads me through finding the file and eradicating it from the drive. It's harder to do that you think. Just deleting it doesn't work. It's difficult, but the files can be recovered. You had to overwrite the files with trash data to really be sure. Julian usually had tech for this, but we'd left it. They searched us on the way in, so smuggling would be a risk.

"Done." I clicked the last button, overwriting the last file. They'd never be able to recover these now. I rush back to the main hall to find Jimmy wrestling with an agent. The one body on the ground had been joined by three more. The alarms had also been joined by three more. The noise was fucking near-deafening.

Jimmy, with a sudden burst of strength, grabbed the agents arm and twirled him around into the wall. The man's arm ended up pulled tight behind him. Jimmy simply slid the knife into the man's brainstem, then let him fall. He twirled back again, laughing delightedly the whole way. "Come on, Acolyte! Our work here is done." His laughter turned to a grin. "And now, the real fun begins."

I roll my eyes and pluck a pistol from one of the corpses. I quickly check it over. Fully loaded, fully functional. "Boss? Where to?"

Laura's voice chimes in. "Ah, about that? You seem to have alerted the hive. I'm seeing rather a significant amount of activity up here. Do you want me to start eliminating some obstacles?"

Jimmy taps his ear. "Not yet Overwatch. We're gonna go through the tunnel. I think the Potomac exit should be best."

"The Potomac?" Laura hmms. "I'm going to need to reposition myself to cover that entrance. Very well, Boss."

"Well, Overwatch is on board. Dandy? We need an exit, now!"

"I can, yes. First, you need to be up a floor."

Right. Up then. Jimmy lead the way, knife held in front of him. We didn't bother dodging the sensors this time. There were already alarms going off, so why bother? We headed back up the staircase, this time stopping one floor up. The door we encountered was again locked by a keycard scanner. Jimmy swiped the General's ID without thinking.

The door from the stairwell lead to a large room filled with lab tables and computers. One wall was lined with floor-to-ceiling viewing windows. Each cell there had a person inside, writhing and screaming. Tubes fed into some, dripped liquids down onto others. Jimmy slows for a second, eyes some of the computer screens, nods appreciatively.

We continue on without a word.

The next room was some kind of industrial plant. Lots of machinery, steam, loud noises. Still nobody around though. Considering we'd needed a General's ID to get in here, I was sure not many people had clearance to be here.

Julian chimed up at the exit to the plant. "The corridor ahead has... something in it. I can't tell what. I've literally never seen it before. But you're going to need to go around, through the door to your right."

Jimmy tapped his ear. "Keep a log 'o whatever it is. Dandy, you are gonna find out what it is and how to get around it, understood?"

"Understood, Boss. Now, you've really got to get moving. There are..." He taps a few keys. "Seventeen agents currently behind you."

I went for the door. Jimmy hesitated, just for a second, before following. This was a thin room, actually had less space in it than the damn corridor. One wall was occupied by a line of screens and server racks. We started to the other end, where the next door was, but I stopped, catching something on one of the screens. "Uh, Boss?"

Jimmy turns his head slightly to look back at me. "Aye?"

"Look." I point. "The cameras. There's someone in there."

"There is?" He walks over and peers at the screens. "Huh. She's a kid."

The girl was sat in a quiet room, hands chained to a table. One of the CIA's more interesting inventions. The quiet room, not the table. The quiet made people more... talkative. It'd also drive you insane after an hour or so. Hearing your own heartbeat, your own breathing... Well, the girl still seemed sane.

Seemed.

We paused for a second, both looking at the screen. "What the feck is a kid doin' in here?" The second drifted into two, then three.

Until Julian's voice broke in. "Uh, Hello? Why did you stop? The agents..? They're right behind you, you have to keep moving!"

I tapped my ear. "Shut up for a fucking minute, Dandy!"

He immediately shut up. I'd learnt well over the last few months. I poked Jimmy hard in the side. "What?" He growled at me.

I fixed with the most strident look I could manage. "We're getting this one out."

He immediately rolled his eyes. "Are ye feckin' serious, Acolyte? You wanna risk the whole feckin' trip just for that... stook?"

I look back at the screen. "Look at her. She's calm. In a quiet room. Have you seen anybody do that before?"

Jimmy tilts his head, frowns at me, then at the screen. "Huh."

"Exactly. Don't you think that's someone we could use?"

"Maybe. So where's the room?"

Huh. "That..."

He laughs. "Didn't that one through, did ya?"

I shook my head. "So?"

His mouth twists as he mulls it over. Then, he smirks at me. Smug. Fucking. Asshole. "Dandy?"

"Working on it. One second." Julian sounded harried. "Trying to squash these alarms, redirect those agents I kept fucking mentioning," Woops. "so I'm a little busy now."

Jimmy scoffs. "Leave the alarms, leave the guards. I'll deal with 'em."

Julian paused. "You'll what..?" You could hear the unanswered question in his voice. Are you fucking crazy?

"Did I feckin' stutter? You heard me, Dandy! Leave 'em to me!" Jimmy was roaring now, full of the Fighting Irish. He tossed his knife up, caught it, then strode out the first door, back into the corridor. I caught muffled laughter as it closed behind him.

I sigh. Dogdamn Idiot. It was times like these I regretted accepting his offer. "So, Dandy? Are we any closer?"

"But, I... H-He's..."

I snort dismissively. "He'll be fine. But you won't be if you don't do what he told you to. So..?"

After a small pause, he sighed. "Fine, okay. Uh, the signal seems to be going to..." He taps a few more keys. "here, okay. I know where you're going. He paused again. "Is the Boss, uh..?"

"He'll be fine, Dandy. Directions, now." I put just a little ice in my tone. Jimmy had put Julian on edge, I needed to keep him there.

He took a deep breath in. "Okay, okay. Out the door, turn right. Should be a few doors down. The camera feed is linked to every room there, but I think the girl is in the third one. I can't access any files on this area though, those are all on the intranet and you two decided I needed to stay out here."

I ignored his irritation and followed the directions. I don't look back down the mystery corridor. The screams coming from the end of it let me know enough. I made it quickly to another glass-walled room. This one only had a single window though. I looked through, saw the girl. She was still just sitting there. Still seemed sane.

Fuck it.

I walked in.

Her head flicked up to look at me. Her mouth opened to speak, but she stopped. She blinked at me for a few seconds, her mouth hanging open. "These American naaiers are recruiting real fucking young now, aren't they? You look barely older than me."

I smile. "I'm not CIA."

"You expect me to believe that? Who the fuck are you then, the Pope?" The girl was direct, definitely.

I shrug. "New Papal Outreach Program. We get about," I clasp my hands together. "Spread the good word."

She eyes me, one corner of her mouth twisted in a smirk. "The Pope is a guy."

I shrug again. "Bad lighting."

She laughs at that. "You're not so bad, Ms Pope. So, what're you doing with me? 'cause I hate to break it to you, but I'm a pretty devoted sinner."

I tilt my head. "You never know until you confess. Why don't you tell me your sins?"

She smirks. "Thes-"

"Ah-ah-ah." I admonish her, shaking my finger. "Start it properly."

She rolls her eyes. "Forgive me, Mother," Another smirk at that. I already liked this girl. ", for I have sinned. This is my first confession." I give her a nod, she continues. "These mabonoes don't like it when people hack their networks. Apparently that's some kind of 'crime' here." Her fingers highlight the air quotes, despite her hands being chained to the table.

Jimmy's voice comes over my shoulder. Neither of us noticed him enter. "You hacked the CIA network?" We both look at him for a few seconds. He's literally covered in blood. He looks like the psychopath from a slasher flick after his finale rampage. He also doesn't seem bothered by either of us staring.

"Is that..?" The girl starts. Her mouth is open further than it was when I walked in.

Jimmy shrugs. "It's not mine. So, you're a hacker?"

She blinks in shock for a few more seconds, but pride shrines through. She tries to hide it, shrugs. Like it's no big deal. "These guys are kinda... zidzoro about their security. It was a fucking cakewalk to get in."

Julian chips in. "It is!"

Jimmy ignores him, focusing on the girl in the chair. "What's someone like you even lookin' to the CIA for?"

Her eyes harden. Jimmy shrugs. "You don't tell us, you're not gettin' out of here, lass. Now, what were you lookin' for?"

She sighs. "My family. This asshole back in Africa, Bosco, I, um." She scowls, and I get a glimpse of the fury behind her eyes. It's all the more impressive for the control she has over it. I... I didn't expect that, from this girl. "These fuckers work with him, support his... his fucking pet army. I wanted to see what they had on him."

I poke Jimmy in the side. "We could use her, Boss."

He smiles. "Exactly what I was thinkin' Acolyte." He turns to the girl. "So, bucko, what's your name?"

The girl's grin turns suspicious, but she answers. "Tish. Why?"

"Well, Tish. I'm here to talk to you about the Syndicate Initiative."

*flashback ends*

Tish sighs again. "Look, Max. Thanks for the concern or whatever, but I need to be alone, okay? I swear, I'll have my shit together and be back at work tomorrow, I just..." She lets out a long, long breath. With an effort of will, she pulls her eyes up to meet mine. "It's been eight years."

"I know." I smile. "Once this contract is filled, we will get them back, Tish."

She fixes me with a sceptical glare.

I reiterate. "We will get them back."

--

"Ugh. And I thought that locker room in Nairobi stank." I climbed into the dorm, letting the window close behind me. The firedoor had been a bust. Luckily... I flick open a book. Oh, this is Trevor's room? I eye the layer of clothes scattered across every surface. I definitely understand why he left his window open.

Laura laughs. "Don't underestimate the odoriferous potential of the teenage male, Max. It is potent indeed."

"Hey! We ain't that bad." Travis pauses. "Mostly. I'll have ya know, I was a very clean kid."

"Well. Trevor doesn't seem to share your hygiene, Travis..." I mutter as I spot a mug on his bedside table. The amount of mould in it is almost impressive. Mostly disgusting. "Potent is one word for it..." Time to get out of here, I think. I walk over to his door and edge it open. He didn't lock it? Wow. The corridor was empty and quiet, so I creep out.

"I believe you're looking for..." Laura taps a few keys. "Room One-Eleven. But I'm not certain. Letitia is rather more skilled at this than I am. I'm not even entirely certain I've opened the correct student record."

I stalk down the corridor to the floor map. "Well, Tish needs some time to herself. You'll do for now."

"I'll 'do'? Well, thank you for that, Max." Laura's voice is filled with amused snark.

"You know what I mean. Room One-Eleven?" I don't run my finger over the map. It has... stains. The graffiti is... interesting? Does show a lack of wit among Blackwell's male students. I mean, 'Gay-niel DaCosta'..? Really? That doesn't even sound similar.

"Principal Wells is Drunk Right Now..." I read.

Laura shuffles about in her chair. "While I don't doubt the sentiment, I haven't the faintest idea where that came from."

"They covered their dorm map in graffiti. It's an... interesting read." I roll my eyes.

"Of that, I have no doubt." Laura drawls, drily. Then the switch flicks and it's back to business. "Did you locate the correct room?"

"Yes." Just down the hall from here. Luckily the dorms aren't too big. I leave the sign alone, and head to Nathan's room.

Well, I start to, then I catch the sound of the stairwell door opening. I quickly dodge back into Trevor's room. I leave the door slightly ajar, so I can see whoever is here. "Ugh, that fucking new-girl bitch! Did you hear what she did to Ray?"

"Nah, dude. What'd she do?"

Hayden and Nathan Prescott walk into view. Nathan is striding forward, Hayden sauntering along behind him. He scowls at Hayden's question and whirls on him. "She scraped his fucking face protecting that judgy church bitch..." He clicks his fingers a few times, searching for Kate's name. "Mars, Marks, Marsh..." He trails off, then shrugs, clearly annoyed with the thought of me. "Whatever. Now she's got the fucking gall to go after me!"

