Inside the ambulance, Ms. Grant kept holding Max's hand all the time, which made her feel a bit calmer. When they finally got to the hospital, Max was quickly placed on a wheel bed and taken to an ambulatory room. Ms. Grant stayed at the reception.
The coldness and the smell of the hospital instantly reminded Max of Jefferson's dark room, making her feel uneasy again. Her eyes moved everywhere, trying to find any comforting spot, but it seemed impossible: the sight of those metallic medical equipments around her were triggering a lot of bad memories.
The voices of the hospital crew sounded indistinct to her. She only started to come back to herself when a doctor approached her face and pointed a flashlight to her eyes, to check her eye pupils. After a few seconds, he turned the flashlight off and started to test Max's reflexes, while asking some questions such as her name, age, address and so on, to check her level of consciousness. She closed her eyes and answered to all of the questions laconically – she just wanted to get out of that place as soon as possible. A few instants and a lot of neurological tests later, the doctor spoke to Max: according to him, she seemed fine, but would have to stay some hours in observation.
Max wasn't counting on that, since she knew she was fine, at least physically. Her heart and mind were devastated, and there was nothing a doctor could do to fix it. Max tried to argue with the practitioner, but he insisted: he was obligated to follow that protocol and it was for her own good.
The doctor left the ambulatory room, ordering two assistants to take Max to a bedroom. Frustrated, she rested her head on the pillow, while a man and a woman pushed her wheel bed out of the ambulatory, through the hallway. This time, though, the hospital environment didn't trigger any of her dark room memories – in fact, she didn't even bother about it now. Fear had turned into anger and determination.
…..
Warren and Kate arrived at the hospital about ten minutes after the ambulance, since he had to stop at some traffic lights. They met Ms. Grant at the reception, and she told them that Max seemed fine at the ambulance and was now being examined by the doctors.
Warren contacted his mother, and a couple minutes later she showed up, visibly worried: the news about the Blackwell incident had already spread over the hospital and possibly the whole town. She hugged him and asked if he was okay. He nodded, but seemed quite nervous. Stammering a bit, he told her about Max, asking his mother to take care of the girl. She knew her son well and saw in his eyes that he was really concerned: that girl clearly meant a lot to him. She promised her son she would take care of his friend and went back to the hospital's interior.
….
As soon as the assistants left the room, Max jumped out of the bed and picked her bag, looking for her cell phone. She was eager to call anyone who could tell her what was going on at Blackwell at that moment. A lot of questions were popping inside her head: where did they take Chloe? Was Nathan arrested? Was Jeff... uh, anyone else arrested? Besides that, she wanted to talk to her parents, who were in New York for a week vacation, as soon as possible. Despite they didn't know about Chloe for the last five years, Max knew she was like a daughter to them, like she was to William and Joyce.
She finally found her cell phone, but it was out of battery, probably because a lot of people called her right after the event. Max leaned on the bed, feeling defeated. For a second she considered using her power to sneak out of the hospital, but the vivid reminiscence of the tornado made her give up of the idea: "enough of time manipulating for now", she thought.
She decided to look for a public phone. When she was about to open the door to leave, a nurse entered the room. A couple of swear-words popped into Max's head: she feared the doctors might think she was mentally confused and should take some sort of sedative - that would make her situation even worse. However, for Max's surprise, the nurse didn't scold her; instead, she spoke kindly to her, asking if she needed anything.
Max sat on the bed, staring at her hands. That woman sounded sincere, but she didn't know if she could trust her, since everyone had been so unsympathetic to her at that place.
Max kept silent. Trying to establish some communication with the patient, the middle-aged brown haired woman introduced herself: her name was Amber and she was designated to take care of the girl for the next hours. The nurse's name instantly reminded Max of Rachel. She wondered if it was some sort of sign. She had always been a skeptical person, but after that week she would believe anything.
Amber continued, telling Max that she was Warren 's mother and that he asked her to look after his friend. Max lifted her head and looked at the nurse. She didn't know if it was a sign, but it sure made her feel safe for the first time since she got to that hospital.
...
Warren, Kate and Ms. Grant were at the hospital's reception, waiting for any information about Max's health condition. Sometimes they chatted for a bit, but most of the time they
kept in silence. At one of those times Ms. Grant told Warren that she and his mother went to the same college, and that she knew that Max would be in good hands.
Warren could not sit still. For several times, he got up and walked a few steps, turning to his seat again, over and over. Suddenly, he felt his cell phone vibrating: it was a message from Brooke, telling him the whole press was at Blackwell. She also asked how Max was. He wondered how did she know he was at the hospital with Max.
Kate received a call from her parents: they had just heard about the incident and were very worried about her. They ordered her to stay at her aunt's place until the next day, when they would take her to their home at Montana.
When Amber showed up at the reception again, the teacher and the two students ran towards her. The nurse provided them some information about Max and said she requested to see them.
...
Max waited for her friends and teacher standing in front of the bed. The door opened and they entered the room. Kate ran to Max and hugged her. Ms. Grant approached them and gently touched one of Max's arm. Warren didn't know what to do and just stood behind them, rubbing his neck like he always did when he felt nervous, which was mostly every time he was around Max.
Knowing in beforehand that Max intended to talk privately to her school mates, Amber invited Ms. Grant to have a coffee with her. They left the students alone.
