Can't save everyone and can't do it alone
Max couldn't believe what she was seeing, Chloe is in a wheelchair, everything is just…shit, what had she done that was so wrong? Why is the universe punishing her like this, she had used her powers with good intentions, but now, with this, 'Oh God, this was how Chloe felt and I couldn't say a thing to comfort her, I couldn't do a single thing.' she thought to herself as she feels the tears fill her eyes. She was so sorry, so very sorry, the saying is that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. She knows it is true now, She is an indirect cause to her best friend being crippled and she doesn't know what to do about it. If she goes back and let's William die, Chloe wouldn't be in a wheelchair, but she would be miserable, perhaps even wishing she was dead at some point. Max wants to believe that this is for the best, that Chloe is happier this way, but how can she believe that when this is what she had indirectly caused. She has to wonder now if she is even friends with Chloe anymore, apparently she had bailed on Chloe and didn't contact her in this lifetime either.
Things weren't so bad in the other timeline, they only really went to shit after she had showed Chloe that booklet and then she didn't say anything to help her. With everything else that had happened in Chloe's life, who could blame her for not wanting to blame something or someone. Max knew she needed to get back, she didn't belong in this world, she isn't in just another timeline, she is in an alternate universe.
She looks through her bags and finds a picture that she had taken of her and Chloe earlier that day. She stares into it, 'I can't make everything better Chloe, but maybe now I can show you that I do care.' she thinks and she feels herself suddenly sitting next to Chloe in just a t shirt and boy shorts, "Can we hang out here all morning like we used to?" Max looks over at her and smiles, she has to change today, "Hell, everyone skips one day of High School right, I could just say I am dealing with emotional trauma." Max hears Chloe laugh, it is like music to her ears. It is the first time she can actually remember Chloe laughing heartedly and not because they had just gotten away with something. Max looks at her, "I don't suppose you have anything that I can wear do you? I mean…" Max starts to get a devious idea and smirks, "I'll be back in a few…" she walks out of Chloe's room and into the bathroom and grabs the blue hair dye, reading the instructions on how to use it, she begins to dye her hair blue.
After waiting for her hair to change colors, she washes her hair out of the remaining dye and brushes her teeth with Chloe's toothbrush and walks back into Chloe's room, she is smirking, Chloe is going to be shocked as hell over this. She sees Chloe doing a Wake N Bake, eh, she has gone with hair dye and pot is almost legal in Oregon now, so why the hell not, "Hey Che, give me a hit.." Chloe lets out a giggle and looks at Max, "Max, you must be…holy shit…" Chloe's eyes widen as she looks at Max.
she slowly sits up, "Uhhh, I think I have had too much, wonder what Frank put into this one…" she puts it out and rubs her eyes, "Max, did you use my hair dye to dye your hair?" Max looks at her and smiles, "Hey, I can afford to take chances right?" Chloe gets up with a smile and walks over to her and begins to shake her shoulders, "Max, this has to be the single most awesome thing you have ever done! Hold on, let me get you some clothes, we so need to take a picture of this. I swear, if you rewind this, I will…I wouldn't remember if you rewound this. I am so confused, how can I make threats about you not rewinding something when I won't remember if you rewound it in the first place?"
Chloe shakes her head and gets out Rachel's flannel shirt and jeans, Max looks at her with a raised eyebrow, "Doesn't Rachel have any other kind of shirt here besides this Che?" Chloe stops and looks at her, "How do you know that these are Rachel's clothes Max?" Max stops for a second and begins to sweat while thinking, what to say, and then comes up with something, "I can't exactly picture Miss Punk Rock here trying to rock a red flannel, so whose else would they be?"
Chloe seems to take the answer and finds something else, a simple white tank top with the words Rock Star on it and a jean jacket and a pair of jeans. Max puts them on and actually feels comfortable wearing them, "Well?" Max looks at Chloe wanting to find out if she approved or not, Chloe nods her head with a smile, "I like…they do suit you in a strange way, maybe get you a tattoo and some piercing and we will make a badass girl out of you yet?"
Max smiles, "Thanks Che…now I think I will go downstairs and freak the hell out of your mom." Chloe laughs again, another actual laugh. Max smiles, she is on a roll today, Chloe gets up, "This, I got to see. The look on my mom's face will be priceless."
Both her and Chloe begin to rush down the steps, Joyce calls out to her, "Chloe, that better be Max and not some boy coming down the steps like that."
Max walks into her room, wearing Rachel's stylish clothes and wearing blue hair, Joyce stands there, mouth hanging open, Chloe is in a good mood, "Mom, you had better close your mouth before you catch flies for breakfast instead of pancakes."
Max's eyes lights up, she knows that they were having pancakes, but still, "We're having pancakes. Sweet, remember how me and William would race…" She looks over and see Chloe's eyes turn sad and she wraps an arm around her, "Sorry Chloe, I just have so many great memories of William, you know your mom and dad were like second parents to me."
Joyce looks at Max and Chloe, surprised that Chloe just looks sad instead of angry, that she isn't bursting out in a rage because of what Max had said, Chloe speaks up, her voice shaken, "Max, how different do you think things would have been if it didn't happen?"
Chloe looks at Max, desperate for an answer, hoping to find some kind of comfort. Max knows Chloe can tell if she is lying, "Well Chloe, that's the thing, I already found out. It was completely fucked up to say the least. I had the hope that I could make everything okay, give you what all you missed out on, but in the end, you ended up missing out on more due to me saving your dad than you did with him dying?" Max watches as her best friend's eyes widen, "Max, tell me what you mean right now? Tell me you did not find a way to save my dad, but because something you didn't like about it resulted into this being reality again. TELL ME!"