"After you? Dude, I know you didn't want her to play, but..."

He cuts through the air with his hand, interrupting Hayden's reassurance. "But nothing! She's trying to take the fucking Vortex from me, I fucking know it." He spits. "Feminazi bitch!"

Hayden sticks his hands in his pockets. His eyebrow edges casually up his face. "Trying to take the club from you? No way that'll happen. She's cool, man, but she's not that cool."

Nathan turns and stares at Hayden for a few seconds, then cracks into a grin. "Yeah, dude. You're right. I'm Nathan Fucking Prescott! What the hell's she gonna do?"

"Exactly! You just need to blow off some steam, dude. I got some of the good stuff from Frank, you in?" He grins conspiratorially, tapping his jacket pocket. Clearly an attempt to draw him in.

Nathan pauses for a second, then matches Hayden's grin. "Fuck yeah I'm in."

They walk past me to the door. Hayden pushes it open, lets Nathan shove past him, then closes it behind them. I swear under my breath. "Shit. He was supposed to be out clubbing tonight. Juliet said there was a Vortex outing to that dive outside town."

"Well, sometimes one's plans must change Max. In this case, both his and ours."

I sigh and start climbing back out the window. "I know, Laura. It's just irritating." I tilt my head thoughtfully. "Maybe we could just use knock-out gas."

Travis snorts. "Still ain't a thing, boss."

"Damnit."

--
Translations:
-Shona-
Dzoi - Imbecile
Dambe - Useless Dick
Zidzoro - Bigheaded

AN1 - This is actually true. The George Bush Centre for Intelligence, Headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency, has a Starbucks on-site. Apparently the agents got uncomfortable being asked for their names to put on their cups.

Chapter Text

The minute class lets out, I head for the parking lot. Dana said the gym was by Apollo's, on the waterfront. I find the building she pointed out easily.

It, uh...

It stands out.

The faded orange roof contrasts against the dullness of Apollo's next door. The cracked white plaster on the walls would be more in-place in a Spanish resort than an Oregon coast town. The glass in the window is so brown with dirt I thought it was wood for a second or two. I'm definitely doubting Dana's judgement here. This place looks like it hasn't seen business in years.

I walk up to the door, and push it open. It takes a little effort, and the hinges creak as I shove. The inside doesn't fill me with much hope either. There's a large central space, and a scattering of rooms around the perimeter. All the lights in the main space are off. I see vague shapes there, but nothing much of interest.

A small room to my right is lit, and I see figures moving inside. I walk over and knock on the door. An instant later, the door is thrown open and a man bursts through, grinning widely. "Hello! Welcome to the Arcadia Gym Poke! Come in, come in!" He sets a meaty hand down on my shoulder and drags me into the room.

I don't have time to resist him, even if I could. The man's grip was very, very strong.

Another man is sat at a desk, peering down at some papers. He looks up when I walk in. "We have customer?"

The guy who pulled me in nods. "Seems so, brother." He turns to me. "You are looking for an appointment, yes?"

I nod, and the man grins again. "Excellent! Introductions, then! I'm Brock! I'm the Gym Poke Leader! I believe in defence and determination! We can train you to take any blow, stand tall against any foe!"

Well. He's very enthusiastic...

The other guy laughs, setting down the pen . "You are Gym Leader? That is not what we wrote on paperwork, brother."

Brock throws him a dirty look, grumbling at him in a language I don't know. He suddenly shakes his head, then shrugs apologetically to me. "This is Roark. We run the gym together."

I look them both over. The two brothers are a perfect study in contrasts. Brock is tall, heavily muscled, with thick shaggy hair on his head and jaw. Roark is thinner, more lithe, with straight hair cascading down his back. Even their personalities seem at odds. But, oddly, it works. I find myself liking these two crazy old men.

"That is better," Roark remarks. "Now, who are you, new person?"

"Max."

He looks at me, appraising. "Max, huh? Good name. Strong name. Means greatest one, I think, yes?"

Roark looks over at his brother, who shrugs. "You are the linguist, Roark. But yes, it is a good name indeed."

I blink, look from Brock to Roark. They're both grinning. "Uh. Thank you?"

I don't know what I expected from this gym. Whatever it was, this was definitely not it. "So... Gym Poke? Where'd the name come from?" I wasn't familiar with the language, and I couldn't place either man's accent. That was enough to elicit my curiosity.

Brock laughed, flexing his biceps. "It means Strength in the old country. When we came to America, we wanted to bring a piece of the old country with us. So, we brought our strength!" He knocks his fists together with a hearty laugh and an audible thunk.

I raised an eyebrow. "Old Country, huh? Where are you two from, then?"

Brock avoids my eye. Roark coughs. "I, um, all sorts of places. So, you want appointment?"

I snort internally. Well, that was subtle. I let them keep their secrets. "Yes, I do. Can I book a space for..." I think for a second. Dana's group is seven, but I could get Chloe, Kate, and Victoria in as well. "eleven people?"

"Eleven?" Brock frowns. It's an odd look. His eyebrows take up more space than his eyes. "We could put you in the central space, if we move some of the machines first." He clicks his fingers, exclaims "Come on, I shall show you!" then strides out the door.

After a moment, Roark motions to me. "You should follow. I need to work, anyway."

I nod, and follow Brock out to the main room. He walks over to a lever by the door and pulls it.

Nothing happens. Brock coughs, then pulls the lever again.

Still noth- okay, now he's punching the power box. He gives it a hard thwack, and the lights flicker on.

The light doesn't make me feel any better about their facility.

The whole thing looked like a video game level from 2003. A bad 3d platformer game level...

Brock turns to me with another wide grin. "So, what do you think?"

"I..." I honestly have no idea what to say. The floor of the central area was almost entirely covered in machines. The machines were almost entirely covered with dust. There were several pillars scattered about, with platforms extending from them at different levels. Some platforms had equipment on, others didn't.

Brock's grin gets even wider. His eyes still don't open any further though. "Yes, exactly! It is an amazing place, we know."

"That... That's one way to put it." What the hell is the point of those pillars? Those platforms are a lawsuit waiting to happen.

He laughs, clapping me on the back. "So, will this do for your group?"

I draw my attention away from the pillars and nod. "If I can come in and help prepare, yes." My mind is already planning layouts and exercises.

He shrugs. "We can do it ourselves, but we will never say no to help."

"Excellent." When do we do this? There's a Vortex Party this evening. Dana and her group won't be their most attentive when hungover. Friday and Saturday are out. So... "Are you open on Sunday?"

Brock grins yet again. "For you, Max, we can be."

I finally smile back. "Thanks, Brock. Tell your brother thanks too. I have to go now." I pull out my wallet and pass him a handful of bills. His eyes bulge, so I know I passed him too much. "This is for the appointment, and in appreciation for your flexibility. Thank you."

He stares down at the handful of money, his eyes twitching. This is the closest they've been to open this entire time. "I... We..." He reaches out and shakes my hand. "For this, Max, we will give your friends a session they will love!"

I smile, starting for the door. "I'm sure you will, Brock."

Just as I reach the door, I catch a sudden shout. "Brother, come out here, we have a lot of work to do!"

--

I ditch the shoulder rig in my car, sliding into one of the hidden compartments. I do not want to carry a gun around drunk crowds. I reach the Blackwell Fountain, spotting a familiar head of hair ahead of me. "Hey, Kate!" She slows slightly, turning her head. I hurry to catch up to her.

She smiles at me when I reach her. "Hello, Max. How are you?"

I sigh. "Busy. I'm organising a self-defence class for a few classmates this weekend. Are you free on Sunday?"

She frowns. "Self-defence..? Max, I..."

I hold up a hand. "I know, but after what happened with Nathan it might help for you to know this stuff."

Her mouth moves soundlessly through a few words. I don't want to push her too hard into this though. "You don't have to decide now. But you're welcome if you want to come."

She nods, flashes a small, grateful smile. "Thanks, Max. I'll... think about it."

"That's all I can ask. Any plans for today?"

A red flush immediately spreads across her face. She looks away quickly, but I catch an embarrassed smile. My interest is peaked. "I, um... Chloe and I, we're going to the party tonight."

I grin. "You are?"

She nods. "I thought it would be, um... good. For us. To do it properly, this time. Like a date?"

"Probably would." I smirk. "So, no drunken hook-ups this time then?"

She raises an eyebrow and levels an unamused stare on me. "Hush, you."

Did she just..? Really? I blink mutely at her. She laughs lightly. "Chloe says I should try to be more comfortable with myself and what I want, and she's right. She thought going to a Vortex party might be too much too soon, but I'm apparently very..." That red flush creeps up her cheeks again. "Persuasive."

I give her my best Cheshire grin. "I bet you are." My smile turns more genuine. "You two are very well-suited to each other. I'm happy for you both."

Her cheeks flush, but she smiles back. "Thanks, Max. I'm really glad you... um... approve. That means a lot, coming from you."

I tilt my head. "It does?"

She nods, still smiling. "It does. You mean so much to Chloe and I..." She trails off, frowning for a second. Then her face clears into a smile. "Thank you."

I shrug. "You're welcome, Kate. Wait." I frown, then check my watch. "Shouldn't you be getting ready for the party?"

Kate's suddenly bulge. "Oh gosh, I'm running so late! Bye Max, I'll see you later!" She whirls and dashes for the dorms, hair and bag trailing behind her.

I watch her go, smirking in amusement. As I walk away, I find myself whistling a familiar tune. 'I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date. No time to say hello, goodbye, I'm late, I'm late, I'm late.'

I spot my bandmates lounging outside the hall. Julian and Trevor are chatting with... Dana? I repress an exasperated sigh and walk over. "Hi, Dana. Hi guys."

She grins, "Max!" and throws her arms around me again. This girl is ridiculously friendly. "How are you?"

"I'm okay. Looking forward to the party."

She laughs. "We all are. You guys were awesome last time!"

Both Trevor and Julian's chests puff up a little at that. I resist the urge to roll my eyes. "Thanks Dana. Oh, this weekend is sorted, by the way. Tell them Sunday at Gym Poke."

Dana smiles gratefully. "Thanks Max, you're a lifesaver. I'll let everyone know. And Gym Poke? Were the two guys, like, okay?"

Trevor and Julian don't ask what we're talking about. They're too busy laughing with each other about something called a 'tre flip'.

I think for a second, then smile. "They were... unique. I'll say that much."

She grins back. "Wow. Unique, huh? I'm really looking forward to Sunday now."

"It should be fun, and educational."

She rolls her eyes. "I suggested doing this Max, you don't need to persuade me."

I snort and check my watch. "Hey, guys, we need to get set-up. It's nearly time to start."

Dana frowns. "Isn't it kind of early for that? We've got plenty of time, Max."

"About 90 minutes, actually." I remark, offhand.

Her eyes bulge in a startling mimicry of Kate's. "90 minutes? Oh, fuck!" She dashes off towards the dorms without another word. She eats up the distance in seconds. Fast, and good technique too. The girl definitely ran track at some point in her life.

I catch Travis' laughter through the earbud. "Ain't no-one at this school got any damn sense of time?"

I snort in amusement, then turn to the others. "You three doing okay?"

Trevor and Justin shrug, looking disappointedly after Dana. Trevor nods. "Yeah, Max. We're cool. Lookin' forward to getting our jam on, right guys?"

"Hell yeah! We're gonna rock it like a salad, man!" They all start a weird fistbump handshake thing. It goes on for a while and gets surprisingly complex. By the time they separate, I'm honestly surprised none of them had broken a finger.

We head inside. I stay quiet while the others chat. The entire hall had been set-up already. The decorations were up and the booze was out. Our instruments had been left on the stage for us.

Wow. "Tori really is good at this."

"Actually, I can't really take credit for this one."

I turn to see Tori herself approaching us. "Oh?"

