"And it'll happen once again, you'll turn into a friend. Someone who understands, sees through the master plan. But everybody's gone, and you've been here for to long, to face this on your own, but I guess this is growing up!" Chloe was belting, her voice booming from deep within her. Blue locks flew around the cab of the truck as the punk had a small mosh pit for one in her seat. Her fists smashed against the steering wheel with a smile plastered on her face. Sounds of one of the most iconic punk guitar riffs ever written blared through the speakers, above the normal level that most humans would even consider loud; making the truck a mini punk show all in it's own.

Right now, Chloe was in her zone. This was how she lived, this was how she loved. This, was just what she needed after the shit show from earlier. The final note rang out as Chloe straightened herself in her seat, sweat beginning to lightly stick her hair to her forehead.

"Holy fuck balls Max. If you don't like Blink-182 then we are so done." The punk chuckled as the silence between tracks filled the once overbearingly loud space of the cab.

Reaching out her hand. Max turned the volume down to a more human level as the beginning of the next track began. "Chloe. I may be a hipster or whatever, but of course I love Blink."

"Fuck yeah you do! I wouldn't really break up with you though." The punk smirked as she pulled her car in toward a long, dirt path that cut right through the woods. "Just so you know."

Terrain changed beneath the tires as they attempted to adjust to driving over roads not designed for traction. The dirt and gravel filled pathway was an unmarked drive into the northeast of the Bay. It was a curious little path, one that seemed to be as mystical and enchanting as the walk through the forest to the lighthouse. A certain calming feeling seemed to reside in the trees themselves, seeming as if they held untold secrets deep within them, just waiting to be discovered. Knowing Max's luck, she would discover them soon.

Punk music was blaring through the speakers, changing from Blink 182 to NOFX; and Chloe was in her zone. Her eyes were unblinking as she stared at the light brown path, contrasting with the light green grass surrounding it. It seemed as if she hadn't just been curled up, cooking in the sun, clutching to her girlfriend for dear life at the bottom of a disgusting fishing boat. As if nothing had happened at all. Instead, her lips softly mouthed the words, fingers gently tapped against the wheel with the guitar line. Chloe seemed to be having a relatively good time, and it wasn't sitting well with Max.

The photographer rested her head against the back of the seat, allowing her eyes to watch the brown of tree trunks pass her as they carefully made their way further and further into the woods. Her eyes would catch a specific tree, following it until it passed out of her vision before snapping to the next one. Thoughts of almost dying were still on the front of her brain. She felt as if she were continually living through those chaotic, electric moments of fear over and over again, as if her mind refused to let her let go. Thoughts of her own demise would almost be bearable, if the thought of how unaffected her girlfriend acted wasn't echoing as loud as the thoughts of her near demise was.

"You okay babe?" The bluenette's voice filled with curiosity as well as concern was just enough to snap the hipster out of her trance.

Max pulled her face away from the window slowly, gazing over at her upbeat punk of a girlfriend before speaking. "I'm just...I'm still so terrified about earlier. We almost died. Again." Fingertips began to poke at torn spots in the vinyl seat next to her. It was one way to try and distract her mind from everything around her. "I keep replaying things in my mind and it's paralyzing me. I feel like everything I've done is resting on my shoulders right now. But you seem so...okay. I don't know why I can't just be that way. Not let these things get to me."

Suddenly, the car fell completely silent. Chloe had turned the volume of her punk CD down. It was a small gesture, but one that showed Max that Chloe was serious about this conversation; slightly relieving her.

For a few seconds, Chloe nor Max spoke. Sounds of the rocks and dirt being flung up from the tires were the only audible sound in the cab."I know...I know I seems like I'm super stoked and happy. But, I'm not." Chloe finally spoke with a long sigh. "I'm just trying to not think about it. I can't even fucking think about it. I..." she swallowed hard "almost lost you Max. I can't help but to think that we shouldn't even be fucking out here anymore. I don't want to do this. I don't want to die, to almost die, to force you to have to save me. I don't want to worry that you'll get hurt or that everyone is going to be wiped off the face of the Earth if we don't save them all." Knuckles were beginning to whiten as Chloe gripped the wheel tighter as she spoke. As if she were trying to anchor herself to something, trying to keep it together. "But we have to. You have this amazing power, and I'm your trusty, mega hot sidekick who just happens to be super lucky enough to be your girlfriend. So I'm doing one of the only thing's I know will chill me out is all. Trust me, if I brought beer or weed with me, I'd be doing that shit too."