First, Max spoke to Warren : she thanked him for being there and for asking his mother to take care of her. She told him how great his mother was being to her; she even lent her cell phone to call Max's parents so they could catch the first flight from New York to Seattle and then drive to Arcadia Bay.
He smiled shyly at her and said she could count on him for anything. "I know", she thought.
Then, her expression. turned tense. She turned her back to Kate and Warren and placed her hands on the bed. Feeling a lump in her throat, she took a deep breath and wiped a few tears from her eyes. She told them the girl in the bathroom wasn't a random girl … She was her childhood friend, Chloe.
Shocked, Warren and Kate got closer to her, trying to comfort their friend with words. Max, however, didn't feel like getting into details about her relationship with Chloe at the moment. It was too painful for her and besides that, as the introverted girl she was, crying in front of others wasn't her thing.
Struggling to keep herself together, she turned back to their friends and asked them a favor: to find out about Chloe's funeral. At that timeline, Joyce hadn't seen Max for five years; it was likely that she didn't have her number.
The door opened again: Amber came back and said that Max needed to rest. Kate and Warren assured the girl they would bring her the information as soon as possible, and that they would stay at the hospital while she was there. Right after they left, Max laid on the bed and covered herself. Alone, she allowed herself to cry. Without noticing, she fell asleep some minutes later.
….
Back to the hospital's reception, Warren thanked his mother, giving her a hug. She smiled, reaffirming her commitment to look after Max, and then went back to work.
Ms. Grant said goodbye to everyone: since Max was being taken good care of, she decided to head back to Blackwell to help Principal Wells.
Kate and Warren went to the hospital cafeteria to have a snack while discussing about how they would find out about Chloe's funeral. After a number of phone calls, they finally got Juliet's number. As a budding journalist, she already had gathered a lot of information about the case, willing to write a report and maybe publish it. She told Kate that since the victim was David Madsen's step daughter and Blackwell's ex-student, Principal Wells requested a few students to pay the respects to the family at the funeral, on behalf of the school. The funeral would be on the next day at 10 p.m.
Before Juliet could make any question, Kate thanked her and hung up. She told Warren what Juliet had just informed her on the way of the waiting room where they would stay for the next few hours.
...
Two hours later, Amber entered Max's room, bringing her a snack on a tray. She placed it on a table and gently touched Max's arm to wake her up.
Max opened her eyes and sat on the bed. Rubbing her eyes, she asked Amber what time it was - she felt like she slept for days.
Amber talked to Max while handing her a sandwich and a glass of juice. Max was starving and quickly took a big bite of the sandwich. As Amber spoke, Max realized how she reminded her of Joyce. Both of them had that kind of voice that made people feel calmer and believe that everything would be alright.
When Max finished the snack, Amber's expression turned a bit more serious: she told the girl that the two policemen were there to talk to her.
Max's eyes widened and she got distracted, wondering if she could handle something like that at that moment. Then, remembering what Chloe asked her at the lighthouse, she made up her mind: she would talk to the officers. She would do anything she could to help the police to find the truth about Rachel and Jefferson.
Max asked Amber to send the officers in. The nurse alerted the girl that she wasn't obligated to do that, but she was really determined to face it at that moment.
...
After a fifteen minutes conversation, the policemen left Max's room. There wasn't much she could tell them: she limited her testimony to what she actually witnessed at the bathroom, since she didn't want to fall into contradiction.
Amber came back to Max's room bringing the good news: she was going to be discharged from the hospital. The nurse told the girl to get ready and then left again.
Max felt a mix of relief and anxiety. On one hand, she would finally leave that hospital. Although Amber made things a lot easier for her, spending the night at the hospital wouldn't be an easy experience. On the other hand, she realized she hadn't think what she was going to do after being discharged.
Her parents were in New York, and they sure would arrive at Arcadia Bay only on the next day, if they were lucky. Besides that, she didn't have any relatives at the town. Would she have to sleep at her dorm at school? She couldn't even imagine going back to Blackwell that day. Plus, it was friday and it was likely that most of the students went home. And there might be reporters there willing to ask all kind of obnoxious questions to her. On the top of that, Mr. Jefferson was still free. As Max's mind was dominated by those thoughts, she started to panic.
Kate and Warren entered the room and found Max sitting on the bed, bracing her knees. Her face was pale and she seemed distressed. They felt surprised, since they were expecting that she would be glad to leave the hospital.
They asked what was going on. She hesitated a bit, but revealed her thoughts, except for the one concerning Jefferson. Kate apologized herself, telling Max that she would spend the night by an aunt. She was a nun and lived by a convent - it was unlikely that the Mother Superior would allow any other person there. Max felt upset but told Kate she understood.
Max left the bed and picked her bag. The idea of going to Blackwell so soon sickened her, but there was no other option. She was about to open the door when she heard Warren's voice, a bit unsteady, calling her name.
Not daring to look her in the eyes, he offered his house: she could stay at their guest room. He was blushing.
His offering caught Max off guard. In a first moment, she thought "no way!". It would be weird, since she knew he was starting to crush on her on that timeline and that she uh... kissed him hours ago. She thought about her other option... There wasn't actually another option: spending that night at Blackwell was inconceivable. Then, she reminded how helpful Warren was to her on both timelines and felt she could trust him. It would be only one night anyway...
She said yes.