She shrugs. "Yeah. Courtney did most of the work. I've been working on a submission, so I haven't had time to put in much for this one."

I raise an eyebrow. "I'm surprised, Tori. You sharing credit doesn't seem very Chase-like. I'm amazed you're not talking about how you taught her everything she knows."

Trevor and Julian both freeze, eyeing Tori out the corner of their eyes. They're expecting an explosion. She just smirks. "Well, somebody did tell me I should stop being a Chase."

She remembers that? I chuckle. "Touche, Tori. Touche."

"Besides," She continues. "I can be nice, on occasion."

Everyone looks at her after that one. "What?" She scowls, disproving her own point. "I totally can!" She tosses her head in annoyance. "Jesus, what was that guy who got filled with arrows until he looked like a porcupine that we learned about in Art Appreciation? Saint Sebastian?"

I nod.

She scowls. "I know how he fucking feels, now."

I resist the urge to laugh.

"Anyway," She continues. "that's so not the point. I just wanted to check if you were ready for tonight?"

I nod. "We are." The others nod along with me.

"Good. Now, I..." Her phone beeps, and she pulls it out, glaring down at it. "Jesus, that's just pathetic." She types something hurriedly in, then looks up at me. "I have to go, Max. Kate is having a fashion disaster. That punk friend of yours wants her to wear plaid to my fucking party." She meets my eyes, and the horror in her eyes is... mildly hilarious. "Plaid, Max!" She storms off, presumably to the dorms. I feel a small pang of sympathy for Kate. Victoria in full fashionista mode is... difficult to handle.

Travis chirps up, drawling in my ear again. "Plaid, Max!" He says, in a startlingly good impression of Tori's voice. "The girl's fixin' ta throw a hissy fit over plaid? Bless 'er heart."

I snort, then pace over to the stage. "Come on, guys. We'll play one to warm up."

They all shrug, and nod, and walk over.

I pick up the electric guitar and strum a few chords. "You guys ready?"

Trevor and Justin both nod. I count them in, and we start playing a heavy and repetitive riff. I wait for the drummer to count out a few measures, then start singing.

-Scream with your hands up in the sky, like you wanna testify, for the life that's been deleted!-

--

"Y'know, we really don't have to do this. It's totally okay if you just wanna go get tea or something?"

Katie shakes her head. "No, Chloe. We're going to this party, and we're going to have fun, okay?"

I grin at her hella stern expression. "Yes ma'am." I throw my arm over her shoulders and we head over to the pool hall. "You're hella hot when you get bossy, Katie kat." And she looks hella good in the dress Vicky leant her. I hate to say it, but the Ice Bitch has taste. It was like, demure and proper and shit, so it fit Katie's tastes, but if I stood at just the right angle, I could get a hella great view of her cleavage.

Damnit. I owe Vicky a drink.

Katie blushes.

We walk in to see... en empty stage? Huh. Thought Max was supposed to be playing tonight.

Eh. She's probably just taking a break.

We wander further in, pushing through the crowds of Vortex assholes to get up to the bar. I lean over and grab a couple of bottles and hand one to Katie. She takes it with a smile, nodding. "Blending in, right?"

Heh. I lean back on the bar and look over the party. Without music, it's kind of... downbeat. All, like... mellow and shit. I spot Hayden laughing with some girl by the VIP section, Victoria and her flunkies are holding court on a bunch of sofas. I...

"Hi Chloe!"

A face pops up out of the crowd in front of me and I nearly drop my fucking beer in shock. "Gah! What the fuck Dana!?"

She immediately flinches back a little, blinking hella confused. "What?"

I take some hella deep breaths to try slow my fucking heartrate down. "Don't fucking do that! Gave me a fucking heart attack!"

She shrugs apologetically. "Sorry, Chloe. Just wanted to say hi. I didn't mean to scare you or anything."

I notice Kate eyeing me with concern, and I can't let that fucking happen, so I wave them off and pull out a hella badass expression. "It's okay. I'm fine. Hi, Dana."

She stares at me for a second, then shrugs and all the concern disappears from her face. "Hi Chloe, Hi Kate. You enjoying the party?" She's not asking me.

Kate smiles. "It's very well put together. Victoria really does have a talent for this."

Dana blinks at her, then me, in total shock. "Wow. Max really is a miracle worker. If you'd told me a year ago you two would be friends, I'd have..." She grins. "Well, I wouldn't have believed you."

I shrug. "Yeah, well. Shit changes, right?"

She grins. "It really does. For the better this time, I think. Oh, shit, that reminds me. I gotta go hunt down Jules, ask her what she's doing this weekend."

Uh... "Okay..?" I've no clue what that has to do with what we were actually talking about, but whatever.

She smiles hella brightly, "Bye!", then twirls and stumbles off into the crowd again. Katie and I watch her go, half expecting her to fall over or something. But she manages to stay standing until she reaches the VIP area and disappears into it.

I blink. Wow, that girl moves fast. I take a swig from my beer and promptly spit it out all over the floor. I check the label. "Labatt? What kind of tasteless rich prick buys fucking Labatt? No Narragansett or anything?"

Katie frowns, looking down at her own bottle. "Is Labatt bad?"

I lean down a bit so I'm looking directly into her eyes. "Labatt is Canadian Beer. The Canadians are hella good at some stuff, like Healthcare, Blackberries, and Apologising, but they fucking suck at beer." (AN-1)

She looks down at the bottle for a second then, with a hella solemn nod, pours it into a fucking plant.

I stare at her in shock "You..."

She blinks at me, then at the bottle, then at the plant. "I..."

We both look back at each other.

We grin.

"Come on, I'll get you something better."

As we head back to the bar, I notice Max walking through the crowd. She hops up onto the stage and walks up to the mike. "Sorry about that, just some technical issues. Tori's playing Flappy Bird in the VIP section and wanted me to complete a level for her."

A laugh runs through the crowd as we hear Victoria swearing hella loudly from the VIP area. Max smirks and waves, then steps back from the mike to talk to Trevor.

Trevor fiddles with something on his guitar and Max steps back up to the mike. "This one is Amsterdam by Nothing But Thieves." The drummer kicks in, Max bops to the beat for a few seconds, then starts singing.

-People don't know much, need a whiskey crutch-

I find a couple bottles of something good, hand one to Katie, then take a swig out of one. Aaaahhh. Thank fuck they've got a decent beer.

That's when I notice Katie is drinking too. When I look over, she shrugs. "It's still gross, but... I feel safe with you."

Aww. I...

Fuck it.

I throw my arm over her shoulder and we head over to one of the couches. We settle down on it, cuddling up with each other and our bottles. I take a swig, she takes a swig. We just sorta sit there, listening to the music. We get through a couple of bottles each. When this song finishes, and Max introduces the next one as "Just a Little, by Shadow of Whales.", a thought pops into my head.

I turn to Katie. "Hey Katie?"

"Yes, Chloe?"

"You wanna dance?"

She grins, nodding. Her cheeks have that drunk person flush to them.

I take her hand and we push into the crowd until we're right in the middle. She takes a second to get the beat, then... wow. Katie's got fucking moves.

-I can't believe it, what I'm seeing, am I the only one-

She does this odd shimmy that, in that dress, makes me stop and stare for a second until I shake my head and pull my eyes back up to hers again.

-We are all talking but not living, looking at the sun-

I grin as we both groove along to the song.

-Why'd you say it if nothing happened? That I'm labelled done-

Kate laughs and spins around. Everyone around us matches her dancing, jumping and bopping about to the beat and shit. Holy Shit. I knew I'd get her in a mosh pit eventually. I just didn't expect she'd be the one to start it...

-Words are living, What I'm giving, Just a little lie-

Her bun is tipping off the side of her head like that tower of Pisa. I reach out and give it a shove back to the top of her head. Her dancing slows down and she blinks at me. "What was..?"

-Rubber faces, in the place, living to just get by-

"Your hair was falling over."

"Oh. Thanks, Chlo'." Our eyes meet and we smile at each other.

-See me falling, just a little, just a little-

Max's guitar kicks in, accompanying Trevor's as the song gets louder. We grin and start dancing again. I twirl her around as she giggles, stumbling over her own feet. It's hella cute.

-Hear me calling, from the middle, from the middle-

Katie slumps in disappointment when the song finishes. "Aww. I liked that one."

I lean in. I take a deep breath and... "I... I liked dancing with you."

She spins and looks at me for a second, then her face lights up like a fucking Christmas tree as she beams at me. "Aww, Chloe. I like dancing with you too." She leans in and throws her arms around me.

Shit, Katie's tolerance is still shit. Two beers and she's cuddly drunk? Damn girl. If it wasn't cute as fuck, I'd be taking her home and making her drink hella water right now. Lucky I'm just kind of buzzed. I did not want a repeat of last time.

The next song starts with a hella heavy drum beat and a "This one's by The Pretty Reckless. It's called Heaven Knows."

-Jimmy's in the back with a pocket of high, if you listen close you can hear him cry-

Katie immediately perks up again and pulls me into another twirly dance.

-Oh Lord, Heaven knows, we belong way down below, sing it!-

Max puts her hands in the air, and apparently this song is hella popular 'cause everyone actually joins in on the next bit.

-Oh Lord, Heaven knows, we belong way down below, way down below, way down below!-

We dance for the entire fucking song.

When it finishes, I lean in again. "Hey Katie, come on. Let's skip this one."

She blinks owlishly up at me. "What? No, Blue! I wanna keep dancing!"

I... shit. Okay, I can do this. I remember Laura's lessons, and try something out. "Come on Katie, for me? My feet are hella hurting and I hella need some water right now."

She sighs. "Okay, Blue. But we can dance again later?"

I put my arm under her shoulders and start moving her. "Sure thing, Katie kat. We can dance later. But now, we both need to get some water, right?"

She nods with a grin. "Right."

I prop Katie up, trying to get her sat down on a couch where'd she'd be safe so I could get her some fucking water.

I only just manage to get her sat down when Taylor skitters out of the crowd and stumbles into me, grinning like a fucking crazy person. "Oh my god, Chloe! Max is so good! I mean, she was awesome at the club, and at the last party, but wow!"

"Yeah, she's amazing, Taylor." I say, offhand, as I head over to the bar to get Katie some water.

Taylor follows me the entire way there, and back, chattering the entire fucking time. I try not to growl, or get pissed off with her. "I'll say. I mean, if Vic didn't have dibs, I'd so try to get with that, y'know?"

I blink as I hand Katie the water. Wow. It's kind of weird to have members of the Vortex... grading Max. "Uh, okay."

She nods emphatically. "Confidence is sexy, right? And Max is seriously confident." She stares dreamily off at the stage for a second, before a yell from off in the crowd has her bowing her head and skittering off again with a "Sorry Victoria."

Has this school always been this fucking weird or did someone spike the fucking punch?

I shake my head and focus on Katie, who's swaying in her seat right now. "You feeling okay?"

She beams up at me. "Okey dokey, Blue! Can we dance now?"

"When you've drunk your water."

"Okay." She immediately downs the entire cupful, then hops up and grabs my hand. "Come on, then!" She drags me back into the crowd and we go back to dancing. I don't even know how many songs we dance to. Y'know that thing in cheesy as fuck romcoms where everything just kind of... disappears as it narrows down to just the two weirdly attractive main characters who've been flirting around each other for the entire movie?

Yeah.

Turns out that happens.

I can't take my eyes off her the entire time. And I don't have to.

I grin as I remember Katie's confirmation.

We're really doing this shit.

It's weird. I think I might actually be fucking happy.

I wait for that little voice inside me to tell me how little I fucking deserve it, or how it's all gonna go wrong, but...

I grin at Kate, who's still dancing, but she grins back.

Nothing.

It isn't until one song finishes, and Max puts down her guitar, that we know it's time to stop. "Alright everyone. You know what time it is."