The words had only left Chloe's lips a few seconds before Max took a breath and lifted her gaze to meet the punk's. "I'm sorry Chloe. I'm just having a hard time too. I feel so emotionally drained all the time. Like I'll fall apart at any given moment. I just thought that you were okay and it was making me feel...broken. Like I can't handle anything."

"No fucking way dude." An airy laugh following Chloe's thought. "You are so goddamn strong that I literally don't understand how you're doing it. You've gone through fucking time and saved people, faced your fears, dealt with survivor guilt and all other kinds of bullshit I probably don't even know about. You're a fucking warrior Max." A smile tugged at Chloe's lips as she gazed across the seat at her girlfriend. Her eyes were brimming with the slightest hint of sorrow, but her face seemed to beam with affection.

Max could do nothing but smile back at Chloe. It was a slightly sad smile, but Chloe was going to take the victory any way she could get it.

"Oh no. Fuck dude..." The punk's words were quiet as the car slowly came to a halt. "Shit balls!" She exclaimed, slamming her open palm against the top of the steering wheel.

Max instantly snapped back into reality. "What's wrong?" She asked, her fingers still tightly wrapped around the bluenettes.

Dramatically, Chloe's free hand flung forward, palm open and fingers sprawled out toward the windshield of the now stopped truck. "They fucking gated the place!"

Sure enough, there it was. Not even fifty yards away from them stood a large, metal gate. Directly next to the gate lined a wall, equally as high, made entirely out of concrete. The whole wall must have been 10 feet tall, and seemed to stretch half a mile in each direction. Admittedly, Max was too busy staring at her girlfriend earlier to even glance out the windshield.

"When the hell did they build this? Last time I came here it was mostly empty as shit!" Chloe whined as she deflated, her body slumping back into the seat behind her.

"Wait" Max spoke, trying not to let out the giggle building in her throat at how dramatic her girlfriend was acting. "You've been here before?"

"Yeah. Several times." The punk reached inside her jacket and pulled out her cigarettes with her free hand and lit one before continuing. "Rachel and I used to come here when we needed to really get away. On days where even being in Arcadia Bay was too fucking much. We would come out here and light fires and tag the concrete slabs for fun. Get super wasted, listen to music...we had a blast out here. But it was usually cut short by some construction worker shooing us off in the morning." Max could tell, just by looking at Chloe's eyes as she talked, that the memories were passing by as she spoke, fleeting in front of her eyes. "It's fucking crazy to think it's like a year ago that she disappeared now. I mean, it isn't for me. But it is in reality." Smoke filled the teen's lungs before, letting the burn fill her chest as more and more memories flooded her mind. "I wonder if I'll ever get used to that. Being in a completely different timeline."

Max simply chuckled. "I have been in like, five different timelines now. No, you don't ever get used to it really. It feels like Donnie Darko all the time now. I don't know what's happening right at the moment, I just know it's crazy."

That made Chloe chuckle. "Great description. Nailed that movie for sure Max." Taking another quick drag, Chloe turned toward Max and exhaled gently. "So, I wonder, what kind of movie would we be anyway? I mean, there are countless amounts of movies about time travel right? You got, like, shitty movies like Timecop, which obviously isn't us. Then there's like Doctor Who, which is kinda you but without the booth. Which we should totally get."

"I think if we get one, we would be much more like Bill and Ted."

Laughing aloud, Chloe lifted her hands and pretended to strum an air guitar, imitating the movie for Max, who quickly followed Chloe in her laughter. "Well, then you got your bad ass Donnie Darko, which I guess is similar. But then you have the Butterfly Effect."

"Not that great of a movie." The brunette chimed.

"Says the girl who loves Final Fantasy Spirits Within." Chloe chided.

