A few minutes earlier…

Kate Marsh was worried, like really worried for Max. It had all started when Max hadn't been heard from or seen since the end of the world party, but that worry is nothing compared to the worry she has right now. When Max had returned with David about three days ago she had looked like ghost. Extremely pale, almost no emotion in her face, but her eyes told a different tale. A tale of immense sadness, despair, and fear. It had broken Kate's heart to see Max in that state. She didn't even get to talk to Max because then the questions came, from the police no less. She was confused as to why they would want to speak to her. It turns out Jefferson was the one who drugged her at the vortex club party last week, he was the one responsible for the turn of events that almost caused Kate to take her own life. She really couldn't help the investigation out (if one could call it an investigation, Jefferson was basically going to be put in jail for a long long time anyway) because she didn't remember anything specific except the cold floor, and the white room. They had questioned her about Max too, but they were very vague, not giving her much information as to what may have happened involving Max.

Surprisingly it was David who revealed to Kate what had happened involving Max. The darkroom, Chloe's death, and finding Rachel Amber's body. It was almost too much information for her to absorb, the horrors Max must've been put through didn't compare to what happened to Kate. After talking with David, she made a beeline for Max's room to talk, comfort, or just to be there for her after this ordeal. When she finally got to talk to her (almost a day after Max had come back no less) Kate was absolutely shocked with what she saw. Gone was the strong, caring, lovable friend that Max had been the past week. Standing in her place was a broken, scared, and sad human being. Even more distressing to Kate, Max seemed to just brush her off, preferring to be alone in her room instead. Kate made sure that Max knew she was going to be there for her. "Anything you need, whenever you need me." Kate had said before leaving Max alone in her room.

If I know anything about how Max is feeling, then she needs people who care about her to be with her, no matter how much she may want to isolate herself. She will not face this alone, I'll watch out for her. She saved my life and I will make sure that she doesn't travel down the same path I did.

Kate had been periodically been checking up on Max for the past two days, just to make sure she was, y'know, still alive. No Kate, don't think like that, Max is strong, she will get through this. She shuddered at the thought. She said a quick prayer for Max, praying that she would have the strength to get better, and asking for the strength to help pull Max through this herself. After the prayer, she walked over to her bunny to feed her dinner.

"Oh Alice," she sighed "This week is just… tragic. Why did this have to happen? What kind of world does thi-"

"I said STOP!" *CRASH*

Kate jumped at this sudden interruption, as well as her bunny.

What the… that sounded like Max. Something terrible is happening, I've got to get to her now!

She bolted for the door and ran down the hallway to Max's room (luckily nobody else was currently in the dorm because then everybody would be wondering what the commotion was). . "Fuck these pictures" she heard as she entered the hallway. As she reached the door Max cried out: "Fuck this camera", followed by another loud crash. Kate desperately was trying to get into her room, but the door was locked.

My god, she's having a meltdown, come on door! OPEN! She furiously thought before hearing another scream: "Fuck Blackwell, fuck this room".

*Snap*

The lock was finally broken and the door flew open, letting Kate rush into the room. She was greeted with a sickening sight, Max's room looked like a storm had just hit, and hit hard, and Max was lying face down on the ground crying in agony. Without missing a beat, Kate was already at Max's side, wrapping her in fierce hug. The first thing she noticed was the cold, Max was so cold. Next, she felt the shaking, it was a violent shaking that only a person experiencing true despair would exhibit.

"Shhh, it's okay Max, your safe." Kate said, trying to calm her down, but it only seemed to make things worse as she began to wriggle herself out of the hug.

"Stop it! Stop it!" Max cried "Stop torturing me! Just leave me alone!"

"Max it's me Kate, I'm not here to torment you. I just want to help you. Please calm down."

This had the first positive affect, as the wriggling ceased from Max, though the crying didn't die down in intensity.

"K-K-Kate? Is that really you" Max sobbed, she almost was crying too much to even get that question out.

Why doesn't she believe that it's really me?

"It really is" she replied while stroking Max's hair in a further effort to get her to calm down, this time it worked.

"Oh Kate." Was all Max could manage to say as she finally wrapped her arms around Kate to complete the hug. She buried her face into Kate's shoulder and continued to weep.

"I'm so- I just- you- I tried…" Max tried to tell Kate something but couldn't seem to be able to form coherent sentences right now.

"It's okay Max, take all the time you need." Kate said.

Max continued to weep in Kate's arms for a few more minutes and even Kate was shedding a few tears herself. To see Max like this hurt her a lot, maybe a little too much. I wish I could more. I wish I could just hold on to her and drive the demons away. I wish we could have a nice little tea session like we used to before everything went bad. I wish we could laugh and talk without a care in the world, other than schoolwork of course. I'd like to hold her hand and tell her how much I care about her. I'd like to spend every second I have with her and- Woah I need to calm down right now! Max is having a breakdown right now and this is what I'm thinking about?

Max's sobs finally died down at this point and that's when she noticed that there were drops of blood on the shattered mirror.

"Max your hand!" Kate gasped, "It's bleeding pretty badly. Come with me, I've got some bandages in my room" and before Max could object, she was practically dragging Max out of the room by holding on to her unhurt hand.