The crowd groans. Max raises her hands with a grin. "I know, I know. But if you don't clear out, Tori will get all grouchy and guess who'll have to deal with that when they're hungover?" She pauses for dramatic effect. "That's right, You guys. So, go home, sleep it off."

Everyone grumbles, but they leave. Sheesh, Max already has half the school under her little finger.

Katie's yawning now. Between the booze and the hella energetic dancing, I'm pretty tired too. I poke her to get her attention and she looks foggily up at me. "Blue..?"

"We gotta go now, Katie. Party's over and you need to sleep off the beer."

She sways a little far, and clings onto my jacket. After a second, she realises I've talked and looks up at me, blinking hella owlishly. "We'll do this again?" Her voice sounds... vulnerable.

I smile. "Yeah. Whenever you like, Katie Kat."

She nods. "'kay. Can... Can you help me back to my room? Everythings kind of... wobbly." She says, wobbling the entire time.

I nod back and put my arm under her shoulders, leading her to the door. "Okay, Katie. Come on."

--

After the party had finished and everyone had left, I ended up staying. I sat on the edge of the stage, noodling on my guitar and singing lightly.

-I know you left, hours ago, I still haven't moved yet,-

I hear a door swing open. From the clack of heels, it's probably Tori. I don't look up, swaying to the song.

-I knew you were gone, months ago, but I can't think of anyone else-

She walks over to stand in front of the stage, leaning back and crossing her arms. "Feeling emo tonight huh, Max?"

I shrug, keeping the melody going but dropping the lyrics. "Something like that."

Victoria snorts. "Now I know what the punk was talking about. Jesus, that phrase really is fucking irritating."

I look up at her and grin. "I know."

She laughs. "You're such a bitch, Max. I love it."

She goes silent, listening to me play. "You never turned up on Wednesday."

"I know. I was busy."

"With what?" She retorts. "Chloe?"

I nod. "And Kate. I helped them get together."

Her eyes bulge. "Get... They're together?"

I raise an eyebrow. "Didn't you see them at the party? They were all over each other."

She snorts. "They were like that at the last one too. You said they weren't together then."

"But they're accepting it now. They weren't then." I smile. "Kate seems very set on making it work."

She lets out a small burst of laughter. "Kate's the top in that relationship? I should've fucking guessed. No way that Punk is as dominant as she plays herself."

I look up at her. "I..." I blink. "I really don't know what to say to that."

Victoria snorts again. "The great Max Caulfield, lost for words? I never thought I'd see the fucking day."

I shrug. "I'm not perfect either, Tori." I give it a few beats, then grin at her. "And you like me more this way too."

--

Vortex Party Songs:
Song 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4zc-f0TIZ4
(Green Day - Revolution Radio (Official Music Video))

Song 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2zcG3bcuMI
(Nothing But Thieves - Amsterdam (Official Music Video) )

Song 3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz27llrmZ-c
(Just a Little (Official Audio)/SHADOW OF WHALES)

Song 4 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHBxJCq99jA
(Pretty Reckless - Heaven Knows)

Max's Solo Song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME1gGWsK9rE
(Julien Baker - Something/OurVinyl Sessions)

AN1 - I actually have nothing against Labatt, personally. I've never even tried it. But the idea of Chloe being a beer-snob kind of amused me too much to avoid writing it in. Anyways, yes. No offence to any Canadians or Labatt-fans.

Chapter Text

Tori and I walk back to the dorms together. We're not close, but we're not apart either.

She slows as we reach the main grounds. She stops in front of an artsy poster-board and stares up at it. When I walk over to stand beside her, she sighs. "Why do we keep doing this shit to ourselves, Max?"

I raise an eyebrow. "'This shit'?"

She waves a shaky hand around her, at the school, the artwork. "All of it. We fucking kill ourselves trying to make it, but... none of it's guaranteed. What's the fucking point of doing all this to get something that you probably won't even get?"

'You', huh? Tori always was... clumsy at deflecting.

After a few seconds of silence, she sighs. She clasps her hands together, interlacing her fingers.

I remember that gesture. She was nervous, deep in thought.

I remember her mentioning a submission.

She was nervous about it. She'd been rejected before, but she handled it better... then.

I think for a second, and say "Anfangen ist leicht, Beharren eine Kunst."

Tori, startled, flicks her head up to look at me. She blinks at me for few seconds, then rolls her eyes. "Jesus, you speak German too?

I shrug, offer a small smile. "Ein Bisschen. It means Starting is Easy, Persistence is Art. Anyone can decide to do art, but being an artist takes work. You need to try. You need to fail. You need to try again. That's how you make it."

She sags, speaks in a small voice. "But what's the point if you don't win? You can do everything right and still fucking fail and what's the point if that's all that happens?"

"It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose, Victoria. That's not weakness, that's life."

Her entire body freezes for a second. She drags her head up slowly to stare at me. "Star Trek? Fucking Star Trek? You just pulled a fucking Star Trek quote on me?"

I raise an eyebrow and look at her. She stares back, then flushes in realisation. "I, I... I saw an episode once. Nate likes to ogle that guy with the beard."

I flash a smirk. "Well, if you want more, I can keep going."

After a second, she nods.

I take a minute to think. "Genius doesn't work on an assembly line. Did Einstein produce new and revolutionary theories on a regular schedule? You can't simply say, today I will be brilliant."

I spot the beginning of a small smile on her face. I throw out another.

"If there is nothing to lose, no sacrifice, then there is nothing to gain."

She's still not looking at me, but she's smiling now. That's progress, of a sort.

I watch her smiling for a few seconds, then my face goes serious. "What's wrong, Tori?"

She looks away. I can feel her hiding behind the Ice Queen mask. Cool and Perfect, without flaw or emotion. "Nothing's wrong. I'm fine. Just really fucking drunk."

"What's wrong, Tori?"

The ice turns to fire in a second. I resist the urge to smirk as an image of Tori with Hades' hair pops into my head. "Nothing's wrong! Jesus, are you even fucking listening to me? I'm telling you-"

"That nothing's wrong. Yes, I heard what you said. Now tell me what's wrong."

"God, Max. Would you leave this alone? Fuck..."

I move in front of her and meet her eyes. "I can't help you if you don't let me." [AN-1]

"It's Nate."

Of course...

"I'm worried about him. Earlier tonight, he kept talking about something he had to do, something about his family, then he just... he disappeared. Jesus, it was right at the beginning of the party, too. He never does that. That's a bad sign, right? Right."

I put my hands on her shoulders. "Tori, breathe."

She glares at me, still pissed off. So, I demonstrate. In through the nose for five, out through the mouth for five. After a while, she copies me. A few breaths later, she's visibly calmer. "Thanks, Max."

"Anytime. Look, Nate's troubled, right?"

She nods hesitantly. "Right."

"Okay, so maybe he had a bad day and didn't wanna deal with people for a while. He's probably hiding out somewhere, watching the sunrise with a beer in his hand. Give it until the morning, call him then. He'll appreciate the quiet from all the Blackwell shit."

"Maybe you're right."

I smirk. "I am right. You'll see."

She rolls her eyes with an amused snort. "Wow, Max. Ego, much?"

"Wow, Tori. Say 'ego, much' much?"

We stare at each other for a second, then laugh.

"I'm... glad you're here, Max. I missed you."

I smile and step back onto the path. When Tori follows, I smile back. "I missed you too."

We start walking, talking, just chatting about random shit, and before we know it, we're back in the dorms. Tori looks almost... disappointed?

She stops at her door and turns to me. "Max, I..."

"Goodnight, Tori." I say, quietly, but firmly. I didn't want to prolong this.

Well, I did. But that was the problem.

She smiles, small and sweet, "Goodnight, Max." then disappears into her room.

I watch her door for a few seconds.

I really need a drink.

I go back to my room.

--

*flashback begins*

The lone figure on the screen suddenly jolts.

They're awake.

"What? What is this? Where am I?"

Laura leans in, pushes a button on the keyboard. "You are in our care, Ms Carlston."

The figure freezes. "Shit."

Laura laughs. "Indeed. Now, we'll get directly to business then. Where is the data?"

Carlston spits on the floor. "Go to hell, you-"

Laura sighs, pushing another button. Carlston promptly screams as the floor is charged with electricity.

Laura pushes the talk button again. "Manners please, Ms Carlston."

She gives Carlston a second to recover, then asks again. "Where is the data?"

Carlston grits her teeth. Refusing to talk.

Laura presses the second button again, eliciting another round of screaming.

"Please, Ms Carlston. I will not ask again. Where are you keeping the data?"

Carlston sighs. "There is no data. I made it up. I just wanted the fucking payday."

Laura looks to me. I nod. That's what Jimmy had thought. He'd be satisfied with that. She pushes the talk button again. "Very well. We will offer you a choice. Approach the authorities, confess to your crimes, and serve whatever sentence they see fit to bestow upon you."

"What... What's the other choice?"

Laura pushes the second button again. Carlston screams once again. "The other choice involves things that make that feel like a massage."

She lets out another laugh. "Do let us know which option you choose, hmm?"

As we leave the room, I swear I can faintly smell the burning.

*flashback ends*

When I wake up, I call Travis. "Travis? Two Whales. Ten minutes."

I make it in eight. He strolls in three minutes after me, sliding into my booth with a grin. "Hey Max. Have fun at yer shindig last night?"

I shrug. "It is nice to play again."

He chuckles. "Yeah, I'd imagine that's true. I reckon it's been a long while since ya got ta do that."

He settles back in his seat just as Joyce comes over. She smiles at us both. "Hey, you two. Nice to see you both again. Early, too. Now I know why Chloe ain't joinin' you."

Travis nods. "Niceta see you too, ma'am."

Joyce glares at Travis. He shrugs apologetically, but doesn't amend the ma'am. She snorts, then pulls out her pad. "So, what can I get you both?"

We rattle off our orders, two sets of waffles (Travis had checked out Joyce's ingredients and been satisfied already. He was picky about what he ate.), and Joyce ambled off to the Kitchen.

"So, how were the two kids? They need any lookin' after?"

I shrug. "No. I think I made my point with the jock."

He nods. "Good. Damn shame, a girl like Kate gettin' bullied. I'd be liabl'ta make a ruckus myself, if you didn't do it."

I smile. Travis had an overprotective streak a mile long. Especially for short outcasts.

We fall into a comfortable silence. Joyce appeared partway through with a carafe of coffee. I poured a big mug of it and took a gulp. I feel the tightness in my muscles relax and I let out a long sigh.

After about ten minutes, Joyce appears again with two plates. She looks... upset. She's hiding it pretty well though. There's just a slight tightening in her eyes that gives it away. "Joyce?"

She looks up, waitress smile flashing on. "Yes Max?"

"Are you okay?"

She blinks. "I, uh..."

I resist the urge to smile triumphantly. Always fun to be right. After a few listless seconds, Joyce sighs. She sags down into the booth next to us. "Have you heard about what happened yesterday?"

I frown across at her. "No. What happened?" Travis and I share a look.

Anything?

Not a thing.

Joyce doesn't notice us. "Another girl went missin'. Brooke, from up at Blackwell. Such a shame, too. She was a good kid."

Brooke's gone? Damn.

"That is a shame, ma'am. D'ya know what happened?"

Joyce shakes her head. "No, but her parents were in here about half an hour ago. They talked to the cops, but..."

"But we all know their track record." I finish.

Joyce sighs. "Yeah. I like to hope she's off living it large somewhere, like all the others. But we both know that ain't true."

I reach out and put my hand over hers. "Yeah, Joyce. It sucks."

She looks up at me with a small smile. "You're looking out for Chloe, right?"

I nod. Ah. "I promise, Joyce. It won't happen to her. Not on my watch."

Another customer quickly waves for her attention. She takes a deep breath in, and the waitress smile flicks back on again. "Duty calls, Max. I'll talk to you later. Enjoy your meal, both of you."

I watch her leave. "Travis?"