Max knows that Chloe is angry, Max can feel tears feeling up her eyes, she won't like it, but her best friend needs to hear this, "Chloe, your dad died instantly, he didn't suffer any pain, but in the future I created due to saving your dad, you did have an accident, you had became paralyzed from the neck down. You became like that at the age of 16, while I was still gone. I came back to that, I had to watch you suffer. I was going to have to live with the experience that you were stuck in a damn wheelchair with literally only sixteen years worth of actual life that you lived. I was going to have to watch your eyes light up in sadness every time something happened that you couldn't do anymore. I was going to have to deal with the guilt that I had indirectly caused you to be like that due to my time travel abilities. I couldn't live with it Chloe…I just couldn't."
Max is now openly crying and cannot speak any longer. She is barely aware of anything right now. She can barely feel Chloe's arm wrapping around her and holding her somewhat tightly, her vision is blurry from the tears, she cannot see the look of shock and concern on Joyce's face, along with the disbelief that she is undoubtedly has as well beneath that. She did not hear David Madsen come into the house and walk into the room.
David does speak up, "What's wrong with the Rachel Amber wannabe? So, already working on trying to replace your best friend with a loser like this Chloe?"
Max didn't feel herself wipe her eyes, she didn't notice getting up, she doesn't remember walking over to David. All she remembers was a loud slap and seeing David's face suddenly turn sideways with a hand mark on his cheek and looks down and sees her own hand is slightly pink.
She looks over and sees Joyce's mouth opening and closing, she sees Chloe, also shocked, but she quickly recovers and is grinning like an idiot. David recovers from being slapped and actually strikes Max, knocking her to the floor and then kicking her in her ribs.
It happened to fast for Max to remember what happened next, she is just sitting on the couch, Chloe is next to her, arm wrapped around her again, looking concerned at her. She hears shouting between David and Joyce, then she hears the sirens, she looks over and sees the cops come in and arrest David. All she can do is sit there and wonder how this might fuck up everything as well. Max looks over at Joyce and opens her mouth to apologize, but Joyce beats her to it, "You don't have to say anything Max. Anyone could see that you had no idea that you had even gotten up and walked over to David, let alone slapped him." Chloe speaks up, "Shithead had it coming after what he said to Max." Chloe then looks at Max, "Max, you know you aren't a replacement for Rachel right?"
Max sits there for a second, thinking for a minute, before she speaks up, "You said just yesterday that we aren't that different. Rachel has an eye for images and art, kind of like me huh?" Chloe lets out a slight laugh, this one is kind of painful, "So if anything Rachel was more of a replacement of you." Max shakes her head, "No, Rachel was her own person. Although I got to wonder, if things are as cut and dry as we think they are?" Chloe looks confused, "What do you mean Max? Did you think of something?"
Max begins to think, wondering the best way to put this, "I don't know, but there are signs, clues, it is just pure speculation, but it is too much to ignore. When I changed the timeline, like I said I did, in that drastic way, maybe I created an alternate dimension. Maybe Rachel also has powers. Remember last night, how I felt like she was leading us somewhere. Maybe she is trying to lead me to wherever she is, so I can get her and bring her back? A deer, which only I can see, it would guide at points in time. It would show me the way. What if that deer is Rachel, trying to guide me to her?"
Chloe looks at Max, "okay, let's assume you are right and that this is actually possible. How do we." Joyce looks at them, "Okay, wait, just hold up here. I have listen to you two talk something that has to be pure craziness that you two seem to understand, Time Travel? Alternate Dimension? Saving William's life ended up with Chloe in a wheelchair? What? Somebody better get me on board this crazy train before I call the funny farm to have you both examined thoroughly." Max looks at Joyce and takes a breath, "Okay, I am not crazy. Despite what this will sound like and believe me, it will sound crazy." Chloe laughs, "Trust her on that Mom, I just thought she was high or had a very extremely active imagination, until it started snowing. Then she had to tell me everything, I needed proof, which she did prove to me. I though photography was her gift, but she will be able to make the world bow once she gets over herself." Max laughs, "Funny, you said that last night as we were swimming in the Bla- Oops, sorry Chloe." She sees Joyce look crossed, "Chloe Elizabeth Price, what do you have to say for yourself." Max decides to speak up, "Technically, it wasn't breaking and entering considering we just used a set of keys and walked right in."
Chloe starts laughing at that, because that is what she told Max last night, she then turns serious, "Hey Max, how did you magically get into the principal's office anyway." Max looks at her and smiles, "Wouldn't you like to know girl. Okay, I will tell you, all because I know you wouldn't let this go, we made a pipe bomb, blew the office door open, I went in and rewound time and unlocked it from the inside." Joyce looks at them, "Blew a pipe bomb, you could get arrested for that!" Max looks at her, "Joyce, technically it never happened, because I walked into the office and then rewound time. So in the end, I simply unlocked the door." Chloe mutters to herself, "Cheated with the rewind power, bullshit. Didn't even let me take the cozy chair." Max looks at Chloe and shakes her head, "exactly how were you planning on sneaking the cozy chair out anyway?" Chloe looks at her, opens her mouth and raises her hand and index finger as if to say something, but stops and places the hand on her cheek.