When they arrived in the room Kate had seated Max on her bed and began to work on her hurt hand, luckily she always kept a first aid kit around, just in case. Throughout this, Max just stared straight ahead at the wall with an expressionless face. In fact, she wasn't moving at all. Kate actually had to hold up Max's hand while wrapping the bandage around. Just as she finished, Max spoke up, breaking the silence

"Do you hate me?" she said while looking right at Kate with saddest eyes imaginable.

Um, wow. This came out of nowhere. How could she possibly think I would hate her?

"Of course I don't hate you. You're my friend and nothing you could ever do would make me hate you" Kate replied in a soothing voice while give Max her most reassuring smile.

At this Max's head drooped down so she was no longer looking at Kate and she sniffled a couple of times.

"Are you mad at me for what I did? For-" her voice cracked and when she resumed she spoke as quiet as she could without it being a whisper "For talking you off of the roof?"

It took a few moments for the question to register in Kate's mind, she was astonished that Max would even think that she would hate her for saving her life. So put her hand under Max's chin and carefully lifted her head so that they had eye contact.

"Max, listen to me: I am eternally grateful that you were there for me when I needed someone who cared about me the most. You saved my life that day, and I am very happy that you did. I am not angry, nor have I regretted walking off of the roof with you… How could I be mad at you?"

Max sniffled a bit and wiped her eyes.

"It's just- everything I've done this week, I only wanted to help. I just wanted to help… Instead, you tried to kill yourself, I got Chloe killed-"her voice broke at the mention of Chloe, "and Jefferson… Oh god Kate! He dosed me with a drug and I watched him shoot her right in the head. I was so useless!" Kate didn't want Max to have another meltdown, but she knew Max needed to talk about what happened, so she just held Max's hand. "When I woke up, I was bound to the floor and he was taking pictures of me! He- he said was gonna kill me…"

Fresh tears began to fall from Max's face as she continued.

"And then he said he would come after you again. Jefferson wanted to show you what he did to me. He said it would ruin you… just before he killed you too!" Max broke down crying again, just like when Kate found her in her room, so Kate did the only thing she could think of- hug her.

She's suffered so much. Poor Max, this is breaking my heart, I hate seeing her like this. Seeing your best friend die right in front of you, then Jefferson... Her suffering ends now, I'll make sure of that.

"Shhh, you're okay, I'm okay, and we're safe now. Jefferson won't hurt us ever again." Kate tried to calm Max down.

"I could've stopped it Kate! I should have seen it coming but I was too stupid! I can still stop it. I just need-" Max stopped talking mid-sentence, she had said too much and she knew it.

She thinks she can still stop it? She's just talking nonsense now…She must be delusional, it just keeps getting worse doesn't it? God, please be with Max right now.

"There was nothing you could do, he fooled us all." Kate said "What's done is done, no matter how much we may want to change the past, we can't."

After a few moments, Max calmed down and then wiggled out of Kate's hug.

"You don't know that." She said while staring at the floor, avoiding Kate's gaze.

Max is so confused right now. I've got to help her, she's my friend and I can't sit around and watch this from the sidelines any more. She clearly can't be left alone right now…

"Max, I think you should stay here tonight. I just- I don't feel comfortable leaving you alone tonight, and your room is kinda trashed right now." Kate examined Max more closely and added, "Plus it looks like you haven't slept in days either."

"I don't know… I don't want to burden you with my problems. I can deal with this myself." Max answered.

"You are not alone in this Max, I'm here for you. So stay please? For me?" Kate was practically begging at this point, and it worked.

"Well, if it will make you feel better… I guess I'll stay here. For you." Kate swore that for the briefest of moments Max almost smiled. Maybe I am making progress after all.

"I just need to go back to my room and get my pillow then, I can't sleep without it."

"I don't think it would be a good idea to go back into your room, let me go get it." Kate offered. When Max nodded Kate got up immediately and headed over to the doorway, "Promise me you won't be gone when I get back."

"I promise I'll still be here"

Satisfied with that answer, Kate left for Max's room. When she got there she took a few moments to more thoroughly assess the damage that had been done to the room. The first thing she noticed was the famous "Max Caulfield Memorial Wall" was ripped to shreds, nearly all of the pictures were destroyed. More disturbing was the message written on her wall "NOBODY MESSES WITH ME BITCH" in red paint. She must have been dealing with a lot while looking for evidence. I wish I'd known she was in this much danger. Next she saw the shattered camera on the floor. I can't believe Jefferson drugged her and took pictures of us both, but Max had it worse, she was awake and actually remembers some of the experience. I guess she'll never look at photographs the same way ever again. Poor Max. She laid her eyes on the shattered mirror. Why did she break her mirror? When I was going through my… my phase, I covered up my mirror because I couldn't stand the sight of myself. Wait, she yelled out "Stop it" right before I heard the mirror shatter, and then when I was hugging her, it was like she didn't know it was me. She thought I was tormenting her.

The last thing Kate noticed was Max's open journal on the desk. She wasn't the nosy type, but she wanted to help out Max as much as she could and perhaps gaining a bit of insight into what Max was thinking would help her out. Just a quick glance. Kate regretted her decision immediately, because what she saw was a thing of nightmares.

Pictures of herself bound, fear in her eyes with tear streaks on her face. What the? How? Pictures of Rachel Amber bound, and pictures of Max taken by Jefferson as well. "Max in the dark room… Max in the dark room…" Kate covered her mouth with hands in shock as she began to cry for Max.

My poor angel. Jefferson ruined you didn't he?