"Mmm?" He says, mouth full of waffle.

"Back to the Church. Now."

Travis looks forlornly down at his plate. He sighs deeply, then stands up. "Yes boss."

I slip my earbud in on the drive back. "Anyone there?"

Laura answers. "Just me for the moment, darling. What can I do for you?"

I fill her in on everything Joyce told us. "We need a full detailing of her. And find out where she lives. We've a new lead and we're not going to lose it!"

"I'll do my best, but you are aware that research is not my strong suit."

"I kn-"

A voice suddenly cuts in. "Get out of my chair, hure."

I grin. "Hey Tish. You get all that?"

"Of fucking course. Now get off the line, I need to fucking concentrate."

I get off the line.

--

I'm calling out commands the moment I walk into the computer room. "Trace Nathan's truck. I want to know everywhere he was last night. If he went close to the dorms, or near to wherever Brooke's family was."

Tish types for a second, and a GPS map appears on the screen. She types again and the program traces out everywhere Nathan's truck was, plus times. "Shit, the Musudhu left his mboko party at about 6:30. He drove straight to this shitty bar, speeding by the way, and stayed there for two hours, then went to some street. Uh, Burch Avenue." She taps another few keys. "He stayed there for the rest of the night." She looks up. "Sounds like he picked up some bimbo at a bar and took her home."

"Is that anywhere near Brooke's place?"

She shakes her head. "Not even fucking close." She taps a few keys. The map zooms out and pinpoints a house on the opposite side of the map. "Brooke Scott lives, well, lived, over on the other side of town."

Huh. "So, he couldn't have walked there?"

Tish shrugs. "Not if he was drunk or high. It's about an hour and forty-five long walk."

"Damn. Well, maybe he had the day off. His master might be working alone on this one."

Travis suddenly speaks from the doorway. "All the other disappearances were at one of the parties, right? If it's Nathan's boss, he'd've hafta had been at the party, right?"

I shrug. "It's a pattern, not a restriction. But you're right, Travis. I'll poke around at Blackwell, see if anyone saw anything." I think for a second. "Tish, find out who lives there, too. Let me know when you've got a file together."

"Sure thing, boss." Tish nods and immediately goes back to work.

"Laura, Cassie, you hit that bar Nathan was at. See if anyone remembers him, find any camera footage. Travis, I need you on call if anyone needs an extraction. Anything I'm missing?"

Travis shakes his head. "Not that I c'n remember, Max."

"Good. Get to work."

--

AN1 - This line comes from a series called The One Good Thing in Seattle by Unknown_Knowns. It's probably one of my favourite series ever and I used this line an alarming amount now.

Translations:
Hure - Bitch
Musudhu - Arsehole
Mboko - Stupid

Chapter Text

"No way, dude. You're hella crazy."

Victoria bristled. "I am not crazy! You just have no taste!"

I roll my eyes and fix her with my best big sister glare. It was hella shitty since I was never a big sister and couldn't glare at Max before she left without breaking her heart or after she left without her rolling her eyes. "Seriously, Vicky. There's no way Picard is the best Captain. Kirk, all the fucking way, man."

She scoffs. "You mean Captain can't TALK like a REGular huMAN being Kirk? Yeah, 'cause he's better than Picard." She rolled her eyes back at me. "Stewart was a Shakespearean actor. Went on stage with..."

Her mouth creased as she tried to remember the name. I fixed her with another glare. "The Royal Shakespeare Company, dumbass. And so what? Kirk's a badass." I start counting off on my fingers. "He beat a Gorn, he captured a Klingon wessel, fuck, he beat the Kobayashi Maru. Picard got his ass kicked by everyone in space!"

Victoria scoffs. "He only had to fight all those things because he was a temperamental, hotheaded idiot who couldn't talk his way out of a paper bag!"

"At least he could fight! Picard's crew spent half their time getting his dumb-fuck ass out of trouble!"

We both finally stop talking, just glaring at each other. That's when I finally notice that Katie's been sat there for an hour looking at both of us with a hella confused expression.

I grin sheepishly. "Sorry, Katie. "

She shakes her head. "No, no, I... learnt a lot?" Her face creases up in a frown and it's hella freaking cute. "Kirk and Picard are both captains of the... Enterprise, right?"

I nod and look over at Victoria. "Dude, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

She snorted. "I don't want to even guess at what you're thinking, Price."

I let it slide.

"A Trek Marathon! Pretty sure I've still got all my boxsets somewhere."

Katie frowns again. "A... 'trek marathon'?"

I grin. "Trust me Katie kat. You're gonna love it. My TV is kinda shitty, but it'll have to do."

Victoria leans forward, tapping on the table. "Jesus, Price, are you forgetting who you're talking to? We're using my flatscreen, not your shitty antique whatever."

I blink in shock. Still hella weird when Icky Vicky does something nice. She jabs a finger at me. "And if you think I'm going to let you get away with only showing her the Original Series, you're fucking delusional."

I shrug. "Whatever. That's fine by me. We'll let her decide which captain she thinks is the best. Katie kat, you in?"

She smiles. "Sure. Sounds like fun. When shall we do it?"

I shrug. "How 'bout tomorrow? We can see if Max wants to come along too." I resist the urge to grin when Victoria visibly perks up at the mention of Max's name.

Katie shakes her head. "She can't do tomorrow. She's running a martial arts class."

I blink. "She's what?"

"A martial arts class." She repeats. "Apparently some people from our year wanted to learn, and she said yes to teaching them."

I was kinda pissed that she hadn't told me, but seeing Victoria shocked too made me feel hella better about it. I grin. "Screw the Trek Marathon, I wanna go to that!"

Katie gives me a hesitant look, but I don't let up. "Come on, Katie. Wouldn't you feel safer if you knew how to defend yourself? I know the Bible says life is suffering or whatever, but there's nothing good about getting your ass kicked, trust me."

After a second, she just says "That's the Sutras."

I frown. "What?"

"The Bible doesn't say that. That's the Sutras. They're the Buddhist Bible. Sort of."

Huh. You learn something new every day. "Oh, okay. Well, then the Buddha is hella wrong too. You've got the right to kick someone's ass if they try to kick yours."

I can she's trying to hide a smile, so I know I'm getting through to her. "Look, Katie. If we go, and you don't wanna stay, we can go and watch Star Trek, no problem." I grin. "You'll be missing out though. Max is hella fucking cool when she's all kung-fu and shit."

The smile finally breaks onto her face and she leans into me. "Okay."

"Awesomesauce." I lean my head on top of hers and smile. I love having a short-ass girlfriend.

I turn back to Victoria, who's giving us a hella disgusted expression. "Jesus, you too are so sickeningly cute. It's gross."

Katie giggles.

--

"Yes, I'm aware of the situation in Malta. Give the team what support they ask for." I swallow a growl as Dr McIntyre continues protesting. "Hester! They're competent people who know their jobs. Let them get on with them."

I stop listening as she blathers on about her dozen degrees. The woman was an insufferably arrogant Ivory-Tower Intellectual. Couldn't stop pushing others to follow her 'expert suggestions'. Always believed she knew best.

I'd given her a division to try satisfy her authoritative side, but apparently that wasn't working. We might have to... revisit this relationship soon.

For now, I just wanted her to shut the hell up. "Listen to me, Hester? The Second Floor exists to support the First, not obstruct it. Understood? Do you want to keep pushing, or would you prefer to keep working?"

She sighed. "I'll drop it. For now, but-"

Excellent.

I hung up, tossing the phone down onto the desk.

Sometimes I envied my old self. She never had any HR-bullshit to deal with. I stood up, pacing around the room. Another habit I'd picked up from Jimmy. Whenever I was irritated, I'd wear the hell out of the carpets.

I'd just started to drift into possible replacements when my phone rang again. I answer, recognising the number. "Yes Nate?"

I can hear the faint sound of waves in the background as he talks. "Hey Boss, just wanted to let you know that we've got a new contract and..."

"And you wanted to leave the kids with one of our minders again?" I finish.

"Nah, I left 'em with Chloe."

My mouth drops open. "You left your children with Frazer? Seriously?"

I can almost hear the confused frown. "Yeah..? What's the problem?"

I snort. Elena was so going to kill him. "It's your funeral, Nate. What's the contract?"

"Some Australians want us to go check out a wreck near Rhode Island. They think it's the HMS Endeavour. It was Captain Cook's ship back in the 1700s, but the British sold it off to a private investor. When the American Revolution broke out, they took it back and sent it to Rhode Island. It got sunk to make a barricade against a French fleet."

"Okay..." I rub my temple, trying to stave off the impending headache. "If you don't want a minder, why are you telling me this? Do you need something from the Syndicate?"

"Oh, no, no. Well, yeah, kinda."

"Nate..."

The headache wasn't impending anymore.

"I've had a look at their equipment, and they're missing a few things we really should have so-"

I cut him off. "Are they necessary?"

"Yes."

Wowzers. A short answer from Nathan Drake. Miracles never cease. "Okay, send the list in. We'll get what you need."

"Thanks, I..." Someone says something to him. It's muffled, and I can't make out any words. "I have to go, Boss. Talk to you later."

"Bye, Nate."

I hang up the phone, resisting the urge to throw it at the wall. Bloody employees. Feels like I'm constantly putting out fires. Using freaking Gasoline. I force my scowl to relax. Then, I take a deep breath and rub at my temples again.

Goddamn, I really need a drink.

Right now though, I didn't have time. I put my phone in my jacket pocket and left my office. The main room was empty, everyone out on the assignments I'd given. Except one person. She was still in, on the assignment I'd given.

I poke my head into the computer room. "Tish, anything on who owns that house?"

Files and code fly across the huge screens on the wall. Tish herself is hunched over her keyboard. She's typing on it with one hand, and doing something on a tablet with the other. She neither stops nor looks up when I speak. "Not yet, boss. Just hacking the mortgage company server now. Should have something in forty..." Her computer beeps and she grins. "Twenty minutes."

I nod, and leave.

--

It's mid-afternoon when I get back to Blackwell. The place is understandably deserted. Not even the teachers want to be stuck there on a Saturday afternoon.

I head past the main building, nodding politely to the few people I pass. None of them stop, and neither do I. I'd never seen any of them with Stella, so they'd be useless to talk to. Stella wasn't part of the Vortex crowd, so they were out too. Kate was probably busy with Chloe. Maybe that girl I'd met outside the Two Whales? Alyssa didn't seem the most useful person for this contract, so I hadn't spoken to her much. She might not be willing to help me. I had also had no idea where she spent her Saturday afternoons.

For now, I'd just have to check Stella's room. The police wouldn't have checked it yet, since she'd only been missing a few hours. Idiots hadn't had the opportunity to mess it all up yet.

Stella's room was 217. First door on the right. That was unfortunate. I'd have to be very... huh. I wince slightly at the volume of the synthy-orchestral music coming from Tori's room. I shudder. I forgot how terrible her taste in music was. And how bad her hearing was, jeez. She played her music so loud, the floor shook with the beat.

I slipped into Stella's room, easing the door shut behind me. After a moment to listen for pursuit, I took a look at the room. Wow. This place was... spartan. And untidy. No decoration at all, the bedsheets were rumpled, papers and books were everywhere, and...

Huh.

I finally understand why Travis keeps criticising my apartment.

I shook my head. Mind on the job, Max. I'm here to investigate, not criticise the decor.

A quick surface check reveals nothing interesting, so I start checking the usual hiding places. Nothing in the vents, or under the carpets. The space under her bottom drawer was empty too. Even the papers on her desk were useless.

I sat down in her desk chair with a huff. Goddamnit. There had to be something. This was the only place Stella had to hide things. A scholarship girl from out of town isn't likely to have a stash elsewhere. I lean back in the chair with a sigh and...

Wait.

Is that..?

