We're sitting in her room. There's rock music playing from her computer from a band I barely know but she probably loves.
It's quiet.
Chloe's in her own little world, puffing up smoke at the ceiling above her. She hadn't said much since I had come back from the alternate universe, but I knew something was on her mind the way her eyes would momentarily graze over to me and back at the ceiling.
When she finally spoke, she startled me.
"Rewinding time must be fun, huh?" She asked, still not looking at me.
I shrugged. Realizing she couldn't see that, I answered, "I guess. But you know it takes a toll on me," And it does. I nearly gave myself a nosebleed trying to stop Kate from offing herself.
"So..." she pauses to take a deep breath. "So...if you could go back and save my dad, would you?" She finally looks directly at me, her eyes fierce with determination and curiosity.
"Yes, of course, Chloe. I loved William as much as you did." I told her. I frowned. "But..."
"But what?" She demanded, extinguishing her blunt. "Wouldn't you want me to live a happy life? A life with my real dad and not that stupid step fuck?"
"You know I would! But I've seen what that life was like and it was no better than this one! In fact it was a hundred times shittier than this one!" I blurted before I could stop myself.
Her eyes were saucers. "What the fuck are you talking about?" She breathed, her pale skin turning white.
"I...I found the photo William took of us the day he got into the accident. The one he took before he left. I...I used my powers to go back to save him for you because I saw how fucking sad you were yesterday and I just wanted to help..." I ramble.
My hands starting shaking. "I hid the keys so he couldn't find them and told him to take the bus. That's all I remember before I woke up in this alternate universe where I was friends with Victoria and Nathan and David was a bus driver instead of a security guard at Blackwell."
I could tell Chloe was staring at me, and I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn't tell her what happened to her. I just couldn't. All that mattered was that she was this Chloe. My Chloe. The takes no shit from no one, weed smoking blue haired bad ass who knows her way around a gun.
"Max." she put a hand on my cheek.
And that's when I realize that I'm crying. Shaking and sobbing like a little kid who scraped their knee.
"William was alive...but...you took his place. Instead of him getting into an accident you did, and you became a quadriplegic. And you were there, you were actually there, but it was like you might as well have died." I looked at her, tears streaming down my face. "You were in so much pain. So much that you..." I couldn't finish my sentence.
Chloe swallowed hard. "That I...That I what? Fuck what the hell did I do to mess you up this bad, Max?!" she demanded, shaking me by my shoulders.
"You asked me to kill you."
It came out barely above anything that could be considered a whisper but it had a huge effect all the same.
Chole shrunk away from me. "So...when you said that I was back, you meant back to normal?"
"Yeah." I answer quietly. "I used the photo again and made sure that William was the one in the accident. I feel awful Chole but if it wasn't him it would have been you and to see you in so much pain was just so horrible to look at."
"Did you do it?" She asked.
"Do what?"
"Did you kill me?" She clarified, staring at me.
"No," I sighed. "I couldn't do it. You were so mad at me because you truly wanted it all to be over, but I just...I couldn't do it."
"Jesus Chirst what a fucking nightmare," Chloe mulled to herself, running a hand through her tousled blue hair. "I can't imagine how you must have felt."
I look up at her. "So...you're not mad?" I asked hopefully.
"Are you shitting me?" She asked me. "The reason why you even tried to pull that shit in the first place was because you wanted to make me happy. Of couse I'm not mad at you!"
I sighed in relief. "Okay, good."
She smiled. And I mean for the first time since I've seen her again really smiled. It was like we were kids again. "How about you can drown out the memory with pancakes down at the diner? My treat?" She said, wiggling her eyebrows and rolling off the bed.
I laughed, getting up and following her. "Sure."
In that moment I realized something very important.
This Chloe is the only Chloe I'd ever need.