Rolling her eyes, Max grunted "It isn't that bad."

"Tell that to their dead eyes dude." By this point the cigarette had burned out, so outside the window the butt went. "But I mean, there is that butterfly that follows us."

"Too easy though."

"Agreed. But I mean...we are in a different timeline now, that we don't know the history of but every one else does. That sounds a lot like Butterfly Effect."

"I suppose that's right." The words began to slowly unravel in Max's mind. The similarites were really apparent to her all of a sudden. "Wait. But I am much better than Ashton Kutcher in this situation, right?"

A loud laugh escaped Chloe's lungs. "For sure dude. You're also hella cute. But like" Chloe paused. Her nerves were beginning to bubble within her, as a certain thought entered her brain. One that had been on her mind all day, that she had been shelving for another time. "I dunno. This shit is making me realize that we really don't have as much time as we think we do. Irony right? Us not having time."

Max simply nodded as she watched the gears turn in her girlfriend's mind.

"I mean like...do you think we..." the words were choking her, barely able to be forced from her chest. "Do you think we ever...you know?" A blush quickly spread over Max's entire face, turning her into what she felt like, was a lobster.

It was something that Max hadn't ever really thought about. Sex was a thing that Max tried not to think about much. Something that was, unlike every other teenager, not on the front of her brain. She was sure that someday she would be ready for it, but she wasn't ready to rush into anything .

That wasn't to say that she had never thought about it. That fantasies never crossed her mind. But that's where they stayed, the occasional fantasy. Truly going through with it was not something that Max ever gave thought. "I-I don't know. I mean...we were in a relationship for like, six months now right? That's an awful long time to not be...you know." The flush on her cheeks were brightening even further at this point. "And to be honest...you know that I've already had a couple of thoughts about you...and it's been no time at all. I..." she swallowed, trying so hard to mask her embarrassment, "I would think we did."

"See? We missed both of our first times due to time being all fucked man!" Her fist slammed against the steering wheel as she spoke. "I mean, we still haven't in all actuality, but we have! All at the same time! Fuck this is goddamn crazy...this is so crazy dude."

Max could see that her girlfriend was visibly shaking. Her hands were trembling as she gripped the steering wheel, trying to control her breathing, her eyes were staring straight ahead, looking slightly glassed over as if she were lost in thought. "Baby" Max spoke gently as she slid across the seat toward the bluenette "what's wrong? Are you okay?"

A long sigh escaped from the punks lip's as she felt two comforting hands placed on her shoulders. "Yeah" a small smile crept across her cheeks as she turned to face the photographer. A softer look replaced the once glazed over fear lying within, one that pierced directly into Max's soul. "Max..." she began, her voice soft and exposed; "I can't stand the thought that someday, another form of us will get to do everything we want to do." The worry on Chloe's face was slowly vanishing, being replaced with contentment as she spoke. "I know you said you wanted some horribly sappy thing from me, so when people ask you about how I asked you out, you would have a great story right?" A smile was beaming across her face.

"Yeah..." Her answer was more nervous than it was sullen.

"Well, I'm Chloe fucking Price, and I never do things as expected. So..." her right hand quickly slid into the left pocket of her blazer, pulling out a golden ring. Her eyes stared with an intensity, directly into Max's, tears already beginning to pool in the corners. "Maxine Caulfield, my best friend, my partner in time, my wonderful girlfriend who I could not live without. In a complete and total literal sense...will you marry me?"

Stunned wouldn't come close to how she felt. It felt like all at the same time, the wind were knocked out of her, her heart ceased to beat, and her mouth went completely dry. "Ch-Chloe." Max was beginning to shake now as well. "Y-you're serious?"

"I may be kinda fucked up Max, but I would never kid about this. I want to marry you."

Everything stopped for a moment. Time seemed to freeze, even around Chloe as the words sunk into her skull.

'Oh shit. Shit, shit, shit. She is serious. I know I said I wanted something crazy, but is this what I had in mind? Max. Think this through. Chloe is the only person you have destroyed time for. She's been your best friend for most of your life. She's even been the worlds greatest girlfriend...but is she wife material? Okay...think about it. Imagine yourself at 40, and you're not in your dream job, in a crappy house, but she's sitting next to you on the couch. Does that make you happy?