Something glinted on the inside of the lampshade. I tilted my head, focused on it. Not a bug. Or if it was, it wasn't any of the main commercial models. And no telltale camera lens, either. So, it was probably safe to interfere with. I hopped up on the chair and reached in to the lampshade.

Huh.

A thumbdrive. Interesting. What did a girl like Stella have to hide? Certainly an interesting talent for concealment. I'd have to remember the lampshade trick. I took another quick look over the rest of the room, then left. I'd gotten three steps down the corridor when another door opened. "Maximus!" A familiar head of blue hair pokes out of the door.

I smile. "Hi Chloe."

A voice calls out from the room she... Tori's room... and Tori's voice... what the hell? "Is that Max? Tell her to get her ass in here already!"

Chloe looks back in the room as Tori yells, then back to me when she's done. "Well? Come on Maxie, you heard the Queen Bitch, get that ass in here!" She disappears back into the room.

After a second of hesitation, I get my ass in there.

Tori and Kate were both perched daintily on either end of the couch. Chloe, on the other hand, had sprawled over the middle of it. One arm was slung around Kate's shoulders. I tilt my head and frown when I notice what's on the TV. "Star Trek..?"

Chloe grins. "Yeah! We're introducing Katie here" She taps Katie on the shoulder. "to the best show ever, The Original Series!"

Tori harrumphs. "Only for now. We're going to show her the real best series, Next Generation, after this."

Chloe rolls her eyes. "More like the..." Her face scrunches up in concentration. "shittiest generation..." She trails off lamely. When she sees us smirk, she bristles. "Hey, it's hella hard, being all witty and shit all the time."

Aww.

Tori snorts. "Clearly something you suffer with often."

Chloe grins. "Thank you, Vicky. Always hella nice to be appreciated." When Tori rolls her eyes, Chloe turns back to me. "You agree with me, right Maxie? Original Series is the fuckin' best!"

I shrug, nonchalantly offering an "Actually, I preferred Voyager." [AN1]

Both of them stop and stare at me, mouths open. After a few beats, I smirk. "Joking."

They both shudder. "Don't even, Max... Don't even."

My back stiffens for a moment as a voice in my ear suddenly yells "Save, damnit, Save! Pusa chigwishu che dhodhi! Pamhata! Hindava akunda't iwe fucking ita chii Ndi..? Oh fuck ini ne hungura chipanera adana Dave!"

I force myself to relax as I catch Chloe staring at me suspiciously. I wink at her, then walk over to sit on Tori's desk chair. I use the movement to disguise a mutter "Tish? What's wrong?"

Chloe and Victoria start talking over the show again. Their running commentary reminds me of a class-divide version of those two muppets. The ones in the balcony seats? Shit, what were they called? Fuck it. I'll google it later. Either way, I tune them out and focus on Tish. "I got kicked from the system. Some idiot put a faulty clause in the code. And I found nothing."

"Nothing?" I murmur.

"Not a damn thing. The house is owned by an ex-Marine, for fuck's sake. Uh, Captain... Renko? His records are mostly classified, but he's real, and looks like a regular career soldier." She taps a few keys. "I can look into him if you want, but..."

I'm about to mutter a response when I'm suddenly asked a direct question. "Hey Maxie, Katie kat says you're doing some kind of fight club thing tomorrow for the reporter and the cheerleader?"

I raise an eyebrow and look over, taking note of Chloe's interested grin. Ah. She wants to try out some more training.

I click my tongue twice, pretending to mull it over. Tish immediately recognises the signal. Yes.

"Right, boss. I'll try see what I can find on the company." I hear her tapping on keys again. "Maybe the Prescotts are in with it through them. Enjoy your movie whatever." The sudden click lets me know she's gone.

I nod. "Something Dana asked for. Why, are you interested?"

Chloe rolls her eyes. "Fucking duh, Max. You're running a fight club, I hella want in!"

"Not a fight club," I correct. "A martial arts lesson."

She shrugs. "Whatever. I still want in."

I look to Tori and Kate. "I assume she's 'encouraged' you two to go too."

It's not a question.

Both of them nod. Kate's a little more bashful about it than Tori. Tori just looks obligingly irritated. "Okay, then. You're all invited, if you'd like to come."

They all nod, with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

Now satisfied, Chloe goes back to the show. She very visibly, but very unconsciously snuggles up to Kate. Kate flushes, but snuggles back. The two of them fit together like puzzle pieces on the couch. Tori sits primly on the end, but she still seems comfortable. She's smiling, and riffing on the show in front of them.

I sit back, watching them all interact.

It's somehow relaxing, despite the volume. Chloe and Victoria bitch back and forth, but there's no venom there. It's a conflict of defence, not attack.

Somehow, we end up spending the rest of the evening like that. When the rest of them fall asleep, I slip out.

I had some calls to make.

--

AN1 - Personally, I'm with Victoria on this one. TNG was easily my favourite trek. DS9 and Voyager had some great episodes, but were mostly just... okay, but nothing special. Same with Enterprise. TOS was great, but not quite on the level of TNG. Picard's speeches alone made it the best Trek for me. And I actually still haven't seen any of the new ones yet, movies or TV, but I hear Discovery is trying too hard to be 'edgy'.

AN2 - ... don't ask, 'cause I don't know either. I think I must've blacked out for that whole bit, because I don't remember writing any of it.

Shoni Translations -
Pusa chigwishu che dhodhi - Useless piece of shit
Pamhata - Cunt
Hindava akunda't iwe fucking ita chii Ndi..? - Why won't you fucking do what I..?
Oh fuck ini ne hungura chipanera adana Dave! - Oh, fuck me with a rusty spoon called Dave! [an2]

Chapter Text

The ambient noise in the diner doubled the second they walked in.

I roll my eyes as I spot Chloe and Tori bickering openly in the doorway. I thought they were getting along better. Kate dodges around them and walks up to the counter. She smiles at Joyce, and the two start chatting quietly. There's a familiarity to the routine that suggests this has happened before. Kate is getting to know Joyce well? I smile. Nice work, Chloe.

Speaking of Chloe, I watch with equal parts parental amusement and middle-sibling eyerolling as the back-and-forth gets louder. This, of course, attracts Joyce's motherly attention. I chuckle as she immediately storms round the counter. Chloe was facing outward, with Tori glaring at her from the doorway, so she couldn't see Joyce's approach. Still, she tenses moments before Joyce arrives at her side, adding her own Southern fire into the mix.

Chloe ducks her head, chagrined, and they both quickly skitter away from Joyce. I hide my smirk behind my mug as they approach.

"Hey Maximus." Chloe grins like nothing just happened, sliding in opposite. Kate joins her and, after a moment's hesitation, Victoria slides in next to me.

Hmm.

Something's wrong.

But what?

I dismiss it to the back of my brain. I'll work it out. Right now, things need my attention. I look to Chloe. "You're early." I raise a questioning eyebrow. "You're never early."

She chuckles, wrapping one arm around Kate's shoulders and pulling her tighter into her. "Yeah, well. Turns out Katie Kat hella has a thing about being late."

Kate bristles, shoving Chloe off her. She turns to us, grumbling. "I don't have a thing. I just think it makes sense to go early, in case you can't find where you're going or-" She closes her mouth suddenly, eyes us bashfully. "Sorry. I'm a little nervous."

Tori frowns, tilting her head at Kate. "You were worried about not being able to find this sh..." Chloe glares at her. "place?"

Nice switch, Tori.

Kate nods, all bright and enthusiastic. "Yes! Well, no. I mostly just didn't want us to hit traffic. Chloe gets kind of... um..." She winces apologetically at the bluenette, and waves a hand in a vague gesture. "road-ragey, sometimes."

Chloe opens her mouth to protest, but slumps back at a sceptical look from both Kate and Tori. "Yeah..."

Tori rolls her eyes and focuses on me. She frowns, just slightly, for the briefest second. Then, in a flash, it's gone.

Hmm.

Before Tori can ask what's so obviously on the tip of her tongue, Chloe chirps "So, where's everyone else? The Cheerleader and her friends running late?"

The 'Cheerleader'..? Ugh. She's still seeing people in stereotypes. I make a note to take her people-watching soon. Laura and I will sort that bad habit out...

Oh dog, I'm getting maternal with my childhood friend. Ugh. Speaking of stereotypes... I shake my head gently, clearing the internal embarassment. Remembering Chloe still needs an answer, I shrug and say simply "They're meeting us there."

Chloe accepts that with a nod, turning to look at the rest of the diner. As her eyes finally drift back to me, I take the opportunity to poke a little. "So, enjoy your evening? You certainly looked... comfortable, when I left." I cap the innuendo with a little insinuating eyebrow waggle. Just to make things... clear. Heh.

Tori laughs as Kate and Chloe both flush red. Kate's eyes immediately fix on the table, and a happy-embarrassed smile spreads across her face. Chloe's defiant scowl is less cute. The intense blush makes it completely non-threatening though. "Fuck you, Max."

Tori, seeing the opportunity to get in a dig, flashes a wicked smirk. "Wow, Price. At the threesome stage already? Jesus, you do move fast."

Kate's blush spreads down from her face as she suddenly leans over to Chloe. She mutters something in her ear, and whatever it is gets an incredulous look from Chloe. A few seconds pass with silent stares, until one of us coughs. Both of them promptly go even redder and look everywhere but at each other. "Uh, no. Hella no. No way. No. Just. No."

Tori and I grin at each other. Adorable.

I put my hand to my chest and say, mock offended. "Wow, Chloe. Don't spare me too much pain. I hope we can still be friends."

"Fuck off, Max."

And, of course, that's when Joyce appears at the table. "Chloe! Language!"

"Mom!"

--

The sight greeting us when we arrive is... an interesting one. Roarck had one of Juliet's hand clasped in a meaty paw and was shaking it with gusto. "Most excellent to meet friends of Max! You are here for lesson, yes? Yes, of course, lesson will be most excellent, of course, yes!"

Juliet seems quite confused. Dana was bent over laughing. The others all had that just-eaten-oyster look of disgust and confusion. When we walk over, I'm not entirely sure who I'm rescuing.

"Hello everyone. Thanks for coming."

"Max!" Juliet yelps, taking the opportunity to retreat from a still-beaming Roarck. "You're here!"

I raise an eyebrow. "I am. Are you okay?"

She nods. "Yes, but..." She spares a look over her shoulder at Roarck. He's lost interest in Juliet, and is now yammering amiably at Dana. She seems delighted by him. "Are we really doing this... here?"

I tilt my head curiously. "Do you have any other suggestions?"

"No, but-"

I clap my hands together, causing the rest of the girls to jump. "Excellent! Let's get started then. Roarck!"

The gentle giant of inadmittable origin looks up. "Yes, Max?"

"Is everything ready inside?"

He nods, flashing another bright, beaming grin. "Of course! Everything is done up special for you and your friends. Only the best for you!"

"Thanks, Roarck. Is your brother inside?"

Roarck grimaces. "Yes, indeed. He wishes to, uh... makea n entrance?"

Oh for the... "Very well then. Let's go indulge him." I raise my voice for the others. "Come on in, guys. We'll get started now."

I lead the way in, pushing the doors open as the others trail in behind me. The room is as dark as it was when I last visited. For a moment, I think they've cheated me, but the next events quickly dispel that thought.

The second the door clicks closed behind us, music starts.

I recognise the solid, rock intro immediately.

Eye of the Tiger.

Oh dog.

On the first power chord, a single spotlight clacks on. It illuminates a leg, standing on a stage in the middle of the room. On the second chord, it flicks to the other. The third and fourth illuminate his arms in turn. The pattern cycles through as the riff continues, and we watch mutely as he starts freewheeling his arms wildly, spinning and kicking in some strange blend of cossack squat-dancing and an epileptic fit.

The spotlights somehow manage to follow his movements, flashing between them. I feel glad, for a moment, that none of us were epileptic.

When it hits the final, resounding chord, Brock's entire body is lit up. He flashes a proud, satisfied grin.

Wowzers.

He's wearing wrestling shorts. Ugly, Hawaiian-patterned ones. And there's two bright pink bokken on his back.

I blink at the sheer oddity of the sight. "Huh."

I was joking before. Now I'm sure. These two are insane.

The music continues into the first verse. Brock starts to dance along, mime-punching the air with the beat. Dana's friends are just stood around me, staring. Still had the oyster faces of confusion and disgust. As did we all, I guess. Roarck just eyes his brother with fond exasperation.

Brock continues dancing until the music suddenly peaks. He yells out, in his thick accent, "Welcome to the Thunderdome!" and the music cuts out. The last word resonates through the room like an arena announcer.

We all stand in contemplative silence, just... taking it all in.

Brock gives us an expectant look.

Dog... I roll my eyes, but indulge him with a polite slowclap. He was renting me his gym space, after all. After an expectant look of my own, the others follow suit. Well, Chloe, Kate, and Dana do. The others just continue staring.

As the clapping trails off, I take back control. That's more than enough of that. "Okay, Class. Let's get started. Did you bring a change of clothes like I asked?""

They all nod, or indicate their held gym bags. Excellent.

Except for... oh. Wowzers. Chloe and Kate have brought one bag between them. How... couple-y. I resist the urge to roll my eyes, and simply nod appreciatively.

One of the girls, Poppy, I think, asks "Why did you want us to bring normal clothes, anyway? Shouldn't we have, like, exercise stuff?"

I shrug. "You're learning how to fight. People aren't going to wait to attack you until you're ready. You need to prepare

They all give nods of slightly confused agreement. Like they think it makes sense, but they're not sure how it'll work out in practice. No matter. They'll find out soon.

"If we're going to be working out in our regular clothes, why do we even need to change?" One of the other girls chips in. Wren, I remember. She's willowy and tall, even by this groups' standards.

I just smirk and drawl "Do you wanna walk around town all sweaty?"

I get a little ripple of amusement for that. Nothing more than a smile, but still. It's a start.

"Lockers are through there." I wave vaguely at the marked doors. "Get changed and get back out here. We'll start whenever you're all ready."

They all nod and skitter off into the locker room. I turn to the two brothers. "Show me what you've got."

--

I greet each of them as they filter back in, refreshing myself on names: Casey, the smiley blonde, Delilah, a tall, dark-skinned brunette, Poppy, an elegant girl with dark hair, Wren, the willowy tall one, Michelle, a friendly blonde with a blindingly white smile (Girl's parents were definitely dentists). And of course, Kate and Chloe, Tori, Dana and Juliet.

They all fan out in front of me, swapping between flashing me expectant looks and peering into the still-dark room around us. They're curious. It's understandable. I mean, anything could be in a dark room.

No matter, though. They'll find out soon.

I straighten up as I start to talk. "The first truth of violence is that it isn't just the act of hurting someone. Violence is a decision that another person makes to do you harm. Anyone can choose to do it. And that's where the advantage lies. In the choice." I clench my fist to emphasise the point. "The choice precipitates the action, so whoever makes that choice first controls the situation, victim or aggressor. Once you have that power, strength becomes less important to victory. The easiest way to win a fight is to never get into one, but if you have to, choose to get into one first."

I take a breath, discreetly checking over my audience. They seemed... receptive, if baffled. Which was fair, really. I mean, I was telling them that strength didn't matter in a fight as much as being first to make a decision to get into one.

Now, to prove it to them. "Seems wrong, right?" I grin, wolfishly. "Let me prove it."

I wave over the two brothers, and they come to stand either side of me, beaming disingenuously. "Look at them. They're big guys, right?"

They really were. They'd both changed to gym outfits, showing off a hell of a lot of muscle. Even Roarck, the more bookish brother, was visibly rippling with them. I point them to a set of weights, and let each brother take a turn demonstrating their strength. I go after, and bow out at less than a third the weight they could lift. "They're both far stronger than me. So, you think they'd win in a fight, right?"

I look expectantly at the girls, who all nod confidently. Apart from Kate and Chloe, of course. They knew better.

"Well," I start... I move suddenly, pivoting around and slamming my fist into Brock's stomach. That was an advantage of being short. I was at just the right angle to hit his solar plexus. He immediately crumples, and I grab his wrist and twist his arm, using the leverage to spin him into Roark.

They both tumble to the ground, and they lie there groaning in a pile. I grin. "Guess I'd win that bet?"

The girls all stare at me in shock, Tori included. Chloe just grins knowingly. "Not bad, Maximus. You're kind of a badass."

I give a smug little bow as the other girls pull themselves out of the shocked haze. "Most self-defence seminars will teach you how to copy some basic moves. They try teach you how to fight back. Me, I'm just going to teach you how to choose."

--

"The first stage is self-appraisal and threat reduction." I take the marker and write 'avoidance and threat reduction' in the middle of the board. "There are three things you need to evaluate. First, how attractive a target you are. This covers body language, stance, and visible wealth."

I draw a line out from the centre, and write 'attractiveness' at the end of it.

"Second, points of weakness on your route. These are choke-holds for observation and the actual hit itself."

Another line, and 'POW'.

"Finally, and least necessary, types of crime in your area. You prepare for the most common types, and feel free to ignore the minor cases. Useless to plan for cloning credit cards in a rural village."

The final line, and 'common crimes'.

I tilt my head slightly, checking behind me. They all seem to be paying attention. I continue. "You have to know how a criminal sees these things. Know how they think, and you'll know how to trick them."

I go through each thing, step by step. I teach them how to walk, what to avoid doing, how to spot a choke-point. Everything they need to know about how criminals choose their targets and how to make sure that target isn't you.

Well, almost everything.

I make it barely halfway before Chloe groans. "For fucks sake, Max. I thought we were learning how to defend ourselves."

I roll my eyes. "And you are. This," I tap the board with the back of my hand. "is as important as learning to throw a punch." I sigh. "But, I guess we can move on." I ignore the slight buzz that revelation develops. "We need to be outside for this. There's an alleyway out back, right?"

--

"And what signs do you see that he might be going to attack you?" I ask from the end of the alleyway, watching with Delilah as Brock walks down it toward us.

Delilah thinks for a second, examining Brock's stance before saying confidently "He's moving at the same pace as me, and his forearm is pressed weirdly tightly against his side, so he could be hiding a weapon. Oh," she adds, "and he keeps looking behind him, like, for cops?"

I beam at her. "Good! Well spotted, Lil."

She grins, and steps back. I wave over Tori. "Come on Tori, you're up."

She walks over, grumbling. I direct Brock to swap stance and outfit. I'd run through what I wanted beforehand, so he knew what was up next without my having to specify.

She gapes on seeing him "Oh, he's definitely going to attack me."

I take a deep breath. "Why, Tori? Tell me why."

"You even have to ask?" She seems almost angry, thrusting out her arm at Brock. "Only a monster would wear a blue and green tracksuit, Max! Or," she shudders. "Neon sneakers..."

I stare at her for a full three seconds. That statement really needed the extra time to process.

"The outfit doesn't really matter, Tori. Imagine him in an Armani suit instead, if it helps. Just look at his body language."

A couple of the other girls step forward to point things out to her. Tori, of course, bristles at this. But, she does listen. So, I leave them to it for a second, walking back over to Chloe and Kate. I raise an eyebrow when I see them snuggling into each other. "Hey you two."

Chloe grins at me and drawls mockingly. "Icky Vicky," Kate elbows her in the side. "Victoria..." Chloe amends, sticking her tongue out down at Kate, who just smirks. "-really isn't getting this, is she?"

I shrug. "She'll get there. I've done this before."

She frowns. "You tried teaching her this shit back in Seattle? She didn't mention that."

I shake my head. "No, I... knew her before... I learned all this." I check over my shoulder, seeing the rest of the 'class' all standing around Brock, pointing various things out to Tori. The tall blonde bristles at every damn word. I roll my eyes fondly at her petulance. "I've taught a few times, though." I take a breath. Come on, Max. Baby steps. "I teach new recruits, usually. I... I enjoy it."

Kate smiles, empathetic to my discomfort, but Chloe just smiles. "That's cool. You are hella good at this, dude, even if I get bored with all the fucking lecture shit."

I roll my eyes as Chloe finishes with a full shit-eating grin, and I drawl "You'd be amazed at how often boring people to death comes up in a Job."

She chuckles, then stops suddenly and frowns suspiciously at me. "Wait, seriously?"

Kate and I both grin, and Kate steps up on her toes to peck a kiss on Chloe's cheek. "You're lucky you're cute."

"How did you learn all this shit, anyway?" Chloe tilts her head curiously. She lowers her voice as she asks "Part of the conman shit?"

I shrug. "I worked as a bartender for a Job once. Learning to pick out the drunk assholes from the normal drunk people is something you need to work that job well."

Kate opens her mouth to say something, but a call from Dana draws my attention back to the class. "Max? I think she's got this now."

I snort as I walk back over. "Right. Okay then, Tori. Wow me. How do you know he's going to attack you?"

--

Everyone manages to get another turn before Chloe gets bored again. Even Tori starts to get the idea. I push it for another round before taking mercy on her and calling a stop. Chloe groans in relief. "Now do we get to punch some shit?"

I grin. "Yes, Chloe. Now you get to punch some shit."

"Hella sweet."

We walk back into the gym to find the main space rearranged. All the machines had been pushed to the walls. The resulting large space in the middle had been filled with mats and bags. "There are a lot of martial arts styles, and I mean a lot. There's several hundred karate styles alone. They'll take you years to master, so we're not going to bother. Each style has some interesting tricks though, so we're going to focus on those."

I walk up to the line of bags. "First step though, is throwing a punch. Come on over here. Two to each bag." I wait the five seconds it takes them to arrange themselves as instructed. "One of you hold the bag, the other try hit it. Swap when you start to get tired."

They all stare at me. I'm not sure if they're expecting more, or just confused. Either way, I nudge them into action with a muttered "Now, please?"

As they do, I walk along the line, observing. I make sure to give each girl a couple of pointers. Put more shoulder into it, thumb outside the fist, stop trying to twist your arm like that. Some of them had some really strange ideas about how to hit people. Bloody Hollywood Movie bullshit.

I leave most of them beating the crap out of the bags, then take each one aside for a one-to-one appraisal. The Brothers had provided target gloves, and I tried to use them to teach them the best places to punch. Every would-be rapist, thief, or murderer had a groin and a throat. Hit those hard enough and they'd be hard-pressed to hit you back. Effective, no matter their size.

I did find out that Delilah was a secret trekkie. The girl kept trying to punch me with both hands clasped together. That conversation was... enlightening.

Kate's one-to-one was even more so.

She came over when I called, somewhere in the middle of the line. I could see Chloe keeping a close watch on her as she stood before me. She wasn't subtle about it, essentially staring in our direction.

I held up my gloves, one to the neck, the other to my stomach and nodded. "Hit me."

Kate doesn't move for a moment, but her eyes narrow almost imperceptibly. I tilt my head. "Kate? I said, hit me."

Still nothing, and I realise her eyes weren't narrowing. She was trying to force herself to punch me. Now I looked closer, I could see indecision warring on her face. She could get behind the other stuff, the dodging and the observing, but hitting me?

Hmm.

I start to quick-step, side-to-side, and begin talking low. "Maybe you're not ready for this, Kate. There's nothing wrong with that. Not everyone can make this decision for themselves, you know." I keep on, and on. Never exerting too much pressure, but just enough to keep it at a low buzz of doubt.

I felt a shiver go down my back as I realised I was saying the same things Tiffany did, back in-

All the wind goes out of me as the glove suddenly slams into my stomach. Kate pulls her first back, and twirls into an upper-cut. I recognise the trick as one of my own, and dodge back to stop it hitting my face. She lets the swing go wild, and then punches me in the stomach-pad again with her other hand.