It was right then that Max knew her answer. Her mind set the entire scene. The couch was from Goodwill, a place Chloe and Max both could agree was bad ass; the TV was small, atop a cheap, Ikea stand; the walls didn't look great, the carpet was worn completely down in some places, and the ceiling had a water spot in it. But with Chloe next to her, everything felt okay. Things might be tough, she might not live the insane life she wants, but it was all okay. Because she had the one thing that made it all worth it.

"Yes." Max whispered as tears filled her eyes. "Yes Chloe. A million times yes!" By the end of her sentence, her voice rose to an almost shout as she flung her arms around Chloe's waist. The grip Max was holding was almost quite legendary, leaving Chloe almost breathless as she squeezed the brunette back with the same intensity.

Tears were flowing freely down both of their faces as Chloe pulled away. Taking Max's hand, the punk gently slid the ring down her ring finger, a laugh escaping her as she did. All of the years of angst, the pain, the hurt seemed disappear when she saw the ring around Max's finger. Everything inside of Chloe that used to pool within her, eat away slowly at everything she had, dissipated.

Max could barely believe it. Her mind was still in a state of complete shock. The longer she stared at the ring, the more surreal it all felt. But it still felt right. There was one question still burning on Max's mind though. "Where did you get this?"

Wiping the tears off her cheeks, Chloe laughed once again. "It was dads."

Her brain could barely comprehend that. "Wh-what?"

"Yeah. Before we left this morning to go to the police station, I snuck into mom's room and took it from her drawer."

"Chloe" Max shook her head, moving her right hand to the ring, "I can't take this. I-"

"Yes." Chloe interrupted "You can. I already asked mom. We both want you to have it."

"Joyce knows about this?" Her eyes were now open as wide as they could get, her mouth slightly agape.

"Yes. It's where he would want it Max. He wouldn't want it in a box in a drawer, gathering dust and sad memories. He would want it somewhere where it could be appreciated. Somewhere it would make someone happy, especailly if that person made his only daughter the happiest girl in the world. And that's you."

Tears were now flowing completely freely. Max couldn't help herself anymore. Even though she was in a beat up pickup truck, sitting next to another mystery that could potentially get her killed, everything still felt perfect. It felt like her entire body was doing things by its own accord. The only thing she could control at this moment was where her lips were, and she forced them to be locked onto Chloe's.

Everything completely faded. Light, sound, all feelings except joy, and Chloe. Her entire life felt like it had been leading up to this moment, for the second time in her life. Last year, Max had become an adult. Her life had been thrust into a place where she had no choice but to decide. It was a decision that haunted her, with every waking moment. While it was a moment wrapped in sorrow, Max knew what she had to do. What the right decision was at that moment, even though nothing inside of her wanted to.

But this was different. This was something wonderful, something beautiful. Something that cemented the thought that everything she had done had not been for no reason. That it wasn't pointless. Even though that week of her life never technically happened, this moment made up for the six months of hurt she felt. For the five years of awkwardness and guilt she had for not ever having the courage to talk to the one person she cared about. But that didn't matter now. All that mattered was Chloe.

Finally, after the most gorgeous moment of her life, Max pulled away from her fiance and stared into her eyes. Everything was going to be different now. But in the best way.

Her heart felt ready to take on the entire planet. A new sense of accomplishment and hope coursed through her veins. Everything felt like for the first time in a very, very long time, that everything was okay.

Until she noticed the gray surrounding the two of them. A gray surrounded by trees displacing over and over again.

Of course.

Author's Notes:

Hey yo. I know. I know. I know. You know you wanted it. I know I did. So here you go. Call it fan service if you want, but I know in my heart that they both deserve this. That both of them have gone through so much together that, no matter what, they would always be together.

Now. Once again it seems that time is completely fucking up all around our heroes. What lies in store for them this time? What will they see here? Why does time keep doing this? Well, you're gonna have to stick around to find out. So stay tuned! Same Bat-Time! Same Bat-Channel!

Until next time, stay golden.