The rest of the room goes quiet. The only sound in the room was my gasping breaths.

There were only two words to describe what just happened.

Fucking ow.

The other girls suddenly swarm Kate, Chloe at the head of them. She wraps her arms around Kate's shoulders and brings her chin down to rest on Kate's head. "That was fucking awesome Katie kat! I knew you had it in you."

The other girls provide their own compliments, one noting how she'd actually managed to get a hit on me. She was the only one. As she blushes under the barrage of praise, she looks back at me. Her small, quiet smile is grateful, understanding. She knows what I did, and doesn't hold it against me.

It makes me gladder than I thought it would.

After letting it go on for far too long, I call a halt to the praise. "Come on, everyone. Kate's amazing, we all know. Now, back to it."

They grumblingly oblige me, and I catch muttered "Spoilsport"s and "She's just pissed you actually hit her."

I roll my eyes. Naive children.

As they get back to it, I call the next one over.

When I'm satisfied that they all know how to throw a decent punch, I bring them back together. "Now, we're going to do those special tricks." I flash Chloe a grin. "You'll like these, Chloe." I start towards the door. "We need to be back out in the alley, people!"

They follow eagerly, finally getting to do what they want. Trick shots. Heh.

When we're all arranged, I begin. "If you're fighting, use the environment to your advantage." I reach out and knock on the wall of the gym. "Everyone has a face, and every building has a wall. I'm sure you can work out how to combine the two."

Chloe chuckles. Kate just looks disturbed.

"For things like this," I continue "The best move is a grab and twirl." I demonstrated on Roarck, twisting his arm into a lever. It takes a little more effort, him being a foot taller than me, but I manage fine. The force applied and angle created by rotating the joint gave me enough torque to twirl him round. I stop him from hitting the wall directly, leaving his nose barely an inch from it.

Everyone blinks, and Roark backs quickly away from the wall the second I let him go. "Alright everyone. Pair up, and we'll go one by one."

Dana's friends look very nervous at the prospect of trying what I just did. A little pressure helps, though. With a dash of encouragement, of course. "Come on, everyone. It's not that hard. Pair up."

Victoria turns to Chloe with a grin. "We're going first."

Chloe balks. "I am totally gonna get my face smashed in."

--

Fucking hell. Ow. I keep rubbing and poking at my nose, trying to get it to feel right again. Getting that reset fucking hurts more than getting it dislocated in the first place. How is that even a thing?

"Remember everyone, keep practising. It could save your life one day." Max shakes everyone's hands as they leave, smiling as they say thanks, or compliment her on her teaching or whatever. Me, Kate, and Vicky stay back, watching her and the girl-squad by the door. Not sure where the Brothers went off to.

I take a break from my goddamn broken nose, take a deep breath and... "Hey, Katie?"

She turns to me, hella absently. "hmm?"

"So, you wanna do something?"

Katie gives me a confused little smile and looks up at me. "Something?"

"Yeah, like dinner."

Her eyes bulge. "Dinner? Like, like a date? A real date? A date-date?"

I frown. "Well, yeah, I mean..." My mouth opens as I try to say things, but no sound comes out. I swallow and continue, in a still badass, but slightly higher pitched voice. "Food kinda goes with that sappy shit, right?"

Katie smiles. "Right. So, dinner?"

"Dinner." I confirm, matching her smile.

She grins, and nods her head, blushing. "Dinner sounds good." After a second, she skitters forward and throws her arms around me, her head ramming into my neck with a small 'oof'.

I hug the girl back.

Victoria snorts from somewhere behind me. "Jesus, you two are fucking sickening."

Without letting go, I drawl back "You're just jealous I got a cute girl and you don't, Vicky."

"Victoria." She says, "And I'm not jealous. Just nauseated."

"Yeah, yeah," I scoff, pulling Katie closer when she starts to giggle. "Keep telling yourself that."

There's a couple seconds of silence before Victoria leans in. "Did you know she could do all... that?"

I frown, lifting up my head to look at her. I don't let go of Katie. "All what?"

"The... the fighting, the things in alley. Jesus, that's just..." She trails off, searching wildly for an appropriate adjective I knew she was never gonna find. I'd been doing the same thing for the last two weeks straight.

I shrug. "Yeah, kinda. I mean, Seattle's a dangerous place, right? Makes sense she'd learn some self-defence shit, after what happened to her there."

She arches one of her hella thin eyebrows. "After what happened there?"

Before I can say anything, Max does her weird appearing-out-of-nowhere thing and appears directly next to us. "Are you all playing nice?"

I shrug. "Icky Vicky here was just getting jealous over my girlfriend."

Victoria glares, openly bristling at me "I was not-"

Max pats her shoulder. "Don't worry Tori, I'm sure you could find a cute girl if you tried."

"I, I didn't- I wasn't!" She sighs painfully, grumbling to herself as we chuckle at her expense. "Whatever. Can we go?"

Max nods. "Sure. Meet me by the car. I've just got to finish up with the Brothers."

She's lying, and it takes everything I have not to fucking fistbump the air when I realise I've actually noticed. Like, holy fucking shit. Before I even get to process that, I realise I've started speaking too "Can I come? I wanna ask Brock where I can get some of those hella sweet shorts. I bet they're comfortable as fuck."

Everyone stares at me.

Not really surprised. Those shorts were really fucking gross. But, while I might be able to notice a lie, I kinda suck at improvising them myself. Still, Max nods. "Sure. Come on, then. They're in the back office." She turns to Vicky and Katie. "We won't be long." It's an obvious dismissal, but they both seem willing to take it, and head outside talking. I even see Vicky smile at Katie once, before they make it out the door. Aww. Progress.

I turn back to Max. "So, why did you really want to stay back?"

She almost beams at me. "You noticed! Chloe, that's awesome. Good to know Laura's lessons are sticking."

I shrug, dismissively, desperately trying to stop the blush spreading over my face. "Yeah, yeah. Answer the question, dumbass."

She taps her ear. "Do you have your bud in?"

I shake my head. "One sec." I pull it out of my pocket and stick it in my ear just in time to hear Tish's... interesting greeting.

"'bout fuckin' time, mabono. Thought we told you to keep this damn thing in all the time?"

I look at Max pleadingly, but she just smirks. "Tish, tell her what you were telling me."

"Ugh. So, Nathan definitely had nothing to do with Brooke. Laura and Cassie found the security footage, and... let's just say some gross shit went down, but he's no kidnapper. Just a pervy asshole. Managed to get some chick to go back with him though. Running her through facial recognition, see if she's connected to this Renko guy who owns the house."

Max chimes in. "If she is, that lead becomes low priority. We can focus on other things, because that probably won't help the investigation."

Tish continues, "Yeah. So, I've been looking through footage of the school from the party. More gross shit than I ever wanted to see, by the way, Seems like Brooke left the party at about nine and headed out into town. I lost her a few streets in. Checking other cameras in the area to see if I can find her again, but nothing yet."

I groan. "Shit. So, we've got nothing then."

"Nah, we've got something. Max found a thumbdrive in Brooke's room. It was full of text files, mostly just messages between a younger girl and an older guy. I have no fucking idea who, they're just text files. I can only tell the ages from context and word use analysis. It looks like Brooke copied text from emails, or maybe IMs. So, I can't get times, or dates, or names, or anything from them. Running a keyword search to see if I can find anything useful though. Given that she disappeared, and all the other girls who've disappeared have been young girls..."

She trails off, like she's doing the annoying teacher thing of making a point she wants me to fill in the end of, so I indulge her. "The messages might be from the girls that disappeared. Brooke could've been investigating them herself. Right?"

Max nods. "That's our theory. So, we're looking into older males that might've arrived just before the disappearances started. It's not much, but it's the best we have for now."

I slouch a bit. "Well, that's not promising."

Tish shrugs. "It happens a lot. Investigation is like that. One step forward, two to the fucking left, spin, three back." She pauses for a second. "It's not the most interesting shit on there though."

We both tilt our heads. "What's more interesting than that?"

Tish's snort is almost wry. I'm not sure how. "Well, for one, the incredibly fucking complex maths papers she's put annotated corrections on, a few papers I don't even recognise the maths behind, and a bunch of encrypted files I can't access." A pause. "Okay, so that was three things, but still. Seriously fucking impressive. If we find this girl, you have got to offer her a damn job."

Max blinks. "Praise? From you, Tish? Damn. She must be good. What are the mystery papers called?" I turn my head to frown at her. She's making her voice sound hella fucking innocent, like it's just offhand curiosity.

"Uh..." Tish's mouse clicks loudly as she goes quiet. "Polynomial-time completeness and Hamiltonian Networks. Computationalism, the Church-Turing Thesis, and the Church-Turing Fallacy. The Everett-Wheeler Cos-"

Max cuts her off. "Thanks, Tish. Could you put those files on my computer, please? The originals, if you would."

Tish stops and asks confusedly. "What? Why?"

"I want to send them to the Second Floor. See if their cryptography theorists can come up with anything."

Tish was not into that idea at all. "Those fucking idiots? Sure, I guess, if you don't want to get anything back for a fucking year."

"And don't copy the files." Max adds. "There could be something in the code to distort the files if they're copied."

"Okay, Boss. I fucking get it. Generation Loss sucks, and I'm not gonna fuck around with this shit before the useless assholes over in that dongo on the second floor can get their incompetent hands stuck in their choya on the way to decrypting these files."

Max stops me. "One more thing."

I turn back to look at her. "Yeah?"

"We're opening the Coffeeshop tomorrow. You want a job?"

I frown, grinning in confusion. "I thought I already had a job with you guys?"

She shakes her head. "You do. That's not what I mean. If you take a barista job, it'll give us a cover to keep you around. Might even get some extra time for training."

I immediately nod. "You had me at training."

She raises an eyebrow. "That was the last word in the sentence."

"Shut up." I grumble.

She chuckles. "So, is that a yes?"

I roll my eyes. "Of fucking course it's a yes, dumbass. Like I'm gonna miss out on that shit." I pause. "You still sure this whole coffeeshop thing is a good idea? Having people literally on top of your secret lair?"

I keep my voice down, but it still echoes a little in the hella cavernous space. Max gives me a look, and I duck my head. She has a point.

"The best cover-" She starts.

"Is in plain sight," I finish. "Yeah, I heard you the first fucking time. Expectations, hiding in them, blah blah hella blah." I twitch my hand around in a movement I'd seen Victoria do when she was being mocking, twitching and twirling around my wrist on each word.

For the first time since I've known her (literally N weeks, and isn't that fucking weird?) Tish actually laughs. Not just a snort, not a giggle, not even a smirk, but an actual, hella full, hella loud laugh. "Hah! She remind you of anyone, Boss?"

Max smiles at me, and for a second I see a hella rare glimpse of the way Max was before she left. Just for a second, and fuck, I wasn't even sure if I was imagining it, but... still. "Yes. She does."

"Who?" I tilt my head, hella curious as to the answer. I mean, Max hangs out with total badasses, right? If I reminded her of one of them, well. Maybe I could do this shit, after all.

"Me."

I blink as my mouth drops open. "Y-you?"

I'm flattered.

I think?

Confused, mostly.

Also terrified.

That's confusing.

She nods, and the smile turns almost... introspective. Distant. Like she's not really looking at me anymore, but at something off in her head that I hadn't a hope in hell of working out. "I used to talk to Jimmy the same way. Very... irreverent."

"Aww, Maxie." I grin, listening to Tish still laughing in my ear. "You're so sweet. Stop, or I'm gonna start blushing."

She chuckles. "Come on. Lets get out of here. I'm sure Kate is just dying to hear about this date."

That fucking... I retain my hella badass composure and don't blush at all.

Max's laughter echoes through the room as we leave.

Bitch.

--

Translations:

Dongo - Rotten Ruin

Choya - Pubic Hair